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Nature 

A     WEEKLY  |f^ 

ILLUSTRATED  JOURNAL  OF  SCIENCE 

VOLUME  XXXVII 

NOVEMBER     1887     to      APRIL      1888 


"  To  the  solid  ground 
Of  Nature  trusts  the  mind  which  builds  for  aye'' — Wordsworth 


MACMILLAN    AND    CO. 

1888 


Q 


\ 


Richard  Clay  and  Sons,  Limited, 
london  and  bungay. 


Nature,  /ttne  7,  1S88] 


INDEX 


Abbadie  (Antoined'),  the  Micromillimetre,  438 
Abel  (Sir  Frederick,  F.R. S.),  Accidents  in  Mines,  III 
Abercromby  (Hon.  Ralph) :  Electrical   Condition  of  the  Peak 

of  Teneriffe,  31  ;  Weather,  loi  ;  the  Forms  of  Clouds,  129  ; 

Physical  Geography  of  the  Sea,  315  ;  the  Monsoons,  469 
Abney  (Captain,  F.  R.S.)>  Treatise  on  Photography,  461 
Accidental  Errors,  Theory  of,  M.  Faye,  527 ;  M.  J.  Bertrand, 

527 
Accidents  in  Mines,  Sir  Frederick  Abel,  F.R.S.,  in 
Accumulators,  Management  of,  Sir  D.  Salomons,  485 
Acetylacetone,  on  the  Metallic  Derivatives  of,  72 
Acids,  Action  on  Taste  of,  J.  Corin,  308 
Acipenser  ruthenus,  Structure  of  the,  M.  ZografF,  399 
Actiniae   in  French  Mediterranean   Waters,    the   Geographical 

Distribution  of,  P.  Fischer,  192 
Actinometric  Observations,   on  the,  at  Montpellier,  A.  Crova, 

528 
Adams  (Dr.  H.  B.),  College  of  William  and  Mary,  352 
Adenm,  Prof  Kossel,  168 

Aeronautics  :  Electric  Balloon  Signalling  Experiments,  34 
Africa :  Austral,  John  Mackenzie,  5  ;  Montagu  Kerr's  Expedi- 
tion to  cross  Africa  by  a  New  Route,  115  ;  Lieut.  Wissmann's 
Preliminary    Account   of  his    Journey   across    Africa,    159 ; 
Natural  History  Collection  from  Central  Africa,  at  the  British 
Museum,  207  ;  Changes  of  Level  in  the  African  Lakes,  Dr. 
Robt.  Sieger,  354  ;  the  Akkas,  a  Pygmy  Race  from  Central 
Africa,    Prof    W.   H.   Flovirer,    F.R.S.,   395;    Geology  and 
Natural  History  of  the  Congo,  Edouard  Dupont,  421  ;  Emin 
Pasha    in     Central    Africa,     436 ;     Exploration    of    Africa, 
Edouard    Dupont,    496 ;    Injuries   caused  by   Lightning   in 
Africa,  Dr.  Emin  Pasha,  582 
Agate  Pebbles  from  the  Soudan,  Prof  V.  Ball,  F.R.S.,  574 
Agriculture  :  in  some  of  its  Relations  with  Chemistry,  F.  H. 
Storer,    100;  U.S.    Commission  of  Agriculture,   Prof.   John 
Wrightson,  188  ;  Journal  of  the   Royal   Agricultural  Society, 
Prof    John   Wrightson,    211  ;    the   New   York  Agricultural 
Station,  524 
Ailuriis  aiiglecus,  Prof.  W.  B.  Dawkins,  F.  R.S.,  359 
Aino  Idea  of  an  Eclipse,  36  ;  Aino  Tales  and  Legends,  Prof 
Chamberlain,  351  ;    the  Gods  of  the  Ainos,  329;  the  Ainos, 
Rev.  J.  Batchelor,  380 
Air,  Electrification  of  the,  C.  Michie  Smith,  274 
Air,   Humidity   of  the.  Dr.   Assmann's    Experiments   on    the, 

Dr.  R.  von  Helmholtz,  215 
Air,  Mean  Temperature  of  the,  at  Greenwich,  214 
Air,  Outflow  of.  Theory  of  the,  under  Falling  Rain,  H.  Allen, 

18 
Air-Currents,  M.  Garrigou- Lagrange's  Apparatus  for  Registering 

the  Ascending  and  Descending,  18 
Aitken  (John)  :  Formation  of  Hoar  Frost,  138  ;  on  the  Number 

of  Dust  Particles  in  the  Atmosphere,  428 
Akkas,  the,  a  Pygmy  Race  from  Central  Africa,  Prof.    Flower, 

395 
Aha  impennis,  Egg  of,  474 
Alcohol,  Deleterious  Influence  on  Offspring  of,  MM.  A.  Mairet 

and  Combemale,  528 
Alcyonidium  gelatinosum,   the  Reproductive  Organs  of.   Prof. 

W.  A.  Herdman,  213 


Aldis   (Prof    W.    Steadman),    a    Text-book    of   Algebra,  27 ; 

Balbin's  Quaternions,  535 
Alexipharmic  Plants,  D.  Morris,  257 
Algae,  Three  New  Marine,  E.  A.  Batters,  526 
Algebra  Examples,  Class-book  of,  John  Cook,  102 
Algebra,  a  New  Treatise  on,  Charles  Smith,  232  ;  Capt.  P.  A. 

MacMahon  on,  508 
Algebra,  a  Text-book  of,  W.  Steadman  Aldis,  27 
Algebraic  Equations,  on  a  Source  of,  whose  Roots  are  all  Real, 

624 
Algebraic  Surfaces,  Generation  of,  M.  dejonqui^res,  214 
Algeria,  Earthquakes  in,  186,  329 
Algol  :  Period  of,  S.  C.  Chandler,  544  ;  the  New  Algol- Variable, 

Y  Cygni,   37 ;   S.  C.   Chandler,  90 ;   and  R  Canis  Majoris, 

S.  C.  Chandler,  140 
Alkaline  Sulphides,  Mineralizing  Action  of  the,  407 
Allen  (H.) :  Theory  of  the  Outflow  of  Air  under  Falling  Rain, 

18  ;  on  Behaviour  of  Pressure  and  Temperature  in  High  and 

Low  Pressure  Systems,  91 
Allen  (Dr.  T.  F. ),  the  Characese  of  America,  443 
Alloys,  Mechanical  Properties  of  Certain,  Prof  Roberts- Austen, 

497 
Alpine  Journal,  90 

Aluminium,  Electro-deposition  of,  355 

Amadeo  (Dr.  Antonio  J.),  Dispersion  of  Seeds  and  Plants,  ';35 
Amagat  (E.  H.),  on  the  Expansion  of  Compressed  Fluids,  167 
America  :  American  Journal  of  Science,  38,  47,  162,  358,  500, 
623  ;  American  Journal  of  Psychology,  64  ;  on  the  Decorative 
Ideas  of  the  Ancient  Inhabitants  of  Central  America,  J.  S. 
Newberry,  64;  American  Journal  of  Mathematics,  71  ;  China 
in  America,  Stewart  Culin,  88  ;  American  Observatories,  89, 
330  ;  American  Meteorological  Journal,  91,  595  ;  Principal 
Characters  of  American  Jurassic  Dinosaurs,  163  ;  American 
Association  for  Advancement  of  Physical  Education,  186  ; 
American  Lake-Trout  {S.  navtayaish)  at   South  Kensington, 

208  ;  American  Forms  of  Fresh-water  Sponges,  Edward  Potts, 

209  ;  Earthquakes  in  North  America,  300 ;  Devonian  System 
in  North  America,  H.  S.  Williams,  358  ;  American  National 
Geographical  Society,  379  ;  American  Society  of  Naturalists, 
300  ;  American  Folk- Lore  Society,  349 ;  Exploration  for  a 
Collection  of  Skeletons  and  Skins  of  American  Bison  or 
Buffalo,  351  ;  American  Ornithology,  351  ;  American  Nautical 
Almanac  Office,  Prof  Newcomb,  381  ;  American  Anthropo- 
logist, 398  ;  the  Characese  of  America,  Dr.  T.  F.  Allen,  443  ; 
Manufactures  from  American  Wood,  C.  R.  Dodge,  473  ; 
International  Congress  of  Americanists,  492  ;  American 
Philosophical  Society,  Proposal  to  perfect  a  New  Language 
for  Learned  and  Commercial  Purposes,  614.  See  also  United 
States. 

Ammonia,  Phosphites  of,  48 

Amphibian   and    Reptilian    Structures   found   in  the  Skulls  01 

Birds,    on   Remnants   or  Vestiges   of,    by    W.    K.    Parker, 

F.R.S.,  SOI 
Amsterdam  :  Royal  Academy  of  Sciences,  552 
Amylene,  142 

Anaesthetics  (Local),  Prof.  Liebreich  on,  480 
Anatomical  Society  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  Papers  to  be 

read  at  the  Second  Meeting  of,  6'i 

b 


VI 


INDEX 


\Naitire,  Jtine  7,  iS 


Anatomy  and  Physiology,  the  Coming  of  Age  of  the  Journal  of, 
441 

Ancient  Monuments  Act,  91 

Andaman  Islands,  Exploration  of,  330 

Andre  (M.),  Influence  of  Altitude  on  Temperature,  282 

Andre  (G.)  and  M.  Berthelot,  on  Phosphorus  and  Phosphoric 
Acid  in  Vegetation,  504  ;  on  the  Absorption  of  Saline  Sub- 
stances by  Plants,  527 

Andrews  (Thos. ),  Heat  Dilatation  of  Modern  Steels  from  Low 
Temperatures,  308 

Anemometers  and  Wind  Force  at  Sea,  W.  G.  Black,  321 

Angara,  Vertical  Section  of  the,  at  its  Issue  from  Lake  Baikal, 

354 

Angling  in  India  (Tank),  by  H.  Sullivan  Thomas,  518 

Aniline,  on  some  Salts  of,  48 

Animal  Biology,  by  C.  Lloyd  Morgan,  484 

Animals  from  the  Life,  by  H.  Leutemann,  176 

Animals,  the  Sense  and  Senses  of,  Sir  John  Lubbock,  210 

Annalen  der  Hydrographie  und  Maritimen  Meteorologie,  137 

Annalesofthe  French  Central  Meteorological  Office  for  1885, 
M.  L.  Teisserenc  de  Bort  on  High  Barometric  Pressure  of 
Asia,  422 

Annam,  M.  Navelle's  Account  of  his  Journey  in,  16 

Annelid,  a  Freshwater,  F.  E.  Beddard,  526 

Annuaire  of  the  Bureau  des  Longitudes,  1888,  329 

Annuaire  de  I'Observatoire  Royal  de  Bruxelles,  380 

Antagonism,  Right  Hon.  Sir  William  R.  Grove,  F.R.  S.,  617 

Antarctic  Exploration,  the  Proposed,  299 

Antedon  rosacea.  Development  of,  H.  Bury,  287 

AnUnnarius  marmoratus,  on  the  Nest  of  the,  M.  L.  Vaillant, 
208 

Anthropods,  Researches  on  the  Sense  of  Vision  in  the,  Felix 
Plateau,  118;  Experiments  on  Visual  Sense  in,  Felix 
Plateau,  308,  525 

Anthropology:  Anthropological  Institute,  88,  120,  360,479, 
624  ;  Anthropology  in  England  and  America,  112  ;  L'Homme 
avant  I'Histoire,  Ch.  Debierre,  126  ;  on  the  Stature  of  the 
Ancient  Inhabitants  of  the  Canary  Islands,  Dr.  R.  Verneau, 
163 ;  on  Criminal  Anthropology,  Dr.  R.  Topinard,  163  ; 
Contributions  to  the  Sociology  of  the  Australians,  M.  Elisee 
Reclus,  163 ;  on  Lacustrine  and  Lake  Villages,  and  Pile 
Dwellings,  M.  Pompeo  Castelfranco,  163 ;  on  the  Poly- 
nesians, their  Origin,  Migrations,  &c.,  MM.  LesFon  and 
Martinet,  164 :  the  Akkas,  a  Pygmy  Race  from  Central 
Africa,  Prof.  W.  H,  Flower,  F.R.S.,  395  ;  American 
Anthropologist,  398  ;  E.  B.  Tylor's  Hand-book  of,  trans- 
lated into  Spanish,  398  ;  Folk-Lore  of  Ireland,  Jeremiah 
Curtin,  473  ;  Japanese  "Go-hei,"  479;  Chins  and  Nagas, 
some  Account  of,  544  ;  Criminal  Anthropology,  596 

Antipyrine  as  a  Remedy  for  Sea-sickness,  Eugene  Dupuy,  96 

Antiquities  of  Turkistan,  M,  Krasnoff,  283 

Ants,  Bees,  Dragon-flies,  Earwigs,  Crickets,  and  Flies,  Young 
Collector's  Hand-book  of,  W.  Harcourt  Bath,  127 

Ants,  Bees,  and  Wasps,  the  Habits  of,  Sir  John  Lubbock,  138  ; 

Anura,  Carpus  and  Tarsus  of  the.  Prof.  G.  B.  Howes  and  W. 
Ridewood,  503 

Apparatus  for  Experiments  at  a  High  Temperature  in  Gas  under 
High  Pressure,  L.  Cailletet,  470 

Archaeology  :  Important  Additional  Collections  to  the  Peabody 
Museum  of  American  Archreology  and  Ethnology,  15  ;  Return 
of  the  Expedition  sent  by  the  Finnish  Archasological  Society 
to  the  Upper  Yenisei,  15;  Archaeological  Explorations  near 
Reichenhall,  112;  Archaeological  Discoveries  in  India,  138; 
Discovery  of  a  Runic  Stone  whh  Inscription  in  Sweden,  283  ; 
Gold  Armlet  with  Runic  Inscription  discovered  on  the  Island 
of  Fredoen,  283  ;  Antiquities  of  Turkistan,  M.  Krasnoff,  283  ; 
Stone  with  Drawings  and  Runic  Inscriptions  discovered  on 
the  South- West  Coast  of  Sweden,  399 ;  Archaeological 
Congress  at  Moscow,  398  ;  Archaeological  Remains,  Norway, 
445 

Arctic  Seal  Fisheries,  Meeting  at  Tonsberg,  in  Norway,  of  those 
interested  in,  399 

Argentine  Republic,  Inter-diurnal  Variability  of  Temperature  at 
Places  in  the.  Dr.  Oscar  Doering,  39 

Argyll  (Duke  of,  F.R.S.):  on  Darwin's  Theory,  2$;  Con- 
spiracy of  Silence,  53,  246,  293  ;  his  Charges  against  Men  of 
Science,  Prof.  John  W.  Judd,  317 ;  Prof.  T.  H.  Huxley, 
F.R.S.,  342 

Arithmetic,  Note  on  a  Proposed  Addition  to  the  Vocabulary  of 
Ordinary,  Prof.  J.  J.  Sylvester,  F.R.S.,  152 


Arithmetic  and  Elementary  Mensuration,  P.  Goyen,  232 

Armlet,  Ancient  Gold,  Discovered  in  a  Field  at  Tjoring,  in 
Denmark,  138 

Armstrong  (Prof.  Henry  H.,  F.R.S.)  :  a  Note  on  Va'ency, 
especially  as  defined  by  Helmholtz,  303  ;  on  the  Origin  of 
Colour  and  the  Constitution  of  Colouring  Matter,  502 

Army  Medical  School,  Sir  Henry  W.  Acland,  113 

Army  Regulations,  the  New,  Henry  Palin  Gurney,  365 

Arnaud,  Analysis  of  Somali  Arrow  Poison,  575 

Amaudeau  (M.),  Supposed  Method  of  Erecting  Egyptian 
Monoliths,  65 

Arnold  (Matthew),  Death  of,  594 

Arsenic,  New  Compound  of.  Dr.  Schneider,  258 

Art  of  Computation  for  the  Purposes  of  Science,  Prof.  W 
Ramsay  and  Dr.  Sydney  Young,  294 

Art,  Early  Christian,  in  Ireland,  Margaret  Stokes,  341 

Arterial  Arches  in  Vertebrates,  Models  illustrating  the  Modifica- 
tion of  the.  Prof.  W.  N.  Parker,  499 

Asia,  Central,  Result  of  General  Przewalski's  Fourth  Journey 
in,  38 

Asia  Minor,  Ethnological  Results  of  M,  A.  Eliseeff 's  Journeys 
in,  38 

Asiatic  Society  of  Calcutta,  E.  T.  Atkinson's  Presidential 
Address,  422 

Asiatic  Society  of  Japan,  Transactions  of,  35 

Asia,  Through  Central,  Rev.  Dr.  Henry  Lansdell,  221 

Asker,  in  Nerice,  Sweden,  Meteor  seen  at,  614 

Assmann   (Dr.),    Experiments   on   the    Humidity   of  the   Air, 

215 

Asteroids,  the,  Prof.  Daniel  Kirkwood,  233 

Astronomy:  Astronomical  Phenomena  for  the  Week,  17,  37, 
66,  90,  114,  140,  158,  188,  210,  234,  259,  285,  302,  330,353, 
381,  400,  423,  446,  475,  495,  520,  545,  569,  597,  616;  Astro- 
nomical Column,  36,  66,  89,  114,  140,  158,  233,  259,  284, 
302,  330.  353.  381,  400,  424.  446,  475>  495.  S20,  544,  569, 
596,  616  ;  Reports  from  Various  Parts  of  Norway  respecting 
the  Great  Meteor,  36 ;  Variable  Star  U  Ophiuchi,  S.  C. 
Chandler,  36  ;  the  New  Algol-Variable,  Y  Cygni,  37  ;  Olbers' 
Comet,  1887,  37  ;  Astronomical  Society  of  France,  66  ;  Lick 
Observatory,  66 ;  American  Observatories,  89  ;  U  Ophiuch  i, 
S.  C.  Chandler,  90  ;  the  New  Algol-Variables,  S.  C.  Chand- 
ler, 90  ;  Probable  New  Variables,  John  Tebbutt,  Dr.  Bausch- 
inger,  114;  Names  of  Minor  Planets,  114;  Spectra  of  Oxygen, 
and  Carbon  compared  with  that  of  the  Sun,  Prof.  Trowbridge 
and  Hutchins,  Dr.  Henry  Draper,  Prof.  J.  C.  Draper,  114; 
Olbers'  Comet,  1887,  Herr  Tetens,  114;  on  the  Mass  ot 
the  Planet  Saturn,  L.  de  Ball,  118  ;  Report  on  Total  . 
Solar  Eclipse  of  1887,  Prof.  David  P.  Todd,  474;  Total 
Solar  Eclipse  of  August  19,  1887.  L.  Niesten,  118  ;  the  New 
Algol-Variables,  Y  Cygni  and  R  Canis  Majoris,  S.  C.  Chand- 
ler, 140;  Minor  Planet  No.  271,  140;  Natal  Observatory, 
Report  for  1886,  158  ;  Olbers'  Comet,  1887,  158  ;  Probable 
New  Class  of  Variable  Stars,  Rev.  T.  E.  Espin,  158  ;  M. 
Bertram's  Note  on  Errors  of  Observation,  M.  Faye,  166  ;  the 
Star  of  Bethlehem,  169:  John  T.  Nicolson,  221  ;  Prof.  Wm. 
Pengelly,  F.R.S.,  221  ;  K  Coatham,  221  ;  the  Planet  Mer- 
cury, W.  F.  Denning,  178  ;  Meteor  of  November  15,  J. 
Lloyd  Bozward,  178;  on  the  Law  of  Errors  of  Observation 
J.  Bertrand,  191  ;  Total  Solar  Eclipse  of  October  29,  878  ; 
Rev.  C.  S.  Taylor,  223  :  Brazilian  Results  from  the  Transit 
of  Venus,  M.  Cruls,  233  ;  the  Asteroids,  Prof.  Daniel  Kirk- 
wood, 233 ;  Olbers'  Comet,  Dr.  Krueger  and  Dr.  E.  Lamp, 
233  ;  the  Clinton  Catalogue,  234  ;  Occultations  of  Stars  by 
Planets,  Herr  A.  Berbericb,  234 ;  Duner  on  Stars  with 
Spectra  of  Class  III.,  234,  260  ;  O'Gyalla  Spectroscopic  Cata- 
logue, 259  ;  Astronomical  Prizes  of  the  Paiis  Academy  of 
Sciences,  259  ;  New  Observatory  in  Vienna,  259  ;  M.  Char- 
lois  on  Olbers'  Comet,  263  ;  Mauritius  Observatory,  284  ; 
Occultations  of  Stars  by  Planets,  284 ;  Olbers'  Comet,  285  ; 
Total  Eclipse  of  the  Moon,  January  28,  286,  306,  495  ;  the 
Cape  Observatory,  302  ;  Parallax  of  Mars,  C.  G.  Stromeyer, 
302 ;  Longitude  of  Odessa,  Dr.  E.  Becker  and  Prof.  Block, 
302  ;  Winkler  Observatory,  Herr  Winkler,  302 ;  Royal 
Astronomical  Society's  Memoirs,  353  ;  Publications  of  Dun- 
sink  Observatory,  353  ;  Rousdon  Observatory,  353  ;  j8  Del- 
phini,  353 ;  New  Minor  Planets,  353, 495  ;  Melbourne  Observa- 
tory, 381  ;  American  Nautical  Almanac  Office,  Prof.  Newcomb, 
381  ;  J.  Tebbutt's  Observatory,  Windsor,  New  South  Wales, 
400;  Pulkowa  Observatory,  400  ;  Wolsingham  Observatory, 
Rev.  T.  E.  Espin,  400 ;  Variability  of  Saturn's  Rings,  407  ; 


Nature,  June  T,  i£83] 


INDEX 


Vll 


Solar  Activity  in  1887,  423  ;  Wolf's  Relative  Numbers,  423  ; 
Astronomy  for  Amateurs,  J.  A.  Westwood  Oliver,  437  ;  a 
Green  Sun,  D.  Pidgeon,  440  ;  Meteor  at  Venersborg,  Sweden, 
445  ;  Photographs  of  Lunar  Eclipse,  January  28,  445  ;  Astro- 
nomical Society,  Paris,  455  ;  on  the  Appearances  presented 
by  the  Satellites  of  Jupiter  during  Transit,  468 ;  Annals  of 
Harvard  College  Observatory,  475  ;  Washington  Naval  Ob- 
servatory, 475  ;  the  Fog  Bow,  James  C,  McConnel,  487  ; 
Spectroscopic  Determination  of  the  Rotation  Period  of  the 
Sun,  495  ;  Comet  a  1888  (Sawerthal),  T.  W,  Backhouse,  536; 
Period  of  Algol,  S.  C.  Chandler,  544  ;  Observations  of  Vari- 
able Stars,  545  ;  Paris  Catalogue  of  Stars,  569  ;  Navigation 
and  Nautical  Astronomy,  W.  R.  Martin,  582 ;  Harvard  Col- 
lege Observatory,  596  ;  Comet  1888  a  (Sawerthal),  Dr.  L. 
Becker,  597  ;  the  Pulkowa  Catalogue  of  3542  Stars  for  1855, 
Dr.  Backlund,  520 ;  the  Constant  of  Precession  and  the 
Proper  Motion  of  the  Solar  System,  520 ;  Comet  1888  a 
(Sawerthal),  520  ;  Report  on  the  Total  Solar  Eclipse  of  August 
29,  1886,  H.  H.  Turner,  525  ;'on  a  Point  in  the  Theory  of  the 
Moon,  F.  Tisserand,  527  ;  Astronomical  Society,  575  ;  M. 
Delauney's  Astronomical  Communications,  600  ;  Photography 
in  the  Determination  of  the  Motions  of  Stars  in  the  Line  of 
Sight,  Dr.  Hu7gins,  616  ;  Total  Lunar  Eclipse  of  January 
28,  Dr.  E.  Lindemann,  616  ;  New  Minor  Planets,  616 
Athenaeum  Club,  New  Members,  378,  472 
Atlantic,  North  :  Globular  Lightning  in,  187  ;  Waterspouts  in, 

187,  567  ;  Pilot  Chart  of,  444 
Atlantic  Weather,  British  and,  R.  H.  Scott,  350 
Atlas  der  Pflanzenverbreitung,  362 

Atmosphere  :  Crepuscular  Tints  in  Connection  with  the  Hygro- 
metric  State  of  the.  Prof.  Constantino  Rovelli,  404  ;  Number 
of  Dust  Particles  in  the,  John  Aitken,  428  ;  Atmospheric 
Effects  at  Sunset,  Chas.  Croft,  273;  Atmospheric  Electricity, 
Dr.  W.  Marcet,  F.R.S.,  526;  on  the  Relations  of  Atmo- 
spheric Nitrogen  with  Vegetable  Humus,  Th.  Schlcesing,  528, 
551,  624;  Atmospheric  Pressure,  Dr.  J.  Hann,  231  ;  Instru- 
ments for  Measuring,  398 
Atoll  of  Diego  Garcia  and  the  Coral  Formations  of  the  Indian 

Ocean,  Prof  G.  C.  Bourne,  546 
Attar  of  Roses,  Production  of,  in  Bulgaria,  616 
Auditory  Nerve,  Origin  and  Course  of  the,  Dr.  Baginski,  480 
Audubon,  Proposed  Monument  for,  34 
Auriferous  Deposit  lately  found  West  of  Te  Aroha,  Sir  James 

Hector,  16 
Auriferous  Sands,  Treatment  of,  by  Amalgamation  in  Ancient 

Times,  551 
Aurora,  Spectrum  of.  Notes  on,  J.  Norman  Lockyer,  F,R.  S., 

358  '  .        . 

Aurora  Borealis  at  Throndtjem,  595 

Auroral  Phenomenon  in  Sweden,  Remarkable,  Dr.  Ekholm,  186 
Austral  Africa,  John  Mackenzie,  5 

Australia  :    Contributions  to  the  Sociology  of  the  Australians, 
M.  Elisee  Reclus,  163  ;  Giant  Lepidopterous  Larvae  in,  Sidney 
Olliff,   232  ;    MeduscC  of   the  Australian   Seas,   Dr.    R.   von 
Lendenfeld,  399  ;  Australian  Rabbits  Plague,  and  M.  Pasteur, 
421  ;    M.   Ernest  Favenc's  Exploration   of,  493  ;    Education 
in,  566  ;  Limits  of  Use  of  the  Boomerang  in,  568 ;  Monthly 
Meteorological  Notes  and  Rainfall    Statistics   for  South,    C. 
Todd,  615  ;  Australasian  Geographical  Society,  354 
Austria,  Forests  of,  543 
Aveling  (Rev.  F.  \V.),  Light  and  Heat,  176 
Ayrton  (Prof.   W.  E.)  and  Prof.  J.    Perry,   on  the   Magnetic 
Circuit  in  Dynamo  Machines,  502 


Bacillus  butylicus.  Formation  of  Normal  Amylic  Alcohol  in  the 

Fermentation  of  Glycerine  set  up  by,  48 
Backhouse  (T.W.),  Comet  a  1888  (Sawerthal),  536 
Bacteria,  Lectures  on,  A.  De  Bary,  75 
Bacteria,  Reducing  Action  of  Certain,  215 
Bacteriological  Laboratory,  the  Proposed  Batavian,  379 
Baginski  (Dr.),  Origin  and  Course  of  the  Auditory  Nerve,  480 
Bagneres  de  Bigorre,  Proposed  Establishment  of  a  Meteorologi- 
cal Station  at,  156 
Bagshots,  the  Highclere,  Rev.  A.  Irving,  128 
Bagshot  Beds,  R.  S.  Herries,  104 

Bagshot  Beds  of  the  London  Basin,  Stratigraphy  of,  335 
Bahamas,  Earthquake  at  the,  Robert  H.  Scott,  F.R.S.,  54  ;  G. 
R.  McGregor,  54;    Byron  N.  Jones   and    Cornelius   S.    E. 
Lotman,  54 


Bahamas,  Flora  of  the,  W.  T.  Thiselton  Dyer,  F.R.S.,  Baron 

Eggers,  565 
Bailey  (E.  H.  S.)  and  E.  L.  Nicols,  Delicacy  of  the  Sense  of 

Taste,  557 
Baker   (J.   G.,  F.R.S.),   Hand-book  of  the  Fern   Allies,  Prof. 

W.  R.  McNab,  4 
Balachany,  Naphtha  Spring  at,  88 

Balance,  Hughes's  Induction,  Dr.  Oliver  J,  Lodge,  F.  R.S.,  6 
Balbin  (Valentin),  Elementos  de  Calculo  de  los  Cuaterniones, 

&c.,  Gustave  Plarr,  145 
Balbin's  Quaternions,  Prof.  W.  Steadman  Aldis,  535 
Bale  (M.  Powis),  Hand-book  for  Steam  Users,  30 
Balfour  (Prof.   Isaac   Bayley),  elected  Professor  of  Botany  at 

Edinburgh,  421 
Ball  (L.  de),  on  the  Mass  of  the  Planet  Saturn,  118 
Ball  (Prof,  v.,  F.R.S.),  Eroded  Agate  Pebbles  from  the  Soudan, 

574        . 
Balloon  Signalling  Experiments,  Electric,  34 
Ballot  (Dr.  Buys),  Presentation  of  a  Gold  Medal  to,  156 
Baltic   Amber  Coast   in    Prehistoric   Times,   Dr.    A.  Lissauer, 

Arthur  J.  Evans,  531 
Baltic,  Scientific  Research  in  the,  of  the  German  Fishery  Assd- 

ciation,  156 
Baltimore,  Maryland,   U.S.A.,   Proposed  Sanitary  Reforms  in 

Public  Schools  at,  379 
Baltzer  (Dr.  R.),  Death  of,  89 
Barometer,  at  Observatories  of  Europe,  Comparison  of,  A.  F. 

Sundell,  258 
Barometers  and  Thermometers,  Experiments  with,  72 
Barometric  Pressures  of  Asia,  422 
Bary  (Anton  de),  Obituary  Notice  of.  Prof.  H.  Marshall  Ward 

297 
Basset  (A.  B.),  on  the  Motion  of  a  Sphere  in  a  Viscous  Liquid, 

164 
Bassot  (L.),  Meridian  of  Laghwat,  528 
Bastian    (A.),    Die   Welt   in   ihren    Spiegelungen    unter    dem 

Wandel      des     Volkergedankens :     Prolegomena     zu     einer 

Gedanken-statistik,  387 
Basuto  Land,  Sir  Marshall  Clarke's  Tour  in,  617 
Batavia  Bacteriological  Laboratory,  Proposed,  379 
Batchelor  on  the  Supposed  Disappearance  of  the  Aino^,  380 
Bateson  (W.)  awarded   the    Balfour   Memorial   Studentship  in 

Animal  Morphology,  63 
Bath  (W.   Harcourt),   Young   Collector's  Hand  book  of  Ants, 

Bees,  Dragon-flies,  Earwigs,  Crickets,  and  Flies,  127 
Bathymetrical  Range  of  Deep-sea  Fishe-s,  A.  R.  Hunt,  321 
Bathymetrical  Survey  of  Perthshire  Lochs,  J.  S.  Grant  Wilson, 

527 
Batters  (E.  A.),  Three  New  Marine  Algae,  526 
Battershall  (J.  P.),  Food  Adulteration  and  its  Detection,  411 
Bauschinger  (Dr.),  Probable  New  Variables,  114 
Bay  of  Bengal,  Monthly  Weather  Charts  of  the,  137 
Baynes   (Robert    E.),    Dynamical    Units    and    Nomenclature, 

46s 
Beaches,  Raised,    versus  High  Level   Beaches,   A.    R.   Hunt, 

275 

Beagle,  the,  and  Charles  Darwin,  443 

Bear,  Polar,  a  Tame,  301 

Beard  (Dr.  J.) :  the  Old  Mouth  and  the  New,  a  vStudy  in  Verte- 
brate Morphology,  224  ;  on  the  Teeth  of  the  Myxinoid  Fishes, 

499 
Beaver  Colony  at  Amlid,  in  Norway,  Flourishing  Condition  of 

the,  140 
Beccari  (Odoardo),  and  Malesia,  421 
Beck  (Herr),  Habits  of  a  Running  Spider,  283 
Becker  (Dr.  E.)  and  Prof.  Block,  Longitude  of  Odessa,  302 
Becker  (Dr.  L.),  Comet  1888  a  (Sawerthal),  597 
Beddard  (F.  E  ),   the  Nephridia  of  Perichceta,  309  ;  a  Fresh- 
water Annelid,  526 
Belgium  :  Mine-Shaft  successfully  sunk  by  M.  Poetsch's  Method 

in,  208  ;  System  of  Commercial  and  Technical  Training  in, 

284  ;  Meteorology  of  Belgium  in  1887,  328 
Bell  (Alfred),  Post-Glacial  Insects,  232 
Bell  (Louis),  the  Absolute  Wave- Length  of  Light,  ()2l 
Bellesme  (Jousset  de),  on  Transportation  of  Live  Fish,  444 
Ben  Nevis  Observatory,  Cases  of  St.   Elmo's  Fire  recorded  at, 

112 
Benda  (Dr.) :  the  Structure  of  Ganglion-Cells,  576  ;  Researches 

on  the  Development  of  Spermatozoa,  264 
Bengal,  Pisciculture  in,  494 


Vlll 


INDEX 


\_Natnre,  June  ^ ,  i< 


Benoist  (M.),  a  Toy  Panorama,  89 

Bentham  Trustees  and  Odoardo  Beccarl's  Researches  as  pub- 
lished in  Malesia,  421 

Bentley  (Prof.  Robert),  Text-book  of  Organic  Materia  Medica, 
460 

Benzil,  Isomeric  Series  of  Dei'ivatives  of  (Prof.  Victor  Meyer), 

443 

Benzyldithiourethane,  Dr.  A.  E.  Dixon,  503 

Berberich  (A.),  Occultations  of  Stars  by  Planets,  234 

Bergeron  (Jules),  First  Discoveiy  of  Trilobites  of  Primordial 
Fauna  in  France,  360 

Berlin  Meteorological  Society,  72,  552 

Berlin  Ornithological  Exhibition,  Proposed,  88 

Berlin:  Physical  Society,  48,  167,  311,  408,  528,  576  ;  Physio- 
logical Society,  144,  168,  215,  264,  336,  576 

Berliner  (Dr.  A.),  Cause  of  Emission  of  Solid  Particles  by 
Platinum  under  Electric  Current,  378 

Bernard  (Rev.  Henry),  Shadow  of  a  Mist,  392 

Bernicle  Geese  on  Coniston  Lake,  William  R.  Melly,  585 

Berthelot  (M.),  on  the  Transformation  of  the  Nitrates  into 
Nitrous  Organic  Compounds,  479 

Berthelot  and  Andre  (MM.)  :  on  the  State  of  the  Potassa  in 
Plants,  71 ;  on  the  Absorption  of  Saline  Substances  by 
Plants,  527,  551  ;  on  Phosphorus  and  Phosphoric  Acid  in 
Vegetation,  504 

Bertrand  (J.) :  Note  on  Errors  of  Observation  in  Astronomy, 
M.  Faye,  166,  191  ;  on  the  Combination  of  Measures  of  the 
same  Magnitude,  504  ;  on  the  Probable  Value  of  the  Smallest 
Errors  in  a  Series  of  Observations,  527  ;  Geometrical  Curves, 
M.  G.  Demartres  on,  600 

Best  (Geo.  Payne),  Morality  and  Utility,  Prof.  Geo.  J. 
Romanes,  F.  R.  S.,  290 

Bethlehem,  the  Star  of,  169;  John  T.  Nicolson,  221;  Prof. 
Wm.  Pengelly,  F.R.S.,  221  :  E.  Coatham,  221 

Bibliography  of  Russian  Books  on  Chemistry,  525 

Billwiller  (Dr.),  Permanent  Observatory  on  the  Summit  of  the 
Santis,  350 

Biology:  Liverpool  Biological  Society,  113;  Huxley  and 
Martin's  Biology,  187;  the  Geographical  Distribution  of 
Actinise  in  P'rench  Mediterranean  Waters,  F.  Isambert,  192 ; 
M.  L.  Vaillant  on  the  Nest  of  the  Anteitnarius  marmoratus, 
208 ;  the  Relations  between  Geology  and  the  Biological 
Sciences,  Prof.  John  W.  Judd,  F. R. S.,  401,  424;  Animal 
Biology,  C.  Lloyd  Morgan,  484  ;  Elementary  Instniction  in 
Practical  Biology,  T.  H.  Huxley,  F.R.S.,  and  H.  N.  Martin, 
F.R.S.,  505 

Bird- Lime,  Composition  of,  406 

Birds  :  the  Tweeddale  Collection,  R.  Bowdler  Sharpe,  13  ;  New 
Species  of,  from  Guadalcanar,  R.  Bowdler  Sharpe,  503 ; 
Curious    Discovery  about,   Prof.  W.    P.    Trowbridge,    139 ; 

«  Autumnal  Migration  of,  in  Ireland,  Allan  Ellison,  232 ; 
W.  K.  Parker,  F.R.  S.,  on  the  Secondary  Carpals  of  Carinate 
Birds,  333  ;  Flight  of,  M.  Marey,  474 ;  the  Soaring  of,  by 
the  late  William  Froude,  527  ;  Birds  of  Wiltshire,  Rev.  Alfred 
Charles  Smith,  601  ;  Bird's-Nest  or  Elephant  Islands  of  the 
Mergui  Archipelago,  Alfred  Carpenter,  348 

Birdwood  (Hon.  H.  M.),  Catalogue  of  the  Fish  of  Matheran 
and  Mahableshwar,  126 

Birkbeck  (Sir  Edward),  the  Carriage  of  Fish,  423  , 

Bismutosphserite  from  Willimantic  and  Portland,  Connecticut 
H.  L.  Wells,  47 

Bisulphide  of  Carbon,  142 

Bivalve  Mollusks,  by  D.  McAlpine,  527 

Black  (W.  G.),  Wind  Force  at  Sea,  321  ;  Water  Supplies  and 
Reservoirs,  439 

Blackie  (C),  a  Dictionary  of  Place  Names,  151 

Blake  (Rev.  J.  F.),  the   Monian  System,  526 

Blakesley  (T.  H. ),  Geometrical  Method  of  determining  the 
Conditions  of  Maximum  Efficiency  in  the  Transmission  of 
Power  by  alternating  Currents,  119 

Blakesley  (T.  E.),  Electro-dynamometer  and  Harmonic  Currents 
of  Electricity,  502 

Bleiburg,  Earthquake  at,  113 

Blind  and  Deaf  Child,  Education  of,  615 

Blizzard,  the,  H.  Faye,  575 

Blondlot  (B.),  Double  Dielectric  Refraction,  360 

Bliimcke  (Herr),  Experiments  on  the  Resistance  of  Materials  to 
Frost,  209 

Bodo,  Earthquake  at,  138 

Boedicker  (Otto),  Total  Eclipse  of  the  Moon,  318 


Bogdanoff  (Prof.),  Death  and  Obituary  Notice  of,  567 

Bohemia,  Crustacean  Fauna  of  the  Chalk  of.  Prof.  Dr.  Anton 
Fritsch  and  Jos.  Kafka,  51 

Bollettino  of  the  Italian  Geographical  Society  for  September,  1 7 

Bolton  (Thos.),  Death  of,  34 

Bombay  Presidency,  Meteorology  of  the,  S.  Chambers,  378 

Bombay  Technical  Institute,  378 

Bonney  (Prof.  T.  G.,  F.R.  S.) :  a  Conspiracy  of  Silence,  25,  77  ; 
Life  and  Letters  of  Chas.  Darwin,  73  ;  Notes  on  a  Part  of 
the  Huronian  Series  in  the  Neighbourhood  of  Sudbury 
(Canada),  143  ;  Prof.  Rosenbusch's  Work  on  Petrology,  556 

Bonus  (Albert),  the  Mist-Bow,  273 

Boomerang  in  Australia,  Limits  of  Use  of,  568 

Borates  and  Borosilicates,  Analysis  of  some  Natural,  47 

Borda  (Sig.  A.),  on  the  Geography,  History,  and  Present  Social 
Conditions  of  the  Republic  of  Columbia  (New  Grenada),  211 

Borneo,  Expedition  into,  John  Whitehead,  349 

Bornholm  in  the  Baltic,  Curious  Christmas  Customs  observed 
in,  352 

Bornstein  (Prof.),  Preparation  discovered  by  Chance.  408 

Boswell  (Dr.  J.  T.  I.),  Death  of,  327 

Botany:  Hand-book  of  the  Fern  Allies,  J.  G.  Baker,  F.R.S., 
Prof.  W.  R.  McNab,  4  ;  Practical  Botany,  F.  O.  Bower  and 
Sydney  H.  Vines,  28 ;  Botanical  Gazette,  163,  308  ;  Geo. 
Massee,  on  the  Growth'and  Origin  of  Multicellular  Plants,  163; 
Botanical  Results  of  the  Cruise  of  the  Dijtimphna,  173;  a 
Flora  of  Hertfordshire,  187  ;  Alexipharmic  Plants,  D.  Morris, 
257  ;  Discovery  oi  Ju7tcus  tenuis  in  Sweden,  258  ;  Royal 
Botanic  Garden  of  Calcutta,  283  ;  Report  of  Royal  Botanic 
Garden,  Calcutta,  476 ;  Manual  of  Biitish  Discomycetes, 
William  Phillips,  340  ;  Atlas  der  Pflanzenverbreitung,  362  ; 
Botanists  and  the  Micromillimetre,  Prof.  Arthur  W.  Ritcker, 
F.R.S.,  388;  Odoardo  Beccari's  Malesia  and  the  Bentham 
Trustees,  421;  Prof.  Bayley  Balfour  and  Edinburgh  University, 
421  ;  Frank  Smart  Studentship  of  Botany,  Cambridge,  430  ; 
Lund  University  Botanical  Museum,  442  ;  Dr.  Robert  Fries 
on  the  Fungus  Flora  of  Sweden,  445  ;  Botryocytinns,  by  E. 
G.  Baker,  478  ;  Sig.  A.  N.  Berlese  on  the  Genus  of  Fungi 
Pleospora,  500 ;  Prof.  A.  Beccari  on  New  Species  of  Palm, 
New  Guinea,  500 ;  Endosperm,  by  G.  S.  Boulger,  500 ; 
Polypodium  Annabella,  500 ;  Tillandsiese,  500 ;  Botanical 
Department,  the.  Northern  India,  522  ;  Flora  of  the  Baha- 
mas, Baron  Eggers,  W.  T.  Thiselton  Dyer,  F.R.S.,  565  ;  A. 
Johnston's  Botanical  Plates,  582  ;  List  of  New  Garden  Plants, 
595  ;  Additional  Records  of  Scottish  Plants  for  the  Year  1887, 

615 

Botryocytinns,  by  E.  G.  Baker,  478 

Bottone,    S.   R.,   Electrical    Instrument-making  for  Amateurs, 

412 
Bouchard  (Ch. ),  Naphthol  as  an  Antiseptic,  24 
Boulenger  (G.  A.),  Classification  of  the  Ranidte,  526 
Bourne  (Prof.   G.    C.)  :  Coral  Formations,   415;  the  Atoll  of 
Diego  Garcia  and  Coral  Formations  of  the  Indian  Ocean,  546 
Bouty  (M.  E.),  on  the  Electric  Conductibility  of  Concentrated 

Nitric  Acid,  479 
Bow,  Fog,  and  Ulloa's  Ring,  Dr.  H.  Mohn,  391 
Bower    (F.     O.)    and    Sydney   H.    Vines,     Practical    Botany, 

Part  II.,  28 
Bozward  (J.  Lloyd),  Meteor  of  November  15,  178 
Brady  (Henry  B.,  F.R.S.),  "  Soapstone"  of  Fiji,  142 
Brain,    Monkey's,   Functions  of  the.   Dr.    Sanger  Brown  and 

Prof.  E.  A.  Schiifer,  F.R.S.,  214 
Brazilian  Expedition,  Dr.  von  Steinen's,  570 
Brazilian  Results  from  the  Transit  of  Venus,  M.  Cruls,  233 
Brazza  (Giacomo  di).  Death  of,  492 
Breath  of  Man  and  other  Mammals,  288 

Brillouin  (M.),  Note  on  Permanent  Deformations  and  Thermo- 
dynamics, 384 
Brinton  (Dr.  R.  G.),  Ancient  Foot-prints  in  Nicaragua,  474 
Bristol,  University  College,  87 

British   Association  :    and   Local    Societies,  91  ;    Section   A — 
Temperature  Variation  in  Lakes,  Rivers,  and  Estuaries,   92  ; 
Section    C — Erratic    Blocks    Committee,     92 ;     Sea-Coasts 
Erosion   Committee,   93 ;    Earth  Tremors    Committee,    93  ; 
Section  D — Life-Histories  of  Plants,  93  ;  Section  H — Ancient 
Monuments  Act,  93  ;    Prehistoric  Remains  Committee,  94  ; 
Work  of  the  Corresponding  Societies  Committee,  94 
British  and  Atlantic  Weather,  R.  H.  Scott,  350 
British  Discomycetes,  Manual  of,  William  Phillips,  340 
British  Empire,  Annual  Table  of  the  Climate  of  the,  38 


Nature,  June  T,  1888] 


INDEX 


IX 


British  and  Irish  Salmonidse,  Francis  Day,  242,  296,  366 

British  Islands,  Unusual  Storms  in  the,  67 

British  Museum,  Natural  History  Collection  from  Central  Africa 

at,  207 
British  North  Borneo,  D.  D.  Daly's  Explorations  in,  159 
Brittle- Starfish,  a  Trouhlesome  Parasite  of  a,  J.  Walter  Fewkes, 

274 
Brown  (Prof.   Cnmi),  Apparatus  for  Exhibiting  the  Action  of 

Semicircular  Canals,  479 
Brown  (E.),  Swifts,  6 
Brown  (John  Croumbie),  Management  of  Crown  Forests  at  the 

Cape  of  Good  Hope,  198 
Brown  (Dr.  Sanger)  and  Prof.  E.  A.  Schafer,  F.R.S.,  Functions 

of  the  Monkey's  Brain,  214 
Browne  (A.  J.   Jukes),  the  Ffynnon    Beuno    and  Cae  Gwyn 

Caves,  224 
Brown-Sequard  (M.),  Cerebral  Dualism  in  Voluntary  Motions,  71 
Bruce  (G.  B,),  Engineering  Fifty  Years  ago  and  now,  119 
Brussels  International  Exhibition,  Proposed  Geographical  Section 

at,  90 
Brussels  Observatory,  Barometric  Observations,  350 
Buchanan  (J.  Y".,  F.R.S.),  on  Tidal  Currents  in  the  Open  Ocean, 

452 
Budd  (C.  O.),  the  Mist-Bow,  273 
Budde  (Dr.),  Recalculation  of  Clausius's  Fundamental  Law  of 

Electro-dynamics,  408 
Bulgaria,  Production  of  Attar  of  Roses  in,  616 
Bulletin  de  1' Academic  Royale  de  Belgique,  23,  118,  308,  477, 

525. 
Bulletin  de  1' Academic  des  Sciences  de  St.  Petersbourg,  404 
Bulletin  of  the  American  Geographical  Society,  37 
Bulletin  de  la  Societe  des  Naturalistes  de  Moscou,  71 
Bunge  and  Toll  (MM.),  Return  of,  67 
Burck  (Dr.),  Remedy  for  Coffee  Leaf  Disease,  351 
Burrows  (Sir  Geo.,  F.R.S. ),  Death  of,  155 
Burton  (W.  K.),  Practical  Guide  to  Photographic  and  Photo- 
Mechanical  Processes,  485 
Bury  (H.),  Development  oi  Antedon  rosacea,  287 
Butaine  (M.),  Celluloid  as  Ship-sheathing,  89 
Butterflies  from  Central  China,  J.  H.  Leech,  503 
Butterfly,  Early  Development  of  a,  321 


Cable- laying  in  the  African  Tropics,  On  a  Surf-bound  Coast,  or, 
Archer  P.  Crouch,  147 

Cadell  (Henry  M.),  Experiments  in  Mountain  Building,  488 

Cadmium,  on  the  Colloidal  Sulphuret  of,  Eug.  Prost,  23 

Cae  Gwyn  Caves,  Ffynnon  Beuno  and  :  G.  H.  Morton,  32  ; 
Worthington  G.  Smith,  7,  105,  178;  Dr.  Henry  Hicks,  F.R.S., 
129,  202 ;  Prof.  T.  McKenny  Hughes,  166 ;  A.  J.  Jukes 
Browne,  224 

Cailletet  (L.),  Apparatus  for  Experiments  at  a  High  Temperature 
in  Gas  under  High  Pressure,  470 ;  a  New  Gas-thermometer, 
600 

Calabria,  Earthquake  in,  138 

Calcium  Chloride,  S.  U.  Pickering,  551 

Calculus,  a  Treatise  on  the  Integral,  Ralph  A.  Roberts,  75 

Calcutta,  Royal  Botanic  Garden  of,  283 

Calibration  of  an  Electrometer,  D.  W.  Shea,  500 

California,  the  Insular  Flora  of,  in  Relation  to  Physical 
Geography,  358 

Cambridge  :  Parliamentary  Representation  of  Cambridge  Uni- 
versity, 15;  and  Degrees  to  Women,  443;  Local  Examina- 
tions and  Lectures  Syndicate  Report,  492  ;  Celebration  of 
the  Bi-Centenary  of  the  Publication  of  Newton's  "  Principia," 
614 

Campbell  (Albert),  the  Change  in  Thermo-electric  Properties 
of  Tin  at  its  Melting-point,  384 

Canada,  Meteorology  in,  39 

Canadian  Geological  Survey,  87 

Canals,  Apparatus  for  Exhibiting  the  Action  of  Semicircular, 
Prof.  Crum  Brown,  479 

Canary  Islands  :  Ethnology  of  the.  Dr.  Vemeau,  90  ;  on  the 
Stature  of  the  Ancient  Inhabitants  of  the,  Dr.  R.  Verneau, 
163  ;  Olivia  M.  Stone,  201 

Canestrini  (Prof.  E.),  on  some  Effects  produced  by  Induction- 
Sparks,  525 

Cape  Colony,  Forestry  in  the,  598 

Cape  of  Good  Hope,  Management  of  Crown  Forests  at  the, 
John  Croumbie  Brown,  198 


Cape  Observatory,  302 

Capillary  Constants  of  Drops  and  Bubbles,  Dr.  Sieg,  167 

Carbon  Atoms  :  Prof.  Victor  Meyer  on,  327 ;  New  Properties 

of.  Profs.  Meyer  and  Riecke,  567 
Carbon,  Bisulphide  of,  142 
Carbon  in  the  Sun,  on  the  Existence  of,  162 
Carbonate,  Double,  of  Silver  and  Potassium,  on  the  Production 

of  the,  48 
Carbonate  of  Lime,  Solution  of,  in  Sea- Water,  W.  G.  Reid, 

479 
Carbonates  of  Soda,   Natural,  Part  played  by  the  Soil  in  the 

Formation  of  the,  407 
Carbonic  Acid  Gas,  Effect  of,  Dr.  Goldschneider,  144 
Carboxy- Derivatives  of  Quinone,  Dr.  J.  U.  Nef,  551 
Carey  (A.  D. ),  Description  of  his  Journey  around  and   across 

Turkistan,  115 
Carinthia  and  Styria,  Earthquake  at,  1x3 
Carles  (W.  R.),  Life  in  Corea,  581 
Carlier  (Dr.)  and  Prof.  Haycraft,  on  Morphological  Changes  in 

the  Blood  during  Coagulation,  527 
Carpenter   (Alfred),    Bird's-Nest   or   Elephant   Islands   of  the 

Mergui  Archipelago,  348 
Carpmael  (Prof.  Chas.),  Meteors,  273 
Carpus  and  Tarsus  of  the  Anura,  Prof.  G.  B.  Howes  and  W. 

Ridewood,  503 
Carus- Wilson   (Cecil):    Is    Hail  so    Formed?,   295,    365;  the 

Movements  of  Scree-Material,  488 
Cashmere,  Coal  discovered  in,  301 

Caspian  Sea,  Winds  and  Pressure  of.  Captain  Rykatschew,  257 
Castelfranco  (M.  Pompeo),  Lacustrine  and  Lake- Villages  and 

Pile- Dwellings,  163 
Caterpillars,  the  Vision  of,  525 
Catharinea  undtdata,  J.   Reynolds  Vaizey,  79 
Caucasus  :  Vascular  Plants  of  the,  71  ;  the  Glaciers  of  the,  89; 
the  Orography,   Glaciation,  and  Ethnology  of  the,  Douglas 
W.  Freshfield,  496 
Cavaillon  and  St.  Saturnin-les- Avignon,  Earthquage  at,  113 
Caves  :  Discovery  of  a  Stalactite,  near  Steinbach,  in  the  Upper 
Palatinate,  16  ;  the  Ffynnon  Beuno  and  Cae  Gwyn,  Worthing- 
ton G.  Smith,  7,  105,    178  ;G.  H.    Morton,  32;  Dr.   Henry 
Hicks,   F.R.S.,  129,  202;  Prof.  T.  McKenny  Hughes,  166; 
A.  J.  Jukes  Browne,  224    ■ 
Cayley  (Prof.  F.R.S.),  Proposed  Collected  Edition  of  his  Mathe- 
matical Papers,  329 
Celluloid  as  Ship-sheathing,  M.  Butaine,  89 
Cements,   Hydraulic,    Experimental   Researches  on,  M.  H.  Le 

Chatelier,  Prof.  W.  N.  Hartley,  F.R.S.,  554 
Centre  of  Water-Pressure,  Geo.  M.  Minchin,  275 
Cerebral  Dualism  in  Voluntary  Motions,  M.  Brown  Sequard,  71 
Ceylon  Trigonometrical  Survey,  Completion  of,  258 
Ceylon  Rainfall,  187 

Chaffanjon  (M.),  Journey  up  the  Orinoco,  286 
Challenger  Expedition,  Zoological  Results  of  the,  I  ;  Report  on 
the  Scientific  Results  of  the  Voyage  of  the,  during  the  Years 
1873-76,  219 
Chalk  of  Bohemia,  Crustacean  Fauna  of  the.  Prof.  Dr.  Anton 

Fritsch  and  Jos.  Kafka,  51 
Chamberlain  (Prof.  Basil  Hall) :  Aino  Tales  and  Legends,  351 ; 

Japanese  "Go-hei,"479 
Chambers  (F.),  Meteorology  of  the  Bombay  Presidency,  378 
Chambers's  Encyclopaedia,  604 

Chandler  (S.  C.)  :  the  New  Algol  Variables  Y  Cygni  and  R 

Canis  Majoris,  140  ;  Period  of  Algol,  544  ;  U  Ophiuchi,  90  ; 

the  New  Algol  Variables,  90  ;  Variable  Star  U  Ophiuchi,  36 

Chaney  (H.  J.),  the  Micromillimetre,  437 

Chapin  (F.   IL),   Ascent  of  a  Glacier  on  Mummy  Mountain, 

Northern  Colorado,  354 
Char,  American,  Spawning  at  Delaford  of,  89 
Characese  of  America,  the.  Dr.  F.  Allen,  443 
Chardonnet  (M.  de).  Artificial  Silk,  595 
Charlois  (M.),  on  Olbers'  Comet,  263 

Chartres  (R.),  Note  on  a  Problem  in  Maxima  and  Minima,  320 
Chatelier  (M.  H.  Le),  Recherches  Experimentales  sur  la  Con- 
stitution des  Mortiers  Hydrauliques,    Prof.    W.   N.    Hartley, 
F.R.S.,  SS4 
Chaumont  (Surgeon-Major  F.  B.  Fran9oi3  de,  F.R.S.),  Death 

of,  614 
Cheltenham,  Water-Supply  of,  210 

Chemistry  :  Synthesis  of  Glucose,  A.    E.   Tuiton,  7  ;  Chemical 
Society,  71,  166,   191,   310,   335,   405,  453,  502,   551,   623; 


INDEX 


[Naliire,June  T,  li 


Annual  Meeting,  517  ;  List  of  Grants  made  from  the  Research 
Fund,  231  ;  Agriculture  in  some  of  its  Relations  to,  F.  H. 
Storer,  icx) ;  Tridimensional  Formulae  in  Organic,  Dix 
Annees  dans  I'Histoire  d'une  Theorie,  J.  H.  Van  't  Hoff, 
Prof.  F.  R.  Japp,  F.R.S.,  121  ;  New  Naphthalene  Deriva- 
tives, M.  Roux,  156;  Exercises  in  Quantitative  Chemical 
Analysis,  W,  Dittmar,  174  ;  Isolation  of  Fluorine,  A.  E, 
Tutton,  179;  Compressibility  of  the  Solution  of  Ethyl- 
amine  in  Water,  F.  Isambert,  192  ;  Dr.  B.  Franke, 
on  the  Preparation  and  Constitution  of  tlie  Hydrates  of 
Manganic  Oxide  and  Peroxide,  209  ;  Lehrbuch  der 
Allgemeinen  Chemie,  Dr.  Wilh.  Ostwald,  M.  M.  Pattison 
Muir,  241  ;  Practical  Chemistry,  by  M.  M.  Pattison  Muir  and 
Douglas  Carnegie,  265,  318;  Elementary  Chemistry,  M. 
M.  Pattison  Muir  and  Charles  Slater,  265,  318  ;  Synthesis  of 
Glucose,  Drs.  Emil  Fischer  and  Tafel,  283  ;  Elements  of 
Chemistry,  Ira  Remsen,  317  ;  Prof.  Victor  Meyer,  en  Carbon 
Atoms,  327  ;  Experimental  Chemistry  for  Junior  Students, 
J.  Emerson  Reynolds,  388  ;  the  Teaching  of  Elementary,  389  ; 
Institute  of  Chemistry,  Boverton  Redwood  and  Alf.  Gordon 
Salamon,  393  ;  Chemical  Equilibria,  M.  P.  Duhem,  407 ; 
New  Fhiorides  of  Potassium,  M.  Moissan,  422  ;  a  Treatise  on, 
by  Sir  H.  E.  Roscoe,  F.R.S.,  and  C.  Schorlemmer,  F.R.S., 
Vol.  III.,  460  ;  the  Teaching  of  Elementary,  M.  M.  Pattison 
Muir,  466  ;  Tetrasulphide  of  Benzene,  Dr.  Otto,  473  ;  on 
Cinchoniline,  by  E.  jungfleisch  and  E.  Leger,  479  ;  on  the 
Electric  Conductibility  of  Concentrated  Nitric  Acid,  by  M.  E. 
Bouty,  479  ;  Products  Cif  the  Oxidation  of  the  Hydronitro- 
camphenes,  by  M.  C.  Tanret,  479 ;  Nitrocamphene  [azocam- 
phine),  M.  C.  Tanret,  479  ;  on  Terpinol,  G.  Bouchardat  and 
R.  Voiry,  479  ;  on  the  Transformation  of  the  Nitrates  into 
Nitrous  Organic  Compounds,  M.  Berthelot,  479  ;  the  Teach- 
ing of  Elementary,  487  ;  Bibliography  of  Russian  Books  and 
Articles  on,  525  ;  Reactions  of  Direct  Addition,  on  the  Laws 
presiding  at,  J.  Kabloukoff,  525  ;  on  the  Speed  of  Formation  of 
Acetic  Ethers  of  Monatomic  Alcohols,  byN.  Menshutkin,  525  ; 
Elements  and  Meta-Elements,  Prof.  W.  Crookes,  F.R.S., 
540  ;  Experiments  on  Saturation  Weights  of  Salts,  M.  UmofiF, 
542;  Calcium  Chloride,  S.  W.  Pickering,  551;  Carboxy- 
Derivatives  of  Quinone,  Dr.  J.  U.  Nef,  551  ;  New  Properties 
of  Carbon  Atoms,  Profs.  Meyer  and  Riecke,  567  ;  Modern 
Chemistry,  Prof.  C.  M.  Tidy,  596  ;  Sesquichloride  of  Rhodium, 
600  ;  Action  of  the  Cyanide  of  Zinc  on  some  Chlorides,  600  ; 
Action  of  the  Tetrachloride  of  Carbon  on  Oxygenated  Mineral 
Compounds  free  of  Hydrogen,  600 

China  in  America,  Stewart  Culin,  88  ;  Cause  of  September 
Typhoons  in  Hong  Kong,  Dr.  W.  Doberck,  439 ;  Crepuscular 
Rays  in  China,  Dr.  W.  Doberck,  464 ;  China,  its  Social, 
Political,  and  Religious  Life,  G.  Eug.  Simon,  268 ;  Tele- 
graphs in  China,  564 ;  Chinese  Arithmetical  Notation,  Local 
Value  in,  Dr.  Edkins,  65  ;  Chinese  Scientific  Book  Depot 
Report,  423 

Chloride,  Calcium,  S.  U.  Pickering,  551 

Chloride  of  Gold,  a  New,  Prof.  Julius  Thomsen,  398 

Chloride  of  Nitrogen,  Explosive  Nature  of,  Prof.  Victor  Meyer, 
349  ;  Dr.  Gattermann,  350 

Chlorophosphide  of  Nitrogen,  Ward  Couldridge,  596 

Chloridops  koua,  Scott  Barchard  Wilson,  526 

Cholic  Acid,  on  the  Empirical  Formula  of,  P.  LatchinofiF,  525 

Chorley,  Lancashire,  Earthquake  Shock  at,  138 

Chriitiania  :  Brilliant  Meteor  seen  in,  December  11,  231  ;  Snow 
falling  from  a  perfectly  Clear  Sky  in,  282 

Christmas  Custom,  Curious,  observed  in  Bornholm,  in  the 
Baltic,  352 

Christmas  Island  :  J.  J.  Lister,  203  ;  Captain  W.  J.  L.  Wharton, 
F.R.S.,  203;  Dr.  H.  B.  Guppy,  222 

Chromorganic  Salts,  E.  A.  Werner,  503 

Chromosphere,  the,  John  Evershed,  79 

Chronic  Intoxication  by  Alcohol,  on  the  Eftects  of,  MM.  Mairet 
and  Combemale,  528 

Church  (Prof.  A.  IL),  on  Colour,  437 

Churchill  (Lord  Randolph),  the  Baih  Lane  Science  and  Art 
School  at  Ne«castle-on-Tyne,  15 

Ciders,  Congelation  of,  24 

Cinchonamine,  on  the  Crystalline  Form  of,  120 

Cinchonigine,  E.  Jungfleisch  and  E.  Leger  on,  360 

Cinchoniline,  on,  E.  Jungfleisch  and  E.  Leger,  479 

Cinchonine,  on  some  Derivatives  of,  264 

Circulars  of  Information,  issued  by  the  United  States  Bureau  of 
Education,  352 


Cirri,  on  the  Movement  of,  and  their  Relation  to  Cyclones,  M. 

H.  Faye,  143 
Clarke  (Sam.  F.),  Conspiracy  of  Silence,  200 
Class  Experiments,  Magnus  Maclean,  612 
Classification  of  Clouds,  Rev,  W.  Clement  Ley,  177 
Classification  of  the  Gasteropoda,  H.  de  Lacaze-Duthiers,  504 
Classification   of   the    Various    Species    of    Heavenly   Bodies, 

Suggestions  on  the,  J.  Norman  Lockyer,  F.R.S. ,  585,  606 
Clausius's  Fundamental  Law  of  Electro-dynamics,    Recalcula- 
tion of,  Dr.  Budde,  408 
Climate  of  the  British  Empire,  Annual  Table  of  the,  38 
Climatological  Dictionary,  Universal,  542 
Clinton  Catalogue,  234 
Clodd  (Edward),  Story  of  Creation,  388 
Cloud  Movements  in  the  Tropics,    and   Cloud    Classification, 

Captain  David  Wilson-Barker,  129 
Clouds  :  the  Forms  of,  Hon.  Ralph  Abercromby,  129  ;  Classifi- 
cation of,  Rev.  W.  Clement  Ley,  177  ;  Constitution  of  Clouds 

and  Fogs,  Prof.  F.  Palagi,  404 
Clone  (Vice- Admiral  G.),  Le  Filage  de  I'Huile,  435 
Coal  discovered  in  Cashmere,  301 
Coatham  (E.),  Star  of  Bethlehem,  221 
Cockran  (William),  Pen  and  Pencil  in  Asia  Minor,  126 
Cod,. Iceland,  to  Norway,  Importation  of  Live,  258 
Coelom,  the,   and   the  Vascular  System   of   the    Mollusca  and 

Anhropoda,  Prof  Ray  Lankester,  498 
Coffee-Leaf  Disease,  Remedy  for.  Dr.  Burck,  351 
College  of  William  and  Mary,  Dr.  H.  B.  Adams,  352 
Coleman  (J.),  on  a  New  Diffusimeter,  527 
Coleoptera,  W.  Champion,  503 
Collins  (F.   Howard),   on   some   Unappareiit  Contradictions  at 

the  Foundations  of  Knowledge,  294 
Colombo  Museum,  Effects  of  Climate  on  Specimens  in,  16 
Colonies,  British,  Fruit-growing  in,  257 
Colour :  A.  H.  Church,   437  ;  Origin  of,  and  the  Constitution 

of  Colouring  Matters,  Prof.  H.    E.  Armstrong,  F.R.S.,  502; 

Perception  of,  C.  E.  Stromeyer,  79 
Colour-blindness,  Cause  of,  Prof  W.  Ramsay,  65 
Colour-hearing,  on,  Tito  Vignoli,  500 
Columbia,    Republic  of.    New  Grenada,   Geography,   History, 

and  Present  Social  Conditions  of  the,  Signor  A.  Borda,  211 
Colza  Oil,  142 
Combemale  (M.)  and  M.    Mairet    on    the  Chronic  Effects  of 

Intoxication  by  Alcohol,  528 
Combination  of  Measures  of  the  same  Magnitude,   M.  J.  Ber- 

trand  on  the,  504 
Comet  :  a  New,  424  ;  a  New  Historic  ?,  Prof  Cargill  G.  Knott, 

344;  W.  H.  S.  Monck,  393;  Olbers'  (1887),  37,  158,    285; 

Herr  Tetens,  114;  Dr.  Krueger,   233;  Dr.   Lamp,  233;  M. 

Charlois,  263  ;  Comet  a  1888  (Sawerthal),  T.  W.  Backhouse, 

536  ;  Dr.  L.  Becker,  597 
Commercial  Certificates  Examinations,  492 
Commercial  Products  Collection,  the  Forbes  Watson,  379 
Common  (A.  Ainslie,  F.R.S.),  Making  Glass  Specula  by  Hand, 

382 
Comparative  Anatomy,    Pineal   Gland  in  the  Walrus,    Sir  W. 

Turner,  239 
Comparative  Morphology  and  Biology  of  the  Fungi,  Mycetozoa, 

and  Bacteria,  A.  De  Bary,  436 
Compressibility  of  Glass  at  Different  Temperatures,  Prof.  Tait, 

527 
Composition  of  Water,  Prof.  T.    E.  Thorpe,  F.R.S.,  313;  Dr, 

Sydney  Young,  390,  417 
Computation,  the  Art  of,  for  the  Purposes  of  Science,    Sydney 

Lupton,  237,  262  ;  Prof  W.  Ramsay  and  Dr.  Sydney  Young, 

294;  E.  Erskine  Scott,  319;  George  King,  319 
Congelation  of  Ciders,  24 
Congo  :  Geology  and  Natural    History  of,   Edouard  Dupont, 

421  ;  Dr.  Schwerin's  Discovery  of  the  Mouth  of  the  River, 

65  ;  Proposed  Swedish  Colony  at  the,  65 
Congress,  International  Geological,  87 
Coniothyriiim  diplodiella,  on  the  Invasion  of,  in  18S7,  72 
Coniston  Lake,  Bernicle  Geese  on,  William  R.  Melly,  585 
Conspiracy  of  Silence,  a.  Prof.  T.  G.  Bonney,  F.R.S.,  25,  77  ; 

the   Duke  of   Argyll,    F.R.S.,    53,    246,    293;    Samutl    F. 

Clarke,  200  ;  an  Old  Pupil  of  Wy  ville  Thomson's,  200  ;  Prof. 

John  W.  Judd,  F.R.S.,  272 
Constant  P  in  Observations  of  Terrestrial  Magnetism,  on  the. 

Prof  Wm.  Harkness,  127,  272;  Arthur  W.   Riicker,  F.R.S., 

127,  272 


Nature,  lune  7,  i8i8J 


INDEX 


XI 


Consumptive  Patients,  Importance  of,  breathing  Pure  Air,  143 
Contact  Phenomena  of  Scottish  Olivine  Diabases,  by  Dr.  Ernst 

Stecher,  527 
Convergence,  on  a  General  Theorem  of,  by  J.  L.  Jensen,  504 
Cook  (John),  Class-book  of  Algebra  Examples,  102 
Cooper's  Hill,  Forestry  School  at, '529 
Copeland  (Ralph),  an  Incorrect  Foot-note  and  its  Consequences, 

343,  445  ;     Demonstratio    Eliminationis    Cramerianse,     Dr. 

Thomas  Muir,  438 
Copper  Minerals  from  Utah,  623 

Copper  Sphere,  on  the  Rotation  of  a.  Dr.  R.  C.  Shettle,  166 
Copper,  Thermal  Conductivity  of,  328 
Coral  Formations  :  Captain  W.  J.  L.   Wharton,   F.R.S.,  393; 

John  Murray,   414,   438 ;     Prof.    G.   C.  Bourne,    415,    546 ; 

Robert   Irvine,   461,    509,   605  ;  James  G.    Ross,  Dr.  H.  B. 

Guppy,  462,  604  ;   T.  Mellard  Reade,  535,  488  ;  James  G. 

Ross,  584 ;  Captain  David  Wilson-Barker,  604 
Coral  Reefs  and  Islands,  Theories  of  the  Origin  of,  T.   Mellard 

Reade,  54 
Corea,  Life  in,  W.  R.  Carles,  581 
Corin  (J.),  Actions  of  Acids  on  Taste,  308 
Correction,  a,  Prof.  J.  J.  Sylvester,  F.R.S.,  179 
Cory  (F.  W.),  the  Use  of  the  Spectroscope  as  a  Hygrometer, 

Cotes  (E.  C.)  and  Colonel  C.  Swinhoe,  Catalogue  of  the  Moths 

in  India,  H.  J.  Elv/es,  386 
Cotton  Tree  in  Russia,  595 

Couldridge  (Ward),  Chlorophosphide  of  Nitrogen,  596 
Cow-Pox  and  Vaccinal  Syphilis,  by  Dr.  C.  Creighton,  483 
Craigie  (Major),  Twenty  Years'  Changes  in  our  Foreign  Meat 

Supply,  212 
Craters,  History  of  the  Changes  in  the  Mount  Loa,  163  ;  James 

D.  Dana,  500 
Creation,  the  Method  of,  W.  H.  Dallinger,  F.R.S.,  270 
Creation,  Story  of,  Edward  Clodd,  388 
Credner  (Prof.  R.),  Reliktenseen,  496 

Creighton  (Dr.  C),  on  Cow-Pox  and  Vaccinal  Syphilis,  483 
Crepuscular  Phenomena    of    1883-84,    Prof.    Annibale  Ricco, 

118 
Crepuscular  Tints  in  Connection  with  the  Hygrometric  State  of 

the  Atmosphere,  Prof.  Costantino  Rovelli,  404 
Cretaceous,  Texas  Section  of  the  American,  47 
Crew  (Henry),   Spectroscopic  Determination  of  the   Rotation 

Period  of  the  Sun,  495 
Criminal  Anthropology,  M.  Topinard,  163 
Croft  (Chas.),  Atmospheric  Effects  at  Sunset,  273 
Crookes    (W.,    F.  R.S.):    and    the    Transformation    of    Heat 

Radiations  into  Matter,    Hugh  Gordon,  536  ;  Elements  and 

Meta-Elements,  540 
Crouch  (Archer  P.),  on  a  Surf-Bound  Coast,  or  Cable-laying  in 

the  African  Tropics,  147 
Crova  (A.),  on  the  Actinometric  Observations  at  Montpellier, 

528 
Crown  Forests  at  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope,  Management  of, 

John  Croumbie  Brown,  198 
Cruls  (M.),  on  the  Value  of  the  Solar  Parallax,  215  ;  Brazilian 

Results  from  the  Transit  of  Venus,  233 
Crustacean  Fauna  of  the  Chalk  of  Bohemia,  Prof.  Dr.  Anton 

Fritsche  and  Jos.  Kafka,  51 
Crystalline  Form  of  Polianite,  on  the,  by  E.  S.  Dana  and  S.  L. 

Penfield,  500 
Crystals  of  Pyroxene,  47 
Crystals,  Snow,  343 

Cuboni  (Prof.  G. ),  on  the  Peronospora  of  the  Grape  Vine,  525 
Culin  (Stewart),  China  in  America,  88 
Cultivation  of  Oysters,  572 
Culture,  English,  Goschen  and  Huxley  on,  337 
Gumming  (L.),  Density  and  Specific  Gravity,  584 
Currents,  Vapour,  Experiments  on.  Dr.  Robert  von  Helmholtz, 

48 
Cyanide  of  Zinc,  Action  of  the,  on  some  Chlorides,  600 
Cyclone  at  Mount  Vernon,  Illinois,  399 
Cyclone  Reports  of  the  Meteorological  Department  of  India, 

595 
Cyclones    and    Anticyclones,    Pressure   and    Temperature    in, 

Prof.  H.  A.  Hazen,  214 
Cyclones,  on  the  Movement  of  Cirri  and  their  Relation  to,  M. 

H.  Faye,  143 
Cytinaceae,  New  Genus  of  {Botryocytinus),  E,  G.  Baker,  478 


Dallinger  (Dr.  W.  H.,  F.R.S.)  :  the  Microscope  in  Theory  and 

Practice,  Prof.  S.  Schwendener  and  Prof.  Carl  Naegeli,  171  ; 

the   Creator,    and  what   we   may   know   of  the   Method   of 

Creation,  270  ;  Annual  Address  to  the  Royal  Microscopical 

Society,  448 
Dalmatia,  Earthquakes  in,  186 

Dalton's  Law,  Prof.  G.  Guglielmo  and  V.  Musina,  47 
Daly  (Mrs.  Dominic  D.),  Digging,   Squatting,   and  Pioneering 

Life  in  the  Northern  Territory  of  South  Australia,  363 
Daly's  (D.  D.)  Explorations  in  British  North  Borneo,  159 
Dammara    robusta,    Scars   occurring   on   the   Stem  of,    S.    G. 

Shattock,  119 
Dana  (E.  S.)  and  S.  L.  Penfield,  on  the  Crystalline  Form  of 

Polianite,  500 
Dana  (James),  Volcanoes  of  Hawaii,  120 
Danish  Government  and  Geographical  Research,  17 
Danish  Polar  Expedition,  Results  of  the  Cruise  of  the  Dijumphna, 

173 
Darien,  on  the  Use  of  Metals  among  the  Ancient  Inhabitants  of, 

W.  H.  Holmes,  568 
Darwen  Free  Public  Library,  350 
Darwin  (Charles),  Life  and  Letters  of,   Prof.  T.   G.  Bonney, 

F.R.S.,  73 
Darwin,  Wyville  Thom5on's  Views  on,  200 
Darwin  and  the  Beagle,  443 
Darwin's  Theory,  Duke  of  Argyll  on,  25 
Darwinism  and  the  Christian  Faith,  397 
Darwinism,   Ethical  Import  of,  Jacob  Gould  Schurman,    Prof. 

Geo.  J.  Romanes,  F.R.S.,  290 
Darwinism  in  Paris,  the  Chair  of,  256 
Daubree  (M.),  Fumat  Safety  Lamp,  528 
Davidson  (George),   Submarine  Valleys  off  the  Pacific  Coast  of 

the  United  States,  38 
Davidson  (Dr.  Thomas,  F.R.S.),  Memorial  to,  210,  397 
Davidson's  Discovery  of  Records  ;of  the  Magnetic  Declination, 

A.D.  1714,  C.  A.  Schott,  379 
Davison  (William),  appointed  to  the  Curatorship  of  the  Singa- 
pore Museum,  112 
Dawkins  (Prof.  W.  B.,  F.R.  S.),  Ailurus  anglecus,  359 
Dawson    (Dr.    George  M.),   Notes   and    Observations  on    the 

Kwakiool  People  of  Vancouver  Island,  518 
Dawson  (Sir  J.  Wm.,  F.R.S. ),  Microsauria  and  Dendrerpelon, 

393 

Day  (Dr.  Francis),  British  and  Irish  Salmonidse,  242,  296, 
321,  366 

De  Bary  (A.),  Lectures  on  Bacteria,  75  ;  Comparative  Morpho- 
logy and  Biology  of  the  Fungi,  Mycetozoa,  and  Bacteria,  436 

De  Bort,  M.  L.  Teisserenc,  on  High  Barometric  Pressures  of 
Asia,  422 

Debierre(Ch.),  L'Homme  avant  I'Histoire,  126  - 

Decaying  Wood,  Green  Colouring-Matter  of,  Henry  Robinson, 

536 
Decimal  Places,  Too  many,  J.  Rayner  Edmands,  466 
Decimal  System,  a  Practicable,  by  R.  T.  Rohde,  493 
Deep-sea  Fishes,  the  Bathymetrical  Range  of,  A.  R.  Hunt,  321 
Deer,  Rabies  among,  440 

Definition,  the,  of  Force,  and  Newton's  Third  Law,  511 
Decrees  to  Women,  Cambridge  University,  443 
Defaford,  Spawning  of  American  Char  at,  89 
Delauney's  (M.)  Astronomical  Communications,  600 
Delphini,  /3,  J.  E.  Gore,  353 
Delta  of  the  Nile,   Borings  in  the,  64 

Dendrerpeton,  Microsauria  and,  SirJ.  Wm.  Dawson,  F.R.S.,  393 
Denmark,  Remarkable  Meteorite  in,  258 
Denning  (W.   F.):. October  Meteor-Sh  jwer  of  1887,   69;   the 

Planet  Mercury,  178  ;  Meteors,  273 
Density  and  Specific  Gravity,  L.  Gumming,  584 
Denslow  (Van  Buren)  and  Jane  M.  Parker,   Thomas  [A.  Edison 

and  Samuel  F.  B.  Morse,  199 
Dependence  of  the  Colour  of  Bodies  on  the  Angle  of  Incidence 

of  the  Rays  of  Light,  W.  Rosenberg,  525 
Derby  (Earl  of),  on  Education,  34 
Derham    (Dr.),    on   the    Revenue    Method   of    estimatmg   and 

charging  the  Duty  on  Spirits,  481 
Derham's  (Dr.)  Hydrometer,  497 

Dermeperithesis,  569  ,    1.     .r 

Deslandres  (H.),  Determination  in  Wave  Lengths  of  the   Iwo 

Red  Rays  of  Potassium,  504 
Desmaux  (Emile),  Mattie's  Secret,  76 


Xll 


INDEX 


{Nature,  Jutie  "],  il 


Determination  of  Mean  Temperature,  Dr.  Miiller-Erzbach,  528 
Determination   in   Wave- Lengths  of  the    Two    Red    Rays    of 

Potassium,  by  H.  Deslandres,  504 
Deutsche  Geographische  Blatter,  38 
Deutsche  Seewarte,  Meteorological  Observations  for  1°  Squares 

of  the  North  Atlantic  Ocean,  398 
Devonian  System  in  North  America,  H.  S.  Williams,  358 
Dewar  (Profs.  Liveing  and),  the  Spectrum  of  the  Oxyhydrogen 

Flame,  383 
Diamonds,  Discovery  of,  in  a  Meteoric  Stone,  no 
Dickson  (Prof.  Alexander),  Obituary  Notice  of,  229 
Dictionary  of  Place-Names,  C.  Blackie,  151 
Diego  Garcia,  the  Atoll  of,  and  the  Coral  Formations  of  the 

Indian  Ocean,  Prof.  G.  C.  Bourne,  546 
Diet,    Influence    of,    on    the    Interchange    of    the    Gases    in 

Respiration,  408 
Dieterici   (Dr.),    on    the    Determination     of    the    Mechanical 

Equivalent  of  Heat  by  the  Indirect  Electrical  Method,  48 
Differential  Calculus,  Key  to  Todhunter's,  by  H.  St.  J.  Hunter, 

412 
Differential  Mass-Motion,  the  Effect  of,  on  the  Permeability  of 

Gas,  Prof  Tait,  527 
Diffusimeter,  J.  J.  Coleman,  on  a  New,  527 
Diju7nphna,  the  Cruise  of  the,  Zoological  and  Botanical  Results 

of  the,  173 
Dinner  Table,  Electric  Railway  for  the,  65 
Dinosaurs,  American  Jurassic,  Principal  Characters  of,  163 
Discomycetes,  British,  Manual  of,  by  William  Phillips,  340 
Diseases  of  the  Dog,  a  Treatise  on,  by  Dr,  John  Henry  Steel, 

Dr.  E.  Klein,  F.R.S.,  485 
Diseases,  Timber  and  some  of  its.  Prof.  H.  Marshall  Ward,  182, 

204,  227,  251,  275 
Dispersion  of  Seeds  and  Plants,  Dr.  Antonio  J.  Amadeo,  535 
Distribution  of  Plants,  Atlas  of  the,  362 

Dittmar  (W.),  Exercises  in  Quantitative  Chemical  Analysis,  174 
Dixon  (Dr.  A.  E.),  Benzyldithiourethane,  503 
Doberck  (Dr.  W. )  :  Cause    of  September  Typhoons  in   Hong 

Kong,  439  ;  Crepuscular  Rays  in  China,  464 
Doering  (Dr.  Oscar),  on  the  Inter-diurnal  Variability  of  Tem- 
perature  at    Places  in  the  Argentine   Republic   and    South 

America  generally,  39 
Doderlein  (Dr.  L  ),  the  Echinoidea,  Prof.  P.  Martin  Duncan, 

F.R.S.,  243 
Dog,  a  Treatise  on  Diseases  of  the,  by  Dr,  John  Henry  Steel, 

Dr.  E.  Klein,  F.R.S.,485 
Donders  (Prof.  F.  C),  Memorial  Fund,  397 
Donnezan  (Dr.),  Discovery  of  a  Fossil  Turtle,  215 
Drammen,  Earthquake  at,  595 
Draper  (Prof  J.    C.)  and  Dr.  H.  Draper,   Spectra  of  Oxygen 

and  Carbon  compared  with  that  of  the  Sun,  1 14 
Dreyer  (J.    L.    E.),    Obituary   Notice   of  Prof.    H.    C.   F.   C. 

Schjellerup,  154 
Drift-Ice  in  the  Arctic  Seas,  Dr.  Karl  Pettersen  on  the  State 

of,  16 
Drift-Ice,   Stations  for  the  Observation   of,   on    the   Coast    of 

Finland,  399 
Dublin  Science  and  Art  Museum,  186 
Dufour  (M.),  Waterspout  on  the  Lake  of  Geneva,  208 
Duhem  (P.),  on  the  Theory  of  Magnetism,  96 
Duncan  (Prof.   P.  Martin,    F.  R.  S. ),  Die  Japanischen  Seeigel, 

Dr.  L.  Doderlein,  243 
Duner  on  Stars  with  Spectra  of  Class  III.,  234,  260 
Dunsink  Observatory,  Publications  of,  353 
Dupont  (Edouard) :  and  the  Geology  and  Natural  History  of  the 

Congo,  421  ;  African  Exploration,  496 
Dupuy  (Eugene),  Antipyrine  as  Remedy  for  Sea-sickness,  96 
Duration  of  Life,  Dr.  August  Weismann,  P.  Chalmers  Mitchell, 

541 
Durham  (Herbert  E.):  Amoeboid  Corpuscles  in,   334;  Madre- 

porite  of  Cribrella  ocellata,  334 
Dust    Particles    in    the    Atmosphere,    John    Aitken,    on    the 

Number  of,  428 
Dutch  East  Indies,  Measure  of  Rainfall,  351 
Dutch  Society  of  Naturalists,  First  Congress  of  the,  15 
Duter  (E.),    on  the  Passage    of  the  Electric  Current  through 

Sulphur,  528 
Dyer  (W.  T.  Thiselton,  F.R.S.):  Politics  and  the  Presidency 

of  the  Royal  Society,    103  ;  Flora  of  the   Bahamas,    Baron 

Eggers,  565 


Dynamical  Units  and  Nomenclature,  Robert  E.  Baynes,  465 
Dynamics  and  Hydrostatics,  by  R.  H.  Pinkerton,  412 
Dynamics,    Kinematics    and.  Elementary   Treatise   on,   James 

Gordon  MacGregor,  Prof.  A.  G.  Greenhill,  361 
Dynamo  Machines,  on  the  Magnetic  Circuit  in,  by  Prof.  W.  E. 

Ayrton  and  Prof.  J.  Perry,  502 
Dynamos,  on  the  Analogies  of  Influence-Machines  and.  Prof. 

S.  P.  Thompson,  165 


Earth,  Distribution  of  Heat  over  the  Surface  of  the.  Dr. 
Zenker,  552 

Earth,  Infusorial,  T.  V.  Lister,  30 

Earth  Knowledge  :  a  Text-book  of  Elementary  Physiography, 
W.  J.  Harrison  and  H.  R.  Wakefield,  150 

Earth,  on  the  Relative  Motion  of  the,  and  Luminiferous  Ether, 
162 

Earth  Shadows,  Distorted,  in  Eclipses,  Capt.  Henry  Toynbee, 
202 

Earth  Tremors  :  Prof.  Lebour,  91  ;  and  the  Wind,  Prof.  John 
Milne,  F.R.S.,  214;  in  Central  Japan,  Prof.  Milne,  399 

Earthquakes:  at  the  Bahamas,  Robert  H.  Scott,  F.  R.S.,  54; 
G.  R.  McGregor,  54  ;  Byron  N.  Jones  and  Cornelius  S.  E. 
Lotman,  54  ;  at  Florence,  88  ;  Proposed  Commission  to 
observe  Earthquakes  in  Russia,  88  ;  at  Carinthia  and  Styria, 
113;  at  Klagenfurt,  113;  at  Bleiburg,  113;  at  Graz  and 
Saldenhofen,  113  ;  at  Cavaillon  and  St.  Saturnin-les- Avignon, 
113  ;  in  Iceland,  113  ;  the  Recent,  Th.  Thoroddsen,  201  ;  in 
England,  138,  186,  350  ;  Worthington  G.  Smith,  127  ;  H. 
George  Fordham,  151  ;  in  Scotland,  350;  C.  A.  Stevenson, 
527;  at  Bodo,  138;  in  Calabria,  138;  in  Dalmatia  and 
Algeria,  186  ;  at  Algiers,  329 ;  at  Prinpolje  and  Plewlje, 
in  Bosnia,  231  ;  at  Werny,  in  Turkistan,  231  ;  at  Geneva, 
231  ;  at  Mexico,  231  ;  Model  of  an  Earthquake,  Prof.  Sekiya, 
297  ;  Earthquakes  in  North  America,  300  ;  at  Solum,  Nor- 
way, 329 ;  Speed  of  Charleston  Earthquake,  Newcomb  and 
Dutton,  358;  Earthquake  in  Grenada  (Island),  378;  at 
Orebro,  Central  Sweden,  399  ;  Reports  on  Earthquakes  in 
Sweden,  543  ;  Earthquakes  in  the  West  Indies,  421  ;  Central 
Norway,  421  ;  in  the  Levant,  523  ;  at  Drammen,  595  ;  at 
Lintthal,  595  ;  in  North  Wales,  595  ;  at  Oldenburg,  614  ; 
Earthquake  Sounds,  Prof.  Milne,  543 

Echinoidea,  the.  Dr.  L.  Doderlein,  Prof  P.  Martin  Duncan, 
F.R.S.,  243 

Eclipse,  Aino  Idea  of  an,  36 

Eclipse,  Total,  of  the  Moon,  286,  306,  333,  495  ;  Otto  Boedicker, 
318  ;  Dr.  E.  Lindemann,  616 

Eclipse,  Total  Solar,  of  August  19,  1887,  L.  Niesten,  118; 
lapanese  Photographs,  300;  Prof.  Vogel,  311 

Eclipse,  Total  Solar,  of  October  29,  878,  Rev.  C.  S.  Taylor, 
223 

Eclipses,  Distorted  Earth  Shadows  in.  Captain  Henry  Toynbee, 
202 

Edinburgh  :  Royal  Physical  Society,  120,  284;  Royal  Society, 
214,  239,  335,  383,  454,  479,  488,  527  ;  Proceedings  of,  518  ; 
University,  Prof.  Bayley  Balfour  and  the  Chair  of  Botany, 
421 

Edison  (Thomas  A.)  and  Samuel  F.  B.  Morse,  Van  Buren 
Denslow  and  J.  M.  Parker,  199 

Edkins  (Dr.),  Local  Value  in  Chinese  Arithmetical  Notation, 

65 

Edmands  (J.  Rayner),  Too  many  Decimal  Places,  466 
Education,  Earl  of  Derby  on,  34 

Education  :  in  Australia,  566  ;  Chinese,  269  ;  in  Scotland,  349  ; 
Report  of  the  U.S.  Commission  on,  1885-86,  422  ;   Existing 
System  of  Elementary,  542  ;   Medical,  at  Oxford,  George  J. 
Wilson,  5  ;  Physical,  American  Institution  for  Advancement 
of,  186;  Practical  Education,  Chas.  G.  Leland,  562;    Educa- 
tion, Technical,  34,  186,  374 ;  Prof.  Hele  Shaw,  43  ;  Sir  John 
Lubbock,  284  ;  in  France,  329  ;  in  Manchester,  121  ;  in  Russia, 
566 ;  Bill  to  Provide  for,  in  England  and  Wales,  614;  in  the 
Colony  of  Victoria,  614 
Educational  List  and  Directory,  W.  Stephen,  16 
Egeria,  the,  Deep-Sea  Soundings  in  the  Indian  Ocean,  327 
Eggers  (Baron  H.) :  Excursion  into  the  Interior  of  San  Domingo, 
545  ;  Flora  of  the  Bahamas,  W.  T.  Thiselton  Dyer,  F.R.S., 

565 
Egyptian  Monoliths,  Supposed  Manner  of  Erection  of  the,  M. 
Arnaudeau,  65 


Nature  Jjtne  7,  i5 


INDEX 


Xlll 


Ikholm  (Dr.),  Remarkable  Auroral  Phenomenon  in  Sweden, 
186 

ilasmotherium,  the,  Albert  Gaudry,  72,  575 

lastic  Solids,  a  Treatise  on  the  Mathematical  Theory  of  Per- 
fectly, W.  J.  Ibbetson,  97 

llectricity  :  Electrical  Inertia,  8 ;  Condition  of  the  Medium 
near  a  Circuit,  8  ;  Energy  of  the  Current,  9  ;  Phenomena 
peculiar  to  a  Starting,  or  Stopping,  or  Varying  Current,  9  ; 
Voltaic  Battery,  11  ;  Thermo-electric  Pile,  11  ;  Passage  of 
Electricity  through  a  Gas,  12  ;  a  Current  regarded  as  a  Moving 
Charge,  12  ;  Modern  Views  of.  Dr.  Oliver  J.  Lodge,  F.R.S., 
8,  105,  322,  344,  366 ;  Electrical  Condition  of  the  Peak  of 
Teneriffe,  Hon.  Ralph  Abercromby,  31  ;  Electric  Balloon 
Signalling  Experiments,  34  ;  Storage  of  Electrical  Energy, 
Gaston  Plante,  Prof.  John  Perry,  F.R.S.,  50  ;  Experiments  on 
the  Transmission  of  Electrical  Energy,  382  ;  Electric  Railway 
for  the  Dinner-table,  65  ;  Loss  of  Electricity  by  Conductors  in 
Damp  Air,  Guglielmo,  88,  382 ;  Determination  of  Electrical 
Resistance  of  Tubes  of  Mercury,  Dr.  Weinstein,  167  ;  Develop- 
ment of  Feeble  Currents,  Dr.  C.  R.  Alder  Wright,  F.R.S., 
and  C.  Thompson,  213  ;  Electricity  for  Public  Schools  and 
Colleges,  W.  Larden,  217;  Electrification  of  the  Air,  C. 
Michie  Smith,  274;  Electrical  Notes,  303,  382,  570;  Im- 
possibility of  separating  Elements  of  Alloys  by  means  of 
Electric  Currents,  Prof.  Roberts- Austen,  303  ;  Prof.  J.  J. 
Thomson's  Discovery  that  Sparks  in  Tubes  dissociate  Iodine, 
Bromine,  and  Chlorine,  303 ;  on  the  Heating  of  Metallic 
Points  when  discharging  their  Electricity,  Prof.  Eugenio 
Semmola,  308  ;  Explosion  of  a  Mixture  of  Hydrogen  and  ' 
Oxygen  obtained  by  Electrolysis,  Prof.  Oettingen,  311  ; 
Electrical  Column,  331,  354,  447,  497  ;  Welding  Metal  by 
Electricity,  331  ;  Fusing  Wires  by  Currents,  331  ;  Improve- 
ments in  Platinum  Batteries,  354  ;  Sir  William  Thomson, 
Electrical  Measuring  Instruments,  355  ;  Hertz's  Experiments 
on  Influence  of  Ultra- Violet  Rays  on  Passage  of  Sparks,  355  ; 
Magnetic  Qualities  of  Metals  under  Heat,  355  ;  Treatment 
by  Electricity  of  Sewage,  355 ;  Iron  for  Lightning  Con- 
ductors, 355  ;  Electro-deposition  of  Aluminium,  355  :  Cause 
of  Emission  of  Solid  Particles  by  Platinum  under  Electric 
Current,  Dr.  A.  Berliner,  378  ;  Electric  Lamps,  Subaqueous, 

382  ;  the  Distribution  of  Electricity  for  Lighting  Purposes 
by  means  of  Secondary  Generators,  382 ;  Transition- Re- 
sistance and  Polarization  at  Platinum  Surfaces,   W.   Peddle, 

383  ;  the  Change  in  Thermo  electric  Properties  of  Tin  at  its 
Melting-point,  Albert  Campbell,  384  ;  Interference  of  Elec- 
trical Vibrations  produced  by  the  Electrical  Oscillations  dis- 
covered by  Feddersen  during  the  Spark  Discharge,  Prof. 
Oettingen,  408  ;  Electro-dynamics,  Recalculation  of  Clausius's 
Fundamental  Law  of.  Dr.  Budde,  408  ;  Electrical  Instrument- 
Making  for  Amateurs,  by  S.  R.  Bottone,  412 ;  on  the 
Optical  Demonstration  of  Electrical  Stress,  Prof.  A.  W. 
Riicker,  F.R.S.,  and  C.  V.  Boys,  407;  Electrical  Rules 
and  Tables,  Munro  and  Jamieson,  443  ;  Calibration  of  an 
Electrometer,  D.  W.  Shea,  5chd  ;  Electro-dynamometer  and 
Harmonic  Currents  of  Electricity,  T.  H.  Blakesley,  502  ; 
Researches  into  the  Oscillations  of  Electrical  Force  in 
Electrolytes,  by  A.  Sokoloff,  525  ;  Researches  on  the  In- 
fluence of  Magnetism  and  Temperature  on  Electric  Resistance 
of  Bismuth  and  its  Alloys  with  Lead  and  Tin,  Ed.  van  Aubel, 
525  ;  on  New  Determinations  of  the  Electric  Resistance  of 
Liquids,  W.  Peddie,  527  ;  Passage  of  Electric  Current  through 
Sulphur,  E.  Duter,  528 ;  Voltaic  Electricity,  T.  P.  Treglohan, 
533  ;  the  Influence  of  Rays  of  High  Refrangibility  on  Electrical 
Discharges,  570 ;  Experiments  on  Questions  of  Counter 
Electromotive  Force  of  Arc  Lamps,  Lecher,  570  ;  Experiments 
on  Wire-Temperature  under  varying  Air-Pressure,  Bottomley 
and  Cailletet,  570  ;  Measurements  of  Various  Constituents  of 
Voltaic  Cells,  570  ;  Influence  of  Magnetism  on  Electric  Resist- 
ance of  Solid  Conductors,  Dr.  Fae,  573  ;  Various  Related 
Forms  of  Electromotors,  C.  R.  A.  Wright,  F.R.S.,  and  C. 
Thompson,  573  ;  Electromotive  Properties  of  the  Electrical 
Organ  of  Torpedo  marmorata,  Francis  Gotch,  623 ;  Electro- 
motive Force  of  Magnetization,  623  ;  on  a  Regulator  of  Electric 
Light,  624 

Elements  and  Meta-Elements,  540 

lephant  Islands  of  the  Mergui  Archipelago,  Alfred  Carpenter, 
,348 

.lephant  and  Mastodon,  Were  the.  Contemporary  in  Europe  ?, 
H.  P.  Malet,  488 


Eliseeff's  (M.  A.)  Ethnological  Results  of  Journeys  in  Asia 
Minor  since  1881,  38 

Elk  shot  in  Galicia,  301 

Ellison  (Allan),  Autumnal  Migration  of  Birds  in  Ireland,  232 

Elson  (S.  R.),  the  Sailor's  Sky  Interpreter,  5 

Elwes  (H.  J.),  Catalogue  of  the  Moths  of  India,  E.  C.  Cotes, 
and  Colonel  C.  Swinhoe,  386 

Embryology,  a  Text-book  of,  by  Prof.  Oscar  Hertwig,  506 

Emin  Pasha  in  Central  Africa,  R.  W.  Felkin,  436 

Emin  (Dr.,  Pasha) :  Injuries  caused  by  Lightning  in  Africa, 
582  ;  Letter  from,  595 

Encyclopaedia,  Chambers's,  604 

Encyclopaedic  Dictionary,  Vol.  VI.,  30 

Engineering  now  and  Fifty  Years  since,  G.  B.  Bruce,  119 

England,  Foreign  Fruits  available  for  Acclimatization  in,  F.  T. 
Mott,  35 

England :  Earthquakes  in,  138,  186,  350 ;  Worthington  G. 
Smith,  127;  H.  George  Fordham,  151 

England  and  Wales,  Bill  to  provide  for  Technical  Education  in, 
614 

English  Culture,  Goschen  and  Huxley  on,  337 

Enock's  Autocopyist  Sketches  of  Insects,  187 

Ensilage,  Experiments  upon,  212 

Entomology  :  Introduction  of  the  Hessian  Fly  into  Great 
Britain,  23;  Entomological  Society,  23,  95,  191,310,431, 
503*  575  ;  ^11  Account  of  New  Zealand  Scale  Insects,  W.  M, 
Maskell,  125  ;  Enock's  Autocopyist  Sketches  of  Insects,  187  ; 
the  Post-embryonic  Development  of  jfulus  terrestris,  H.  G. 
Heathcote,  190;  Giant  Lepidopterous  Larvae  in  Australia, 
Sidney  Olliff,  232  ;  Post-Glacial  Insects,  Alfred  Bell,  232 ;  a 
Year's  Insect-Hunting  at  Gibraltar,  J.  J.  Walker,  300 ;  Un- 
timely Insect  Development,  John  Morison,  321  ;  Butterflies 
from  Central  China,  J.  H.  Leech,  503 

Eocene  Strata  in  the  Tertiary  Basins  of  England,  Belgium,  and 
North  of  France,  Prof.  Joseph  Prestwich,  F.  R.  S.,  287 

Eolipyle,  a  New,  M.  Paquelin,  504 

Equations :  Linear  Differential,  Invariants,  Covariants,  and 
Quotient  Derivatives  associated  with,  A.  R.  Forsyth,  F.R.S., 
309  ;  Immediate  Solution  of,  by  Electricity,  Felix  Lucas,  479 

Equatorial  Coude  and  Equatorials  in  general,  M.  Loewy  and  P. 
Puiseux,  504,  527 

Espin  (Rev.  T.  E.),  Probable  New  Class  of  Variable  Stars,  158 

Etard  (A.),  on  the  Decreasing  Solubility  of  the  Sulphates,  504 

Ether,  142 ;  on  the  Relative  Motion  of  the  Earth  and  Lumini- 
ferous  Ether,  162 

Ethical  Import  of  Darwinism,  Jacob  Gould,  Prof.  Geo.  J. 
Romanes,  F.R.  S.,  290 

Ethnography  :  Internationales  Archiv  fiir  Ethnographic,  398 

Ethnology  :  Results  of  M.  A.  Eliseeff"'s  Journeys  in  Asia  Minor 
since  1 88 1,  38  ;  Ethnology  of  Canary  Islands,  Dr.  Verneau, 
90  ;  Gospel  Ethnology,  S.  R.  Pattison,  •  293  ;  Ethnology  of 
the  Ainos,  Rev.  J.  Bachelor,  380 ;  Ethnological  Objects, 
Baron  von  Schwerin's  Collection,  442  ;  W.  H.  Holmes,  on 
the  Use  of  Metals  among  the  Ancient  Inhabitants  of  Darien, 
568  ;  Mound  Exploration,  Cyrus  Thomas,  615 

Ethylamine  in  Water,  Compressibility  of  the  Solution  of,  F. 
Isambert,  192 

Euclid,  the  Harpur,  E.  M.  Langley  and  W.  S.  Phillips,  271 

Europe,  Northern,  Highest  Peaks  in,  37 

Evans  (Arthur  J.),  Baltic  Amber  Coast  in  Prehistoric  Times, 
Dr.  A.  Lissauer,  531 

Evershed  (John),  the.  Chromosphere,  79 

Ewing(Prof.),  Illimitability  of  Magnetization  of  Iron,  303 

Excursions  et  Reconnaissances  of  Saigon,  16 

Explanation  Explained,  an.  Prof.  John  W.  Judd,  F.R.S.,  363 

Eye,  the  Photography  of  the  Pupil  when  in  Darkness,  Dr.  C. 
du  Bois-Reymond,  576 


Fachner  (Dr.  Gustav  Theodor),  Death  of,  III 

Fae  (Dr.),  Influence  of  Magnetism  on  Electric  Resistance  of 

Solid  Conductors,   573 
Fairy  Rings,  61  ;  J.  Sargeant,  151 
Farm,  Tenants  of  an  Old,  Henry  C.  McCook,  363 
Farmer's  Friends  and  Foes,  Theodore  Wood,  388 
Farre  (Dr.  Arthur),  Death  of,  186 
Favenc  (M.  Ernest),  and  Exploration  in  Australia,  493 
Favorsky  (A.),  Isomery,  525 
Fawcett  (W.),  the  Shadow  of  a  Mist,  224 


XIV 


INDEX 


{Nature,  June  7,  1888 


Faye  (H.)  :  M.  Colladon's  Recent  Note  on  Waterspouts  and 
Tornadoes,  120  ;  on  the  Movement  of  Cirri  and  their  Relation 
to  Cyclones,  143  ;  M.  Bertram's  Note  on  Errors  of  Observa 
tion,  166 ;  Theory  of  Accidental  Errors,  527  ;  the  Blizzard 

575 

Feeble  Cu-rents,  Development  of,  by  Physical  Action,  Dr.  C 
R.  Alder  Wright,  F.R.S.,  and  C.  Thompson,  213 

Feistmantel  (Dr.  Ottokar),  Die  Theekultur  in  Britisch-Ost 
Indien,  im  funfzigsten  jahre  ihres  Bestandes,  Historisch 
Naturwissenschaftlich,  und  Statistisch,  409 

Fern  Allies,  Hand-book  of  the,  J.  G.  Baker,  F.R.S.,  Prof.  W 
R.  McNab,  4 

Fernando  Noronha,  Island  of.  Rev.  T.  S.  Lea,  617 

Ferric  Chloride,  Vapour  Density  of,  Drs.  Griinewald  and  Victor 
Meyer,  518 

Fewkes  (J.  Walter),  a  Troublesome  Parasite  of  a  Brittle-Star- 
fish, 274 

Ffynnon  Beuno  and  Cae  Gwyn  Caves,  the :  Worthington  G. 
Smith,  7,  105,  178;  Caves,  G.  H.  Morton,  32;  Dr.  Henry 
Hicks,  F.R.S.,  129,  202  ;  A.  J.  Jukes  Browne,  224 

Fibres  and  Fibrous  Substances,  Indian,  443 

Fiji,  "Soapstone"  of,  Henry  B.  Brady,  F.R.S.,  142 

Finck  (H.  T.),  Romantic  Love  and  Personal  Beauty,  F.  T. 
Richards,  149 

Finland,  Stations  for  the  Observation  of  Drift  Ice  along  the 
Coast  of,  399 

Finnish  Archaeological  Society,  Return  of  Expedition  to  the 
Upper  Yenisei,  15 

Fire,  the  Origin  of,  E.  Tregear,  518 

Fischer  (Dr.  Emil),  Synthesis  of  Glucose,  283 

Fishes  ;  on  some  of  the  Affinities  between  Ganoidd  chondrostei 
and  other.  Dr.  Nicholas  Zograff,  70  ;  Imports  of  Frozen  Fish 
into  France,  89  ;  Fish  Culture,  89  ;  Curious  Proof  of  the 
Enduring  Capacity  of  Salmonidee  Ova,  208  ;  Fifth  Annual 
Report  of  the  Fishery  Board  for  Scotland,  132  ;  Arctic  Seal, 
and  Scottish  Fishery  Board,  399  ;  -German  Fishery  Associa- 
tion Scientific  Research  in  the  Baltic,  156  ;  M.  L.  Vaillant  on 
the  Nest  of  the  Antennarius  marmoratus,  208  ;  United 
States  Fish  Commission,  316  ;  the  Bathymetrical  Range  of 
Deep-Sea  Fishes,  A.  R.  Hunt,  321  ;  Transport  of  Fish,  Sir 
Edward  Birkbeck  on  the,  423  ;  Jousset  de  Bellesme,  444  ; 
Fish  Supply  of  Bengal,  Nidhiram  Mookerjee,  494  ;  Report  on 
Fisheries  of  New  South  Wales,  494 ;  the  Teeth  of  the 
Myxinoid,  by  Dr.  J.  Beard,  499 

Fitzgerald  (Mrs.  P.  F.),  a  Treatise  on  the  Principle  of  Sufficient 
Reason,  30 

Flamingo,  the  Nest  of  the,  E.  J.  Dunn,  465 

Flammarion  (Camille),  L' Atmosphere — Meteorologie  Populaire, 
580 

Flight  (Walter,  F.R.S.),  a  Chapter  in  the  History  of  Meteorites, 
30 

Flood,  and  the  Mammoth,  343  ;  Henry  H.  Howorth,  123,  200, 

295 
Flora  of  the  Bahamas,  W.   T.  Thiselton  Dyer,  F.R.S.,   Baron 

Eggers,  565 
Flora  of  Howth,  H.  C.  Hart,  245 
Flora  of  Matheran  and  Mahableshwar,  Catalogue  of  the,  Hon. 

H.  M.  Birdwood,  126 
Flora  of  Nova  Zembla,  Herr  Holm's  Report  of  the,  173 
Florence,  Earthquake  at,  88 
Flour  Manufacture,  F.  Kick,  316 
Flower  (Prof.  W.  H.,  F.R.S.),  the  Akkas,  a  Pygmy  Race  from 

Central  Africa,  395 
Fluids,  on  the  Expansion  of  Compressed,  E.  H.  Amagat,  167 
Fluorescences,  New,  with  well-defined  Spectral  Rays,  47 
Fluorhydric  Acid,  the  Influence  on  Tuberculosis  of,  187 
Fluorides  of  Potassium,  New,  discovered  by  M.  Moissan,  422 
Fluorine,  Isolation  of,  A.  E.  Tutton,  179 
Fluorine,  the  Physical  Nature  of,  Drs.  Wallach  and  Heusler, 

301 
Fly,  the  Hessian,  23 ;    Prof.  Lindeman  on  the,   157  ;    Charles 

Whitehead,  212 
Fog :   Observation  of,  M.  Renon,  282  ;  Extraordinary  Fog  in 

January   1888  at   Shirenewton  Hall,  Chepstow,  E.  J.  Lowe, 

F.R.S.,  294 
Fog-Bow  :  James  C.    McConnel,  487  :  and  Ulloa's  Ring,  Dr. 

H.  Mohn,  391 
Fog   Signal,    Proposed    Establishment    of  a,   near    Halland's 

Wadero  Lighthouse,  231 


Fog  and  Smoke  in  London,  Increase  of,  Sir  Douglas  Gallon, 

208 
Fogs  and  Clouds,  Constitution  of,  Prof.  F.  Palagi,  404 
Folk-Lore  :  the  Folk-Lore  Journal,  64,  351  ;  Rev.  J.  Batchelor 

on  the  Gods  of    the  Ainos,    329  ;    Jeremiah  Curtin  on  the 

Folk-Loke  of  Ireland,  473 
Food  Adulteration  and  its  Detection,  J.  P.  Battershall,  411 
Food  of  the  Japanese,  Dr.  Kellner  and  M.  Moci,  445 
Footprints,  Ancient,  in  Nicaragua,  Dr.  R.  G.  Brinton,  474 
Foote  (Dr.  A.  E.),  Gems  and  Ornamental  Stones  of  the  United 

States,  68 
Foraminifer,  a  New,  J.  Kunstler,  504 
Foraminifera,    an    "Instructive"    Bibliography   of    the,   Chas. 

Davies  Sherborn,  583 
Forbes  (H.  O.)  :  Letters  from,  in  ;  and  Exploration   of  New 

Guinea,  421 
Forbes- Watson  Commercial  Products  Collection,  the,  379 
Forcrand  (M.  de)  and  M.  Villard,  on  the  Hydrate  of  Sulphur- 
ated Hydrogen,  528 
Force  :  the  Definition  of  Force,  and  Newton's  Third  Law,  511  ; 

Dr.  Oliver  J.  Lodge,  F.R.S.,  558 
Fordham  (H.  George),  the  Supposed  Earthquake  in  England, 

151 

Forel  (Prof.  F,  A.)  :  Experiments  on  Penetration  of  Light  into 
Water,  88 ;  Photographic  Experiments  on  Penetration  of 
Light  in  Lake  of  Geneva,  575 

Forestry  :  Forest  Meteorological  Observations  of  Germany, 
113;  Destruction  of  Forests  in  Norway,  352;  Forests  of 
Austria,  543  ;  Management  of  Crown  Forests  at  the  Cape  of 
Good  Hope,  J.  Croumbie  Brown,  198  ;  Forestry  School  for 
England,  327  ;  at  Cooper's  Hill,  529  ;  Forestry  in  the  Cape 
Colony,  598 

Forms  of  Clouds,  the  Hon.  Ralph  Abercromby,  129 

Forster  (W.  G.),  Seismology,  523 

Forsyth  (A.  R.,  F.R.S.) :  Invariants,  Covariants,  and  Quotient 
Derivatives  associated  with  Linear  Differential  Equations, 
309  ;  a  Class  of  Functional  Invariants,  550 

Forth,  Firth  of,  as  a  Nursery  for  Fish,  133 

Fossil  Mammalia  in  the  British  Museum,  Catalogue  of,  Richard 
Lydekker,  461 

Fossil  Pterodactyl  Skull  found  in  the  Yorkshire  Lias,  598 

Fossil  Turtle,  Discovery  of  a,  by  Dr.  Donnezan,  215 

Foster  (Prof.  M.,  F.R.S.),  Obituary  Notice  of  Rev.  Coutts 
Trotter,  153 

Foundations  of  Knowledge,  on  some  Unapparent  Contradictions 
at  the,  F.  Howard  Collins,  294 

Fowler  (G.  Herbert),  Prof.  A.  Weismann's  Theory  of  Polar 
Bodies,  134 

Fowler  (Dr.  G.  H.),  the  Anatomy  of  the  Madreporia,  572 

Fowler  (W.  Warde),  Migration  of  Swallows  along  the  Southern 
Coast,  6 

Fox  (Howard),  Gneissic  Rocks  off  the  Lizard,  526 

France :  Rewards  for  killing  Wolves  in,  65  ;  Astronomical 
Society  of,  66  ;  Imports  of  Frozen  Fish  into,  89  ;  Increase  of 
Oyster  Cultivation  in,  139  ;  a  New  Magnetic  Survey  of,  275  ; 
Prof.  T.  E.  Thorpe,  F.  R.  S. ,  247  ;  Technical  Education  in, 
329  ;  French  Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science, 
378  ;  Meeting  at  Oran,  542  ;  French  Meteorological  Society, 
568  ;  Missions  approved  by  French  Ministry  of  Public  In- 
struction, 614  ;  Exact  Superficial  Area  of  France  calculated  by 
the  Planimetric  Method,  624 

Franke  (Dr.  B. ),  on  the  Preparation  and  Constitution  of  the 
Hydrates  of  Manganic  Oxide  and  Peroxide,  209 

Fresnel's    Wave    Surface,   on   the  most   General    Equations 
Double  Refraction  Compatible  with,  Maurice  Levy,  143 

Friedel  and  Crafts,  and  New  Naphthalene  Derivatives,  156 

Fries  Dr.  Robert),  on  the  Fungus-Flora  of  Sweden,  445 

Fritsch  (Prof.  Dr.  Anton) :  and  Jos.  Kafka,  Die  Crastaceen 
der  Bohmischen  Kreideformation,  51  ;  Fauna  der  Gaskohle 
und  der  Kalksteine  der  Permformation  Bohmens,  244 

Frogs,  Weasel  {Mustela  vulgaris)  seen  destroying  Frogs,  208  ; 
M.  S.  Pembrey,  321 

Frost,  Experiments  on  the  Resistance   of  Materials  to,   Hei 
Bliimcke,  209 

Froude  (the  late  William),  on  the  Soaring  of  Birds,  527 

Fruit,  Capabilities  of  our  Colonies  to  grow  and  export,  F. 
Mott,   35  ;  Fruits,  Foreign,   available  for  Acclimatization 
England,  257 

Fry  (Right  Hon.  Lord  Justice  Edward,  F.R.S.),  463 


ie 


Nature,  Jttne  7,  iJ 


INDEX 


XY 


Fumat  Safety  Lamp,  M.  Daubree,  528 

Functional  Invariants,  a  Class  of,  A.  R.  Forsyth,  F.R.S.,  550 

Fungi,  Mycetozoa,  and  Bacteria,  Comparative  Morphology  and 

Biology  of  the,  A.  De  Bary,  436 
Fungus-Flora  of  Sweden,  Dr.  Robert  Fries,  445 
Fusel    Oil,  New  Instrument,   Stalagmometer,   for  determining 

the  Amount  of,  in  Spirituous  Liquors,  Herr  Traube,  209 


Gad  (Prof.),  the  Chewing  Movements  in  Rats,  576  ;  Sawyer's 
Experiments  as  to  Existence  and  Separation  of  Irritability  and 
Conducting  Power  in  Nerves,  576 

Galicia,  Elk  shot  in,  301 

Gallaudet  (Thos.  Hopkins),  Meeting  at  Philadelphia  to  celebrate 
Centenary  of,  232 

Galton  (Francis,  F.  R.S. ),  Lectures  on  Heredity  and  Nurture  at 
South  Kensington  Museum,  112 

Galvanometer,  Reflecting,  G.  L.  Addenbrooke,  502 

Gamble  (J.  G.),  Rainfall  on  and  around  Table  Mountain,  143 

Ganglion-Cells,  the  Structure  of.  Dr.  Benda,  576 

Ganoidei  chondrostei,  on  some  of  the  Affinities  between,  and 
other  Fishes,  Dr.  Nicholas  Zograff,  70 

Garden  Plants,  List  of  New,  595 

Garrett  (Andrew),  Death  of,  282 

Garrigou- Lagrange  (M.),  Apparatus  for  registering  the  Ascend- 
ing and  Descending  Air  Currents,  18 

Gas  Analysis,  Short  Treatise  on,  W.  Dittmar,  174 

Gas-Burners,  Siemens's,  136 

Gas-Thermometer,  a  New,  M.  L.  Cailletet,  600 

Gases,  Interchange  of,  in  Respiration,  Influence  of  Diet  on,  408 

Gases,  New  Method  for  Measurement  of  Magnetism  of,  Prof. 
Topler,  576 

Gases,  on  the  Part  played  by  the  Stomata  in  the  Inspiration 
and  Expiration  of,  72 

Gases,  Specific  Heat  of.  Dr.  Pringsheim,  216 

Gasteropods  :  Aplysia  type,  A.  depilans  and  A.fasciata,  on  the 
Nervous  System  of  the,  120 ;  Classification  of  the,  by  H. 
de  Lacaze-Duthiers,  504 

Gattermann  (Dr.) :  Researches  as  to  the  Nature  of  Chloride  of 
Nitrogen,  350  ;  and  Trichloride  of  Nitrogen,  494 

Gaudry  (Albert),  on  the  Elasmotherium,  73,  575 

Geese,  Bernicle,  on  Coniston  I-ake,  William  R.  Melly,  585 

Geikie  (Dr.  Archibald,  F.R.S.),  the  Age  of  the  Altered  Lime- 
stone of  Strath,  Skye,  191 

Gelatinous  State,  on  the,  of  Albuminoid  Bodies,  W.  Mikhailoff, 
525 

Gems  and  Ornamental  Stones  of  the  U.S.,  Dr.  A.  E.  Foote, 
68 

Gems  and  Vitrifications  Phosphoi'escent,  on  an  Ancient  Process 
for  Rendering,  M.  Berthelot,  407 

Geneva,  Earthquake  in,  231 

Geneva,  Lake  of.  Waterspout  on  the,  M.  Dufour,  208 

Geography  :  Decision  of  the  Danish  Government  upon  Hydro- 
graphically  measuring  and  charting  Guldborg  Sound,  the  New 
Harbour  at  Odense,  and  the  Randers  and  Manager  Fjords 
in  Jutland,  Proposed  Expedition  to  Iceland,  17;  Signor  E. 
Modigliani  on  Nias,  17  ;  Geographical  Notes,  17,  37,  66,  89, 
IIS,  158,  2X1,  285,  302,  330,  381,  447,  496,  545,  570,  597, 
617;  Scottish  Geographical  Magazine,  37;  Highest  Peaks 
in  Northern  Europe,  37  ;  Mittheilungen  of  the  Vienna 
Geographical  Society,  37  ;  Bulletin  of  the  American  Geo- 
graphical Society,  37  ;  Account  of  R.  E.  Peary's  Journey  into 
the  Interior  of  Greenland,  37  ;  Deutsche  Geographische  Blatter, 
38  ;  Proposed  Research  in  Icelandic  Waters,  38  ;  Exploration 
in  New  Guinea,  38  ;  Submarine  Valleys  of  the  Pacific  Coast 
of  the  U.S.,  38;  Latest  Communication  from  H.  M. 
Stanley,  38  ;  Izvestia  of  the  Russian  Geographical  Society, 
38  ;  Result  of  General  Przewalski's  Fourth  Journey  in  Central 
Asia,  38  ;  Ethnological  Results  of  M.  A.  Eliseeff  s  Journeys 
in  Asia  Minor  since  1881,  38  ;  Ascent  ©f  Owen  Stanley  Range 
of  New  Guinea,  by  E.  H.  Martin,  66  ;  Return  of  Herr  Krause 
from  his  Journey  from  Salaga  through  Dahomey,  66 ;  J. 
McCarthy  on  Siam,  66  ;  Return  of  MM.  Bunge  and  Toll,  67  ; 
Geographical  Section  at  Brussels,  International  Exhibition, 
Proposed,  90 ;  Examination  of  Existing  Charts  of  Ocean 
Currents  Contiguous  to  the  Coast  of  California,  115  ;  Montagu 
Kerr's  Attempt  to  cross  Africa  by  a  New  Route,  115  ;  A.  D. 
Carey's  Journey  across  and  around  Turkistan,  115  ;  Medals 
awarded  by  the  Paris  Geographical  Society,  211  ;  News  from 


Herr  Gottlob  Adolf  Krause,  211  ;  Geography,  History,  and 
Social  Conditions  of  the  Republic  of  Columbia,  New  Grenada, 
Signor  A.  Borda,  211  ;  Rio  Doce  and  its  Northern  Tributaries, 
Brazil,  W.  J.  Steains,  285  ;  Dr.  Meyer's  Ascent  of  Kiliman' 
jaro,  285  ;  Petermann's  Mitteilungen,  286  ;  Scottish  Geo- 
graphical Society,  286 ;  Height  of  the  Land  and  Depth  of 
the  Ocean,  John  Murray,  286 ;  M.  Chaffanjon's  Journey  up 
the  Orinoco,  286 ;  Physical  Geography  of  the  Sea,  Hon. 
Ralph  Abercromby,  315  ;  Return  of  M.  Thouar,  354  ;  Ascent 
of  a  Glacier  on  Mummy  Mountain,  Northern  Colorado,  F.  H. 
Chapin,  354 ;  Dr.  H.  Meyer's  Ascent  of  Mount  Kilimanjaro, 
354 ;  Australasian  Geographical  Society,  354 ;  Height  of 
Mount  Obree,  354 ;  Vertical  Section  of  the  Angara  at  its  Issue 
from  Lake  Baikal,  354  ;  Changes  of  Level  in  African  Lakes, 
Dr.  Robert  Sieger,  354  ;  History  of  the  Ocean,  Prof.  Euard 
Siiss,  354  ;  J.  F.  Needham  engaged  to  conduct  an  Expedition 
to  Hukeng  Valley,  354 ;  Exploration  of  the  Sierra  Nevada  of 
Santa  Marta,  Dr.  W.  Sievers,  354  ;  Dr.  ZintgrafTs  Start  for 
Rio  del  Rey,  354  ;  Practical  Geography  for  Schools,  Alfred 
Hughes,  412 ;  African  Exploration,  Edouard  Dupont,  496  ; 
Baron  Egger's  Excursions  into  the  Interior  of  San  Domingo, 
545  ;  Recent  Journeys  along  the  Coast  of  Greenland,  546 ; 
Solomon  Islands,  C.  N,  Woodford,  546  ;  Death  of  Nicolas  von 
Miklucho-Maclay,  597  ;  Death  of  Herr  Anton  Stecker,  597  ; 
Founder's  Medal  of  the  Royal  Geographical  Society  awarded 
to  Clements  R.  Markham,  C.B.,  F.R.S.,  617;  Royal  Medal 
awarded  to  Lieut.  Wissmann,  617;  Island  of  Fernando 
Noronha,  Rev.  T.  S.  Lea,  617  ;  Basuto  Land,  Sir  Marshall 
Clarke,  617 

Geology :  the  Ffynnon  Beuno  and  Cae"  Gwyn  Caves,  Wor- 
thington  G.  Smith,  7,  105,  178  ;  G.  H.  Morton,  32;  Dr. 
Henry  Hicks,  F.R.S.,  129,  202;  Prof,  T.  McKenny  Hughes, 
166 ;  A.  J.  Jukes  Browne,  224 ;  the  Work  of  the  Inter- 
national Congress  of  Geologists,  G.  K.  Gilbert,  19,  40 ; 
Geologists'  Association,  71  ;  Fifty  Years'  Progress  in  British, 
71  ;  International  Geological  Congress,  87 ;  Canadian  Geo- 
logical Survey,  87  ;  a  Sketch  of  Geological  History,  being 
the  Natural  History  of  the  Earth  and  its  Pre-Human 
Inhabitants,  Edward  Hull,  F.R.S.,  103;  Note  on  the  so- 
called  "Soapstone"  of  Fiji,  Henry  B.  Brady,  F.R.S.,  142: 
Notes  on  a  Part  of  the  Huronian  Series  in  the  Neighbourhood 
of  Sudbury  (Canada),  Prof.  T.  G.  Bonney,  F.R.S.,  143; 
Geological  Society,  142,  166,  191,  287,  335,  359,  431,  526, 
574 ;  Medals  and  Funds,  327 ;  Annual  Meeting  of,  478 ; 
Post-Glacial  Time,  T,  Mellard  Reade,  478  ;  the  Age  of  the 
Altered  Limestone  of  Strath,  Skye,  Dr.  Archibald  Geikie, 
F.R.S.,  191  ;  Eocene  Strata  in  the  Tertiary  Basins  of  Eng- 
land, Belgium,  and  North  of  France,  Prof.  Joseph  Prestwich, 
F.R.S.,  287  ;  Devonian  System  in  North  America,  H.  S. 
Williams,  358  ;  Primordial  Fauna  in  France,  First  Discovery 
of  Trilobites  of,  Jules  Bergeron,  360 ;  Retirement  of  Prof. 
Prestwich  from  the  Chair  of  Geology  at  Oxford,  397  ;  the 
Relations  between  Geology  and  the  Biological  Sciences,  Prof. 
John  W.  Judd,  F.R.S.,  401,  424;  Tertiary  Formations  near 
Cape  La  Mortola  in  Liguria,  North  Italy,  Prof.  T.  Taramelli, 
404  ;  Griesbach  on  Geology  in  Afghanistan,  421  ;  Geology  of 
Congo  Coast  and  Kassai,  Edouard  Dupont,  421  ;  Geological 
Record  for  1879,  422  ;  Mr.  Warren  Upham  on  Lake  Agassiz, 
473  ;  Were  the  Elephant  and  Mastodon  Contemporary  in 
Europe?,  Henry  H.  Howorth,  M.P.,  480;  on  Chemical, 
Physical,  and  Stratigraphical,  Prof.  Prestwich,  F.R.S.,  482; 
the  Movements  of  Scree  Material,  Cecil  Carus- Wilson,  488  ; 
Geological  Chart  of  the  River  Surinam,  552 :  a  Manual  of  the 
Geology  of  India,  F.  R.  Mallet,  556;  Geologyof  the  Taconic 
Area,  623 

Geometry  :  Geometric  Form  of  the  Effects  of  Radiation  in  the 
Diurnal  Motion  of  the  Stars,  M.  Gruey,  72  ;  Solutions  to 
Problems  contained  in  a  Treatise  on  Plane  Co-ordinate 
Geometry,  L  Todhunter,  F.R.S.,  75;  Greek  Geometry,  78; 
Geometrical  Method  of  determining  the  Conditions  of 
Maximum  Efficiency  in  the  Transmission  of  Power  by  Alter- 
nating Currents,  T.  H.  Blakesley,  1 19  ;  a  Primary  Geometry, 
S.  E.  Warren,  317;  on  the  Division  of  the  Sum  of  a 
Geometrical  Series  whose  First  Term  is  Unity  and  Common 
Ratio  any  Positive  or  Negative  Integer,  Prof.  J.  J.  Sylvester, 
F.R.S.,  417  ;  Geometry  in  Space,  603 

German  Fishery  Association  Scientific  Research  in  the  Baltic, 
156 

German  Geographical  Society,  186 


XVI 


INDEX 


[Nature,  June  T ,  li 


German  Society  of  Analytical  Chemists,  i86 
German  Universities,  Number  of  Students  at  the,  352 
Germany,  Forest  Meteorological  Observations  of,  113 
Gilbert  (G.  K.),  the  Work  of  the  International  Congress  of 

Geologists,  19,  40 
Girard  (Jules),  Probable  Temperature  of  Pole,  91 
Glaciers  :  en  the  Internal  Temperature  of,  72  ;  of  the  Caucasus, 

89;  Greenland  Glaciers,  Prof.  Joseph  Prestwich,  F.  R.  S.,  200 
Glasgow,  Mitchell  Library,  596 
Glass  Specula,  Making,  by  Hand,  A,  Ainslie  Common,  F.R.S., 

382 
Globus,  Change  in  the  Editorship  of,  232 
Glucose,  Synthesis  of,  A.  E.  Tutton,  7  :  Drs.  Emil  Fischer  and 

Tafel,  283 
Gluteal  Region,  Dr.  Virchow,  480 
Glycerine,  Bacillus  butylictis  and,  48 
Gneissic  Rocks  off  the  Lizard,  by  Howard  Fox,  526 
Gobi,  East,  and  East  Tibet,  M.  Potanin's  Journeys  in,  141 
Godwin  (George,  F.R.S.),  Death  of,  327 
Gold  Armlet  with  Runic  Inscription  discovered  on  the  Island  of 

Fredoen,  283 
Gold,  a  New  Chloride  of.  Prof.  Julius  Thomsen,  398 
Gold,  Sulphides  of,  34 
Goldschneider  (Dr.  ),Carbonic  Acid  Gas  and  Rise  of  Temperature, 

144 
Golf,  Toeing  and  Heeling  at,  T.  Mellard  Reade,  31 
Goodwin  (W.  L.),  Music  in  Nature,  151 
Gordon  (Hugh),  Mr.  Crookes  and  the  Transformation  of  Heat 

Radiations  into  Matter,  536 
Gore  (J.  E.),  )3  Delphini,  353 

Gore's  Railway,  Prof.  Oliver  J.  Lodge,  F.  R.  S.,  128 
Gorgeu  (Alex.),  Action  of  Washing  on  Several  Oxides  and  Salts 

of  Manganese,  504 
Goschen  and  Huxley  on  English  Culture,  337 
Gospel  Ethnology,  S.  R.  Pattison,  293 
Gotch    (Francis),   Electromotive    Properties  of  the   Electrical 

Organ  of  Torpedo  marmorata,  623 
Gottenburg,  Chemical  Society  of,  327 
Govi  (G.),  Newton's  Chromatic  Circle',  24 
Goyen  (P.),  Higher  Arithmetic  and  Mensuration,  232 
Graber   (Dr.    Vitus),    Leitfaden   der   Zoologie   fiir   die   oberen 

Classen  der  Mittelschulen,  604 
Gravity,  Specific,  Density  and,  L.  Gumming,  584 
Gray  (Dr.  Asa) :  Illness  of,  155  ;  Death  of,  327  ;  Obituary  Notice 

ofj  375  J  by  James  D.  Dana,  472  ;  Last  Publicly-spoken  Words 

of,  594 
Graz  and  Saldenhofen,  Earthquake  at,  113 
Greek  Geometry,  78 
Green  Colouring-matter  of  Decaying  Wood,  Henry  Robinson, 

536 
Greenhill  (Prof.  A.  G.) :  the  Mechanics  of  Machinery,  Alex. 

B.   W.  Kennedy,   195  ;  Elementary  Treatise  on  Kinematics 

and  Dynamics,  by  James  Gordon  MacGregor,  361 
Greenland :    R.    E.    Peary's  Account   of   his  Journey  into  the 

Interior  of,  37 ;  Dr.  Fridtjof  Nansen's  Proposal  to  cross  the 

Interior  of,    on    "Ski,"    138;    Dr.    F.    Nansen's   Proposed 

Journey  across,  423  ;   Recent  Journeys  along  the  Coast   of, 

546 
Greenland  Glaciers,  Prof.  Joseph  Prestwich,  F.R.S.,  200 
Greenwich,  Mean  Temperature  of  the  Air  at,  214 
Grenada  Island,  Earthquake  in,  378 
Gresham  Lectures,  257 
Griesbach  (M.),  and  Afghanistan,  421 
Griffiths  (Dr.  A.  B.),  Researches  on  the  Problematical  Organs 

of  the  Invertebrata,  518 
Grossmann  (Dr.),  Meteorologische  Divisionstafein,  18 
Ground- Movements,  Plantamour's  Observations  of,  258 
Grove  (Right  Hon.  Sir  William  R.,  F.R.S.),  Antagonism,  617 
Grubb  (Sir  Howard,  F.R.S.),  a  Photographic  Objective,  439 
Griinewald  (Dr. )  and  Dr.  Victor  Meyer,  on  Vapour  Density  of 

Ferric  Chloride,  518  ^ 

Guglielmo  (Prof.  G.) :  Loss  of  Electricity  by  Conductor  in  Damp 

Air,  88  ;  on  the  Loss  of  Electricity  through  Moist  Air  round 

Aerial  Wire,  382 
Guglielmo  (Prof.  G.)  and  V.  Musina,  on  the  Pressure  of  Mix- 
tures of  Gases  and  Vapours,  and  on  Dalton's  Law,  47 
Gulf  Stream,  Remarks  on  the,  72 
Gumlich  (Dr.),  on  Newton's  Rings,  528 
Gunnery,  Text-book  of,  1887,  Major  G.  Mackinlay,  148 


Guppy  (Dr.  H.  B.) :  Volcanic  and  Coral  Islands  of  the  Solomon 
Group,  98 ;  the  Solomon  Islands  and  their  Natives,  196  ; 
Christmas  Island,  222 ;  an  Explanation,  342 ;  Coral  Forma- 
tions, 461,  604 

Gurney  (Henry  Palin)  :  the  New  Army  Regulations,  365  ; 
Natural  Science  and  Woolwich  Examinations,  415 


Haast  (Sir  Julius  von,  F.R.S.),  Obituary  Notice  of,  87 

Hadfield  (Mr.),  on  Manganese  Steel,  497 

Hail,  Is  it  so  formed  ?  Cecil  Carus- Wilson,  295,   365  ;  Dr.  J. 

Rae,  F.R.S.,  344 
Hall  (Dr.  Marshall)  Fund,  Awards,  594 
Hand,  Making  Glass  Specula  by,  A.  Ainslie  Common,  F.R.S., 

382 
Hann  (Dr.  J.),  Atmospheric  Pressure,  231 
Harding  (Chas. ),  Threatened  Scarcity  of  Water,  375 
Harkness  (Prof.  Wm.),  on  the  Constant  P  in  Observations  of 

Terrestrial  Magnetism,  127,  272 
Harpur  Euclid,  the,  E.  M.  Langley  and  W.  S.  Phillips,  271 
Harrison  (W.    J.)   and   H.   R.   Wakefield,   Earth  Knowledge, 

a  Text-book  of  Elementary  Physiography,  150 
Hart  (H.  C),  the  Flora  of  Howth,  245 
Hartley  (Prof.  W.  N.,  F.R.S.):  Course  of  Quantitative  Analysis 

for  Students,  271  ;    Experimental  Researches   on    Hydraulic 

Cements,  M.  H.  Le  Chatelier,  554 
Harvard  College  Observatory,  596 
Harvie-Brown  (J.  A.)  and   T.    E.   Buckley,   Vertebrate  Fauna 

of  Sutherland,  Caithness,  and  West  Cromarty,  292 
Hatch  (F.  H.),  Rosenbusch's  Petrography,  458 
Hawaii,  Volcanoes  of,  James  Dana,  120 
Hawaii  Craters,  History  of  Changes  in,  J.  D.  Dana,  358 
Haycraft  (Prof.),  the  Objective  Cause  of  Sensation,  518 
Haycraft  (Prof.)  and  Dr.  Carlier,  on  Morphological  Changes  in 

the  Blood  during  Coagulation,  527 
Hayden  (Prof.  F.  V.) :   Death  of,  282  ;  Obituary  Notice  of,  325 
Hayward  (Robert  B.,  F. R.S.),  the  Micromillimetre,  437 
Hazen  (Prof.  H.  Allen),  Relation  between  Wind- Velocity  and 

Pressure,  39,  47  ;  Pressure  and  Temperature  in  Cyclones  and 

Anticyclones,  214 
Heart,  Mammalian,  Prof.  Martin's  Method  of  isolating  the,  215 
Heat :  Light  and.  Rev.  F.  W.  Aveling,  176  ;  Sound,  Light,  and, 

Mark  R.  Wright,  199  ;  on  the  Determination  of  the  Mechanical 

Equivalent  of  Heat,  by  the  Indirect  Electrical  Method,  48  ; 

Mechanical  Equivalent  of  Heat,  Alfred  Lodge,  320,  364  ;  Heat 

Radiations,  Crookes  and  Transformation  of,  into  Matter,  Hugh 

Gordon,  536  ;  Distribution  of  Heat  over  the  Surface  of  the 

Earth,  Dr.  Zenker,  552  ;  New  Method  of  measuring  Heat  of 

Evaporation  of  Liquefied  Gases,  624 
Heathcote  (H.  G.),  the  Post-Embryonic  Development  oi  Julus 

terreitris,  190 
Heavenly  Bodies,  Suggestions  on  the  Classification  of  the  Various 

Species  of,  J.  Norman  Lockyer,  F.  R.  S.,  585,  606 
Hector   (Sir  James),    on  the  Auriferous  Deposit    lately  found 

West  of  Te  Aroha,  16 
Hedgehog,  Blastodermic  Vesicle  of  the,  552 
Heeling  and  Toeing  at  Golf,  T.  Mellard  Reade,  31 
Heer  (Prof  Oswald),  Monument  to,  89 
Height  of  T'ai  Shan,  Prof.  Silvanus  P.  Thompson,  224 
Height  and  Volume  of  the  Dry  Land  and  the  Depth  and  Volume 

of  the  Ocean,  John  Murray,  239,  286 
Hellmann  (Dr.):  Rainfall  of  Spain,   312;  Meteorology  of  the 

Iberian  Peninsula,  312  ;  Snow-fall  of  the  Past  Winter,  552 
Helmholtz  (Dr.  Robert  von) :  Experiments  on  Vapour  Currents, 

48  ;  Humidity  of  the  Air,  215  ;  a  Note  on  Valency,  especially 

as  defined  by  Helmholtz,  Prof.  Henry  E.  Armstrong,  F.R.  S., 

303 
Henry  (Louis),  Volatility  of  the  Carbon  Compounds,  525 
Herdman  (Prof.  W.  A.),  the  Reproductive  Organs  of  Alcyoni- 

dium  gelatine  sum,  213 
Herries  (R.  S.),  Bagshot  Beds,  104 

Herring,  Expected  Rush  of,  under  the  West  Coast  of  Norway,  64 
Hertfordshire,  a  Flora  of,  187 

Hertwig  (Prof.  Oscar),  a  Text-book  of  Embryology,  506 
Hertz's  Experiments  on  Influence  of  Ultra- Violet  Rays  on  Pas- 
sage of  Sparks,  355 
Hesehus  (N.),  on  the  Measuring  of  Specific  Heat,  525 
Hessian  Fly :  Period  of  Introduction  of,  into  Great  Britain,  23  ; 

Prof.  Lindeman  on  the,  157  ;  Charles  Whitehead,  212 


Nature,  June  T,  i8S8] 


INDEX 


XVll 


Heusler  jnd  Wallach  (Drs.)i  the  Physical  Nature  of  Fluorine, 

301 
Hicks  (Dr.  Henry,    F.R.S.),  Ffynnon  Beuno  and  Cae  Gwyn 

Caves,  129,  202 
Hickson  (Dr,  Sydney),  the  Sexual   Reproduction  of  Millepora 

plica/ O)  164 
Highcleie  Bagshots,  the,  Rev.  A.  Irving,  128 
Hip-Region,  Dr.  Virchow  on  the,  480 
Hirondtlle,  Scientific  Voyage  of  the,  24 
Historic  Comet,  a  New,  W.  H.  S.  Monck,  393 
Hittites,  with  Special  Reference  to  Very  Recent  Discoveries, 

Thon-as  Tyler,  511,  536,  559,  590,  609 
Hoar  Frost,  Formation  of,  John  Aitken,  138 
Hoft"  (J.  H.  Van  't),  Dix  Annees  dans  I'Histoire  d'une  Theorie, 

Prof  F.  R.  Japp,  F.R.S.,  121 
Hofmanr  (Prof.),  his  Seventieth  Birthday,  566 
Holder  iC.   F.),  Living  Lights,  a  Popular  Account  of  Phos- 
phorescent Animals  and  Vegetables,  411 
Holm's  Report  of  the  Flora  of  Nova  Zembla,  173 
Holmes  (R.  F.),  Explorations  of  Labrador,  381 
Holmes  (W.  H.),  on  the  Use  of  Metals  among  the  Ancient 

Inhabitants  of  Darien,  568 
Holub's  (Dr.  E. )  Proposed  South  African  Exhibition,  566 
Home  Experiments  in  Science,  T.  O'Conor  Sloane,  556 
Homoeopathy,  Discussions  regarding,  289 

Hooper  (David),  the  Mineral  Concretion  of  the  Teak  Tree,  523 
Hopkinson  (J.,  F.R.S.),  Specific  Inductive  Capacity,  142 
Horns  of  the  Red  Deer  found  in  the  Duddon  Estuary,  543 
Horticultural  Society,  145,  550 
Horticulture  :  the  Royal  Horticultural  Society,  Dr.  Maxwell  T. 

Masters,  F.R.S.,  176 
Howes  (Prof.    G.   B.)  and  W.  Ridewood,  on  the  Carpus  and 

Tarsus  of  the  Anura,  503 
Howorth  (Henry  11.),  the  Mammoth  and  the  Flood,   123,  200, 

295 
Howth,  the  Flora  of,  H.  C.  Hart,  245 
Huggins  (Dr.  W.,  F.R.S.),  Photography  in  the  Determination 

of  the  Motions  of  Stars  in  the  Line  of  Sight,  616 
Hughes  (Alfred),  Geography  for  Schools,  412 
Hughes  (Prof.  T.  McKenny),  on  the  Cae  Gwyn  Cave,  1 66 
Hughes's  Induction  Balance,  Dr.  Oliver  J.  Lodge,  F.R.S.,  6 
Hukeng  Valley,  J.  F.  Needham  engaged  to  conduct  an  Expe- 
dition to,  354 
Hull  (Edward,  F.R.S.),  a  Sketch  of  Geological  History — being 

the  Natural    History   of  the   Earth,  and  of  its   Pre-Human 

Inhabitants,  103 
Humidity  of  the  Air,  Experiments  on.  Dr.  Assmann,  215  ;  Dr. 

Robert  von  Helmholtz,  215 
Humpidge  (Prof),  Death  of,  155 
Hunt  (A.  R.),  Raised  Beaches  z/^;-i-z«  High- Level  Beaches,  275  ; 

the  Bathymetrical  Range  of  Deep-Sea  Fishes,  321 
Hunt  (Robert,  F.R.S.),  Obituary  Notice  of,  14 
Hunter  (IL  St.  J.),  Key  to  Todhunter's  Differential  Calculus, 

412 
Huronian  Group,  is  there  a?,  R.  D.  Irving,  47,  163 
Huronian  Series  in  the  Neighbourhood  of  Sudbury  (Canada), 

Notes  on  a  Part  of  the,  Prof  T.  G.  Bonney,  F.R.S.,  143 
Hutchins  (C.  C.) :  John  Trowbridge  and.  Oxygen  in  the  Sun, 

47  ;  New  Instrument  for  Measurement  of  Radiation,  358 
Hutchins  (D.  E.),  Vegetation  and  Moonlight,  275 
Huxley  (Prof.  T.  H.,  F.R.S.):  the  Duke  of  Argyll's   Charges 

against   Men  of  Science,  342 ;  a  Course  of  Elementary  In- 
struction in  Practical  Biology,  505 
Huxley  and  Goschen  on  English  Culture,  337 
Huxley  and  Martin's  Practical  Biology,  187 
Hydrate  of  Sulphurated  Hydrogen,  on  the,  by  MM.  de  Forcrand 

and  Villard,  528 
Hydrates  of  Manganic  Oxide  and  Peroxide,  on  the  Preparation 

and  Constitution  of  the.  Dr.  B.  Franke,  209 
Hydraulic   Cements,   Experimental  Researches  on,  M.   H.   Le 

Chatelier,  Prof  W.  N.  Hartley,  F.R.S.,  554 
Hydrocarbons  and  their  Derivatives,  Sir  H.  E.  Roscoe,  F.R.S., 

and  C.  Schorlemmer,  F.  R.S.,  460 
Hydrogen  and  Oxygen,  Explosion  of  a  Mixture  of,  obtained  by 

Electrolysis,  Prof.  Oettingen,  311 
Hydrogen  and  Oxygen,   Relative  Densities  of,  Lord  Rayleigh, 

F.R.S.,  418 
Hydrographic   Office   of    the    United    States,  New   Forms   for 

Reports  of  Storms,  &c. ,  issued  by  the,  67 


Hydrometer,  Dr.  Derham's,  497 

Hydrostatics,  Dynamics  and,  by  R.  II.  Pinkerton,  412 

Hygiene,    School,    Proposed   Sanitary   Reforms  at   Baltimore, 

United  States,  America,  379 
Hygrometer,  the  Use  of  the  Spectroscope  as  a,  F.  W.  Cory, 

143 
Hygrometric  Methods,  Report  on,  W.  N.  Shaw,  404 
Hygrometric  State  of  the  Atmosphere,   Crepuscular  Hints   in 

connection  with  the.  Prof.  Costantino  Rovelli,  404 


Ibbetson  (W.  J.),  a  Treatise  on  the  Mathematical  Theory  of 
Perfectly  Elastic  Solids,  97 

Ice  Drift,  in  the  Arctic  Seas,  Dr.  Karl  Pettersen  on  the  State 
of,  16 

Ice  Machines,  Prof.  Pictet's  Experiments  with  his,  167 

Ice  in  Norway,  Late,  186 

Iceland,  Harvest  in,  65  ;  Unusual  Weather  in,  16  ;  Earthquake 
in,  113  ;  Importation  of  Live  Iceland  Cod  to  Norway,  258  ; 
Curious  Archaeological  Discoveries  in,  140 ;  the  Recent 
Earthquakes  in,  Th.  Thoroddsen,  201  ;  Proposed  Research 
in  Icelandic  Waters,  38 

Ichthyology  :  the  Fish  Fauna  of  Rameswaram  Island,  Edgar 
Thurston,  380 

Illegitimacy  in  the  Parish  of  Mamoch,  by  George  Seton,  527 

Impact,  Duration  of,  by  Prof  P.  G.  Tait,  527 

Incorrect  Footnote  and  its  Consequences,  an,  Thos.  Muir, 
246  ;  Ralph  Copeland,  343 

Index  Catalogue  to  the  Library  of  the  Surgeon-General's  Office, 
United  States  Army,  A.  T.  Myers,  292 

India  :  Meteorology  of,  18  ;  Report  of  Meteorological  Depart- 
ment, 444 ;  Proposed  New  Meteorological  Observatories  in 
India,  187  ;  Survey  of  India,  35  ;  Catalogue  of  the  Moths  of 
India,  E.  C.  Cotes  and  Colonel  C.  Swinhoe,  H.  J.  Elwes,386  ; 
Report  on  Indian  Fibres  and  Fibrous  Substances,  443  ;  the 
Public  Gardens  of  British  India,  476  ;  Tank  Angling  in  India, 
H.  Sullivan  Thomas,  518;  Payment  by  Results  in  Primary 
Schools  in  India,  519  ;  Tea  Cultivation  in  India,  409;  Rain- 
fall of  India,  472 ;  a  Manual  of  the  Geology  of  India,  F.  R. 
Mallet,  556 

Indian  Ocean  :  Soundings  in  the,  302  ;  the  Egeria  Deep-Sea 
Soundings  in  the,  327  ;  the  Atoll  of  Diego  Garcia  and  Coral 
Formations  of  the.  Prof.  G.  C.  Bourne,  546 

Indo-China  and  the  Indian  Archipelago,  Miscellaneous  Papers 
Relating  to,  218 

Induction  Balance,  Hughes's,  Dr.  Oliver  J.  Lodge,  F.R.S.,  6 

Induction  Sparks,  Some  Effects  Produced  by.  Prof.  E. 
Canestrini,  525 

Influence-Machines  and  Dynamos,  on  the  Analogies  of.  Prof.  S. 
P.  Thompson,  165 

Infusorial  Earth,  T.  V.  Lister,  30 

Injuries  caused  by  Lightning  in  Africa,  Dr.  Emin  Pasha,  582 

Insect  Development,  Untimely  :  John  Morison,  321  ;  John 
Morison's  Letter  on,  Edward  Buckell,  350 

Insects,  Scale,  New  Zealand,  an  Account  of,  W.    M.  Maskell, 

125 
Insects,  Post-Glacial,  Alfred  Bell,  232 
Instability  of   Freshly  Magnetized  Needles,    Prof.    Francis  E. 

Nipher,  392 
Institute  of  Chemistry,  Boverton  Redwood  and  Alfred  Gordon 

Salamon,  393 
Institution  of  Civil  Engineers,  119 
Institution  of  Electrical  Engineers,  303 
Institution  of  Mechanical  Engineers,  299,  355 
"  Instructive  "  Bibliography  of  the  Foraminifera,  Charles  Davies 

Sherborn,  583 
Inter-Diurnal  Variability  of    Temperature    at   Places   in    the 

Argentine  Republic  and  South  America  generally,  Dr.  Oscar 

Doering,  39 
International  Geological  Congres«,  87 
International  Tables,  Robert  H.  Scott,  F.R.S.,415 
Internationales  Archiv  fiir  Ethnographie,  568 
Invariants,  Functional,  a  Class  of,   A.  R.  Forsyth,  F.R.S.,  550 
Invertebrata,   Researches  on  the  Problematical  Organs  of  the, 

Dr.  A.  B.  Griffiths,  518 
Invertebrates,  Mucous  Cells  in.  Dr.  Rawitz,  168 
Ireland  :  Autumnal  Migration  of  Birds  in,  Allan  Ellison,  232  ; 

Early  Christian  Art  in,  Margaret   Stokes,  341  ;  Facts  about, 

A.  B.  Macdonald,  474 


XVlll 


INDEX 


[^Nature,  June  T,  ll 


Irish  Education  Directory  and  Scholastic  Guide,  579 

Irish   Salmonidae,   British   and :    Dr.    Francis   Day,   242,    296 : 

Dr.  Francis  Day,  Your  Reviewer,  366 
Iron  :  on  the  Recalescence  of,  H.  Tomlinson,  165  ;  Effects  of 
Temperature  on  the  Thermo-electric  Properties  of  Iron  w  hen 
under  Stress  or  Strain,  Herbert  Tomlinson,  165  ;  Behaviour 
of  Passive  Iron  towards  Nitric  Acid,  231  ;  Influence  of  Tem- 
perature on  a  Magnetic  State  of  Iron,  M.  P.  Ledeboer,  288  ; 
the  Temporary  Thermo-Cunent  in,  Fred.  T.  Trouton,  321  ; 
Iron,  Copper,  and  German  Silver,  on  the  Thermal  Conductivity 
of,  A.  Crichton  Mitchell,  328 ;  Iron  for  Lightning  Conductors, 

355 
Iron  Meteorite  from  St.   Croix,  County  Wisconsin,  Description 

of  an,  163 
Irvine  (Robert),  Coral  Formations,  461,  509,  605 
Irving  (Rev.  A.),  Vitreous  State  of  Water,  104;  the  Highclere 
Bagshots,  128  ;  Natural  Science  and  the  Woolwich  Examina- 
tions,   389  ;   Green    Colouring-matter    of    Decaying   Wood, 

511 
Irving  (R.  D.),  Is  thei-e  a  Huronian  Group?,  47,  163 
Isambert  (F.),  Compressibility  of  the  Solution  of  Ethylamine  in 

Water,  192 
Island?,  Theories  of  the  Origin  of  Coral  Reefs  and,  T.  Mellard 

Reade,  54 
Isolation  of  Fluorine,  A.  E.  Tutton,  179 
Isomery  in  the  Series  CnH2„_2,  by  A.  Favorsky,  525 
Italian  Meteorology,  18 
Izvestia  of  the  Russian  Geographical  Society,  38,  308,  404 


J,  Note  on  the  Dimensions  and  Meaning  of,  Alfred  Lodge, 
320 

Jackson  (F.  J.),  Interesting  Collection  presented  to  the  Natural 
History  Museum  by,  33 

Jacquemin  (M.  Georges),  on  Sacchm-omyces  ellipsoideus,  479 

James  (Henry  A.),  Hand-book  of  Perspective,  509 

Janssen  (M.  J.),  Spectra  of  Oxygen,  624 

Japan:  the  Japanese  Language,  E.  H.  Parker,  157;  Die 
Japanischen  Seeigel,  Dr.  L.  Doderlein,  Prof.  P.  Martin 
Duncan,  F.R.S.,  243  ;  Earth  Tremors  in  Central  Japan, 
Prof.  Milne,  399 ;  Japanese  Bird-lime,  406  ;  Food  of  the 
Japanese,  Dr.  Kellnerand  M.  Mori,  445  ;  Calendar  of  Imperial 
University,  Japan,  473,  519  ;  Exhibition  of  Japanese  En- 
gravings and  Pictures,  474  ;  "  Go-hei,"  or  Paper  Offerings, 
Basil  Hall  Chamberlain,  479 

Japp  (Prof.  F.  R.,  F.R.  S. ),  Dix  Annees  dans  I'Histoire  d'une 
Theorie,  J.  II.  Van  't  Hoff,  121 

Jellett  (Rev.  John,  D.D.),  Obituary  Notice,  396 

Jenkin  (Prof.  Fleeraing)  :  Papers  by,  and  Memoir  of,  433  ;  on 
Scientific  and  General  Education,  435  ;  Life  of,  Robert  Louis 
Stevenson,  559 

Jensen  (J.  L. ),  on  a  General  Theorem  of  Convergence,  504 

Joannis  (M. ),  Experiments  upon  the  so-called  Alloy  between 
the  Metals  Sodium  and  Potassium,  H2 

Johns  Hopkins  University,  Baltimore,  473,  544 

J^fflSttrTie  (Laurence),   a   Short    Introduction   to   the  Study  of 

Logic,  Alfred  Sidgvvick,  175 

Jones  (Byron  N. ),  Earthquake  at  the  Bahamas,  54 

Jonquieres  (M.  de),  on  the  Generation  of  Algebraic  Surfaces, 
214 

Jordan  (David  Starr),  Science  Sketches,  535 

Joubin  (P.),  on  the  Measurement  of  Magnetic  Fields  by  Dia- 
magnetic  Bodies,  504 

Journal  of  Anatomy  and  Physiology,  the  Coming  of  Age  of  the, 
441 

Journal  of  the  Asiatic  Society  of  Bengal,  351 

Journal  of  Botany,  163,  308,  500 

Journal  of  the  Royai  Agricultural  Society,  Prof.  John  Wright- 
son,  211 

Journal  of  the  Russian  Chemical  and  Physical  Society,  525 

Judd  (Prof.  John  W.,  F.R.S.),  Conspiracy  of  Silence,  272  ;  the 
Duke  of  Argyll's  Charges  against  Men  of  Science,  317  ;  an 
Explanation  Explained,  363  ;  the  Relations  between  Geology 
and  the  Biological  Sciences,  401,  424 

Juhis  terrestris,  the  Post-embryonic  Development  of,  F.  G. 
H  eathcote,  190 

/uncus  tenuis  in  Sweden,  Discovery  of,  258 

Jungfleisch,  E.,  on  Cinchoniline,  479 

Junker  (Dr.  Wilhelm),  Vega  Gold  Medal  awarded  to,  546 


Jupiter,  on  the  Appearances  presented  by  the  Satellitss  during 
Transit,  Edmund  J.  Spitta,  468 


Kabloukoff  (J.),  on  the  Laws  presiding  at  Reactions  of  Direct 

Addition,  525 
Kansas  Academy  of  Science,  186 
Kappler  (Herr  August),  Death  of,  16 
Kay  (Thos.),  the  Mist-Bow,  273 
Kelland  (the  late  Prof.),  Memorial  of,  517 
Keller  (Helen),  Blind  and  Deaf,  Education  of,  615 
Kennedy  (Alex.  B.  W.),  the  Mechanics  of  Machinery,  Prof.  A. 

G.  Greenhill,  195 
Kerr  (Montagu),  Attempt  to  cross  Africa  by  a  New  Route,  115 
Kew  Gardens  :  November  Bulletin  of  Miscellaneous  Infcrmation, 

35;  December  Bulletin  of   Miscellaneous  Information,   156;. 

February  Bulletin  of  Miscellaneous  Information,  35c 
Kew  Museum  No.  2,  470 
Kew  Observatory,  Work  of  the,  in  1887,  306 
Key  (Admiral  Sir  Astley  Cooper),  Death  of,  442 
Khotan-daria  of  East  Turkistan,  General  Przewalski  on,  38 
Kick  (F.),  Flour  Manufacture,  316 
Kilimanjaro,  Dr.  Hans  Meyer's  Ascent  of,  158,  285 
Kina  Balu,  John  Whitehead's  Proposed  Visit  to,  349 
Kinematics  and  Dynamics,  an  Elementary  Treatise  on,   James 

Gordon  MacGregor,  Prof.  A.  G.  Greenhill,  361 
Kinematics  and  Dynamics,  Prof.  J.  G.  MacGregor,  487 
King  (Charles),  Who  was  ?  152 
King  (George),   the  Art  of   Computation  for  the  Purposes  of 

Science,  319 
King  (Dr.  George,  F.  R.  S.),  Report  of  Royal   Botanic  Garden, 

Calcutta,  476 
King's  College,  186 

Kirkwood  (Prof.  Daniel),  the  Asteroids,  233 
Klagenfurt,  Earthquake  at,  113 
Klein  (Dr.  E.,  F.R. S.),  on  Steel's  Treatise  on  Diseases  of  the 

Dog,  48s 
Knowledge,  on  some  Apparent  Contradictions  at  the  Foundations 

of,  S.  Tolver  Preston,  221  ;  on  Some  Unapparent  Contradic- 
tions at  the  Foundations  of,  F.  Howard  Collins,  294 
Koppen  (Dr.  W.),  on  the  Distribution  of  Cloud  over  the  Eastern 

Part  of  the  North  Atlantic,  67 
Kossel  (Prof.),  Adenin,  168 
Krasnoff  (M.),  Antiquities  of  Turkistan,  283 
Krause  ( Herr  Gottlob  Adolf)  :  Return  of,  from  his  Journey  from 

Salaga  through  Dahomey,  66  ;  News  from,  211 
Krueger  (Dr.),  Olbers'  Comet,  233 

Kriimmel  (Prof.  O. ),  Surface  Temperature  of  the  Ocean,  156 
Kuesenoff  (M.),  the  Vagueles,   258 
Kunstler  (J.),  a  New  Foraminifer,  504 
Kunz  (George  F.),  on  the  Meteoric  Iron  which  fell  near  Cabin 

Creek,  Johnson  County,  Arkansas,  March  27,  1886,  159 
Kwakiool  People  of  Vancouver  Island,  Dr.  George  M.  Dawson, 

518 


Labrador,  Holme's  Explorations  of,  381 

Lacaze-Duthiers  (H.  de)  Classification  of  the  Gasteropods,  504 

Lacustrine  and  Lake  Villages  and  Pile-Dwellings,  M.  Pompeo 
Castelfranco,  163 

Laffon  (M.),  New  Remedy  for  Phylloxera,  353 

Laghwat,  Meridian  of,  L.  Bassot,  528 

Lake  of  Geneva,  Waterspout  on  the,  M.  Dufour  on,  208 

Lake  Villages  and  Pile-Dwellings,  Lacustrine  and,  M.  Pompeo 
Castelfranco,  163 

Lakes  near  the  Village  of  Mazuren  (Prussia),  Peculiar  Pheno- 
menon noticed  in  the,  139 

Lamb,  Vegetable,  of  Tartary,  Henry  Lee,  176 

Lamination  of  Sandstone,  a  Mechanical  Cause  of  the,  not 
hitherto  noticed,  T.  Mellard  Reade,  222 

Lamp,  Fumal  Safety,  M.  Daubree,  528 

Lamp  (Dr.),  Olbers'  Comet,  233 

Lancaster  (A.),  Meteorology  of  Belgium  in  1887,  328 

Land,  Height  of,  and  Depth  of  the  Ocean,  John  Murray,  286 

Landerkunde  des  Erdteils  Europa,  157 

Lang  (Dr.  C),  Method  of  predicting  Night-Frost,  18 

Danger  (Carl),  Death  of,  186 

Langley  (Edward  M.),  Note  on  a  Problem  in  Maxima  and 
Minima,  605 


Nature,  June  7,  xi 


INDEX 


XIX 


Langley  (Edward  M.)  and  W.  S.  Phillips,  the  Harpur  Euclid, 

271 
Language,  Reason  and,  Dr.   St.   George  Mivart,  F.R.S.,  364; 

Prof.  F.  Max  Miiller,  323,  412 
Lankester  (Prof.  Ray,  F.R.S.),  on  the  Coelom  and  the  Vascular 

System  of  the  Mollusca  and  Arthropoda,  498 
Lansdell  (Rev.  Dr.  Henry),  Through  Central  Asia,  221 
Larden  (W. ),  Electricity  for  Public  Schools  and  Colleges,  217 
Latchinoff  (P. ),  on  the  Empirical  Formula  of  Cholic  Acid,  525 
Law,  Periodic,  Donald  Murray,  247 
Layard  (Mrs.  Granville),  Through  the  West  Indies,  199 
Lea  (Carey),  Photography  in  Colours,  88 
Lea  (Rev.  T.  S.),  Island  of  Fernando  Noronha,  617 
Leaps  of  Lepus,  R.  W.  Shufeldt,  247 
Ledeboer  (M.  R.),  Influence  of  Temperature  on  a  Magnetic  State 

of  Iron,  288 
Lee  (Henry),  the  Vegetable  Lamb  of  Tartary,  176 
Leech  (J.  H.),  Butterflies  from  Central  China,  503 
Lees  (Edwin),  Death  of,  34 
Leger  (E.),  on  Cinchoniline,  479 
Lehrbuch  der  Entwickelungsgeschichte  des  Menschen  und  der 

Wirbelthiere,  by  Prof  Oscar  Hertwig,  506 
Lehrbuch  der  Histologic,  Dr.  Philipp  Stohr,  461 
Leipzig  :  Ethnological  Museum,  301  ;  Psychological  Laboratory 

of,  64 
Leland  (Chas.  G. ),  Practical  Education,  562 
Lemmings  in  Southern  Norway,  283 

Lendenfeld  (Dr.  R.  von).  Medusae  of  the  Australian  Seas,  399 
Leotard  (M. ),  and  Peaks  of  the  Pyrenees,  493 
Lepus,  the  Leaps  of,  R.  W.  Shufeldt,  247 
Less  (Dr.),  Meteorological  Conditions  of  February  and  March 

1888,  552 
Lesseps  (M.  de),  the  Isthmus  of  Panama,  310 
Lesson  and  Martinet  (MM.),  on  the  Polynesians,  their  Origin, 

Migrations,  &c.,  164 
Leutemann  (H.).  Animals  from  the  Life,  176 
Levasseur  (E.),  Statistique  de  la  Saperficie  et  de  la  Population 

des  Contrees  de  la  Terre,  24 
Level,  Changes  of,  in   the  African  Lake?,  Dr.   Robert  Sieger, 

354 
Ley  (Rev,  W.  Clement),  Classification  of  Clouds,  177 
Lick  Observatory,  66,  330 
Liebreich  (Prof),  on  Local  Anesthetics,  480 
Life,  Animals  from  the,  H.  Leutemann,  176 
Life  Contingencies,  457 
Life  in  Corea,  W.  R.  Carles,  581 
Life,  Duration  of,  Dr.  August  Weismann,  P.  Chalmers  Mitchell, 

541 
Light,  the  Absolute  Wave-length  of,  Louii  Bell,  623 
Light  and  Heat,  Rev.  F.  W.  Aveling,  176 
Light,  and  Heat,  Sound,  Mark  R.  Wright,  199 
Light,  Penetration  into  Water  of,  Prof  Forel,  88 
Light,  Photographic  Experiments  on  Penetration  of,  F.  A.  Forel, 

575 
Light,  Velocity  of,  328 
Lightning  Conductors,  Iron  for,  355 
Lightning,  Farm  at  Mors  in  Denmark  struck  by,  64 
Lightning,  Globular,  in  North  Atlantic,  187 
Lightning,  Injuries  caused  by,  in  Africa,  Dr.  Emin  Pasha,  582 
Lightning  Protectors,  Prof.  Oliver  Lodge,  497 
Lightning-rods,  on  the  Price  of  the  Factor  of  Safety  in,  407 
Limestone   of  Strath,    Skye,   the    Age    of    the    Altered,   Dr. 

Archibald  Geikie,  F.R.S.,  191 
Lindelof  (M.),  Trajectory  of  a  Body  moving  over  the  Earth's 

Surface  under  the  Influence  of  Terrestrial  Rotation,  543 
Lindeman  (Prof),  the  Hessian  Fly,  157 

Lindemann  (Dr.  E.\  Total  Lunar  Eclipse  of  January  28,  616 
Linnean  Society,  118,  142,  166,  299,  431,  453,  478,  526,  623 
Lintthal,  Earthquake  at,  595 
Lipetsk  Mineral  Springs,  71 
Lissauer  (Dr.  A.),  Die  Prahistorischen  Denkmiiler  der  Provinz 

Westpreussen    und    der    angreuzenden    Gebiete,    Arthur  J- 

Evans,  531 
Lister  (J.  J.),  Christmas  Island,  203 
Lister  (T.  V.),  Infusorial  Earth,  30 
Little  (A.  J.),  Through  the  Yang-tse  Gorges,  556 
Liveing  (Prof)  and  Prof  Dewar  :  on  the  Ultra-Violet  Spectra  of 

the  Elements,  526  ;  the  Spectrum  of  the  Oxyhydrogen  Flame, 

383 


Liverpool  Biological  Society,  113 

Living  Lights,  a  Popular  Account  of  Phosphorescent  Animals  and 
Vegetables,  C.  F.  Holder,  411 

Lockyer  (J.Norman,  F.R.S.):  Researches  on  Meteorites,  55, 
80  ;  Notes  on  Spectrum  of  Aurora,  358  ;  Suggestions  on  the 
Classification  of  the  Various  Species  of  Heavenly  Bodies,  585, 
606 

Lodge  (Alfred) :  Note  on  the  Dimensions  and  Meaning  of  J, 
usually  called  the  Mechanical  Equivalent  of  Heat,  320 ; 
Mechanical  Equivalent  of  Heat,  364 

Lodge  (Dr.  Oliver  J.,  F.R.S.) :  Hughes's  Induction  Balance,  6  ; 
Modem  Views  of  Electricity,  8,  105,  322,  344,  366  ;  Gore's 
Railway,  128  ;  Weight  and  Mass,  416  ;  on  Lightning  Pro- 
tectors, 497  ;  Force,  and  Newton's  Third  Law,  558;  Self- 
induction,  605 

Loess,  Potanin's  Observations  on  the  Mobility  of,  89 

Loewy  (M.)  and  P.  Puiseux,  on  Equatorial  coitde  and  Equa- 
torials  in  general,  504,  527 

Logic,  a  Short  Introduction  to  the  Study  of,  Lawrence  Johnstone, 
Alfred  Sidgwick,  175 

London  Geological  Field  Class,  519 

London,  Increase  of  Fog  and  Smoke  in.  Sir  Douglas  Galton,  208 

London,  Proposed  Teaching  University  for,  331,  339  ;  Sir  Philip 
Magnus,  393 

Longitude  of  Odessa,  Dr.  E.  Becker  and  Prof.  Block,  302 

Lotman  (Cornelius  S.  E.),  Earthquake  at  the  Bahamas,  54 

Loven  (Prof  Sven),  and  Catalogue  of  Lovisa  Ulrika  Museum, 

445 
Lowe  (E.  J.,   F.R. S.),  Extraordinary  Fog  in  January  1888  at 

Shirenewton  Hall,  Chepstow,  294 
Lubbock  (Sir  John,    F.R. S. ):  the  Habits  of  Ants,  Bees,  and 

Wasps,  138;  Sense  and   Senses  of  Animals,  210;  Technical 

Education,    284 ;    and   Woolwich   Examinations  in   Physical 

Science,  409 
Lucas  (Felix),  Immediate  Solution  of  Equations  by  Electricity, 

479 
Lunar  Eclipse  of  January  28,  Total,  Dr.  E.  Lindemann,  616 
Limd  University,  Botanical  Museum,  442 
Lunge  (G.),  Vitriol-chamber  Process,  335 
Lupton  (Sydney),  the  Art  of  Computation  for  the  Purposes  of 

Science,  237,  262 
Luther,  (Dr.  E.),  Death  of,  16 
Lydekker,  (Richard),  Catalogue  of  the  Fossil  Mammalia  in  the 

British  Museum,  461 


M.P.,  P.R.S.,  49 

McAlpine  (D.),  on  Bivalve  MoUusks,  527 

McCarthy  (f.)  Siam,  66 

McConnel  (James  C),  Effect  of  Snow  on  the  Polarization  of  the 

Sky,  177  ;  the  Fog-Bow,  487 
McCook  (Henry  C),  Tenants  of  an  Old  Farm,  363 
McCoy  (Prof  F.),  Prodromus  of  the  Zoology  of  Victoria,  533 
McGregor  (G.  R.),  Earthquake  at  the  B  ihamas  54 
MacGregor  (James  Gordon),  Elementary  Treatise  on  Kinematics 

and  Dynamics,  Prof  A.  G.  Greenhill,  361 
Machinery,  Mechanics  of,  Alex.   B.  W.  Kennedy,  Prof   A.  G. 

Greenhill,  195 
Mackenzie  (John),  Austral  Africa,  5 
Mackinlay  (Major  G.),  Text-book  of  Gunnery,  1887,  148 
Mackinnon  (Rev.  Donald),  Death  and  Obituary  Notice  of,  256 
Maclean  (Magnus),  Class  Experiments,  612 
McNab   (Prof  W.  R.),  Hand-book  of  the  Fern  Allies,  J.   G. 

Baker,  F.R.S.,  4 
McVail  (Dr.  J.  C),  Vaccination  Vindicated,  483 
Madan  (H.   G.),  Optical  Properties  of  Phenyl-thio-carbioiide, 

165 
Madras  Micrococcus,  Note  on  a,  Edgar  Thurston,  79 
Madras  Presidency,  Storm  Signals  at  the  Ports  of  the,  208 
Madreporia,  on  the  Anatomy  of  the,  23  ;  Dr.  G.  H.  Fowler,  572 
Madreporite  of  Cribrella  ocellata,  334  . 

Madsen  (H.   F.),  Making  Glass  Specula  by  Hand,  A.  Ainslie 

Common,  F.R.S.,  382 
Magnesium,  Electro-positive  Character  of,  Heim,  497 
Magnetism  :  on  the  Magnetic  Circuit  in  Dynamo  Machmes, 
Prof  W.  E.  Ayrton  and  Prof  J.  Perry,  502  ;  Davidson  s  Dis- 
covery of  Records  of  Magnetic  Declination,  A.D.  1714,  C.  A. 
Schott  379  ;  on  the  Measurement  of  Magnetic  Fields  by 
Diamagnetic  Bodies,  by  F,  Joubin,  50*4 ;  Proposed  Magnetic 


XX 


INDEX 


[Nature,  Jjtne  7,  i\ 


Observatory  at  Potsdam,  88  ;  Magnetic  Qualities  of  Metajs 
under  Heat,  355  ;  Influence  of  Temperature  on  the  Magnetic 
State  of  Iron,  M.  P.  Ledeboer,  288  ;  a  New  Magnetic 
Survey  of  France,  Prof.  T.  E.  Thorpe,  F.R.S.,  247,  275  ; 
the  Destruction  of  Passivity  of  Iron  in  Nitric  Acid  by  Mag- 
netization, E.  L.  Nicols  and  W,  S.  Franklin,  358  ;  Instability 
of  Freshly-Magnetized  Needles,  G.  M.  Whipple,  128  ; 
Thermo-magnetic  Machine',  33  ;  Instability  of  Freshly- 
Magnetized  Needles,  Prof.  Francis  E.  Nipher,  77,  392 ; 
Prof.  Arthur  W.  Riicker,  F.R.S.,  77;  on  the  Theory  of 
Magnetism,  M.  P.  Duhem,  96  ;  on  the  Constant  P  in  Observa- 
tions of  Terrestrial  Magnetism,  Prof.  Wm.  Harkness,  127, 
272  ;  Prof.  Arthur  W.  Riicker,  F.R.S.,  127,  272;  Influence 
of  Magnetism  on  Electric  Resistance  of  Solid  Conductors, 
Dr.  Fae,  573  ;  Nev/  Method  for  Measurement  of  Magnetism 
of  Gases,  Prof.  Topler,  576  ;  Electromotive  Force  of  Mag- 
netization, 623  ;  Illimitability  of  Magnetization  of  Iron,  Prof. 
Ewing,  383 
Magnus  (Sir  Philip),  Proposed  Teaching  University  for  London, 

393 
Maine  (Sir  Henry,  F.R.S.),  Death  of,  349 
Mainoff  (V.  N.),  Death  and  Obituary  Notice  of,  567 
Mairet   (M.)  and  M.    Combemale,   on   the  Effects  of  Chronic 

Intoxication  by  Alcohol,  528 
Malesia,  Signor  Odoardo   Beccari  and  the  Bentham  Trustees, 

421 
Malet  (H.  P.),  Were  the  Elephant  and  Mastodon  Contemporary 

in  Europe  ?,  488 
Mallet  (F.  R.),  a  Manual  of  the  Geology  of  India,  556 
Mammoth  and  the  Flood,  343;   Henry  H.  Howorth,  F.R.S., 

123,  200,  295 
Mammoth,  Foisil  Head  of  a,  found  in  Paris,  329 
Mammoth's  Tusk,  Discovery  of  a,  at  Vitry-en-Artois,  408 
Man,  Breath  of,  and  other  Mammals,  288 
Manchester,  Meeting  in  Support  of  the  National  Association  for 

the  Promotion  of  Technical  Education  at,  iii 
Manchester,  Technical  Education  in,  121 
Manganese,  Action  of  Roasting  on  Several  Oxides  and  Salts  of, 

by  Alex.  Gorgeu,  504 
Manganese  Steel,  Mr.  Hadfield,  497 

Manganic  Oxide  and  Peroxide,  on  the  Preparation  and  Constitu- 
tion of  the  Hydrates  of.  Dr.  B.  Franke,  209 
Marcet  (Dr.  W.),  Atmospheric  Electricity,  526 
Marey  (M.),  Flight  of  Birds,  474 

Marine  Biological  Laboratory,  the  Proposed  New  England,  379 
Markham  (Clements  R.,  C.B.,  F.R.S.),  Founder's  Medal  of  the 

Royal  Geographical  vSociety  awarded  to,  617 
Marlborough  College  Natural  History  Society,  568 
Mars,  Parallax  of,  C.  E.  Stromeyer,  302 
Marshall  (C.  F.),  Observations  on  the  Structure  and  Distribution 

of  Striped  and  Unstriped  Muscle  in  the  Animal  Kingdom,  and 

a  Theory  of  Muscular  Contraction,  23 
Martin  <H.  N.,  F.R.S.),  .and  Prof.  T.   H.   Huxley,   F.R.S.,  a 

Course  of  Elementary  Instruction  in  Practical  Biology,  505 
Martin's  (Prof.)   Method  of  Isolating  the  Mammalian  Heart, 

215 

Maskell  (W.  M.),  an  Account  of  New  Zealand  Scale  Insects, 

Mason  Science  College,  Birmingham,  543 

Massee  (Geo.)  :  on  the  Growth  and  Origin  of  Multicellular 
Plants,  163  ;  a  Monograph  of  the  Thelophorese,  523 

Massowah,  Report  on  Clima'e  of,  493 

Masters  (Dr.  Maxwell  T.,  F.R.S.),  the  Royal  Horticultural 
Society,  176 

Mastodon  avernensis,  Elephas  meridionalis,  488 

Mathematics  :  Mathematical  Optics  and  Thermo-dynamics,  by 
M.  H.  Resal,  504;  Mathematical  Society,  71,  166,  310,  383, 
479>  599  ;  a  Treatise  on  the  Mathematical  Theory  of  Perfectly 
Elastic  Solids,  W.  J.  Ibbetson,  97 ;  Theory  of  Reciprocants, 
Prof,  Sylvester,  71;  American  Journal  of  Mathematics,  71  ; 
a  New  Treatise  on  Algebra,  by  Charles  Smith,  232  ;  the  Art  of 
Computation  for  the  Purposes  of  Science,  Sydney  Lupton, 
237,  262  ;  Invariants,  Covariants,  and  Quotient  Derivatives 
associated  with  Linear  Diflerential  Equations,  A.  R.  Forsyth, 
F.R.S.,  309 

Mattie's  Secret,  Emile  Desmaux,  76 

Mauritius,  Meteorological  Society  of,  18 

Mauritius  Observatory,  284 

Maw  (M.  H.),  Meteor,  151 


Mawer(W. ),  Physiography,  Elementary  Text-book,  341 
Maxima  and  Minima,  Note  on  a  Problem  in  :  R.  Charties,  320  ; 

Edward  M.  Langley,  605 
Mayet's  New  Artificial  Serum,  96  ' 
Mean  Free  Path,  and  the  Number  of  Collisions  per  Paricle  per 

Second  in  a  Group  of  Equal  Spheres,  by  Prof.  Tait,  527 
Measurement,    on    the,    of  Magnetic   Fields   by   Diamagnetic 

Bodies,  by  P.  Joubin,  504 
Measurement  of  Power  given  to  Transformer,  E.  C.  Rimington, 

502 
Measuring  of  Specific  Heat,  on  the,  by  N.  Hesehus,  525 
Measures  of  the  same  Magnitude,  on  the  Combination  of,  by  M. 

J.  Bertrand,  504 
Measuring  Instruments,  Electrical,  Sir  William  Thomson,  354 
Meat  Supply,  Foreign,  Twenty  Years'  Changes  in  our.   Major 

Craigie,  212 
Mechanical  Engineers,  Institution  of,  355 

Mechanical  Equivalent  of  Heat,  Experiments  on  the  Determina- 
tion of  the,  by  the  Indirect  Electrical  Method,  Dr.  Dieterici, 
48 
Mechanical  Equivalent  of  Heat,  Prof.  Alfred  Lodge,  364 
Mechanics  of  Machinery,  Alex.   B.    W.  Kennedy,  Prof.  A.  G. 

Greenhill,  195  ;  J.  Venn,  510 
Medical  Education  at  Oxford,  George  J.  Wilson,  5 
Medusae  of  the  Australian  Seas,  Dr.  K.  von  Lendenfeld,  399 
Melbourne  Observatory,  381 

Melly  (William  R.),  Bernicle  Geese  on  Coniston  Lake,  585 
Men  of  Science,  the  Duke  of  Argyll's  Charges  against  :  Prof. 
John  W.  Judd,  F.R.S.,  317.;  Prof.  T.  H.  Huxley,  F.R.S., 
342 
Mendenhall  (T.  C),  Weight  and  Mass,  416 
Menshutkin  (N.),  on  the  Speed  of  Formation  of  Acetic  Ethers  of 

Monatomic  Alcohols,  525 
Mercier  (Charles),  the  Nervous  System  and  the  Mind,  a  Treatise 

on  the  Dynamics  of  the  Human  Organism,  578 
Mercuric    Salts  as   Antiseptic  Surgical  Lotions,  Dr.   G.    Sims 

Woodhead,  527 
Mercury,  Determination  of  Electrical  Resistance  of  Tubes  ot, 

Dr.  Weinstein,  167 
Mercury,  the  Planet,  151  ;  W.  F.  Denning,  178 
Mercury-Bath,  New,  for  the  Observation  of  the  Nadir,  551 
Mergui  Archipelago,  Bird's-Nest   or   Elephant    Islands  of  the, 

Alfred  Carpenter,  348 
Meridian  of  Laghwat,  by  L.  Bassot,  528 
Merrill  (Geo.  P.),  Salt  Industry  in  the  United  States,  558 
Messurier  (Colonel  Le),  Game,  Shore,  and  Water  Birds  of  India, 

398 
Metal,  Welding,  by  Electricity,  331 
Metals,  Magnetic  Qualities  of,  under  Heat,  355 
Metaphosphoric  Acid,  Transformation  of,  Paul  Sabatier,  264 
Meteor,  Large,  seen  in  Norway,  36  ;  Meteor-Shower  of  October 
1887,  W.  F.  Denning,  69  ;  Meteor,   B.  Truscott,   105  ;  Mag- 
nificent   Meteor  seen  on  the  West  Coast   of  Norway,    138 ; 
Meteor,  M.  H.  Maw,  151  ;  Meteor  of  November  15,  J.  Lloyd 
Bozward,    178  ;  Meteor  observed  in  Norway,   186  ;  Brilliant 
Meteor  seen  in  Christiania,  December  11,  231  ;  Meteor  seen  at 
Asker,    in   Nerice,    Sweden,    614 ;   Remarkable   Meteors  in 
Norway  and  Sweden,    258,    329 ;  W.   F.   Denning  on,  273  ; 
Prof.  Charles  Carpmael  on,  273 ;  Meteors  in  Central  Sweden, 
282 
Meteoric  Iron,  on  the,  which  fell  near  Cabin  Creek,  Johnson 

County,  Arkansas,  March  27,  1886,  Geo.  F.  Kunz,  159 
Meteoric  Stone,  Discovery  of  Diamonds  in  a,  no 
Meteorite,  on  the,  which  fell  on  August  18/30,  1887,  at  Taborg, 

120 
Meteorite,  Large,  544 

Meteorite,  Northford,  by  F.  C.  Robinson,  500 
Meteorite,  Remarkable,  in  Denmark,  258 
Meteorite,  the  Rockwood,  163 
Meteorite  from   St.  Croix,   County  Wisconsin,    Description  of 

an  Iron,  163 
Meteorites,  a  Chapter  in  the  History  of,  Walter  Flight,  F.  R.  S.. 

30 
Meteorites,  Researches  on,  J.  Norman  Lockyer,  F.R.S.,  55,  80 
Meteorology  :  of  India,  18  ;  Meteorological  NcJtes,  18,  38,  67, 
91;  Meteorological  Society,  312;  Meteorological  Society  of 
Berlin,  456  ;  Meteorological  Society  of  France,  378  ;  Meteoro- 
logical Council,  Observations  published  by,  300  ;  Storm  of 
October   30,    14  j    Unusual   Weather   in    Iceland,    16 ;    M. 


Nature,  June  7,  1888] 


INDEX 


XXI 


Gam" gou- Lagrange's  Apparatus  for  Registering  the  Ascending 
and  IJescending  Air-Currents,   18  ;  Storm  Warnings  Issued 
by  the  New  York  Herald,  M.  Seeman,  18  ;  Method  of  pre- 
dicting  Night-Frost,    Dr.     C.    Lang,     18 ;    Meteorologische 
Divisionstafeln,  Dr.   Grossmann,     18 ;    Italian    Meteorology, 
18  ;  Meteorological  Society  of  Mauritius,  18  ;  Theory  of  the 
Outflow  of  Air  under  Falling  Rain,  II.  Allen,  18;  Meteorology 
in  Russia,  19;  Symons's  Monthly  Meteorological    Magazine, 
38  ;  Annual  Table  of  the  Climate,  of  the  British  Empire,  38  ; 
American  Journal  of  Science,  39 ;  H.    Allen    Hazen   on   the 
Relation  between  Wind  Velocity  and    Pressure,   39  ;    Publi- 
cations of  the  Swedish  Meteorological  Office,  39  ;  Meteorology 
in   Canada,    39  ;    United  States  Monthly  Weather   Review, 
39 ;    Unusually   High    Mean    Temperature   in   Parts   of    the 
United  States,  39  ;  Inter-diurnal  Variability  of  Temperature  at 
Places    in    the    Argentine    Republic    and     South     America 
generally,   39  ;  Unusual  Storms  in  the  British   Islands,  67; 
Hourly  Reading's  for  1885,   67  ;   Ilydrographic  Office  of  the 
United  States  Reports  of  Storms,   &c. ,  67;  Distribution  of 
Cloud  over  the  Eastern  Part  of  the  North  Atlantic,  Dr.  W, 
Koppen,  67  ;  Disastrous  Storm  at  Orissa,  68  ;  Journal  of  the 
Scottish  Meteorological  Society,  68 ;  H.    Allen,  on  Behaviour 
of  Pressure   and  Temperature   in    High  and  Low    Pressure 
Systems,  91  ;  Radcliffe  Observatory  at  Oxford,  91  ;  Meteoro- 
logy of  Oxford,    94  ;  Weather,  a  Popular  Exposition  of  the 
Nature  of  Weather  Changes  from  Day  to  Day,  Hon.  Ralph 
Abercromby,    loi  ;    Observations   of  St.   Elmo's    Fire,   112; 
Fofest     Meteorological     Observations     of    Germany,     113; 
Synoptic  Charts  of  the  North  Atlantic  Ocean,  137  ;  Monthly 
Weather  Charts  of  the  Bay  of  Bengal,  137  ;  the  Use  of  the 
Spectroscope  as  a  Hygrometer,  F.  W.  Cory,  143  ;  Rainfall  on 
and  around  Table  Mountain,  J.  G.  Gamble,  143  ;  Meteorology 
in  the  United  States,    156;    French  Meteorological  Society, 
156;  Proposed  New  Meteorological  Observatories  in  India, 
187  ;  Meteorological  Observations  on    Russian  Men-of-war, 
187  ;  Storm  Signals  at  the  Ports  of  the  Madras  Presidency, 
208;  MeanTemperatureof  the  Airat  Greenwich,  214  ;  Pheno- 
logical  Observations  for  the  Year  1887,  214  ;  Earth  Tremors  and 
the  Wind,  Prof.  John  Milne,  F.R.S.,  214;  Pressure  and  Tem- 
perature in  Cyclones,  and  Anticyclones,  Prof.  H.  A.  Hazen,  214  ; 
Dr.  Assmann's  Experiments  on  the  Humidity  of  the  Air,  215  ; 
Dr.  Robert  von  Helmholtz's  Experiments  on  the  Humidity  of 
the  Air,  215  ;  Atmospheric  Pressure,  Dr.  J.  Hann,  231  ;  Issue 
of  Daily  Meteorological  Charts  in    the   United  States,  231  ; 
Winds  and  Pressure  of  the  Caspian  Sea,  Capt.  Rykatschew, 
257 ;    Daily    Synchronous    Weather    Charts    of    the    North 
Atlantic,    282  ;  Influence  of  Altitude  on    Temperature,   M. 
Andre,   282  ;  Observation  of  Fog,    M.  Renon,   282  ;  Snow 
Falling  from  a  perfectly  Clear  Sky  in  Christiania,  282  ;  Move- 
ments of  High  Barometer  Areas  over  North  Atlantic  for  1885, 
300  ;  Non-Instrumental  Meteorology  of  England,  Wales,  and 
Ireland,  G.   M.  Whipple,   309  ;    Meteorology  of  the  Iberian 
Peninsula,  Dr.    Hellminn,    312;  Rainfall  of  America,  328; 
Meteorology  of  Belgium  in  1887,  328  ;  Perpignan  Observatory, 
328  ;  Report  of  the  Tokio  Observatory,  328  ;  R.  H.  Scott  on 
British    and   Atlantic    Weather,    350 ;    Meteorology   of    the 
Bombay    Presidency,    F.    Chambers,     378 ;    Meteorological 
Observations  for   1°  Squares  of  the  North  Atlantic  Ocean, 
398  ;  American  Meteorological  Journal,  398  ;  Constitution  of 
Fcgs  and  Clouds,  Prof,  F.  Palagi,  404  ;  Meteorological  Inter- 
nationa] Tables,  415  ;   the    Austrian   Meteorological   Office, 
and  Jahrbuch   for  1886,  422 ;    Cyclonic    Storms,   Scinde  to 
Vienna,    422  ;     M.     L.    Teisserenc    de     Bort,     on     High 
Barometric     Presure     of     Asia,     422 ;      Cause     of    Sept- 
ember  Typhoons  in   Hong  Kong,    Dr.   W.   Doberck,   439; 
Report  of  Hamburg  Meteorological  Office,   444 ;   Report  of 
Indian   Department,    444;    Pilot   Chart   of   North   Atlantic 
Ocean,  444  ;  Instructions  to  Obseivers  of  the  Signal  Service, 
Washington,    444 ;    Crepuscular    Rays   in    China,    Dr.    W. 
Doberck,  464 ;  an  Unusual  Rainbow,   H.   M.  Andrew,  464 ; 
the  Gale  of  March  11,  C.   E.    Peek,   466,  472;  Rainfall  of 
India,  472  ;  French  Meteorological  Society,  473  ;  Tempera- 
ture  and    Currents   in  Scottish  Lochs,  John    Murray,    479  ; 
Royal    Meteorological   Society's   Exhibition,   521  ;  Storm  on 
Atlantic  Coast,  493;  Scottish  Meteorological   Society,  517; 
the  Poet  Cowper  on   the   Climate   of  England,    517;   Prof. 
Wm.   Ferrel's  Work  in  Meteorology,   517  ;  Rainfall  in  East 
Indian  Archipelago,  517  ;  in  the  Russian  Empire,  518  ;  the 
Salinity  and  Temperature  of  the  Moray  Firth,  and  the  Firths 


of  Inverness,  Cromarty,  and  Dornoch,  by  Dr.  H.  K.  Mill,. 
518;  Glories,  Halos,  and  Coronx»,  by  R.  T.  Omond,  518; 
on  Glories,  by  Prof.  Tait,  518  ;  Rectilineal  Motion  of  Viscous 
Fluid  between  Two  Parallel  Planes,  by  Sir  W.  Thomson,  518  ; 
the  Thermal  Windrose  at  the  Ben  Nevis  Observatory,  by  A. 
Rankine,  518  ;  the  Royal  Meteorological  Society's  Exhibition, 
by  William  Marriott,  521  ;  Report  of  the  Meteorological 
Council  for  the  Year  ending  March,  1887,  542  ;  Proposed 
Universal  Climatological  Dictionary,  542 ;  Distribution  of 
Heat  over  the  Surface  of  the  Flarth,  Dr.  Zenker,  552  ; 
Meteorological  Conditions  of  February  and  March  1888,  Dr. 
Less,  552  ;  Snow-fall  of  the  Past  Winter,  Dr.  Hellmann,  552  ; 
L' Atmosphere — Meteorologie  Populaire,  Camille  Flammarion, 
580  ;  Cyclone  Reports  of  the  Meteorological  Department  of 
India,  595  ;  American  Meteorological  Society,  595  ;  Monthly 
Meteorological  Notes  and  Rainfall  Statistics  for  South 
Australia,   C.  Todd,  615 

Mexico,  Earthquake  in,  231 

Meyer  (Dr.  Hans),  Ascent  of  Kilimanjaro,  158,  285,  354 

Meyer  (Prof.  Lothar),  Oxygen  Carriers,  138 

Meyer  (Prof.  Victor)  :  on  Carbon  Atoms,  327  ;  Experiment  ex- 
hibiting the  Explosive  Nature  of  Chloride  of  Nitrogen,  349 ; 
Molecular  Weights  of  Substances,  443  ;  and  Dr.  Griinewald 
on  Vapour  Density  of  Ferric  Chloride,  518 

Meyer  and  Riecke  (Profs.),  New  Properties  of  Carbon  Atoms, 
567 

Micro-organisms  in  Air,  a  New  Method  of  determining  th 
Number  of,  by  Prof.  Carnelley  and  Thos.  Wilson,  478 

Micro-Radiometer,  a  Very  Sensitive,  Prof.  Weber,  157 

Microbes,  on  Certain  Processes  capable  of  increasing  the  Re- 
sistance of  the  Organism  to  the  Action  of,  24 

Micrococcus,  Madras,  Note  on  a,  Edgar  Thurston,  79 

Micromillimetre,  Botanists  and  the.  Prof.  Arthur  W.  Riicker,. 
F.R.S.,  388 

Micromillimetre,  the,  Robert  B.  Hay  ward,  F.R.S.,  437;  H.J. 
Chaney,  438  ;  Antoine  d'Abbadie,  438 

Microsauria  and  Dendrerpeton,   Sir  J.  Wm.  Dawson,  F.R.S., 

393 

Microscopy  :  Student's  Hand-book  to  the  Microscope,  102  ;  the 
Microscope  in  Theory  and  Practice,  Prof.  Carl  Naegeli  and 
Prof.  S.  Schwendener,  Dr.  W.  H.  Dallinger,  F.R.S.,  171; 
Recent  Improvements  in,  E.  M.  Nelson,  166 ;  Elementary 
Microscopical  Examinations,  T.  Charters  White,  555  ;  the 
Photosphffiria  of  Nyctiphanes  norvegica,  Rupert  Vallentin  and 
J.  T.  Cunningham,  572  ;  the  Anatomy  of  the  Madreporia, 
G.  H.  Fowler,  572 

Migration,  Autumnal,  of  Birds  in  Ireland,  Allan  Ellison,  232 

Migration  of  Swallows  along  the  Southern  Coast,  W.  Warde 
Fowler,  6 

Mikhailoff  (W.),  on  the  Gelatinous  State  of  Albuminoid  Bodies, 

525 
Miklucho-Maclay  (Nicolas  von).  Death  of,  597 
Milk,  Action  of  Micro-organisms  on.  Dr.  P.  Vieth,  211 
Mill     (Dr.    H.    R.),  on  the  Salinity  and  Temperature  of  the 

Scottish  Firths,  518 
Mill  for  pulverizing  Minerals  for  Analysis,  65 
Millepora  plicata,    Sexual    Reproduction   of.     Dr.    Sydney    J. 

Hickson,  164 
Milne    (Prof.    John),  Earth    Tremors     and    the    Wind,    214; 

Earth  Tremors  in  Central  Japan,  399  ;  Earthquake  Sounds, 

543  ;  Pendulum  Seismometers,  570 
Minchin  (Geo.  M.),  Centre  of  Water  Pressure,  201,  275 
Mind,  569 

Mind,  Nervous  System  and  the,  Charles  Mercier,  578 
Mine- Shaft  successfully  sunk  by  the  Poetsch  Method  in  Belgium 

208 
Mineralizing  Action  of  the  Alkaline  Sulphides,  407 
Mineral  Springs,  Lipetsk,  71 
Mineral  Wax,  Remarkable  Variety  of,  48 
Mineralogical  Society,  23,  310 
Mineralogy,  Frank  Rutley,  245 
Mineralogy,  Manual  of,  and  Petrography,  &c.,  James  D.  Dana,. 

S3 
Mineralogy,  Proposed  Museum  of,  at  Redruth,  299 
Mines,  Accidents  in.  Sir  Fred.  Abel,  iii 
Minima  and  Maxima,  Note  on  a  Problem  in,  R.  Charters,  320 
Minor  Planet  No.  271,  140 
Minor  Planets,  Names  of,  114 
Minor  Planets,  New,  353,  616 


XXll 


INDEX 


[Nature,  Juiie  T ,  li 


Minot  (Dr.  C.   S.)>  and  Elizabeth  Thompson   Science   Fund, 

492 
Minusinsk  Museum,  65 
Mist,  the  Shadow  of  a,  W.  Fawcett,  224  ;  Rev,  Henry  Bernard, 

392 
Mist-Bow,  Albert  Bonus,  273  ;  Thomas  Kay,  273  ;  C.  O.  Budd, 

273 

Mitchell  (A.  Crichton),  on  the  Thermal  Conductivity  of  Iron, 
Copper,  and  German  Silver,  328 

Mitchell  (P.  Chalmers),  Duration  of  Life,  541 

Mitchell  Library,  Glasgow,  596 

Mittheilungen  of  Hamburg  Geographical  Society,  303 

Mittheilungen  of  the  Vienna  Geographical  Society,  37 

Mivart  (Dr.  St.  George,  F.R.S.),  Reason  and  Language,  364; 
Language  =  Reason,  412 

Mobangi  and  the  Welle,  Lieut.  Van  Gele,  496 

Model  of  an  Earthquake,  Prof.  Sekiya,  297 

Models  illustrating  the  Modification  of  the  Arterial  Arches  in 
Vertebrates,  by  Prof.  W.  N.  Parker,  499 

Modern  Views  of  Electricity,  Dr.  Oliver  J.  Lodge,  F.  R.  S.,  8, 
105,  322,  344,  366 

Modigliani  (E.),  on  Nias,  17 

Mohn  (Dr.  H.),  Fog  Bow  and  UUoa's  Ring,  391 

Mohn  and  Hildebrandsson  (MM,),  Thunderstorms  of  Scan- 
dinavia, 614 

Moissan  (M.),  New  Fluorides  of  Potassium,  422 

Molecular  Forces,  the  Range  of,  Prof.  A.  W.  Riicker,  F.R.S., 

405 
Molecular  Weights  of  Substances,  Prof.  Victor  Meyer,  443 
Mollusca  and  Arthropoda,  the  Coelom  and  the  Vascular  System 

of.  Prof.  Ray  Lankester,  F,R.S.,  498 
Monck  (W.  H,  S.),  a  New  Historic  Comet?  393 
Mongolian  Epics  of  Hesser-Khan,   Discovery  of  a  Manuscript 

containing  a  Tibetan  Version  of  the,  209 
Monian  System,  the,  by  Rev.  J.  F.  Blake,  526 
Monkey's  Brain  :  Functions  of  the.  Dr.  Sanger  Brown  and  Prof. 
E.  A.   Schafer,  F.R.S.,  214;   on  Electrical  Excitation  of, 
Prof.  Schafer,  F.R.S.,  574 
Monocotyledonous  Products,  Museum  of,  470 
Monsoons,  by  Hon.  Ralph  Abercromby,  469 
Mookerjee  (Nidhiram),  and  Pisciculture  in  Bengal,  494 
Moon,  Total  Eclipse  of  the,  286,  306,  333,  495  ;  Otto  Boedicker, 

318 
Moonlight,  Vegetation  and,  D.  E.  Hutchins,  275 
Morality  and  Utility,   Geo.  Payne  Best,  Prof.  Geo.  J.  Romanes, 

290 
Morgan  (C.  Lloyd),  on  Animal  Biology,  484 
Morison  (John),  Untimely  Insect  Development,  321 
Morphological   Changes   in   Blood   during   Coagulation,    Prof. 

Haycraft  and  Dr,  Carlier,  527 
Morphology,  Vertebrate,  a  Study  in.  Dr.  J.  Beard,  224 
Morris   (D.) :    Alexipharmic    Plants,    257;    the   Dispersion  of 

Seeds  and  Plants,  466 
Mors,  in  Denmark,  Farm  struck  by  Lightning  at,  64 
Morse  (Samuel  F.    B.)  and  Thomas    A.    Edison,  Van    Buren 

Denslow  and  Jane  M.  Parker,  199 
Morton  (G,  H.),  Ffynnon  Beuno  and  Cae  Gwyn  Caves,  32 
Moths  of  India,  Catalogue  of  the,  E.  C.  Cotes  and  Colonel  C. 

Swinhoe,  H.  J.  Elwes,  386 
Mott  (F.  T.),  on  Foreign  Plants  available  for  Acclimatization  in 

England,  35. 
Mound- Exploration,  Cyrus  Thomas,  615 
Mount  Kilimanjaro,  Dr.  H.  Meyer's  Ascent  of,  354 
Mount  Loa  Craters,  History  of  the  Changes  in  the,  163  ;  James 

D.  Dana,  5(X) 

Mount  Obree,  Height  of,  354 

Mount  Vernon,  Illinois,  Cyclone  at,  399 

Mountain  Building,  Experimeats  in,  Henry  M.  Cadell,  488 

Moureaux  (Th.),  a  New  Magnetic  Survey  of  France,  Prof.  T. 

E.  Thorpe,  F.R.S.,  247 

Mouth,  the  Old,  and  the  New,  a  Study  in  Vertebrate  Morpho- 
logy, Dr.  J.  Beard,  224 

Muir  (M.  M.  Pattison)  :  Lehrbuch  der  Allgemeinen  Chemie, 
Dr.  Wilh.  Ostwald,  241  ;  and  Douglas  Carnegie,  Practical 
Chemistry,    265,     318 ;     and     Charles     Slater,    Elementary 

'■  Chemistry,  265  ;  the  Teaching  of  Elementary  Chemistry, 
466 

Muir  (Thos.),  an  Incorrect  Footnote  and  its  Consequences, 
246,  438 

Miiller  (Prof.  F.  Max),  Language  =  Reason,  323,  412 


Miiller-Erzbach  (Dr. ),  on  Determination  of  Mean  Temperature, 
528 

Multicellular  Plants,  on  the  Growth  and  Origin  of,  Geo.  Massee, 
163 

Munro  and  Jamieson,  Electrical  Rules  and  Tables,  443 

Murray  (Donald),  Periodic  Law,  247 

Murray  (John) :  Height  and  Volume  of  the  Dry  Land  and  the 
Depth  and  Volume  of  the  Ocean,  239,  286  ;  Coral  Formations, 
414,  438 ;  Temperature  and  Currents  in  Scottish  Lochs,  479 

Muscle,  Striped  and  Unstriped  in  the  Animal  Kingdom, 
Structure  and  Distribution  of,  C.  F.  Marshall,  23 

Museum,  Colonial,  of  New  Zealand,  568 

Museum,  Dublin  Science  and  Art,  186 

Museum  of  Mineralogy  at  Redruth,  Proposed,  299 

Music  in  Nature,  W.  F.  Goodwin,  151 

Mussels,  Dr.  Rawitz  on  the  Eyes  of,  480 

Mussulman  Women,  Consulting  Hospiial  for,  at  Tashkend,  64 

Muzzling  of  Oysters,  W.  Mattieu  Williams,  585 

Myers  (A,T.),  Index-Catalogue  to  the  Library  of  the  Surgeon- 
General's  Office,  United  States  Army,  292 

Myxinoid  Fishes,  the  Teeth  of.  Dr.  J.  Beard,  499 


Nadir,  New  Mercury-Bath  for  the  Observation  of  the,  551 
Naegeli  (Prof.  Carl),  and  Prof.  S.  Schwendener,  the  Microscope 

in  Theory  and  Practice,  Dr.  W,  H.  Dalhnger,  F.R.  S.,  171 
Nansen  (Dr.  Fridtjof),  Proposal  to  cross  the  Interior  of  Green- 
land on  "  Ski"  =  Snow-runners,  138,  423 
Naphtha  Spring  near  Balachany,  88 
Naphthalene  Derivatives,  New,  Leon  Roux,  156 
Naphthol  as  an  Antiseptic,  Ch.  Bouchard,  24 
Natal  Observatory  Report  for  1886,  158 
National  Smoke  Abatement  Institution,  356 
Natural    Gas,   Paper    by  J.    D.   Weeks,    issued  by  the    U.S. 

Geological  Survey,  422 
Natural  History  Museum,  Interesting    Collection  presented  to, 

by  F.  J,  Jackson,  33 
Natural  History  :  H.  N.  Ridley's  Natural  History  Collection  in 
Fernando  Noronha,  119;  Natural  History  CollecHon  from 
Central  Africa  at  the  British  Museum,  207  ;  Catalogue  of  the 
Fossil  Mammalia  in  the  British  Museum,  Richard  Lydekker, 
461  ;  Prize  for  Researches  in  Natural  History,  348  ;  the  Nest 
of  the  Flamingo,  E.  J.  Dunn,  465  ;  Egg  of  Great  Auk  {Alca 
impennis),  474;  Pinus  sylvestris,  by  J.  Clayton,  474; 
Photographing  Flight  of  Birds,  M.  Marey,  474 ;  Butterfly, 
Summer,  492 ;  Mango  Weevil,  492 ;  Natural  History  in 
Southern  Germany,  by  E.  E.  Austen,  519  ;  Report  of  Rugby 
School  Society,  519;  in  Southern  Germany,  519;  Natural 
History  of  Victoria,  533 
Natural  Law  of  Relation  between  Rainfall  and  Vegetable  Life 

and  its  Application  to  Australia,  F.  A.  Velschow,  519 
Natural  Philosophy,  Class  Experiments,  Magnus  Maclean,  612 
Natural   Science    and  the   Woolwich    Examinations,    Rev.    A. 

Irving,  389  ;  Henry  Palin  Gurney,  415 
Nature,  Music  in,  W.  L.  Goodwin,  151 
Nautical  Almanac  Office,  American,  Prof.  Newcomb,  381 
Navelle  (M.),  Account  by,  of  a  Journey  in  Annam,  16 
Navigation  and  Nautical  Astronomy,  W.  R.  Martin,  582 
Nebulae,  New,  discovered  in  the  Pleiades  by  means  of  Photo- 
graphy, 551 
Needles,   Instability  of  Freshly-Magnetized,   Prof.    Francis  E. 
Nipher,  77,  392;  Prof.  Arthur  W,  Riicker,   F.R.S.,  77;  G. 
M,  Whipple,  128 
Nef  (Dr.  J.  U.),  Carboxy-derivatives  of  Quinone,  551 
Nelson  (E.  M.),  Recent  Improvements  in  Microscopy,  166 
Nerves,  Sawyer's  Experiments  as  to  Existence  of  Separation  of 

Irritability  and  Conducting  Power  in,  Prof.  Gad,  576 
Nervous  System  and  the  Mind,  a  Treatise  on  the  Dynamics  of 

the  Human  Organism,  Charles  Mercier,  578 
Nest  of  the  Antennarius  marmoratus,  on  the,  M.  L.  Vaillant, 

208 
New  England  Marine  Biological  Laboratory,  the  Proposed,  379 
New  Guinea :  Exploration  in,  38 ;  Mr.  Strachan's  Explorations 

of,  302 
New    South   Wales:    Tebbutt's  Observatory,    Windsor,    400; 

Report  on  Fisheries  of,  494 
New  York  Academy  of  Sciences,  494 
New  York,  the.  Agricultural  Station,  524 
New  York,  Teachers  employed  in  the  State  of,  398 
New  Zealand,  Museum  of,  568 


Nature,  June  7,  iS 


INDEX 


XXlll 


New  Zealand  Scale  Insects,  an  Account  of,  W.  M.  Maskell, 

125 
Newberry  (J.  S.))  on  the  Decorative  Ideas  of  the  Ancient  In- 
habitants of  Central  America,  64 
Newcastle-on-Tyne :  Bath  Lane  Science  and  Art  School,  15; 

Public  Library  of,  140 
Newcomb  (Prof.),  American  Nautical  Almanac  Office,  381 
Newton  (E.  T.),  on  the  Skull,  Brain,  and  Auditory  Organ  of  a 

New  Species  of  Pterosaurian  {Scaphognathus  rurdoni)  from 

the  Upper  Lias  near  Whitby,  Yorkshire,  598 
Newton's  Chromatic  Circle,  G.  Govi  on,  24 
Newton's  "  Frincipia "  :  Prof.   A.   Stoletow,  273;  Celebration 

at  Cambridge  of  the  Bi-Centenary  of  the  Publication  of,  614 
Newton's  Rings,  Dr.  Gumlich,  528 
Newton's  Third  Law,  Force  and.  Dr.  Oliver  J.  Lodge,  F.R.S., 

558 
Nias,  E.  Modigliani  on,  17 
Niblock  (Lieut.,  U.S.N.),  Return  of,  379 
Nice  Observatory,  47 
Nichols  (Prof. ), Tables  of  European  History,  Literature,  Science, 

and  Art  from  a.d.  200  to  i888,  399 
Nicols    (E,    L.):    and   W.    S.    Franklin,    the    Destruction   of 

Passivity  of  Iron  in  Nitric  Acid  by  Magnetization,  358  ;  E, 

H.  S.  Barley  and,  on  Delicacy  of  the  vSense  of  Tasce,  557 
Nicolson  (John  T. ),  Star  of  Bethlehem,  221 
Niesten  (L.),  Total  Solar  Eclipse  of  August  19,  1887,  u8 
Night-Frost,  Method  of  predicting.  Dr.  C.  Lang,  18 
Nipher  (Prof.   P'rancis    E.),  Instability  of    Freshly-Magnetized 

Needles,  77,  392 
Nitric  Acid  :  Behaviour  of  Passive  Iron  towards,  231  ;  on  the 

Electric  Conduct ibility  of  Concentrated,   by   M.    E.    Bouty, 

479 
Nitrogen  Atmospheric,   Relations  of,  with  Vegetable    Humus, 

Th.  Schloesing,  551,  624 
Nitrogen,     Chloride    of:    Explosive    Nature   of,    Prof.    Victor 

Meyer,  349  ;  Researches  as  to  the  Nature  of.  Dr.  Gattermann, 

350 
Nitrogen,  Trichloride  of,  494 

Nordenskjold  (A.  E.),  on  a  Simple  Relation  between  the  Wave- 
lengths of  Spectra,  120 
North  American  Taconic  System,  by  Charles  D.  Walcot,  500 
North   Atlantic    Ocean:    Daily   Synoptic  Charts  of  the,    137; 

Results  of  Meteorological  Observations  for  1°  Squares  of  the, 

398 
Norway :  Meteors  seen  in,  36,  186,  258,  329  ;  First  Appearance 

of  Nut- Crow  in,  258  ;  Expected  Rush  of  Herring  under  the 

West  Coast  of,  64 ;  Lemmings  in,  283  ;  Earthquake  at  Solum, 

329 ;    Deforestation   in,    352  ;    Animals   of   Prey    killed    in, 

616 
Nova  Zembla,  Flora  of,   Herr  Holm's  Report  of,  173 
Nuovo  Giornale  Botanico  Italiano,  163,  500 
Nut-Crow  in  Northern  Norway,  First  Appearance  of,  258 
Nutritive    Function,    Importance   of    the,  in   determining   the 

Distinction  between  Plants  and  Animals,  144 
Nyctiphanes  norvegica,   the  Photosphseria  of,  Rupert  Vallentin 

and  J.  T.  Cunningham,  572 


Oberhausen,  Earthquake  at,  210 

Observatories  :  Nice  Observatory,  47  ;  Lick,  66 ;  Proposed 
Magnetic  Observatory  at  Potsdam,  88  ;  American  Observa- 
tories, 89  ;  Radcliffe  Observatory,  91  ;  Cases  of  St.  Elmo's  Fire 
recorded  at  Ben  Nevis,  1 12  ;  Report  for  i886  of  Natal,  158  ; 
The  Obset-vatory,  187  ;  Proposed  New  Meteorological 
Observatories  in  India,  187  ;  St.  Petersburg  Central  Physical 
Observatory,  231  ;  New  Observatory  in  Vienna,  259  ; 
Mauritius  Observatory,  284  ;  the  Cape  Observatory,  302 ; 
Winkler  Observatory,  302 ;  American  Observatories,  330 ; 
Barometric  Observations  at  Brussels  Observatory,  350 ; 
Perraanent  Observatory  on  the  Summit  of  the  Santis,  351  ; 
Pubhcations  of  Dunsink  Observatory,  353 ;  Rousdon 
Observatory,  353;  Melbouine  Observatory,  381;  Pulkowa, 
Observatory,  400  ;  Wolsingham  Observatory,  400 ;  Tetbutt's 
Observatory,  Windsor,  New  Souih  Wales,  John  Tebbutt, 
400 ;  Harvard  College,  596 

Occultations  of  Stars  by  Planets,  284 

Occultations  of  Stars  by  Planets,  Herr  A.  Berberich,  234 

Ocean  Currents,  Contiguous  to  the  Coast  of  California,  Existing 
Charts  of,  115 

Ocean,  History  of  the.  Prof.  Eduard  Siiss,  354 


Ocean,  Surface  Temperature  of  the.  Prof.  O.  Kriimmel,  156 
Ochsenius  (Dr.    Carl),    Die  Bildung  des  Natronsaltpeters  au» 

Mutterlangensalzcn,  220 
Odessa,  Longitude  of.  Dr.  E.  Becker  and  Prof.  Block,  302 

Odium  Medicum,  289 

Oettingen  (Prof)  :  Explosion  of  a  Mixture  of  Hydrogen  and 
Oxygen  obtained  by  Electrolysis,  311  ;  Interference  of  Elec- 
trical Vibrations  produced  by  the  Electrical  Oscillations  dis- 
covered by  Feddersen  during  the  Spark  Discharge,  408 

O'Gyalla  Spectroscopic  Catalogue,  259 

Oil :  Colza,  Olive,  142  ;  the  Effects  of  Oil  on  Troubled  Waters, 
435  ;  Le  Filage  de  I'Huile,  le  Vice-Amiral  G.  Cloue, 
Captain  W.  J.  L.  Wharton,  F.R.S.,  435  ;  Right  Hon.  Lord 
Justice  Edward  Fry,  F.R.S.,  463 

Olbers'  Comet,  1887,  37,  158,  285;  Herr  Tetens,  114;  Dr. 
Krueger,  Dr.  Lamp,  233 

Oldenburg,  Earthquake  at,  614 

Olive  Oil,  142 

Oliver  (J.  A.  Westwood),  Astronomy  for  Amateurs,  437 

Olivier  (Louis),  on  the  Radiograph,  528 

Olliff  (Sidney),  Giant  Lepidopterous  Larvae  in  Australia,  232 

Omond  (R.  T. ),  Glories,  Halos,  and  Coronae,  518 

Optical  Demonstration  of  Electrical  Stress,  Prof  A.  W, 
Rucker,  F.R.S.,  and  C,  V.  Boys,  407 

Optics  :  Velocity  of  Light,  328 

Orchids,  Semi-double  and  other,  550 

Orebro,  Central  Sweden,  Earthquake  Shock  at,  399 

Organic  Materia  Medica,  a  Text- Book  of,  Prof.  Robert  Bentley, 
460 

Orientalists,  International  Congress  of,  327 

Origin  of  Coral  Reefs  and  Islands,  the  Theories  of  the,  T. 
Mellard  Reade,  54 

Oiigin  of  Species,  Prof,  George  J.  Romanes,  F.R.S.,  486 

Orinoco,  M.  Chaffanjon's  Journey  up  the,  286 

Orissa,  Disastrous  Storm  at,  Prof.  A.  Pedler,  68 

Ornithology :  the  Tweeddale  Collection,  R.  Bowdler  Sharpe, 
13  ;  Geographical  Distribution  of  the  Charadriida?,  Henry 
Seebohm,  35  ;  Proposed  Ornithological  Exhibition  at  Berlin, 
88  ;  First  Appearance  of  Nut-Crow  in  Northern  Norway, 
258;  W.  K.  Parker,  F.R.S.,  on  the  Secondary  Carpals  of 
Carinate  Birds,  333  ;  American  Ornithology,  35 1 ;  Birds  of 
Wiltshire,  Rev.  Alfred  Chas.  Smith,  601 

Ornithorhynchus  paradoxus,  the  Teeth  in  the  Young,  E.  B. 
Poulton,  383 

Oscillations,  Minute,  of  a  Uniform  Flexible  Chain,  Dr.  E. 
Lang,  518 

Ostrau-Witkowitz,  Earthquake  at,  113 

Ostwald  (Dr.  Wilh.),  Lehrbuch  der  Allgemeinen  Chemie,  M. 
M.  Pattison  Muir,  241 

Owen  Stanley  Range,  New  Guinea,  ascended  by  E.  H.  Martin, 

Owen  Stanley  Range,  New  Guinea,  and  H.  O.  Forbes,  421 

Oxford  :  Medical  Education  at,  George  J.  Wilson,  5  ;  Meteoro- 
logy of,  94 ;  Retirement  of  Prof.  Prestwich  from  the  Chair 
of  Geology  at,  397 

Oxidation  under  Voltaic  Influence  of  Metals  not  ordinarily  re- 
garded as  Spontaneously  Oxidizable,  Note  on  the  Develop- 
ment of  Feeble  Currents  by  Purely  Physical  Action,  and  on 
the.  Dr.  C.  R.  Alder  Wright,  F.R.S  ,  and  C.  Thompson, 
213 

Oxides  and  Salts  of  Manganese,  Action  of  Roasting  on  several, 
by  Alex.  Gorgeu,  504 

Oxygen  and  Carbon,  Spectra  of,  compared  with  that  of  the 
Sun,  Prof.  Trowbridge  and  Hutchins,  Dr.  H.  Draper,  Prof. 
J.  C.  Draper,  114 

Oxygen  Carriers,  Prof.  Lothar  Meyer,  138 

Oxygen  and  Hydrogen,  Relative  Densiiies  of.  Lord  Rayleigh» 
F.R.S.,  418 

Oxygen,  Spectra  of,  M.  J.  Janssen,  624  . 

Oxygen  in  the  Sun,  John  Trowbridge  and  C.  C.  Hutchins,  47 

Oxygenated  Mineral  Compounds  free  of  Hydrogen,  Action  of 
the  Tetrachloride  of  Carbon  on,  600 

Oxyhydrogen  Flame,  the  Spectrum  of  the.  Profs.  Liveing  and 
Dewar,  383 

Oyster  Bank,  Proposed,  in  the  Limfjord  in  Jutland,  352  y 
Increase  of  Oyster  Cultivation  in  France,  139;  Oyster- 
Fisheries  on  the  Tasmanian  Coast-line,  Saville  Kent,  139  ; 
Cultivation  of  Oysters,  572  ;  Muzzling  of  Oysters,  W.  Mattieu 
Williams,  585 

Ozeanographie,  Handbuch  der,  315 


XXIV 


INDEX 


[Nature,  Jtine  7,  \X 


Paget,  Sir  James,  Scientific  Study,  442 

Palaeontology  :    Fauna   der   Gaskohle   und  der  Kalksteine   der 

Permformation  Bohmens,  Dr.  Ant.  Fritsch,  244 
Palagi  (Prof.  F.),  Constitution  of  Fogs  and  Clouds,  404 
Palawan,  Return  of  John  Whitehead  from,  iii 
Panama  Canal,  M.  de  Lesseps,  310 
Panorama,  a  Toy,  M.  Benoist,  89 
Paquelin,  (M.),  a  New  Eolipyle,  504 
Parallax  of  Mars,  C.  E.  Stromeyer,  302 
Parallax,  Solar,  on  the  Value  of,  M.  Cruls,  215 
Parameters,  on  the  Number  of,  which  determine  the  Displace- 
ment of  a  Kinematic  Chain,  P.  Somoff,  525 
•Paraxanthin,  Physiological  Action  of.  Dr.  Salomon,  215 
Paris:    Paris  Academy  of  Sciences,   22,  47,  71,  96,   120,   143, 
166,  191,  214,  239,  263,  288,  310,  335,  360,   384,  407,  432, 
45S>  479>  504.  527,  551,  575,  600,  624;  List  of  Successful 
Competitors  for  the  Annual  Prizes,  239  ;  Astronomical  Prizes 
of  the,   259  ;    Paris  Observatory,   Observations  of  the  Minor 
Planets   made   with    the    Great    Meridian    of,    47  ;    Medals 
awarded  by  the  Paris  Geographical  Society,  211  ;  Proposed 
New   Professorship  at  the  Paris  Faculty  of   Sciences,   230  ; 
Proposed  Museum  of  Religions  in  Paris,  233  ;  Paris  Astro- 
nomical   Society,    240 ;   Distribution    of    Prizes,    240  ;    Paris 
Catalogue  of  Astronomy,  569  ;  the  Chair  of   Darwinism  in 
Paris,    256 ;    Defective    Distribution   of    Waterpipes   in    the 
Paris  Medical   School,   258  ;  Rainfall  of  Paris,    M.   Renon, 
542 
Parker  (E.  H.),  the  Japanese  Language,  157 
Parker  (W.   K.,    F.  R.S.),    on  Secondary  Carpals  of  Carinate 

Birds,  333 
Parker  (Prof.  W.  N.),  Models  illustrating  the  Modification  of 

the  Arterial  Arches  in  Vertebrates,  499 
Pasteur  (M. )  :    Bressa  Prize  awarded  to,    327  ;  and  Australian 

Rabbit  Plague,  421 
Pattison  (S.  R.),  Gospel  Ethnology,  293 
Patton  (Dr.  F.  L.)  appointed  President  of  Princeton  College, 

421 
Peabody  Museum    of   American  Archaeology  and  Ethnology, 

Important  Additional  Collections  to  the,  15 
Peaks  of  the  Pyrenees,  M.  Leotard,  493 
Peary  (R.    E.),   Account  of    his  Journey  into  the  Interior  of 

Greenland,  37 
Peddie  (W.):  Transition-Resistance  and  Polarization  at  Platinum 
Surfaces,   383 ;    on   Transition-Resistance    at  the  Surface  of 
Platinum  Electrodes,  and  the  Action  of  Condensed  Gaseous 
Films,  578 ;  on  New  Determinations  of  the  Electric  Resist- 
ance of  Liquids,  527 
Pedler  (Prof.  A.),  Disastrous  Storm  at  Orissa,  68 
Pembry  (M.  S. ),  Weasels  killing  Frogs,  321 
-Pen  and  Pencil  in  Asia  Minor,  William  Cockran,  126 
Pendulum,  Note  on  the  Oscillations  of  a,  produced  by  the  Dis- 
placement of  the  Axis  of  Suspension,  E.  Ronkar,  23 
Pendulum  Seismometers,  Prof.  John  Milne,  570 
Penfield  (S,  L.)  and  E.   B.  Dana,   on  the  CrystaUine  Form  of 

Polianite,  500 
Pengelly  (Prof.  Wm.,  F.R.S.),  Star  of  Bethlehem,  221 
People's  Lectures,  Success  of,  139 
People's  Palace,  Exhibition  of  the  Work  of  London  Apprentices 

at  the,  156 
Perception  of  Colour,  C.  E.  Stromeyer,  79 
Perichaeta,  the  Nephridia  of,  F.  E.  Beddard,  309 
Period  of  Algol,  S.  C.  Chandler,  544 
'Periodic  Law,  Donald  Murray,  247 
Peronospora  of  the  Grape  Vine,  Prof  G.  Cuboni,  525 
Perpetual  Motion,  Prof  Hele  Shaw,  254 
Perpignan  Meteorological  Observatory,  328 
^Perrier  (Edmond),  Star-fish,  504 
Penier  (General),  Death  of,  397 

Perry    (Prof.    John,    F.R.S.),    Storage   of    Electrical   Energy, 
Gustav  Plante,  50  ;  and  Prof.  W.  E.  Ayrton,  on  the  Magnetic 
Circuit  in  Dynamo  Machines,  502 
Perspective,  Hand-book  of,  Henry  A.  James,  509 
Perthshire  Society  of  Natural  Science,  380 
Petermann's  Mitteiiungen,  286 

-Petrography,  Prof.  Von  H.  Rosenbusch,  F,  H.  Hatch,  458 
Petroleum  as  Fuel  for  Marine  Engines,  89 
Petrology,    Prof    Rosenbusch's  Work  on.  Prof.  T.  G.  Bonney, 

F.R.S.,  509,  556 
Pettersen  (Dr.  Karl),  on  the  State  of  Drift-ice  in  the  Arctic 
Seas,  16 


Phenological  Observations  for  1887,  214 

Phenyl-thio-carbimide,  Optical  Properties  of,  H.  G.  Madan, 
165 

Philips'  Handy  Volume  Atlas  of  the  British  Empire,  126 

Phillips  (William),  Manual  of  British  Discomycetes,  340 

Phosphites  of  Ammonia,  48 

Phosphorescent,  on  an  Ancient  Process  for  rendering  Gems  and 
Vitrifications,  M.  Berthelot,  407 

Phosphorescent  Animals  and  Vegetables,  C.  F.  Holder,  411 

Phosphorus  and  Phosphoric  Acid  in  Vegetation,  MM.  Berthelot 
and  G.  Andre,  504 

Photography  :  Experiments  on  Penetration  of  Light  into  Water, 
Pro^  F.  A.  Forel,  88,  575  ;  Photography  in  Colours,  Carey  Lea, 
88;  Proposed  Photographic  Exhibition,  187  ;  Proposed  Lec- 
tures on  Photographic  Chemistry,  Prof  R.  Meldola,  F.R.S., 
231  ;  the  British  Journal,  Photographic  Almanac,  and  Photo- 
grapher's Daily  Companion  for  i88b,  293  ;  Photograph  of 
the  Solar  Eclipse  of  August  19,  311  ;  Photography  Simpli- 
fied, 363  ;  a  Photographic  Objective,  Sir  Howard  Grubb, 
F.R.S.,  439;  a  Treatise  on  Photography,  Captain  Abney, 
F.R. S.,  461  ;  Photographing  the  Flight  of  Birds,  AL  Marey, 
474  ;  Photographic  and  Photo-mechanical  Printing  Processes, 
W.  K.  Burton,  485  ;  New  Nebulce  discovered  in  the  Pleiades 
by  means  of  Photography,  551  ;  the  New  Photographic  Ob- 
jective, Prof.  Edward  C.  Pickering,  558  ;  Photography  in  the 
Determination  of  the  Motions  of  Stars  in  the  Line  of  Sight, 
Dr.  Higgins,  616 

Phylloxera,  New  Remedy  for,  353 

Physical  Chemistry,  Dr.  Wilh.  Ostwald,  M.  M,  Pattison  Muir, 
241 

Physical  Geography  :  Height  and  Volume  of  the  Dry  Land 
and  the  Depth  and  Volume  of  the  Ocean,  John  Murray,  239  ; 
the  Insular  Flora  of  California  in  Relation  to  Physical  Geo- 
graphy, J.  Le  Conte,  358  ;  Recent  Journeys  along  the  Coast 
of  Greenland,  546 

Physical  Science  and  the  Woolwich  Examinations,  296,  319,  385, 

409.  433 

Physical  Society,  119,  165,  216,  407,  453,  502 

Physical  Society  of  Berlin,  455 

Physiography,  Elementary,  by  J.  Thornton,  485 

Physiography,  Elementary  Text-book,  W.  Mawer,  341 

Physiology :  Adenin,  Prof.  Kossel,  168  ;  Mucous  Cells  in  In- 
vertebrates, Dr.  Rawitz,  168  ;  Prof.  Martin's  Method  of 
isolating  the  Mammalian  Heart,  215  ;  Mr.  Seebohm  on 
Physiological  Selection,  Geo.  J.  Romanes,  F.R.S.,  246; 
Physiological  Society  of  Berlin,  336,  480 ;  on  Electrical 
Excitation  of  the  Monkey's  Brain,  Prof.  Schafer,  F.R.  S.,  574  ; 
Comparison  of  Latency  Periods  of  Ocular  Muscles  on  Excita- 
tion of  Brain,  Prof.  Schafer,  F.  R.  S.,  574 

Pickering  (I'rof.  Edward  C),  the  New  Photographic  Objective, 
558 

Pickering  (S.  U.),  Calcium  Chloride,  551 

Pictet's  (Prof),  Experiments  with  his  Ice  Machines,  167 

Pidgeon  (D. ),  a  Green  Fern,  440 

Pieris  rapcB,  on  Colour-relation  between  the  Pupse  of,  and  their 
Immediate  Surroundings,  by  W.  White,  503 

Pile-Dwellings,  Lacustrine  and  Lake  Villages  and,  M.  Pompeo 
Castelfranco,  163 

Pinkerton  (R.  IL),  Dynamics  and  Hydrostatics,  412 

Finns  insignis.  Dispersal  of  the  Seed  in,  550 

Pioneer  of  Allahabad  and  Cyclonic  Storms,  422 

Pisciculture  in  Bengal,  by  Nidhiram  Mookerjee,  494 

Pisciculture  :  the  Black  Boss,  569 

Place-Names,  Dictionary  of,  C.  Blackie,  151 

Planets,  Occultations  of  Stars  by,  284  ;  A.  Berberich,  234  ;  the 
Planet  Mercury,  151  ;  W.  F.  Denning,  178  ;  Observations 
of  the  New,  Peter's  (270),  47;  Names  of  Minor,  114;  New 
Minor,  140,  353,  616 

Plantamour's  Observations  of  Periodic  Ground  Movements,  257 

Plante  (Gaston),  Storage  of  Electrical  Energy,  Prof.  John 
Perry,  F.R.S.,  50 

Planting  Waste  Saline  Tracts,  M.  Maries,  493 

Plants  :  and  Animals,  Importance  of  the  Nutritive  Function  in 
determining  the  Distinction  between,  144  ;  on  the  Growth 
and  Origin  of  Multicellular,  Geo.  Massee,  163  ;  Alexipharmic 
Plants,  D.  Morris,  257  ;  on  the  Anajsthesis  and  Poisoning  of 
Plants,  Dr.  Flaminio  Tassi,  308  ;  Atlas  of  the  Distribution  of 
Plants,  362  ;  on  the  Absorption  of  Saline  Substances  by, 
Berthelot  and  Andre,  527,  551  ;  Dispersion  of  Seeds  and.  Dr. 
Antonio  J.  Amadeo,  535 


Nature,  /iiiie  7,  iJ 


INDEX 


XXV 


Plarr  (Gustave),  Elementos  de  Calculo  de  los  Cuatemiones, 
&c.,  Valentin  Balbin,  145 

Plateau  (Felix),  Researches  on  the  Sense  ot  Vision  in  the 
Anthropods,  118,  308,  525 

Platinum  Batteries,  Improvements  in,  354 

Platinum  under  Electric  Currents,  Cause  of  Emission  of  Solid 
Particles  by,  Dr.  A.  Berliner,  378 

Platinum,  the  Existence  of,  in  the  Solar  Atmosphere,  358 

Pleiades,  New  Nebulae  discovered .  in  the,  by  means  of  Photo- 
graphy, 551 

Pleospora,  Signer  A.  N.  Berlese  on  the  Genus  of  Fungi,  500 

Plesiosaurus,  Discovery  of  Bones  of  the,  at  Pitchery  Creek, 
Central  Queensland,  65 

Poetsch's  (M.)  Method,  Mine-Shaft  successfully  sunk  in  Belgium 
by,  208 

Poison,  Arrow,  Analysis  of  Somali,  Amaud,  575 

Poison,  Native  Method  of  obtaining,  from  the  Strophanthus, 

"3 
Polar  Bear,  Tame,  301 
Polar   Bodies,   Prof.   A.    Weismann's    Theory  of,   G.    Herbert 

Fowler,  134 
Polarization  of   the  Sky,   Effect  of   Snow  on    the,  James  C. 

McConnel,  177 
Pole,  Probable  Temperature  of,  Jules  Girard,  91 
Polianite,  on  the  Crystalline  Form  of,  E.   S.   Dana  and  S.  L. 

Penfield,  500 
Politics  and  the  Presidency  of  the  Royal   Society,  Prof.  Balfour 

Stewart,    F.R.S  ,   76  ;  Prof.    Alex.  W.  Williamson,  F.R.S., 

76;  W.  T.  Thiselton  Dyer,  F.R.S.,  103 
Pollen,  Resistance  of,  to  External  Influences,  494 
Polynesians,  on  the,  their  Origin,  Migrations,  &c.,  MM,  Lesson 

and  Martinet,  164 
Population  of  the  Earth,  24 

Portman  (Maurice),  Explorations  of  the  Andaman  Islands,  330 
Post-Glacial  Insects,  Alfred  Bell,  232 
Potanin's  Observations  on  the  Mobility  of  Loess,  89 
Potanin's  (M.)  Journeys  in  East  Tibet  and  East  Gobi,   141; 

Pension  to,  567 
Potassa  in  Plants,    on   the  State  of  the,    MM.   Berthelot  and 

Andre,  71 
Potassium,   Determination  in  Wave-lengths    of  the  Two  Red 

Rays  of,  H.  Deslandres,  504 
Potsdam,  Proposed  Magnetic  Observatory  at,  88 
Potts  (Edward),    American   Forms   of   Fresh-water   Sponges, 

209 
Poulton(E.  B.):  Colour-Susceptibility  of  Silkworms,  95;  True 

Teeth  in  the  Young  Ornithorhynchus  paradoxus,  383 
Practical  Education,  Chas.  G.  Leland,  562 
Preece  (W.  H.,  F.R.S.),  Coefficient  of  Self-induction  of  Iron 

and  Copper  Telegraph  Wire,  303 
Prehistoric  Animals,  Discovery  of  Bones  of,  in  the  Harz  Moun- 
tains, 329 
Prehistoric  Remains  Committee,  91 
Prehistoric  Times,  the  Baltic  Amber  Coast  in.  Dr.  A.  Lissauer, 

Arthur  J.  fJ vans,  531 
Pressure  of  Mixtures  of  Gases  and  Vapours,  and   on  Dalton's 

Law,  Prof.  G.  Gugliemo  and  V.  Musina,  47 
Preston  (S.  Tolver),  on  some  Apparent  Contradictions  at  the 

Foundations  of  Knowledge,  221 
Prestwich  (Prof.  Joseph,  F.  R.S.):    Greenland  Glaciers,  200; 

Eocene  Strata  in  the  Tertiary  Basins  of  England,   Belgium, 

and  North  of  France,    287  ;  Retirement  of  Prof.    Prestwich 

from  the  Chair  of  Geology  at   Oxford,  397  ;  on  Geology — 

Chemical,  Physical,  and  Stratigraphical,  482 
Princeton  College  and  President  F,  L.  Patton,  421 
"Principia,"  Newton's,  Prof.  A.  Stoletow,  273 
Pringsheim  (Dr.),  Specific  Heat  of  Gases,  216 
Prodromus  of  the  Zoology  of  Victoria,  Prof.  F.  McCoy,  533 
Prolegomena  to  the  Statistics  of  Thought,  A.  Bastian,  387 
Prost  (Eug.),  on  the  Colloidal  Sulphuret  of  Cadmium,  23 
Pryer  (Henry),  Death  and  Obituary  Notice  of,  567 
Przewalski  (General),  Results  of  his  Fourth  Journey  to  Central 

Asia,  38 
Psychology,  Experimental,  113 
Psychology,  M.  Ribot,  College  de  France,  442 
Pterodactyl  Skull,  Fossil,  found  in  the  Yorkshire  Lias,  59S 
Puiseux  (I'.)  and   M.    Loewy,  on  Equatorial  cotidi  lyxi^  Equa- 

torials  in  general,  504,  527 
Pulkowa  Observatory,  400 
Pulverizing  Minerals  for  Analysis,  Mill  for,  65 


Pygmy  Race  from  Central  Africa,  the  Akkas,  a.  Prof.  W.  H, 

Flower,  F.R.S.,  395 
Pyrenees,  Peaks  of  the,  493 
Pyroxene,  Crystals  of,  47 


Quantitative  Analysis  for  Students,  Course  of,  W.  N.  Hartley, 

F.R.S.,  271 
Quantitative  Chemical  Analysis,  Exercises  in,  W.  Dittmar,  174 
Quarterly  Journal  of  Microscopical  Science,  22,  572 
Quaternions  :  Balbin's,  Gustave  Plarr,  145  ;  Prof.  W.  Steadman 

Aldis,  535 
Quinone,  Carboxy-derivatives  of,  Dr.  J.  U.  Nef,  551 


Rabbits,  Australian,  and  M,  Pasteur,  421 

Rabies  :  Persistence  of  Virus  in  Dead  Bodies  of,  V.   Galtier, 

360  ;  Experiments  on  Inoculation  against,  624  ;  among  Deer, 

440 
Rack-Railway  at  Langres,  France,  328 
Radcliffe,  Oxford,  Observatory,  91 
Radiation,   New  Instrument  for  the   Measurement  of,   C.   C, 

Hutchins,  358 
Radiograph,  on  the,  by  Louis  Olivier,  528 
Rae  (Dr.  J.,  F.R.S.),  is  Hail  so  Formed?  344 
Raft,  Logs  of  Abandoned,  492 
Railway  :  Gore's,  Prof.  Oliver  J.  Lodge,   F.R.S.,   128;  Rack, 

at  Langres,  France,  328 
Rain,  Falling,  Theory  of  the  Outflow  o£  Air  under,  H.  Allen, 

18 
Rainbow,  an  Unusual,  H.  M.  Andrew,  464 
Rainfall  on  and  around  Table  Mountain,  J.  G.  Gamble,  143  ; 

of  Ceylon,    187  ;    of   Spain,   Dr.    Hellmann,   312 ;    of   the 

American  Plains,  328  ;  Measure  of,  in  Dutch  East  Indies, 

351  ;  of  Paris,  M.  Renon,  542 
Ramsay  (Prof.  W.),  Cause  of  Colour- Blindness,  65 
Rameswaram  Island,  the  Fish-Fauna  of,  Edgar  Thurston,  380 
Range  of  Molecular  Force,  the.   Prof.  A.  W.  Riicker,  F.R.S., 

405 
Ranidse,  Classification  of  the,  by  G.  A.  Boulenger,  526 
Rankine  (A.),  the  Thermal  Windrose  at  the  Ben  Nevis  Ob- 
servatory, 518 
"Raphides,"  on  the  Significance   of  those  Excreta  of  Plants 

known  as,  Herr  Stahl,  209 
Rats,  the  Chewing  Movements  in.  Prof.  Gad,  576 
Rawitz(Dr.)  :  Mucous  Cells  in  Invertebrates,  168  ;  on  the  Eyes 

of  Mussels,  480 
Rayleigh  (Lord,  F.R.S.),  on  the  Relative  Densities  of  Hydrogen 

and  Oxygen,  418 
Reade  (T.  Mellard)  :  Theories  of  the  Origin  of  Coral  Reefs  and 

Islands,    54 ;    Coral    Formations,    488,    535  ;   a   Mechanical 

Cause  of  the  Lamination  of  Sandstone  not  hitherto  noticed, 

222  ;  an  Estimate  of  Post-Glacial  Time,  478  ;   Toeing   and 

Heeling  at  Golf,  31 
Reale  Istituto  Lombardo,  572 
Reason,  a  Treatise  on  the  Principle  of  Sufficient,  Mrs.  P.  T. 

Fitzgerald,  30 
Reason  and  Language,  Dr.   St.  George  Mivart,   F.R.S.,  364, 

462 
Reason  =  Language,  Prof.  F.  Max  Miiller,  412 
Recalescence  of  Iron,  H.  Tomlinson,  165 
Reciprocal  Influence  of  Organs  of  Sense,  Experiments  on  the, 

Herr  Urbanschitsch,  157 
Reciprocants,  Theory  of.  Prof.  J.  J.  Sylvester,  F.R.S.,  71^ 
Reclus  (M.    Elisee),    Contributions   to   the   Sociology^;  of   the 

Australians,  163 
Red  After-Glow  observed  in  the  Vicinity  of  Stockholm,  399 
Red  Deer,  Horns  of  the,  found  in  the  Duddon  Estuary,  543 
Redruth,  Proposed  Museum  of  Mineralogy  at,  299 
Redwood  (Boverton)  and  Alfred  Gordon  Salamon,  Institute  of 

Chemistry,  393 
Refraction  Double  Dielectric,  R.  Blondlot,  360 
Reichenhall,  Archaeological  Explorations  near,  1 12 
Reid  (W.  G.),  Solution  of  Carbonate  of  Lime  in   Sea- Water, 

4795 
Relations,  the,  between  Geology  and   the  Biological  Science?, 

Prof.  John  W.  Judd,  F.R.S.,  424 
Reliktenseen,  Prof.  R.  Credner,  496 
Remnants  or  Vestiges  of  Amphibian  and  Reptilian  Structures 

found  in  the  Skulls  of  Birds,  W.  K,  Parker,  F.R.S.,  501 


XXVI 


INDEX 


[Nature,  June  7,  i5 


Remsen  (Ira),  Elements  of  Chemistry,  317 

Rendiconti  del  Reale  Istituto  Lombardo,  404,  500 

Renon  (M.):  Observations   of   Fog,    282;    Rainfall  of  Paris, 

542 
Resal  (M.  H.),  Traite  de  Physique  Mathematique,  504 
Researches  on  the  Influence  of  Magnetism  and  Temperature  on 

the  Electric  Resistance  of  Bismuth  and  its  Alloys  with  Lead 

and  Tin,  Ed.  van  Aubel,  525 
Respiratory  Combustions,   Influence  of  Sleep  on,  L.  de  Saint 

Martin,  167 
Revenue  Method   of  Estimating   and  Charging  the  Duty"  on 

Spirits,  481 
Revue  d'Anthropologie,  163,  477 
Reymond  (Dr.  C.  du  B.),  Photography  of  the  Pupil  of  the  Eye 

when  in  Darkness,  576 
Reynolds    (J.   Emerson),    Experimental    Chemistry  for  Junior 

Students,  388 
Rhodium,  on  the  Sesquichloride  of,  600 
Ribot  (T.),  and  the   Chair   of  Psychology   at   the   College  de 

France,  421,  442 
Ricco   (Prof.    Annibale),    on   the   Crepuscular   Phenomena   of 

1883-84,  118 
Richards  (F.  T.),  Romantic  Love  and  Personal  Beauty,  H.  T. 

Finck,  149 
Richthofen  (Ferdinand  Freiherr  von),  Flihrer  fiir  Forschungs- 

reisende — Anleitungen  zu  Beobachtungen  iiber  Gegenstande 

der  Physischen  Geographie  und  Zoologie,  603 
Ridewood  (Mr.)  and  Prof.  G.    B.   Howes,   on  the  Carpus  and 

Tarsus  of  the  Anura,  503 
Ridley's   (H.    N.)    Natural    History    Collection    in    Fernando 

Noronha,  119 
Riecke  (Profs.  Mayer  and).  New  Properties  of  Carbon  Atoms, 

567 

Riggs  (R.  B.),  Tourmaline,  358 

Rimington  (E.   C),   Measurement  of    Power  given  to  Trans- 
former, 502 

Rings,  Fairy,  J.  Sargeant,  151 

Rio  de  Janeiro,  Imperial  Observatory  of,  Annuario  published  by, 

399 
Rio  del  Rey,  Dr.  Zintgraff' s  Start  for,  354 
Rio  Doce  and  its  Northern  Tributaries,  Brazil,  W.  J.  Steains, 

285 
Rittinghaus  (Herr),    on  the   Resistance  of  Pollen   to  Various 

External  Influences,  494 
Rivista  Scientifico-Industriale,  47,  118,  308,  404,  525,  573 
Roberts  (Ralph  A.),  a  Treatise  on  the  Integral  Calculus,  75 
Roberts- Austen  (Prof.  Chandler) :  on  the  Impossibility  of  separ- 
ating Elements  of  Alloys  by  means  of  Electric  Currents,  303  ; 

Mechanical  Properties  of  Certain  Alloys,  497 
Robinson  (F.  C),  Northford  Meteorite,  500 
Robinson  (Henry),  Green  Colouring-matter  of  Decaying  Wood, 

536 
Rockwood  Meteorite,  the,  163 
Rohde  (R.  T.),  a  Practicable  Decimal  System,  493 
Romanes  (Geo.  J.,   F.R.S.):  Mr.    Seebohm  on   Physiological 

Selection,  246 ;  elected  FuUerian  Professor  of  Physiology  at 

the  Royal  Institution,  282  ;  Morality  and  Utility,  Geo.  Payne 

Best,  290;  Ethical  Import  of  Darwinism,  Jacob  Gould  Schur- 

man,  290  ;  Dr.  Whewell's  Origin  of  Species,  486 
Romantic  Love  and  Personal   Beauty,   H.    T.   Finck,  F.    T. 

Richards,  149 
Ronkar  (E.),  Note  on  the  Oscillations  of  a  Pendulum  produced 

by  the  Displacement  of  the  Axis  of  Suspension,  23 
Roscoe  (Sir  Henry,  F.R.S.)  :  and  Woolwich.  Examinations  in 

Physical  Science,  409  ;  a  Treatise  on  Chemistry,  460 
Rosenberg  (W.)  :  Dependence  of  the  Colour  of  Bodies  on  the 

Angle  of  Incidence  of  the  Rays  of  Light,  525 
Rosenbusch  (Prof,   von  H.) :  Petrography,  by  F.    H.    Hatch, 

458  ;  Work  on  Petrology,  509  ;  Prof.  T.  G.  Bonney,  F.R.S., 

556 
Roses,  Attar  of.  Production  of,  in  Bulgaria,  616 
Rosicrucians,  the  Real  History  of  the,  -Arthur  Edward  Waite, 

193 
Ross  (James  G.),  Coral  Formations,  461,  584 
Rousdon  Observatory,  353 
Rousseau  (Emile),  Death  of,  378 
Roux  (Leon),  New  Naphthalene  Derivatives,  156 
Rovelli  (Prof.   Costantino),    Crepuscular    Hints   in    connection 

with  the  Hygrometric  State  of  the  Atmosphere,  404 
Royal  Asiatic  Society,  Straits  Branch,  257 


Royal  Geographical  Society,  285  ;  Douglas  W.  Freshfield  on  a 
Visit  to  the  Caucasus,  496  ;  Founder's  Medal  awarded  to 
Clements  R.  Markham,  F.R.S. ,  617;  Royal  Medal  awarded 
to  lyieut.  Wissmann,  617 

Royal  Horticultural  Society,  l6l,  378,  550;  Dr.  Maxwell  T. 
Masters,  F.R.S.,  176 

Royal  Institution,  87,  257 ;  G.  J.  Romanes  elected  Fullerian 
Professor  of  Physiology  at  the,  282  ;  Right  Hon.  Sir  William 
R.  Grove,  F.R.S.,  Lecture  on  Antagonism,  617 

Royal  Meteorological  Society,  143,  257,  309,  378,  454,  526  ; 
Presidential  Address,  310  ;  Proposed  Exhibition  of  Apparatus 
connected  with  Atmospheric  Electricity,  349 

Royal  Microscopical  Society,  166,  359,  431,  574;  President's 
Annual  Address,  Rev.  Dr.  Dallinger,  F.R.S.,  448 

Royal  Society,  142,  164,  186,  190,  213,  287,  308,  333,  358, 
383,  404,  430,  452,  478,  501,  525,  550,  573,  598,  623  ; 
Politics  and  the  Presidency  of  the  Royal  Society,  Prof. 
Balfour  Stewart,  F.R.S.,  76  ;  Prof.  Alexander  W.  Williamson, 
F.R.S.,  76  ;  W.  T.  Thiselton  Dyer,  F.R.S.,  103  ;  Anniversary 
Meeting  of.  Address  by  the  President,  115  ;  List  of  Names 
for  Election,  33 

Royal  Society  of  New  South  Wales,  301 

Royal  University  of  Ireland,  Calendar,  473  ;  Examination 
Papers,  519 

Riicker  (Prof.  Arthur  W.,  F.R.S.) :  Instability  of  Freshly-Mag- 
netized Needles,  77  ;  on  the  Constant  P  in  Observations 
of  Terrestrial  Magnetism,  127,  272  ;  Botanists  and  the  Micro- 
millimetre,  388 ;  the  Range  of  Molecular  Forces,  405  ; 
and  C.  V.  Boys,  on  the  Optical  Demonstration  of  Electrical 
Stress,  407 

Runic  Inscription,  Discovery  of  Gold  Armlet  with,  on  the 
Island  of  Fredoen,  283 

Runic  Stone  with  Inscription,  Discovery  of,  in  Sweden,  283 

Russia  :  Meteorology  in,  19  ;  Tigers  found  in  Parts  of  Asiatic 
and  European  Russia,  36 ;  Proposed  Commission  to  observe 
Earthquakes  in,  88  ;  Storm-Signals  in,  91  ;  Meteorological 
Observations  on  Russian  Men-of-war,  187 ;  Russian  Geo- 
graphical Society,  570  ;  Russian  Zoological  Station  at  Villa- 
franca,  566  ;  Technical  Education  in,  566  ;  Cultivation  of  the 
Cotton  Tree  in,  595 

Ruthenium,  Researches  on,  28S 

Rutin  and  Quercitrin,  Supposed  Identity  of,  Dr.  E.  Schunck, 
F.R.S  ,  406 

Rutley  (Frank),  Mineralogy,  245 

Rykatschew  (Cilpt.),  Winds  and  Pressure  of  Casjiian  Sea,  257 


Saccharomyces  ellipsoideus,  on,  by  M.  Georges  Jacquemin,  479 

Sailor's  Sky  Interpreter,  the,  S.  R.  Elson,  5 

St.  Elmo's  Fire,  Cases  of,  recorded  at  Ben  Nevis  Observatory, 

112 
Saint- Martin   (L.  de).  Influence  of  Sleep  on  Respiratory  Com- 
bustion, 167 
St.  Petersburg,  Central  Physical  Observatory,  231 
Salamon  (Alfred  Gordon),  and  Boverton  Redwood,  Institute  of 

Chemistry,  393 
Saline  Deposits,  Dr.  Carl  Ochsenius,  220 
Saline    Sul)stances,    on    the    Absorption   of,  by    Plants,    MM. 

Berthelot  and  Andre,  527,  551 
Saline  Tracts,  Planting  Waste,  493 
Salmonidse,  British  and  Irish  :  Dr.  Francis  Day,  242,  296,  366, 

321  ;  Your  Reviewer,  366 
Salomon  (Dr.),  Physiological  Action  of  Paraxanthin,  215 
Salomons  (Sir  D.),  Management  of  Accumulators,  485 
Salt  Industry  in  the  United  States,  Geo.  P.  Merrill,  558 
Salts  of  Aniline,  on  some,  48 

Salts  of  Cobalt,  Action  of  Sulphuretted  Hydrogen  on,  24 
Salts,  Experiments  on  Saturation  Weights  of,  M.  Umoff,  542 
San  Domingo,  Excursion  into  the  Unknown  Interior  of.  Baron 

H.  Eggers,  545 
Sandstone,   a   Mechanical    Cause    of    the   Lamination  of,    not 

hitherto  noticed,  T.  Mellard  Reade,  222 
Sanitary  Assurance  Association,  380 

Sanitary  Institute  of  Great  Britain,  Transactions  of  the,  535 
Sanitation,  Sociological  Aspects  of,  232 
Santis,  Permanent  Observatory  on  the  Summit  of  the,  351 
Sargeant  (J.),  Fairy  Rings,  151 
Saturn:  on  the  Mass  of  the  Planet,  L.  de  Ball,  118;  Ph3rsical 

Observations  on,  Paul  Stroobant,  308 
Saturn's  Rings,  Variability  of,  407 


Nature,  /nne  7,  18S8] 


INDEX 


XXVll 


Saville-Kent,  Oyster  Fisheries  on  theTasmanian  Coast-line,  139 

Sawyer,  on  the  New  Algol- Variable,  Y  Cygni,  37 

Sawyer  (Edwin),  Ob;ervations  of  Variable  Stars,  545 

Sawyer's  Experiments  as  to  Existence  of  Separation  of  Irrita- 
bility and  Conducting  Power  in  Nerves,  Prof.  Gad,  576 

Scandinavia,  Thunderstorms  of,  MM.  Mohnand  Ilildebrandsson, 
614 

Scarcity  of  Water,  Threatened,  Chas.  Harding,  375 

SchJifer  (Prof.,  F.R.S. )  :  Comparison  of  Latency  Periods  of 
Ocular  Muscles  on  Excitation  of  Brain,  574 ;  on  Electrical 
Excitation  of  the  Monkey's  Brain,  574 

Scharff,  Dr.  R.  F.,  186 

Schjellerup  (Prof.  H.  C.  F.  C),  Obituary  Notice  of,  J.  L.  E. 
Dreyer,  154 

Schlagintweit  (Adolf),  Memorial  to,  64 

Schloesing  (Th.)  :  on  the  Relations  of  Atmospheric  Nitrogen 
with  Vegetable  Humus,  528,  551  ;  Relations  of  Atmospheric 
Nitrogen  to  Vegetable  Soil,  624 

Schmidt  (Dr.  Maximilian),  Death  of,  378 

Schmidt  (Prof.  Oscar)  Method  of  Artificial  Propagation  of 
Sponges,  595 

Schneider  (Dr.),  a  New  Compound  of  Arsenic,  258 

School  Boards  of  England  and  Wales  and  Technical  Instruction 
Bill,  421 

Schools  :  Electricity  for,  W,  Larden,  217  ;  Science  in  Element- 
ary, 279  ;  Proposed  Sanitary  Reforms  in  Public  Schools  at 
Baltimore,  U.S.A.,  379 

Schorlemmer  (C,  F.R.  S.),  a  Treatise  on  Chemistry,  460 

Schott  (C.  A.),  Davidson's  Discovery  of  Records  of  the  Mag- 
netic Declaration,  A.D.  1714,  379 

Schurman  (Jacob  Gould),  Ethical  Import  of  Darwinism,  Prof. 
Geo.  J.  Romanes,  F.R. S. ,  290 

Schuster  (Dr.  Max),  Death  of,  ill 

Schwendener  (Prof.  S.)  and  Prof.  Carl  Naegeli,  the  Microscope 
in  Theory  and  Practice,  Dr.  W.  H.  Dallinger,  F.R.S.,  171 

Schwerin  (Baron  von).  Ethnographical  Objects,  442 

Schwerin  (Dr.),  Discovery  at  the  Mouth  of  the  River  Congo,  65 

Science  :  Scientific  Voyage  of  the  Hirondelle,  24  ;  Prof.  Stokes's 
Speech  on,  1 1 1  ;  the  Art  of  Computation  for  the  Purposes  of 
Science,  Sydney  Lupton,  237,  262  ;  Prof.  W.  Ramsay  and 
Dr.  Sydney  Young,  294  ;  Science  in  Elementary  Schools, 
279  ;  the  Duke  of  Argyll's  Charges  against  Men  of  Science, 
Prof.  John  W.  Judd,  F.R. S.,  317  ;  Physical  Science  and  the 
Woolwich  Examinations,  296,  319,  385,  389,  409,  415,  433  ; 
Natural  Science  and  the  Woolwich  Examinations,  Rev.  A, 
Irving,  389  ;  Scientific  and  General  Education,  Prof.  Fleeming 
Jenkin  on,  435  ;  Scientific  Study,  Sir  James  Paget,  442  ; 
Science  Fund,  Elizabeth  Thompson,  492  ;  Science  Sketches, 
David  Starr  Jordan,  535  ;  Science  Teaching  at  South  Kens- 
ington, 553 ;  Home  Experiments  in  Science,  T.  O'Conor 
Sloane,  556  ;  Scientific  Progress  in  Elementary  Schools,  577 

Scotland:  t^cottish  Geographical  Magazine,  37,  286;  Scottish 
University  Extension  Scheme,  64 ;  Journal  of  the  Scottish 
Meteorological  Society,  68  ;  Fishery  Board  for  Scotland,  Fifth 
Annual  Report  of,  132  ;  Scottish  Fishery  Board,  and  Arctic 
Seal  FisherieSj  399 ;  Technical  Education  in,  349  ;  Earthquake 
Jn,  350 

Scott  (Alexander),  the  Composition  of  Water  by  Volume,  439 

Scott  (E.  Erskine),  the  Art  of  Computation  for  the  Purposes  of 
Science,  319 

Scott  (Robert  H.,  F.R.S.)  :  Earthquake  at  the  Bahamas,  54; 
British  and  Atlantic  Weather,   350 ;    International  Tables, 

Scyphomedusse,  Dr.  von  Lendenfeld,  399 

Sea:  Wind  Force  at,  Capt,  David  Wilson-Barker,  274; 
Physical  Geography  of,  Hon.  Ralph  Abercromby,  315 

Sea-sickness,  Anfipyrine  a  Remedy  for,  Eugene  Dupuy,  96 

Seebohm  (M. ),  on  Physiological  Selection,  Geo.  J.  Romanes, 
F.R.S.,  246 

Seeds  and  Plants,  the  Dispersion  of,  by  D.  Morris,  466  ;  Dr. 
Antonio  J.  Amadeo,  535 

Seeman  (AI.),  on  Storm  Warnings  issued  by  the  New  York 
Herald,  18 

Seismology  :  Earth  Tremors  and  the  Wind,  Prof.  John  Milne, 
F.R.S.,  214  ;  Plantamour's  Observations  of  Periodic  Ground- 
Movements,  257  ;  Model  of  an  Earthquake,  Prof.  Sekiya, 
297 ;  Speed  of  Charleston  Earthquake,  Newcomb  and 
Dutton,  358  ;  Earth  Tremors  in  Central  Japan,  Prof.  Milne, 
399  ;  a  Paper  on  Earthquakes  in  general,  together  with  a 
New  Theory  of  their  Origin,  developed  by  the  Introduction 


of  Submarine  Telegraphy,  by  W.  G.  Forster,  523  ;  Reports 

on  Earthquakes  in  Sweden,  543  ;  Earthquake  Sounds,  Prof. 

Milne,  543 
Seismometers,  Pendulum,  Prof.  John  Milne,  570 
Sekiya  (Prof.),  Model  of  an  Earthquake,  297 
Self-induction,  Dr.  Oliver  J.  Lodge,  F.R.S.,  605 
Semmola  (Prof.    Eugenio),  on  the  Heating  of  Metallic  Points 

when  discharging,  308 
Semsey  (Herr  Andor),  and  Natural  Science  Society  of  Budapest, 

492 
Sensation,  the  Objective  Cause  of,  by  Prof.  Haycraft,  518 
Sense,  Organs  of.   Experiments  on  the  Reciprocal  Influence  of, 

Herr  Urbanschitsch,  157 
Sense  and  Senses  of  Animals,  Sir  John  Lubbock,  210 
Sense  of  Taste,  Delicacy  of  the,   E.  H,  S.  Bailey   and  E.  L. 

Nicols,  557 
Serum,  a  New  Artificial,  Mayet,  96 
Sesquichloride  of  Rhodium,  600 
Seton  (George),    on   Illegitimacy   in   the  Parish   of  Mamoch,^ 

527 
Sewage,  Treatment  by  Electricity  of,  355 
Sexual  Reproduction  of  Millepora  plicata,  the,  Dr.  Sydney  J. 

Hickson,  164 
Shadow  of  a  Mist  :  W.  Fawcett,  224  ;  Rev.  Henry  Bernard,  392 
Sharpe   (R.    Bowdler)  :   the   Tweeddale   Collection,   13  5  New 

Species  of  Birds  from  Guadalcanar,  503 
Shattock  (S.  G.),   Scars  occurring  on  the   Stem   of  Dammara 

robust  a,    119 
Shaw    (Prof.   Hele)  :    Technical    Education,    43  ;     Perpetual 

Motion,  254 
Shaw  (W.  N.),  Report  on  Hygrometric  Methods,  404 
Shea  (D.  W.),  Calibration  of  an -Electrometer,  500 
Sheat-Fish,  the  Detent  Joint  of,  336 
Shells,  New  Species  of,  by  G.  B.  Sowerby,  526 
Sherborn  (Chas.  Davies),  an  "Instructive"  Bibliography  of  the 

Foraminifera,  583 
Shettle  (Dr.  R.  C.),  on  the  Rotation  of  a  Copper  Sphere,  166 
Shirenewton    Hall,    Chepstow,  Extraordinary  Fog  in  January 

1888  at,  E.  J.  Lowe,  F.R.S.,  294 
Shufeldt  (R.  W.),  the  Leaps  of  Lepus,  247 
Siam,  J.  McCarthy  on,  66 

Siberia,  Eastern,  Creation  of  Provincial  Museums  in,  65 
Siberian  Islands,  the  New,  522 
Sidgwick  (Alfred),  a  Short  Introduction  to  the  Study  of  Logic, 

Lawrence  Johnstone,  175 
Sieg  (Dr.),  Capillary  Constants  of  Drops  and  Bubbles,  167 
Sieger  (Dr.  Robert),  Changes  of  Level  in  the  African  Lakes, 

.354 
Siemens's  Gas-Burners,  136 
Sierra  Nevada  of  Santa  Marta,  Exploration  of  the.  Dr.  Sievers, 

354 
Sievers  (Dr.  W.),  Exploration  of  the  Sierra  Nevada  of  Santa 

Marta,  354 
Silence,  a  Conspiracy  of:  the  Duke  of  Argyll,  F.R.S.,  53,  246, 

293  ;  Prof.  T.  G.  Bonney,   F.R.S.,    25,    77  ;  Rev.  John  W. 

Judd,  F.R.S.,  272  ;  Samuel  F.   Clarke,  200;  an  Old  Pupil 

of  Wyville  Thomson's,  200 
Silk  :  Artificial,  595  ;  Industries  of  the  United  Kingdom,  595 
Silkworms,  Colour-Susceptibility  of,  E.  B.  Poulton,  95 
Silver  and  Potassium,  on  the  Production  of  the  Double  Car- 
bonate of,  48 
Simon  (G.   Eug.),  China,   its  Social,   Political,  and   Religious 

Life,  268 
Singapore  Museum,  William  Davison  appointed  Curator,  112 
Skull,  Fossil  Pterodactyl,  found  in  the  Yorkshire  Lias,  598 
Sky,  Effect  of  Snow   on   the   Polarization  of   the,   James  C. 

McConnel,   177 
Sky  Interpreter,  the  Sailor's,  S.  R.  Elson,  5 
Sleep,  Influence  of,  on  Respiratory    Combustion,  L.  de  Saint 

Martin,  167 
Sloane  (T.  O'Conor),  Home  Experiments  in  Science,  556 
Smith  (Rev.  Alfred  Chas.),  Birds  of  Wiltshire,  601 
Smith  (Charles) :  a  New  Treatise  on  Algebra,  232  ;  a  Treatise 

on  Algebra,  Capt.  P.  A.  MacMahon,  508 
Smith  (C.  Michie),  Electrification  of  the  Air,  274 
Smith  (Worthington  G.) :  Ffynnon  Beuno  and  Cae  Gwyn  Caves, 

7,  105,  178;  Earthquake  in  Fngland,  127 
Smoke  :  Abatement,  the  National  Institution,  356  ;  in  London, 

Increase  of  Fog  and.  Sir  Douglas  Gallon,  208 
Snow  Crystals,  343 


XXVlll 


INDEX 


[Nature,  June  "J,  i8S8 


Snow,    Effect   of,    on   the  Polarization  of  the  Sky,  James  C. 

McConnel,  177 
Snow-fall  of  the  Past  Winter,  Dr.  Hellmann,  552 
"Soapstone"  of  Fiji,  Henry  B.  Brady,  F.R.S.,  142 
Society  of  Arts,  Meetings  of,  36 
Sociology  of  the  Australians,   Contributions  to  the,  M.  Elisee 

Reclus,  163 
Soda,   Part  played  by  the  Absorbing  Power  of  the  Soil  in  the 

Formation  of  the  Natural  Carbonates  of,  407 
Sodico-Potassic  Carbonate,  on  a,  624 
Sodium  and  Potassium,  Experiments  upon  the  so-called  Alloy 

between  the  Metals,  112 
Sokoloif  (A.),    Researches  into  the  Oscillations  of   Electrical 

Force  in  Electrolytes,  525 
Solar  Atmosphere,  the  Existence  of  Platinum  in  the,  Hutchins 

and  Holden,  358 
Solar  Eclipse,   Total,  of  August    19,   1887,   L.    Niesten,   118; 

Prof.  Vogel,  311 
Solar  Eclipse,  Total,  of  October  29,   878,  Rev.   C.   S.   Taylor, 

223 
Solar  Parallax,  on  the  Value  of,  M.  Cruls,  215 
Solids,  the  Flow  of,  or  Liquefaction  by  Pressure,  47 
Solly,  E.,  Specialization,  519 
Solomon  Group,  the  Volcanic  and  Coral  Islands,  H.  B.  Guppy, 

98 
Solomqn  Islands :    their  Geology,  General  Features,  and  Suit- 
ability for  Colonization,  Dr.  H.  B.  Guppy,  98  ;   the  Natives 

of.    Dr.    H.    B.    Guppy,    196 ;     Solomon    Islands,     C.    M. 

Woodford,  his  Exploration  of,  331,  546 
Solubility,    on   the  Decreasing,    of  the   Sulphates,   A.   Etard, 

504 
Solum,  Norway,  Earthquake  at,  329 
Somali  Arrow  Poison,  Analysis  of,  Arnaud,  575 
Somoff  (P. ),  on  the  Number  of  Parameters  which  determine  the 

Displacement  of  a  Kinematic  Chain,  525 
Sormani  (Prof   Giuseppe),  on  the  Neutralizers  of  Tubercular 

Virus,  404 
Soudan,   Eroded  Agate  Pebbles  from,  Prof.  V.  Ball,  F.R.S., 

574 
Sound,  Light,  and  Heat,  Mark  R.  Wright,  199 
Sound,  the  Velocity  of,  J.  VioUe  and  Thos.  Vautier,  575 
South   America,  Inter-diurnal  Variability  of  Temperature  in. 

Dr.  Oscar  Doering,  39 
South  American  Antiquities,  Collection  of,  301 
South  Australia,  Digi^ing,   Squatting,  and  Pioneering  Life  in 

the  Northern  Territory  of,  Mrs.  Dominic  D.  Daly,  363 
South  Kensington,   American  Lake    Trout  {S.  namaycusJi)  at, 

208 
South    Kensington    Museum,    Francis    Gallon's    Lectures    on 

Heredity  and  Nurtui-e  at,  112 
South  Kensington  Science  Teaching,  553 
Sowerby  (G.  B. ),  New  Species  of  Shells,  526 
Spain  :  Rainfall  of.  Dr.  Hellmann,  312  ;  Failure  of  the  Sardine 

Fishery  on  the  Atlantic  Shores  of  the  Northern  Portion  of, 

543 
Space,  Geometry  in,  603 
Specialization,  by  E.  Solly,  519 
Specific  Gravity,  Density  and,  L.  Gumming,  584 
Specific  Heat  of  Gases,  Dr.  Pringsheim,  216 
Specific  Inductive  Capacity,  J.  Hopkinson,  F.R.  S.,  142 
Spectra  of  the  Elements,  on  the  Ultra- Violet,  by  Profs.  Liveing 

and  Dewar,  526 
Spectra  of  Oxygen  :  M.  J.  Janssen,  624  ;  and  Carbon  compared 

with  that  of  the  Sun,  Prof.  Trowbridge  and  Hutchins,  Dr.  H. 

Draper,  Prof  J.  C.  Draper,  114 
Spectra,  on  a  Simple  Relation  between  the  Wave-lengths  of, 

A.  E.  Nordenskjold,  120 
Spectral  Rays,  New  Fluorescences  with  well-defined,  47 
Spectroscope,   the   Use  of  the,  as  a  Hygrometer,  F.  W.  Cory, 

143 

Spectroscopic  Catalogue,  O'Gyalla,  259 

Spectrum  Analysis  :  the  Existence  of  Platinum  in  the  Solar 
Atmosphere,  Hutchins  and  Holden,  358  ;  Notes  on  Spectrum 
of  Aurora,  J.  Norman  Lockyer,  F.  R.  S.,  358  ;  the  Spectrum 
of  the  Oxyhydrogen  Flame,  Profs.  Liveing  and  Dewar,  383 

Specula,  Making  Glass,  by  Hand,  A.  Ainslie  Common,  F.  R.S., 
382 

Spencer  (Herbert),  First  Principles,  S.  Tolver  Preston,  221 

Spermatozoa,  Dr.  Benda's  Researches  on  the  Development  of, 
264 


Sphere,  on  the  Motion  of  a,  in  a  Viscous  Liquid,  A.  B.  Bassett, 
164 

Spider,  Habits  of  a  Running,  Herr  Beck,  283 

Spirits,  the  Revenue  Method  of  Estimating  and  Charging  the 
Duty  on,  481 

Spitzbergen  Whale  Fisheries,  301 

Sponge  Fisheries,  Prof  Schmidt's  Method  of  Artificial  Propa- 
gation of,  595 

Sponges  :  Challenger  Report  on,  i  ;  American  Forms  of  Fresh- 
water Sponges,  Edward  Potts,  209 

Stag,  Red  Deer,  without  Horns,  J.  Harting,  526 

Stahl  (Herr),  on  the  Significance  of  those  Excreta  of  Plants 
known  as  "  Raphides,"  209 

Stalactite  Cave,  Discovery  of  a,  near  Steinbach,  in  the  Upper 
Palatinate,  16 

Stalagmometer,  New  Instrument  for  determining  the  Amount 
of  Fusel  Oil  in  Spirituous  Liquors,  Herr  Traube,  209 

Stanley  (H.  M.),  Latest  Communication  from,  38 

Stapfif  (Dr. ),  Measurements  of  the  Temperature  of  the  Earth  in 
South  Africa,  167 

Starfish  :  Brittle,  a  Troublesome  Parasite  of  a,  J.  Walter 
Fewkes,  274  ;  Amoeboid  Corpuscles  in,  Herbert  E.  Durham, 
334  ;  Edmond  Perrier,  504 

Stars  :  on  a  Geometric  Form  of  the  Effects  of  Radiation  in 
the  Diurnal  Motion  of  the,  M.  Gruey,  72  ;  Probable  New 
Class  of  Variable  Stars,  Rev.  T.  E.  Espin,  158  ;  Observa- 
tions of  Variable  Stars,  Edwin  Sawyer,  545  ;  Variable  Star 
U  Ophiuchi,  S.  C.  Chandler,  Jun.,  36,  90  ;  Star  of  Bethlehem, 
169;  John  T.  Nicolson,  221;  Prof  Wm.  Pengelly,  F.R.S., 
221  ;  E.  Coatham,  221  ;  Duner  on  Stars  with  Spectra  of 
Class  III.,  234,  260  ;  Occultations  of  Stars  by  Planets,  Herr 
A.  Berberich,  234,  284 ;  Photography  in  the  Determination 
of  the  Motions  of  Stars  in  the  Line  of  Sight,  Dr.  Huggins, 
616 

Statistical  Society,  Inaugural  Address,  in 

Statistics  of  Thought,  Prolegomena  to  the,  A.  Bastian,  387 

Stature  of  the  Ancient  Inhabitants  of  the  Canary  Islands,  on  the. 
Dr.  R.  Verneau,  163 

Stavanger,  West  Coast  of  Norway,  Magnificent  Meteor  seen  at, 
138 

Steains  ( W.  J. ),  Rio  Doce  and  its  Northern  Tributaries,  Brazil, 

Steam  Motors,  M.  Clausius  s  New  Theory  of,  24 
Steam  Users,  Pland-book  for,  M.  Powis  Bale,  30 
Stecher  (Dr.  Ernst),  on  Contact  Phenomena  of  Scottish  Olivine 

Diabases,  527 
Stecker  (Herr  Anton.),  Death  of,  597 
Steels,  Modern,  Heat  Dilatation  from  Low  Temperatures  of, 

Thos.  Andrews,  308 
Steinbach,  in  the   Upper  Palatinate,  Discovery  of  a  Stalactite 

Cave  near,  16 
Steiner's  (Dr.  von),  Brazilian  Expedition,  570 
Stellar  Photography,  Telescopes  for.  Sir  Howard  Grubb,  614 
Stephen  (W.),  Educational  List  and  Directory,  16 
Stephenson  (C.  A.),  on  Earthquakes  in  Scotland,  527 
Stevenson  (Robert  Louis),  Life  of  Fleeming  Jenkin,  559 
Stewart  (Prof.  Balfour,  F.  R.S.)  :  Politics  and  the  Presidency  of 

the  Royal  Society,  76  ;  Death  of,  186  ;  Obituary  Notice  of. 

Prof.  P.  G.  Tait,  202 
Stewart  (Prof.  C),  Threcalia  concavierala,  539 
Stockholm  :  Royal  Academy  of  Sciences,    168,  192,  312,  456, 

552  ;  Red  After- Glow  observed  in  the  Vicinity  of,  399 
Stohr  (Dr.  Philipp),  Lehrbuch  der  Histologic,  461' 
Stokes  (Prof  G.  G.,  P.R.S.):   and  the  Representation  of  the 

University  of  Cambridge  in  Parliament,  15  ;  as  the  Represen- 
tative of  the  University  of  Cambridge,  49  ;  Speech  on  Science, 

III 
Stokes  (Margaret),  Early  Christian  Art  in  Ireland,  341 
Stoletow  (Prof.  A.),  Newton's   "Principia,"  273 
Stomata,  on  the  Part  played  by  the,   in   the   Inspiration    and 

Expiration  of  Gases,  72 
Stone  (Olivia  M.),   Canary  Islands,  201  ;  Tenerife  and  its  Six 

Satellites,  221 
Stone  with  Drawings  and  Runic  Inscriptions  discovered  on  the 

South-west  Coast  of  Sweden,  399 
Stonehenge,  Preservation  of,  91 
Stones,  Ornamental,  and  Gems  of  the  United  States,  Dr.   A.  E. 

Foote,  68 
Storage  of  Electrical  Energy,  Gaston  Plante,  Prof   John  Perry, 

F.R.S.,  50 


Nature,  June  T,  iJ 


INDEX 


XXIX 


Storer  (F.  H.),  Agriculture  and  some  of  its  Relations  with 
Chemistry,  loo 

Storm  of  October  30,  14 

Storm  Signals  in  Russia,  91 

Storm  Signals  at  the  Ports  of  the  Madras  Presidency,  208 

Storm  Warnings  issued  by  the  New  York  Herald,  M.  Seeman 
on,  18 

Storms  in  the  British  Islands,  67 

Storms,  New  Form  for  Reports  of,  issued  by  the  Hydro- 
graphic  Office  of  the  United  States,  67 

Story  of  Creation,  Edward  Clodd,  388 

Strachan's  (Mr.),  Explorations  of  New  Guinea,  302 

Stratigraphy  of  the  Bagshot  Beds  of  the  London  Basin,  335 

Striae  Medullares  Acusticae,  Dr.  Virchow,  480 

Stromeyer  (C.  E.) :  Perception  of  Colour,  79;  the  Umbrias 
Wave,  151  ;  Parallax  of  Mars,  302 

Stroobant  (Paul),  Physical  Observations  of  Saturn,  308 

Strophanthus,  Native  Method  of  obtaining  Poison  from,  113 

Sturtevant  (Dr.  E.  Lewis),  Report  of  the  New  York  Agricultural 
Station,  Prof.  John  Wrightson,  524 

Submarine  Valleys  off  the  Pacific  Coast  of  the  United  States, 
Geo.  Davidson,  38 

Sugar,  Synthesis  of  Glucose,  A.  E.  Tutton,  7 

Sulphates,  on  the  Decreasing  Solubility  of  the,  by  A.   Etard, 

504 

Sulphides  of  Gold,  34 

Sulphur,  Hexiodide  of,  Dr.  Schreiber,  258 

Sulphur,  Passage  of  Electric  Current  through,  E.  Duter,  528 

Sulphuretted  Hydrogen  employed  for  Purifying  the  Salts  of 
Cobalt  and  Nickel,  288 

Sun  :  Oxygen  in  the,  John  Trowbridge  and  C.  C.  Hutchins,  47  ; 
Spectra  of  Oxygen  and  Carbon  compared  with  that  of  the, 
Prof.  Trowbridge  and  Hutchins,  Prof.  J.  C.  Draper,  Dr.  H. 
Draper,  114;  on  the  Existence  of  Carbon  in  the,  162;  a 
Green  Sun,  D.  Pidgeon,  440  ;  Spectroscopic  Determination  of 
the  Rotation  Period  of,  495 

Sundell  (A.  F.),  Comparison  of  Barometers  at  Observatories  of 
Europe,  258 

Sunset,  Atmospheric  Effects  at,  Chas.  Croft,  273 

Sunspots,  423 

Sunspots  of  1886  and  1887,  Distribution  of,  495 

Surinam,  River,  Geological  Chart  of  the,  552 

Siiss  (Prof.  Eduard),  History  of  the  Ocean,  354 

Swallows,  Migration  of,  along  the  Southern  Coast,  W.  Warde 
Fowler,  61 

Sweden  :  Remarkable  Auroral  Phenomenon  in.  Dr.  Ekholm, 
186;  Meteor  in,  258,  282;  Discovery  oi  Juncus  tenuis  in, 
258  ;  Discovery  of  a  Runic  Stone  with  Inscription  in,  283  ; 
Reports  on  Earthquakes  in,  543  ;  Publications  of  the  Swedish 
Meteorological  Office,  39 

Swifts  :  E.  Brown,  6 ;  C.  B.  Witchell,  79 

Swinhoe  (Colonel  C.)  and  E.  C.  Cotes,  Catalogue  of  the  Moths 
of  India,  H.  J.  Elwes,  386 

Swiss  Forest  Laws,  490 

Sylvester  (Prof.  J.  J.,  F.R.S.)  :  Theory  of  Reciprocants,  71  ; 
Note  on  a  Proposed  Addition  to  the  Vocabulary  of  Ordinary 
Arithmetic,  152  ;  a  Correction,  179  ;  on  the  Divisors  of  a  Sum 
of  a  Geometrical  Series  whose  First  Term  is  Unity  and  Com- 
mon Ratio  any  Positive  or  Negative  Integer,  417 

Symons  (G.  J  ,  F.R.S.),  on  Non-Existence  of  Thunderbolts 
527 

Symons's  Monthly  Meteorological  Magazine,  38 

Synchronizing  of  Timepieces,  288 

Synchronous  Timepieces,  M.  A.  Cornu  on,  263 

Synoptic  Charts  of  the  North  Atlantic  Ocean,  Daily,  137 

Synthesis  of  Glucose,  A.  E.  Tutton,  7 

Syracuse  University  Observatory,  330 


Taborg,  Meteorite  which  fell  on  August  18/30,  1887,  at,  120 

Taconic  Area,  Geology  of  the,  623 

Taconic  System,  the,  of  Emmons,  by  Charles  D.  Walcott, 
SCO 

Tafel  (Dr.),  Synthesis  of  Glucose,  283 

T'ai  Shan,  Height  of.  Prof.  Silvanus  P.  Thompson,  224 

Tait  (Prof.  P.  G. ) :  Obituary  Notice  of  Dr.  Balfour  Stewart, 
F.R.S.,  202  ;  Compressibility  of  Water,  239  ;  on  Glories,  518; 
on  Duration  of  Impact,  527  ;  on  the  Effect  of  Differential  Mass 
Motion  on  the  Permeability  of  Gas,  527  ;  on  the  Mean  Free 
Path  and  the  Number  of  Collisions  per  Particle  per  Second  in 


a  Group  of  Equal  Spheres,   527  ;  on  the  Compressibility  of 
Glass  at  Different  Temperatures,  527 

Taramelli  (Prof.  T.),  Tertiary  Formations  near  Cape  La 
Mortola,  in  Liguria,  North  Italy,  404 

Tartary,  the  Vegetable  Lamb  of,  Henry  Lee,  1 76 

Tashkend,  Consulting  Hospital  for  Mussulman  Women  at,  64 

Tasmanian  Coast -line.  Oyster  Fisheries  on  the,  Saville-Kent,  139 

Tassi  (Dr.  Flaminio),  on  the  Ansesthesis  and  Poisoning  of 
Plants,  308 

Taste,  Action  of  Acids  on,  J.  Corin,  308 

Taste,  Delicacy  of  the  Sense  of,  E.  H.  S.  Bailey  and  E.  L. 
Nicols,  557 

Taylor  (Rev.  C.  S.),  Total  Solar  Eclipse  of  October  29,  878, 
223 

Te  Aroha,  Auriferous  Deposit  lately  found  West  of.  Sir  James 
Hector,  16 

Tea  :  Cultivation  in  India,  409  ;  Growth  of,  in  Jamaica,  Mada- 
gascar, and  Natal,  472 

Teachers,  Conference  of  the  National  Union  of  Elementary,  542 

Teachers,  Number  of,  employed  in  New  York,  398 

Teaching  of  Elementary  Chemistry,  389 

Teaching  University  for  London,  Proposed,  331,  339,  421  ;  Sir 
Philip  Magnus,  393 

Teak  Tree,  the  Mineral  Concretion  of  the,  David  Hooper,  523 

Tebbutt  (John)  :  Probable  New  Variables,  114;  Observatory, 
Windsor,  New  South  Wales,  400 

Technical  Education:  Conference  on,  34,  139;  Technical 
Education,  186,  374 ;  Prof.  Hele  Shaw,  43 ;  Sir  John 
Lubbock,  F.R.S.,  284;  National  Association  for  the  Promo- 
tion of.  Meeting  at  Manchester,  iii;  in  Manchester,  I2i  j 
Proposed  Meeting  for  the  Discussion  of  the  Best  Means  of 
obtaining,  349 ;  Bill  to  provide  for  Technical  Education  in 
England  and  VVales,  614;  Technical  Education  in  Scotland, 
349 ;  in  France,  329  ;  in  Russia,  566  ;  in  the  Colony  of 
Victoria,  614 

Technical  Institutes  for  North  London,  519 

Technical  Instruction  Bill  :  School  Boards  of  England  and 
Wales,  421  ;  Lord  Cranbrook  and  Sir  W.  Hart  Dyke,  421 

Technical  University  of  Belgium,  284 

Technological  Dictionary,  534 

Technological  History  at  the  Paris  Exhibition  of  1889,  156 

Teeth,  the,  of  the  Myxinoid  Fishes,  Dr.  J.  Beard,  499 

Telegraph  Wire,  Coefficient  of  Self-induction  of  Iron  and 
Copper,  Preece,  303 

Telegraphs  in  China,  564 

Telescope,  My,  by  a  Quekett  Club  Man,  509 

Telescopes  for  Stellar  Photography,  Sir  Howard  Grubb,  614 

Tellurium,  Specific  Heat  of,  215 

Temperature :  Inter-diurnal  Variability  of  Temperature  at 
Places  in  the  Argentine  Republic  and  South  America  gener- 
ally. Dr.  Oscar  Doering,  39  ;  Distribution  of  Temperature 
and  of  Barometric  Pressure  on  the  Surface  of  the  Globe,  72  ; 
Probable  Temperature  of  the  Pole,  Jules  Girard,  91  ;  Surface 
Temperature  of  the  Ocean,  Prof.  O.  Kriimmel,  156;  Effects  of 
Temperature  on  the  Thermo-electric  Properties  of  Iron  when 
under  Stress  or  Strain,  Herbert  Tomlinson,  165  ;  Mean  Tem- 
perature of  the  Air  at  Greenwich,  214  ;  Influence  of  Altitude 
on  Temperature,  M.  Andre,  282  ;  Influence  of  Temperature 
on  a  Magnetic  State  of  Iron,  M.  P.  Ledeboer,  288 

Tenants  of  an  Old  Farm,  Henry  C.  McCook,  363 

Tenerife  and  its  Six  Satellites,  Olivia  M.  Stone,  221 

Teneriffe,  Peak   of.  Electrical   Condition  of  the,   Hon.   Ralph 

Abercromby,  31 
Terrestrial  Magnetism,  on  the  Constant  P  in  Observations  of. 
Prof.  Wm.  Harkness,  Arthur  W.  Rucker,  F.R.S.,  127,  272 
Terrestrial   Rotation,   Trajectory  of  a   Body  moving  over  the 

Earth's  Surface  under  the  Influence  of,  M.  Lindelof,  543 
Tertiary  Basins  of  England,  Belgium,   and  North  of  France, 

Eocene  Strata  in  the.  Prof.  Joseph  Prestwich,  F.R.S.,  287 
Tertiary  Formations  near  Cape  La  Mortola,  in  Liguria,  North 

Italy,  Prof.  T.  Taramelli,  404 
Tetens  (Herr),  Olbers'  Comet,  1887,  114 
Tetrachloride  of  Carbon,  Action  of  the,  on  Oxygenated  Mineral 

Compounds  free  of  Hydrogen,  600 
Texas  Section  of  the  American  Cretaceous,  47 
Thmcalia  concarnerata.  Prof  C.  Stewart,  359 
Theekultur  in   Britisch-Ost-Indien,  im  funfzigsten  Jahre  ihres 
Bestandes,  Historisch,  Naturwissenschaftlich,  und  Statistisch, 
Dr.  Ottokar  Feistmantel,  409 
ThelobhorecB,  a  Monograph  of  the,  George  Massee,  526 


XXX 


INDEX 


[Nahtre,  June  7,  l888 


Thermal  Conductivity  of  Iron,  Copper,  and  German  Silver,  A. 

Crichton  Mitchell,  328 
Thermic  Voltaic  Cell,  W.  Case  on,  331 
Thermo- Current  in  Iron,   the  Temporary,    Fred.   T.   Trouton, 

321 
Thermodynamic-,    Prof.    Pictei's    Experiments    with    his    Ice 

Machines,  167 
Thermodynamics,  Note  on  Permanent  Deformations  and.  Marcel 

Brillouin,  384 
Thermodynamics    and    Mathematical    Optics,    M.    H.    Resal, 

504 
Thermomagnetic  Machines,  33 
Thermometer,  a  New  Gas-,  M.  L.  Cailletet,  600 
Thermometers  and  Barometers,  Experiments  with,  72 
Thermometry  :  Dr.  Stapff's  Measurements  of  the  Temperature  of 

the  Earth  in  South  Africa,  167 
Thomas  (Cyrus),  Mound  Exploration,  615 
Thomas  (H.  Sullivan),  Tank-Angling  in  India,  518 
Thomison  (C.)  and  C.   R.  A.  Wright,  F.R.S.,  Voltaic  Circles 

producible  by  Mutual  Neutralization  of  Acid  and  Alkaline 

Fluids  and  Various  Related  Forms  of  Electromotors,  573 
Thompson  (Elizabeth)  Science  Fund,  492 
Thompson  (Prof.  Silvanus  P.)  :  on  the  Analogies  of  Influence - 

Machines  and  Dynamos,  165  ;  Height  of  T'ai  Shan,  224 
Thomsen  (Prof.  Julius),  a  New  Chloride  of  Gold,  398 
Thomson  (Sir  William,  F.R.S.)  :  Electrical   Measuring-Instru- 
ments,  355  ;    Rectilineal  Motion  of  Viscous  Fluid  between 

Two  Parallel  Planes,  518 
Thomeon's  (Prof.  J.  J.)  Discovery  that  Sparks  in  Tubes  disso- 
ciate Iodine,  Bromine,  and  Chlorine,  303 
Thornton  (J. ),  Elementary  Physiography,  485 
Thoroddsen  (Th.),  the  Recent  Earthquakes  in  Iceland,  2or 
Thorpe   (Prof.   T.    E.,  F.R.S):  a   New    Magnetic    Survey  of 

France,  247  ;  Composition  of  Water,  313 
Thouars  (M.) :  Safety  of,  302  ;  Return  of,  354 
Thought,  Prolegomena  to  the  Statistics  of,  A.  Bastian,  387 
Throndtjem,  Aurora  Borealis  at,  595 
Thunderbolts,   on  Non- Existence  of,   G.  J.   Symons,    F.R.S., 

527 
Thunderstorms  of  Scandinavia,  MM.  Mohn  and  Hildebrandsson, 

614 
Thurston  (Edgar)  ;  Note  on   a  Madras   Micrococcus,    79 ;  the 

Fish-Fauna  of  Rameswaram  Island,  380 
Tibet,  East,  and  East  Gobi,  M.  Potanin's  Journeys  in,  141 
Tibetan  Version  of  the  Mongolian  Epics  of  Hesser-Khan,  Dis- 
covery of  a  Manuscript  containing  a,  209 
TidalCurrents  (on),  in  the  Open  Ocean,  J.  Y,  Buchanan,. F.R.S., 

452 
Tidy  (Prof.  C.  M.),  Modern  Chemi-try,  596 
Tierra  del  Fuego,  Recent  Explorations  in,  159 
Tigers  found  in  Parts  of  Asiatic  and  European  Russia,  36 
Timber,  and  some  of  its  Diseases,  Prof  H.  Marshall  Ward,  182, 

204,  227,  251,  275,  516 
Timepieces,  Synchronizing  of,  288 

Tisserand  (F.),  on  a  Point  in  the  Theory  of  the  Moon,  527 
Tjoring  in  Denmark,  Ancient  Gold    Armlet  discovered   in   a 

Field  at,  138 
Todd    (C),     Monthly    Meteorological     Notes     and     Rainfall 

Statistics  for  South  Australia,  615 
Todhunter  (I.,  F.R.S.),  Solutions  in  Problems  contained  in  a 

Treatise  on  Plane  Co-ordinate  Geometry,  75 
Todhunter's   DiiTerential  Calculus,  Key  to,   H.   St.  J.  Hunter, 

412 
Toeing  and  Heeling  at  Golf,  T.  Mellard  Reade,  31 
Tokio,  Report  of  the  Meteorological  Observatory,  328 
Tomlinson  (Herbert),  on  the  Recalescence  of  Iron,  165  ;  Effects 

of  Temperature  on  the  Thermo-electric  Properties  of  Iron 

when  under  Stress  or  Strain,  165 
Tondini  (M.),  on  Unification  of  the  Calendar,  528 
Topinard  (M.),  on  Criminal  Anthropology,  163 
Topler  (Prof ),  New  Method  of  Measurement  of  Magnetism  of 

Gases,  576 
Torpedo  inarmorata.  Electromotive  Properties  of  the  Electrical 

Organ  of,  Francis  Gotch,  623 
Total  Eclipse  of  the  Moon,  January  28,  286,  306 
Tourmaline,  R.  B.  Riggs,  358 
Toynbee  (Captain  Henry),  Distorted  Earth] Shadows  in  Eclipses, 

202 
Traite  de  Physique  Mathematique,  by  M.  H.  Resal,  504 


Trajectory  of  a  Body  moving  over  the  Earth's  Surface  under  the 
Influence  of  Terrestrial  Rotation,  M.  Lindelof,  543 

Transactions  of  the  New  Zealand  Institute,  572 

Transition  Resistance  at  the  Surface  of  Platinum  Electrodes, 
and  the  Action  of  Condensed  Gaseous  Films,  by  W.  Peddie, 

Traube(Herr),  New  Instrument,  Stalagmometer,  for  determining 

the  Amount  of  Fusel  Oil  in  Spirituous  Liquors,  209 
Travellers,  a  Hand-book  for,  Ferdinand  Freiherr  von  Richthofen, 

603 
Tregear  (E.),  the  Origin  of  Fire,  518 
Triglohan  (T.  P.),  Voltaic  Electricity,  533 
Trichloride  of  Nitrogen,  494 
Tridimensional  Formulae  in  Organic  Chemistry,  Prof.  F.  R.  Japp, 

F.R.S.,  121 
Trigonometrical  Survey,    Completion  of  Ceylon,  258 
Trilobites  of  Primordial  Fauna  in   Fiance,  First  Discovery  of, 

Jules  Bergeron,  360 
Tropics,   Cloud  Movements  in  the,   and  Cloud  Classification, 

Captain  David  Wilson- Barker,  129 
Trotter  (Rev.  Coutts),  Death  of,   137 ;  Obituary  Notice  of,  by 

Prof,  M.  Foster,  F.R.S.,  153 
Trout,  American  Lake  (  S.  namaycush),  at  South   Kensington, 

208 
Trouton  (Fred.  T.),  the  Temporary  Thermo-Current  in   Iron, 

321 
Trowbridge  (Prof  John)  and  Hutchins,  Spectra  of  Oxygen  and 

Carbon  compared  with  that  of  the  Sun,  47,  114 
Trowbridge  (Prof.  W.  P.),  Interesting  Discovery  about  Birds, 

139 
True  Average  of  Observations  ?,   Prof.  Robert  H.  Smith,  464 
Tubercular   Virus,    on    the    Neutralizers     of.    Prof.    Giuseppe 

Sormani,  404 
Tuberculosis,  the  Influence  of  Fluorhydric  Acid  on,  187 
Turkistan  :    A.   D.   Carey's  Journey  around  and   across,    115  ; 

Antiquities  of,  M.  Krasnoff,  283 
Turner  (H.  H. ),  Report  on  Total  Solar  Eclipse  of  August  29, 

1886,  52s 
Turner  (Sir  W.),  the  Pineal  Gland  in  the  Walrus,  239 
Turtle,  Fossil,  Discovery  of,  by  Dr.  Donnezan,  215 
Tutton  (A.  E.) :  Synthesis  of  Glucose,  7  ;  Isolation  of  Fluorine, 

179 
Tweeddale  Collection,  the,  R.  Bowdler  Sharpe,  13 
Tyler  (Thomas),  the  Hittites,  with  Special   Reference  to  very 

Recent  Discoveries,  511,  536,  559,  590,  609 
Typhoons    in    Hong    Kong,    Cause    of    September,    Dr.    W. 

Doberck,  439 


U  Ophiuchi,  Variable  Star,  S.  C.  Chandler,  Jun.,  36,  90 

Ulloa's  Ring,  Fog  Bow  and,  Dr.  H.  Mohn,  391 

Ultra- Violet  Rays,  Hertz's  Experiments  on  Influence  of,  on 
Passage  of  Sparks,  355 

Umbria's  Wave,  the,  C.  E.  Stromeyer,  151 

Umoff"  (M.),  Experiments  on  Saturation  Weights  of  Salts, 
542 

Unification  of  the  Calendar,  by  M.  Tondini,  528 

United  States  :  National  Museum,  Proceedings  of  the,  i5s'Sub- 
marine  Valleys  off  the  Pacific  Coast  of  the  United  States, 
George  Davidson,  38  ;  Meteorology  in  the  United  States,  39  ; 
Report  from  the  Chief  Signal  Officer  on,  156  ;  Unusually 
High  Mean  Temperature  in  Parts  of  the,  39  ;  Six  Bulletins  of 
the  Geological  Survey  of  the,  64  ;  New  Forms  for  Reports  of 
Storms,  &c.,  issued  by  the  Hydrographic  Office  of  the  United 
States,  67  ;  Gems  and  Ornamental  Stones  of  the  United 
States,  Dr.  A.  E.  Foote,  68  ;  Commission  of  Agriculture, 
Prof.  John  Wrightson,  188  ;  Monthly  Weather  Review,  39, 
208,  300  ;  United  States  Fish  Commission,  316;  Salt  Industry 
in  the,  Geo.  P.  Merrill,  558 

University  College,  Bristol,  87 

University  Intelligence,  22,  95,  162,  189,  287,  307,  430,  500, 
622 

University,  Proposed  Teaching  for  London,  331,  339  ;5  Sir 
Philip  Magnus,  393 

Upsala,  University  of,  Presentation  of  a  Fossil  Skeleton  of  a 
Whale  to,  329 

Urbanschitsch  (Herr),  Experiments  on  the  Reciprocal  Influence 
of  Organs  of  Sense,  157 

Utah,  Copper  Minerals  from,  623 


Nature,  /une  7,  i88S] 


INDEX 


XXXI 


Vaccination,  Dr.  Robert  Cory,  483 

Vaccination  Vindicated,  Dr.  J.  C.  McVail,  483 

Vagueles,  tlie,  M,  KuesenofF,  258 

Vaillant  (M.  L.),  on  the  Nest  of  the  Antennarius  marmoratus, 

208 
Vaizey  (J.  Rejmolds),  Catharinea  undulata,  79 
Valency,  a  Note  on,  especially  as  defined  by  Helmholtz,  Prof. 

Henry  E.  Armstrong,  F.R.S.,  303 
Van  Aubel  (Ed. ),   Researches  on  the  Influence  of  Magnetism 

and  Temperature  on  the  Electric  Resistance  of  Bismuth  and 

its  Alloys  with  Lead  and  Tin,  525 
Van  Gele  (Lieut,),  Connection  between  the  Mobangi  and  the 

Welle,  496 
Vapour  Currents,  Experiments  on,  Dr.  Robert  von  Helmholtz, 

48 
Variable  Stars  :  Probable  New,  John  Tebbutt,  Dr.  Bauschinger, 

114  ;  Class  of.  Rev.  T.  E.  Espin,  158  ;  Observations  of,  Edwin 

Sawyer,  545;  U   Ophiuchi,    S.   C.   Chandler,  Juii.,   36;  the 

New  Algol,   S.  C.   Chandler,    90  ;  Y  Cygni  and    R  Canis 

Majoris,  S.  C.  Chandler,  140 
Vegetable  Humus,  Relatioiis  of  Atmospheric  Nitrogen   with, 

Th.  Schloesing,  551 
Vegetable  Lamb  of  Tartary,  the,  Henry  Lee,  176 
Vegetable    Soil,   Relations  of  Atmospheric    Nitrogen  to,   Th. 

Schloesing,  624 
Vegetation  and  Moonlight,  D.  E.  Hutchins,  275 
Ve^schow  (F.  A.),   on  the  Natural  Law  of  Relation  between 

Rainfall  and  Vegetable  Life,  and  its  Application  to  Australia, 

519 
Ventriloquism,  Herr  Meyer  on,  264 
Venus:  Brilliancy  of,  169;  Brazilian  Results  from  the  Transit 

of,  M.  Cruls,  233 
Verhandlungen  of  Berlin  Geographical  Society,  90 
Verneau  (Dr.    R.)  :  Ethnology  of  Canary  Islands,  90;  on  the 

Stature  of  the  Ancient  Inhabitants  of  the  Canary  Islands, 

163 

Vertebrate  Fauna    of   Sutherland,   Caithness,   and  West  Cro- 
marty, J.  A.  Harvie-Brown  and  T.  E.  Buckley,  292 

Vertebrate  Morphology,    a  Study  in,  the  Old  Mouth  and  the 
New,  Dr.  J.  Beard,  224 

Vevers  (C.  C),  Practical  Amateur  Photography,  518 

Victoria  :   Prodromus  of  the  Zoology  of,  Prof.  F.  McCoy,  533  ; 
Technical  Education  in  the  Colony  of,  614 

Victoria  Hall  Science  Lectures,  257 

Victoria  University,  32 

Vieth  (Dr.  P.),  Action  of  Micro-organisms  on  Milk,  211 

Villafranca,  Russian  Zoological  Station  at,  566 

Villary  (M.)and  M.  deForcrand,  on  the  Hydrate  of  Sulphurated 
Hydrogen,  528 

Virchow  (Dr.),  on  Hip-Region,  480 ;  on  Striae  Medullares 
Acusticae,  480 

Viscous  Liquid,  on  the  Motion  of  a  Sphere  in  a,  A.  B.  Basset, 
164 

Vitreous  State  of  Water,  Rev.  A.  Irving,  104 

Vitriol-chamber  Process,  G.  Lunge,  335 

Vocabulary  of  Ordinary  Arithmetic,  Note  on  a  Proposed  Addi- 
tion to  the.  Prof.  J,  J.  Sylvester,  F.R.S.,  152 

Vogel  (Prof.)  :  and  Astronomical  Prizes  of  the  Paris  Academy 
of  Sciences,  259  ;  Solar  Eclipse  of  August  19,  311 

Volatility  of  the  Carbon  Compounds,  Louis  Henry,  525 

Volcanic  and  Coral  Islands  of  the  Solomon  Group,  Dr.  H. 
B.  Guppy,  98 

Volcanic  Eruptions,  Elverum,  Central  Norway,  421 

Volcanoes  of  Hawaii,  James  Dana,  120 

Volcanoes  :  History  of  Changes  in  Hawaii  Craters,  J.  D.  Dana, 
358 

Voltaic  Cell,  Thermal,  W.  Case  on,  331 

Voltaic  Circles  producible  by  Mutual  Neutralization  of  Acid  and 
Alkaline  Fluids,  C.  R.  A.  Wright,  F.R.S.,  and  C.  Thompson, 
573 

Voltaic  Electricity,  T.  P.  Treglohan,  533 

Voltameters,  Capacities  of,  A.  Sokoloff,  525 

Wagner  (Dr.  August),  Death  of,  400 

Waite  (Arthur  Edward),  the  Real  History  of  the  Rosicrucians, 

193 
Walcott  (Charles  D.),  the  Taconic  System  of  Emmon-,  500 
Wales,  North,  Earthquakes  in,  595 
Walker  (J.  J.),  a  Year's  Insect-hunting  at  Gibraltar,  300 


Wallach  and  Heusler  (Drs.),  the  Physical  Nature  of  Fluorine, 

301 
Walrus,  Pine.al  Gland  in  the,  Sir  W.  Turner,  239 
Ward  (Prof.  H.  Marshall) :  Timber,  and  some  of  its  Diseases, 
182,  204,  227,  251,  27s,  516;  Obituary  Notice  of  Anton  de 
Bary,  297 
Warren  (S.  E.),  a  Primary  Geometry,  317 
Warsaw,  Proposed  Exhibition  of  Textile  Goods  and  Machinery 

at,  15 
Water,  Composition  of.  Prof.  T.  E.  Thorpe,  F.R.S.,  313  ;  Dr. 

Sydney  Young,  390,  417  ;  Alexander  Scott,  439 
Water,  Compressibility  of,  Prof.  P.  G.  Tait,  239 
Water  Pressure,  Centre  of,  Geo.  M.  Minchin,  201,  275 
Water  Supplies  and  Reservoirs,  W.  G.  Black,  439 
Water  Supply  of  Cheltenham,  210 
Water,  Threatened  Scarcity  of,  Chas.  Harding,  375 
Water,  Vitreous  State  of,  Rev.  A.  Irving,  104 
Waterhouse  (G.  R. ),  Death  of,  327 
Waterspout  on  the  Lake  of  Geneva,  M.  Dufour  on,  208 
Waterspout  in  North  Atlantic,  187,  567 
Waterspouts  and  Tornadoes,  M.   CoUadon's  Recent  Note  on, 

M.  Faye,  120 
Wave,  the  Utnbria's,  C.  E.  Stromeyer,  151 
Wave-Length  of  Light,  the  Absolute,  Louis  Bell,  623 
Wave- Lengths  of  Spectra,  on  a  Simple  Relation  between  the, 

A.  E.  Nordenskjold,  120 
Waves,  Baracoa,  Cuba,  421 
Wax,  Mineral,  RemarkalDle  Variety  of,  48 
Weasel  (Mustela  vulgaris)  seen  destroying  Frogs,  208 
Weasels  killing  Frogs,  M.  S.  Pembrey,  321 
Weather  Changes  and  High  Barometric  Pressure  of  Asia,  422 
Weather  Charts  of  the  Bay  of  Bengal,  137 
Weather,  Popular  Exposition  of  the  Nature  of  Weather  Changes 

from  Day  to  Day,  Hon.  Ralph  Abercromby,  loi 
Weber  (Prof.),  a  very  Sensitive  Micro-Radiometer,  157 
Weeks  (J.  D.),  Paper  on  Natural  Gas,  422 
Weight  and  Mass,  T.  C.  Mendenhall,  416  ;  Oliver  J.  Lodge,  416 
Weights  and  Measures,  189 
Weinstein    (Dr.),   Determination   of  Electrical   Resistance    of 

Tubes  of  Mercury,  167 
Weismann  (Prof.   A.)  :    Theory  of  Polar  Bodies,  G.   Herbert 

Fowler,  134;  Duration  of  Life,  P.  Chalmers  Mitchell,  541 
Wellington  College  Natural  Science  Society  Report,  473 
Wellington  (N.Z.),  Philosophical  Society,  518 
Wells  (H.  L.),  Bismutosphaerite  from  Willimantic  and  Portland, 

Connecticut,  47 
Welsh  Coal,  Specimen  of,  215 
Werner  (E.  A.),  Chromorganic  Salts,  503 
West  Indies,  through  the,  Mrs.  Granville  Layard,  199 
Whale  Fisheries,  Spitzbergen,  301 

Whale  Fishery  in  the  Greenland  Seas  and  Davis  Strait,  543 
Whale,  Fossil  Skeleton  of,  from  Sweden,  329 
Wharton  (Capt.    W.  J.  L.,    F.R.S.)  :   Christmas  Island,  303 ; 

Coral  Formations,  393  ;  Oil  on  Troubled  Waters,  435 
Whewell  (Dr.  W.),  on  the  Origin  of  Species,  Prof.  George  J. 

Romanes,  F.R.S.,  486 
Whipple  (G.  M.):  Instability  of  Freshly- Magnetized  Needles, 
128  ;  the  Non-Instrumental  Meteorology  of  England,  Wales, 
and  Ireland,  309 
White  (T.  Charters),  Elementary  Microscopical  Examinations, 

555 
White  (W.),  Experiments  upon  the   Colour-Relation  between 
the  Pupae  of  Pieris  rapce  and  their  Immediate  Surroundings, 

503 
Whitehead  (Charles),  the  Hessian  Fly,  212 
Whitehead  (John)  :  Return  of,   from   Palawan,    III;  Proposed 

Visit  to  Kina  Balu,  349 
Williams  (W.  Mattieu),  Muzzling  of  Oysters,  585 
Williamson  (Prof.  Alex.  W.,  F.R.S.),  Politics  and  the  Presi- 
dency of  the  Royal  Society,  76 
Wilson  (George  J.),  Medical  Education  at  Oxford,  5 
Wilson  (J.   S.  Grant),  on  Bathymetrical   Survey  of  Perthshire 

Lochs,  527 
Wilson  (Scott  Barchard),  Description  of  Chloridops,  526 
Wilson-Barker  (Capt.  David)  :  Cloud  Movements  in  the  Tropics 

and  Cloud  Classification,   129;  .Wind  Force  at    Sea,   2jr4 ; 

Coral  Formations,  604 
Wiltshire,  Birds  of,  Rev.  Alf.  Chas.  Smith,  601 
Wind,   Earth-Tremors   and   the.    Prof    John   Milne,    F.R.S., 

214 


xxxu 


INDEX. 


[Nature,  June  7,  \\ 


Wind  Force  at  Sea  :  Capt.  David  Wilson-Barker,  274 ;  W.  G. 
Black,  321 

Wind  Velocity  and  Pressure,  Relation  between,  H.  Allen 
Hazen,  39,  47 

Winds,  Proposed  Classification  of,  595 

Winkler  Observatory,  Herr  Winkler,  302 

Wissmann  (Lieut.),  Preliminary  Account  of  his  Journey  across 
Africa,  159 

Witchell  (C.  B.),  Swifts,  79 

Wolf's  Relative  Numbers,  423 

Wolpert  (Prof.),  Apparatus  for  measuring  the  Amount  of  Car- 
bonic Acid,  157 

Wolsingham  Observatory,  Rev.  T.  E,  Espin,'400 

Wolves  in  France,  Rewards  for  killing,  65 

Wolves  nurturing  Children,  444 

Wood,  Green  Colouring-matter  of  Decaying  :  Rev.  A.  Irving, 
511  ;  Henry  Robinson,  536 

Wood,  Manufactures  from  American,  C.  R.  Dodge,  473 

Wood  (Theodore),  Farmer's  Friends  and  Foes,  388 

Woodford  (C.  M.),  Exploration  of  the  Solomon  Islands,  331, 

546  :     . 

Woodhead  (Dr.  G.  Sims),  on  Mercuric  Salts  as  Antiseptic 
Surgical  Lotions,  527 

Woodward  (Harry  Page),  appointed  Government  Geologist  for 
Western  Australia,  139 

Woolwich  Cadets,  Science  Training  of,  566 

Woolwich  Examinations,  Science  and  the,  296,  319,  385,  409, 
433 ;  Rev.  A,  Irving,  389  ;  Henry  Palin  Gurney,  415 

Woolwich  Regulations,  the,  and  the  House  of  Commons,  576 

Wright  (Dr.  C.  R.  Alder,  F.R.S.)  and  C.  Thompson  :  Note  on 
the  Development  of  Feeble  Currents  by  purely  Physical 
Action,  and  the  Oxidation  under  Voltaic  Influences  of 
Metals  not  ordinarily  regarded  as  Spontaneously  Oxidizable, 
213  ;  Voltaic  Circles  producible  by  Mutual  Neutralization  of 
Acid  and  Alkaline  Fluids,  and  ^Various  Related  Forms  of 
Electromotors,  573 


Wright  (Mark  R.),  Sound,  Light,  and  Heat,  199 
Wrightson  (Prof.  John)  :    United    States  Commission  of  Agri- 
culture, 188  ;  Journal  of  the  Royal  Agricultural  Society,  211  ; 
on  Report  of  the  New  York  Agricultural  Station,  524 


Y  Cygni,  the  New  Algol- Variable,  Sawyer,  37 

Y  Cygni    and   R   Canis    Majoris,    the  New   Algol-Variables, 
Chandler,  140 

Yang-tse  Gorges,  through  the,  A.  J.  Little,  556 

Year-book    of  the   Scientific  and  Learned  Societies  of  Great 

Britain  and  Ireland,  615 
Yorkshire  Lias,  Fossil  Pterodactyl  Skull  found  in  the,  598 
Young  (Dr.  Sydney),  the  Composition  of  Water,  390,  417 


Zenker  (Dr.),  Distribution  of  Heat  over  the  Surface  of  the  Earth, 

552 
ZintgraflF(Dr.),  Start  for  Rio  del  Rey,  354 
Zograff  (Dr.   Nicholas)  :  on  Some  Affinities  between   Ganoidei 

chondrostei    and   other   Fishes,    70;    Structure    of  Acipenser 

ruthenus,  399 
Zoological  and  Botanical  Results  of  the  Cruise  of  the  Dijumphna, 

173 
Zoological  Gardens,  Additions  to,  17,  36,  66,  89,  113,  140,  158, 
187,  210,  233,  259,  284,  301,  330,  353,  380,  400,  423,  445, 

475,  495.  519,  544,  569.  596,  616 

Zoological  Record,  187,  300 

Zoological  Results  of  the  Challenger  Expedition,  1,219 

Zoological  Society,  119,  190,  239,  334..  43i,  454,  503,  5*6,  569 

Zoological  Station  at  Villafranca,  Russian,  566 

Zoology  :  M.  Zograif  on  the  Structure  of  Acipenser  rufhenus, 
399  ;  Wolves  nurturing  Children,  444  ;  Prodromus  of  the 
Zoology  of  Victoria,  Prof.  F.  McCoy,  533  ;  Leitfaden  der 
Zoologie  fiir  die  oberen  Classen  der  Mittelschulen,  Dr.  Vitus 
Graber,  604 


A    WEEKLY    ILLUSTRATED    JOURNAL    OF    SCIENCE. 

"  To  the  solid  ground 
Of  Nature  trusts  the  mind  which  builds  for  aye." — WORDSWORTH. 


THURSDAY,   NOVEMBER   3,    1887. 


THE  ZOOLOGICAL  RESULTS  OF  THE 
''CHALLENGER"  EXPEDITION. 
Report  on  the  Scientific  Results  of  the  Voyage  of  H. M.S. 
"  Challenger"  during  the  Years  1873-76  under  the  Com- 
mand of  Capt.  G.  S.  Nares,  R.N.,  F.R.S.,  and  of  the 
late  Capt.  F.  T.  Thomson,  R.N.  Prepared  under  the 
Superintendence  of  the  late  Sir  C.  Wyville  Thomson, 
Kt,  F.R.S.,  &c.,  and  now  of  John  Murray,  one  of  the 
Naturalists  of  the  Expedition.  Zoology— Vols.  XX. 
and  XXI.  (Published  by  Order  of  Her  Majesty's 
Government,  1887.) 

THE  twentieth  volume  of  the  "Zoological  Reports  of 
the  Voyage  of  H.M.S.  Challenger"  contains  three 
memoirs,  of  which  the  first  is  "  On  the  Monaxonida,"  by 
Stuart  O.  Ridley,  M.A.,  and  Arthur  Dendy,  B.Sc.  The 
collection  of  this  group  of  the  Sponges  was,  in  the  first 
instance,  intrusted  to  Mr.  Ridley,  who,  to  hasten  the 
completion  of  the  work,  was  afterwards  joined  by  Mr. 
Dendy. 

When  about  ten  years  ago  Prof.  Zittel  gave  the  name 
Monactinellidas  to  an  order  of  Sponges,  the  position  of 
this  group  became  for  the  first  time  clearly  defined.  Prof 
Sollas,  some  five  years  later,  pointed  out  that  Zittel's 
name  implied  a  wrong  idea,  for  that  the  characteristic 
spicules  of  the  group  were  just  as  often  "  diactinal "  as 
"  monactinal,"  and  suggested  that,  as  both  these  forms 
were,  however,  "  monaxonid," — that  is,  having  only  one 
axis,  which,  in  the  case  of  the  diactinal  forms,  passed 
through  both  the  rays— the  group  should  be  called 
Monaxonidaj.  As  this  group  represents  a  division  higher 
than  that  of  a  family,  for  which  the  termination  "idse" 
stands,  all  subsequent  writers  have  adopted  the  name 
"Monaxonida."  This  group  Sollas  now  regards  as  a 
tribe  of  the  sub-class  Demospongiae,  but  the  authors 
of  this  Report  consider  it  with  Zittel  as  one  of  the  orders 
of  the  class. 

The  classifications  of  Gray,  Bowerbank,  Schmidt,  or 
Carter,  have  now  little  but  historic  interest,  while  as  for 
the  more  recent  writers  it  would  even  seem  as  if  each  new 
Vol.  XXXVII. — No.  940. 


series  of  novelties  described  necessitated  a  fresh  shuiifling 
of  the  orders,  sub-orders,  and  families. 

In  the  chapter  on  the  anatomy  and  histology  of  the 
group  the  subject  of  the  spicules  is  fully  treated.  It 
appears  to  us  that  no  apology  was  needed  for  passing 
over  the  writings  of  Bowerbank  on  these  forms ;  and  when 
the  authors  too  modestly  refer  us  for  further  details  as  to 
the  nature,  &c.,  of  siliceous  spicules  to,  among  other 
volumes,  those  of  this  author,  we  prefer,  without  meaning 
the  slightest  reflection  on  his  great  labours,  to  turn  instead 
to  the  pages  of  the  present  Report. 

The  very  difificult  subject  of  a  nomenclature  for  the 
spicules  is  treated  at  some  length.  Those  of  this  order 
are  divided  into  the  two  classes  of  "  mega-"  and  "micro-" 
"  sclera."  In  each  of  these  there  is  a  very  numerous  series  of 
forms,  all  of  which  get  separate  names,  founded  on  some 
prominent  distinguishing  character  of  the  spicule.  Let 
us  hope  that  the  majority  of  these  names  may  find  accept- 
ance with  writers  on  this  group  of  Sponges,  so  that  one 
difficulty  in  its  study  may  be  removed. 

Passing  over  the  descriptions  of  the  spongin,  the 
arrangement  of  the  skeleton,  and  those  of  the  ectosome 
and  choanosome,  we  must  briefly  notice  a  very  remark- 
able structure,  which  would  appear  to  be  quite  unique, 
and  which  is  found  in  di  Sponge  {Cladorhiza  tridentata, 
sp.  n.)  from  a  depth  of  1600  fathoms.  The  little  Sponge 
in  which  this  occurs  is  in  shape  somewhat  like  a  minia- 
ture watch-stand.  Embedded  in  the  soft  tissues,  all  around 
the  upper  margin  of  the  concavity,  a  large  number  of 
small  yellow  globular  bodies  are  found.  Each  globular 
body  consists  of  a  central,  more  deeply  staining  and 
granular  portion,  surrounded  by  and  embedded  in  a 
matrix  of  faintly  staining,  perfectly  hyaline  ground  sub- 
stance. The  granular  appearance  of  the  central  mass  is 
owing  to  very  numerous  embedded  cells ;  these  are  irre- 
gular in  shape  and  nucleated.  Other  peculiar  cup-shaped 
bodies  occur  towards  the  periphery  of  the  Sponge,  em- 
bedded in  the  matrix.  The  authors  think  it  probable 
that  the  cup-shaped  bodies  are  aggregations  of  glandular 
cells  similar  to  those  met  with  in  the  ectosome  of  some 
other  Sponges,  and  hint  that  the  whole  structure  may  be 
phosphorescent,  and  serve  to  attract  minute  organisms 
upon  which  the  Sponge  feeds.     In  regaflKd  "to  the  canal- 


NA  TURE 


{Nov.  3,  1887 


system  the  authors' general  conclusions  are  quite  in  accord 
with  those  of  Vosmaer  and  Polejaeff.  In  the  classifica- 
tion adopted  the  order  is  divided  into  two  sub-orders, 
Halichondrina  and  Clavulina.  The  first  of  'these  is 
divided  into  four  families:  I.  Homorrhaphidae,  II.  Heteror- 
rhaphidae,  III.  Desmacidonidas,  and  IV.  AxinelUdae  ;  the 
second  into  I.  Suberitidas,  and  II.  Spirastrellidae. 

Over  200  species  or  well-marked  varieties  are  described 
from  the  Challenger' s  dredgings,  but  all  the  new  species 
were  first  diagnosed  in  the  Annals  and  Magazine  of 
Natural  History  during  the  course  of  last  year  (1886). 

In  reference  to  the  geographical  distribution,  the  authors 
remark  that  one  cannot  fail  to  notice  the  small  number  of 
stations  at  which  these  Sponges  were  found.  Out  of  a 
total  of  277  distinct  stations,  only  50  are  represented  as 
stations  for  these  Monaxonids,  and  these  are  supplemented 
by  20  localities  to  which  no  station-number  is  attsCcfisd  ; 
and  these  latter  were  not,  it  is  to  be  assumed,  deep-sea 
stations.  We  cannot  agree  with  the  suggestion  that  these 
forms  were  overlooked  amongst  the  "  rubbish  "  in  sorting 
out  the  contents  of  the  trawls  and  dredges ;  or  with  the 
idea  that  owing  to  their  fragiUty  they  may  have  been 
destroyed.  Doubtless  the  true  explanation  is  that  "  the 
Monaxonida  are  not,  on  the  whole,  a  predominant  group 
in  deep  water." 

While  not  a  predominant  group  in  deep  water,  still  no 
less  than  24  species  were  found  at  depths  between  1000 
and  2000  fathoms,  while  46  occurred  between  depths  of 
200-1000  fathoms,  and  140  species,  or  exactly  double  the 
previous  number,  were  found  at  depths  of  from  0-200 
fathoms. 

The  scarcity  of  Monaxonid  Sponges  at  very  great  depths 
is  somewhat  compensated  for  by  the  unusual  interest 
attaching  to  the ;  species  which  do  occur.  Among  other 
facts  we  find  that,  while  the  shallow-water  forms  are 
characteristically  more  or  less  shapeless  in  their  external 
form  or  at  the  very  most  digitate  or  ramose,  those  from 
below  the  looo-fathom  depth  have  almost  without  excep- 
tion beautifully  symmetrical  and  definite  shapes. 

One  of  the  most  beautiful  and  extraordinary  of  the 
species  described  and  figured  is  Esperiopsis  challengeri, 
Ridley :  it  was  taken  in  some  quantity  off  the  east  of 
Celebes  Island  from  a  depth  of  825  fathoms.  From  a 
slightly  expanded  attached  base  a  slightly  curved  stem 
arises,  which  is  composed  of  densely  packed  and  firmly 
united  stylote  spicules  :  this  stem  is  compressed  laterally; 
numerous  short  simple  branches  arise  from  the  concave 
edge  at  gradually  increasing  intervals,  the  longest  of  the 
internodes  being  at  the  top  ;  the  main  stem  and  each  of 
these  branches  terminate  in  fleshy  sponge  lamellae,  of 
which  there  may  be  six  or  seven  in  an  apparently  full- 
grown  specimen.  Each  lamella  presents  the  form  of  a 
deeply  concave,  transversely  elongated  cup :  the  oscula 
are  confined  to  the  convex  surfaces  of  the  lamellae  ;  the 
pores  are  found  on  the  concave  surfaces.  This  species  is 
figured  on  Plate  XVIII.  Fifty-one  plates  accompany  this 
Report. 

The  second  Report  in  this  volume  is  a  supplement  to 
Dr.  L.  von  Graff's  Report  on  the  Myzostomida.  It  in- 
cludes the  description  of  seven  new  forms  besides  four- 
teen previously  described  species,  all  received  from  Dr. 
P.  Herbert  Carpenter  ;  tJiese  were  found  by  him  while 
investigating  the  Challenger  Crinoids.     The  author  refers 


to  the  so-called  cysts  of  Atitedon  rosacea,  but  declares 
that  in  no  one  case  did  he  find  therein  any  trace  of  a 
Myzostoma  or  any  other  encysted  organism.  On  the 
contrary,  both  in  the  various  pinnule  deformities  and  in 
the  arm  swellings,  he  found  a  roundish  brown  foreign 
body,  which  was  apparently  the  cause  of  the  deformity. 
As  to  the  nature  or  origin  of  this  body  nothing  has  been 
determined.  Three  plates  of  the  new  species  and  one  of 
the  cysts  of  Antedon  rosacea  accompany  this  Report. 

The  third  Report  is  on  Cephalodisctis  dodecalophus, 
Mclnt.,  by  Prof.  W.  C.  Mcintosh.  This  very  remarkable 
new  type  of  Polyzoon  was  dredged  in  the  Strait  of  Magellan, 
and  was,  when  first  found,  placed  among  the  Compound 
Ascidians.  The  late  Mr.  Busk,  Prof.  AUman,  and  Prof. 
Mcintosh,  referred  it  to  the  Polyzoa.  At  first  sight  the 
flexible  coenoecium  might  easily  be  taken  for  a  sea-weed, 
but  it  would  seem  to  spread  over  the  surface  of  the  ground 
and  not  to  grow  erect.  Of  the  numerous  branches  many 
anastomose  ;  the  general  surface  is  spiny  or  fimbriated  ; 
the  interior  of  the  stem  and  branches  contains  an  irregular 
series  of  wide  canals.  The  Polypides  are  described  as 
being  perfectly  free  and  at  liberty  to  wander  anywhere 
along  the  chambers,  or  even  externally  through  the  aper- 
tures. Each  adult  Polypide  measures,  from  the  extremity 
of  the  cephalic  plumes  to  the  tips  of  the  pedicel,  about 
2  millimetres.  Large  buds  in  various  stages  of  develop- 
ment arise  from  the  Polypides.  The  twelve  branchial  plumes 
are  very  conspicuous.  The  author  thinks  that  Cephalo- 
discus  approaches  Rhabdopleura.  In  an  important 
appendix,  by  Mr.  Sidney  F.  Harmer,  the  affinities  of 
this  form  to  Balanoglossus  are  ably  pointed  out,  and  he 
thinks  that  this  genus  (and  perhap>s  Rhabdopleura  also), 
must  be  removed  from  the  Polyzoa  and  placed  in 
Bateson's  group  of  the  Hemichordata.  Seven  plates  and 
numerous  woodcuts  illustrate  this  Report. 

Volume  XXI.  contains  but  one  Report,  that  on  the 
Hexactinellida,  by  Prof.  F.  E.  Schulze,  of  the  University 
of  Berlin.  This  volume  is  issued  in  two  parts,  the  first 
that  of  the  text,  comprising  over  5oo"pages,  and  the  second 
consisting  of  an  atlas  of  104  plates. 

This  is  one  of  the  most  important  of  the  fifty-three 
Reports  hitherto  published.  This  group  of  Sponges  early 
attracted  the  special  attention  of  the  late  Sir  Wyville 
Thomson ;  and  it  was  his  intention  to  describe  the 
HexactineUids  of  the  Challenger  Expedition,  but  the 
work  had  s'carcely  been  seriously  commenced  at  the  time 
of  his  death.  It  was  fortunate  that  the  services  of  Prof. 
Schulze  were  secured  for  the  writing  of  this  monograph, 
which  is  a  most  acceptable  and  welcome  addition  to  our 
literature  of  this  group. 

In  this  Report,  besides  the  collection  made  by  the 
Challenger,  the  results  of  the  previous  cruises  of  the 
Lightning,  Porcupine,  Knight  Errant,  and  Triton  are 
also  detailed,  and  the  material  has  been  further  increased 
by  a  collection  made  at  Japan  by  Dr.  Doderlein. 

The  HexactineUids  are  those  forms  of  the  Sponges  in 
which  the  siliceous  spicules  belong  to  the  triaxial  type. 
Omitting  the  eighteenth  century  reference  to  a  Sponge 
belonging  to  the  genus  Dactylocalyx,  Dr.  Gray  was  the 
first  in  the  present  century  to  describe  some  peculiar 
"  glass  rope-like  "  structures  in  the  British  Museum  under 
the  name  of  Hyalonema  ;  though  without  recognizing 
until  long  afterwards  their  real  affinities.     This  was  in 


Nov.  3,  1887] 


NATURE 


1832,  and  in  the  following  year  Quoy  and  Gaimard  figured 
and  described  Iheir  Alcyonelluin  speciostim.  During  the 
next  twenty  years  only  five  more  species  were  added  to 
the  list,  the  beautiful  Euplectella  aspergillutn,  Owen,  being 
the  most  remarkable  of  these.  The  last  twenty-five 
years  have,  however,  witnessed  an  ever-advancing  pro- 
gress in  our  knowledge  of  these  Sponges,  thanks  to 
the  labours  of  Gray,  Bowerbank,  Wyville  Thomson, 
Schmidt,  Kent,  Carter,  Marshall,  Sollas,  and,  above 
all,  of  Zittel,  which  labours  have  now  culminated  in 
the  present  Report. 

It  is  scarcely  to  be  wondered  at  that  the  beautiful 
glassy  frame-work  and  the  charmingly  diversified  spicules 
which  form  their  "  skeletons "  have  always  attracted 
attention  to  these  Sponges — an  attraction  that  will  be 
greatly  intensified  by  the  publication  of  this  volume. 

The  Report  opens  with  a  general  historical  introduction, 
and  then  passes  on  to  details  of  the  forms  and  struc- 
tures to  be  met  with  in  the  group  :  herein  we  find  the 
nomenclature  adopted  for  the  spicules.  This  is  followed 
by  the  description  of  the  genera  and  species.  It  is 
pleasant  to  find  in  the  synonymy  and  specific  details  that 
great  pains  have  been  taken  to  mention  the  work  of  all 
previous  labourers  in  the  field,  and  the  author  shows  a  due 
and  kindly  appreciation  of  what  has  been  done  by  those 
who  often  had  but  little  light  to  guide  them  on  their  way. 

It  is  not  easy  to  give  any  analysis  of  so  elaborate  a 
memoir,  in  which  twenty  new  genera  and  sixty-five  new 
species  are  described ;  while  with  scarcely  an  exception 
the  numerous  species  already  described  are  not  only 
alluded  to,  but  many  fresh  details  are  given  about 
them.  When  it  is  recollected  that  but  fourteen  years 
ago  only  thirty  species  of  this  group  of  Sponges  were 
known,  the  progress  of  our  knowledge  of  them,  it  will  be 
recognized,  has  been  great. 

These  Sponges  seem  to  be  widely  distributed  in  all  the 
oceans  ;  the  largest  number  of  forms — fifty-seven — being 
found  in  the  Pacific  Ocean  ;  next  comes  the  Atlantic 
Ocean,  in  which  twenty-four  species  were  found ;  while 
only  sixteen  were  found  in  the  South  Indian  Ocean  ;  but 
it  must  not  be  forgotten  that  the  South  Indian  Ocean  has 
been  very  slightly  investigated. 

As  to  the  bathymetrical  distribution  of  the  Hexactinel- 
lida,  they  would  appear  to  be  met  with  in  depths  of 
between  95  and  3000  fathoms,  being  more  numerous  be- 
tween the  depths  of  100  and  900  fathoms,  decreasing 
somewhat  between  those  of  900  and  2500  fathoms,  and 
again  markedly  diminishing  between  the  depths  of  2500 
and  3000  fathoms,  while  below  this  depth  no  Hexactinel- 
lida  Sponges  have  been  found.  Euplectellids  seem  to 
have  a  wide  range,  being  met  with  at  the  moderate  depth 
of  95  fathoms,  and  then  being  pretty  evenly  distributed 
down  to  a  depth  of  2750  fathoms.  The  four  species  of 
the  new  genus  Holascus  frequent  great  depths,  varying 
from  1375  to  2650  fathoms.  The  maximum  depth  as  yet 
known  for  any  of  these  Sponges  is  that  of  2900  fathoms, 
at  which  depth  Bathydortis  Jimbriatus  was  found  in  the 
middle  of  the  North  Pacific  Ocean. 

It  would  be  obviously  impossible  to  give  even  a  brief 
summary  of  the  very  remarkable  new  forms  described  in 
this  splendid  memoir  of  Prof.  Schulze,  and  it  is  difficult  to 
convey  a  correct  notion  of  the  beauty  of  the  illustrations 
forming  the  large  atlas  of  plates  which  accompanies  the 


text.  The  diagnoses  of  the  genera  and  the  descriptions 
of  the  species  are  what  one  would  expect  from  the  well- 
known  skill  of  the  author. 

We  do  not  altogether  agree  with  him  when  he  writes 
that,  "  after  a  detailed  investigation  of  a  group  of  ani- 
mals, it  is  incumbent  on  every  naturalist  who  accepts  the 
evolution  theory  to  attempt  the  appreciation  of  his  results 
in  their  relation  to  the  phylogeny  of  the  group."  Look- 
ing at  his  array  of  facts,  is  it  not  possible  for  the  thought- 
ful worker  to  bear  in  mind  the  incompleteness  of  the 
phylogenic  record,  and  reverently  to  wait  for  more  light  ? 
There  may  be  nothing  to  object  to  in  the  stately  genea- 
logical tree  of  the  Hexactinellida  represented  on  p.  495 , 
but  is  it  not  built  up  on  but  an  incomplete  and  scanty 
framework  ? 

One  departure  in  this  Report  from  the  ordinary  custom 
in  the  description  of  species  we  notice  with  regret — viz. 
that  there  is  no  synonymic  list  affixed  to  the  species, 
neither  are  we  referred,  in  connection  with  each  form,  to 
the  place  or  places  where  it  has  been  previously  described. 
It  seems  scarcely  necessary  to  point  out  the  inconveniences 
attending  such  a  style,  or  the  great  uncertainty  it  may  on 
occasions  give  rise  to.  The  volume  opens  at  the  descrip- 
tion of  Rosella  antarctica,  Carter.  To  find  where  it  was 
first  described  by  Mr.  Carter  we  are  obliged  to  refer  to 
the  synonymy  affixed  to  the  diagnosis  of  the  genus  ;  but 
here  we  get  no  certain  information  as  to  how  many  of  the 
quotations  given  refer  to  this  species  ;  and  this  is  of  course 
much  more  confusing  when  we  come  to  investigate  a 
genus  abounding  with  species,  like,  for  example,  Hyalo- 
nema.  Indeed,  by  this  method  an  author  is  very  apt  to 
overlook  the  fact  that  several  writers  may  refer  to  the 
same  species  under  quite  different  names,  and  a  curious 
case  of  this  nature,  we  suspect,  occurs  under  Hyalonema. 
Dr.  Gray,  wrongly  trusting  to  a  Museum  label,  replaced 
the  name  Hyalonema  sieboldii,  which  he  had  given  to  the 
first  known  species  of  this  genus  in  1835,  by  that  of  H. 
mirabile,  under  the  impression  that  he  had  so  named  it 
in  the  "  Synopsis  of  the  Contents  of  the  British  Museum," 
1832  (misprinted  1830),  the  year  he  had  got  the  analysis 
of  its  glassy  fibres  from  Mr.  Pearsall.  Depending 
on  the  accuracy  of  Dr.  Gray,  many  authors  referred  to 
the  species  under  this  latter  name  ;  and  further,  for  some 
time  after  the  discovery  of  the  Setubal  species  by  Prof. 
Barboza  du  Bocage,  this  species,  now  known  as  H.  lusi- 
tanicuin,  passed  as  the  same  species  as  H.  mirabik  =  H. 
sieboldii.  Even  from  the  details  given  by  Prof.  Schulze, 
this  seems  clear  ;  but  in  the  description  of  Bocage's  species 
(p.  225)  no  synonymic  list  is  given,  and  not  only  does  the 
before-mentioned  fact  not  appear,  but  we  find  H.  lusitani- 
cum  placed  among  those  species  "the  upper  end  of 
which  was  not  sufficiently  preserved  for  deciding  the 
question  whether  there  is  a  sieve-plate  or  not."  It  is 
added  that  "  neither  on  this  specimen  (the  one  figured  in 
the  Proc.  Zool.  Soc  Lond.)  nor  on  others  which  Bocage 
afterwards  obtained  from  the  same  locality  could  any 
portion  of  the  sponge  body  be  detected."  But  on  p.  186 
we  find  it  stated  that  H.  lusitanicum  had  been  dredged 
from  a  depth  of  480  fathoms  south-west  of  Setubal,  "  bear- 
ing a  sponge  body  with  several  oscular  openings"  ;  and 
again  on  the  same  page  that  among  the  Hyalonema  found 
off  the  coast  of  Portugal  by  Barboza  du  Bocage  and 
others,  and  named  H.  niirabile,  there  was  one  specimen 


NATURE 


[Nov.  3,  1887 


with  an  oval  cup-shaped  body  about  8  inches  in  .length 
and  4  inches  in  breadth,  with  a  sieve-net  on  the  upper 
truncated  surface  of  the  sponge  body,  extending  evenly 
over  the  oscular  opening  and  over  the  layer  of  the 
"  spiculate  cruciform  spicules  "  in  the  net  beams.  We 
may  further  add  that  there  were  to  be  found  in  the  Museum 
at  Lisbon  nearly  a  dozen  specimens  of  Hyalonema  which 
were  taken  at  Setubal.  "  Most  of  them  were  preserved 
in  spirits  of  wine ;  they  were  certainly  the  very  finest 
collection  of  this  remarkable  Sponge  in  Europe.  The 
largest  had  a  stem  about  18  inches  in  height  ;  there  were 
no  parasites  of  any  kind  on  it,  and  it  was  furnished  with 
a  sponge  mass  some  8  inches  in  diameter,  and  nearly  as 
much  in  height.  A  second  specimen  was  very  curious, 
for  here  two  apparently  distinct  individuals  had  become 
matted  together :  the  two  glass  ropes  were  interlaced,  and 
the  two  sponge  masses  had  grown  together"  (Proc. 
Dublin  Nat.  Hist.  Soc,  vol.  v.,  1869).  It  would  have 
been  most  important  to  have  had  the  opinion  of  such  an 
authority  as  Prof.  Schulze  as  to  whether  all  these  speci- 
mens from  Setubal  are  referable  to  Bocage's  species  ;  and 
whether,  as  we  venture  to  think,  Marshall's  H.  tho7nsoni 
may  not  be  only  a  well-marked  variety  thereof.  It  is 
possible  that  by  thus  calling  attention  to  the  subject  we 
may  yet  learn  more  of  the  treasures  of  the  Museum  of 
Lisbon,  and  nothing  in  these  remarks  can  in  the  very 
slightest  degree  detract  from  the  merits  and  importance 
of  this  splendid  contribution  to  our  knowledge  of  the 
vitreous  Sponges.  E.  P.  W. 

THE  FERN-ALLIES. 
Hand-book  of  the  Fern-Allies  :  A  Synopsis  of  the  Genera 
and  Species  of  the  Natural  Orders  Equisetacece,  Lyco- 
podiacecB,  Selaginellacece,  Rhizocarpece.  By  J.  G.  Baker, 
F.R.S.,  F.L.S.,  First-Assistant  in  the  Herbarium  of  the 
Royal  Gardens,  Kew.  (London  :  George  Bell  and  Sons, 
York  Street,  Covent  Garden,  1887.) 

AS  the  author  states  in  the  preface,  "  The  present  Hand- 
book is  planned  upon  the  same  lines  as  Hooker  and 
Baker's  '  Synopsis  Filicum,'  and  the  two,  taken  in  connec- 
tion, cover  the  whole  series  of  the  Vascular  Cryptogamia." 
The  total  number  of  species  describe  d  in  the  "  Hand-book" 
is  566,  and  as  we  may  now  place  the  number  of  known  ferns 
at  about  3000,  the  fern-allies  may  be  taken  to  represent 
about  one-seventh  of  the  recent  Vascular  Cryptogams.  The 
fern-allies  include  only  eleven  genera,  and  about  four-fifths 
of  the  species  belong  to  the  two  genera  Selaginella  (335 
species)  and  Lycopodium  (94  species).  The  eleven  genera 
are  placed  by  Mr.  Baker  in  four  "natural  orders,'' 
while  the  Filices  form  a  fifth  :  three  of  these,  Filices,  Equi- 
setaceas,  and  Lycopodiaceae,  being  isosporous  ;  and  two, 
Selaginellaceae  and  Rhizocarpeae,  being  heterosporous.  In 
this  way  the  relationship  of  the  Rhizocarpeae  to  the  ferns  is 
quite  lost  sight  of ;  the  Selaginella  s  and  Lycopods  are  separ- 
ated more  widely  than  is  desirable,  and  no  place  is  left  for 
the  fossil  heterosporous  Equisetinae.  The  arrangement 
adopted  by  Mr.  Baker  is  very  good  for  herbarium  work  ; 
but  for  classificatory  purposes  it  ignores  certain  palaeonto- 
logical  facts  which  we  cannot  at  the  present  day  afford  to 
overlook.  Mr.  Baker,  however,  does  not  deal  with  the  fossil 
types,  and  now  that  we  have  such  a  complete  account  of  the 
recent  forms,  let  us  hope  that  before  long  we  may  have  as 


complete  a  synopsis  of  the  fossil  forms  ;  a  work  which 
would  be  of  the  greatest  interest  and  importance. 

In  regard  to  the  geographical  distribution  of  the  fern- 
allies  it  is  interesting  to  notice  that  Equisetum,  Isoetes, 
and  Piliilaria  predominate  in  the  North  Temperate  Zone. 
Lycopodium,  Psilotum,  Selaginella,  Salvinia,  and 
Marsilea  are  eminently  tropical  ;  and  Phylloglosswn 
is  pecuhar  to  the  South  Temperate  Zone.  Like  the  ferns, 
the  fern-allies^  are  best  developed  in  the  Tropics ;  and  in 
the  Tropics  we  also  find  the  greatest  number  of  peculiar 
species.  Thus,  out  of  the  566  species,  484  are  met  with 
in  the  Tropics  of  the  Old  and  New  World  ;  and  no  less 
than  402,  or  83  per  cent.,  of  these  are  peculiar  to  the 
Tropics.  As  with  the  ferns  so  also  with  the  fern-allies, 
tropical  America  is  richest  in  species,  including  237 
species,  of  which  212  are  peculiar.  The  Southern 
Temperate  Zone  yields  only  83  species,  of  which  42,  or 
5 1  per  cent.,  are  peculiar,  the  fern-allies  being  thus  much 
less  numerous  than  the  ferns  in  the  southern  flora.  In  the 
North  Temperate  Zone  150  species  are  met  with,  and  of 
these  48,  or  32  per  cent.,  are  peculiar.  The  North 
Temperate  Zone  is  thus,  like  the  South,  deficient  in  fern- 
allies  as  compared  with  ferns,  and  this  is  apparently  due 
to  the  small  number  of  fern-allies  as  yet  reported  from 
temperate  Asia.  Only  6  species  occur  in  the  Frigid  Zone, 
and,  like  the  ferns,  represent  about  i  per  cent,  of  the  whole, 
none  of  the  species  being  peculiar. 

It  is  difficult  to  realize  the  amount  of  labour  and  research 
that  must  have  been  spent  upon  the  production  of  this 
book  ;  but  anyone  who  has  attempted  to  study  the  genus 
Selaginella  will  appreciate  the  masterly^  manner  in  which 
Mr.  Baker  has  dealt  with  the  335  species  of  the  genus, 
more  than  one-fourth  of  which  he  has  himself  described 
for  the  first  time.  Most  of  the  species  of  Selaginellaceae 
and  Rhizocarpeae  have  been  described  by  Mr.  Baker  in 
his  papers  on  the  subject  which  have  appeared  from  time 
to  time,  since  1883,  in  the  fournal  of  Botany,  but  several 
new  species  are  described  in  "  Fern- Allies  "  for  the  first 
time,  recent  additions  to  the  rich  treasures  of  Kew.  It  is 
to  be  regretted  that  Mr.  Baker  does  not  more  particularly 
refer  to  his  papers  in  ihe  Journal  of  Botany,  and  it  is 
hard  to  understand  why,  in  the  descriptions  of  Marsilea 
conciftna  and  M.  condensata,  he  has  omitted  the  references 
to  th.Q  Journal  of  Botany, 1ZZ6,  pp.  179  and  281  respectively. 
Then  in  transferring  the  matter  from  the  Journal  of 
Botany  he  has  altogether  dropped  out  the  habitat  of  Azolla 
nilotica.  There  are  also  in  the  book  not  a  few  misprints, 
and  a  want  of  care  is  shown  in  numbering  and  lettering 
the  sections  of  Selaginella.  The  index  is  also  not  quite  up 
to  the  mark,  as  in  Marsilea,  with  numerous  synonyms 
omitted,  and  the  misprints  in  Pilularia  and  Psilotum. 
As  the  index  of  the  "  Synopsis  Filicum "  was  published 
separately  as  a  catalogue  of  ferns,  we  may  perhaps  be 
permitted  to  express  a  hope  that  this  index  will  not  be  so 
published  until  it  is  carefully  revised.  All  that  is  wanting, 
however,  is  only  a  little  more  careful  editing,  and  the  few 
faults  in  no  way  detract  from  the  sterling  value  of  the 
work. 

As  the  only  modern  synopsis  of  the  group,  it  is  a  work 
that  must  be  in  the  hands  of  every  botanist  who  deals  with 
the  Vascular  Cryptogams,  and  it  will  be  a  lasting  monu- 
ment to  Mr.  Baker's  critical  accuracy  and  great  power  of 
dealing  with  a  difficult  set  of  plants.     W.  R.  McNab. 


Nov.  3,  1887] 


NA  TURE 


OUR  BOOK  SHELF. 


The  Sailor's  Sky  Interpreter.  By  S.  R.  Elson.  (Calcutta  : 

Thacker,  Spink,  and  Co.,  1879) 
This  little  book,  which  is  written  in  verse,  is  a  practical 
storm  guide,  dealing  especially  with  the  October  cyclones 
in  the  Bay  of  Bengal.  Many  years  of  experience  as  pilot 
in  the  dangerous  waters  of  the  bay  have  made  the  author 
familiar  with  the  phenomena  of  the  weather  in  this 
part  of  the  world.  The  details  convey  many  a  hint  to 
students  of  Nature,  and  above  all  to  navigators  interested 
in  the  very  violent  storms  which  occur  periodically  at  the 
change  of  the  monsoons,  and  more  especially  about 
October  at  the  close  of  the  summer  monsoon.  The  con- 
cluding stanza  deals  with  the  rules  for  avoiding  the  centre 
of  a  cyclone,  and  on  this  head  the  advice  is  both  good  and 
sound,  and  is  at  the  same  time  put  in  a  very  concise  form 
Sailors  are  very  familiar  with  rhymes  for  the  "  Rules  of 
the  Road,"  but  we  can  scarcely  hope  that  the  author's  verse 
will  be  similarly  mastered  and  remembered.  Probably 
the  author  himself  never  contemplated  such  a  use  of  his 
work  ;  but  yet  there  are  couplets  and  triplets  of  Admiral 
FitzRoy's  which  have  lived  for  a  quarter  of  a  century,  and 
are  still  valuable  aids.  In  the  last  volume  of  the  "  Indian 
Meteorological  Memoirs"  full  credit  is  given  to  Mr.  Elson 
for  his  valuable  observations  on  the  False  Point  cyclone, 
and  especial  mention  is  made  of  the  high  value  of  his 
observations  bearing  on  the  movement  of  the  clouds. 
The  author  possesses  just  that  local  knowledge  which 
in  a  recent  issue  of  the  "  Fishery  Barometer  Manual  *■' 
the  Meteorological  Ofifice  lamented  the  want  of  among 
its  observers  around  our  coasts  for  the  further  perfecting 
of  our  "  Weather  Forecasts  ; "  and  in  the  twenty  stanzas 
which  he  has  written  he  has  pithily  handed  down  his 
experiences  for  the  benefit  of  his  fellow-sailors. 

Austral    Africa.       By    John    Mackenzie.       Two    Vols- 
(London:  Sampson  Low,  1887.) 

This  work,  written  by  one  who  understands  his  subject 
thoroughly,  ought  to  be  cordially  welcomed  by  all  who 
have  given  any  attention  to  the  questions  which  have 
caused,  during  the  last  few  years,  so  much  trouble  in 
South  Africa.  Mr.  Mackenzie  is  convinced  that  these 
questions  are  not  nearly  so  complicated  and  difficult  as 
they  are  generally  believed  to  be,  and  he  has  taken  great 
pains  to  expound  clearly  and  forcibly  the  policy  which, 
in  his  opinion,  would  open  up  new  markets  for  our  com- 
merce in  South  Africa,  and  secure  the  highest  and  best 
interests  of  the  natives.  The  book  is  addressed  rather 
to  politicians  than  to  persons  interested  in  science,  but 
students  of  the  early  forms  of  social  institutions  will  find 
some  statements  worthy  of  their  attention  in  Mr.  Mac- 
kenzie's account  of  those  native  tribes  with  which  he 
himself  has  come  into  contact.  Archaeologists  will  be 
interested,  too,  in  what  he  has  to  say  about  the  remark- 
able stone  structures  which  are  found  over  an  extensive 
district  to  the  east  and  north-east  of  Shoshong.  These 
buildings,  in  the  neighbourhood  of  which  are  the  remains 
of  ancient  gold-mines,  he  compares  with  Persian  towers 
of  refuge  and  with  the  ancient  round  towers  of  Ireland 
and  Britain. 


LETTERS  TO  THE  EDITOR. 
\The  Editor  does  not  hold  himself  responsible  for  opinions 
expressed  by  his  correspondents.  Neither  can  he  under- 
take to  return,  or  to  correspond  with  the  writers  of, 
rejected  manuscripts.  No  notice  is  taken  of  anonymous 
communications. 

Medical  Education  at  Oxfjrd. 

The  problem,  how  far  the  older  Universities  should  under- 
take special  training  for  the  professions,  is  fast  finding  its  own 
solution.     A  degree  is  no  longer  any  evidence  that  its  possessor 


has  been  through  any  course  of  wide  general  culture  preparatory 
to  his  technical  education.  Recent  legislation,  both  at  Oxford 
and  Cambridge,  has  all  tended  in  the  direction  of  enabling  the 
undergraduate  to  specialize  at  the  earliest  possible  point  in  his 
career.  Whether  advisable  or  not,  some  such  movement  seemed 
inevitable  if,  in  the  midst  of  the  daily  increasing  pressure  of 
competition,  the  Universities  were  to  retain  any  hold  on  the 
educational  development  of  the  country.  Even  Prof.  Freeman's 
articles  in  the  Contemporary  Rcviau  are  marked  by  a  tone  of 
querulous  despair,  rather  than  by  any  hope  that  the  tide  of  in- 
novation may  be  checked.  For  knowledge  as  a  luxury  or  an 
ornament  there  is  neither  leisure  nor  inclination.  Cambridge 
was  the  first  to  yield  ;  but  the  multitudinous  statutes  which  are 
every  day  promulgated  at  Oxford  prove  that  the  latter  University 
is  eagerly  hurrying  along  the  same  path.  New  schools,  new 
Boards  of  Faculties  have  been  established  ;  old  restrictions  have 
been  remo\  ed  Large  sums  of  money  have  been  expended  on 
new  buildings,  in  which  new  professors  may  give  instruction  in 
arts  and  sciences  unheard  of  by  the  last  generation.  All  this  has 
been  done  in  order  that  the  student  may  proceed  as  speedily  as 
possible  to  those  special  researches  which  are  to  arm  him  for  the 
battle  of  life. 

The  ordinary  curriculum  at  Oxford  is  now  so  modified  and 
subdivided  that  a  Bachelor  of  Arts  may  have  no  more  extensive 
general  education  than  that  smattering  of  school-boy  knowledge 
required  for  the  examination  called  Responsions.  It  is  hardly 
realized  by  those  who  are  chiefly  responsible  for  this  move- 
ment how  much  the  whole  life  of  the  University  must  be 
altered  by  so  radical  a  change  in  its  methods  and  its  aims.  The 
statute-book,  indeed,  is  in  such  a  state  of  chaos  that  there  are 
few,  even  among  the  officials,  who  can  unravel  the  intricacies  of 
any  one  Faculty.  In  the  department  of  medicine  an  attempt 
has  recently  been  made,  in  a  pamphlet  issued  by  the  Clarendon 
Press,  to  afford  concise  and  accurate  information  to  the  hitherto 
bewildered  undergraduate.  By  means  of  this  publication  it  is 
possible  to  trace  out  the  curriculum  of  an  Oxford  medical  student 
and  to  contrast  the  present  with  the  older  system  of  education. 
Responsions,  or  some  equivalent  test,  can  be  pas-ed  while  the 
candidate  is  still  at  school,  and  at  the  same  time  he  can  take  an 
extra  subject  which  will  exempt  him  from  the  First  Public  Ex- 
amination. After  reaching  the  University,  only  an  elementary 
pass  examination  in  divinity  will  stand  between  him  and  his 
scientific  work  He  may  then  give  himself  up  to  preparation 
for  one  of  the  fJonour  Schools  of  natural  science.  For  this  he 
will  have  to  pa •>  various  "preliminaries,"  for  which  there  are 
schedules  of  abi  tiing  proportions.  Physiology  and  chemistry 
are  suggested  as  the  most  suitable  schools,  as  by  their  means 
exemption  is  gained  from  portions  of  the  First  M.B.  Whichever 
he  may  select,  two  years  of  the  most  severe  application  are 
necessary  in  order  to  gain  a  satisfactory  position  in  the  Class 
List.  He  will  then,  in  his  third  or  fourth  year,  be  enabled  to 
take  his  B.A.  degree.  The  study  of  human  anatomy  will  next 
absorb  his  energies.  The  amplest  opportunities  are  now  afforded 
to  those  who  desire  to  take  up  this  subject  while  residing  at 
Oxford.  The  ideal  candidate  depicted  in  this  pamphlet  is  sup- 
posed to  spend  but  one  academical  year  in  this  department. 
Extraordinary,  indeed,  must  be  the  powers  of  the  teacher  who 
could  impart,  and  of  tlie  pupil  who  could  receive,  a  sufficiently 
deep  impression  of  so  important  a  science  in  so  briet  a  time. 
After  the  first  examination  for  the  M.B.,  residence  in  Oxford 
would  come  to  an  end,  and  the  student  would  migrate  probably 
to  London.  With  everything  in  his  favour  he  might  be  able  to 
obtain  his  degree  in  six  or  seven  years  from  the  date  of  his 
matriculation.  There  are  other  ways  in  which  the  course  of 
study  might  be  arranged,  but  the  details  are  of  small  consequence. 
It  matters  little  to  the  public  whether  the  degree  can  be 
obtained  in  five  years  or  seven.  In  either  case  the  professional 
acquirements  will  be  alcove  -the  average.  The  eminence  of  the 
examiners  and  the  reputation  of  the  University  will  be  a  suffi- 
cient guarantee  that  tests  are  applied  of  sufficient  stringency  to 
exclude  the  ignorant  and  incompetent.  It  is  well,  however, 
that  the  real  state  of  affairs  should  be  fairly  recognized  and 
understood  by  tho^e  who  have  been  accustomed  to  attribute 
some  special  virtues  to  a  University  degree.  It  is  important 
also  to  consider  whether  in  leaving  the  older  methods  and 
yielding,  however  reluctantly,  to  the  pressure  of  the  hour,  a 
retrograde  step  has  not  been  taken  in  the  history  of  medical 
education.  It  is  always  a  loss  when  something  even  distantly 
approaching  to  an  ideal  is  degraded  to  the  level  of  every-day 

The   older  Oxford  .system,  if  antiquated  and  imperfect,  had 


NATURE 


\Nov.  3,  1887 


at  least  aims  of  a  high  and  noble  character — aims  which  could 
not  fail  to  have  an  elevating  effect  on  those  by  whom  they 
were  entertained.  In  former  times  to  have  taken  a  degree  in 
arts,  as  a  necessary  preliminary  to  the  beginning  of  a  student's 
purely  professional  career,  may  not  have  meant,  and,  as  a  matter 
of  fact,  did  not  in  the  majority  of  cases  mean,  any  very  high 
standard  of  learning  or  culture.  It  did,  however,  carry  with  it 
some  inestimable  advantages  which  can  never  be  attained  under 
the  existing  system  of  specialization.  It  meant  that  a  young  man, 
while  his  mind  was  still  plastic  to  all  surrounding  influences,  was 
brought  into  contact  with  and  joined  in  the  same  pursuits  as  fellow- 
students  whose  tastes  would  lead  them  to  different  pleasures,  and 
whose  circumstances  would  lead  them  to  a  variety  of  destina- 
tions. The  physician  or  surgeon  of  the  future  became  the  com- 
panion of  those  who  were  afterwards  to  become  clergymen, 
barristers,  or  schoolmasters  He  read  the  same  books,  played 
the  same  games,  belonged  to  the  same  clubs.  In  this  way,  how- 
ever little  actual  knowledge  he  may  have  acquired,  he  gained  an 
invaluable  acquaintance  with  men's  lives  and  habits.  He  formed 
friendships  with  men  destined  to  follow  very  different  careers. 
These  associations  could  not  fail  to  be  of  the  greatest  value  to 
him  in  the  pursuit  of  his  special  profession.  I  do  not  mean 
mere  monetary  advantage,  but  that  derived  from  intercourse 
with  men  in  other  walks  of  life — that  interchange  of  ideas  so 
neces-ary  to  a  healthy  mind.  Such  a  training  must  have  been 
beneficial  to  all,  but  to  the  student  of  medicine  it  was  an  incal- 
culable boon.  Much  of  his  success  and  much  of  the  good  he 
can  hope  to  do  depend  on  an  intimate  knowledge  of  mankind. 
Without  that,  no  matter  how  highly  trained  he  may  be  as  a  man 
of  science,  his  acquirements  will  be  of  little  avail,  and  his  skill 
can  never  be  used  to  the  highest  purpose. 

How  is  the  existing  system  likely  to  work  in  this  direction? 
The  student  is  advised  and  encouraged  to  enter  at  once  on  his 
special  pursuits.  He  is  to  apply  himself  without  delay  to  scien- 
tific study,  associated  with  men  like  himself,  plodding  along  the 
same  track.  If  he  aims  at  taking  honours  in  natural  science,  he 
must  curtail  his  exercise  to  the  limits  of  a  short  "constitutional" 
and  cut  himself  off  from  the  common  pleasures  of  the  cricket- 
field  and  the  river.  His  very  social  gatherings  tend  to  consist 
more  and  more  exclusively  of  men  working  in  his  own  depart- 
ment. The  Union  and  other  such  Clubs  are  given  up  for 
scientific  Societies,  where  he  thinks  he  can  combine  business 
with  amusement.  Such  a  life  can  hardly  fail  to  narrow  the  most 
sympathetic  mind,  to  hamper  and  confine  the  most  command- 
ing intellect  ;  it  is  most  unlikely  to  turn  out  a  practitioner 
of  the  highest  and  most  useful  type.  To  live  in  a  clique  where 
priggishness  is  fostered  by  the  worst  kind  of  mutual  admiration 
is  hardly  the  ideal  of  University  education.  Fortunately  the 
curriculum  indicated  in  the  pamphlet  to  which  I  have  referred  is 
not  compulsory,  and  an  intending  medical  student  might  not  be 
altogether  unwise  if  he  decided  to  pass  the  first  three  years  of 
his  career  in  the  ordinary  pursuits  of  the  University  before  turning 
his  attention  to  more  technical  studies.  Even  the  delay  of  a 
year  or  two  would  be  more  than  counterbalanced  to  some  by  the 
benefits  which  such  a  course  would  undoubtedly  confer. 

Oxford.  George  I.  Wilson. 


_;.Migration  of  Swallows  along  the  Southern  Coast. 

The  following  notes  were  made  by  me  during  a  short  stay  at 
Lulworth,  twelve  miles  east  of  Weymouth,  from  September  16 
to  26.  They  may  be  of  interest  to  some  of  your  readers,  as  I 
have  not  been  able  to  find  the  facts  I  observed  recorded  in  any 
work  on  British  birds. 

When  I  arrived  at  Lulworth  on  the  i6th,  swallows  and  house- 
martins  were  about,  but  in  no  great  numbers.  On  the  19th,  in 
the  course  of  a  walk,  I  observed  a  few  swallows  apparently 
moving  eastwards  ;  and  this  caused  me  to  spend  the  next  morn- 
ing on  the  fop  of  a  high  and  narrow  ridge  of  down  (Bindon  Hill), 
running  parallel  with  the  sea — an  admirable  position  for  observa- 
tion, as  the  movements  of  all  birds  were  discernible  from  it  at  a 
long  distance.  The  wind  was  east-north-east,  and  the  air  cold 
and  very  clear. 

In  half-an-hour  it  became  clear  to  me  that  a  general  migration 
of  swallows  and  martins  was  taking  place  along  the  coast  in  an 
easterly  direction.  The  air  would  be  thick  with  birds  over  my 
head  for  tvvo  or  three  minutes  ;  then  for  a  considerable  interval 
hardly  a  bird  would  be  visible.  An  ordinary  glance  at  these 
dense  parties  was  not  enough  to  prove  that  they  were  travelling, 
or  to  show  in  which  direction  they  were  going  ;  but  by  keeping 


the  eye  steadily  upon  them  for  some  little  time,  and  bringing 
the  field-glass  to  bear  on  them  when  the  eye  failed,  it  became 
obvious  that  they  were  going  east  at  a  steady  rate  of  speed,  and 
apparently  following  the  long  spine  of  chalk  down  on  which  I 
stood,  which  extends  from  near  Weymouth  as  far  as  Poole 
Harbour.  The  migration  on  this  large  scale  lasted  during  the 
whole  of  that  morning  ;  in  the  afternoon  the  parlies  did  not 
seem  so  large. 

The  next  day  (the  21st)  a  strong  east  wind  was  blowing,  and 
the  birds  were  not  travelling  high  in  air,  but  creeping  steadily 
along  the  flanks  of  the  down,  and  on  the  lower  ground  north 
and  south  of  it.  They  were  continually  tacking,  but  every 
individual  that  I  followed  with  my  glass  was  moving  swiftly 
towards  the  east.  Those  that  were  on  the  southern  or  seaward 
side  of  the  down  would  come  upon  the  sea  at  one  point  where 
the  coast  turns  sharply  northwards  for  a  short  distance  :  they 
did  not  attempt,  however,  to  leave  the  land,  but  turned  north- 
wards with  the  coast,  and  pursued  their  way  along  the  heights. 
On  the  22nd  and  23rd  the  same  thing  went  on,  but  the  numbers 
of  the  birds  seemed  to  diminish,  and  they  no  longer  went  in 
parties  that  were  plainly  discernible.  AH  this  time  there  were  a 
very  few  stationary  swallows  in  one  or  two  warm  corners  by  the 
seaside. 

From  Dorset  I  went  to  Devonshire  on  the  26th.  At  Crediton 
and  at  Bideford  (both  warm  and  sheltered  towns),  I  did  not  see 
a  dozen  swallows  or  martins  in  the  course  of  a  week  ;  but  I 
learnt  that  they  had  gathered  for  departure  a  few  days  before. 
I  have  since  been  informed  that  the  gatherings  had  been  noticed 
in  Cornwall  in  the  first  week  of  the  month.  I  infer  that  the 
migration  I  saw  at  Lulw  jrth  was  that  of  the  extreme  West  of 
England  birds,  who  were  proceeding  along  the  coast  to  the 
point  at  which  they  crosi  the  Channel.  I  should  be  glad  to 
know  where  that  point  is. 

I  had  reason  to  believe  that  one  or  two  other  species  were 
moving  up  regularly  in  the  same  direction.  The  well-known 
migration  of  the  pied  wagtail  was  apparently  over  ;  but  the 
large  number  of  gray  wagtails  in  a  district  almost  destitute  of 
water  was  very  striking,  and,  as  far  as  I  could  see,  these  also 
were  passing  eastwards.  But  I  hope  to  make  further  observations 
next  year. 

I  may  add  that,  on  returning  to  my  home  in  Oxfordshire  in  the 
first  week  of  October,  I  found  swallows  and  martins  passing 
over  my  village  in  parties  during  the  earlier  hours  of  each  day  ; 
but,  owing  to  the  want  of  a  convenient  elevated  position  for 
watching,  it  was  much  more  difficult  to  follow  their  movements 
than  it  had  been  at  Lulworth.  W.  Warde  Fowler. 


Swifts. 


Though  I  cannot  add  anything  to  the  interesting  and  valuable 
evidence  given  by  your  correspondent,  in  your  last  issue,  with 
regard  to  swifts  remaining  on  the  wing  during  the  dark  hours  of 
a  summer  night,  it  reminds  me  of  a  most  beautiful  exhibi- 
tion of  their  flight  which  I  witnessed  at  Moscow  this  last 
summer.  It  was  on  August  2,  as  the  last  rays  of  the  setting 
sun  were  lighting  up  the  domes  and  cupolas  of  that  wonderful 
city,  which  we  gazed  upon  from  the  heights  of  the  Kremlin  for 
the  first  time,  that  we  noticed  hundreds  of  these  birds  wheeling 
round  their  summits  or  darting  hither  and  thither  in  every  direc- 
tion. At  the  same  time  the  ?natchless  Russian  bells  were  peal- 
ing forth  from  every  bell- tower  in  honour  of  the  Empress's 
birthday,  which  was  to  be  celebrated  on  the  morrow,  and  it  was 
surely  difficult  to  believe  that  the  swifts  were  not  revelling  in  the 
music  like  ourselves,  especially  as  I  cannot  remember  ever  seeing 
them  again  in  such  numbers,  though  our  visit  to  Moscow  was 
prolonged  for  ten  days,  and  we  frequently  visited  the  Kremlin  at 
the  same  hour.  E.  Brown. 

Further  Barton,  Cirencester,  October  29. 


Hughes's  Induction  Balance. 

The  points  noted  by  Mr.  Cook  on  page  605  (vol.  xxxvi.),  are 
merely  the  well-known  facts  that  a  magnetic  body  has  most 
effect  when  presented  to  the  coils  end-ways,  i.e.  with  its  greatest 
dimension  along  their  axis,  whereas  a  substance  which  acts  mainly 
by  conduction  has  most  effect  when  presented  flat-ways,  or  parallel 
to  their  face.  Any  possible  effect  due  to  diamagnetism  is  far  too 
small  to  be  thus  easily  noticed.  Oliver  J.  Lodge. 


Nov.  3,  1887] 


NATURE 


The  Ffynnon  Beuno  and  Cae  Gwyn  Caves. 

I  THINK  it  would  be  well  for  geologists  and  anthropologists  to 
allow  the  age  of  the  deposits  and  stone  instruments  found  at 
these  caves  to  remain  an  open  question  for  the  present.  At 
present  I  have  had  no  opportunity  of  seeing  any  papers  on  the 
subject,  and  I  know  of  no  opinions  other  than  the  one  expressed 
by  Dr.  Hicks,  Nature,  vol.  xxxvi.  p.  599.  I  am  how- 
ever fairly  well  acquainted  with  the  glacial  deposits  of  North 
Wales  and  with  Paleolithic  implements,  and  I  have  seen  the 
caves  and  the  tools  found  at  and  in  them.  My  quite  unbiased 
opinion  is  and  will  so  remain, — unless  I  get  very  convincing 
proof  to  the  contrary, — that  the  drift  at  the  caves  has  been  with- 
out doubt  relaid  ;  and  is  no  more  a  true  glacial  deposit  than  the 
valley  gravels  of  the  Thames.  As  for  the  tools — one  in  the 
British  !\Iuseum  (South  Kensington),  and  one  in  Denbighshire — 
they  belong  to  the  very  latest  of  Palaeolithic  times,  and  might  be 
passed  for  Neolithic  ;  the  Denbighshire  example  seen  by  me  is  a 
knife-flake  with  fine  secondary  chipping  up  one  edge. 

Dunstable.  WoRTHiNGTON  G.  Smith. 


SYNTHESIS  OF  GLUCOSE. 

A  NOTHER  important  acquisition  to  our  store  of 
-^"^  knowledge  has  recently  been  made.  Glucose,  com- 
monly called'  grape-sugar,  has  been  artificially  prepared 
by  Drs.  Emil  Fischer  and  Julius  Tafel  in  the  chemical 
laboratory  of  the  University  of  Wiirzburg.  This  happy 
achievement,  which  is  announced  in  the  number  of  the 
Berichte  just  received,  is  one  which  has  long  been  looked 
forward  to,  and  which  cannot  fail  to  give  deep  satisfaction 
in  chemical  circles  all  over  the  world.  As  is  generally  the 
case  in  syntheses  of  this  description,  not  only  has  the  sugar 
itself  been  actually  prepared,  but,  what  is  at  least  quite  as 
important,  considerable  light  has  been  thrown  upon  that 
much-discussed  question — the  constitution  of  sugars.  A 
most  remarkable,  and  yet  only  to  be  expected,  attribute 
of  this  artificial  sugar  is  that  it  is  found  to  be  entirely  in- 
capable of  rotating  a  beam  of  polarized  light.  As  is  well 
known,  there  are  several  naturally-occurring  varieties  of 
glucose,  all  of  which  may  be  expressed  by  the  same 
empirical  constitution  CfiH]20(j,  and  all  possessing  the 
power  of  rotating  the  plane  of  polarization  :  dextrose,  or 
grape-sugar,  the  best-known  of  these  varieties,  as  its 
name  implies  deviates  the  plane  of  polarization  to  the 
right,  as  do  several  other  less  important  varieties  ;  while 
Isevulose,  or  fruit-sugar,  rotates  the  plane  to  the  left.  But 
in  artificially  preparing  a  glucose  of  the  composition 
QHj.jO,;  there  is  just  as  much  tendency  for  one  kind  to 
be  formed  as  another,  and  the  probability  is  that  both 
dextro  and  laevo  are  simultaneously  formed,  and  thus 
neutralize  each  other,  producing  a  totally  inactive  mixture. 
It  may  be  that,  as  in  the  case  of  racemic  acid,  the  two 
kinds  are  formed  side  by  side  and  neutralize  each  other 
in  the  solution  ;  or  it  may  even  be  that,  as  is  the  case 
with  truly  inactive  tartaric  acid,  there  is  a  true  neutraliza- 
tion within  the  molecule  itself ;  which  of  these  hypotheses 
is  correct  is  a  question  for  further  work  to  decide. 

The  substance  employed  as  the  base  of  operations  was 
acrolein,  CHo^^CH — CHO,  the  aldehyde  derived  by  oxida- 
tion of  allyl  alcohol.  The  acrolein  was  first  converted  to 
its  dibromide,  CH-jBr  .  CHBr  .  CHO,  which  was  then 
treated  with  cold  baryta  water,  whereupon  the  bromine 
was  removed  by  the  barium  leaving  the  artificial  sugar  in 
solution.  The  real  difficulty  was  found  to  be  in  the  isola- 
tion of  the  sugar,  but  this  was  eventually  overcome  by 
the  use  of  phenyl  hydrazine,  CeHg  .  NH  .  NHj,  which 
forms  a  hydrazine  compound  of  the  formula  C18H.22N4O4 
with  the  new  sugar,  very  similar  to  the  compounds  formed 
by  phenyl  hydrazine  with  ordinary  dextrose  and  laevulose. 
This  phenyl  hydrazine  compound  was  then  found  to  yield 
by  reduction  a  base  CgHi-jNOg,  which,  on  treatment  with 
nitrous  acid,  parted  with  its  nitrogen  and  left  a  syrupy 
substance,  possessing  all  the  properties  of  sugars,  and 
distinguished  only  from  ordinary  grape-sugar  by  its  optical 
inactivity. 


The  actual  operations  were  f)erformed  briefly  as 
follows :  — 

.Seventy-five  grammes  of  pure  crystallized  barium 
hydrate  were  dissolved  in  a  little  over  a  litre  of  water, 
and  50  grammes  of  previously  redistilled  acrolein  dibromide 
added  drop  by  drop,  the  flask  being  continuously  agitatecf, 
surrounded  by  ice-cold  water,  for  about  an  hour.  In  a 
similar  manner  eight  successive  quantities  were  treated 
until  in  all  about  400  grammes  of  acrolein  dibromide  had 
been  converted  into  sugar.  These  eight  separate  portions 
were  then  mixed,  slightly  acidified  with  sulphuric  acid, 
and  the  barium  precipitated  with  a  solution  of  sodium 
sulphate.  After  removal  of  all  the  barium  by  filtration 
the  solution  was  neutralized  with  soda  and  evaporated 
down  to  \\  litres.  On  cooling,  a  solution  of  50  grammes 
of  the  hydrochloride  of  phenyl  hydrazine  and  50  grammes 
of  crystallized  sodium  acetate  in  100  cubic  centimetres  of 
water  were  added  ;  after  standing  twelve  hours  a  reddish- 
brown  resin  separated  out  and  was  removed  by  filtration. 
150  grammes  more  of  phenyl  hydrazine  hydrochloride 
and  the  same  quantity  of  sodium  acetate  were  then 
added,  and  the  solution  warmed  upon  a  water-bath  ; 
after  again  standing  some  time  the  solution  became 
turbid,  and  in  course  of  four  hours  a  dark-coloured  pre- 
cipitate, partly  crystalline  and  partly  resinous,  separated 
out.  After  washing  and  drying,  and  subsequent  agitation 
with  ether  and  trituration  with  alcohol  to  remove  organic 
impurities,  and  extraction  of  the  inorganic  salts  by  hot 
water,  the  phenyl  hydrazine  compound  was  finally 
isolated. 

Analysis  of  the  recrystallized  compound  indicates  that 
its  composition  is  Q8H22N4O4,  and  its  properties  are 
very  similar  to  those  of  the  phenyl  hydrazine  compound 
of  ordinary  grape-sugar,  the  melting-points  of  the  two 
bodies  being  identical,  205'' C.  It  is  almost  insoluble  in 
water,  ether,  and  benzene,  and  only  with  difficulty  soluble 
in  hot  alcohol  ;  it  is  more  soluble  in  glacial  acetic  acid, 
but  the  solution  soon  becomes  dark  red.  It  crystallizes 
from  hot  alcohol  in  pretty  little  prism  aggregates,  while 
the  ordinary  grape-sugar  compound  crystallizes  in 
spherical  aggregates  of  fine  needles.  It  is  further  dis- 
tinguished from  the  latter  compound  inasmuch  as  a  layer 
20  cubic  centimetres  thick,  is  without  action  upon  a  beam 
of  polarized  light. 

When  reduced  by  means  of  zinc  dust  and  acetic  acid, 
a  base  was  produced  analogous  to  the  one  formed  by  the 
reduction  of  the  corresponding  phenyl  hydrazine  com- 
pound of  grape-sugar.  This  base  was  difficult  to  isolate, 
owing  to  the  non-crystallizable  nature  of  its  acetate  ;  the 
fact  was  fortunately  discovered,  however,  that  its  oxalate 
was  crystalline,  and  readily  obtained  pure.  Hence  its 
analysis  has  been  effected,  and  the  numbers  found  point 
to  the  composition  (C6Hj3N05)2 .  C2H2O4.  This  base 
reduces  Fehling's  solution  strongly  on  warming,  and  with 
phenyl  hydrazine  regenerates  the  parent  compound  ;  but, 
once  again,  is  optically  inactive. 

Finally,  by  the  action  of  nitrous  acid,  nitrogen  at  once 
began  to  be  evolved,  and  when  the  evolution  ceased  the 
liquid  was  neutralized  with  soda,  evaporated  in  vacuo., 
and  the  residue  extracted  with  alcohol.  On  evaporation 
of  the  alcohol  the  sugar  was  left  as  a  bright  brown  syrup, 
free  from  nitrogen  and  ash,  of  sweet  taste,  and  capable  of 
instantly  reducing  Fehling's  solution. 

Up  to  the  present  time  two  hypotheses  as  to  the  con- 
stitution of  sugars  have  pretty  evenly  balanced  each 
other.  According  to  one,  sugars  are  considered,  in  virtue 
of  their  power  of  reducing  ammoniacal  silver  solutions, 
as  aldehydes  containing  also  alcohol  groups  ;  on  these 
lines  grape-sugar  would  be  formulated,  CHgOH  — 
(CHOH)4-CHO.  But  it  has  since  been  shown  that, 
the  property  of  reducing  ammoniacal  silver  solutions 
is  not  confined  to  aldehydes,  for  the  series  of  bodies 
known  as  ketone  alcohols  also  possess  it  ;  hence  grape- 
sugar  may  also  be   written   CH2OH— (CH0H)3— CO— 


NATURE 


{Nov.  3,  1887 


CH2OH.  Both  theories  account  for  most  of  the  hitherto 
known  reactions  of  the  glucoses,  hence  the  matter  has 
remained  an  open  question,  Drs.  Fischer  and  Tafel, 
however,  consider  that  their  synthesis  from  acrolein, 
which  is  itself  an  aldehyde,  points  to  the  probability  of 
the  former  hypothesis  being  the  correct  one.  The  action 
of  baryta  water  upon  the  dibromide  evidently  causes  a 
simple  exchange  of  bromine  for  hydroxyl,  and  the  first 
product  of  the  reaction  is  almost  as  certainly  glycerine 
aldehyde,  CH2OH— CHOH— CHO.  This  latter  sub- 
stance, however,  appears  to  polymerize  at  once  under 
the  influence  of  the  baryta  water  into  sugar,  two  mole- 
cules of  glycerine  aldehyde  uniting  to  form  a  molecule  of 
glucose. 

In  consideration  of  the  fact  of  its  derivation  from 
acrolein,  the  name  acrose  has  been  applied  to  the  sugar 
which  has  been,  with  so  much  skill  and  steady  determi- 
nation, synthetically  formed  and  isolated  ;  and  there  can 
be  no  doubt  that  this  name  will  stand  as  a  memento  of 
the  progress  made  in  organic  chemistry  during  the  year 
1887.  A.  E.  TUTTON. 

MODERN  VIEWS  OF  ELECTRICITY} 
PART  II.— Current  Electricity  {continued). 

IV. 

Electrical  Inertia. 

"D  ETURNING  now  to  the  general  case  of  conduction, 
-*-^  without  regard  to  the  special  manner  of  it,  we  must 
notice  that,  if  a  current  of  electricity  is  anything  of  the 
nature  of  a  material  flow,  there  would  probably  be  a  certain 
amount  of  inertia  connected  with  it,  so  that  to  start  a 
current^with  a  finite  force  would  take  a  little  time  ;  and 
the  stoppage  of  a  current  would  also  have  either  to 
be  gradual  or  else  violent.  It  is  well  known  that  if 
water  is  stagnant  in  a  pipe  it  cannot  be  quite  suddenly 
set  in  motion  ;  and  again,  if  it  be  in  motion,  it 
can  only  be  suddenly  stopped  by  the  exercise  of  very  con- 
siderable force,  which  jars  and  sometimes  bursts  the 
pipe.  This  impetus  of  running  water  is  utilized  in  the 
water-ram.  It  must  naturally  occur,  therefore,  to  ask 
whether  any  analogous  phenomena  are  experienced  with 
electricity ;  and  the  answer  is,  they  certainly  are.  A 
current  does  not  start  instantaneously  :  it  takes  a  certain 
time — often  very  short — to  rise  to  its  full  strength  ;  and 
when  started  it  tends  to  persist,  so  that  if  its  circuit  be 
suddenly  broken,  it  refuses  to  stop  quite  suddenly,  and 
bursts  through  the  introduced  insulating  partition  with 
violence  and  heat.  It  is  this  ram  or  impetus  of  the 
electric  current  which  causes  the  spark  seen  on  breaking 
a  circuit ;  and  the  more  sudden  the  breakage  the  more 
violent  is  the  spark  apt  to  be. 

The  two  effects — the  delay  at  making  circuit,  and  the 
momentum  at  breaking  circuit — used  to  be  called  "  extra- 
current"  effects,  but  they  are  now  more  commonly  spoken 
of  as  manifestations  of  "  self-induction." 

We  shall  understand  them  better  directly  ;  meanwhile 
they  appear  to  be  direct  consequences  of  the  inertia  of 
electricity  ;  and  certainly  if  electricity  were  a  fluid  pos- 
sessing inertia  it  would  behave  to  a  superficial  observer 
just  in  this  way. 

But  if  an  electric  current  really  possessed  inertia,  as  a 
stream  of  water  does,  it  would  exhibit  itself  not  only  by 
these  effects  but  also  mechanically.  A  conducting  coil 
delicately  suspended  might  experience  a  rotary  kick  every 
time  a  current  was  started  or  stopped  in  it ;  and  if  a  steady 
current  were  maintained  in  such  a  coil  it  should  behave 
like  a  top  or  gyrostat,  and  resist  any  force  tending  to 
deflect  its  plane. 

Clerk  Maxwell  has  carefully  looked  for  this  latter  form 
of  momentum  effect,  and  found  none.  One  may  say,  in 
fact,  that  nothing  like  momentum  has  yet  been  observed 

'  Con.inued  from  vol.  xxxvi.  p.  585. 


in  an  electric  current  by  any  mechanical  mode  of  examina- 
tion. A  coil  or  whirl  of  electricity  does  not  behave  in  the 
least  like  a  top. 

Does  this  prove  that  a  current  has  no  momentum  ?  By 
no  means  necessarily  so.  It  might  be  taken  as  suggesting 
that  an  electric  current  consists  really  of  two  equal  flows 
in  contrary  directions,  so  that  mechanically  they  neutralize 
one  another  completely,  while  electrically — i.e.  in  the 
phenomena  of  self-induction  or  extra-current — they  add 
their  effects.  Or  it  may  mean  merely  that  the  momentum 
is  too  minute  to  be  so  observed.  Or,  again,  the  whole 
thing — the  appearance  of  inertia  in  some  experiments  and 
the  absence  of  it  in  others — may  have  to  be  explained  in 
some  altogether  less  simple  manner,  to  which  we  will 
proceed  to  lead  up. 

Condition  of  the  Medium  near  a  Circuit. 

So  far  we  have  considered  the  flow  of  electricity  as  a 
phenomenon  occurring  solely  inside  conductors  ;  just  as 
the  flow  of  water  is  a  phenomenon  occurring  solely  inside 
pipes.  But  a  number  of  remarkable  facts  are  known 
which  completely  negative  this  view  of  the  matter. 
Something  is  no  doubt  passing  along  conductors  when  a 
current  flows,  but  the  disturbance  is  not  C07ijined  to  the 
conductor ;  on  the  contrary,  it  spreads  more  or  less 
through  all  surrounding  space. 

The  facts  which  prove  this  have  necessarily  no 
hydraulic  analogue  but  must  be  treated  suorum  generum, 
and  they  are  as  follows  : — 

(i)  A  compass  needle  anywhere  near  an  electric 
current  is  permanently  deflected  so  long  as  the  current 
lasts. 

(2)  Two  electric  currents  attract  or  repel  one  another, 
according  as  they  are  in  the  same  or  opposite  directions. 

(3)  A  circuit  in  which  a  current  is  flowing  tends  to 
enlarge  itself  so  as  to  inclose  the  greatest  possible  area. 

(4)  A  circuit  conveying  a  current  in  a  magnetic  field 
tends  either  to  enlarge  or  to  shrink  or  to  turn  half  round 
according  to  the  aspect  it  presents  to  the  field. 

(5)  Conductors  in  the  neighbourhood  of  an  electric 
circuit  experience  momentary  electric  disturbances  every 
time  the  current  is  started  or  stopped  or  varied  in  strength. 

(6)  The  same  thing  happens  even  with  a  steady  current 
if  the  distance  between  it  and  a  conductor  is  made  to 
vary. 

(7)  The  effects  of  self-induction,  or  extra-currents,  can 
be  almost  abolished  by  twisting  the  covered  wire  convey- 
ing the  current  closely  on  itself,  or  even  by  laying  the 
direct  and  return  wire  side  by  side  ;  whereas  they  may  be 
intensified  by  making  the  circuit  inclose  a  large  area,  more 
by  coiling  it  up  tightly  into  close  coil,  and  still  more  by 
putting  a  piece  of  iron  inside  the  coil  so  formed. 

Nothing  like  any  of  these  effects  is  observable  with 
currents  of  water  ;  and  they  prove  that  the  phenomena  of 
the  current,  so  far  from  being  confined  to  the  wire, 
spread  out  into  space  and  affect  bodies  at  a  considerable 
distance. 

Nearly  all  this  class  of  phenomena  were  discovered  by 
Ampere  and  by  Faraday,  and  were  called  by  the  latter 
"  current-induction."  According  to  his  view  the  dielectric 
medium  round  a  conducting  circuit  is  strained,  and 
subject  to  stresses,  just  as  is  the  same  medium  round  an 
electrically  charged  body.  The  one  is  called  an  electro- 
static strain,  the  other  an  electro-magnetic  or  electro- 
kinetic  strain. 

But  whereas  electrostatic  phenomena  occur  solely  in 
the  medium — conductors  being  mere  breaks  in  it,  inter- 
rupters of  its  continuity,  at  whose  surface  charge-effects 
occur  but  whose  substance  is  completely  screened  from 
disturbance — that  is  not  the  case  with  electro-kinetic 
phenomena.  It  would  be  just  as  erroneous  to  conceive 
electro-kinetic  phenomena  as  occurring  solely  in  the  insu- 
lating medium  as  it  would  be  to  think  of  them  as  occurring ; 
solely  in  the  conducting  wires.     The  fact  is,  they  occur  in 


Nov,  3,  1887] 


NATURE 


both — not  only  at  the  surface  of  the  wires  like  electrostatic 
effects,  but  all  through  their  substance.  This  is  proved 
by  the  fact  that  conductivity  increases  in  simple  proportion 
with  sectional  area  ;  it  is  also  proved  by  every  part  of  a 
conductor  getting  hot ;  and  it  is  further  proved  in  the  case 
of  liquids  by  their  decomposition. 

But  the  equally  manifest  facts  of  current  attraction  and 
current  induction  prove  that  the  effect  of  the  current  is 
felt  throughout  the  surrounding  medium  as  well,  and  that 
its  intensity  depends  on  the  nature  of  that  medium  ;  we 
are  thus  wholly  prevented  from  ascribing  the  phenomenon 
of  self-induction  or  extra-current  to  simple  and  straight- 
forward inertia  of  electricity  in  a  wire  like  that  of  water 
in  a  pipe. 

We  are  thus  brought  face  to  face  with  another  sugges- 
tion to  account  for  these  effects,  viz.  this  :  Since  the 
molecules  of  a  dielectric  are  inseparably  connected  with 
electricity,  and  move  with  it,  it  is  possible  that  electricity 
itself  has  no  inertia  at  all,  but  that  the  inertia  of  the  atoms 
of  the  displaced  dielectric  confer  upon  it  the  appear- 
ance of  inertia.  Certainly  they  do  sometimes  confer 
upon  it  this  appearance,  as  we  see  in  the  oscillatory 
discharge  of  a  Leyden  jar.  For  a  displaced  thing  to  over- 
shoot its  mean  position  and  oscillate  till  it  has  expended 
all  its  energy,  is  a  proceeding  eminently  characteristic  of 
inertia  ;  and  so,  perhaps,  the  phenomena  of  self-induction 
are  similarly,  though  not  so  simply,  explicable. 

Further  consideration  of  this  difficult  part  of  the 
subject  is  however  best  postponed  to  Part  III. 

Energy  of  the  Current. 

I  have  now  called  attention  to  the  fact  that  the  whole 
region  surrounding  a  circuit  is  a  field  of  force  in  which 
many  of  the  most  important  properties  of  the  current 
(the  magnetic,  to  wit)  manifest  themselves.  But  directly 
we  begin  thus  to  attend  to  the  whole  space,  and  not  only 
to  the  wires  and  battery,  a  very  curious  question  arises. 
Are  we  to  regard  the  current  in  a  conductor  as  propelled 
by  some  sort  of  end-thrust,  like  water  or  air  driven  through 
a  pipe  by  a  piston  or  a  fan,  or  are  v/e  to  think  of  it  as 
propelled  by  side  forces,  a  sort  of  lateral  drag,  like  water 
driven  along  a  trough  by  a  blast  of  air  or  by  the  vanes  ot 
paddle-wheels  dipping  into  \\.}  Or,  again,  referring  to 
the  cord  models.  Figs.  5, 6,  and  13,  were  we  right  in  pictur- 
ing the  driving  force  of  the  battery  as  located  and  applied 
where  shown  in  the  diagrams,  or  ought  we  to  have  schemed 
some  method  for  communicating  the  power  of  the  battery 
by  means  of  belts  or  other  mechanism  to  a  great  number 
of  points  of  the  circuit.? 

Prof.  Poynting  has  shown  that,  on  the  principles 
developed  by  Maxwell,  the  latter  of  these  alternatives, 
though  apparently  the  more  complicated,  is  the  true  one  ; 
and  he  has  calculated  the  actual  paths  by  which  the  energy 
is  transmitted  from  the  battery  to  the  various  points  of  a 
circuit,  for  certain  cases. 

We  must  learn,  then,  to  distinguish  between  the  flow 
of  electricity  and  the  flow  of  electric  energy  :  they  do  not 
occur  along  the  same  paths.  Hydraulic  analogies,  at 
least  hydraulic  analogies  of  a  simple  kind,  break  down 
here.  When  hydraulic  power  or  steam  power  is  conveyed 
along  pipes,  the  fluid  and  its  energy  travel  together. 
Work  is  done  at  one  end  of  the  tube  in  forcing  in  more 
water,  and  this  is  propagated  along  the  tube  and  reappears 
at  the  distant  end  as  the  work  of  the  piston.  But  in 
electricity  it  is  not  so.  Electric  energy  is  not  to  be  re- 
garded as  pumped  in  at  one  end  of  a  conducting  wire,  and 
as  exuding  in  equal  quantities  at  the  other.  The  electricity 
does  indeed  travel  thus — whatever  the  travel  of  electricity 
may  ultimately  be  found  to  mean — but  the  energy  does 
not.  The  battery  emits  its  energy,  not  to  the  wire  direct, 
but  to  the  surrounding  medium  ;  this  is  disturbed  and 
strained,  and  propagates  the  strain  on  from  point  to  point 
till  it  reaches  the  wire  and  is  dissipated.      This,   Prof 


Poynting  would  say,  is  the  function  of  the  wire  :  it  is  to 
dissipate  the  energy  crowding  into  it  from  the  medium, 
which  else  would  take  up  a  static  state  of  strain  and 
cease  to  transmit  any  more.  It  is  by  the  continuous 
dissipation  of  the  medium's  energy  into  heat  that  con- 
tinuous propagation  is  rendered  possible. 

The  energy  of  a  dynamo  does  not  therefore  travel  to  a 
distant  motor  through  the  wires,  but  through  the  air.  The 
energy  of  an  Atlantic  cable  battery  does  not  travel  to 
America  through  the  wire  strands,  but  through  the 
insulating  sheath.  This  is  a  singular  and  apparently 
paradoxical  view,  yet  it  appears  to  be  well  founded. 

Think  of  a  tram-car  drawn  by  an  underground  rope, 
like  those  in  the  streets  of  Chicago  or  Hampstead  Hill, 
A  contact  piece  of  iron  protrudes  from  the  bottom  of  the 
car  and  grips  the  moving  rope,  which  is  thus  enabled  to 
propel  the  car.  How  does  the  energy  of  the  distant 
stationary  engine  reach  the  car  t  Via  the  rope  and  the  iron 
connector,  undoubtedly.  They  both  have  to  be  strong, 
and  are  liable  to  be  broken  by  the  transmitted  stress. 

Next,  think  of  an  electric  tram-car  driven  by  means  of  a 
current  taken  up  from  an  underground  conductor,  like 
that  of  Mr.  Holroyd  Smith  at  Manchester,  or  at  the  late 
Inventions  Exhibition.  A  contact  piece  of  wire  rope 
protrudes  from  the  bottom  of  the  car  and  drags  a  little 
truck  along  the  conductor,  which  is  thus  enabled  to 
supply  electricity  to  the  electro-magnetic  motor  geared 
to  the  wheels.  How  does  the  energy  of  the  distant 
dynamo  reach  the  car  in  this  case  ?  Not  via  the  wire 
connector  ;  not  even  via  the  underground  conductor.  It 
travels  from  the  distant  dynamo  through  the  general 
insulating  medium  between  cable  and  earth,  some  little 
enters  the  conductor  and  is  dissipated,  but  the  great  bulk 
flows  on  and  converges  upon  the  motor  in  the  car,  which 
is  thus  propelled.  All  the  energy  of  the  conducting  wire 
is  dissipated  and  lost  as  heat  :  it  is  the  energy  of  the 
insulating  medium  which  is  really  transmitted  and 
utilized. 

Pheno77iena  peculiar  to  a  Starting,  or  Stopping,  or 
Varying  Current. 

There  is  a  remarkable  fact  concerning  electric  currents 
of  varying  strength,  which  has  been  lately  brought  into 
prominence  by  the  experimental  skill  of  Prof.  Hughes, 
viz.  that  a  current  does  not  start  or  stop  equally  and 
simultaneously  at  all  points  in  the  section  of  a  conductor, 
but  starts  at  the  outside  first.  This  fact  is  naturally  more 
noticeable  with  thick  wires  than  with  thin,  and  it  is 
especially  marked  in  iron  wires,  for  reasons  which  in 
Part  III.  will  become  apparent ;  but  the  general  cause  of 
it  in  ordinary  copper  wires  can  very  easily  be  perceived 
in  the  light  of  the  views  of  Prof.  Poynting  just  mentioned. 
For,  remember  that  a  current  in  a  wire  is  not  pushed 
along  by  a  force  applied  at  its  end,  so  as  to  be  driven 
over  obstacles  by  its  own  momentum  combined  with  a 
vis  a  tergo ;  but  it  is  urged  along  at  every  point  of  its 
course  by  a  force  just  sufficient  to  make  it  overcome  the 
resistance  there,  and  no  more,  the  force  being  applied 
to  it  through  the  medium  of  the  dielectric  in  which  the 
wire  is  immersed.  A  lateral  force  it  is  which  propels  the 
electricity  ;  and  it  naturally  acts  first  on  the  outer  layers 
of  the  wire  or  rod,  only  acting  on  the  interior  portions 
through  the  medium  of  the  outside. 

To  illustrate  this  matter  further,  rotate  a  common 
tumbler  of  liquid  steadily  for  some  time  and  watch  the 
liquid  ;  dusting  powder  perhaps  over  it  to  make  it  more 
visible.  You  will  see  first  the  outer  layer  begin  to  particip- 
ate in  the  motion,  and  then  the  next,  and  then  the  next, 
and  so  on,  until  at  length  the  whole  is  in  rotation.  Stop 
the  tumbler,  and  the  liquid  also  begins  gradually  to  stop  by 
a  converse  process. 

If  the  liquid  sticks  together  pretty  well,  like  treacle, 
the  motion  spreads  very  rapidly :  this  corresponds  to  a 


lO 


NATURE 


{^Nov.  3,  1887 


poor  conductor.  If  the  liquid  be  very  mobile,  the  propa- 
gation of  motion  inward  is  slow :  this  corresponds  to  a 
very  good  conductor.  If  the  liquid  were  perfectly  non- 
viscous,  it  would  correspond  to  a  perfect  conductor,  and 
no  motion  would  ever  be  communicated  to  it  deeper 
than  its  extreme  outer  skin. 

Think  now  of  a  long  endless  tube  full  of  water,  say  the 
hollow  circumference  of  a  wheel,  and  spin  it :  the  liquid 
is  soon  set  in  rotation,  especially  if  the  tube  be  narrow 
or  the  liquid  viscous  ;  but  it  is  set  in  motion  by  a  lateral 
not  an  end  force,  and  its  outer  layers  start  first. 

Just  so  is  it  with  a  current  starting  in  a  metal  wire.  If 
the  wire  be  fine,  or  its  substance  badly  conducting,  it  all 
starts  nearly  together ;  but  if  it  be  made  pretty  thick,  and 
of  well  conducting  substance,  its  outer  layers  may  start 
appreciably  sooner  than  the  interior.  And  if  it  were 
infinitely  conducting,  no  more  than  the  outer  skin  would 
ever  start  at  all. 

In  actual  practice  the  time  taken  for  all  the  electricity 
in  an  ordinary  wire  to  get  into  motion  is  excessively 
short — something  like  the  thousandth  of  a  second — 
so  that  the  only  way  to  notice  .the  effect  is  to  start  and 
reverse  the  current  many  times  in  succession. 

If  the  hollow-rimmed  wheel  above  spoken  of  were  made 
to  oscillate  rapidly,  it  is  easy  to  see  that  only  the  outer 
layers  of  water  in  it  would  be  moved  to  and  fro  ;  the  inner- 
most water  would  remain  stationary  ;  and  accordingly 
it  would  appear  as  if  the  tube  contained  much  less  water 
than  it  really  does.  The  virtual  bore  of  the  pipe  would, 
in  fact,  for  many  purposes  be  diminished.  So  is  it 
also  with  electricity  ;  the  sectional  area  of  a  wire  to  a 
rapidly  alternating  current  is  virtually  lessened  so  far  as 
its  conducting  power  is  concerned  ;  and  accordingly  its 
apparent  resistance  is  slightly  higher  for  alternating  than 
for  steady  currents.  The  effect  is  however  too  small  to 
notice  in  practice  except  with  thick  wires  and  very  rapid 
alternations. 

By  splitting  up  the  conductor  into  a  bundle  of  insulated 
wires,  thus  affording  the  dielectric  access  to  a  considerable 
surface  of  conductor,  the  force  is  applied  much  more 
thoroughly,  and  so  the  effect  spoken  of  is  greatly  lessened. 
The  same  thing  is  achieved  by  rolling  out  the  conducting- 
rod  into  a  flat  thin  bar.  Making  the  conductor  hollow 
instead  of  solid  offers  no  particular  advantage,  because 
no  energy  travels  'via  the  hollow  space,  it  still  arrives 
only  from  the  outside  ;  unless,  indeed,  the  return  part  of 
the  circuit  is  taken  along  the  axis  of  the  hollow  like  a 
telegraph  cable.  In  this  last  arrangement  all  the  energy 
travels  via  the  dielectric  between  the  two  conductors,  and 
none  travels  outside  at  all.  It  will  be  perceived  therefore 
that,  as  in  static  electricity,  the  term  "  outside  "  must  be 
used  with  circumspection  :  it  reilly  means  that  side  of  a 
conductor  which  faces  the  opposite  conductor  across  a 
certain  thickness  of  dielectric. 

We  learn  from  all  this  that,  whereas  in  the  case  of  steady 
currents  the  sectional  area  and  material  of  a  conductor 
are  all  that  need  be  attended  to,  the  case  is  different  when 
one  has  to  deal  with  rapidly  alternating  currents,  such  as 
occur  in  a  telephone,  or,  again,  such  as  are  apt  to  occur 
in  a  Leyden-jar  discharge  (see  Part  I.,  p.  560),  or  in 
lightning. 

In  all  these  cases  it  is  well  to  make  the  conductor  ex- 
pose considerable  surface  to  the  propelling  medium — the 
dielectric — else  will  great  portions  of  it  be  useless. 

Hence,  a  lightning-conductor  should  not  be  a  round 
rod,  but  a  flat  strip,  or  a  strand  of  wires,  with  the  strands 
as  well  separated  as  convenient :  and  though  I  have  not 
yet  mentioned  the  special  effect  of  iron,  I  may  as  well  say 
here  that  iron  is  about  90,000  times  worse  than  copper 
for  the  purpose  of  a  lightning-conductor  in  respect  of  the 
phenomenon  just  described,  seven  times  as  bad  on  account 
of  its  inferior  conducting  power,  and  about  twice  as  good 
as  copper  because  of  its  higher  melting-point  and  specific 
heat. 


The  Question  of  Electrical  Momentum  agm'n. 

We  are  now  able  to  return  to  the  important  question 
whether  an  electric  current  has  any  momentum  or  not,  as 
it  would  have  if  it  were  a  flow  of  material  liquid.  Re- 
ferring to  Part  I.  (p.  533),  a  hint  will  be  found  that  the  laws 
of  flow  of  a  current  in  conductors — the  shape  of  the 
stream-lines,  in  fact — are  such  as  indicate  no  inertia,  or 
else  no  friction.  Now  Ohm's  law  shows  that  at  any  rate 
friction  is  not  absent  from  a  current  flowing  through  a 
metal  ;  hence  it  would  appear  at  first  sight  as  if  inertia 
must  be  absent. 

The  stream-lines  bear  upon  the  question  in  the  follow- 
ing kind  of  way.  If  an  obstacle  is  interposed  in  the 
path  of  a  current  of  water,  the  motion  of  the  water  is 
unsymmetrical   before    and   behind   the    obstacle.     The 


'/>„„„„j.i,muu,.„„  , 


Fig.  14. — Stream-lines  of  water  flowing  through  a  pipe  with  an  obsiruction 
in  It. 

stream-lines  spread  out  as  the  water  reaches  the  obstacle, 
and  then  curl  round  it,  leaving  a  space  full  of  eddies  in  its 
wake  (Fig.  14). 

But  if  one  puts  an  obstacle  in  the  path  of  an  electric 
current — say  by  cutting  a  slit  in  a  conducting  strip  of 
tinfoil — the  stream-lines  on  either  side  of  it  are  quite 
symmetrical,  thus — 


'...■■y^>^,J-J>,^JUlJ>,j„J>JllJ,.^.UI»»    ,  V  'IM.  g  J. 


'r^'mfj/mMt-'mmr. 


Fig.  15. — Electrical  stream-lines  past  an  obstacle. 

And  this  is  exactly  what  would  be  true  for  water  also,, 
if  only  it  were  devoid  either  of  friction  or  of  inertia,  or  of 
both. 

Is  not  this  fact  conclusive,  then  ?  Does  it  not  prove 
the  absence  of  momentum  in  electricity  ? 

Plainly  the  answer  must  depend  on  whether  there  is 
any  other  possible  mode  of  accounting  for  this  kind  of 
flow.     And  there  is. 

For  suppose  that  water,  instead  of  being  urged  by 
something  not  located  at  or  near  the  obstacle — instead  of 
being  left  to  its  own  impetus  to  curl  round  or  shoot  past 
as  it  pleases — suppose  it  were  propelled  by  a  force  acting 
at  every  point  of  its  journey,  a  force  just  able  to  drive  it 
at  any  point  against  the  friction  existing  at  that  point  and 
no  more  ;  then  the  flow  of  water  would  take  place  accord- 
ing to  the  electrical  stream-lines  shown  in  Fig.  15. 

An  illustration  of  such  a  case  is  ready  to  hand.  Take 
a  spade-shaped  piece  of  copper  wire  or  sheet,  heat  it  a 
little,  and  fix  it  in  quiescent  smoky  air  ;  looking  along  it 
through  a  magnifier  in  a  strong  light  you  will  see  the 
warmed  air  streaming  past  the  metal  according  to  the 
stream-lines  of  Fig.  15  ;  and  this  just  because  the  moving 
force  has  its  location  at  the  metal  surface,  and  not  in  some 
region  below  it.  (See  Lord  Rayleigh,  NAxaRE,  vol.  xxviii. 
p.  139).  One  cannot  indeed  say  that  it  is  propelled  at  every 


Nov.  3,  1887] 


NA  TURE 


n 


point  of  its  course,  but  it  is  propelled  at  the  critical 
points  where  the  special  friction  occurs,  and  this  comes 
to  sufficiently  the  same  thing. 

We  learn,  therefore,  that  stream-lines  like  Fig.  15  prove 
one  of  three  things,  not  one  of  two  ;  and  the  three  things 
are  :  (i)  that  the  fluid  has  no  friction  ;  or  (2)  that  it  has 
no  inertia  ;  or  (3)  that  it  is  propelled  at  every  point  of  its 
course. 

If  any  one  of  these  is  true  of  electricity,  there  is  no 
need  to  assume  either  of  the  others  in  order  to  explain 
the  actual  manner  of  its  flow.  Now  we  have  just  seen 
that,  according  to  Prof.  Poynting's  interpretation  of 
Maxwell's  theory,  the  third  of  the  above  is  true — elec- 
tricity is  propelled  at  every  point  of  its  course  ;  conse- 
quently, as  said  in  Part  I.  (p.  533),  the  question  of  its 
inertia  so  far  remains  completely  open. 

Voltaic  Battery. 

Leaving  this  singular  mode  of  regarding  the  subject 
for  the  present,  to  return  to  it  perhaps  after  Part  III.,  let 
us  proceed  to  ask  how  it  comes  about  that  a  common 
battery  or  a  thermopile  is  able  to  produce  a  current. 

If  we  allow  ourselves  to  assume  the  existence  of  an 
unexplained  chemical  attraction  between  the  atoms  of 
■different  substances,  an  explanation  of  the  action  of  an 
ordinary  battery  cell  is  easy.  You  have  first  the  liquid 
containing,  let  us  say,  hydrogen  and  oxygen  atoms,  free  or 
potentially  free — that  is,  either  actually  dissociated  or  so 
frequently  interchanging  at  random  from  molecule  to 
molecule  that  the  direction  of  their  motion  may  be 
guided  by  a  feeble  directive  force.  Each  of  these  atoms 
in  the  free  state  possesses  a  charge  of  electricity — the 
hydrogen  all  a  certain  amount  of  positive  electricity,  the 
oxygen  twice  that  amount  of  negative.  Into  this  liquid 
you  then  plunge  a  couple  of  metals  which  attract  these 
atoms  differently  :  for  instance,  zinc  and  copper,  which 
both  attract  oxygen,  but  zinc  more  than  copper ;  or, 
better,  zinc  and  platinum,  the  latter  of  which  hardly 
attracts  it  at  all  ;  or,  better  still,  zinc  and  peroxide  of 
lead,  one  of  which  attracts  oxygen,  the  other  hydrogen. 

Immediately,  the  free  oxygen  atoms  begin  moving  up 
to  the  zinc,  the  free  hydrogen  atoms  to  the  other  plate. 

When  one  speaks  of  the  plates  attracting  the  atoms,  it 
is  not  necessary  to  think  of  their  exerting  a  force  on  all 
those  in  the  liquid,  distant  and  near  :  all  that  is  necessary 
is  to  assume  a  force  acting  on  those  which  come  within 
what  is  called  "molecular  range  "  of  its  surface — a  dist- 
ance extremely  minute,  and  believed  to  be  about  the  ten- 
millionth  part  of  a  millimetre.  If  the  zinc  plate  removes 
and  combines  with  all  the  oxygen  atoms  which  come 
within  this  range,  they  will  be  speedily  replaced  by  others 
from  the  next  more  distant  layer  by  diffusion,  and  these 
again  by  others,  and  so  on.  And  thus  there  will  be  a 
gradual  procession  of  oxygen  atoms  all  through  the 
liquid  towards  the  zinc,  the  rate  of  the  procession  being 
regulated  by  the  force  acting,  and  by  the  rate  of  diffusion 
possible  in  the  particular  liquid  used.  All  the  atoms 
which  reach  the  zinc  neutralize  a  certain  portion  of  its 
electricity  by  means  of  the  positive  charge  they  carry, 
and  thus  very  soon  it  would  become  positively  electrified 
enough  to  neutralize  its  attractive  power  on  the  similarly 
charged  oxygen  atoms,  and  everything  would  stop.  But  if 
a  channel  for  the  escape  of  its  electricity  be  provided  by 
leading  a  wire  from  it  to  the  copper  plate,  the  circuit  is 
completed,  the  electricity  streams  back  by  the  wire,  and 
the  procession  goes  steadily  on.  The  electricity  thus 
imparted  to  the  copper,  or  platinum,  neutralizes  any 
repulsion  it  exerted  on  the  negatively  charged  hydrogen 
atoms,  and  makes  them  in  a  similar  way  begin  a  pro- 
cession towards  it,  deliver  up  their  charges  to  it,  combine 
with  each  other,  and  escape  as  gas. 

Without  going  into  all  the  niceties  possible,  this 
mode  of  thinking  of  the  matter  at  least  calls  attention  to 
some  of  the  more  salient  features  of  a  battery. 


If,  instead  of  two  different  plates,  plates  of  the  same 
metal  be  immersed,  they  will  need  to  be  oppositely 
electrified  by  some  means  before  they  are  able  to  cause 
the  two  opposite  processions,  and  so  maintain  a  current 
in  the  liquid.     This  plainly  corresponds  to  a  voltameter. 

Taking  advantage  of  the  known  fact  that  the  atoms 
are  charged,  Helmholtz  avoids  the  necessity  for  postulat- 
ing any  chemical  (non-electrical)  force  between  zinc  and 
oxygen,  by  imagining  that  all  substances  have  a  specific 
attraction  for  electricity  itself,  and  that  zinc  exceeds 
copper  and  the  other  common  metals  in  this  respect. 

He  would  thus  think  of  the  zinc  attracting,  not  the 
oxygen  itself,  but  its  electric  charge  ;  and  so  would  liken  a 
battery  cell  still  more  completely  to  a  voltameter.  The 
polarization  or  opposition  force  acting  at  the  hydrogen- 
evolving  plate  he  would  account  for  by  the  attraction  of 
hydrogen  for  negative  electricity,  and  the  consequent 
repugnance  of  the  hydrogen  atoms  to  part  with  their 
charges. 

Thermo-electric  Pile. 

A  thermopile  may  be  thought  of  in  the  following  way, 
but  in  trying  to  understand  the  nature  of  these  actions  at 
present  one  must  admit  that  some  speculation  and  vague- 
ness exist. 

We  have  seen  that  when  electricity  is  propelled  through 
or  among  the  molecules  of  a  metal  it  experiences  a  certain 
resistance  or  opposition  force  which  is  exactly  propor- 
tional to  the  speed  of  its  motion.  In  other  words,  there 
is  a  connexion  between  matter  and  electricity  in  many 
respects  analogous  to  fluid  friction  but  varying  accurately 
as  the  first  power  of  the  relative  velocity.  Hence,  if  an 
atom  of  matter  be  vibrating  about  a  fixed  point,  it  will 
tend  to  drive  electricity  to  and  fro  with  it ;  but  if  it  be 
only  one  of  a  multitude,  all  quivering  in  different  phases, 
they  will  none  of  them  achieve  any  propulsion.  This 
may  be  considered  the  state  of  an  ordinary  warm  solid. 
But  if  from  any  cause  a  set  of  atoms  could  be  made  to 
move  faster  in  one  direction  than  in  the  reverse  direction 
— to  move  forwards  quickly  and  backwards  slowly — then 
such  an  unsymmetrically- moving  set  will  exert  a  pro- 
pulsive tendency  and  tend  to  drive  a  current  of  electricity 
forwards,  simply  because  the  force  exerted  is  proportional 
to  the  velocity,  and  so  is  greater  on  the  forward  journey 
than  on  the  return. 

Wherever  conduction  of  heat  is  going  on  along  a  sub- 
stance the  atoms  are  in  this  condition.  They  are  driven 
forward  infinitesimally  quicker,  by  the  more  rapidly  moving 
atoms  at  the  hot  end,  than  they  are  driven  back  by  the 
less  rapidly  moving  atoms  in  front.  And  hence  such  a 
slope  of  temperature  exerts  a  propulsive  tendency  :  there 
is  an  electromotive  force  in  a  substance  unequally  heated. 
This  fact  was  discovered  theoretically  and  verified 
experimentally  by  Sir  William  Thomson. 

But  not  only  is  there  such  a  force  at  a  junction  of  a 
hot  and  cold  substance,  there  is  also  a  force  at  the  junc- 
tion of  two  substances  of  different  kinds,  even  though  the 
temperature  be  uniform.  It  is  not  quite  so  easy  to  explain 
how  it  now  comes  about  that  the  atoms  at  this  kind  of 
junction  are  moving  faster  one  way  than  the  other ; 
nevertheless,  such  a  thing  is  not  unlikely,  considering  the 
state  of  constraint  and  accommodation  which  must 
necessarily  exist  at  the  boundary  surface  of  two  different 
media.  However  it  be  caused,  there  is  certainly  an 
E.M.F.  at  such  a  junction. 

Thus,  then,  in  a  simple  circuit  of  two  metals,  with  their 
junctions  at  different  temperatures,  there  are  altogether 
four  electromotive  forces — one  in  each  metal,  from  hot  to 
cold  or  vice  versa,  and  one  at  each  junction  ;  and  the 
current  which  flows  round  such  a  circuit  is  propelled  by 
the  resultant  of  these  four. 

But  the  contact  force  at  a  junction  is  by  no  means  con- 
fined to  metals.  It  occurs  between  insulators  also,  and 
it  is  to  it  that  the  striking  effects  produced  by  all  fric- 
tional  electric  machines  are  due. 


12 


NATURE 


{Nov.  3,  i«87 


By  thus  noticing  that  the  connexion  between  matter 
and  electricity,  known  as  resistance  and  defined  by 
Ohm's  law,  is  competent  to  produce  contact  electro- 
motive forces,  we  may  perceive  how  it  comes  to  pass 
that  in  good  conductors  such  forces  are  so  weak,  while  in 
insulators  they  are  so  strong.  Electricity  slips  through 
the  fingers  of  a  metal  as  it  were,  and  the  driving  force  it 
can  exert  is  very  feeble ;  while  an  insulator  gets  a  good  grip 
and  thrusts  it  along  with  violence. 

The  metals  differ  in  their  gripping  power,  and,  roughly 
speaking,  the  best  conductor  makes  the  worst  thermo- 
electric substance.  A  bad  conductor,  like  antimony,  or, 
still  better,  galena,  or  selenium,  or  tellurium,  makes  a  far 
more  effective  thermo-electric  element  than  a  well-con- 
ducting metal.  Not  that  specific  resistance  is  all  that 
has  to  be  considered  in  the  matter  ;  there  is  also  a  specific 
relation  between  each  metal  and  the  two  kinds  of  elec- 
tricity. Thus,  iron  is  a  metal  whose  atoms  have  a  better 
grip  of  positive  than  of  negative  electricity,  and  so  a 
positive  current  gets  propelled  in  iron  from  hot  to  cold. 
Copper,  on  the  other  hand,  acts  similarly  on  negative 
electricity,  and  it  is  a  negative  current  which  is  driven 
from  hot  to  cold  in  copper.  And  all  the  metals  can  be 
classed  with  one  or  other  of  these  two,  except  perhaps 
lead,  which  appears  to  grip  both  equally,  and  so  to  exert 
no  diiferential  effect  upon  either. 

Passage  of  Electricity  through  a  Gas. 

There  remains  to  be  said  something  about  the  way  in 
which  electricity  can  be  conveyed  by  gases. 

The  first  thing  to  notice  is  that  there  is  no  true  con- 
duction through  either  gases  or  vapours  ;  in  other  words, 
a  substance  in  this  condition  seems  to  behave  as  a  perfect 
insulator — perhaps  the  only  perfect  insulator  there  is. 
Not  even  mercury  vapour  is  found  to  conduct  in  the  least. 
This  shows  that  mere  bombardment  of  molecules,  such 
as  is  known  to  go  on  in  gases,  is  not  sufficient  either  to 
remove  or  to  impart  any  electric  charge. 

The  commonest  way  in  which  electricity  makes  its  way 
through  a  gas,  setting  aside  the  mere  mechanical  con- 
veyance by  solid  carrier,  is  that  of  disruptive  discharge. 
Let  us  try  and  look  into  the  manner  of  this  a  little  more 
closely,  if  possible. 

First  of  all,  since  locomotion  is  possible  to  the  mole- 
cules of  a  gas  the  same  as  of  any  other  fluid,  it  is  natural 
to  ask  why  electrolysis  does  not  go  on  as  in  a  liquid. 
Now,  for  electrolysis  in  a  liquid  two  conditions  seemed 
necessary  :  first,  that  the  atoms  or  radicles  in  a  molecule 
should  be  oppositely  charged  with  electricity  ;  second, 
that  they  should  be  in  such  a  condition  (whether  by  dis- 
sociation or  otherwise)  that  interchanges  of  atoms  from 
molecule  to  molecule,  or,  in  some  other  way,  a  procession 
of  atoms,  could  be  directed  in  a  given  direction  by  a  very 
feeble  or  infinitesimal  force. 

Since  a  gas  does  not  act  as  an  electrolyte,  one  of  these 
conditions,  or  perhaps  both,  must  fail.  Either  the  atoms 
of  a  gas-molecule  are  not  charged,  which  is  a  plausible 
hypothesis  for  elementary  gases,  or  else  the  atoms  belong- 
ing to  a  gas-molecule  remain  individually  belonging  to  it, 
and  are  not  readily  passed  on  from  one  to  another. 

When  one  says  that  a  gas  does  not  act  as  a  common 
electrolyte,  the  experimental  grounds  of  the  statement 
are  that  a  finite  electrostatic  stress  certainly  is  possible 
in  its  interior — a  stress  of  very  considerable  amount ; 
and  when  this  stress  does  overstep  the  mark  and  cause 
the  electrode  to  yield,  the  yielding  is  evidently  not 
a  quiet  and  steady  glide  or  procession,  but  a  violent 
breaking  down  and  collapse,  due  to  insufficient  tenacity 
of  something.  One  may  therefore  picture  the  molecules 
of  a  gas,  between  two  opposite  electrodes  or  discharge 
terminals  maintained  at  some  great  difference  of  poten- 
tial, as  arranged  in  a  set  of  parallel  chains  from  one  to 
the  other,  and  strained  nearly  up  to  the  verge  of  being 
torn  asunder.     In  making  this  picture  one  need  not  sup- 


pose any  fixture  of  individual  molecules  :  there  may  be  a 
wind  blowing  between  the  plates  ;  but  all  molecules  as 
they  come  into  the  field  must  experience  the  stress,  and 
be  relieved  as  they  pass  out. 

If  the  applied  slope  of  potential  overstep  a  certain 
limit,  fixed  by  observation  at  something  like  33,000  volts 
per  linear  centimetre  for  common  air,  the  molecules  give 
way,  the  atoms  with  their  charges  rush  across  to  the 
plates,  and  discharge  has  occurred.  The  number  of 
atoms  thus  torn  free  and  made  able  to  convey  a  charge 
by  locomotion  is  so  great  that  there  has  never  been  found 
any  difficulty  in  conveying  any  amount  of  electricity  by 
their  means.  In  other  words,  during  discharge  the  gas 
becomes  a  conductor,  and,  being  a  conductor  by  reason 
of  locomotion  of  atoms,  it  may  be  called  an  electrolytic 
conductor. 

But  whether  the  charge  then  possessed  by  each  carrier 
atom  intrinsically  belonged  to  it  all  the  time,  or  whether 
it  was  conferred  upon  the  components  of  the  molecules 
during  the  strain  and  the  disruption,  is  a  point  not  yet 
decided. 

What  is  called  "  the  dielectric  strength  "  of  a  gas — that 
is,  the  strain  it  can  bear  without  suffering  disruption  and 
becoming  for  the  instant  a  conductor — depends  partly  on 
the  nature  of  the  gas,  and  very  largely  on  its  pressure. 
Roughly,  one  may  say  that  a  gas  at  high  pressure  is  very 
strong,  a  gas,  at  low  pressure  very  weak.  An  ordinary 
electrolyte  might  be  called  a  dielectric  of  zero  strength. 

One  reason  why  pressure  affects  the  dielectric  tenacity 
of  a  gas  readily  occurs  to  one  :  it  is  certainly  not  the  only 
one,  but  it  can  hardly  help  being  at  least  partially  a  vera 
causa;  and  that  is,  the  fact  that  in  a  rare  gas  there  are 
fewer  molecules  between  the  plates  to  share  the  strain 
between  them. 

Thus  if  40,000  volts  per  centimetre  break  down  ordinary 
air,  40  volts  per  centimetre  ought  to  be  enough  to  effect 
discharge  through  air  at  a  pressure  of  about  |  millimetre 
of  mercury  ;  and  at  a  pressure  of  50  atmospheres  2,000,000 
volts  per  centimetre  should  be  needed.' 

A  Current  regarded  as  a  Moving  Charge. 

To  review  the  ground  we  have  covered  so  far.  We  first 
tried  to  get  some  conception  of  the  nature  of  electrostatic 
charge,  and  the  function  of  a  dielectric  medium  in  static 
electricity.  We  next  proceeded  to  see  how  far  the  phe- 
nomena of  current  electricity  could  be  explained  by  refer- 
ence to  electrostatics.  For  a  current,  being  merely 
electricity  in  locomotion,  need  consist  of  nothing  but  a 
charged  body  borne  rapidly  along. 

Charge  a  sphere  with  either  positive  or  negative  elec- 
tricity, and  throw  it  in  some  direction  :  this  constitutes 
a  positive  or  a  negative  current  in  that  direction.  There 
is  nothing  necessarily  more  occult  than  that.  And  a 
continuous  current  between  two  bodies  may  be  kept  up 
by  having  a  lot  of  pith  balls,  or  dust  particles,  oscillating 
from  one  to  the  other,  and  so  carrying  positive  electricity 
one  way,  and  negative  the  other  way.  But  such  carriers, 
as  they  pass  each  other  with  their  opposite  charges, 
would  be  very  apt  to  cling  together  and  combine.  They 
might  be  torn  asunder  again  electrically,  or  they  might 
be  knocked  asunder  by  collision  with  others.  Unless 
they  were  one  or  other,  the  current  would  shortly  have  to 
cease,  and  nothing  but  a  polarized  medium  would  result. 

Instead  of  pith  balls,  picture  charged  atoms  as  so  act- 
ing, and  we  have  a  rough  image  of  what  is  going  on  in 
an  electrolyte  on  the  one  hand,  and  a  dielectric  on 
the  other.  The  behaviour  of  metals  and  solid  con- 
ductors is  more  obscure.  Locomotive  carriage  is  not  to 
b2  thought  of  in  them  ;  but,  inasmuch  as  no  new  pheno- 
menon   appears  in  their    case,  it  is  natural  to  try  and 

'  It  is  true  that  tension  per  unit  area,  or  energy  per  unit  volume,  is  pro- 
portional to  the  square  of  the  pofential-slope,  and  I  attach  no  special  import- 
ance to  the  simple  proportion  assumed  in  the  text.  There  is  a  great  deal 
more  to  he  sa'd  on  these  subjects,  but  this  is  scarcely  th^  prjper  place  to 
say  it. 


Nov.  3,  1887] 


NATURE 


13 


picture  the  process  as  one  not  wholly  dissimilar ;  and 
this  is  what  in  one  place  we  tried  to  do  ;  with,  however, 
but  poor  success. 

I  have  said  that  an  electric  current  need  be  nothing 
more  occult  than  is  a  charged  sphere  moving  rapidly  ; 
and  a  good  deal  has  been  made  out  concerning  currents 
by  minutely  discussing  all  that  happens  in  such  a  case. 
But,  even  so,  the  problem  is  far  from  being  a  simple 
one.  One  has  to  consider  not  only  the  obviously  moving 
charge,  but  also  the  opposite  induced  charge  tied  to  it  by 
lines  of  force  (or  tubes  of  induction,  as  they  are  some- 
times called),  and  we  have  this  whole  complicated  system 
in  motion.  And  the  effect  of  this  motion  is  to  set  up  a 
new  phenomenon  in  the  medium  altogether — a  spinning 
kind  of  motion  that  would  not  naturally  have  been  ex- 
pected ;  whereby  two  similarly  charged  spheres  in  motion 
repel  one  another  less  than  when  stationary,  and  may 
even  begin  to  attract,  if  moving  fast  enough  ;  whereby 
also  a  relation  arises  between  electricity  and  magnetism, 
and  the  moving  charged  body  deflects  a  compass  needle. 
Of  which  more  in  the  next  Part.  Oliver  J.  Lodge. 
( To  be  continued^   ■ 

THE  TWEEDDALE  COLLECTION. 

'T*HE  great  collection  of  birds  formed  by  the  late 
■■■  Marquess  of  Tweeddale  has  now  safely  arrived  in 
London,  and  has  been  deposited  in  the  Natural  History 
Museum  at  South  Kensington.  It  is  sufficient  to  say  that 
it  equals  in  extent  the  valuable  donation  of  American 
birds  presented  by  Mr.  Osbert  Salvin  and  Mr.  F.  Du  Cane 
Godman,  numbering  about  27,000  specimens  ;  and  though 
inferior  in  number  of  individual  skins  to  the  great  Hume 
collection,  which  reached  the  phenomenal  number  of 
63,000  specimens,  it  is  not  inferior  in  interest  to  either  of 
these  wonderful  collections.  Mr.  Hume  thoroughly 
worked  the  territory  of  the  British  Asian  Empire  from 
Scinde  to  Assam  and  Manipur,  from  Khatmandu  to 
Ceylon,  and  from  Tenasserim  to  Singapore  ;  but  to  the 
eastward  of  these  countries  the  work  had  been  continued 
by  other  naturalists,  and  the  results  of  their  labours  are 
largely  represented  in  the  Tweeddale  collection,  which  now 
forms  part  of  the  British  Museum. 

On  the  death  of  the  late  Marquess,  his  entire  collection 
and  library  were  bequeathed  by  him  to  his  nephew, 
Capt.  R.  G.  Wardlaw  Ramsay,  of  Whitehill,  a  natu- 
ralist of  high  promise  and  performance  ;  and  in  the 
moment  of  satisfaction  at  receiving  his  magnificent  dona- 
tion one  cannot  help  feeling  great  regret  that  the  many 
cares  and  duties  mcident  upon  his  succession  to  the 
family  estates  at  Whitehill  have  temporarily  deprived 
him  of  the  leisure  necessary  for  the  working  out  of  the 
great  collection  left  to  him  by  his  uncle.  The  facilities 
for  ornithological  study,  however,  at  the  Natural  History 
Museum,  are  now  rapidly  becoming  so  perfect  that  one 
may  reasonably  hope  that  he  will,  in  common  with  all 
ornithologists,  be  able  to  work  in  that  institution  with  the 
same  comfort  as  in  his  own  museum  in  Scotland.  If  in 
future  years  the  student  of  birds  finds  that  at  South 
Kensington  the  work  he  loves  can  be  done  more  ex- 
peditiously and  with  command  of  a  larger  series  of 
specimens  than  in  any  other  Museum  in  the  world,  his 
gratitude  will  be  largely  due  to  the  four  naturalists  we 
have  mentioned— Mr.  Allan  Hume,  Messrs.  O.  Salvin  and 
F.  D.  Godman,  and  Capt.  Wardlaw  Ramsay— for  the 
unexampled  generosity  which  has  led  them  to  present  to 
the  British  nation  the  wonderful  collections  which  will 
make  our  Ornithological  Museum  famous  for  all  time. 

Many  naturalists  who  read  this  article  will  remember 
how,  twelve  years  ago,  the  entire  collection  of  bird- skins 
in  the  British  Museum  was  contained  in  a  few  book-cases 
in  a  dingy  cellar  at  Bloomsbury,  where  all  the  skins  were 
kept  in  wooden  boxes — a  barbarous  method,  which 
was    not    only    clumsy,    but    actually    harmful    to     the 


specimens  themselves.  The  development  of  the  collec- 
tion since  that  era  is  one  which  any  English  naturalist 
may  consider  with  pride.  Not  only  is  the  invaluable 
series  of  skins  in  the  British  Museum  now  well  cared  for 
and  properly  housed,  but  the  ratson  d'etre  of  the  large 
collections  in  private  hands  has  been  removed.  It  is 
admitted  on  all  sides  that  had  the  facilities  of  study  in 
the  old  days  been  such  as  they  now  are  in  the  Natural 
History  Museum,  there  would  have  been  no  need  for 
ornithologists  to  devote  their  private  means  to  the 
formation  of  the  collections  which  have,  however,  now 
become  the  foundation  of  the  greatest  Ornithological 
Museum  in  the  whole  world. 

The  three  great  collections  which  have  enriched  the 
British  Museum  during  the  last  two  years  have  each 
been,  in  their  way,  of  supreme  importance  for  zoological 
science.  The  Hume  collection  was  a  perfect  marvel  in 
the  way  of  complete  series  of  specimens.  Not  only  are 
the  various  plumages  of  the  Indian  birds  exemplified  in  a 
manner  hitherto  unheard  of,  but  even  the  geographical 
ranges  of  most  of  the  species  are  illustrated  in  a  perfect 
way  by  the  series  of  specimens  contained  in  the  col- 
lection. The  Salvin-Godman  donation  consisted  of 
American  birds,  and  added  hundreds  of  species  to  the 
British  Museum  which  were  desiderata  to  that  collection. 
Though  not  so  rich  in  series  of  various  plumages  as  the 
Hume  collection,  the  number  of  gaps  in  the  quota  of 
American  birds  which  their  donation  filled  was  simply 
enormous,  and  from  being  one  of  the  most  backward  in 
regard  to  its  neotropical  collection  of  birds,  the  British 
Museum  is  now  one  of  the  foremost  as  regards  the  value 
of  its  American  series. 

The  Tweeddale  collection  "  takes  up  the  running,"  so 
to  speak,  where  Mr.  Hume  left  off,  and  it  must  not  be 
supposed  that  the  donation  now  made  by  Capt.  Wardlaw 
Ramsay  is  merely  the  collection  of  skins  left  to  him  by 
his  uncle.  To  imagine  this  would  be  but  a  poor  appre- 
ciation of  the  energy  which  has  led  him  during  the  last 
i&wi  years  to  develop  and  greatly  increase  the  collection 
by  the  addition  of  a  large  number  of  birds  obtained 
during  his  mihtary  career  in  the  East,  and  by  hundreds 
of  other  valuable  specimens  acquired  since  his  uncle's 
death.  Thus  the  skins  from  the  Kurrum  Valley  in 
Afghanistan,  and  from  the  Karen  Hills  in  Burmah, 
obtained  by  Capt.  Ramsay  himself,  are  supplementary 
additions  of  the  highest  value  to  the  Hume  collection, 
inasmuch  as  Mr.  Hume  never  had  correspondents  in  these 
parts,  and  the  specimens  from  the  Andamans  and 
Nicobars  are  also  of  great  importance  ;  but  of  course  the 
interest  of  the  Tweeddale  collection  centres  round  the 
expedition  to  the  Philippine  Archipelago  made  by  Mr. 
Alfred  Everett  for  the  late  Marquess.  Mr.  Everett  visited 
several  islands  on  which  no  zoologist  had  previously  trod, 
and  as  a  natural  result  he  discovered  some  beautiful  new 
species  of  birds  which  are  still  unrepresented  in  any  other 
collection  but  that  of  Capt.  Ramsay.  Altogether  Mr. 
Everett  furnished  material  for  twelve  important  memoirs 
by  the  Marquess  of  Tweeddale,  and  the  number  of  Philip- 
pine types  now  presented  to  the  British  Museum  adds 
immensely  to  the  wealth  of  the  donation.  Lord  Tweed- 
dale  was  also  greatly  interested  in  an  obscure  family  of 
birds — the  Drongos,  or  Crow-shrikes  {Dicruridce) — and 
possessed  a  wonderful  collection  of  these  birds,  although 
it  may  be  stated  that  there  is  scarcely  a  family  of  Oriental 
birds  which  is  not  strongly  and  completely  represented  in 
the  collection. 

Ornithologists  will  understand  the  nature  of  this  noble 
gift  of  Capt.  Ramsay  when  they  learn  that  in  addition  to  the 
collection  of  birds  he  has  also  presented  the  whole  of  the 
splendid  Tweeddale  library  (nearly  3000  volumes)  to  the 
British  Museum,  to  be  placed  in  the  Bird-Room,  along- 
side of  the  collection  of  skins,  for  the  benefit  of  students 
of  ornithology.  The  Tweeddale  library  is  one  of  the  best 
in    the    world,   containing    many   rare    volumes    which 


14 


NA  TURE 


\_Nov.  3,  1887 


we  have  not  seen  elsewhere,  and  this  donation  alone  is 
worth  several  thousands  of  pounds.  With  a  series  of 
bird-skins  now  numbering  nearly  a  quarter  of  a  million, 
and  with  the  best  ornithological  hbrary  in  the  world,  it 
will  be  strange  if  the  work  done  at  the  British  Museum  in 
future  be  not  rendered  an  easy  and  an  enjoyable  task, 
though  it  must  be  remembered  that  the  very  magnitude  of 
the  collection  contributes  to  the  difficulty  of  its  exact 
study.  The  writer  may  be  excused  an  expression  of  deep 
gratitude  to  the  ornithologists  who  have  enriched  the  col- 
lection under  his  charge,  so  that  from  a  series  of  (at  the 
most)  40,000  skins,  the  number  of  bird-skins  has  been 
raised  in  fifteen  years  to  more  than  200,000,  and  he 
merely  adds  a  hope  that  he  may  see  the  British  Museum 
become  the  repository  of  all  the  work  of  English 
•ornithologists,  not  only  from  this  country,  but  from  all 
parts  of  the  Empire. 

This  article  has  dealt  merely  with  the  three  great  dona- 
tions which  have  been  received  during  the  last  two  years, 
and  has  not  recorded  the  many  other  collections,  of  almost 
•equal  importance,  which  have  been  acquired  by  the 
Trustees  of  the  British  Museum  since  i''72,  the  results  of 
the  hfe-work  of  such  naturalists  as  Sclater,  Wallace, 
Gould,  and  others  of  whom  the  country  is  proud,  the 
acquisition  of  whose  collections  also  is  a  source  of  the 
greatest  encouragement  to  the  writer. 

R.  BOWDLER  SHARPE. 


THE  STORM  OF  OCTOBER  30. 

THE  gale  which  swept  over  the  southern  part  of 
England  on  the  morning  of  Sunday  the  30th  was 
both  sudden  and  severe.  On  the  previous  day  the  weather 
was  exceptionally  fine  over  the  country  generally,  and  in 
many  places  it  was  a  truly  "pet"  day.  The  Meteoro- 
logical Office,  in  their  morning  report  referring  to  the 
barometric  rise  which  was  going  on  in  the  south  and  west, 
remarked  that  "  some  improvement  in  the  weather  is 
therefore  likely  in  the  south."  In  the  afternoon  of  Satur- 
day, however,  there  were  signs  of  approaching  bad  weather, 
and  by  six  o'clock  a  disturbance  was  shown  to  ba  situated 
-off  Scilly,  the  barometer  reading  294  inches.  The  Meteoro- 
logical Office  considered  the  situation  sufficiently  menacing 
for  the  issue  of  storm  signals,  and  the  south  cone  was 
hoisted  in  the  south  and  south-west  districts.  During  the 
night  the  storm  passed  in  an  east-north-east  direction 
■over  the  southern  counties  of  England,  travelling  at  the 
rate  of  about  thirty  miles  an  hour.  The  centre  passed 
almost  directly  over  London  at  about  five  o'clock  in  the 
morning,  when  the  wind  changed  suddenly  about  180", 
the  barometer  at  the  time  registering  28'86  inches,  and  in 
the  next  two  hours  the  mercury  rose  o'4  of  an  inch.  At 
Greenwich  Observatory  the  anemometer  recorded  I7"2lbs 
on  the  square  foot  at  7*5  a.m.,  which  is  equivalent  to  an 
hourly  velocity  of  about  sixty  miles.  By  8  a.m.  the  centre 
of  the  disturbance  had  passed  to  the  eastward  of  our 
islands  and  was  situated  a  short  distance  off  Yarmouth. 
The  storm  afterwards  travelled  in  a  north-easterly  direc- 
tion, maintaining  somewhat  its  former  rate  of  movement, 
and  on  Monday  morning  the  central  area  was  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  Stockholm.  The  gale  was  rather 
severe  on  our  southern  coasts,  but  its  principal  violence 
was  felt  in  the  English  Channel  and  on  the  French  and 
Danish  coasts.  The  Paris  Bulletin  shows  that  at  many 
of  the  stations  the  wind  reached  the  full  force  of  a  hurri- 
cane, and  the  sea  was  terrific.  The  amount  of  rain  which 
fell  during  the  storm  was  unusually  heavy,  r59  inches 
being  registered  at  Scilly,  and  upwards  of  an  inch  at 
other  stations  in  the  south  of  England  and  also  in  the 
north  of  France.  As  is  commonly  the  case  with  these 
quick-travelling  and  rapidly-developing  storms,  the  dis- 
turbance was  a  "  secondary "  to  a  larger  disturbance 
which  was  passing  from  off  the  Atlantic  to  the. north  ward 
of  our  islands. 


ROBERT  HUNT,  F.R.S. 

MR.  ROBERT  HUNT,  whose  death  we  have  already 
briefly  announced,  was  born  at  Devonport,  then 
called  Plymouth  Dock,  on  September  6,  1807.  His  father 
was  a  naval  officer  who  perished,  with  all  the  crew,  in 
H.M.S.  Moncheron,  in  the  Grecian  Archipelago.  Robert 
Hunt,  left  to  his  mother's  care,  was  destined  for  the 
medical  profession  ;  and,  having  been  placed  with  a. 
surgeon  in  London,  he  attended  the  anatomical  lectures 
of  Joshua  Brooks  ;  but  his  studies  were  interrupted  by 
failing  health,  and  his  medical  training  was  never  com- 
pleted. In  1840,  Mr.  Hunt  became  secretary  to  the  Royal 
Cornwall  Polytechnic  Society  at  Falmouth.  His  earliest 
contributions  to  science  were  in  connection  with  photo- 
graphy— a  subject  to  which  he  applied  himself  with 
assiduity  immediately  on  the  announcement  of  Daguerre's 
discovery  in  1839.  Mr.  Hunt's  investigations  led  to  the 
discovery  of  several  new  processes,  which  were  either 
described  in  the  Philosophical  Magazine  or  announced  to 
the  British  Association.  His  experimental  researches  on 
the  chemical  activity  of  the  highly  refrangible  rays  of  the 
solar  spectrum,  his  work  with  the  actinograph,  and  his 
study  of  the  influence  of  light  upon  the  germination  of 
seeds  and  the  growth  of  plants,  formed  the  subject  of 
numerous  papers  between  1840  and  1854.  Mr.  Hunt's 
'•  Researches  on  Light"  appeared  in  1844.  His  "  Manual 
of  Photography,"  which  was  the  first  general  work  on  the 
subject  published  in  this  country,  passed  through  six 
editions. 

While  Mr.  Hunt  was  in  Cornwall  he  undertook  some 
interesting  inquiries,  conjointly  with  the  late  Mr.  Robert 
Were  Fox,  into  the  electrical  phenomena  of  mineral 
veins  ;  and  he  also  entered  upon  an  examination  of  the 
air  in  some  of  the  Cornish  mines.  In  1845  he  came  10 
London,  at  the  invitation  of  Sir  H.  T.  De  la 
Beche,  to  succeed  Mr.  Thomas  Jordan,  as  Keeper  of 
Mining  Records  at  the  Museum  of  Economic  Geology, 
then  recently  established  in  Craig's  Court.  On  the 
establishment  of  the  Government  School  of  Mines  in 
1 85 1,  he  was  appointed  Lecturer  on  Mechanical  Science, 
and  opened  his  course  with  an  address  on  the  import- 
ance of  cultivating  habits  of  observation.  After  holding 
this  position  for  two  sessions  he  resigned  it  to  the  late 
Prof.  Willis,  and  undertook  for  a  short  time  the  duties  of 
Lecturer  on  Physics.  In  1854  Mr.  Hunt  was  elected  a 
Fellow  of  the  Royal  Society. 

For  the  last  thirty  years  Mr.  Hunt's  energies  have  been 
mainly  directed  to  the  collection  and  collation  of  statistical 
information  relating  to  British  mining  and  metallurgy. 
Yxom.  1853  until  the  abolition  of  the  Keepership  of 
Mining  Records  he  published  regularly  the  annual 
volumes  of  "  Mineral  Statistics,"  containing  a  vast  mass 
of  voluntary  returns  obtained  by  his  personal  influence. 
As  a  member  of  the  Royal  Coal  Commission  of  1866,  he 
undertook  the  statistical  part  of  the  inquiry,  and  published 
detailed  information  on  the  coal  resources  of  the  country. 

The  technical  education  of  the  metal-mining  population 
of  the  West  of  England  was  a  subject  that  Mr.  Hunt 
always  had  at  heart.  He  was  an  earnest  advocate  for  the 
establishment  of  local  mining  schools,  and  should  be 
regarded  practically  as  the  founder  of  the  Miners' 
Association  of  Cornwall  and  Devon — a  body  now  amal- 
gamated with  the  Mining  Institute.  In  1883,  Mr.  Hunt 
published  a  voluminous  work  on  "British  Mining."  After 
the  death  of  Dr.  Ure  he  consented  to  edit  the  "  Dictionary 
of  Arts,"  and  brought  out  successively  the  fifth  (i860), 
sixth  (1867),  and  seventh  (1875)  editions  of  this  work. 
At  the  same  time  Mr.  Hunt  possessed  great  literary 
taste,  which  found  scope  in  several  lighter  works,  such  as 
his  "  Poetry  of  Science,"  "  Panthea,  or  the  Spirit  of 
Nature,"  and  the  "  Romances  of  the  West  of  England." 
Mr.  Hunt's  long,  busy,  and  useful  life  was  closed  on 
the  17th  ult.  His  remains  were  interred  in  Brompton 
Cemetery, 


Nov.  3,  18S7] 


NATURE 


15 


NOTES. 
The  vacancy  in  the  representation  of  Cambridge  University, 
caused  by  the  death  of  Mr.  Beresford  Hope,  raises  again  the 
question  of  the  desirability  that  the  Universities  should  be  repre- 
sented in  Parliament  by  men  of  distinguished  culture,  whether 
literary  or  scientific.  Men  of  science  will  be  glad  to  hear  that  a 
movement  is  on  foot  in  Cambridge  to  induce  the  President  of 
the  Royal  Society  to  allow  himself  to  be  nominated  as  a  candi- 
date for  the  membership  of  the  University.  A  meeting  will  be 
held  on  Saturday  for  the  purpose  of  considering  the  question  of 
the  representative.  It  is  believed  that  Prof.  Stokes,  if  he  finds 
the  feeling  to  be  strong  in  favour  of  his  acceptance,  will  regard 
it  as  his  duty  to  place  his  services  at  the  disposal  of  the  electors. 
A  more  distinguished  representative  never  offered  himself  for  the 
suffrages  of  any  University  in  this  country.  His  presence  in  the 
House  of  Commons  would  be  another  pledge  thai  questions 
involving  the  interests  of  science  would  be  discussed  with 
adequate  knowledge  in  that  assembly. 

In  presenting  the  prizes  to  the  successful  students  of  the  Bath 
Lane  Science  and  Art  School  at  Newcastle-on-Tyne,  Lord 
Randolph  Churchill  expressed  the  opinion  that  when  "the  State 
has  laid  the  foundation  by  freely  contributing  to  elementary 
education,  localities  ought  to  come  in  and  ought  to  build  on  that 
foundation  whatever  edifice  may  be  necessary  for  the  further  and 
higher  technical  education  of  the  artisan."  "  This  school,"  he 
continued,  "is  essentially  the  result  of  pure  local  effort,  pure 
local  energy,  and  pure  local  pride.  You  have,  I  understand, 
carried  on  the  whole  work  of  this  school  without  the  smallest 
assistance  from  Government  of  any  sort  or  kind.  Now,  I  was 
saying  that  technical  education  is  supposed  to  be  a  great  require- 
ment of  the  present  day,  and  I  was  using  the  illustration  of  your 
school  to  show  that  localities  can  if  they  wish,  if  they  have  the 
energy  and  the  determination,  supply  that  technical  education 
for  themselves."  In  a  letter  to  the  Times  a  writer  signing  him- 
self "Y."  has  exposed  the  ignorance  displayed  by  Lord 
Randolph  Churchill  in  this  a'-tonishing  statement.  The  New- 
castle school,  instead  of  being  carried  on  simply  by  means  of 
"local  effort,"  has  been  largely  aided  by  the  Government.  As 
"  Y."  points  out,  the  last  Report  of  the  Science  and  Art  Depart- 
ment shows  that  in  1886  the  payments  on  results  made  to  the 
school  were  for  science  /"laiz  lo^.,  and  for  art  £22,^  los.,  while 
the  students'  fees  for  instruction  in  science  were  ;^I228,  and  in 
art  ;i^lSO.  It  is  discreditable  that  a  man  in  Lord  Randolph 
Churchill's  position  should  be  capable  of  making  such  a  mistake 
s  this.  The  incident  is  important,  for  it  indicates  the  spirit  in 
which  too  many  of  those  who  talk  wildly  about  "economy" 
approach  the  consideration  of  the  grave  question  as  to  the  duty 
of  the  State  with  regard  to  education.  Lord  Randolph  Churchill 
has  been  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  and  may  some  day  be 
Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  again.  With  his  crude  notions  and 
inaccurate  information,  the  injury  he  might  do  in  this  position 
to  our  educational  system  is  simply  incalculable. 

The  College  of  State  Medicine,  lately  incorporated,  ought  to 
be  a  remarkably  successful  institution,  if  we  may  judge  from  the 
names  of  its  officers.  The  Chairman  of  Council  is  Sir  Joseph 
Fayrer,  K.C.S.I.,  F.  R.S.  The  following  are  the  members  of  the 
Council :— Sir  John  Watt  Reid,  K.C.B.,  Sir  Thomas  Crawford, 
K.C.B.,  Sir  William  Guyer  Hunter,  K.C.M.G.,  M.P.,  Sir 
Henry  Roscoe,  F.R.S.,  Sir  Douglas  Maclagan,  Surgeon- 
General  William  Robert  Cornish,  CLE.,  Richard  Quain, 
F.R.S.,  Edward  Klein,  F.R.S.,  Robert  Brudenell  Carter,  and 
Arthur  Trehern  Norton.  The  following  are  ex-officio  members  : 
— The  President  of  the  Sanitary  Institute,  the  President  of  the 
Society  of  Medical  Officers  of  Health,  the  President  of  the 
Public  Health  Medical  Society,  the  Professor  of  Public  Health 
to  the  College.     Mr.  James  Cantlie  is  the  honorary  secretary. 


The  first  Congress  of  the  Dutch  Society  of  Naturalists  lately 
met  at  Amsterdam  under  the  presidency  of  Dr.  Stoknis,  who 
delivered  an  address  on  nationality  and  natural  science. 
Among  the  other  addresses  were  the  following  :  on  Martinus 
of  Marum,  who  made  a  large  electric  machine  at  the  end 
of  the  last  century,  by  Prof.  Bosscha  (Delft) ;  and  on  the 
education  of  future  naturalists,  by  Prof.  Spruyt  (Amsterdam). 

An  Exhibition  of  Textile  Goods  and  Machinery  will  be  held  at 
Warsaw  about  the  middle  of  December  next.  It  will  be  open 
to  all  countries. 

The  expedition  which  the  Finnish  Archaeological  Society 
despatched  to  the  Upper  Yenisei  last  summer,  to  prosecute 
archaeological  researches  in  that  locality,  has  just  returned 
to  Helsingfors.  It  has  brought  back  drawings  of  about 
thirty  stone  figures,  and  copies  of  a  large  number  of  in- 
scriptions, hitherto  not  deciphered,  on  a  rock,  on  nine  raised 
stone  slabs,  and  on  many  stone;  along  the  upper  course  of  the 
Yenisei.  The  expedition  has  also  gathered  a  vast  collection  of 
objects  belonging  to  the  Siberian  Bronze  Age. 

In  his  latest  Annual  Report,  Mr.  Putnam,  Curator  of  the 
Peabody  Museum  of  American  Archaeology  and  Ethnology^ 
says  that  during  the  past  year  several  large  collections  of  special 
interest  have  been  added  to  tlie  Museum.  The  most  important 
is  the  Bucklin  collection  from  ancient  graves  in  Peru,  principally 
at  Ancon.  This  collection  is  particularly  rich  in  textiles  and  in 
ornaments  and  implements  made  of  silver  and  bronze  ;  and 
among  the  objects  in  pottery  there  are  many  new  forms  and 
styles  of  ornamentation.  Another  collection  of  over  300  speci- 
mens of  pottery  obtained  from  the  province  of  Piura,  Peru,  has 
also  been  purchased,  and  nearly  every  vessel  adds  some  important 
feature  to  the  already  instructive  Peruvian  collection  in  the 
Museum.  A  third  collection  consists  of  337  pottery  vessels,  a 
number  of  whistles  and  other  objects  made  of  pottery,  245  stone 
implements,  and  several  large  carved  stones,  some  circular,  and 
others  resembling  animals,  supposed  by  some  archaeologists  to- 
be  seats,  and  by  others  to  be  metates.  This  collection  has  been 
catalogued  and  placed  in  the  exhibition  cases  with  the  other 
objects  from  the  ancient  graves  in  Chiriqui.  It  was  obtained 
from  the  well-known  collector  of  antiquities  in  Chiriqui,  Mr.  J. 
A.  McNiel,  who  has  resided  in  the  State  of  Panama  for  many 
years.  Mr.  Putnam  expresses  much  regret  that  Mr.  McNiel  has 
not  been  able  to  keep  together  the  contents  of  each  grave.  He 
is  dependent  on  the  sale  of  the  specimens  for  the  means  to  carry 
on  his  work,  so  that  many  of  the  objects  he  obtained  are  now 
widely  scattered,  and  archaeologists  have  no  means  of  tracing  the 
development  of  the  arts  of  the  people,  which  could  have  been 
done  had  the  collection  been  kept  together  and  the  associations- 
of  every  object  carefully  noted. 

We  have  received  the  Proceedings  of  the  U.S.  National 
Museum  during  the  year  1886.  This  is  the  ninth  volume  of  the 
series.  It  contains  many  interesting  and  valuable  papers,  some 
by  members  of  the  scientific  corps  of  the  National  Museum, 
others  by  writers  who  have  made  pori  ions  of  the  collections  of 
the  Museum  subjects  of  special  study.  The  volume  opens  with 
a  list  of  fishes  collected  in  Arkansas,  the  Indian  Territory,  and 
Texas,  in  September  1884,  with  notes  and  descriptions,  by  Mr. 
D.  S.  Jordan  and  Mr.  C.  H.  Gilbert.  Among  the  other  papers 
are :  notes  on  fulgurites,  by  Mr.  G.  P.  Merrill ;  a  review  of 
Japanese  birds,  by  Mr.  L.  Stejneger  ;  a  catalogue  of  animals 
collected  by  the  Geographical  and  Exploring  Commis-ion  of  the 
Repul)lic  of  Mexico,  by  Mr.  F.  Ferrari- Perez  ;  a  description  of 
six  new  species  of  fishes  from  the  Gulf  of  Mexico,  with  notes  on 
other  species,  by  Mr.  D.  S.  Jordan  and  Mr.  B.  W.  Evermann  ; 
and  Norsk  naval  architecture,  by  Mr.  G.  H.  Boehmer,  At  the 
end  of  the  volume  there  are  twenty-five  plates,  each  accompanied 
by  its  explanation. 


i6 


NATURE 


\Nov.  3,  1887 


Some  of  the  difficulties  with  which  the  curator  of  a  museum 
in  tropical  climates  has  to  contend  are  described  in  the  last 
report  on  the  Colombo  Museum.  Mr.  Haly  states  that 
naphthaline  is  not  so  powerful  a  protection  against  the  effects  of 
climate  as  was  anticipated.  It  seems  to  prevent  the  attacks  of 
mites,  but  it  is  powerless  against  fungus.  It  is  hoped  that  it 
will  ward  off  the  attacks  of  the  fish  insect  on  the  labels.  As  an 
instance  of  the  rapidity  with  which  this  pest  works,  it  is  men- 
tioned that  one  case  was  re-painted,  and  the  objects  rearranged 
and  labelled.  No  naphthaline  was  procurable  at  the  time,  and 
in  a  fortnight  several  labels  had  been  defaced  and  several 
numbers  lost.  Carbolic  acid  and  corrosive  sublimate  have  both 
been  mixed  with  the  gum,  but  their  use  is  objectionable,  as  they 
discolour  the  labels,  and  do  not  afford  permanent  protection. 
Every  object  in  a  tropical  climate,  Mr.  Haly  says,  ought  to  be 
exhibited  on  its  own  stand,  and  that  stand  labelled  by  hand  in 
black  or  white  paint.  The  Museum  has  also  been  attacked 
lately  by  a  fungus.  Not  only  have  the  specimens  themselves 
been  attacked,  but  the  wood  of  the  ttak  cases,  and  even  the 
glass,  has  been  covered.  In  one  case  the  insects  were  absolutely 
rolled  round  and  connected  together  by  its  fine  filaments — fila- 
ments so  fine  as  to  be  invisible  through  the  glass.  Naphthaline, 
benzine,  cyanide  of  potassium,  carbolic  acid,  and  other  substances 
have  all  been  tried  in  vain  :  the  only  check  to  its  growth  was 
citronella  oil. 

The  "  Educational  List  and  Directory  of  the  United  Kingdom 
for  1887-88"  (Sampson  Low),  edited  by  Mr.  William  Stephen, 
has  just  been  published.  This  is  the  second  issue  of  the  work. 
The  editor's  aim  is  to  concentrate  within  reasonable  space  the 
names  of  the  chief  educational  institutions  of  the  Kingdom. 
Besides  being  a  guide  for  the  use  of  parents  and  guardians,  and 
a  directory  for  all  who  give  attention  to  educational  matters,  the 
volume  is  interesting,  as  Mr.  Stephen  claims,  on  account  of  the 
fact  that  it  is  the  first  methodical  effort  to  unite  for  practical 
purposes  the  designations  of  our  educational  institutions,  from 
the  Universities  downwards,  in  England,  Wales,  Scotland,  and 
Ireland.     No  "descriptive  matter"  has  been  introduced. 

The  Cardiff  Naturalists'  Society  have  issued  a  valuable  de- 
scriptive list  of  the  indigenous  plants  found  in  the  neighbourhood 
of  Cardiff,  with  a  list  of  the  other  British  and  exotic  species 
found  on  Cardiff  Ballast  Hills.  The  compiler  is  Mr.  John 
Storrie,  Curator  of  the  Cardiff  Museum. 

A  STALACTITE  cave  has  been  discovered  near  Steinbach  in 
the  Upper  Palatinate.  It  can  only  be  approached  by  a  shaft 
I  square  metre  in  diameter  and  40  metres  deep.  The  cave  is 
divided  into  several  compartments,  through  one  of  which  a 
stream  of  water  slowly  flows.  The  numerous  stalactites  are  of 
great  beauty.  Another  stalactite  cavern,  equalling  the  cele- 
brated Dechen  cavern,  both  in  extent  and  peculiarity  of  form, 
has  been  discovered  in  the  so-called  Billstein,  between  Hirsch- 
berg  and  Warstein  (Westphalia).  The  interior  consists  of  several 
chambers.  Numerous  animal  remains  (probably  prehistoric) 
have  been  found  in  the  cave. 

The  death  is  announced  of  Herr  August  Kapplc",  whose 
excellent  book  on  Dutch  Guiana  is  well  known.  He  died  at 
Stuttgart,  aged  seventy-one. 

We  regret  to  announce  the  death  of  Dr.  E.  Luther,  Professor 
of  Astronomy  at  the  Konigsberg  University,  also  Director  of  the 
Observatory.     He  was  born  February  24,  1816. 

The  weather  in  Iceland  during  the  summer  has  been  very 
unusual.  The  ice  did  not  leave  the  north  and  east  coast  till  the 
middle  of  September,  or  quite  a  month  later  than  usual.  Storms 
and  fogs  have  been  very  frequent.  The  last  mail  brings  news 
that  the  weather  was  then  (the  middle  of  October)  dry  and  fine. 
Frost  had,  however,  set  in  in  several  parts.  This  is  the  last 
news  we  shall  have  from  the  island  until  next  spring. 


At  a  recent  meeting  of  the  Wellington  (New  Zealand)  Philo- 
sophical Society,  Sir  James  Hector  exhibited  samples  of  trachyte 
tuff  and  breccia,  constituting  the  auriferous  deposit  lately  found 
in  the  level  ground  west  of  Te  Aroha.  The  material,  which 
appeared  to  be  somewhat  of  the  nature  of  an  infiltrated  quartz 
reef  which  had  been  decomposed  and  then  distributed  as  a  sur- 
face deposit,  was  found  to  contain  gold  at  a  rate  varying  from 
two  ounces  to  fourteen  ounces  to  the  ton.  The  gold  occurs  in 
twisted  angular  flakes  and  grains,  and  is  associated  in  a  light 
feldspar  sand  with  heavier  grains  of  quartz  mica  and  titanic  iron. 
Sir  James  Hector  is  of  opinion  that  it  will  probably  prove  to  be 
the  outcrop  of  an  important  reef,  from  which  the  sulphides  have 
been  removed  by  decomposition,  so  that  gold  is  left  in  its  free 
state.  The  gold  is  the  usual  alloy  of  the  'district — consisting 
of  gold  80 "47  per  cent.,  silver  16  91,  loss  2 '62,  previous  assays 
having  varied  from  77  to  84  per  cent. 

The  last  number  of  the  Excursions  et  Recjtinaissances  of 
Saigon  contains  an  account  by  M.  Navelle  of  a  journey  which 
he  made  in  Annam  from  the  port  of  Thi-Nai,  commonly  called 
Quin-hon,  to  Bla.  The  route  lay  through  the  great  town  of 
Binh-Dinh,  and  by  the  ruins  of  Quin-hon,  at  one  time  the 
capital  of  the  Chams  or  Ciampois.  This  leads  the  traveller 
to  narrate  the  vicissitudes  of  the  once  powerful  kingdom  of 
Ciampa,  which  was  overthrown  in  the  fifteenth  century,  after 
seven  centuries  of  contest  with  Annam.  The  narrative  is 
mainly  interesting  from  the  circumstance  that  the  traveller 
visited  a  number  of  important  towns  hitherto  unseen  by 
Europeans.  At  the  town  of  Dong-pho,  he  met  an  official 
who  at  one  time  performed  curious  functions.  The  Kinh-li 
was  an  Annamite  official  appointed  to  reside  beyond  the  frontiers 
to  organize  Annamites  who  fled  from  their  native  country,  and 
to  direct  their  raids  against  neighbouring  States.  These 
vagabonds,  thus  directed,  acted  as  the  van-guards  of  regular 
Annamite  invasion.  M.  Landes,  in  the  same  number,  continues 
his  researches  into  the  folk-lore  of  the  races  of  French  Indo- 
China.  In  the  present  instance  he  gives  the  tales  and  legends 
of  the  Tjames,  Chams,  or  Ciampoi--,  above-mentioned.  They 
have  long  been  subjugated,  and  are  now  divided  into  two  groups, 
one  inhabiting  the  Bin-thuan  province,  the  other  Cambodia. 
Until  recently  they  were  amongst  the  most  unknown  peoples  of 
the  peninsula,  but  M.  Aymonier's  accounts  of  his  long  explora- 
tion in  Binh-thuan,  which  were  published  in  recent  numbers  of 
Excursions ,  have  thrown  much  light  on  the  subject.  The  stories 
published  by  M.  Landes  were  collected  from  the  mouth  of  a 
Cham,  and  are  mostly  fairy  tales. 

Dr.  Karl  Pettersen,  Director  of  the  Tromso  Arctic 
Museum,  has  lately  written  a  pamphlet  on  the  state  of  the 
drift-ice  in  the  Arctic  seas  during  the  last  few  years.  In  this 
pamphlet  he  offers  some  suggestions  as  to  the  way  in  which 
attempts  to  reach  the  North  Pole  should  be  made.  "  It  seems 
to  me,"  he  says,  "that  every  year  shows  more  and  more  clearly 
that  it  is  a  sheer  waste  of  life  and  money  to  despatch  casual  and 
erratic  expeditions  to  the  North  Pole.  In  my  opinion  the  result 
would  be  attained  most  easily,  surely,  and  cheaply  by  despatch- 
ing every  year,  for  a  period  of  ten  or  eleven  years,  a  certain 
number  of  well-equipped  steamers  from  certain  suitable  spots 
towards  the  Pole.  As  the  ice-masses  in  the  Polar  Basin  are, 
without  doubt,  in  a  constant  but  varying  motion,  this  plan  would 
enable  one  or  another  of  the  expeditions  to  seize  the  right 
moment  for  a  dash  northw  ard.  We  could  not,  of  course,  be 
absolutely  certain  of  success,  for  experience  has  proved  that  the 
state  of  the  ice  in  a  particular  locality  at  a  particular  time  does 
not  enable  us  to  predict  what  it  will  be  in  the  same  locality  in 
the  following  year.  Still,  the  opportunity  to  reach  a  high  latitude 
would  present  itself  sooner  or  later.  The  expeditions  of  past 
years  having  almost  conclusively  demonstrated  that  it  will  be 


Nov.  3,  1887] 


NATURE 


17 


impossible  to  reach  the  North  Pole  along  the  west  coast  of 
Greenland,  ^t point  iVappni  for  the  journeys  on  the  plan  advo- 
cated would  be  confined  to  the  European  and  Asiatic  Polar  seas. 
The  routes  I  should  recommend  are  four :  viz.  one  along  East 
Spitzbergen  to  Franz  Josef  Land,  and  northwards,  starting 
from  the  north  of  Norway ;  one  east  of  Franz  Josef  Land, 
starting  from  the  Yenisei  or  Obi  ;  one  via  Franz  Josef  Land, 
starting  from  the  New  Siberian  Islands  or  the  Lena ;  and  one 
from  a  siiitable.spot  in  Behring  Strait.  I  have  every  reason  to 
believe  that  if  four  such  expeditions  were  in  readiness  in  these 
localities  every  year  during  a  period  of  eleven  years,  we  should 
by  the  end  of  that  time,  by  one  or  another  of  the  route?,  have 
solved  the  problems  which  still  face  us  around  the  Pole. 
Probably  the  scheme  might  be  carried  out  most  advantageously 
by  international  co-operation,  as  in  the  case  of  the  Polar  Research 
Expeditions  of  1882-83.  In  any  case,  I  venture  to  think  that 
the  plan  of  any  expeditions  should  not  be  finally  formed  before 
July,  or,  if  possible,  August.  By  that  time  many  of  the  hunts- 
men have  returned  from  their  first  voyage  to  several  parts 
of  the  Arctic  Sea,  and  the  expeditions  would  be  in  possession 
of  a  fair  knowledge  of  the  state  of  the  ice  in  each.  I  believe 
that,  should  the  route  chosen  be  via  Spitzbergen  or  Novaya 
Zemlya,  a  careful  study  of  the  weather  and  wind  in  North 
Norway  during  the  spring  and  early  summer  would  benefit 
Polar  expeditions  immensely,  showing  whether  the  route  to  the 
north  or  east  of  Spitzbergen  should  be  followed,  or  the  more 
eastern  one  by  Novaya  Zemlya." 

The  additions  to  the  Zoological  Society's  Gardens  during  the 
past  week  include  a  Grand  Eclectus  {Eclcctiis  rorattis)  from 
Moluccas,  presented  by  Miss  P,  Lockwood  ;  a  Goffin's  Cockatoo 
{Cacatica  goffini),  habitat  uncertain,  presented  by  Miss  Barton  ; 
a  Water  Rattlesnake  {Crotalus  adamanteus),  a  Water  Viper 
{Cenchris  piscivonis),  two  American  Black  Snakes  {Coluber 
constrictor),  a  Chicken  Snake  {Coluber  qiiadrivittatus),  two 
Mocassin  Snakes  {Coluber  fasciatus)  from  Florida,  presented  by 
the  Natural  History  Society  of  Toronto ;  two  Green  Lizards 
{Lacerta  viridis),  twelve  Spotted  Salamanders  {Salatnandra 
maculosa),  two  Common  Snakes  {Tropidonotus  natrix)  from 
Italy,  presented  by  Messrs.  Paul  and  Sons  ;  an  Algerian  Tortoise 
{Testudo  mauritanica)  from  Algeria,  deposited;  an  Aye- Aye 
{Chiromys  madagascariensis)  ixora  Madagascar,  purchased;  six 
Painted  Terrapins  {Clemmys  picta),  two  Corn  Snakes  {Coluber 
guttatus),  two  Milk  Snakes  {Coluber  eximius),  two  Mocassin 
Snakes  {Tropidonotus  fasciatus),  two  Ribbon  Snakes  {Tropi- 
donotus saurita),t\vo  Hog-nosed  Snakes  {Heterodon  platyrhinos), 
two  Grass  Snakes  {Cyclophis  vdrnalis),  six  Dekay's  Snakes 
{Ischnognathus  dekayi),  nine  American  Green  Frogs  {Rana 
halecina),  ten  Noisy  Frogs  {Rana  clamata),  a  Wood  Frog{Rana 
sylvaticd),  a  Changeable  Tree  Frog  {Hyla  versicolor),  nine^Red- 
backed  Salamanders  {Plethodon  etythronotus)  from  Canada, 
leceived  in  exchange;  a  Blood-breasted  Pigeon  {Phlogcenas 
cruentata),  bred  in  the  Gardens, 


ASTRONOMICAL    PHENOMENA    FOR    THE 
WEEK  1887  NOVEMBER  6-12. 

/T7OR  the  reckoning  of  time  the  civil  day,  commencing  at 
^  Greenwich  mean  midnight,  counting  the  hours  on  to  24, 

is  here  employed. ) 

At  Greenwich  on  November  6 

Sun  rises,  yh.  4m.  ;  souths,  iih.  43m.  44"2s.  ;  sets,  i6h.  24m.  : 

right   asc.    on    meridian,    I4h.  45  ^m.  ;    decl.    15°  59'  S. 

Sidereal  Time  at  Sunset,  igh.  2bm. 
Moon  (at   Last  Quarter  Novembers,  I7h.)  rises,  igh.  50m.*, 

souths,  3h.  54m. ;  sets,  iih.  58m.  :  right  ate.  on  meridian, 

6h.  54  •4m.  ;  decl.  20°  14'  N, 


Right  asc.  and  declination 
Planet.  Riser.  Southf.  Sets.  on  mendian. 

h.  m.  h.   m.  h.    m.  h.       m.  ,       , 

Mercury..  9  9  ...  13  3  ...  16  57  ...  16  47  ...  23  21  S. 
Venus  ...  2  57  ...  8  59  ...  15  I  ...  II  59*6  ...  o  22  S. 
Mars  ...  I  16  ...  8  o  ...  14  44  ...  II  1*4  ...  7  59  N. 
Jupiter  ...  7  12  ...  II  53  ...  16  34  ...  14  544  ...  IS  44  S. 
Saturn  ...  21  48*...  5  35  ...  13  22  ...  8  35-5  ...  19  O  N. 
Uranus...  4  17  ...  9  54  ...  15  31  ...  12  55-4  ...  5.  I4  S. 
Neptune .  17  7*...  o  49  ...  8  31  ...  3  49-1  ...  18  16  N, 
*  Indicales  that  the  rising  is  that  of  the  preceding  evening. 

Occultations  of  Stars  by  the  Moon  (visible  at  Greenwich). 

Corresponding 

angles  from  ver- 

Nov.  Star.  Mag.        Disap.  Reap.        tex  to  right  for 

inverted  image, 
h.    m.  h.    m.  no 

6  ...  ^'■Geminorum  ...  5^  ...  22  34    ..  22  5  I     ...  338  302 

8  ...  7  Leonis 6^  ...  22  30  ...  23     8     ...     90  182 

9  ...  ^  Leonis  ...     ...  6     ...     i   52  ...     2  42     ...     78  181 

Nov.  h. 

7  ...       8     ...     Mercury  stationary. 

8  ...       o     ...     Saturn  in  conjunction  with  and  l°  l'  north 

of  the  Moon. 

9  ...       2     ...     Jupiter  in  conjunction  with  the  Sun. 

12       ...       I     ...     Venus  in  conjunction  with  and  3°  42' south 
of  the  Moon. 
Saturn,  November  6. — Outer  major  axis  of  outer  ring  =  42"'2  ; 
outer  minor  axis  of  outer  ring  =  13"  "5  ;  southern  surface  visible. 

Variable  Stars. 
Star.  R.A.  Decl. 

h.      Bi.  ,      /  h.   m. 

U  Cephei    o  52-3  ...  81   16  N.  ...  Nov.  7,    2  49  m 

,,12,      2    29    OT 

U  Monocerotis    ...     7  25-4  ...    9  33  S.    ...       ,,  9,  M 

U  Ophiuchi 17  io-8  ...     i  20  N.  ...      ,,  7.  3  9  »' 

and  at  intervals  of  20  8 

USagittarii 18  25-2  ...  19  12  S.     ..       ,,  7,  o  o  /w 

R  Scuti        841-5...    5  50  S.    ...       „  7.  '« 

3Lyrae 18  45-9  ...  33  14  N ,  6,  3  o  J/ 

S  Vulpeculse       ...   19  43'8  ...  27    o  N.  ...       „  8,  m 

»;  Aquilse     19467...    o  43  N ,  8,  5  om 

S  Sagittae    19  50-9  ...  16  20  N.  ...       ,,  6,  i  o  m 

„  9,  I  oM 

5  Cephei      22  25-0  ...  57  50  N.  ...       „  10,  z  oM 

M  signifies  maximum  ;  fit  minimum. 
Meteor-Showers. 


R.A. 

Near  the  Pleiades  ...  60 
From  Camelopardalis  102 
Near  Tj  Leonis    149 


Decl. 


20  N.  ...  Bright;  rather  slow. 

73  N.  ...  Very  swift. 

22  N.  ...  Swift  ;  streaks. 


GEOGRAPHICAL  NOTES. 

The  Danish  Government  has  decided  upon  hydrographically 
measuring  and  charting  the  Guldborg  Sound,  the  new  harbour 
at  Odense,  in  the  Island  of  Funen,  and  the  Randers  and 
Mariager  fjords  in  Jutland.  Two  vessels  will  also  be  en- 
gaged in  preparing  a  naval  chart  of  the  coast  around  Den- 
mark. It  has  also  been  decided  to  despatch  an  Expedition — 
the  cost  being  estimated  at  ^^4000— to  Iceland  next  summer,  for 
the  purpose  of  effecting  hydrographical  measurements  around 
that  island.  Great  fjords  and  waterways  are  here  still  unmea- 
sured— a  danger  to  navigation  and  a  loss  to  science.  It  is 
believed  that  these  researches  may  lead  to  important  scientific 
discoveries,  principally  as  regards  zoology,  meteorology,  and 
geography.  Moreover,  they  would  probably  be  of  great  benefit 
to  the  Iceland  fisheries,  which  are  far  from  being  thoroughly 
developed  on  account  of  the  ignorance  of  existing  fishing-banks, 
the  temperature  of  the  sea,  &c.  The  researches,  which  will  be 
similar  to  those  carried  out  around  Norway  for  some  years  past, 
will  be  effected  with  the  Government  schooner  Ingolf,  a  vessel 
particularly  adapted  for  the  purpose.  It  is  intended  to  employ 
the  months  of  May,  June,  July,  and  August  in  this  work,  which, 
it  is  estimated,  will  be  fully  accomplished  in  five  years. 

In  the  Bollettino  of  the  Italian  Geographical  Society  for  Sep- 
tember Signor  E.  Modigliani  concludes  his  series  of  papers  on 
Nias,  with  a  detailed  account  of  the  physical  features,  natural 
history,  and  social  condition  of  that  island.     The  hilly  surface  is 


NA  TURE 


{Nov.  3,  1887 


relieved  in  some  places  by  extensive  open  plains  covered  with 
tall  grasses,  and  the  forest  vegetation  is  rapidly  disappearing, 
owing  largely  to  the  wasteful  habits  of  the  natives.  The  accom- 
panying seismic  tables  contain  records  of  the  earthquakes  that 
occurred  between  the  years  1843-86,  some  of  which  were  very 
violent  and  attended  by  marine  disturbances  destructive  to  ship- 
ping, and  driving  boats  and  barges  hundreds  of  yards  inland. 
But  there  are  no  active  volcanoes,  and  the  prevailing  formation 
appears  to  be  a  much-weathered  compact  limestone  resting  on 
gray  or  bluish  Miocene  marls  and  other  argillaceous  clays.  The 
geological  as  well  as  the  zoological  conditions  show  that  Nias, 
like  the  other  islands  running  parallel  to  the  west  coast  of 
Sumatra,  must  have  formerly  been  connected  with  the  mainland  ; 
and  as  Sumatra  itself  at  one  time  certainly  formed  part  of  the 
Malay  Peninsula,  this  chain  of  insular  groups  would  appear  to 
m? rk  the  original  line  of  the  Asiatic  seaboard  in  this  direction. 
Signor  Modigliani's  collections  include  178  birds,  representing 
62  species,  of  which  8  are  described  as  new,  but  allied  to  corre- 
sponding species  in  Sumatra  ;  consequently  the  separation  must 
have  taken  place  at  a  very  remote  period — a  conclusion  also 
confirmed  by  other  considerations.  His  rich  zoological  collection, 
comprising  over  7000  specimens,  has  been  presented  to  the 
Museum  of  Genoa. 

METEOROLOGICAL  NOTES. 

The  Report  on  the  Meteorology  of  India  in  1885,  being  the 
eleventh  year  of  the  series,  has  just  been  published,  and  contains 
an  immense  mass  of  valuable  information.  The  accumulation  of 
Indian  statistics  during  the  last  ten  years  may  be  best  shown  by 
a  comparison  of  the  following  figures  : — The  number  of  stations 
at  which  the  mean  temperature  is  recorded  has  increased  from 
51  to  127,  and  the  rainfall  stations  from  134  to  471.  From  this 
huge  volume  of  516  large  quarto  pages  we  can  only  note  here  a 
very  few  general  remarks.  Considerable  attention  is  paid  to 
solar  radiation,  the  chief  feature  of  which  is  found  to  be  that  the 
maximum  intensity  generally  occurs  during  the  winter  half  of 
the  year  (October  to  March),  when  the  sun  is  in  southern  de- 
clination, and  the  thickness  of  the  absorbing  atmosphere 
traversed  by  the  sun's  rays  is  at  a  maximum.  This  is  said  to  be 
apparently  due  to  the  fact  that  over  a  large  part  of  India  the 
atmosphere  is  most  cloudy  in  the  summer  and  autumn  months. 
It  would  appear  from  the  mean  result  of  the  sun-thermometer 
readings  in  all  parts  of  India  that  the  average  intensity  of  solar 
heat  had  reached  a  minimum  in  1884,  and  in  1885  underwent  an 
appreciable  increase.  The  duration  of  bright  sunshine  is  now 
regularly  recorded  at  four  stations,  and  Mr.  Blanford  considers 
that  the  sunshine-recorder  promises  to  be  even  more  important 
than  the  sun-thermometer,  since  the  duration  of  sunshine  is  a 
more  direct  measure  oftheamoui^t  of  solar  heat  reaching  the 
earth's  surface  than  the  registry  of  its  mean  maximum  intensity. 
Anemometers  are  in  use  at  nearly  all  the  stations,  and  fourteen 
of  them  are  large  anemographs  of  the  Kew  pattern.  The  re- 
sultant direction  of  the  winds  is,  however,  computed  by  Lam- 
bert's old  formula,  which  is  based  on  the  assumption  that  the 
force  of  all  winds  is  equal,  an  assumption  which  is  obviously 
often  very  misleading.  The  work  is  accompanied  by  maps 
showing  the  positions  of  the  meteorological  observatories  and 
the  mean  distribution  of  temperature,  pressure,  and  wind. 

M.  Garrigou-Lagrange  describes,  in  the  Anmiaire  de  la 
Societe  Me  eorologique  de  France,  his  apparatus  for  registering 
the  ascending  and  descending  air-currents.  The  experimental 
anemometer  is  fixed  on  a  mast  at  Limoges,  and  consists  of 
four  small  fans  moving  round  a  vertical  axis,  and  recording,  by 
electrical  arrangements,  on  a  drum  covered  with  rtded  forms. 
The  curves  obtained  by  this  method  show  plainly  the  upward  or 
downward  movement  of  the  air,  and  the  velocity  is  easily  read 
off".  The  experiments  show  that  ascending  winds  are  generally 
stronger  and  more  frequent  than  the  descending,  owing  no  doubt 
to  the  eddies  caused  by  obstacles  met  with  by  the  currents. 

In  Das  Wetter-  M.  Seemann  discusses  the  results  of  the  storm- 
warnings  issued  by  the  New  York  Herald  between  September 
1886  and  January  1887,  and  finds  that  out  of  twelve  warnings 
only  three  were  quite  successful,  and  three  partially  so.  The 
wording  of  the  telegrams  is  not  so  absolute  as  formerly  ;  many 
of  the  depressions  pass  to  the  northward  of  our  islands,  and  our 
weather  is  disturbed,  although  the  gales  do  not  always  strike  our 
coasts  ;  judged  in  this  light,  the  warnings  may  be  more  success- 
ful  than  when  actual   storms  are  predicted.     On  pp.  83-87  of 


the  same  journal  Dr.  C.  Lang  describes  his  method  of  predicting 
night-frost,  from  the  position  of  the  dew-point.  From  the 
Munich  observations  for  1879-86  he  finds  that  441  predictions  of 
night-frost  could  be  given,  of  which  89  per  cent,  were  success- 
ful. In  8  per  cent,  of  the  cases,  night-frost  did  not  follow,  and 
in  3  per  cent,  frost  occurred  unexpectedly.  This  method  may 
be  of  considerable  benefit  to  agriculturists  ;  reference  to  this 
subject  has  been  made  by  Mohn,  Buchan,  and  others. 

Dr.  Grossmann  has  published  "Meteorologische  Divieions- 
tafeln  "  (Hammerich  and  Lesser,  Altona),  which  will  be  very 
useful  to  meteorological  observers  in  the  calculation  of  monthly 
means,  and  daily  means  from  hourly  observations.  For  a  divi- 
dend of  four  figures  the  quotient  is  given  by  simple  inspections, 
and  for  more  figures  by  interpolation  by  means  of  a  table  of 
proportional  parts.  The  principle  of  construction  is  due  to  Dr. 
Koppen,  and  some  of  the  tables  were  printed  in  Aus  deni  Archiv 
dcr  Detitschen  Seciuarte,  vol.  i.  1878.  Dr.  Crelle's  well  known 
"Tables  de  Calcul"  (Reimer,  Berlin,  1869)  are  equally  useful, 
but  being  in  a  large  volume  are  not  easily  accessible  to  observers 
generally.  The  chief  merit  of  Dr.  Grossmann's  tables  lies  in 
their  publication  in  a  form  specially  suitable  to  the  wants  of 
meteorological  observers,  and  at  the  low  price  of  about  sixpence 
for  single  copies.  They  extend  to  four  pages  only,  and  are 
intended  to  be  pasted  on  cardboard. 

The  Italian  Central  Meteorological  Office  has  published  its 
Annall  for  the  year  1884,  in  three  thick  folio  volumes,  contain- 
ing a  mass  of  meteorological,  magnetical,  and  astronomical  data. 
The  meteorological  services  of  Italy  are  very  complicated,  as  in 
addition  to  the  Central  Office  there  are  many  large  and  inde- 
pendent establishments  from  which  we  possess  long  series  of 
observations,  some  of  them  dating  from  the  middle  of  last 
century.  The  Government  established  a  Committee  for  Weather 
Telegraphy  in  1863,  under  M.  Matteuci,  and  in  1865  the 
Meteorological  Section  of  the  Ministry  of  Agriculture  commenced 
the  issue  of  the  Meleorologia  Italiana  ;  from  this  originated  the 
present  office  in  1877,  located  at  the  Collegio  Romano.  The 
service  is  now  under  the  able  superintendence  of  M.  Tacchini, 
and  includes  135  stations  of  the  second  order,  some  of  which, 
e.g.  those  of  Stelvio,  Valdobbia,  Cimone,  and  Etna  are  import- 
ant mountain  observatories  ;  in  addition  to  which  there  are  515 
rainfall  stations,  and  stations  at  the  military  settlements  of  Assab 
and  Massowah.  The  work  contains  valuable  discussions  on 
thunderstorms,  evaporation,  and  on  the  microscopical  examina- 
tion of  atmospheric  dust. 

A  special  meeting  of  the  Meteorological  Society  of  Mauri- 
tius, in  honour  of  the  Queen's  Jubilee,  was  held  on  August  6, 
on  which  occasion  Dr.  Meldrum  gave  an  interesting  sketch  of 
the  origin  and  labours  of  the  Society,  and  of  the  Royal  Alfred 
Observatory.  Charts  were  exhibited  showing  the  tracks  of  the 
cyclones  in  the  Southern  Indian  Ocean  in  each  year  from  1856 
to  1886,  also  magnetograms  showing  simultaneous  disturbances 
at  Zi-ka-wei  and  Mauritius  on  January  9,  1886  ;  and  curves 
showing  the  apparent  connection  between  solar,  magnetical,  and 
auroral  phenomena,  and  also  between  solar  phenomena  and  the 
frequency  of  cyclones,  rainfall,  and  the  depth  of  water  in  rivers, 
together  with  other  articles  of  interest.  Dr.  Meldrum  stated, 
with  reference  to  the  history  of  meteorology  in  the  island,  that 
a  memorial  was  presented  to  the  Governor  in  April  185 1,  sug- 
gesting the  desirability  of  systematic  obsei-vations,  and  the 
Meteorological  Society  was  consequently  founded  on  August  i 
of  that  year.  Shortly  afterwards  the  office  of  Government 
Meteorological  Observer  was  created,  to  which  office  Mr.  Mel- 
drum succeeded  in  1862,  and  the  two  institutions,  although 
distinct,  have  co-operated  with  each  other.  Regular  observa- 
tions were  commenced  at  the  new  Observatory  {see  Nature, 
vol.  xxxvi.  p.  546)  in  November  1874.  We  cannot  enumerate 
here  the  many  useful  worls  which  have  been  carried  on,  but 
the  Hydrographer  to  the  Admiralty  has  expressed  the  wish 
that  the  track  charts  should  be  published,  and  Mr.  Meldrum 
has  been  informed  that  the  Meteorological  Council  would 
probably  publish  them.  He  also  states  that  tide-gauges  will 
soon  be  erected  at  two  points  on  the  coast,  and  expresses  a 
desire  for  the  establishment  of  a  high  mountain  station. 

In  the  Amerieau  Meteorological  Journal  for  September,  Mr. 
H.  Allen  discusses  the  theory  of  the  outflow  of  air  under  falling 
rain.  It  has  been  assumed  by  some  meteorologists  that  the  rain, 
drops  carry  with  them  and  compress  the  air,  which,  flowing  out- 
produces at  times  a  considerable  wind  velocity  (see  article  on 


Nov.  3,  1887] 


NA  TURE 


19 


"  Lightning"  in  Johnson's  Encyclopaedia).  Several  hypothetical 
cases  are  considered,  and  the  author  concludes  that,  ahhough  his 
computations  may  need  some  modification  after  further  study, 
we  can  safely  say  that  no  appreciable  velocity  of  air  is  produced 
by  compression  from  falling  rain.  The  same  journal  contains  a 
long  paper  on  the  theory  of  the  wind-vane  by  Prof.  G.  E. 
Curtis,  reprinted  from  ihe  American  Journal  of  Science  ior  ]\\\y 
last.  He  discusses  the  relative  stability  of  a  straight  vane,  and 
that  with  a  double  or  spread  tail..  The  first  reference  to  the 
latter  is  apparently  in  Voigt's  Magazin^  1797,  and  this  form  has 
been  in  common  use  in  England  since  about  1840.  The  formula; 
show  that  for  a  frictionless  bearing  (i)  that  the  oscillations  of 
both  vanes  are  smaller  as  the  vanes  are  longer  and  larger  ;  (2) 
that  the  spread  vane  is  always  more  stable  than  the  straight 
vane  ;  and  (3)  that  this  advantage  in  stability  is  greater  for  long 
vanes  than  for  short  vanes,  and  is  independent  of  the  wind 
velocity.  The  author  finds  that,  with  equal  friction,  a  spread 
vane  is  the  more  sensitive,  and  that  consequently  for  two  vanes 
of  equal  sensitiveness  the  spread  vane  will  have  the  greater 
friction  and  will  come  to  rest  more  quickly. 

Tazjahreslieric/tt  of  the  Central  Physical  Observatory  of  St. 
Petersburg  for  1885  and  1886,  and  the  Annalcn  for  the  year 
1885,  have  recently  been  published.  The  Russian  system  is 
very  important,  not  only  as  being  the  most  extensive  on  the 
globe,  but  on  account  of  the  great  climatic  contrasts  and  the 
completeness  of  the  observations.  The  present  Director,  Dr.  H. 
Wild,  of  Berne,  was  appointed  in  1867,  and  iinder  his  able 
superintendence  the  number  of  stations  has  greatly  increased  and 
the  quality  of  the  observations  has  much  improved.  The  central 
Observatory  is  situated  about  a  mile  from  the  sea,  on  the  island 
of  Wassili-Ostrow  ;  the  principal  observing  department  has  been 
transfen-ed  since  1878  to  Pawlowsk,  about  four  miles  distant, 
and  is  placed  under  the  superintendence  of  Dr.  E.  Leyst.  The 
observations  for  1885  are  contained  in  two  quarto  volumes  of 
about  700  pages  altogether.  In  addition  to  the  first  class 
observatories,  the  number  of  stations  of  the  second  order 
amounts  to  255,  and  of  these  the  monthly  and  yearly  results  of 
208  are  published  on  the  international  scheme  ;  from  38  of  the 
stations  the  observations  are  published  in  extenso.  Many  new 
stations  have  been  added  recently,  especially  in  Siberia,  and  ia 
newly-acquired  territories,  e.g.  Merv,  Batoum,  &c.  One  of  the 
Siberian  stations,  viz.  Werchojansk  (iat.  67°  34',  long.  133°  51') 
is  stated  by  Dr.  Koppen  to  be  the  coldest  known  point  of  the 
earth.  The  mean  temperature  there  for  the  year  was  -  2^*9  F. 
The  mean  for  January  and  December  was  -  62° '9,  and  the 
minimum  in  January  -  88° '6  (far  beyond  the  range  of  the  usual 
tables).  The  mean  temperature  of  July  rose  to  60" '6,  and  the 
minimum  for  that  month  was  39°'2.  The  number  of  rainfall 
stations  for  which  the  observations  are  given  is  650,  against  252 
in  the  previous  year  ;  the  data  published  are  the  monthly  values, 
the  maximum  fall  in  24  hours,  and  the  number  of  days  of  rain 
and  snow.  A  complete  catalogue  of  the  meteorological  observa- 
tions in  Russia  and  Finland,  by  Dr.  E.  Leyst,  giving  the  life- 
history  of  each  station,  has  been  published  in  the  Repertorium 
Jiir  Meteorologie  this  year.  This  work  also  contains  many 
valuable  discussions  of  the  vast  amount  of  materials  available 
for  the  purpose.  The  index  of  the  Annalen,  being  mostly  in 
Russian,  is  difficult  to  refer  to. 


THE  WORK  OF  THE  INTERNATIONAL 
CONGRESS  OF  GEOLOGISTS."^ 

I. 

T7  LEVEN  years  ago  the  Association  met  at  Buffalo.  It  was 
,  the  year   of    the    Centennial    Exhibition,    and    we   were 

honoured  by  the  presence  of  a  number  of  European  geologists. 
This  naturally  opened  the  subject  of  the  international  relations 
of  geology,  and  the  proposition  to  institute  a  Congress  of  Geo- 
logists of  the  world  took  form  in  the  appointment  by  the  Asso- 
ciation of  an  International  Committee.  The  project  thus  initiated 
found  favour  elsewhere,  and  there  resulted  an  international 
organization,  which  up  to  the  present  time  has  held  three  meet- 
ings. It  was  convened  first  at  Paris  in  1878,  then  at  Bologna  in 
1881,   and  at  Berlin  in   1885.      Its  next  meeting  will  be  held 

'  Vice-Presidential  Address  read  to  Section  E  of  the  American  Ass;ciation 
for  the  Advancement  of  Science,  August  10,  1887,  by  Mr.  G.  K.  Gilbert. 


in  London  next  year,  and  an  endeavour  will  be  made  to 
secure  for  the  United  States  the  honour  of  the  fifth  meeting. 
The  original  Committee  of  the  Association  has  been  continued, 
with  some  change  of  membership,  and  has  sent  representatives 
to  each  session  of  the  Congress. 

The  work  of  the  Congress,  as  originally  conceived  and  as 
subsequently  undertaken,  has  for  its  scope  geolc^ic  nomenclature 
and  classification,  and  the  conventions  of  geologic  maps.  The 
particular  classifications  attempted  are  the  establishment  of  the 
major  divisions  used  in  historic  and  stratigraphic  geology  and 
the  subdivision  of  volcanic  rocks.  In  nomenclature  three  things 
are  undertaken  :  (i)  the  determination  of  the  names  of  historic 
and  stratigraphic  divisions,  (2)  the  formulation  of  rules  for 
nomenclature  in  palaeontology  and  mineralogy,  and  (3)  the  esta- 
blishment and  definition  of  the  taxonomic  terms  of  chronology 
(period,  epoch,  &c. )  and  of  stratigraphy  (system,  series,  &c.). 
The  map  conventions  most  discussed  are  colours,  but  all  signs 
for  the  graphic  indication  of  geologic  data  are  considered.  The 
Congress  has  also  undertaken  the  preparation  of  a  large  map  of 
Europe,  to  be  printed  in  forty-nine  sheets. 

The  work  was  for  the  most  part  planned  at  the  Paris  meeting, 
and  Committees  were  appointed  to  formulate  subjects  for  action 
by  the  Congress  at  subsequent  sessions.  Briefly  stated,  the  work 
accomplished  to  the  present  time  is  as  follows.  Agreement  has 
been  reached  as  to  the  rank  and  equivalence  of  the  taxonomic 
terms  employed  in  chronology  and  stratigraphy,  a  set  of  rules  for 
palaeontologic  nomenclature  has  been  adopted,  and  many  sheets 
of  the  map  of  Europe  have  been  prepared  for  the  engraver.  A 
partial  classification  of  stratified  rocks  has  been  agreed  to,  and 
also  a  partial  scheme  of  map  colours,  but  the  reports  of  pro- 
ceedings indicate  that  action  in  these  matters  is  tentative  rather 
than  final. 

It  is  understood  that  b^th  of  these  subjects  will  have  promi- 
nent place  in  the  proceedings  at  the  London  meeting,  and  the 
American  Committee  is  endeavouring  to  prepare  itself  for  repre- 
sentative action  at  that  meeting  by  ascertaining  the  opinions  of 
all  American  geologists  on  the  various  subjects.  It  has  asked 
this  Section  to  set  apart  a  day  for  the  discussion  of  some  of  the 
more  important  questions,  and  it  can  hardly  be  doubted  that  the 
Section  will  realize  the  mutual  advantage  of  thus  assigning  the 
time  requested.  I  am  personally  so  impressed  with  the  import- 
ance of  the  possible  work  of  the  Congress  that  I  shall  devote 
the  present  hour  also  to  its  consideration. 

The  first  thing  the  Congress  did  was  to  select  names  for  a  set 
of  categories  to  express  the  taxonomic  rank  of  stratigraphic 
divisions  on  the  one  hand,  and  of  chronologic  divisions  on  the 
other.  In  the  terminology  of  zoology  and  botany  the  words 
kingdom,  class,  order,  family,  genus,  species,-  and  so  forth, 
however  difficult  of  definition  they  may  severally  be,  neverthe- 
less are  used  always  in  the  same  order  of  inclusion.  No  system- 
atist  in  those  sciences  would  think  of  grouping  orders  together 
and  calling  them  a  family,  or  of-  styling  a  group  of  families  a 
genus.  But  in  geology  there  is  no  such  uniformity  of  usage. 
With  some  writers  a  group  is  larger  than  a  series,  with  others  it 
is  smaller.  With  some  an  age  includes  several  periods,  with 
others  a  period  includes  several  a^es.  There  are  even  writers 
who  ignore  the  distinction  between  stratigraphy  and  chronolc^; 
and  among  the  classifications  submitted  to  the  Congress  is  one 
in  which  an  age  is  subdivided  in'o  systems.  There  is  a  manifest 
advanta'^e  in  bringing  order  out  of  this  chaos,  and  si  great  is 
the  utility  of  uniformUy  and  perspicuity  that  the  decisions  of  the 
Congress  in  this  regard  will  unquestionably  be  followed  by- 
future  authors.  The  terms  and  the  order  adopted  by  the  Con- 
gress are  as  follows.  Of  stratigraphic  divisions,  that  with  the 
highest  rank  is  group,  then  system,  series,  and  s'age.  The  corre- 
sponding chronologic  divisions  are  era,  period,  epoch,  and_  age. 
This  order  of  rank  is  strange  to  most  English  readers  and  writers, 
and  so  is  one  of  the  \.erm%— stage ;  but  the  strangeness  is  only 
a  temporary  disadvantage,  and  will  not  seriously  retard  the 
adoption  of  the  convention.  The  fact  that  we  have  previously 
used  the  words  in  a  different  sense,  or  that  their  etymology 
might  warrant  a  different  meaning,  need  not  deter  us,  for  we 
know  from  frequent  experience  that  the  connotations  of  a  word 
transferred  from  one  use  to  another  quickly  disappear  from  con- 
sciousness, leaving  it  purely  denotative.  The  introduction  oJ 
the  word  stage,  which  can  hardly  be  said  to  have  had  an  English 
status  heretofore,  or  at  least  the  introduction  of  some  new  word 
for  that  part  of  the  column,  was  necessitated  by  the  restriction 
of  the  word  formation  to  a  special  meaning— the  designation  ot 
mineral  masses  with  reference  to  their  origin. 


20 


NATURE 


{Nov.  3,  1887 


The  same  restriction  vacated  another  office  that  had  been 
filled  by  formation,  and  to  this  office  no  appointment  was 
made.  I  refer  to  the  use  of  the  word  to  denote  indefinitely  an 
aggregate  of  strata — as  in  saying,  this  formation  should  he 
called  a  series  rather  than  a  system.  This  is  an  important 
function,  for  which  some  provision  must  be  made.  I  suggest 
that  we  may  advantageously  enrich  our  language  by  the 
permanent  adoption  of  terrane,  a  word  whose  English  meaning 
has  not  been  well  established. 

The  fixation  of  the  chronologic  terms  creates  a  similar  diffi- 
culty. We  have  crystallized  out  of  our  magma  the  terms  era, 
period,  epoch,  and  age,  and  there  remain  in  the  ground-mass 
only  eon,  cycle,  and  time.  Of  these,  ^^«has  a  poetic  connotation 
which  seems  to  unfit  it  for  this  particular  use  ;  cycle  implies 
repetition  or  recurrence  ;  and  time  has  been  so  generally  applied 
to  unlimited  duration  that  it  is  difficult  to  apply  it  also  to  limited 
duration,  even  though  the  nature  of  the  limitation  be  indefinite. 
On  the  whole,  time  seems  open  to  the  least  objection,  but  I  can- 
not help  regretting  that  either  period  ox  age,  both  of  which  have 
heretofore  passed  current  in  the  indefinite  sense,  was  not  reserved 
by  the  Congress  for  that  function.  With  English-speaking 
peoples  the  word  eon  could  have  been  better  spared  for  the 
definite  series. 

But  while  the  terms  selected  by  the  Congress  are  not  beyond 
criticism,  the  benefits  to  be  derived  from  an  agreement  in  an 
orderly  system  are  so  great  that  I  for  one  shall  unhesitatingly 
adopt  them  as  they  stand — provided,  of  course,  that  the  Con- 
gress makes  no  effort  to  improve  its  selection.  A  small  reform 
of  this  nature  yields  its  profit  to  this  as  well  as  future  genera- 
tions, and  I  hold  it  a  duty  to  favour  even  those  reforms  which 
involve  so  much  effort  and  pains  that  their  blessings  cannot  be 
realized  by  those  who  initiate  them.  Such  are  the  exchange  of 
our  English  spelling  for  a  rational  system,  and  the  exchange  of 
decimal  notation  in  arithm:tic  for  a  binary  notation.  My  appli- 
cation of  the  new  nomenclature  begins  with  this  address,  in  the 
preparation  of  which  I  have  experienced  its  utility.  That  you 
may  have  no  difficulty  in  interpreting  my  reformed  language,  I 
have  placed  the  taxonomic  legend  on  the  wall,  with  the  addition 
of  the  complementary  indefinite  terms — terrane  and  time. 


Terranes. 

Group. 

System. 

Series. 

Stage. 


Times. 
Era. 
Period. 
Epoch. 
Age. 


There  are  propositions  before  the  Congress  to  distinguish  the 
names  of  individual  groups,  systems,  series,  and  stages  by  means 
of  terminations,  those  of  the  same  rank  having  the  same  termina- 
tion. Thus  it  is  proposed  by  a  Committee  that  every  name  of  a 
group  shall  end  in  ary — Tertiary,  Primary,  Archeary ;  it  is  pro- 
posed that  names  of  systems  end  in  ic — Cretacic,  Carbonic, 
Siluric  ;  it  is  proposed  that  names  of  series  end  in  ian — Eifelian, 
Laramian,  Trentonian  ;  and  it  is  proposed  that  stage  names 
terminate  with  in.  Another  Committee  suggests  that  ic  be  used 
for  stages  instead  of  systems.  The  adoption  of  such  a  plan 
would  enable  a  writer  or  speaker  to  indicate  the  taxonomic  rank 
of  a  terrane  without  adding  a  word  for  that  purpose.  If  he 
regarded  a  certain  tc-rane  taking  its  name  from  Cambria  as  a 
system,  he  would  call  it  the  Cambric  ;  if  he  esteemed  it  only  a 
series,  he  would  say  Cambrian  ;  and  there  would  be  no  need  of 
adding  the  word  system  or  series  in  order  to  express  his  full 
meaning.  Conversely,  the  reader  or  hearer  would  always  learn 
its  taxonomic  rank,  or  supposed  rank,  whenever  a  terrane  was 
mentioned.  These  I  conceive  to  be  the  advantages  derivable 
from  the  change,  but  they  would  not  be  the  only  effects.  It 
would  become  impossible  for  a  geologist  to  name  or  allude  to  a 
terrane  without  declaring  its  rank,  and  the  consequences  of  this 
would  be  evil  in  many  ways.  In  the  first  place,  one  could  not 
discuss  terranes  from  any  point  of  view  without  expressing  an 
opinion  as  to  their  taxonomy,  and  the  change  would  thus  contra- 
vene one  of  the  most  important  rights  of  opinion — namely,  the 
right  to  reserve  opinion.  Again,  geologists  who  differed  as  to 
the  rank  of  a  terrane  would  necessarily  terminate  its  title  differ- 
ently, and  a  needless  synonymy  would  thus  be  introduced.  In 
the  third  place,  the  created  necessity  for  taxonomic  discrimina- 
tion on  all  occasions  would  tend  to  direct  undue  attention  to 
taxonomic  problems.  Taxonomy  would  be  conceived  by  many 
geologists  as  an  end  instead  of  a  means,  just  as  correlation  has 
been   conceived,    and   energy   would  be  wasted    in    taxonomic 


refinement  and  taxononomic  controversy.  It  is  convenient  for 
purposes  of  description  and  comparison  to  classify  the  strata 
that  constitute  a  local  columnar  section  in  phalanges  of  various 
magnitude  or  rank,  but  the  criteria  on  which  we  depend  for 
discrimination  are  in  the  nature  of  things  variable,  and  offer 
ground  for  endless  difference  of  opinion  ;  and  it  would  be 
extremely  unfortunate  to  have  such  differences  perpetually 
brought  to  the  foreground. 

Another  subject  considered  by  the  Congress  is  the  nomencla- 
ture of  palaeontology.  A  Committee  appointed  for  the  purpose 
formulated  rules  for  the  establishment  of  the  names  of  genera  and 
species,  and  their  report  was  adopted  by  the  Congress.  I  have 
no  opinion  to  express  as  to  the  wisdom  of  the  rules,  but  it  is  a 
matter  of  surprise  that  a  body  of  geologists  assumed  to  speak 
with  authority  on  the  subject.  From  one  point  of  view  palaeonto- 
logy is  a  part  of  geology  ;  from  another  point  of  view  it  is  a  part 
of  biology.  In  so  far  as  it  names  genera  and  species  it  is  purely 
biologic,  and  it  would  seem  proper  that  the  students  of  fossils 
unite  with  the  students  of  living  animals  and  living  plants  in  the 
adoption  of  rules  of  nomenclature. 

A  similar  remark  applies  to  the  nomenclature  of  mineralogy, 
in  regard  to  which  no  action  has  yet  been  taken.  The  most  inti- 
mate relations  of  systematic  mineralogy  are  with  chemistry. 

Yet  another  projected  work  of  the  Congress  is  the  classification 
of  eruptive  rocks.  Up  to  the  present  time  action  has  been 
deferred,  and  it  may  reasonably  be  hoped  that  no  scheme  of 
classification  will  be  adopted.  If  there  existed  a  system  of 
classification  which  gave  general  satisfaction  and  had  stood  the 
test  of  time,  there  would  be  little  harm — and  little  or  no  advant- 
age— in  giving  it  the  official  stamp  of  approval.  If  the  main 
features  of  a  classification  were  well  established  and  the  residuary 
discrepancies  were  recognized  as  unessential,  it  is  conceivable 
that  some  benefit  might  be  derived  from  the  submission  of  the 
matter  to  an  assembly  of  specialists.  But  the  actual  case  is  far 
different.  Not  only  is  there  wide  difference  as  to  the  classifica- 
tion of  volcanic  rocks,  but  there  is  no  agreement  as  to  the  funda- 
mental principles  on  which  their  classification  should  be  based, 
for  we  still  lack  an  accepted  theory  of  volcanism.  At  the  same  time 
observation  is  being  pushed  with  great  vigour,  and  with  the  aid 
of  new  and  important  methods.  With  the  rapid  growth  of  know- 
ledge and  ideas,  classifications  are  continually  remodelled,  and  the 
best  is  in  danger  of  becoming  obsolete  before  it  has  been  printed 
and  circulated.  Should  the  Congress  enter  the  lists,  one  of  two 
things  would  occur.  Either  its  classification  would  be  treated 
like  that  of  an  individual,  and  ignored  as  soon  as  a  better  one  was 
proposed  ;  or  it  would  be  regarded  as  more  authoritative,  and 
new  facts  would  for  a  time  be  warped  into  adjustment  with  it. 
In  either  case  the  reputation  of  the  Congress  would  eventually 
suffer,  and  in  one  case  science  would  suffer  also. 

There  remain  to  consider  the  two  most  important  undertakings 
of  the  Congress,  the  classification  of  terranes  and  the  unification 
of  map  colours.  The  Congress  is  attacking  these  subjects  in- 
directly by  means  of  a  third  undertaking,  the  preparation  of  a 
geologic  map  of  Europe,  and  this  method  of  approach  has  had 
the  effect  of  making  it  difficult  properly  to  interpret  its  action. 
There  can  be  no  doubt  that  those  who  originally  organized  the 
work  contemplated  the  enactment  of  a  stratigraphic  classification 
to  be  applied  to  the  entire  earth,  and  the  selection  of  a  colour 
scheme  for  use  either  in  all  geologic  maps  or  in  all  general  geologic 
map=.  But  at  the  Berlin  session  the  Committee  in  charge  of 
work  on  the  map  of  Europe  pressed  the  Congress  for  the  deter- 
mination of  questions  on  which  hung  the  completion  of  the  map, 
and  many  hasty  decisions  were  reached,  while  not  a  few  disputed 
points  were  referred  to  the  Map  Committee.  The  debates  indicate 
that  much  or  all  of  this  work  was  provisional  or  of  merely  local 
application,  but  the  resolutions  adopted  show  little  qualification. 
It  should  be  added  that  the  official  minutes  of  the  meeting  are. 
still  unpublished.  In  view  of  the  uncertainty  thus  occasioned  I 
shall  not  attempt  to  characterize  the  attitude  of  the  Congress 
on  the  subject  of  classification,  but  shall  merely  develop  my 
individual  view. 

It  is  the  opinion  of  many  who  have  discussed  the  general 
classification  of  terranes  by  convention  of  geologists  that  the 
smallest  unit  of  such  classification  should  be  the  stratigraphic 
system.  What  is  a  stratigraphic  system  ?  The  Congress  implies 
a  definition  in  saying  that  a  system  includes  more  than  a  series 
and  less  than  a  group,  and  that  the  Jurassic  is  a  system  ;  but  this 
gives  only  a  meagre  conception,  and  we  need  a  full  one.  As  the 
problem  of  classification  demands  a  true  conception  of  a  systern, 
and   as   there   is   reason   to   believe    that  a  false  conception  is 


Nov.  3,  1887] 


NATURE 


2.1 


abroad,  it  is  proper  that  in  seeking  the  true  one  we  begin  with 
the  elements. 

The  surface  of  the  land  is  constantly  degraded  by  erosion,  and 
the  material  removed  is  spread  on  the  floor  of  the  ocean,  form- 
ing a  deposit.  This  process  has  gone  on  from  the  dawn  of 
geologic  history,  but  the  positions  and  boundaries  of  land  and 
ocean  have  not  remained  the  same.  Crust  movements  have 
caused  the  submergence  of  land,  and  the  emergence  of  ocean 
bottom,  and  these  movements  have  been  local  and  irregular,  dis- 
tricts here  and  there  going  up  while  other  districts  went  down. 
The  emergence  of  ocean  bottom  exposes  the  deposit  previously 
made  on  it,  and  subjects  it  to  erosion.  In  this  way  every  part  of 
the  known  surface  of  the  globe  has  been  the  scene  of  successive 
deposition  and  erosion,  and  in  many  districts  the  alternations  of 
process  have  been  numerous.  It  is  manifestly  impossible  that 
either  erosion  or  deposition  should  ever  have  prevailed  univers- 
ally, and  it  has  been  established  by  the  study  of  stratigraphic 
breaks  that  a  time  of  erosion  has  often  interrupted  deposition  in 
one  region  while  deposition  was  uninterrupted  in  another. 

In  transportation  from  its  region  of  erosion  to  its  place  of 
deposition  detritus  is  assorted,  and  it  results  that  the  simulta- 
neous deposits  on  the  bottom  of  an  ocean  are  not  everywhere  the 
same.  Equal  diversity  is  shown  in  the  ancient  deposits  consti- 
tuting geologic  formations.  It  is  a  general  fact  that  synchronous 
formations  have  not  everywhere  the  same  constitution. 

Many  of  the  variations  in  deposits  are  correlated  with  depth 
of  water  and  distance  from  shore,  and  it  results  that  elevation 
and  subsidence  in  regions  of  continuous  deposition  produce 
changes  in  the  nature  of  the  local  deposit. 

The  animals  and  plants  of  the  earth  are  not  universally  dis- 
t^-ibuted,  but  are  grouped  in  provinces.  In  the  geologic  past 
similar  provinces  existed,  but  their  boundaries  were  different, 
shifting  in  harmony  with  the  varying  geography  of  the  surface. 
From  time  to  time  the  barriers  separating  contiguous  provinces 
have  been  abolished,  suffering  them  to  coalesce  ;  and  conversely 
new  barriers  have  arisen,  creating  new  provinces.  From  the 
earliest  Palteozoic  to  the  present  time  the  species  of  animals  and 
plants  have  been  progressively  modified,  the  nature  of  the  modi- 
fication depending  on  local  conditions.  The  faunas  and  floras 
of  different  provinces  thus  become  different,  and  the  longer  the 
provinces  remain  distinct  the  greater  is  the  divergence  of  life. 
The  removal  of  a  barrier  either  produces  a  new  fauna  by  the 
fusion  of  the  two  previously  separated,  or  else  obliterates  one 
and  extends  the  area  of  the  other.  In  either  case  there  is  a 
change  toward  the  unification  of  life,  and  in  either  case  there  is 
an  abrupt  change  in  a  local  fauna.  Thus  the  secular  evolution 
of  species,  combined  with  the  secular  and  kaleidoscopic  revolu- 
tion of  land  areas,  leads  to  two  antagonistic  tendencies,  one 
toward  diversity  of  life  on  different  parts  of  the  globe,  the  other 
toward  its  uniformity.  The  tendency  toward  uniformity  affords 
the  basis  for  the  correlation  of  terranes  by  comparison  of 
fossils  ;  the  tendency  toward  diversity  limits  the  possibilities  of 
correlation. 

If  now  we  direct  attention  to  some  limited  area  and  study  its 
geology,  we  find  that  under  the  operation  of  these  general  pro- 
cesses it  has  acqiyred  a  stratigraphic  constitution  ot  a  complex 
nature.  Its  successive  terranes  are  varied  in  texture.  Breaks  in 
the  continuity  of  deposition  are  marked  by  unconformities.  The 
fossils  at  different  horizons  are  difterent,  and  when  they  are 
examined  in  order  from  the  lowest  to  the  highest,  the  rate  of 
change  is  found  to  vary,  being  in  places  nearly  imperceptible 
and  elsewhere  abrupt.  It  is  by  means  of  such  features  as  these 
— that  is,  by  lithologic  changes,  by  unconformities,  and  by  life 
changes — that  the  stratigraphic  column  is  classified  into  groups, 
systems,  series,  and  stages.  A  system  is  a  great  terrane  separated 
from  terranes  above  and  below  by  great  unconformities  or  great 
life  breaks  or  both.  Smaller  unconformities,  smaller  life  changes, 
and  lithologic  changes  are  used  for  the  demarcation  of  series  and 
stages  ;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  exceptionally  great  unconformi- 
ties and  life  breaks  are  used  to  delimit  groups.  As  the  same 
criteria  determine  groups,  systems,  and  series,  differing  only  in 
degree,  the  precise  definition  of  the  term  system  is  impossible, 
and  in  many  cases  the  gradation  of  a  terrane  as  a  group,  a  sys- 
tem, or  a  series  is  largely  a  matter  of  convenience.  From  this 
point  of  view  a  system  is  somewhat  artificial,  but  there  is  a  more 
important  sense  in  which  it  is  natural.  It  is  limited  by  strati- 
graphic or  palasontologic  breaks  above  and  below,  and  these 
breaks  are  natural.  The  taxonomist  is  not  warranted  in  dividing 
systems  where  no  such  break  exists. 

Transferring  now  our  attention  to  some  other  area,  distant 


from  the  first,  and  studying  its  stratigraphy,  we  find  that  the 
same  principles  enable  us  to  divide  it  independently  into  stages, 
series,  systems,  and  groups.  Its  fossils  are  not  the  same,  but 
they  are  to  a  certain  extent  similar,  and  the  sequence  of  life  is 
approximately  parallel.  We  cannot  compare  stage  with  stage, 
nor  series  with  series  perhaps,  but  we  can  compare  system  with 
system,  and  making  the  comparison  we  discover  that  the  breaks 
are  at  different  places.  While  one  area  was  upraised  and  sub- 
jected for  a  time  to  erosion,  the  other  received  continuous 
deposition.  While  life  in  one  area,  enjoying  constant  condi- 
tions, was  almost  unchanged  for  long  ages  and  even  epochs,  it 
was  revolutionized  in  the  other  by  the  irruption  across  some 
obsolescent  barrier  of  strong  and  aggressive  faunas  and  floras. 
The  systems  of  one  area,  therefore,  do  not  coincide  with  the 
systems  of  the  other  in  their  beginning  and  ending.  They  may 
differ  in  number,  and  they  may  differ  greatly  in  magnitude,  and 
in  the  duration  they  represent.  They  are,  in  fact,  a  different 
set  of  systems. 

The  case  I  have  described  is  ideal,  but  not  false.  It  repre- 
sents the  common  experience  of  those  who  have  developed  the 
geologic  histories  of  remote  districts,  and  attempted  to  correlate 
them  with  the  geologic  history  of  Europe.  There  does  not 
exist  a  world-wide  system  nor  a  world-wide  group,  but  every 
system  and  every  group  is  local.  The  classification  developed 
in  one  place  is  perfectly  applicable  only  there.  At  a  short 
distance  away  some  of  its  beds  disappear  and  others  are  intro- 
duced ;  further  on,  its  stages  cannot  be  recognized ;  then  its 
series  fail,  and  finally  its  systems  and  its  groups. 

If  I  have  properly  characterized  stratigraphic  systems — if 
they  are  both  natural  and  local — it  goes  without  saying  that  the 
classification  of  the  strata  of  all  countries  in  the  dozen  or  so 
systems,  as  proposed  by  some  of  the  members  of  the  Congress, 
is  impossible. 

I  hasten  to  add  that  from .  the  point  of  view  of  these  gentle- 
men what  they  advocate  is  not  necessarily  impossible,  for  they 
have  a  different  conception  of  a  system.  They  regard  it  not  as 
local  but  as  universal.  It  is  their  privilege  to  define  their  terms 
as  they  please,  and  we  will  not  dispute  about  mere  words,  but  I 
cannot  too  strongly  or  too  earnestly  insist  that  a  system  which  is 
universal  is  artificial.  It  may  be  natural  in  one  geologic 
province,  but  it  is  artificial  in  all  others.  Take  for  example  the 
Jurassic.  It  is  a  natural  system  in  Europe.  In  the  eastern 
United  States  no  strata  are  called  Jurassic  with  confidence,  and 
at  the  west  the  rocks  called  Jurassic  merge  with  those  called 
Triassic.  In  India,  Medlicott  tells  us,  a  Jurassic  fauna  occurs 
at  the  summit  of  a  great  natural  system  containing  a  Permiaa 
fauna  near  its  base.  In  New  Zealand,  according  to  Hutton,  a 
continuous  rock-system,  dissevered  by  great  unconformities  from 
other  systems,  bears  at  top  fossils  resembling  those  of  the  lower 
Jurassic,  and  lower  down  fossils  of  Triassic  facies.  To  establish 
a  Jurassic  system  in  either  of  these  countries  it  is  necessary 
to  divide  a  natural  system,  and  a  Jurassic  system  thus  established 
would  be  necessarily  artificial. 

This  is  the  sort  of  classification  implied  by  the  assumption 
that  systems  are  world-wide.  It  is  not  impossible,  but  it  is 
highly  unadvisable.  It  is  classification  for  the  sake  of  uni- 
formity, and  its  uniformity  is  Procrustean.  The  natural  systems 
of  a  region  are  the  logical  chapters  of  its  geologic  history.  If 
you  group  its  strata  artificially  according  to  the  natural  divisions 
of  another  region,  you  mask  and  falsify  its  history.  The  geologic 
history  of  the  earth  has  as  great  local  diversity  as  its  human 
history.  As  in  human  history,  there  are  inter-relations  and 
harmonies  and  a  universal  progress,  but  these  are  perceptible 
only  in  the  general  view,  and  the  student  whose  preconcev  tions 
lead  him  to  exaggerate  the  harmonies  and  ignore  the  discre- 
pancies perverts  the  meaning  of  every  page. 

I  prefer,  therefore,  my  own  definition  of  system,  making  it 
natural  and  consequently  local,  and  I  earnestly  oppose  any 
attempt  to  coerce  the  geology  of  one  country  in  a  rigid  matrix 
formed  over  and  shaped  by  the  geology  of  another  country. 

The  ideas  I  oppose  have  arisen  in  connection  with  the  work  of 
correlation.  Some  geologists  appear  to  regard  correlation  as  the 
determination  in  distant  localities  of  identities  ;  the  more  philo- 
sophic regard  it  as  the  determination  of  the  actual  relations, 
whether  they  be  of  identity  or  difference.  With  the  former  the 
basis  of  correlation  is  the  universality  of  geologic  systems  ;  with 
the  latter  it  may  be  said  to  be  the  universality  of  geologic 
time. 

Now  in  the  comparative  study  of  local  geologic  histories,  just 
as  in  the  comparative  study  of  local  human   histories,  it  is  a 


22 


NATURE 


[Nov.  3,  1887 


matter  of  convenience  to  have  a  common  scale  of  time.  It  is 
not  essential,  but  it  is  highly  convenient.  In  human  history  we 
use  an  astronomic  scale  of  equal  parts,  designating  each  unit  by 
a  number.  In  geology  no  scale  of  equal  parts  is  available,  and 
we  employ  the  eras  and  periods,  and  to  some  extent  the  epochs, 
of  the  local  geologic  history  first  deciphered — that  of  Europe. 
These  time-divisions  bear  the  same  names  as  the  groups,  systems, 
and  series  of  strata  whose  deposition  occurred  within  them. 

So  far  as  the  science  of  geology  is  concerned  the  selection  of 
Europe  as  its  first  field  of  study  was  a  matter  of  chance,  and  the 
adoption  of  the  European  time  scale  as  a  general  standard  may 
therefore  be  said  to  have  been  accidental.  Though  the  local 
rock  scheme  on  which  it  is  based  is  natural,  the  time  scale,  con- 
sidered as  universal,  is  arbitrary.  Another  locality  would  have 
afforded  a  different  scale,  but  its  authority  would  neither  be 
greater  nor  less.  The  scale  being  recognized  as  arbitrary,  and  a 
mere  matter  of  convenience,  it  is  legitimate  to  modify  and  fix  it 
by  formal  convention.  The  Congress  can  do  good  service  to 
geologic  technology  by  putting  it  in  the  best  possible  shape  and 
giving  it  an  official  status.  In  my  judgment  only  a  small  number 
of  divisions  should  be  admitted,  not  more  than  the  number  of 
periods  of  the  European  scheme.  In  a  general  way  the  dura- 
tions represented  by  the  co-ordinate  divisions  should  be  as  nearly 
equal  as  practicable,  but  a  certain  concession  might  be  made  to 
chronologic  perspective  on  account  of  our  superior  opportunities 
for  studying  the  later  history.  Some  of  the  shorter  periods 
might  perhaps  be  united  under  new  names.  Each  line  of  divi- 
sion between  periods  should  be  defined  by  means  of  a  strati- 
graphic  plane  of  division,  and  this  can  be  done  with  precision  if 
a  locality  is  made  part  of  the  definition. 

Especially  should  pains  be  taken  to  declare  the  arbitrary 
nature  of  the  scale.  Even  with  this  precaution  it  will  be  mis- 
construed by  many,  for  there  is  a  tendency  of  the  mind  to  attach 
undue  weight  to  classification.  Wherever  we  draw  lines  of 
separation,  we  lose  to  a  certain  extent  the  power  to  recognize 
continuity.  When,  for  example,  the  clock  strikes  twelve  on 
New  Year's  Eve,  time  seems  to  stop  and  begin  again.  We  speak 
of  the  achievements  of  the  nineteenth  century — and  despite  our- 
selves we  think  of  them  too — as  though  a  new  industrial  epoch 
began  in  a.d.  1800.  And  so  it  is  easy  for  the  beginner  in 
geology  to  accept  as  discontinuous  the  eras  and  periods  of  which 
his  text-book  treats,  and  it  is  hard  for  him  afterward  to  unlearn 
the  lesson. 

There  is  reason  to  believe  that  confusion  of  ideas  in  regard  to 
geologic  classification  has  been  fostered  by  the  employment  of 
the  same  set  of  names  for  the  divisions  of  the  time  scale  and  for 
the  local  terranes  on  which  they  are  founded.  It  might  be  well 
to  furnish  the  time  scale  with  names  suggesting  times — such 
names  as  the  brothers  Rogers  applied  to  the  terranes  of  Pennsyl- 
vania ;  but  so  radical  a  change  is  hardly  feasible,  especially  as 
we  should  thus  lose  the  mnemonic  connection  of  times  with 
corresponding  terranes.  I  propose,  as  a  means  of  accomplishing 
the  end  with  the  least  inconvenience,  that  a  set  of  time  words 
be  derived  from  the  terrane  names  by  modifying  the  final  sylla- 
bles. The  time  words  should  all  have  the  same  termination,  and 
that  should  differ  from  any  terminations  occurring  in  the  terrane 
names.  I  suggest  for  the  ending  of  time  words  the  syllable  a/. 
With  such  a  nomenclature,  Jurassic  and  Devonian  would  denote 
only  certain  European  rock  systems,  while  Jural  and  Devonal 
would  denote  periods  of  the  standard  time  scale  ;  and  we  could 
speak  of  the  Chico-Tejon  series  as  partly  Eocenal  and  partly 
Cretaceal  without  seeming  to  imply  the  existence  in  California 
of  the  Eocene  and  Cretaceous  systems  of  Europe. 

A  few  minutes  ago  I  opposed  the  differentiation  of  words  by 
terminations  because  it  abrogated  the  power  of  indefinite  ex- 
pression ;  I  now  favour  it  for  the  same  reason.  It  is  well  to  be 
indefinite  as  to  the  taxonomic  rank  of  terranes  while  their 
characters  are  imperfectly  known,  but  it  is  not  well  to  confuse 
terranes  with  times. 

It  is  not  to  be  assumed  that  a  time  scale  adopted  now  as  the 
best  possible  will  continue  indefinitely  to  be  the  best  possible  ; 
the  day  will  inevitably  come  when  it  can  be  improved.  In  the 
fuller  light  of  the  future  we  may  recognize  as  very  unequal 
periods  that  we  now  deem  equivalent,  and  the  possibilities  of 
defining  pre-Cambrial  periods  are  unlimited.  Even  now  there 
are  announced  beneath  the  lowest  fossil-bearing  terrane  of  the 
Lake  Superior  region  two  systems  of  clastic  rocks  limited  above 
and  below  by  great  unconformities,  and  Irving  demands  their 
recognition  as  a  group,  distinct  from  the  Archaean.  If  his  voice 
heard,  the  time  scale  will  include  an  era  between  the  Palseo- 


zoal  and  the  Archaal,  and  this  era  will  supply  the  needs  of  the 
systematist  until  great  additions  have  been  made  to  our  present 
knowledge  of  the  older  rocks. 

{To  be  continued.) 


UNIVERSITY  AND  EDUCATIONAL 
INTELLIGENCE. 

Oxford. — The  resignation  of  Prof.  Prestwich  and  .the 
continued  illness  of  Prof.  Moseley  have  produced  two  gaps  in 
the  scientific  professoriate  this  term.  Though  the  Professor  of 
Geology  has  left  Oxford,  his  successor  will  not  be  appointed 
until  after  Christmas.  In  Prof.  Moseley 's  absence  the  work  of 
the  morphological  department  is  being  carried  on  by  Mr. 
Hatchett  Jackson  and  Mr.  G.  C.  Bourne,  who  has  just  been 
elected  to  a  Fellowship  at  New  College. 

In  the  department  of  physics.  Prof.  Clifton  is  giving  no  honour 
lectures,  but  has  an  elementary  course  on  mechanics  and 
acoustics.  Mr.  Selby  is  lecturing  on  elasticity  and  on  electro- 
statics, both  treated  mathematically.  At  Christ  Church,  Mr. 
Baynes  gives  lectures  and  practical  instruction  in  electricity  and 
magnetism.  Sir  John  Conroy  and  Rev.  F.  J.  Smith  are 
lecturing  on  elementary  physics  at  Balliol  and  Trinity, 

The  chemical  department  at  the  Museum  has  been  strengthened 
by  the  addition  of  Mr.  V.  H.  Veley  to  the  staff  ;  the  usual 
courses  of  lectures  are  being  given  by  Mr.  Fisher  and  Dr. 
Watts,  and  Prof.  Odling  is  lecturing  on  glycerine  and  its  deriva- 
tives. At  Christ  Church,  Mr.  Vernon  Harcourt  has  a  class  for 
quantitative  analysis,  and  lectures  on  elementary  chemistry. 
Sir  John  Conroy  is  lecturing  on  chemical  physics  at  Balliol. 

The  Physiological  Laboratory  is  continuing  its  usual  work  with 
little  alteration.  Prof.  Burdon  Sanderson's  lectures  are  on 
circulation,  respiration,  and  bodily  motion. 

Prof.  Balfour,  besides  lecturing  on  extinct  plants  for  the 
Professor  of  Geology,  is  giving  a  course  on  general  morphology. 
Dr.  Tylor  continues  to  expound  the  Pitt-Rivers  Collection,  a 
fresh  portion  which  will  shortly  be  rearranged  and  opened  to 
the  public. 

Mr.  Primrose  McConnell  is  lecturing  on  the  principles  of 
agriculture,  mainly  for  the  benefit  of  India  Civil  Service 
candidates. 

During  this  term  there  will  be  an  examination  for  Scholarships 
in  Natural  Science  at  Balliol,  Exeter,  Christ  Church,  and  Trinity 
jointly,  beginning  on  November  17. 

A  pamphlet  has  just  been  issued  from  the  Clarendon  Press 
giving  full  information  as  to  the  methods  of  obtaining  medical 
degrees  in  Oxford,  and  the  instruction  in  medicine  provided  by 
the  University. 

Cambridge. — The  Museum  and  Lecture  Rooms  Syndicate 
have  issued  another  report  pressing  for  new  accommodation  for 
Pathology  and  Physiology,  and  suggesting  that  the  department 
of  Pathology,  including  its  Museum,  could  be  located  in  the  old 
chemistry  buildings  when  the  new  laboratory  is  completed. 
They  recommend  the  building  of  new  rooms  for  Human 
Anatomy  and  Physiology  on  the  Corn  Exchange  site  at  the 
northern  end  of  the  Museum  site.  It  is  an  important  feature  of 
this  scheme  that  it  would  leave  free  the  present  Human 
Anatomy  Schools  and  Museum  to  be  added  to  the  frontage 
available  in  Downing  Street  for  a  Geological  Museum. 

Messrs.  W.  H.  Macaulay  and  W.  B.  Allcock  have  been 
appointed  Moderators  for  the  year  beginning  May  i,  1888. 
Messrs.  J.  Larmor  and  W.  Welsh  are  appointed  Examiners  in 
Part  I.  of  the  Mathematical  Tripos  for  the  same  year. 

Dr.  Smith's  prizes  for  the  present  year  have  been  adjudged 
as  follows  : — (i)  Mr.  Augustus  Edward  Hough  Love,  St.  John's 
College,  for  an  essay  on  "  Small  Free  Vibrations  and  Deforma- 
tion of  a  thin  Elastic  Shell,"  and  on  "  The  Force  and  Forced 
Vibrations  of  an  Elastic  Spherical  Shell .  containing  a  Given 
Mass  of  Liquid."  (2)  Mr.^  Arthur  Berry,  King's  College,  for 
an  essay  on  "  Joint  Reciprocants." 


SCIENTIFIC  SERIALS. 

The  Quarterly  Journal  of  Microscopical  Science  for  August 
1887,  vol.  xxviii.  part  I,  contains  the  following  papers  : — On  the 
anatomy  of  the  Madreporia,  part  3,  by  Dr.  G.  Herbert  Fowler, 
(plates  i.   and  ii.)     In  this  memoir  the  author  deals  with  the 


Nov.  3,  1887] 


NATURE 


23 


anatomy  of  Turbinaria  mesenterina  (?),  of  LopJiohelia  prolifera, 
of  Seriatopora  su/tulata,  and  of  Pocillopora,  with  a  note  on  the 
skeleton  of  Flabellum. — On  the  anatomy  of  Aliissa  coiymbosa, 
and  Euphyllia  glabrescens,  and  on  the  morphology  of  the  Madre- 
l>orian  skeleton,  by  G.  C.  Bourne  (plates  iii.  and  iv.) — On 
the  intra-ovarian  egg  of  some  osseous  fishes,  by  Dr.  Robert 
Scharff  (plate  v.) — Observations  on  the  structure  and  distribution 
of  striped  and  unstriped  muscle  in  the  animal  kingdom,  and  a 
theory  of  muscular  contraction,  by  C.  F.  Marshall  (plate  vi.) 
The  author  concludes  that  in  all  muscles  which  have  to  perform 
rapid  and  frequent  movements  a  certain  portion  of  the  muscle  is 
differentiated  to  perform  the  function  of  contraction,  and  this 
portion  takes  on  the  form  of  a  veiy  regular  and  highly  modified 
intracellular  network.  This  network,  by  its  regular  arrangement, 
gives  rise  to  certain  optical  effects,  which  cause  the  peculiar 
appearances  of  striped  muscle  ;  the  contraction  of  the  striped 
muscle-fibre  is  probably  caused  by  the  active  contraction  of  the 
longitudinal  fibrils  of  the  intracellular  network  ;  the  transverse 
networks  appear  to  be  passively  elastic,  and  by  their  elastic 
rebound  cause  the  muscle  to  rapidly  resume  its  relaxed  condition 
when  the  longitudinal  fibrils  have  ceased  to  contract ;  they  are 
possibly  also  paths  for  the  nervous  impulse. — On  the  fate  of  the 
muscle-plate  and  the  development  of  the  spinal  nerves  and  limb 
plexuses  in  birds  and  mammals,  by  Dr.  A.  M.  Paterson  (plates 
vii.  and  viii. )  —  On  the  ciliated  pit  of  Ascidians  and  its 
relation  to  the  nerve-ganglion  and  so-called  hypophysial  gland, 
and  an  account  of  the  anatomy  of  Cynthia  rustica  (?),  by  Lilian 
Sheldon,  Bathurst  Student,  Newnham  College  (plates  ix.  and 
X.).  Suggests  that  the  original  function  of  the  ciliated  pit  was 
the  aeration  of  the  brain,  with  which  it  communicates  in  the  case 
of  Clavellina ;  where  also  its  posterior  part  acts  as  a  reservoir  to 
carry  off  the  secretion  of  the  gland. — On  the  tongue  and  gustatory 
organs  of  Mephitis  tnephitica,  by  Dr.  Frederick  Tuckerman 
(plate  xi.)  This  memoir  is  preceded  by  an  interesting  account 
of  the  literature  relating  to  the  position  and  structure  of  the 
taste  organs  of  vertebrates.  — On  the  quadrate  in  the  Mammalia, 
by  Dr.  G.  Baur.  He  thinks  that  there  is  little  doubt  but  that 
the  quadrate  of  the  lower  vertebrates  is  contained  in  the  sygomatic 
process  of  the  mammals. — On  the  hsemoglobin  crystals  of 
rodents'  blood,  and  on  an  easy  method  of  obtaining  methjemo- 
globin  crystals  for.  microscopic  examination,  by  Dr.  W,  D. 
Halliburton. 

Bulletin  de  VAcademie  Royale  de  Belgique,  August. — Note  on 
the  oscillations  of  a  pendulum  produced  by  the  displacement  of 
the  axis  of  suspension,  by  E.  Ronkar.  The  object  of  these 
researches  is  to  ascertain  the  possibility  of  recording  the  slight 
oscillations  in  the  crust  of  the  earth  by  means  of  a  freely  sus- 
pended pendulum.  It  is  shown  that  the  pendulum  retains  a 
movement  imparted  by  a  certain  number  of  horizontal  undulat- 
ing impulses,  whenever  the  duration  of  the  oscillation  of  the 
pendulum  is  the  same  as  that  of  the  axis,  but  not  otherwise. 
From  thi3  may  be  deduced  an  experimental  process  for  determin- 
ing the  periodical  irregularities  in  the  movement  of  diurnal  rota- 
tion.— On  the  colloidal  sulphuret  of  cadmium,  by  Eug.  Prost. 
To  the  colloidal  solutions  of  arsenious,  stannic,  and  other  sul- 
phurets  already  determined,  the  author  here  adds  the  sulphuret 
of  cadmium,  which  was  hitherto  known  only  in  the  insoluble 
state.  He  obtains  a  colloidal  solution  of  this  compound  by 
passing  hydrosulphuric  acid  through  water  holding  in  suspension 
freshly  precipitated  cadmic  sulphur,  and  afterwards  eliminaliny 
by  the  action  of  heat  the  hydrosulphuric  acid  dissolved  in  the 
liquid.  A  spectroscopic  study  of  this  clear  yellowish  liquid 
shows  that  the  cadmic  sulphur  is  really  in  a  state  of  solution, 
the  solution  presenting  all  the  characters  hitherto  ascribed  to 
all  dissolved  colloidal  substances. — Description  of  some  new 
Cucurbitacese,  by  M.  Alfred  Cogniaux,  This  paper  contains 
an  account  of  fourteen  new  species  and  of  several  varieties, 
forming  an  important  addition  to  the  author's  general  mono- 
graph of  this  family  published  in  De  Candolle's  ' '  Monographise 
Phanerogamum. " 


SOCIETIES  AND  ACADEMIES. 

London. 

Entomological  Society,  October  5.— Dr.  Sharp,  President, 
In  the  chair. — Mr.  Jacoby  exhibited  a  ^'^^cixao.n  oi  Aphthonoides 
veccarii,  Jac. ,  a  species  of  Haltica  having  a  long  spine  attached  to 


the  posterior  femora  ;  also  a  specimen  of  Rhagiosoma  madagas- 
cariensis. — Mr.    Stevens   exhibited    a   very   dark    specimen   of 
Crambus  perUllus  from  the  Hebrides,  which  its  captor  supposed 
to  be  a  new  species.     Mr.  Porritt  remarked  that  this  brown  form 
oi  Cra>/il>us  perleHus  occurred  at  Hartlepool  with  the  ordinary 
typical  form  of  the  species,   and  was  there  regarded  as  only  a 
variety  of  it. — Mr.  Slater  exhibited  a  specimen  of  Gonepteryx 
Cleopatra,  which  was  stated  to  have  been  taken  in  the  North  of 
Scotland.     Mr.  Jenner  Weir  remarked  that  although  the  genus 
Rhaninus~\.o  which  the  food-plant  of  the  species  belonged — was 
not  a  native  of  Scotland,  some  species   had   been   introduced, 
and  were  cultivated  in  gardens. — Mr.  South  exhibited  about  150 
specimens  of  Boarmia  repandata,  bred  from  larvae  collected  on 
bilberry  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Lynmouth,  North  Devon,  in- 
cluding strongly  marked  examples  of  the  typical  form,  extreme 
farms  of  the  var.  conversaria,  Hiib.,  a  form  intermediate  between 
the  type  and  the  variety  last  named,  and  examples  of  the  var. 
destrigai-ia.   Haw.     Mr.    South  said  that  an  examination  of  the 
entire  series  would  show  that  the  extreme  forms  were  connected 
with  the  type  by  inter oaediate  forms  and  their  aberrations. — Mr. 
Poulton  exhibited  young  larvas  of  Apatura  iris,  from  the  New 
Forest  ;  also  eight  young  larvae  oi Sphinx  convolvuli  reared  from 
ova  laid  on  the  29th  of  August  last.     He  said  the  life-history  ot 
the  species  was  of  extreme  interest,  throwing  much  light  upon 
that  of  Sphinx  ligustri,  as  well  as  upon  difficult  points  in  the 
ontogeny  of    the  species  of  ithe  allied  genera    Acherontia  and 
Smennthus.     Mr.    Stainton   said   he   was   not   aware   that  the 
larvae  of  Sphinx  convolvuli  had  ever  before  been  seen  in  this 
country  in  their  early  stages.     Mr.   McLachlan  remarked  that 
females  of  this  species  captured  on  former  occasions,  when  the 
insect    had   been   unusually   abundant,   had   been    found   upon 
dissection  to   have   the  ovaries   aborted. — Mr.    R.    W.    Lloyd 
exhibited  specimens  of  Elater  pomonm,  and  of  Mesosa  nubila, 
recently  taken  in  the  Nesv    Forest. — Mr.    Porritt   exhibited   a 
series  of  melanic  varieties  oi Diurnea  fagella,  from  Huddersfield, 
and  stated  that  the  typical  pale  form  of  the  species  had  almost 
disappeared  from  that  neighbourhood. — Mr.   Goss  exhibited,  for 
Mr.   J.   Brown,   a  number  of  puparia  of  Cecidomyia  destructor 
(Hessian  Fly),    received   by  the  latter  from   various  places  in 
Cambridgeshire,  Norfolk,  Suffolk,  and  Wiltshire.      He  also  ex- 
hibited a  living  larva  of  Cephus  pygmceus,  Lat.  (the  Corn  Sawfly), 
which   had   been   sent   to    Mr.    Brown   from    Swaffham  Prior, 
Cambridgeshire,  where,  as  well  as  in  Burwell  Fen,  the  species 
was  stated  to  have  been  doing  considerable  damage  to  wheat 
crops.     Mr.  Verrall,  in  reply  to  a  question  by  Mr.   Enock,  said 
he  believed  that  the  Hessian  Fly  was  not  a  recent  introduction 
in  Great  Britain,  but  had  been  here  probably  for  hundreds  of 
years.     He  admitted  that  he  was  unable  to  refer  to  any  but 
recent  records  of  its  capture.     Prof.  Riley  said  he  was  unable 
to  agree  with  Mr.  Verrall,  and  believed  that  the  Hessian  Fly 
had  been   recently  introduced  into  this  country.    Its  presence 
here  had  not  been  recorded  by  Sir  Joseph  Banks,  by  Curtis, 
by  Prof.  Westwood,   by  the  late  Mr.   Kirby,  or  by  any  other 
entomologist  in  this  country  who  had  given  especial  attention 
to  economic  entomology.     It  seemed  highly  improbable,  if  this 
insect  had  been  here  so  many  years,  that  its  presence  _  should 
have   so  long  remained  undetected  both  by  entomologists  and 
agriculturists.    Prof.  Riley  said  it  had  been  stated  that  the  insect 
was  introduced  into  America  by  the  Hessian  troops  in  1777,  but 
this  was  impossible,  as  its  existence  at  that  date  was  unknown 
in   Hesse.      Mr.   McLachlan,  Capt.   Elwes,  Mr.    Verrall,  Mr. 
Jacoby,  and  Dr.  Sharp  continued  the  discussion.— Mr.  J.  Edwards 
communicated  the  second  and  concluding  part  of  his  "  Synopsis 
of  Y>x\\\&\i.Hoinoptera-Cicadina"—?xol   Westwood  contributed 
"  Notes  on  the  life-history  of  various  species  of  the  Neuropterous 
genus  Ascalaphus."—C&pt.  Elwes  read  a  paper  "  On  the  Butter- 
flies of  the  Pyrenees,"  and  exhibited  a  large  number  of  species 
which  he  had  recently  collected  there.     Mr.  McLachlan  said  he 
spent  some  weeks  in  the  Pyrenees  in  1886,  and  was  able  to 
confirm  Capt.  Elwes'  statements  as  to  the  abundance  of  butter- 
flies in  that  part  of  the  worid.     The  discussion  was    continued 
by  Mr.  Distant,  Mr.  White,  Dr.  Sharp,  and  others. 

Mineralogical  Society,  October  25.— Anniversary  Meeting. 
—Mr.  L.  Fletcher,  President,  in  the  chair.— After  the  readmg 
of  the  Report,  the  following  were  elected  Officers  and  Councd 
for  the  ensuing  session  :— President  :  L.  Fletcher.  Vice-Presi- 
sidents  :  Rev.  S.  Haughton,  F.R.S.,  W.  H.  Hudleston,  F.R.S. 
Council  (in  place  of  Messrs.  Burghardt,  Danby,  Dobbie,  and 
Lewis,  the  retiring  Members) :  Prof.  A.  H.  Church,  Townshend 


24 


NATURE 


{Nov.  3.  1887 


M.  Hall,  Colonel  C.  A.  M'Mahon,  J.  Stuart  Thomson.  Trea- 
su;e"  Rev.  Prof.  T.  G.  Bonney,  F. R. S.  General  Secretary: 
R  H  Scott  FR.S.  Foreign  Secretary :  T.  Davies.  Auditors: 
B*  Kitto  f!  W.  Rudler.— The  following  papers  were  read  :— 
On  a  meteoric  iron,  containing  crystallized  chromite  found  m 
Greenbrier  Co.,  West  Virginia,  about  the  year  1880,  by  i.. 
Fletcher,  President.— On'the  nature  and  origm  of  clays,  by  J. 
H  Collins.— Note  on  the  occurrence  of  what  may  prove  to  be 
a  new  mineral  resin,  by  J.  Stuart  Thomson.-On  a  variety  of 
elaucophane  from  the  Val  Chivone  (Cottian  Alps),  by  Rev. 
Prof  T  G  Bonney,  F.R.S.— On  the  discovery  of  leucite  in 
Australia,  by  Prof.  J.  W.  judd,  F.R.S.-On  proiistite  contain- 
^g  antimony,  by  H.  A.  Miers  and  G.  T.  Prior.-Descript.on  of 
a  new  studenl's  goniometer,  by  H.  A.  Miers.-On  rutile  needles 
in  clays,  by  J.  J.  H.  Teall. 

PARIS. 
Academy  of  Sciences,  October  24.— M.  Janssen  in  the 
chair. -On  naphthol  as  an  antiseptic,  by  M.  Ch.  Bouchard. 
From  the  experiments  here  described  it  is  shown  that  naphthol, 
hitherto  limited  to  the  local  treatment  of  certam  cutaneous 
diseases,  may  with  perfect  safety  be  applied  inwardly.  _  Its 
antiseptic  and  toxic  properties  have  been  accurately  determmed, 
with  the  result  that,  owing  to  its  slight  solubility,  it  is  to  be 
preferred  in  certain  cases  to  all  known  antiseptic  medicmes.— 
Remarks  on  the  physical  principle  on  which  is  based  M. 
Clausius's  new  theory  of  steam-motors,  by  M.  G.  A.  llim. 
The  view  here  contested  is  that  the  cylinder  may  be  regarded  as 
impermeable  to  heat,  and  consequently  that  the  exchange  of  heat 
between  its  walls  and  the  steam  at  each  stroke  of  the  piston  is  a 
factor  which  may  be  neglected  by  the  practical  mechanician  M. 
Hirn  claims  that  most  English  and  American  engineers  have 
adopted  his  views  in  the  "  Hirn-Zeuner  controversy.  —On  the 
congelation  of  ciders,  by  M.  G.  Lechartier.  The  authors 
experiments  make  it  evident  that  the  fermentation  of  ciders  is 
not  destroyed  but  only  diminished  even  after  being  kept  for  nine 
days  at  a  temperature  of  18°  C.  below  freezin?-pomt.— Remarks 
accompanying  the  presentation  of  the  "  Statistique  de  la  Super- 
ficie  et  de  la  Population  des  Contrees  de  la  Terre,  by  M.  K. 
Levasseur.  This  work,  which  appeared  originally  in  the 
Bulletin  de  rinstitut  international  de  Statistique  for  1886-87, 
comprises  103  tables,  in  three  parts— the  first  devoted  to  Europe, 
the  second  to  the  other  divisions  of  the  globe,  the  third  to 
general  conclusions  and  comparative  details  for  the  whole  earth. 
In  this  part  the  area  and  population  of  the  various  divisions  of 
the  world  are  thus  tabulated  for  the  year  1886  :— 

Population. 


because  it  expresses  no  certain  theoretic  principle,  nor  any 
rigorously  observed  theoretic  fact.  Nevertheless  it  may 
still  yield  approximately  correct  useful  results  when  it  is 
required  to  express  the  complex  sensations  experienced  by  the 
organ  of  sight.— Positions  of  Brooks's  Comet  (January  22,  1887) 
measured  with  the  8-inch  equatorial  of  the  Observatory  of 
Besancon,  by  M.  Gruey.  The  positions  are  calculated  for  the 
period  ranging  from  February  24  to  April  29.— On  magnetizing 
by  influence,  by  M.  P.  Duhem.  The  author  communicates  the 
chief  results  of  some  studies  based  on  the  principles  of  thermo- 
dynamics, and  undertaken  for  the  purpose  of  removing  some  of 
the  difficulties  presented  by  Poisson's  theory.— Action  of  sul- 
phureted  hydrogen  on  the  salts  of  cobalt,  by  M.  H.  Baubigny. 
Some  years  ago  the  author  showed  that  all  the  salts  of  nickel  ai  e 
transformed  to  sulphides  when  their  solutions  are  treated  with 
hydrosulphuric  acid  at  the  ordinary  temperature.  He  now  shows 
that  a  like  treatment  of  the  salts  of  cobalt  yields  very  similar 
results.— On  the  quantitative  analysis  of  titanic  acid,  by  M . 
Lucien  Levy.  A  new  method  of  analysis  is  described,  which 
is  more  rapid  and  yields  more  accurate  results  than  that  hitherto 
in  use.— On  certain  processes  capable  of  increasing  the  resist- 
ance of  the  organism  to  the  action  of  microbes,  by  M.  Charrin. 
It  is  shown,  by  experiments  carried  out  on  rabbits,  that  under 
specified  conditions  the  resisting  power  of  the  animal  may  be 
greatly  increased  and  rendered  more  or  less  complete  and  lasting 
by  inoculating  or  injecting  the  soluble  products  of  the  cultivated 
virus  of  certain  microbes. 


Europe     

lO'O 

Africa      

31-4 

Asia           

42-0 

Oceania 

II 

North  America 

23 '4 

South  America 

i8-3 

Area  in  millions  j^ 

of  square  millions. 

Kilometres. 


347 

197 

789 

38 

80 

32 


_,       ..  Ratio  to 

Density  per    the  whole 

square 
kilometre. 


136-1 


1483 


34  • 
6     . 

19  • 
3-5- 
3-4- 
17- 

io*9 


population 
of  the  world. 
.         234 

.       i3"3 

.      53'2 

2-6 

5-4 

2*1 
lOO-C 


It  is  pointed  out  in  the  introduction  that  nearly  two-thirds  of 
mankind  are  concentrated  in  a  relatively  small  space,  about 
II  millions  of  square  kilometres,  or  one-twelfth  of  all  the  dry  land, 
divided  into  three  great  groups :  West,  Central,  and  South 
Europe  (245  millions  of  inhabitants,  and  3*5  millions  of  kilo- 
metres) ;  the  Anglo-Indian  Empire  (254  and  3-6) ;  and  China, 
with  Manchuria  and  Japan  (430  and  4).— On  the  third  scientific 
voyage  of  the  Hirondelle,  by  Prince  Albert  of  Monaco.  Besides 
many  hundreds  of  floats  sent  adrift  between  the  Azores  and 
Newfoundland,  several  captures  were  made  from  great  depths 
with  the  sounding-gear,  which  worked  easily  down  to  3000 
metres  from  the  surface.  Amongst  the  prizes  were  several  un- 
described  fishes,  Gorgons,  siliceous  Sponges  of  the  Hexactin- 
ellid  family,  a  soft  Urchin  {Phormosoifia),  numerous  Amphipod 
and  Isopod  Crustaceans,  Solasters,  Ophiures,  and  Hyas  of  great 
size,  besides  a  moon-fish  weighing  nearly  300  kilogrammes,  and 
furnished  with  a  true  caudal  appendage.— On  Newton  s  chrom- 
atic circle,  by  M.  G.  Govi.  It  is  shown  that  this  law,  of  which 
Newton  himself  offered  no  demonstration,  is   often  at  fault, 


BOOKS.  PAMPHLETS,  and  SERIALS  RECEIVED. 

Philip's  Handy  Volume  Atlas  of  the  British  Empire  (Philip). -Practical 
Chemistry  :  Muir  and  Carnegie  (Clay).-Elementary  Chemistry  :  Muir  and 
Slater  (Clay).— Essays  relating  to  Indo-China,  and  series  2  vols.  (Jrubner). 
-On  a  Surf-bound  Coast  :  A.  P.  Crouch  (Low). -Tne  Mammoth  and  the 
Flood  :  H.  H.  Howorth  (Low).— The  Natural  History  of  Commerce,  3rd  ed. , 
The  Technical  History  of  Commerce,  3rd  edition  ;  The  Growth  and  Vicissi- 
tudes of  Commerce,  3rd  edition  ;  Recent  and  Existing  Commerce,  3rd  edition  ; 
Dr  T.  Yeats  (Philip).— Proceedings  of  the  American  Academy  of  Arts  and 
Sciences,  December  1886  to  May  1887  (Boston). --Bulletin  de  la  Sociea 
Impe'rialedesNaturalistes  deMoscou,  1887,  No.  3  (Moscou).-Zeitschrift  fur 
Wissenschaftliche  Zoologie,  xlv.  Band,  4  Heft  (Williams  and  Norgate)  - 
Morphologisches  Jahrbuch,  Eine  Zeitsch-ift  fur  Anatomie  und  Entwicke- 
lungsgeschichte,  xiii.  Band,  i  Heft  (Engelmann,  Leipz.g).-Encyklop3Ed.e 
der  Naturwissen.'schaften.  Zweite  Abth.  44  und  45  L.ef.  Handworterbuch 
der  Chemie ;  Erste  Abth.  52  ""d  53  Lief.  Handworterbuch  der  Zoologie, 
Anthropologie,  und  Ethnologic  (Williams  and  Norgate).-Journal  of  the 
Scottish  Meteorological  Society,  3rd  series,  No.  iv.  (Blackwood).— Animals 
from  the  Life,  edited  by  A.  B.  Buckley  (Stanford). 


CONTENTS.                        PAGE 
The  Zoological  Results  of  the  "Challenger"  Expe- 
dition      ' 

The  Fern-Allies.     By  W.  R.  McNab 4 

Our  Book  Shelf  :— 

Elson  :   "  The  Sailor's  Sky  Interpreter  " 5 

Mackenzie:   " Austral  Africa "      5 

Letters  to  the  Editor  : — 

Medical  Education  at  Oxford.— George  I.  Wilson    .  5 
Migration  of  Swallows  along  the  Southern  Coast. — W. 

Warde  Fowler 6 

Swifts.— E.  Brown •    •  » 

Hughes's  Induction  Balance.— Dr.  Oliver  J.  Lodge, 

FR.S •  6 

TheFfynnon  Beuno  andCae  Gwyn  Caves.— Worthing- 

ton  G.  Smith 7 

Synthesis  of  Glucose.     By  A.  E.  Tutton 7 

Modern  Views  of  Electricity.     Part  II.— IV.     (Illus- 
trated).    By  Dr.  Oliver  J.  Lodge,  F.R.S 8 

The  Tweeddale  Collection.     By  R.  Bowdler  Sharpe  13* 

The  Storm  of  October  30 I4 

Robert  Hunt,  F.R.S H 

Notes ^5 

Astronomical     Phenomena      for     the     Week     1887 

November  6-12     '7 

Geographical  Notes '7 

Meteorological  Notes *    * 

The  Work  of  the  International  Congress  of  Geologists.  )ii 

By  G.  K.  Gilbert ^9 

University  and  Educational  Intelligence 22 

Scientific  Serials ^2 

Societies  and  Academies 23 

Books,  Pamphlets,  and  Serials  Received 24 


NA  TURE 


25 


THURSDAY,   NOVEMBER    10,    1887. 


A    CONSPIRACY  OF  SILENCE. 

^"'HE  Duke  of  Argyll  is  eminent  as  a  statesman,  and 
has  won  distinction  as  a  man  of  science.  The 
mental  qualities,  however,  which  lead  to  success  in  these 
capacities  are  widely  different ;  nay,  in  the  opinion  of  some, 
are  almost  oppugnant.  To  the  man  of  science,  truth  is  as 
a  "pearl  of  great  price,"  to  buy  which  he  is  ready  to  part 
with  everything  previously  obtained  ;  to  the  statesman, 
success  is  the  one  thing  needful,  for  the  sake  of  which 
hardly  any  sacrifice  appears  too  great.  This  is  not  said 
wholly  as  a  reproach :  it  "  takes  all  sorts  to  make  a 
world."  The  ardour  of  the  follower  of  the  ideal,  which 
may  degenerate  into  recklessness,  is  wholesomely  checked 
and  beneficially  qualified  by  the  calmness  of  one  who  has 
to  deal  practically  with  mankind,  and  has  learned  by 
experience  that  evolution  rather  than  catastrophic  change 
is  the  law  of  life,  and  is  in  accordance  with  the  analogy 
of  Nature.  Still  the  two  types  of  mind  are  commonly 
diverse,  and  the  Duke  of  Argyll  has  recently  afforded  a 
remarkable  instance  of  the  extreme  difficulty  of  combining 
in  one  person  these  apparently  opposite  characters. 

This  instance  is  afforded  by  an  article  which  appeared 
in  the  Nineteenth  Century  for  September  last,  and  is 
commented  on  by  Prof.  Huxley  in  the  number  for  the 
present  month.  The  Duke's  article  bears  the  somewhat 
imposing  title  of  "The  Great  Lesson."  Prof.  Huxley's 
reply  forms  a  part  of  an  article  entitled  "  Science  and  the 
Bishops."  As  the  charge  which  the  Duke  has  in  effect 
brought  against  men  of  science  is  a  very  grave  one,  and 
as  some  of  the  readers  of  Nature  may  not  be  constant 
readers  of  the  chief  monthly  magazines,  a  brief  notice  of 
both  accusation  and  reply  may  not  be  without  interest. 

The  moral  of  "  The  Great  Lesson "  is,  practically, 
"  beware  of  idolatry."  The  scientific  world,  in  the  Duke's 
opinion,  has  been  for  some  time  bowing  down  to  the  idol 
of  Darwin  and  the  theory  of  evolution,  which  is  the  funda- 
mental dogma  of  that  cult.  Like  a  prophet  of  old  he  raises  a 
warning  voice,  and  points  out  that  the  feet  of  the  golden 
image  are  in  part  composed  of  clay.  In  the  North  has  been 
hewn  the  stone  which  shall  shatter  those  fragile  supports 
and  lay  the  idol  prone  in  the  dust  !  To  abandon  meta- 
phor, this  is  the  state  of  the  case.  Among  the  results  of 
Mr.  Darwin's  labours  during  the  voyage  of  the  Beagle  in 
the  years  1831-36,  when  he  accumulated  that  vast  store 
of  observations  which  served  as  a  foundation  for  "the 
Origin  of  Species  by  means  of  Natural  Selection,"  was  a 
theory  of  the  formation  of  Coral  Reefs  and  Atolls,  set 
forth  in  a  volume  entitled  "  On  the  Structure  and  Dis- 
tribution of  Coral  Reefs"  (published  in  1842  and  repub- 
lished in  1874).  Of  this  theory  the  Duke  gives  an  outline 
in  "  The  Great  Lesson,"  executing  this  portion  of  his  task 
so  fully  in  the  spirit  of  a  just  judge,  and  with  so  little 
of  the  craft  of  an  advocate,  as  to  leave  nothing  to  be 
desired  for  lucidity  of  statement  and  cogency  of  reason- 
ing. In  fact,  in  the  judge's  summing  up,  the  case  for  the 
defence  appears  stronger  than  that  for  the  prosecution — 
so  much  so,  indeed,  as  to  suggest  that  the  difference  is 
Vol.  XXXVII. — No.  941. 


due  to  their  inherent  merits  rather  than  to  the  mode  of 
statement.  However,  be  that  as  it  may,  the  Duke  thus 
pronounces  judgment,  and  in  so  doing  passes  a  censure, 
stinging  if  deserved,  on  the  men  of  science  of  this 
generation. 

These  are  his  words  {Nineteenth  Century,  p.  305) :— - 

"  Mr.  Murray's  new  explanation  of  the  structure  and 
origin  of  coral  reefs  and  islands  was  communicated  to 
the  Royal  Society  of  Edinburgh  in  1880,  and  supported 
with  such  a  weight  of  fact  and  such  a  close  texture  of 
reasoning  that  no  serious  reply  has  ever  been  attempted. 
At  the  same  time,  the  reluctance  to  admit  such  an  error 
in  the  great  idol  of  the  scientific  world,  the  necessity  of 
suddenly  disbelieving  all  that  had  been  believed  and 
repeated  in  every  form  for  upwards  of  forty  years,  of 
cancelling  what  had  been  taught  to  the  young  of  more 
than  a  whole  generation,  has  led  to  a  slow  and  sulky 
acquiescence,  rather  than  to  that  joy  which  every  true 
votary  of  science  ought  to  feel  in  the  discovery  of  a  new 
truth,  and — not  less — in  the  exposure  of  a  long-accepted 
error." 

Again : — 

"  The  overthrow  of  Darwin's  speculation  is  only  begin- 
ning to  be  known.  It  has  been  whispered  for  some  time. 
The  cherished  dogma  has  been  dropping  very  slowly 
out  of  sight.  Can  it  be  possible  that  Darwin  was  wrong  ? 
Must  we  indeed  give  up  all  that  we  have  been  accepting 
and  teaching  for  more  than  a  generation  1  Reluctantly, 
almost  sulkily,  and  with  a  grudging  silence  so  far  as 
public  discussion  is  concerned,  the  ugly  possibility  has 
been  contemplated  as  too  disagreeable  to  be  much  talked 
about ;  the  evidence  old  and  new  has  been  weighed  again 
and  again,  and  the  obviously  inclining  balance  has  been 
looked  at  askance  many  times.  But,  despite  all  averted 
looks,  I  apprehend  it  has  settled  to  its  place  for  ever,  and 
Darwin's  theory  of  the  coral  islands  must  be  relegated  to 
the  category  of  the  many  hypotheses  which  have  indeed 
helped  science  for  a  time,  by  promoting  and  provoking 
further  research,  but  which  in  themselves  have  now 
finally  kicked  the  beam." 

This,  then,  is  "  The  Great  Lesson  " : — 

"  It  is  that  Darwin's  theory  is  a  dream.  It  is  not 
only  unsound,  but  is  in  many  respects  the  reverse  of 
the  truth.  With  all  his  conscientiousness,  with  all  his 
caution,  with  all  his  powers  of  observation,  Darwin  in 
these  matters  fell  into  errors  as  profound  as  the  abysses 
of  the  Pacific." 

This  is  plain  speaking.  In  words  which  admit  of  no 
ambiguity  the  Duke  declares  that  Darwin  was  wrong  ; 
that  Mr.  Murray  set  him  right  ;  and  that  the  latter,  instead 
of  receiving  a  welcome,  was  met  with  a  virtual  conspiracy 
of  silence  on  the  part  of  scientific  men.  Of  these  three 
assertions — which  are  to  a  considerable  extent  independent 
one  of  another — the  first  and  second  are  obviously  very 
much  matters  of  opinion,  because,  if  the  third  statement 
be  true,  it  is  clear  that  no  verdict  has  been  delivered  by 
experts,  but  that,  like  an  Irish  jury,  they  have  professed 
themselves  unable  to  agree,  because  the  facts  were  so 
strong  that  even  they  could  not  bring  in  a  verdict  of 
acquittal.  The  third  assertion,  however,  is  much  more  a 
matter  of  fact,  not  difficult  to  substantiate,  and  at  any  rate, 
if  incorrect,  easy  to  disprove. 

In  regard,  then,  to  the  first  and  second  it  may  suffice 
to  follow  Prof.  Huxley's  example  and  be  content  with 
expressing  a  doubt  as    to  the    accuracy  of  the  Duke's 

C 


26 


NATURE 


{Nov.  lo,  1887 


assertions.  In  the  face  of  statements  so  definite  as  those 
quoted  above,  this  may  seem  presumptuous.  They  read 
almost  hke  the  sentence  of  an  ecclesiastical  court,  which 
it  is  heresy  to  question.  Caledonia  locuta  est,  causa 
finita  est,  seems  to  be  their  tone ;  and  if  one  whisper  a 
doubt,  one  expects  the  familiar  conclusion,  Anathema  sit  / 
But  men  of  science,  as  all  the  world  knows,  are  sceptics. 
Have  they  yet  awakened  and  rubbed  their  eyes,  and  said 
of  Darwin's  theory  "  Lo  !  it  was  a  dream  "  ?  What  says 
Prof.  Huxley?  He  asserts  that  Darwin's  confidence  in 
the  accuracy  of  his  own  theory  was  not  seriously  shaken, 
as  the  Duke  alleges,  and  quotes  as  conclusive  evidence  a 
letter  from  Prof.  Judd,  who  gives  the  results  of  a  conversa- 
tion which  he  had  with  Darwin  no  long  time  before  the 
death  of  the  latter.  Prof.  Huxley  also  intimates  that  to 
himself — though  tolerably  familiar  with  coral  reefs — the 
new  theory  is  at  first  sight  so  far  from  fascinating  that, 
until  he  can  devote  a  considerable  time  to  a  re-e.xamina- 
tion  of  the  whole  subject,  he  must  be  content  to  remain 
"in  a  condition  of  suspended  judgment,"  and  that  Prof. 
Dana,  "  an  authority  of  the  first  rank  on  such  subjects," 
has  pronounced  against  the  new  hypothesis  in  explicit 
terms.  Undoubtedly,  Mr.  Murray  has  obtained  distin- 
guished converts,  but  with  such  differences  of  opinion 
among  those  best  qualified  to  judge,  it  is  certainly  going 
further  than  is  warranted  by  facts  to  insinuate  if  not  to 
assert  that  he  has  convinced  the  scientific  public.  Very 
probably  more  than  a  minority  of  them  are  in  my  own 
position,  which  perhaps  I  may  be  pardoned  for  stating. 
They,  like  myself,  have  never  had  the  opportunity  of 
forming  an  independent  judgment  upon  the  matter,  but 
they  see  some  very  serious  difficulties — difficulties  which 
are  of  a  general  rather  than  of  a  special  nature — in  the 
new  explanation.  At  present  these  difficulties  do  not 
appear  to  them  to  have  been  overcome  ;  so  that,  while 
admitting  that  Mr.  Murray's  hypothesis  may  sometimes 
apply,  and  that  Darwin  either  may  have  expressed  him- 
self a  little  too  sweepingly,  or  may  have  been  understood 
so  to  do,  the  theory  of  the  latter  is  capable  of  a  more 
general  application,  and  presents  less  serious  general 
difficulties,  thaa  does  that  of  Mr.  Murray. 

We  come,  then,  to  the  third  charge,  which  is  the  most 
serious  one,  because  it  affects  the  morality  of  scientific 
men  ;  and  many  of  them,  like  myself,  are  old-fashioned 
enough  to  resent  being  called  a  knave  more  than  being 
called  a  fool.  Has  Mr.  Murray  been  met  by  "a  con- 
spiracy of  silence  "  .?  The  Duke,  in  asserting  this,  must 
have  been  strangely  oblivious  of,  or,  among  the  cares  of  a 
statesman,  have  failed  to  keep  himself  au  courant  with,  the 
literature  of  geology.  Prof.  Huxley  denies  the  assertion, 
and  adduces  in  his  support  an  answer  to  an  inquiry  which 
he  had  addressed  to  Prof.  Judd.  The  facts,  according  to 
these  authorities,  are  briefly  as  follows  ; — Mr.  Murray's 
views  were  duly  published,  as  the  Duke  himself  states  ; 
they  were  favourably  regarded  by  the  authorities  at  the 
Challeftger  Oifice ;  they  were  expounded,  one  might  almost 
say  advocated,  on  more  than  one  occasion  {e.g.  in  this 
very  journal)  by  Dr.  A.  Geikie.  His  text-book  in  the 
year  1882  not  only  took  the  leading  place,  as  it  still  does, 
but  also  was  then  the  only  complete  text -book  on  a  large 
scale  for  this  country.  On  p.  468  is  a  full  statement  of  Mr. 
Murray's  views.    They  have  also  been  referred  to  at  more 


or  less  length  in  many  treatises  and  journals,  both  English 
and  foreign.  As  Prof.  Judd  remarks,  "  If  this  be  a 
'  conspiracy  of  silence,'  where,  alas  !  can  the  geological 
speculator  seek  for  fame  ? " 

Thus  the  main  charge  is  disproved.  One  special  item 
in  it,  however,  as  peculiarly  offensive,  yet  calls  for  a  brief 
notice.  The  Duke  states  :  "Mr.  John  Murray  was  strongly 
advised  against  the  publication  of  his  views  in  derogation 
of  Darwin's  long-accepted  theory  of  the  coral  islands,  and 
was  actually  induced  to  delay  for  two  years."  Now,  if 
these  words  do  not  amount  to  an  imputation  of  bad 
faith  on  the  part  of  Mr.  Murray's  adviser,  and  are  not  by 
insinuation  extended  to  others,  I  do  not  know  what  they 
mean,  or  why  they  have  been  penned.  But,  as  Prof. 
Huxley  observes,  "whether  such  advice  were  wise  or 
foolish,  just  or  immoral,  depends  entirely  on  the  motive 
of  the  person  who  gave  it."  The  remark  is  perfectly  just. 
Who,  I  would  ask,  who  is  old  enough  to  look  back  on  a 
quarter  of  a  century  of  work,  has  not  occasionally  said, 
"  Wait  a  bit,''  to  some  younger  friend,  who  has  come  in 
the  first  incandescence  of  a  brilliant  hypothesis  ?  I  have 
so  sinned.  Sometimes  I  have  been  wrong  and  my  young 
friend  right,  but  not  always.  Still,  I  know  myself  fallible. 
As  the  late  Master  of  Trinity  said,  "  We  are  all  fallible 
mortals,  even  the  youngest  amongst  us."  Yet  I  am  not 
ashamed.  I  will  not  put  on  sackcloth  and  ashes,  and  I 
mean  to  sin  again.  Perhaps  it  is  because  I  am  naturally 
unimaginative  ;  perhaps  I  am  come  to  the  season  of 
autumn  leaves  ;  but  I  have  always  looked  askance  at  a 
brilliant  hypothesis,  and  now  distrust  it  more  than  ever. 
I  have  lived  long  enough  to  see  many  a  one  go  up 
whoosh  /  like  a  sky-rocket,  all  stars  and  sparks,  and  come 
down  exploded,  all  stick  and  stink  ! 

So  the  "  great  lesson  "  has  been  read,  and  the  scientific 
world,  I  fear,  has  not  repented  or  rent  its  clothes.  But  it 
has  heard,  and  not  without  indignation.  The  Duke  of 
Argyll  has  made  grave  charges  against  the  honour  and 
good  faith  of  men  of  science,  and  they  ought  to  be  grateful 
to  Prof.  Huxley  for  his  prompt  repulse  of  the  attack  and 
his  stern  rebuke  of  the  assailant.  As  it  seems  to  me, 
reply  is  only  possible  on  one  point — namely,  the  special 
charge  mentioned  above.  Hence  the  Duke  of  Argyll  is 
bound  to  establish  or  to  withdraw  the  accusation. 

Men  of  science  are  justly  sensitive  on  this  question. 
Doubtless  they  are  no  more  exempt  from  human  frailty 
than  any  other  class  of  men  :  we  all  fail  sometimes — 
nay,  too  often— to  live  up  to  our  ideal  standard  ;  still,  such 
shortcomings  are  not  common,  and  anything  like  a  "  con- 
spiracy of  silence"  or  any  kind  of  scientific  "boycotting' 
is  a  thing  so  improbable  as  to  be  almost  incredible.  Each 
man  must  testify  according  to  his  own  experience  ;  so  in 
conclusion,  though  it  may  be  deemed  impertinent,  I  will 
express  my  own.  I  have  lived  now  for  not  a  few  years 
among  the  rank  and  file  of  scientific  men  on  more  intimate 
terms  than  can  have  been  possible  for  the  Duke  of 
Argyll,  owing  to  his  exalted  station  and  his  high  occupa- 
tions of  State,  and  I  am  bound  to  declare  that,  in  a  fairly 
wide  experience,  I  have  never  found  men  as  a  class  less 
self-seeking  or  more  earnest  in  their  desire  for  truth,  more 
steadfast  as  friends,  or  more  generous  as  antagonists. 


T.  G.  BONNEY. 


I 


Nov 


lO, 


1887] 


NATURE 


27 


A   TEXT-BOOK  OF  ALGEBRA. 
A  Text-book  of  Algebra.     By  W.  Steadman  Aldis,   M.A 


(Oxford  :  Clarendon  Press,  1887.) 
'T^HIS  work  is,  as  we  are  told  in  the  preface,  "  the  out- 
A      come  of  lectures  delivered  in  the  College  of  Physical 
Science  at  Newcastle-upon-Tyne."      It   discusses,  more 
fully  than  is  usual  in  books  on  algebra,  the  fundamental 
principles  of  the  science,  and  its  aim  is  to  be  of  service 
to  the  independent  student  who  has  not  the  advantage 
of  "access  to  large  libraries,  or  intercourse  with  other 
mathematical  scholars."     The  object  of  the  author,  as 
might  be  expected  from  his  eminence  as  a  mathemati- 
cian and  his  experience  as  a  teacher,  is,  in  our  judgment, 
likely  to  be  successfully  attained  in  the  use  of  his  work. 
The  book  is  hardly  adapted  for  those   students  whose 
object  it  is  to  attain  such  skill   and  facility  in  algebraical 
work  as  is  necessary  to  face  an  examination  paper  in 
algebra,  set  by  the  University  examiner  of  the  present 
day.     The  examples,  though  sufficient  for  illustrating  the 
pnnciples,  are  not  numerous  enough  for  the  purpose  of 
developing   such   skill,  nor   selected   with    that    special 
object  ;  and  such  aids  to  the  attainment  of  exactness  as 
the  various  tentative  methods  of  finding  the  factors  of 
algebraical  expressions  of  different  forms,  and  other  aids 
to  insight  into  their  constitution,  are  only  incidentally 
alluded  to.     Still,  even  this  class  of  students  will  find  it 
a  book  worthy  of  reference,  when  they  are  revising  the 
fundamental  principles  on  which  the  science  is  based, 
and  realizing  that  all  its  operations  are  reducible  to  a  few 
fundamental  laws. 

The  book  is  divided  into  four  sections,  treating  respect- 
ively of  the  fundamental  laws  and  the  algebraical  opera- 
tions founded  thereon,  of  equations,  of  series,  and  of 
arithmetical  applications. 

In  the  first  chapter,  headed  "  Arithmetical  Notions,"  the 
arithmetical  basis  of  algebra  is  laid  down  in  a  careful 
discussion  of  the  laws  of  the  simple  operations  of  arith- 
metic ;  the  commutative  laws  of  addition  and  multiplica- 
tion, and  the  distributive  and  associative  laws  of  multi- 
plication, being  shown   to  result,  both  for  integral  and 
fractional  numbers,  from  our  fundamental  conceptions  of 
number.      In  this  chapter  particular  numbers  only  are 
used,  and  the  expression  of  the  results  by  the  use  of  letters 
denotmg  any  numbers  whatever  is  relegated  to  the  follow- 
ing chapter  on  "Algebraical  Notation."  This  would  seem 
to  indicate   that   Prof.  Aldis   agrees   with    a   commonly 
accepted  notion,  that  algebra  begins  with  the  introduction 
of  letters  to  denote  unspecified  numbers.     We  hold,  on 
the  contrary,  that,  in  arithmetic,  letters  may,  and  ou'ght 
to,  be  freely  used  to  express  the  unknown  quantities  of  a 
question,  or  to  sum  up  in  general  terms  properties   of 
numbers  or  rules  which  have  been  established  for  solving 
particular  problems  ;  and  that  only  when  a  result  has  been 
obtained  by  means  of  organized  algebraical  operations 
instead  of  by  ordinary  reasoning,  has  algebra,  properly 
so  called,  been  employed.  'ft-/ 

In  the  second  chapter  the  general  results  of  the  first 
are  summed  up  in  a  series  of  formulae,  numbered  (i)  to 
(21),  to  which  are  afterwards  added  others,  numbered  (22) 
to  (25),  expressing  the  laws  of  indices.  The  extension  of 
the  use  of  the  signs  -f  and  -  to  indicate  opposite  affec- 


tions of  the  quantiti-es  denoted  by  the  letters  to  which 
they  are  prefixed  is  carefully  explained  ;  and  it  is  shown 
by  the  Illustration  of  "steps"  that  still  wider  interpreta- 
tions may  be  given  to  the  symbols  and  formula.     Upon 
this  foundation  the  subsequent  chapters  dealing  with  the 
elementary  operations    on    algebraical    expressions   are 
based,  explicit  reference  being  made  to  one  or  other  of 
the  formute  by  its  number  to  justify  each  step  in  the 
establishment  of  the  various  processes.     This  method  of 
procedure  is  sound  and  logical  in  itself,  yet  we  fear  that 
the  effect  of  referring  to  so  many  apparently  independent 
formulae  must  be  confusing  to  the  student,  and  likely  to  give 
him  incorrect  ideas  as  to  the  number  of  independent  laws 
to  which  all  algebraical   operations  are  reducible.     This 
might  have  been  avoided  by  a  preliminary  discussion  of 
the  formula,  showing  that  with  the  understanding  that 
the  letters  may  denote  either  positive  or  negative  quanti- 
ties they  are  reducible  to  some  five  or  six  fundamental 
laws,  to  which,  rather  than  to  the  particular  exemplifica- 
tions of  the  laws  in  these  formula,  it  would  have  been 
better  in  the  sequel  to  refer.    Thus  the  formulae  numbered 
(U,  (2),  (3)  are  all  included  in  the  commutative  law  of 
addition  or  aggregation-that  in  an  aggregate  of  positive 
and  negative  terms  the  order  of  aggregation  is  indifferent : 
so,  too,  (3),  (4),  (5),  (6)  are  summed  up  in  the  "  Rule  of 
Signs  "—that  the  addition  of  a  positive  aggregate  of  terms 
is    equivalent    to    the    addition  of   each    term  with  its 
actual  sign,  and  that  of  a  negative  aggregate  is  equivalent 
to  the  addition  of  each  term  with  its  sign  reversed,  and 
similarly  for  other  groups  of  the  formulte. 

The  discussion  of  the  highest  common  factor,  lowest 
common  multiple,  and  fractions,  is  followed  by  a  chapter 
on  fractional  and  negative  indices,  at  the  outset  of  which 
the  question  of  incommensurables  is  discussed,  and  it 
is  shown  by  apt  illustrations  that  the  literal  symbols  of 
algebra  may  represent  incommensurable  as  well  as  com- 
mensurable quantities,  since  the  same  laws  hold  good  for 
the  former  as  have  been  established  for  the  latter.  We 
should  have  expected  that,  as  a  natural  sequel  to  this 
chapter,  logarithms  and  their  properties  and  uses  would 
have  been  discussed,  but  we  find  no  mention  even  of  the 
word  till  we  come,  much  later  on  in  the  book,  to  the 
Exponential  Series.  There  is  no  logical  necessity  for 
postponing  the  discussion  of  the  nature  and  properties  of 
logarithms  till  we  can  show  how  their  values  can  be 
practically  calculated,  while  the  enormous  practical  im- 
portance of  an  acquaintance  with  their  theory  and  use  is 
a  good  reason  for  its  introduction  at  the  earliest  possible 
stage. 

A  chapter  on  surds  and  impossible  quantities  concludes 
the  first  section.  In  this  it  is  shown  that  the  impossible 
quantity  of  ordinary  algebra  is  only  relatively  impossible, 
since  it  becomes  interpretable  as  an  "  operational 
quantity  "  when  the  letter  to  which  it  is  attached  is  taken 
to  denote  a  length  in  a  definite  direction— a  view  which  is 
further  illustrated  by  the  discussion  of  the  cube  roots  of 
unity  as  "  operational  quantities."  This,  though  not  a 
full  account  of  the  matter,  is  satisfactory  so  far  as  it 
extends,  and  sufficient  for  the  student  at  this  stage. 

The  specially  distinctive  features  of  Prof.  Aldis's  work 
are  contained  in  this  first  section.  We  trust  we  have 
made  it  plain  that  we  think  it  well  worthy  of  the  study  of 


28 


NATURE 


[Nov.  lo,  1887 


the  student  who  desires  to  attain  a  clear,  logical  view  of 
the  foundations  of  algebraical  science.  The  remaining 
sections  demand  less  comment  as  presenting  less  novelty 

of  treatment. 

The  most  noticeable  feature  in  the  section  on  equations 
is  the  introduction  of  the  notation,  and  a  discussion  of 
some  of  the  properties,  of  determinants.  We  cannot  but 
regret  the  space  that  is  devoted  in  this  section  to  the  dis- 
cussion of  the  processes  for  the  extraction  of  square  and 
cube  roots  in  the  old  traditional  shape.  In  the  chapter 
on  division  the  law  of  formation  of  the  quotient  and 
remainder  of  a  rational  integral  function  of  x  after  division 
by  x-a  has  been  established.  Starting  from  this,  a  dis- 
cussion involving  nothing  more  than  elementary  con- 
siderations would  lead  up  to  Horner's  process  in  all  its 
generality,  which  might  then  be  exemplified  in  the 
extraction,  not  only  of  square  and  cube  roots,  but  of  roots 
of  any  degree,  both  for  algebraical  expressions  and  for 
numbers.  How  long  shall  we  have  to  wait  for  a  due 
recognition  in  elementary  treatises  of  this  comprehensive 
method,  which,  whether  from  a  theoretical  or  from  a 
practical  point  of  view,  is  one  of  the  most  valuable  results 
of  a  study  of  algebra? 

The  section  on  series  commences  with  the  establish- 
ment of  the  usual  formulas  for  permutations  and  combi- 
nations, as  preliminary  to  the  binomial  theorem.  We 
observe  with  satisfaction  that  the  path  to  the  proof  of  each 
general  formula  is  smoothed  by  the  prior  discussion  of  a 
particular  case,  by  which,  as  every  good  teacher  knows, 
the  principle  involved  may  be  more  distinctly  brought  out 
than  in  the  general  proof,  where  it  is  too  likely  to  be  lost 
sight  of  in  the  generality  of  the  symbols  employed.  To 
the  chapter  on  geometrical  progression  is  attached,  as  we 
think  it  always  should  be,  one  of  its  most  important 
applications-namely,  that  to  compound  interest  and 
annuities.  The  chapters  on  the  binomial  theorem  and 
other  series  usually  discussed  in  elementary  algebra  are 
clear  and  satisfactory,  though  we  think  a  httle  more 
prominence  should  have  been  given  to  the  distinction  of 
convergent  and  divergent  series,  and  a  fuller  discussion  o. 
the  tests  of  convergency  and  divergency. 

The  last  section  includes  under  the  general  heading  of 
"Arithmetical  Applications,"  chapters  on  proportion, 
continued  fractions,  indeterminate  equations  (limited  to 
those  of  the  first  degree),  inequalities,  notation  and 
numbers,  and  probabilities.  It  is  not  intended,  we  presume, 
that  the  study  of  some  at  least  of  these  should  be  post- 
poned till  after  the  study  of  the  previous  sections,  but  that 
as  Applications  they  do  not  form  a  necessary  part  of  the 
general  sequence  of  algebraical  results,  though  it  appears 
to  us  rather  strange  that  a  place  for  proportion,  at  any 
rate,  should  not  have  been  found  in  such  sequence. 
'  R.  B.  H. 


PRACTICAL  BOTANY. 
Practical  Botany.    By  F.  O.  Bower  and  Sydney  H.  Vines. 
Part  11.     (London:  Macmillan  and  Co.,  1887.) 

ABOUT  twelve  or  fourteen  years  ago  there  occurred 
in  England  two  events  which  have  had  so  marked 
an  influence  on  the  development  of  scientific  botany  in 
this  country  that  they  are  likely  never  to  be  lost  sight  of 


by  our  younger  school  of  morphologists  and  physiologists. 
One  of  these  events  was  the  introduction  into  this  country 
of  the  teaching  of  Prof.  Sachs,  of  Wurzburg  ;  the  second 
and  even  more  important  one  was  the  institution  by  Mr. 
Thiselton  Dyer  of  a  course  of  botanical  instruction  at 
South  Kensington  on  a  scale  never  before  attempted. 
Those  who  had  the  good  fortune  to  attend  Mr.  Dyer's 
courses  of  practical  botany  in  the  well-known  laboratory 
at  what  is  now  the  Normal  School  of  Science  must 
always  carry  with  them  the  stimulating  remembrance  of 
the  thorough  teaching  there  instituted  ;  and  the  effect  of 
the  exact  instruction  and  inspiriting  demonstration  so 
efficient  at  South  Kensington  can  be  obviously  traced  in 
the  excellent  teaching  and  work  of  the  enthusiastic  younger 
botanists  of  to-day.  The  influence  took  effect  on  the  early 
development  of  the  present  productive  botanical  labora- 
tories at  Cambridge  and  elsewhere,  and  the  stimulus  has 
since  radiated  thence  in  all  directions,  as  is  shown  not 
only  by  the  numerous  publications  of  the  last  eight  or 
ten  years,  but  also  by  contributions  to  the  new  journal. 
The  Annals  of  Botatty,  just  published  by  the  Oxford 
Clarendon  Press,  and  by  the  activity  and  discussions  of 
the  botanists  at  the  recent  brilliant  meeting  of  the  British 
Association  in  Manchester. 

The  salient  features  of  the  new  course  of  structural 
botany  were  the  thorough  study  of  leading  types  of 
the  vegetable  kingdom  by  means  of  material  dissected 
and  prepared  by  the  students  themselves,  and  the  stress 
laid  on  the  rule  that  the  students  should  carefully  draw 
what  they  saw,  and  thus  gather  their  ideas  at  first 
hand.  The  method  was  similar  to  that  employed  by 
Prof.  Huxley  in  his  course  on  animal  morphology. 

It  is  evident  that  the  little  hand-book  of  practical 
botany  now  under  review  is  the  outcome  of  experience 
gained  in  continuing  this  important  method  of  instruction. 
Part  I.  of  the  present  work  was  published  two  years 
ago,  and  dealt  with  selected  types  of  the  Vascular  plants. 
Part  II.  is  now  before  us,  and  completes  the  scheme.  It 
comprises  studies  of  the  chief  types  of  lower  Cryptogams, 
from  the  moss  downwards. 

We  have  already  pointed  out  that  the  essential  features 
of  the  new  teaching  are  the  exact  and  thorough  study  of 
types.  Nothing  is  assumed  ;  but  the  students  are  urged 
to  see  everything  for  themselves,  and  to  draw  all  they  see. 
These  important  points  decide  the  plan  of  the  work  under 
review.  It  will  be  found  an  excellent  and  trustworthy  guide 
to  any  who  use  it  with  the  types  at  hand  :  it  will  be  all  but 
useless  to  the  mere  crammer,  for  there  are  no  illustrations 
to  take  the  place  of  actual  objects  in  producing  impressions 
on  the  student's  mind  ;  no  lengthy  descriptions  to  inter- 
fere with  the  directness  or  clearness  of  the  impressions  ; 
and  no  classified  "  tips  "  to  vitiate  and  confuse  the  teach- 
ing. We  regard  it  as  an  excellent  sign  of  the  progress  of 
botany  in  this  country  that  an  English  work  of  this  de- 
scription should  be  forthcoming,  and  students  are  greatly 
indebted  to  Dr.  Vines  and  Dr.  Bower,  and  those  who 
have  contributed  to  this  admirable  little  monument  of 
practical  teaching. 

As  special  features  in  the  book  we  may  commend  the 
selection  of  types  ;  they  are  good,  for  the  most  part 
easily  obtained,  and  well  known.  The  treatment  of  the 
types  in  the  book  is  clear,  concise,  and  yet  sufficient.  The 
usage  of  bolder  lettering  for  the  chief  word  in  the  para- 


Nov.  lo,  1887] 


NATURE 


29 


graph  is  an  admirable  device  for  fixing  the  student's 
attention  on  one  thing  at  a  time,  and  is  aided  by  the 
numbering  and  lettering  of  the  paragraphs.  The  division 
into  sections  dealing  with  groups  of  characters,  leading 
the  student  on  from  the  more  obvious  features  to  those 
less  easily  investigated,  also  stamps  the  work  as  that  of 
experienced  teachers,  and  is  eminently  English. 

The  only  part  of  the  plan  to  which  objection  is  likely 
to  be  raised  by  teachers  is  what  may  perhaps  be  termed 
the  reversal  of  the  order  of  the  types.  We  are  ourselves 
inclined  to  the  opinion  that  it  would  have  been  better  to 
begin  with  the  more  lowly  organized  types,  and  work 
upwards  to  those  in  which  the  anatomy  and  histology 
become  more  complex.  There  is  much  to  be  said  in 
favour  of  the  method  adopted,  but  we  think  that  the  fol- 
lowing two  objections  to  it  alone  outweigh  all  we  have 
heard  in  its  favour. 

(i)  The  types  are  obviously  selected  as  illustrating  the 
chief  structural  peculiarities  of  plants,  and  it  might  be 
better  to  at  least  indicate  the  relations  of  these  structures 
in  an  order  more  in  accordance  with  their  probable 
development  in  the  vegetable  kingdom. 

(2)  The  plan  of  teaching  which  marks  the  book  is  the 
educational  one,  i.e.  the  observer  is  led  on  from  simple  to 
less  simple  ideas.  This  is  only  carried  out  consistently, 
however,  within  the  individual  sections  of  the  book  :  why 
should  it  not  be  followed  throughout  the  work  ? 

Of  course  the  objection  may  be  anticipated  that  the 
sections  really  lead  the  student  on  from  the  macroscopic 
to  the  microscopic  characters,  and  that  Algae  and  Fungi, 
for  instance,  are  less  easy  to  investigate,  and  therefore 
come  last,  because  they  involve  the  use  of  the  higher 
powers  of  the  microscope  so  much.  We  do  not  admit  that 
this  latter  is  a  difficulty,  however,  and  in  reply  would 
simply  propose  for  psychological  study  the  mental 
attitude  of  a  tyro  struggling  with  his  first  transverse 
section  of  a  sunflower-stem.  The  cutting,  preparation, 
mounting,  and  finally  the  involved  pattern  of  cell-walls 
which  he  has  to  unravel,  at  once  plunge  him  into  diffi- 
culties at  least  as  great  as  those  met  with  on  the  threshold 
of  the  study  of  the  Algae.  Moreover,  there  is  evidence  in 
the  work  that  the  student  is  supposed  to  be  acquainted 
with  the  use  of  the  microscope,  such  as  would  be  obtained 
from  a  proper  course  of  elementary  biology. 

Of  course,  however,  it  is  always  open  to  a  teacher  to 
reverse  the  order  of  the  types  in  the  book  ;  and  it  only 
remains  for  us  to  say  a  few  words  regarding  some  of 
those  employed  in  the  second  volume.  Polytrichiim  is 
selected  as  the  chief  type  of  the  mosses,  and  we  think 
Dr.  Bower  has  done  well  to  illustrate  the  details  of 
structure  by  this  complex  form,  surmounting  the  difficulty 
presented  by  its  peculiar  sporogonium  by  a  comparative 
study  of  that  of  Ftmaria — itself  an  excellent  type.  We 
are  glad  to  see  M archantia  treated  in  detail.  It  is,  of 
course,  an  out-of-the-way  form,  and  is  peculiar  even  in  its 
own  group,  but  it  is  an  instructive  plant,  and  one  that  has 
earned  areputation  from  the  physiological  lessons  it  teaches 
us.  Polysiphonia  serves  as  the  chief  type  of  the  red  sea- 
weeds, and  although  it  has  many  peculiarities,  it  has  the 
advantage  of  being  common  :  the  structures  of  several  other 
Florideae  are  shortly  compared  with  that  of  Polysiphonia. 
Fticus  serratus  forms  an  excellent  type  for  the  study  of 
the   brown   sea-weeds,  and   as  it  is   easily   obtained,  it 


should  be  employed  in  every  laboratory  course:  the 
details  of  the  actual  process  of  fertilization  still  offer  an 
interesting  problem  to  any  intelligent  student,  but  the 
chief  stages  in  the  process  are  not  difficult  to  observe. 

Passing  to  the  green  Algae,  CEdogoniwn  seems  to  us  a 
type  well  worth  thorough  study  in  the  laboratory  ;  it  is 
by  no  means  uncommon,  and  an  effort  should  be  made  to 
introduce  a  definite  species  of  the  larger  forms  as  a  type. 
Short  studies  of  Coleochate  and  of  Ulothrix  are  also 
given.  Vaucheria  sessilis  is  offered  as  an  example  of  the 
Siphoneae,  and  we  are  glad  to  see  it  brought  well  into  the 
foreground;  this  again  is  a  plant  of  increasing  import- 
ance as  an  instructive  plant.  Most  of  the  details  of  the 
process  of  fertilization  in  this  Alga  offer  less  difficulties 
than  is  commonly  supposed,  and  students  should  be 
encouraged  to  spend  some  time  on  their  study.  A  short 
resume'  of  the  main  points  is  given.  No  doubt  the 
presence  of  Protococcus  or  Hcematococcus  in  schedules 
of  elementary  biology  explains  its  omission  from  the 
present  work :  Pleurococcus  and  Volvox  are  given, 
however,  and  they  illustrate  several  points  of  importance. 
In  spite  of — or  perhaps  on  account  of — its  very  marked 
peculiarities,  we  look  upon  Spirogyra  as  one  of  the  most 
instructive  types  that  the  student  can  examine,  and 
Dr.  Bower  has  done  well  to  give  it  a  prominent  position. 
It  deserves  more  attention,  however,  and  we  would 
strongly  urge  an  exhaustive  treatment  of  its  life-history, 
germination,  and  some  of  the  physiological  lessons  it 
teaches. 

Passing  over  less  important  forms,  we  may  now  say  a 
few  words  respecting  the  Fungi  given  as  types  lor  study. 
The  first  section  is  devoted  to  Agaricus,  and  a  capital 
study  of  the  structure  and  histology  of  the  common 
mushroom  is  given.  Then  follows  an  equally  good 
account  of  the  vEcidiomycetes.  Of  Ascomycetes,  we 
have  Peziza,  Parmelia,  Claviceps,  and  Eurotiutn,  as  types 
of  the  chief  great  groups.  A  word  as  to  Peziza.  It  is 
an  excellent  type,  and  certain  forms  can  be  cultivated, 
and  we  hope  that  in  a  second  edition  the  author  will 
see  his  way  to  introducing  a  fuller  account  of  some  one 
species.  At  the  same  time  we  are  not  sure  that  Ascobolus 
is  not  a  better  form  for  the  present  purpose  :  it  can  be  easily 
cultivated,  and  its  small  size  is  an  advantage,  since  per- 
fect sections  can  be  obtained  across  the  whole  plant. 
Another  excellent  type  is  also  introduced  in  the  study 
of  the  Peronosporeae.  English  students  are  only  now 
becoming  aware  of  the  theoretical  importance  of  this 
group,  and  we  are  very  glad  to  see  Dr.  Bower's  section 
on  Pythiuin  de  Baryanum :  it  cannot  be  too  well  under- 
stood that  Pythium  is  one  of  the  few  parasitic  Fungi 
which  may  be  easily  cultivated  and  followed  through  all 
its  phases  of  development  in  the  laboratory.  For  our 
own  part,  we  regard  it  as  the  best  of  all  Fungi  for  study, 
and  its  life-history  and  simple  structure  ought  to  be 
thoroughly  investigated  in  every  botanical  course.  It  has 
the  additional  advantage  of  being  also  a  saprophyte, 
and  can  be  cultivated  on  dead  organisms.  The  Mucorineae 
are  exemplified  by  Mucor  and  Sporodinia.  No  type  of 
the  Ustilagineae  is  given. 

Enough  has  been  said  to  show  that  the  volume  pre- 
tends to  no  more  than  it  can  fairly  claim,  and  we  regard 
it  with  confidence  as  a  praiseworthy  and  successful 
attempt   to  record   for  the   benefit   of   a  wide   class  of 


^o 


NA  TURE 


{Nov.  lo,  1887 


students  the  methods  of  teaching  so  well  introduced  and 
so  thoroughly  carried  out  in  the  laboratory  at  South 
Kensington,  the  birth-place  of  the  modern  English  school 
of  morphological  botany.  It  now  remains  for  one  of  our 
competent  younger  botanists  to  prepare  a  course  of 
practical  instruction  in  the  physiology  of  plants,  intro- 
ducing the  experiments  employed  in  our  best  laboratories  ; 
and  there  are  signs  that  such  a  volume  will  meet  with  a 
hearty  welcome  from  students  of  botany  in  this  country. 
The  importance  of  the  subject  needs  no  comment. 


OUR  BOOK  SHELF. 

A  Chapter  in  the  History  of  Meteorites.  By  the  late 
Walter  Flight,  D.Sc,  F.R.S.  (London :  Dulau  and 
Co.,  1887.) 

This  work,  though  left  incomplete  by  the  early  death  of 
its  author,  will  be  found  of  great  service  by  all  who  are 
interested  in  meteoric  studies.  The  first  144  pages  were 
printed  off  twelve  years  ago,  and  were  thus  safely  beyond 
revision.  The  rest  of  the  work  has  been  revised,  and  the 
whole  has  been  prepared  for  press,  by  editors  who,  per- 
haps wisely,  have  chosen  to  be  anonymous  :  their  part  of 
the  task  we  may  dismiss  with  the  remark  that  it  appears 
to  have  been  executed  with  at  least  ordinary  care.  The 
task  of  the  author  has  been  to  give  a  brief  summary  of  the 
memoirs  which  have  been  published  relative  to  meteorites 
since  the  year  1868,  and  thus  to  furnish  an  appendix  to 
the  work  of  Buchner.  To  collectors  of  meteorites  such  a 
convenient  summary  of  memoirs,  themselves  scattered 
over  a  wide  range  of  periodicals,  chiefly  foreign,  is  in- 
valuable. There  are  seven  plates  and  six  woodcuts  : 
the  frontispiece  is  an  excellent  engraving  of  Chladni,  who 
did  so  much  to  compel  men  of  science  to  recognize  the 
reality  of  meteoric  falls.  There  is  also  a  hand-painted 
picture  of  the  wonderful  meteorite  of  Busti,  in  which  two 
minerals  new  to  terrestrial  mineralogy  were  discovered  by 
Maskelyne.  In  an  introduction  there  is  a  short  sketch  of 
the  life  and  work  of  the  author.  Only  240 copies  have  been 
printed  ;  the  proceeds  of  their  sale  are  to  be  added  to 
the  Flight  Memorial  Fund,  which  at  present   amounts 

A  Hand-book  for  Steam    Users.      By    M.    Powis    Bale, 
M.I. JVI.E.,  A.M.I. C.E.     (London:  Longmans,  1887,) 

Mr.  Bale's  little  hand-book  supplies  a  want  long  felt  by 
steam  users.  Its  contents  are  entirely  of  a  practical 
nature,  and  the  technical  terms  used  are  very  properly 
those  of  the  ordinary  mechanic.  The  book  embraces  the 
whole  of  the  many  duties  of  the  engine-driver  and  fireman, 
and  explains  to  them  what  to  do,  and  what  not  to  do,  under 
varying  circumstances.  The  arrangement  of  the  informa- 
tion is  simple  and  effective,  the  writer  evidently  knowing 
how  to  get  at  the  understanding  of  those  for  whom  the 
book  is  written. 

The  information  and  rules  given  are  eminently 
practical,  and  will  prove  very  useful  to  those  steam 
users  who  do  not  pretend  to  be  engineers.  In  the 
preface  we  are  told  that  the  author  has  for  many 
years  urged  the  necessity  of  a  compulsory  system  of 
boiler  inspection,  and  of  granting  certificates  of  com- 
petency to  those  having  boilers  under  their  charge.  In 
this  we  entirely  agree,  and  we  trust  the  time  is  not 
far  distant  when  Parliament  will  establish  a  system  of 
examination  similar  to  that  of  marine  engineers,  under 
the  control  of  the  Board  of  Trade  for  all  who  have  charge 
of  stationary  boilers  and  engines,  as  well  as  locomotives. 
Michael  Reynolds,  the  author  of  several  books  on  the 
practical   working  of  steam-engines,  has  long  advocated 


the  introduction  of  certificates  of  competency  for  locomo- 
tive drivers  and  firemen.  Their  duties  are  as  arduous 
and  responsible  as  those  of  the  marine  engineer,  and  yet 
this  fine  class  of  men  is  entirely  recruited  from  the  lower 
grades  employed  in  the  locomotive  running  sheds  and 
works,  and  their  promotion  generally  depends  on  years  of 
service  on  the  footplate. 

Students  of  steam  and  mechanical  engineering  will  here 
find  information  which,  although  not  generally  taught  in 
the  lecture-rooms,  will  indicate  some  of  the  many  points 
an  ordinary  engine-driver  has  to  be  thoroughly  acquainted 
with.  N.  J.  L. 


Vol.    VI.     (Part     II.) 


The    Encyclopcedic  Dictionary. 
(London  :  Cassell  and  Co.,  18J 

The  special  characteristic  of  this  work  is  that  the  com- 
pilers have  tried  to  make  it  combine  some  of  the 
advantages  of  an  encyclopaedia  with  all  the  advantages 
of  a  dictionary.  The  result,  upon  the  whole,  is  very 
satisfactory.  The  information  given  in  the  encyclo- 
paedic part  of  the  work  is  not,  of  course,  sufficient 
for  students  ;  but  it  will  meet  the  wants  of  readers 
who  may  wish  to  obtain  a  concise  and  trustworthy 
account  of  any  subject  in  which  they  happen  to  be 
interested.  Special  attention  is  devoted  to  the  various 
branches  of  science,  and  scientific  terms  are  very  care- 
fully defined  and  explained.  So  far  as  we  have  been 
able  to  test  the  volume  of  which  this  is  the  second  part, 
we  have  found  it  in  all  respects  equal  to  the  preceding 
volumes. 

A  Treatise  on  the  Principle  of  Sufficient  Reason :  a 
Psychological  Theory  of  Reasoning,  showing  the 
Relativity  of  Thought  to  the  Thiftker,  of  Recognition 
to  Cognition,  the  Identity  of  Presentation  and  Repre- 
sentation, of  Perception  and  Apperception.  By  Mrs. 
P.  F.  Fitzgerald.     (London  ;  Thomas  Laurie,  1887.) 

This  is  neither  a  treatise  nor  has  it  anything  particularly 
to  do  with  the  principle  of  the  sufficient  reason,  or  with  the 
philosophical  views  mentioned  in  the  second  title.  It  is 
rather  a  kaleidoscope  of  phrases,  original  and  otherwise, 
that  have  apparently  from  time  to  time  touched  the 
author's  fancy,  and  are  now  vaguely  but  gratefully 
remembered  to  have  once  possessed  a  meaning  for  her. 
Quotations  from  Ouida,  Plato,  Lord  Dundreary,  and 
other  philosophical  authorities,,  are  tossed  together  im- 
partially, without  apparent  purpose  except  to  fill  400 
pages  ;  and  though  some  reference  is  made  occasionally 
to  opinions  said  to  be  held  by  the  author,  such  reference 
is  nearly  always  too  vague  to  show  what  the  opinions 
really  ai-e.  Only  the  hard-hearted  can  find  even  amuse- 
ment in  the  book. 


LETTERS   TO    THE  EDITOR. 

[The  Editor  does  not  hold  himself  responsible  for  opinions 
expressed  by  his  correspondents.  Neither  can  he  tuider- 
take  to  return,  or  to  correspond  with  the  writers  of, 
rejected  manuscripts.  No  notice  is  taken  of  anonymous, 
communications. 

[  The  Editor  urgently  requests  correspondents  to  keep  their 
letters  as  short  as  possible.  The  pressure  on  his  space 
is  so  great  that  it  is  impossible  otherwise  to  insure  the 
appearance  even  of  communications  containing  interesting 
and  novel  facts. 1 

"  Infusorial  Earth." 
The  following  letter,  addressed  to  the  Secretary  of  the  Royal 
Society,  has  been  forwarded  to  us  for  publication  : — 

Foreign  Office,  October  27,  1887. 
Sir, — I  am  directed  by  the  Marquess  of  Salisbury  to  state  to 
you,   for  the  information  of  the  President  and  Fellows  of  the 


Nov.  lo,  1887] 


NA  TURE 


31 


Royal  Society,  that  Her  Majesty's  Consul-General  at  Christiania 
has  reported  that  a  considerable  number  of  pits  of  "  infusorial 
earth  "  containing  85  to  95  per  cent,  of  silica  are  said  to  have 
been  discovered  in  the  neigbourhood  of  Stavanger. 

Capital  is  being  sought  for  the  purpose  of  working  the 
deposits,  which  are  estimated  to  be  capable  of  yielding  4CX),ooo 
cubic  metres  of  that  rare  product.  It  is  affirmed  that  whilst  the 
similar  deposits  at  Liineburg,  in  Hanover,  are  mixed  with  sand 
and  gravel,  those  now  discovered  are  so  pure  in  quality  as  to  be 
available  for  most  purposes  merely  after  desiccation. 

As  this  discovery  may  possibly  have  a  scientific  interest  as 
well  as  a  commercial  value,  I  am  directed  to  convey  the  above 
information  to  the  Royal  Society. 

I  amj  Sir,  your  most  obedient  humble  servant, 

T.  V.  Lister. 

The  Secretary,  Royal  Society,  Burlington  House. 


The  Electrical  Condition  of  the  Peak  of  Teneriffe. 

The  limited  number  of  observations  on  atmospheric  electricity 
which  have  been  already  made  all  point,  with  one  exception,  to 
a  normal  positive  difference  of  potential  between  a  point  some 
few  feet  above  the  earth  and  the  ground  itself.  The  only  notable 
exception  to  this  law  was  found  in  some  observations  which  were 
made  on  the  Peak  of  Teneriffe  about  thirty  years  ago.  Then  it 
appeared  that  the  condition  of  the  Peak  was  constantly  resinous 
or  negative.  These  observations  were,  however,  taken  with  a 
gold-leaf  electrometer,  and  some  doubt  has  been  expressed  as  to 
whether  the  sign  of  the  electricity  was  correctly  obtained. 

I  therefore  thought,  when  taking  a  short  trip  to  Teneriffe,  that 
it  would  be  useful  to  examine  this  question  by  means  of  the 
improved  electrical  instruments  now  available. 

Through  the  courtesy  of  the  Meteorological  Office  I  obtained 
the  loan  of  a  Thomson's  portable  electrometer,  and,  through  the 
kindness  of  Mr.  Whipple,  received  at  Kew  all  necessary  instruc- 
tion in  the  use  of  the  instrument,  and  special  caution  as  to  the 
possible  difficulty  of  getting  a  good  "earth"  on  sun-burnt  lava. 
Any  success  the  observations  may  have  had  is  entirely  due  to  his 
care  and  forethought. 

I  was  only  able  to  stay  about  a  fortnight  on  the  island,  but  the 
results  obtained  were  so  uniform  that  there  can  be  no  doubt  as 
to  their  accuracy. 

The  height  of  the  electrometer  fuse  was  always  about  5  feet 
6  inches  above  the  ground.  At  the  Port  of  Orotava,  at  the 
base  of  the  Peak,  and  about  50  feet  above  sea-level,  the  mean  of 
eight  sets  of  observations — each  set  usually  consisting  of  six 
determinations^ — gave  a  potential  of  138  volts.  The  highest 
was  193,  and  the  lowest  98  volts.  These,  and  all  I  obtained  in 
Teneriffij,  were  uniformly  positive. 

One  day  I  took  a  skirmishing  expedition  to  the  rock  of  Gayga, 
a  portion  of  the  rim  of  the  old  crater,  7100  feet  above  the  sea. 
On  the  way  up,  while  on  the  pretty  uniform  slope  of  the  moun- 
tain, at  3800  feet,  the  potential  was  only  -f  99  volts,  while  on 
the  rock  itself,  tension  rose  to  257  volts.  The  rock  is  a  long 
sharp,  narrow  edge,  perhaps  half  a  mile  long,  with  a  precipitous 
cliff  of  500  feet  on  one  side.  The  rock  was  composed  of  dry 
lava,  and  I  thought  a  little  damp,  but  still  the  earth  observations 
were  not  quite  so  accordant  as  usual. 

A  few  days  later,  therefore,  when  starting  for  the  top  of  the 
Peak,  I  took,  as  suggested  by  Mr.  Whipple,  an  ordinary  66-foot 
iron  surveyor's  chain  to  be  laid  along  the  ground  and  connected 
with  the  instrument.  The  readings  at  different  heights,  on  the 
way  up,  were  as  follows  : — 

At  5600  feet,  on  the  slope  of  the  mountain,  in  volts. 

On  the  Cafiadas,  or  rough  flattish  ground  that  forms  the  bottom 
of  the  old  crater,  at  5800  feet,  139  volts.  The  ground  here  was 
pumice  and  pumice  dust,  so  I  tried  running  out  the  chain  to  see 
if  the  earth-readings  would  be  altered.  There  was  not  however 
the  slightest  change,  and  to  show  the  character  of  the  observa- 
tions five  out  of  the  six  earth-readings  gave  the  same  number. 

At  the  Estancia  de  los  Ingleses,  10,500  feet,  situated  on  the 
slope  of  the  main  peak,  the  potential  fell  to  118  volts.  The  sun 
was  setting,  and  dew  falling  so  fast  that  the  top  of  the  electro- 
meter box  was  covered  with  wet.  There  could  be  no  doubt  then 
of  obtaining  a  good  earth. 

On  the  top  of  the  Peak,  12,200  feet,  the  potential  actually  rose 
to  no  less  than  549  volts.  This  was  at  8  o'clock  in  the  morning 
of  October  24.  The  wind  was  blowing  at  the  rate  of  about 
lo  miles  an  hour  from  the  north-east,  while  the  dry  and  wet 


bulb  thermometers  marked  31°  and  26°  respectively.  There  was  a 
little  white  frost  on  the  ground,  and  the  earth- readings,  without 
the  chain,  were  remarkably  uniform,  only  differing  by  the  ii-iooth 
of  a  turn  of  the  screw. 

The  results  of  all  the  observations  points  unmistakably  to  the 
conclusion  that  during  this  month  of  October  the  electrical 
condition  of  the  Peak  of  Teneriffe  were  the  same  as  in  every  other 
part  of  the  world.  The  potential  ivas  moderately  positive  at  the 
same  distance  from  the  ground  tven  at  considerable  altitudes,  but 
the  tension  rose  enortnously  round  a  sharp  point,  and  a  projecting 
edge  of  rock. 

It  is  well  known  that  there  are  very  few  thunderstorms  in 
Teneriffe,  though  one  passed  near  us  at  Orotava  without  affect- 
ing the  indications  of  the  electrometer.  Would  it  not  be 
interesting  to  measure  the  potential  on  the  summit  of  a  mountain 
like  Kina  Balu  in  Borneo,  which  is  about  the  same  height  as 
the  Peak  of  Teneriffe,  but  situated  in  the  heart  of  the  equatorial 
zone  of  the  constant  electrical  discharge  ? 

We  had  one  day  of  very  heavy  rain,  when  possibly  some 
negative  indications  might  have  been  obtained  ;  but  I  did  not 
think  it  expedient  to  let  the  instrument  get  drenched. 

But,  besides  obtaining  these  decisive  electrical  results,  I  was 
alsi  very  fortunate  in  some  other  observations  during  the  short 
stay  in  Teneriffe. 

We  saw  from  the  Estancia  the  shadow  of  the  Peak  at  sunset 
gradually  creep  along  the  land  and  surrounding  sea,  and  then 
stand  up  in  the  air  like  another  peak  rising  above  the  horizon. 
This  is  what  is  so  often  seen  from  Adam's  Peak  in  Ceylon,  and 
from  Pike's  Peak  in  Colorado. 

Then  our  observations  confirmed  not  only  the  important 
discovery  made  by  P.  Smyth,  that  cloud  is  not  formed  at  the 
junction  of  a  south-west  current  flowing  over  a  north-east  trade, 
but  the  even  more  important  fact  that  there  is  no  such  thing  as 
the  supposed  simple  return  current  from  the  equator.  At 
Teneriffe,  as  in  every  other  part  of  the  world  I  have  ever  visited, 
the  general  circulation  of  the  air  is  on  a  complicated  screw 
system,  the  practical  effect  of  which  is  that  as  you  ascend,  the 
wind  always  comes  more  and  more  from  your  left  hand  as  you 
stand  with  your  back  to  the  wind.  You  do  not  come  abruptly 
to  a  south-west  wind  over  a  north-east  trade,  but  pass  succes- 
sively as  you  rise  from  the  surface  from  north-east  through  south 
to  south-west,  and  then  probably  to  west,  or  even  north-west. 

I  also  made  some  very  important  observations  on  the  local 
formation  of  halo-forming  sky,  and  got  an  excellent  photograph 
of  the  genesis  of  a  cirrus  cloud  from  a  moist  current  rising  over 
the  Peak,  but  space  will  not  allow  me  to  explain  the  results  in 
this  place.  Ralph  Abercromby. 

21  Chapel  Street,  London,  November  7. 


"Toeing"  and  "Heeling"'  at  Golf. 

I  FEAR  that  "  P.  G.  T.'s"  reply  to  my  letter  on  the  above  sub- 
ject has  left  us  very  much  in  the  same  position  as  before.  This 
is  regrettable,  as  I  hoped  that  further  light  would  have  been 
shed  on  this  interesting  mechanical  problem.  Before  complying 
with  the  invitation  to  "think  over  the  result  of  the  impulsive 
rotation  of  the  club-head,"  I  considered  it  would  be  well  to  get 
some  trustworthy  observations  on  which  to  reason.  With  this 
object  our  professional,  Mr.  David  Lowe,  made  twenty -seven 
tee  shots  with  the  driver,  while  I  noted  the  effect.  My  instruc- 
tions to  him  were,  whether  striking  off  the  toe  or  the  heel,  to 
drive  as  truly  as  he  could  in  the  direction  of  an  object  selected 
for  that  purpose.  The  effects  were  as  follows  : — When  the  ball 
went  off  the  heel  of  the  club,  the  ball  in  its  flight  curved  to  the 
right,  even  though  its  direction  commenced  obliquely  to  the 
left ;  to  this  there  was  no  exception.  The  opposite  curve,  or  to 
the  left,  with  only  one  exception,  was  produced  by  hitting  off 
the  toe.  Care  was  taken  to  ascertain  in  each  case  the  point  of 
impact  of  the  ball  on  the  club-face. 

1  now  instructed  him  to  try  and  curve  the  ball  to  the  left, 
striking  with  the  heel  of  the  club,  or  to  "toe  it  off  the  heel,  in 
"  P.  G.  T.'s  "  words.  This  feat  he  was  unable  to  perform,  and 
he  gave  it  as  his  opinion  that  it  could  not  be  done. 

Now  for  my  explanation  of  "toeing  "  and  "  heeling  m  reply 
to  the  invitation  of  "  P.  G.  T." 

Everyone  who  has  played  golf  is  aware  that  the  ball  when 
cleanly  struck  leaves  a  round  mark  upon  the  face  of  a  new  club 
of  about  five-eighths  of  an  inch  in  diameter.  This  is  the  measure 
of   the  elastic  distortion  that   takes  place  in  the   ball   by^the 


32 


NATURE 


\_Nov.  lo,  1887 


impact.  The  ball  is  flattened  against  the  club-face,  and  is  for 
the  time  prevented  from  revolving.  To  assist  the  grip  of  the 
club  on  the  ball,  lines  are  scored  over  the  surface  of  the  ball. 
Now  consider  the  effect  of  the  rotation  of  the  club-head  round 
the  centre  of  percussion  when  the  ball  goes  off  the  heel  or  the 
toe. 

The  following  diagrams  of  a  "toed  "  ball  will  best  explain  my 
meaning — 


Fig. 


Fig.  2. 


Fig.  3. 


Flc   T  shows  the  club-head  and  ball  on  first  jneeting'. 

Fig.   2  shows  the  backward  revolution  of  the  club-head  due  to  the  impact  of 

the  ball  on  the  "  toe  "  of  the  club. 
Fig.   3  shows  the  club-head  on  the  recovery  before  the  ball  leaves  the  club- 

face. 

It  is  quite  evident  that  during  the  movement  from  the  position 
shown  in  Fig.  2  to  that  in  Fig.  3  the  ball,  though  adherent  to 
the  club-face,  is  revolving  to  the  left  on  its  own  axis  at  the  same 
rate  as  the  club-head  on  its  axis.  This  is  the  direction  of  spin 
that  curves  the  ball  to  the  left,  or  "  toes  "  it.  The  opposite 
happens  in  a  "  heeled  "  ball.  This  rotary  movement  is  neces- 
sarily intensified  by  the  involuntary  reaction  of  the  wrists,  which 
brings  the  club-head  further  round  than  the  elastic  recovery  of 
the  shaft  alone  would  do. 

I  venture  to  think  that  this  is  the  true  explanation  of  "  heel- 
ing "  and  "  toeing."  The  same  effects  can  be  produced  in  other 
ways  ;  "heeling  "  may  be  imitated  by  "slicing,"  but  that  does 
none  the  more  make  it  "heeling,"  nor  must  we  generalize  from 
what  happens  in  bad  play,  for  then — as  I  know  to  my  cost — all 
things  are  possible.  T.  Mellard  Reade. 

Park  Corner,  Blundellsands,  October  22. 


The  Ffynnon  Beuno  and  Cae  Gwyn  Caves. 

The  letter  from  Mr.  Worthington  G.  Smith  in  the  last 
number  of  Nature  (p.  7)  affords  a  remarkable  instance  of  rushing 
into  print  and  giving  an  opinion  on  a  subject  with  which  the 
writer  is  unacquainted.  Speaking  of  the  deposits  in  the  caves, 
he  states  that  all  he  knows  about  the  matter  has  been 
derived  from  reading  a  very  short  abstra,ct  of  a  paper 
read  by  Dr.  Hicks  at  the  recent  meeting  of  the  British 
Association,  in  which  the  caves  are  referred  to.  Now,  so  much 
has  been  written  and  published  on  the  Ffynnon  Beuno  and 
Cae  Gwyn  Caves  in  Nature  and  other  scientific  publications, 
that  it  is  extraordinary  that  anyone  should  venture  to  offer  an 
opinion  without  previously  reading  up  the  literature  of  the  sub- 
ject. Mr.  Worthington  G.  Smith  states  that  he  has  visited 
the  caves,  and  is  fairly  well  acquainted  with  the  Glacial 
deposits  of  North  Wales  and  with  Palaeolithic  implements 
in  general,  and  that  his  "unbiased  opinion  is,  and  will 
so  remain — unless"  he  gets  "very  convincing  proof  to  the 
contrary — that  the  drift  at  the  caves  has  been  without 
doubt  relaid."  We  may  be  thankful  for  Mr.  Smith's  opinion, 
but  unfortunately  it  is  not  woith  anything,  as  his  letter  conclu- 
sively proves.  Although  his  opinion  is  of  no  consequence,  I 
think  it  should  not  pass  unnoticed,  and  it  affords  me  an  oppor- 
tunity of  stating  that  during  the  last  month  the  drift  about  the 
entrance  of  the  Cae  Gwyn  Cave  has  been  again  carefully  examiiied, 
and  that  the  Reports  of  the  British  Association  Committee  have 
been  fully  confirmed.  G.  H.  Morton, 

Liverpool. 


THE  VICTORIA   UNIVERSITY. 

"VITE  are  glad  to  observe  that  the  application  of  the 
»  *  Yorkshire  College  for  admission  to  the  Victoria 
University  has  been  successful.  Doubt  was  expressed  by 
some  members  of  the  Court  as  to  whether  the  Faculty  of 
Arts  in  the  Leeds  institution  was  strong  enough  to  justify 
its  claim  to  share  in  the  privileges  enjoyed  by  Manches- 
ter and  Liverpool.  This  doubt  was  overruled.  The 
Charter  requires  that  the  provision  for  teaching  both  arts 
and  sciences  in  a  College  must  be  "  reasonably  sufficient " 
before  it  can  be  admitted  to  the  University.  It  is  not, 
however,  intended  that  it  must  be  equally  developed 
in  both  directions.  The  Yorkshire  College  is  no  doubt 
stronger  on  the  scientific  side,  and  w^as  indeed  originally 
called  the  "  Yorkshii-e  College  of  Science."  The  name 
was  changed,  and  the  limitation  it  imphed  removed,  two 
years  after  its  foundation,  when  the  Council  formally  took 
over  the  classes  in  literature  and  history  previously 
carried  on  by  the  Cambridge  University  Extension. 

The  subjects  of  a  curriculum  in  Arts  are  now  taught, 
though  the  number  of  Professors  engaged  in  the  task  is 
less  than  could  be  wished.  The  Professor  of  Classics  is 
Principal,  and  representative  of  his  scientific  as  of  his 
Arts  colleagues  on  the  Council.  There  is  a  Professor 
of  English  Literature  and  History,  and  there  are  Lec- 
turers in  French,  German,  Italian,  and  some  Oriental 
languages.  An  institution  which  provides  a  staff  com- 
petent to  teach  these  subjects,  and  places  its  Professor 
of  Classics  at  its  head,  cannot  be  accused  of  an  undue 
preference  for  science,  and  is,  we  think,  fully  qualified 
under  the  terms  of  the  Charter. 

One  of  the  advantages  of  the  federation  of  local 
Colleges  in  a  University  is  that  members  of  their  governing 
bodies  will  be  brought  together  in  its  management,  and 
will  thus  learn  practically  what  is  being  done  in  other 
institutions.  Leeds  will  no  doubt  be  stimulated  to 
attempt  to  bring  its  Arts  Faculty  to  the  level  attained 
by  Manchester.  Manchester  may  learn  that  combined 
classes  for  both  sexes  are  practicable,  and  that  the 
addition  of  a  Faculty  of  Technology  to  those  of  Arts 
and  Science  may  be  of  advantage  to  all  concerned. 

The  Victoria  University  is  now  fairly  started  on  its 
career,  and  its  constituent  Colleges  have  their  future  in 
their  own  hands.  Manchester,  Liverpool,  and  Leeds  can 
confer  degrees  on  students  in  their  principal  educational 
institutions  untrammelled  by  the  requirements  of  any 
external  authority.  We  believe  that  this  experiment  is 
more  promising  than  an  attempt  to  subordinate  local 
Colleges  to  our  older  Universities.  Oxford  and  Cam- 
bridge have  traditions  and  peculiarities  which  those  who 
know  them  best  would  wish  to  survive  amid  the  changes 
which  are  from  time  to  time  necessary  to  bring  them  into 
harmony  with  the  spirit  of  the  age.  Had  a  close  union 
been  formed  between  these  Universities  and  the  local 
Colleges,  it  is  probable  that  the  Colleges  would  gradually 
have  destroyed  much  that  in  its  place  in  the  Universities 
is  useful,  or  that  the  Universities  would  have  checked  the 
growth  of  the  Colleges  by  insisting  on  the  attempt  to 
fulfil  conditions  which  in  a  manufacturing  town  are 
unattainable. 

However  this  may  be,  it  is  certain  that  the  most  success- 
ful  provincial    Colleges   have   achieved    success  without 
direct  connection  with  Oxford  or  Cambridge,  though  from 
the  fact  that  graduates  of  these  Universities  are  always  to 
j  be  found  on  the  Professorial  Staff  they  have  exercised  an 
I  indirect  and  no  doubt  useful  influence. 

If  the  Victoria  University  succeeds  in  combining  the 

love  of  knowledge  for  its  own  sake  with  a  readiness  to 

meet   the    practical   requirements   of  an    age   in    which 

success   in   commerce   and   in   learning   are  closely   re- 

I  lated,    it    may    acquire    a     prestige  tand    an    authority 

i  second  to  that  of  no  other  educational  institution  in  the 

I  country. 


Nov.  lo,  1887] 


NATURE 


33 


THERMO-MAGNETIC  MACHINES. 

IT  would  seem  that  at  the  present  time  there  is  being 
developed  in  the  United  States  a  new  kind  of 
engine,  capable,  at  least  in  theory,  of  turning,  by  a  mag- 
netic method,  the  latent  energy  contained  in  fuel  either 
into  mechanical  work  or  into  the  energy  of  electric 
currents.  In  this  kind  of  machine  the  variations  produced 
in  the  magnetic  power  of  metals,  such  as  iron  and  nickel, 
by  heating  and  cooling  them,  are  made  the  means  of 
generating  in  the  one  case  electric  currents,  in  the  other 
mechanical  motion.  The  latter  application  was  the 
earliest  to  be  suggested.  In  the  columns  of  Nature 
(vol.  xix.  p.  397)  will  be  found  a  note,  extracted  from  the 
Journal  of  the  Franklin  Institute,  upon  a  thermo-magnetic 
motor  devised  by  Prof.  E.  J.  Houston  and  Prof.  E.  Thom- 
son, of  Philadelphia.  In  this  curious  apparatus  a  disk 
or  ring  of  thin  steel  is  mounted  on  a  vertical  axis  so  as 
to  be  quite  free  to  move,  with  its  edges  opposite  the  poles 
of  a  horse-shoe  magnet.  This  wheel  becomes  of  course 
magnetized  by  induction.  When,  however,  heat  is 
applied  at  a  point  on  the  circumference,  tie  change 
thereby  produced  in  the  magnetic  susceptibility  of  that 
part  causes  the  disk  to  move  round  so  as  always  to  bring 
into  line  with  the  poles  those  portions  of  the  disk  which 
are  for  the  time  being  the  most  susceptible  to  magnetiza- 
tion. Hence  if  the  heating  is  continuous  there  will  be  a 
continuous  rotation  ;  the  parts  of  the  disk  cooling  as  they 
leave  the  source  of  heat,  and  again  becoming  heated  as 
they  pass  through  the  place  where  heat  is  being  applied. 
The  very  same  kind  of  thermo-magnetic  motor  was  re- 
invented, in  18S6,  by  Prof.  Schwedoff,  of  Odessa,  who,  in 
a  paper  in  \S\&  Jourtial  de  Physiqtce,'^ovc\.\.&^  out  that  this 
was  a  genuine  case  of  conversion  of  heat  into  work,  and 
gave  the  theory  of  the  transformation  and  the  cycle  of 
operations  from  the  thermo-dynamic  point  of  view. 

The  next  stage  of  invention  in  point  of  time,  though  it 
has  only  just  been  made  public,  is  the  suggestion  by  Mr. 
E.  Berliner,  of  Washington,  to  use  these  thermo-magnetic 
variations  in  iron  for  the  purpose  of  generating  electric 
currents.  In  June  1885  Mr.  Berliner  filed  an  application 
for  a  patent  for  an  "  electric  furnace  generator,"  of  which 
the  following  are  the  underlying  principles  :— "  If,"  he 
says,  "  I  take  a  magnet  and  provide  it  with  a  coil  around 
its  pole  or  poles,  and  place  before  this  magnet  and  in 
proximity  to  the  coil  a  piece  of  iron  heated  to  bright  red, 
nothing  will  occur  to  disturb  the  magnetic  field  ;  but  the 
instant  the  iron  cools  down  to  a  dull  red,  the  magnetism 
becomes  excited,  and  a  momentary  current  of  electricity  is 
produced  in  the  coil.  I  may  go  a  step  further  and  have 
a  series  of  such  magnet  coils  and  iron  armatures,  and  by 
connecting  the  coils  into  the  same  circuit,  and  cooling  the 
armatures  in  rotation  one  after  the  other,  a  number  of  ! 
electrical  impulses  will  be  produced,  which,  when  they 
follow  one  another  rapidly,  will  approximate  to  a  con- 
tinuous electric  current.  .  .  .  The  current  thereby  produced 
might  be  utilized  to  charge  another  coil  surrounding  the 
magnet  and  reinforce  the  field  ;  and  in  that  case  the  mag- 
net might  be  substituted  by  a  tubular  core  of  iron,  ...  or 
a  series  of  coils  and  magnets  might  be  placed  toward  one 
larger  armature  disk,  forming  a  common  armature,  heated 
by  one  furnace." 

The  most  recent  suggestions  in  this  line  come  from 
Mr.  T.  A.  Edison,  who,  independently  of  Mr.  Berliner, 
has  devised  an  almost  identical  generator,  to  which  he 
has  given  the  name  of  a  "  pyro-magnetic  dynamo."  At 
the  recent  meeting  of  the  American  Association  of  Science, 
a  paper  by  Mr.  Edison,  giving  an  account  of  his  machines, 
was  read,  and  has  been  largely  noticed  in  the  non-technical 
press,  as  though  it  were  an  absolutely  new  departure  in 
electric  science.  The  famous  inventor  may  certainly  lay 
claim  to  having  worked  out  in  greater  detail  the  practical 
problems  of  construction.  In  the  generator  there  are 
eight  double-pole  electro-magnets  arranged  radially.     At 


the  top  the  eight  poles  converge  toward  a  central  space  ; 
and  about  a  foot  below  the  other  eight  poles  converge 
toward  a  second  central  space.  In  these  central  spaces 
lie  two  soft  iron  disks,  forming  the  cheeks  of  the  arma- 
ture, and  pierced  with  eight  large  holes,  each  to  receive 
eight  vertical  armature  cores,  each  of  which  consists  of  a 
roll  of  corrugated  sheet-iron  surrounded  with  a  coil  of 
wire  insulated  with  asbestos.  The  eight  wire  coils  are 
connected  up  together  and  joined  to  a  commutator,  just 
like  the  coils  in  the  armature  of  Niaudet's  dynamo.  This 
armature  stands  over  a  furnace,  the  heated  gases 
of  which  are  led  up  through  the  interstices  of  the 
eight  rolls  of  sheet-iron.  By  the  use,  however,  of  a 
revolving  screen  of  fire-clay  the  ascending  hot  gases  are 
cut  off  successively  from  some  of  these  tubular  cores 
so  that  they  are  alternately  heated  and  cooled,  giving 
rise  to  electric  currents  in  the  coils,  which  currents  are 
collected  above  by  the  action  of  the  commutator.  The 
arrangement  appears  to  have  been  constructed  with  Mr. 
Edison's  well-known  ingenuity.  The  inventor  has  also 
constructed  a  pyro-magnetic  motor,  which  consists  essen- 
tially of  a  powerful  field-magnet  (independently  excited) 
having  between  its  poles  as  a  rotating  armature  a  bundle 
of  small  vertical  tubes  of  very  thin  iron,  which  are  packed 
in  a  convenient  drum-like  form  and  mounted  on  a  vertical 
spindle.  From  a  furnace  underneath  rise  currents  of 
heated  air,  and  pass  through  the  iron  tubes  ;  but,  by  a 
screen  placed  in  a  suitable  position  below,  the  heated  air 
is  prevented  from  rising  through  some  of  the  tubes,  and 
instead  thereof  a  blast  of  cool  air  is  blown  down  these : 
the  cooled  tubes,  becoming  more  highly  magnetic,  are 
more  powerfully  attracted  by  the  poles  of  the  field-magnet, 
and  move  forward,  only  to  be  afresh  heated,  whilst  a  new 
set  of  tubes  comes  into  position  to  be  cooled  and 
attracted.  Mr.  Edison  states  that  already  a  speed  of  120 
revolutions  per  minute  is  practicable  ;  and  he  is  building 
one  of  these  motors  calculated  to  work  at  3  horse-power. 
Whether  the  sanguine  hopes  which  he  expresses  as  to 
the  economic  working  of  such  motors  and  generators,  as 
compared  with  existing  engines  and  dynamos,  will  be  ful- 
filled in  the  future  is  as  yet  a  matter  of  speculation.  But 
the  practical  problem,  even  though  it  is  surrounded  by 
many  obvious  difficulties,  is  of  so  tempting  a  nature,  and 
the  attempt  to  solve  it  is  so  daring,  that  we  must  wish  to 
our  Transatlantic  friends  the  utmost  success  in  their 
efforts  to  supersede  the  present  wasteful  methods  of 
utilizing  the  latent  energy  of  fuel. 


NOTES. 

The  following  is  the  list  of  names  recommended  by  the 
President  and  Council  of  the  Royal  Society  for  election  into  the 
Council  for  the  year  1888,  at  the  forthcoming  anniversary  meet- 
ing on  the  30th  inst. : — President  :  Prof.  George  Ciabriel  Stokes, 
Treasurer :  Dr.  John  Evans.  Secretaries  :  Prof  Michael  Foster, 
the  Lord  Rayleigh.  Foreign  Secretary  :  Prof.  Alexander  William 
Williamson.  Other  members  of  the  Council :  Sir  William  Bow- 
man, Bart. ,  Henry  Bowman  Brady,  Prof.  Arthur  Cayley,  W.  T. 
Thiselton  Dyer,  Prof.  David  Ferriur,  Dr.  Edward  Frankland, 
Dr.  Arthur  Gamgee,  Prof.  Joseph  Henry  Gilbert,  Prof  John 
W,  Judd,  Prof.  Herbert  McLeod,  Dr.  William  Pole,  William 
Henry  Preece,  Admiral  Sir  George  Henry  Richards,  K.C.B., 
Prof.  Arthur  William  Riicker,  the  Earl  of  Rosse,  and  Sir 
Bernliard  Samuelson,  Bart. 

Mr.  F.  J.  Jackson  has  presented  to  the  Natural  History 
Museum  an  interesting  set  of  animals  collected  by  him  during 
his  three  years'  residence  in  East  Africa.  The  birds  are  parti- 
cularly valuable,  and  contain  many  species  new  to  the  Museum 
collection.  Mr.  Jackson  resided  for  some  time  in  the  Kilima 
N'jaro  district,  and  procured  several  rare  species  hitherto  only 
known   from    the   late   Dr.    Fischer's  collections  in  the   Berlin 


34 


NATURE 


{Nov.  lo,  1887 


Museum.  From  Lamu  and  Manda  Island  the  additions  to  the 
Museum  collection  are  numerous,  and  supply  many  desiderata  to 
the  series  of  bird-skins. 

The  remains  of  the  great  naturalist,  Audubon,  lie  in  an 
obscure  and  little-visited  portion  of  Trinity  Cemetery,  New 
York  City,  and  his  tomb  is  not  marked  by  any  distinguishing 
monument.  A  movement  has  been  started  for  the  erection  of  a 
suitable  monument.  At  the  first  autumn  meeting  of  the  New 
York  Academy  of  Sciences  a  Committee  was  appointed  to  col- 
lect funds  and  make  all  necessary  arrangements.  This  Com- 
mittee, of  which  Dr.  Britten  is  Secretary  and  Treasurer,  is  now 
ready  to  receive  subscriptions,  which  will  be  properly  acknow- 
ledged. It  is  estimated  that  from  6000  to  10,000  dollars  will  be 
required.  While  confident  that  this  amount  might  be  collected 
in  America,  the  Committee  are  anxious  that  interest  should  be 
taken  in  the  project  by  men  of  science  in  all  departments  in  all 
parts  of  the  world. 

Mr.  Edwin  Lees,  who  died  lately  at  Worcester  at  the  age 
of  eighty-seven,  had  a  considerable  reputation  as  a  naturalist. 
Among  his  writings  are  "The  Botany  of  the  Malvern  Hills," 
"  Pictures  of  Nature  among  the  Malvern  Hills  and  Vale  of 
Severn,"  "The  Botany  of  Worcestershire,"  and  "The  Forest 
and  Chace  of  Malvern."  He  was  one  of  the  founders  of  the 
Worcestershire  Natural  History  Society,  and  of  the  Worcester- 
shire Naturalists'  Field  Club. 

Mr,  Thomas  Bolton,  of  the  Microscopists'  and  Naturalists' 
Studio,  Birmingham,  died  on  Monday.  He  was  in  his  fifty-seventh 
year.  About  a  year  ago  a  Civil  List  pension  of  ;^50  per  annum 
was  granted  to  Mr.  Bolton  in  recognition  of  his  services  as  a 
naturalist  and  microscopist.  The  memorial  setting  forth  his 
claims,  discoveries,  and  special  circumstances  was  signed  by  Sir 
J.  W.  Dawson  and  many  other  eminent  men  of  science. 

A  Conference  on  Technical  Education,  in  which  working 
men  took  a  prominent  part,  was  held  last  Saturday  evening  at 
the  Finsbury  Technical  College.  There  was  a  large  attendance 
of  students  and  others.  Mr.  James  Rowlands,  M.P.,  occupied 
the  chair,  and  Prof.  Silvanus  P.  Thompson  read  an  address  on 
"The  Present  Position  of  the  Technical  Instruction  Question." 
Prof.  Thompson  urged  that  the  most  essential  of  all  the  condi- 
tions for  the  organization  of  an  adequate  system  of  technical 
instruction  is  the  creation  of  "a  real  Fiducation  Department 
under  a  real  Minister  of  Education," 

At  the  annual  meeting  of  the  delegates  of  the  Union  of 
Lancashire  and  Cheshire  Institutes  at  Crewe  on  Monday,  Lord 
Derby  delivered  an  excellent  address  on  education.  In  the 
course  of  his  remarks  he  pointed  out  that  the  "  Institutes  of  fifty 
years  ago  for  the  most  part  failed  because  of  the  want  of  good 
primary  schools  to  feed  them.  "You  have  the  schools  now," 
he  continued,  "and  what  we  have  to  do  is  to  provide  the  means 
of  carrying  on  the  instruction  of  those  who  are  willing  to  learn 
after  the  time  when  they  are  clear  of  school,  and  free  to  follow 
their  own  devices  when  the  day's  work  is  over."  Speaking  of 
technical  instruction.  Lord  Derby  said  :— "  We  are  fighting  for 
the  markets  of  the  world  ;  we  have  held  our  own  hitherto,  but 
the  struggle  is  sharper  than  ever,  and  we  cannot  afford  to  throw 
away  any  advantage  which  is  possessed  by  other  countries.  It 
may  be  that,  as  often  happens,  we  shall  find  out  that  we  have 
overrated  the  benefit  of  technical  teaching,  that  it  can  do  less 
for  us  than  Jwe  now  expect ;  but  we  are  not  the  less  bound 
to  try,  and  to  deserve  success,  whether  we  get  it  or  not." 

Some  electric   balloon   signalling  experiments   were   carried 
on  at  Berchem,  in  the  fortifications  outside  Antwerp  on  Wednes- 
day evening,  October  26.     The  system  used  was  known  as  the  | 
Bruce  system,  and  the  inventor,  Mr.  Eric  Stuart  Bruce,  himself 
superintended  the  experiments  at  the  invitation  of  the  Belgian  War 


Minister.  The  balloon  used,  which  had  just  been  purchased  of  Mr. 
Bruce  by  the  Belgian  Government,  was  a  small  one,  being  only 
15  feet  in  diameter.  It  had  been  designed  for  hydrogen,  but 
though  it  was  filled  with  very  dense  coal-gas  it  lifted  500  feet  of 
electric  cable  besides  its  captive  rope.  This  special  cable  was 
an  improvement  on  what  was  formerly  used  by  Mr.  Bruce,  being 
now  lighter  though  of  the  same  current  capacity.  The  Bruce 
key  also,  which  gave  great  satisfaction,  has  been  lately  consider- 
ably modified,  and  can  carry  any  current,  the  contacts  being  of 
carbon,  which  can  easily  be  renewed  on  wearing  away.  The 
Minister  of  War,  General  Pontus,  General  Wauwermans,  In- 
spector-General of  Fortifications  at  Antwerp,  and  various  other 
distinguished  officers  were  present,  including  special  delegates 
from  Russia,  Holland,  &c.,  &c.  The  first  telegram  sent  was : 
"Porte  d'Herenthals  de  Berchem.  Voyez  vous  distinctement 
signaux  Bruce,  repetez  la  depeche  par  telephone.  (Signe) 
General  Wauwermans."  This  was  distinctly  read  and  telephoned 
back.  Also  the  second,  sent  by  the  Minister  of  War  :  "Envoyez 
un  bataillon  au  fart  i.  (Signe)  Ministre  Guerre  Pontus."  A  third 
telegram  jent  to  the  Caserne  of  Telegraphists  was  equally  success- 
ful. There  were  six  lights  in  the  balloon  giving  about  twenty 
candle-power  each.  The  telephonic  stations  of  Rehls  were  com- 
paratively near,  being  only  at  a  distance  of  from  4  to  5  kilometres  ; 
the  object  that  night  being  to  test  at  once  the  distinctness  of  the 
signals,  by  placing  the  obseiving-stations  on  the  existing  te'e- 
phonic  circuits  ;  but  the  night  was  an  ideal  one  for  signalling, 
and  it  is  understood  that  the  balloon  was  seen  to  an  enormous 
distance.  A  company  was  also  on  the  look-out  at  the  top  of  the 
tower  of  Notre  Dame,  at  Antwerp  (4  kilometres),  and  they 
distinctly  read  all  the  messages  sent. 

Considerable  uncertainty  has,  up  to  the  present  time,  ex- 
isted as  to  the  number  and  composition  of  the   compounds  of 
gold  with  sulphur.     For  years  it  was  supposed  that  there  were 
three  sulphides  of  gold — AuaS,  Au^So,  and  Au.jSg  ;  but  Schrotter 
and  Pruvoznik,  in  1874,  came  to  the  conclusion  that  no  sulphides 
of  gold  were  to  be  obtained  in  a  pure  state,  thus  leaving  the 
subject  in  greater  darkness  than  ever.      Happily,  however,  this 
deplorable  uncertainty  has  at  length  been  completely  dispelled 
by  Drs.     Hoffmann   and  Kriiss,  of   Munich,   who  have  aban- 
doned  the    methods    of  Berzelius,   Levol,   and    Schrotter  andi 
Pruvoznik,  for  more  fruitful  ones  of  their  own.     The  lowest  ;ul- 
phide  of  gold,  AuoS,  was  obtained  by  the  addition  of  hydro- 
chloric acid  to  a  solution  of  the  double  cyanide  of  gold  and 
potassium  saturated  with  sulphuretted  hydrogen.    The  last  traces 
of  admixed  sulphur  were  removed  by  washing  with  sulphuretted 
hydrogen  solution,  alcohol,  e'.her,  carbon  disulphide,  and  finally 
again  with  ether.      After  drying  over  phosphoric  oxide,  pure 
AU2S  was  obtained  as  a  dark-brown  powder,  yielding  theoretical 
numbers  on  analysis.   When  freshly  precipitated  it  is  remarkably 
soluble  in  water,  indicating  a  close  relationship  to  the  metals  of 
the  alkalies,  whose  sulphides  are  also  soluble  in  water,  and  thus 
asserting  its  position  in  the  first   vertical  series  of  the  periodic 
system.       With  polysulphides  of  the    alkalies    it  forms  greer* 
sulpho-salts.     It  decomposes  at  240^,  leaving  a  residue  of  pure 
gold,  and,  if  warmed  in  a  stream  of  oxygen,  takes  fire,  forming 
SO2,  and  again  leaving  its  gold  in  the  metallic  state.   In  a  second 
communication  in  the  current  number  of  the  Berichte,  Hoffmann 
and  Kriiss  describe  how  they  have  succeeded  in  preparing  Au^S^- 
A    cold  neutral  solution  of  gold  chloride  was  precipitated   by 
sulphuretted   hydrogen    until    the    supernatant    liquid    became 
colourless.     Admixed  sulphur  was  removed  from  the  precipitate 
in  a   manner   similar   to   that  employed  in  case  of  AugS,  an  1 
finally  pure  AugSg  isolated  as  a  deep  black  substance,  decom- 
posed by  heat  similarly  to  AugS.     It  is  distinguished  from  the 
latter  sulphide  by  being  decomposed   by  caustic  potash    with 
formation  of  potassium  oxy-  and   sulpho-salts  and  separation  of 
a  little  metallic  gold.       Au^Ss  of  Berzelius  was  found  not  to 


Nov.  lo,  1887] 


NA  TURE 


35 


exist,  being  merely  a  mixture  of  AujS.,  and  sulphur,  for  the 
former  substance  was  completely  extracted  by  a  solution  of 
potassium  cyanide,  leaving  an  emulsion  of  finely-divided  sulphur. 
The  November  Bulletin  of  Miscellaneous  Information,  issued 
from  the  Royal  Gardens,  Kew,  is  the  first  of  a  series  of  papers 
in  which  information  will  be  given  as  to  the  capabilities  of  our 
colonies  to  grow  and  export  fruit.  The  authorities  of  Kew  have 
little  doubt  that,  if  proper  arrangements  were  made  for  packing 
and  shipping,  large  quantities  of  fruit  might  be  exported  from 
Cape  Colony,  Natal,  the  Australian  colonies,  and  New  Zea- 
land. It  is  thought  that  much  of  this,  arriving  in  England 
during  the  winter  and  early  spring  months,  would  be  readily 
bought  to  supply  the  wants  of  the  community,  and  that  the 
prices  paid  for  such  fruit  as  an  article  of  luxury  would  be 
sufficiently  high  to  cover  the  cost  of  bringing  it  from  the 
southern  hemisphere.  Much  interest  was  taken  in  the  fruit 
shown  from  all  parts  of  the  Empire  at  the  late  Colonial  and 
Indian  Exhibition.  An  effort,  therefore,  has  been  made  at  Kew 
to  collect  information  on  the  subject,  and  excellent  service,  no 
doubt,  will  be  done  by  the  publication  of  the  facts  which  have 
been  brought  together.  In  the  present  Bulletin  a  full  account  is 
given  of  Canadian  fruits. 

The  fifth  part  (just  issued)  of  the  Transactions  of  the  Leicester 
Literary  and  Philosophical  Society  contains  an  interesting  paper, 
by  Mr.  F.  T.  Mott,  on  foreign  fruits  available  for  acclimatization 
in  England.  Among  the  plants  to  which  he  calls  attention  is 
the  Zizyphus  vulgaris,  which  produces  a  yellow  fruit  of  pleasant 
flavour,  the  size  of  a  small  gooseberry.  These  fmits  are  usually 
dried  and  sold  under  the  name  of  jujubes,  the  gelatine  jujubes  of 
our  shops  being  named  after  them.  "It  is  probable,"  says  Mr. 
Mott,  "that  no  species  of  Zizyphus  in  its  present  condition 
would  ripen  its  fruit  in  English  gardens,  but  the  art  of  cultivation 
consists  in  so  modifying  the  natural  habits  of  plants  as  to  adapt 
them  to  man's  needs  in  various  climates.  This  is  accomplished 
by  selection,  propagation  by  seed,  changes  of  soil,  and  gradual 
exposure.  The  first  step  would  probably  be  to  obtain  a  hardy 
variety  of  the  Zizyphus  vulgaris  regardless  of  the  quality  of  the 
fruit.  A  tree  should  be  selected  in  the  most  elevated  and  exposed 
situation  in  which  it  naturally  ripens  its  fruit.  Seeds  from  this 
tree  should  be  grown  in  a  slightly  colder  climate,  and  if  any  of 
them  can  be  got  to  ripen  fruit,  the  seeds  of  these  should  be  again 
reared  still  further  north.  In  this  manner  the  tree  might  gradu- 
ally be  acclimatized  in  our  southern  counties.  Having  once 
obtained  a  sufficiently  hardy  stock,  the  next  process  would  be  to 
improve  the  fruit.  This  would  be  done  by  selection  of  seed  with 
reference  to  the  fruit  rather  than  to  the  hardiness  of  the  plant, 
by  crossing  with  Indian  or  Chinese  species,  and  by  careful  study 
of  soil  and  general  treatment.  The  process  of  thus  producing  a 
new  hardy  fruit  would  be  tedious,  because  fruiting  trees  can 
scarcely  be  brought  to  such  a  state  of  maturity  as  to  show  their 
true  characters  in  less  than  eight  or  ten  years  from  the  sowing  of 
the  seed,  and  five  or  six  generations  at  least  might  be  required 
to  produce  any  useful  result.  But  the  experiment  would  be 
interesting  in  all  its  stages,  and  the  oSject  if  ultimately  attained 
would  be  of  great  value." 

We  have  received  the  General  Report  on  the  operations  of 
the  Survey  of  India  Department,  administered  under  the  Govern- 
ment of  India,  during  1885-86.  The  Report  has  been  prepared 
under  the  direction  of  Colonel  H.  R.  Thuillier,  R.E.,  officiating 
Surveyor-General  of  India.  It  is  divided  into  three  parts. 
Part  I.  is  introductory;  Part  II.  contains  a  summary  of«the 
operations  of  the  trigonometrical,  topographical,  and  revenue 
survey  parties  ;  in  Part  III.  there  is  an  account  of  the  operations 
of  the  several  head- quarter  offices.  Extracts  from  narrative 
reports  are  presented  in  an  appendix.  Among  the  "general 
remarks "  in  Part   I.  there  is  a  paragraph  in  which  some  dis- 


satisfaction is  expressed  with  existing  arrangements.  "  The  large 
demands,"  says  the  writer,  "  that  have  been  made  on  the  Survey 
Department  for  ofificers  required  to  accompany  political  missions 
and  military  expeditions,  and  for  other  special  work,  combined 
with  the  circumstance  of  a  larger  percentage  than  usual  being 
absent  on  medical  leave,  has  rendered  the  efficient  prosecution 
of  the  regular  work  of  the  Department  peculiarly  difficult.  This 
has  been  the  subject  of  remark  in  the  Annual  Reports  for  the 
past  two  years,  and  during  the  year  under  review  the  paucity  of 
officers  has  been  still  more  seriously  felt.  There  has  been 
absolutely  no  reserve  of  trained  officers,  and  the  administration 
of  the  Department  has  consequently  been  a  task  of  considerable 
anxiety.  It  is  necessary  to  record  that  the  working  machinery 
of  the  Department  has  been  limited  to  a  dangerous  extent." 

It  is  stated  that  the  Government  of  the  Straits  Settlements  are 
about  to  undertake  a  systematic  survey,  on  the  Indian  plan,  of 
their  territory  and  of  that  of  the  neighbouring  "protected" 
States.  Colonel  Burrow,  of  the  Indian  Survey  Department,  was 
recently  appointed  to  advise  the  Colonial  Government  on  the 
subject,  with  the  result  here  stated. 

The  Asiatic  Society  of  Japan  has,  we  are  glad  to  observe, . 
published  a  General  Index  to  its  Transactions.  There  are  now 
thirty-six  parts,  or  fifteen  volumes,  of  the  latter,  and  as  almost 
every  foreign  scholar  in  Japan  has  been  a  contributor  to  the 
Society's  Proceedings  for  fourteen  or  fifteen  years  past,  it  was 
necessary  that  an  index  should  be  published.  About  two  years 
ago  we  noticed  the  publication  of  an  index  to  the  Proceedings 
of  the  Society's  friendly  rival,  the  German  Society. 

Mr.  Henry  Seebohm  is  about  to  issue  a  work  on  the 
Geographical  Distribution  of  the  Charadriidce  (Plovers,  Sand- 
pipers, and  Snipes,  &c.).  The  unrivalled  collection  of  Wading 
Birds  in  Mr.  Seebohm's  possession  supplies  the  material  for  this 
wor'A,  and  the  volume  will  undoubtedly  be  one  of  great  interest 
to  ornithologists.  Mr.  Seebohm's  ideas  on  nomenclature,  the 
influence  of  the  Glacial  epoch  on  the  migration  of  birds,  and  other 
kindred  subjects,  are  always  original,  and  this  new  work  of  his 
will  open,  according  to  the  prospectus,  with  an  introduction 
setting  forth  his  latest  opinions.  There  is  also  to  be  given  "a 
complete  synonymy  from  1776  to  the  present  time,"  a  rather 
appalling  announcement,  and  one  involving  a  vast  change  in 
ornithological  nomenclature,  as  it  will  preclude  the  use  of 
Linnean  names. 

A  TRANSLATION,  by  Miss  Margaret  K.  Smith,  of  Seidel's 
"Industrial  Instruction"  is  about  to  be  issued  in  America 
by  Messrs.  D.  C.  Heath  and  Co.  The  author  presents  an 
exposition  of  "  the  principles  underlying  the  claims  of  hand 
labour  to  a  place  on  the  school  programme." 

"The  Shell-Collector's  Hand-book  for  the  Field,"  by  Dr.  J. 
W,  Williams,  the  editor  of  The  Naturalist's  Mon'hly,  will  be 
published  immediately  by  Messrs,  Roper  and  Drowley.  It  will 
give  full  directions  as  to  the  collecting  and  preserving  of  British 
land  and  fresh-water  shells,  and  will  describe  the  habitat  of 
each.  Every  genus,  species,  and  variety  known  to  the  Con- 
chologicil  Society  up  to  date  of  publication  will  be  noted. 

Mr.  T.  a.  Walker's  "History  of  the  Making  of  the  Severn 
Tunnel "  is,  we  understand,  likely  to  appear  about  Christmas. 
In  addition  to  portraits  on  steel  of  some  of  the  more  prominent 
engineers  concerned  in  the  enterprise,  there  will  be  numerous 
Dlans  and  sections  sho.ving  '.the  gradual  progress  of  the  work, 
knd  diagrams  of  the  large  pumping-engines,  &c.  Messrs. 
Bentley  and  Son  will  be  the  publishers. 

Sir  James  Facet's  address  to  the  medical  students  at 
Owens  College,  delivered  at  the  opening  of  the  session 
1887-88,  has  been  published.  The  subject  is,  the  utility  of 
scientific  work  in  the  practice  of  medicine  and  surgery. 


36 


NATURE 


\Nov.  lo,  1887 


The  new  number  of  the  Journal  of  the  Anthropological  In- 
stitute contains  a  striking  paper  by  Dr.  George  Harley,  in  which 
he  attempts  to  show  that  the  tendency  of  civilization  is  decidedly 
to  lower  the  bodily  recuperative  powers  of  human  beings.  An- 
other interesting  paper— by  Mr.  G.  L.  Gomme — is  on  the  evi- 
dence for  Mr.  McLennan's  theory  of  the  primitive  human  horde. 

Messrs.  S.  Wigg  and  Son,  Adelaide,  are  issuing  a  work 
on  "Common  Native  Insects  of  South  Australia/'  by  Mr. 
J.  G.  O.  Tepper.  It  is  intended  to  serve  as  a  popular  guide  to 
South  Australian  entomology.     Part  I.  relates  to  Coleoptera. 

A  PAPER  containing  a  list  of  the  mammals  of  Manitoba,  by 
Mr.  Ernest  E.  Thompson,  has  been  reprinted  from  the  Trans- 
actions of  the  Manitoba  Scientific  and  Historical  Society.  It 
consists  chiefly  of  the  author's  field  notes. 

A  CORRESPONDENT  writes  from  St.  Petersburg  that  tigers 
have  been  encountered  this  autumn  in  parts  of  Asiatic  and 
European  Russia  where  they  have  never  been  t found  before. 
Some  time  ago  one  of  these  beasts  was  captured  near  Wladi- 
wostock,  in  Siberia,  and  another  in  the  government  of  the 
Caucasus,  close  to  the  Black  Sea.  Both  animals  have  been 
conveyed  to  St.  Petersburg  alive. 

A  Norwegian  astronomer  has  collected  seventeen  reports 
from  various  parts  of  Norway  respecting  the  great  meteor  seen 
in  that  country  on  the  evening  of  September  18,  no  doubt  the 
largest  meteor  seen  in  Norway  in  recent  times.  These  reports 
show  that  the  meteor  was  seen  as  far  north  as  Hamar,  in  Central 
Norway,  and  as  far  south  as  the  towns  of  Fredrikshald  and 
Skien,  on  opposite  sides  of  the  Christiania  Fjord,  the  capital  and 
neighbourhood  appearing  to  be  in  the  centre  of  its  track.  Its 
light  was  everywhere  magnificent,  having  the  appearance  of  a 
sudden  blaze  of  electric  light.  The  reports  from  Drammen  and 
neighbourhood,  as  well  as  those  from  the  province  of  Smaalenene, 
on  the  opposite  side  of  the  Christiania  Fjord,  maintain  that  the 
bursting  of  the  meteor,  which  took  place  within  this  area,  was 
accompanied  by  a  loud  report ;  but  the  astronomer  in  question 
is  of  opinion  that  this  belief  is  due  to  some  freak  of  the 
imagination,  as  the  track  of  the  meteor,  covering  such 
a  vast  area  of  land,  must  have  lain  too  high  in  the  atmosphere 
for  any  sound  to  be  heard.  He  calculates  from  the  reports  to 
hand  that  the  bursting  of  the  meteor  occurred  at  an  altitude  of 
about  6000  feet,  and  he  thinks  that  even  this  figure  may  be 
safely  doubled,  as  no  doubt  the  meteor  was  seen  far  north  and 
south  of  the  places  whence  reports  have  been  received. 

The  Aino  idea  of  an  eclipse  is  described  by  the  well-known 
student  of  Aino  language  and  manners,  Mr.  Bachelor,  in  a 
recent  number  of  the  ya/aw  Weekly  Mail.  Mr.  Bachelor  specially 
observed  the  conduct  of  the  Ainos  during  the  recent  eclipse.  The 
Aino,  he  says,  is  a  very  matter-of-fact  person,  and  is  not 
usually  carried  away  by  the  imagination.  On  being  shown  the 
eclipse  through  a  smoked  glass,  the  Aino  cried  out  that  the  sun 
was  fainting  away  and  dying.  A  silence  then  ensued,  and  from 
time  to  time  an  exclamation  of  surprise  or  fear  was  to  be  heard  ; 
it  was  evident  the  fear  was  that  the  sun  would  die  away  and 
never  revive.  They  brought  water  and  sprinkled  it  upwards 
towards  the  sun  (as  they  would  do  if  a  human  being  were 
expiring),  crying  at  the  same  time,  "  O  god,  we  revive  thee  !  O 
god,  we  revive  thee  !  "  Some  squirted  the  water  upwards  with 
their  mouths,  others  threw  it  with  their  hands,  others,  again, 
used  the  common  besom  or  willow-branches,  the  latter  being 
supposed  to  be  specially  efficacious.  A  few,  especially  women 
and  girls,  sat  down  with  their  heads  hidden  between  their  knees, 
as  if  silently  expecting  some  dreadful  calamity  to  suddenly 
befall  them.  They  have  no  theories  with  regard  to  eclipses,  but 
their  traditions  run  like  this  : — "  When  my  father  was  a  child,  he 
heard  his  old  grandfather  say  that  his  grandfather  saw  a  total 
eclipse  of  the  sun.     The  earth  became  quite  dark,  and  shadows 


could  not  be  seen  ;  the  birds  went  to  roost,  and  the  dogs  began 
to  howl.  The  black,  dead  sun  shot  out  tongues  of  fire  and 
lightning  from  its  sides,  and  the  stars  shone  brightly.  Then  the 
sun  began  to  return  to  life,  and  the  faces  of  the  people  wore  an 
aspect  of  death ;  and,  as  the  sun  gradually  came  to  life,  then 
men  began  to  live  again." 

The  first  meeting  of  the  one  hundred  and  thirty-fourth  session 
of  the  Society  of  Arts  will  beheld  on  Wednesday,  November  16, 
when  the  opening  address  will  be  delivered  by  Sir  Douglas 
Galton,  Chairman  of  the  Council.  Previous  to  Christmas  there 
will  be  four  ordinary  meetings,  in  addition  to  the  opening  meet- 
ing. For  these  meetings  the  following  arrangements  have  been 
made :— November  23,  Prof.  Silvanus  P.  Thompson,  "The 
Mercurial  Air-pump  ;  "  November  30,  Mr.  J.  B.  Hannay,  "Eco- 
nomical Illumination  from  Waste  Oils  ; "  December  7,  Mr.  P, 
L.  Simmonds,  "The  Chemistry,  Commerce,  and  Uses  of  Eggs 
of  Various  Kinds  ;"  December  14,  Sir  Philip  Magnus,  "Com- 
mercial Education."  During  the  session  there  will  be  six 
courses  of  Cantor  Lectures — "The  Elements  of  Architectural 
Design,"  by  Mr.  H.  H.  Statham  ;  "Yeast,  its  Morphology  and 
Culture,"  by  Mr.  A.  Gordon  Salamon  ;  "The  Modern  Micro- 
scope "  (being  a  continuation  of  the  recent  course  of  Cantor 
Lectures  on  the  "Microscope"),  by  Mr.  John  Mayall,  Jun.  ; 
"Alloys,"  by  Prof.  W.  Chandler  Roberts- Austen,  F.R.S.  ; 
"  Milk  Supply  and  Butter  and  Cheese  Making,"  by  Mr.  Richard 
Bannister;  "The  Decoration  and  Illustration  of  Books,"  by  Mr. 
Walter  Crane.  Two  juvenile  lectures  on  "The  Application  of 
Electricity  to  Lighting  and  Working,"  by  Mr.  William  Henry 
Preece,  F.  R.  S.,  will  be  given  during  the  Christmas  hoHdays. 

The  additions  to  the  Zoological  Society's  Gardens  during  the 
past  week  include  a  Campbell's  Monkey  {Cercopithecus  campbellt) 
from  West  Africa,  presented  by  Mr.  E.  B.  Mitford  ;  a  Weeper 
Capuchin  {Cebus  capucinus)  from  Brazil,  presented  by  Mr.  C.  N. 
Skeffington  ;  a  Raccoon-like  Dog  {Canis procynides)  from  China, 
presented  by  Mr.  W.  T.  Manger  ;  an  Indian  Antelope  {Antilope 
cervicaprd)  from  India,  presented  by  Mrs.  M.  V.  Charrington  ; 
a  Leopard  (Felis  pardus)  from  Ceylon,  presented  by  the  Dissawe 
of  Tamankadua  Dulewa  Adijur ;  a  Common  Sqmrrtl  {Sciurtis 
vulgaris),  British,  presented  by  Mr.  A.  Townsend ;  a  Naked- 
footed  Owlet  {Athene  noctud),  European,  presented  by  Mr.  R. 
E.  Holding ;  a  Laughing  Kingfisher  {Dacelo  gigantea)  from 
Australia,  presented  by  Mr.  G.  E.  Frodsham  ;  two  Larger  Hill- 
Mynahs  [Gracula  intermedia)  from  Northern  India,  presented 
respectively  by  Mr.  J.  M.  Cook  and  Mrs.  J.  S.  Beale  ;  a  Gray- 
headed  Porphyrio  {Porphyria  poliocephalus)  from  India,  pre- 
sented by  Lady  Morshed  ;  a  West  African  Python  {Python  seba) 
from  West  Africa,  a  Common  Boa  {Boa  constrictor)  from  South 
America,  two  Testaceous  Snakes  {Ptyas  testacea),  an  Alleghany 
Snake  {Coluber  alleghaniensis)  from  North  America,  deposited  ; 
six  Mocassin  Snakes  ( Tripidonottis  fasciattcs)  born  in  the 
Gardens. 


OUR  ASTRONOMICAL  COLUMN 

The  Variable  Star  UOphiuchi. — Mr.  S.  C.  Chandler,  Jun., 
who  first  determined  the  true  period  of  this  star,  of  all  variables 
the  one  with  shortest  period  and  most  rapid  fluctuations  of  light, 
has  brought  together,  in  No.  161  of  Gould's  Astronomical 
Journal,  all  the  observations  of  magnitude  of  this  star  avail- 
able. Of  these,  one  made  by  Schjellerup  on  June  7,  1863, 
is  of  special  value,  as  it  was  evidently  made  near  the  time  of 
minimum,  and  at  an  interval  of  nearly  8000  periods  from  the 
principal  epoch  ;  whilst  a  series  made  at  Cordoba  in  1871  and 
1872  has  proved  of  very  high  importance.  The  discussion  of 
these  various  observations  show  that  it  is  exceedingly  probable 
that  the  period  has  undergone  a  slight  shortening  ;  all  the  data 
being   well   reconciled   by  the  assumption  that  each  period  is 


Nov.  lo,  1887] 


NATURE 


The  corrected 


shorter  than  the  preceding    one  by  0*00045. 
elements  of  the  star  will  therefore  be  as  follows  : — 

1884  January  i,  oh.  54m.  43'6s.  Paris  M.T.   +  2oh.  7m.  41  •6s. 
(E  -  1070)  -  O '00025.   E. 

The  New  At.gol- Variable,  Y  Cygni. — In  the  same  num- 
ber of  Gould's  Astronomical  Journal  Mr.  Sawyer  states  that  he 
has  obtained  observations  of  this  star  which  render  it  probable 
that  the  true  period  is  id.  I2h.  ±,  or  half  the  period  which  Mr. 
Chandler  had  adopted  for  it  (see  Nature,  vol.  xxxvi.  p.  377)- 

Olbers' Comet,  1887. — The  following  ephemeris  is  in  con- 
tinuation of  that  given  in  Nature,  vol.  xxxvi.  p.  588  : — 

Ephemeris  for  Berlin  Midnight. 


1887. 

R.A.                Decl. 
h.    m.    s.           0        / 

Logn 

Log  d. 

Bright- 
ness. 

Nov.  II.. 

.1424  15  ...  13  59-0  N.  . 

..  0"II52  .. 

0-3037  • 

.    1*20 

13- 

.1431    8  ...  13  150 

15 

.143751  •••  I2  3i'6 

..  0*1232  .. 

0-3098  . 

..    I-I2 

17- 

.144425  ...  1148-9 

19 

,14  50  51  ...  II    67 

..0-1317  .. 

03162  . 

..    I -05 

21. 

.1457    9  ••■  1025-3 

23 

.15    318...    9447 

..  01406  .. 

0-3226  . 

..    0-98 

25- 

.15    9  20  ...    9  50*0 

27- 

.15  15  12  ...    8  26-0  N.  . 

..  0-1499  •• 

03291  . 

..    0-91 

The  brightness  on  August  27  is  taken  as  unity. 

ASTRONOMICAL  PHENOMENA  FOR  THE 
WEEK  1887  NOVEMBER  13-19, 

/"pOR  the  reckoning  of  time  the  civil  day,  commencing  at 
^  Greenwich  mean  midnight,  counting  the  hours  on  to  24, 

is  here  employed,) 

At  Greenwich  on  November  13 
Sun  rises,  7h,  i6m.  ;  souths,  lih.  44m,  23-63,  ;  sets,  l6h.  12m.  : 

right   asc.    on    meridian,    I5h.    i3-5m.  ;   decl,    17°    58'    S. 

Sidereal  Time  at  Sunset,  I9h,  42m. 
Moon  (New  on  November  15,  8h.)  rises,    4h,    13m.  ;  souths, 

loh.    6m.  ;    sets,    I5h.    46m,  :     right    asc,    on     meridian, 

I3h,  34 -4m, ;   decl.  4°  48'  S, 


Planet.         Rises, 
h.    m. 
Mercury.,     8  16  . 

Venus 2  56  . 

Mars I   12  . 

Jupiter 6  52  . 

Saturn,...  21  21*. 
Uranus  ...  3  52  . 
Neptune..   16  40*. 


Souths. 
h.  m. 
12    23 

8  52 
7  48 

II  31 
5     8 

9  28 
o  21 


Sets, 
h.  m. 
16  30 
14   48 

14  24 
16    10 

12  55 

15  4 

8    2 


Right  asc.  and  declination 
on  meridian, 
h.       m.  n       / 


15  52-4 
12  20-9 

11  16-3 
15   0-5 

8  360 

12  568 

3  48-3 


21  13  S. 

I  39  S. 

6  30  N, 
16  10  S. 
18  59  N. 

5  23  S. 
18  13  N. 


*  Indicates  that  the  rising  is  that  of  the  preceding  evening. 
Occultations  of  Stars  by  the  Moon  (visible  at  Greenwich). 


Nov. 


Star. 


Mag. 


Disap. 


Reap. 


Corresponding 
angles  from  ver- 
tex to  right  for 
inverted  image. 


h.   m. 

h.    m. 

0              0 

18  ...  33  Sag 

ttarii 

...  5     ...  16  23  ... 

16   50      ... 

38       I 

18  ...  i""  Sagi 

tarii 

„.  4     ...  18     2  ... 

19     5     - 

103  330 

Nov.            h. 

17     ...     19 

Mercury   in   inferior 
Sun. 

conjunction 

with    the 

18     ...       7 

Saturn  stationary. 
Variable  Stars. 

Star. 

R.A.               Decl. 
h.      m.             ,      , 

h.  m. 

U  Cephei     ... 

0  52-3  ...  81   16  N, 

...  Nov,  17, 

2     8  m 

Algol     

,., 

3    0-8  ...  40  31  N. 

...     „     16, 
„     18, 

I  3  m 
21  52  m 

S  Cancri 

8  37-5  •.    19  26  N. 

•••     ,,     14, 

I  26  tn 

R  Virginis    ... 

12  32-8  ...     7  37  N, 

...     „     14, 

M 

U  Ophiuchi.., 

17  io-8  ...     I  20  N. 

...     „     13, 

0     3  w 

and  at  i 

ntervals  of 

20    8 

jSLyrae 

18  45-9  •••  33  14  N. 

...  Nov.  15, 
„      19, 

19  0  W2 
0    0  M 

R  Lyrse 

18  51-9  ...  43  48  N. 

...     „     16, 

m 

5  Cephei 

22  25-0  ...  57  50  N. 

...     „     13, 

21     0  m 

From  Lynx       

Near  «  Leonis 

Near  0  Ursae  Majoris. 

The  Leonids     

Near  f  Ursae  Majoris, 


Meteor- Showers. 

R.A.            Decl. 

125     ...     40  N.     . 

142  ...     27  N.     .. 

143  •••     49  N.    . 
149     ...     22  N,    . 
166     ...     32  N,     . 

.     Swift ;  streaks. 
.     Very  swift, 
.     Very  swift, 
.     Swift  ;  streaks. 
,     Swift  ;  streaks. 

M  signifies  maximum  ;  m  minimum  ;  ;«2  secondary  minimum. 


GEOGRAPHICAL  NOTES. 

The  November  number  of  the  Scottish  Geographical Mat^azine 
contains  an  admirable  paper  by  Mr.  John  Murray,  on  "Sonne 
Recent  Deep-sea  Observations  in  the  Indian  Ocean,"  Mr,  W, 
W,  Blair,  C,E.,  contributes  a  useful  paper  on  the  "  Cold  Lakes 
of  New  Zealand."  Prof.  Mohn  sends  a  list  of  the  highest  peaks 
in  Northern  Europe,  with  their  heights  from  the  latest  determi- 
nations. They  are,  with  heights  in  feet : — Galdhoppigen,  South 
Norway,  8399;  Glitter  Tina,  8379;  Snehaetten,  7566;  Oraefa- 
jokuU,  6427  ;  Sulitelma,  Northern  Norway,  6178;  Petermann's 
Spitze,  East  Greenland,  11,418  ;  Beerenberg,  Jan  Mayen,  8350; 
Mount  Misery,  Bear  Island,  1785  ;  Hornsund  Tind,  Spitzbergen, 
4560;  Richthofen  Mount,  Franz  Josef  Land,  5184.  Of  these 
mountains  two  are  volcanic,  OrtefajokuU  and  Beerenberg, 

The  new  number  (9)  of  the  Mittheilungen  of  the  Vienna 
Geographical  Society  contains  a  summary  of  our  knowledge  of 
the  physical  geograpiy  of  the  East  Asiatic  waters  (the  Western 
Pacific  and  its  offshoots) — currents,  temperatures,  &c. — by  Lieut. 
Adolf  Glockner, 

In  the  September  number  of  the  BuUetin  of  the  American 
Geographical  Society,  Mr,  R.  E.  Peary  gives  a  detailed  account 
of  his  journey,  in  the  summer  and  autumn  of  last  year,  into  the 
interior  of  Greenland.  He  entered  in  the  neighbourhood  of 
Disco  Island,  considerably  further  north  than  the  starting-point 
chosen  by  Nordenskjold  for  his  expedition.  Mr.  Peary's 
experiences  were  somewhat  similar  to  those  of  Nordenskjold. 
His  course  throughout  the  journey  was  due  east.  He  only 
reached  100  miles  from  the  edge  of  the  ice-blink  or  interior 
ice,  his  highest  elevation  being  7525  feet.  Mr.  Peary  sums  up 
his  observations  of  the  character  of  the  interior  ice.  The  coast- 
line shows  a  great  diversity  of  features,  dependent  upon  the 
altitude,  the  season,  and  the  elevation  and  configuration  of  the 
adjacent  mountains.  Whenever  the  ice  projects  down  a  valley 
in  a  long  tongue  or  stream,  the  edges  contract  and  shrink  away 
from  the  warmer  rocks  on  each  side,  leaving  a  deep  cailon  be- 
tween, usually  occupied  by  a  glacier  ;  and  the  upper  surfaces, 
disintegrated  by  the  reflected  heat  from  the  mountains  above, 
and  shattered  by  the  daily  change  of  temperature  more  perhaps 
than  by  the  forward  flow,  presents  a  chaotic  labyrinth  of  cre- 
vasses, gullies,  and  rugged  pinnacles,  increasing  in  magnitude 
in  direct  proportion  to  the  length  of  the  tongue  and  its  approach 
to  the  sea-level.  As  to  the  features  of  the  interior  beyond  the 
coast-line,  the  surface  of  the  "ice-blink"  near  the  margin  is  a 
succession  of  rounded  hummocks,  steepest  and  highest  on  their 
landward  sides,  which  are  sometimes  precipitous.  Further  in 
these  hummocks  merge  into  long  flat  swells,  which  in  turn 
decrease  in  height  towards  the  interior,  until  at  last  a  flat  gently 
rising  plain  is  reached,  which  doubtless  becomes  ultimately  level. 
In  passing  from  the  margin  of  the  ice-blink  to  the  remote  inte- 
rior, from  one  to  five  distinct  zones  may  be  noted,  the  number 
and  width  varying  with  the  season,  the  latitude,  and  the  eleva- 
tion. In  winter  the  entire  surface  is  undoubtedly  covered  with 
a  deep  unbroken  layer  of  fine  dry  snow.  Late  in  the  spring 
the  warmth  of  the  sun  at  midday  softens  the  surface  of  the  snow, 
along  the  land  borders  of  the  ice,  and  this  freezes  at  night,  form- 
ing a  light  crust.  Gradually  this  crust  extends  up  the  interior, 
and  with  the  advance  of  the  season  the  snow  along  the  border 
of  the  "ice-blink"  becomes  saturated  with  water.  A  little 
later  the  zone  of  slush  follows  the  zone  of  crust  into  the  interior^ 
the  snow  along  the  border  of  the  ice-blink  melts  entirely,  form- 
ing pools  in  the  depressions,  and  streams  which  cut  deep  gulhes 
in  the  ice  ;  water-cavities  form  ;  old  crevasses  open,  and  new 
ones  appear.  This  zone  rapidly  widens,  and  extends  mto  the 
interior  in  the  footsteps  of  the  others,  and  behind  it  the  imme- 
diate border  of  the  ice  gets  ragged  an  1  soiled  ;  pebbles,  boulders, 
and  moraines  crop  out  of  its  melting  surface,  and  by  the  end  of 
the  Arctic  summer  it  is  disintegrated  and  shattered  by  the  heat, 
and  eroded  by  the  streams,  into  impassable  roughness,   Mr.  Peary 


38 


NATURE 


[Nov.  lo,  1887 


gives  some  useful  hints  as  to  the  best  modes  of  travel  over  the 
ice,  which,  if  followed,  he  believes  would  without  any  difficulty 
take  the  explorer  to  the  east  coast. 

In  Heft  3  of  this  year's  Deutsche  Geographische  BldtfcWiW  be 
found  the  first  part  of  a  detailed  study  of  the  Schwarzwald 
by  Prof.  Platz,  of  Carlsruhe.  It  deals  with  the  orography  and 
geology. 

The  Portuguese  explorer,  Jose  Anchieta,  is  at  present  in  the 
Quinsumbo  region  of  the  Portuguese  West  African  territory,  on 
his  way  to  Bihe.  He  intends  to  investigate  the  flora  of  the 
region,  which  has  never  been  adequately  studied. 

In  the  Danish  Budget  for  1888-89  a  sum  of  68,000  kroner 
has  been  allotted  for  research  in  Icelandic  waters.  Several 
large  fjords  of  great  commercial  importance  are  entirely  unex- 
plored, and  are  therefore  full  of  danger  to  navigation.  The 
fishery  grounds  around  the  various  islands  will  also  be  in- 
vestigated. This  exploration  will  have  great  interest  for  science, 
as  it  is  likely  to  accumulate  much  valuable  information  in 
oceanography,  as  well  as  zoology  and  meteorology.  The  work 
will  be  carried  on  freely  from  May  to  August,  and  it  is  hoped 
will  be  completed  in  five  or  six  years. 

The  Roman  Catholic  missionaries  on  Yule  Island  have  been 
exploring  the  region  of  New  Guinea  opposite  their  station. 
They  found  that  the  Ethel  and  Helida  are  insignificant  streams  ; 
but  they  discovered  a  new  river,  the  St.  Joseph,  which  rises  at 
the  foot  of  Mount  Yule  in  8°  15'  S.  lat.  and  146°  40'  E.,  and 
which  flows  in  a  southerly  direction.  The  land  on  both  sides 
is  highly  fertile  and  the  natives  peaceful.  They  visited  fifteen 
villages,  several  with  a  population  of  over  2000. 

In  a  paper  in  the  last-issued  Bulletin  (vol.  ii.  No.  6)  of  the 
Californian  Academy  of  Sciences,  Mr.  George  Davidson  gives 
some  interesting  information  on  submarine  valleys  off  the  Pacific 
coast  of  the  United  States.  He  points  out  that  within  40  or  50 
miles  of  the  coast  to  the  south  of  Cape  Mendocino  the  plateau  of  the 
Pacific  reaches  a  depth  of  2000  to  2400  fathoms.  Generally  there  is 
a  marginal  plateau  for  10  miles  out  to  the  lOO-fathom  curve,  and 
then  the  descent  is  sharp  to  500  or  600  fathoms.  In  this  marginal 
plateau  there  has  been  discovered  by  the  Coast  Survey  several 
remarkable  submarine  valleys.  Notably  that  in  Monterey  Bay, 
beading  to  the  low  lands  at  the  great  bend  of  Salinas  River  ;  and 
that  off  Point  Hueneme  at  the  eastern  entrance  of  the  Santa 
Barbara  Channel,  and  heading  into  the  low  coast  at  the  wide 
opening  of  the  Santa  Clara  Valley.  Then  there  are  one  or  two 
off  the  southern  point  of  Carmel  Bay,  while  the  deepest  one 
enters  far  into  the  bay.  The  latest  discovered  submarine  valleys 
are  near  the  high  bold  coast  under  Cape  Mendocino.  Just  north 
of  a  submarine  ridge  extending  from  Point  Delgada  to  Shelter 
Cove  is  a  deep  valley  which  breaks  through  the  marginal 
plateau  and  runs  sharply  into  the  immediate  coast-line  under 
the  culminating  point  of  the  crest-line  of  mountains.  The  head 
of  this  submarine  valley  is  100  fathoms  deep  at  i|  mile 
from  shore  ;  when  it  breaks  through  the  loo-fathom  line  of  the 
marginal  plateau  it  reaches  a  depth  of  400  fathoms.  The  slopes 
of  the  valley  are  very  steep.  Midway  between  this  and  Point 
Oarda  there  is  another  valley  300  to  150  fathoms  deep.  The 
opening  of  this  valley  through  the  outer  edge  of  the  100- fathom 
plateau  is  520  fathoms  deep.  Between  Point  Garda  and  Cape 
Mendocino  is  another  valley,  which,  6J  miles  south-west  by  south 
from  the  cape,  is  450  fathoms  deep.  This  is  a  wide  valley,  the 
bottom  of  which  is  green  mud,  though  in  two  places,  at  depths 
of  320  fathoms,  broken  shells  were  brought  up  with  gravel. 

By  the  latest  communication  from  Mr.  Stanley's  expedition 
it  is  evident  that,  unless  some  unexpected  disaster  has  happened, 
he  reached  Emin  Pasha  some  time  in  August.  He  found 
the  Mabodi  country,  through  which  the  Aruwimi  flows,  densely 
inhabited,  while  that  river  on  the  borders  of  the  Mabodi  country 
bends  south,  and  again  becomes  navigable.  This  seems  clearly 
to  show  that  the  Aruwimi  can  have  no  connection  with  the 
"Welle  system. 

The  last  number  of  the  Izvestia  of  the  Russian  Geographical 
Society  (1887,  3rd  fascicule)  will  be  most  welcome  to  geographers. 
It  contains  a  preliminary  map  (70  miles  to  an  inch)  of  the  eastern 
parts  of  East  Turkestan,  Tsaidam,  and  the  upper  parts  of  the 
Yellow  and  Blue  Rivers,  embodying  the  results  of  the  fourth 
journey  of  General  Przewalski  in  Central  Asia.  The  most  in- 
teresting feature  of  the  map  is  that  it  shows  that  the  depression 
of  the  Lob-nor  must  not  be   confounded  with  the  Eastern  Gobi. 


This  last  is  more  elevated,  and  falls  by  a  steep  terrace  towards 
the  depression  of  the  Lob  nor,  which  has  in  the  east  of  the  lake 
a  width  of  only  80  miles,  and  terminates  at  Lake  Tchin-jen-he, 
where  the  desert  reaches  altitudes  of  3700  and  4800  feet  above 
the  sea.  The  Tarim  depression  is  thus  well  limited  in  the  east, 
and  the  doubts  which  arose  among  geographers  as  to  the  pos- 
sibility of  embodying  the  Eastern  Gobi  and  the  Tarim  depres- 
sion under  the  same  denomination  of  Hang-hai,  as  proposed  by 
Richthofen,  are  thus  settled.  The  well-known  difference  of 
characters  of  the  two  regions  depends  upon  the  differences  of  their 
orographical  structures,  and  the  Tarim  region  appears  as  a  de- 
pression of  the  high  plateau  of  East  Asia,  limited  in  the  east  as 
well  as  in  the  north,  the  west,  and  the  south.  Geographers  will 
find  on  the  map  the  series  of  chains  named  after  Colombus, 
Marco  Polo,  Humboldt,  and  Ritter,  discovered  by  General 
Przewalski ;  the  high  range  to  which  the  Russian  Geographical 
Society  gave  the  name  of  its  Russian  discoverer  ;  the  Burkhan- 
buda  range  ;  the  lakes  Jarin  and  Orin,  14,000  feet  high,  of  the 
upper  Hoang-ho  ;"5  and  all  those  minor  features  which,  when 
mentioned  in  M.  Przewalski's  letters,  excited  so  much  interest 
among  geographers.  A  list  of  sixteen  places,  the  latitudes  and 
partly  the  longitudes  of  which  have  been  determined,  and  a  list 
of  ninety-five  altitudes,  accompany  the  map. 

In  a  short  note  accompanying  the  above  map.  General  Prze 
walski  mentions  certain  facts  brought  to  light  during  the  last 
three  months  of  his  journey.  The  Khotan-daria  of  East  Turke- 
stan does  not  make  a  bend  towards  the  west,  as  shown  on 
several  recent  maps.  It  flows  due  north  through  a  sandy  desert, 
and  its  course  on  Klaproth's  and  D'Anville's  maps  was  more  in 
accordance  with  reality  than  the  indications  on  more  modern 
maps.  Its  water  reaches  the  Tarim  only  during  the  summer.  A 
new  oasis,  Tavek-kel,  grew  up  some  fifty  years  ago  on  the 
Yurun-kash  ;  its  population  numbers  about  500  families.  The 
lake  Yashil-kul  does  not  exist  where  it  is  shown  on  our  maps. 
The  most  important  statement  is,  however,  the  following.  By 
the  beginning  of  October  1885— that  is,  at  low  water— the  Tarim 
had,  at  the  confluence  of  the  Yarkand  and  Khotan  Rivers,  a 
depth  of  3  to  5  feet,  and  a  width  of  about  185  yards.  In  the 
summer,  according  to  information  obtained  from  the  natives, 
and  confirmed  by  the  state  of  the  river-bed,  the  depth  and  width 
of  the  Tarim  are  thrice  the  above.  Taking  into  consideration 
the  fact  that  the  lower  Tarim,  followed  by  M.  Przewalski  in  1876 
and  1877,  has  throughout  a  depth  of  no  less  than  14  feet,  it  may 
be  maintained,  M.  Przewalski  writes,  that  the  Tarim  is  navigable 
for  steamers  or  its  whole  length  from  the  above  junction  to  the 
Lob-nor.  It  seems  probable  also  that  steamers  may  be  able  to 
ascend  a  short  distance  up  the  Aksu  River  and  further  up  the 
Yarkand-daria. 

The  same  number  of  the  Izvestia  contains  an  elaborate  paper 
by  M.  A.  Eliseefif  embodying  the  ethnological  results  of  his 
journeys  in  Asia  Minor  since  1881.  In  this  paper  there  are  able 
descriptions  of  the  various  populations  of  Asia  Minor — the  Turks, 
the  Armenians,  the  Kurds,  the  Kurmanjis,  the  Greeks,  the 
Arabs,  the  Chaldaeans,  the  Tsiganes,  and  the  Jews.  The 
numerous  anthropological  measurements  and  other  observations 
which  the  author  made  during  his  journeys  in  the  interior  of  the 
country  will  be  published  separately  in  full.  Two  papers,  on 
the  Manych  and  the  steppes  of  Northern  Caucasus,  by  D. 
Ivanoff,  and  on  the  vegetation  and  geology  of  the  same,  by  W. 
Fausek,  are  valuable  contributions  towards  a  better  knowledge 
of  the  nature  of  this  interesting  region. 


METEOROLOGICAL  NOTES. 
Symons's  Monthly  Meteorological  Magazine  for  October  con- 
tains a  fifth  annual  table  of  the  climate  of  the  British  Empire, 
giving  a  summary  of  the  daily  observations  at  sixteen  stations, 
distributed  over  the  globe,  for  the  year  1886.  The  extremes 
show  some  very  interesting  facts,  from  which  we  select  the  fol- 
lowing : — Adelaide  has  the  highest  maximum  temperature  in  the 
shade,  viz.  112° '4  ;  the  highest  temperature  in  the  sun,  I74°*5  ; 
the  least  rainfall,  14 "42  inches  ;  and  the  lowest  humidity,  56^per 
cent.  Winnipeg  has  the  lowest  shade  temperature,  -44"'6; 
the  greatest  annual  range,  I47°'6  ;  and  the  lowest  mean  daily 
temperature,  33° '2.  Colombo  (Ceylon)  has  the  highest  mean 
daily  temperature,  8i°-o.  Bombay  has  the  greatest  rainfall, 
9974  inches.  London  occupies  the  unenviable  position  of  the 
dampest  station,  80  per  cent.  The  same  magazine  contains  a 
discussion  of  the  severe  thunderstorm  which  visited  London  on 


Nov.  lo,  1887] 


NA  TURE 


39 


August  17.  The  greatest  rainfall  on  this  occasion  was  2'oS 
inches  at  Wimbledon,  and  the  least  at  Hackney,  0-27  inch.  In 
connection  with  the  climatology  of  the  British  Empire,  it  may 
not  be  generally  known  that  the  Annual  Reports  of  the  Army 
Medical  Department  contain  meteorological  summaries  for  a 
number  of  stations  mostly  in  the  northern  hemisphere,  e.g.  the 
Mediterranean,  Africa  (including  Egypt),  and  the  East  and  West 
Indies.  The  last  Report  published  is  for  the  year  1885,  and 
contains  the  results  of  observations  and  the  extremes  from 
nineteen  stations. 

It  is  stated  in  the  Aleteorologische  Zeitschrift  for  October  that 
a  new  edition  of  Prof.  II.  Mohn's  "  Grundziige  der  Meteoro- 
logie  "  has  just  been  published  by  Reimer  and  Co.,  of  Berlin. 
The  fact  that  the  work  has  reached  a  fourth  edition  in  twelve 
years  shows  the  favour  with  which  it  has  been  generally  received. 
The  plan  remains  the  same  as  before,  but  both  the  text  and  the 
plates  have  been  corrected  to  correspond  to  the  recent  progress 
of  the  science. 

Mr.  H.  Allen  Hazen  has  contributed  an  article  to  the 
Avierican  Journal  of  Sciejue  for  October  on  the  relation  between 
wind-velocity  and  pressure,  giving  a  summary  of  the  better  class 
of  experiments,  the  methods  employed,  and  the  results  arrived 
at,  from  those  of  Borda,  in  1763,  to  the  present  time.  The 
methods  of  investigation  generally  adopted  are  (i)  carrying  a 
plate  either  in  a  straight  line  or  in  a  circle  ;  and  (2)  allowing  a 
current  of  air  to  impinge  normally  upon  the  plate.  The  results 
of  Borda's  observations  are  expressed  in  the  formula — 

/  =  ('0031  +  •oooT,t,c)sv'-, 

in  which  /  =  pressure  in  pounds  ;  c  —  contour  of  plate  in  feet ; 
s  —  surface  in  square  feet  ;  and  v  =  velocity  in  miles  par  hour. 
In  some  careful  experiments  made  at  Washington  in  1866,  the 
formula  obtained,  viz. 

p  =  ('0032  +  •ooo34<r)j&'^, 

shows  a  remarkable  and  unexpected  coincidence  with  Borda's 
results,  with  an  entirely  different  apparatus.  By  far  the  most 
careful  experiments  with  a  whirling  machine  were  those  of 
Hagen,  in  1873,  with  plates  varying  in  size  from  4  to  40  square 
inches  in  area.     His  formula  is — 

/  =  ('0029  +  •000141; )j-z/-  ; 

and  these  results  have  been  used  by  Prof.  W.  Ferrel  in  his 
recent  discussion  of  this  question.  Various  other  experiments 
are  discussed,  including  those  lately  made  in  France  on  a  train 
running  at  increasing  velocities,  which  give  the  formula — 

The  author  expresses  the  opinion  that  further  experiments  are 
much  needed,  with  larger  plates  than  2  feel  square,  and  with 
high  velocities  with  a  straight-line  motion.  In  connection  with 
this  subject  it  may  be  mentioned  that  the  Royal  Meteorological 
Society  have  appointed  a  Wind-Force  Committee  to  consider  the 
relation  existing  between  velocity  and  pressure,  together  with 
other  anemometrical  questions,  and  a  preliminary  report  was 
read  in  the  spring  of  this  year. 

The  publications  of  the  Swedish  Meteorological  Office  are 
somewhat  in  arrear,  the  volume  recently  published  being  for  the 
year  1882.  It  contains  observations  /«  extetiso  from  eighteen 
stations  of  the  second  order,  and  monthly  and  yearly  results  of 
117  stations,  among  which  are  seventy-nine  for  tempera- 
ture only  and  several  that  have  been  established  in  the 
interest  of  forestry.  The  Central  Office  has  no  station  of 
the  first  order,  but  publishes  the  observations  of  the  Upsala 
Observatory,  which  is  an  independent  institution.  From  this 
Observatory  we  have  very  complete  observations  from  1855 
to  1886,  in  addition  to  very  valuable  works  on  the  classification 
of  clouds  and  the  movements  of  cirrus  cloud<,  by  Dr.  Hilde- 
brandsson.  The  Central  Office  publishes,  however,  a  monthly 
weather  report,  in  the  service  of  agriculture,  which  is  brought 
out  to  date.  The  Swedish  network  of  stations  was  established 
in  1856,  by  the  Royal  Academy  of  Sciences  of  Stockholm,  and 
in  1873  the  present  Office  was  founded,  with  Dr.  R.  Rubenson 
•as  Director.  The  Office  for  Marine  Meteorology,  established  in 
1877,  is  also  an  independent  institution  ;  the  logs  used  are  those 
of  the  English  Meteorological  Office,  with  the  addition  of  the 
headings  in  Swedish.  By  mutual  agreement,  Sweden  deals 
f^pecially  with  the  Baltic,  while  Norway  takes  the  North  Sea, 
the  data  collected  being  exchanged  by  the  respective  countries. 


The  Report  of  the  Meteorological  Service  of  the  Dominion 
of  Canada  for  the  year  1884,  just  issued  by  Mr.  Carpmael,  shows 
satisfactory  progress  in  the  various  departments.  Several  new 
stations  have  been  added,  and  the  number  for  which  monthly 
and  yearly  averages  are  given  amounts  to  136.  Eighty-three  per 
cent,  of  the  storm  warnings  issued  during  the  year  have  been 
verified  ;  weather  predictions  have  also  been  disseminated  through- 
out portions  of  the  country  by  means  of  large  disks  attached  to 
the  railway  cars.  These  disks  have  the  image  of  the  sun,  repre- 
senting fine  weather,  the  crescent  moon,  for  showery  weather,  and 
a  star,  for  wet  weather,  painted  on  them,  in  addition  to  words. 
The  percentage  of  verification  of  these  predictions  is  also  very 
satisfactory.  The  climatological  tables  show  that  the  highest 
mean  annual  temperature  was  47'''8i  at  Windsor  (Ontario),  and 
the  lowest  at  Fort  Chipewan  (North  West  Territory),  26°*65. 
The  records  for  Hudson's  Bay  Territory  are  not  complete,  but 
would  probably  have  shown  a  lower  mean.  The  maximum  shade 
temperature  was  100°  at  Chaplin  (North- West  Territory)  in  June, 
and  the  lowest  at  St.  Andrews  (Manitoba),  -53°'3,  in  January  ; 
with  one  slight  exception  this  station  had  also  the  largest  meai» 
daily  range,  viz.  24°'75.  Sunshine-recorders  are  erected  in  five 
provinces  only  ;  in  these  Winnipeg  has  the  maximum  sunshine, 
45  per  cent.,  and  Pembroke  (Ontario)  the  least,  30  per  cent.,  of 
the  possible  amount.  The  greatest  mean  rainfall  in  any  whole 
province  was  48 '46  inches  in  Newfoundland,  and  the  least,  9*90 
inches,  in  North- West  Territory  on  48  "6  days.  The  greatest 
avera;e  of  rainy  days  was  151  "5  in  Prince  Edward's  Island.  The 
distribution  of  rainfall  in  Ontario  is  also  represented  by  maps  for 
each  quarter  and  for  the  year.  With  a  view  to  enhancing  the 
value  of  the  tables,  we  suggest  the  desirability  of  arranging 
them  according  to  the  international  scheme,  instead  of  in  the  pre- 
sent form  ;  or  at  least  of  printing  the  extreme  values  in  thick  type, 
as  is  usually  done  in  other  countries. 

The  chief  feature  of  the  United  States  Monthly  Weather  Remew 
tor  July  last  is  the  unusually  high  mean  temperature  over  the 
central  and  northern  parts  of  the  country  ;  in  some  portions 
it  averaged  from  4°  to  7°  above  the  normal  values,  and  was 
the  warmest  that  has  occurred  since  the  establishment  of  the 
Signal  Service  stations.  This  fact  is  interesting  in  connection 
with  the  weather  experienced  in  some  parts  of  this  country, 
where  there  was  an  excess  of  2°  to  5°  in  all  districts.  Descrij)- 
tions  of  the  storms  which  occurred  over  the  North  Atlantic 
are  given  ;  the  average  number  of  areas  of  low  pressure 
for  July  during  the  last  fourteen  years  is  nine,  for  July  1887  the 
paths  of  seven  such  areas  are  traced,  being  two  less  than  the 
average.  The  storm  of  the  26th  is  the  one  in  which  the  high 
wave  struck  the  s.s.  Umbrii  (see  Nature,  vol.  xxxvi.  p.  508). 
This  depression  was  first  charted  in  N.  55°,  W.  25°,  on  the  25th, 
and  its  presence  was  indicated  northwards  of  the  British  Isles 
during  the  27th  and  28th.  The  Kevieiv  also  contains  a  discussion 
of  the  North  Atlantic  storms  during  1885  ;  of  sixty  storms 
which  advanced  over  the  ocean  from  the  American  continent, 
twenty-eight  were  traced  to  European  waters.  Fifty-nine 
storms  fir.-t  appeared  over  the  ocean,  of  which  about  65  per  cent, 
were  traced  to  the  west  coast  of  Europe.  A  table  is  given 
showing  the  positions  of  centres  of  areas  of  mean  high  and  low 
barometer  for  each  month,  and  explains  why  in  March  and 
October  the  storm  areas  moved  northward  before  reaching 
European  waters,  and  that  in  August  the  depressions  did  not  move 
eastward  owing  to  unusually  high  pressure  along  the  middle 
latitudes.  Attention  is  drawn  to  the  fact  that,  as  a  rule,  the 
storms  which  do  traverse  the  ocean  leave  the  coast  north  of  the 
fortieth  parallel  ;  only  a  very  small  number  of  the  storms  which 
advance  from  southern  latitudes  cross  to  the  northward  of  the 
trans- Atlantic  ship  routes. 

A  SERIES  of  very  interesting  articles,  from  the  pen  of  Dr.  Oscar 
Doering,  on  the  inter-diurnal  variability  of  temperature  at  places 
in  the  Argentine  Republic  and  South  America  generally,  are 
being  published  in  the  Boletin  de  la  Academia  Nadonal  de 
Ciencias  of  Cordoba.  Investigations  of  this  kind  have  been 
very  seldom  undertaken,  although  Dr.  Hann  and  Dr.  Supan  have 
pointed  out  that  the  variability  of  temperature  is  a  factor  of 
eminent  importance,  affecting  the  habits  and  character  of  man- 
kind, and  also  partially  the  distribution  of  plants.  Dr.  Hann, 
in  his  elaborate  paper  upon  this  subject  presented  to  the  Vienna 
Academy  on  April  15,  1875,  and  based  upon  such  observa- 
tions as  were  then  available,  defines  the  variability  of  temperature 
as  the  differences  of  temperature  of  two  immediately  succeeding 
intervals  of  time  which  do  not  belong  to  the  daily  and  yearly 


40 


NATURE 


{Nov.  lo,  1887 


period  ;  or,  in  other  words,  as  the  differences  of  temperature  be- 
tween two  short  intervals  that  lie  within  the  daily  or  yearly 
period,  minus  the  amount  of  the  periodical  (or  normal)  variation. 
In  part  4,  vol.  ix.,  of  the  above-mentioned  Bulletin,  Dr.  Doering 
has  calculated  the  variability  for  Concordia  (lat.  3i°25'S.,  long. 
58"  4'  W. ),  but  for  three  years  only.  The  month  of  October  has 
the  maximum  value,  4° '6,  and  April  the  minimum,  2° '8.  The 
variability  during  spring  is  greatest,  viz.  3°  "9,  and  least  during 
autumn,  viz.  3°'0,  and  the  mean  for  the  year  is  3° '6,  or  about 
o°'4  above  that  for  Buenos  Ayres.  The  hourly  observations 
published  by  the  Meteorological  Council,  with  the  daily  means 
ready  calculated,  afford  excellent  materials  for  similar  investiga- 
tions. The  preceding  number  of  the  Bulletin  contains  the 
meteorological  observations  made  at  Cordoba  during  the  year 
1885.  The  absolute  maximum  shade  temperature  was  100° "9  in 
December,  and  the  minimum  14° '9  in  June,  giving  an  annual 
range  of  86° 'o.  The  maximum  solar  temperature  was  147° '4,  in 
February.  The  mean  relative  humidity  ranged  between  817 
per  cent,  in  March  and  61 'i  per  cent,  in  August.  The  rainfall 
amounted  to  24 '26  inches  ;  the  wettest  month  was  March,  5*96 
inches,  and  the  driest.  May,  0*04  inch.  Rain  fell  on  71  days, 
and  snow  on  one  day.  The  times  of  rain  at  the  moment  of 
observation,  an  element  much  recommended  by  Dr.  Koppen, 
are  also  quoted. 


THE  WORK  OF  THE  INTERNA  TIONAL 
CONGRESS  OF  GEOLOGISTS} 


II. 


M^ 


'  Y  only  remaining  subject  is  the  representation  of  terranes  on 
maps  by  means  of  colours.  At  present  no  two  organizations 
and  scarcely  two  individuals  use  colours  in  the  same  way ;  and  it 
is  probably  true  that  every  organization  and  individual  publish- 
ing many  geologic  maps  has  at  different  times  employed  the  same 
colour  for  different  terranes,  and  different  colours  for  the  same 
terrane.  It  results  that  the  map  user  can  gain  no  information 
from  the  distribution  of  colours  until  he  has  studied  the  legend  ; 
before  he  can  read  a  new  atlas  he  must  learn  a  new  alphabet. 
The  advantage  to  be  gained  by  substituting  a  universal  language 
for  this  confusion  of  tongues  is  manifest  and  great,  and  has 
justified  the  application  of  much  time  and  attention  by  the  Con- 
gress and  its  Committees.  By  a  series  of  resolutions  a  partial 
scheme  has  been  selected,  one  colour  at  a  time,  and  the  com- 
pletion of  the  plan  has  been  left  to  the  Committee  on  the  Map  of 
Europe.  That  Committee  has  prepared  a  colour  legend  which  is 
accessible  to  American  geologists  in  the  volume  of  information 
published  by  the  American  Committee.  It  is  understood  in  a 
general  way  that  the  Congress  reserves  final  action,  and  the 
published  legend  not  only  belongs  specifically  to  the  map  of 
Europe,  but  is  provisional  ;  still,  as  this  map,  if  generally  ap- 
proved, will  unquestionably  be  declared  by  the  Congress  an 
authoritative  pattern  for  the  guidance  of  map  makers,  the  plan 
should  be  freely  criticized  at  its  present  stage.  The  selection  of 
uniform  colours  is  a  far  more  delicate  and  important  matter  than 
the  arrangement  of  taxonomic  terms  ;  for  while  ill-chosen  words 
may  quickly  fit  themselves  to  new  uses,  the  adoption  of  an  ill- 
arranged  colour  scheme  must  entail  continual  loss. 

In  my  judgment  the  scheme  provisionally  chosen  is  defective 
in  several  particulars,  to  which  I  shall  presently  call  attention  ; 
but  it  is  necessary  to  introduce  the  discussion  by  a  statement  of 
the  conditions  to  be  satisfied  by  a  standard  colour  scheme  and  a 
statement  of  the  practical  means  available.  The  following  are 
the  principal  conditions,  arranged  in  an  order  embodying  my 
estimate  of  their  relative  importance  : — 

(i)  The  map  must  be  clearly  and  easily  legible.  Each  colour 
must  be  so  distinct  from  each  other  colour  that  it  can  be  identi- 
fied, whatever  its  surroundings  ;  and  all  other  conventions  must 
be  readily  discriminated. 

(2)  The  cartographic  scheme  must  be  adjustable  to  the  geo- 
logic facts  ;  it  must  not  require  that  the  facts  be  adjusted 
to  it. 

(3)  The  same  scheme  should  serve  both  for  general  maps — as, 
for  example,  those  representing  only  systems — and  for  detail 
maps,  representing  numerous  smaller  divisions. 

{4)  Undue   expense   should   be  avoided.      The   amount  and 

I  Vice-Presidential  Address  read  to  Section  E  of  the  American  Association 
for  the  Advancement  of  Science,  August  10,  1887,  by  Mr.  G.  K.  Gilbert. 
Continued  from  p.  22. 


consequent  utility  of  colour  cartography  is  largely  limited  by  its 
cost. 

(5)  It  should  be  easily  fixed  and  retained  in  the  mind.  This 
is  best  accomplished  by  making  it  orderly. 

(6)  Other  considerations  permitting,  the  map  should  please 
the  eye.  Since  the  arrangement  of  co'our  areas  cannot  be  fore- 
told, this  can  only  be  accomplished  by  admitting  a  certain  range 
of  choice.  If  allowed  sufficient  latitude  in  the  selection  of  tones, 
an  expert  colourist  can  ameliorate  an  offensive  combination  of 
hues. 

(7)  Other  considerations  permitting,  the  establishment  of  a 
universal  system  should  involve  the  least  possible  inconvenience. 
But  as  the  inconvenience  of  change  is  temporary,  while  the 
inconvenience  of  a  bad  system  is  lasting,  this  consideration 
should  yield  to  every  other. 

The  art  of  mapping  geologic  terranes  by  means  of  colour  is 
well  developed,  and  its  methods,  viewed  from  the  geologist's 
stand-point,  admit  of  easy  characterization.  Colour  may  be 
varied  in  two  distinct  ways — in  hue  and  in  tone.  Hues  differ  in 
quality,  as  yellowish-green  and  bluish-green.  Tones  differ  in 
strength,  as  pale  green  and  dark  green.  A  colour  is  printed 
either  solid  or  broken  ;  it  is  said  to  be  broken  when  applied  in 
a  pattern,  as  in  lines  or  dots,  or  when  it  is  interrupted  by  a 
pattern.  The  difference  between  solid  and  broken  colours  is 
a  difference  of  texture.  The  primary  discriminations  in  mapping 
are  through  hue,  tone,  and  texture. 

The  map  engraver  produces  texture  in  three  ways.  In  the 
first  way  a  single  impression  is  made  with  the  broken  colour. 
The  white  of  the  paper,  displayed  where  the  colour  is  inter- 
rupted, combines  with  the  colour  in  the  general  effect,  producing 
a  paler  tone  of  the  same  hue.  In  the  second  way  two  impres- 
sions are  made,  one  with  solid  colour,  the  other  with  broken, 
and  the  two  impressions  have  the  same  hue ;  they  may  or  may 
not  differ  in  tone.  This  is  monochromatic  over-printing,  and  its 
general  effect  agrees  in  hue  with  the  single  impression,  but 
differs  in  tone,  being  darker.  In  the  third  way  two  impressions 
are  made,  one  solid,  one  broken,  and  their  colours  differ  in 
hue.  This  is  bichromatic  over-printing,  and  its  general  effect 
differs  in  hue  as  well  as  tone  from  each  of  the  colours  combined 
in  it.  The  first  and  second  ways  produce  texture  monochro- 
matically,  and  do  not  yield  a  new  hue  ;  the  third  way  produces 
texture  bichromatically,  and  yields  a  new  hue.  It  is  practically 
impossible  to  obtain  a  texture  effect  without  modifying  the 
original  tone. 

The  natural  gradation  from  hue  to  hue  is  absolutely  con- 
tinuous, and  the  number  of  hues  is  infinite  ;  the  number  of  tones 
of  each  hue  is  likewise  infinite.  The  number  of  hues  and  tones 
the  eye  can  discriminate  is  finite,  but  very  great  ;  it  is  stated 
that  1000  hues  have  been  distinguished  in  the  solar  spectrum. 
But  the  number  of  hues  and  tones  that  can  be  combined  in  a 
map  is  small.  As  a  matter  of  perception,  every  colour  is  modi- 
fied by  the  colours  adjacent  to  it.  The  same  hue  affords 
different  sensations  when  differently  surrounded,  and  different 
hues  may  afford  the  same  sensation.  The  same  is  true  of  tones  ; 
and  there  is  a  certain  interdependence  of  hues  and  tones  in  this 
respect.  In  a  geologic  map  each  colour  is  liable  to  fall  into 
various  combinations,  and  two  colours  little  differentiated  occa- 
sion confusion.  There  is  therefore  a  somewhat  narrow  limit  to 
the  employment  of  hues  and  tones.  The  matter  has  not  been 
fully  worked  out,  but  it  is  probable  that  twenty  is  as  large  a 
number  of  hues  as  can  safely  be  employed  in  connection  with 
tones.  Texture  admits  of  very  great  variation.  The  various 
colour  schemes  submitted  to  the  Congress  and  printed  in  the 
report  of  the  Bologna  meeting  afford,  with  their  manifest  permu- 
tations, about  200  distinct  textures,  and  I  am  satisfied  from  a 
study  of  these  and  others  that  as  many  as  100  caa  be  chosen  that 
are  not  subject  to  confusion.  It  follows  that  a  map  or  atlas 
expressing  few  distinctions  need  use  only  hues,  or  only  hues  and 
tones,  but  where  numerous  distinctions  are  to  be  made,  recourse 
must  be  had  to  textures. 

The  printing  of  a  large  number  of  textures  of  the  same  hue 
produces  a  greater  number  of  tones  than  can  be  discriminated, 
and  its  effect  is  to  confiase  and  nullify  any  distinctions  (within 
the  range  of  that  hue)  based  purely  on  tone.  The  printing  of  a 
large  number  of  bichromatic  textures  causes  the  same  result,  and 
it  also  produces  a  greater  number  of  hues  than  can  be  dis- 
criminated. Its  effect  is  to  confuse  and  nullify  distinctions  based 
purely  on  tone,  or  on  hue,  or  on  tone  and  hue  together. 

In  the  colour  scheme  prepared  for  the  map  of  Europe,  thirty- 
eight  distinctions  are  made.     There  are  twenty-four  hues,  and 


Noz.  lo,  1887] 


NATURE 


41 


the  remaining  fourteen  distinctions  are  accomplished  by  varia- 
tions of  tone.  While  it  may  be  possible  to  select  twenty-four 
hues  available  for  indiscriminate  combination,  there  can  be  no 
question  that  those  provisionally  printed  by  the  Committee  will 
fail  to  maintain  their  distinctness  when  variously  combined  upon 
a  map.  Under  the  influence  of  such  chromatic  environments  as 
are  sure  to  be  encountered,  the  four  yellow  hues  of  the  Tertiary 
cannot  be  discriminated,  and  the  same  difticully  will  arise  with 
the  two  hues  of  gray  assigned  to  the  Carboniferous,  and  with 
the  hues  of  gray  and  brown  assigned  respectively  to  the  Permian 
and  the  Devonian.  Some  of  the  tones  likewise  are  not  suffi- 
ciently distinguished.  Two  of  the  blues  of  the  Jurassic,  two  of 
the  browns  of  the  Devonian,  two  of  the  rose  tones  of  the 
Archaean,  and  the  two  violets  of  the  Tria<,  are  open  to  this 
criticism.  A  certain  amount  of  adjustment  can  be  made  in  the 
final  selection  of  inks,  and  probably  all  the  defects  from  tone 
can  be  thus  remedied,  but  the  confusion  of  hues  is  more  difficult 
to  eliminate,  for  the  great  number  of  the  hues  interferes  with 
the  separation  of  those  that  are  too  approximate.  To  strengthen 
one  contrast  is  to  weaken  another. 

In  order  to  judge  of  the  availability  of  the  scheme  for  the 
production  of  detail  maps,  it  is  necessary  to  consider  the  resolu- 
tions of  the  Congress  as  well  as  the  printed  legend.  A  resolu- 
tion provides  that  the  subdivisions  of  a  system  shall  be  repre- 
sented by  shades  of  the  colour  adopted  for  the  system,  or  by 
broken  colour  or  other  texture  devices;  and  if  is  further  provided 
that  the  shades,  whether  produced  by  solid  colour  or  by  texture, 
shall  be  so  arranged  that  the  darkest  or  strongest  represent  the 
lower  divisions  of  the  system.  The  resolution  is  in  French,  and 
the  word  I  have  translated  shade  {nuance)  is  one  which  applies 
popularly  to  either  hue  or  tone,  while  in  the  scientific  termino- 
logy of  chromatics  it  applies  to  hue  only.  The  Committee  on 
the  map  has  taken  it  in  its  popular  sense,  and  has  represented 
some  subdivisions  by  hues,  and  others  by  tones  ;  for  example, 
Pliocene  and  Miocene  are  assigned  two  tones  of  the  same  hue, 
while  Oligocene  and  Eocene  have  each  a  separate  hue.  The 
Upper  Cretaceous  and  part  of  the  Lower  Cretaceous  are  assigned 
a  green  hue  in  two  tones,  while  the  Gault  and  the  Wealden, 
classed  as  subdivisions  of  the  Lower  Cretaceous,  have  independ- 
ent hues  of  green.  Of  the  six  reds  assigned  to  volcanic  rocks, 
two  agree  in  hue  and  differ  in  tone,  while  the  remainder  have 
distinct  hues.  As  the  legend  stands,  both  major  and  minor 
distinctions — that  is  to  say,  the  discrimination  of  groups,  the 
discrimination  of  systems,  and  the  discrimination  of  divisions 
smaller  than  systems — are  all  accomplished  by  differences  of 
hue ;  v\  hile  the  discrimination  of  minor  divisions  is  accom- 
plished indifferently  by  variation  of  hue  and  by  variation  of 
tone.  The  same  means  performs  several  functions,  and  the 
same  function  is  performed  by  several  means. 

It  is  stating  the  same  thing  from  another  point  of  view  to  say 
that  the  Congress  and  its  Committees  have  used  the  term  colour 
in  its  popular  rather  than  its  scientific  sense.  Scientifically,  a 
colour  is  a  particular  tone  of  a  particular  hue,  and  the  number 
of  colours  is  infinite.  Popularly,  a  colour  is  an  assemblage  of 
contiguous  hues  and  their  tones,  to  which  a  name  has  been  given. 
Each  hue  and  tope  within  the  range  covered  by  the  name  is  a 
shade  of  the  colour.  It  is  in  this  popular  sense  that  the  resolu- 
tions assign  a  colour  to  each  system,  and  assign  shades  of  the 
system-colour  to  the  subdivisions  of  the  system. 

Now,  if  in  the  variation  of  a  system-colour,  by  textures  or  other- 
wise, a  single  hue  is  adhered  to,  the  system-colour  remains 
distinct  from  other  system-colours  throughout  all  its  modifica- 
tions and  their  modifications  ;  but  if  hues  as  well  as  tones  are 
varied,  the  inevitable  result  is  confusion,  for  some  of  the  hues  of 
one  system-colour  will  approach  too  near  to  hues  of  other 
system-colours.  With  a  multiplicity  of  minor  distinctions  the 
main  distinction  of  system  from  system  will  be  lost. 

Another  difficulty  lies  in  the  fact  that  the  Quaternary  and 
Devonian  colours,  while  strongly  contrasted  in  tone,  are  nearly 
identical  in  hue.  This  does  not  affect  their  use  in  a  general  map, 
but  in  a  detail  map  the  stronger  tones  of  the  Quaternary  gray 
will  approach  too  closely  the  paler  tones  of  the  Devonian  brown. 

These  criticisms  aj^ply  to  those  features  of  the  scheme  which 
affect  its  adoption  for  general  and  detail  maps  of  European 
countries.  There  is  one  of  equal  or  greater  importance  affecting 
its  application  in  other  continents.  It  is  adjusted  to  the  rock 
systems  of  Europe  exclusively,  and  makes  no  provision  whatever 
for  the  systems  of  other  parts  of  the  earth.  The  geologists  of 
Wisconsin,  for  example,  cannot  use  it  without  calling  the 
Keweenawan   either  Cambrian   or  Archaean.     If  they  were  in 


doubt  which  division  should  hold  it,  but  inclined  a  little  oneway 
or  the  other,  they  could  express  their  qualified  opinion  in  the 
notation  provided  by  the  Map  Committee  ;  but  having  attained 
an  unqualified  opinion  that  the  terrane  belongs  to  neither  of  these 
two  categories,  they  find  no  means  for  expressing  their  conclu- 
sions. The  scheme  cannot  be  applied  to  the  geology  of  India, 
of  New  Zealand,  or  of  Australia,  without  misrepresentation.  It 
is  not  universal  but  local,  and  this  because  it  is  founded  on  the 
fallacy  of  a  world-wide  unity  of  geologic  systems. 

So  far  as  the  geology  of  the  world  is  concerned,  it  would  be 
better  to  adopt  no  convention  at  all  as  regards  map  colours  than 
to  adopt  one  carrying  with  it  and  promulgating  a  vicious  classi- 
fication. Uniformity  is  not  worth  purchasing  at  the  price  of 
falsification.  If  the  members  of  the  Congress  cannot  agree  upon 
a  plan  having  the  flexibility  demanded  by  the  geologic  facts,  it 
will  be  best  to  limit  its  action  to  the  local  problems  involved  in 
the  map  of  Europe.  I  believe,  however,  that  the  necessary 
flexibility  is  attainable  ;  and  before  proceeding  to  further  criticism 
of  the  Committee's  scheme,  I  will  give  the  outlines  of  a  plan 
which  appears  to  me  to  combine  the  advantage  of  flexibility  with 
a  number  of  other  desirable  qualities. 

The  plan  is  founded  on  the  universality  of  geologic  time  and 
the  diversity  of  local  geologic  histories  as  expressed  in  rock 
systems.  Geologic  periods  are  arranged  in  linear  order.  Each 
one  adjoins  the  next,  and  together  they  constitute  continuous 
geologic  time,  which  we  may  conceive  as  represented  by  a  straight 
line.  The  stratigraphic  systems  of  a  country  have  likewise  an 
order  of  succession,  and  their  arrangement  is  linear.  They  are 
not  always  continuous  one  with  another,  but  the  history  recorded 
by  the  systems  and  the  breaks  between  them  is  continuous,  and 
may  be  represented  by  a  straight  line,  equal  and  parallel  to  that 
of  geologic  time.  And  so  for  each  country.  A  colour  scale 
which  shall  represent  each  and  all  of  these  parallel  lines  must  be 
itself  lintar  and  continuous,  and  fortunately  we  have  such  a  scale 
furnished  us  in  the  prismatic  spectrum. 

I  propose,  first,  that  the  continuous  prismatic  spectrum  be 
adopted  as  the  standard  universal  scale  for  continuous  geologic 
time.  I  propose,  second,  that  the  conventional  time  scale,  based 
on  the  geologic  history  of  Europe,  be  complemented  by  a  colour 
scale,  prismatic  but  discontinuous.  I  would  assign  to  each  period, 
not  a  certain  portion  or  area  of  the  spectrum,  but  a  specific  colour 
defined  by  its  position  in  the  spectrum.  This  colour  scale  will 
also  apply  to  the  geology  of  Europe.  I  propose,  third,  that  the 
students  of  each  geologic  district  .shall  as  ign  to  the  stratigraphic 
systems  of  that  district  a  set  of  prismatic  colours  so  selected  from 
the  spectrum  as  to  properly  represent  the  relation  of  each  system 
to  the  time  scale,  provided  that  relation  is  approximately  known. 
Under  this  rule  a  system  corresponding  partly  with  the  Cretaceous 
and  partly  with  the  Jurassic  will  receive  a  prismatic  colour  inter- 
mediate between  those  assigned  to  the  Cretaceal  and  Jural  divi- 
sions of  the  time  scale.  I  propose,  fourth,  that  systems  whose 
relations  to  the  standard  time  scale  are  not  even  approxiniately 
known  be  given  tentative  positions  in  the  time  scale  and  assigned 
the  corresponding  colours  ;  and  that  such  provisional  colours  be 
distinguished  by  a  special  device. 

Of  this  device  I  will  speak  later,  but  before  we  leave  this  part 
of  the  subject  the  capability  of  the  plan  to  express  the  facts 
should  be  more  clearly  characterized.  Continuous  geologic 
time  being  equated  with  the  continuous  spectral  band  of  light, 
each  period  is  theoretically  equated  with  a  segment  of  that  band 
including  all  the  hues  between  certain  limits.  But  practically 
the  period  is  represented  in  the  colour  scale  only  by  the  central 
hue  of  the  segment,  and  there  is  nothing  in  the  nature  of  this 
hue  to  indicate  the  length  of  the  segment.  Similarly  each  local 
system  is  represented  only  by  the  hue  corresponding  to  the 
middle  of  the  equivalent  period,  considered  as  a  part  of  the  con- 
tinuous time  scale,  and  this  hue  gives  no  information  as  to  the 
magnitude  of  the  system  or  the  duration  of  the  correspondmg 
period.  When  a  non-European  system  is  represented  on  a  map 
with  the  Devonal  colour,  all  that  is  expressed  is  that  the  middle 
of  its  period  coincides  with  the  middle  of  the  Devonal  period  ; 
the  whole  period  may  equal  the  Devonal  or  may  be  shorter  or 
may  be  longer.  With  this  limitation  the  scheme  is  able  to 
express  the  exact  facts,  or  the  exact  state  of  opimon,  m  regard 
to  correlation. 

I  propose,  fifth,  that  the  subdivisions  of  systems  be  repre- 
sented, if  their  number  is  small,  by  distinct  tones  of  the  hue 
assigned  to  the  system,  and  if  their  number  is  great,  by  mono- 
chromatic textures.  It  having  been  provided  that  sy>tems  shall 
be  distinguished  by  means  of  hues,  it  is  now  provided  that  hues 


42 


NA  TURE 


\_Nov.  lo,  1887 


shall  have  no  other  function.  This  secures  the  integrity  of 
the  distinction  between  systems,  whatever  the  minuteness  ot 
subdivision. 

The  idea  of  using  the  spectral  colours  in  their  proper  order  is 
not  novel.  It  has  entered  into  half  the  plans  submitted  to  the 
Congress,  but  each  author  has  introduced  other  colours  also,  or 
else  has  undertaken  to  use  the  spectrum  colours  more  than  once, 
under  the  impression  that  they  do  not  afford  the  necessary  range 
or  variety.  This  impression  is  based  largely  upon  the  popular 
meaning  of  the  word  colour.  It  is  indeed  true  that  if  we  limit 
ourselves  to  those  parts  of  the  spectral  series  which  have  uni- 
vocal  names,  we  have  only  six  or  seven  distinctions  ;  and  it  is 
further  true  that  if  we  have  recourse  to  binomial  designations, 
such  as  yellowish  green  and  greenish  yellow,  we  obtain  rather 
indefinite  conceptions ;  but  to  men  of  science  there  are  better 
i-esources  than  those  afforded  by  the  language  of  e very-day  life. 
The  spectrum  has  been  elaborately  studied,  and  the  relations  of 
its  dark  lines  to  its  colours  have  been  determined.  Its  wave- 
lengths have,  moreover,  been  measured,  and  by  such  means  as 
these  we  are  furnished  with  three  different  scales,  any  one  of 
which  is  adequate  to  the  precise  definition  of  any  hue  of  the 
continuous  series.  What  needs  to  be  done  is  this.  When 
the  divisions  of  the  time  scale  have  been  decided  on,  the 
spectrum  must  be  studied  lo  ascertain  the  best  selection  of 
hues.  Their  number  must,  of  course,  be  that  of  the  number 
of  divisions  of  the  time  scale,  and  they  must  be  so  chosen 
that  the  degree  of  separateness  of  adjacent  colours  shall  be 
everywhere  the  same,  as  judged  by  the  normal  human  eye. 
Then  define  each  hue  by  its  wave-length  or  its  position  in  the 
Kirchhoff  scale,  and  define  it  also  in  terms  of  the  best  com- 
bination of  pigments  with  which  it  can  approximately  be  repro- 
duced for  practical  use.  It  is,  of  course,  impossible  to  copy 
the  prismatic  colours  with  accuracy,  because  the  colours  of  pig- 
ments are  impure,  but  this  difficulty  will  not  seriously  interfere 
with  the  employment  of  the  prismatic  colours  as  a  standard. 

The  practical  question  whether  the  spectrum  will  give  a 
sufficient  number  of  hues  so  far  separated  from  each  other  as 
to  be  distinguishable  in  all  the  arrangements  occurring  on 
maps  has  received  such  consideration  as  I  have  been  able  to  give 
it,  and  it  is  my  judgment  that  the  maximum  number  of  hues  that 
can  safely  be  used  falls  somewhere  between  fifteen  and  twenty. 
There  will  certainly  be  no  difficulty  in  thus  constructing  a 
standard  colour  scale  with  about  a  dozen  terms. 

The  employment  of  the  spectral  colours  in  this  manner  leaves 
three  groups  of  colours  unassigned — the  purples,  the  browns, 
and  the  grays.  If  the  spectral  colours  be  arranged  on  the  cir- 
cumference of  a  circle  so  that  each  diameter  of  the  circle  connects 
hues  that  are  complementary,  it  is  found  that  they  occupy  the 
greater  part,  but  not  quite  all,  of  the  circumference,  and  the 
colour  needed  to  fill  the  vacant  arc  is  purple.  The  hues  of 
purple  might  then,  if  deemed  necessary,  be  added  to  one  end  or 
the  other  of  the  spectrum,  thus  increasing  the  range  from  which 
to  select  colours  for  the  time  scale. 

My  sixth  proposition  is  to  assign  the  browns  to  volcanic  rocks. 
I  would  leave  the  grays  unassigned. 

It  will  be  observed  that  no  intimation  has  been  given  as  to 
whether  the  violet  end  of  the  spectrum  should  apply  to  the 
newest  system  of  strata  or  the  oldest.  It  must  of  course  be 
definitely  assigned  to  one  or  the  other,  but  the  particular 
assignment  is  a  matter  of  indifference. 

The  main  features  of  the  proposed  prismatic  scheme  have  now 
been  set  forth,  and  you  are  fairly  entitled  to  exemption  from  the 
minor  features,  but  there  is  one  detail  that  can  hardly  be  omitted. 
In  one  of  the  main  propositions  it  was  provided  that  some 
special  device  should  distinguish  colours  assigned  to  uncorrelated 
systems,  and  I  feel  it  incumbent  to  show  .that  a  suitable  device 
can  be  found.  Of  a  number  that  have  occurred  to  me  as  about 
equally  available,  I  will  mention  but  a  single  one — the  over- 
printing, in  small  dots,  widely  separated,  of  the  complementary 
colour.  The  complementary  colour  is  selected  because  it  does 
not  disturb  the  relation  of  the  system- colour  to  the  colours  of 
adjacent  systems.  Bichromatic  over-printing  produces  a  hue 
intermediate  between  the  two  hues  combined,  but  the  hue  mid- 
way between  a  system-colour  and  its  complementary  colour  is 
white  or  gray,  and  if  only  a  small  amount  of  the  complementary 
colour  is  added,  the  system-colour  merely  becomes  paler  or 
duller,  when  viewed  from  such  a  distance  that  the  colours  blend. 

The  prismatic  colour  scheme,  having  been  constructed  for  the 
express  purpose  of  securing  a  degree  of  flexibility  that  will  fit  it 
for  universal  use,  need  not  be  further  compared  in  that  regard 


with  the  scheme  published  by  the  European'  Map  Committee. 
Enough  has  also  been  said  to  show  that  its  superior  perspicuity 
is  claimed  both  for  general  and  for  detail  maps.  A  few  words 
will  suffice  to  compare  the  two  systems  in  other  respects. 

As  regards  the  expense  incun-ed  in  the  production  of  general 
maps,  neither  has  any  notable  advantage,  and  they  are  not  yet 
sufficiently  developed  to  permit  a  comparison  as  regards  the  cost 
of  detail  maps.  Their  capability  for  the  production  of  pleasant 
colour  effects  can  best  be  judged  when  maps  have  been  actually 
made,  but  it  may  be  said  in  a  general  way  that  the  Committee's 
scheme  will  afford  more  strong  contrasts  between  adjacent  colour 
areas  than  the  prismatic.  The  maps  coloured  l^y  the  former  will 
be  relatively  lively,  those  coloured  by  the  latter  relatively  quiet. 
It  is  provided  by  the  Committee  that  the  volcanic  colours  shall 
be  not  merely  red  but  strong.  On  a  general  map  volcanic  areas 
cover  comparatively  small  spaces,  and  strong  reds  thus  disposed 
will  ordinarily  add  brilliancy  ;  but  the  detail  map  of  a  volcanic 
district,  thus  coloured,  will  be  disquietingly  suggestive  of  active 
eruption. 

The  alphabet  of  colours  for  the  prismatic  scale  will  be  the 
more  easily  learned  of  the  two,  because  it  is  orderly,  and  because 
its  order  is  already  familiar  in  the  spectrum.  The  Committee's 
scheme,  however,  has  some  old-fashioned  mnemonic  features 
which  the  prismatic  lacks.  The  green  of  the  Cretaceous  is  con- 
nected with  greensand,  the  red  of  volcanic  rocks  with  fire,  and 
the  rose  of  the  Archaean  with  feldspar ;  and  the  gray  of  the 
Carboniferous  mildly  suggests  the  blackness  of  coal. 

In  respect  to  facility  of  introduction  the  Committee's  scheme, 
being  essentially  a  compromise  of  existing  colour  scales,  has  the 
advantage  that  to  most  users  it  is  not  entirely  novel.  The  pris- 
matic scheme  on  the  other  hand  has  the  advantage  of  being 
orderly.  It  scientifically  differentiates  the  functions  of  hues  and 
tones,  and  though  each  one  of  its  colours  may  be  different  from 
what  the  individual  geologist  has  previously  employed  for  the 
indication  of  the  same  system,  the  order  of  the  colours  is  already 
familiar  to  him  in  another  way. 

This  closes  my  review  of  the  various  works  undertaken  by  the 
Congress.  Some  of  these  have  been  favoured,  others  opposed, 
and  reasons  have  been  given.  But  there  is  a  general  considera- 
tion or  criterion  applicable  to  all,  which  has  nearly  escaped 
mention,  although  it  is  of  pre-eminent  importance.  When  a 
matter  is  proposed  for  regulation  by  the  Congress,  the  first 
question  which  should  be  asked  is  whether  it  falls  within  the 
legitimate  purview  of  a  convention  of  geologists.  It  manifestly 
does  not  if  it  belongs  to  some  other  science  rather  than  to 
geology,  and  objection  has  on  this  ground  been  made  against 
the  regulation  by  our  Geologic  Congress  of  the  nomenclatures 
of  palaeontology  and  mineralogy.  But  not  all  geologic  matters 
even  are  properly  subject  to  settlement  by  convention.  This  is 
peculiarly  the  case  with  geoljgic  facts.  Science  is  distinguished 
from  the  earlier  philosophies  of  mankind  by  the  peculiarity  that 
it  establishes  its  fundamental  data  by  observation.  The  old 
philosophies  were  founded  largely  upon  assumptions,  and  it  was 
not  deemed  illogical — perhaps  it  was  not  illogical — to  appeal  to 
the  authority  of  an  assemblage  of  experts  for  the  establishment 
of  fundamental  assumptions.  But  for  science  it  is  not  merely 
illogical,  it  is  suicidal,  to  establish  facts  in  any  other  way  than 
by  observation.  No  vote  of  the  most  august  scientific  body  can 
possibly  establish  a  fact,  and  no  vote  can  have  any  weight 
against  a  good  observation. 

Now  the  entire  science  of  geology,  using  the  phrase  in  a  strict 
sense,  is  constituted  by  the  aggregation  and  arrangement  of 
facts,  and  none  of  its  results  can  be  rendered  more  true  or  be 
more  firmly  established,  or  be  prevented  from  yielding  to  contra- 
dictory facts,  by  conventiinal  agreement.  A  classification,  if  it 
has  any  value  whatever,  is  merely  a  generalized  expression  of 
the  facts  of  observation,  and  is  outside  the  domain  of  the  voter. 
If  it  comprises  all  the  essential  facts,  its  sufficiency  will  eventually 
be  recognized,  whether  its  authority  is  individual  or  collective. 
If  it  does-  not  comprise  them,  it  will  inevitably  be  superseded, 
by  whatever  authority  it  may  have  been  instituted.  For  this 
reason  I  am  opposed  to  the  classification  by  the  Congress  of  the 
sedimentary  formations,  and  likewise  to  the  classification  of 
volcanic  rocks,  and  I  also  regard  it  as  ill-advised  that  the  Con- 
gress undertook  the  preparation  of  a  map  of  Europe,  for  that — 
if  more  than  a  work  of  compilation — is  a  work  of  classification. 

If  we  examine  the  other  undertakings  of  the  Congress — the 
definition  and  gradation  of  taxonomic  terms,  the  i-ystematization 
of  terminations,  the  selection  of  a  scale  of  colou:s  for  geologic 
maps,    and   the   selection  of  other   conventional  signs  for  the 


Nov.  lo,  1887] 


NA  TURE 


43 


graphic  expression  of  geologic  phenomena — we  find  that  they 
all  belong  to  the  means  of  intercommunication  of  geologists. 
They  affect  only  the  verbal  and  graphic  technical  language  of 
the  science.  Of  the  same  nature  is  the  arbitrary  time  scale 
whose  preparation  I  favour — a  conventional  terminology  for  the 
facts  of  correlation.  So  we  may  say,  in  general,  that  the  proper 
function  of  the  Congress  is  the  establishment  of  common  means 
of  expressing  the  facts  of  geology.  It  should  not  meddle  with 
the  facts  themselves.  It  may  regulate  the  art  of  the  geologist, 
but  it  must  not  attempt  to  regulate  his  science.  Its  proper  field 
of  work  lies  in  the  determination  of  questions  of  technology  ;  it 
is  a  trespasser  if  it  undertakes  the  determination  of  questions  of 
science.     It  may  decree  terms,  but  it  must  not  decree  opinions. 


TECHNICAL  EDUCATION} 

'T'HE  present  century  has  witnessed  a  vast  and  almost  in- 
credible change  in  the  great  industries  of  the  world,  and 
in  the  progress  of  the  arts  and  manufactures.  The  causes  of 
this  great  Change  are  various,  though  mutually  dependent  upon 
each  other,  such  as  the  cessation  of  the  great  wars  that  had  for 
so  long  ravaged  the  continent  of  Europe,  which  enabled  many 
of  the  most  vigorous  minds  to  be  turned  to  the  arts  of  peace  ; 
the  rapid  growth  of  population,  which  rendered  the  wants  of 
mankind  more  pressingly  felt  ;  and  the  more  general  spread  of 
education,  which  caused  the  great  discoveries  that  have  enriched 
this  period  to  be  eagerly  taken  advantage  of  and  adopted. 

Among  the  many  results  which  have  ensued,  is  one  which 
must  be  carefully  studied,  affecting  as  it  does  in  a  peculiar  degree 
our  own  country  at  this  time. 

Since  the  latter  half  of  the  last  century,  when  by  the  dis- 
appearance of  forests  in  the  iron-producing  districts,  resulting 
from  the  use  of  timber  as  fuel,  maternal  Necessity  had  brought 
forth  an  invention  in  the  shape  of  the  process  of  smelting  iron 
ore  with  coal,  progress  in  machinery  and  manufactures  had 
steadily  been  made.  The  great  natural  advantages  arising  from 
the  conjunction,  not  only  of  coal  and  iron  in  the  same  locality, 
but  also  their  immediate  proximity  to  the  limestone  required  in 
iron-smelting  operations,  had  greatly  contributed  to  this  advance, 
until  this  country,  instead  of  importing  four-fifths  of  the  whole 
iron  used  from  Sweden,  as  was  the  case  in  1750,  had  become 
the  greatest  iron-producing  country  of  the  world.  The  inven- 
tion of  the  steam-engine  in  conjunction  with  the  pDwer-loom 
and  other  important  machines,  greatly  contributed  to  the  growth 
of  the  factory  system,  the  establishment  of  the  cotton,  linen, 
and  woollen  industries,  and  the  rapid  increase  of  manufactories 
in  general.  Owing  to  the  insular  po  ition  of  Great  Britain,  and 
the  prohibitive  laws  in  force,  until  fifty  years  ago  the  nature  of 
the  machinery  used  in  all  these  manufactures,  as  well  as  the 
technical  knowledge  and  skill  of  the  workman,  was  prevented 
from  being  carried  abroad.  Thus,  as  stated  in  the  recent  Report 
of  the  Commissioners  on  Technical  Education  : — 

"  When,  less  than  half  a  ceitury  ago,  Continental  countries 
began  to  construct  railways,  and  to  erect  mxlern  mills  and 
mechanical  workshops,  they  found  themselves  face  to  face  with 
a  full-grown  industrial  organization  in  this  country,  which  was 
almost  a  sealed  book  to  those  who  could  not  obtain  access  to 
our  factories. " 

This  artificial  state  of  things  was  not  destined  to  last,  for,  on 
the  one  hand,  these  countries  were  keenly  alive  to  the  import- 
ance of  possessing  such  manufactures,  and  were  determined  to 
obtain  them  at  all  costs  ;  and,  on  the  other,  it  was  greatly  to  the 
immediate  advantage  of  our  manufacturers  to  sell  freely  in  such 
a  market  a;  began  to  be  opened  to  them.  At  the  same  time 
skilled  artisans  were  easily  found  who  were  willing  to  accom- 
pany abroad  machinery  which  had  been  constructed  in  this 
country,  and  thus  to  become  the  means  of  disseminating  techni- 
cal education  of  the  most  practical  type  amongst  those  who  were 
quite  as  industrious  and  frequently  better  educated  than  the 
workmen  at  home. 

The  efforts  of  foreign  nations  to  establish  mills  and  workshops 
of  their  own  did  not  cease  here ;  for,  recognizing  the  necessity  of 
specially  spreading  technical  knowledge  by  all  possible  means, 
technical  schools,  instituted  and  supported  liy  the  State,  at 
which  instruction  could  be  obtained  free,  or  at  almost  nominal 
cost,  were  established  in  numerous  places  all  over  the  Continent. 

'  Part  of  Inaugural  Address  of  session  of  University  College  delivered  at 
St.  Giorge's  Hall,  Liverpool,  on  October  i,  1887,  by  Prof.  Hele  Shaw, 
M.Inst.C.E.,  of  the  University  College,  Liverpool. 


The  larger  number  of  these  schools  have  been  institutions  at 
which  the  scientific  principles  underlying  industrial  and  manu- 
facturing operations,  rather  than  the  actual  operations  themselves, 
were  taught,  although  there  are  also  in  lessernumber  special  tech- 
nical schools,  such  as  the  weaving  schools  of  Chemnitz  in  Saxony, 
of  Crefeld  m  Rhenish  Pru.ssia,  of  Basle  in  Switzerland.  From 
these  various  schools,  numbers  of  highly  educated  men  have 
been  sent  out  year  by  year,  prepared,  when  becoming  foremen, 
managers,  or  employers  of  labour,  to  take  advantage  of  the 
latest  discoveries  and  improvements  in  various  branches  of 
industry,  and  keenly  alive  to  the  fact  that  "knowledge  is 
power." 

Notwithstanding  all  this,  an  enormous  increase  of  trade  and 
prosperity  was  enjoyed  by  this  country  for  many  years,  and 
notably  was  this  the  case  after  the  first  International  Exhibition 
in  Hyde  Park,  in  185 1,  which  Exhibition  revealed  to  visitors 
from  all  parts  of  the  world  much  (some  persons  of  the  old 
school  are  to  be  found,  who  assert  too  much),  concerning  the 
perfection  of  our  machinery  and  processes  of  manufacture  which 
had  been  scarcely  realized  before,  even  by  ourselves.  This 
prosperity  apparently  reached  a  climax  from  ten  to  fifteen  years 
ago,  and,  since  then,  trade  has  assumed  a  very  different  aspect. 
At  first  the  change  was  felt  in  relation  to  countries  whose 
resources  were  in  some  respects  comparable  with  our  own,  and 
afterwards  with  others  less  favourably  situated,  and  in  place  of 
supplying  them  with  manufactured  articles  and  machinery,  they 
began  to  enter  into  competition,  and  in  many  cases  successful 
competition,  with  this  country,  even  in  markets  hitherto  con- 
sidered all  our  own.  Indeed,  a  positive  reflex  action  has  actu- 
ally occurred  in  some  important  branches  of  industry  and  foreign 
iron,  machines,  hardware,  and  textile  goods  are  imported  for 
home  use.  The  result  of  this  competition  has  been  keenly  felt, 
and  the  consequent  struggle  which  has  taken  place  in  these  times 
of  peace  has  been,  and  now  is,  almost  as  determined  and  often 
as  bitter  as  in  an  open  war.  That  rather  doubtful  compliment 
once  paid  by  a  great  general  to  the  British  soldier,  that  he  never 
knew  when  he  was  beaten,  could  scarcely  be  applied  to  the 
British  manufacturer,  since  there  is  a  very  speedy  way  of  settling 
this  point  in  a  commercial  transaction  ;  but  the  question  upon  which 
knowledge  has  often  been  wanting  and  information  sometimes 
too  tardily  sought,  is  rather  as  to  the  cause  and  its  remedy.  In 
some  cases  the  cause  is  obviously  due  to  the  lower  wages  and 
longer  hours  for  which  foreign  workmen  will  toil,  and  it  may  be 
mentioned,  as  pointing  to  what  may  be  sometimes  possible  in 
this  case,  that  in  the  neighbouring  industry  of  wire-drawing  at 
Warrington,  which  was  threatened  with  extinction,  the  German 
competition  was  entirely  met  and  overcome  by  the  wire-workers 
voluntarily  accepting  a  reduction  in  wages  of  10  per  cent.,  after 
four  of  their  delegates  had  visited  the  Black  Forest  and  ascer- 
tained for  themselves  full  particulars  as  to  the  wire  industry  of 
that  district. 

But,  on  the  other  hand,  there  are  branches  of  manufacture  in 
which  the  state  of  foreign  workmen  and  workwomen  is  so 
pitiable  that  no  right-thinkifig  person  would  desire  to  have  in- 
creased trade  in  this  country  at  such  a  price  to  our  own  people, 
though  happily  there  is  not  much  fear  of  this,  since  the  move- 
ment is  rather  in  the  other  direction.  But  the  question  of 
wages  is  only  one  of  many  causes,  for  it  has  been  asserted  by 
excellent  authorities  that  it  is  not  in  those  branches  of  industry 
in  which  foreign  wages  are  lowest  and  hours  longest  that  com- 
petition presses  most  heavily  upon  us.  Thus,  according  to  the 
recently  published  Consular  Reports,  we  have  still  something  to 
learn  in  several  directions  in  the  matter  of  finding  out  fresh 
markets  and  accommodating  our  productions  to  native  wants, 
instead  of  trying  to  force  goods  of  our  own  pattern  and  design 
where  they  are  either  not  in  accordance  with  native  views  and 
prejudices,  or  are  unsuitable  to  the  locality.  Again,  it  is  not 
only  the  Germans  who  stamp  the  words  "best  Sheffield  steel" 
upon  cast-iron  axes  and  knife-blades  :  neither  in  the  matter  of 
shoddy-manufacturers  can  this  country  afford  to  throw  stones  at 
our  foreign  rivals. 

It  is  not,  however,  the  object  of  this  address  to  enter  into  a 
discussion  of  the  various  causes  of  trade  depression,  and  still  less 
to  presume  to  say  how  such  an  undesirable  state  of  things  may 
be  met  and  overcome,  but  to  consider  a  subject  which  has  recently 
been  very  vigorously  brought  forward  in  connexion  with  this 
matter  under  the  title  of  "  Technical  Education."  No  branch  of 
education  has  of  late  attracted  so  much  attention  as  this.  It  has 
formed  not  only  the  text  of  the  Presidential  Address  of  the 
British  Association    in    1885,  and   part   of  that   at  the  recent 


44 


NATURE 


{Nov.  lo,  1887 


address  at  Manchester,  but  of  innumerable  other  speeches, 
pamphlets,  papers,  and  even  books,  one  of  the  very  earliest  and 
most  brilliant  of  which  was  a  treatise  from  the  pen  of  the  late 
Mr.  Scott  Russell.  It  has  been  quite  recently  the  subject  of  a 
special  Government  Bill,  which  was  considered  suificiently 
urgent  to  be  carried  through  almost  to  the  last  stage  when  other 
Bills  were  being  dropped  right  and  left,  and  then  disappeared 
only  with  the  full  assurance  of  a  revival  in  more  vigorous  form 
at  an  early  period  of  next  session  ;  while  only  in  last  July 
there  was  formed  "A  National  Association  for  the  Promotion 
of  Technical  Education,"  which  numbers  as  its  President, 
Vice-Presidents,  and  Committee,  many  of  the  most  able  poli- 
ticians, experienced  men  of  business,  and  well-known  men  of 
science. 

These  facts  are  quite  sufficient  to  show  that  there  is  now  a 
very  prevalent  and  wide-spread  belief  that  the  subject  of 
technical  education  has  become  one  of  pressing  national  import- 
ance. There  are,  indeed,  already  not  wanting  persons  who 
connect  the  subject  with  the  terms  "foreign  competition"  and 
"commercial  depression,"  by  a  train  of  reasoning  apparently 
somewhat  as  simple  as  the  following  :  — 

1st  proposition. — Bad  trade  is  the  reuilt  of  foreign  competi- 
tion. 

2nd  proposition. — Foreign  competition  derives  its  strength 
from  superior  foreign  technical  educa- 
tion. * 

Conclusion. — Therefore  bad  trade  at  home  is  due  to 
superior  technical  education  abroad. 

This  mode  of  reasoning  is  brief  and  conclusive  enough  to 
satisfy  even  the  most  superficial,  it  is  easily  portable,  and  has 
the  advantage  of  admitting  of  illustration  in  certain  special  cases 
in  which  both  propositions  and  conclusion  are  true,  but  it  i-; 
nevertheless  a  striking  example  of  the  danger  of  arguing  from 
the  special  to  the  general.  Without,  however,  accepting  such  a 
sweeping  generalization,  it  may  be  safely  said  that  foreign 
countries  have  derived  great  benefit  from  their  systematic 
encouraging  of  technical  teaching,  and  we  may  proceed  to 
consider  briefly  what  progress  we  ourselves  have  made  in  this 
direction. 

In  the  first  place  it  may  be  well  to  ask  what  the  term   "tech- 
nical education  "  really  means  ?     Most  people  have,  no  doubt,  a 
general  idea  on  the  subject,  but  there  are  a   great  many  who 
freely  discuss  the  question,  who  would  be  woefully  at  a  loss  if 
asked  for  an  exact  definition  ;  and  if  anyone  doubts  the  truth  of 
this,  let  him  try  the  experiment  on   a  few  friends.     The  answer 
which   will    generally   be   given,    with    some    hesitation,    will 
probably  have  some  not  very  distinct  reference  to  instruction  in 
the  use  of  tools,  backed  by  allusion  to  carpentering  by  way  of 
illustration,  or  will,  perhaps,  be  some  mention  of  chemistry,  or 
other  branch  of  science,  or,  as  a  final  resort,  "something to  meet 
the  German  competition."     Now  the  fact  is  that  the  first  of 
these  may  not  be  really  technical  instruction  at  all,  but  only 
manual  training  as  part  of  a  general  education,  as,  for  instance, 
is  now  given  out  of  school  hours  in  the  working  of  wood  to  the 
boys  at  most  of  our  Colleges,  partly  to  keep  them  out  of  mis- 
chief and  partly  to  train  the  hand  and  eye,  but  in  which  case 
there  is  not  the  slightest  intention  or  idea  that  any  of  the  boys 
shall  actually  become  a  carpenter.     The  last  answer,  however 
grotesque  it  may  seem,  is  much  nearer  the  truth,  as  it  connects 
technical  instruction  with   a  special  object  in  view,     Now  that 
this  is  really  the  idea  of  those  who  have  thought  most  carefully 
over  the  subject  is  made  clear  by  the  terse  and  excellent  state- 
ment of  the  aims  of  the  Association  for  the  Promotion  of  Tech- 
nical Education,  one  of  which  is    "to  effect  such  reforms  in  our 
educational  system  as  will   develop  in  the  best  way  the  intelli- 
gence of  those  of  all  classes  upon  whom  our  industries  depend," 
the    Association   itself  being   formed  because  of  "the  general 
expression  of  opinion  throughout  the  country  as  to  the  necessity 
of  a  reform  in  our  system  of  national  education,  with  the  object 
of  giving  it  a  more  practical  direction."     Thus  we  may  accept 
the  following  definition  of  a  writer  on  the  subject,   that  "  by 
technical  education  is  meant  special  instruction  in  some  scientific, 
artistic,    or   mechanical  process  or    handicraft  as  distinguished 
from  purely  literary  instruction  "  ;  or  that  by  another  writer, 
who  defines  it  as    "  special  training  for  an  industrial  pursuit  as 
distinguished  from  a  general  preparation  for  any  calling  hereafter 
to  be  chosen."     Thus  technical  education  will  comprise  a  very 
wide  range  of  subjects,  not  those  merely  taught  with  a  view  to 
manufacturing,  mechanical,  and  artistic  pursuits,  but  will  com- 


prise the  instruction  given  in  a  medical  school,  in  an  agricultural 
college,  and  even  commercial  education,  which  last  now  forms  a 
distinct  feature  of  our  own  College,  and  the  reform  of  which 
branch  of  education  is  one  of  the  special  objects  of  the  Associa- 
tion above  alluded  to.  It  is  therefore  at  first  surprising  to  the 
uninitiated  that  we  find  the  following  definition  in  the  recent 
Bill  for  Technical  Education  :  "  The  expression  technical 
instruction  means  instruction  in  the  branches  of  science  and  art 
with  respect  to  which  grants  are  for  the  time  being  made  by 
the  Science  and  Art  Department,  or  in  any  other  subject  which 
may  for  the  time  being  be  sanctioned  by  the  Department." 
This  definition  is  no  doubt  quite  satisfactoiy  to  the  authorities 
of  the  Department,  although  it  savours  strongly  of  the  opinion 
attributed  in  a  well-known  series  of  rhymes  to  a  certain  eminent 
University  don,  who  is  made  to  assert — 

"  I  am  the  Master  of  this  College, 
And  what  isn't  taught  here  isn't  knowledge." 

And  though  this  definition  happens  at  present  to  exclude  manual 
and  workshop  instruction,  concerning  which  the  mover  of  the 
Bill,  Sir  Wm.  Hart  Dyke,  expatiated  somewhat  eloquently  and 
at  considerable  length  when  moving  the  second  reading  of  the 
Bill — but  this  is  a  trifling  matter,  as  no  doubt  when  the  Science 
and  Art  Department  has  had  time  to  go  into  the  matter,  and  to 
study  the  subject,  and  has  made  arrangements  for  teaching  and 
examining  it,  it  will  be  "sanctioned"  with  the  rest,  and  become 
technical  instruction.  It  must,  however,  be  recognized  that  the 
Science  and  Art  Department  is  the  most  important  institution  in 
this  country  for  the  promotion  and  encouragement  of  technical 
education,  and  has  done  a  work,  especially  in  the  direction  of 
evening-class  teaching  to  the  artisan  class,  which  must  have 
proved  of  incalculable  benefit,  and  it  will  be  well  to  study  the 
progress  made  in  science  instruction,  as  affording  some  index  of 
our  general  progress  in  technical  education.  The  following 
table  gives  the  result  of  work  during  the  last  ten  years,  showing 
in  three  columns  :  (i)  the  amount  of  the  grants  given  to  teachers 
for  successful  candidates  on  the  system  of  payment  by  examina- 
tional results  ;  (2)  the  actual  number  of  students  under  instruc- 
tion in  science  classes  fulfilling  conditions  which  would  enable  a 
grant  to  be  claimed  ;  (3)  the  number  of  papers  actually  worked 
in  different  science  subjects.  The  three  columns  are  independent 
of  each  other  in  a  certain  sense,  since  a  registered  student  may 
either  take  several  papers,  or  may,  on  the  other  hand,  possibly 
not  come  up  for  examination  at  all,  or,  coming  up,  may  fail  to 
secure  a  grant. 

Table  I. — Results  of  Science  and  Art  Department  during  tJu 
last  Ten   Years. 


Year. 

Grants. 

Students  under 
Instruction. 

Examination 

Papers  actually 

Worked. 

(0 

(2) 

(3) 

£ 

1878 

39,073 

59,705 

66,365 

1879 

41,036 

56,752 

70,248 

1880 

43,863 

60,041 

72,428 

1881 

47,231 

61,180 

75,735 

1882 

49,700 

67,315 

79,786 

1883 

50,967 

71,164 

83,387 

1884 

61,638 

77,519 

90,825 

1885 

69,113 

81,491 

101,275 

1886 

79,000 

97,664 

118,241 

1887 

88,000 

103,362 

131,896 

The  results  are  striking,  but  in  order  to  reveal  their  signifi- 
cance more  closely,  the  diagram.  Fig.  I,  is  reproduced  from 
a  recent  memorandum  of  expenditure  and  estimates  of  the 
Department,  in  which  the  height  of  the  lines  in  each  year  from 
the  base  line  gives  the  value  of  grant,  number  of  students,  or  of 
worked  paper. 

The  three  curves  represent  at  once  to  the  eye  the  rapid  pro- 
gress which  is  being  made.  Indeed,  the  rate  of  increase  is  twice 
as  great  during  the  last  two  years  as  during  previous  years,  and, 
so  far  from  there  being  any  want  of  appreciation  of  technical 
instruction,  the  results  are  such  as  might  possibly  cause  the  tax- 
payer some  concern  ;  on  this  point,  however,  the  memorandum 
states  : — '*'  There  is  no  reason  to  suppose  that  the  expenditure 
will  rise  at  the  present  rate  ;  on  the  contrary,  even  without  look- 


Nov.  lo,  1887] 


NATURE 


45 


ing  at  the  increased  rate  of  rise  of  the  last  few  years,  as  a  sudden 
augmentation  due  to  special  causes,  it  is  obvious  that  as  the 
limit  is  approached  the  rate  of  rise  must  rapidly  diminish.  This 
limit,  as  far  as  it  can  be  arrived  at  by  calculation  from  popula- 
tion, &c. ,  probably  about  200,coo  persons  under  instruction  in 
science — there  were  last  session  1 10,000  under  instruction.  Con- 
tinuing the  curve  for  science  as  it  may  reasonably  be  expected 
to  run,  we  should  arrive  at  about  ilo,oco  in  1896."  In  any 
case  there  is  no  real  cause  for  alarm,  because  the  standard  of 
work  required  lo  secure  a  grant  can  always  be  raised,  and,  as  a 
matter  of  fact,  appears  to  be  steadily  rising  year  by  year,  and, 
after  all,  the  sum  of  even  ;^ioi,i75,  which  is  the  estimated 
expenditure  for  the  current  year  in  aid  of  science  instruction,  is 


a  remarkably  small  annual  expense  for  the  instruction  of  103,362 
students  all  over  the  country. 

There  has  been  for  several  years  at  work  another  central 
agency,  which  promotes  technical  instruction  in  the  same  man- 
ner as  the  Science  and  Art  Department,  viz,  by  payment  upon 
the  results  of  examination.  This  body  is  known  as  the  City  and 
Guilds  Institute  of  London.  These  examinations  carried  on  by 
this  body  were  originally  established  in  1873  by  the  Society  of 
Arts — the  subject  that  year  being  cotton  manufacture,  steel,  and 
carriage  building,  the  number  of  candidates  being  respectively 
one,  two,  and  three,  making  a  grand  total  of  six.  The  next 
year,  gas  manufacture  and  agriculture  were  added,  and  the  total 
rose  to  thirty-six.      Subjects  continued  to  be  added,  and  the 


Fig.   I. — Science  and  Art  Department. 


Graphic  Representation  of  Table  N9  2. 

/878    1    /579 

I&&0 

1881        1882 

1883    ''    I&S4-  ,    1885    \    1886    \    1887    c,  <^c)0 

■.  j  ■ 

!                   y^ 

/          sooo 

j 

y      .. 

V    -- 



j , 

^y                4.000 

1 

ly^'^                                         :3.5 

1  , 

-1 

/                      ■!                          '':^.C)nQ 

, 

. 

• 

/  ■                                                    I?"? 

'2,000 

J^^*"^ 

j                                                     i.f. 

! 

_^ 

'       '           :                                                         ■   1,000 

y 

y^ 

soo 

—^ 

n 

1 

Fig.  2. — City  ani  Guilds  of  London. 


numbers  to  rise  year  by  year,  until  ten  years  ago  the  latter  had 
reached  184,  since  when  the  following  table  shows  the  progress 
made,  the  City  and  Guilds  taking  over  the  whole  responsibility 
of  the  work  in  1881. 

Table  II. — Society  of  Arts  and  City  and  Guilds  Exa7ninations. 


Years. 

1878  1879  1880 

1881 
.56: 

1882 
[972 

1883  1884 

23973635 

1 

188; 
3968 

1886  1887 

Number  of  Candidates. 

i _ 

184    202 1  803 

4764  5508 

I  have  plotted  the  above  results  in  a  similar  manner  to  those 
cf  the  Science  and  Art  Department,  and  it  will  be  seen  (Fig.  2) 


that  the  rate  of  growth  is  far  more  rapid ;  and  rich  as  are  the 
worthy  livery  companies  of  grocers,  fishmongers,  tanners,  spect- 
acle makers,  and  others,  who  form  the  City  and  Guilds  Institute, 
they  too  must  have  reason  to  confess  that  technical  education, 
towards  which  they  have  recently  contributed  not  less  than  a 
quarter  of  a  million  of  money,  is  not  quite  at  a  standstill,  for  at 
the  present  rate  of  growth  the  number  of  candidates,  large  as  it 
now  is,  will  have  doubled  in  the  next  seven  years,  though  even 
this,  with  an  assured  income  of  ;^33.ooo  a  year,  may  not  give 
them  cause  for  alarm.  It  may  be  well  to  explain  that  the  ex- 
aminational work  of  the  City  and  Guilds,  and  that  of  the  Science 
and  Art  Department,  not  only  do  not  clash,  but  bear  an  import- 
ant and  valuable  relation  to  each  other.  Thus  the  former  is 
more  distinctly  technical,  dealing  with  ^special  details  of  trades 


46 


NA  TURE 


{Nov.  lo,  1887 


and  manufactures,  and  the  term  "technological  examination" 
is  always  employed  to  emphasize  this  point,  and  before  a  full 
technological  certificate  is  granted  by  the  City  and  Guilds  Insti- 
tute in  any  subject,  certificates  in  the  elementary  stage  of  certain 
specified  theoretical  examinations  of  the  Science  and  Art  De- 
partment must  be  produced.  A  comparison  of  a  few  of  the 
subjects  will  at  once  make  this  clear,  the  numbers  appended  to 
the  subjects  in  the  following  list  being  those  attached  to  them 
in  the  syllabus  of  each  examining  body. 

CITY  AND  GUILDS. 

(27)  Tools, 
(a)  Wood  Working. 
{b")  Metal  Working. 

(34)  Carpentry  and  Joinery. 

(35)  Brickwork  and  Masonry. 

(28)  Mechanical  Engineering. 

(22)  Electrical  Engineering. 
(a)  Telegraphy. 
Kfi)  Electric  Lighting, 
(c)  Electrical  Instrument 
Making, 
(i)  Alkali  and  Allied  Branches. 
(4)  Coal  Tar  Products. 

(7)  Oils,  Varnishes. 

(8)  Oils  and  Fats. 

(9)  Gas  Manufacture. 
Subject  XIX. — Metallurgy.                       (10)  Iron  and  Steel  Manufacture. 

Practical  examinations  are  held  by  the  City  and  Guilds  in  weav- 
ing and  pattern  designing,  in  metal  plate  work,  in  carpentry  and 


SCIENCE    AND    ART| 
DEPARTMENT. 

Subject  II. — Machine     Construction 
and  Drawing. 

Subject  III. — Building  Construction. 

Subject  VI. — Theoretical  Mechanics. 
Subject  VII. — Applied  Mechanics. 
Subject  IX. — Magnetism  and    Elec- 
tricity. 


Subject  X. — Inorganic  Chemistry. 
Subject  XI. — Organic  Chemistry. 


joinery,  and  in  mine  surveying,  while  last  year,  for  the  first 
time,  an  examination  was  held  in  typography.  This  latter  was 
conducted  in  several  printing  works  placed  at  the  disposal  of  the 
Institute,  and  thirty-two  out  of  the  seventy-seven  candidates 
succeeded  in  composing  and  printing  the  difficult  manuscript 
supplied  to  them — sufficiently  well  to  obtain  a  certificate. 

There  is  nothing  at  all  approaching  our  own  system  of  pay- 
ment by  results  in  any  country  in  Europe,  and  eminent  foreign 
educationalists  have  frequently  deplored  the  absence  of  such  in 
their  own  respective  countries.  This  system  has  given  particular 
vitality  to  that  most  valuable  kind  of  education — evening  class 
iuhtruction  ;  and  as  an  examiner  for  both  the  bodies  above 
alluded  to,  and  after  an  experience — not  a  very  enjoyable  expe- 
rience, and  not  the  experience  that  a  rich  man  would  continue 
to  indulge  in — of  upwards  of  6000  examination  papers,  I  may 
be  permitted  to  testify  to  the  valuable  nature  of  the  work  done 
by  the  students,  and  the  possibility  of  almost  complete  preven- 
tion of  "cram"  when  proper  precautions  are  taken.  Thus, 
though  large  numbers  of  technical  night  classes  exist  all  over  the 
Continent,  it  is  very  doubtful  if  the  results  obtained  by  them 
are  superior  or  even  equal  to  our  own. 

When  it  is  considered  what  splendid  technical  training  the 
workshops  arid  manufactories  of  this  country  have  afforded,  there 
will,  perhaps,  appear  to  be  veiy  good  reasons  why,  originally, 
technical  schools  were  not  so  extensively  instituted  at  home  as 
abroad,  where  almost  all  foreign  States  have  established  and 
maintained  technical  schools,  the  Ecole  Centrale  at  Paris  being 
almost  the  solitary  exception   to  this  rule.      When,   however 


Fig.  3. — L^niversity  College,  Liverpool. 


their  need  was  felt,  it  was  not  left  to  the  slowly-moving  wheels 
of  State  to  bring  such  schools  on  the  scene.  At  first  these 
schools  took  the  form  of  lectureships  and  chairs  in  constructive 
science,  for  which  the  term  "engineering"  was  conveniently 
adopted,  the  first  of  these  being  at  London,  Glasgow,  and  Man- 
chester, and  founded  in  connexion  with  the  local  Colleges. 
These  have  been  gradually  followed  by  Engineering  Schools  in 
the  Colleges  at  Leeds,  Sheffield,  Nottingham,  Dundee,  New- 
castle, Bristol,  Birmingham,  and  last,  but  it  is  hoped  not  least, 
at  Liverpool.  These  schools  give  instruction  not  merely  in 
engineering  subjects  in  a  narrow  sense  of  the  word,  but  include 
in  their  courses  of  teaching  the  wide  range  of  subjects  necessary 
for  laying  a  firm  foundation  for  a  successful  career  in  any  one  of 
the  constructive  professions,  and  prepare  a  student  to  enter  any 
of  the  particular  branches  into  which  engineering  has  become 
differentiated,  and  compare  in  this  way  with  chemical  teaching, 
which  isgiven  in  places  like  this  city— which  may  be  specialized 
with  a  view  to  particular  local  industries.  Besides  these  schools, 
others  have  arisen  of  a  more  special  nature,  due?  to  liberal- 
minded  men  and  public-spirited  bodies,  such  as  the  Weaving 
and  Dyeing  Schools  at  Leeds,  upon  which  the  Worshipful  Com- 
pany of  Clothworkers  have  spent  between  ;^20,ooo  and  ^30,000 ; 
the  Technical  Schools  at  Huddersfield,  Bradford,  Glasgow,  Man- 
chester, and  other  towns,  some  of  which  will  bear  comparison 
with  the  celebrated  foreign  schools  of  Chemnitz,  Mulhouse, 
Verviers,   Crefeld,  and  Vienna.      The  benefit  of  such  schools 


has  already  been  felt,  for  it  is  most  encouraging  to  find  amongst 
many  similar  opinions  the  testimony  of  the  Technical  Education 
Commissioners  that — "  In  those  textile  manufactures  in  which 
other  nations  have  hitherto  excelled  us,  as  in  soft  all-wool  goods, 
we  are  gaining  ground.  We  saw,  at  Bradford,  merinos  manu- 
factured and  finished  in  this  country,  which  would  bear  com- 
parison in  texture  and  colour  with  the  best  of  those  of  the 
French  looms  and  dye-houses,  and  in  the  delicate  fabrics  of 
Nottingham  and  Macclesfield  (thanks  in  great  measure  to  their 
local  Schools  of  Art)  we  no  longer  rely  upon  France  for 
design." 

The  address,  after  pointing  out  that  this  country  was,  taken 
as  a  whole,  after  all  not  in  such  a  deplorable  state  with  regard 
to  technical  education,  asserted  that  such  education  was  of  two 
kinds — general  and  special.  General  technical  education  may 
be  .'^aid  to  be  that  necessary  in  all  large  centres  of  population, 
being  the  preparation  for  such  callings  as  engineering,  architec- 
ture, medical  science,  and  other  professions,  which  at  any 
rate  a  certain  percentage  of  the  inhabitants  will  always  follow, 
besides  training  of  another  kind  suitable  to  the  artisan  class. 
Special  technical  education  is  that  necessary  in  a  locality  where 
there  are  special  industries,  instances  of  which  have  already  been 
given,  and  others  will  readily  occur  to  the  mind. 

The  remainder  of  the  address  was  devoted  to  considering  the 
educational  work  of  Liverpool  and  its  special  techn  ical  require- 


Nov.  lo,  1887] 


NA  TURE 


47 


ments.  A  brief  reference  was  made  to  the  progress  of  Univer- 
sity College,  as  sliown  by  the  following  table  of  attendances  in 
the  day  classes  since  its  foundation  in  1882. 


Table  \\\.—Ent) 

■ies  in  Day  Classes, 

Utiiversity  College. 

iS82. 

1883. 

1884. 

1885 

1886. 

1887. 

189 

625 

883 

944 

1642 

2063 

These  results  are  better  shown  graphically  in  Fig.  3. 

During  the  last  few  months  no  less  than  ;,^30,ooo  has  been 
contributed  to  the  Engineering  Department  alone,  but  the  other 
professorships  are  all  provided  for  upon  an  equally  sound  basis, 
and  Prof.  Hele  Shaw  thus  concludes  :  — 

"Hence,  side  by  side  with  teaching,  directed — sometimes 
perhaps  only  directed — to  the  practical  purposes  of  life,  we  shall, 
thanks  to  the  liberal  endowment  of  chairs  of  language,  of 
literature,  and  of  art,  always  have  the  more  liberal  studies,  and, 
as  their  exponents,  scholars  of  the  highest  culture.  Thus  every 
individual  professor  thinking,  as  he  ought  to  think,  his  subject 
to  be  the  most  important  of  all  (a  feeling  I  must,  in  common 
with  the  rest,  confess  to  having  myself),  and  so  led  to  work  for 
its  due  recognition,  the  happy  mean  will  doubtless  be  maintained 
between  mere  idealism  on  the  one  hand,  and  mere  routine  on 
the  other.  Vet  one  word  more.  There  is  another  motto  pro- 
minent upon  the  College  crest  ( '  Fiat  lux '),  in  the  spirit  of 
which  work  will  always  be  true  to  the  highest  ideal.  Our 
national  life  depends  upon  our  national  progress,  and  when  we 
cease  to  advance,  decay  will  speedily  follow.  Just  as  surely 
our  College  life,  vigorous  because  growing,  depends  for  its 
vitality  upon  the  reality  of  the  effort  we  make  to  carry  forward 
the  light  of  truth,  and  should  never  suffer  because  we  strive  to 
keep  in  touch  with  the  requirements  of  practical  life.  Scien- 
tific investigation  and  philosophic  research  must  have  their 
proper  place  and  support,  and  if  allowed  fair  scope  for  develop- 
ment, will  exercise  the  needful  influence,  and  one  that  will  be 
of  untold  value  upon  such  narrowing  tendencies  as  there  may  be 
in  our  various  schemes  of  technical  education." 


SCIENTIFIC  SERIALS. 

American  Journal  of  Science,  October. — The  relations  between 
wind  velocity  and  pressure,  by  H.  Allen  Hazen.  A  compara- 
tive study  is  made  of  the  experiments  carried  out  by  Borda, 
Hagen,  Piobert,  Didion,  Morin,  and  more  recently  at  Washing- 
ton, showing  the  great  necessity  there  is  for  further  research 
before  absolutely  trustworthy  results  can  be  obtained.  Experi- 
ments are  much  needed,  especially  with  larger  plates  than  2  feet 
square,  with  bodies  of  other  forms  than  those  hitherto  employed 
and  with  high  velocities  by  a  straight-line  motion. — Is  there  a 
Huronian  Group?  (continued),  by  R  D.  Irving.  After  establish- 
ing the  existence  of  a  true  Huronian  Group,  the  author  proceeds 
to  define  its  character,  showing  that  many  formations  even  in  the 
Lakes  Superior  and  Huron  regions,  have  been  wrongly  referred 
to  this  type.  The  presence  is  clearly  demonstrated  of  two 
entirely  distinct  and  mutually  discordant  series  in  the  Marquette, 
Penokee,  and  Menominee  districts.  In  all  these  regions  there 
are  great  discordances  between  a  lower  set  of  gneisses  and  other 
crystalline  schists,  intruded  by  granite,  and  an  upper  set  of 
detrital  rocks  carrying  iron.  The  so-called  Animike  series  is 
then  considered,  and  referred  with  the  older  Penokee  formations 
to  the  Huronian  system. — Oxygen  in  the  sun  ;  contributions 
from  the  Physical  Laboratory  of  Harvard  University,  by  John 
Trowbridge  and  C.  C.  Ilutchins.  The  experiments  here 
described  have  been  carried  out  in  order  to  test  the  soundness  of 
the  conclusion  generally  drawn  from  Dr.  Henry  Draper's  dis- 
covery of  bright  spaces  in  the  solar  spectrum  apparently  coin- 
cident with  the  bright  lines  of  the  spectrum  of  oxygen.  This 
conclusion  is  shown  to  be  at  least  premature,  and  in  the 
numerous  photographs  taken  of  the  solar  spectrum  by  them  the 
authors  have  failed  to  discover  any  line  that  could  with  certainty 
be  pronounced  brighter  than  its  neighbours.  The  bright  bands 
of  Dr.  H.  Draper's  spectrum  are  found  to  be  occupied  by 
numer  ais  dark  lines  of  various  degrees  of  intensity  ;  but  the 
hypothesis  of  Prof.  J.  C.  Draper  that  these  are  the  true  repre- 
sentatives of  the  oxygen  lines  is  rendered  untenable  by  the  lack 
of  any  systematic  connection  between  the  two. — Bismutosphairite 
from    Willimantic    and     Portland,     Connecticut,     by    H.     L. 


Wells.  An  analysis  of  two  specimens  of  basic  bismuth 
carbonate  shows  them  to  Vjc  apparently  identical  with  Weis- 
bach's  bismutosphoerite,  the  composition  of  which  had  been 
considered  somewhat  doubtful. — Note  on  some  remarkable 
crystals  of  pyroxene  from  Orange  County,  New  York,  by 
George  H.  Williams.  The  lower  back  part  of  some  of  these 
specimens  is  exactly  like  the  lower  front  quarter,  but  in  a  reversed 
po^^ition,  so  that  the  lower  half  is  a  twin  as  represented  by  Von 
Rath,  while  the  upper  half  is  apparently  simple  and  of  the  usual 
habit. — The  flow  of  solids,  or  liquefaction  by  pressure,  by 
William  Hallock.  The  experiments  here  described  point  at  the 
conclusion  that  pressure  alone  cannot  truly  liquefy  a  solid — that  is, 
diminish  its  rigidity ;  consequently  neither  can  chemical  or 
mineralogical  changes  be  produced  by  pressure  alone  without 
a  rise  of  temperature.  — Analysis  of  some  natural  borates  and 
borosilicates,  by  J.  Edward  Whitfield.  The  serie-;  of  analyses 
here  described  have  been  undertaken  to  verify,  if  possible,  the 
given  formuliE,  and  correct  errors  caused  by  defective  analytical 
methods  of  estimating  the  boric  acid  of  natural  borates.  The 
percentages  of  boric  acid  as  here  determined  by  direct  analysis 
do  not  differ  greatly  from  the  results  of  Stromeyer's  and  Mari- 
gnac's  methods. — The  Texas  section  of  the  American  Cretaceous, 
by  Robert  T.  Hill.  In  this  paper  the  author  studies  the  true 
character  of  the  deep  marine  Cretaceous  strata  already  determined 
by  him  in  Texas,  at  the  same  time  explaining  some  new  features 
of  it,  which  throw  much  light  on  the  various  American  chalk 
systems.- — Notice  of  new  fossil  mammals,  by  O.  C.  Marsh. 
Descriptions  are  given  of  some  new  species  of  Bison  aliicornis, 
Aceratheriuni  acutum,  Brontops  robtislus,  Menops  varians, 
Titanops  elatus,  and  Allops  serotinus,  recently  received  at  the 
Yale  Museum  from  the  West. 

Rivista  Scientifico-Industriale,  September  15.  —  On  the  pres- 
sure of  mixtures  of  gases  and  vapours,  and  on  Dalton's  law,  by 
Prof.  G.  Guglielmo  and  V.  Musina.  Regnault,  while  admitting 
that  Dalton's  law  on  the  tensions  of  vapours  in  gases  is  not 
strictly  verified,  and  that  the  maximum  tensions  are  less  in  gases 
than  in  vacuum,  concluded  thit  the  law  was  theoretically  exact, 
and  would  even  be  verified  in  practice  in  a  receptacle  whose 
walls  were  formed  of  the  liquid  generating  the  vapour.  The 
experiments  here  described  have  been  carried  out  for  the  purpose 
of  testing  the  accuracy  of  this  view,  with  the  result  that  the 
attraction  of  the  walls  for  the  vapour  is  far  from  sufficing  to 
explain  the  discrepancies  of  the  Daltonian  law.  Consequently 
this  law  is  not  even  theoretically  correct,  at  least  so  far  as  can 
be  concluded  from  these  researches,  which,  however,  will  require 
to  be  repeated  with  apparatus  insuring  greater  precision  than 
those  here  employed. 


SOCIETIES  AND  ACADEMIES. 
Paris. 
Academy  of  Sciences,  October  31. — M.  Janssen  in  the 
chair. — ObserA'ations  of  the  minor  planets  made  with  the  great 
meridian  of  the  Paris  Observatory  during  the  second  quarter  of 
the  year  1887,  by  M.  Mouchez.  The  right  ascension  and  Polar 
distance,  with  correction  of  the  ephemerides,  are  given  for  Belisane, 
Athor,  Asterope,  Nausicaa,  Vesta,  Antiope,  Amphitrite,  Polana, 
Bellona,  Hecuba,  and  Arethusa. — On  the  Observatory  of  Nice, 
by  M.  Faye.  In  connection  with  the  Geodetic  Conference  just 
concluded  at  Nice,  the  author  announced  that  the  magnificent 
Observatory  of  that  place,  due  to  the  munificence  of  M.  Bischoffs- 
heim,  is  now  completely  finished.  This  institution,  he  added, 
is  entirely  at  the  service  of  the  astronomers  of  all  nations  who 
may  wish  to  avail  themselves  of  its  exceptional  advantages  in  the 
prosecution  of  their  researches. — New  fluorescences  \yith  well- 
defined  spectral  rays,  by  M.  Lecoq  de  Boisbaudran.  The  results 
are  described  of  spectral  researches  made  with  gallina  and 
samarine  (Ga^Os  -I-  ^^  Sm-.Oj)  moderately  calcined ;  the  same 
very  highly  calcined  ;  gallina  and  the  earth  Za^Og  ;  gallina  and 
the  earth  ZyS^Os  ;  and  alumina  with  a  small  portion  of  the 
oxide  of  praseodyme  (Pr.,03)  highly  calcined.— Observations  of 
the  new  planet,  Peters  (270),  made  at  the  Observatory  of  Algiers 
with  the  o-5om.  telescope,  by  MM.  Rambaud  and  Sy.  The 
observations  cover  the  period  from  October  14  to  October  17.— 
Observations  of  the  new  planet,  Knorre  (271),  made  at  the  same 
Observatory  by  the  same  astronomers  during  the  period  from 
October  20  to  October  24.  — Magnetic  declinations  and  inclina- 
tions observed  in  Tunis  by  the  Hydrographic  Mission  of  1884- 
86,  communicated  by  M.  Bouquet  de  la  Grye.  The  results  of 
these  observations  are  tabulated  for  twenty-one  places,  whose 
latitudes  and  longitudes  are  also  accurately  determined.— On  the 


48 


NA  TURE 


[Nov.  lo,  1887 


phosphites  of  ammonia,  by  M.  L.  Amat.  The  process  is  described 
by  means  of  which  the  author  has  obtained  the  salt  (PhOsHO) 
NH^OjHO,  which  has  not  hitherto  been  studied.  It  may  be 
prepared  very  easily  in  beautiful  crystals  and  in  a  perfectly  pure 
state,  which  is  rarely  the  case  with  phosphites. — On  the  produc- 
tion of  the  double  carbonate  of  silver  and  potassium,  by  M.  A.  de 
Schulten.  The  carbonate  of  silver  obtained  by  the  action  of  an 
alkaline  carbonate  on  the  nitrate  of  silver  is  found  to  be  sometimes 
yellow,  sometimes  white,  while  in  most  cases  the  white  precipitate 
takes  the  yellow  colour  when  washed  with  water.  The  experiments 
here  described  show  that,  as  anticipated  by  the  author,  the  white 
colour  of  the  precipitates  is  due  to  a  combination  of  the  car- 
bonate of  silver  with  the  alkaline  carbonate,  this  combination 
being  transformed  by  the  water  into  a  yellow  carbonate  by 
eliminating  the  alkaline  carbonate.- — On  some  salts  of  aniline, 
by  M.  A.  Ditte.  The  salts  here  described  are  formed  by 
metallic  acids  almost  insoluble  in  water,  or  by  energetic  oxidants, 
and  have  been  obtained  by  the  process  of  double  decomposition. 
They  comprise  a  molybdate,  a  tungstate,  a  vanadate,  an  iodate, 
a  chlorate,  and  a  borate. — Formation  of  normal  amylic  alcohol 
in  the  fermentation  of  glycerine  set  up  by  Bacillus  butylicus,  by 
M.  Ed.  Charles  Morin.  Fitz  has  shown  that,  under  certain 
conditions  of  temperature  and  environment,  this  Bacillus  trans- 
forms glycerine  into  alcohols,  glycol,  and  acids.  To  the  normal 
ethylic  and  propylic  alcohols  determined  ia  the  products  of  the 
fermentation  must  now  be  added  normal  amylic  alcohol,  which 
may  be  easily  extracted  by  distillation.— On  a  remarkable  variety 
of  mineral  wax,  by  MM.  G.  Dollfus  and  Stanislas  Meunier.  The 
specimens  here  described  came  from  Sloboda  Rungorska,  near 
Kolomea,  in  Austrian  Galicia,  vv'here  petroleum  wells  have 
recently  been  sunk.  A  rough  analysis  yields  H  =  15,  C  =  85, 
corresponding  to  the  formula  CH,  with  density  o'6o. 

Berlin. 
Physical  Society,  October  28. — Prof,  von  Helmholtz,  Pre- 
sident, in  the  chair. — The  President  gave  a  heart-felt  address  in 
memory  of  the  late  Prof.  Kirchhoif,  who  was  Vice-President  of 
the  Society. — Dr.  Robert  von  Helmholtz  showed  and  explained 
before  the  Society  the  experiments  on  vapour  currents,  of  which 
he  has  recently  given  an  account  in  IVeideniann' s  Annalen.  In 
his  earlier  expenments  on  the  formation  of  mist  he  arrived  at 
the  same  results  that  had  been  obtained  by  Aiiken — namely,  that 
the  condensation  of  supersaturated  aqueous  vapour,  as  it  fcn-nis  a 
mist,  takes  place  only  at  some  nucleus  which  is  provided  or- 
dinarily by  the  particles  of  dust  in  the  air.  His  observations  on 
vapour  currents  have,  however,  now  shown  that  other  conditions 
have  an  influence  on  the  condensation.  When  a  platinum  wire 
heated  red-hot  by  an  electric  current  is  brought  near  a  current 
of  vapour,  the  colour  of  the  latter  changes  owing  to  an  increased 
condensation,  A  similar  result  was  obtained  when  the  following 
agents  were  employed  instead  of  the  red-hot  platinum  wire,  viz. 
the  gases  evolved  from  a  hydrogen  flame  ;  the  gases  which  rise 
from  a  glowing  wire  gauze;  a  metallic  point  from  which  elec- 
tricity is  making  its  exit ;  an  electric  spark  ;  the  vapours  which 
rise  from  sulphuric  acid ;  sal-ammoniac  when  formed  in  the  current 
of  vapour  by  the  interaction  of  hydrochloric  acid  gas  and  am- 
monia. In  all  these  last-named  cases,  where  the  condensation 
is  facilitated,  it  is  impossible  to  speak  of  any  ' '  nuclear  "  action. 
The  speaker  was  of  opinion  that  a  supersaturated  vapour,  just 
as  is  the  case  with  water  cooled  below  its  freezing-point,  or 
a  supersaturated  solution  of  any  salt,  can  be  made  to 
pass  from  its  condition  of  unstable  equilibrium  by  two 
meaiis,  either  by  some  "nuclear"  action  or  by  a  sudden 
vibraLion.  Mist  formation  is  the  result  of  a  "nuclear"  action 
in  iho  e  cases  in  which  the  atmospheric  dust  induces  a 
condensation  in  the  supersaturated  vapour.  The  condensation 
must  be  regarded  as  the  result  of  the  sudden  vibration  in  the 
other  cases  uientioned  above.  Although  in  these  cases  no  truly 
mechanical  vibration  takes  place,  still  the  chemical  processes 
involved  m  the  production  of  the  gases  evolved  by  the  flame,  in 
the  evaporation  of  the  sulphuric  acid,  in  the  formation  of  the 
sal-ammoniac,  at  the  point  from  which  the  electricity  is  making 
its  exa,  and  m  the  electric  spark,  are  to  be  regarded  as  sd  many 
sources  ot  molecular  tremors  which  upset  the  unstable  equilibrium 
of  me  supersaturated  vapour. — Dr.  Dieterici  gave  an  account  of 
his  exijcrunents  on  the  determination  of  the  mechanical  equiva- 
lcn>  01  neat  by  the  indirect  electrical  method.  He  made  this 
choice  of  method  on  account  of  the  exactness  with  which  elec- 
trical values  can  now  be  determined  in  absolute  units.  The 
speaker  described  the  general  arrangement  of  his  experiments 
and  gave  a  detailed  account  of  the  ice  calorimeter  which  he  used, 


as  specially  modified  by  himself.  As  the  result  of  his  series  of 
measurements  he  obtained  closely  agreeing  values  for  the 
mechanical  equivalent  of  heat,  namely  424*4  and  424'2  as  the 
mean  of  each  series,  the  highest  and  lowest  values  obtained 
difiering  but  little  from  the  mean  of  the  determinations.  When 
making  his  calculations  the  speaker  took  as  the  specific  heat  of 
water,  the  mean  of  the  determinations  made  between  0°  C.  and 
100°  C.  The  statements  which  have  been  made  respecting  changes 
in  the  specific  heat  of  water  as  dependent  on  changes  of  tem- 
perature differ  so  greatly  with  different  observers  that  the  mean 
values  based  on  their  results  provide  no  constant  factor  ;  the 
speaker's  determinations  would  have  been  considerably  different 
had  he  taken  as  his  basis  any  other  value  of  the  specific  heat  of 
water.  He  next  compared  the  results  of  his  experiments  with 
those  of  earlier  observers,  and  discussed  the  very  marked  differ- 
ences in  the  valuco  given  for  the  specific  heat  of  water  at  various 
temperatures.  He  thinks  that  the  specific  heat  of  water  may  best 
be  determined  by  the  electrical  measurement  of  the  mechanical 
equivalent  of  heat,  and  intends  to  investigate  this  question  more 
fully  at  a  later  date. 


BOOKS,  PAMPHLETS,  and  SERIALS  RECEIVED. 

Pen  and  Pencil  in  Asia  Minor  :  W.  Cochran  (Low). — An  Elementary 
Treatise  on  Light  and  Heat :  Rev.  F.  W.  Aveling  (Relfe).— British  and 
Irish  Salmonidse  :  F.  Day  (WilHams  and  Norgate).  —  Ff^a  Expeditionens, 
2  vols. :  A.E.  Nordenskjold(Beigers,  Stockholm). — L'Atniosphere  et  Met^oro- 
logie  Populaire:  C.  Flammarion(Hachette,  Paris). — Spezial  Karte  von  Afrika, 
2,  3,  4,  5  Lief.  (Perthes,  Gotha). — Guatemala  ;  the  Land  of  the  Quetzal  :  W. 
T.  Brigham  (Unwin).— The  Microscope  in  Theory  and  Practice,  translated 
from  the  German  of  Prof.  Carl  Naegeli  and  Prof.  S.  Schwendener  (Sonnens- 
chein). — Reynolds's  Experimental  Chemistry,  Part  4,  Organic  (Longmans). — 
Klima  und  Gestaltung  der  Erdoberflache  :  Dr.  J.  Probst  (Schweizerbart'sche, 
Stuttgart). — Beitrage  zur  Geophysik,  i.  Band  :  Prof.  Dr.  Georg  Gerland 
(Schweizerbart'sche,  Stuttgart). — Die  Japanischen  Seeigel,  1  Theil  :  Dr.  L. 
Diiderlein  (Schweizerbart'sche,  Stuttgart) — The  Lake  Age  in  Ohio  :  E.  W. 
Claypole  (Maclachlan  and  Stewart). — Gold-fields  of  Victoria,  Reports  of  the 
Mining  Registrars  for  Quarter  ended  June  30,  1887  (Melbourne). — Report  on 
the  Progress  and  Condition  of  the  Government  Botanical  Gardens  at 
Saharanpur  and  Mussoorie  for  Year  ending  March  31,  1887  (Allahabad). — 
Coleoptera ;  or,  Beetles  of  South  Australia  :_  J.  G.  O.  Tepper  (Wigg, 
Adelaide). — ^The  Answer  to  the  Universal  Question,  What  is  an  Earthquake? 
— Journal  of  Anatomy  and  Physiology,  October  (Williams  and  Norgate). — 
Journal  of  the  National  Fish-Culture  Association,  October. — Journal  of  the 
Chemical  Society,  November  (Gurney  and  Jackson). 


CONTENTS.  PAGE 

A  Conspiracy  of  Silence.     By  Prof.    T.  G.    Bonney, 

F.R.S 25 

A  Text-book  of  Algebra 27 

Practical  Botany 28 

Our  Book  Shelf  :— 

Flight:   "  A  Chapter  in  the  History  of  Meteorites  "      .  30 

Bale:   "  A  Hand-book  for  Steam  Users  " 30 

"  The  Encyclopaedic  Dictionary  "      30 

Mrs.    Fitzgerald:    "A    Treatise    on    the  Principle    of 

Sufficient  Reason  " 30 

Letters  to  the  Editor  : — 

"  Infusorial  Earth." — T.  V.  Lister 30 

The  Electrical  Condition  of  the  Peak  of  Teneriife. — 

Hon.  Ralph  Abercromby 31 

"Toeing"  and  "Heeling"  at  Golf.     {Illustrated). — 

T.  Mellard  Reade 31 

The  Ffynnon  Beuno  and  Cae    Gwyn  Caves. — G.   H. 

Morton 32 

The  Victoria  University 32 

Thermo-magnetic  Machines 33 

Notes 33 

Our  Astronomical  Column  : — 

The  Variable  Star  U  Ophiuchi 36 

The  New  Algol-Variable,  Y  Cygni 37 

Olbers'  Comet,  1887 37 

Astronomical     Phenomena      for      the     Week     1887 

November  13-19 y] 

Geographical  Notes 37 

Meteorological  Notes 38 

The  Work  of  the  International  Congress  of  Geologists. 

II.    By  G.  K.  Gilbert 40 

Technical  Education.     {Illustrated.)      By  Prof.    Hele 

Shaw •  ....  43 

Scientific  Serials 47 

Societies  and  Academies 47 

Books,  Pamphlets,  and  Serials  Received 48 


NA  TURE 


49 


THURSDAY,   NOVEMBER    17,    1887. 

POLITICS  AND    THE  PRESIDENCY   OF  THE 
ROYAL  SOCIETY. 

THE  combination  of  vigorous  intellect,  profound 
knowledge,  and  scrupulous  integrity,  is  not  so 
common  among  our  legislators,  that  a  good  citizen, 
whatever  his  political  convictions,  can  have  any  feeling 
but  one  of  satisfaction  at  the  entrance  into  the  House  of 
Commons  of  the  new  member  designate  for  the  Uni- 
versity of  Cambridge.  Prof.  Stokes's  foes  (if  indeed  he 
have  any  foes),  no  less  than  his  friends,  will  concur  in 
attributing  these  qualifications  to  him.  No  man  in  the 
scientific  world  is,  or  deserves  to  be,  more  respected  or 
more  popular. 

In  that  world  many  will  doubtless  find  an  additional 
source  of  congratulation  in  this  public  recognition  of  the 
merits  of  their  colleague  by  the  dominant  political  party 
in  the  University  of  Cambridge.  And  many  will  probably 
entertain  the  hope  that  the  addition  of  another  man  of 
science  to  the  three  or  four,  who  already  occupy  seats  in 
the  House  of  Commons,  may  do  something  towards 
the  enlightenment  and  guidance  of  the  House  and  of 
the  Government,  when  scientific  questions  come  under 
discussion. 

In  the  minds  of  thoughtful  men,  more  or  less  familiar 
with  the  realities  of  political  and  official  life,  however,  it 
is  probable  that  reflections  of  a  less  satisfactory  nature 
may  arise.  They  may  regret  that  faculties  which  are 
so  eminently  fitted  to  serve  science  should  inevitably  be 
devoted  to  the  interests  of  a  party.  Inevitably,  because, 
with  whatever  high  resolves  the  nominee  of  the  Conser- 
vatives of  Cambridge  enters  Parliament,he  will  find,  before 
he  has  been  there  a  week,  that  he  is  expected  to  do  what 
the  Whips  bid  him  to  do.  And  again  such  persons  may 
think,not  unreasonably,  that  Science  is  every  day  becoming 
more  and  more  able  to  look  after  her  own  interests  ;  and 
that,  for  her  own  honour  and  dignity,  it  is  better  that  they 
should  be  neglected  than  that  they  should  be  promoted 
by  back-stairs  agencies.  Moreover,  experience  may  sug- 
gest that  the  deliberate  judgment  of  the  majority  of 
scientific  men,  upon  any  question  in  which  State  inter- 
vention is  called  for,  may  be  widely  difi'erent  from  the 
view  taken  by  this  or  that  member  of  their  body  who 
happens  to  have  a  seat  in  Parliament ;  and  that  it 
is  extremely  undesirable  that  less  legitimate  methods 
of  influencing  a  Minister  should  be  substituted  for  the 
present  fair  and  open  mode  of  placing  a  case  before 
him  by  responsible  and  authorized  deputations. 

But,  whatever  doubts  may  be  entertained  as  to  the 
service  which  has  been,  or  can  be,  rendered  to  science  by 
scientific  members  of  Parliament,  it  is  obviously  within 
the  right  of  every  man  to  judge  for  himself  whether  he  will 
become  one  or  not.     So  far  as  Prof.  Stokes  is  simply  a  very 

distinguished  mathematician  and  physicist,  it  is  for  him, 
and  for  him  alone,  to  decide  between  the  claims  of  science, 
on  the  one  hand,  and  those  of  political  and  ecclesiastical 
conviction  on  the  other. 

;  At  the  present  moment,  however,  Prof.  Stokes  is  some- 
thing more  than  an  eminent  investigator  and  teacher  :  he  is 
President  of  the  Royal  Society  ;  and.  as  such,  he  enjoys  all 
the  prestige  which  is  given  by  the  fact  that,  in  the  eye  of 

Vol.  xxxYii,— No.  542. 


the  public,  he  has  the  oldest,  the  strongest,  and  the  most 
widely  representative  body  of  men  of  science  in  the 
country  at  his  back.  The  President  is  the  organ  and 
mouth-piece  of  the  Council  of  the  Royal  Society — a  body 
which  has  frequent  and  important  relations  with  the 
Government ;  and,  as  such,  it  may  often  be  his  business 
to  represent  to  the  Government  the  conclusions  at  which 
the  Council  arrives.  It  is  therefore  highly  important  that 
the  freedom  of  the  President's  intercourse  with  Minis- 
ters should  be  in  no  way  trammelled  by  his  political 
relations. 

It  may  be  quite  safely  affirmed  that  Prof.  Stokes's 
political  and  ecclesiastical  views  were  not  taken  into 
consideration  by  those  who  placed  him  in  the  chair  of 
the  Royal  Society.  The  last  half-dozen  of  his  prede- 
cessors, to  go  no  further  back,  have  sedulously  abstained, 
during  their  occupancy  of  the  chair,  from  holding  office  in 
anyother  Society,no  less  than  taking  part  in  any  public,and 
especially  political,  action  about  which  the  opinions  of  the 
Fellows  could  be  divided.  Prof.  Stokes  has  not  followed 
this  prudent  example.  Some  little  time  ago  he  accepted 
the  Presidency  of  a  body  of  pronounced  theological  ten- 
dencies ;  and  he  now  accepts  the  nomination  of  a  no  less 
pronounced  political  party,  and,  since  our  note  upon  his 
candidature  appeared,  he  has  issued  an  address  in  which 
he  promises  to  devote  himself  to  certain  party  objects. 

It  does  not  appear  that  Prof.  Stokes  has  obtained,  or, 
indeed,  sought,  the  sanction  of  the  Councilorof  the  Society, 
at  large,  for  this  departure  from  precedent.  For  such  it  is, 
in  spite  of  the  fact  that  Sir  Isaac  Newton  was  a  member 
of  Parliament  during  his  Presidency,  and  that  many  peers 
have  occupied  the  chair.  But  it  is  obvious  that  a  peer  need 
not  be  a  party  politician  ;  and,  as  regards  the  precedent 
of  Sir  Isaac  Newton,  it  is  enough  to  point  out  that  the 
House  of  Commons  of  the  end  of  the  nineteenth  century 
is  a  very  different  body  from  the  House  of  Commons  of 
the  beginning  of  the  eighteenth  century.  The  position 
of  an  independent  member  has  become  impossible  ;  and 
those  who  refer  to  Prof.  Stokes's  address  will  see 'that, 
whatever  his  first  feelings  may  have  been,  he,  now 
at  any  rate,  does  not  propose  to  be  anything  but  a  staunch 
Conservative. 

No  doubt  there  are  many  staunch  Conservatives  in  the 
Royal  Society,  but  no  doubt  also  there  are  many  equally 
staunch  Liberals  and  Radicals  ;  and  if  it  had  entered  into 
the  imagination  of  the  latter  that  Prof.  Stokes  would  carry 
the  prestige  of  the  Presidency  into  the  service  of  their 
political  opponents,  it  may  be  doubted  whether  they  would 
have  voted  for  him.  The  same  argument  would  apply  with 
equal  force  if  Prof.  Stokes  happened  to  be  a  Liberal. 
The  question  before  us  is  one  not  of  party,  but  of 
principle. 

We  are  in  the  midst  of  a  great  political  struggle,  and  it 
may  be  safely  predicted  that  the  force  of  party  feeling  will 
increase  rather  than  diminisTi  for  years  to  come.  If  it  is 
permissible  that  the  President  of  the  Royal  Society  may 
be  a  political  personage,  the  minds  of  the  Fellows  on  St. 
Andrew's  Day  will  be  divided  between  two  sets  of  con- 
siderations. Not  only  will  each  ask,  "  Is  A.B.  the  best 
man  for  the  Presidency  in  the  interests  of  science  and  of 
the  Society .? "  which  is  the  only  question  he  ought  to 
put ;  but  he  will  ask,  "  Is  A.B.  of  my  politics,  or  the 
opposite."*" 


50 


NA  TURE 


[Nov.  17,  1887 


It  is  eminently  true  of  political  passion  that  a  "little 
leaven  leaveneth  the  whole  lump " ;  once  inoculate  the 
Royal  Society  with  that  virus,  and  the  poison  will  spread 
through  the  whole  organism.  The  Council  practically 
chooses  the  President :  it  will  therefore  be  necessary  to 
look  to  the  politics  of  the  Councillors.  The  Fellows 
elect  the  Council :  have  a  care,  therefore,  to  the  politics 
of  the  new  Fellows.  We  may  yet  see  a  politico-scientific 
caucus.  Some  years  ago  a  most  sagacious  and  experi- 
enced man  of  affairs  in  the  United  States  was  asked  why, 
in  drawing  up  the  constitution  of  a  new  University,  he 
had  not  given  such  persons  as  the  Governor  and  Chief 
Justice  of  the  State  an  ex-officio  position  on  the  governing 
body.  "  Ah,"  said  he,  wath  a  shrewd  smile,  "  if  you  only 
knew  the  trouble  my  colleagues  and  I  have  taken  to 
render  it  impossible  for  any  political  person  to  have  any- 
thing whatever  to  do  with  the  administration  of  the 
University  !  We  know  to  our  cost  that  wherever  politics 
enters  corruption  follows." 

The  records  of  the  Royal  Society  tell  us  of  more  than 
two  centuries  of  scientific  hfe,  fertile  in  good  work  and 
unstained  by  anything  worse  than  an  occasional  outbreak 
of  prejudice  or  jealousy.  The  only  occasion  on  which  it 
ever  manifested  a  political  bias  was  in  the  case  of 
Priestley ;  and  it  has  no  reason  to  be  proud  of  that 
episode. 

The  Society  is  now  at  the  parting  of  the  ways.  Either 
it  will  continue  its  beneficent  work  for  untold  ages  to  come, 
untroubled  by  the  transitory  political  and  social  storms 
raging  around  it ;  or,  headed  by  politicians  pledged  to 
serve  their  party,  it  will  gradually  be  dragged  down  into 
that  miserable  slough  in  which  no  capacity  seems  proof 
against  the  temptation  to  sophistical  special  pleading  and 
no"  character  strong  enough  to  refuse  degrading  sub- 
serviency to  party  exigencies. 

The  occasion  is  grave  and  demands  action.  It  is  for 
the  President,  by  the  course  which  he  may  think  fit  to 
adopt,  to  determine  what  that  action  shall  be. 

THE  STORAGE  OF  ELECTRICAL  ENERGY. 
The  Storage  of  Electrical  Energy.     By  Gaston   Plantd. 
(London:  Whittaker,  1887.) 

TO  the  author  of  this  book  we  owe  the  use  of  lead 
plates  instead  of  platinum  plates  in  voltameters. 
His  experiments  showed  that,  after  repeated  charging  and 
discharging  of  lead-plate  voltameters,  accumulators  of 
energy  were  producible  which  might  be  employed  in  a 
great  variety  of  useful  ways.  He  showed  that  his  accu- 
mulators might  be  charged  in  parallel  by  a  few  Bunsen 
or  Daniell  cells,  and  discharged  in  series.  As  his  accu- 
mulators had  small  internal  resistances,  he  was  able  to 
give  to  circuits  either  of  small  or  great  resistance  very 
considerable  supplies  of  electric  power  for  short  times, 
and  as  an  experimenter  he  availed  himself  of  this  novel 
power  in  heating  wires,  melting  beads  of  metal,  and 
generally  of  observing  effects  produced  by  strong 
currents. 

Many  of  the  phenomena  observed  by  him  were  new, 
and  well  worthy  of  being  recorded,  as  they  were  recorded, 
in  the  proceedings  of  scientific  Societies  ;  and  the  present 
book,  in  addition  to  a  fine  portrait  of  the  author,  and 
many  other  engravings,  and  a  dedication  to  the  Emperor 


of  Brazil,  seems  to  be  merely  a  collection  of  these  papers  of 
M.  Plants,  published  between  the  years  1859  and  1879. 
In  the  first  chapter  of  the  book  and  part  of  the  second  we 
find  an  interesting  account  of  experiments  with  various 
electrodes  in  voltameters,  which  led  the  author  to  use 
lead  instead  of  platinum,  and  of  the  forms  which  the 
author  gave  to  his  cells,  with  directions  for  their  forma- 
tion, and  speculations  as  to  the  chemical  actions  involved. 
The  remaining  twelve  and  a  half  chapters  may  be  re- 
garded as  almost  solely  devoted  to  the  "  effects  created 
by  currents  combining  quan-tity  with  high  tension  " — to 
use  the  old-fashioned  phraseology  which  Mr.  Elwell,  the 
translator,  has  thought  fit  to  use  upon  the  title-page— and 
to  the  author's  speculations  upon  things  in  general. 

The  infancy  of  the  electric  accumulator  lasted  to 
1879,  its  boyhood  to  1883,  and  we  may  now  be  said  to 
know  it  in  its  manhood.  The  advance  since  1879,  not  only 
in  our  knowledge  of  the  chemical  and  electrical  actions 
going  on  in  the  accumulator,  but  also  in  our  methods  of 
applying  this  knowledge,  has  been  quite  as  wonderful  as 
the  advance  made  in  any  other  part  of  applied  physics. 
Batteries  of  accumulators  capable  of  driving  boats  80 
feet  long,  of  driving  numbers  of  tram-cars,  of  maintain- 
ing large  installations  of  electric  lights,  are  now  in  actual 
use.  Plates  of  lead  are  now  used  as  in  1879,  but  the 
salts  of  lead  in  contact  with  the  metallic  plates  are 
attached  mechanically,  hundreds  of  devices  having  been 
tried  and  rejected  or  adopted  in  the  last  eight  years  for  the 
purpose  of  obtaining  great  capacity  and  longevity.  Of 
these  great  changes,  the  results  of  numerous,  most 
costly,  and  carefully  conducted  experiments,  made  by 
scientific  n^en,  M.  Plantd  tells  us  nothing.  He  was  in 
charge  of  the  accumulator  in  its  infancy  ;  it  was  taken 
away  from  him  in  1879,  and  its  subsequent  history  seems 
to  be  as  unknown  to  him  as  the  boyhood  and  early 
manhood  of  Harry  Bertram  were  to  Dominie  Sampson. 

The  dominie  looked  upon  his  pupil,  now  grown  to  be  a 
man,  as  if  he  were  still  a  boy  who  was  about  to  resume 
his  childish  studies,  and  in  the  same  way  it  is  probable 
that  M.  Plantd  regards  the  accumulator  of  1887  as  in 
no  respect  different  from  the  laboratory  toy  with  which 
he  obtained  such  remarkable  effects  prior  to  1879. 
M.  Plants  gives  in  this  book  what  may  be  regarded  as 
the  history  of  the  infancy  of  the  electric  accumulator  ; 
and  it  is  obvious  that  if  he  had  written  it  as  charmingly 
as  Mrs.  Molesworth  herself  could  have  written  it  for  the 
nursery,  yet,  with  the  misleading  title  which  it  possesses, 
he  has  given  occasion  to  the  ordinary  reader  to  feel 
greatly  disappointed.  We  are  here  assuming  that  M. 
Plant^  shares  with  Mr.  Elwell  the  responsibility  of  publi- 
cation, and  also  of  change  in  the  name  of  the  book  from 
that  of  the  first  edition—"  Recherches  sur  I'Electricit^"— 
published  in  1879,  which  is  the  only  French  edition  with 
which  we  are  acquainted. 

The  technical  terms  used  by  the  translator  are  not  now 
so  familiar  to  students  as  they  used  to  be  in  the  good 
old  times  when  strength.,  intensity,  quantity,  and  power 
of  a  current  were  synonymous  with  each  other  or  with 
electromotive  force. 

It  was  this  freedom  in  "  the  older  electricity  "  which 
enabled  statements  like  "  The  E.M.F.  was  thus  found 
equal  to  i"4i,  the  current  from  the  Bunsen  cell  being 
(p.  17)  to  be  enjoyed  by  readers.     Other  statements  1 


I 


Nov.  17,  1887] 


NATURE 


51 


this:  "  We  have  found  that  the  resistance  of  secondary 
cells  of  the  various  dimensions  which  we  have  used 
varied  from  2  to  5  metres  of  a  copper  wire  i  millimetre 
in  diameter"  (p.  64),  show  that  M.  Plants  sought  for 
greater  exactness  in  his  measurements  than  many  of  his 
contemporaries  during  the  infancy  of  the  electric  accumu- 
lator. 

It  was  to  be  expected  that  in  suggesting  yet  untried 
applications  of  secondary  batteries  the  author  should 
make  statements  which  any  student  now  knows  to  be 
erroneous.  An  example  is  to  be  found  at  p.  105, 
where  it  is  suggested  that,  by  using  a  secondary  bat- 
tery, two  ordinary  Bunsen  cells  might  be  enabled  to 
work  a  continuous  voltaic  arc.  As  was  also  to  be  ex- 
pected in  such  a  republication  of  papers  as  this,  many  of 
which  read  like  the  contents  of  an  inedited  laboratory 
note-book,  there  are  repetitions  of  the  same  facts  and 
sentiments. 

Unfortunately  there  is  another  resemblance  to  labora- 
tory notes  in  much  of  the  matter  of  this  book  which 
cannot  be  so  readily  forgiven.  One  often  confides  to 
one's  note -book  a  speculation  which  is  based  on  a  very 
far-fetched  resemblance  between  two  phenomena.  And 
it  is  quite  possible  to  find  in  a  note-book  such  a  note 
as  this  (p.  198)  :  "  The  experiment  described  above  (158) 
in  which  a  cloud  of  metallic  oxide,  torn  from  an  elec- 
trode by  the  current,  takes  a  spiral  motion  in  the  body  of 
a  liquid  under  the  influence  of  a  magnet,  seemed  of  a 
nature  to  explain,  in  particular,  the  remarkable  form  of 
spiral  nebulae."  Then  follows  a  description  of  the  nebulae 
observed  by  "  Lord  Ross,"  and  the  further  remarkable 
note :  "  In  view  of  so  striking  a  similarity,  may  it  not 
be  reasonably  supposed  that  the  nucleus  of  these  nebulae 
may  be  formed  by  a  veritable  electrical  furnace  ;  that 
their  spiral  form  is  probably  caused  by  the  presence  of 
celestial  bodies  powerfully  magnetized,  and  that  the  direc- 
tion of  the  curve  of  the  turns  in  the  spiral  must  depend 
upon  the  nature  of  the  magnetic  pole  turned  towards  the 
nebula." 

This  sort  of  thing  may  be  found  in  the  note-book  of 
almost  any  laboratory  worker,  but  it  is  astonishing  to  find 
that  M.  Plants  has  not  only  published  it  in  the  proceed- 
ings of  a  scientific  Society,  but  actually  publishes  it  again 
after  he  has  had  many  years  of  leisure  for  reflection  and 
for  verification.  These  speculations  occupy  many  chapters 
of  the  book.  M.  Plants  describes  some  natural  pheno- 
menon, such  as  globular  lightning,  the  formation  of  hail, 
water- spouts,  cyclones,  the  aurora,  atmospheric  electricity, 
spiral  nebulae,  or  solar  spots  ;  he  then  begins  to  write  on 
the  vague  analogy  existing  between  this  natural  pheno- 
menon and  some  isolated  phenomenon  observed  by  him 
in  the  laboratory,  and  after  he  has  written  some  pages, 
the  analogy  becomes  very  indistinct ;  but  he  continues  to 
write  in  the  hope  that  if  he  writes  long  enough  he  may 
obtain  clearer  ideas.  Of  the  same  kind  are  his  "  views" 
of  the  nature  of  electricity.  He  finds  that  when  successive 
intense  currents  are  sent  through  fine  wires,  which  are,  of 
course,  greatly  heated,  the  wires  lose  their  straightness  in 
curious  ways.  It  is  very  interesting  to  read  about  the 
observed  phenomena,  but  unfortunately  we  have  the 
author's  speculations  as  well.  He  says  (p.  247)  : — "  The 
phenomena  we  have  just  described  (313-20)  are  of  a 
nature  to  throw  some  light  on  the  mode  of  propagation  of 


electricity.  The  molecular  vibrations  revealed  by  knots 
formed  in  a  metallic  wire,  by  the  curious  noise,  and  by  a 
notable  change  in  its  cohesion  under  the  influence  of  the 
passage  of  the  dynamo-static  current  which  we  have  just 
studied,  must  be  produced  in  a  lesser  degree  in  conduct- 
ing substances  traversed  by  electric  currents  of  very  low 
tension.  This  vibration  may  be  too  feeble  to  be  per- 
ceptible, but  it  is  not  the  less  real.  We  are  then  able  to 
conclude  that  the  electric  movement  must  diffuse  itself  in 
substances  after  the  manner  of  a  purely  mechanical 
motion,  by  a  series  of  very  rapid  vibrations  of  the  more 
or  less  elastic  matter  through  which  it  passes." 

He  then  goes  on  in  his  last  chapter,  without  a  thought 
of  the  possibility  that  very  rapid  heating  of  a  not  per- 
fectly homogeneous  conductor  might  explain  his  pheno- 
mena, to  build  up  a  theory  of  electricity  from  these  iso- 
lated facts  with  the  help  of  a  few  far-fetched  analogies, 
and  he  publishes  his  theory  without  further  verification. 
In  spite  of  our  great  obligations  to  M.  Plantd,we  feel  that 
he  has  set  the  very  worst  example  possible  to  the  probable 
readers  of  his  book,  in  publishing  these  vague  speculations 
of  his.  John  Perry. 


FRirSCWS  CRUSTACEAN  FAUNA   OF  THE 
CHALK  OF  BOHEMIA. 

Die  Crustaceen  der  Bbhmischen  Kreideformation .  Von 
Prof.  Dr.  Anton  Fritsch  und  Jos.  Kafka.  Pp.  55. 
(Prague :  Selbstverlag,  in  Commission  von  Fr. 
Rivndc,  1887.) 

THERE  is  probably  no  sedimentary  deposit  in  the 
whole  series  of  the  stratified  rocks  with  which  one 
is  more  familiar  than  the  Chalk.  This  is  doubtless  due 
to  its  peculiar  whiteness,  and  to  the  fact  of  its  occupying 
so  large  an  area  in  our  eastern  and  south-eastern  coun- 
ties, and  its  prominence  in  the  coast-sections  of  York- 
shire, Kent,  and  Sussex,  and  the  opposite  coast  of  France  ; 
forming  at  Dover  those  white  cliffs  which  gave  to  our 
shores  their  ancient  name  of  Albion. 

In  the  Cretaceous  formation,  however,  we  include  a  set 
of  other  beds,  very  dissimilar  from  the  Chalk  in  appear- 
ance and  composition,  but  which,  on  stratigraphical  and 
palaeontological  grounds,  seem  to  form  a  natural  rock- 
system.  These  are  known  as  the  Upper  Greensand,  the 
Gault  Clay,  the  Lower  Greensand,  and  the  Wealden  Beds, 
comprising  marls,  sands,  clays,  and  even  fresh-water 
limestones.  Without  entering  into  details  as  regards 
the  minor  divisions,  we  may  say  that  the  major 
proportion  of  these  deposits  are  marine,  as  shown  by 
the  organic  remains  contained  in  them.  The  Chalk  itself,, 
from  its  general  purity,  must  have  been  formed  in  a 
deep  and  open  sea ;  indeed,  the  researches  which 
have  been  carried  on  in  the  North  Atlantic  Ocean 
show  that  the  materials  for  a  continuous  bed  of  Hmestone 
with  flint-nodules  are  now  being  deposited  at  depths  of 
from  400  to  2000  fathoms,  while  many  forms  of  life  met 
with  there  are  analogous  to  those  of  the  Chalk. 

That  this  old  Cretaceous  sea  must  have  been  of  very 
wide  extent  is  proved  by  the  enormous  area  over 
which  its  sediments  have  been  traced,  as  shown  on 
our  geological  maps ;   whilst  outliers  and  vast  beds   of 


5^ 


NATURE 


\Nov.  17,  1887 


flint-gravel  derived  from  the  Chalk  give  evidence  of  a  still 
wider  region  once  covered  by  its  waters,  but  whose  deposits 
have  since  been  removed  by  denudation. 

The  white  Chalk,  whence  the  name  "  Cretaceous"  was 
taken,  is  almost  wholly  confined  to  the  Anglo-Parisian 
area,  where  the  system  was  first  studied,  but  the  forma- 
tion, varying  in  lithological  characters,  may  be  followed 
from  England  into  France,  Belgium,  Holland  (Maestricht), 
Denmark  (Faxoe),  south  of  Sweden,  Hanover,  Brunswick, 
Saxony,  Bavaria,  Bohemia,  Moravia,  Switzerland,  Austria, 
and  the  chain  of  the  Alps,  the  Mediterranean  Basin,  in- 
cluding parts  of  Spain,  south  of  France,  Italy,  Greece, 
Asia  Minor,  Sicily,  and  North  Africa.  This  latter  is  the 
well-known  "  Hippurite  Limestone "  of  the  South  of 
Europe,  which  stretches  away  to  Persia  and  the  Hima- 
layas, and  extends  over  the  greater  part  of  the  continent 
of  India.  Cretaceous  fossils  have  also  been  traced  as  far 
south  in  Africa  as  Natal. 

The  vastness  of  the  Cretaceous  system  in  North  Ame- 
rica far  exceeds  even  our  largest  computation  of  its  aggre- 
gate mass  in  the  European  area,  being  from  11,000  to 
13,000  feet  in  thickness  ;  whilst  in  our  own  hemisphere 
it  probably  does  not  exceed  7000  feet  as  a  whole.  It 
extends  across  the  breadth  of  the  North  American  con- 
tinent, and  over  wide  regions  in  South  America,  marked 
by  many  of  the  characteristic  fossils  of  the  Cretaceous 
rocks  of  Europe.  But  the  evidence  of  contiguity  to 
land  in  North  America  demonstrated  by  plant  and 
animal  remains  far  surpasses  our  own  very  limited 
records  of  shore  and  shallow-water  conditions  in  Cre- 
taceous times  in  Europe.  Nevertheless  we  do  possess  at 
Aix-la-Chapelle,  and  in  Saxony  and  Bohemia,  Upper 
Cretaceous  beds  containing  plant  remains,  such  as 
leaves  of  Acer,  Alnus,  Credneria,  Cunmnghamites,  and 
Salix,  with  Conifers  akin  to  Sequoia  and  Pandanus, 
South  African,  and  Cape  Proteacece,z.nd  many  Cryptogams, 
chiefly  ferns,  such  as  Gleichenia,  Lygodium,  Asplenium, 
&c.  These  have  been  dealt  with  elsewhere,  as  have  also 
the  Cephalopoda  ("  Cephalopoden  der  Bohmischen  Kreide- 
formation,"  von  Dr.  Anton  Fritsch  ;  Prague,  1872). 

The  present  monograph  presents  us  with  descriptions 
and  figures  of  seventy-two  species  of  Crustacea  obtained 
from  eight  localities  and  well-marked  beds  in  the  Creta- 
ceous formation  of  Bohemia.  These  are  divisible  into 
Cirripedia  (twenty-one  species),  Bivalved  Entomostraca, 
Ostracoda  (twenty-one  species),  Decapoda-Macroura 
(eighteen  species),  Decapoda-Brachyura  (twelve  species). 
The  Cirripedia,  with  one  exception,  all  belong  to  the 
stalked  division  (Lepadidse),  or  "barnacles,"  eleven 
species  being  common  to  our  own  Chalk  and  Gault.  In 
these  are  included  two  varieties  of  <^hat  most  aberrant 
genus  Loricula,  first  described  by  Sowerby  from  the 
English  Chalk,  and  afterwards  more  fully  by  Charles 
Darwin.  This  pedunculated  genus,  by  a  retrograde  de- 
velopment, no  longer  stands  supported  on  its  stalk,  but 
lies  prone,  attached  by  one  side  to  the  surface  of  some 
shell,  or  other  foreign  body,  its  five  rows  of  peduncular 
imbricating  scales  (over  100  in  number)  serving  to  form 
a  dermal  covering  to  the  soft  parts  of  the  animal,  which 
must  have  been  distorted  in  its  mode  of  growth  somewhat 
as  the  flat-fishes  (Pleuronectidse)  are  modified  as  the 
result  of  their  recumbent  habits. 

A  Balanus,  referred  to  a  new  genus  {Balanula  ?),  is 


supposed  to  represent  a  sessile  form  of  Cirripede.  Such 
a  form,  Pyrgoma  cretacea,  was  described  from  the 
Upper  Chalk  of  Norfolk  by  H.  Woodward  in  1868 
(see  Geol.  Mag.,  vol.  v.  p.  258,  pi.  xiv.  figs.  1-3),  but 
the  "acorn-shells,"  Sessile  Cirripedes,  mostly  belong  to 
the  Tertiary  and  Recent  periods,  in  which  they  attain  a 
large  development  all  over  the  globe. 

The  Ostracoda  have  been  determined  by  Herr  Joseph 
Kafka,  Dr.  Fritsch's  assistant,  in  the  Museum  at  Prague. 
Of  the  twenty  species  here  treated  of,  five  have  been 
previously  figured  and  described  as  new  by  Herr  Kafka 
in  the  Sitzungsb.  K.  bohtn.  Gesell.  Wiss.,  Prag,  1885. 
The  figures  and  woodcuts  of  the  old  species  have  been 
mostly  taken  from  Prof,  von  Reuss's  memoir  on  the 
Microzoa  in  Geinitz's  "  Elbithalgebirge,"  and  the  new 
species  are  here  also  figured  in  woodcuts,  some  of  which 
leave  much  to  be  desired  as  to  "  finish  "  of  characteristic 
features.  Figs.  24  and  25  appear  to  belong  to  Macro- 
cypris,  and  not  to  Bairdia.  Fig.  26  has  no  relation  to 
Bairdia,  but  may  be  a  Cytherella.  The  representation  of 
Cythere  reticulata,  Kf.  (Fig.  32,  a,  b,  c),  has  some  pecu- 
liarities which  better  figures  perhaps  would  clear  up. 
Though  not  mentioned  by  Herr  Kafka,  ten  of  the 
species  are  found  also  in  the  English  Chalk,  and  the 
others  (excepting  Fig.  32)  have  near  allies  in  that  forma- 
tion in  Western  Europe.  It  is  stated  that  in  Bohemia 
the  Ostracoda  are  mostly  found  in  the  Senonian  stage. 
Only  Cytheridea  perforata,  and  four  other  species,  come 
from  the  Turonian  beds  of  Weissenberg. 

Turning  to  the  higher  forms  of  Crustacea,  the  Decapoda 
(crabs  and  lobsters),  only  a  single  species,  Enoploclytia 
leachii,  Mantell,  is  recognized  as  being  identical  with  our 
Chalk  Crustacean  fauna ;  but  the  genera  Hoploparia, 
Callianassa,  Palceocorystes,  Necrocarcinus,  Etyus,  and 
Astacus  are  represented  by  corresponding  species  in  the 
two  areas.  Callianassa  is  said  to  be  represented  by  six 
species.  This  is  a  burrowing  form,  of  which  only  the 
great  chelate  appendages  are  usually  found  fossil,  or  are 
brought  up  in  the  dredge  from  deep  water,  and  it  is 
extremely  doubtful,  judging  from  the  author's  figures, 
whether  more  than  about  three  out  of  six  of  Fritsch's 
species  can  be  maintained.  One  Greensand  species 
occurs  in  Ireland,  and  the  well-known  Callianassa  faujasii 
described  eighty-eight  years  ago  from  the  Uppermost 
Chalk  of  Maestricht.  We  have  also  a  Tertiary  form 
described  from  the  upper  marine  series,  Hempstead,  Isle 
of  Wight.  All  these  species  are  very  nearly  related  to 
each  other. 

Perhaps  one  of  the  most  interesting  forms  described  by 
Dr.  Fritsch  is  his  Stenocheles  esocinus,  the  long  slender- 
toothed  chelae  of  which  agree  closely  with  those  of 
Astacus  (?)  zaleucus,  W.  Schm.,  a  Crustacean  dredged  up 
in  1000  fathoms  during  the  Challenger  Expedition  near 
St.  Thomas  in  the  West  Indies. 

The  present  work  is  illustrated  by  ten  chromolitho- 
graphic  plates  and  seventy-two  text  figures. 

This  series  of  fine  memoirs,  which  is  being  issued  by 
Dr.  Fritsch  from  the  Royal  Bohemian  Museum,  Prague, 
will  certainly  maintain  the  merit,  and  serve  to  enhance 
the  reputation,  of  that  great  institution,  which  has,  quite 
recently,  been  so  well  endowed  by  the  magnificent  bequest 
of  the  late  Dr.  Joachim  Barrande,  the  historian  and 
palaeontologist  of  the  Silurian  system  of  Bohemia. 


Nov.  17,  1887] 


NATURE 


53 


OUR  BOOK  SHELF. 


Manual  of  Mineralogy  and  Petrography,  containing  the 
Elements  of  the  Science  of  Minerals  and  Rocks.  By 
James  D.  Dana.  Fourth  Edition,  Revised  and  En- 
larged. Illustrated  by  numerous  Woodcuts.  (New  York  : 
Wiley  and  Sons  ;  London  :  Triibner  and  Co.,  1887.) 

That  a  new  edition  of  this  important  and  admirable 
manual  has  been  issued  will  be  good  news  to  all  interested 
in  mineralogy,  and  especially  to  the  teacher  and  student. 
The  book,  which  now  consists  of  517  pages,  is  well 
arranged  throughout,  and  contains,  as  all  such  books 
should  do,  a  full  index.  The  whole  body  of  mineralogical 
science  is  here  brought  to  focus,  and  the  present  edition, 
in  that  part  of  it  relating  to  the  description  of  minerals, 
is  brought  down  to  the  year  1886,  many  new  species 
described  during  the  past  six  years  being  included.  The 
chapter  on  rocks  has  been  re-written,  re-arranged,  and 
enlarged,  and  many  illustrations  are  new.  We  would 
suggest  to  the  learned  author  that  in  the  next  edition  a 
chapter  on  meteorites  and  their  mineralogy  would  form 
an  appropriate  and  much-valued  addition. 


LETTERS   TO    THE  EDITOR. 

\The  Editor  does  not  hold  himself  responsible  for  opinions 
expressed  by  his  correspondents.  Neither  can  he  ttnder- 
take  to  return,  or  to  correspond  with  the  writers  of, 
rejected  manuscripts.  No  notice  is  taken  of  anonymom 
com  mun  ications. 

[  The  Editor  urgently  requests  correspondents  to  keep  their 
letters  as  short  as  possible.  The  pressure  on  his  space 
is  so  great  that  it  is  impossible  otherwise  to  insure  the 
appearance  even  of  communications  containing  interesting 
and  novel  facts.'] 

"A  Conspiracy  of  Silence." 

The  article  whir.h  I  contributed  to  the  September  number  of 
the  Nineteenth  Century,  on  the  Coral  Islands  of  the  Pacific,  has 
done  what  I  intended  it  to  do.  It  has  called  wide  attention  to 
the  influence  of  mere  authority  in  establishing  erroneous  theories 
and  in  retarding  the  progress  of  scientific  truth.  The  vehement 
assault  made  upon  it  in  the  current  number  of  the  same  review 
by  Prof.  Huxley,  and  the  article  by  Prof.  Bonney  in  this  journal, 
are  to  me  gratifying  evidences  of  success.  But  both  of  these 
writers  are  entirely  wrong  in  the  interpretation  they  put  on  a 
few  expressions  in  my  paper.  They  interpret  these  expressions 
as  conveying  imputations  on  the  probity  and  honour  of  scientific 
men  in  the  habitual  and  wilful  suppression  or  discouragement  of 
what  they  know  to  be  truth.  But  there  is  nothing  to  justify 
this  interpretation.  I  have  made  no  such  accusation,  and  if  any 
one  else  were  to  make  it  1  should  join  the  two  indignant  Pro- 
fessors in  repudiating  it.  Scientific  men  are  not  only  as  good 
as  other  men  in  this  way,  but  generally  a  great  deal  better. 
Prof.  Huxley  has  been  irritated  by  some  "anonymous  sermon," 
which  I  have  not  seen  and  for  which  I  am  not  responsible.  He 
admits  that  it  is  in  this  anonymous  production  that  the 
"  slanders "  against  scientific  men  have  taken  the  peculiarly 
offensive  form  ;  but  he  maintains  that  this  unknown  writer  has 
been  "inspired"  by  my  article  on  Coral  Islands.  On  the 
strength  of  this  assumption — which  may  be  true  for  aught  I 
know — he  goes  on  through  some  seven  pages  to  dissect  certain 
parts  of  my  paper,  and  to  read  into  it  a  great  deal  that  is  due  to 
his  own  excitement  and  to  nothing  else. 

I  have  no  difficulty  in  expressing  clearly  and  without  any 
circumlocution  exactly  what  I  do  mean,  and  what  I  have  intended 
to  say.  Prof.  Bonney  interprets  it  very  fairly,  in  abstract,  when 
he  says  that  the  moral  of  my  paper  is,  "Beware  of  idolatry." 
Some  theory,  hypothesis,  or  doctrine,  is  propounded  by  a  great 
man.     It  becomes  established,  partly  perhaps  by  certain  inherent 


elements  of  strength,  or  at  all  events  of  attractiveness.  But  soon 
it  stands  unassailable,  and  unassailed,  upon  the  vast  foundations 
of  general  acceptance  and  admitted  authority.  It  becomes  what 
Prof  Huxley  on  a  celebrated  occasion,  and  with  at  least  a 
momentary  insight,  called  "a  creed."  The  effect  of  such  a 
position  is  tremendous.  Some  men  who  see  cause  to  doubt  are 
daunted.  They  keep  silence.  Others  are  prevented  from  even 
thinking  on  the  subject.  A  few  who  do  think,  and  who  do 
doubt,  and  who  do  venture  to  express  their  doubts,  are  dis- 
couraged and  discountenanced.  A  great  many  others  take 
refuge  in  a  suspended  judgment,  even  after  the  production  of 
evidence  which,  in  the  absence  of  a  "  creed  "  and  of  authority, 
would  have  been  deemed  conclusive.  In  all  this  there  may  be, 
and  in  general  there  is,  nothing  worse  than  timidity  on  the  part 
of  those  who  are  the  laggards,  or  the  opponents,  in  some  great 
advance.  It  is  more  difficult  for  some  men  than  for  others  to 
face  a  prevalent  opinion  or  an  accepted  doctrine.  It  is  all  very 
well  to  say,  as  Prof  Bonney  says,  that  "to  the  man  of 
science  truth  is  a  pearl  of  great  price,  to  buy  which  he  is  ready 
to  part  with  everything  previously  obtained."  But  scientific  men 
are  human.  They  are,  I  admit,  immensely  superior  to  the 
politicians,  especially  just  now.  But  they  have  their  failings, 
and  everyone  who  knows  the  history  of  science  must  be  able  to 
call  to  mind  not  one  instance  only,  but  many  instances,  in  which 
the  progress  of  knowledge  has  been  delayed  for  long  periods  of 
time  by  the  powerful  and  repressive  influences  of  authority, 
exerted  in  one  or  other  of  many  ways. 

My  contention  is  that  Darwin's  theory  on  the  origin  of  the 
Coral  Islands  is  a  case  in  point.  I  believed  in  it  or  accepted  it, 
for  many  years,  as  others  did.  Prof.  Bonney  admits  that  I 
have  described  it  not  only  fairly,  but  as  forcibly  as  if  I  were  still 
its  advocate.  This  is  exactly  what  I  tried  to  do.  I  now  hold 
that  it  has  been  disproved,  and  has  been  replaced  by  another 
theory  quite  as  grand,  and  more  in  harmony  with  other  natural 
laws  which  are  of  universal  operation,  but  have  been  only  lately 
recognized.  I  affirm,  farther,  that  this  new  theory  or  explana- 
tion has  been  received  with  the  timidity,  the  discouragement,  the 
discountenance,  and  the  obstruction  which  are  characteristic  in 
such  cases.  That  Dr.  Geikie  has  supported  it,  is  most 
creditable  to  him.  But  his  voice  is  not  enough  to  di-prove  the 
truth  of  my  contention.  That  Prof  Huxley  and  Prof. 
Bonney  should  be  unable  to  make  up  their  minds  upon  such 
evidence  as  has  been  before  us  now  for  several  years  is,  in  my 
opinion,  a  strong  confirmation  of  the  law  which  is  operating 
upon  them.  There  are  some  discoveries  in  science — some  ex- 
planations of  curious  phenomena — which  are  self-luminous. 
They  shine  with  their  own  light.  The  moment  they  are  sug- 
gested, with  a  few  cardinal  and  certain  facts  to  illustrate  them, 
they  are  their  own  proof  Everything  that  turns  up  speaks  in 
support  of  them.  My  conviction  is  that  such  is  the  character 
of  Mr.  Murray's  theory  of  the  coral  island  formations  in  the 
Pacific. 

Prof  Huxley  challenges  me  to  re-affirm  with  better  proof  the 
fact  I  allege — that  Mr.  Murray  has  met  with  discouragement. 
I  respond  at  once  to  that  challenge.  I  have  seen  the  letter  from 
Sir  Wyville  Thomson  in  which  that  naturalist  urged  and  almost 
insisted  that  Mr.  Murray  should  withdraw  the  reading  of  his 
papers  on  the  subject  from  the  Royal  Society  of  Edinburgh. 
This  was  in  February  1877.  No  special  reason  was  assigned, 
but  the  terms  of  the  letter  indicate  clearly  that  Sir  Wyville 
dreaded  some  injury  to  the  scientific  reputation  of  the  body  of 
naturalists  of  whom  he  was  the  chief,  and  for  whom,  as  con- 
nected with  the  Challenger  Expedition,  he  was  in  some  degree 
responsible.  He  had  not  himself  at  that  time,  I  believe,  fully 
accepted  the  new  doctrine.  But  that  would  have  been  no  suf- 
ficient reason  for  discouraging  free  discussion,  if  it  were  indeed 
as  free  as  it  ought  to  be.  In  my  article  I  understated  the  delay 
which  was   thus  occasioned.      Three  ye.-\rs,   not   two,  elapsed 


54 


NATURE 


[Nov.  17,  1887 


before  Mr.  Murray  was  at  perfect  liberty  to  advocate  his  views 
in  the  proper  place,  before  a  scientific  body. 

But  the  challenge  of  Prof.  Huxley  has  brought  to  my  l;now- 
ledge  a  new  bit  of  circumstantial  evidence  to  the  same  effect, 
which  is  highly  significant.  Among  the  investigators  of  the 
Pacific  corals  no  man  has  done  better  work  than  Dr.  Gappy, 
Surgeon  of  H.M.  S.  Lark.  Since  my  article  was  written,  his 
volumes  on  the  Solomon  Group  of  islands  have  been  published. 
The  geological  volume  is  an  admirable  memoir.  It  is  the  record  of 
observations  as  patient,  detailed,  and  conscientious  as  have  ever 
been  made  on  the  great  geological  problem  which  is  at  issue. 
After  his  return  home  he  was  advised  by  Mr.  Murray  to  offer  a 
paper  on  his  researches  to  the  Geological  Society  of  London. 
He  did  so  in  the  spring  of  1885.  But  his  paper  was  refused — 
much  to  Dr.  Guppy's  disappointment.  It  was  not  orthodox. 
His  facts  effectually  removed  some  difficulties  in  the  way  of  Mr. 
Murray's  theory — facts  which  in  more  than  a  corresponding 
degree  were  adverse  to  the  theory  of  Darwin.  As  a  consequence 
the  Royal  Society  of  Edinbu  -gh  has  had  the  honour  of  receiving 
and  publishing  Dr.  Guppy's  most  interesting  memoir.  As  a 
Scotchman  I  am  proud  of  this  contrast,  I  make  no  accusation 
of  wilful  unfairness  against  the  authorities  of  the  Geological 
Society  of  London,  of  which  my  critic  Prof.  Bonney  was,  I 
believe,  at  that  time  the  President.  They  did  not  consciously 
discourage  truth.  On  the  contrary,  they  probably  smelt  heresy. 
But  if  their  minds  had  been  free  from  this  prepossession — if  they 
had  been  alive  to  the  breadth  and  sweep  of  the  questions  at 
issue,  and  open  to  receive  with  welcome  the  crucial  evidence 
bearing  upon  them  which  is  contained  in  Dr.  Guppy's  paper — the 
•rejection  of  it  would  have  been  impossible. 

As  regards  Darwin's  own  state  of  mind  upon  the  subject,  I 
can  only  say  that  my  information  was  as  good  as  that  in  the 
possession  of  Prof.  Huxley.  I  am  not  struck  by  the  perfect 
candour  of  his  reference  to  Darwin's  letter  to  Prof.  Semper  in 
October  1879.  If  he  had  quoted  the  very  next  sentence  to  that 
which  he  does  quote,  a  very  different  impression  would  have 
been  left  on  the  reader's  mind.  But  I  attach  no  importance  to 
this  point.  I  prefer  to  believe  that  Darwin's  mind  was  open  to 
conviction,  and  to  hope  that  others  will  follow  his  example. 

Argyll. 


The  Theories  of  the  Origin  of  Coral  Reefs  and  Islands. 

I  WAS  pleased  to  see  Prof.  Bonney's  article  on  the  Duke  of 
Argyll's  strictures  on  scientific  men  ("  A  Conspiracy  of  Silence," 
Nature,  November  10,  p.  25).  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  the 
rhetoric  and  methods  of  Parliamentary  debate  will  not  become 
common  in  scientific  controversy.  The  Duke  is,  however,  not 
the  first  who  has  tried  to  show  "that  if  Darwin  had  lived  he 
would  with  his  well-known  candour  have  been  the  first  to  admit 
the  truth  of  Murray's  theory,"  &c.,  &c.  This  I  submit  is  a 
species  of  rhetoric  which  is  out  of  place  in  scientific  discussion. 

It  so  happens  that  shortly  after  the  appearance  of  Mr.  Murray's 
paper  "  On  the  Structure  and  Origin  of  Coral  Reefs  and  Islands," 
in  Nature,  August  12,  1880  (p.  351),  I  had  occasion  to  write 
to  Dr.  Darwin,  and  in  my  letter  the  following  passage  occurs, 
which  I  only  quote  to  make  Darwin's  answer  intelligible  :— 

^^  September  21,  1880. 

"  I  think  the  theory  Mr.  Murray  sets  forth— that  the  cones  or 
peaks,  on  which  he  considers  atolls  have  been  formed,  have 
been  levelled  up  by  pelagic  deposits,  and  thus  brought  within 
the  limits  of  reef-building  coral  growth— a  very  far-fetched 
idea." 

To  which  Darwin  with  his  usual  acumen  replies  : — 

^^ Becketiham,  September  22.,  1880. 

"I  am  not  a  fair  judge,  but  I  agree  with  you  exactly  that 
Murray's  view  is  far-fetched.  It  is  astonishing  that  there  should 
be  rapid  dissolution  of  carbonate  of  lime  at  great  depths  and 


near  the  surface,  but  not  at  intermediate  depths  where  he  place^ 
his  mountain  peaks. 

"Dear  Sir,  yours  faithfully, 

"  Ch.  Darwin." 

As  so  far  there  appears  to  have  been  no  written  expression 
of  Darwin's  views  published,  this  quotation  may  be  of  value. 

T.  Mellard  Reade. 
Park  Corner,  Blundellsands,  November  il. 


Earthquake  at  the  Bahamas. 

I  am  instructed  by  the  Meteorological  Council  to  inclose 
copies  of  reports  from  the  Resident  Justice  and  Light-keepers  of 
Inagua,  Bahamas,  relating  to  an  earthquake  on  September  23 
last,  which  you  may  think  worthy  of  a  place  in  Nature. 

Robert  H.  Scott, 
Meteorological  Office,  Secretary. 

116  Victoria  Street,  London,  S.W. 
November  11. 

The  Resident  Justice  at  Inagua  to  the  Colonial  Secretary,  Nassau. 
In  re  Earthquake  at  Inagua. 

Resident  Justice' s  Office,  Inagua, 

September  27,  1887. 

I  have  to  report  that  this  island  was  visited  by  a  severe  shock 
of  earthquake  at  7  a.m.  of  the  23rd  instant ;  the  effect  on  the 
light  lower,  the  keeper  reports,  was  terrific,  two  nuts  on  the 
iron  stauncheon  of  the  smoke-stack  were  broken,  and  several 
cylinders.  A  portion  of  the  stone  wall  around  the  Residency, 
and  other  private  property,  were  thrown  down  in  Mathew 
Town. 

At  8. 10  p.m.  another  shock  was  felt,  no  damage  at  the  town- 
ship ;  at  the  light  station  the  cylinder  on  the  lamp  was  broken, 
and  the  keepers  were  compelled  to  extinguish  the  light  to 
prevent  conflagration.  A  new  cylinder  having  been  placed  in 
position,  the  light  was  again  lit  in  about  six  or  eight  minutes 
after  the  accident. 

At  midnight  another  shock  was  felt,  and  the  light-keeper 
reported  next  morning  several  cracks  in  mortar  inside  of  the 
light  tower  ;  the  light  continued  good. 

Since  the  23rd  instant  several  light  shocks  have  been  felt, 
which  keeps  the  people  in  a  state  of  alarm. 

We  have  had  no  arrival  from  Hayti  and  neighbouring  islands, 
and  it  is  feared  that  some  of  them  have  greatly  suffered. 

(Signed)  G.  R.  McGregor, 

Res  id  en  t  Justice. 

The  Hon.  Robt.  Butler,  Acting  Colonial  Secretary. 

Principal  and  Assistant  Light- keepers,   Inagua,  to  the  Inspector 
of  Lighthouses,  Nassau. 

Inagua  Light  Station, 

Septcfiiber  2<),  1887. 

Sir, — I  beg  most  respectfully  to  report  for  your  information 
that  this  station  and  island  was  visited  by  several  severe  shocks 
of  earthquakes  on  the  23rd,  24th,  25th,  and  26th  instants.  The 
shock  on  the  former  date  was  felt  at  7  a.m.,  which  shook  the 
tower  and  dwelling  severely.  Two  nuts  forming  a  part  of 
fastening  of  iron  rods  in  the  upper  part  of  lantern  supporting 
upper  barrel  and  smoke-pipe  were  wrenched  off  and  smashed 
several  cylinders. 

The  second  shock,  at  8.10  p.m.,  shook  the  tower  very  much, 
and  smashed  the  cylinder  on  lamp.  The  light  was  then  extin- 
guished to  prevent  fire,  which  last  about  eight  minutes  {sic], 
when  the  light  was  again  exhibited  and  kept  burning  bright  and 
clear  until  daylight.  There  was  another  shock  felt  during  the 
night,  but  not  so  severe,  I  noticed  several  cracks  on  the  walls 
in  the  tower,  which  may  be  the  mortar  only.  The  latest  shock 
was  on  the  morning  of  the  26th  at  1.3. 

I  am  glad  to  say  that  the  lamp  and  machinery  are  in  good 
working  order,  but  there  will  be  slight  repairs  required. 

The  latest  shock  felt  was  at  midnight  of  the  27th. 

I  also  inclose  the  head  of  nut,  the  length  of  which  is  seven- 
eighths  of  an  inch  on  inside. 

I  have,  &c., 
(Signed)        Byron  N.  Jones, 
Principal ; 


The  Inspector  of  Lighthouses. 


Cornelius  S.  E.  Lotman, 
Assistant. 


Nov.  17,  1887] 


NATURE 


55 


RESEARCHES  ON  METEORITES. 
I. 

ON  October  4  I  communicated  to  the  Royal  Society  a 
preliminary  note  embodying  some  results  I  had 
obtained  in  observations  on  meteorites,  undertaken  with  a 
view  of  obtaining  additional  information  on  some  parts  of 
the  spectrum  of  the  sun. 

Some  years  ago  I  commenced  a  research  on  the 
spectra  of  carbon  in  connection  with  certain  lines  I  had 
detected  in  my  photographs  (1874)  of  the  solar  spectrum. 
I  have  been  going  on  with  this  work  at  intervals  ever 
since  ;  and  certain  conclusions  to  which  it  leads,  em- 
phasizing the  vast  difiference  between  the  chemical 
constitution  of  the  sun  and  of  some  stars,  recently 
suggested  the  desirability  of  obtaining  observations  of  the 
spectra  of  meteorites  and  of  the  metallic  elements  at  as 
low  a  temperature  as  possible. 

I  have  latterly,  therefore,  been  engaged  on  the  last- 
named  inquiries.  The  work  already  done,  read  in  con- 
junction with  the  work  on  carbon,  seems  to  afford  evidence 
which  amounts  to  demonstration  on  several  important 
points. 

The  researches  are  still  very  far  from  complete,  and 
the  results  must  be  given  with  great  reserve,  as  the 
astronomical  observations  with  which  I  have  had  to  com- 


pare my  laboratory  work  have  been  frequently  made 
under  conditions  of  very  great  difficulty. 

A  full  report  on  the  work,  so  far  as  it  has  gone,  made  to 
the  Solar  Physics  Committee,  which  I  have  also  com- 
municated to  the  Royal  Society,  was  read  to-day,  and  I 
have  received  permission  to  publish  part  of  it  in  this 
week's  Nature. 

The  general  conclusions  at  which  I  have  so  far  arrived' 
may  be  stated  as  follows  : — 

I.  All  self-luminous  bodies  in  the  celestial  spaces  are  com- 
posed of  meteorites,  or  masses  of  meteoritic  vapour  produced  by 
heat  brought  about  by  condensation  of  meteor-swarms  due  to 
gravity. 

II.  The  spectra  of  all  bodies  depend  upon  the  heat  of  the 
meteorites,  produced  by  collisions,  and  the  average  space  between 
the  meteorites  in  the  swarm,  or  in  the  case  of  consolidated  swarms 
upon  the  time  which  has  elapsed  since  complete  vaporization. 

III.  The  temperature  of  the  vapours  produced  by  collisions  in 
nebuloe,  stars  without  C  and  F  but  with  other  bright  lines,  and 
in  comets  away  from  perihelion,  is  about  that  of  the  bunsen 
burner. 

IV.  The  temperature  of  the  vapours  produced  by  collisions  in 
a  Orionis  and  similar  stars  is  about  that  of  the  Bessemer  flame. 

V.  The  line  of  increase  of  temperatures  of  the  swarms  of 
meteorites,  and  of  subsequent  cooling  of  the  mass  of  vapour  pro- 
duced, and  the  accompanying  phenomena,  may  be  provisionally 
stated  as  follows  : — 


Sequences  of  Spacing  and  Temperatures  (Provisional) 
From  Cold  to  Hot  =  Sparse  to  Dense  Swarms. 


Nebulas  (without  F) 

Comets  1866  and  1867     

Nova  Cygni  after  collision 
Stars  with  bright  lines  (without  F) 
Nebulae  (with  F)       

Stars  with  bright  lines  (with  F). 

Comets  under  mean  conditions 

of  collision      

Comets  at  perihelion 

Stars,  Class  III. a      

Mixed  swarms — 

R  Geminorum    

Nova  Orionis  at  maximum. 


Spectrum  of  interspace.  Spectrum  of  vapour  of  meteorite. 

H.  C. 

Radiation.  Absorption. 

...     Nil       Nil       Mg  (500)  ±495 

..     Nil       Nil       Mg  (500) \  Nil? 

...     Nil       Nil       Mg(5oo) 

Nil       Nil       Fe,  Mn    

H         Nil       Mg  (500)  ±  495 


..S 


H 

I  Nil 

Nil 
Nil 

H 
H 


Nil 

C 
C 

c 

c 
c 


Condensation. 

Stars,  Classes  I.  and  II 

Subsequent  Cooling. 
Q  /  Class  II.  some  stars,  including  sun 
^^^'"H  Class  111.(5     


Fe,  Mn   

Mg(^)       

Meteorite  lines . 

Meteorite  lines 
Continuous 


Broad  band  475 

Nil? 
D  and   b  and  other  lines 
and  bands    


Nil. 

(?) 

Meteorite  flutings  and  lines 

/  Meteorite  lines 

\  Meteorite  flutings  and  lines 


!  High-temperature  lines  of ' 
substances  present      i 
meteorites 


:;;} 


Continuous 


...{ 


K  in  excess     ... 
Flutings  of  carbon 


Spectrum  of  meteorite. 
Radiation. 

Dimly  continuous. 

Continuous, 

Continuous. 

Vividly  continuous. 


The  radiation  from  individual  meteor- 
ites now  gives  place  to  radiation 
from  the  interior  vaporous  and  sub- 
sequently consolidated  mass  of  the 
condensed  swarm. 


VI.  The  brilliancy  of  these  aggregations,  at  each  (increasing) 
temperature,  depends  on  the  number  of  meteorites  in  the  swarm 
— i.e.  the  diff'erence  depends  upon  the  quantity,  not  the  intensity, 
of  the  light. 

VII.  The  existing  distinction  between  stars,  comets,  and 
nebulas  rests  on  no  physical  basis. 

VIII.  The  main  factor  in  the  various  spectra  produced  is  the 
ratio  of  the  interspaces  between  the  meteorites  to  their  incand- 
escent surface. 

IX.  When  the  interspace  is  very  great,  the  tenuity  of  the 
gases  given  off"  by  collisions  will  be  so  great  that  no  luminous 
spectrum  will  be  produced  ("nebulae"  and  "stars"  without  F 
bright).  When  the  interspace  is  less,  the  tenuity  of  the 
gas  will  be  reduced,  and  the  vapours  occupying  the  inter- 
spaces will  give  us  bright  lines  or  flutings  ("nebulae"  and 
"  stars  "  with  F  bright).  When  the  interspace  is  relatively  small, 
and  the  temperature  of  the  individual  meteorites  therefore 
higher,  the  preponderance  of  the  bright  lines  or  flutings  in  the 
spectrum  of  the  interspaces  will  diminish,  and  the  incandescent 
vapour  surrounding  each  meteorite  will  indicate  its  presence  by 
absorbing  the  continuous-spectrum-giving  light  of  the  meteorites 
themselves. 


X.  The  brighter  lines  in  spiral  nebulae,  and  in  those  in 
which  a  rotation  has  been  set  up,  are  in  all  probability 
due  to  streams  of  meteorites  with  irregular  motions  out  of 
the  main  streains,  in  which  the  collisions  would  be  almost 
nil.  It  has  aleady  been  suggested  by  Prof.  G.  Darwin^ 
— using  the  gaseous  hypothesis — that  in  such  nebiilte  "  the 
great  mass  of  the  gas  is  non-luminous,  the  luminosity  being 
an  evidence  of  condensation  along  lines  of  low  velocity 
according  to  a  well-known  hydrodynamical  law.  From  this  point 
of  view  the  visible  nebula  may  be  regarded  as  a  luminous 
diagram  of  its  own  streamlines." 

XI.  New  stars,  whether  seen  in  connection  with  nebulae  or 
not,  are  produced  by  the  clash  of  meteor  swarms,  the  bright 
lines  seen  being  low-temperature  lines  of  elements  the  spectra  of 
which  are  most  brilliant  at  a  low  stage  of  heat. 

XII.  Most  of  the  variable  stars  which  have  been  observed 
belong  to  those  classes  of  bodies  which  I  now  suggest  are  un- 
condensed  meteor-swarms,  or  stars  in  which  a  central  more 
or  less  solid  condensed  mass  exists.  In  some  of  those  having 
regular  periods  the  variation  would  seem  to  be  partly  due  to 

'  Nature,  vol.  x\xi.  p.  25. 


56 


NATURE 


{Nov.  17,  1887 


swarms  of  meteorites  moving  around  a  bright  or  dark  body,  the 
maximum  light  occurring  at  periastron. 

XIII.  The  spectrum  of  hydrogen  seen  in  the  case  of  the 
nebulte  seems  to  be  due  to  low  electrical  excitation,  as  happens 
with  the  spectrum  of  carbon  in  the  case  of  comets.  Sudden 
changes  from  one  spectrum  to  the  other  are  seen  in  the  glow  of 
meteorites  in  vacuum  tubes  when  a  current  is  passing,  and  the 
change  from  H  to  C  can  always  be  brought  about  by  increased 
heating  of  the  meteorite. 

XIV.  Meteorites  are  formed  by  the  condensation  of  vapours 
thrown  off  by  collisions.  The  small  particles  increase  by  fusion 
brought  about  again  by  collisions,  and  this  increase  may  go  on 
until  the  meteorites  may  be  large  enough  to  be  smashed  by  col- 
lisions, when  the  heat  of  impact  is  not  sufficient  to  produce 
volatilization  of  the  whole  mass. 

XV.  Beginning  with  meteorites  of  average  composition,  the 
extreme  forms,  iron  and  stony,  would  in  time  be  produced  as  a 
result  of  collisions. 

XVI.  In  recorded  time  there  has  been  no  such  thing  as  a 
"world  on  fire  "  or  the  collision  of  masses  of  matter  as  large  as  the 
earth,  to  say  nothing  of  masses  of  matter  as  large  as  the  sun; 
but  the  known  distribution  of  meteorites  throughout  space  indi- 
cates that  such  collisions  may  form  an  integral  part  of  the  economy 
of  Nature.  The  number  of  bodies,  however,  subject  to  such 
collision  is  small,  and  must,  it  would  appear,  form  but  a  small 
percentage  of  the  celestial  bodies,  seeing  that  they  must  be 
consolidated. 

XVII.  Special  solar  applications. 

a.  The  solar  spectrum  can  be  very  fairly  reproduced  (in  some 
parts  of  the  spectrum  almost  line  for  line)  by  taking  a  composite 
photograph  of  the  arc  spectrum  of  several  stony  meteorites, 
chosen  at  random,  between  iron  meteoric  poles. 

/3.  The  carbon  which  originally  formed  part  of  the  swarm 
the  condensation  of  which  produced  the  sun  has  been  dissociated 
by  the  high  temperature  brought  about  by  that  condensation. 

y.  The  indications  of  carbon  which  I  discovered  in  1874 
(Proc.  R.  S.,  vol.  xxvii.  p.  308)  will  go  on  increasing  in  intensity 
slowly  until  a  stage  is  reached  when,  owing  to  the  reduction  of 
temperature  of  the  most  effective  absorbing  layer,  the  chief 
absorption  will  be  that  of  carbon — a  stage  in  which  we  now  find 
the  stars  of  Class  Ill.i^  of  Vogel's  classification. 

5.  At  the  present  time  it  seems  probable  that  among  the  chief 
changes  going  on  in  the  solar  spectrum  are  the  widening  of  K 
and  the  thinning  of  the  hydrogen  lines. 

Experiments  upon  which  the  Foregoing  Conclusions 

DEPEND. 

A.  Experiments  upon  carbon. 

The  main  conclusions  which  may  be  stated  here  are  that  there 
are  two  systems  of  flutings  which  depend  upon  temperature 
only. 

At  low  temperatures  all  compounds  of  carbon  give  a  set  of 
simple  flutings,  the  brightest  of  which  are  at  wave-lengths  4510, 
4830,  5185,  and  5610.  At  higher  temperatures  there  is  a  series 
of.  compound  flutings,  the  brightest  edges  of  which  are  at  wave- 
lengths 4380,  4738,  5165,  and  5640.  In  the  case  of  compounds 
of  carbon  with  hydrogen  there  is  an  additional  fluting  at  wave- 
length 4310,  and  this  is  the  only  criterion  for  the  presence  of 
hydrocarbon  among  the  flutings  shown  on  thei  map.  (See 
Map  3.) 

B.  Experiments  upon  the  luminous  phenomena  of  the  various 
metals  volatilized  in  the  bunsen  burner  and  the  oxy-coal-gas 
blow-pipe  flame  as  compared  with  the  phenomena  seen  at  higher 
temperatures. 

The  main  conclusions  are  that  certain  lines,  bands,  and  flutings 
are  seen  in  the  bunsen  burner,  that  a  larger  tiumber  is  seen  in 
the  flame,  and  that  the  total  number  seen  in  the  burner  and 
flame  is  small. 

The  order  of  visibility  in  the  bunsen  is,  roughly — 

Mg 

Na 

Li 

Tl 

Sr 

Ba 

Ca 

K 

Mn 

Bi 


Lines 


Ca 

Bands      \  Sr 

Ba 

Flutings  {^^ 

All  the  observations  both  of  bunsen  and  oxyhydrogen  flame 
may  be  condensed  as  follows  :  — 


In  metals  of  the  alkalies 

,,  ,,        alkaline  earths 

In  magnesian  metals    .. 
In  iron  metals  ... 

In  metals  which  yield  acids   ... 

In  copper  metals 
In  noble  metals 
In  earthy  metals 


Na 
K 
Li 
Ca 
Sr 
Ba 
Mg 
Zn 
Cd 
Fe 
Ni 
Co 
Mn 
Cr 
Bi 
Ti 
W 
Cu 
Tl 
Ag 
Hg 
Ce 


The  following  table  shows  the  positions  of  the  principal  lines, 
bands,  and  flutings  seen  in  the  spectrum  of  each  of  the  metals 
examined,  arranged  roughly  in  the  order  of  their  intensities. 

It  should  here  be  stated  that  as  some  of  the  researches  have 
had  to  deal  with  feeble  illumination  small  dispersion  has  been 
of  necessity  employed,  and  to  make  the  observations  along  the 
several  lines  comparable  a  one-prism  spectroscope  has  been  so 
far  used  throughout.  Hence  the  wave-lengths  given  are  in  all 
cases  only  approximate.  With  this  proviso  the  lines  observed 
have  been  as  follows  :— 


/«  hunsen- 
Mg 
Na 
Li 
Tl 

Sr     ^ 
Ba 
Ca 
Mn 
K 
Bi 


5183 
5889 
6705 

5349 
4607 

5534 
4226 

5395 
6950, 

4722 


5172,  5167,  4586,  5201. 
5895- 


J  •      .   /Seen   on  passing  from   the  temperature   of  the 
bunsen  to  that  of  the  oxy-coal-gas  flame — 

Fe  5268,  5327,  5371,  4383,  5790,  6024. 

Cu  5105,  5781,  5700. 

Cr  5202,  5203,  5207,  5410. 

Zn  4810,  491 1. 

Cd  5085. 

Ni  5476. 

Tl  5128,  5338. 

w       5490, 551 1- 

•  Ag         5208,  5464. 
Hg         5460. 
Ce  5273,  5160. 

In  bunsen — 

Ca    5535,  6250,  6500,  6000. 

Sr  6050. 

Ba  5150,  5250,  5330,  4860. 

\Seen  on  passing  from   the   temperature   of  the 
I     bunsen  to  that  of  the  oxy-coal-gas  flame — 
I        Co  4710,  4920,  5170,  5460. 


Bands 


Nov.  17,  1887] 


NATURE 


57 


In  bunscn — 
Mg 
Ma 


Flutings 


5000 

5580,  5860,  6145,  5340 

Seen  on  passing  from   the  temperature  of  the 
btmsen  to  that  of  the  oxy-coal-gas  flame — 


Ba  6010,  6350,  6480 

Cr  5360,  5570,  5800,  6040 

Fe  6150 

Cu  6050,  6130 

Zn  5460,  5680,  4985,  5140,  5340 

All  the  (lutings,  with  the  exception  of  magnesium,  have  their 
maxima  towards  the  blue,  and  shade  off  towards  the  red  end  of 
the  spectrum.     (See  Map  i.) 

C.  Experiments  upon  Mg  at  low  temperatures. 

I  have  a  rain  gone  over  the  experiments  already  communicated 
to  the  Royal  Society  (Proceedings,  vol.  xxx.  p.  27),  and  in 
addition  have  observed  the  spectrum  of  the  metal  burning  in  the 
centre  of  a  large  bunsen  burner,  in  which  case  we  get  the  line  at 


5201,  and  the  fluting  in  the  position  of  b  without  the  fluting  at 
500.  In  the  Bunsen  as  ordinarily  employed  the  fluting  at  500 
far  eclipses  the  other  parts  of  the  spectrum  in  brilliancy,  and  at 
this  temperature,  as  already  observed  by  Messrs.  Liveing  and 
Dewar  (Proc.  R.S.  vol.  xxxii.  p.  202),  the  ultra-violet  line 
visible  is  that  at  373.  I,ecoq  de  Boisbaudran  has  observed 
the  lines  in  the  chloride  at  4705  and  4483  ("  Spectres  Lumi- 
neux,"  p.  85). 

D.  Experiments  upon  the  glow  of  Na  and  Mg  in  vacuum 
tubes. 

A  small  p'ece  of  sodium,  free  from  hydrocarbon,  was  placed 
in  the  lower  limb  of  an  end-on  spectrum  tube,  and  arrangements 
made  for  ob  erving  the  spectrum  of  the  gas  evolved  when  the 
sodium  was  heated.  Having  first  obtained  as  perfect  a  vacuum 
as  possible,  the  sodium  was  gently  heated,  sMid  the  spectrum  of 
the  gas  then  gave  nothing  but  the  C  and  Y  lines  of  hydrogen. 
The  pump  being  stopped  and  the  sodium  heated,  a  point  was 
reached  when  C  and  K  became  very  dim  and  were  replaced  by 
the  structural  spectrum  of  hydrogen. 


Map  t. — Spectra  of  mjtals  at  the  temperature  of  the  o.'cy -coal-gas  blowpipe. 


In  another  experiment  the  sodium  was  replaced  by  a  piece  of 
magnesium  along  the  end-on  tube.  The  same  proce-s  being 
gone  through,  similar  phenomena  were  observed,  but  in  the 
latter  case  there  was  a  line  at  500,  in  addition  to  the  lines  seen 
in  the  case  of  sodium. 

The  important  point,  then,  is  the  existence  of  a  line  at  500 
in  the  spectrum  when  magnesium  is  heated,  and  the  absence  of 
such  a  lins  in  the  gas  evolved  from  sodium  under  the  conditions 
stated. 

E.  Experimen's  upon  the  conditions  under  which  the  C  and 
F  lines  of  hydrogen  disappear  from  the  spectrum. 

The  association  of  the  bright  lines  of  hydrogen  with  nebuli?e 
and  many  of  the  stars  with  bright  lines  and  the  so-called  new 
stars  points  out  at  once  that  it  is  important  to  consider  the 
various  changes  which  hydrogen  can  undergo  under  various 
conditions  of  temperature  and  pressure.  I  pointed  out  many 
years  ago  that,  when  under  certain  conditions  the  spectrum  of 
hydrogen  is  examined  at  the  lowest  possible  temperature,  the  F 
line  retains  its  brilliancy  long  after  C  disappears ;  and  the  fact 


that,  after  all  the  lines  of  hydrogen  may  be  made  to  disappear 
from  the  spectral  tube,  the  spectrum  which  remains  visible,  and 
is  sometimes  very  brightly  visible,  is  a'so  due  to  hydrogen,  has 
always  been  a  matter  of  thorough  belief  in  my  mind,  although 
so  many  observers,  down  even  to  M.  Cornu  not  so  very 
long  ago,  have  been  inclined  to  attribute  it  to  the  existence  of 
"  impurities." 

I  began  to  map  the  so-called  structural  spectrum  at  the  College 
of  Chemistry  in  1869,  but  other  matters  supervened  which  pre- 
vented the  accomplishment  of  this  work.  This,  however,  is  a 
matter  of  small  importance,  because  quite  recently  Dr.  Hasselberg 
has  communicated  to  the  St.  Petersburg  Academy  an  admirable 
memoir  on  the  subject,  accompanied  by  a  map  (Memoires  de 
I'Academie  Imperiale,  series  vii.  vol.  xxx.  No.  7,  Hasselberg). 
The  brightest  portions  of  the  structure  spectrum  are  shown  in 
Map  2. 

The  most  convenient  way  of  obtaining  a  supply  of  hydrogen 
for  investigations  of  this  kind  i-  to  use  a  little  sodium  which  has 
never  been  in  contact  with  hydrocarbon,  or  a  piece  of  magnesium 
wire ;  to  place  them  in  the  low  end  of  a  glass  tube,  one  part  of 


5.S 


NA  TURE 


{Nov.  17,  1887 


Map  2.— Spectra  of  olivine  and  meteorites  under  various  conditions. 


3       4        5        6        7 


COOL  HYDROGEN 


DHURMSALAMET.SPARK 

OCT  14,15. 

.  ,        .  '  FLAME 
OCT  15. 


TT 


BITBURG   ■'  9     " 
OCT  2a. 

olivine:  glow  heated 

OCT  2L 

LIMERICK  MET  SPARK 

OCT  24. 

■>  '  GLOW 

I  OCT  25. 


Map  2  a.— Spectra  of  olivine  and  meteorites  under  var'ous  conditions. 


Nov.  17,  1887] 


NATURE 


59 


which  can  be  used  as  an  end-on  tube,  and  then,  after  getting 
a  vacuum  so  perfect  that  the  spark  will  not  pass,  to  slightly  heat 
the  metal.  After  a  time  the  spectrum  of  hydrogen,  sometimes 
accompanied  by  the  low-temperature  flutings  of  carbon,  begins  to 
be  visible  alike  from  the  sodium  and  the  magnesium. 

If  the  vacuum  has  been  very  perfect  to  start  with,  the  bright 
lines  C  and  F  will  at  first  be  visible  without  any  trace  of  structure, 
and  the  hydrogen  will  be  of  a  magnificent  red  colour.  If  now 
the  actio:!  of  the  pump  be  stopped  and  the  sodium  be  still  more 
heated,  a  p^int  will  be  reached  at  which  the  conductibility  of  the 
gas  is  at  its  maximum,  and  then,  the  jar  not  being  in  circuit,  the 
structure-spectrum  of  the  gas  will  be  seen  absolutely  alone, 
without  any  trace  of  either  C  or  F.  The  gradual  disappearance 
of  the  F  line  is  very  striking,  and  when  the  bright  line  is  out  of 
the  field  the  lines  due  to  the  structure  seem  to  be  enhanced  in 
brilliancy. 

The  brightest  part  of  the  spectrum  is  then  that  near  D  ;  in  the 
blue-green  we  have  a  line  at  464  more  refrangible  than  F, 
iind  then  a  doube  line  at  4930  and  4935  ;  other  less  re- 
frangible lines  are  seen.  These  are  phenomena  seen  associated 
with  sodium,  but  if  we  use  the  hydrogen  produced  from  a  piece 
of  magnesium  wire  or  from  a  crystal  of  olivine,  under  the  same 
•circumstances  we  find  that  so  far  a?  the  lines  of  hydrogen  go 
the  phenomenon  remains  the  same,  but  that  there  is  then  visible 
in  the  spectrum  a  line  at  500,  which  has  been  recorded  in  the 
spectrum  of  magnesium  under  other  conditions,  not  only  by 
myself  but  by  Dr.  Copeland.^ 

F.  Experiments  upon  the  spectra  of  meteorites  at  low 
■temperatures. 

All  the  later  observations  recorded  have  been  made  on 
tmdoubted  meteorites,  fragments  of  whic'.i  have  been  in  the 
kindest  manner  placed  at  my  disposal. 

I.   In  the  oxyhydrogen  flame. 
The  observations  gave  in  all  only  about  ten   or  a  dozen  lines 
belonging  to  the    metals     magnesium,    iron,  sodium,    lithium, 
an  1  potassium,  and  two  flitings,  one  of  manganese,  and  one  of 
iron. 

II.  With  a  quantity  coil  without  jar. 

The  observations  gave  in  all  abaut  twenty  lines  belonging  to 
the  metals  magnesium,  sodium,  iron,  strontium,  barium,  calcium, 
chromium,  zinc,  bismuth,  and  nickel,  and  four  lines  of  unknown 
origin. 

III.  When  heated  in  a  vacuum  tube  when  a  cuiTent  is 

passing  along  it. 

A  small  piece  of  iron  meteorite  was  inclosed  in  the  middle  of 
a  horizontal  tube,  so  that  the  spark  might  be  made  to  pass 
through  the  tube  and  over  the  meteorite.  After  complete  ex- 
haustion has  been  obtained,  the  first  spectrum  observed  when 
the  tube,  end  on,  is  placed  in  front  of  the  spectroscope,  is  a 
spectrum  of  hydrogen.  The  carbon  flutings  are  only  visible 
occasionally.  If  the  meteorite  then  be  very  gently  warmed  by 
placing  a  Bunsen  burner  at  some  distance  below  the  tube,  the 
glow  over  the  meteorite  is  seen  to  change  its  colour,  and  the 
line  at  500  is  constantly,  and  another  line  at  495,  apparently 
exactly  in  the  position  of  the  second  line  of  the  spectrum  of 
the  nebula:,  is  occasionally,  seen.  This  line  is  more  refrangible 
than  th;  structure  line  of  hydrogen  in  this  region,  which  occupies 
the  same  position  as  the  barium  line.  This,  however,  if  the 
heating  is  continued,  especially  in  the  case  of  stony  meteorites, 
is  soon  succeeded  by  a  much  more  brilliant  green  glow,  in 
■which  magnesium  b  and  many  other  lines  appear,  now  accom- 
panied by  the  carbon  flutings.  The  observations  made  under 
all  the  above  conditions  are  shown  in  Maps  2  and  2A. 

In  these  observations  if  a  line  in  the  meteorite  spectrum  were 
coincident  with  a  metallic  line,  with  the  dispersion  employed,  in 
the  absence  of  the  brightest  line  of  that  metal,  the  line  was  re- 
garded as  originating  from  some  other  substance.  Thus  a  line 
was  sometimes  seen  at  5480,  apparently  coincident,  with  the  dis- 
persion employed,  with  the  green  lines  of  Sr  and  Ni ;  sometimes 
the  brightest  line  of  Sr  at  4607  was  absent,  and  it  was  then  fair 
to  assume  that  the  presence  of  5480  was  due  to  Ni,  but  in  the 
presence  of  4607  it  might  be  due  to  Sr. 

!'  ^"°  ''^'^  table  must  be  added  500 '6  mmm.  as  the  wave  length  of  tlie  first 
line  in  the  great  band  of  magnesium  as  determined  by  M.  Lecoq  de  Bois- 
biudran  from  the  spark-spectrum  of  the  chloride  of  that  metal,  which 
evidently  agrees  with  the  flame-spectrum,  in  this  region  at  least.  It  is 
worthy  of  mte  that  this  line  almost  abio'utely  coincides  with  the  brightest 
hne  in  the  spectra  of  planetary  nebulx  "  (D.-.  Copeland,  Copernicus,  vol.  ii. 
p.  109). 


COMPARISOMS    OF    THE    FOREGOING     OBSERVATIONS    AMONG 

themselves  and  with  those  made  on  various  orders  of 
\  Celestial  Bodies. 

Tha  discussions  have  taken,  in  the  first  instance,  the  form 
of  comparisons  of  the  different  phenomena  observed,  and  for  this 
purpose  all  recorded  observations  of  flutings  and  bright  lines 
and  dark  lines  in  stars,  comets,  nebula;,  &c.,  have  been  carefully 
mapped  in  addition,  all  records  having,  when  necessary,  been 
brought  to  a  common  scale.  Having  these  maps,  I  could  then 
compare  the  totality  of  celestial  observations  with  the  laboratory 
work  to  which  reference  has  already  been  made. 

The  following  are  among  the  comparisons  already  dealt 
with  : — 

I.  The  spectra  of  meteorites  observed  under  the  various 
conditions,  chiefly  considering  magnesium,  iron, 
and  manganese,  with  the  bright  lines  observed  at 
low  temperatures. 

The  main  conclusions  are  : — 

(i)  That  only  the  lowest  temperature  lines  of  Mg,  Na,  Fe,  Cr, 
Mn,  Sr,  Ca,  Ba,  K,  Zn,  Bi,  and  Ni  are  seen  in  the  meteorites 
under  the  various  conditions.  They  are  not  all  seen  in  one 
meteorite  or  under  one  particular  condition  ;  the  details  of 
individual  observations  are  fully  recorded  in  Maps  2  and  2A. 

(2)  That  in  the  case  of  Mg  the  line  most  frequently  seen 
is  the  remnant  of  the  fluting  at  500,  while  in  a  photograph 
the  main  ultra-violet  line  recorded  is  the  one  at  373,  previously 
recorded  under  these  conditions  by  Messrs.  Liveing  and  Dewar. 
In  the  quantity  spark  other  lines  are  seen,  notably  b-^,  /'._„  b^, 
and  5201.  The  line  at  500  was  considerably  brightened  when  the 
number  of  cell;  was  reduced,  thus  showing  it  to  be  due  to  some 
molecule  which  can  exist  best  at  a  low  temperature. 

(3)  That  in  the  case  of  Mn  the  only  line  visible  at  the  tempera- 
ture of  the  bunsen  burner,  5395,  is  the  only  line  seen  in  the 
meteorites. 

(4)  That  the  lines  of  iron  seen  in  the  meteorites  are  those  which 
are  brightest  when  wire  gauze  is  burned  in  the  flame.  The  chief 
of  these  are  5268,  4383,  5790,  and  6024  ;  it  is  possible,  however, 
that  the  two  latter  are  due  to  some  substance,  not  iron,  cojimon 
to  the  gauze  and  the  meteorites. 

II.  The  spectra  of  meteorites  generally,  with  the  bright 
lines  and  flutings  seen  in  luminous  meteors, 
comets,  and  some  "stars." 

a.   Luminous  meteors. 

With  regard  to  the  records  of  luminous  meteors,  it  may  be 
remarked  that  the  observations,  so  far  as  they  have  gone,  have 
given  decided  indications  of  magdesium,  sodium,  lithium,  potas- 
sium, and  of  the  carbon  flutings  seen  in  comets.  The  following 
quotations  from  Konkoly  and  Prof.  Herschel  are  among  the 
authorities  which  may  be  cited  for  the  above  statement. 

"On  August  12,  13,  and  14,  I  observed  a  number  of  meteors 
with  the  spectroscope  ;  amongst  others,  on  the  12th,  a  yellow 
fireball  with  a  fine  train,  which  came  directly  from  the  Perseid 
radiant.  In  the  head  of  this  meteor  the  lines  of  lithium  were 
clearly  seen  by  the  side  of  the  sodium  line.  On  August  13,  at 
loh.  46m.  los. ,  I  observed  in  the  north-east  a  magnificent  fire- 
ball of  emerald-green  colour,  as  bright  as  Jupiter,  with  a  ver>- 
slow  motion.  The  nucleus  at  the  first  moment  only  showed  a  very 
bright  continuous  spectrum  with  the  sodium  line  ;  but  a  second 
after  I  perceived  the  magnesium  line,  and  I  think  I  am  not 
mistaken  in  saying  those  of  copper  also.  Besides  that,  the 
spectrum  showed  two  very  faint  red  lines."  ^ 

"A  few  of  the  green  'Leonid'  streaks  were  noticed  in 
November  (1866)  to  be,  to  all  appearances,  monochromatic,  or 
quite  undispersed  by  vision  through  the  refracting  prisms  ;  from 
which  we  may  at  least  very  probably  infer  (by  later  discoveries 
with  the  meteor-spectroscope)  that  the  prominent  green  line  of 
magnesium  forms  the  principal  constituent  element  of  their 
greenish  light."  ^ 

Again,  later  on  in  the  same  letter,  Prof.  Herschel  mentions 
Konkoly's  observation  of  the  bright  b  line  of  magnesium  in 
addition  to  the  yellow  sodium  line  in  a  meteor  on  July  26,  1873. 

I  again  quote  from  Prof.  Herschel  :  — 

"  On  the  morning  of  October  13  in  the  same  year,  Herr  von 
Konkoly  again  observed  with  Browning's  meteor  spectroscope 
the  long-enduring  streak  of  a  large  fireball,  which  was  visible  t« 

'  Konkoly,  Observatory,  vol.  iii.  p.  157. 

^  Herschel,  letter  to  Naturb,  vol  xtiv.  p.  507. 


6o 


NA  TURE 


{Nov.  17,  1887 


ihe  north-east  of  0'G}alla.  It  exhibited  the  yellow  sodium 
line  and  the  green  line  of  magnesium  very  finely,  besides  other 
spectral  lines  in  the  red  and  green.  Examining  these  latter 
lines  closely  with  a  star-spectroscope  attached  lo  an  equatorial 
telescope,  Herr  von  KonKoly  succeeded  in  ideniifying  them  by 
direct  comparison  with  the  lines  in  an  electric  Geissler-tube  of 
marsh-gas.  They  were  visible  in  the  star- spectroscope  for 
eleven  minutes,  after  which  the  sodium  and  magnesium  lines 
still  continued  to  be  very  brightly  observable  through  ihe 
meteor-spectroscope."' 

The  green  line  "6"  of  magnesium  occurring  as  a  bright 
line  in  luminous  meteors  indicates  that  their  temperature  when 
passing  through  our  atmosphere  is  higher  than  that  of  the 
bunsen,  and  we  may  add  of  comets  as  generally  observed, 
although  some  exhibit  the  /^  lines  of  magnesium  and  those  of 
iron  when  at  perihelion,  as  shown  later  on. 

The  two  lines  which  Konkoly  supposes  are  probably  due  to 
copper  will,  I  expect,  be  found  to  be  iron  lines  when  other 
observations  are  made  of  the  spectra  of  meteors. 

The  main  conclusions  from  this  comparison  are  then  :  ,(i)  that 
the  temperature  of  luminous  meteors  is  higher   than  that  of  the 


bunsen  flame  ;  (2)  that  the  meteorites  which  produce  the  phe- 
nomena we  are  now  discussing  are  hotter  than  those  in  the 
experimental  gliw  taken  generally  ;  and  (3)  that  in  both  cases 
finings  of  carl  on  may  be  seen. 

$.   Comets. 

When  the  meteorites  are  strongly  heated  in  a  glow-tube,  the 
whole  tube  when  the  electric  current  is  passing  gives  us  the 
spectrum  of  carbon. 

When  a  meteor-swarm  approaches  the  sun,  the  whole  region 
of  space  occupied  by  the  meteorites,  estimated  by  Prof. 
Newton  in  the  case  of  Biela's  comet  to  have  been  thirty  miles 
apart,  gives  us  the  same  spectrum,  and  further  it  is  given  by  at 
all  events  part  of  the  tail,  which  in  the  comet  of  1680  was 
calculated  to  be  60,000,000  miles  in  length.  The  illumination 
therefore  must  be  electrical,  and  possibly  connected  with  the 
electric  repulsion  of  the  vapours  away  from  the  sun  ;  hence  it  is 
not  dependent  wholly  upon  collisions. 

Passing  now  from  the  flutings  seen  in  cometary  spectra,  it  is 
found  that  most  of  the  lines  which  havebeen  observed  at  perihelion 
are  coincident  with  lines  seen  in  experiments  with  meteorites, 


Map  3. — Comparison  of  flutings  seen  in  the  spectra  of  "  stars  "  and  comets  with  flutings  of  carbon,  manganese,  and  zinc  ;  and,  in  the  case  of  R  Geminorum, 
lines  With  remnants  of  flutings  and  hnes  seen  in  a  meteorite  glow.     (The  Zn  fluting  is  at  \  544  in  a  Oiionis.) 


while  the  low  temperature  lines  of  Mg  are  absent.  In  the  great 
comet  of  1882,  to  which  particular  attention  has  been  given  on 
account  of  the  complete  record  of  its  spectrum  by  Copeland,^ 
the  lines  recorded  were  the  D  lines  of  sodium,  the  low-tempera- 
ture iron  lines  at  5268,  5327,  5371,5790,  and  6024,  the  lines  seen 
in  the  manganese  spectrum  at  the  temperature  of  the  bunsen 
burner  at  5395  and  5425,  and  a  line  near  b  which  might  be  due 
to  magnesium,  or  to  a  remnant  of  the  carbon  fluting.  In  addi- 
tion to  these  there  was  a  line  at  5475,  probably  due  to  nickel, 
the  absence  of  the  blue  strontium  line  indicating  that  it  is  not 
likely  to  be  the  green  line  of  strontium.  There  were  also  four 
other  lines  less  refrangible  than  D,  the  origin  of  which  has  not 
yet  been  determined.  As  the  comet  got  further  from  perihelion 
the  lines  gradually  died  out,  those  which  remained  longest  being 
the  iron  line  at  5268  and  the  line  near  b.  The  absence  of  D 
before    the    disappearance  of  all   the  lines  is  probably  to    be 

'  Herschel,  letter  to  Nature,  vol.  xxiv.  p.  507. 
'■^  Copernicus,  vol.  ii.  p.  234. 


accounted  for  partly  by  the  greater  brightness  of  the  continuoi 
spectrum  in  that  region. 

In  the  comets  of  1866-67,   when  seen  away  from  the  sur 
the  only  line  seen  was  the  one  at  500.'' 

It  is  fair  to  myself  to  say  that  I  was  not  aware  of  thes 
observations  when  I  began  to  write  this  paper.  The  fact  of  \}n\ 
line  at  500  remaining  alone  in  Nova  Cygni  made  it  clear  that  q 
my  views  were  correct,  the  same  thing  should  happen  wiif 
comets.  It  now  turns  out  that  the  crucial  observation  which  ' 
intended  to  make  was  made  twenty  years  ago. 

'  "  In  January  1S66  I  communicated  to  the  Royal  Society  the  result  of  an 
examination  of  a  small  comet  visible  in  the  beginning  of  that  year(Proc.  K.S. 
vol.  XV.  p.  5).  I  examined  the  spectrum  of  another  small  and  faint  comet  in 
May  1E67.  The  spectra  <  f  these  objects,  as  far  as  their  feeble  light  permitted 
them  to  be  observed,  appeared  to  be  very  similar.  In  the  case  of  each  of 
these  comets  the  spectrum  of  the  minute  nucleus  appeared  fo  consist  of  a 
bright  line  between  b  and  F,  abcut  the  position  of  the  double  line  of  the 
spectrum  of  nitrogen,  while  the  nebulosity  surrounding  the  nucleus  and 
forming  the  coma  gave  a  sptc;riim  which  was  apparently  caitinuous'' 
(Huggins,  Proc.  R.S.  vol.  xvi.  p.  387). 


.^i 


Nov.  17,  1887] 


NATURE 


61 


In  Comets  h,  1881,  and  c,  1882,  the  only  lines  recorded  were 
magnesium  b  ;  but,  as  before,  the  apparent  absence  of  other  lines 
might  be  due  to  continuous  spectrum. 

Of  the  five  bands  shown  in  Huggins's  photograph  of  the  spec- 
trum of  Comet  Wells,  taken  with  a  wide  slit,  no  less  than  three 
agree  fairly  in  position  with  three  lines  seen  in  the  spectra  of 
meteorites.  The  wave-lengths  of  these  are  4253,  4412,  and 
4769,  and  it  is  interesting  to  note  that,  so  far,  the  origin  of 
these  lines  is  undetermined.  The  two  remaining  bands  are  at 
wave-lengths  4507  and  4634. 

It  is  seen,  then,  that  the  spectraof  comets— when  their  internal 
motions  are  relatively  either  slow  or  fast,  and  when  therefore 
the  number  of  collisions,  and  with  them  the  heat  of  the  stones  in 
collision,  will  vary  extremely— resemble  the  spectra  of  meteorites 
seen  in  glow  tubes, 

(7)  "Stars  "with  flutings  which  have  been  observed  in  the 
laboratory  and  in  luminous  meteors  and  comets. 

The  most  prominent  bright  flutings  of  carbon  are  not  only 
observed  in  luminous  meteors  and  comets,  but  in  stars  of 
Class  1 1 1,  a,  and  in  some  "Novas,"  notably  Nova  Orionis. 
So  far,  then,  these  bodies  may  in  a  certain  measure  be  classed 
with  luminous  meteors  and  comets.  But  there  is  an  important 
difference  in  the  phenomena,  for  we  have  absorption  as  well  as 
radiation.  The  discussion  shows  that  the  dark  (or  absorbing) 
flutings  in  these  bodies  are  partly  due  to  the  absorption  of  light 
by  the  most  prominent  flutings  of  Mn  and  Zn,  seen  at  low 
temperatures.     This  inquiry  is  being  continued. 

We  have,  then,  in  these  bodies  a  spectrum  integrating  the 
radiation  of  carbon  and  the  absorption  of  Mn  and  Zn  vapour. 

The  law  of  parsimony  compels  us  to  ascribe  the  bright  fluting 
of  carbon  in  these  stars  to  the  same  cause  as  that  at  work  in 
comets,  where  we  know  it  is  produced  by  the  vapours  between 
the  individual  meteorites  or  repelled  from  them. 

Hence  we  are  led  to  conclude  that  the  absorotion  pheno- 
mena are  produced  by  the  incandescent  vapour  surrounding  the 
individual  meteorites  which  have  been  rendered  intensely  hot  by 
collisions. 

These  stars,  therefore,  are  not  masses  of  vapour  like  our  sun, 
but  clouds  of  incandescent  stones. 

We  have  here  probably  the  first  stage  of  meteoritic  conden'^a- 
'ion,  J.  Norman  Lockyer. 

( To  be  continued.') 


FAIRY-RINGS. 

nr  H  E  rains  have  come,  and  we  have  heard  from  all  sides 
-»•  of  the  prolific  crops  of  mushrooms  and  toadstools 
—paddock-stools,  as  they  are  termed  in  some  northern 
districts— which  have  been  sprin<,nng  up  in  the  meadows 
and  woods  of  England,  Wales,  and  Scotland.  Not  only  is 
surprise  evinced  at  the  marvellously  rapid  up-growth  of 
these  fungi,  for  the  popular  mind  may  well  be  amazed  at 
that  until  a  knowledge  of  the  biology  of  these  plants  is 
more  universal,  but  country  people  and  dwellers  in  towns 
alike  exclaim  at  certain  other  phenomena  associated  with 
their  growth  in  the  fields,  and  at  none,  perhaps,  so  much  as 
what  have  been  known  from  of  old  as  "  Fairy-rings  "  in 
England,  Hexenri7tge  and  Cerdes  de  sorcieres  on  the  Con- 
tinent, Now  fairy-rings,  like  very  many  other  poetical 
objects,  have  of  late  years  undergone  the  process  of 
being  explained  away  to  an  extent  which,  although  it  in 
no  way  removes  the  beauty  from  them,  demands  from 
us  an  admiration  of  a  more  stimulating  and  healthful 
character  than  the  old  awe  which  they  inspired  was 
capable  of  producing. 

Disbelief  prevails  regarding  Prospero  and  the  beings 
that 


and 


"  By  moonshine  do  the  green  sour  ringlets  make, 
Whereof  the  ewe  not  bites  ; " 

"  whose  pastime 
Is  to  make  midnight  mushrooms." 


Fairy-rings  are  more  or  less  regular  and  complete 
rings  of  grass,  sharply  distinguished  from  the  ordinary 
grass  surrounding  them  by  means  of  their  darker  hue. 


more  luxuriant  growth,  and  other  characters ;  in  spring 
or  autumn  they  are  to  be  found  with  vigorous  growths  of 
mushrooms  or  toadstools  springing  from  their  outer 
margins,  and  the  centre  of  the  ring  is  often  marked  by  a 
very  poor  crop  of  withered-looking  herbage. 

Before  proceeding  to  give  an  account  of  the  modern 
explanation  of  these  remarkable  objects,  a  few  statements 
may  be  made  as  to  their  sizes,  structure,  and  occurrence. 

They  are  not  always  complete  or  regular  rings,  but 
may  be  parts  of  circles  or  ovals,  or  mere  wavy  strips. 
Nor  are  they  always  provided  with  the  outer  belt  of 
fungi,  though  the  rule  is  that  a  good  season  sees  them 
so  accompanied  ;  if  not,  they  do  not  remain  long.  In 
the  typical  cases,  where  the  ring  is  annually  provided 
with  its  fringe  of  fungi,  it  may  go  on  increasing  in  size  for 
years :  records  exist  of  rings  which  have  been  known  to 
go  on  flourishing  for  forty  or  sixty  years,  and  large  rings 
on  a  hill-side  could  be  seen  from  a  considerable  distance. 

As  to  their  sizes,  they  are  known  to  commence  as  very 
small  patches,  but  specimens  have  been  measured  as 
much  as  60  feet  and  more  in  diameter.  Indeed  one 
observer  refers  to  a  fairy-ring  which  was  nearly  100  feet 
across.  While  regarding  these  cases  as  rare  extremes,  it 
is  well  known  that  rings  12-20  feet  in  diameter  have  often 
been  recorded,  and,  as  we  shall  see,  these  must  be  several 
or  many  years  old. 

Although  fairy-rings  are  usually  noticed  in  meadows 
and  on  pasture  lands,  they  are  found  on  hills  as  well  as 
in  valleys,  on  dry  soil  as  well  as  on  wet,  in  woods  and  on 
heaths,  and  even  in  rocky  places  and  situations  near  the 
sea.  Perhaps  the  only  generalization  possible  in  this 
connexion  is  that  they  do  not  occur  on  highly-cultivated 
rich  land. 

On  regarding  carefully  a  typical  fairy-ring,  it  may  be 
found  to  present  the  following  characters  : — The  central 
area,  encompassed  by  the  dark-green  ring,  consists  of 
poor  or  even  withered  herbage — it  may  be  of  inferior 
grasses  alone,  or  of  these  mixed  with  other  plants.  Then 
comes  the  band  of  luxuriant  grass  forming  the  ring 
proper;  the  grass  composing  this  may  be  of  more  than 
one  kind — e.g.  Lolium  perenne  (the  perennial  rye-grass), 
Dactylis  glomerata  (the  cock's-foot  grass),  and  Broiiius 
mollis  (the  soft  brome)  are  common,  . 

These  grasses  are  rank,  tall,  and  of  a  distinctly  darker, 
bluer  green  hue  than  the  rest ;  it  is  their  coarseness,: 
height,  and  especially  the  deeper  colour,  which  render 
them  so  prominent.  Fringing  this  ring,  at  the  proper 
season,  are  found  the  spore-bearing  heads  of  the  Agarics^ 
i.e.  the  mushrooms  or  toadstools  as  the  case  may  be; 
and  if  the  observer  digs  carefully  below  the  soil,  he  will- 
find  that  these  Agarics  spring  from  a  felted  mass  of  root- 
like threads,  the  mycelium  of  the  fungus.  Then,  outside 
all,  comes  the  general  herbage  of  the  pasture,  or  whatever 
it  may  be  :  this  is  often  scanty,  indicating  poor  soil,  and 
in  any  case  is  less  luxuriant  and  lighter  in  colour  than 
the  rank  herbage  of  the  ring  itself. 

As  with  the  herbage  composing  the  rings,  so  the 
Agarics  fringing  them  may  be  of  different  kinds.  In  the 
autumn  the  fairy-rings  of  this  country  and  on  the  Con- 
tinent commonly  contain  Marasmius  oreades,  Fr.,  a  small 
pale  mushroom  with  cream-coloured  gills,  and  much 
esteemed  as  an  esculent.  It  has  a  somewhat  stroiig 
aroinatic  odour,  and  its  myceliuin  is  attached  to  the 
roots  of  the  grasses  among  which  it  grows.  It  must  not 
be  confounded  with  certain  acrid  species  allied  to  it. 

The  common  mushroom  {Agaricus  campestris,  L.)  is 
also  frequently  found  in  large  circles,  fringing  more  or 
less  complete  fairy-rings.  Among  other  forms  may  be 
mentioned  the  gray  Agaricus  terreus,  Schoeff,  not  uncom- 
mon in  beech-  and  fir- woods  ;  the  "  parasol  mushroom  " 
{Agaricus  procerus,  Scop.),  also  not  uncommon  in  fir- 
woods  and  pastures,  and  spoken  of  as  one  of  the 
best  of  the  esculent  forms  ;  also  Agaricus  personatus, 
Fr.,  with  a  lilac  or  purple  stem.     This  is  a  late  form, 


62 


NATURE 


{Nov.  17,  1887 


good  to  eat,  and  called  the  "  Blewit."  Agaricus  subpul- 
'verulentus,  Pers.,  is  also  not  uncommon,  and  several 
others  are  known. 

In  the  spring,  fairy-rings  have  been  found  containing 
Agaricus  gambosus,  Fn,  an  edible  mushroom  known  in 
England  as  the  "  St.  George's  mushroom,"  and  much 
esteemed  on  the  Continent. 

There  are  also  o.ther  forms,  several  of  them  poisonous, 
or  at  least  inedible  or  dangerous  ;  and  even  puff-balls 
are  known  to  be  associated  with  fairy-rings. 

•And  now  we  come  to  the  question,  How  do  these  fairy- 
rings  arise  and  increase?  It  cannot  be  wondered  at  that 
the  people  of  earlier  days,  wishing  to  explain  a  pheno- 
menon which  none  could  overlook,  sought  for  satisfaction 
in  their  myths  and  folk-lore,  and  believed  them  to  be 
*'  caused  "  by  fairies  and  elves  and  other  mystic  beings  of 
the  woods  and  fields,  dancing  in  circles  beneath  the 
moonlight,  and  enchanting  the  ground  into  a  richness 
which  it  did  not  previously  possess. 

Then  came  the  era  of  science,  and  people  were  dis- 
satisfied with  beliefs,  and  in  course  of  time  the  followers 
of  De  CandoUe  at  least  tried  to  solve  the  problem  ac- 
cording to  what  was  known  of  Nature.  It  was  at  least 
necessary  to  explain  (i)  why  the  centre  of  the  ring  is  so 
poor,  (2)  why  the  fungi  are  confined  to  the  margin,  and 
(3)  why  the  ring  goes  on  enlarging,  as  continued  observa- 
tion showed  that  it  did. 

The  first  theory  of  any  merit  was,  that  the  "  ring  " 
takes  its  origin  from  a  single  mushroom,  which  sheds  its 
spores  from  the  gills  down  on  to  the  ground  around  the 
thick  stem  :  this  necessarily  produces  a  ring  of  spores, 
as  the  stem  dies  down  in  the  centre.  Now  the  physio- 
logists of  those  days  believed  that  a  plant  excretes 
into  the  soil  at  its  base  substances  which  are  harmful 
to  its  further  development,  and  so,  they  argued,  the  soil 
on  the  inside  of  the  ring  of  spores  is  poisoned,  as 
it  were,  and  only  the  outer  spores  produce  new  plants. 
The  new  mushrooms  come  up  in  a  ring,  and  in  their 
turn  shed  spores  in  a  ring  of  rings  ;  but  since  the  soil  on 
the  inside  of  all  these  rings  is  poisoned  by  the  excreta, 
only  the  outer  series  can  germinate  and  grow,  and  thus 
a  new  ring  arises  next  season,  and  so  on.  But,  it  was 
thought,  though  the  excreta  are  injurious  to  the  growth 
of  the  same  plant  (the  fungus  in  this  case)  in  that  par- 
ticular soil,  other  plants  can  grow  there  (in  the  present 
instance,  grasses),  and  so  a  ring  of  rank  grass  follows  on, 
which  in  its  turn  spoils  the  soil  for  its  own  kind  as  it 
increases. 

Now  it  has  to  be  admitted  that  there  was  much  in- 
genuity in  this  hypothesis,  and  it  was  maintained  for 
some  time  ;  until,  in  fact,  physiologists  had  to  give  up 
the  excretion  theory  as  not  in  accordance  with  observed 
facts. 

Then  followed  the  beginnings  of  the  celebrated  doc- 
trine of  the  rotation  of  crops,  and  the  facts  accumulated 
about  fairy-rings  had  to  be  looked  at  again.  They  had 
become  too  much  for  the  excretion  theory  ;  how  did  they 
look  when  regarded  from  the  new  point  of  view  ?  First, 
however,  we  may  bear  in  mind  the  fact  noticed  by  several 
observers.  When  two  fairy-rings  gradually  extend  so  as 
to  interfere,  the  green  circles  coalesce  and  form  a  single 
ring  :  evidently  the  conditions  of  the  soil  in  the  wake  of 
the  advancing  ring  are  such  that  the  grass  of  another 
advancing  ring  cannot  go  on  luxuriating  there.  It  is  true 
this  fact  was  as  easily  made  use  of  by  those  who  main- 
tained the  excretion  theory  as  by  those  who  advanced 
the  theory  we  are  now  going  to  examine. 

It  gradually  came  to  be  recognized  that  the  reason  one 
species  of  plant  cannot  be  continually  grown  on  the  same 
soil  was  not  because  the  first  crop  poisons  the  soil  by 
leaving  injurious  excreta  behind  it,  but  because  it  takes 
away  certain  mineral  substances  in  such  proportions 
that  too  little  is  left  for  the  well-being  of  a  second 
crop  of  the  same  species  ;  in  other  words,  it  exhausts 


the  soil  of  certain  necessary  ingredients.  A  crop  of 
some  other  species  may  be  raised  on  the  partially  e.<- 
hausted  soil,  however,  provided  it  is  a  plant  which  does 
not  need  the  materials  now  deficient,  in  such  large 
quantities  as  its  predecessor.  This  is,  roughly  sketched, 
the  rationale  of  the  doctrine  of  the  rotation  of  crops,  and 
it  was  subsequently  suggested  that  the  "  fairy-rings  "  we 
are  considering  are  a  natural  illustration  of  this.  The 
vegetable  physiologists  then  came  to  the  conclusion  that 
the  fungus  causes  the  fairy-ring  by  exhausting  the  soil  of 
certain  substances  which  are  necessary  to  its  existence, 
and  is  only  able  to  produce  continued  crops  by  extending 
centrifugally  into  soil  which  still  yields  these  substances  : 
the  grass,  however,  does  not  need  these  substances  in  such 
large  proportions,  and  so  follows  the  fungus.  But,  as  we 
have  seen,  the  grass  which  immediately  follows  the  fungus 
is  particularly  rank  and  luxuriant,  and  it  was  necessary  to 
find  an  explanation  for  this  fact.  It  was  then  suggested 
that  the  dying  mycelium  of  the  fungus  acts  as  a  manure 
for  the  grass  to  feed  upon,  and  until  this  is  exhausted  the 
growth  is  peculiarly  rich  and  rampant. 

Before  leaving  this  part  of  our  subject,  it  should  be 
pointed  out  that  Dr.  Wollaston,  in  an  essay  on  fairy-rings 
published  in  the  Philosophical  Transactions  of  the  Royal 
Society  so  long  ago  as  1809,  ventured  on  the  explanation 
that  the  fungi  spread  in  rings,  because  the  soil  was,  by 
their  mycelium,  progressively  "  exhausted  of  some  pecuhar 
pabulum  necessary  for  their  production.  .  .  .  An  appear- 
ance of  luxuriance  of  the  grass  would  follow  as  a  natural 
consequence,  as  the  soil  in  the  interior  of  a  circle  would 
always  be  enriched  by  the  decayed  roots  of  fungi  of  the 
preceding  year's  growth." 

Meanwhile,  the  physiology  of  plants  was  passing  into  a 
more  scientific  phase  of  existence,  and  the  beginnings  of 
modern  agricultural  chemistry  were  made;  and  in  1846 
an  important  contribution  to  our  knowledge  of  fairy-rings 
v/as  afforded  by  Way,  who  chemically  analyzed  the  soil, 
the  herbage,  and  the  fungi  of  some  of  these  curious  forma- 
tions. This  chemist  found  that  the  fungi  of  his  fairy- 
rings  were  remarkably  rich  in  phosphoric  acid  and  in 
potash  ;  and  that  they  also  contained  relatively  large 
quantities  of  nitrogen.  We  know  now  that  this  is  true  of 
fungi  generally,  but  these  facts  were  by  no  means  so  well 
understood  at  that  time.  Way  also  analyzed  the  grasses 
composing  the  ring,  and  found  that  they  also  contained  a 
larger  proportion  of  phosphoric  acid  and  potash  than  the 
herbage  in  the  neighbourhood,  but  by  no  means  so  much 
as  the  fungi :  the  grass  also  contained  considerable 
quantities  of  nitrogen. 

The  net  result  of  these  investigations  was  to  explain 
fairy-rings  as  an  illustration  of  the  rotation  of  crops,  but  of 
course  putting  the  explanation  on  much  firmer  grounds. 
Way  also  pointed  out  that  as  the  rank  green  grass  was 
cut  or  otherwise  removed,  valuable  ingredients  (phos- 
phorus, potassium,  alkalies,  &c.),  were  removed  with  it, 
and  so  the  crops  of  grass  further  inwards  become  poorer 
and  poorer,  accounting  for  the  bare  patches  often  found 
inside  the  dark  ring. 

Messrs.  Lawes  and  Gilbert,  whose  magnificent  experi- 
ments on  the  vegetation  of  agriculture  will  never  be 
forgotten,  supported  the  above  view  of  the  matter,  and 
showed  that  the  dark-green  colour  of  the  rank  grass  is 
due  to  the  relatively  large  quantities  of  nitrogen.  It  was 
at  this  time  (about  1850)  customary  to  suppose  that 
plants  obtained  their  nitrogen  from  the  atmosphere,  a 
view  now  known  to  be  erroneous  from  the  brilliant  re- 
searches of  Boussingault,  and  of  Lawes  and  Gilbert 
themselves.  On  this  supposition  the  extraordinary  accu- 
mulation of  nitrogen  (in  the  fungus  and  rank  grass)  was 
thought  probably  due  to  a  power  on  the  part  of  the  fungus 
of  taking  nitrogen  from  the  air.  Subsequently  the  whole 
matter  was  again  taken  in  hand  by  Messrs.  Lawes  and 
Gilbert,  and  the  results  published  in  the  Journal  of  the 
Chemical  Society,  1883. 


Nov.  17,  1887] 


NA  TURE 


6.3 


The  chief  additional  facts  may  be  summarized  as 
follows  : — The  fungi  remove  large  quantities  of  carbon, 
nitrogen,  and  especially  phosphoric  acid  and  potash,  from 
the  soil.  The  soil  inside  the  ring  contains  less  nitrogen  than 
that  under  the  ring,  and  this  again  less  than  the  soil  outside 
the  ring  ;  a  gradual  exhaustion  of  nitrogen,  then,  is  taking 
place  as  the  fungus  and  rank  grass  extend  the  ring  centri- 
fugally,  and  this  is  promoted  by  the  removal  of  the  grass. 

These  observers  also  demonstrated  the  spread  of  the 
mycelium  :  it  is  in  greatest  abundance  just  below  the 
outer  edge  of  the  ring.  They  conclude  that  the  fungus 
has  powers  of  obtaining  nitrogen  from  compounds  in  the 
soil  which  are  not  available  to  the  roots  of  the  green 
herbage,  but  after  the  decay  of  the  fungus  mycelium  the 
grasses  can  avail  themselves  of  part  of  the  nitrogen.  The 
grasses — being  plants  containing  chlorophyll — of  course 
obtain  their  carbon  from  the  carbon  dioxide  of  the  atmo- 
sphere ;  but  the  fungus — equally  of  course,  in  the  light 
of  physiology — obtains  its  carbon  from  some  organic  sub- 
stances in  the  soil.  The  accumulation  of  phosphoric  acid 
and  potash  has  already  been  accounted  for. 

We  may  now  sum  up,  then,  the  rational  explanation 
of  these  curious  fairy-rings  as  follows. 

A  mushroom  spore  may  be  supposed  to  start  its  growth 
in  or  beneath  the  dung  of  cattle,  or  a  bird,  on  poor  soil ; 
the  first  crop  of  mushrooms,  produced  from  the  myce- 
lium to  which  the  spore  gave  rise,  exhausts  the  soil  of 
available  carbon,  nitrogen,  phosphorus,  potash,  and  other 
substances,  storing  all  it  can  get  in  its  own  substance. 
The  mycelium  extends  centrifugally  "into fresh  fields  and 
pastures  new,"  and  the  next  crop  of  mushrooms  arises 
:it  a  distance  from  the  centre  ;  and  so  the  growth  pro- 
ceeds. The  grasses,  among  the  roots  of  which  this 
extension  is  going  on,  now  avail  themselves  of  the 
rich  manure  afforded  by  the  decomposition  of  the  older 
mycelium,  and  a  struggle  for  existence  is  set  up  which 
results  in  the  victory  of  the  coarsest  and  rankest-growing 
species.  These  in  their  turn  exhaust  the  available  supply, 
and  if  cut  it  is  removed  in  their  substance  :  no  wonder, 
then,  that  the  inner  parts  of  the  area  are  poor,  and 
support  little  or  no  herbage. 

Messrs.  Lawes  and  Gilbert's  researches  also  showed 
that  if  the  growth  of  the  herbage  is  promoted  by  means 
of  manures  containing  much  available  nitrogen  the  fungi 
are  found  to  suffer,  and  the  "  fairy- ring  "  may  be  brought 
to  an  end.  Again,  unfavourable  seasons  of  drought  may 
cause  the  death  of  the  mycelium,  and  rings  which  have 
flourished  for  years  be  thus  destroyed. 

We  have  attempted  in  this  article  to  give  a  complete 
explanation  of  the  rise  and  progress  of  "fairy- rings,"  as 
afforded  by  modern  science.  That  much  is  clear  which 
was  previously  obscure  will  have  to  be  conceded  ;  but  are 
all  the  facts  covered  by  the  explanation.?  There  are 
some  inquiring  spirits  who  are  never  satisfied  with  an 
explanation,  and  we  run  the  risk  of  being  classed  among 
these  malcontents,  but  there  are  one  or  two  curious  little 
points  which  still  obtrude  themselves  upon  our  attention. 

There  is,  in  the  first  place,  some  difficulty  in  realizing 
how  the  fungi  manage  to  obtain  their  large  supphes  of 
carbon  and  nitrogen  and  other  elements  from  poor 
shallow  soil,  in  the  absence  of  larger  quantities  of  organic 
matter  than  may  occur :  there  is,  in  fact,  considerable 
difficulty  about  the  whole  question  of  the  nutrition  of  the 
fungus.  A  second  point  is  that  we  find  the  ultimate  fila- 
ments into  which  the  mycelium  of  the  fungus  breaks  up 
becoming  lost  among  the  roots  of  the  grasses  ;  and  if  the 
latter  are  carefully  washed  and  examined  with  the  micro- 
scope, their  fibrils  and  root-hairs  can  be  seen  to  be 
infolded  by  delicate  hyphas,  and  in  some  cases  the  root- 
hairs  are  pierced  by  them.  We  do  not  know  that  this 
has  been  demonstrated  before,  but  we  find  it  the  rule 
with  Marasmius,  and  have  already  succeeded  in  detect- 
ing something  of  the  kind  in  other  forms. 

Now  this   looks    very   like   parasitism.;   and   we   are 


tempted  to  pause  before  accepting  the  last  explanatioa  of 
fairy-rings  as  conclusive,  or  covering  all  the  facts.  It 
may  be,  in  fact,  that  the  hyphae  of  the  fungus  stimulate 
the  roots  of  the  grasses  to  increased  activity  :  this  would 
account  for  the  rampant  growth  and  the  result  of  the 
struggle  for  existence.  Subsequently  the  hypha:  kill  the 
grass-roots— or  at  any  rate  those  of  some  species— which 
accounts  for  the  bare  patches  in  some  rings.  It  also 
easily  explains  the  sources  of  the  carbon  and  nitrogen,  if 
the  hyphae  absorb  nutritive  materials  from  the  hard- 
working grass-roots.  This  being  the  case,  fairy-rings 
become  still  more  interesting,  since  they  afford  an  illus- 
tration of  symbiosis  of  a  peculiar  kind,  at  any  rate 
during  part  of  the  time  that  the  grass  and  the  fungus  are 
in  contact  ;  and  it  seems  not  improbable  that  the  theory 
of  the  formation  of  fairy-rings  will  have  to  be  modified 
somewhat  as  follows. 

A  fungus-spore  starts  its  mycelium  among  the  roots  of 
the  grasses,  and  the  hyphje  obtain  a  hold  on  some  root- 
hairs  and  fibrils  ;  the  mycelium  thus  parasitic  on  the 
roots  reacts  in  a  stimulating  manner  on  the  latter,  and  we 
have  a  symbiotic  relationship  established  between  the 
fungus  and  the  host.  The  consequence  is  that  both 
flourish,  and  become  rampant.  It  may  be  that  only  some 
grasses  are  thus  stimulated,  or  even  attacked,  and  this 
will  affect  their  struggle  for  existence,  and  result  in  the 
selection  of  a  few  coarse  forms.  In  time  the  hyphae  or 
the  roots  get  the  upper  hand,  and  this  is  expressed  in  the 
survival  of  the  grass,  or  its  decay  ;  in  some  cases  it  is 
clear  that  hyphee  are  living  at  the  expense  of  dead  and 
dying  roots. 

However,  until  the  results  of  investigations  at  present 
going  on  are  set  forth  more  at  length,  it  is  impossible  ta 
say  which  of  the  above  explanations  is  the  true  one  ;  in  any 
case,  the  attachment  of  fungus  hyphte  to  the  living  grass- 
roots needs  explanation,  and  it  must  ako  be  allowed  that 
at  present  we  have  no  satisfactory  theory  to  account  for 
the  nutrition  of  these  rampant  mycelia.  But  this  is 
not  the  place  to  do  more  than  point  out  how  interesting 
the  subject  is,  and  how  promising  a  field  for  further 
research  it  offers. 


NOTES. 
Mr,  W.  Bateson,  Fellowof  St.  John's  College,  Cambridge,  who 
has  just  returned  from  a  zoological  expeuition  to  Central  Asia, 
and  is  well  known  for  his  researches  on  Balanoglossus,  has 
been  awarded  the  Balfour  Memorial  Studentship  in  Animal 
Morphology. 

The  second  meeting  of  the  newly-formed  Anatomical  Society 
of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland  will  be  held  on  Tuesday,  Novem- 
ber 22,  at  University  College,  Gower  Street,  at  5  p.m.  The 
following  papers  will  be  read  : — Prof.  Sir  William  Turner, 
F.R.S.,  (i)  "Variations  in  the  Hippocampus  Major  and 
Eminentia  Collateralis,"  by  Robert  Howden,  and  (2)  "A 
Metallic  Body  in  the  Spinal  Canal,"  by  David  Hepburn ; 
(3)  "  Minute  Anatomy  of  Clarke's  Column  in  Spinal  Cord  of 
Man,  the  Monkey,  and  the  Dog,"  by  Dr.  Mott  ;  (4)  "The 
Arteries  at  the  Base  of  the  Brain,"  by  Prof.  Bertram  C.  A. 
Windle  ;  (5)  "  Note  on  the  Functions  of  the  Sinuses  of  Valsalva 
and  Auricular  Appendices,  with  some  Remarks  on  the  Mech- 
anism of  the  Heart  and  Pulse,"  by  Mayo  Collier.  A  number 
of  interesting  exhibits  are  also  announced. 

On  Tuesday  evening  the  second  part  of  an  important  paper 
upon  the  causes  of  accidents  in  mines  and  the  development  of 
measures  and  applications  for  combating  or  avoiding  them  was 
read  by  Sir  Frederick  Abel  at  the  Institution  of  Civil  Engineers. 
The  first  part  of  the  paper  was  read  in  May  last,  at  the  close  of 
the  session.  Sir  Frederick's  ideas  will  be  discussed  at  the 
meeting  of  the  Institution  next  Tuesday. 


64 


NATURE 


\_Nov.  I  J,  1887 


We  are  glad  to  hear  that  the  Scottish  University  Extension 
Scheme  is  likely  to  prove  successful.  A  brilliant  start  has  been 
made  in  Perth,  where  Dr.  H.  R.  Mill  is  giving  a  course  of 
lectures  on  physiography  to  a  class  of  over  240  students. 

Some  time  ago  it  was  arranged  that  three  lectures  on 
"Heredity  and  Nurture"  should  be  delivered  at  the  South 
Kensington  Museum,  on  behalf  of  the  Anthropological  Institute, 
by  Mr.  Francis  Galton,  President  of  the  Institute.  We  are 
requested  to  state  that  these  lectures  have  been  postponed  in 
consequence  of  Mr.  Galton's  indisposition. 

Prof.  J.  McK.  Cattell's  paper  on  "The  Psychological 
Laboratory  at  Leipzig,"  to  be  read  before  the  Aristotelian 
Society  on  the  21st,  will  contain  an  account  of  the  aim  of  experi- 
mental psychology,  of  the  Leipzig  Laboratory,  and  of  the 
researches  which  have  been  carried  on  and  are  being  carried  on 
in  it.  The  paper  will  be  published  in  the  January  number  of 
Mind. 

The  borings  in  the  Delia  of  the  Nile  carried  on  by  the  Royal 
Society  have  been  brought  to  a  standstill  by  the  breaking  of  the 
pipe.  The  depth  reached  is  over  324  feet,  still  without  the 
solid  rock  being  found.  It  is  possible  that  the  work  may  be 
recommenced  upon  a  larger  scale. 

Several  years  ago  three  Russian  "  lady  doctors  "  started  at 
Tashkend  a  consulting  hospital  for  Mussulman  women.  From 
the  beginning  the  experiment  proved  a  success,  and  the  popularity 
of  the  hospital  has  been  increasing  ever  since.  During  the  last 
twelve  months  no  fewer  than  15,000  consultations  have  been 
given. 

The  Russian  Consul  at  Kashgar  writes  to  the  Russian 
Geographical  Society  that  his  endeavours  to  obtain  from  the 
Chinese  authorities  permission  to  erect  a  memorial  to  Adolf 
Schlagintweit  on  the  very  spot  where  Schlagintweit  was  killed 
have  not  been  successful.  The  memorial  will  be  erected  in 
the  Russian  cemetery,  where  it  will  be  at  least  protected  from 
injuries. 

The  money  necessary  for  sending  out  M.  Wilkitski  to  make 
pendulum  observations  in  Novaya  Zemlya  has  been  granted  by 
the  Russian  Geographical  Society.  He  will  be  accompanied  by 
a  naturalist,  M.  A.  Grigorieff. 

The  Moscow  Society  of  Naturalists  invites  those  scientific 
bodies  which  would  like  to  receive,  in  return  for  their  own 
publications,  the  series  of  the  Moscow  Bulletin,  to  communicate 
with  the  Secretary  of  the  Society. 

Reports  from  Bergen,  in  Norway,  seem  to  indicate  that 
another  great  rush  of  herring  under  the  west  coast  maybe  expected 
this  winter,  similar  to  those  which  have  taken  place  periodically 
during  the  last  two  centuries  through  some  unknown  cause.  The 
two  greatest  rushes  on  record  were  those  of  1740  and  1807. 

During  a  hailstorm  at  Mors,  in  Denmark,  a  few  days  ago,  a 
flash  of  forked  lightning — the  only  one  occurring — struck  a  farm, 
and,  having  demolished  the  chimney-stack  and  made  a  wreck  of 
the  loft,  descended  into  the  living-rooms  on  the  ground-floor 
below.  Here  its  career  appears  to  have  been  most  extraordinary  ; 
all  the  plaster  around  doors  and  windows  having  been  torn 
down,  and  the  bed-curtains  in  the  bed-rooms  rent  to  pieces.  An 
old  Dutch  clock  was  smashed  into  atoms,  but  a  canary  and  cage 
hanging  a  few  inches  from  it  were  quite  uninjured.  The  light-, 
ning  also  broke  sixty  windows  and  all  the  mirrors  in  the 
house.  On  leaving  the  rooms  it  passed  clean  through  the 
door  into  the  yard,  where  it  killed  a  cat,  two  fowls,  and  a  pig, 
and  then  buried  itself  in  the  earth.  In  one  of  the  rooms  were 
two  women,  both  of  whom  were  struck  to  the  ground,  but 
neither  was  injured. 


The  last  two  numbers  of  the  Folk- Lore  Journal  (vol.  v.  Parts 
3  and  4)  exhibit  very  varied  fare,  and  show  how  this  interesting 
Society  is  gradually  embracing  the  whole  world.  Side  by  side 
with  Miss  Courtney's  Cornish  folk-lore,  we  have  Mr.  Mitchell- 
Linne's  birth,  marriage,  and  death  rites  of  the  Chinese,  followed 
by  the  indefatigable  Mrs.  Murray-Aynsley's  account  of  secular 
and  religious  dances  in  Asia  and  Africa,  which  extends  over  both 
numbers,  and  in  Part  3  is  succeeded  by  Mr.  Clouston's  two 
Pacific  folk-tales.  Folk-lore  amongst  the  Somali  tribes  follows 
that  of  British  Guiana,  and  is  succeeded  by  Cornish,  Irish, 
Malay,  and  North  Friesland  tales.  Dr.  Caster's  paper,  in  the 
same  part,  on  the  modern  origin  of  fairy-tales,  is  a  very  sug- 
gestive one.  Its  conclusion,  after  an  examination  of  certain 
examples,  which  "can  be  infinitely  multiplied,"  is  "that  the 
literature  of  romance  and  novel,  be  it  a  religious  romance  or  one 
of  chivalry,  has  passed  nowadays  to  a  great  extent  into  the 
literature  of  fairy-tales,  and  that,  far  from  being  the  basis,  the 
fairy-tales  are  the  top  of  the  pyramid  formed  by  the  lore  of  the 
people.  They  are  the  outcome  of  a  long  literary  influence,  as 
well  as  an  oral  one,  which  was  exercised  upon  the  mind  and 
soul  of  the  people  during  centuries."  What  may  be  called  the 
editorial  matter — the  notes,  news,  &c. — is  of  the  usual  varied 
and  interesting  character. 

Sir  D.  Salomon's  little  work  on  accumulators,  issued  by 
Messrs.  Whittaker  and  Co.,  has  passed  rapidly  through  two 
editions.  A  third  and  much  improved  edition,  with  many 
illustrations  in  the  text,  will  be  ready  shortly. 

We  have  received  the  first  instalment  of  what  promises  to  be 
an  important  book,  "  Die  Elektricitat  des  Himmels  und  der 
Erde,"  by  Dr.  Alfred  Ritter  von  Urbanitzky.  The  complete 
work  will  contain  about  400  illustrations,  including  several 
coloured  plates.     The  publisher  is  A.  Hartleben,  Vienna. 

We  have  received  the  first  number  of  the  American  Journal 
of  Psychology,  edited  by  Prof.  G.  S.  Hall.  The  object  of 
this  periodical,  as  the  editor  explains,  is  to  record  psychological 
work  of  a  scientific,  as  distinct  from  a  speculative,  character. 
The  present  number  contains,  besides  reviews  and  notes,  articles 
on  the  following  subjects  :  the  variations  of  the  normal  knee- 
jerk  and  their  relation  to  the  activity  of  the  central  nervous 
system,  by  Dr.  W,  P.  Lombard  ;  dermal  sensitiveness  to  gradual 
pressure-changes,  by  Prof.  G.  S.  Hall  and  Mr.  Y.  Motoro  ;  a 
method  for  the  experimental  determination  of  the  horopter,  by 
Christine  Ladd-Franklin  ;  and  the  psycho-physic  law  and  star 
magnitudes,  by  Dr.  J.  Jastrow. 

Six  Bulletins  of  the  United  States  Geological  Survey,  Nos, 
34-39,  have  been  sent  to  us.  The  subjects  are  :  on  the 
relation  of  the  Laramie  Molluscan  fauna  to  that  of  the 
succeeding  fresh-water  Eocene  and  other  groups,  by  Dr.  C.  A. 
White;  physical  properties  of  the  iron-carburets,  by  Mr.  C. 
Barus  and  Mr.  V.  Strouhal ;  the  subsidence  of  fine  solid 
particles  in  liquids,  by  Mr.  C.  Barus ;  types  of  the  Laramie 
flora,  by  Mr.  L.  F.  Ward ;  peridotite  of  Elliott  County,  Ken- 
tucky, by  Mr.  J.  S.  Diller  ;  and  the  upper  beaches  and  deltas  of 
the  glacial  Lake  Agassiz,  by  Mr.  W.  Upham. 

In  a  paper  which  has  just  been  reprinted  from  the  Transac- 
tions of  the  New  York  Academy  of  Sciences,  Mr.  J.  S.  Newberry 
maintains  that  the  decorative  ideas  expressed  in  the  monuments 
of  the  ancient  inhabitants  of  Central  America  have  a  close 
resemblance  to  the  carvings  executed  by  the  Indians  of  the 
north-western  coast  of  America,  and  by  the  people  of  the 
Pacific  Islands.  "  Hence,"  says  Mr.  Newberry,  "I  am  inclined 
to  believe,  as  has  been  suggested  by  Baldwin,  that  the  seeds  of 
this  ancient  civilization  were  brought  from  the  East  Indian 
Archipelago  from  island  to  island  across  the  Pacific,  and  that 
finally  reaching  our  continent,  and  prevented  by  the  great  and 


Nov.  17,  1887] 


NATURE 


65 


continuous  chain  of  the  Cordilleras  from  further  eastward 
migration,  it  slowly  spread  southward  to  Chili,  and  northward 
to  our  western  territories." 

Five  years  ago  the  increase  of  wolves  in  France  had  become 
so  serious  that  the  Government  found  it  necessary  to  raise  the 
awards  for  killing  them.  In  1882,  423  wolves  were  killed  ;  in 
1883,  1316  ;  in  1884,  1035  ;  in  1885,  900  ;  and  in  1886,  760. 
The  awards  are  now  200  francs  for  the  killing  of  a  wolf  which 
has  attacked  human  beings  ;  150  francs  for  one  in  young ;  100 
francs  for  a  male  wolf,  and  40  francs  for  a  cub. 

In  the  current  number  (vol.  i.  No.  4)  of  the  Journal  of  the 
Pekin  Oriental  Society,  the  well-known  scholar  Dr.  Edkins 
writes  on  local  value  in  Chinese  arithmetical  notation.  The 
principle  of  local  value  is  used  in  Chinese  commerce,  strokes 
being  used  instead  of  special  symbols  for  i,  2,  3,  &c. ,  the  rela- 
tion of  the  strokes  to  each  other  showing  the  value  of  the 
symbol.  The  abacus,  with  its  upright  strings  and  balls,  is  only 
a  help  to  calculation,  and  does  mt  contain  any  new  principle. 
Dr.  Edkins  describes  calculating  slips  which  have  been  in  use  in 
China  from  the  most  ancient  times.  It  is  curious  to  notice  that 
the  principle  of  local  value  adopted  by  the  Chinese  was  from  left 
to  right  as  with  ourselves.  The  slips  here  mentioned,  in  which  local 
value  played  an  important  part,  had  been  in  use  fourteen  centuries 
and  probably  more,  when  in  the  fourteentii  century  the  abacus 
was  introduced.  Dr.  Edkins  assigns  the  origin  of  the  principle 
of  local  value  to  the  Babylonians,  for  several  reasons.  The  first 
Chinese  example  known  to  us  is  dated  B.C.  542,  while  in  the 
sixteenth  century  B.C.  the  Babylonians  could  extract  the  cube 
and  square  roots  of  numbers  :  the  Hindoos  do  not  seem  to  have 
been  proficients  in  mathematics  at  so  early  a  date  as  B.C.  542  ; 
so  that  the  probability  is  the  principle  of  local  value  in  arith- 
metical notation  found  its  way  to  China  through  the  Phoenician 
traders.  The  Chinese,  in  fact,  acquired  it  where  they  acquired  a 
knowledge  of  the  clepsydra,  the  dial,  astronomy,  and  astrology. 

The  creation  of  provincial  museums  in  Eastern  Siberia  is 
progressing  very  favourably.  The  example  given  by  the 
Minusinsk  Museum  has  been  followed  at  Yeniseisk,  and  will  be 
followed  at  several  other  towns.  The  Minusinsk  Museum  has  now 
4000  specimens  of  plants,  2000  of  animals,  and  1500  of  minerals. 
The  anthropological  department  has  numerous  models  of  huts  and 
houses  of  the  Russian  and  native  population.  The  archaeological 
collection  is  especially  interesting ;  it  contains  218  implements 
of  the  Stone  Age,  1260  of  the  Bronze  Age,  and  1850  of  the  Iron 
Age.  There  is,  moreover,  a  collection  of  implements  used  in, 
and  produced  by,  local  domestic  trades.  The  whole  is  described 
in  a  good  catalogue.  Last  year  the  Museum  was  visited  by  8000 
])ersons. 

Two  bones  which  were  found  some  time  ago  at  Pitchery 
Creek,  Central  Queensland,  attracted  the  attention  of  several 
persons  interested  in  science.  They  were  lately  exhibited  at  a 
meeting  of  the  Royal  Society  of  New  South  Wales,  and  Mr. 
Etheridge  explained  that  they  were  portions  of  the  vertebral 
column  of  an  extinct  reptile,  Plesiosaurus .  From  the  transverse 
elongation  of  the  portions  preserved,  the  bones  partook  more  of 
the  facies  of  the  Plesiosauri  of  the  Cretaceous  group  than  of 
those  found  in  the  Lower  Mesozoic  deposits. 

Dr.  SCHWERiN,  who  was  despatched  last  year  by  the  Swedish 
Government  to  the  Congo,  in  order  to  ascertain  whether  that 
place  was  suitable  for  the  establishment  of  a  Swedish  colony, 
and  to  make  scientific  researches,  has  returned  to  Sweden  with 
good  results.  He  also  reports  having  made  an  interesting  dis- 
covery at  the  mouth  of  the  river,  viz.  the  marble  pillar  or  padro 
erected  here  by  Diego  Cam  in  1484,  the  first  Portuguese  traveller 
who  reached  the  Congo.  The  Portuguese  were  in  the  habit  of 
raising  %\xc}a  padroes,  bearing  the  arms  of  Portugal,  in  prominent 


places  on  the  West  Coast  of  Africa,  when  taking  possession  of 
territory,  and  it  was  known  that  one  had  been  erected  by  Cam 
at  the  mouth  of  the  Congo,  but  it  was  believed  that  it  had 
been  destroyed.  However,  Dr.  Schwerin,  having  worked  out  a 
theory  of  his  own,  searched  for  this  ancient  monument  some 
6  miles  further  inland  than  the  position  Indicated  on  English 
charts,  viz.  Point  Padro,  and  here  he  found  it.  Dr.  Schwerin 
is  preparing  an  exhaustive  account  of  his  work  on  the  Congo,  at 
the  expense  of  the  Swedish  Government. 

An  electric  railway  for  the  dinner-table  is  one  of  the  recent 
achievements  of  French  ingenuity  {La  Nature,  October  29).  It 
makes  the  presence  of  servants  unnecessary.  The  train,  which 
runs  on  a  line  along  either  side  of  the  table  before  the  diners, 
consists  of  a  platform  pivoted  on  two  bogies,  one  of  which  carries 
the  motor,  while  the  other  is  merely  a  supporting  truck.  The 
expenditure  of  electric  energy  is  but  slight,  and  the  train  is  said 
to  be  thoroughly  under  control  of  the  host. 

There  has  been  much  speculation  as  to  bow  the  ancient 
Egyptians  managed  to  erect  their  enormous  monoliths,  sometimes 
100  feet  in  height  and  weighing  hundreds  of  tons.  An  interest- 
ing recent  article  in  the  Revue  Scientifique,  by  M.  Arnaudeau, 
offers  the  explanation  that  water  was  employed.  Round  the 
obelisk,  lying  horizontally,  with  the  base  towards  the  pedestal, 
was  raised  a  circular  inclosure,  of  height  equal  to  that  of  the 
monolith.  This  latter  had  pieces  of  wood,  or  other  floats,  fitted 
to  it,  especially  at  the  upper  part ;  so  that  when  water  was 
brought  into  the  inclosure,  the  obelisk  rose  gradually  to  the 
vertical.  The  process  may  be  simply  imitated  by  introducing 
the  end  of  a  screw  nail  into  a  piece  of  cork,  putting  it  in  a  basin, 
and  then  introducing  water. 

The  pulverizing  of  minerals  for  analysis  often  consumes  much 
time,  requiring,  as  it  does,  great  care.  A  mill  for  the  purpose, 
constructed  on' the  model  of  the  wet  mill  in  porcelain  work,  has 
been  recently  brought  before  the  Berlin  Chemical  Society  by 
Herr  Zulkowsky  {Berichte,  October  24).  The  grinding-surfaces 
are  both  agate,  and  the  circular  runner,  on  a  vertical  axis,  has  a 
sector  cut  out  of  it,  and  one  edge  of  this  rounded.  The  mill  is 
driven  by  water-power,  a  pressure  of  two  to  three  atmospheres 
being  sufficient. 

In  a  paper  on  colour-blindness,  contributed  to  vol.  v.  Part  2, 
of  the  Proceedings  of  the  Bristol  Naturalists'  Society,  Prof.  W. 
Ramsay  suggests  that  the  particular  defect  which  causes  colour- 
blindness may  lie  in  the  brain,  not  in  the  eye.  Certain  persons, 
he  points  out,  are  incapable  of  judging  which  of  two  musical 
tones  is  the  higher,  even  when  they  are  more  than  an  octave 
apart.  Yet  such  persons  hear  either  tone  perfectly  ;  the  defect 
is  not  one  of  deafness.  "It  must  be  concluded,"  says  Prof. 
Ramsay,  "that  in  such  a  case  the  brain  is  the  defaulter.  And 
it  may  equally  well  be  the  case  that  the  inability  to  perceive 
certain  colours  is  not  due  to  a  defect  in  the  instrument  of  sight 
— the  eye,  but  to  the  power  of  interpreting  the  impressions  con- 
veyed to  the  brain  by  the  optic  nerve.  If  this  is  the  case,  the 
problem  is  no  longer  a  physical  one  :  it  falls  among  those  with 
which  the  mental  physiologist  has  to  deal." 

A  supplementary  mail  has  just  arrived  from  Iceland,  from 
which  we  learn  that  in  spite  of  the  ice  which  has  blockaded  the 
eastern  and  northern  shores  of  the  island  there  has  been  a  good 
summer  and  autumn  inland,  and  the  harvest  has  been  above  the 
average.  However,  on  the  east  coast  the  ice  did  not  disappear 
till  the  middle  of  September,  and  on  the  north  coast  it  has  not 
remained  so  long  as  during  this  summer  since  1846,  and  even  then 
the  ice-masses  were  far  smaller  than  this  year.  In  spite  of  this  the 
weather  has  been  unusually  warm  inland.  Dr.  Th.  Thoroddsen, 
the  well-known  Iceland  explorer,  has  been  travelling  in  the 
north-western  peninsula  this  year.     The  fisheries  have  entirely 


66 


NATURE 


{Nov,  17,  1887 


failed  this  autumn  on  the  north  and  east  coast,  on  account  of  the 
drift-ice,  but  they  have  been  good  on  the  south  coast. 

The  additions  to  the  Zoological  Society's  Gardens  during  the 
past  week  include  a  Mongoz  Lemur  {Lemur  mongoz  6  ),  an  Olive- 
gray  Lemur  {Hapalemiir  olivaceus)  from  Madagascar,  presented 
by  Capt.  J.  Bonnerville ;  an  Anubis  Baboon  {Cynocephalus 
anubis)  ;  an  Angolan  Vulture  {Gypohierax  angolensis)  from 
West  Africa,  presented  by  Capt.  Augustus  Kent ;  a  Peregrine 
Falcon  {Falco  peregi-iniis),   European,   presented  by  Mr.  J.    G. 

Keulemans  ;    a Scops    Owl    [Scops )    from    Baltcitan, 

Himalayas,  presented  by  Mr.  John  H.  Leech,  F.Z.  S.  ;  two 
Rough-scaled  Zonures  {Zonurtis  cordylus)  from  Robben  Island, 
South  Africa,  presented  by  Mr.  W.  K.  Sibley. 


OUR  ASTRONOMICAL  COLUMN. 

The  Astronomical  Society  of  France. — The  science  of 
astronomy  has  become  so  increasingly  popular  in  France  within 
the  last  few  years,  and  Frenchmen  have  done  so  much  to  aid 
its  progress  that  there  is  ground  for  wonder  that  hitherto  there 
has  been  no  Society  in  France  explicitly  devoted  to  its  interests. 
Such  a  Society,  on  lines  very  similar  to  those  of  our  own  Royal 
Astronomical  Society,  has  at  length  been  founded,  and  its  first 
meeting  was  held  on  October  12,  M.  Camille  Flammarion,  the 
President,  being  in  the  chair.  MM.  Paul  and  Prosper  Henry, 
General  Parmentier,  and  M.  E.  L.  Trouvelot  are  the  Vice- 
Presidents  ;  and  MM.  Gerigny  and  Gunziger  the  Secretaries  ; 
whilst  Dr.  Lescaibault,  M.  G.  Secretan,  and  M.  Ch.  Trepied 
are  aiiongst  the  members  of  Council.  At  the  first  meeting,  M. 
Trouvelot  read  a  paper  on  a  remarkable  double  shadow  of  the 
first  satellite  of  Jupiter,  observed  by  him  in  1877  when  at  Cam- 
bridge, U.S.  ;  and  M.  Ch.  Mousette  exhibited  a  fine  photograph 
of  a  sunspot,  and  some  large-scale  photographs  of  portions  of  the 
solar  spectrum. 

The  Lick  Observatory. — The  Sidereal  Messenger  for  the 
current  month  states  that  Mr.  E.  E.  Barnard,'  of  Nashville, 
Tenn.,  and  Mr.  J.  M.  Schaeberle,  of  the  Ann  Arbor  Observa- 
tory, both  well  known  for  their  cometary  discoveries,  have  been 
appointed  as  astronomers  at  this  Observatory. 


ASTRONOMICAL    PHENOMENA    FOR    THE 
WEEK  1887  NOVEMBER  20-26. 

/■pOR  the  reckoning  of  time  the  civil  day,  commencing  at 
^  Greenwich  mean  midnight,  counting  the  hours  on  to  24, 

is  here  employed. ) 

At  Greenwich  on  November  20 

Sun  rises,  7h.  29m.  ;  souths,  iih.  45m.  44-8s. ;  sets,  i6h.  3m.  : 

right   asc.    on    meridian,    I5h.  42 •4m.  ;    decl.    19°  42'  S. 

Sidereal  Time  at  Sunset,  2oh.  cm. 
Moon  (at  First  Quarter  November  22,  iih.)  rises,   I2h.   15m.  ; 

souths,  i6h.  43m. ;  sets,  2ih.  i8m.  :  right  a-c.  on  meridian, 

2oh.  41 'om.  ;  decl.  17°  52'  S. 


Right  asc. 

and  declination 

Planet. 

Rises. 

Souths. 

Sets. 

on 

meridian. 

h.   m. 

h.    m. 

h.    m. 

h.       m. 

Mercury.. 

6  48  .. 

.    II    22 

•    15    56    .. 

•    15    18-5 

...   i6  56  S. 

Venus   ... 

3     I  • 

.     8  48  . 

■  H  35  • 

•     12    44-5 

...       3    22  S. 

Mars     ... 

I     6  .. 

•     7  35  • 

.  14    4  . 

•   II  30'9 

...     5     I  N. 

Jupiter  ... 

6  34  ■ 

.   II  10  . 

.   15  46  .. 

•   15     67 

...  16  36  S. 

Saturn  ... 

20  53*.. 

.     4  40  . 

.  12  27  .. 

.     8  36-1 

...   19    0  N. 

Uranus . . . 

3  27  .. 

.92. 

■   14  37  - 

.   12  58-2 

...     5  31  S. 

Neptune.. 

16     8  .. 

•  23  49  .. 

.     7  30*.. 

•     3  47-4 

.J.   18  10  N. 

•  Indicates  that  the  rising  is  that  of  the  preceding  evening  and  the  setting 
that  of  the  following  morning. 

Occultations  of  Stars  by  the  Moon  (visible  at  Greenwich). 


Corresponding 

angles  from  ver- 

Nov. 

Star. 

Mag. 

Disap. 

Reap. 

tex  to  right  for 
inverted  image. 

h.    m. 

h.    m. 

0 

20    .. 

B.A.C.  7202    . 

..  6     .. 

.    16  46   . 

.    18      2 

...    124   279 

20    .. 

B.A.C.  7209    . 

..  6i  .. 

•   17  35   • 

.    18    32 

••■    159   259 

20    .. 

19  Capricorni  . 

..  6     .. 

.    20  30   . 

.    21    30 

...    114   347 

Nov. 

h. 

21       .. 

I 

21       .. 

.       6 

24      .. 

.     10 

26 


23 


Mercury  at  least  distance  from  the  Sun. 

Neptune  in  opposition  to  the  Sun. 

Venus  in   conjunction  with  and  i°  6'  north 

of  Uranus. 
Mercury  stationary. 


Star. 


U  Cephei     . 
R  Arietis 
\  Tauri... 
U  Ophiuchi. 

3  Lyrse... 
7j  Aquilse 
S  Sagittae    . 

5  Cephei 


Variable  Stars, 

R.A. 

Decl. 

h.      m. 

^      , 

h.    m. 

0  52-3  • 

.  81   16  N.  ...  Nov.  22, 

I    48   m 

2    97  • 

.  24  32  N.  ...     ,,     25, 

m 

3  54-4  • 

.  12  10  N.  ...     ,,     25, 

5  40  7n 

17  IO-8  . 

.     I  20  N.  ...     ,,     22, 

5  27  vt 

and  at  intervals  of 

20     8 

18  45-9  .. 

.33  14  N.  ...  Nov.  22, 

60m 

19  467  .. 

.    0  43  N.  ...     „     24, 

22     0  M 

19  50-9  • 

.  16  20  N.  ...     ,,     22, 

19     0  m 

.,     25, 

19     0  M 

22  25-0  . 

.  57  50  N.  ...     „     20, 

21     0  M 

M  signifies  maximum  ;  711  minimum. 
Meteor-  Showers. 
R.A.  Decl. 


The  Andromedes      ...     24     ...     44  N. 
Near  ju  Ursx  Maj oris.    155     ...     40  N. 


Very  slow  ;   with 

trains. 
Swift  ;  streaks. 


GEOGRAPHICAL  NOTES. 

The  Owen  Stanley  Range  of  New  Guinea,  which  has  been 
so  long  known  at  a  distance,  has  at  last  been  ascended.  Mr.  E. 
H.  Martin,  of  Queensland,  in  August  last,  reached  the  summit 
of  the  range,  which  he  found  to  be  13,205  feet  high.  He  reports 
the  north  side  of  the  range  to  be  a  paradise  with  great  tree-fern~, 
palms,  and  other  magnificent  tropical  vegetation.  Mr.  W.  R. 
Cuthbertson,  the  leader  of  the  Australian  Geographical  Society's 
Expedition,  started  for  Port  Moresby  on  July  20  last,  with  Mr.  G. 
Hunter  as  interpreter.  Mr.  Cuthbertson  has  not  yet  succeeded  in 
ascending  to  the  highest  point  of  the  Owen  Stanley  Range,  as 
he  intended,  but  ascended  Mount  O'Bree,  10,240  feet. 

In  No.  xi.  of  Petermanns  Mitteihingen,  Dr.  Paulit.schke  de- 
scribes Captain  Stuart  King's  journey  into  the  country  of  the 
Ejssa  and  Gadaburssi  Somali,  some  70  miles  to  the  south  of 
Zeyla,  in  1886.  The  paper  is  accompanied  by  a  map.  Dr.  von 
Jhering  and  P.  Langhans  conclude  their  long  and  elaborate 
memoir  on  the  southern  colonial  region  of  Rio  Grande  do  Sul. 
Dr.  Hans  Schinz,  who  has  been  so  long  in  the  Lake  Ngami 
region,  criticizes  severely  Mr.  Farini's  narrative  of  his  journey 
to  the  Kalahari  Desert,  the  conclusion  b;ing  very  adverse  to 
the  trustworthiness  of  Mr.  Farini's  narrative.  Perhaps  the  most 
important  contribution  to  this  number  is  a  beautiful  map  of  the 
Russo  Afghan  frontier  region,  based  upon  the  work  of  Colonel 
Holdich's  Commission.  It  is  remarkable  that  while  Colonel 
lloldich's  work  is  carefully  locked  up  in  the  India  Office  as 
"  confidential,"  so  far  as  English  geographers  are  concerned,  it 
should  be  accessible  to  the  geographers  of  other  countries. 

Herr  KRAtJSE  has  returned  to  the  German  settlement  of 
Togo,  on  the  Gold  Coast,  from  his  journey  from  Salaga  through 
Dahomey.  He  has  collected  from  600  to  800  specimens  of 
plants  and  seeds,  a  large  number  of  insects,  and  numerous 
specimens  of  prehistoric  articles  found  between  Mosi  and 
Timbuktu. 

The  principal  paper  in  the  third  part  of  this  year's  Bulletin 
of  the  Paris  Geographical  Society  is  an  account  of  a  journey 
made  in  1881  by  Count  de  Chavagnac,  from  Fez  to  Morocco, 
north-east  to  Mekenessa,  and  eastwards  across  the  numerous 
wadis  that  run  south  into  Wed  Mellouja,  and  as  far  as  Ajda. 
There  is  also  a  paper  containing  a  good  deal  of  useful  informa- 
tion, and  accompanied  by  an  excellent  map,  on  the  ports  of 
Tonquin,  by  M.  J.  Renaud.  M.  Datreuil  de  Rhins  concludes 
his  useful  summary  of  our  knowledge  of  Eastern  Tibet. 

The  session  of  the  Royal  Geographical  Society  began  on 
Monday,  with  a  paper  on  Siam,  by  Mr.  J.  McCarthy,  Super- 
intendent of  Surveys  in  Siam.  Mr.  McCarthy  has  been  at  work 
for  seven  years  on  the  survey  of  Siam,  and  some  of  the  results 
he  described  in  his  paper,  and  embodied  in  the  map  by  which 


Nov.  17,  1887] 


NA  TURE 


67 


it  was  illustrated.  After  indicating  the  position  of  Siam  in  the 
Malay  Peninsula,  the  author  went  on  to  say  that  on  the  west  is 
a  chain  of  mountains  which  runs  in  an  unbroken  range  to 
Singapore,  the  southernmost  limit  of  the  Malay  Peninsula; 
some  of  its  peaks  between  Burmah  and  Siam  rise  to  a  height  of 
7000  feet,  while  one  peak  in  the  Malay  Peninsula  reaches  8oOD 
feet.  On  the  east  there  is  another  range  of  mountains  which 
forms  the  grand  watershed  of  all  the  rivers  that  flow  into  the 
Gulf  of  Tonqum  and  Chinese  Sea  on  the  one  hand,  and  the 
Memam  Kong  on  the  other.  There  are  peaks  in  this  range 
that  reach  even  9000  feet  above  mean  sea  level.  Besides  these 
ranges  there  is  another  which  breaks  away  from  the  western 
range  from  a  point  north-east  of  Chingmai,  and  forms  the  water- 
shed between  the  Meinam  and  Meinam  Kong  valleys.  In  this 
range,  at  the  source  of  the  eastern  branch  of  the  Meinau,  are 
famous  salt-wells.  The  salt  is  procured  at  depths  varying  from 
35-45  fest — in  these  land-locked  countries  as  valuable  as  money. 
Ihe  greater  part  of  the  valley  of  the  Meinam  Kong  and  the  Mei- 
nam IS  flat,  diversified  by  isolated  hills,  and  broken  and  jagged 
ridges  of  hmestone  mountains.  The  most  important  river, 
though  not  the  largest,  is  the  xMeinam  Chau  Phraya.  It  is  the 
V.  u°^  Siam,  a  good  rice  harvest  very  much  depending  on 
whether  the  river  overflows  its  banks  or  not.  The  eastern 
branch  of  the  river  is  specially  known  for  the  numerous  croco- 
ddes  which  yearly  cany  off  some  victims.  Two  other  rivers 
converge  towards  the  Meinam,  the  Mei  Klong  and  Bang  Pla- 
Kong.  All  these_  rivers  are  connected  by  canals,  rendering 
communication  easier  in  a  country  where  roads  are  conspicuous 
by  then-  absence.  The  Meinam  Kong  is  the  largest  river,  and 
flows  through  the  northern  and  eastern  parts  of  the  kingdom, 
receiving  the  waters  of  many  large  affluents  ;  but  the  channel  of 
this  mighty  river  is  so  blocked  with  large  rocks  and  cataracts, 
that  Its  navigation  is  very  difficult,  and  in  some  parts  impossible 
even  for  native  craft.  Mr.  McCarthy  then  went  on  to  describe 
some  of  his  journeys  in  detail,  especially  the  one  to  the  north- 
east frontier,  which  led  him  through  scenes  of  surpassing  beauty, 
and  during  which  he  opened  up  much  new  ground. 

The  Arctic  land  seen  by  Sannikof  eighty  years  ago  has  been 
seen  again  by  the  Expedition  of  MM.  Bunge  and  Toll  from  the 
northern  extremity  of  the  Kotelnyi  Island.  The  Great  and  Small 
Liakhov  Islands,  the  Thadeus  Island,  and  New  Siberia  have  also 
been  visited  by  the  Expedition,  which  has  returned  with  rich 
zoological,  botanical,  and  geological  collections.  Throughout 
the  summer  of  1886  the  ice  on  the  Siberian  coast  did  not  move 
from  the  shores,  and  the  hunters  said  that  the  sea  had  not  been 
clear  from  ice  since  the  Vega  Expedition. 


METEOROLOGICAL  NOTES. 
We  have  lately  been  subjected  to  a  series  of  storms  which  fortu- 
nately in  the  British  Islands  is  not  of  very  common  occurrence. 
The  storm  of  October  30,  which  was  noticed  in  Nature  a  few 
days  after  its  occurrence,  had  scarcely  left  our  shores  before  a 
fresh  disturbance  was  approaching  us  from  off"  the  Atlantic,  and 
by  the  evening  of  Monday,  the  31st,  another  gale  was  blowing 
in  Ireland,  and  during  the  night  this  storm  extended  to  all  parts 
of  the  British  Islands.  The  central  area  of  low  barometer 
readings,  which  primarily  occasioned  the  renewal  of  disturbed 
weather,  kept  to  the  westward  of  our  coasts,  but  the  Daily 
Weather  Chart  of  November  i  shows  that  two  secondary  dis- 
turbances had  been  formed,  one  having  its  centre  in  the  St. 
George's  Channel,  and  the  other  over  the  Bay  of  Biscay.  The 
very  severe  gale  experienced  in  the  south-west  and  west  of 
England  on  November  i  was  due  to  the  former  of  these,  the 
storm  area  passing  during  the  day  slowly  up  the  Irish  Sea.  The 
fall  of  the  barometer  for  this  gale  amounted  to  1-02  in.  at 
Pembroke  in  fourteen  hours,  from  6  p.m.  31st  to  8  a.m.  ist ; 
and  at  Lyme  Regis  the  wind  attained  the  velocity  of  83  miles 
an  hour  between  7  and  8  o'clock  in  the  mo  rning.  Another 
disturbance  skirted  to  the  westward  of  Ireland  on  the  evening  of 
the  2nd,  and  during  the  following  day,  causing  southerly  gales 
in  many  parts  of  the  country,  the  barometer  standing  below 
29  inches  over  the  whole  of  the  United  Kingdom.  °On  the 
evening  of  the  3rd  another  subsidiary  was  formed  in  the  Irish 
Sea,  and  subsequently  passed  over  the  north  of  England,  causing 
gales  and  disturbed  weather  in  parts  adjacent  to  its  path. 
Before  the  expiration  of  the  week  a  fresh  disturbance  was  shown 
in  the  west,  and  on  Saturday,  the  5th,  the  barometer  was  again 
falling  :  the  force  of  the  wintl,  however,  was  not  severe,  altholigh 


t  blew  a  fresh  gale  in  places.  It  will  be  seen  from  this  notice 
tnat  no  fewer  than  five  distinct  storms  were  experienced  in 
seven  days,  and  in  each  case  the  wind  was  accompanied  by 
heavy  rain.  ' 

The  Meteorological  Council  have  published  Part  I.  of  the 
Hourly  Readings '■  for  1885  (January  to  March)  made  at  their 
self-recording  observatories,  together  with  the  daily  means, 
daily  maxima  and  minima,  and  the  daily  range  for  pressure  and 
temperature  Hourly  values  have  now  been  issued  in  either 
lithographed  or  printed  form  since  1874,  and  afford  valuable 
data  for  discussion  in  various  ways,  although  the  hourly  means 
are  not  calculated.  Corrections  are  given  for  reducing  the 
barometric  observations  to  mean  sea-level.  In  connection  with 
these  observations  it  may  be  mentioned  that  the  Meteorological 
Institute  of  the  Netherlands  lately  published  an  interesting  paper 
by  iM.  Schokker  on  atmospheric  disturbances  studied  by  means 
of  the  hourly  readings  issued  by  the  Meteorological  Office  and 
elsewhere  ;  he  traced  on  charts  the  positions  of  depressions  for 
various  hours,  and  showed  that  many  phenomena  which  are 
clearly  traceable  from  hourly  observations  are  entirely  lost  sigh 
of  on  charts  giving  only  one  or  two  hours  a  day.  He  also 
quoted  instances  where  timely  warning  of  storms  could  have 
been  given,  which  were  not  possible  from  the  usual  observations 
received  by  telegraph. 

The  Hydrograp'iic  Office  of  the  United  States  calls  special 
attention  to  a  new  form  for  reports  of  storms,  fog,  ice,  and  dere- 
licts, issued  for  the  use  of  trans-Atlantic  steamers.  This  form  re- 
places those  hitherto  issued  by  that  Office  and  the  Signal  Service, 
and  the  information  thus  collected  is  immediately  utilized  in 
preparing  the  telegrams  sent  daily  to  France  by  the  United  States 
Signal  Service  for  the  benefit  of  westward-bound  vessels.  Captains 
of  trans-Atlantic  steamships  are  requested,  in  the  interest  of  naviga- 
tion, to  send  in  prompt  and  complete  reports.  No  doubt  Britfsh 
shipowners  will  instruct  their  officers  to  co-operate  in  this 
enterprising  experiment,  as  this  country  has  at  least  equa 
interest  with  others  in  the  safety  of  Atlantic  navigation. 

A  DISCUSSION  on  the  distribution  of  cloud  over  the  eastern 
part  of  the   North   Atlantic,  by  Dr.  W.  Koppen,  will  be  found 
in  the  Antialen  der  Hydrographie  und  Maritimen  Meteorologie 
for  October.     The  author  points   out  that   the  cloud-conditions 
over  the  Atlantic  are  now  fairly  well  known  from  the  publica- 
tions of  the  Meteorological    Office    (Captain    Toynbee's    great 
work    for    nine    10°    squares),  and    the    six     10'  squares   dis- 
cussed by  the  Deutsche  Seewarte.     Dr.  Koppen  gives  a  table 
showing  the  mean  monthly  cloud  from  20°-5o'  N.    and  from 
lo''-40^  W. ,  and  the  number  of  observations  used,  for  every 
5°,  showing  that,  with  regard  to  longitude,  in  the  months  Janu- 
ary to  April  the  cloud  decreases  north  of  10"  N.  as  we  approach 
the  shores  of  Africa  and  Europe,  while  in  the  other  months  this 
does  not  hold  good.     South  of  the  equatorial  calm-belt,  May 
has  the  least  cloud  towards  the  east  of  the  district,  and  in  the 
months  September  to   February  the  least  cloud  is  towards  the 
west.     The  differences  of  the  amount  of  cloud  with  regard  to 
latitude  are  much  more  decided,  and  these  changes  are  shown 
on  a  map  of  equal  lines  of  mean  cloud,  on  the  same  plan  as  was 
adopted  by  the  author  in  his  discussion  of  the  rainfall  (Nature, 
vol.  xxxvi.  p.  617).     He  also  compares  the  cloud  and   rainfall 
curves  for  the  yearly  period,  and  draws  attention  to  their  marked 
difference  in  the  zone  of  i5°-27^  N.   lat.      While  the  tropical 
summer  rains  cease  between  \^^  and  20"  N.,  the  summer  maxi- 
mum of  cloud  extends  as  far  as  25°  N.     In  the  same  way  the 
winter  maximum  of  cloud  only  extends  southwards  to  25"  N., 
while  the  rain  extends  to  17"  N.     In   these  latitudes  the   mini- 
mum of  cloud  falls  in  the  autumn,  and  the  minimum  of  rain  in 
sprinj.     Only  from  i5°-i 7°  to  the  southwards  is  the  amount  of 
cloud  in  spring  less  than  in  autumn,  while  northwards  of  27°  N. 
both  minima  coincide  in  the  late  summer  season.     Between  15° 
and  20°  N.  the  end  of  the  long  dry  season,  lasting  from  Febru- 
ary to  June,  is  very  cloudy.      The  author  also  compares    his 
cloud-results  with  those  obtained  by  M.  Teisserenc  de  Bort  from 
independent  data  (Nature,  vol.  xxxvi.  p.  15),  and  on  the  whole 
expresses  himself  satisfied  at  the  agreement  between  the  two 
investigations. 

We  have  the  pleasure  of  recording  the  commencement  of  the 
publication  of  meteorological  observations  in  the  Boletin  de 
Estadislica  of  Puebla  (Mexico).  Observations  taken  three  times 
a  tlay  are  published  for  several  stations,  and  monthly  means  for 
several  others.  The  stations  are  generally  at  great  altitudes 
above  the  sea. 


68 


NATURE 


\Nov.  17,  1887 


Part  2,  vol.  iv.  of  the  Indian  Meteorological  Memoirs  con- 
tains a  very  lucid  discussion  of  the  disastrous  storm  which  visited 
Orissa  in  September  1885,  and  whose  centre  was  at  False  Point 
on  the  22nd,  drawn  up  by  Prof.  A.  Pedler.  This  storm  is  of 
considerable  meteorological  interest  from  several  points  of  view  : 
viz.  the  rapidity  of  its  formation  ;  its  smallness,  the  diameter  at 
the  part  of  greatest  wind-force  being  only  from  100  to  200  miles  ; 
its  enormous  fierceness  ;  particularly  as  it  approached  the  land ;  and 
the  decided  indraught  towards  the  centre  as  opposed  to  the 
circular  theory  ;  the  extraordinary  low  readin^^of  the  barometer, 
27*135  inches,  being  recorded  at  False  Point  at  6h.  30m.  a.m.  of 
the  22nd.  The  reading  at  8h.  p.m.  of  the  21st  was  29'622 
inches,  thus  giving  a  fall  of  2*487  inches  in  \o\  hours.  This  is  the 
lowest  pressure  ever  recorded  in  a  storm  in  the  Bay  of  Bengal, 
and  in  fact  is  the  lowest  on  record  for  any  part  of  the  world. 

The  Journal  of  the  Scottish  Meteorological  Society  for  the 
year  1886  contains  a  large  amount  of  useful  information,  and 
testifies  to  increased  activity,  both  observational  and  experi- 
mental. Among  the  various  papers,  all  of  which  are  of  the 
highest  importance,  may  be  specially  mentioned,  (i)  an  address 
by  the  Hon.  R.  Abercromby  on  the  modern  developments  of 
cloud  knowledge  (see  Nature,  vol.  xxxv.  p.  575)  ;  (2)  discus- 
sions on  the  winds  and  rainfall  of  Ben  Nevis,  and  on  a  pecu- 
liarity of  the  cyclonic  winds  of  the  mountain,  which  has  an 
important  bearing  upon  weather  forecasting,  viz.  the  outflow  of 
the  wind  from  the  cyclone  when  the  centre  is  north  or  east  of 
Ben  Nevis  towards  an  anticyclone  or  area  of  high  pressure 
somewhere  in  an  opposite  direction.  The  prevalent  wind  on 
the  Ben  is  north,  while  south-east  and  west-south-west  are 
secondary  points  of  maxima.  Compared  with  the  winds  of 
other  stations  in  the  north  of  Scotland  and  Ireland,  the  wind 
curve  is  quite  different.  The  year  divides  about  equally  into 
cyclonic  and  non-cyclonic  periods.  The  most  frequent  cyclonic 
wind  is  south-west ;  next  to  this  comes  north,  apparently  due  to 
the  cyclones  passing  to  the  north  of  Ben  Nevis.  The  relative 
frequency  of  the  winds  in  non-cyclonic  periods  is  quite  different : 
while  north  still  retains  its  place  as  a  maximum  point,  the  most 
frequent  wind  is  south-east.  In  the  curve  for  the  whole  year 
tha  west-south-west  winds  are  chiefly  due  to  cyclonic  winds, 
south-east  to  non-cyclonic,  and  north  to  both  systems.  In  both 
systems  the  north-west  wind  is  wettest  while  it  blows,  and  the 
east  is  driest.  The  south-east  winds,  which  are  generally  west 
at  low  levels,  are  the  driest  on  Ben  Nevis,  with  the  exception  of 
the  east  winds.  The  total  amount  of  precipitation  for  the  year 
was  nearly  108  inches ;  the  wettest  month  was  November, 
14"6  inches  ;  and  the  driest  February,  2 "8  inches.  The  journal 
also  contains  an  interesting  account  of  the  biological  work  of 
the  Scottish  Marine  Station,  and  the  results  of  observations  at 
the  Northern  Lighthouse  Staiion,  at  the  stations  connected  with 
the  Medical  Department,  including  observations  in  Iceland, 
Faroe,  and  Uruguay,  and  at  fifty-five  stations  established  by  the  | 
Scottish  Meteorological  Society,  and  well  distributed  over  the 
country. 


GEMS  AND  ORNAMENTAL  STONES  OF  THE 
UNITED  STATES. 

C\^  Saturday,  October  22,  an  evening  lecture  on  this  subject 
^-^  was  delivered  by  Dr.  A.  E.  Foote,  of  Philadelphia,  in  the 
Trophy  Hall  of  the  American  Exhibition.  The  speaker  was 
introduced  by  Mr.  F.  W.  Rudler,  the  President  of  the  Geologists' 
Association. 

Dr.  Foote  remarked  that  hitherto  mining  for  gems  in  the 
United  States  had  been  of  a  very  desultory  character,  being 
principally  carried  on  in  connection  with  mica  and  other  mines. 
The  emerald  and  Hiddenite  mines  of  North  Carolina  and  the 
tourmaline  mines  of  Maine  are  the  only  ones  which  have  been 
worked  systematically.  The  gems  peculiar  to  America  are 
chlorastrolite,  zonochlorite,  and  Hiddenite.  Chlorastrolite,  or 
green  star-stone,  was  discovered  by  Prof.  J.  D.  Whitney,  of  the 
United  States  Geological  Survey,  about  forty  years  ago.  The 
only  place  where  it  is  found  is  Isle  Royale,  Lake  Superior.  The 
island,  belonging  to  the  State  of  Michigan,  forty  miles  long  and 
five  miles  wide,  and  about  twenty  miles  from  the  mainland,  is 
composed  of  amygdaloidal  trap,  in  the  almond-shaped  cavities 
of  which  the  gem  principally  occurs.  This  green  stone  has  a 
radiating  structure,  and  shows  a  beautiful  chatoyance  similar  to 
cat's-eye  and  other  fibrous  mineral^. 


Zonochlorite  is  a  green-banded  stone,  similar  to  chlorastrolite 
in  composition,  discovered  by  Dr.  Foote  at  Neepigon  Bay 
on  the  north  shore  of  Lake  Superior.  The  full  description  was 
published  in  the  Transactions  of  the  American  Association  for 
the  Advancement  of  Science  in  1872.  Its  hardness  is  about  7  ; 
it  takes  a  very  high  polish,  and  if  it  could  be  found  in  sufficient 
quantities  would  undoubtedly  be  extensively  used. 

Hiddenite  is  a  green  variety  of  the  well-known  species  spodu- 
mene.  A  yellow  variety  from  Brazil  has  been  cut  as  a  gem  for 
many  years.  The  green  variety  has  been  known  for  about  seven 
years,  and  is  fully  as  beautiful,  and  valued  as  highly,  as  the 
diamond.  It  occurs  in  connection  with  emeralds  in  North 
Carolina.  Ol gold  quartz  about  ;i^28,ooo  worth  is  sold  annually. 
Most  of  this  comes  from  California,  where  it  is  not  only  used  as 
a  gem,  but  in  the  manufacture  of  various  ornaments. 

Although  the  flexible  sandstone,  the  reputed  gangue  of  the 
diamond  in  Brazil,  is  found  in  mountain  masses  in  North 
Carolina  and  other  States,  no  very  large  diamonds  have  as  yet 
been  discovered.  Many  small  ones  are  recorded  from  California, 
North  Carolina,  Virginia,  and  elsewhere.  The  largest  was 
found  at  Manchester,  near  Richmond,  Virginia,  and  weighed 
235  carats  in  the  rough  and  \\.\\  carats  cut.  Pi'of.  Whitney 
states  that  the  largest  found  in  California  was  ']\  carats.  Rubies 
and  sapphires  have  been  found  in  the  rock  in  the  corundum 
mines  of  North  Carolina,  and  Mr.  C.  S.  Bement  has  an  uncut 
green  one  in  his  collection  that  would  give  80  to  100  carats' 
worth  of  good  stones,  one  of  which  would  probably  weigh 
20  carats.  The  largest  red  and  blue  crystal  weighs  312  pounds, 
and  belongs  to  Amherst  College.  The  best  sapphires  are  found 
in  the  placer  mines  of  Montana.  Asteriated  corundums  are 
found  in  Pennsylvania  and  elsewhere. 

About  ;^2200  worth  of  quartz  or  rock  crystal  is  mined  annually. 
The  best  localities  are  Hot  Springs  (Arkansas),  North  Carolina, 
New  York,  and  Virginia.  A  portion  of  a  mass  that  must  have 
weighed  over  40  pounds  was  i-ecently  received  from  Alaska,  that 
cut  a  hand-glass  3  inches  by  5.  Rock  crystal  is  frequently  dug  up 
in  the  prehistoric  mounds,  and  was  used  by  the  medicine-men 
and  others  for  telling  future  events.  Amethysts  are  found  in 
very  fine  specimens  in  Pennsylvania,  Georgia,  Texas,  and  the 
Lake  Superior  region.  From  the  latter  region  they  are  very 
remarkably  lined,  some  specimens  showing  "phantom  crystals" 
equal  to  the  Hungarian.  Near  the  Yellowstone  National  Park 
and  in  the  chalcedony  forests  of  Arizona  are  tree-trunks,  some 
of  which  are  100  feet  long,  mineralized  by  the  action  of  silicated 
waters.  Some  of  these  trees  are  still  standing  upright,  others, 
having  fallen,  bridge  deep  chasms.  The  once  hollow  cavities 
of  some  are  lined  wilh  amethyst,  others  with  agate.  The 
Arizona  agatized  or  jasperized  wood  shows  the  most  beautiful 
variety  of  colours  of  any  petrified  wood  in  the  world.  Probably 
the  most  remarkable  locality  anywhere  for  smoky  quartz,  or 
cairngorm  stone,  is  Pike's  Peak,  Colorado.  Here  it  is  found  in  a 
graphic  granite  associated  with  iVmazon  stone,  which  also  makes 
a  very  beautiful  green  ornamental  stone.  The  rutilated  quartz,  or 
Cupid's  arrows,  is  found  in  remarkably  fine  specimens  in  North 
Carolina.  Perhaps  the  most  remarkable  mass  is  one  7  inches  by 
3I,  now  in  the  collection  of  the  Academy  of  Natural  Sciences 
of  Philadelphia.  The  crystals  of  rutile  a'c  about  the  size  of 
knitting-needles.  Some  of  the  North  Carolina  rutile  has  been 
cut,  furnishing  brilliant  gems,  closely  resembling  carbonado.  The 
rutile,  geniculated  till  it  forms  a  perfect  circle  or  rosette,  from 
Magnet  Cove,  Arkansas,  is  often  mounted  and  worn  as  a  gem. 
While  opals  are  found  at  many  places  in  the  United  States,  they 
do  not  rival  those  of  Queretaro  in  Mexico.  Here  are  found  not 
only  the  "milky  opals  that  gleam  like  sullen  fires  in  a  pallid 
mist,"  but  fire  opals  and  almost  every  other  variety  known. 
Rhodonite,  in  specimens  suitable  for  polishing,  is  found  in  Massa- 
chusetts and  New  Jersey.  At  the  latter  locality  were  obtained 
the  finest  crystals  ever  seen.  The  garnets  from  New  Mexico 
and  Arizona  are  superior  to  the  "Cape  rubies"  from  South 
Africa  ;  and  from  Alaska  the  most  beautiful  crystals  ever  seen,  in 
a  setting  of  gray  mica  schist,  have  recently  been  obtained. 

The  New  Mexican  turquoise  is  mined  to  the  value  of  about 
;^700  annually.  It  has  recently  been  described  very  fully  by 
Prof.  Clarke,  Curator  of  the  Mineralogical  Department  of  the 
National  Museum,  and  is  especially  interesting  as  being  the 
material  from  which  the  "  chalchihuitls,"  or  most  sacred 
images  of  the  Aztecs,  were  made.  The  Indians  still  regard  it  as 
a  lucky  stone. 

Labradorite,  lately  so  popular  for  gems  and  ornamental  stones, 
is   found    in    many  localities.     The  tourmalines  of  Maine  are 


Nov.  17,  1887] 


NA  TURE 


69 


probably  the  finest  in  the  world.  Here  are  found  the  Oriental 
sapphire,  ruby,  and  emerald,  in  perfection. 

Topaz  has  recently  been  found  at  Pike's  Peak,  Colorado,  in 
large  quantity.  Some  masses  weighed  2  pounds  each  ;  and  very 
fine  clear  white  stones  have  been  cut,  weighing  from  125  to 
193  carats. 

Among  ornamental  stones  should  be  mentioned  a  very  beauti- 
ful variety  of  serpentine  from  Maryland,  called  verd  antique, 
which  is  being  largely  used  in  the  interior  decorations  of  the 
Philadelphia  Court  House.  Another  variety,  resembling  jade,  is 
the  green  williamsite  from  Pennsylvania.  Alabaster  of  various 
colours  abounds  in  many  localities  ;  and  marbles,  some  as  beauti- 
ful as  the  Mexican  onyx,  are  found  in  nearly  every  State.  The 
malachite  and  azurite,  jet,  and  many  other  gems  of  minor  im- 
portance were  briefly  described. 


THE  OCTOBER  METEOR-SHOWER  OF  1887. 

T^HE  'display  of  Orionids  has  been  recently  observed  at  this 
station  with  greater  success  than  has  attended  my  eflfbrts 
in  any  previous  year.  This  shower  has  not,  perhaps,  exhibited 
such  richness  as  it  did  in  1877,  but  the  present  occasion  has 
been  more  favourable  as  regards  the  conditions  ;  the  moon  being 
absent  from  the  morning  sky,  and  a  period  of  tolerably  clear 
weather  occurring  just  at  the  important  time. 

In  all,  I  numbered  ninety  Orionids  between  October  1 1  and  24, 
and  the  radiant-point  during  this  period  exhibited  a  stationary 
position  amongst  the  stars.  The  shower  has  this  year  met  with 
rather  a  formidable  rival  in  a  bright  display  of  forty-five  meteors 
from  a  radiant  at  40°  -t-  20"  close  to  €  Arietis.  I  have  witnessed 
the  latter  stream  in  several  preceding  years,  though  not  in  such 
conspicuous  strength,  and  have  particularly  referred  to  it  in  the 
Monthly  Notices,  vol.  xliv. ,  pp.  24-26,  as  furnishing  many  bright 
lireballs  at  this  season. 

It  will  be  convenient  to  arrange  my  new  observations  in  a 
tabular  form  : — 


Date 

Period  of 

1887 

Observation. 

Oct. 

h.            h. 

II 

1\  to  \2\ 

12 

8i  „   I2i 

n 

10      ,,    12 

14 

9i  „  i6i 

15 

7    M    8i) 

loi  „  17    i 

17 

8     „  I2i 

19 

13    ».  15 

20 

10    „  154 

21 

9    M  16 

23 

\2\  ,,   14 

24 

12      „   I4i 

Real 

Dura- 

Meteors 

Radiant  of 

tion. 

seen. 

Orionids. 

Arietid 

3.    Orionids. 

4i 

30 

I 

2  \ 

4 
2 

31 
16 

2 
I 

I  r 
I X 

91°    +  \f 

7 

75 

I 

10 ) 

7i 

86 

17 

7 

91°    +  16° 

4i 

29 

3 

3 

90°    +  15° 

I* 

19 

ID 

— 

90F  +  15^° 

5i 

61 

22 

9 

90'     +  I4i° 

6i 

76 

23 

7 

92°    -i-  14° 

I* 

13 

I 

3 

—        — 

2i 

23 

9 

2 

91°    +  16° 

II  nights 


46i      459        90        45       91°    -f-  15° 


The  1 6th  and  22nd  were  overcast,  and  on  the  19th  and  23rd 
the  observations  were  much  obstructed  by  clouds.  It  is  note- 
worthy that  I  only  recorded  one  Orionid  on  October  14  during  a 
watch  of  seven  hours,  though  on  the  following  night  this  shower 
-.upplied  seventeen  meteors. 

The  radiant-point  of  the  October  meteors  has  long  been 
accurately  known.  Prof.  A.  S.  Herschel  observed  it  with  great 
precision  on  October  18,  1864,  and  October  20,  1865,  and 
found  the  centre  at  90°  +  16°,  and  90°  -f  15°  respectively,  in 
those  years.  All  the  best  of  later  determinations  have  agreed 
closely  with  these  results,  and  it  will  be  noticed  that  my  value 
for  the  present  year,  as  given  above,  is  nearly  identical  with  them. 
In  further  confirmation  I  may  mention  that  Mr.  David  Booth, 
of  Leeds,  observed  more  than  sixty  shooting-stars  during  a  watch 
of  five  hours,  from  lojh.  to  iSgh.  on  the  night  of  October  20 
last,  and  saw  twenty-four  Orionids  which  gave  a  sharply-defined 
radiant  at  90°  -f  16°. 

One  of  the  principal  objects  of  my  late  observations  was  to 
iscertain  whether  the  radiant  centre  of  this  stream  showed  any 
displacement  of  position  on  successive  nights,  and  similar  to  that 
affecting  the  Perseids  of  August — a  peculiarity  which  I  first 
pointed  out  in  Nature,  vol.  xvi.  p.  362.  But  the  radiant  of 
the  Orionids  has  (when  the  small,  unavoidable  errors  of  observa- 
tion are  allowed  for)  quite  failed  to  exhibit  any  change  of  place 
relatively  to  the  contiguous  stars.     It  appeared  to  maintain  an 


absolutely  persistent  position  1°  north  of  the  star  {  Orionis.  My 
observation  on  October  15  placed  it  at  91°  -f  16°,  and  nine  nights 
later,  viz.  on  October  24,  I  found  the  meteors  were  radiating 
from  exactly  the  same  focus.  In  1877  and  1879,  October  15,  I 
derived  the  radiant  at  92"  +  15"  and  93°  -f  17°,  and  in  1878, 
October  22,  I  fixed  it  at  92'  +  14".  A  comparison  of  all  these 
values  renders  it  sufficiently  obvious  that  there  is  no  visible 
displacement  in  the  position  of  the  Orionid  radiant  during  its 
active  display  from  October  ii  to  October  24.  And  there  is  a 
high  degree  of  probability  that  the  point  is  stationary  during  the 
whole  period  of  the  shower's  sustenance  from  about  October  9 
to  October  29  ;  but  I  have  never  secured  many  paths  and  been 
enabled  to  get  a  good  radiant  near  the  limiting  epochs  of  its 
display,  when  it  is  extremely  feeble, 

Mr.  Booth,  at  Leeds,  has  been  carefully  observing  numbers  of 
meteors  during  the  past  few  months,  and  a  searching  comparison 
of  his  results  with  those  obtained  at  Bristol  during  the  progress 
of  the  Orionid  shower  has  shown  that  several  of  the  same 
meteors  were  observed  at  both  stations.  Three  of  these  are 
typical  members  of  the  October  display,  whilst  three  others  had 
their  origin  in  the  minor  systems  which  are  so  plentifully  dis- 
tributed over  the  sky  at  this  season  of  the  year.  The  computed 
heights  and  p^ths  of  these  six  meteors  are  : — 


Date 

Hour 

Height     Height 

Length 

Radiant     Inclinatioa 

1887 

G.M.T. 

at  appear-  at  disap- 

of  real 

point,     tf   horizon. 

Oct. 

h.   m. 

Mag.       ance.      pearance. 

path. 

73  +  61          48 

13 

ID   25 

1-2           69             50 

26 

13 

II    25 

2-4           70            42 

37 

127  +  83         49 

!I4 

12    5i 

4-5        64         40 

26 

355  +  36         674 

15 

14  48^ 

iJ-3        89         61 

39 

87+15         46 

20 

II  45 

4-4      106        [90 

34 

87  +  21           28i 

20 

12  55 

i-ii      92         53 

7oi 

87  +  i3i       33i 

The  three  last  in  the  list  were  Orionids,  and  they  appear  to 
have  been  observed  at  somewhat  greater  elevations  in  the  atmo- 
sphere than  is  usual.  The  4th  magnitude  meteor  of  October  20, 
I  ih.  45m.,  was  no  less  than  106  miles  high  at  its  first  appearance, 
over  a  point  near  Eversham,  Kent,  and  the  two  observations  are 
in  perfect  agreement  in  indicating  these  figures.  The  mean  of 
the  three  Orionids  gives  96  miles  for  the  beginning  points  and 
68  for  the  ending,  and  the  average  radiant  comes  out  at 
87°+  16°,  which  is  3°  or  4"  west  of  the  usual  position.  But  the 
average  values  deduced  from  so  small  a  number  of  instances 
cannot  have  much  weight  as  indicating  accurately  either  the 
heights  or  radiant  of  the  general  body  of  the  meteors  forming 
this  notable  group. 

The  Arietids,  which  have  developed  into  an  important  shower 
this  year,  traverse  their  paths  with  medium  speed,  and  are  rather 
conspicuous  meteors,  without  trains  or  streaks  except  in  excep- 
tional cases.  As  to  the  Orionids,  they  move  swiftly,  and  are 
accompanied  in  almost  every  instance  with  streaks.  The  latter 
will  sometimes  brighten  up  considerably  after  the  nuclei  of  the 
meteors  have  died  away.  The  more  brilliant  Orionids  are  fine 
flashing  meteors,  leaving  streaks  which  are  occasionally  very 
durable. 

The  contemporary  showers  of  the  October  epoch,  though 
extremely  abundant,  are  not  marked  by  special  activity,  except 
perhaps  in  the  case  of  the  Arietids,  already  referred  to.  This 
year  the  following  have  been  the  best  of  the  minor  streams  :— 


Date. 


Radiant.       Meteors.       Appearance. 


October  14-15 

25+44 

„,       14-21 

54+71 

,.       14-21 

105  +  22 

,,       20-21 

125  +  43 

»        14-23 

135  +  68 

,,        12-20 

312  +  77 

10 

Slow,  faint. 

12 

Swift. 

12 

Very  swift,  streaks 

7 

Very  swift,  streaks 

II 

Swift. 

8 

Swift. 

Of  these  the  most  pronounced  is  at  105°  +  22°,  near  8 
Geminorum,  which  I  also  observed  in  1877  and  1879.  It  has 
also  been  recorded  as  a  prominent  stream  by  Zezioli  and  others, 
and  is  identical  with  the  Gemellids  of  Mr.  Greg's  catalogue 
(1876).  It  is  chiefly  a  morning  shower  ;  its  meteors  are  often 
brilliant,  and  regularly  display  the  phosphorescent  streaks  which 
form  so  characteristic  a  feature  of  the  Perseids,  Orionids,  and 
Leonids.  The  shower  in  the  head  of  Ursa  Major  at  I35°  +  68 
is  also  an  active  one  at  this  epoch ;  I  saw  it  in  1877  at 
133°  +  68",  October  2-19,  and  these  appear  to  be  the  only  two 
observations  of  it  obtained  hitherto.  W.  F.  Denning. 


70 


NATURE 


{Nov.  17,  1887 


ON  SOME  OF  THE  AFFINITIES  BETWEEN 
THE  GANOIDEICHONDROSTEI  AND  OTHER 
FISHES. 

T'^HE  group  of  Ganoiclei  Chondrostei  has  hitherto  been  regarded 
•^  as  one  developed  during  the  latest  period  of  the  history  of 
the  earth.  Its  structure  is  so  different  from  that  of  other  classes 
offish  that  its  relationship  with  them  cannot  be  easily  detected. 
The  zootomic  and  embryological  works  of  the  last  ten  years, 
and  especially  the  works  of  Zalensky  in  Odessa,  Parker  in 
London,  Davidoff  in  Munich,  and  van  der  Wighe  in  Holland, 
have  brought  together  many  important  facts  as  to  the  organiza- 
tion and  development  of  these  interesting  animals,  but  the  in- 
formation provided  by  these  writers  is  either  fragmentary  or  not 
full  enough,  and  long  study  and  labour  will  be  required  before 
it  can  be  satisfactorily  summed  up  and  completed. 

During  the  last  two  years  I  have  studied  the  anatomy  of 
Acipenser  ruthenus,  the  commonest  representative  of  the  Aci- 
penseridse  to  be  found  here  ;  and  although  my  work  is  far  from 
being  completed  I  may  beg  the  reader's  attention  to  some 
interesting  facts,  which  must,  I  think,  be  taken  into  considera- 
tion by  those  who  try  to  settle  the  question  as  to  the  relationship 
of  the  Ganoidei  Chondrostei  to  this  or  to  that  group  of  fishes. 

We  may  begin  with  the  teeth  of  these  fishes,  as  an  indication 
of  great  value,  which  served  to  distinguish  this  group  from  other 
Ganoidei.  Teeth  have  been  found  in  Polyodon  folium,  a 
member  of  the  Ganoidei  Chondrostei,  inhabiting  the  rivers  of 
North  America  ;  it  has  been  thought  that  they  might  also  be 
found  in  Psephtmis  gladius  of  the  River  Yang-tse-kiang,  in 
China  ;  and  Prof  Zalensky  has  found  them  in  Acipenser  ruthenus, 
at  the  age  of  from  three  weeks  to  three  months.  I  have  had 
the  good  fortune  to  find  teeth  in  a'most  all  the  Ganoidei  Chon- 
drostei of  the  different  ages  that  I  have  examined,  but  they  were 
palatine  teeth,  not  mandibular  or  maxillary  teeth.  I  have 
discovered  and  studied  the  palatine  teeth  in  a  two-months- 
old  sterlet  ;  in  an  Acipenser  stellatus  of  from  seven  to  eight 
months  old ;  in  a  Scaphirhynchus  kaufmannii  from  Amu- 
Daria  of  a  year  old  ;  in  a  grown  Scaphirhynchus  fedschenkoi 
from  Sir-Daria  ;  and  in  full-grown  Polyodon  folium. 

The  relationship  of  the  dimensions  of  the  snout  offish  to  the  age 
at  which  teeth  can  be  found  is  very  interesting.  The  long  and 
flat  snouted  Acipenser  slellahts  has  teeth  to  a  more  advanced  age 
than  the  short  and  narrow  snouted  sterlet ;  the  teeth  of  a  wide- 
snouted  Scaphirhynchus  not  attaining  a  good  development  but  are 
preserved  until  maturity ;  the  spade-snouted  Polyodon  preserves 
its  teeth  during  the  whole  of  its  life.  In  all  the  other  repre- 
sentatives of  Acipenser  and  Scaphirhynchus  can  be  found  at 
any  stage  traces  of  palatine  teeth  in  the  shape  of  two  similar 
■prominences,  which,  by  their  structure,  can  be  distinguished  from 
the  surrounding  parts  of  the  mouth. 

This  dependence  of  a  long  preservation  of  teeth  on  the  de- 
velopment of  the  snout  of  Ganoidei  Chondrostei,  together  with 
the  geographical  distribution  of  these  fish,  shows  the  greater 
antiquity  of  the  tooth-preserving  kinds  of  Scaphirhynchus  and 
Polyodon,  than  of  the  Acipenser.  Species  of  one  kind,  in- 
nabiting  such  widely  separated  water-reservoirs  as  the  Aral 
Sea  and  Mississippi,  or  the  Yang-tse-kiang  and  the  continental 
rivers  of  North  America,  must  be  representatives  of  very  old 
forms,  remains  of  former  fauna ;  their  having,  at  a  mature  age, 
organs  that  do  not  serve  them,  but  which  merely  remain  as  an 
inheritance  from  former  periods,  is  a  confirmation  of  their  sup- 
posed antiquity— a  conclusion  drawn  from  zoogeographical 
observations. 

The  structure  aud  development  of  the  dorsal  shields,  which, 
in  the  case  of  Acipenseridse,  spread  all  along  the  dorsal  surface, 
from  the  back  edge  of  the  head  down  to  the  dorsal  fins,  may 
also,  I  think,  help  us  to  discern  affinities  between  Ganoidei 
Chondrostei  and  other  fish.  The  first  to  pay  attention  to  these 
shields,  and  to  suppose  they  were  an  embryonal  dorsal  fin,  was 
Prof.  Zalensky.  About  the  same  time  Prof  Goethe  described 
a  similar  fin  of  a  six-weeks-old  sterlet,  hinting,  by  the  way,  that 
the  dorsal  shields  might  be  compared  with  the  dorsal  rays  of  a 
fossil  fish,  Coelacanthus,  I  have  succeeded  in  investigating  the 
dorsal  shields  of  a  two-months-old  sterlet,  and  in  making  a 
whole  series  of  cross  sections,  and  I  have  arrived  at  the  con- 
clusion that  Zalensky's  and  Goethe's  suppositions  are  fully 
established  by  facts.  Indeed,  between  the  shields  spreads  a 
membrane,  in  which  can  be  seen  the  same  horny  rays  that  are 
generally  seen  in  developing  fins  of  fish  ;  right  and  left  of 
each  dorsal  shield  there  is  a  muscle,  traces  of  which  can  also  be 


found  under  the  shields  of  grown  sterlets.  At  last,  having 
made  cross-sections  of  oxidized  dorsal  shields  of  grown  sterlets, 
a  canal  could  be  perceived  in  them.  These  canals  are  par- 
ticularly well  seen  in  Scaphirhynchus,  as  an  older  and  a  better 
representative  of  the  original  type. 

Knowing  that  Dr.  Giinther  in  his  excellent  book  on  ichthyo- 
logy places  the  Acipenseridae  and  Cuelacanthi  next  to  the 
Polypteroidei,  I  availed  myself  of  the  offer  of  Prof.  Bogdanoff, 
Director  of  the  Moscow  Museum,  and  my  teacher,  to  let  me 
examine  the  only  dry  specimen  of  I^lypter^is  stnegalensis  that 
was  in  the  Museum.  Comparing  the  numerous  small  fins 
spreading  all  along  the  back  of  Polypterus,  there  being  a  great 
and  wide  front  bone-ray,  and  the  others  being  thin  and  horny, 
I  became  convinced  of  their  complete  similarity  to  the  dorsal 
shields  of  a  young  sterlet  and  to  the  membranes  which  connect 
them. 

In  the  wide  bone-ray  of  Polypterus  a  ray  channel  could  also 
be  discerned,  and  the  rays  of  the  membrane  that  spreads  behind 
the  wide  ray  were  also  horny,  like  the  rays  of  the  membrane  of 
an  embryonal  fin  of  a  sterlet.  This  brought  me  to  the  con- 
clusion that  the  ancestors  of  both  the  AcipsnseridtB  and  the 
Polypteroidei  had  not  only  a  back  fin,  but  also  well  developed 
front  dorsal  fins,  with  great  bone-rays  and  smaller  horny  rays, 
and  were,  perhaps,  nearer  to  each  other  than  their  present 
descendants. 

A  study  of  other  organs,  especially  those  in  younj  Acipen- 
seridoe  and  Scaphirhynchus,  convinces  me  that  there  is  a  closer 
relationship  between  the  Ganoidei  Chondrostei  and  the  Poly- 
pteroidei than  has  hitherto  been  supposed.  It  is  well  known 
that  the  conus  arteriosus  of  Acipenser  is  distinguished  from  the 
same  organ  of  the  Polypterus  and  Lepidosteus  by  a  much 
smaller  number  of  transversal  rows  of  valves.  In  young  sterlets 
I  have  found,  besides  developed  valves,  undeveloped  folds  lying 
between  the  valves.  In  place  of  such  undeveloped  valves,  in 
the  case  of  grown  fish,  as  for  example  in  a  specimen  oi  Acipenser 
huso  which  I  dissected,  and  which  was  about  10  feet  long, 
an  unevenness  and  roughness  of  surface  are  noticed.  The  air- 
bladder,  which  in  Lepidosteus  and  Polypterus  partly  resembles 
the  lung  of  Dipnoi,  when  attentively  studied  in  the  Acipenserida^ 
does  not  appear  to  be  so  well  adapted  to  its  new  functions. 
Its  coatings  include  many  ramifications  of  vessels,  the  histological 
structure  of  which  is  so  similar  to  the  structure  of  the  coatings 
of  the  digestive  organs  that  it  is  much  easier  to  recognize  their 
relative  layers  than  in  those  of  other  fishes,  where  the  air- 
bladder  is  fully  adapted  to  its  functions.  The  ductus  pneu- 
maticus,  in  young  sterlets  especially,  is  very  wide;  a  two- 
months-old  sterlet  has  it  of  almost  the  same  width  as  an  oeso- 
phagus, and  the  food  of  the  small  fish,  consisting  mostly  of 
forms  of  Cladocera  and  Ostracoda,  and  also  of  statoblasts  of 
Polyzoa,  especially  Alcyonella,  fills  the  cavity  of  the  air-bladder 
like  the  cavity  of  the  stomach. 

Though  the  brain  of  these  fishes  has  been  well  investigated, 
yet  in  its  organization  one  finds  much  that  is  interesting.  For 
example,  the  cerebral  hemispheres  of  the  prosencephalon  of 
Scaphirhynchus  proved  to  be  more  similar  to  the  hemispheres  of 
Dipnoi  and  Lepidosteus  and  Protopterus,  than  to  th  >se  of  Aci- 
penser. The  lateral  layers  are  turned  upward,  so  that  the 
upper  portion  of  the  hemispheres  proved  to  consist,  not  of  one 
pallium,  as  in  Acipenser,  but  also  of  the  coating  of  the  cere- 
brum. The  epiphysis  cerebri,  being  a  changeable  organ,  proved 
to  vary  even  in  the  limits  of  the  genus  Acipenser.  Thus,  its  front 
end  in  Acipenser  sturio  reached  as  far  as  the  line  connecting  the 
two  lower  nostrils,  forming  an  angle  of  nearly  28"  with  the 
surface  of  the  brain,  whereas  in  Acipenser  ruthenus  the  epiphysis 
forms  an  angle  of  almost  80°,  and  becomes  a  much  shorter  organ. 
In  some  sterlets  the  end  of  the  epiphysis  cerebri  went  through 
the  cranium,  and  was  only  covered  by  the  bone  shields  of  the 
exterior  coating.  Scaphirhynchus  had  the  epiphysis  less  change- 
able and  more  similar  to  the  epiphysis  of  other  Ganoidei  and 
Dipnoi.  In  other  respects  the  brain  of  Scaphirhynchus  also 
proved  to  have  a  closer  resemblance  to  the  other  Ganoidei  than 
to  the  Acipenser.  Thus,  its  valvula  cerebelli  and  lobi  in- 
feriores  are  more  developed  than  those  of  a  sterlet,  and  even 
remind  one  of  the  brain  of  Amia  and  its  near  relatives  Teleostei. 

Notwithstanding  the  scantiness  of  the  facts  stated  here,  I 
indulge  the  hope  that  they  may  add  something  to  the  means  at 
our  disposal  for  the  settlement  of  the  relationship  between 
Ganoidei  Chondrostei  and  other  Ganoidei. 

Nicholas  Zograff. 

Moscow,  20/8  September  1878, 


Nov.  17,  1887] 


NATURE 


71 


SCIENTIFIC  SERIALS. 


American  Journal  of  Matheviatics,  vol.  x.  No.  i  (Baltimore: 
Johns  Hopkins  University,  1887). — The  number  opens  with  the 
concluding  lecture  (the  33rd)  of  Prof.  Sylvester's  course  on  the 
theory  of  reciprocants,  in  which  is  investigated  the  differential 
equation  of  a  cubic  curve  having  a  given  absolute  invariant 
S'VT^-  A  supplemental  "lecture"  is  supplied  by  the  reporter 
(Mr.  Hammond)  from  the  lecturer's  surplus  material  :  this  "con- 
stitutes probably  the  most  difficult  problem  in  elimination  which 
has  been  effected  up  to  the  present  time."  All  admirers  of 
Prof.  Sylvester's  brilliant  genius  will  be  glad  to  have  the  fine 
presentment  of  his  features  which  accompanies  this  number. 
— Algebraic  surfaces  of  which  every  plane  section  is  uni- 
cursal  in  the  light  of  ^-dimensional  geometry  is  devoted  to  a 
proof  and  to  illustrations,  by  Mr.  E.  H.  Moore,  Jun.,  of  a 
theorem  due  to  Picard,  viz.  "  Les  seules  surfaces  algebriques 
donttoutes  les  sections  planes  sont  unicursales  sont  les  surfaces 
reglees  unicursales  et  la  surface  du  quatrieme  degre  de  Steiner." 
— Mr.  Morgan  Jenkins,  in  a  paper  on  Prof.  Cayley's  extension  of 
Arbogast's  method  of  derivations,  presents  in  a  simplified  form 
results  given  by  the  elder  mathematician  in  a  memoir  printed  in 
the  Phil.  Trans,  (read  December  i860). — Properties  of  a  com- 
plete table  of  symmetric  functions,  by  Capt.  P.  A,  Macmahon, 
R.A.,  establishes  some  remarkable  features  of  a  tabulation  set 
forth  by  Mr.  Durfee  in  vol,  v.  of  iha  Journal. — Oskar  Bolza,  in 
his  article  on  binary  sextics  with  linear  transformations  into 
themselves,  considers  those  binary  sextics  which  remain  un- 
changed (or  are  only  changed  by  a  constant  factor)  for  certain 
linear  transformations  of  the  variables. —Prof.  Cayley  follows 
with  the  sequel  to  his  memoir  on  the  transformation  of  elliptic 
functions  (vol.  ix.),  and  Prof.  Woolsey  Johnson  closes  the 
number  with  the  symbolic  treatment  of  exact  linear  differential 
equations. 

Bulletin  de  la  Societe  des  Naturalistes  de  Moscou,  1887,  iii. — 
Comparative  osteology  of  the  penguins  and  its  bearing  upon  the 
classification  of  birds,  by  Dr.  M.  Menzbier  (in  German  ;  with  a 
plate).— The  Hessian  fly,  by  Prof.  K.  Lindeman  (in  German).  — 
Chemical  composition  of  the  Lipetsk  mineral  springs,  by  A. 
Kislakovsky.  A  series  of  chemical  analyses  has  been  under- 
taken in  order  to  ascertain  how  far  the  composition  of  the 
springs  is  liable  to  undergo  changes  at  different  times  of  the 
year.  The  admixture  of  water  flowing  from  sweet  springs 
makes  the  amount  of  FeCO.,  to  vary  from  o-oi6  to  0-032,  and 
from  o-oo8  to  0-025  '"  different  springs. — On  the  increase  in 
the  number  of  thunderbolts  and  its  causes,  by  J.  Weinberg  (in 
German). — Enumeration  of  the  vascular  plants  of  Caucasus,  by 
M.  Smirnoff  (in  French).  This  fourth  paper  of  the  introduc- 
tion which  the  author  has  written  to  precede  his  enumeration  of 
plants  discusses  the  following  important  subjects  :  evaporation, 
limits  of  perennial  snow  in  Caucasia  and  neighbouring  highlands, 
the  present  and  ancient  glaciers  of  Caucasus,  and  the  geology  of 
the  country  since  the  later  Tertiary.  The  twelve  botanical 
regions  into  which  the  author  divides  Caucasia  are  given  with 
short  characteristics  of  their  physical  features.  On  the  whole  the 
paper  is  a  most  valuable  contribution  to  the  knowledge  of 
Caucasus.  — List  of  plants  growing  in  the  province  of  Tamboff, 
by  D.  Litvinoff  (continued).  — C/zcr/yw^/^^j-  turca,  Steven,  an 
enemy  of  the  vine-tree,  by  E.  Ballion.  It  has  been  found  at 
Novorosiysk,  on  the  east  coast  of  the  Black  Sea,  and  must  have 
immigrated  from  Asia  Minor  and  Syria. 


SOCIETIES  AND  ACADEMIES. 
London. 
Mathematical  Society,  November  10.— Sir  J.  Cockle, 
F.R.S.,  President,  in  the  chair.— Prof.  Sylvester,  F.R.S.,  being 
incapacitated  by  an  accident  to  his  leg  from  attending  in  person  to 
receive  the  De  Morgan  Medal,  awarded  him  by  the  Council  in  June 
last,  deputed  Mr.  J.  Hammond  to  represent  him.  The  President, 
after  a  few  remarks  eulogistic  of  Prof  Sylvester's  numerous  dis- 
coveries, presented  the  medal  to  Mr.  Hammond,  who  made  a 
felicitous  reply.  — The  Treasurer  (A.  B.  Kempe,  F.R.S. ),  after 
having  read  his  Report,  announced  to  the  meeting  that  the 
Society's  application  to  the  Privy  Council  for  the  grant  of  a 
charter  had  failed. — The  following  were  elected  to  act  as  the 
Council  for  the  ensuing  session  :— President :  Sir  J.  Cockle, 
F.R.S.  Vice-Presidents:  Dr.  J.  W.  L.  Glaisher,  F.R.S., 
Prof  Hart,  and  Lord  Rayleigh,  Sec.R.S.  Treasurer:  Mr.  A. 
B.  Kempe,  F.R.S.      Hon.  Sees.  :  Messrs.  M.  Jenkins  and  R, 


Tucker.  Other  Members  :  Messrs.  A.  Buchheim,  E.  B.  Elliott, 
A.  G.  Greenhill,  J.  Hammond,  J.  Larmor,  C.  Leudesdorf, 
Captain  P.  A.  Macmahon,  R.A.,  S.  Roberts,  F.R.S.,  and 
J.  J.  Walker,  F.R.S. — The  following  communications  were 
made  :— On  pure  ternary  reciprocants  and  functions  allied  to 
them,  by  E.  B.  Elliott.— On  the  general  linear  differential  equa- 
tion of  the  second  order,  by  the  President.— On  the  stability  of 
a  liquid  ellipsoid  which  is  rotating  about  a  principal  axis  under 
the  mfluence  of  its  own  attraction,  by  A.  B.  Basset.— On  modu- 
lar equations  and  geometry  of  the  quartic,  by  R.  Russell.— The 
differential  equations  satisfied  by  concomitants  of  quantics,  by 
A.  R.  Forsyth,  F.R.S.— On  the  stability  or  instability  of  cer- 
tain fluid  motions  (ii.),  by  Lord  Rayleigh,  Sec.R.S.— Notes 
on  a  system  of  three  conies  touching  at  one  point,  by  Dr. 
Wolstenholme. 

Geologists'  Association,  November 4. —Mr.  F.  W.  Rudler, 
President,  in  the  chair.— The  President  delivered  the  opening 
address  of  the  session,  entitled  "Fifty  Years'  Progress  in  British 
Geology."  He  drew  a  picture  of  the  state  of  geology  in  1837, 
and  contrasted  it  with  that  in  1887.  The  principal  questions 
discussed  were  the  old  controversy  between  the  Catastrophists 
and  Uniformitarians,  the  development  of  Palaeozoic  geology,  the 
origin  of  the  Drift,  and  the  antiquity  of  man.  In  recent  years 
the  warmest  discussions  have  referred  to  the  Archxan  rocks  and 
to  the  Glacial  Drift.  Attention  was  directed  to  the  debt  which 
geology  owes  to  engineering,  especially  to  the  development  of 
our  railway  system  and  to  artesian  borings.  The  sub-Wealden 
exploration  was  explained,  and  a  Jubilee  boring  suggested. 
Deep-sea  exploration  was  touched  upon.  Turning  to  petrology, 
its  low  condition  in  1837  was  pointed  out,  and  its  recent  develop- 
ment traced  to  the  introduction  of  microscopic  methods  of 
research.  The  history  of  palaeontology  was  briefly  sketched, 
special  attention  being  called  to  the  work  of  the  Palaeontographical 
Society.  Improvements  in  the  Geological  Department  of  the 
British  Museum  were  noticed,  and  reference  was  made  to  the 
history  of  the  Geological  Survey  and  the  Museum  of  Practical 
Geology.  In  conclusion,  it  was  pointed  nut  that  by  a  happy 
accident  the  meeting  of  the  International  Geological  Congress 
in  London  next  year  will  coincide  with  the  centenary  of  the 
foundation  of  British  geology — the  original  publication  of 
Hutton's  "  Theory  of  the  Earth  "  in  1788. 

Chemical  Society,  November  3.— Mr.  William  Crookes, 
F.R.S.,  President,  in  the  chair. — The  following  papers  were 
read  : — Note  on  the  atomic  weight  of  gold,  by  Prof.  T.  E. 
Thorpe,  F.R.S.,  and  Mr.  A.  P.  Laurie. — The  ni  teraction  of 
zinc  and  sulphuric  acid,  by  Mr.  M.  M.  Pattison  Muir  and 
Mr.  R.  H.  Adie. — Note  on  safety-taps,  by  Mr.  W.  A.  Shen- 
stone. — Note  on  Guthrie's  compound  of  amylene  with  nitrogen 
peroxide,  by  Dr.  A.  K.  Miller. — The  dehydration  of  metallic 
hydroxides  by  heat,  with  special  reference  to  the  polymerization 
of  the  oxides  and  to  the  periodic  law,  by  Prof  Carnelley  and 
Dr.  James  Walker,  University  College,  Dundee. — The  bromina- 
tion  of  naphthalene  /9-sulphonic  acid,  by  Mr.  G.  Stallard. — The 
constitution  of  the  three  isomeric  pyrocresols,  by  Dr.  W.  Bott. 
— Preliminary  note  on  certain  products  from  teak,  by  Mr.  R. 
Romanis. 

PARIS. 

Academy  of  Sciences,  November  7. — M.  Janssen  in  the 
chair. — On  a  paradox  analogous  to  the  St.  Petersburg  problem, 
by  M.  J.  Bertrand.  The  paper  deals  with  the  doctrine  of 
probabilities,  and  shows  that,  if  a  gambler  plays  under  conditions 
involving  all  but  inevitable  niin,  equity  requires  the  remotely 
contingent  prize  to  be  infinite. — On  the  state  of  the  potassa  in 
plants,  in  the  soil  and  vegetable  humus,  and  on  its  quantitative 
analysis,  by  MM.  Berthelot  and  Andre.  These  studies  have 
been  undertaken  to  determine  how  far  the  potassa  present  in 
plants  and  arable  land  is  in  the  condition  of  salts  soluble  in 
water,  or  of  insoluble  salts  capable  or  not  of  resi-ting  the  action 
of  attenuated  acids.  The  researches  are  in  continuation  of  those 
already  described  connected  with  the  analysis  of  the  soluble  and 
insoluble  carbon  present  in  the  soil,  and  of  the  nitrous  com- 
pounds in  their  various  forms  of  nitrates,  free  ammonia,  &c. — 
Inquiry  into  the  two  fundamental  principles  of  the  accepted 
doctrines  regarding  cerebral  dualism  in  voluntary  motions,  by  M. 
Brown-Sequard.  In  continuation  of  his  recent  communication 
on  this  subject,  the  author  here  advances  facts  and  arguments, 
some  of  which  go  directly  to  show  that  each  half  of  the 
encephalon  may  independently  serve  for  the  production  of 
voluntary   movements  in  both  sides  of  the  body,  while  others 


72 


NATURE 


{Nov.  17,  1887 


tend  to  overthrow  the  fundamental  principles  of  the  \  views 
generally  held  regarding  the  part  played  by  both  hemispheres  in 
producing  voluntary  movements.  Several  interesting  manifesta- 
tions are  described,  proving  that  the  motor  effects  of  cerebral 
irritations  are  in  absolute  contradiction  to  the  current  theories. — 
On  the  Elasmotherium,  by  M.  Albert  Gaudry.  In  conijection 
with  some  remains  of  this  extinct  mammal  recently  found  on  the 
River  Kinel  in  the  government  of  Samara  (Russia),  and  pre- 
sented to  the  Academy  by  M.  Paul  Ossoskoff,  some  remarks  are 
made  by  the  author,  who  assigns  to  the  Elasmotherium  a 
position  intermediate  in  size  between  the  mammoth  and 
[Rhinoceros  tichorhinus,  his  contemporaries.  In  his  general 
structure  he  appears  to  have  approached  more  nearly  to  the 
latter  animal,  the  radius,  tibia,  cubitus,  calcaneum,  and  some 
other  bones  presenting  the  closest  resemblance  to  those  of  a 
gigantic  rhinoceros. — On  a  geometric  form  of  the  effects  of 
radiation  in  the  diurnal  motion  of  the  stars,  by  M.  Gruey.  A 
number  of  propositions  are  here  announced,  whose  further 
development  and  demonstration  are  reserved  for  a  future 
number  of  the  Bulletin  Astronomique,  where  a  full  demon- 
stration will  be  given  of  the  theorem  that,  in  a  sidereal 
day  the  apparent  position  of  a  star  describes  a  conic 
section  round  its  true  position. — On  the  internal  tempera- 
ture of  glaciers,  by  MM.  Ed.  Hagenbach  and  F.  A. 
Forel.  The  different  temperatures  determined  by  careful  experi- 
ment in  the  Arolla  glacier  are  explained  by  .the  varying  pressure 
to  which  different  parts  of  the  glacier  are  subjected.  The  nor- 
mal temperature  below  zero  is  shown  to  be  the  effect  of  pressure, 
which  lowers  the  melting-point  of  ice,  thus  verifying  in  Nature 
facts  already  theoretically  demonstrated  by  Sir  W.  Thomson 
and  others,  but  hitherto  studied  only  in  the  laboratory. — Remarks 
on  the  Gulf  Stream,  by  M.  J.  Thoulet.  Comparing  his  own 
observations  made  on  board  the  Clorinde  in  1886  with  those  of 
Mr.  Buchanan  during  the  Challenger  Expedition,  the  author  finds 
that  the  Gulf  Stream  is  comparable  to  a  river  with  a  greater  fall  in 
its  upper  than  in  its  lower  reaches.  A  relatively  steep  valley 
separates  it  on  the  left  from  the  United  States  current  setting 
southwards  from  Newfoundland,  while  its  more  gently  sloping 
right  bank  skirting  the  ocean  presents  a  much  broader  expanse. 
Thus  is  explained  the  direction  of  the  driftwood  carried  from 
America  towards  the  north-west  coast  of  Europe. — Researches 
on  the  distribution  of  temperature  and  of  barometric  pressure  on 
the  surface  of  the  globe,  by  M.  Alexis  de  Tillo.  The  author 
describes  some  general  charts  which  he  has  prepared,  based  on 
the  labours  of  M.  Leon  Teisserenc  de  Bort,  and  of  Herr  J. 
Hann,  of  Vienna,  showing  the  mean  isobars  and  isothermal 
lines  for  the  year,  and  the  months  of  January  and  July,  for 
the  whole  world.  For  the  general  conditions  of  the  ter- 
restrial atmosphere  he  finds  that,  when  the  mean  tempera- 
ture   ^  ^    I  within   the   limits  of    i''"6    and  4°  7,   the    pressure 

increases  )  ^^  ^j^^  extent  of  1  millimetre.— On  the  metal- 
dimmishes    \ 

lie  derivatives  of  acetylacetone,  by  M.  Alphonse  Combes. 
From  the  researches  here  described,  the  author  concludes 
that  this  substance  decomposes  all  the  carbonates,  even  that 
of  potassa  ;  that  it  displaces  the  acetic  acid  of  the  acetate  of 
copper,  and  even  the  hydrochloric  acid  ;  that  it  consequently 
acts  as  a  strong  acid  on  the  metallic  salts.  Nothing,  so  far,  dis- 
tinguishes its  action  from  that  of  a  monobasic  acid,  although  this 
function  is  clearly  distinguished  by  certain  properties  of  its  salts 
from  the  acid  function  properly  so  called. — On  the  part  played 
by  the  stomata  in  the  inspiration  and  expiration  of  gases,  by  M. 
L.  Mangin.  From  the  experiments  here  described  the  author 
concludes  generally  that  the  stomata  are  indispensable  for  the 
circulation  of  the  gases  in  aerial  plants,  the  occlusion  of  these 
orifices  bringing  about  a  greater  or  lesser  diminution  in  the 
exchanges  of  the  respiratory  gases,  and  a  very  considerable 
decrease  in  the  exchanges  of  chlorophyll ian  gases. — On  the 
invasion  of  Coniothyrium  diplodiella  in  1887,  by  MM.  G.  Foex 
and  L.  Ravaz.  This  organism,  already  observed  in  1879  by 
Spegazzini  in  Italy,  and  in  1885  by  Viala  in  the  department  of 
the  Isere,  has  this  year  invaded  an  extensive  region  in  the 
South  of  France.  Whether  it  is  a  true  parasite,  or  a  saprophyte, 
or  whether  it  assumes  both  of  these  characters  according  to 
circumstances,  is  a  point  which  has  not  yet  been  decided. 

Berlin. 

Meteorological  Society,  November  i. — Prof,  von  Bezold, 
President,  in  the  chair. — Dr.  von  Helmholtz  discussed  his  most 


recent  researches  on  the  formation  of  mist  under  the  influence  of 
chemical  processes,  and  laid  stress  at  the  same  time  upon  the 
relation  of  his  results  to  the  phenomena  of  meteorology. — Dr. 
Sprung  gave  an  account  of  observations  made  with  thermometers 
attached  to  various  barometers.  During  a  comparison  of  the 
barometers  from  various  stations  with  a  normal  barometer,  the 
experiments  being  conducted  in  a  cellar,  he  found  that  the 
thermometers  showed  considerable  differences  in  their  readings  ; 
their  differences  wtre  still  observed  when  the  comparison  of  the 
barometers  was  made  in  a  room  at  the  surface  of  the  earth,  and 
the  barometers  were  placed  side  by  side  in  the  same  frame. 
The  speaker  was  hence  led  to  compare  three  thermometers,  of 
which  one  was  surrounded  by  a  nickel-plated  cylinder;  the 
second  was  surrounded  by  a  varnished  cylinder,  and  the  third 
had  no  covering  at  all.  When  placed  near  an  open  window  the 
instrument  with  the  nickel-plated  covering  registered  the  highest 
temperature,  but  when  placed  near  a  hot  stove  it  recorded  the 
lowest.  The  differences  in  reading  varied  at  different  times  of 
the  year,  and  amounted  to  several  degrees.  In  practice  these 
differences  of  the  thermometer-reading  can  have  no  influence  on 
the  reading  of  the  barometer,  since  it  may  be  assumed  that  the 
mercury  in  the  barometer  has  always  the  same  temperature  as 
that  indicated  by  the  thermometer,  and  that  the  reading  of  the 
barometer  is  reduced  to  zero. 


BOOKS,  PAMPHLETS,  and  SERIALS  RECEIVED. 

A  Practical  Trpatisp  on  Bridge  Construction  :  T,  riayfnn  Firtlpr  fHriffinV 
The  Real  History  of  the  Rosicrucians  :  A.  E.  Waite  (Redway). — Calendar 
of  University  College,  Nottingham,  1887-88. — Totemism  :  J.  G.  Frazer 
(Black). — Animal  Magnetism  :  Binet  and  Fere  (Kegan  Paul).— Living 
Lights  :  C.  F.  Holder  (Sampson  Low). — L'Homme  avant  I'Histoire  :  Ch. 
Debierre  (Bailliere).— The  Flora  of  Howth:  H.  C.  Hart  (Hodges,  Figgis, 
and  Co.). — Lectures  on  Bacteria:  A.  De  Bary ;  second  improved  edition, 
translated  by  H.  E.  F.  Garnsey,  revised  by  L  B.  Balfi.ur  (Clarendon  Press). 
— The  Final  Results  of  the  Iriangulation  of  the  New  York  State  Survey 
(Albany,  N.Y.). — Catalogue  of  the  Moths  of  India,  part  1  :  Cotes  and 
Swinhoe  (Calcutta). — China  in  America  ;  a  Study  in  the  Social  Life  of  the 
Chinese  :  .S.  Culin  (Philadelphia). — Catalog  der  Conchylien-Sammlung, 
Vierte  Lief  (Paetel,  Berlin). — Fishery  Barometer  Manual :  R.  H.  Scott 
(Eyre  and  Spottiswoode).  -  Folk-lore  Journal,  vol.  v.  part  4  (Stock). — Pro- 
ceedings of  the  Royal  Society  of  Edinburgh,  No.  123. — Journal  of  the 
Royal  Agricultural  Society,  October  (Murray). — Archives  Italiennes  de 
Biologie,  tome  viii.  fasc.  iii.  (Loescher,  Turin). 


CONTENTS.  PAGE 

Politics  and  the  Presidency  of  the  Royal  Society  .    .    49 
The   Storage  of  Electrical  Energy.     By  Prof.  John 

Perry,  F.R.S 50 

Fritsch's  Crustacean  Fauna  of  the  Chalk  of  Bohemia  51 
Our  Book  Shelf  :— 

Dana:   "  Manual  of  Mineralogy  and  Petrography  "  ,    .    53 
Letters  to  the  Editor  : — 

"A  Conspiracy  of  Silence."— The  Duke  of  Argyll, 

F.R.S 53 

The  Theories  of  the  Origin  of  Coral  Reefs  and  Islands. 

T,  Mellard  Reade 54 

Earthquake    at    the    Bahamas. — Robert    H.    Scott, 
F.R.S.  ;    G.  R.  McGregor;    Byron  N.  Jones 

and  Cornelius  S.  E.  Lotman 54 

Researches    on   Meteorites.     I.     {Illustrated.)     By  J. 

Norman  Lockyer,  F.R.S 55 

Fairy-Rings 61 

Notes 63 

Our  Astronomical  Column  : — 

The  Astronomical  Society  of  France 66 

The  Lick  Observatory 66 

Astronomical     Phenomena      for     the     Week     1887 

November  20-26 66 

Geographical  Notes (>^ 

Meteorological  Notes 67 

Gems  and  Ornamental  Stones  of  the  United  States. 

By  Dr.  A.  E.  Foote 68 

The    October    Meteor-Shower    of   1887.     By  W.    F. 

Denning 69 

On    some    of  the    Affinities   between    the   Ganoidei 
Chondrostei  and  other  Fishes.      By  Dr.  Nicholas 

Zograff 70 

Scientific  Serials T^ 

Societies  and  Academies 7' 

Books,  Pamphlets,  and  Serials  Received 72 


NA TURE 


n 


THURSDAY,   NOVEMBER   24,    1887. 


CHARLES   DARWIN. 
The   U/e  and  Letters    of  Charles   Darwin,  including 
an    Autobiographical   Chapter.      Edited   by   his  Son, 
Francis  Darwin.     In  Three  Volumes.     (London  :  John 
Murray,  1887.) 
^"'O  write  a  biography  is  a  task  which   is   almost   a 
J-      proverb  for  difficulty.     It  is  no  easier  for  a  relative 
than  for  a  stranger,  because,  if  a  more  intimate  knowledge 
of  the  details  lightens  the  labour,  affection  is  apt  to  warp 
the  judgment,  and  checks  perfect  freedom  of  expression.  In 
the  biography,  however,  of  Charles  Darwin,  there  was  no 
temptation  to  reticence,  no  need  for  firmness.     His  was  a 
life,  simple,  noble,  blameless.     Still,  this  very  simplicity 
and  unostentatious  rectitude  presented  their  own  difficul- 
ties.    After  the  long  and  interesting  voyage  in  early  man- 
hood, it  was  a  life  singularly  uneventful,  a  life  of  patient 
labour,  one  long  struggle  against  sickness.  Thus  its  record 
when  written  might  readily  have  been  unexceptionable, 
but  dull. 

This  cannot  be  said  of  the  Life  of  Charles  Darwin.  It 
will  take  its  place,  I  venture  to  predict,  with  Boswell's 
Life  of  Johnson,  Lockhart's  Life  of  Scott,  Stanley's  Life 
of  Arnold,  and  the  comparatively  small  number  of  bio- 
graphies which  have  attained  to  first-class  rank  in  litera- 
ture. Mr.  Francis  Darwin  has  made  excellent  use  of  the 
materials  at  his  disposal.  These  were  considerable. 
They  consisted  of  a  short  sketch  written  in  his  later  years 
by  Charles  Darwin  himself,  for  the  information  of  his 
family,  and  of  a  large  number  of  letters.  Mr.  Francis 
Darwin  had,  in  addition,  the  special  advantage  of  having 
shared  in  the  labours  of  his  father  during  the  last  eight 
years  of  his  life. 

The  chapters  written  by  the  editor  are  of  the  highest 
interest  and  value,  but  as  far  as  possible  the  story  is  told 
by  Charles  Darwin  himself;  the  letters  being  merely 
strung  together  by  occasional  explanatory  paragraphs, 
which  form  a  connecting  thread.  Selection  must  have 
been  no  easy  task,  but  it  has  been  well  done,  and  numer- 
ous as  are  the  letters  and  large  as  is  the  book  one  almost 
wishes  they  had  been  more  and  it  had  been  larger.  Yet 
Darwin  was  hardly  what  most  people  would  call  a  good 
letter-writer.  His  letters  were  often  written  hurriedly,  and 
bear  the  marks  of  hasty  composition  ;  but  there  is  not 
seldom  a  terseness  of  phrase,  and  always  a  vigour  of 
expression,  which  makes  them  peculiarly  attractive. 
These  letters,  too,  are  thoroughly  characteristic  of  the 
man.  They  breathe  the  quenchless  energy,  the  "  dogged  " 
endurance,  the  hidden  tenderness,  the  sweet  reasonable- 
ness, the  imperturbable  equanimity,  of  his  nature  ;  and 
they  show,  on  rare  occasions,  that  capacity  for  indignation 
without  which  a  character  so  amiable  might  have 
degenerated  into  weakness. 

The  autobiographical  sketch  tells  us  the  particulars  of 
Charles  Darwin's  early  life.  Born  at  Shrewsbury  in  1809, 
the  son  of  a  physician  in  large  practice,  and  grandson 
of  the  well-known  Dr.  Erasmus  Darwin,  author  of 
"Zoonomia,"  Charles  Darwin  was  educated  at  the  grammar- 
school  of  that  town,  under  Dr.  Butler,  one  of  its  most 
noted  head  masters.  Neither  in  childhood  nor  in  boy- 
VoL  xxxvii— No  943. 


hood  does  he  appear  to  have  given  promise  of  exceptional 
powers,  though  the  taste  for  collecting  manifested  itself 
at  a  very  early  age,  and  he  was  obviously  more  thoughtful 
and  determined  to  understand  things  thoroughly  than  the 
average  boy.  But  the  school  system  of  education  which, 
as  usual  then,  was  wholly  classical,  did  nothing  to 
bring  out  the  special  powers  of  his  mind.  Indeed,  be 
was  once  even  rebuked  by  the  head  master  for  wasting  his 
time  on  such  a  useless  subject  as  chemistry.  He  passed, 
in  short,  through  Shrewsbury  school  as  a  well-conducted 
boy  of  ordinary  ability,  perhaps  a  little  below  the  average. 
"A  good  lad,  but  not  quick  or  particularly  studious," 
would  probably  have  been  the  verdict  of  his  masters. 

After  leaving  Shrewsbury,  Darwin  studied  for  a  couple 
of  years  at  the  University  of  Edinburgh,  attending 
medical  lectures,  with  the  idea  of  adopting  that  profes- 
sion. But  for  the  surgical  side  of  it  he  already  felt  a 
disinclination  ;  and  unfortunately  for  him,  as  he  relates, 
the  dreariness  of  the  lectures  on  anatomy  indirectly 
deterred  him  from  the  practice  of  dissection,  which  would 
have  been  a  useful  training  for  his  later  life.  He  made, 
however,  friends,  who  aided  in  developing  his  love  for 
natural  history,  though  he  tells  us  that  the  dullness  of  the 
geological  lectures  produced  in  him  "the  determination 
never  as  long  as  I  lived  to  read  a  book  in  geology,  or  in 
any  way  to  study  the  science."  A  resolve,  happily,  before 
long  rescinded. 

From  Edinburgh,  Charles  Darwin  went  to  Cambridge. 
Here  he  entered  at  Christ's  College,  where  his  elder 
brother,  Erasmus,  was  already  a  student.  There  was 
then  an  idea  that,  as  he  clearly  had  no  strong  taste  for 
medicine,  he  should  be  ordained.  As  he  says,  "  Consider- 
ing how  fiercely  I  have  been  attacked  by  the  orthodox,  it 
seems  ludicrous  that  I  once  intended  to  be  a  clergyman." 
Darwin  had  at  no  time  of  his  life  any  tendency  to  super- 
stition, otherwise  one  might  observe  that  extremes  in 
religious  opinion  are  not  so  wide  apart  as  the  remark  just 
quoted  seems  to  imply.  At  the  same  time  he  tells  us  that 
a  German  phrenologist  had  declared  that  he  "  had  the 
bump  of  reverence  developed  enough  for  ten  priests." 

He  brought  little  classical  knowledge  from  Shrewsbury, 
and  left  much  of  that  behind  at  Edinburgh  ;  he  had  no 
taste  for  mathematics,  and  natural  science  was  not  then  re- 
cognized in  the  curriculum  at  Cambridge.  So  he  read 
little,  and  took  an  ordinary  degree.  Thus  he  doubtless 
appeared  to  be  wasting  his  time,  and  accuses  himself  of  so 
doing.  But  one  can  see  that  the  groundwork  was  being  laid 
for  the  future.  He  acquired  friends,  some  of  Hke  tastes  ; 
his  interest  in  natural  history  increased,  and  was  developed 
by  the  opportunities  which  the  district  afforded,  especially 
for  collecting  beetles,  then  the  ruling  passion.  His  health, 
too,  at  this  time  appears  to  have  been  good ;  he  was  an 
active  pedestrian  and  a  keen  sportsman,  enjoying  society, 
and  not  without  a  love  of  music. 

But  the  friendship  of  Henslow  was  probably  the  greatest 
boon  which  he  owed  to  Cambridge.  Acquaintance  soon 
ripened  into  steadfast  friendship,  and  the  wider  know- 
ledge and  formed  habits  of  the  older  man  produced,  as 
Darwin  gratefully  admits,  the  best  possible  influence  on 
the  younger.  Through  Henslow  also,  shortly  after  Darwin 
had  taken  his  degree,  the  offer  was  made  to  join  the 
Beagle  as  naturalist,  which  may  fairly  be  called  the 
turning-point  of  his  life.     It  is  interesting  to  see  how 

E 


74 


NA  TURE 


{Nov.  24,  1887 


evenly  balanced  the  reasons  for  and  against  acceptance 
then  seemed  to  be,  and  how  nearly  the  offer  was  refused. 
He  wished  to  go,  but  Dr.  Darwin,  his  father,  for  various 
reasons — among  them  the  fear  that  so  long  a  voyage 
would  unsettle  his  son  for  life — was  opposed  to  the  plan. 
Chiefly  through  the  influence  of  Darwin's  maternal  uncle, 
Mr.  Josiah  Wedgwood,  the  father's  objections  were  over- 
come. Capt.  Fitzroy,  however,  who  was  a  disciple  of 
Lavater,  was  nearly  refusing  his  services  because  of  the 
shape  of  his  nose,  which  was  not  sufficiently  indicative  of 
determination  and  energy  !  Considerable  delay  arose  from 
one  cause  or  another,  but  the  vessel  finally  sailed  from 
Plymouth  on  December  27,  1831. 

Though  Henslow  was  Professor  of  Botany,  it  was  im- 
possible to  know  him  without  being  infected  with  geology  ; 
so  by  this  time  the  resolution  against  that  science  had 
been  rescinded,  and  Darwin  had  even  accompanied  Sedg- 
wick on  one  of  his  journeys  in  North  Wales.  The  tale  of 
the  work  during  the  voyage  of  the  Beagle  has  been  told 
in  the  well-known  volumes  ;  but  we  have  here  a  series  of 
letters  which  record  many  incidents  of  the  journey,  and 
indicate  the  development  of  the  writer's  mental  powers 
and  the  thoughts  which  were  already  beginning  to  quicken 
into  life.  It  is  amusing  to  read  that  now  the  new  love  is 
sometimes  stronger  than  the  old.  "  But  geology  carries  the 
day  ;  it  is  like  the  pleasure  of  gambling.  Speculating  on 
first  arriving  what  the  rocks  may  be,  I  often  mentally  cry 
out,  'Three  to  one  Tertiary  against  Primitive,'  but  the  latter 
have  hitherto  won  all  the  bets."  Later  there  is  a  conflict  even 
in  his  geological  preferences.  "  I  am  quite  charmed  with 
geology,  but,  like  the  wise  animal  between  two  bundles  of 
hay,  I  do  not  know  which  to  like  the  best,  the  old  crys- 
talline group  of  rocks  or  the  softer  and  fossiliferous  beds." 
But  notwithstanding  these  mental  "  lovers'  quarrels,'' 
notwithstanding  the  serious  drawback  of  incessant  suffer- 
ing from  sea-sickness,  and  one  grave  illness  of  an  un- 
known nature,  a  large  number  of  specimens  and  a 
wonderful  store  of  observations  were  accumulated  in 
almost  every  department  of  natural  history,  which  served 
as  the  foundation  for  the  great  superstructure  to  which 
his  life  was  devoted. 

On  Darwin's  return  to  England  in  1836,  he  oscillated 
for  a  time  between  Cambridge  and  London,  working  at 
the  results  of  his  voyage  as  hard  as  his  health,  now  seri- 
ously impaired,  permitted.  In  1839  he  married,  and  after 
residing  in  Gower  Street  till  the  autumn  of  1842,  moved, 
in  the  hope  of  benefit  from  country  air,  to  a  house  which 
he  purchased  at  Down,  in  Kent,  and  in  which  the 
remainder  of  his  life  was  spent. 

Here,  after  the  immediate  fruits  of  the  Beagle  voyage 
were  given  to  the  world,  he  began  to  develop  the  great 
idea  of  which  the  germ  had  been  sown  and  quickened 
during  his  wanderings.  One  chapter  describes  how  "  the 
foundations  of  the  Origin  of  Species  were  laid  "  between 
the  years  1837  and  1844  ;  another  narrates  its  growth.  In 
1856,  partly  in  consequence  of  Lyell's  advice,  the  book 
was  begun  for  which  such  long  preparation  had  been 
made,  and  by  the  month  of  June  1858  about  one-half 
was  written.  It  was,  however,  on  a  much  greater  scale 
than  that  which  has  now  become  classic  in  England, — 
"  three  or  four  times  as  extensive."  Then  suddenly  all 
was  changed  by  the  receipt  of  a  manuscript  from  Mr. 
Wallace,  from  his  distant  sphere  of  work  in  the  Malay 


Archipelago,  which  coincided  so  exactly  with  his  own 
views  that,  as  Darwin  writes  to  Lyell,  "  if  Wallace  had 
my  manuscript  sketch  written  out  in  1842,  he  could  not 
have  made  a  better  short  abstract."  The  story  of  this 
interesting  episode,  so  honourable  in  every  respect  to  all 
concerned,  is  told,  chiefly  by  means  of  letters,  in  one 
chapter  of  the  book.  In  these  days,  when  too  often  the 
stream  of  scientific  life  is  ruffled  by  miserable  personal 
squabbles  about  priority  in  some  trifling  discovery,  it  is 
well  to  learn  how  men  acted  whose  hearts  were  as  large 
as  their  intellects  were  great. 

The  result  of  the  simultaneous  announcement  of  the 
hypothesis  thus  independently  framed  was  that  the  plan 
of  the  larger  work  was  abandoned,  and  the  "  Origin 
of  Species  by  means  of  Natural  Selection,"  or  "  An 
Abstract  of  an  Essay  on  the  Origin  of  Species  through 
Natural  Selection,"  as  the  author  would  have  preferred  to 
call  it,  was  published  in  1859.  It  is  needless  to  epitomize 
the  story  of  its  reception  by  the  public— of  the  opposition 
which  it  encountered — of  the  storm  which  it  aroused — of 
its  ultimate  triumph :  all  this  is  admirably  told  by  Prof. 
Huxley  in  a  chapter  which  he  has  contributed  to  the 
work. 

Of  all  the  accusations  brought  against  Darwin,  perhaps 
the  most  unreasonable  was  the  frequent  one  that  he  had 
"  abandoned  the  true  Baconian  method."  I  do  not  profess 
to  be  very  familiar  with  the  philosophy  of  Bacon  ;  but  if 
accumulating  a  mass  of  facts,  co-ordinating  them,  and 
then  drawing  inductions,  is  not  the  true  method  of  science, 
I  do  not  know  of  any  other ;  and  this  method  inspires 
every  chapter  of  the  "  Origin  of  Species." 

In  the  correspondence  which  was  written  during  the  re- 
mainder of  the  author's  life,  occupying  nearly  half  the  work, 
we  read  of  how  the  "Origin  of  Species"  won  its  way, 
edition  following  edition,  and  of  the  series  of  later  works 
and  occasional  papers  which  continued  till  within  a  few 
months  of  the  end.  This  came  rather  suddenly,  though 
in  the  fullness  of  years.  For  the  last  ten  years  of  his  life 
his  health  had  appeared  somewhat  better  than  formerly, 
but  in  the  early  months  of  1882  it  gave  repeated  cause 
for  alarm,  and  at  last,  on  April  19,  after  a  brief  period  of 
suffering,  he  ceased  from  that  labour  which  only  sickness 
had  ever  made  a  burden. 

The  quantity  of  work  which  he  had  accomplished  is 
astonishing  when  its  quality — always  the  best  that  could 
be  done  by  the  man — is  considered.  True,  Darwin,  though 
only  to  be  called  wealthy  towards  the  end  of  his  life,  was 
always  free  from  the  necessity  of  bread-winning.  But 
then — and  what  a  terrible  set-off  this  implies — "for 
nearly  forty  years  he  never  knew  one  day  of  the  health  of 
ordinary  men,  and  thus  his  life  was  one  long  struggle 
against  the  weariness  and  strain  of  sickness." 

In  one  respect  Darwin  was  felix  opportunitate  vitce. 
He  lived  before  scientific  literature  had  attained  its 
present  overwhelming  proportions.  It  is  charming  to  read 
such  a  passage  as  this  :  "  Geology  is  a  capital  science  to 
begin,  as  it  requires  nothing  but  a  little  reading,  thinking, 
and  hammering."  We  might  add,  "  with  the  mind  of  a 
Darwin," — at  least  to  get  such  wonderful  results  as  in  the 
"  Geological  Observations."  If  anyone  of  the  present  day 
is  getting  proud  of  what  he  may  have  done  in  petrology, 
I  would  prescribe  Part  I.  of  that  work  as  a  corrective. 
But  if  now  we  learn  much  from  others,  and  gain  much 


Nov.  24,  1887] 


NATURE 


75 


from  the  perfection  of  our  means  of  research,  we  are 
apt  to  lose  in  independence  and  vigour  of  mind,  to  say 
nothing  of  the  time  which  is  wasted  in  the  weary  wading 
through  piles  of  periodicals,  often  with  but  little  fruit  as 
the  result.  Mathematicians  know  that  solving  problems 
gives  a  strength  to  the  mind  which  cannot  be  obtained 
from  the  most  careful  study  of  book-work,  and  I  have 
often  ventured  to  think  that  to  write  the  section  on  the 
"  literature  of  the  subject "  as  the  last  stage  of  a  research 
is  not  so  much  to  "•  put  the  cart  before  the  horse  "  as  it 
seems.  Something,  too,  may  be  lost  through  the  very 
perfection  of  the  means  of  research  in  natural  history  :  the 
mind  may  be  tempted  to  dwell  too  much  on  details  ;  and 
the  over-careful  study  of  these  may  lead  men  to  miss  the 
greater  principles.  Darwin  was  an  observer,  precise  and 
minute  as  any,  but  it  is  interesting  to  note  that  he  was 
always  guided  by  a  selective  principle. 

The  greatest  charm  of  the  "  Life  "  is  that  it  draws  so 
vivid  a  picture  of  the  man  himself — partly  from  the  un- 
conscious self-portraiture  of  his  letters,  partly  from  the 
tender   touch  of   his   son's   hand,   aided    by   the   loving 
memories  of  other  members  of  his  family.     Before  us 
rises  that  tall,  slightly  stooping  form,  either  walking  with 
swinging  though  often  feeble  step,  cloaked  and  staff  in 
hand,  along  the  "  sand  walk,"  or  seated  or  reclining  in 
that  study  which  bore  silent  testimony  to  the  orderly  habits 
learnt  in  the  tiny  cabin  of  the  Beagle  ;  we  see  that  massive 
forehead,  those  keen  yet  kindly  eyes,  shadowed  by  those 
overhanging  brows,  the  sparse  gray  hair,  the  long  gray 
beard,   that   winning   smile   which   lit    up   those   rugged 
features  ;  we  hear  once  more  the  kindly  voice  ;  but  better 
still,  there  rises,  fresh  and  ever  instructive,  the  memory 
not  only  of  one  of  the  grandest  intellects,  but  also  of  one 
of  the  noblest  and  truest  natures,  among  the  sons  of  men. 
Unruffled  by  carping  criticism   and  virulent   abuse,   in 
silent  dignity  Charles  Darwin  laboured  on,  in  the  quiet 
consciousness  of  strength  and  the  conviction  that  truth 
would   at   last   prevail.     No   one    can   read   the   life    of 
Darwin  without  feeling  as  if  some  healthful  air  from  a 
better  world  had  braced  his  moral  fibre  and  nerved  him 
for  more  earnest  and  more  unselfish  work. 

Truly  the  last  scene  of  all  was  a  "  Great  Lesson."  His 
family  would  have  laid  him  in  the  quiet  churchyard  near 
his  own  home;  but  his  fellow-workers  in  science  desired 
md  obtained  that  his  grave  should  be  made  in  West- 
minster Abbey.  Some  quarter  of  a  century  before  that 
day  many  thoughtful  men  hesitated  in  accepting,  or  even 
opposed,  the  views  which  he  had  maintained  ;  while  the 
camp-followers  and  swash-bucklers  of  the  religious  world 
had  discharged  at  him  their  volleys  of  vituperation.  The 
one  had  been  for  the  most  part  persuaded  ;  the  other  had 
slunk  away  to  growl  in  obscurity.  Now,  around  that 
grave  in  the  Valhalla  of  Britain,  were  gathered  the  leaders 
in  literature  and  science,  men  of  every  rank  in  life,  of 
every  form  of  creed — from  the  most  sincere  Christian  to 
the  no  less  sincere  Agnostic.  Time  had  shown  that  there 
was  no  necessary  opposition  between  the  inductions  of 
science  and  those  deeper  aspirations  and  beliefs  upon 
which  we  must  not  here  touch,  and  men  who  on  such 
points  felt  deeply  but  differently  from  Charles  Darwin 
came  no  less  willingly  than  others  to  pay  the  last  honours 
to  one  who  was  not  only  a  great  philosopher  but  also 
emphatically  a  good  man.  T.  G.  Bonney. 


OUR  BOOK  SHELF. 
A  Treafise  on  the  Integral  Calculus.     Part  L  Containing 
an  Elementary  Account  of  Elliptic  Integrals  and  Appli- 
cations to  Plane  Curves,  with  numerous  Examples.     By 
Ralph  A.  Roberts,  M.A.     (Dublin:  Hodges,  1887.) 

Most  students,  on  taking  up  this  book,  will  be  disposed 
to  ask,  "  Is  there  any  room  or  necessity  for  another 
work  on  the  Calculus  just  now?  Is  not  Williamson 
up  to  date  ?  "  Mr.  Roberts  gives  no  sign,  and  so 
we  are  led  to  search  out  for  ourselves  a  reason  for  the 
existence  of  the  work,  and  a  justification  of  the  same. 
In  his  two  previous  books  our  author  makes  great  use  of 
elliptic  functions,  and  a  chapter  is  devoted  to  the  discus- 
sion of  them  in  the  book  before  us,  and,  further,  this  fact 
is  prominently  noted  on  the  title-page  ;  hence  we  conclude 
that  Mr.  Roberts  has  had  in  view  mainly  the  treatment  of 
these  integrals,  and  to  make  his  treatise  self-sufficient 
he  has  surrounded  this  special  subject  with  such  preli- 
minaries and  accessories  as  he  deems  suitable  for  the 
elucidation  of  his  theme.  The  author  has  produced  a 
capital  book,  for  he  writes  with  extreme  care,  and  full 
knowledge  and  command  of  his  subject.  There  appears 
to  us  to  be  in  many  parts  a  novel  treatment — i.e.  con- 
sidering the  matter  in  the  light  of  English  treatises  on 
the  Calculus— and  there  is  copious  illustration.  There  is 
large  opportunity  for  practice  afforded  by  the  numerous 
examples  inserted  in  the  body  of  the  work,  and  also  at 
the  end.  Many  of  these  are  not  intended,  or  at  any  rate 
are  not  suitable,  for  babes  ;  they  are  strong  meat  for  adults. 
There  is  an  index  and  the  usual  table  of  contents. 

Solutiofis  to  Problems  contained  in  a  Tt-eatise  on  Plane 
I       Co-ordinate  Geometry.    By  I.  Todhunter,  F.R.S.  Edited 

by  C.  W.  Bourne,  M.A.      (London :    Macmillan  and 

Co.,  1887.) 
This  is  not  a  work  brought  out  with  a  rush,  for  the  greater 
portion  of  the  solutions  were  drawn  up  by  the  author 
fifteen  years  ago.  To  students  using  the  text-book  this 
will  be  a  valuable  companion,  for  Mr.  Bourne  has 
executed  his  task  with  care  and  ability.  Geometrical 
as  well  as  analytical  solutions  are  given,  and  impart  a 
pleasant  feature  to  the  book.  For  Mr.  Bourne's  sake  we 
regret  that  the  foundation  is  giving  way,  as  few  students 
now  read  the  "  Conies,"  for  that  fate  is  befalling  it  which 
the  author  himself  says  is  "  the  fate  of  all  academical 
text-books,"  viz.  obscurity  ("W.  Whewell,"  vol.  i.  p.  24). 
Todhunter's  own  views  respecting  "  Printed  Solutions " 
are  given  in  his  "  Essays"  (p.  81).  The  exercises,  how- 
ever, will  retain  their  utility  as  tests  for  ascertaining  a 
pupil's  grasp  of  the  subject,  in  spite  of  the  decay  of  the 
setting,  and  the  "Solutions"  we  can  recommend  to 
students  "  after  a  vigorous  effort  has  been  made  to  obtain 
the  solution  without  the  book." 

Lectures  on  Bacteria.  By  A.  De  Bary.  Second  Improved 
Edition.  Authorized  Translation  by  Henry  E.  F. 
Garnsey.  Revised  by  I.  B.  Balfour,  F.R.S.  (Oxford  : 
Clarendon  Press,  1887.) 
This  work  is  in  the  main  an  abridgment  of  a  number  of 
lectures,  some  of  which  were  delivered  in  a  connected 
series  as  a  University  course,  others  as  occasional  and 
separate  addresses.  The  author's  aim  is  to  set  forth 
the  present  state  of  our  knowledge  respecting  the  objects 
included  under  the  name  of  Bacteria.  Having  dealt  \yith 
cell-forms,  cell-unions,  and  cell-groupings,  he  describes 
the  course  of  development  of  Bacteria,  and  then  proceeds 
to  discuss  questions  as  to  the  position  of  Bacteria  in  the 
organic  world,  and  as  to  their  origin  and  distribution.  A 
chapter  on  vegetative  processes  is  followed  by  one  on  the 
relation  of  liacteria  to,  and  their  effect  upon,  their  sub- 
stratum ;  and  this  leads  to  an  account  of  the  forms  which 
excite  fermentation,  and  of  parasitic  Bacteria.  The  remain- 
ing chapters  are  on  the  harmless  parasites  of  wann- 
blooded  aaimals,  on  anthrax  and  fowl-cholera,  on  the 


76 


NATURE 


{Nov.  24,  1887 


causal  connection  between  parasitic  Bacteria  and  infec- 
tious diseases,  especially  in  warm-blooded  animals,  and 
on  diseases  caused  by  Bacteria  in  the  lower  animals  and 
in  plants.  The  work  will  be  very  useful  to  all  who  may 
wish  to  obtain  "  a  general  view  "  of  this  important  sub- 
ject. It  has  been  well  translated,  and  we  may  note  that 
a  valuable  list  of  publications  relating  to  Bacteria  is  given 
at  the  end  of  the  volume. 

Mattie's  Secret.    By  Emile  Desmaux.     (London  :  George 
Routledge  and  Sons,  1887.)  • 

This  book  is  evidently  a  French  work  very  well  trans- 
lated into  English.  It  is  practically  a  book  of  delightful 
gossip,  touching  on  many  important  points  of  science  ; 
while  theoretically  it  is  a  pleasing  story  of  a  sister  who 
devotes  her  time  to  her  little  brother  driven  from  school 
and  books  by  approaching  blindness.  The  scientific  part 
opens  with  the  explosion  of  fire-damp,  and  goes  on  to  the 
history  of  coal,  how  it  is  found,  in  what  shapes ;  and  then 
to  the  coal-mine  itself,  how  the  work  is  done,  and  the 
precautions  which  have  to  be  taken.  Next  follows  the 
history  of  diamonds,  what  they  are,  how  they  are  shaped 
into  different  forms  ;  and  then  comes  graphite  manufac- 
tured into  pencils.  The  history  of  beer  here  follows, 
how  it  is  prepared,  and  its  use.  Then  the  author  ex- 
plains torpedoes  and  torpedo-boats,  how  they  are  worked, 
and  the  method  of  launching  the  torpedo.  Glycerine, 
dynamite,  and  gunpowder,  their  dangerous  properties,  and 
how  they  are  prepared,  are  next  referred  to,  and  this  is 
followed  by  an  introduction  to  the  phenomena  of  sound. 

The  book  contains  a  hundred  good  illustrations  showing 
the  different  scientific  processes,  and  it  is  thoroughly 
interesting  throughout. 

The  question  arises  whether  fairy  tales  of  science  are 
not  as  interesting  to  children  as  fairy  tales  of  the  ordinary 
description.  The  author  is  evidently  of  this  opinion,  and 
we  are  inclined  to  agree  with  him.  A.  L. 


LETTERS   TO    THE  EDITOR. 

[The  Editor  does  not  hold  himself  responsible  for  opinions 
expressed  by  his  correspondents.  Neither  can  he  under- 
take to  return,  or  to  correspond  with  the  writers  of, 
rejected  manuscripts.  No  notice  is  taken  of  anonymous 
communications. 

[The  Editor  urgently  requests  correspondents  to  keep  their 
letters  as  short  as  possible.  The  pressure  on  his  space 
is  so  great  that  it  is  impossible  otherwise  to  insure  the 
appearance  even  of  communications  containing  interesting 
and  novel  facts.']  -  % 

Politics  and  the  Presidency  of  the  Royal  Society. 

Your  leader  of  last  week  reminds  me  not  a  little  of  one  of 
those  days  that  begin  somewhat  brightly  but  end  with  a  thunder- 
storm. As  a  Fellow  of  the  Royal  Society,  I  fail  to  see  what 
our  President  has  done  to  incur  the  reprobation  of  the  writer  of 
this  article.  I  will  take  in  order  the  two  charges  brought  against 
him.  Of  these,  the  first  is  that  he  became  President  of  the 
Victoria  Institute,  the  secoud  being  that  he  has  allowed  himself 
to  be  returned  as  member  of  Parliament  for  his  own  Uni- 
versity. 

I  do  not  fancy  the  writer  means  to  assert  that  the  predecessors 
of  Prof.  Stokes,  more  than  one  of  whom  held  strong  views  con- 
nected with  theology,  virtually  laid  these  aside  during  their 
tenure  of  office.  At  any  rate,  they  gave  ample  expression  to  them 
both  before  and  after  this  tenure.  I  gather  that  the  objection 
rather  is  that  Prof  Stokes,  during  his  tenure  of  office,  became 
President  of  another  Society — the  Victoria  Institute.  Now,  Sir, 
I  can  see  at  once  an  objection  to  the  President  of  the  Royal 
Society  being  at  the  same  time  President  of  any  of  the  other 
scientific  Societies,  such  as  the  Astronomical,  the  Physical,  the 
Chemical,  or  the  Zoological.  But  I  confess  I  fail  to  see  any 
objection  to  his  taking  office  in  a  Philosophical  Society,  which 
treats  of  subjects  not  really  connected  with  science. 

It  may  perhaps  be  thought  that  the  Victoria  Institute  was 


deficient  in  breadth  of  view,  and  I  think  that  until  lately  it 
was  open  to  this  objection.  But  I  have  reason  to  think  that 
Prof  Stokes  has  infused  into  it  a  better  spirit,  and  his  admirable 
opening  address  to  this  Society  has,  if  I  mistake  not,  appeared 
in  your  columns. 

In  this  address  he  acts  entirely  the  part  of  a  peacemaker, 
endeavouring  to  show  that  the  conclusions  of  science  cannot  be 
held  to  come  into  collision  with  what  may  be  regarded  as  the 
essential  truths  of  the  Christian  religion.  It  is  probable  that 
a  minority  of  Fellows  of  the  Royal  Society  may  believe  that 
certain  scientific  doctrines  have  disposed  of  the  claims  of  Chris- 
tianity. Must,  therefore,  the  President  be  precluded  from  going 
to  church  during  his  tenure  cf  office  ?  Unquestionably  the 
going  to  church  implies  taking  part  in  a  public  action  about 
which  the  opinions  of  the  Fellows  could  be  divided. 

It  is  in  truth  exceedingly  difficult,  if  not  impossible,  to  formu- 
late a  principle  which  shall  extinguish  the  peculiarities  of  one 
individual  while  it  leaves  untouched  the  field  around  him  repre- 
senting the  rights  and  privileges  of  others.  The  thing  was  tried 
once  before  in  the  time  of  Darius  the  Mede,  but  the  results  of 
the  experiment  were  not  of  an  encouraging  nature. 

I  come  now  to  the  second  and  most  important  charge  against 
our  President.  And  here  I  confess  I  cannot  help  being  a  little 
amused  at  the  writer's  dread  that  the  President  will  be  hunted 
out  of  his  scientific  chair  at  all  inconvenient  hours,  and  driven  to 
his  seat  at  St.  Stephen's  by  one  of  the  Whips  of  the  House.  And 
I  confess  that  I  am  equally  amused  at  the  thought  of  the  Royal 
Society  suffering  the  fearful  political  degradation  depicted  by  the 
writer,  entertaining  as  I  do  the  most  complete  confidence  in  the 
integrity  of  this  Society.  I  grant  freely  that  under  ordinary 
circumstances  it  is  undesirable  that  the  President  of  the  Royal 
Society  should  enter  the  House  of  Commons.  But  these  are  no 
ordinary  times,  and  we  are  now  engaged  in  a  struggle  that  means 
more  than  mere  party  warfare. 

I  do  not  wish  to  introduce  politics  into  these  pages,  but  I  may 
state  that  in  my  opinion,  and  I  think  I  may  say  in  that  of  many 
Fellows  of  the  Royal  Society,  the  question  just  now  is  one 
between  law  and  anarchy.  But  in  a  state  of  anarchy,  what  will 
suffer  more  than  knowledge?  In  such  a  state  will  there  be 
leisure  to  investigate — leisure  even  to  dispute?  And  if  this  be 
so,  should  not  Culture,  which  is  more  threatened  than  anything 
else,  raise  her  voice  in  the  Legislature  and  do  what  in  her  lies 
to  prevent  this  deplorable  consummation  ? 

Surely  it  is  this  grave  question,  rather  than  any  wish  to  represent 
the  every-day  interests  of  science,  that  has  induced  our  President 
to  enter  the  House.  He  has  chosen  to  be  an  Englishman  first, 
and  a  man  of  science  afterwards.  Who  will  blame  him  for 
this?  Balfour  Stewart. 


The  able  article  which  appeared  in  your  last  number  (p,  49) 
under  the  title  of  "Politics  and  the  Presidency  of  the  Royal 
Society,"  raises  a  question  of  such  magnitude,  not  only  in  its 
relation  to  science,  but  also  to  many  other  branches  of  human 
activity,  that  I  trust  to  your  courtesy  and  impartiality  to  give  me 
an  opportunity  of  briefly  indicating  some  considerations  calcu- 
lated to  lead  to  a  conclusion  different  from  that  at  which  the 
writer  of  the  article  in  question  has  arrived. 

The  Royal  Society  is  composed  of  members  who  differ  from 
one  another  in  their  views  on  political  and  many  other  subjects  ; 
nay,  more,  of  men  who  differ  from  one  another  in  their  views 
on  many  scientific  subjects.  Their  devotion  to  the  advancement 
of  natural  knowledge  is  the  common  ground  on  which  they 
meet. 

The  political  opinions  of  our  President  are  entirely  unknown 
to  us  officially,  and  it  may  confidently  be  asserted  that  he  is 
as  highly  esteemed  and  valued  as  President  by  those  among  us 
who  may  happen  privately  to  differ  from  him  widely  in  politics 
as  by  those  who  entertain  similar  political  opinions  to  his  own. 
His  action  in  political  matters  concerns  us  as  little  as  his 
opinions.  No  doubt  we  should  be  concerned  if  he  were  to 
undertake  any  duties  of  so  engrossing  a  kind  as  to  prevent  him 
from  fully  discharging  the  duties  of  President,  but  we  should  be 
so  equally  if  the  additional  work  were  not  political. 

It  is  conceivable,  though  We  will  hope  not  very  likely,  that  at 
some  future  time  the  Society  might  have  to  return  a  member  to 
the  House  of  Commons  ;  the  Society  would  then  be  in  a  similar 
position  to  that  in  which  several  of  our  Universities  are  placed  ; 
the  arguments  used  by  the  writer  of  the  article  might  then  be 
applied. 

Our  President  cannot,  however,  be  supposed  to  have  entered 


Nov.  24,  1887] 


NATURE 


77 


the  House  as  the  political  representative  of  the  Royal  Society, 
for  two  reasons  :  first,  because  the  Society  has,  in  its  corporate 
capacity,  notoriously  no  political  opinions  to  be  represented  ; 
and,  secondly,  because  we  have  not  sent  him  to  the  House. 

Alex.  W,  Williamson. 
High  Pitfold,  Haslemere,  November  19. 


"The  Conspiracy. of  Silence." 

Though  I  am  sorry  to  have  misunderstood  the  meaning  of 
the  Duke  of  Argyll  in  his  "  Great  Lesson,"  when  I  supposed 
him  to  accuse  scientific  men  of  virtually  conspiring  to  suppress 
any  unwelcome  truth,  I  think  I  am  not  without  excuse. 
Certainly  I  was  not  alone  in  the  illusion,  and  I  believe  that 
many  would  even  now  say  that  the  Duke  of  -Argyll — in  writing 
some  of  the  passages  which  I  quoted,  and  in  using  such  phrases 
as  "reluctant  to  admit  such  an  error  in  the  great  idol,"  "slow 
and  sulky  acquiescence,"  "reluctantly,  almost  sulkily,"  "a 
grudging  silence,"  not  to  quote  any  others — has  certainly  not 
expressed  with  felicity  the  lesson  which  he  intended  to  inculcate. 
Further,  in  regard  to  the  special  instance  brought  forward  by  the 
Duke  (that  of  Mr.  Murray's  paper)  it  does  not  appear  to  me 
that  he  has  even  now  established  his  charge.  The  Duke  states 
that  he  has  seen  a  letter,  written  by  the  late  Sir  Wyville 
Thomson,  most  strongly  urging  Mr.  Murray  to  withdraw  the 
paper  which  he  had  sent  to  the  Royal  Society  of  Edinburgh. 
The  Duke  further  tells  us  candidly  that  no  reason  is  alleged  in 
the  letter.  Hence,  Sir  Wyville  Thomson's  motive  is  a  matter 
of  inference  only.  I  hope  I  shall  not  give  offence  to  my  friend 
Mr.  Murray  if  I  suggest  that  it  may  have  been  different  from 
that  which  the  Duke  supposes.  In  1877,  so  far  as  I  can  ascer- 
tain, Mr.  Murray  had  not  had  much  practice  in  writing  papers. 
There  is  an  art  in  this,  which  we  have  to  learn  by  practice  and 
the  kindly  criticism  of  our  manuscripts  by  friends.  As  the  best 
meat  may  be  spoiled  by  an  inexperienced  cook,  so  the  best  mate- 
rial may  be  damaged  by  an  inexperienced  author.  Sir  Wyville 
Thomson  would  naturally  feel  very  sensitive  about  any  com- 
munications bearing  the  names  of  members  of  the  Challenger 
Expedition,  for  if  among  its  first-fruits  had  been  a  paper  un- 
satisfactory either  as  to  style  or  arrangement,  yet  controverting 
the  deliberate  conclusions  of  those  hardly  less  well  qualified  to 
judge,  a  spirit  of  criticism  and  of  distrust  as  to  the  thoroughness 
of  the  work  of  the  Exped  ition  would  have  been  aroused.  Of  course 
this  is  an  hypothesis  only,  which  I  trust  Mr.  Murray  will  forgive 
me  for  making,  but  I  can  assure  him  that  I  am  conscious  of  my 
own  youthful  imperfections  (not  to  mention  the  mistakes  of 
maturer  years),  and  I  submit  that  it  is  at  least  as  good  as  the 
Duke's,  and  more  charitable  to  the  memory  of  Sir  Wyville 
Thomson. 

In  regard  to  the  new  case  which  the  Duke  of  Argyll  brings 
forward,  and  with  which  he  connects  my  name,  he  is  not  quite 
accurate  in  his  facts  and  is  wrong  in  his  inference.  Mr.  Guppy's 
paper  was  not  "refused"  by  the  Geological  Society  o'  London. 
The  President  has  the  power  in  certain  cases,  and  under  certain 
conditions,  to  refuse  to  put  down  for  reading  a  paper  written  by 
a  Fellow.  I  did  not  exercise  that  power.  The  Council,  after 
a  paper  has  been  read,  can  refuse  to  print  it.  As  Mr.  Guppy's 
paper  was  never  read,  obviously  this  did  not  happen.  Probably 
the  circumstances  were  as  follows, — I  say  probably,  for  I  have 
no  distinct^recollection  of  them.  Mr.  Guppy's  paper  may  have 
been  sent,  as  is  often  done,  for  an  informal  expression  of  opinion 
as  to  whether  the  paper  seemed  suitable  for  the  Society's  con- 
sideration. In  such  case  it  would  be  shown  either  to  one  of 
the  secretaries  or  to  the  President,  and  the  opinion,  favourable 
or  otherwise,  communicated  to  the  author,  who  would  then 
be  free  to  act  as  he  thought  best.  Now,  if  Mr.  Guppy's 
paper  was  identical  with  that  printed  in  the  Proceedings 
of  the  Royal  Society  of  Edinburgh  (vol.  xiii.  p.  857)  I  have 
no  doubt  that  my  answer  was  to  this  effect  :  that  it  contained 
so  much  matter  which  belonged  rather  to  natural  history 
than  to  geology  that  I  thought  it  was  likely  to  suffer  much 
excision  before  it  was  printed  in  our  Journal,  especially  at  that 
time,  and  was  more  suited  for  a  Society  of  a  wider  scope  than 
our  own.  I  have  i^ain  referred  to  the  paper,  and,  without 
entering  upon  its  merits,  of  which  I  am  fully  sensible,  am  still  of 
opinion  that,  while  it  is  in  its  place  in  the  Proceedings  of  a  Royal 
Society  which  includes  all  branches  of  science,  it  would  have  to 
be  considerably  abridged  to  fit  it  for  those  of  a  Geological 
Society.  Of  course  that  is  only  my  opinion,  but  after  full  ten 
years'  experience,  eight  of  them  as  an  officer,  on  the  Council  of 


the  Geological  Society  of  London,  I  may  claim  some  knowledge 
of  the  principles  on  which  that  body  acts.  Moreover,  at  that 
time  the  Society  was  suffering  from  a  falling  off  in  revenue,  with 
no  corresponding  decline  in  the  number  of  papers  which  it  was 
mvited  to  publish.  This  I  knew  had  compelled  the  Council  to 
exceptional  strictness.  The  difficulties  of  the  Society  were 
indeed  so  considerable  that  I  commented  on  them  in  my  address 
on  quitting  office  in  1886,  expressing  at  the  same  time  my  own 
view  as  to  how  they  should  be  met.  But  though,  as  I  have  said, 
I  have  no  clear  recollection  of  the  circum nances,  I  can  speak 
positively  of  one  thing,  that  if  in  any  way  I  discouraged  Mr.Guppy 
from  communicating  his  paper  it  was  not  because  I  "  smeU  a 
heresy."  It  is  something  quite  new  for  me  to  stand  accused  of 
being  a  prompt  suppresser  of  heresies.  My  orthodoxy  has  not 
always  been  considered  unimpeachable  amon?  the  clergy,  and 
surely  my  scientific  papers  are  not  generally  on  the  side  of 
"  established  views." 

To  conclude,  the  Duke  still — and  this  is  our  special  complaint 
— treats  the  matter  rather  according  to  ecclesiastical  than  to 
scientific  methods.  He  is  fully  persuaded  of  the  excellence  of 
Mr.  Murray's  hypothesis,  and  considers  it  to  be  "one  of  those 
discoveries  in  science  which  are  self-luminous,"  and  "must  carry 
conviction  to  all."  Very  well,  but  there  are  some  people,  not 
very  few  in  number,  who  do  not  share  his  opinion.  He  cannot 
understand  that  our  doubts  can  be  due  to  anything  else  but 
"prepossession,"  which  has  prevented  our  minds  from  being 
"  alive  to  the  breadth  and  sweep  of  the  questions  at  issue."  I 
humbly  reply  that  this  is  not  the  case  ;  that  we  claim  to  exercise 
the  right  of  private  judgment,  and  decline  to  submit  to  any  pope, 
from  whatever  part  of  the  United  Kingdom  he  may  issue  his 

Bull.  T.    G.    BONNEY. 


Instability  of  Freshly-Magnetized  Needles. 

Your  reviewer  objects  to  a  statement  in  my  "Theory  of 
Magnetic  Measurements,"  to  the  effect  that  freshly-magnetized 
needles  give  untrustworthy  readings  for  several  minutes  after 
magnetization  (see  Nature,  vol.  xxxvi.  p.  316).  In 
reply  to  his  statement  that  this  is  contrary  to  experience, 
I  wish  to  say  that  it  is  not  ontrary  to  my  experience. 
In  working  with  two  8-inch  needles  I  continually  observed  this 
phenomenon  for  years,  and  it  was  so  marked  that  I  could  not 
feel  satisfied  to  omit  the  piecaution  which  the  critic  condemns. 
I  know  of  one  other  observer  who  has  had  a  similar  experience 
with  another  needle.  My  needles  were  not  very  hard,  and 
perhaps  this  may  have  had  to  do  with  the  phenomenon. 

It  is  not  desirable  to  make  any  reply  to  criticisms,  even  though 
they  seem  not  quite  fairly  taken,  but  it  ought  to  be  suggested 
that  those  who  are  unable  to  apply  general  formulae  to  a  special 
form  of  instrument  after  they  have  been  shown  how  to  apply 
them  to  a  similar  instrument  might  perhaps  meet  with  more 
success  in  some  other  line  of  business. 

Francis  E.  Nipher. 

In  the  passage  to  which  Prof  Nipher  refers  I  contrasted  what 
seemed  to  me  the  excessive  precautions  prescribed  in  the  directions 
for  obtaining  the  dip  with  a  rather  rough-and-ready  method  of 
manipulation  elsewhere  suggested  by  him.  That  the  ma^^etic 
axis  of  a  piece  of  steel  may  shift  is  possible.  My  criticism  was 
directed  to  the  question  as  to  whether,  as  a  matter  of  experience, 
such  a  shift  is  a  cause  of  error  of  practical  importance  in  the 
determination  of  the  dip.  It  would,  therefore,  be  interesting  if 
Prof.  Nipher  would  publish  the  details  of  the  observations  on 
which  his  conclusion  is  based,  so  that  the  extent  to  which  a 
measurement  of  the  inclination  may  be  rendered  untrustworthy  by 
not  waiting  for  some  minutes  after  magnetizing  the  needle  may 
be  in  evidence.  Meanwhile  it  may  be  well  that  I  should  define 
my  own  views  on  the  matter. 

On  looking  through  the  observations  made  in  the  magnetic 
survey  of  Missouri,  which  Prof  Nipher  is  conducting,  I  find  that 
the  dips  obtained  with  different  needles  vary  widely.  Thus, 
taking  the  last  Report  to  which  I  have  access,  in  which  the  work 
of  the  year  1881  is  described  (Trans.  Acad.  Sci.  St.  Louis, 
vol.  iv.  No.  3,  p.  480),  the  dip  was  determined  with  two  needles 
at  fifteen  stations.  At  seven  of  these  the  difference  between  the 
results  obtained  by  the  two  needles  was  equal  to,  or  greater  than, 
4'.  At  one  station  it  was  24' 8,  and  at  others  if '2,  ii'7,  9' '4, 
and  8' -9  respectively.  If  these  are  examples  of  trustworthy  read- 
iness (and  from  their  publication  we  must  suppose  that  they  are 
sot,  and  if  the  differences  obtained  when  the  observations  are  un- 
trustworthy on  account  of  the  shift  of  the  magnetic  axis  are  greater 


78 


NA  TURE 


{Nov.  24,  1887 


than  these,  Prof.  Nipher's  experience  is  totally  at  variance  with 
my  own. 

During  the  last  four  years,  Dr.  Thorpe  and  I,  assisted  at  some 
Scotch  stations  by  Mr.  A.  P.  Laurie,  have  made  about  three 
hundred  independent  determinations  of  the  dip.  The  observations 
have  been  made  in  the  course  of  a  magnelicsurvey  of  the  United 
Kingdom  at  various  stations,  in  all  weathers,  and  without  any 
delay  after  magnetization.  We  have  used  two  sets  of  32-inch 
needjes,  and  have  made  determinations  with  two  needles  at  nearly 
all  the  stations.  In  no  single  case  does  the  difference  between 
the  results  obtained  with  two  needles  amount  to  4'.  In 
three  or  four  cases  only  does  it  exceed  3',  while  differences 
of  2' are  relatively  rare.  Thus  in  forty-six  ^scotch  stations  (for 
which  alone  the  results  are  fully  tabulated)  the  differenc-s  ex- 
ceeded 2'  in  nine  cases  only.  Mr.  Welsh,  in  the  survey  of 
Scotia  id,  recorded  in  the  Report  of  the  British  Association  for 
1859,  and  the  Rev.  S.  Perry  obtained  results  in  which  the 
discordance  between  the  two  needles  was  of  the  same  order  of 
magnitude  as  in  our  own  work. 

If,  therefore,  Prof.  Nipher  refers  to  differences  comparable 
with  those  exhibited  by  his  published  observations,  they  are  con- 
trary to  the  experience  of  observers  working  with  better  constructed 
instruments.  If  he  refers  to  errors  smaller  but  observed  with  an 
instrument  with  which  a  discordance  bet\\een  the  two  needles  of 
from  10'  to  24'  can  be  tolerated,  I  should  doubt  if  his  apparatus 
is  suitable  for  the  elucidation  of  the  point.  If  he  is  in  possession 
of  good  evidence  that,  in  the  case  of  needles  for  wh'ch  the  maxi- 
mum difference  between  observations  made  without  delay 
after  magnetization  is  not  greater  than  4',  the  accord  between 
them  is  improved  by  delay,  the  matter  is  no  doubt  of 
interest  for  observatory  work.  My  own  experience  has  been 
chiefly  gained  in  the  field,  and  I  can  only  say  that  I  have  never 
noticed  anything  which  led  me  to  suspect  such  a  cause  of  error. 

It  is,  however,  capable  of  proof  that  the  improvement  can  be 
but  small,  as  results  obtained  in  a  laboratory  and  without  the 
precaution  Prof.  Nipher  insists  on  agree  nearly  to  the  limit 
to  which  the  instrument  can  be  read. 

This  can  be  illustrated  from  the  observations  made  by  Dr. 
Thorpe  and  myself  at  Kew  for  the  purpose  of  testing  our  survey 
instruments.  At  first  we  employed  only  a  circle  by  Dover,  No.  74- 
The  following  observati  ms  were  made  with  it  in  the  magnetic 
house  by  Mr.  Baker,  the  Chief  Assistant,  and  ourselves  : — 


Date,  1884. 

Observer. 

Needle. 

Dip. 

June  24 

Baker 

I 

67  36-8 

2 

365 

July  18 

Thorpe 

I 

67  36-1 

2 

360 

»      19 

Riicker 

I 

67  36-5 

2 

36-1 

Mean. 


(>1  366 
67  36-0 
67  36-3 


These  results  were  about  2'  lower  than  those  obtained  by  Mr. 
Baker  with  the  Kew  instrument  about  the  same  time,  but  what- 
ever the  cause  of  this  may  have  been  they  certainly  do  not  convey 
the  idea  of  instability. 

Lately  we  have  again  compared  No.  74  with  the  Kew  instru- 
ment and  with  Dover  No.  83,  which  belongs  to  the  Science  and 
Art  Department.  Thus  six  needles  (two  belonging  to  each 
instrument)  were  used.  I  quote  (he  results,  not  as  in  any  way 
extraordinary,  but  as  types  of  the  accuracy  usually  obtained  by 
competent  observers  with  good  ins'ruments  : — 


Date,  1887 

Observer. 

Ins'rument. 

Needle. 

Dip. 

Mean. 

Sept.  30 

Riicker 

Dover  74 

2 

67   35-4 

34-8 

67  35'-i 

Oct.    II 

Thorpe 

Dover  83 

I 
2 

67  33-9 
34-9 

67  34"4 

,.     13 

»> 

)> 

I 

2 

67  360 
361 

67  36-0 

„     18 

»> 

>» 

I 

2 

67  34-2 
34'2 

67  34-2 

»     19 

Riicker 

Dover  74 

I 

2 

67  35-0 
33  4 

67  34-2 

Mr.  Baker's  observations  with  the  Kew  instrument  are  again 
(as  is  shown  below)  a  little  higher  than  those  obtained  with 
Dover's  circles. 


Date,  1887. 

Needle. 

Dip. 

Mean. 

Sept.  22 
Sept.  24 
Oct.    25 

I 
2 
I 
2 
I 
2 

67    35-3 
36-0 

67  37'6 
37-4 

67  38-8 
37-0 

67  35-6 
67  37-5 
67  37-9 

Judging  then  from  these  results  and  from  our  own  field  obser- 
vations, I  do  not  believe  that,  apart  from  small  instrumental 
errors,  the  error  of  the  determination  of  the  dip  with  a  single 
needle,  and  without  any  delay  after  magnetization,  will  in  general 
exceed  ±  i'.  Under  unfavourable  circumstances  it  may  reach 
±  i'"5.  These  estimates  embrace  not  only  the  assumed  insta- 
bility of  the  magnetic  axis,  but  that  and  all  other  causes  of  error 
combined.  That  some  effect  of  the  kind  referred  to  by  Prof. 
Nipher,  which  only  affects  the  re.sult  below  these  limits,  may 
exist  even  in  good  needles  is  perhaps  possible.  As  the  verniers 
of  the  circles  only  read  to  minutes  it  could  not  be  detected  except 
by  making  a  number  of  observations  for  the  purpose. 

In  conclusion  I  may  add  that  for  good  dip  observations  good 
instruments  are  es-ential.  In  a  preliminary  survey  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  Mull,  made  in  1883,  we  employed  an  older 
instrument  which  had  been  a  good  deal  used  in  a  laboratory. 
The  measurements  made  with  it  were  less  satisfactory  than  those 
above  described,  but  the  largest  difference  between  the  two 
needles  did  ujt  exceed  6'.  For  survey  purposes  ir^mall  needles 
and  circles  seem  on  all  accounts  better  than  the  large  ones  used 
by  Prof.  Nipher.  Arthur  W.   Rucker. 

South  Kensington,  November  2. 


Greek  Geometry. 

In  the  notice  of  the  last  part  of  "Greek  Geometry  from 
Thales  to  Euclid"  (Nature,  vol.  xxxiv.  p.  548)  I  was 
uncertain  whether  Dr.  Allman  intended  it  to  be  Part  vii.  or  not ; 
I  observe  from  the  extract  before  me  {Hentiathena,  No.  xiii., 
1887,  vol.  vi.  pp.  269-78)  that  the  present  part  is  so  entitled. 
The  author's  plan  led  him  to  the  temporary  omi-^sion  of 
Thesetetus  of  Athens,  a  pupil  of  Theodorus  of  Cyre.ie,  and  also  a 
disciple  of  Socrates,  who  greatly  advanced  the  science  of 
geometry.  How  his  gifts  and  genius  impressed  both  Socrates 
and  Plato  is  well  known  from  the  dialogue  which  bears  his 
name.  From  an  analysis  which  our  author  makes  of  part  of  this 
dialogue  it  appears  that  Thefetetus,  in  addition  to  Eudoxus  and 
the  Pythagoreans,  was  one  of  the  original  thinkers  to  whom 
Euclid  was  most  indebted  in  the  composition  of  the  "  Elements." 
Dr.  Allman  thus  recapitulates  : — "In  the  former  parts  of  this 
paper  we  have  seen  that  we  owe  to  the  Pythagoreans  the  sub- 
stance of  the  first,  second,  and  fourth  books,  also  the  doctrine  of 
proportion  and  of  the  similarity  of  figures,  together  with  the 
discoveries  respecting  the  application,  excess,  and  defect  of  areas, 
the  subject-matter  of  the  sixth  book.  The  theorems  arrived  at, 
however,  were  proved  for  commensurable  magnitudes  only,  and 
assumed  to  hold  good  for  all.  We  have  seen,  further,  that  the 
doctrine  of  proportion,  treated  in  a  general  manner,  so  as  to 
include  incommensurables  (Book  v.),  and  consequently  the  re- 
casting of  Book  vi.  and  also  the  method  of  exhaustions 
(Book  xii.)  were  the  work  of  Eudoxus.  If  we  are  asked  now  : 
In  what  portion  of  the  '  Elements  '  does  the  work  of  Thea:tetus 
survive?  we  answer:  Since  Books  vii.,  viii.,  and  ix.  treat  of 
numbers,  and  our  question  concerns  geometry  ;  and  since  the 
substance  of  Book  xi.,  containing,  as  it  does,  the  basis  -of  the 
geometry  of  volumes,  is  probably  of  ancient  date,  we  are  led  to 
seek  for  the  work  of  Theeetetus  in  Books  x.  and  xii.  ;  and  it  is 
precisely  with  the  subjects  of  these  books  that  the  extracts  (rt'), 
\e),  and  (/)  are  concerned." 

The  extract  {d)  states  that  Euclid,  x.  9,  is  attributed  to 
■  Theastetus  by  an  anonymous  scholiast,  probably  Proclus  ;  extract 
{e)  translates,  discusses,  and  illustrates  fully  the  passage  (147  D- 
148  B)  of  the  iJialogue  ;  and  extract  (/)  me  itions  the  statement 
by  Suidas,  thit  our  geometer  taught  at  Heraclea,  and  that  he 
first  wrote  on  "  the  five  solids,"  as  they  are  called.     Attention  is 


Nov.  24,  1887] 


NATURE 


79 


drawn  to  the  difference  in  expression  employed  by  Proclus,  viz. 
that  Euclid  arranged  many  works  of  Eudoxus,  and  completed 
many  of  those  of  Theoetetus,  from  which  Dr.  Allman  infers 
that,  "  whereas  the  bulk  of  the  fifth  and  twelfth  books  is  due  to 
Eudoxus  ;  on  the  other  hand,  Thecetetus  laid  the  foundation 
only  of  the  doctrine  of  inc  Miimensurables  as  treated  in  the 
tenth  book.  In  like  manner  from  (/)  we  infer  that  the  thir- 
teenth book,  treating  of  the  regular  solids,  is  based  on  the 
theorems  discovered  by  Thea^tetus ;  but  it  contains,  probably, 
a  recapitulation,  at  least  partial,  of  the  work  of  Aristseus" 
[cf.  Nature,  ubi  stipra\. 

The  author,  in  conclusion,  draws  the  inference  that  the  prin- 
cipal part  of  the  original  work  of  Euclid  himself  is  to  be 
found  in  the  tenth  book.  "  De  Morgan  suspected  that  in  this 
book  some  definite  object  was  sought,  and  suggested  that  the 
classification  of  incommensurable  quantities  contained  in  it  was 
undertaken  in  the  hope  of  determining  thereby  the  ratio  of 
the  circumference  of  the  circle  to  its  diameter,  and  thus 
solving  the  vexed  question  of  its  quadrature.  It  is  more 
probable,  however,  that  the  o!)ject  proposed  concerned  rather 
the  subject  of  Book  xiii.,  and  had  reference  to  the  deter- 
mination of  the  ratios  between  the  edges  of  the  regular  solids 
and  the  radius  of  the  circumscribed  sphere,  ratios  which  in  all 
cases  are  irrational.  In  this  way  is  seen,  on  the  one  hand,  the 
connection  which  exists  between  the  two  parts  of  the  work  of 
Thea^tetus,  and,  on  the  other,  light  is  thrown  on  the  tradition 
handed  down  by  Proclus,  that  Euclid  proposed  to  himself  the 
construction  of  the  so-called  Platonic  bodies  as  the  final  axiom 
of  his  systematization  of  the  '  Elements.'"  Here  for  the  pre- 
sent I  take  leave  of  the  author.  I  have  read  his  several  parts 
as  they  have  appeared  with  very  great  interest,  and  have  en- 
deavoured, without  going  far  into  technical  details,  to  indicate 
the  results  arrived  at,  and  I  hope  that  some  will  have  been  induced 
to  go  to  the  fountain-head  for  undiluted  draughts  from  this  refresh- 
ing stream.  I  need  only  repeat  the  expression  of  the  wisk, 
more  than  once  previously  uttered,  that  the  several  papers  may 
be  collected  into  a  handy  volume,  in  which  case  they  will  fitly  go 
side  by  i-ide  with  the  works  of  Bretschneider,  Cantor,  Tannery, 
and  other  distinguished  labourers  in  the  same  field.         R.  T. 


The  Chromosphere. 

Having  lately  devised  a  spectroscope  with  two  small  sextant 
telescopes  and  two  small  prisms,  one  of  "extra  dense  "  glass  by 
Hilger,  I  attached  it  to  a2i-inch  telescope,  and  tried  its  powers 
on  the  sun  on  the  6th  inst.,  with  the  result  that  not  only  were 
the  rays  C  and  D*  easily  visible  as  bright  lines,  but  I  also  found 
that  by  opening  the  slit  and  keeping  the  brighter  part  of  the 
spectrum  out  of  view  I  could  see  the  actual  ragged  surface  of  the 
*'  itorm-tossed  sea  of  hydrogen." 

I  found  the  depth  of  the  chromosphere  to  be  about  10",  by 
estimating  the  length  of  the  bright  line  when  exactly  tangential 
to  the  limb. 

This  result  shows  what  is  possible  with  small  instrumental 
means,  though  probably  much  was  due  to  an  exceptionally  clear 
sky.  ■  John  Evershed,  Jun. 

Perception  of  Colour. 

In  answer  to  Mr.  T.  W.  Backhouse,  I  would  suggest  that  he 
should  use  the  spectroscope  in  the  following  manner.  Hold  it 
between  the  luminous  object  (moon  or  street  lamp)  and  the  eye 
at  a  distance  of  about  12  or  15  inches  from  the  latter,  so 
that  only  part  of  the  spectrum  is  seen.  Then  remove  the 
specti'oscope  sideways,  and  pass  it  quickly  through  its  old 
position.  A  flash  of  coloured  light  will  be  seen,  and  no  matter 
what  may  be  the  direction  of  the  spectrum  with  reference  to  the 
line  of  motion  the  flash  will  always  be  seen  to  travel  from  the 
red  end  towards  the  blue  end.  Each  part  of  the  spectrum  can 
be  examined  separately. 

Whether  this  phenomenon  is  due  to  a  later  perception  or 
longer  retention  of  the  blue  light  as  compared  with  the  red  I 
cannot  at  present  say,  but  I  think  it  is  independent  of  the 
inten^ties.  C.  E.  Stromeyer. 

Swifts. 

On  June  19,  and  again  on  June  21  last,  in  the  evening,  I 
watched  avast  concourse  of  swifts  flying  over  this  town.  They 
slowly  soared  upward-,  shrieking  and  striking  at  each  other,  and 
at  last  went  so  far  up  in  the  sky  as  to  look  like  a  cloud  of  black 


gnats.  I  watched  them  till  dusk,  when  their  faint  cries  were 
still  audible,  and  when  these  had  died  away  in  the  distance  I 
waited  long  for  the  birds  to  descend,  but  they  did  not,  probably 
because  they  were  old  birds  which  had  been  sitting  all  day,  and 
were  glad  of  an  opportunity  to  stretch  their  long  wings  in  a  few 
hours'  flight.  No  great  height  would  necessarily  be  attained  by 
the  birds  during  the  short  midsummer  nights.  I  noticed  on 
several  subsequent  evenings  that  at  least  some  of  the  swifts  of 
the  town  did  not  stay  up  till  dusk  ;  but  I  am  not  the  less 
positive  that  on  June  19  and  21  they  spent  the  night  in  the  sky. 
Stroud.  C.  B.  WiTCHELL. 


Note  on  a  Madras  Micrococcus. 

The  sole  charge  of  a  Presidential  Museum  and  the  study  of 
that  high-road  to  pathological  eminence,  bacteriology,  are  un- 
fortunately not  compatible,  but  I  have  not  been  able  to  resist 
the  rough  investigation  of  a  phenomenon  wh'ch  stands  pro- 
minently out  before  my  eyes  as  I  write.  It  consists  of  a  thin, 
homogeneous,  pale  pink  pellicle,  covering  the  chunam  (shell- 
lime)  walls  of  my  house  on  the  side  exposed  to  the  heavy 
monsDon  rain,  which  is  at  present  varying  the  monotony  of 
our  "fine  sunny  days,"  which  so  impress  our  energetic  cold- 
weather  visitors,  who  learn  all  about  India  from  Calcutta  to 
Cape  Comorin  in  a  three  weeks'  tour.  So  evenly  is  the  pink- 
coloured  material  distributed  in  my  library,  that  its  walls  look 
as  if  they  had  been  painted  on  one  side,  and  whitewashed  on 
the  other  three  sides.  This  coloration,  which  is  well  known 
in  Madras,  is,  I  believe,  commonly  attributed  to  some  occult 
chemical  action  on  the  lime,  but  a  cover-glass  specimen  stained 
with  methylene  blue,  and  examined  with  a  |-inch  objective, 
decides  at  a  glance  that  it  is  caused  by  a  Micrococcus,  which,  in 
its  microscopical  appearance,  presents  nothing  remarkable. 

The  mode  of  growth  of  this  organism  on  or  in  artificial 
nutrient  media  I  have  not  attempted  to  investigate,  but  I  notice 
that  white  lead  does  not  agree  with  it,  as  its  growth  ceasei 
abruptly  at  the  painted  framework  of  the  doors  and  windows. 

As  I  cannot  find  any  description,  in  the  reference-books  at  my 
disposal,  of  a  Micrococcus  which  corresponds  to  the  one  here 
described,  I  christen  it  provisionally  Micrococcus  madraspatanus, 
Madraspatan  being  the  old  name  of  Madras,  which  is,  according 
to  Lassen,  a  corruption  of  Manda-rajya,  meaning  "  realm  of 
the  stupid."'  Edgar  Thurston. 

Government  Central  Museum,  Madras, 
October  26. 


Catharinea  undulata. 

In  October  1886  I  found,  in  Hertfordshire,  two  specimens  of 
Catharinea  undulata,  Web.  et  Mohr.,  bearing  fruit  in  the  axils 
of  the  leaves  ;  those  specimens  I  unfortunately  lost. 

When  this  summer  in  Norway,  I  had  the  good  fortune 
and  pleasure  of  meeting  Prof.  S.  O.  Lindberg,  of  Helsingfors, 
and  I  mentioned  the  fact  of  the  discovery  to  him.  He  then  told 
nie  that  similar  specimens  had  been  found  in  Norway  some 
little  time  before,  and  described  under  the  name  of  C.  anomola, 
Lindberg  and  Bryhn.  In  consequence  of  my  conversation  with 
Prof.  Lindberg  I  looked  again  this  autumn  for  specimens  similar 
to  those  I  had  found  last  year,  and  after  some  little  search  I 
f.und  some  half-dozen  or  so  near  the  same  spot  where  I  had 
found  them  last  year. 

The  specimens  I  now  have  in  my  possession  bear  fruit  at  the 
apex  of  the  stem,  and  also  one,  or  sometimes  two,  setae  in  axils 
of  leaves  below  the  apex.  These  pleurocarpous  setae  differ  from 
the  acrocarpous  by  being  twisted  in  a  spiral  manner,  not  being 
straight  as  the  acrocarpous  fruits  are  ;  they  are  inserted  in  a 
vaginula  in  the  axil  of  the  leaf,  without  any  perichoetial  leaves. 

I  thould  be  glad  if  bryologists  generally  would  look  out  for 
specimens  of  this  form.  I  should  also  consider  it  a  great  favour 
if  any  collectors  who  may  find  specimens  would  let  me  know, 
and  provide  me  with  an  accurate  description,  or  send  me  the 
specimens  for  inspection.  Specimens  should  be  preserved  in 
strong  methylated  spirit,  otherwise  it  may  be  difficult  to  verify 
some  important  details. 

There  is  a  brief  reference  to  the  Norwegian  specmiens  m  llie 
Botanische  Centralblatt,  Band  xxix.  p.  2,  1887;  the  full  de- 
scription is,  I  believe,  to  be  found  in  the  Botaniska  Notiser, 
1886,  p.  157  ;  the  latter  I  have  not  yet  been  able  to  obtain  access 
to,  though  I  hope  to  do  so  soon.  J.  Reynolds  Vaizey. 

Botanical  I  aboratory,  Cambridge,  November  18. 


8o 


NATURE 


S^Nov.  24,  1887 


RESEARCHES   ON    METEORITES} 
II. 

The  Cases  of  Nova  Orionis  and  R  Gcminorwn. 

'X'HE  stars  with  bright  carbon  flutings,  the  same  as  those  seen 
■^  in  comets,  are  not  limited  to  fir^t-magnitude  stars,  such  as 
a  Orionis,  but  include  at  least  one  new  star,  Nova  Orionis. 
Because  the  latter  star  lasted  but  a  short  time  we  might  expect 
the  phenomena  presented  to  be  different  from  those  found  in  the 
first-magnitude  star,  which  is  a  variable,  like  others  with  similar 
composite  spectra.  Practically  there  is  little  difference,  for  in 
a  Orionis,  a  Herculis,  and  others  of  that  type,  we  find  well- 
marked  dark  absorption  flutings  of  manganese,  as  well  as  line- 
absorption  of  sodium  and  magnesium.^  The  absorptions  are  not 
so  well  developed  in  the  Nova,  for  the  reason,  perhaps,  that 
condensation  due  to  gravity  had  not  taken  place  to  such 
a  great  extent,  so  that  the  heat  of  the  stones  themselves  was 
not  so  great,  and  further  because  the  local  absorption  around 
each  meteorite  would  be  cloaked    by  the    bright  radiation  of 


the  interspaces,  which  gives,  as  in  comets,  the  maximum  inten- 
sity to  the  bright  fluting,  wave-length  517.  In  R  Geminorum 
the  demonstration  of  the  same  meteoric  constitution,  but  without 
the  strong  absorption,  is  given  by  the  fact  that  in  that  star  so 
much  of  the  light  proceeds  from  the  vapour  produced  by  the 
meteorites,  and  from  the  carbon  in  the  interspaces,  that  the  carbon 
flutings  and  the  bright  lines  of  barium  and  strontium,  and  other 
substances  present  in  meteorites,  are  visible  at  the  same  time, 
exactly  as  they  are  seen  in  the  glow  over  a  meteorite  in  an  ex- 
perimental tube,  in  which,  as  the  pressure  is  reduced,  the  edges 
alone  of  the  carbon  flutings  are  visible,  and  put  on  the  appear- 
ance of  bright  lines,  almost  exactly  resembling  the  bright  lines 
of  the  heated  meteorites. 

I  give  on  a  map  the  spectra  of  these  two  stars  side  by 
side  with  the  bright  flutings  of  carbon  and  the  dark  flutings 
of  manganese  with  a  view  of  showing  that,  both  in  the  Nova 
and  the  fi  st  magnitude  one  in  the  same  constellation,  many 
of  the  phenomena  are  the  same  and  are  therefore  probably  pro- 
duced by  the  same  cause.  Some  time  after  Dr.  Copeland's  original 
observations  of  this  star  were  published,  it  was  pointed  out,  by 


1YDR0GEN. 


lAGNESIUM. 


lEB. ORION 


OMET    1866. 


OVA  CYGNI, 


Map  4. 


-Spectra  of  nebulae_compared  with  the  spectra  of  hydrogen,  cool  magnesium,  and  meteorite  glow. 


Duner,  Vogel,  and  others,  that  some  of  the  bright  parts  of  the 
spectrum  observed  by  him  were  really  coincident  with  the  bright 
parts  of  the  spectrum  of  a  Orionis  ;  this,  of  course,  is  beyond 
question.  But  in  addition  to  these  bright  spaces  Ur.  Copeland 
gives  some  bright  regions  which,  I  think,  have  not  been  touched 
by  the  arguments  of  Vogel  and  Duner  above  referred  to.  It 
will  be  observed  that  in  the  case  of  R  Geminorum,  given  on  the 
same  map  as  Nova  and  o  Orionis,  the  bright  lines  correspond 
almost  exactly  with  the  bright  spaces  shown  in  the  above-named 
stars  and  certain  lines  seen  in  meteorites — that  is  to  say,  a 
meteorite  glow,  when  the  carbon  spectrum  is  bright,  gives  us  all 
the  lines  recorded  in  the  spectrum  of  the  star,  showing  that  some 
of  the  lines  correspond  with  the  brightest  flutings  of  carbon. 

There  can  be  no  question,  I  think,  that  in  R  Geminorum  we 
have  another  stage,  doubtless  a  prior  stage,  of  the  life-history 
not  only  of  the  Nova,  but  of  o  Orionis  itself 

'  Continued  from  p.  61. 

^  The  manganese  absorptions  agree  with  some  of  the  manganese  flutings 
seen  in  the  Bessemer  flame  by  Marshall  Watts  (Phil.  Mag.  February  1873). 


III.  The  spectra  of  meteorites  glowing  in  tubes  with  the 
bright  lines  observed  in  celestial  bodies  — 

(a)  Comparison  with  the  lines  seen  in  nebulae 
when  C  and  F  (bright)  are  either  present 
or  absent. 

(;8)  Comparison  with  bright  lines  (not  associated 
with  flutings)  seen  in  stars. 

a.    "Nebula." 

Only  seven  lines  in  all  have  been  recorded  up  to  the 
present  in  the  spectra  of  nebulas,  three  of  which  coincide  with 
lines  in  the  spectrum  of  hydrogen  and  three  correspond  to 
lines  in  magnesium.  The  magnesium  lines  represented  are  the 
ultra-violet  low-temperature  line  at  373,  the  line  at  470,  and  the 
remnant  of  the  magnesium  fluting  at  500,  the  brightest  part  of 
the  spectrum  at  the  temperature  of  the  bunsen  burner.  The 
hydrogen  lines  are  h,  F,  and  H7  (434).  Sometimes  the  500 
line  is  seen  alone,  but  it  is  generally  associated  with  F  and  a 


Nov.  24,  1887] 


NA  TURE 


81 


line  at  495-  The  remaining  lines  du  not  all  appear  in  one 
nebula,  but  are  associated  one  by  one  with  the  other  three  lines. 
The  lines  at  500  and  495  and  F  have  been  seen  in  the  glow  of 
the  Dhurmsala  meteorite  when  heated,  but  the  origin  of  495 
has  not  yet  been  determined. 

The  result  of  this  comparison  then  is  that  the  nebula  spectrum 
is  as  closely  associated  with  a  meteorite  glowing  very  gently  in 
a  very  tenuous  atmosphere  given  off  by  itself  as  is  the  spectrum 
of  a  comet  near  the  sun  by  a  meteorite  glowing  in  a  denser  one 
also  given  off  by  itself  when  more  highly  heated. 

Further,  it  has  been  seen  that  the  nebula  spectrum  was  exactly 
reproduced  in  the  comets  of  1866  and  1867,  when  away  from  the 
sun.  As  the  collision  of  meteorites  is  accepted  for  the  explana- 
tion of  the  phenomena  in  one  case,  it  must,  faute  de  inieux,  be 
accepted  for  the  other.  The  well-known  constituents  of 
meteorites,  especially  olivine,  fully  explain  all  the  spectroscopic 
phenomena  presented  by  luminous  meteors,  comets,  and 
nebulce. 

I  published  many  years  £^0  an  experiment  in  which  I  had 
found  that  the  gases  evolved  from  meteorites  under  some  condi- 
tions gave  us  the  spectrum  of  hydrogen  and  under  others  the 
spectrum  of  carbon  ;  but  in  the  globes  I  then  used  I  was  not 
enabled  to  study  the  spectrum  of  the  glow  itself. 

I  should  add  that  the  line  at  495  makes  its  appearance  much 
more  rarely  than  the  one  at  500,  in  meteorite  glows. 


/3.    "  Stars  "  with  bright  lines. 

On  reference  to  the  maps  which  I  exhibit  to  the  Society, 
though  they  and  the  discussion  of  them  are  yet  incomplete,  it 
will  be  seen  that  the  principal  lines  which  are  seen  bright 
in  star  spectra  are,  if  we  make  due  allowance  for  the 
discrepancies  likely  to  occur  in  observations  attended  with 
great  difficulties,  lines  which  either  have  been  observed  in 
the  vapours  and  gases  given  off  by  meteorites  in  vacuum- 
tubes  or  which  we  might  expect  to  see  in  a  combined 
series  of  observations  on  meteorites  having  different  chemical 
constituents.  Among  these  lines  are  Ha,  H/3,  H7,  Ha,  464, 
540,  570,  580,  587  ;  in  one  case  (ist  Cygnus)  there  are  lines  at 
5065  and  5268,  the  latter  due  to  iron.  The  difficulties  attend- 
ing this  part  of  the  inquiry  are  referred  to  subsequently,  and 
it  must  be  understood  that  in  the  absence  of  a  detailed  discussion 
especially  of  the  spectra  of  the  "  Novas,"  which  I  have  not  yet 
completed,  the  opinion  I  express  in  the  next  part  of  this 
preliminary  notice  with  regard  to  bright-line  stars  must  be 
regarded  rather  as  suggestions  than  as  final  conclusions. 

Discussion  of  the   Maps  showing  the  Bright  Lines  visible  in 
Stars  and  Nebula. 

It  results  from  the  discussion  of  the  bright  lines  seen,  whether 
associated  with  the  bright  lines  C   and  F   of  hydrogen  or  not, 


MAGNESIUM 


BARIUM 


HYDROGEN 


MET.  GLOW 


NEBULA 


Map  5.— Shows  the  positions  of  three  of  the  nebula  lines  as  compared  with  well-known  lines. 


that,  while  on  the  one  hand  we  have  a  class  of  bodies — the  nebukie 
— which  give  us  the  lines  visible  at  the  lowest  temperature  of 
chemical  elements  known  to  exist  in  meteorites,  we  have  in  the 
other  class — the  "stars"  with  bright  lines — those  lines  visible  at 
somewhat  higher  temperatures  in  meteorites.  In  the  stars  with 
bright  lines  the  two  most  important  lines,  which  have  been 
separately  mapped  by  Vogel,i  occur  at  540  and  582.  The 
mean  readings  of  all  the  observations  gives  the  positions 
of  these  lines  as  540  and  580.  In  an  experiment  on  the  glow 
of  a  meteorite  rich  in  manganese,  the  line  of  Mn  at  5395, 
easily  seen  at  the  temperature  of  the  bunsen,  is  distinctly  seen 
in  addition  to  the  structure-spectrum  of  hydrogen.  There  is 
reasonable  ground  therefore  for  supposing  that  this  line,  the  only 
one  of  the  iron  group  of  metals  visible  at  the  temperature  of  the 
bunsen,  may  be  the  origin  of  one  of  the  two  lines  seen  alone  in 
the  spectrum  of  these  "  stars."  It  will  be  seen  that  in  the  map  it 
has  been  easy  to  arrange  all  the  bright  lines  hitherto  seen  in 
stars  into  one  order,  in  which  we  begin  with  this  line  of 
manganese,  and  a  line  of  iron  seen  at  the  temperature  of 
the  oxy-coal-gas  flame,  the  wave-length  of  which  is  579. 
As  other  lines  indicating  other  substances  are  added  to 
these  fundamental  ones,  we  pass  from  those  stars  in  which 
'  Potsdam  ObservatioHs,  vol.  iv.  No.  14. 


C  and  F  are  not  visible  to  those  in  which  they  make  their 
appearance.  Here,  however,  it  is  necessary  to  move  with 
caution,  because  it  may  be  that  we  are  in  presence  of  some^  of 
the  lines  visible  in  the  structure-spectrum  of  hydrogen.  The 
chief  lines  of  hydrogen,  as  seen  in  the  end-on  tube  when  the 
conditions  are  such  that  C  and  F  are  not  visible,  have  been 
already  stated.  Some  of  the  lines  observed  in  these  stars, 
even  the  one  at  540,  have  been  found  to  be  very  nearly  coincident 
with  bright  lines  seen  in  the  structure-spectrum,  as  well  as  with 
lines  seen  in  the  spectra  of  meteorites. 

The  suggestion,  therefore,  that  some  of  the  lines  seen  m 
bright-line  stars  are  lines  of  cool  hydrogen  must  be  noted, 
although  there  are  strong  grounds  for  rejecting  it,  as  will  shortly 
appear.  One  objection  is  that  strong  lines  of  the  1 1  structure 
at  607-610  and  574  have  not  been  recorded  in  star  spectra  with 
those  at  540  and  580.  . 

In  thenebul*  (see  Map  5)  we  deal  chiefly  with  lines  seen  in  the 
spectrum  of  magnesium  at  the  lowest  temperature  ;  and  these,  as 
far  as  observations  go,  have  not  yet  been  associated  with  the  lines 
at  540  and  580  to  which  reference  has  just  been  made,  although 
they  may  or  may  not  be  associated  with  the  bright  lines  C  and  F  of 
hydrogen.  In  the  nebulse,  however,  no  lines  coincident  with  the 
lines  of  cool  hydrogen  have  been  observed.   It  will  be  seen,  there- 


82 


NATURE 


\^Nov.  24.  1887 


fore,  that  we  have  here  again  strong  ground  for  rejecting  the  view 
that  the  lines  seen  in  "stars"  at  540  and  580  are  due  to  cool 
H,  for  since  hydrogen  is  common  to  both  nebulse  and  stars,  there 
is  no  rea-on  why  structure  lines  should  occur  in  "stars  "any 
more  than  in  nebulae. 

Another  ground  for  rejecting  cool  hydrogen  as  the  origin  of 
any  of  the  lines  in  "stars"  is  that  the  structure-spectrum  of 
hydrogen  is  only  seen  in  confined  glows,  which  is  just  the  condi- 
tion which  cannot  occur  in  space. 

At  the  same  time,  the  apparent  coincidences  of  many  meteorite 
lines  with  structure  lines  of  hydrogen  greatly  increases  the 
difficulties  of  laboratory  work  ;  in  fact,  the  structure-spectrum  of 
hydrogen  is  to  observations  of  meteorite  glows  in  the  laboratory 
what  continuous  spectrum  is  to  observations  of  bright  lines  in 
stars. 

If  it  be  agreed  that  we  are  not  dealing  with  cool  hydrogen, 
then  it  will  follow  that  the  only  difference  between  celestial 
bodies  with  bright  lines  in  their  spectra  comes  from  no  differ-: 
ence  of  origin  or  chemical  constitution,  but  from  a  difference 
of  temperature. 

At  one  point  in  these  researches  I  was  under  the  impression 
that  the  differences  in  the  systems  of  bright  lines  seen  in  the 
nebulae  and  the  bright-line  stars  might  arise  from  a  preponder- 
ance of  irons  or  stones  in  the  swarms.  But  I  was  led  to  abandon 
this  idea,  not  only  by  the  observation  of  the  meteoritic  glows, 
but  by  the  consideration  that  even  telescopically  the  "stars" 
in  question  are  more  condensed  than  the  nebulce. 

The  spectrum  of  the  nebulae,  except  in  some  cases,  is  associated 
with  a  certain  amount  of  continuous  spectrum,  and  meteorites 
glowing  at  a  low  temperature  would  be  competent  to  give  the 
continuous  spectrum  with  its  highest  intensity  in  the  yellow  pai  t 
of  the  spectrum  ;  so  that  in  this  way  we  should  understand 
that  lines  due  to  any  gas  or  vapour  in  that  part  would  be  very 
much  more  likely  to  escape  record  than  those  in  the  part  of  the 
spectrum  which  the  continuous  spectrum  hardly  reaches.  The 
general  absence,  however,  of  bright  lines  of  metallic  vapours, 
except  495  and  500,  and  of  the  bright  lines  of  hydrogen,  evidently 
justifies  the  conclusion  that  we  are  here  in  presence  of  those 
bodies  in  celestial  space,  connected  with  which  the  temperature 
and  the  electrical  excitation  are  at  the  minimum,  and  it  is  very 
remarkable  how  the  lines  seen  in  a  Geissler  tube  under  the  con- 
ditions stated,  when  either  magnesium,  or  olivine,  or  other 
meteoric  constituents  are  made  to  glow,  should  appear,  one  may 
almost  say,  indiscriminately  among  the  orders  of  bodies  in  the 
heavens  which  up  to  the  present  time  have  been  regarded  as 
so  utterly  different  in  plan  and  structure  as  stars  and  nebulae. 

The  records  of  purely  continuous  spectra  in  the  case  of  many 
nebulae,  as,  for  example,  the  Great  Nebula  in  Andromeda,  is 
in  all  probability  an  indication  of  our  inability  to  observe  them 
properly.  For  a  nebula  to  give  aperfecily  continuous  spectrum, 
it  is  evident  that  the  component  meteorites  must  be  incandes- 
cent, but  still  at  a  lower  temperature  than  that  required  to  give 
bright  lines.  Now,  the  Mg  line  500  is  seen  in  some  of  the 
faintest  nebulae,  where  there  is  little  or  no  continuous  spectrum, 
and  it  therefore  seems  likely  that  these  are  at  a  lower  tempera- 
ture than  the  nebulas  said  to  give  perfectly  continuous  spectra. 
This  being  so,  it  is  difficult  to  believe  that  other  lines,  which 
require  a  somewhat  higher  tem'perature  for  their  existence  than 
the  line  at  500,  do  not  become  visible  at  this  increa-ed 
temperature. 

There  can  be  little  doubt  that  when  our  ia^trumental  ap- 
pliances and  observing  conditions  become  more  perfect  it  will 
be  found  that  the  so-calkd  continuous  spectra  are  really  discon- 
tinuous. There  is,  indeed,  an  element  of  doubt  as  regards  some 
of  the  existing  observations  ;  thus,  the  spectrum  of  the  com 
panion  to  the  Great  Nebula  in  Andromeda  appears  to  end 
abruptly  in  the  orange,  and  throughout  its  length  is  not  uni- 
form, but  is  evidently  crossed  by  lines  of  alsoiption  or  by  bright 
lines  (Huggins,  Phil.  Trans,  vol.  cliv.  p.  441). 

Again,  the  Great  Nebula  in  Andromeda  is  generally  regarded 
as  having  a  continuous  spectrum  pure  and  simple,  but  an 
observer  at  Yale  College  (name  not  stated)  has  observed  three 
bright  lines  in  its  spectrum  {Observa/oiy,  vol.  viii.  p.  385).  The 
lines  are — the  F  line  of  hydrogen,  and  two  other  lines  at  wave- 
lengths 53f2'5  and  5594 'o.  The  latter  two  lines  are  mentioned 
by  the  same  observer  as  bright  lines  in  7  Cassiopeiae  and  /3  Lyrce, 
and  are  recorded  by  Sherman  {Astj-.  Nach.,  No.  2591)  ns  bright 
lines  in  these  stars  and  in  Nova  Andromeda;.  No  other  observa- 
tions with  which  I  am  acquainted  give  these  two  lines  in  7 
Cassiopeia;  or /3  Lyrae,  but  Maunder  {Monthly  Notices,  vol.  xlvi. 


p.  20)  gives  them  as  two  of  the  lines  seen  in  Nova  Andromedae. 
It  is  possible,  therefore,  that  the  two  lines  in  question,  in  the 
Yale  College  observation,  had  their  origin  in  Nova  Andromedje  ; 
at  all  events  there  is  no  evidence  to  show  that  they  are  visible  in 
the  Great  Nebula  of  Andromeda  under  normal  conditions. 

It  is  not  impossilile  that  the  lines  at  540  and  580  may  be 
eventually  traced  in  some  of  the  brightest  nebulae,  since  these 
are  apparently  the  lines  next  in  order,  as  regards  temperature, 
to  the  Mg  line  500. 

It  is  right  that  I  should  here  point  out  that  some  observers 
of  bright  lines  in  these  so-called  stars  have  recorded  a  line  in 
the  yellow  which  they  affirm  to  be  in  the  position  of  D3  ;  while 
on  the  other  hand,  in  my  experiments  on  meteorites,  whether  in 
the  glow  or  in  the  air,  I  have  seen  no  line  occupying  this  position. 

I  trust  that  some  observer  withgreater  optical  means  will  think 
it  worth  his  time  to  make  a  special  inquiry  on  this  point.  The 
arguments  against  this  line  indicating  the  spectrum  of  the  so-called 
helium  are  absolutely  overwhelming.  The  helium  line  so  far  has 
only  been  seen  in  the  very  hottest  part  of  the  sun  which  we  can 
get  at.  It  is  there  associated  with  b  and  with  lines  of  iron  which 
require  the  largest  coil  and  the  largest  jar  to  bring  them  out, 
whereas  it  is  stated  to  have  been  observed  in  stars  where  the 
absence  of  iron  lines  and  of  b  shows  that  the  temperature  is  very 
low.  Further  no  trace  of  it  was  seen  in  Nova  Cygni,  and  it  has 
even  been  recorded  in  a  spectrum  in  which  C  was  absent. 

It  is  even  possible  that  the  line  in  question  merely  occupies  the 
position  of  D3  by  reason  of  the  displacement  of  D  by  motion  of 
the  "stars  "  in  the  line  of  sight.  On  this  point  no  information  is 
at  hand  regarding  any  reference  spectrum  employed.  If,  how- 
ever, it  should  eventually  be  established  that  the  line  is  really  Dj, 
which  probat^ly  represents  a  fine  form  of  hydrogen,  it  can  only 
be  suggested  that  the  degree  of  fineness  which  i;  brought  about 
by  temperature  in  the  case  of  the  sun  is  brought  about  in  the 
spaces  between  meteorites  by  extreme  tenuity. 

The  Case  of  Nova  Cygni. 

The  case  of  Nova  Cygni  is  being  discussed,  and  it  appears 
likely  that  this  "star"  pa-sed  through  all  the  stages  of  tempera- 
ture represented  by  "stars"  with  bright  lines,  comets,  and 
nebula'.  In  the  initial  stage,  the  principal  lines  recorded  were 
those  of  hydrogen,  cool  magnesium,  and  sodium.  At  a  later 
date,  in  addition  to  these,  lines  apparently  indicating  hotter 
magnesium  and  carbon  were  observed.  On  the  date  of  its 
highest  temperature  (December  8,  1876)  the  lines  observed  by 
Vogel  indicate  II,  Na,  Mg,  C,  Fe,  Mo,  and  Ba,  the  "star" 
having  then,  it  would  appear  from  the  discussion  so  far  as  it  has 
yet  gone,  approached  the  condition  of  the  great  comet  of  1882 
r.-t  perihelion.  The  Fe,  Ba,  C,  and  Na  gradually  disappeared, 
then  the  hydrogen  followed,  and  the  last  stage  of  all  was  that  in 
which  Mg  (500)  appeared  alone,  as  in  the  comets  of  1866-67 
and  in  nebula;.  The  complete  discussion,  however,  must  be 
reserved  for  a  future  communication.  It  is  sufficient  to  say  here 
that  it  is  very  probable  that  all  the  spectroscopic  phenomena  of 
Nova  Cygni  will  admit  of  explanation  on  the  supposition  that 
it  was  produced  by  the  collision  of  two  swarms  of  meteorites. 
The  outliers  were  fiist  engaged,  and  at  the  maximum  the  denser 
parts  of  the  swarm. 

Difficulties  connected  with  the  Discussion. 

An  inspection  of  the  maps,  on  which  are  shown  all  the  ob- 
servations already  made  upon  bright  lines  recorc'ed  in  the  spectra 
of  celestial  bodies,  will  indicate  at  first  sight  an  apparent  variation 
of  the  portions  of  the  lines  greater  than  might  have  been  ex- 
pected. This,  however,  I  think  will  vanish  on  the  consideration 
of  the  whole  question  ;  and  for  n.y  part  certainly  all  the  exami- 
nations which  I  have  been  able  to  make  have  led  me  to  the 
conclusion  that  the  various  observations  have  been  far  better  than 
it  was  almost  possible  to  hope  for  when  the  great  difficulties  of 
the  observatio.is  themselves  are  considered. 

When  it  is  remembered  that,  in  order  to  get  a  determination 
of  the  position  of  a  bright  line,  comparison-spectra  and  prisms 
are  neeeled,  and  that,  from  mechanical  considerations  alone, 
the  application  of  the  e  aids  to  research  is  very  frequently 
attended  with  difficulties  and  uncertainties ;  and  further,  when 
we  consider  that  many  of  the  observations  have  been  neces- 
sarily made  without  these  aids ;  the  striking  coincidences  on 
the  maps  become  of  very  much  greater  importance  than  the 
slight  variations  seen  between  the  positions  of  the  same  line 
recorded  by  different  observers  in  the  same  star. 


Nov.  24,  1887] 


NATURE 


83 


It  will  be  observed,  too,  that  the  information  in  some  cases  is 
fuller  in  the  blue  part  of  the  spectrum.  Here  again  a  reference  to 
what  the  maps  are  really  intended  to  show  is  necessary.  The  maps 
do  not  show  the  complete  spectrum  observed,  but  only  the  bright 
lines  recorded  in  it.  The  actual  observations  liave  really  consisted 
in  picking  out  these  bright  lines  from  the  background  of  con- 
tinuous spectrum,  whether  in  stars,  nebuLie,  or  co.nets  ;  and,  as 
the  continuous  spectrum  will  be  generally  brightest  in  the  yellow 
and  green,  so  in  this  part  of  the  spectrum  we  must  expect,  first 
of  all,  to  get  the  least  information,  and  then,  when  the  infor- 
mation is  obtained,  to  get  the  greatest  uncertainty,  on  account 
of  the  difficalty  brought  about  by  the  greater  luminosity  of  the 
background  on  which  the  line  appears. 

The  discussion  by  Ma^selberg  and  others  of  the  various  ob- 
servations of  comets  which  have  been  made  from  time  to  time 
indicates  that  under  certain  circumstances,  where  men  of  the 
highest  skill  and  with  the  greatest  care  have  determined  the 
wave-lengths  of  the  carbon  bands,  discrepancies  exist  too  great 
to  admit  of  their  being  attributed  to  errors  inherent  in  this  branch 
of  observalioi. 

If  for  a  moment  we  consider  alone  the  two  bright  fluting? 
visible  in  the  spectrum  of  carbon,  one  with  its  bright  edge  just 
more  refrangible  than  b^^ — this  is  the  high-temperature  spectrum 
— and  the  other — tlie  low-temperature  spectrum — with  a  fluting 
just  less  refrangible  than  l\,  it  is  at  once  suggested  that  sudden 
changes  in  comets  may  very  likely  be  accompanied  by  a  transi- 
tion from  one  condition  of  carbon  vapour  to  the  other,  so  that 
on  this  account  apparent  discrepancies  in  the  measurements  of  the 
same  comet  at  different  times  may  represent  real  facts.  Then 
again  we  have  the  motion  of  the  swarm  along  its  orbit,  which 
in  some  cases  we  know  is  comparable  to  the  velocity  of  light,  so 
that  variations  of  wave-length  are  produced  as  indicated  in 
comet  1882.  We  also  have  the  possibility  that j the  velocity  of 
the  vapours  in  the  jets,  and  that  due  to  the  electric  repulsion — 
which,  according  to  ZoUner's  view,  is  the  origin  of  comets' 
tails — may  also  produce  changes  of  refrangibility. 

Although  as  a  rule  the  bright  fluting  seen  in  comets  appears 
to  be  that  due  to  high  temperature,  this  is  apparently  not  always 
the  case.  In  the  experiments  on  the  glow  of  magnesium  wire, 
the  flutings  of  carbon  have  always  been  seen,  and  when  the 
vacuum  is  approached  the  flutings  have  been  those  of  the  low- 
temperature  spectrum.  When  the  glow  of  the  metal  is  seen 
under  certaii  conditions,  mixed  with  carbon  vapour,  b^  and  b<i^ 
are  seen  as  bright  dots  or  short  lines  inside  the  carbon  fluting, 
exactly  as  they  were  observed,  probably,  by  Huggins  in  Brorsen's 
comet  (Proc.R.  S.,  vol.  xvi.  p.  386). 


Authorities  used  in  the  Maps. 

The  map  showing  the  bright  lines  in  Stars  is  based  upon  the 
following  authorities  : — 

3rd   Cygnus,  B.D.    -f-    36°    No.   3956,    R.A.    2oh.    lom.   6j., 
Dec),   -f-  36°  18'. 
Vogel. — Ptiblicationen  des  Astrophysikalischen   Observa- 
toriums  zu  Potsdam,  vol.  iv.  No.  14,  p.  19. 

2nd  Cygnus,   B.D.    4-    35',  No.    4013,    R.A.    2oh.   7m.   26s., 

Decl.  +  35'  50' -8. 
Vogel. —  Publicalionen   des  Astrophysikalischen   Observa- 

toriums  zu  Potsdam,  vol.  iv.  No.  14,  p.  19. 
Wolf    and    Rayet. — Comptes   renins,   vol.    Ixv.    (1867), 

p.    292.     The  wave  lengths  were   obtained  from   a 

curve  based  on  the  measurements  given. 

Argelander-Oeltzen  17681,   R.A.    i8h.    im.   21s.,  Decl.   -  21" 
1 6' -2. 
Vogel. — Publicationen   des  Astrophysikalischen   Observa- 

toriums  zu  Potsdam,  vol.  iv.  No.  14,  p.  15. 
Pickerin.j. — Astronomische  Ncuhrichten,  No.  2376. 
Pickering. — Observatory,  vol.  iv.  p.  82. 

7  Argus,  R.A.  8h.  5m.  56s.,  Decl.   -  46°  59'*5. 
Copeland. — Copernicus,  vol.  iii.  p.  205. 
EUery. — Obiervatory,  vol.  ii.  p.  418. 

Stone  9l68(starin  Scorpio),  R.A.  i6h.  46m.  15s.,  Decl.    -  41° 
37'-6. 
Copeland. — Copernicus,  vol.  iii.  p.  205. 


1st  Argus,  R.A.  8h.  51m.  is.,  Dec'.   -  47°  8'. 

Copeland.  —  Copernicus,  vol.  iii.  p.  206. 
2nd  Argus,  R.A.  loh.  36m.  54s.,  Decl.  -  58'  8'. 

Copeland. — Copernicus,  vol.  iii.  p.  236. 
Gould  15305  (Argo),  R.A.  iih.  5m.  i;s.,  Decl.  -  60°  2l'. 

Copeland.  —  Copernicus,  vol.  iii.  p.  2o5. 

Star  in  Centauri,  R.A.  I3h.  ion.  373.,  Decl.   -  57"  31'. 
Copeland. — Copernicus,  vol.  iii.  p.  206. 

Star  in  Cygnus,  B.D.    +   37°  No.  3821,   R.A.  2oh.  7m.  48s., 
Decl.  -f  38°  o'-i. 
Copeland. — Monthly  Notices  of  the  Royal  Astronomical 
Society,  London,  vol.  xlv.  p.  90. 

Lalande  13412,  R.A.  6h.  49m.  15s.,  Decl.   -  23"  46'*3. 

Vogel.  —  Publicationen  des  Astrophysikalischen  Observa- 

toriums  zu  Potsdam,  vol.  iv.  No.  14,  p.  17. 
Pickering. — Astronomische  Nachi'ichten,  No.  2376, 

1st  Cygnus,  B.D.  4-  35°  No.  4001,  R.A.  2oh.   503.  48s.,  Decl. 
+  35°  49'7- 
Vogel. — Publicationen  des  Astrophysikalischen    Ohserva- 
toriums  zu  Potsdam,  vol.  iv.  No.  14,  p.  17. 

y  Cassiopeise,  R.A.  oh.  50m.  45.,  Decl.  -I-  60°  7'"2. 

Vogel. — Publicationen   des  Astrophysikalischen   Observa- 

toritims  zu  Potsdam,  vol.  iv.  No.  14,  p.  15. 
Vogel. — Beobachtungen  zu  Bothkamp,  Heft  ii.  p.  29. 
Gothard. — Astronomische  Nachrichten,  No.  2581. 
Konkoly.  —Quoted  by  Gothard  in  Astronomische  Nach- 
richten, No.  2581. 
Observatory,  vol.  vi.  p.  332. 

/3  Lyrae,  R.A.  i8h.  45m.  55s.,  Decl.  -f  33'  i3'-9. 

Vogel. — Publicatiomn  des  Astrophysikalischen    Observa- 

toriums  zu  Potsdam,  vol.  iv.  No.  14,  p.  I5- 
Vogel. — Beobachungen  zu  Bothkamp,  Heft  i.  p.  33. 
Gothard. — Astronomische  Nachrichten,  No.  2581. 

The  map  showing  the  bright  lin  2s  in  Ncbulce  is  based  upon  the 
following  authorities  : — 

Nebula  in  Orion. 

Hujgins — Proceedings  R.S.  vol.  xiv.  p.  39. 

Planetary  Nebula,  R.A.  2lh.  22m.,  D.-cl.   -f  47°  22'. 
Copeland. — Copernicus,  vol.  i.  p.  2. 

Planetary  Nebula. 

Vogel. — Mmitsberichte  der  Akademi:  der  Wissenschaften 
zu  Berlin,  April  1878,  p.  303. 

No.  4572,  2075h.,    16  H.  iv.    R.A.   2oh.    i6m.  7-93.,  N.P.D. 
70°  20'  1 9" -3. 
Huggins.— Philosophical  Transactions,  vol.  clvi.  p.  38$. 

Comet  1866. 

Huggins. — Proceedings  R.S.  vol.  xv.  p.  5. 

Nova  Cygni. 

Lord  Lindsay  and  Dr.   Copeland.  — C^/^r«/(rM.r,  vol.   ii. 
p.  109. 

The  map  showing  the  coincidences  of  flutings  of  carbon, 
manganese,  and  zinc,  with  bright  lines  and  flutings  in  stars  and 
comets,  and  i  1  a  meteorite  glow,  is  based  upon  the  following 
authorities  :  — 

Hydrocarbon "\ 

Low-temperature  carbon      ...  |- Work  at  Kensington. 
High-temperature  carbon     ...  J 

Comet  b  1881. 

Copeland.— Cc/^;-«V«.f,  vol.  ii.  p.  225. 

Manganese  flame.  ^^ 

Lecoq  de  Boisbaudran.— "  Spectres  Lumineux. 
Work  at  Kensington. 

Nova  O.ionis. 

Copeland.— il/*^^//^//  Notices  of  the  Royal  Astronomical 
Society,  vol.  xlvi.  p.  109. 


84 


NATURE 


{Nov.  24,  1887 


a  Orionis. 

Vogel.  — Biobachtungen  zu  Boihkamp,  Heft.  i.  p.  20. 

R  Geminorum. 

Vogel. — Astronomische  Nachrichten,  No.  2000. 

Meteorite  G16w. 

Work  at  Kensington. 

Schjellerup  152. 

Vogel. — Publicationen  des   Astrophysikalischen  Observa- 
toriums  zu  Potsdam,  vol.  iv.  No.  14,  p.  30. 

On  the  Absorption  Phenomena  of  Stars  with  Bright  Lines. 

In  addition  to  the  map  showing  the  bright  lines  visible  in  those 
stars  the  spectra  of  which  contain  them,  I  have  prepared 
another  map  showing  the  absorptions  which  also  occur.  The 
two  maps  present  a  remarkable  agreement — that  is  to  say,  there 
is  the  same  progression  in  the  absorption  phenomena  as  there  is 
in  the  bright-line  phenomena.  In  those  stars  in  which  bright 
lines  are  seen  without  the  lines  of  hydrogen  (in  which  stars  the 
meteorite  swarm  is  probably  at  a  slightly  higher  temperature 


than  that  observed  in  the  nebula  when  only  the  line  at  500  is 
visible)  we  have  no  marked  absorption-lines,  but  rather  bands. 
When  the  hydrogen  lines  are  added,  as  in  7Cassiopeise,  then  we 
get  the  absorption  of  sodium  and  b  of  magnesium,  as  we  should 
expect.  The  individual  meteorites  therefore  are  much  cooler  in 
these  stars  than  in  the  Novas,  seeing  that  the  absorption  is  so 
little  developed.  Speaking  generally,  therefore,  we  may  say 
that  there  are  two  causes  of  minimum  absorption  phenomena  in 
stars.  In  the  first  place,  as  in  the  bright-line  stars,  only  little 
vapour  surrounds  each  meteorite,  and  that  vapour  consists  of 
the  substances  visible  at  the  lowest  temperature  ;  while,  on  the 
other  hand,  in  stars  like  Sirius,  in  consequence  of  the  absolute 
state  of  vapour,  we  only  get  practically  the  absorption  of  hydro- 
gen, or  at  all  events  the  absorption  of  hydrogen  in  great  excess, 
due,  I  have  very  little  doubt,  in  part,  to  the  fact  that  most  other 
substances  have  been  dissociated  by  the  intense  heat  resulting 
from  the  condensation  of  the  meteorites. 

Notes  on  the  Provisional  Temperature  Curve. 

In  order  to  bring  the  various  results  referred  to  in  this 
communication  in  a  definite  form  before  my  own  mind,  I  have 
prepared  a  diagram  which  I  have  called  a  temperature  curve,  so 


CLASS   \CL       oL    LYRAEl 
PREDOMINANT  H  ABSORPTION.  J 


CLASS  \\a 

HIGH  TEMPERATURE 
ME.TE0R1TIC  UNE  ABSORPTION 

CLASS  1(1^. 

BRIGHT  C&,      I 

Mn&Zn  FLUTING  I 

AESORPTION.'' 


CLASS  \c 
y  cA5siopEi;t 

aiTTlE  ABSORPTION 
BRIGHT  H. 

CLASS  112 


i 


BRIGHT  LINES 
NEBULA.      ) 

STARS  with! 

BRIGHT  LINESIWITHOUT     • 

H.      ;. 

NEBUL/t.    '         ■■■■-■ 


CLASS  \\a. 


?)  CLASS  111^ 

CARBON  ABSORPT[ON 


Provisional  Temperature  Curve. 


that  on  one  side  of  it  we  may  consider  those  stages  in  the 
various  heavenly  bodies  in  which  in  each  case  the  temperature  is 
increasing,  while  on  the  other  arm  of  the  curve  we  have  that 
other  condition  in  which  we  get  first  vaporous  combination, 
and  then  ultimately  the  formation  of  a  crust  due  to  the  gradual 
cooling  of  the  mass.  At  the  top  of  such  a  curve  we  shall  of 
course  have  that  condition  in  which  the  highest  temperature 
must  be  assumed  to  exist.  In  a  letter  to  M.  Dumas  in  the  year 
1872,  I  suggested  that  possibly  the  simplification  of  the  spectrum 
of  a  star  might  be  associated  with  the  highest  temperature  of  the 
vapour,  and  that  idea  seems  to  have  been  accepted  by  other 
observers  since  that  time.  We  shall  have  then  stars  of  the 
first  class  at  the  top  of  the  temperature  curve.  On  the  one 
arm  of  the  curve  representing  increasing  temperature  we  shall 
have  at  various  heights  those  aggregations  which  give  us  indica- 
tions of  a  gradually  increasing  temperature  brought  about  by 
collisions,  beginning  with  meteorites  as  widely  separated  as  they 
can  be  to  keep  up  any  luminosity  at  all,  and  finally  vaporous 
condensations  due  to  gravity. 

On  the  arm  of  the  curve  descending  from  stars  of  the  first  class 
to  dark  bodies  like,  say,  the  companion  to  Sirius,  we  must  place 
those  bodies  where  absorption  of  compound  molecules  is  indi- 
cated.     This  we  find    in  stars  of  Class  III.^  of  Vogel.      But 


here  a  very  interesting  question  arises.  Between  stars  of  the  first 
class  and  that  of  lll.b  we  are  bound  to  insert  stars  of  Class  II., 
already  located  naturally  on  the  ascending  arm. 

The  Case  of  Equal  Temperatures  07t  Either  Side  of  the  Curve. 

Speaking  roughly,  it  may  be  said  that  the  construction  of  such 
a  curve  as  this  suggests  that  similar  or  nearly  similar  tempera- 
tures will  be  found  on  either  side.  This  in  the  main,  of  course, 
is  true  ;  but  it  must  be  pointed  out  that,  on  the  rising  curve,  the 
temperature  will  be  that,  as  a  rule,  of  individual  meteorites  and 
the  vapours  given  out  by  them,  while  on  the  descending  arm 
it  will  be  the  temperature  of  the  consolidated  mass,  whether 
vaporous  or  becoming  solid.  But  it  is  obvious  that  if  we  take 
two  points  near  the  top  of  the  curve  we  shall  have  very 
nearly  the  same  temperature  of  the  atmosphere,  by  which  I 
mean  the  temperature  of  the  layers  in  either  case  which  are  mo^t 
effective  in  producing  the  phenomena  of  absorption.  To  take 
a  concrete  case,  stars  of  the  second  class  are  obviously,  by  the 
consent  of  all,  of  a  lower  temperature  than  stars  of  the  first  class  : 
on  which  side,  therefore,  of  the  curve  must  they  be  placed  ?  Or, 
to  take  a  more  concrete  case  still,  our  sun  is  a  star  of  the  second 
class  :  on  which  arm  of  the  curve  must  we  place  the  sun  ?    Here 


Nov.  24,  1887] 


NATURE 


85 


we  find  ourselves  in  a  position  of  some  difficulty,  but  it  would 
appear  that  future  work  may  enable  us  really  to  divide  stars  of 
the  second  class  into  two  series,  and  if  we  can  do  so  there  is 
very  little  doubt  that  one  series  will  represent  the  phenomenon 
of  decreasing  temperature  of  the  absorbing  layers,  while  the 
other  series  will  represent  the  phenomenon  of  increasing 
temperature. 

What  considerations  are  likely  to  help  us  in  such  an  inquiry 
as  this  ?  The  atmosphere  of  a  star  built  up  by  meteorites  should 
resemble  in  its  constitution  the  totality  of  the  chemical  constitu- 
tion of  meteorites,  and  therefore  it  might  be  inferred  that  the 
spectroscopic  phenomena  presented  by  such  an  atmosphere 
would  not  be  widely  different  from  the  spectroscopic  pheno- 
mena presented  by  the  vapours  of  many  meteorites  volatilized 
together. 

To  investigate  this  question  I  have  obtained  composite  photo- 
graphs of  the  spectra  of  several  meteorites,  with  a  solar  spectrum 
for  purposes  of  comparison.  I  find  that,  while,  on  the  one 
hand,  the  composite  photograph  giving  us  the  spectrum  of 
the  meteorites  greatly  resembles  that  of  the  sun,  as  it  should 
do,  there  are  some  variations  which  suggest  the  line  of  separa- 
tion to  which  I  have  before  alluded.  From  Dr.  Huggins's  mag- 
nificent photographs  of  the  stars  we  have  learned  that,  as  I 
had  predicted  years  before  the  photographs  were  taken,  the 
thickness  of  H  and  K  varies  very  greatly  in  different  stellar 
spectra.  In  those  stars,  presumably  the  hottest  ones,  in  which 
we  get  the  series  of  hydrogen  lines  almost  alone  as  great  ab- 
sorbers, K  is  almost  absent  ;  it  finally  comes  in,  however,  and 
after  a  certain  stage  has  been  reached  it  is  the  most  important 
line  in  the  spectrum.  But  there  are  stars  in  which  the  lines  h 
and  G  of  hydrogen  are  not  very  much  more  developed  than  they 
are  in  the  case  of  our  own  sun,  in  which  K  is  much  thinner  than 
in  the  solar  spectrum  ;  and  associated  with  this  condition  of  K 
there  is  the  absorption  of  a  hydrogen  line  more  refrangible 
than  K  at  wave-length  3800,  which  is  not  represented  in  the 
solar  spectrum  with  anything  like  the  intensity.  The  question 
arises,  therefore,  whether  the  enormous  thickening  of  K  ob- 
served in  the  sun  and  some  other  stars  may  not  be  limited  to 
those  stars  which,  like  our  sun,  are  reducing  their  temperature  ; 
for  we  certainly  are  justified  in  assuming  that  the  temperature  of 
the  sun  now  is  not  so  high  as  it  was  in  an  earlier  stage  of  the 
development  of  the  system.  Such  a  difference  as  that,  if  it  is 
subsequently  established,  can  only  come  from  the  atmo- 
sphere, as  an  effect  of  cooling,  becoming  richer  in  those  sub- 
stances the  lines  of  which  get  broader  as  the  star  cools  down. 
We  can  easily  imagine  that  during  the  process  of  cooling  the 
relative  quantities  of  the  vapours  should  not  always  remain 
constant,  although  it  is  impossible  in  the  present  state  of  our 
knowledge  to  give  any  particular  reason  why  such  and  such 
vapours  should  disappear  from  the  spectrum  in  consequence  of 
chemical  combination,  while  others  should  develop  apparently  in 
consequence  of  their  retirement. 

Hydrogen  phis  Carbon  indicates  Mixed  Swarms. 

If  we  assume  a  brightening  of  the  meteor-swarm  due  to 
collision  as  tlie  cause  of  the  so-called  new  stars,  we  have  good 
grouiids  for  supposing  that  in  these  bodies  the  phenomena  should 
be  mixed,  for  the  reason  that  we  should  have  in  one  part  of  the 
swarm  a  number  of  collisions  probably  of  close  meteorites, 
while  among  the  out-liers  the  collisions  would  be  few.  We 
shall  in  fact  have  in  one  jiart  the  conditions  represented  in 
Class  III. a,  and  in  the  other  siich  a  condition  as  we  get  in  y 
Cassiopeiae.  I  have  in  another  part  of  this  paper  discussed  the 
flutings  observed  in  Nova  Orionis,  and  have  shown  that  so  far 
as  they  were  concerned  we  have  the  radiation  of  carbon  and  the 
absorption  of  manganese  ;  but  there  is  evidence  to  show  that 

with  these  fluted  appearances  bright  lines  were  observed D, 

and  F,  although  no  mention  is  made  of  C,^ 

We  have  here,  there  is  little  doubt,  the  vera  causa  of  stellar 
long-period  variability.  12  per  cent,  of  stars  of  Class  Ill.a  are 
variable,  and  9  per  cent,  of  Class  1 1 1. 3.  In  the  one  case,  meteor- 
swarms  produce  the  increased  brightness  by  colliding  with  those 
of  the  condensing  one.  In  the  other,  they  do  so  by  their  peri- 
astron  passage  round  the  dim  condensed  one.  There  is  no 
variability,  in  the  usual  sense  of  the  word,  in  stars  like  the  sun 
and  a  Lyrse,  and  the  reason  is  now  obvious. 

'  Konkoly,  Astr.  Nach.  2712,  D3  and  F;  Ricci  indicates  D3  in  Astr.  Nach 
2707, 


The  Conditions  of  Collisions  of  Meteorites, 

The  Chemical  Elements  most  frequently  determined  in  Meteorites. 

I  think  it  well  to  give  here  as  a  reminder  a  short  table  showing 
the  chief  substances  met  with  in  meteorites.  It  will  indicate  the 
cause  of  the  continued  reference  to  the  spectra  of  Mg,  Fe,  and 
Mn  in  what  follows. 

SIDERITES. 

Nickel-iron,  copper,  manganese. 

Troilite  =  FeS. 

Graphite. 

Schreibersite  =  iron  and  nickel  phos- 
phide. 

Daubreeite  =  iron  and  chromium  sul- 
phide. 

SIDEROLITES, 

CHONDRITIC— 

(a)  Non-carbonaceous  =  Olivine   =    chrysolite  =  peridot  = 

(MgFe)204Si  =  SiOa  4I  -3,  MgO 

50*9,  FeO  77. 
Enstatite  MgOgSi  =  SiOj  60,  MgO 

40. 
Bronzite  =  enstatite  in  which  some 

Mg  is  replaced  by  Fe. 
Nickel-iron,  manganese, 
Troilite. 

Chromite  =  iron  protoxide  32,  chro- 
mium sesquioxide  68,  -f  -Al  and 

Mg. 
Augite  =  pyroxene,  SiOjSS,  Ca023, 

MgO  16,  MnO  O'S,  FeO  4. 
Silicate    of    calcium,    sodium,    and 
aluminium. 


(5)  Carbonaceous  .. 


NON-CHONDRITIC 


Carbon  in  combination  with  H  and  O. 
Sulphates  of  Mg,  Ca,  Na,  and  K. 

Anorthite. 

Enstatite. 

Bronzite. 

Olivine. 

Augite. 

Troilite. 


The  Numbers  oj  Meteorites  in  Space, 

It  is  well  known  that  observations  of  falling-stars  have  been 
used  to  determine  roughly  the  average  number  of  meteorites 
which  fall  on  the  earth  each  twenty-four  hours  ;  and  having  this 
datum  to  determine  the  average  distance  apart  between  the 
meteorites  in  those  parts  of  space  which  are  traversed  by  the 
earth  as  a  member  of  the  solar  system,  Dr.  Schmidt,  of  Athens, 
from  observations  made  during  seventeen  years  found  that  the 
mean  hourly  number  of  luminous  meteors  visible  on  a  clear 
moonless  night  by  one  observer  was  fourteen,  taking  the  time  of 
observation  from  midnight  to  i  a.m. 

It  has  been  further  experimentally  shown  that  a  large  group  of 
observers  who  might  include  the  whole  hemisphere  in  their  ob- 
servations would  see  about  six  times  as  many  as  are  visible  to 
one  eye.  Prof.  H.  A.  Newton  and  others  have  calculated  that 
making  all  proper  corrections  the  number  which  might  be  visible 
over  the  whole  earth  would  be  a  little  greater  than  10,000  times 
as  many  as  could  be  seen  at  one  place.  From  this  we  gather 
that  not  less  than  twenty  millions  of  luminous  meteors  fall  upon 
our  planet  daily,  each  of  which  in  a  dar!<  clear  night  would  pre- 
sent us  with  the  well-known  phenomenon  of  a  shooting-star. 

This  number,  however,  by  no  means  represents  the  total 
number  of  minute  meteorites  that  enter  our  atmosphere,  because 
many  entirely  invisible  to  the  naked  eye  are  often  .seen  in  tele- 
scopes. It  has  been  suggested  that  the  number  of  meteorites  if 
these  were  included  would  be  increased  at  least  twenty-fold  :  this 
would  give  us  400  millions  of  meteorites  falling  on  the  earth's 
surface  daily.  If  we  consider,  however,  only  those  visible  to 
the  naked  eye,  and  if  we  assume  that  the  absolute  velocity  of  the 
meteors  in  space  is  equal  to  that  of  comets  moving  in  parabolic 
orbits.  Prof.  H.  A,  Newton  has  shown  that  the  average  number 
of  meteorites  in  the  space  that  the  earth  traverses  is  in  each 
volume  equal  to  the  earth  about  30,000.     This  gives  us  a  result 


86 


NATURE 


{Nov.  24,  1887 


in  round  numbers  that  the  meteorites  are  distributed  each  250 
miles  away  from  its  neighbours.^ 

If,  then,  these  observations  may  be  accepted  to  be  good  for 
any  part  of  space,  we  may,  and  indeed  must,  expect  celestial 
phenomenon  which  can  be  traced  to  meteorites  in  all  parts  of 
space. 

Further,  we 'have  the  experience  of  our  own  system  that  these 
meteors  are  apt  to  collect  in  groups. 

A  comet,  it  is  now  generally  accepted,  is  a  swarm  of  meteors 
in  company.  Such  a  swarm  finally  makes  a  continuous  orbit  by 
virtue  of  arrested  velocities  ;  impacts  will  break  up  large  stones 
and  will  produce  new  vapours  in  some  cases,  which  will  con- 
dense into  small  meteoroids. 

A  meteorite  in  space  under  any  of  the  conditions  indicated  by 
the  comets,  new  star>:,  and  such  first-magnitude  stars  as  a  Orionis, 
will  evidently  be  subject  to  collisions,  but  only  to  a  greater 
number  of  collisions  than  those  which  must  ordinarily  occur  if 
space  is  as  full  of  meteorites  as  Prof.  Newton's  calculations,  from 
observations  made  on  the  earth,  would  naturally  seem  to  indicate. 

The   Velocity  of  Luminous  Meteors. 

In  spite  of  the  difficulties  which  attend  the  observations 
necessary  to  determine  the  velocity  of  meteors  entering  our 
atmosphere,  many  observations  have  been  made  from  which  it 
may  be  gathered  that  the  velocity  is  rarely  under  10  miles  a 
second  or  over  40  or  50.  It  is  known  that  the  velocities  of  some 
meteor-swarms  are  very  different  from  those  of  others.  Prof 
Newton,  our  highest  authority  on  this  subject,  is  prepared  to 
consider  that  the  average  velocity  may  be  taken  to  be  30  miles  a 
second. 

Result  of  Collisions, 

If  we  take  these  velocities  as  representing  what  happens  in 
other  regions  of  space,  and  assume  the  specific  heat  of  the 
meteorites  to  be  'lo,  the  increase  in  their  temperature  when 
their  mo'ions  are  arrested  by  impacts  will  be  roughly  as 
follows  : — 


Velocity  i  mile  per  second 
,.        10      ,,  ,, 

20      ,, 

60      ,, 


3,000°  C. 

300,000° 

1,200,000° 

2,700,000° 

10,800,000° 


It  is  'clear,  however,  that  we  should  under  the  conditions 
slated  be  more  frequently  dealing  with  grazes  than  collisions. 

Comets  due  to  Collisions  of  Meteorites. 

The  fact  that  comets  are  due  to  swarms  of  meteorites  was  first 
established  by  Schiaparelli  in  1866,  when  he  demonstrated  that 
the  orbit  of  the  August  meteors  was  identical  with  that  of  the 
bright  comet  of  1862.^ 

Nebula  due  to  Collisions  of  Meteorites. 

So  far  as  I  know  the  first  suggestion  that  nebulae  were  really 
in  some  manner  associated  with  meteorites  and  not  with  masses 
of  gas  was  made  by  Prof.  Tait  in  1871.'  I  have  used  the  sug- 
gestion in  my  lectures  ever  since,  and  it  is  now  some  years  ago 
since  I  put  it  to  an  experimental  test  by  showing  that  both  the 
spectra  of  comets  and  nebulas,  so  far  as  carbon  and  hydrogen 
were  concerned,  could  be  produced  from  a  vessel  containing  the 
vapours  produced  by  meteorites.  More  recently,  M.  Faye  has 
stated  in  his  works  on  the  nebular  hypothesis  that  the  solar  nebula 
may  as  probably  have  consisted  of  a  cloud  of  stones  as  of  a  mass  of 
gas.  This  view,  however,  has  not  been  favoured  by  Dr.  Huggins, 
who  in  his  observations  both  on  nebulae  and  comets  has  inferred 
from  the  near  coincidence  of  the  line  of  500  with  the  strong  air 
line  that  we  are  probably  in  presence  of  nitrogen,  or  of  a  form  of 
matter  more  elementary  than  nitrogen  ;  the  line  at  373  being 

'  Article  on  "  Meteorites,"  Prof.  Newton,  "  Encyclopsedia  Britannica," 
vol.  xvi. 

^  Letters  to  Father  Secchi,  printed  in  the  Bollettino  of  the  Collegio 
Romano,  and  reproduced  in  Les  Mondes,  t.  xiii. 

3  "  It  seems  to  me  that  we  have  a  series  of  indications  of  what  (for  want  of 
a  better  phrase)  may  be  called  the  period  of  life  oi  3.?Xa.x  or  group,  beginning 
with  the  glowing  gases  developed  by  impacts  of  agglomerating  cold  masses 
(planetary  nebulae  and  others  irresolvable,  such  as  thcs«  of  Orion,  Lyra, 
&o.,  where  the  spectrum  consists  of  a  very  few  bright  lines  only)"  (Prof. 
Tait,  Proc.  R.S.  Edin.,  1871). 


attributed  by  him  also  to  some  unknown  form  of  hydrogen  on 
account  of  its  coincidence  with  one  of  the  series  of  hydrogen  lines 
in  the  ultra-violet  observed  in  the  spectra  of  stars  of  the  first 
class. 


"New  Stars  "  due  to  Collisions  of  Meteorites. 

The  idea  that  the  Novas  which  appear  from  time  to  time  are 
due  to  collisions  of  meteorites  was,  I  think,  first  advanced  by 
myself  in  1877,  when  I  wrote  in  connection  with  Nova  Cygni : — 

"  The  very  rapid  reduction  of  light  in  the  case  of  the  new  star 
in  Cygnus  was  so  striking  that  I  at  once  wrote  to  Mr.  Hind  to 
ask  if  any  change  of  place  was  observable,  because  it  seemed 
obvious  that,  if  the  b^dy  which  thus  put  on  so  suddenly  the 
chromospheric  spectrum  were  single,  it  might  only  weigh  a  few 
tons,  or  even  hundredweights,  and,  being  so  small,  might  be 
very  near  us.  Mr.  Hind's  telescope  was  dismounted,  and  I 
have  not  yet  got  any  information  as  to  change  of  position  ;  and 
as  I  am  now  writing  in  the  Highlands,  away  from  all  books,  I 
have  no  opportunity  of  comparing  the  position  now  given  by 
Lord  Lindsay  in  R.  A.  2ih.  36m.  52s.,  Decl.  -1-  42°  16' 53",  with 
those  given  on  its  first  appearance  by  Winnecke  and  others. 

"  We  seem  driven,  then,  from  the  idea  that  these  phenomena 
are  produced  by  the  incandescence  of  large  masses  of  matter, 
because  if  they  were  so  produced,  the  running  diwn  of  brilliancy 
would  be  exceeding  slow. 

"Let  us  consider  the  case,  then,  on  the  supposition  of  small 
masses  of  matter.  Where  are  we  to  find  them  ?  The  answer  is 
easy  :  in  those  small  meteoric  masses  which,  an  ever-increasing 
mass  of  evidence  tends  to  show,  occupy  all  the  realms  of 
space."  ■* 

The  Ejects  of  Collisions. 

The  question  of  what  must  happen  to  the  meteorites  them- 
selves in  consequence  of  this  system  of  collisions  is  worth  going 
into  thoroughly.  A  very  cursory  examination  seems  to  indicate 
that  much  light  is  thrown  on  the  condition  of  meteorites  as  we 
know  them,  and  their  division  into  iron  and  stony. 

As  30  miles  per  second  is  a  very  frequent  value  obtained  f  jr 
the  velocity  of  meteorites  when  they  enter  our  atmosphere,  it  is 
possible  to  compare  temperatures  brought  about  by  collisions 
with  those  produced  by  passage  through  our  atmosphere.  Two 
masses  of  meteoric  iron  meeting  each  other  in  space  would  pro- 
bably, if  moving  with  a  certain  velocity,  be  formed  into  a  pasty 
conjoined  mass,  and  this  process  might  go  on  until  an  iron  of 
large  dimensions  was  formed,  and  the  various  meteorites  thus 
welded  together  would  present  in  time  a  very  fragmentary 
appearance.  While  irons  were  thus  increasing  in  size,  collisions 
with  smaller  meteorites  would  be  attended  with  very  local  in- 
creases of  temperature,  perhaps  sufficient  to  volatilize  the  surface 
or  allow  it  to  be  indented,  and  in  this  manner  the  well-known 
"  thumb-marks  "  receive  explanation. 

The  masses  of  iron,  when  in  a  state  of  fusion,  whatever 
their  size,  would  be  able  to  include  stony  meteorites  in  their 
vicinity.  In  the  case  of  stones  it  is  easy  to  see  that  the  result 
would  be  very  different.  Their  collisions  would  have,  most  pro- 
bably, the  effect  of  reducing  large  pre-existing  masses  to  smaller 
ones,  and  the  collision  of  a  large  stone  with  a  large  iron  would 
probably  effect  the  driving  of  the  stone  irto  fragments,  while  the 
iron  would  be  liquefied  so  as  to  inclose  some  of  the  fragments  in 
its  mass. 

These  operations  of  Nature  might  go  on  either  in  free  space, 
or  in  the  head  of  a  comet,  or  in  meteor-swarms.  They  probably 
cause  the  appearance  of  the  so-called  new  stars,  and  in  these 
various  circumstances  the  rate  of  subsequent  cooling  would  of 
course  be  very  different,  so  that  the  results  would  be  very 
different  indeed. 

Large  masses  on  collision  probably  destroy  each  other,  produce 
fragments  and  vapour,  which  aj;ain  condense.  The  heterogeneous 
structure  is  thus  to  a  certain  extent  explained.  On  collision  the 
part  of  the  substance  of  the  meteorite  given  up  will  depend  on  the 
temperature,  and  thus  a  mass  of  metallic  iron  mixed  with  silicates 
at  low  temperature  will  get  rid  of  the  iron  at  once,  which  must 
then  perforce  condense  in  a  separate  swarm  ;  therefore  under  low 
temperature  conditions,  say  at  aphelion,  irons  alone  will  be  formed 
and  the  stones  will  become  spongy.  The  stones  will  absorb  the 
C  and  H  vapours. 

'  Natvrf,  vol.  xvi.  p.  4-3. 


Nov.  24,  1887] 


NATURE 


87 


IJ  have  finally  to  express  my  great  obligations  to  Messrs- 
Fowler,  Taylor,  and  Richards,  whD  have  helped  me  in 
various  ways  in  the  researches  embodied  in  this  paper. 
Mr.  Fowler,  the  assistant  to  the  Solar  Physics  Committee, 
has  made  most  of  the  observations  on  meteorites,  and  low-tem- 
perature spectra  generally,  which  have  been  recorded  on  the 
maps,  and  he  has  carried  out  this  work  with  a  care,  skill,  and 
patience  beyond  all  praise.  The  observations  have  in  nearly 
every  case  been  checked  also  by  myself.  Mr.  Taylor,  the  Demon- 
strator of  Astronomy,  has  been  chiefly  responsible  for  looking 
up  the  literature  and  mapping  the  results,  in  which  he  has  been 
aided  by  Mr.  Richards. 

J.  Norman  Lockyer. 


SIR  JULIUS   VON  HA  AST,  F.R.S. 

SCIENCE  in  Australasia,  and  especially  in  New 
Zealand,  has  recently  sustained  a  great  loss  by  the 
death,  on  August  16  last,  of  Sir  Julius  von  Haast.  He  was 
born  on  May  i,  i824,at  Bonn,where  his  fatherwas  a  wealthy 
merchant.  After  passing  through  the  grammar-schools 
of  Bonn  and  Cologne,  he  entered  the  University  of  Bonn, 
and  devoted  a  considerable  portion  of  his  time  to  geo- 
logical and  mineralogical  studies.  He  then  spent  some 
years  in  France,  and  made  journeys  for  the  purpose  of 
scientific  exploration  in  Russia,  Austria,  and  Italy.  Being 
invited  by  an  English  firm  of  ship-owners  to  visit  New 
Zealand  on  their  behalf  in  order  to  report  upon  its  fitness 
as  a  field  for  German  emigration,  he  went  to  London, 
and  accepted  their  offer  after  some  negotiation  ;  and  on 
December  21,  1858,  he  arrived  at  Auckland.  The  next 
day,  by  a  lucky  chance,  the  Austrian  ship  Novara — then 
on  its  voyage  of  scientific  research — put  into  Auckland  ; 
and  when  Dr.  von  Hochstetter  was  left  behind,  at  the 
request  of  the  New  Zealand  Government,  he  took  Mr. 
Haast  as  his  lieutenant  and  companion  in  all  his  journeys 
in  these  islands.  After  the  departure  of  Hochstetter,  Mr. 
Haast  was  engaged  by  the  Provincial  Government  of 
Nelson  to  explore  the  west  coast  of  the  province,  and  in 
the  journey  undertaken  in  the  pursuit  of  these  duties  he 
commenced  his  examination  of  the  physical  geography 
and  geology  of  the  Southern  Alps.  The  results  of  the 
exploration  were  published  in  a  report  printed  by  the 
Nelson  Government  and  dated  January  i,  1861. 

Immediately  after  the  conclusionof  the  Nelson  journey — 
namely,  in  December  i860— he  undertook  to  report  to  the 
Government  of  the  Province  of  Canterbury  as  to  the 
possibility  of  constructing  a  tunnel  through  the  hills  which 
separate  Christchurch  from  its  port  of  Lyttelton  ;  and  in 
the  following  year  he  was  appointed  to  the  command  of 
the  Geological  Survey  of  Canterbury,  being  thus  the  first 
Government  geologist  in  New  Zealand.  It  was  in  this 
capacity  that  he  accomplished  the  most  valuable  part  of 
his  scientific  work.  The  most  striking  of  his  achievements 
were  the  examination  of  the  Mount  Cook  district  ;  the 
sketching  and  mapping  out  of  the  great  glaciers  of  the 
Southern  Alps,  named  by  him  the  Tasman,  Franz  Joseph, 
Hochstetter,  Hooker,  and  Miiller  glaciers,  and  many 
others ;  and  the  forecast  and  subsequent  examination  made 
of  the  auriferous  districts  of  Westland.  All  this,  with  the 
geographical,  zoological,  botanical,  and  meteorological  re- 
searches carried  on  side  by  side  with  the  more  exclusively 
geological  work,  was  in  continuation  of  what  had  been 
done  in  the  Nelson  or  northern  portion  of  the  same 
mountain  system.  The  results  of  his  investigations  were 
set  forth  in  the  chief  book  published  by  him— namely, 
"The  Geology  of  Canterbury  and  Westland."  He  was 
also  the  author  of  many  papers  in  scientific  periodicals. 

Last  year  he  acted  as  New  Zealand  Commissioner  at 
the  Indian  and  Colonial  Exhibition.  Afterwards  he 
visited  Paris,  Brussels,  Berlin,  Dresden,  Vienna,  Halle, 
Venice,  Florence,  and  other  centres,  obtaining  a  vast 
number  of  things  for  the  Canterbury  Museum,  the  flourish- 
ing condition  of  which  is  mainly  due  to  his  energy  and 


zeal.  His  labour  in  connection  with  the  Exhibition,  and  the 
subsequent  wear  and  tear  of  travelling  while  in  weak 
health,  appear  to  have  overtaxed  his  strength,  and  he 
died  of  heart-disease  a  month  after  his  return  to  New 
Zealand. 


NOTES. 

The  fourth  session  of  the  International  Geological  Congress 
will  be  held  next  year  in  London.  The  Congress  was  founded 
at  a  meeting  of  the  American  Association  for  the  Advancement 
of  Science  at  Buffalo  in  1876,  the  first  session  being  held  at 
Paris  in  1878,  the  second  at  Bologna  in  1881,  the  third  at  Berlin  in 
1885.  The  following  is  a  list  of  the  Organizing  Committee 
appointed  to  carry  out  the  arrangements  : — H.  Bauerman,  W.  T. 
Blanford,  F.R.S.,  Rev.  Prof.  T.  G.  Bonney,  F.R.S.,  Prof.  W. 
Boyd  Dawkins,  F.  R.  S. ,  John  Evans,  F.  R.  S. ,  Prof.  W.  H.  Flower, 
F.R.S.,  Arch.  Geikie,  F.R.S.,  Prof.  James  Geikie,  F.R.S., 
Sir  Douglas  Galton,  F.R.S.,  Prof.  A.  H.  Green,  F.R.S. ,  Rev. 
Prof.  S.  Haughton,  F.R.S.,  Prof.  T.  H.  Huxley,  F.R.S.,  W. 
H.  Hudleston,  F.R.S.,  Prof.  T.  McK.  Hughes,  J.  W.  Hulke, 
F.R.S.,  Prof.  E.  Hull,  F.R.S.,  Prof.  J.  W.  Judd,  F.R.S., 
Prof.  J.  Prestwich,  F.R.S.,  F.  W.  Rudler,  H.  C.  Sorby,  F.R.S., 
Sir  W.  W.  Smyth,  F.R.S.,  W.  Topley,  Rev.  Prof.  Wilt- 
shire, Henry  Woodward,  F.R.S.  The  duty  of  this  Committee 
will  be  to  nominate  the  officers,  to  appoint  Executive  Com- 
mittees, and  to  fix  the  exact  date  of  meeting.  The  Congress  at 
Berlin  requested  that  the  meeting  should  be  held  in  London 
between  August  15  and  September  15. 

Dr.  Dawson,  Assistant-Director  of  the  Canadian  Geological 
Survey,  who  headed  the  party  sent  by  the  Dominion  Govern- 
ment to  explore  the  country  adjacent  to  the  Alaska 
boundary,  has  returned  to  Victoria.  Two  of  his  party, 
Messrs.  Ogilvie  and  McConnell,  will  winter  in  the  dis- 
trict, preparing  the  way  for  the  establishment  of  the  in- 
ternational boundary.  The  Expedition  so  far  has  secured  a 
great  deal  of  geological,  geographical,  and  general  information 
about  the  country,  which  is  far  from  being  the  Arctic  region  it  is 
sometimes  rep.-esented  to  be.  The  point  from  which  Dr. 
Dawson  turned  back  was  at  the  junction  of  the  Lewis  and  Pelly 
Rivers.  It  is  looo  miles  north  of  Victoria.  There  the  flora 
was  found  to  differ  but  little  from  that  on  the  banks  of  the 
Eraser.  A  great  deal  of  open  grassy  country  exists  along  the 
stream's  tributary  to  the  Yukon.  No  areas  of  tundra  or  frozen 
swamps,  such  as  are  to  be  met  with  in  the  interior  of  Alaska,  were 
discovered  by  the  Expedition.  Dr.  Dawson's  conclusion  is  that 
the  whole  country,  from  Cassiar  to  the  vicinity  of  Forty-mile  Creek 
on  the  Yukon  River  (which  must  be  near  the  easte  rn  boundary 
of  Alaska),  yields  more  or  less  gold  in  placer  deposits.  This 
would  constitute  a  gold-bearing  region  fully  500  miles  in  length, 
and  of  indefinite  width. 

At  a  meeting  of  the  Council  of  University  College, 
Bristol,  held  on  Wednesday,  November  i6,  it  was  decided,  at 
the  suggestion  of  the  ftaff  of  the  College,  to  suspend  for  a  year 
the  office  of  Principal.  Prof.  Lloyd  Morgan  was  in  the  mean- 
time appointed  academical  head  of  the  College,  and  Chairman 
of  the  Educational  Board,  with  the  tide  of  Dean. 

At  the  Royal  Institution,  Sir  Robert  Stawell  Ball,  the 
Astronomer- Royal  of  Ireland,  will  give  a  course  of  six  lectures 
(adapted  to  a  juvenile  auditory)  on  Astronomy  :  the  Sun.  Moon, 
Planets,  Comets,  ami  Stars.  The  course  will  begin  on  Decem- 
ber 27.  Courses  of  lectures  will  also  probably  be  given  by  Lord 
Rayleigh  (Professor  of  Natural  Philosophy  at  the  Royal  Insti- 
tution), Dr.  G.  J.  Romanes,  Mr.  Hubert  Ilerkomer,  Prof.  C. 
Hubert  H.  Parry,  the  Rev.  W.  H.  Dallinger,  and  Mr.  William 
Archer. 


88 


NATURE 


{Nov.  24,  1887 


We  are  requested  to  state  that  the  lectures  to  be  given  on 
behalf  of  the  Anthropological  Institute  by  Mr.  Francis  Galton 
— which  were  postponed  in  consequence  of  that  gentleman's 
indisposition — will  be  delivered  in  the  Lecture  Theatre  of  the 
South  Kensington  Museum  on  Saturday,  the  26th  inst.,  and  the 
two  following  Saturdays,  December  3  and  10. 

An  International  Exhibition  will  shortly  be  held  by  the 
Ornithological  Society  at  Berlin. 

A  MAGNETIC  Observatory  is  about  to  be  erected  near  the 
Solar  Observatory,  on  the  Brauhausberg,  near  Potsdam. 

A  CORRESPONDENT  Writes  to  us  from  Venice  that  on  the  9th 
inst.  an  earthquake  occurred  there  at  1.32  a.m.  There  were 
five  gentle  undulations,  which  lasted  ten  seconds.  On  the 
same  morning — at  1.30  a.m. — a  shock  at  Ferrara  is  said  to  have 
lasted  seven  seconds. 

The  other  day  Mr.  Raskin  sent  to  the  Times  the  following 
extract  from  a  letter,  dated  November  14,  which  he  had  received 
from  a  friend  at  Florence  : — "  We  had  an  earthquake  this  morn- 
ing, which  frightened  everybody,  and  my  door  shook  so  that  I 
thought  somebody  was  trying  to  break  in,  and  then  there  was  a 
terrible  noise,  but  I  believe  no  harm  done.  The  bells  rang  of 
themselves  at  the  Carmine,  and  some  say  that  one  or  two  chim- 
neys fell,  but  nobody  seems  to  know."  From  a  report  issued 
by  Signor  Passerini,  Director  of  the  Meteorological  Observatory 
connected  with  the  Agricultural  College  of  Scandicci,  we  learn 
that  three  shocks  were  felt  there  on  the  14th,  the  first  taking 
place  about  5.20  a.m.  It  was  accompanied  by  a  rather  loud 
rumbling,  and  was  powerful  enough  to  shake  all  the  furniture  in 
Signor  Passerini's  room.  A  second  shock,  weaker,  and  not 
accompanied  by  rumbling,  was  felt  about  twenty  minutes  later. 
At  6.49  a.m.  the  third  shock,  the  strongest  of  all,  and  ac- 
companied by  loud  rumbling,  was  felt.  During  the  continuance 
of  this  shock  people  in  the  open  country  saw  trees  much  shaken, 
and  quantities  of  leaves  were  observed  to  fall.  The  direction  of 
the  shocks  was  from  north-north-west  to  south-south-east. 

At  the  suggestion  of  Prof.  MushketofF,  who  has  just  returned 
from  his  official  visit  to  Semiretchia,  a  special  Commission  has 
been  appointed  to  watch  the  course  of  any  earthquakes  that  may 
happen,  and  to  report  on  them,  in  those  parts  of  the  Russian 
Empire  which  are  most  frequently  visited,  such  as  the  Caucasus, 
Turkestan,  and  the  Transbaikal  region. 

Advices  from  Baku  state  that  a  naphtha  spring  has  burst 
forth  near  the  town  of  Balachany,  the  oil  being  thrown  to  a 
height  of  over  100  feet  and  carried  away  long  distances  by  the 
wind.  Sometimes  the  oil  falls  like  rain  over  the  adjacent 
districts,  and  forms  small  streams,  whilst  heavy  naphtha  gases 
fill  the  air. 

Another  contribution  to  the  subject  of  photography  in 
colours  is  published  by  Mr.  Carey  Lea  in  the  November 
number  of  the  American  Journal  of  Science.  Although  the 
interpretations  placed  upon  his  former  experiments  have 
not  received  universal  acceptance  in  this  country,  still  the 
experiments  themselves  have  been  generally  received  with 
considerable  interest  and  surprise,  and  indeed  are  at  the 
present  time  being  repeated  and  considerably  extended  in 
more  than  one  English  laboratory.  The  appearance  of  another 
communication  from  Mr.  Carey  Lea  is  therefore  most  opportune, 
and  will  doubtless  form  the  subject  for  considerable  discussion. 
It  will  be  remembered  that  the  so-called  photo-salts  of  silver,  a 
description  of  which  appeared  in  these  columns  a  few  months 
ago,  were  said  to  consist  of  combinations  of  ordinary  chloride  of 
silver  with  small  quantities  of  subchloride.  Mr.  Carey  Lea  now 
finds  that  silver  chloride  combines  with  small  quantities  of  many 
other  chlorides,  besides  its  own  subchloride,   to  form  coloured 


salts,  comparatively  stable  and  remarkably  less  sensitive  to  light. 
Thus  if  silver  nitrate  be  added  to  a  solution  of  ferric  chloride  in 
presence  of  free  hydrochloric  acid,  the  precipitate  obtained  is 
buff-coloured,  and  the  ferric  chloride  carried  down  by  the  silver 
chloride  cannot  be  washed  out  even  by  hydrochloric  acid.  The 
most  remarkable  properly  of  this  silver-ferric  chloride  is  that  it 
is  almost  unacted  upon  by  light.  Chlorides  of  cobalt,  nickel, 
manganese,  and  mercury  give  analogous  combinations,  each 
having  a  characteristic  colour.  As  those  chlorides,  such  as  ferric 
and  mercuric,  which  readily  part  with  one  equivalent  of  chlorine, 
act  most  energetically  in  reducing  the  sensitiveness,  it  appears 
probable  that  the  traces  of  chlorine  thus  capable  of  being  given 
up,  simply  hold  in  check  the  commencement  of  the  movement 
towards  reduction. 

We  have  received  from  Mr.  Stewart  Culin  the  reprint  of  a 
paper  read  by  him  before  the  Anthropological  Section  of  the 
American  Association  at  its  meeting  at  New  York  during  the 
past  autumn.  It  is  entitled  "China  in  America  :  a  Study  in 
the  Social  Life  of  the  Chinese  in  the  Eastern  Cities  of  the  United 
States,"  and  describes  the  special  districts  in  Southern  China  from 
which  the  immigrants  mostly  come,  the  guilds  and  associations 
they  form,  their  mode  of  life,  their  pleasures,  which  are  some- 
what few  and  simple,  and  much  else  in  respect  to  them  that  is 
of  a  very  interesting  character.  His  own  contact  with  the 
Chinese  in  the  United  States  leads  him  to  form  a  favour- 
able estimate  of  their  character  and  attainments,  which  have 
been  the  subjects  of  much  misconception.  They  are  not  "the 
dregs  of  the  people,  given  up  to  gambling  and  opium-smoking, 
and  distinguished  only  by  their  vices,"  as  the  anti-Chinese  orators 
aver  ;  nor  are  their  mental  and  moral  qualities  quite  so  high  as 
others  allege.  But  we  fear  very  much  that  Mr.  Culin  is  over 
sanguine  in  the  anticipation  that  the  returning  emigrants  will 
some  day  carry  enlightenment  to  their  own  country.  Their 
work  is  not  of  a  kind  that  enables  them  to  acquire  very 
great  knowledge  of  the  resources  of  the  West ;  they  come 
with  a  special  object,  viz.  the  acquisition  of  a  competence, 
they  toil  unremittingly  until  that  is  attained,  when  they  speed 
home  again,  usually  with  no  very  pleasant  memories  of  the  land 
of  their  sojourn.  To  China  herself  we  must  look  for  the 
elements  of  her  regeneration,  and  time,  which  is  the  great 
solvent,  will  have  its  slow  effect  on  that  huge  mass  of  humanity. 

The  German  publisher,  Herr  Trewendt,  of  Breslau,  has  just 
issued  the  twentieth  part  of  a  Dictionary  of  Zoology,  Anthro- 
pology, and  Ethnology ;  the  twenty-fourth  and  twenty-fifth 
parts  of  a  Dictionary  of  Chemistry  ;  and  the  twentieth  part  of  a 
hand-book  of  Botany.  These  works  belong  to  the  elaborate 
"  Encyklop^die  der  Wissenschaften,"  edited  by  Dr.  W.  Forster, 
Dr.  A.  Kenngott,  Dr.  A.  Ladenburg,  and  other  scientific 
writers. 

Prof.  Forel  is  at  present  studying  the  penetration  of  light 
into  the  Lake  of  Geneva,  by  means  of  the  photographic  effect 
on  chloride  of  silver  paper.  Six  photographic  apparatus  are 
attached  one  above  another  to  a  rope  at  lo-metre  intervals. 
They  are  let  down  into  the  lake  after  sunset,  left  there  one  day 
or  more,  and  taken  up  again  at  night.  The  depth  limit  of 
absolute  darkness  has  been  found  this  year,  in  the  beginning  of 
March,  100  m.  ;  of  May,  75  m.  ;  and  of  July,  45  m.  Prof. 
Forel  hopes  to  carry  on  these  experiments  for  a  whole  year, 
every  two  months,  and  so  obtain  the  curve  for  penetration  of 
light  into  the  lake. 

The  loss  of  electricity  by  a  conductor  in  moist  air  has  been 
lately  studied  by  Signor  Guglielmo  (Turin  Academy).  He  finds 
that  with  potentials  less  than  600  volts,  moist  air  insulates  as 
well  as  dry  air,  but  with  higher  potentials,  there  is  more  loss 
in  moist  air,  and  more  the  moister  the  air,  and  the  higher  the 
,  potential.     The  potential  at   which  the  difference  becomes  per- 


Nev.  24,  1887] 


NATURE 


89 


ceptible  is  the  same  for  a  ball  as  for  a  fine  point.  It  occurs 
with  extremely  smooth  surfaces,  and  so  cannot  be  attributed  to 
discharges  in  consequence  of  roughness  of  surface.  With  equal 
potential  the  loss  of  electricity  has  the  same  magnitude,  what- 
ever the  dimensions  of  the  balls  used  as  conductors.  In  air 
saturated  with  vapours  of  insulating  substances,  the  loss  of 
electricity  of  a  conductor  is  nearly  the  same  as  in  dry  air. 

The  large  Russian  ironclad  Tchesme,  now  being  finished  at 
Sebastopol,  and  having  a  displacement  of  over  10,000  tons,  is  to 
have  boilers  heated  with  petroleum.  If  the  results  correspond 
to  what  the  Sebastopol  engineers  expect,  the  example  is  likely  to 
be  followed  elsewhere.  In  this  connection  we  may  note  an 
account  in  La  Nature  of  November  5,  of  a  gas-boat,  as  it  may  be 
called,  the  Volapuk,  recently  constructed  by  M.  Forest,  in  which 
a  gas-engine  of  six  horse-power  is  driven,  not  by  coal-gas,  but 
by  air  charged  with  carbureted  hydrogen,  by  passage  through 
petroleum-oil.  There  are  two  pistons,  and  the  explosive  mixture 
is  ignited  by  means  of  a  spark  from  a  magneto-electric  arrange- 
ment. The  engine  consumes  six  litres  of  petroleum-oil  per 
hour,  giving  a  speed  of  sixteen  kilometres  per  hour. 

Among  the  various  uses  of  celluloid,  it  would  appear  (accord- 
ing to  the  Annates  Industrtelles)  to  be  a  suitable  sheathing  for 
ships,  in  place  of  copper.  A  French  Company  now  undertakes 
to  supply  the  substance  for  this  at  9  francs  per  surface-metre 
and  per  millimetre  of  thickness.  In  experiments  by  M.  Butaine, 
plates  of  celluloid  applied  to  various  vessels  in  January  last  were 
removed  five  or  six  months  after,  and  found  quite  intact  and  free 
from  marine  vegetation,  which  was  abundant  on  parts  uncovered. 
The  colour  of  the  substance  is  indestructible  ;  the  thickness  may 
be  reduced  to  0*0003  metre ;  and  the  qualities  of  elasticity, 
solidity,  impermeability,  resistance  to  chemical  action,  &c.,  are 
all  in  favour  of  this  use  of  celluloid. 

The  following  interesting  observations  with  regard  to  the 
mobility  of  loess  have  been  made  by  M.  Potanin  during  his  last  | 
journey  through  the  region  south  of  the  Ordos.  As  wind 
steadily  moves  the  shifting  sands,  so  also  water  steadily  moves 
the  loess,  transporting  it  from  higher  to  lower  ^levels.  The 
underground  water  which  filtrates  through  the  loess,  begins  by 
making  in  it  a  kind  of  cavern  ;  then  a  circular  crevice  appears 
on  the  surface  over  the  cavern,  and  a  cylindrical  vertical  hollow, 
which  soon  becomes  a  deep  well,  is  formed  through  the  thick- 
ness of  the  upper  layers  of  the  loess.  The  whole  surface  of  the 
loess  deposits  is  dotted  with  such  wells,  very  dangerous  to  cattle. 
By  and  by  the  formerly  cylindrical  well  begins  to  extend  in  the 
direction  in  which  the  underground  water  flows,  and  a  narrow 
ravine  grows  until  it  joins  the  main  valley.  Then  masses  of 
loess  continually  fall  down  into  the  ravine,  increasing  its  width. 
The  fall  of  these  masses  is  favoured  by  the  numerous  crevices  in 
the  loess,  and  it  is  so  frequent  that  natives  warn  foreigners  not 
to  approach  the  borders  of  a  ravine.  Of  course  the  fallen 
masses  are  further  dislocated  by  water,  and  the  loess  is  thus 
steadily  transported  at  a  remarkable  speed  to  lower  levels. 

Hitherto  it  has  been  generally  supposed  that  the  glaciers  of 
the  Caucasus  are  far  from  having  the  same  development  as  those 
of  the  Alps.  It  appears,  however,  from  the  last  researches  of 
Abich,  that,  although  no  glaciers  of  the  Caucasus  are  as  long  as 
the  Aletsch  and  Unteraar  glaciers,  or  the  Mer  de  Glace,  there 
are  a  great  many  of  them.  From  tables  compiled  by  M.  Smirnoff" 
in  a  recent  issue  of  the  Bulletin  of  the  Moscow  Naturalists'  Society, 
it  appears  that  the  average  lowest  levels  of  the  Caucasus  glaciers 
are  :  2504  metres  in  the  Elburz  Chain  ;  2176  metres  in  the  chain 
to  the  west  of  the  Adai-kokh  ;  2266  metres  in  the  high  valley  of 
the  Ingur  ;  2898  metres  on  the  eastern  slope,  and  2238  on  the 
northern  slope,  of  the  Kazbek  ;  from  2428  to  2658  metres  in 
Daghcstan  ;  2776  metres  on  the  Great  Ararat ;  and  as  much  as 
from   3162  to   3194    metres  on    the    Shah-dagh.      Comparing 


these  heights  with  those  reached  by  the  lower  extremities  of 
glaciers  in  other  highlands,  M.  Smirnoff"  concludes  that  in  the 
main  Caucasus  ridge  the  altitudes  of  the  snow-line  and  the 
glaciers  are  intermediate  between  the  corresponding  altitudes  in 
the  Alps  and  those  in  the  chains  of  Central  Asia  (Thian  Shan  and 
Hindu  Kush) ;  and  that  in  the  western  parts  of  the  Caucasus  the 
altitudes  of  the  perennial  snow-line  are  nearer  to  those  of  the 
Austrian  Alps.  There  is  some  analogy  between  West  Caucasus 
and  the  Himalayas,  inasmuch  as  the  lowest  limits  of  perennial 
snow  in  both  chains  are  higher  on  the  northern  slope  than  on 
the  southern. 

A  "  panorama-bijou"  (or  toy  panorama),  has  been  recently 
brought  before  the  French  Societe  d'Encouragement,  by  M. 
Benoist,  It  is  meant  to  give  a  succession  of  connected  views  of 
photographed  scenery,  &c.  Externally  the  instrument  appears 
as  a  cylindrical  case  with  a  handle  projecting  from  its  carved 
surface.  The  observer  looks  through  a  lens,  in  the  axis,  towards 
a  mirror  inclined  45',  which  reflects  a  panoramic  view  fixed 
round  the  interior  of  an  inner  cylinder  which  is  rotated  by 
clockwork.  The  back  of  the  case  is  of  ground  glass,  admitting 
diffuse  light.  The  instrument  may  be  found  a  suitable  com- 
panion to  the  stereoscope  on  the  drawing-room  table. 

Frozen  fish  are  now  imported  into  France,  and  a  Society 
formed  in  Marseilles  for  the  purpose  of  developing  the  trade  (the 
Societe  du  Trident)  has  a  steamer  and  a  sailing-vessel  engaged  in 
it.  The  steamer  Rokelle  lately  came  into  Marseilles  with  some 
30,000  kilogrammes  of  frozen  fish  in  its  hold,  the  temperature  of 
which  is  kept  at  17°  C.  below  zero  by  means  of  a  Pictet  machine 
(evaporating  sulphurous  acid).  The  fish  are  caught  with  the 
net  in  various  parts  of  the  Mediterranean  and  Atlantic.  After 
arrival  they  are  despatched  by  night  in  a  cold  chamber.  Ex- 
periment has  shown  that  fish  can  be  kept  seven  or  eight  months 
at  low  temperature  without  the  least  alteration.  These  fish  are 
wrapped  in  straw  or  marine  AlgK,  and  have  been  sent  on  to 
Paris,  and  even  to  Switzerland. 

At  the  establishment  of  the  National  Fish-Culture  Associa- 
tion, Delaford  Park,  the  American  char,  S.  fonlinalis,  spawned 
as  early  as  October  15.  The  thriving  capacity  of  these 
beautiful  fish  is  becoming  yearly  more  and  more  marked.  Their 
rate  of  growth  at  Delaford  has  been  extraordinarily  rapid. 

Dr.  R.  Baltzer,  Professor  of  Mathematics  at  Giessen  Univer- 
sity, died  at  Giessen  on  November  7.  He  was  born  January  27, 
1818. 

On  October  22  a  monument  to  Prof.  Oswald  Heer  was 
unveiled  in  the  Zurich  Botanical  Gardens.  The  bust  of  the 
great  Swiss  naturalist  has  been  executed  in  a  masterly  manner  by 
Prof.  Hoerbst. 

The  additions  to  the  Zoological  Society's  Gardens  during  the 
past  week  include  fifty-nine  Pleurodele  Newts  {Molge  walti), 
seven  Marbled  Newts  {Molge  marinoratd)  from  Spain,  presented 
by  the  Lord  Lilford,  F.Z.  S.  ;  two  Moufflons  ( Cwj  musimon  <J  ?  ) 
from  Sardinia,  two  Barbary  Wild  Sheep  (Oz/zV  tragelapkus  S  9) 
from  North  Africa,  two  South  American  Flamingoes  {P/iceni- 
copterus  ignipalliatus)  from  South  America,  deposited  j  ten 
Silky  Bower  Birds  {Ptilonorhynchus  violaceus)  from  New  South 
Wales,  eight  received  in  exchange,  and  two  deposited ;  an 
African  Wild  Ass  {Equus  tceniopus)  born  in  the  Gardens. 


OUR  ASTRONOMICAL  COLUMN. 

American  Observatories. — It  is  reported  that  the  Dear- 
born Observatory  of  the  Chicago  Astronomical  Society  is  to  be 
removed  to  Evanston,  111.,  the  North- Western  University  at 
Evanston  having  made  an  advantageous  offer  with  respect  to  it. 
A  large  astronomical  Observatory  is  proposed  to  be  erected  in 
connection  with  the  Lake  Forest    University,  Governor  Ross, 


90 


NATURE 


\Nov.  24.  1887 


President  of  the  Board  of  Trustees  of  the  University,  having 
guaranteed  the  cost.  A  new  Observatory  has  been  established  at 
Smith  College,  Northampton,  Mass. ,  and  Miss  Mary  E.  Byrd, 
formerly  assistant  at  Carleton  College  Observatory,  has  been 
appointed  Director.  The  equipment  of  the  Observatory  at 
Carleton  College,  Northfield,  Minn.,  is  proceeding  rapidly,  the 
new  meridian-circle  by  Kepsold  is  already  erected,  and  one  of 
the  two  large  steel  domes  is  in  place.  The  telescope  it  is  to 
cover,  an  8^-inch  refractor  by  Alvan  Clark,  will,  it  is  expected, 
be  ready  for  use  within  a  few  days.  Mr.  Grinnell,  the  founder 
of  Grinnell,  Iowa,  has  furnished  funds  for  the  erection  of  an 
Observatory  to  be  attached  to  the  Iowa  College,  and  the  build- 
ing is  being  rapidly  brought  to  completion.  The  new  Observa- 
tory is  to  have  an  8-inch  equatorial  by  the  Clarks.  Prof.  Asaph 
Hall  is  to  act  as  the  Consulting  Director  of  the  Washburn 
Observatory,  whilst  Prof.  George  Comstock  will  have  the  more 
immediate  superintendence  of  the  institution  as  Associate 
Director. 

U  Ophiuchi. — Mr.  S.  C.  Chandler  gives,  in  No.  162  of 
Gould'' s  Astronomical  Journal,  an  investigation  of  the  light-curve 
of  this  well-known  Algol-type  variable,  the  result  of  which 
seems  to  indicate  a  curious  bat  well-marked  retardation  in  the 
increase  of  brilliancy  some  half-hour  or  so  after  minimum  is 
passed.  A  similar  irregularity  has  been  noticed  in  the  light- 
curve  of  S  Cancri,  and  occasionally  in  that  of  Algol.  It  is 
clearly  of  great  importance  to  ascertain  whether  this  is  merely 
subjective,  due  to  some  habit  of  observation,  or  a  real  peculiarity 
of  the  star  itself.  If  the  latter,  it  would  throw  considerable 
doubt  on  the  satellite  theory,  which  at  present  seems  on  the 
whole  the  most  plausible  explanation  of  variability  of  the  Algol 
type.  I 

The  New  Algol  Variables. — Mr.  Chandler  also  gives  an 
ephemeris  for  the  minima  of  the  two  new  Algol-type  variables, 
viz.    R  Canis  Majoris,  R.A.  yh.  i4-3m.,  Decl.  16°  ll'  S.,  and 

Y  Cygni,    R.A.   2oh.  46'6m.,    Decl.   34°  10' N.,   as  follows: — 

Y  Cygni,  Nov.  26,  22h.  42'5m.  ;  Nov.  29,  22h.  36'im.  ;  Dec.  2, 
22h.  297m.  R  Canis  Majoris,  Nov.  29,  i8h.  48*3m.  ;  Nov. 
30,  22h.  4*2m.  ;  Dec.  2,  ih.  20"im.  Greenwich  civil  time, 
reckoning  from  midnight  to  midnight. 


ASTRONOMICAL  PHENOMENA  FOR  THE 
WEEK   1887    NOVEMBER   ^t— DECEMBER  3. 

/"pOR  the  reckoning  of  time  the  civil  day,  commencing  at 
^  Greenwich  mean  midnight,  counting  the  hours  on  to  24, 

is  here  employed.) 

At  Greenwich  on  November  27 

Sun  rises,  7h.  40m.  ;  souths,  iih.  47m.  44 "Ss.  ;  sets,  I5h.  56in.  : 
right  asc.  on  meridian,  i6h.  i2"om.  ;  decl.  21°  8'  S. 
Sidereal  Time  at  Sunset,  2oh.  21m. 

Moon  (Full  on  November  30,  I5h.)  rises,  I5h.  5m.  ;  souths, 
2ih.    52m.;    sets,    4h.    50m.*:     right    asc.    on    meridian, 


2h.  177m. ; 

decl.  8"  30' 

N. 

Right  asc. 

and  declination 

Planet.         Rises. 

Souths. 

Sets. 

on 

meridian. 

h.    m. 

b.    m. 

h.    m. 

h.       m. 

Mercury..     5  52 

...    10   39 

..    15    26    . 

•  IS   3-4 

...  14  39  S. 

Venus 3  10 

...     8  46  . 

..     14   22    .. 

•   13     9-8 

...     5  23  S. 

Mars 0  59 

...     7  21  . 

••  13  43    • 

•   "  4S'i 

..     3  33  N. 

Jupiter....     6  15 

...   10  49  . 

•  •  IS  23  .. 

.   IS   12-8 

...   17     I  S. 

Saturn 20  26* 

...     4  13  . 

..   12    0  .. 

■     8  35-8 

...   19     2  N. 

Uranus...     3     i 

...     8  36  . 

..   14  II  .. 

•   12  59'5 

...     5  39  S. 

Neptune..    15  39 

...  23  20  . 

.,     7     I*. 

.     3  466 

...  18     7N. 

*  Indicates  that  the  rising  is  that  of  the  preceding  evening  and  the  setting 
that  of  the  following  morning. 

Occultations  of  Stars  by  the  Moon  (visible  at  Greenwich). 


Dec. 


I    .. 

I    ., 

Dec. 


Star. 


119  Tauri. 

120  Tauri. 


Mag. 


Disap. 


Reap. 


Corresponding 
angles  from  ver- 
tex to  right  for 
inverted  image. 


h.    m. 

h.    m. 

0         0 

^h. . 

.    16   28    . 

.    17    18      . 

.      65    248 

6     . 

.    17      0    . 

.    17   46      . 

.      38   272 

Variable  Stars. 

Star. 

R.A. 

Decl. 

h.      m. 

, 

h. 

m. 

U  Cephei     

0   52-3  .. 

8l 

16  N. 

...  Nov. 

27, 

I 

27  m 

Dec. 

2, 

I 

6  m 

Algol    

3    0-8  .. 

40 

31  N. 

...     ,, 

3. 

5 

57  '« 

\  Tauri 

3  54'4  .. 

12 

10  N. 

...  Nov. 
Dec. 

29, 
3. 

4  32  m 
3  25  m 

U  Monocerotis    ... 

7  25-4  .. 

9 

33  S. 

,, 

I, 

m 

S  Cancri      

8  37-S  •• 

19 

26  N. 

...     ». 

3, 

0 

41  m 

S  Bootis       

14  19-3  .. 

S4 

20  N. 

...  Nov 

29, 

M 

/8  Lyrse 

18  45-9  ... 

33 

14  N. 

,.  Dec. 

I, 

22 

oM 

R  Lyrse        

18  51-9  .. 

43 

48  N. 

...     ,, 

I, 

M 

rj  Aquilse      

19  467  .. 

0 

43  N. 

..     >> 

2, 

2 

0  M 

S  Sagittje     

19  5o'9  •• 

16 

20  N. 

..     J) 

I, 

5 

0  m 

S  Cephei      

22  25-0  ... 

57 

50  N. 

..  Nov. 

30, 

0 

0  m 

M 

signifies  maximum 

;  VI  minimum. 

Meteoi 

■-Showers. 

R.A. 

Decl. 

Near  A.  Persei  ... 

...      60      .. 

s 

oN.  .. 

Very 

swift 

a  Can.  Ven. 

...    194      .. 

42  N.  .. 

Very 

swift 

;  streaks. 

Venus  at  greatest  elongation  from  the  Sun, 
47°  west. 


GEOGRAPHICAL  NOTES. 

At  the  International  Exhibition  to  be  held  at  Brussels  next 
year,  a  special  Section  will  be  devoted  to  topography,  cosmo- 
graphy, geography,  and  the  related  sciences.  The  following 
are  the  classes  of  objects  desired  for  contribution  to  the 
Section  :— (i)  Maps  and  atlases,  topographical,  geographical, 
geological,  hydrographical,  astronomical,  &c.  ;  (2)  physical 
maps  of  all  kinds,  plans  in  relief,  terrestrial  and  celestial  globes 
and  spheres  ;  (3)  statistical  works  and  diagrams,  tables  and  ephe- 
merides  for  the  use  of  astronomers  and  navigators  ;  (4)  general, 
historical,  and  classical  works  ;  (5)  instruments,  aide-memoires, 
and  articles  of  equipment  for  ex])lorers.  Among  the  "desider- 
ata" are  the  following: — -(i)  The  be.-t  map  of  the  Congo, 
showing  the  most  recent  discoveries  ;  (2)  the  best  national  map 
of  any  country  ;  (3)  utilization  of  the  sheets  of  a  topographical 
map  for  the  preparation  of  special  maps  on  the  same  or  a  dif- 
ferent scale ;  (4)  the  execution  of  relief-maps  ;  (5)  transference 
of  relief  to  a  plane  surface ;  (6)  construction  of  an  appar- 
atus suitable  to  demonstrate  by  experiments  the  various 
geographical  features  which  may  be  presented  by  a  river, 
such  as  torrents,  lakes,  cataracts,  and  rapids,  erosions  and 
alluvial  accumulations,  subterranean  streams,  islands,  and  back- 
waters, freezing  and  breaking  up  of  ice,  floods,  deltas,  bar.«, 
&c.  ;  (7)  construction  of  a  tellurium  ;  (8)  portable  equipment 
for  an  explorer  ;  (9)  statistical  atlases  and  globes.  The  Secretary 
of  the  Section  is  Prof.  Du  Fief,  22  Rue  des  Palais,  Brussels. 

In  the  Verhandlinigen  of  the  Berlin  Geographical  Society, 
No.  8,  Dr.  Mense  describes  in  some  detail  a  journey  up  the 
Kwango,  the  great  southern  tributary  of  the  Congo,  which  he 
made  last  December  in  company  witli  the  Rev.  G.  Grenfell.  It 
contains  a  good  deal  of  local  information. 

The  November  number  of  the  Alpine  Journal  contains  Mr. 
D.  Freshfield's  diary  during  his  recent  visit  to  the  Caucasus, 
when  he  ascended  some  of  the  highest  peaks,  and  visited  some 
of  the  principal  glaciers.  The  diary  itself  and  the  many  excel- 
lent illustrations  of  the  peaks  and  glaciers  visited  will  be  found 
to  afford  useful  geographical  information. 

At  the  last  meeting  of  the  Paris  Geographical  Society,  Dr. 
Verneau  described  the  results  of  his  recent  missions  to  the 
Canary  Islands.  His  special  aim  was  to  work  out  the  ethnology  of 
the  islands,  and  for  that  purpose  he  has  collected  many  skulls  and 
bones  from  caves  and  graves,  and  made  many  observations  on  the 
present  inhabitants.  The  Guanches  he  professes  to  recognize  as 
the  direct  descendants  of  a  people  the  type  of  which  is  exhibited 
in  the  famous  prehistoric  Cro-^Iagnon  skull — the  troglodytes  of 
the  Vezere.  He  maintains  that  about  the  end  of  the  Quaternary 
there  must  have  been  a  great  migration  of  what  he  calls  the 
"  Cro-Magnon  "  race  from  the  north  to  the  south,  and  a  section 
of  the  migrants  found  their  way  to  the  Canaries.  After  a  lapse 
of  time  these  were  invaded  by  Numidians  and  Semites  from  the 
north  of  Africa,  people  of  a  superior  type  and  more  advanced 
culture  to  the  Guanches,  who  were  troglodytes.  Dr.  Verneau 
has  made  many  collections  of  anthropological  interest  from  the 
Canaries,  and  these  are  likely  to  be  of  much  more  service  to 
science  than  his  theories. 


Nov.   24,  1887] 


NATURE 


91 


METEOROLOGICAL  NOTES. 

Mr.  H.  Allen  has  contributed  an  article  to  the  American 
Meteorological  Journal  for  October,  on  the  behaviour  of  pressure 
and  temperature  in  low  and  high  pressure  systems.  Recent 
investigations  by  M.  Dechevrens  (and  others)  tend  to  show  that, 
while  a  high  temperature  accompanies  a  low  pressure  at  sea- 
level,  the  fluctuations  are  reversed  at  some  height  above  sea- 
level.  Mr.  Allen  maintains  that  this  conclusion  is  not  su.iported 
by  his  examination  of  observations  made  on  Mount  Washington, 
where  the  minimum  pressure  does  not  coincide  with  the  passage 
of  the  storm  centre  over  the  station,  but  lags  about  eleven  horns 
behind  it,  and  he  considers  that  this  fact  explains  the  peculiar 
results  obtained  by  M.  Dechevrens.  The  same  number  also 
contains  an  article  by  Prof.  F.  Waldo,  "  0.n  the  Absolute 
Reduction  of  Wind  Observations  at  Sea."  He  recommends  the 
use  of  some  instrument  to  ass'st  the  judgment  of  different 
observers,  at  the  actual  time  of  observation. 

I  .^  The  results  of  meteorological  observations  made  at  the  Rad- 
cliffe'Observatory,  Oxford,  in  the  year  1884,  contain  daily  means 
of  eye  observations  and  of  the  self-recording  instruments,  com- 
parisons of  the  mean  monthly  temperatures  at  5  and  105  feet 
above  the  ground,  and  rainfall  observations  on  the  ground  at 
22  and  112  feet.  Interesting  tables  are  given  showing  the  rela- 
tions of  pressure,  temperature,  &c.,  under  different  winds.  The 
total  sunshine  during  1884  was  I26d'9  hours,  being  1737  hours 
less  than  the  mean  of  five  years.  The  observations  are  reckoned 
for  astronomical  and  for  Greenwich  mean  time. 

On  September  19,  1887,  the  Russian  Govern  uent  gave 
notice  that  storm  signals  (consisting  of  day  and  night  signals) 
would  be  made  at  their  principal  ports  in  the  Black  Sea.  The 
signals  are  shown  for  forty-eight  hours,  unless  instructions  are 
received  to  lower  them  before  that  time  has  elapsed  :  also,  the 
cause  assigned  for  hoisting  each  signal  will  be  posted  up  at  the 
respective  signal  stations.  The  day  signals  consist  of  a  cone, 
hoisted  either  alone,  or  with  a  drum,  both  painted  black,  and 
each  about  3  feet  in  diameter.  The  night  signals  consist  of 
three  ted  lights,  hoisted  at  the  angles  of  an  equilateral  triangle, 
of  the  same  size  as  the  cone  used  by  day.  These  signals  corre- 
spond to  those  in  this  country — except  that  the  drum  is  not  now 
used,  and  night  signals  are  only  exhibited  at  very  few  stations. 

In  LaNaliire  of  November  12  M.  Jules  Girard  contributes  an 
article  entitled  "The  Probable  Temperature  of  the  Pole,"  based 
upon  the  results  of  the  circumpolar  expeditions  of  18S2-83,  and 
upon  the  observations  of  some  earlier  expeditions,  in  which  he 
has  tabulated  the  mean  temperatures  for  each  month.  From 
these  data  the  author  traces  two  principal  centres  of  intense 
cold,  one  in  the  north  of  Siberia  near  the  mouths  of  the  Lena, 
and  the  other  to  the  north  of  Hudson's  Bay,  near  Boothia.  The 
lowest  mean  temperature  quoted  for  July  is  30°  at  Jeannette 
Island,  to  the  north  of  the  islands  of  New  Siberia,  and  the  lowest 
mean  for  January  is  -  49°  at  Fort  Yukon,  Alaska. 


THE  BRITISH  ASSOCIA  TION  AND  LOCAL 
SOCIETIES. 
'T'HE  third  Annual  Conference  of  Delegates  of  Corresponding 
■*■  Societies  was  held  at  Manchester,  thirty-two  of  these 
affiliated  Societies  having  nominated  Delegates  to  attend  the 
meeting.  The  following  Report  of  the  Conference,  sigiied  by 
Mr.  Francis  Galton  as  Chairman,  and  by  Prof.  R.  Meldola  as 
Secretary,  has  just  been  issued  :  — 

At  the  first  meeting  of  the  Conference  the  chair  was  taken  by 
Prof.  W.  Boyd  Dawkins,  F.R.S.,  the  Corresponding  Societies 
Committee  being  represented  by  Dr.  J.  G.  Garson  and  Prof.  R. 
Meldola,  F.  R.S.,  Secretary. 

The  Chairman,  in  opening  the  proceedings,  stated  that  the 
British  Association  was  anxious  to  be  brought  into  as  close  a 
relationship  as  possible  with  the  local  Societies  of  this  country. 
The  work  carried  on  by  many  of  these  Societies  was  of  the 
greatest  value  to  science,  and  it  was  felt  that  their  eftbrts  might 
be  promoted  by  simplifying  and  unifying  their  labours.  The 
present  meeting  was  called  for  this  purpose,  and  for  that  of 
bringing  together  the  representatives  of  the  various  Correspond- 
ing Societies. 

The  Secretary  read  the  Report  of  the  Corresponding  Societies 
Committee  which  had  been  presented  to  the  General  Com- 
mittee of  the  Association  at  the  meeting  on  Wednesday, 
August  31. 


The  names  of  the  Delegates  who  desired  to  be  attached  to  the 
Sectional  Committees  as  "Delegate  Members"  were  collected 
by  the  Secretary  in  accordance  with  the  resolution  passed  at  the 
Conference  last  year  at  Birmingham  (see  last  Report,  Natijre, 
vol.  XXXV.  p.  78). 

The  Chairman  called  upon  the  Delegates  to  make  any  state- 
ments respecting  the  action  that  had  been  taken  by  their 
Societies  with  reference  to  the  suggestions  put  forward  last  year, 
and  which  had  been  embodied  in  the  Report  just  read. 

Prehistoric  Remains  Committee. — Mr.  J.  W.  Davis  stated 
that  the  Prehistoric  Re  nains  Committee  had  been  carrying  on 
their  work  during  the  past  year,  and  they  proposed  to  apply  for 
reappointment.  Two  reports  had  already  been  obtained  relating 
to  tha  bronze  implements  of  the  East  and  West  Ridings  of 
Yorkshire,  and  several  others  had  been  promised  for  next  year. 
_  Preservation  of  Stonehenge. — With  reference  to  the  preserva- 
tion of  Stonehenge,  Dr.  Garson  stated  that  the  resolution  which 
had  been  submitted  last  year  to  the  Delegates  at  the  Birming- 
ham Conference  had  been  considered  by  the  Committee  of 
Section  II,  and,  having  been  adopted  by  them,  had  been  brought 
before  the  General  Committee,  and  also  accepted.  He  believed 
that  in  consequence  of  this  action  negotiations  were  now  going 
on  between  the  Council  of  the  British  Association  and  the 
proprietor  of  these  remains.^ 

Prof.  Boyd  Dawkins  remarked  that  the  state  of  neglect  into 
which  Stonehenge  had  been  allowed  to  fall  had  by  no  means  been 
OA'erstated  in  the  resolutio.i  referred  to.  A  person  had  recently 
been  seen  on  a  ladder  chipping  off"  pieces  from  the  horizontal 
stone  of  one  of  the  tiilithons. 

Ancient  Momiments  Act. — The  Chairman  and  Dr.  Garson 
made  some  remarks  in  explanation  of  the  working  of  the  Ancient 
Monuments  Act.  It  was  pointed  out  by  the  latter  that  the 
local  Societies  could  do  go  3d  service  by  inducing  the  proprietors 
of  prehistoric  remains  to  communicate  with  General  Pitt-Rivers, 
the  Inspector  of  Ancient  Monuments,  with  the  object  of  placing 
these  remains  under  Government  protection.  The  Chairman 
urged  those  Delegates  who  rep-esented  the  Northern,  and 
especially  the  Scotch  Societies  to  use  their  influence  in  inducing 
the  owners  of  ancient  remains  to  assist  in  carrying  out  the 
objects  of  the  Act.  In  reply  to  a  question  by  Mr.  F.  T.  Mott, 
as  to  whether  camps  and  earthworks  were  to  be  taken  into  con- 
sideration, the  Chairman  did  not  think  that  any  Government 
could  be  expected  to  become  a  landowner  to  the  extent  of  all 
the  earthworks  in  the  country. 

Provincial  Museums  Committee. — With  reference  to  the 
work  of  this  Committee,  Mr.  F,  T.  Mott  stated  that  they  had 
been  engaged  duri;ig  the  past  year  in  collecting  particulars 
respecting  museums  other  than  those  in  London.  Considerable 
assistance  had  been  given  by  the  Secretaries  of  many  of  the 
local  Societies.  If  the  Committee  was  reappointed,  as  he  hoped 
it  would  be,  he  thought  there  were  one  or  two  matters  on  which 
the  local  Societies  might  possibly  render  still  more  valuable  aid. 
The  Repo  t  of  the  Committee  was  not  yet  passed,  but  it  would, 
no  doubt,  be  read  in  the  course  of  the  present  meeting  of  the 
Association,  and  would  then  be  accessible. 

Prof.  Boyd  Dawkins  stated  that  the  schedule  issued  by  this 
Committee  was  a  very  difficult  one  to  fill  up,  and  he  expressed  a 
hope  that  something  shorter  and  simpler  would  be  sent  out. 

The  Rev.  H.  Wmwood  expressed  similar  views. 

Mr.  Robert  Pullar  and  Mr.  J.  W.  Davis  mentioned  two 
museums  which  the  Committee  had  not  heard  of — viz.  that  of 
the  Perthshire  Society  of  Natural  Science  at  Perth,  and  Mr. 
Davis's  museum  at  Chevinedge,  Halifax. 

Earth  Tremors. — Prof.  Lebour  stated  that  the  subject  of 
earth  tremors,  which  he  had  brought  forward  at  the  Conference 
of  Delegates  last  year  at   Birmingham,  had  since  taken  a  more 

^  The  follo\vin:j  extract  relating  to  this  matter  is  from  the  Couacil  Report 
for  1886-87,  presented  at  the  Manchester  meeting: — 

"That  the  Council  be  requested  to  consider  the  advisability  of  calling  the 
attention  of  the  proprietor  of  Stonjhenje  to  th^  danger  in  which  sever.^1  of 
thi  stones  are  at  the  pre-sent  time  from  the  burrowing  of  rabbits,  and  also  to 
the  desirability  of  removing  the  wooden  prop>  which  support  the  horizontal 
stone  of  one  of  the  trilithons  ;  and  in  view  of  the  great  value  of  Stoneherige 
as  an  ancient  national  monument,  to  express  the  hope  of  the  Association 
that  so  ne  steps  will  be  taken  to  remedy  these  sources  of  danger  to  the 
stones." 

The  Council  have  carefully  considered  the  question,  and,  having  had  the 
advantage  of  perusing  the  detailed  report  recently  prepared  by  a  deputa- 
tion of  the  Wilts  ArchxoloTical  and  Natural  History  Society  on  the 
condition  of  the  whole  of  the  stones  constituting  Stonehenge,  .ire  of  opinion 
that  the  proprietor  should  be  approached  with  the  expression  of  a  hope 
that  he  will  direct  such  steps  to  be  taken  as  shall  effectually  prevent  further 
damage. 


92 


NATURE 


[Nov.  24,  1887 


practical  shape,  and  that  it  now  seemed  to  be  time  that  a  Com- 
mittee of  the  Britisli  Association  should  be  formed  for  taking  the 
investigation  in  hand.  Through  the  advocicy  of  Mr.  Symon^, 
who  was  unable  to  be  present  at  the  Conference,  Sections  A 
and  G  had  that  morning  agreed  to  recommend  the  appointment 
of  such  a  Committee  in  conjunction  with  Section  C,  which  Section 
would  be  approached  next  day.  The  work  to  be  done  was  of  a 
preliminary  character,  and  its  object  was  rather  to  inquire  into 
the  best  methods  of  conducting  observations  on  earth  tremors 
than  to  actually  cause  such  observations  to  be  made.  The  North 
of  England  Institute  of  Mining  and  Mechanical  Engineers  had, 
since  the  Birmingham  meeting,  carried  on  a  series  of  seismo- 
scopic  observations  at  Marsden  in  the  county  of  Durham  ;  and 
the  daily  results,  extending  over  several  months  and  compared 
with  a  barometric  curve,  were  shown  to  the  meeting  in  the  form 
of  a  diagram  by  Mr.  Walton  Brown,  the  Secretary  of  the  New- 
castle Institute  Committee.  The  Institute  possessed  also  a 
more  elaborate  instrument,  made  after  a  pattern  supplied  by 
Prof.  Ewing,  which  registered  the  intensity  and  direction  of  the 
tremors.  Prof.  Lebour  stated  that,  although  such  instruments  as 
the  last  mentioned  were  probably  too  costly  to  be  placed  at  all 
desirable  stations,  this  would  not  be  the  case  with  the  simpler 
seismoscope,  which  recorded  merely  the  fact  of  earth  tremors 
having  taken  place]  and  the  time  of  their  occurrence.  Such 
records  would  be  valuable,  though  limited.  The  Corresponding 
Societies,  if  they  would  interest  themselves  in  the  matter,  might 
be  the  means  of  establishing  a  great  network  of  seismoscopes 
with  a  few  seismographs  in  suitable  localities,  and  results  of 
value  would  by  this  means  be  in  all  probability  obtained.  These 
results  would  be  valuable  altogether  in  proportion  as  well- 
equipped  seismometrical  observing  stations  were  numerous. 
The  expense  must  in  any  case  be  considerable  in  the  aggregate, 
but  need  not  be  great  in  individual  cases.  A  sufficiently  good 
seismoscope  might  be  had  for  about  £,2,  a  seismograph  for  £ii^ 
to  £,\$,  and  the  cost  of  keeping  them  in  order  would  not  be 
great.  Prof.  Lebour  hoped  the  Delegates  present  would  help 
in  establishing  such  a  network  of  observing  stations  all  over  the 
country,  and  he  stated,  in  concluding,  that  he  would  be  happy 
to  communicate  with  anyone  interested  in  the  subject. 

Prof.  Ewing,  in  response  to  the  Chairman,  said  that  from  his 
experience  of  earth-tremor  observations  in  Japan  he  could 
concur  in  the  remarks  of  Prof.  Lebour.  To  investigate  fully 
the  character  of  the  motion,  even  at  one  station,  required 
delicate  and  CDStly  apparatus,  and  the  cost  was  greatly  increased 
when  it  was  attempted  to  bring  a  number  of  stations  into  corre- 
spondence so  as  to  determine  the  motion  over  a  large  area.  It 
was  possible,  however,  to  record  the  fact  that  a  tremor  had 
occurred,  and  even  to  learn  something  of  its  character  by  means 
of  inexpensive  seismoscopes ;  and  it  certainly  seemed  to  him 
that  no  bodie-;  could  more  appropriately  undertake  that  work 
than  the  local  Societies  represented  at  the  Conference  acting  in 
conjunction  with  a  Committee  of  the  Association.  From  recent 
observations  it  appeared  probable  that  tremors  would  be  found 
wherever  they  were  tested  for  with  sufficient  delicacy,  so  that 
a  Society  undertaking  the  search  was  not  likely  to  be  disap- 
pointed. 

At  the  second  Conference  the  chair  was  taken  by  Prof.  Boyd 
Dawkins,  F.  R  S.,  who  was  succeeded  by  Mr.  W.  Topley,  the 
Corresponding  Societies  Committee  being  further  represented  by 
Mr.  G.  J.  Symons,  F.R.  S.,  Dr.  Garson,  Mr.  William  White, 
and  Prof.  R.  Meldola,  F.R.S.,  as  Secretary. 

The  Chairman  invited  discussion  on  the  recommendations 
received  from  the  various  Sections. 

Section  A. 

Temperature  Variation  in  Lak.'s,  Rivers,  and  Estuaries. — 
The  following  resolution  was  forwarded  to  the  Secretary  of  the 
Conference  by  the  Secretary  of  this  Section  :  — 

"  That  Mr.  John  Murray,  Prof.  Chrystal,  Dr.  A.  Buchan,  Rev. 
C.  J.  Steward,  Hon.  R.  Abercromby,  Mr.  J.  Y.  Buchanan,  Mr. 
David  Cunningham,  Mr.  Isaac  Roberts,  Dr.  H.  R.  Mill,  and 
Prof.  Fitzgerald  be  appointed  a  Committee  to  arrange  for  an 
investigation  of  the  seasonal  variations  of  temperature  in  lakes, 
rivers,  and  estuaries  in  various  parts  of  the  United  Kingdom  in 
co-operation  with  the  local  Societies  represented  at  the  Associa- 
tion ;  and  that  Mr.  John  Murray  be  Secretary. " 

Dr.  H.  R.  Mill,  as  representing  this  Committee,  stated  that 
the  question  proposed  had  not  been  fully  worked  out,  but  that 
the  few  observations  made  showed  relations  of  a  very  interesting 


kind.  As  a  branch  of  meteorology,  this  research  was  particu- 
larly promising,  and  was  one  in  which  the  co-operation  of  local 
Societies  would  be  valuable.  He  proposed  that  the  Societies 
situated  in  the  neighbourhood  of  rivers  and  estuaries  which  were 
willing  to  undertake  this  work  should  appoint  some  member  to 
observe  the  temperature  daily  or  weekly,  as  the  case  might  be, 
in  accordance  with  the  rules  to  be  drawn  up  by  the  Committee. 
It  was  first  proposed  to  ascertain  how  many  observers  would 
offer  themselves  in  various  parts  of  the  country,  then  to  draw  up 
a  scheme  of  observations  and  arrange  for  this  being  adopted. 

Mr.  G.  J.  Symons  pointed  out  the  necessity  in  such  observa- 
tions for  having  a  well-considered  scheme  drawn  up,  as  well  as 
for  having  absolutely  reliable  thermometers,  without  which  no 
observations  would  be  of  value.  He  also  asked  whether  it  was 
proposed  that  the  cost  of  the  instruments  should  be  met  by  a 
grant  from  the  British  Association,  or  whether  the  Societies 
taking  part  in  the  observations  should  provide  their  own 
thermometers. 

Mr.  De  Ranee  remarked  that  in  the  case  of  the  Committee 
which  had  been  formed  for  the  observation  of  underground  tem- 
peratures, and  of  which  Prof  Lebour  was  a  member,  the 
thermometers  had  been  supplied  by  the  Association. 

Mr.  J.  W.  Davis  raised  the  question  as  to  whether  it  would  be 
of  use  to  extend  the  observations  to  the  streams  in  manufacturing 
districts.  He  also  asked  what  the  Committee  proposed  to 
consider  as  an  estuary. 

The  Rev.  H.  Winwood  remarked  that  it  would  be  necessary 
in  all  cases  to  record  the  depth  at  which  the  thermometer  reading 
was  taken.  As  a  point  of  interest  bearing  upon  the  proposed 
observations,  he  stated  that  it  had  been  observed  that  the 
temperature  of  the  lakes  in  the  Hebrides  had  been  unusually 
high  this  year. 

Prof.  Lebour  stated  that  the  thermometers  used  by  the  Under- 
ground Temperature  Committee  had  been  supplied  by  the 
Association,  but  these  instruments  were  very  costly,  and  only  a 
few  observers  had  taken  part  in  the  work.  He  was  of  opinion 
that,  if  numerous  Societies  took  part  in  the  observations,  these 
should  in  each  case  bear  the  expense. 

Dr.  Garson  expressed  a  hope  that  the  temperatures  would  be 
recorded  on  the  Centigrade  scale. 

Dr.  Mill,  in  reply,  said  that  he  understood  that  the  fact  of  the 
investigation  being  sanctioned  by  a  Committee  of  Section  A  was 
a  sufficient  guarantee  that  it  should  be  carried  out  in  a  thoroughly 
scientific  manner  with  properly  verified  instruments  of  a  uniform 
pattern,  and  employed  in  the  same  way.  The  experience  of  the 
Scottish  Marine  Station  for  three  years  suggested  many  precau- 
tions which  should  be  adopted  in  this  work.  The  temperature 
of  streams  in  manufacturing  districts  should  certainly  be  ascer- 
tained in  as  many  cases  as  possible,  in  order  to  find  whether  the 
increase  of  temperature  of  a  river  passing  through  a  manufactur- 
ing town  is  in  any  sense  permanent.  The  term  "estuary" 
should  in  his  opinion  be  used  as  meaning  all  parts  of  a  tidal 
river  between  the  upper  limit  of  the  tide  and  the  open  sea. 
Each  local  Society  should  be  asked  to  supply  its  own  thermo- 
meters, but  all  these  should  be  verified  at  Kew,  or  compared  by 
some  person  appointed  by  the  Committee.  The  observations 
would,  of  course,  be  made  on  a  uniform  plan,  and  it  would, 
probably,  be  found  more  convenient  to  use  the  Fahrenheit 
scale,  but  the  readings  could  be  easily  converted,  if  necessary. 

Section  C. 

Mr.  C.  E.  De  Ranee,  who  represented  this  Section,  referred 
to  the  work  of  the  three  Committees  which  he  had  brought 
under  the  n  )tice  of  the  Delegates  on  former  occasions,  viz.  : 
(i)  The  Underground  Waters  Committee;  (2)  The  Erratic 
Blocks  Committee  ;  and  (3)  The  Sea  Coasts  Erosion  Committee. 
(See  last  Report.)  ^ 

The  first  of  these  Committees  requires  information  as  to  the 
depth  of  wells,  the  sections  passed  through,  the  height  at  which 
the  water  stands  before  and  after  pumping,  daily  records  of  the 
height  and  chemical  analyses  of  the  waters. 

The  Erratic  Blocks  Comtnittee  wants  information  as  to  the 
position,  size,  and  character  of  boulders  of  foreign  origin  that 

'  The  constitution  of  these  Committees  remains  as  last  year.  The 
Secretaries  are : — 

Underground  IVaters,  C.  E.  De  Ranee,  28  Jermyn  Street,  London,  S.W- 

Erratic  Blocks,  Rev.  H.  W.  Crosskey,  117  Gjugh  Road,  Edgbaston, 
Birmingham. 

Sea  Coasts  Erosion,  Wm.  Topley,  28  Jermyn  Street,  London,  S.W. 

The  schedules  and  all  other  information  will  be  furnished  on  applicati  )n 
at  the  above  addresses. 


Nov.  24,  1887] 


NA  TURE 


93 


may  occur  in  drift-covered  areas,  and  are  anxious  that  the 
position  of  the  same  should  be  noted  on  the  i-inch  map  of 
the  Ordnance  Survey. 

The  Sea  Coasts  Eivsioit  Committee,  lilce  the  other  two 
Committees,  has  a  circular  form  of  inquiry,  which  can  be 
obtained  on  application  to  Mr.  Topley. 

Witli  reference  to  the  work  of  this  last  Committee,  Mr. 
Topley  stated  that  but  little  assistance  had  as  yet  been  received 
from  the  local  Societies.  The  Natural  History  Society  of  the 
Isle  of  Man  had  undertaken  to  collect  information  ;  and  all 
similar  Societies  in  maritime  counties  might  greatly  assist  the 
Committee  by  local  observation  as  to  present  changes,  and  by 
researches  as  to  past  conditions  of  the  coast. 

With  respect  to  the  work  of  the  Erratic  Blocks  Committee, 
Prof.  Meldola  said  that  he  had  been  authorized  to  state,  on 
behalf  of  the  Manchester  Geological  Society,  that  several  mem- 
bers of  that  Society  had  been  interesting  themselves  in  the  dis- 
tribution of  boulders  in  their  district,  and  it  was  expected  that 
their  results  would  be  available  by  the  next  meeting  of  the 
Association.  It  was  also  mentioned  that  Mr.  Adamson  had 
been  rendering  assistance  to  this  Committee  on  behalf  of  the 
Yorkshire  Naturalists'  Union. 

Mr.  Ralph  Richardson,  as  the  representative  of  the  Edinburgh 
Ci-eological  Society,  pointed  out  that  Scotland  had  been  omitted 
from  the  localities  dealt  with  by  the  Erratic  Blocks  Committee. 
He  stated  that  much  work  in  this  field  had  already  been  carried 
out  under  the  auspices  of  the  Royal  Society  of  Edinburgh,  and 
lie  hoped  the  Committee  would  be  able  to  utilize  their  results. 

Earth  Tremors  Committee. — Prof.  Lebour  stated  that  since 
the  last  meeting  of  the  Conference  the  formation  of  a  Joint 
Committee  by  Sections  A,  C,  and  G  has  been  agreed  to,  and 
the  resolution  forwarded  to  the  Committee  of  Recommendations. 
The  resolution  was  the  following  : — 

"That  Sir  F.  J.  Bramwell,  Mr.  E.  A.  Cowper,  Mr.  G.  J. 
Symons,  Prof.  G.  H.  Darwin,  Prof.  Ewing,  Mr.  Isaac  Roberts, 
Mr.  Thomas  Gray,  Dr.  John  Evans,  Prof.  Lebour,  Prof.  Prest- 
wich.  Prof.  Hull,  Prof.  Meldola,  and  Prof.  Judd  be  a  Commit- 
tee for  the  purpose  of  considering  the  advisability  and  possibility 
of  establishing  in  other  parts  of  the  country  observations  upon 
the  prevalence  of  earth  tremors,  similar  to  those  now  being  made 
in  Durham  in  connection  with  coal-mine  explosions,  and  that 
Prof.  G.  A.  Lebour  be  the  Secretary." 

Mr.  Symons  and  Mr.  Topley  made  some  remarks  on  the  work 
of  this  Committee. 

Mr.  De  Ranee  remarked  that  the  proposed  observations  might 
possibly  under  certain  circumstances  become  connected  with  the 
work  of  the  Underground  Waters  Committee.  Thus  the  Essex 
earthquake  of  April  22,  1884,  had  caused  a  rise  in  the  level  of 
the  water  in  Messrs.  Courtauld's  well  at  Bocking,  which  had 
reached  its  maximum  in  June  of  the  same  year.  Since  then  the 
level  had  been  gradually  falling,  and  at  its  present  rate  it  might 
he  expected  that  the  water  would  be  at  the  same  level  as  it  was 
before  the  earthquake  about  next  August. 

Section  D. 

Life- Histories  of  Plants. — Prof.  Meldola  said  that  during  a 
recent  visit  to  Oxford  he  had  had  an  opportunity  of  hearing  a 
suggestion  in  the  course  of  a  conversation  with  Prof.  Bayley 
Balfour,  which  had  appeared  to  him  as  likely  to  be  of  use  to  the 
members  of  local  Societies.  He  had  therefore  invited  Prof. 
Balfour  to  attend  the  Conference  and  explain  his  views  on  the 
suggested  subject,  but  as  that  gentleman  was  prevented  from 
being  present  he  had  forwarded  the  following  communication  ; — 

"It  appears  to  me  that  much  good  scientific  work  might  be 
done  by  members  of  local  Societies  in  a  direction  which  has 
not  attracted  so  much  attention  in  Great  Britain  as  it  deserves. 
The  discovery  and  description  of  new  forms,  and  the  distribution 
of  our  indigenous  plants,  are  in  botany  the  lines  upon  which  most 
of  the  energies  of  local  Societies  are  principally  spent,  whilst 
habit,  construction,  and  generally  the  features  of  life-history  of 
plants  come  in  for  attention  in  quite  a  secondary  way.  This 
arises,  I  think,  in  great  part  from  the  prevalent  notion  that  the 
facts  of  the  life-history  of  our  common  plants  are  all  well  known, 
and  that  there  is  little,  if  anything,  more  to  find  out  about  them. 
That  this  is  an  erroneous  idea  may  easily  be  shown — witness, 
for  example,  the  interesting  observations  recently  published  by 
•Sir  John  Lubbock — and  there  is  a  field  for  a  great  deal  of  sound 
work  upon  plants  growing  at  our  doors. 

"Within  recent  years  Mr.   Darwin's  work,   followed  up  by 


that  of  such  men  as  Hermann  Mliller,  Kerner,  Ogle,  and  others, 
has  given  a  stimulus  to  observations  of  adaptations  between  the 
vegetable  and  animal  kingdoms  in  connection  with  pollination  in 
flowers ;  and  many  interesting  facts  about  British  plants  have 
been  brought  to  light  by  workers  in  local  Societies.  Bnt  little 
has  been  done  for  the  subject  of  the  vegetative  organs  of  these 
plants — I  mean  the  arrangement,  true  nature,  and  structure  of 
the  members  that  carry  on  plant -life.  In  Germany,  many  years 
ago,  Wydler  and  Irmisch  published  a  splendid  series  of  contri- 
butions to  the  knowledge  of  these  features  in  indigenous  German 
plants — why  has  this  not  been  done  for  Britain  ? 

"Now,  I  venture  to  think  that  good  results  would  follow  if 
you  would  bring  before  the  Delegates  at  the  meeting  to-day  the 
importance  of  encouraging  the  members  of  their  Societies  to 
study  the  life-histories  of  indigenous  plants  in  their  entirety,  i.e. 
from  the  stage  of  embryo  in  the  seed  up  to  the  production  of 
fruit  and  seed  again.  Anyone  who  will  take  up  this  line  of  study 
will  assuredly  derive  great  pleasure  from  it,  and  will  be  able  to 
add  a  great  deal  to  the  sum  of  our  knowledge  of  plant-life. 
Such  work  can  be  well  combined  with  the  more  usual  systematic 
work  ;  it  can  be  easily  accomplished,  and  it  will  be  found  to  give 
much  additional  interest  to  the  study  of  British  botany." 

Mr.  C.  P.  Hobkirk  considered  that  Prof.  Balfour's  letter  was 
a  very  important  one,  and  that,  as  therein  suggested,  the  time 
and  energies  of  the  members  of  local  Societies  would  be  far 
more  usefully  employed  by  following  the  lines  indicated  by 
Prof.  Balfour  than,  as  at  present,  in  simply  collecting,  naming, 
and  registering  local  plants.  As  far  as  he  was  concerned,  he 
was  prepared  personally,  and  also  on  behalf  of  the  Yorkshire 
Naturalists'  Union,  which  he  represented,  to  do  everything  in  his 
power  to  assist  in  carrying  out  practically  Prof,  Balfour's  most 
useful  proposition.  Although  the  compilation  of  local  floras 
was  most  useful  and  necessary  work,  yet  the  actual  life-history 
of  individual  forms  was  now  of  really  paramount  importance, 
and  members  of  local  Societies  should  be  urgently  requested  to 
carry  on  this  work  without  delay. 


Section  H. 

Ancient  Monuments  Act. — The  Secretary  read  the  following 
conjmunication  from  General  Pitt-Rivers  : — 

"  I  am  much  afraid  I  shall  not  be  able  to  be  present  at  the 
meeting  of  Delegates  of  local  Societies  on  Tuesday ;  but  the 
subject  is  so  important  for  the  preservation  of  these  monuments 
that  in  case  I  am  not  there  I  write  in  order  that  you  may  know 
what  my  view  of  the  matter  is. 

"  Perhaps  I  cannot  do  better  than  slate  in  a  few  words  what 
the  work  of  the  Inspector  of  Ancient  Monuments  is,  and  you 
will  then  see  what  kiud  of  progress  is  likely  to  be  made  without 
some  assistance  such  as  has  been  proposed,^  and  in  what  way  the 
assistance  of  local  Societies  can  be  given. 

"  You  are  probably  aware  that  in  the  original  Act  of  1882  fifty 
ancient  monuments  in  Great  Britain  were  scheduled  as  monu- 
ments to  which  the  Act  could  apply  at  once  if  the  owners  were 
willing.  Some  persons  suppose  that  by  scheduling  these  monu- 
ments they  were  actually  placed  under  the  Act,  but  this  is  not 
the  case.  The  scheduling  was  done  without  the  knowledge  or 
consent  of  the  owners,  and  their  consent  had  to  be  obtained  both 
for  these  and  for  every  other  monument  that  has  been  since  added 
to  the  list.  This  has  entailed  the  examination  and  survey  of  all 
these  monuments  which  are  distributed  over  England,  Scot'and, 
and  Wales.  The  addresses  of  the  owners  had  to  be  obtnined, 
and  this  could  only  be  done  on  the  spot.  After  that  the  owners 
had  to  be  visited  personally,  for  I  soon  found  an  official  letter, 
without  a  verbal  explanation,  almost  invariably  produced  a 
refusal.  On  this  account  I  have  of  late  found  it  advisable  never 
to  approach  an  owner  without  a  personal  introduction,  or  with- 
out doing  it  in  such  a  way  as  to  induce  him  to  consider  the  matter 
favourably.  This  mode  of  procedure  for  the  whole  country  has, 
of  course,  taken  a  long  time,  and  the  result  has  been  that  about 
half  of  these  fifty  monuments  have  been  voluntarily  put  under 
the  Act  by  their  owners,  and  of  the  remainder  some  of  the 
proprietors  have  refused,  whilst  in  the  case  of  others  it  has  been 
found  impracticable  owing  to  peculiarities  in  the  ownership.  All 
the  monuments  have,  however,  been  carefully  surveyed,  planned, 
and  drawn,  and  in  every  case  in  which  there  has  been  a  refusal 
the  owners  have  stated  their  intention  of  taking  good  care  of  the 

I  This  refers  to  the  work  of  the  Pi-ehistoric  Remains  Committee  of  the 
British  Association.  .  -  -•         * 


94 


NATURE 


{Nov.  24,  1887 


monuments  themselves.  In  one  case  only  a  camp  has  been 
partly  damaged,  and  this  owing  to  mining  operations  involving  a 
question  of  a  large  sum  of  money  which  made  it  impossible  for 
the  Government  to  interfere.  Other  non-scheduled  monuments 
have  since  been  added  to  the  list,  and  the  number  is  steadily  but 
not  rapidly  increasing. 

"  The  Government  makes  no  allowance  for  an  assistant ;  not 
even  so  much  as  a  man  to  hold  the  end  of  the  tape  in  measuring, 
without  which  no  proper  survey  of  the  monuments  can  be  made, 
and  I  have  to  employ  a  private  assistant,  whom  I  take  about  with 
me  at  my  own  cost.  With  his  assistance,  and  by  dividing  the 
work  with  him — I  making  the  necessary  notes  and  measurements 
while  he  is  drawing — each  monument  takes  on  an  average  about 
one  day ;  without  an  assistant  the  time  would  be  about  doubled. 
After  this  the  owner  has  to  be  visited,  and  as  he  generally  lives 
at  a  distance  from  the  monument,  this  frequently  takes  another 
day  or  more.  A  great  deal  of  this  time  might  be  saved  by  the 
assistance  of  persons  living  in  the  localities  and  with  better 
chance  of  success. 

"  I  issued  a  circular  to  a  number  of  local  Societies  inviting 
them  to  co-operate,  but  few  responded.  One  instance,  however, 
shows  what  may  be  done  in  this  way.  Sir  Herbert  Maxwell  has 
not  only  sent  me  the  addresses  of  several  owners  in  Wigtonshire 
and  Kirkcudbrightshire,  but,  by  using  his  influence  with  these, 
has  been  the  means  of  placing  several  monuments  under  the 
Act.  I  would  suggest  that  the  same  course  might  well  be 
followed  by  others. 

"  The  recommendation  I  would  make  is  this  : — Local  Societies 
should  (i)  report  to  me  what  monuments  in  their  district  they 
think  worthy  of  being  put  under  the  Act ;  (2)  they  should  send 
me  the  names  and  addresses  of  the  owners  ;  (3)  they  should  com- 
municate with  the  owners,  and,  if  possible,  obtain  their  consent 
to  have  the  monuments  placed  under  the  Act,  subject,  of  course, 
to  their  subsequent  acceptance  by  the  Office  of  Works  ;  and  (4) 
they  should  report  to  me  any  damage  that  they  find  being  done 
or  contemplated  either  to  the  monuments  under  the  Act,  or  to 
others  not  so  protected.  With  such  assistance  I  think  that  much 
more  rapid  progress  may  be  made." 

Prehistoric  Remains  Committee. — Mr.  J,  W.  Davis  stated  that 
this  Committee  had  been  recommended  for  reappointment  by 
the  Committee  of  Section  H.  The  recommendation  is  as 
follows  : — 

"  That  Sir  John  Lubbock,  Dr.  John  Evans,  Prof.  Boyd 
Dawkins,  Dr.  R.  Munro,  Mr.  Pengelly,  Dr.  Hicks,  Mr. 
J.  W.  Davis,  Prof.  Meldola,  and  Dr.  Muirhead  be  reappointed 
a  Committee  for  the  purpose  of  ascertaining  and  recording  the 
localities  in  the  British  Islands  in  which  evidences  of  the  exist- 
ence of  prehistoric  inhabitants  of  the  country  are  found  ;  and 
that  Mr.  J.  W.  Davis  be  the  Secretary." 

Prof.  Lebour  suggested  that  it  would  be  convenient  if,  in 
registering  prehistoric  remains,  the  Committee  would  adopt  a 
uniform  scheme  of  signs — if  possible,  an  international  one. 

Mr.  William  Gray  stated  that  the  work  of  registering  ancient 
remains  had  been  carried  on  for  twenty-five  or  thirty  years  by 
members  of  their  Society  (Belfast  Naturalits'  Field  Club)  and 
others  in  Ireland,  and  they  had  long  felt  the  want  of  some  central 
organization  such  as  that  of  the  present  Committee.  He  also 
alluded  to  the  necessity  for  a  uniform  system  of  signs. 

Mr.  William  White  remarked  upon  the  difficulty  which  private 
individuals  often  experienced  in  approaching  the  proprietors  of 
ancient  remains,  and  pointed  out  that  individual  efforts  would 
be  likely  to  be  more  successful  if  members  of  local  Societies 
could  make  overtures  backed  up  by  the  sanction  of  a  British 
Association  Committee  such  as  the  present  one. 

Work  of  the  Corresponding  Societies  Committee. — The  Secre- 
tary stated  that  during  the  present  meeting  of  the  Association  an 
important  resolution  had  been  framed  at  the  insligation  of  Sir 
Douglas  Galton,  with  the  object  of  extending  the  powers  of  their 
Committee.  According  to  the  present  rules  the  Committee  was 
nominated  by  the  Council  and  appointed  by  the  General  Com- 
mittee, but  they  had  no  power  of  submitting  resolutions  or  re- 
commendations to  the  Committee  of  Recommendations  or  to  the 
General  Committee.  The  present  resolution,  which  was  calcu- 
lated to  give  them  the  necessary  power,  and  thus  to  put  them  on 
the  same  footing  as  the  Committees  of  the  Sections,  was  as 
follows  : — 

"  That  the  Conference  of  Delegates  of  Corresponding 
Societies  be  empowered  to  send  recommendations  to  the  Com- 
mittee of  Recommendations  for  their  consideration,  and  for 
report  to  the  General  Committee." 


The  Secretary  had  succeeded  that  morning  in  getting  this 
resolution  passed  by  the  Committees  of  Sections  B  and  C,  and  it 
had  been  forwarded  by  them  in  due  form  to  the  Committee  of 
Recommendations,  by  whom  it  had  also  been  accepted.  It  was 
subsequently  submitted  to  the  General  Committee,  and  accepted 
by  them  on  the  understanding  that  the  recommendations  so  for- 
warded should  not  clash  with  the  recommendations  sent  up  by 
the  Sectional  Committees. 

The  Secretary  remarked  that  he  would  take  the  present 
opportunity  of  explaining  away  a  misunderstanding  that  had 
arisen  on  the  part  of  some  of  the  local  Societies.  Some  of  these 
had  nominated  Delegates  to  attend  the  Manchester  meeting 
without  having  previously  submitted  any  claim  for  election  as 
Corresponding  Societies.  Such  Delegates  could  not  be  officially 
recognized  by  the  Association,  as  it  was  only  those  Societies 
which  had  been  admitted  as  Corresponding  Societies,  and  which 
were  still  on  the  list,  that  were  thus  entitled  to  be  officially  re- 
presented. According  to  the  Rules  no  Society  can  be  admitted 
without  first  sending  in  a  formal  application,  accompanied  by  a 
specimen  of  its  publications  ;  this  application  would  be  con- 
sidered by  the  Corresponding  Societies  Committee,  and  only  in 
the  event  of  the  Society  being  recommended  for  election  by 
this  Committee,  and  this  recommendation  confirmed  by  the 
General  Committee,  would  it  be  admitted  to  the  privileges  of 
a  Corresponding  Society. 

At  the  termination  of  the  meeting  a  vote  of  thanks  was  passed 
to  Prof.  Meldola,  on  the  motion  of  Prof.  Lebour,  for  the  services 
which  he  had  rendered  as  Secretary  to  the  Committee  and  to  the 
Conferences. 


THE  METEOROLOGY  OF  OXFORD.^ 


T 


HE  forty-second  volume  of  the  Observations  of  the  Radcliffe 
Observatory  has  recently  been  published,  and  is  in  nearly 
all  respects  a  continuation  of  the  previous  publications.  The 
Radcliffi;  takes  precedence  of  all  our  British  Observatories  as 
regards  the  length  of  time  over  which  the  published  hourly 
observations  of  atmospheric  pressure  and  temperature  extend  ; 
to  which  is  to  be  added  a  commendable  fullness,  far  from 
common,  with  which  many  other  observations  have  been  made 
and  given  to  the  public  for  a  long  term  of  years. 

At  Oxford,  atmospheric  pressure  attains  the  maximum,  29760 
inches,  in  June,  and  falls  to  the  minimum,  29  "677  inches,  in  March, 
to  which  the  mean  of  October,  29'68o  inches,  closely  approxi- 
mates. The  annual  mean  is  29720  inches  ;  the  highest  during 
the  previous  thirty  years  being  29785  inches  in  1858,  and  the 
lowest  29*572  inches  in  1872,  the  year  to  be  long  remembered 
for  its  excessive  rainfall.  Temperature  rises  to  the  maximum, 
6i°7,  in  July,  and  falls  to  the  minimum,  38°*8,  in  Januaiy,  the 
annual  mean  being  49° '2.  The  warmest  year  was  1868,  with  a 
meanof  5i°'4,  and  the  coldest  mean  45°*5  in  1879.  Of  indi- 
vidual months,  the  warmest  was  July  1859,  the  mean  of  which 
was  66°'5,  while  the  mean  for  February  1855  was  only  29°"5, 
giving  thus  a  mean  monthly  range  of  37° "O.  The  rainfall  reaches 
the  maximum,  2 "81  inches,  in  October,  and  falls  to  the  minimum, 
I '62  inch,  in  March,  and  the  mean  annual  amount  is  26 "42 
inches.  The  extreme  annual  amounts  were  40 '42  inches  in  1852 
and  17 '56  inches  in  1870.  The  month  of  heaviest  rainfall  was 
October  1875,  when  7*53  inches  fell,  and  the  lightest  fall  was 
o"i8  inch  in  September  1865,  when  temperature  was  unusually 
high  for  the  season. 

The  diurnal  curves  of  pressure  approach  closer  than  those  of 
any  other  British  Observatory  of  which  we  have  records  to  the 
seasonal  phases  of  these  curves  for  continental  situations.  On 
the  mean  of  the  year,  the  first  minimum  occurs  about  4  a.m., 
and  the  maximum  at  9  a.m.  ;  and  the  second  minimum  at 
3.30  p.m.  and  maximum  at  10  p.m., — the  former  being  earlier 
in  summer  and  later  in  winter,  whereas  the  afternoon  phases  are 
the  reverse  of  this.  In  June  the  time  between  the  first  and 
second  maximum  is  145  hours,  but  in  winter  only  12  hours. 

Of  quite  exceptional  interest  are  some  of  the  other  diurnal 
phenomena  at  Oxford,  notably  the  diurnal  distribution  of 
thunderstorms,  sheet  lightning,  and  auroras.  W^e  have  compiled 
the  following  table  showing  the  sums  of  the  times  of  occurrence 

^  "  Results  of  Meteorological  Observations  made  at  the  Radcliffe  Ob- 
servatory, Oxford,  in  the  Year  1884,  under  the  Superintendence  of  E.  J. 
Stone,  F.R.S."    (Oxford,  1887.) 


Nov.  24,  1887] 


NA  TURE 


95 


of  these  phenomena  during  the  several  hours  of  the  day  for  the 
twenty  years  ending  1884:  — 


Hours. 


S,; 

bb 

i 

Jiii 

J  2 

w-S, 

H" 

< 

Summer — 

June.  July, 

Year. 

Aug 

ust. 

Midt.  to  I  a.m. 

1  to    2  a.m. 

2  to    3  a.m. 

3  to    4  a.m. 

4  to    5  a.m. 

5  to    6  a.m. 

6  to    7  a.m. 

7  to    8  a.m. 

8  to    9  a.m. 

9  to  10  a.m. 

10  to  II  a.m. 

11  to  noon. 


14 

10 

4 

2 

I 

2 

I 

I 

0 

0 

1       ° 

I 

1       0 

I 

1        I 

0 

1       0 

0 

0 

0 

I        I 

0 

;      I 

0 

Hours. 

Noon 

to  I  p.m.  1 

I  to 

2  p. 

m. 

2  to 

3P 

m. 

3tJ 

4P 

m. 

4  to 

5  P 

m. 

5  to 

bp 

m. 

6  to 

7P 

m. 

7  to 

Hp 

m. 

8  to 

9P 

m. 

9  to 

10  p 

m. 

10  to 

II  p 

m. 

It  to  midnight! 

■26 


Sumntier — 

June,  July, 

August. 


Year. 


Thus  the  daily  maximum  for  thunderstorms  is  from  about  noon 
to  7  p.m.,  being  t'le  period  of  the  day  covered  by  the  afternoon 
minimum  of  atmospheric  pressure  in  summer  ;  but  the  maximum 
for  sheet  lightning  is  from  8  p.m.  to  midnight,  being  the 
period  embraced  by  the  afternoon  maximum  of  pressure.  The 
absolute  daily  maximum  for  sheet  lightning,  it  will  be  observed, 
does  not  occur  till  from  9  to  11  p.m.,  or  till  soue  time  after 
dusk,  and  cannot  therefore  be  accounted  for  by  increased  visi- 
bility as  darkness  sets  in.  The  opinion  is  widespread  that  sheet 
lightning  is  merely  the  reflection  of  a  distant  flash  of  lightning. 
The  Oxford  observations  show,  however,  that  only  a  small  per- 
centage of  all  the  cases  admit  of  being  explained  in  this  way. 
In  connexion  with  the  well-defined  maximum  from  9  to  il  p.m. 
it  may  be  remarked  that  there  is  no  region  of  the  globe  nearer 
Oxford  than  America  where  thunderstorms  with  the  accom- 
panying true  lightning  have  the  daily  maximum  at  the  same 
physical  time,  9  to  11  p.m.  G. M.T.,  when  sheet  lightning  has 
its  daily  maximum  at  Oxford. 

The  curve  for  auroras  has  its  diurnal  maximum  substantially 
at  the  same  time  as  sheet  lightning,  or  during  the  time  of  the 
evening  maximum  of  pressure.  The  agreement  of  these  two 
maxima  with  this  portion  of  the  daily  curve  of  pressure  is  all  the 
closer  when  it  is  considered  that  the  evening  maximum  of 
pressure  is  from  one  to  two  hours  later  in  summer  when  the 
sheet  lightning  was  observed  than  in  the  autumn  and  spring 
months  when  the  great  majority  of  auroras  occur.  These  results 
are  of  the  greatest  importance  with  respect  to  recent  theories 
regarding  thunderstorms,  and  to  suggested  connexions  between 
the  aurora  in  arctic  and  sub-arctic  regions  and  the  lightnings  of 
low  latitudes.  The  time  of  occurrence  of  the  maxima  of  aurora 
and  sheet  lightning  from  9  to  11  p.m.  indicates,  perhaps,  a  more 
direct  connexion  between  these  phenomena  and  the  evening 
maximum  of  pressure  than  has  been  suspected.  This  maximum 
is  mainly  due  to  an  overflow  of  upper  aerial  currents  back  to 
eastward  from  the  longitudes  to  westward,  where  at  the  time 
the  afternoon  pressure  is  at  the  mini  num  ("  Encyc.  Britt.," 
Meteorology,  p.  122) ;  and  hence  at  these  hours  there  is  more 
aqueous  vapour  spread  through  the  higher  regions  of  the  atmo- 
sphere in  its  gaseous  and  fluid  states,  and  also  in  the  solid  state 
of  minute  spicules  of  ice,  even  though  no  cloud  in  the  finest 
pencilled  forms  of  the  cirrus  be  visible. 


UNIVERSITY  AND  EDUCATIONAL 
INTELLIGENCE. 

Cambridge. — Drs.  Routh  and  Glaisher,  Prof.  J.  J.  Thom- 
son, and  Mr.  A.  R.  Forsyth  have  been  appointed  Examiners  in 
Part  II.  of  the  Mathematical  Tripos  of  1888. 

The  following  appointments  of  Natural  Science  Examiners 
have  been  made  : — Physics  :  Profs.  J.  J.  Thomson  and  W.  G. 
Adams.  Chemistry  :  Prof.  H.  E,  Armstrong  and  Mr,  H.  J. 
H.  Fenton.  Mineralogy  :  Messrs.  T.  W.  Danby  and  H.  A. 
Myers  (British  Museum).  Botany :  Prof.  I.  B.  Balfour  and 
Dr.  S.  H.  Vines.  Physiology  :  Dr.  W.  H.  Gaskell  and  Prof. 
G.    F.    Yeo.     Zoology :  Messrs.    H.    Gadow   and   W,   F.    R. 


Weldon.  Geology:  Prof.  C.  Lapworth  and  Mr.  A.  Harker. 
Human  Anatomy  :  Prof.  J.  Cleland  and  Dr,  A.  Hill.  Pharma- 
ceutical Chemistry  :  Mr.  Pattison  Muir. 

At  a  meeting  of  the  Senate  in  the  Arts  School  recently, 
general  approval  was  expressed  of  the  scheme  f)r  providing  a 
new  room  for  botanical  microscopy.  The  scheme  for  new 
anatomical  and  physiological  rooms  was  not  so  entirely  approved, 
some  persons  wishing  to  retain  the  ugly  old  Anatomical  Museum 
and  buildings,  and  also  considering  that  the  requirements  of  the 
Medical  School  had  not  been  sufficiently  considered. 

Mr.  W.  Bateson,  M.A.,  Fellow  of  St.  John's  College,  has 
been  elected  to  the  Balfour  Studentship. 

Group  E  (Natural  Science),  in  the  Higher  Local  Examination, 
attracts  a  diminishing  number  of  candidates,  we  are  sorry  to  see. 
Only  36  presented  themselves  this  year  as  against  73  in  1879  ; 
but  10  candidates  gained  a  first  class  this  year,  as  against  4  in 
1879  :  35  failed  then,  only  5  this  year.  Elementary  Biology  is 
reported  on  fairly  this  year  ;  but  Elementary  Chemistry  does  not 
seem  to  have  been  studied  practically,  and  problems  were  not 
satisfactorily  dealt  with.  Only  four  candidates  passed  in  Physics. 
The  Physiology,  Zoology,  and  Geology  papers  were  well 
answered ;  but  in  Botany  the  general  standard  was  decidedly 
low. 


SOCIETIES  AND  ACADEMIES. 

London. 

Entomological  Society,  November  2. — Dr.  D.  Sharp,  Presi- 
dent,   in   the     chair.— Mr.    Stevens    exhibited    a   specimen   of 
Acidalia  i'umo'-ata,  L.,  purcha-ed  by  him  some  years  ago  at  the 
sale  of  the  collection  of  the  late  Mr.    Desvignes.      He  remarked 
that  specimens  of  the  insect  lately  captured  near  Lewes  had  been 
described  last  month  by  Mr.  J.  H.  A.  Jenner  as  a  species  new  to 
Britain. — Mr.  Adkin  exhibited,  and  made  remarks  on,   a  series 
of  male  and  female  specimens  of  Arctia  meniica  from  co.  Cork  ; 
also,  for  comparison,  two  specimens  of  ^.  mendica  from  Antrim, 
and  a  series  of  bred  specimens  from  the  London  district.— Mr. 
Enoch  exhibited  a  specimen  of  Calocoris  bipunctatus  containing 
an  internal  parasitic  larva.— Dr.  Sharp  exhibited  three  species  of 
Coleoptera  new  to  the  British  list,    viz.  Octhebius  auriculatus, 
Rey,  found  some  years  ago  in  the  Isle  of  Sheppey,  but  described 
only  quite  recently  by  M.   Rey  from  specimens  found  at  Calais 
and  Dieppe  ;  Limnius  rivularis,  Rosenh.,  found  by  Dr.  J.  A. 
Power  at  Woking ;  and  Tropiphorus  obtusus,   taken  by  himself 
on  the  banks  of  the  Water  of  Cairn,  Dumfriesshire.— Dr.   Sharp 
also  exhibited  a  Goliathus  recently  described  by  Dr.  O.  Nickerl 
as  a  new  species  under  the  name  of  Goliathus   atlas,  and  re- 
marked that  the  species  existed  in  several  collections,  and  had 
been  supposed  to  be  possibly  a  hybrid  between  G.  regius  and  G. 
cacicus. — Mr.  Eland  Shaw  exhibited  two  species  of  Orthoptera, 
which  had  been  unusually  abundant   this  year,  viz.   Nemohius 
sylvestris,  and  Teitix  subulatus.—yir.  E.   B.Poulton  exhibited 
the  cocoons  of  three  species  of  Lepidoptera,  in  which  the  colour 
of  the  silk  had  been  controlled   by  the  use  of  appropriate  colours 
in  the  larval  environment  at  the  time  of  spinning  up.     He  said 
this  colour-susceptibility  had  been  previously  proved  by  him  in 
1886  in  the  case  of  Saturnia  carplni,  and  the  experiments  on  the 
subject  had  been  described  in  the  Proc.  Royal  Society,  1887.    It 
appeared  from  these  experiments  that  the  cocoons  were  dark 
brown  when  the  larvae  had  been  placed  in  a  black  bag ;  white 
when  they  had  been  freely  exposed  to  light  with  white  surfaces 
in  the  immediate  neighbourhood.     Mr,  Poulton  stated  that  other 
species  subjected  to  experiment  during  the  past  season  aflforvled 
confirmatory  results.     Thus  the  larvre  of  Eriogaster lanestris  had 
been  exposed  to  white  surroundings   by    the    Rev.  W.  J.  H. 
Newman,    and   cream-coloured  cocoons  were   produced  in  all 
cases  ;  whilst  two  or  three  hundred  larvse  from  the  same  company 
spun  the  ordinary  dark  brown  cocoons  among  the  leaves  of  the 
food-plant.     In  the  latter  case  the  green  surroundings  appeared 
to  act  as  a  stimulus  to  the  production  of  a  colour  which  corre- 
sponded with  that  which  the  leaves  would  subsequently  assume. 
Mr.    Stainton   suggested   that  larvae  should  be  placed  m  green 
boxes,  with  the  view  of  ascertaining  whether  the  cocoons  would 
be  green.     It    had    been   suggested  that  the   cocoons   formed 
amongst  leaves  became  brown  because  the  lar^'se   knew    w.iat 
colour  the  leaves  would  ultimately  become.     The  discussion  was 
continued  by  Mr.  Waterhouse,  Dr.  Sharp,  Mr.  McLachl.n,  and 
others.— Mr.  S.  Klein  read  "  Notes  on  Ephcstia  kuhmella,    and 
exhibited  a  number  of  living  larvse  of  the  species,  which  he  said 


96 


NATURE 


{Nov.  24,  1887 


had  been  recently  doing  great  damage  to  flour  in  a  warehouse  in 
the  East  of  London. — Mr.  A.  G.  Butler  contributed  a  paper 
"  On  the  species  of  the  Lepidopterous  genus  Etichromia  ;  with 
descriptions  of  new  species  in  the  collection  of  the  British 
Museum." — Lord  Walsingham  communicated  a  note  substituting 
the  generic  name  Homonymtis  for  the  generic  name  Ankistro- 
thorus — which  was  preoccupied— used  in  his  "Revision  of 
the  genera  Acrolophus  and  Anaphora,''^  recently  published  by  the 
Society. 

Paris. 

Academy  of  Sciences,  November  14. — M.  Janssen  in  the 
chair.  —  Note  on  certain  definitions  in  mechanics,   and  on  the 
unities  in  current  use,  by  M.  de  Freycinet.     In  supplement  to 
the   remarks   already  made  in  his   treatise   on  mechanics,   the 
author  here  deals  more  fully  with  the  notions  involved  in  such 
terms  s.s  force,  weight,  viass,  bulk,  and  shows  that  considerable 
advantage  might  be  gained  by  slightly  modifying  the  generally 
accepted  unities.     Fresh  definitions  ai-e  suggested  of  the  unities 
of  length,  volume,  weight,  force,  velocity,  &c. — On  the  state  of 
the  potassa  present  in  plants  and  the  soil,  and  on  its  quantitative 
analysis,  by  MM.   Berthelot  and  Andre.     In  continuation  of  a 
previous  communication  on  this  subject,  the  authors  here  study 
the  condition  and  process   of  analysis  of  the  potassa  in  living 
plants,  and  in  the  humus  produced  by  their  disintegration. — On 
waterspouts,    by   M.    D.    Colladon.     In   reply    to    M.     Faye's 
strictures,  the  author  illustrates  his  views  by  means  of  an  instan- 
taneous photograph,  showing  that  under  certain  conditions  two 
waterspouts  may  be  generated,  one  ascending,  the  other  descend- 
ing,   and  crossing  each   other. — On  MM.   Houzeau  and  Lan- 
caster's "  Bibliographie  Generale  de  1' Astronomic,"  by  M.  Faye. 
A  well-merited  eulogium  is  passed  on  the  authors  of  this  great 
work,  who  have  earned  the  lasting  gratitude  of  astronomers  for 
accomplishing  their  vast  undertaking  in  such  a  thoroughly  satis- 
factory manner.     The  Bibliography  constitutes  a  systematized 
catalogue  of  all  astronomical  publications  that  have  appeared 
from  the  remotest  times  down  to  the  present  day.     Although 
not  absolutely  exhaustive,  the  omissions  do  not  appear  on  exa- 
mination to  be  very  numerous  ;  but  unfortunately  only  300  copies 
have  been  issued  of  a  work  which  should  find  a  place  in  every 
Observatory  and  in  every  scientific  library  in  the  world.     M. 
Houzeau  has  enriched  the  first  volume  with  a  valuable  philo- 
sophic history  of  astronomy,  which  will    be  found   extremely 
interesting,  especially  to  those  students  who  have  been  unable 
to  follow   the  recent  discoveries  of  specialists  on  the  state  of 
astronomical  science  amongst  the  Egyptians,  Assyrians,  and  other 
ancient  peoples. — New  nebulae  discovered  at  the  Observatory  of 
Paris,  by  M.  G.  Bigourdan.     These  discoveries  have  been  made 
during  the  years  1884-87  with  the  equatorial  of  the  West  Tower. 
Most  of  the  nebulae  are  very  weak,  and  some,  indicated  as  more 
or  less  stellar,  might,   strictly  speaking,  be  regarded  as  simple 
stars,  it  being  often  quite  impossible  to  distinguish  between  a 
small  nebula  and  a  star  of  small  magnitude.     The  positions  are 
approximately  given  for  the  mean  equinox  of  i860 "o,  in  order  to 
facilitate  comparison  with  J.  Herschel's  "General  Catalogue  of 
Nebulae  and  Clusters  of  Stars,"  and  its  supplement  by  Dreyer. 
— On  the  theory  of  magnetism,  by  M.   P.    Duhem.      From  a 
comparative   study   of  magnetic   and    diamagnetic   bodies   the 
theorem  is  deduced  that  all  magnetic  bodies  are  attracted  from 
great  distances  by  permanent  magnets,  but  that  nothing  can  be 
affirmed   regarding   diamagnetic    bodies.     A    theorem   is    also 
established  which  sets  forth  the  difference  between  magnetic  and 
diamagnetic  bodies,  and  some  remarks  are  appended  regarding 
the  magnetizing  of  crystals. — Measurement  of  the  heights  and 
movements  of  clouds  in  Spitzbergen  and  Upsala,  by  M.   Nils 
Ekholin.     These  comparative  studies  are  based  on  fifty  meteoro- 
logical   observations   taken  during  the   Swedish  expedition   of 
1882-83  to  Spitzbergen,  conducted  by  the  author. — On  a  new 
method  of  formation  of  safranines,  by  MM.  Ph.    Barbier  and 
Leo  Vignon.     Having  in  a  previous  communication  explained  a 
special  method  of  forming  substituted   safranines,  the   authors 
here  describe  a  new  process  for  producing  phenosafranine  and 
its  homologues. — On  a  new  artificial  serum  intended  to  dilute 
the  blood  for  the  purpose  of  counting  its  globules,  by  M.  Mayet. 
For  the  serum  here  described  it  is  claimed  that  it  is  free  from  the 
disadvantages  of  others  in  general  use.     It  consists  of  distilled 
water,  100  gr.  ;  neutral  phosphate  of  anhydrous  and  pure  sodium, 
2gr.  ;  with  cane  sugar  to  raise  the  density  of  the  liquid  to  1*085. 
— On    antipyrine    as    a   remedy   against    sea-sickness,    by    M. 
Eugene  Dupuy.      The  author  declares  that  for  some  time  back 


he  has  successfully  employed  this  substance  as  a  prophylactic 
against  sea-sickness.  He  recommends  a  dose  of  3  gr.  to  be 
taken  daily  for  three  days  before  sailing,  to  be  continued  if 
necessary  during  the  voyage.  Without  claiming  to  have  dis- 
covered an  absolute  specific,  he  considers  that  the  success 
hitherto  attending  the  use  of  antipyrine  justifies  the  hope  that  in 
this  substance  we  possess  a  more  or  less  efficacious  remedy  against 
one  of  the  chief  terrors  of  travelling  by  sea. 


BOOKS,  PAMPHLETS,  and  SERIALS  RECEIVED. 

A  Dictionary  of  Place-Names  :  C.  Blacki^,  3rd  edition  (Murray).— Report 
of  the  Commissioner  of  Agriculture,  1885  (Washington). — The  Cremation  of 
the  Dead  :  Dr.  H.  Erichsen  (Haynes,  Detroit). — Djwn  the  Great  River  : 
Capt.  W.  Glazier  (Hubbard,  Philadelphia). — The  Creator,  and  what  we  may 
know  of  the  Method  of  Creation  :  Dr.  W.  H.  Dallinger  (Woolmer). — Primo 
Saggio  sui  Ragni  Birmani  :  Prof.  T.  Thorell  (Genova). — Le  Pe'trole  :  W.  de 
Fonvielle  (Hachette). — Ants,  Bees,  Dragon-Flies,  Earwigs,  Crickets,and  Flies : 
W.  H.  Bath(3onnenschein). — Through  Central  Asia  :  Dr.  H.  Lansdell  (Low). 
—  The  Volcanic  Origin  of  Epidemics  ;  Are  Epidemics  Contagious  ?  Dr.  J. 
Parkin  (Low). — Bulletm  of  the  U.S.  Fish  Commission,  vol.  vi.,  i886(\Vasii- 
ington). — Mineralogy:  F.  Rutley(Murby)  — A  Vertebrate  Faunaof  Sutherland, 
Caithness,  and  West  Cromarty  :  Harvie-Brown  and  Buckley  (Douglas). — Bul- 
letin of  the  U.S.  National  Museum,  No. 32,  Catalogue  of  Batrachians  and  Rep- 
tiles of  Central  America  and  Mexico:  E.  D.  Cope  (Washington). — Archiv  fiir 
Pathologische  Anatomic  und  Physi.ologie,  und  fiir  klinische  Medicin,  Hund. 
Bandes,  Zweites  Heft  (Reimer,  Berlm). — Botanische  Jahrbiicher  fiir  Sys- 
tenatik.Pflanzengeschichte,  und  Pflanzengeographie,  Neunter  Band,  ii.  Heft 
(Engelinann,  Leipzig). — Transactions  of  the  County  of  Middlesex  Natural 
History  and  Science  Society,  1886-87  (Mitchell  and  Hughes). — Records  of 
the  Geological  Survey  of  India,  vol.  xx.  part  3. — Bulletin  of  the  California 
Academy  of  Sciences,  vol.  ii.  No.  7  — Annalen  derPhysik  und  Chemie,i887, 
No.  II  (Leipzig). — Beiblatter  zu  den  Physik  und  Chemie,  1887,  No.  10 
(Leipzig). — Transactions  of  the  Asiatic  Society  of  Japan,  vol.  xv.  part  1. 


CONTENTS.  PAGE 

Charles  Darwin.     By  Prof.  T.  G.  Bonney,  F.R.S.  .    .    73 
Our  Book  Shelf  :— 

Roberts:  "  A  Treatise  on  the  Integral  Calculus  "  .    .    .    75 
Todhunter  :   "  Solutions   to    Problems  contained  in  a 

Treatise  on  Plane  Co-ordinate  Geometry" 75 

De  Bary  :   "  Lectures  on  Bacteria  " 75 

Desmaux  :   "  Mattie's  Secret  " 76 

Letters  to  the  Editor  : — 

Politics  and  the  Presidency  of  the  Royal  Society. — Prof. 
Balfour     Stewart,    F.R.S.  ;     Prof.    Alex.     W. 

Williamson,  F.R.S 76 

"TheConspiracy  of  Silence." — Prof.  T.  G.  Bonney, 

F.R.S 77 

Instability    of     Freshly-Magnetized     Needles. — Prof. 
Francis   E.  Nipher  ;  Prof.  Arthur  W.   Riicker, 

F.R.S 77 

Greek  Geometry. — R.  T 78 

The  Chromosphere. — ^John  Evershed,  Jun 79 

Perception  of  Colour. — C.  E.  Stromeyer 79 

Swifts.— C.  B,  Witchell 79 

Note  on  a  Madras  Micrococcus. — Edgar  Thurston    .    79 
Catharinea  undulata.— J.  Reynolds  Vaizey    ....    79 
Researches  on  Meteorites.     II.     {Illustrated.)     By  J. 

Norman  Lockyer,  F.R.S 80 

Sir  Julius  von  Haast,  F.R.S 87 

Notes 87 

Our  Astronomical  Column  : — 

American  Observatories      89 

U  Ophiuchi 90_ 

The  New  Algol  Variables 

Astronomical     Phenomena     for     the     Week     1887 

November  27 — December  3 

Geographical  Notes 

Meteorological  Notes 

The  British  Association  and  Local  Societies  .... 

The  Meteorology  of  Oxford 

University  and  Educational  Intelligence 

Societies  and  Academies 

Books,  Pamphlets,  and  Serials  Received 


NA TURE 


97 


THURSDAY,   DECEMBER    i,    1887. 


THE  MATHEMATICAL  THEORY  OF  PER- 
FECTLY ELASTIC  SOLIDS. 

An  Elementary  Treatise  on  the  MatJteniatical  Theory  of 
Perfectly  Elastic  Solids ;  with  a  Short  Account  of 
Viscous  Fluids.  By  William  John  Ibbetson,  M.A, 
(London  :  Macmillan  and  Co.,  1887.) 

IT  is  strange  that  students  should  have  had  to  wait  till 
the  present  time  for  a  systematic  English  text-book 
on  the  mathematical  theory  of  elastic  bodies.  The 
want  has  been  decidedly  felt  at  Cambridge  since  the 
introduction  of  the  subject  into  the  schedule  for  the 
Mathematical  Tripos  in  1873;  and  though  parts  of 
Thomson  and  Tail's  treatise  on  natural  philosophy,  and 
the  reprint  of  Green's  papers,  had  already  brought  a  large 
amount  of  useful  matter  into  an  accessible  form  for  those 
who  had  not  time  or  opportunity  to  read  the  original 
memoirs,  still  it  was  found  that  learners,  naturally  looking 
for  some  compendious  account  of  the  whole  subject, 
generally  fell  back  upon  M.  Lame's  treatise. 

The  book  at  present  under  notice  will  supply  this  want 
satisfactorily.  The  plan  on  which  it  has  been  written  is 
excellent  in  idea,  and  has  on  the  whole  been  followed  out 
well,  though  perhaps  there  is  here  and  there  some  want 
of  proportion,  as  for  instance  in  the  elaborate  and  purely 
mathematical  details  of  Chapter  V. 

It  is,  no  doubt,  a  difficult  matter  to  decide  what  results 
of  mathematical  analysis  should  be  introduced  without 
proof  in  a  treatise  on  mathematical  physics,  and  there  is 
little  question  that,  as  a  matter  of  convenience  to  the 
reader,  it  is  wiser  to  err  on  the  side  of  assuming  too 
little  knowledge  rather  than  too  much.  On  the  other 
hand,  wherever  questions  of  pure  mathematics  are  intro- 
duced and  discussed  at  length,  they  should  be  such  as 
have  a  direct  bearing  on  important  parts  of  the  physical 
subject.  Now  the  general  forms  of  the  dynamical 
equations  for  an  elastic  body  in  terms  of  curvilmear 
co-ordinates,  which  are  established  in  Chapter  V.  after  a 
considerable  amount  of  preliminary  analysis,  are  so  com- 
plicated as  to  be  practically  valueless.  Indeed,  the  one 
case  referred  to  is  dismissed  in  a  single  paragraph.  The 
special  forms  for  polar  and  semi-polar  co-ordinates,  often 
to  be  used  with  advantage,  may  be  very  much  more 
simply  established  independently. 

To  return  to  the  general  plan  of  the  book.  It  com- 
mences with  a  short  preliminary  chapter,  headed  "  Pro- 
perties of  Elastic  Solids,"  in  which,  after  showing  that 
the  subject  cannot  be  profitably  considered  from  the  point 
of  view  of  molecular  structure,  the  author  defines  the 
ideal  solid  which  must  for  purposes  of  analysis  replace 
the  real  body. 

In  Chapter  II.  the  general  properties  of  strain  are 
treated  very  clearly  and  at  considerable  length.  A  little 
more  consideration  might  perhaps  have  been  given  with 
advantage  to  finite  homogeneous  strain.  No  fewer  than 
three  quadrics  are  introduced  for  the  purpose  of  putting 
results  into  a  geometrical  form,  viz.  the  strain  ellipsoid, 
the  elongation  quadric,  and  the  position  ellipsoid  ;  while 
in  the  succeeding  chapter,  on  "  The  Analysis  of  Stress," 
Vol.  XXXVII. — No.  944. 


four  surfaces — the  first,  second,  third,  and  fourth  stress 
quadrics — are  used  for  a  similar  purpose.  It  can  hardly 
be  doubted  that  so  great  a  number  of  surfaces  will  tend 
rather  to  confusion  than  to  that  clearness  of  conception 
of  the  properties  of  strain  and  stress  for  which  they  are 
presumably  introduced. 

The  nature  and  mode  of  specification  of  stress  is  care- 
fully expounded  in  Chapter  III.,  and  the  dynamical 
equations  to  be  satisfied  throughout  the  body  and  over 
the  boundary  are  obtained  in  terms  of  the  stress-com- 
ponents. Attention  should  be  called  to  a  statement  in 
§  153  of  this  chapter,  as  likely  to  mislead  the  student.  It 
is  to  the  effect  that  "the  component  stresses  are  to  be 
considered  as  small  quantities  of  the  first  order."  Though 
in  a  certain  sense  this  is  true,  it  is  not  true  that  the  ratio 
of  the  stress  per  unit  area  to,  say,  the  weight  per  unit 
volume  of  the  body  is  a  small  proper  fraction,  and  this 
surely  is  the  strict  sense  the  words  should  bear. 

The  next  chapter,  on  "  The  Potential  Energy  of  Strain," 
is  excellent.  The  method  is  similar  to  that  used  by 
Thomson  and  Tait ;  and  the  successive  simplifications 
introduced  into  the  expression  for  the  potential  energy  of 
the  strained  body  by  considering  successively  greater 
degrees  of  symmetry  of  structure,  leading  up  to  perfect 
isotropy,  are  well  shown.  It  is  also  pointed  out  that  from 
the  definition  of  an  isotropic  body,  its  potential  energy  is 
necessarily  a  function  of  the  invariants  of  the  strain,  thus 
reducing  the  number  of  independent  elastic  constants  in 
this  case  at  once  to  two.  Having  thus  arrived  at  a  definite 
conception  of  the  isotropic  elastic  solid,  the  author  ex- 
pressly limits  all  the  investigations  that  follow  to  the 
case  of  such  a  body.  From  the  expression  obtained  for 
the  potential  energy,  forms  are  deduced  for  the  stress 
components  in  terms  of  the  strain  components  and  the 
elastic  constants,  and  thence  finally  the  dynamical  equa- 
tions are  obtained  in  terms  of  the  displacements. 

In  Chapter  V.,  as  already  stated,  these  equations  are 
thrown  into  new  forms,  and  the  remainder  of  the  book  is 
devoted  to  their  solution  under  various  conditions  as  to 
the  nature  of  the  applied  forces  and  tractions  and  the 
form  of  the  body. 

As  an  introduction  to  the  consideration  of  particular 
questions  the  following  five  general  theorems  are  proved, 
viz.  : — 

"  (i.)  that  a  state  of  strain  cannot  be  maintained 
unchanged  without  the  action  of  applied  forces  or  surface 
tractions  : 

"(ii.)  that  the  state  of  strain  maintained  by  a  given 
system  of  equihbrating  applied  forces  and  surface  tractions 
is  therefore  perfectly  determinate  : 

"  (iii.)  that  the  most  general  free  motion  of  an  elastic 
solid  consists  of  a  number  of  superposed  harmonic 
oscillations  of  the  particles  about  their  natural  positions  : 

"  (iv.)  that  the  most  general  motion  of  such  a  body 
under  the  action  of  an  equilibrating  system  consists  of  a 
number  of  superposed  harmonic  oscillations  of  the 
particles  about  the  equilibrium  positions  that  would  be 
maintained  by  the  system  : 

"  (v.)  that  a  system  of  applied  forces  varying  as  a 
simple  harmonic  function  of  the  time  gives  rise  to  forced 
harmonic  oscillations  of  the  particles  of  the  same  period 
about  their  natural  positions." 

The  proofs  given  of  these  theorems,  and  especially  of 
the  third,  are  rather  unnecessarily  long  ;  but,  with  a  view 
to  avoiding  repetition  later  on,  it  is  certainly  convenient; 

F 


98 


NA  TURE 


[Dec.  I,  1887 


to  have  them  established  as  a  foundation  from  which  to 
start. 

The  problem  of  free  vibrations  is  first  treated,  and  as 
an  example  the  propagation  of  plane  waves  of  (i.)  normal, 
(ii.)  tangential,  displacement  is  investigated.  It  is  a  pity 
that  the  author  has  not  here  taken  the  opportunity  of 
illustrating  some  previous  remarks  on  the  discontinuity 
of  the  forms  of  the  strain  and  stress  components  which 
necessarily  accompanies  a  change  in  the  nature  of  the 
medium,  by  considering  the  question  of  the  reflection 
and  refraction  of  plane  waves. 

The  general  form  of  the  solution  of  the  equations 
for  forced  vibrations  is  next  investigated.  Then  follows 
the  general  question  of  equilibrium.  As  a  simple  ex- 
ample the  case  of  a  cylindrical  tube  under  external 
and  internal  normal  pressures  is  first  treated.  It  is 
almost  annoying  to  find  the  solution  of  this  time- 
honoured  question  obtained  by  starting  from  the  general 
equations,  and  whittling  them  down  till  the  very  simple 
conditions  are  fulfilled.  The  equilibrium  of  a  solid  sphere, 
with  either  surface  tractions  or  displacements  given,  is 
treated  exactly  as  in  Thomson  and  Tait's  work.  The 
chapter  of  general  solutions  closes  with  an  account  of 
Airy's  general  method  for  plain  stress,  with  a  couple  of 
examples.  The  printing  was  unfortunately  so  far  ad- 
vanced that  this  had  to  be  left ;  though  before  the  book 
appeared  the  author  had  himself  shown,  in  a  communi- 
cation to  the  London  Mathematical  Society,  that  these 
examples  of  Airy's  are  faulty,  and  that  the  method  applies 
only  to  a  very  limited  class  of  cases. 

Chapter  VII.  consists  mainly  of  a  capital  exposition  of 
the  solution  of  St.  Venant's  problems  of  the  torsion  and 
flexure  of  prisms.  These  problems  are  probably,  from  a 
practical  point  of  view,  the  most  important  for  which  an 
exact  solution  has  been  obtained.  The  author  brings 
out  well  the  bearings  of  the  nature  of  the  solutions  on 
practical  questions  of  construction.  The  elastic  equili. 
brium  and  small  motions  of  wires,  whether  straight  or 
curved,  are  deduced  directly  from  the  results  of  St. 
Venant's  problems.  In  connection  with  this  part  of  the 
subject,  certain  interesting  questions  of  stability,  due  to 
Mr,  Greenhill,  are  discussed. 

Some  cases  of  the  equilibrium  and  vibrations  of  plates 
and  shells  are  considered  in  Chapter  VIII.  For  the 
equilibrium  of  a  plate  of  uniform  thickness  under  a 
system  of  surface  tractions  parallel  to  its  faces  and 
acting  on  its  edges,  a  solution  is  obtained  by  analysis 
very  similar  to  that  used  in  St.  Venant's  problem.  The 
case  of  a  thin  plate  under  the  action  of  applied  faces 
satisfying  certain  conditions  is  quoted  from  Thomson 
and  Tait  again. 

Two  short  chapters  headed  "  Impact "  and  "  Viscosity  " 
complete  the  volume.  The  former  consists  of  the  solu- 
tion of  two  problems,  one  of  which,  as  the  author 
implies,  has  nothing  to  do  with  impulsive  change  of 
motion.  Indeed,  as  is  well  known,  the  exact  treatment 
of  the  impact  of  elastic  bodies  involves  difficulties,  even 
in  comparatively  simple  cases,  which  have  not  yet  been 
overcome.  In  the  last  chapter  the  alteration  in  the  form 
of  the  dynamical  equations  is  determined,  which  results 
from  supposing  the  shearing  stress  to  vary  partly  as  the 
shear  and  partly  as  its  rate  of  change. 

Having  thus  given  some  account  of  the  plan  of  the 


book  and  the  way  in  which  it  has  been  carried  out  gener- 
ally, we  may  offer  some  remarks  on  matters  of  detail. 
It  may  be  said  at  once  that  as  regards  accuracy  there  is  a 
good  deal  to  be  desired.  The  table  of  errata  might  have 
been  tripled,  and  would  not  then  have  contained  all  the 
misprints.  In  §§  299,  306,  the  wholesale  omission  of 
signs  of  summation  in  the  equations  makes  the  analysis^ 
as  given,  incorrect ;  and  there  is  Kttle  doubt  but  that  any- 
one to  whom  the  matter  treated  was  new  would  be  com- 
pletely baffled.  The  inaccuracies,  moreover,  are  not 
confined  to  mere  misprints.  There  are  one  or  two  positive 
mistakes  in  the  mathematics.  Thus  at  the  bottom  of 
p.  58  it  is  implied  that  some  condition  is  necessary  in 
order  that  a  family  of  surfaces,  f  {x,  y,  2)  =  ^  (an  arbit- 
rary parameter),  may  have  a  system  of  continuous  curves 
cutting  them  at  right  angles  ;  and  in  a  note  at  the  foot  of 
p.  298  it  is  stated  that,  supposing  this  (entirely  imaginary) 
condition  satisfied,  two  other  systems  of  surfaces  can 
always  be  found  cutting  each  other  and  the  former  sur- 
faces everywhere  at  right  angles.  Now  the  three  para- 
meters of  such  a  triple  system  of  surfaces  have  to  satisfy 
three  independent  partial  differential  equations,  and  hence 
no  one  of  the  three  can  be  taken  arbitrarily.  Statements 
and  reasoning  are,  in  several  passages,  founded  on  this 
erroneous  conception.  Closely  allied  with  this  is  the 
construction  given  in  §  216  for  tubes  of  stress.  It  is  here 
practically  assumed  that  a  given  continuous  system  of 
curves  can  always  be  cut  at  right  angles  by  a  family  of 
continuous  surfaces. 

An  appendix  at  the  end  of  Chapter  II.,  on  "The 
Geometry  of  Strains,"  might  have  been  omitted  v/ith 
advantage.  It  has  no  very  obvious  connection  with  the 
preceding  chapter,  but  is  devoted  to  an  apparently  new 
classification  of  vector  quantities,  in  which  a  velocity  and 
a  force  are  the  types  of  the  one  group,  while  an  angular 
and  a  couple  are  those  of  the  other  !  Again,  in  §§  270, 
271,  the  solution  of  a  physical  problem  is  made  to  appear 
to  depend  on  the  choice  of  an  origin.  The  question 
treated  is  the  free  normal  vibrations  of  a  plate;  and, 
after  using  d  and  -d'  to  denote  the  abscissae  of  the 
two  faces,  and  making  the  result  appear  to  depend  on  d/d', 
the  question  is  simplified  by  taking  the  origin  midway 
between  the  faces.  Indeed,  frequently  throughout  the 
book  one  is  reminded  of  Clerk  Maxwell's  remark  on  "  the 
state  of  a  mind  conscious  of  knowing  the  absolute  position 
of  a  point." 

These  slips,  such  as  they  are,  and  an  occasional 
obscurity  of  language,  are  but  slight  blemishes  on  a  valu- 
able book.  A  friendly  but  independent  criticism  of  the 
proof-sheets  while  the  book  was  passing  through  the  press 
might  have  removed  them  all,  and  no  doubt  will  in  a  new 
edition. 

The  figures  throughout  are  excellent. 

THE  VOLCANIC  AND  CORAL  ISLANDS  OF 
THE  SOLOMON  GROUP. 

The  Solotnon  Islands:  their  Geology,   General  Features, \ 
and  Suitability  for  Colonization.     By  H.   B.   Guppy, ' 
M.B.,    F.G.S.,   late    Surgeon    R.N.      (London:    Swan 
Sonnenschein,  Lowrey,  and  Co.,  1887.) 

SURGEONS    in    Her   Majesty's    navy   are   favoured 
beyond  most  men   in   the  possession   of  abundant 
leisure  and  freedom  from  many  of  the  common  cares  of 


Dec.  I,  1887] 


NA  TURE 


99 


life.  But  in  spite  of  the  frequent  changes  of  scene  which 
they  enjoy,  or  endure,  and  their  unique  opportunities  for 
pursuing  scientific  researches,  and  in  spite  of  their  early 
acquaintance  with  elementary  treatises  on  several  branches 
of  science,  it  is  only  at  rare  intervals  that  naval  surgeons 
appear  as  observers  or  investigators.  The  unusual 
occasionally  happens,  and  in  the  work  by  Mr.  Guppy  on 
the  Solomon  Islands  we  have  an  admirable  example  of 
what  may  be  accomplished  by  an  energetic  observer  alive 
to  his  advantages. 

In  this  volume  it  would  not  be  difficult  to  point  out  many 
imperfect  forms  of  expression,  some  a,voidable  confusion 
in  arrangement,  even  a  few  conclusions  that  the  facts 
hardly  appear  to  warrant ;  but  these  sink  into  insignific- 
ance when  compared  with  the  mass  of  valuable  material 
from  which  they  might  be  culled. 

The  object  of  the  book  is  to  describe  fully,  but  in  a 
general  way,  the  author's  geological  observations  on  the 
islands  of  the  Solomon  Group,  little  space  being  devoted 
to  the  other  subjects  mentioned  in  the  title.  It  is  a  com- 
pendium of  important  facts,  most  of  them  new  to  the 
scientific  public.  Perhaps  the  Journal  of  the  Geological 
Society  is  hardly  suited  for  recording  a  series  of  laborious 
and  detailed  observations  on  the  rocks  of  a  remote  archi- 
pelago, and  the  publications  of  the  Royal  Society  of 
Edinburgh — where  detailed  papers  by  Mr.  Guppy  appear 
— may  not  be  read  by  all  geologists.  It  may  not  be  in- 
appropriate, in  these  circumstances,  to  mention  a  few  of 
the  facts  observed  by  Mr.  Guppy  and  recorded  in  this 
volume. 

The  book  is  divided  equally  between  the  description  of 
volcanic  and  calcareous  islands,  and  is  illustrated  by  mips 
and  sections. 

The  volcanic  rocks  collected  on  the  islands  were  sub- 
mitted for  mineralogical  analysis  to  Prof.  Judd  and  Mr. 
T.  Davies  ;  the  calcareous  formations  were  studied  by  Mr. 
John  Murray  :  and  the  remains  of  animal  life,  both  fora- 
miniferal  and  coral,  are  being  examined  by  the  leading 
specialists  ;  hence  the  work  is  enriched  by  the  labours  of 
well-known  men,  and  the  "  gold"  of  the  author's  data  im- 
pressed with  the  "  guinea-stamp"  of  recognized  authority. 
The  volcanic  islands  of  the  group  are  divided  into  two 
classes.  First,  those  of  comparatively  modern  forma- 
tion, composed  mainly  of  little-altered  augite-andesites, 
andesiticpitchstones,  tuffs,  and  agglomerates  :  these  islands 
still  preserve  the  volcanic  outline  and  sometimes  give  evi- 
dence of  recent  activity  by  terminating  in  craters  with  hot 
springs  or  fumaroles.  The  second  class  is  composed  only 
in  part  of  these  rocks,  and  in  part  of  much  more  ancient 
crystalline  masses  consisting  chiefly  of  altered  dolerites, 
quartz-diorites  and  -porphyries,  and  serpentines.  Some 
islands  of  the  latter  class  exhibit  an  extraordinary 
diversity  in  petrological  character.  Fauno,  the  de- 
scription of  which  is  illustrated  by  a  geological  map,  is  an 
interesting  instance  of  this.  The  northern  end  of  the 
island  is  occupied  by  a  precipitous  mountain  of  andesitic 
tuff  sloping  steeply  down  from  an  altitude  of  1900  feet  to 
a  narrow  isthmus,  150  feet  high,  composed  of  horn- 
blende-augite-andesite,  and  leading  to  a  sickle-shaped 
peninsula  of  successive  hills  connected  by  lovv  strips 
of  rock.  The  composition  of  this  crescentic  tongue 
is  successively  altered  dolorites,  quartz-porphyries,  quartz- 
andesites,   hornblende-andesites,    and    altered    dolerites 


again.  These  rocks,  almost  invariably  massive  and 
unassociated  with  tuffs  or  agglomerates,  each  in  turn  oc- 
cupy the  whole  breadth  of  the  peninsula.  The  mode 
of  formation  which  Mr.  Guppy  demonstrates  for  this 
promontory  is  illustrated  in  various  stages  by  several 
other  islands.  A  series  of  small  volcanoes  arising  in  a 
crescentic  form,  and  each  pouring  out  a  characteristic  lava, 
were  gradually  elevated  and  so  brought  into  connection. 
Rapid  denudation,  caused  by  the  great  rainfall  of  the 
region,  wore  off  the  volcanic  contours  and  reduced  the 
chain  of  peaks  to  a  series  of"  necks"  in  close  juxtaposi- 
tion. The  comparative  rarity  of  fragmental  volcanic  rocks, 
and  the  mineralogical  constitution  of  the  massive  crystal- 
line lavas  of  the  surface,  indicating  their  solidification  at 
great  depths,  prove  extensive  denudation  to  have  taken 
place  all  over  those  islands. 

The  main  interest  of  the  book  centres  in  the  researches 
of  Mr.  Guppy  on  calcareous  deposits.  He  is  the  only 
geologist  who  has  visited  this  most  instructive  group  of 
coral  islands  ;  and  he  describes  what  he  saw  there  with  a 
straightforward  simplicity  that  compels  confidence  in  the 
accuracy  of  his  observations,  and  affords  to  those  who 
may  find  his  theory  insufficient  all  possible  data  for 
disproving  it. 

Mr.  Guppy  gives  the  following  classification  of  the 
limestones  of  a  "coral  island"  in  the  Solomon  Group  as 
revealed  to  him  by  the  walls  of  the  river  gorges  he 
explored  :  — 

Group  I. — Coral  Limestones,  properly  so  called. 

Group  II. — Coral  Limestones  which  have  the  compo- 
sition of  coral  muds  or  sands  now  forming  near  coral 
reefs.  There  are  three  subdivisions  of  this  group  :  (i) 
crystalline  limestone,  in  which  coral  plays  a  secondary 
part,  and  remains  of  calcareous  Alg£E  and  mollusks  pre- 
dominate ;  (2)  chalky  limestones  ;  (3)  homogeneous 
fawn-coloured  limestones,  often  crystalline. 

Group  III. — Rocks  of  the  composition  of  volcanic  mud 
and pterojiod  002e,  conta-ining  also  numerous  Foraminifera, 
These  are  subdivided  into  (i)  partially  consolidated  vol- 
canic muds  ;  (2)  partially  consolidated  pteropod  ooze  ;  (3) 
hard  limestones. 

Group  IV. — Foraminiferal  Limestones,  or  consolidated 
"  Globigerinaooze."  There  are  two  classes  :  (i)  composed 
chiefly  of  tests  of  both  pelagic  and  bottom-living  Fora- 
minifera :  (2)  chiefly  composed  of  the  tests  of  pelagic 
Foraminifera. 

Group  V. — Rock  resembling  a  consolidated  deep-sea  clay 
(Red  Clay). 

The  two  last-named  groups  were  certainly  deposited  at 
depths  not  much  less  than  2000  fathoms  in  an  ocean  far 
from  continental  land,  and  their  existence  above  sea-level 
is  now  for  the  first  time  proved. 

From  all  the  facts  that  could  be  ascertained  regarding 
the  coral  formations  of  the  group,  certain  inferences  were 
drawn,  which  we  give  in  the  author's  own  words  : — 

"  The  first  is  self-evident,  viz.  that  these  upraised  reef 
masses,  whether  atoll,  barrier  reef,  or  fringing  reef,  were 
formed  in  a  region  of  elei'ation.  .  .  .  It  is  apparent  that 
Mr.  Darwin's  theory  of  coral  reefs,  which  ascribes  atoll 
and  barrier  reefs  to  a  movement  of  subsidence,  cannot  be 
applied  to  the  islands  of  the  Solomon  Group.  .  .  . 

"  The  second  inference  is,  that  such  upraised  reefs  are 
of  moderate  thickness,  their  vertical  measurement  not  ex- 
ceeding the  usual  limit  of  the  depth  of  tlie  reef -coral  zone. 


lOO 


NATURE 


{Dec.  I,  1887 


.  .  I  never  found  one  that  exhibited  a  greater  thickness 
of  coral  limestone  than  1 50  feet,  or  at  the  very  outside 
200  feet.  .  .  . 

"  The  third  inference  is,  that  these  upraised  reef  masses 
in  the  majority  of  islands  rest  on  a  partially  consolidated 
deposit  which  possesses  the  characters  of  the  '  volcanic 
muds '  that  were  foimd,  during  the  '  Chalhnger '  Ex- 
pedition, to  be  at  present  for  mitig  around  volcanic  islands. 

"  The  fourth  inference  is,  that  this  deposit  envelops 
anciently  submerged  volcanic  peaks." 

Mr.  Guppy  states  that  his  observations  have  made  him 
a  strong  adherent  of  the  theory  of  formation  of  coral 
islands  advanced  by  Mr.  Murray. 

These  observations  are  indeed  crucial  between  the 
theories  of  subsidence  and  of  solution,  and  point  towards 
the  newer.  The  theory  of  subsidence  demands  that  a  coral 
reef  rising  from  deep  water  must  be  of  enormous  thick- 
ness, and  rest  upon  volcanic  or  fragmental  rock  ;  that  of 
solution  requires  that  the  reef  be  of  shght  thickness  and 
rest  on  volcanic  rock,  or  consohdated  terrigenous  mud,  or 
pelagic  ooze.  According  to  the  former  the  reef  grows 
on  the  whole  vertically ;  according  to  the  latter  its  main 
extension  is  horizontal.  Two  of  Darwin's  principal 
objections  to  the  early  conception  of  coral  islands  were 
that  it  was  absurd  to  suppose  that  submarine  mountains 
were  numerous  enough  to  provide  foundations  for  all 
the  known  reefs,  and  that  it  was  impossible  to  imagine 
sedimentation  taking  place  at  great  distances  from  land. 
The  recent  work  of  telegraph  ships  along  the  West  Coast 
of  Africa  and  elsewhere  has  shown  the  extreme  prob- 
ability of  submarine  mountains  existing  in  large  numbers 
throughout  the  ocean  ;  the  cruise  of  the  Challenger  'prowtd. 
that  the  shells  of  pelagic  organisms,  wind-borne  and 
meteoric  dust  and  volcanic  ashes  spread  by  ocean- 
currents  produce  perceptible  sedimentation  in  mid-ocean 
at  a  rate  varying  in  some  inverse  proportion  to  the 
depth. 

Murray's  theory  can  be  brought  readily  to  the  test  of 
observation  and  experiment  ;  Darwin's  cannot.  It  has 
been  shown  in  the  laboratory  that  calcium  carbonate  is 
soluble  in  sea-water,  and  is  dissolved  in  greater  amount  in 
water  containing  carbonic  acid  especially  when  under 
pressure ;  the  decomposition  of  dead  corals  and  the 
respiration  of  living  ones  supply  carbonic  acid  to  aid  in 
the  removal  of  their  calcareous  remains.  If  atolls  are 
formed  in  areas  of  elevation,  they  may  ultimately  be  seen 
and  measured  :  if  only  in  regions  of  subsidence,  measure- 
ment is  impossible,  and  the  vertical  extent  of  the  coral 
limestone  can  only  be  guessed  at. 

It  must  be  confessed  that  the  theory  of  solution  in  reef- 
building  has  not  yet  been  put  before  the  world  with  any 
approach  to  the  completeness,  lucidity,  and  grace  with 
which  Darwin  convinced  and  enchained  the  scientific 
mind.  The  theory  of  subsidence  is  so  beautiful,  simple, 
and  satisfactory,  that  very  strong  evidence  is  required  to 
shake  it  ;  but  in  the  history  of  science  men  have  more 
than  once  been  forced  to  say  of  a  simple  and  satisfactory 
doctrine — 

"  'Twas  beautiful, 
Yet  but  a  dream,  and  so — Adieu  to  it ! " 

Neither  Murray  nor  Guppy  has  proved  the  subsidence 
theory  to  be  a  dream.  Still,  the  solution  theory  has  been 
plainly  set  forth,  and  here  we  have  facts  which  amount  to 
an  absolute  proof  of  its  truth  for  one  important  group  of 


coral  islands.  The  proof  is  none  the  less  convincing 
because  it  is  restricted  in  its  application  ;  for  it  is  concrete 
and  complete  in  itself,  not  abstract  and  cumulative  like 
the  evidence  for  the  subsidence  theory.  Mr.  Guppy  has 
demonstrated  that  the  old  theory  fails  and  the  new  suc- 
ceeds in  explaining  the  formation  and  structure  of  the 
Solomon  Islands,  and  coming  at  the  present  time  this  sup- 
plies a  powerful  argument  for  the  general  applicability 
of  the  solution  theory — an  argument  that  it  will  not  be 
easy  to  set  aside. 

The  book  is  short  and  interesting  ;  and,  besides  the  im- 
portant features  we  have  alluded  to,  it  contains  much  in- 
formation about  the  islands  visited,  and  the  author's 
adventures  there.  Hugh  Robert  Mill. 


AGRICULTURE  IN  SOME  OF  ITS  RELATIONS 
WITH   CHEMISTRY. 

Agriculture  in  some  of  its  Relations  with  Chemistry, 
By  F.  H.  Storer.  Two  Vols.  (London  :  Sampson 
Low,  Marston,  Searle,  and  Rivington,  1887.) 

THIS  work,  by  the  Professor  of  Agricultural  Chemistry 
at  the  Harvard  University,  is  based  on  a  course  of 
lectures  delivered  annually  by  the  author.  It  is  addressed 
to  students  of  agriculture  and  persons  fond  of  rural 
affairs,  rather  than  to  students  of  chemistry.  Free 
use  has  been  made  of  German  publications  in 
agricultural  chemistry,  and  of  the  writings  of  Prof.  S. 
W.  Johnson,  of  Newhaven,  Connecticut.  Some  of  the 
matters  treated  of  in  his  two  well-known  books,  "  How 
Crops  Grow  "  and  "  How  Crops  Feed,"  have  been  omitted, 
or  only  lightly  touched,  in  the  present  volumes,  which 
are  therefore,  to  a  certain  extent,  a  supplement  to  those 
books. 

The  present  volumes  treat  of  the  chemistry  of  the 
atmosphere,  of  waters,  of  soils,  and  of  manures,  and  of 
their  several  relations  to  plants  ;  the  chemistry  of  animal 
life  and  nutrition  is  not  dealt  with.  A  large  amount  of 
valuable  information,  partly  of  historical  interest,  has 
been  brought  together ;  and  much  of  it  is  presented  in 
the  somewhat  old-fashioned  English  of  the  best  writers 
of  New  England. 

One  illustration  given  by  the  author,  to  show  that 
liquids  penetrate  into  plants  through  their  roots,  we  do 
not  think  very  happy.  He  notes  an  observation  made  by 
himself,  that  Indian  corn  made  to  sprout  in  a  flower-pot 
and  watered  with  milk  had  white  leaves  ;  and  he  suggests 
that  the  minute  particles  of  solid  matter  in  the  milk  must 
have  entered  the  plant  and  caused  the  whiteness.  He 
admits,  however,  that  the  whiteness  may  have  been  due 
to  chemical  action.  In  noticing  the  growth  of  plants  in 
artificial  light,  he  hardly  gives  sufficient  credit  to  the 
observations  of  Siemens  and  of  Deh^rain  on  growth  in  the 
light  of  the  electric  arc,  both  uncovered  and  variously 
shaded.  Mr.  Storer  has  scarcely  that  respect  for  earth- 
worms with  which  Darwin  has  imbued  us,  for  on  the  only 
occasion  he  mentions  them  he  styles  them  pernicious, 
on  the  ground  that  harm  is  done  to  plants  in  pots 
by  their  casts,  which  become  slimy  mud  when  watered, 
and  thus  clog  the  pores  of  the  earth  and  the  roots  of 
the  plants. 

In    vol.    i.    p.  295,  a    serious   mistake  occurs,  though 


Dec.  I,  1887] 


NATURE 


lOI 


doubtless  by  oversight :  it  is  stated  that  nitrate  of  soda 
used  as  a  top-dressing  for  mowing-fields  that  contain  true 
grasses  "favours  the  growth  of  clover  rather  than  of 
grass."  The  reverse  of  this  is  the  truth.  There  is  a  good 
chapter  on  irrigation,  in  which  it  is  pointed  out' that,  "in 
spite  of  all  that  has  been  done  of  late  years  in  California 
and  the  adjacent  regions,  it  is  still  probably  true  that  no 
other  subject  relating  to  agriculture  so  much  needs  to  be 
attended  to  by  the  American  people  as  this  matter  of  water- 
ing the  land."  The  questions  of  the  disposal  of  excreta  and 
of  sewage  are  dealt  with  in  their  chemical  aspects.  Perhaps 
hardly  due  credit  is  given  to  the  latest  improvements  in 
some  precipitation  processes  for  clarifying  sewage,  but  we 
are  glad  to  see  that  the  author  fully  realizes  that  the  sewage 
subject  is  essentially  a  sanitary  and  not  an  agricultural 
question.  He  also  exposes  some  economic  fallacies  as  to 
the  value  of  sewage  by  citing  various  instances  in  which 
valuable  matters  are  found  at  our  doors  so  diluted  as  not  to 
be  worth  the  cost  of  collecting  or  saving.  One  illustration 
is  the  presence  of  gold  in  the  clay  of  Philadelphia— i  of 
gold  in  about  \\  million  of  clay.  If  the  gold  from  the 
bricks  of  the  houses  could  be  brought  to  the  surface  in 
the  form  of  gold-leaf,  on  each  brick  would  be  a  golden 
surface  of  2  square  inches.  In  the  clay  beneath  the 
portion  of  the  city  already  built  over  is  126  million 
dollars'  worth  of  gold,  yet  no  one  dreams  of  extracting  it. 
So,  except  under  very  favourable  conditions  for  the 
sewage,  valuable  manures  may  be  obtained  more  cheaply 
than  from  sewage. 

The  necessity  for  the  selection  of  ripe,  as  well  as  pure, 
seeds  for  sowing,  and  especially  on  poor  soils,  is  insisted 
on  and  illustrated  by  records  of  experiments.  The  great 
importance,  whether  for  good  or  evil,  of  micro-organisms 
to  the  farmer,  is  often  pointed  out ;  and  the  writer  dis- 
cusses the  question  of  the  sources  of  nitrogen  available 
for  plants,  and  the  very  important  question  as  to  the 
fixation  of  free  nitrogen  from  the  air  by  humus  or  by 
clay  soils.  The  conclusions  of  Berthelot,  Armsby, 
Deh^rain,  and  others  are  stated,  and  the  author  regards 
it  as  proven,  in  the  light  of  existing  knowledge,  that 
some  nitrogen  from  the  air  is  really  fixed  as  an  incident 
to  certain  fermentations  which  occur  in  the  soil.  This 
much  debated  and  debatable  point,  which  is  of  the 
utmost  economic  importance,  still  requires  further  eluci- 
dation ;  and  we  may  hope  that  some  further  light  will  be 
thrown  on  it  by  the  researches  of  Sydney  Vines  on  the 
nutrition  of  the  common  bean. 

The  general  nature  of  the  changes  brought  about  in 
the  character  of  farming  by  railways  and  steamships,  and 
the  conditions  which  lead  to  "  high  "  or  to  "  low  "  farming, 
are  discussed.  An  observation  of  Washington  in  a  letter 
to  Arthur  Young  is  worth  recording,  in  this  connexion : 
"  An  English  farmer  must  have  a  very  indifferent  opinion 
of  our  American  soil  when  he  hears  that  an  acre  of  it 
produces  no  more  than  eight  to  ten  bushels  of  wheat ; 
but  he  must  not  forget  that  in  all  countries  where  land  is 
cheap  and  labour  is  dear  the  people  prefer  cultivating 
much  to  cultivating  well." 

Special  chapters  are  given  to  barley  and  oats,  and 
there  are  three  chapters  on  pastures,  grass,  and  hay, 
mainly  from  a  New  England  point  of  view.  In  one  of 
these  chapters  it  is  stated  that  the  East  Anglian  word 
"  rowen  "  for  "  aftermath,"  used  by  old  writers,  but  now, 


we  believe,  confined  to  parts  of  Suffolk,  is  in  common 
use  in  New  England. 

One  minor  defect,  which  might  have  been  remedied  by 
an  editor  of  the  English  edition,  is  the  use  throughout 
the  book  of  many  different  systems  of  weights  and  mea- 
sures, e.g^.  the  long  (English)  ton  of  2240  pounds,  the 
short  (American)  ton  of  2000  pounds,  pounds  and  bushels 
per  acre  as  well  as  kilogrammes  per  hectare,  and  German 
pounds  per  morgen,  per  Saxon  acre,  and  per  Hessian 
acre,  and  even  quintals  per  acre.  A  reduction  of  these 
to  one  system  would  have  rendered  the  results  more  com- 
prehensible, and  comparisons  easier.  Also,  a  few  of  the 
chemical  names  are  not  those  now  in  use  in  this  country, 
and  the  use  of  the  terms  bi-phosphate  of  lime  and  di-calcic 
phosphate  as  synonymous  is  very  misleading. 

For  the  sake  of  the  British  farmer,  who  is  not  such  a 
reading  man  as  his  American  confrere,  we  could  wish 
that  some  of  the  subjects  had  been  rather  more  digested, 
and  that  more  illustrations  had  been  drawn  from  English 
sources,  but  thanks  are  due  to  Mr.  Storer  for  a  very  sugges- 
tive work,  that  can  be  confidently  recommended  to  those 
interested  in  agriculture  for  perusal  and  careful  study 
during  the  long  winter  evenings.  It  cannot  fail  to 
awaken  a  more  intelligent  interest  in  the  physics  and 
chemistry  of  the  farm.  Moreover,  notwithstanding  the 
author's  modesty,  it  will  be  found  very  useful  to  the 
student  of  agricultural  chemistry. 


WE  A  THER. 

Weather  :  a  Popular  Exposition  of  the  Nature  of 
Weather  Changes  from  Day  to  Day.  By  the  Hon. 
Ralph  Abercromby.  (London  :  Kegan  Paul,  Trench, 
and  Co.,  "  International  Scientific  Series,"  1887.) 

THE  author  of  this  book  has  undertaken  a  task  the 
difficulty  of  which  has  deterred  all  previous  writers, 
for  FitzRoy's  "Weather  Book"  can  hardly  be  termed 
a  text-book  of  the  subject,  and,  moreover,  it  was  written 
at  a  date  at  which  weather  telegraphy  was  in  its  infancy. 
The  books  which  have  appeared  during  the  last  two 
decades  have  been  either  manuals  mainly  for  the  use  ot 
seamen,  like  the  Barometer  Manuals  of  the  Meteorological 
Office  ;  or  explanations  of  the  interpretation  of  weather 
charts,  like  Mr.  Scott's  "  Weather  Charts  and  Storm 
Warnings,"  of  which  the  third  edition  was  lately  noticed 
in  these  pages.  The  idea  of  telling  an  isolated  observer 
how  to  employ  local  weather  signs  and  the  manifold  modi- 
fications of  clouds  in  aiding  his  own  judgment  of  local 
weather  has  not  hitherto  been  adequately  carried  out. 

Mr.  Abercromby  is  peculiarly  well  qualified  for  the 
task  of  preparing  a  weather  text-book,  for  not  only  is  he 
gifted  with  an  unusual  faculty  of  observing  weather  phe- 
nomena, and  especially  clouds  and  their  changes  in  this 
country,  as  is  proved  by  the  papers  he  has  read  on  various 
occasions  ;  but  he  has  had  more  leisure  to  travel  to 
"  foreign  parts  "  than  falls  to  the  lot  of  most  meteorologists- 
The  book  relates  to  weather  in  general,  as  distinguished 
from  storms,  and  not  merely  to  the  weather  of  the  British 
Isles  ;  for,  though  the  latter  subject  occupies  most  of  the 
work,  the  information  given  as  to  the  weather  over  more 
extensive  areas,  such  as  those  of  the  North  Atlantic  and 
the  United  States,  is  most  instructive  and  valuable.     The 


I02 


NATURE 


[Dec.  I,  1S87 


work  is  divided  into  two  sections,  elementary  and  ad- 
vanced, of  which  the  former  is  about  one-fourth  of  the 
bulk  of  the  latter.  The  reader  must  not  go  away  with  the 
idea  that  the  volume  contains  no  original  views,  for,  as  Mr, 
Abercromby  says  in  his  preface,  "  the  results  of  many  of 
the  author's  original  and  unpublished  researches  are  in- 
cluded in  its  pages,  such,  for  instance,  as  the  explanation 
of  many  popular  prognostics ;  the  elucidation  of  the 
general  principles  of  reading  the  import  of  cloud-forms  ; 
the  classification  of  those  cases  in  which  the,  motion  of 
the  barometer  fails  to  foretell  correctly  the  coming  weather ; 
and  the  character  of  that  kind  of  rainfall  which  is  not 
indicated  in  any  way  by  isobaric  maps." 

Mr.  Abercromby's  pages  convey  small  consolation  to 
adventurous  weather  prophets,  such  as  Mr.  Wiggins  or 
the  framers  of  the  New  York  Herald  announcements. 
At  p.  433  we  read  :  "  From  eight  to  twelve  hours  seems 
to  be  the  furthest  time  for  which  forecasts  can  be  issued 
in  advance,  and  even  then  many  local  details  cannot  be 
given."  Again,  at  p.  426  he  says  :  "  On  the  whole,  we 
see  that  the  crude  notion  of  forecasting  European  storms 
from  the  United  States  contains  some  elements  of  truth, 
but  that  still,  from  the  nature  of  cyclone  motion,  the  idea 
can  never  be  used  in  practical  forecasting."  His  state- 
ments as  to  the  impossibility  of  practically  predicting 
weather  by  observations  of  sun-spots  are  also  made  with 
great  care. 

The  most  interesting  chapters,  at  least  to  the  ordinary 
reader,  are  those  which  relate  to  weather  prediction,  for 
isolated  observers.  As  regards  the  formation  of  clouds 
and  their  indications,  Mr.  Abercromby  sets  forth  the 
results  of  much  research,  but  in  our  opinion  he  speaks 
somewhat  too  decidedly  on  points  which  are  still  sub 
jiidice. 

We  welcome  tlie  book  most  cordially,  and  anticipate  a 
considerable  demand  for  it.  We  may  say,  however, 
that  in  several  places  we  have  noticed  slips  in  the  word- 
ing, and  that  the  orthography  of  some  of  the  foreign 
names  is  not  quite  "  according  to  Cocker."  In  some 
cases  the  author's  phraseology  is  not  quite  clear,  and 
paragraphs  have  to  be  read  repeatedly  before  their  precise 
meaning  is  taken  in. 


OUR  BOOK  SHELF. 

Class-book  of  Algebra  Exa7nples  for  Middle  and  High 
Schools.  Part  II.,  for  High  Schools.  By  John  Cook, 
M.A.,  Principal,  Central  College,  Bangalore.  (Madras  : 
printed  at  the  Lawrence  Asylum  Press,  Mount  Road. 
1887.) 
This  book  contains,  in  addition  to  the  examples  which 
form  the  main  part  of  the  volume,  an  "  Introductory 
Summary  of  Rules  and  Formulae,"  extending  to  about 
one-third  of  the  whole  contents.  Although  Mr.  Cook  in 
his  preface  lays  special  stress  on  this  summary,  we  are  by 
no  means  sure  that  its  introduction  into  the  volume  is  an 
improvement.  It  is  insufficient  to  allow  the  student  to 
dispense  with  the  use  of  a  text-book  ;  and  a  student,  who 
desired  to  refresh  his  memory  about  some  particular 
method  or  formula,  would  do  better  to  read  it  up  in  his 
text-book,  than  to  refer  to  a  set  of  stereotyped  rules.  Such 
a  summary  has  the  positive  disadvantage  that  it  inclines 
the  student  to  conceive  of  algebra  as  consisting  entirely  of 
a  set  of  rules,  proceeding  he  knows  not  whence  and  lead- 
ing he  knows  not  whither — a  conception  which  it  is  one  of 
the  chief  duties  of  a  teacher  of  algebra  steadily  to  combat. 


In  parts  of  this  introduction,  moreover,  there  is  a  looseness 
of  method  which  is  apt  to  prove  very  misleading  to  the 
student.  To  refer  to  only  one  or  two  cases  in  point,  we 
would  mention  in  the  first  place  a  confusion  between  an 
integral  or  a  rational  number  and  an  integral  or  a  rational 
function.  This  confusion  is  shown  in  the  case  of  division 
(p.  10)  and  in  the  case  of  root-extraction  (pp.  46  and  51). 
Again,  Mr.  Cook  defines  (p.  43)  the  G.C.M.  of  two  or 
more  fractions,  a  conception  which  is  perfectly  useless  in 
algebra,  and  only  tends  to  confuse  the  mind  of  the  learner 
as  to  the  real  meaning  of  the  algebraical  G.C.M. 

As  to  the  main  part  of  the  volume,  we  are  able  to  com- 
pliment Mr.  Cook  on  having  brought  together  a  number 
of  examples  which  are  likely  to  prove  useful,  especially  to 
teachers.  The  examples  show  very  considerable  variety, 
those  on  identities  being  particularly  noteworthy.  At  the 
end  of  each  exercise  stands  a  "model  solution"  which 
will  no  doubt  prove  useful  to  the  student  ;  but  what  does 
Mr.  Cook  mean  by  saying  in  one  such  solution  (p.  143)  that 
any  three  numbers  that  satisfy  the  relation  a"- -\- b"- —  c^  may 
be  expressed  in  the  form  yt,  4.n,  i,n  ?  We  trust  that, 
should  the  book  reach  a  second  edition,  as  it  doubtless 
will,  Mr.  Cook  will  either  dispense  with  the  introduction 
altogether,  which  we  should  be  inclined  to  consider  the 
better  plan,  or  at  least  remove  from  it  the  faults  in  method 
to  which  we  have  made  objection.  The  good  quahties 
possessed  by  the  main  part  of  the  book — the  examples 
themselves — would  then  render  the  volume  one  of  un- 
doubted value  alike  to  students  and  teachers  of  elementary 
algebra.  R.  E,  A. 

77/1?  Student's  Hand-book  to  the  Microscope  :  a  Practical 
Guide  to  its  Sclectiofi  and  Management.  By  A  Quekett 
Club  Man.     (London  :  Roper  and  Urowley,  1887.) 

Although  hand-books  and  practical  guides  to  the  use  of 
the  microscope  are  by  no  means  scarce,  this  little  volume 
will  be  welcome  to  many.  It  more  completely,  and  in  a 
much  smaller  compass,  meets  the  precise  wants  of  the 
beginner  who  intends  to  acquire  a  practical  knowledge  of 
the  use  of  the  microscope,  than  the  majority  of  kindred 
treatises.  But  it  aims  only  at  elementary  instruction  in 
the  use  of  the  instrument  and  its  accessories.  The  author 
does  not  burden  the  eager  and  ambitious  amateur  who 
has  just  become  possessed  of,  or  is  just  about  to  obtain,  a 
microscope,  with  the  complexities  of  collecting,  preserving, 
dissecting,  preparing,  and  mounting.  There  can  be  no 
doubt  that  to  obtain  a  fair  initial  mastery  of  a  good 
instrument,  with  powers  up  to  a  quarter-inch  objective, 
and  to  become  facile  in  the  use  of  all  the  apparatus  which 
these  may  involve,  for  illuminating,  polaj-izing,  &c.,  and,  in 
short,  in  putting  to  its  best  and  highest  use  such  a  micro- 
scope, is  by  far  the  better  course.  To  become  hastily 
acquainted  with  the  microscope  and  its  adjuncts,  and  then 
to  be  diverted  by  elaborate  processes  for  preparing  and 
mounting,  is  not  the  surest  way  to  increase  the  number 
of  skilled  and  competent  masters  of  the  modern  micro- 
scope. The  Quekett  Club  Man  is  evidently  practical,  and 
sees  this.  He  confines  himself  to  a  concise  and  useful 
statement,  aided  by  illustrations,  of  what  the  microscope 
is  and  how  its  various  accessories  may  be  employed. 

The  author  does  not  claim  to  take  the  student  into  any 
of  the  intricacies  of  high-power  work,  nor,  save  in  an 
incidental  way,  to  call  attention  to  the  newest  microscopy. 
This  is  consistent  ;  but  we  regret  that  the  new  and  only 
accurate  terminology  is  not  employed.  "Numerical 
aperture,"  briefly  explained,  would  have  been  wiser  than 
"  angle  of  aperture,"  with  no  comment  of  any  moment 
as  to  its  relatively  unscientific  nature.  Nor  are  we  quite 
convinced  that,  although  the  author  did  not  hold  it  to  be 
within  his  scope  to  discuss,  or  even  indicate  the  existence 
of,  "apochromatic  lenses,"  he  was  as  helpful  to  the 
uninitiated  as  he  might  have  been,  by  not  indicating  the 
existence  of  "compensating  eye-pieces";  for  both  in 
English  and  German  microscopes,  with  any  good  objec- 


Dec.  I,  1887] 


NATURE 


103 


tives,  they  give  better  results  than  the  majority  of 
Huyghenian  eye-pieces. 

We  close  the  book,  nevertheless,  feeling  that  it  will  be 
an  acquisition  to  many  who  are  without  information,  and 
■want  it,  as  to  how  to  use  the  microscope. 

A  Sketch  of  Geological  History,  being  the  Natural  History 
of  the  Earth  and  of  its  Pre- Human  Inhabitants.  By 
Edward  Hull,  M.A.,  LL.D.,  F.R.S.  (London:  C.  W. 
Deacon  and  Co.,  1887.) 

In  a  prefatory  note  the  publishers  of  this  little  book 
inform  the  readers  that  it  constitutes  the  first  of  a  series  of 
volumes  devoted  to  a  "  Sketch  of  Universal  History."  We 
must  congratulate  the  publishers  on  having  discovered  an 
author  with  sufficient  knowledge,  and  at  the  same  time 
with  the  necessary  courage,  for  coping  with  such  an 
undertaking.  In  148  small  pages  we  have  a  description 
of  the  "  original  condition  of  the  globe "  when  it  first 
assumed  its  present  form,  followed  by  sketches  of  the 
Archaean  and  succeeding  periods  of  the  earth's  history  ; 
the  whole  concluding  with  a  retrospect,  which  reads  like 
the  moral  of  a  fable.  The  work,  it  is  believed,  will  form 
an  appropriate  introduction  to  three  similar  volumes  in 
which  the  modern  history  of  the  world  is  sketched.  1  he 
book  before  us  is  a  marvel  of  condensation  ;  but  in 
reading  it  we  feel  like  the  unfortunate  individuals  who 
are  compelled  to  support  life  on  lozenges  composed  of 
"  Liebig's  Extract." 


LETTERS   TO    THE  EDITOR. 

\The  Editor  does  not  hold  himself  responsible  for  opinions 
expressed  by  his  correspondents.  Neither  can  he  under- 
take to  return,  or  to  correspond  with  the  writers  of, 
rejected  manuscripts.  No  notice  is  taken  op  anonymous 
communications. 

C  The  Editor  urgently  requests  correspondents  to  keep  their 
letters  as  short  as  possible.  The  pressure  on  his  space 
is  so  great  that  it  is  impossible  otherwise  to  insure  the 
appearance  even  of  commuttications  containing  interesting 
and  novel  facts. 

Politics  and  the  Presidency  of  the  Royal  Society, 

I  THINK  that  you  have  done  the  scientific  world  a  great 
service  in  pointing  out,  in  language  to  which  it  seems  to  me  no 
one  can  take  exception,  the  inconveniences  which  may  arise 
from  the  President  of  the  Royal  Society  occupying  a  seat  in 
Parliament. 

No  one  will,  I  think,  contest  the  fact  that  the  Royal  Society 
occupies  a  unique  place  in  our  social  organization.  It  differs 
from  all  other  Societies  in  constitution,  temperament,  and  tra- 
dition. To  persons  unacquainted  with  its  working,  its  method 
of  procedure  often  seems  deliberate  and  formal  to  a  fault.  To 
those  who  take  part  in  its  work  it  is  obvious  that  its  intellectual 
freedom  is  absolutely  unrestrained,  and  that,  subject  to  such 
mistakes  as  no  human  institution  can  claim  exemption  from,  its 
impartiality  and  independence  of  judgment  are  absolutely  un- 
fettered. This  arises  from  the  fact  that  it  is  a  picked  body  of 
men  of  the  most  diverse  mental  attitudes,  who  owe  their  asso- 
ciation to  nothing  but  their  own  exertions,  and  who  are  in  the 
habit  of  expressing  themselves  with  the  utmost  frankness  on 
subjects  of  common  interest  discussed  amongst  themselves. 

With  the  general  body  of  Fellows  the  Council,  from  the 
rapidity  with  which  it  is  changed,  is  in  constant  touch.  It  is  no 
great  assumption,  then,  to  conclude  that  the  Council  when  it 
speaks  will  have  behind  it  the  approval  of  the  Fellows — that  is, 
in  point  of  fact,  the  sanction  of  the  general  scientific  opinion  of 
the  Empire. 

Now,  the  President  of  the  Royal  Society,  when  he  speaks 
ofificially,  is  something  more  than  the  President  of  a  learned 
^Society  :  he  is  virtually  the   Speaker  of  the  English  scientific 


world.  This  being  so,  his  position  appears  to  me  to  he  no  small 
one.  It  is  one  which  in  emergencies  may  become  of  paramount 
importance.  And  it  is  this  view  of  his  position  which  disposes 
me  to  think  that  it  is  desirable  that  the  occupant  of  such  a  post 
should  be  politically  unfettered.  I  apprehend  that  this  view  is 
shared  by  Prof.  Balfour  Stewart  when  he  says  :  "  I  grant  freely 
that  under  ordinary  circumstances  it  is  undesirable  that  the 
President  of  the  Royal  Society  should  enter  the  House  of 
Commons."     And  it  is  not  difficult  to  see  why  it  is  undesirable. 

Successive  Governments,  as  is  well  known,  are  in  the  habit  of 
consulting  the  Royal  Society  on  scientific  questions,  the  solution 
of  which  may  possibly  influence  or  determine  a  public  policy. 
To  such  appeals  the  Royal  Society  has  hitherto  replied  to  the 
best  of  its  ability  without  fear  or  favour.  Will  it  always  have 
the  same  freedom  when  its  President  is  amenable  to  party  dis- 
cipline ?  It  is  only  necessary  to  point  to  the  last  session  of  Par- 
liament to  see  that  there  were  many  occasions  when  the  position 
of  the  President  on  the  Government  benches  would  have  been  a 
not  wholly  pleasant  one.  Much  bebadgered  Ministers  would 
perhaps  have  come  up  to  him  and  have  said.  You  must  really 
make  some  concession,  and  the  man  would  be  made  of  iron  who 
would  not  sometimes  yield.  Then,  having  been  squeezed  him- 
self, he  would  return  to  his  Council  with  :— "  In  the  House  of 
Commons  the  other  night  a  very  strong  opinion  was  expressed 
to  me,"  &c.,  and  the  process  of  squeezing  would  be  transferred 
to  the  Council.  It  is  no  use  saying  that  these  things  would  not 
happen  ;  because  everyone  knows  that  in  actual  political  life 
they  do.  If  the  President  descends  from  the  dignified  reserve 
which  hedges  him  in  at  Burlington  House,  he  will  have  to  take 
his  chance  with  the  disabilities  of  the  ordinary  Parliamentary 
rank  and  file. 

I  cannot  therefore  resist  the  conclusion  that  a  President  of 
the  Royal  Society  owes  it  to  himself  and  to  his  position  to  hold 
aloof  from  all  influences  that  would  impair  his  freedom,  and,  as 
a  consequence,  that  of  the  Society.  His  position  is  one  of  the 
few  in  the  country  which  is  unique  not  merely  from  its  absolute 
indejiendence  of  external  public  influence,  but  from  the  sanction 
which  is  given  to  the  action  of  its  occupant  by  internal  support. 
The  impossibility  of  allowing  the  Judges  to  sit  in  the  House  of 
Commons  is,  I  suppose,  apparent  to  everyone,  and,  in  my  view, 
every  disability  in  that  respect  which  attaches  to  them  attaches 
with  equal  force  to  the  President. 

I  wiH  only  trespass  on  your  space  with  two  further  obser- 
vations. 

Prof.  Balfour  Stewart's  last  argument  is,  of  course,  purely 
political,  and,  being  so,  appears  to  me  to  be  the  one  thing  needed 
to  demonstrate  the  unadvisability  of  any  exception  to  the 
general  principle  to  which  he  adheres.  He  says  that  the  Presi- 
dent "  has  chosen  to  be  an  Englishman  first  and  a  man  of 
science  afterwards."  Yes.  But — and  I  trust  that  no  shade  of 
impropriety  may  be  thought  to  attach  to  the  argument — would 
he  have  been  as  equally  acquiescent  had  the  President  chosen 
the  political  rtle  of  Irishman  as  his  first  duty  ? 

Lastly,  Prof.  Williamson  remarks  that  our  President  cannot 
"  be  supposed  to  have  entered  the  House  as  the  political  repre- 
sentative of  the  Koyal  Society."  But  unfortunately  he  cannot 
help  himself.  He  cannot  sirik  his  official  status.  The  House  of 
Commons  will  take  note  of  it  just  as  it  does  of  that  of  the  Lord 
Mayor  and  of  the  Chairman  of  the  Metropolitan  Board  of 
Works,  who  do  not  sit  in  Parliament  by  virtue  of  their  official 
positions.  Yet,  being  there,  they  are  liable  to  interpellations 
with  respect  to  the  business  of  the  bodies  over  which  they 
preside.  I  do  not  see  why  the  President  of  the  Royal  Society 
should  expect  immunity  from  the  same  discipline,  and  the  result, 
it  is  easy  to  see,  might  be  extremely  embarrassing  to  the  Royal 
Society,  which  has  other,  and  in  my  opinion  more  constitutional, 
modes  of  communicating  with  the  Government,  and,  if  need  be, 
with  Parliament. 


I04 


NATURE 


{Dec.  I,  1887 


I  say  these  things  not  because  I  like  saying  them,  but  because, 
feeling  as  I  do,  I  do  not  think  I  ought  to  abstain  from  saying 
them.  No  one  has  a  higher  admiration  for  our  President  than  I 
have,  and  no  one  would  less  willingly  utter  a  syllable  that  would 
give  him  pain.  I  rejoice  in  one  aspect  of  the  case,  that  the 
University  of  Cambridge  has  crowned  a  great  scientific  career 
by  a  signal  honour.  But  I  cannot  but  feel  that  the  authority 
and  position  of  the  Presidency  of  the  Royal  Society  belong  to  a 
sphere  of  action  infinitely  above  the  conflict  of  parties,  and  that 
they  will  run  a  serious  risk  of  impairment  when  the  honoured 
name  of  its  occupant  appears  for  the  first  time  in  modern 
scientific  history  in  the  lists  of  a  party  division. 

W.  T.  Thiselton  Dyer. 

Royal  Gardens,  Kew,  November  26,  1887. 


As  a  Fellow  of  the  Royal  Society  who  has  sat  for  many  years 
continuously  in  the  House  of  Commons,  I  have  read  with  much 
interest  your  article  on  the  above  subject,  which,  from  a  Royal 
Society  point  of  view  (but  not  in  any  sense  from  a  Parliamentary 
stand-point)  is  one  of  very  great  importance.  No  reasonable 
person  would  for  a  moment  object,  I  presume,  to  Prof.  Stokes 
entering  Parliament  as  a  politician,  if  he  be  one,  provided  he  be 
very  careful  to  doff  at  the  door  of  the  House  of  Parliament  every 
vestige  of  Royal  Society  representation,  and  appear  there  as  a 
private  politician  to  be  taken  for  just  what  he  is  worth  in  that 
capacity,  and  no  more.  Do  not  let  me  be  misunderstood  :  as  a 
man  of  science  he  will,  even  in  the  House  of  Commons,  receive 
the  personal  consideration  due  to  his  distinguished  personal 
attainments  ;  and  few  public  assemblies  are  more  ready  than  that 
House  to  give  the  full  value  to  personal  qualities  and  achieve- 
ments. But  the  President  of  the  Royal  Society  will  put  that 
distinguished  body,  no  less  than  himself,  in  a  thoroughly  false 
position  if  he  presumes  to  utter  there  a  single  sentence  in  its 
name.  Should  I  be  present — and  the  same  may  be  said,  I  trust, 
of  other  Fellows — I  shall  not  hesitate  to  rise  instantly  and  dis- 
claim his  pretensions,  and  declare  that  he  has  no  more  authority 
than  one  of  the  doorkeepers  to  speak  in  a  political  assembly  in 
the  name  of  the  Society  over  which  in  a  purely  scientific  capacity 
he  presides. 

Having  a  most  careful  regard  to  the  purity  of  your  columns 
in  respect  of  everything  merely  political,  I  find  it  very  difficult 
to  say  much  of  what  I  think  and  feel  on  this  question  ;  but  when 
I  consider  the  depths  to  which  a  certain  ex-Professor  has 
descended  since  he  seated  himself  upon  the  steep  and  slippery 
slope  of  politics,  I  must  very  earnestly  deprecate  any  similar 
proceeding  on  the  part  of  the  highest  officer  of  the  Royal 
Society,  in  that  capacity.  In  the  political  arena,  I  fear,  we  are 
on  both  sides  daily  getting  a  lower  and  lower  opinion  of  our 
opponents,  and  I  must  confess  that  it  is  rapidly  becoming  hard 
to  reconcile  with  the  scientific  spirit  the  rancorous  abuse  and 
unreasoning  misrepresentation  with  which  we  are  now  too 
familiar. 

But  I  must  not  be  drawn  into  either  polemics  or  personality. 
I  must  content  myself  with  saying,  that,  if  Conservatives  think 
meanly  of  Liberal  politicians  just  now,  their  sentiment  is 
thoroughly  reciprocated,  and  probably  more  than  reciprocated, 
by  those  who,  like  myself,  believe  we  have  at  heart  the  true 
greatness,  the  lasting  tranquillity  and  the  intellectual  and  social 
progress  of  the  country.  For  Heaven's  sake  let  us  keep  the 
Royal  Society,  if  not  above,  at  least  most  distinctly  apart  from, 
all  political  contentions  ;  and,  in  order  that  we  may  do  this,  let 
its  President,  who  has  now  become  a  professed  party  politician, 
either  vacate  the  chair,  or  make  it  absolutely  clear  that  on  the 
floor  of  Parliament  he  will  not  presume  to  speak  with  any  kind 
or  degree  of  authority  in  the  name  of  the  Society. 

I  have  no  idea,  Sir,  of  your  political  views,  but  I  appreciate 


your  desire  to  keep  the  Royal  Society  politically  neutral — aye, 
politically  non-existent — and  I  hope  your  timely  and  courageous 
warning  will  not  have  been  given  in  vain. 

I  have  no  care  to  conceal  my  name,    but    the    end  in  view 
may  be  best  promoted,  perhaps,  by  my  merely  signing  myself, 

F.R.S.  andM.P. 

Library  of  House  of  Commons,  November  21. 


The  Vitreous  State  of  Water, 

To-day,  between  2  and»3  p.m.,  with  the  barometer  standing 
at  29  inches,  the  thermometer  a  little  below  0°  C,  and  the  wind 
north-east,  we  had  for  the  space  of  about  twenty  minutes  an 
interesting  fall  of  hail  in  this  neighbourhood.  The  stones  varied 
in  size  from  that  of  a  mustard-seed  to  that  of  a  hemp-seed  or 
thereabouts.  Some  rain  accompanied  them,  and  this  became 
frozen  in  part  on  cold  exposed  surfaces.  The  stone  sill  of  my 
study  window,  which  faces  nearly  north-west,  was  soon  covered 
in  this  way  with  a  thin  pellicle  of  ice,  which  served  as  a  con- 
venient resting-place  for  the  hailstones  at  a  low  temperature.  I 
was  struck  at  once  with  their  glassy  appearance,  and  examined 
a  number  of  them  with  a  pocket  lens  as  they  lay  on  the  cold 
surface  of  the  stone,  not  having  at  hand  any  refrigerating 
arrangem.ent  adjustable  to  the  stage  of  a  microscope.  Nor  was 
the  latter  necessary.  The  lens  showed  most  distinctly  the  clear 
transparency  of  the  glass  of  which  these  hailstones  consisted,  and 
the  vitreous  fracture  of  some  which  had  been  broken  by  impact. 
Watching  them  as  they  lay,  one  saw  minute  nests  of  crystals 
form,  in  some  cases  in  a  peripheral  zone,  extending  gradually 
inwards;  but  in  the  majority  of  instances  the  crystallization 
began  in  the  centre  of  the  ice,  and  gradually  extended  in  a 
beautiful  crystal  growth  more  or  less  through  the  mass. 

There  would  seem  to  be  no  room  left  for  doubt  that  this 
crystal -building  process  (sometimes  in  bands,  sometimes  in 
confused  nests  of  crystals)  was  a  simple  case  of  devitrification — 
as  distinct  a  case,  one  may  almost  say,  as  the  well-known  devi- 
trification on  a  larger  scale  which  is  clearly  exhibited  by  some 
glassy  slags.  The  fact  of  lying  on  a  surface  below  0°  C,  and 
undergoing  devitrification  instead  of  liquefaction,  seems  to  lend 
direct  support  to  the  theory  of  latent  heat  of  the  vitreous  state, 
which  I  have  ventured  elsewhere  to  propound  (see  Nature, 
vol.  xxxvi.  p.  77). 

I  may  add  that  last  July,  in  a  much  heavier  hailstorm  in  the 
Trent  Valley,  I  noticed  a  very  great  number  of  hailstones,  many 
of  them  as  large  as  a  moderate-sized  hazel-nut,  and  peg-toi> 
shaped,  with  a  zonal  or  banded  structure  thus  : — 


The  layers  or  zones  were  alternately  transparent  and  opaque 
(apparently  crystalline),  but  in  this  case  the  temperature  caused 
them  to  melt  away  without  allowing  a  good  opportunity  for 
observation  of  any  devitrification  of  the  glassy  portions.  To-day 
Nature  has  performed  the  experiment  suggested  in  my  previous 
letter,  and  the  result  is  found  to  accord  with  the  theory. 

A.  Irving. 
Wellington  College,  Berks,  November  18. 


The  Bagshot  Beds, 

It  may  interest  some  of  your  readers  to  know  that  I  recently 
obtained  some  casts  of  fossils  from  the  Bagshot  Sands  of  the 
Newbury  district,  from  which,  with  one  doubtful  exception 
("Survey  Memoir,"  vol.  iv.  p.  330),  they  have  not,  I  believe, 
hitherto  been  recorded.  The  fossils  are  of  the  nature  of  ferru- 
ginous casts,  and  were  found  in  a  sand-pit  about  one-third  of  a 
mile  south-east  of  the  London  lodge  of  Highclere  Park,  mapped 
by  the  Survey  as  Lower  Bagshot,  They  consist  both  of  uni- 
valves and  bivalves,  and  four  or  five  genera  are  represented. 
They  resemble,  both  in  appearance  and  mode  of  occurrence,  the 
fossils  found  in  the  Upper  Bagshot  of  the  Bagshot  district  ;  and 
the  sands  in  which  they  occur  have  a  strong  resemblance  to  the 


Dec.  I,  1887] 


NATURE 


105 


sands  of  that  division.  To  whatever  division,  however,  of  the 
Hagshots  these  beds  may  be  assigned  eventvially,  the  occurrence 
of  fossils  in  them  is,  I  think,  worthy  of  record. 

53  Warwick  Square,  November  25.  R.  S.  Herries. 


The  Ffynnon  Beuno  and  Cae  Gwyn  Caves. 

Since  writing  my  note,  as  published  in  Nature  of  Novem- 
ber 3,  p.  7,  I  have  paid  another  vi^it  to  the  British  Museum, 
and  seen  a  second  implement  from  the  Denbighshire  caves, 
presented  by  Dr.  Hicks  and  Mr.  Luxmore.  It  is  a  small 
and  highly-finished  scraper,  exactly  agreeing  with  the  Neolithic 
scrapers  of  Icklmgham  and  Mildenhall,  and  with  small  scrapers 
found  in  caves  of  confessedly  very  late  da'e.  This  scraper  is 
quite  sufficient  to  condemn  any  pre-Glacial  theory,  and  it  en- 
ables me  to  emphasize  my  former  remark  that  the  cave  contents, 
instead  of  belonging  to  the  earliest  Palaeolithic  class,  belong  to 
the  very  litest.  I  do  not  believe  that  a  similar  scraper  has  ever 
been  found  in  any  really  old,  or  even  moderately  old,  Pahrolithic 
river  gravel.  Such  scrapers  were  only  made  in  the  most  recent 
of  Palaeolithic  times. 

Mr.  G.  H.  Morton  is  not  justified  in  his  remark  (Nov.  10,  p.  32) 
that  my  former  letter  afforded  "  a  remarkable  instance  of  rushing 
into  print  and  giving  ai  opinion  on  a  subject  with  which  the 
writer  was  unacquainted,"  for  I  have  studied  the  drifts  of  Wales 
for  twenty  years,  and  during  that  time  I  have  never  failed  to  make 
one  or  two  visits  a  year  to  Wales.  I  have  also  examined  nearly 
every  cave  in  North  and  South  Wales,  and  handled  the  shovel 
and  pickaxe  myself.  From  the  experience  I  have  obtained 
during  this  time,  I  say  the  drift  in  front  of  the  Denbighshire 
caves  is  not  in  its  oris^inal  position,  but  distinctly  and  obviously 
relaid ;  and  I  even  doubt  whether  before  it  was  relaid  it  was 
a  true  Glacial  gravel  at  all. 

I  will  "read  up  the  literature  of  the  subject"  if  I  get  time  : 
in  the  meantime  there  is  no  great  harm  done  in  expressing  an 
opinion  from  a  study  of  some  of  the  real  objects,  even  if  that 
opinion  is  "  not  worth  anything"  and  "of  no  consequence,"  as 
Mr.  Morton  concludes.  WorthIxN'GTON  G.  Smith. 


Meteor. 

On  Tuesday  night,  November  15,  a  wonderfully  fine  meteor 
was  seen  at  Falmouth,  and  being  out  star-gazing  at  the  time,  I  was 
fortunate  enough  to  see  it.  I  was  looking  towards  that  part  of 
the  Milky  Way  between  Auriga,  Perseus,  and  Cassiopeia,  when 
suddenly  a  curved  train  of  light  flashed  out ;  but,  instead  of  just 
going  away,  it  remained  visible  for  quite  eight  seconds  ;  mean- 
while the  lower  extremity  burst  into  a  brilliant  mauve  "cone"  of 
light,  about  a  quarter  the  size  of  the  full  moon.  So  bright  was 
it  that  it  lit  up  the  roadway,  quite  overpowering  the  lamps. 

It  was  a  grand  sight,  and  I  sincerely  hope  other  eyes  than 
mine  saw  it.  B.  Truscott. 

4  Alma  Crescent,  Falmouth. 


MODERN  VIEWS  OF  ELECTRICITY.^ 
Part  III. — Magnetism. 

V. 

"\17'E  next  proceed  to  consider  electricity  in  a  state  of 
**  rotation.  What  happens  if  we  make  a  whirlpool 
of  electricity  1  Coil  up  a  wire  conveying  a  current,  and 
try.  The  result  is  it  behaves  like  a  magnet :  compass- 
needles  near  it  are  affected,  steel  put  near  it  gets  mag- 
netized, and  iron  nails  or  filings  get  attracted  by  it — 
sucked  up  into  it  if  the  current  be  strong  enough.  In 
short,  it  is  a  magnet.  Not  of  course  a  permanent  one, 
but  a  tempora'-y  one,  lasting  as  long  as  the  current  flows. 
It  is  thus  suggested  that  magnetism  may  perhaps  be 
simply  electricity  in  rotation.  Let  us  work  out  this  idea 
more  fully. 

First  of  all,  one  may  notice  that  everything  that  can 
be  done  with  a  permanent  magnet  can  be  imitated  by 
a  coiled  wire  conveying  a  current.  (It  would  not  do 
altogether  to  make  the  converse  statement.)     Float  a  coil 

'  This  Part  is  an  expansion  of  a  lecture  delivered  at  the  London  Institution 
on  January  5, 1885.    Continued  from  p.  13. 


attached  to  a  battery  vertically  on  water,  and  you  have  a 
compass-needle  :  it  sets  itself  with  its  axis  north  and 
south.  Suspend  two  coils,  and  they  will  attract  or  repel 
or  turn  each  other  round  just  like  two  magnets. 

As  long  as  one  only  considers  the  action  of  a  coil  at 
some  distance  from  itself,  there  is  no  need  to  trouble 
about  the  shape  of  the  particular  magnet  which  it  most 
closely  simulates  ;  but  as  soon  as  one  begins  to  consider 
the  action  of  a  coil  on  things  close  to  it,  it  is  necessary  to 
specify  the  shape  of  the  corresponding  magnet. 

If  the  coil  be  a  long  cylindrical  helix  like  a  close-spired 
corkscrew,  as  in  Fig.  16,  it  behaves  like  a  cylindrical 
magnet  filling  the  same  space.  But  if  the  coil  be  a  short 
wide  hank,  like  a  curtain-ring,  it  behaves  again  like  a 
cylindrical  magnet,  but  one  so  short  that  it  is  more  easily 
thought  of  as  a  disk.  A  disk  or  plate  of  steel  magnetized 
with  one  face  all  north  and  the  other  face  all  south  can 
be  cut  to  imitate  any  thin  hank  of  wire  conveying  a 
current.  It  will  be  round  if  the  coil  be  round,  square  if 
it  be  square,  and  irregular  in  outline  if  the  coil  be 
irregular. 

There  is  no  need  for  the  coil  to  have  a  great  number  of 
turns  of  wire  except  to  increase  its  power  :  one  is  suf- 
ficient, and  it  may  be  of  any  shape  or  size.  So  when  we 
come  to  remember  that  every  current  of  electricity  must 
necessarily  flow  in  a  closed  circuit,  one  perceives  that 
every  current  of  electricity  is  virtually  a  coil  of  more  or 


Fig.  16. — Floating  b.ittery  and  helix  acting  as  a  coTipass-needle. 

less  fantastic  shape,  and  accordingly  imitates  some  magnet 
or  other  which  can  be  specified.  Thus  we  learn  that 
every  current  of  electricity  must  exhibit  magnetic  phe- 
nomena :  the  two  are  inseparable — a  very  1  important 
truth. 

There  is  one  detail  in  which  the  magnetized  [disk  and 
the  coil  are  not  equivalent,  and  the  advantage  lies  on  the 
side  of  the  coil  :  it  has  a  property  beyond  that  possessed 
by  any  ordinary  magnet.  It  has  a  penetrable  interior, 
which  the  magnet  has  not.  For  space  outside  both,  they 
simulate  each  other  exactly  ;  for  space  inside  either,  they 
behave  differently.  The  coil  can  be  made  to  do  all  that 
the  magnet  can  do ;  but  the  magnet  cannot  in  every 
respect  imitate  and  replace  the  coil  :  else  would  perpetual 
motion  be  an  every-day  occurrence. 

Now  I  want  to  illustrate  and  bring  home  forcibly  the 
fact  that  there  is  something  rotatory  about  magnetism — 
something  in  its  nature  which  makes  rotation  an  easy 
and  natural  effect  to  obtain  if  one  goes  about  it  properly. 
One  will  not  observe  this  by  taking  two  magnets  :  one 
will  see  it  better  by  taking  a  current  and  a  magnet,  and 
studying  their  mutual  action. 

A  magnet  involves,  as  you  know,  two  poles — a  north 
and  a  south  pole— of  precisely  opposite  properties  :  it 
may  be  considered  as  composed  of  these  two  poles  for 
many  purposes  ;  and  the  action  of  a  current  on  a  magnet 
may  be  discussed  as  compounded  of  its  action  on  each 
pole  separately.  Now  how  does  a  current  act  on  a 
magnetic  pole  t  Two  currents  attract  or  repel  each 
other ;  two  poles  attract  or  repel  each  other  ;  but  a 
current  and  a  pole  exert  a  mutual  force  which  is  neither 
attraction  nor  repulsion  :  it  is  a  rotatory  force.  They  tend 
neither  to  approach  nor  to  recede  ;  they  tend  to  revolve 


io6 


NA  TURE 


[Dec.  I,  1887 


round  each  other.  A  singular  action  this,  and  at  first 
sight  unique.  All  ordinary  actions  and  reactions  between 
two  bodies  take  place  in  the  line  joining  them  :  the  forces 
acting  between  a  current  and  a  pole  act  exactly  at  right 
angles  to  the  line  joining  them. 

Helmholtz  long  ago  (in  1847)  showed  that  the  conserva- 
tion of  energy  could  only  be  true  if  forces  between  bodies 
varied  in  some  way  with  distance  and  acted  in  the  line 
joining  them.  Now  here  is  a  case  where  the  forces  are 
not  in  the  line  joining  the  bodies,  and  accordingly  the 
conservation  of  energy  is  defied :  the  two  things  will 
revolve  round  each  other  for  ever.  This  affords  and  has 
afforded  a  fine  field  for  the  perpetual  motionist  ;  and  if 
only  the  current  would  rnaintain  itself  without  sustaining 
power,  a  perpetual  motion  would  in  fact  be  attained. 
But  this  after  all  is  scarcely  remarkable,  for  the  same 
may  be  said  of  a  sewing-machine  or  any  other  piece  of 
mechanism  :  if  only  it  would  continue  to  go  without 
sustaining  power  it  would  be  a  perpetual  motion.  Attend 
to  pole  and  current  only,  and  the  energy  is  not  conserved, 
it  is  perpetually  being  wasted  ;  but  include  the  battery  as 
an  essential  part  of  the  complete  system,  and  the  mystery 
disappears  :  everything  is  perfectly  regular. 


Fig.  17. — A  long   flexible  conductor  twisting  itself  into  a  spiral  round  a 
powerful  bar-magnet. 

The  easiest  way  perhaps  of  showing  the  rotation  of  a 
conductor  conveying  a  current  round  a  magnetic  pole  is 
to  take  an  8-feet-long  piece  of  gold  thread,  such  as  mili- 
tary officers  stitch  upon  their  garments,  and  hanging  it 
vertically  supply  it  with  as  strong  a  current  as  it  will 
stand.  Then  bring  near  it  a  vertical  bar-magnet,  and 
instantly  you  will  see  the  thread  coil  itself  into  a  spiral, 
half  of  it  twisting  round  the  north  end  of  the  bar,  and  half 
twisting  the  other  way  round  the  south  end  (Fig.  17). 

If  the  magnet  were  flexible  and  the  conductor  rigid,  the 
magnet  would  in  like  manner  coil  itself  in  a  spiral  round 
the  current :  the  force  is  strictly  mutual.  A  rigid  magnet 
put  near  a  stiff  conductor  shows  only  the  last  remnants  of 
this  action  :  it  sets  itself  at  right  angles  to  the  wire,  and 
approaches  its  middle  to  touch  it,  but  that  is  all  it 
can  do. 

The  experiment  with  the  flexible  gold  thread  is  simple, 
satisfactory,  and  striking,  but  the  rotatory  properties  con- 
nected with  a  magnet  may  be  illustrated  in  numbers  of 
other  ways.  Thus,  pivot  a  disk  at  its  centre,  and  arrange 
some  light  contact  to  touch  its  edge,  either  at  one  point 


or  all  round,  it  matters  not ;  then  supply  a  current  to  disk 
from  centre  to  circumference,  and  bringing  a  bar-magnet 
near  it  along  its  axis,  or,  better,  two  bar-magnets,  with 


Fig.  18. — Pivoted  disk  with  radial  current,  revolving  in  a  magnetic  field 
and  winding  up  a  weight.  The  current  is  supplied  to  the  axle  by  screw 
A,  and  leaves  the  rim  by  mercury  trough  M.  The  same  apparatus 
obviously  serves  to  demonstrate  currents  induced  by  motion ;  both 
directly  and  by  the  damping  effect. 

opposite  poles  one  on  each  side,  near  the  contact  place 
of  the  rim,  the  disk  at  once  begins  to  rotate  (Figs.  18 
and  19). 


Fig.  19. — Another  pivoted  disk  with  flange  to  dip  into  liquid  so  as  to  make 
contact  all  round  its  rim.  It  rotates  when  a  magnet  is  brought  above  or 
below ;  or  even  in  the  field  of  the  earth. 

Instead  of  a  disk  one  may  use  a  single  radius  of  it,  viz. 
a  pivoted  arm  (Fig.  20)  dipping  into  a  circular  trough  of 
mercury  ;  or  we  may  use  a  light  sphere  rolling  on  two 


Fig.  20. — A  couple  of  radii  of  the  above  disTc  provided  with  points  to  dip 
into  mercury,  and  rotating  constantly  under  the  influence  of  the  sttel 
magnet  a. 

concentric  circular  lines  of  railway  (Gore's  arrangement. 
Fig.  21).  In  every  case  rotation  laegins  as  soon  as  a 
magnet  is  brought  near. 


Dec.  I,  1887] 


NATURE 


107 


Nor  is  the  revolving  action  confined  to  metallic  con- 
ductors and  to  true  conduction.  Liquids  and  gases, 
although   they  convey  electricity  by  something    of    the 


.^^ 


Fig.  21.— Gore  s  circular  railway.  The  light  spherical  metal  ball  revolves 
round  the  two  concentric  metal  hoops  or  rails  whenever  it  is  made  to 
convey  a  current  between  them  in  a  vertical  magnetic  field. 

nature  of  convection,  are  susceptible  to  rotation    in    a 
precisely  similar  manner. 


Fig.  22. — Rotation  of  a  liquid  disk  conveying  a  radial  current  in  a  vertical 
magnetic  field. 

To  show  the  rotation  of  liquid  conductors  under  the 
influence  of  a  magnet,  take  a  circular  shallow  trough  of 


Fig.  23. — A  falling  stream  of  liquid  conveying  a  current  between  two  mag- 
netic poles,  and  being  thereby  twisted  into  a  spiral.  (Copied  from  a 
paper  in  Phil.  Mag.  by  Dr.  Silvanus  Thompson). 

liquid,  supply  it  with  electrodes  at  centre  and  circumfer- 
ence, and  put  the  pole  of  a  magnet  below  it.  The  liquid 
at   once  begins  to  rotate,  and  by  using  a  magnet  and 


cunent  of  fair  strength,  can  easily  be  made  to  whirl  so 
fast  as  to  fly  over  the  edge  of  the  trough  (Fig.  22).  The 
experiment  is  plainly  the  same  as  Fig.  19,  except  that  a 
liquid  disk  is  used  in  place  of  a  solid  one.  Or,  again,  it 
may  be  considered  the  same  as  Fig.  20.  Reverse  the 
magnet,  and  the  rotation  is  rapidly  reversed. 

Another  method  is  to  send  a  current  along  a  jet  of 
mercury  near  a  magnet  and  note  the  behaviour  of  the  jet. 
It  twists  itself  into  a  flat  spiral  as  shown  in  Fig.  23. 


Fig.  24.- 


-Induction  coil  discharge  from  a  to  ^  through  rarefied  gas,  rotating 
round  a  glass-protected  magnetized  iron  rod. 


The  rotation  of  a  gas  discharge  is  most  commonly 
illustrated  by  an  arrangement  like  Fig.  24,  where  the 
terminals  of  the  induction  coil  are  connected  to  the 
rarefied  gas  respectively  above  one  pole  and  round  the 
middle  of  a  magnetized  bar.  If  the  discharge  can  be  got 
to  concentrate  itself  principally  down  one  side,  the  line  of 
light  so  formed  is  seen  to  revolve. 

Action  between  a  Magnet  and  an  Electric  Charge  in 
Relative  Motion. 

From  all  this  it  is  not  to  be  doubted  that  a  charged 
pith  ball  moving  in  the  neighbourhood  of  a  magnet  is 
subject  to  the  same  action.  There  is  no  known  action 
between  a  magnet  and  a  stationary  charged  body,  but 
directly  either  begins  to  move  there  is  an  action  between 
them  tending  to  cause  one  to  rotate  round  the  other.  It 
is  true  that  for  ordinary  speeds  of  motion  this  force  is 
extremely  small  ;  but  still  it  is  not  to  be  doubted  that  if  a 
shower  of  charged  pith  balls  or  Lycopodium  granules  are 
dropped  on  to  a  magnet  pole,  they  will  fall,  not  perfectly 
straight,  but  slightly  corkscrew  fashion.  And  again,  if  a 
set  of  charged  particles  were  projected  horizontally  and 
radially  from  the  top  of  a  magnet,  their  paths  would 
revolve  like  the  beams  of  a  lighthouse.  And  if  by  any 
means  their  paths  were  kept  straight,  or  deflected  the 
other  way,  they  wolild  exert  on  the  magnet  an  infinitesimal 
"couple,"  tending  to  make  it  spin  on  its  own  axis. 

Conversely,  if  a  magnet  were  spun  on  its  axis  rapidly 
by  mechanical  means,  there  is  very  little  doubt  but  that 
it  would  act  on  charged  bodies  in  its  neighbourhood, 
tending  to  make  them  move  radially  either  to  or  from  it. 
This,  however,  is  an  experiment  that  ought  to  be  tried  ; 
and  the  easiest  way  of  trying  it  would  be  to  suspend  a 
sort  of  electrometer  needle,  electrified  positive  at  one  end 
and  negative  at  the  other,  near  the  spinning  magnet,  and 
to  look  for  a  trace  of  deflection— to  be  reversed  when  the 
spin  is  reversed.  A  magnet  of  varying  strength  might  be 
easier  to  try  than  a  spinning  one. 


loS 


NATURE 


[Dec.  I,  1887 


Rotation  of  a  Magnet  by  a  Current. 
The   easiest   way   to   show   the   actual  rotation   of  a 
magnet  is  to  send  a  current  half  way  along  it  and  back 


Fig.  2=;— Round  bright  steel  bar-magnet  pivoted  at  its  ends,  spinning 
rapidly  on  its  axis  under  the  influence  of  a  current  supplied  to  either  the 
bottom  or  top  pivot,  or  both,  and  removed  near  the  middle  by  a  scrap  of 
tinfoil  lightly  touching  it. 

outside.  Thus,  take  a  small,  round,  polished  steel  bar- 
magnet  with  pointed  ends,  pivot  it  vertically,  and  touch 
it  steadily  with  two  flakes  or  light  pads  of  tin-foil,  one 


Fig.  26. — Another  mode  of  exhibiting  the  same  thing  as  Fig.  25.   The  magnet 
is  loaded  so  as  to  float  upright  in  mercury. 

near  either  end  and  one  near  the  middle ;  supply  a 
current  by  these  contact  pieces,  and  the  magnet  spins 
with  great  rapidity.     Reverse  the  current,  and  it  rotates 


Fig.  27. — The  converse  of  Fig.  25.  Spinning  the  magnet  mechanically  give 
a  current  between  two  springs,  cne  touching  it  near  or  beyond  eithe 
end,  the  other  touching  it  near  middle. 

the  other  way.  Conversely,  by  producing  the  rotation 
mechanically  a  current  will  be  excited  in  a  wire  joining 
the  two  pieces  of  tin-foil  (Figs.  25,  26,  and  27). 


Many  more  variations  of  the  experiment  could  be 
shown,  but  these  are  typical  ones,  and  will  suffice.  They 
all  call  attention  to  the  fact  that,  a  magnet,  considered 
electrically,  is  a  rotatory  phenomenon. 


Ampere's  Theory. 

The  idea  that  magnetism  was  nothing  more  nor  less 
than  a  whirl  of  electricity  is  no  new  one — it  is  as  old  as 
Ampere.  Perceiving  that  a  magnet  could  be  imitated  by 
an  electric  whirl,  he  made  the  hypothesis  that  an  electric 
whirl  existed  in  every  magnet  and  was  the  cause  of  its 
properties.  Not  of  course  that  a  steel  magnet  contains 
an  electric  current  circulating  round  and  round  it,  as  an 
electro-magnet  has  :  nothing  is  more  certain  than  the 
fact  that  a  magnet  is  not  magnetized  as  a  whole,  but  that 
each  particle  of  it  is  magnetized,  and  that  the  actual 
magnet  is  merely  an  assemblage  of  polarized  particles. 
The  old  and  familiar  experiment  of  breaking  a  magnet 
into  pieces  proves  this.  Each  particle  or  molecule  of  the 
bar  must  have  its  circulating  electric  current,  and  then 
the  properties  of  the  whole  are  explained. 

There  is  only  one  little  difficulty  which  suggests  itself 
in  Ampere's  theory — How  are  these  molecular  currents 
maintained .''  Long  ago  a  similar  difficulty  was  felt  in 
astronomy — What  maintains  the  motions  of  the  planets  ? 
Spirits,  vortices,  and  other  contrivances  were  invented  to 
keep  them  going. 

But  in  the  light  of  Galileo's  mechanics  the  difficulty 
vanishes.  Things  continue  in  motion  of  themselves 
until  they  are  stopped.  Postulate  no  resistance,  and 
motion  is  essentially  perpetual. 

What  stops  an  ordinary  current  1  Resistance.  Start 
a  current  in  a  curtain  ring,  by  any  means,  and  leave  it 
alone.  It  will  run  its  energy  down  into  heat  in  the  space 
of  half  a  second  or  so.  But  if  the  metal  conducted  in- 
finitely well  there  would  be  no  such  dissipation  of  energy, 
and  the  current  would  be  permanent. 

In  a  metal  rod,  electricity  has  to  pass  from  atom  to 
atom,  and  it  meets  with  resistance  in  so  doing  ;  but  who 
is  to  say  that  the  atoms  themselves  do  not  conduct  per- 
fectly ?  They  are  known  to  have  various  infinite  proper- 
ties already :  they  are  infinitely  elastic,  for  instance. 
Pack  up  a  box  of  gas  in  cotton-wool  for  a  century,  and 
see  whether  it  has  got  any  cooler.  The  experiment,  if 
practicable,  should  be  tried  ;  but  our  present  experience 
warrants  us  in  assuming  no  loss  of  motion  among  the 
colliding  atoms  until  the  contrary  has  been  definitely 
proved  by  experiment.  To  all  intents  and  purposes 
certainly  atoms  are  infinitely  elastic :  why  should  they 
not  also  be  infinitely  conducting  .-^  Why  should  dissipa- 
tion of  energy  occur  in  respect  of  an  electric  current 
circulating  wholly  inside  an  atom  ?  There  is  no  known 
reason  why  it  should.  There  are  many  analogies  against 
it. 

How  did  these  currents  originate .''  We  may  as  well 
ask.  How  did  any  of  their,  properties  originate  "i  How 
did  their  motion  originate  ?  These  questions  are  un- 
answerable. Suffice  it  for  us,  there  they  are.  The  atoms 
of  a  particular  substance — iron  for  instance,  or  zinc — 
have  an  electric  whirl  of  certain  strength  circulating  in 
them  as  one  of  their  specific  physical  properties. 

This  much  is  certain,  that  the  Amperian  currents  are 
not  producible  by  magnetic  experiments.  When  a  piece 
of  steel  or  iron  is  magnetized,  the  act  of  magnetization  is 
not  an  excitation  of  Amperian  current  in  each  molecule 
— is  not  in  any  sense  a  magnetization  of  each  molecule. 
The  molecules  were  all  fully  magnetized  to  begin  with  : 
the  act  of  magnetization  consists  merely  in  facing  them 
round  so  as  to  look  mainly  one  way — in  polarizing  them, 
in  fact.  This  was  proved  by  Beetz  long  ago  ;  I  will  not 
stop  to  explain  it  further,  but  v/ill  refer  students  to 
Maxwell. 


Dec.  I,  1887] 


NATURE 


109 


Ampere's  Theory  extended  by  Weber  to  explain 
Diamagnetistn  also. 

Let  us  see  how  far  we  have  got.  We  have  made  the 
following  assertions  : — 

(i)  That  a  magnet  consists  of  an  assemblage  of  polar- 
ized molecules. 

(2)  That  these  molecules  are  each  of  them  permanent 
magnets,  whether  the  substance  be  in  its  ordinary  or  in 
its  magnetized  condition,  and  that  the  act  of  magnetiza- 
tion consists  in  turning  them  round  so  as  to  face  more  or 
less  one  way. 

(3)  That  when  all  the  molecules  are  faced  in  the 
same  direction  the  substance  is  magnetically  completely 
saturated. 

(4)  That  if  each  molecule  of  a  definite  substance  con- 
tains an  electric  current  of  definite  strength  circulating 
in  a  channel  of  infinite  conductivity  the  magnetic  beha- 
viour of  the  substance  is  completely  explained. 

But  now,  supposing  all  this  granted,  how  comes  it  that 
the  molecular  currents  are  not  capable  of  being  generated 
by  magnetic  induction  .?  And  if  we  cannot  excite  them, 
are  we  able  to  vary  their  strength  } 

The  answer  to  these  questions  is  included  in  the  following 
propositions,  which  I  will  now  for  convenience  state,  and 
then  proceed  to  explain  and  justify. 

(5)  If  a  substance  possessing  these  molecular  currents 
be  immersed  in  a  magnetic  field,  all  those  molecules  which 
are  able  to  turn  and  look  along  the  lines  of  force  in  the 
right  direction  will  have  their  currents  weakened  ;  but  on 
withdrawal  from  the  field  they  will  regain  their  normal 
strength. 

(6)  If  the  currents  flowing  in  the  conducting  channels 
be  feeble  or  «//,  the  act  of  immersion  of  the  substance  in 
a  magnetic  field  will  reverse  them  or  excite  opposite  cur- 
rents, which  will  last  so  long  as  the  body  remains  in  the 
field,  but  will  be  destroyed  by  its  removal. 

(7)  The  molecular  currents  so  magnetically  induced  are 
sufficient  to  explain  the  phenomena  of  diamagneiism. 

Let  us  first  just  recall  to  mind  the  well-known  elementary 
facts  of  current  induction.  A  conducting  circuit,  such  as 
a  ring  or  a  coil  of  wire,  suddenly  brought  near  a  current- 
conveying  coil  or  a  magnet,  has  a  momentary  current 
induced  in  it  in  the  opposite  direction  to  the  inducing 
current— in  other  words,  such  as  to  cause  momentary  re- 
pulsion between  the  two.  So  long  as  it  remains  steady, 
nothing  further  happens  ;  but  on  withdrawing  it  another 
rnomentary  current  is  induced  in  it  in  the  contrary  direc- 
tion to  that  first  excited.  The  shortest  way  of  expressing 
the  facts  quite  generally  is  to  say  that  while  from  any 
cause  the  magnetic  field  through  a  conductor  is  increas- 
ing in  strength  a  current  is  excited  in  it  tending  to  drive 
it  out  of  the  field  :  the  disturbance  is  only  temporary,  but 
whenever  the  magnetic  field  decreases  again  to  its  old 
value  a  reverse  flow  of  precisely  the  same  quantity  of 
■electricity  occurs.  Fig.  28  shows  a  mode  of  illustratino- 
the  facts.  A  copper  disk  is  supported  at  the  end  of  a 
torsion  arm  and  brought  close  to  the  face  of  an  unexcited 
bar  electro-magnet.  On  exciting  the  magnet  the  disk  is 
driven  violently  away  :  to  be  sucked  back  again,  however 
whenever  the  magnetism  ceases.  ' 

Now,  why  are  all  these  effects  so  momentary  .?  What 
makes  the  induced  current  cease  so  soon  after  excitation  ? 
Nothing  but  dissipation  of  energy  :  only  the  friction  of 
imperfect  conductivity.  There  is  nothing  to  maintain  the 
current :  it  meets  with  resistance  in  its  flow  through  the 
metal,  and  so  it  soon  stops. 

But  in  a  perfect  conductor  like  a  molecule  no  such  dis- 
sipation would  occur.  Electricity  in  such  a  body  will 
obey  the  first  law  of  motion,  and  continue  to  flow  till 
stopped.  Destroying  the  magnetic  field  will  stop  an 
mduced  molecular  current,  but  nothing  else  will  stop  it. 
Hence  it  follows  that  the  repulsion  experienced  is  no 
transitory  efl"ect  like  that  in  Fig.  28,  but  is  as  permanent 
as  the  magnetic  field  which  excites  and  exhibits  it. 


Thus,  then,  a  body  whose  molecules  are  perfectly  con- 
ductmg,  but  without  specific  current  circulating  in  them, 
will  behave  diamagnetically,  /  e.  will  move  away  from  strong 
parts  of  the  field  towards  weak  ones,  and  thereby  set  its 
length  equatorially,  just  as  bismuth  is  known  to  do. 

Whether  this  be  the  true  explanation  of  diamagnetism 
or  not,  It  is  at  least  a  possible  one.  It  is  known  as  Weber's 
theory. 

It  does  not  necessarily  follow  that  the  specific  molecu- 
lar currents  of  a  diamagnetic  substance  are  really  nil; 
all  that  is  needful  is  that  they  shall  be  weaker  than  those 
induced  by  an  ordinary  magnetic  field.  By  using  an 
extremely  weak  field,  however,  the  specific  currents  need 
not  be  quite  neutralized,  and  in  such  a  field  the  body 
ought  to  behave  as  a  very  feebly  magnetic  substance.  Such 
an  effect  has  been  looked  for  (see  Nature,  vol.  xxxv 
p.  484). 

One  loop-hole  there  is,  however,  viz,  that  every  molecule 
may  be  so  jammed  as  to  be  unable  to  turn  round,  and 
such  a  substance  could  hardly  exhibit  any  noticeable  mag- 
netic properties.  The  molecules  would  have  got  them- 
selves into  a  state  of  minimum  potential  energy,  and  if 
jammed  therein  nothing  could  be  got  out  of  them.  The 
induced  currents  of  diamagnetism  would  be  superposed 


Fig.  28. — Stout  disk  of  copper  supported  on  a  horizontal  arm  near  one  pole 
of  a  bar  electro-magnet.  The  disk  is  repelled  every  time  the  magnet 
is  excited,  and  is  attracted  while  the  magnetism  is  destroyed. 

upon  them  just  as  if  no  initial  molecular  currents  existed. 
By  varying  the  temperature  of  such  a  substance,  however, 
one  might  expect  to  alter  their  arrangement,  and  so 
develop  magnetic  properties  in  it,  just  as  electrical  pro- 
perties are  developed  in  crystals  like  tourmaline  by  heat 
or  by  cold. 

We  are  now  able  clearly  to  appreciate  this  much — that 
the  molecular  currents  needful  to  explain  magnetism  are 
not  conceivably  excited  by  the  act  of  magnetization,  for 
they  are  in  the  wrong  direction.  Induced  molecular 
currents  will  be  such  as  to  cause  repulsion  :  those  which 
cause  attraction  must  have  existed  there  before,  and  be 
merely  rotated  into  fresh  positions  by  the  magnetizing 
force. 

Function  of  the  Iron  in  a  Magnet.      Two  Modes  of 
expressing  it. 

We  can  now  ex'plain  the  function  of  iron,  or  other 
magnetic  substance,  in  strengthening  a  magnetic  field. 
Take  a  circular  coil  of  wire.  Fig.  29,  and  send  a  current 
round  it  :  there  is  a  certain  field — a  certain  number  of 
lines  of  force — between  its  faces.  Fill  the  coil  with  iron, 
so  as  to  make  it  a  common  electro-magnet,  and  the 
strength  of  the  field  is  greatly  increased.  Why  t  The 
common  mode  of  statement  hkens  the  magnetic  circuit 
to  a  voltaic  circuit ;  there  is  a  certain  magneto-motive 


no 


NATURE 


[Dec.  I,  1887 


force,  and  a  certain  resistance  :  the  quotient  gives  the 
resulting  magnetic  induction,  or  total  number  of  lines  of 
force.  Iron  is  more  permeable  than  air — say,  300  times 
more  permeable — and  accordingly  the  resistance  of  the 
iron  part  of  the  circuit  is  almost  negligible  in  comparison 
with  that  of  the  air-gap  between  the  poles.  Thus  a  good 
approximation  to  the  total  intensity  of  field  is  obtained 
by  dividing  the  magneto-motive  force  by  the  width  of  the 
air-gap  ;  or  more  completely  and  generally  by  treating 
the  varying  material  and  section  of  a  magnetic  circuit 
just  as  the  varying  material  and  section  of  a  voltaic 
circuit  is  treated,  and  so  obtaining  its  total  resistance. 
Iron  is  thus  to  be  regarded  as  a  magnetic  conductor  some 
300  times  better  than  air. 

This  mode  of  regarding  the  case  is  undoubtedly  simple 
and  convenient,  but  it  is  not  the  fundamental  mode.  If 
we  look  at  it  less  with  a  view  to  practical  simplicity  than 
with  the  aim  of  seeing  what  is  really  going  on,  we  shall 
express  it  thus  : — 

Befoie  the  iron  Avas  inserted  in  the  coil  there  were  a 
certain  number  of  circular  lines  of  force  inside  it  due  to 
the  current  alone.     A  piece  of  common  iron,  although 


Fig.  29. 

full  of  polarized  molecules,  has  no  external  or  serviceable 
lines  of  force  :  they  are  all  shut  up,  as  it  were,  into  little 
closed  circuits  inside  the  iron.  But  directly  the  iron  finds 
itself  in  a  magnetic  field  some  of  these  open  out,  a  chain 
of  polarized  molecules  is  formed,  and  the  lines  due  to  its 
molecular  currents  add  themselves  to  those  belonging  to 
the  current  of  the  magnetizing  helix. 

Thus  our  ring  electro-magnet  has  now  not  only  its  own 
old  lines  of  force,  but  a  great  many  of  those  belonging  to 
the  iron  which  have  sympathetically  laid  themselves  along- 
side the  first. 

The  end  result  of  either  mode  of  regarding  the  matter 
is  of  course  the  same — the  lines  of  force  between  the 
poles  are  increased  in  number  by  the  presence  of  iron  ; 
but  whereas,  in  the  first-mentioned  mode  of  treatment, 
the  fact  of  permeability  had  to  be  accepted  unexplained, 
in  the  second  nothing  is  unexplained  except  the  funda- 
mental facts  of  the  subject,  such  as  the  reason  why  currents 
tend  to  set  themselves  with  their  axes  parallel,  and  other 
matters  of  that  sort. 

Electrical  Motuentum  once  more. 

There  is  just  one  point  which  I  must  stop  here  to  call 
attention  to.  The  theories  of  magnetism  and  dia- 
magnetism,  which  I  have  given  according  to  Ampere, 
Weber,  and  Maxwell,  require  as  their  foundation  that  in  a 
perfect  conductor  electricity  shall  obey  the  first  law  of 
motion — shall  continue  to  flow  until  stopped  by  force. 
But  the  property  of  matter  which  enables  it  to  do  this  is 
called  iiieriia;  the  law  is  called  the  law  of  inertia  ;  and 
anything  which  behaves  in  this  way  must  be  granted  to 
possess  inertia. 

It  would  not  do  to  deduce  so  important  a  fact  from  a 
yet  unverified  theory  ;  but  at  least  one  must  notice  that 
it  is  essentially  involved  in  Ampere's  theory  of  magnetism. 


It  is  the  only  theory  of  magnetism  yet  formulated,  and  it 
breaks  down  unless  electricity  possesses  inertia. 

Nevertheless  it  is  a  fact  that  an  electro- magnet  does 
not  behave  in  the  least  like  a  fly-wheel  or  spinning-top  : 
there  is  no  momentum  mechanically  discoverable.  Sup- 
posing this  should  turn  out  to  be  strictly  and  finally  true, 
we  must  admit  that  a  molecular  electric  current  consists 
of  two  equal  opposite  streams  of  the  two  kinds  of  electri- 
city :  one  must  begin  to  regard  negative  electricity  not 
as  merely  the  negation  or  defect  of  positive,  but  as  a 
separate  entity.  Its  relation  to  positive  may  turn  out  to  be 
something  more  like  that  of  sodium  to  chlorine  than  that 
of  cold  to  heat. 

I  said  that  no  effect  due  to  electric  inertia  was 
mecha7iically  discoverable,  but  that  is  perhaps  too  sweep- 
ing a  statement.  Think  of  a  couple  of  india-rubber  pipes 
tied  together  so  as  to  form  a  double  tube,  and  through 
each  propel  a  current  of  water,  one  in  an  opposite  direc- 
tion to  the  other.  Although  the  double  current  has  na 
gyrostatic  properties,  yet  the  water  exhibits  momentum, 
even  when  the  current  is  quite  steady,  by  its  effect  on 
kinks  and  bends  and  curves  in  the  tube  :  these  all  tend 
to  straighten  or  smooth  themselves  out,  and  the  tube  if 
quite  free  would  become  a  perfect  circle. 

Precisely  the  same  effect  can  be  observed  with  a 
flexible  conducting  wire  or  gold  thread.  Throw  a  loop  of 
very  hght.flexible  thinly-covered  stranded  wire  at  random 
on  a  glass  slab,  and  pass  a  strong  current  through  it :  it 
will  tend  to  round  off  its  sharp  corners,  open  out  its 
tangled  loops,  and  do  its  best  to  become  a  perfect  circle  ; 
and  this  quite  independently  of  the  earth's  field,  in 
accordance  with  the  principle  numbered  3  on  page  8.  It 
will  be  at  once  objected  that  this  effect,  in  the  case  of  the 
wire,  is  due  to  something  going  on  in  the  medium  sur- 
rounded by  it,  and  not  simply  to  the  inertia  of  anything  in 
the  conducting  channel  itself,  as  in  the  water  case.  The 
objection  is,  of  course,  perfectly  valid,  but  nevertheless 
the  effect  is  one  worth  bearing  in  mind  ;  and  its  ultimate 
explanation  may  lead  us  to  postulate  inertia  quite  as 
essentially  though  not  so  superficially  as  the  crude 
hydraulic  analogy  suggests. 

So  long  as  one  considered  the  flow  of  electricity  in 
ordinary  conductors,  we  could  partially'avoid  the  question 
of  inertia  by  considering  it  urged  forward  at  every  point 
with  a  force  sufficient  to  overcome  the  resistance  there 
and  no  more  ;  but  though  this  explained  the  shape  of  the 
stream-lines  (Fig.  15)  yet  it  did  not  suffice  to  render  clear 
the  phenomena  of  self-induction — the  lag  of  the  interior 
electricity  in  a  wire  behind  the  outside  until  definitely 
pushed  ;  and  still  more  its  temporary  persistence  in  motion 
after  the  pushing  force  has  ceased. 

But,  now  that  we  are  dealing  with  perfect  conductors 
with  no  pushing  force  at  all,  the  persistence  of  molecular 
currents  without  inertia,  or  an  equivalent  property  so  like 
it  as  to  be  rightly  called  by  the  same  name  at  present, 
becomes  inexplicable.  True,  the  molecular  currents  are 
as  yet  an  hypothesis  ;  and  that  is  the  only  loop-hole  out  of 
a  definite  conclusion. 

Oliver  J.  Lodge. 
{To  be  continued^ 


DISCOVERY  OF  DIAMONDS  IN  A  METEORIC 
STONE. 

TN  a  Russian  paper  of  October  22  last  appears  a  pre- 
■'■  liminary  report  of  the  examination  by  Latschinof 
and  Jerofeief,  Professors  of  Mineralogy  and  Chemistry 
respectively,  of  a  meteoric  stone  weighing  4  lbs.,  which 
fell  in  the  district  of  Krasnoslobodsk,  Government  of 
Pensa,  Russia,  on  September  4,  1886. 

In  the  insoluble  residue  small  corpuscles  showing 
traces  of  polarization  were  observed  ;  they  are  harder 
than  corundum,  and  have  the  density  and  other  characters 


Dec.  I,  1887] 


NA  TURE 


1 1 1 


of  the  diamond.     The  corpuscles  are  said  to  amount  to 
I  per  cent,  of  the  meteoric  stone. 

Carbon,  in  its  amorphous  graphitic  form,  has  been  long 
known  as  a  constituent  of  meteoric  irons  and  stones  ; 
lately,  small  but  well-defined  crystals  of  graphitic  carbon 
having  forms  often  presented  by  the  diamond,  were 
described  in  our  columns  as  having  been  found  in  a 
meteoric  iron  from  Western  Australia.  If  this  supple- 
mentary discovery  be  confirmed,  we  may  at  last  be 
placed  on  the  track  of  the  artificial  production  of  the 
precious  stone. 

NOTES. 
On  Tuesday  afternoon  an  important  meeting  was  held  in  the 
Town  Hall,  Manchester,  in  support  of  the  National  Association 
for  the  Promotion  of  Technical  Education.  A  powerful  and 
most  interesting  address  was  delivered  by  Prof.  Huxley.  After- 
wards, in  accordance  with  a  resolution  moved  by  Sir  H. 
E.  Roscoe,  and  seconded  by  Sir  W.  H.  Houldsworth,  the 
meeting  appointed  an  influential  Committee  to  consider  the 
proposals  communicated  by  the  National  Association  for  the 
Promotion  of  Technical  Education,  and  to  take  action  thereon. 
Now  that  the  vital  importance  of  the  subject  is  beginning 
to  be  understood  in  the  district,  there  can  be  little  doubt 
that  Manchester  will  soon  be  supplied  with  a  thoroughly  sound 
and  adequate  system  of  technical  instruction.  The  residuary 
legatees  under  the  will  of  the  late  Sir  Joseph  Whitworth  have 
just  presented  to  the  town  a  plot  of  land,  called  Potter's  Park, 
which  they  have  bought  for  2'47.ooo.  On  a  part  of  this  land  it 
is  proposed  that  the  following  institutions  shall  be  erected  : 
(i)  an  appropriate  Institute  of  Art,  with  galleries  for  paintings, 
for  sculpture  and  moulded  form,  and  for  architectural  illustra- 
tion ;  (2)  a  comprehensive  Museum  of  Commercial  Materials 
and  Products ;  (3)  a  Technical  School  on  a  complete  scientific 
and  practical  scale.  Much  money  will  have  to  be  provided 
before  this  scheme  can  be  fully  carried  out,  but  in  so  great  a 
centre  of  manufacturing  and  commercial  energy  the  necessary 
funds  should  be  raised  without  serious  difficulty.  The  managers 
of  the  late  Manchester  Exhibition,  like  the  Whitworth 
legatees,  are  vigorously  supporting  the  movement,  and  their 
example  will  certainly  be  extensively  followed.  The  progress 
made  at  Manchester  is  most  satisfactory,  and  there  are  also  many 
signs  of  an  advance  in  the  right  direction  at  Liverpool  and 
Newcastle. 

The  latest  news  from  Mr.  John  Whitehead  is  that  he  has 
returned  from  Palawan  with  a  rich  collection,  especially  in 
birds,  of  which  he  believes  that  he  has  obtained  over  eighty 
species  not  previously  recorded  from  the  island,  and  a  large 
number  of  migrants.  Palawan  is  an  interesting  place  for  a 
naturalist,  as  it  lies  so  near  the  Philippine  Archipelago,  and 
yet  contains  a  very  strong  Bornean  element".  Mr.  Whitehead 
proposes  shortly  to  make  another  ascent  of  Kina  Balu  Mountain, 
where  last  spring-he  obtained  nineteen  new  species  of  birds, 
described  by  Mr.  Bowdler  Sharpe  in  the  Ibis  for  October. 

Letters  have  recently  been  received  from  Mr.  H.  O.  Forbes, 
who  is  now  at  Granville  in  British  New  Guinea.  He  has  not 
recovered  from  the  overwhelming  disaster  at  Batavia,  when  the 
whole  of  the  matSriel  for  his  explorations  was  lost  by  the  up- 
setting of  a  boat  in  the  surf,  but  his  spirits  and  those  of  his 
brave  wife  appear  indomitable,  and  he  hopes  yet  to  proceed  into 
the  interior  of  New  Guinea.  He  remarks  that  the  Horse-shoe 
Range  of  the  Astrolabe  Mountains  is  unkown  to  residents  in  the 
island.  This  is  the  place  whence  Mr.  Hunstein  sent  the 
wonderful  birds  of  Paradise  described  by  Dr.  Finsch  and  Dr. 
Meyer,  but  Mr.  Forbes  says  that  he  cannot  find  out  the  position 
of  the  range  to  which  Hunstein  attached  the  name.  Mr.  Forbes 
states  that  he  has  penetrated  further  inland  than  any  other  ex- 


plorer, but  that  "no  European  foot  has  yet  trod  any  portion  of 
the  real  Owen  Stanley  Range. "  Surely  some  assistance  can  be  ren- 
dered to  this  good  naturalist,  who  has  expended  ;^2000  of  his  own 
money  in  the  cause  of  science,  to  enable  him  to  prosecute 
further  researches.  It  only  requires  a  glance  at  Mr.  Forbes's 
work  on  the  Malay  Arcliipelago  to  show  that  he  is  a  worthy 
follower  in  the  footsteps  of  Wallace. 

At  a  dinner  given  by  the  Library  Committee  of  the  Corpora- 
tion of  London  on  Monday,  Prof.  Stokes  responded  for 
"  Science."  He  said  men  of  science  knew  how  fascinating  the 
pursuit  of  science  was,  even  apart  from  its  applications.  It 
differed  from  art,  however,  in  this  respect,  that  when  the  scientific 
man  had  arrived  at  his  result  it  was  in  very  many  cases  of  such 
a  nature  that  only  comparatively  few  men,  who  themselves  had 
been  trained  more  or  less  in  science,  could  enter  into  and  derive 
pleasure  from  it. 

The  discussion  on  Sir  Frederick  Abel's  paper  on  "Accidents 
in  Mines,''  at  the  Institute  of  Civd  Engineers,  came  to  a  con- 
clusion on  Tuesday  evening,  the  debate  having  extended  over 
four  meetings,  a  number  of  well-known  colliery  owners  and 
managers  coming  up  from  the  country  to  take  part  in  it. 
Safety-lamps,  gas,  coal-dust,  winding-gear,  and  other  topics 
were  exhaustively  discussed,  and  it  was  evident  that  amongst 
practical  men  a  considerable  difference  of  opinion  exists  on 
many  of  the  questions  raised.  Sir  Frederick  having  directed 
attention  to  the  communication  in  Nature,  vol.  xxxvi.  pp.  437 
and  438,  Mr.  Harries  gave  further  particulars  bearing  upon  the 
meteorology  of  colliery  explosions.  He  showed  how  the  popular 
belief  that  disasters  are  always  accompanied  by  a  low  barometer 
is  fostered  by  English  and  foreign  newspaper  reporters  and  writers 
habitually  making  statements  on  the  subject  which  cannot  be 
justified  by  the  facts.  Very  few  of  the  explosions  of  1886  and  1887 
have  been  coincident  with  a  low  barometer,  and  out  of  the  list  of 
disasters  in  the  eleven  years  1875-85  given  by  Sir  Frederick  Abel 
only  1875  per  cent,  of  the  accidents,  and  17 '4  per  cent,  of  the 
deaths,  occurred  when  the  mercury  was  at  29J  inches  or  below. 
One  half  of  this  small  percentage  of  explosions  took  place  with  a 
low  but  rapidly  rising  barometer,  and  at  a  time  when  gas  is  shown 
by  careful  observations  to  have  commenced  issuing  from  the 
strata.  The  importance  of  studying  the  influence  of  anticyclones 
in  connection  with  mining  was  still  further  emphasized,  as  coal- 
dust  is  more  inflammable  and  more  ditficult  to  moisten  when  the' 
air  is  cold  and  dry  than  in  the  time  of  cyclones,  when  the  air  is 
warm  and  damp.  In  ihe  new  rooms  recently  added  to  the 
Institute,  an  interesting  series  of  appliances  for  use  in  mines  was 
on  exhibition,  a  number  of  safety-lamps  of  different  patterns,  oil 
and  electric,  the  Fleuss  apparatus,  Loeb's  respirator,  safety  wind- 
ing-gear, anemometers,  and  a  collection  of  photographs  of  miners 
actually  at  work,  hewing,  timbering,  &c.,  from  Mr.  Sop  with, 
Cannock  Chase. 

Mr,  Goschen  will  deliver  his  inaugural  address  as  President 
of  the  Royal  Statistical  Society  on  Tuesday,  December  6,  when 
the  first  ordinary  meeting  of  the  present  session  will  be  held. 
The  Statistical  Society  usually  holds  its  meetings  at  the  Royal 
School  of  Mines  in  Jermyn  Street  ;  but  on  the  present  occasion, 
as  the  Council  have  reason  to  expect  an  extra  large  attendance 
of  the  Fellows  and  their  friends,  it  has  been  arranged  that  the 
meeting  shall  take  place  at  Willis's  Rooms,  King  Street,  St. 
James's,  at  the  usual  hour,  7.45  p.m. 

We  regret  to  have  to  record  the  sudden  death  of  Dr.  Max 
Schuster,  Privat-docent  and  Assistant  in  the  University  of 
Vienna.  His  laborious  researches  on  the  optical  characters  of  the 
Felspars  are  known  to  every  petrologist  ;  and  his  treatise  on  the 
features  of  Danburite,  in  its  almost  painful  minuteness  of  obser- 
vation and  calculation,  is  one  of  the  seven  wonders  of  modern 
crystallography.     His  kindliness  of  manner,  and  his  enthusiasm. 


112 


■  NATURE 


[Dec.  I,  1887 


won  him  the  affection  and  esteem  of  all  who  had  the  good 
fortune  to  know  him :  by  his  death,  at  the  early  age  of 
thirty,  Mineralogy  is  deprived  of  the  most  promising  of  its 
investigators. 

Dr.  Gustav  Theodor  Fachner,  the  well-known  physicist, 
died  at  Leipzig  on  November  18.  He  was  bora  near  Moscow, 
on  April  19,  180 1. 

Naturalists  have  learned  with  much  satisfaction  that  Mr. 

William  Davison  has  been  appointed  to  the  Curatorship  of  the 

Singapore    Museum.       Mr.    Davison's    appointment    has   been 

objected  to   on  the  score  that  he  is  a  "mere  collector,"  but, 

even   if   this   were    the  case,   it  would  scarcely  be  denied  that 

he   is   one   of  the   best    collectors  ever  known.      Certainly  he 

is  without  a  rival  in  the  present  day,  and  only  Wallace  or  Bates 

or  Clarence  Buckley  could  be  named  along  with  him.     Such 

objectors,  however,   are  singularly  ignorant  of  Mr.   Davison's 

career.     For  thirteen  years  he  was  Curator  to  Mr.  Allan  Hume, 

whose  private  museum  was  one  of  the  best  managed  in  the  world, 

and   he  has  conducted  some  of  the  most  important  scientific 

expeditions  of  modern  times.     At  Singapore  he  will  have  the 

opportunity  of  completing  his  explorations  in  Malacca,  which  he 

commenced  some  ten  years  ago,  when  he  traversed  the  whole  of  the 

western  half  of  the  peninsula,  but  was  not  able  to  penetrate  to 

the  mountainous  regions  of  the  eastern  half.     A   rich  field  of 

discovery  awaits  him,  if  we   may  judge  from  the  collections  sent 

by  Mr.  Wray  to  the  British  Museum   from   the   Larut    Range 

behind  Perak.     Every  naturalist  may  depend  upon  the  hear'ty 

co-operation  of  Mr.  Davison  in  any  branch  of  science,  and  we 

shall  expect  to  see  that,  in  the  course  of  a  few  years,  Singapore 

possesses  one  of  the  most  famous  natural  history  collections  in 

the  East. 


Comparing  the  proceedings  of  the  Anthropological  Sections 

of  the  British  and  American  Associations  for  the  Advancement 

of  Science,    the   American   journal    Science    decides    that   the 

anthropological  work  done  in  the  English  institution  is  superior 

to  that  of  the  Americans.     "  We  do  not  mean  to  say,"  it  states, 

that  there  are  no  vague  theories  held  by  British  men  of  science, 

or  that  no  eminent  work  is  done  by  Americans  ;  but  the  favourite 

studies  of  ethnologists  as  a  whole,  and  as  expressed  in  the  subjects 

of  papers  presented  to  the  English  Association,  seem  to  be  of  a 

more  general  and  of  a  higher  scientific  character  than  they  are 
here. 

In  a  recent  number  of  the  Korrespondenzblatt  of  the  German 
Society  for  Anthropology  and  Ethnology,  there  is  a  good 
account  of  the  archaeological  explorations  which  have  been 
carried  on  near  Reichenhall,  in  the  south-eastern  part  of  Bavaria. 
An  ancient  cemetery  was  discovered  here  som2  time  ago,  and 
no  fewer  than  eighty-five  skulls  have  been  found,  with  some 
well-preserved  skeletons,  and  a  great  quantity  of  weapons  and 
ornaments.  The  skulls  are  of  the  primitive  Germanic  type,  and 
the  skeletons  show  that  the  people  must  have  been  about  the 
size  of  the  existing  population  of  the  Bavarian  highlands. 
Among  the  treasures  which  have  been  recovered  is  a  thin  gold 
coin,  evidently  an  imitation  of  a  Roman  coin.  This  coin  pro- 
bably belongs  to  the  fifth  century,  and  it  may  have  found  its  way 
to  this  part  of  Germany  in  consequence  of  the  intimate  relations 
which  are  known  to  have  existed  between  the  ancient  inhabit- 
ants of  Bavaria  and  the  Langobardi. 


On  Saturday  last  Mr,  Francis  Galton  gave  at  the  South  Ken- 
sington  Museum   the  first  of  three   lectures  on   heredity  and 
nurture.       Towards  the  close  of  the  lecture  Mr.  Galton  spoke  of 
the  advantages  which  might  be  derived  from  the  establishment  of 
a  permanent  anthropometric  laboratory.      An  anthropometric 
laboratory  is  a  place  where  a  person  may  have  any  of  his  various 
faculties  measured  in  the  best  possible  way,  at  a  small  cost,  and 
where  duplicates  of  his   measurements  may  be  preserved,   as 
private  documents  for  his  own  future  use  and   reference.     Such 
an  institution  would  contain  apparatus  both  of  the  simpler  kind 
used  for  weighings  and  measurings,  and  for  determinations  of 
chest  capacity,  muscular  strength,  and  swiftness,  and  that  of  a 
more   delicate   description,  used   in  what  is  technically  called 
psycho-physical  research,  for  deter  joining  the  efficiency  of  each 
ofthe  various  senses  and  certain  mental   constants.     Instruction 
might  be  afforded  to  those  who  wished  to  make  measurements  at 
home,  Dgether   with    information   about   instruments   and   th- 
registration  of  results.     An  attached  library  would  contain  works 
relating  to  the  respective  influences  of  heredity   and   nurture 
These  would   include  statistical,  medical,   hygienic,   and  other 
memoirs  in  various  languages,   that  are  now    either   scattered 
through  our  different  scientific  libraries  or  do  not  exist  in  any  of 
them.     Duplicates  of  the  measurements,  but  without  the  names 
attached,  would  form  a   growing  mass  of  material  accessible  to 
statisticians.      From    conversation    with   friends,    Mr     Galton 
gathers   that  the    library   might   fulfil  a    welcome    purpose    in 
becoming  a  receptacle  for  biographies  and  family  records,  which 
would  be  in  two  classes-the  one  to  be  preserved  as  private 
documents,  accessible  only  to  persons  authorized  by  the  depositor  ; 
and  the  other  as  ordinary  books,  whether  they  were  in  manu- 
script or  in  print.   Mr.  Galton  will  be  grateful  for  any  communica- 
tions that  may  show  whether  sufficient  interest  really  exists  to 
justify  a  serious  attempt  to  found  an  Anthropometric  Laboratory 
and  Family  Record  Office,  as  well  as  for  any  helpful  suggestions 
towards  the  better  carrying  out  of  the  idea. 


An  interesting  account  of  a  series  of  experiments  upon  the 
so-called   alloy   between   the   metals  sodium   and  potassium  is 
given  by  M.  Joannis  in  the  current  number  of  the  Annales  de 
Clnmie  et  Physique.     For  some  years  it  has  been  known  that, 
althou^di  in  many  respects  so  similar,  the  e  two  metals  possess  a 
certain  affinity  for  each  other,  and  unite  under  suitable  circum- 
stances to  form    a  liquid  amalgam-like  substance.     M.  Joannis 
has  at  length  shown  that  a  definite  compound,  NaKg,  is  formed 
with  considerable  evolution   of  heat  when  the  fused  metals  are 
brought  together  in   the  right  proportion.     In  order  to  prove 
this  fact,   thermo-chemical    methods  were   resorted   to,    liquid 
mixtures   of  the  composition  Na,K,   NaK,   NaKj.   and  NaKs 
being  successively  introduced  into  the  calorimeter.     The  hydro- 
gen liberated  by  decomposition  of  the  water  in  the  calorimeter 
was  caused  to  pass  first  through  a  perforated  platinum  plate,  and 
afterwards  through  a  long  thin -walled  glass  spiral,   eventually 
escaping  in  minute  bubbles  through  the  water  itself,  after  be- 
coming reduced  to  the  temperature  of  the  calorimeter.     The 
liquid  mixture  of  metals  was  gradually  introduced  by  means  of 
an  ingenious  apparatus  consisting  of  a  drawn-out  delivery-tube 
containing  the  alloy  between  two  layers  of  protecting  naphtha, 
and  which,  by  means  of  a  valve,  could  be  placed  in  communica- 
tion with  a  reservoir  of  compressed  air,  so  that,  by  regulating 
the  valve,  a  gentle  stream  of  the  liqyid  could  be  forced  out  as 
required.    When  the  calorimetrical  experiments  were  concluded, 
the  amount  of  alkali  was  determined  in  an  aliquot  part  of  the 
water  in  the  calorimeter,  and  thus  the  amount  of  metal  used  could 
be  arrived  at.     From  the  data  afforded  by  these  experiments, 
M.  Joannis  appears  to  have  conclusively  shown  that  the  only 
stable  compound  is  NaK^,  all  others  being  mixtures  of  this  with 
excess  of  one  or  other  of  the  two  metals.     It  is  very  satisfactory 
that  a  reliable  method  has  at  last  been  found  of  distinguishing 
between  true  compounds  and  physical  mixtures  of  metals,  and 
rather  remarkable  that  one  of  the  earlier  analyses  of  the  most 
stable   combination  of  sodium  and  potassium  gave  as  the  per- 
centage of  potassium  76-5,  a  number  which  closely  approximates 
to  that  required  for  NaK2. 

Since  the  Ben  Nevis  Observatory  was  opened  four  years  ago, 
eleven  cases  of  St.  Elmo's  fire  have  been  recorded.     These  case 


Dec.  I,  1887] 


NATURE 


113 


have  been  examined  by  Mr.  Rankin,  first  assistant,  and  com- 
pared with  the  other  observations  made  from  thirty  hours  pre- 
vious to  eighteen  hours  subsequent  to  the  times  of  occurrence. 
It  would  appear  that  the  phenomenon  has  almost  invariably 
occurred  when  the  temperature,  after  having  been  for  some  time 
distinctly  above  the  n-.ean  of  the  season,  has  been  falling  for  about 
twenty-four  hours.  During  this  time,  while  the  temperature 
fell,  the  barometer  also  continued  to  fall  till  within  three  hours 
of  the  time  of  St.  Elmo's  fire,  and  thereafter  rose  steadily. 
The  wind  is  west-south-westerly  till  the  barometer  falls  to  the 
minimum,  and  then  shifts  to  north-west.  The  accompanying 
weather  is  fog,  squalls,  and  unusually  large-sized  soft  hail. 
Mr.  Rankin  further  compared  the  phenomena  with  the  weather 
charts  of  the  Meteorological  Offtce,  with  the  result  that  pressure 
was  in  all  cases  highest  os-^x  the  south-west  and  south  of 
Europe,  diminishing,  however,  gradually  towards  North- Western 
Europe,  where  pressure  was  comparatively  low,  with  several 
satellite  cyclones  skirting  the  northern  coasts  of  the  British 
Islands.  Of  the  eleven  cases,  two  occurred  in  September, 
three  in  October,  four  in  November,  one  in  January,  and  one 
in  February. 

The  Meteorological  Report  of  the. Straits  Settlements  for  the 
year  1886  has  been  issued.  Charts  are  appended,  showing  the 
mean  annual  elements  from  1870  to  1886. 

Dr.  a.  Muttrich  has  published  the  twelfth  Annual  Report 
of  the  forest  meteorological  observations  of  Germany.  The 
stations  now  number  sixteen,  and  the  observations  of  tempera- 
ture, &c.,  are  made  in  the  open,  in  the  forests,  and  in  the  crowns 
of  the  trees.  Monthly  and  yearly  resumes  are  given,  but  there 
is  no  discussion  of  the  results.  Special  attention  is  paid  to 
(evaporation  and  rainfall. 

Several  earthquakes  are  reported  from  Carinthiaand  Styria. 
On  November  14  a  shock  was  felt  at  Klagenfurt  at  10  p.m., 
which  lasted  for  four  seconds.  At  Bleiburg,  as  well  as  over 
the  whole  of  Carinthia,  severe  oscillations  were  noticed.  Re- 
ports state  that  shocks  occurred  at  II  p.m.  at  Graz  and  Salden- 
hofen,  and  at  4  p.m.  at  Ostrau-Witkowitz.  At  Cavaillon  and 
St.  Saturnin-les-Avignon  (Vaucluse)  o.-cillations  were  felt  on 
November  14.  At  Cavaillon  eleven  houses  were  damaged. 
On  November  17,  at  8.55  a.m.,  two  severe  shocks  occurred  at 
Zafferana,  near  Etna.  A  severe  earthquake,  lasting  for  ten 
minutes,  occurred  in  Iceland  on  October  28 ;  at  Reikianaes 
lai^e  chasms  appeared  in  the  ground. 

The  second  session  of  the  Liverpool  Biological  Society  was 
opened  on  October  29,  when  Dr.  J.  J.  Drysdale,  the  President, 
delivered  an  address  on  the  definition  of  life  as  affected  by  the 
protoplasmic  theory.  The  Council's  Report  showed  the  affairs 
of  the  Society  to  be  in  a  very  satisfactory  condition,  the 
number  of  members  amounting  to  121.  At  the  second  meeting 
of  the  session,  held  on  November  12,  the  following  papers, 
dealing  with  the  history  of  the  foundation  of  the  Zoological 
Station  on  Puffin  Island,  Anglesey,  were  read  :  account  of  the 
foundation  of  the  Station,  and  of  the  general  work  done  during 
the  past  summer,  by  Prof  Herdman  ;  report  on  the  land  Mollusca, 
by  Alfred  Leicester  ;  report  on  the  higher  Crustacea,  by  A.  O. 
Walker;  report  on  the  Actiniaria,  by  J.  W.  Ellis;  report  on 
the  Copepoda,  by  J.  C.  Thompson  ;  report  on  the  Polyzoa,  by 
J.  Lomas. 

At  a  meeting  of  the  Aristotelian  Society  on  November  21,  Dr 
J.  McK.  Cattell,  of  the  University  of  Pennsylvania,  read  a  paper 
on  '*  The  Psychological  Laboratory  of  Leipzig."  lie  explained 
how  experimental  psychology  undertakes  to  analyze  and 
measure  mental  phenomena,  and  advocated  the  systematic  work 
of  the  laboratory,  both  for  the  education  of  students  and  for  the 
advancement  of  knowledge.  An  account  was  then  given  of  the 
psychological  laboratory  at  Leipzig,  founded  by  Prof.  Wundt  in 
1879,  and  of  the  researches  which  have  been  undertaken  in  it, 


Including  experiments  on  the  measurement  of  sensation,  the 
duration  of  mental  processes,  attention,  memory,  and  other 
subjects.  The  paper  was  followed  by  a  discussion  in  which  Prof. 
Bain,  Prof  Dunstan,  and  others  took  part. 

An  address  on  the  Army  Medical  School,  delivered  some 
months  ago  by  Sir  Henry  W.  Acland,  at  Netley  Hospital,  at 
the  distribution  of  prizes,  has  now  been  published.  The  author 
explains  that  he  issues  the  address  because  of  an  opinion  recently 
expressed  before  a  Committee  of  the  House  of  Commons  by  the 
Accountant- General  of  the  Army,  to  the  effect  that  the  Army 
Medical  School  might  be  advantageously  dispensed  with.  Sir 
Henry  hopes  that  the  Accountant-General  of  the  Army  may 
revise  his  opinion,  and  propose  hereafter  to  increase  the  grant 
and  to  enlarge  the  scope  and  means  of  the  school. 

The  American  Industrial  Education  Association  is  about  to 
issue  leaflets,  giving  concise  information  on  points  of  its  work 
regarding  which  questions  are  continually  asked.  The  first 
leaflet  will  state  compactly  what  the  argument  for  manual 
training  is. 

In  a  Report  just  published  by  the  Foreign  Office,  on  the  trade 
of  the  Nyassa  Territories,  Mr.  II awes,  the  newly-appointed 
Consul,  describes  the  .Strophanthus,  a  climbing  plant  from  which 
the  natives  extract  a  strong  poison,  and  which  is  beginning  to 
find  its  way  into  the  London  market.  It  is  called  by  the  natives 
kombe,  and  is  found  at  a  low  level,  and  not  apparently  on  high 
land.  The  supplies  hitherto  obtained  have  been  drawn  from  the 
right  bank  of  the  Shire  River  below  the  Murchison  Rapids. 
There  is  apparently  more  than  one  species,  or  at  least  variety, 
the  distinguishing  feature  being  a  much  smaller  pod  and  fewer 
seeds.  At  present,  information  relative  to  the  varieties  is  scant. 
It  is  a  strong  climbing  plant,  and  is  always  fjund  in  the  vicinity 
of  high  trees,  on  which  it  supports  itself.  The  stem  varies  in 
diameter,  but  has  an  average  of  a  few  inches.  It  lies  on  the 
ground  in  folds,  the  branches  supporting  themselves  on  the 
nearest  trees.  The  young  branches  are  in  appearance  not  unlike 
the  elder.  The  fruit  grows  in  pairs,  and  has  a  peculiar  appear- 
ance, very  like  a  pair  of  immense  horns  hanging  to  a  slender 
twig.  It  begins  to  ripen  in  July,  and  lasts  till  the  end  of 
September.  The  native  method  of  preparing  the  poison  is  very 
simple.  They  first  clean  the  seeds  of  their  hairy  appendages, 
and  then  pound  them  up  in  a  mortar  until  they  have  reduced 
them  to  a  pulp.  A  little  water  is  then  added.  This  is  done  by 
using  the  bark  of  a  tree  containing  a  gummy  substance,  which 
helps  to  keep  the  poison  on  the  arrow,  in  the  event  of  its  striking 
against  a  bone.  The  poison  thus  prepared  is  spread  upon  the 
arrow,  and  allowed  to  dry  ;  game  wounded  by  arrows  poisoned 
with  Strophanthus  die  quickly.  The  flesh  is  eaten  without  evil 
effect.  The  only  precaution  taken  is  to  squeeze  the  juice  of  the 
baobab  bark  on  the  wound  made  by  the  arrow,  and  this  counter- 
acts the  evil  effects  of  the  poison.  Buffalo  and  all  smaller  game 
are  killed  by  this  poi  on. 

The  additions  to  the  Zoological  Society's  Gardens  during  the 
past  week  include  a  Cheetah  ( CyniBtunis  jubatus)  from  East 
Africa,  presented  by  Mr.  Frederick  H  jlmwood  ;  two  White- 
backed  Piping  Crows  {Gymnorhina  leuconotd)  from  Tasmania, 
presented  by  Mr.  C.  Sadler  ;  a  Crowned  Hawk  Eagle  {Spizatus 
corondlus)  from  South  Africa,  presented  by  Mr.  E.  A.  Hart  ; 
two  Cereopsis  Geese  {Ccreopsis  novce-hollandia:)  from  Australia, 
presented  by  His  Grace  the  Duke  of  Northumberland,  P.C, 
K.G.  ;  a  Common  Crossbill  {Loxia  cuTvirostra)  British,  pre- 
sented by  Mr.  S.  R.  Armord  ;  a  Knot  (  Tringa  camitus)  British, 
presented  by  Mr.  Howard  Bunn  ;  two  Thunder  Fish  {Misgurnus 
fossilis)  from  the  Baltic  Sea;  four  Chub  (Leuciscus  cephahis) 
from  British  fresh  waters,  presented  by  Messrs.  Paul  and  Co.  ; 
two  Cape  Crowned  Cranes  {Balearica  chrysopelargtis)  from  East 
Africa,  a  Mealy  Amazon  {ChrysoHs  farinosa)  from  South 
America,  deposited. 


114 


NA  TURE 


[Dec.  I,  1887 


OUR  ASTRONOMICAL  COLUMN. 

Probable  New  Variables. — Mr.  John  Tebbutt  calls  atten- 
tion in  the  Obsei-v.itory  for  November  to  the  double  star  02  256, 
one  of  the  components  of  which  appears  to  be  variable  ;  for 
during  the  occultation  of  the  star  on  August  22  the  preceding 
-component  appeared  very  distinctly  the  brighter  of  the  two, 
whilst  Crossley  and  Gledhill,  in  their  "  Hand-book  of  Double 
Stars,"  regard  this  star  as  the  companion.  Struve  was  ap- 
parently the  first  to  draw  attention  to  the  probable  variability  of 
this  star,  for  whilst  he  usually  estimated  the  preceding  star  as 
the  brighter  by  half  a  magnitude,  Dembovvski  recorded  it  as 
being  the  fainter  by  that  amount. 

Dr.  Bauschinger  (.^j/r.  Nacli.  No.  2810),  finds  that  a  star  in 
Libra,  Lanij  1875,  Munich  Zones  695 — place  for  1855 'o,  R.A. 
I5h.  4m.  i"5s.,  Decl.  5°  27' '6  S. — is  also  probably  variable. 
Lamont  gives  the  star  as  of  the  eighth  magnitude  ;  Dr.  Bau- 
-schinger  finds  it  9*2  m.;  it  is  wanting  in  the  southern  Durch- 
musterung.  Dr.  Schonfeld  writes  that  he  observed  the  star  on 
two,  if  not  three  occasions  ;  once  as  10  m.  and  once  as  12  m.  It 
should  therefore  be  added  in  the  Bonn.  Beob.  vol.  viii.,  after 
-  5°  No.  4028,  as  : — 

"  Var.  i5h.  4m.  2-5S.,  5°  27'-5  M." 

Names  of  Minor  Planets. — Minor  Planet  No.  268  has 
received  the  name  of  Adorea  ;  No.  270  that  of  Anahita. 

The  Spectra  of  Oxygen  and  Carbon  compared  with 
that  of  the  Sun. — Prof.  Trowbridge  and  Hutchins  have  pre- 
sented to  the  American  Academy  of  Arts  and  Sciences  a  paper 
on  the  spectra  of  oxygen  and  carbon  as  compared  with  that  of 
the  sun.  In  the  case  of  the  former  element,  Dr.  Henry  Draper 
had  convinced  himself  that  there  were  bright  lines  in  the  solar  spec- 
trum corresponding  to  the  bright  lines  of  oxygen,  whilst  his  brother. 
Prof  J.  C.  Draper,  had  identified  the  oxygen  with  faint  dark 
lines,  but  the  present  experimenters  conclude  that  "  so  far  as  con- 
cerns the  spark  spectrum  in  air  and  the  solar  spectrum  from 
wave-lengths  3749 '8  to  5033 '85  they  can  safely  affirm  that  there 
is  no  physical  connection  between  them."  They  "have  photo- 
graphed the  sun's  spectrum  every  day  that  the  sun  has  shone  for 
nearly  five  months,  without  finding  a  line  that  could  with  certainty 
be  pronounced  brighter  than  its  neighbours  "  ;  the  powerful  dis- 
persion given  by  the  large  concave  Rowland  grating  employed 
by  Messrs.  Trowbridge  and  Hutchins  causing  the  "bright  bands 
to  vanish,"  which  Dr.  H.  Draper  thought  he  had  discovered,  and 
which  seemed  conspicuous  with  the  dispersion  he  used,  whilst  it 
showed  at  the  same  time  that  there  was  no  real  correspondence 
between  the  oxygen  lines  and  the  dark  lines  Prof  J.  C.  Draper 
had  identified  with  them.  Lack  of  sufficient  instrumental  power 
had  led  both  of  the  two  earlier  observers  astray. 

With  regard  to  carbon,  Messrs.  Trowbridge  and  Hutchins  are 
of  opinion  "  that  the  fluted  spectrum  of  carbon  is  an  example  of 
the  reversal  of  the  lines  of  a  vapour  in  its  own  vapour,"  and 
they  find  a  striking  coincidence  in  many  cases  between  the  spaces 
separating  the  fine  bright  lines  of  the  flutings  and  dark  lines  in 
the  solar  spectrum,  twenty-eight  such  coincidences  being  traced 
within  the  limit  of  ten  wave-lengths  in  the  fluting  at  wave- 
length 38837.  Their  hypothesis  as  to  the  origin  of  the  flutings 
leads  them  "to  conclude  that,  at  the  point  of  the  sun's  atmosphere 
where  the  carbon  is  volatilized  so  as  to  produce  the  peculiar 
arrangement  of  reversals  observed,  the  temperature  of  the  sun 
approximates  to  that  of  the  voltaic  arc." 

Olbers'  Comet,  1887.— The  following  ephemeris  for  Berlin 
midnight  for  this  object  is  in  continuation  of  that  given  in 
Nature,  vol.  xxxvi.  p.  588,  and  vol.  xxxvii.  p.  37,  and  is  by 
Herr  Tetens  {Astr.  Nach.,  No.  2813)  : — 


Dec, 


.  I  .. 
3  ••• 
5  - 
7  -. 
9  ... 

II  .. 

13  .., 

IS  .. 

17  ... 


R.A. 

h.    m.    s. 
15    26   36 

15  32  7 
15  37  31 
15  42  49 
15  48  o 
15  53    4 

15  58    2 

16  2  54 


Decl. 

109  N. 
347 
59-5 
25-1 

Si-6 
191 

47-5 
i6'9 


Log  r. 
0-1594 
01692 
0-1790 

o'iSgo 


Log  A. 

0-3354 
0-3417 
0-3478 
0-3537 


16  7  41  ...  2  47'2  N.  ...  0-1990  ...  0-3593 


Bright- 
ness. 
..  0-84 

...  0-78 

••  0-73 
...  0-68 
...  0-63 


The  brightness  on  August  27  is  taken  as  unity. 


A  Vienna  observation  of  October  21  gives  the  error  of  the 
ephemeris  as  R.A.  +  3s.  and  Decl.  +  o'-2,  and  this  will 
probably  slowly  increase. 


ASTRONOMICAL    PHENOMENA    FOR    THE 
WEEK  1887  DECEMBER  4-10. 

/-pOR  the  reckoning  of  time  the  civil  day,  commencing  at 
^  Greenwich  mean  midnight,  counting  the  hours  on  to  24, 

is  here  employed.) 

At  Greenwich  on  December  4 

Sun  rises,  7h.  som.  ;  souths,  iih.  50m.  i9-6s. ;  sets,  ish.  ^\va.  : 

right   asc.    on    meridian,    i6h.  42-2m.  ;    decl.    22°  is'  S. 

Sidereal  Time  at  Sunset,  2oh.  44m. 
Moon  (at  Last  Quarter  on  December  8,  3h.)  rises,   i8h.  39m.*; 

souths,  2h.  44m. ;  sets,  loh.  44m.  :  right  asc.  on  meridian, 

7h.  34 "om.  ;  decl.  20°  o'  N. 

Right  asc.  and  declination 
Planet.  Rises.  Souths.  Sets.  on  meridian. 

h.  m.  h.  m.  h.  m.  h.  m.  »  / 
Mercury..  5  46  ...  10  27  ...  15  8  ...  15  18-9  ...  15  49  S. 
Venus  ...  3  20  ...  8  45  ...  14  10  ...  13  36-7  ...  7  36  S. 
Mars  ...  o  53  ...  7  8  ...  13  23  ...  11  58-9  ...  2  8  N. 
Jupiter  ...  S  5^  ...  10  27  ...  14  58  ...  15  18-9  ...  17  25  S. 
.Saturn  ...  19  57*...  3  45  ...  il  33  ...  8  35-1  ...  19  6  N. 
Uranus...  2  3S  ...  8  9  ...  13  43  ...  13  o-6  ...  5  46  S. 
Neptune-.  15  11  ...  22  52  ...  6  33*...  3  45-8  ...  18  5  N. 

*  Indicatesthat  the  rising  is  that  of  the  preceding  evening  and  the   setting 
that  of  the  following  morning. 

Occultation  of  Star  by  the  Moon  (visible  at  Greenwich). 

Corresponding 


Dec. 

6    .. 

Dec. 

4 


Star. 

7  Leonis 

h. 
,..     II     .. 


Mag.        Disap. 


6i 


5  iJ 


Reap. 


6  27 


angles  from  ver- 
tex to  right  for 
inverted  image. 

...     59  300 


35 


Mercury    in    conjunction   with    and 

north  of  Jupiter. 
Saturn  in  conjunction  with  and  0°  51'  north 

of  the  Moon. 
Mercury  at  greatest  elongation  from  the  Sun, 

21°  west. 
Mars  in  conjunction  with  and  2°  10'  south 

of  the  Moon. 

Saturn,  December  4. — Outer  major  axis  of  outer  ring  =  44"'3  ; 
outer  minor  axis  of  outer  ring  =  I4"*2  ;  southern  surface  visible. 


5 


Variable  Stars. 


Star. 

U  Cephei     

R  Sculptoris 
Algol     

\  Tauri 

S  Orionis      

C  Geminorum 

R  Canis  Majoris.. 

T  Cancri      

5  Virginis    

U  CoronEE 

6  Lyrse 

S  Vulpeculse 

Y  Cygni       


R.A. 


52-3  •• 

21-8  .. 

0-8  .. 

54-4  •• 
23*4  •• 
57'4.. 
14-3  •• 


Decl. 

si  16  N. 
33    8S. 

40  31  N. 

12  10  N. 

4  47  S. 

20  44  N. 

16  II  S. 


Dec. 


8  So-2 
13  27-1 
IS  13*6 

18  45*9 

19  43*8 

20  46-8 


20  17  N. 
6  37  S. 

32  4N. 

33  14  N. 

27    o  N. 


34  10  N. 


10, 

6, 
9. 

7,  23 
5.  4 
1, 


h.   m. 
o  46  m 

M 

2  46  m 

23  35  m 

2  17  w 

M 

19  o  »/ 

20  56  m 
o  12  m 

M 

M 

4  m 


M 


R  Vulpeculae       ...  20  59*4  ...  23  22  N.  ...     ,, 

5  Cygni        22  25-0  ...  57  50  N.  ...     ,, 

M  signifies  maximum  ;  in  minimum. 

Meteor-  Showers. 
R.A.  Decl. 


5,  22  23  m 
8,  22  17  m 

5,  ;// 

6,  23     o  M 


Near  7  Persei    44  ...  S^  N. 

The  Taurids  II.    ...  80  ...  23  N. 

The  Geminids       ...  107  ...  33  N. 

Near  5  Geminorum  ...  no  ...  24  N. 

Near  w  Leonis 14S  ...  8  N. 

Near  y3  Ursa;  Majoris.  162  ...  58  N. 


Very  slow  ;  faint. 
Slow  ;  brigjit. 
Swift  ;  short. 
Rather  swift. 
Swift  ;  streaks. 
Very  swift ;  streaks. 


Dec.  1,  1887] 


NATURE 


115 


GEOGRAPHICAL  NOTES. 

In  the  Bulletin  of  the  California  Academy  of  Sciences  for 
June,  Mr.  C.  M.  Richter  re-examines  all  the  data  relating  to 
the  ocean  currents  contiguous  to  the  coast  of  California,  with 
the  result  that  existing  charts  are  in  many  cases  found  to  be 
wrong,  and  that  great  diversity  of  opinion  exists  as  to  the  real 
character  and  origin  of  these  currents. 

In  the  new  number  of  the  ATonvcment  GeographiqiieWiO.  various 
rumours  that  have  been  afloat  as  to  disasters  which  have  hap- 
pened to  Mr.  Stanley's  Expedition  are  examined,  and,  when 
tested  by  known  facts  and  the  latest  trustworthy  information 
from  Mr.  Stanley  himself  and  his  officers,  are  shown  to  be 
without  justification. 

Mr.  Montagu  Kerr  sailed  from  London  last  Thursday  for 
Zanzibar,  for  the  purpose  of  attempting  to  cross  Africa  by  a  new 
route.  It  is  a  mistake  to  refer  to  Mr.  Kerr's  private  expe- 
dition as  intended  for  the  further  "  relief "  of  Emin  Pasha.  It 
has  nothing  whatever  to  do  with  Emin  Pasha;  though,  no  doubt, 
Mr.  Kerr  will  shape  his  course  through  Masai  Land  towards 
Wadelai  as  his  first  stage,  and  may  be  guided  by  Emin's  advice 
as  to  his  further  course.  His  main  object  after  reaching  Wadelai 
will  be  to  proceed  in  a  north-\\  esterly  direction  towards  Lake 
Chad,  solving  as  far  as  possible  by  the  way  the  hydrography  of 
the  Welle  and  Shari  regions.  After  exploring  around  Lake  Chad, 
Mr.  Kerr  may  make  for  the  Niger,  though  it  is  possible  enough  he 
will  go  on  northwards  in  the  direction  of  Tripoli.  Since  his 
return  from  his  South  African  journey,  Mr.  Kerr  has  been 
diligently  qualifying  himself  for  scientific  observation. 

The  paper  on  Monday  at  the  Royal  Geographical  Society 
was  one  of  unusual  originality  ;  it  described  Mr.  A.  D.  Carey's 
two  years'  journey  around  and  across  Turkistan  and  into  the 
north  of  Tibet.  Mr.  Carey,  who  was  accompanied  by  the 
well-known  Central  Asiatic  traveller,  Mr.  Dalgieish,  de-cribes 
so  many  new  features  that  it  is  impossible  to  follow  his  route 
throughout  on  any  map.  Although  his  route  coincided  to  some 
extent  with  those  of  Prejevalsky,  he  has  been  able  to  supplement 
the  Russian  traveller's  observations  in  many  directions.  Mr. 
Carey,  starting  from  Leh  in  Ladak,  crossed  the  western  part  of 
Tibet  and  the  western  continuation  of  the  Altyn  Tagh,  to  Kiriain 
the  south-w  est  corner  of  the  great  Tarim  Desert.  Thence  along 
the  Khoten  Kiver  he  reached  the  Tarim,  the  course  of  which  he 
followed,  with  excursions  to  various  places  on  the  route,  as  far 
as  Lob  Nor.  The  hydrography  of  this  interesting  river  Mr. 
Carey  has  helped  considerably  to  clear  up.  Some  time  was 
spent  about  the  Lob  Nor  region,  and  then  Mr.  Carey,  amid 
many  difficulties,  endeavoured  to  penetrate  as  far  as  possible 
into  Tibet ;  but  as  his  time  was  limited  he  did  not  succeed  in 
getting  further  than  the  Ma  Chu,  about  half-way  between  the 
Kuen  Lun  and  the  Tangla  Range.  But  in  his  wanderings  to 
and  fro  in  the  great  marshy  and  desert  plain  that  lies  between 
the  Altyn  Tagh  Mountains  and  the  Kuen  Lun,  he  has  added 
something  to  our  knowledge  of  one  of  the  most  interest- 
ing regions  of  Central  Asia.  From  the  Ma  Chu,  Mr.  Carey 
struck  almost  direct  northwards  by  Sachu  to  Hami,  across  the 
Gobi  Desert.  Then  by  a  great  sweep  he  traversed  the  northern 
border  of  Turkistan,  by  Turfan,  Karashahr,  Kuchir,  Aksu, 
and  Yarkand,  back  to  Leh,  two  years  after  he  left  it.  As  he 
says,  he  thus  completed  the  circuit  of  Chinese  Turkistan,  and, 
Kashgar  excepted,  vii-ited  every  important  place  in  it.  The 
chief  characteristic  of  the  country  is  its  extreme  poverty.  It 
may  be  described  as  a  huge  desert  fringed  by  a  few  small  patches 
of  cultivation,  The  only  really  good  strip  of  country  of  con- 
siderable size  is  the  western  portion,  comprising  Kargalik, 
Yarkand,  and  Kashgar.  To  the  north  a  succession  of  very 
small  oases  extends  along  the  foot  of  the  Tian  Shan  Mountains, 
the  stretches  of  intervening  desert  becoming  longer  as  the  tra- 
veller goes  further  to  the  east.  The  eastern  extremity  of  the 
province  is  desert  pure  and  simple,  and  so  is  the  southern  ex- 
tremity as  far  west  as  Kiria,  with  the  exception  of  the  small 
oases  of  Charchand  and  Chaklik.  The  central  portion  is  chiefly 
desert,  except  along  the  Tarim  and  in  the  Lob  Nor  region. 
Mr.  Carey  gives  some  useful  notes  on  the  diffijrent  classes  of 
people  he  met  with,  and  occasionally  a  jotting  on  the  natural 
history  of  the  region.  Put  the  chief  scientific  result  of  Mr. 
Carey's  journey  is  the  excellent  map  which  Mr,  Dalgieish  care- 
fully plotted  every  day,  and  which  covers  many  sheets  ;  it  is 
being  reduced,  and  will  be  published  by  the  Ro)al  Geographical 
Society. 


The  correspondence  from  Major  Barttlet,  Mr.  Stanley's 
second  in  command,  from  his  station  on  the  Aruwimi,  shows 
that  all  is  going  well,  and  that  if  there  are  any  dangers  they  will 
be  due  to  the  Arabs,  and  not  to  the  natives.  For  the  many 
rumours  of  disaster  to  the  Expedition  there  is  no  foundation  in 
fact ;  thciij  is  positively  no  news  from  Mr.  Stanley  since  he  left 
the  Aruwimi,  and  in  this  case  no  news  is  good  news,  for  bad 
news  travels  as  rapidly  in  Africa  as  elsewhere. 


THE  ANNIVERSARY  MEETING  OF  THE 
ROYAL  SOCIETY. 
nPHE  Royal  Society  held  its  Anniversary  Meeting  yesterd.i '. 
■*■  for  the  purpose  of  electing  officers  and  presenting  rnedaU. 
The  President  delivered  the  address  which  we  print  IjcIow. 
After  the  meeting  the  Fellows  dined  together  at  Willis's  Ro^ms, 
and  the  attendance  v,  as  larger  than  on  any  previous  occasion, 
nearly  200  Fellows  being  present. 

During  the  past  year  death  has  removed  from  us  fifteen  of 
our  Fellows  and  one  foreign  Member.  It  is  remark- 
able that  no  less  than  six  of  these  had  reached  the  age 
which  the  Psalmist  takes  for  the  extreme  duration  of  human 
life,  while  the  average  age  of  the  whole  exceeds  seventy-five 
years.  Within  two  months  after  our  la^t  anniversary  Sir 
Joseph  Whitworth  died,  at  the  age  of  eighty-four.  Starting 
from  a  humble  beginning,  he  attained,  through  his  talent  and 
steady  application,  a  commanding  position  among  constructors 
of  machinery  and  heavy  ordnance,  and  the  truth  of  surface  and 
accuracy  of  dimensions  of  what  came  from  his  workshop  are 
probably  unrivalled. 

Sir  Walter  Elliot,  who  was  still  older,  combined  a  high 
official  position  in  India  with  the  pursuit  of  natural  history,  and 
was  the  author  of  several  papers  in  scientific  serials.  John 
Hymers  and  Thomas  Gaskin  were  mathematicians  well  known 
to  Cambridge  men  of  some  standing,  and  were  both  elected 
Fellows  of  our  Society  nearly  half  a  century  ago.  The  former 
was  the  author  of  various  mathematical  text-bouks,  which  for  a 
long  time  were  those  chiefly  used  in  their  respective  subjects  by 
Cambridge  students  fur  mathematical  honours.  The  latter,  once 
a  colleague  of  my  own  in  a  mathematical  honour  examination, 
was  famed  for  his  skill  in  the  solution  of  problems,  though  he 
has  not  left  much  behind  him  in  the  way  of  mathematical 
writings,  beyond  a  book  containing  the.  solution  of  a  variety  of 
problems.  In  Robert  Hunt  we  have  lost  an  aged  Fellow  w  hose 
name  is  well  known  in  connection  with  the  study  of  the  action  of 
light  in  producing  chemical  changes,  and  on  vegetation.  In 
Joseph  Baxendell  we  had  a  man  who  during  a  long  life  was  a 
diligent  observer  of  astronomical  and  meteorological  phenomena. 
John  Arthur  Phillips,  a  geologist  who  attended  most  particu- 
larly to  the  chemical  origin  of  mineralogical  and  geological 
phenomena,  was  the  author  of  several  papers,  some  of  which 
appeared  in  our  own  Proceedings.  It  is  not  long  since  Sir 
Julius  von  Haast  was  among  us,  apparently  in  full  vigour,  haying 
come  to  England  in  connection  with  the  Colonial  Exhibition, 
and  now  this  distinguished  geologist  and  naturalist  is  no  more. 
The  Earl  of  Iddesleigh  was  suddenly  carried  off  in  the  midst  of 
the  duties  belonging  to  an  important  office  in  the  State,  whilst 
Beresford-Hope  has  succumbed  to  an  illness  of  some  duration. 
These  two  joined  us  under  the  statute  which  enables  the  Council 
to  recommend  to  the  Society  for  election,  in  addition  to  the 
fifteen  who  are  selected  in  the  ordinary  way,  and  nearly  always 
on  account  of  their  scientific  claims,  persons  who  are  members- 
of  Her  Majesty's  Most  Honourable  Privy  Council,  and  whose 
ability  is  thus  attested,  though  they  are  not  usually  men  of 
science.  From  the  list  of  foreign  Members,  one  name  has  dis- 
appeared which  has  become  a  household  word  among  the 
physicists  of  all  civilized  nations.  The  name  of  Kirchhoft 
will  ever  be  remembered  as  that  of  the  introducer,  conjointly 
with  Bunsen,  of  spectral  analysis  into  the  regular  work  of 
the  chemical  laboratory,  a  step  which  has  been  so  fertile  in 
results.  To  him  too  we  owe  the  reference  of  the  dark  lines 
of  the  solar  spectrum  to  the  absorption  of  portions  of  light  coming 
from  deeper  portions  of  the  sun  by  the  vapours  of  substances 
which  in  the  condition  of  incandescent  vapour  themselves  emit 
bright  lines  in  corresponding  positions  ;  and  to  him  therefore  we 
are  indebted  for  the  detection  of  chemical  elements  in  the  sun 
and  stars,  though  partial  anticipations  of  these  discoveries  had 
been  made  by  others.  The  fertility  of  these  researches,  and  the 
attention  which  they  consequently  excited,  should  not  make  us- 


ii6 


NA  TURE 


{Dec.  I,  1887 


forget  the  many  important  investigations  in  mathematical  physics 

■of  which  Kirchhoff  was  the  author. 

The  present  year  is  memorable  as  the  Jubilee  of  the  reign  of 
Her  Most  Gracious  Majesty  our  beloved  Sovereign,  and  the 
Patron  of  our  Society.  An  address  of  congratulation  on  this 
auspicious  event  was  prepared  by  the  Council,  and  was  <jraciously 

o-eceived  by  Her  Majesty  in  Windsor  Castle  at  the  hands  of  your 
President,  who  was  accompanied  on  that  occasion  by  the  senior 
Secretary. 

It  happens  that  this  same  year  is  also  the  Jubilee  of  the 
Electric  Telegraph,  if  we  date  from  the  first  construction  of 
a  telegraph  on  an  actually  working  scale,  as  distinguished  from 
preparatory  experiments  made  only  in  the  laboratory.  The 
Jubilee  was  duly  celebrated  by  the  Society  of  Telegraph 
Engineers.  The  name  of  our  former  Fellow  Wheatstone  will 
go  down  to  posterity  as  having  occupied  a  foremost  place  in 
this  great  practical  application  of  Oersted's  fertile  discovery. 

I  will  just  briefly  allude  to  another  outcome  of  scientific 
research.  The  last  half-century  was  well  advanced  when  our 
Fellow  Dr.  Perkin,  by  utilizing  a  colour  reaction  which  had  been 
employed  by  chemists  as  a  test  for  aniline,  laid  the  foundation 
of  the  industry  of  the  coal-tar  colours,  which  has  now  attained 
such  great  proportions,  and  the  investigation  of  the  chemical 
theory  of  which  has  occupied  the  attention  of  so  many  eminent 
chemists  from  our  own  Fellow  Dr.  Hofmann  onwards. 

There  is  yet  another  Jubilee  connected  with  this  same  year  in 
which  our  Society  is  if  posible  still  more  closely  connected  :  it 
is  now  just  200  years  since  the  publication  of  the  first  edition  of 
that  immortal  work,  "The  Principia"  of  Newton.  Some  of 
the  important  results  embodied  in  the  Principia  had  previously 
Ijeen  communicated  to  the  Royal  Society. 

But,  restricting  our  view  to  the  last  half-century  alone,  we  can 
hardly  help  casting  a  glance  at  the  progress  of  science,  and  of  the 
practical  applications  of  science,  within  that  period.  In  electricity, 
I  have  already  referred  to  the  electric  telegraph,  now  passed  into 

.  the  management  of  a  department  of  the  State,  and  inwoven  in  our 
daily  life,  with  its  wires  stretching  all  round  the  earth  like  the 
nerves  in  the  body,  and  placing  us  in  immediate  connection  with 
distant  countries.  Much  more  recent  than  the  invention  of  the 
electric  telegraph  is  that,  in  some  respects,  still  more  wonderful 

■  apparatus  for  communication  at  a  distance  afforded  by  the 
telephone.  The  application  of  electricity  to  lighting  purposes, 
of  which  we  have  availed  ourselves  for  the  lighting  of  the  apart- 
ments of  our  own  Society,  is  an  industrial  outcome  of  Faraday's 

•  discovery  of  magneto-electric  induction  which  could  not  have 
been  thought  of  when  the  account  of  that  discovery  first  ap- 
peared in  our  Transactions.  It  is  true  that  what  I  have  just 
been  mentioning  with  respect  to  e'ectricity  consists  of  industrial 
applications  rather  than  the  discovery  of  new  scientific  prin- 
ciples ;  but  these  industrial  applications  react  upon  abstract 
science  beneficially  in  more  ways  than  one.  The  possibility  of 
useful  applications  induces  theorists  to  engage  in  investigations 
which  they  might  not  otherwise  have  thought  of,  the  result  of 

•  which  is  oftentimes  to  lead  them  to  a  clearer  apprehension  of 
fundamental  principles,  and  to  induce  them  to  undertake  exact 
quantitative  determinations  of  fundamental  constants.  More- 
over, the  grand  scale  on  which  apparatus  for  actual  commercial 
use  has  to  be  constructed  renders  it  possible  for  scientific  men, 
through  the  courtesy  of  those  who  direct  the  construction,  to 
make  interesting  experiments  on  a  scale  the  cost  of  which  would 
be  quite  prohibitory  if  it  were  a  matter  of  science  pure  and 
simple.  Take  for  example  the  experiments  made  by  Faraday 
on  the  first  cable  prepared  for  the  attempt  to  span  over  the 
Atlantic  Ocean. 

When  we  think  of  the  progress  of  science,  both  abstract  and 
applied,  during  the  last  half- century,  we  can  hardly  help  specu- 
lating as  to  the  possible  increase  of  scientific  knowledge  half  a 
■  century  hence.  Perhaps  we  might  be  tempted  to  think  that  the 
mine  must  have  been  so  far  worked  that  no  great  quantity  of 
precious  ore  can  still  be  left,  except  what  lies  too  deep  for 
human  power  to  extract.  Yet  surely  the  progress  of  knowledge 
in  the  past  warns  us  against  any  hasty  conclusion  of  the  kind. 
How  often  have  accessions  to  our  knowledge  been  made  which 
were  quite  unforeseen  and  quite  unexpected,  and  how  can  we 
say  what  great  discovery  may  not  be  made  at  any  moment,  and 
what  a  flood  of  light  may  not  result  from  it  ? 

In  what  direction  such  discoveries  may  be  made,  it  would  be 
rash  indeed  to  attempt  to  predict.  Yet  one  cannot  help  thinking 
of  one  or  two  cases  in  which  we  seem  almost  in  touch  of  what 
if  we  CDuld  reach  it  would  probably  give  us  an  insight  into  the 


processes  of  Nature  of  which  we  have  little  idea  at  present.  Take 
for  example  the  theory  of  electricity  as  contrasted  with  the  theory 
of  light.  In  the  latter  we  have  the  laws  of  reflection  and  re- 
fraction, which  have  long  been  known,  the  remarkable  pheno- 
menon of  interference,  the  curious  appearances  which  we 
designate  by  phenomena  of  diffraction.  But  all  these  fall  in  the 
most  simple  and  natural  way  into  their  places  when  we  have 
arrived  at  the  answer  to  the  question.  What  is  light?  which 
is  furnished  by  the  statement,  Light  consists  in  the  undulations 
of  an  elastic  medium.  But  we  are  not  at  present  able  to  give  a 
similar  answer  to  the  question,  What  is  electricity  ?  The  appro- 
priate idea  has  yet  to  be  found.  We  know  a  great  deal  about 
its  laws,  and  its  connection  with  magnetism  and  chemical  action  ; 
we  are  able  to  measure  accurately  physical  constants  relating  to 
it ;  we  make  it  subservient  to  the  wants  of  daily  life  ;  and  yet  we 
are  unable  to  answer  the  question  what  is  it  ?  Could  we  only 
give  a  definite  answer  to  this  question,  it  seems  likely  that  the 
production  of  electricity  by  friction,  electrostatic  attractions  and 
repulsions,  the  laws  of  electrodynamics,  those  of  thermodynamics, 
the  nature  of  magnetism,  and  magneto-electric  phenomena  would 
prove  to  be  all  simple  deductions  from  the  one  fundamental  idea. 
Nay  more  :  so  closely  is  electricity  related  to  chemical  action, 
that  could  we  only  clearly  apprehend  the  nature  of  electricity,  it 
seems  not  unlikely  that  an  unexpected  flood  of  light  might  be 
shed  on  chemical  combination. 

Let  me  refer  to  one  other  instance  in  which  a  large  accession 
to  our  present  knowledge  seems  not  altogether  hopeless.  We 
know  that  when  an  electric  discharge  is  passed  through  a  given 
ga«,  or  between  electrodes  formed  of  a  given  substance,  an 
analysis  of  the  spark  reveals  a  usually  complicated  spectrum  of 
bright  lines  characteristic  of  the  chemical  substances  present. 
The  arrangement  of  the  lines  in  most  cases  seems  capricious, 
while  in  other  instances  we  have  repetitions  of  line-,  or  else 
rhythmical  flutings,  indicative  of  law,  though  one  of  no  simple 
character.  There  can  be  no  reasonable  doubt  that  the  periodic 
times  indicated  by  the  bright  lines  seen  in  the  spectrum  are  those 
belonging  to  the  component  vibrations  of  the  chemical  molecules 
themselves  ;  and  the  appearance  is  just  such  as  would  be  pro- 
duced by  a  tolerably  complex  dynamical  system  vibrating  under 
the  action  of  internal  forces  of  restitution.  Now  such  a  system 
may  really  be  composed  of  two  or  more  simpler  systems,  held 
together  less  firmly  than  the  parts  of  one  of  the  simpler  systems  ; 
and  the  complex  vibrations  of  the  whole  may  be  made  up  of  those 
of  the  several  simpler  systems,  modified,  however,  by  their  mutual 
connection,  together  it  maybe  with  others  due  to  the  mutual  con- 
nection of  the  simpler  systems  regarded  each  as  a  whole.  It  is 
conceivable  that  relations  of  chemical  composition  may  thus  be 
pointed  out  even  between  substances  which  we  deem  elementary, 
and  which  from  their  great  stability  we  may,  perhaps,  never  be 
able  actually  to  decompose. 

But  I  must  apologize  for  having  taken  up  your  time  with 
speculations  as  to  the  future  ;  I  will  turn  now  to  some  mention 
of  the  action  of  your  Council  during  the  past  year,  and  of  the 
progress  made  by  Committees  appointed  by  the  Council. 

In  response  to  an  invitation  received  from  the  Academy  of 
Sciences  of  Paris,  that  the  Society  should  be  represented  at  the 
International  Conference  of  Astronomers,  which  it  was  proposed 
I  should  assemble  in  Paris,  in  the  spring,  for  the  purpose  of  de- 
liberating about  concerted  action  for  obtaining  a  complete  map 
of  the  starry  heavens  by  means  of  photography,  your  Council  re- 
quested the  Astronomer  Royal  to  represent  the  Society  on  that 
occasion.  The  Conference  met,  as  it  was  proposed,  last  spring  ; 
and  I  believe  that  the  English  astronomers  at  least  think  that  a 
good  foundation  has  been  laid  for  concerted  action  in  that  great 
undertaking. 

As  the  Fellows  are  already  aware  from  a  circular  which  has 
been  issued,  the  Council  has  decided  to  make  a  change  in  the 
mode  of  publication  of  the  Philosophical  Transactions.  The 
average  yearly  volume  is  a  good  deal  more  bulky  now  than  it 
was  at  the  beginning  of  the  century,  and  its  size  is  such  as  not 
unfrequently  to  make  it  desirable  to  bind  one  volume  in  two. 
The  sciences,  moreover,  which  are  represented  in  the  Philo- 
sophical Transactions,  divide  themselves  very  naturally  into 
two  groups :  mathematics,  physics,  and  chemistry  forming  one, 
and  the  biological  sciences  the  other.  The  Council  has  decided 
to  issue  the  Transactions  from  henceforth  in  two  series,  cor- 
responding to  these  two  divisions,  and  a  yearly  volume  will 
appear  in  each  series.  It  is  hoped  that  this  arrangement  will  be 
conducive  to  an  earlier  publication,  as  the  numeration  of  the 
pages  in  the  two  series  can  go  on  independently.     The  indi- 


I 


Dec,  I.  1887] 


NATURE 


117 


vidual  papers  will  also  be  issued  separately,  so  that  Fellows  who 
prefer  receiving  them  in  this  way  can  have  them  as  soon  as  they 
are  printed.  Moreover,  the  issue  of  the  Transactions  in  two 
series  will  enable  institutions  that  are  concerned  with  one  only 
of  the  two  groups  of  subjects,  and  that  are  not  on  our  list  for  free 
presentation,  to  purchase  for  their  libraries  the  series  devoted  to 
that  group,  instead  of  going  to  the  expense  of  procuring  the 
whole  Transactions. 

I  am  happy  to  be  able  to  announce  that  the  publication  of  the 
Challenger  Report  is  now  nearly  finished.  Twenty-eight  volumes, 
some  in  two  parts,  have  now  been  published,  and  these  are  all 
in  the  Society's  library. 

The  KrakatJib  Committee  have  now  all  but  completed  their 
labours.  A  vast  amount  of  information  on  the  phenomena 
related  to  that  most  remarkable  volcanic  explosion  has  been 
collected  and  digested,  different  branches  of  the  inquiry  having 
been  taken  up  by  different  members  of  the  Committee.  An 
estimate  has  been  made  of  the  cost  of  publication  of  the  Report, 
and  the  Council  has  decided  that  it  should  be  published  as  a 
separate  work,  and  has  voted  the  sum  required  for  publication. 
The  printing  of  the  volume  is  now  far  advanced,  and  in  a  very 
few  weeks  it  will  in  all  probability  be  in  the  hands  of  the  public. 

The  reports  of  the  observers  of  the  total  solar  eclipse  of 
August  last  year  are  now  coming  in.  From  inquiries  I  have 
made  I  am  in  hopes  that  they  will  all  be  in  by  the  end  of  the 
year.  It  is  obviously  convenient  that  they  should  all  be  dealt 
with  together,  rather  than  appear  in  a  scattered  form  for  the  sake 
of  a  slightly  earlier  publication  of  those  which  happen  to  be 
read  first. 

I  mentioned  in  my  last  address  that  with  respect  to  this  eclipse 
the  Council,  acting  in  accordance  with  the  recommendations  of 
the  Eclipse  Committee,  had  decided  to  confine  themselves  to  an 
expedition  to  Grenada,  without  attempting  another  to  Benguela 
on  the  Western  Coast  of  Africa,  which  if  sent  out  from  this 
country  would  have  been  a  good  deal  more  costly,  and  of  which 
the  success,  judging  by  such  accounts  of  the  climate  of  Benguela 
and  its  neighbourhood  as  we  could  procure,  seemed  very  doubt- 
ful. The  Committee  guaranteed,  however,  ;^ioo  towards  the 
expense  of  a  small  expedition  from  the  Cape  in  case  Her 
Majesty's  Astronomer  at  that  place  should  be  in  a  condition  to 
organize  one.  Sir  W.  J.  Hunt-Grubbe,  the  Admiral  in  command 
at  that  stati  )n,  was  prepared  to  render  every  assistance  in  his 
power.  Ultimately,  however,  it  was  not  found  practicable  to 
organize  an  expedition  from  the  Cape,  and  so  the  English 
observations  of  the  eclipse  were  confined  to  those  taken  at 
Grenada.  I  have  heard  that  the  day  of  the  eclipse  was  fine  at 
Benguela,  but  there  were  no  astronomers  of  any  nation  there  to 
take  advantage  of  it.  It  may  be  doubted,  however,  whether,  in 
spite  of  the  fineness,  the  haze  which  is  said  to  prevail  so  much  on 
that  coast  at  that  time  of  year,  might  not  materially  have  in- 
terfered with  the  observations. 

The  boring  in  the  Delta  of  the  Nile  has  been  continued,  by  the 
favour  of  the  War  Office,  under  the  able  and  zealous  superin- 
tendence of  Captain  Dickinson,  R.  E.  As  I  mentioned  last 
year,  the  Committee  thought  it  best  to  concentrate  their  efforts 
on  a  single  boring  until  rock  should  be  reached,  or  else  a  stratum 
of  such  a  character  as  to  show  that  the  alluvial  or  drifted  deposit 
had  been  got  through.  This  result  has  not  at  present  been 
obtained.  The  boring  at  Zagazig  reached  the  depth  of  324  feet, 
when  the  tube  broke,  and  stopped  for  the  time  further  progress. 
It  is,  however,  a  matter  of  interest  and  importance  to  know  that 
the  drift  or  deposit  extends  to  so  great  a  depth.  Geologists 
attach  so  much  importance  to  the  prosecution  of  the  inquiry  ihat 
at  the  suggestion  of  the  Delta  Committee  an  application  was 
made  to  the  Government  Grant  Committee  for  a  grant  of  ;^5C)0, 
which  was  acceded  to  by  the  Committee.  This  sum  would  not 
suffice  for  the  prosecution  of  the  inquiry  to  the  extent  con- 
templated ;  but  it  w  as  thought  that  with  such  a  sum  as  a  nucleus 
extraneous  pecuniary  assistance  might  be  obtained  from  Societies 
or  individuals  specially  interested  in  the  inquiry,  and  the  Council 
have  authorized  the  Delta  Committee  to  avail  themselves  of  such 
aid. 

The  meetings  of  Council  and  Committees  continue  to  be  very 
numerous,  and  no  less  than  twenty-two  Committees  and  Sub- 
Committees  have  been  at  work  during  the  session. 

The  number  of  papers  communicated  to  the  Society  continues 
to  i  icrea.-»e.  In  1884-85  the  number  was  93  ;  in  1885-86  it  was 
113  ;  and  in  the  past  session,  129. 

Since  the  last  Anniversary  one  complete  part  of  the  Philo- 
sophical Transactions,  and    thirty-two  japers  towards  the  new 


volume  have  been  published  ;  the  whole  comprising  no  less  than 
1482  pages  of  letterpress  and  seventy-six  plates.  In  the  same 
period  twelve  numbers  of  the  Proceedings,  containing  984 
pages,  have  appeared. 

The  task  of  preparing  the  MS.  of  the  Catalogue  of  Scientific 
Papers,  decade  1874  to  1883,  has  proved  far  heavier  than  was 
anticipated,  and  the  matter  very  far  exceeds  in  bulk  that  of  the 
previous  decade.  The  cataloguing  of  papers  from  the  volumes 
in  our  own  library  has  long  been  finished,  but  the  work  of  glean- 
ing stray  papers  from  works  in  other  libraries  which  we  do  not 
possess  has  proved  more  arduous  than  was  expected,  and  even 
now  is  not  quite  completed.  It  is  confidently  hoped,  however, 
that  the  MS.  will  be  completed  for  the  press  during  the  coming 
session. 

The  distribution  and  exchange  of  duplicates  from  our  library 
commenced  last  session  has  been  continued,  and  several  de- 
fective series  among  the  periodicals  on  our  shelves  have  been 
made  good.  The  general  work  of  the  library  has  received  care- 
ful attention  at  the  hands  of  Mr,  Alfred  White,  who  shortly 
before  the  last  Anniversary  was  appointed  to  the  office  of 
Assistant  Librarian. 

The  Copley  Medal  for  the  year  has  been  awarded  to  the 
eminent  botanist,  your  former  President,  Sir  Joseph  Dalton 
Hooker.  It  is  impossible,  within  the  limits  to  which  I  must 
confine  myself  on  the  present  occasion,  to  do  more  than  briefly 
refer  to  some  of  the  more  salient  features  of  his  scientific  career, 
extending  as  it  does  over  nearly  half  a  century  of  unceasing 
intellectual  activity  ;  and  I  need  hardly  say  that  in  attempting  to 
give  some  idea  of  important  labours  which  lie  outside  my  own 
studies,  I  am  dependent  on  the  kindness  of  scientific  friends. 

As  a  traveller,  he  can  perhaps  only  compare  with  Humboldt 
in  the  extent  to  which  he  has  used  travel  as  an  instrument  of 
research.  To  quote  a  remark  by  Prof.  Asa  Gray,  "  No 
botanist  of  the  present  century,  perhaps  of  any  time,  has  seen 
more  of  the  earth's  vegetation  under  natural  conditions."  His 
Antarctic  voyage  in  1839-43  supplied  the  material  for  a  series  of 
well-known  works  of  first-rate  importance  on  the  vegetation  of 
the  southern  hemisphere ;  and  these  in  their  turn  formed  the 
basis  of  important  general  discussions.  The  journey  to  India 
in  1847-51  yielded,  in  the  Himalayan  journals,  as  Humboldt  has 
remarked,  "a  perfect  treasure  of  important  observations."  The 
maps  made  of  the  passes  into  Tibet  are  even  still  unsuperseded. 
The  fine  work  on  the  "  Sikkim  Rhododendrons  "  was  at  once  a 
revelation  to  the  botanist  and  to  the  horticulturist.  His  account 
of  the  glacial  phenomena  of  the  Himalayas  supplied  facts  both 
to  Darwin  and  to  Lyell.  A  journey  to  Morocco  in  1 871  and  a 
later  visit  to  North  America  led  to  important  conclusions  on 
plant  distribution. 

Perhaps  Sir  Joseph  Hooker's  most  important  place  in 
scientific  history  will  be  found  in  the  rational  basis  upon  which 
he  placed  geographical  botany,  De  Candolle,  while  admitting 
the  continuity  of  existing  floras  with  those  preceding  them  in 
time,  still  adhered  in  principle  to  the  multiple  origin  of  species. 
To  quote  a  remark  by  Prof.  Asa  Gray,  "De  Candolle's  great 
work  closed  one  epoch  in  the  history  of  the  subject,  and 
Hooker's  name  is  the  first  that  appears  in  the  ensuing  one." 
According  to  Lyell,  "  the  abandonment  of  the  old  received 
doctrine  of  the  'immutability  of  species'  was  accelerated  in 
England  by  the  appearance  in  1859  of  Dr.  Hooker's  'Essay  on 
the  Flora  of  Australia,'"  This  essay  effected  a  revolution.  It 
was  quickly  followed  in  i860  by  the  classical  essay  on  the 
"Distribution  of  Arctic  Plants,"  and  in  1886  by  the  Notting- 
ham lecture  on  insular  floras.  The  fact  of  widely  dissevered 
localities  for  species,  which  De  Candolle  found  an  insuperable 
obstacle  to  abandoning  the  doctrine  of  multiple  origin,  has,  in 
the  hands  of  Hooker  and  A.  Gray  (as  stated  by  Bentham), 
afforded  the  most  convincing  proof  of  the  genetic  relationship  of 
the  floras  of  which  such  species  are  components. 

In  systematic  botany.  Hooker  has  perhaps  had  no  rival  since 
Robert  Brown.  The  "Genera  Plantarum,"  the  joint  work  of 
himself  and  his  friend  Bentham,  and  the  "Flora  Indica,"  to 
the  completion  of  which  our  colleague  is  devoting  the  leisure  of 
a  well-earned  retirement,  form  only  as  it  were  the  head  of  an 
immense  body  of  taxonomic  memoirs. 

Nor  have  his  services  to  botanical  science  been  confined  to 
geographical  botany  and  to  taxonomy.  His  researches  on 
various  groups,  such  as  Wehvitschia  and  others,  deal  in  a  mas- 
terly way  with  morphological  problems  of  the  highest  interest 
and  of  extreme  difficulty. 

While  no  one  would  attempt  to  minimize  the  commanding 


ii8 


NATURE 


[Dec.  I,  1887 


and  uniqvte  position  of  Mr.  Darwin,  the  scientific  historian  of 
the  future  will  recognize  how  mujh  the  development  of  the 
modern  theory  of  evolution,  from  its  first  conception  in  the  mind 
of  Mr.  Darwin,  was  facilitated  by  the  interaction  upon  one  an- 
other of  the  work  and  minds  of  Darwin,  Hooker,  and  Lyell. 
It  was  due  to  the  earnest  efforts  of  his  two  friends  that  Mr. 
Darwin  was  induced  to  publish  the  first  sketch  of  the  origin 
of  species  at  all.  And  no  one,  had  he  been  alive,  would  have 
more  cordially  recognized  than  Mr.  Darwin  how  vast  an  armoury 
of  facts  the  wide  botanical  experience  of  Hooker  constantly 
placed  at  his  disposal  in  fortifying  and  supporting  his  main 
position. 

Of  the  two  Royal  Medals,  it  is  customary,  though  it  is  not 
an  invariable  rule,  to  award  one  for  mathematics  or  physics,  and 
the  other  for  biological  science. 

The  medal,  which,  in  accordance  with  the  usual  rule,  has  been 
devoted  to  mathematics  and  physics,  has  this  year  been  awarded 
to  Colonel  A.  Clarke  for  his  comparison  of  standards  of  length, 
and  determination  of  the  figure  of  the  earth. 

Colonel  Clarke  was  for  some  twenty-five  years  the  scientific 
and  mathematical  adviser  for  the  Ordnance  Survey,  and  whilst 
acting  in  that  capacity  he  became  known  to  the  whole  scientific 
world  as  possessing  a  unique  knowledge  and  power  in  dealing 
with  the  complex  questions  which  arise  in  the  science  of  geodesy. 

His  laborious  comparison  of  the  standards?  of  length,  carried 
out  mider  General  Sir  Henry  James,  R. E.,  are  universally 
regarded  as  models  of  scientific  precision. 

His  determination  of  the  ellipticity  and  dimensions  of  the 
earth  from  the  great  arcs  of  meridian  and  longitude  involved 
a  very  high  mathematical  ability  and  an  enormous  amount 
of  labour.  The  conclusion  at  which  he  arrived  removed  an 
apparent  discrepancy  between  the  results  of  pendulum  ex- 
periments and  those  derived  from  geodesy,  and  is  generally 
accepted  as  the  best  approximation  hitherto  attained  as  to  the 
figure  of  the  earth. 

The  accounts  of  these  investigations  have  been  published  in  a 
number  of  memoirs,  several  of  which  have  been  communicated 
to  the  Royal  Society. 

In  1880  he  published  a  book  on  geodesy,  which,  besides 
giving  an  accurate  account  of  that  science,  embodies  the  main 
results  of  the  work  of  his  life. 

In  the  biological  division  of  the  sciences  the  Royal  Medal  has 
this  year  been  awarded  to  Prof.  Henry  N.  Moseley  for  his 
numerous  researches  in  animal  morphology,  and  especially  his 
investigations  on  Corals  and  on  Peripatus. 

The  result  of  his  elaborate  investigations  on  Corals,  an  account 
of  which  has  been  published  in  the  Philosophical  Transactions, 
was  to  show  that  the  Milleporidas  and  the  Stylasteridae  were  not, 
as  had  been  thought,  Anthrozoan  in  nature,  but  were  composite 
coral-forming  hydroids.  Many  new  genera  and  species  were 
described  by  him  in  these  memoirs,  and  in  fact  a  new  group  of 
organisms,  the  Hydrocorallinse,  was  not  merely  indicated,  but 
the  complete  morphology  and  systematic  subdivisions  of  that 
order  were  worked  out. 

Moseley's  memoir  on  Peripatus  is  not  less  remarkable.  He 
was  the  first  to  point  out  the  true  nature  of  this  remarkable 
animal,  and  to  demonstrate  that  it  was  in  reality  an  archaic 
Arthropod.  The  subsequent  investigations  of  Balfour  and 
Sedgwick  have  further  increased  the  importance  of  Moseley's 
discovery. 

Moseley's  memoir  on  the  Land  Planarians  of  Ceylon  (Phil. 
Trans.,  1872)  is  an  important  contribution  to  the  anatomy  of  the 
Turbellaria.  He  was  the  first  to  apply  the  method  of  section- 
cutting  to  the  Planarians,  and  his  paper  is  full  of  new  facts  of 
great  importance,  which  have  stood  the  test  of  subsequent  work 
over  the  same  ground. 

Besides  these  three  great  memoirs  published  in  the  Philo- 
sophical Transactions,  Moseley  has  published  numerous  minor 
discoveries,  and  his  spectroscopic  observations  on  the  colouring 
matters  of  marine  organis'ns  have  proved  the  starting-point  of 
valuable  investigations. 

Mention  must  not  be  omitted  of  Moseley's  admirable  book, 
"Notes  of  a  Naturalist  on  the  Challenger,"  -which,  has  been 
justly  compared,  for  the  varied  ability,  interest,  and  activity 
which  it  evinces  on  the  part  of  the  author,  to  Darwin's  "  Voyage 
of  the  ^^^^/^." 

Since  the  date  of  the  works  above  referred  to,  Moseley  has 
been  chiefly  active  in  the  discharge  of  his  duties  as  Linacre 
Professor,  and  the  success  with  which  he  has  directed  the  work 
of  his  pupils  is  evinced  by  the  important  memoirs  on  zoological 


subjects  which  several  of  them  have  produced  whilst  working 
under  his  direction.  He  has  himself  also  published  a  remark- 
able discovery  with  regard  to  the  Chitons.  In  the  shells  of 
many  genera  and  species  of  these  mollusks  he  has  detected 
highly  developed  eyes,  of  which  he  has  described  the  minute 
structure. 

The  Davy  Medal  for  the  year  1882  was  awarded  by  the 
Council  to  Profs.  Mendelejeff  and  Lothar  Meyer  conjointly, 
for  their  discovery  of  the  periodic  relations  of  the  atomic 
weights.  This  relation,  now  known  as  "  ihe  Periodic  Law," 
has  attracted  great  attention  on  the  part  of  chemists,  and  has 
even  enabled  Prof.  Mendelejeff  to  predict  the  properties  of 
elements  at  the  time  unknown,  but  since  discovered,  such  as 
gallium  for  instance. 

But  while  recognizing  the  merits  of  chemists  of  other  nations, 
we  are  not  to  forget  our  own  countrymen  ;  and  accordingly  the 
Davy  Medal  for  the  present  year  has  been  awarded  to  Mr.  John 
A.  R.  Newlands,  for  his  discovery  of  the  Periodic  Law  of  the 
chemical  elements.  Though,  in  the  somewhat  less  complete  form 
in  which  the  law  was  enunciated  by  him,  it  did  not  at  the  time 
attract  the  attention  of  chemists,  still,  in  so  far  as  the  work  of 
the  foreign  chemists  above  mentioned  was  anticipated,  the 
priority  belongs  to  Mr.  Newlands. 


SCIENTIFIC  SERIALS. 

Rivista  Scientifico-Industriale,  October. — On  the  crepuscular 
phenomena  of  1883-84,  by  Prof.  Annibale  Ricco.  These  remarks 
are  made  in  connection  with  the  author's  comprehensive  work, 
now  nearly  ready  for  the  press,  on  the  remarkable  after-glows  of 
the  years  1883-84.  One  of  the  chief  conclusions  arrived  at  in 
this  work,  after  a  careful  consideration  of  all  the  evidence,  is 
that  the  volcanic  theory,  first  advanced  by  Mr.  Norman 
Lockyer,  is  the  only  one  that  can  be  now  accepted.  The  light - 
effects  appeared  soon  after  the  great  eruption  of  Krakatab  on 
August  27,  1883,  were  propagated  from  the  neighbourhood  of 
the  volcano  to  the  most  distant  parts,  and  then  gradually  died 
out,  precisely  in  the  same  way  that  similar  manifestations  were 
made  immediately  after  the  eruption  of  the  island  of  Ferdinandea 
(Julia)  in  1831.  It  is  further  concluded  that  the  after-glows  were 
due,  not  to  the  ashes  or  scorise  ejected  by  Krakatab,  but  to  the 
condensation  of  the  aqueous  vapours  caused  by  the  volcano, 
which  condensation  increased  the  quantity  of  solar  light  reflected 
by  the  atmosphere. 

Bulletin  de  V Academie  Royale  de  Belgiqiie,  October. — On  the 
mass  of  the  planet  Saturn,  by  L.  de  Ball.  By  a  comparative 
study  of  its  satellites,  made  at  the  Observatory  of  Cointe  during 
the  winter  of  1885-S6,  the  author  finds  the  mass  of  Saturn  to  be 
1/3492 '8  that  of  the  sun,  which  is  rather  less  than  the  values 
obtained  by  Meyer,  Hall,  and  Struve,  which  are  i/3482'5,  1/3481  '3 
and  1/3490 '8  respectively. — Experimental  researches  on  the  sense 
of  vision  in  the  Arthropods,  by  Felix  Plateau.  Of  this  elaborate 
memoir  the  first  part  only  appears  in  this  issue,  dealing  first 
with  the  work  already  accomplished  down  to  the  year  1887  on 
the  structure  and  functions  of  simple  eyes  ;  secondly,  with  the 
eyes  of  Myriapods.  The  four  remaining  parts,  to  be  publi-hed  in 
subsequent  numbers  of  the  Bulletin,  will  treat  of  vision  in  the 
spiders,  and  in  larvae  generally  ;  of  the  part  played  by  the 
frontal  eyes  in  perfect  insects  ;  of  compound  eyes  and  the  per- 
ception of  movements  ;  with  an  anatomico-physiological 
summary,  and  experiments  with  insects. — Remarks  on  the  total 
solar  eclipse  of  August  19,  1887,  by  L.  Niesten.  A  comparative 
study  of  the  photographs  obtained  by  MM.  Niesten  and  Karelin 
at  the  station  of  Jurjewetz,  shows  that  with  Van  Monckhoven's 
sensitive  plates  an  almost  instantaneous  image  is  obtained  not 
only  of  the  protuberances  but  also  of  the  corona  ;  and  further 
that  a  pose  of  thirty  seconds  gives  no  more  detailed  images  of 
the  corona  than  those  obtained  at  the  end  of  eight  seconds. 
Hence  it  would  appear  that  photographs  of  the  corona  obtained 
after  an  exposure  of  over  a  minute  should  be  attributed  to 
physical  phenomena  due  to  the  atmospheric  conditions,  or  to 
light-effects  produced  in  the  photographic  apparatus  itself. 

SOCIETIES  AND  ACADEMIES. 

London. 

Linnean  Society,  November  3.— W.  Carruthers,  F.R.S., 
President,  in  the  chair. — Mr.  J.  H.  Hart,  of  Trinidad,  was 
elected  a  Fellow  of  the  Society. — The  President  called  attention 


Dec.  I,  1887] 


NA  TURE 


119 


to  the  death-roll  since  last  June  meeting,  specially  deploring  the 
loss  of  Prof.  Julius  von  Haast,  N.Z.,  Dr.  Spencer  Baird,  U.S., 
and  Prof.  Caspary,  of  Konigsberg. — Mr.  H.  N.  Ridley  gave  an 
account  of  his  natural  history  collection  in  Fernando  Noronha. 
The  group  of  islands  in  question  is  in  the  South  Atlantic,  194 
miles  east  of  Cape  San  Roque.  The  largest  is  about  five  miles 
long  and  two  miles  across  at  broadest  part.  Although  chiefly 
basaltic,  phonolite  rocks  crop  up  here  and  there.  The  indigenous 
fauna  and  flora  seem  to  have  beea  much  modified,  and  in  some 
cases  extirpated,  by  human  agency.  Of  mammals,  the  cat  is 
reported  to  have  become  feral,  and  rats  and  mice  swarm  ;  Cetacea 
occasionally  frequent  the  coast.  The  land-birds  comprise  a  dove, 
a  tyrant,  and  a  greenlet  (  Virio).  Sea-birds  are  numerous,  though 
apparently  less  sj  than  in  the  time  of  the  early  voyagers. 
Among  reptiles  occurs  an  Amphisba:na,  a  Skink,  and  a  Gecko  ; 
turtles  also  haunt  the  bays.  The  absence  of  batrachians  and 
fresh-water  fish  is  noteworthy.  A  well-known  Brazilian  species 
of  butterfly  is  plentiful.  Though  insects  generally  are  abundant, 
there  are,  notwithstanding,  but  few  species.  Two  shells 
{Trochus)  show  a  southern  distribution,  though  other  marine 
forms  indicate  West  Indian  relationship.  Several  interesting 
plants  were  got,  a  Solatium  with  medicinal  properties,  a  new 
Erythrium,  and  flower  of  the  "Burra,"  a  Euphorbiaceous 
tree.  Of  ferns,  mosses  and  hepatics,  lichens  and  fungi,  several 
interesting  sorts  were  collected. — Mr.  Geo.  Murray  exhibited 
Vallotiia  ovalis  from  Bermuda  and  Grenada  ;  the  former  sort 
consisting  of  a  balloon-shaped  cell  an  inch  long  and  two  wide. 
He  explained  by  diagrams  the  development  of  V.  uti-icularis, 
incidentally  comparing  this  with  Sciadium. — Prof.  Marshall 
Ward  showed  specimens  and  made  remarks  on  the  peculiar  de- 
velopment of  Agaricus  (Amillaria)  melktts. — Mr.  E.  A.  Heath 
exhibited  examples  of  fruits  of  two  species  of  Solarium  from 
Barbados. — A  paper  was  read  on  the  scars  occurring  on 
the  stem  of  Dammara  rohmta,  by  Mr.  S.  G.  Shattock.  He 
says  that  the  process  of  disarticulation  of  the  branches  is  like 
that  by  which  a  leaf  or  other  organ  is  shed.  The  parenchy- 
matous cells  across  the  whole  zone  of  articulation  multiply  by 
transverse  division,  a  layer  of  cork  resulting  from  the  formation 
of  this  secondary  meristem,  and  through  the  distal  limits  of  this, 
solution  of  continuity  occurs.  After  this  the  slender  connecting 
bond  of  wood  is  broken  across  by  the  weight  of  the  branch  or 
the  first  trivial  violence  ;  this  completion  of  the  process  being 
aided,  perhaps,  by  the  tension  made  upon  the  wood  in  conse- 
quence of  the  cell-division  of  the  surrounding  parenchyma  which 
occurs  across  its  axis.  It  thus  happens  that  the  whole  of  the 
parenchymatous  system  of  the  stem  is  closed  by  cork  before  the 
branch  is  actually  shed. — A  communication  followed,  by  Messrs. 
J.  G.  Baker  and  C.  B.  Clarke,  on  the  Ferns  of  Northern  India  ; 
it  being  a  supplement  to  a  memoir  published  in  the  Society's 
Transactions. 

Physical  Society,  November  12. — Prof.  W.  E.  Ayrton, 
F.R.S.,  Vice  President,  in  the  chair. — Lieut.  Bacon,  R.N.,  was 
elected  a  member  of  the  Society. — Owing  to  the  illness  of  Dr. 
Shettle,  the  paper  announced  to  be  read  by  him  was  postponed. 
— The  following  communication  was  read  :  —On  a  geometrical 
method  of  determining  the  conditions  of  maximum  efficiency  in 
the  transmission  of  power  by  alternating  currents,  by  Mr.  T.  H. 
Blakesley.  In  this  paper  the  author  confines  himself  to  the  con- 
sideration of  a  simple  circuit  containing  generating,  conveying, 
and  recipient  parts,  in  which  the  E  M.  F.  follows  the  law  of 
sines.  The  maximum  E.  M.F.'s  of  both  machines  are  supposed 
known,  together  with  the  resistance  and  coefficient  of  self- 
induction  of  the  complete  circuit.  The  variable  on  which  the 
efficiency  of  transmission  depends  is  the  difference  of  phase  of 
generator  and  receiver.  A  geometrical  construction  is  given  by 
which  the  phase  which  gives  maximum  efficiency  can  be  deter- 
mined. Mr.  Kapp  thought  the  construction  would  not  apply 
where  the  receiver  does  mechanical  work,  owing  to  the  E.M.F. 
not  being  a  true  sine  function  of  the  time.  He  also  mentioned 
an  experiment  performed  on  a  motor  driven  successively  by 
alternating  and  direct  currents,  in  which  the  apparent  power 
(  V^?'  V'?'  )  supplied  by  alternating  currents  was  about  five 
times  that  required  when  direct  currents  were  used,  the  motor 
giving  out  the  same  power  in  the  two  cases.  From  this  he 
inferred  that  the  ratio  of  power  to  weight  is  much  greater  for  a 
direct  than  for  an  alternating  current  motor.  This  he  considered 
a  serious  drawback  to  the  use  of  alternate  currents  for  trans- 
mitting power.  After  some  remarks  by  Prof.  Ayrton  and  Prof. 
S.  P.  Thompson,  Mr.  Blakesley  said  that  by  placing  a  condenser 


between  the  terminals  of  the  recipient  machine  a  greater  currei  t 
could  be  passed  through  the  receiver  than  that  in  the  generator 
and  line. — Prof.  A.  W.  RUcker  exhibited  and  described  a  lecture 
experiment  for  determining  the  velocity  of  sound.  The  principle 
of  the  arrangement  is  that  used  by  Fizeau  in  determining  the 
velocity  of  light.  A  vibrating  reed  is  used  as  the  source  of 
sound  and  a  sensitive  flame  as  receiver.  A  long  U-shaped  tube 
has  its  two  ends  placed  near  and  parallel  to  the  plane  of  a  per- 
forated disk,  which  is  capable  of  rotating  about  an  axis  perpen- 
dicular to  its  own  plane.  The  reed  and  sensitive  flame  occupy 
similar  positions  on  the  opposite  side  of  the  disk.  On  rotating 
the  disk,  the  sensitive  flame  flares  or  is  quiescent  according  as 
the  time  taken  to  travel  the  length  of  the  tube  is  an  even  or  an 

T 
odd  multiple  of  — ,  where  T  is  the  time  of  one  revolution  and 

2« 

n  the  number  of  holes  in  the  disk. — Mr.  Bosanquet  exhibited  a 
form  of  polariscope  he  had  made  some  time  ago  for  researches 
on  the  polarization  of  the  sky.  Its  chief  feature  is  a  compound 
prism  of  right-  and  left-handed  quartz'which  shows  coloured 
bands  with  polarized  light,  whatever  be  the  direction  of  the 
plane  of  polarization.  It  also  forms  a  very  sensitive  object  for 
polarimeters. 

Zoological  Society,  November  15. — Prof.  W.  H.  Flower, 
F.  R.S.,  President,  in  the  chair,  — The  Secretary  read  a 
report  on  the  additions  that  had  been  made  to  the  Society's 
Menagerie  during  the  months  of  June,  July,  August,  September, 
and  October,  1887,  ^"cf  called  attention  to  certain  interesting 
accessions  which  had  been  received  during  that  period. — A 
communication  was  read  from  Herr  W.  von  Nathusius,  of 
Konigsborn,  on  Symbioles  equi,  a  parasite  of  the  horse,  causing 
what  is  called  "greesy-foot,"  of  which  he  sent  specimens  for  exhi- 
bition.— The  Secretary  read  a  letter  addressed  to  him  by  Dr, 
Emin  Pacha,  dated  Wadelai,  April  15,  1887,  referring  to  some 
communications  which  he  was  proposing  to  offer  to  the  Society. 
— A  letter  was  read  from  Surgeon-General  George  Bidie,  referring 
to  a  case  of  the  breeding  of  the  Elephant  in  captivity. — Prof.  Bell 
made  some  obseivations  on  the  "British  Marine  Area,"  is 
proposed  to  be  defined  by  the  Committee  of  the  British  Associa- 
tion. Prof.  Bell  oppo?ed  the  idea  of  omitting  the  Channel 
Islands  from  the  British  area. — Prof.  A.  Newton,  F.R.S.,  ex- 
hibited (on  behalf  of  Mr.  W.  Eagle  Clarke)  a  specimen  of 
Bulwer's  Petrel  {Buhveria  coluvibina),  believed  to  have  been  picked 
up  dead  in  Yorkshire. — Mr.  H.  E.  Dresser  exhibited  (on  behalf 
of  Lord  Lilford)  specimens  of  a  new  species  of  Titmouse  allied  to 
the  Marsh-Tit  [Parus  ater),  obtained  by  Dr.  Guillemard  in 
Cyprus,  which  he  proposed  to  designate  Parus  Cypriotes. — Mr. 
Boulenger  exhibited  a  living  specimen  of  a  rare  African  Batrachian 
{Xenopiis  Imvis),  which  had  been  sent  to  him  by  Mr.  Leslie,  of 
Port  Elizabeth. — Prof.  Flower  exhibited  a  photograph  of  a  speci- 
men ofRudolphi's  \^ha\&{Bala:noptra  borealis),  taken  in  October 
last,  in  the  Thames  near  Tilbury.— Mr.  G.  A.  Boulenger,  read 
on  account  of  the  Reptiles  and  Batrachians  collected  by  Mr.  H. 
H.  Johnston  on  the  Rio  del  Rey,  West  Africa.  Amongst  these 
were  examples  of  two  species  of  Batrachians  new  to  science. 
— Mr.  Edgar  A.  Smith  read  some  notes  on  three  species  of  shells 
obtained  by  Mr.  H.  H.  Johnston  at  the  Rio  del  Rey,  Cameroons. 
— Mr.  A.  G.  Buller  read  a  paper  containing  an  account  of  tw» 
small  collections  of  African  Lepidoptera  obtained  by  Mr.  H.  H. 
Johnston  at  the  Cameroons  and  the  Rio  del  Rey.  —  A 
communication  was  read  from  Mr.  G.  E.  Dobson,  F.  R.  S.,  on 
the  genus  Myosorex.  The  paper  contained  the  description  of  a 
new  species  from  the  Rio  del  Rey  (Cameroons)  district,  which 
he  proposed  to  call  Myosorex  johustoni,  after  Mr.  H.  H. 
Johnston,  who  had  sent  home  the  specimens.— Mr.  G.  A. 
Boulenger  gave  the  description  of  a  new  species  of  Hyla  from 
Port  Hamilton,  Corea,  living  in  the  Society's  Gardens,  which 
he  proposed  to  name  Hyla  stepheni,  after  its  discoverer. 

Institution  of  Civil  Engineers,  November  8. — Mr.  G. 
B.  Bruce,  the  new  President,  after  presenting  the  medals  and 
premiums  announced  at  the  annual  meeting  in  May  last,  delivered 
his  address  on  assuming  the  chair  for  the  first  time.  Having 
entered  upon  his  apprenticeship  in  the  locomotive  works  of 
Robert  Stephenson  within  a  few  months  of  the  beginning  of  the 
present  reign,  the  President  chose  the  state  of  engineermg  then 
and  in  the  Queen's  Jubilee  year  as  the  subject  of  his  remarks. 
Starting  with  the  workshop,  in  1837  machine-tools  were  practic- 
ally unknown,  reliance  being  placed  upon  the  skill  of  the  work- 
men, who  could  chip  and  file  by  hand  almost  as  truly  as  the 
machine.     It  was  scarcely  credible,  but  it  was  a  fact,  that  there 


I20 


NATURE 


\_Dec.  I,  1887 


•was  not  a  single  crane  in  Robert  Stephenson's  shops  in  1837  ; 
and  the  only  steam-engine,  in  that  which  was  the  most  important 
locomotive  shop  in  the  world  of  that  day,  was  a  vibrating  pillar- 
engine,  with  a  single  16-inch  cylinder  and  3-feet  stroke.  About 
the  only  machine-tool,  properly  so  called,  in  the  works  was  a 
planing-machine,  which  probably  weighed  about  3  tons.  At 
the  present  time  there  were  lathes  75  feet  long,  weighing  100 
tons,  giving  a  yield  of  steel-turnings  at  the  rate  of  10  and  20  tons 
a  day,  and  planing-machines  weighing  90  tons  and  operating 
over  surfaces  of  20  feet  by  15  feet.  Having  spoken  of  the 
changes  in  the  position  of  the  workmen,  the  President  referred 
to  the  progress  of  railways,  the  development  of  the  iron  and  steel 
industries,  and  sanitary  engineering.  Reference  was  made  to 
the  electric  telegraph,  which  had  developed  from  the  5-needIe 
instrument  of  Cooke  and  Wheatstone,  employing  six  wires  and 
working  at  about  the  rate  of  four  words  a  minute,  to  the  system 
of  multiplex  and  automatic  telegraphy,  by  means  of  which  six 
messages  could  be  sent  at  once  on  one  wire  with  a  speed  of,  say, 
600  words  per  minute.  Touching  successively  on  the  telephone, 
electric  light,  and  the  application  of  electricity  as  a  motive 
power,  the  President  hazarded  the  opinion  that  when  some  way 
should  have  beeh  discovered  of  storing  up  in  a  more  efficient  and 
financially  successful  manner  the  unemployed  forces  of  Nature, 
such  as  the  winds  and  tides,  then  would  electricity  become  a 
factor  in  the  world's  life  compared  with  which  it  was  at  present 
as  nothing. 

Anthropological  Institute,  November  22. — Prof.  Flower, 
C.B.,  Vice-President,  in  the  chair. — Canon  Isaac  Taylor  read  a 
paper  on  "  The  Primitive  Seat  of  the  Aryans,"  in  which  he 
urged  the  view  that  the  Finns  are  the  nearest  representatives  of 
the  ancient  Aryan  stock,  and  that  the  race  took  its  origin  in 
North  Germany. 

Edinburgh. 

Royal  Physical  Society,  November  16.  — Prof.  Duns 
delivered  the  introductory  addressfor  the  session  1887-88.  At  the 
outset  obituary  notices  of  several  deceased  Fellows  were  given, 
notably  of  Mr,  Robert  Gray,  the  late  Secretary  of  the  Society. 
After  some  remarks  upon  the  history  and  progress  of  the  Society, 
he  passed  on  to  consider  the  claims  of  Scotland  upon  Government 
aid  for  scientific  purposes,  and  advocated  the  union  of  the  various 
scientific  corporations  of  Edinburgh  to  form  an  Academy  of 
Science  for  dealing  with  general  questions  of  this  nature. 

Paris. 

Academy  of  Sciences,  November  21. — M.  Janssen  in  the 
chair. — On  the  nervous  system  of  the  Gasteropods  (Aplysiatype, 
A.  depilans  and  A.  fasciata),  by  M.  H.  de  Lacaze-Duthiers. 
The  Aplysia,  a  large  mollusk,  abounding  especially  in  the 
Mediterranean  seaports,  is  here  studied  for  the  purpose  of  deter- 
mining the  type  of  its  nervous  system  in  order  to  compare  it 
with  those  of  Gadinia,  Testacella,  and  other  Gasteropods 
already  described  by  the  author. — Remarks  in  connection  with 
M.  Colladon's  recent  note  on  waterspouts  and  tornadoes,  by  M. 
H.  Faye.  It  is  again  shown  that  M.  Colladon's  illustration,  as 
published  in  the  Couples  rendtis,  has  only  a  very  remote  con- 
nection with  true  waterspouts  and  whirlwinds.  Reference 
is  also  made  to  the  statement,  in  W.  Ferrel's  new  work  on 
meteorology,  that  much  sea-water  is  carried  up  by  the  ascend- 
ing current  of  waterspouts,  the  fish  and  other  animals  in  small 
ponds  being  even  in  this  way  borne  aloft  and  wafted  to  great 
distances.  On  the  contrary,  M.  Faye  insists  with  Lieutenant 
Finley,  of  the  United  States  Signal  Service,  that  no  appreciable 
quantity  of  water  is  pumped  up  in  this  way,  although  much  is 
driven  horizontally  to  the  right  and  left  by  the  gyratory  velocity 
of  the  air,  which  has  always  a  descending,  and  never  an  ascend- 
ing motion. — On  the  crystalline  form  of  cinchonamine,  by  M. 
C.  Friedel.  Some  crystals  of  the  alkaloid  discovered  by  Arnaud 
in  certain  varieties  of  quinquinas  are  described  as  hexagonal 
prisms  terminating  in  a  rhombohedron  and  of  the  true  ortho- 
rhombic  type. — On  a  meteorite  which  fell  on  August  18/30,  1887, 
at  Taborg,  in  the  Government  of  Perm,  Russia,  by  M.  Daubree. 
This  meteorite,  which  has  but  slight  cohesion,  with  density  3 '620, 
appears  to  closely  resemble  those  which  fell  on  April  i,  1857,  at 
Heredia  (Costa  Rica)  ;  on  May  14,  i86r,  at  Canellas,  Province 
of  Barcelona  (Spain)  ;  on  January  19,  1867,  at  Khethree,  Rajpu- 
tana  (India) ;  and  on  August  17,  1875,  at  Feid  Shair  (Algeria). 
— On  a  simple  relation  between  the.  wave-lengths  of  spectra,  by 
M.  A.  E.  Nordenskjold.     The  researches  here  described  tend  to 


confirm  the  author's  previous  view  that,  at  least  in  the  spectra  of 
certain  simple  bodies,  the  differences  between  the  logarithms  of 
the  wave-lengths  of  each  element  are  simple  multiples  of  the 
same  number.  The  universality  of  this  law,  as  applicable  to  the 
spectra  of  all  bodies,  is  still  far  from  being  established.  But 
further  investigation  will  probably  show,  either  that  the  spectra 
of  all  simple  bodies  conform  absolutely  to  this  law,  or  else  that 
they  are  disposed  in  more' or  less  independent  groups,  to  which 
the  law  may  still  be  applicable.  — 'On  the  volcanoes  of  Hawaii, 
by  Mr.  James  Dana.  Reserving  for  the  American  Journal  of 
Science  a  detailed  account  of  a  recent  visit  to  these  volcanoes,  the 
author  here  remarks  chiefly  on  the  remarkable  fluidity  of  the 
lavas,  and  on  the  fact  that  the  eruptions  show  no  sign  of  being 
in  any  way  associated  with  the  surrounding  marine  waters.  The 
salts  deposited  in  the  hottest  recesses,  and  those  of  solfataras,  do 
not  appear  to  have  hitherto  yielded  any  chloride,  while  the  sul- 
phate of  soda  is  very  common. — Researches  on  meteorites  : 
general  conclusions,  by  Mr.  J.  Norman  Lockyer. — Observa- 
tions of  Olbers'  comet  (1815  I.),  at  its  return  in  1887,  made 
with  the  0.38  m.  equatorial  of  the  Bordeaux  Observatory,  by 
MM.  G.  Rayet  and  Y.  Courty.  The  observations  cover  the 
period  from  September  8  to  September  25. — On  sidereal  evolu- 
tion, by  M.  Stanislas  Meunier. 


BOOKS,  PAMPHLETS,  and  SERIALS  RECEIVED. 

Die  Welt  in  Ihren  Spiegelungen  unter  dem  Wandel  des  Volkergedankens. 
Prolegomena  zu  Einer  Gedankenstatistik  ;  Ethnologisches  Bilderbuch  mit 
Erklarendem  Text:  A.  Bastian  (Mittler,  Berlin). — Sound;  Light,  and  Heat  : 
M.  R.  Wright  (Longmans).— A  Primary  Geometry:  S.  E.Warren  (  Iri'ibner). 
— Quantitative  Chemical  Analysis  ;  Classen  and  Herrick  (Triibner).  -  Myth, 
Ritual,  and  Religion  :  A.  Lang  (Longmans). — Translations  of  Foreign  Bio- 
logical Memoirs,  I.  Memoirs  on  the  Physiology  of  Nerve,  of  Mu.scle,  and  of 
the  Electrical  Organ,  edited  by  J.  Burdon-Sanderson  (Clarendon  Press). — 
Earth  Knowledge  :  Harrison  and  Wakefield  (Blackie). — Colour  :  Prof  A. 
H.  Church  (Ca'^S'.ll). — Elementary  Microscopical  Manipulation  :  T.  C. 
White  (Roper  and  Drowlev). — Quarterly  Journal  of  Microscopical  Science, 
November  (Churchill).— Annales  de  la  Faculte  des  Sciences  de  Toulouse, 
tome  i.,  1887,  4  parts  (Gauthier-Villars,  Paris). 


CONTENTS.  PAGE 

The    Mathematical    Theory    of    Perfectly    Elastic 

Solids 97 

The  Volcanic  and   Coral   Islands  in   the   Solomon 

Group.     By  Dr.  Hugh  Robert  Mill 98 

Agriculture  in  some  of  its  Relations  with  Chemistry    100 

Weather loi 

Our  Book  Shelf  :— 

Cook  :  "  Class- Book  of  Algebra  Examples  for  Middle 

and  High  Schools  " 102 

A  Quekett  Club   Man:   "The  Student's  Hand-book 

to  the  Microscope  " 102 

Hull:   "  A  Sketch  of  Geological  History  " 103 

Letters  to  the  Editor  : — 

Politics  and  the  Presidency   of  the   Royal   Society. — 
W.     T.     Thiselton    Dyer,    C.M.G.,    F.R.S.  ; 

F.R.S.  and  M.P •    .    ,    • 103 

The  Vitreous  State-of   Water.     {/lluslraled.)—R&v. 

A.  Irving 104 

The  Bagshot  Beds. — R.  S.  Herries      104 

The  Ffynnon  Beuno  and  Cae  Gwyn  Caves. — Worth- 

ington  G.  Smith 105 

Meteor. — B.  Truscott. 105 

Modern  Views  of  Electricity.  Part  III.  —  Magnetism. 

V.    {Illustrated).     By  Dr.  Oliver  J.  Lodge,  F.R.S.  .     105 
Discovery  of  Diamonds  in  a  Meteoric  Stone  ....     no 

Notes Ill 

Our  Astronomical  Column  : — 

Probable  New  Variables • 114 

Names  of  Minor  Planets 114 

The  Spectra  of  Oxygen  and  Carbon  compared   with 

that  of  the  Sun 114 

Olbers' Comet,  1887 114' 

Astronomical     Phenomena     for     the     Week     1887  [ 

December  4-10 Ii4i 

Geographical  Notes      115  ; 

The  Anniversary  Meeting  of  the  Royal  Society    .    .     115 

Scientific  Serials 118 

Societies  and  Academies 118 

Books,  Pamphlets,  and  Serials  Received 120 


^ J 


NA  TURE 


121 


THURSDAY,   DECEMBER   8,    1887. 


TECHNICAL  EDUCATION  IN  MANCHESTER. 

pROFESSOR  HUXLEY  could  scarcely  have  antici- 
-*-  pated  the  ready  response  Manchester  has  given 
to  the  challenge  he  threw  down  at  the  close  of  his 
most  able  address  at  the  Town  Hall  on  the  29th  ult. 
In  speaking  of  one  of  the  great  problems  of  the  day,  that 
of  meeting  ever-increasing  competition  and  yet  maintain- 
ing the  proper  social  condition  of  the  workers,  he  said  : — 
"  I  have  ventured  to  put  this  before  you  in  a  bare  and 
almost  cynical  fashion  because  it  will  justify  the  strong 
appeal  which  I  make  to  all  concerned  in  this  work  of 
promoting  industrial  education  to  have  a  care  at  the 
same  time  that  the  conditions  of  industrial  life  remain 
those  in  which  the  physical  energies  of  the  population 
may  be  maintained  at  a  proper  level,  in  which  their  moral 
state  may  be  cared  for,  in  which  there  may  be  some  days 
of  hope  and  pleasure  in  their  lives,  and  in  which  the  sole 
prospect  of  a  life  of  labour  may  not  be  an  old  age  of 
penury.  ...  I  therefore  confidently  appeal  to  you  to  let 
those  impulses  have  full  sway,  and  not  to  rest  until  you 
have  done  something  better  and  greater  than  has  yet 
been  done  in  this  country  in  the  direction  in  which  we 
are  now  going." 

Only  a  few  hours  before  the  utterance  of  these  words 
the  trustees  of  the  late  Sir  Joseph  Whitworth— who  during 
his  life-time  did  so  much  to  encourage  and  promote  the 
higher  education  of  working  engineers— made  a  munificent 
offer  to  the  city  of  Manchester ;  an  offer  which  was  only 
made  public  by  Mr.  Darbishire  after  Prof.  Huxley  had 
finished  his  address,  and  which  goes  some  way  towards 
realizing  what  Prof.  Huxley  remarks  may  by  some  be 
looked  upon  as  the  Utopian  dream  of  a  student.  The 
gift  consists  of  a  plot  of  land  of  about  twenty-five  acres 
in  one  of  the  best  situations  in  the  city,  which  the  trustees 
have  purchased  for  the  sum  of  ^47,000.  They  propose 
to  offer  the  whole  of  this  to  the  Corporation  of  Manchester 
upon  trust,  two-thirds  to  be  maintained  as  a  public  park, 
and  one-third  as  a  site  for  the  following  institutions : 
(i)  an  appropriate  Institute  of  Art,  with  galleries  for 
paintings,  for  sculpture  and  moulded  form,  and  for  archi- 
tectural illustration  ;  (2)  a  comprehensive  Museum  of  Com- 
mercial Materials  and  Products  ;  (3)  a  Technical  School 
on  a  complete  scientific  and  practical  scale.  The  neqessary 
buildings  are  to  be  raised  by  the  Corporation  and  by  public- 
spirited  inhabitants  of  the  great  district  which  owns  Man- 
chester as  its  metropolis ;  and  the  Whitworth  Trustees 
add  that,  if  this  work  be  heartily  undertaken,  their  own 
further  contributions  may  be  looked  for. 

Such  a  result  of  the  movement  for  the  Extension 
of  Technical  Education  and  for  the  higher  culture  of 
our  toiling  thousands  may  indeed  be  welcomed,  and 
the  National  Association,  under  whose  auspices  this 
meeting  was  held,  may  well  be  congratulated  on  this 
outcome  of  its  autumn  work.  But  this  is  not  all 
for  it  is  not  unhkely  that  the  surplus,  amounting, 
it  is  believed,  to  about  ^50,000,  now  placed  at  the 
disposal  of  the  guarantors  of  the  Jubilee  Exhibition,  may 
be  applied  to  furthering  this  enterprise.  Manchester 
has  thus  before  it  the  prospect  of  showing  England 
Vol.  XXXVII.— No.  945. 


what  can  be  done  to  promote  educational  progress 
in  this  direction,  and  to  inaugurate  a  movement 
which  ought  to  be  followed  by  all  the  great  cities 
in  the  country.  Can  we  doubt  that  the  sons  of  those 
whose  energy  and  clear-sightedness  have  in  times  past 
placed  Manchester  in  the  van  of  the  most  important 
social  movements  of  the  day  will  prove  themselves  equal 
to  the  task  which  they  have  now  a  splendid  opportunity 
of  accomplishing  ?  It  is  by  caring  thus  for  the  well-b»ing 
of  our  workers  that  the  stable  condition  of  society, 
referred  to  by  Prof.  Huxley,  can  be  best  secured  ;  for  truer 
words  were  never  spoken  than  those  in  which  he  stated 
his  belief  that,  in  order  to  succeed  in  the  competition 
which  is  every  day  becoming  more  keen,  it  is  not  suffi- 
cient that  our  people  shall  have  the  knowledge  and  the 
skill  which  are  required,  but  that  they  must  also  have  the 
will  and  energy  and  the  honesty  without  which  neither 
knowledge  nor  skill  can  be  of  any  permanent  avail.  Mere 
technical  instruction  in  handicraft  or  science  must,  in 
short,  be  based  on  a  sound  preliminary  education.  We 
need  to  train  our  workers  to  be  not  only  clever  artisans, 
but  honest  men  who  take  pride  in  the  quality  no  less 
than  in  the  quantity  of  their  work.  It  is  because  these 
were  the  views  upheld  by  Sir  Joseph  Whitworth,  and 
acted  upon  by  him  during  his  lifetime,  that  his  trustees 
have  felt  that  in  no  better  way  could  they  carry  out  the 
important  ends  for  which  he  laboured  than  by  start- 
ing a  movement  having  for  its  object  not  merely  the 
technical  training  of  the  artisan,  but  his  moral,  intellec- 
tual, and  physical  advancement.  H.  E.  R, 

TRIDIMENSIONAL    FORMULAE   IN  ORGANIC 

CHEMISTRY. 
Dix  Annees  dans  VHistoire  d'une  Th^orie.      Deuxi^me 
Edition  de  "  La  Chimie  dans  L'Espace."     Par  J.  H. 
Van  't  Hoff.     (Rotterdam  :  P.  M.  Bazendijk,  1887.) 

THIS  interesting  monograph  gives  an  account,  partly 
historical,  partly  expository,  of  what  in  our  opinion 
is  the  most  important  theoretical  contribution  towards 
solving  the  problem  of  the  constitution  of  organic  com- 
pounds that  has  been  made  since  the  idea  of  a  definite 
union  of  atoms  within  the  molecule  was  first  introduced 
into  chemistry,  of  which  idea,  indeed,  the  new  theory  is  an 
expansion.  The  work  has  the  advantage  of  being  written 
by  one  of  the  originators  of  the  theory. 

The  linked-atom  formulae,  which  have  so  powerfully 
aided  the  development  of  organic  chemistry,  never  pro- 
fessed to  give  any  information  as  to  the  relative  positions 
of  the  atoms  in  space.  All  that  the  "  links  "  or  "  bonds  " 
denoted  was  the  existence  of  a  closer  relation  of  attraction 
(of  a  kind  not  further  specified)  between  atoms  represented 
as  directly  linked  than  between  atoms  represented  as 
not  directly  linked.  The  question  of  the  actual  posi- 
tion of  these  atoms  was  left  entirely  open.  If,  therefore, 
anyone  gathered  from  the  graphic  formula  of  methanci 

H 

I 
H— C— H, 

I 
H 

for  example,  that  the  five  atoms  of  this  compound  were 
necessarily  situated  in  one  plane,  that  person  was  merely 

G 


122 


NA  TURE 


iDec.  8,  1887 


permitting  the  geometrical  properties  of  paper  (or  black- 
boards) to  influence  his  conceptions  unduly. 

In  the  great  majority  of  cases  the  ordinary  graphic 
formulae  fulfilled  the  purpose  for  which  they  were 
primarily  devised :  they  enabled  chemists  to  predict  the 
number  and  constitution  of  the  isomerides  possible  for 
any  given  combination  of  atoms.  But  there  were  cases, 
on  the  other  hand,  in  which  the  number  of  isomerides 
discovered  by  experiment  exceeded  that  predicted  by 
the  theory.  This  was  especially  noticeable  in  the  case  of 
those  compounds  which  in  the  liquid  form  or  in  solution 
produce  rotation  of  the  plane  of  polarized  light.  Thus,  of 
three  compounds  to  which  chemists,  from  a  study  of  their 
modes  of  formation  and  decomposition,  were  obliged  to 
ascribe  identical  atomic  linkage,  one  would  be  found  to 
cause  rotation  of  the  polarized  ray  to  tha  right,  another 
to  the  left,  whilst  a  third  was  optically  inactive.  As  this 
optical  difference  was  frequently  the  only  difference  dis- 
coverable, the  phenomenon  was  described  as  "physical  " 
isomerism — a  name  which  appeared  to  suggest  that  the 
investigation  of  it  lay  outside  the  province  of  chemistry. 
Wislicenus,  however,  in  1873,  in  discussing  an  isomerism 
of  the  foregoing  type  occurring  in  the  case  of  fermenta- 
tion-lactic acid  and  paralactic  acid,  suggested  that  this 
was  really  a  "geometrical"  isomerism  ;  that,  although  the 
mode  of  linkage  of  the  atoms  was  undoubtedly  the  same 
in  the  two  compounds,  the  positions  of  the  atoms  in  space 
were  different. 

The  demand  thus  made  for  a  system  of  tridimensional 
formulas  was  speedily  responded  to.  In  the  following 
year.  Van  't  Hoff,  in  Holland,  and  Le  Bel,  in  France, 
independently,  and  almost  simultaneously,^  suggested  a 
very  simple  hypothesis  with  regard  to  the  distribution  of 
the  four  affinities  of  the  atom  of  carbon.  From  this 
hypothesis  they  developed  a  system  of  formulas  under 
which  not  only  the  old  anomalies  of  isomerism  disappeared, 
but  new  lines  of  experiment  in  the  preparation  of  unknown 
isomerides  were  indicated. 

Van 't  Hoff  and  Le  Bel  called  attention  to  the  hitherto  un- 
noticed fact  that  all  organic  compounds  which  in  the  liquid 
state  or  in  solution  exhibit  optical  activity,  contain  in  their 
constitutional  formulse  at  least  one  carbon  atom,  the  four 
affinities  of  which  are  satisfied  by  four  different  atoms  or 
groups.  Such  a  carbon  atom  they  termed,  for  reasons  to 
be  explained  presently,  "asymmetric"  (Van 't  Hoff),  or 
"dissymmetric"  (Le  Bel). 

With  regard  to  the  distribution  of  the  affinities  of  an 
atom  of  carbon.  Van  't  Hoff  and  Le  Bel  made  the  assump- 
tion that  the  four  monad  atoms  or  groups  satisfying  the 
four  affinities  of  s.ich  a  tetrad  atom  are  situated  at  the 
solid  angles  of  a  tetrahedron,  the  centre  of  which  is  occu- 
pied by  the  carbon  atom.  If,  now,  the  four  monad  atoms 
or  groups  are  dissimilar,  as  in  the  case  of  optically  active 
compounds,  it  is  possible  to  arrange  them  about  the  angles 
of  the  tetrahedron  in  two  different  ways,  so  as  to  produce 
two  asymmetric  tetrahedra  (considered  with  regard  to  the 
positions  of  these  atoms  or  groups)  —two  non-superposable 
tetrahedra,  one  of  which  is  the  mirror-imige  of  the  other. 

Van 't  Hoff 's  views  were  first  published  in  a  pamphlet  in  the  Dutch 
language,  in  September  1874.  L-;  Bel's  original  me  noir  appeared  in  the 
Bulletin  de  la  Societe  Ckimir/ue,  in  Novembe-of  the  sane  year.  In  M  ly 
1875,  Van 't  Hoff  published  his  pamphlet,  "La  Chimie  dans  TEspace." 
which,  ho ivever,  dd  not  attract  much  njtice  un'.il  the  appearance  of  the 
German  translation  by  Herrmann  in  1877. 


A  continuous  curve,  passing  through  the  four  atoms  or 
groups  in  the  same  order,  will  in  the  one  case  describe  a 
right-handed,  in  the  other  a  left-handed,  screw-line.  Two 
compounds  thus  differing  in  atomic  structure  only  as 
regards  conditions  of  symmetry  might  be  expected  to 
possess  the  same  chemical  and  physical  properties,  save 
where  dissymmetry  or  polarity  is  concerned.  As  a  fact, 
this  is  found  to  be  the  case  with  optically  active  com- 
pounds. When  a  compound  contains  an  asymmetric 
carbon  atom,  this  compound,  provided  that  it  has  been 
adequately  investigated,  can  always  be  shown  to  exist  in 
two  modifications,  possessing  the  same  chemical  proper- 
ties and  displaying  the  same  chemical  reactions,  and,  as 
regards  physical  properties,  agreeing  in  melting-point, 
boiling-point,  solubility,  specific  gravity,  and  all  other 
properties  not  involving  the  operation  of  polar  forces. 
But  let  dissymmetry  or  polarity  in  any  form  intervene, 
and  the  non-identity  of  the  two  compounds  is  at  once 
manifested.  Thus,  as  regards  the  action  of  the  com- 
pounds upon  polarized  light,  the  one  compound  turns  the 
polarized  ray  through  a  given  angle  to  the  right,  the  other 
through  the  same  angle  to  the  left.  Again,  if  the  two 
compounds  crystallize,  although  they  do  so  in  forms 
belonging  to  the  same  system  and  having  the  same 
angles,  yet  the  crystals  exhibit  hemihedral  faces  which 
are  situated  to  the  right  in  the  one  case,  and  in  the  other 
to  the  left.  The  one  crystal  is  thus  the  mirror-image  of 
the  other — a  relation  corresponding  with  that  which  is 
supposed  to  prevail  between  the  asymmetric  carbon  atoms 
themselves  within  the  molecule.  These  two  hemihedral 
crystals  also  display  opposite  pyro-electricity.  Even  the 
otherwise  identical  chemical  action  of  the  two  compounds 
may  be  modified  by  the  dissymmetry  of  a  third  com- 
pound with  which  they  combine;  thus,  for  example,  a 
dextro-rotatory  and  a  laevo-rotatory  acid  differ  in  the 
degree  of  their  affinity  for  a  dextro-rotatory  base,  and  the 
two  resulting  salts  are  generally  quite  distinct  in  their 
properties. 

In  all  artificial  syntheses  of  compounds  containing  an 
asymmetric     carbon    atom    the    substance    obtained    is 
optically    inactive.      This    was    to    be    expected.      The 
chances  in  favour  of  the   formation  of  each  of  the  two 
modifications  of  opposite  rotatory  power  are  equal :  both 
are  therefore  formed  in  equal  quantity  ;  and  the  resulting 
mixture  is  inactive.     There  are  three  known  methods  of 
separating  the   optically  active   constituents   of    such    a 
mixture.     These  methods,  due  to  M.   Pasteur,  were  dis- 
covered, it  should.be  mentioned,  many  years  ago,  before 
the  Van  't  Hoff-Le  Bel  hypothesis  was  put  forward.     The 
separation  is  effected:   (i)  by  the  greater  ease  with  which 
one  of  the  two  modifications  is  attacked  by  some  particular 
micro  organism,  it  being  thus   possible   to   destroy    thej 
whole  of  one  modification  leaving  the  other  almost  intact, 
and  by   properly  selecting  the  organism  even  to  destroj 
at  will  either  the  dextro-rotatory    or    the   laevo-rotatory| 
modification  ;  (2)  by  the  different  degree  of  affinity  whicl 
the  two  modifications  exhibit  towards  some  other  opticallyl 
active  compound  ;  and  (3)  by  means  of  the  factthat  under  ; 
certain  conditions  of  temperature  and  concentration  it  isJ 
sometimes   possible  to  separate  the  two  modifications  by[ 
ordinary   crystallization.     By  these   means    Pasteur  suc- 
ceeded in  breaking  up  racemic  acid   into  dextro-tartaricl 
and  laevo-tartaric  acids. 


Dec.  8,  1887] 


NATURE 


123 


Optical  inactivity  may  also  be  due  to  mutual  compen- 
sation between  two  asymmetric  carbon  atoms,  of  equal 
and  opposite  asymmetry,  within  the  molecule  itself.  This 
is  the  case  with  inactive  tartaric  acid. 

At  the  present  moment  there  is  no  case  known  which 
contradicts  the  foregoing  hypothesis.  A  few  substances, 
which,  at  the  time  when  the  hypothesis  was  first  put 
forward,  were  believed  to  be  optically  active,  and  yet 
contained  in  their  molecule  no  asymmetric  carbon  atom, 
have  since  been  shown  to  owe  their  supposed  optical 
activity  to  impurities.  On  the  other  hand,  the  presence 
of  an  asymmetric  carbon  atom  in  the  formula  of  an 
apparently  inactive  compound  has  been  an  indication  to 
chemists  that  the  resolution  of  the  compound  into  two 
isomerides  of  opposite  optical  activity  might  be  profitably 
attempted  ;  and  in  the  long  list  of  such  attempts  that 
have  been  made  within  the  last  few  years  there  appears 
to  be  no  record  of  failure. 

We  have  already  alluded  to  M.  Pasteur's  classical 
researches  on  the  tartaric  acids,  in  which  he  not  only 
rendered  the  Van  't  Hoff-Le  Bel  hypothesis  possible  by 
elucidating  all  the  various  modes  of  optical  activity  and 
inactivity  which  it  contemplates,  but  also  devised  the 
methods  which  have  so  facilitated  its  experimental 
development.  It  only  remains  to  show  how  near  this 
great  investigator  came  to  anticipating  the  entire 
hypothesis.  In  a  passage  written  in  i85o,  quoted  by  Prof. 
Van  't  Hofi\,  M.  Pasteur  says,  referring  to  the  tartaric 
acids : — 

"  Les  atomes  de  I'acide  droit  sont-ils  group^s  suivant  les 
spires  d'un  hdlice  dextrorsum,  ou  plach  aux  sommets  d'  un 
h'traedre  irregulier,  ou  disposes  suivant  tel  ou  tel 
assemblage  dissymdtrique  determine  .''  Nous  ne  saurions 
rdpondre  k  ces  questions.  Mais  ce  qui  ne  pent  etre 
I'objet  d'un  doute,  c'est  qu'il  y  a  groupement  des  atomes 
suivant  un  ordre  dissymetrique  k  I'image  non-superpos- 
able.  Ce  qui  n'est  pas  moins  certain,  c'est  que  les  atomes 
de  I'acide  gauche  realisent  prdcisdment  le  groupement 
dissymdtrique  inverse  de  celui-ci." 

This  is  divination  indeed  \] 

We  must  content  ourselves  with  merely  referring  to 
another  portion  of  the  subject — the  application  of  the 
carbon  tetrahedron  to  the  explanation  of  anomalous  cases 
of  isomerism  occurring  among  unsaturated  compounds ; 
of  which  allo-isomensin,  as  Prof.  Michael  has  termed 
it,  fumaric  and  maleic  acids  may  be  taken  as  illustra- 
tions. This  application,  first  made  by  Van  't  Hoff  in  1874, 
and  accepted  later  by  Le  Bel,  has  undergone  within  the 
past  year  an  extension  of  extraordinary  importance  at  the 
hands  of  Prof.  Wislicenus  in  his  elaborate  memoir  "  Ueber 
die  raumliche  Anordnung  der  Atome  in  organischen 
Molekulen  und  ihre  Bestimmung  in  geometrisch-isomeren 
ungesattigten  Verbindungen "  {Abhandl.  der  Konigl. 
Sachs.  Gesellsch.,  1887),  of  which  a  very  full  and  appre- 
ciative summary  is  given  by  Prof.  Van  't  Hoff  in  the 
present  work. 

The  tridimensional  formulae  of  organic  chemistry  are 
thus  an  accomplished  fact.  The  treatment  of  the  subject 
is  still,  of  course,  only  statical ;  but,  taking  care  not  to 
lose  sight  of  the  limitations  thus  imposed,  the  method  is 
a  perfectly  legitimate  one. 

F.  R.  JAPP. 


THE  MAMMOTH  AND  THE  FLOOD. 

The  Mainnioth  atid  the  Flood:  an  Attempt  to  Confront 
the  Theory  of  Uniformity  with  the  Facts  of  Recent 
Geology.  By  Henry  H.  Howorth,  M.P.,  F.S.A; 
(London  :  Sampson  Low  and  Co.,  1887.) 

MR.  HOWORTH'S  book  is  not  disproportionate  to 
its  subject.  But  even  as  the  mammoth  it  had  a 
small  beginning.  It  saw  light  as  letters  in  Naturk.  It 
cast  its  swaddling-clothes  at  the  British  Association. 
Grown  larger,  it  took  passage  on  board  the  Geological 
Magazine,  and,  as  some  thought,  threatened  to  swamp 
that  useful  but  far  from  bulky  periodical.  Now,  with 
body  and  tusks  alike  full-grown,  it  comes  forth  to  champion 
cataclysm  and  scatter  the  uniformitarians. 

The  book  consists  partly  of  facts,  partly  of  theories. 
The  one  part  is  separable  from  the  other,  though  of  course 
sometimes  the  facts  are  regarded  in  the  light  of  the 
theories.  We  will  endeavour  in  our  notice  to  keep  them 
apart.  The  first  chapter  of  the  work  a  little  reminds  us 
of  the  hors  d'osuvre  which  sometimes  precedes  a  banquet. 
Appetizing  bits,  dainty  but  miscellaneous — the  etymology 
of  mammoth,  and  its  identity  with  behemoth  ;  griffons  and 
their  claws  ;  fossil  unicorns  ;  dragons'  bones  ;  Indian 
fabulous  beasts  ;  stories  of  giants,  and  their  bones  :  with 
such  subjects  is  the  reader's  palate  stimulated.  The  next 
chapter  gives  a  history  of  opinion  on  the  subject  of  the 
remains  of  the  mammoth  and  the  woolly  rhinoceros.  The 
author  then  discusses  the  abode  and  range  of  the  mam- 
moth in  Asia.  He  considers  it  to  have  been  limited  to  the 
tundras,  which  must  at  that  time  have  enjoyed  a  climate 
far  more  temperate  than  at  the  present.  Then  comes  an 
account  of  the  various  discoveries  of  carcasses,  either  of 
the  mammoth  or  of  the  woolly  rhinoceros,  in  Siberia  ; 
followed  by  the  history  of  the  same  animals  and  their 
associates  in  Europe.  The  climate  of  Europe,  when 
frequented  by  them,  is  next  discussed,  and  the  facts  bear- 
ing on  the  extinction  of  the  mammoth  are  enumerated, 
particular  stress  being  laid  on  the  evidence  of  caves  and 
fissures.  Palasolithic  man  is  next  called  into  the  witness- 
box,  and  cross-questioned  as  to  the  cause  of  his  disappear- 
ance. That  he  was  exterminated  by  Neolithic  invaders 
does  not,  to  the  author,  seem  a  satisfactory  theory.  That 
he  was  a  victim  of  the  Deluge  is  a  simple  explanation. 
The  Old  World  is  now  quitted  for  the  New — the  two 
Americas  are  examined.  In  each,  at  no  distant  time, 
huge  mammals  flourished  ;  their  remains  are  found  under 
circumstances  not  materially  different  from  those  of 
similar  quadrupeds  in  the  Old  World.  So  they  also  must 
have  perished  in  like  manner :  the  Deluge  was  not 
limited  to  Siberia  nor  to  the  Old  World  ;  it  swept  alike  over 
tundra  and  morass,  over  prairie  and  pampa  ;  it  inundated 
the  New.  Of  course  the  West  Indies  could  not  escape  ; 
apparently  no  corner  of  the  earth  eluded  the  devastating 
waves,  for  Australia,  Tasmania,  and  New  Zealand  tell 
the  like  tale  of  extinguished  life,  and  sudden  devastation. 
Lastly,  there  is  the  citation  of  historical  evidence,  in  the 
form  of  brief  summaries  of  the  many  variations  of  the 
widespread  tradition  of  a  universal  deluge. 

The  facts,  as  indicated  by  the  above  statement— which 
is  only  a  concise  summary  of  the  table  of  contents — 
cannot  wholly  be  disentangled  from  the  theories,  in  the 
light  of  which  they  are  viewed  and  in  proof  of  which 


124 


NA  TURE 


[Dec.  8,  1887 


they  are  ranged.  Still,  their  value  is  independent  of 
the  theories  :  for  the  author  has  dealt  with  them  in 
the  spirit  of  an  advocate,  but  of  an  honest  advocate. 
If,  indeed,  Mr.  Howorth  can  be  accused  of  any  forensic 
art,  it  is  in  this  very  pardonable  respect — that  the  most  is 
made  of  the  opinions  of  geologists  who  have  held  views 
generally  favourable  to  his  own.  Thus  the  unwary  and 
but  slightly  scientific  reader  almost  trembles  before  such 
a  weight  of  authority,  and  is  afraid  to  question  an  opinion 
favoured  by  so  many  lights  of  the  heroic  age  of  geology. 
But  in  citing  authorities  it  must  always  be  remembered  that, 
unless  it  can  be  shown  that  all  the  important  facts  on  which  an 
induction  is  now  founded  were  before  them  also,  the  value 
of  their  opinion  is  greatly  affected,  and  it  may  even  be 
comparatively  small.  Further,  if  satisfied  on  this  point, 
we  must  inquire  whether  any,  and,  if  so,  what,  alternative 
hypotheses  had  been  presented  to  them.  These  pre- 
liminary considerations  are  often  overlooked  in  quoting 
authorities,  yet  their  importance  cannot  be  disputed.  The 
mind  is  greatly  influenced  by  early  impressions  and  by  the 
hypotheses  which  it  has  accepted.  In  the  multitude  of 
facts  we  to  some  extent  find  what  we  seek,  miss  those  of 
whose  value  we  are  ignorant,  and  without  any  conscious 
unfairness  select  those  things  which  support  the  accepted 
view.  Anyone  who  has  had  in  the  course  of  his  life  to 
reconsider  and  to  modify  an  induction  formerly  maintained 
must  be  conscious  that  in  this  respect  he  has  innocently 
erred.  Probably,  only  a  cantankerous-minded  investi- 
gator wholly  escapes  this  infirmity,  and  for  him  other 
snares  are  laid.  Hence  in  this  matter  the  testimony  of 
even  such  men  as  Buckland,  or  Cuvier,  or  D'Archiac,  is 
of  small  value,  because  not  only  has  a  vast  store  of  new 
facts  been  acquired  since  their  time,  which  have  influenced 
or  modified  almost  every  branch  of  geology,  but  also 
because  the  widespread  belief  in  a  universal  deluge  and 
the  virulent  attacks  made  on  geology  by  well-meaning 
but  unthinking  theologians  had  produced  a  natural  readi- 
ness to  welcome  everything  which  seemed  to  ha  rmonize 
with  the  Biblical  narrative. 

Mr.  Howorth  urges  that  a  catastrophic  occurrence  is 
not  excluded  by  a  rational  view  of  uniformitarianism — 
which  position,  we  imagine,  few  would  dispute  in  the 
abstract  ;  but  issue  would  often  be  joined  as  to  which 
explanation  were  the  more  probable.  He  points  out  also 
that  it  is  quite  possible  for  a  particular  form  of  a  tradition 
to  be  unhistorical,  and  yet  for  the  tradition  itself  to  have  a 
true  foundation,  a  remark  which  is  certainly  just,  and 
which  is  sometimes  forgotten.  But,  admitting  these 
axioms,  the  asserted  occurrence  of  any  particular  cataclysm 
is  a  question  of  evidence  ;  and  it  is  not  enough  for  Mr. 
Howorth  to  show  that  his  hypothesis  explains  some  diffi- 
culties which  exist  in  the  other,  unless  he  further  prove 
that  it  is  not  only  in  accordance  with  a  larger  number  of 
facts,  but  also  does  not  create  a  new  class  of  difficulties 
still  more  formidable. 

Mr.  Howorth's  preface  sounds  no  uncertain  note,  as  the 
following  extract  will  show  : — 

"  The  coral-insect  {sic)  raises  the  islands  of  the 
Pacific,  and  the  fall  of  leaves  in  a  tropical  forest 
piles  up  deep  black  soil.  These  cases  are  no  doubt 
cases  of  continuous  change  ;  but  if  we  turn  elsewhere 
we  have  to  explain  a  very  different  state  of  things. 
The  great  ga  ing  cliffs  and  sheer  precipices  of  the 
Alps,   the    splintered   pyramids   of  the   Sierra    Nevada, 


the  canons  of  Colorado,  the  huge  dislocations  of  the 
strata,  involving  faults  of  hundreds  of  fathoms  in  extent, 
so  near  us  as  Durham.  These  have  not  the  look  of  gradual 
changes." 

We  rub  our  eyes,  and  wonder  whether  the  last  fifty 
years  have  been  all  a  dream.  Here  are  dead  and  gone 
geological  ideas  in  full  vigour.  We  had  thought  that  if 
there  was  one  spot  on  earth  in  which  catastrophe  could 
not  be  invoked,  where  the  uniformitarian  could  be  in 
peace,  it  was  the  Colorado  canons  ;  and  we  cannot  help 
thinking  that  if  Mr.  Howortli  were  a  member  of  the 
English  Alpine  Club  he  would  by  this  time  have  convinced 
himself  that,  whatever  signs  of  ruin  the  Alps  may  aftord, 
there  are  none  of  any  vast  catastrophe.  It  is  therefore 
evident  that  Mr.  Howorth's  method  of  interpretation 
differs  from  that  of  geologists  in  general,  and  this  must 
throughout  the  book  be  borne  in  mind  by  the  reader- 
But  Mr,  Howorth  is  always  rather  a  special  pleader,  in- 
genious sometimes,  but  generally  inconclusive.  Granting 
that  occasionally  he  contrives  to  give  a  smart  rap  to  the 
irrational  uniformitarian  (for  such  a  person  does  exist)  and 
hits  upon  a  defect  in  an  hypothesis,  he  straightway  goes  on 
to  propose  a  solution  involving  greater  difficulties.  In 
a  brief  notice  it  is  impossible  to  deal  with  particular 
instances,  but  some  general  indications  may  be  given 
The  carcasses  of  mammoths  are  found  embedded  in  ice. 
in  the  north  of  Siberia.  It  is  admitted  that,  from  their 
state  of  preservation,  they  must  have  been  frozen  up  very 
shortly  after  death,  and  have  so  remained  ever  since. 
There  are  no  doubt  considerable  difficulties  in  attributing 
their  transport  to  a  river  flood,  as  Mr.  Howorth  points 
out ;  nevertheless,  when  we  remember  the  peculiarities  of 
the  Siberian  rivers,  and  that  in  a  cold  region  a  carcass 
would  be  slow  to  decompose,  for  the  flesa  might  freeze 
before  it  ceased  to  drift,  these  do  not  seem  insuperable. 
Mr.  Howorth,  as  an  alternative,  offers  the  hypothesis  of 
a  deluge,  followed  by  a  sudden  change  of  temperature, 
but,  apart  from  the  difficulties  attending  the  former  part 
of  this,  by  what  physical  or  astronomical  catastrophe  does 
he  account  for  the  latter  ?  Wisely,  he  makes  no  attempt 
to  indicate  this. 

Again,  in  speaking  of  the  contents  of  caves,  Mr. 
Howorth  constantly  lays  stress  upon  the  indications  of 
the  action  of  running  waters,  and  upon  the  absence  of 
any  such  disturbing  agent  at  the  present  time.  But  he 
forgets  that  even  followers  of  Lyell  would  admit  that  at 
no  very  remote  epoch  the  climate  of  England  was  different, 
the  rainfall  was  heavier,  the  streams  were  all  bigger,  nay, 
that  a  cave  itself  is  symptomatic  of  running  water,  which 
in  most  cases  would  gradually  forsake  its  old  course. 
The  stream  which  made  Clapham  Cave  still  runs  con- 
cealed, hard  at  hand,  through  the  limestone  rock,  and  not 
so  long  ago,  after  a  downpour  on  Ingleborough,  welled 
up  into  its  ancient  channel.  We  wonder  whether  Mr. 
Howorth  has  ever  seen  what  the  fall  of  4  inches  of 
rain  in  a  single  night — no  unprecedented  case — can  do 
even  in  our  English  lowlands.  Such  a  downfall  would 
turn  many  a  dry  fissure,  small  as  its  drainage-area  might 
be,  into  a  running  stream.  Mr.  Howorth,  in  combating 
uniformitarians,  seems  to  overlook  the  variations  and 
catastrophes  on  a  small  scale  (compared  with  the  bulk  of 
the  earth)  which  everyone  who  has  sat  at  the  feet  of 
Lyell  accepts  as  axiomatic. 


Dec.  8,  1887] 


NATURE 


125 


It  would  have  been  more  politic  had  Mr.  Howorth 
contented  himself  with  local  deluges  ;  but  no,  his  destroy- 
ing waves  must  pass  over  the  whole  earth.  What  is  to 
generate  these  destructive  waves,  what  multiplication 
of  a  Kra'catab  catastrophe  is  needed,  how  many  cubic 
miles  of  mountain  summit  must  fall  into  the  sea,  or  of 
ocean  bed  leap  up  into  the  air,  he  forbears  to  tell  us. 
Here,  after  a  laborious  scrutiny  of  facts,  the  reader  is 
refreshed  by  a  use  of  the  imagination. 

We  leave  a  host  of  minor  difficulties  unnoticed  for 
want  of  space,  such  as  the  occurrence  of  erratic  blocks 
in  positions  of  unstable  equilibrium,  the  relation  of  drifts, 
supposed  cataclysmal  by  the  author,  to  the  valleys  in 
which  they  occur,  the  escape  of  apterous  birds  like  the 
moa  and  the  dodo,  and  the  like.  We  must  part  from  the 
book  by  saying  that  it  exhibits  great  industry  in  the 
collection  of  materials — so  that  it  will  long  be  valuable  as 
a  work  of  reference — with  a  curious  want  of  mental 
perspective,  and  a  misapplied  ingenuity  of  reasoning. 


NEW  ZEALAND  SCALE  INSECTS. 

An  Account  of  New  Zealand  Scale  Insects.     By  W.  M. 
Maskell,  F.R.M.S.  (Wellington  :  Geo.  Didsbury,  1887.) 

''T^HIS  book  shows  that  the  valuable  work  which  is 
*-  being  done  in  South  Australia  by  Mr.  Frazer 
Crawford,  Inspector  under  the  Vine-Protection  Act,  is 
being  done  on  a  still  greater  scale  in  New  Zealand.  It 
affords  an  example  of  the  great  service  which  may  be 
rendered  by  plain  and  sound  publications  on  the  subject  of 
injurious  insect  attacks  in  the  colonies.  In  the  mother 
country  the  works  which  have  been  prepared  for  the 
Agricultural  Department  of  the  Privy  Council  by  Mr. 
Whitehead,  and  Miss  E.  A.  Ormerod's  constant  valuable 
publications  on  economic  entomology,  show  what  can  be 
achieved  in  this  field. 

It  is  eminently  satisfactory  to  find  such  an  important 
subject  taken  up  in  New  Zealand  by  an  observer  so  well 
known  as  Mr.  Maskell.  The  work  extends  to  116  pages, 
and  includes  exhaustive  information  on  the  Coccididae 
affecting  the  crops  of  the  island.  The  life-history  of  the 
Coccididae  (which  are  divided  by  the  author  as  follows  : 
I.  Diaspidinae  ;  II.  Lecanidinae  ;  III.  Hemicoccidinae  ; 
IV,  Coccidinas)  is  given  in  all  its  stages,  a  whole 
chapter  being  devoted  to  it,  with  descriptions  of  the 
male  and  female  perfect  insects  in  detail,  and  another  to 
the  natural  checks  to  their  increase,  and  parasites,  &c. 

The  remedies  against  Coccididae  are  fully  treated  of  in 
Chapter  V.  The  author  gives  a  list  of  washes,  of  which 
he  says ;  "  Some  of  the  substances  here  given  are 
manifestly  unsuitable  for  general  use  on  account  of  their 
expense,  at  any  rate  in  the  open  air ;  yet  it  is  well  to 
include  them,  as  they  are  all  suggested  in  some  work 
or  other,  or  in  the  replies  of  gardeners  and  fruit-growers 
to  Parliamentary  inquiries,  and  the  objections  to  them 
ought  to  be  known." 

Chapter  VI.  is  devoted  to  "A  Catalogue  of  Insects" — 
that  is,  of  the  Coccididas — and  "  A  Diagnosis  of  Species," 
and  will  be  found  to  be  of  great  service  to  all  students  of 
entomology.  Particular  attention  is  paid  to  the  cottony- 
cushion  scale,  the  Icerya  purchasi,  whose  ravages  in 
South   Africa    have    been    so    ably   treated    of   in    the 


pamphlet  lately  published  by  the  Consulting  Entomo- 
logist of  the  Royal  Agricultural  Society  of  England,  also 
by  the  State  Inspector  of  the  Fruit  Pests  of  California, 
and  more  recently  by  Prof.  Riley,  the  well-known  Entomo- 
logist of  the  Department  of  Agriculture  of  the  United 
States.  "  Tree-growers  should  especially  beware  of  this 
insect,  and  the  best  plan  to  adopt  would  be  to  burn  at 
once  any  tree  found  infested  with  it." 

This  chapter,  which  occupies  almost  two-thirds  of  the 
book,  is  succeeded  by  an  index  of  plants  and  the  Coc- 
cididae attacking  them,  with  the  useful  reminder  that  in 
hot-houses  and  green-houses  all  sorts  of  plants  are  liable 
to  attack. 

The  work  also  contains  twenty-three  well-drawn 
plates,  which  convey  a  good  idea  of  the  Coccididae  to 
those  who  have  not  the  opportunity  of  studying  them. 
Plates  I.,  II.,  and  III.  deal  with  anatomical  points  or 
structural  details  ;  Plates  IV.  to  XX.  give  a  large  selec- 
tion of  insects,  with  specimens  of  the  various  trees  and 
plants  they  infest  ;  Plate  XXI.  is  especially  valuable  as 
giving  the  male  insects  Ccelostoma  zcelandicum  and 
C.  wairoense,  the  antenna  of  the  former  and  the 
head  of  the  latter  being  especially  well  marked. 
Plate  XXII.  gives  the  honey-dew  and  resulting  fungi, 
and  Plate  XXIII.  parasites  of  Coccididae.  "Fig.  i,  a, 
pupa  of  Hymenopterous  parasites ;  b,  the  same  pupa 
under  the  waxy  test  of  Ctenochiton  perforatus;  c,  imago. 
Fig.  2,  a,  brown  and  yellow  fungi  on  Ctenochiton  viridis ; 
b,  upper  side  of  brown  fungus  ;  c,  under  side  of  the  same, 
with  attached  fungoid  sheet  ;  d,  Ctenochiton  viridis  (test 
removed),  filled  with  yellow  fungus,  and  with  globular 
mass  of  the  same  above  it." 

From  the  above  brief  sketch  of  the  contents  of  Mr. 
Maskell's  book  it  will  be  seen  that  it  is  a  welcome  addi- 
tion to  entomological  literature.  It  is  written  in  plain 
and  forcible  language,  and  there  is  no  padding  or  beating 
about  the  bush  for  the  reviewer  to  find  fault  with.  There 
is  an  excellent  tabulated  explanation  of  terms  used,  and 
students  will  be  much  pleased  with  the  author's  classifi- 
cation, or  rather  division  or  arrangement,  of  the  Cocci- 
didae, based  upon  a  plan  most  useful  for  economic 
entomology : — 

"  Neglecting  entomological  distinctions,  we  may  divide 
the  Coccididae  roughly  into 

"  (a)  Insects  attacking  deciduous  plants  ; 
"  \b)  Insects  attacking  evergreen  plants  ; 

or  again  : 

"  if)  Insects  living  usually  on  the  bark  ; 
"  {d)  Insects  living  usually  on  the  leaves  ; 
"  \e)  Insects  living  on  both  bark  and  leaves  ; 

or  lastly  : 

*'  (/)  Insects  covered  with  hard  shields  or  *  scales' ; 
"(;f)  Insects  covered  with  cotton  ; 
*'  Qi)  Insects  naked." 

Among  other  salient  points  the  importance  of  destroy- 
ing the  eggs  is  frequently  urged  upon  those  who  wish  to 
extirpate  coccids,  and  attention  is  wisely  drawn  to  the 
fact  that  "  it  is  a  fallacy  to  imagine  that  rule-of-thurab 
methods,  not  founded  upon  any  knowledge  of  the  nature, 
habits,  and  life-history  of  the  insects,  are  likely  to  be 
really  efficacious." 

We  agree  with  the  author  that  an  increase  in  works  on 


126 


NATURE 


[Dec.  8,  1887 


economic  entomology  is  always  of  good  service  in  any 
country,  and  New  Zealand  may  be  congratulated  on 
having  Mr.  Maskell  at  hand  to  supply  a  demand 
generated  by  the  improved  intelligence  of  the  agricultural 
community. 


Ol/R  BOOK  SHELF. 

Pen  and  Pencil  in  Asia  Minor ;  or,  Notes  from  the 
Levattt.  By  William  Cochran.  Illustrated  with  eighty- 
nine  engravings, made  chiefly  from  water-colour  sketches 
by  the  Author.  (London :  Sampson  Low  and  Co., 
1887.) 

This  well-printed  volume  of  over  450  pages  is  one  of  a 
class  that  we  had  thought  had  become  extinct.  The  notes 
begin  with  the  arrival  of  the  author  at  the  Alexandra 
Docks  in  Liverpool,  and  are  continued  almost  daily,  in 
some  instances  hourly,  until  the  close  of  a  five-months' 
tour  through  the  Mediterranean  to  Smyrna,  Constanti- 
nople, and  then,  with  some  slight  journeys  inland,  back 
again  by  the  same  route  to  Liverpool. 

No  doubt  the  journey  was  pleasant,  and  we  feel  sure 
that  the  note-taking  and  the  water-colour  sketching  were 
very  agreeable  occupations  for  the  tourist ;  but  probably 
even  the  author's  friends  would  admit  that  as  now  laid 
before  the  world  the  text  contains  nothing  either  very 
novel  or  attractive,  while  of  the  many  scenes  sketched, 
omitting  the  sketches  from  photographs,  we  may  say  that 
it  would  be  hardly  fair  to  criticize  them  from  an  art  point 
of  view.  The  volume  is  not,  however,  without  its  merits. 
The  author  deserves  credit  for  the  earnest  way  in  which 
he  has  called  attention  to  the  importance  of  encouraging 
the  tea  and  silk  industries,  and  we  sincerely  hope  for  the 
good  of  our  colonies  that  his  efforts  in  the  direction  of 
silk  culture  in  Australia  and  New  Zealand  may  eventually 
be  as  successful  as  tea-farming  has  been  in  Ceylon. 

One  chief  object  of  the  voyage  to  Smyrna  was  to  see 
the  result  of  Mr.  John  Griffitt's  silk-farming  in  Asia 
Minor.  At  one  time  the  silk  industry  was  one  of  great 
importance  in  and  about  Smyrna,  but  owing  to  the  silk- 
worm disease  it  became  almost  extinct,  so  that  even  the 
very  mulberry-trees  were  used  for  firewood.  Now, 
through  the  philanthropic  zeal  of  Mr.  Griffitts  in  supply- 
ing silkworm  eggs  not  only  free  from  disease  but  raised 
from  carefully-selected  varieties,  the  industry  is  being 
restored,  and  large  numbers  of  mulberry-trees  are  being 
planted. 

Several  chapters  in  this  volume  are  devoted  to  the 
subjects  of  the  rearing  of  silkworms,  and  of  the  treatment 
of  the  mulberry-trees.  From  the  hatching  out  of  the 
larval  forms  to  the  reeling  off  of  the  silk,  only  some  forty 
to  forty-five  days  elapse,  but  though  the  labour  be  short, 
the  care  and  attention  required  are  very  great,  and  the 
successful  silk  rearer  learns  various  lessons  of  method 
and  cleanliness  which  are  of  permanent  value. 

In  chapter  ix.  we  have  a  summary  of  Mr.  Griffitt's 
valuable  report  on  the  silk  trade,  furnished  to  the  De- 
partment of  State,  Washington.  From  it  we  learn  that 
at  one  time  in  Smyrna  there  were  three  large  silk-reeling 
factories,  driven  by  steam,  where  hundreds  of  female 
hands  were  employed.  When,  on  the  failure  of  the  indi- 
genous worms,  Japanese  worms  were  introduced,  it  was 
found  that  it  required  double  the  number  of  cocoons 
to  yield  the  same  weight  of  silk.  With  Mr.  Griffitt's 
improved  native  race  of  silkworms,  the  quality  of  the  silk 
is  better,  and  the  produce  much  heavier  than  before.  To 
those  interested  in  silk  culture  we  can  recommend 
the  perusal  of  this  volume,  which,  indeed,  would 
be  better  described  as  "  Notes  on  Silk  Culture  in 
Smyrna." 


A  Catalogue  of  the  Flora  of  Matheran  and  Mahableshwar. 
By  the  Hon.  H.  M.  Birdwood,  M.A.,  LL.M.  With  a 
Note  by  Dr.  Theodore  Cooke,  LL.D.,  F.G.S.  '  (1887.) 

This  little  botanical  work  is  a  reprint  from  the  Journal 
of  the  Bombay  Natural  History  Society.  It  will  be  useful 
to  persons  visiting  the  localities  botanized ;  and  the  records 
of  the  upper  limits  of  various  plants  are  interesting  to 
botanists  at  a  distance. 

Mahableshwar  is  in  the  Ghauts,  about  a  hundred  miles 
south  of  Bombay,  and  the  highest  part  of  this  healthy 
resort  is  nearly  5000  feet  above  sea-level,  so  that  there 
are  considerable  changes  in  the  vegetation  in  the  ascent. 
The  present  catalogue  contains  the  names  of  less  than 
500  species  of  plants,  a  number  which  future  investiga- 
tions will  doubtless  double.  As  the  Bombay  Natural 
History  Society  is  still  in  its  infancy,  some  singular  slips 
in  the  classification  of  the  plants  are  perhaps  excusable  ; 
and  we  hope  the  members  will  not  feel  discouraged  at 
our  pointing  out  that  ferns  are  not  "  plants  with  cellular 
tissue  only,"  nor  are  mosses  "leafless  plants." 

The  Bombay  Natural  History  Society  possesses  a  her- 
barium of  Mahableshwar  plants,  presented  to  it  by  Dr. 
Cooke,  and  it  may  be  hoped  that  this '  will  form  the 
nucleus  of  a  collection  adequately  representing  the  whole 
flora  of  the  entire  Presidency.  Up  to  the  present  time 
the  Bombay  Government  has  shown  but  little  interest  in 
botanical  work,  and  possesses  none  of  the  appliances  for 
its  prosecution  to  be  found  at  Calcutta,  Saharunpore, 
Madras,  or  Peradeniya.  Yet  for  the  Forest  Department 
alone  some  kind  of  herbarium  and  botanical  library  is 
indispensable,  unless  its  officers  are  to  grope  in  the  dark 
as  to  a  large  proportion  of  the'  plants  they  come  across 
in  their  duties. 

However,  this  is  by  the  way.  It  is  a  sign  of  the 
development  of  a  healthier  interest  when  a  hard-worked 
official  like  a  judge  of  the  High  Court  is  found  to  take 
the  lead  in  so  creditable  a  way  in  the  study  of  the  local 
flora. 

L Homme  avant  I'Histoire.  Par  Ch.  Debierre.  (Paris  : 
J.  B.  Baillifere  et  Fils,  1888.) 

In  this  book  M.  Debierre  gives  a  clear  and  interesting 
account  of  some  of  the  results  of  anthropological  re- 
search. In  dealing  with  disputed  points,  however,  he  is 
apt  to  arrive  at  conclusions  somewhat  hastily.  The 
doctrine  of  the  unity  of  the  human  race  he  rejects,  but 
he  contents  himself  with  a  very  slight  and  inadequate 
consideration  of  the  arguments  which  may  be  advanced 
on  the  other  side.  Again,  he  assumes  that  there  can  be 
no  doubt  whatever  as  to  the  Asiatic  origin  of  the  Aryan 
or  Indo-European  race.  That  the  original  home  of  the 
Aryans  was  in  Europe  cannot  be  held  to  have  been 
proved,  but  the  theory  has  been  accepted  b^  so  many 
investigators,  and  so  much  may  be  said  in  favour  of  it, 
that  in  a  work  of  this  nature  it  ought  at  least  to  have  been 
explained  and  discussed. 

Philips'  Handy  Volwtte  Atlas  of  the  British  Empire^ 
with  Statistical  Notes  and  Index.  (London  :  Philip 
and  Son,  1887.) 

This  little  book  is  among  the  first  British  work  of  its 
sort  that  we  have  seen.  It  is  extremely  neatly  put  together 
and  is  well  edited  throughout.  It  contains  64  plates  and 
on  them  no  maps,  showing  the  British  possessions  in 
the  various  parts  of  the  globe.  After  each  map  is  a  short 
analysis  of  position,  extent,  population,  climate,  industries, 
government,  orography  and  hydrography,  &c.,  &c.  In 
addition  to  the  maps  there  are  plans  of  various  towns. 
Just  before  the  index  are  given  "  Comparative  Dia- 
grams of  the  British  Empire,"  comparing  area,  popula- 
tion, trade,  and  revenue  of  the  British  possessions  of  the 
different  quarters  of  the  globe.     This  is  followed  by  the 


Z?^^.  8v  188;]! 


JSPATORE 


1-27 


index  itself,  with  a  list  of  abbreviations,  consisting  of 
twenty  pages  closely  filled  in  with  places  in  three  columns. 
The  colouring  of  the  maps  is  excellent,  and  it  is  obvious 
that  no  attempt  has  been  spared  to  make  the  book 
as  complete  as  possible  in  every  way.  A.  L. 

The  Young  Collector's  Haftd-book  of  Ants,  Bees,  Dragon- 
Flies,  Earwigs,  Crickets,  and  Flies.  By  VV.  Harcourt 
Bath.     (London  ;  Swan  Sonnenschein,  1888.) 

Any  boy  who  may  wish  to  form  a  collection  of  insects 
will  find  in  this  little  hand-book  all  the  information  he 
will  be  likely  to  need  at  first  for  his  guidance.  The  author 
does  not  pretend  to  go  deeply  into  the  subject,  but  he  has 
brought  together  a  sufficient  number  of  facts  to  show 
beginners  that  the  study  of  entomology  will  well  reward 
any  labour  that  may  be  devoted  to  it.  His  explanations  are 
simple  and  clear,  and  the  value  of  the  manual  is  much 
increased  by  a  large  number  of  good  illustrations. 


LETTERS   TO    THE  EDITOR. 

{The  Editor  does  not  hold  himself  responsible  for  opinions 
expressed  by  his  correspondents.  Neither  can  he  under- 
take to  return,  or  to  correspond  with  the  writers  of, 
rejected  manuscripts.  No  notice  is  taken  of  anonymous 
communications. 

[The  Editor  urgently  requests  correspondents  to  keep  their 
letters  as  short  as  possible.  The  pressure  on  his  space 
is  so  great  that  it  is  impossible  otherwise  to  insure  the 
appearance  even  of  communications  containing  interesting 
and  novel  facts. 

An  Earthquake  in  England. 

As  no  account  has  been  given  in  Nature  of  a  recent  earth- 
quake, perhaps  room  may  be  found  for  the  following.  I  was 
standing  near  my  garden  door  at  8.20  a.m.  on  Sunday,  Novem- 
ber 20,  when  the  quiet  was  suddenly  broken  by  a  heavy  smothered 
crash,  followed  by  reverberations  as  in  a  clap  of  tl. under  of  rather 
short  duration.  I  felt  no  shaking  of  the  ground,  but  many 
persons  here  felt  it,  and  the  shaking  is  stated  to  have  been  very 
marke  I  near  Dagnall,  between  here  and  Hemel  Hempstead. 
The  sound  was  like  the  falling  in  of  an  immense  mass  of  rock — 
followed  by  echoes — in  a  cavern. 

Some  persons  say  they  heard  a  second,  but  much  less  loud, 
crash  later  in  the  morning,  but  this  was  not  heard  by  me. 

At  Ampthill,  near  Bedford,  persons  left  the  town  to  meet  the 
first  train  from  London  to  inquire  of  the  passengers  as  to  a 
possible  explosion  having  occurred  in  London. 

The  crash  was  heard  in  Bucks,  Beds,  Herts,  Suffolk,  Essex, 
Cambridge,  and  possibly  in  other  counties.  I  have  seen  reports 
from  Newmarket,  Hitchin,  Cambridge,  Wimpole,  Heydon, 
Royston,  and  ■  Saffron  Walden,  in  addition  to  accounts  from 
many  positions  close  to  this  place. 

It  is  curious  that  Stow  records,  under  A.D.  1250,  the  thirty- 
fourth  year  of  the  reign  of  Henry  111.  : — "  Upon  St.  Lucie's 
Day,  there  was  a  great  earthquake  in  this  town  (St.  Albans)  and 
the  parts  thereabouts,  with  a  noise  underground  as  tho'  it 
thundered,  which  was  the  more  strange  for  that  the  ground  is 
chalky  and  sound,  nor  hollow  or  loose  as  those  are  where  earth- 
quakes often  happen  ;  and  this  noise  did  so  fright  the  daws, 
rooks,  and  other  birds  which  sat  upon  houses  or  trees,  that 
they  flew  to  and  fro,  as  if  they  had  been  frighted  by  a 
gosshawk."  WoRTHiNGTON  G.  Smith. 

Dunstable. 


On  the  Constant  P  in  Observations  of  Terrestrial 
Magnetism. 

The  formula  for  P  given  by  Mr.  Riicker  (Nature,  vol. 
xxxvi.  p.  508)  has  evidently  been  obtained  by  expanding  the 
usual  expression  rigorously  to  terms  of  the  second  order  ;  but  as 
the  usual  expression  differs  from  Gauss's  theory  by  terms  of  the 
second  order,  Mr.  Rucker's  expansion  is  necessarily  inexact  to 
the  same  extent,  and  in  fact  his  second  order  term  has  no 
existence  in  Gauss's  theory. 


Going  on^y  to  terms  involving  r-',  Gauss's  equations  may  be  , 
written — 

/(«)   =  Lr-»  +  LV-« (I) 

/(«i)  =  Lri-3-H  LVi-» (2) 

S    =>^L('  +  |) '3' 

where  f(u)  signifies  either  sin  u  or  tan  «  according  to  the  form 
of  instrument  employed. 
By  putting 

A  =  >^ry(«) (4) 

Ai=  yirm^^i) (5) 

B  =  -^^^ (6) 

r^^  -  H 

we  find  from  (i)  and  (2)  respectively 

;4L  =  A   j  I   -  b(^^Ai^;-2   j  =  a  (I  -  Pr-2) .      (7) 

;^L  =  Ai  j  I  -  B^^^^-^y,-^}  =  Ai(i  -  Vr^)     (8) 

Whence,  by  inspection, 

p  =  b(^A). (9) 

Pj=b(^^i^A (lo) 

To  find  >^L  we  may  use  either  (4)  and  (9),  or  (5)  and  (10)  ; 
and  in  either  case  the  result  will  be  as  accurate  as  our  funda- 
mental expressions. 

Expanding  (10)  to  terms  of  the  second  order. 

Pi  =  b(^^^)  +  b(^^^J  ...     (") 

and  therefore  the  mean  of  (9)  and  (10)  is 

whence,  by  putting 

C  =  log  A  -  log  Ai 

and  remembering  that 

AjiA,  =  £-C!,    -^-Ci,&c.     .    .    .       (13) 
A  M      [2M^      ^M^' 

in  which  M  is  the  mcdulusof  the  common  system  of  logarithms, 
we  have  to  terms  of  the  second  order — 

Equation  (9)  is  what  I  gave  in  my  letter  on  p.  366  of  the  last 
volume  of  Nature,  where  I  was  careful  to  say  that  it  was 
derived  from  Gauss's  original  equations.  When  properly  used  it 
is  as  accurate  as  equations  (i)  and  (2).  Equation  (14)  was  given 
by  Mr.  Ellis  in  his  letter  on  p.  436.  It  is  slightly  easier  to 
compute  than  (9),  and  differs  from  that  expression  by  a  term  of 
the  second  order  which  is  less  than  the  accidental  e  rror  of  obser- 
vation. The  second  order  term  added  by  Mr.  Riicker  renders 
his  expression  less  accurate  than  either  (9)  or  (14),  if  Gauss's 
theory  is  accepted  as  correct.  Wm.  Harkness. 

Washington,  D.C.,  November  4. 


I  THINK  that  on  reconsideration  Prof.  Harkness  will  admit 
that  it  is  not  I  who  have  fallen  into  error.  If  only  two  obser- 
vations are  made,  equations  (7)  and  (8)  are  identical,  and  there  is 
no  need  for  the  introduction  of  Po-  -  In  like  manner  if  numerous 
measurements  were  available  in  which  the  error  of  obser\'ation 
was  nil,  any  pair  would  give  the  same  value  of  L,  and  Pf,  would 
again  be  unnecessary.  If,  however,  the  equations  are  affected 
by  errors  of  observation,  and  it  be  agreed  that  in  combining  them 
we  may  replace  the  P's  by  a  single  quantity,  Po,  it  must  not  be 
arbitrarily  defined.  Prof.  Harkness  assumes  that  in  the  case  of 
two  observations  it  must  be  the  mean  of  P  and  Pj,  but  he  gives 
no  reasons,  and  he  does  not  state  what  value  he  would  adopt  if 


128 


NATURE 


{Dec.  8,  1887 


the  measurements  were   numerous.      The  proper  course  is  to 
determine  it  by  the  method  of  least  squares. 

Writing/ for /{«/)  and  omitting  i  +  -  ,  (3)  may  by  the  aid  of 

(7)  be  written  in  the  form— 


f      2m 


Po'')- 


This  is  exactly  analogous  to  the  equations  used  by  Maxwell  in 
the  determination  of  the  quantity  Aj,  which  in  bis  notation  and 
method  of  development  corresponds  to  Pq  ("Electricity  and 
Magnetism,"  second  edition,  vol.  ii.  p.  100).  It  is  unnecessary 
to  occupy  the  pages  of  Nature  with  a  reproduction  mutatis 
mutandis  of  his  formulae.  We  can  get,  as  he  does,  a  general 
expression  for  P,,  when  we  have  n  equations  at  our  disposal, 
and  when  «  =  2  this  reduces  (in  the  notation  of  Prof.  Harkness) 
to— 


(«) 


Po  =  (A  -  Ai)/(A/r^  -  Ai/ri^). 


If  then  in  a  magnetic  survey  observations  are  made  at  two  dis- 
tances at  a  number  of  stations,  we  should  take  as  the  final  value 
of  P„  the  mean  of  the  most  probable  values  found  at  each 
station.  As  this  would  be  unduly  laborious,  we  approximate.  By 
an  obvious  transformation  (a)  becomes — 

log  (^  I  -  ?5  j  -  log  ('i  -  ^^)=\og  A  -  log  Ai 


Po(''- 


2 


*)  +  &c.  = 


log  A  -  log  Ai 


M 


Thus  to  a  first  approximation — 

()3) 

And  if  we  substitute  this  value  in  the  small  term- 


p    _      rh-^      log  A  -  log  A 


(7) 


Pn  = 


;-"-;-,^      log  A  -  log  Aj 


+  ;-'= 


{ri'  -  r^f 


M 

flog  A  -  log  A^-N 

I  M  J 


This  is  the  expression  I  gave.  The  effect  of  the  small  term  in 
(7)  is,  as  I  pointed  out,  less  than  the  error  of  experiment,  but  it 
diminishes  the  difference  between  the  rigorous  and  approximate 
values  of  Pg  given  in  (o^  and  (;8),  and  it  is  useful  in  indicating 
the  magnitude  of  the  difference  between  them. 

Fortunately  all  methods  lead  to  (j8)  as  a  first  approximation 
which  we  are  agreed  is  close  enough  for  practical  purposes.  If, 
however,  we  regard  the  observations  as  fallible,  (o)  gives  a  better 
value  of  P,)  than  (14),  and  equation  (7)  gives  a  closer  approxi- 
mation to  it  than  (3)  does.  Arthur  W.  Rucker. 

Science  Schools,  South  Kensington,  November  24. 

P.S. — It  may  be  well  to  add  that,  although  the  formula  for 
Ag  is  correctly  given  by  Maxwell  in  line  17,  p.  loi,  the  value  of 
Aj  deduced  below  is  incorrect,  being  really  that  of  2MA.2/H. 
There  is  another  misprint  immediately  below,  5D  being  sub- 
stituted for  SQ  in  the  second  edition. 


Instability  of  Freshly  Magnetized  Needles. 

I  SHOULD  like  to  be  permitted  to  support  Prof.  Riicker  in  his 
reply  to  Prof.  Nipher  (Nature,  vol.  xxxvii.  p.  77),  with  a  few 
remarks  on  the  subject  of  observations  of  magnetic  dip. 

The  question  of  the  degree  of  accuracy  of  dip  observations 
is  one  that  has  been  repeatedly  raised  and  discussed.  In  1864 
in  his  report  to  the  Board  of  Visitors,  the  Astronomer-Royal, 
Sir  G.  B.  Airy,  referred  to  the  matter,  and  a  correspondance 
between  him  and  the  Chairman  of  the  Kew  Committee  (Mr. 
L.  P.  Gassiot)  ensued,  which  is  printed  in  cxtcnso  in  the  Report 
of  the  British  Association  for  1864,  pp.  xxxiv.-xlvii. 

In  reply  to  an  inquiry  by  Mr.  Gassiot  as  to  whether  the 
paragraph  in  the  Report  was  intended  to  apply  to  dip  observa- 
tions made  at  the  Kew  Observatory,  Sir  G,  B.  Airy  quoted  the 
following  statement  by  Sir  E.  Sabine  :■ — "  The  probable  error  of 
a  single  observation  of  the  dip  with  reliable  instruments  of  easy 
procurement  is  known  to  be  ±  i'*5.     It  has  been  shown  to  be 


so  by  a  series  of  282  observations  made  at  Kew,  employing 
twelve  circles  and  twenty-four  needles,  all  of  the  pattern  which 
has  been  in  use  at  Kew  for  several  years  past.  The  observa- 
tions were  made  by  seven  different  observers  ;  the  results  are 
published  in  the  Proceedings  of  the  Royal  Society,  March  1861, 
vol.  xi.  p.  156,  from  entries  in  the  Kew  Observatory  books,  not 
a  single  observation  having  been  omitted.  The  probable  error 
-j-  i'5  may  be  regarded  as  including  constant  errors,  considering 
the  number  of  different  circles  and  needles  which  were  employed, 
as  well  as  the  peculiarities  of  different  observers,  of  whom  there 
were  seven  "  (the  italics  are  General  Sabine's).  The  Astronomer- 
Royal  then  concluded  by  stating  "these  are  the  probable  errors 
which  I  cannot  accept  as  accurate." 

As  a  result  of  the  correspondence,  a  series  of  observations 
was  made  at  both  the  Greenwich  and  Kew  Observatories  by  the 
observers  of  both  institutions,  with  the  same  Kew  pattern  instru- 
ments, and  then  Sir  G.  Airy  wrote,  in  a  letter  dated  November  15, 
as  follows  :  "As  regards  the  results  of  observations,  those  made 
with  the  Kew  instruments  are  consistent  to  a  degree  which  I 
never  saw  before  ;  and  the  results  for.  dip  obtainable  with  the 
Kew  dip  instruments  are  undoubtedly  more  consistent  and  more 
certain  than  I  had  supposed  them  to  be." 

A  similar  inquiry  was  set  on  foot  by  Dr.  II.  Wild,  of  St. 
Petersburg,  and  in  1886  we  made  a  large  number  of  observations 
\\  ith  different  needles  for  him,  the  resulting  error  of  an  observa- 
tion being  in  this  case  ±  i''3.  The  most  severe  test,  so  far  as 
we  are  aware,  wliich  has  been  applied  to  dip  observation,  is  that 
recently  de-cribed  by  M.  E.  Eeyst,  of  St.  Petersburg,  in  a  quarto 
volume  of  133  pages,  published  in  the  Repertoritan  fiir  Meteoro- 
logic,  entitled  "  Untersuchung  iiber  Nadel  Inclinatorien. " 

The  author  discusses  s^me  6576  observations  of  dip  made 
with  different  instruments  and  needles,  and  determines  their 
]jrobable  errors,  which  he  always  find  small,  so  much  so  that  he 
deduces  the  corrections  to  hundredths  of  a  minute  of  arc.  To 
quote  particular  ca'^es,  he  determines  from  thirty  series  of  com- 
parisons between  observations  and  the  simultaneous  readings  of 
the  magnelographs  and  the  induction  inclinometer,  that  the 
diffeience  amounts  to  only  i''o6  ;  and  again,  by  comparing  at 
Pawlowsk  the  fifteen  needles  of  the  three  dip  instruments  of  the 
Pawlowsk,  Irkutsk,  and  Ekaterinburg  Observatories  (all  of 
English  make,  obtained  through  this  Observatory),  he  finds  their 
mean  correction  to  be  nil. 

Judging  from  the  experience  gained  at  Kew  by  the  examina- 
tion of  probably  150  circles  and  500  needles  by  various  makers 
and  different  observers,  I  can  thoroughly  indorse  Prof.  Riicker's 
opinion  that  Prof  Nipher's  instruments  are  scarcely  capable  of 
satisfying  modern  requirements  as  to  accuracy,  and  are  such  that 
were  they  submitted  to  us  for  examination  they  would  be 
promptly  returned  to  their  makers  for  adjustment. 

G.    M.   Whipple. 

Kew  Observa'or}',  November  26. 


Gore's  Railway. 

As  I  have  had  several  letters  concerning  my  use  of  Dr.  Gore's 
arrangement,  depicted  on  p.  107  of  your  last  week's  issue, 
perhaps  I  may  as  well  say  that  I  am  aware  it  is  commonly  re- 
garded as  a  Trevelyan  rocker,  and  that  I  doubt  not  its  function 
in  that  connection.  This  point  of  view  is  so  familiar  to  every 
one,  through  Tyndall's  "  Heat,"  that  I  thought  it  unnecessary 
to  mention  it.  But  I  have  occasionally  heard  the  motion  of  the 
ball  attributed  to  the  electro-magnetic  action  of  the  current  on 
itself — which  is  impossible — and  I  thought  it  useful  to  point  out 
that  it  could  nevertheless  be  used  as  an  illustration  of  electro- 
magnetic force,  provided  a  vertical  magnetic  field  is  applied  as 
well  as  a  current.  I  should  imagine  the  earth  not  too  weak  to 
have  an  effect  under  favourable  conditions  ;  but  of  course  such 
an  effect  would  be  strictly  definite  in  direction,  and  reversible. 

Oliver  J.  Lodge. 


The  Highclere  Bagshots. 

The  notice  in  Nature  for  December  i  (p.  104),  by  my 
friend  Mr.  R.  S.  Herries,  of  casts  of  shells  in  the  Bagshot  Beds 
at  Highclere  tends  strongly  to  confirm  the  results  of  my  own 
work  in  that  district.  On  the  strength  of  physical  and  strati- 
graphical  evidence,  I  have  shown  the  development  in  that 
neisjhbourhood  of  all  the  three  stages  of  the  Bagshot  formation 


Dec,  8,  1887] 


NATURE 


129 


as  we  know  it  in  the  London  Basin.  This  will  be  seen  on  the 
publication  of  a  paper  which  was  sent  in  to  the  Secretary  of  the 
Geological  Society  on  October  10  last,  but  has  not  yet  been 
put  down  by  the  Council  for  i^eading.  A.   Irving. 

Wellington  College,  Berks,  December  2. 


The  Ffynnon  Beuno  and  Cae  Gwyn  Caves. 

Mr.  Worthington  G.  Smith's  letter  in  Nature  of  Decem- 
ber I  (p.  105),  is  so  misleading  that  I  hope  I  may  be  allowed  to 
reply  to  it.  As  is  usual  with  highly  prejudiced  observers,  he 
has  attempted  to  prove  too  much  for  his  case,  as  he  might  have 
seen  had  he  taken  the  trouble  to  refer  to  my  papers.  The  scraper 
which  he  mentions  was  submitted  to  Dr.  John  Evans  for  his 
opinion,  and  his  conclusion  as  given  in  my  paper  in  the  Pro- 
ceedings of  the  Geologists'  Association,  vol.  ix.  p.  17,  is  as  follows. 
The  scraper  "  is  not  of  a  river-drift  form,  so  far  as  at  present 
known,  but  is  precisely  like  many  from  the  French  caves  of  the 
reindeer  periods,  such,  for  instance,  as  La  Madelaine."  Mr. 
Worthington  Smith's  contention  therefore  that  it  agrees  exactly 
with  "  the  Neolithic  scrapers  of  Icklingham  and  Mildenhall  " 
can  only  prove  that  there  is  no  chronological  value  in  the  classi- 
fication of  such  implements.  I  must  explain,  however,  that  we 
have  based  no  argument  on  the  scraper  referred  to,  since  it  was 
found,  before  the  explorations  were  properly  commenced,  in  an 
open  part  of  the  cavern,  and,  as  stated  l)y  me  in  the  paper  referred 
to,  "  it  would  be  improper  to  dogmatize  on  this  evidence."  I 
may  say  at  once  that  I  entirely  demur  to  any  classification  based 
on  the  form  of  the  implements  rather  than  on  the  fauna  asso- 
ciated with-  them,  and  I  see  no  reason  whatever  to  suppose  that 
the  worn,  roughly-trimmed  implements  usually  found  ia  river 
gravels  are  older  than  the  better-preserved  flakes  and  trimmed 
implements  found  in  caverns,  which  would  be  used  for  a 
different  purpose  from  the  rougher  ones.  The  implements 
discovered  subsequently  belong  to  the  so-called  oldest  types 
found  in  caverns,  and  were  associated  with  Mammalian  re- 
mains, equally  characteristic  of  the  oldest  river  gravels  as  of 
the  caverns.  Mr.  Smith's  statements  in  regard  to  the  drift  "in 
front  of  the  Denbighshire  caves "  are  of  so  extraordinary  a 
character  that  I  am  tempted  to  ask  him,  before  I  criticize  those 
statements,  whether  he  ever  visited  the  FCynnon  Beuno  Caves 
during  the  course  of  the  explorations,  whether  he  ever  saw  the 
section  of  the  drift  exposed  at  the  Cae  Gwyn  Cave,  and  what 
evidence  he  can  bring  forward  to  support  his  statements  that  the 
drift  "  is  not  in  its  original  position,  but  distinctly  and  obviously 
relaid,"  and  that  he  doubts  "  whether  before  it  was  relaid  it  was 
a  true  Glacial  gravel  at  all  ? "  I  think  the  members  of  the 
British  Association  Committee,  who  have  carefully  conducted  the 
explorations,  and  have  the  strongest  evidence  in  support  of  their 
conclusion  that  the  caverns,  which  are  now  about  4CX)  feet  above 
sea-level,  were  occupied  by  man  and  the  animals  before  the 
marine  drift  and  boulder-clay  covered  them  over,  have  a  right  to 
ask  for  the  data  upon  which  such  statements  as  those  above 
referred  to  are  based.  These  relate  to  facts,  and  must  be  dealt 
with  in  a  different  manner  from  those  statements  whicli  are  made 
clearly  from  a  bias  against  the  idea  of  Glacial  and  pre-Glacial 
man.  Mr.  Smith  says  that  he  has  not  been  able  to  read  up  the 
literature  of  the  subject,  therefore  he  is  probably  unaware  of  the 
fact  that  Prof.  Prestwich  has  recently  (Quart.  Journ.  Geol.  Soc. 
for  August  last)  stated  that  he  has  arrived  at  the  conclusion  that 
the  high-level  gravels,  with  implements,  in  the  valleys  of  the 
Somme,  Seine,  Thames,  r.nd  Avon  date  back  to  Glaci=il  or  jne- 
Glacial  times;  and  that  "the  great  masses  of  gravel  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  Mildenhall  and  Lakenheath,  also  containing 
flint  implements,  are  certainly  n  t  of  fluviatile  origin"  ;  and  that 
they  seem  to  him  "  to  be  part  of  the  phenomena  connected  with 
the  passage  of  the  great  ice-sheet  over  the  eastern  counties,  and 
in  that  sense  pre-Glacial."  Henky  Higks. 

Hendon,  December  2. 


Cloud  Movements  in  the  Tropics,  and  Cloud 
Classification. 

A  FEW  months  ago  I  called  attention  to  the  fact  that  the 
general  movement  of  the  upper  clouds  in  the  tropical  regions  of 
the  Atlantic  was  from  a  westerly  point  ;  since  then  I  have 
worked  up  all  my  observations  (which  extend  over  a  period  of 


331  days  spent  in  these  regions  in  all  months  of  the  year  except 
June)  with  the  following  results  :— 


Upper  layer  of 

Middle  layer  of 

Between  latitude*; 

cloud  comes  from 

cloud  c  jmei  from 

N.  23°  and  \f 

S.  67"    w. 

S.  45°  W. 

N. 16°    „    11^ 

S.  56^°  w. 

S.  83°  W. 

N.  10°    ,,      6^ 

S.    1"    w. 

S.  17°  W. 

N.    5°    „      0° 

N.4i°    W. 

N.  35°  E. 

S.    I'   „     5" 

N.32°    W. 

N.  78°  E. 

S.    6°    „    10° 

N.45"   w. 

S.  58°  W. 

S.  11°    ,,    15"= 

N.53°    W. 

N.  16°  W. 

S.  16°    ,,    23^ 

S.  86°    W. 

N.  55°  W. 

Taking  a  general  mean  for  the  whole  region,  this  gives  for  the 
upper  layer  of  clouds  N.  86^°  W.,  and  for  the  middle  layer 
of  clouds  S.  73°  W.  These  results  are  from  observations  taken 
by  myself,  and  no  observation  was  registered  if  there  was  the 
slightest  doubt  as  to  the  cloud  movement.  The  ordinary  ship 
register  of  upper  cloud  movements  is  worse  than  useless,  a  pro- 
pagatory  movement  of  the  upper  clouds  being  constantly 
mistaken  for  their  real  movement,  and  the  names  being 
hopelessly  mixed,  the  cirro-cumulus  being  the  source  of  most 
mistakes. 

The  cirro-cumulus  exceeds  all  other  forms  of  cloud  in  extent, 
ranging  from  the  delicate  fine  mottles  at  a  great  elevation  to  the 
large  flaky  masses  quite  low  down,  and  until  it  is  considered  a 
middle  layer  cloud  we  are  certain  to  have  some  confusion. 

It  is  quite  time  that  cloud  classification  was  placed  on  a  more 
satisfactory  basis.  Now  one  observer  will  call  a  certain  form  of 
cirro-cumulus,  a  cumulo-cirrus  ;  a  moderately  high  (middle  layer) 
stratus  of  uniform  texture,  a  cirro-stratus  ;  again,  one  form  of  low 
stratus,  a  pallio-stratus.  Another  observer  will  even  call  a  de- 
tached fragmentary  stratus,  cirro-cumulus  ;  and  lots  of  ob- 
servations will  be  useless  from  one  observer  failing  to  understand 
the  particular  form  of  cloud  A  calls  pallio-stratus  or  B  calls 
cirro-cumulus.  Far  better  to  keep  to  Luke  Howard's  simple 
nomenculature  till  some  classification  is  definitely  fixed  to  which 
all  can  agree. 

To  be  satisfactory  the  classification  must  be  founded  on  the 
physical  and  morphological  (if  I  may  use  the  word  here)  structure 
of  clouds.  I  find  no  difficulty  in  making  observers  understand 
the  difference  between  a  stratiform  and  a  cumuliform  cloud  ;  this 
is  the  first  step,  and  once  the  distinction  is  thoroughly  grasped 
the  rest  is  comparatively  easy.  I  propose  something  of  this  sort. 
Two  orders,  the  "  Straliforms  "  and  the  "  Cumuliforms,"  these 
to  be  subdivided  into  types,  and  these  again  into  species  ;  e.g. 
taking  the  ordinary  dull-looking  stratus  commonly  seen  in 
anticyclonic  areas,  it  would  be  described  as— 

Order         ...         Stratus. 
Type  ...         Low-stratus. 

Species      ...         Pallio-stratus. 

Or  take  that  form  of  cirrus  which  appears  as  lines  or  threads  right 
across  the  sky  ;  it  would  be  destribed  thus — 

Order         ...         Stratus. 
Type  ...         Cirrus. 

Species      ...         Cirro-filum. 

By  using  this  system  an  observer  would  be  gradually  brought  to 
recognize  first  the  broad  distinctions  and  then  the  minute 
distinctions  in  clouds.  David  Wilson-Barker. 


THE  FORMS  OF  CLOUDS. 

SO  much  attention  has  been  given  of  late  years  to  the 
study  of  clouds,  and  so  many  names  have  been  sug- 
gested by  different  writers  for  the  same  form  of  cloud, 
that  the  whole  question  of  cloud  foims  and  cloud  names 
must  soon  be  referred  to  an  International  Congress.  A 
few  remarks  on  certain  broad  facts  connected  with  the 
shapes  of  clouds,  and  on  the  fundamental  principles  by 
which  weather  forecasts  are  deduced  from  these  forms, 
may  therefore  be  acceptable  to  those  who  have  not  given 
special  attention  to  the  subject. 

The  two  most  important  facts  which  must  never  be  for- 
gotten are  :  (i)  that  cloud  forms  are  essentially  the  saine all 
over  the  world  ;  and  (2)  that  there  are  only  five  or  six 
distinct  structures  of  clouds. 


I  qo 


NA  TURE 


{Dec.Z,  188/ 


The  identify  of  cloud  forms  all  ever  the  world  has 
recently  been  demonstrated  both  before  tl  e  Royal  Society 
and  the  Royal  Meteorological  Society  of  London  by  the 


Fig.  I. — Cirrus  wisp  over  cumulus.     Folkestone. 


Fig.  2. — Stratus.     London 


Fig.   3. — Cumulo-nimbus,  cirrifying  above.      Borneo. 

exhibition  of  about  fifty  photographs  of  clouds  taken  by 
the  writer  in  various  longitudes,  and  in  latitudes  ranging 
from  72°  N.  to  56°  S.     Some  of  these  are  reproduced  in 


the  illustrations  of  this  article,  and  the  conclusion  of 
identity  is  irresistible.  The  cirrifying  cloud  over  an 
irregular  cumulus,  in  Fig.  3,  might  be  seen  over  any 
summer  thunderstorm  in  England,  though 
this  example  is  from  tropical  Borneo  ;  while 
the  fleecy  cirro-cumulus  in  Fig.  4,  which  was 
taken  near  the  Falkland  Islands,  about  51°  S.. 
differs  in  no  respect  from  the  similar  cloud 
we  so  often  see  at  home.  Fig.  .6  is  a  strato- 
cumulus  from  near  Teneriffe,  in  the  heart  of 
the  North-east  Trade  ;  but  the  writer  has 
seen  an  absolutely  identical  sky  from  the 
summit  of  North  Cape,  far  within  the  Arctic 
Circle. 

The  different  structures  of  clouds  can 
certainly  be  reduced  essentially  to  five  or 
six  types.  A  great  deal  must  of  course 
depend  on  the  definition  we  adopt  of  a  kind 
or  species  of  cloud.  We  believe  that  one 
German  meteorologist  in  Rhineland  says 
that  he  has  discovered  30,000  different  kinds 
of  cloud,  and  that  he  has  not  yet  finished  his 
classification.  This  is  absurd  ;  for  though 
no  two  clouds  are  ever  exactly  the  same, 
any  more  than  any  two  faces,  still  certain 
broad  types  of  cloud  structure  can  readily 
be  recognized. 

The  first  primary  type  of  structure  is  the 
cirriform  or  hairy.  The  thin  fibres  of  white 
silvery  cloud  which  constitute  a  cirrus  may 
assume  an  almost  infinite  variety  of  forms. 
The  commonest  is  the  simple  wisp  of  white 
threads  such  as  is  shown  in  Fig.  i,  floating 
at  a  high  level  over  a  heavy  mass  of  cumulus 
cloud.  Sometimes  the  cirrus  lies  in  long 
straight  stripes,  which  Ley  has  shown  have 
a  great  value  in  forecasting  weather  ;  or 
at  other  times  assumes  the  "  penniform " 
or  plume-like  appearance  which,  accord- 
ing to  Vines,  precedes  a  hurricane  in  the 
Antilles. 

Cirrus  as  a  rule  is  formed  at  very  high 
levels — 20,000  to  25,000  feet—  and  the  con- 
stituent particles  are  undoubtedly  frozen,  but 
we  occasionally  find  a  fibrous  structure  at 
low  levels,  where  the  constituent  particles 
are  certainly  in  a  fluid  form.  Both  the  cirrus 
and  cumulus  in  Fig.  i  are  composed  of  icy 
particles,  for  the  picture  was  taken  on  a  cold 
winter  day  in  England  when  snow  showers 
were  flying  about.  But  in  Fig.  3  we  see  a 
fibrous  combed-out  structure  at  quite  a  low 
level  in  Borneo,  where  the  temperature  both 
of  the  air  and  the  rain  makes  it  certain  that 
the  whole  cloud  mass  was  made  up  of  liquid 
particles. 

The  true  cumuloform  structure  of  cloud 
can  never  be  mistaken.  The  rising  mass  of 
condensed  vapour  assumes  a  rocky,  lumpy 
appearance,  which  is  well  delineated  in  the 
lower  portion  of  Fig.  i.  The  varieties  of 
form  are  infinite.  Sometimes  beautiful  little 
isolated  cloudlets,  each  with  its  own  flat 
base,  float  all  over  the  sky,  while  at  other 
times  we  only  see  mountainous  masses  rising 
above  a  gloomy  cloud  bank  on  the  horizon, 
as  in  Fig.  3. 

Essentially  different  from  the  above  is  the 

stratiform    structure   which    is    depicted    in 

Fig.  2.     Here  we  have  a  thin  layer  of  flat 

cloud,  at  low  level,  more  or  less  broken,  but 

showing   no  trace  of  either  a  fibrous,   rolled,  or  lumpy 

stiucture.     When  the  sky  is  broken,  this  form  of  cloud  is 

unmistakable,  but  when  overcast  it  is  impossible  to  dis- 


IJ£c.  ^,  ii>87j 


NA  TURE 


,^3i 


tinguish    pure   stratus   from    the  flat    under    surface    of 
some  kinds  of  cumulus  or  nimbus. 

The  term  nimbus  is  applied  to  any  cloud  which  is  pre- 
cipitating rain.  In  practice  we  find  two 
rather  distinct  types — a  strato  nimbus  or 
flat  cloud,  and  a  cumulo-nimbus  or  rocky 
rain-cloud.  The  former  is  characteristic  of 
the  rainfall  in  front  of  an  extra-tropical 
cyclone,  the  latter  of  the  precipitation  from 
squalls  and  thunderstorms  all  over  the  world. 
Our  illustration  (Fig.  3)  represents  a  distant 
view  of  the  clouds  over  a  thunderstorm  in 
Borneo.  Below  we  see  the  rocky  summits 
of  a  mass  of  cumulo-nimbus,  while  apparently 
above,  but  really  at  about  the  same  level,  we 
find  the  characteristic  fibrous  structure  that 
is  called  "goat's  hair"  by  some,  or  "false 
cirrus"  by  others. 

Another  typical  structure  is  that  which 
has  been  called  in  all  times  by  all  nations 
fleecy,  woolly,  or  some  cognate  name.  In 
this,  clouds  assume  the  appearance  of  a 
fleece  of  wool.  Each  little  mass  of  condensed 
vapour  has  a  peculiar  fibrous  structure,  quite 
different  from  true  cirrus.  The  density  and 
level  of  formation  vary  a  good  deal.  When 
the  cloud  is  thin  at  up  to  about  25,000  feet, 
most  meteorologists  call  it  cirro-cumulus  ; 
but  when  denser,  and  down  at  about  18,000 
feet,  the  name  of  cumulo-cirrus  has  been 
proposed  to  distinguish  this  low  variety. 
Fig.  4  is  an  excellent  specimen  of  cirro- 
cumulus,  from  a  photograph  ta'cen  near  the 
Falkland  Islands 

There  is  a  form  of  cloud  intermediate 
between  pure  cirrus  and  pure  stratus  which 
is  so  common  and  so  characteristic  of  bad 
weather  that  it  has  universally  been  classified 
as  cirro-stratus.  We  apply  the  term  to  a 
sky  which  is  covered  with  a  thin  layer  of 
cirrus  fibres,  more  or  less  mixed  up  with  a 
formless  haze  or  veil  of  scattered  ice-particles. 
Sometimes  the  cirrus  threads  are  thin  and 
white  as  the  finest  gossamer,  and  float  25,000 
to  27,000  feet  above  the  earth,  but  at  other 
times  the  structure  is  coarser,  and  the  level 
of  formation  not  more  than  1 8,ooD  feet.  The 
first  kind  is  called  cirro-stratus,  the  second 
strato-cirrus.  Fig.  5  is  an  example  of  a 
rather  heavy  cirro-stratus^  taken  near  Dover. 
It  will  be  observed  that  there  are  two  distinct 
lines  of  structure  about  which  the  cloud 
masses  are  grouped,  and  that  the  lines  in- 
tersect one  another  at  a  certain  angle,  so 
that  the  whole  has  a  certain  reticulated 
appearance.  This  is  most  characteristic  of 
cirro-stratus. 

Cirro-stratus  with  its  hairy  structure,  and 
cirro-cumulus  with  its  fleecy  appearance, 
might  at  first  sight  appear  to  be  radically 
different  from  one  another  ;  but  they  are  not 
so  really.  It  is  by  no  means  uncommon 
to  see  a  patch  of  fibrous  cirro-stratus  sud- 
denly become  fleecy  for  a  few  minutes, 
and  then  return  again  to  its  former  state. 
We  cannot  give  the  reason  for  this,  as 
the  origin  of  both  structures  is  at  present 
imknown. 

Theri   is  a  form   of  cloud,  intermediate 
between  stratus  and  cumulus,  to  which  the 
word  strato-cumulus  is  appropriately  applied. 
In  this  the  cloud  layer  is  too  lumpy  to  be  called  pure 
stratus,  and  not   rocky   enough   to    be   called   cumulus. 
Fig.  6  is  an  excellent  specimen  of  this  type,  taken  near 


Teneriffe ;  and  here  we  see  the  lumpy  masses  of  cloud 
getting  apparently  thinner  and  thinner  as  they  approach 
the  horizon,  till  they  look  at  last  like  a  series  of  stripes  or 


Fig.  4  — Cirro-cumulus,  or  fleecy  structure.     Falkland  Islands. 


Fig.  5  — Cirro-stratus.    Folkestone. 


Fig.  6.— Strato-cumulu;.     Near  Teneriffe. 


rolls  parallel  to  ths  horizon.     This  of  course  is  the  result 

of  perspective.  ,        •.    j 

The  ten  varieties  of  cloud  which  we  have  now  described 


132 


NATURE 


{Dec.  8,  1887 


— cirrus,  cumulus,  stratus,  nimbus  and  cumulo-nimbus, 
cirro-cumulus  and  cumulo-cirrus,  cirro-stratus  and  strato- 
cirrus,  together  with  strato-cumulus— comprise  all  the  im- 
portant kinds  of  clouds  ;  and  there  are  really  only  five 
distinct  types  of  structure — cirrus,  stratus,  cumulus,  nim- 
bus, and  cirro-cumulus.  Prof.  Hildebrandsson  and  myself 
consider  that  the  ten  words  above  mentioned,  com- 
pounded out  of  only  four  Latin  words,  are  practically 
sufficient  for  all  ordinary  purposes. 

Specialists  in  clouds  will  of  course  want  more  minute 
varieties,  such  as  different  names  for  some  of  the  kinds 
of  cirrus,  and  for  the  low  broken  clouds,  such  as  scud, 
wrack,  &c.  There  are  also  a  whole  class  of  pendulous 
clouds,  such  as  festooned  stratus,  pocky  cloud,  or  mam- 
mato-cumulus  ;  and  the  long  black  wreaths  of  cloud  in 
front  of  certain  types  of  thunderstorm,  but  these  are  all 
very  local,  and  also  very  short-lived,  so  that  they  need 
only  be  mentioned  here. 

So  far  for  the  mere  external  forms  of  clouds  as  they 
would  strike  a  savage  or  an  artist  ;  but  to  the  meteorologist 
there  is  a  philosophy  behind  them.  In  England  some 
forms  presage  wind  and  rain,  others  indicate  the  advent 
of  fine  weather  ;  while  recently  it  has  been  shown  that 
different  kinds  of  clouds  are  developed  in  different  paits 
of  cyclones  and  anticyclones.  For  instance,  cirro- 
stratus  forms  in  front,  cumulus  in  rear,  of  a  cyclone  ; 
while  fleecy  cirro-cumulus  is  very  characteristic  of  the 
western  side  of  the  anticyclones. 

But  then  we  are  met  by  the  apparent  paradox  that 
precisely  the  same  forms  of  cloud  are  found  on  the 
equator  where  neither  cyclone  nor  anticyclone  was  ever 
developed.  Moreover,  the  same  cloud  does  not  prognos- 
ticate the  same  weather  all  over  tlie  world,  and  even  in 
the  same  country  the  same  cloud  may  indicate  either  good 
or  bad  weather  according  to  the  circumstances  under  which 
it  is  developed.  For  instance,  cumulus  in  England  is 
sometimes  the  associate  of  a  fine  day,  other  times  the 
forerunner  of  a  shower. 

The  clue  to  the  whole  puzzle  lies  in  the  fact  that  the 
same  form  of  cloud  can  be  produced  under  totally  differ- 
ent circumstances.  Vapour-laden  air  can  only  condense 
into  cloud,  and  then  be  drawn  out  or  rolled  about  between 
different  currents  in  a  very  limited  number  of  ways,  and 
hence  the  small  number  of  really  distinct  varieties  of 
cloud  structure. 

Let  us  take  the  case  of  cumulus  in  detail  as  an  example 
of  general  principles.  Cumulus  is  always  the  condensed 
capital  of  an  ascensional  column  of  air,  but  the  source  of 
the  uptake  need  not  always  be  the  same.  For  instance, 
air  may  rise  either  (i)  from  ordinary  evaporation  on  a 
fine  day  ;  (2)  from  the  uptake  of  a  cyclonic  vortex  ;  (3) 
from  the  collision  between  two  opposite  currents. 

The  first — evaporation — is  the  source  of  fine-weather 
cumulus  in  England  and  all  over  the  world  ;  while  the 
uptake  of  a  cyclone  is  the  cause  of  rainy  cumulus  wherever 
such  eddies  are  formed.  The  rainy  cumulus  of  the 
equator  is  the  product  of  squalls  and  thunderstorms 
whose  nature  at  present  is  unknown  in  most  cases  ;  but 
one  very  common  cause  is  the  collision  between  the  land 
and  sea  breezes  of  the  tropics.  The  two  opposing  cur- 
rents meet,  one  is  forced  upwards,  and  then  mountainous 
cumulus  is  the  result.  The  cumulo-nimbus  in  Fig.  3  is 
over  a  thunderstorm  in  Borneo,  due  to  the  collision  of  the 
land  and  sea  breezes. 

All,  therefore,  that  we  can  say  for  certain  when  we  see  a 
cumulus  cloud  is  that  an  ascensional  current  of  air  has 
risen  to  the  level  of  condensation.  What  future  weather 
the  cloud  prognosticates  depends  on  circumstances,  and 
must  be  judged  by  our  experience  and  knowledge  of  the 
climate  in  which  we  may  happen  to  be.  Clouds  always 
tell  a  true  story,  but  one  which  is  hard  to  read  ;  and  the 
language  of  England  is  not  the  language  of  Borneo. 
The  form  alone  only  shows  that  a  certain  form  of  condens- 


'J 


ation  is  taking  place  ;    the  true  import  must  be  judge 
by  the  surroundings,  just  as  the  sense  of  many  words  can 
only  be  judged  by  the  context. 

Ralph  Abercromby. 


FIFTH  ANNUAL  REPORT  OF  THE  FISHERY 
BOARD  FOR  SCOTLAND. 

THE  Report  for  1886  contains  so  much  of  general 
interest  that  it  deserves  the  attention  of  many  who 
look  upon  a  Blue-book  as  the  driest  of  reading,  only 
attractive  to  those  whom  it  may  immediately  concern.  It 
is  desirable  that  the  scope  and  practical  aims  of  the 
Board  should  be  more  generally  known,  and  the  public 
should  appreciate  the  excellent  work  done  by  it,  instead 
of  regarding  this  as  the  mere  outcome  of  scientific  lean- 
ings to  certain  lines  of  investigation.  The  fisheries  of 
Scotland  continue  to  be  very  productive,  and  nothing  is 
more  striking  about  them  than  the  great  and  increasing 
yield  of  the  herring  fishery.  Though  this  increase  and 
the  low  price  at  which  the  herrings  have  been  sold  have 
proved  a  great  boon  to  the  community,  especially  to  the 
poorer  classes,  it  is  deeply  to  be  regretted  that  the  crews 
sustained  very  heavy  losses  from  the  glutting  of  the 
market  consequent  on  the  large  takes  and  low  prices.  A 
striking  feature  of  the  summer  herring  fishery  of  1885  was 
that  many  in-shore  grounds  where  herrings  had  been 
found  in  great  abundance  in  previous  years  but  which  had 
been  recently  all  but  deserted  were  restored  to  their  former 
fertility.  This  was  even  more  marked  in  the  season  of 
1886,  as  all  along  the  east  coast  from  Montrose  to  the 
Pentland  Firth  there  seemed  to  be  one  immense  un- 
broken shoal  of  herrings,  lying  from  one  to  ten  miles  off 
land.  At  no  former  period  in  the  history  of  this  fishery 
were  the  catches  so  heavy.  The  winter  herring  fishery 
on  the  east  coast  was  the  most  productive  ever  known, 
yielding  a  total  catch  of  128,441  crans.  The  gross  total 
value  of  the  sea  and  salmon  fisheries  of  Scotland  for  1886 
was  ^2,550,778  8j.  id. 

During  the  past  year  the  scientific  work  consisted 
chiefly  in  carrying  on  the  trawling  experiments  required 
by  the  recent  Act  of  Parliament  (Sea  Fisheries  (Scotland) 
Amendment  Act,  1885),  but  in  addition  investigations 
were  made  as  to  the  development,  artificial  hatching, 
structure,  and  habits  of  the  more  important  useful  fishes. 
An  important  part  of  the  inquiry  as  to  the  influence  of 
trawling  consisted  in  arranging  to  obtain  statistics  show- 
ing the  quantities  of  fish  landed  from  the  restricted 
areas,  and  the  conditions  under  which  they  were  cap- 
tured— an  extremely  difficult  matter  to  arrange. 

The  Board's  marine  station  at  St.  Andrews  has  again 
been  under  the  direction  of  Prof.  Mcintosh,  whose  Report 
shows  that  important  work  on  the  life-histories  and  de- 
velopment of  the  food-fishes  has  been  done  at  this  station 
by  him  and  Mr.  E.  E.  Prince,  by  Dr.  Scharff  on  the 
intra-ovarian  eggs  of  food-fishes,  and  by  Mr.  Wilson 
on  the  development  of  the  common  mussel.  The 
memoir  first  mentioned,  viz.  that  on  the  development  and 
life-histories  of  the  food-fishes,  is  now  ready  for  publica- 
tion, and  is  illustrated  by  thirty-one  quarto  plates.  Its 
size  and  the  nature  of  the  illustrations  of  course  render  it 
unsuitable  for  a  Parliamentary  Blue-book. 

The  "  Report  on  the  Trawling  Experiments  on  the 
East  Coast,  Part  I.  Preliminary,"  by  Prof  Ewart  and 
Sir  J.  Ramsay  Gibson-Maitland,  gives  the  results  of  an 
important  item  in  last  year's  work.  The  Act  already 
referred  to  having  empowered  the  Scotch  Fishery  Board 
to  frame  by-laws  for  the  better  regulation  of  sea-fishing, 
and  one  such  law  having  been  framed,  passed,  and  con- 
firmed, it  was  necessary  to  make  arrangements  to  dis- 
cover, if  possible,  what  influence  the  prohibition  of 
trawling  under  the   by-law   would   have   in   leading    to 


Dec.  8,  1887] 


NATURE 


133 


an  increase  of  fish  in  the  protected  waters.  At  the  outset 
it  was  evident  that  it  would  be  necessary  to  make  syste- 
matic observations  on  the  various  areas  by  trawling  along 
the  same  lines,  and  as  nearly  as  possible  under  the  same 
conditions,  as  the  ordinary  steam  trawlers  ;  and  further, 
that  it  would  be  equally  necessary  to  obtain  as  far  as 
possible  a  record  of  the  fish  captured  day  by  day  from 
the  various  grounds  in  the  Firth  of  Forth,  St.  Andrews 
and  Aberdeen  Bays. 

Representations  having  been  made  that  a  small  steam- 
vessel  properly  fitted  out  was  indispensable,  and  a  sum 
for  the  buying  and  maintenance  of  such  a  vessel  having 
been  granted,  the  Garland,  an  iron  fishing  yacht,  was 
purchased  and  duly  equipped.  She  was  provided  with  a 
steam  winch,  trawling  gear,  dredges,  &c.,  and  later  it  was 
found  desirable  to  add  a  small  bridge  to  admit  of  a  better 
"  look-out "  being  kept  when  at  work  during  the  night  in 
the  vicinity  of  small  fishing-boats,  often  imperfectly  pro- 
tected by  lights.  The  beam  of  the  trawl  provided  is 
twenty-five  feet  in  length,  i.e.  about  half  the  length  of 
those  used  by  the  ordinary  steam  trawlers.  This  size 
was  selected  partly  to  suit  the  weight  of  the  ship,  and 
partly  to  cause  as  little  disturbance  as  possible  to  the 
fishing-grounds  when  under  periodical  inspection.  Special 
forms  were  prepared  to  admit  of  a  complete  record  being 
kept  of  the  fish  taken  by  the  trawl,  dredge,  and  tow-net, 
and  of  the  temperature,  state  of  the  weather,  &c.  The 
Garland  was  supplied  with  charts,  showing  the  extent 
and  direction  in  which  the  trawl  was  to  be  carried  in 
working  over  the  various  trawling  stations,  and  with  several 
books  of  reference,  bottles,  tanks,  &c.,  for  the  preserva- 
tion of  spawn,  young  fish,  Crustacea,  and  other  objects 
which  required  to  be  afterwards  examined  or  identified. 
Recently  a  complete  set  of  thermometers  and  other  in- 
struments for  making  physical  observations  have  been 
provided,  and  the  necessary  instructions  given  for  their 
use. 

In  the  present  Report  it  is  pointed  out  that  the  Firth  of 
Forth  is  well  adapted  either  as  a  feeding-ground  or  a 
nursery  for  the  most  important  of  our  food-fishes  and  also 
for  shell-fish.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  there  is  not,  it  is  stated, 
on  the  east  coast  of  England  or  anywhere  else  on  the 
coast  of  Scotland,  a  stretch  of  water  with  so  many  natural 
advantages  from  the  fishermen's  point  of  view  as  the 
Firth  of  Forth.  The  fresh  water  carries  with  it  food  for 
mussels  and  other  shell-fish.  The  sea  brings  in  food  for 
herring  and  other  round  fish.  The  water  varies  consider- 
ably in  depth  and  salinity,  and  the  bottom  at  one  part 
consists  of  sand  or  mud,  at  another  of  gravel  or  shingle, 
and  at  another  of  rocks,  sometimes  bare,  sometimes 
covered  with  sea-weed,  and  the  temperature  throughout 
the  year  is  fairly  constant,  there  never  being  great  heat  in 
summer  or  very  great  cold  in  winter.  The  physical  con- 
ditions of  St.  Andrews  Bay  are  entirely  unlike  those  of 
the  Forth,  and  this  being  the  case  the  fauna  may  naturally 
be  expected  to  differ  considerably.  There  has  not  been 
time  to  prepare  a  complete  account  of  the  fauna  of  St. 
Andrews  Bay  during  the  different  months  of  the  year,  but 
it  is  hoped  that  with  the  help  of  Prof.  Mcintosh  a  first  list 
will  be  ready  for  the  next  Report.  It  is,  however,  known 
already  that  the  rocky  ground  on  the  south  shore  is  rich  in 
moUusks,  Crustacea,  marine  worms,  coelenterates,&c.  ;  and 
that  starfish  and  other  echinoderms,  edible,  swimming, 
and  hermit  crabs  and  other  Crustacea  are  scattered  in 
abundance  over  the  sandy  bottom  of  the  bay,  and 
especially  that  mussels  abound  near  the  mouth  of  the 
Eden.  Further,  swimming  or  pelagic  forms  (including  at 
certain  seasons  of  the  year  schools  of  young  fish, 
Crustacea,  and  mollusks)  teem  in  the  surface  and  deeper 
waters.  As  is  to  be  expected  from  the  nature  of  the 
bottom,  flat  fish  far  out-number  round  fish  all  over  the 
bay.  The  flat  fish  are  chiefly  represented  by  several 
kinds  of  dabs,  by  plaice,  flounders,  skate,  and  brill,  and  at 
times  turbot ;  and  in  addition  the  bay  is  visited  by  had- 


dock, whiting,  cod,  and  other  round  fish.  Aberdeen  Bay 
corresponds  in  some  respects  with  St.  Andrews  Bay,  but 
the  closed  area  includes  not  the  bay  proper  so  much  as  a 
narrow  portion  of  the  territorial  waters  (some  eighteen 
miles  in  length)  which  extends  from  Girdle  Ness  to  the 
Cruden  Scars.  This  area,  very  narrow  at  certain  points, 
never  reaches  a  width  of  three  miles.  The  Dee,  Don, 
and  Ythan  flow  into  the  bay,  but  the  fresh  water  flows 
over  the  salt  without  mingling  with  it  as  in  the  Forth  to 
form  a  true  estuary.  The  bottom  consists  chiefly  of 
sand,  but  towards  the  north  and  south  sand  gives 
place  to  rock.  The  fauna  resembles  that  found  at  St. 
Andrews,  but  although  flat  fish  are  relatively  plenti- 
ful, whiting  are  far  more  abundant.  It  is  to  be 
observed  that,  in  comparing  the  prominent  features 
of  the  three  districts  investigated,  the  Firth  of  Forth 
is  characterized  by  an  abundance  of  haddocks,  St. 
Andrews  Bay  by  the  predominance  of  flat  fish,  and 
Aberdeen  Bay  by  the  large  number  of  gurnards  and 
whitings.  As  regards  the  practical  working  of  the  by- 
law, it  is  only  necessary  to  add  that  although  only  a  year 
has  elapsed  since  it  was  passed,  providing  for  a  limited 
form  of  protection  for  the  waters  referred  to,  there  are 
already  some  signs  of  improvement  both  in  the  number 
and  size  of  the  less  migratory  flat  fish,  and  in  the  number 
of  young  round  fish  which  visit  the  territorial  waters  for 
long  or  short  periods.  The  fishermen  of  the  Forth 
and  St.  Andrews  Bay  state  they  are  already  obtaining 
better  takes  of  flat  fish,  and  that  they  believe  in  a  few 
years  the  in-shore  grounds  will  have  recovered  to  a 
considerable  extent  their  former  richness. 

Prof.  Ewart  gives  an  interesting  paper  on  "  The  Arti- 
ficial Hatching  and  Rearing  of  Sea  Fish."  The  publication 
last  year  of  "The  History  of  Howietoun"  (Sir  J.  Ramsay 
Gibson- Maitland)  marks  an  epoch  in  the  history  of  fish- 
culture.  It  affords  proof  that  the  Salmonidse  at  least  can 
be  bred  and  reared  in  confinement  as  successfully  as  any 
of  the  smaller  domestic  animals,  and  that  fish-culture, 
notwithstanding  all  the  reverses  it  has  suffered  through 
the  misplaced  zeal  and  energy  of  its  many  would-be 
advocates,  has  a  great  future  before  it,  not  only  in  re- 
stocking our  own'  rivers  and  lakes,  but  also  in  peopling 
the  waters  of  all  countries  where  the  conditions  are 
favourable  to  the  development  and  growth  of  the 
Salmonidas  and  other  valuable  food-fishes.  Fish-culture 
at  Howietoun  has  been  reduced  to  a  science.  Every  step 
in  the  process,  from  the  impregnation  of  the  eggs  to  the 
rearing  of  the  mature  fish,  has  been  thoroughly  mastered 
and  systematized.  So  careful  have  the  observations 
been  from  first  to  last,  that  it  is  now  possible  to  produce, 
within  certain  limits,  considerable  modifications  in  the 
time  at  which  the  eggs  mature  and  hatch,  and  in  the 
rate  of  growth  of  both  the  fry  and  the  older  fish  ;  and, 
further,  many  hybrids  have  been  bred,  the  genealogy  of 
which  is  not  a  little  hard  without  the  aid  of  an  ancestral 
tree  to  fully  comprehend. 

The  reasons  for  putting  such  knowledge  acquired  to  a 
practical  application  are  that  the  demand  for  salmon  is 
greater  than  formerly,  and  the  nature  of  the  spawning- 
grounds  has  been  altered.  Nature  provides  for  all 
natural  losses,  but  she  does  not,  and  cannot  be  expected 
to  cope  with  those  created  by  the  necessities  of  civilization. 
It  is  for  science  to  step  in  and  help  to  solve  the  problem 
of  supply  and  demand. 

Unlike  the  higher  animals,  fish  are  not  protected  in  the 
early  stages,  and  the  food-fishes  even  less  than  others.  A 
very  limited  acquaintance  with  the  life-history  of  sea-fish 
enables  one  to  readily  understand  that,  though  the  culture 
of  salmon  and  trout  may  be  highly  advantageous,  and 
often  all  but  imperative,  it  does  not  follow  that  this  is  the 
case  with  the  herring  and  cod  and  their  allies.  The 
most  sanguine  pisciculturist  would  scarce  dare  propose  to 
increase  the  number  of  the  more  migratory  fish  that  live 
in  the  open  sea.     It  has  been  suggested  that,  by  hatching 


134 


NATURE 


iDec.  8,  1887 


fish  in-shore,  local  races  might  be  formed ;  but  this  is 
taking  for  granted  that  during  the  process  of  incubation  the 
fish  are  brought  under  some  remarkable  spell  which  arrests 
their  strongly  inherited  instincts,  and  leads  them  to  settle 
down  for  life  in  the  vicinity  of  their  birthplace,  instead  of 
roaming  about  to  see  the  world  like  their  free  born  cousins. 
It  seems,  therefore,  too  much  to  expect  cod  and  haddock 
and  other  wanderers  to  remain  always  about  our  doors 
because  they  happened  to  see  the  light  under  artificial 
instead  of  natural  conditions.  But  though  fish-hatching 
may  not  be  able  to  influence  much,  if  at  all,  the  number 
of  fish  in  the  open  sea,  and  though  it  may  not  be  able  to 
establish  local  races  or  shoals,  it  may  still  be  of  great 
service.  In  the  first  place,  it  may  be  the  means  of  intro- 
ducing fish,  which  have  the  migratory  instinct  fairly  well 
developed,  into  waters  where  they  practically  did  not 
previously  exist.  For  example,  by  instituting  hatcheries 
in  the  upper  reaches  of  some  of  the  long  fjords  in  Nor- 
way, a  large  school  of  haddocks  or  other  round  fish  might 
be  readily  created  which  might  find  all  the  conditions 
necessary  to  their  existence  without  wandering  into  the 
open  sea  ;  and,  in  fact,  the  same  results  might  follow  the 
hatching  on  a  large  scale  of  round  fish  in  some  of  our 
own  firths  and  bays.  Again,  as  in  America,  it  might  be 
possible  to  produce  shoals  of  fish,  such  as  the  shad, 
which,  by  wandering  along  the  coast  or  living  in  the 
estuaries,  would  be  the  means  of  attracting  large  and 
.more  valuable  forms  to  the  in-shore  grounds  ;  fish,  in 
fact,  which  would  act  the  part  of  the  herring,  but  be  a 
more  constant  source  of  attraction — remaining  in  the 
firths  for  several  months  at  a  time.  Lastl}',  fish-culture 
may  have  a  great  future  before  it  in  hatching  flat  fish, 
which  have  the  double  advantage  of  being  extremely 
valuable,  while  they  are  often  very  limited  in  their  migra- 
tions. The  artificial  hatching  of  sea-fish  has  not  yet  had 
time  to  obtain  a  firm  footing  ;  for  the  first  trustworthy 
experiments  made  were  those  of  the  German  Commis- 
sioners (Meyer,  Mobius,  and  others),  who  hatched  numerous 
herring  in  1874  in  the  Bay  of  Kiel.  As  is  well  known, 
Norway  has  a  Society  for  Promoting  the  Norwegian 
Fisheries,  with  branches  at  the  principal  fishing  centres. 
In  1882  an  experimental  station  under  Captain  G.  M. 
Dannevig  was  started  at  Flodevig,  near  Arendal,  where 
millions  of  sea-fish  have  been  hatched,  and  a  number  of 
cod  and  herring  reared  in  a  pond  near  the  hatching 
station.  The  question  of  hatching  sea-fish  is  under 
consideration  at  the  present  moment  at  Grimsby.  It  is 
proposed  to  found  a  hatchery  at  Cleethorpes  to  propagate 
round  and  flat  fish,  with  a  view  of  replenishing  the  ex- 
hausted in-shore  waters  of  the  North  Sea.  Even  should 
this  experiment  prove  unsuccessful,  it  will  be  of  import- 
ance in  furnishing  and  spreading  the  technical  education 
and  information  so  much  required  among  those  engaged 
in  the  fishing  industry. 

To  successfully  hatch  sea-fish  in  large  numbers,  the 
first  and  last  requisite  is  an  abundant  supply  of  pure 
sea-water.  This  necessitates  a  small  sea-pond  and  a 
number  of  large  tanks,  from  which  a  constant  supply  of 
pure  filtered  water  can  be  readily  obtained.  In  addition 
to  having  at  command  an  abundant  supply  of  sea-water, 
it  is,  of  course,  necessary  to  have  the  hatching-station  in 
the  vicinity  of  some  rich  fishing-ground,  where  plenty 
ripe  fish  may  be  obtained  when  wanted. 

Given  plenty  pure  sea  water  and  a  number  of  ripe  fish, 
the  next  desideratum  is  a  hatching  apparatus,  the  form  of 
which  must  depend  on  the  nature  of  the  eggs  to  be 
manipulated.  While  herring  eggs  are  heavy,  and  not 
only  fall  to  the  bottom,  but  adhere  to  whatever  they 
touch,  the  eggs  of  most  of  the  food-fishes  are  non- 
adhesive  and  lighter  than  sea- water,  and  hence  they 
float  at  or  near  the  surface.  Prof.  Evvart  describes  and 
figures  a  promisingly  practical  hatching  jar  for  adhesive 
eggs  lately  designed  and  used  by  himself,  also  the  ap- 
paratus used  at  Arendal  for  floating  eggs,  the  most  suc- 


cessful hitherto  devised.  With  such  apparatus  it  would  be 
possible,  at  a  very  small  outlay,  to  hatch  millions  of  float- 
ing food-fish  eggs,  and  thus  to  restore  and  maintain  the 
original  productiveness  of  the  in-shore  fisheries.  The 
conclusion  is  that  we  ought  to  establish  hatching  stations 
at  one  or  more  centres.  One  might  be  for  round  fish,  the 
other  for  lobsters  and  other  shell  fish.  The  Firth  of 
Forth  and  the  Cromarty  Firth  seem  admirably  adapted 
for  the  purpose,  one  great  point  being  that  minute  pelagic 
forms,  such  as  the  young  fry  feed  on,  are  remarkably 
abundant  in  both.  A  hatching  station  could  be  provided 
for  about  ^tooo,  and  it  is  hoped  the  Board  may  soon 
obtain  a  vote  for  the  purpose.  The  hatching  operations 
at  Flodevig,  of  the  report  of  which  Prof.  Ewart  gives  an 
interesting  abstract,  shows  that  many  important  practical 
questions  have  been  settled,  and  the  conclusions  reached 
at  Hovvietoun  and  elsewhere  as  to  the  influence  of  ex- 
treme temperatures,  sudden  changes  in  the  surroundings, 
and  also  on  the  eggs  and  young  spawn  on  full-grown  fish, 
have  been  well  confirmed. 

Mr.  Duncan  Matthews  gives  (Part  I.)  a  long  paper, 
excellently  done,  on  "The  Structure  of  the  Herring 
and  other  Clupeoids,"  with  a  series  of  capital  plates  ;  also 
Part  II.  of  the  "  Report  as  to  variety  among  the  Herrings 
of  the  Scotch  Coast  "  ;  notes  on  "  The  Food  of  the  Whit- 
ing," and  on  the  "  Ova,  Fry,  and  Nest  of  the  Ballan 
Wrasse."  Mr.  R.  D.  Ciarkson's  paper  "  On  the  Nutritive 
Value  and  Relative  Digestibility  of  White  Fish"  is  as 
interesting  from  the  dietetic  point  of  view  as  Mr.  C.  E 
Fryer's  suggestions  for  "  The  Preparation  of  Sprats  and 
other  Fish  as  Sardines '"  is  from  the  economic.  Prof. 
Mcintosh  reports  on  the  work  done  last  year  at  the  St. 
Andrews  Marine  Laboratory.  The  other  scientific  in- 
vestigations include  notes  on  "  The  Food  of  Young 
Gadida?,"  and  on  "  The  Spawning  of  the  Pike,"  by  Mr. 
George  Brook;  on  "  Entomostraca,"  by  Mr.  G.  S. 
Brady  ;  a  paper  on  the  "  Development  of  the  Common 
Mussel,"  by  Mr.  John  Wilson  ;  one  on  "  The  Physical 
Conditions  of  the  Water  of  the  Firth  of  Forth,"  by  Dr. 
H.  R.  Mill  ;  and  a  "  Further  Report  on  the  Examinations 
of  River- waters  for  Micro-organisms,"  by  Prof.  Green- 
field and  Mr.  John  Gibson.  There  are  a  number  of 
tables  and  plates  which  add  greatly  to  the  interest  and 
usefulness  of  the  work. 


PROFESSOR   A.     WEISMANN'S     THEORY    OF 
POLAR    BODIES. 

ONE  of  the   most  noticeable  features  at  the  recent 
meeting  of  the  British  Association  at  Manchester 
was   the   manner   in    which    naturalists    of  all    nation- 
alities agreed   to   do  honour   to    Prof.    Weismann,  who 
has   contributed    to  theoretic   biology   in    the    last  itv! 
years    with    as    lavish   a   hand   as  that   with  which    he 
formerly  enriched  the  practical  side  of  the  science  through 
I  detailed  observation  and  far-reaching  induction. 
1       Ofhis  later  speculations  upon  the  significance  of  obscure 
I  reproductive  phenomena,  the  first  ^  was  abridged  by  Prof. 
H.    N.    Moseley  (Nature,    vol.    xxxiii.    p.   154);    while 
perhaps  the   most  important  contribution  to   biological 
I  science  at  the  Manchester  meeting  was  an  abstract  of 
I  the  newer  pamphlet  ^  recently  reprinted  in  this  journal 
(vol.    xxxvi.    p.    607).      The    necessary  limits    of    such 
!  an    abstract    precluded    any    account     of     the    obser- 
vations which   appeared   to    support   Prof.   Weismanns 
views,  as  also  of  the  details  of  the  process  by  which,  as  he 
supposes,  the  plasmata  are  removed  in  the  polar  bodies. 
As   neither  the   original   pamphlet   nor   the    still    later 
account  of  his  observations  upon  parthenogenetic  eggs 
are  generally  accessible,  it  has  been  suggested  that  some 
additional  points,  in  expansion  of  the  abstract,  should  be 
given  in  these  columns. 

'  "  Die  Continurat  des  Keimpla'^ma'.s"  Jena,  1885,  122  pages. 
2  "Die  Z-M  der  Richtuigsko.per,"  Jena,  iSS;,  75  pages. 


Dec,  8,  1887] 


NA  TURH 


i'3'5 


Certain  recent  observations  on  the  maturation  of  the 
ovum  are  of  great  interest  in  this  connection,  as  illustrat- 
ing the  possible  mechanism  by  which  ovogenous  plasma 
in  the  extrusion  of  the  first  polar  body,  and  a  number  of 
ancestral  plasmata  in  that  of  the  second,  are  removed 
from  the  nucleus  of  the  ovum  ;  the  former  process 
being  designed  to  equalize  in  bulk  the  ovogenous  and 
germinal  plasmata  contained  in  the  nucleus  {Aequations- 
thcilung),  the  latter  to  reduce  the  total  number  of  an- 
cestral plasmata  present  by  a  half  {Reduktions-theilung). 

For  this  reduction  in  number  of  the  ancestral  plasmata 
there  must  be  a  second  and  special  form  of  karyokinesis 
not  as  yet  generally  recognized.  If  any  value  be  attached 
to  the  fact,  first  observed  by  Flemming,^  that  in  normal 
karyokinesis  the  nuclear  loops  are  split  longitudinally, 
one  of  the  resultant  halves  passing  to  each  daughter- 
nucleus,  then  the  two  nuclei  produced  by  such  division 
must  be  precisely  alike,  not  only  quantitatively,  but 
quahtatively.  For  Prof  Weismann's  view,  however,  there 
must  exist  "a  type  of  karyokinesis  in  which  the  primary 
equatorial  loops  are  not  split  up,  but  separated  into  two 
groups,each  of  which  groups  forms  one  of  the  two  daughter- 
nuclei."  E.  Van  Beneden-  has  already  shown  that  in  the 
formation  of  the  polar  body  of  Ascaris  tnegalocephala  the 
nuclear  division  differs  from  the  usual  type  of  karyo- 
kinesis in  that  the  plane  of  division  is  at  right  angles  to 
the  normal  ;  and  Carnoy  ^  has  more  recently  essentially 
confirmed  the  observation,  and  has  further  added  that, 
of  the  eight  nuclear  loops  which  are  to  be  found  in  the 
equator  of  the  spindle,  four  are  removed  in  the  extrusion 
of  the  first  polar  body,  and  two  of  the  remaining  four  with 
the  second.  Were  it  certain  that  each  of  the  eight  loops 
consisted  of  ancestral  plasma,  it  would  be  necessary  to 
regard  the  first  division  of  the  nucleus  as  a  process  of 
reduction,  not  of  equalization ;  but  this  is  not  to  be 
accepted,  mainly  because  the  extrusion  of  the  first  polar 
body  is  to  be  found  also  in  parthenogenetic  ova.  With  more 
probability  the  first  polar  body  of  the  ovum  <ji  Ascaris  is 
to  be  regarded  as  removing  ovogenous  plasma,  since  we 
know,  through  the  observations  of  Flemming  and  Carnoy, 
that  under  certain  conditions  secondary  splitting  and 
consequent  numerical  duplication  of  the  nuclear  loops 
may  occur.  This  shows,  in  Prof  Weismann's  view,  that 
there  exist  nuclei  in  which  the  same  ancestral  plasmata 
may  be  present  in  different  loops.  Such  "  identical  loops," 
however,  are  not  necessarily  at  the  same  ontogenetic 
grade ;  and  this  is  probably  the  case  here,  as  the  four 
loops  of  the  first  polar  body  must  be  regarded  as 
ovogenous  plasma,  the  other  four  as  germinal  plasma. 
This  would  be  practically  proved  if  it  could  be  shown  that 
the  eight  loops  ,were  produced  by  longitudinal  splitting  of 
four  primary  loops,  since  such  splitting  is  the  means  of 
separating  plasmata  of  different  ontogenetic  grade  from 
one  another,  without  diminution  of  the  number  of  ancestral 
plasmata. 

With  regard  to  the  male  cell,  the  facts  at  our  disposal 
are  too  few  to  enable  us  to  speak  with  such  confidence  as 
is  the  case  with  the  ovum,  but  whether  the  theory  of  Fan- 
genesis,  or  of  the  Continuity  of  Germ-plasma,  be  proved 
correct,  a  process  of  reduction  of  ancestral  plasm  similar 
to  that  occurring  to  the  ovum  must  also  take  place  in  the 
maturation  of  the  sperm  cell,  though  probably  after  a 
different  manner.  The  ancestral  plasmata  of  the  ovum 
undergo  reduction  only  at  the  termination  of  ovarial 
maturation.  Supposing,  however,  that  reduction  affected 
the  first  ovicell  of  an  organism  only,  and  that  the  rest 
were  produced  from  this  by  normal  division,  then  there 
would  be  practically  but  two  kinds  of  ova  in  the 
ripe  ovary,  coresponding  to  the  two  halves  of  the 
original  ovicell,  and  but  two  kinds  of  individuals 
produced  from  them,  the  members  of  each  kind  re- 
sembling  each    other   as    closely    as    twins.      On    the 

'  Arch.  Mikr.  Anat.  xvi.,  and  elsewhere. 

^  Arch.  Biol.  iv.  3  La  Cellule,  1886. 


other  hand,  the  later  the  period  of  germ-cell-formation 
at  which  the  reduction  is  effected,  the  more  will  the 
ova  differ  in  composition  fronT  one  another,  and  the 
greater  scope  is  afforded  for  variation  among  the 
resultant  individuals.  Finally,  if  reduction  be  deferred 
till  the  ova  be  mature,  the  variation  insured  among  the 
progeny  is  as  great  as  it  is  possible  to  achieve.  The 
production  of  such  maximum  variation  is  the  probable 
explanation  of  the  fact  that  the  second  polar  body  is  not 
extruded  till  the  end  of  maturation.  With  the  sperm- 
cells,  however,  the  conditions  of  number  and  size  are 
different  from  those  obtaining  in  the  ova.  Though  it  is 
quite  conceivable  that  the  process  of  reduction  may  be 
deferrei  till  the  completion  of  sperm-cell  formation  (both 
of  the  fission-products  probably  remaining  as  sperm-cells), 
still  the  other  possibility  must  also  be  considered — 
namely,  that  it  may  take  place  at  an  earlier  date  in  the 
formation  of  the  sperm,  since  the  opportunity  for  extreme 
variation,  however  necessary  in  the  case  of  ova  of  which 
a  considerable  proportion  are  fertilized,  is  far  less  requisite 
among  sperm-cells,  of  which  perhaps  one  in  a  hundred 
thousand  or  a  million  may  be  actually  effective.  The 
question  can  only  be  settled  when  we  know  which  of  the 
forms  of  nuclear  division  it  is  that  effects  the  reduction  of 
ancestral  plasmata ;  in  the  meantime  there  is  evidence 
to  show  that  different  types  of  fission  are  found  at 
different  stages  of  sperm-cell  formation.  Van  Beneden 
and  Julin  "^  have  shown  that  direct  and  karyokinetic 
division  alternate  in  the  spermatogenesis  of  Ascaris 
megalocephala ;  and  the  observations  of  Carnoy  ^  and 
Plattner  ^  on  Arthropoda  further  point  to  the  occurrence,  at 
certain  stages,  of  that  less-known  type  of  karyokinesis 
which,  according  to  Prof  Weismann,  is  cha  >  t  ..  ' 
the  process  of  reduction.  The  " Nebenkern"  described 
by  La  Valette  St.  George  as  occurring  at  the  penultimate 
stage  of  spermatogenesis,  is  probably  comparable  to  the 
first  polar  body  extruded  by  the  ovum. 

As  is  now  generally  known,  Prof.  Weismann  has  suc- 
ceeded in  demonstrating  that  one,  and  only  one,  polar 
body  is  extruded  from  the  parthenogenetic  ovum ;  but 
the  memoir*  dealing  with  the  details  is  but  recently 
published,  and  is  in  a  periodical  inaccessible  to  most 
readers.     His  observations  cover  the  following  species  : — 


OSTRACODA. 

Cypris  reptans. 
Cypris  fusca. 

ROTIFERA. 

Callidina  bidens. 
Conochilus  volvox. 


Cladocera. 

Polyphemus  oculus. 
Leptodora  hyalina. 
Bythotrephes  longimamus. 
Moina  rectirostris. 
Moitta  paradoxa. 
Daphnia  longispina. 
Daphnella  brachyura. 
Sida  crystallina. 

The  process  in  the  Cladocera  is  as  follows.  The  nucleus 
of  the  ovum  approaches  the  periphery,  and  becomes 
gradually  fainter  till  it  is  no  longer  recognizable  except 
by  the  help  of  reagents.  A  normal  nuclear  spindle  is  then 
formed,  and  the  polar  body  cut  off  with  the  resultant  half- 
nucleus.  After  extrusion,  the  polar  body  may  in  some 
instances  not  only  segment,  and  one  of  the  resultant 
cells  again  segment,  but,  in  the  case  at  least  of  Moina,  it 
appears  that  it  secretes  that  part  of  the  egg-shell  \vhich 
immediately  overlies  it,  so  that  its  true  cell-nature  is  m- 
disputable.  . 

With  regard  to  the  Rotifera,  a  group  in  which  its 
occurrence  has  been  denied,  a  true  parthenogenesis  is 
proved  by  the  following  observation.  A  female  oiCalhdttui 
with  two  uterine  embryos  was  isolated  on  a  slide  ;  after 

'  Bull.  Acad.  Belg.  (3)  vii.  312.  ...        /  La  Cellule,  1885. 

3  /niern.  Menafschr./.  Anal.  Hisfol.  in.  Htft  10. 

4  Wei-mann  and  Ischikawa,  "  Ueber  dre  Bildung  der  Richtungskorper 
bei  thierischen  Eiern,"  Ber.  Naturf.  Gesell.,  Freiburg  i.  B.,  ui.  pt.  i.  44 
pages,  4  plates. 


136 


NATURE 


[Dec.  8,  1887 


the  lapse  of  a  day  was  born  a  young  one,  which  possessed 
in  its  uterus  an  ovum  already  in  segmentation.  From 
this  ovum  two  days  later  was  produced  a  third  female, 
while  a  second  ovum  in  the  uterus  of  the  mother  was 
also  already  commencing  to  segment.  Whether  all 
the  "summer"  (parthenogenetic)  eggs  develop  into 
females  or  not,  has  yet  to  be  proved.  Here  also  it  was 
shown  that  one  polar  body  was  extruded. 

The  second  part  of  the  memoir  sums  up  the  literature 
relating  to  the  subject,  with  the  result  that  the  extrusion 
of  two  primary  polar  bodies  from  fertilized  ova  has  been 
demonstrated  in  sixty-six  cases,  that  of  one  only  from 
parthenogenetic  ova  in  fourteen  cases  ;  while  none  of  the 
few  observers  who  describe  the  extrusion  of  one  polar 
body  only  from  a  fertilized  ovum,  have  endeavoured  to 
show  that  a  second  one  may  not  have  been  present,  at  an 
ontogenetic  period  other  than  that  which  they  describe. 

G.  Herbert  Fowler. 


SIEMENS' S  GAS-BURNERS. 

OWING  to  the  very  high  temperature  of  ignition  of 
gas,  the  only  way  in  which  it  can  be  successfully 
used  with    the    greatest  economy  is  by  the  application 


of  regenerators.  This  was  proved  practically  by  the  late 
Sir  William  Siemens  in  carrying  out  his  own  and  his 
brother's  invention  of  the  regenerative  gas-furnace.  For 
more  than  eight  years  now  Mr.  Frederick  Siemens  has 
devoted  a  portion  of  his  attention  to  the  domestic  applica- 
tions of  gas,  and  he  has  quite  recently  opened  a  depot  in 
the  Horseferry  Road  for  the  sale  of  his  gas-lamps.  Here, 
on  Tuesday  afternoon,  he  entertained  several  gentlemen 
interested  in  gas  illumination,  and  tested  photometrically 
some  of  the  burners  we  propose  to  describe  and 
illustrate. 

It  is  well  known  that  the  light  intensity  of  a  flame 
increases  with  its  temperature  in  a  higher  ratio  than  the 
arithmetical,  although  the  actual  ratio  has  not  been  abso- 
lutely determined.  It  is,  moreover,  known  that  the  more 
the  energy  of  flame  is  transformed  into  radiant  light  and 
heat  the  less  is  the  amount  carried  away  in  the  products 
of  combustion.  But  the  difficulty  is  to  take  advantage  of 
these  laws  in  practice,  and  to  combine  high  temperature 
with  durability,  and  the  use  of  regenerators  with  simplicity 
of  arrangement  and  elegance  of  appearance  in  the  lamp. 

After  the  Smoke  Abatement  Exhibition,  at  which  Mr. 
Frederick  Siemens's  regenerative  gas-lamps  were  for  the 
first  time  exhibited  in  this  country,  a  great  outcry  was 
raised  on  account  of  their  unsightliness.     The  economy 


Fig.  I. 

of  the  light  and  its  intensity  were  in  vain  dwelt  upon  : 
the  British  public  were  not  inclined  to  entertain  the  new 
lamps,  and  a  comparatively  small  business  was  done  in 
them.  Besides  this,  it  was  discovered  by  degrees  that 
when  impure  gas  was  employed  the  gas  passages  became 
blocked  with  a  sulphurous  deposit,  so  that,  in  order  to 
maintain  their  high  efficiency  when  in  constant  use,  these 
passages  had  from  time  to  time  to  be  cleared.  Mr. 
Siemens  set  to  work  to  overcome  both  these  defects, 
and  the  lamps  he  has  now  produced  lend  themselves  to 
artistic  ornamentation,  and  have  no  passages  to  offer 
obstructions  to  gas  of  ordinary  quality. 

The  lamp  we  propose  to  describe  in  the  first  instance 
is  the  one  known  as  the  open-flame  sunlight  pattern. 
It  is  designed  for  use  in  positions  where  the  ordinary 
sunlight  lamp  is  employed,  such  as  public  halls,  concert, 
dining,  and  billiard  rooms,  banks,  and  theatres.  The 
flame  in  this  lamp  is  extremely  delicate  and  elegant  in 
appearance,  having  the  form  of  an  inverted  cone  of  light, 
apparently  unsupported.  The  annexed  drawing  illustrates 
the  construction  of  this  lamp.  Four  hoods  made  of  suit- 
able material  are  arranged  one  above  the  other  so  as  to 
form  passages  through  which  the  products  of  combustion 


Fig.  2. 

are  removed,  their  waste  heat  being  utilized  to  heat  the 
air  supplied  to  the  flame.  The  jets  of  flame  issue  in  a  ring 
from  the  lowest  hood  ;  the  products  of  combustion,  passing 
through  the  aperture  O,  are  drawn  downwards  through  the 
annular  space  B,  and  then  upwards  through  c  to  the 
chimney  E.  The  hood  between  the  passages  A  and  B  is 
intensely  heated  by  the  products  of  combustion  descend- 
ing on  its  upper  surface  ;  and  the  air  which  travels  through 
the  annular  space  A,  on  its  way  to  supply  the  gas-jets, 
takes  up  the  heat  from  the  hood,  the  flame  being  thus 
supplied  with  heated  air,  as  well  as  burning  in  an  in- 
tensely hot  atmosphere.  The  lamp  we  were  shown  con- 
sumes 24  cubic  feet  of  gas  per  hour,  and  gives,  with 
ordinary  London  gas,  a  light  equal  to  180  sperm  candles, 
or  7*5  candles  per  culjic  foot  of  gas,  which  is  more  than 
twice  the  light  obtainable  from  the  same  amount  of 
gas  burnt  in  ordinary  burners.  This  lamp  was  set  up 
with  a  ventilator,  but  was  much  too  brilliant  for  use  in 
the  room  in  which  it  was  exhibited,  the  ceiling  being 
only  about  12  feet  above  the  floor,  whereas  it  should 
be  placed  at  an  elevation  of  30  feet  or  more,  when  it 
would  not  only  serve  for  illuminating-purposes,  but  also 
for  those  of  heating. 


Dec.  8,  1887] 


NATURE 


137 


The  Siemens  regenerative  flat-flame  burner,  as  will  be 
noticed  from  the  accompanying  illustration,  is  a  lamp  of 
a  quite  different  character  from  the  one  just  described, 
burning  as  it  does  within  an  inclosing  glass,  the  previous 
lamp  being  quite  open  to  the  air.  The  lamps  exhibited 
consumed  from  7  to  8  feet  of  gas  each  per  hour,  and  are 
of  various  ornamental  forms.  It  consists  simply  of  an 
ordinary  bat's-wing  burner  supplied  with  hot  air  through 
perforated  plates,  which  are  heated  by  the  waste  heat 
from  the  products  of  combustion,  and  by  radiant  heat 
communicated  to  the  perforated  plates.  The  advantages 
of  this  form  of  lamp  are  those  of  construction,  applica- 
tion, and  economy.  The  principal  parts  of  the  regene- 
rator consist  of  simple  castings,  whilst  the  only  wearing 
part  is  the  tip  or  burner,  which  is,  as  already  stated,  of 
the  ordinary  kind,  and  may  be  easily  replaced  at  trifling 
cost.  It  can  be  fitted  to  the  ceiling  of  a  room  like  any 
other  gas-lamp,  or  may  be  connected  up  to  a  chimney,  so 
that  the  products  of  combustion  may  be  withdrawn  from 
the  apartment.  There  is  a  provision  for  lighting  this 
lamp  without  removing  the  glass  globe,  the  glass  being 
sufficiently  far  removed  from  the  flame  not  to  receive  any 


Fig.  3. 

deposit  upon  its  surface.  With  a  consumption  of  72 
cubic  feet  of  gas  per  hour,  this  lamp  has  been  found  to 
give  without  reflector  a  light  equal  to  72  sperm  candles, 
or  10  candles  per  cubic  foot,  being  more  than  three  times 
the  light  produced  by  ordinary  gas-burners,  whilst  if  three 
flames  are  inclosed  in  the  same  lamp  the  efficiency 
obtained  is  still  higher. 

A  third  form  of  burner  is  Siemens's  improved  argand. 
This  is  not  a  regenerative  gas-burner  properly  so  called, 
and  hence  the  economy  is  not  so  great  as  in  either  of  the 
burners  previously  described.  Instead  of  utilizing  the 
waste  heat  of  the  products  of  combustion,  in  this  burner 
the  heat  of  the  lower  or  non-luminous  portion  of  the 
flame  is  applied  for  the  purpose  of  heating  up  the  air 
which  is  supplied  to  the  burner.  Tlie  sketch  shows  the 
arrangement  in  half-section.  It  consists  of  gas-chamber, 
G,  and  tubes,  R,  from  which  the  gas  issues  and  is  burnt  ; 
a  metal  stem,  N,  rises  a  certain  height  above  the  top  of 
the  gas-tubes,  serving  the  double  purpose  of  improving 
the  form  of  the  flame  and  conducting  a  certain  amount  of 


heat  down  to  assist  in  heating  the  air  supplied  to  the 
burner.  The  air  enters  through  the  slots  T,  in  the  lower 
portion  of  the  cylindrical  case  L,  which  surrounds  it,  a 
hot  chamber  being  thus  formed,  from  which  the  heated 
air  passes  to  the  flame.  A  glass  chimney,  x,  incloses  the 
flame  as  in  the  ordinary  argand  burner. 

By  means  of  this  lamp  an  intense  white  light  is  pro- 
duced with  some  economy  of  gas,  the  light  produced  with 
6  cubic  feet  of  gas  being  26  candles,  or  4-33  candles  per 
cubic  foot  per  hour,  as  compared  with  3*2  in  the  ordinary 
form  of  argand  burner.  When  an  opal  glass  shade  or 
reflector  is  used,  throwing  down  a  portion  of  the  light, 
this  burner  gives  a  light  of  6-33  candles  per  cubic  foot. 
Its  applications  are  various,  but  it  is  mainly  applied  for 
reading  and  desk  purposes. 

Mr.  Siemens,  in  reply  to  a  vote  of  thanks,  said  that  the 
only  economical  way  of  burning  gas  was  with  the  applica- 
tion of  regenerators.  This  had  already  been  proved  by 
both  the  late  Sir  William  Siemens  and  Mr.  Frederick 
Siemens  as  regards  furnaces  for  industrial  purposes,  and 
it  is  now  being  exemplified  by  Mr.  Frederick  Siemens  in 
the  domestic  applications  of  gas. 


NOTES. 

The  University  of  Cambridge  has  sustained  a  severe  loss  by 
the  death  of  Mr.  Coutts  Trotter.  He  died  on  Sunday  morning 
last.  Next  week  we  shall  give  some  account  of  his  services  to 
his  University  and  to  science. 

The  United  States  Chief  Signal  Ofiice  has  suppressed  both 
its  mountain  stations,  Pike's  Peak  and  Mount  Washington.  The 
latter  was  suppressed  at  Michaelmas.  The  grounds  alleged  are — 
the  reduction  of  the  grant  by  Congress,  which  has  been  very 
serious,  and,  further,  inability  to  use  the  reports  in  forecasting. 

The  Chief  Signal  Officer  (Washington)  has  issued  a  circular, 
dated  November  10  last,  stating  that,  in  view  of  the  large  num- 
ber of  letters  he  has  received  deprecating  the  discontinuance  on 
January  i,  l888,  of  the  International  Meteorological  Observa- 
tions (see  Nature,  vol.  xxxvi.  p.  545),  he  has  decided  to  con- 
tinue to  receive  such  observations,  made  at  noon,  Greenwich 
time,  after  that  date.  He  does  not  promise  to  publish  them  as 
regularly  as  heretofore,  but  he  will  do  what  he  can  to  give 
observers  some  return  for  their  labours  in  the  interests  of  the 
science  of  meteorology. 

The  Annalen  der  Hydrographie  und  Maritimen  Meteorologie 
for  November  contains  the  first  part  of  the  explanatory  text  of 
the  daily  synoptic  charts  of  the  North  Atlantic  Ocean  for  the 
winter  quarter  of  1883-84,  together  whh  charts  showing  the 
positions  of  the  principal  barometric  maxima  and  maxima  (see 
Nature,  vol.  xxxvi.  p.  159).  The  depressions  of  January  22-31 
are  of  especial  interest,  as  they  include  the  lowest  barometrical 
reading  ever  recorded  in  Europe,  viz.  27*332  inches  at  Ochter- 
tyre,  near  Crieft",  N.B.,  on  January  26,  1884.  The  readings 
nearest  to  this  are  27-33  inches,  about  d"  further  south  in  the 
Atlantic,  on  February  5,  1870,  and  even  27-245  inches  in  Ice- 
land on  February  4,  1824.  A  still  lower  reading  has  lately  been 
quoted  for  False  Point  (Nature,  November  17,  p.  68).  The 
storm  of  January  26-27  was  also  remarkable  for  the  rapid  fall 
before,  and  the  rapid  rise  after,  the  minimum  pressure. 

The  Monthly  Weather  Ch.arts  of  the  Bay  of  Bengal  and 
adjacent  sea  north  of  the  equator,  recen'ly  published  by  the 
Meteorological  Department  of  India,  very  clearly  illustrate  the 
distribution  of  pressure,  wind,  and  currents,  as  well  as  the 
changes  of  the  monsoons,  in  those  parts.  The  charts  have  been 
prepared  from  data  for  the  years  1855-78,  and  supplied  by  the 
Meteorological  Council,  at  the  expense  of  the  Indian  Office. 
Each  chart  is  accompanied  by  explanatory  text. 


t,i,S 


NATURE 


[Dec.  8,^1 88>' 


Last  Saturday  there  was  a  severe  earthquake  in  Calabria. 
Two  shocks  were  felt :  one  at  5  o'clock  in  the  morning,  the 
other  two  hours  later.  Both  shocks  were  felt  all  over  the  pro- 
vince of  Cosenza,  but  the  second  was  by  far  the  most  violent.  All 
the  signalmen's  huts  on  the  railway  near  Sibari  were  destroyed 
for  a  distance  of  8  kilometres.  The  station  of  Lattarico  was 
also  destroyed.  At  Paola  the  barracks  and  the  Prefecture 
and  Communal  buildings  were  damaged ;  at  Rogliano  and 
Gravina  several  houses  fell,  and  all  the  others  were  seriously 
shaken  ;  and  at  San  Marco  part  of  the  monastery  fell.  The 
results  were  most  disastrous  at  Bisignano,  the  greater  part  of 
which  was  destroyed.  More  than  twenty  persons  were  killed, 
and  about  seventy  injured.  The  parish  priest  of  Bisignano,  after 
having  made  his  escape  from  the  church,  re-entered  it,  when  the 
building  fell  in,  and  he  was  killed.  The  results  at  Bisignano 
would  have  been  even  more  terrible,  had  not  most  of  the  in- 
habitants, alarmed  by  the  first  shock,  fled  from  their  houses.  It 
is  said  that  900  houses  are  in  ruins. 

A  CORRESPONDENT  Writes  to  us  from  Blackburn  : — "  A  shock 
of  earthquake  occurred  at  Chorley,  Lancashire,  on  December  i, 
at  about  xo  minutes  to  7  o'clock  a.m.  It  was  also  felt  over  a 
wide  area.  At  Blackburn,  two  distinct  vibrations  were  felt. 
The  direction  of  the  disturbance  appeared  to  be  from  south-west 
to  north-east." 

On  November  5,  at  7.16  p.m.,  a  severe  shock  of  earthquake 
was  felt  at  Bodo,  on  the  north-west  coast  of  Norway.  Houses 
shook,  and  several  objects  on  walls  fell  down.  There  was  only 
one  shock,  and  it  lasted  about  half  a  second. 

On  the  evening  of  November  21,  at  5.18  p.m.,  a  magnificent 
meteor  was  observed  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Stavanger,  on  the 
west  coast  of  Norway.  It  first  appeared  in  the  western  sky, 
and,  having  described  a  semicircle,  disappeared  below  the 
horizon.  Its  size  was  that  of  a  child's  head,  and  its  light  a 
brilliant  white.     The  weather  was  fine  and  starry  at  the  time. 

Mr.  John  Aitken  has  contributed  to  the  Proceedings  of 
the  Royal  Society  of  Edinburgh  an  interesting  note  on  the 
formation  of  hoar-frost.  Experiments  were  made  with  a  sheet 
of  glass  exposed  horizontally  near  the  ground.  During  the 
deposition  of  dew  the  windward  edges  were  generally  dry, 
because  the  air  has  to  travel  over  the  cold  plate  before  its  tem- 
perature is  reduced  to  the  dew-point ;  but,  when  hoar-frost  is 
deposited,  the  windward  edges  of  the  plate  have  the  heaviest 
deposit.  In  this  case  the  air  seems  to  act  as  if  it  were  super- 
saturated. Although  this  is  impossible  in  ordinary  conditions, 
the  author  shows  that,  if  we  have  a  water  suface  and  an  ice  one 
at  the  same  temperature,  the  vapour  will  tend  to  pass  from  the 
water  to  the  ice,  because  the  vapour-pressure  of  water  is  the 
higher;  and  he  concludes  that  something  like  this  takes  place 
when  hoar-frost  is  forming,  the  air  which  is  saturated  to  a 
water  surface  being  supersaturated  to  an  ice  one. 

Dr.  Fridtjof  Nansen,  of  the  Bergen  Museum,  has  announced 
his  intention  of  attempting  to  cross  the  interior  of  Greenland 
next  summer  on  Ski,  viz.  the  snow-runners  found  so  advan- 
tageous during  the  last  Nordenskiold  expedition  across  that 
continent.  It  may  be  remembered  what  extraordinary  progress 
the  Lapps  made  at  that  time  on  these  Scandinavian  means  of  loco- 
motion across  snow-fields.  Dr.  Nansen,  who  has  on  a  former 
occasion  visited  the  inland  ice  in  Greenland,  has  placed  his  plan 
before  Baron  Nordenskiold,  who  fully  believes  in  its  realization, 
and  is  giving  Dr.  Nansen  every  assistance.  The  explorer  pur- 
poses crossing  from  the  east  to  the  west  coast,  the  reverse  of 
Baron  Nordenskiold's  attempt. 

An  important  paper  by  Prof  Lothar  Meyer,  upon  the  subject 
of  "  oxygen  carriers,"  will  be  found  in  the  current  number  of  the 
Berichte.      It   embodies  the   results  of  a   systematic   series  of 


experiments  in  which  currents  of  oxygen  and  sulphur  dioxide 
gases  were  siinultaneously  passed  for  some  hours  through  solu- 
tions of  certain  salts  of  known  strength  contained  in  flasks  heated 
upon  the  water-bath.  At  the  end  of  each  experiment  the  sulphur 
dioxide  remaining  in  solution  was  expelled  by  a  current  of  carbon 
dioxide,  and  finally  a  determination  was  made  of  the  amount  of 
sulphuric  acid  formed  by  oxidation  of  the  sulphur  dioxide.  The 
results  show  ihat  the  salts  of  certain  metals  exert  a  most  remark- 
able action  in  causing  the  union  of  oxygen  with  sulphur  dioxide. 
The  most  active  of  all  is  manganous  sulphate,  MnS04  .  SH.^O, 
2"4 grammes  of  which,  dissolved  in  200  c.c.  of  water,  caused  the 
formation  of  no  less  than  six  times  as  much  sulphuric  acid  as 
that  originally  contained  in  the  fait ;  that  is,  for  every  molecule 
of  the  sulphate  employed,  five  molecules  of  free  acid  were 
synthesized.  Manganese  chloride  under  like  circumstances  was 
also  f  jund  to  act  as  an  energetic  oxygen  carrier,  one  molecule  of 
MnClo .  4H2O  causing  the  formation  of  4'3  molecules  of  free 
sulphuric  acid.  Copper  salts  were  next  experimented  upon,  and 
a  3  per  cent,  solution  of  the  sulphate,  CUSO4.  SH^O,  was  found 
to  be  most  effective,  one  molecule  causing  the  production  of 
about  a  molecule  of  the  acid.  Both  cuprous  and  cupric  chlorides, 
the  former  in  spite  of  its  insolubility,  act  even  more  energetically 
than  the  sulphate,  while  the  oxide  hydrate,  and,  metal  itself  also 
work  in  a  lesser  degree.  In  a  similar  manner  salts  of  iron, 
cobalt,  nickel,  zinc,  cadmium,  and  magnesium  were  found 
capable  of  causing  the  oxidation  of  sulphurous  acid,  while  salts 
of  thallium  and  potassium  merely  acted  like  pure  water,  being 
absolutely  powerless  in  this  respect.  These  remarkable  results 
are  due,  in  the  opinion  of  Prof.  Meyer,  to  alternate  oxidations 
and  reductions,  and  this  is  certainly  very  strongly  supported  by 
the  fact  that  those  metals  act  most  powerfully  which  readily  pass 
from  one  stage  of  oxidation  to  another.  As  zinc,  cadmium,  and 
magnesium  are  also  found  to  act  in  this  manner,  it  is  presumed 
that  these  metals  have  also  an  inclination  to  form  sub-salts  which 
have  never  yet  been  prepared. 

Some  days  ago  a  peasant  ploughing  at  Tjoring,  in  Denmark, 
unearthed  a  handsome  armlet  of  pare  gold  weighing  12  ounces, 
which,  according  to  the  Director  of  the  Museum  of  Antiquities 
in  Copenhagen,  dates  from  the  second  or  third  century  A.D. 
There  was  formerly  a  barrow  in  the  field  where  the  armlet  was 
found,  and  flint  implements,  broken  pottery  containing  decayed 
bones,  &c.,  have  frequently  been  brought  to  light  ;  but  all  traces 
of  the  barrow  have  now  disappeared  through  ploughing. 

It  is  reported  from  India  that  Mr.  Rea,  of  the  Madras 
Archaeological  Survey,  has  recently  excavated  some  ancient 
burial-places  at  Dadampatti,  Paravai,  and  other  places  in  the 
Presidency,  and  investigated  the  cromlechs  near  Kodaikanaul. 
He  has  obtained  a  considerable  collection  of  ancient  pottery, 
and  in  some  of  the  tombs  found  a  large  number  of  bones  and  a 
complete  human  skull.  The  latter  had  been  filled  up  and 
inclosed  in  soft  clay,  so  that  its  contour  and  characteristics  are 
perfectly  preserved,  Mr,  Rea  also  brought  away  a  small 
specimen  of  a  pyriform  tomb. 

Last  Thursday,  Sir  John  Lubbock  read  a  paper  before  the 
Linnean  Society,  in  continuation  of  his  previous  memoirs,  on 
"  The  Habits  of  Ants,  Bees,  and  Wasps."  He  said  it  was 
generally  stated  that  our  English  slave-making  ant  {Formica 
sdnguined),  far  from  being  entirely  dependent  on  slaves,  as  was 
the  case  with  Polyergus  rufescens,  the  slave-making  ant  par 
excellence,  was  really  able  to  live  alone,  and  that  the  slaves 
were  only,  so  to  say,  a  luxury.  Some  of  his  observations 
appeared  to  throw  doubt  on  this.  In  one  of  his  nests  the  ants 
were  prevented  from  making  any  fresh  capture  of  slaves.  Under 
these  circumstance^,  the  number  of  slaves  gradually  diminished, 
and  at  length  the  last  died.  At  that  time  there  were  some  fifty 
of  the  mistresses  still  remaining.     These,  however,  rapidly  died 


Dec.  8,  1887] 


NA  TURE 


139 


off,  until  at  the  end  of  June  18S6  there  were  only  six  remaining, 
lie  then  placed  near  the  door  of  the  nest  some  pupa:  oi  Formica 
u-a,  th£  slave  ant.  These  were  at  once  carried  in  and  soon  came 
maturity.  The  mortality  among  the  mistresses  at  once  ceased, 
1  from  that  day  to  this  only  two  more  have  died.  This  seems 
,,i  show  that  the  slave-;  perform  some  indispensable  function  in 
the  nest,  though  what  that  is  still  remains  to  be  discovered.  As 
regards  the  longevity  of  ants,  he  said  that  the  old  queen  ant, 
which  had  more  than  once  been  mentioned  to  the  Society,  was 
still  alive.  She  must  now  be  fourteen  years  old,  and  still  laid 
fertile  eggs,  to  the  important  physiological  bearing  of  which 
fact  he  called  special  attention.  He  discussed  the  observations 
and  remarks  of  Graber  as  regards  the  senses  of  ants,  with  special 
reference  to  their  sensibility  towards  the  ultra-violet  rays,  and 
referred  to  the  observations  of  Forel,  which  confirmed  those  he 
had  previously  laid  before  the  Society.  Prof  Graber  had 
also  questioned  some  experiments  with  reference  to  smell. 
He,  ho  wever,  maintained  the  accuracy  of  his  observations,  and 
pointed  out  that  Graber  had  overlooked  some  of  the  precautions 
which  he  had  taken  ;  his  experiments  seemed  to  leave  no  doubt 
as  to  the  existence  of  a  delicate  sense  of  smell  among  ants.  As 
regards  the  recognition  of  friends,  he  repeated  some  previous 
experiments  with  the  same  results.  He  took  some  pupae  from 
one  of  his  nests  (A)  and  placed  these  under  charge  of  some  ants 
from  another  nest  (B)  of  the  same  sjjecies.  After  they  had  come 
to  maturity,  he  placed  some  in  nest  A  and  some  in  nest  B. 
Those  placed  in  their  own  nest  were  received  amicably, 
those  in  the  nests  of  their  nurses  were  attacked  and  driven  out. 
This  showed  that  the  recognition  is  not  by  the  means  of  a  sign 
or  password,  for  in  that  case  they  would  have  been  recognized  in 
nest  B  and  not  in  nest  A.  Dr.  Warsmann  had  confirmed  his 
observations  in  opposition  to  the  statement  of  Lespis,  that  white 
ants  are  enemies  to  those  of  another  nest,  even  belonging  to  the 
sume  species  ;  the  domestic  animals,  on  the  other  hand,  can  be 
transferred  from  one  nest  to  another,  and  will  be  amicably  re- 
ceived. In  conclusion,  he  discussed  the  respective  functions  of 
the  eyes  and  ocelli,  and  referred  to  several  other  observations 
on  various  interesting  points  in  the  economy  of  the  Social 
Hymenoptera. 

In  an  interesting  paper  read  the  other  day  before  the  National 
Academy  of  Sciences,  New  York,  Prof  W.  P.  Trowbridge  gave 
an  account  of  a  discovery  which  had  lately  been  made  by  his  son. 
This  discovery  is  that  birds  of  prey  and  some  others  have  the 
power  to  lock  securely  together  those  parts  of  the  wing  holding 
the  extended  feathers,  and  corresponding  to  the  fingers  of  the 
human  hand.  The  action  of  the  air  on  the  wing  in  this  condition 
extends  the  elbow;  which  is  prevented  from  opening  too  far  by  a 
cartilage,  and  the  wings  may  keep  this  position  for  an  indefinite 
length  of  time,  with  no  muscular  action  whatever  on  the  part  of 
the  bird.  While  resting  in  this  way,  the  bird  cannot  rise  in  a 
still  atmosphere  ;  but,  if  there  be  a  horizontal  current,  it  may 
allow  itself  to  be  carried  along  by  it,  with  a  slight  tendency 
downward,  and  so  gain  a  momentum  by  which,  with  a  slight 
change  of  direction,  it  may  rise  to  some  extent,  still  without 
muscular  action  of  the  wings.  Prof  Trowbridge  also  believed  it 
quite  possible  for  a  bird  to  sleep  on  the  wing.  In  discussing 
this  paper,  Prof  J.  S.  Newberry  said  that  he  had  once  shot  a 
bird  which  came  slowly  to  the  ground  as  if  still  flying,  but  reached 
it  dead.  He  believed  that  it  had  died  high  in  the  air  ;  but  he  had 
never  been  able  to  account  for  the  manner  of  its  descent  till 
now,  when  he  found  an  explanation  in  the  statement  of  Prof 
Trowbridge. 

The  cultivation  of  oysters  in  France  appears  to  have  greatly 
increased  of  late.  Thus,  while  in  1885  the  number  exported  was 
30,000,000,  35,000,000  have  been  exported  in  the  first  eight 
months  of  1887  (twice  as  much  as  in  the  corresponding  part  of  j 


1886),  and  the  total  for  the  year  will  probably  be  about 
52,000,000.  At  the  same  time  the  importation  into  France  from 
Portugal  has  been  declining.  Thus,  from  154,647  kilogrammes 
in  1883,  it  had  fallen  to  1500  kilogrammes  in  1885,  and  no 
figures  are  forthcoming  for  the  first  eight  months  of  1887. 

In  his  Report  for  1886-87,  presented  to  the  Parliament  of 
Tasmania,  Mr.  Saville-Kent  speaks  of  the  oyster-fisheries  on 
the  Tasmanian  coast-line.  The  results  obtained  during  the  past 
year,  from  the  series  of  Government  oyster- reserves  established 
in  accordance  with  Mr.  Saville-Kent's  recommendations,  seem 
to  him  to  justify  the  opinion  that,  with  an  extension  of  the  same 
system,  conducted  on  scientific  principles,  the  produce  of  these 
reserves,  combined  with  that  raised  on  the  private  beds,  will  be 
su(Ticient  within  the  course  of  a  few  years  to  establish  once 
more  a  lucrative  oyster  trade  in  the  colony.  At  all  of  the 
several  reserves  there  has  been  an  abundant  fall  of  spat,  but 
more  especially  in  those  of  the  Spring  Bay  district.  This 
locality,  Mr.  Saville-Kent  anticipates,  will,  as  in  former  years, 
become  the  chief  station  of  the  Tasmanian  oyster-fishery.  The 
number  of  breeding-oysters  at  present  laid  down  upon  the 
various  Government  reserves  maybe  reckoned  at  about  150,000  ; 
to  these  may  be  added,  as  the  produce  of  the  past  year's  spatting 
season,  at  least  an  equal  number  of  young  brood.  A  further 
supply  of  100,000  adult  stock,  for  placing  on  the  additional 
reserves  projected  or  in  course  of  construction,  will  be  obtained 
from  the  natural  beds  during  the  current  year. 

Mr.  Harry  Page  Woodward  (eldest  son  of  Dr.  Henry 
Woodward,  F.  R.S.),  who  had  served  for  more  than  three  years, 
under  Mr.  H.  Y.  Lyell  Brown,  as  Assistant  Government 
Geologist  in  South  Australia,  has,  by  the  advice  and  upon  the 
recommendation  of  Dr.  A.  Geikie,  F.  R.S.,  Director-General  of 
the  Geological  Survey  of  Great  Britain,  been  appointed  by  the 
Secretary  of  State  for  the  Colonies  to  the  post  of  G  jvernment 
Geologist  for  Western  Australia.  Mr.  W^oodward  sailed  for 
King  George's  Sound  in  the  P.  and  O.  steam-ship  Shannon  on 
the  and  inst. 

A  PECULIAR  phenomenon  is  being  noticed  in  the  large  lakes 
near  the  village  of  Mazuren  (near  Gumbinnen,  Prussia).  The 
level  of  the  water  is  continually  decreasing  ;  during  the  last  ten 
years  it  has  fallen  i  metre  annually,  so  that  many  of  the  islands 
in  the  lakes  have  now  become  peninsulas. 

The  People's  Lectures,  begun  under  the  auspices  of  the 
London  Society  for  the  Extension  of  University  Teaching,  have 
attracted  large  audiences,  and  there  is  no  reason  to  doubt  that 
the  success  hitherto  achieved  will  be  maintained.  Yesterday 
evening.  Prof  H.  G.  Seeley,  F.R.S.,  delivered,  at  the  Great 
Assembly  Hall,  Mile  End  Road,  the  first  of  a  course  of  three 
lectures  on  "  Glimpses  into  Nature's  Workshop."  The  special 
subject  of  this  lecture  was  "  Water,  the  Earth  Leveller."  The 
next  two  lectures  of  the  course — "Ice,  the  Earth  Engraver," 
and  "  Underground  Heat,  the  Earth  Moulder  and  Modeller" — 
will  be  delivered  on  December  14  and  21,  at  the  Memorial 
Hall,  London  Street,  Bethnal  Green. 

Another  series  of  lectures  at  the  Memorial  Hall,  London 
Street,  Bethnal  Green,  is  likely  to  be  of  good  service.  It  is 
intended  especially  for  working  lads,  and  the  lectures  are  called 
"Science  Talks."  Last  Thursday,  Dr.  Gerard  Smith  delivered 
a  lecture  on  "The  Structure  of  Trees  and  Plants"  ;  and  this 
evening  he  will  lecture  again,  taking  as  his  subject  "  Microscopic 
Life  in  the  Sea."  On  December  15,  Mr.  C.  A.  Newton  will 
lecture  on  "  The  Wonders  of  the  Heavens." 

A  Conference  on  Technical  Education  will  be  held  at  the 
Royal  Victoria  Hall,  Waterloo  Bridge  Road,  on  Wednesday,  the 
14th  inst.  Sir  Henry  Doulton  will  take  the  chair.  Two  short 
papers — one  by  Dr.   Fleming,  of  University  College,  the  other 


140 


NATURE 


[Dec.  8,  1887 


by  Mr.  Bochett,  a  working  man — will  be  read  ;  and  it  has  been 
arranged  that  the  reading  of  these  papers  shall  be  followed  by  a 
discussion.  It  is  hoped  that  employers  and  employed  will  both 
be  largely  represented  at  the  meeting.  The  Hon.  Secretary  will 
be  glad  to  send  tickets  for  the  platform  or  for  reserved  seats  to 
anyone  who  may  apply  for  them. 

In  the  Report  of  the  Newcastle  Public  Libraries  Committee 
for  1886-87,  it  is  stated  that,  at  the  annual  stock-taking  in  June- 
July  1886,  only  three  volumes  were  found  to  be  unaccounted 
for.  Only  sixteen  volumes  have  been  lost  since  the  opening  of 
the  Library  in  1880.  During  the  same  period  the  issue  of 
V  olumes  has  reached  a  total  of  1,538,445. 

A  NEW  edition  of  the  catalogue  of  books  in  the  juvenile 
lending  department  connected  with  Newcastle  Public  Library 
has  just  been  issued.  A  glance  at  the  contents,  as  the  compiler 
truly  says,  will  show  that  in  this  juvenile  department  "  a  won- 
derful wealth  of  entertainment  is  placed  at  the  command  of  the 
young  people  of  Newcastle ."  No  fewer  than  two  thousand  care- 
fully selected  volumes  are  at  their  disposal.  During  the  seven 
years  the  Library  has  been  open,  the  Committee  has  more  than 
doubled  the  stock  of  bioks  in  this  collection,  and  215,092 
volumes  have  been  lent  to  children. 

A  VISITOR  to  the  beaver  colony  at  Amlid,  some  distance  from 
Christiansand,  in  Norway,  to  which  we  referred  some  months 
ago,  states  that  the  colony  has  flourished  considerably  during  the 
summer,  and  is  now  probably  the  largest  in  Norway.  Some- 
times as  many  as  a  dozen  animals  may  be  seen  at  a  time  in  the 
water.  The  huts  are  built  close  to  the  shore,  and  have  two 
stories,  one  above  and  one  below  the  surface  of  the  water.  The 
walls  are  made  of  timber,  laid  as  in  a  human  dwelling,  whilst 
the  roof  is  covered  with  twigs  and  mud.  All  the  aspen-trees  in 
the  vicinity  have  now  been  felled,  and  the  animals  have  begun  to 
attack  the  birches.  Trees  upwards  of  18  inches  in  diameter  at 
the  root  have  been  cut  down.  The  animals  appear  to  have  most 
use  for  the  branches,  many  stems  stripped  of  the  same  lying 
about  in  the  wood^.  The  material  required  is  dragged  to  the 
waterside  along  regular  "log  runs,"  such  as  wood-cutters  leave 
in  forests,  and  in  some  places  roots  crossing  the  same  have 
been  gnawed  off,  so  as  to  make  the  run  smooth.  Shortly  after 
an  increase  in  the  colony  the  new-comers  begin  to  build  a  new 
house.  Not  one  of  the  animals  has  as  yet  been  killed,  and 
visitors  come  from  all  parts  for  the  purpose  of  watching  their 
peculiar  mode  of  living.  It  has  been  found  that  sentinels  are 
posted,  giving  the  alaroa  to  the  rest  of  the  colony  in  case  of 
danger.  When  such  an  alarm  is  given,  all  the  animals  leave 
their  dwellings  for  the  water. 

Readers  of  Icelandic  Sagas  will  remember  that  in  the 
celebrated  Njal's  Saga  there  is  a  record  of  an  attack  on  Njal's 
dwelling,  Bergthorshval  (named  after  his  wife,  Bergthora),  and 
of  its  being  burned,  with  the  whole  of  Njal's  kin.  In  order  to 
demonstrate  the  historical  accuracy  of  the  Saga,  a  member  of  the 
Iceland  Archaeological  Society  some  two  years  ago  proposed  to 
excavate  the  spot  where  Njal's  dwelling  was  said  to  have  stood. 
This  was  done  last  year,  and  resulted  in  the  discovery,  at  a 
depth  of  some  6  feet,  of  a  layer  of  ashes,  remains  of  charred 
beams,  &c.  But  this  was  not  all.  Below  the  ashes  three  lumps 
of  some  substance  of  a  spongy  nature,  dirty-white  in  colour, 
were  found  ;  and  Dr.  Storch,  Director  of  the  Royal  Agricultural 
Laboratory  in  Copenhagen,  by  whom  these  lumps  have  just 
been  analyzed,  pronounces  them  to  be  ancient  curdled  milk  and 
cheese.  Such  milk,  called  Skyr,  was  much  liked  in  Iceland  in 
remote  times,  and  was  often  solidified  to  a  kind  of  cheese  by 
the  fluid  matter  being  pressed  out.  Strangely  enough,  the 
Saga  mentions  the  fact  of  women  bringing  Skyr  to  extinguish 
the  fire.     Dr.  Storch,  by  slowly  treating  fresh  Skyr  to  a  tem- 


perature of  a  little  more  than  100'  C,  has  thereby  obtained 
a  substance  in  every  respect  similar  to  that  found  in  the 
supposed  ruins  of  Njal's  dwelling. 

The  additions  to  the  Zoological  Society's  Gardens  during  the 
past  week  include  a  Striped  Hyaena  (Hya:na  striata)  from  North 
Africa,  presented  by  Mr.  Ernest  Heydon  Marquis  ;  a  Crested 
Porcupine  {Hystrix  cristata)  from  Suakim,  presented  by  His 
Grace  the  Duke  of  Hamilton,  K.T.,  F.Z.  S. ;  two  Common  Squir- 
rels {Sciurus  vulgaris),  British,  presented  by  Mrs.  Henry  Alex. 
Hankey  ;  a  Horned  Tragopan  [Ceriornis  satyrai)  from  the 
South-eastern  Himalayas,  presented  by  Mr.  R.  J.  Lloyd  Price  ; 
a  Vinaceous  Dove  ( Turtur  vinaceus)  from  West  Africa,  pre- 
sented by  Mr.  R.  H.  Mitford  ;  three  South  African  Scorpions 

(Scorpio  )  from    South  Africa,  presented    by  Mr.  W.    K. 

Sibley  ;  a  Zebu  {Bos  indicus)  from  Africa,  two  Sandwich 
Island  Geese  {Bernicla  sandvicensis)  from  the  Sandwich  Islands, 
deposited. 

OUR  ASTRONOMICAL  COLUMN. 

The  New  Algol  Variables,  Y  Cygni  and  R  Cams 
Majoris. — Mr.  Chandler  has  just  p\iblished  in  Gould's  Astro- 
nomical Journal,  No.  163,  his  elements  for  these  two  interest- 
ing variables.  In  the  case  of  Y  Cygni,  it  will  be  recollected 
(see  Nature,  vol.  xxxv.  pp.  307,  329)  that  before  its  period 
had  been  fully  determined  by  observation,  Mr.  Chandler 
concluded,  from  the  analogy  of  all  the  then  known  stars 
of  the  type,  that  it  would  prove  to  be  about  thirty-six 
hours.  This  is  now  found  to  be  correct,  the  actual  period  being 
id.  ilh.  56m.  48s.  The  ground  upon  which  the  inference  was 
based  was  the  circumstance  that  with  the  other  stars  of  the  type 
the  shorter  the  period  of  the  star  the  higher  is  the  ratio  which 
the  time  of  oscillation  bears  to  fhe  entire  period.  The  first 
exception  to  this  rule  is  R  Canis  Majoris,  the  variable  star  dis- 
covered by  Mr.  Sawyer  last  March  (see  Nature,  vol.  xxxvi. 
p.  376),  the  duration  of  the  oscillation  for  this  star  being  5h. 
instead  of  6h.,  as  it  should  be  on  the  same  principle. 

The  following  are  the  elements  of  the  two  stars  :— 

Y  Cygni.  R  Canis  Majoris. 

^       ,  r    1886,  Dec.  9,        / 1887,  Mar.  26, 

^P^'^"      t  "h.  14m.  30s.        t  I4h.  58m.  30s. 

Period  ...        id.  iih.  56m.  48s.  id.  3h.  15m.  55s. 

Brightness  at  maximum  7'im.  ...         5'9n^' 

Brightness  at  minimum  7'9ii-  ••■         67m. 

Duration  of  decrease     ...  4h.  ...         2'5h. 

Duration  of  increase      ...  4h.  ...         2'5h. 

Stationary  maximum  brilliancy  28h.  ...       22h. 

Minor  Planet  No.  271. — This  object  has  received  the  name 
of  Penthesilea. 


ASTRONOMICAL  PHENOMENA  FOR  THE 
WEEK   1887   DECEMBER   11-17. 

/"pOR  the  reckoning  of  time  the  civil  day,  commencing  at 
^-*-  Greenwich  mean  midnight,  counting  the  hours  on  to  24, 
is  here  employed.) 

At  Greenwich  on  December  1 1 
Sun  rises,  7h.  58m.  ;  souths,  lih.  53m.  22  "gs.  ;  sets,  I5h.  49m.  : 
right  asc.  on  meridian,  I7h.  1 2  ■9m.  ;  decl.  23°  l'  S. 
Sidereal  Time  at  Sunset,  21  h.  9111. 
Moon  (New  on  December  14,  I9h.)  rises,  3h.  Iim.  ;  souths, 
8h.  47m.  ;  sets,  I4h.  14m.  :  right  asc.  on  meridian, 
I4h.  6-5m.  ;   decl.  7°  27'  S. 

Right  asc.  and  declination 
Planet.         Rises.  Souths.  Sets.  on  meridian. 

h.  m.     h.  m.     h.  ra.     h.   m.       o   / 
Mercury..  6  7  ...  10  3?  ...  14  57  ...  15  51*2  ...  18  26  S. 

Venus 3  33  ...  8  46  ...  13  59  ...  14  4*9  •••  9  5^  S. 

Mars o  47  ...  6  54  ...  13  i  ...  12  I2'5  ...  o  44  N. 

Jupiter....  5  37  ...  10  6  ...  14  35  ...  15  24*9  ...  17  47  S. 
Saturn....  19  28*...  3  16  ...  11  4  ...  8  34-1  ...  19  10  N. 
Uranus...  2  9  ...  7  43  ...  13  17  •••  13  "'^  •••  5  5^  S. 
Neptune..  14  44  ...  22  24  ..   6  4*...  3  45"o  ...  18  3  N. 

•  Indicates  that  the  rising  is  that  of  the  preceding  evening  and  the  setting 
that  of  the  following  morning. 


Dec.  8,  1887] 


NA  TURE 


141 


Pec. 
II 

12 
12 

13 


9     ••• 


Venus  in   conjunction  with  and  2°  37'  south 

of  the  Moon. 
Venus  at  least  distance  from  the  Sun. 
Jupiter  in  conjunction  with  and  4°  16'  south 

of  the  Moon. 
Mercury  in  conjunction  with  and  3°  24'  south 

of  the  Moon. 


Variable  Stars. 

Star. 

R.A. 

Dec!. 

h.      m. 

, 

h. 

m. 

U  Cephei     

0   52-3  • 

.  81*  16  N.  . 

..  Dec 

12, 
17. 

0 
0 

25  m 
5  '« 

Algol    

3    0-8  . 

.  40  31  N.  . 

II, 

20 

23  '« 

\  Tauri 

3  54-4  • 

.  12  10  N.  . 

II, 

I 

9   VI 

15. 

0 

2    711 

{^Geminorum 

6  57-4  • 

.  20  44  N.  . 

14, 

19 

0  M 

R  Canis  Majoris.. 

7  14-3  • 

.  16  II  S.    . 

17, 

3 

23 

28  m 
3  m 

U  Coronse 

IS  13-6  . 

■  32    4  N.  . 

14. 

20 

47  »i 

R  Scuti        

18  41-5  . 

.    5  50  S.    . 

12, 

M 

e  Lyrae 

18  45-9  . 

•  33  14  N.  . 

1 4, 

20 

0  M 

Y  Cygni       

20  46-6  . 

.  34  10  N.  . 

14. 

22 

4  m 

17. 

21 

58  m 

5  Cephei      

22  25-0  . 

•  57  SO  N.  . 

16, 

2 

0  m 

M  signifies  maximum  ;  >«  minimum. 

Meteor- Showers. 

R.A. 

Decl. 

Near  Pollux 

...    117      . 

..     31°  N.     . 

Rather  swift. 

From  Leo  Minor 

...    143      . 

..     39  N.     . 

.     Swift  ; 

streaks. 

Near  \  Draconis 

...    158 

..     72  N. 

M.  POTANIN'S  JOURNEYS  IN  EAST  TIBET 
AND  EAST  GOBI. 

A  CONDENSED  report  of  the  results  obtained  by  the  three 
■**■  years'  journey  of  MM.  Potanin,  Skassy,  and  Berezovsky, 
in  China,  Amdo  plateau  of  Tibet  at  the  sources  of  the  Hoang- 
ho,  and  East  Gobi,  has  just  appeared  in  the  Russian  Izvestia  of 
the  Geographical  Society  (iii.  1887.)  Without  repeating  what 
has  already  been  mentioned  in  his  letters,  M.  Potanin  gives  in 
his  paper  a  masterly  sketch  of  the  physical  characteristics  of 
the  various  regions  explored  by  his  expedition. 

The  route  followed  was  from  Peking,  across  the  Utai-shan 
mountains  which  border  the  Peking  depression  in  the  west,  and 
where  the  well-known  Utai  Buddhist  monasteries  are  situated, 
to  the  city  of  Kuku-khoto.  Thence  south,  across  the  Ordos 
region,  to  Lan-tcheu,  capital  of  the  Han-su  province,  and  to 
San-tchuan  on  the  middle  Hoang-ho,  where  M.  Potanin  spent 
the  winter  of  1884-85,  while  M.  Skassy  wintered  at  the  above 
city,  and  M.  Berezovsky  at  Hoi-siang,  on  the  Sy-tchuan 
frontier  of  the  Han-su  province.  Thence  the  expedition  pro- 
ceeded south-east  tp  Min-lcheu  on  the  Tao-he,  and  to  Sun-pan. 
Lun-an-fu  was  the  utmost  point  reached  towards  the  south,  and 
the  expedition  returned  to  Lan-tcheu  to  spend  the  second 
winter  at  the  Humbum  monastery,  close  by  Si-nin.  The  third 
summer  was  spent  for  the  return  journey,  which  was  made  via 
Kuku-nor,  across  the  mountains  which  separate  the  Tsaidam 
from  the  Mongolian  plateau,  and  the  cities  of  Han-tcheu  and  Su- 
tcheu.  Then,  taking  a  course  due  north,  the  expedition  crossed 
the  Gobi,  as  also  several  ridges  continuing  the  Ek-tag  Altai  in 
the  east,  and  the  Hanghai  ridge,  and  reached  the  Orkhon  River, 
whence  it  proceeded  to  Kiakhta  and  across  Siberia  to  Russia. 

The  Peking  plain,  covered  with  fertile  loess,  is  separated  by 
a  series  of  three  ridges  built  up  of  gneisses  and  limestones, 
from  the  plateau  of  the  Ordos,  watered  by  the  middle  Hoang-ho. 
Of  Europeans,  only  M,  Przewalski,  the  missionary  Hue,  and 
M.  Potanin's  expedition  have  visited  the  Ordos— a  plateau  about 
3300  feet  high,  covered  with  shifting  sands,  the  best  part  of 
which  is  on  their  eastern  border.  Owing  to  the  moistness 
brought  by  the  numerous  streams  which  flow  towards  the 
Hoang-ho,  the  sands  on  the  eastern  border  are  not  so  bad  as 
those  described  further  west  by  M.  Przewalski,  and  the  barkhans 
are  covered  with  bushes  of  Shyavyk,  Artemisice,  Hedysarum 
larvi,  and  thickets  of  the  Pugio7tium  cornutum — a  new  .shrub 
discovered  by  Przewalski ;  sometimes  dark  growths  of  Thuja 
cover  the  barkhans.     The  hollows  between  the  sandy  hills  are 


either  covered  with  some  bushes  or  occupied  by  the  fields  of  the 
Mongols,  who  chiefly  grow  setaria,  buckwheat,  and  hemp.  The 
wet  depressions,  covered  by  meadow-grasses  and  partly  with 
Halophytes,  and  called  tchaidams,  are  enlivened  by  the  herds 
and  the  mud  huts  of  the  half-nomadic  Mongols.  The  sands  are 
steadily  moved  by  the  winds  from  the  south-west  towards  the 
north-east,  and  this  constant  motion  explains  why  the  Chinese 
gave  to  the  sand-desert  the  name  of  Sha-he,  or  "  River  of 
Sand." 

In  the  highlands  which  connect  the  Tibet  mountains  with 
those  of  Shan-si  the  expedition  spent  fifty  days.  Thick  layers 
of  loess  cover  there  the  horizontal  layers  of  salt-bearing  sand- 
stones and  conglomerates.  The  region  is  a  high  plateau  deeply 
burrowed  by  the  cations  of  the  rivers,  which  sometimes  are 
2CKX>  feet  deep,  and  are  cut  both  through  the  loess  and  the 
sandstones.  The  narrow  caflons  are  mostly  waterless,  while  the 
broader  ravines  are  watered  by  rivers  and  therefore  are  the 
seat  of  many  villages.  There  is  little  wind  or  rain,  and  the 
atmosphere  is  charged  with  dust. 

In  Tibet  the  expedition  crossed  only  the  Amdo  plateau, 
separated  from  the  Mongolian  plateau  by  the  Nan-shan 
ridge.  For  400  miles  the  expedition  crossed  there  a  region  the 
lowest  parts  of  which  rise  above  7000  and  8000  feet.  Even  the 
Hoang-ho  at  Gui-dui  has  an  altitude  of  7600  feet,  and  the 
valley  of  the  E-tsin  at  the  Pabor-ta-sy  monastery  is  8000  feet 
high  ;  the  valleys  of  the  Urunvu  and  the  Tumun-guan  are 
at  altitudes  of  from  more  than  9000  to  lo.oaa  feet.  The  highest 
parts  of  the  plateau  rise,  however,  to  12,000  feet,  and  Lake 
Kuku-nor  is  spreading  its  waters  at  the  height  of  Alpine  peaks, 
i.e.  10,700  feet.  Still  higher  grassy  plateaus,  where  it  never 
rains  but  often  snows,  and  marshes  spread  over  large  areas,  rise 
to  the  south  of  the  lake.  Only  a  few  of  the  mountain-ridges  which 
inclose  this  plateau  are  snow-clad.  It  has  a  quite  original  flora, 
discovered  by  General  Przewalski.  Forests  are  few  ;  as  to  the 
high  meadows,  they  are  inhabited  by  nomad  Tangutes,  and, 
on  lower  levels,  by  a  mixed  population  of  Chinese  and  settled 
Mongols  described  under  the  name  of  Daldas. 

The  Alpine  highlands  watered  by  the  northern  tributaries  of 
the  Blue  River,  which  separate  the  Amdo  high  plateau  from 
the  Chinese  lowlands,  are  the  most  picturesque  part  of  China. 
The  routes  which  cannot  follow  the  bottoms  of  the  narrow 
and  rocky  valleys  pass  over  the  mountains,  flights  of  steps 
being  cut  in  the  rocks,  or  wooden  balconies  being  built 
along  the  steep  slopes  of  the  rocky  hills.  Suspended  bridges, 
swinging  under  the  weight  of  a  mule,  cross  streams  which  flow 
in  a  succession  of  rapids  and  waterfalls.  The  Chinese  monsoons 
deposit  all  their  moistness  on  the  south-eastern  slopes  of  the 
mountains  ;  thick  forests,  of  Conifers  on  higher  levels  and  of 
deciduous  trees  lower  down,  clothe  the  mountain  slopes.  Maples, 
lime-trees,  oaks,  Hehvingia,  and  a  number  of  shrubs  and  climb- 
ing plants  are  growing  in  impracticable  thickets,  while  all  crags 
are  thickly  covered  with  ferns,  mosses,  and  orchids.  Mollusks 
{Bulymus  and  Helix)  cover  the  crags  by  thousands.  And 
finally  at  the  foot  of  the  mountains  the  sub-tropical  flora — palms, 
bamboos,  banana-trees,  and  tea-trees — makes  its  appearance. 

The  villages  and  the  towns — clean  and  well-watered — are 
strikingly  picturesque,  as  the  houses  (with  windows,  like  our 
European  dwellings)  are  built  in  the  shape  of  amphitheatres  on 
the  slopes  of  the  steep  forest-clothed  hills.  In  some  towns  the 
roofs  of  the  houses  are  the  workshops  and  sittinsr-places  of  the 
inhabitants.  The  valley  of  the  "Golden  Lakes" — Kser-ntso — 
with  its  background  of  snowy  peaks  is  especially  picturesqie. 

As  to  the  region  crossed  between  the  Amdo  plateau  and 
Kiakhta,  it  is  sharply  divided  into  two  parts.  The  southern  is 
a  true  desert,  which  stretches  towards  the  north  as  far  as  the 
Khangai  Mountains.  The  Nan-shan  rises  as  an  immensi  snow- 
clad  wall  on  its  southern  border  ;  then  comes  a  narrow  strip  <if 
inhabited  and  cultivated  land,  which  is  followed  by  a  gravelly 
desert,  where  only  a  few  trees  of  Haloxylon  Ammodendron, 
and  bushes  of  Calligonum  and  Ephedra  grow  here  and  there, 
while  the  course  of  the  E-tsin  is  marked  by  narrow  strips  of 
meadows  covered  with  Elymus.  The  depression  of  the  E-tsin, 
which  flows  into  the  Gashiun-nor,  has  an  altitude  of  only  about 
3000  feet,  and  it  is  bordered  in  the  north  by  the  Tostu  ridge, 
and  three  other  parallel  ridges,  of  which  the  northern  is  snow- 
clad.  The  valleys  which  separate  these  four  ridges  are  water- 
less ;  old  river-beds,  now  dry,  are  seen  on  their  bottoms,  but 
even  the  Haloxylon  forests  which  formerly  grew  in  their  valleys 
are  now  disappearing,  only  decayed  trees  having  been  seen  by 
the  expedition. 


142 


NATURE 


[Z^^r.  8,  1887 


As  to  the  plateau  in  the  north  of  the  Khangai  Mountains,  it 
is  covered  with  rich  meadows,  while  the  slopes  of  the  hills  are 
clothed  with  forests  of  larch ;  the  Siberian  cedar-tree  also 
makes  its  appearance.  In  the  lower  valleys  the  Mongols  carry 
on  some  agriculture. 

The  above  account  is  followed  by  an  ethnographical  sketch 
of  the  Ordos-Mongols  and  the  Daldas. 

The  results  obtained  by  the  expedition  are  very  important.  A 
survey  has  been  made  of  a  stretch  of  no  less  than  4400  miles. 
Latitudes  and  longitudes  have  been  determined  at  sixty-nine 
places.  Two  hundred  photographs,  700  specimens  of  mammals 
and  birds,  a  bulky  herbarium,  and  rich  collections  of  lizards, 
insects,  mollusks,  and  rocks  have  been  brought  in.  M.  Bere- 
zovsky still  remains  in  the  region  he  has  become  so  fond  of, 
and  he  wrote  last  February,  from  Hoi-siang,  that  his  journeys 
about  Si-ning  and  Tai-tchan  have  enriched  his  collection  with 
500  more  specimens  of  birds,  jome  of  which  are  very  interesting. 

P.  A.  K. 


SOCIETIES  AND   ACADEMIES. 
London. 

Royal  Society,  November  17. — "Specificlnductive Capacity." 
By  J.  Hopkinson,  M.A.,  D.Sc,  F.R.S. 

Colza  Oil. — This  oil  has  been  found  not  to  insulate  sufficiently 
well  for  a  test  by  the  method  of  my  former  paper.  Most 
samples,  however,  were  sufficiently  insulating  for  the  present 
method.  Seven  samples  were  tested  with  the  following  mean 
results  : — 

No.  I.  This  oil  was  kindly  procured  direct  from  Italy  for 
these  experiments  by  Mr.  J.  C.  Field,  and  was  tested  as  supplied 
to  me — 

K  =  3  10. 

No.  2  was  purchased  from  Mr.  Sugg,  and  tested  as  supplied — 

K  =  3-14. 
No.  3  was  purchased  from  Messrs.  Griffin,  and  was  dried  over 
anhydrous  copper  sulphate — 

K  =  3-23. 

No.  4  was  refined  rape  oil  purchased  from  Messrs.  Pinchin  and 
Johnson,  and  tested  as  supplied — 

K  =  3 -08. 

No.  5  was  the  same  oil  as  No.  4,  but  dried  over  anhydrous 
copper  sulphate — 

K  =:  3  07. 

No.  6  was  unrefined  rape  purchased  from  Messrs.  Pinchin  and 
Johnson,  and  tested  as  supplied,  the  insulation  beipg  bad,  but 
still  not  so  bad  as  to  prevent  testing — 

K  =  3-12. 

No,  7.   The  same  oil  dried  over  sulphate  of  copper — 

K  ^  3-09. 

Omitting  No.  3,  which  I  cannot  indeed  say  of  my  own  know" 
ledge  was  pure  colza  oil  at  all,  we  may,  I  think,  conclude  that 
the  specificlnductive  capacity  of  colza  oil  lies  between  3*07  and 

3'i4. 

Prof.  Quincke  gives  2*385  for  the  method  of  attraction 
between  the  plates  of  a  condenser,  3 "296  for  the  method  of 
lateral  compression  of  a  bubble  of  gas.  Palaz  (Za  Lumicre 
Electrique,  vol.  xxi.  1886,  p.  97)  gives  3*027. 

Olive  Oil. — The  sample  was  supplied  me  by  Mr.  J.  C.  Field — 

K  =  3-15. 

The  result  I  obtained  by  another  method  in  1880  was  3'i6. 

Two  other  oils  were  supplied  to  me- by  Mr.  J.  C.  Field. 

Arachide. — K  =  3'i7. 

Sesame.— Y^  =  3'I7- 

A  commercial  sample  of  raw  linseed  oil  gaye  K  =  3'37. 

Two  samples  of  castor  oil  were  tried  :  one  newly  purchased 
gave  K  =:  4-82  ;  the  other  had  been  in  the  laboratory  a  long 
time,  and  was  dried  over  copper  sulphate — 

K  =  4-84. 

The  result  of  my  eai'lier  experiments  for  castor  oil  was  478  ; 
the  result  obtained  subsequently  by  Cohen  and  Arons  ( W^2«/i?- 
mann^s  Annalen,  vol.  xxviii.  p.  474)  is  4'43.  Palaz  gives 
4'6io. 


Ether. — This  substance  as  purchased,  reputed  chemically  pure, 
does  not  insulate  sufficiently  well  for  experiment.  I  placed  a 
sample,  purchased  from  Hoj^kin  and  Williams  as  pure,  over  quick- 
lime, and  then  tested  it.  At  first  it  insulated  fairly  well,  and 
gave  K  =  4'75'  I"  the  course  of  a  very  few  minutes  K  =  4'93, 
the  insulation  having  declined  so  that  observation  was 
doubtful.  After  the  lapse  of  a  few  minutes  more  observations 
became  impossible.  Prof.  Quincke  in  his  first  paper  gives 
4 "623  and  4  660,  and  4'394  in  his  second  paper. 

Bisulphide  of  Carbon. — The  sample  was  purchased  from 
Hopkin  and  Williams,  and  tested  as  it  was  received — 

K  =  2-67. 

Prof.  Quincke  finds  2 "669  and  2*743  ii^  his  first  paper,  and 
2 '623  in  his  second.      Palaz  gives  2  609. 

Amylcne. — Purchased  from  Burgoyne  and  Company — 

K  =  2-05. 

The  refractive  (ju)  index  for  line  D  is  i  '3800, 

y?  =  1-9044. 

Of  the  benzol  series  four  were  tested  :  benzol,  toluol,  xylol, 
obtained  from  Hopkin  and  Williams,  cyiiiol  from  Burgoyne 
and  Company. 

In  the  following  table  the  first  column  gives  my  own  results, 
the  second  those  of  Palaz,  the  third  my  own  determinations  of 
the  refractive  index  for  line  D  at  a  temperature  of  I7^'S  C.  and 
the  fourth  the  square  of  the  refractive  index  : — 

Benzol  2*38  2-338  i'5038  2-2614 

Toluol   2-42  2-365   1*4990  2-2470 

Xylol     2-39  —      1-4913   2-2238 

Cymol   2-25  —      1-4918  2-2254 

For  benzol  Silow  found  2-25,  and  Quincke  finds  2-374. 

Linnean  Society,  November  17. — Prof.  St.  George  Mivart, 

F.  R.S.,  Vice-President,  in  the  chair. — Mr.  A.  Bennett  drew 
attention  to  new  British  plants,  viz.  (i)  Arabis  alpina,  gathered 
on  the  Cuchillin  Mountains,  Isle  of  Skye  ;  (2)  Jtiitcus  alpina, 
obtained  in  Perthshire  ;  and  {^)Juncus  tenuis,  got  near  Galloway, 
Kirkcudbrightshire. — Mr.  W.  H.  Beeby  made  remarks  on  Carex 
caspitosa  from  Shetland. — Photographs  of  a  branched  palm 
(Borassus  Jiahelliformis)  was  shown  for  Surgeon-General  Bidie, 
of  Madras,  and  a  letter  thereon  read.  The  tree  is  growing  near 
Tanjore,  at  a  village  named  Paducottah,  and  is  remarkable  in 
being  divided  into  eight  branches. — Mr.  W.  Wilson  sent  for 
exhibition  branches  with  ripe  berries  of  Taxus  baccata,  and  its 
variety  hybernica,  produced  by  natural  cross-fertilization  :  these 
were  grown  in  Central  Aberdeenshire. — Mr.  T.  Christy  showed 
a  new  species  of  Strophanthus  from  the  Niger  ;  it  is  distinguished 
by  its  brown  velvety  seed  and  intensely  bitter  taste. — Mr.  D. 
Morris  exhibited  the  following  specimens:  (i)  a  fibre  from 
Vera  Cruz,  named  Broom  Root,  which  examination  showed  to 
be  the  root  fibres  ol  Epicampts  macroura,  known  as  "  Ravizde 
Zacaton  "  by  the  Mexicans,  its  yearly  value  in  expert  is  ;,^6o,ooo ; 
(2)  another  Mexican  fibre,  "  Ixtli,"  much  used  for  nail-brushes, 
&c. ,  in  Britain,  by  reason  of  its  short  tough  fibre,  is  found  by  the 
Kew  authorities  to  be  derived  from  Agave  heteracantha. — Mr.  J. 

G.  Baker  showed  Lycopodium  albidum,  a  new  species  from  the 
Andes  of  Ecuador ;  it  is  allied  to  Li  clavatum,  but  without  chloro- 
phyll except  at  the  base.  He  also  showed  Neobaronia  xipho- 
clades,  a  new  Papilionaceous  plant  from  Madagascar,  obtained 
by  the  Rev.  R.  Baron. — A  paper  was  read  by  Mr.  P.  Geddes, 
on  certain  factors  of  variation  in  plants  and  animals. — Then 
followed  a  paper  on  the  Copepoda  of  Madeira  and  the  Canary 
Islands,  by  Mr.  I.  C.  Thompson.  In  all,  sixty- five  species  were 
obtained.  Of  these,  six  are  new  to  science,  and  three  probably  of 
generic  significance.  Twenty-three  are  known  in  Briiish  waters, 
and  of  these  fourteen  belong  to  the  family  Harpacticidse.  There 
is  a  similarity  in  species  in  the  different  islands,  but  the  numbers 
of  each  vary  greatly. 

Geological  Society,  November  9. — Prof.  J.  W.  Judd, 
F.  R.  S.,  President,  in  the  chair.^ — The  following  communications 
were  read: — Note  on  the  so-called  "  Soapstone  "  of  Fiji,  by 
Henry  B.  Brady,  F.R.S.  The  Suva  depo-it,  which  has  a  com- 
position very  similar  to  that  of  the  volcanic  muds  at  present 
forming  around  oceanic  islands  in  the  Pacific,  is  friable  and 
easily  disintegrated.  The  colour  ranges  from  nearly  white  to 
dark  gray,  the  mass  being  usually  speckled  with  minerals  of  a 
darker  hue.  Under  the  microscope  the  rock  presents  the 
character  of  a  fine  siliceous  mud  with  crystals  of  augite,  &c., 


Dec.  8,  1887] 


NATURE 


M3 


together  with  the  sparsely  scattered  tests  of  Foraminifera.  The 
iioximate  chemical  composition  of  typical  specimens  is  : — 
;a,  50  per  cent.  ;  alumina,  18  per  cent.  ;  limi  an,l  magnesia, 
..  ,in  5  to  6  per  cent.  ;  ferric  oxide,  from  3  to  8  per  cent.  ; 
water,  16  per  cent.,  with  a  small  proportion  of  alkalies,  chiefly 
potash,  and  but  small  trace  of  carbonates.  The  author's 
attention  was  chiefly  directed  to  the  common  gray  friable  rocks 
which  may  be  softened  in  water  and  washed  on  a  sieve,  the  residue 
consisting  mainly  of  Foraminifera  with  a  few  Oitracoda.  Of 
three  specimens  examined,  (i)  is  a  light-gray  rojk  from  close  to 
the  sea-level  ;  (2)  of  a  lighter  colour,  from  about  100  feet 
elevation  ;  (3)  is  nearly  white  and  somewhat  harder,  and  was 
derived  from  an  intermediate  point.  So  far  as  the  Microzoa 
are  concerned,  the  first  two  present  no  differences  which  might 
not  be  observed  in  dredgings  from  the  recent  sea-bottom,  taken 
at  similar  depths  a  litile  distance  apart.  The  third  appears  to 
have  been  deposited  in  so  newhat  deeper  water.  There  is  a 
marked  scarcity  of  arenaceous  Foraminifera.  Then  followed 
notes  on  the  rarer  and  more  interesting  species,  together  with  a 
list  of  the  ninety-two  species  of  Foraminifera  found.  Of  these, 
eighty-seven  are  forms  still  living  in  the  neighbourho  )d  of  the 
Pacific  islands.  Two  of  the  remaining  five  are  new  to  science, 
and  the  rest  extremely  rare.  The  author  concluded  that  these 
deposits  are  of  Post-Tertiary  age,  formed  at  depths  of  from  150 
t  ^  200  fathoms  in  the  neighbourhood  of  a  volcanic  region.  The 
following  new  or  little-known  species  were  selected  for 
illustration  :—^////^(?/(//«<z  ellipsoidcs,  var.  ohlonga,  Seguenza  ; 
Haplophraginium  rugosum,  D'Orb.  ;  Ehrenhergina  biconiis, 
nov.  ;  Sphivroidina  ornata,  nov.  The  President  hoped  that 
this  paper  might  be  regarded  as  one  of  the  first-fruits  of  travels 
undertaken  by  the  author  for  the  purpose  of  investigating  the 
interesting  deposits  of  this  nature.  Prof.  Rupert  Jones  agreed 
that  this  was  a  valuable  instalment  of  work  to  be  expected.  The 
peculiar  Foramlnifer  specially  mentioned  by  Mr.  Brady 
(Ellipsndina  ellipsoides,  var.  oblonga,  Seguenza)  must  have 
connections,  so  that,  as  the  author  has  intimated,  the  interest 
attached  to  it  was  not  yet  wholly  worked  out. — On  some  results 
of  pressure  and  of  intrusive  granite  in  stratified  Palaeozoic  rocks 
near  Morlaix,  in  Brittany,  by  Prof  T.  G.  Bonney,  F.  R.S. — On 
the  position  of  the  Obermittweida  conglomerate,  by  Prof.  T. 
McK.  Hughes. — On  the  Obermittweida  conglomerate  :  its  com- 
position and  alteration,  by  Prof  T.  G.  Bonney,  F. R.S. — Notes 
on  a  part  of  the  Huronian  series  in  the  neighbourhood  of 
Sudbury  (Canada),  by  Prof.  T.  G.  Bonney,  F.R.S.  The 
specimens  noticed  by  the  author  were  in  part  collected  by  him 
in  the  summer  of  1884,  when  the  Canada  Pacific  Railway  was 
in  process  of  construction,  and  in  part  subsequently  supplied  to 
him  by  the  kindness  of  Dr.  Selwyn,  Director-General  of  the 
Geological  Survey  of  Canada.  The  eastern  edge  of  the  district 
assigned  to  the  Huronian  consists  of  rocks,  which  may  possibly 
be  part  of  the  Laurentian  series  modified  by  pressure.  But 
after  crossing  a  belt  of  these,  barely  a  mile  wide,  there  is  no 
further  room  for  doubt.  All  the  rocks  for  many  miles  are 
distinctly  fragmental,  except  certain  intrusive  diabases  or  diorites. 
These  fragmental  rocks  "are  grits,  conglomerates,  and  breccias, 
which  are  described  as  far  as  about  two  miles  west  of  Sudbury. 
The  included  fragments  in  these  rocks  appear  to  have  undergone 
.some  alterations  subsequent  to  consolidation :  these  are  described. 
In  some  ca^es  the  changes  appear  to  be  anterior  to  the  formation 
of  the  fragments.  The  matrix  also  has  undergone  some  change, 
chiefly  the  enlargement  of  quartz  grains,  and  the  development 
or  completion  of  mica-flakes,  as  in  the  Obermittweida  rock.  The 
author  gave  some  notes  on  other  specimens  collected  by  him 
along  the  railway,  further  west,  and  on  those  supplied  to  him 
from  near  Lake  Huron  by  Dr.  Selwyn.  As  a  rule  these  are  but 
little  altered.  Some  contain  fragments  of  igneous  rocks,  appar- 
ently lavas.  The  author  discusses  the  significance  of  the  changes 
in  these  rocks,  as  bearing  on  general  questions  of  metamorphism, 
and  states  that,  in  his  opinion,  the  name  Huronian,  at  present, 
includes  either  a  series  of  such  great  thickness  that  the  lower 
beds  are  more  highly  altered  than  the  higher,  or  else  tsvo  distinct 
series  ;  and  he  inclines  to  the  latter  view.  Both,  however,  must 
be  separated  from  the  Laurentian  by  a  great  interval  of  time, 
and  neither  exhibits  metamorphism  comparable  with  that  of  a 
series  of  schists  and  gneisses,  like  the  so-called  Montalban.  The 
newer  reminds  him  often  of  the  English  Pebidians.  After  the 
reading  of  this  paper  there  was  a  discussion,  in  which  the 
President,  Dr.  Geikie,  Mr.  Rutley,  and  others  took  part. 

Royal  Meteorological  Society,  November  16. — Mr.   W. 
£llis,  President,  in  the  chair. — The  following  papers  were  read  : 


— The  use  of  the  spectroscope  as  a  hygrometer  simplified  and 
explained,  by  Mr.  F.  W.  Cory.  The  object  of  this  paper  is  to 
suggest  as  simple  a  way  as  possible  of  using  the  spectroscope  as 
a  hygrometer  in  order  to  facilitate  its  introduction  amongst 
observers  as  a  standard  meteorological  instrument.  The  best 
form  of  hygro-spectroscope  as  a  recognized  standard  for  the  pur- 
pose of  investigating  and  scrutinizing  the  changes  of  the  three 
parts  of  the  spectrum  mentioned  is  that  originally  termed  by  Mr. 
Rand  Capron  "The  Rainband  Spectroscope."  It  ought  to 
have  a  fixed  slit,  and  in  addition  a  milled  wheel  at  the  side  for 
the  easier  adjustment  of  the  focus.  The  author  concludes  by 
giving  a  set  of  hints  to  ob-.ervers  for  taking  weather  observations 
with  a  pocket  spectroscope. — Rai  ifall  on  and  around  Table 
Mountain,  Cape  Town,  Cape  Colony,  by  Mr.  J.  G.  Gamble. 
The  author  calls  attention  to  the  great  and  in  some  respects 
peculiar  differences  that  exist  between  the  quantity  of  rain  that 
is  registered  on  and  around  Table  Mountain.  Tne  most  striking 
feature  is  the  small  fall  on  the  signal  hill.  The  signal  hill,  other- 
wise called  "  the  Lion's  Rump,"  lies  to  the  west  of  Cape  Town, 
between  it  and  the  Atlantic.  The  average  annual  fall  there  is 
only  15  inche-;,  while  the  fall  at  the  western  foot  is  21  inches, 
and  in  Cape  Town  27  inches.  The  signal  hill  is  1143  feet  above 
the  .sea.  The  fall  at  Platteklip,  on  the  northern  slope  of 
Table  Mountain,  overlooking  Cape  Town  and  550  feet  above  the 
sea,  is  considerable,  namely  45  inches.  The  greatest  fall  is  at 
Waai  Kopje,  about  half  a  mile  to  the  southward  of  the  highest 
point  of  the  mountain,  at  an  elevation  of  3100  feet,  or  450  feet 
below  the  top.  Another  station  on  Table  Mountain  further 
south — that  is,  to  the  leeward  in  the  rainy  season — and  2500  feet 
above  sea-ljvel,  has  only  39  inches.  The  eastern  suburbs, 
Rondebosch,  Newlands,  and  Wynberg,  all  have  a  comparatively 
abundant  rainfall,  40  to  50  inches  and  upwards,  the  greater  part 
of  which  falls  in  winter  time. — On  the  cause  of  the  diurnal 
oscillation  of  the  barometer,  by  Dr.  R.  Lawson.  The 
object  of  this  paper  is  to  show  that  the  durnal  oscillation  of  the 
barometer  is  mainly  due  to  the  combination  of  the  earth's 
rotation  with  its  orbital  motion. 

Paris, 

Academy  of  Sciences,  November  28. — M.  Janssen  in  the 
chair. — On  the  most  general  equations  of  double  refraction 
compatible  with  Fresnel's  wave  surface,  by  M.  Maurice  Levy. 
Whatever  view  be  taken  of  polarized  light  in  a  plane,  whether 
it  be  regarded  as  the  effect  of  an  elastic  or  electro-magnetic 
disturbance,  whether  it  result  from  rectilinear  vibrations  or  from 
mean  rotations  (vortices),  or  from  any  other  cause,  it  is  certain, 
as  remarked  by  Maxwell,  that  this  cause  is  measurable  by  a 
quantity  which  is  in  the  nature  of  a  vector.  This  vector, 
whether  it  ba  a  vibration  or  a  force,  the  axis  of  a  vortex  or  of  a 
magnetic  momentum,  or  aught  else,  is  here  called  a  luminous 
vector,  and  an  attempt  is  made  to  determine  its  most  general 
expression  compatible  with  Fresnel's  wave  surface. — On  the 
movement  of  cirri  and  their  relations  to  cyclones,  by  M.  H. 
Faye.  These  phenomana  are  compared  to  the  action  of  a  river 
on  which  floating  ice  is  borne  along.  Whenever  an  eddy  is 
formed,  the  nearest  fragments  of  ice  are  seen  to  be  drawn  within 
its  influence,  following  its  spiral  movements  and  disappearing 
with  it  on  reaching  the  centre,  while  the  masses  lying  beyond 
its  influence  continue  to  drift  with  the  stream.  Precisely 
analogous  phenomena  are  presented  by  the  cirri  carried  along 
by  atmospheric  currents  in  the  higher  regions.  They  arc  in  the 
same  way  sucked  down  by  the  gyratory  action  of  the  whirlwind, 
giving  rise  in  the  lower  regions  to  heavy  rains,  hail,  and  thunder- 
stornrs,  while  the  more  distant  clouds  continue  to  follow  the 
general  course  of  the  wind. — Researches  on  the  importance  of 
consumi)tive  patients  breathing  a  pure  ajr  uncontaminated  by 
pulmonary  exhalations,  by  MM.  Brown-Sequard  and  d'Arsonval, 
These  remarks  are  made  in  connection  with  an  apparatus  sub- 
mitted to  the  Academy,  which  has  been  constructed  for  the 
purpose  of  removing  from  bedrooms  all  the  air  exhaled  by  one 
or  more  persons.  The  importance  is  shown  of  thus  purifying 
sick-rooms,  hospital  wards,  &c.,  especially  when  occupied  by 
patients  suRering  from  affections  of  the  lungs.  — On  a  class  of 
differential  equations,  by  M,  R.  Liouville,  Here  are  studied 
more  especially  the  differential  equations,  amongst  which  are 
comprised  all  those  of  the  geodetic  lines.— Action  of  vanadic 
acid  on  the  fluoride  of  potassium,  by  M.  A.  Ditte.  It  is  shown 
that  vanadic  acid  in  combination  with  the  fluoride  of  potassium 
yields  compound  substances  more  or  less  rich  in  fluoride.  But 
in  the  presence  of  oxygen  a  certain   quantity  of  potassa  is  de- 


144 


NATURE 


{Dec.  8,  1887 


veloped,  which  forms  vanadates  with  a  part  of  the  vanadic  acid 
employed  in  the  process. — Ammonical  cyanides  of  zinc,  by  M. 
Raoul  Varet.  The  chloride,  bromide,  and  iodide  of  zinc  com- 
bined with  ammonia  yield  a  relatively  large  number  of  compound 
substances.  But  with  the  cyanide  of  zinc,  whatever  be  the  con- 
ditions, the  only  substances  obtained  are  ZnCy,NH3H0  when 
the  reaction  takes  place  in  the  presence  of  water,  and  ZnCy, 
NH2  in  all  other  cases.  — Application  of  a  method  of  de  Senar- 
mont  to  the  reproduction  of  celestine  and  anglesite  by  the  wet 
process,  by  M.  L.  Bourgeois.  The  process  by  means  of  which 
de  Senarmont  obtained  artificial  crystals  of  barytine  is  here 
applied  to  the  production  of  the  allied  minerals,  celestine  and 
anglesite. — On  the  importance  of  the  nutritive  function  in 
determining  the  distinction  between  plants  and  animals  amongst 
the  lower  organisms,  by  M.  P.  A.  Dangeard.  The  Chytridinese 
and  the  Chlamidomonadineae,  the  two  primary  groups  of  the 
vegetable  kingdom,  are  both  connected  below  with  the  Flagellee, 
branching  off  upwards  one  to  the  Algae  the  other  to  the  Fungus 
group.  It  is  here  shown  that  by  the  process  of  nutrition  alone 
is  it  possible  to  determine  the  point  where  plant  and  animal 
become  differentiated.— On  the  suckers  of  the  Rhinanthese  and 
Santalacese,  by  M.  Leclerc  du  Sablon.  These  hold  an  inter- 
mediate position  between  non-parasitic  and  true  parasitic  plants, 
drawing  their  nutriment  both  through  their  roots  and  through 
suckers  from  other  plants.  The  present  observations  deal  ex- 
clusively with  the  suckers  and  their  various  functions. — On  the 
discovery  of  carboniferous  formations  with  marine  and  vegetable 
fossils  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Raon-sur  Plaine,  by  M.  Bleicher. 
The  recent  discovery  of  coal  in  this  district  supplies  the  con- 
necting link  between  the  carboniferous  measures  of  the  Bruche 
and  Rabodeau  valleys  (Alsace  and  Lorraine). 

Berlin. 

Physiological  Society,  November  4. — Prof,  du  Bois 
Reymond,  President,  in  the  chair. — Dr.  Goldschneider  spoke  on 
the  fact,  which  has  been  known  for  a  long  time,  that  when  carbonic 
acid  gas  is  allowed  to  come  in  contact  with  the  skin  it  produces 
a  greater  sensation  of  warmth  than  air  of  the  same  temperature. 
He  has  carried  out  a  prolonged  series  of  experiments  to  deter- 
mine the  cause  of  this  increased  sensation  of  heat.  He  examined 
first  the  purely  physical  factors  which  might  have  some  influence 
on  the  observed  facts — namely,  the  moistness,  specific  heat,  and 
heat  absorption  by  the  gases.  When  he  compared  the  sensation 
of  heat  produced  by  moist  air  with  that  produced  by  dry  air,  he 
found  that  the  former  always  seemed  the  greater  ;  the  difference 
between  the  two  might  be  as  much  as  5°  C.  to  6°C.  when  the  air 
was  at  a  higher  temperature  than  that  of  the  skin.  Thus,  air  at 
35°  C.  whose  saturation  with  moisture  was  80  produced  the  same 
sensation  of  heat  as  air  at  41°  C.  whose  saturation  was  only  30. 
When  experimenting  with  carbonic  acid  gas  he  found  that  a 
difference  of  40  in  the  saturation  produced  a  difference  in  the 
resulting  sensation  of  heat  corresponding  to  2°  to  3°  of  tempera- 
ture. But  even  when  equally  moist  or  dry  air  and  carbonic  acid 
gas  were  allowed  to  act  on  the  skin  the  sensation  of  heat  pro- 
duced by  the  latter  was  always  the  greater.  It  does  not  seem 
po  sible  to  explain  the  greater  sensation  of  heat  with  carbonic 
acid  gas  by  reference  to  the  extremely  small  differences  of  specific 
heat  of  air  and  this  gas,  still  less  by  reference  to  their  somewhat 
greater  coefficients  of  heat  absorption.  He  also  investigated  the 
effect  of  the  more  ready  absorption  of  carbonic  acid  gas  by 
fluids,  by  removing  the  epidermis  with  a  blister  on  a  circum- 
scribed portion  of  the  skin  and  allowing  the  gas  to  act  upon  this 
place.  The  carbonic  acid  gas  was  speedily  absorbed  by  the 
lymph,  but  it  still  produced  a  sensation  of  greater  heat  even 
when  all  moisture  was  removed  from  the  surface  exposed  by  the 
blister.  He  hence  considers  that  the  purely  physical  properties 
of  the  gas  will  not  suffice  to  explain  its  remarkable  influence  on 
the  sensory  nerves  for  heat.  Dr.  Goldschneider  next  investigated 
the  physiological  factors  which  might  suffice  to  explain  the 
observed  phenomenon.  He  proved  that  there  is  no  recognizable 
objective  rise  of  temperature  under  the  influence  of  the  carbonic 
acid  gas.  It  is  true  that  he  observed  now  and  again  a  distinct 
dilatation  of  the  blood-vessels,  but  this  was  by  no  means  constant, 
and  not  sufficient  to  account  for  the  increased  sensation  of  heat. 
He  proved  however  as  has  been  observed  by  many  physiologists, 
that  the  carbonic  acid  gas  has  a  direct  effect  upon  the  sensory 
nerves  ;  but  in  contrast  to  the  results  of  others,  who  attribute  an 
anaesthetic  action  to  this  gas,  he  observed  that  at  first  it  produces 
a  hyperaesthesia  of  those  nerves  specially  connected  with  the 
production  of  heat  sensations,  and  then  this  makes  way  for  an 


anaesthesia.  The  nerves  connected  with  heat  sensations  were 
more  strongly  stimulated  than  those  connected  with  sensations 
of  cold.  The  speaker  summed  up  the  results  of  his  extremely 
numerous  experiments  by  urging  that  in  addition  to  the  greater 
absorption  of  heat  by  the  carbonic  acid  gas  and  its  power  of 
producing  hypersemia  of  the  skin,  its  action  is  to  be  explained 
chiefly  by  its  direct  chemical  action  on  the  endings  of  the  nerves 
concerned  in  the  production  of  sensations  of  heat.  This  there- 
fore is  to  be  regarded  as  the  cause  of  the  observed  phenomenon 
that  when  carbonic  acid  gas  is  brought  into  contact  with  the  skin 
it  produces  a  greater  sensation  of  heat  than  does  the  contact  of 
equally  warm  and  equally  dry  air. 


BOOKS,  PAMPHLETS,  and  SERIALS  RECEIVED. 

Thomas  A  Edison  and  Samuel  F.  B.  Morse  :  D.  B.  Denslow  and  J.  M. 
Parker  (Cassell). — Our  Earth  and  its  Story  :  Edited  by  Dr.  R.  Brown 
(Cassell). — Stigmaria  Ficoides :  W.  E.  Williamson  (Palaeontographical 
Society).  —  Index  Catalogue  of  the  Library  of  the  Surgeon  General's  Office, 
United  States  Army,  vol.  viii.  (Washington). — The  Ethical  Import  of  Dar- 
winism :  J.  G.  Schurman  (Williams  and  Norgate). — A  Manual  of  Orchid- 
aceous Plants,  Part  i,  Odontoglossum  ;  Part  2,  Cattleya  and  Lcelia  (Veitch). 
— Osservazioni  e  Studii  dei  Crepuscoli  Rosei  1883-86  :  A.  Ricco  (Roma). — 
Journal  of  the  College  of  Science,  Imperial  University,  Japan,  vol.  i. 
Part  4  (Tokio). 


CONTENTS.  PAGE 

Technical  Education  in  Manchester 121 

Tridimensional  Formulae  in  Organic  Chemistry.  By 

Prof.  F.  R.  Japp,  F.R.S 121 

The  Mammoth  and  the  Flood 123 

New  Zealand  Scale  Insects 125 

Our  Book  Shelf  :— 

Cochran:  "  Pen  and  Pencil  in  Asia  Minor  "     ....  126 
Bird  wood  :  "A  Catalogue  of  the  Flora  of  Matheran 

and  Mahableshwar  " 126 

Debierre  :  "  L'Homme  avant  I'Histoire" 126 

"  Philips'     Handy    Volume     Atlas    of    the    British 

Empire" 126 

Bath:   "  The  Young  Collector's  Hand-book  of  Ants, 

Bees,  Dragon-Flies,  Earwigs,  Crickets,  and  Flies"    .  127 

Letters  to  the  Editor  : — 

An  Earthquake  in  England. — Worthington  G. 
Smith 127 

On  the  Constant  P  in  Observations  of  Terrestrial 
Magnetism. — Prof.  Wm.  Harkness  ;  Prof. 
Arthur  W.  RUcker,  F.R.S 127 

Instability    of    Freshly-Magnetized    Needles. — G.  M. 
Whipple 128 

Gore's  Railway. — Prof.  Oliver  J.  Lodge,  F.R.S.  .     128 

The  Highclere  Bagshots. — Rev.  A.  Irving 128 

The  Ffynnon  Beuno  and  Cae  Gwyn  Caves. — Dr. 
Henry  Hicks,  F.R.S 129 

Cloud  Movements  in  the  Tropics,  and  Cloud  Classifica- 
tion.— Captain  David  Wilson-Barker      ....     129 

The  Forms  of  Clouds.    {Illustrated.)    By  Hon.  Ralph 

Abercromby 129 

Fifth  Annual  Report  of  the  Fishery  Board  for  Scot- 
land      • 132 

Professor  A.  Weismann's  Theory  of  Polar  Bodies. 

By  G.  Herbert  Fowler 134 

Siemens's  Gas-Burners.     {Illustrated.) 136 

Notes , 137 

Our  Astronomical  Column  : —  ^^ 

The    New  Algol  Variables,    Y   Cygni    and  R  Canis  ^^| 

Majoris |^H 

Minor  Planet  No.  271 14O 

Astronomical    Phenomena    for     the    Week     1887 

December  11-17 140 

M.    Potanin's   Journeys   in   East   Tibet   and   East 

Gobi 141 

Societies  and  Academies 142 

Books,  Pamphlets,  and  Serials  Received I44 


NA  TURE 


M5 


THURSDAY,   DECEMBER    15,    1887. 


THE  HORTICULTURAL  SOCIETY. 

THE  Horticultural  Society  of  London  was  founded  in 
1804,  among  the  first  members  being  Sir  Joseph 
Banks.  Its  objects  were  "to  collect  every  information 
respecting  the  culture  and  treatment  of  all  plants  and 
trees,  as  well  culinary  as  ornamental,"  and  "to  foster  and 
encourage  every  branch  of  horticulture,  and  all  the 
arts  connected  with  it."  The  P2arl  of  Dartmouth 
was  the  first  President.  The  Society  was  incorporated 
by  Royal  Charter  in  1809.  In  1820  the  Society  pur- 
chased 21  Regent  Street,  which  was  its  London  home 
for  forty  years.  In  1822  it  obtained  a  lease  of  the  present 
Gardens  at  Chiswick,  which  have  been  cultivated  and 
embellished  under  the  Society's  auspices  for  upwards  of 
sixty-five  years. 

At  the  conclusion  of  the  war  in  1815  the  Society 
began  to  import  plants  from  abroad,  and  this  country 
owes  to  its  early  exertions  many  of  the  beautiful 
camellias,  azaleas,  peonies,  roses,  and  chrysanthemums 
which  are  natives  of  the  East,  and  afriong  other  plants 
the  Wistaria  {Glycine)  sinensis,  a  lovely  creeper  now 
quite  at  home  in  England.  Indeed,  one  cannot  take  a  day's 
ride  anywhere  through  the  country  without  meeting  some 
of  the  beautiful  introductions  of  the  Society.  Among  the 
collectors  sent  out  by  the  Society  was  Douglas,  to  whose 
energy  the  country  owes  Pinus  Lambertiana,  P.  insignis, 
P.  ponderosa,  P.  nobilis,  P.  Douglasii,  &c. 

Dr.  Lindley,  one  of  the  most  eminent  botanists  this 
country  has  ever  produced,  was  appointed  Assistant  Secre- 
tary in  1822,  and  continued  connected  with  the  Society 
until  his  death  in  1865.  No  account  of  the  early  days 
of  the  Society  would  be  complete  without  a  record  of  the 
fruits  of  Fortune's  journeys,  under  its  auspices,  in  China. 
Not  only  did  he  send  innumerable  valuable  plants  home, 
but  his  travels  in  the  Chinese  tea-country  were  the  direct 
cause  of  the  introduction  of  tea-cultivation  into  India. 

In  1839  the  Duke  of  Devonshire  was  elected  President, 
on  the  death  of  Mr.  Andrew  Knight,  who  had  been 
President  for  twenty-seven  years,  and  to  whom  the 
Society  owed  much.  In  January  1858  the  Duke  of 
Devonshire  died,  and  H.R.H.  the  Prince  Consort  gra- 
ciously consented  to  succeed  him.  The  establishment 
of  the  Society  at  South  Kensington,  under  H.R.H.'s 
guidance  and  direction,  is  so  comparatively  recent  an 
event  that  it  is  not  necessary  to  refer  to  it  at  length. 
At  first  the  prospect  was  promising,  and  had  not  the 
Prince  Consort's  life  been  cut  short,  the  result  might 
have  been  very  different  from  what  it  has  proved. 
But  the  money  expended  on  the  buildings  and  the  gardens 
at  South  Kensington,  from  the  funds  of  the  Society,  was 
little  short  of  ^100,000 — a  sum  which,  with  the  experience 
we  now  have,  no  one  would  dream  of  devoting  to  such 
purposes.  This  enormous  expenditure  hung  like  a  mill- 
stone round  the  neck  of  the  Society,  which  soon  found 
itself  unable  to  pay  the  interest  on  the  money  borrowed 
to  meet  it.  The  result  was  that,  under  a  clause  of  the 
Society's  agreement  with  the  Commissioners  of  the  1851 
Exhibition,  the  latter  body  resumed  possession  of  the 
Gardens  six  years  ago,  and  the  money  spent  upon  them 
by  the  Society  was  swept  away  at  a  blow. 
Vol.  XXXVII.— No.  946. 


Nevertheless  the  horticultural  work  of  the  Society  has 
been  carried  on  with  undiminished  energy.  This  surely 
is  the  proper  and  legitimate  work  of  such  a  Society. 
Every  departure  it  takes  from  its  true  functions  alienates 
the  sympathy  and  support  of  those  to  whom  it  properly 
looks,  and  to  promote  whose  objects  it  exists.  Since  the 
Society  has  been  established  at  South  Kensington,  its 
activity  in  horticultural  work  has  been  as  marked  as  even 
in  its  most  prosperous  times.  Many  thousands  of  new 
plants,  fruits,  and  vegetables  have  been  submitted  to  the 
examination  and  the  verdict  of  the  Society's  Fruit  and 
Floral  Committees,  which  consist  of  practical  men,  of  the 
greatest  knowledge  and  experience  in  their  several 
departments.  The  value  attaching  to  "  First-Class  Certi- 
ficates "  is  shown  by  the  care  nurserymen  take  to  record 
them  in  their  catalogues.  At  Chiswick  a  long  series  of 
elaborate  trials  and  experiments  have  been  carried  on 
with  fruit,  vegetables,  and  plants,  whereby  useful  and 
profitable  varieties  have  been  selected  and  their  qualities 
established,  and  inferior  varieties  ear-marked. 

Although  the  Society  has  been  unable  to  hold  great 
shows  owing  to  the  loss  entailed  by  them,  it  has  held 
fortnightly  shows  in  summer  and  monthly  shows  in  winter, 
at  which  a  vast  number  of  new  plants  and  new  introduc- 
tions have  been  seen  for  the  first  time.  Such  shows, 
though  small,  are  often  far  more  interesting  to  horticul- 
turists than  the  big  shows  which  were  the  fashion 
formerly. 

It  may  well  be  asked  why,  if  the  Society  can  give  so 
good  an  account  of  itself,  it  should  be  in  any  difficulty  "i 
The  answer  is  that  its  troubles  are  due  to  its  connection 
with  South  Kensington.  It  cannot  be  said  that  the  Com- 
missioners of  the  1851  Exhibition  have  behaved  with  any 
conspicuous  liberality  to  the  Society.  Perhaps  they  could 
not  do  so,  as  they  have  said  that  it  was  necessary  for 
them  to  make  an  income  out  of  the  Royal  Horticultural 
Gardens.  But  the  connection  with  South  Kensington  has 
made  it  necessary  for  the  Society  to  meet  the  views  of 
local  subscribers,  who  were  not  horticulturists  ;  and, 
moreover,  it  has  led  to  the  Society  being  saddled  with  a 
charter,  which  prevents  its  expansion  and  adaptation  to 
altered  times  and  circumstances. 

The  views  of  the  Council  are  set  forth  in  general  terms 
in  the  statement  and  appeal  which  we  print  elsewhere 
The  interest  in  horticulture  in  the  United  Kingdom-- 
grows  and  spreads  without  check.  Surely  the  horti- 
culturists of  the  wealthiest  country  in  the  world  will 
gladly  provide  the  very  moderate  sum  required  for  the 
maintenance  of  a  Society  which  has  done  much  for  them, 
is  still  doing  much,  and  has  before  it  untold  possibilities 
of  usefulness. 


BALBIN'S  QUATERNIONS. 
Elementos    de    Calculo   de   los   Cuaterniones,   &^c.      Por 
Valentin   Balbin,  Doctor  en   Ciencias,  &c.      (Buenos 
Ayres:  imprenta  de  M.  Biedma,  18S7.) 

ALL  praise  is  due  to  the  Argentine  Republic  for  its 
institution  of  a  University  in  which  the  Faculty  of 
Sciences  is  endowed  with  a  chair  of  the  higher  mathe- 
matics. 

The  book   before   us    is   the   outcome   of  one  of  the 
courses  of  lectures  which  the  holder  of  that  chair,  Dr. 


•46 


NA  TURE 


[Dec.  15,  1887 


Valentin  Balbin,  delivered  to  an  audience  comprising 
several  of  his  colleagues.  The  volume,  written  in 
Spanish,  has  been  printed  at  Buenos  Ayres,  and  in 
size  (xix.  and  359  pages),  and  in  quality  of  paper  and 
print,  presents  a  very  handsome  appearance. 

In  his  preface  the  author  informs  us  that  in  his  opinion 
the  calculus  of  quaternions  is  the  best  vehicle  for  the 
teaching  of  applied  mathematics,  and  that  therefore  he  has 
had  recourse  to  Sir  William  Rowan  Hamilton's  beautiful 
invention.  The  author  is  aware  of  the  fact  that  he  is 
the  first  to  introduce  quaternions  into  the  Spanish  scien- 
tific literature,  and  for  this  reason  he  aims  at  presenting 
the  theory  from  its  very  elements  up  to  its  higher  branches 
of  application. 

In  the  matter  of  notations  we  are  also  informed  that 
those  of  Hamilton  and  of  Prof.  P.  G.  Tait  have  been 
scrupulously  adhered  to,  and  that,  in  one  word,  the 
author  has  not  found  it  advisable  to  follow  those  of  M. 
Hoiiel  and  of  M.  Laisant.  It  may  not  be  known  to 
everybody  that  these  two  French  mathematicians  have  in 
their  publications  (1874,  1877,  1881)  adopted  a  thorough 
reversal  of  Hamilton's  lettering.  In  the  place  of  the 
inventor's  Greek  letters,  they  use  Roman  characters 
(X  for  p,  Y  for  a-,  A  for  a,  &c.) ;  and  in  the  place  of  the  handy 
S,  y,  T,  U,  they  put  black-letter  symbols,  which  are  at 
once  difficult  to  write,  and  tiring  to  the  eyesight.  These 
are  what  they  call  "  slight  alterations "  or  "  improve- 
ments." 

Again,  they  upset  the  rule  about  the  relative  appellation 
of  the  factors  of  a  product.  Our  author  (p.  40)  states  the 
Hamiltonian  rule,  and  justifies  it  by  the  simple  example 
drawn  from  a  -\-  a  =  2a,  where  (according  to  everybody's 
ideas)  the  coefficient  2  is  the  multiplier,  and  a  the  multi- 
plicand. According  to  the  "  innovated"  rule  one  ought 
to  write  a  -\-  a  =  aX  2. 

The  rule  just  named  makes  its  influence  felt  more 
particularly  in  the  establishment  of  the  operator  of  conical 
rotation,  and  here  we  are  sorry  to  find  that  our  author 
falls  a  victim  to  a  delusion.  Instead  of  Hamilton's  well- 
established  q{  )q'^,  he  arrives  at  the  inverse  q-^{  )q 
(at  p.  296),  and  uses  it  under  this  form  through  several 
pages  (up  to  p.  303).  This  comes  from  following  M. 
Laisant's  text,  and  forgetting  his  own  rule.  In  M.  Hoiiel's 
opinion,  "  nothing  is  easier  than  to  pass  from  one  system 
(his  own  system)  to  the  other"  ;  nevertheless,  such  passage 
requires  to  be  nicely  managed,  because  by  it  the  expres- 
sion for  the  instantaneous  axis  is  affected,  and  we  might 
ask  whether  it  be  fair  to  introduce  a  source  of  confusion 
into  a  theory  which  in  itself  is  difficult  enough.  Our 
author  does  not  introduce  us  to  the  searching  treatment 
which  Prof.  Tait  has  devoted  to  the  question  of  the  move- 
ment of  a  solid  about  its  centre  of  mass  ("  Elementary 
Treatise,"  &c.,  second  edition,  §§  383-400).  M.  Balbin's 
treatment  of  that  question  is  very  curtailed,  and  we  might 
be  inclined  to  attribute  this  shortness  to  a  feeling  of 
distrust,  otherwise  how  could  we  understand  his  utter- 
ance, at  p.  87, where  he  says  forcibly, "  Some  simplifications, 
particularly  in  the  physico-mathematical  applications, 
must  be  made  in  the  future  as  to  the  matter  of  symbols  " 
(.f(?  hagan,  imperative  oi  haccr). 

The  more  we  consider  the  innovations,  the  more  are 
we  convinced  that  their  proposer  and  his  follower,  publish- 
ing in  1874  and  i8Sr,  had  not  fully  realized  the  extent  and 


importance  of  the  researches  which,  during  many  years, 
had  been  expressed  in  what  we  may  term  the  Hamil- 
tonian notations.  In  1862  no  less  a  Frenchman  than  M. 
Allegret  set  the  example  of  following  these  last-named, 
and  that  precedent  ought  to  have  been  adhered  to.  As 
it  is,  students  of  MM.  Hoiiel  and  Laisant  will  be 
hampered  by  the  French  notations  when  they  approach 
those  rich  mines  of  information  contained  in  such  unique 
classics  of  the  quaternion  method  as  Hamilton's  "  Lec- 
tures "  and  "  Elements,"  and  the  "  Elementary  Treatise  on 
Quaternions,"  by  Prof.  Tait. 

Let  us  now  try  to  give  some  idea  of  the  contents  of  the 
volume.  For  the  English  student  these  are  all  contained 
in  the  sources  known  to  him.  First  "  The  Introduction  to 
Quaternions,"  by  Kelland  and  Tait.  This  work  has  been 
reproduced  in  its  whole  extent,  with  the  exception  of 
Chapter  X.,due  to  Prof.  Tait  alone.  The  author  acknow- 
ledges in  several  instances  (pp.  1 14,  120,"  252)  his 
special  indebtedness  to  the  English  authors  ;  and  his 
translations  are  adequate.  Perhaps,  however,  he  knows 
them  best  through  the  medium  of  M.  Laisant's  reproduc- 
tion of  a  great  part  of  Kelland's  work  (with  acknowledg- 
ments in  the  preface,  tempered  by  the  praise  of  the  new 
notations). 

In  the  second  place,  in  the  treatment  of  linear  vector- 
functions  and  the  resolution  of  equations  involving  them, 
which  were  originally  given  by  Hamilton,  there  are  clear 
indications  that  our  author  has  taken  his  text  from  works 
where  the  innovatred  notations  reign  supreme ;  some 
traces  of  x  (at  pp.  183,  184,  193),  for  instance,  are  left 
standing  in  the  place  of  p,  and  are  contained  concurrently 
with  p  in  one  and  the  same  equation,  in  several  cases  ;  no 
explanation  about  the  signification  of  x  being  given.  A 
similar  fate  befell  the  vector  p,  at  p.  13S,  where  a- is  put 
into  its  place  by  being  defined:  x—ix^-\-jx2-\-kx.^. 
Under  this  form  x  is  introduced  into  the  operator  v, 
which  in  its  turn  undergoes  a  little  adaptation.  But  all 
this  is  not  the  promised  adhering  to  Hamiltonian  nota- 
tions. 

The  solution  of  the  vector-equation  2aS3p  =  y  is  gone 
partially  into  ;  but  the  calculation  of  the  coefficient  7n  of 
the  cubic  (at  p.  192)  contains  an  inexact  intermediate 
step,  and  the  coefficient  Wi  is  given  with  the  wrong  sign. 
Finally  the  solution  of  the  proposed  equation  (p.  193)  is 
incorrect,  owing  to  the  absence  of  the  factor  y  in  the  first 
term  of  the  second  member.  These  three  inaccuracies 
can  be  traced  to  one  of  the  French  texts. 

In  the  third  place,  curves  in  space,  and  centres  of 
curvature  of  those  curves,  and  of  plane  sections'of  sur- 
faces, subjects  exhausted  by  Hamilton  and  by  Prof.  Tait, 
have  been  treated  by  our  author  with  the  help  of  Ur. 
Graefe's  little  volume  on  Quaternions  (Leipzig,  i88j).  We 
might  ta'^e  exception  to  Dr.  Graefe's  deduction  (p.  236  of 
Balbin's)  of  Meusnier's  theorem,  as  well  as  of  that  of  the 
curvature  of  a  normal  section  of  a  surface.  To  replace  a 
scalar,  say  Sa^,  by  l{aS-\-^a),  in  order  to  procure  an 
expression  of  the  product  a,3  separately,  seems  to  us  to  be 
forsaking  the  spirit  of  the  method  of  quaternions  ;  the 
expression  for  Sa,3  being  given,  and  that  of  Va^  being 
deducible  from  other  considerations,  it  would  have  been 
far  simpler  to  deduce  a,3  by  forming  the  sum  Sa,3  -f  Va8 
straight  forward.  Some  reticences  (p.  236),  and  even 
some  inaccuracies,  in  the  text  of  Dr.  Graefe,  have  been 


Dec.  15,  1887] 


NATURE 


147 


reproduced  also  by  M.  Balbin  at  pp.  136,  138,  247. 
Dr.  Gracfc,  like  other  German  authors  on  quaternions, 
reproduces  a  great  part  of  the  "  Introduction  to  (2:uter- 
nions  "  by  Kelland  and  Tait,  and  also  some  parts  of  the 
"  Elementary  Treatise  "  by  Prof.  Tait  ;  but  after  having 
once  pronounced  the  name  of  Hamilton,  he  has  done  all 
in  the  matter  of  acknowledgment,  and  the  name  of  Tait  is 
not  to  be  found  in  the  little  volume. 

We  now  come  to  the  fourth  class  of  subjects  treated 
by  our  Argentine  author.  This  comprises  kinematical, 
statical,  and  dynamical  questions.  Here  we  meet  with 
the  treatment,  in  good  form,  of  questions  included  in 
Hamilton's  "  Elements," and  in  the  second  edition  (1873) 
of  Prof.  Tait's  "  Elementary  Treatise."  Of  this  last  source 
of  information  our  author  seems  to  have  only  a  second- 
hand knowledge  :  he  reproduces  verbatim  the  contents  of 
§  405  of  the  "  Elementary  Treatise"  (second  edition),  but 
he  attributes  the  authorship  of  it  to  M.  Laisant.  Evi- 
dently, M.  Laisant  reproduced  this  §  405,  which  treats  of 
Foucault's  pendulum,  but  the  origin  of  the  treatment  is  to 
be  found  in  the  Proceedings  of  the  Royal  Society  of 
Edinburgh  of  1869,  aiictore  P.  G.  Tait.  Again,  by  the 
small-print  note  at  p.  303  we  have  another  indication  that 
our  author  was  unacquainted  with  the  contents  of  the  two 
or  three  last  chapters  in  the  second  edition  of  the 
"Treatise."  Had  he  known  them,  he  could  not  have 
withheld  a  more  special  acknowledgment  of  results  worked 
out  by  the  immediate  follower  of  Hamilton. 

Prof.  Tait  certainly  can  claim  to  have  been  the  first  to 
make  quaternions  intelligible,  not  alone  to  ordinary 
students,  but  to  advanced  mathematicians — "  such  as 
liavc  the  [rare]  gift  of  putting  an  entirely  new  physical 
question  into  symbols."  But  the  Edinburgh  Professor 
has  particular  claims  to  the  thankfulness  of  students  of 
the  first-named  category  (the  writer  amongst  them),  for, 
under  the  plea  of  teaching  the  quaternion  method,  he  has 
given  them  an  insight  into  those  physico-mathematical 
questions  which  are  so  unapproachable  when  obscured 
by  the  apparatus  of  Cartesian  co-ordinates.  When  these 
questions  are  expressed  and  solved  in  quaternion  lan- 
guage, they  acquire  a  clearness  and  a  conciseness  which 
might  well  astonish  their  original  proposers — Green, 
let  U3  say,  Ampere,  Poinsot,  even  Newton,  not  to  name 
living  workers.  We  cannot  be  expected  to  enumerate 
the  list  of  the  questions  treated  ;  we  will  allude  only  to 
those  in  which  the  operator  v  is  pressed  into  services  of 
such  marvellous  fecundity,  to  those  in  which  the  hnear 
vector-functions  play  an  eminent  role,  and  to  those  in 
which  the  operator  of  conical  rotation  is  such  a  powerful 
auxiliary. 

The  last  chapter  of  the  volume  contains  a  painstaking 
record  of  the  history  of  quaternions.  The  English  reader 
will  find  much  of  this,  and  even  more,  in  the  article  on 
"  quaternions"  in  the  "  Encyclopaedia  Britannica."  We 
may  say  that  the  imaginaries  of  algebra  having  done 
good  service  during  the  process  of  discovery,  can  be  safely 
now  banished  from  the  principles  and  practice  of  the  qua- 
ternion method — unless  bi-quaternions  are  under  treatment. 
In  the  ordinary  applications  of  the  method  the  extraction 
of  the  square  root  of  the  members  of  an  equation  such  as 
«-  =  —  I  (e  being  a  unit-vector)  is  looked  upon  as  imprac- 
ticable, and  the  reason  is  clearly  this :  the  combination 
ef,   represented  by  «-,   is  a  symbol  sui  generis  just  as 


much  as  e  itself,  and  cannot  be  decomposed  or  attacked 
— to  speak  the  language  of  chemistry — by  the  algebraical 
operation  of  extracting  the  square  root  of  it.  To  assimi- 
late a  unit-vector  with  J  —  i,  the  square  root  of  negative 
unity,  is  as  if,  in  the  differential  calculus,  one  were  to 

.     .  dy  o 

assimilate   a   derivate,    .„,  with  the  symbol  —  of  inde- 

termination.  We  cannot  resist  the  temptation  of  helping 
our  author  to  preserve  a  little  curiosity  in  the  history  of 
the  subject.  The  author  records  the  verdict  of  an  un- 
named French  mathematician,  who  says  :  "  Quaternions 
have  no  sense  in  them,  and  to  try  to  find  for  them  a 
geometrical  interpretation  is  as  if  one  were  to  turn  out 
a  well-rounded  phrase,  and  were  afterwards  to  bethink 
oneself  about  the  meaning  to  be  put  into  the  words.  .  .  ." 
This,  after  all,  is  rivalled  by  the  verdict  .of  a  German 
mathematician,  who  simply  declared  the  quaternion 
method  to  be  "eine  Verirrung  des  menschlichen  Geistes" 
(an  aberration  of  the  human  intellect). 

GUSTAVE  PLARR. 


CABLE-LA  YING. 

On  a  Surf- bound  Coast  j  or,  Cable-laying  in  the  African 
Tropics.  By  Archer  P.  Crouch,  B.A.  O.xon.  (London  : 
Sampson  Low,  1887.) 

IT  is  somewhat  remarkable  that  the  business  of  making 
and  laying  submarine  telegraph  cables — which 
hitherto  has  been  a  monopoly  of  Great  Britain,  and  em- 
ploys large  numbers  of  skilled  workmen  of  all  kinds,  of 
scientific  men,  and  of  sailors — should  be  so  little  under- 
stood by  people  not  directly  connected  with  it.  Yet  the 
daily  history  of  any  cable-laying  expedition,  if  faithfully 
written,  would  contain  matter  of  engrossing  interest  for 
all  readers.  To  secure  a  contract  on  advantageous  terms 
requires  diplomatic  talent  of  a  high  order.  For,  althougb. 
the  business  is  a  British  monopoly  and  there  is  no  com- 
petition with  the  foreigner,  there  is  all  the  keener  com- 
petition between  the  rival  British  companies.  Further, 
the  negotiations  are  almost  always  with  Government 
departments,  either  home,  colonial,  or  foreign,  and  are 
necessarily  of  a  delicate  character.  In  the  history  of  any 
particular  cable  the  preliminary  diplomatic  details  would 
no  doubt  have  by  far  the  greatest  interest  for  most  readers, 
but  it  would  be  obviously  indiscreet  and  unadvisable  to 
publish  them.  In  tendering  for  a  cable  against  powerful 
competitors  it  is  important  to  have  as  accurate  a  know- 
ledge as  possible  of  the  depth  of  water  and  the  nature  of 
the  bottom  where  the  cable  is  to  lie,  in  order  to  know 
exactly  the  lengths  of  the  different  types  of  cable  which 
will  have  to  be  employed,  and  so  to  estimate  the  cost. 
In  obtaining  this  knowledge  the  cable-laying  companies 
have  been  the  chief  contributors  to  the  science  of  deep- 
sea  research,  or  oceanography.  The  contract  obtained, 
the  cable  made,  and  the  route  determined  on,  the  opera- 
tion of  laying  has  to  be  undertaken.  When  it  is  merely 
a  question  of  laying  a  length  of  cable  between  two 
points  over  smooth  ground,  this  is  in  most  cases  a  very 
simple  affair  ;  although  if  the  shore-ends  of  the  cable  have 
to  belauded  on  exposed  beaches,  as  is  only  too  often  the 
case,  there  is  plenty  of  opportunity  for  thrilling  incident 
and  hair-breadth  escape.     The  expedition  in  which  Mr. 


148 


NATURE 


\_Dec.  15.  1887 


Crouch  was  engaged  had  for  its  object  to  connect  a 
number  of  settlements  on  the  West  Coast  of  Africa  from 
Bathurst  to  St.  Paul  de  Loanda,  and  belonging  to  the 
British,  French,  Spanish,  and  Portuguese.  Although  it 
is  fixed  beforehand  what  places  are  to  be  connected,  it  is 
only  when  the  ship  arrives  on  the  ground  that  the  exact 
place  of  landing,  the  amount  of  assistance  to  be  got  from 
the  shore,  and  a  host  of  matters  of  minute  local  detail,  but 
of  great  importance,  can  be  settled,  and  to  do  so  satisfac- 
torily, expeditiously,  and  without  friction,  requires  qualities 
of  a  very  high  order  in  the  chief  of  the  expedition.  How 
difficulties  were  overcome,  dangers  met,  and  accidents 
repaired,  in  the  course  of  the  laying  of  one  portion  of  the 
West  African  Company's  cables  is  told  in  a  pleasant  and 
readable  way  in  "  On  a  Surf-bound  Coast."  Mr.  Crouch 
carries  his  descriptions  only  as  far  as  Cutanu,  a  French 
settlement  lying  between  Accra  and  Lagos.  From  this 
place  the  cable  was  taken  to  the  Portuguese  islands  St. 
Thome  and  Principe,  the  French  settlement  on  the 
Gaboon,  and  the  Portuguese  town  St.  Paul  de  Loanda ; 
but  this  part  of  the  expedition  is  reserved  for  description 
in  a  possible  future  volume. 

The  narrative  begins  with  the  start  of  the  s.s.  Thracia 
and  her  consort  the  Pioneer  from  the  Thames,  under  the 
chief  command  of  Mr.  White.  The  names  of  persons 
and  ships  are  purposely  altered.  The  work  really  begins 
with  their  arrival  at  Bathurst,  the  chief  British  settlement 
in  the  Gambia  district.  In  the  previous  year  the  cable 
had  been  laid  as  far  south  as  the  French  settlement 
Conakry,  about  70  miles  north  of  Sierra  Leone  ;  and  out- 
side of  Bathurst  the  cable,  coming  from  the  Cape  Verde 
island  of  St.  Jago,  had  been  joined  to  it,  forming  a  T 
piece.  Their  first  job  was  to  cut  out  this  piece, 
and  run  the  three  ends,  leading  respectively  northwards 
to  Dakar,  westwards  to  St.  Jago,  and  southwards  to 
Conakry,  into  Bathurst.  This  affords  the  author  an 
opportunity  of  describing  the  operations  of  "  picking  up '' 
in  shallow  water,  also  of  laying  shore  ends  in  protected 
water,  and  of  splicing  cables.  In  this  Mr.  Crouch  acquits 
himself  fairly  well  ;  indeed,  it  is  very  difficult  to  make 
intricate  mechanical  operations  of  the  kind  quite  intel- 
ligible to  the  uninformed  without  the  use  of  drawings. 
In  the  course  of  these  operations  the  two  ships  each  passed 
,  a  portion  of  their  time  on  the  sand-banks,  which  are  here 
plentiful  and  almost  completely  unsurveyed. 

The  next  piece  of  work  was  connecting  the  French 
settlement  Conakry  with  Sierra  Leone.  Here,  again, 
there  was  no  dearth  of  incident,  as  the  Pioneer,  in  land- 
ing the  shore  end,  went  on  a  rocky  patch,  and  was  with 
difficulty  got  off.  During  the  laying  the  cable  got  round 
the  propeller,  and  might  have  caused  great  delay  but  for 
Ihe  promptitude  and  courage  of  Mr.  White,  who,  without 
hesitation,  went  overboard  and  dived  straight  down  to 
the  propeller,  and  on  coming  up  ordered  "three  half 
turns  more  in  the  same  direction,"  when  the  cable  came 
free.  There  are  many  other  instances  scattered  through 
the  book  of  the  resource,  energy,  and  perseverance  required 
for  success  in  this  kind  of  work. 

The  Pioneer  was  obliged  to  return  home,  and  the 
Thracia  left  Sierra  Leone  alone  and  proceeded  round  the 
coast,  landing  shore  ends  at  Grand  Bassam,  Accra,  and 
Cutanu  or  Appi.  The  company's  larger  steamer,  the 
Copperfield,  meanwhile  came   out  with  the  bulk  of  the 


cable,  and  connected  these  shore  ends.  Mr.  Crouch  was 
transferred  to  the  Copperjteld,  and  assisted  at  the  laying 
of  a  portion  of  these  cables,  and  he  was  landed  at  Accra, 
along  with  two  other  members  of  the  staff,  to  attend  that 
end  of  the  cable,  which,  for  the  time  being,  had  a  blind 
end  buoyed  out  at  sea.  It  was  the  duty  of  these  gentle- 
men to  watch  night  and  day  the  spot  of  light  on  the  scale 
of  the  galvanometer,  so  as  to  be  ready  to  answer  when- 
ever the  ship  picked  up  the  end  and  "  called  "  them.  The 
fatigue  and  monotony  of  this  weary  work  of  waiting  and 
watching  is  well  described.  There  are  also  interesting  de- 
scriptions of  Accra  and  its  inhabitants.  Indeed,  the  latter 
half  of  the  book  is  by  far  the  more  interesting  ;  there  is 
more  business  in  it  and  less  of  the  jokes  and  chaff  of  the 
quarter-deck,  which,  though  useful  and  even  amusing  at 
the  time,  seldom  possess  sufficient  permanent  value  to 
justify  their  being  printed  at  any  length. 

The  book,  taking  it  all  round,  is  a  useful  and  entertain- 
ing one,  and  as  a  first  attempt  is  altogether  creditable  and 
full  of  promise.  In  any  future  work  the  author  should 
not  be  afraid  of  tiring  the  reader  by  careful  and  detailed 
description  of  any  operation  of  interest  on  which  he  may 
be  engaged.  Outside  of  those  directly  connected  with 
the  business  or  the  profession,  the  general  reader  knows 
nothing  of  the  methods  of  laying  and  working  submarine 
cables.  J.  Y.  B. 


TEXT-BOOK  OF  GUNNERY. 

Text-book  of  Gunnery,  1887.  By  Major  G.  Mackinlay, 
R.A.  (London:  Printed  for  Her  Majesty's  Stationery 
Office  by  Harrison  and  Sons,  1887.) 

TO  realize  the  great  alterations  which  have  taken  place 
in  artillery  in  the  last  twenty  years  it  will  be  neces- 
sary to  compare  the  present  work  with  the  corresponding 
"Treatise  on  Artillery"  of  1866,  prepared  for  the  use  of 
the  Practical  Class,  Royal  Military  Academy,  in  which 
there  is  no  mention  of  rifled  artillery,  iron  armour,  or 
electro-ballistic  apparatus,  and  the  Practical  Class  were 
expected  to  go  forth  fully  equipped  to  compete  with  any 
foreign  enemy  with  the  smooth-bore  gun,  the  spherical 
projectile,  the  formulae  for  penetration  into  earth,  and 
such  information  on  velocity  and  resistance  as  the  ballistic 
pendulum  could  afford.  If  twenty  years  can  make  such 
alterations  in  the  science  of  artillery,  imagination  attempts 
to  penetrate  the  future  and  to  gather  some  information  as 
to  the  view  in  which  the  present  treatise  of  1887  will 
then  be  held. 

Official  treatises,  however,  must  not  be  criticized 
according  to  the  irreverent  sceptical  rules  of  modern 
scientific  inquiry.  The  authors  are  prevented  by  military 
discipline  from  expressing  any  opinion  on  the  merits  of 
the  weapons  they  describe,  even  when  of  an  experimental 
nature.  Thus  the  Armstrong  rifled  gun  had  been  in 
serviceable  use  for  seven  or  eight  years,  and  Mr.  Bashforth 
had  been  experimenting  with  his  chronograph  on  elongated 
projectiles  and  the  resistance  of  the  air  to  their  flight  for 
nearly  two  years,  before  the  appearance  of  the  1866  edition 
of  the  "  Treatise  on  Artillery"  ;  and,  coming  to  the  present 
edition,  we  find  little  or  no  mention  of  such  important 
matters  as  steel  shields  for  the  protection  of  the  gunners 
in  the  field  against  bullets  {i.nde  reports  on  the  Boer  War), 


Dec.  15,  1887] 


NA  TURE 


149 


the  importance  of  range-finders  "in  lessening  the  amount 
of  ammunition  to  be  carried  in  the  limbers,  the  dynamite 
gun  for  use  in  sieges,  and  other  modern  developments. 

After  the  Battle  of  Waterloo  we  went  comfortably  to 
sleep  on  our  laurels,  and  awoke  to  find  ourselves  engaged 
in  the  siege  of  Sebastopol  with  exactly  the  same  weapons 
we  had  employed  in  the  Peninsular  War.  Sebastopol 
with  modern  weapons  could  have  been  taken  with  one- 
tenth  of  the  hundreds  of  millions  that  were  lavished  ;  so  it 
is  important  for  the  future  that  the  taxpayer  should  take 
an  intelligent  interest  in  military  preparations  and  see 
that  we  are  provided  with  the  very  best  weapons  that 
money  can  procure.  Such  an  intelligent  public  has  been 
educated  in  the  Volunteer  force,  and  these  "men  with 
muskets"  are  not  prevented  by  military  discipline  from 
criticizing  their  muskets,  or  equipment  in  general ;  and  it 
is  to  them  that  we  owe  the  healthy  criticism  that  has 
lately  been  exercised  on  our  armaments  and  state  of 
military  preparation. 

Hotspur's  description  of  the  regular  military  officer  say- 
ing :  "  It  was  great  pity,  so  it  was,  that  villainous  saltpetre 
should  be  digged  out  of  the  bowels  of  the  harmless  earth, 
which  many  a  tall  fellow  had  destroyed  so  cowardly  ;  but 
for  these  vile  guns,"  &c.,  is  true  to  this  day  ;  for  the  modern 
artillery  officer's  pride  in  his  gun  varies  inversely  as  the 
weight,  for  certain  tangible  reasons ;  and  generally  a 
soldier  looked  upon  his  weapons  as  something  to  keep 
clean  and  to  drill  with  until  some  recent  warfare  taught 
him  the  importance  of  the  despised  musketry  instruction. 
The  officer's  attention  is  fully  occupied  in  attending  to 
the  drill  and  discipline  of  his  men  according  to  the  regu- 
lations ;  and  we  find  that  the  scientific  development  of 
methods  of  destruction  is  generally  due  to  amateur 
civilians  like  Benjamin  Robins,  of  Quaker  extraction,  the 
father  of  modern  gunnery,  and  the  Rev.  Mr.  Bashforth  ; 
while  the  Catling  gun  is  a  product  of  Philadelphia,  the 
City  of  Brotherly  Love.  Clerk's  "  Naval  Tactics,"  written 
by  John  Clerk  of  Eldin,  a  relative  of  Prof.  Clerk  Maxwell, 
and  an  Edinburgh  barrister,  was  the  treatise  which  put  a 
stop  to  the  ineffective  naval  engagements  of  the  last 
century — ineffective  because  culminating  in  the  failure 
of  the  fleet  to  relieve,  and  the  consequent  surrender  of, 
Yorktown. 

Major  Mackinlay's  treatise  appears  to  be  very  carefully 
compiled,  and  taking  into  account  the  restrictions  under 
which  the  author  works,  it  is  fully  up  to  date  with  the  de- 
velopment of  our  own  artillery  ;  whether  with  the  artillery 
of  foreign  countries  is  another  question.  We  notice, 
however,  with  some  regret  that  the  guns  illustrated  in  the 
text  are  all  muzzle-loaders,  as  if  breech-loading  was  the 
temporary  fad  which  the  rifled  gun  was  considered  in  the 
time  of  the  treatise  of  1866. 

A  valuable  chapter  on  steel,  new  in  this  edition  of  the 
treatise,  reminds  us  that  our  authorities  are  now  after 
thirty  years'  delay  taking  up  the  Whitworth  method  of  con- 
struction of  ordnance,  omitting,  however,  the  Whitworth 
hexagonal  bore.  An  official  Solomon  gave  decision  in 
favour  of  Armstrong  against  Whitworth  in  their  cele- 
brated competition,  with  the  effect  of  alienating  the 
greatest  steel  manufacturer  of  the  world  from  Govern- 
ment purposes.  His  great  prototype  would  have 
encouraged  now  one  and  now  the  other,  without  com- 
mitting himself  to  an  absolute  decision,  and  would  thus 


have  reaped  for  his  country  the  benefit  of  the  invaluable 
services  of  both  competitors. 

Major  Mackinlay  has  done  good  service  by  collecting  all 
the  ballistic  tables  based  upon  the  important  experiments 
of  Mr.  Bashforth,  and  by  showing  how  they  are  applied 
to  the  questions  of  artillery.  We  must  be  on  our  guard, 
however,  against  using  ink  instead  of  gunpowder,  from 
economy,  and  against  imagining  that  there  is  no  further 
need  of  careful  experiment  and  practice.  It  is  of  the 
greatest  importance,  too,  that  cadets  should  learn 
from  this  treatise  that  the  science  of  artillery  is  not 
entirely  comprised  in  guns  of  the  smallest  dimensions, 
manoeuvred  over  rough  country,  and  the  doing  of  some 
snap  shooting  The  history  of  recent  wars  teaches  us  that 
the  field  artillery  of  both  sides  is  used  up  in  the  first  two 
or  three  engagements,  and  that  the  conflict  finally  resolves 
itself  into  a  vast  siege,  in  which  the  whole  army  and  navy 
are  converted  into  garrison  artillery. 

The  article  by  the  author  of  "  Greater  Britain  "  in  the 
Fortnightly  Retnew,  tells  us  of  the  immense  pains  now 
taken  on  the  Continent  in  military  preparations.  Let  us 
avoid  in  time  the  necessity  of  the  dreary  up-hill  labours 
which  the  French  have  been  compelled  to  undertake, 
now  at  length  beginning  to  culminate  in  an  organization 
which,  it  is  important  to  keep  in  mind,  might  at  any 
moment  be  tested  by  being  brought  to  bear  against  this- 
country. 


ROMANTIC  LOVE  AND  PERSONAL  BEAUTY. 

Romantic  Love  and  Personal  Beauty.     By  H.  T.  Finck. 
Two  Vols.     (London  :  Macmillan  and  Co.,  1887.) 

IN  dealing  with  the  subject,  or,  rather,  the  group  of 
subjects,  here  indicated,  Mr.  Finck  seems  to  have 
had  before  him  a  twofold  object,  scientific  and  practical. 
On  the  scientific  side  he  deals  with  romantic  love,  show- 
ing {a)  that  it  is  a  recent  growth,  (b)  what  are  its  condi- 
tions, and  {c)  what  are  the  conditions  of  beauty  as  essential 
to  romantic  love.  From  a  practical  point  of  view  he  (a) 
gives  rules  for  health,  which  is  essential  to  beauty  and 
therefore  to  romantic  love,  and  {b)  insists  upon  the  neces- 
sity of  free  choice  in  love  being  left  to  young  people.  Let 
us  see  briefly  what  he  has  to  tell  us  upon  these  points. 

Goldsmith,  in  the  "  Citizen  of  the  World,"  was  wrong, 
Mr.  Finck  holds,  in  teaching  that  love  proper  existed 
in  ancient  Rome.  "  Romantic  love  is  a  modern  senti- 
ment, less  than  a  thousand  years  old.  ...  Of  all  personal 
affections  the  maternal  was  developed  first,  and  the  senti- 
ment of  romantic  love  last."  Here  Mr.  Finck  has  cer- 
tainly got  hold  of  a  truth,  but  he  puts  it  much  too  strongly. 
There  is  nothing  improbable  in  the  growth  of  a  new 
emotion,  or  (as  we  would  rather  say)  in  an  old  emotion 
receiving  a  new  direction  and  a  great  expansion.  Vol.  I. 
(pp.  34-37)  shows  that  parental  and  filial  love  have  little 
or  no  existence  among  animals  and  among  some  savages  ; 
and  if  civilization  can  develop  these  feelings  to  their  pre- 
sent pitch  of  intensity,  it  might  well  do  the  same  for  the 
mental,  as  distinguished  from  the  bodily,  attraction  be- 
tween man  and  woman.  But  the  modern  form  of  love  is 
not  a  new  feature  ;  it  is  essentially  a  development.  It  was 
stunted  and  kept  down  at  Rome  and  in  most  of  Greece 
but  still  it  was  in  existence  ;  and,  if  Mr.  Finck  will  extend 


150 


NA  TURE 


\_Dec.  15,  1887 


his  classical  reading,  he  will  find  more  traces  of  it  than 
those  which  he  enumerates.  Let  him  begin  with  the 
Greek  novelists,  and  see  whether  Heliodorus's  account  of 
the  loves  of  Theagenes  and  Chariclea  will  not  come  up 
to  his  standard. 

But  what  are  the  conditions  favourable  to  the  growth 
of  romantic  love  ?  Greece— by  which  Mr.  Finck  chiefly 
means  Athens — was  cut  off  from  such  love  by  three 
causes  :  the  degraded  position  of  women,  the  absence  of 
direct  courtship,  and  the  impossibility  of  exercising  indi- 
vidual preference  (i.  126).  The  second  and  the  third 
seem  to  us  to  run  together,  but  still  we  see  here  some  of 
the  points  on  which  romantic  love  depends  ;  and  to  these 
may  be  added  intellect  (ii.  14),  monogamy  (i.  58),  and  a 
long  courtship  (i.  59).  The  old-fashioned  plan  which 
Goethe  describes — 

"  In  der  heroischen  Zeit,  da  Gotter  und  Gottinnen  liebten, 
Folgte  Begierde  dem  Blick,  folgte  Genuss  der  Begier,"  — 

has  left  us  many  a  charming  picture,  and  none  more 
charming  than  the  Homeric  hymn  to  .'Vphrodite  ;  but  such 
prompt  satisfaction  of  love  no  doubt  did  not  give  to  a 
romantic  passion  sufficient  time  to  grow.  The  feeling 
was  there,  but  rudimentary.  Now,  that  rudimentary  feel- 
ing has  so  grown  as  to  have  largely  pushed  out  of  sight 
its  physical  basis,  and  men  and  women  act  (or  think  they 
act)  upon  other  and  higher  impulses.  To  this  change  the 
agencies  enumerated  by  Mr.  Finck  have  doubtless  con- 
tributed, and  he  would  apparently  acknowdedge,  too,  that 
the  general  alteration  in  the  position  of  women  has 
affected  the  way  in  which  their  lovers  regard  them.  But 
we  should  lay  more  stress  than  he  does  on  the  influence 
of  poets  and  novelists  ;  they  have  gone  on  painting  unreal 
feelings  until  they  have  made  them  real;  what  a  few 
characters  felt  at  first  has  been  worked  by  this  agreeable 
sermonizing  into  the  nature  of  all  the  readers. 

But,  after  all,  the  starting-point  of  romantic  love  is 
beauty.  Where  the  women  are  secluded,  beauty  cannot 
be  seen.  Where  matches  are  made  by  the  parents,  beauty 
does  not  count.  But,  where  free  selection  is  left  to  young 
people,  beauty  takes  its  proper  place.  It  is  a  sign  of 
health,  and  "love  in  its  primitive  form  urges  animals  to 
prefer  those  that  are  most  healthy."  Mr.  Finck  therefore 
goes  on  next  to  describe  the  causes  which  bring  out 
beauty:  "a  climate  tempting  to  outdoor  life;  a  con- 
siderable amount  of  intellectual  culture  and  cESthetic 
refinement ;  a  mixture  of  nationalities,  fusing  ethfiic 
peculiarities  into  aa  harmonious  whole  ;  and  love,  which 
fuses  individual  complementary  qualities  into  an  har- 
monious e7iseinble  of  beautiful  features,  graceful  figure, 
amiable  disposition,  and  refined  manners"  (ii.  25);  or, 
more  shortly,  health,  crossing,  love,  and  mental  refine- 
ment (ii.  73).  Thus  love  and  beauty  act  and  react  on 
each  other  ;  in  connection  with  which  point  Mr.  Finck 
makes  a  suggestion  of  some  importance  when  he  says 
(ii.  94-95)  :  — 

"  The  artificial  preservation  of  disease  and  deformity, 
in  and  out  of  hospitals,  due  to  Christian  charity,  might  in 
the  long  run  prove  injurious  to  the  welfare  of  the  human 
race,  were  it  not  for  the  stepping-in  of  modern  love  as  a 
preserver  of  health  and  beauty.  What  formerly  was  left 
to  the  agency  of  natural  selection,  is  now  d  )ne  by  love, 
through  sexual  selection,  on  a  vast  scale." 


It  is  even  more  difficult  to  persuade  women  than  it  is  to 
persuade  men  to  do  what  is  good  for  them,  and  if  the  close 
connection  thus  pointed  out  between  health  and  beauty 
will  not  induce  women  to  take  a  little  trouble  to  preserve 
or  improve  the  former,  we  must  give  them  up  as  hopeless. 
By  insisting  on  this  cardinal  truth,  Mr.  Finck  will  do  a 
useful  work,  though  some  day  perhaps  our  descendants 
vt'ill  wonder  that  it  should  have  needed  insisting.  There 
is  room  enough  for  improvement  in  both  health  and 
beauty.  Mr.  Galton  tells  us  that  "our  human  civilized 
stock  is  far  more  weakly  through  congenital  imperfection 
than  that  of  any  other  species  of  animals"  ;  while,  as  for 
beauty,  it  is  likely  that  the  world  is  but  at  the  beginning 
of  what  sexual  selection,  unhatnpered  and  unthwartedby 
other  agencies,  can  do  for  us.  It  is,  Mr.  Finck  affirms, 
a  moral  duty  for  girls  to  defy  parental  tyranny  "  where 
money  or  rank  are  pitted  against  love.  For  the  health 
and  happiness  of  the  next  generation  are  at  stake." 

This  is  strong  speaking  ;  but  still,  if  our  author  would 
always  speak  as  seriously  and  soberly  as  this  we  should 
have  but  little  quarrel  with  him.  Unfortunately  he  has 
spoiled  an  interesting  book,  not  only  by  a  gossiping  and 
confused  arrangement  of  its  matter,  but  also  by  an 
intolerably  jaunty  style,  flavoured  with  Americanisms.  A 
book  which  claims  scientific  value  should  not  be  dis- 
figured by  stupid  jokes  (as  on  Prior  and  priority),  or  by 
such  phrases  as  "  the  female  persuasion,"  "Schopenhauer's 
Will  is  an  aesthetic  sort  of  a  chap,"  "  a  young  animal  that 
would  risk  its  own  life  in  defence  of  its  mother  or  father 
is  yet  to  be  heard  from."  F.  T.  Richards. 


OUR  BOOK  SHELF. 

Earth- Knowledge  :  A  Text -book  of  Elementary  Physio- 
graphy. By  W.  J.  Harrison,  F.G.S.,  and  H.  R. 
Wakefield.     (London:  Blackie  and  Son,  1887.) 

This  is  a  small  text-book  adapted  to  the  somewhat  re- 
modelled syllabus  of  the  Science  and  Art  Department's 
elementary  stage  of  physiography.  There  can  be  no 
doubt  about  the  usefulness  of  the  book,  but  it  is  to  be 
regretted  that  more  oiiginality  is  not  displayed  in  the 
treatment  of  the  subje  t  of  matter  and  energy.  Of  the 
rest  of  the  book  no  complaint  can  be  made :  it  is 
excellent.  That  which  deals  with  matter  and  energy, 
however,  is  meagre  and  unequal,  and  the  arrangement 
is  at  times  unnatural.  Gravitation,  for  instance,  is  dis- 
cussed without  any  direct  reference  to  weight,  although 
two  pages  are  devoted  to  the  methods  of  determining 
specific  gravities.  Then,  again,  one  would  scarcely 
expect  nowadays  to  read  a  chapter  on  energy  without 
finding  some  mention  of  the  doctrine  of  the  conservation 
of  energy. 

We  are  afraid,  also,  that  the  chapter  on  voltaic  electri- 
city will  be  rather  misleading  to  beginners,  as  no  mention 
whatever  is  made  of  the  existence  of  any  kind  of  battery 
beyond  that  consisting  of  a  single  copper-zinc  cell,  whilst 
effects  are  described  which  could  only  be  produced  by  the 
current  from  many  such  cells.  The  definition  of  a  stress 
as  the  "mutual  action  at  the  surface  of  contact  between 
two  bodies,  whereby  each  exerts  a  force  upon  the  other," 
is  also  rather  misleading,  since  it  does  not  include  the 
stresses  of  gravitation,  electricity,  and  magnetism. 

Of  course  too  much  cannot  be  expected  of  an  ele- 
mentary text-book,  but  it  is  quite  time  that  the  modern 
ideas  regarding  force,  energy,  and  matter  should  be 
introduced  into  such  books.  A.  F. 


Dec.  15,  1887] 


NA  TURE 


151 


A  Dictionary  of  Place-Names.     By   C  Blackie.     Third 
Edition,  revised.     (London  :  John  Murray,  1887.) 

Every  teacher  of  geography  knows  that  the  derivation 
of  place-names  never  fails  to  excite  the  interest  of  intel- 
ligent scholars.  It  is  satisfactory,  therefore,  that  there 
should  have  been  a  demand  for  a  third  edition  of  Mr. 
Blackie's  excellent  book,  in  which  he  presents  in  plain 
and  simple  language  many  of  the  most  suggestive  lesults 
established  by  students  of  topographical  etymology.  The 
work  has  been  carefully  revised,  and  in  its  |  resent  form 
ought  to  be  of  service  to  many  a  "  general  reader  "  and 
tourist,  as  well  as  to  schoolmasters  and  their  pupils. 
Prof.  J.  S.  Blackie  contributes  to  the  volume  an  intro- 
ductory essay,  in  which  he  offers,  in  his  lively  way,  many 
useful  hints  as  to  the  spirit  in  which  the  study  of  topo- 
graphical etymology  ought  to  be  pursued. 


LETTERS    TO    THE  EDITOR. 

\The  Editor  does  not  hold  himself  responsible  for  opinions 
expressed  by  his  correspondents.  Neither  can  he  under- 
take to  return,  or  to  correspond  with  the  writers  of, 
rejected  manuscripts,  Al?  notice  is  taken  of  anonymous 
com  munications. 

[The  Editor  urgently  requests  correspondents  to  keep  their 
letters  as  short  as  possible.  The  pressure  on  his  space 
is  so  great  that  it  is  impossible  otherwise  to  insure  the 
appearance  even  of  communications  containing  interesting 
and  novel  facts. 

The  Supposed  Earthquake  in  England. 

From  the  inquiries  which  have  been  made  it  is  now  ascer- 
tained that  llie  loud  noise — as  of  an  explosion — heard  over  so 
wide  an  area  on  the  morning  of  November  20,  and  referred  to 
by  Mr.  Worthington  G.  Smitti  in  your  i  sue  of  last  week  (p.  127), 
was  due  to  the  breaking  up  of  a  large  meteor,  which  crossed 
the  north  of  Herts  from  east  to  west,  upon  a  line  of  which  the 
extreme  points  are  approximately  Saffron  Walden,  in  Essex,  and 
Swindon,  in  Oxfordshire.  The  meteor  was  seen  by  one  ob- 
server from  Hertford,  and  probably  it  would  have  been  generally 
noticed  but  for  the  foggy  state  of  the  atmosphere.  I  have 
undertaken  to  investigate  this  matter  as  far  as  Herts  is  concerned, 
and  shall  be  very  much  obliged  to  any  of  your  readers  who  can 
give  me  assistance  if  they  will  send  a  note  of  their  observation-, 
esf  ecially  as  (o  the  direction  from  which  the  shock  they  expe- 
rienced appeared  to  reach  them.  H.  George  Fordii\m. 

Odsey  Grange,  Royslon,  Cambridgeshire,  December  12. 


The   "Umbria's"  Wave. 

In  Nature,  vol.  xxxvi.  (p.  508)  you  published  some  details 
from  Mr.  W.  Watson  about  the  wave  which  struck  the  Umbria 
in  mid-Adantic.  Having  heard  of  two  similar  cases,  and 
being  in  possession  of  the  details  of  one,  I  have  made  the 
following  comparison. 

Comparison  of  the  *'  Umbria  s  "  and  the  ^'  Farada/s  "■  7c>ave. 

Umbria.  Faraday. 

Date      26.7.87  14.2.84 

4.40  a.m.  6.45  a.m. 

27°  8'  27°  53' 

50   5  4'5°  n' 

about  16  about  6 


Long.  W. 


Hour 

Position  of  ship-j  ,  ^^    xr 

Ship's  speed — knots    ... 

Ship's  course        

The  wave  struck 

Probable  course  of  wave 


E.  18' N. 


f  West  (probably  ^ 
\    partly  South)    j 

the  bow  the  port  beam. 

...  f  East  partly  I  f  South  partly 
...  \     North.      /  \        East. 


These  two  courses  if  piolonged  backwards  would  intersect  at 
about  30°  W.  lat.  and  50°  N.  long.  This  is  the  very  point 
where  the  Faraday,  while  laying  a  cable  in  1882,  discovered  a 
reef  rising  about  6000  feet  above  the  bed  of  the  ocean.  The 
l/mbria  when  struck  was  about  120  miles  to  the  east  of  this 
position,  and  the  Faraday  about  twice  as  far  to  the  southeast. 

The  Faraday's  wave  was  seen  fully  five  minutes  before  it 
struck,  and  then  like  the  Umbria's,  it  did  considerable  d.xmage. 


Three  life-boats,  chart-house,  deck-house,  and  part  of  the 
bulwarks  were  smashed  and  one  of  the  large  buoys  carried 
away. 

In  bis  letter  Mr.  Watson  doubts  whether  this  wave  was  caused 
by  an  earthquake,  but  a  few  more  similar  occurrences  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  Faraday's  Reef  will  possibly  demonstrate  it 
to  be  of  recent  and  volcanic  growth.  C.  E.  Stromeyer. 

Strawberry  Hill,  November  22. 


The  Planet  Mercury. 

The  almosphere  in  this  country  is  generally  so  unfavourable 
that  it  is  a  very  rare  occurrence  to  see  the  planet  Mercury  even  at 
its  greatest  elongation  from  the  sun,  unless  carefully  looked  for. 
My  experience  of  the  last  few  days  may  therefore  be  worth  men- 
tioniiig.  The  day  before  yesterday,  at  10  minutes  past  7  in  the 
morning,  I  was  in  bed  at  some  distance  from  a  window,  through 
which,  without  directing  my  attention  to  it,  I  saw  a  star  shining 
with  sufficient  brightness  in  the  twilight  to  attract  my  notice.  I 
raised  the  window  and  made  use  of  a  large  opera-glass,  when 
any  doubt  I  had  would  have  been  dispelled  even  if  I  had  had  no 
previous  experience  of  Mercury,  for  there  was  to  be  seen  a  small 
planet  with  distinct  disk  some  15"  above  the  horizon — Venus,  a 
magnificent  object,  being  of  course  visible  also.  The  same 
thing  hajipaned  this  morning,  when  I  again  noticed  Mercury, 
without  having  him  in  my  mind,  before  leaving  my  bed  ;  but 
this  time  I  was  better  prepared,  and  in  the  course  of  the  next 
quarter  of  an  hour  had  shown  the  planet,  in  a  3^ -inch  telescope; 
to  several  persons  who  saw  it  for  the  first  time.  G.  F.  P. 

Ilanworth,  Middlesex,  December  9. 


Meteor. 


On  Friday  night,  about  9.15,  a  line  meteor,  as  bright  as  a 
star  of  the  first  magnitude,  was  seen  in  the  western  sky.  It 
made  its  appearance  at  an  elevation  of  35°  west- south  west,  and 
disappeared  in  the  west,  at  an  elevation  of  20°,  leaving  no  streak. 
Perhaps  some  other  of  your  readers  might  be  able  to  identify  the 
meteor,  and  thus  a  clue  to  its  course  might  be  arrived  at.  If  you 
think  this  worth  inserting,  it  may  interest  some  one. 

Barrow-on-Humber,  Hull,  December  9,  M.  H.  Maw. 

"  Fairy  Rings." 

Your  article  on  "Fairy  Rings"  (November  17,  p.  61)  peaks 
of  rings  of  100  feet  in  diameter  as  wholly  exceptional.  In  the 
parish  of  Stebbing,  in  Essex,  there  is  a  field  containing 
numerous  rings  of  Paxilliis  giganteus.  The  largest  of  these 
is  incomplete,  being  broken  in  places  by  gorse  bushes  and 
stopped  on  one  side  by  a  hedge  and  ditch.  Measurement  is 
consequently  difficult,  but  the  diameter  of  the  ring  cannot  be 
less  tlian  120  feet.  At  Bunchrew,  in  Inverness-shire,  I  once 
saw  the  same  fungus  covering  about  a  rool  of  ground.  The 
grass  all  over  this  was  very  coarse  and  dark  green  in  colour, 
being  chielly  Dactylis  gloincrata,  but  there  was  no  trace  of  a 
ring.  J.  Sarghaunt. 

Felsted,  December  6. 

Music  in  Nature. 

In  Nature  (vol.  xxxvi.  pp.  343  and  605)  reference  was 
made  to  melodies  of  bird-,  &c.  I  have  often  heard  in  the 
provinces  of  New  Brunswick  and  Nova  Scotia  a  bird  which 
sin^s  as  clear  and  accurate  a  melody  as  can  be  given  forth  by  any 
human  songster.  It  is  a  small  gray  bird  with  double  lunes  of 
velvety  white  on  the  sides  of  its  head.  I  do  not  know  its 
name.  The  song  varies  somewhat  in  different  individuals,  but 
always  has  the  same  characteristics.  The  commonest  form  is  as 
follows  : — 


'- 1  -m- — »— -• •-      •■      ^\-^ — f — *— a— 


Another  variety  often  heard  is  thus  : — 


-¥-/■ 


152 


NATURE 


\_Dec.  15,  1887 


A  rarer  form  is  as  follows  : — 


^ 0 0 1 \-A _| 1 ^ 1 : \-\ 1 I 


I  have  noticed  that  this  latter  form  seems  more  difficult  for  the 
little  musicians,  one  of  whom  in  particular  used  to  provoke  me 
by  singing'the  B  most  outrageously  flat.  I  have  been  accustomed 
to  imitate  these  birds  by  whistling,  and  they  very  readily  answer 
my  whistle.  In  this  way  the  different  forms  of  their  theme 
have  become  fixed  in  my  memory.  W.  L.  G'>odwin. 

Queen's  University,  Kingston,  Canada,  November  11, 


Who  was  Mr.   Charles  King  ? 

Among  the  ingenious  in  many  considerable  parts  of  the 
world,  of  whose  undertakings,  studies,  and  labours  the  Philo- 
sophical Transactions  of  the  years  1700  sqq.  gave  some  account, 
an  able  microscopist  suddenly  appears,  of  whose  life  and 
work  one  would  like  to  have  more  accurate  information  than 
seems  to  be  current.  Perhaps  a  member  of  the  Royal,  or  the 
Royal  Microscopical,  Society  may  be  able  to  supply  some  particu- 
lars about  this  "  Anglois  anonyme,"  as  Trembley  calls  him,  and 
willing  to  assist  in  rescuing  his  name  from  an  undeserved  oblivion. 
His  first  contribution  to  the  Philosophical  Transactions — of  very 
little  importance  indeed — is  to  be  found  in  No,  266,  for 
September  and  October  1700,  pp.  672-673,  under  the  title, 
"A  Letter  from  Mr.  Charles  King  to  Mr.  Sam.  Doudy, 
F.R.  S.,  concerning  Crabs  Eyes;"  it  is  dated,  "  Little  Wirley, 
Decemb.  14,"  and  subscribed,  "  Ch.  King."  In  the  copy  of 
the  Transactions  I  have  before  me,  a  contemporary,  who  seems 
to  have  been  tolerably  well  informed,  has  inserted  divers  MS. 
notes,  remarks,  and  corrections  ;  he  added  here  the  words, 
"Staffordsh«."  to  the  locality,  and  "Student  of  Ch.Ch.  Oxon." 
to  the  subscription,  which,  as  far  as  I  know,  does  not  recur  in 
any  of  the  subsequent  Transactions.  But  under  the  title,  "  Two 
Letters  from  a  Gentleman  in  the  Country,  relating  to  Mr. 
Leuwenhoeck's  Letter  in  Transaction,  No.  283,  Communicated 
by  Mr.  C."  (in  No.  288,  for  November  and  December  1703, 
pp.  1494-1501,  with  eight  figures,  text  and  illustrations  being 
both  equally  remarkable  for  the  period),  the  same  hand  has  again 
inscribed  the  name  of  "  Mr.  Charles  King,"  and  filled  up  the 
blanks  left  on  pages  1494  and  1495  by  the  initials  "  W."  and 
"  W.  Ch.  Esq."  with  the  additions  of  "  irley  par.  Com. 
Stafford."  and  "Walter  Chetw...  of  Ingestry  Staffords*."  (the 
rest  has  been  cut  off  by  the  binder  of  the  volume),  so  that  there 
remains  no  reasonable  doubt  as  to  the  truth  of  the  identification. 
Now  we  read  in  the  second  of  these  letters  from  the  country, 
•  dated  "July  5,  I703,"p.  1501,  "But  of  those  "  (viz.  animalcula) 
"(among  other  things)  I  last  year  gave  an  account  to  Sir  Ch. 
Holt,  which  I  hear  will  shortly  be  publish'd  in  the  Transactions." 
I  don't  think  it  is  bold  to  conjecture  that  the  account  here 
alluded  to  had  already  been  published,  and  is,  in  fact,  the 
article  printed  in  No.  284,  for  March  and  April  1703,  pp. 
i357(/^w)-i372  (with  excellent  figures  on  the  plate  accompanying 
that  number),  under  the  title  of  "  An  Extract  of  some  Letters 
sent  to  Sir  C.  H.  relating  to  some  Microspocal "  {sic)  "Obser- 
vations. Communicated  by  Sir  C.  H.  to  the  Publisher"  (H. 
Sloane)  ;  and  no  doutit  these  epistles  may  also  be  ascribed  to 
the  same  anonymous  gentleman. 

In  all  the  above-mentioned  letters  we  have  some  early  and 
fiist-rate  contributions  to  microscopical  science,  the  importance 
of  which  had  been  shortly  before  so  evidently  demonstrated 
by  the  wonderful  discoveries  made  by  the  improved  magnifying- 
glasses. 

Quceritur  :  Who  was  Mr.  Charles  King  ?  S. 

The  Hague,  November  27. 


NOTE  ON  A  PROPOSED  ADDITION  TO    THE 
VOCABULAR  V  OF  ORDINAR  Y  ARITHMETICS 

'T'HE  total  number  of  distinct  primes  which  divide  a 
-*■       given  number    I  call   its    Manifoldness   or   Multi- 
plicity. 

*  Perhaps  I  may  without  immodesty  lay  claim  lo  the  appellation  of  the 
Mathematical  Adam,  a*  I  believe  that  I  have  given  more  names  (passed  into 
general  circulation)  to  the  creatures  of  the  mathematical  reason  tnan  all  the 
other  mathematicians  of  the  age  combined. 


A  number  whose  Manifoldness  is  ;z  I  call  an  «-foId 
number.  It  may  also  be  called  an  7/-ary  number,  and 
for  «  =  I,  2,  3,  4,  .  .  .  .  a  unitary  (or  primary),  a  binary, 
a  ternary,  a  quaternary,  ....  number.  Its  prime  divi- 
sors I  call  the  elements  of  a  number  ;  the  highest  powers 
of  these  elements  which  divide  a  number  its  components ; 
the  degrees  of  these  powers  its  indices;  so  that  the 
indices  of  a  number  are  the  totality  of  the  indices  of  its 
several  components.  Thus,  we  may  say,  a  prime  is  a 
one-fold  number  whose  index  is  unity. 

So,  too,  we  may  say  that  all  the  components  but  one  of 
an  odd  perfect  number  must  have  even  indices,  and  that 
the  excepted  one  must  have  its  base  and  index  each  of 
them  congruous  to  r  to  modulus  4. 

Again,  a  remarkable  theorem  of  Euler,  contained  in  a 
memoir  relating  to  the  Divisors  of  Numbers  ("  Opuscula 
Minora,"  vol.  ii.  p.  514),  may  be  expressed  by  saying  that 
every  even  perfect  number  is  a  two-fold  number,  one  of 
whose  components  is  a  priine^  and  such  that  when  aug- 
mented by  unity  it  becomes  a  power  of  2,  and  double  the 
other  components 

Euler's  function  (^(«),  which  means  the  number  of 
numbers  not  exceeding  n  and  prime  to  it,  I  call  the  totient 
of  n  ;  and  in  the  new  nomenclature  we  may  enunciate 
that  the  totient  of  a  nuinber  is  equal  to  the  product  of 
that  number  multiplied  by  the  several  excesses  of  unity 
above  the  reciprocals  of  its  elements.  The  numbers  prime 
to  a  number  and  less  than  it,  I  call  its  totitives. 

Thus  we  may  express  Wilson's  generalized  theorem  by 
saying  that  any  number  is  contained  as  a  factor  in  the 
product  of  its  totitives  increased  by  unity  if  it  is  the 
number  4,  or  a  prime,  or  the  double  of  a  prime,  and 
diminished  by  unity  in  every  other  case. 

I  am  in  the  habit  of  representing  the  totient  of  «  by  the 
symbol  m,  t  (taken  from  the  initial  of  the  word  it  denotes) 

'  It  may  be  well  to  recall  that  a  perfect  number  is  one  which  is  the 
half  of  the  sum  of  its  divisors.  The  converse  of  the  theorem  in  the  text,  viz. 
that  2"(2"  '  '  — 1),  when  2"  "*" '  —  1  is  a  prime,  is  a  perfect  number,  is 
enunciated  and  proved  by  Euclid  in  the  36th  (the  last  proposition)  of  the  9th 
Book  of  the  "  Elements,"  the  second  factor  being  expressed  by  him  in  the  sum 
of  a  geometric  series  whose  first  term  is  unity  and  the  common  ratio  2.  In 
Isaac  Barrow's  English  translation,  published  in  1660,  the  enunciation  is  as 
follows  : — "  If  from  a  unite  be  taken  how  many  numbers  soever  1,  A,  B,  C,  D, 
in  double  proportion  continually,  untill  the  whole  added  together  E  be  a 
prime  number  ;  and  if  this  whole  E  multiplying  the  last  produce  a  number  F, 
that  which  is  produced  F  shall  be  a  perfect  number." 

The  direct  theorem  that  every  even  perfect  number  is  of  the  above  form 
could  probably  only  have  been  proved  with  extreme  difficulty,  if  at  all, 
by  the  resources  of  Greek  Arithmetic.  Euler's  proof  is  not  very  easy  to 
follow  in  his  own  words,  but  is  substantially  as  follows  : 

Suppose   P  (an  even   perfect   number)  =:  2"A.      Then,    using   in   general 

X  to  denole  the  sum  of  the  divisors  of  X, 


/> 


_/p   /."/i  _j.+.-,   /i 


2"A 


Hence 


A 


2«+i  _i 


Hence  A  =  ^Q,  and  /a  =  1  -|-  yu.  -t-  Q  +  mQ  -f  .  .  ■  (if  m  be  supposed   >  1). 
Hence  unless  ju  =  1  and  at  the  same  time  Q  is  a  prime 


y^ 


yx  >  fx(Q  4- 1), 


is  greater  than  itself. 
A 
Hence  an  even  number  P  cannot  be  a  perfect  number  if  it  is  not  of  the  form 
2"(2"  '  '  —  1),  where  2"  "'"  '  —  1  is  a  prime,  which  of  course  implies  that  «  -(-  1 
must  itself  be  a  f  rime. 

It  is  remarkable  that  Euler  makes  no  reference  to  Euclid  in  proving  his 
own  theorem.  It  must  always  stand  to  the  credit  of  the  Greek  geometers 
that  they  succeeded  in  discovering  a  class  of  perfect  numbers  which  in  all 
probability  are  the  only  numbers  which  are  perfect.  Reference  is  made  to 
so-called,  perfect  numbers  in  Plato's  "  Republic,"  H,  546  B,  and  also  by 
Aristotle,  Probl.  I  E  3  and  "  Metaph."  A  5,  which  he  attributes  to  Pytha- 
goras, but  which  are  purely  fanciful  and  entitled  to  ni  more  serious  con- 
sideration than  the  late  Dr.  Cummings's  ingenious  speculations  on  the 
number  of  the  Beast.  Mr.  Margoliouth  has  pointed  out  to  me  that  Muhamad 
Al-Sharastani,  in  his  "  Book  of  Relig.ous  and  Philosophical  S=cts."  Careton, 
1856,  p.  267  of  the  Arabic  text,  assigns  reasons  for  reg.ardingaU  the  numbers 
up  to  10  inclusive  as  perfect  numbers.  My  particular  attention  was  called  to 
perfect  numbers  by  a  letter  from  Mr.  Christie,  dated  from  "Carlton,  Selby," 
,  containing  some  inquiries  relative  to  the  subject. 


Dec.  15,  1887] 


NATURE 


^':iZ 


being  a  less  hackneyed  letter  than  Euler's  <^,  which  has  no 
claim  to  preference  over  any  other  letter  of  the  Greek 
alphabet,  but  rather  the  reverse. 

It  is  easy  to  prove  that  the  half  of  any  perfect  number 
must  exceed  in  magnitude  its  totient. 

Hence,  since  i  .  i  is  less  than  2,  it  follows  that  no 
2       4 

odd  two-fold  perfect  number  exists. 

Similarly,  the  fact  of  3   .  7       y  being  iggg  than  2  is 
2       6       10 
sufficient  to  show  that  3,  5  must  be  the  two  least  elements 

of  any  three-fold  perfect  number;  furthermore,  -^     -    .    — 

2     4       16 

being  less  than  2,  shows  that  11  or  13  must  be  the  third 

element  of  any  such  number  if  it  exists  ^ — each  of  which 

hypotheses  admits  of  an  easy  disproof.     But  to  disprove 

the  existence  of  a  four-fold  perfect  number  by  my  actual 

method  makes  a  somewhat  long  and  intricate,  but  still 

highly  interesting,  investigation  of  a  multitude  of  special 

cases.     I  ho\>t,iiu»nne/avente,  sooner  or  later  to  discover 

a  general  principle  which  may  serve  as  a  key  to  a  universal 

proof  of  the  non-existence  of  any  other  than  the  Euclidean 

perfect  numbers,  for  a  prolonged  meditation  on  the  subject 

has  satisfied  me  that  the  existence  of  any  one  such — its 

escape,  so  to  say,  from  the  complex  web  of  conditions 

which  hem  it  in  on  all  sides — would  be  little  short  of  a 

miracle.     Thus  then  there  seems  every  reason  to  believe 

that    Euclid's    perfect    numbers    are    the    only   perfect 

numbers  which  exist ! 

In  the  higher  theory  of  congruences  (see  Serret's 
**Cours  d'Algebre  Supdrieure")  there  is  frequent  occasion 
to  speak  of  "a  number  n  which  does  not  contain  any 
prime  factor  other  than  those  which  are  contained  in 
another  number  M." 

In  the  new  nomenclature  n  would  be  defined  as  a 
number  whose  elements  are  all  of  them  elements  o/M. 

As  tN  is  used  to  denote  the  totient  of  N,  so  we  may 
use  /xN  to  denote  its  multiplicity,  and  then  a  well-known 
theorem  in  congruences  may  be  expressed  as  follows. 

7Vie  number  of  solutions  of  the  congruence 

x-  -  I  =  o  (mod  P) 

is         2"^       if  P  is  odd, 

2'^   -I  if  p  is  the  double  of  an  odd  number, 
2''         if  P  is  the  quadruple  of  an  odd  number, 

and      2"^"*''  in  every  other  case. 

In  the  memoir  above  referred  to,  Euler  says  that  no 
one  has  demonstrated  whether  or  not  any  odd  perfect 
numbers  exist.  I  have  found  a  method  for  determining 
what  (if  any)  odd  perfect  numbers  exist  of  any  specified 
order  of  manifoldness.  Thus,  e._^.,  I  have  proved  that 
there  exist  no  perfect  odd  numbers  of  the  ist,  2nd,  3rd, 
or  4th  orders  of  manifoldness,  or  in  other  words,  no  odd 
primary,  binary,  ternary,  or  quaternary  number  can  be  a 
perfect  number.  Had  any  such  existed,  my  method  must 
infallibly  have  dragged  each  of  them  to  light  2 

In  connection  with  the  theory  of  perfect  numbers  I 
have  found  it  useful  to  denote^'  —  i  when  p  and  /  are 
left  general  as  the  Fermatian  function,  and  when  p  and  i 
have  specific  values  as  the  nh  Fermatian  of/.  In  such 
case/  may  be  called  the  base,  and  /  the  index  of  the 
Fermatian. 

'  3<  5.  7  can  never  co-exist  as  elements  in  any  perfect  nuoiberas  shown  by 
the   fact    that   'Jl'jti!    .   JL±_5_  .    LiL?  +  49  ;  ,-.<,.  l6/    ^  £  ^  ^\   .^ 

9  5  49  15  7       40' 

greater  than  2.     Thus  we  see  that  no  perfect  number  can  be  a  multiple 

of  105.     So  again  the  fact  that  5  .  7  _  £i  _  13  _  U  _  £9  j^  i^^^  jjjan  2  is  suffi- 

4      6      10     12     i6     18 
cicm  to  prove  that  any  odd  perfect  number  of  multiplicity  less  than  7  must 
be  divisible  by  3. 

*  I  have,  since  the  ab  )ve  was  in  print,  extended  the  proof  to  qu'nary 
numbers,  and  anticipate  no  d.fRculty  in  doing  so  for  numbers  of  higher 
degrees  of  .multiplicity,  so  that  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  the  way  is  now  paved 
towards  obtaining  a  general  proof  of  this/rt/wary  theorem. 


Then  we  may  express  Fermat's  theorem  by  saying  that 
either  the  Fermatian  itself  whose  index  is  one  unit  below 
a  given  prime  or  else  its  base  must  be  divisible  by  that 
prime} 

It  is  also  convenient  to  speak  of  a  Fermatian  divided 
by  the  excess  of  its  base  above  unity  as  a  Reduced  Ferma- 
tian and  of  that  excess  itself  as  the  Reducing  Factor. 

The  spirit  of  my  actual  method  of  disproving  the  exist- 
ence of  odd  perfect  numbers  consists  in  showing  that  an 
«-fold  perfect  number  must  have  more  than  «  elements, 
which  is  absurd.  The  chief  instruments  of  the  investigation 
are  the  two  inequalities  to  which  the  elements  of  any  per- 
fect number  must  be  subject  and  the  properties  of  the 
prime  divisors  of  a  Reduced  F"ermatian  with  an  odd 
prime  index. 

New  College,  November  28.  J.  J.  Sylvester. 


COUTTS  TROTTER. 

A  GREAT  calamity  has  fallen  on  the  University  of 
-^^  Cambridge  and  on  Trinity  College,  and  many  men 
differing  widely  in  their  interests  and  callings  are  bearing 
together  the  burden  of  a  common  sorrow  in  the  knowledge 
that  the  Rev.  Coutts  Trotter,  the  Vice-Master  of  Trinity 
College,  was  no  more.  Mr.  Trotter  suffered  from  a  severe 
and  prolonged  illness  during  last  winter  and  early  spring, 
and  though  in  the  summer  he  seemed  to  have  almost 
regained  his  health,  he  began  as  the  year  advanced 
once  more  to  lose  ground.  When  he  returned  from 
abroad  in  October  his  condition  gave  rise  to  great 
anxiety  among  his  friends  ;  as  the  term  went  on  he  grew 
worse  rather  than  better  ;  and  an  attack  of  inflammation 
of  the  lungs  rapidly  brought  about  the  end,  which  took 
place  in  his  rooms  in  College,  in  the  early  morning  of 
Sunday,  December  4. 

During  the  last  twenty  of  the  fifty  years  of  Mr.  Trotter's 
life  both  the  University  of  Cambridge  and  Trinity  College 
have  undergone  great  and  important  changes.  In  bring- 
ing about  these  changes  Mr.  Trotter  had  a  great  share, 
perhaps  a  greater  share  than  any  other  individual 
member  of  the  University  ;  and  while  those  changes  are 
probably  neither  wholly  good  nor  wholly  evil,  but  good 
mixed  with  evil,  no  one  hand,  as  the  changes  were  being 
wrought,  did  so  much  good  and  so  little  evil  as  his.  A. 
wide  and  yet  accurate  knowledge  of  many  different 
branches  of  learning,  a  genuine  sympathy  with  both 
science  and  scholarship,  a  judicial  habit  of  mind  which 
enabled  him  to  keep  in  view  at  the  same  time  broad  issues 
and  intricate  details,  a  clear  insight  into  the  strength  and 
weakness  of  academic  organization,  and  a  singular  skill 
in  drafting  formal  regulations, — these  qualities,  aided  by  a 
kindly  courtesy  which  disarmed  opponents,  and  a  patience 
which  nothing  except  perhaps  coarse  rudeness  could  ruffle, 
enabled  him  in  his  all  too  short  life  to  do  for  his  College 
and  for  his  University  more  than  it  seemed  possible  for 
one  man  to  do. 

The  academic  labours  which  thus  year  by  year  increased 
upon  him,  though  they  in  many  ways,  both  directly  and 
indirectly,  tended  to  the  advancement  of  science,  became, 
increasingly,  hindrances  to  his  pursuing  actively  any 
special  path  of  scientific  inquiry,  as  he  had  once  hoped 
to  do.  His  love  of  science  began  with  his  boyhood,  while 
he  listened  to  the  Royal  Institution  lectures  of  Faraday. 
Having  taken  a  degree,  with  honours  in  both  classics 
jmd  mathematics,  and  having  obtained  a  Fellowship  at 
Trinity,  he  gave  up  to  scientific  study  much  of  the  leisure 
thus  afforded  to  him :  and,  in  order  more  thoroughly  to  train 
himself,  spent  the  best  part  of  two  years  at  Heidelberg, 
during  a  portion  of  which  time  he  was  engaged  in  physio- 
logical research  under  Helmholtz.      He  acquired  a  very 

'  So  too  we  may  state  the  important  theore-n  that  if  an  element  of  a 
Fermatian  is  its  index  the  component  which  has  that  index  for  its  base 
must  be  its  square. 


154 


NATURE 


\_Dec. 


D' 


1SS7 


considerable  knowledge  of  chemistry  and  botany,  but 
afterwards  confined  his  attention  more  especially  to 
physics,  and  lectured  experimentally  on  this  subject  for 
several  years  in  Trinity  College.  In  his  earlier  days  he 
was  an  enthusiastic  Alpine  climber,  and  this  led  him  to 
direct  his  knowledge  of  physics  towards  the  solution  of 
glacial  problems.  He  commenced  a  few  years  ago,  in 
the  ice-caves  of  Grindelwald,  a  series  of  observations  on 
the  physical  properties  of  ice,  some  of  the  initial  results 
of  which  were  communicated  to  the  Royal  Society.  He 
was  never  able,  however,  to  continue,  much  less  to  com- 
plete, these  observations,  and  perhaps  the  cruellest  feature 
to  him  of  his  illness  last  winter  was  that  it  prevented  him 
from  spending  the  Christmas  vacation  at  Grindelwald,  as 
he  had  hoped  to  do,  in  carrying  on  measurements  of  ice, 
under  the  most  natural  conditions,  in  the  depths  of  an 
ice-cave. 

But  the  gain  to  science  from  Trotter's  life  is  not  to  be 
measured  by  his  formal  contributions  to  scientific  litera- 
ture. He  had  a  great  unwillingness  to  write  "  papers." 
Though  he  served  for  several  years  as  one  of  the  secre- 
taries, and  at  the  time  of  his  death  was  President,  in  the 
second  year  of  office,  of  the  Cambridge  Philosophical 
Society,  whose  very  life  consists  in  scientific  research, 
and  though  in  the  discussions  at  the  meetings  he  fre- 
quently made  his  critical  power  felt,  his  name  does  not 
often  appear  in  the  Society's  publications.  He  was 
especially  interested  in  physiological  optics,  but,  though 
he  made  many  observations,  was  always  disinclined  to 
commit  his  results  to  paper.  His  real  scientific  usefulness 
is  to  be  seen  in  his  University  and  College  work.  The 
recent  development  of  natural  science  (other  than  mathe- 
matical) at  Cambridge  is  coincident  in  tmie  with,  and  in 
great  measure  due  to.  Trotter's  academic  activity. 

In  the  encouragement  given  at  Trinity  to  natural 
science,  in  all  the  changes  of  University  ordinances  tend- 
ing to  encourage  scientific  research,  and  to  place  the 
teaching  of  science  on  a  broader  and  firmer  basis,  it  is 
easy  to  trace  his  hand.  He  did  not  always  have  his  own 
way,  and  often  thought  it  prudent  to  accept  an  arrange- 
ment the  shortcomings  of  which  he  clearly  saw  ;  but  his 
influence,  becoming  more  and  more  powerful  year  by 
year,  was  always  exerted  to  promote  the  growth  of  science 
in  the  University,  for  he  j\t  least  had  no  doubt  that  he 
was  thus  working  for  the  welfare  both  of  the  University 
and  of  his  College.  He  had  such  a  firm  grasp  of  the 
dominant  ideas,  and  was  so  wholly  in  touch  with  the 
spirit,  of  ahnost  every  one  of  the  various  branches  of 
science,  that  each  teacher  and  worker  sought  his  help  and 
trusted  in  his  counsel.  On  the  other  hand,  his  con- 
spicuous sympathy  with  literature  and  art  enabled  him  to 
win  from  those  who  were  strangers  to  science  an  assent 
which  would  have  been  denied  to  claims  advocated  by 
others.  Happily,  too,  his  singularly  catholic  mind  and 
temper  were  made  still  more  potent  by  a  remarkable  skill 
in  handling  details  and  conducting  business.  Were 
Maxwell  now  alive,  he  would  be  able  to  tell,  as  Rayleigh 
and  Thomson  can  tell,  how  great  a  help  Trotter  was 
to  the  Cavendish  Laboratory  and  to  physics.  The 
Regius  Professor  of  Physic  knows  how  often  Trotter's 
great  knowledge  of  the  needs  of  medicine  on  the  one 
hand,  and  of  the  capabilities  of  academic  organization 
on  the  other,  as  well  as  his  legislative  ability,  were  of 
signal  service  in  the  difficult  deliberations  of  the  Board 
of  Medical  Studies.  Liveing  can  say  how  much  not  only 
the  very  existence,  but  the  details  of  construction,  of  the 
new  Chemical  Laboratory  are  due  to  Trotter's  co-opera- 
tion with  himself,  and  Stuart  will  tell  a  like  story  about 
the  Engineering  School.  Each  science  in  turn  brought 
its  wants  to  Trotter,  and  seldom  brought  them  in  vain. 
He  recognized  Frank  Balfour's  powers  as  early  as  I  did, 
and  did  more  for  him  in  his  College  and  in  the  University 
than  I.  could  do.  All  my  younger  friends  whom  I  am 
proud  to  think  of  as  once  my  pupils,  who  are  ma'cing 


their  names  known  in  physiology,  in  morphology,  and  in 
botany,  have  always  looked  up  to  him  as  a  friend  who 
never  failed.  And,  as  for  myself,  whatever  I  may  have 
done  at  Cambridge  has  been  done  from  first  to  last 
through  him,  and  could  not  have  been  done  without  him  : 
in  him  I  have  lost  my  oldest,  truest,  best  helpmate. 

I  first  came  to  know  him  a  year  or  so  before  I  received 
my  appointment  at  Trinity  College.  Happening  to  pay 
a  visit  to  Prof.  Humphry,  I  was  taken  by  him  to  call  on 
"  a  young  Fellow  of  Trinity  interested  in  science,  and 
especially  in  physiology,  a  capital  fellow  !"  That  "  young 
Fellow"  was  Trotter.  I  saw,  even  in  our  brief  interview, 
much  in  him  to  draw  me  to  him,  and  he  seemed  to  see 
something  of  the  same  kind  in  me,  so  that  when,  a  year 
after,  a  sudden  change  in  all  my  plans  placed  me  within 
the  walls  of  Trinity,  he  and  I  began  a  friendship  which 
has  ceased  only  with  his  death.  All  through  the  thirteen 
years  during  which,  while  working  within  the  University,  I 
was  really  outside  the  University,  my  every  movement 
was  made  by  and  through  Trotter  ;  and  since  I  have  been 
Professor  my  every  movement  has  been  made  with  him. 
For  seventeen  years  I  have  been  able  to  make  him  a 
partner  in  my  plans  ;  he  has  shared  in  my  hopes  and 
soothed  me  in  my  failures  ;  where  I  have  been  successful 
he  has  helped,  and  when  I  have  refused  or  neglected  his 
counsel  I  have  generally  gone  wrong.  When  Balfour 
was  taken  I  could  feel  that  Trotter  was  left,  and  now  he 
is  gone  too. 

But  I  ought  not  to  thrust  these  personal  matters  on  the 
readers  of  Nature,  and  indeed,  great  as  my  own  loss  is, 
that  of  Trinity  College  and  of  the  University  is  far 
greater.  Those  who  know  the  University  and  knew 
Trotter  will  feel  at  once  how  great  a  blow  is  his  death  at 
the  present  juncture.  The  University,  both  in  its  scien- 
tific and  in  its  other  work,  is  straitened  for  lack  of 
funds  :  laboratories  cannot  be  built,  teachers  cannot  be 
adequately  paid,  research  cannot  be  properly  encouraged, 
because  the  necessary  money  is  not  at  hand.  At  the 
same  time  the  revenues  of  the  several  Colleges  are  suffer- 
ing acutely  from  the  depreciation  in  the  value  of  land,  nnd 
a  movement  has  been  set  on  foot  with  the  view  of  dimin- 
ishing the  contributions  of  the  Colleges  to  the  University. 
If  this  movement  is  successful— and  its  success  seems 
assured  by  the  fact  that  the  new  Member  for  the  Llni- 
versity  has,  in  his  address  to  the  electors,  given  a  con- 
spicuous pledge  that  he,  with  his  commanding  scientific 
authority,  will  support  it  in  Parliament— it  will  need  the 
wisest  and  most  skilful  handling  of  details  to  prevent  the 
result  proving  disastrous  to  the  cause  of  learning,  and 
especially  of  scientific  learning,  in  the  University.  So 
long  as  Trotter  was  alive  we  felt  that  we  had  one  in  whom 
devotion  to  his  College  was  no  les?  strong  than  his  love  for 
the  University  and  for  learning,  and  we  looked  to  him  as 
the  man  who,  trusted  alike  by  the  Colleges  and  by  the 
University,  would  be  found  to  have  skill  to  steer  us  in  the 
difficult  way  before  us.  Now,  in  the  darkness  of  his 
death,  we  seem  to  be  driving,  without  a  pilot,  straight 
upon  the  rocks.  M.  Foster. 


T 


H.  C.  F.  C.  SCHJELLERUP. 
HE  Danish  astronomer  Prof  Hans  Carl  Frederick 
Christian  Schjellerup  died  at  the  Copenhagen  Ob- 
servatory on  November  13  after  a  prolonged  illness. 
He  was  born  on  February  8,  1827,  at  Odense,  where 
his  father  was  a  jeweller,  and  was  apprenticed  to  a 
watchmaker,  but  by  private  study  he  succeeded  in  supple- 
menting the  education  he  had  received  in  his  native  town 
so  well  that  he  was  able  to  pass  the  entrance  examination 
at  the  Polytechnic  School  of  Copenhagen  in  1848. 
Here  he  distinguished  himself  by  his  mathematical 
ability,  and  was  able  to  finish  his  studies  in  the  course 
of  two  years,  when  he  passed  the  final  examination 
in  applied    mathematics   and    mechanics.       In  1851  he 


Dec.  15,  1887] 


NATURE 


155 


was  appointed  observer  in  the  old  Observatory  at 
Copenhagen,  which  had  been  built  at  the  time  of 
Longomontanus,  on  the  top  of  a  high  tower,  and  was 
therefore,  after  the  lapse  of  two  centuries,  greatly  be- 
hind the  times,  both  as  to  locality  and  instruments.  A 
few  years  afterwards  he  was  appointed  Professor  of 
Mathematics  at  the  Naval  Academy,  and  Instructor  in 
Geometrical  Drawing  at  the  Polytechnic  School.  These 
appointments  he  retained  till  the  time  of  his  death,  as 
well  as  his  position  at  the  Observatory,  and  though  he 
was  in  1875,  after  the  death  of  Prof  D'Arrest,  strongly 
urged  by  the  Minister  of  Public  Instruction  to  allow 
himself  to  be  appointed  Professor  of  Astronomy,  he 
preferred  remaining  as  he  was,  partly  owing  to  the 
pecuniary  loss  the  change  would  have  entailed,  partly 
because  his  scientific  activity  was  untrammelled  by 
routine  duties,  and  left  him  leisure  to  pursue  his  studies 
in  whatever  direction  he  chose. 

As  long  as  Schjellerup  had  only  at  his  disposal  the 
instruments  of  the  old  Observatory,  he  chiefly  occupied 
himself  with  the  computation  of  orbits  of  planets  and 
comets,  among  which  his  determination  of  the  orbit  of 
the  comet  of  1580  deserves  to  be  specially  mentioned. 
Tnis  was  founded  on  a  ccrmplete  reduction  of  Tycho 
Brahe's  original  observations  of  the  distance  of  the  comet 
from  stars,  and  of  his  time  determinations  by  altitudes 
and  azimuths  of  standard  stars.  In  1861  the  new 
Observatory  was  finished,  and  furnished  with  an  ii-inch 
refractor  by  Merz  and  a  transit-circle  by  Pistor  and 
Martins.  With  the  latter  Schjellerup  commenced  in 
September  1861  to  observe  zones  of  stars,  chiefly  of  the 
eighth  and  ninth  magnitudes,  between  +  15"  and  -  15'^ 
declination,  and  already  in  the  beginning  of  December 
1863  he  had  finished  the  observation  of  ten  thousand 
stars,  while  the  reductions  had  been  pushed  on  with  so 
much  energy  that  the  complete  catalogue  of  mean  places 
for  1865  was  laid  before  the  Royal  Danish  Society  of 
Science  a  month  after.  When  it  is  remembered  that  the 
author  of  this  work  during  the  greater  part  of  the  year 
had  to  spend  three  or  four  hours  a  day  in  teaching,  it 
will  be  conceded  that  he  made  good  use  of  his  time. 
The  star  catalogue  is  so  well  known  for  its  fulness  and 
accuracy  that  it  is  unneccessary  to  dwell  further  on  it  in 
this  place.  After  its  completion,  Schjellerup  intended, 
and  had  already  commenced,  to  continue  the  observations 
no*-th  of  the  limit  of  +  15',  as  Bessel  had  done  foriy  years 
before,  but  about  this  time  his  interests  took  a  new 
direction,  which  made  him  d'scontinue  systematic  obser- 
,  vations,  while  he  may  also  have  been  influenced  by  the 
circumstance  that  the  great  undertaking  of  the  Astro- 
nomische  Gcpellschaft,  viz.  the  observing  of  all  stars  in 
the  northern  hemisphere  down  to  the  ninth  magnitude, 
had  just  then  been  planned,  whereby  zone  work  on 
Lalande's  plan  became  of  less  importance. 

Schjellerup  now  with  his  usual  energy  threw  himself 
into  the  study  of  Oriental  languages,  especially  Arabic 
and  Chinese.  In  the  Royal  Library  of  Copenhagen  he 
found  a  manuscript  of  the  description  of  the  heavens  by 
the  Persian  astronomer  Abd-al-Rahman  al-Sufi,  a  work 
which  up  to  that  time  had  been  very  little  known  among 
astronomers.  Finding  that  it  contained  a  complete  and 
careful  uranometry  from  the  tenth  century,  or  in  other 
words  from  an  epoch  nearly  equidistant  between  Ptolemy 
and  Argelander,  he  resolved  to  translate  it  and  was  fortun- 
ate enovigh  to  obtain  the  use  of  another  manuscript  from 
the  Imperial  Library  of  St.  Petersburg.  The  work  was 
published  in  1874  by  the  Academy  of  St.  Petersburg 
under  the  title,  "  Description  des  etoiles  fixes  compos^e 
au  milieu  du  dixi^me  si&cle  de  notre  ere  par  I'astronome 
Persan  Abd-al-Rahman  al-Sijfi."  It  has  been  found  most 
valuable  by  the  astronomers  who  of  late  years  have 
studied  the  relative  brilliancy  of  the  fixed  stars,  and  Sufi's 
results  have  been  systematically  collate  1  with  their  own 
by  Messrs.  Peirce,  Pritchard,  and  Pickering. 


The  great  value  which  this  old  work  was  found  to 
possess  for  modern  research  induced  Schjellerup  to  en- 
deavour to  make  other  observations  of  the  ancient  astro- 
nomers fruitful  for  the  investigations  of  the  present  day. 
To  the  journal  Copenncus  he  contributed  three  papers 
under  the  common  title,  "  Recherches  sur  I'Astronomie 
des  Anciens."  The  first  shows  that  the  time  stars  of 
Hipparchus  had  been  so  well  selected  that  their  culmi- 
nations gave  the  correct  time  every  hour  of  the  night 
within  a  minute,  the  second  discusses  the  Chinese 
observations  of  the  total  eclipses  of  the  years  -708,  -600, 
and  -  548,  while  the  third  compares  seven  conjunctions 
of  the  moon  with  fixed  stars  recorded  by  Ptolemy,  with 
Hansen's  lunar  tables.  He  further  examined  the  occulta- 
tions  and  conjunctions  of  planets  observed  by  the  Greek 
astronomers,  and  the  principal  eclipses  of  the  Middle 
Ages,  but  these  investigations  appear  to  have  been  left 
unfinished  at  his  death. 

Among  Schjellerup's  minor  publications  should  be 
mentioned  his  catalogue  of  red  stars  (first  published  in 
1866,  and  in  a  revised  edition  in  1874),  which  appeared 
most  opportunely  at  a  time  when  the  spectroscope  had 
ju:t  commenced  to  be  applied  to  the  study  of  the  physical 
constitution  of  the  stars. 

In  addition  to  being  a  man  of  very  extensive  knowledge, 
both  scientific  and  general,  Schjellerup  was  a  kind  teacher 
and  friend,  always  willing  to  assist  with  his  vast  store  of 
learning  anybody  who  consulted  him.  His  memory  will 
be  gratefully  cherished  by  those  who  had  the  good  fortune 
to  know  him.  J.  L.  E.  Dreyer. 


NOTES. 

Dr.  Asa  Gray,  we  are  sorry  to  learn,  has  been  stricken  with 
apoplexy  at  his  house  in  Cambridge,  Massachusetts. 

Sir  George  Burrows,  F.R.S.,  died  on  Monday.     He  was 
in  his  eighty-seventh  year. 

We  regret  to  have  to  announce  the  death,  at  the  early  age  of 
thirty-four,  of  Prof.  Humpidge,  of  the  University  College  of 
Wales.  Dr.  Humpidge  was  educated  at  the  Grammar  School, 
Gloucester,  was  for  some  years  in  trade,  and  in  spare  time  student 
in  science  clas  es,  where  he  obtained  a  silver  medal  in  geolojy 
from  the  Department.  He  after .vards  studied  at  the  School  of 
Mines,  and  obtained  one  of  the  three  Jodrell  Scholarships.  In 
the  etamiuation  for  B.Sc.  at  the  London  University  he  obtained 
the  second  place  in  the  honours  list,  and  the  two  years'  ,^40 
scholar^iliip.  After  studying  with  Bunsen  at  Heidelberg,  and 
teaching  at  Hofwyl  in  Berne,  he  was  appointed  in  1879  to  the 
chemistry  class  at  Aberystwith.  At  Kensington  Dr.  Humpidge 
carried  on  some  researches  on  the  coal-gas  of  the  metropolis, 
under  Prof.  Frankland,  and  in  Heidelberg  he  took  up  the  study 
of  the  rare  metals  yttrium,  erbium,  and  beryllium,  results  of 
whicli  were  published  in  the  Journal  of  the  Chemical  Society, 
Philosophical  Transaction^,  and  F'roceedings  of  the  Royal 
Society.  His  later  work  was  the  preparation  of  several  rare  metals 
in  a  state  of  purity  for  the  determination  of  their  specific  heats  in 
his  calorimeter.  The  fire  which  unfortunately  destroyed  the  College 
in  the  summer  of  1885  caused  irreparable  loss  to  Dr.  Humpidge, 
all  his  papers  and  results  and  chemicals  being  burnt,  and  he  had 
also  a  very  narrow  escape  from  the  flames  in  endeavouring 
to  rescue  people  and  property.  The  shock  of  this  accident 
undermined  his  health,  and  although  he  continued  to  teach  in 
temporary  premises  for  some  time  he  was  finally  obliged  to  visit 
the  South  of  Europe  for  a  winter,  but  the  relief  was  only 
temporary,  and  he  succumbed,  after  three  weeks  of  great  suffer- 
ing, on  November  30.  Dr.  Humpidge  translated  Kolbe's 
"Inorganic  Chemistry,"  which  has  reached  its  second  edition. 
Unfortunately  his  long    illness   ran   away   with   any   provision 


156 


NATURE 


[Dec.  15,  1887 


that  may  have  been  matle  for  his  wife  and  family  (two  children 
of  three  and  five  years),  and  their  sad  condition  calls  for  the 
consideration  of  his  scientific  colleagues. 

In  opening  the  exhibition,  at  the  People's  Palace,  of  the  work 
of  London  apprentices,  on  Saturday,  the  Prince  of  Wales 
delivered  an  excellent  speech  on  technical  education.  He  was 
able  to  announce  that,  thanks  to  the  generosity  of  the  Drapers' 
Company  and  the  Charity  Commissioners,  the  People's  Palace 
will  soon  be  on  a  permanent  footing.  He  also  stated  that  the 
Ironmongers'  Company  and  the  Charity  Commissioners  are  to 
co-operate  for  the  establishment,  in  some  other  part  of  London, 
of  an  institution  corresponding  to  the  People's  Palace— an  insti- 
tution for  providing  technical,  scientific,  commercial,  and  art  stic 
education  united  with  physical  and  social  recreation. 

A  Committee,  consisting  for  the  most  part  of  members  of  the 
two  Commissions  which  presided  over  the  Prehistoric  and  Ethno- 
graphic Sections  in  the  Paris  Exhibition  of  1878,  has  been 
appointed  by  the  French  Minister  of  Commerce  and  Industry  to 
preside  over  Section  I.  of  Technological  History  at  the  Exhibition 
of  1889.  This  department,  which  will  be  located  in  the  so-called 
Palais  des  Arts  liberaux,  will  represent  physical,  or  technical, 
anthropology,  prehistoric  archreology,  and  ethnography.  The 
four  other  Sections  connected  with  anthropological  and  ethno- 
graphic sciences  will  respectively  illustrate  the  liberal  arts, 
arts  and  trades,  means  of  transport,  and  iniiitary  arts.  The 
President  of  the  Committee  is  M,  de  Roziere,  and  the  Acting 
Secretary  M.  P.  Topinard,  editor  of  the  Revtu  d^ Anthropologie, 
through  whose  pages  an  appeal  is  made  to  foreign  as  well  as 
French  anthropologists  for  contributions  to  this  Section  of  the 
coming  Exhibition,  such,  more  especially,  as  casts  of  skulls 
and  other  parts  of  the  body  by  which  racial  types  can  be  best 
illustrated. 

The  Chief  Signal  Officer  of  the  United  States  has  issued  his 
Report  for  the  fiscal  year  ending  June  30,  1887.  The  Report 
shows  that  there  has  been  a  growing  demand  for  weather  fore- 
casts :  as  a  rule,  predictions  are  made  for  forty  different  districts- 
The  system  of  cold-wave  warnings  continues  in  successful  opera- 
tion :  these  warnings  imply  that  the  temperature  will  fall  below 
45°,  and  that  in  twenty- four  hours  an  abnormal  fall  of  15°  or  more 
will  occur.  Such  predictions  are  valuable  both  as  regards 
agricultural  interests  and  personal  comfort.  A  bulletin  showing 
the  effect  of  the  weather  for  the  previous  seven  days  on  im- 
portant growing  crops  is  now  issued  once  a  week.  The  State 
services  play  an  important  part  in  the  meteorological  organiza- 
tions of  the  United  States.  These  now  number  nineteen,  in 
addition  to  the  New  England  Meteorological  Society.  It  is 
recommended  that  the  attention  of  Congress  be  called  to  the 
propriety  of  making  an  appropriation  for  the  service  of  tele- 
grams now  sent  from  the  United  States  to  Europe,  in  view  of 
their  importance  to  ship-masters  of  all  countries. 

At  the  meeting  of  the  French  Meteorological  Society,  on 
November  9,  attention  was  drawn  to  the  establishment,  of  a 
meteorological  station  at  Bagneres-de-Bigorre.  This  station  is 
of  importance  from  its  position  at  the  foot  of  the  Pic-du-Midi, 
being  about  7540  feet  below  the  mountain  observatory.  M. 
Teisserenc  de  Bort  submitted  an  atlas  of  maritime  meteorology, 
which  has  just  been  published  with  the  co-operation  of  the 
Central  Meteorological  Office  of  France. 

On  November  16,  Dr.  Buys  Ballot,  Director  of  the 
Royal  Meteorological  Institute  of  the  Netherlands,  was  pre- 
sented with  a  gold  medal,  at  a  banquet  held  in  his  honour,  as  a 
mark  of  respect  on  his  completion  of  forty  years  of  eminent 
services  (1847-87).  The  meeting  was  attended  by  men  of 
science  from  various  countries. 


Cicl  et  Terre  of  November  i  discusses  an  investigation  of  the 
surface  temperature  of  the  ocean,  by  Prof.  O.  Kriimmel,  in  the 
Zeit'chrift  fiir  WissenschaftUche  Geographic,  containing  charts 
for  February  and  August,  with  coloured  isotherms  for  each  2°  C, 
over  all  oceans.  The  space  occupied  in  latitude  by  water  of  75°  F' 
is  calculated  for  the  Atlantic  and  Pacific  Oceans.  Temperatures 
above  86°  F.  are  found  only  at  isolated  points,  as  on  the  west 
coast  of  Central  America,  in  August.  Nearly  40  per  cent,  of  the 
whole  superficies  of  the  ocean,  both  in  February  and  August,  has 
a  temperature  above  75°.  The  low  temperature  on  the  west 
coasts  of  Africa  and  South  America  is  attributed  by  the  author 
to  the  action  of  the  winds  instead  of  to  the  action  of  Polar  surface 
currents,  by  which  it  has  hitherto  been  explained. 

During  last  autumn  the  German  Fishery  Association  des- 
patched the  steamer  Holsatia  into  the  Baltic  for  scientific 
research,  some  of  the  results  of  which  have  just  been  made 
public.  There  were  on  board  Prof.  Hensen,  Dr.  Brandt,  Dr. 
Oldenburg,  and  several  officials  connected  with  the  German 
fisheries.  The  Holsatia  left  Memel  on  September  14,  and, 
steering  in  a  north-westerly  direction,  trawded  over  her  course 
in  order  to  ascertain  what  fish  vwere  most  plentiful  at  that  season. 
This  proved  to  be  herring.  In  the  deep  channel  running  to  the 
north-west  of  Memel,  between  that  city  and  the  Hoberg  bank, 
off  the  island  of  Gottland,  it  was  found  that  the  temperature  of 
the  sea,  at  a  depth  of  142  metres  only,  was  3°  C,  whereas  at  the 
surface  it  was  14°  C.  Several  measurements  were  taken,  but 
with  the  same  result.  This  spot  being  one  of  the  deepest  in 
the  Baltic,  it  has  been  suggested  that  this  abnormal  temperature 
may  be  caused  by  some  cold  un'ler-current  coming  from  the 
Gulf  of  Bothnia  or  the  Bay  of  Finland.  From  this  point  the 
course  was  shaped  for  the  island  of  Oland  and  the  fishing-bank 
called  "Mittelbank,"  soundings  being  taken  throughout.  Net- 
fishing  was  also  carried  on,  particularly  with  a  so-called 
"vertical"  net,  employed  for  the  purpose  of  ascertaining  the 
nature  of  the  food  of  fish  in  certain  waters.  Some  trawling 
resulted  in  the  bringing  up  of  boulders  of  a  very  curious  .shape, 
as  well  as  mussels  and  other  marine  animals.  All  the  objects 
brought  up  were  photographed. 

In  the  December  Bulletin  of  Miscellaneous  Information, 
issued  from  the  Royal  Gardens,  Kew,  there  is  an  interesting 
account  of  cubebs,  the  value  of  which  has  risen  rapidly  during 
the  last  few  years.  There  are  also  excellent  papers  on  Sabicii 
wood,  Mexican  fibre  or  istle,  the  food-grain^  of  India,  broom 
root  or  Mexican  whisk,  Contrayerva,  the  introduction  of  the 
Brazil  nut  to  the  East  Indies  and  Australia,  and  the  Castilloa 
rubber  of  Central  America. 

Another  comprehensive  application  of  the  well-known  re- 
action of  Messrs.  Friedel  and  Crafts,  which  has  played  so 
remarkable  a  role  in  organic  chemistry,  has  recently  been  made 
by  M.  Leon  Roux.  In  a  long  but  highly  interesting  communi- 
cition  to  the  Aiinales  de  Chimie  et  Physvjue,  M.  Roux  describes 
how  he  has  been  enabled,  with  the  aid  of  that  wonderful  sub- 
stance, chloride  of  aluminium,  to  extend  the  bounds  of  chemistry 
still  further,  by  preparing  a  large  number  of  higher  homologues 
of  naphthalene.  In  fact,  he  has  been  successful  in  building  up 
from  the  heavier  molecuh  of  naphthalene  an  entirely  new  series 
of  hydrocarbons,  analogous  in  many  respects  to  the  series  de- 
rived, by  the  earlier  use  of  this  reaction,  from  the  lighter  mole- 
cule of  benzene.  The  insertion  of  the  CH3  groups,  however, 
is  a  much  more  difficult  operation  in  the  naphthalene  than  in  the 
benzene  series,  and  requires  a  much  higher  temperature  ;  the 
homologues  themselves,  moreover,  are  much  more  interesting, 
inasmuch  as  two  isomeric  kind-s,  o  and  /3,  of  each  are  possible. 
Thus  the  methyl  naphthalene  C]oH7  .  CFf,  fjrmed  by  the  new 
method  was  found  to  consist  of  a  mixture  of  the  a  and  /3  isomers, 
which    could   be   partially   separated   by   taking   advantage   of 


Dec. 


0' 


1887] 


NATURE 


157 


their  diflferent  points  of  solidification.  Ethyl  naphthalene, 
CjoHy  .  C0H5,  was  most  readily  obtained  by  warming,  in  a  flask 
connected  with  an  inverted  condenser,  a  mixture  of  2CX3  grammes 
naphthalene,  200  grammes  ethyl  iodide,  and  20  grammes  of  alu- 
minium chloride,  added  gradually  as  the  reaction  proceeded. 
The  fraction  of  the  product  boiling  between  249°  and  254"  was 
isolated  as  a  colourless  highly  refractive  liquid,  exhibiting  violet 
fluorescence,  and  was  shown  by  analysis,  and  by  the  nature  of 
its  oxidation  products,  to  consist  of  almost  pure  j8  ethyl  naphtha- 
lene mixed  with  a  minute  quantity  of  the  o  compound.  In  a  similar 
manner,  propyl,  butyl,  amyl,  and  benzyl  naphthalene  have  been 
prepared  ;  indeed,  there  appears  to  be  no  limit  to  the  number  of 
naphthalene  derivatives  possible  to  be  obtained  in  this  manner, 
and  there  can  be  no  doubt  that  M.  Roux  is  perfectly  warranted 
in  applying  the  somewhat  exclusive  term  "classical"  to  the 
work  of  Messrs.  Friedel  and  Crafts,  which  has  led  to  the 
synthesis  of  so  large  a  number  of  carbon  compounds. 

At  the  meeting  of  the  Helvetic  Society  of  Sciences  this  year 
Prof.  Weber  described  a  very  sensitive  micro-radiometer  made 
in  the  following  way  : — One  arm  of  a  Wheatstone's  bridge  is 
formed  by  a  thin  tube,  which  is  filled  in  its  middle  part  with 
mercury,  and  at  its  ends,  for  about  5  mm.,  with  a  solution  of 
zinc  sulphate.  To  each  end  of  the  tube  is  fitted  a  metallic  case, 
one  side  of  which  consists  of  a  plate  of  rock  salt.  This  case  is 
filled  with  air,  which  dilates  under  the  influence  of  radiation 
forces  back  the  zinc-sulphate  solution  in  the  tube,  and  thus 
greatly  increases  the  electric  resistance  on  that  side.  The  appar- 
atus is  made  symmetrical,  to  eliminate  variations  of  temperature 
and  pressure.  This  radiometer  will  indicate  loo-millionths  of  a 
degree.  The  moon's  radiation  gives  a  galvanometric  oscillation 
of  about  five  divisions. 

It  is  estimated  that  the  air  in  a  room  becomes  distinctly  bad 
for  health  when  its  carbonic  acid  exceeds  i  part  in  looo. 
An  apparatus  has  been  recently  patented  by  Prof.  Wolpert,  of 
Niimberg,  which  affords  a  measure  of  the  carbonic  acid  present. 
From  a  vessel  containing  a  red  liquid  (soda- solution  with  phenol- 
phthalein)  there  comes  every  100  seconds,  through  a  siphon. 
arrangement,  a  red  drop  on  a  prepared  white  thread  about  a 
foot  and  a  half  long,  and  trickles  down  this.  Behind  the  thread 
is  a  scale  beginning  with  "pure  air"  (up  to  07  per  1000)  at  the 
bottom,  and  ending  above  with  "extremely  bad  "  (4  to  7  per  1000 
and  more).  In  pure  air  the  drop  continues  red  down  to  the 
bottom,  but  it  loses  its  colour  by  the  action  of  carbonic  acid,  and 
the  sooner  the  more  there  is  of  that  gas  present. 

Some  interesting  experiments  on  the  reciprocal  influence  of 
organs  of  sense  have  been  recently  made  by  H err  Urbanschitsch, 
of  Vienna.  His  general  conclusion  is  that  any  sense-excitation 
has  for  result  an  increase  of  the  acuteness  of  other  senses.  Thus, 
sensations  of  hearing  sharpen  the  visual  perceptions.  If  coloured 
plates  are  placed  at  such  a  distance  that  one  can  hardly  dis- 
tinguish the  colours,  and  various  sounds  are  then  produced,  the 
colours  become  generally  more  distinct  the  higher  the  sounds. 
Similarly,  one  can,  while  a  sound  affects  the  ear,  read  words 
which  one  could  not  read  before.  Again,  the  ticking  of  a  watch 
is  better  heard  when  the  eyes  are  open  than  when  they  are 
closed.  Red  and  green  increase  auditive  perceptions  ;  but  blue 
and  yellow  weaken  them.  Several  musicians,  however,  were 
agreed  that  red,  green,  yellow,  and  blue  caused  an  intensification 
of  sound  about  one-eighth  ;  while  violet  had  a  weakening 
effect.  Taste,  smell,  and  touch  are  under  like  laws.  Light, 
and  red  and  green  colour,  increase  their  delicacy  ;  while  darkness, 
blue,  and  yellow  diminish  it.  Under  the  influence  of  red  and 
green,  taste  extends  from  the  anterior  border  of  the  tongue  to 
the  whole  surface.  On  the  other  hand,  a  strengthening  of  smell, 
taste,  or  touch,  exalts  the  other  sensitive  perceptions.  Specially 
interesting  is  the  reciprocal  influence  of  touch  and  the  sense  of  ; 


temperature.  If  one  tickle  the  skin  with  a  hair,  and  plunge  the 
hand  in  hot  water,  the  tickling  sensation  ceases  ;  on  the  contrary, 
if  the  hand  be  placed  in  cold  water,  and  a  part  of  the  body 
tickled,  the  temperature  is  felt  more  vividly.  Herr  Urban- 
schitsch finds  in  this  reciprocal  action  an  explanation  of  supposed 
double  consecutive  sensations  on  excitation  of  one  sense. 

Prof.  Linijeman  contributes  to  the  last  two  issues  of  the 
Bulletin  de  la  Sociite  des  Naturalistes  de  Moscou  (18S7,  Nos.  2 
and  3)  two  very  elaborate  papers  on  the  Hessian  fly.  He  points 
out  that  there  can  be  no  universal  remedies  for  this  pest,  because 
the  manner  of  life  of  the  Hessian  fly,  and  the  conditions  of  its 
multiplication,  vary  to  some  extent  in  different  climates.  His 
study  of  the  Hessian  fly  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Moscow  has 
enabled  him  to  describe  at  length  the  conditions  which  are,  and 
those  which  are  not,  favourable  for  its  development  in  that  dis- 
trict. About  Moscow  it  never  propagates  on  any  of  those  plants 
— Gramincce  or  others — which  grow  amidst  the  crops  of  the 
Russian  corn-fields.  Of  the  three  generations  which  develop 
there — the  spring  generation,  from  the  beginning  of  May  to  the 
beginning  of  June  (old  style),  the  summer  one,  from  June  19  to 
the  beginning  of  August,  and  the  autumn  one,  to  the  end  of 
August — each  must  find  for  its  propagation  green  stems  of  rye, 
wheat,  or  barley  ;  and  these  stems  must  remain  green  and 
succulent  throughout  the  twenty-eight  days  that  the  larva  is 
living.  Of  insects  which  hunt  the  larvre  of  the  Hessian  fly, 
Geophilus,  the  larva  of  a  Cantharid,  and  one  mite  are  noticed. 
The  parasitic  Pteromalines  of  the  fly  have  been  described  by  the 
same  author  in  the  first  number  of  this  year's  Bulletin. 

We  have  received  the  last  number  of  the  Transactions  of  the 
Asiatic  Society  of  Japan  (vol.  xv.  Part  l),  in  which  the  well- 
known  Chinese  scholar  Mr.  E.  H.  Parker  discusses  in  two  papers 
the  relation  between  the  Japanese  language  and  the  languages  of 
the  neighbouring  continent.  He  comes  to  the  conclusion,  after 
an  elaborate  examination  of  a  list  of  a  thousand  Japanese  words, 
that  a  great  part  of  the  modern  Japanese  language  may  be  traced 
back  to  a  language  common  with  that  language  from  which  the 
modern  dialects  of  China  have  all  been  derived.  Mr.  Walter 
Dening  gives  an  abstract  of  the  rules,  an  account  of  the  general 
work,  and  a  list  of  the  papers  published  in  the  Proceedings  of  a 
Japanese  Society  established  for  the  discussion  and  elucidation 
of  various  educational  questions  ;  or,  in  the  words  of  its  rules, 
"  to  raise  the  standard  of  scholarship  and  supply  the  wants  of 
the  teacher  and  reformer."  Amongst  the  papers  which  have 
been  published  by  the  Society  we  select  the  titles  of  a  few  in 
order  to  show  its  scope  : — "  Female  Education  "  ;  "An  Account 
of  the  Origin  and  Development  of  Natural  History  in  Japan  " ; 
"The  Compilation  of  a  Japanese  Grammar";  "On  Sending 
Students  of  Natural  History  to  China  and  Corea  "  ;  "  The  Con- 
nection of  Clothing  and  Health  '"'  ;  "  Iron  Ore  "  ;  "  The  Origin 
of  Certain  Customs";  "The  Five  Races  of  China."  So  far, 
eight  parts  of  the  Society's  magazine  appear  to  have  been  pub- 
lished, and  these  contain  about  a  hundred  papers  by  Japanese 
scholars  of  eminence,  many  of  them,  like  Ito  Keisuke,  the 
veteran  botanist,  bearing  names  known  in  Europe. 

We  have  received  Nos.  31-45  of  "  Landerkunde  des  Erdteils 
Europa,"  a  valuable  and  most  interesting  work,  edited  by  Prof. 
Alfred  Kirchhoff,  which  is  being  issued  in  "  Lieferungen. "  Prof. 
Kirchhoff  is  aided  by  many  eminent  writers.  The  publishers 
are  F.  Tempsky,  of  Vienna  and  Prague,  and  G.  Freytag,  of 
Leijizig. 

Two  papers  just  printed  in  the  Philosophical  Transactions  of 
the  Royal  Society  have  been  sent  to  us — "  Some  Anomalies  in 
the  Winds  of  Northern  India,  and  their  Relation  to  the  Distri- 
bution of  Barometric  Pressure,"  by  S.  A.  Hill ;  and  "  Studies 
on  some  New  Micro-organisms  obtained  from  Air,"  by  Grace 
C.  Frankland  and  Percy  F.  Frankland. 


158 


NA  TURE 


[_Dec.  15,  1 38; 


Mr.F.Moore,  having  completed  the  "Lepidoptera  of  Ceylon," 
has  now  in  preparation  a  mucli  more  extensive  work  comprising 
the  Lepidopterous  insects  of  the  entire  Indian  region.  It  will  be 
issued  in  monthly  parts,  to  subscribers  only,  by  the  publishers  of 
his  previous  work,  Messrs.  I..  Reeve  and  Co. 

Mr.  H.  T.  Ommaney,  C.S.,  of  Karwar,  has  sent  to  the 
Eombay  Natural  Histoiy  Society  a  full-grown  live  specimen 
of  the  Hamadryad,  or  King  Cohrvi  [Ophiop'^agus  elaps).  The 
reptile,  which  measures  al)out  12  feet  in  length,  is  jet  black, 
with  faint  cream-coloured  bars  across  its  back.  The  throat  is  of 
a  golden-yellow  colour. 

A  NEW  "  Catalogue  of  Mathematical  Books,"  including  many 
of  the  works  of  the  old  mathematicians,  has  been  issued  by 
Messrs.  Macmilian  and  Bowes,  Cambridge. 

Dr.  Overbeck,  who  owns  part  of  the  collections  that  originally 
belonged  to  Alexander  von  Humboldt,  has  sent  a  report  about 
them  to  the  Saxe-Thuringian  Naturalists'  Society  at  Halle.  He 
enumerates  290  objects.  Dr.  Overbeck  intends  to  present 
Humboldt's  collection  of  minerals  to  the  Mineralogical  Museum 
of  Halle  University. 

The  additions  to  the  Zoological  Society's  Gardens  during  the 
past  week  include  three  American  Flying  Squirrels  {Scitiroptcnis 
■volucella)  from  Florida,  presented  by  Mr.  Henry  D.  Harrison  ; 
two  Great  Eagle  Owls  {Bubo  maximiis),  European,  deposited  ; 
two  Common  Wo'.ves  {Canis  lupus  i  9),  European,  received 
in  exchange. 


OUR  ASTRONOMICAL  COLUMN. 

The  Natal  Observatory.— Mr.  Nelson,  Superintendent 
of  this  Observatory,  has  issued  his  Report  for  18S6,  and  it  appears 
frv>m  it  that  the  astronomical  work  during  that  year  was  almost 
wholly  confined  to  routine  observations  with  the  transit  instru- 
ment, thougli  the  meteorological  observations  were  carried  on 
as  usual.  I'his  partial  suspension  of  activity  was  due  to  the  fact 
that  only  one  assistant  is  now  on  the  staff,  and  that,  through  the 
Sc^■ere  illness  of  the  Superintendent  during  the  first  part  of  the 
year  and  his  enforced  absence  in  England  during  the  la'ter  part, 
the  assistant,  Mr.  Grant,  was  left  practically  single-handed.  The 
present  year  will  probably  show  better  results,  as  Mr.  Neison 
returned  to  his  post  before  the  close  of  1886,  and  several  needed 
instrumental  improvements  and  repairs  had  been  successfully 
carried  out.  Mr.  Neison  had  commenced  an  important  work 
connecting  the  fundamental  declinations  of  the  star  catalogues 
of  the  northern  and  southern  observatories,  by  means  of  obser- 
vations of  the  differences  in  zenith  distance  between  32  selected 
stars  which  cross  the  meridians  of  the  great  northern  obser- 
vatories near  their  zeniths  on  the  one  hand,  and  a  set  of  corre- 
sponding southern  circumpolar  stars  on  the  other. 

Oi.BERs' Comet,  1887.— The  following  ephemeris  for  Berlin 
midnight  for  this  object  is  in  continuation  of  that  given  in 
Nature  of  December  i,  p.  37  :  — 


1887. 

R.A. 

Decl. 

Log  r. 

Log  A. 

Bright- 

h.     m.     s. 

0       , 

nes?. 

Dec.  17.. 

.16     7  41  . 

.  2  472  N.  . 

..  o'iggo  . 

•  0-3593 

..  063 

19.. 

.  16  12  21  . 

.2    18-4 

21.. 

.  16  16  56  . 

■  I  5o'5 

..  0-2090  . 

•  0-3645  . 

■•  0-59 

23  • 

.  16  21  25  . 

•  I  23-5 

25  . 

.  16  25  48  . 

•  0  57-3 

..  0-2190  . 

•  0-3695  • 

••  0-55 

27.. 

.  16  30    6  . 

•  0  31  9 

29.. 

.  16  34  19  . 

.  0     7-4  N.  . 

..  0-2290  . 

•  0-3741   . 

..  0-51 

31- 

.  16  38  27  . 

.  0  i6"2  S. 

18S8. 

Jan.    2  .. 

.  16  42  30  . 

.  0  390 

..  02389  . 

•  0-3783  ■ 

..  0-48 

4  ■• 

.  16  46  27  . 

.  I     12 

6  .. 

.  16  50  20  . 

.  I  227  S. 

..  0-2486  . 

.  0-3821   . 

•■  0-45 

Probable  New  Class  of  Variable  Si-ars.— The  Rev. 
T.  E.  Espin  considers  that  a  number  of  our  variable  stars 
posse-s  characteristics  whijh  justify  their  being  formed  into  a 
separate  class.  They  are  irregular  both  in  period  and  variati  m, 
the  la:ter  being  usually  about   \\  mag.,  and  they  show  spectra 


of  Secchi's  fourth  type,  i.e.  like  No.  152  Schjellerup.  Their 
changes  in  brightness  are  rapid  and  uncertain.  Mr.  Espin  names 
19  Piscium,  Birmingham  277,  521,  535,  541,  and  Espin  116, 
154,  as  belonging  to  this  new  class,  which  perhaps  embraces  also 
Birmingham  85,  1 20,  121,  240,  290,  418,  464,  483,  and  502. 


ASTRONOMICAL    PHENOlfENA    FOR    THE 
WEEK  1887  DECEMBER  18-24. 

/■pOR  the  reckoning  of  time  the  civil  day,  commencing  at 
^  Greenwich  mean  midnight,  counting  the  hours  on  to  24, 

is  here  employed.) 

At  Greenwich  on  Decein'ier  18 

Sun  rises,  8h.  4m.  ;    souths,  iih.  56m.  45'Ss. ;  sets,  I5h.  5011.  : 

right   asc.    on    meridian,    I7h.  43-911.  ;    decl.    23°  24'  S. 

Sidereal  Time  at  Sunset,  2ih.  38m. 
Moon  (at  First  Quarter  on  December  22,  7h.)  rises,  loh.  48m.  ; 

souths,   I5h.  23nfi.  ;  sets,  2oh.  4m.  :  right  a  c.  on  meridian, 

2ih.  lo-7m.  ;  decl.  16°  43'  S. 

Right  asc.  and  declination 
Planet.  Rise?.  Souths.  Sets.  on  merid;an. 

h.   m.  h.    m.  h.    m.  !i.       m.  ,        , 

Mercurj-..  6  35  ...  10  44  ..  14  53  ...  16  31-1  ...  21  4  S. 
Venus  ...  3  48  ...  8  48  ..  13  48  ...  16  34-5  ...  12  16  S. 
.Mars  ...  o  38  ...  6  39  ...  12  40  ...  12  25-6  ...  o  37  S. 
Jupiter  ...  5  17  ...  9  44  ...  14  u  ...  15  308  ...  iS  9  S. 
Saturn  ...  18  59*...  2  47  ...  10  35  ...  8  328  ...  19  16  N. 
Uranus...  i  43  ...  7  16  ...  12  49  ...  13  2-5  ...  5  58  S. 
Neptune.   14  16  ...  21  56  ...     5  36*...     3  44-3  ...   iS     i  N. 

*  Indicates  that  the  rising  is  that  of  the  preceding  evaning  and  the  setting 
that  of  the  following  morning. 

Occultadon  of  Star  by  the  Moon  (visible  at  Greenwich). 

Corresponding 

angles  from  ver- 

Dec.  Star.  Mag.         Disap.  Reap.         tex  to  right  for 

inverted  image. 
h.    m.  h.    m.  „         o 

18  ...   (  Capricorni     ...  4^   ...    17  58    ..    18  59     ...    103  350 

December  22. — Sun  at  greatest  declination  south  ;   shortest 
day  in  northern  latitudes. 

Variable  Stars. 

Star.  R.A.  -    Decl. 

h.      m.  ,      /  h.  m 

o  52-3  ..    81    16  N.  ...  Dec.  21,  23  44  m 

3  54-4  ...  12   10  N.  ...     ,,  iS,  22  54  m 

,,  22,  21  46  m 

CGeminorum       ...     6  57-4  ...  20  44  N.  ...     ,,  19,  22  o  m 

,,  24,  22  o  M 

R  Canis  Majoris...     7  14-3  ...  16  11  S.    ...     ,,  19,     2  19  m 

„  20,     5  35  w 

S  Cancri       8  375  ...  19  26  N.  ...     ,,  21,  23  57  m 

S  Librae        1454-9...    8     4  S.      .     ,,  18,22  zm 

U  Coronae    15  13-6  ...  32     4  N.  ...     ,,  21,  18  29  nt 

R  Serpentis 15  45-5  ...  15  29  N.  ...     ,,  21,  M 

B  Lyrje 18  45-9  ...  33  14  N.  ...     ,,  18,     2  o  m 

Y  Cygni       20  45-6  ...  34  10  N.  ...     ,,  20,  21  51   ;« 

,,  23,  21  45  m 

S  Cephei      22  25*0  ...  57  50  N.  ...     ,,  23,    2  o  Af 

M  signifies  maximum  ;  tn  minimum. 


U  Cephei 
\  Tauri 


Meteor- Shower. 

R.A. 


Near  A  Ursce  Majoris. 


49  N. 


GEOGRAPHICAL  NOTES. 

The  new  number  of  Petcnnxnns  Mitteilungen  contains  a 
letter  from  Dr.  Hans  Meyer,  written  from  Taveta,  at  i-lhe  foot 
of  Kilimanjaro,  giving  some  details  of  his  ascent  of  that 
mountain,  and  the  results  of  his  observations  ;  it  is  accom- 
panied by  a  i-ketch-map.  Dr.  Meyer,  with  one  white  co.m- 
panion  and  twenty-two  natives,  started  from  Mareale's  village,  at 
the  south  foot  of  the  mountain,  in  the  beginning  of  July,  and" 
proceeded  to  mount  the  southern  slopes.  At  iSoo  metres  thj 
last  bananas  were  passed,  and  at  2000  metres  the  saturates 
forest  belt  was  entered,  which  on  the  second  day  was  left  be| 
hind.     Immediately  above  this  stretches  a  broad  belt  of  grass 


Dec.  15,  1887] 


NATURE 


159 


and  here  a  north-west  line  was  struck,  and  for  two  days  the 
upper  edge  of  the  forest  was  skirted.  On  the  second  day 
Johnston's  old  camp  was  reached,  where  in  the  water-courses  an 
abundance  of  large  Ericaceous  plants  was  found  growing.  Here 
the  two  beautiful  psaks  were  seen  for  the  first  time,  and  thence- 
forth only  partial  glimpses  wereobtaine:!  through  the  prevailing 
clouds.  Only  eight  men  would  go  further  than  this,  and  when 
the  snow-line  was  reached  five  of  then  refused  to  go  further. 
On  the  third  day  a  northerly  route  was  taken  over  grass-covered 
lava-fields,  with  snow-streams  sometimej  cutting  their  channels 
50  metres  deep  into  the  lava.  Dr.  Meyer  made  for  the  saddle 
which  joins  the  two  peaks  of  Kibo  on  the  west  and  Kimawenzi 
on  the  east.  After  6000  paces  a  level  spur  of  the  saddle  was 
reached,  where  between  the  great  blocks  of  lava  the  green 
meadows  marked  the  upper  course  of  the  snow-streams.  Here 
the  last  traces  were  seen  of  Senecio  Johnstoni  in  the  bed  of  a  brook 
about  4000  metres  high.  About  2000  paces  further  up  great  cliffs 
of  lava  were  met  with,  and  here  at  the  snow-line  the  tent  was 
pitched.  Thence,  with  his  companion  and  three  natives,  photo- 
graphic apparatus,  and  provisions  for  three  days.  Dr.  Meyer 
proceeded  to  ascend  to  the  Kibo  crater.  After  3000  paces  a 
wild  and  shatterei  hill  of  lava,  whence  the  lava-stream  proceeded, 
was  met  with  ;  this  was  the  first  of  a  series  of  such  hills,  between 
which  the  snow  lay  thick.  Turning  to  the  north-west  the  party 
made  direct  for  Kibo  over  the  old  lava-streams,  and  at  about 
5000  metres  reached  the  last  cone  of  ashes  before  the  ascent 
to  the  summit  itself  Here  the  two  white  men  encamped  (the 
natives  going  back),  with  a  night  temperature  of  -  11°  C. 
Early  next  morning  they  made  directly  for  the  east  side  of  the 
mountain  over  debris-covered  lava,  and  came  on  great  snow- 
fields  in  the  spaces  between  the  lava-hills.  After  a  time  shet 
came  on,  and,  as  the  sun  got  liigher,  clouds  covered  the  moun- 
tain, and  the  temperature  fell  froji  -f-  8^  C.  to  -  3°.  Dr. 
Meyer's  companion  became  so  exhausted  he  had  to  drop  behind, 
and  he  himself  suffered  greatly.  Proceeding  onwards,  he  met 
with  more  extensive  snow-fields,  and  higher  still  with  great  ice- 
blocks,  and  a  less  steep  stretch  covered  with  ice-debris.  Some 
20  metres  beyond  this  point  he  saw  a  great  blue  wall  of  ice  rise 
before  him  to  about  34  or  40  metres  high,  and  evidently  stretch- 
ing all  round  the  crater.  In  Dr.  Meyer's  exhausted  condition, 
and  without  ice-axes,  to  ascend  this  wall,  which  evidently  sur- 
rounded the  crater,  was  impossible.  So,  after  taking  some  hasty 
observations  and  notes,  he  began  his  descent,  which  was  accom- 
plished safely.  As  the  wall  seems  to  extend  round  the  east, 
south,  and  west  sides  of  the  crater.  Dr.  Meyer  concludes  that 
probably  the  crater  itself  is  fiHed  with  ice.  It  is  remarkable  that 
no  snow  seems  to  exist  at  all  on  the  north  side.  Dr.  Meyer 
promises  to  give  full  details  on  his  return  home  to  Leipzig,  and 
these  may  render  his  account  more  intelligible  to  Alpinists. 

Other  articles  in  the  new  number  are  on  "  Temperature 
Abnormalities  on  the  Earth's  Surface,"  by  Herr  Rudolf  Spitaler, 
accompanied  by  a  map  illustrative  of  the  paper  ;  and  "  Produc- 
tion of  Tin  in  the  Riouw-Tongga  Archipelago, "^by  Dr.  Posewitz. 

Lieut.  Wissmann,  whose  heal.h  is  not  good,  has  given  a 
preliminary  account  of  his  journey  across  Africa  to  the  Berlin 
Geographical  Society.  He  began  with  a  very  brief  sketch  of 
the  first  part  of  his  jo.i;neyings,  which  conjiUel  of  his  first 
voyage  up  the  Kassai.  By  his  last  journey  up  the  Kassai  he  has 
determined  that  its  largest  tributary  is  the  Kwango.  The 
Sankuru  has  only  half  the  volume  of  water  possessed  by  the 
Kassai  above  the  confiuence  of  the  two  rivers.  From  Lulua- 
burg,  Wissmann  began  his  great  forward  march  to  the  north  of 
the  Sankuru  and  Lomami.  A  lengthened  stay  was  made  on  the 
Lubi,  and  after  crossing  the  Sankuru  the  party  entered  the 
region  of  virgin  forests.  These  were  found  partially  peopled  by 
the  savage  Batetela  and  the  Batua,  the  latter  being  the  pygmies 
described  in  a  previous  number.  Turning  south,  Wissmann 
passed  through  the  territory  of  the  marauding  Ben  Mona, 
and  where  on  a  former  journey  he  found  gigantic  villages  he 
now  found  the  place  depopulated  by  war  and  small -pox.  From 
Nyangwe,  Wissmann  reached  the  East  Coast  by  Lakes  Tangan- 
yika and  Nyassa,  and  the  Zambesi.  The  latter  part  of  the  route 
was  through  hitherto  unexplored  territory.  Lieut.  Wissmann 
has  been  compelled  to  go  to  Madeira  on  account  of  his  health, 
but  we  believe  there  is  some  likelihood  of  his  appearing  at 
the  Royal  Geographical  Society  some  time  next  spring. 

From  the  full  report  of  recent  explorations  in  Tierra  del 
Fuego,  to  which  we  have  recently  referred  in  these  notes,  we 
have  some   further  information  as  to  the  real  character  of  the 


region.     The  reports  refer  chiefly  to  the  main  island,  which, 
,  instead  of  being  a  mountainous  region  of  eternal  snow,   pre- 
'  sents  great  diversity  of  surface — high  mountains,  deep  valleys, 
'  rolling  table  lands,  fertile  plain:,  numerous  lakes,  and  frequent 
water-courses.    Occupying  a  large  portion  of  the  extreme  north, 
I  and  extending  from  one  extremity  to  the  other  of  the  straits, 
\  are  continuous  chains  of  mountains,  running  into  peaks  several 
I  thousand  feet  high.     Adjacent  to  these  mountains  on  the  south 
is  a  wide  belt  of  high  and  rather  barren  plain,  running  the  entire 
I  width   of  the   island.      Then   succeed   lofty   table-lands   quite 
;   covered  with  forests.     South  of  this  is  another  chain  of  sierras, 
'  and  still  further  south  the  country  opens  into  an  extensive  plain, 
j  which  occupies  all  the  central  portion  of  the  island,  and  is  quite 
j  desolate  of  trees  except  small  patches  here  and  there  of  hard- 
•  wood  and  shrubs.     The  plain  is  covered  in  some  parts  with  an 
abundance  of  rich  grasses.     The  extreme  south  is  also  moun- 
tainous, some  of  the  peaks  being  volcanic,  with  numerous  glaciers 
and  dense  forests.    The  geological  formation  of  Tierra  del  Fuego 
exactly   corresponds  10  that  of   Patagonia.      The   broken  and 
disjointed  mountains,   with  wide  seas  running  where  they  have 
been  depressed,  are  but  the  continuation  of  the  Andes;  while 
the  plains  and  uplands  partake  of  the  sane  geological  charac- 
teristics as  the  Patagonian  steppes. 

At  Monday's  meeting  of  the  Royal  Geographical  Society  the 
paper  read  was  by  Mr.  D.  D.  Daly  on  his  explorations  in  British 
North  Borneo,  in  1883-87.  Mr.  Daly's  paper  consisted  mainly 
of  an  itinerary  with  minute  details  of  the  economic  character 
of  the  country  through  which  he  travelled,  and  of  the  people. 
He  gives  some  interesting  information  about  the  numerous  bird- 
nest  caves  which  he  met  with,  and  on  the  methods  of  collecting 
the  nests.  Most  of  the  people  are  eager  head-hunters,  but  Mr. 
Daly  made  treaties  with  several  of  the  tribes  in  which  they 
undertook  to  give  over  the  practice.  Mr.  Daly  went  in  both 
from  the  east  and  the  west  side.  In  the  former  journey  he  went 
up  the  River  Kinabatangan  to  the  cen'.re  of  North  Borneo  ;  in 
the  latter  he  went  a  long  distance  up  the  Padas  River. 


ON  THE  METEORIC  IRON  IVHfCH  FELL 
NEAR  CABIN  CREEK,  JOHNSON  COUNTY, 
ARKANSAS,  MARCH  27,  iSSS.i 

HE  Johnson  County  meteoric  iron,  the  tenth  whose  fall  has 
been  observed,  is  of  more  than  ordinary  interest,  because 
its  fall  is  so  well  substantiated,  because  it  is  the  second  largest 
mass  ever  seen  to  fall,  and,  again,  because  it  fell  within  five 
months  of  the  date  of  the  ninth  recorded  fall,  that  of  the 
Mazapil.  It  is  almost  an  exact  counterpart  of  the  Hraschina 
(Agram,  Croatia)  iron,  the  first  of  the  recorded  falls.  The 
Agram  iron  fell  in  two  fragments,  one  weighing  about  40  kg.n. , 
and  the  other  about  9  kgm.,  the  co.mbined  weight  being  about 
equal  to  that  of  the  Johnson  County  iron. 

This  mass  fell  about  6  miles  east  of  Cabin  Creek,  Johnson 
County,  Arkansas,  in  longitude  93"  17'  W.  of  Greenwich,  lati- 
tude 35^  24'  N.,  within  75  yards  of  the  house  of  Christopher  C. 
Shandy.  Mrs.  Shandy  states  that  about  3  o'clock  on  the  after- 
noon of  March  27,  1886,  while  in  her  house,  she  heard  a  very 
loud  report,  which  caused  the  dishes  in  the  closet  to  rattle,  and 
which  she  described  as  louder  thai  any  thunder  she  had  ever 
heard.  At  first  she  thought  it  was  caused  by  a  bombshell,  and 
ran  out  of  the  house  in  time  to  see  the  limbs  fall  from  the  top 
of  a  tall  pine-tree,  which,  she  says,  stands  about  75  yards  from 
her  dwelling.  She  did  not  investigate  the  matter  until  her  hus- 
band came  home,  about  6  o'clock  in  the  evening,  when,  in  com- 
pany with  John  R.  Norton,  their  hired  man,  they  went  out  to 
find  the  cause  of  the  noise  that  had  so  startled  Mrs.  Shandy. 
They  discovered  that  a  large  hole  had  lieen  made  in  the  ground 
by  some  falling  object.  The  iron  ha  I  buried  itself  in  the  groand 
to  the  depth  of  3  feet,  and  the  earth  around  it  to  the  thickness 
of  I  inch  seemed  to  be  burned.  The  ground  was  still  warm 
when  the  iron  was  taken  out,  and  the  iron  itself  was  as  hot  as 
the  men  could  well  handle. 

The  noise  was  heard  75  miles  away,  and  was  likened  to  a 
loud  report,  followed  by  a  hissing  sound,  as  if  hot  metal  had 
come  in  contact  with  water.  It  caused  a  general  alarm  among 
the  people,  and  teams  of  horses  25  miles  distant,  becoming 
frightened,  broke  loose  and  ran  away ;  and  in  Webb_  City, 
Franklin  County,  on  the  south  side  of  the  Arkansas  River,  a 
number  of  bells  kept  on  sale  in  a  store  are  said  to  have  been 


T 


'  Fron  the  American  Jour  al  of  Scimce,  vo'.  xxxii'.,  Jun-  1887. 


i6o 


NA  TURE 


[Dec.  15,  1887 


caused  to  tinkle.     Cabin    deck   is   on    the   north  side  of  the 
Arkansas  River. 

Mr.  B.  Caraway  says  it  was  heard  by  fully  1000  people,  and 
that  he  heard  two  loud  reports  at  Alma,  Crawford  County,  75 
miles  away,  at  3  o'clock  on  March   27,  1886.     The  report  was 


also    heard   at    Russellville,    and   in  the   adjoining    county    of 
Pope. 

Prof.  H.  A.  Newton,  who  has  kindly  interested  himself  in 
this  matter,  says  that  the  data  furnished  indicate  that  the  mass 
must  have  fallen  nearly  from  the  zenith.     This  was  the  direction 


Fig.  2. — Lower  Side. 
Johnson  County,  Arkansas.     (Scale  two-nintlis.) 


of  the  end  of  its  path,  the  earlier  portion  being  more  inclined 
to  the  vertical,  as  the  path  must  be  affected  by  gravity  and  the 
resistance  of  the  air.  The  earlier  direction  must  have  been 
from  the  north-east,  and  more  nearly  from  the  east  than  the 
north. 


The  mass  is  in  general  quite  flat  and  very  irregular,  resem  - 
bling  strongly  a  mass  of  molten  metal  thrown  on  the  ground 
and  then  pitted.     The  illustration  of  the  Agrain'''  mass  figured 

2  "  Beitrage  zur  Geschichte  und  Kenntnlss  Meteorischer  Stein-  unl 
Metall-massen,"  by  Dr.  Carl  von  Schreibers.     Wien,  1820,  folio,  plate  viii. 


Dec.  15.  1887] 


NATURE 


161 


by  Von  Schreibers  cculd  be  mistaken  for  the  upper  side  of  this, 
were  it  not  that  this  is  larger.  It  measures  lyj  inches  {44  cm.) 
by  15^  inches  (39  cin. ),  while  the  Agram  measures  15^  by 
12  inches.  A  high  ridge,  5  inches  high  at  the  highest  point 
(l2'5  cm.),  runs  through  the  centre.  One  half  of  the  mass  is 
not  over  3  inches  (75  cm.)  thick,  part  of  it  is  only  2  inches 
(5  cm.),  and  around  the  edge  it  is  only  i  inch,  or  less.  It  is 
only  exceeded  in  size,  among  the  irons  seen  to  fall,  by  the  Nejed, 
Central  Arabia,  now  in  the  British  Museum,  which  fell  in  the 
spring  of  1865,  and  weighs  59*420  kgm.  The  weight  is  107 J  lbs. 
(48750  kgm.),  and  it  is  intact  with  the  exception  of  three  small 
points,  weighing  not  more  than  2  ounces  in  all,  which  were 
broken  off.  One  of  these  is  seen  in  the  etched  figure,  another 
was  sent  to  Prof.  Clarke  by  Colonel  Betten  to  be  analyzed,  and 
the  third  piece  was  lost. 

The  two  sides  are  wholly  dissimilar  (see  Figs.  I  and  2  ^).  In 
fact,  one  would  scarcely  suppose  that  they  belonged  to  the  same 
mass.  The  upper  side  is  ridged  and  deeply  dented,  while  the 
lower  side  is  flat  and  covered  with  shallow  but  very  large 
pittings.  On  top  the  colour  is  in  many  places  almost  tin  white 
without  any  coating  whatever,  and  the  pittings  are  very  deep, 
and  usually  quite  long,  like  finger  depressions  made  in  potters' 
clay.  These  depressions  measure  from  2  cm.  to  4  cm.,  and  from 
I  cm.  to  4  cm.  This  side  is  remarkable  for  striae  showing  the 
flow  and  burning,  and  all  running  from  the  centre  toward  the 
edge,  identical  with  those  in  the  Rowton,  Nedagolla,  and 
Mazapil  irons,  but  on  a  larger  scale.  Some  of  them  are  thinner 
than  a  hair,  and  yet  twice  as  high  (like  a  high  knife-edge),  and  they 
are  from  i  to  4  inches  long.  In  one  space  of  5  cm.  twenty  are 
arranged  side  by  side,  and  on  one  small  part  which  is  black, 
there  are  fifty  lines  in  i  inch  of  space  (25  mm.),  all  running  in 
the  same  direction.  Near  all  the  pointed  edges  the  fused  metal 
has  flowed  and  cooled,  so  as  to  hang  like  falling  water.  The 
strite  and  marks  of  flowing  are  arou  id  the  edges  of  the  upper 
surface  (Fig.  i).     On  the  under  side  pittings  are  very  shallow, 


Fig.  3. 

but  much  broader,  one  depression,  apparently  made  up  of  four 
pittings,  being  20  cm.  long,  and  9*5  cm.  wide.  The  whole  side 
is  coated  with  a  black  crust,  i  mm.  thick,  and  having  minute 
round  bead-like  markings.  On  one  of  the  indentations  of  the 
lower  edge  the  crust  has  a  strikingly  fused  appearance,  as  if 
a  flame  had  been  blown  on  it  from  the  other  side.  In  reality 
this  edge  is  undoubtedly  the  place  where  a  greater  amount  of  burn- 
ing took  place  when  the  body  was  passing  through  the  air. 
Seven  small,  bead-like  lumps,  from  5  mm.  to  10  mm.  in  size, 
which  are  visible  on  this  side,  are  drops  of  metal  that  were 
entirely  melted,  and  flowed  and  cooled  so  that  they  resemble 
drops  of  a  thick  liquid.  There  are  also  to  be  seen  what  appear 
to  be  cracks,  fifteen  in  number,  and  nearly  as  thin  as  a  hair. 
One  &f  these  is  10  cm.  long,  and  extends  from  the  highly-fused 
edge  above  mentioned  towards  the  centre.  The  others  are 
from  3  cm.  to  5  cm.  long.  These  are  so  evenly  arranged  that 
they  are  without  doubt  Kcichenhach  lamellen,  in  which  the  inner 
troilite  has  been  burnt  out.  If  such  is  the  case,  they  are  as 
abundant  as  in  the  Staunton  (Va.)  mete  iric  iron. 

On  the  upper  side  ten  nodules  of  troilite  are  exposed,  measur- 
ing from  33  mm.  in  diameter,  to  55  mm.  long,  and  25  mm.  wide. 
On  the  lower  side  there  are  twelve  such  nodules  exposed,  13  mm. 
in  diameter,  while  the  largest  measures  19  mm.  by  39  mm.  On 
the  upper  side  these  nodules  are  coated  in  spots  with  a  black 
crust,  similar  to  that  found  on  the  mass,  but  on  the  lower  side 
the  crust  extends  completely  around  the  side  of  the  nodules, 
showing  the  fusion  very  plainly.  The  troilite  is  very  bright  and 
fresh,  like  a  newly  broken  mineral,  and  on  the  upper  side  one 
of  the  nodules  shows  deep  striation,  suggesting  that  the  entire 
nodule  is  o  .e  crystal,  and  the  exposed  part  is  only  one  side  of  it. 
In  some  cases  where  the  nodules  were  broken,  they  were  found 
to  be  iridescent.  This  is  one  of  the  octahedral  irons  showing 
the  Widmanstiitten  figures  beautifully  on  etching  (see  Fig.  3), 
and  is  one  of  the  Caillite  groups  of  Stanislas  Meunier  and  of  the 

'  These  figures  were  made  by  the  Ives  process,  and  are  faithful  reproduc- 
tions d.rect  from  the  photograph. 


mittlere  lamellen  of  Brezina.  The  lamellae  are  i  mm.  wide,  and 
the  markings  more  closely  approach  the  Rowton  *  and  Mazapil  * 
irons.  Fig.  4  shows  the  etching  on  the  surface  of  the  unpolished 
exterior,  there  being  no  crust.  The  lower  end  of  the  figure, 
which  is  flat,  was  produced  by  the  hammering  off  of  the  piece  ; 
but  the  etching  was  really  finer  where  it  was  done  on  the  natural 
surface  of  the  iron.  The  specific  gravity  of  the  small  piece 
figured  is  7773.  Troilite,  as  before  stated,  is  very  abundant  in 
the  mass.      Schreibersite  and   carbon  have  also   been    found 


Fig. 


between  the  laminre.     Chlorine  is  present  only  in  slight  quantity, 
as  scarcely  any  deliquescence  has  been  observed. 

The  following  is  a  comparative  table  of  analyses  of  meteoric 
irons  most  nearly  approaching  this  in  composition  :  — 


Cabin  Creek 
(Whitfield). 
Iron      ...     gr'Sy 
Nickel  6"6o 

Cobalt  ...     trace 
Phosphorus  041 

C,  S,  &c.      o  54. 

99-42 


Estherville  Mazapil 

(Smith).       (Mackintosh). 
9200        ...        9126 
7-10        ...  7845      ., 

0-69        ...  0653      .. 

0'II2  ...  0'30 


Rowton         Charlotte 

(Flight).         (Smith). 

9f25  ...      91-15 

8-582  ...        8-05 

0-371  ...        072 

—  ...       o-o6 


99902 


100-038 


100-203 


9998 


George  F.  Kunz. 


THE  ROYAL  HORTICULTURAL  SOCIETY. 

'J"* HE  Council  of  the  Royal  Horticultural  Society  request  the 
horticulturists  of  the  United  Kingdom  to   read  and  con- 
sider the  following  statement  and  appeal : — 

1.  The  grounds  at  South  Kensington,  known  as  the  Gardens 
of  the  Royal  Horticultural  Society,  having  been  devoted  to  the 
Imperial  Institute,  the  Council  endeavoured,  in  obedience  to  the 
wishes  so  graciously  expressed  by  Her  Majesty  the  Queen,  the 
Patron  of  the  Society,  to  obtain  from  the  Royal  Commissioners 
of  the  185 1  Exhibition  such  a  site  as  would  justify  them  in 
advising  the  Fellows  to  remain  at  South  Kensington. 

2.  The  Royal  Commissioners  were,  however,  unable  to  offer 
any  adequate  site,  and  gave  the  Council  distinctly  to  understand 
that  the  erection  of  offices,  committee-rooms,  &c.,  on  their. land 
would  not  be  held  to  confer  any  claim  whatever,  either  legal  or 
moral,  to  the  use  of  the  Conservatory  and  Gardens  for  the  pur- 
poses of  the  Society.  The  negotiations  consequently  came  to 
an  end.  An  informal  offer  has  since  been  made  by  the  Royal 
Commissioners  to  let  a  portion  of  the  Gardens  and  the  Conserva- 
tory to  the  Society  at  aguaranteed  rent  of  ;^iooo  a  year,  which 
with  rates,  taxes,  and  maintenance  would  involve  an  expenditure 
of  ;^2OO0  a  year  at  least,  a  sum  far  beyond  the  resources  of  the 
Society. 

3.  The  Society  has  been  in  existence  for  eighty-three  years, 
having  been  founded  in  1804,  and  incorporated  by  Royal  Charter 
in  1809.  It  has  done  much  to  advance  the  interests  of  practical 
and  scientific  horticulture,  and  it  is  the  recognized  authority  on 
all  horticultural  questions.  In  addition  to  the  valuable  work 
of  the  Scientific  Committee,  presided  over  by  Sir  J.  D.  Hooker, 
K.C.  S.I.,  C.B.,  F.  R.  S.,  new  and  rare  plants,  fruits,  and  veget- 
ables, collected  abroad  or  raised  at  home,  have  been  continually 
submitted,  in  large  and  increasing  numbers,  to  the  judgment  of 
the  Fruit  and  Floral  Committees,  whose  verdicts  are  accepted 
without  question.  The  Society  has  also  continuously  carried  on 
valuable  trials  of  plants,  fruits,  and  vegetables,  at  Chiswick.  It 
has  published  during  the  last  three  years  the  following,  viz.  : — 
"Report  of  the  Nation il  Apple  Congress  held  at  Chiswick, 
October  1883,"  "  Report  of  the  Orchid  Conference  held  at 
South  Kensington,  May  1885,"  "  Report  of  the  National  Pear 

'  "Meteorlten  .Sammluna;  de>  k.k.  minsralogisches  Hofcabinet  in  Wien." 
Wien.  1885,  8vo,  Plate  2,  Fig.  2. 
2  Aiiierka-n  Journal  of  Science,  III.  vol.  xxxiii.  p.  235,  Fig.  2. 


i62- 


NATURE 


{Dec.  15,  1887 


Conference  held  at  Chisvvick,  October  1885,"  "  Report  of  the 
Primula  Conference  held  at  South  Kensington,  April  i886,  and 
of  the  Orchid  Conference  held  at  Liverpool,  June  30,  18S6," 
"Report  on  the  Effects  of  Frost  on  Vegetation  during  the 
Severe  Winters  1879-80,  1880-81,  published  in  1887." 

4.  The  Council  are  of  opinion  that  the  connection  of  the 
Society  with  South  Kensington,  however  promising  at  first,  has 
proved  adverse  to  its  true  interests  and  permanent  welfare.  They 
recognize  that  altered  circumstances  require  a  complete  re- 
organization of  the  Society  on  a  more  |)opular  basis.  They 
believe  that,  while  local  Horticultural  Societies  attract  local 
support,  a  central  Metropolitan  Society  (to  which  local  Societies 
may  be  affiliated)  is,  in  the  interests  of  horticulture,  indispens- 
able. Under  analogous  circumstances  the  Royal  Agricultural 
Society  prospers,  although  there  are  local  Societies  in  every 
county  of  the  Kingdom. 

5.  The  Council  do  not  believe  that  the  Society  can  be  carried 
on  any  longer  under  the  trammels  of  the  existing  Charter,  which 
was  granted  in  i85o  in  view  of  a  wholly  different  state  of  things  ; 
nor  do  they  think  a  Charter  will  be  requisite  for  its  future  work- 
ing. They  believe  that  the  numbers  of  the  Council  should  be 
considerably  increased  and  their  mode  of  election  modified  and 
made  popular,  and  that  the  ordinary  work  of  the  Society  should 
be  carried  on  by  Committees,  under  powers  delegated  to  them 
by  the  Council.  They  hold  that  the  Society  should  henceforth 
devote  itself  strictly  to  the  advancement  of  practical  and  scientific 
horticulture. 

6.  The  view  of  the  Council  is  that  the  expenditure  of  the 
Society  should  be  reduced  as  much  as  possible,  and  its  resources 
devoted  to  the  following  objects  :  — 

(i)  The  maintenance  of  the  Chiswick  Gardens  and  the  con- 
duct of  plant,  fruit,  and  vegetable  trials  there  ;  and  possibly  the 
establishment  of  a  School  of  Gardening. 

(2)  The  immediate  engagement  of  such  premises  in  a  con- 
venient and  central  situation  as  may  suffice  for  office  require- 
ments, the  safe  housing  of  the  Lindley  Library,  the  meetings  of 
the  Society's  Committees,  and  its  fortnightly  shows,  to  the 
maintenance  of  whi.h  ihey  attach  great  importance. 

(3)  The  publication  of  periodical  Reports  of  the  work  done  at 
Chiswick,  and  by  the  Society's  Committees,  and  on  horticultural 
subjects  generally. 

7.  For  many  years  the  nature  of  the  accommodation  which 
the  Society  has  been  able  to  obtain  at  South  Kensington  has 
virtually  prevented  meetings  being  held  for  the  discussion  by  the 
Fellows  of  points  of  interest  in  the  practice  of  horticulture.  It 
is  essential  that  these  meetings  should  be  resumed,  and  it  is 
believed  that  they  wi'l  be  of  great  value  in  bringing  together 
those  who  take  an  active  part  in  British  horticulture.  It  is  also 
hoped  that  such  meetings  would  give  an  opportunity  for  the 
consideration  of  the  numerous  directions  in  which  the  rural 
economy  of  the  country  seems  likely  to  be  modified  by  the 
substitution  of  horticultural  for  agricultural  methods. 

8.  The  Council  would  recommend  that  the  subscription  should 
be  in  future  £2.  2s.  for  Fellows,  and  that  a  grade  of  Member  or 
Associate,  at  £1  is.,  should  be  created  for  professional  and 
practical  gardeners,  who  have  rarely  hitherto  belonged  to  the 
Society.  They  calculate  that  the  maintenance  of  Chiswick  will 
cost  ;^i5ooa  year,  and  that  for  the  other  purposes  of  the  Society 
a  further  sum  of  not  less  than  ;!^I500  a  year  will  be  required. 
During  1887,  150  Fellows  have  paid  £^'as.,  and  623  Fellows 
£2  2s.,  making  a  total  of  ;^I938  6s.,  a  sum  altogether  insufficient 
for  the  working  and  requirements  of  the  Society. 

9.  In  conclusion,  the  Council  believe  that  the  extinction  of  the 
Royal  Horticultural  Society  would  be  regarded  by  all  interested 
in  horticultm-e  as  a  national  loss.  The  histoiy  of  the  Society, 
and  the  good  work  it  has  done  and  is  doing,  entitle  it  to  the 
consideration  and  support  of  the  horticultural  world,  to  whom 
the  Council  make  this  appeal.  They  address  it  with  equal 
confidence  to  amateurs  and  to  the  trade,  in  the  belief  that 
their  interests  are  identical,  and  that  for  the  protection  and 
advancement  of  these  interests  the  maintenance  of  the  Royal 
Horticultural  Society  is  essential.  The  Council  have  had 
difficult  duties  to  perform.  While  they  are  willing  to  contir.ue 
to  discharge  these  duties,  if  desired,  they  believe  that  the  best 
course  would  be  for  them  to  place  their  resignations  in  the  hands 
of  the  Fellows,  at  the  end  of  the  year,  so  as  to  leave  the  Society 
entirely  unfettered.  But  they  consider  it  due  both  to  the 
l*ellows  and  to  themselves  to  say  that,  unless  they  receive 
assurances  of  adequate  support,  in  response  to  this  appeal,  the 
Society  must  necessarily  come  to  an  end. 


10.  The  favour  of  an  early  answer  is  requested  on  the  inclosed 
form.  The  Donations  wjuld  be  devoted  to  the  cost  of  etablishing 
the  Society  in  its  new  home  and  to  similar  purposes. 

On  behalf  of  the  Council, 

Trevor  Lawrence,  President. 


UNIVERSITY  AND  EDUCA  TIONAL 
INTELLIGENCE. 

Cambridge. — The  Thurston  Prize  at  Caius  College,  value 
£S'\,  for  the  best  original  investigation  by  a  memlier  of  the 
College  in  the  past  three  years  in  physiology,  pathology,  or 
practical  medicine,  has  been  adjudged  to  Mr.  C.  S.  Sherrington, 
M.A.,  M.B.,  Fellow  of  the  College. 

The  Sedgwick  Memorial  Committee  having  declined  to  assent 
to  the  building  of  rooms  for  teaching  purposes  with  the  Sedgwick 
Fund,  while  waiting  the  building  of  a  complete  museum  ;  and 
other  proposals  having  been  made,  a. syndicate  has  been  ap- 
pointed to  plan  out  the  entire  disposal  of  the  sites  surrounding 
the  new  museums,  so  as  to  satisfy  as  many  scientific  requirements 
as  possible. 

Mr.  E.  C.  Dow  on  has  been  appointed  Demonstrator  of 
Mechanism  and  Applied  Mechanics  in  succession   to  Mr.  Ames. 

Next  term  the  General  Board  of  Studies  will  nominate  a 
University  Lecturer  in  Pure  Mathematics,  in  consequence  of  the 
resignation  of  Mr.  Macaulay.  The  stipend  is  ^^50  per  annum, 
and  the  appointment  will  be  for  five  years.  A  preference  will 
be  given  to  a  lecturer  who  would  take  subjects  not  at  present 
represented.  Among  these  are  theory  of  equations,  theory  of 
nnmbers,  and  projective  geometry. 

Scholarships  in  Natural  Science  will  be  competed  for  this 
month  or  next  at  Gonville  and  Caius,  King's,  Jesus,  Christ's,  St. 
John's,  Trinity,  Em'iianuel,  and  Sidney  Sussex  Colleges.  The 
tutors  will  give  full  information. 

A  Clothworkers'  Exhibition  for  Natuial  Science,  tenable  at 
Oxford  or  Cambridge  for  three  years,  will  be  awarded  next 
July  by  an  examination  under  the  Oxford  and  Cambridge  Schools 
Examination  Board.  Particulars  may  b.^  obtained  from  the 
Censor  of  Non-Collegiate  Students,  Cambridge. 

Another  general  modification  of  examiner  hi|>s  in  natural 
science  is  proposed,  which  we  shall  refer  to  when  it  has  been 
discussed  by  the  Senate. 


SCIENTIFIC  SERIALS. 

American  Journal  of  Science,  November. — On  the  relative 
motion  of  the  earth  and  luminiferous  ether,  by  Albert  A. 
Michelson  and  Edward  W.  M(  rley.  A  complete  and  satis- 
factory explanation  of  the  aberration  of  light  is  given  by 
Frcsnel's  undulatory  theory,  which  assumes,  first,  that  the  ether 
is  supposed  to  be  at  rest  except  in  the  in'erior  of  transparent 
media ;  secondlv,  that  in  this  case  it  moves  with  a  velocity  less 

n"^  -  I 
than  that  of  the  medium  in  the  ratio  — .,     ,    where    n    is    the 

n- 

index  of  refracticn.  The  second  hypothesis  having  been  fully 
established  by  Fizeau's  celebrated  experiment,  the  first  alone  is 
dealt  with  in  this  paper.  From  the  delicate  researches  here 
described,  which  have  been  carried  out  by  the  aid  of  the  Bache 
Fund,  it  is  inferred  that,  if.there  be  any  relative  motion  between 
the  earth  and  the  luminiferous  ether,  it  must  be  small,  quite 
small  enough  entirely  to  refute  Fresnel's  explanation  of  aberra- 
tion. It  is  further  shown  that  the  theories  of  Stokes  and 
F'resnel  also  fail,  and  that  it  would  be  hopeless  to  attempt  to 
solve  the  question  of  the  motion  of  the  solar  system  by  observa- 
tions of  optical  phenomena  at  the  surface  of  the  earth. — On  the 
existence  of  carbon  in  the  sun  :  contributions  from  the  physical 
laboratory  of  Harvard  University,  by  John  Trowbridge  and 
C.  C.  Hutchins.  Without  discussing  the  well-known  observa- 
tions of  Abney  on  the  absorption-bands  in  the  solar  spectrum 
at  high  altitudes,  or  Siemens's  hypothesis  of  the  presence  of 
carbon  vapour  in  interplanetary  space,  the  authors  here  study 
the  remarkable  character  of  the  carbon  spectrum  foraaed  by 
the  voltaic  arc  in  air  between  carbon  terminals,  drawing  atten- 
tion to  the  evidence  presented  by  the  juxtaposed  solar  spectrum 
of  the  existence  of  carbon  in  the  sun.  They  conclude  that  at 
the  point  of  the  sun's  atmosphere  where  the  carbon  is  volatilized, 
the  temperature  of  the  sun  approximates  to  that  of  the  voltaic 


Dec.  15,  1887] 


NA  TURE 


163 


arc. — History  of  the  changes  in  the  Mount  Loa  craters,  by  Jame^ 
D.  Dana.  A  recent  visit  of  ten  weeks  to  Hawaii  has  enabled 
the  author  to  carry  out  the  purpose  expressed  in  his  com  nunica- 
tion  of  last  August.  Here  are  presented  only  such  facts  as  bear 
on  the  history  of  Kilauea  since  1832,  the  general  summary  and 
conclusions  being  reserved  for  future  numbars  of  the  journal. 
The  subject  is  illustrated  with  plates  of  Kilauea  Crater,  its 
lava  floor,  and  the  Halema'uma'u  basin. — Is  there  a  Huronian 
Group? (continued),  by  R.  D.  Irving:  For  the  extensive  region 
stretching  from  the  north  side  of  Lake  Huron  to  the  Mississippi 
it  is  here  concluded  that  the  succession  of  rocks  in  ascending 
order  is  from  the  great  complex  of  crystalline  schists,  gneiss, 
and  granite  thrjugh  the  Huronian  Group,  mainly  of  detrital 
rocks,  to  the  Keweenaw,  of  interleaved  detrital  and  eruptive  beds 
a:ul  the  Potsdam,  or  Upper  Cambrian  Sandstone,  with  great 
structural  breaks  between  the  first  and  second,  and  second  and 
third  groups.  The  Huronian  series  itself,  traceable  throughout 
the  Lake  Superior  province,  is  shown  to  be  of  claUic  and  sedi- 
mentary nature,  of  great  volume,  and  structurally  and  chrono- 
logically separated  from  all  other  rock  formations.  The  term 
Agnotozoic,  originally  suggested  by  Chamberlain,  is  proposed  to 
cover  the  whole  geological  interval  lying  between  the  base  of 
the  Cambrian  and  the  summit  of  the  Archaean  crystallines. — 
Description  of  an  iron  meteorite  from  St.  Croix,  County  Wis- 
consin, by  Davenport  Fisher.  This  specimen,  discovered  in 
1884  on  a  farm  in  Hammond  Township,  weighed  53  pounds, 
and  yielded,  on  analysis  :  iron  8978,  nickel  7'655,  cobalt  i'325, 
phosphorus  "512,  silica  "562,  with  traces  of  carbon,  copper,  and 
tin. — The  Rock  wood  meteorite,  by  J.  Edward  Whitfield. 
Picked  up  in  March  1887  in  a  field  in  Cumberland  County, 
Tennessee,  this  meteorite  yielded,  on  analysis  :  iron  87*59,  nickel 
1209,  with  traces  of  cobalt  and  copper.  —  Principal  characters 
of  American  Jurassic  Dinosaurs,  by  O.  C.  Marsh.  Tnis  paper, 
forming  Part  9  of  the  whole  series,  deals  with  the  skull  and 
dermal  armour  of  Stego  aurus,  a  nearly  complete  skeleton  of 
which  has  lately  been  discovered.  The  specimen  here  de- 
scribed constitutes  a  new  and  very  distinct  specie;,  fjr  which  the 
name  of  .5".  duplex  is  proposed. 

The  fournal  of  Botany  for  September  com-n3nces  with  an 
important  paper,  by  Mr.  Geo.  Massee,  on  the  growth  and  origin 
of  multicellular  plants.  He  describes  the  structure  an;l  m^da 
of  formation  of  the  gelatinous  membrane  exterior  ti  the  true 
cellulose-wall,  and  extending  continuously  over  the  whole  plant, 
which  is  not  uncomm  >\\  in  Algse,  and  nearly  universal  in  the 
Florideas.  It  can  be  easily  shown  that  the  formation  of  the 
cellulose-wall  never  precedes  that  of  this  mucilaginous  sheath, 
and  its  function  is  rather  a  support!  ig  than  a  protecting  one. 
The  mucilaginous  sheath  is  c  imposed  of  protoplasm,  or  of  a 
substance  very  nearly  allied  to  protoplasm.  It  is  usually  homo- 
geneous, even  after  the  appearance  of  the  cell-wall ;  but  in 
Pandorina  the  iimermost  portion  consists  of  parallel  rods  placed 
end  to  end  on  the  cell  wall.  The  portion  composed  of  rods 
stains  readily  with  methyl-violet  and  oiher  aniline  dyes,  while 
the  homogeneous  portion  does  n  it.  The  remainder  of  the  space 
in  this  number,  and  in  those  for  October  and  November,  is 
chiefly  occupied  by  monographs  or  descriptive  papers  on  new 
exotic  species,  or  to  others  mainly  of  interest  to  English  botanists. 
It  is  a  remarkable  evidence  that  the  old-fashioned  species-botany 
is  not  altogether  dead  in  this  country,  thit  no  fewer  than  three 
species  of  fl  jwering-plants  have  been  added  to  the  fl  )ra  of 
these  islands  during  the  past  year-— all  in  Scotland. 

We  have  received' the  numbers  of  the  Botanical  Gazette,  ])ub- 
lished  at  Crawfordsville,  Indiana,  for  August-November  1887. 
They  furnish  satisfactory  evidence  of  the  activity  of  botanical 
science  in  the  Western  States  of  North  America.  The  articles 
and  shorter  paragraph;,  where  they  are  origirial,  chiefly  concern 
the  flora  of  the  district  ;  but  we  may  mention  as  of  more  general 
interest  : — Vegetable  j^arasites  and  evolution,  by  W.  G.  Farlow  ; 
development  of  the  Umbellifer  fruity  by  J.  M.  Coulter  and  J.  N. 
Rose;  and  plant  oJoiirs,  by  A.  J.  Stace.  The  first  of  these 
papers  is  the  Pre>idential  Address  given  by  Prof.  Farlow  before 
Sec.ion  F  of  the  American  Association  for  the  Advancement  of 
Science.  In  it  he  treats  specially  of  the  phenomenon  of 
"symbiosis"  in  lichens,  and  of  "  mycorrhiza."  As  to  the 
former  he  doubts  whether  there  is  any  sufficient  evidence  of  the 
usual  statement  that  the  lichen-gonidia  derive  benefit  from  their 
association  with  the  fungus. 

The  Ntiovo  Giomile  BHanico  Italiano  for  October  ontains 
two  papers  only — on  the  Muscinece  of  the  Island  Giglio,  off  the 


coast  of  Tuscany,  by  Signor  .\.  Bntini  ;  and  an  enumeration  of 
plants  gathered  in  the  Balearic  Is'ands  in  1885,  by  Signor  P. 
Porta.  To  the  latter  is  prefixed  an  account  of  the  physical 
geography  and  natural  pro:luctions  of  the  islands,  and  a  rhnme 
of  previous  botanical  explorations. 

Re7)uc  d'AnthropologU',  troisieme  scrie,  tome  ii.,  sixieme  fasc, 
1887  (Paris). — On  the  stature  of  the  ancient  inhabitants  of  the 
Canary  Islands,  by  Dr.  R.  Verneau.  The  writer  draws  attention 
to  the  discrepancies  to  be  found  in  the  narratives  of  older 
chroniclers  and  travellers  as  to  the  stature  of  the  islanders  at  the 
time  of  the  discovery  of  the  Canarian  Archipelago.  Thus  while 
the  Portuguese  explorers  sent  out  by  Alphonso  IV.  of  Portugal  in 
1341  described  the  natives  as  of  the  same  melium  height  as  the 
Portuguese,  some  of  the  Spaniards  who  took  part  in  the  con- 
cjuest  of  the  islands  203  years  later  maintained  that  they  had  seen 
the  skeleton  of  a  man  24  feet  long,  and  spoke  of  living  men  who 
were  re-pectively  9  and  14  feet  in  height.  Setting  aside  the 
obvious  absurdity  of  such  estimates,  Dr.  Verneau  is  of  opinion  that 
in  regard  to  some  of  the  islands,  as  Lancerotte  and  Fortavente,  it 
may  be  fairly  assumed  that  the  Guancho  natives  of  pre-Spanish 
times  were  a  tall,  well-developed  race,  since  such  is  still  the 
character  of  the  people  in  isolated  villages  in  those  islands  which 
have  been  the  least  exposed  to  contact  with  strangers  and  invaders, 
while  he  found  that  the  bones  recovered  fr jm  ancient  local 
burying-grounds  of  the  latter  island  indicated  a  mean  height  of 
1-84  metre  for  men,  and  i'6o  for  women.  Ama'gamation  with 
invading  races  of  lower  stature  seems  to  have  lowered  the  mean 
height  of  the  people,  more  especially  in  the  south-east  of  the 
archipelago.  Dr.  Verneau  finds  that  in  regarvl  to  cephalic 
characteristics,  the  ancient  Guanchos  closely  resembled  the  Cro- 
Magnon  type,  and  he  believes  he  has  fnind  incontrovertible 
proof  that  Numidian,  Semitic,  and  other  North  African  races 
were  aming  the  earliest  invaders  of  the  Canaries. — On 
criminal  anthropology,  by  M.  Topinard.  This  is  virtually  a 
review  of  the  Italian  writer  C.  Lombroso's work  on  "Criminal 
Man,"  to  whose  theory  of  the  physical  and  atavic  character 
of  criminality  he  is  strongly  opposed.  Signor  Lombroso 
believes  that  the  criminal  is  born  with  irrepressible  tendencies 
to  crime,  and  that  certain  physical  anomalies  charac- 
terize the  born  malefactor.  M.  Topinard  disputes  not  merely 
his  mode  of  reasoning,  but  the  facts  which  he  adduces  in  support 
of  his  theories,  and  the  accuracy,  or  applicability,  of  his 
numerous  statistical  tables.  In  conclusion,  he  not  only  shows 
the  unscientific  methods  of  inquiry  followed  by  Lombroso,  but 
he  attacks' the  use  of  the  denomination  of  "criminal  anthro- 
pology," since  the  term  implies  the  possibility  of  grouping 
together  as  fixed  characteristics  a  number  of  phenomena  which 
depend  upon  endless  complications  of  psychical  and  social  causes 
whose  varied  action  on  physical  conditions  does  not  admit  of 
strict  scientific  determination. — Contributions  to  the  sociology 
of  the  Australians,  by  M.  Elisee  Reclus.  In  this  continuation 
of  a  series  of  papers  which  appeared  in  this  journal  last  year, 
M.  Reclus  treats  of  spirits  and  sorcerers.  The  author  uses  his 
materials  dexterously,  and  has  compiled  a  highly  interesting 
memoir  en  the  superstitions  and  mythological  fancies  of  these- 
races,  but  as  the  greiter  part  of  the  narrative  has  been  derived 
from  English  sources  it  has  little  novelty  or  interest  for  English 
readers,  who  will  find  few  facts  in  it  with  which  they  are  not 
already  familiar  through  the  w  ritings  of  Taplin,  Woods,  Grey,  &c. 
— On  lacustrine  and  lake-villages  and  pile-dwellings,  by  M. 
Pompeo  Castelfranco.  After  a  general  consideration  of  the 
subject,  more  especially  in  regard  to  Italy,  and  the  references 
bearing  on  it  i  \  the  writings  of  Italians  from  the  middle  of  the 
sixteenth  century  to  the  present  times,  the  author  gives  the  history 
of  the  discovery  of  lacustrine  dwellings  in  Northern  Italy 
which  was  made  in  1862.  Since  that  period  almost  all  the  lakes 
of  that  region  have  supplied  rich  yields  of  flints  and  pottery 
and  bionzes,  although  none  more  so  than  Lake  La  Garda.  The 
most  interesting  of  these  pile  stations  is  that  of  La  Lagozza, 
whose  area  of  2400  square  metres  was  not  wholly  revealed  till 
1880.  On  examining  the  various  piles  which  he  had  caused  to 
be  extracted  from  the  superincumbent  peat,  Signor  Castelfranco 
recognized  that  some  were  of  birch  (Be'iila  alba)  and  others  of 
fir  and  pine  {Pinus  picea,  P.  silveslris).  Various  flint  and 
polished  stone  implements  were  found,  but  with  the  exception  of 
a  bronze  fibula,  which  probably  belongs  to  a  later  age  than  the 
original  pile  dwellings,  not  a  vestige  of  meral  has  been  dis- 
covered at  Lagozza.  Potsherds  and  shreds  of  linen  fabric  have 
been  found,  but  the  most  remarkable  thing  is  the  complete 
absence  of  bones,  or  any  other  animal  remains  ;  and  while  the 


164 


NATURE 


\_Dec.  15,  1887 


abundance  of  seeds,  grains,  nuts,  acorns,  &c.,  plainly  indicates  the 
vegetable  character  of  the  diet  of  these  lake-dwellers,  the  appear- 
ance of  masses  of  husked  wheat  and  barley  proves  that  they 
practised  agriculture,  and  understood  how  to  thrash  and  winnow 
the  grain.  Considerable  interest  attaches  to  the  discovery  below 
the  peat,  in  what  is  characterized  as  the  archaic  bed,  of  large 
masses  of  seeds,  determined  by  Prof.  Sordelli  as  identical 
with  those  of  the  cultivated  so-called  Indian  poppy  {Papaver 
somniferum).  Heer  has  recorded  in  the  Swiss  pile-dwellings 
the  presence  of  poppy  seeds  which  he  referred  to  P.  seligeriim, 
but  whether  the  Italian  and  the  Swiss  remains  belong  to  the 
same  or  different  species  of  poppy,  the  use  to  which  they  were 
put  by  primaeval  men  in  the  two  countries  remains  an  unsolved 
problem. — On  the  Polynesians,  their  origin,  migrations,  &c.,  by 
MM.  Lesson  and  Martinet.  The  purpose  of  this  work  is  to 
refute  the  three  most  generally  accepted  theories  regarding  the 
origin  of  these  races,  viz.  whether  they  are  survivals  from  an 
almost  wholly  submerged  continent,  or  whether  they  are  of 
American,  or  of  Asiatic  descent ;  and  to  maintain  the  novel 
hypothesis  that  they  are  descendants  of  Maoris  of  the  Middle 
Island  of  New  Zealand.  These  views  the  authors  endeavour  to 
support  by  showing  close  analogies  of  language  between  the  two 
peoples,  affinities  between  certain  names  of  places  and  of  deities 
used  by  both,  and  frequent  identity  in  forms  of  belief,  rites,  and 
superstitions.  They  further  point  out  that  the  natives  of  the 
Marquesas,  who  are  regarded  as  of  the  purest  Polynesian  race, 
use  the  same  word,  Havaiki,  as  the  Maoris  to  denote  their 
original  ancestral  home.  From  these  and  numerous  other  lin- 
guistic affinities  the  writers  conclude  that  the  Maoris  are  the  auto- 
chthonic  ancestors  of  the  Polynesians,  and  that  the  Maori  language 
is  the  mother  speech  of  all  the  Polynesian  dialects. 


SOCIETIES  AND  ACADEMIES. 
London. 

Royal  Society,  November  24. — "On  the  Motion  of  a 
Sphere  in  a  Viscous  Liquid."  By  A.  B.  Basset,  M.  A.  Com- 
municated by  Lord  Rayleigh,  D.C.L. ,  Ssc.  R.S. 

The  determination  of  the  small  oscillations  and  steady  motion 
of  a  sphere  which  is  immersed  in  a  viscous  liquid,  and  which  is 
moving  in  a  straight  line,  was  first  effected  by  Prof.  Stokes  in 
his  well-known  memoir  "  On  the  Effect  of  the  Internal  Friction 
of  Fluids  on  the  Motion  of  Pendulums"  (Camb.  Phil.  Soc.  Traus., 
vol.  ix.  part  2,  p.  8)  ;  and  in  the  appendix  he  also  determines 
the  steady  motion  of  a  sphere  which  is  rotating  about  a  fixed 
diameter.  The  same  subject  has  also  been  subsequently  con- 
sidered by  Helmholtz  and  other  German  writers  ;  but,  so  far  as 
I  have  been  able  to  discover,  very  little  appears  to  have  been 
effected  with  respect  to  the  solution  of  problems  in  which  a  solid 
body  is  set  in  motion  in  a  viscous  liquid  in  any  given  manner, 
and  then  left  to  itself. 

In  the  present  paper  I  have  endeavoured  to  determine  the 
motion  of  a  sphere  which  is  projected  vertically  upwards  or 
downwards  with  given  velocity,  and  allowed  to  ascend  or  descend 
under  the  action  of  gravity  (or  any  constant  force),  and  which 
is  surrounded  by  a  viscous  liquid  of  unlimited  extent,  which  is 
initially  at  rest  excepting  so  far  as  it  is  disturbed  by  the  initial 
motion  of  the  sphere. 

In  solving  this  prol)lem,  mathematical  difficulties  have  com- 
pelled me  to  neglect  the  squares  and  products  of  velocities,  and 
quantities  depending  thereon,  which  involves  the  assumption 
that  the  velocity  of  the  sphere  is  always  small  throughout  the 
motion  ;  and  I  have  also  assumed  that  no  slipping  takes  place 
at  the  surface  of  the  sphere.  The  problem  is  thus  reduced  to 
obtaining  a  suitable  solution  of  the  differential  equation — 


where 


D  = 


dr' 


sin  %    d 
r     de 


(cosec  b'^  V 
dd) 


^  is  Stokes's  current  function,  and  /u  is  the  kinematic  coefficient 
of  viscosity.  The  required  solution  is  obtained  in  the  form  of  a 
definite  integral  by  a  method  similar  to  that  employed  by  Fourier 
in  solving  analogous  problems  in  the  conduction  of  heat ;  the 
resistance  experienced  by  the  sphere  is  then  calculated,  and  the 
equation  of  motion]  written  down  and  integrated  by  successive 


approximation  on  the  supposition  that  ju  is  a  small  quantity. 
The  values  of  the  acceleration  and  velocity  of  the  sphere  to  a 
third  approximation  are  found  to  be 


-f^- 


Va« 


fka      h^  !(i  -  \t)m  +  'Jt\  +f^rd'-f.t,  -^'{i-  IXt), 

V     T 


V  =  ((I 


■')  +  Vf 


-f"^/:{i'^r>-'^-'i!-\''^^'-^"'-'"'- 


where 


90 


<p{l)  =    f',-^^{(-r)-ldr, 


\=/cti. 


p  being  the  density  of  the  liquid,  <r  that  of  the  sphere,  and  a  its 
radius. 

It  thus  appears  that,  after  a  very  long  time  has  elapsed,  the 
acceleration  will  vanish  and  the  motion  will  become  steady. 
The  terminal  velocity  of  the  sphere  is /A.  —  ',  which  is  seen  to 
agree  with  Prof  Stokes's  result. 

If  the  sphere  were  projected  with  velocity  V,  and  compelled 
by  means  of  frictionless  constraint  to  move  in  a  horizontal 
straight  line,  the  values  of  the  acceleration  and  velocity  would 
be  obtained  from  the  preceding  formula;  by  expunging  the  terms 
/e-^', /A- "  (i -<-\0,  in  the  expressions  for  v  and  z/ respect- 
ively, and  then  changing/"  into  -  Va. 

The  preceding  resulls  can  only  be  regarded  as  a  somewhat 
rough  representation  of  the  actual  motion,  for  (i)  the  square  of 
the  velocity  has  been  neglected  ;  (2)  no  account  has  been  taken 
of  the  possibility  of  hollow  spaces  being  formed  in  the  liquid  ; 
(3)  if  the  velocity  of  the  sphere  became  large,  the  amount  of 
heat  developed  would  be  sufficient  to  vaporize  the  liquid  in  the 
immediate  neighbourhood  of  the  sphere,  and  the  circumstances 
of  the  problem  would  be  materially  changed. 

In  the  latter  part  of  the  paper  I  have  considered  the  problem 
of  a  sphere,  surrounded  by  a  viscous  liquid,  which  is  set  in  rota- 
tion with  given  angular  velocity,  H,  about  a  fixed  diameter,  and 
similar  results  are  obtained.  To  a  first  approximation  the  angu- 
lar velocity  is  equal  to  n,€-\  where  A  is  a  positive  constant, 
which  shows  that  the  motion  ultimately  dies  away. 

December  8. — "The  Sexual  Reproduction  of  Millepora 
plicata."  By  Dr.  Sydney  J.  Hickson. 

Considerable  attention  has  of  recent  years  been  paid  by 
naturalists  to  the  phenomena  connected  with  tha sexual  repro- 
duction of  the  Hydromedusa;.  Stimulated  by  the  brilliant  results 
obtained  by  Allman  and  Weismann,  several  naturalists  have 
investigated  the  structure  of  the  various  Medusa;  and  medusoid 
gonophores  found  in  the  group,  the  origin  of  the  sexual  cells, 
and  the  development  of  the  embryo.  These  results  have,  on 
the  whole,  been  so  interesting  and  important  that  it  was  confi- 
dently anticipated  that  an  investigation  of  the  phenomena  con- 
nected with  the  sexual  reproduction  of  Milleporidre  would  yield 
results  of  considerable  interest.  The  systematic  position  of  this 
family  has  always  l)een  a  doubtful  one,  and  naturalists  were 
agreed  that  until  the  sexual  reproduction  was  described,  the 
position  assigned  to  them  could  only  be  considered  a  temporary 
one. 

It  was  my  good  fortune  when  in  Talisse  Island,  North 
Celebes,  to  find  on  the  reef  just  opposite  my  hut  a  fine  specimen 
of  j^////^/ora//2V«/«  in  vigorous  growth.  I  visited  it  whenever 
the  tide  allowed,  in  the  hopes  of  seeing  the  polyps  fully  ex- 
panded, and  of  beinj  able  to  search  them  for  any  form  of 
gonophore  they  might  possess.  In  this,  however,  I  was  dis- 
appointed. Notwithstanding  all  my  precautions,  I  never 
succeeded  in  finding  the  polyps  more  than  partially  expanded, 
and  I  could  find  no  gonophores. 

Having  collected  some  specimens  and  dissolved  the  cal- 
careous skeleton  in  strong  acid,  I  discovered  in  the  canals 
of  the  ccenosarc  both  the  ova  and  the  spermospores  ;  but  the 
unforeseen  difficulties  to  be  met  with  in  working  in  a  hot  little 
bamboo  hut  in  a  tropical  island  prevented  me  from  making 
any  satisfactory  series  of  sections,  and  I  was  reluctantly  obliged 
to  leave  the  further  investigation  of  the  subject  until  I  returned 
to  a  laboratory  in  Europe. 

Since  my  return  home  I  have  made  a  large  number  of  prepa- 


Dec.  15,  1887] 


NATURE 


165 


rations,  and  the  results  I  have  obtained  may  be  summed  up  as 
follows  : — 

Both  the  male  and  female  sexual  cells  arise  in  the  ectoderm  of 
the  ccjcn  Ksarcal  canal  system.  At  an  early  stage  they  perforate 
the  mes  )glica  and  take  up  a  position  in  the  endoderm. 

The  ova  at  an  early  stage  become  stalkeJ.  The  stalk  of  the 
ovum,  which  is  simply  a  modified  pseudopodium,  serves  to  keep 
the  ovum  attached  to  the  mesogloea.  The  stalk  is  sometimes 
completely  withdrawn,  and  the  ovum'  by  amoeboid  movements 
migrates  along  the  lumen  of  the  canals  to  a  more  favourable 
locality. 

Maturation  and  impregnation  occur  while  the  ovum  is  still  in 
the  canals. 

The  mature  ovum  is  very  small  (l/loo  mm.  in  diameter),  and 
is  alecilhal ;  nevertheless,  it  does  not  segment. 

The  germinal  vesicle  of  the  fertilized  ovum  splits  up  into  a 
number  of  fragments,  which,  after  a  curious  series  of  movements 
in  the  ovum,  are  eventually  scattered  over  its  substance. 

By  the  time  these  fragments  are  thus  .scattered  over  the  ovum, 
they  have  reached  a  considerable  size,  and,  from  faint  markings  in 
the  substance  of  the  ovum,  no  doubt  can  be  retained  that  they 
are  in  reality  the  true  nuclei  of  a  morula  stage  in  the  develop- 
ment of  the  embryo.  The  embryo  next  assumes  the  form  of  a 
solid  blastosphere,  and  its  subsequent  history  is  lost. 

It  will  be  a  very  interesting  point  to  determine  the  precise 
mode  of  discharge  of  the  embryo.  I  am  very  strongly  of 
opinion  that  the  embryo  is  discharged  by  the  mouth  of  the 
gastrozooid,  but  I  was,  of  course,  unable  to  observe  this  in  the 
living  state.  Whether  this  is  correct  or  not,  the  fact  remains 
that  I  have  been  unable  to  find  in  any  of  my  preparations  any 
trace  of  a  free  or  fixed  gonophore,  containing  either  embryos 
or  ova. 

In  the  development  of  the  spermatoza,  a  similar  phenomenon 
is  found  to  that  in  the  development  of  the  embryo.  The 
spermospore  does  not  divide  into  a  sperm-morula,  the  nucleus 
alone  fragments,  and  the  subsequent  formation  of  spermoblasts 
does  not  occur  until  a  very  late  stage.  When  the  spermoblasts 
are  mature  they  are  found  in  simple  sporosacs  on  the  dac- 
tylozooids.  The  sporosacs  exhibit  no  traces  of  any  medusoid 
structure. 

These  researches  tend  to  prove  that  the  Milleporidae  belong 
to  a  separate  stock  of  the  Hydrozoa  from  the  Hydromedusse,  a 
stock  which  probably  never  possessed  free-swimming  medusiform 
gonophores. 

There  seems  to  be  no  true  relationship  between  Millepora  and 
Hydractinia.  The  absence  of  segmentation  in  the  developing 
embryo  may  probably  be  accounted  for  by  the  amoeboid  move- 
ment which  it  exhibits  after  development  has  commenced.  The 
evidence  before  us  does  not  support  the  view  that  the  ovum 
of  Millepora  formerly  contained  much  yolk,  and  has  subsequently 
lost  it. 

Physical  Society,  November  26. — Dr.  Balfour  Stewart, 
President,  in  the  chair. — Mr.  Asutosh  Makhopadhyay  was 
elected  a  member  of  the  Society. — The  following  communica- 
tions were  read :— On  the  analogies  of  influence-machines  and 
dynamos,  by  Prof.  S.  P.  Thompson.  The  author  pointed  out 
that  in  nearly  all  influence-machines  there  are  two  stationary 
parts  ("inductors  ")  electrified  oppositely,  which  are  analogous 
to  the  field-magnet  of  dynamos,  and  a  revolving  part  carrying 
'"sectors"  which  correspond  to  the  *'f^<r//c?«5"  of  an  armature. 
To  prevent  ambiguity  Prof.  Thompson  proposes  to  call  the  in- 
ductors ^^ field  plates,"  and  the  revolving  parts  as  a  whole  an 
*'  armature."  In  the  Wim-.hurst  machine  both  field  plates  and 
armature  rotate,  and  each  acts  as  field  plates  and  armature 
alternately.  In  the  two  field  plate  influence-machines  there  are 
four  and  sometimes  six  brushes.  Two  of  these  act  as  potential 
equalizers,  two  as  field  plate  exciters,  and  the  remaining  two  (if 
any)  are  generally  placed  in  the  "  discharge  "  or  external  circuit. 
The  Hollz  machine  having  only  four  brushes,  two  serve  the 
double  purpose  of  potential  equalizers  and  discharge  circuit,  and 
this  machine  excites  itself  best  when  the  discharging  rods  are  in 
contact.  In  this  respect  it  resembles  a  series  dynamo  which  only 
excites  itself  when  the  external  circuit  is  closed,  but  on  opening 
the  circuit  (say  by  inserting  an  arc  lamp)  produces  remarkable 
effects.  So  in  the  Holtz  machine  on  separating  the  discharging 
knobs  a  shower  of  sparks  results.  The  Toepler  machine  (made  by 
Voss)  having  six  brushes  resembles  a  shunt  dynamo,  and  excites 
itself  best  on  open  external  circuit.  Analogies  were  traced 
between  Thomson's  replenisher  and  the  Griscom  motor.  Arma- 
tures of  influence-machines,  as  in  dynamos,  can  be  divided  into 


ring,  drum,  disk,  and  pole  armatures,  and  examples  of  each  kind 
were  mentioned.  The  "  Clark  Gas  Lighter"  is  a  good  example 
of  a  drum  armature,  and  a  diagram  showing  the  internal  arrange- 
ments was  exhibited.  An  example  of  an  analogue  to  the  com- 
pnind  dynamo  was  mentioned  as  existing  at  Cambridge,  in  the 
form  of  a  Holtz  machine  believed  to  have  been  modified  by  Clerk 
Maxwell.  Another  analogue  with  dynamos  is  found  in  the  dis- 
placement of  the  electric  field  when  the  armature  is  rotated,  just 
as  the  magnetic  field  of  a  dynamo  is  shifted  round  in  the  direc- 
tion of  rotation.  Further  analogies  were  traced  between 
"critical  velocity  "  of  dynamos  (which  depends  on  the  resistances 
in  the  circuit)  below  which  they  do  not  excite  themselves,  and  a 
similar  critical  velocity  of  influence-machines  ;  e.g.  in  a  Wims- 
hurst  or  Voss  machine,  the  potential  equalizing  circuit  should 
have  a  low  resistance  if  they  are  to  excite  themselves  readily. 
Self-exciting  dynamos  excite  better  when  the  iron  is  bad  and 
retains  the  magnetism,  and  influence-machines  excite  better  when 
the  field  plates  are  made  of  paper  or  such  substance  as  can  well 
retain  a  residual  charge.  Finally  an  apparatus  analogous  to 
Thomson's  "water-dropping  accumulator"  was  exhibited,  in 
which  an  electric  current  was  generated  by  mercury  falling  down 
a  tube  between  the  poles  of  a  magnet. — 'On  the  eff'ect  produced 
on  the  thermo-electric  properties  of  iron  when  under  stress  or  strain 
by  raising  the  temperature  to  a  bright  red  heat,  by  Mr.  Herbert 
Tomlinson.  In  June  last  the  author  described  some  remarkable 
"effects  of  change  of  temperature  on  twisting  and  untwisting 
wires  which  have  suffered  permanent  torsion,"  of  which  the 
present  paper  is  a  continuation.  It  is  found  that  at  or  about 
the  critical  temperature  (a  bright  red  heat)  mentioned  in  the 
previous  paper,  a  sudden  E.M.F.  is  generated  at  the  junction  of 
two  iron  wires,  one  of  which  is  under  stress  or  has  suffered 
permanent  strain,  and  the  other  in  an  unstrained  state.  By 
suddenly  bringing  a  red-hot  iron  wire  in  contact  with  cold  iron, 
an  E.M.F.  of  about  1/20  volt  is  produced.  If  copper  be  used 
the  E.M.F.  is  about  \  volt.  The  author  also  showed  that  if  one 
part  of  an  annealed  iron  wire  is  heated  to  a  bright  red  by  a 
bunsen  flame,  an  E.M.F.  is  generated  if  the  position  of  the  flame 
is  slightly  altered,  the  direction  of  the  E.M.F.  depending  on  the 
direction  of  the  displacement.  Prof.  Ayrton  believed  the  high 
E.M.F.  exhibited  by  hot  and  cold  copper  was  really  due  to 
oxide  of  copper  ;  and  Prof.  S.  P.  Thompson  said  that  different 
effects  could  be  produced  by  using  the  oxidizing  or  reducing 
parts  of  the  flame  in  heating  the  wire. — On  the  method  of  dis- 
criminating real  from  accidental  coincidences  between  the  lines 
of  different  spectra,  with  some  applications,  by  Mr.  E.  T.  J. 
Love. 

December  10. — Prof.  W.  E.  Ayrton,  Vice-President, 
in  the  chair. — Mr.  E.  A.  C.  Wilson,  and  Mr.  W.  E, 
Sumpner  were  elected  members  of  the  Society. — Mr.  H. 
G.  Madan  described  the  optical  properties  of  phenyl-thio- 
carbimide.  This  body,  derived  from  aniline,  is  a  colourless 
liquid,  density  i  '35°  C,  and  of  high  boiling-point  222"  C.  The  re- 
fractive indices  for  the  A  and  G  lines  are  1*639  and  1*707 
respectively.  It  is  thus  seen  to  be  a  highly  refractive  liquid, 
and  to  have  about  the  same  dispersive  power  as  carbon-bisulphide, 
whilst  its  use  in  prisms  is  unattended  by  many  of  the  risks  and 
inconveniences  experienced  with  carbon-bisulphide.  The  dis- 
persion at  the  blue  end  of  the  spectrum  is  very  marked.  Being 
less  mobile  than  carbon-bisulphide,  it  is  less  affected  by  con- 
vection currents.  The  "refractive  equivalent"  calculated  from 
its  chemical  constitution  differs  considerably  from  the  observed 
value,  and  this  difference  the  author  believes  due  to  the  presence 
of  the  phenyl  radicle  and  sulphur  atom.  A  polarizing  prism 
made  on  Jamin's  plan,  but  using  phenyl-thio-carbimide  as  the 
liquid,  gives  a  fairly  wide  angular  field  (about  25°).  Mr.  Hilger 
stated  that  there  was  no  great  need  of  liquid  prisms  now,  for 
very  dense  flint  glass  could  be  obtained  with  mean  index  of 
about  I  "8.  Dr.  Perkin  has  recently  supplied  him  with  Canada 
balsam  perfectly  colourless,  and  which  does  not  tarnish  the 
polished  faces  of  spar  ;  hence  one  of  the  greatest  objections  to 
the  use  of  Canada  balsam  in  spar  polarizing  prisms  has  been 
removed.  Dr.  Gladstone  pointed  out  that  the  constants  for  the 
phenyl  radicle  and  for  sulphur  atoms  had  been  determined,  and 
thought  the  calculated  "  refractive  equivalent "  obtained  by  in- 
cluding these  would  be  much  nearer  the  observed  value  than  the 
one  given  by  Mr.  Madan. — On  the  recalescence  of  iron,  by 
Mr.  n.  Tomlinson.  If  an  iron  bar  which  has  suffered  per- 
manent strain  be  heated  to  a  white  heat  and  allowed  to  cool, 
the  brightness  at  first  diminishes  and  then  reglows  (recalesces) 
for  a  short  interval.     Under  favourable  circumstances  as  many 


1 66 


NATURE 


{Dec.  15,  1887 


as  seven  reglows  have  been  observed  during  one  cooling. 
Generally  two  decided  ones  are  observed,  one  between  500°  and 
1000°  C,  and  the  other  below  500°  C.  The  eftects  the  author 
believes  due  to  "  retentiveness "  of  the  material,  somewhat 
similar  to  the  causes  of  residual  magnetism  and  residual  charge 
of  a  Leyden  jar.  A  table  of  experimental  results,  giving  the 
torsional  elasticity  and  internal  friction  at  different  temperatures, 
for  iron  wire,  showed  sudden  increases  in  internal  friction  at  tem- 
peratures of  about  550°  and  1000°  C.  The  table  also  shows  that  the 
torsional  elasticity  ■■lowly  decreases  as  the  temperature  increases, 
whereas  the  internal  friction  increases  enormously.  This  explains 
why  bells  cease  to  emit  musical  notes  when  heated.  Tlie  author  finds 
that  the  recalescence  at  the  hiijher  temperature  is  not  appreciably 
accelerated  by  mechanical  vibration  such  as  hammering,  &c. , 
but  those  occurring  at  lower  temperatures  are  greatly  influenced 
by  such  treatment  and  by  magnetic  disturbances.  Prof.  Forbes 
believed  the  explanation  of  recalescence  given  by  himself  about 
1873  is  sufficient  to  account  for  the  effects  observed.  This  ex- 
planation postulates  a  sadden  increase  in  thermal  conductivity 
about  the  temperature  at  which  recalescence  occurs,  which 
permits  the  heat  from  the  inside  to  reach  the  outride  more  readily, 
and  thus  raise  the  temperature  of  the  surface.  The  subsequent 
reglows  observed  by  Mr.  Tomlinson  he  believes  due  to  con- 
vection currents  of  air.  Prof.  Riicker  suggested  that  calorimetric 
experiments  might  determine  which  view  was  the  true  one,  and 
Prof.  Ayrton  thought  the  question  might  be  decided  by  having 
two  half-round  bars  nearly  in  contact  at  their  flat  sides,  heated 
up  and  allowed  to  cool,  and  noting  whether  any  sudden  change 
in  the  bending  of  each  bar  (due  to  unequal  temperature  at  the 
inner  side  and  outer  sides)  took  place  about  the  critical 
temperature.- — On  the  rotation  of  a  copper  sphere  and  of 
copper  wire  heliies  when  freely  suspended  in  a  magnetic 
field,  by  Dr.  R.  C.  Shettle.  The  author  exhibited  the  apparatus 
with  which  his  experiments  "on  the  supposed  new  force" 
were  made,  the  results  of  which  were  published  in  the  Electrician, 
vol.  xix.  Dr.  Hofford  has  recently  made  similar  experiment-;, 
usirjf'  brass  disks,  and  his  results  seem  to  point  to  "  diamagnetic 
non-uniformity  "  of  the  disks  as  the  cause  of  the  phenomena  he 
observed. 

Linnean  Society,  December  i. — ^W.  Carruthers,  F.R.S., 
President,  in  the  chair. — There  was  exhibited  for  Mr.  O.  Fraser, 
of  Calcutta,  a  specimen  supposed  to  be  a  weather-worn  seed  of  a 
palm,  picked  up  on  the  Madras  coast.  Opinions  given  at  the 
meeting  referred  it  to  the  consolidated  roe  of  a  fish,  doubts  being 
thrown  on  its  vegetable  nature. — Sir  John  Lubbock  read  a  paper, 
an  account  of  which  we  have  already  printed,  on  the  habits  of 
ants,  bees,  and  wasps. — A  paper  was  read  by  Mr.  C.  B.  Clarke, 
on  a  new  species  of  Panictim  with  remarks  on  the  terminology 
of  the  Gramine^. 

Geological  Society,  November  23.— Prof.  J.  W.  Judd, 
F.R.S.,  President,  in  the  chair. — The  following  communications 
were  read : — Note  on  a  New  Wealden  Iguanodont,  and  other 
Dinosaurs,  by  R.  Lydekker. — On  the  Cae  Gwyn  Cave,  by  Prof. 
T.  McKenny  Hughes,  who  contended  that  the  drift  outside  the 
cave  was  a  marine  deposit  remanie  from  older  beds  of  glacial 
age,  but  was  itself  post-glacial  and  of  approximately  the  same 
date  as  the  St.  Asaph  drift.  He  maintained  that  the  marine 
drift  was  deposited  before  the  occupation  of  the  cave  by  the 
animals  whose  remains  have  been  found  in  it  ;  that  at  the  time 
of  the  occupation  of  the  cave  the  upper  opening  now  seen  did 
not  exist,  but  the  animals  got  in  by  the  other  entrance ;  that 
against  the  wall  of  the  cave  where  it  approached  most  nearly  to 
the  face  of  the  cliff,  the  drift  lay  thick  as  we  now  see  it ;  that  by 
swallow-hole  action  the  cave  was  first  partially  filled,  and  then 
the  thinnest  portion  of  its  wall  gave  way  gradually,  burying  the 
bone-earth  below  it,  and  letting  down  some  of  the  drift  above  it, 
so  that  some  of  it  now  looks  as  if  it  might  have  been  laid  down 
by  the  sea  upon  pre- existing  cave-deposits.  The  reading  of  this 
paper  was  followed  by  a  discussion,  in  the  course  of  which  Dr. 
Hicks  argued  strongly  against  the  author's  conclusions. 

Mathematical  Society,  December  8. — Sir  J.  Cockle, 
F.R.S.,  President,  in  the  chair.  — Messrs.  W.  B.  Allcock,  J. 
W.  Mulcaster,  and  I.  Beyens,  Cadiz,  were  elected  members. — 
The  following  communications  were  made  : — The  algebra  of 
linear  partial  differential  operators,  by  Capt.  Macmahon,  R.A. 
— On  a  method  in  the  analysis  of  ternary  forms,  by  J.  J. 
Walker,  F.  R.S. — Confocal  paraboloids,  by  A.  G.  Greenhill. — 
Note  on  the  solution  of  Green's  problem  in  the  case  of  the 


sphere,   by  A.  R.  Johnson. — Uni-Brocardal  triangles  and  their 
inscribed  triangles,  by  R.  Tucker. 

Chemical  Society,  November  17. — Mr.  William  Crookes, 
F.  R.S.,  President,  in  the  chair. — The  following  papers  were 
read  : — Zinc-copper  and  tin-copper  alloys,  by  A.  P.  Laurie. — ■ 
The  halogen  substituted  derivatives  of  benzalmalonic  acid,  by 
C.  M.  Stuart.  —  Note  on  a  modification  of  Traube's  capillari- 
meter,  by  IL  S.  Elw(  rthy. — The  formation  of  hyponitrites  :  a 
reply,  by  Edward  Divers,  F.R.S. — Reply  to  the  foregoing  note, 
by  W.  R.  Dunstan. 

Royal  Microscopical  Society,  November  9. — Rev.  Dr. 
Da'linger,  F. R.S.,  President,  in  the  chrdr. — Mr.  E.  M.  Nelson 
called  attention  to  a  suggestion  for  supplying  a  want  which 
many  had  felt  of  a  really  good  achromatic  single  lens  or  loupe 
for  microscopic  purposes,  of  ^-inch  foca«.  He  had  found  that 
the  want  was  met  by  a  Seibert  No.  LIL  objective,  having  its 
adjusting  screw  removed. — Mr.  Nelson  further  said  that,  having 
lately  obtained  an  improvement  in  optical  power,  he  had  been 
able  to  do  a  little  more  in  the  matter  of  resolution,  and  one  of 
the  first  objects  he  had  tried  was  striperl  muscular  fibre.  In  the 
eai-ly  days  of  microscopy  a  muscular  fibril  used  to  be  represented 
as  a  series  of  light  and  dark  bands,  the  dark  band  being  about 
twice  the  diameter  of  the  white  band.  In  1854  Mes^rs.  Huxley 
and  Busk  discovered  a  dark  stripe  in  the  middle  of  the  bright 
band,  and  subsequently  Hensen  placed  a  similar  darker  stripe 
in  the  middle  of  the  dark  band.  With  his  latest  optical  appli- 
ances he  had  been  able  to  see  a  faint  white  stripe  on  either  side 
of  Hensen's  dark  stripe.  He  estimated  the  diameter  of  the 
stripes  to  be  all  equal.  Although  he  saw  evidences  of  long' 
tudinal  breaking  up,  he  could  see  nothing  of  Schafer's  "beads. 
— The  third  point  noticed  by  Mr.  Nelson  was  Mr.  Francis' 
method  of  improving  definition  of  such  an  object  as  Amphipleura 
pelliicida  by  uring  the  analyzer.  He  had  tested  the  plan,  and 
found  that  it  did  intensify  the  resolution  in  a  very  marked 
degree. — Mr.  Nelson  also  exhibited  and  described  a  new  port- 
able microscope  made  by  Messrs  Powell  and  Lealand  from  his 
drawings,  and  the  new  photomicrographic  camera  designed  by 
Mr.  C.  L.  Curties  and  himself. — Mr.  Nelson  further  exhibited  a 
new  eye-piece  which  he  had  devised.  Having  for  some  time 
pa'.t  made  a  great  many  experiments  with  achromatic  eye-pieci 
of  double,  triple,  and  other  forms,  he  had  not  succeeded  in  pr  > 
ducing  any  combination  whose  defining  power  surpassed  that  oi 
the  Huyghenian.  The  best  results  were  obtained  by  achromat- 
izing the  eye-lens — i.e.  by  making  it  of  a  bxonvex  and  a  plano- 
concave, with  its  convex  side  towards  the  eye.  The  aperture  of 
the  diaphragm  was  reduced  until  the  diameter  of  the  field  was 
equal  to  that  of  the  Abbe  compensating  eye  piece.  This  eye- 
piece, with  the  achromatized  eye-lens,  gives  the  sharpest  images 
he  had  seen.  It  works  perfectly  well  with  the  24  mm.  and 
3  mm.  Zeiss  apochromatic  objectives. — Mr.  C.  R.  Beaumont 
then  exhibited  and  described  his  new  form  of  slide  for  observing 
living  organisms,  and  read  a  paper  on  the  metamorphoses  of 
AiiiabcB  and  Actinophrys,  in  which  he  claimed  to  have  observed 
the  development  of  an  Aviaba  into  an  Aclinophiys,  and  then 
into  a  Di[ilugia  and  an  Arcel'a. — Mr.  H.  B.  Brady's  paper,  a 
synopsis  of  the  British  recent  Foraminifera,  was  communicated 
to  the  meeting  by  Prof.  Bell. 

Paris. 

Academy  of  Sciences,  December  5,— M.  Janssen  in  the 
chair.- — Letter  to  M.  Bertrand  in  connection  with  his  previous 
note  on  a  theorem  relative  to  errors  of  observation,  by  M.  Faye. 
It  is  pointed  out  that,  if  we  consider  all  the  combinations  of 
errors,  the  relations  of  the  sums  corresponding  to  the  greatest 
and  smallest  of  these  errors  are  comprised  between  the  extremes 
I  and  3'9i5.  Both  of  these  are  infinitely  improbable  in  them- 
selves, while  their  mean,  2'457,  differs  little  from  the  number 
2'4i4  given  by  M.  Bertrand. — Reply  to  M.  Mascart  on  the  sub- 
ject of  the  deviation  of  the  winds  on  the  synoptical  charts,  by 
M.  Faye.  The  author  insists  that  he  has  nothing  to  modify  in 
what  he  has  written  during  the  last  thirteen  years  on  the  de- 
scending spiral  motion  of  cyclones.  The  synoptical  charts, 
which  have  been  multiplied  during  the  last  few  years,  when 
properly  interpreted,  are  shown  to  be  in  no  way  opposed,  but, 
on  the  contrary,  lend  additional  support,  to  his  theory. — On  the 
synchronism  of  accurate  time-pieces,  and  on  the  distribution  of 
time,  by  M.  A.  Cornu.  A  description  is  given  of  the  construc- 
tion and  properties  of  a  very  simple  electric  appliance,'  which  is 
applicable   to   all   kinds  of    oscillating    apparatus,   and  which 


Dec.  15.  1887] 


NA  TURE 


167 


realizes  the  theoretic  con  litions  under  whiA  th3  problem  of 
synchronism  has  beea  sjlved.  ,  This  system  has  already  been  at 
work  for  several  years  in  the  Ecole  Polytechnique,  and  has  been 
applied  with  complete  success  in  the  Paris  Observatory  for  the 
synchronizing  of  the  two  clocks  in  the  Department  of  Longi- 
tudes. The  problem  of  the  distribution  of  time  with  a  precision 
approachin3^  the  hundredtli  part  of  a  second  is  thus  satisfactorily 
solved.  The  apparatus  is  extremely  simple  and  easily  regulated, 
and  may  be  worked  with  feeble  currents. — Remarks  in  connec- 
tion with  a  work  entitled  "  Les  Ancetres  de  nos  Animaux  dans 
les  Temps  geologique^,"  presented  to  the  Academy  by  M.  Albert 
Gaudry.  In  this  work  the  fossil  mammals  are  tabulaJed  in  the 
ascending  order  according  as  they  appeared  on  the  earth  from 
the  Lower  Miocene  through  all  the  intervening  geological  epochs 
up  to  the  present  time.  A  concluding  chap'.e."  is  devoted  to  an 
historic  survey  of  paleontology  in  the  Pari;  Museum. — On  mag- 
netizing by  influence,  by  M.  P.  Duhem.  The  questions  here  dis- 
cussed are  :  the  quantity  of  heat  liberated  in  the  transformation 
of  a  system  including  mag.iets,  and  the  heat  lil)erated  in  the 
displacement  of  a  magnetic  mass. — New  nebula;  discovered  at 
the  Paris  Observatory,  by  M.  G.  Bigourdan.  The  right  ascen- 
sion and  i^olar  distance,  with  miscellaneous  remarks,  are  given 
of  the  nebuhie  consecutively  numbered  51  to  102.  Observations 
are  appended  on  thirteen  other  nebulte  previously  discovered. — 
On  the  division  of  an  arc  of  a  circle,  by  M.  A.  Pellet.  The 
approximate  division  of  an  arc  in  a  given  relation  is  determined 
by  means  of  rule  and  compass. — -On  the  expansion  of  compressed 
fluids,  and  especially  on  that  of  water,  by  M.  E.  H.  Amagat. 
The  compressibility  and  expansion  of  wate-,  ordinary  ether, 
methylic,  ethylic,  j^ropylic,  and  allylic  alcohols,  acetone,  chlor- 
ide, bromide  and  iodide  of  ethyl,  sulphide  of  carbon,  and 
chloride  of  phosphorus,  have  been  studied  between  zero  and 
50°,  and  from  the  normal  pressure  up  to  3000  atmospheres.  For 
all  except  water,  which  behaves  exceptionally,  the  coefficient  of 
expansion  diminishes  with  increased  pressure,  the  decrease  being 
still  very  perceptible  at  the  highest  point.  The  coefficient  of 
water  increases  very  rapidly  at  first,  but  afterwards  diminishes 
gradually,  disappearing  altogether  towads  2500  atmospheres. — 
On  a  new  method  of  quantitative  analysis  for  carbonic  acid  in 
solution,  by  M.  Leo  Vignon.  By  the  process  here  described 
the  presence  may  be  detected  of  i  cubic  centimetre  of  carbonic 
acid  in  i  litre  of  water. — Influence  of  natural  or  superinduced 
sleep  on  the  activity  of  the  respiratory  combu-tions,  by  M.  L. 
<le  Saint-Martin.  It  is  shown  that,  apart  from  the  state  of  fast- 
ing, natural  sleep  lowers  by  about  one-fifth  the  quantity  of  car- 
bonic acid  exhaled,  and  by  only  one-tenth  the  quantity  of  oxygen 
absorbed  ;  also,  tliat  in  sleep  brought  about  by  morphine  the 
proportion  exhaled  falls  to  one-half,  and  in  sleep  caused  by 
chloral  or  chloroform  to  (me -third,  of  the  quantity  exiialed 
during  the  same  lapse  of  time  in  the  normal  state. — On  the 
abience  of  microbes  in  the  human  breath,  by  MM.  J.  Straus 
and  W.  Dubreuilh.  These  researches  fully  confirm  the  con- 
clusions already  arrived  at  by  Lister  and  Tyndall  regarding  the 
freedom  of  exhaled  breath  from  the  presence  of  pulmonary  or 
other  microbes. 

Berlin, 

Physical  Society,  Nov.  i  i.-Prof.  von  Helmholtz,  President,  in 
the  chair.  —Dr.  Weinstein  spoke  on  the  determination  of  the  elec- 
trical re>-istance  of  tubes  of  mercury.  lie  employs  two  methods  for 
measuring  the  length  of  the  tubes,  one  iu  which  the  tube  is  com- 
pletely filled  with  mercury,  the  other  in  which  it  is  only  partially 
filled,  and  in  which  the  convexity  of  the  ends  of  the  column  of 
mercury  is  taken  into  account.  The  first  method  is  the  more 
exact,  but  is  less  simple  ;  the  difference  between  the  methods  is 
small.  The  measurement  of  the  diameter  of  the  tube  is  of  great 
importance,  and  is  made  under  the  assumption  that  the  tube  is 
either  a  cylinder  or  a  cone  ;  the  latter  is  the  more  correct  as- 
sumption when  the  tube  is  long,  and  necessitates  calibrational 
corrections,  for  which  Dr.  Weinstein  deduced  the  foraiulai. 
Taking  into  account  the  want  of  accuracy  in  the  constants 
involved  in  the  above,  he  considers  it  far  better  to  determine  the 
volume  from  the  heights  of  the  capillary  rise  of  fluids  in  the 
tube. — Prof.  Pictet,  who  was  present  as  a  guest,  gave  a  detailed 
account  of  the  experiments  he  has  made  with  his  ice-machines, 
which  have  led  to  results  which  do  not  agree  with  Carnot's 
theories  as  far  as  the  second  law  of  thermodynamics  is  concerned. 
He  described  the  action  of  a  perfect  ice-machine,  consisting 
of  a  refrigerator,  pump,  and  c  )ndenser.  In  the  refrigerator  a 
quantity  of  heat  is  taken  from  the  salt-water  bath  surrounding 


it,  which  causes  some  of  the  fluid  to  evaoorate  ;  this  vapour,  at 
the  temperature  of  the  surroundings,  passes  unchanged  into  the 
pump,  where  it  is  compressed,  and  forced,  at  high  pressure,  into 
the  condenser,  where  it  at  once  becomes  a  liquid,  and  gives  up 
all  its  heat  to  the  surroundings.  This  condensed  fluid  then  flows 
back  to  the  refrigerator.  In  a  real  machine  of  finitely  small 
dimensions,  the  temperature  in  the  refrigerator  falls,  the  vapour 
meets  with  resistance  in  passing  over  into  th«  pu:np,  and  in 
passing  from  the  latter  into  the  condenser,  and  there  is  a  fall  of 
temperature  as  the  heat  passes  out  into  the  surroundings  from 
the  liquid  formed  in  the  condenser.  The  speaker  determined  by 
careful  experiments  the  tension  of  the  vapour  with  which  he 
worked  between  -  20°  C.  and  -I-  30''  C,  and  then  he  measured 
the  temperatures  in  the  several  parts  of  the  working  machine 
by  means  of  manometers  which  registered  the  pressures  in  the 
several  parts,  and  from  this  he  arrived  at  the  result  stated  above. 
The  measurements  were  made  when  the  pump  was  working  both 
rapidly  and  slowlj',  and  also  when  it  was  stopped.  Prof,  von 
Helmholtz  drew  attention  to  two  sources  of  error  which  cannot 
be  avoided  in  Prof.  Pictet's  experiments,  and  which  might 
account  for  the  results  obtained  being  in  opposition  to  Carnot's 
law.  In  the  first  place,  the  vapour  might  contain  air  ;  this 
would  influence  the  pressure  existing  in  the  machine,  without 
itself  undergoing  any  condensation,  and  hence  it  is  impossible  to 
determine  the  temperature  of  the  vapour  accurately  from  mea- 
surements of  its  pressure.  The  second  source  of  error  is,  how- 
ever, still  more  important.  In  Pictet's  ice-machines,  the  liquid 
used  is  a  mixture  of  liquefied  carbonic  acid  gas  and  sulphur 
dioxide.  From  such  a  mixture  as  this  the  more  volatile  carbonic 
acid  gas  must  pass  over  into  the  refrigerator  in  larger  quantities 
than  the  less  volatile  sulphur  dioxide.  Hence  both  the  vapour 
and  the  liquid  resulting  from  its  condensation  have  a  composition 
markedly  different  from  that  of  the  original  liquid.  Now  the  . 
calculations  are  made  on  the  assumption  that  the  liquid  under- 
goes no  change  of  composition,  hence  the  temperatures  deter- 
mined from  the  pressures  cannot  correspond  to  tho;e  really 
existing  in  the  seve'al  parts  of  the  apparatus.  Prof.  Helmholtz 
hence  considers  that  the  temperatures  in  the  refrigerator  and 
condenser  should  be  measured  with  thermometers,  in  which 
case  only  it  would  be  possible  to  test  the  truth  of  Carnot's 
laws  on  the  basis  of  the  heat-values  obtained  in  the  experi- 
ments. 

November  25. — Prof,  von  Helmholtz,  President,  in  the 
chair. — Dr.  Stapff  spoke  on  his  measurements  of  the  tem- 
perature of  the  earth  in  South  Africa.  From  his  obser- 
vations on  the  temperature  in  the  St.  Gothard  Tunnel,  and 
a  comparison  of  these  with  the  temperatures  observed  at  the 
earth's  surface,  he  had  deduced  an  empirical  fonnula  for  the 
difference  of  temperature  between  the  air  and  the  earth  :  accord- 
ing to  this  formula,  the  difference  is  greater  the  lower  the  tem- 
perature of  the  air,  and  disappears  when  the  temperature  of  the 
air  rises  to  11°  C.  It  hence  became  a  matter  of  interest  to 
determine  whether  the  difference  is  negative  when  the  tempera- 
ture of  the  air  is  very  high.  Dr.  Stapff"  had  made  use  of  a 
sojourn  in  South  Africa,  near  Whale  Bay,  while  engaged  in 
geological  studies,  for  the  purpose  of  carrying  out  observations 
on  the  temperature  of  the  earth.  The  district  in  which  he 
worked  lies  in  the  Tropic  of  Capricorn,  about  in  the  same 
meridian  as  Berlin,  and  the  soil  is  sandy  with  a  current  of  water 
running  beneath  it  towards  the  sea.  The  observations  were 
made  in  borings  with  English  mining-thermometers,  which  were 
allowed  to  remain  about  twelve  hours  at  the  depth  where  the 
temperature  was  to  be  determined,  thus  insuring  that  they  had 
taken  ujo  the  temperature  of  the  surroundings.  The  measure- 
ment of  the  temperature  at  the  earth's  surface  presented  very 
great  difficulties,  and  was  only  rendered  possible  by  covering  the 
bulb  of  the  thermometer  with  a  layer  of  sand  5  cm.  thick.  The 
greatest  depth  at  which  the  temperature  of  the  earth  was 
measured  was  17  metres.  From  the  determinations  thus  made 
it  appeared  that  the  temperature  diminished  down  to  that  depth,  a 
result  undoubtedly  dependent  upon  the  fact  that  the  measure- 
ments were  made  during  the  hottest  time  of  the  year.  The 
speaker  found  that  the  depth  down  to  which  the  temperature 
varies  with  that  of  the  air  is  about  13-6  metres,  the  temperature 
at  this  depth  being  about  25°  C.  The  changes  in  temperature 
of  the  earth  were  very  considerable,  greater  than  those  of  the  air, 
amounting  in  the  sand  to  some  30°  to  40°  C.  His  measurements, 
however,  did  not  show  any  negative  value  for  the  difference  in 
temperature  of  the  air  and  earth. — Dr.  Sieg  gave  an  account  of 
his  experiments  for  the  determination  of  the  capillary  constants 


168 


NA  TURE 


[Dec.  15,  1S87 


for  large  drops  and  bubbles.  On  account  of  the  marked  diver- 
gence in  the  results  obtained  by  Quincke  as  compared  with  the 
older  measurements,  the  speaker  was  led  to  subject  Quincke's 
method  to  a  detailed  examination.  He  found  that  the  determina- 
tion of  the  height  of  the  drop  is  exact,  but  that  the  measurement 
of  its  width  by  means  of  the  micrometer  is  too  uncertain.  In- 
stead of  this  method,  he  therefore  employed  the  reflection  of  a 
flame  from  the  side  of  the  drop  in  order  to  determine  the  con- 
vexity of  the  same,  and  using  Poisson's  method  of  calculating  the 
results  instead  of  that  of  Quincke,  he  obtained  as  the  value  of  the 
capillary  constant,  not  54  as  given  by  Quincke,  but  44*5,  thus 
agreeing  with  the  older  determinations.  The  mercury  was 
purified  and  examined  by  Quincke's  method.  In  addition  Dr. 
Sieg  has  determined  the  capillary  constants  for  water,  alcohol, 
oils,  and  a  series  of  salt-solutions  of  varying  concentrations.  One 
result  may  be  mentioned  as  shown  by  these  experiments,  that  the 
capillary  constant  of  mercury  sinks  to  forty-two  when  the 
mercury  has  stood  for  some  time,  and  that  the  same  fall  is 
observed  if  the  mercury  is  put  to  earth  ;  tl^e  constant  is  also 
altered  if  the  drop  is  electrified  or  is  impure.  With  salt-solutions 
the  constants  were  dependent  upon  both  composition  and  con- 
centration. Water  was  also  found  to  be  very  sensitive  to  the 
presence  of  any  impurities,  and  while  the  solution  of  salts  in 
water  was  not  found  to  alter  its  capillary  constants,  the  solution 
of  gases  produced  a  very  appreciable  alteration 

Physiological    Society,    November    18. — Prof,    du    Bois 
Reymond,  President,  in  the  chair. — After  the  statutory  election 
of  the  Council,  Dr.  Benda  demonstrated  a  malformation  as  occur- 
ring in  a  three-months'  embryo,  in  which  two  strongly  marked 
prominences   on   the  lower  portion  of  the  forehead  gave  to  its 
countenance    a    curiously     contemplative     appearance. — Prof. 
Kossel  next  spoke  on  adenin.    The  most  recent  researches  on  the 
importance  of  the  nucleus  to  the  life  of  the  cell,  especially  the 
knowledge   that    when  unicellular  organisms  are  artificially  cut 
into  pieces   only  those   parts  exhibit  a  complete  regeneration 
which  contain  a  portion  of  the  nucleus,  and  the  importance  of 
the  nucleus  in  impregnation  have  given  an  increased  importance 
to  the  chemistry  of  the  nucleus.   Among  the  chemical  substances 
which  compose  the  nucleus,  adenin,  which  has  recently  been  dis- 
covered by  the  speaker,  appears  to  poi^sess  a  special  importance, 
since,    on   account    of  its    composition,    CsHsNg,    it    belongs 
to  the  cyanic  group  of  bodies.      This   substance    was   obtained 
from  tea-leaves  in  large  quantities,  and  from  it  a  series  of  com- 
pounds were  obtained,  which  were   exhibited  as  extremely  fine  \ 
preparations  ;   namely,  the   salts   with   hydrochloric,  sulphuric, 
and   nitric    acids,   as   also   some    compounds    with    platinum,    j 
Adenin  was  found  to  be  extremely  resistant  to  feebly  oxidizing 
agents,  but   on   the  other  hand   to   be    easily  acted   upon    by 
reducing  agents.     The  substances  which  are  produced  by  these 
means  were  not  very  well  characterized  from  a  chemical   point 
of  view.     The  speaker  however  thinks  that,  owing  to  the  ease 
with  which  it  can  be  reduced,  adenin  plays  an  extremely  im- 
portant part  in  the  physiological  action  of  the  nucleus.       When 
adenin  is  reduced  in  presence  of  oxygen,  a  brownish-black  sub- 
stance  is   obtained,    which   appears   to  be   identical  with    the 
azocuminic   acid  which  is   produced  when  hydrocyanic  acid  is 
exposed  to  the  air  for  a  long  time.     In  conclusion.  Prof.  Kossel 
pointed  out  that  adenin  makes  its  appearance  in  large  quantities 
under  certain  pathological  conditions,  and  that  he  has  succeeded 
in  detecting  it  in  the  urine  of  persons  suffering  from  leuchsemia. 
— Dr.  Rawitz  gave  an  account  of  his  investigations   on  mucous 
cells  in  Invertebrates.     He  has  found  in  the  mantle  of  mussels 
goblet-cells,    of    which   some   are   small  with  a   large    central 
nucleus  and  granular  protoplasm  ;  others  are  large  with  a  small 
central  nucleus,  the  rest  of  the  cell-contents   being  uniform  in 
appearance  ;  and   others    again  are  large,  with  a  small  nucleus 
situated   at   the   base   of  the  cell,  the  protoplasm  having  oily 
granules    scattered    throughout  itself.     This  last  kind   of  cell 
allows  the  oily  granules  and  mucous  contents  to  pass  out  at  the 
apex  of  the  cell  into  the  surrounding  water.     A  careful  investi- 
gation has  shown  that  the  above  three  different  kinds  of  cells  are 
merely  different  stages  in  the  secretory  activity  of  the  mucous  cells, 
and  that  during  this  activity  the  cell-contents  not  only  undergo 
a  change  of  minute  structure,  but  also  of  chemical  composition, 
the  latter  being  evidenced  by  the  changed  reactions  which  they 
give  with  staining  agents.     During  secretion  the  cell  itself  is  not 
broken  down,  but  only  a  portion  of  its  protoplasm  is  excreted, 
in  the  form    of  oily  drops   and  mucous   threads,  the   nucleus 
remaining  intact.     Dr.  Rawitz  considers  that  special  importance 
must  be  assigned  to  the  nucleus  in  connection  with  the  nutrition 


of  the  cell,  as  during  the  secretory  activity  of  the  cell  it  under 
goes  changes  not  only  in  its  shape,  but  in  its  behaviour  toward; 
laining  reagents. 

Stockholm. 

Royal  Academy  of  Sciences,  November  9.  —  Plants 
vasculares  Yenessenses  inter  Krasnojarsk  urbem  et  ostiun 
Yenisei  fluminis  tracienus  lectK,  by  Dr.  N.  J.  Scheutz. — Oi 
additive  characters  of  diluted  solutions  of  salts,  by  Dr.  S 
Arrhenius. — On  the  theory  of  the  unipolar  induction,  by  Dr.  A 
Koren. — Some  formuln?  of  electrodynamics,  by  the  same.— 
The  phsenogamous  plants  of  Bergjum,  enumerated  in  th( 
sequence  of  their  inflorescence,  by  the  Rev.  B.  Hogrell.— 
On  hyalotekit  from  Ldngbau,  by  G.  Lindstrom,  Assist.  Min 
Cab.  State  Mas. — On  the  scientific  results  of  the  expedition  o 
the  Vega,  by  Baron  Nordenskiold. — ^Contributions  to  the  theori 
of  the  undulatory  movement  in  a  gaseous  medium,  by  Prof 
A.  V.  Backlund. — Contributions  to  the  knowledge  of  tht 
exterior  morphology  of  the  Acridioidere,  especially  with  respeci 
to  the  specimens  found  in  Scandinavia,  by  Dr.  B.  Haij.— 
Generalization  of  the  functions  of  Bernouilli,  by  Dr.  A.  F. 
B  erger. 


BOOKS,  PAA5PHLETS,  and  SERIALS  RECEIVED. 

Les  Ancetres  de  Nos  Anlmaux  :  A.  Gaudry  (BailKere  et  Fils). — British 
Journal  Photographic  Almanac,  1888  (Greenwood). — The  Elements  o 
Chemistry  :  Ira  Remsen  (Macmillan\ — British  Discomycetes  :  W.  Phillip.'- 
(Kegan  Paul). — Vaccination  Vindicated  :  J.  C.  IVTcVail  (Cassell). — Flowei 
Land,  an  Easy  Introduction  to  Botany  ;  Rev.  R.  Fisher  (Heywood). — A 
Course  of  Quantitative  Analysis  :  W.N.  Hartley  (Macmillan). — Teneriffe  and 
i's  Six  Satellites,  2  vols.  :  O.  M.  Stone  (Marcus  Ward). — Annual  Report  0.1 
the  Working  of  the  Registration  and  Inspection  of  Mines  and  Mining 
Machinery  Act  during  the  year  1886  (Melbourne) — Digging,  Squatting,  and 
Pioneering  Life  :  Mrs.  D.  D.  Daly  (Low). — China  ;  its  Social,  Political,  and 
Religious  Life  :  from  the  French  of  G.  Eug.  Simon  (Low).— Through  the 
West  Indies  :  Mrs.  G.  Layard  (Low). — A  Text-book  of  Paper  Making ; 
Cross  and  Bevan  (Spon). — Proceedings  of  the  Linnean  Society  of  New  South 
Wale.s,  vol.  ii  part  2. — Quarterly  Journal  of  the  Geological  Society,  vol.  xliii. 
pt.  4,  No.  172  (Longmans). — Annals  of  Botany,  vol.  i.  No.  11  (Clarendon 
Press). 


CONTENTS.  PAGE 

The  Horticultural  Society 145 

Balbin's  Quaternions.     By  Gustave  Plan 145 

Cable-Laying 147 

Text-book  of  Gunnery 148 

Romantic  Love  and  Personal  Beauty.      By  F.    T. 

Richards 149 

Our  Book  Shelf  :— 

Harrison  and  Wakefield  :   "Earth-Knowledge".    .    .  150 

Blackie  :   "  A  Dictionary  of  Place-Names  " 151 

Letters  to  the  Editor  : — 

The  Supposed  Earthquake  in  England. — H.   George 

Fordham 151 

The  Umbria's  Wave. — C.  E.  Stromeyer 151 

The  Planet  Mercury.— G.  F.  P 151 

Meteor.^ — M.  H.  Maw 151 

"  Fairy  Rings." — ^J.  Sargeant 151 

Music  in  Nature. — W.  L.  Goodwrin 151 

Who  was  Mr.  Charles  King? — S 152 

Note  on  a  Proposed  Addition  to  the  Vocabulary  of 
Ordinary  Arithmetic.      By  Prof.  J.  J.    Sylvester, 

F.R.S 152 

Coutts  Trotter.     By  Prof.  M.  Foster,  F.R.S 153 

H.  C.  F.  C.  Schjellerup.      By  J.  L.  E.  Dreyer     ...  154 

Notes 155 

Our  Astionomical  Column  : — 

The  Natal  Observatory 158 

Olbers'  Comet,  1887 158 

Probable  New  Class  of  Variable  Stars 158 

Astronomical     Phenomena    for     the    Week     1887 

December  18-24 ^5^ 

Geographical  Notes 158 

On  the  Meteoric  Iron  which  fell  near  Cabin  Creek, 
Johnson  County,  Arkansas,  March  27,  1886.  {Illus- 

irated.)     By  George  F.  Kunz 159 

The  Royal  Horticultural  Society 161 

University  and  Educational  Intelligence 162 

Scientific  Serials 162 

Societies  and  Academies 164 

Books,  Pamphlets,  and  Serials  Received 168 


NA  TURE 


169 


THURSDAY,   DECEMBER   22,    i! 


THE  STAR  OF  BETHLEHEM. 

THE  fact  that  a  little  more  than  a  month  ago  the  planet 
Venus  arrived  at  its  maximum  brilliancy  when  to 
the  west  of  the  sun,  and  therefore  when  the  planet  rises 
before  the  sun,  has  given  rise  to  a  flood  of  superstitious 
fears  in  this  country,  only  to  be  equalled  in  modern  times 
by  that  which  the  members  of  the  Eclipse  Expedition 
observed  in  Grenada  last  year,  and  chronicled  in  these 
columns,  as  having  been  met  with  among  the  semi-civilized 
inhabitants  of  that  island. 

In  spite  of  School  Boards  and  all  the  present  stock-in- 
trade  of  elementary  education,  perhaps  partly  because 
that  elementary  education  deals  so  little  with  natural 
science ;  and  because  before  School  Boards  so  many 
children  scarcely  went  to  school  at  all,  the  planet  Venus, 
one  of  the  most  stable  and  the  most  brilliant  member 
of  the  solar  system,  is  being  regarded  as  a  second  appear- 
ance of  the  star  of  Bethlehem  ! 

This  being  the  idea  which  ignorance  has  conjured  up, 
superstition  next  comes  in  to  bear  her  part,  and  hence 
very  naturally  all  sorts  of  woe  and  desolations,  the  end  of 
this  world  being  naturally  included  among  them,  have 
been  predicted,  and  in  some  places  a  considerable  amount 
of  alarm  has  really  arisen.  Nor  is  this  all  :  thousands 
of  people  who  ought  to  be  able  to  look  up  pocket-books 
and  almanacs  for  themselves  have  been  for  the  last  month 
pestering  everybody  who  is  known  to  possess  a  telescope 
for  information  on  the  subject. 

We  think  it,  therefore,  worth  while  to  refer  to  this  subject, 
for  we  have  in  this  ignorant  fright  an  additional  reason, 
which  it  may  be  worth  while  to  dwell  upon,  why  the  young 
population  of  a  country  like  England  should  not  be 
allowed  to  grow  up  without  some  knowledge,  however 
slight,  of  the  natural  phenomena  which  are  always  being 
unfolded  around  them — phenomena  which  will  always 
delight,  instruct,  and  interest  them  if  understood,  but 
which  will  be  apt  to  cause  alarm  so  long  as  they  are 
shrouded  in  mystery. 

As  before  stated,  the  brilliant  body  in  the  east  which  is 
the  innocent  cause  of  all  the  alarm  is  nothing  but  the 
planet  Venus  near  that  position  in  her  orbit  in  which  she 
can  send  the  greatest  amount  of  light  towards  us. 

If  our  youngest  reader  will  place  a  candle  in  the  middle 
of  a  table,  and  support  a  little  ball  some  six  or  eight 
inches  away  from  the  candle,  on  the  same  level,  and  then 
retire  some  little  distance  away,  to  represent  a  spectator 
on  the  earth,  the  reason  why  Venus  sometimes  appears  to 
the  right  or  to  the  west  of  the  sun  and  at  other  times  to 
the  east  or  left  of  it  will  be  at  once  clear  to  him,  if  the 
ball  be  imagined  to  go  round  the  candle  in  a  direction 
contrary  to  that  of  the  hands  of  a  watch.  Further,  the  fact 
that  when  the  ball  is  on  the  other  side  of  the  candle  it 
is  further  away,  and  therefore  appears  smaller  than  it  is 
when  exactly  between  the  candle  and  the  spectator, 
will  give  a  reason  why  in  neither  of  these  cases  will 
the  maximum  brilliancy  be  observed,  because  in  one 
case  the  planet  is  as  far  away  as  it  can  be,  and  in  the 
other,  though  the  planet  is  as  near  to  us  as  it  can  be, 
it  has  its  dark  side  turned  towards  us  ;  for  it  must  be 
Vol.  XXXVII. — No.  947. 


clearly  understood  that  Venus,  like  the  earth,  receives 
its  light  from  the  sun,  represented  in  our  experiment 
by  the  candle ;  and  when  the  spectator  is  on  one 
side  of  the  little  ball,  representing  Venus,  and  the 
candle  is  on  the  other,  naturally  the  non-illuminated 
side  of  the  ball  alone  is  turned  towards  the  spectator. 
The  period  of  maximum  brilliancy  will  be  when  the  planet 
is  to  the  right  or  left  of  a  line  adjoining  the  spectator  and 
the  candle,  and  nearer  the  observer  than  the  candle  is. 
When  the  planet  is  to  the  right  of  this  line,  and  there- 
fore to  the  westward  of  it,  speaking  celestially,  the  planet 
must  set  before  the  sun,  and  therefore  rise  before  the  sun  : 
it  will  be  a  morning  star.  On  the  other  hand,  when  to 
the  left  of  it,  it  must  set  after  the  sun,  and  therefore  it 
will  be  visible  as  an  evening  star ;  and  because  it  sets 
after  the  sun  it  will  rise  after  it,  and  therefore  be  invisible 
as  a  morning  star  on  account  of  the  overpowering 
light  of  the  sun.  We  might  apologize  to  the  readers  of 
Nature  for  referring  to  such  elementary  astronomy  as 
this,  were  it  not  quite  possible  that  many  of  them  will 
have  an  opportunity,  if  the  scare  continues,  of  showing, 
several  young  minds  how  to  make  the  experiment  for 
themselves. 

The  accompanying  diagram  will  show  the  positions  ot 
Venus  and   the  earth  for  the  last  few  months,  and  will 


D'a?ram  showing  the  paths  of  the  Earth  and  Venus  from  July  13  to  December  i, 
1887;  with  the  points  of  maximum  brilliancy  on  Augrust  16  and  October  28. 
Synodic  period  of  Venus,  58392  mean  solar  days. 

indicate  why  it  was  at  its  brightest  as  a  morning  star^ 
on  October  28,  and  as  an  evening  star  on  August  16. 

It  will  be  in  the  memory  of  some  of  our  readers  that  on 
the  appearance  of  the  new  star  observed  by  Tycho  Brahe 
in  1572  the  general  opinion  was  that  that  also  was 
the  star  of  Bethlehem  returned.  It  mattered  little  to 
the  vulgar  that  the  latter  was  called  "  the  star  in  the 
East,"  and  that  the  new  star  was  nearly  in  the  zenith,  and 
at  about  the  same  time  of  the  year  (November). 

A  reference  to  Grant's  admirable  history  of  physical 
astronomy  will  show  us  that  such  new  stars  were  also 
recorded  in  130,  390,  945,  and  1264.  The  authority  for 
these  statements  is  Cyprian  Leowitz,  whose  work  was 
published  in  1573.  Although  his  statements  have  been  dis- 
credited, there  is  nothing  improbable  in  them.  The  "  new 
star  "  of  which  we  have  heard  the  most,  because  there 
was  a  man  living  who  was  capable  of  chronicling  and 
more  or  less  understanding  the  phenomenon,  was  that 
to  which  we  have  referred  above  as  having  appeared  in 
the  year  1572.     This  was  carefully  watched  by  Tycho 

I 


I70 


NA  TURE 


{Dec.  2  2,  1887 


Brahe.  It  suddenly  appeared  brighter  than  any  of  the 
stars,  and  brighter  than  Jupiter,  though  not  brighter  than 
Venus.  This  star  remained  visible  for  nearly  two  years. 
Its  colour  changed  as  it  grew  dimmer  :  first  it  was  white, 
then  yellow,  then  red,  and  finally,  according  to  the  record, 
exhibited  a  leaden  hue  like  the  planet  Saturn.  Tycho 
Brahe  imagined  it  generated  from  the  ethereal  sub- 
stance of  which  he  held  the  Milky  Way  to  be  com- 
posed, and  when  it  disappeared  it  was  thought  to  have 
dissolved  spontaneously  from  some  internal  cause. 

It  is  not  a  gratifying  thing  to  find,  when  we  come  to 
inquire  further  into  the  state  of  public  feeling  at  the  time 
vi^hen  Tycho's  star  appeared,  that  after  all  we  have  ad- 
vanced very  little  beyond  the  sixteenth  century  in  matters 
relating  to  superstition.  The  world  was  to  end  in  1532, 
according  to  Simon  Goulart,  because  a  mountain  in 
Assyria  had  been  seen  to  open,  and  exposed  to  the  gaze 
of  those  present  a  scroll  with  letters  written  in  Greek 
stating  that  the  end  of  the  world  was  at  hand. 

Goulart  was  followed  by  a  famous  astrologer,  Leovitius, 
who  put  on  the  date  to  1584 ;  and  Gayon  reports  that  the 
fright  at  that  time  was  almost  universal,  and  the  churches 
would  not  hold  those  who  sought  shelter  in  them. 

This  end  of  the  world  mania  v/as  not  confined  to  the 
unlearned,  for  a  famous  mathematician,  Stoffler,  who  was 
actually  engaged  on  the  reform  of  the  calendar  under- 
taken by  the  Council  of  Constance,  put  down  the  end  for 
February  1524.  According  to  him,  the  end  was  to  be  by 
water  and  not  by  fire,  and  the  basis  of  his  prediction  was 
that  Saturn,  Jupiter,  and  Mars  would  then  be  together  in 
the  sign  Pisces  It  was  a  rare  time  for  the  boat-builders, 
for  many  "  arks "  were  built ;  a  doctor  of  Toulouse, 
named  Auriol,  making  himself  immortal  by  building  the 
biggest. 

Stoffler  and  Regiomontanus  were  not,  however,  dis- 
couraged by  the  fact  that  not  a  drop  of  rain  fell  during 
the  whole  of  that  month  in  Central  Europe  :  they  merely 
put  the  date  on  to  1588. 

It  must  be  remembered  that  in  those  days  of  unusual 
superstition  these  predictions  were  carried  broadcast 
through  the  land,  and  it  was  the  consternation  of  the 
ignorant  which  caused  everybody  to  believe  that  Tycho's 
star,  which  appeared  in  1572,  was  really  the  star  of 
Bethlehem,  returned  to  announce  the  second  coming  of 
Christ. 

But  as  a  matter  of  fact  this  star  of  Tycho's  is  really 
connected  with  the  present  excitement,  and  again  the 
idea  of  the  return  of  the  star  of  Bethlehem  has  been 
associated  with  it — although  the  year  1572  passed  off 
quite  quietly,  and  the  planet  still  survives — for  the  follow- 
ing reasons.  The  star  appeared  between  the  constellations 
of  Cassiopeia  and  Cepheus — that  is,  in  the  same  part  of 
the  heavens  in  which  in  former  times,  in  945  and  1264, 
similar  appearances  had  been  recorded.  Argelander, 
who  inquired  into  the  matter,  found  a  loj-magnitude  star 
catalogued  by  D'Arrest,  but  seen  some  years  before,  when 
the  same  part  of  the  heavens  (R.A.  4h.  19m.  58s.,  Decl. 
-}-  63°  23'  55")  was  under  scrutiny.  It  was  suggested, 
therefore,  that  the  star  in  question  might  be  a  variable 
one  with  a  period  of  314  years  :  this  would  very  closely 
account  for  appearances  in  the  years  o,  945,  1264,  1672, 
and  18S7  !  and  if  it  were  really  the  star  of  Bethlehem,  it 
would  be  naturally  seen  about  Christmas-time.     Nothing 


is  more  curious  than  to  watch  how  a  piece  of  scientific 
knowledge  has  thus  settled  down  to  form  a  nucleus  for  a 
haze  of  sensational  nonsense. 

But  it  is  not  impossible  that,  after  all,  we  are  really 
again  in  presence  of  the  star  of  Bethlehem  ;  for  if 
we  read  the  account  in  St.  Matthew,  and  assume  that 
some  celestial  body  is  really  alluded  to,  and  not  a 
miraculous  appearance  similar  to  those  recorded  by  St. 
Luke  (chapter  ii.  8-15),  then  it  would  seem  that  Venus, 
as  she  has  been  seen  lately — that  is,  at  her  maximum 
brightness — will  do  as  well  as  any  other,  and  there  is 
no  necessity  to  assume  either  a  "  new  star,"  or  a  comet, 
as  giving  rise  to  the  phenomena  recorded. 

We  give  that  part  of  the  narrative  which  chiefly  con- 
cerns us,  and  it  is  necessary  to  bear  in  mind  that  Bethle- 
hem lies  nearly  due  south  of  Jerusalem,  and  is  about  five 
miles  distant. 

"...  There  came  wise  men /r(7;« ///^  ^<;^J/ to  Jerusalem, 
saying,  .  .  .  we  have  seen  his  star  zV///i;^i?.a!.yA  .  .  .  When 
they  had  heard  the  king,  they  departed  [to  Bethlehem] ; 
and,  lo,  the  star,  which  they  saw  [had  seen]  in  the  east, 
went  before  them,  till  it  came  and  stood  over  where 
the  young  child  was.  When  they  saw  the  star,  they 
rejoiced." 

The  fact  that  the  star  was  stated  to  be  seen  "  in  the 
East"  would  imply  that  it  was  not  seen  anywhere  else. 
This  is  best  explained  by  supposing  a  morning  observa- 
tion of  a  body  soon  rendered  invisible  by  the  light  of  the 
sun.  A  star  seen  in  the  East  at  evening  would  be  visible 
all  night,  and  could  no  longer  be  properly  designated  as 
a  "star  in  the  East."  This  is  against  the  views  which 
have  been  held  and  supported  by  Kepler,  to  the  effect 
that  a  conjunction  of  superior  planets  was  in  question  ; 
and  indeed  they  have  already  been  demolished  by  Prof. 
Pritchard. 

If  we  assume  that  the  star  was  Venus  at  maximum 
brightness  seen  in  the  East  in  the  morning,  and  that  it 
rose,  say,  two  hours  before  the  sun,  it  would  be  about  south 
at  10  a.m.  It  would  seem  not  improbable  that  the  journey 
to  Bethlehem  should  be  made  before  noon.  The  gather- 
ing of  the  priests  and  scribes  would  probably  last  till  sun- 
down, and  it  would  be  natural  that  the  journey  should  be 
undertaken  next  morning.  Journeys  in  the  East  are  not 
generally  now,  and  were  probably  not  then,  undertaken 
in  the  evening.  The  latter  part  of  the  extract  indicates 
that  the  "wise  men  "  did  not  see  the  star  till  they  got 
to  Bethlehem,  and  that  the  statement  that  "  the  star  went 
before  them  "  is  rather  an  attempted  explanation  of  its 
change  of  place  than  a  reference  to  any  actual  observation. 

The  simple  facts,  then,  seem  to  be  that  the  "wise  men" 
— no  wiser,  it  would  appear,  than  the  average  Englishman 
of  the  present  day,  in  astronomical  matters — being  struck 
by  the  exceeding  brilliancy  of  Venus,  which  they  did  not  re- 
cognize, felt  sufficient  interest  in  it,  or,  more  probably,  were 
so  soundly  frightened  at  it,  that  they  went  to  the  nearest 
important  town,  Jerusalem,  to  find  out  something  about  it. 
It  has  been  assumed  that  the  Magi  came  irom  a. great 
distance,  but  there  is  nothing  to  justify  this,  apparently  ; 
and  if  we  go  beyond  the  record  at  all  we  may  as  well 
accept  them  at  once  as  Melchior,  Balthazar,  and  Jasper, 
the  kings  respectively  of  Nubia,  Chaldea,  and  Tarshish, 
whose  bones  are  supposed  to  be  at  Cologne,  though  their 
connection  with  the  Biblical  narrative  is  not  clear,  as  it 


Dec,  2  2,  1887] 


NATURE 


171 


is  not  on  record  where  these  personages  joined  company 
before  they  set  out  westwards  for  Jerusalem. 

As  comets  long  afterwards  were  supposed  to  pre- 
sage disaster,  so  the  star  may  have  been  regarded  as 
an  indication  of  the  approaching  death'of  King  Herod. 
This  would  start  the  question  as  to  his  successor,  whom 
the  "  wise'  men  "  ^ould  desire  to  stand  'well  with,  or 
to  i"  worship."  With  what  happened  at  Jerusalem  we 
have  nothing  to  do.  On  approaching  Bethlehem  about 
noon,  they  again  recognized  the  star  over  the  town,  as 
Venus  would  be  at  that  time,  on  the  supposition  that  the 
"star  in  the  East"  which  they  had  first  seen  was  really 
that  planet. 

Another  point  connected  with  this  matter  relates  to  the 
question  of  new  stars.  Supposing  there  were  a  new  star 
in  the  east,  why  should  the  population  be  affrighted  ? 
The  records  of  astronomy,  as  we  have  seen,  tell  of  a  con- 
siderable number  of  such  stars,  and  during  the  last  few 
years  we  have  been  favoured  with  our  fair  share  of  such 
appearances,  and  yet  the  world  is  none  the  worse  for 
them.  The  view  which  has  recently  been  put  forward, 
with  an  amount  of  evidence  to  back  it  which  almost  puts 
it  beyond  question,  is  that  in  new  stars  we  see  only  such 
phenomena  as  we  must  expect ;  we  see  the  result  of 
no  unnatural  dealings  with  the  regulated  order  of  the 
universe,  but  simply  the  collisions  of  swarms  of  meteorites, 
these  meteorites  being  not  only  not  in  our  own  system, 
but  lost,  it  may  be,  in  the  very  depths  of  space.  Why 
should  such  a  thing  as  this  affright  us?  It  is  simply 
what  happens  at  a  level  crossing  when  a  train  runs  into  a 
cart,  and  it  does  not  seem  likely  that  such  an  ordinary 
piece  of  mechanism  as  this  would  be  chosen  as  a  means 
of  frightening  or  ringing  the  death-knell  of  a  world. 

Modem  science,  while  thus  abolishing  mystery  from  the 
skies,  is  only  enhancing  the  majesty  of  all  created  things. 
The  universal  law  and  order  are  more  clearly  seen  in 
every  great  advance  ;  and  yet,  with  a  population  so  super- 
stitious that  the  least  uncomprehended  thing  affrights 
them,  our  statesmen  are  still  on  the  side  of  ignorance, 
and  hinder  rather  than  aid  the  introduction  of  science 
into  our  schools. 


THE  MICROSCOPE. 

The  Microscope  in  Theory  and  Practice.  Translated 
from  the  German  of  Prof.  Carl  Naegeli  and  Prof.  S. 
Schwendener.  (London :  Swan  Sonnenschein  and 
Co.,  1887.) 

I^HIS  book  opens  to  English  readers  an  entirely  new 
page  in  microscopical  literature.  It  leads  the  way 
in  supplyinga  want  which  every  thorough  microscopist  has 
reaHzed  for  the  last  twenty  years.  In  a  complete  form 
this  treatise  has  been  accessible  to  the  German  reader 
for  at  least  ten  years.  The  absence  of  it,  or  an  equivalent, 
in  the  English  language  has  been  a  most  serious  draw- 
back to  the  advancement  of  the  highest  optical  work 
in  English  microscopes.  In  optical  manipulation,  the 
English  optician  at  his  best  proves  not  only  equal  to  any 
in  the  world,  but,  in  the  highest  class  of  work,  has  shown 
lately  that  he  takes  a  foremost  place.  But  with  no 
attempt  on  the  part  of  English  mathematicians  and 
microscopists  to  become  masters  and  expounders  of  the 
theory  of  the  microscope  and  of  microscopic  vision,  the 


practical  optician  can  make  no  real  advance.  English 
"  stands,"  and  those  made  in  America  on  English  models, 
are  of  exquisite  construction,  and  are  quite  equal  to  our 
present  necessities ;  but,  for  all  the  great  advances  and 
improvements  that  have  been  made  in  English  object- 
glasses  during  the  last  fifteen  years,  we  are,  for  all 
practical  purposes,  primarily  indebted  to  Germany.  And 
this  is  readily  explained  by  the  fact  that  the  German 
specialists  have  made  a  systematic  and  persistent  study 
of  the  theory  of  the  microscope. 

It  is  not  forgotten  that  it  was  to  the  suggestion  of  Mr. 
J.  W.  Stephenson  that  we  are  indebted  for  the  invaluable 
improvements  that  belong  to  the  homogeneous  system  of 
lenses.^  But,  without  doubt,  it  was  on  account  of  the  in- 
sight which  a  study  of  the  theory  of  microscopic  vision 
brought  with  it,  that  Mr.  Stephenson  perceived  at  once 
the  advantages  of  great  numerical  aperture,  and  the  new 
way  to  obtain  it.  Moreover,  it  is  certain  that  Prof.  Abbe 
was  approaching  this  very  method  of  employing  lenses, 
though  from  another  point,  and  not  in  so  direct  a  way.  It 
would  have  been  shortly  reached  by  him  there  can  be  but 
little  question  ;  but  when  it  was  reached,  what  did  a  con- 
stant, enthusiastic,  and  laborious  study  of  the  theory  of 
the  microscope  carry  with  it  ?  A  perception,  that  with 
glass  of  greater  range  of  refractive  and  dispersive  indices 
than  any  we  possessed,  we  might  not  only  secure  great 
numerical  apertures,  but  secure  them  devoid  of  all  colour ; 
that  we  could  not  only  annul  the  primary,  but  also  the 
secondary  and  tertiary,  spectra.  It  need  not  surprise  us 
then,  that,  in  a  country  where  such  splendid  theoretical 
and  mathematical  work  had  been  done  by  experts  on  the 
principles  of  microscopic  lenses  and  the  laws  of  their 
construction  and  use,  even  the  Government  should  be 
convinced  that  the  time  to  aid  the  optical  expert  had 
come  ;  that  theory  had  demonstrated  the  practical  possi- 
bility of  a  great  improvement  in  the  construction  of 
lenses.  The  sum  of  ^6000  was  granted  by  the  German 
Government  to  Abbe  and  his  coUaborateurs,  and  with, 
as  we  have  reason  to  believe,  an  equivalent  outlay  on 
Abbe's  own  part,  the  new  glass  was  prepared ;  and  the 
new  Apochromatic  lenses  with  their  systems  of  com- 
pensating eye-pieces  devised. 

It  is  in  no  spirit  of  boast,  but  rather  in  a  spirit  of 
humiliation  and  regret,  that  we  say  that  we  have  examined 
many  of  these  apochromatic  objectives  of  all  the 
powers  made  in  Germany,  and  we  have  examined  all  the 
principal  ones  that  have,  since  the  new  glass  has  reached 
London,  been  made  there  ;  and  we  are  bound  to  say  that 
the  English  work,  based  on  the  principles  laid  down 
by  Abbe,  is  so  fine  as  to  make  the  regret  immeasurably 
keener  that  English  microscopical  literature  has  been  for 
all  these  years  a  blank,  for  practical  purposes,  on  the 
theory  and  principles  of  optical  construction,  and  on  the 
theory  of  microscopical  observation  and  interpretation. 
Such  a  paper  as  that  of  Prof.  G.  G.  Stokes,  P.R.S., 
'  on  the  question  of  a  theoretical  limit  to  the  apertures  of 
!  microscopic  objectives  (Journ.  R.M.S.,vol.  i.  p.  139)  ^ro"^ 
its  very  loneliness  only  gives  emphasis  and  point  to  our 
contention.  Those  who  have  any  doubt  of  the  full  force  of 
what  we  are  here  contending  for,  have  only  to  compare  a 
dry  J-inch  objective,  say  of  twenty-five  years  ago,  made 

'  "On  a  Large-angled  Immersion  Objective,  without  Adjustment  Collar 
with  some  Observations  on  Numerical  Aperture,"  by  J.  W.  Stephenson 
F.R.A.S.  (Journ.  Roy.  Micros.  Soc.  vol.  i.  p.  51). 


172 


NATURE 


{Dec.  22,  1887 


by  the  best  makers  in  London,  with  a  well-chosen  water- 
immersion  of  ten  years  ago  ;  and  both  these  with  a  recent 
homogeneous  glass  of  the  same  power  with  a  numerical 
aperture  of  i'5.  Or  still  better,  a  dry  g'^-inch  objective,  of 
the  same  date  and  the  same  makers,  of  numerical  aperture 
0*98,  with  a  water-immersion  lens  of  the  same  power  of 
say  ten  years  ago,  having  an  aperture  of  1*04,  and  a  recent 
homogeneous  T^J^-inch,  with  a  numerical  aperture  of  i  "38. 
Still  more  strikingly,  let  the  same  observations  be  made 
with  a  dry  yVinch  objective  of  twenty  years  ago,  with  a 
numerical  aperture  of  0*99,  and  a  homogeneous  lens  of  the 
same  power,  with  numerical  aperture  i"5  ;  and,  finally,  both 
these  with  an  apochromatic  objective  of  the  same  power  by 
the  same  London  makers  and  an  aperture  of  i  "40.  We 
venture  to  say,  to  histologist,  bacteriologist,  diatomist,  and 
all  other  serious  workers  with  the  microscope,  that  there 
can  be  no  proper  comparison  of  the  results  ;  or,  rather,  the 
comparison  is  odious  indeed  for  the  oldest,  and  even  the 
elder,  lenses. 

But,  as  we  have  stated,  it  is  to  Germany  we  are 
indebted  for  the  kttowledj^e  out  of  which,  alone,  these 
improvements  could  have  arisen.  In  spite  of  the  length 
and  abundance  of  English  treatises  on  the  microscope, 
it  has  never  been  part  of  the  scope  of  the  respective 
authors  to  do  other  than  make  the  scantiest  reference 
to  the  principles  of  the  microscope  ;  and  nothing  is 
found  that  will  elucidate  the  theory  of  the  construction 
of  objectives,  and  eye-pieces,  and  the  possible  and  real 
relations  of  each  to  the  other.  There  is  nothing  to  be 
found  indeed  in  our  language,  except  in  the  invalu- 
able translations  published  in  the  successive  Journals 
of  the  Royal  Microscopical  Society,  which  discusses  the 
phenomena  of  diffraction,  of  polarization,  of  the  principles 
of  the  true  interpretation  of  microscopical  images,  and  the 
theory  of  work  with  the  microscope.  English  workers 
with  high  powers  have  discovered  painfully  where  their 
lenses  during  many  years  were  at  fault  ;  they  could  show 
our  opticians  what  they  wanted  ;  but  it  has  been  only  as 
the  result  of  the  laborious  mastery  of  the  theory  of 
lens-construction  by  German  investigators,  with  Abbe 
at  their  head,  that  the  English  worker  has  been 
able  to  get  his  wants,  in  object-glasses  and  eye-pieces, 
supplied. 

But  like  all  advances  in  insight  and  analytical  power, 
ihese  very  improvements,  so  welcome  and  so  helpful  to 
isearchers  in  many  important  branches  of  science,  only 
open  up  the  horizon  of  the  unknown  more  fully ;  and  the 
very  knowledge  we  get,  through  the  inestimable  improve- 
jnents,  only  reveals  new  difficulties  ;  and  again  creates 
optical  wants.  It  is,  then,  with  pleasure  indeed  that  we  hail 
this  excellent  translation  of  Naegeli's  work  on  the  theory 
and  practice  of  the  microscope  The  book  has  long  been 
announced,  and  many  have  looked,  year  after  year, 
eagerly  for  its  coming.  But  a  series  of  untoward  cir- 
cumstances have  combined  to  make  the  delay  inevitable. 
The  translation  was  begun  some  ten  years  since  by  Mr. 
Frank  Crisp,  the  Secretary  of  the  Royal  Microscopical 
Society,  purely  in  the  interests  of  microscopy  in  England. 
He  wished  to  fill  the  blank  in  the  microscopical  literature 
of  the  country,  which  had,  in  fact,  become  almost  a  dis- 
honour to  us.  This  book  of  Naegeli  and  Schwendener  is 
a  thorough  treatise  on  the  theory  of  the  microscope,  giving 
a  detailed  theoretical  exposition  of  the  construction  of 


objectives,  eye-pieces,  &c.,  with  analytical  determination  of 
the  path  of  the  rays  in  refracting  systems ;  discussing 
exhaustively  chromatic  and  spherical  aberration ;  the 
influence  of  the  cover-glass ;  the  flatness  of  the  field  of 
view ;  the  centering  of  systems  of  lenses  ;  the  importance 
of  aperture,  with  a  discussion  of  the  diffractional  action 
of  the  aperture  of  the  lenses ;  and  the  question  of 
illumination. 

With  equal  care  and  thoroughness  there  is  a  discussion 
of  the  testing  of  the  microscope,  in  all  its  branches,  which 
cannot  but  make  the  student  conversant  with  every 
essential  point  in  the  construction  of  the  instrument ;  and 
an  absolutely  invaluable  monograph  on  the  theory  of 
microscopic  observation,  which  no  one  attempting  to  pub- 
lish results  of  any  importance  dare  leave  unread  or  even 
unstudied.  The  phenomena  of  polarization  receive  equal 
care  in  treatment  and  must  prove  of  the  utmost  value. 

To  put  such  a  book  within  the  reach  of  English  readers, 
Mr.  Crisp  rightly  felt,  would  be  to  give  the  needed  stimulus 
to  English  microscopical  observation  :  it  would  put  them 
on  the  same  horizon  with  German  specialists.  But  the 
first  impediment  to  its  appearing  in  print  was,  that  Mr. 
Crisp  was  compelled,  by  the  weight  of  other  claims  upon 
his  time,  to  relinquish  the  task  of  preparing  the  translation 
for  the  press  when  only  eighty  pages  were  in  type  ;  and 
a  large  lapse  of  time  ensued  before  the  labour  was  at 
length  resumed  by  Mr.  John  Mayall,  Jun.,  one  of  the 
editors  of  the  Journal  of  the  Royal  Microscopical  Society. 
But,  beyond  this,  when  Mr.  Mayall  had  done  his  work  and 
the  printing  of  the  work  was  complete,  a  fire  destroyed 
the  premises  of  the  printer  and  all  but  a  small  portion  of 
the  type  was  wholly  lost.  The  present  issue  is  therefore 
an  entire  reprint. 

There  is  but  one  point  that  we  can  see  in  the  book,  as  it 
now  stands,  that  need  call  for  the  slightest  reflection  :  it  is 
that  the  authors  adopt,  and  discuss  at  considerable  length, 
a  method  of  testing  the  resolving  power  of  objectives 
which  has  had — in  another  connection — the  honour  of  a 
mathematical  refutation  by  the  highest  living  authority 
on  microscopical  optics.  Prof.  E.  Abbe,  of  Jena.  This 
method  consists  of  viewing,  with  the  objective  to  be  tested, 
what  were  assumed  to  be  "  miniatured  images  "  of  a  net- 
work of  wire  gauze  produced  by  minute  globules  of  oil 
and  other  matters,  which  images  were  supposed  to  be  re- 
duced to  the  "  limit  of  discrimination  "  by  simply  distanc- 
ing the  wire  gauze  from  the  oil  globule.  Prof.  Abbe's  de- 
monstration {vide  Journ.  Royal  Micros.  Soc.  1882,  pp. 
693-96)  of  the  fallacy  of  this  method  proves  that  the 
combination  of  a  microscope  with  a  minute  oil  globule,  or 
its  equivalent,  for  viewing  a  distant  object — whether  wire 
gauze,  or  a  so  called  "  double  star"  arrangement  as  ad- 
vocated by  Dr.  Royston  Piggott — serves  no  purpose  what- 
ever in  determining  the  limit  of  the  resolving  power  of 
the  objective  ;  but  merely  produces  a  very  low-power  tele- 
scope ;  the  power  of  which  may  easily  be  so  low,  indeed, 
that  the  eye  fails  to  differentiate,  or  even  to  perceive,  the 
image  ! 

The  adoption  of  this  fallacious  mode  of  reasoning, 
however,  amounts  only  to  a  blemish  in  an  otherwise  most 
excellent  work  ;  and  with  the  publication  and  accessi- 
bility of  Abbe's  correction  can  do  but  little  harm. 

It  would  have  given  a  still  higher  value  to  the  book  if 
the  chapters  devoted  to  an  exposition  of  Prof.  Abbe's 


Dec.  22,  1887] 


NATURE 


173 


views  on  the  formation  of  images  in  the  microscope  had 
received  the  advantage  of  his  personal  and  later  revision  ; 
but  it  is  none  the  less  due  to  the  authors  to  acknowledge 
the  credit  that  is  justly  theirs,  for  the  very  early  recogni- 
tion of  the  value  of  his  investigations  ;  and  for  the  earnest 
manner  in  which  they  endeavoured  to  embody  those  in- 
vestigations in  a  popular  text-book  at  a  date  (1877)  when 
hardly  more  than  the  barest  outlines  of  the  subject  had 
been  published  by  Prof.  Abbe  himself 

We  note  that  the  authors  give  the  preference  to  day- 
light over  lamp-light,  believing  that  it  exerts  less  strain 
upon  the  eye.  We  suspect  that  the  majority  of  English 
observers,  especially  at  continuous  work,  and  with  high 
powers,  will  be  inclined  to  reverse  this  judgment.  Ex- 
tremely white  and  intense  light  can  be  obtained  from  good 
modern  lamps,  and,  unHke  daylight,  it  is  unvarying,  devoid 
of  caprice,  and  easy  of  manipulation.  But  this  is  a  matter, 
perhaps,  in  some  sense  subjective,  and  not  of  vital  moment. 

The  world  of  science  generally  and  of  microscopical 
science  in  particular,  is  deeply  indebted  to  Mr.  Crisp  for 
initiating  this  translation,  which,  we  have  taken  pains  to 
find,  is  most  carefully  done  ;  and  to  Mr.  Mayall  for  his 
part  of  the  laborious  undertaking.  We  can  only  hope,  in  the 
interests  of  English  and  American  science,  that  it  will  find 
a  large  circle  of  careful  readers  on  both  sides  of  the  At- 
lantic ;  and  we  warmly  concur  in  the  hope  expressed  in 
the  preface,  "  that  the  volume  may  be  supplemented  be- 
fore long  by  an  English  version  of  the  further  researches 
in  microscopical  optics  by  Prof.  Abbe,  of  Jena,  which 
have  extended  so  much  our  knowledge  of  the  matters 
dealt  with  in  Naegeli  and  Schwendener's  work." 

W.  H.  Dallinger, 


THE  CRUISE  OF  THE  "  DIJUMPHNA." 
The  Cruise  of  the  "Dijufnphna."  With  Reports  0/  the 
Zoological  and  Botanical  Results  of  the  Voyage.  By 
R.  Bergh,  J.  Deichmann  Brandt,  J.  Collin,  H.  Hansen, 
T.  Holm,  C.  Jensen,  G.  Levinsen,  C.  Liitken,  L.  K. 
Rosenvinge,  M.  Traustedt,  and  N.  Wille.  (Copenhagen, 
1887.) 

THE  Danish  Arctic  Expedition  of  1882-83  owes  its 
initiative  to  its  able  commander,  Lieut.  Hovgaard, 
of  the  Danish  Navy.  This  enterprising  officer,  whose 
practical  experience  of  Arctic  navigation  gave  great 
weight  to  his  opinions  on  the  subject,  had  early  in  1882 
published  a  pamphlet,  entitled  "  Suggestions  for  a  Danish 
Polar  Expedition,"  in  which  he  advocated  his  own  theories 
regarding  the  distribution  of  land  and  water  in  the  Arctic 
regions,  and  the  feasibility  of  finding  some  hitherto 
untried  route  for  circumpolar  exploration. 

In  response  to  his  appeal  for  means  to  test  the 
accuracy  of  his  opinions,  a  private  individual,  Herr 
Gamel,  of  Copenhagen,  placed  at  his  disposal  a  screw- 
steamer,  since  known  as  the  Difuinphna,  whose  equip- 
ment for  Polar  explorations  and  scientific  observations 
was  supplemented  at  the  expense  of  the  Danish  Ministry 
of  Marine. 

Thus  well  prepared,  the  Expedition  left  the  Copenhagen 
Roads,  July  18,  1882,  but  unfortunately  the  Difumphna 
early  encountered  ice,  which  was  found  to  be  so  dense 


south  of  Cape  Tschernui  Noss  that  it  was  only  after  a 
delay  of  more  than  four  weeks  off"  the  south-west  coasts  of 
Nova  Zembla,  that  an  entrance  could  be  made  into  the 
Sea  of  Kara,  where,  in  accordance  with  Hovgaard's  antici- 
pations, the  water  was  clear.  The  hopes  of  success  to 
which  this  fact  gave  rise  proved,  however,  delusive,  for 
the  ice  began  to  re-form  so  rapidly  that,  within  a  few 
days  of  their  passage  into  the  Kara  Sea,  it  had  become 
apparent  that  the  Difumphna  was  fast  bound  for  the 
coming  winter  ;  and  it  was  only  after  nearly  a  twelve- 
month's detention  that  the  ice  began  to  loosen,  when  the 
westerly  trend  of  the  drifts  carried  the  ship,  in  the  August 
of  1883,  back  towards  the  entrance  of  the  Sea  of  Kara. 
With  a  broken  screw  and  failing  supplies,  there  was  no 
alternative  but  to  renounce  all  hope  of  advancing  further 
east,  and,  accordingly,  by  help  of  sails  the  Difumphna 
began  its  homeward  voyage,  which  was  so  retarded  by  ice- 
drifts  and  storms  that  the  harbour  of  Copenhagen  was  not 
reached  till  December  3,  1883. 

In  the  course  of  the  winter  the  sun  remained  below  the 
horizon  from  November  20  to  January  22,  the  temperature 
at  the  latter  date  falling  as  low  as  -  47""9  C. ;  while  there 
was  constant  danger  of  being  crushed  in  the  ice,  or  car- 
ried with  moving  drifts  on  the  shore.  Yet,  notwithstanding 
these  drawbacks,  the  trawl  and  dredge  were  diligently 
used  at  190  diff'erent  stations,  ten  of  which  were  in  the 
Jugor  Schar  and  in  Olenje  Sound,  off  the  south-west 
coast  of  Nova  Zembla.  Most  of  the  deep-sea  soundings 
were  carried  on  in  the  Sea  of  Kara,  between  69°  42'  N.  lat., 
64°  45'  E.  long.,  and  71°  46'  N.  lat.,  65°  14'  E.  long., 
within  which  limits  the  ship  was  moved  forward  and 
backward  by  the  ice-drifts.  This  ground  proved  specially 
rich,  and  Herr  Holm,  the  efficient  naturalist  of  the 
Expedition,  was  able  to  bring  home  an  exceptionally 
large  number  of  well-preserved  botanical  and  animal 
collections,  which  now  form  a  valuable  addition  to  the 
contents  of  the  Danish  National  Museum,  to  which  they 
have  been  generously  ceded  by  Herr  Gamel,  the  owner 
of  the  Difumphna. 

Herr  Holm's  report  of  the  flora  of  Nova  Zembla,  which 
he  examined  at  twelve  distinct  localities  during  the 
Difumphna' s  long  detention  off"  the  coast,  confirms  the 
statement  of  Von  Baer  as  to  the  abundance  of  vegetation 
on  the  tundras,  but  he  differs  from  him  in  regard  to  the 
mode  in  which  plants  found  their  way  into  these  high 
latitudes.  According  to  Von  Baer,  to  whose  report  of  his 
scientific  mission,  undertaken  for  the  Russian  Govern- 
ment in  1837,  we  are  indebted  for  our  first  acquaintance 
with  the  Nova  Zembla  flora,  its  plants  have  all  been 
stranded  from  neighbouring  shores  through  the  agency  of 
drifting  ice.  Herr  Holm,  on  the  other  hand,  believes 
that  a  few  forms  may  be  survivals  from  pre-glacial  periods, 
but  that  the  presence  of  the  majority  is  due  partly  to  the 
agency  of  birds,  of  which  large  numbers,  more  especially 
Tringa  and  other  waders,  frequent  the  shores,  and  partly 
to  the  winds,  and  to  ice-drifts.  Insects  are  too  rare  to 
affect  the  question  of  plant-propagation,  and  his  observa- 
tions—that most  plants  on  the  tundras  have  the  corolla 
directed  upwards,  while  pendent  or  drooping  forms  are 
very  rare,  and  that  the  majority  are  scentless,  and  of  one 
uniform  colour — appear  to  favour  these  views  ;  although  it 
is  possible  that  the  existing  flora  may  also  to  some  extent 
be  due  to  self-fertilization. 


174 


NATURE 


Dec.  22,  1887 


The  general  appearance  of  the  tundras  is  that  of  a 
shghtly  irregular  plain,  the  irregularities  being  due  to  the 
tuft -like  character  of  the  patches  of  vegetation,  which  are 
separated  by  pools  and  streams  of  melting  ice,  from  which 
innumerable  mosses  emerge.  When  closely  examined, 
these  tufts  are  found  to  consist  of  plants  dwarfed  out  of 
all  resemblance  to  their  more  southern  congeners ;  thus, 
Salix  polaris  never  rises  more  than  2  inches  in  height, 
although  the  number  of  its  annual  layers  of  growth — con- 
sisting only  of  five  to  six  cells — may  indicate  an  age  of 
thirty  years.  Considered  generally,  the  Nova  Zemblan 
flora  consists  of  twenty-eight  families  of  Dicotyledons,  four 
Monocotyledons,  and  four  Cryptogams.  Among  the 
Phanerogamae  the  most  largely  represented  are  the 
Gramineae,  of  which  thirty-one  species  have  been  dis- 
tinguished. Curiously  enough,  it  is  found  that  contrary  to 
their  habits  in  more  southern  regions  the  Dicotyledons 
flower  earlier  than  Monocotyledons,  which  contribute  the 
larger  proportion  of  the  flora  of  the  tundras,  both  as 
regards  species  and  individuals.  The  number  of  new 
phanerogamic  forms  derived  from  the  Dijumphtta  Expedi- 
tion scarcely  exceeds  a  dozen,  and  of  these  the  most 
interesting  are  Salix  arctica,  Glyceria  ienella,  Potentilla 
emarginata,  and  three  species  of  Carex,  viz.  C.  incurva, 
lagopina,  and  hyperborea.  As  many  as  eight  species  of 
Saxifraga  were  met  with,  while  Phaca  is  the  only  repre- 
sentative of  Papilionaceous  plants. 

Special  interest  attaches  to  the  collection  of  mosses 
brought  home  by  Herr  Holm,  and  examined  by  Herr  C. 
Jensen,  whose  report  shows  that  among  the  entire  sixty- 
four  species,  of  which  fifty-one  belonged  to  the  tundras 
and  the  cliffs  of  Nova  Zembla,  three  were  genuine  Arctic 
forms,  viz.  Voitia  hyperborea,  Bryttni  obtusifoHuni,  and 
AfublystegiuiH  brevifolium.  In  Wulfberg's  report  of  the 
mosses  collected  in  the  Norwegian  Expedition  of  1872, 
which  is  the  only  other  notice  of  the  Arctic  Crypto- 
gams, only  twenty-four  are  noted,  so  that  w^e  owe  our 
acquaintance  with  forty  species  to  the  industry  of  the 
DijumpJmds  collectors.  Herr  Holm  was  equally 
fortunate  in  finding  hitherto  unrecorded  fresh-water  Algse 
in  South- West  Nova  Zembla  ;  but  in  regard  to  the  marine 
Algae  he  has  little  to  record  that  had  not  been  previously 
made  known,  while  he  corroborates  the  statements  of 
earlier  explorers  as  to  the  luxuriant  profusion  of  gigantic 
Laminari?e,  which  fringe  the  coasts  at  a  depth  of  from 
1  to  5  fathoms,  where  he  obtained  fronds  of  Alaria 
esculenta  more  than   15  feet   long. 

In  passing  to  the  consideration  of  the  zoological  results 
of  the  Dijiimphna  Expedition,  we  must  admit  that  except- 
ing in  regard  to  the  Invertebrata,  for  whose  capture  no 
better  hunting-grounds  than  such  Laminarian  forests  can 
be  wished  for,  the  results  are  negative  rather  than 
positive.  Of  the  higher  marine  Vertebrates  only  Phoca 
fcetida  and  Odobcenus  rosmants  were  seen.  A  few  foxes 
were  noted,  and  a  young  she-bear  was  shot,  which  was 
the  only  specimen  of  big  game  attainable.  Fishes, 
mostly  belonging  to  Icelus,  Lycodes,  and  Liparis,  were 
taken  so  sparsely  in  from  49  to  106  fathoms  that  only 
twenty-eight  out  of  the  entire  190  trawls  yielded  a  single 
specimen.  In  regard  to  the  Invertebrates  the  yields  were, 
however,  enormous,  showing  an  astonishing  abundance  of 
animal  life  in  the  Arctic  waters.  Thus,  one  haul  brought 
up  928  specimens  of  Glyptonotus  enfomon,  300  of  G.  Sabini, 


besides  enormous  numbers  of  Alcyonidae,  Sponges, 
Actinias,  and  other  Polyp  forms.  Nor  was  this  an  ex- 
ceptional case.  In  the  Sea  of  Kara  the  Echinodermata 
ranked  first  as  to  individual  numbers,  but  Crustaceas  as 
to  species,  eighty-two  of  the  latter  having  been  determined, 
of  which  ten  belonged  to  the  family  of  the  Pycnogonidae. 
Among  Crustaceans  generally,  seventeen  new  species 
have  been  established  by  Herr  Hansen,  whose  report 
supplies  much  interesting  and  novel  information  in  regard 
to  the  structure  of  the  foot-jaws  of  the  Isopoda,  of  which 
he  proposes  to  treat  more  in  detail  in  a  special  mono- 
graph on  the  buccal  organs  and  antennae  of  the  most 
important  Crustacean  types. 

Gastropods  and  Annelids  were  of  rare  occurrence,  and 
only  one  genus  of  Cephalopods,  Rossia,  was  observed. 
The  Simple  Ascidians,  which  have  been  carefully  studied 
and  reported  on  by  Dr.  Traustedt,  have  relatively  speak- 
ing yielded  many  novel  results,  while  five  of  the  eight 
species  collected  are  new,  of  which  the  most  interesting 
are  Phallicsia  dij umphniana  and  P.  glacialis. 

The  volume  in  which  the  various  reports  on  the 
Dijumphna  collections  are  contained  is  well  got  up,  like 
other  works  of  a  similar  character  that  have  been  brought 
out  under  the  joint  co-operation  of  the  authorities  of  the 
National  Museum  of  Denmark,  and  of  the  Carlsberg 
Institute.  The  latter  of  these  bodies  has  liberally 
advanced  the  funds  necessary  for  meeting  the  expenses  of 
publication,  in  anticipation  of  the  grant  of  10,000  kroner 
to  be  voted  for  the  purpose  in  the  next  year's  Parliamentary 
Budget. 

The  work  has  been  carefully  edited  by  Herr  Liitken,  who 
contributes  the  monograph  on  the  fishes,  and  to  him 
foreign  readers  are  indebted  for  a  French  resume  of  the 
report  on  the  vegetation  of  Nova  Zembla,  and  for  a 
general  summary  of  the  fauna  of  the  Sea  of  Kara  in  the 
same  tongue.  Besides  his  very  complete  botanical  re- 
ports, Herr  Holm  contributes  a  short  prefatory  account 
of  the  cruise,  which,  if  it  unfortunately  failed  in  adding  to 
our  geographical  knowledge  of  the  Arctic  regions,  has  at 
any  rate  supplied  naturalists  with  much  valuable  material 
towards  a  closer  acquaintance  with  the  conditions 
and  forms  of  vegetable  and  animal  life  in  those  high 
latitudes. 


EXERCISES  IN  QUANTITATIVE    CHEMICAL 
ANALYSIS. 

Exercises  in  Quantitative  Chemical  Analysis;  and  a 
Short  Treatise  on  Gas  Analysis.  W.  Dittmar,  LL.D. 
(Glasgow  :  William  Hodge  and  Co.,  1887.) 

IT  has  probably  been  the  case  with  all  books  on  practical 
chemistry,  and  especially  quantitative  analysis,  that 
in  the  first  instance  a  rough  plan  or  outhne  of  the  work 
j  was  used  by  the  teacher  in  his  laboratory,  there  to  under- 
go a  process  of  extension  and  development.  In  some 
cases  this  development  has  gone  on  until  we  have  such 
classical  compilations  of  tried  analytical  processes  as 
Fresenius's  quantitative  or  Crookes's  special  methods. 
This  seems  to  be  a  natural  plan.  Try  your  plan  on  your 
own  students,  and,  if  there  a  success,  publish  for  the  pos- 
sible benefit  of  a  wider  circle.    There  is  only  this  difficulty, 


Dec.  2  2,  1887] 


NA  TURE 


175 


that,  outside  certain  fundamental  operations  and  stages 
in  teaching,  teachers  and  schools  differ  considerably  in 
detail,  and  it  is  precisely  on  this  detail,  or  order  of  import- 
ance in  some  cases,  of  work  that  a  teacher  prides  himself 
— or  thinks  he  has  the  right  plan— as  being  able  to  turn 
out  the  most  satisfactory  students  or  to  save  their 
time. 

The  author  of  this  book  in  his  preface  tells  us  that  a 
preliminary  edition  wj.s  issued  a  little  more  than  a  year 
ago  for  his  own  students,  and  that  the  work  had  been 
even  before  then  in  use  as  a  typographed  book  for  some 
time.  He  likewise  makes  some  remarks  about  the  drill- 
ing of  students  in  the  beginning  of  their  quantitative 
exercises  with  which  we  fully  agree.  Our  experience 
is  that  a  student  requires  standing  over  during  the  first 
four  or  five  quantitative  exercises.  If  the  author's  pro- 
duction shortens  that  ever  so  little,  it  will  be  a  service  to 
teacher  and  student  alike.  As  to  the  interpolation  of  a 
preparation,  the  importance  of  this  has  scarcely  been  re- 
cognized by  teachers.  There  is  no  doubt  that  a  judicious 
selection  of  preparations,  the  end  product  of  which  is  to 
be  analyzed,  is  one  of  the  best  methods  of  preparing  young 
students  for  practical  analytical  work. 

After  the  exercises  in  weighing  and  measuring  and 
determination  of  specific  gravities  of  solutions,  the  book 
proceeds  to  a  series  of  exercises  in  analytical  methods. 
In  these  methods  lies  at  once  the  strength  and  weakness 
of  the  book.  We  have  a  considerable  number  of  methods 
for  the  analysis  of  things — salts,  &c. — of  technical  import- 
ance, the  performance  of  which  would  leave  a  student  in 
a  strong  position  as  regards  practical  knowledge  ;  but  it  is 
very  questionable  indeed  if  the  average  student  could  work 
through  the  majority  of  these,  in  the  absence  of  the 
instructor,  from  what  is  given  in  the  shape  of  directions. 
The  exercises  under  separation  are  very  well  selected. 
They  include  a  number  of  ores  and  alloys,  silicates,  &c. 
In  the  process  of  separation  of  lead  and  antimony  by 
chlorine  (p.  137)  the  author  might  have  improved  on  the 
use  of  manganese  by  using  permanganate,  the  evolution 
of  chlorine  is  more  regular. 

Then  follows  combustion  analysis  for  C,  H,  and  N,  and 
gas  analysis.  The  latter  forms  the  largest  and  best 
section  of  the  book.  It  is  mostly  taken  from,  and  is  after 
the  style  of,  Bunsen's  gasometry.  Other  methods  or 
modifications  are  also  discussed  as  far  as  is  requisite  in  a 
book  of  this  nature.  We  have,  finally,  a  number  of 
"promiscuous  exercises"  in  applied  analysis:  sea- water 
— mostly  after  the  author's  report  on  the  composition  of 
ocean  water — milk,  butter,  and  other  substances. 

On  the  whole,  the  book  is  a  careful  compilation  and 
arrangement  of  work  for  students,  bearing  unmistakable 
evidence  of  the  author  by  the  references  to  his  work  and 
methods.  We  take  leave  to  object  to  "  Knallgas  "  as  not 
being  very  generally  understood  by  English  students.  It 
is  not  much  shorter  than  electrolytic  gas,  and  although 
the  employment  of  it  is  explained  it  serves  no  very  useful 
end.  But  this  and  one  or  two  other  details  are  not  great 
objections,  and  do  not  detract  from  the  utility  of  the  book, 
which  attempts  perhaps  too  much,  but  may  be  fairly  com- 
mended to  those  students  of  chemistry  intending  to 
become  analysts,  especially  of  technical  products. 

W.  R.  H. 


THE  STUDY  OF  LOGIC. 
A    Short    Introduction    to   the    Study    of  Logic.      By 
Laurence  Johnstone.      (London :    Longmans,   Green, 
and  Co.,  1887.) 

'T'HERE  is  naturally  some  interest  attaching  to  a  book 
-L  on  logic  which  bears  the  imprimatur  of  Cardinal 
Manning,  and  of  which  a  responsible  member  of  the 
Society  of  Jesus  can  say  nihil  obstat.  The  Jesuits  have 
long  been  famous  teachers,  and  it  is  possible  that  those 
who  find  elementary  logic  an  unsatisfactory  teaching- 
subject  may  glean  some  useful  hints  from  this  little 
volume. 

From  a  point  of  view  outside  the  Roman  Church,  the 
perennial  difficulty  in  the  study  of  logic  consists  in  the 
fact  that  no  firm  line  can  be  drawn  between  the  most 
elementary  logical  doctrines  and  the  highest  possible 
flights  of  philosophical  reflection.  As  logic  is  taught  by 
and  for  free-thinkers,  both  student  and  teacher  are  in  a 
constant  state  of  climbing  ladders  only  to  kick  them 
down.  At  all  stages  a  higher  and  a  lower  logic  are  at 
variance,  or  rather  the  higher  logic  consists  in  nothing 
else  than  a  criticism  of  the  lower.  Distinctions  that  have 
been  our  mainstay  become  mere  obstacles:  our  later 
views  are  mostly  not  additions  to  the  earlier  ones,  but 
subversions  of  them.  Hence  there  is  little  beyond  the 
bare  history  of  the  subject,  and  a  few  of  the  less  important 
technicalities,  that  can  be  taught  with  any  authority. 

In  Mr.  Johnstone's  book  we  find  throughout  a  wholly 
different  attitude  taken.  With  quiet  simplicity,  questions 
over  which  modern  philosophy  has  spent  much  heat  and 
labour  are  boldly  prevented  from  arising.  Thus  a  student 
may  read,  on  page  10,  under  the  heading  "  Action  of  the 
Intellect,"  that  "  the  mind  is  a  tabula  rasa  before  it  re- 
ceives any  impressions  from  without.  It  receives  im- 
pressions, or  the  matter  for  ideas,  through  the  senses, 
upon  which  the  impression  is  made.  By  means  of  the 
'  sensus  intimus'  man  becomes  conscious  of  these  im- 
pressions, of  which  the  imagination  then  forms  a  picture, 
or  phantasm."  And  then  "  from  the  picture  on  the 
imagination  the  intellect  draws  that  element  which  is 
akin  to  itself,  that  is  the  immaterial  incorporeal  element, 
throws  it  into  its  mould — so  to  say — and  the  result  is  the 
'  species  intelligibilis,'  formed  in  the  intellect  itself,  and 
representative  of  the  exterior  thing."  What  could  be 
more  final  and  satisfactory  ?  It  is  not  everyone  who  is 
free  to  make  so  short  a  piece  of  work  of  one  of  the  largest 
of  all  philosophical  questions.  And  so  the  student  gets 
something  that  he  can  definitely  carry  away,  and  produce 
on  paper  when  required. 

Another  noticeable  feature  is  the  revival,  throughout 
the  work,  of  many  distinctions  which  have  dropped  out 
of  sight  in  our  modern  text-books,  or  are  at  most  referred 
to  vaguely  there  with  a  passing  smile  at  the  "  fruitless 
subtlety  of  the  schoolmen."  These  can  plainly  be  made 
to  serve  two  purposes, — they  provide  abundance  of 
material  for  the  student  to  exercise  his  memory  upon, 
and  their  effect  as  a  whole  must  be  to  keep  as  separate 
as  possible  the  process  of  using  the  machinery  of  logic, 
and  that  of  seriously  criticising  our  own  beliefs.  It  is 
only  from  the  free-thinker's  point  of  view  that  any  real 
desire  can  be  felt  to  make  logical  criticism  practically 
effective  to  the  utmost.     If  we  are  anxious  above  all  to 


176 


NA  TURE 


[Dec,  22,  1887 


guard  some  piece  of  faith  as  such,  then  the  more  wordy 
our  logic  the  better.  And  the  delight  in  "  naming  our 
tools  "  may  be  carried  to  any  length  without  fear  of  un- 
pleasantness. It  need  commit  us  to  no  more  than  did 
Mr.  Micawber's  plan  of  docketing  his  unpaid  bills.  Here, 
however,  it  must  be  left  an  open  question  whether  the 
modern  practice  of  ignoring  so  many  carefully-made 
divisions  is  an  improvement  or  the  reverse.  Both  views 
are  at  least  respectable.  In  any  case  the  elaborate  details 
of  the  machinery  by  which  our  religious  creeds  are  to  be 
kept  sacred  contain  much  that  ought  to  be  of  interest  to 
all.  What  with  criteria  per  quod  and  secundum  quod 
(pp.  168,  191),  with  different  "  spheres"  of  truth  (pp.  175, 
202,  203),  and  different  kinds  of  certainty  (pp.  161-68), 
with  truths  which  are  "  not  intrinsically  evident,  but 
nevertheless  extrinsically  evident,  or,  rather,  evidently 
credible  "  (p.  200),  one  may  learn  to  admire  heartily  the 
care  and  cleverness  employed  so  freely  in  mediaeval  times 
by  those  who  felt  the  need  of  warding  off  awkward  ques- 
tions. It  is  certainly  no  light  problem,  how  logic  may  be 
taught  without  encouraging  the  dangerous  practice  of 
doubting  what  we  are  told. 

There  are  other  signs  of  hard  work  in  this  book, 
besides  the  patience  with  which  the  author  has  studied 
the  scholastic  doctrines.  For  teaching  purposes  there  is 
nothing  so  useful  as  examples,  and  here  the  examples 
given  are  numerous,  mostly  new,  and  sure  to  be  helpful 
to  the  learner.  Only  those  who  have  tried  know  the  real 
difficulty  of  clearly  illustrating  statements  so  general  as 
those  of  logic  without  some  appearance  of  triviality.  In 
this  respect  also  Mr.  Johnstone  has  succeeded  unusually 
well.  Alfred  Sidgwick. 


OUR  BOOK  SHELF. 

Light  aftd  Heat.       By  the  Rev.  F.  W.  Aveling,   M.A. , 
B.Sc.     (London  :  Relfe  Bros.,  1887.) 

This  is  an  elementary  text-book  intended  to  cover  the 
syllabus  of  Light  and  Heat  for  the  London  Matriculation 
Examination.  Being  written  more  in  the  form  of  notes 
than  as  an  ordinary  book,  it  will  be  of  considerable  service 
for  examination-purposes.  Many  of  the  definitions,  how- 
ever, are  far  from  concise,  and  many  phenomena  which 
admit  of  easy  explanation  are  left  unexplained.  On  p.  98 
we  are  told  that  the  specific  heats  of  gases  are  inversely 
proportional  to  the  square  roots  of  their  densities, 
whereas  they  are  in  inverse  proportion  to  their  densities  ; 
had  a  simple  explanation  of  this  relation  been  given,  the 
mistake  would  not  have  occurred.  The  important  subject 
of  thermo-dynamics  is  disposed  of  in  four  pages  at  the 
end  of  the  book  :  this  is  not  as  it  ought  to  be,  seeing  that 
the  relation  between  heat  and  work  often  enters  into 
previous  discussions,  and  is,  moreover,  the  basis  of  the 
modern  theory  of  heat. 

The  sketches  are  of  a  rough-and-ready  kind,  such  as 
a  student  would  be  expected  to  make  in  an  examination, 
and,  as  such,  give  many  useful  hints.  The  coloured  plate 
of  spectra,  however,  is  as  useless  as  the  majority  of 
similar  ones,  as  practically  no  explanation  of  the  meaning 
of  a  spectrum  is  given  ;  dark  lines  are  shown  in  the 
spectrum  of  potassium,  but  these  are  no  doubt  due  to  a 
mistake  of  the  lithographer.  Such  exhibitions  as  the^e, 
which  are  far  too  common,  show  a  want  of  respect  for 
the  labours  of  those  who  have  done  so  much  to  further 
our  knowledge  of  spectrum  analysis. 

A  large  number  of  good  numerical  problems,  with 
answers,  are  distributed  throughout  the  text,  and  several 
typical  ones  are  fully  worked  out.  A.  F. 


Animals  from  the  Life.     By  H.  Leutemann.     Edited  by 
Arabella  B.  Buckley.     (London:  Stanford,  1887.) 

This  work,  which  forms  a  charming  introduction  to  the 
study  of  zoology,  is  just  the  thing  for  young  children  who 
have  a  turn  for  the  subject,  and  at  the  present  time,  since 
presents  are  being  made  on  all  sides,  would  make  a  very 
useful  and  enjoyable  gift.  From  it  they  will  be  able  to 
become  acquainted  with  the  various  forms  of  living 
creatures  without  having  to  make  a  laborious  study  of 
natural  history,  which  few  care  to  do.  A  great  amount 
of  knowledge  can  be  gained  by  merely  looking  at  the 
illustrations,  which  are  got  up  in  a  very  intelligent  and 
accurate  style  ;  they  are  255  in  number,  and  well  coloured, 
and  represent  animals,  including  birds,  insects,  fish,  &c., 
as  they  are  found  in  their  natural  state. 

The  accounts  of  the  various  forms  and  habits  of  the 
different  animals  (each  plate  having  about  a  page  and  a 
half  of  letterpress  with  it),  are  written  so  very  clearly 
and  in  such  a  natural  way  that  anyone  who  peruses  this 
book  will  find  plenty  that  will  be  extremely  interesting. 

In  adapting  the  original  text  to  the  wants  of  English 
children.  Miss  Buckley  has  had  to  alter  it  in  many  places, 
English  examples  and  references  being  substituted  for 
German  ones. 

The  Vegetable  Lamb  of  Tartary.  By  Henry  Lee.  (London : 
Sampson  Low,  1887.) 

In  former  times  it  was  generally  believed  that  there  existed 
in  the  East  a  mysterious  "  plant-animal,"  variously  called 
"  the  vegetable  lamb  of  Tartary,"  "  the  Scythian  lamb,"  and 
"the  Barometz,"or  "Borametz."  The  usual  explanation  of 
this  notion  is  that  it  originated  from  certain  little  lamb- 
like toy  figures  constructed  by  the  Chinese  from  the 
rhizome  and  frond-stems  of  a  tree-fern.  Mr.  Lee,  however, 
holds  that  the  idea  came  into  Europe  from  Western  Asia, 
and  that  it  referred  in  the  first  instance  to  the  cotton-pod. 
This  theory  he  works  out  thoroughly  in  the  present  little 
work,  and  in  the  course  of  his  argument  he  has  brought 
together  many  curious  and  interesting  facts,  the  signifi- 
cance of  which  is  made  more  plain  by  a  number  of  good 
illustrations.  In  a  separate  chapter  Mr.  Lee  treats  of  the 
history  of  cotton,  its  uses  by  ancient  races  in  Asia,  Africa, 
and  America,  and  its  gradual  introduction  among  the 
nations  of  Europe. 


LETTERS   TO    THE  EDITOR. 

{The  Editor  does  not  hold  himself  responsible  for  opinions 
expressed  by  his  correspondents.  Neither  can  he  under- 
take to  return,  or  to  correspond  with  the  writers  of, 
rejected  manuscripts.  No  notice  is  taken  of  anonymous 
communications. 

[The  Editor  urgently  requests  correspondents  to  keep  their 
letters  as  short  as  possible.  The  pressure  on  his  space 
is  so  great  that  it  is  impossible  otherwise  to  insure  the 
appearance  even  of  communications  containing  interesting 
and  novel  facts. 

The  Royal  Horticultural  Society. 

The  affairs  of  the  Royal  Horticultural  Society  alluded  to  in 
the  last  issue  of  Nature  (p.  145)  have  lately  obtruded  them- 
selves upon  public  attention,  but  it  is  probable  that  some  readers 
of  Nature  may  consider  that  they  have  little  concern  with  such 
a  body.  They  may  look  on  horticulture  in  the  light  of  a 
pleasant  pastime,  or  of  a  more  or  less  profitable  commercial 
enterprise,  they  may  regard  flower-shows  as  a  means  for  the  dis 
play  of  fashionably-dressed  ladies,  or  they  may  look  on  the 
Royal  Horticultural  Society  as  an  association  for  the  production 
and  distribution  of  medals  and  certificates  of  more  commercial  than 
scientific  importance.  But  there  are  other  considerations  beyond 
these,  and  whilst  naturalists  may  be  indifferent  to  much  of  the 
past  history  and  much  of  the  present  work  of  the  Society,  to  the 
internal  dissensions  and  to  the  action  of  the  landlord  Commis- 
sioners towards  their  unfortunate  tenants,  the  scientific  work  of  the 


Dec.  22,  1887] 


NATURE 


177 


Society  may  well  excite  their  sympathy.  A  moment's  consider- 
ation will  show  that  the  progress  of  horticulture  is  largely 
based  on  the  correct  application  of  scientific  principles.  What 
is  not  so  familar  tp  most  people  is  the  extent  of  the  obligation 
under  which  science  generally  lies  to  horticulture.  Should  any 
reader  require  an  illustration  of  this,  let  him  turn  to  the  "Origin 
of  Species,"  and  specially  to  the  "  Variation  of  Animals  and 
Plants  under  Domestication."  There  is  scarcely  a  page  in  the 
chapters  of  those  volumes  relating  to  plants  that  does  not  abound 
in  references  to  the  practices  and  the  discoveries  of  horticul- 
turists. Fertilization,  cross-breeding,  hybridization,  selection, 
grafting,  the  limits  and  nature  of  variation,  are  only  a  few  of  the 
subjects  on  which  horticulture  furnishes  the  largest  and  in  many 
respects  the  most  trustworthy  body  of  evidence  yet  available. 
That  these  subjects  are  studied,  and  that  the  experiments  are  made, 
not  so  much  from  a  scientitic  as  from  a  utilitarian  point 
of  view,  is  surely  no  matter  of  reproach.  On  the  contrary, 
it  is  the  business  of  horticulturists  to  act  as  they  do,  but 
without  the  aid  of  a  Society  much  of  the  experience 
gained  would  be  lost  to  science.  All  this  might  be  admitted  as 
a  general  principle,  but  yet  its  concrete  application  to  the  Royal 
Horticultural  Society  might  be  from  various  causes  inappropriate. 
The  Society  in  question  has,  however,  distinct  and  undoubted 
claims  to  recognition  for  the  good  work  it  has  done  in  science  for 
a  long  period  of  years.  The  services  it  has  rendered  to  science 
by  its  collectors,  and  the  still  greater  value  of  its  work  in  all 
departments  of  practical  horticulture,  should  have  secured  for  it 
more  sympathetic  and  respectful  treatment  from  its  landlords. 
Among  Societies  deserving  of  national  support  and  encourage- 
ment on  the  ground  of  public  utility,  there  are  few,  indeed,  that 
have  greater  claims  than  this.  For  years  it  has  unfortunately 
been  hampered  by  the  necessity  of  providing  amusement  for 
a  body  of  Fellows  and  visitors  who  cared  nothing  whatever  for 
horticulture  in  its  higher  aims.  Now  there  is  a  chance  of  the 
Society  bursting  its  bonds  and  confining  itself  to  its  proper  work 
— the  promotion  of  scientific  and  practical  horticulture.  The  plan 
of  catering  for  fashionable  idlers  has  proved  disastrous.  While 
horticulture  proper  was  starved,  and  thousands  upon  thousands 
of  pounds  were  utterly  wasted,  the  landlords  retain  the  whole  of 
the  property  on  which  their  tenants  expended  so  much,  and  the 
Society  has  to  seek  a  new  home.  In  spite  of  all  this,  however, 
a  valiant  attempt  has  been  made  throughout  long  years  of 
depression  to  maintain  the  scientific  traditions  of  the  Society. 
There  has  always  been  a  small  body  of  Fellows  who  have  been 
mindful  of  the  obligation  w  hich  Thomas  Andrew  Knight,  so  long 
the  President  of  the  Society,  imposed  upon  his  successors.  Lindley 
for  forty  years  maintained  the  scientific  interests  of  horticulture 
in  the  Society,  and  he  was  assisted  by  Royle,  by  Bentham, 
and  many  others.  Twenty  years  ago,  or  more,  a  Scientific  Com- 
mittee was  appointed,  an1  this  body,  recruited  by  new  accessions 
each  year,  still  continues  its  labours.  Under  its  guidance  experi- 
ments have  been  performed  in  the  Society's  Experimental  Garden 
at  Chiswick  ;  under  its  sanction  have  been  published  numerous 
Reports  of  very  great  scientific  interest  and  importance  ;  and  much 
more  might  and  could  have  been  done  but  for  the  lack  of 
means,  or  rather  their  diversion  for  more  questionable  purposes. 
The  Committee  in  question  consists  of  some  twenty  or  thirty 
naturalists  of  all  denominations — botanists,  chemists,  geologists, 
entomologists— associated  with  amateur  and  professional  gardeners 
interested  in  science.  To  this  body  are  referred  for  discussion 
and  investigation  the  most  varied  objects  of  natural  history  and 
vegetable  pathology  ;  before  this  body  and  its  sister  committees  are 
brought  all  new  introductions,  whether  of  natural  origin,  or  pro- 
duced by  the  skill  of  the  gardener,  and  which  have  any  scientific 
interest.  Sir  Joseph  Hooker  is  the  Chairman  of  this  Committee, 
the  Rev.  M.  J.  Berkeley  was  for  many  years  its  Secretary,  and 
a  large  number  of  the  most  eminent  biologists,  chemists,  and 
geologists  have  been  or  still  are  among  its  members,  giving 
their  services  without  fee  or  reward,  simply  in  the  interests 
of  scientific  horticulture.  On  these  grounds,  therefore,  the 
sympathy  and  cooperation  of  those  interested  in  science 
may  be  claimed  on  behalf  of  the  Royal  Horticultural 
Society.  A  new  programme  has  been  decided  on  in  prin- 
ciple, a  new  home  must  be  provided  at  once,  for  the  purpose 
of  the  Society's  meetings  and  for  housing  the  Lindley  Library. 
This  library,  it  may  be  added,  is  held  in  trust  for  the  benefit  of 
the  Society,  and  is  from  lime  to  time  enriched  by  donations  and 
by  purchase,  so  far  as  the  very  meagre  income  of  the  Trustees 
permits.  The  donations  would  be  much  more  numerous  were 
it  generally  known  that  the  library,  though  primarily  intended 


for  the  Fellows,  yet  is  under  certain  restrictions  available  to 
outsiders,  so  that,  though  housed  in  the  Society's  rooms,  it  can- 
not be  sold  or  made  away  with  in  any  financial  catastrophe  which 
might  overtake  the  Society.  Such  a  fate,  however,  seems  to  be 
averted  at  present  ;  the  Society's  debt  is  not  large,  and  some 
members  of  the  Council,  or  other  friends,  have  made  a  good 
beginning  by  inaugurating  a  fund,  to  be  used  for  the  housing  of 
the  Society,  so  that  ere  long  we  may  hope  to  see  the  old  Society 
established  on  a  more  secure  basis,  and  more  potent  than  ever  to 
advance  those  interests  of  science  committed  to  its  special 
keeping.  Maxwell  T.  Masters, 


Classification  of  Clouds, 

As  one  who  has  been  engaged  for  nearly  forty  years  in  working 
up  the  materials  for  a  monograph  on  clouds,  I  suppose  I  de- 
serve the  name  of  a  "  specialist  in  clouds  "  as  much  as  any  one. 
Yet  I  decline,  for  reasons  which  I  will  hereafter  state  in  an 
appendix  to  my  volume,  to  be  altogether  bound  by  the  outlines 
of  classification  which  my  friends  Prof.  Hildebrandsson  and  the 
Hon.  Ralph  Abercromby  appear  to  lay  down  (Nature, 
December  8,  p.  129  el  set/.),  although  they  adopt  several 
of  the  names  which  come  from  my  mint.  I  fully  adopt  the 
opinion  implicitly  held  by  Mr.  Abercromby,  and  stated  by  my 
friend  Captain  Barker  [ibid.) — from  whose  classification,  however, 
I  differ  in  one  important  point — that  all  ordinarily  careful  ob- 
servers will  readily  comprehend  the  broad  and  simple  distinc- 
tions expressed  in  any  fairly  good  classification.  Nevertheless,  I 
believe  that  the  apparently  slow  progress  of  this  branch  of  re- 
search, and  the  tediousness  of  the  work  thrown  upon  the  classi- 
fier, are  matters  on  which  we  should  congratulate  ourselves, 
since  every  year  adds  something  to  our  knowledge  of  those 
physical  and  structural  processes  which  form  the  basis  of  all  true 
classification  ;  and  I  trust  that  some  years  may  pass  before  an 
International  Congress  may  attempt  finally  to  set  its  seal  upon 
any  nomenclature  or  classification  of  clouds. 

W.  Clement  Ley, 


Effect  of  Snow  on  the  Polarization  of  the  Sky, 

The  polarization  of  the  sky  has  been  shown  experimentally 
by  Tyndall  and  theoretically  by  Lord  Rayleigh  to  be  due  to  fine 
particles  suspended  in  the  atmosphere.  According  to  both,  the 
sunlight  scattered  at  right  angles  to  its  original  direction  by  very 
small  particles  is  completely  polarized  in  a  plane  through  the 
sun.  In  observation,  however,  we  find  the  light  from  a  region 
of  the  sky  distant  90"  from  the  sun  is  only  partially  polarized. 
This  is  due  to  that  portion  of  the  atmosphere  being  illuminated 
not  merely  by  the  sun,  but  also  by  the  rest  of  the  sky  and  the 
surface  of  the  earth,  and  partly  also  no  doubt  to  some  of  the 
particles  not  being  sufficiently  small  compared  with  a  wave-length. 
From  these  considerations  we  may  expect  that  a  fall  of  snow 
would  cause  a  considerable  diminution  of  the  polarization. 
This  expectation  has  been  fulfilled  in  some  recent  observations 
of  mine  here  at  6000  feet  above  sea-level.  My  polarimeter  con- 
sists essentially  of  two  piles  of  glass  plates  to  depolarize  the  sky 
light  ;  and  a  crystal  and  Nicol  prism  to  test  the  depolarization. 
Owing  to  the  strength  of  the  polarization  at  this  altitude,  I  find 
it  necessary  to  use  two  piles  of  glass  plates  separated  by  two  or 
three  inches.  This  arrangement  diminishes  the  number  of  double 
internal  reflections,  and  so  is  a  much  more  powerful  polarizer 
or  depolarizer  than  the  same  number  of  plates  combined  into  one 
pile.  As  I  have  not  seen  this  important  practical  consideration 
noticed  before,  I  may  point  out  that,  in  addition  to  the  light 
refracted  directly  through  the  pile,  there  are  a  number  of  portions 
twice  reflected.  One  of  these  for  instance  is  reflected  first  at  the 
second  surface  of  the  last  plate,  and  secondly  at  the  first  surface 
of  the  last  plate.  The  number  of  such  twice-reflected  portions 
for  n  plates  is  n  (2«  -  i).  When,  as  in  my  instrument,  the  fixed 
pile  is  much  inclined,  no  light  can  reach  the  edge  after  being 
reflected  first  by  one  pile  and  then  by  the  other.  If  the  two 
piles  were  combined  into  one,  I  should  have  120  portions  twice 
reflected  ;  as  it  is,  I  have  only  60.  This  increases  the  polarizing 
power  of  the  instrument  by  at  least  one-third. 

The  crystal  is  a  thick  plate  of  Iceland  spar  cut  so  that  the 
light  passes  along  the  optic  axis.  The  fixed  pile  of  three  plates 
has  its  normal  inclined  at  47°  to  the  axis  of  the  crystal.  The 
movable  pile  of  five  plates  has  an  index  attached,  which  gives 
the  inclination  of  its  normal  to  the  axis  of  the  crystal.  This 
inclination  is  the  reading  of  the  polarimeter. 


178 


NATURE 


[Dec,  22,  1887 


St.  Moritz  lies  on  the  northern  slope  of  a  valley  running  fro:n 
south-west  to  north-east.  At  the  beginning  of  the  observations 
the  opposite  slope  was  buried  in  snow,  but  the  northern  slope 
both  above  and  below  the  point  of  observation  was  almost  free 
from  snow.  Thus  the  most  brightly  illuminated  part  of  the 
ground  surface  was  of  a  dull  brown  or  gray  colour.  Under 
these  circumstances,  the  reading  was  about  50°  in  the  middle  of 
the  day,  being  a  little  higher  earlier  and  later,  viz.  about  52° 
at  10  a.m.  (date  October  21  and  22).  These  readings,  as  well  as 
those  mentioned  below,  refer  to  the  highest  point  of  the  sky, 
which  is  distant  90°  from  the  sun,  and  were  taken  when  the 
whole  sky  was  free  from  cloud.  On  October  26,  after  a  five-inch 
fall  of  snow,  the  reading  was  41°  at  10.15  ^•"^• 

By  October  29  most  of  the  fresh  snow  had  gone,  and  I  found 
at  11.40  a.m.  the  reading  as  high  as  48°.  After  this  we  had 
several  feet  of,  snow,  and  at  12.50  p.m.  on  November  13,  the 
reading  was  again  41°.  Each  of  these  readings  is  the  mean  of 
four,  and  I  find  two  readings  of  the  same  thing  seldom  differ 
more  than  2°.  Hitherto  I  have  not  been  able  properly  to  evaluate 
the  readings  of  my  instrument  in  absolute  measure,  though  I  hope 
to  do  so  later.  But  to  gain  an  approximate  idea  of  their  meaning, 
I  have  calculated  the  polarizing  power  of  the  two  piles  on  the 
assumptions — first  that  Fresnel's  laws  of  the  reflection  of  polarized 
light  are  accurate,  and  secondly  that  the  index  of  refraction  of  my 
plates  is  i  '52.  We  may  consider  the  light  from  the  sky  as  con- 
sisting of  two  parts  completely  polarized,  one  in  the  plane  of  the 
sun,  and  the  other  perpendicular  thereto.  The  ratio  of  these 
parts  is  '376  for  the  reading  40°,  and  "271  for  the  reading  50°. 
Again  we  may  divide  the  light  into  a  part  unpolarized  and  a 
part  completely  polarized  in  the  plane  of  the  sun.  The  ratio  of 
these  parts  is  '546  for  40°  and  '428  for  50°.  So  it  seems  fair  to 
conclude  that  the  light  reflected  from  the  fresh  snow  was  sufficient 
to  increase  the  unpolarized  part  of  the  sky  light  by  more  than  a 
quarter.  James  C.  McConnel. 

St.  Moritz,  Switzerland,  December  10. 


The  Ffynnon  Beuno  and  Cae  Gwyn  Caves. 

I  WILL  answer  Dr.  Hicks's  question  in  as  few  words  as  pos- 
sible. Nothing  is  to  be  gained  by  terming  me  a  "highly 
prejudiced"  observer,  or  by  saying  my  views  are  of  "no  con- 
sequence "  and  "  not  worth  anything."  Your  readers  can  form 
their  own  conclusions  on  these  points.  I  am  not  "highly 
prejudiced"  against,  neither  have  I  any  "bias  against,"  the 
existence  of  pre-Glacial  man  or  of  his  "migrations";  on  the 
contrary,  I  favour  these  subjects. 

I  did  see  the  section  of  drift  exposed  at  the  Cae  Gwyn  Cave, 
and  I  can  hardly  describe  it  (from  my  own  point  of  view)  with- 
out giving  offence.  My  view  is  this  :  the  section  showed 
nothing  but  rain-wash  derived  from  the  closely- adjoining  non- 
Glacial  drift.  The  section  showed  a  re- made  deposit,  hori- 
zontally stratified,  and  with  stones  resting  on  their  flat  sides. 
No  doubt  there  were  Glacial  stones  in  the  rain-wash,  derived 
from  the  ever-shifting  post-Glacial  marine  drift  close  by  ;  the 
latter  being  merely  a  re-laid  Glacial  drift.  Stones  with  Glacial 
scratches  may  be  found  in  the  lower  gravels  of  the  Thames. 

To  me,  the  caves  and  their  surroundings  are  in  the  highest 
degree  suspicious,  and  in  size  insignificant,  and  not  comparable 
with  large  and  typical  caves.  They  are  small  and  painfully 
narrow  tortuous  passages  only,  on  a  hill-side,  and  close  to  the 
surface.  The  lower  cave  is  furnished  with  a  very  large  hole, 
opening  up  to  the  surface  just  above  ;  and  the  upper  cave  had 
at  one  time  a  similar  opening.  The  post-Glacial  drift  above  is 
always  on  the  move,  and  every  shower  of  rain  brings  it  down 
with  its  derived  stones. 

Since  writing  to  Nature,  in  November  3,  I  have  referred  to 
some  of  the  papers  published  on  these  caves.  I  turned  first  to 
the  list  of  mammalian  remains,  only  however  to  find  that  the 
animals  (like  the  implements)  are  entirely  chai-acteristic  of  the 
most  recent  post-Glacial  deposits.  Even  near  London  we  get 
in  gravels  of  no  great  comparative  antiquity  the  bones  oiElephas 
antiqtius,  but  in  the  caves  merely  E.  pritnigcnius  is  found.  As 
regards  antiquity,  the  animals  no  doubt  overlap  at  both  ends  of 
the  scale,  but  their  meaning,  as  found  in  these  caves,  points  in 
one  direction  only,  and  that  is  to  the  most  recent  and  not  to  the 
most  remote  of  Palaeolithic  times.  None  of  the  cave  mammals 
are  characteristic  of  pre-Glacial  deposits. 

It  would  seem  that  Dr.  Hicks  does  not  realize  the  nature  of 
Dr.  John  Evans's  criticism.  La  Madelaine  is  the  newest  of  caves, 
and  represents   the   most   recent  of    Palaeolithic    times :    it   is 


a  kind  of  connecting  link  between  Palseolithic  and  Neolithic 
times.  Therefore,  if  Dr.  Evans's  criticism  is  taken  with  mine, 
the  two  clearly  prove  that  there  is  a  distinct  chronological  value 
in  the  classification,  not  that  there  is  "no  chronological  value" 
as  concluded  by  Dr.  Hicks.  Dr.  Hicks  also  appears  not  to 
realize  the  fact  that  river-drift  and  cave  implements  do  not  only 
differ  in  roughness  and  abrasion  but  in  style.  The  cave  men 
used  different  implements  from  the  river-drift  men,  they  were 
changing  from  savagery  to  barbarism.  If  Dr.  Hicks  produces 
implements  made  by  pre-Glacial  men,  he  must  show  us  some- 
thing obviously  older  than  the  oldest  river-drift  tools,  not  fall 
back  upon  refined  tools  which  are,  to  re-quote  Dr.  Evans,  "  pre- 
cisely like  many  from  the  French  caves  of  the  reindeer  period, 
such  for  instance  as  La  Madelaine."  If  Dr.  Hicks  abandons 
his  scraper,  he  is  still  in  no  better  position,  for  his  finely  re- 
trimmed  knife  and  the  implement  in  the  British  Museum  are 
identical  in  age  and  character  with  it.  So  are  the  flakes  :  the 
one  with  long  narrow  facets  is  characteristic  of  the  latest,  not  of 
the  earliest  work.  So  is  the  pointed  and  drilled  bone.  No 
drilled  bones  have  been  found  in  moderately  old  river-gravels, 
and  what  is  more,  no  instrument  suitable  for  boring  a  small  hole 
through  bone  has  ever  been  found  in  such  a  gravel.  Drilled 
bones  and  small  flint  drills  belong  to  the  very  latest  of  Palaeo- 
lithic times.  In  the  remains  of  my  own  collection  of 
Palaeolithic  implements  I  have  here  over  a  thousand  examples 
of  the  major  clas«,  and  an  equal  number  of  minor  forms  illustra- 
tive of  the  development  of  knife  and  scraper  forms,  but  they 
give  no  support  whatever  to  Dr.  Hicks's  conclusions  ;  they  all,  in 
fact,  point  in  a  diametrically  different  direction.  I  am  acquainted 
with  Prof.  Prestwich's  views,  and  I  believe  I  was  the  first 
person  to  find  implements  in  the  highest  terraces  of  the  Thames 
Valley  ;  but  I  do  not  see  that  Prof.  Prestwich's  conclusions  have 
any  direct  bearing  on  the  Ffynnon  Beuno  and  Cae  Gwyn  caves. 

I  do  not  suppose  that  any  opinion  of  mine  will  influence  Dr. 
Hicks,  and  I  have  no  wish  to  influence  him  or  any  other 
observer.  I  merely  wish  to  put  on  record  the  fact  that,  after 
many  years'  experience  amongst  drifts,  and  implements,  and 
fossil  bones,  my  conclusions  are  entirely  opposed  to  Dr.  Hicks's. 

Dunstable.  Worthington  G.  Smith. 

P.  S. — Since  the  above  has  been  in  type,  I  have  seen  the 
report  in  last  week's  Nature  (p.  166),  but  I  prefer  to  let  my 
letter  stand  just  as  written  before  the  report  was  seen  by  me. 
Prof.  Hughes  has  cut  away  the  geological  and  palaeontologicai 
supports ;  I  shall  be  content  to  resist  the  idea  of  the  pre  Glacial 
age  of  these  caves  on  purely  archaeological  grounds. — W.  G.  S. 


The  Planet  Mercury. 

The  planet  observed  on  the  mornings  of  December  7  and  9 
by  your  correspondent  "  G.  F.  P."  (Nature,  December  15, 
p.  151),  was  probably  not  Mercury  but  Jupiter,  as  these  bodies 
were  near  together  at  the  time,  and  the  latter  was  by  far  the 
brightest  and  mo.-t  conspicuous.  The  circumstances,  described 
by  "G.  F.  P.,"  under  which  the  object  was  noticed  render  it 
certain  that  it  could  not  have  been  Mercuiy,  for  the  latter  was 
decidedly  small,  and  might  have  been  easily  overlooked  on  the 
several  mornings  I  saw  it  early  in  the  present  month.  Jupiter, 
on  the  other  hand,  was  very  bright  and  plain,  and  might  easily 
attract  attention  in  the  way  stated  by  your  correspondent.  On 
the  9th  instant  the  two  planets  were  about  3°  apart,  Jupiter 
being  situated  to  the  west  of  Mercury. 

Had  "  G.  F.  P."  really  observed  the  latter  planet,  he  would 
have  instantly  remarked  its  half-moon  phase  in  his  35-inch  tele- 
scope, and  must  have  mentioned  Jupiter,  as  well  as  Venus,  as 
visible  at  the  same  time. 

There  is  no  difficulty  in  observing  Mercury  with  the  naked 
eye  if  the  planet  is  carefully  looked  for  in  the  proper  spot,  at 
the  times  of  his  eastern  elongations  in  the  first  half  of  the  year 
and  at  the  western  elongations  in  the  last  half.  I  have  seen  the 
planet  on  certainly  more  than  fifty  occasions.  In  May  1876  I 
noticed  Mercury  on  thirteen  different  evenings.  Sometimes  the 
planet  is  quite  conspicuous  in  the  twilight  as  a  naked-eye 
object.  W.  F.  Denning. 

Bristol,  December  16. 

Meteor  of  November  15. 

In  Nature  of  December  i  (p.  105)  Mr.  B.  Tniscott  writes 
of  a  wonderfully  fine  meteor  seen  at  Falmouth  on  the  night  of 
Tuesday,  the  15th  ult ,  and  asks  in  effect  if  it  was  seen  by  other 


Dec.  22,  1887] 


NA  TURE 


179 


eyes  than  his  :  so  perhaps  it  may  be  permitted  to  be  said  that  it 
was  seen  in  the  parish  of  Llanefydd,  Denbighshire,  by  a  corre- 
spondent of  mine,  who  writes  : — "  On  Tuesday  night,  November 
15,  while  returning  homewards  on  foot,  happening  to  look  east- 
wards I  saw  a  long  train  of  brilliant  light  suddenly  flash  out  of 
the  sky.  At  first  I  thought  it  was  lightning.  But  instead  of 
vanishing  it  descended  with  great  rapidity,  the  light  increasing  in 
brilliancy  as  it  neared  the  earth.  The  night  was  rather  dark, 
although  the  sky  was  thickly  studded  with  stars,  but  in  a  few 
seconds  so  intensely  brilliant  had  the  light  become  that  a  pin 
might  have  been  picked  up  from  the  road  with  the  greatest  ease. 
While  I  was  looking,  the  object  that  accompanied  the  flash  burst, 
and  displayed  a  magnificent  mauve  and  red  fringe  of  light.  I 
say  fringe,  as  it  would  be  impossible  for  me  to  describe  otherwise 
the  shape,  for  it  appeared  to  me  to  project  shafts  of  light,  some 
long  and  some  short,  like  what  would  be  the  rays  of  a  great  star. 
There  was  in  the  direction  in  which  I  was  looking  a  thick  wood, 
and  the  effect  on  the  trees  of  the  silvery  light  I  first  noticed  was 
richly  beautiful.  But  the  effect  of  the  mauve  and  red  light  was 
magnificently  grand,  and  to  me  in  no  little  degree  awful.  The 
whole  wood  was  enveloped  in  a  red  lurid  glare,  svhich  lasted  as 
near  as  I  can  calculate  some  six  or  eight  seconds.  The  effect 
altogether  was  like  a  brilliant  transformation  scene,  and  the 
meteor  having  passed  away,  the  darkness  of  the  night  seemed 
to  be  in  the  last  degree  intense." 

J.  Lloyd  Bozward. 

A  Correction. 

In  the  footnote,  p.  152,  second  column,  there  is  an  unfortunate 
transposition  for  which  myself  more  than  the  printers  are  to 
blame,  which  i'  is  important  to  correct. 

After  the  words  "  by  Aristotle,  Probl.  i  E  3  and  Metaph. 
A  5  "  occur  the  words  "  which  he  attributes  to  Pythagoras  .... 
on  the  nature  of  the  Beast." 

These  words  should  have  come  at  the  end  of  the  subsequent 
paragraph  where  I  say  that  "  Muhamad-al-Sharastani  assigns 
reasons  for  regarding  all  the  numbers  up  to  10  inclusive  as 
perfect  numbers." 

It  is  these  reasons  which  I  speak  of  a;  being  by  him  attri- 
buted to  Pythagoras,  &c. 

I  may  take  this  opportunity  of  giving,  as  another  example  of 
the  use  of  the  New  Nomenclature,  the  well-known  extended 
Theorem  of  Fermat,  which  may  be  expressed  by  saying  : 

'•'  Every  number  must  divide  the  Fermatian  of  which  the  index 
is  its  tot  lent,  and  the  base  any  one  of  its  iotitives." 

Athenpeum  Club,  December  15.  J.  J.  Sylvester. 


ISOLATION  OF  FLUORINE. 

ONE  of  the  most  difficult  problems  of  modern  chemis- 
try has  at  last  been  satisfactorily  solved.  After 
three  years  of  incessant  labour,  occasionally  interrupted 
by  temporary  feelings  akin  to  despair,  M.  Henri  Moissan 
has  at  length  isolated  in  considerable  quantities  that  most 
baffling  of  elements— fluorine,  and  has  been  enabled  to 
determine  its  principal  properties.  The  experiments  them- 
selves are  among  the  most  interesting  ever  performed, 
and  their  details,  as  described  by  M.  Moissan  in  the 
December  number  of  the  Ajinales  dc  Chimie  et  de  Phy- 
sique, form  the  most  fascinating  reading.  They  must  of 
necessity  have  been  extremely  costly,  for  by  far  the 
greater  portion  of  the  apparatus  employed  was  constructed 
of  platinum,  and  it  is  not  often  that  one  hears  of  a  plati- 
num tube  80  centimetres  long  and  of  i^  centimetre 
diameter  being  destroyed  in  each  experiment,  as  happened 
in  the  earlier  stages  of  these  researches. 

The  isolation  of  fluorine  has  formed  a  worthy  object  of 
the  attention  of  chemists  ever  since  the  first  remarkable 
experiments  of  Sir  Humphry  Davy,  who  was  rendered 
dangerously  ill  by  being  exposed  to  the  corrosive  fumes 
of  hydrofluoric  acid.  Although  Davy  was  not  successful 
in  obtaining  free  fluorine,  yet  he  brought  clearly  to  light 
the  nature  of  hydrofluoric  acid,  and  proved  it  to  consist 
of  hydrogen  combined  with  an  unknown  but  extremely 
active  element— fluorine.  The  history  of  all  the  attempts 
which  have  since  been  made  to  effect  the  preparation  of 


free  fluorine  might  occupy  a  volume,  and  it  will  therefore 
only  be  necessary  to  refer  to  the  later  work  of  our 
countryman.  Gore,  who,  in  1869,  published  his  researches 
upon  the  electrolysis  of  hydrofluoric  acid,  and  of  certain 
fluorides,  and  left  our  knowledge  of  the  acid  itself  in  a 
most  complete  state.  M.  Moissan,  working  in  the  labor- 
atory of  M.  Debray,  now  steps  in  and  achieves  the  result 
so  ardently  sought  after  during  the  last  eighty  years — 
another  example  of  the  irresistible  power  of  human  per- 
severance. 

In  the  light  of  the  experience  gained  by  former  experi- 
menters, it  appeared  that  the  action  of  a  powerful  electric 
current  upon  the  compounds  of  fluorine  with  the  non- 
metallic  elements,  such  as  hydrogen,  phosphorus,  and 
arsenic,  would  be  most  likely  to  yield  the  desired  result ; 
knowing  also  that  fluorine  must  be  an  extremely  energetic 
substance,  it  was  absolutely  essential  to  work  at  very  low 
temperatures.  Hence  M.  Moissan's  first  attack  was  made 
upon  the  fluorides  of  phosphorus  and  arsenic,  but  finding 
these  to  be  practically  impregnable,  he  diverted  his  attack, 
guided  by  certain  indications  afforded  during  his  first 
attempt,  upon  hydrofluoric  acid  itself.  Finding,  however, 
that  pure  hydrofluoric  acid  is  an  exceptionally  bad  con- 
ductor of  electricity,  as  has  been  stated  by  other  workers 
— that  even  a  current  from  fifty  Bunsen  cells  would  not 
pass  through  the  liquid — he  eventually,  after  several  essays, 
succeeded  in  converting  it  into  a  conductor  by  dissolving 
in  it  a  quantity  of  the  double  fluoride  of  potassium  and 
hydrogen.  On  passing  the  current  from  twenty  Bunsen 
cells  through  the  now  conducting  medium,  hydrogen  im- 
mediately commenced  to  be  evolved  at  the  negative 
terminal,  while  fluorine  was  with  similar  rapidity  evolved 
at  the  positive  pole,  and  exhibited  its  tremendous  activity 
upon  everything  that  came  near  it :  burning  up  hard 
crystalline  silicon  like  tinder,  setting  fire  to  organic 
matter,  and  forming  fluorides  with  incandescence  with 
many  other  elements. 

Having  thus  indicated  the  general  course  of  these 
researches,  it  will  no  doubt  be  interesting  to  follow  M. 
Moissan  during  the  carrying  out  of  his  principal  experi- 
ments. 

The  first  series  consisted  in  examining  the  action  of 
electric  induction  sparks  upon  the  gaseous  fluorides  of 
silicon,  phosphorus,  and  arsenic.  The  gases  were  intro- 
duced into  glass  eudiometer  tubes  standing  over  mercury, 
and  the  spark  was  passed  between  two  platinum  wires 
connected  with  an  induction-coil  actuated  by  a  few 
Grenet  or  Bunsen  cells.  On  introducing  dry  silicon  tetra- 
fluoride,  SiF4,  and  passing  sparks  for  an  hour,  no  decom- 
position was  effected,  the  result  being  discouragingly  nil. 
Dry  phosphorus  trifluoride,  PF3,  however,  behaved  quite 
differently,  phosphorus  being  deposited  upon  the  inner 
wall  of  the  tube  ;  but  the  fluorine  liberated  at  once  com- 
bined with  the  residual  trifluoride  to  form  the  more  stable 
pentafluoride,  PF5.  Some  time  ago  this  pentafluoride  of 
phosphorus  was  prepared  by  Prof.  Thorpe,  who  also  sub- 
mitted it  to  the  action  of  the  induction-spark,  unfortun- 
ately without  effecting  any  decomposition.  Precisely  the 
same  result  has  been  arrived  at  by  M.  Moissan,  using  a 
004m.  spark  ;  but  on  obtaining  sparks  o'2m.  long,  a  rapid 
etching  of  the  walls  of  the  glass  tube  occurred,  and  the 
meniscus  of  mercury  entirely  lost  its  brilliancy.  After  an 
hour's  duration  the  experiment  was  concluded,  and  the 
apparatus  allowed  to  cool,  when  it  was  noticed  that  the 
volume  had  diminished  ;  moreover,  the  gas  was  found  to 
have  changed  its  properties,  yielding  a  precipitate  of 
silica  in  contact  with  water,  while  the  residual  gas  con- 
sisted of  the  trifluoride  of  phosphorus.  Hence  PFg  = 
PF3  -f  Fo,  which  latter  forms,  with  the  glass,  silicon  tetra- 
fluoride,  and,  with  the  mercury,  fluoride  of  mercury.  So 
here  again  the  experiment  was  disappointing,  and  al- 
though fluorine  was  for  the  moment  liberated,  this  method 
was  "certainly  not  suitable  for  the  preparation  of  free 
fluorine. 


i8o 


NATURE 


[Dec.  22,  1887 


Fluoride  of  arsenic,  AsFs,  the  next  fluoride  experi- 
mented upon,  was  first  prepared  by  M.  Dumas,  who  was 
severely  injured  in  the  experiment.  It  is  a  liquid  which 
boils  at  63"  C,  and  may  be  easily  maintained  in  a  gaseous 
condition,  by  use  of  a  steam  jacket,  and  submitted  to  the 
action  of  the  spark.  It  is,  however,  a  most  disagreeable 
substance  to  work  with,  as  it  produces  most  terrible  sores 
when  by  any  mischance  it  comes  in  contact  with  the 
operator's  skin.  On  passing  sparks  through  it  for  an 
hour,  as  in  case  of  the  pentafluoride  of  phosphorus,  the 
platinum  wires  became  covered  with  a  black  incrustation 
of  arsenic,  while  the  walls  of  the  tube  were  strongly  cor- 
roded. On  testing  the  gas,  it  was  found  to  contain  a 
large  quantity  of  silicon  tetrafluoride  mixed  with  a  smaller 
quantity  of  free  fluorine,  which  displaced  sufficient  iodine 
from  a  solution  of  potassium  iodide  to  give  a  good  colora- 
tion to  several  cubic  centimetres  of  chloroform.  Clearly, 
progress  was  being  slowly  made,  though  still  far  from  the 
isolation  of  fluorine. 

And  now  a  remarkable  experiment  of  a  new  type  was 
performed.  It  had  been  noticed  that,  on  passing  an 
electric  current  through  a  platinum  wire  in  an  atmosphere 
of  phosphorus  trifluoride,  the  platinum  fused  owing  to  the 
formation  of  a  fusible  phosphide  of  platinum  ;  at  the  same 
time  the  glass  of  the  containing  vessel  was  etched  and  the 
mercury  attacked.  So  the  experiment  was  repeated  on  a 
grander  scale.  A  quantity  of  spongy  platinum,  previously 
washed  with  hydrofluoric  acid  and  calcined,  was  placed 
in  a  platinum  tube  80  cm.  long,  and  of  v$  cm.  diameter  ; 
that  portion  of  the  platinum  tube  which  required  to  be 
heated  was  incased  in  a  second  outer  tube  of  glazed 
porcelain,  so  that  between  the  two  a  current  of  nitrogen 
could  be  kept  circulating,  and  so  prevent  access  of  furnace 
gases.  The  tube  was  then  heated  in  a  furnace,  and  pure 
hydrogen  passed  through  it  for  some  time  to  remove  all 
other  gases  ;  afterwards  pure  nitrogen  was  substituted, 
and  finally  phosphorus  trifluoride.  After  passing  a  short 
time,  the  current  of  fluoride  was  suddenly  stopped  with  a 
most  singular  result  :  a  partial  vacuum  was  caused,  owing 
to  absorption  by  the  platinum. 

When,  however,  the  current  of  trifluoride  was  passed 
more  rapidly,  a  small  quantity  of  pentafluoride  was 
formed  ;  the  fluorine  liberated,  when  the  absorption  of 
phosphorus  by  the  platinum  occurred,  having  combined 
with  the  trifluoride  just  as  in  the  spark  experiment.  But, 
on  examining  the  gas  which  passed  out  of  the  tube  under 
these  conditions,  it  was  found  to  liberate  iodine  from 
potassium  iodide,  attack  mercury,  and  etch  glass.  In 
fact,  it  was  proved  that  free  fluorine  was  liberated,  and 
mostly  absorbed  by  the  platinum,  causing  the  diminution 
of  pressure  on  stopping  the  current,  but  being  more  or  less 
carried  away  when  the  current  was  more  rapid.  The 
fluophosphide  of  platinum  formed  was  found  to  contain 
only  70  to  80  per  cent,  of  platinum,  and  the  formation  of 
this  substance  was  so  rapidly  effected  that  every  experi- 
ment required  a  new  tube.  The  action  of  pentafluoride 
of  phosphorus  upon  platinum  was  next  tried,  and  with 
still  more  encouraging  results.  On  sweeping  the  tube, 
heated  in  a  coke  blast-furnace,  with  a  rapid  stream  of  the 
pentafluoride  for  some  minutes,  then  moderating  the 
rapidity,  and  five  minutes  later  again  increasing  the 
speed,  the  issuing  gas  was  found  to  "blacken  solid  potas- 
sium iodide  by  liberating  free  iodine,  inflame  phosphorus, 
and  attack  crystalline  silicon,  glass,  and  mercury.  It  was, 
in  fact,  free  fluorine  drowned  in  excess  of  trifluoride  of 
phosphorus.  This  was  a  decided  advance,  and  the  out- 
look was  becoming  considerably  more  hopeful. 

The  next  experiments  were  made  with  liquid  fluoride  of 
arsenic,  AsFg,  a  quantity  of  which  was  placed  in  a  platinum 
crucible,  which  served  as  the  negative  electrode.  A  pla- 
tinum wire,  dipping  into  the  liquid  in  the  crucible,  and 
reaching  to  within  5  millimetres  of  the  base,  served  as 
the  positive  electrode.  The  current  from  three  Grenet 
cells  was  then  passed  through  the  liquid,  causing  a  de- 


position of  arsenic  upon  the  interior  surface  of  the  crucible, 
but  no  gas  could  be  perceived  at  the  positive  pole.  How- 
ever, on  dipping  the  platinum  wire  into  a  solution  of 
starch  paste  and  potassium  iodide,  blue  striae  were  at 
once  formed  in  the  solution,  showing  the  presence  of  a 
condensed  gas  sheath  of  fluorine  around  the  platinum 
wire.  Following  up  this  indication,  the  current  from 
twenty-five  Bunsen  cells  arranged  in  series  was  next 
employed,  and  immediately  the  deposition  of  arsenic 
commenced  upon  the  walls  of  the  crucible,  while  bubbles 
of  gas  were  evolved  around  the  platinum  wire.  Un- 
fortunately the  action  soon  ceased,  owing  to  the  bad 
conductivity  of  the  liquid  and  of  the  thick  deposit  of 
arsenic.  The  wire,  however,  was  strongly  attacked.  So 
attempts  were  next  made  to  increase  the  conductivity  of 
the  fluoride  by  the  addition  of  metallic  fluorides,  and  it 
was  soon  discovered  that  the  best  results  were  obtained 
by  use  of  the  double  fluoride  of  hydrogen  and  potassium, 
HF.  KF.  It  was  probably  this  discovery  which  led  to 
the  grand  success  with  which  these  efforts  have  been 
finally  crowned,  for,  as  has  been  previously  mentioned,  it 
was  by  the  electrolysis  of  this  double  fluoride  that  M. 
Moissan  eventually  succeeded  in  preparing  free  fluorine. 

Before  leaving  the  experiments  upon  arsenic  fluoride,  it 
may  be  mentioned  that  it  was  eventually  electrolyzed  in  a 
continuous  manner  by  use  of  seventy  to  ninety  Bunsen 
cells,  the  arsenic  liberated  remaining  in  suspension  in  the 
liquid,  instead  of  adhering  to  the  tube,  but  the  bubbles 
were  rapidly  seen  to  diminish  in  size  in  passing  through 
the  liquid,  and  scarcely  a  trace  of  gas  escaped  ;  instead  of 
permitting  its  isolation,  the  fluorine  preferred  to  form  a 
new  fluorid  •,  the  pentafluoride  of  arsenic,  thus  once  more 
baffling  the  ingenious  experimenter. 

But  success  was  not  now  far  away.  The  wonderful 
manner  in  which  the  double  fluoride  of  potassium  and 
hydrogen  increased  the  conductivity  of  arsenic  fluoride 
determined  M.  Moissan  in  employing  it  for  the  same  pur- 
pose in  an  attempt  to  electrolyze  pure  anhydrous  hydro- 
fluoric acid.  Faraday  long  ago  showed  that  the  electric 
current  will  not  pass  through  the  anhydrous  acid,  and 
Gore  more  recently  came  to  the  same  conclusion.  The 
current  from  fifty  Bunsen  cells  was  found  by  M.  Moissan 
to  be  absolutely  powerless  to  penetrate  the  acid  used  in 
these  later  experiments.  But,  on  dissolving  a  few  frag- 
ments of  the  double  fluoride  HF.KF  in  the  acid,  the 
current  at  once  passed  freely,  and  the  experiment  thus 
became  possible.  The  apparatus  used  in  the  first  attempts 
with  this  mixture  consisted  of  a  platinum  U-tube,  of  which 
each  branch  was  closed  by  a  paraffined  cork,  through 
which  the  rods  of  platinum  forming  the  poles  were  passed. 
Upon  each  branch,  just  above  the  level  of  the  liquid  and 
beneath  the  cork,  was  soldered  a  little  platinum  delivery- 
tube  to  lead  off  the  gases  evolved.  As  hydrofluoric  acid 
boils  at  I9°'4  C,  the  apparatus  was  immersed  in  a  bath  of 
methyl  chloride,  which  boils  at  -23°,  but  which  could  be 
reduced  in  temperature  to  —50'  by  driving  through  it  a 
current  of  dry  air.  Hence  the  electrolysis  could  be  con- 
ducted without  fear  of  the  gaseous  products  being  drowned 
in  excess  of  vapour  of  hydrofluoric  acid,  and  the  activity 
of  the  liberated  fluorine  was  at  the  same  time  moderated. 
On  passing  the  current,  a  gas  was  at  once  produced  at 
each  electrode,  a  regular  evolution  of  hydrogen  at  the 
negative  pole,  and  a  continuous  disengagement  of  gas  at 
the  positive  pole.  But  still  affairs  were  not  satisfactory  : 
crystalline  silicon  did  not  take  fire  when  held  in  the  gas 
coming  off  from  the  positive  pole  ;  so  the  apparatus  was 
taken  to  pieces  an  hour  later,  in  order,  if  possible,  to  find 
a  clue  to  the  source  of  failure.  The  paraffined  cork  at 
the  negative  branch  was  intact,  but,  behold  the  mischief, 
the  other  was  carbonized  to  the  depth  of  a  centimetre  ;  so 
the  liberated  fluorine  had  extracted  hydrogen  out  of  the 
cork,  and  passed  on  as  hydrofluoric  acid.  The  positive 
platinum  rod  was  also  much  corroded.  Closely-fitting 
stoppers  of  fluor-spar  were  next  tried,  coated  with  melted 


Dec.  2  2,  1887] 


NATURE 


181 


gutta-percha,  but  the  latter  again  soon  melted  on  passing 
the  current,  and  was  put  hors  de  service.  Gum-lac  and 
many  other  substances  were  tried,  but  all  to  no  purpose, 
and  much  precious  time  was  lost.  Finally,  however,  the 
difficulty  was  overcome  by  using  stoppers  of  fluor-spar, 
carefully  inserted  in  hollow  cylinders  of  platinum  carry- 
ing fine  screw  threads  upon  their  outer  surfaces,  which 
engaged  with  corresponding  threads  upon  the  interior 
surfaces  of  the  two  branches  of  the  U-tube.  The  platinum 
rods  passed  through  the  axis  of  each  cylinder  of  fluor-spar  : 
the  rods  themselves  were  of  square  section,  of  2  milli- 
metres side  and  12  centimetres  long,  and  passed  to  3 
millimetres  from  the  base  of  the  (Jtube  ;  they  were  made 
of  irido-platinum,  containing  10  per  cent,  iridium,  which 
is  less  attackable  than  pure  platinum.  The  U-tube  simply 
consisted  of  a  platinum  tube,  bent  twice  at  right  angles, 
15  centimetre  diameter  and  9'5  centimetres  high,  and  was 
fitted  with  side  tubes  and  immersed  in  methyl  chloride  as 
before. 

The  pure  anhydrous  hydrofluoric  acid,  which  was  the 
next  necessity,  was  prepared  in  the  following  manner. 
A  known  volume  of  commercial  acid  was  treated  with 
sufficient  potassium  carbonate  to  neutralize  about  a  quar- 
ter of  it,  and  then  distilled  in  a  leaden  retort  over  an  oil 
bath  at  120°.  At  this  temperature  the  fluosilicate  of 
potassium,  formed  from  the  hydrofluosilicic  acid,  con- 
tained as  impurity  in  the  commercial  acid,  was  not  de- 
composed, and  the  distillate  was  therefore  free  from  silica. 
This  distillate  was  then  divided  into  two  parts,  and  one 
half,  saturated  with  pure  potassium  carbonate,  forming 
neutral  potassium  fluoride,  was  then  added  to  the  other 
half,  and  transformed  into  HF  .  KF.  The  double  fluoride 
was  then  dried  at  100°,  and  afterwards  kept  for  some  days 
in  the  vacuous  receiver  of  an  air-pump,  containing  also 
strong  sulphuric  acid  and  a  few  sticks  of  fused  potash. 
When  absolutely  dry  it  fell  to  powder,  and  was  then 
ready  for  the  preparation  of  hydrofluoric  acid,  which  was 
always  freshly  prepared  immediately  before  each  experi- 
ment. The  dry  fluoride  was  in  each  case  introduced  into 
a  recently  ignited  platinum  retort,  and  maintained  at  a 
moderate  heat  for  some  time  so  as  to  commence  the  de- 
composition slowly  ;  the  first  portions  of  distillate  were  re- 
jected, as  they  would  contain  the  last  traces  of  water.  The 
platinum  receiver  was  then  adapted  and  surrounded  by 
ice  and  salt  ;  on  heating  the  retort  more  strongly,  pure 
hydrofluoric  acid  condensed  in  the  receiver  as  a  limpid 
liquid  boiling  at  I9°"4,  very  hygroscopic  and  fuming  in 
the  air. 

While  the  preparation  of  the  acid  was  in  progress,  the 
U-tube  and  electrodes  were  drying  at  120''.  From  6  to 
7  grammes  of  the  dry  double  fluoride  were  now  introduced 
into  the  apparatus,  the  stoppers  were  screwed  in  and 
covered  with  gum  lac.  The  whole  was  then  fixed  in  the 
methyl  chloride  bath,  and,  until  the  introduction  of  the 
acid,  the  delivery-tubes  were  connected  with  desiccators 
containing  fused  potash.  A  constant  supply  of  methyl 
chloride  at  -  23°  was  maintained  in  the  outer  cylinder,  as 
a  slight  rise  of  temperature  allowed  of  the  volatilization 
of  some  of  the  acid.  About  15  to  16  grammes  of  the 
anhydrous  hydrofluoric  acid  were  then  gently  aspirated 
into  the  apparatus,  and  the  current  from  twenty  Bunsen 
cells  allowed  to  pass,  when  immediately  a  regular 
evolution  of  gas  occurred  at  each  pole.  At  the  negative 
pole  pure  hydrogen  was  evolved,  which  burnt  with  its 
characteristic  flame,  forming  water.  At  the  positive  pole 
was  liberated  a  colourless  gas  of  penetrating  and  very 
disagreeable  odour,  somewhat  resembling  that  of  hypo- 
chlorous  acid,  and  rapidly  irritating  the  mucous  membranes 
of  the  throat  and  eyes.  It  was  no  other  than  pure  fluorine 
itself.  All  the  trouble,  all  the  expense,  and  all  the  dis- 
appointments were  repaid.  It  must  indeed  have  been  a 
supreme  moment  for  M.  Moissan. 

In  order  to  study  its  action  upon  solids,  they  were 
placed  in  small  glass  tubes,  and  brought  near  to  the  orifice 


of  the  platinum  delivery-tube  at  the  positive  side.  The 
test  was  genera,lly  repeated,  holding  the  solids  in  small 
platinum  capsules. 

Sulphur,  brought  thus  near  the  orifice,  at  once  melted 
and  inflamed  ;  selenium  behaved  in  like  manner  ;  as  did 
also  tellurium,  with  incandescence,  forming  fumes  and 
becoming  coated  with  a  solid  fluoride. 

Phosphorus  at  once  took  fire,  forming  tri-,  penta-,  and 
oxyfluorides.  Powdered  arsenic  and  antimony  combined 
with  incandescence,  the  former  yielding  drops  of  AsFs. 

A  fragment  of  iodine  placed  in  the  gas  combined  with 
production  of  a  pale  blue  flame;  in  an  atmosphere  of 
iodine  vapour  fluorine  itself  burnt  with  a  similar  flame. 
Vapour  of  bromine  lost  its  colour  and  the  combination 
was  sometimes  accompanied  by  detonation. 

Cold  crystalline  silicon  at  once  became  incandescent, 
and  burnt  with  great  brilliancy,  sometimes  with  scintilla- 
tions. On  closing  the  little  tubes  containing  it  with  the 
thumb  and  opening  under  water,  the  silicon  tetrafluoride 
formed  was  absorbed  and  decomposed  with  precipitation 
of  silica.  Any  undecomposed  silicon  was  found  to  have 
been  fused. 

Debray's  adamantine  boron  also  burnt  in  the  gas, 
becoming  incandescent  and  giving  off  fumes. 

Fluorine  has  a  most  extreme  affinity  for  hydrogen  ; 
they  combine  in  the  dark  with  explosion.  In  one  of  the 
experiments  the  electrolysis  was  allowed  to  continue 
several  hours,  so  that  eventually  the  small  quantity  of 
undecomposed  acid  remaining  in  the  U"tube  was  insuffi- 
cient to  keep  the  two  gases  apart ;  the  experimenters  were 
consequently  suddenly  startled  by  a  violent  detonation.  The 
hydrogen  and  fluorine  had  combined  in  the  dark  at  the 
low  temperature  of  —  23°.  The  same  detonation  was 
afterwards  brought  about  on  a  smaller  scale  by  reversing 
the  current.  On  bringing  the  wide-mouthed  delivery-tube 
of  a  hydrogen  generator  near  the  orifice,  the  detonation 
at  once  occuired,  and  the  hydrogen  inflamed. 

Metals  are  all  attacked  with  more  or  less  energy  by 
fluorine,  forming  fluorides.  Cold  sodium  and  potassium 
were  at  once  rendered  incandescent.  Calcium,  mag- 
nesium, and  aluminium  acted  similarly,  in  a  more  modi- 
fied manner,  becoming  incandescent  when  slightly  warmed. 
Powdered  iron  and  manganese,  on  gently  warming,  burnt 
with  bright  scintillations  ;  lead  was  attacked  in  the  cold, 
and  tin  at  a  slightly  elevated  temperature.  Mercury,  as 
suspected,  entirely  absorbed  the  gas,  forming  yellow  proto- 
fluoride.  Silver  at  a  gentle  heat  became  coated  with  a 
beautiful  satin-like  fluoride,  soluble,  unlike  the  chloride,  in 
water.  Gold  and  platinum  at  3oo''-40o°  became  coated 
with  their  respective  fluorides,  which  were  decomposed 
again  at  a  red  heat,  with  evolution  of  free  fluorine. 

Perhaps  the  strongest  evidence  of  the  intense  chemical 
activity  of  fluorine  is  exhibited  in  its  action  upon  cold 
potassium  chloride :  the  chlorine  was  at  once  expelled, 
filling  the  air  with  its  disagreeable  odour,  and  was 
identified  by  the  usual  chemical  tests.  Chlorine  was 
also  expelled  from  its  combination  with  carbon  in 
carbon  tetrachloride. 

All  organic  compounds  are  violently  attacked  by 
fluorine :  a  piece  of  cork  at  once  carbonized  and  in- 
flamed ;  alcohol,  ether,  benzene,  and  turpentine  took  fire 
immediately  in  contact  with  it. 

Glass,  as  might  have  been  expected,  is  at  once  corroded 
by  fluorine  ;  some  very  delicate  experiments  were  carried 
out  with  perfectly  dried  glass,  with  the  same  result. 

Many  other  reactions,  all  interesting  and  all  showing 
the  immense  energy  with  which  the  atoms  of  fluorine  are 
endowed,  were  performed,  but  one  especially  ought  to  be 
noticed,  viz.  the  action  of  fluorine  upon  water.  It  is  a 
singular  fact  that,  whenever  oxygen  is  liberated  in  the  cold, 
there  is  a  great  tendency  to  form  ozone :  hence  when 
fluorine  is  attempted  to  be  collected  over  water,  the  gas 
collected  is  not  fluorine,  but  ozonized  oxygen  ;  water  is 
decomposed  by  the  fluorine  forming  hydrofluoric  acid, 


l82 


NATURE 


[Dec.  2  2,  i6by 


while  the  oxygen  is  set  free,  and  a  considerable  quantity 
of  it  is  converted  into  the  more  condensed  form  of  ozone. 

On  taking  the  apparatus  to  pieces  after  each  experi- 
ment, the  hydrofluoric  acid  remaining  was  found  to  con- 
tain a  small  quantity  of  platinum  fluoride  in  solution,  and 
a  black  mud  consisting  of  a  mixture  of  iridium  and  pla- 
tinum in  suspension.  The  negative  electrode  was  not 
attacked,  but  the  platinum  rod  forming  the  positive  pole 
was  eaten  away  to  a  point,  so  that  one  rod  only  served 
for  two  experiments.  The  average  delivery  of  gas  was 
about  I  "5  to  2  litres  per  hour. 

With  regard  to  the  chemical  processes  involved  in  the 
electrolysis,  it  appears  probable  that  potassium  fluoride  is 
first  decomposed  into  fluorine,  which  is  evolved  at  the 
positive  pole,  and  potassium,  which  decomposes  hydro- 
fluoric acid,  liberating  its  equivalent  of  hydrogen  at  the 
negative  pole,  and  re-forming  potassium  fluoride,  which 
may  again  be  electrolyzed.  Hence  a  small  quantity  of 
the  double  fluoride  can  serve  for  the  decomposition  of  a 
comparatively  large  amount  of  hydrofluoric  acid. 

The  double  fluoride  HF.  KF  is  very  soluble  in  hydro- 
fluoric acid,  forming  a  crystallizable  compound,  richer  in 
hydrofluoric  acid  than  HF.  KF,  and  which  gives  off  no 
acid  vapour  at  the  boiling-point  of  the  anhydrous  acid, 
I9°'4.  It  is  this  compound  which  one  ought  to  seek  to 
obtain  for  electrolysis,  as  it  is  very  soluble  in  excess  of 
acid,  forming  a  hquid  of  good  conductivity. 


The  double  fluoride  HF.  KF  itself  was  finally  electrolyzed 
by  M.  Moissan.  It  fuses  at  140°  to  a  colourless  liquid 
which  is  quite  suitable  for  electrolysis.  The  experiment 
was  performed,  as  before,  in  a  platinum  U-tube,  and,  on 
passing  the  current,  fluorine  was  again  liberated  at  the 
positive  pole,  and  at  once  set  fire  to  crystalline  silicon  ; 
but  the  platinum  was  strongly  attacked,  so  the  experiment 
was  stopped  in  orderto  save  the  tube.  On  plunging  a  couple 
of  platinum  wires  connected  with  the  battery  into  a  quan- 
tity of  the  fused  double  fluoride  contained  in  a  platinum 
crucible,  gas  was  evolved  in  abundance  at  each  pole,  and 
on  bringing  the  wires  in  contact,  even  in  the  dark,  de- 
tonation occurred,  owing  to  the  combination  of  the  evolved 
hydrogen  and  fluorine.  At  the  same  time  the  platinum 
wire  from  which  the  fluorine  was  evolved  was  almost 
entirely  eaten  away. 

In  concluding  these  remarkable  researches,  which  have 
happily  terminated  so  successfully,  M.  Moissan  discusses 
very  fully  the  question  of  the  identity  of  the  gas  liberated 
at  the  positive  pole  with  the  element  fluorine  ;  and  there 
can  be  no  doubt  that  he  has  completely  proved  this 
identity,  at  the  same  time  showing  that  fluorine  occupies 
the  place  of  honour  as  the  most  intensely  active  chemical 
element  with  which  we  are  at  present  acquainted,  and 
that  it  assumes  its  rightful  position,  theoretically  destined 
for  it,  at  the  head  of  the  group  of  halogens. 

A.  E.  TUTTON. 


TIMBER,  AND  SOME  OF  ITS  DISEASES. 

I. 

r'\  N  carefully  examining  the  clean-cut  end  of  a  sawn  log 
^-^  of  timber,  it  is  easy  to  convince  ourselves  of  the 
existence  of  certain  marks  upon  it,  which  have  reference 
to  its  structure.  These  marks  will  vary  in  intensity  and 
number  according  to  the  kind  of  tree,  the  age  at  which  it 
is  felled,  and  some  other  circumstances,  which  may  be 
overlooked  for  the  present ;  but  in  a  given  case  it  would 
be  possible  to  observe  some  such  marks  as  those  indicated 
in  Fig.   I.     In   the   specimen  chosen  there  is  a  nearly 


central  spot,  the  pith,  around  which  numerous  concentric 
lines — the  "  annual  rings  " — run.  Radiating  from  the  pith 
towards  the  periphery  are  cracks,  the  number,  and  length, 
and  breadth  of  which  may  vary  according  to  the  time  the 
log  has  been  exposed  to  the  weather,  and  other  circum- 
stances ;  these  cracks  are  due  to  the  contraction  of  the 
wood  as  it  "  shrinks,"  and  they  coincide  with  medullary 
rays,  as  lines  of  weakness.  Between  these  cracks  are  to 
be  seen  numerous  very  fine  radiating  lines  indicating  the 
course  of  the  uninjured  medullary  rays,  which  again 
will  vary  in  distinctness,  &c.,  according  to  the  species  of 
timber. 


Fig.  I.— a  log  of  timber,  showing  radial  cracks  after  lying  exposed  for  some  time,     a,  a  large  crack  extending  from  pith  to 
circumference  ;  b,  the  cortex  ;  c,  medullary  ray  ;  d,  cambium  ;  e,  annual  ring  ;  f,  outer  bark,  proper.     Reduced. 


This  log  of  wood,  with  its  annual  rings  and  medullary 
ray's,  is  clothed  by  a  sort  of  jacket,  consisting  of  cork  and 
softer  tissues,  and  termed  the  cortex,  or,  more  popularly, 
the  "  bark  "  (an  unfortunate  word,  which  has  caused  much 
trouble  in  its  time).  The  largest  of  the  cracks  is  seen  to 
traverse  the  whole  radiug  of  the  face  of  the  wood  from 
centre  to  circumference,  and  also  to  pass  through  the 
cortex,  which  gapes  widely. 

The  remaining  cracks,  however,  stop  short  at  a  line 
which  marks  on  the  one  hand  the  inner  face  of  the  cortex, 
-md  on  the  other  the  outer  face  of  the  wood  :  this  line  also 
represents  the  cambium,  a  thin  sheet  of  generative  tissue 


which  remains  after  giving  rise  to  practically  the  whole 
of  the  wood  (a  very  little  in  the  centre  excepted)  and  cortex 
visible  in  the  woodcut.  Since  we  are  not  concerned  with  the 
cortex  and  bark  at  present,  it  will  be  convenient  to  regard 
the  log  as  "  barked,"  and  only  deal  with  the  wood  or  timber  ^ 
itself,  in  the  condition  to  which  the  woodman  reduces 
after  removing  the  cortex  with  certain  implements. 

If  now  we  split  such  a  log  as  Fig.  i  along  the  line 
the  big  crack,  neatly  and  smoothly,  the  well-known 
"  grain  "  so  often  observed  on  planks  of  wood  will  come 
into  view,  and  it  will  be  noticed  that  the  lines  which  mark 
the  "o^raiii"  are  continuations  of  the  lines  which  mark 


« 


Dec.  22,  1887] 


NATURE 


183 


the  annual  rings,  as  shown  in  Fig.  2,  which  represents  on 
a  larger  scale  a  segment  such  as  could  be  cut  from  a  log 
in  the  way  described.  It  is  clear  from  comparison  of  what 
has  been  said,  and  of  the  two  figures,  that  the  "  annual 
rings "  are  simply  the  expression  in  cross-section  of 
cylindrical  sheets  laid  concentrically  one  over  the  other, 
the  outermost  one  being  that  last  formed.  But  on 
examining  the  medullary  rays  in  such  a  piece  of  timber 
as  that  in  Fig.  2,  it  will  be  noticed  that  they  also  are  the 
expression  of  narrow  radial  vertical  plates  which  run 
through  the  concentric  sheets  :  the  medullary  rays  are  in 
fact  arranged  somewhat  like  the  spokes  of  a  paddle-wheel 
of  an  old  steamer,  only  they  differ  in  length,  breadth,  and 
depth,  as  seen  by  comparing  the  three  faces  of  the  figure. 
It  is  to  be  noticed  that  the  medullary  rays  consist  of 
a  different  kind  of  tissue  from  that  which  they  traverse,  a 
fact  which  can  only  be  indicated  in  the  figure  by  the  depth 
of  shading.     It  is  also  to  be  observed  that  the  "annual 


rings"  show  differences  in  respect  to  their  tissue,  as 
marked  by  the  darker  shading  near  the  boundary  lines  on 
the  outer  margin  of  each  ring.  In  order  to  understand 
these  points  better,  it  is  necessary  to  look  at  a  piece  of 
our  block  of  timber  somewhat  more  closely,  and  with  the 
aid  of  some  magnifying  power.  For  the  sake  of  simplicity 
it  will  be  convenient  to  select  first  a  piece  of  one  of  the 
timbers  known  as  "  deal "  (firs,  pines,  &c.),  and  to  observe 
it  in  the  same  direction  as  we  commenced  with,  i.e.  to 
examine  a  so-called  transverse  section. 

The  microscope  will  show  us  a  figure  like  that  in  the 
woodcut  (Fig.  3).  There  are  to  be  seen  certain  angular 
openings,  which  are  the  sections  of  the  long  elements 
technically  called  trackeides,  shown  in  elevation  in  Fig.  4- 
It  will  be  noticed  that  whereas  along  some  parts  of  the 
section  these  openings  are  large,  and  as  broad  in  one 
direction  as  in  the  other,  in  other  parts  of  the  section  the 
openings  are  much  smaller,  and  considerably  elongated  in 


Fig.  2. 


Fig.  3. 


Fig.  2. — Portion  of  segment  of  wood  from  a  log  such  as  Fig.  i,  supposed  to  hz  slightly  magnified,  a,  annual  ring  ;  m,  medullary  rays  ;  ;«',  the  same  in 
vertical  sectiop  ;  c,  the  boundary  line  between  one  annual  ring  and  another ;  su,  autumn  wood  ;  sp,  spring  wood  ;  /,  the  pith. 

Fig.  3. — Portions  of  four  annual  rings  from  a  thin  transverse  section  of  the  wood  of  a  Conifer,  such  as  the  Spruce-fir.  M,  a  meduUarjr  ray  ;  b  and  c  show  the 
entire  breadth  of  two  annual  rings  ;  a,  autumn  wood  of  an  annual  ring  internal  to  6  (and  therefore  older  than  b)  ;  d,  spring  wood  of  an  annual 
ring  external  to  c  (and  therefore  younger  than  c).     Bordered  pits  are  seen  in  section  on  somj  of  the  tracheides.     Magnified  about  loo  limes. 


one  direction  as  compared  with  the  other.  The  band  of 
small  openings  naturally  looks  more  crowded  and  there- 
fore darker  than  the  band  of  larger  openings,  and  it  is  to 
this  that  the  differences  in  the  shading  of  the  annual 
rings  in  Fig.  2  are  due.  But  it  is  not  simply  in  having 
larger  lumina  or  openings  that  the  dark  band  of 
tracheides  is  distinguished  from  the  lighter  one  :  the  walls 
of  the  tracheides  are  often  also  relatively  thicker,  and 
obviously  a  cubic  millimetre  of  such  wood  will  be  denser 
and  contain  more  solid  substance  than  a  cubic  millimetre 
of  wood  consisting  only  of  the  larger,  thin-walled 
tracheides.  It  is  equally  obvious  that  a  large  block  of 
wood  in  which  the  proportion  of  these  thick-walled 
tracheides  with  small  lumina  is  greater  (with  reference 
to  the  bands  of  thin-walled  tracheides)  will  be  closer- 
grained,  and  heavier,  than  an  equal  volume  of  the  wood 
where  the  thin-walled  tracheides  with  large  lumina 
predominate. 


Returning  now  to  the  section  (Fig.  3),  it  is  to  be 
observed  that  the  differences  in  the  zones  just  referred  to 
enable  us  to  distinguish  the  so-called  "  annual  rings." 
The  generally  accepted  explanation  of  this  is  somewhat 
as  follows.  In  the  spring-time  and  early  summer,  the 
cambium-cells  begin  to  divide,  and  those  on  the  inner 
side  of  the  cylinder  of  cambium  gradually  become  con- 
verted into  tracheides  (excepting  at  a  few  points  where 
the  cells  add  to  the  medullary  rays),  and  this  change 
occurs  at  a  time  when  there  is  (i)  very  little  pressure 
exerted  on  the  inner  parts  of  the  trunk  by  the  cortex  and 
corky  bark,  and  (2)  only  comparatively  feeble  supplies 
are  derived  from  the  activity  of  the  leaves  and  roots,  in 
the  still  cool  weather  and  short  days  with  little  sunlight 
In  the  late  summer,  however,  when  the  thickened  masi 
of  wood  is  compressed  by  the  tightened  jacket  of  elastic 
bark  which  it  has  distended,  and  the  Icng,  hot,  bright 
sunny  days  are  causing  the  numerous  leaves  and  roots  to 


i84 


NATURE 


{Dec.  22,  1887 


supply  abundance  of  nutriment  to  the  growing  cambium- 
cells,  it  is  not  surprising  that  these  cells  cannot  extend 
themselves  so  far  in  the  radial  direction  {i.e.  in  a  line 
towards  the  centre  of  the  compressed  stem),  and  that 
their  walls  are  thickened  by  richer  deposits  of  woody 
material  supplied  quickly  to  them. 

As  the  winter  approaches,  the  cambium  ceases  to  be 
active,  and  it  then  remains  dormant  for  several  months. 
When  its  cells  are  awakened  to  renewed  growth  and 
division  in  the  following  spring,  they  at  once  begin  to 
form  the  tracheides  with  thin  walls  and  large  lumina,  and 
it  is  the  sharp  contrast  thus  displayed  between  the  newly- 
formed  tracheides  with  thin  walls  and  large  lumina,  and 
the  compressed  denser  ones  on  which  they  suddenly  abut, 
that  produces  the  impression  of  the  "  annual  ring." 

It  is  now  time  to  attempt  to  give  some  clearer  ideas 
of  what  this  "  cambium  "  is,  and  how  its  cells  become 
developed   into  tracheides.      But  first  it  is  necessary  to 


point  out  that  each  tracheide  is  a  long,  more  or  less 
tubular  and  prismatic  body,  with  bluntly  tapering  ends, 
and  the  walls  of  which  have  certain  peculiar  markings  and 
depressions  on  them,  as  seen  in  Fig.  4.  We  cannot  here  go 
into  the  important  signification  andfunctions  of  these  mark- 
ings and  depressions  however,  since  their  study  would  need 
an  article  to  themselves.  It  must  suffice  for  the  present 
to  state  that  the  markings  have  reference  to  the  minute 
structure  of  the  cell- walls,  and  the  depressions  are  very 
beautiful  and  complicated  pieces  of  apparatus  to  facilitate 
and  direct  the  passage  of  water  from  the  cavity  of  one 
tracheide  to  that  of  another.  Now,  the  cambium  is  a  thin 
cylindrical  sheet  of  cells  with  very  delicate  walls,  each 
cell  having  the  form  of  a  rectangular  prism  with  its  ends 
sharpened  off  like  the  cutting  edge  of  a  carpenter's  chisel : 
this  prism  is  broader  in  the  direction  coinciding  with  the 
plane  of  the  sheet  of  cambium — i.e.  in  the  tangential  direc- 
tion, with  reference  to  the  trunk  of  the  tree— than  in  the 


Fig. 


Fig.  s. 


Fig.  4. — Asmall  block  of  wood  from  a  sprace-fir,  supposed  to  be  magnified  about  loo  times,  showing  elevation  and  sectional  views  of  the  tracheides  of  th^ 
autumn  (to  the  right)  and  spring  wood,  and  medullary  rays  (m  u)  running  radially  between  the  tracheides.     (After  Hartig. ) 

Fig.  5. — Portion  of  cambium  of  a  fir,  showing  the  development  of  the  young  wood  tracheides  bom  the  cambium-cells.  The  arrow  points  to  centre  of  the 
stem.  The  cambium-cells  at  length  cease  to  divide,  and  the  walls  become  thicker  (a),  except  at  certain  areas,  where  the  bordered  pits  are  developed 
{6  and  c).    To  the  right  is  a  medullary  ray.     Highly  magnified,  and  the  contents  of  the  cambium-cells  omitted  for  clearness. 


direction  of  the  radius  of  the  stem  ;  and  the  chisel-edge 
must  be  supposed  to  run  in  the  direction  parallel  to 
that  of  a  medullary  ray,  i.e.  radially.  From  the  first, 
each  cambial  cell  contains  protoplasm  and  a  nucleus, 
and  is  capable  of  being  nourished  and  of  growing 
and  dividing.  It  is  only  at  or  near  the  tips  of  the 
branches,  &c.,  that  these  cambium-cells  are  growing 
much  in  length,  however  ;  and  in  the  parts  we  are 
considering  they  may  be  for  the  most  part  regarded  as 
growing  only  in  the  radial  direction  ;  more  rarely,  and  to 
a  slight  extent,  in  the  tangential  direction  also,  as  the  cir- 
cumference of  the  cylinder  enlarges.  After  a  cambial 
cell  has  extended  its  walls  by  growth  in  the  radial  direction 
to  a  certain  amount,  a  septum  or  division  wall  arises  in  the 
longitudinal  tangential  plane,  and  two  cells  are  thiis  formed 
in  place  of  one :  this  process  of  division  may  then  be 
repeated  in  each  cell,  and  so  the  process  goes  on.  This 
is   not   the  place   to   lay  stress   on  certain   facts    which 


show  that  a  single  layer  of  cells  initiates  the  division  :  it 
suffices  to  point  out  that  by  the  above  process  of  division 
of  the  cambial  cells  there  are  formed  radial  rovv-5  of  cells, 
as  indicated  in  Fig.  5,  where  the  arrow  points  along  a 
radius  towards  the  centre  of  the  stem.  It  is  true  such 
radial  rows  of  cells  are  also  developed  in  smaller  numbers 
towards  the  outside  of  the  cambium  cylinder  {i.e.  to  add 
to  the  cortex),  but  we  are  only  concerned  with  the  wood, 
and  therefore  only  regard  those  cells  which  are  developed 
on  the  inside  {i.e.  towards  the  centre  of  the  stem).  After 
a  time  the  oldest  of  these  cells  {i.e.  those  nearest  the  centre 
of  the  stem)  cease  to  divide,  and  undergo  changes  of 
another  kind  :  the  process  of  division  is  still  going  on  in 
the  younger  ones,  however  ;  and  so  the  radial  rows  are 
being  e.^tended  by  additions  of  cells  at  their  outer  ends. 
Of  course,  this  is  normally  proceeding  along  the  whole 
area  of  the  cylindrical  sheet  of  cambium,  and  therefore 
over  the  whole  of  the  stem  and  roots,  with  their  branches. 


Dec.  22,  1887] 


NA  TURE 


185 


Confining  our  attention  to  one  of  the  innermost,  oldest 
cells  of  the  cambiuirj,  which  has  ceased  dividing  {aa 
in  Fig.  5),  we  find  that  it  enlarges  somewhat  in 
the  radial  direction,  and  then  its  hitherto  very  thin 
walls  become  thicker ;  in  fact,  the  protoplasm  in  its 
interior  absorbs  food-materials,  and  changes  them  into 
a  peculiar  substance  which  it  plasters  or  builds  on 
to  the  inner  sides  of  the  cell- wall,  so  to  speak,  until  the 
wall  is  much  thicker.  This  thickening  process  is  with- 
held at  certain  places  only — the  thin  depressions  already 
referred  to.  Two  chief  changes  result  now  :  (i)  the  whole 
of  the  living  contents  of  the  young  wood-cell  gradually 
become  used  up,  and  eventually  disappear  without  leaving 
any  trace  ;  and  (2)  the  thickening  substance  built  on 
to  the  inside  of  the  walls  undergoes  changes  which  convert 
it  into  true  wood-substance — in  botanical  language,  the 
walls  become  lignified.  The  cells  b  and  c  in  Fig.  5 
illustrate  what  is  meant. 

During  all  these  changes,  which  occupy  several  or  even 
many  hours  or  days,  according  to  circumstances,  it  will  be 
observed  that  the  definitive  shape  of  the  cell  is  gradually 
completed,  and  then  alters  very  little :  the  prismatic 
cambium-cell  has  become  a  prismatic  tracheide,  with 
thicker,  lignified  walls,  and  containing  air  and  water  (with 
minute  quantities  of  mineral  substances  dissolved  in  it) 
in  place  of  protoplasm  and  nutritive  substances.  It  is  not 
necessary  here  to  speak  of  other  and  more  subtle  changes 
which  cause  slight  displacements,  &c.,  of  these  cells. 

If  I  have  succeeded  in  making  the  chief  points  in  this 
somewhat  conrplicated  process  clear,  there  will  be  little 
difficulty  in  explaining  what  occurs  in  other  parts  of  the 
cambium-cylinder.  The  cambium-cells  which  happen  to 
stand  in  the  same  radial  row  as  the  cells  of  a  medullary 
ray,  simply  go  on  being  converted  into  cells  of  the  medul- 
lary ray,  instead  of  into  tracheides  ;  cells  which  differ  from 
the  tracheides  chiefly  in  retaining  their  living  contents  and 
nutritive  materials — i.e.  substances  like  starch,  proteids, 
sugars,  &c.,  which  are  used  as  food  by  the  plant.  Again, 
those  cells  of  the  cambium  which  are  divided  off  on  the 
outer  side  of  the  cylinder  (they  are  always  fewer  in  num- 
ber) are  gradually  transformed  into  elements  of  the  cortex, 
and  finally  enter  into  the  composition  of  the  bark  proper, 

Now  and  again,  but  much  more  rarely,  a  radial  row  of 
cambial  cells  which,  from  their  position,  it  would  appear 
should  be  converted  into  tracheides  of  the  wood,  alter  their 
destiny,  so  to  speak,  and  become  the  originators  of  a  new 
medullary  ray.  But  I  must  pass  over  these  and  some 
other  minor  peculiarities,  and  refer  to  the  illustrations  for 
further  details. 

If  now,  instead  of  a  log  of  deal,  or  coniferous  wood,  we 
direct  attention  to  the  timber  of  a  dicotyledonous  tree, 
such  as  the  oak,  ash,  beech,  chestnut,  poplar,  &c., 
the  differences  in  detail  will  not  be  found  very  great  in 
relation  to  the  broad  features  here  under  consideration. 
Turning  again  to  Fig.  I,  it  would  be  possible  to  select  a 
cut  log  of  any  of  these  timbers  which  presented  all  the 
salient  characters  there  exhibited.  The  bark  would 
present  external  differences  in  detail — such  as  in  rough- 
ness, colour,  thickness,  &c. — but  it  could  still  be  described, 
as  before,  as  a  more  or  less  corky  jacket  around  the  whole 
of  the  wood  :  the  cut  face  would  show  the  timber  marked 
by  more  or  less  numerous  and  prominent  "  annual  rings," 
traversed  by  smaller  or  larger  medullary  rays,  radiating 
from  the  central  pith,  and  passing  across  the  cambium 
to  the  cortex.  Moreover,  cracks  would  be  apt  to  form 
on  exposure,  as  before  ;  the  opening  occurring  along  the 
lines  of  medullary  rays — lines  of  weakness. 

Again,  if  we  cut  a  segment  of  the  wood,  like  Fig.  2,  the 
chief  features  would  present  themselves  as  there  shown, 
and  the  lines  of  demarcation  indicating  the  annual  rings 
would  be  found  to  be  due  to  the  sharp  contrast  between 
the  spring  wood  and  the  autumn  or  summer  wood,  as 
before. 

On  closely  examining  a  transverse  section  of  such  a 


piece  of  timber,  however,  we  should  find  differences 
which  at  first  sight  appear  profound,  but  which  on  reflec- 
tion and  comparison  turn  out  to  be  of  more  relative 
significance,  from  the  present  point  of  view,  than  might  be 
expected. 

Selecting  a  given  example,  that  of  the  beech  for 
instance,  the  first  difference  which  strikes  us  (Fig.  6)  is  a 
number  of  relatively  very  large  openings  on  the  transverse 
section  :  these  are  the  vessels — pitted  vessels — long 
tubular  structures  which  are  not  formed  by  the  cambium 
of  the  conifers.  Between  these  vessels  are  much  more 
numerous  elements  with  very  small  lumina  and  thick 
walls  :  the  latter  are  the  wood-fibres  proper,  and  have  to 
be  technically  distinguished  from  the  apparently  somewhat 
similar  wood-tracheides  of  the  pines,  firs,  &c.  Here  and 
there,  scattered  in  small  groups,  are  certain  rows  of 
shorter  cells,  which,  however,  are  not  very  numerous  in 
the  beech  :  they  are  called  wood-parenchyma  (Fig.  6,  wp), 
and  occur  particularly  in  the  vicinity  of  the  vessels. 


Fig.  6. — A  piece  of  wood  from  a  dicotyledonous  tree  (beech),  supposed 
to  be  magnified  about  loo  times.  Mr,  a  medullary  ray  running 
across  the  transverse  section  :  the  dark  band  crossed  by  this  ray  is  the 
autumn  wood  (li),  formed  of  clobely-crowded  wood-fibres  and  tracheides  ; 
V,  a  large  vessel  in  section  :  others  are  seen  also— they  are  smaller  and 
fewer  towards  the  autumn  wood  ;  a',  wood-fibres,  of  which  most  of  the 
timber  is  compose  d  ;  wp,  wood-parenchyma  cells. 

It  is  beside  the  purpose  here  to  describe  in  detail  the 
histology  of  the  beech-wood,  and  reference  may  be  made 
to  the  figures  for  further  particulars.  It  may  suffice  to 
say  that  all  the  elements — cells,  fibres,  and  vessels— are 
formed  as  before  by  the  gradual  development  of  cambium, 
cells  ;  and  the  same  is  true,  generally,  of  the  medullary 
rays  here  that  is  true  of  those  of  the  pines  and  firs,  &c. 

Attention  is  to  be  directed  to  the  fact,  which  is  here 
again  evident,  that  the  line  of  demarcation  between  any 
two  "  annual  rings  "  is  due  to  the  suJden  apposition  of  non- 
compressed  elements  upon  closely-packed  and  apparently 
compressed  elements  :  the  latter  were  formed  in  the  late 
summer,  the  former  in  the  spring.  Moreover,  the  spring 
wood  usually  contains  more  numerous  vessels,  with  larger 
lumina  than  the  autumn  wood :  in  this  particular  case, 
again,  the  fibres  of  the  autumn  wood  are  darker  in 
colour.  It  should  be  stated,  however,  that  many  dicoty- 
ledonous trees  show  these  peculiarities  much  more  clearly 
than  the  beech  ;  others,  again,  show  them  less  clearly. 


1 86 


NATURE 


[Dec.  2  2,  1887 


Now  it  is  obvious  that,  other  things  being  equal,  the 
spring  wood,  with  its  more  numerous  and  larger  vessels, 
and  its  looser  tissue  generally,  will  yield  more  readily  to 
lateral  pressure  and  strains  than  the  denser  autumn  wood  ; 
and  the  like  is  true  of  the  pines  and  firs — the  closely- 
packed,  thick-walled  tracheides  of  the  autumn  wood  furnish 
a  firmer  and  more  resistant  material  than  the  larger, 
thinner-walled  tracheides  of  the  spring  wood.  To  this 
point  we  shall  have  to  return  presently. 

H.  Marshall  Ward. 

[To  be  continued^ 


NOTES. 
We  deeply  I'egret  to  announce  the  death  of  Prof.  Balfour 
Stewart,  one  of  our  most  eminent  men  of  science.  Last 
Friday  morning  he  left  the  Owens  College,  apparently  in  his 
usual  health  and  in  good  spirits,  intending  to  spend  the  holidays 
at  his  Irish  home.  He  died  on  Sunday  night.  Next  week  we 
shall  have  something  to  say  about  his  character  and  work. 

The  death  of  Carl  Langer,  the  well-known  Professor  of 
Anatomy  at  the  University  of  Vienna,  is  announced.  He  was 
in  his  sixty-eighth  year. 

Dr.  Arthur  Farre,  F.R. S.,  died  on  the  17th  inst.,  in  his 
seventy-seventh  year.  He  was  elected  a  Fellow  of  the  Royal 
Society  in  1839. 

The  Royal  Society  has  been  admitted  to  the  number  of  those 
public  bodies  to  which  is  conceded  by  prescription  or  otherwise 
the  privilege  of  presenting  their  addresses  to  the  Sovereign  on 
the  throne. 

The  Curatorship  of  the  Natural  History  Department  of  the 
Science  and  Art  Museum,  Dublin,  rendered  vacant  by  the  resigna- 
tion of  Mr.  A.  G.  More,  has  just  been  filled  by  the  promotion 
of  Dr.  R.  F.  Scharff,  who  had  been  one  of  the  assistants  in  the 
Museum  for  some  months.  Dr.  Scharff  has  already  proved  him- 
self to  be  a  diligent  student  of  zoology  in  Edinburgh,  where  he 
took  the  degree  of  Bachelor  of  Science.  In  London  he  studied 
under  Prof  Ray  Lankester,  and  worked  in  the  British  Museum 
for  some  time  under  the  Director,  Prof.  Flower,  F.  R.S. ,  and 
he  obtained  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Philosophy  at  Heidelberg 
University. 

Mr.  John  M.  Thomson  has  been  appointed  to  the  Chair  of 
Chemistry  in  King's  College,  vacant  through  the  death  of  Prof 
Bloxam. 

At  the  Central  Institution,  Exhibition  Road,  South  Kensing- 
ton, Dr.  A.  K.  Miller,  Demonstrator  and  Assistant  in  the 
Chemical  Research  Laboratory,  will  deliver,  during  the  spring 
term,  a  course  of  ten  lectures  on  the  chemistry  of  oils  and  fats. 
The  course  will  be  delivered  on  Mondays  at  4  p.m.,  and  will 
begin  on  January  23,  1888. 

The  third  annual  meeting  of  the  American  Association  for 
the  Advancement  of  Piiysical  Education  was  held  at  Brooklyn 
on  November  25.  It  was  well  attended.  Papers  were  read  by 
Prof.  Edward  Hitchcock,  of  Amherst  College,  who  presided  ; 
by  Prof  E.  H.  Fallows,  of  the  Adelphi  Academy ;  and  by 
Prof.  J.  W.  Seaver,  of  Yale  College. 

Science  (December  9,  1887)  notes,  as  a  fact  which  may  be  of 
interest  to  Americans,  that  in  England  the  point  of  view  of  those 
who  argue  in  favour  of  technical  education  is  almost  exclusively 
the  economic.  "  But  little  is  heard,"  it  says,  "  of  the  educa- 
tional nature  of  manual  training."  Speaking  of  the  'state  of 
things  in  the  United  States,  Science  says  : — "  There  is  now,  as 
is  well  known,  a  very  general  movement  throughout  this  country 
in  favour  of  what  is  known  as  manual   training;  in  education. 


After  much  misapprehension  and  tedious  explanation,  the  leaders 
of  this  movement  have  finally  managed  to  make  the  educational 
public  understand  that  they  advocate  manual  training  mainly  for 
its  educational  value,  and  only  incidentally  for  the  economic 
benefits  which  will  undoubtedly  flow  from  it." 

The  twentieth  annual  meeting  of  the  Kansas  Academy  of 
Science  was  held  in  the  Capitol  Building,  Topeka,  on  October  26, 
27,  and  28.  Science  says  that  there  was  an  excellent  attendance 
of  members,  but  that  the  local  attendance  was  not  quite  equal  to 
that  of  last  year.  The  papers  read,  according  to  Science,  were 
unusually  valuable.  The  annual  meeting  next  year  will  be  held 
in  Wichita,  in  October. 

The  tenth  general  meeting  of  the  German  Society  of  Analy- 
tical Chemists  was  held  at  Frankfurt,  on  November  30.  Dr. 
Schmitt,  of  Wiesbaden,  was  President. 

The  tenth  meeting  of  the  German  Geographical  Society  will 
be  held  at  Berlin  next  Easter.  In  future  the  meetings  will  be 
held  only  once  in  two  years. 

Fifty  shocks  of  earthquake  are  reported  to  have  occurred  at 
Silveric,  in  Dalmatia,  on  November  29.  On  the  same  day,  at 
7.30  a.m.,  severe  shocks  occurred  at  Oran,  Mascara,  and 
Relizante,  in  Algeria. 

On  the  evening  of  November  21,  from  8.30  p.m.  to  about  9, 
a  remarkable  luminous  phenomenon,  viz.  a  broad  band  of  light 
right  across  the  sky,  was  seen  throughout  the  whole  of  central 
and  southern  Sweden.  It  caused  much  speculation,  chiefly  on 
account  of  its  luminous  immobility.  Dr.  N.  Ekholm,  of  the 
Upsala  Meteorological  Observatory,  and  well  known  for  his 
researches  on  the  aurora  borealis  at  Spitbergen,  has  now  pro- 
nounced the  phenomenon  to  be  a  so-called  auroral  band.  Dr. 
Ekholm  states  that  f-uch  bands  are  very  uncommon  in  Sweden, 
but  that  they  are  often  seen  at  Spitzbergen.  He  saw  the 
phenomenon  during  a  journey  from  Stockholm  to  Upsala,  at 
8.45  p.m.,  and  noted  its  position.  The  band  ran  then  just 
north  of  the  northernmost  stars  in  Orion,  through  Aldebaran, 
then  a  little  south  of  the  Pleiades,  further  through  the  Ram,  and 
then  a  little  north  of  ^the  two  southernmost  stars  in  the  square 
of  Pegasus.  He  calculates  its  height  above  the  earth  at  about  80 
miles,  its  zenith  being  perpendicular  above  the  two  provinces 
of  East  and  West  Gothia.  The  bands  moved  from  north 
to  south  at  the  rate  of  about  50  metres  per  second.  In  Upsala 
it  seemed  south  of  the  zenith.  Dr.  V.  C.  Gyllenskiold  made 
similar  observations  at  Upsala.  Dr.  Ekholm  invites  all  who 
may  have  observed  the  phenomenon'  to  communicate  their 
observations  to  him  in  the  interests  of  science. 

On  the  afternoon  of  November  26,  at  4. 30,  a  splendid  meteor 
was  seen  at  Laurvik  in  the  Christiania  fjord,  It  went  from  east 
to  we^t,  and  apparently  low  in  the  horizon.  In  spite  of  the 
moonlight  its  tail  was  visible  for  some  seconds  afterwards. 

One  morning  last  week,  the  Teusfjord,  a  little  to  the  north  of 
Bergen,  on  the  west  coast  of  Norway,  was  covered  with  ice 
three-quarters  of  an  inch  thick,  as  far  as  the  eye  could  reach. 
Ice,  in  consequence  of  the  influence  of  the  warmth  of  the  Gulf 
Stream,  has  hitherto  been  unheard  of  on  the  west  coast  of 
Norway. 

Symons's  Monthly  Meteorological  Magazine  for  December 
contains  an  investigation  of  what  was  reported  in  the  newspapers 
to  have  been  an  earthquake-shock  in  Central  England  on 
November  20  last.  At  the  more  western  stations  the  reporter*^ 
spoke  chiefly  of  noise,  and  at  the  eastern  ones  of  earth  tren 
From  evidence  collected,  it  appears  that  the  disturbance,  as 
H.  G.  Fordham  pointed  out  in  Nature  last  week  (p.  151), 
caused  by  the  explosion  of  a  large  meteor.      Further  particul^ 


Dec.  22,  1887] 


NATURE 


187 


are  requested,  especially  as  to  the  locality  where  the  meteor 
burst,  which  seems  likely  to  have  been  between  Thame  and 
Abingdon. 

The  Pilot  Chart  of  the  North  Atlantic  Ocean  for  December 
reports  the  occurrence  of  two  interesting  phenomena.  (l)  The 
formation  of  a  very  large  waterspout  on  October  6  in  latitude 
394°  N.,  longitude  69°  W.,  during  a  thunder  squall.  The 
lower  end  of  the  spout  did  not  reach  the  surface  of  the  ocean. 
Water  could  be  seen  rushing  down  through  the  centre  of  the 
funnel  and  ploughing  up  the  surface  of  the  sea  to  a  height  of 
about  50  feet.  (2)  One  of  the  rare  and  inexplicable  cases  of 
globular  lightning.  On  November  12,  at  midnight,  near  Cape 
Race,  a  large  ball  of  fire  seemed  to  rise  out  of  the  sea  to  a 
height  of  about  50  feet,  coming  against  the  wind  close  up  to  the 
ship,  and  then  running  away  to  the  south-east,  lasting  altogether 
about  five  minutes. 

•  The  Meteorological  Report  published  for  the  year  1886  by  the 
Surveyor-General  of  Ceylon  shows  that  rainfall  observations  are 
now  taken  at  eighty-three  stations.  General  observations  are 
made  at  sixteen]  stations.  The  Report  contains  a  map  showing 
the  mean  annual  rainfall  of  the  island,  and  a  diagram  of  the 
mean  monthly  fall  at  the  principal  stations.  An  important  dis- 
cussion of  the  Ceylon  rainfall  observations  will  be  found  in  the 
Quarterly  Journal  of  the  Royal  Meteorological  Society  for 
October  last. 

The  Russian  Government  does  good  service  to  meteorology 
by  publishing  observations  taken  for  several  hours  daily  on  some 
selected  cruises  of  its  men-of-war.  A  volume  has  just  been  issued 
containing  the  observations  of  three  such  voyages,  being  Nos. 
52-54  of  the  series.  The  information  is  rendered  more  avail- 
able for  ready  use  by  the  weather  observations  being  expressed 
in  the  international  symbols,  and  by  the  data  being  printed  on 
one  side  only,  to  allow  of  being  cut  up  and  pasted  in  districts  as 
required. 

It  is  reported  from  India  that,  in  connection  with  a  plan 
for  improving  the  system  of  storm-warnings,  1  new  meteoro- 
logical stations  are  to  be  opened,  on  the  Coromandel  coast,  at 
Bimlipatam,  Nellore,  and  Cuddalore,  and  one  on  the  Burmah 
coast,  probably  at  Tavoy.  Mr.  Elliott,  Superintendent  of  the 
Bengal  Meteorological  Department,  was  to  leave  on  an  inspec- 
tion tour  to  visit  the  coast  stations,  and  to  select  sites  for  the 
new  observatories. 

The  Observatory  will  in  future  be  edited  by  Mr.  Turner,  of 
Greenwich  Observatory,  and  Mr.  Common,  of  Ealing. 

A  FLORA  of  riertfordshire  by  the  late  Alfred  R.  Pryor, 
edited  by  Mr.  B.  Daydon  Jackson,  with  notes  on  the  geology, 
climate,  and  rivers  of  the  county,  by  Mr.  John  Hopkinson,  will 
be  published  in  a  few  days  by  Messrs.  Gurney  and  Jackson,  Mr. 
Van  Voorst's  successors.  The  book  will  consist  of  about  600 
pages  with  a  map. 

The  twenty-third  annual  volume  of  the  Zoological  Record  will 
be  issued  shortly.  This  valuable  book  of  reference,  which  was 
established  by  Mr.  Van  Voorst,  under  the  editorship  of  Dr. 
Giinther,  has  been  for  some  years  supported  by  an  Associa- 
tion. .  It  is  now  taken  over  by  the  Zool  jgical  Society.  Messrs. 
Gurney  and  Jackson  will  continue  to  publish  the  volumes. 

Messrs.  George  Philip  and  Son  have  in  the  press,  and 
will  shortly  publish,  "  Emin  Pasha  in  Central  Africa  :  Letters 
and  Journals,"  collected  and  annotated  by  Dr.  G.  Schweinfurth, 
Dr.  Ratzel,  Dr.  G.  Hartlaub,  and  Dr.  Felkin.  The  work  has 
been  translated  from  the  Cierman  by  Mrs.  Felkin.  It  is  illus- 
trated with  a  portrait,  and  with  two  maps  specially  compiled  by 
E.  T.  Ravenstein. 


A  SIXTH  edition  of  Prof.  AUeyne  Nicholson's  "  Introductory 
Text-book  of  Zoology  "  (Blackwood)  has  just  been  issued.  The 
book  is  intended  for  the  use  of  junior  students.  It  has  been 
thoroughly  revised,  and  the  author  explains  that  the  general 
arrangement  of  certain  of  the  larger  groups  of  animals  has  been 
altered  in  accordance  with  the  views  now  most  generally  accepted 
by  naturalists.  Some  of  the  illustrations  have  been  changed, 
and  a  few  new  engravings  have  been  added. 

We  have  received  from  Mr.  F.  Enock  some  "  Autocopyist " 
pen-and-ink  sketches  of  bodies  and  parts  of  insects,  together 
with  examples  of  the  prepared  mounts  of  the  objects  delineated. 
The  latter  call  for  no  special  comment.  The  drawings,  however, 
are  exceedingly  clear  and  well  printed,  scrupulously  accurate, 
and  highly  commendable.  The  admiration  of  the  beautiful  in 
Nature  must  precede  the  study  of  the  more  useful ;  and,  this 
being  so,  we  can  heartily  recommend  these  drawings  to  the 
legion  of  microscopical  dilettanti.  Mr.  Enock  is  practical  in  his 
work  in  that  he  introduces  the  Hessian  fly,  together  with  a 
sketch  of  the  infected  barley.  By  way  of  giving  the  brief 
notes  which  accompany  the  sketches  an  authoritative  air,  he 
introduces  occasional  bibliographical  references.  As  pertaining 
to  the  aforenamed  pest,  an  important  paper  by  Prof.  Fream, 
read  before  the  British  Association  this  autumn,  and  duly 
reported  in  these  pages,  may  be  recomjaended  to  Mr.  Enock's 
notice. 

M.  Vayssiere,  of  Marseilles,  has  be^un  what  promises  to  be 
an  important  publication — an  atlas  of  the  anatomy  of  inverte- 
brates.    The  first  quarter  of  the  book  has  already  been  issued. 

Messrs.  Macmillan  and  Co  will  publish  early  in  January 
a  revised  and  extended  edition  of  the  well-known  "  Practical 
Biology  "  of  Prof.  Huxley  and  Dr.  H.  N.  Martin.  The  work 
of  revision  has  been  carried  out  by  Messrs.  G.  B.  Howes  and 
D.  H.  Scott,  of  the  Normal  School  of  Science.  Besides  other 
improvements,  including  the  addition  of  the  Earthworm  and  the 
Snail  in  the  series  of  animal,  and  of  Spirogyra  in  the  series  of 
vegetable,  types,  the  order  of  the  subjects  is  completely  changed. 
Whereas  in  the  original  edition  the  lowest  forms  of  life  were  first 
dealt  with,  and  then  the  rest  in  ascending  scale,  the  course  is  now 
reversed,  beginning  with  the  Frog  and  proceeding  thence  to  the 
less  familiar  regions  of  invertebrate  organizations  until  the  border- 
land between  animals  and  plants  is  reajhed,  and  a  natural  ascent 
can  be  made  to  the  most  complicated  vegetable  organisms. 
Prof.  Huxley  explains  in  the  preface  to  the  new  edition  that 
after  two  or  three  years'  triab  of  the^  road  from  the  simple  to 
the  complex  he  became  thoroughly  convinced  that  the  way  from 
the  known  to  the  unknown  was  easier  for  students. 

An  exhibition  embracing  every  branch  of  science  or  manu- 
facture connected  with  the  art  of  ph  jtography  will  be  opened  at 
the  Crystal  Palace  in  February  next.  Valuable  exhibits  have 
already  been  promised,  and  there  is  every  reason  to  believe  that 
the  collection  of  pictures  and  apparatus  will  be  larger  than  at 
any  previous  exhibition,  while  the  classification  will  be  far  more 
complete.  Medals  and  certificates  will  be  awarded  for  com- 
petitive photographic  lantern  slide  entertainments. 

We  are  informsd  that  the  Cora  nittee  appointed  by  the  Pari 
Academy  of  Medicine  to  investigate  the  influence  of  fluorhydric 
acid  on  tuberculosis  has  reported  very  favourably  on  the  subject. 
It  seems  that  the  Bacilli  of  tuberculosis  are  speedily  destroyed 
by  minimal  proportions  of  fluorhydric  vapours.  This  fact  is  an 
important  one  for  the  therapeutics  of  that  very  common  and  fatal 
disease,  tuberculosis. 

The  additions  to  the  Zoological  Society's  Gardens  during  the 
past  week  include  a  Common  Wolf{Ca«/j-  lupus),  European, 
presented  by  Mr.  C.  S.  Hardy ;  a  Spotted  Crake  {Porzana 
maructta),  British,  presented  by  Mr.  F.  W.  Proger  ;  two  Golden 
Plovers  [C/iaradrius pluvialis),  British,  purchased. 


i88 


NA  TURE 


\_Dec.  2  2,  1887 


ASTRONOMICAL  PHENOMENA  FOR  THE 
WEEK   1887   DECEMBER  25-31. 

/ 117 OR  the  reckoning  of  time  the  civil  day,  commencing  at 
' -*■  Greenwich  mean  midnight,  counting  the  hours  on  to  24, 
is  here  employed.) 

At  Greenwich  on  Deceniher  25 
Sun  rises,  8h.  7m.  ;  souths,  I2h.  om.  I4'9s.  ;  sets,  I5h.  53m.  : 

right    asc.    on   meridian,    iSh.    15 'om.  ;   decl.    23°  24'    S. 

Sidereal  Time  at  Sunset,  22h.  8m. 
Moon  (Full  on  December  30,  8h.)   rises,  I3h.   32m.  ;  souths, 

2oh.    31m.  ;    sets,    3h.    41m.* :    right    asc.    on    meridian, 

2h.  467m. ;  decl.  10°  40'  N. 


Right  asc.  and  declination 

Planet. 

Rises. 

Souths. 

Sets. 

on  meridian. 

h.    m. 

b.    m. 

h.     m. 

h.      m. 

Mercury . 

7    5  • 

.    11      0   . 

•  14  55  • 

•    17    151 

..  23    8  S. 

Venus 

4    3  •• 

.      851    • 

•   13  39  • 

•   15     5-2 

..  14  32  s. 

Mars 

0  30  .. 

.     6  24  . 

.  12  18  . 

.     12    38-2 

..     I  54  S. 

Jupiter... 

4  57  •• 

.     9  22  . 

•  13  47  • 

•     15    36-5 

..   18  28  S. 

Saturn . . . . 

18  29*.. 

.     2  18  . 

.10    7  .. 

.     8  311 

..   19  23  N. 

Uranus  ... 

I   16  .. 

.     6  49  .. 

.  12  22  .. 

•   13     33 

..     6     2  S. 

Neptune.. 

13  47  •• 

.  21  27  . 

•    5     7*. 

•     3  436 

..   17  59  N. 

•  Indicates  that  the  rising  is  that  of  the  preceding  evening  and  the  setting 
that  of  the  following  morning. 

Occultations  of  Stars  by  the  Moon  (visible  at  Greenwich). 


Corresponding 

angles  from  ver- 

Dec,          Star. 

Mag. 

Disap. 

Reap. 

tex  to  right  for 
inverted  image. 

h.   m. 

h.    m. 

0 

0 

27  ...  75  Tauri  ... 

...  6     .. 

.    18   26   ... 

19  .35 

-     55 

274 

27  ...  B.A.C.  1391 

...  5     •• 

.  20     8  near  approach  352 

— 

29  ...    119  Tauri... 

...  5i  .. 

2     3  near  approach     41 

— 

29  ...  68  Orionis 

...  6     .. 

.   17  58  near  approach  148 

— 

31   ...  B.A.C.  268: 

...  6     .. 

.   18  37  near  approach  141 

— 

Dec.             h. 

26     ...      8     ...     Mars  at  greatest  distance  from  the  San 

Variable  Stars. 

Star. 

R.A. 

Decl. 

h.      m. 

, 

h. 

m. 

U  Cephei     

0  52-3  • 

..  81   16  N. 

...  Dec. 

26,  23 

24  m 

31.  23 

3  »i 

Algol    

3    0-8  . 

..  40  31  N. 

29,     I 
31,  22 

17   »i 

6  m 

X  Tauri 

3  54-4  • 

..  12  10  N. 

26,   20 

39  »i 

30,  19  31   m 

S  Tauri         

4  23-0  . 

..    9  42  N. 

31, 

M 

f  Geminorum 

6  57-4. 

.  20  44  N. 

30,      2 

0  m 

R  Canis  Majoris... 

7  14-3  • 

.  16  II  S. 

25,  21 
27,      I 

54  m 
10  m 

U  Canis  Minoris... 

7  35-2  . 

.    8  39  N. 

28, 

M 

W  Virginis 

13  202  . 

.    2  48  S. 

30,  21 

oM 

R  HydrK     

13  23-0  . 

.  22  42  S. 

29. 

M 

V  Bootis      

14  25-2  . 

••39  23  N. 

31, 

>n 

U  Coronae    

15  13-6  . 

..  32    4N. 

25,    5 

20  /// 

R  Draconis 

10  32-4  . 

..67    oN. 

29, 

M 

/3  Lyrse 

18  45'9  • 

•  •  33  14  N. 

27,  18 

oM 

U  Cygni       

20  i6'i  . 

..  47  32  N. 

29, 

M 

V  Cygni       

20  37-6  . 

..  47  44  N. 

31. 

M 

Y  Cygni       

20  46 '6  . 

..  34  lo  N. 

26,  21 
29,  21 

39  m 
32  ni 

5  Cephei      

22  25*0  . 

..  57  50  N. 

26,  20 

0  m 

M 

signifies  maximum  ;  t7i  minimum. 

Meteor- Showers. 

R.A. 

Decl. 

Near  8  Aurigae... 

...      92° 

...     56°  N.  . 

.   Slow 

;  bright 

,,     C  Ursae  Majoris .  200 

...     57  N.  . 

..   Slow 

THE  U.S.  COMMISSION  OF  AGRICULTURE.^ 

"  "p  ESOLVED   by   the    Senate    and  House  of  Representa- 

^^     tives  of   the  United  States    of    America,  in    Congress 

assembled,  That  there  be  printed  310,000  copies  of  the  Annual 

Report  of  the  Co  uumissioner  of  Agriculture  for  the  year  1885  ; 


'  "  Report  of  the  Commission  of  Agriculture,  1885. 
ment  Printing-Office.) 


(Washington  Govern- 


200,000  for  the  use  of  the  Members  of  the  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives, 80,000  for  the  use  of  the  Members  of  the  Senate,  and 
30,oco  copies  for  the  use  of  the  Department  of  Agriculture. 

"  Sec.  2,  That  the  sum  of  200,000  dollars  is  hereby  appro- 
priated out  of  money  in  the  Treasury  to  defray  the  cost  of  the 
publication  of  the  said  Report." 

If  the  British  Government  desires  to  assist  poor  languish- 
ing agriculture,  it  would  be  well  for  it  to  look  across  the 
Atlantic  Ocean  for  suggestions  as  to  possible  action.  A  "Conv- 
missioner  of  Agriculture  "  and  an  Annual  Report  from  him  is  in 
itself  enough  to  arrest  attention.  The  very  gilt  letters  on  the 
back  of  this  volume  supply  a  text  upon  which  a  profitable  and 
edifying  sermon  might  be  preached.  The  subject-matter  of  the 
Report,  its  practical  or  unpractical  nature,  the  sort  of  topic- 
handled,  and  the  manner  of  their  handling,  all  ought  to  arouse 
curiosity  in  the  minds  of  those  who  doubt  the  utility  of  Com- 
missions, and  prefer  laissez  faire  to  stirring  up  with  the  long 
pole. 

A  more  scattered  flock  than  the  agriculturists  of  Great  Britain 
it  would  be  difficult  to  find.  Sheep  without  a  shepherd,  soldiers 
without  a  leader,  a  fleet  without  sailing  orders,  are  the  metaphors 
we  should  use  if  it  were  our  purpose  to  portray  their  present 
condition.  It  is  not  so  in  America.  There  the  interests  of 
agriculture  are  watched  by  a  Department  of  Agriculture,  and 
the  splendid  Report  of  the  proceedings  of  this  Department  serve< 
as  a  mouth-piece  of  the  whole  agricultural  community,  and  exer- 
cises the  functions  of  a  heart  in  keeping  up  a  healthy  circulation 
of  knowledge  and  a  brain  in  receiving  impressions  from  all  parts 
of  the  body  agricultural.  No  wave  of  pleasurable  sensation  aris- 
ing from  salubrity  of  climate  or  rise  of  values  but  causes  a  smiling 
paragraph.  No  twinge  of  pain  caused  by  insect  attack  or  disease 
but  is  at  once  chronicled  and  investigated  in  this  excellent 
Department.  The  cost  is  all  defrayed  by  the  Government,  who 
are  not  afraid  to  spend  200,000  dollars  on  the  mere  publication 
of  the  Report.  VVhether  the  Report  is  worth  the  immense  sums 
of  money  that  its  material  with  the  large  staff  of  persons  em- 
ployed in  collecting  the  same  must  have  cost  is  a  question  of 
much  importance,  and  not  altogether  easy  to  answer.  One 
thing,  however,  we  may  be  certain  of :  that  if  it  pays  the 
American  Government  to  undertake  the  investigation  of  problems 
connected  with  the  productive  powers  of  Nature,  still  more  would 
it  pay  us  with  our  complicated  agriculture  and  extensive  system 
of  cultivation.  It  might  be  said  in  extenuation  of  our  supineness 
with  regard  to  agricultural  science  that  we  have  an  Agricultural 
Department  of  the  Privy  Council.  So  far  as  this  Department 
may  prove  a  nucleus  for  further  expansion  it  is  good,  but  we 
cannot  conceal  from  ourselves  the  narrowness  of  the  scope  of  our 
Agricultural  Department  as  compared  with  the  breadth  of  the 
aims  and  objects  of  the  American  Agricultural  Department.  The 
energies  of  our  Department  are  chiefly  devoted  to  what  is 
included  in  the  Report  before  us  as  the  Bureau  of  Animal 
Industry,  but  with  this  great  difference  :  the  English  Agricultural 
Department  deals  chiefly  with  inspecting  and  regulating  the 
ports  of  debarkation,  reporting  on  outbreaks,  and  proclaiming 
infected  districts.  It  is  intimately  connected  wiih  and  assisted 
by  the  police.  The  American  Bureau  of  Animal  Industry 
deals  in  rules  and  regulations  for  the  suppression  and  extirpation 
of  contagious  diseases,  but  in  addition  spends  large  sums  upon 
investigations  into  the  nature,  causes,  and  remedies  of  diseases. 
Its  Reports  are  replete  with  information  as  to  liquid  cultures  of 
the  Bacterium  of  swine  fever  and  other  diseases.  The  American 
Government  have  not  only  set  themselves  the  task  of  preventing 
the  spread  of  disease,  but  are  doing  excellent  work  in  tracking 
diseases  of  all  sorts  to  their  source,  with  a  fair  and  improving 
prospect  of  being  able  to  stop  their  devastations  at  the  fountain- 
head.  Not  only  is  this  the  case  with  regard  to  the  diseases  of 
animals,  but  also  of  plants,  under  the  sections  respectively  headed 
"Report  of  the  Botanist"  and  "  Report  of  the  Microscopist." 

Before  endeavouring  to  lay  before  the  readers  of  Nature  any 
of  the  facts  recorded  in  this  deeply  interesting  volume,  I  will 
mention  the  various  sections  under  which  information  is  collecte<l 
and  investigations  are  prosecuted,  feeling  confident  that  by  .-' 
doing  I  shall  show  the  many  sides  from  which  agriculture  obtain 
direct  assistance  from  the  progress  of  pure  science.  First  in  order 
stands  the  Report  of  the  Superintendent  of  Gardens  and  Grounds, 
containing  valuable  information  upon  mildews  and  blights,  the 
peach-leaf  blister,  cracking  of  pears,  and  the  potato-disease. 
Next  comes  the  Report  of  the  Chief  of  the  Seed  Division,  deal- 
ing with  cros>ing  and  hybridization,  the  production  ot  new 
varieties  of  wheat  by  cross-fecundation,  improvement  by  seld 


I 


Dec.  22,  1887] 


NA  rURE 


189 


lion  and  cultivation,  vitality  of  seeds,  jjermination  of  seeds, 
and  changing  seed.  The  Report  of  the  Botani-t  consists  in  an 
illustrated  descriptive  list  of  certain  economic  plants,  and  a 
chapter  upon  the  fungous  diseases  of  plants.  Next  comes  the 
Report  of  the  Microscopist,  dealing  with  textile  fibres,  para- 
sites of  domestic  fowls,  crystals  of  fats — butter,  beef,  and  lard 
— beautifully  illustrated  with  coloured  plates,  and  highly  inter- 
esting in  connection  with  the  adulteration  of  butter.  I  must 
content  myself  with  a  mere  enumeration  of  the  Reports  of  the 
Chemist,  the  Chief  of  Division  of  Forestry,  the  Entomologist, 
the  Statistician,  the  Chief  of  the  Bureau  of  Animal  Industry, 
a  Report  on  wheat-culture  in  India,  and  truck-farming,  "  or 
the  growing  at  the  South,  exclusively  for  the  Northern  markets, 
as  a  distinct  business,  of  all  (or  a  selection  of)  such  fruit  and 
vegetables  as  would  be  likely  to  arrive  at  their  destination  in 
good  condition." 

Before  concluding  this  first  notice,  I  must  mention  the  fine 
manner  in  which  the  work  is  illustrated  by  tables,  diagrams, 
maps,  engravings,  and  coloured  plates.  The  illustrations  of 
fat-crystals  have  been  already  mentioned.  Other  illustrations 
are  a  delicately-tinted  and  beautifully-drawn  collection  of  twelve 
edible  mushrooms  common  in  the  United  States  ;  a  coloured 
picture  of  the  transformation  of  Cicada  septemdecim,  taking  place 
in  every  stage,  on  a  leafy  branch  of  oak  ;  and  splendidly-executed 
coloured  plates  illustrative  of  verminous  bronchitis  and  of 
ulcerated  caecum  in  the  Section  of  Animal  Industries. 

To  an  Englishman,  probably  the  most  interesting  portion  of 
the  book  will  be  the  Report  of  the  Statistician,  with  its  tables 
of  exports  1  and  imports,  area,  and  productive  power  of  the 
United  States.  The  control  which  the  States  exercise  over  the 
wheat  trade  of  the  world  is  indicated  by  a  diagram  showing 
that,  as  the  yield  per  acre  of  the  States  rises,  the  prices  of  wheat 
all  over  the  world  fall  ;  and  as  the  average  yield  diminishes  the 
prices  rise.  This  correspondence  between  yield  and  price  is 
even  more  precise  in  the  ca'e  of  oats  and  maize  than  in  the  case 
of  wheat,  because,  as  the  Statistician  remarks,  "  we  make  our 
own  prices  for  corn  and  oats,  while  Liverpool  has  much  to  do 
with  the  price  of  wheat." 

A  very  striking  diagram,  which  cannot  fail  to  be  of  deep 
interest  to  those  who  feel  themselves  cramped  for  room  in  over- 
crowded England,  is  one  showing  the  proportion  of  forests, 
farms,  and  unimproved  or  waste  lands  in  the  United  States.  The 
vast  and  almost  appalling  extent  of  the  first  and  last  sections 
shows  the  inexhaustible  resources  of  the  country.  In  Texas, 
California,  Dakota,  Montana,  New  Mexico,  Arizona,  Nevada, 
Colorado,  Wyoming,  Oregon,  Idaho,  Utah,  Kansas,  Minnesota, 
Nebraska,  and  even  Washington,  the  amount  of  cultivated  or 
farmed  land  is  quite  insignificant  compared  with  the  vast  tracts 
of  forest  and  of  unreclaimed  land.  One  cannot  but  reflect  upon 
the  fact  that  a  country  so  wealthy  in  the  raw  material  of  the  soil 
should  yet  find  it  advisable  to  spend  money  lavishly  upon  scien- 
tific investigation  of  agricultural  difficulties,  while  England,  with 
her  restricted  area  and  dense  population,  should  allow  her  agri- 
culture to  drift,  as  though  its  welfare  were  of  no  importance,  or 
its  downfall  no  cause  of  anxiety.  John  Wrightson. 


WEIGHTS    AND    MEASURES. 


T 


HE  Annual  Report  of  the  Standards  Department  of  the 
Board  of  Trade  on  its  proceedings  and  business  during  the 
past  year  has  been  recently  issued.  It  would  appear  that  the 
Department  has  of  late  been  pressingly  engaged  on  ordinary 
work  under  the  several  Acts  of  Parliament  which  govern  its 
proceedings,  but  there  are  some  matters  of  scientific  interest 
referred  to  in  the  Report  to  which  we  might  invite  attention. 

Standards  of  various  kinds,  for  determining  capacity,  length, 
weight,  and  volume,  continue  to  be  verified  for  official  purposes, 
or  for  private  use  in  aid  of  scientific  research  or  otherwise,  with- 
out fee  or  any  charge. 

Further  representations  have  been  made  as  to  the  want  of  a 
standard  hydrometer,  accurately  adjusted  to  the  legal  units  of 
weight  and  measure  in  force  in  this  country,  for  determining  the 
specific  gravities  of  liquids  heavier  than  alcohol. 

The  sanction  of  the  Treasury  has  been  obtained  to  the  pur- 
chase, at  an  estimated  cost  of  ^^looo,  of  copies  of  the  new  metric 
standards  of  length  and  weight,  which  are  being  prepared  at 
Paris,  under  the  directions  of  the  Comite  International  des  Poids 
et  Mesures. 

An  exhaustive  series  of  comparisons  of  the  geodetic  standards 
of  New  South  Wales  with  those  of  the  Board  of  Trade  and 


the  Ordnance  Survey  has  been  made  by  Mr.  H.  C.  Russell, 
Government  Astronomer,  Sydney,  and  Mr.  H.  J.  Chaney,  of 
the  Standards  Department ;  of  which  comparisons  a  separate 
Report  has  been  prepared. 

In  a  memorandum  on  the  accurate  definition  of  metrological 
units,  which  is  attached  to  the  Report,  it  is  pointed  out,  with 
regard  to  metric  units,  that  the  relation  of  the  metric  unit  of 
weight,  the  kilogramme,  to  the  metric  units  of  length  and  capacity 
is  not  based  on  a  natural  constant,  as  is  generally  taught.  If  the 
kilogramme  prototype  were  lost,  for  instance,  it  would  not  be 
restored  by  reference  to  the  weight  of  water  contained  in  the 
cubic-decimetre.  The  latest  experiments  have  shown  that  the 
cubic-decimetre  of  distilled  water  (^  =  4°  C.)  weighs,  under  given 
conditions,  nearly  100  milligrammes  less  than  a  true  kilogramme 
weighs.  Hence  the  value  of  the  unit  of  capacity,  the  litre, 
depends  on  the  kilogramme  weight,  and  not  on  the  metre  measure. 
There  is  de  facto,  it  is  stated,  no  more  scientific  relation  between 
the  metric  unit  of  weight,  the  kilogramme,  and  the  metric  units  of 
length  and  capacity,  the  metre  and  litre,  than  there  is  between 
the  present  conventional  metre  and  the  original  natural  standard 
of  one  ten-millionth  part  of  the  Paris  meridian. 

It  is  curious  to  note,  session  after  session,  how  large  an 
amount  of  purely  technical  work  continues  to  be  added  to  the 
ordinary  duties  of  local  officers  such  as  inspectors  of  weights 
and  measures,  inspectors  of  gas,  inspectors  of  petroleum,  &c. 
During  the  past  year  we  notice,  for  instance,  that  the  Legislature 
has,  amongst  other  things,  made  it  necessary  for  all  weighing- 
machines  used  at  mines  in  determining  colliers'  wages,  as  well  as 
machines  used  in  weighing  cattle  to  be  examined  and  tested  by 
the  local  inspectors,  many  of  whom  are  simply  constabulary 
officers.  Now  the  testing  of  a  compound  lever  weighing- 
machine  requires  some  special  knowledge,  but  many  of  the 
officers  have,  it  would  appear,  no  technical  qualification  whatever 
for  such  duty.  Hence  the  duties  imposed  by  the  Legislature 
are  in  many  districts  carried  out  in  an  indifferent  and  per- 
functory manner ;  and  another  practical  instance  is  afforded  of 
the  necessity  for  increased  technical  education  of  that  class  from 
which  the  above  local  officers  are  drawn.  Without  requiring, 
as  in  Germany,  that  every  such  local  officer — as  an  inspector 
of  weighing-machines — should  pass  a  technical  examination,  it 
would  certainly  appear  to  be  desirable  before  such  officer  is 
appointed  that  the  local  authorities  (as  the  County  Justices  and 
Town  Councils)  should  see  that  he  has  had  some  proper  scientific 
training. 


UNIVERSITY  AND  EDUCATIONAL 
INTELLIGENCE. 

Oxford. — The  term  has  been  very  uneventful  so  far  as  the 
Natural  Science  School  is  concerned.  There  has  been  no  new 
departure  in  scientific  education,  and  no  important  conflict  with 
the  rest  of  the  University.  The  most  satisfactory  feature  of  the 
term  is  the  granting  of  ;^i20o  to  be  expended  during  the  next 
three  years  on  the  Pitt-Rivers  Anthropological  Museum.  The 
collection  has  been  enriched  by  the  transference  of  a  quantity  of 
valuable  objects  from  the  Ashmolean  Museum,  and  by  private 
gifts  ;  the  arrangement  and  cataloguing  of  the  whole  collection 
is  proceeding  steadily  under  the  superintendence  of  Mr.  Balfour 
of  Trinity. 

Unfortunately  Prof.  Moseley's  continued  illness  has  made  it 
necessary  for  him  to  apply  for  prolonged  leave  of  absence.  Dr. 
S.  J.  Hickson,  Downing  College,  Cambridge,  will  act  as  his 
deputy  next  term. 

The  Millard  Laboratory  for  Experimental  Mechanics  at 
Trinity  is  to  be  enlarged  during  the  vacation  by  the  addition  of 
a  lecture-room  and  drawing-room,  which  formed  part  of  Mr. 
Bosanquet's  Laboratory  at  St.  John's. 

Cambridge. — At  the  annual  election  of  candidates  not  yet  in 
residence,  the  following  awards  were  made  : — 

Foundation  Scholarships  :  H.  H.  Hough  (;^8o,  in  Mathe- 
matics), St.  Paul's  School ;  A.  G.  Pickford  \£()0,  in  Mathe- 
matics and  Physics),  the  Owens  College,  Manchester  ;  E.  F. 
Gedye  {£S'^i  in  Mathematics),  Leys  School,  Cambridge.  Minor 
Scholarships  :  F.  A.  Leete  (;^5o,  in  Mathematics),  Welling- 
borough School  ;  C.  Robertson  (;i^50,  in  Mathematics),  Norwich 
School.  Exhibitions  :  E.  W.  MacBride  {£<,o,  in  Natural 
Science),  Queen's  College,  Belfast ;  V.  M,  Turnbull  {£,2>l  ds.  Sd., 
in  Mathematics),  St.  Bee's  School.  Sizarships:  A.  W.  Cuff, 
in  Natural  Science  ;  R.  E.  Baker,  in  Natural  Science  ;  W.  N. 
Maw  and  G.  F.  J.  Rosenberg,  in  Mathematics. 


190 


NATURE 


[_Dec.  22,  1887 


SCIENTIFIC  SERIALS. 

The  Quarterly  Journal  of  Microscopical  Science  for  November 
1887  (volume  xxviil.  part  2)  contains  the  following  papers  : — 
On  the  development  of  Peripahis  novce-zealandia,  by  Lilian 
Sheldon,  Bathurst  Student,  Newnham  College,  Cambridge. 
(Plates  12  to  16.)  The  ripe  ova  are  large  when  compared  to 
those  of  P.  capensis  or  P.  edwa7-dsii,  measuring  about  i  "5  mm. 
in  their  long  axis  ;  this  size  seems  due  to  the  enormous  amount 
of  food-yolk  with  which  the  eggs  are  charged  ;  the  segmentation 
is  on  the  centrolecithal  type  ;  the  protoplasm  is  in  the  form  of  a 
reticulum  ;  there  are  no  traces  of  cell  outlines.  The  various 
stages,  from  a  want  of  material,  were  not  in  all  cases  noted, 
but  the  authoress  with  great  ability  traces  many  stages  of  the 
development  of  the  embryo,  until  that  in  which  the  food 
material  is  completely  absorbed,  so  that  the  embryo  lies  just 
within  the  vitelline  membrane  and  egg  shell.  We  trust  that 
she  will  continue  her  investigations  as  fresh  specimens  are 
obtained,  until  she  is  enabled  to  write  the  whole  life-history  of 
this  very  interesting  form. — On  some  points  in  the  anatomy  of 
Folychaeta,  by  J.  T.  Cunningham,  (Plates  17  to  19.)  This 
paper  gives  the  results  of  some  investigations  into  certain  Poly- 
chaete  structures  ;  on  the  nephridia  and  gonads,  with  a  criticism 
of  Cosmovici's  paper  on  the  "  Glandes  genitales  et  Organes 
segmentaires  des  Annelides  Polychetes  "  ;  on  the  cardiac  body, 
and  on  the  neural  canals. — On  Temnocephala,  an  aberrant  mono- 
genetic  Trematode,  by  William  A.  Hasweli.  (Plates  20  to  22.) 
Four  species  were  found  ;  one,  Temn.  nova-zealandioe,  found  on 
Paranephrops  seiosus,  from  rivers  of  New  Zealand  ;  a  second, 
Temn.  minor,  on  Astacopsis  bicarinaius,  from  streams  of  Ntw 
South  Wales  ;  a  third,  Temn.  qiiadricornis,  on  Astacopsis  frank- 
linii,  from  i.orthern  rivers  of  Tasmania ;  and  a  fourth,  Temn. 
fasciata,  on  Astacopsis  serratus,  streams  of  New  South  Wales. 
Diagnoses  of  these  species  are  not  given,  but  it  is  possible  to  dis- 
tinguish them  by  the  comparative  details  given  of  their  structure  ; 
they  seem  to  differ  from  the  type  species  of  the  genus,  T. 
chilensis,  Gay  ;  and  Wood-Mason  is  probably  wrong  in  think- 
ing that  this  latter  species  is  to  be  found  in  New  Zealand. 
When  undisturbed,  the  Temnocephala  adhere  to  the  surface  of 
the  crayfihh  by  means  of  a  sucker. — Notes  on  Echinoderm 
morphology.  No.  xi.  :  on  the  development  of  the  apical  plates 
in  Amphiura  sqttamata,  by  Dr.  P.  Herbert  Carpenter,  F.R.S. 


SOCIETIES  AND  ACADEMIES. 
London. 

Royal  Society,  December  8.— "The  Post-embryonic 
Development  oijulus  terrestris."  By  F.  G.  Heathcote,  M.  A. 
Communicated  by  Adam  Sedgwick,  F.R.S. 

With  regard  to  the  development  of  the  coelom  and  generative 
organs,  I  have  obtained  the  following  results.  The  somites 
divide  into  two  parts,  as  described  for  Slrongylosoma  by  Metsch- 
nikoff,  one  part  remaining  in  the  body  and  the  other  part 
projecting  into  the  legs.  The  cavities  in  these  two  parts 
together  constitute  the  coelom.  The  part  within  the  legs  breaks 
up  and  the  cells  give  rise  to  muscles.  The  part  within  the  body 
passes  dorsalwards  along  the  thin  sheet  of  mesoblast  which 
unites  it  to  its  fellow  of  the  other  side,  so  that  the  two  vesicle- 
like parts  meet  above  the  nerve-cord  in  the  middle  line.  They 
join  so  as  to  form  a  single  tube,  the  generative  tube.  The 
young  ova,  as  well  as  the  follicle  cells  surrounding  them,  are 
formed  by  cells  proliferated  from  the  walls  of  this  generative 
tube.  The  body  parts  of  the  somites  of  the  antennae  and  man- 
dibles break  up  and  disappear,  but  those  of  the  third  pair  of 
appendages  give  rise  to  the  pair  of  salivary  glands.  There  are 
two  pairs  of  somites  to  each  double  segment. 

In  the  development  of  the  nerve-system,  I  find  that  there  are 
two  cerebral  grooves  formed  as  in  Peripalus.  They  disappear 
early  in  the  development.  The  ventral  nerve-system,  which  at 
first  consists  of  two  separate  cords  united  by  a  thin  median  part, 
undergoes  a  process  of  concentration  which  results  in  the  pre- 
sence of  a  single  stout  cord  showing  slight  traces  of  its  former 
double  condition. 

The  heart  is  formed  from  mesoblast  cells  in  the  body-cavity. 
These  cells,  which  were  directly  derived  from  the  hypoblast  in 
the  early  stages  of  development,  form  a  network  in  the  body- 
cavity.  The  heart  is  the  result  of  a  joining  together  of  the 
meshes  of  this  network,  and  thus  is  formed  by  the  confluence  of 


a  series  of  spaces  in  the  mesoblast,  and  has  nothing  to  do  with 
the  development  of  the  coelom. 

The  body-cavity  is  a  series  of  spaces  between  the  gut  and  the 
body-wall,  and  is  divided  up  by  the  mesoblast  cells  already 
referred  to.  It  is  distinct  from  the  coelomic  cavities  of  the 
somites,  and  is  therefore  a  pseudoccele. 

The  eye-spots  are  all  formed  in  the  same  manner.  The  hypo- 
dermis  thickens,  and  a  cavity  appears  within  it  bounded  by 
pigment.  This  cavity  becomes  a  distinct  vesicle.  The  front 
wall  of  the  vesicle  becomes  very  thin  and  furnishes  the  lens, 
while  the  cells  of  the  back  {i.e.  most  internal)  wall  and  sides 
become  elongated  and  form  the  retinal  elements  of  the  eye. 
The  nuclei  of  the  front  wall  become  very  faint  and  finally 
disappear. 

The  most  striking  feature  of  the  development  is  the  reduction 
of  the  ventral  part  of  the  young  animal  and  the  increase  of  the 
dorsal.  In  the  just  hatched  animal  the  ventral  region  is  nearly 
as  large  as  the  dorsal,  and  the  legs  are  wide  apart,  having  a 
distinct  space  between  them.  As  development  progresses  the 
dorsal  region  is  increased,  while  the  ventral  is  contracted  till  the 
bases  of  the  legs  are  close  together.  The  corresponding  concen- 
tration of  the  nerve-cord  I  have  already  mentioned.  In  a  paper 
on  Euphoberia,  a  Carboniferous  Myriapod,  Mr.  Scudder  points 
out  that  one  of  the  principal  points  in  which  the  genus  differs 
from  existing  Diplopoda  is  the  development  of  the  ventral 
region.  The  relations  of  the  dorsal  and  ventral  regions  of  the 
body  of  the  Euphoberia  correspond  exactly  to  the  condition  of 
the  young  Julus. 

With  rej^ard  to  the  double  segments  of  Jiilus,  Newport  held 
that  each  double  segment  corresponded  to  two  segments  origin- 
ally distinct  which  had  fused  together  ;  subsequent  writers  have 
held  that  each  double  segment  is  a  single  segment  which 
has  developed  a  second  pair  of  legs.  Now  considering  the 
double  segments  with  regard  to  the  development  as  well  as  to 
the  adult  condition,  we  see  that  the  mesoblastic  segmentation  is 
double,  so  are  the  tracheal,  the  nervous,  and  circulatory  systems. 
The  only  part  of  these  double  segments  which  is  single  is  the 
dorsal  plate  with  its  stink  glands  which  arise  as  invaginations  in  it ; 
this  dorsal  plate  being  so  enlarged  as  to  form  a  complete  ring  round 
the  body  of  the  adult.  Looking  at  the  palteontology,  we  find 
that  in  the  Archipolypoda,  a  family  including  the  Archidesmida-, 
Euphoberida;,  and  Archijulidse,  the  dorsal  plate  did  show 
distinct  traces  of  a  division.  Therefore  I  think  that  each  double 
segment  represents  two  complete  segments,  the  dorsal  plates  of 
which  have  fused  together  to  make  one  plate. 

Zoological  Society,  December  6. — Prof.  W.  H.  Flower 
F.R.S.,  President,  in  the  chair. — Mr.  Howard  Saunder. 
exhibited  (on  behalf  of  the  Rev.  H.  A.  Macpherson)  a  specimen 
of  the  Isabelline  Chat  {Saxicola  isabellina)  shot  in  Cumber- 
land, being  the  first  recorded  occurrence  of  this  species  in 
Great  Britain. — Prof.  Bell  exhibited  and  made  remarks  on 
specimens  of  the  tegumentary  glands  from  the  head  of 
the  Rocky  Mountain  Goat  {Haplocerus  tnontamis). — A  com- 
munication was  read  from  Prof.  H.  H.  Giglioli  and  Count 
T.  Salvadori,  containing  notes  on  the  fauna  of  Corea  and 
the  adjoining  coast  of  Manchuria.  The  notes  were  founded  on 
a  large  collection,  principally  of  Vertebrates,  made  by  order  of 
H.R.H.  Prince  Thomas  of  Savoy,  Duke  of  Genoa,  whilst  he 
was  in  command  of  the  Vettor  Pisani,  on  a  voyage  round  the 
world,  1878-81.  The  collection  was  stated  to  be  now  deposited 
in  the  Royal  Zoological  Museum  at  Florence. — A  communication 
was  read  from  M.  L.  Taczanowski,  containing  a  list  of  birds 
collected  in  Corea  by  M.  J.  Kalinowski  between  September 
1885  and  March  1887.  A  Woodpecker  in  the  collection  wa 
considered  to  be  new  to  science,  and  named  Thripona.. 
kalinowskii. — Prof.  W.  H.  Flower  read  a  paper  on  the  Pygmy 
Hippopotamus  of  Liberia  {Hippopotamus  liberiensis),  and  its 
claims  to  distinct  generic  rank.  The  specimen  of  this  animal 
in  the  National  Collection  possessed  two  incisor  teeth  en  one 
side  of  the  lower  jaw.  This  and  other  considerations  induced 
the  author  to  question  the  advisability  of  separating  it  generically 
from  Hippopotamus.— Mr.  Francis  Day,  communicated  a  paper 
by  Mr.  J.  Douglas-Ogilby,  of  the  Australian  Museum,  Sydney, 
on  a  new  genus  and  species  of  Australian  Mugilida;,  whicli 
he  proposed  to  designate  Trachy stoma  multidens.—Mx.  Day 
also  read  a  second  paper  by  Mr.  Ogilby,  giving  the  description 
of  a  new  genus  of  Percidse  based  on  examples  taken  in  the  Gulf, 
of  St.  Vincent,  South  Australia,  which  the  author  proposed  to 
describe  as  Chthamalopteryx  melbournensis . — A  communication 
1  was  read  from  Dr.  M.  Menzbier,  of  Moscow,  describing  a  third 


Dec.  2  2,  1887] 


NATURE 


191 


species  of  Caucasian  Wild  Goat.  This  he  proposed  to  call 
Capra  set'erlzetn,  being  the  C.  caucasica  of  Dinnik,  but  not  of 
Guldenstaedt. — Sir.  Blanford  read  some  critical  notes  on  the 
nomenclature  of  Indian  Mammals,  in  which  he  treated  of 
Micacusferox,  Shaw  (J/,  iilenus,  auct.,  nee  Linn.),  Af.irus,  Cuv. 
(M.  eynomolgus,  auct.,  nee  Linn.),  M.  rhesus,  Preshytes  thersites 
Blyth,  Senntopil/ieeiis  chrysogaster,  Fclis  bengiilensis,  F.  jerdoni, 
Her/>estes  Piungo  {//. ^riseus,  auct.,  //tr  Geoffr.),  Vulf>es  vulgaris, 
V.  alopex,  and  the  genera  Putorms;  Mustela,  Xantharpyia, 
Cynonyctais,  Hipposiderus,  and  Phvllorhina. 

Geological  Society,  December  7. — Prof.  J.  W.  Judd, 
F.  R.  S.,  President,  in  the  chair. — The  following  communications 
were  read: — A  letter  from  M.M.  Secretary  of  State  for  the 
Colonies,  inclosing  an  account  of  recent  discoveries  of  gold  in 
the  Transvaal. — On  the  age  of  the  altered  limestone  of  Strath, 
Skye,  by  Dr.  Archibald  Geikie,  F.R.S.  The  remarkable 
alteration  of  the  limestone  of  Strath  into  a  white  saccharoid 
marble,  first  described  by  Macculloch,  has  hitherto  been  re- 
garded as  an  instance  of  contact  metamorphism  in  a  rock  of 
Liassic  age.  The  various  writers  who  have  described  the  geology 
of  the  district  have  followed  Macculloch  in  classing  the  whole  of 
the  ordinary  and  altered  limestone  with  the  Secondary  series  of 
the  Inner  Hebrides.  The  author,  however,  saw  reason  in  1861 
to  suspect  that  some  part  ^f  the  limestone  must  be  of  the  age  of 
the  Durness  Limestone  of  Sutherland — that  is,  Lower  Silurian  ; 
and  he  expressed  this  suspicion  in  a  joint  paper  by  the  late  Sir 
R.  I.  Murchison  and  himself,  published  in  the  eighteenth  volume 
of  the  Quarterly  Journal  of  the  Society.  He  has  recently  returned 
to  the  subject,  and  now  offers  lithological,  stratigraphical,  and 
palccontological  evidence  that  the  altered  limestone  is  not  Lias, 
but  Lower  Silurian.  In  lithological  characters  the  limestone, 
where  not  immediately  affected  by  the  intrusion  of  the  eruptive 
rocks,  closely  resembles  the  well-known  limestones  of  the  west 
of  Sutherland  and  Rosshire.  It  is  not  more  altered  than 
Pa!a:ozoic  limestones  usually  are.  It  contains  abundant  black 
chert  concretions  and  nodules,  which  project  from  the  weathered 
surfaces  of  the  rock  exactly  as  they  do  at  Durness.  These 
cherts  do  not  occur  in  any  of  the  undoubted  Lias  limestones  of 
the  shore-sections.  The  limestone  lies  in  beds,  which,  however, 
are  not  nearly  so  distinct  as  those  of  the  Lias,  and  have  none  of 
the  interstratifications  of  dark  sandy  shale,  so  conspicuous  in 
the  true  Liassic  series.  The  stratigraphy  of  the  altered  lime- 
stone likewise  marks  it  off  fr.im  the  Lias.  There  appears  to  be 
a  lower  group  of  dark  limestones  full  of  black  cherts,  and  a 
higher  group  of  white  limestones  with  little  or  no  chert,  which 
may  be  compared  with  the  two  lower  groups  of  the  Durness 
Limestone.  A  further  point  of  connection  between  the  rocks  of 
the  two  localities  is  the  occurrence  of  white  quartzite  in  associa- 
tion with  the  limestone  at  several  places  in  Strath,  ami  of 
representatives  of  the  well-known  "fucoid  beds"  at  Ord,  in 
Bleat.  These  latter  strata  form  a  persistent  band  between  the 
base  of  the  limestone  and  the  top  of  the  quartzite,  whic'i  may  be 
traced  all  the  way  from  the  extreme  north  of  Sutherland  south- 
ward into  Skye.  Palaeontological  evidence  confirms  and  com- 
pletes the  proof  that  the  limes' one  is  of  Lower  Silurian  age. 
The  author  has  obtained  from  the  limestone  of  Ben  Suardal, 
near  Broadford,  a  number  of  fossils  which  are  specifically 
ilcntical  with  those  in  the  Durness  Limestone,  and  so  closely 
resemble  them  in  lithological  aspect  that  the  whole  might  be 
believed  to  have  come  from  the  same  crag.  Among  the  fossils 
are  species  of  Cyclonema,  Murchisonia,  Maclurea,  Orthoceras, 
and  Piloceras.  The  relations  of  the  limestones  containing  these 
fossils  to  the  other  rocks  were  traced  by  the  author.  He  showed 
that  the  Lias  rests  upon  the  Silurian  limestone  with  a  sti  ong  un- 
conformability,  and  contains  at  its  base  a  coarse  breccia  or 
conglomerate,  chiefly  composed  of  pieces  of  Silurian  limestone, 
with  fragments  of  chert  and  quartzite.  The  metamorphism  for 
\yhich  Strath  has  been  so  long  noted  is  confined  to  the  Silurian 
limestone,  and  has  been  produced  by  the  intrusion  of  large 
lx>sses  of  granophyre  (Macculloch's  "syenite")  belonging  to 
the  younger,  or  Tertiary  series  of  igneous  rocks.  After  the 
reading  of  the  paper  some  remarks  were  made  by  Mr.  Etheridge, 
Dr.  Hicks,  Mr.  Marr,  Dr.  Hinde,  and  Mr.  Bauerman.  In 
thanking  the  Fellows  for  the  reception  they  had  given  to  his 
jx-iper,  Dr.  Geikie  said  that  a  preliminary  sketch  of  the  results  of 
tlie  receUwork  of  the  Geological  Survey  in  the  northwest  of 
Scotland  would,  he  hoped,  be  presented  to  the  Society  early 
next  year.— On  the  discovery  of  Trilobites  in  the  Upper  Green 
(Cambrian)  Slates  of  the  Penrhyn  Quarry,  Bethesda,  near  Bangor, 


North  Wales,  by  Dr.  Henry  Woodward,  F.R.S. —On  Theco- 
spondylus  daviesi,  Seeley,  with  some  remarks  on  the  classifica- 
tion of  the  Dinosauria,  by  Prof.  H.  G.  Seeley,  F.R.S. 

Entomological  Society,  December  7.— Dr.  David  Sharp, 
President,  in  the  chair.— Mr.  Jenner-Weir  exhibited,  and  made 
remarks  on,  twelve  specimens  of  Cicadetta  heematoides,  collected 
last  summer  in  the  New  Forest  by  Mr.  C.  Gulliver. — Mr. 
McLachlan  exhibited  a  %'p<t(i\m&xi  olPterostiehus  madidus,  F., 
which  he  had  recently  found  in  a  potato.  It  seemed  question- 
able whether  the  beetle  had  been  bred  in  the  cavity  or  had 
entered  it  for  predaceous  purposes.  Mr.  Theodore  Wood,  Mr. 
Kirby,  and  Mr.  Herbert  Cox  took  part  in  the  discussion.— Mr. 
McLachlan  also  e.xhibited  two  specimens  of  a  species  of  Tricho- 
ptera — Neuronia  clathrata,  Kol. — which  occurred  rarely  in  Burnt 
Wood,  Staffordshire,  and  elsewhere  in  the  Midlands.  On  in- 
quiry he  was  informed  that  the  two  specimens  exhibited  had 
been  found  in  the  Tottenham  Marshes. — Mr.  Porritt  exhibited 
a  series  of  Cidaria  russa'a,  from  Yorkshire,  the  Isle  of  Man, 
the  Hebrides,  and  the  south  of  England.  The  specimens  from 
the  two  first- named  localities  were  almost  black. — Mr.  Verrall 
exhibited  a  specimen  of  Mycetcea  hirta.  Marsh.,  which  was 
found  devouring  a  champagne-cork.  The  Rev.  Canon  Fowler 
remarked  that  certain  Cryptophagi  had  the  same  habit.  The 
discussion  was  continued  by  Mr.  McLachlan,  Mr.  Jenner-Weir, 
and  Dr.  Sharp. — Canon  Fowler  exhibited  specimens  of  Acro- 
nyeta  alni  and  Leioeampa  dietcea,  which  came  to  the  electric 
light  on  Lincoln  Cathedral  during  the  Jubilee  illuminations. 
He  also  exhibited  a  specimen  of  Harpalus  melancholicus,  Dej. 
— Mr.  Billups  exhibited,  for  Mr.  Bignell,  an  interesting  collec- 
tion of  British  oak-galls.  He  also  exhibited  the  cocoon  and 
pupa  case  of  a  South  American  moth,  from  which  he  had  bred 
140  specimens  of  a  species  of  Ichneumonidfe. — Mr.  O.  Janson 
exhibited,  for  Mr.  C.  B.  Mitford,  a  collection  of  Lepidoptera 
from  Sierra  Leone. — Mr.  White  exhibited  a  curious  structure 
formed  by  white  ants  at  Akyah. — Mr.  Waterhouse  exhibited  a 
series  of  diagrams  of  the  win^s  of  insects,  and  read  notes  of 
observations  on  the  homologies  of  the  veins — a  subject  to  which 
he  had  given  especial  attention  for  some  time  past.  Mr.  Cham- 
pion, Mr.  Verrall,  Mr.  McLachlan,  Dr.  Sharp,  and  Mr.  Poulton 
took  part  in  the  discussion  which  ensued. — Mr.  G.  T.  Baker 
contributed  descriptions  of  new  species  of  Lepidoptera  from 
Algiers. — Mr.  Gervase  F.  Mathew  communicated  a  paper  en- 
titled "  Life-histories  of  Rhopalocera  from  the  Australian 
Region."  The  paper  was  accompanied  by  elaborate  coloured 
drawings  of  the  perfect  insects,  their  larvas  and  pupae. — Mr. 
F.  Merrifield  read  a  report  of  progress  in  pedigree  moth- 
breeding,  with  observations  on  incidental  points.  Mr.  Francis 
Gallon  alluded  to  the  close  attention  Mr.  Merrifield  had  given 
to  the  subject,  and  complimented  him  on  the  neatness,  ingenuity, 
and  skill  with  which  his  experiments  had  been  conducted,  and 
on  the  results  he  had  obtained  therefrom.  Mr.  Poulton,  Dr. 
Sharp,  Prof.  Meldola,  and  others  continued  the  discussion. 

Chemical  Society,  December  i. — Mr.  William  Crookes, 
F.R.S.,  President,  in  the  chair. — The  fjllowing  papers  were 
read  : — The  alleged  existence  of  a  second  nitroethane,  by  W.  R. 
Dunstan  and  T.  S.  Dymond. — An  extension  of  Mendeleeff's 
theory  of  solution  to  the  discussion  of  the  electrical  conductivity 
of  aqueous  solutions,  by  Holland  Crompton. — Note  on  electro- 
lytic conduction  and  on  evidence  of  a  change  in  the  constitution 
of  water,  by  Henry  E.  Armstrong. — Bismuth  iodide  and  bismuth 
fluoride,  by  B.  S.  Gott  and  M.  M.  Pattison  Muir. — The  action 
of  hydrogen  sulphide  on  arsenic  acid,  by  B.  Branner,  Ph.D., 
and  F.  Tomicek. — Note  on  the  constitution  of  mairc^allol,  by 
C.  S.  S.  Webster. 

PARIS. 

Academy  of  Sciences,  December  12. — M.  Janssen  in  the 
chair. — On  the  law  of  errors  of  observation,  by  M.  J.  Bertrand. 
Two  propositions  are  affirmed  :  first,  that,  if  a  given  magnitude 
be  repeatedly  measured,  and  the  measures  grouped  by  twos  in 
haphazard  order,  by  selecting  in  each  group  the  greatest  of  the 
two  errors  committed  the  relation  of  the  mean  of  the  squares 
of  these  greatest  errors  to  the  mean  of  the  squares  of  all  the 

errors  will  converge  towards  the  value  i  -f  — ,  when  the  number 

of  essays  increases  indefinitely  ;  second,  if  the  measures  be 
similarly  grouped  in  threes,   the  mean  of  the  squares  of  the 


NA  TURE 


[Dec.  2  2,  1887 


greatest  errors  m  each  group  divided  by  the  mean  of  the  squares 
of  all   the   errors  has  for  probable  value  I  +  -^  >  -"^  ^P" 

^ILtiZon  a  new  process  of  synchronizing  time-pieces.    1  he 

picric  acid  t°  f  P/°^^  ^y  gition^of  the  nitric  compounds  properly 
loTalTed"  showing  howEse  various  mode,  depend  on  the  mituu 
so  called,  s;°J''?|';  position.— Remarks  in  connection  with 

temperature  of  the  decomposin  ..Collection  des  anciens 

the  presentation  o  ^  ^^^^f'^'^g^X  ^t  This  "Collection,"  just 
^'^ed^irM^eVthelfw^tl  the  co-operation  of  the  Greek 
'llnfar  M  Ch  E  Ruelle,  embodies  much  information  regard- 
scholar,  l^.^ft-  ^-  '  ursor  of  the  modern  science  of 
'h'^l'trT^'Vor^ptTl^om  unedited  Greek  manuscripts  scat- 
chemistry.  '-o"?P  '^{ ,  _„  • -s  of  Europe,  it  comprises  about  400 
^"'^  ^Greek^tex  Sg  from  tWl'exandrine  and  Byzantine 
^'^^  ,lf  ?nd  mSly  ante^rior  to  the  writers  who  stimulated 
periods,  a"^,.'"°?"y,  ^  West  Amongst  the  treatises  here  for 
tT^i  tSmted^ed   a^  "hose  o™  th'e  pseudo- Democritus,  of 

^:T:rrL^S^^^oLt.L^^   view  to    recording 
hfghest    summit's    of   the    range.      Other    Photographs  exhib^ 


logical  theory  of  Mr.  Norman  Lockyer,  and  oflhe  views  of 
n'o  denS  on  the  subject,  by.  Prof.  Bar.n  Norc^enskiold^ 
—On  cost  Glacial  deposits  containing  Ancyhcs  fiuviatiUs,  oy 
H.  Mumhe.-On  rJus  corylifolius,  Arrh.,  and  J^ub,<s  prmn- 
osu  Arrh  ,  their  nomenclature  and  value  as  species,  by  Dr.  L. 
M  Neuma'n.-On  the  hyperborean  fir,  Pun.  nlvestns,  L 
,  1  J...  ■  -K,,  Mr  Th  Ortenbladt.— On  the  development  ol 
h3"«  'b'„'dS:-o?  v;s"elfof  .h.  Monocotyledon,  by  M^, 
S  Wersson -On  oysler-cultore  in  Bolms,  by  Count  Ehrcns- 
v\d,-oritationsL  .he  coeffici.nt_of_e,aJ,c,,y  oab^ 

and 


I'n 'c^insequenc^^of  Vhe  UansmYssion  of  X?>^^^^fl^:^''l'!'\^^J  °'- 
"      conduction   of    electricity   between    flames 


On   the   influence  of  temperature  on 

"  rock-salt,  by  Miss 

Echinoconidae,  by 


Mebius. — On 

S^tpS;e^-of  S;;^nd  Vhe;i^nsity^  r^^^^^J^t 

Sof^rS -Sn  their  5\he  ^lit  Sf  ??^/~  J^- 
which  formerly  existed  in  Sweden,  by  Prof.  Nathorst.-On  the 
morphology  and  development  of  the  ^f/J^^^^'  ^^^^^^  .^e^" 
Adlerz  —Contribution  to  the  knowledge  of  the  carbon -hydrates, 
by  Drs.  C.  Johansson  and  Ekstrand.-On  the  action  of  fummg 
sulphuric  aiid  on  «-naphthalin  combined  -f  ^  ,^-J°^-^^^^^^^^^^ 
orirl  hv  R  Manzelius.— On  the  action  of  sulphuric  a.ia  on 
:l'ro-Lphthalin  by  W.  Palmar -Analytical  researches  on 
The  -lir  near  the  fortress  of  Waxholm,  in  October  1885,  by  Ur. 
A.'ESe?ander -On  systems  of  coincidence  of  common  a  ge- 
braic  differential  equations,  by  Dr.  J.  Moller.-On  some  alge 
braic  analogies  conducting  to  elliptic  integrals,  by  Dr.  A.  M. 
Johansson.-The  conditi  ms  for  an  algebraic  analogy, 

to  lead  to  elliptic^int";grarby  the'same.-On  the  wave-length 
of  algebraic  curves,  by  G.  Kobb. 


BOOKS.  PAMPHLETS,  and  SERIALS  RECEIVED. 


an  Old  Farm  :  Dr.  H.  C. 


-British  Dogs.  Nos. 


Nature  :  Dr   H  C   M,'C~k  <«°i*;j,"i?'°"S'Si  Btamgham-phito,,. 


-The 


of  the  Pyrenees 
just   before   the 


kV  Fi'scYeVriranslated  by  W.  S    Hough  (Sonn^nsche'nV 

formation   of  the   Bureau  of  t-ducatton    No    1%  f^^?  [Washmgton;     ^^^^ 


(Washington).- 
Paris. 


CONTENTS. 


^IrnT'that  photography  ntay  be  applied  ■^J^^^^^"^^'^^ 

These 


173 
174 


to  the  study  of  atmospheric  phenomena.  tu^.^ 

heor?  o    he  figure  of  the  planets,  by  M.  O.  Cal  andreau    These 
reseaTches    forming  a  second  contribution  to  the  study  of    he 
Sanets  ar'e  devoted  more  especially  to  the   arger  members  of  the 
Sar  system:  in  which  the  extent  of  flattening  of  the  poles  is  an 
Sment  which  cannot  be  neglected  in  the  general  ca  culat  on.- 
SS  compressibUity  of  the  solution  of  ethylamine  in  water  by 
M    F   IsaXrt      The  experiments  here  described  confirni    he 
fonc^u'ionT  already  arriveS  at  ^y  ll^e  author.  Jowing  that  the 
aqueous  solutions  of  the  ammomacal  bases  j"^^^  be  regarded  as 
true  chemical  combinations,  more  or  less  <iissociated   and  dis 
solved  in  an  excess  of  water.-On  the  geographical  distribution 
of  Ihe  Actinia  inhabiting  the  F-^ch  Mediterranean  waters   b^ 
M.    P.    Fischer.       A  list  is  given   of    he   thirty-three   species 
already  determined  on  the  south  coast  of    France.     Of  these 
Jxteen  are  found  also  on  the  French  Atlantic  coast,  which  com- 
nries  twenty-four  species  not  yet  discovered  in  .the  Med.ter- 
mnean      The  northern  limits  of  the  French  species  have  been 
Sy  determined,  but  not  so  the  southern    several  forms  occur- 
ring alsot  the  Red  Sea,  and  on  the  North  and  West  Afiican 

seaboards, 

Stockholm. 

Royal  Academy  of  Sciences,  December   14. -Consider- 
ations^on   some    theories   of  atmospheric  electricity,  ^by  Prof. 


PAGE 

The  Star  of  Bethlehem.     {With  Diagram)  •    •    •    •    •    J$9 
^Se  Microscope.     By  Dr.  W.  H.  DalUnger,  F.R.S.      .71 

The  Cruise  of  the  Z)«yi/;«/'^««     •  .•    ;   :    •  ,•    •."    '    ' 
Exercises  in  Quantitative  Chemical  Analysis     .    . 

Th;  Study  of  Logic.     By  Alfred  Sidgwick i75 

Our  Book  Shelf  :—  j-g 

Aveling:  "  Light  and  Heat        •    •.  •  , 'g 

Leutemann:  "  Animals  froni  the  Life       ._ / 

Lee-  "The  Vegetable  Lamb  of  Tartary      ^o 

"-^The  Rofaf  gor"culi;;;al  Society.-Dr.  Maxwell  T.^    ^^^ 

ClSSn'^ofdlolidsi-Rev.  W,  ^ 

Eff-ect   of  Snow   on   the   Polarization  of  the  bky. 

Tames  C.  McConnel ;,  '    '    '  'x%t\J*u' 

The  Ffynnon  Beuno  and  Cae  Gwyn  Caves.-Worth- 
ington  G.  Smith     ._ .  ^  .^—^i^-^  '    '    "   *   !   .'    178 

178 

A  Correction.— fro*    ■    ■    -«.vc:=l^.. •    -    ^79 

Isolation  of  Fluorine 


177 
177 


Smith 
The  Planet  Mercury. -W.  F    Denning  .    .    . 
Meteor  of  November  15.-J- Lloyd  Bozward 
-Prof.  J.  J.  Sylvester,  F.K.b. 

By  A.  E.  Tutton •    ^79 


(Illustrated.) 


Timber,  and  some  of  its  Diseases.     I. 
By  Prof.  H.  Marshall  Ward  .... 

Astronomical  'phenomena    for     the 

December  25-31  •    ■   •    '    •    \'  :    \:,' 
The   U.S.    Commission   of  Agriculture 

John  Wrightson 

Weights  and  Measures  -    •    •    •    •    •    •    •  .^i. 

University  and  Educational  Intelligence ;°y 

Scientific  Serials  


Week     1887 
By  Prof. 


182 
186 

158 


189 


ations   on   some    uicuiic=   "'  "•^•""-^  ■--,•„„,-„  ^t,'  f.„„of,  1  Societies  and  Academies    .    .   .   •   •  .•    ■ 
„TS™%'^D^:'^''Srl''l"'rSr„f o7!h*"r  l  Boo^s,  Pa»ph,e.,.  and  Senals  R.c.tv.d 


192 


NA  TURE 


193 


THURSDAY,   DECEMBER   29,    1887. 


THE  ROSICRUCIANS. 

The  Real  History  of  the  Rosicrucians.   By  Arthur  Edward 
Wake.     (London:  George  Redway,  1887.) 

WE  have  since  the  receipt  of  this  work  for  review 
endeavoured  to  ascertain  what  notions  existed  in 
ihe  brains  of  our  acquaintances  on  the  subject  of  the 
Rosicrucians,  and  have  posed  the  question  "  Who  and 
what  were  they?"  to  many  sorts  and  conditions  of  men. 
The  minds  of  many  were  absolute  blanks  on  this  subject  : 
some  thought  it  was  the  name  of  a  benefit  society — some 
that  it  was  a  kind  of  freemasonry.  One  gentleman  knew 
Rosicrucian  as  "  the  winner  of  the  Alexandra  Plate  at 
Ascot  in  1871,"  and  but  few  had  any  intelligible  notion  on 
the  matter.  We  do  not  estimate  our  neighbours  at  a 
much  lower  rate  than  the  average  ;  and  it  may  therefore 
be  granted  that  there  is  a  large  section  of  the  British  public 
to  whom  the  Rosicrucians  and  their  doings  are  unbroken 
ground,  and  that  there  is  ample  justification  for  the  appear- 
ance of  a  book  which  is  calculated  to  dispel  the  prevailing 
ignorance. 

Mr.  Waite  has  already  made  "the  mysteries  of  magic" 
his  theme,  and  consequently  comes  before  us  as  no  uncer- 
tain guide  in  the  mazes  of  the  occult.  In  his  present  work 
he  furnishes  a  sketch  of  the  state  of  mystical  philosophy 
in  Gennany  at  the  close  of  the  sixteenth  century,  when 
the  Reformation  had  removed  their  fetters  from  the 
inquirers.  Of  these  there  were  many,  for  men's  minds 
seethed  with  an  infinity  of  speculations,  as  well  philosophical 
as  religious.  The  Neo-Platonic  philosophy,  which  had 
lingered  throughout  the  Middle  Ages,  once  again  came  into 
more  extended  repute,  and  was  professed  by  various  dis- 
ciples, until  German  mysticism  culminated  with  Paracelsus. 
It  was  at  such  a  period  of  complex  opinions  and  of 
mystical  ways  of  thought  that  the  existence  of  the  Rosi- 
crucian fraternity  was  first  revealed  to  the  world.  The 
manifestoes  put  forth  by  the  brotherhood  consisted  of  the 
"  Fama  Fraternitatis  ;  or  a  Discovery  of  the  Fraternity  of 
the  most  Laudable  Order  of  the  Rosy  Cross,"  and  of  the 
"Confessio  Fraternitatis  R.C.  ad  Eruditos  Europae."  In 
the  latter  work  are  incorporated  "thirty-seven  reasons 
of  their  purpose  and  intention"  :  these  condemn  the  Pope 
and  Mahomet ;  offer  vast  treasure  to  the  head  of  the 
Roman  Empire;  disparage  the  moribund  philosophy  of 
the  day,  offering  in  its  place  the  meditations  of  the  brethren 
who  arrogate  to  themselves  an  acquaintance  with  what  is 
transacted  in  the  farthest  regions  of  the  earth.  Great 
promises  of  a  general  reformation  are  made  ;  the  know- 
ledge of  Nature  is  eulogized  beyond  the  transmutation  of 
metals  or  the  possession  of  the  supreme  elixir.  The 
Society  professes  to  accept  the  Bible  as  its  oracle,  whilst 
it  sagely  condemns  the  innumerable  expounders  who 
"  make  a  sport  of  Scripture  as  if  it  were  a  tablet  of  wax." 
The  brethren  were  apparently  unsuccessful  as  linguists,  for 
they  are  careful  to  explain  that  having  the  use  of  a  magic 
writing  and  language  they  are  not  so  eloquent  in  other 
tongues,  "least  of  all  in  this  Latin,  which  we  know  to  be 
by  no  means  in  agreement  with  that  of  Adam  and  of 
Enoch." 

Vol.  XXXVII.— No.  948. 


In  the  "  Fama  Fraternitatis  "  we  have  an  exposition  of 
their  religious  views,  a  condemnation  of  "ungodly  and 
accursed     gold-making,"    an     offer     of    communion     to 
such  as  shall  seek  them  in   sincerity,   and   an   account 
of  their  origin.      They    claim    that  their  founder  was 
brother  C.  R.  C.  (subsequently  identified  with  Christian 
Rosencreutz),  a  noble  German  born  in  1378.   At  five  years 
of  age  he  was  placed  in   a  cloister,  "  where  he  learned 
indifferently  the  Greek  and  Latin  tongues,"  and  started 
with  one  of  the  monks  for  Jerusalem,     The  monk  died, 
and  brother  C.  R.  C.  never  reached  his  destination  ;  but  his 
skill  in  physic  obtained  for  him  the  favour  of  the  Turks, 
and  becoming  acquainted  with  the  wise  men  of  "  Dam- 
car,"  in  Arabia,  he  came  thither  at  the  age  of  sixteen. 
The    unfortunate   fact  that   "  Damcar "   is   unknown  to 
chorographers   prevents    our    gratifying   our  readers  by 
identifying  its  locality.      Here  he  was  received  by  the 
learned  as  one  long  expected,  and  was  initiated  into  their 
arcane  wisdom.     Thus  primed,  he  came,  three  years  later, 
to  Egypt,  and  thence  to  Fez,  where  he  acquired  cognizance 
of  the  elementary  inhabitants,  who   revealed  unto  him 
many  of  their  secrets.     After  two  years  he  set  sail  for 
Spain  to  confer  with  the  learned,  generously  offering  to 
correct  their  errors  in  moral  philosophy  and  in  the  arts,  as 
well  as  the  abuses  obtaining  in  matters  ecclesiastical.    His 
proposals  were,  for  some  unaccountable  reason,  slighted 
by  the  Spanish  savants,  and  the  misprized  brother  returned 
to  Germany,  gathered  round  him  a  few  disciples,  founded 
the  fraternity  of  the  Rosy  Cross,  and  died  at  the  ripe  age 
of  one  hundred  and  six.     His  tomb  was  after  the  lapse  of 
one  hundred  and  twenty  years  discovered,  together  with 
many  mystical  adjuncts,  in  a  concealed  vault.    His  fair  and 
worthy  body  was  found  whole  and  unconsumed,  and  rest- 
ing in  proximity  to  the  Vocabularium,  Itinerarium,  and 
Life  of  Paracelsus.     From  the  "  Fama  "  we  learn  that  the 
brotherhood    acknowledged   the   divinity   of   Jesus,    the 
resurrection,  a  personal  devil,  two  sacraments,  the  Bible 
as  "  the  whole  sum  "  of  their  laws,  and  the  Pope  as  Anti- 
christ.    Such  were  their  religious  beliefs.    In  philosophy 
they  sought  a  universal  synthesis  ;  they  aimed  at  the  sub- 
stance at  the  base  of  all  the  vulgar  metals  ;  they  held, 
although  they  did  not  originate,  the  doctrine  that  self- 
propagating  elemental  beings  people  earth,  air,  fire,  and 
water,  and  believed  in  the  signatitra  rerum,  a  "  certain 
organic  vital  activity,"  which  is  frequently  expressed  in  the 
exterior  form  of  things,  indicating  their  interior  qualities. 
They  seem  to  have  used  some  form  of  practical  magic,  and 
accepted  as  fact  the  transmutation  of  metals  and  the  exist- 
ence of  "  the  supreme  medicine  of  the  world."    With  such 
a  nostrum  in  their  possession  the  least  they  could  do  was  to 
heal  the  sick,  and  they  were  accordingly  charged  to  do  so 
gratuitously.     The  whole  manifesto  concludes  with  a  de- 
claration that,  although  making  no  mention  either  of  their 
names  or  meetings,  everyone's  opinion  should  come  to 
their  hands,  in  what  language  soever  it  be,  and  that  none 
giving  their  names  should  fail  to  receive  a  personal  visit 
or  a  written  communication. 

Unfortunately,  the  assertions  contained  in  the  publica- 
tions of  the  brotherhood  are,  as  Mr.  Waite  shows,  confuted 
by  a  critical  examination.  We  are  asked  to  accept  the 
fabulous  oriental  city,  the  youth  of  brother  R.  C,  in  spite  of 
his  precocious  skill  in  physic,  and  his  erection  of  a  House 
of  the  Holy  Spirit,  where  an  "unspeakable  concourse  of 


194 


NA  TURE 


[Dec.  29,  1887 


the  sick  "  thronged  for  cure  notwithstanding  the  fact  that 
the  Society  remained  unknown  to  Europe  till  the  beginning 
of  the  seventeenth  century.  Thus  much  we  might  even 
be  induced  to  swallow  on  the  credo  quia  impossibile  est 
principle  ;  but  the  finding,  in  1494,  of  the  works  of  Para- 
celsus, who  had  been  born  in  the  previous  year  at  Ein- 
siedeln,  staggers  our  faith.  Courtesy  forbids  the  lie  direct, 
but,  to  use  a  phrase  of  Mr.  Newell's,  we  incline  to  think 
that  if  the  author  of  the  '"'  Fama  "  ever  wrote  a  work  of 
fiction  it  would  sell. 

We  have,  then,  to  seek  elsewhere  for  an  explanation  of 
the  Society's  inception,  and  must  do  so  in  post-Lutheran 
times  ;  the  violence  of  its  anti-Papal  prejudices,  and  its 
ultra-Protestant  principles,  prohibiting  the  attribution  of 
its  origin  to  a  more  remote  period.  It  will  render  the 
comprehension  of  the  case  more  easy  if,  before  theorizing 
as  to  the  foundation  of  the  Rosicrucians,  we  note  the 
varying  opinions  which  have  obtained  as  to  the  signification 
of  the  letters  F.R.C.,  which  formed  the  title  of  the  brother- 
hood, and  as  to  the  badge  which  they  employed. 

Michael  Maier  conceived  that  R.  signified  Pegasus,  and 
C.  lilhanj  others  that  R.  was  ros,  dew,  and  C.  crux,  cross, 
dew  being  deemed  the  most  powerful  dissolvent  of  gold, 
and  the  cross  being  in  chemical  language  equivalent  to 
light — the  menstruum  of  the  red  dragon,  the  producer  of 
gold — since  the  letters  L  V  X  are  all  formed  by  the  limbs 
of  the  cross.  Again,  it  has  been  imagined  that  F.R.C. 
stood  for  Fratres  Roris  Cocti,  or  dew  digested  for  the  work 
of  transmutation.  The  Society's  published  documents, 
however,  sanction  the  generally  received  opinion  that  R.  is 
for  rosa,  rose,  and  C.  for  crux,  cross,  and  that  the  letters 
F.R.C.  are  the  initials  of  Fratres  Rosatae  Crucis. 

The  device  of  the  Society  is  a  red  rose  on  a  red  or 
golden  cross,  this  being  usually  placed  on  a  calvary.  Mr. 
Waite  has  some  interesting  memoranda  upon  the  occult 
significance  of  the  rose  as  the  feminine  emblem  contrast- 
ing with  the  masculine  cross  ;  of  the  Brahmanic  rose,  the 
residence  of  the  Deity,  recurring  with  similar  significance 
in  Dante's  Paradise  ;  of  Buddha  and  Indra  crucified 
for  stealing  the  blossom  ;  of  the  identification  of  Jesus 
with  the  crucified  flower ;  of  the  rose  of  Bacchus  which 
enabled  Midas  to  turn  all  things  to  gold  ;  of  that  of  Har- 
pocrates  consecrated  to  silence  ;  and  so  forth.  He  cites 
the  author  of  the  "  Summum  Bonum,"  who  sees  in  the 
symbol  "the  cross  sprinkled  with  the  rosy  blood  of  Christ"; 
and  the  Abb^  Constant,  who  has  identified  the  rose  with 
scientific  initiation  and  the  cross  with  religion,  and  beholds 
in  their  conjunction  that  happy  union  the  antithesis  of 
which  has  been  chronicled  by  Mr.  Draper.  He  is  never- 
theless fain  to  confess  that  the  whole  question  of  the 
significance  of  the  crucified  rose  in  its  connection  with  the 
Society  is  one  of  pure  conjecture,  and  that  no  presumption 
is  offered  by  the  fact  of  its  adoption  for  its  connection  with 
universal  symbolism. 

Mr.  Waite  divides  the  Rosicrucian  theorists  into  three 
categories.  Firstly,  such  as  accept  the  history  of  Christian 
Rosencreutz  as  that  of  an  actual  personage  and  the  "  Fama 
Fraternitatis "  as  a  true  history.  These  he  regards  as 
impervious  to  argument.  Accepting  the  dictum  of  De 
Quincey,  that  the  "  Fama  "  is  "monstrous  and  betrays  itself 
in  every  circumstance,"  he  decides  that  the  legend  of 
Christian  Rosencreutz  is  not  historically  true,  and  that  the 
Society  did  not  originate  as  described.      In  the  second 


section  he  places  those  who  regard  both  personage  and 
relation  as  mythical ;  and,  in  the  third,  believers  in  the 
existence  of  the  secret  Society,  but  who  reject  the  "  Fama  " 
as  a  fiction. 

The  theorists  of  these  latter  categories  have  mostly 
sought  the  author  of  the  Rosicrucian  manifestoes  amongst 
the  literati  of  the  period,  whether  they  regarded  him  as  a 
hoaxer  or  a  satirist  or  as  the  spokesman  of  a  hidden 
brotherhood.  By  them  the  publications  in  question  have 
been  variously  attributed  to  Taulerus,  Luther,  Wiegel, 
Joachim  Junge,  ^gidius  Gutmann,  or  Johann  Valentin 
Andreas.  Mr.  Waite  considers  that  it  is  only  in  the  case 
of  the  last  named  that  there  is  any  sufficient  evidence  to 
support  the  plea  of  authorship.  The  grounds  upon  which 
that  plea  rests  are,  amongst  others,  that  the  writings  of 
Andreas  show  him  to  have  uniformly  favoured  secret 
Societies  as  a  means  for  the  reformation  of  his  age  and 
country.  He  is  the  acknowledged  author  of  a  work  entitled 
the  "  Chymical  Marriage  of  Christian  Rosencreutz  " — a 
species  of  alchymical  "  Pilgrim's  Progress,"  which,  after 
remaining  several  years  in  manuscript,  was  printed  at 
Strasburg  in  16 16,  and  a  translation  of  which  occupies 
97  pages  of  the  present  volume.  The  first  manifestoes  of 
the  Society  had  only  borne  the  initials  C.  R.  C. ;  but  the 
issue  of  1615  calls  it  the  Bruderschafift  des  Rosen-Creutzes, 
and  it  is  hence  argued  that  the  manifestoes  and  the 
"  Chymical  Marriage"  had  a  common  author.  The  hero 
of  the  latter  work  binds  a  blood-red  ribbon  cross-wise  over 
his  white  linen  coat,  and  sticks  four  roses  in  his  hat— a 
noteworthy  coincidence,  the  arms  of  the  Andreas  family 
being  a  saltier  between  four  roses.  The  connection  of  this 
escutcheon  with  the  device  of  the  crucified  rose  has  been 
urged,  as  also  the  identity  of  the  acknowledged  principles 
of  Johann  Valentin  with  those  set  forth  in  the  manifestoes, 
in  favour  of  his  authorship.  This  opinion  has  gained 
support  from  certain  utterances  of  Prof.  Besoldt,  himself 
an  intimate  friend  of  Andreas.  Against  this  view  it  must 
be  remembered  that  Andreas  describes  the  "  Chymical 
Marriage"  as  a  ludibrium  of  his  youth,  though  he  must 
have  been  aware  that  its  alchymical  contents  would  cer- 
tainly be  accepted  seriously  when  published  in  his  maturer 
years  ;  and  it  is  submitted  that  he,  a  man  of  known 
intellectual  nobility,  could  scarcely  have  perpetrated  a  hoax 
the  reprehensible  nature  of  which  he  had  himself  stigma- 
tized when  dealing  with  the  Rosicrucian  manifestoes. 
Again,  the  accepted  symbol  of  the  fraternity  was  never  a 
saltier  between  four  roses,  but  either  a  Latin  cross  with  a 
rose  at  the  point  of  intersection  or  a  cross  rising  out  of 
a  rose.  The  identification  of  the  arms  of  Andreas  with  a 
badge  of  the  brotherhood,  which  forms  one  of  the  strong- 
est arguments  in  favour  of  his  authorship,  thus  falls  to 
the  ground.  These  and  other  arguments  elaborated  by 
Mr.  Waite  suffice  to  render  it  very  uncertain  that  the 
Rosicrucian  publications  emanated  from  Andreas.  Mr. 
Waite  suggests  that  Andreas  may  have  been  associated 
with  the  previously  existing  Militia  Crucifera  Evangelica, 
and,  when  disgusted  with  its  assumption  of  occultism, 
have  attempted  to  replace  it  by  a  practical  Christian 
association  free  from  mysticism  and  its  symbols,  from 
pretension  to  arcane  endowments  or  transcendent  powers. 
But  he  admits  that  undoubted  difficulties  beset  this  theory, 
and  adds  :  "  To  my  own  mind  it  is  far  from  satisfactory, 
and,  from  a  careful  consideration  of  all  available  materials, 


Dec.  29,  1887] 


NA  TURE 


195 


I  consider  that  no  definite  conclusion  can  be  arrived  at." 
He  further  dechires  that  the  esoteric  form  of  the  Society's 
symbol  was  a  rose  in  the  centre  of  which  is  figured  a 
Latin  cross :  he  calls  attention  to  the  seal  of  Luther,  on 
which  a  heart,  surmounted  by  a  cross,  is  inclosed  by  the 
outline  of  a  rose,  and  hence  gathers  that  the  unknown 
founders  of  the  Society  chose  this  emblem,  not  from  any 
recondite  associations,  but  simply  because  the  reforming 
monk  was  their  idol. 

With  the  case  of  Johann  Valentin  Andreas  the  interest 
of  the  work  culminates.  When  we  have  learnt  that  nothing 
can  be  determined,  and  that  there  is  every  reason  to 
believe  that  could  we  probe  the  heart  of  the  mystery  we 
should  find  little  to  reward  our  search,  we  care  little  for  a 
record  of  the  progress  of  Rosicrucianism  in  France  and 
Germany,  or  for  the  writings  and  biographies  of  Rosicrucian 
apologists  such  as  Michael  Maier,  Robert  Fludd,  Thomas 
Vaughan,  and  John  Heydon.  Artistically,  this  continuation 
is  an  anti-climax,  and  the  chapters  which  compose  it  might 
have  been  fittingly  relegated  to  the  appendix,  together  with 
those  remaining  sections  which  are  devoted  to  a  refutation 
of  the  claims  of  the  Freemasons  and  of  modern  Rosicrucian 
Societies  to  connection  with  the  original  fraternity  of  the 
Rosy  Cross. 

The  claim  which  Mr.  Waite  puts  forward  to  be  considered 
an  impartial  historian  we  readily  admit,  for  we  have  rarely 
seen  a  work  of  this  description  that  was  so  free  from  all 
attempts  at  the  distortion  of  facts  to  dovetail  with  a  pre- 
conceived theory.  His  style  is  perspicuous,  and  contrasts 
most  favourably  with  that  of  his  Rosicrucian  rival,  Mr 
Hargrave  Jennings,  against  whom  he  tilts  with  much 
vigour  throughout  his  pages. 

The  most  interesting  portions  of  the  book  are  those 
where  the  author  is  willing  to   speak  himself;   for  the 
lucubrations  of  the  illummati,  which  fill  some  250  out  of 
the  446  pages  composing  the  work,  are  for  the  most  part 
msipid   and   fatuous   to   the  lay  mind.     It  was  doubtless 
necessary  to  include  transcripts  of  the  "Fama"  and  the 
"  Confessio,"  these  being  the  authoritative  expositions  of 
the  Society's  views,  but  we  could  have  spared  much  of 
the  "Chymical    Marriage,"  and  all   of  the    "Universal 
Reformation  of  the  Whole  World  by  order  of  god  Apollo  " 
which  Mr.  Waite  describes  as  a  fairly  literal  translation 
of  advertisement  77  of  Boccalini's  "  Ragguagli    di  Par 
nasso,-Centuria  Prima,"  and  which,  he  adds,  "  throws  no 
light  upon  the  history  or  claims    of  the    Rosicrucians " 
Neither  is  much  learnt  from  the  speculations  of  the  apolo 
gists  whose  philosophy,  although  mysterious,  is  not  to  be 
readily  Identified  with  that  of  the  fraternity  as  officials 
set  forth      In  wading  through   such  documents,  one  is 
reminded  of  Mr.  Shandy's  exclamation  when  Rubenius 
has  furnished  him  with  information  on  every  conceivable 
point  except  upon  the  one  on  which  he  sought  for  it     The 
work  on  the  whole  is  well  done  and  satisfactorily  produced 
but  It  lacks  an  index.     Had  the  author  furnished  as  good 
an  index  to  his  volume  as  the  enterprising  publisher,  Mr. 
Redway  has  added  to  his  advertisements,  he  would  have 
enhanced  its  value  as  a  book   of  reference.     To  those 
students  of  occultism  whose  palates,  undebauched  by  the 
intellectual  hasMsh  of  the  rhapsodies  of  mysticism  and 
the  jargon  of  the   Kabala,  can  still  appreciate  a   plain 
historical   statement   of  facts    we  gladly   commend  the 


THE  MECHANICS  OF  MACHINERY. 
The  Mechanics  of  Machinery.     By  Alex.  B.  W.  Kennedy, 
Professor  of  Engineering  and  Mechanical  Technology 
in  University  College,  London.     (London  :  Macmillan 
and  Co,  1886.) 

A  LTHOUGH  the  author  explains  in  his  preface  that 
^»-  this  work  is  destined  to  meet  the  requirements  of 
young  students  of  engineering,  still  the  mathematical 
student  of  mechanics  would  reap  immense  benefit  from 
a  careful  study  of  the  novel  treatment  presented  here, 
and  would  recognize  the  shortcomings  and  unsatisfactori- 
ness  of  the  treatises  usually  put  into  his  hands. 

Here  we  have  a  treatise  on  real  mechanics,  with  dia- 
grams, drawn  accurately  to  scale,  of  real  machines,  and 
illustrative  examples  drawn  from  real  life,  while  the 
ordinary  mathematical  treatise  put  into  the  student's 
hands  is  generally  a  great  contrast,  by  reason  of  its 
abstract  method  of  treatment,  the  unpractical  nature  of 
the  problems  discussed,  and  its  diagrams  resembling 
nothing  that  ever  existed,  purposely  drawn  badly,  for 
the  reason,  it  is  urged,  that  a  bad  draughtsman  can  copy 
them  more  easily. 

Prof.  Kennedy,  in  his  preface,  explains  how  he  has 
been  driven  to  the  vernacular  use  of  the  word  "  pound  " 
as  a  name  for  a  unit  both  of  weight  and  of  force,  as  "  the 
adoption  of  any  other  plan  would  have  made  the  book 
practically  useless  to  almost  all  engineers  so  long  as  the 
thousand-and-one  problems  of  their  every-day  work  come 
to  them  in  their  present  form."  This  plan  is  so  perfectly 
clear  and  intelligible  to  ordinary  practical  men  to  whom 
dynamical  problems  on  a  large  scale  are  a  reality  and 
not  a  mere  theoretical  abstraction  that  it  is  a  pity  that 
Prof.  Kennedy  has  gone  back  on  his  principles  in  insert- 
ing in  §  30,  on  force,  mass,  and  weight,  an  attempt  at 
explanation  of  the  confusion  of  ideas  in  books  on  mech- 
anics written  by  mathematicians,  due  to  the  introduc- 
tion of  the  word  "mass,"  a  word  which  the  engineer 
never  requires. 

The  explanation  of  the  relation  between  force,  weight, 
and  acceleration  is  so  simple  that  it  may  very  well  be  given 
here.  Taking  the  gravitation  unit  of  force,  universally 
employed  by  our  engineers,  as  the  attraction  of  the  earth 
on  a  weight  of  one  pound,  and  calling  this  \ht  force  of  one 
pound,  then  a  force  of /pounds  acting  on  a  weight  of  w 

pounds  will  produce  acceleration  a,  such  that  -^  =-      hv 

w      ^ '      -^ 

Newton's  Second  Law  of  Motion  ;  or.  /=  ^^. 

S 
But,  if  V  is  the  velocity  acquired  in  feet  per  second, 
and  s  the  number  of  feet  described  in  t  seconds  from  rest, 
then   it  is  shown  in  Chap.  VII.  of  the  present  treatise 

that  V  =  at,  \v^  =  as  ■   so  that  //  =  — ^ ,  and  fs  =   ^^^  • 
Here  fs  represents  the  work  done  on  the  body  in  foot- 
pounds of  work,  and   the  dynamical   equivalent  is  ^^^ 
foot-pounds  of  kinetic  energy. 

So  also  the  product  //  is  called  the  impulse,  in  second- 
Pounds,   of  the  force  /  acting  for  the  time  /,  and  its 

dynamical  equivalent   is  ~-  units   of   momentum,   the 

momentum  of  w  pounds  moving  with  velocity  v  being 
defined  by  the  product  nnj. 


196 


NATURE 


{Dec.  29,  1887 


Now  the  mathematician  noticed  that  in  these  equations 
the  quantity  w  occurs  divided  by  ^,  so  he  said,  Let  us  call 

the  quotient  —  the  "mass"  of  the  body,  and  denote  it 

by  the  letter  in,  so  that  w  =  mg,  equivalent  to  taking 
g  pounds  as  the  unit  of  mass. 

Unfortunately,  in  this  way  the  "mass"  of  a  body, 
which  is  the  measure  of  an  unalterable  quantity,  is  now 
measured  by  a  variable  unit,  while  the  "  weight "  of  a  body, 
which  is  now  defined  by  the  mathematician  as  the  force 
with  which  the  earth  attracts  the  body,  depending  on  the 
local  value  of  g,  is,  although  a  variable  quantity,  always 
represented  by  the  same  number— namely,  the  number  of 
pounds  in  the  body. 

This  confusion  is  entirely  obviated  if,  following  the 
engineers,  we  discard  the  word  "  mass "  altogether ;  if 
we  measure,  as  is  customary  in  ordinary  life,  weight 
in  pounds,  and  if  we  change  the  unit  of  force  to  the  abso- 
lute unit,  called  by  Prof  James  Thomson  the  "  poundal." 
Now,  if  a  force  of  p  poundals  acts  on  a  weight  of  w 
pounds,  it  will  produce  acceleration  a,  such  that  p  —  wa, 
and  then  pt  =  wv,  and  ps  =  ^wv'^  so  that  ps,  the  work 
done  in  foot-poundals,  has  the  dynamical  equivalent  |wz/^ 
foot-poundals  of  energy  ;    not,  as  the  footnote  to  p.  248 


would    imply,   that  ^'nv"- 


because 


but 


TVV- 

because  \mv'^  is  the  kinetic  energy  in  foot-poundals  of 
ni  pounds  moving  with  velocity  v  ;  while  the  impulse  pi 
second-poundals,  has  the  dynamical  equivalent  of  wv 
units  of  momentum. 

.■  The  unit  of  momentum  has  not  yet  received  a  name, 
but  the  Committee  on  Dynamics  of  the  Association  for 
the  Improvement  of  Geometrical  Teaching  is  preparing 
to  suggest  a  distinctive  name. 

Supposing  then  that  w  represents  the  weight  of  a  body 
in  pounds,  how  is  it  possible,  as  [asserted  on  pp.  219,  220, 

that  ^  remains  constant  when 'the  body  is  moved  about 

to  parts  of  the  earth  where  g  has  different  values  ?  and 
where  is  the  practical  value  of  estimating  the  effective 
inertia  in  terms  of  the  variable  unit  of  mass,  as  in  §  48, 
when  the  constant  unit  of  weight  would  be  simpler  and 
practically  more  intelligible  ? 

These  theoretical  questions  of  units  of  force  and 
weight  have  been  discussed  here  at  some  length,  as  it  is 
important  that  Prof.  Kennedy  in  his  next  edition  should 
carefully  revise  this  part  of  the  subject,  which  will  best  be 
done  if  he  disregards  the  discussions  on  "mass "of  the 
ordinary  text-books,  and  if  he  writes  always  in  the  ordinary 
vernacular  language  used  by  engineers. 

In  Chapter  XII.,  on  "  Friction  in  Machines,"  the  true 
laws  of  friction  are  given  for  the  first  time  in  any  treatise 
in  this  country,  Morin's  illusory  laws  as  usually  taught 
being  entirely  discarded.  With  proper  lubrication  of 
machinery  the  question  of  friction  is  properly  a  ques- 
tion of  viscous  liquid  motion.  Some  interesting  appli- 
cations, with  graphical  solutions  to  such  problems  as 
friction-brakes  and  pulley-tackle,  are  appended,  which 
ought  immediately  to  be  incorporated  into  academical 
text-books.  Of  the  same  nature  are  the  problems  on 
train-resistance  in  Chapter  IX.:  a  slip  on  p.  328  of  intro- 
ducing an  extraneous  factor,  tt,  need  only  be  mentioned 
here,  as  the  author  himself  has  already  corrected  it. 


We  have  discussed  the  dynamical  part  of  the  book  first, 
but  it  is  the  kinematical  part,  which  treats  of  mechanism, 
which  forms  the  greater  half  of  the  book.  Here  the 
author  has  analyzed  the  classification  of  machines  and 
their  elementary  parts  with  great  skill  and  clearness,  and 
illustrated  the  theory  with  excellent  diagrams.  The  idea 
of  the  "centrode"  is  largely  used  in  the  book,  the  inven- 
tion of  which  is  originally  due  to  Belanger.  While 
analyzing  fully  the  centrodes  of  valve  mechanism,  the 
author  has  mysteriously  stopped  short  of  the  discussion 
of  valve  diagrams,  which,  in  the  steam-engine,  is  the  most 
important  practical  application  of  kinematics.  Peaucellier's 
parallel  motion  is  fully  described,  with  Kempe's  ampli- 
fications :  it  would  be  instructive  to  see  a  diagram  of 
Peaucellier's  motion  as  applied  to  an  actual  steam-engine. 
Proll's  velocity  and  acceleration  diagrams  are  carefully 
explained,  with  extensions  due  to  the  author :  this  subject 
has  received  considerable  development  of  late  from 
German  writers,  and  is  capable  of  solving  very  elegantly 
such  difficult  and  important  practical  problems  as,  for 
example,  the  determination  of  the  bending  moment  at 
any  point  of  a  connecting  rod. 

A  very  useful  table  of  moments  of  inertia  concludes 
the  volume,  but  here  we  should  prefer  to  see  k  the  radius 
of  gyration,  called  in  this  book  the  radius  of  inertia,  or 
rather  k'-,  the  square  of  the  radius,  tabulated,  side  by 
side  of  the  corresponding  area  A  or  volume  V. 

In  conclusion.  Prof.  Kennedy's  students  are  to  be  con- 
gratulated on  the  possession  of  such  an  admirable  text- 
book, and  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  the  style  and  influence 
of  its  teaching  will  make  itself  widely  felt  outside  of 
professional  circles.  A.  G.  Greenhill. 


THE  SOLOMON  ISLANDS. 
The    Solomon    Islands   and  their  Natives.      By    H.   B. 
Guppy,   M.B.,  F.G.S,,  late  Surgeon  R.N.      (London  : 
Swan  Sonnenschein,  Lowrey,  and  Co.,  1887.) 

THE  Solomon  Islands,  whether  we  consider  the 
romantic  narratives  of  their  discovery  and  redis- 
covery, the  comparatively  unsophisticated  character  of 
their  inhabitants,  their  faunistic  and  floral  relationships, 
or  their  remarkable  geological  structure,  are  of  more  than 
common  interest  to  the  scientific  world,  and  it  is  a  matter 
for  congratulation  that  their  description  has  been  under- 
taken by  a  traveller  and  historian  so  eminently  qualified 
for  the  task  as  is  Dr.  Guppy.  The  book  which  he  has 
produced  is  a  rich  storehouse  of  interesting  and  important 
observations,  and  will  henceforth  be  an  indispensable 
work  of  reference  to  every  student  of  the  races  inhabiting 
the  Pacific  islands.  It  is  worth  while  to  lay  stress  upon 
this  fact  for  the  sake  of  encouraging  future  travellers  to 
give  their  observations  to  the  world,  because  Dr.  Guppy 
did  not  at  first  intend  to  make  any  special  investigation 
of  the  habits  and  manners  of  the  inhabitants,  but  was  led 
to  do  so  by  the  want  of  interest  displayed  by  those  who 
seemed  to  have  so  much  better  opportunities. 

The  Solomon  Islanders  seem  to  be  of  various  types  in 
different  parts  of  the  group,  but  their  prevailing  charac- 
ters are  distinctly  Melanesian  or  Papuan.  A  circumstance  1 
is  pointed  out  which  seems  to  indicate  the  Indian  Archi-  : 
pelago  as  having  been  the  route  by  which  the  Eastern 
Polynesians    reached    the    Pacific.     This    circumsta 


I 


Dec.  29,  1887] 


NATURE 


IQ7 


consists  in  the  possibility  of  tracing  the  native  names  of 
certain  trees  across  the  Central  Pacific  from  the  Indian 
Archipelago  to  the  Austral  and  Society  Islands.  For 
instance,  in  the  former  locality  the  Barringtonia  speciosa 
goes  by  the  names  of  Boewa  boeton  and  Poetoen ;  in  the 
islands  of  the  Bougainville  Straits  in  the  Solomon  Group 
it  is  cdiW^di  Piiputu;  in  Fiji,  Viitu j  \n  Tonga,  Futu ;  and 
in  the  Hervey  and  Society  Islands,  E-Hoodu  or  Utu.  The 
name  thus  appears  to  have  undergone  a  kind  of  progres- 
sive modification  as  the  tree  has  receded  from  its  original 
home.  The  large  amount  of  information  which  Dr. 
Guppy  has  been  able  to  collect  is  mainly  due  to  his 
I  emarkable  tact  in  dealing  with  the  natives :  he  seems  to 
have  at  once  succeeded  in  estabhshing  friendly  relations 
with  all  those  with  whom  he  came  in  contact,  and  though 
he  was  continually  in  their  power,  going  long  journeys 
with  no  other  escort  than  a  body  of  them,  he  met  with 
nothing  but  kindness  at  their  hands.  He  modestly 
ascribes  this  satisfactory  result  mainly  to  the  soothing 
influences  of  tobacco,  without  which,  he  says,  the  white 
traveller  in  these  islands  "  is  worse  off  than  a  man  with- 
out any  money  in  his  purse  in  London,"  but  something 
must  undoubtedly  be  attributed  to  the  kindly  and  con- 
ciliatory personal  influence  of  the  writer  himself. 

Where  so  much  excellent  matter  is  given  it  seems  un- 
grateful to  ask  for  more,  but  it  is  impossible  to  repress 
the  desire  for  knowledge  regarding  the  dwellers  in  the 
interior  of  these  islands,  who  seem  to  be  always  at  war 
with  the  coast  tribes,  and  are  regarded  by  them  with  so 
much  contempt  that  "man-bush"  is  with  the  latter  a 
common  term  of  reproach.  Very  interesting,  too,  are  the 
worked  flints,  not  unfrequently  found  in  the  soil  either 
during  agricultural  operations  or  after  heavy  rains.  They 
may  probably  have  been  the  work  of  the  primitive  Negrito 
race  which  was  at  one  time  widely  spread  over  this  region 
of  the  globe.  It  is  worthy  of  notice  that  in  none  of  the 
islands  visited  by  the  author  was  any  chalk  found  which 
contained  flints,  but  there  are  records  of  its  existence  in 
Ulaua,  another  member  of  the  group. 

Two  chapters,  certainly  not  inferior  to  the  rest  of  the 
work  in  interest,  are  occupied  by  a  history  of  our  know- 
ledge of  this  group  of  islands.  It  does  not  often  happen 
that  one  who  has  distinguished  himself  as  an  explorer  is 
willing  to  undertake  a  piece  of  literary  work,  calling  for 
the  patient  and  critical  examination  of  an  old  manuscript, 
but  it  is  a  peculiarly  happy  chance  that  has  thrown  the 
translation  of  Gallego's  journal  into  the  hands  of  one 
whose  exceptionally  accurate  knowledge  of  the  locality 
has  no  doubt  enabled  him  to  avoid  errors  into  which  the 
best  of  scholars  without  such  information  must  have 
fallen.  Hernando  Gallego  was  chief  pilot  to  an  expedi- 
tion which  was  despatched  from  Peru  under  the  command 
of  Alvaro  de  Mendana  for  the  ostensible  purpose  of 
spreading  the  Christian  faith  among  the  islanders  of  the 
Pacific.  In  the  year  1567  they  reached  the  Solomon 
Islands  and  gave  names  to  most  of  them,  but  lest  the 
English  should  attempt  to  possess  themselves  of  the  new- 
found territory  no  account  of  the  discovery  was  published  ; 
and  hence,  after  one  or  two  futile  attempts  on  the  part  of 
the  Spaniards  to  refind  and  colonize  them,  knowledge  of 
their  whereabouts  gradually  became  a  vague  tradition, 
and  at  length  even  their  very  existence  was  doubted. 
Two  hundred  years  elapsed  before  Carteret  sighted  and 


anchored  off  the  group,  but  he  did  not  land.  Then  in 
rapid  succession  came  the  discoveries  of  Bougainville, 
Surville,  Maurelle,  and  Shortland,  but  none  of  these 
identified  their  discoveries  with  the  previous  work  of  the 
Spaniards,  and  it  was  reserved  for  the  genius  of  Buache 
to  point  out  "  that,  between  the  extreme  point  of  New 
Guinea  as  fixed  by  Bougainville  and  the  position  of  Santa 
Cruz  as  determined  by  Carteret,  there  was  a  space  of  I2i° 
longitude,  in  which  the  Islands  of  Solomon  ought  to  be 
found."  His  conclusion,  that  the  islands  seen  by  Carteret 
and  others  were  the  same  as  those  previously  discovered 
by  the  Spaniards,  though  long  disputed,  is  now  generally 
admitted,  and  justice  has  been  rendered  both  to  the 
gallant  explorers  and  to  the  laborious  and  gifted  investi- 
gator. 

In  reading  this  journal  it  is  impossible  not  to  wish  that 
the  chart  accompanying  the  volume  were  on  a  somewhat 
larger  scale,  that  more  names  had  been  inserted,  and  that 
the  author,  even  if  he  did  not  feel  at  liberty  to  restore 
those  given  by  the  original  discoverers,  had  at  all  events 
inserted  them  within  parentheses. 

Of  Dr.  Guppy's  work  in  natural  history  it  would  be 
difficult  to  speak  too  highly.  It  embraces,  in  addition  to 
a  mass  of  anthropological  material,  to  which  reference  has 
been  made  above,  a  general  account  of  the  chief  divisions 
both  of  the  animal  and  vegetable  kingdoms.  Special 
attention  may  be  called  to  the  observations  upon  floating 
seeds  and  seed-vessels,  which  have  been  utilized  by  Mr. 
Botting  Hemsley  in  his  work  on  the  oceanic  dispersal  of 
plants,  and  to  a  remarkable  fungous  growth  {Pachyma  ?) 
found  lying  loose  upon  the  soil.  Of  reptiles,  batra- 
chians,  and  mollusca  many  new  species  were  obtained  ; 
an  interesting  discussion  is  given  regarding  the  origin  of 
the  edible  birds'-nests,  and  an  account  of  attempts  to 
ascertain  by  direct  evidence  whether  the  Birgtis  latro  is 
really  able  to  husk  and  break  cocoa-nuts  for  itself,  as  well 
as  details  of  experiments  on  the  power  of  various  animals 
to  resist  submersion  in  sea-water.  The  Solomon  Islands 
stand  in  a  remarkable  zoo-geographical  position,  on  the 
boundary  between  the  Polynesian  and  Indo  Malayan 
regions,  hence  a  special  interest  attaches  to  these  lists  of 
species  and  biological  data.  The  size  of  the  authoi-'s  col- 
lections is  little  short  of  marvellous  when  it  is  remembered 
that  for  two  out  of  the  three  years  spent  there  his  own 
cabin  was  the  only  place  where  he  could  store  them.  He 
seems,  indeed,  to  have  met  with  but  scanty  encourage- 
ment from  those  quarters  whence  he  might  reasonably 
have  expected  it,  and  every  Briton  should  blush  when  he 
reads  and  reflects  upon  the  truth  of  the  closing  words  of 
Dr.  Guppy's  Introduction  : — 

"  Stifling  my  own  patriotic  regrets,  I  cannot  but  think 
that  the  presence  of  Germany  in  these  regions  will  be 
fraught  with  great  advantage  to  the  world  of  science. 
When  we  recall  our  spasmodic  efforts  to  explore  New 
Guinea  and  the  comparatively  small  results  obtained, 
when  we  remember  to  how  great  an  extent  such  attempts 
have  been  supported  by  private  enterprise  and  how  little 
they  have  been  due  to  government  or  even  to  semi-oflicial 
aid,  we  have  reason  to  be  glad  that  the  exploration  of  these 
regions  will  be  conducted  with  that  thoroughness  which 
can  only  be  obtained  when,  as  in  the  case  of  Germany, 
geographical  enterprises  become  the  business  of  the 
State." 


198 


NATURE 


IDec.  29,  1887 


CROWN  FORESTS  AT  THE  CAPE  OF  GOOD 
HOPE. 

Management  of  Crown  Forests  at  the  Cape  of  Good 
Hope  under  the  Old  Re'gime  and  under  the  New.  By- 
John  Croumbie  Brown,  LL.D.  (Edinburgh:  Oliver 
and  Boyd  ;  London :  Simpkin  Marshall  and  Co., 
1887.) 

IN  June  last  we  noticed  a  work  by  Dr.  Brown  dealing 
with  the  schools  of   forestry  in  Germany,  which,  it 
appears,  was  the  author's  fifteenth  volume  on  a  variety  of 
forest  subjects.      He  has  now  presented  the  public  with  a 
new  volume,  out  of  a  store  of  thirty  said  to  be  ready  for 
publication.      This  plethora  of  forest  literature  showered 
upon   us   by    Dr.    Brown    is   becoming    alarming.       We 
pointed  out  on  the  previous  occasion  that  the  English 
reader  has,  in  reality,  very  little  interest  to  spare  for  forest 
questions,  and  what  little  does  exist  will  certainly  not  be 
augmented  by  literature  of  the  class  under  review.    Here 
we  have  a  goodly  volume,  comprising  352  pages  of  print, 
made  up  of  a  motley  collection  of  old  and  new  official 
reports,  pro:eedings  of  an  endless    succession  of  Com- 
mittees, &c.,  which,  even  if  it  were  an  official  Blue-booV, 
would  have  to  be  pronounced  badly  arranged  and  filled 
with  quantities  of  irrelevant  matter.     We  do  not  mean  to 
say  that  there  is  not  a  silver  thread  running  through  the 
whole  ;  what  we  desire  to  point  out  is  that  the  information 
to  be  conveyed  and  the  lesson  to  be  learnt  could  with  the 
greatest  ease  have  been  arranged  in  a  pamphlet  of  thirty 
or  forty  pages.     To  scatter  a  i&\\  grains  amongst  a  huge 
quantity  of  chaff  is  highly  objectionable,  and  it  is  our 
duty  to  protest  in  the  strongest  terms  against  this  class  of 
book  manufacture.      The  author  had  a  really  interesting 
story  to  tell,  which,  if  placed  before  the  public  in  a  small 
pamphlet  or  an  article  in  a  periodical,  would  have  been 
sure  to  attract  attention,  and  might  have  done  some  good. 
The  story  to  which  we  refer  is  peculiarly  English.     It 
has   been   said    that    whenever  we   engage  in   war    we 
generally  begin  by  incurring  some   reverses  :   we   then 
gather  up  our  strength,  and  meet  the  enemy  in  such  force 
that  the  strife  is  certain  to  end  in  success.      If  this  holds 
good  as  regards   our  frequently  occurring  little   wars,  it 
seems  to  be  no  less  applicable  to  our  Civil  administration. 
Looking,  for  instance,  at  our  forest  policy  at  the  Cape, 
which  Dr.  Brown  has  brought  before  us  in  the  present 
volume,  it  will  be  seen  that  after  prolonged  playing  with 
the   question,  and  after  the  forests  had  been  well-nigh 
ruined,  vigorous  steps  were  taken  to  redeem  the  past. 

As  in  most  countries,  the  forests  at  the  Cape  were 
originally  made  use  of  by  the  population  without  let  or 
hindrance.  Then,  with  the  arrival  of  European  adminis- 
tration, came  the  colonist,  who  also  betook  himself  to  the 
woods,  partly  to  clear  the  land  for  cultivation,  partly  to 
supply  himself  with  material  for  his  domestic  require- 
ments, and  partly  to  cut  and  sell  timber  for  the  purpose 
of  making  a  livelihood.  The  woodlands,  which  appeared 
sufficient  to  supply  the  wants  of  the  native  popula- 
tion, were  soon  found  to  be  incapable  of  bearing  the  addi- 
tional strain  caused  by  a  European  Government  and  the 
inroads  made  by  the  accompanying  colonist.  Some  en- 
lightened person  perceived  that  the  forests  could  not  last 
at  the  new  rate  of  consumption  of  its  produce,  and  raised 
the  alarm.      Inquiries  were  set  on  foot,  officers  reported. 


and  Committees  deliberated.  It  was  found  that  the 
denudation  of  extensive  areas  had  become  an  accom- 
plished fact,  and  that  more  were  rapidly  following  in  the 
same  path.  The  principal  causes  were,  as  in  all  similar 
cases,  the  following  : — 

(i)  Reckless  working  of  the  forests  by  natives  and 
colonists. 

(2)  Extensive  and  frequent  fires  overrunning  the  forests, 
destroying  all  humus,  seedlings,  and  young  trees,  and 
damaging  more  or  less  the  trees  of  more  advanced  age. 

(3)  Uncontrolled  clearing  of  land  for  cultivation. 

So  much  having    been    ascertained,  the  Government 
should  at  once  have  proceeded  to  take  steps  to  counteract 
the  evil ;   but  only  half-measures    were    adopted.      The 
Government  attempted  to  bring  the  forests  under  control 
by  prohibiting  certain  acts,  without  providing  an  efficient 
agency  to  see  the  restrictions  enforced.  If  in  any  instance 
they  were  enforced,  it  was  found  that  they  interfered  with 
previously    prevailing  practices,  complaints  were  made, 
and  the  strife  swayed  to  and  fro.      Then  the  Government 
of    the   time   tried   various  means  to  satisfy  all  parties. 
Once    it     resolved     to     throw     the     forests     open     to 
private   enterprise  by  offering  them   for    sale.      In    this 
manner  a  certain  area  passed  into  the  hands  of  private 
parties,  but  fortunately  only  a  limited  number  of  lots  were 
sold.     Next,  the  forests  were  closed,  but  this  also  would 
not  meet  the  case,  and  they  were  opened  again,  so-called 
hcenses  for  the  removal  of  fixed  quantities  of  material 
being  issued  against  small  payments.      There  being  no 
proper  staff  to  control  the  operations,  matters  grew  from 
bad  to  worse.     About  this  time  Dr.  Brown  appeared  upon 
the  scene,  having  accepted  the  appointment  of  Govern- 
ment Botanist  of  the  Cape  Colony  in  the  year  1863.      He 
soon  perceived  the  unsatisfactory  condition  of  the  Cape 
woodlands,  and  he  strongly  urged  the   introduction  of  a 
more  systematic  treatment.     Fresh  inquiries  were  set  on 
foot,  new  Committees  sat  and  deliberated,  but  it  was  not 
until  the  year   1881  that  really  efficient  measures  were 
adopted.      By  that  time  the  mischief  had  been  done,  and 
the  yield  of  the  forests  was  so  low  that,  out  of  a  total  con- 
sumption of  two  and  a  quarter  million  cubic  feet  of  timber, 
only   a   quarter  of  a  million  cubic  feet  came    from   the 
colonial  forests,  while  a  little  over  two  million  cubic  feet 
were  imported. 

In  the  year  1881  the  services  of  a  French  forest  officer, 
Count  de  Vasselot  de  Regne,  who  had  previously  done 
excellent  service  in  the  fixing  of  the  dunes  and  creation  of 
extensive  new  forests  at  Royan,  near  Bordeaux,  were 
secured  as  Superintendent  of  the  Cape  forests,  and  with 
his  advent  a  new  regime  commenced.  The  selection  of 
this  gentleman,  due,  we  believe,  to  Colonel  Pearson,  lately 
in  charge  of  the  English  forest  students  at  Nancy,  was 
most  fortunate.  Although  we  are  not  acquainted  with 
the  Cape  from  personal  experience,  we  have  no  hesitation 
in  saying  that  the  reports  issued  during  the  last  six  years 
prove  the  administration  of  the  Cape  forests  to  rest  in 
very  able  hands,  and  that  substantial  progress  has 
been  made  during  that  short  period  towards  placing  the 
management  on  a  sound  and  solid  basis.  A  fairly 
adequate  and  competent  staff  has  been  brought  together, 
the  forests  are  being  demarcated,  waste  is  being  put  down, 
fir  conservancy  has  been  begun,  blank  areas  are  being 
planted,,  and  there  is  altogether  a  fair  prospect  that,  after 


Dec.  29,  1887] 


NA  TURE 


199 


some  time,  the  colony  will  once  more  be  in  a  position  to 
supply  the  necessary  forest  produce  from  its  own  wood- 
lands. At  the  same  time  the  financial  aspect  of  the 
business  has  not  been  overlooked,  and  there  are  indica- 
tions that  the  woodlands  will  before  long  prove  to  be  a 
source  of  substantial  income  to  the  colonial  Exchequer. 

The  forests  of  the  Cape  deserve  to  be  carefully  pre- 
served, not  only  for  the  purpose  of  their  direct  utility  in 
providing  timber  and  other  produce,  but  also  for  their 
usefulness  in  other  respects.  Whether  their  existence  v/ill 
increase  the  rainfall  to  any  appreciable  extent  may  be  a 
matter  of  doubt,  but  they  certainly  moderate  the  tempera- 
ture and  reduce  evaporation  ;  in  other  words,  they  hus- 
band the  water  which  falls  on  the  soil.  This  effect  is  all 
the  more  important,  because  Cape  Colony  is  situated, 
approximately,  between  the  28th  and  35th  degrees  of 
south  latitude,  and  the  rainfall  over  about  half  the  area 
amounts  to  less  than  10  inches  a  year,  while  only  a 
comparatively  small  portion  enjoys  a  rainfall'  of  over 
20  inches. 

Considering  these  matters,  we  trust  that  the  colonial 
authorities  will  now  persevere  in  making  up  for  past 
remissness  by  maintaining  steadily  a  policy  of  efficient 
forest  conservancy.  It  needed  many  warnings  before 
the  proper  steps  were  taken,  and  in  this  respect  no  one 
deserves  more  praise  than  Dr.  Brown.  By  raising  his 
voice  loudly  during  the  years  1863-66  he  has  certainly 
deserved  well  of  the  Cape  Colony.  While  it  is  a  pleasure 
to  record  this,  it  is  to  be  regretted  that  our  author  has  not 
succeeded  in  placing  the  history  of  the  case  before  the 
public  in  a  more  readable  form  than  that  adopted  in  the 
present  volume.  Sw. 


OUR  BOOK  SHELF. 

Thomas  A.  Edison  and  Samuel  F.  B.  Morse.  By  Van 
Buren  Denslow,  LL.D.,  and  Jane  Marsh  Parker. 
(London  :  Cassell  and  Co.,  1887.) 

This  book  is  an  evident  compilation,  principally  of  news- 
paper cuttings  from  the  other  side  of  the  Atlantic.  The 
authors  are  Americans.  Edison  is  posed  as  the  inventor  of 
the  duplex  and  quadruplex  systems  of  telegraphy,  though 
each  was  invented  in  Europe  when  he  was  seven  years 
old  ;  while  Morse  is  lauded  as  having  sent  the  first  telegram 
in  1844,  when  telegraphy  was  seven  years  old,  and  flourish- 
ing well  in  England.  Edison's  grandfather  lived  to  be  102 
years  old,  his  father  is  now  living  at  83.  Itis  tobehopedthat 
he  will  live  long  enough  to  tire  out  these  foolish  defamers 
of  his  true  merit,  for  merit,  industry,  and  inventive  skill 
he  certainly  has.  Personally  he  is  a  charming  man,  and 
impresses  one  with  his  modesty  and  communicativeness. 
The  phonograph,  carbon  transmitter,  and  glow  lamp  are 
quite  sufficient  to  establish  his  fame  without  dragging  in 
apparatus  he  simply  altered  or  perhaps  improved.  We 
read  in  this  silly  book,  "  The  very  words  *  electric  light,' 
must  stand  for  ever  as  closely  associated  with  the  name  of 
Edison  as  is  gravitation  with  Newton  or  the  telescope 
with  Galileo." 

We  read  (p.  96)  : — "  There  have  been  four  eras  in  the 
history  of  the  magnetic  telegraph.  In  each  of  these  eras 
a  citizen  of  the  United  States  has  been  conspicuous.  .  .  . 
The  first  era  was  that  of  Franklin  and  his  kite.  .  .  .  The 
second  era  was  that  of  invention — the  era  of  Morse, 
Henry  House  {sic),  and  Daniell  [so  the  authors  reckon 
Daniell  an  American  !].     Had  the  Daniell  battery  been 


known  in  1827,  one  Harrison  Gray  Dyer,  of  New  York, 
would  have  given  to  the  world  what  Prof  Morse  did  not 
complete  until  some  seventeen  years  after. 

"  The  third  era  was  that  of  the  evolution  of  the  telegraph 
— the  multiplication  of  its  effects.  Of  the  many  names 
conspicuous  in  this  era  none  are  more  deserving  of  special 
mention  than  Hiram  Sibley,  and  none  take  precedence  of 
Thomas  Alva  Edison."  [N.B. — Edison  was  born  in  1847.] 
The  fourth  era  was  "  an  era  of  chaos  in  its  beginning, 
when  Morse  lines.  Bain  lines.  House  lines,  and  O'Reilly 
lines,  with  their  endless  litigations  over  infringements  of 
patents  and  broken  contracts,  local  jealousies,  disastrous 
competitions,  unequal  and  capricious  tariffs,  made  invest- 
ing in  telegraph  stocks  a  sure  method  of  throwing  away 
money." 

And  this  is  history  ! 

The  following  story  is  gravely  told  : — 

"  When  the  boy  (Edison)  was  a  little  under  six  years  old, 
he  became  greatly  interested  in  the  fidelity  with  which 
an  old  goose  was  brooding  her  nest  of  eggs.  When  the 
young  family  of  golden-green  goslings  came  out  and  took 
to  the  water,  he  was  told  that  this  astounding  result  was 
produced  simply  by  the  animal  heat  of  the  old  bird  sitting 
on  them.  The  first  lesson  in  organic  chemistry  was  of  a 
kind  too  remarkable  to  be  let  slip  without  testing  it  by 
experiment.  Soon  after  the  boy  was  missed.  Messengers 
were  sent  after  him  everywhere,  but  he  could  not  be 
found.  '  By  and  by,'  says  the  sister,  '  don't  you  think 
father  found  him  curled  up  in  a  nest  he  had  made  in 
the  barn,  sitting  on  goose  eggs  and  hen  eggs  and  trying 
to  hatch  them  ? '  " 

Sound,  Light,  and  Heat.     By  Mark  R.  Wright.     (Lon- 
don :  Longmans,  Green,  and  Co.,  1887.) 

We  gladly  welcome  the  appearance  of  such  an  admirable 
text-book  as  the  one  before  us.  It  embraces  the  work 
required  for  the  various  elementary  examinations  in 
sound,  light,  and  heat,  but  it  is  in  no  sense  a  cram-book. 
The  subjects  are  treated  experimentally,  and  the  arrange- 
ment is  apparently  that  which  practical  experience  in 
teaching  has  led  the  author  to  believe  to  be  the  best. 
The  experiments  described  are  thoroughly  practical,  but, 
at  the  same  time,  the  apparatus  required  is  comparatively 
simple.  The  author  is  of  opinion — and  we  quite  agree 
with  him — that  a  beginner's  time  is  best  spent  in  making 
himself  acquainted  with  the  facts  of  science  ;  he  has 
accordingly  given  little  space  to  theoretical  considera- 
tions, but  he  has  carefully  avoided  making  statements 
that  might  lead  the  student  to  form  notions  at  variance 
with  the  modern  theories. 

The  drawings,  and  the  descriptions  of  the  apparatus 
they  represent,  leave  nothing  to  be  desired.  The  nume- 
rical examples,  of  which  there  is  a  great  number,  com- 
bined with  the  experimental  treatment,  entitle  the  book  to 
rank  as  one  of  our  best  text-books  of  elementary  science, 
and  we  can  confidently  recommend  it. 

Through  the    West  Indies.     By  Mrs.  Granville  Layard. 
(London:  Sampson  Low,  1887.) 

The  author  of  this  little  book  spent  several  months  in 
the  West  Indies,  and  heartily  enjoyed  her  expedition. 
She  has  nothing  very  new  to  say  about  the  various  places 
she  visited,  but  she  writes  pleasantly,  and  succeeds  in 
conveying  a  vivid  impression  of  many  of  the  scenes  by 
which  she  herself  was  strongly  impressed.  Occasionally 
she  offers  shrewd  suggestions  as  to  the  industry  and  trade 
of  the  West  Indian  Islands,  and  she  gives  as  an  appendix 
a  useful  paper  on  "  The  Sugar  Question."  This  paper 
contains  the  substance  of  notes  and  suggestions  furnished 
by  the  Hon.  W.  H.  loner,  Member  of  the  Legislative 
Council,  Barbados. 


2CO 


NATURE 


[Dec.  29,  1887 


LETTERS   TO    THE  EDITOR. 

[The  Editor  does  not  hold  himself  responsible  for  opinions 
expressed  by  his  correspondents.  Neither  can  he  under- 
take to  return,  or  to  correspond  with  the  writers  of, 
rejected  manuscripts.  No  notice  is  taken  of  anonymous 
communications. 

{The  Editor  urgently  requests  correspondents  to  keep  their 
letters  as  short  as  possible.  The  pressure  on  his  space 
is  so  great  that  it  is  impossible  otherwise  to  insure  the 
appearance  even  of  communications  containing  interesting 
and  novel  facts. 

"The  Conspiracy  of  Silence." 

Will  you  allow  me  a  word  on  "The  Great  Lesson"  by  the 
Duke  of  Argyll?  It  is  especially  what  is  said  about  Darwin's 
coral-island  theory  in  the  following  lines,  to  which  I  wish  to 
refer  : — "All  the  acclamations  with  which  it  was  received  were 
as  the  shouts  of  an  ignorant  mob.  It  is  well  to  know  that  the 
plebiscites  of  science  may  be  as  dangerous  and  as  hollow  as  those 
of  politics.  The  overthrow  of  Darwin's  speculation  is  only 
beginning  to  be  known.  .  .  .  Reluctantly,  almost  sulkily,  and 
with  a  grudging  silence  as  far  as  public  discussion  is  concerned, 
the  ugly  possibility  has  been  contemplated  as  too  disagreeable  to 
be  much  talked  about." 

The  terms  "ignorant  mob,"  "sulkily,"  and  "grudging 
silence,"  as  used  above,  cannot  readily  be  forgotten  if  forgiven 
by  men  of  science  on  this  side  of  the  Atlantic  any  more  than  by 
their  brethren  in  England. 

I  am  unable  to  see  anything  sulky  or  silent  in  the  exposition 
of  Mr.  Murray's  coral-island  theory  of  over  three  pages  in  length, 
which  was  published  and  sent  to  all  the  scientific  world  in 
Nature,  vol.  xxii.  p.  351  ;  nor  in  the  many  articles  in  the  current 
literature  and  recent  geological  text-books  that  have  since  ap- 
peared. In  this  country  no  large  text-book  of  geology  has  been 
issued  since  1880  ;  but  Mr.  John  Murray's  work  has  been  fairly 
discussed,  and,  so  far  as  I  know,  has  always  been  recognized. 
Here  at  Williams  College,  for  example,  the  views  of  Mr.  Murray 
referred  to  have  been  expounded  each  year  in  the  course  in 
geology  since  1880.  One  may,  I  take  it,  differ  from  the  Duke 
of  Argyll  in  accepting  or  rejecting,  wholly  or  in  part,  any  theory, 
without  laying  himself  open  to  the  charges  quoted  above.  Of 
anything  like  sulkiness  or  grudging  silence  I  have  yet  to  see  or 
hear  the  first  evidence.  There  is  indeed  a  "great  lesson"  in 
the  article  by  the  Duke  of  Argyll,  but  it  is  hardly  the  one  he 
intended  to  give.  Samuel  F.  Clarke. 

Williams  College,  Williamstown,  Mass.,  December  5. 


During  the  now  returned  biennial  expedition  to  our  northern- 
most boundary  of  the  west  coast  of  Greenland,  the  leader  of  the 
Expedition,  the  clever  naval  officer,  Mr.  Care  Ryder,  has 
measured  a  progress  or  a  flow  of  the  great  glaciers  =  99  feet  per 
diem  or  in  twenty-four  hours  during  the  summer,  and  =  30-35 
feet  in  twenty- four  hours  during  winter  months." 

This,  no  doubt,  will  interest  many  of  your  Alpine  readers. 

Joseph  Prestwich. 

Shoreham,  Sevenoaks,  December  17. 


"Darwin's  Life  and  Letters"  are  now  public  property, 
and  as  reference  to  vol.  iii.  p.  242,  shows — what  nearly  every 
scientific  man  knew — that  the  late  Sir  Wyville  Thomson  was  dis- 
tinctly anti-Darwinian  in  his  views,  it  follows  that  the  Duke  of 
Argyll's  inferences  as  to  his  reasons  for  urging  Mr.  Murray's 
withdrawal  of  the  "new  coral-reef  theory"  paper  from  the 
Royal  Society  of  Edinburgh  is  illogical,  not  to  say  absurd.  In 
justice  to  Sir  Wyville's  memory  and  in  support  of  Mr.  Bonney's 
surmise  (Nature,  November  24,  p.  77)  1  wish  to  state  that, 
talking  with  Sir  Wyville  about  "Murray's  new  theory,"  I  asked 
what  objection  he  had  to  its  being  brought  before  the  public  ? 
The  answer  simply  was  :  he  considered  that  the  grounds  of  the 
theory  had  not  as  yet  been  sufficiently  investigated  or  sufficiently 
corroborated,  and  that  therefore  any  immature,  dogmatic  publi- 
cation of  it  would  do  less  than  little  service  either  to  science  or 
to  the  author  of  the  paper. 

An  Old  Pupil  of  Wyville  Thomson's. 

December  17. 


Greenland  Glaciers. 

I  HAVE  received  a  letter  from  Prof.  Steenstrup,  of  Copen- 
hagen, which  gives  further  interesting  information  respecting  the 
extraordinarily  rapid  advance  of  the  Greenland  glaciers,  and 
corroborates  the  opinion  I  expressed  in  the  paper  I  recently 
read  before  the  Geological  Society,  that  the  rate  of  advance 
during  the  Glacial  period  may  have  been  far  more  rapid  than 
that  generally  assumed,  and  that  that  period  should  be  much 
shortened.     Prof.  Steenstrup  states  :— 

"Meantime  the  difference  between  the  Alpine  data  and  the 
Greenland  data  seems    to   have   grown   greater   and    greater. 


"The  Mammoth  and  the  Flood." 

In  the  notice  which  you  have  given  of  my  book,  which  you 
are  good  enough  to  say  is,  apart  from  its  theories,  a  valuable 
work  of  reference,  I  should  have  been  more  gratified  if  you  had 
devoted  a  little  space  either  to  stating  my  arguments  or  to  re- 
futing them,  instead  of  indulging  in  a  rhetorical  wail  over  my 
backsliding  from  the  orthodox  ways  of  uniformity. 

The  theories  for  which  I  am  responsible  have  been  accepted 
by  so  many  men  in  the  first  rank  in  science  in  both  hemispheres 
that  I  am  naturally  anxious  to  have  them  seriously  and  severely 
discussed,  and  I  think  your  critic  would  allow  that  I  have  justi- 
fied my  hope  that  this  will  be  the  case  by  converging  upon  my 
inferences  an  unusual  array  of  facts. 

It  was  assuredly  quite  time  that  someone  who  disbelieves  in 
"  authority  in  science"  should  raise  a  strong  protest  against  the 
extravagant  position  which  the  English  school  of  geology  has 
taken  up  on  this  question  of  uniformity,  an  extravagance  of 
which  students  in  other  branches  of  science  are  hardly  aware. 

The  head  of  the  Geological  Survey  in  this  country,  speaking 
not  long  ago  with  all  the  authority  and  responsibility  which 
surround  a  President  of  the  British  Association,  committed 
himself  to  the  following  statement : — "  From  the  Laurentian 
epoch  down  to  the  present  day,  all  the  physical  events  in  the 
history  of  the  earth  have  varied  neither  in  kind  nor  in  intensity 
from  those  of  ivhich  we  now  have  experience. " 

This  was  not  the  opinion  of  an  irresponsible  and  eccentric 
student,  but  of  the  official  mouthpiece  of  English  geology,  and 
with  one  notable  exception — namely,  Prof  Prestwich — it  has 
remained,  so  far  as  I  know,  without  protest  or  repudiation, 
while  Prof.  Prestwich  himself  has  been  treated  as  a  heretic  for 
the  views  he  has  so  courageously  and  ably  maintained. 

My  book  is  meant  to  challenge  the  doctrine  of  uniformity  as 
generally  held  by  English  geologists,  and  which  as  held  here  is 
largely  repudiated  both  in  America  and  on  the  Continent. 

In  regard  to  its  many  arguments,  I  cannot  defend  them  in  a 
letter,  but  I  can  shortly  examine  the  only  one  to  which  your 
critic  directs  attention,  and  which  happens  to  be  a  very  crucial 
one. 

This  is  the  explanation  of  the  existence  of  a  series  of  mam- 
moths buried  in  the  tundras  of  Siberia,  throughout  its  entire 
length,  with  their  soft  parts  intact.  This  fact,  which  has  been 
known  for  a  century,  compelled  Cuvier  long  ago  to  adopt  a 
conclusion  which  I  have  simply  accepted  and  enlarged.  I  state 
it  shortly  in  the  following  extract  from  my  work  : — "The  facts 
compel  us  to  admit  that  when  the  mammoth  was  buried  in 
Siberia  the  ground  was  soft  and  the  climate  genial,  and  that 
immediately  afterwards  the  same  ground  became  frozen,  and  the 
same  ciimate  became  Arctic,  and  that  they  have  remained  so  to 
this  day,  and  this  not  gradually  and  in  accordance  with  some 
slowly  continuous  astronomical  or  cosmical  changes,  but  sud- 
denly and /^r  ^rt/Z/^w. "  I  also  argue  that  the  only  way  I  can 
explain  the  existence  of  a  chain  of  such  carcasses  buried  many 
feet  deep  in  continuous  beds  of  gravel  and  clay  is  by  the  opera- 
tion of  one  cause  only,  and  that  a  flood  of  water  on  a  large 
scale. 

Your  critic,  who  I  can  hardly  think  has  read  the  part  of  my 
book  dealing  with  this  issue,  says  that  the  carcasses  are  found  in 
ice.  The  fact  is,  they  are  mver  fouttd  in  ice,  as  the  Russian 
explorers  have  so  well  shown.  The  reference  to  ice  in  the 
account  of  the  discovery  of  the  famous  Adam's  mammoth  has 
been  shown  by  Baer  to  have  been  altogether  misunderstood,  and 
nothing  is  more  clear  than  that  they  are  found  buried  deep  in 
hard  frozen  gravel  and  clay. 

Secondly,  he  urges  a  view  which  was  generally  held  fifty 
years  ago,  but  which  has  been  completely  dissipated  by  the 
elaborate  researches  of  the  Russian  naturalists,  especially  the 
geologist  Schmidt,  and  which  I  quote  at  length— namely,  that 
the  carcasses  have  in  some  way  been  floated  down  by  the  Sibe- 
rian rivers  and  buried  in  their  warp.     As   Schrnidt  shows,  the 


Dec.  29,  1887] 


NATURE 


201 


Siberian  rivers  make  no  deposit,  either  in  winter  or  summer, 
which  could  cover  in  a  mammoth.  Nor  are  the  mammoths 
chiefly  found  near  rivers,  but  on  high  ground  out  of  the  reach  of 
rivers.  When  they  occur  near  the  rivers,  it  is  generally  on  the 
head  streams,  which  could  not  float  such  carcasses. 

Surely,  in  criticizing  my  view  of  a  problem  which  has  been 
the  crux  of  almost  every  serious  student  since  the  days  of  Cuvier, 
your  critic  might  have  noticed  these  now  elementary  facts.  It 
is  not  fair  to  me  or  to  your  readers  to  deal  with  this  difficult 
question  as  if  it  could  be  settled  by  a  casual  reference  to  causes 
long  ago  discarded  by  such  authorities  as  Brandt  and  Baer, 
Schmidt  and  Schrenck. 

I  am  anxious  beyond  measure  to  meet  with  some  criticism 
that  I  can  reply  to,  and  shall  not  shrink  from  the  issue  being 
tried  by  the  severest  tests. 

What  I  complain  of,  and  others  more  important  than  myself 
share  my  opinion,  is  that  the  only  answer  forthcoming  from  uni- 
formitarians  to  test  cases  like  the  one  above  referred  to  is, 
ostrich-like,  to  put  their  heads  in  the  sand  and  to  cry  out, 
"  Since  we  are  committed  to  Lyell's  theory,  it  is  useless  to 
quote  facts  against  us."  This  may  have  done  in  the  fifteenth 
century,  but  it  will  not  do  now  when  so  many  critics  are  abroad. 

May  I  presume  to  invite  a  discussion  in  your  paper  on  this 
most  interesting  question?  I  cannot  forget  that  it  was  in  your 
pages  I  first  raised  it  many  years  ago. 

Bentcliffe,  Eccles,  December  10,      Henry  H.  Howorth. 


In  regard  to  the  first  part  of  Mr.  Howorth's  letter,  I  must  re- 
mind him  that  it  was  admitted  in  my  review  that  such  a  being 
as  an  irrational  uniformitarian  did  exist,  and  was  duly  smitten 
in  his  book. 

In  regard  to  the  occurrence  of  mammoth  carcasses  (not 
skeletons),  I  wrote  of  ice  with  some  hesitation,  knowing  alleged 
cases  to  be  open  to  question,  but  I  mentioned  it,  because,  in 
my  opinion,  it  would  be  the  most  difficult  to  explain,  and  the 
strongest  case  in  favour  of  Mr.  Howorth.  Where  the  carcass  is 
preserved  in  clay  or  gravel  the  difficulty  is  less.  All  that  seems 
needed  is  a  flood  of  rather  exceptional  character,  carrying  the 
dead  beast  rather  far  north  ;  then,  if  this  happened  at  the  right 
season  of  the  year,  the  body  might  be  buried  by  other  floods 
before  decomposition  set  in  (the  temperatures  might  be  always 
low,  though  sometimes  above  32°  F.),  and  so  the  body 
might  escape  unrotted,  until  it  was  finally  well  entombed.  My 
position  was  that,  though  this  explanation  of  the  escape  of  a 
carcass  from  destruction,  under  circumstances  not  very  different 
from  the  present,  was  not  easy,  the  explanation  of  such  a  series 
of  catastrophes  as  Mr.  Howorth  demanded  was  much  harder. 
The  grounds  of  this  opinion  cannot  of  course  be  stated  in  the 
limits  of  a  letter,  nor  can  I  discuss  seriatim  the  cases  which  he 
cites.  So  far  as  my  memory  serves  me  (I  am  writing  at  a 
distance  from  any  scientific  library)  they  are  not  so  universally 
favourable  to  his  view  as  is  stated  in  his  letter. 

The  remainder  of  Mr.  Howorth's  letter  is  open  to  the  charge 
which  he  brings  against  the  review,  of  being  merely  rhetorical. 
Quis  tulerit  Gracchos  de  seditione  querentes  ? 

Your  Reviewer. 


Centre  of  Water  Pressure. 

The  following  extremely  simple  construction  for  the  centre  of 
pressure  of  a  homogeneous  liquid  on  a  triangular  area  occupying 
any  position  whatever  in  the  liquid  has  not  (I  learn  from  a  high 
authority  on  hydrodynamics)  been  hitherto  known,  and  it  may 
be  interesting  to  some  of  the  readers  of  Nature. 

Let  a  particle  be  imagined  to  be  placed  at  each  vertex  of  the 
triangle,  its  mass  being  proportional  to  the  depth  of  this  vertex 
from  the  surface  of  the  liquid  ;  let  g'  be  the  centre  of  gravity  of 
these  particles,  and  let  G  be  the  "  centre  of  gravity  "  of  the  tri- 
angular area.  Then  P,  the  centre  of  pressure,  lies  on  the  line 
G  g'  at  a  distance  J  G  g'  from  G. 

There  is  another  almost  equally  simple  way  of  expressing  this 
result ;  and  of  course  it  is  known  that  there  are  other  ways,  more 
or  less  practically  unmanageable,  of  representing  the  position  of 
this  point,  p,  by  means  of  momental  ellipses,  &c. 

George  M.  Minchin. 

R.I.E.  College,  Cooper's  Hill,  December  15. 


The  Recent  Earthquakes  in  Iceland. 

On  October  28  last,  at  20  minutes  past  5  in  the  morn- 
ing, two  earthquakes  occurred  at  Reykjavik,  and  reports  were 
soon  received  as  to  earthquakes  in  other  districts,  especially  at 
Cape  Reykjanes.  The  whole  peninsula  of  Reykjanes  is  covered 
with  lava  streams,  and  there  are  many  craters  and  fissures.  The 
extreme  point  of  this  peninsula  seems  in  former  times  to  have 
been  the  scene  of  many  volcanic  eruptions.  Tradition  tells  that 
long  ago  the  promontory  stretched  eight  miles  further  to  south- 
west than  it  does  now,  and  that  great  earthquakes  and  volcanic 
eruptions  in  the  years  1389-90  produced  the  subsidence  of  the 
ancient  promontory.  The  land  reached  then  to  Eldey  (the  Fire 
Island),  or,  as  the  Danes  call  it,  "  Melsjekken."  In  historic 
times  ten  volcanic  eruptions  are  known  to  have  taken  place  in 
the  neighbourhood  of  these  rocks. 

During  the  night  between  October  27  and  28  more  than  forty 
shocks  were  felt  at  the  lighthouse  of  Cape  Reykjanes,  nine  of  the 
lamps  were  broken,  and  the  house  where  the  lighthouse  keeper 
lives  and  a  warehouse  were  damaged.  A  fissure  from  south- we.' t 
to  north-east  was  formed  in  the  rocks  2  yards  from  the  light- 
house ;  the  rocks  beneath  were  cracked  in  several  places,  and 
these  cracks  go  in  the  same  direction  as  the  old  fissures  asso- 
ciated with  volcanic  cones.  At  Eyrarbakki  the  earthquake  was 
observed  at  25  minutes  past  5,  and  proceeded  from  north - 
north-west  to  south-south-east.  To  north-west  the  earth- 
quake was  felt  in  Borgar  fjord,  and  as  far  to  the  south-east  as  to 
Eyjafjoll.  This  shock  was  therefore  felt  over  an  area  of  more 
than  4500  square  miles. 

A  less  violent  earthquake  was  felt  here  in  Reykjavik  on 
November  13,  at  35  minutes  past  9  p.m. 

In  the  year  1882  I  published  in  an  Icelandic  review,  Andvari, 
a  list  of  questions  concerning  earthquakes,  nearly  the  same  as 
were  published  in  1880  by  Prof  A.  Heim  for  the  Earthquake 
Commission  in  Switzerland.  A  similar  list  of  questions  has  now 
been  printed  in  the  Icelandic  newspapers.  The  questions  will 
also  be  printed  separately,  and  sent  to  Icelandic  clergymen  and 
others  who  probably  take  interest  in  this  subject. 

Reykjavik,  November  30.  Th.  Thoroddsen. 

The  Canary  Islands. 

Now  that  the  Canary  Islands  are  rapidly  becoming  better 
known  as  one  of  the  most  advantageous  health-resorts  within 
easy  reach  of  England,  it  may  be  of  some  interest  to  mention  a 
few  facts  concerning  diseases  in  the  Archipelago. 

The  one  pre-eminent  fact  is  that  the  climate  seems  to  modify 
the  virulence  of  the  worst,  the  most  dangerous  diseases. 
Puerperal  fever,  though  rather  prevalent,  is  seldom,  I  may 
almost  say  never,  fatal,  though  I  know  of  cases  where  the 
patient  has  been  neglected  for  several  days  before  medical  advice 
was  obtained.  Diphtheria  is  also  very  prevalent  in  the  large 
towns,  owing  to  the  total  absence  of  the  most  ordinary  sanitary 
piecautions,  but  it  seems  always  to  exist  in  a  mild  form.  I 
know  of  certain  families  who  apparently  have  it  frequently,  but 
this  terrible  disease  seems  to  be  only  fatal  where  the  mo  t 
elementary  knowledge  of  nursing  is  absent. 

Fevers  of  all  kinds  are  lighter  in  character.  The  treatment 
recommended  there  by  the  profession  is  different  from  thatinvogiu; 
in  England.  For  example,  it  starts  by  a  thorough  clearing  out 
of  the  system  by  means  of  somewhat  violent  purgatives  and 
emetics. 

Equable  as  is  the  climate  by  day  and  night,  the  natives  suffer 
most  from  chills,  which  often  end  fatally.  This,  I  think,  may 
be  in  a  great  measure  accounted  for  by  the  absence  of  woollen 
or  silken  clothing.  Those  who  visit  the  Canaries  from  colder 
northern  latitudes  where  wool  is  worn  next  the  skin,  and  who 
most  wisely  continue  this  habit,  do  not  suffer  in  this  way.  It  is 
advisable  that  every  article  of  clothing  worn  in  the  islands  be 
either  made  of  wool  or  silk.  Thus  armed,  one  is  almost  im- 
pregnable to  the  attacks  of  any  disease  of  a  catarrhal  nature. 
Malaria  does  not  exist.  Precautions  as  to  hours  of  recreation, 
such  as  keeping  in  the  house  at  sundown,  are  in  these  islands 
unnecessary,  and  one  may  be  out  on  the  hottest  day  at  the  hottest 
hour  without  fear  of  sunstroke. 

The  only  disease  which  in  any  way  can  be  said  to  be  peculiar 
to,  or  prevalent  in,  the  Canary  Islands  is  elephantiasis,  which, 
as  your  readers  well  know,  does  not  affect  well- nourished 
inhabitants,  and  is  neither  contagious  nor  infectious. 

In  Gran  Canaria  diseases  of  the  stomach  and  intestines  are 


202 


NA  TURE 


{Dec.  29,  1887 


comir.on  among  the  peasants.  Such  are  clearly  traceable  to  the 
national  food,  gofio,  which  in  this  island  is  made  of  Indian 
corn. 

For  phthisis  the  Canary  Islands  have  been  proved  of  inestim- 
able value,  and  therefore  on  this  point  nothing  more  need  be 
said.  The  temi^erature  throughout  the  year,  by  day  and  by 
night,  varies  exceedingly  little.  In  my  recently-published  work 
on  these  islands  I  have  gone  so  fully  into  this  question  that  I 
need  not  recapitulate  it  here. 

I  should  not  have  thus  ventured  to  trouble  you  had  I  not  been 
asked  by  some  leading  members  of  the  medical  profession  to 
summarize  the  facts,  bearing  upon  diseases,  scattered  through  the 
pages  of  my  book  and  to  add  thereto  others  which  I  had  deemed 
unsuitable  for  the  general  reader.  Olivia  M.  Stone. 

II  Sheffield  Gardens,  Kensington,  W. ,  December  14. 


The  Ffynnon  Beuno  and  Cae  Gwyn  Caves. 

Mr.  Smith  has  entirely  failed  to  substantiate  the 
statement  made  by  him  in  his  letter  of  December  i  (p.  105) 
concerning  the  drift  over  the  entrance  of  the  Cae  Gwyn 
Cave,  which  is  20  feet  in  thickness  and  full  of  ice-scratched 
boulders,  many  of  large  size ;  therefore  I  need  only  say  in  reply  that 
the  Geological  Surveyors  who  surveyed  this  district  have  examined 
the  section  and  have  had  no  hesitation  whatever  in  classifying  the 
deposits  in  the  section  with  the  Glacial  beds  of  the  area.  In 
regard  to  the  age  of  river-drift  implements  as  compared  with 
those  found  in  the  cavern,  which  are  identical  with  the  imple- 
ments found  in  Kent's  cavern  and  the  French  caves,  I  need 
only  quote  the  remarks  of  M.  Lartet  ("  Reliquiae  Aquitanicje," 
p.  9): — "  If  some  are  inclined  to  attribute  to  the  works  of 
human  industry  found  in  the  'Diluvium'  or  'Drift'  a  date  more 
ancient  than  to  those  occurring  in  caves  with  a  similar  association 
of  animal  remains,  we  are  obliged  to  remark  that  such  a  pro- 
position, expressed  as  a  systematic  generalization,  is  not  justifiable 
in  any  point  of  view."  .  ,  .  "Caves  were  in  truth  the  first 
shelter  which  primitive  man  would  choose,  whether  driven  by 
instinct  or  determined  by  reason." 

When  Mr.  Smith  calls  the  implements  found  in  the  gravels  at 
Mildenhall,  Neolithic,  which  others  claim  to  be  Paleolithic,  and 
one  most  eminent  authority  to  be  pre-Glacial,  I  am  perfectly 
justified  in  saying  that  the  classification  of  such  implements, 
as  defined  by  Mr.  Smith,  has  no  chronological  value,  and 
therefore  I  do  not  think  that  anyone  is  likely  to  be  convinced  by 
his  arguments  when  he  is  "  content  to  resist  the  idea  of  the  pre- 
Glacial  age  of  these  caves  on  purely  archaeological  grounds." 

Henry  Hicks. 

Hendon,  December  23. 


Distorted  Earth  Shadows  in   Eclipses. 

With  reference  to  the  peculiar  appearance  of  the  earth's 
shadow  in  the  lunar  eclipse  of  August  3  of  this  year,  and  noted  by 
"  H.  H."  and  "  M.  C."  (see  Nature,  vol,  xxxvi.  pp.  367  and 
413),  it  may  be  of  interest  to  record  a  similar  distortion  observed 
by  Capt.  A.  E.  Barlow,  on  the  s.s.  Nizam,  at  Suez,  on  August 
23,  1877.  The  following  entry  appears  in  his  meteorological 
log  :— 

"The  eclipse  of  August  23.  The  moon  as  seen  at  mid- 
night at  Suez.  Weather  fine  starlight.  A  few  cir.-c.  (amount  3) 
travelling  from  northward." 

The  shadow  was  irregular  and  jagged  as  in  "M.C.'s" 
description,  Henry  Toynbee, 

Marine  Superintendent. 

Meteorological  Office,  December  22. 


DR.  BALFOUR  STEWART,  F.R.S. 

T  N  the  genial  Manchester  Professor  the  scientific  world 
■*•  has  lost  not  only  an  excellent  teacher  of  physics  but 
one  of  its  ablest  and  most  original  investigators.  He  was 
trained  according  to  the  best  methods  of  the  last  genera- 
tion of  experimentalists,  in  which  scrupulous  accuracy 
was  constantly  associated  with  genuine  scientific  honesty. 
Men  such  as  he  was  are  never  numerous  ;  but  they  are 
the  true  leaders  of  scientific  progress  : — directly,  by  their 
own  contributions  ;  indirectly,  though  (with  rare  excep- 


tions) even  more  substantially,  by  handing  on  to  their 
students  the  choicest  traditions  of  a  past  age,  mellowed 
by  time  and  enriched  from  the  experience  of  the  present. 
The  name  of  Stewart  will  long  be  remembered  for  more 
than  one  striking  addition  to  our  knowledge,  but  his 
patient  and  reverent  spirit  will  continue  to  impress  for 
good  the  minds  and  the  work  of  all  who  have  come  under 
its  influence. 

He  was  born  in  Edinburgh,  on  November  i,  1828,  so 
that  he  had  entered  his  sixtieth  year.  He  studied  for  a 
short  time  in  each  of  the  Universities  of  St.  Andrews  and 
Edinburgh,  and  began  practical  life  in  a  mercantile  office. 
In  the  course  of  a  business  voyage  to  Australia  his  par- 
ticular taste  for  physical  science  developed  itself,  and  his 
first  published  papers  : — "  On  the  adaptation  of  the  eye 
to  different  rays,"  and  "  On  the  influence  of  gravity  on 
the  physical  condition  of  the  Moon's  surface"  : — appeared 
in  the  Transactions  of  the  Physical  Society  of  Victoria  in 
1855.  On  his  return  he  gave  up  business  for  science,  and 
resumed  study  under  Kelland  and  Forbes,  to  the  latter  of 
whom  he  soon  became  Assistant.  In  this  capacity  he  had 
much  to  do  with  the  teaching  of  Natural  Philosophy  on 
occasions  when  Forbes  was  temporarily  disabled  by  his 
broken  health.  During  this  period,  in  1858,  Stewart  was 
led  to  his  well-known  extension  of  Prevost's  Law  of 
Exchanges,  a  most  remarkable  and  important  contribu- 
tion to  the  theory  of  Radiation.  He  seems  to  have  been 
the  first  even  to  suggest,  from  a  scientific  stand-point,  that 
radiation  is  not  a  mere  surface  phenomenon.  With  the 
aid  of  Forbes'  apparatus,  then  perhaps  unequalled  in  any 
British  University,  he  fully  demonstrated  the  truth  of  the 
conclusions  to  which  he  had  been  led  by  theory  ;  and  the 
award  of  the  Rumford  Medal  by  the  Royal  Society,  some 
years  later,  showed  that  his  work  had  been  estimated  at 
its  true  value,  at  least  in  the  scientific  world.  In  fact  his 
proof  of  the  necessary  equality  between  the  radiating  and 
the  absorbing  powers  of  every  substance  (when  divested 
of  some  of  the  unnecessary  excrescences  which  often  mask 
the  real  merit  of  the  earlier  writings  of  a  young  author) 
remains  to  this  day  the  simplest,  and  therefore  the  most 
convincing,  that  has  yet  been  given. 

Radiant  Heat  was,  justly,  one  of  Professor  Forbes'  pet 
subjects,  and  was  therefore  brought  very  prominently 
before  his  Assistant.  Another  was  Meteorology,  and  to 
this  Stewart  devoted  himself  with  such  enthusiasm  and 
success  that  in  1859  he  was  appointed  Director  of  the 
Kew  Observatory.  How,  for  eleven  years,  he  there  main- 
tained and  improved  upon  the  memorable  labours  of 
Ronalds  and  Welsh  needs  only  to  be  mentioned  here  : — 
it  will  be  found  in  detail  in  the  Reports  of  the  British 
Association.  Every  species  of  inquiry  which  had  to  be 
carried  out  at  Kew : — whether  it  consisted  in  the  testing 
of  Thermometers,  Sextants,  Pendulums,  Aneroids,  or 
Dipping-Needles,  the  recording  of  Atmospheric  Electri- 
city, the  determination  of  the  Freezing-Point  of  Mercury 
or  the  Melting-Point  of  Paraffin,  or  the  careful  study  of 
the  peculiarities  of  the  Air-Thermometer  : — received  the 
benefit  of  his  valuable  suggestions  and  was  carried  out 
with  his  scrupulous  accuracy. 

About  twenty  years  ago  Stewart  met  with  a  frightful 
railway  accident,  from  the  effects  of  which  he  did  not 
fully  recover.  He  was  permanently  lamed,  and  sustained 
severe  injury  to  his  constitution.  From  the  vigorous 
activity  of  the  prime  of  life  he  passed,  in  a  few  months, 
to  grey-headed  old  age.  But  his  characteristic  patience 
was  unrufiled,  and  his  intellect  unimpaired. 

His  career  as  Professor  of  Physics  in  the  Owens  Col- 
lege has  been,  since  his  appointment  in  1870,  brilliantly 
successful.  It  has  led  to  the  production  of  an  excellent 
treatise  on  Practical  Physics,  in  which  every  necessary 
detail  is  given  with  masterly  precision,  and  which  con- 
tains (what  is  even  more  valuable,  and  could  only  have 
been  secured  to  the  world  by  such  a  publication)  the 
matured   convictions  of  a  thorough  experimenter  as   to 


Dec.  29,  1887] 


NA  TURE 


20; 


the  choice  of  methods  for   the   attack ^of  each  special 
Problem. 

His  Elementary  Physics,  and  his  Conservation  of 
Energy,  are  popular  works  on  physics  rather  than  scien- 
tific treatises : — but  his  Treatise  on  Heat  is  one  of  the 
best  in  any  language,  a  thoroughly  scientific  work,  spe- 
cially characteristic  of  the  bent  of  mind  of  its  Author. 

Stewart  published,  in  addition  to  his  Kew  Reports,  a 
very  large  number  of  scientific  memoirs  and  short  papers. 
Many  of  these  (notably  the  article  in  the  Encyc.  Brit., 
9th  edn.)  deal  with  Terrestrial  Magnetism,  in  itself  as 
well  as  in  its  relations  to  the  Aurora  and  to  solar  disturb- 
ances. A  valuable  series  of  papers,  partly  his  own  partly 
written  in  conjunction  with  De  la  Rue  and  Loevvy,  deals 
with  Solar  Physics.  His  paper  on  the  Occurrence  of 
Flitit  Implements  in  the  Drift  {Phil.  Mag.  1862,  I.)  seems 
to  have  been  ignored  by  the  "  advanced  "  geologists,  one 
of  whose  pet  theories  it  tends  to  dethrone  ;  and  to  have 
been  noticed  only  by  physicists,  especially  Sir  W.  Thom- 
son, whose  beautiful  experiments  have  done  so  much  to 
confirm  it.  His  paper  on  Internal  Radiation  in  Uniaxal 
Crystals,  to  which  Stokes  alone  seems  to  have  paid  any 
attention,  shows  what  Stewart  might  have  done  in  Mathe- 
matical Physics,  had  he  further  developed  the  genuine 
mathematical  power  which  he  exhibited  while  a  student 
of  Ke  Hand's. 

I  made  Stewart's  acquaintance  in  1861,  when  he  was 
the  first-appointed  Additional  Examiner  in  Mathematics 
in  the  University  of  Edinburgh,  a  post  which  he  filled 
with  great  distinction  for  five  years.  A  number  of 
tentative  investigations  ultimately  based  upon  our  ideas 
as  to  possible  viscosity  of  the  luminiferous  medium,  effect 
of  gravitation-potential  on  the  physical  properties  of 
»■  matter,  &c.,  led  to  the  publication  of  papers  on  Rotation 
of  a  disc  in  vacuo.  Observations  with  a  rigid  spectroscope, 
Solar  spots  and  planetary  configurations,  &c.  These,  as 
well  as  our  joint  work  called  The  Unseen  Universe,  have 
been  very  differently  estimated  by  different  classes  of 
critics.  Of  course  I  cannot  myself  discuss  their  value. 
There  is,  however,  one  of  these  speculations,  so  closely 
connected  with  Stewart's  Radiation  work  as  to  require 
particular  mention,  especially  as  it  seems  not  yet  to  have 
received  proper  consideration,  viz.  Equilibrium  of  Tem- 
perature in  an  enclosure  cofitaining  matter  in  visible 
motion.  (Nature,  1871  ;  iv.  331.)  The  speculations 
are  all  of  a  somewhat  transcendental  character,  and 
therefore  very  hard  to  reduce  to  forms  in  which  they  can 
be  experimentally  tested  ;  but  there  can  be  no  doubt  that 
Stewart  had  the  full  conviction  that  there  is  in  them  all 
an  underlying  reality,  the  discovery  of  whose  exact  nature 
would  at  once  largely  increase  our  knowledge. 

Of  the  man  himself  I  cannot  trust  myself  to  speak. 
What  I  could  say  will  easily  be  divined  by  those  who 
knew  him  intimately  ;  and  to  those  who  did  not  know 
him  I  am  unwilling  to  speak  in  terms  which,  to  them, 
would  certainly  appear  exaggerated. 

P.  G.  Tait. 


CHRISTMAS  ISLAND. 

pROFESSOR  NEWTON  sends  us  the  following 
-*-  extracts  from  a  letter  received  by  him  from  Mr. 
J.  J.  Lister,  M.A.,  St.  John's  College,  Cambridge,  the 
naturalist  on  board  H.M.S.  Egeria,  Commander  Aldrich, 
R.N.,  describing  the  recent  visit  to  that  little-known 
island  :  — 

"We  left  Batavia  on  Tuesday,  September  27,  about 
5  a.m.,  and  were  in  the  Straits  of  Sunda  by  the  afternoon. 
We  saw  the  hills  on  the  Java  side  clearly,  scored  by  many 
steep-sided  valleys,  and  the  green  of  the  fields  contrasting 
brightly  with  the  red  volcanic  earth.  Behind  these  nearer 
hills  one  of  the  great  conical  mountains  loomed  out  every 
now  and  then  from  his  covering  of  clouds.     To  the  west- 


ward, and  more  distant,  a  high  volcanic  peak  on  the  main 
island  of  Sumatra  rose  above  nearer  islands,  and  later  in 
the  afternoon  we  saw  the  simple  conical  mass  of  Krakatab, 
Next  day  we  were  bouncing  about  in  deep  blue  water,  as 
we  steamed  south  against  a  head-wind— a  change  after 
the  quiet  sailing  over  the  pale  green  shallow  seas  in  which 
we  had  been  since  we  entered  the  Straits  of  Malacca. 
On  Friday,  September  30,  we  reached  Christmas  Island. 
The  first  we  saw  of  it  was  a  long  line  against  the  south- 
east horizon,  with  a  shallow  saddle  in  the  middle  and  a 
gradual  rise  at  either  end— that  to  the  west  being  the 
higher.  On  nearer  approach  the  island  was  seen  to  be 
uniformly  covered  with  trees,  with  a  low  cliff,  much 
undermined  at  the  water's  edge  ;  above  this  a  gradual 
slope  leads  to  another  steep  ascent,  which  in  some  places, 
especially  at  the  projecting  headlands,  is  a  bare  cliff,  in 
others  covered  with  trees.  From  this  there  is  a  gradual 
rise  to  the  top.  We  found  that  there  is  a  cap  of  coral 
limestone  over  the  whole  island.  The  top  is  formed  ©f 
gray  pinnacled  masses  with  steep  fissures  between  them, 
and  the  surface  of  the  rock  is  worn  into  a  rough  honey- 
comb with  sharp  points  and  ridges  which  break  under 
foot  and  show  the  glistening  white  rock.  On  the  slope  ot 
the  island  this  rock  forms  horizontal  terraces,  with  a  rough 
slope  of  pinnacled  masses  or  a  sheer  cliff  leading  down 
from  them,  and  these  seemed  to  be  in  a  general  way  con- 
tinuous at  the  same  level  along  the  side  .of  the  island.  I 
suppose  they  mark  the  pauses  in  its  gradual  elevation 
during  which  a  fringing  reef  has  formed.  Some  pieces  of 
rock,  apparently  volcanic,  were  picked  up  at  Flying-fish 
Cove,  but  it  was  not  found  where  they  had  fallen  from. 

"No  stream  or  standing  water  was  found.  Apparently  all 
the  rain  that  falls  soaks  into  the  porous  rock  at  once.  The 
vegetation,  however,  looked  fresh  and  green,  and  the  under 
parts  of  fallen  logs  were  sodden  with  moisture.  On  two 
of  the  nights  during  the  ten  days  we  were  there,  there 
was  heavy  rain  ;  otherwise  we  had  fine  weather.  Many 
of  the  trees  are  tall,  reaching  150  to  170  feet  or  more,  and 
some  of  them  have  vertical  buttresses  at  the  base,  which 
wind  about  horizontally  and  give  off  secondary  buttresses. 
They  are  often  laden  with  great  clumps  of  birds'-nest  ferns, 
as  well  as  with  other  ferns,  orchids,  and  parasitical  trees, 
and  their  trunks  are  festooned  with  long  straight  lianas.  I 
only  found  two  orchids  with  flowers  out,  but  these  were 
small  and  inconspicuous.  Along  the  shore  there  are 
tangled  thickets  of  screw  pines,  and  another  kind  grows 
on  the  higher  part.  A  large  proportion  of  the  trees  bear 
edible  fruits.  Altogether  I  am  sending  home  some  fifty 
kinds  of  flowering  plants  and  fifteen  of  ferns. 

"  The  rat  {Mus  macleari)  swarms  on  the  island.  They 
come  out  at  dusk,  and  run  about,  in  and  out  of  the  tents 
that  were  pitched  by  the  shore,  through  the  night.  There 
is  another  kind  of  rat  which  is  larger  and  black,  except 
where  the  scanty  fur  on  the  feet  allows  the  pale  skin  to 
show.  There  is  also  a  shrew  mouse,  whose  short  shrill 
squeak  may  often  be  heard  in  the  woods.  I  caught  three 
of  them  one  night  in  a  pitfall.  Several  specimens  of  the 
fruit-eating  bat  {Pteropus  natalis)  were  obtained,  includ- 
ing males,  which  have  no  pale-coloured  tippet,  as  Mr. 
Thomas  [P.Z.S.,  1887,  p.  512]  thought  might  possibly  be 
the  case.  There  is  a  small  insectivorous  bat  in  the 
island,  but  I  did  not  succeed  in  getting  one. 

"  The  large  fruit-eating  pigeon  {Carpophaga  whartoni) 
is  very  common.  They  congregate  in  the  fruit-bearing 
trees,  and  may  then  be  shot  by  the  dozen.  They  are 
excellent  eating,  and  supplied  fresh  meat  for  the  ship. 

"There  is  a  small  dove — brown,  with  a  rich  bronzy-green 
on  the  back  and  wings — which  is  very  common.  Their 
habits  are  remarkably  in  keeping  with  their  colouring. 
On  trees  they  are  restless  and  seldom  seen,  but  on  the 
ground,  among  fallen  brown  and  green  leaves,  where 
their  colour  makes  them  very  inconspicuous,  they  seem 
to  have  no  fear.  I  shot  seven  one  morning  close  to  our 
place  :  they  were  feeding  in  pairs  on  fallen  berries,  and 


204 


NATURE 


{Dec.  29,  1887 


when  one  of  a  pair  was  shot,  the  other  went  on  feeding  as 
though  nothing  had  happened. 

"The  thrush  {Turdus erythropleurus)  is  very  abundant, 
and  as  tame  as  possible.  None  of  my  specimens  show 
any  motthng,  but  Capt.  Aldrich  told  me  that  he  saw  one 
with  the  breast  mottled.  The  bill  and  feet  are  as  yellow 
as  a  cock  blackbird's.  I  heard  no  song,\>w\.  they  often  give  a 

'  chick chick chick —  chick-chick-chick,'    quicken- 

ing  time  at  the  finish. 

"  Parties  of  twelve  to  twenty  of  a  species  of  Zosterops 
were  very  common.  They  had  just-fledged  young  ones 
among  them. 

"  The  other  birds  we  obtained  were  two  hawks,  an  owl, 
a  swift,  a  heron,  a  plover,  and  a  sandpiper.  Besides 
these,  frigate-birds,  gannets,  boobies,  and  boatswain-birds 
of  two  kinds  were  everywhere  abundant. 

"  We  obtained  three  kinds  of  lizards,  and  the  Typhlops 
which  was  found  before,  but  no  tortoises.  We  saw  a 
turtle  making  off  down  the  beach  early  one  morning,  but 
it  got  into  the  sea  before  it  could  be  turned  over. 

"  We  saw  no  frogs,  and  heard  none. 

"  We  found  five  kinds  of  land-shells,  four  of  butter- 
flies, ^  few  moths,  and  some  eighteen  species  of  beetles, 
besides  spiders,  centipedes,  &c.  I  have  one  of  the 
hawks  alive,  which  I  hope  to  be  able  to  bring  home  to 
England "J.  J.  LiSTER." 

Accounts  have  been  received  from  Captain  Aldrich, 
R.N.,  of  H.M.  surveying-vessel  Egeria,  of  a  recent  visit 
to  Christmas  Island  in  the  Indian  Ocean,  made  in  con- 
sequence of  the  interest  attaching  to  the  small  collec- 
tion recently  brought  thence  by  Captain  Maclear,  R.N., 
(see  Nature,  vol.  xxxvi.  p.  12).  Mr.  J,  J.  Lister  kindly 
volunteered  to  act  as  naturalist,  and  proceeded  from 
England  to  Colombo,  whence  he  took  a  passage  in  the 
Egeria  for  the  purpose  of  collecting. 

Captain  Aldrich  states  that  the  highest  point  of  the 
island  was  reached  at  the  expense  of  considerable  labour, 
but  without  as  much  difficulty  as  was  anticipated.  This 
point  is  1200  feet  high,  and  not,  as  was  before  incorrectly 
stated,  1580  feet. 

The  island  is  coral-clad  to  the  very  top,  the  actual 
summit  being  a  block  of  coralline  limestone,  worn  and 
undermined.  No  rock  other  than  of  a  calcareous  nature 
was  met  with  in  the  island,  though  a  diligent  search  was 
made,  and  holes  dug  where  the  soil  appeared  thickest. 

Three  tiers  of  cliffs,  probably  marking  sea-levels,  inter- 
vene between  the  top  of  the  existing  sea  cliffs  and  the 
summit.  Breaches  in  these  cliffs  afforded  means  of 
scaling  them,  aided  by  the  numerous  aerial  roots  of  the 
trees  with  which  the  island  is  densely  covered. 

Between  the  cliffs  the  ground  rises  irregularly,  being 
covered  in  some  places  with  soil  apparently  deep,  inter- 
mixed with  fragments  of  coral.  Tangled  jungle  and  high 
forest  grow  everywhei-e.  The  vertical  rise  to  the  summit 
where  ascended  takes  place  in  the  following  manner,  as 
described  by  Captain  Aldrich  : — 

Coast  cliff    30  feet  vertical. 

Moderate  slope  90         ,, 

First  inland  cliff". 85         ,, 

Moderate  slope  250         ,, 

Second  inland  cliff  ) 

Slope  [ 95 

Third  inland  cliff     ) 

Steep  slope  of  rough  ground 650         ,, 

The  total  horizontal  distance  is  about  5000  feet. 

Christmas  Island  therefore  appears  to  be  a  remarkable 
instance  of  the  complete  casing  with  coral  of  an  island 
which,  from  the  time  that  its  nucleus  first  came  within  the 
reef-building  zone,  has  been  steadily  subjected  to  a  move- 
ment of  upheaval,  varied  by  pauses,  during  which  the 
cliffs  were  eroded  by  the  sea.  So  far  as  I  am  aware,  no 
case  of  similar  magnitude  has  yet  been  recorded. 


The  collections  now  on  their  way  to  England  are,  it  is 
feared,  not  so  varied  as  was  anticipated  from  the  samples 
of  life  brought  home  by  the  Flying  Fish. 

A  considerable  number  of  interesting  photographs  were 
obtained  by  the  officers,  and  accompany  Captain  Aldrich's 
report,  which  will  be  published. 

The  Egeria  has  obtained  a  line  of  soundings  across 
the  hitherto  unfathomed  area  of  the  southern  Indian 
Ocean,  between  the  Strait  of  Sunda  and  Mauritius,  but 
no  details  have  as  yet  come  to  hand. 

December  17.  W.  J.  L.  Wharton. 


TIMBER,  AND  SOME  OF  ITS  DISEASES} 

II. 

'X* HE  enormous  variety  presented  by  the  hundreds  of 
-^  different  kinds  of  woods  known  or  used  in  different 
countries  depends  for  the  most  part  on  such  peculiarities  as 
I  have  referred  to  above,  together  with  some  others  which 
have  not  as  yet  been  touched  upon.  Everybody  knows 
something  of  the  multitudinous  uses  to  which  timber  is 
put,  and  a  little  reflection  will  show  that  these  uses  are 
dependent  upon  certain  general  properties  of  the  timber. 
Speaking  broadly,  the  chief  properties  are  its  weight, 
hardness,  elasticity,  cohesion,  and  power  of  resisting 
strains,  &c.,  in  various  directions,  its  durability  in  air  and 
in  water,  and  so  forth  ;  moreover,  special  uses  demand 
special  properties  of  other  kinds  also,  and  the  colour, 
closeness  of  texture,  capacity  for  receiving  polish,  &c., 
come  into  consideration. 

Now,  there  is  no  doubt  that  the  structure  of  the  wood 
as  formed  by  the  cambium  is  the  chief  factor  in  deciding 
these  technological  characters :  it  is  not  the  only  factor, 
but  it  is  the  most  important  one.  Consequently  no  sur- 
prise can  be  felt  that  those  who  are  interested  in  timber 
have  of  late  years  turned  their  attention  to  this  subject 
with  a  view  to  ascertain  as  much  as  possible  about  this 
structure,  and  to  see  whether  it  can  be  controlled  or  modi- 
fied, what  dangers  it  is  subject  to,  and  how  far  a  classifica- 
tion of  timbers  can  be  arrived  at.  The  more  the  subject 
is  studied,  the  more  interesting  and  practically  important 
the  matter  becomes.  The  results  already  obtained 
(though  the  study  is  as  yet  only  in  its  infancy),  have 
thrown  brilliant  light  on  several  burning  questions  of 
physiology — as  witness  the  researches  of  Sachs,  Hartig, 
Elfving,  and  Godlewski,  on  that  old  puzzle,  to  account  for 
the  ascent  of  water  in  tall  trees.  The  study  is,  moreover, 
of  first  importance  for  the  comprehension  of  the  destruc- 
tion of  timber,  due  to  "  dry-rot "  and  the  parasites  which 
cause  diseases  in  standing  trees,  as  is  shown  by  the 
brilliant  researches  of  Prof.  R.  Hartig  on  the  destruction 
of  timber  by  Hymenomycetes ;  and  again  as  yielding 
trustworthy  information  as  to  the  value  of  different  kinds 
of  timber  in  the  arts,  and  enabling  us  to  recognize  foreign 
or  new  woods  of  value.  In  support  of  this  statement  it  is 
only  necessary  to  call  attention  to  the  "  Manual  of  Indian 
Timbers,"  prepared  for  the  Indian  Government  by  Mr. 
Gamble ;  or  to  refer  to  the  beautiful  series  of  wood- 
sections  prepared  by  Nordlinger. 

It  is,  of  course,  impossible  in  an  article  like  the  present 
to  do  more  than  touch  upon  a  few  of  the  more  interesting 
points  in  this  connection  ;  but  I  may  shortly  summarize 
one  or  two  of  the  more  striking  of  these  peculiarities  of 
timbers,  if  only  to  show  how  well  worth  further  investiga- 
tion the  matter  is. 

Many  timbers,  from  both  tropical  and  temperate 
climates,  exhibit  the  so-called  "  annual  rings "  on  the 
transverse  section  ;  but  this  is  not  the  case  with  all. 
Most  European  timbers,  for  instance,  are  clearly  com- 
posed of  such  layers ;  but  in  some  cases  the  layers 
("  rings  "  on  the  transverse  section)  are  so  narrow  and 

'  Continued  from  p.  186. 


Dec.  29,  1887] 


NATURE 


205 


numerous  that  the  unaided  eye  can  scarcely  distinguish 
them,  or  the  differences  between  the  spring  and  autumn 
wood  are  so  indistinctly  marked  that  they  may  appear 
to  be  absent,  or  are  at  least  obscure,  as  in  the  Olive, 
Holly,  and  Orange,  for  instance.  It  is  in  the  tropics, 
however,  that  timber  without  annual  rings  is  most 
common,  chiefly  because  the  seasons  of  growth  are  not 
sufficiently   separated   by  periods  of  rest  to  cause    the 


Pig.  7. — Transverse  section  of  the  wood  of /'tiw^'i/w/a^/rti^r^,  Vent.,  selected 
to  show  a  type  of  timber  not  uncommon  in  India.  No  distinct  annual 
rings  appear,  but  the  wood  is  traversed  by  wavy  bands  of  tissue,  which 
may  run  into  one  another  or  not.  The  vessels  ("  pores  ")  are  few  and 
scattered,  and  differ  in  size  ;  the  medullary  rays  well  marked,  but  not 
large.  To  this  type — differing  in  other  details — belong  many  species  of 
figs,  acacias,  and  other  Asiatic  Leguminosese,  &c. 

formation  of  sharply-marked  zones,  corresponding  to 
spring  and  autumn  wood,  e.g.  some  Indian  Leguminosaj, 
&c.  Zones  of  tissue  of  other  kinds  often  occur  in  such 
timbers,  and  have  to  be  understood,  since  they  affect  the 
properties  of  the  wood  very  differently,  e.g.  some  of  the 
Figs. 

None  of  the  conifers  or  dicotyledonous  trees,  however, 
are  devoid  of  medullary  rays,  and  distinctive  characters 


ii«-f!+i.-fiK;iffrm 


Fig.  8. — Transverse  section  of  wood  of  Tamarind ns  iiniica,  Linn.,  selected 
to  show  a  not  uncommon  type  of  Asiatic  limber.  The  annual  rings  are 
indistinct,  but  occasionally  indicated  by  denser  tissue  (a).  The  vessels 
are  fairly  large  and  few,  and  scattered  much  as  in  Fig.  7,  but  there  are 
no  such  broad  bands  of  cells  as  there. 

are  based  on  the  breadth  and  numbers  of  these :  as 
examples  for  contrast  may  be  cited  the  fine  rays  of  the 
Pines  and  Firs,  and  the  coarse  obvious  ones  of  the  Oaks. 
Again,  the  prominence  or  minuteness,  or  even  (Coni- 
ferae)  absence,  of  vessels  in  the  secondary  wood  afford 
characters  for  classification.  The  contrast  between  the 
extremely  small  vessels  of  the  Box  and  the  very  large 
ones  of  some  Oaks  and  the  Chestnut,  for  instance,  is  too 


striking  to  be  overlooked.  Then,  again,  in  some  timbers 
the  vessels  are  distributed  more  or  less  equably  through- 
out the  "  annual  ring,"  as  in  the  Alder,  some  Willows 
and  Poplars,  &c.  ;  whereas  in  the  Chestnut  and  others 
they  are  especially  grouped  at  the  inner  side  of  the  annual 
zone  {i.e.  in  the  spring  wood),  and  in  some  cases  these 


aiiiJ 


H;i;).b(;iEfc:  wciiiii 


Fig.  g. — Tr.insverse  fection  of  the  wood  of  .leer  pseiido-filatanus,  selected 
to  show  a  type  of  timber  common  in  Europe.  The  annual  rings  (a)  are 
well-marked  and  regular.  The  vessels  are  small  and  numerous,  and 
scattered  somewhat  equally  over  the  whole  breadth  of  the  ring.  The 
medullary  rays  are  numerous,  some  broad,  some  fine.  Many  European 
timbers  (beech,  hornbeam,  lime,  &c.)  agree  with  this  type,  except  \ya 
details. 

groupings  are  such  as  to  form  characteristic  figures  on 
the  transverse  section,  as  in  some  Oaks,  Rhamnus,  &c. 
In  the  woodcuts  (Figs.  7-10)  I  have  given  four  examples 
illustrating  a  few  of  the  chief  points  here  adverted  to. 

Passing  over  peculiar  appearances  due  to  the  distribu- 
tion of  the   wood-parenchyma   between  the  vessels,  as 


kh^. 


:fcTrift<-J'       v..tnr.-.  ,in>i.^^.-,n^, 


Fig.  10. — ^Transverse  section  of  wood  of  the  common  e\m(i/l>iins  campes- 
tri's),  selected  as  a  common  type  of  European  timber.  The  annual 
rings  are  very  distinct,  owing  to  the  large  vessels  in  the  spring  wood ; 
the  vessels  formed  during  the  summer  an  1  autumn  are  grouped  in  barids 
or  zones.  The  medullary  rays  are  numerous,  but  not  very  broad.  The 
oak,  ash,  chestnut,  and  otheri  agree  in  the  main  with  this  type,  differing 
chiefly  in  the  mode  of  grouping  of  the  smaller  vessels,  and  in  the 
breadth  of  the  medullary  rays. 

exemplified  by  the  Figs  and  the  Maples,  as  well  as  minor 
but  conspicuous  features  which  enable  experts  to  recog- 
nize the  timber  of  certain  trees  almost  at  a  glance,  I  may 
now  proceed  to  indicate  a  few  other  peculiarities  which 
distinguish  different  timbers. 
The  weight  of  equal  volumes  of  different  woods  differs 


2o6 


NATURE 


[Dec.  29,  1887 


more  than  is  commonly  supposed,  and  there  are  certain 
details  to  be  considered  in  employing  weight  as  a 
criterion  which  have  not  always  been  sufficiently  kept  in 
mind. 

A  cubic  foot  of  "seasoned"  timber  of  the  Indian  tree 
Hardwickia  binata  weighs  about  80  lbs.  to  84 lbs.,  while 
a  cubic  foot  of  Bombax  fnalabaricum  may  weigh  less 
than  20  lbs.,  and  all  gradations  are  possible  with 
various  timbers  between  these  or  even  greater  extremes. 
If  we  keep  in  mind  the  structure  of  wood,  it  is  evident 
that  the  weights  of  equal  volumes  of  merely  seasoned 
timber  will  yield  only  approximate  results.  For  even  if 
the  seasoning,  weighing,  &c.,  are  effected  in  a  constant 
atmosphere,  woods  which  differ  in  "  porosity  "  and  other 
properties  will  differ  in  the  extent  to  which  they  absorb 
moisture  from  damp  air  or  give  it  up  to  dry  air. 

In  our  climate,  timber  which  is  felled  in  April  or  May, 
generally  speaking,  contains  much  more  water  than  if 
felled  in  July  and  August :  it  is,  in  fact,  no  uncommon 
event  to  find  that  about  half  the  weight,  or  even  more, 
of  a  piece  of  recently  felled  timber  is  due  to  the 
water  it  contains.  If  this  water  is  driven  off  by  heat,  and 
the  piece  of  wood  thoroughly  dried,  the  latter  will  be 
found  to  weigh  so  much  less,  but  it  will  increase  in  weight 
gradually  as  it  imbibes  moisture  again. 

Now  it  happens  that  the  weight  of  a  piece  of  timber, 
compared  with  that  of  an  equal  volume  of  some  standard 
substance — in  other  words,  the  specific  weight — is  of  very 
great  importance,  because  several  other  properties  of 
wood  stand  in  relation  with  it,  e.g.  the  hardness,  dura- 
bility, value  as  fuel,  tendency  to  shrink,  &c.  Fresh-cut 
tiinber  in  very  many  cases  contains  on  an  average  about 
45  to  50  per  cent,  of  its  weight  of  water,  and  if  "  seasoned  " 
in  the  ordinary  way  this  is  reduced  to  about  15  to  20  per 
cent.;  but  the  fresh  timber  also  contains  air,  as  may  easily 
be  shown  by  warming  one  end  at  the  fire  or  in  hot  water 
and  watching  the  bubbles  driven  out,  and  the  seasoned 
timber  contains  less  water  and  more  air  in  proportion,  so 
that  we  see  how  many  sources  of  error  are  possible  in 
the  usual  weighings  of  timber.  At  the  same  time,  many 
comparative  weighings  of  equal  volumes  of  well-seasoned 
timber  do  yield  results  which  are  of  rough  practical 
use. 

The  fact  is  that  the  so-called  "  specific  weight "  of 
timber,  as  usually  given,  is  not  the  specific  gravity  of  the 
wood-substance,  but  of  \!a.'\t  plus  entangled  air  and  water. 
It  is  interesting  to  note  that,  although  we  associate  the 
property  of  floating  with  wood,  timber  deprived  of  its 
air  will  sink  rapidly,  being  about  half  as  heavy  again  as 
water,  volume  for  volume. 

The  point  just  now,  however,  is  not  to  discuss  these 
matters  in  detail,  but  rather  to  indicate  that,  other  things 
equal,  the  density  of  a  piece  of  timber  will  be  greater,  the 
more  of  that  closely-packed,  thick-walled  autumn  wood 
it  contains  ;  while  tha  timber  will  be  specifically  lighter 
and  contain  more  air  when  dry,  the  greater  the  proportion 
of  the  looser,  thin-walled  spring  wood  in  its  "annual 
rings."  In  other  words,  if  we  could  induce  the  cambium 
to  form  more  autumn  wood  and  less  spring  wood  in  each 
annual  ring,  we  could  improve  the  quality  of  the  timber  ; 
and,  in  view  of  the  statement  which  has  been  made,  to 
the  effect  that  large  quantities  of  timber  of  poor  quality 
reach  the  Continental  wood-yards  every  year,  this  is 
obviously  an  important  question,  or  at  any  rate  may  be- 
come one.  The  remainder  of  this  article  must  be  devoted 
to  this  question  alone,  though  it  should  be  mentioned 
that  several  other  questions  of  scientific  and  practical 
importance  are  connected  with  it. 

The  first  point  to  notice  is  that  the  cambium-cells,  like  all 
other  living  cells  which  grow  and  divide,  are  sensitive  to 
the  action  of  the  environment.  If  the  temperature  is  too 
high  or  too  low,  their  activity  is  affected  and  may  even  be 
brought  to  an  end  ;  if  the  supply  of  oxygen  is  too  small, 
their  life  must  cease,  since  they  need  oxygen  for  respira- 


tion just  as  do  other  living  cells  ;  if  they  are  deprived  of 
water,  they  cannot  grow — and  if  they  cease  to  grow  they 
cannot  divide,  and  any  shortcomings  in  the  matter  of 
water-supply  will  have  for  effect  a  diminution  of  activity 
on  the  part  of  the  cambium.  The  same  is  true  of  the 
supply  of  food-substances  :  certain  mineral  salts  brought 
up  from  the  soil  through  the  roots,  and  certain  organic 
substances  (especially  proteids  and  carbo-hydrates)  pre- 
pared in  the  leaves,  are  as  necessary  to  the  life  of  a 
cambium-cell  as  they  are  to  the  life  of  other  cells  in  the 
plant.  Now,  since  the  manufacture  of  these  organic 
substances  depends  on  the  exposure  of  the  green  leaves 
to  the  light,  in  an  atmosphere  containing  small  quantities 
of  carbon-dioxide,  and  since  the  quantities  manufactured 
are  in  direct  relation  to  the  area  of  the  leaf-surface — the 
size  and  numbers  of  the  leaves — it  is  obvious  that  the 
proper  nourishment  of  the  cambium  is  directly  dependent 
on  the  development  of  the  crown  of  foliage  in  a  tree. 
Again,  since  the  amount  of  water  (and  mineral  salts  dis- 
solved in  it)  will  vary  with  the  larger  or  smaller  area  of 
the  rootlets  and  absorbing  root-hairs  (other  things  equal), 
this  also  becomes  a  factor  directly  affecting  our  problem. 
Of  the  interdependencies  of  other  kinds  between  these 
various  factors  we  cannot  here  speak,  since  they  would 
carry  the  argument  too  far  for  the  space  at  command  ; 
some  of  them  are  obvious,  but  there  are  correlations  of  a 
subtle  and  complex  nature  also. 

First  as  to  temperature.  The  dormant  condition  of 
the  cambium  in  our  European  winter  is  directly  depen- 
dent on  the  low  temperature  :  as  the  sun's  rays  warm  the 
environment,  the  cambial  cells  begin  to  grow  and  divide 
again.  The  solar  heat  acts  in  two  ways  :  it  warms  the 
soil  and  air,  and  it  warms  the  plant.  Wood,  however,  is 
a  bad  conductor  of  heat,  and  the  trunk  of  a  tree  is 
covered  by  the  thick  corky  bark,  also  an  extremely  bad 
conductor,  and  it  would  probably  need  the  greater  part  of 
the  early  summer  to  raise  the  temperature  of  the  cambium 
sufficiently  for  activity  in  the  lower  parts  of  a  tree  by 
direct  solar  heat  :  the  small  twigs,  on  the  contrary,  which 
are  covered  by  a  thin  layer  of  cortex,  and  epidermis,  are  no 
doubt  thus  warmedfairly  rapidly,  and  their  early  awakening 
is  to  be  referred  to  this  cause.  The  cambium  in  the  trunk, 
however,  is  not  raised  to  the  requisite  temperature  until 
the  water  passing  up  through  the  wood  from  the  roots  is 
sufficiently  warm  to  transmit  some  of  the  heat  brought 
with  it  from  the  soil  to  the  cells  of  the  cambium.  This 
also  is  a  somewhat  slow  process,  for  it  takes  some  time 
for  the  sun's  rays  to  raise  the  temperature  of  the  soil 
while  the  days  are  short  and  the  nights  cold.  Hartig  has 
shown  that  the  cambium  in  the  lower  part  of  the  trunk  of 
a  tree  may  be  still  dormant  three  weeks  or  a  month  after 
it  has  begun  to  act  in  the  twigs  and  small  branches  ;  and 
it  has  also  been  pointed  out  that  trees  standing  in  open 
sunny  situations  begin  to  renew  their  growth  earlier  than 
trees  of  the  same  species  growing  in  shady  or  crowded 
plantations,  where  the  moss  and  leaf-mould,  &c.,  prevent 
the  sun  from  warming  the  soil  and  roots  so  quickly.  These 
observations  have  also  a  direct  bearing  on  the  later  re- 
newal of  cambial  activity  in  trees  growing  on  mountains 
or  in  high  latitudes.  Moreover,  though  I  cannot  here  open 
up  this  interesting  subject  in  detail,  these  facts  have  their 
connection  with  the  dying  off  of  temperate  trees  in  the 
tropics,  as  well  as  with  the  killing  of  trees  by  frost  in 
climates  like  our  own.  One  important  practical  point  in 
this  connection  may  be  adverted  to.  Growers  of  conifers 
are  well  aware  that  certain  species  cannot  be  safely  grown 
in  this  country  (or  only  in  favoured  spots)  because  the 
sun's  rays  rouse  them  to  activity  at  a  time  when  spring 
frosts  are  still  common  at  night,  and  their  young  tissues 
are  destroyed  by  the  frosts.  Prof  R.  Hartig  has  pointed 
out  a  very  instructive  case.  The  larch  is  an  Alpine  plant, 
growing  naturally  at  elevations  where  the  temperature  of 
the  soil  is  not  high  enough  to  communicate  the  necessary 
stimulus  to  the  cambium  until  the  end  of  May  or  June. 


Dec.  29,  1887] 


NATURE 


207 


Larches  growing  in  the  lowlands,  however,  are  apt  to 
begin  their  renewed  growth  in  April,  and  frosted  stems 
are  a  common  result,  a  point  which  (as  the  renowned 
botanist  just  referred  to  also  showed)  has  an  important 
bearing  on  that  vexed  question — the  "  larch-disease." 

The  supply  of  oxygen  to  the  cambium  is  chiefly  depen- 
dent on  the  supply  of  water  from  the  roots,  and  the 
aeration  of  the  stem  generally.  The  water  begins  to 
ascend  only  when  the  soil  is  warm  enough  to  enable  the 
root-hairs  to  act,  and  new  ones  to  be  developed,  and  the 
supply  of  mineral  salts  goes  hand  in  hand  with  that  of 
water. 

Now  comes  in  the  question  of  the  sources  of  the  organic 
substances.  There  is  no  doubt  that  the  cambium  at  first 
takes  its  supply  of  food-materials  from  the  stores  which 
have  been  laid  by,  in  the  medullary  rays,  &c.,  at  the  con- 
clusion of  the  preceding  year  ;  and  it  is  known  that 
special  arrangements  exist  in  the  wood  and  cortex  to  pro- 
vide for  this  when  the  water  and  oxygen  arrive  at  the  seat 
of  activity. 

Assuming  that  all  the  conditions  referred  to  are  favour- 
able, the  cambium-cells  become  filled  with  water  in  which 
the  necessary  substances  are  dissolved,  and  distended 
(become  turgid,  or  turgescent,  as  it  is  technically  called) 
sufficiently  for  growth.  Speaking  generally,  and  with 
reference  chiefly  to  the  trunk  of  the  tree,  which  yields  the 
timber,  the  distension  of  the  cells  is  followed  by  growth 
in  the  direction  of  a  radius  of  the  stem,  and  division 
follows  in  the  vertical  plane,  tangential  to  the  stem.  Then 
the  processes  already  described  with  reference  to  Fig.  5 
repeat  themselves,  and  the  trunk  of  the  tree  grows  in 
thickness. 

Now  it  is  obvious  that  the  thickening  of  the  mass  of 
timber  inside  the  cylinder  of  cambium  must  exert  pressure 
on  the  cortex  and  bark — must  distend  them  elasticaJly,  in 
fact — and  some  ingenious  experiments  have  been  made  by 
De  Vries  and  others  to  show  that  this  pressure  has  an 
effect  in  modifying  the  radial  diameter  of  the  cells  and 
vessels  formed  by  the  cambium.  Several  observers  have 
promulgated  or  accepted  the  view  that  the  differences 
between  so-called  spring  and  autumn  wood  are  due  to  the 
variations  in  pressure  of  the  cortex  on  the  cambium,  but 
the  view  has  lately  gained  ground,  based  on  experimental 
evidence,  that  these  differences  are  matters  of  nutrition, 
and  a  recent  investigator  has  declared  that  the  thick- 
walled  elements  and  small  sparse  vessels  characteristic  of 
autumn  wood  can  be  produced,  so  to  speak,  at  will,  by 
altering  the  conditions  of  nutrition. 

It  is  authoritatively  stated  that  the  pines  of  the  cold 
northern  countries  are  preferred  for  ships'  masts  in 
Europe,  and  that  the  wood-cutters  and  turners  of  Germany 
prize  especially  the  timber  of  firs  grown  at  high  elevations 
in  the  Bavarian  Alps.  Now  the  most  striking  peculiarity 
of  the  timbers  referred  to  is  the  even  quality  of  the  wood 
throughout :  the  annual  rings  are  close  and  show  less  of 
the  sharp  contrasts  between  thin-walled  spring  wood  and 
thick-walled  autumn  wood,  and  Hartig  suggested  that  this 
is  due  to  the  conditions  of  their  nutrition,  and  in  the 
following  way.  The  trees  at  high  elevations  have  their 
cambium  lying  dormant  for  a  longer  period,  and  the 
thickening  process  does  not  begin  in  the  lower  parts  of 
the  trunk  until  the  days  are  rapidly  lengthening  and  the 
sun's  rays  gaining  more  and  more  power  :  the  consequence 
is  that  the  spring  is  already  drawing  to  a  close  when  the 
cambium-cells  begin  to  grow  and  divide,  and  hence  they 
perform  their  functions  vigorously  from  the  first. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  experiments  in  this  con- 
nection came  under  my  observation  this  summer,  owing 
to  the  kindness  of  Prof.  Hartig.  There  is  a  plantation  of 
larches  at  Freising  near  Munich,  with  young  beeches 
growing  under  the  shade  of  the  larches.  The  latter  are 
seventy  years  old,  and  are  excellent  trees  in  every  way. 
About  twenty  years  ago  these  larches  were  deteriorating 
seriously,  and  were  subsequently  "under-planted"  with 


beech,  as  foresters  say — i.e.  beech-plants  were  introduced 
under  the  shade  of  the  larches.  The  recovery  of  the 
latter  is  remarkable,  and  dates  from  the  period  when  the 
under-planting  was  made. 

The  explanation  is  based  on  the  observation  that  the 
fallen  beech-leaves  keep  the  soil  covered,  and  protect  it 
from  being  warmed  too  early  in  the  spring  by  the  heat  of 
the  sun's  rays.  This  delays  the  spring  growth  of  the 
larches  :  their  cambium  is  not  awakened  into  renewed 
activity  until  three  weeks  or  a  month  later  than  was 
previously  the  case,  and  hence  they  are  not  severely  tried 
by  the  spring  frosts,  and  the  cambium  is  vigorously  and 
continuously  active  from  the  first. 

But  this  is  not  all.  The  timber  is  much  improved :  the 
annual  rings  contain  a  smaller  proportion  of  soft,  light 
spring  wood,  and  more  of  the  desirable  summer  and 
autumn  wood  consisting  of  closely-packed,  thick-walled 
elements.  The  explanation  of  this  is  that  the  spring 
growth  is  delayed  until  the  weather  and  soil  are  warmer, 
and  the  young  leaves  in  full  activity  ;  whence  the  cam- 
bium is  better  nourished  from  the  first,  and  forms  better 
tracheides  throughout  its  whole  active  period.  Such  a 
result  in  itself  is  sufficient  to  "repay  the  investigations 
of  the  botanist  into  the  conditions  which  rule  the 
formation  of  timber,  but  this  is  by  no  means  the  only 
outcome  of  researches  such  as  those  carried  on  so 
assiduously  by  Prof.  Hartig  in  Miinich,  and  by  other 
vegetable  physiologists. 

It  is  easy  to  understand  that  the  toughness,  elasticity, 
and  such  like  qualities  of  a  piece  of  timber,  depend  on  the 
character  of  the  tracheides,  fibres,  &c.,  of  which  it  is  chiefly 
composed.  Investigations  are  showing  that  the  length  of 
such  fibres  difters  in  different  parts  of  the  tree.  Sanio  has 
already  demonstrated  that  in  the  Scotch  pine,  for  instance, 
the  tracheides  differ  in  length  at  different  heights  in  the 
same  trunk,  becoming  longer  as  we  ascend,  and  also  are 
longer  in  the  outer  annual  rings  than  in  the  inner  ones  as 
the  tree  grows  older,  up  to  a  certain  period  ;  and  this  is  in 
accordance  with  other  statements  to  the  general  effect 
that  for  many  years  the  wood  improves,  and  that  better 
wood  is  found  at  the  base  of  the  trunk. 

However,  it  is  impossible  to  pursue  these  subjects  in 
all  their  details  :  my  object  is  served  by  showing  how  well 
worthy  of  the  necessary  scientific  study  is  timber  even 
to  those  who  are  only  concerned  with  it  in  its  usual  con- 
ditions, and  within  those  limits  of  variation  in  structure 
and  function  which  constitute  health.  The  importance 
of  the  subject  in  connection  with  the  modern  develop- 
ment of  biology  along  the  grand  road  of  comparative 
physiology,  does  not  need  insisting  upon  here.  It  will 
be  the  object  of  further  articles  to  show  how  it  is,  if 
possible,  still  more  important  and  interesting  to  know 
the  structure  and  functions  of  healthy  timber,  before  the 
practical  man  can  understand  the  diseases  to  which 
timber  is  subject.  At  the  same  time  it  must  be  clearly 
borne  in  mind  that  these  are  but  sketches  of  the  subject  ; 
for  it  is  as  true  of  trees  and  their  diseases  as  it  is  of  men 
and  human  diseases,  if  you  would  be  trainers  and  doctors 
you  must  know  thoroughly  the  structures  and  peculiarities 
of  the  beings  which  are  to  be  under  your  care. 

H.  Marshall  Ward. 

{To  be  continued.) 


NOTES. 

The  collections  of  natural  history  lately  forwarded  to  the 
British  Museum  by  Dr.  Emin  Pasha,  from  Central  Africa,  will 
be  described  at  the  meeting  of  the  Zoological  Society  on 
January  17.  The  specimens  have  been  determined  by  various 
experts  in  the  different  branches  of  natural  history  to  which 
they  belong.  Mr.  Oldfield  Thomas  has  prepared  a  paper  on 
the   mammals,  amongst  which   are  examples  of  a  remarkable 


208 


NATURE 


{Dec.  29,  1887 


new  species  oi  Hyrax.  Captain  Shelley  will  contribute  a  paper 
on  the  series  of  birds,  which  also  embraces  several  new  forms. 
The  Lepidoptera  have  been  worked  out  by  Mr.  A.  G.  Butler, 
and  contain  specimens  of  thirteen  butterflies  new  to  science, 
Mr.  Edgar  A.  Smith  has  examined  the  fresh-water  shells  which 
Dr.  Emin  Pasha  obtained  on  the  Lake  Albert  Nyanza.  They 
are  referable  to  five  species  only,  but  three  of  these,  as  might 
have  been  expected  from  the  novel  locality  in  which  they  were 
obtained,  appear  to  be  new  to  science. 

The  Physical  Society,  of  which  Dr.  Balfour  Stewart  was 
President,  was  represented  at  his  funeral  by  three  of  its 
members :  Mr.  J.  Johnstone  Stoney,  Prof.  G.  F.  Fitzgerald, 
and  Prof.  W.  F.  Barrett. 

In  a  lecture  lately  delivered  by  Sir  Douglas  Galton  at  the 
Parkes  Museum,  he  drew  attention  to  the  increase  every  year 
of  fog  and  smoke  in  London,  and  to  the  possibility  of  their 
abatement.  Dr.  Russell's  experiments,  carried  out  at  St. 
Bartholomew's  Hospital,  for  the  Meteorological  Council,  showed 
that  the  City  rain  contained  twice  as  much  impurity  as  that  col- 
lected in  the  suburbs.  That  is  to  say,  if  the  City  rain  were  diluted 
with  nearly  an  equal  bulk  of  water,  we  should  have  the  rain  of 
the  suburbs.  He  referred  to  the  experiments  of  Prof.  Lodge 
with  a  bell-jar  filled  with  smoke,  which  is  quickly  deposited  by 
a  discharge  of  electricity,  and  argued  that  by  disturbing  the 
electrical  condition  of  the  air  by  kites  or  balloons,  rain  may 
be  caused,  and  by  this  means  the  fog  dislodged.  Failing  this, 
nothing  remains  but  to  use  gas  instead  of  open  stoves,  but  this 
method  at  present  costs  about  four  times  as  much  as  coal. 

We  learn  from  the  Annales  Industrielles  that  a  mine-shaft  is 
being  successfully  sunk  by  M.  Alexandre,  of  the  Houssu  Com- 
pany, in  Belgium,  through  a  stratum  of  moist  sand  12  metres  thick, 
met  with  at  70  metres  depth,  by  the  Poetsch  method,  which 
consists  in  freezing  the  sand,  then  excavating  it  like  rock.  In 
the  present  case  ten  iron  tubes  (with  cutting  crown)  are  inserted 
in  the  sand  at  about  i  metre  interval,  penetrating  the  coal  below. 
Into  these  are  put  other  tubes,  through  which  is  passed  a  very  cold 
liquid  to  return  by  the  larger  tubes  (generally  chloride  of  mag- 
nesium cooled  by  expansion  of  ammonia).  The  sand  is  frozen 
more  than  3  metres  round  the  tubes.  It  has  the  appearance  of  a 
rock  harder  than  the  compact  chalk  of  the  English  Channel 
tunnel ;  it  is  sparkling,  and  speckled  with  particles  of  coal.  The 
chloride  of  magnesium,  injected  at  -  14°  C,  returns  at  -  12°, 
A  thermometer  inserted  10  centimetres  in  the  stratum  read  -8°. 
M.  Poetsch's  method  was  lately  applied  to  making  a  tunnel  at  a 
small  depth  under  part  of  the  city  of  Stockholm. 

Waterspouts  are  sometimes  seen  on  the  Lake  of  Geneva, 
and  M.  Dufour  has  made  a  study  of  one  which  occurred  on 
August  19,  about  7.30  a.m.  {Arch,  des  Sciences).  It  seems  to 
have  arisen  on  the  lake  at  the  meeting  of  two  winds,  one  from 
the  south,  in  the  eastern  part  of  the  lake,  and  the  other  from  the 
west,  in  the  western  ;  and  its  path  was  along  the  line  of  demarka- 
tion,  changing  direction  somewhat  as  it  neared  the  northern 
shore.  Some  testified  to  a  rising  of  the  water,  which  was  in 
violent  rotation  (in  the  direction  of  the  hands  of  a  watch).  The 
base  of  the  column  was  like  whirling  opaque  smoke,  which  rose 
in  widening  spiral,  lost  above  in  the  cloud.  The  column  was 
considerably  inclined,  the  upper  part  advancing  more  quickly 
than  the  lower.  In  the  rear  was  heavy  rain.  It  is  estimated  that 
the  trombe  was  about  2  to  3  metres  in  diameter  at  foot,  and 
about  106  metres  high,  and  its  ra:e  of  progress  about  760  metres 
per  minute  (the  speed  of  an  express  train).  On  reaching  the 
shore  it  disappeared,  doing  no  h.irm  either  to  vineyard  or  rail- 
way, and  had  the  look  of  a  serpent  drawing  in  its  tail.  The 
weather  was  very  variable  that  day,  from  hour  to  hour,  and  from 
one  part  of  the  lake  to  another.  There  was  no  thunder  nor 
lightning. 


The  United  States  Monthly  Weathly  Review  for  September 
last  shows  nine  depressions  in  the  Atlantic  Ocean,  of  which  five 
were  of  tropical  or  sub- tropical  origin.  Three  advanced  east- 
wards from  the  American  Continent  north  of  45°  N.,  and  one 
appeared  over  the  British  Isles.  Three  of  the  depressions 
moved  across  the  Atlantic  to  Western  Europe.  As  compared 
with  September  1886,  there  was  a  slight  decrease  in  the  quantity 
of  ice  reported  ;  this  year  the  northern  limit  was  lat.  45°  37'  N. , 
and  the  eastern  limit  long.  40°  50'  W.    . 

The  Port  Officer  of  Madras  has  given  notice,  dated  Septem- 
ber 22,  1887,  that  the  following  storm-signals  have  been  adopted 
at  the  ports  of  the  Madras  Presidency,  instead  of  the  flags 
hitherto  used : — Day-signals  :  a  ball  indicates  the  probable 
approach  of  dangerous  weather  ;  a  drum  indicates  that  a  cyclone 
is  likely  to  approach  the  port ;  a  cone,  apex  upwards,  at  the 
flag-staff  of  the  port,  indicates  that  it  is  decided  the  shipping 
shall  be  ordered  to  sea,  .  Night-signals  :  three  lights,  hoisted 
vertically  one  above  the  other,  indicate  the  probable  approach 
of  dangerous  weather  ;  two  lights,  hoisted  vertically  one  above 
the  other,  indicate  that  a  cyclone  is  likely  to  approach  the  port ; 
three  bright  lights,  hoisted  triangularly,  one  at  the  mast-head 
and  one  at  each  yard-arm  of  the  flag-staff  of  the  port,  indicate 
that  it  is  decided  the  shipping  shall  be  ordered  to  sea. 

At  the  conclusion  of  the  Colonial  and  Indian  Exhibition  some 
specimens  of  the  American  lake-trout  (6".  namayctish),  which  had 
been  hatched  and  reared  in  the  Canadian  Section,  were  put  in  a 
tank,  where  they  prospered.  One  fish  especially  prospered, 
surpassing  the  others  in  size  by  an  inch.  In  the  course  of  this 
year  they  have  all  disappeared,  with  the  exception  of  the  one 
referred  to,  whose  colossal  form  accounts  for  its  missing  con- 
geners, which  evidently  became  its  prey.  Mr.  W.  August 
Carter,  of  the  National  Fish-Culture  Association,  states  that 
about  50,000  of  these  fish  were  hatched  at  South  Kensington 
two  years  ago,  when  he  observed  them  attack  one  another  soon 
after  leaving  their  sac.  There  is  a  great  diversity  of  growth 
among  them — greater  than  that  which  exists  among  British 
trout. 

A  CURIOUS  incident  is  reported  by  Mr.  William  Burgess,  pro- 
prietor of  the  Midland  Counties  Fish-Culture  Establishment. 
He  states  that  a  pond  constructed  by  him  last  March,  measuring 
-  50  feet  by  30  feet,  which  is  entirely  isolated  from  other  similar 
ponds,  was  shortly  after  its  formation  found  to  be  populated  with 
trout  fry  in  their  alevin  stage.  No  fish  of  any  kind  had  been 
placed  in  the  pond,  and  none  could  have  entered  it,  the  inlet 
and  outlet  being  blocked  with  perforated  zinc  of  a  very  fine 
mesh.  The  soil  of  the  pond  in  question  was  excavated  from  a 
brook  where  trout  must  have  previously  spawned,  and  the  ova, 
although  buried  in  mud  and  flung  heedlessly  about,  survived,  and 
the  fry  came  to  life  when  water  had  been  let  into  the  pond. 
This  is  another  proof  of  the  enduring  capacity  of  Salmonidcz  ova. 

At  a  recent  meeting  of  the  Paris  Biological  Society,  M.  I>. 
Vaillant  offered  some  remarks  concerning  the  way  in  which 
Atitennarius  marmorattis,  a  curious  fish  already  studied  by 
Agassiz,  builds  its  nest.  Each  nest  is  made  of  one  sea-weed  (of 
the  Sargasso  Sea)  the  different  twigs  being  brought  together  and 
made  fast  to  each  other  by  the  fish  by  means  of  a  pasty  sort  of 
substance  provided  by  the  animal  itself.  Agassiz  thought  that 
separate  bits  of  sea-weed  were  used,  but  it  is  shown  that  it 
uses  the  whole  of  the  twigs  and  branches  of  a  single  plant  ; 
which,  of  course,  allows  of  much  easier  work. 

That  the  weasel  {Mustela  vulgaris)  destroys  frogs  is  proved 
by  the  following  incident.  While  standing  near  a  pond  on  hi^ 
estate,  a  gentleman  at  Worcester  observed  a  weasel  give  chase  to 
a  frog,  which  it  followed  to  the  water  and  succeeded  in  captur- 
ing. Holding  it  firmly  by  the  head,  the  weasel  emerged  from 
the  water  and  brought  its  victim  to  the  bank,  but  on  finding 


Dec.  29,  1887] 


NA  rURE 


209 


itself  disturbed  let  go  the  frog  and  disappeared.  Happening  to 
visit  the  spot  on  the  succeeding  day  the  gentleman  found  the  frog 
alive  in  exactly  the  same  place  where  it  had  been  left  by  the 
weasel,  although  it  had  been  bitten  through  to  the  skull. 

At  a  recent  meeting  of  the  Jena  Naturalists'  Society,  Herr 
Stahl  read  a  paper  on  the  significance  of  those  excreta  of  plants 
known  as  raphides,  i.e.  crystalline  needles  often  met  with  in  the 
cells  in  large  quantity.  From  experiments  he  inferred  that  they 
were  a  protection  to  plants  against  being  eaten  by  animals.  Many 
animals  avoid  plants  with  raphides,  or  eat  them  reluctantly  ; 
and  some  animals,  e.g.  snail  species,  in  eating  plants  that  have 
raphides  select  those  parts  that  are  without  the  crystals.  Many 
plants  held  for  poisonous,  e.g.  Arum  maculattitn,  owe  their 
burning  taste  simply  to  the  very  numerous  raphides,  which, 
forced  out  of  their  cells,  enter  the  tongue  and  palate.  The  juice 
obtained  by  filtration  has  quite  a  mild  taste. 

We  have  received  the  Proceedings  of  the  Academy  of  Natural 
Sciences  of  Philadelphia,  Part  2,  April  to  August  1887.  The 
volume  contains  a  valuable  paper,  by  Mr.  Edward  Potts,  pre- 
senting "  Contributions  towards  a  Synopsis  of  the  American 
Forms  of  Fresh- water  Sponges,  with  descriptions  of  those 
named  by  other  authors,  and  from  all  parts  of  the  world."  In 
closing  this  monograph,  Mr.  Potts  says  he  knows  of  no  more 
hopeful  field  of  labour  for  a  young  American  naturalist,  seeking 
for  new  worlds  to  conquer,  than  that  provided  by  the  fresh-water 
sponges.  Active  workers  in  this  field  in  North  America  have, 
thus  far,  but  glanced  at  a  few  streams  and  lakes,  mostly  in  the 
neighbourhoods  of  Buffalo,  Chicago,  and  Philadelphia,  and  in 
parts  of  Florida,  Nova  Scotia,  and  Newfoundland.  Mr.  Potts 
has  little  doubt  that  the  rest  of  the  American  continent  holds 
many  rare  prizes  in  trust  for  younger  and  better-equipped 
explorers. 

Another  important  paper  by  Dr.  B.  Franke,  of  Leipzig,  upon 
the  preparation  and  constitution  of  the  hydrates  of  manganic 
oxide  and  peroxide  is  contributed  to  the  current  number  of  the 
Journal  fiir  Praktische  Chemie.  By  the  action  of  100  c.c.  con- 
centrated sulphuric  acid  upon  8  grammes  potassium  per- 
manganate, a  beautiful  dark  reddish-brown  crystalline  salt  was 
obtained  of  the  composition  Mn.2(S04)3 .  H2SO4 .  4H0O.  When  the 
crystals  of  this  salt  were  placed  in  asolution  of  soda,  they  were  de- 
composed with  deposition  of  a  crystalline  powder.  These  precipi- 
tated minute  crystals  were  found  to  consist  ofthe  hydrate  of  man- 
ganic oxide,  Mn203  .  HoO,  and  were  shown  to  possess  the  consti- 

/O.  .OH 

tution  Mn^       pMn^  ;  they  were  of  a  steel-gray  colour,  and 

^0/        ^OH 
possessed. metallic  lustre.     On  heating  to  a  temperature  exceed- 
ing   120°,    water   was    evolved,    and   black    Mn^Oj    re  nained. 
When,  however,  the  reddish-brown  salt  was  dissolved  in  dilute 
sulphuric  acid,  a  precipitate  afterwards  separated  out,  consisting  of 

HO 
pure  manganous  acid,  MnO^.  HgO,  of  constitution  J>MnO. 

ho/ 

On  rapidly  filtering  and  washing  with  water,  alcohol,  and  ether, 
the  acid  was  obtained  as  a  brown  powder,  which  on  ignition  be- 
came transformed  into  black  MnjOg.  One  of  the  most  in- 
teresting results  of  similar  experiments  with  hydrochloric 
acid,  which  behaves  in  a  precisely  analogous  manner,  is  that 
they  throw  considerable  light  upon  the  mode  of  action  of  hydro- 
chloric acid  upon  manganese  dioxide,  the  reaction  so  commonly 
employed  for  the  preparation  of  chlorine.  The  first  action  is 
shown  to  consist  in  the  formation  of  a  chlorine  substitution-pro- 
duct of  manganous  acid,  thus  :  MnOg  -f  6HC1  =  H^MnClg  -t- 
2H2O.  This  substance  is,  however,  rapidly  broken  up  into 
manganous  chloride,  hydrochloric  acid,  and  free  chlorine : 
HjMnClg  =  CI2  -f  MnCla  +  2HCI.  A  secondary  action  then 
commences,  the  manganous  chloride  thus  formed  combines  with 
further  quantities  of  the  chlorine  substitution-product  to  form 


manganic  chloride  :  MnCl.,  -f  HaMnCls  =  MnaClg  4-  2HCI. 
The  manganic  chloride,  as  is  well  known,  does  not  remain  as 
such,  and  Dr.  Franke  shows  that,  like  the  sulphate,  it  is  at  once 
decomposed  by  water  as  follows  :  MnjClg  -f  4H2O  =  Mn203  . 
H2O  -f  6HC1.  Finally,  the  free  hydrochloric  acid  decomposes 
the  crystalline  hydrate  with  formation  of  stable  manganous 
chloride.  It  is  especially  important  to  have  this  reaction  thus 
thoroughly  cleared  up,  as  it  is  one  of  the  earliest  brought  to  the 
attention  of  students. 

A  NEW  method  of  determining  the  amount  of  fusel  oil  in 
spirituous  liquors,  by  counting  drops  from  an  instrument  named 
a  sfalagmometer,  has  been  lately  brought  before  the  Berlin 
Chemical  Society  by  Herr  Traube,  who  had  previously  worked 
out  such  determinations  with  a  capillarimeter,  but  finds  the  new 
plan  preferable  on  some  accounts.  The  instrument  is  a  short, 
bent  glass  tube  bulged  at  one  part,  into  which  the  liquor  is 
sucked  up,  being  previously  diluted  to  about  20  vols,  per  cert. 
The  room-temperature  being  noted,  the  number  of  drops  in  a 
given  volume  is  counted,  and  then  compared  with  the  corre- 
sponding number  got  at  the  same  temperature  from  pure  20  per 
cent,  alcohol.  A  plus  of  about  i  '6  drop  per  cent,  in  the  former 
case  indicates  about  o'l  per  cent,  fusel  oil;  one  of  about  35 
drops  o"2  per  cent,  fusel  oil,  and  so  on.  Even  o'o5  per  cent, 
can  be  certainly  determined,  and,  while  the  author  considers  this 
arrangement  quite  sufficient  for  practice,  he  describes  an  im- 
proved form  of  his  method  which  admits  of  determining  0'02 
per  cent,  fusel  oil,  as  well  as  etheric  oils,  &c.  In  this  the  fusel 
oil  is  first  expelled  from  its  solution  by  means  of  certain  salts. 

In  a  recent  series  of  experiments  on  the  resistance  of  materials 
to  frost,  Herr  Bliimcke  took  the  method  of  putting  cubes  of 
various  kinds  of  stone  in  distilled  water,  under  the  receiver  of  an 
air-pump,  and  after  the  air  was  exhausted  and  the  cube  saturated 
with  liquid,  exposing  the  latter  to  a  freezing  mixture.  He  finds 
that  a  material  is  more  resistant  the  less  the  weight  of  particles 
it  loses  in  a  given  number  of  freezings.  The  results  corre- 
sponded pretty  much  to  experience.  Besides  the  well-known 
visible  phenomena  of  weathering,  there  is,  even  in  the  first  action 
of  frost,  a  loss  of  extremely  fine  particles,  not  perceptible  in  the 
material  itself  The  appearance  of  the  visible  phenomena  occurs 
sooner  the  more  water  the  stone  has  taken  up.  The  mode  of 
working  has  a  not  unimportant  influence  on  the  resistance  of 
materials. 

At  the  monthly  meeting  of  the  Linnean  Society  'of  Ne.w 
South  Wales,  held  October  26,  Dr.  Oscar  Katz  read  a  paper 
on  three  new  kinds  of  phosphorescent  Bacteria,  in  addition  to 
three  already  recorded  by  the  author  at  the  meeting  of  last 
June :  (i)  Bacillus  argenteo-phosphorescens  liquefaciens,  ob- 
tained from  sea-water  at  Bondi  ;  its  cultures,  liquefying 
gelatine,  emit  in  the  dark  a  silvery  light,  which,  however,  is 
the  weakest  of  the  six  kinds  hitherto  found ;  (2)  Bacillus 
argenteo-phosphorescens  II.,  derived  from  a  luminous  piece  of  a 
small  squid  (Loligo),  and,  at  the  same  time,  from  luminous 
pieces  of  the  Sydney  Garfish  {Hemirha/nphus  iniertnedius. 
Cant.,  H.  melanochir,  Cuv.  and  Val.);  (3)  Bacillus  argenteo- 
phosphorescens  HI.,  from  the  squid  already  mentioned.  Neither 
of  the  latter  micro-organisms  causes  liquefaction  of  the  gelatine. 
They  give  off  in  the  dark  a  handsome  silver  light,  much  more 
intense  than  that  of  the  first-mentioned,  but  resembling  that  of 
the  previously-exhibited  Bacillus  argenteo-phosphorescens  (now 
to  be  designated  I.).  From  this  latter  Nos.  11.  and  HI.  dis- 
tinctly differ.  Fuller  details  about  all  these  luminous  Bacteria 
will  be  forthcoming  shortly. 

During  his  last  journey  to  the  Amdo,  M.  Potanin  discovered 
an  interesting  manuscript  containing  a  Tibetan  version  of  the 
Mongolian  epics  of  Hesser-Khan.  Speaking  of  this  discovery, 
Prof  Vasilieff  has  lately  expressed  his  belief  that  travellers  might, 
if  they  tried,  find  many  valualjle  manuscripts  in  Eastern  Turkistan 


2IO 


NATURE 


\_Dec.  29,  1887 


— relics  of  the  earlier  Buddhist  era  and  of  the  Chinese  dominion. 
Such  treasures  are  probably  also  to  be  found  in  Japan  and  Corea. 
It  is  known  that  there  are  Japanese  versions  of  Hiuan  Thsang's 
journey ;  and  Prof  VasiliefF  has  been  informed  that  manuscripts 
written  on  palm4eaves,  and  brought  from  India,  have  been  seen 
in  Corea.  Many  Coreans  formerly  visited  India  as  Buddhist 
pilgrims. 

A  LIST  of  publications  issued  by  the  authority  of  the  De- 
partment of  Science  and  Art  has  just  been  published.  It 
includes  publications  specially  relating  to  instruction  in  science 
and  art,  publications  relating  to  the  South  Kensington  Museum, 
catalogues  of  reproductions  and  of  loan  collections,  miscella- 
neous publications,  hand-books,  books  of  photographs,  and 
diagrams. 

Messrs.  Giard  and  Bonnier  have  just  published  a  valuable 
memoir  on  the  anatomy  of  the  Bopyridse,  with  good  illustrations. 

Whales — the  so-called  "herring"  whales,  which  follow  the 
shoals  of  that  fish — are  very  numerous  off  the  west  coast  of 
Norway  this  winter,  and  large  catches  have  been  made. 

In  the  Report  of  a  Committee  appointed  by  the  British 
Association  "  for  the  purpose  of  investigating  .  .  .  the  quantity 
and  character  of  the  water  supplied  to  various  towns  and 
districts "  from  the  permeable  formations  of  England,  a  very 
misleading  statement  as  to  the  character  of  the  water-supply  of 
Cheltenham  was  made.  In  a  later  Report  of  the  same  Com- 
mittee, just  issued,  the  error  is  frankly  admitted.  "  In  the 
Eleventh  Report  of  your  Committee,"  we  read,  "  by  a  most 
unfortunate  misprint,  the  reservoirs  are  described  as  *  dry '  during 
the  drought  of  1884,  instead  of  'short,'  as  reported  by  a  cor- 
respondent, in  which  statement  he  was  obviously  incorrect. 
Your  Committee  much  regret  that  the  condition  of  the  Chelten- 
ham Waterworks  should  have  been  misrepresented  by  them,  as 
they  were  fully  aware  of  the  ample  supply  and  pure  quality 
given  to  the  town  by  the  Corporation,  the  purity  of  which  has 
been  testified  to  by  Drs.  Allen  Miller,  Frankland,  Way,  and 
Tidy,  and  Prof.  Voelcker." 

The  Brighton  Herald  says  it  is  expected  that  the  medallion 
portrait  of  the  la^e  Dr.  Thomas  Davidson,  F.R.S..  Gold 
Medallist  of  the  Royal  Society,  Wollaston  Medallist  of  the 
Geological  Society,  and  first  Chairman  of  the  Brighton  Museum 
Committee,  executed  in  marble  for  the  Committee  of  the 
Davidson  Memorial  by  Mr.  Thomas  Brock,  A.R.A.,  will  be 
unveiled  early  in  the  new  year.  The  work  is  said  to  be  an 
excellent  likeness. 

A  SHOCK  of  earthquake  was  reported  from  Oberhausen  on 
December  9.     The  direction  was  from  west  to  east. 

Last  week  Sir  John  Lubbock  delivered  an  interesting  address 
in  Queen  Street  Hall,  Edinburgh,  to  the  members  of  the  Edin- 
burgh Philosophical  Institution  on  "The  Sense  and  Senses  of 
Animals."  He  said  one  would  gratefully  admit  that  the  dog 
was  a  loyal  and  true  and  affectionate  friend,  but  when  we  came 
to  consider  the  nature  of  the  animal  our  knowledge  was  very 
limited.  That  arose  a  good  deal  from  the  fact  that  people  had 
tried  rather  to  teach  animals  than  to  learn  from  them.  It  had 
occurred  to  him  that  some  such  method  as  that  which  was  fol- 
lowed in  the  case  of  deaf-mutes  might  prove  instructive  if 
adapted  to  the  case  of  dogs.  He  had  tried  with  a  black 
poodle  belonging  to  himself.  He  then  went  on  to  relate  several 
experiments  he  had  made  with  pieces  of  cardboard  with 
different  words  marked  upon  them.  He  had  taken  two  pieces 
of  card,  one  blank  and  the  other  with  the  word  "  food  "  upon 
it.  He  had  put  the  latter  on  a  saucer  containing  some  bread 
and  milk,  and  the  blank  card  he  put  on  an  empty  saucer.  The 
dog  was  not  allowed  to  eat  until  it  brought  the  proper  card  to 
him.     This  experiment  was  repeated  over  and  over  again,  and 


in  about  ten  days  the  dog  began  to  distinguish  the  card  with  the 
letters  on  it  from  the  plain  card.  It  took  a  longer  time  to  make 
the  dog  realize  the  difference  between  different  words.  In 
order  to  try  and  discover  whether  the  dog  could  distinguish 
colours,  he  prepared  six  cards,  marking  two  of  them  blue,  two 
yellow,  and  two  orange.  He  put  one  of  each  on  the  floor,  and 
tried  to  get  the  dog  to  bring  to  him  a  card  with  the  same  colour 
as  one  which  he  showed  the  dog  in  his  hand.  After  trying  this 
for  three  months,  he  found  that  his  experiment  in  this  direction 
was  a  failure.  He  had  always  felt  a  great  longing  to  know  how 
the  world  appeared  to  the  lower  animals.  It  was  still  a  doubtful 
point  whether  ants  were  able  to  hear.  From  experiments  which 
he  had  made,  he  had  come  to  the  conclusion  they  had  not  the 
power  of  addressing  each  other.  His  impression  on  the  whole 
was  that  bees  and  ants  were  not  deaf,  but  that  they  heard 
sounds  so  shrill  as  to  be  beyond  our  hearing.  There  was  no 
doubt  about  insects  seeing.  He  related  several  experiments  he 
had  made  with  the  view  of  discovering  whether  different  insects 
could  distinguish  different  colours  and  had  any  preference  for 
particular  colours.  The  colours  of  objects  produce  upon  insects 
an  impression  very  different  from  that  produced  on  human 
beings.  The  world  to  them  might  be  full  of  music  which  we 
could  not  hear,  colours  which  we  could  not  see,  and  sensations 
which  we  could  not  feel. 

The  additions  to  the  Zoological  Society's  Gardens  during  the 
past  week  include  a  White-crested  Guan  {Pipile  jacutinga)  from 
Guiana,  presented  by  Captain  J.  Smith,  s.s.  Godiva  \  two  Silky 
Bower  Birds  {PHlonorhynchus  violaceus)  from  New  South 
Wales,  deposited;  two  Yisca.zha.%  [Lagostoinus  trichodactyhis) 
born  in  the  Gardens. 

ASTRONOMICAL    PHENOMENA    FOR    THE 
WEEK  1888  JANUARY  1-7. 

/"C*OR  the  reckoning  of  time  the  civil  day,  commencing  at 
^  Greenwich  mean  midnight,  counting  the  hours  on  to  24, 

is  here  employed. ) 

At  Greenwich  on  January  i 

Sunrises,  8h.  8m.  ;  souths,  I2h,  3m.  39"5s. ;  sets,  I5h.  59m.  : 
right  asc.  on  meridian,  i8h.  46'om.  ;  decl.  23°  2'  S. 
Sidereal  Time  at  Sunset,  22h.  42m. 
Moon  (at  Last  Quarter  on  January  6,  I2h.)  rises,  lyh.  29m.*  ; 
souths,  ih.  31m.  ;  sets,  9h.  25m,  :  right  a^^c.  on  meridian, 
8h.  i2-om.  ;  decl.  19°  10'  N. 

Ri^ht  asc.  and  declination 
Planet.  Rises.  Souths.  Sets.  on  meridian. 

h.   m.  h.    m.  h.    m.  h.       m.  „        , 

Mercury..  7  33  ...  11  19  ••  15  5  •••  18     17  ..  24  19  S. 

Venus   ...  4  19  ...  8  55  ...  13  31  ...  15  37-1  ...  16  38  S. 

Mars     ...  o  21  ...  6  9  ...  11  57  ...  12  50-3  ...  3     6  S. 

Jupiter  ...  4  37  •••  9  o  ...  13  23  ...  15  42-1  ...  iS  47  S. 

Saturn...  17  59*...  i  49  •••  9  39  •••  ^  29-2  ...  19  31  N. 

Uranus...  o  50  ...  6  23  ...  11  56  ...  13     3*9  ...  6     5  S. 

Neptune.  13  19  ...  20  59  ...  4  39*...  3  43-0  ...  17  57  N. 

*  Indicates  that  the  rising  is  that  of  the  preceding  evening  and  the  setting 
that  of  the  following  morning. 

Occupations  of  Stars  by  the  Moon  (visible  at  Greenwich). 

Corresponding 

angles  from  ver- 

Jan.  Star.  Mag.         Disap.  Reap.         tex  to  right  for 

inverted  image, 
h.    m.  h.    ra.  00 

I   ...  </' Cancri 6     ...     4  13  near  approach  200    — 

5  ...  ^  Virginis 6     ...     2  16  ...     3  24     ...     53  209 

Jan.  h. 

1  ...       9     ...     Saturn  in  conjunction  with  and  0°  55'  north 

of  the  Moon. 

2  ...     16     ...     Venus  in  conjunction  with  and  i°  51' north 

of  Jupiter. 
4       ...        I      ...     Mercury  at  greatest  distance  from  the  Sun. 

6  ...       9     ...     Mars  in  conjunction  with  and  2°  46'  south 

of  the  Moon. 
Saturn,  January  i. — Outer  major  axis  of  outer  ring  =  45" '8  ; 
outer  minor  axis  of  outer  ring  =  I5"'i  ;  southern  surface  visible- 


Dec.  29,  1887] 


NATURE 


211 


Van 

able  Stars. 

Star 

R.A.  (i888-o) 

Decl.  (i888-c 

) 

h.       m. 

0     / 

h. 

m. 

U  Cephei     ...     . 

•  •      0  52-4 

..  81   16  N. 

...  Jan. 

5>  22 

42  m 

Algol     

..      3     0-9 

..  40  31  N. 

3,18 

55  '« 

\  Tauri 

•     3  54-5  • 

..  12  10  N, 

3.  18 

23  tn 

C  Geminorum 

•     6  575  • 

..  20  44  N. 

3,  23 

0  M 

R  Canis  Majoris. 

•     7  I4"5  • 

.  16  f2  .S. 

2,  20 

4,    0 

46  in 
2  m 

U  Virginis   ...     . 

•  •   12  454. 

..    6  10  N. 

7. 

M 

5  Librae        ...      . 

.   14  55'0- 

..    8     4S. 

I,   21 

9  m 

R  Librae       ...      . 

•   15  47-3  • 

..  15  54  S. 

5. 

M 

U  Ophiiichi  ..     . 

.  17  10-9  . 

.     I  20  N. 

3,    3 

52  m 

and  at i 

ntervals 

of    20 

8 

R  Lyrse 

.   18  51-9. 

..  43  48  N. 

...  Jan. 

I, 

m 

R  Sagittarii... 

.    19   lOI  . 

..  19     3  S. 

»> 

3, 

M 

R  Sagittse    

.20    90. 

..  16  23  N. 

3. 

m 

T  Vulpeculse 

.  20  467  . 

..  27  50  N, 

3.    4 

0  in 

Y  Cygni       ...     . 

.  20  47 '6  . 

..  34  14  N. 

I,  21 
4,  21 

26  in 
19  ;// 

5  Cephei       ...     . 

.  22  25-0  . 

•  57  5«  N. 

2,  19 

0  M 

M  signifies  maximum  ;  m  minimum. 

Meteor-  Showers. 

R.A. 

Decl. 

Near  ^  Cancri... 

...      119 

..      16  N.  . 

..  Bright 

and  swift. 

,,     Q  Ursae  Maj 

Dris     140 

..     57  N.. 

. .  Very  swift  and  short. 

The  Quadrantids 

...     228 

..     53  N.. 

..  January  i,  2, 

and  3. 

GEOGRAPHICAL  NOTES. 

The  two  great  medals  of  the  Paris  Geographical  Society  have 
been  awarded  to  General  Alexis  de  Tillo  for  his  great  topo- 
graphical work  on  Europe  and  Asia,  and  to  M.  Alphaud, 
Inspector-General  of  the  Fonts  et  Chause'es,  who,  "by  inspiring 
a  feeling  for  the  beautiful  and  of  the  necessities  of  hygiene,  has 
done  so  mucli  to  improve  the  topography  of  the  capital." 
Medals  of  the  first  class  were  awarded  to  M.  Enguehard,  geo- 
graphical draughtsman  ;  Prof.  Frangois  Bazin  ;  Prof.  Maxime 
Mabire  ;  Prof.  Paul  Gaffarel,  for  a  work  on  the  soil  of  France  ; 
M.  Fauve,  for  his  fine  topographical  works  ;  M.  Ch.  Lasalle, 
for  a  work  on  the  defences  of  France  ;  M.  Pierre  Collet,  for 
his  relief  plans ;  Lieut.  Somprou ;  M.  Poinet  ;  and  M. 
Verragen. 

Lieut,  von  Francois  and  Dr.  Wolf  will  start  shortly  on  a 
scientific  mission  to  Togoland,  one  of  the  German  possessions 
on  the  West  Coast  of  Africa. 

In  the  new  part  of  the  Journal  of  the  Manchester  Geo- 
graphical Society  there  is  an  instructive  paper  by  the  Rev. 
R.  P.  Ashe  on  Uganda,  and  the  manners  and  customs  of  its 
people. 

News  from  Africa  states  that  the  well-known  African  traveller, 
Herr  Gottlob  Adolf  Krause,  has  returned  to  Accra  on  the  Gold 
Coast.  In  May  1886  he  commenced  his  exploring  expedition. 
Starting  from  Accra  and  crossing  the  River  Acropang-Volta  at 
Kpang,  he  proceeded  in  an  easterly  direction,  passing  through 
Kpando,  Krahje,  Salaga,  Dagomba,  Walawala,  East  Gurunsi, 
and  Busanga  to  Wagaduga  and  Ban  Djagara,  penetrating  to 
within  a  few  miles  of  Timbuctoo.  On  his  return  he  journeyed 
through  West  Gurunsi,  the  Ashantee  District,  Kintimso,  Salaga, 
Sogede,  Baleta,  Gheshi,  Atakpama,  and  Pla.  Lieut.  Kund 
on  his  journey  to  Cameroon  met  Herr  Krause  at  Accra,  and 
sends  this  report.  Herr  Krause  states  that  to  the  north  of  Salaga 
the  influence  of  the  Sahara  is  most  prominent,  and  the  country 
is  more  desolate  the  further  north  one  goes.  Rice  and  tobacco 
are  universally  cultivated.  The  principal  articles  of  commerce  are 
kola-nuts  and  salt,  the  district  being  chiefly  inhabited  by  the 
Fula  tribe.  Nearer  to  the  coast  there  are  several  other  tribes 
and  dialects,  but  the  Haussa  language  is  most  generally  spoken. 
Most  of  the  population  is  still  heathen,  but  some  of  the  merchants 
and  beter  educated  families  are  Mohammedans.  Herr  Krause 
was  not  enabled  to  proceed  as  far  as  Timbuctoo,  owing  to  the 
unfriendliness  of  the  Sheikh  Tidchani. 

The  Bollettino  of  the  Italian  Geographical  Society  for 
October  and  November  publishes  a  valuable  paper  by  Sig.  A. 
Borda  on  the  geography,  history,  and  present  social  conditions 
of  the  Republic  of  Columbia  (New  Grenada),  which  promises 


to  enter  on  an  era  of  peace  and  prosperity  under  its  enlightened 
and  popular  President  Nunez,  who  was  elected  last  June  for  a 
term  of  six  years.  The  present  population  is  calculated  on 
official  returns  at  about  four  millions,  including  200,000  still 
living  in  the  tribal  state  in  the  more  inaccessible  forest  regions. 
These  forests  are  described  as  abounding  in  a  great  variety  of  valu- 
able trees  yielding  the  finest  cabinet  woods,  balsams,  gums,  dye- 
woods,  alimentary  and  medicinal  products.  The  flora  and  fauna 
are  scarcely  exceeded  by  those  of  any  other  land  in  diversity  of 
types,  while  the  country  contains  vast  supplies  of  minerals,  such 
as  gold,  silver,  platina,  rubies,  emeralds,  crystals,  porphyry,  salt, 
and  sulphur.  Since  the  conquest  till  the  present  time  the  yield 
of  the  precious  metals  is  estimated  at  ;^  130, 000, 000,  mined 
chiefly  in  the  departments  of  Canea  and  Antioquia.  Mining 
operations,  which  had  suffered  much  from  the  unsettled  state  of 
the  country,  have  recently  received  a  fresh  stimulus  by  the  intro- 
duction of  foreign  capital  and  improved  engineering  appliances. 
The  metalliferous  districts,  which  occur  at  various  elevations,  and 
especially  along  the  river  valleys,  are  stated  to  be  generally 
salubrious,  and  foreigners  are  now  enabled  to  purchase  mines  on 
the  same  terms  as  the  natives.  But  the  great  natural  resources 
of  Columbia  still  lie  almost  untouched,  chiefly  through  the  lack 
of  good  and  regular  communications,  the  roads  being  generally 
impracticable  for  wheeled  traffic,  while  the  railway  system  is 
little  developed.  Besides  the  Panama,  Bolivar,  and  Cucuta 
lines  already  open,  others  are  in  course  of  construction  in  the 
departments  of  Canea,  Antioquia,  Cundinamasca,  Tolima,  and 
Santander.  The  great  water  highway  of  the  Maddalena  has  a 
fleet  of  twenty-five  steamers,  and  is  connected  with  the  seaport 
of  Cartagena  by  the  Digue,  a  navigable  canal  branching  off  at 
Calamar.  The  yearly  imports  from  Europe  and  the  United 
States  average  ;^3, 000,000,  and  the  exports  ;^i, 600,000.  The 
revenue  for  1887-88  is  estimated  at  ;i^4,ooo,ooo,  the  expendi- 
ture ;^4,6co,ooo,  and  the  public  debt  ;^4,50o,ooo,  half  internal 
and  half  foreign.  The  Government  has  still  at  its  disposal  ex- 
tensive domains,  which  are  granted  on  favourable  terms  to 
immigrants  as  well  as  to  native  and  foreign  speculators.  At 
present  the  country  is  in  the  enjoyment  of  profound  peace,  with 
improved  external  and  internal  relations,  and  a  general  desire  to 
close  once  for  all  the  era  of  aimless  political  revolutions. 


JOURNAL  OF  THE  ROYAL  AGRICULTURAL 
SOCIETY.^ 

T^HE  most  recent  number  of  this  Journal  well  keeps  up  the 
credit  of  its  predecessors  in  spite  of  the  grievous  loss 
the  Society  sustained  a  year  ago  in  the  death  of  its  talented 
editor,  Mr.  H.  M.  Jenkins.  The  contributors  include  the  Earl 
of  Coventry,  Sir  F.  Bramwell,  F.R.S.,  Drs.  J.  Voelcker  and  P. 
Vieth,  Major  Craigie,  Principal  W.  Robertson  of  the  Royal 
Veterinary  College,  Mr.  James  Macdonald,  of  Edinburgh, 
Messrs.  Bernard  Dyer,  Albert  Pell,  Charles  Whitehead,  William 
C.  Little,  Charles  Clay,  Herbert  J..  Little,  and  others.  Since 
these  remarks  were  penned,  we  regret  to  hear  of  the  sudden 
death  of  Principal  Robertson,  of  the  Royal  Veterinary  College. 

The  contents  may  be  classified  as — strictly  agricultural,  com- 
prising articles  on  ensilage,  sheep-feeding  experiments,  and 
reports  on  the  prize-farm  competitions  in  Northumberland  ; 
statistical,  as  presented  in  papers  upon  twenty  years'  changes  in 
our  foreign  meat  supply  ;  engineering,  as  represented  in  trials  of 
portable  engines,  and  report  of  the  consulting  engineers  at  New- 
castle ;  and  purely  scientific,  as  in  papers  on  micro-organisms 
and  their  action  on  milk  and  milk  products,  on  protective 
inoculation  for  anthrax  ;and  quarter  ill,  and  on  the  progress  of 
the  Hessian  fly. 

Few  of  the  papers  possess  such  a  wide  general  interest, 
both  scientific  and  sanitary,  as  that  of  Dr.  P.  Vieth,  on  the 
action  of  micro-organisms  on  milk.  Milk  is  subject  to  lactic 
fermentation,  caused  by  the  presence  of  a  bacillus,  consist- 
ing of  short  motionless  rods  propagating  by  segmentation.  The 
effect  of  these  bacilli  is  to  cause  the  milk  to  sour  and  lose  its 
liquid  character,  and  assume  the  appearance  of  a  gelatinous  mass. 
The  milk,  in  fact,  "  turns,"  and  a  separation  of  the  curd  from 
the  whey  follows,  as  though  rennet  had  been  added,  but  from  a 
different  cause.  It  is  also  now  shown  that  lactic  fermentation 
requires  to  be  induced  by  the  introduction  of  bacilli  from  without, 
after  the  milk  is  drawn  from  the  cow,  and  that  it  is  not  inherent 

'  "  Journal  of  the  Royal  Agricultural    Society,"   Series    II.  vol.  x.xiii. 
Part  II.,  18S7.     (John  Murray,  Albemarle  Street.) 


212 


NATURE 


{Dec.  29,  1887 


ill  the  milk.  Lactic  fermentation  cannot  take  place  unless  in 
the  presence  of  free  oxygen,  and  at  temperatures  ranging  from 
50°  to  114°  Y.  Below  and  above  these  limits  the  process  is 
^irrested.  The  butyric  fermentation  is  caused  by  a  bacillus  of 
larger  size  than  that  to  which  lactic  fermentation  is  due,  and 
occurs  in  milk  free  from  lactic  acid  and  of  alkaline  reaction. 
The  bacillus  of  butyric  fermentation  will  withstand  a  higher 
degree  of  heat,  and  the  spores  will  stand  a  boiling  heat  for  five 
minutes  very  well.  Alcoholic  fermentation  is  induced  in  milk 
which  has  already  passed  through  the  stage  of  lactic  fermentation 
by  means  of  a  special  ferment  which  has  been  used  from  time 
immemorial  in  the  Caucasus  under  the  name  of  kephir.  By 
the  action  of  this  ferment  a  preparation  similar,  if  not  identical 
with  koumiss  is  produced.  Siitny  fermentation  gives  what  is 
known  in  Norway  as  ropy  milk,  where  it  is  used  as  an  article  of 
<liet.  With  this  fermentation  a  micro-organism  is  also  associated. 
Cheese  is  a  product  of  fermentation  from  beginning  to  end. 
Not  only  is  it  a  fermentative  process  by  which  the  curd  is  separ- 
ated from  the  whey,  but  the  processes  of  ripening  also  depend 
upon  various  micro-organisms.  It  is  generally  thought  that  the 
'  lifterences  between  the  cheese  made  in  various  localities,  and 
which  so  well  evade  imitation,  are  due  in  a  measure  at  least  to 
the  propagation  and  prevalence  of  micro-organisms  of  a  sort 
which  may  be  rare  or  wanting  in  other  districts  ;  and  that  con- 
sequently it  may  be  easy  to  make  cheese  of  a  particular  flavour 
or  character  in  one  district  which  it  will  be  found  impossible  to 
produce  in  another  district. 

The  able  paper  by  Major  Craigie,  on  twenty  years'  changes 
in  our  foreign  meat  supply,  is  well  worth  reading.  The  paper 
i.;  deeply  interesting  to  agriculturists,  and  deals  with  the  probable 
sources  of  animal  food  for  the  constantly  increasing  human 
family.  The  enormous  increase  of  population  in  the  United 
States  of  America  is  especially  noticed,  and  the  following 
extract  from  the  Commissioner  of  Agriculture's  (Mr.  Colman's) 
address  to  the  "  Cattle  Kings  "  assembled  at  Chicago  is  sig- 
nificant and  hopeful  for  the  future  of  agriculturists  : — "  In  1880 
we  had  50,000,000  of  inhabitants  ;  in  1905  we  should  have 
100,000,000;  in  1930,  200,000,000;  in  1955,  400,000,000;  in 
[980,  less  than  100  years  hence,  800,000,000  of  inhabitants. 
Where  are  these  teeming  millions  to  live?  On  what  are  they  to 
subsist  ?  Where  and  how  are  the  cattle  to  be  bred  and  reared 
that  must  be  relied  upon  to  furnish  beef?"  In  answer  to  all  of 
which  questions  we  may  be  permitted  to  point  out  that  many 
disturbing  causes  may  operate  to  check  this  uniform  future 
<levelopment  of  the  population  of  the  States.  The  won- 
derful results  of  geometrical  progression  have  often  astonished 
schoolboys  ;  and  as  naturalists  we  also  know  what  ought  to 
happen  in  the  case  of  insects,  or  even  of  mammals,  if  their  actual 
increase  in  the  least  degree  corresponded  with  their  natural 
powers  of  expansion.  Even  the  human  family  does  not  always 
increase  as  rapidly  as  it  might.  Stress  is  laid  upon  the  fact  that 
most  of  the  available  land  for  cattle-ranching  has  already  been 
laid  hold  of,  and  that  further  extension  of  this  industry  has  for 
the  present  received  a  check  from  which  it  is  not  likely  to  re- 
cover. Also  the  singular  diminution  in  the  numbers  of  sheep 
throughout  the  Old  World,  and  the  less  noticed  fact  that  since 
1883  the  sheep  stock  of  the  United  States  has  lost  6,000,000, 
must  bear  upon  the  price  of  mutton  sooner  or  later.  In  the 
United  Kingdom,  including  islands,  we  had  in  1867  iii  sheep 
to  every  100  inhabitants  ;  in  1887  we  have  79.  In  France  they 
had  in  1867  80  sheep  to  every  100  inhabitants,  but  in  1887  they 
only  have  59.  The  same  story  is  told  in  every  Europea'i  country 
without  exception,  and  the  sheep  population  of  the  world  would 
have  most  disastrously  decreased  had  it  not  been  for  the  large 
increase  in  stocks  in  the  Australasian  colonies  and  the  Argentine 
Republic. 

The  experiments  upon  ensilage  are  particularly  worthy  of 
attention.  The  process  of  ensilage  has  its  devotees,  who,  like 
Prof  Rogers,  consider  it  to  be  a  panacea  for  agricultural 
distress.  This  sanguine  view  has  been  supported  by  the  ex- 
perience of  many  agriculturists,  who  have  not  the  least  doubt 
as  to  the  superiority  of  silage  over  hay,  and  who  also  look  upon 
the  peculiar  succulence  of  silage  as  a  fact  of  great  importance. 
One  thing,  however,  appears  certain — that,  valuable  as  ensilage 
may  be,  it  cannot  equal  in  nutrient  properties  young  growing 
grass.  Hay  or  silage  may  be  of  more  value  in  winter  than 
is  grass  in  summer,  but  intrinsically  grass  is  that  perfect  product 
of  unaided  Nature  which  no  art  can  better. 

An  optimist  view  thus  stated  may  be  challenged,  and  the  pro- 
pounder  asked  if  the  fresh  clusters  of  the  grape  are  equal  to  the 


ripened  vintage  wine  ?  The  matter  requires  to  be  dealt  with 
scientifically,  and  it  is  with  a  view  to  clearing  up  the  matter  that 
the  Royal  Agricultural  Society  has  with  the  aid  and  concurrence 
of  the  Duke  of  Bedford  carried  out  a  series  of  crucial  experi- 
ments upon  the  value  of  ensilage  as  a  stock  food  in  comparison 
with  the  value  of  hay.  Such  an  experiment  is  liable  to  many 
sources  of  error.  The  Wilmington  experiments  of  1886  abounded 
in  them.  There  was  no  guarantee  that  the  hay  as  hay  was  as 
good  as  the  silage  as  silage.  There  was  no  record  as  to  the  com- 
parative areas  of  land  required  to  produce  the  hay  or  the  silage. 
The  large  amount  of  silage  eaten  by  the  bullocks  bore  an  un- 
satisfactory relation  to  the  small  quantity  of  hay  eaten,  indicating 
that  the  ensilage  was  good  and  palatable,  while  the  hay  was  un- 
palatable. This  inference  is  borne  out  by  the  dictum  of  the 
Society's  chemist,  that  the  hay  at  Wilmington  was  "very  inferior 
indeed,"  while  the  silage  "  was  really  well  made."  Such  sources 
of  error  invalidate  the  results  obtained,  and  if,  as  was  the  case, 
the  cattle  fed  on  good  silage  did  better  than  those  fed  on  bad 
hay,  all  we  can  say  is  that  no  other  result  could  very  well  have 
been  expected.  At  Woburn  the  experiments  were  more  strictly 
conditioned.  "  5^  acres  of  ground  were  carefully  measured  out, 
and  the  grass  was  only  cut  as  it  was  wanted  for  carting  to  the 
silo,  not  being  allowed  to  lie  on  the  field  any  length  of  time. 
Two  carts  going  side  by  side  were  filled  simultaneously,  and 
then  taken  to  be  weighed.  After  weighing,  one  cart  went  to  the 
silo,  into  which  grass  was  to  be  filled,  and  the  other  went  to  a 
meadow,  where  the  grass  was  spread  and  left  for  haying,"  I 
must  not  take  up  space  by  explaining  the  complete  system  of 
sampling  the  grass,  and  the  two  products  of  hay  and  silage. 
Suffice  it  to  say  that  the  utmost  pains  was  taken  to  obtain 
thoroughly  representative  samples  for  purposes  of  analysis. 
The  hay  and  silage  thus  obtained  might  be  considered  as  strictly 
comparable  with  one  another,  and  if  the  process  of  silage  is 
preferable  to  the  older  and  more  fragrant  system  of  hay-making, 
the  comparison  might  here  be  instituted  with  every  prospect  of 
deciding  the  question.  The  experiment  was  made  upon  twelve 
Hereford  steers,  six  of  which  were  placed  on  a  diet  of  3  lbs. 
of  cotton  cake,  5  lbs.  of  maize  meal,  with  hay  ad  libitum  and 
water  ad  libitjim.  The  other  six  were  given  3  lbs.  of  cotton 
cake,  5  lbs.  of  maize  meal,  with  silage  ad  libitum,  and  water  ad 
libitum.  The  conditions  were  the  same  except  with  regard  to 
the  hay  and  the  silage.  The  bullocks  were  practically  of  equal 
size  and  weight,  although  the  six  bullocks  which  were  placed  on 
the  ensilage  side  of  the  experiment  had  the  advantage  of  9  lbs. 
over  the  hay-fed  lot,  and  weighed  60  cwt.  i  qr.  20  lbs.  The 
result  after  thirty  days'  feeding  was  that  the  hay-fed  bullocks 
had  increased  more  in  weight,  the  comparative  merits  of  the  two 
systems  of  feeding  being  as  follows  : — 

Gain  per  day  per  head  of  bullocks  receiving  hay     .   2*3  lbs. 
Ditto  ditto  ditto  silage.   2'i  lbs. 

During  the  succeeding  month  the  result  was  in  favour  of  the 
ensilage,  but  in  the  total  period  of  84  days,  which  terminated  on 
March  10,  1887,  the  result  was  : — 

Gain  of  hay-fed  bullocks      .     .   I  "96  lbs.  per  day. 
Ditto       silage         ditto    .     .     .1-98  lbs.     ditto. 

A  very  curious  result  was  arrived  at  with  reference  to  the  relative 
amounts  of  hay  and  water  and  of  silage  and  water  consumed 
during  this  period.  The  six  bullocks  receiving  hay  consumed 
of  hay  20'3  lbs.  per  head  per  day,  and  drank  707  lbs.  of  water, 
or  a  total  of  hay  and  water  of  91  lbs.  each.  The  six  bullocks  re- 
ceiving silage  consumed  of  silage  51  lbs.  and  of  water  40' i  lbs., 
or  a  total  of  91  lbs.  each.  This  very  closely  accordant  result 
appears  to  point  to  the  conclusion  that  the  only  difference  be- 
tween hay  and  silage  is  water,  and  that  hay  with  plenty  of  water 
is  quite  as  good  a  food  for  fattening  bullocks  as  silage  with  less 
water. 

The  progress  of  the  Hessian  fly  is  a  topic  of  considerable 
public  interest,  and  no  one  could  more  satisfactorily  enlighten  us 
on  the  subject  than  Mr.  Charles  Whitehead.  We  are  told  by 
this  excellent  practical  entomologist  that  the  Hessian  fly  appeared 
first  in  America  in  1779,  and  that  a  great  scare  prevailed  in 
England  at  that  time,  which  turned  out  to  be  unfounded.  The 
nearest  country  to  Us  at  present  affected  with  the  pest  is  Russia, 
which  appeared  to  firs't  receive  this  unwelcome  visitant  in  1879, 
and  it  is  still  a  moot  point  whether  our  Hessian  flies  have  arrived 
from  America  or  from  Russia.  That  we  have  it  rather  bad  is 
plain  from  the  fact  that  the  insect  has  been  proved  present  in 
twenty  English  counties.     The  theatre  of  its  operations  is  likely 


Dec.  29,  1887] 


NA  TURE 


213 


to  be  extended  during  next  summer,  and  we  shall  probably  soon 
have  the  satisfaction  of  knowing  whether  our  climate  is  suitable 
to  its  tastes.  If  so,  it  will  probably  obey  the  mandate  of  increas- 
ing and  multiplying  ;  but  its  tendency  will  be  towards  deplenish- 
ing rather  than  replenishing  the  earth.  The  prospect  is  not 
exactly  nice,  but  we  may  take  some  comfort  from  Prof.  Riley's 
expressed  opinion  that  the  Hessian  fly  will  not  prove  a  very 
serious  plague  to  British  agriculturists. 
Downton,  December  10.  John  Wrightson. 


THE     REPRODUCTIVE      ORGANS     OF 
ALCYONIDIUM    GEL  A  TIN  OS  UM. 

T  N  some  specimens  of  the  Polyzoon  Alcyonidiwn  gelatinosum 
dredged  last  summer,  I  noticed  that  the  colony,  in  place  of 
being  nearly  homogeneous  in  colour  and  semi-translucent,  as  is 
usually  the  case,  had  a  blotched  appearance,  caused  by  the 
presence  of  a  number  of  small  rounded  spots  of  an  opaque 
grayish-white  or  pale  yellow  colour.  These  average  about 
o"5  mm.  in  diameter,  and  are  scattered  irregularly  through  the 
colony.  On  teasing  up  a  small  part  in  sea-water,  and  on  making 
a  few  rough  sections  of  the  living  colony,  I  found  that  the 
opaque  spots  were  cavities  filled  with  fully  developed  active 
spermatozoa.  No  ova  were  visible  in  the  polypides  of  any  of 
the  parts  examined,  so  these  colonies  were  evidently  in  the 
condition  of  sexually  mature  males.  It  at  once  occurred  to  me 
that  this  species  of  Alcyonidium  might  be  unisexual — some 
colonies  male  and  others  female — the  males  being  distinguishable 
when  mature  by  their  spotted  appearance.  The  specimens  were 
preserved  for  future  examination. 

On  returning  to  Liverpool,  and  looking  up  the  literature  of  the 
subject,  I  find  that  Hincks  states  ("  British  Marine  Polyzoa," 
introduction,  p.  lxxxvi.)that  *^  Alcyonidium  gelatinosum,  accord- 
ing to  Kolliker,  is  unisexual,"  and  I  gather  from  the  context 
that  it  is  the  individual  polypides  that  are  unisexual,  and  not 
the  whole  colony,  Hincks,  however,  does  not  give  a  reference 
to  any  paper  by  Kolliker,  and  I  have  not  been  able  to  find  in 
the  literature  of  the  Polyzoa,  or  in  the  bibliographies  I  have 
consulted,  any  paper  of  Kolliker's  which  would  be  likely  to 
contain  observations  on  the  reproduction  oi  Alcyonidium  ;  there- 
fore I  am  still  uncertain  how  far  Kolliker's  remark  is  intended  to 
apply — to  the  whole  colony,  or  only  to  the  individual  polypides. 
I  know  of  no  other  investigations  on  the  subject. 

I  have  now  examined  a  number  of  thin  sections,  of  both  the 
spotted  colonies  (including  the  one  formerly  dissected)  and  the 
usual  translucent  ones,  and  I  find  : — 

(i)  In  the  spotted  colonies  there  are  a  number  of  greatly  dis- 
tended polypides,  with  their  coeloms  filled  with  fully  developed 
spermatozoa.  There  are  also  a  few  ordinary  large,  but  not  dis- 
tended, polypides,  containing  each  a  few  young  ova. 

(2)  In  the  ordinary  clear  colonies  there  are  neither  ova  nor 
spermatozoa  to  be  found. 

It  is  evident,  then,  that  the  colony  is  hermaphrodite,  whatever 
the  polypide  may  be.  But  it  is  also  evident  that  the  spotted 
colonies  are  virtually  males.  Their  spermatozoa  are  fully 
developed,  while  their  ova  are  still  quite  inimature.  Probably, 
then,  Alcyonidium  gelatinosum  is,  like  many  of  the  Compound 
Ascidians,  an  hermaphrodite  in  which  the  reproductive  systems 
arrive  at  maturity  at  different  times  in  the  life-history.  Most  of 
the  Compound  Ascidians  in  which  I  have  found  this  the  case  are 
proterogynous  (the  female  organs  maturing  first),  but  Alcyo- 
nidium gelatinosum  appears  to  be  proterandrous.  If  the 
polypides  are  unisexual,  then  the  proterandry  refers  only  to  the 
colony  as  a  whole,  but  it  is  possible  that  each  polypide  may  be 
a  proterandrous  hermaphrodite,  developing  ova  after  it  has  got 
rid  of  the  spermatozoa.  I  hope  to  investigate  this  matter  further 
by  keeping  some  colonies  alive  at  the  Puffin  Island  Biological 
Station,  and  examining  their  condition  from  time  to  time. 

In  Alcyonidium  gelatinosum  both  the  ova  and  the  spermatozoa 
occur  in  ordinary  polypides,  and  not,  as  Hincks  states  is  the  case  in 
the  closely  related  species  A .  mytili,  in  ' '  gonoecia  "  (cells  contain- 
ing no  polypides).  In  my  sections  the  alimentary  canal  and 
tentacles  are  found  cut  across  here  and  there  in  the  masses  of 
spermatozoa.  The  large  cavities  containing  the  spermatozoa  are 
evidently  ordinary  polypides,  with  the  coelom  greatly  distended. 

W«  A,  Hkrdman, 


SOCIETIES  AND    ACADEMIES. 
London. 

Royal  Society,  December  15. — "Note  on  the  Develop- 
ment of  Feeble  Currents  by  purely  Physical  Action,  and  on  the 
Oxidation  under  Voltaic  Influences  of  Metals  not  ordinarily 
regarded  as  spontaneously  oxidizable."  By  Dr.  C,  R,  Alder 
Wright,  F.R.S,,  and  C.  Thompson,  F.C.S. 

The  authors  have  noticed  that  if  two  or  more  different  kinds 
of  aeration  plates  be  set  up  on  the  surface  of  the  fluid  contained 
in  a  shallow  basin  in  which  the  oxidizable  metal  is  immersed, 
and  sufficient  time  be  allowed  to  elapse  to  enable  the  films 
of  air  attracted  to  the  aeration  plates  to  attain  a  condition  of 
equilibrium,  different  constant  values  are  usually  obtained  for 
the  E.M.  F.'s  generated  by  opposing  to  the  oxidizable  metal  first 
one  and  then  the  other  of  any  given  pair  of  aeration  plates,  the 
currents  generated  being  rendered  throughout  of  too  small  density 
for  "  running  down "  to  take  place  during  the  observations  by 
interposing  a  large  resistance  in  the  circuit.  If  when  this  state 
of  constancy  has  been  attained  the  two  aeration  plates  be  op- 
posed to  each  other  with  a  considerable  resistance  in  circuit,  a 
current  passes  from  the  one  giving  the  higher  value  when  opposed 
to  the  oxidizable  plate  through  the  external  circuit  to  the  other  ; 
this  current  at  first  is  of  such  magnitude  as  to  correspond  exactly 
with  the  E.M.F.  due  to  the  difference  between  the  E.M. F.'s  ex- 
hibited when  the  two  plates  respectively  are  opposed  to  the 
oxidizable  metal ;  but  after  some  time  it  gradually  diminishes  ; 
even  after  several  days,  or  even  weeks,  however,  it  is  usually 
still  measurable  ;  and  if  a  miniature  silver  voltameter  be  included 
in  the  circuit,  in  many  cases  an  appreciable  amount  of  crystalline 
silver  is  found  to  be  slowly  deposited  on  the  negative  electrode 
of  the  voltameter,  which  may  conveniently  be  a  thin  gold  wire 
immersed  to  a  depth  of  a  few  millimetres  in  silver-nitrate  solu- 
tion, a  silver  plate  or  wire  forming  the  positive  electrode.  Various 
experiments  are  described  in  illustration. 

It  is  obvious  that  during  the  passage  of  a  current  the  dilute 
sulphuric  acid  between  the  two  plates  must  be  electrolysed,  so 
that  hydrogen  would  tend  to  be  liberated  on  the  surface  of  the 
plate  acquiring  the  higher  potential,  and  oxygen  on  that  of  the 
other  ;  the  hydrogen  whilst  nascent  would  necessarily  be  more  or 
less  completely  oxidized  to  water  by  the  oxygen  of  the  film  of 
condensed  air  ;  so  that  on  the  whole  the  net  chemical  action  in 
the  cell  itself  would  be  either  nil  (if  all  hydrogen  were  so  re- 
oxidized)  or  one  absorbing  heat  (if  some  of  the  hydrogen  escaped 
oxidation).  The  oxygen  slowly  evolved  would  escape  as  such, 
being  dissolved  by  the  surrounding  fluid.  The  effect  of  this 
should  accordingly  be  that  the  efficiency  of  the  air-film  on  the 
first  plate  would  be  more  or  less  depreciated,  and  that  on  the 
second  exalted  ;  in  point  of  fact,  if  the  two  aeration  plates  in  such 
an  arrangement  which  has  been  generating  a  current  for  some 
time  be  (by  means  of  an  appropriate  switch)  disconnected  from 
one  another  and  successively  opposed  to  a  given  oxidizable  plate, 
the  one  does  give  a  considerably  lower  and  the  other  usually  an 
appreciably  higher  value  than  the  constant  ones  previously  ob- 
tained (before  the  two  aeration  plates  were  directly  opposed 
to  one  another)  on  opposing  each  severally  to  the  oxidizable 
metal ;  whilst  on  allowing  the  cell  to  stand  for  some  time 
generating  no  current,  the  lower  value  gradually  rises  and  the 
raised  one  falls  until  sensibly  the  old  constant  values  are  again 
obtained. 

When  silver  plates  are  used  in  conjunction  with  a  fluid  capable 
of  dissolving  silver  oxide  (such  as  dilute  sulphuric  or  acetic  acid 
or  ammonia  solution),  distinctly  larger  amounts  of  current  are 
usually  developed  than  with  platinum  or  gold  plates,  and  simul- 
taneously silver  passes  into  solution,  the  plate  acquiring  the 
lower  potential  diminishing  in  weight,  and,  in  short,  behaving 
precisely  as  though  it  were  an  oxidizable  metal,  such  as  zinc  or 
copper.  Obviously  this  is  due  to  the  circumstance  that  with 
silver  the  ion  liberated  attacks  the  metal  of  the  plate  acquiring 
the  lower  potential ;  but  the  remarkable  part  of  the  action 
IS  that  this  attack  is  only  partial,  so  that  the  amount  of  silver  dis- 
solved is  invariably  less  than  that  equivalent  to  the  current  passing, 
i.e.  less  than  that  deposited  in  a  silver  voltameter  included  in 
the  circuit. 

Various  illustrative  experiments  are  described  which  show  that 
the  difference  between  the  silver  dissolved  and  that  deposited  by 
the  current  is  relatively  much  larger  with  the  weakest  currents. 

It  is  obvious  that  if  silver  will  dissolve  in  acids,  &c,,  under 
the  comparatively  feeble  oxidizing  influence  of  an  aeration  plate. 


214 


NA  TURE 


[Dec.  29,  1887 


much  more  rapid  solution  might  be  anticipated  by  substituting 
for  such  a  plate  platinum  immersed  in  a  powerfully  oxidizing  fluid 
such  as  strong  nitric  acid,  or  sulphuric  acid  solution  of  chromic 
anhydride.  In  point  of  fact,  the  authors  have  found  that  on 
setting  up  such  cells  where  the  silver  was  immersed  in  dilute 
sulphuric  acid  {i.e.  Grove's  cell  with  silver  instead  of  zinc,  and 
so  on),  electromotors  of  notable  power  are  produced,  at  any  rate 
until  the  silver  plate  becomes  coated  with  sparingly  soluble 
sulphate.  Even  in  these  cases,  hoivever,  jjerfect  correspondence 
between  the  amount  of  silver  dissolved  and  that  deposited  in  a 
voltameter  included  in  the  circuit  does  not  subsist,  the  latter  being 
always  measurably  the  greater. 

Just  as  silver  is  capable  of  being  dissolved  in  an  appro- 
priate fluid  when  opposed  to  an  aeration  plate,  so  may  several 
other  metals  not  ordinarily  prone  to  atmospheric  oxidation  ;  thus 
mercury  with  dilute  sulphuric  acid  as  fluid,  and  an  aeration  plate 
of  platinum  sponge,  generates  a  measurable  continuous  current, 
forming  merctiroiis  su'phate  in  so  doing,  so  that  after  some  time 
the  liquid  becomes  turbid  through  separation  of  that  sparingly 
soluble  salt,  and  the  filtered  fluid  precipitates  calomel  on  ad- 
dition of  dilute  hydrochloric  acid.  Acetic  acid  acts  similarly, 
but  far  less  energetically.  Potassium  cyanide  solution,  on  the 
other  hand,  causes  a  much  more  rapid  solution  of  mercury,  form- 
ing mercuric  potassiocyanide  ;  it  is  noticeable  that  in  this  case 
only  100  parts  of  mercury  go  into  solution  for  108  of  silver 
deposited  in  the  voltameter,  whereas  when  sulphuric  acid  is 
used  200  parts  of  mercury  become  sulphate  per  108  of  silver 
deposited. 

If  gold  be  substituted  for  mercury  in  this  latter  arrangement, 
rapid  solution  takes  place  with  formation  of  aurocyanide  of 
potassium,  196  parts  of  gold  being  dissolved  per  108  of  silver 
thrown  down  in  the  voltameter.  Palladium  behaves  precisely 
as  gold,  52  parts  of  metal  being  dissolved  per  108  of  silver 
deposited  ;  local  action  sometimes  causes  in  each  case  a  slight 
excess  of  amount  dissolved  relatively  to  the  current  passing,  the 
opposite  result  to  that  observed  with  the  silver  cells  above 
described. 

Of  course,  if  more  powerful  oxidizing  agents  are  used  than 
simple  aeration  plates  (such  as  platinum  in  sulphuric-chromic 
solution)  the  action  goes  on  in  all  such  cases  still  more  rapidly. 

"On  the  Functions  of  the  Occipital  and  Temporal  Lobes 
of  the  Monkey's  Brain."  By  Dr.  Sanger  Brown  and  Prof  E. 
A.  Schafer,  F.R.S. 

The  authors  gave  an  account  of  experiments  upon  the  brain 
of  monkeys,  involving  the  removal  of  the  occipital  and  temporal 
lobes  respectively.  These  experiments  show  that  removal  of 
the  whole  of  one  occipital  lobe  produces  permanent  hemiopia, 
and  that  removal  of  both  occipital  lobes  produces  complete  and 
permanent  blindness  of  both  eyes ;  and,  further,  that  for  the 
production  of  these  effects  it  is  not  necessary  that  the  angular 
gyrus  should  be  involved  in  the  lesion. 

They  also  show  that  not  only  the  superior  temporal  gyrus  but 
even  the  whole  temporo-sphenoidal  lobe  can  be  removed  on  both 
sides  of  the  brain  in  monkeys  without  producing  any  appreciable 
permanent  effect  on  hearing. 

The  reading  of  the  paper  was  illustrated  by  diagrams  exhibit- 
ing the  extent  of  the  lesions,  as  well  as  by  casts  of  the  brains. 

Royal  Meteorological  Society,  December  21. — Mr.  W. 
Ellis,  President,  in  the  chair. — The  following  papers  were  read  : 
— The  mean  temperature  of  the  air  at  Greenwich,  from  September 
181 1  to  June  1856,  by  Mr.  H.  S.  Eaton.  This  is  a  discussion 
of  the  meteorological  journals  of  the  late  Mr.  J.  H.  Belville, 
and  those  of  the  Koyal  Observatory.  The  general  results  of  this 
investigation  are  : — (i)  That  there  was  no  appreciable  change  in 
the  mean  annual  temperature  of  the  air  at  Greenwich  in  the 
period  1812  to  1855  inclusive.  (2)  That  on  the  eminence  on 
which  the  Royal  Observatory  is  situated  the  average  temperature 
at  night,  or  rather  the  early  morning,  is  in  all  cases  higher  than 
over  the  lower  grounds.  (3)  That  with  a  north-wall,  or  possibly 
a  north-window  exposure,  higher  maximum  temperatures  are 
found  at  the  lower  stations.  (4)  That  the  movements  of  the 
thermometer  are  retarded  with  a  north-wall  exposure  as  compared 
with  an  instrument  on  an  open  stand,  especially  where  the 
situation  is  a  confined  one,  the  indications  of  the  thermometer 
not  following  changes  of  temperature  so  promptly  owing  to  the 
modifying  influence  of  the  adjacent  building. — Report  on  the 
phenological  obsers'ations  for  the  year  1887,  by  the  Rev.  T.  A. 
Preston.  The  past  season  was  a  most  exceptional  one.  For 
flowers  it  was  disastrous ;  fruit  was  generally  a  failure,  though 


there  were  exceptions  ;  those  kinds  which  promised  well  turned 
out  very  small  or  spoilt  by  insects.  Vegetables  were  universally 
poor,  roots  were  destroyed  by  insects  or  drought,  and  green  crops 
soon  passed  off".  The  wheat  crop,  however,  was  better  than 
was  expected.  Barley  on  light  lands  was  poor,  but  that  which 
was  sown  early  was  satisfactory.  Meadow  hay  was  not  up  to  an 
average  crop,  but  clover  and  seed  hay  were  much  more  nearly 
so.  In  Kent  the  fruit  crops  turned  out  lighter  than  usual,  but 
the  prices  have  ruled  higher. — Earth  tremors  and  the  wind,  by 
Prof  John  Milne,  F.R.S.  The  author  has  made  a  detailed 
examination  of  the  tremor  records  obtained  in  Tokio,  and 
compared  them  with  the  tri-daily  weather  maps  issued  by 
the  Imperial  Goverment  of  Japan.  From  this  comparison 
the  following  conclusions  have  been  drawn  : — (i)  Earth  tremors 
are  more  frequent  with  a  low  barometer  than  with  a  high 
barometer.  (2)  With  a  high  barometric  gradient  tremors 
are  almost  always  observed,  but  when  the  gradient  is  small  it 
is  seldom  that  tremors  are  visible.  (3)  The  stronger  the  wind 
the  more  likely  it  is  that  tremors  should  be  observed.  (4)  When 
there  has  been  a  strong  wind  and  no  tremors  the  wind  has  usually 
been  local,  of  short  duration,  or  else  blowing  inland  from  the 
ocean.  {5)  When  there  has  been  little  or  no  wind  in  Tokio  and 
yet  tremors  have  been  observed,  in  most  cases  there  has  been  a 
strong  wind  in  other  parts  of  Central  Japan.  (6)  From  75  to 
80  per  cent,  of  the  tremors  observed  in  Tokio  may  be  accounted 
for  on  the  supposition  that  they  have  been  produced  either  by 
local  or  distant  winds.  (7)  The  only  connection  between  earth 
tremors  and  earthquakes  in  Central  Japan  is  that  they  are  both 
more  frequent  about  the  same  season. — Pressure  and  tempera- 
ture in  cyclones  and  anticyclones,  by  Prof  H.  A.  Hazen.  The 
author  has  made  a  comparison  of  the  observations  at  Burlington 
and  on  the  summit  of  Mount  Washington,  U.S.A.,  and  as  the 
result  of  a  study  of  about  4000  observations  from  two  days 
before  till  two  days  after  the  passage  of  cyclone  and  anticyclone 
centres,  he  has  arrived  at  the  following  conclusions  : — (i)  In 
both  cyclones  and  anticyclones  the  pressure  lags  froih  10  to 
II  hours  at  the  summit  of  Mount  Washington.  (2)  The  tem- 
perature change  at  the  base  precedes  very  slightly  the  pressure 
change,  but  at  the  summit  the  change  occurs  nearly  24  hours 
earlier,  (3)  The  temperature  appears  to  be  a  very  little 
earlier  at  the  summit  than  at  the  base,  and  certainly  varies  much 
more  rapidly  at  the  former.  (4)  In  a  cyclone  the  diff"erence  in 
temperature  between  base  and  summit  is  less  than  the  mean 
before  the  storm,  but  the  difference  rapidly  increases  after  the 
centre  has  passed.  Just  the  contrary  is  true  in  an  anticyclone. 
(5)  The  total  fall  in  pressure  in  a  cyclone  at  the  summit  very 
nearly  equals  that  at  the  base,  and  likewise  the  rise  in  an  anti- 
cyclone. (6)  The  fluctuation  of  temperature — that  is,  from  the 
highest  to  the  lowest — at  the  summit  is  double  that  at  the  base 
in  a  cyclone  ;  but  it  is  only  a  Utile  greater  in  an  anticyclone. 

Edinburgh. 

Royal  Society,  December  5. — The  Hon.  Lord  Maclaren, 
Vice-President,  in  the  chair. — After  reading  an  openihg  address, 
the  Chairman  presented  the  Victoria  Jubilee  Prize  to  Sir  W. 
Thomson,  for  his  contributions  to  the  Society's  publications  on 
various  subjects  in  hydrokinetics. — Sir  W.  Thomson  read  a 
paper  on  Cauchy's  and  Green's  doctrine  of  extraneous  pressure  to 
account  for  Fresnel's  wave-surface.  The  object  of  his  investi- 
gation was  to  place  Green's  treatment  of  the  subject  on  a  more 
satisfactory  basis  than  it  had  been  left  by  its  author. — Sir  W. 
Thomson  also  exhibited  models  of  the  minimal  tetrakaideka- 
hedron,  a  figure  which  he  discusses  in  the  Philosophical  Magazine 
for  this  month. — The  second  part  of  a  paper  on  micro-organisms, 
by  Dr.  A.  B.  Griffiths,  was  communicated  by  Prof  Crum- Brown. 
— Prof  Wallace  laid  on  the  table  a  paper  on  the  blackening  of 
the  skin  of  domesticated  animals  in  tropical  regions. 

Paris. 

Academy  of  Sciences,  December  19. — M.  Janssen  in  the 
chair. — Generation  of  algebraic  surfaces  of  any  order,  by  M.  de 
Jonquieres.  The  theorem  here  demonstrated  supplies  a  fresh 
instance  of  the  intimate  and  essential  part  played  by  the 
properties  of  numbers  in  several  questions  of  general  geometry, 
and  especially  in  those  concerned  with  the  generation  of  surfaces 
and  curves,  as  well  as  with  the  number  of  double  and  multiple 
points  with  which  the  latter  may  be  endowed. — Reply  to  M. 
Wolfs  communication  entitled,  "  Comparaison  des  divers 
systemes  de   synchronisation  des  horloges  astronomiques,"  by 


Dec.  29,  1887] 


NATURE 


15 


M.    A.   Cornu.     The  regulating  apparatus  introduced  into  hi^ 
system  of  synchronizing  clocks  by  M.  Cornu,  and  objected  toby 
M.  Wolf  as  useless  and  even  inconvenient,  is  shown  to  be  free 
from   these  drawbacks,    and    in   fact    indispensable    for    strict 
accuracy.     To  these  remarks  M.  Wolf  replies  that  the  system  at 
work  at  Greenwich  for  twenty-seven  and  in  Paris  for  seventeen 
years  dispenses  altogether  with  any  such  arrangement  as  that 
proposed  by  M.  Cornu. — On  the  cause  of  the  deviation  of  the 
arrows  indicating  the  direction  of  the'wind  on  synoptical  charts 
of  cyclones,  by  M.  Faye.     This  deviation  is  traced  entirely  to 
the  friction  or  resistance  of  the  ground  over  which  the  cyclone  is 
moving,  and  harmonizes  in  no  way  with  the  erroneous  hypo- 
thesis of  ascending  cyclones.     It  is  greater  on  land  than  at  sea, 
and   imperceptible   in    the    case  of   waterspouts  and   true  tor- 
nadoes.    It  also  diminishes  with  the  distance  from  the  centre  of 
the  cyclone,  disappearing  altogether  near  the  central  calm. — On 
the  state  of  the  sulphur  and  phosphorus  present  in  plants,  in 
the  ground,   and  in  cultivated  soil,  and  on  their  quantitative 
analysis,    by    MM.     Berthelot    and    Andre.     Having    already 
studied  the  relations  of  potassium  and  nitrogen  to  the  vegetative 
functions,    the    authors    here    deal    in    the    same    way    with 
sulphur   and  phosphorus.     The  question  is  treated  especially 
with  a  view  to  determining  and  analyzing  the  complementary 
manures  best  suited  for  restoring  the  fertility  of  exhausted  lands. 
— Note,  by  M.  Albert  Gaudry,  on  the  discovery  of  a  gigantic 
turtle  by  Dr.  Donnezan.     This  specimen  was  found,  with  nume- 
rous other  fossils,  in  the  Middle  Pliocene  of  Perpignan  during 
the  recent  excavations  connected  with  the  erection  of  the  fortress 
of  Serrat  in  the  Eastern  Pyrenees.     The  carapace,  i  '20  metre 
long,  was  extracted  with  great  difficulty  from  the  hard  rock  in 
which  it  was  completely  embedded,  the  innumerable  fragments 
being   carefully  put  together  by  Dr.   Donnezan,   by  means  of 
about  a  thousand  brackets.     This  turthe,  which  he  has  named 
Tesiudo  pcrpiniana,  and  which  he  has  presented  to  the  Paris 
Museum,  considerably  exceeds  its  living  congeners,  being  equal 
in  size  to  the  T.  grandidier,  a  sub-fossil  species  found  in  Mada- 
gascar.    Its  survival  down  to  the  close  of  the  Middle  Pliocene 
is  important  for  the  study  of  the  Glacial  period,  tending  to  show 
that  the  south  of  France  even  then  still  enjoyed  a  warm  climate. 
— Experiments  with  a   new  hydraulic  machine    employed    for 
irrigating-purpo^es,  by  M.  A.    de  Caligny.     By  means  of  this 
apparatus,  which  is    a  modified  form  of  that  described  by  the 
author  in  .  the    Coviptcs   rendus  for  December  18,  1882,  water 
with  a  normal  fall  of  2*40  metres  may  be  raised  to  a  height  of 
9'45  metres  above  llie  level  of  the  uppers  ream. — On  the  degrees 
of  oxidation  of  cliromium  and  manganese  in  their  fluorescent 
compounds,  by  M.    Lecoq  de  Boisbaudran.     With   a  view  to 
solving  this  question  the   author  describes  certain  experiments 
which    he    has    made   chiefly    with    alumina    and    chromium, 
gallina    and    chromium,    magnesia    and    chromium,    alumina, 
potassa,  and  manganese,  lime  and  manganese  ;  confining  him- 
self for    the    present    to    a   statement    of   the    facts    observed. 
— Elements   and    ephemeris  of  the    planet    Anahita,   270,    by 
M.     E.     Viennet.       By    means    of    the    ephemeris    deduced 
from  the    already  published    provisional  elements   the    author 
has  been  enabled  to  compare  all  the  observations  made  down 
to  November   16,  and    thus   determine   six  normal    places  for 
October   12,   15,    18,    21,    27,  and  November  16.     With  ihese 
fresh   elements   an  ephemeris   has   been   calculated,    by  which 
astronomers  will  be  enabled  to  observe  the  planet  down  to  the 
end  of  the  present  opposition.     The  magnitude  should  then  be 
about  1 1  or  12. — On  the  value  of  the  solar  parallax  deduced  from 
the  observations  taken  by  the   Brazilian   Missions  daring   the 
transit  of  Venus  in  1882,  by  M.  Cruls.     From  the  reports  of  the 
observations  made  at  tlie  three  stations  of  St.  Thomas  (West 
Indies),01inda  (Brazil),  and  Punta-Arenas  (Strait  of  Magellan), 
the  horizontal  equatorial  parallax  of  the  sun  at  its  mean  distance 
from  the  earth  is  found  to  be  8" "848  —  o"o40  =  8" '808.     The 
reports  are  now  nearly  printed,  and  copies  may  soon  be  expected 
in  Europe. — On  the  specific  heat  of  tellurium,  by  M.  Ch.  Fabre. 
These  experiments  show  that  under  its  several  forms  tellurium 
possesses  much  about  the  same  specific  heat,  at  least  at  a  tem- 
perature of  100°  C.  or  thereabouts.      But  the  differences  may 
possibly  increase  at  higher  temperatures,  and  especially  near  the 
point  of  transformation  from  amorphous  to  crystallized  tellurium. 
— Study  of  a  specimen  of  Welsh  coal,  by  MM.  Scheurer-Kestner 
and    Meunier-Dolfus.       This    was    a    piece   of    the    so-called 
"  Nixom's  Navigation,"  from   Glamorgan,   which   the   authors 
undertook  to  examine  for  Mr.  Donkin,  and  which  was  found  to 
be  so  pure  that  it  yielded  88  per  cent,  of  hard  bright  coke,  4"39 


of  hydrogen,  and  not  more  than   '69   of  sulphur.  —  On  sidereal 
evolution,  by  M.  Ch.  V.  Zcnger. 

Berlin. 

Physiological  Society,  December  2,  —Prof,  du  Bois  Rey- 
mond,  President,  in  the  chair. — Dr.  Salomon  spoke  on  the 
physiological  action  of  paraxanthin.  Since  Fisher's  researches 
have  thrown  light  on  the  chemical  constitution  of  caffein  and 
theobromin,  and  shown  that  the  former  is  trimethyl-xanthin, 
the  latter  dimethyl-xanthin,  experiments  on  the  physiological 
action  of  caffein,  theobromin,  and  xanthin  have  acquired  an 
increased  interest.  All  these  substances  produce  a  double  effect 
when  given  to  a  frog — namely,  one  on  the  central  nervous  sys- 
tem, and  a  curious  effect  on  the  muscles,  which  pass  into  rigor  ; 
the  three  substances  exhibit  these  properties  in  graduated  dej^ree, 
a  fact  which  is  sufficiently  explained  l)y  the  close  relationship  of 
their  chemical  constitution.  It  hence  appeared  to  the  speaker  to 
be  a  matter  of  some  importance  to  investigate  the  physiological 
action  of  the  two  xanthin-derivatives  which  he  had  found  in 
urine — namely,  paraxanthin  and  heteroxanthin.  From  his  re- 
searches it  appears  probable  that  paraxanthin  was  also  a 
dimethyl-xanthin,  that  is,  an  isomer  of  theobromin  ;  hetero- 
xanthin, on  the  other  hand,  had  only  been  obtained  in  such 
minute  quantities  that  its  chemical  constitution  could  not  be 
determined,  but  Dr.  Salomon  suggested  that  it  might  be  the 
missing  member  in  the  above  series  of  xanthin-derivatives — 
namely,  monomethyl-xanthin.  When  the  somewhat  insoluble 
paraxanthin  was  administered  locally  by  subcutaneous  injection, 
it  produced  a  stiffness  and  rigor  of  the  neighbouring  muscles  : 
when  given  in  larger  doses,  some  of  the  animals  became  slug- 
gish and  died,  but  in  many  cases  they  remained  uninjured. 
When  given  internally,  paraxanthin  rarely  led  to  any  appearance 
of  poisoning,  but,  when  it  did,  the  effect  was  limited  to  a  stiffen- 
ing of  the  fore-limbs  and  a  general  sluggishness  of  the  whole 
animal.  Paraxanthin,  therefore,  exhibited  a  physiological  action 
analogous  to  that  of  the  other  xanthin-derivatives.  Paraxanthin 
also  possesses  a  distinct  action  on  the  respiratory  apparatus, 
since,  in  all  cases  in  which  any  effect  was  produced,  the  lungs 
were  found  to  be  strongly  inflated.  He  was  unable  to  examine 
the  action  of  heteroxanthin,  from  the  smallness  of  the  quantity 
in  which  it  can  be  obtained. — Dr.  Baginski  demonstrated  the 
reducing  action  of  certain  Bacteria,  using,  as  a  reagent,  methyl- 
ene-blue,  which  becomes  colourless  by  reduction.  The  Bacteria 
were  obtained  from  the  intestines  of  healthy  cows.  Both  Bac- 
teriu/n  lactii  and  Bactfriuvi  colt  produced  a  powerful  reducing 
action  in  pure  cultivations,  where  the  nutrient  fluid  was  coloured 
with  methylene-blue  ;  in  those  places  where  oxygen  had  access 
the  blue  colour  reappeared.  A  third  Bacterium  discovered  by 
the  speaker  exhibited  no  reducing  power. — Prof.  Gad  ex- 
plained, on  behalf  of  Mr.  Donaldson,  the  method  introduced 
by  Prof.  Martin,  of  the  Johns  Hopkins  University,  Baltimore, 
of  isolating  the  mammalian  heart,  and  of  making  observations 
on  its  activity  for  several  hours,  when  isolated  from  the  body 
and  connected  only  with  the  lungs.  The  defibrinated  blood 
which  flows  from  the  aorta  passes  into  two  Mariotte  flasks  which 
are  in  communication  with  each  other,  and  thence  into  the  right 
auricle.  By  means  of  this  arrangement  it  can  be  shown  that  the 
heart,  when  separated  from  all  its  nerve-;,  works  quicker  when 
the  temperature  of  the  blood  is  raised,  and  slower  when  it  is 
lowered.  An  increase  of  pressure  in  the  aorta  was  found  to  be 
without  any  effect,  whereas  an  increased  venous  resistance  in- 
creases the  cardiac  activity.  It  could  not  be  shown  that  the 
heart  exerts  any  suctional  action  during  its  diastole. 

Meteorological  Society,  December  6. — Prof,  von  Bezold, 
President,  in  the  chair. — The  President  drew  attention  to  Prof. 
Hann's  two  most  recent  publications,  namely,  the  "Atlas  of 
Meteorology"  and  "The  Barometric  Pressure  in  Middle  and  South 
Europe  according  to  Observations  extending  over  Thirty  Years," 
and  gave  a  short  account  of  their  contents.  ^ — Dr.  Assmann  gave 
an  account  of  the  experiments  he  has  carried  on  during  the  last 
year  and  a  half  with  a  view  to  determining  the  true  temperature 
and  humidity  of  the  air.  After  describing  the  methods  previously 
used  to  determine  the  true  temperature  of  the  air  and  his  own 
unsuccessful  attempts  before  he  arrived  at  a  satisfactory  result, 
he  explained  the  principle  of  the  thermometers  as  finally  em- 
ployed, and  demonstrated  the  same  by  exhibiting  several  of 
them.  These  instruments  consist  of  a  fine  sensitive  mercurial 
thermometer,  of  which  the  small  bulb  is  surrounded  by  a  highly 
burnished  cylinder  of  nickel-plated  brass,  open  at  the  lower  end. 


2l6 


NA  rURE 


\Pec.  29,  1887 


At  the  upper  end  the  brass  cylinder  has  a  lateral  opening  by 
which  its  interior  can  be  connected  with  an  india-rubber  aspirat- 
ing ball.  The  chief  difficulty  met  with  was  in  the  construction 
of  a  suitable  valve  for  the  aspirating  ball.  Finally  he  succeeded 
in  making  a  valve  such  that  no  air  was  ever  driven  back  towards 
the  thermometer  when  the  ball  was  compressed,  but  only  drawn 
over  the  bulb  of  the  instrument  during  the  aspiration  at  the  rate 
of  '2  to  2'5  metres  per  second.  Within  these  limits  the  rate  at 
which  the  air  is  drawn  over  the  bulb  had  no  influence  on  the 
temperature  recorded  by  the  thermometer.  Of  extreme  import- 
ance, as  showing  the  suitability  of  the  instruments,  were  the 
speaker's  observations  on  the  temperatures  recorded  by  two  of 
his  thermometers,  of  which  one  was  exposed  to  the  direct  rays  of 
the  sun,  while  the  other  was  shaded  by  a  distant  shutter  :  the 
two  thermometers  recorded  the  same  temperature,  while  at  the 
same  time  an  actinometer  exposed  to  the  sun  showed  a  tempera- 
ture 17°  C.  higher.  The  same  exactness  in  the  determination  of 
the  humidity  of  the  air  is  obtained  when  a  pair  of  these  thermo- 
meters is  used,  and  the  bulb  of  one  is  wrapped  round  with  a 
piece  of  moist  cloth.  This  instrument  is  specially  suitable  for 
observations  in  a  balloon.  The  speaker  explained  that  only 
shortly  before  the  present  meeting  he  had  found  that  a  similar 
instrument  had  been  constructed  by  Welsh  about  the  year  1850. 
— Dr.  Robert  von  Helmholtz  gave  an  account  of  experiments 
which  he  had  carried  on  conjointly  with  Dr.  Sprung  with  a  view 
to  determining  the  humidity  of  the  air.  They  had  both  arrived, 
independently  of  each  other,  at  the  idea  that  the  determination 
of  the  dew-point  might  best  be  made,  not,  as  in  the  usual  way, 
by  the  condensation  on  the  bulb  of  a  thermometer,  but  by 
measurement  of  the  amount  of  rarefaction  which  the  air  must 
undergo  in  order  that  a  mist  may  be  produced.  In  a  previous 
research  the  speaker,  when  determining  the  vapour-tension  over 
solutions  of  salts,  had  compressed  the  air  in  a  closed  space,  and 
then  obtained  a  formation  of  mist  by  suddenly  reducing  the 
pressure  again  to  that  of  the  atmosphere.  By  determining  the 
general  excess  of  pressure  which  is  thus  requisite,  the  dew- 
point  may  be  determined.  Dr.  Sprung  has  compared  the 
dew-point  as  thus  determined  and  as  obtained  by  Regnault's 
apparatus.  The  experiments  are  not  yet  carried  sufficiently  far 
to  yield  any  numerical  results,  but  even  now  it  may  be  said  that 
this  new  method  of  determining  the  dew-point  is  extremely 
trustworthy. 

Physical  Society,  December  9. — Prof,  du  Bois  Reymond, 
President,  in  the  chair. — Dr.  Badde  developed  the  mathematical 
formulas  by  means  of  which  he  can  determine  the  vibrational 
condition  not  only  of  a  vibrating  string,  but  also  of  a  square 
plate— formulas  which  make  it  possible  to  determine  the  relation 
between  the  pitch  of  the  note  and  the  vibration -amplitude  of  the 
vibrating  plate. — Dr.  Pringsheim  gave  an  account  of  the  experi- 
ments he  has  made,  in  conjunction  with  Dr.  Summer,  to  de- 
termine the  quotient  {k)  of  the  specific  heat  of  gases.  The  value 
of  k  is  determined  either  by  measuring  the  rate  of  propagation  of 
sound  in  gases  which  obey  Mariotte's  law,  or  else  from  the  ratio 
of  temperature  to  pressure  when  the  volume  is  kept  constant.  Up 
to  the  present  time  the  rate  of  transmission  of  sound  has  not  been  so 
exactly  determined  that  the  values  can  be  used  for  deducing  the 
value  of  k.  Similarly  the  second  method  has  as  yet  given  very 
discordant  results,  while  at  the  same  time  the  experiments  have 
not  been  free  from  errors.  Drs.  Pringsheim  and  Summer  have 
compressed  air  in  a  glass  balloon  whose  capacity  was  sixty 
litres,  and  determined  its  temperature  by  means  of  a  fine  silver 
wire  passing  through  it  whose  electrical  resistance  was  known. 
Hereupon  the  pressure  in  the  balloon  was  allowed  to  sink  to 
that  of  the  atmosphere  by  opening  a  tap  leading  into  it,  and  the 
cooling  thus  produced  measured  by  means  of  the  wire.  Imme- 
diately upon  this  the  tap  was  again  closed,  the  air  becoming 
warmed  by  the  heat  which  passed  into  it  from  the  air  surround- 
ing the  balloon,  and  the  rise  of  temperature  again  measured. 
During  these  experiments  it  was  found  to  be  of  no  consequence 
whether  the  rarefaction  of  the  compressed  air  took  place  rapidly 
through  a  tap  with  a  large  bore,  or  through  one  with  a  narrow 
aperture  ;  the  wire  always  showed  the  same  amount  of  cooling, 
thus  proving  that  it  follows  the  alteration  of  temperature  of  the 
air  very  rapidly.  Similarly  the  length  of  the  wire  was  found  to 
have  no  effect  on  the  results,  thus  showing  that  the  temperature 
of  the  surroundings  has  no  influence  on  the  temperature  recorded 
by  the  wire.  The  resistance  of  the  wire  was  determined  by  the 
bridge-method,  partly  by  means  of  a  galvanometer,  partly  by 
means  of  a  telephone.     The  ratios  of  the  alterations  in  resistance 


of  the  wire  to  alterations  of  temperature  were  determined,  within 
the  necessary  limits,  for  several  fine  wires.  The  speakers  con- 
sidered that  the  only  objection  which  can  be  raised  to  their 
experiments  is  that  the  above  determination  was  not  made 
with  the  same  wires  which  were  used  in  their  experiments,  and 
they  propose  to  do  away  with  even  this  objection  by  some  later 
experiments  which  have  not  as  yet  been  carried  out.  All  other 
possible  objections  have  been  set  aside  by  varying  the  conditions 
of  their  work  while  ^obtaining  constant  results.  As  a  mean  of 
the  sepat-ate  measurements  rthey  obtained  as  a  value  for  k  the 
number  i'384  ;  the  deviation  for  the  mean  value  amounted  only 
to  a  few  hundredths  per  cent.  The  above  value  for  k  cannot 
however  be  taken  as  being  absolute  until  it  has  been  proved  that 
there  is  a  proportionality  between  the  temperature  and  resistance 
of  the  silver  wire  which  thev  used  in  their  experiments. 


BOOKS.  PAMPHLETS,  and  SERIALS  RECEIVED. 

Ferrets  and  Ferreting,  2nd  edition  (U.  Gill). — Massachusetts  Insti- 
tute of  Technology  :  23rd  Annual  Catalogue  of  the  Officers  and  Students, 
&c.  (Boston). — Die  Theekultur  in  British-Ost-Tndien ;  Hist.  Naturwissen- 
schaftlich  und  Statistich  (Prag). — Quarterly  Journal  of  the  Royal  Meteoro- 
logical Society,  October  (Stanfjrd). — Annalen  der  Physik  und  Chemie,  1887, 
No.  12  (Leipzig). — Archives  Itahennes  de  Biologie,  to.-ne  ix.  fasc.  i  (Turin). 
— Journal  of  the  Royal  Microscopical  Society,  December  (Williams  and 
Norgate).— Elementary  Text-book  of  Physiography :  W.  Mawer  (Marshall). 
— Management  of  Accumulators,  3rd  edition  :  Sir  D.  Salomons  (Whittaker). 
— Sewage  Treatment,  Purification  and  Utilization  :  J.  W.  Slater  (Whittaker). 
—Flour  Manufacture  :  F.  Kick,  translated  by  H.  N.  P.  Powles  (Lock- 
wood). — Photography  Simplified,  3rd  edition  (Mawson  and  Swan). — Trans- 
actions of  the  Sanitary  Institute  of  Great  Britain,  vol.  viii.  (Stapford). — A 
Treatise  on  Chemistry,  vol.  iii.  Part  4,  Organic  Chemistry  :  Roscoe  and 
Schorlemmer  (Macmillan). — Present  Religion,  Part  2  :  S.  S.  Hennell 
(Triibner). — Die  Aitchnftliche  Fresko  und  Mosaik-Malerei :  Dr.  O.  Pohl 
(Leipzig). — Recherches  sur  I'lso'ement  du  Fluor:  H.  Moissan  (Gauthier- 
Villars,  Paris). — Journal  of  Physiology,  vol.  viii.  No.  6  (Cambridge). — 
Morphologisches  J.ihrbuch,  xiii.  Band,  2  Heft  (Williams  and  Norgate). 


CONTENTS.  PAGE 

The  Rosicrucians 193 

The    Mechanics   of    Machinery.      By  Prof.    A.    G. 

Greenhill 195 

The  Solomon  Islands 196 

Crown  Forests  at  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope     ....    198 
Our  Book  Shelf  :— 

Denslow    and    Parker :    "  Thomas    A.   Edison   and 

Samuel  F.    B.  Morse"      I99 

Wright:  "  Sound,  Light,  and  Heat  " 199 

Layard  :  "  Through  the  West  Indies  " 199 

Letters  to  the  Editor  : — 

"  The  Conspiracy  of  Silence." — Samuel  F.  Clarke  ; 

An  Old  Pupil  of  Wy  ville  Thomson's  ....  200 
Greenland     Glaciers. — Prof.     Joseph     Prestwich, 

F.R.S 200 

"The    Mammoth     and     the     Flood." — Henry    H. 

Howorth,  M.P.  ;  Your  Reviewer  .  .  .  ,  .  200 
Centre  of  Water  Pressure. — George  M.  Minchin  .  201 
The  Recent  Earthquakes  in  Iceland. — -Th.  Thorodd- 

sen      201 

The  Canary  Islands. — Olivia  M.  Stone 201 

The  Ffynnon  Beuno    and    Cae   Gwyn    Caves. — Dr. 

Henry  Hicks,  F.R.S 202 

Distorted  Earth  Shadows  in  Eclipses. — Capt.  Henry 

Toynbee 202 

Dr.  Balfour  Stewart,  F.R.S.     By  Prof.  P.  G.  Tait  .    202 
Christmas  Island.     By  J.  J.  Lister;  Capt.  W.  J.  L. 

Wharton,  F.R.S 203 

Timber,  and  some  of  its  Diseases.     II.    {Illustrated.) 

By  Prof.  H.   Marshall  Ward 204 

Notes 207 

Astronomical    Phenomena    for     the    Week     1888 

January  1-7 210 

Geographical  Notes 211 

Journal  of  the  Royal  Agricultural  Society.  By  Prof. 

John  Wrightson     .    , 211 

The  Reproductive  Organs  oi  Alcyonidium  gelati'nosum. 

By  Prof.  W.  A.  Herdman 213 

Societies  and  Academies 213 

Books,  Pamphlets,  and  Serials  Received 216 


NA  TURE 


217 


THURSDAY,  JANUARY   5,    li 


ELECTRICITY  FOR  PUBLIC  SCHOOLS  AND 
COLLEGES. 

Electricity  for  Public  Schools  and  Colleges.  By  W. 
Larden,  M.A.  (London :  Longmans,  Green,  and  Co., 
1887.) 

THIS  is  a  book  which  possesses  many  good  points, 
but  which  becomes,  on  close  acquaintance,  pain- 
fully disappointing,  and  even  irritating,  to  the  reader.  The 
author  has  undoubtedly  spared  no  pains  to  make  it  full 
of  information  ;  but  its  very  fullness  becomes  bewildering, 
owing  to  the  way  in  which  the  material  is  cut  up  and  put 
together.  One  might  almost  imagine  that  it  had  been 
reduced  from  a  much  larger  work,  chiefly  by  means  of 
deletions,  and  without  the  rounding-off  of  the  angularities 
which  such   a  process  would  inevitably  develop. 

The  science  of  electricity  and  magnetism  is,  without 
question,  an  experimental  science  ;  and  the  author  of  the 
present  work  does  not  offer  his  book  to  his  readers  as 
a  book  on  the  mathematical  side  of  this  experimental 
science  ;  but  as  an  elementary  book  suitable  for  higher 
schools  and  for  Colleges.  He  confines  himself  as  to 
mathematics  by  assuming  "  no  more  mathematical  know- 
ledge than  is  usually  possessed  by  the  higher  boys  in  a 
classical  school."  Under  these  conditions  we  should 
expect  to  have  a  book  containing  exact  and  well-finished 
descriptions  of  experiments  and  apparatus,  along  with 
explanations  of  phenomena  and  with  theory  brought  down 
to  correspond  with  our  present  knowledge  on  this  most 
fascinating  subject.  Expectations  or  hopes  such  as  these 
are  very  far  from  being  realized  in  the  book  before  us. 

The  amount  of  material  collected  by  the  author  is 
undoubtedly  very  great.  The  number  of  instruments 
and  machines  referred  to  and  described  is  enormous. 
The  descriptions  are,  however,  often  unsatisfactory,  nor 
are  they  written  with  any  attempt  at  finish  or  good  taste 
The  book  is  supposed  to  be  for  the  use  of  well-educated 
beginners  ;  but  we  think  it  would  be  difficult  to  find  a 
worse  model  for  boys  or  young  men  as  to  the  writing  of 
descriptions  of  apparatus  or  of  experiments.  Often  the 
heading  of  a  paragraph  has  half  the  duty  to  perform  ; 
the  remainder  may  be  done  by  a  diagram,  which  is  let- 
tered in  a  tantalizing  way,  as  if  a  description  had  been 
intended. 

Here,  for  example,  are  the  descriptions  of  two  of  the 
most  important  frictional  electric  machines : — 

"  IL  The  Common  Plate  Machine. — In  this  there  is 
nothing  essentially  different  from  the  cylinder  machine. 
A  glance  at  the  figure  will  explain  all.  There  are  gener- 
ally two  rubbers  ;  and  in  this  form  of  machine  they  can- 
not well  be  insulated,  if  required  ;  so  the  machine  cannot 
be  used  as  a  source  of  both  -|-  and  —  electricity.  In- 
stead of  glass,  ebonite  plates  may  be  used,  the  rubbers 
being  of  amalgamated  silk. 

"  III.  Winter' s  Plate  Machine. — In  this  the  rubber  and 
the  points  of  the  prime  conductor  are  more  widely  separ- 
ated ;  and  the  prime  conductor  can  therefore  acquire  a 
higher  level  (or  potential)  of  charge  without  discharge 
over  the  glass  to  the  rubber.  The  rubber  can  be  insulated 
or  not,  as  required.  A  curious  feature  is  an  addition  to  the 
Vol.  XXXVII,— No.  949. 


prime  conductor  in  the  shape  of  a  large  ring  of  brass 
inclosed  in  baked  wood.  This  ring  increases  the 
'  capacity '  of  the  prime  conductor." 

The  description  of  Winter's  machine  is  not  even  sup- 
plemented with  a  figure  ;  and  we  doubt  if  any  student 
reading  the  description  will  form  the  faintest  conception 
of  the  nature  of  the  machine  or  of  the  "  ring  of  brass 
inclosed  in  baked  wood."  "  Amalgamated  silk,"  too,  is  a 
shortened  expression,  which  is,  to  say  the  least,  as  inap. 
propriate  as  it  is  uncommon.  These  descriptions  have 
not  been  specially  chosen  for  inadequacy.  There  are 
numbers  no  more  complete  than  these. 

Probably  the  chapter  which  will  be  found  most  satis- 
factor  by  learners  is  the  long  and  important  Chapter  X., 
which  deals  with  electro-static  potential.  This,  with  the 
exception  of  the  first  two  or  three  sections,  is  very  com- 
plete and  well  given.  The  subject  is  explained  with 
great  clearness,  and  with  abundant  reference  to  numerical 
calculation. 

The  chapters  on  dynamo-electric  machines  and  on 
motors  may  also  be  considered  fairly  good  for  an  element- 
ary text-book.  The  learner  will  obtain  in  these  chapters 
a  sufficient  account  of  the  principles  of  these  machines, 
given  with  satisfactory  clearness. 

In  his  treatment  of  the  subject  of  units,  and  particu- 
larly of  the  electro-magnetic  units,  the  author  is  singularly 
unhappy.  In  an  elementary  book,  or  in  any  book  on 
this  subject,  whether  elementary  or  advanced,  it  must  be 
considered  a  fundamental  mistake  to  omit  a  full  and  clear 
explanation  of  the  foundation  and  derivation  of  the  abso- 
lute electro-magnetic  unit  of  resistance  ;  and  it  is  utterly 
unsatisfactory  to  give,  as  a  definition  of  the  unit  of  re- 
sistance, the  remark  merely  that  "  Ohm's  law  defines  the 
unit  of  resistance  as  that  through  which  unit  electro- 
motive force  gives  unit  currer\t."  It  was  not  in  this  way 
that  the  absolute  unit  of  resistance  was  fixed  upon,  and 
the  original  definition  is  certainly  worthy  of  the  attention 
of  the  student.  Taking  the  statement  given  above,  how- 
ever, and  turning  to  "Ohm's  law"  for  information,  the 
learner  finds  no  statement  of  this  law  in  words,  but  merely 
the  following  : — 

"  Ohm's  law  is  that — 


C  is  proportional  to  -, 
K. 


C  =  /& 


E„ 
R" 


Such  a  statement  as  this  might  perhaps,  if  reproduced 
for  the  benefit  of  an  examiner,  serve  to  conceal  the 
ignorance  of  the  individual  under  examination,  and  might 
leave  the  examiner  so  uncertain  that  he  would  be  obliged, 
though  unwillingly,  to  award  half  marks  to  the  answer ; 
but  to  the  student  it  can  do  no  real  good. 

There  is  but  one  other  remark  on  the  electro-magnetic 
unit  of  resistance,  and  it  is  almost  equally  infelicitous  with 
what  is  quoted  above.  It  is  contained  in  a  "  note  "  on 
"  Determination  of  Units,"  and  is  to  the  effect  that  "re- 
sistance can  be  measured  by  observation  of  the  heat 
evolved  when  a  known  current  flows  through  the  conductor 
in  question."  A  very  slight  acquaintance  with  possibilities 
in  experimenting  would  dispel  any  such  idea. 

In  connection  with  explanations  regarding  units  we 
meet  here  the  customary  sections   on    "  Dimensions  of 

L 


2l8 


NATURE 


\7an.  5, 


Units,"  but  it  seems  to  us  that  too  much  importance  is 
commonly  given  to  the  well-known  table  of  dimensions. 
Without  very  full  and  very  clear  explanations  of  the  whole 
subject  (and  these  are  not  to  be  found  in  the  book  before 
us),  the  table  and  the  remarks  given  in  connection  with  it 
are  worse  than  useless  ;  they  only  serve  to  confuse  an 
intelligent  pupil  whose  own  common-sense  will  carry  him 
safely  through  any  calculation  which  he  can  be  reasonably 
expected  to  make. 

We  cannot  avoid  calling  attention,  before  closing  this 
notice,  to  some  most  painful  defects  in  style,  because  it 
is,  we  are  of  opinion,  of  the  utmost  importance  that 
students  should  be  trained  from  the  very  beginning  to 
write  and  speak  with  due  respect  to  ordinary  proprieties 
of  literary  composition.  It  is  not  to  the  faults  of  English 
grammar  and  to  uncouthness  of  language  that  we  would 
call  attention  most  particularly,  though-  such  faults 
abound.  Thus,  on  p.  i6  the  student  is  recommended  to 
"puzzle  this  out";  and  on  p.  72  we  find  the  following 
sentence  : — 

"  There  ivill  be  a  fall  of  potential,  or  an  electrical  hill, 
from  this  body  A  down  to  the  walls,  &c.  [sic).  Such  was 
the  case  if  only  we  change  the  sign  of  the  charge  in 
Chapter  IV.  §  14." 

On  p.  248  we  find  the  following  : — 

"  Failure  of  a  Smee's  Cell  to  decompose  Water. — If  the 
back  E.M.F.  e  of  an  electrolytic  cell  would  be  greater  than 
the  E.M.F.  E  of  the  battery,  then  such  a  battery  will 
fail  to  drive  a  current  through,  and  decompose,  such 
a  cell." 

The  worst  fault  in  style  is,  however,  the  introduction, 
on  every  page  of  the  book,  often  in  every  line,  of  contrac- 
tions of  all  sorts.  Thus  we  have,  through  the  whole  of 
the  electro-static  part,  ■\-  and  -  for  "  positive "  and 
"  negative  "  ;  and  we  have  bodies  "  +ly  electrified  "  and 
"-ly  electrified."  Throughout  the  electro-chemical  part 
we  scarcely  once  have  hydrogen,  or  zinc,  or  sulphuric 
acid  mentioned  by  name,  but  always  H,  Zn,  and  H2SO4. 
This  becomes  confusing,  to  say  the  least,  when  the 
author  is  dealing  with  the  "  Connection  between  E.M.F.'s 
and '  Heats  of  Combination.''  "  Here,  "  if  we  represent  by 
by  H^n  the  heat  in  calories  evolved  by  the  solution  of 
I  gramme  of  Zn  in  dilute  H2SO4,  then  H^n  is  called  the 
heat  of  combination  of  zinc  with  dilute  H2SO4." 

Worse,  perhaps,  is  the  use  of  "  AV  "  and  "  the  algebraic 
sum  of  the  different  AV's  "  where  "  AV "  stands  for  the 
words  "  difference  of  potentials."  This  is  done  every- 
where throughout  the  first  part  of  the  book  ;  and  by  and 
by,  when  we  are  introduced  to  AV's  producing  E.M.F.'s, 
and  to  "  Thomson  and  Peltier  E.M.F.'s,"  human  patience 
absolutely  fails.  In  the  list  of  abbreviations  we  are  told 
that  a  second  of  time  is  denoted  by  i"  "sometimes." 
It  ought  to  be  never. 

It  is  scarcely  necessary  to  say  that,  were  there  no  merits 
in  the  book  before  us,  it  would  hardly  be  worth  while  to 
enter  into  a  discussion  of  its  faults.  But  the  work  is 
really  of  great  value,  and  were  the  materials  somewhat 
rearranged,  the  writing  improved,  nine-tenths  of  the 
paragraph  breaks  taken  away,  and  the  multitude  of  notes 
incorporated  with  the  text,  it  would  prove  a  n-.ost 
important  text-book  in  electricity  and  magnetism. 


INDO-CHINA  AND  THE  INDIAN 
ARCHIPELAGO. 

Miscellaneous  Papers  relating  to  Indo-China  and  the 
Indian  Archipelago.  Reprinted  for  the  Straits  Branch 
of  the  Royal  Asiatic  Society.  Second  Series.  Two 
Volumes.     (London  :  Triibner  and. Co.,  1887.) 

THE  new  series  of  papers  relating  to  Indo-China,  like 
its  predecessor,  consists  of  reprints  from  various 
periodicals  which  are  not  within  the  reach  of  ordinary 
readers.  Thus  in  the  present  volumes  we  find  papers 
of  great  interest,  and  some  of  considerable  importance, 
reproduced  from  the  Journal  of  the  Royal  Geographi- 
cal Society  of  forty  years  ago,  from  the  Journals  of 
the  Asiatic  Society  of  Bengal,  of  the  Royal  Asiatic 
Society,  and  from  the  publications  of  various  Dutch 
Societies.  With  regard  to  the  latter,  it  may  be  said  that 
they  are  the  most  valuable  papers  in  the  volumes,  for  the 
Dutch  have  long  studied  with  great  assiduity  the  land  and 
people  under  their  rule  in  the  Malay  Archipelago.  Their 
scientific  services,  in  Java  especially,  are  recruited  from 
Holland  with  the  utmost  care  ;  the  members  are  spread 
over  the  scattered  Dutch  possessions  from  Northern 
Sumatra  to  New  Guinea  ;  they  are  constantly  studying 
the  problems  presented  to  them  by  man  and  Nature 
around  them  ;  and  the  consequence  is  that  the  Verhande- 
lingen  of  the  Society  of  Arts  and  Sciences  at  Batavia,  the 
Indische  Tijdschrift,  and  other  publications  in  the  mother 
country,  as  well  as  in  Java,  are  full  of  papers  written  by 
skilled  and  qualified  persons  who  have  devoted  special 
attention  to  subjects  connected  with  the  Malay  Archi- 
pelago. The  editor  of  these  volumes  is  indebted  to  these 
Dutch  publications  for  such  papers  as  that  on  the  rocks 
of  Pulo  Ubin,  by  Mr.  J.  R.  Logan,  the  greatest  English 
student  of  this  region  that  ever  lived,  although  there  are 
certain  members  of  the  Straits  Civil  Service  who  promise 
to  rival  him  ;  for  Mr.  Groeneveldt's  "  Notes  on  the  Malay 
Archipelago  and  Malacca,"  a  modest  title  under  which  is 
concealed  a  learned  examination  of  a  vast  quantity  of 
Chinese  literature  with  a  view  to  ascertaining  what  the 
Chinese  knew  about  the  region  ;  Father  Borie's  account 
of  the  Mantra  tribe,  and  several  others. 

The  experiment  of  collecting  in  this  way  from  various 
sources  the  papers  relating  to  a  particular  region  is,  we 
believe,  a  novel  one.  In  this  instance  it  appears  to  be  a 
success.  Here  in  four  volumes,  obtainable  at  a  moderate 
price,  we  have  the  contents — so  far  as  they  relate  to  the 
Malay  Peninsula  and  Archipelago,  and  appear  to  a 
skilled  editor  to  be  of  permanent  value — of  more  than  a 
score  of  periodicals,  many  of  which  are  quite  inaccessible 
to  ordinary  students,  and  which,  even  in  London,  could 
only  be  examined  in  the  British  Museum,  the  India 
Office,  and  possibly  the  Royal  Asiatic  and  Royal  Geo- 
graphical Societies.  The  Council  of  the  Straits  Society, 
which  advanced  the  funds  for  this  excellent  undertaking, 
is  to  be  congratulated  on  its  public  spirit,  and  we  trust  it 
will  not  lose,  even  in  a  pecuniary  sense.  Whether  it  does 
or  not,  it  has  placed  every  student  of  the  region  within 
which  its  members  labour  under  an  obligation  by  the 
production  of  these  volumes.  Other  learned  Societies  in 
various  parts  of  the  globe  might  well  emulate  this  example, 
for  there  is  nothing  more  laborious  or  bewildering  than 
to  hunt  through  old  periodicals  without  adequate  indexes 


Jan.  5,  1888] 


NATURE 


219 


and  without  an  exact  reference,  for  a  valuable  paper. 
The  number  of  papers  of  permanent  value  in  these  old 
periodicals  is  very  small :  subsequent  researches  have 
thrown  them  out  of  date  ;  the  mere  efflux  of  time  has 
proved  some  of  them  to  be  useless ;  many  deal  with 
temporary  subjects,  which  are  now  of  no  importance  to 
anyone.  Such  a  periodical,  for  example,  as  the  old 
China  Repository,  printed  partly  in  Canton — the  Canton 
of  the  old  days — now  fetches  an  absurd  price.  Sets  have 
been  sold  in  recent  years  at  from  ^30  to  ^50  ;  yet 
all  that  it  contains  of  value  now  could  be  placed  in 
two  volumes  such  as  these  before  us.  The  demand 
for  special  works  of  this  character,  however,  is  too  small 
to  induce  any  publisher  to  incur  the  risk  of  producing 
them ;  and  hence  it  is  that  we  are  thrown  back  on  the 
learned  Societies,  which  represent  the  students  of  to-day, 
to  place  within  our  reach  the  labours  of  past  generations 
of  scholars,  and  of  the  literary  and  intellectual  fathers 
that  begat  them.  This,  however,  is  a  question  for  the 
Societies  themselves,  for  their  own  members  must 
feel  more  acutely  than  anyone  else  the  truth  of  these 
observations. 

We  have  already  mentioned  a  few  of  the  papers  of 
scientific  interest  in  the  present  series.  If  Mr.  Logan's 
paper  on  the  peculiar  rocks  of  Pulo  Ubin,  an  island  near 
Singapore,  is  not  out  of  date  at  present,  it  probably  soon 
will  be  if  the  long-promised  survey  of  the  part  of  the 
Malay  Peninsula  under  British  influence  is  to  be  tho- 
roughly carried  out.  Dr.  F.  Stoliczka  has  a  short  paper 
on  some  species  of  Malayan  Amphibia  and  Reptilia,  and 
a  longer  one  on  the  land-shells  of  Penang  ;  while  Father 
Borie  describes  the  Mantras,  amongst  whom  he  laboured 
as  a  missionary  for  some  years.  This  is  one  of  the 
aboriginal  tribes  of  the  peninsula,  which  were  driven 
inland  by  the  great  Malay  invasion  of  the  twelfth  century. 
Of  these,  the  Karens  inhabit  the  north  and  part  of  Bur- 
mah,  the  Semangs  the  States  of  Kedah,  Pera'c,  and 
Selangore,  the  Mantras  the  region  lying  between  the 
latter  territory  and  Mount  Ophir,  the  Jakons  and  Sam- 
binbangs  the  southern  part  of  the  peninsula.  The  writer 
describes  the  manners  and  habits  of  the  people  in  some 
detail.  A  most  interesting  paper,  and  one  of  the  longest, 
is  Dr.  Friederich's  account  of  the  language,  literature, 
religion,  and  castes  of  the  people  of  Bali,  an  island  which 
occupies  a  peculiar  relation  in  the  history  of  the  civiliza- 
tion of  the  Malay  Peninsula  and  Archipelago.  The 
editor  in  his  introduction  describes  that  position  in  these 
words :  — 

"The  continued  existence,  in  unabated  vitality,  of  a 
nationalized  Hinduism,  blended  with  pre-Hindu  customs 
and  practices,  among  a  spirited  and  vigorous  people  is 
not  only  ...  a  kind  of  commentary  on  the  ancient  condi- 
tion of  the  natives  of  Java,  it  allows  us  also  to  draw  a 
fair  inference  as  to  the  kind  of  Hinduism  at  one  time 
prevailing  in  other  parts  of  Malaysia  less  favoured  by 
historical  records,  where  ruthless  Islam  has  since  obli- 
terated to  a  great  extent  the  traces  of  other  creeds, 
traditions,  and  institutions.  It  is,  indeed,  essential  to  a 
proper  understanding  and  estimate  of  the  religious  and 
social  condition  of  the  various  and  wide-spread  Malayan 
tribes  that  the  influence  which  Hindu  civilization  has,  in 
a  greater  or  lesser  degree,  exerted  upon  them,  should  as 
far  as  possible  be  investigated." 

It  should  be  mentioned  that  the  last  number  of  the 
Proceedings  of  the  Dutch  Geographical  Society  contains 


a  paper  on  the  same  subject  by  Count  Limburg  Sturm, 
who  visited  the  island  last  year. 

Finally,  there  are  certain  "  Notices  on  Zoological  Sub- 
jects," and  "  Descriptions  of  Malayan  Plants,"  reprinted 
from  an  English  periodical  published  at  Bencoolen  nearly 
seventy  years  ago,  with  a  note  to  the  letter  by  Sir  Joseph 
Hooker  and  Mr.  Hervey,  correcting  the  terminology.  In 
the  preface  the  editor  quotes  part  of  a  letter  from  Sir 
Joseph  pointing  to  a  speedy  investigation  of  the  flora  of 
the  Malay  Peninsula,  for  which  he  has  urged  the  Colonial 
Government  to  contribute  funds.  Seeing  that  Dr.  Rost 
has  had  to  go  back  to  1820  for  an  account  of  the  flora,  it 
seems  almost  time  that  Sir  Joseph  Hooker's  advice  should 
be  taken  by  Sir  Cecil  Smith  and  the  Legislative  Council 
of  the  Straits  Settlements. 


THE  ZOOLOGICAL  RESULTS  OF  THE 
"  CHALLENGER  "  EXPEDITION. 

Report  on  the  Scientific  Results  of  the  Voyage  of  H.  M.S. 
"  Challenger"  during  the  Years  iSj2)-7^,  under  the  com- 
mand of  Capt.  George  S.  Nares,  R.N.,  E.R.S.,  and  the 
late  Capt.  F.  T.  Thomson,  R.N.  Prepared  under  the 
superintendence  of  the  late  Sir  C.  Wyville  Thomson, 
Knt.,  F.R.S.,  &c.,  and  now  of  John  Murray,  one  of  the 
Naturalists  of  the  Expedition.  Zoology— Vol.  XXII. 
(Published  by  Order  of  Her  Majesty's  Government, 
1887.) 

VOLUME  XXII.  contains  the  Report, by  Dr.  Gunther, 
Keeper  of  the  Department  of  Zoology  in  the  British 
Museum,  on  the  deep-sea  fishes  collected  during,  the 
cruise. 

Originally  it  was  intended  to  fix  an  arbitrary  depth  as 
distinguishing  between  the  shore  and  deep-sea  fishes, 
and  accordingly,  in  the  author's  previous  Report  on  the 
shore  fishes  of  the  Challenger  Expedition,  all  those  fishes 
captured  at  a  less  depth  than  350  fathoms  were  treated  as 
more  or  less  littoral  forms.  However,  the  subsequent 
Norwegian  and  North  American  explorations  brought  to 
light  instances  of  fishes  with  an  unmistakably  bathybial 
organization  occurring  at  a  much  shallower  depth  than 
the  forms  discovered  by  the  Challeftgerj  or,  on  the  other 
hand,  showed  that  certain  littoral  forms  descend  not  only 
to  100  but  even  to  beyond  300  fathoms. 

In  the  present  Report,  the  loo-fathom  line  is  adopted 
as  the  boundary  at  which,  with  the  extinction  of  sunlight, 
the  bathybial  fauna  commences,  sporadically,  no  doubt, 
and  largely  mixed  with  surface  forms. 

The  material  which  forms  the  subject  of  this  Report 
consisted  of  794  specimens,  of  which  610  were  obtained 
during  the  voyage  of  the  Challenger,  88  on  the  cruises 
of  the  Knight-Errant  and  Triton,  and  96  from  other 
sources.  These  specimens  are  referred  to  266  species, 
177  falling  to  the  share  of  the  Challenger,  and  14  being 
due  to  the  exploration  of  the  Faroe  Channel.  The  number 
of  new  species  discovered  by  the  Challettger  amounts  to 
144,  whilst  by  the  deep-sea  exploration  of  the  Faroe 
Channel  10  species  have  been  added  to  the  fauna  of  the 
British  seas. 

In  the  introduction  we  have  a  history  of  our  present 
knowledge  of  the  fish-fauna  of  the  deep-sea,  some  account 
of  the  characteristics  of  deep-sea  fish,  and  an  account  of 
their  vertical  and  horizontal  distribution.  . 


220 


NA  TURE 


[Jan.  5,  I 


While  no  distinct  bathymetrical  zones,  characterized  by 
peculiar  forms,  can  be  defined,  yet  the  following  table 
clearly  shows  that  the  abundance  of  fish  life  decreases 
with  the  depth.     There  have  been  found  between 


Fathoms. 

100-300  ... 

300-500  ... 

500-700  ... 

700-1500  ... 

1500-2000  ... 

2000-2900  ... 


Species. 
232 
142 

76 

56 

24 

23 


While  no  doubt  this  decrease  in  numbers  is  partly  due 
to  the  extreme  difficulty  of  investigating  the  deep-sea 
fauna,  it  cannot  but  be  also  regarded  as  pretty  certain 
that,  while  locally  abundant  as  to  individuals,  the  number 
of  species  found  is  but  small. 

The  descriptions  of  the  new  genera  and  species,  though 
abounding  with  interesting  details  in  reference  to  the 
many  strange  forms  described,  cannot  with  the  space  at 
our  disposal  be  even  summarized, — they  are  such  as  would 
have  been  expected  from  the  known  skill  and  judgment 
of  Dr.  Giinther  ;  but  we  must  find  room  for  some  allusion 
to  the  Report  on  the  structure  of  the  phosphorescent 
organs,  on  the  head  of  Ipnops,  by  Prof.  H.  N.  Moseley, 
and  on  the  structure  of  the  phosphorescent  organs  of 
fishes,  by  Dr.  R.  von  Lendenfeld. 

In  Ipnops  tmirrayi  the  eyes  as  well  as  the  optic  nerves 
are  completely  absent,  but  a  pair  of  symmetrical  luminous 
organs  are  to  be  found  on  either  side  of  the  median  line 
of  the  upper  flattened  surface  of  its  head,  the  upper  wall 
of  the  skull  where  it  covers  them  being  completely 
transparent. 

These  phosphorescent  organs  are  composed  of  hexa- 
gonal columnar  masses,  arranged  with  considerable  regu- 
larity in  rows,  and  resting  inferiorly  on  a  pigmented 
connective-tissue  layer.  Each  hexagonal  column  is 
composed  of  a  number  (from  thirty  to  forty)  of  transparent 
rods,  disposed  side  by  side  at  right  angles  to  the  outer 
surface  of  the  organ,  and  with  their  bases  applied  against 
the  concave  surface  of  large  hexagonal  pigment  cells,  one 
of  which  forms  the  base  of  each  hexagonal  column.  The 
basal  pigment  cells  are  also  hexagonal  in  outline,  and  are 
cup-like,  concavo-convex  in  form,  and  of  the  same  breadth 
as  the  hexagonal  columns.  These  organs  receive  a  rich 
blood  supply,  and  there  appears  little  room  for  doubt  but 
that  the  nerve  supply  comes  from  the  fifth  nerve.  No 
trace  of  any  other  nerve  supply  has  been  found.  From  a 
comparison  of  these  organs  with  those  of  a  similar  nature 
in  other  fish,  the  author  concludes  that  they  are  but 
highly  specialized  and  enormously  enlarged  representa- 
tives of  the  phosphorescent  organs  on  the  heads  of  such 
allied  Scopelids  as  Scopelus  rajinesquii  and  S.  metopo- 
clampus. 

The  Report  of  Dr.  von  Lendenfeld  is  of  a  more  general 
character,  treating  as  it  does  of  the  phosphorescent  organs 
of  most  of  the  known  phosphorescent  fishes,  though  not 
alluding  to  those  of  Ipnops.  These  organs  are  classified 
into  the  regular  ocellar  organs  and  the  irregular  glandu- 
lar organs.  Both  these  classes  are  again  subdivided  in 
reference  to  their  form  or  position  ;  and  in  conclusion  we 
have  a  comparison  of  the  different  phosphorescent  organs 


of  fishes,  and  of  these  as  compared  with  similar  organs  in 
other  animals. 

Dr.  von  Lendenfeld  sums  up  his  investigations  as 
follows: — (i)  The  phosphorescent  organs  of  fishes  are 
more  or  less  modified  glands  which  have  partly  been 
developed  from  simple  slime-glands  in  the  skin,  and 
partly  in  connection  with  the  slime-canal  system  ;  (2)  the 
typical  clavate  cells  are  modified  gland-cells ;  (3)  the 
accessory  reflectors  and  sphincters  are  developed  from 
the  skin  around  and  below  the  gland  ;  (4)  the  large  sub- 
orbital organs  are  innervated  by  a  modified  branch  of  the 
trigeminus,  and  the  other  organs  by  the  ordinary  super- 
ficial nerves. 

A  splendid  atlas  of  plates  accompanies  this  volume. 
Of  these,  sixty-six  represent  the  new  species  described  by 
Dr.  Giinther,  and  several  of  them  are  folding  plates  ;  two 
illustrate  the  anatomy  of  the  phosphorescent  organs  of 
Ipnops  murrayi ;  and  the  remaining  five  are  drawn  by  Dr. 
von  Lendenfeld  and  illustrate  in  a  very  beautiful  manner 
his  Report  on  the  phosphorescent  organs  just  alluded  to. 


SALINE  DEPOSITS. 

Die  Bildung  des  Natronsaltpeters  aus  Mutterlangen- 
salzen.  By  Dr.  Carl  Ochsenius.  (Stuttgart  :  E.  Koch, 
1887.) 

THIS  book  is  a  very  valuable  contribution  to  the 
history  of  saline  deposits  in  general,  but  it  is 
especially  useful  on  account  of  the  author's  detailed  de- 
scription of  the  salt-beds  of  Chili  and  Peru,  to  the  study 
of  which  he  mainly  devotes  his  attention.  He  discusses 
the  various  theories  which  have  from  time  to  time  been 
advanced  to  account  for  the  formation  of  Chili  saltpetre 
(sodium  nitrate),  and  shows  that  it  must  be  regarded  as 
the  product  of  the  action  of  oxidizing  guano  on  certain 
mother-liquors  containing  carbonate  of  soda. 

The  salt-beds  on  the  west  coast  of  South  America  are 
found  in  the  rainless  district  which  stretches  from  Payta 
(near  Amotape),  in  Peru,  as  far  south  as  the  twenty-sixth 
parallel.  This  region  forms  a  narrow  strip  along  the 
coast-line,  and  rarely  exceeds  twenty-five  miles  in  width. 
It  is  bounded  on  the  east  by  a  chain  of  the  Andes,  and 
in  the  southern  portion  of  the  district  the  coast  is  fringed 
with  low-lying  hills,  known  as  the  coast  Cordilleras.  The 
author  considers  that,  before  the  upheaval  of  the  Andes, 
salt  began  to  deposit  in  certain  bays,  which  had  been 
wholly  or  partially  shut  off  from  the  sea  by  the  gradual 
formation  of  an  intercepting  bar.  Then,  while  the  pro- 
cess of  evaporation  was  still  incomplete,  the  district  was 
raised  by  volcanic  action,  and  the  mother-liquors  from 
the  salt  lakes  eventually  escaped,  running  down  into  the 
valleys,  and,  where  they  encountered  no  obstacle,  reach- 
ing the  sea.  The  coast  Cordilleras  acted  as  a  barrier  in 
the  southern  portion  of  the  district ;  while  in  the  northern 
part  the  liquors  doubtless  returned  to  the  sea.  The  vol- 
canoes which  produced  the  aforesaid  upheaval  exhaled 
immense  volumes  of  carbonic  acid  gas,  and  the  author 
considers  that  a  portion  of  the  sodium  chloride  in  the 
mother-liquors  was  thus  converted  into  sodium  carbonate. 
(The  co-existence  of  borates  goes  far  to  confirm  the 
source  of  carbonic  acid.)  The  coast  in  this  part  of  Chih 
is  studded  with  small  islands  containing  deposits  of  guano 


Jan.  5.  1888] 


NA  TURE 


221 


rich  in  ammonia.  The  guano  dust  is  carried  by  the  pre- 
vailing west  winds  far  into  the  country,  and  would  fall  into 
the  mother-liquor  lakes,  where,  on  exposure  to  the  air  at 
a  warm  temperature,  it  would  gradually  oxidize  to  nitrate, 
and,  acting  on  the  sodium  carbonate,  would  form  sodium 
nitrate  (Chili  saltpetre). 

The  "caliche"  (crude  saltpetre)  is  most  variable  in 
appearance  and  in  the  percentage  of  nitrate  which  it 
contains.  The  various  substances,  other  than  sodium 
nitrate,  which  are  found  in  the  Tarapaca  and  Atacama 
deposits  are  described  at  length  by  the  author,  who  com- 
pares them  with  those  which  are  found  at  Stassfurt,  and 
he  traces  in  the  comparative  prominence  of  the  more 
soluble  salts  in  the  Chilian  deposits  a  further  confirma- 
tion of  his  theory  that  the  nitre-beds  are  formed  from 
mother-liquor  salts. 

The  boo'c  is  well  indexed,  and  is  supplied  with  a  map 
and  several  sections  of  the  district  described. 

J.  I.  W. 


OUR  BOOK  SHELF. 

Tenerife,  and  its  Six  Satellites.     By   Olivia  M.  Stone. 
In  Two  Vols.     (London:  Marcus  Ward,  1887.) 

A  GOOD  book  on  the  Canary  Islands,  which  have  been  of 
so  much  service  to  many  an  invalid,  has  long  been 
wanted  ;  for,  as  Mrs.  Stone  says,  many  parts  even  of  the 
best-known  islands  of  Tenerife  and  Gran  Canaria  are 
untrodden  ground  to  English  people,  and  are  but  little 
known  to  persons  of  any  other  nationality.  Mrs.  Stone 
supplies  all  the  information  that  can  be  needed  by  the 
most  exacting  visitor  to  the  islands,  or  by  persons  who 
may  wish  to  read  about  them  at  home.  As  she  has 
already  shown  in  her  "Norway  in  June,"  she  has  ex- 
cellent powers  of  observation,  and  knows  how  to  give  a 
clear  and  effective  account  of  all  that  she  sees  in  her 
travels.  In  the  present  work  her  descriptions  are  all  the 
more  vivid  because  they  were  written  "  on  the  spot," 
when  everything  she  wished  to  set  down  in  her  narrative 
was  still  fresh  in  her  mind.  To  the  Island  of  Hierro,  to 
which  she  and  her  husband  seem  to  have  been  the  first 
English  visitors,  she  devotes  a  good  deal  of  attention  ; 
and  what  she  has  to  say  about  that  "  solitary,  happy, 
singular"  island  is  full  of  interest,  and  would  alone  have 
justified  her,  if  justification  had  been  necessary,  in  making 
her  travels  in  the  Canary  Islands  the  subject  of  a  book. 
In  an  appendix  she  presents  a  useful  epitome  of  all 
necessary  expenses  connected  with  her  tour. 

Through    Central    Asia.      By   Henry    Lansdell,    D.D. 
(London:  Sampson  Low,  1887.) 

This  is  a  popular  edition  of  the  author's  well-known 
"  Russian  Central  Asia,  including  Kuldja,  Bokhara, 
Khiva,  and  Merv."  He  has  omitted  many  whole  chapters 
and  most  of  the  notes,  thinking  it  best  that  the  present 
edition  should  consist  chiefly  of  a  personal  narrative. 
Any  student  who  may  desire  fuller  information  regarding 
Central  Asia  is  referred  to  the  original  work,  in  which  Dr. 
Lansdell  gives  4300  species  of  fauna  and  flora  in  about 
twenty  lists  with  introductions,  adds  a  bibliography  of 
700  titles,  and  treats  more  or  less  fully  of  the  geography, 
economy  and  administration,  ethnology,  antiquities, 
history,  meteorology,  geology,  zoology,  and  botany  of  all 
parts  of  Russian  Turkistan,  Kuldja,  Bokhara,  Khiva,  and 
Turkmenia,  down  to  the  frontier  of  Afghanistan.  To  the 
new  and  abridged  edition  he  has  added  an  appendix  on 
he  delimitation  of  the  Russo- Afghan  frontier. 


LETTERS   TO    THE  EDITOR. 

[TAe  Editor  does  not'  hold  himself  responsible  for  opinions 
expressed  by  his  correspondents.  Neither  can  he  under- 
take to  return,  or  to  correspond  with  the  writers  of, 
rejected  mamiscripts.  No  notice  is  taken  of  anonymous 
communications. 

[The  Editor  urgently  requests  correspondents  to  keep  their 
letters  as  short  as  possible.  The  pressure  on  his  space 
is  so  great  that  it  is  impossible  otherwise  to  insure  J  he 
appearance  even  of  communications  containing  interesting 
and  novel  facts. 

The  Star  of  Bethlehem. 

Referring  to  the  hypothesis  in  your  last  week's  issue,  that 
the  star  of  Bethlehem  was  Venus,  I  would  point  out  that  1180 
synodical  periods  of  Venus  {i.e.  ilSo  x  583*92  =  689,025  mean 
solar  days)  take  us  back  from  October -28,  1887 — when  Venus 
was  at  her  maximum  brilliancy  as  a  morning  star — to  only 
May  3  of  the  year  i  A.D.  instead  of  December  25  of  the  year 
I  B.C.  For  the  number  of  days  from  October  28,  1887,  to 
December  25,  i  B.C.,  is  689,155  (viz.  1887  x  365*2425  =  689,213 
-  64  -I-  6  =  689,155).  This  would  appear  to  show,  either  that 
the  birth  of  Christ  took  place  about  May  3,  or  that  Venus 
at  her  maximum  brilliancy  as  a  morning  star  was  not  the  star 
(f  Bethlehem.     I  should  be  glad  of  your  remarks  on  this. 

John  T.  Nicolson. 

20  Thirlestane  Road,  Edinburgh,  December  26,  1887. 


I  INFER  from  the  article  entitled  "The  Star  of  Bethlehem  " 
(Nature,  December  22,  1887,  p.  169)  that  the  writer  supposes 
the  craze  he  deals  with  did  not  exist  until  Venus  became  a 
morning  star.  It  was  equally  prevalent  here  when,  early  in  the 
year,  she  was  an  evening  star,  as  the  following  fact  will  show. 
On  May  21,  1887,  a  lady  wrote  me  as  follows  : — "  Will  you 
kindly  tell  me  what  people  mean  about  'a  ivonderful  star^l 
All  our  servants  are  talking  about  it.  .  .  .  Some  call  it  '  the 
star  of  Bethlehem.'  ...   I  hear  it  is  '  wonderfully  bright  l'"" 

Torquay,  December  26,  1887.  Wm.  Pengelly. 


In  regard  to  the  so-called  "star  of  Bethlehem,"  Prof.  C.  A. 
Grimmer,  in  "  Life  from  the  Dead,"  No.  69  (August  1879), 
p.  267,  wrote: — "  It  will  be  seen  in  'Cassiopeia's  Chair,'  and 
will  be  accompanied  by  a  total  eclipse  of  the  sun  and  rrioon. 
The  marvellous  brilliancy  of  the  '  star  of  Bethlehem  '  in  1887 
will  surpass  any  of  its  previous  visitations.  It  will  be  seen  even 
at  noonday,  shining  with  a  quick  flashing  light  the  entire  year, 
after  which  it  will  gradually  decrease  in  brightness,  and  finally 
disappear."  E.  CuATHAM. 

January  2. 

On  some  Apparent  Contradictions  at  the  Foundations 
of  Knowledge. 

In  Chapter  III.  of  Mr.  Herbert  Spencer's  "First  Principles" 
(p.  47,  under  heading,  "  Ultimate  Scientific  Ideas  "),  are  treated 
the  subjects  of  space  and  time.  Here  contradictions  and  diffi- 
culties of  an  apparently  insuperable  character  are  encountered  in 
the  attempt  to  define  the  nature  of  space  and  time,  and  the  ex- 
istence of  these  difficulties  is  frankly  acknowledged.  But  with 
all  the  respect  that  is  here  due,  it  appears  difficult  to  admit  that 
these  apparent  contradictions  are  necessary,  and  in  regard  to 
space,  in  the  first  place,  it  will  be  my  object  here  to  suggest  a 
remedy. 

I  will  first  quote  some  passages  from  the  "  First  Principles  " 
(5th  edition)  relating  to  this  question,  viz.  as  follows : — 

"Thus  as  space  and  time  cnnnot  either  be  nonentities,  nor 
the  attributes  of  entities,  we  have  no  choice  but  to  consider  them 
as  entities.  But  while  on  the  hypothesis  of  their  objectivity, 
space  and  time  must  be  classed  as  things,  we  find  on  ex- 
periment that  to  represent  them  in  thought  as  things  is 
impossible  "  (p.  47). 

It  will  be  observed  here  that  we  encounter  the  apparent  con- 
tradiction that  those  are  classed  as  things  which  it  is  found 
impossible  to  represent  in  thought  as  things.^ 

'  Experiment  wo  li  then  in  Erectly  say  that  srace  and  time  were  not 
things. 


222 


NATURE 


\yan.  5,  I 


Then  it  is  remarked,  "  To  be  conceived  at  all,  a  thing 
must  be  conceived  as  having  attributes"  (p.  47)  ;  and  yet  the 
author  -admits  that  it  is  impossible  to  assign  any  attribute  to 
space  (p.  48).  So  that  it  would  appear  from  the  last  impossibility 
that  space  is  not  a  thing  (or  entity). 

It  is  added,  "All  entities,  which  we  actually  know  as  such, 
are  limited "  (p.  48).  But,  on  the  other  hand,  it  is  allowed 
that,  "Of  space  and  time  we  cannot  assert  either  limitation 
or  the  absence  of  limitation  "  (p.  48). 

It  is  observed  also  as  follows: — "Nor  are  space  and  time 
unthinkable  as  entities,  only  from  the  absence  of  attributes  " 
(p.  48).  This  would  involve  the  conclusion  apparently  that 
that  is  considered  to  be  an  entity  which  is  absolutely  "  unthink- 
able "  a>  such. 

Must  there  not  be  some  flaw  here,  and  some  solution 
possible? 

I  have  to  propose — and  this  may  appear  very  bold  at  first 
sight — that  space  is  a  non-entity.  I  must  explain  my  meaning 
more  fully.  The  first  question  or  difficulty  will  be.  How  can 
we  conceive  of  space  (a  void)  or  even  talk  of  it,  if  it  be  a 
non-entity  or  nothing?  In  fact,  on  p.  177  is  the  remark, 
"  Nothing  cannot  become  an  object  of  consciousness." 

In  reply  to  this,  I  would  venture  to  suggest  that  under  certain 
conditions,  nothing  can  become  an  object  of  consciousness,  viz. 
hv  contrast  with  something.  We  can  be  conscious  of  an  absence. 
Darkness  can  become  an  object  of  consciousness  by  contrast  with 
light.  So  space  in  itself — which  I  contend  is  nothing — is  an 
object  of  consciousness  -^  by  contrast  with  matter. 

We  consider  space  to  be  an  entity,  I  fancy,  because  of  our 
experience  with  palpable  air,  &c. ,  which  (for  convenience,  but 
inaccurately)  is  called  space.  Space  per  se,  an  absolute  void,  we 
have  no  experience  of.  We  measure  all  so-called  spaces  with 
matter — standards  made  of  matter.  We  estimate  how  much 
solid  matter  is  absent  in  a  room  (for  instance),  which  we  call  its 
"  volume."  Mathematical  lines  are  unconsciously  figured  as 
material  no  doubt  from  our  habit  of  drawing  them  ;  and  the 
spaces  of  triangles,  &c.,  are  usually  filled  out  with  solid 
matter. 

It  would  be  ridiculous  (as  it  seems)  to  ask  what  would  happen 
if  a  void  disappeared.  It  cannot  disappear  because  it  is  already 
nothing. 

In  regard  to  matter,  we  can  conceive  a  certain  volume  of  it, 
a  certain  volume  added  to  that,  &c.  ;  and  no  doubt  we  cannot 
easily  limit  the  conceivability  thus  extending  to  a  larger  volume. 
But  we  are  not  forced  (by  necessity  as  it  were)  to  conceive  an 
infinite  volume  of  any  entity  or  actually  existing  thing;  and  it 
appears  that  a  void  is  excluded  from  the  category  of  the  un- 
knowable, as  we  cannot  expect  to  know  anything  about 
nothing. 

Why  do  we  hear  of  the  creation  of  matter  speculated  about 
(as  an  inadequate  attempt  at  explanation),  but  the  creation  of 
space  regarded  as  absurd  ?  '-^  Because  the  first  is  an  entity  and  the 
second  is  not.  A  non-entity  cannot  be  supposed  to  be  created, 
or  it  is  absurd  to  ask  the  question. 

One  may  encounter  difficulties  of  explanation  by  assuming  too 
much  to  exist — too  much  to  explain,  it  appears.  So  I  account  for 
some  of  the  startling  contradictions  supposed  to  exist  at  the  basis 
of  knowledge.  What  is  nothing,  if  a  void  be  not  nothing  ?  In 
order  to  be  face  to  face  with  nothing  and  contrast  it  with 
something,  we  should  not  liave  to  abolish  a  void,  I  venture  to 
think. 

Another  matter  seems  important.  On  p.  34  ("First  Prin- 
ciples") is  the  following,  viz.: — "Did  there  exist  nothing  but 
an  immeasurable  void,  explanation  would  be  needed  as  much  as 
now.  There  would  still  arise  the  question.  How  came  it  so  ? 
If  the  theory  of  creation  by  external  agency  be  an  adequate  one, 
it  would  supply  an  answer  ;  and  its  answer  would  be — Space 
was  made  in  the  same  way  that  matter  was  made.  But  the  im- 
possibility of  conceiving  this  is  so  manifest,  that  no  one  dares 
to  assert  it.  For  if  space  was  created  it  must  have  been  pre- 
viously non-existent.  The  non-existence  of  space  cannot,  how- 
ever, by  any  mental  effort  be  imagined.  .  .  .  We  are  unable  to 
conceive  its  absence  either  in  the  past  or  in  the  future." 

'  It  appears  that  in  order  to  assert  an  exii  ence  there  must  be  a  conception 
of  non-existence  as  a  contrast ;  otherwise  the  word  ' '  existence  "  would  seem 
t )  have  no  distinct  meaning.  If  matter  be  an  existence,  its  absence  (or  a  void) 
must  be  a  non-existence.  In  other  words,  an  absolute  void  (vacuity)  is  con- 
templated as  the  absence  of  existence. 

^  The  author  remarks  of  space,  on  p.  48,  as  follows  : — "  The  only  attribute 
which  it  is  possible  f  jr  a  moment  to  think  of  as  belonging  to  it,  is  that  of 
extension ;  and  to  credit  it  with  this  implies  a  confusion  of  thought.  For 
extension  and  space  are  convertible  terms." 


In  regard  to  the  commencing  passage,  viz,  "Did  there  exist 
nothing  but  an  immeasurable  void,  explanation  would  be  needed 
as  much  as  now,"  it  might  be  asked.  When  would  you  be  satis- 
fied with  an  explanation  ?  Explanations  must  finish  somewhere  ; 
they  finish  at  existences,  I  should  fancy,  and  cannot  extend  to 
their  absence.  It  is  this  demanding  explanation  perpetually, 
without  conceived  limit,  that  leads  to  the  c3ntradictions  and 
attempts  at  defining  nothings — as  seems  manifest.  Extraordinary 
as  this  view  taken  by  the  author  appears,  it  is  consistent  with 
his  assumption  that  an  absolute  void  is  an  existence  or  thing, 
whereby  it  is  put  o  1  the  same  footing  as  matter.  But  observe  to 
what  this  further  leads. 

First,  the  inconceivable  existence  of  an  infinite  thing  without 
attributes  is  assumed.  Second,  its  non-existence  cannot  "by  any 
mental  effort  be  imagined."  This  means,  in  my  view,  that  all 
attempts  to  imagine  it  more  nothing  than  it  is,  are  fulile.  What 
better  definition  of  nothing  could  we  have  than  that  we  cannot 
assert  it  to  have  "either  limitation  or  the  absence  of  limita- 
tion," or  it  is  "unthinkable  "  as  an  entity  "  from  the  absence  of 
attributes  "? 

Well,  in  this  way,  actual  existence  of  something  which  is  put 
on  the  same  footing  as  matter  seems  to  be  made  a  necessity  for 
an  infinite  past  time  ;  as  (unlike  matter  in  this  respect)  we  can- 
not even  imagine  change  here— in  fact,  the  original  creation  of 
this  thing  (a  void)  no  one  dares  to  assert."  In  the  same  way, 
no  one  would  venture  to  assert  the  creation  of  a  mathematical 
line,  or  a  mathematical  plane,  i.e.  the  creation  of  extension  ^  of 
one,  two,  or  three  dimensions. 

From  the  author's  conclusion  that  space  is  an  entity,  it  may  be 
reasoned,  then,  that,  since  we  must  apparently  have  one  existence 
for  an  infinite  past  time,  we  may  as  well  have  two,  or  include 
matter.  Hence,  with  all  the  deference  which  the  views  as  a 
whole  in  the  "  First  Principles"  demand,  I  would  point  out  that 
in  this  way  support  is  given  to  the  idea  of  existence  for  an  in- 
finite past  time  (impossible  to  grasp  fairly,  as  the  author  con- 
cedes)— which,  as  I  contend,  is  not  warranted  by  the  facts. 

S.  ToLVER  Preston. 

30  Rue  de  la  Clef,  Paris,  December  1887. 


Christmas  Island. 

Having  read  with  much  interest  the  description  of  Christmas 
Island  by  Captain  Aldrich  and  Mr.  Lister,  I  have  endeavoured 
to  interpret  some  of  the  facts  there  given  in  the  light  of  my  own 
examination  of  similar  islands  in  the  Western  Pacific.  As 
pointed  out  by  Captain  Wharton,  the  complete  casing  of  an 
island,  1200  feet  in  height,  with  coral  rock  is  somewhat  unusual. 
This  may  find  its  explanation  in  in  the  absence  of  stream-courses 
and  ravines,  a  circumstance  from  which  I  infer  that  the  island 
has  not  been  exposed  sufficiently  long,  since  its  upheaval,  to  the 
denuding  agencies.  When  its  surface  has  been  extensively 
carved  out  by  the  action  of  running  water,  the  old  volcanic 
peak,  which  these  upraised  reefs  envelop,  will  in  all  probability 
be  exposed.  Christmas  Island,  therefore,  has  still  the  early  part 
of  its  story  to  unfold. 

The  three  tiers  of  cliffs  evidently  mark  pauses  in  the  elevation. 
As  they  appear  to  decrease  in  height  with  the  ascent,  it  would 
seem  tliat  older  lines  of  cliffs  on  tlie  upper  slopes  of  the  island 
have  been  removed  to  a  great  extent  by  denudation.  The  prin- 
cipal features  of  the  movement  of  upheaval  appear  to  resemble 
those  of  which  similar  upraised  coral  islands  give  evidence  in  the 
West  Indies,  Western  Pacific,  and  other  regions  of  elevated 
coral  reefs.  Protracted  elevatory  movements  of  from  loo  to 
300  feet  are  separated  by  long  pauses,  during  which  cliffs  are 
worn  back  by  the  waves,  and  the  reefs  grow  seaward  :  hence 
the  terraced  profiles  of  these  islands.  I  have  pointed  out  that 
in  the  Solomon  Group  these  protracted  movements  consist  of  a 
succession  of  small  upheavals  of  usually  5  or  6  feet  at  a  time. 

17  Woodlane,  Falmouth.  H.  B.  Guppy. 


A  Mechanical  Cause  of  the  Lamination  of  Sandstone 
not  hitherto  noticed. 

The  lamination  of  sedimentary  rocks  is  usually  attributed  to 
the  successive  deposition  of  sediment  of  varying  degrees  of  fine- 
ness or  coarseness.     Currents  of  water  have  a  selective  action 

'  The  author  remarks  that  "Extension  and  space  are  convertible 
terms  "  (p.  48).  I  may  express  my  agreement  with  the  author  as  to  the 
inadequacy  of  the  theory  of  the  "  creation  "  of  matter,  as  an  explanation. 


Jan.  5,  1888] 


NATURE 


22 


on  the  materials  that  are  swept  along  by  them,  by  which  grains 
of  one  size  and  weight  are  laid  down  at  one  time,  and  of  another 
size  and  weight  at  another,  Changes  in  the  nature  of  the 
material  in  suspension  also  occur  through  which  the  deposit 
may  be  at  different  times  more  siliceous,  argillaceous,  or  cal- 
careous. This  is  doubtless  in  most  cases  a  true  explanation  of 
the  cause  of  lamination  in  rocks,  but  it  is  not  a  full  one,  nor 
does  it  account  for  stratification  such  as  I  am  about  to  describe. 
In  sand  dunes  composed  entirely  of  siliceous  grains  such  as 
are  seen  on  the  west  coast  of  Lancashire  between  Liverpool 
and  Southport-,  a  strong  false-bedded  lamination  is  often  beauti- 
fully developed.  This  is  best  seen  when  the  sand-hills  are  moist 
from  recent  rainfall,  and  the  talus  has  been  cut  away  by  a  high 
tide,  leaving  a  vertical  face  of  sand  to  the  shore  side.  After 
this  has  occurred  a  gentle  wind  will  weather  out  the  structure  of 
the  sand-hill  in  a  remarkable  manner.  The  layers  often  stand 
out  several  inches  in  projecting  mouldings  and  fillets,  while  the 
finer  laminae  are  wonderfully  developed.     I  have  often  minutely 


Fig.  I. — View  of  sand-dune,  showing  the  bedding  and  laminae  weathered  out 
by  denudation,  a,  shore  ;  b,  loose  talus ;  c,  vertical  cliff  of  sand  ; 
d,  surface  of  sand-dune. 


examined  the  constitution  of  these  beds,  but  have  been  unable 
to  detect  any  difference  in  the  sizes  of  the  constituent  grains  of 
the  several  beds  or  laminae.  What  makes  the  fact  more  striking 
is  that  the  grains  are  generally  and  in  many  cases  much  rounded. 
An  examination,  however,  shows  that  the  laminae  projecting  from 
the  face  of  the  sand-cliff  are  much  harder  and  more  solid  than 
the  portions  between  them  that  have  weathered  back.  They 
can,  in  fact,  be  broken  off  in  pieces  by  the  fingers  without 
crumbling.  The,  grains  of  sand,  I  must  observe,  are  only 
temporarily  bound  together  by  the  capillary  attraction  of  the 
water. 

The  explanation  which  suggests  itself  to  me  is  that  the  grains 
of  sand,  according  to  the  state  of  the  weather  during  deposi- 
tion, are  at  one  time  more  completely  aggregated  than  at 
another.  The  shore  sand,  I  have  noticed,  is  greatly  affected 
by  the  state  of  the  water  it  is  laid  down  by.  In  one  place  may 
often  be  seen  a  stretch  of  hard  fine  sand,  while  in  another  at  the 
same  level  the  sand  may  be  soft,  both  being  at  the  same  point 
of  saturation.  It  is  well  known  to  builders  that  pouring  water 
on  loose  sand  tends  to  solidify  it,  therefore  it  is  most  probable 
that  the  state  of  the  weather  influences  the  solidity  of  aggrega- 
tion of  the  surface  of  the  sand  dunes  and  assists  to  build  up  layers 
of  different  density. 

Between  the  projecting  fillets  already  described  as  weathered 
out  of  the  sand  cliffs  the  sand  is  looser  and  more  porous,  and, 
drying  faster,  falls  away  from  the  face  at  a  greater  rate  than  the 
compacted  beds.  In  sand  heaped  together  by  the  wind  there 
are  few,  I  should  think,  would  a  priori  look  for  much  internal 
structure  ;  yet  here  are  the  most  undoubted  evidences  to  the 
contrary  which  are  generally  passed  by,  being  looked  upon  as  a 
matter  of  course  not  demanding  further  thought  !  If  we  con- 
sider in  what  way  the  constituent  grains  naturally  arrange  them- 
selves by  gravity,  we  shall,  I  think,  get  an  additional  c!ue  to  the 
cause  of  lamination.  Even  if  the  grains  were  as  round  as  shot 
they  would  by  gravitation  tend  to  arrange  themselves  in  parallel 


planes,   the  upper  grains   falling    into  the  interstices  of  those 
next  below  them,  so — 


Fig.  2. 


If,  on  the  contrary,  the  grains  have  a  long  and]  short  axis,  they 
will  tend  to  lie  with  the  longer  axis  parallel  to  the  plane  of 
deposition,  so — 


Fig.  3. 

With  irregular  fragments  the  arrangement  will  not  be  so  perfect, 
but  they  also  will  tend  to  be  laid  down  in  definite  planes. 

An  examination  of  specimens  of  laminated  sandstone  shows 
that  a  fracture  vertical  to  the  plane  of  lamination  exhibits  a 
more  jagged  surface  than  a  fracture  parallel  to  the  plane  of 
lamination.  This  it  is  that  gives  the  strength  to  sandstone  to 
resist  transverse  stress. 

It  is  thus  seen  that  nature  adopts  the  same  principle  to  build 
up  sandstone  that  a  mason  does  to  build  a  wall.  From  the  way 
in  which  the  particles  arrange  themselves  a  natural  "bond"  is 
produced.  The  grains  "  break  joint,"  as  it  is  technically  called — 
that  is,  the  joints  are  not  vertically  over  each  other— while  the 
planes  of  deposition  correspond  to  the  "courses"  of  a  wall. 
The  principle  here  explained  I  have  seen  well  exhibited  in  con- 
glomerates formed  of  flattish  oval  pebbles.  The  mode  of  ag- 
gregation of  the  particles  of  a  sedimentary  rock,  due  to  the 
ordinary  dynamical  laws  governing  deposition,  and  independent 
of  the  coarseness  or  fineness  of  the  grains  of  successive  layers,  is 
an  important  factor  in  its  constitution,  which  seems  hitherto  not 
to  have  attracted  much  attention.  T.  Mellard  Reade. 


Total  Solar  Eclipse  of  October  29,  878. 

In  Nature  for  March  11,  1875,  vol.  xi.  p.  365,  a  computa- 
tion is  given  of  this  eclipse,  based  on  an  entry  in  the  "  Annales 
Fuldenses,"  which  runs  thus  :  "  Sol  quoque  in  4  kal.  Novembris 
post  horam  nonam  ita  obscuratus  est  per  dimidiam  horam,  ut  stelJae 
in  coelo  apparent,  et  omnes  noctem  sibi  imminere  putarent." 

The  computer  found  that  the  sun  rose  on  that  day  at  P^ulda  at 
7h.  12m.  apparent  time,  6h.  57m.  mean  time,  that  the  partial 
phase  began  at  oh.  56m.,  and  ended  at  3h.  24m.,  totality  com- 
mencing at  Fulda  at  2h.  grr.  32s.  local  mean  time,  and  continu- 
ing im.  41S.  till  2h.  iim.  13s.  He  seems  to  have  been  puzzled, 
however,  by  the  statement  of  the  annalist  that  the  darkness 
occurred  "  post  horam  nonam,"  observing  plausibly  enough  that 
the  ninth  hour  from  sunrise  would  be  4  p.m. 

It  is  shown,  however,  in  Dr.  Smith's  "Dictionary  of  Christian 
Antiquities,"  vol.  i.  p.  793,  that  the  day  then  employed  by  the 
Church  was  the  natural  day  extending  from  sunrise  to  sunset, 
which  was  conceived  to  be  divided  into  twelve  hours  (shorter  of 
course  in  winter  than  in  summer)  ;  so  that  the  first  hour  was  the 
twelfth  part  of  the  natural  day,  which  began  with  sunrise  ;  the 
sixth  hour  that  which  ended  when  the  sun  crossed  the  meridian, 
and  so  on. 

The  question,  then,  which  arises  is  this  :  At  what  point  of  local 
mean  time  did  the  ninth  natural  hour  end  at  Fulda  on  October 
29,  878  ? 

The  sun  rose  at  7h.  12m.  apparent  time  :  this  would  give  a 
semi-diurnal  arc  of  4h.  48m.,  or  9h.  36m.,  as  the  duration  of  the 
natural  day,  one-twelfth  part  of  which,  or  48  minutes,  would  be 
the  length  of  the  natural  hour.  As  nine  such  hours  would  con- 
tain 432  minutes,  it  is  clear  that  the  ninth  hour  after  6h.  57m. 
the  local  mean  time  of  sunrise  would  end  at  2h.  9m.,  and  the 
half-hour  of  darkness  mentioned  would  have  extended  from 
2h.  9m.  to  2h.  33m.  As  the  computer  reckoned  that  totality 
lasted  from  2h.  9m.  32s.  to  2h.  iim.  13s.,  the  obscuration  would 
have  been  gradually  passing  away  during  that  period. 

The  coincidence  between  the  record  and  the  calculation  is  a 
very  striking  one,  and  testifies  at  the  same  time  to  the  veracity 


224 


NATURE 


[yan.  5,  1888 


of  the  Benedictine  monks  of  Fulda,  the  trastworthiness  of  the 
lunar  and  solar  tables,  and  the  accuracy  of  the  computer  who 
brought  out  so  marvellously  correct  a  result  without  knowing 
that  it  agreed  exactly  with  the  true  meaning  of  the  record. 

No  doubt  equal  credit  may  be  given  to  the  computer's  state- 
ment that  this  eclipse  was  total  in  London,  totality  continuing 
at  St.  Paul's  from  ih.  i6m.  20s.  to  ih.  i8m.  lor.  local  mean 
time.  C.  S.  Taylor. 


Height  of  T'ai  Shan. 

A  FORMER  student  of  mine,  Mr.  S.  Couling,  has  recently 
ascended  T'ai  Shan,  the  loftiest  of  the  sacred  mountains  of 
China,  and  one  of  the  most  ancient  and  popular  places  of 
pilgrimage.  He  believes  that  the  height  of  it  above  the  sur- 
rounding plain  has  never  before  been  measured,  and  has  sent  me 
his  observations  to  reduce.  The  elevation  from  the  plain  to  the 
summit  comes  out  at  4780  feet  ;  whilst  a  temple  vaguely  stated 
to  be  about  400  feet  below  the  summit  is,  as  ascertained  by 
barometer,  4485  feet  above  the  plain. 

SiLVANUs  P.  Thompson. 


The  Shadow  of  a  Mist. 

Living  on  the  Blue  Mountains  at  an  elevation  of  5000  feet, 
I  am  frequently  astonished  at  the  ever  varying  beauty  of  the 
mists  and  clouds.  But  a  short  time  ago  it  was  my  good  fortune 
to  see  the  shadow  of  a  mist,  itself  not  visible. 

On  the  evening  of  November  16,  shortly  after  7  o'clock  in 
the  evening,  I  was  watching  the  electric  light  with  which  the 
military  authorities  were  experimenting  at  Port  Royal,  15  miles 
distant  in  a  straight  line.  The  light  at  times  was  so  brilliant 
that  the  shadow  of  a  person  standing  20  feet  from  the  house  was 
distinct  on  the  white-painted  front,  even  when  he  held  a  lamp 
partially  turned  down  close  to  his  body  on  the  side  next  the 
house.  Rain  was  falling,  but  so  slightly  that  there  was  no  need 
for  an  umbrella.  No  mist  or  cloud  was  visible  in  the  direct  line 
to  Port  Royal,  and  yet  a  net- work  of  shadow  was  thrown  on  the 
house,  the  meshes  of  which  were  3  or  4  inches  in  width.  The 
sha,dows  were  all  in  motion,  moving  from  east  to  west,  in  the 
direction  of  the  scarcely  noticeable  breeze  ;  individual  portions 
of  the  meshes  disappearing  and  re-forming  as  they  moved,  so  that 
it  was  quite  dazzling  to  look  at  the  shadow,  reminding  me  of 
the  ripple  on  water  as  seen  against  a  strong  light.  A  puff  of 
tobacco  smoke  had  a  shadow  only  when  an  inch  or  two  from  the 
house,  so  that  the  mist  must  have  been  much  denser,  and  yet  it 
cannot  have  been  of  any  trreat  breadth,  or  the  shadow  would  have 
been  uniform  instead  of  reticulated.  No  doubt  many  of  your 
readers  can  explain  this  appearance,  which  to  me  seemed  so 
singular.  W.  Fawcett, 

Director  of  Public  Gardens  and  Plantations. 

Cinchona,  Gordon  Town  P.O.,  Jamaica,  December  i,  1887. 

The  Ffynnon  Beuno  and  Cae  Gwyn  Caves. 

It  would  seem  that  so  long  as  the  controversy  with  regard  to 
the  contents  of  these  caves  is  confined  to  Dr.  Hicks,  Prof. 
Hughes,  and  Mr.  W.  G.  Smith,  the  points  at  issue  will  never  be 
decided.  Dr.  Hicks  argues  most  needlessly  for  the  /r^'-Glacial 
age  of  the  cave  deposits  ;  Prof.  Hughes  calmly  assumes  that  the 
outside  deposits  are  posl-GX^disX  ;  and  many  geologists  must  be 
heartily  tired  of  hearing  these  two  gentlemen  contradict  one 
another  without  defining  what  they  mean  by  the  terms  Glacial 
and  post-Glacial. 

The  fact  is  that  the  St.  Asaph  drift  (to  which  Prof.  Hughes 
now  admits  the  outside  deposits  belong)  is  part  of  the  later 
Glacial  series  of  Northern  England  ;  and  Prof.  Hughes  has  no 
right  to  call  it  post-Glacial  without  defining  what  he  means  by 
that  term.  Most  people  call  them  Glacial  deposits.  If  there- 
fore the  cave-deposits  are  older  than  this  drift,  they  are  not 
necessarily /;v- Glacial,  as  Dr.  Hicks  maintains,  but  only  anterior 
to  what  Mr.  Mellard  Reade  terms  the  marine  low-level  boulder- 
clays.  Now  many  think  that  these  clays  and  their  associated 
sands  are  coseval  with,  or  newer  than,  the  so-called  post-Glacial 
river-gravels  of  Southern  England.  It  is  not  surprising  there- 
fore that  the  cave  fauna  should  be  the  same  as  that  of  the  river- 
gravels,  and  it  is  perfectly  needless  to  compare  it  with  the  fauna 
of  the  Cromer  Forest  bed. 

In  Lincolnshire  the  same  marine  shells  occur  in  sands  and 
gravels  beneath  the  latest  sheet  of  boulder-clay,  and  a  gravel 


beneath  the  same  clay  at  Burgh  has  yielded  teeth  and  bones  of 
Elephas  antiquus.  Rhinoceros  leptorhinus,  and  Bos  primigenius. 
These  beds  are  on  the  same  line  of  latitude  as  St.  Asaph,  »and 
are  probably  of  the  same  age  as  that  drift  ;  but  it  may  be  that 
neither  of  them  are  older  than  the  oldest  river-gravels  of  the 
Cam  or  Thames  valleys. 

It  has  been  repeatedly  pointed  out  that  the  terms  Glacial 
and  post-Glacial  cannot  be  used  as  conveying  any  idea  of  relative 
,ige  except  along  one  and  the  same  parallel  of  latitude,  and  it  is 
rather  surprising  that  the  Woodwardiaa  Professor  of  Geology 
should  seem  to  be  unaware  of  this.  If  by  post-Glacial  Prof. 
Hughes  means  later  Glacial  or  newer  Pleistocene,  everyone  will 
probably  agree  with  him,  but  he  confuses  the  issue  by  his  bad 
choice  of  terms. 

The  palaeontological  evidence  is  really  of  no  value — the  argu- 
ment leads  nowhere  ;  what  we  want  is  an  expression  of  opinion 
by  some  geologist  who  has  seen  the  locality  and  the  recent  ex- 
cavations, regarding  the  explanation  proposed  by  Prof.  Hughes, 
viz.  that  the  present  position  of  the  bones  beneath  the  marine 
drift  is  due  to  the  falling  in  of  the  roof  of  the  cave  near  one 
entrance,  while  the  animals  may  have  got  into  the  cave  by 
another  opening.  Many  geologists  have  visited  the  locality — 
will  some  of  them  communicate  their  views  on  this  point  ? 

A.  J.  Jukes  Browne. 

Southampton,  Decejober  28,  1887. 


THE  OLD  MOUTH  AND  THE  NEW:  A  STUDY 
IN  VERTEBRATE  MORPHOLOGY. 

"  'X*HE  question  of  the  nature  of  the  mouth,"  says 
•■•  Prof.  Dohrn  in  one  of  the  first  of  his  celebrated 
"  Studien  zur  Urgeschichte,"  "is  the  point  about  which 
the  whole  morphological  problem  of  the  Vertebrate 
body  revolves."  According  to  Dohrn,  the  present  mouth 
of  Vertebrates  arose  from  the  coalescence  of  a  pair  of 
gill-clefts.  In  this  we  have  an  example  of  Dohrn's 
principle  of  change  of  function,  and  also,  as  I  hope  60on 
to  demonstrate,  of  Kleinenberg's  law  of  the  substitution 
of  organs.  I  do  not  now  wish  or  intend  to  give  an 
account  of  the  researches  by  which  Dohrn  showed  that 
the  mouth  in  some  cases  first  arises  as  a  pair  of  lateral 
invaginations  of  epiblast,  still  less  of  my  own  small  con- 
tribution to  this  question,  which  consisted  in  recording 
the  facts  that  the  mouth  also  resembles  a  gill-cleft  in 
some  other  particulars. 

It  suffices  here  to  say  that  these  researches  have  not 
yet  been  refuted,  and  that  the  view  that  the  present  mouth 
of  Vertebrates  is,  so  to  speak,  a  new  structure,  rests  on  a 
very  sound  foundation. 

With  the  blastopore  as  the  foundation  of  mouth  and 
anus  I  have  here  no  concern,  nor  have  I  any  sort  of 
sympathy  with  the  upholders  of  a  theory  which  has 
been  condemned  and  rejected  by  embryologists  such  as 
Lankester,  Kleinenberg,  and  Salensky. 

The  problem  I  have  to  discuss  is,  granted  that  the 
present  Vertebrate  mouth  is  a  new  ^  structure,  what  traces, 
if  any,  are  to  be  found  of  the  old  mouth  t  It  is  conceiv- 
able, and  I  strongly  emphasize  the  point,  that  the  old 
mouth  might  have  disappeared,  even  from  the  develop- 
ment, without  leaving  a  trace  behind. 

We  seem  to  be  gradually  getting  out  of  the  idea  that 
ontogeny  is  even  a  fair  repetition,  much  less  a  perfect 
one,  of  phylogeny,  for  absolutely  rudimentary  organs 
(organs  performing  no  function  at  all)  are  only  retained 
as  larval  or  embryonic  organs,  as  the  basis  or  Anlagc 
of  other  organs,  or,  finally,  because  they  are  insepar- 
ably connected  with  the  development  of  other  organs. 
Of  the  latter  a  fair  case,  it  seems  to  me,  is  to  be 
seen  in  the  rudiment  of  the  parietal  eye  in  the  higher 
Vertebrates.  This  organ,  functionless  except  in  a  few 
fishes  and  reptiles,  possibly  only  reappears  in  the  develop- 
ment because  it  is  intimately  connected  in  some  way  or 
other  with  the  paired  eyes. 

A  still  better  example  is,  I  think,  to  be  met  with  in  the 

'  It  is  rather  paradoxical  to  speak  of  a  thing  as  new  which  has  existed  in 
its  present  form  for  untold  millions  ot  yeais. 


Jan.s.  1888] 


NATURE 


225 


rudiments  of  the  gill  sense-organs  and  ganglia  described 
by  Prof.  Froriep  in  Mammalia.  (Of  these  I  hope  to  give 
a  fuller  account  in  connection  with  other  work.)  I  find 
them  in  lizards,  crocodiles,  and  birds  ;  and  there  can  be 
little  doubt  that  they  exist  as  rudiments  in  all  animals 
above  fishes  and  amphibia.  Their  recurrence  has  its 
explanation  in  that  they  probably  form  the  Anlage  for 
certain  portions  of  the  cranial  ganglia. 

It  was  Dohrn  who  first  hinted,  in  his  work  on  "  Der 
Urspruiig  der  Wirbeltiere,"  published  in  1875,  that  the 
hypophysis  cerebri  represented  the  last  remains  of  the 
old  mouth,  and  that  it  must  have  opened  on  the  dorsal 
surface,  after  passing  between  the  crura  cerebri. 

This  idea  he  soon  gave  up,  and  indeed,  in  the  work 
above  mentioned,  he  inclined  to  the  view  that  the  opening 
lay  somevvhere  in  the  region  of  the  medulla  oblongata. 
Since  then  he  has  relinquished,  for  the  time,  the  search 
for  the  old  mouth,  and  has  advised  others  to  do  the 
same. 

His  first  hypothesis  has  more  recently  been  advanced 
as  new  by  Prof  Owen  and  Mr.  J.  T.  Cunningham.  Both 
of  these  writers  hold  very  slightly  different  views  from 
those  originally  suggested  by  Dohrn. 

Some  of  the  statements  which  I  am  about  to  make 
appear  on  the  surface  to  bear  slight  resemblance  to  Cun- 
ningham's views,  but,  as  I  hope  will  be  seen,  nothing 
could  be  further  from  the  truth.  Cunningham,  starting 
from  Balfour's  well-known,  and  now  universally  accepted, 
belief  that  the  spinal  cord  and  brain  were  once  an  open 
plate,  advocated,  as  the  latest  discovery  of  Vertebrate 
morphology,  the  view  that  the  infundibulum,  whose  walls 
consist  of  nervous  matter  and  nothing  else,  is  the  vestige 
of  the  old  mouth  which  pierced  the  brain. 

One  cannot  but  marvel  at  the  rashness  of  an  hypothesis 
which  annexes,  without  more  ado,  a  portion  of  the  nervous 
system,  and  proclaims  it  to  all  the  world  as  the  remnant 
of  a  former  passage  from  the  exterior  to  the  stomach  of 
the  animal  ! 

Cunningham  overlooks  entirely  the  nature  and  ex- 
ceedingly complicated  development  of  the  processus 
infundibuli,  or  nervous  portion  of  the  hypophysis. 

Although,  thanks  to  Rabl-Riickhard  and  others,  we 
have  obtained  a  certain  amount  of  light  on  the  nature  of 
the  pineal  glanJ  or  epiphysis,  the  body  (hypophysis), 
at  the  opposite  end  of  the  third  ventricle  still  remains 
one  of  those  organs  on  which  all  sorts  of  speculations 
may  be  made,  with  impunity.  Some  of  the  explanations 
offered  are  in  accordance  with  certain  facts  of  its  develop- 
ment. Others,  on  the  contrary,  accord  with  no  known 
fact  of  embryology. 

The  nervous  part — or,  as  I  shall  call  it,  the  neural 
hypophysis — has  been  considered  by  Rabl-Riickhard  as 
a  gland  secreting  cerebro-spinal  fluid.  I  must,  however, 
express  a  stro.ig  opinion  that  such  a  glandular  function 
is  extremely  improbable,  for  the  conversion  of  a  piece  of 
nervous  tissue  into  a  gland  is  absolutely  without  parallel. 

Goette  and  Wiedersheim  both  regard  the  nervous 
part  as  a  remnant  of  a  sense-organ  ;  against  which 
view  a /r/tfr/ little  or  nothing  can  be  said.  The  mouth 
part  or  oral  hypophysis  was  finally  classed  by  Dohrn  as 
the  rudiment  of  a  pair  of  gill-clefis— a  supposition  not 
wholly  unsupported  by  its  developmental  history.  It  has 
also,  not  unnaturally,  been  looked  upon  as  a  remnant  of 
a  mouth-gland. 

Prof.  Hubrecht  made  it  the  basis  of  his  comparisons 
of  Nemerteaand  Vertebrata,  and  saw  in  it  the  remains 
of  the  Nemertean  proboscis,  the  Vertebrate  notochord 
being  the  homologue  of  the  proboscis  sheath— compari- 
sons which  appear  to  me  to  be  as  little  capable  of  support 
as  those  of  the  same  investigator  between  the  Vertebrate 
and  Nemertean  nervous  systems. 

And  so,  after  all,  on  turning  to  Wiedersheim's  latest 
book,  "  Der  Bau  des  Menschen,"  we  read  :  "  The  hour 
of  the  release  of  the  hypophysis  cerebri  from  its  obscure 


position  has  not  yet  struck,  and  the  problems  it  presents 
are  rendered  more  difficult  in  that  it  develops  from  two 
different  points — from  the  brain  (infundibulum)  and  from 
the  epiblast  of  the  primitive  pharyngeal  involution." 

For  what  we  know  of  the  facts  of  its  anatomy  and 
development  we  are  mainly  indebted  to  five  distinguished 
morphologists :  Profs.  W.  Miiller,  Goette,  Mihdikovics, 
Kolliker,  and  Dohrn.  In  the  following  very  brief  sum- 
mary I  partly  follow  Kolliker's  account  (in  his  valuable 
"  Entwickelungsgeschichte  des  Menschen,"  1879),  which, 
for  the  time  it  was  written,  is  by  far  the  most  complete 
we  possess. 

My  own  researches  on  Sharks,  Ganoids,  Dipnoi,  Cyclo- 
stomata,  Amphibia,  Lizards,  Snakes,  Crocodiles,  Birds,  and 
Mammals,  mainly  confirm  Kolliker,  who,  in  his  turn,  has 
taken  the  greater  portion  of  his  account  from  the  beautiful 
classic  of  Mihdikovics. 

The  hypophysis  cerebri  is  composed  of  two  parts  :  the 
one,  neural  hypophysis,  derived  from  the  nervous  system; 
the  other,  oral  hypophysis,  from  the  epiblast  in  the  region 
of  the  mouth. 

The  oral  hypophysis  is  formed  early  in  development  as 
an  epiblastic  involution  towards  the  end  of  the  notochord, 
i.e.  towards  the  hypoblast,  and  in  the  direction  of  the  base 
of  the  brain.  In  some  cases  it  may  even  grow  in  the 
direction  of  a  process  of  hypoblast  immediately  below  the 
anterior  end  of  the  notochord.  But,  except  in  Myxine,  it 
never  fuses  with  the  hypoblast.  It  afterwards  becomes 
pinched  off  from  the  pharynx,  and  gets  thus  to  lie  on  the 
floor  of  the  skull,  becoming  finally  converted  into  a 
compound  gland-like  organ. 

The  neural  hypophysis,  or  hinder  lappet  of  the  hypo- 
physis, on  the  other  hand,  develops  ventrally  as  a  process 
of  the  basal  portion  of  the  thalamencephalon,  or  hinder 
part  of  the  fore-brain.  At  first  composed  of  tissue  of 
exactly  the  same  character  as  the  rest  of  the  thalamen- 
cephalon, it  becomes  solid  below  and  converted  into 
indifferent  tissue;  the  portion  of  the  process  which 
remains  hollow,  and  forms  the  base  of  the  infundibulum, 
alone  retains  a  nervous  structure.  Kolliker  records  that 
in  pig  embryos  of  3  centimetres  in  length  longitudinal 
bundles  of  nerve-fibres  pass  into  the  developing  neural 
hypophysis,  or  processus  infundibuli  as  it  is  called,  from 
the  base  of  the  thalamencephalon. 

In  most  cases,  especially  in  Mammalia  and  also  in 
Dipnoi,  the  neural  hypophysis  becomes  closely  and  almost 
inseparably  connected  with  the  oral  hypophysis.  Usually 
the  Anlage  of  the  oral  hypophysis  lies  in  the  region  of 
the  mouth  epiblast  ;  in  Petromyzon  and  Myxine  it  lies  in 
front  of  and  outside  the  mouth.  The  process  by  which 
it  got  into  the  mouth  involution  cannot  be  explained 
without  numerous  figures. 

According  to  Dohrn,  the  oral  hypophysis  arises  in 
Petromyzon  as  an  invagination  of  epiblast  in  front  of 
the  mouth  between  the  oral  and  nasal  depressions.  It 
grows  towards  the  base  of  the  infundibulum,  and  comes 
into  close  relationship  with  the  end  of  the  notochord,  i.e. 
with  a  structure  derived  from  hypoblast,  while  it  ap- 
proaches a  special  process  of  hypoblast  itself,  with  which, 
however,  in  Petromyzon  it  does  not  fuse.  In  Myxine, 
although  the  development  is  unfortunately  not  yet  known, 
we  may  assume  that  this  fusion  is  effected,  for  in  that 
animal  it  opens  throughout  life  into  the  gut  (see  figure, 
O.M.). 

In  Ammocoetes  it  gives  off  a  certain  number  of  gland- 
follicles,  which,  according  to  Dohrn,  become  pinched  off 
in  the  Petromyzon.  While  I  am  not  yet  quite  convinced 
of  the  certainty  of  this  latter  point,  I  find,  in  Myxine, 
numerous  small  glandular  follicles  opening  into  the  oral 
hypophysis.  In  Petromyzon  and  Myxine  the  neural  hypo- 
physis is  present,  and,  as  I  believe,  not  rudimentary.  It 
appears  to  supply  nerve-fibres  to  the  oral  hypophysis. 

Dohrn  finds  in  Hippocampus  traces  of  a  paired  origin 
of  the  oral  hypophysis.     This  is  important. 


2  2-6 


NATURE 


17 an-  5,  I 


I  propose  to  divide  the  oral  or  glandular  hypophysis 
into  two  parts,  viz.  a  duct  or  main  oral  hypophysis  and  a 
glandular  part  or  glandular  hypophysis.  The  whole  struc- 
ture is  without  doubt  in  nearly  all  cases  rudimentary,  and 
of  little  or  no  functional  importance.  A  mass  of  informa- 
tion bearing  upon  it  has  recently  come  to  light  in  the 
study  of  the  developmental  history  of  Annelids,  chiefly  at 
the  hands  of  Kleinenberg  and  Salensky. 

From  the  results  of  Kleinenberg's  work,  more  especially, 
we  are  placed  in  a  position  to  compare  the  structure  and 
development  of  the  hypophysis  with  those  of  certain 
organs  in  the  worms.  To  my  mind,  the  comparison  which 
follows  is  one  of  the  neatest  in  the  whole  range  of  com- 
parative morphology ;  I  would  therefore,  before  proceeding 
further,  give  a  brief  re'swni  of  Kleinenberg's  results  so  far 
as  they  here  concern  us. 

In  the  first  place,  he  records  how  the  larval  stomodasum 
or  mouth  is  replaced  in  a  very  complicated  manner  by 
the  Annelid  permanent  mouth  or  Schlimd.  The  latter  is 
formed  as  a  paired  involution  of  the  stomodaeum,  i.e.  of 
the  epiblast,  and  this  he  considers  to  have  originally 
represented  stomodceal  glands.  It  encroaches  upon  and 
swallows  up  the  old  mouth,  and,  finally  fusing  with  the 
hypoblast,  it  opens  into  the  gut. 

The  replacement  of  the  larval  mouth  in  Annelids  by 
a  new  structure  was  already  known,  but  Kleinenberg 
describes  the  steps  of  the  process  in  great  detail,  and  he 


-KO 


A.O. 


O.M 


V.T. 


Myxine  glutimsa.  Head  in  longitudinal  section  X  2.  H.O,  opening  of 
hypophysis;  m.,  mouth  opening;  vi.t.,  median  tooth  ;  K.7'. ,  ventral 
teeth ;  n.f.,  one  of  the  folds  of  the  nasal  sensory  membrane  ;  Bn  ,  brain  ; 
O.M.,  opening  of  hypophysis  into  gut;  A.O.,  oesophagus;  N.,  noto- 
chord. 

States  that  this  mode  of  mouth  substitution  by  means  of  a 
paired  involution  is  of  very  wide  occurrence  in  the 
■Chaetopods. 

In  it  we  have  a  direct  parallel  to  the  substitution 
of  the  old  Vertebrate  mouth  by  a  pair  of  gill-clefts,  but,  in 
truth,  we  have  something  more. 

Another  phenomenon  of  extreme  interest  is  the  forma- 
tion of  the  special  mouth  (or  Schlund)  nervous  system. 
This  apparatus  is  only  concerned  with  the  inttervatio/i 
of  the  permanent  Schlund,  and  takes  no  share  in  the 
innervation  of  the  hypoblastic  alimentary  canal.  It 
arises  as  a  special  process  of  the  hinder  part  of  the 
suboesophageal  ganglion :  this  grows  towards  the  develop- 
ing Schlund,  becomes  closely  attached  to  the  latter,  fuses 
with  it  and  gets  pinched  off  from  the  larger  portion  of  the 
suboesophageal  ganglion,  which  is  left  as  the  first  ganglion 
of  the  ventral  chain. 

I  must  here  digress  in  order  to  discuss  the  question  of 
the  presence  or  absence  of  any  representative  of  the 
supracESophageal  ganglion  of  Annelids  in  Vertebrates,^ 
and  here  again  Kleinenberg  comes  to  our  assistance. 

1  have  myself  devoted  a  good  deal  of  attention  to  this 
point,  and  have  arrived  at  the  conclusion  (held  also,  I 

I  postpone  the  consideration  of  Prof.  Semper's  views  on  this  loinf,  and 
on  the  nature  of  the  mouth  in  Annelids  and  Vertebrates. 


believe,  by  Prof.'  Dohrn)  that  there  is  no  likelihood  at  all 
of  our  finding  an  area  in  the  Vertebrate  brain  which  was 
ever  pierced  by  the  oesophagus — pierced  so  as  to  divide 
the  brain  into  a  supraoesophageal  and  a  suboesophageal 
portion,  which  might  be  compared  respectively  to  such 
divisions  of  the  Annelidan  nervous  system.  At  first  sight, 
this  appears  like  an  admission  that  the  Annelidan  theory 
of  the  origin  of  Vertebrates  is  untenable.  But  such  is  not 
the  case. 

From  a  large  number  of  researches,  including  those  of 
Bergh,  Salensky,  and  Kleinenberg,  we  know  that  the 
supraoesophageal  ganglion  of  Annelids  certainly  arises 
independently  of  the  ventral  chain,  and  that  it  only  later 
becomes  connected  with  the  latter  by  the  development  of 
the  circumoesophageal  collar. 

Kleinenberg's  brilliant  researches  also  teach  us  that  the 
permanent  Annelidan  nervous  system  arises  through 
substitution,  and  partial  or  entii'e  disappearance  of  whole 
larval  nervous  apparatuses  and  sense-organs.  And,  indeed, 
after  reading  his  beautiful  work,  one  is  fully  prepared  for 
one  of  the  closing  statements  in  it — that  possibly  the 
supraoesophageal  ganglion  is  entirely  absent  in  Verte- 
brates. 

Personally,  I  have  no  hesitation  at  all  in  accepting  this 
as  probably  true ;  but  the  grounds  for  my  belief,  or  some 
of  them,  I  can  only  hint  at  here.  They  arise  out  of  as  yet 
unpublished  developmental  researches.  Briefly  stated,  I 
see  in  the  development  of  the  gill-clefts,  with  their  special 
sense-organs  and  ganglia^ — all  of  which  lie  in  the  region 
which  is  under  the  control  of  a  system  comparable  to  the 
ventral  nerve-cord  of  Annelids — a  probable  cause  of  the 
disappearance  of  the  supraoesophageal  ganglion  in  the 
ancestors  of  Vertebrates, — in  a  similar  way  to  that  in  which, 
according  to  Kleinenberg,  the  dislodging  and  destruction 
of  the  special  larval  ganglionic  centres  takes  place  in  the 
Annelid. 

I  believe  that  in  the  ancestors  of  the  Vertebrates,  by  the 
development  of  the  eyes,  and  of  the  important  gill  sense- 
organs  and  ganglia,  the  ventral  chain  came  to  obtain 
control  over  a  very  extensive  system  of  ganglia,  sense- 
organs,  and  muscles  ;  and,  having  already  a  control  over 
the  mouth  or  Schlund,  it  entirely  deposed  the  supra- 
oesophageal ganglion  (and  its  sense-organs).  The  entire 
raison  d'etre  of  the  latter  being  thus  disposed  of,  it 
naturally  degenerated  and  finally  disappeared. 

If  it  be  admitted  that  the  supraoesophageal  ganglion  of 
Annelids  is  absent  in  Vertebrates,  and  that  the  brain  and 
spinal  cord  of  the  latter  may  be  compared  directly  with 
the  ventral  cord  of  Annelids,  then  a  whole  host  of  direct 
structural  relationships  between  Annehda  and  Vertebrates 
may  be  established.  Kleinenberg  expresses  his  opinion 
that  the  spinal  ganglia  of  Vertebrates  have  their  parallel 
in  the  parapodial  ganglia  of  Annelids, — a  comparison 
which,  as  I  shall  elsewhere  show,  is  entirely  justifiable  for 
the  spinal  ganglia  and  for  certain  portions  of  the  cranial 
ganglia  also. 

Let  me  now  briefly  review  the  conditions  demanded  of 
any  structures  in  the  Vertebrate  which  are  to  be  homo- 
logized  with  the  permanent  mouth  of  Annelids.  Such 
ought  to  arise  as  a  paired  involution  of  epiblast  (though 
it  is  conceivable  a  priori  that  the  paired  character  might 
be  lost).  This  involution  must  fuse  with,  and  open  into, 
the  cavity  of  the  hypoblast.  It  must  also  give  rise  to 
certain  glands,  and  it  must  have  a  special  nervous  system 
of  its  own  derived  fn  m  the  hinder  part  of  the  first  ventral 
ganglion  or  its  homologue — which  nervous  system  must 
supply  it  alone,  and  no  other  part  of  the  alimentary  canal. 
All  these  co7tditions  are  fulfilled  by  the  complex  called 
hypophysis  cerebri. 

In  at  least  one  case  (Hippocampus)  the  oral  hypophy- 

'  Ihe  cranial  ganglia  of  Vertel  rates  are  far  more  complicated  mcrpho 
logic»lly  than  has  hitherto  been  recognized.  In  additi  n  to  parts  which 
appear  to  correspond  morphologically  to  the  prsterior  root  ganglia  of  the 
spinal  nerves  plus  the  sympathetic  ganglia,  they  also  contain  the  special 
ganglia  which  are  formed  in  connection  with  the  gill  sense-organs. 


Jan.  5,  1888] 


NATURE 


227 


sis  ^  is  known  to  arise  as  a  paired  epiblastic  involution 
(Dohrn).  In  the  Cyclostomata  it  is  formed  as  an  epi- 
blastic involution  (possibly  paired)  at  the  extreme  anterior 
end  of  the  body.  In  one  Vertebrate  alone,  Alyxine  {vide 
figure),  it  still  opens  into  the  hypoblast ;  in  all  others  it 
approaches  the  hypoblast  in  development,  but  does  not 
fuse  with  that  layer.  It  always  lies  in  very  close  relation- 
ship with  the  extreme  end  of  the  notochord — that  is,  with 
the  end  of  a  structure  derived  from  the  hypoblast. 

In  adult  Petromyzon,  in  which  the  tube  of  the  oral 
hypophysis  has  the  same  relationships  as  in  Myxine,  ex- 
cept that  the  posterior  opening  into  the  hypoblastic  sac 
is  absent,  it  nevertheless  has  an  astonishing  length, 
and  ends  blindly  very  close  to  the  gut.  In  Myxine  and 
Petromyzon,  tubular  glands  are  developed  in  connection 
with  it.  In  all  the  higher  Vertebrates,  in  which  the  oral 
part  is  very  rudimentary,  it  always  has  a  distinct  glandular 
character. 

And  now,  what  of  the  last  condition?  This  also  is 
satisfactorily  met.  In  all  cases  the  oral  hypophysis  has  a 
special,  and  indeed  large,  process  of  nervous  matter  (the 
processus  infundibuli,  or  neural  hypophysis),  which  is 
derived  from  the  posterior  part  of  the  fore-brain,  from  the 
base  of  the  infundibulum.  This  process  is  concerned 
with  the  innervation  of  the  oral  hypophysis  alone.  In 
Myxine  and  Petromyzon  alone,  so  far  as  my  researches 
€xtend  (possibly  also  in  Protopterus),  this  nervous  system 
is  not  rudimentary.  In  most  Vertebrates  the  neural 
hypophysis,  which,  as  KoUiker  aptly  remarks,  is  at  first 
composed  of  the  same  cell  elements  and  fibres  as  the  rest 
of  the  brain,  degenerates,  and  in  very  many  full-grown 
animals  forms  a  mass  of  tissue,  the  structure  of  which 
many  observers  have  compared  to  that  of  the  suprarenal 
bodies  (known  to  be  masses  of  degenerated  tissue). 

The  neural  hypophysis  is  thus  the  most  remarkable 
structure  in  the  whole  of  the  Vertebrate  central  nervous 
system.  Though  degenerated,  it  still  clings  to  the  tradi- 
tions of  its  ancestry,  for  even,  as  it  were,  in  its  death  it  is 
closely  and  almost  inseparably  connected  with  the  rest  of 
the  hypophysis,  especially  in  Mammalia  and  in  Dipnoi. 
In  Myxine  alone,  of  all  Vertebrates,  the  old  mouth  still 
retains  some  of  its  functions  as  a  mouth  ;  it  conducts  the 
water  of  respiration  to  the  gills.  In  this  case,  even, 
changes  have  occurred,  for  the  nose  -  (see  figure,  n.f.) 
has  got  partly  involved  in  the  passage  of  the  old  mouth. 
If  it  be  true  that  the  nose  was  originally  a  branchial 
sense-organ — which  view,  in  spite  of  Gegenbaur,  I  still 
maintain — its  assumption  of  a  position  in  the  passage  of 
the  old  mouth  in  Myxine  is,  on  purely  physiological 
grounds,  intelligible. 

It  is  well  known  that  that  which  I  call  the  old  mouth 
in  Myxine  is  purely  respiratory,  conducting  water  into 
the  gills  ;  and  what  then  could  be  more  likely  than  that 
one  of  the  branchial  sense-organs  should  be,  as  it  were, 
told  off  to  do  duty  at  its  entrance.  It  is  certain,  from 
Goette's  and  Dohrn's  researches,  that  these  passages  in 
Myxine  and  Petromyzon  are  the  representatives  of  the 
oral  hypophysis.  I  have  gone  over  and  extended  these 
observations,  and  can  fully  confirm  Dohrn  in  nearly  every 
point,  and  all  I  claim  here  is  the  identification  of  the 
hypoplastic  opening  in  Myxine  as  the  (modified)  opening 
of  the  old  mouth  into  the  gut. 

If  the  above  morphological  comparison  can  be  main- 
tained (and  I  believe  it  can),  the  importance  of  its 
bearing  on  the  morphology  of  Vertebrates  can  hardly  be 
over-estimated. 

A  number  of  other  problems  and  conclusions  arise  out 
of  all  this,  but  I  reserve  the  consideration  of  these  for  a 
much  more  exhaustive  work,  in  which  the  literature  of 
the  subject  will  receive  full  attention.  J.  Beard. 

Anatomisches  Institut,  Freiburg  i/B.,  November  16. 

'  I  believe  it  is  very  frequently  paired,  though  not  at  its  point  of  origin. 
In  Petromj'zon,  Uohm   finds  that  the  nose  is  at  first  a  special  depression 
apart  from  the  hypophysis  invaginatioa.     The  larter  lies  between  the  nose 
and  mouth. 


TIMBER,  AND  SOME  OF  ITS  DISEASES?- 

III. 

TTAVING  now  obtained  some  idea  of  the  principal 
*•  -*■  points  in  the  structure  and  varieties  of  normal 
healthy  timber,  we  may  pass  to  the  consideration  of  some 
of  the  diseases  which  affect  it.  The  subject  seems  to 
fall  very  naturally  into  two  convenient  divisions,  if  we 
agree  to  treat  of  (i)  those  diseases  which  make  their 
appearance  in  the  living  trees,  and  (2)  those  which  are 
only  found  to  affect  dead  timber  after  it  is  felled  artd 
sawn  up.  In  reahty,  however,  this  mode  of  dividing  the 
subject  is  purely  arbitrary,  and  the  two  categories  of 
diseases  are  linked  together  by  all  possible  gradations. 

Confining  our  attention  for  the  present  to  the  diseases 
of  standing  timber — i.e.  which  affect  undoubtedly  living' 
trees — it  can  soon  be  shown  that  they  are  very  numerous 
and  varied  in  kind  ;  hence  it  will  be  necessary  to  make 
some  choice  of  what  can  best  be  described  in  this  article. 
I  shall  therefore  propose  for  the  present  to  leave  out  of 
account  those  diseases  which  do  injury  to  timber  in- 
directly, such  as  leaf-diseases,  the  diseases  of  buds, 
growing  roots,  and  so  forth,  as  well  as  those  which  do 
harm  in  anticipation  by  injuring  or  destroying  seedlings 
and  young  plants.  The  present  article  will  thus  be 
devoted  to  some  of  the  diseases  which  attack  the  timber 
in  the  trees  which  are  still  standing ;  and  as  those  caused 
by  fungus  parasites  are  the  most  interesting,  we  will 
for  the  present  confine  our  attention  to  them. 

It  has  long  been  known  to  planters  and  foresters  that 
trees  become  rotten  at  the  core,  and  even  hollow,  at  all 
ages  and  in  all  kinds  of  situations,  and  that  in  many  cases 
the  first  obvious  signs  that  anything  is  the  matter  with 
the  timber  make  their  appearance  when,  after  a  high 
gale,  a  large  limb  snaps  off,  and  the  wood  is  found  to  be 
decayed  internally.  Now  it  is  by  no  means  implied  that 
this  rotting  at  the  core — "  wet-rot,"  "  red-rot,"  &c.,  are 
other  names  generally  applied  to  what  is  really  a  class  of 
diseases — is  always  referable  to  a  single  cause  ;  but  it  is 
certain  that  in  a  large  number  of  cases  it  is  due  to  the 
ravages  of  fungus  parasites.  The  chief  reason  for  popular 
misconceptions  regarding  these  points  is  want  of  accurate 
knowledge  of  the  structure  and  functions  of  wood  on  the 
one  hand,  and  of  the  nature  and  biology  of  fungi  on  the 
other.  The  words  disease,  parasitism,  decomposition, 
&c.,  convey  very  little  meaning  unless  the  student  has 
had  opportunities  of  obtaining  some  such  knowledge  of 
the  biology  of  plants  as  can  only  be  got  in  a  modern 
laboratory :  under  this  disadvantage  the  reader  may  not 
always  grasp  the  full  significance  of  what  follows,  but  it 
will  be  at  least  clear  that  such  fungi  demand  attention  as 
serious  enemies  of  our  timber. 

It  will  be  advantageous  to  join  the  remarks  I  have  to 
make  to  a  part  description  of  some  of  the  contents  of 
what  is  perhaps  one  of  the  most  instructive  and  remark- 
able museums  in  the  world — the  Museum  of  Forest  Botany 
in  Miinich,  which  I  have  lately  had  the  good  fortune  to 
examine  under  the  guidance  of  Prof.  Robert  Hartig,  the 
distinguished  botanist  to  whose  energy  the  Museum  is  due, 
and  to  whose  brilliant  investigations  we  owe  nearly  all  that 
has  been  discovered  of  the  diseases  of  trees  caused  by  the 
Hymenomycetes.  Not  only  is  Prof  Hartig's  collection 
unique  in  itself,  but  the  objects  are  classical,  and  illus- 
trate facts  which  are  as  yet  hardly  known  outside  the 
small  circle  of  specialists  who  have  devoted  themselves 
to  such  studies  as  are  here  referred  to.' 

One  of  the  most  disastrous  of  the  fungi  which  attack 
living  trees  is  Trametes  radiciperda  (Hartig), the  Polyporus 
annosus  of  Fries,  and  it  is  especially  destructive  to  the 
Coniferae.  Almost  everyone  is  familiar  with  some  of  our 
common  Polyporei,  especially  those  the  fructifications  of 
which  project  like  irregular  brackets  of  various  colours 
from  dead  stumps,  or  from  the  stems  of  moribund  trees  ; 


'  Cor.tin  ;e  I  from  p.  207. 


228 


NATURE 


{Jan.  5,  1888 


well,  such  forms  will  be  found  on  examination  to  have 
numerous  minute  pores  on  the  under  side  or  on  the  upper 
side  of  their  cheese-like,  corky,  or  woody  substance,  and 
the  spores  which  reproduce  the  fungus  are  developed  on 
the  walls  lining  these  many  pores,  to  which  these  fungi 
owe  their  name.  Irametes  radiciperda  is  one  of  those 
forms  which  has  its  pores  on  the  upper  side  of  the  spore- 
bearing  fructification,  and  presents  the  remarkable  pecu- 
liarity of  developing  the  latter  on  the  exterior  of  roots 
beneath  the  surface  of  the  soil  (Fig.  11). 

This  is  not  the  place  to  discuss  the  characters  of  species 
and  genera,  nor  to  enter  at  any  detail  into  the  structure 
of  fungi,  but  it  is  necessary  to  point  out  that  in  those 
cases  where  the  casual  observer  sees  only  the  fructifica- 
tion of  a  Polyporus,  or  of  a  toadstool,  or  of  a  mushroom 
(projecting  from  a  rotting  stump  or  from  the  ground,  for 


Fig.  II  — Portion  of  root  of  a  spnice-fir,  with  fructification  of  Trainetcs 
radiciperda  (after  Hartig).  Each  fructification  is  a  yellowish-white 
mass  of  felt-like  substance  spread  over  the  root,  and  with  minute  pores, 
in  which  the  spores  are  produced,  on  its  outer  surface  ;  the  mycelium 
which  has  developed  it  is  in  the  interior  of  the  root. 

instance),  the  botanist  knows  that  this  fructification  is 
attached  to,  and  has  taken  origin  from,  a  number  of  fine 
colourless  filaments  woven  into  a  felt-like  mass  known  as 
the  mycelium,  and  that  this  felt-work  of  mycelium  is 
spreading  on  and  in  the  rotten  wood,  or  soil,  or  whatever 
else  the  fungus  grows  on,  and  acts  as  roots,  &c.,  for  the 
benefit  of  the  fructification. 

Now,  the  peculiarity  of  the  mycelium  of  this  Trametes 
radiciperda  is  that  it  spreads  in  the  wood  of  the  roots 
and  trunks  of  pines  and  firs  and  other  Conifers,  and  takes 
its  nourishment  from  the  wood-substance,  &c.,  and  it  is  to 
the  researches  of  Hartig  that  we  owe  our  knowledge  of 
how  it  gets  there  and  what  it  does  when  there.  He  found 
that  the  spores  germinate  easily  in  the  moisture  around 
the  roots,  and  put  forth  filaments  which  enter  between  the 
bark-scales,  and  thus  the  mycelium  estabhshes  itself  in 
the  living  tree,  between  the  cortex  and  the  wood  (Fig   12), 


It  is  curious  to  note  that  the  spores  may  be  carried  from 
place  to  place  by  mice  and  other  burrowing  animals,  since 
this  Trametes  is  apt  to  develop  its  fructification  and 
spores  in  the  burrows,  and  they  are  rubbed  off  into  the 
fur  of  the  animals  as  they  pass  over  and  under  the  spore- 
bearing  mass. 

When  the  mycelium  obtains  a  hold  in  the  root,  it  soon 
spreads  between  the  cortex  and  the  wood,  feeding  upon, 
and  of  course  destroying,  the  cambium.  Here  it  spreads 
in  the  form  of  thin  flattened  bands,  with  a  silky  lustre, 
making  its  way  up  the  root  to  the  base  of  the  stem, 
whence  it  goes  on  spreading  further  up  into  the  trunk 
(Fig.  12). 

Even  if  the  mycelium  confined  its  ravages  to  the  cam- 
bial  region,  it  is  obvious,  from  what  was  described  in 
Articles  I.  and  II.,  that  it  would  be  disastrous  to  the  tree  ; 
but  its  destructive  influence  extends  much  further  than 
this.     In  the  first  place,  it  can  spread  lo  another  root 


Fig.  12. — Piece  of  root  of  spruce-fir,  with  the  mycelium  of  Trametes  radici- 
perda (after  Hartig)  enlarged  about  3  limes.  The  white  mycelium 
spreads  in  a  fan-like  manner  over  the  surface  beneath  the  cortex,  as 
seen  in  the  figure  where  the  latter  has  been  lifted  and  removed  (n).  Here 
and  there  the  mycelium  bursts  through  the  cortex  in  the  form  of  white 
protuberances  (J}),  to  form  the  fructifications. 

belonging  to  another  tree,  if  the  latter  comes  in  contact 
in  the  moist  soil  with  a  root  already  infected  ;  in  the  second 
place,  the  mycelium  sends  fine  filaments  in  all  directions 
into  the  wood  itself,  and  the  destructive  action  of  these 
filaments — called  hyphfe — soon  reduces  the  timber,  for 
several  yards  up  the  trunk,  to  a  rotting,  useless  mass. 
After  thus  destroying  the  roots  and  lower  parts  of  the 
tree,  the  mycelium  may  then  begin  to  break  through  the 
dead  bark,  and  again  form  the  fructifications  referred  to. 

Since,  as  we  shall  see,  Trametes  radiciperda  is  not  the 
only  fungus  which  brings  about  the  destruction  of  stand- 
ing timber  from  the  roots  upwards,  it  may  be  well  to  see 
what  characters  enable  us  to  distinguish  the  disease  thus 
induced,  in  the  absence  of  the  fructification. 

The  most  obvious  external  symptoms  of  the  disease  in 
a  plantation,  &c.,  are  :  the  leaves  turn  pale,  and  then 
yellow,  and  die  off;  then  the  lower  part  of  the  stem 
begins  to  die,  and  rots,  though  the  bark  higher  up  may 
preserve  its  normal  appearance.     If  the  bark  is  removed 


Jan.  5,  1888] 


NA  TURE 


229 


from  one  of  the  diseased  roots  or  stems,  there  may  be 
seen  the  flat,  silky,  white  bands  of  mycelium  running  in 
the  plane  of  the  cambium,  and  here  and  there  protruding 
tiny  white  cushions  between  the  scales  of  the  bark  (Fig. 
12) ;  in  advanced  stages  the  fructifications  developed 
from  these  cushions  may  also  be  found.  The  wood  inside 
the  diseased  root  will  be  soft  and  damp,  and  in  a  more  or 
less  advanced  stage  of  decomposition. 

On  examining  the  timber  itself,  we  again  obtain  dis- 
tinctive characters  which  enable  the  expert  to  detect  the 
disease  at  a  glance.  I  had  the  good  fortune  to  spend 
several  pleasant  hours  in  the  Munich  Museum  examining 
and  comparing  the  various  diseases  of  timbers,  and  it  is 
astonishing  how  well  marked  the  symptoms  are.  In  the 
present  case  the  wood  at  a  certain  stage  presents  the 
appearance  represented  in  the  drawing,  Fig.  13.  The 
general  tone  is  yellow,  passing  into  a  browner  hue. 
Scattered  here  and  there  in  this  ground-work  of  still 
sounder  wood  are  peculiar  oval  or  irregular  patches  of 
snowy  white,  and  in  the  centre  of  each  white  patch  is  a 
black  speck.     Nothing  surprised  me  more  than  the  accu- 


FiG.  13. — A  block  of  the  timber  of  a  spruce-fir,  attacked  by  Trainetes 
radiciperda.  The  general  colour  is  yellow,  and  in  the  yellow  matrix 
of  less  rotten  wood  are  soft  white  patches,  each  with  a  black  speck  in 
it.  These  patches  are  portions  completely  disorganized  by  the  action 
of  the  mycelium,  and  the  appearance  is  very  characteristic  of  this 
particular  disease.     (After  Hartig.) 

racy  with  which  Prof.  Hartig's  figures  reproduce  the 
characteristic  appearance  of  the  original  specimens  in 
his  classical  collection,  and  I  have  tried  to  copy  this  in 
the  woodcut,  but  of  course  the  want  of  colour  makes 
itself  evident. 

It  is  interesting  and  important  to  trace  the  earlier 
changes  in  the  diseased  timber.  When  the  filaments  of 
the  fungus  first  begin  to  enter  the  wood,  they  grow  upwards 
more  rapidly  than  across  the  grain,  piercing  the  walls  of 
the  cells  and  tracheides  by  means  of  a  secretion — a  soluble 
ferment — which  they  exude.  This  ferment  softens  and 
dissolves  the  substance  of  the  walls,  and  therefore,  of 
course,  destroys  the  structure  and  firmness,  &c.,  of  the 
timber.  Supposing  the  filaments  to  enter  cells  which 
still  contain  protoplasm  and  starch,  and  other  nutritive 
substances  (such  as  occur  in  the  medullary  rays,  for  ex- 
ample), the  filaments  kill  the  living  contents  and  feed  on 
them.  The  result  is  that .  what  remains  unconsumed 
acquires  a  darker  colour,  and  this  makes  itself  visible  in 
the  mass  to  the  unaided  eye  as  a  rosy  or  purple  hue, 
gradually  spreading  through  the  attacked  timber,    As  the 


destructive  action  of  the  fungus  proceeds  in  the  wood,  the 
purple  shades  are  gradually  replaced  by  a  yellowish  cast, 
and  a  series  of  minute  black  dots  make  their  appearance 
here  and  there  ;  then  the  black  dots  gradually  surround 
themselves  with  the  white  areas,  and  we  have  the  stage 
shown  in  Fig.  13. 

These  white  areas  are  the  remains  of  the  elements  of 
the  wood  which  have  already  been  completely  delignified 
by  the  action  of  the  ferment  secreted  by  the  fungus  fila- 
ments— i.e.  the  hard  woody  cell-walls  have  become  con- 
verted into  soft  and  swelling  cellulose,  and  the  filaments 
are  dissolving  and  feeding  upon  the  latter  (Fig.  14).  In 
the  next  stage  of  the  advancing  destruction  of  the  timber 
the  black  dots  mostly  disappear,  and  the  white  areas  get 
larger ;  then  the  middle-lamella  between  the  contiguous 


Fig.  14. — Sectional  view  of  a  tracheide  of  the  spruce-fir,  attacked  by  the 
hyphae  (a,  h)  of  a  Trametes,  highly  magnified  (after  Hartig).  The 
upper  part  of  the  tracheide  has  its  walls  still  sound,  though  already 
pierced  by  the  hyphae ;  the  lower  part  (c)  has  the  walls  completely 
delignified,  and  converted  into  cellulose,  which  swells  up  and  dissolves 
The  middle-lamella  is  also  undergoing  diss  lution.  The  holes  in  the 
walls  have  been  bored  by  hyph  e. 

elements  of  the  wood  becomes  dissolved,  and  soft  places 
and  cavities  are  produced,  causing  the  previously  firm 
timber  to  become  spongy  and  soft,  and  it  eventually  breaks 
up  into  a  rotting  mass  of  vegetable  remains. 

It  will  readily  be  understood  that  all  these  progressive 
changes  are  accompanied  by  a  decrease  in  the  specific 
gravity  of  the  timber,  for  the  fungus  decomposes  the  sub- 
stance much  in  the  same  way  as  it  is  decomposed  by 
putrefaction  or  combustion,  i.e.  it  causes  the  burning  off 
of  the  carbon,  hydrogen,  and  nitrogen,  in  the  presence  of 
oxygen,  to  carbon-dioxide,  water,  and  ammonia,  retaining 
part  in  its  own  substance  for  the  time  being,  and  Hving  at 
its  expense.  H.  .Marshall  Ward 

{To  be  continued.) 


PROFESSOR  ALEXANDER  DICKSON. 

THE  close  of  1887  has  been  marked  by  a  long  death- 
roll  in  the  ranks  of  science.  In  the  company  of 
botanists  it  has  been  especially  heavy,  and  now  the  sad 
news  of  the  tragically  sudden  death  of  Prof.  Alexander 


230 


NATURE 


[yan.  5,  I 


Dickson,  at  the  early  age  of  fifty-one,  comes  upon  us 
with  startling  unexpectedness.  Two  days  before  Christ- 
mas Prof.  IJickson  left  Edinburgh,  in  his  usual  health 
and  vigour,  for  Hartree  House,  his  Lanarkshire  residence. 
During  the  following  days  he  spent  much  of  his  time  in  the 
favourite  pastime  of  curling,  which  he  much  enjoyed.  On 
Friday  last,  December  30,  1887,  he  was  in  exceptionally 
good  spirits  on  the  ice  ;  his  side  was  winning  a  close 
match,  and  he  entered  keenly  into  the  excitement  of  the 
moment,  when,  without  warning,  he  dropped  dead  in  the 
act  of  making  a  shot. 

Alexander  Dickson  was  born  in  Edinburgh  on  February 
21,  1836,  the  second  son  of  David  Dickson,  of  Hartree 
and  Kilbucho,  extensive  estates  in  Lanarkshire  and 
Peebles-shire,  to  which  he  afterwards  succeeded,  his  elder 
brother  having  predeceased  his  father.  Educated  when 
a  boy  at  home,  he  proceeded  to  the  University  of  Edin- 
burgh, where  he  graduated  M.D.  in  i860,  obtaining  a 
gold  medal  for  a  thesis  on  "  The  Development  of  the 
Seed-vessel  of  Caryophyllacecer  After  graduating,  he 
soon  abandoned  medicine,  and  devoted  himself  to  bota- 
nical pursuits.  During  the  year  1862  he  acted  as  Deputy 
Professor  of  Botany  in  the  University  of  Aberdeen  for 
Prof.  Dickie,  then  in  bad  health  ;  in  1866  he  was  ap- 
pointed to  the  Chair  of  Botany  in  the  University  of 
Dublin,  vacant  by  the  death  of  Dr.  W.  H.  Harvey  ;  and 
a  year  later  he  added  to  this  appointment  that  of  Pro- 
fessor of  Botany  in  the  Royal  College  of  Science  for 
Ireland.  In  1868,  on  the  death  of  Dr.  G.  W.  Walker- 
Arnott,  he  succeeded  to  the  Chair  of  Botany  in  the  Uni- 
versity of  Glasgow,  which  he  held  until  1879,  when  he 
was  appointed  Professor  of  Botany  in  the  University,  and 
Regius  Keeper  of  the  Royal  Botanic  Garden,  in  Edin- 
burgh, upon  the  resignation  of  these  offices  by  Dr.  J.  H. 
Balfour.  He  held  these  appointments  at  the  time  of  his 
death.  He  received  the  honorary  degree  of  M.D.  from 
the  University  of  Dublin,  and  that  of  LL.D.  from  the 
University  of  Glasgow,  and  was  a  member  of  various 
learned  Societies.  Besides  his  scientific  life  he  had 
another  important  part  to  play  as  a  laird  with  large 
properties  in  three  counties,  and  he  was  a  model  land- 
lord. He  had  the  highest  ideas  of  the  duties  of  his 
position,  and  acted  up  to  them.  Money,  time,  and  energy 
were  given  with  self-denying  devotion  to  the  improve- 
ment of  his  farms  and  of  the  condition  of  his  tenants,  and 
no  better-ordered  estates  could  be  found  than  those 
which  he  controlled.  He  was  a  Deputy-Lieutenant  of 
Peebles-shire,  and  took  an  active  share  in  all  the  functions 
which  his  position  entailed. 

By  the  death  of  Alexander  Dickson  the  botanical 
world  loses  one  of  its  best  morphologists.  He  wore  the 
mantle  of  the  old  French  school  typified  in  Mirbel, 
Richard,  St.  Hilaire,  and  Payer,  of  which  Baillon  is  at 
present  the  foremost  French  representative  ;  and  at  a 
time  like  the  present,  when  it  is  a  fashion  to  decry  mor- 
phology, his  loss  falls  all  the  more  heavily.  No  botanist 
in  this  country  had  so  full  and  accurate  a  grasp  of  organo- 
graphy. His  published  papers,  numerous  and  valuable  as 
they  are,  afford  but  an  imperfect  idea,  significant  indeed,  of 
thewealth  of  his  knowledge,  and  the  keenness  of  his  percep- 
tion. Those  who  came  in  contact  with  him  will  remember 
the  fascination  of  his  discourse,  and  the  surprising  variety 
and  aptness  of  the  illustrations  which  he  could  bring  up 
one  after  the  other  to  support  his  own  views  or  confound 
those  of  an  opponent.  In  all  his  scientific  work  the  strong 
conservatism  of  his  nature  found  expression.  His  cautious 
and  logical  mind  did  not  allow  of  his  following  with 
enthusiasm  rash  speculations  of  the  more  ardent  botanical 
workers  ;  and  the  flood  of  literature  on  botanical  subjects 
which  is  poured  out  year  by  year  had  no  terrors  for  him, 
as  he  acted  upon  the  principle,  which  many  will  agree  is 
a  sound  one,  that,  if  you  leave  the  literature  until  it  is  a 
year  or  two  old,  what  is  worth  reading  sifts  itself.  The 
soundness  of  his  judgment  upon  scientific  problems  may 


in  some  measure  be  traced  to  the  influence  of  the  precept 
and  example  of  that  glorious  band  of  real  teachers,  which 
at  the  time  of  his  University  career  made  Edinburgh  a 
centre  of  attraction  in  the  intellectual  world ;  and  a  good 
illustration  of  his  force  of  mind  is  to  be  found  in  his 
attitude  towards  the  much-discussed  question  of  the  growth 
of  the  cell-wall.  Having  satisfied  himself  that  the  apposi- 
tion theory  was  a  sufficient  explanation,  he  consistently 
opposed  Nageli's  intussusception  theory  during  the  years 
when  it  was  all  but  universally  accepted  ;  and  now  the 
botanical  world  has  come  round  again  to  regard  an  appo- 
sition theory  as  that  which  has  the  better  basis  in  fact. 

All  organographic  questions  had  a  peculiar  interest  for 
Dickson.  A  considerable  portion  of  his  own  work  was 
devoted  to  the  elucidation  of  the  true  nature  of  the 
flowers  in  Coniferce.  As  the  result  of  his  researches  on 
Dammara  and  observations  on  other  ConifercE,  he  adopted 
Baillon's  view  of  the  carpellary  nature  of  the  integument 
in  Ptniis,  and,  notwithstanding  the  defection  by  Stras- 
burger,  who  originally  supported  this  view,  he  continued 
to  maintain  it.  Phyllotaxis  was  a  subject  to  which  he 
devoted  great  attention,  and  upon  which  he  published 
several  important  papers.  Amongst  his  most  valuable 
researches  are  those  on  the  embryogeny  of  Tropceoliim^ 
in  which  he  traced  the  history  of  the  peculiar  roots  by 
which  the  embryo  is  nursed  in  the  seed  ;  and  the  records 
of  his  embryological  researches  in  Pingiiicula,  Ruscus, 
Zosfera,  Phoenix,  Delphinium,  and  other  plants,  are  very 
interesting  and  valuable  contributions  to  knowledge.  In 
recent  years  he  gave  considerable  attention  to  the  con- 
struction and  development  of  pitcher-plants,  and  proved 
the  true  nature  of  the  parts  of  their  complex  organs  ;  and 
the  structure  of  the  Hepaticce  also  engrossed  him,  one  of 
his  last  papers  being  upon  some  species  of  this  group,  in 
which  he  joined  issue  with  Leitjeb  upon  some  funda- 
mental points.  In  all  his  work  there  may  be  seen  the 
scrupulous  accuracy  and  attention  to  detail  which  was  a 
leading  feature  in  his  character,  and  no  man  ever  worked 
with  more  care  and  jealous  regard  for  truth  and  with  a 
more  generous  appreciation  of  the  work  of  others. 

Amidst  the  work  of  his  scientific  life  and  the  duties 
connected  with  his  estates  he  found  time  to  cultivate  the 
artistic  side  of  his  nature,  which  was  developed  in  no 
ordinary  degree.  He  was  an  accomplished  and  enthu- 
siastic musician,  and  in  later  years  found  peculiar 
pleasure  in  collecting  Gaelic  airs.  At  botanical  excursions 
to  the  Highlands  he  might  be  frequently  found  noting 
down  an  air  as  it  was  droned  by  a  gillie  or  whistled  by  a 
herd,  and  he  amassed  a  considerable  number  of  these 
airs,  which  at  one  time  he  thought  of  publishing.  He 
was  also  a  very  skilful  draughtsman,  and  his  drawings  in 
chalk  on  the  slate  were  quite  a  feature  of  his  lectures. 

In  the  discharge  of  every  duty  he  was  most  conscien- 
tious, and  his  unostentatious  kindliness  attracted  everyone 
who  had  dealings  with  him.  Quiet  and  retiring  in 
disposition,  he  was  endeared  to  all  by  the  nobility  of  his 
character  and  his  sympathetic  nature.  As  Professor  his 
students  loved  him  :  as  laird  his  tenants  loved  him.  It 
has  been  said  of  him  he  could  never  lose  a  friend,  for  he 
never  could  say  an  unkind  word  or  omit  to  do  a  kind 
action,  and  in  this  estimate  all  who  knew  him  will  concur. 
The  news  of  his  death  will  be  heard  with  sorrow  by  a 
wide  circle  of  friends,  and  bring  sadness  to  many  a  heart 
which  will  mourn  for  one  who  had  fine  generosity  of 
the  kind  that  lets  "  not  the  right  hand  know  what  the 
left  hand  doeth." 


NOTES. 
The  Municipal  Council  of  Paris  proposes  to  establish  in  the 
Faculty  of  Sciences  a  new  professorship  devoted  to  the  philo- 
sophy of  biology,  and  especially  to  the  teaching  of  the  doctrines 
of  Darwin.     This  distresses  some  of  the  older  French  zoologists, 


Jan.  5,  1888] 


NATURE 


231 


but  "  their  reign,"  a  correspondent  writes  to  us  from  Paris,  "  is 
coming  to  an  end,  and  notwithstanding  their  obstinate  and 
unintelliijent  opposition,  Darwinism  is  the  creed  of  all  the 
younger  French  naturalists.  The  only  trouble  with  regard  to 
the  new  professorship  will  be  to  put  the  right  man  in  the  right 
place." 

Prof.  Bonney's  course  of  lectures  on  geology  begins  at 
University  College  on  Wednesday,  January  11,  and  will  be  con- 
tinued on  the  Thursdays,  Tuesdays,  and  Wednesdays  following. 
The  course  on  economic  geology  begins  on  the  following  Friday, 
and  will  be  continued  on  that  day  in  each  week. 

A  COURSE  of  about  six  lectures  on  "Photographic  Chemis- 
try" will  shortly  be  delivered  by  Prof.  R.  Meldola,  F.R.S.,  at 
the  Finsbury  Technical  College.  The  course  will  begin  on 
Wednesday,  January  18,  at  7.30  p.m.,  and  be  continued  on 
successive  Wednesdays.  The  object  of  the  lecturer  will  be  to 
develop  the  scientific  principles  upon  which  modern  photography 
is  based,  so  as  to  enable  professional  and  amateur  photographers 
to  keep  abreast  of  recent  advancements  in  the  subject.  Those 
who  attend  the  lectures  will  have  the  opportunity,  if  they  desire 
it,  of  receiving  practical  laboratory  instruction  in  the  testing  and 
valuation  of  photographic  chemicals. 

At  the  opening  meeting  of  the  session  of  the  Society  of 
Telegraph-Engineers  and  Electricians,  on  Thursday,  the  I2th 
instant,  the  new  President,  Mr.  Edward  Graves,  will  deliver  his 
inaugural  address. 

In  the  abstracts  of  the  Proceedings  of  the  Chemical  Society 
(Jan. -Dec.  i887).we  find  the  following  list  of  grants  made  from  the 
Research  Fund  of  the  Society  during  the  year : — £,2^  to  Prof. 
E.  II.  Rennie,  for  the  further  study  of  the  red  colouring-matter 
of  Drosera  luhitlakeri ;  £2^  to  Mr.  Holland  Crompton,  for  the 
study  of  the  action  of  nitric  acid  on  copper-zinc  and  copper-tin 
alloys  with  the  object  of  determining  whether  the  metals  exist 
in  combination  or  admixed ;  ;i^io  to  Mr.  C.  H.  Boihamley,  for 
experiments  on  the  use  of  dyes  in  photography,  and  especially 
on  the  sensitizing  action  of  the  dye  ;  £2$  to  Mr.  W.  P.  Wynne, 
for  the  determination  of  the  nature  of  the  products  formed  on 
oxidizing  nitric  oxide  by  admixture  with  oxygen  ;  ;i^io  to 
Mr.  A.  Wynter  Blyth,  for  the  study  of  the  constitution  of 
butter- fat. 

Meteorology  is  indebted  to  Dr.  J.  Hann  for  an  exhaustive 
discussion  of  the  distribution  of  atmospheric  pressure  over 
Central  and  Southern  Europe,  based  upon  the  monthly  and 
yearly  means  at  205  stations,  for  the  thirty  years  1851-80. 
Very  few  such  discussions  have  been  undertaken  since  the 
appearance  of  Buchan's  great  work,  about  twenty  years  ago. 
The  author  insists  on  the  application  of  the  correction  for 
gravity,  which  up  to  the  present  time  has  been  generally  neg- 
lected. Only  a  few  observations  for  France  have  been  used 
in  this  discussion,  but  a  work  of  a  similar  nature  is  in  hand  for 
that  country  by  M.  Angot.  Charts  are  also  drawn  for  each 
month  and  for  the  year,  showing  the  isobars  for  every  "02  inch 
at  the  sea-level,  and  also  for  four  months  aftd  the  year  at  the 
level  of  500  metres  above  the  sea.  The  work  forms  Part  2, 
vol.  ii.  of  Dr.  Penck's  "  Geographische  Abhandlungen " 
(Vienna,  1887). 

The  Chief  Signal  Officer  of  the  United  States  has  issued  a 
circular,  dated  December  6,  stating  that  as,  in  his  belief,  the 
great  value  of  simultaneous  maps  consists  in  showing  the  general 
features  of  the  weather  of  the  northern  hemisphere,  he  has 
decided  to  reproduce  daily  a  chart  showing  the  general  outlines 
of  the  pressure  and  wind  for  certain  selected  stations,  although 
as  before  stated  (Nature,  Dec.  8,  p.  137),  he  cannot  guarantee 


their  continuance  for  any  great  length  of  time.  The  charts  have 
commenced  with  October  i,  1886,  and  are  based  on  the  obser- 
vations taken  at  noon,  Greenwich  time  ;  the  temperature  obser- 
vations are  not  represented,  owing  to  the  limited  means  available 
for  such  work. 

The  Central  Physical  Observatory  of  St.  Petersburg  has 
issued  a  very  useful  table,  showing  for  all  its  telegraphic 
stations  the  normal  temperatures  for  7  a.m.  for  each  month, 
calculated  from  the  number  of  years  available  for  each  place. 
From  these  values  the  Observatory  constructs  diagrams  showing 
the  annual  march  of  the  temperature,  and  from  these  carves  the 
normal  temperature  may  be  calculated  very  closely  for  each  day 
of  the  year.  These  data  enable  the  Observatory  to  introduce 
into  its  Daily  Weather  Reports  the  departure  of  the  tempera- 
ture day  by  day  from  its  normal  value.  The  normal  tempera- 
tures for  foreign  stations  are  to  be  similarly  dealt  with  sub- 
sequently. 

The  Swedish  Government  has  given  notice  that  in  the 
beginning  of  the  year  1888,  a  fog  signal  will  be  established 
near  Hallands  Wadero  lighthouse,  on  the  eastern  shore  of  the 
northern  approach  to  the  Sound,  Kattegat.  The  signal  will  be 
a  steam  syren,  which,  during  thick  or  foggy  weather,  will  give 
iiuo  blasts  every  mintite,  in  the  following  manner  ;  a  low  note 
of  seven  seconds  duration,  an  interval  of  three  seconds  silence, 
then  a  high  note  oi  three  seconds  duration,  followed  by  an  interval 
of  forty-seven  seconds  silence. 

The  Government  Gazette  of  the  Colony  of  Lagos  of  July  30 
last  contains  monthly  meteorological  means  for  the  year  1886. 
The  observations  are  made  at  the  Colonial  Hospital,  lat.  6°  27'  N., 
long.  3°  26'  E. 

On  December  11,  about  5.30  p.m.,  a  brilliant  meteor  was  seer* 
in  and  around  Christiania.  It  moved  slowly  in  a  south-easterly 
direction,  and  disappeared  behind  a  bank  of  clouds.  Its  light, 
of  a  yellow-green  colour,  was  very  intense.  The  passage  occupied 
about  five  seconds. 

Earthquakes  on  December  16  and  17  are  reported  from 
Prinpolje  and  Plewlje,  in  Bosnia.  At  Werny,  in  Turkistan,  a 
sliock  occurred  at  midnight  on  December  16.  A  shock  was 
noticed  at  Geneva  on  December  19  between  5  and  6  p.m.  A 
telegram  from  Mexico  states  that  a  sharp  shock  occurred  there 
at  half  past  7  on  January  2. 

A  NUMBER  of  highly  interesting  experiments  upon  the  be- 
haviour of  passive  iron  towards  nitric  acid  when  placed  in  a 
powerful  magnetic  tield  have  recently  been  made  by  Messrs. 
Nichols  and  Franklin  {Anier,  Journ.  of  Science,  December  1887). 
About  8  cubic  centioietres  of  nitric  acid,  specific  gravity  i'368, 
were  poured  upon  a  gramme  of  powderel  iron  conta  ned  in  a 
perfectly  clean  test-tube.  This  test-tube  was  immersed  in  water 
contained  in  an  outer  glass  vessel,  and  the  temperature  of  the 
contents  of  the  tube  could  be  accurately  ascertained  by  means  of 
a  thermometer  suspended  in  it.  The  whole  apparatus  was  then 
carefully  arranged  between  the  poles  of  an  electro-magnet 
specially  constructed  to  give  a  field  as  uniform  as  possible. 
Before  actuating  the  magnet  it  was  found  that  the  iron  remained 
perfectly  passive  in  presence  of  the  nitric  acid  until  the  tempera- 
ture was  raised  to  89^,  when  the  usual  explosion  consequent  upon 
loss  of  passivity  occurred.  But  on  repeating  the  experiment 
when  a  powerful  current  was  traversing  the  coils  of  the  electro- 
magnet, effervescence  commenced  at  once,  and  at  51°  the  explosion 
occurred  in  a  most  violent  manner,  projecting  most  of  the  liquid 
out  of  the  tube.  The  remainder  of  the  liquid,  however,  remained 
quiescent  until  the  iron  was  touched  with  the  thermometer-bulb, 
when  a  second  explosion  occurred.  In  a  third  experiuient  the 
magnet  was  not  actuated  until  the  apparatus  was  heated  to  60°  ; 
but  the  moment  the  current  was  allowed  to  pass  [the  explosion 


232 


NATURE 


{yan.  5,   1888 


occurred  instantaneously.  Hence  it  appears  that  the  action  of 
the  magnet  is  to  lower  the  temperature  of  transition  from  the 
passive  to  the  active  state.  In  attempting  to  determine  the 
<;ause  of  this  singular  phenomenon,  it  was  found  that  when  two 
iron  bars  placed  parallel  to  the  lines  of  force  in  the  magnetic 
field  were  submerged  in  any  liquid  capable  of  attacking  iron, 
the  ends  of  one  bar  and  the  central  portions  of  the  other  being 
alone  allowed  to  come  into  actual  contact  with  the  liquid,  the 
bar  with  ends  exposed  became  in  relation  to  the  other  as  zinc  to 
platinum,  so  that  on  connecting  the  bars  by  wires  a  permanent 
current  was  found  to  flow.  Hence  it  is  supposed  that,  in  case  of 
a  single  mass  of  iron,  local  currents  will  be  set  up  between  those 
parts  in  which  magnetic  poles  are  induced  and  the  intermediate 
parts,  and  Messrs.  Nichols  and  Franklin  are  of  opinion  that 
these  local  currents  are  the  cause  of  the  curious  behaviour  of 
passive  iron  in  the  magnetic  field. 

A  MEETING  was  held  at  Philadelphia  on  December  12  to 
jcelebrate  the  hundredth  anniversary  of  the  birth  of  Thomas 
Hopkins  Gallaudet,  the  pioneer  of  the  movement  for  the  instruc- 
tion of  the  deaf  in  America.  A  short  biographical  sketch  of 
Gallaudet  was  read,  and  one  of  his  poems  was  recited 
by  four  deaf  girls  in  the  sign-language.  Prof.  Graham  Bell 
delivered  an  address,  which  was  interpreted  into  the  sign- 
language  as  rapidly  as  it  was  spoken,  and,  according  to 
Science,  was  greatly  appreciated  by  the  many  deaf  persons 
in  the  audience.  The  two  sons  of  Gallaudet,  both  of  whom  are 
engaged  in  continuing  the  work  of  their  father — one  as  the 
President  of  the  deaf-mute  College  at  Washington,  the  other  as 
a  pastor  for  the  deaf — were  present,  and  made  remarks  suitable 
to  the  occasion. 

Messrs.  Macmillan  and  Co.  will  publish  immediately  a 
new  Treatise  on  Algebra,  by  Mr.  Charles  Smith,  of  Sidney 
Sussex  College,  Cambridge,  whose  previous  text-books  on 
Conic  Sections,  on  Solid  Geometry,  and  on  Elementary  Al- 
gebra have  been  very  favourably  received.  The  new  bjok  is 
designed  for  the  use  of  the  higher  classes  of  schools  and  the 
junior  students  in  the  Univer.-ities.  One  important  change  is 
made  from  the  usual  order  adopted  in  English  text-books  on 
algebra,  in  that  some  of  the  tests  of  the  convergency  of  infinite 
series  are  considered  before  such  series  are  made  any  use  of.  A 
knowledge  of  the  elementary  properties  of  determinants  being 
of  great  and  increasing  practical  utility,  Mr.  Smith  has  intro- 
duced a  short  discussion  of  their  fundamental  properties,  founded 
on  the  treatises  of  Dostor  and  Muir.  No  pains  have  been 
spared  to  insure  variety  and  interest  in  the  examples,  which 
have  been  selected  from  numerous  examination-papers  and  fro.n 
the  mathematical  journals. 

Messrs.  Macmillan  and  Co.  have  in  the  press  a  treatise 
on  Higher  Arithmetic  and  Elementary  Mensuration,  by  Mr. 
P.  Goyen,  Inspector  of  Schools  in  New  Zealand.  Feeling 
the  defect  in  most  text-boo'^s  of  arithmetic  that  the  worked-out 
types  are  all  of  the  simplest  character,  while  the  exercises  which 
follow  them  abound  in  difficulties,  Mr.  Goyen  has  worked  out 
an  immensely  large  number  and  variety  of  graduated  types,  and 
taken  great  pains  to  adapt  the  exercises  to  them.  In  the  men- 
suration, wherever  the  geometrical  proof  of  a  rule  is  quite  simple, 
it  is  given.  A  chapter  on  surds  is  inserted,  because  a  know- 
ledge of  surd  operations  is  useful  in  mensuration,  and  is 
required  in  many  public  examinations. 

A  GOOD  address  on  some  sociological  aspects  of  sanitation 
was  lately  delivered  before  the  Philosophical  Society  of  Glasgow 
by  Dr.  James  B.  Russell,  President  of  the  Society.  This 
address  has  now  been  published.  It  contains  some  excellent 
remarks  on  the  extent  to  which  the  State  has  a  right  to  limit 
individual  freedom  in  the  attempt  to  establish  the  conditions  of 
public  health. 


The  Journal  of  the  Straits  Branch  of  the  Royal  Asiatic 
Society  (No.  18),  just  received,  contains  the  Malay  text,  with 
an  English  translation,  of  "  Raja  Donan,"  a  Malay  fairy-tale. 
This  is  one  of  a  series  of  cheritras,  taken  down,  word  for  word, 
from  the  lips  of  Mir  Hassan.  Among  the  other  contents  of  the 
number  are  an  essay  (continued  fro  n  No.  17)  towards  a  biblio- 
graphy of  Siam,  and  an  English,  Sulu,  and  Malay  vocabulary. 

The  editorship  of  the  well-known  Brunswick  scientific  journal. 
Globus,  clianged  with  the  new  year,  or,  rather,  with  the  com- 
mencement of  the  fifty-third  volume  on  December  19.  Dr.  Emil 
Deckert  takes  the  place  of  Dr.  Richard  Kiepert,  and  at  the  same 
time  an  alteration  is  made  in  the  sub-title.  Where,  formerly, 
this  read,  '*  itiit  besonderer  Berucksichtiguns^  der  Anthropologie 
und  Ethnologic,"  it  now  reads  "  mit  besonderer  Beriicksichtigung 
der  Ethnologie,  der  Kultui-verhliltnisse,  und  des  Weltkaudels," 
and  in  an  address  to  the  reader  the  editor  and  publishers  ex- 
plain that  the  alteration  represents  a  corresponding  alterati  .n  in 
the  programme.  As  before,  every  effort  will  be  made  to  supply 
abundant  information  of  a  geographical  and  ethnological  cha- 
racter ;  but  as  German  national  interests  have  largely  developed 
and  extended  in  the  last  few  years,  in  future  a  good  deal  more 
attention  will  be  devoted  to  questions  connected,  as  we  under- 
stand it,  with  German  possessions  and  German  interests  abroad. 
The  practical  effects  of  thus  enlarging  the  scope  of  the  journal 
are  not  apparent  in  the  number  before  us,  but  it  may  be  hoped 
that  Globus  will  not  lose  its  character  as  a  popular  educator  in 
geography  and  the  alliei  subjects.  Why  a  similar  journal  has 
not  been  established  in  this  country  is  a  mystery. 

An  American  journal  devoted  to  geology  and  the  allied 
sciences  has  just  been  started.  It  is  called  the  American  Geolo- 
gist, and  will  for  the  present  be  published  at  Minneapolis^ 
Minn. 

Mr.  a.  Sidney  Olliff,  of  the  Australian  Museum,  Sydney, 
writes  to  the  January  number  of  the  Entomologist  z!noM\.  giant  Lepi- 
dopterous  larvae  in  Australia.  The  larva  of  Chalepteiyx  collesi,  a 
large  moth  which  was  unusually  abundant  during  the  past  summer 
in  the  vicinity  of  Sydney,  often,  he  says,  attains  the  length  of 
7  inches,  and  is  robust  in  proportion.  This  moth  feeds  on  various 
Eucalypti,  and  is  of  a  rich  satiny-brown  colour  ;  each  segment, 
except  the  first,  is  furnished  with  eight  yellow  verrucose  spots, 
which  emit  long  brown  bristles ;  the  anal  extremity,  a  yellow 
band  on  the  first  segment,  and  two  additional  verrucose  spots 
on  the  second  and  third  segments  also  give  rise  to  bristles.  The 
cocoo.i,  as  well  as  the  larva  of  this  species,  is  armed  with  fine 
and  exceedingly  sharp  bristles,  which,  if  carelessly  handled, 
readily  penetrate  the  skin,  causing  considerable  irritation.  The 
larva  of  the  beautiful  swift  {Zeldypia  stacyi)  measures  8  inches 
when  full  grown,  and  Mr.  Olliff  has  seen  several  Cossus  larvae 
of  similar  dimensions. 

In  the  Entomologist  for  January,  Mr.  Alfred  Bell  offers  some  sug- 
gestions about  post-Glacial  insects.  So  far  as  his  experience  goes, 
insect  remains  are  by  no  means  common,  and  belong  chiefly  to 
the  Coleoptera.  He  gives  thirty  species,  nearly  all  of  which 
belong  to  this  division  of  the  insect  world.  As  Mr.  Bell  points 
out,  however,  it  does  not  follow  that  Lepidoptera  were  not 
present  during  the  post-Glacial  period,  since  they  occur  in 
beautiful  preservation  in  deposits  of  much  older  date  in  England 
and  on  the  Continent.  The  nature  of  the  post-Glacial  soils  was 
not  favourable  to  the  preservation  of  soft-bodied  animals. 
"  Hence,"  says  Mr.  Bell,  '*  if  anyone  knows  of  Lepidoptera 
retained  in  a  fossil  state,  it  will  be  of  real  service  to  science  if  he 
will  say  where  they  were  found,  and  under  what  conditions. " 

In  the  January  number  of  the  Zoologist,  Mr.  Allan  Ellison  has 
an  interesting  article  on  the  autumnal  migration  of  birds  in 
Ireland.      He  says  that  the  migration  movement  of  last  autumn 


Jan.  5,  1888] 


NATURE 


233 


in  Ireland  was  in  all  respects  a  most  exceptional  one.  Some  of 
the  migrants  appeared  unusually  early,  and  all  in  much  larger 
numbers  than  Mr.  Ellison  had  ever  before  observed.  On 
October  8  he  saw  the  first  flocks,  both  of  starlings  and  redwings. 
On  the  same  day,  and  for  about  a  week  after,  immense  numbers 
of  golden  plovers  were  passing  over,  flying  towards  the  west  and 
south-west  in  large  V-shaped  strings.  This  was  about  the  usual 
time  for  starlings  and  redwings,  but  early  for  golden  plover.  On 
the  nth  again  both  redwings  and  starlings  were  constantly 
passing.  On  the  i6th  he  observed  a  great  host  of  fieldfares, 
many  thousands  in  number,  winging  their  way  across  the  sky 
towards  the  south-west.  From  October  17  to  the  beginning  of 
November  the  starling  migration  was  at  its  height,  the  flocks 
being  much  larger  and  more  numerous  than  he  had  ever  observed 
in  for.ner  years.  He  saw  four  within  a  quarter  of  an  hour  on 
the  afternoon  of  the  i8th.  At  4  p.m.  on  the  22nd,  the  largest 
flock  he  ever  saw  passed  over.  It  was  in  the  form  of  a  column, 
perhaps  nearly  a  mile  long,  and  must  have  numbered  thousands, 
spanning  the  sky  from  horizon  to  horizon  for  more  than  half 
a  minute,  and  was  followed  in  a  short  time  by  two  smaller 
flocks.  All  the  latter  part  of  October  skylarks  were  from  lime 
to  time  flying  over,  generally  large  straggling  flocks  or  scattered 
individuals,  flying  nearly  out  of  sight,  but  their  call-notes  being 
distinctly  audible.  Mr.  Ellison  hopes  that  those  who  are 
favourably  situated  for  observing  the  arrival  of  winter  birds  will 
report  whether  they  have  noticed  a  corresponding  abundance  of 
migrant     this  season. 

The  new  number  of  Mind  opens  with  an  able  and  sug- 
gestive article  on  pleasure,  pain,  desire,  and  volition,  by  Mr. 
F.  H.  Bradley.  Mr.  J.  McK.  Cattell  has  an  interestin;);  paper  on 
the  Psychological  Laboratory  at  Leipzig.  Mr.  T.  Whittaker 
writes  on  individualism  and  S;ate  action  ;  and  Mr.  D.  G.  Ritchie 
on  origin  and  validity. 

Paris  is  soon  to  have  a  Museum  of  Religions.  M.  Guimet, 
of  Lyons,  who  has  been  a  great  traveller,  has  been  engaged  for 
years  past  in  collecting  altars,  priests'  robes,  and  otner  objects 
relating  to  religious  ceremonies.  These  objects  hi  presented 
some  time  ago  to  Paris  on  condition  that  a  building  should  be 
specially  devoted  to  them.  This  building,  close  to  the  Trocadero 
Palace,  has  just  been  finished,  and  the  collection  will  soon  be 
transferred  to  it. 

The  additions  to  the  Zoological  Society's  Ga^-dens  during  the 
past  week  include  two  Spotted  Ichneumons  (Herpestes  tidpalen- 

sis),  a  ■  Fox  {Canis )  from  Afghanistan,  presented  by 

Lieut. -Colonel  Sir  Oliver  B.  C.  St.  John,  K.C.S.L  ;  a  Com- 
mon Otter  (^Liilra  vulgaris),  British,  presented  by  Mr.  Edward 
Hart  ;  a  Red-throated  Diver  {Colymbus  septentrionalis),  British, 
presented  by  Mr.  Charles  A.  Howell ;  two  Greater  Sulphur- 
crested  Cockatoos  {Cacatui  galerita)  from  Australia,  presented 
by  Master  Rankin. 


OUR  ASTRONOMICAL  COLUMN. 

Brazilian  Results  from  the  Transit  ok  Venus. — M. 
Cruls,  in  a  note  to  the  Paris  Academie  des  Sciences,  states  that 
the  reports  of  the  various  expeditions  sent  out  by  the  Brazilian 
Goyernmeat  to  observe  the  transit  of  Venus  in  1882  are  almost 
entirely  printed,  and  will  shortly  appear.  Three  stations  were 
occupied,  viz.  S.  Thomas  in  the  Antilles,  Olinda  in  Brazil,  and 
Punta-Arenas  in  the  Straits  of  Magellan.  The  Baron  de  Teffe 
was  in  command  of  the  first  expedition  ;  M.  J.  d'O.  Lacaille  of 
the  second,  and  M.  Cruls  himself  of  the  third.  The  duration  of 
the  transit  at  Punta-Arenas  was  nearly  the  mean  duration,  both 
ingress  and  egress  being  slightly  accelerated.  The  two  more 
northern  stations  had  the  duration  much  shortened,  ingress  being 
retarded,  and  egress  accelerated.  The  chief  observer  at  each 
•station  was  supplied  with  an  equatorial  of  6*3  inches  aperture  ; 
and  at  S.  Thomas  two  other  telescopes  of  4-5  and  4'i  inches 


respectively  were  also  used.  At  Olinda  likewise  there  was  a 
second  telescope  in  use,  of  4*5  inches  aperture.  The  method  of 
projection  was  employed  in  order  to  get  rid  of  the  physiological 
effects  produced  by  the  intensity  of  the  solar  light,  and  in  com- 
bining the  observations  made  with  telescopes  of  different 
apertures,  weights  were  given  to  them  proportional  to  the  square 
ot  the  diameters  of  the  object-glasses,  in  accordance  with  the 
results  obtained  from  the  experiments  of  MM.  Wolf  and  Andre, 
The  resulting  parallax  from  the  internal  contacts  is  8" "808. 

The  Asteroids. — Prof,  Daniel  Kirkwood,  of  the  Indiana 
University,  has  just  issued  a  short  essay  on  the  asteroids  or  minor 
planets,  this  group  of  tiny  bodies  being  entitled  on  many  grounds 
to  more  particular  consideration  than  it  has  yet  generally 
received.  The  first  part  of  the  essay  gives  a  brief  sketch  of  the 
history  of  the  discovery  of  the  first  five  asteroid-,  together  with 
the  names  of  the  discoverers  and  date  of  discovery  of  all  as  yet 
known  to  us,  and  a  table  giving  the  elements  of  their  orbits. 
Prof.  Kirkwood  makes  it  clear  that  the  numbers  of  those  still 
unknown  are  practically  inexhaustible,  for  if  Leverrier's  estimate 
be  correct,  that  the  quantity  of  matter  contained  in  the  group 
cannot  be  greater  than  one-fourth  the  mass  of  the  earth,  it  would 
yet  require  no  fewer  than  72,000,000  bodies  as  large  as  Menippe 
to  make  up  this  amount.  Fortunately  the  rate  of  discovery 
appears  limited  to  ten  or  a  dozen  per  annum,  so  that  there  is  no 
immediate  dangerof  our  being  overwhelmed  by  the  impossibility 
of  following  up  some  few  millions  of  orbits.  The  second  part  of 
the  work  deals  with  questions  relating  to  the  origin  of  the 
group,  and  with  certain  relationships  apparent  in  their  orbits, 
particularly  with  regard  to  the  irregular  distribution  of  the 
asteroids  in  their  ring,  certain  districts  being  left  entirely  void, 
viz.  those  where  the  asteroid  would  have  a  period  commensur- 
able with  that  of  Jupiter.  Prof.  Kirkwood  has  on  former 
occasions  repeatedly  shown  how  Jupiter  would  tend  to 
eliminate  bodies  revolving  in  these  positions  by  increasing  the 
eccentricities  of  their  orbits  until  their  perihelion  distances  fell 
within  the  body  of  the  sun  itself,  and  he  has  accounted  for  the 
gaps  in  the  ring  of  Saturn  upon  a  similar  principle.  Prof  Kirk- 
wood is  of  opinion  that  several  of  our  periodic  comets  may 
have  been  originally  members  of  the  asteroid  family.  All  the 
thirteen  comets  whose  periods  correspond  to  mean  distances 
within  the  asteroid  zone  have  direct  motion,  and  inclinations 
similar  to  those  of  the  minor  planets,  and  their  eccentricities 
are  generally  less  than  that  of  other  known  comets  ;  whilst  five 
of  these  comets  have  periods  respectively  corresponding  to  some 
of  the  most  marked  gaps  in  the  asteroid  zone. 

Prof.  Kirkwood  makes  no  reference  to  the  importance  of 
certain  members  of  the  group  as  affording  means  for  the  deter- 
mination of  the  solar  parallax,  which  many  astronomers  will 
consider  to  be  their  most  useful  function,  and  as  compensating 
for  the  enormous  labour,  both  of  observation  and  c  imputation, 
involved  in  following  the  paths  of  so  great  a  number  of  wan- 
derers. And  it  would  have  been  exceedingly  useful  if  he  had 
supplemented  his  other  tables  by  one  showing  those  asteroids 
which  have  only  been  observed  during  one  opposition.  Some 
of  those  theoretically  the  most  interesting  have  not  been  ob- 
served for  several  years,  and  are  practically  lost  to  us,  and  it 
would  seem  a  matter  of  more  pressing  importance  at  the  pre- 
sent time  that  these  should  be  picked  up  again,  if  possible, 
rather  than  fresh  additions  should  be  made  to  a  list  already 
unmanageably  long. 

Olbers'  Comet. — The  following  ephemeris  for  Berlin  mid- 
night, by  Dr.  Krueger  {Astr.  Nach.  No.  2818),  is  in  continuation 
of  that  given  in  Nature  for  1887  December  15  :  — 


Jan. 


888. 

R.A. 

Decl. 

Log  r. 

Logii. 

Bright 

h.    m.    s. 

6        / 

ness. 

6. 

.   16  50  20  . 

..   I    22  7    S. 

..  0*2486  . 

..  0-3821 

..  0-45 

8.. 

.  i6  54     8  . 

..  I  43-4  s. 

10.. 

•  16  57  51  . 

.  2      34   S.    . 

..  0-2583  . 

. 03854  . 

•0-43 

12.. 

,17     I  29  . 

.  2    236    S. 

14.. 

•17     5     3  • 

.  2  41-2   S.   . 

.,  0-2679  . 

.  0-3884  . 

.  0-40 

16.. 

.17    8  31  . 

.  2   59-2    S. 

18.. 

17  II  55  • 

.  3  166  S.  . 

..  0-2773  ■ 

.  0-3910  . 

.  0-38 

20.. 

.  17  15  14  • 

•  3  33-4  S. 

22.. 

17  18  29  .. 

.  3  496  S.  . 

.  0-2866  .. 

.  0-3932  . 

.  036 

The  brightness  on  August  27  is  taken  as  unity. 

Dr.  E.  Lamp  succeeded  in  seeing  the  comet  for  a  short  time 
on  December  I2,  and  concludes,  from  a  very  rough  comparison 
with  a  star  that  the  ephemeris  then  required  a  correction  of 
+  8s.  in  R.  A.,  but  was  practically  right  in  Decl. 


234 


NATURE 


[Jan.  5,  I 


The  Clinton  Catalogue. — The  Sidereal  Messenger  for 
December  announces  that  the  great  catalogue  of  30,000  stars, 
upon  which  Dr.  Peters  and  his  assistant,  Prof.  Borst,  have  been 
engaged  for  several  years  past,  is  virtually  completed,  and  ready 
for  the  press,  and  its  publication  is  expected  during  the  present 
v/inter.  In  the  prosecution  of  this  work  Prof.  Borst  has 
gathered  the  stars  from  the  various  astronomical  publications  of 
the  last  fifty  years,  and  reduced  them  to  the  epoch  of  the  forth- 
coming catalogue. 

OCCULTATIONS  OF  STARS  BY  PLANETS. — Herr  A.  Berberich 
calls  attention  in  the  Astronomische  Nachrichten,  No.  2814,  to 
the  importance  of  observations  of  occultations  of  stars  by  the 
planets,  and  supplies  a  list  of  stars  which  may  possibly  be 
occulted  by  either  Venus,  Mars,  Jupiter,  or  Saturn,  during 
the  course  of  the  present  year.  Such  observations  have  been 
extremely  rare,  yet  they  would  prove  extremely  important,  for 
they  would  throw  light  on  the  extent  and  density  of  the  planetary 
atmospheres,  and  would  afford  a  means  in  the  cases  of  Mars  and 
Venus  for  the  determination  of  parallax  and  diameter.  Herr 
Berberich  adds  that  in  the  case  of  the  three  outer  planets  the 
occultation  of  a  star  by  the  primary  would  afford  a  specially 
favourable  opportunity  for  the  determination  of  the  positions  of 
the  satellites,  since  micrometer  measures  of  their  places  as 
referred  to  the  occulted  star  would  be  free  from  many  errors  to 
which  the  direct  comparison  of  the  planet  and  its  satellites  is 
exposed. 

The  following  stars  may  possibly  undergo  occultation  during 
the  next  fortnight : — 


G.M.T.  of  Con- 
Planet,  junction  in  R.A. 
h.     m- 
Jan.  5 
9 


Star. 


PI  -  *      Max 
Mag.       Ai5     Duration. 


29-2    S.D.  -17  No.  4187  97 

1-4                18          4279  9'S 

12     3  41  4                  4          3445  9"3 

12     8  32-3                19          4401  9*3 

14  18  40-8                19          4441  9"5 

15  I  31-9                23          4446  9'5 
17  23  22-5                20          4635  9-3 

The  maximum  duration  is  the  interval  between  immersion 
and  emersion  for  a  central  occultation. 


-013 
+  I-05 
-o-i8 

+  0-84 
-o*i9 
+  0-38 
-0-57 


60 

5-8 
7-4 
57 
5-6 
5-5 
5-4 


ASTRONOMICAL  PHENOMENA  FOR   THE 
WEEK   1888  JANUARY  8-14. 

/■"PJ*OR  the  reckoning  of  time  the  civil  day,  commencing  at 
^-*-  Greenwich  mean  midnight,  counting  the  hours  on  to  24, 
is  here  employed.) 

At  Greenwich  on  January  8 
Sun  rises,   8h.  7m.  ;  souths,  I2h.  6m.  49TS.  ;  sets,  i6h.  7m.  : 
right   asc.    on   meridian,    I9h.    i6"8m.  ;   decl.    22°   17'    S. 


Sidereal  Time  at  Sunset, 

23h.  18m, 

Moon  (New    on    January   13, 

9h.)    rises,    2h.   14m.  ;    souths, 

7h.    34m.  ;    sets,    I2h.    44m.  :     right    asc.    on    meridian. 

I4h.  43  Hm- ;  decl.  10"  21 

S. 

Right  asc.  and  declination 

Planet.         Rises.           Souths. 

.Sets.                         on  meridian. 

h.    m.            h.    m. 

h.    m.           h.      m.               0      / 

Mercury..     7  55   ...   11  40  .. 

15  25  ...  18  50-0  ...  24  27  s. 

Venus 4  36  ...     9     I   ... 

13  26  ...  16  10-3  ...  18  29  s. 

Mars 0  II   ...     5  53  ... 

"  35    ••  13     i"9  ■••     4  14  S. 

Jupiter....     4  16  ...     8  38  ... 

13    0  ...  IS  47*4  ...  19    4  S. 

Saturn....   17  28*...     i   19  ... 

9  10  ...     8  27-1   ...   19  39  N. 

Uranus  ...     0  23  ...     5  55   ... 

II  27  ...   13     4'3  ...     6     8  S. 

Neptune..   12  51   ...  20  31   .. 

4  II*...     3  42-5   ...   17  56  N. 

*  Indicates  that  the  rising  is  that  of  the  preceding  evening  and  the  setting 
that  of  the  following  morning. 


Occultation  of  Star  by  the  Moon  (visible  at  Greenwich). 


Jan. 


Star. 


Mag. 


9  •• 

17  Librae 

Jan. 

h. 

9 

...     II 

Disap. 

h.   m. 
6  18 


Reap. 

h.    m. 
6  46 


Corresponding 
angles  from  ver- 
tex to  right  for 
inverted  image. 

...    341    298 


Jupiter  in  conjunction  with  and  4°  12'  south 

of  the  Moon. 
Venus  in   conjunction  with  and  2°  16'  south 

of  the  Moon. 


Star. 

U  Cephei 
{■  Geminorum 


Variable  Stars. 
R.A.  Decl. 

h.      m.  ,      / 

o  52*4  ...  81    16  N. 
6  57-5  ...  20  44  N, 


Jan. 


R  Canis  Majoris...     7  I4"5  ...  16  12  S. 


U  Monocerotis 

S  Cancri 

R  Leonis 

R  Ursae  Majoris , 

T  Ursse  Majoris 

W  Virginis  ... 

5  Librae 

U  Coronae    ... 

U  Ophiuchi  .. 

T  Vulpeculae 

Y  Cygni 

W  Cygni 
S  Cephei 


7  25-5  ... 

8  37-5  •• 

9  4i"5  ••• 
10  367  ... 

12  313  ... 

13  20-3  ... 

14  55-0  ... 

15  I3'6... 
17  10-9  ... 

20  467  ... 


9  33  S.    ...     ,, 

19  26  N.  ...     ,, 

57  N.  ...     „ 

22  N.  ...     ,, 

6  N.  ...     „ 

48  S.    ...     „ 

4S.      .     „ 

3N.  ...     „ 

20  N.  ...     ,, 

and  at  intervals 

27  50  N.  ...  Jan. 


h. 

10,  22 

9,    3 
14.    3 

11,  22 
13,  2 
II, 

9.  23 


22  tn 
o  m 

o  71/ 

53  '« 

9  w 

ni 

12  m 


M 


M 


12, 

8,  22 

II,    4 

8,    o 

8,    4 

of    20 

11,  o 

12,  I 
ID,   21 

13,  21 
14. 

8,    4 
II,  22 


0 

>n 

34 

m 

45 

If/ 

38 

ni 

8 

0 

m 

0 

M 

7 

fn 

0 

in 

M 

0 

M 

0 

m 

Near  |  Virginis. 
,,  ^  Bootis  . 
,,     )3  Bootis   . 


20  47-6  ...  34  14  N,  ...     ,, 

21  31-8  ...  44  53  N.  ...     ,, 

22  25-0  ...  57  51  N.  ...     ,, 

signifies  maximum  ;  ;;/  minimum. 

Meteor-  Showers. 
R.A.  Decl. 


174     ...       9  N.  ...  January  11. 

220     ...     14  N.  ...  Very  swift  ;  streaks. 

222     ...     42  N.  ...  Very  swift ;  streaks. 


DUN^R  ON  STARS  WITH  SPECTRA  OF 

CLASS  II  L  1 

I. 


I 


N  publishing  a  few  days  before  his  death  the  last  part  of  his 
discoveries  relating  to  the  spectra  of  stars  of  the  third  class, 
D'Arrest  pronounced  the  opinion  that  henceforward  there  would 
be  nothing  essential  to  add  to  the  knowledge  then  possessed  of 
the  stellar  spectra  of  this  class  in  the  northern  heavens.  When 
D'Arrest  died,  123  well-developed  objects  of  Class  lll.a  were 
known,  and  counting  all  the  objects  known,  150 ;  the  stars 
known  in  Class  IILi^  were  23.  Actually,  the  well-developed 
stars  of  in. a  are  214,  and  if  all  are  reckoned,  475;  the  stars 
of  111.(5  are  55  at  least. 

The  number  of  objects  in  Class  III.  with  which  we  are 
acquainted  has  been  tripled  by  recent  researches,  but,  besides, 
the  relation  between  the  numbers  of  the  stars  in  the  two  lower 
classes  has  been  considerably  altered,  considering  that  at  present 
there  are  8'5  stars  III.«  instead  of  6*5,  to  i  star  HI./'.  How- 
ever, we  should  commit  a  serious  error  if  we  drew  the  conclusion 
that  in  reality  the  spectra  III.^  were  not  more  than  nine  times 
rarer  than  I II. a.  On  account  of  the  enormous  width  of  the 
bands,  one  is  able  without  any  difficulty  to  recognize  the 
nature  of  a  spectrum  lll.b  in  very  faint  stars,  which  one  is  not 
able  to  do  in  III.«,  unless  in  the  rare  objects  of  this  class  in 
which  the  bands  are  more  marked  and  broader  than  usual. 

I  find  this  opinion  confirmed  by  the  fact  that  the  researches 
of  M.  Vogel  give  more  than  200  new  spectra  lll.a,  and  have 
scarcely  led  to  an  acquaintance  with  one  new  spectrum  lll.b.  It 
is  very  probable  therefore  that  we  are  already  acquainted  with 
all  these  stars  to  the  magnitude  of  7  "5  inclusive  ;  this  is  rendered 
still  more  probable  by  the  following  table,  which  gives  the 
number  of  the  stars  III. a  and  lll.b  belonging  to  different 
magnitudes  : — 

Class  lll.a.  Class  1 11.^. 


Magnitude. 

Observed. 

Calcula 

10- 1  "9 

2 

I 

2-0-2*9 

...         5 

•       3 

3 -0-3 '9 

...         9         • 

II 

4  •0-4-9 

...       31 

.     28 

5 -0-5 '9 

...      88         . 

.     90 

6*o-6*9 

...    134 

•  380 

7 -0-7 -9 

...    151         . 

.     — 

8 -0-8 -9 

•••     37 

.     — 

9 -0-9 -9 

...     18 

.     — 

o 
o 
o 
o 

2 
II 

18 

14 
10 


24 


'  We  have  already  referred  generally  to  M.  Duner's  important  memoir 
published  in  the  Transactions  of  the  Swedish  Academy.  We  now  give  a 
translation  of  his  general  conclusions. — Ed. 


Jan.  5,  1888] 


NATURE 


^35 


In  the  columns  headed  *"'  Calculated  "  are  the  numbers  obtained 
by  multiplying  by  4/3  the  numbers  of  the  stars  in  the 
classes  of  different  magnitude  given  in  the  "  Wunder  des 
Ilimmels,"  by  Littrow,  5th  ed.  p.  577,  deduced  from  the  Durcli- 
inusterung  of  Argelander,  and  then  dividing  the  result  by  15 
and  750  respectively.  For  the  stars  I II. a  the  agreement  is 
almost  perfect  up  to  the  magnitude  of  5  "9  inclusive,  and  for 
III.^  up  to  6 '9;  up  to  7 "9  the  agreement  is  pretty  good,  whilst 
after  that  the  numbers  observed  are  more  and  more  in  arrear  of 
the  numbers  obtained  by  cxlculation.  We  may  conclude  there- 
fore that  our  knowledge  of  the  spectra  W.\.a  is  almo.t  complete 
up  to  the  magnitude  of  5*9  inclusive,  and  of  spectra  \W.b  up  to 
7 '5  inclusive.  The  researches  of  M.  Vogel  have  not  added  any 
new  star  \\\.a  with  a  magnitude  higher  than  5*0,  and  only  very 
few  between  5*0  and  60, 'and,  as  I  have  already  said,  no  new 
star  III./'  above  the  magnitude  7'5,  although  he  has  examined  all 
the  stars  up  to  this  limit  of  magnitude  between  -  7."  and  +  20' 
of  declination.  As  to  the  difference  existing  between  "  observa- 
tion" and  "calculation  "  in  the  caie  of  the  III. a  feebler  than 
6*o,  we  must  remember  that  as  yet  no  systematic  spectroscopic 
research  has  been  made  of  the  stars  between  -  2°  and  —  23", 
nor  between  +  20''  and  the  North  Pole.  Consequently  the  num- 
ber of  stars  III. a  between  6"o  and  7"5  will  probably  be  much 
increased  before  very  long,  and  will  approach  the  theoretic  num- 
ber. On  this  account  I  imagine  the  stars  of  III.^  are  hfty  times 
rarer  than  those  of  I II. a. 

The  list  of  these  rare  stars  is  probably  already  very  complete 
for  that  part  of  the  sky  visible  in  Europe,  for  the  nearer  the 
researches  of  an  astronomer  are  to  the  present  time  the  feebler 
are  the  stars  with  spectra  of  this  class  which  he  discovers 
(Secchi  67,  D'Arrest  7'o,  Vogel  7'l,  Daner  8'3,  Pickering 
9*l).  The  conclusions,  therefore,  which  we  can  draw  as  to  the 
manner  in  which  these  stars  are  distributed  over  the  heavens 
deserve  some  c  ')nftdence.  Such  a  research  is  very  interesting. 
We  have  already  seen  that  the  principal  bands  in  these  spectra 
owe  their  origin  to  the  presence  of  a  carbon  compound  in  the 
atmosphere  of  the  stars.  It  is  important  to  know  whether  there 
is  a  certain  direction  in  the  heavens  in  which  these  stars  are 
more  numerous  than  in  others,  especially  when  we  consider  that 
the  sam2  substance  is  present  in  comets,  which  come  from  inter- 
stellar space.  I  have  made  such  a  research,  and  have  come  to 
the  conclusion  that  the  objects  in  question  are  grouped  similarly 
to  stars  in  general,  being  closer  together  in  the  neighbourhood 
of  the  Milky  Way.  Setting  out  from  the  position  of  the  Pole 
of  the  Milky  Way  given  by  Heis,  R.A.  =  I2h.  42m.,  Decl. 
—  -f  26"  8',  for  the  equinox  igDO'o,  I  have  calculated  the 
quantities  P,  or  the  distances  of  the  stars  from  this  Pole,  given 
in  my  catalogue.  But  to  have  my  list  a  little  more  complete  for 
the  part  of  the  heavens  invisible  in  Europe,  I  have  calculated 
the  same  quantity  also  for  the  following  stars,  whose  spectra 
have  been  examined  by  M.  Pechiile  ("  Expedition  Danoise  pour 
rObservation  du  Passage  de  Venus,"  1882,  pp.  40-43). 


Star. 

Magnitude. 

R.A.  i933"o. 
h.    m. 

5  40     . 

DjcI.  igDDo. 

P. 

65  Schj. 

...      8 

..       -46  3'3      • 

.      6d-6 

103  Schj, 

...      8 

7  54      • 

••       -49  43      • 

.      80 -6 

125 

.-      7-5      • 

••       9  51      • 

-41     7      • 

.      78-6 

126 

...      8-5      . 

•  •       9  57      • 

••      -59  45      • 

.      87-0 

128 

...      7 

..      10    8      . 

..       -3^  33      • 

•      71-5 

130 

...      6-5      . 

10  3r 

-39     3      • 

72-6 

By  the  help  of  the  P's  found,    I   have  obtained  the  following 
table,  wliich  indicates  the    numbers  of  those  stars  which  are 
between  the  different  limits  of  distance  of  the  Poles,  boreal  or 
austral,  of  the  Milky  Way. 
Limits  of  Polar  Distance.  No.  of  -Stars.  Mean  Ma^initude. 


0-35  ..  3  •••  <^'(> 

35-60  ...  8  ...  6-6 

63-70  ...  8  ...  7-2 

70-80  ...  13  ...  7-4 

80-90  ...  29  ...  8-3 

It  is  at  once  seen  that  there  is  an  immense  accumulation 
between  80^  and  90°  of  polar  distance,  and  that  the  polar  regions 
are  totally  empty  up  to  19°  distance  from  the  Pole;  and  this 
relation  would  doubtless  become  still  more  striking  if  our  know- 
ledge of  these  stars  which  are  invisible  in  Europe  was  more 
complete  ;  for,  whilst  the  two  Polar  regions  are  for  the  most 
part  visible,  a  great  part  of  the  Milky  Way  is  always  below  our 
horizon.  Besides  the  number  of  stars  in  the  different  zones,  I 
have  also  calculated  their  m;an  mignitules,  and  it  will  be  seen 


that  for  them,  as  well  as  for  other  stars,  there  is  this  rule — that 
in  the  Milky  Way  the  faint  stars  are  much  closer  together  than 
in  the  neighbourhood  of  its  Poles. 

One  might  perhaps  suppose  that  there  is  a  certain  portion  of 
the  Milky  Way  where  the  stars  III.i^  are  more  frequent  than 
elsewhere.  In  order  to  decide  this  it  is  necessary  first  to  calcu- 
late for  each  star  the  quantity  which  has  the  same  relation  to  the 
Milky  Way  as  the  right  ascensions  have  to  the  equator  ;  and 
then  make  a  table,  on  the  distribution,  having  this  quantity  as 
its  foundation.  Such  a  research  cannot,  however,  lead  to  good 
results  as  long'as  our  acquaintance  with  the  stars  between  25"  of 
south  declination  and  the  South  Pole  is  almost  nil.  I  will  only 
say,  then,  that  there  is  a  great  number  of  these  stars  around 
R.A.  305'',  Decl.  +  40°,  but  almost  an  equal  number  around 
R.A.  85°,  Decl.  +  25°.  Now  both  these  points  are  precisely 
those  in  which,  in  the  northern  hemisphere,  the  stars  are  closest 
together.  It  seems  that  they  are  grouped  almost  according  to 
the  sane  laws  as  all  other  stars,  and  that,  properly  speaking, 
there  is  no  region  where  stars  of  the  Class  \\\.b  abound. 

A  similar  research  of  the  stars  \\\.a  could  not  give  exact 
results,  as  our  acquaintance  with  these  stars  below  magnitude 
6 'O  is  still  too  imperfect.  However,  the  researches  which  M. 
Pechiile  undertook,  with  the  aid  of  the  UranoinctHa  Argentina, 
on  the  distribution  of  the  coloured  stars,  render  it  probable  that 
these  also  are  closest  together  in  the  neighbourhool  of  the  Milky 
Way. 

I  have  already  said  that  in  all  probability  the  spectra  of  fixed 
stars  must  be  subject  to  variations  on  account  of  the  diminution 
in  the  temperature  of  stars  which  must  take  place  sooner  or  later, 
and  I  observed  that  it  is  precisely  on  tha  supposition  of  such  a 
diminution  that  the  classes  of  M.  Vogel  are  based.  There  are, 
however,  eminent  savants  who  have  combated  the  correctness  of 
this  opinion,  and  who  have  formed  ingenious  hypotheses  to  prove 
the  possibility  that  the  sun,  and  consequently  the  stars  also,  may 
regain  the  heat  which  emanates  from  them.  But  it  would  be  too 
much  to  say  that  these  theories  have  victoriously  withstood 
caticism,  and  the  spectroscopic  examination  of  the  stars  has 
given  results  fatal  to  them.  Although  the  spectra  of  stars 
may  be  divided  into  very  distinct  classes,  according  to  their 
characteristics,  there  are,  on  the  other  hand,  numerous  spectra 
of  all  possible  grades  between  any  two  classes,  so  that  it  may  be 
difficult,  if  not  impossible,  to  decide  to  what  class  a  star  belongs, 
and  that  even  when  it  is  sufficiently  brilliant  for  all  the  details  of 
its  spectra  to  be  distinctly  recognized.  Besides,  we  see  that  the 
more  the  star  resembles  the  first  class,  the  brighter  is  its  violet 
part,  whereas  the  violet  part  becomes  fainter  and  fainter  or  even 
invisible  when  the  spectrum  resembles  that  of  a  Orionis  (III. a). 
On  that  account  it  seems  certain  that  the  spectra  owe  their 
characteristics  to  the  greater  or  less  degree  of  incandes:ence  of 
the  stars,  so  that  the  temperature  of  stars  of  Class  III.  must  be 
relatively  low. 

Doubtless  these  changes  do  take  place  in  the  stellar  spectra, 
although  we  must  suppose  that,  as  regards  the  spectra  of  the 
first  two  classes,  they  are  almost  exclusively  secular,  and  operate 
so  slowly  that  millions  of  years  may  pass  before  they  become 
apparent. 

It  is  different  with  stars  of  Class  III.  These  being  probably 
already  much  cooler  than  the  others,  we  may  reasonably  expect 
that  the  changes  will  take  place  more  rapidly,  and  perhaps  also 
that  from  time  to  time  temporary  augmentations  in  activity  will 
take  place  on  their  surface,  followed  by  periodic  changes  in  their 
spectra. 

In  the  course  of  his  observations  Secchi  arrived  at  the  con- 
clusion that  the  colours  and  spectra  of  these  stars  were  subject 
to  remarkable  changes  in  a  very  short  period.  My  observations 
led  to  the  same  conclusion,  if  observations  from  the  years  i865 
to  1874  may  be  trusted  without  reserve.  For,  without  counting 
the  few  and  unimportant  discrepancies  which  I  disco  vered 
between  the  aspect  of  several  spectra  and  the  descriptions  given 
by  earlier  observers,  I  found  that  there  are  forty  stars  whi  ch  have 
been  comprised  in  Class  III.,  among  which  there  is  scarcely  one 
which  now  belongs  to  it,  and  there  are  some  which  ought  to  have 
been  transported  from  one  sub -class  into  the  other.  But,  for 
reasons  which  I  will  here  explain,  such  a  conclusion  would 
certainly  be  too  hasty. 

On  the  one  hand,  Secchi's  observations  date  from  a  time  which 
we  may  call  the  infancy  of  spectrum  analysis,  and  the  instru- 
ments employed  were  very  imperfect  ;  on  the  other  hand,  he  was 
the  first  to  introduce  a  classification  of  the  stars  according  to 


2^6 


NATURE 


iJan.  5, 


their  spectra.  Therefore  it  is  easily  understood  that  Secchi  was 
only  able  to  seize  gradually  the  characteristics  of  the  different 
types  (thus  it  was  not  until  late  that  he  introduced  the  fourth 
type) ;  and  again,  he  once  changed  the  order  so  that  the  second 
and  third  types  changed  numbers.  On  account  of  this  change, 
some  errors  may  have  found  their  way  into  his  publications. 
Some  even  may  be  explained  without  having  recourse  to  this 
supposition.  All  the  spectra  which  I  have  excluded  from  the 
third  class  are,  according  to  Secchi,  indeterminable,  except  two, 
which  I  consider  intermediate  between  W.a  and  \\\.a,  and  the 
two  stars  R.A.  =  9h.  i8m.,  Decl.  =  -  21°  50',  andR.A.  =  iSh. 
14m.  40s.,  Decl.  =  +25°-2,  which  Secchi  found  independently  of 
Schjellerup's  catalogue  of  red  stars.  It  might  happen  then  that 
with  a  clear  sky  faint  bands  might  be  perceived,  ^  and  as  to  the 
last  we  may  well  suspect  that  there  is  some  gross  error  in  their 
positions,  judging  from  what  Secchi  says  as  to  the  manner  in 
which  he  discovered  the  first  of  them,^  Such  a  supposition 
would  not  be  admissible  for  the  star  249  Schj.  This  .star  is 
situated,  according  to  Herschel,  amongst  a  mass  of  stars,  and 
Secchi  says  of  it,  "  Stella  di  9^  rossa  con  rigoni  nello  spettro  4° 
tipo  certamente  "  ("  Memoria  Seconda,"  p.  52).  I  have  often 
examined  the  cluster  in  which  this  star  was  situated,  but  with- 
out perceiving  it.  We  may  therefore  believe  that  it  is  variable 
of  long  period. 

I  still  have  to  refer  to  the  stars  which  ought  to  have  been 
transferred  from  one  sub-c\z.%%  to  another.  In  the  spectra  of 
these,  variability  seems  to  me  quite  inadmissible,  the  two  sub- 
classes being,  as  I  shall  try  to  prove  soon,  o-ord  nated,  and 
not  successive  phases  of  development  which  every  star  must 
undergo.  I  suppose  that  at  the  commencement  of  his  observa- 
tions of  spectra  of  the  third  class,  when  Secchi  met  with  stars 
111.(5  not  very  well  marked,  he  did  not  think  them  different 
fronri  1 1 1,  a,  and  he  did  not  perceive  the  difference  until  after 
having  seen  several  spectra  of  this  class  as  pronounced  as  tho'.e 
of  78  and  152  Schj.  On  the  spectrum  of  the  la^er  he  still  says 
in  1867,  "In  conclusione  e  tipo  di  a  Ercole  ma  con  zone  vere 
mancanti"  ("  Catalogo,"  pp.  14,  15). 

However,  neither  Secchi  nor  even  D'Arrest  examined  a 
sufficient  number  of  spectra  Ill.i^  to  thoroughly  understand  their 
characteristics.  Both  appear  to  admit  that  there  are  funda- 
mental differences  between  spectra  belon'jing  to  it.  For  instance, 
Secchi  says  of  the  spectrum  of  star  136  Schj.,  "  E  difficile  dire  se 
sia  proprio  del  4°tipo"("  Memoria  Seconda,"  p.  42),  and  of  the 
stars  discovered  by  Wolf  and  Rayet  with  bright  lines  which  are 
not  hydrogen,  3  and  dark  bands  in  the  spectra,  and  there- 
fore certainly  belonging#ito  Class  W.h,  he  says,  "Accenneremo 
qui  soltanto  che  esse  appartengono  al  4°  tipo,  ma  sono  di  quelle 
a  zone  molto  irregolari "  ("Sugli  spettri  prismatici  delle  stelle 
fisse,"  p.  194),  and  "Ad  ogni  modo  som  di  4°  tipo,  e  le  righe 
paiono  del  carbonio  diretto"  {I.e.  p.  216).  D'Arrest  speaks  as 
follows  of  the  star  74  Schj.,  "Irregular  spectrum  of  type  IV." 
{A.M.  2016);  and  of  the  star  \^K,b  Schj.,  "Very  remarkable 
spectrum,  &c."  {A.N.  2009).  By  collecting  all  my  observations  on 
all  the  spectra  of  this  class  it  is  seen  that  not  one  of  them  really 
departs  from  what  may  be  called  the  normal  spectrum.  Doubt- 
less there  are  in  different  stars  notable  differences  in  the  darkness 
of  the  flutings,  and  in  the  brilliancy  of  the  intervals,  but  all  this 
does  not  prevent  all  the  spectra  being  formed  according  to  one 
constant  type,  as  happens  with  Class  Ill.a.  Besides,  Secchi  seems 
to  th'.n'c  that  the  aspect  of  a  spectrum  may  change  completely 
with  the  kind  of  spectroscope  used.  He  says  of  the  spectrum  of  132 
Schj.,  "  Tipo  4°  ben  deciso,  .  .  .  oculare  cilindrico.  Coll'oculare 
piccolo  sferico  tutto  questo  era  sparito  e  si  credette  tipo  3°." 
When  instruments  are  used  which  give  so  vague  an  appearance 
to  an  exceptionally  well-defined  spectrum,  prc'^enting  essential 
characteristics,  it  is  easy  to  commit  serious  errors  in  judging 
of  the  spectra  examined.  Therefore  I  cannot  see  that  the  dis° 
crepancies  which  exist  between  Secchi's  observations  and  mine 
are  a  sign  of  variations  in  the  stellar  spectra,  although  no 
doubt  it  is  prudent  to  occasionally  examine  the  stars  conce.-ning 
which  these  discrepancies  have  arisen. 

It  is  quite  a  different  case  with  the  discrepancies  that  I  have 
found  between  my  observations  and  thise  of  D'Arrest,  who  was 

M.  Vogel  has  as  a  matter  of  fact  seen  feeble  bands  in  the  spectrum  of 
one  of  them  -  60  Schj.,  while  in  the  case  of  ten  stars  his  observations  c  )n- 
firm  my  own  ;  in  the  spectrum  of  another  star  M.  Pechiil^  has  not  seen  any 
bands. 

^  '  Trovata  cercando  124  Schj."  The  position  of  this  star  differs  by  27m. 
and  40'  from  that  of  the  star  in  question. 

^  In  his  observations  at  Vienna  with  the  great  refractor,  M.  Vogel  was  able 
to  see  the  lines  of  hydrogen  either  C  or  F  in  the  spectra  of  a'l  three  stars  ; 
they  were,  however,  feeble  in  compwson  with  the  other  bright  lines. 


supplied  with  excellent  instruments,  and  was  a  most  careful  and 
skilful  observer.  It  is  necessary  therefore  to  examine  more 
closely  into  the  cases  in  which  differences  exist.  There  are  three, 
two  of  which  concern  the  stars  24034  LI.  =  Weisse  XII."  793 
and  DM.  -l-  60°  1461  =  A.  Oe.  13681.  D'Arrest  says  that  the 
latter  has  "a  bright  well-marked  spectrum  of  type  III."  {A.N. 
2044)  and  the  former  "a  clear,  fluked  spectrum,  the  flutings 
being  very  distinct  although  pretty  fine,  III."  {A.N.  2009).  I 
found  both  nearly  white,  and  their  spectra  II. a,  or  continuous. 
It  is  true  that  I  examined  the  positions  of  these  stars  by  the  help 
of  the  two  catalogues  in  which  they  are,  and  obtained  the  same 
positions,  nevertheless  one  is  tempted  to  believe  that  D'Arrest 
made  some  error  in  the  identification  of  these  stars,  especially  as 
he  did  not  observe  them  several  times.  This  supposition  is  quite 
inadmissible,  however,  for  the  star  DM",  -t-  36°  2772  =  LI.  3  '500, 
for  here  D'Arrest  expressly  says  {A.N.  2X)9),  "8'3  mag.  with 
beautiful  column-like  spectrum.  It  is  one  of  the  stars  accom- 
panying the  great  Hercules  nebula."  I  have  calculated  the 
position  of  this  star  with  the  help  of  the  catalogue  and  of  LI., 
and  besides  that  I  examined  all  the  stars  in  the  neighbourhood 
of  the  great  cluster  in  Hercules  without  finding  one  of  Class  III. a. 
The  star  DM.  +  36"  2772  is  of  orange  colour,  but  its  spectrum 
is  continuous,  or  at  most  II. a  very  poorly  developed.  As  rej;ards 
this  spectrum  I  shall  not  even  attempt  to  explain  the  difference 
between  what  I  have  seen,  and  the  description  given  by 
D'Arrest.  A  variability  of  the  spectrum  seems  really  probable, 
and  the  star  is  certainly  deserving  of  much  attention.  Besides 
this  star  there  are  others  whose  spectra  I  found  very  feebly 
developed,  whilst  D'Arrest  says  that  they  are  beautiful  or  even 
superb.  This  also  may  be  regarded  as  a  sign  of  variability,  and 
a  fact  which  also  supports  this  supposition  is  that  D'Arrest  has 
made  his  observations  under  atmospheric  conditions  generally 
regarded  as  similar  to  those  found  at  Lund  with  a  spectroscope 
of  similar  construction  to  one  of  ours,  and  a  telescope  very  little 
larger  than  the  one  which  I  used.  But  it  is  remarkable  that 
whereas  I  have  often  found  expressions  used  by  D'Arrest  to  de- 
scribe spectra  stronger  than  I  should  have  used,  the  contrary  is 
of  very  rare  occurrence.  It  is  p  )ssible,  therefore,  that  the 
differences  are  only  apparent,  and  that  either  D' Arrest's  observa- 
tions were  mide  under  exceptionally  favourable  circumstances, 
or  mine  under  very  unfavourable  ones.  The  latter  supposition 
is  scarcely  probable  however,  for  when  such  differences  have 
occurred  I  repeated  the  observation  several  times  ;  and  besides, 
Vogel's  observations  on  the  stars  between  -  2°  and  +  20°  ajree 
almost  without  exception  with  mine.  It  appears,  moreover, 
that  very  often  D'Arrest  only  mide  one  observation  of  the  same 
star  ;  and,  without  depreciating  his  researches,  it  seems  to  me 
more  probable  that  there  are  small  and  rare  inexactitudes  in  the 
observations,  than  that  such  great  changes  hive  taken  place  in  the 
stars  themselves  in  the  short  period  of  ten  years. 

My  researches  already  contradict  the  hypothesis  that  important 
changes  in  the  stellar  spectra  take  place  so  rapidly.  My  observa- 
tions embrace  a  period  of  six  years,  and  a  much  larger  number 
of  objects  than  either  D'Arrest  or  Secchi  examined.  But  there 
is  no  spectrum  in  which  my  latest  observations  have  differed 
sensibly  from  my  first  ones.  It  is  true  that  my  first  observations 
on  the  spectrum  of  R  Crateris  are  in  direct  opposition  to  the 
last,  the  former  making  its  spectrum  lll./>  and  the  latter  III. a. 
But  that  is  in  no  way  a  sign  of  variation  in  the  spectrum.  When 
the  bands  in  the  spectrum  III. a  of  a  faint  star  are  exceedingly 
broad  in  the  green-blue,  it  is  easy  to  fall  into  the  error  of  regard- 
ing it  as  III.i^.  At  the  time  of  M.  Vogel's  first  observation  he 
also  believed  that  the  spectra  of  stars  DM.  +  14°  2525  and 
DM.  +  17°  3940  were  Ill.b,  and  it  is  true  that  these  two  spectra, 
especially  the  last,  are  strikingly  like  the  spectra  Ill./^in  spectro- 
scopes of  small  dispersion. 

It  was  in  order  to  escape  such  errors  that  I  determined  in  the 
spectra  of  most  of  the  faint  stars  of  Class  III.*^  the  approximate 
wave-lengths  of  their  principal  flutings  ;  the  wave-length  of 
band  6,  and  also  that  of  band  10,  being  a  sure  mark  that  the 
spectra  belonged  to  this  section  of  Class  III.  This  deceptive 
appearance  generally  disappears  when  the  star  is  examined 
with  spectroscopes  of  considerable  dispersion.  I  am  therefore 
at  present  of  opinion  that,  excluding  the  new  stars  and  perhaps 
17  Argils,  which  seems  to  belong  to  the  same  category,  we 
have  no  reason  to  believe  that  great  and  rapid  changes  take 
place  in  the  stellar  spectra,  although  it  must  be  confessed  that  the 
observations  of  certain  stars,  especially  DM.  +  36°  2772,  are  such 
as  to  render  such  changes  very  probable. 
(To  be  continued.) 


Jan.  5,  1888] 


NATURE 


237 


THE  ART  OF  COMPUTATION  FOR  THE 

PURPOSFS  OF  SCIENCE. 

I. 

HTHE  art  of  computation  as  distinguished  from  the  science  of 
arithmetic  it  so  generally  neglected  in  our  ordinary 
courses  of  education,  that  most  men  and  almost  all  women 
,  feel  the  greatest  difficulty  and  repugnance  in  dealing  with 
figures.  The  causes  of  and  remedies  for  this  deficiency  are 
discussed  at  some  length  in  a  paper  "On  teaching  Arith- 
metic "  (Journal  of  Education,  May  1885),  and  the  following 
remarks  refer  specially  to  the  requirements  of  students  of 
science. 

I  must  apologize  for  the  use  in  proving  my  case  of  some 
names  of  high  and  well-deserved  repute.  Instances  are  given, 
as  far  as  possible,  which  have  been  publicly  acknowledged  or 
corrected,  with  the  full  admission  that  this  paper  is  itself  a  house 
of  glass,  and  that  any  stone  may  impinge  even  upon  Newton, 
since,  as  Lord  Lytton  tells  us,  "that  great  master  of  calculations 
the  most  abstruse  could  not  accurately  cast  up  a  sum  in 
addition.  Nothing  brought  him  to  an  end  of  his  majestic 
tether  like  dot  and  carry  one." 

In  1867  Mr.  Stone  pointed  out  two  numerical  errors  in 
Leverrier's  determination  of  the  solar  parallax. 

Prof.  J.  D.  Van  der  Plats  writes  {Chemical  Neivs,  July  30, 
1886)  : — "  The  verification  to  which  I  have  submitted  the  calcula- 
tions of  M.  Stas  seems  superfluous  seeing  that  it  deals  with  the 
experiments  of  a  savant  who  has  never  had  an  equal  in 
exactitude.  It  may  perhaps  astonish  some  as  much  as  it  did  me 
to  find  that  the  original  memoirs  contain  numerous  arithmetical 
mistakes,  as  well  as  typographical  errors,  of  which  some  are 
considerable. " 

Mr.  J.  Y.  Buchanan  writes  (Nature,  vol.  xxxv.  p.  76) : — 
"  There  is  a  statement  in  Nature  for  November  il  that  the 
weight  of  the  column  of  water  between  20  fathoms  and  70 
fathoms  from  the  surface  under  the  westerly  equatorial  current 
is  only  88  per  cent,  of  the  weight  of  the  same  column  under 
the  easterly  counter  equatorial  current.  I  regret  that  a  serious 
arithmetical  error  occurs  in  the  calculation  on  which  this  state- 
ment was  founded.  There  is  no  such  considerable  difference  of 
weight  in  the  two  columns  of  water."  Suppose  at  the  equator 
the  Guinea  current  flows  froai  west  to  east  at  the  rate  of  40  knots 
in  twenty-four  hours,  and  that  the  equatorial  current  flows  at 
30  knots  in  twenty-four  hours  in  the  opposite  direction.  The 
opposite  directions  of  the  two  currents  cause  an  additive  and 
subtractive  difference  in  the  tangential  velocity  of  the  particles 
of  water  due  to  the  rotation  of  the  earth,  and  therefore  an 
apparent  difference  in  the  acceleration  due  to  gravity  of  about 
1/46000,  or  a  pressure  equal  to  that  of  an  additional  1/13  of  an 
inch  of  water  on  the  column  of  50  fathoms. 

On  page  84  of  i\Y&  first  edition  (the  second  has  been  corrected) 
of  Prof  Huxley's  admirable  "Physiography,"  we  read  : — "  The 
weight  of  air  on  a  square  mile  is  about  590, 129,971,200  lbs.,  and 
the  carbonic  acid  which  it  contains  weighs  not  less  than 
3,081,870,106  lbs.,  or  about  1,375,834  tons.  The  weight  of 
the  carbon  in  this  carbonic  acid  is  371,475  tons." 

This  short  statement  contains  excellent  examples  of  many 
of  the  common  arithmetical  slips  and  errors. 

The  first  number  is  ten  times  too  great,  and  not  quite 
accurately    calculated    from    the    data    (5280)^  x  144  x  1473 

=  59,133,431,808.     Multiplying  this  by -5^^^,  the  proportion 

by  mass  of  carbonic  acid  in  the  air,  we  obtain  31,464,899  ;  here, 
besides  a  slip,  the  number  is  again  multiplied  by  ten.  The 
pounds  are  reduced  to  tons  correctly,  but  there  is  a  slip  in  the 
reduction  to  carbon,  since 


1.375,834  X  3  _ 


3.'5,-27- 


Many  more  instances  might  easily  be  brought  forward,  but 
the  above  will  suffice  to  prove  that  even  the  highest  attainments 
in  science  are  too  often  accompanied  by  inaccuracy  in  arithmetic. 
The  causes  of  this  defect  have  been  frequently  discussed,  but, 
with  the  exception  of  De  Morgan  and  his  pupils,  little  advance 
in  the  methods  of  teaching  arithmetic  seems  to  have  been  made 
since  the  days  of  Recorde  and  Cocker. 

The  teachers  of  arithmetic  in  our  public  and  higher-grade 
schools  are  usually  good   mathematicians  who,    in    their   own 


school-days,  have  been  hurried  through  the  hated  subject  to 
higher  work,  and  have  had  no  subsequent  experience  in  the 
practical  computation  required  in  the  laboratory,  worksho]),  or 
counting-house.  When  compelled  to  work  out  a  sum  for  them- 
selves, the  theory  is  supplied  by  their  knowledge  of  algebra,  and 
the  practical  work  by  a  table  of  logarithms.  When  brought 
face  to  face  with  the  fact  that  their  pupils  dislike  and  are  very 
weak  in  arithmetic,  they  fall  back  upon  the  stock  argument  that 
they  teach  arithmetic  as  a  training  for  the  mind,  and  not  as  a 
useful  art.  In  too  many  cases  it  is  to  be  feared  that  they  are 
not  teaching  arithmetic  at  all. 

The  great  majority  of  the  text-books  in  common  use  seem  to 
be  defective  from  the  point  of  view  of  a  student  of  science  in 
at  least  three  points. 

More  than  half  the  rules  and  examples  are  devoted  to  money, 
and  arithmetic  is  treated  as  though  it  applied  only  to  pounds, 
shillings,  and  pence. 

Secondly,  few  give  any  suggestion  as  to  the  use  of  tables  in 
lightening  arithmetical  work,  and  a  boy  leaves  school  disgusted 
with  long  rows  of  figures  in  which  he  sees  no  utility,  and 
without  any  idea  to  how  large  an  extent  the  work  could  be 
lightened. 

Lastly,  the  various  methods  of  dealing  with  approximate 
quantities  are  omitted,  and  a  painstaking  boy  calculates  vast 
collections  of  figures  of  which  only  two  or  three  have  any 
meaning. 

Thus  Prof.  Huxley  gives  the  tenth  figure,  6,  in  the  expression 
for  the  amount  of  carbonic  acid  on  a  square  mile,  ignoring  the 
facts  that  while  the  percentage  of  carbonic  acid  varies  in  the  first 
figure,  its  density  is  not  known  to  the  fourth,  and  the  pressure  of 
the  air  varies  in  the  second. 

It  is  convenient  to  bear  in  mind  the  following  simple  rules,  due, 
I  believe,  to  De  Morgan.  If  two  numbers,  a  and  b,  each  true 
to  the  first  decimal  place,  are  multiplied  together,  the  result  is 

true  to only  :  a  second  true  decimal  in  each  number  makes 

20  ^ 

the  result  ten  times  more  correct,  and  so  on.  In  dividing  ajb 
where   each   is   true   to   the   first   place,  the  result   is  true   to 

r^ •  and  so  on.   Any  attempt  at  greater  accuracy  in  calculation 

than  is  indicated  by  these  results  should  be  avoided,  since  it  only 
precludes  the  use  of  cheap  and  handy  tables,  tires  the  calculator 
making  him  more  liable  to  error  in  the  important  figures,  and 
tends  to  give  quite  a  false  idea  of  the  accuracy  of  the  experiments 
on  which  the  calculations  are  based  ;  unless,  indeed,  we  take 
seriously  the  answer  of  Dulong  when  asked  why  he  always  gave 
his  results  to  eight  figures,  "  I  don't  see  why  I  should  erase  the 
last  decimals,  for,  if  the  first  figures  are  wrong,  possibly  the  last 
are  correct." 

The  natural  tendency  of  the  human  mind,  even  if  controlled 
by  mathematical  and  scientific  training,  is  to  exalt  the  accuracy 
of  one's  own  experiments.  This  is  well  shewn  by  Prof.  Ramsay 
and  Dr.  Young  in  discussing  the  vapour-tension  of  liquid  benzene 
(Proc.  Phys.  Soc,  January  1887) : — 

"  A  curve  was  drawn  to  represent  these  (experimental)  re- 
lations, and  from  it  three  points  were  chosen,  0°  C.  26*54  mai., 
40°  C.  i8o'2  mm.,  and  80°  C.  755  mm.  The  constants  for  the 
formula  log/=  a  +  M  are  a  —  472452,  log  b{-)  =  0"5l85950, 
log  o  =  I '996847125."  Nine  places  of  decimals  are  given  with 
apparent  confidence,  when  (i)  only  three  of  the  whole  num'ier 
of  experiments  were  made  even  in  duplicate  ;  (2)  the  last 
pressure,  755,  was  obtained  not  by  experiment  at  all,  but  by  extra- 
polation from  a  freehand  curve,  the  highest  experiment  being 
79° -6  and  743*1  mm.  ;  (3)  a  difference  of  ^°  at  low  temperatures 
produced  no  change  in  pressure  which  was  appreciable  by  the 
apparatus  used.  With  the  above-mentioned  constants  the 
author's  calculate  for  60°  C.  388 "51  ram.  Using  their  data  and 
a  table  of  four-figure  logarithms,  I  find  a  —  47239,  b  =  -yi, 
log  a  =  i  "99684,  which  gives  for  60°  C.  390  mm.  Regnault  gives 
390T  mm. 

Under  suitable  conditions  the  observation  of  one  quantity  can 
be  made  with  great  exactness.  It  is  possible  that  Sir  George 
Airy  estimated  i/ioo  of  a  second  in  a  day,  or  1/8,640,000  ;  that 
a  balance  can  be  made  to  estimate  1/1,000,000  of  the  load, 
though  those  of  Stas  were  only  accurate  to  1/825,000  ;  and  that 
Sir  J.  Whitworth  measured  the  1/1,000,000  of  an  inch.  These 
cases,  however,  are  exceptional,  and  give  quite  a  wrong  idea 
of  the  accuracy  attainable  in  ordinary  observations  and  ex- 
periments, when  several  operations,  each  liable  to  error,  have  to 


238 


NATURE 


\yan.  5, 


be  performed,  and  various  corrections  introduced  by  calculation 
from  extraneous  data. 

The  more  closely  we  examine  work  of  the  highest  accuracy  the 
more  convinced  we  become  of  the  truth  of  the  statement  of 
Thomson  and  Tait  (p.  333)  :  "  Few  measurements  of  any  kind 
are  correct  to  more  than  six  significant  figures."  Thus  the 
number  of  inches  in  a  metre  was  found  by  Capt.  Kater  in  182 1 
to  be  39'37079,  and  by  General  Clarke  in  1866  to  be  39-37043  ; 
this  fundamental  datum  therefore  is  affected  by  a  doubt  of  nearly 
1/100,000,  which  of  course  affects  all  results  dependent  on  it. 
In  1856  Miller  found  that  a  cubic  foot  of  water  at  62°  F.  weighs 
62-321  lbs.  From  Kater's  result  a  cubic  foot  contains  28-3153 
cubic  decimetres,  and  the  mean  of  a  large  number  of  experi- 
n^ents,  especially  those  ofLefevre  Gineau,  and  Kupfifer,  make 
the  cubic  decimetre  of  water  at  4°  C.  to  weigh  a  kilo 
=  2-20462125  lbs.  according  to  Miller.  Hence  a  cubic  foot  of 
water  at  4°  C.  weighs  62-4255  lbs.  ;  and  taking  the  expansion 
from  Fdrster  (1870),  which  is  nearly  identical  with  that  used  by 
Miller,  the  weight  at  i6°-67  C.  becomes  62-355  lbs.  ;  or  about 
1/2000  heavier  than  Miller's  determination.  But  these  are  the 
results  obtained  by  picked  men  under  all  conditions  to  insure 
the  greatest  accuracy.  Results  which  agree  to  two  or  three  in  the 
fourth  figure  show  an  exceptionally  good  chemist,  while  a 
physicist  must  be  careful  indeed  to  obtain  numbers  concordant 
to  the  fifth  figure. 

_  For  practical  purposes,  then,  calculations  in  science  may  be 
divided  into  two  classes.  The  great  majority  of  experiments  in 
physics,  chemistry,  biology,  geodesy,  mensuration,  navigation, 
and  crystallography  are  not  to  be  trusted  beyond  the  fourth  or 
fifth  figure.  Hence  a  similar  accuracy  in  calculation  is  all  which 
IS  required.  Some  few  experiments  in  each  branch— such  as  the 
work  of  Kater,  Regnault,  Stas,  some  observations  in  astronomy, 
and  a  few  reductions  in  sociology — may  require  six  or  eight 
figures  to  be  accurately  dealt  with. 

In  pure  mathematics,  of  course,  numerical  results  may  be  pushed 
to  any  extent  compatible  with  even  the  partial  sanity  of  the 
calculator. 

The  following  suggestions  are  intended  to  assist  such  of  my 
readers  as  are  not  mathematicians  in  working  sums  of  each  class 
by  the  aid  of  tables. 

Mechanical  aids,  such  as  slide  rules,  arithmometers,  and  the 
like,  are  purposely  omitted,  since  they  would  require  a  paper  to 
themselves.  The  objection  to  the  larger  and  more  powerful  is 
that  they  are  expensive  and  complicated  ;  that  they  require  a  good 
deal  of  practice  on  the  part  of  the  operator  to  give  accurate 
results  ;  and  that  they  are  not  readily  adapted  to  work  shorter 
sums  than  they  are  intended  for.  On  the  other  hand,  a  slide 
rule  IS  an  almost  indispensable  servant  when  once  one  has  learnt 
the  use  of  it  for  dealing  rapidly  with  comparatively  small 
numbers  ;  for  large  numbers  it  becomes  very  cumbrous. 

The  two  cardinal  points  in  approximate  working  are  the  short 
methods  of  multiplying  and  dividing  decimals  suggested  by 
Oughtred  in  1631,  and  strengthening  the  last  figure  retained 
when  the  first  omitted  is  above  4.  For  greater  accuracy  it  is 
well  to  mark  all  strengthened  figures,  and  to  allow  for  an  excess 
or  defect  of  them ;  as  a  further  security  one  figure  beyond  what  ■ 
is  required  may  be  calculated.  | 

Tables  of  the  multiples  from  i  to  9  of  numbers  which  fre- 
quently occur  are  of  great  assistance  especially  when  the 
calculator  is  tired.  They  are  easily  made  by  repeated  additions 
or  by  the  use  of  the  convenient  "automatic  multiplier"  of 
Mr.  Sawyer,  which  is  merely  a  modern  adaptation  of  Napier's 
bones. 

J  ''i!^^-^."^  "^^  °f  complements  and  reciprocals  saves  a  good 
deal  of  time  in  subtraction  and  division. 

Tables  for  general  use  and  special  purposes  are  very  numerous. 
For  our  present  purpose  they  fall  naturally  into  three  classes. 
l<ive  kinds  of  tables  should  be  in  the  hands  of  all  calculators  — 

1.  Multiplication  tables  such  as  those  of  Crelle,  by  the  aid  of 
which  three  figures  may  be  dealt  with  at  once  with  greater 
certainty  than  is  usually  the  case  with  one.  Tables  of  primes 
and  factors  are  not  much  required  for  scientific  purposes. 

2.  Reciprocals,  which  reduce  division  to  the  short  multiplica- 
tion of  decimals,  render  the  addition  of  fractions  easy,  and 
assist  chemists  in  percentage  compositions. 

3.  Squares,  cubes,  square  roots,  cube  roots.  For  most  purposes 
m  chemistry  and  physics  a  small  table  up  to  100  is  sufficient, 
especially  when  aided  by  the  following  convenient  method  of 
approximating  to  a  cube  root.  If  a?  be  the  nearest  exact  cube  to 
the  given  number  N,  N=  (a  ±  bf  =  a^±  ^aH  +  ^aP  ±  P    or  if 


d  be  small,  ±  l>  =  ?L-|'.  Thus  to  find  ^/Jg,  a  ^  3,  d  =  ^^7 
=  '037>  ■'■   y/^8  =  3  "037  instead  of  3-0366. 

De  Morgan's  edition  of  Barlow  is  very  convenient,  and  suffices 
for  all  ordinary  purposes. 

4-  Common  logarithms  to  four  and  five  figures.  Four-figure 
tables  ^  are  perhaps  most  convenient  on  one  face  of  a  card. 
Hoiiel's  reprint  of  Lalande,  with  some  changes  and  many  valu- 
able additions,  is  cheap  and  most  convenient  in  form ;  it  quite 
suffices  for  all  common  work. 

For  the  reasons  already  mentioned  seven-figure  tables  are 
unnecessarily  cumbrous  and  expensive  for  ordinary  work.  They 
should  never  be  put  into  the  hands  of  beginners,  as  is  now  the 
usual  practice.  Experience  shows  that  boys  learn  the  method  of 
using  and  appreciate  the  value  of  logarithms  far  more  readily 
than  IS  generally  supposed. 

_  5.  Gauss's  sum  and  difference  logarithms  are  valuable  in  deal- 
ing with  certain  trigonometrical  formulae  and  with  questions  of 
expansion. 

In  the  second  class  may  be  placed  those  general  tables  which 
are  less  commonly  required,  5uch  as  : — 

1.  Powers  of  2  and  other  numbers.  Cohn  tells  us  that 
some  varieties  of  Bacterium  multiply  by  fission  every  hour,  hence 
by  the  end  of  a  day  one  individual  would  increase  to  2^^  = 
16,777,216.  We  may  therefore  cease  to  wonder  at  the  rapid 
spread  of  some  forms  of  infection. 

2.  Factorials  are  required  in  solving  permutations  and  com- 
binations, and  therefore  in  all  questions  relating  to  probabilities. 
Hatchett  recommended  that  a  systematic  examination  of  all 
possible  alloys  of  all  the  metals  should  be  undertaken.  He 
forgot  to  remind  anyone  who  attempted  to  follow  his  advice  that 
if  only  one  proportion  of  each  of  thirty  common  metals  were 
considered,  the  number  of  binary  alloys  would  be  435,  of  ternary 
4060,  and  of  quaternary  27,405.  If  four  multiples  of  the  atomic 
weight  of  each  of  the  thirty  metals  be  taken,  the  binary  com- 
pounds are  5655,  ternary  247,660,  quaternary  1,013,985. 

3.  The  sums  of  arithmetical  series  are  so  readily  obtained 
that  they  are  rarely  tabulated. 

4.  Geometrical  series  are  required  in  certain  social  questions, 
such  as  the  increase  of  population  and  the  output  of  coal. 
Tables  of  the  sums  of  these  series  when  the  ratio  is  nearly  one 
are  common,  and  of  considerable  use  in  some  scientific  problems. 

5.  For  some  purposes  it  is  convenient  to  express  numbers  in 
a  scale  different  from  the  common  decimal  one. 

Thus  (Clerk  Maxwell,  "  Elementary  Electricity,"  p.  180)  a 
series  of  resistance  coils  are  best  arranged  according  to  the 
powers  of  2,  since  the  smallest  number  of  separate  coils  is 
required,  and  they  are  most  readily  tested.  The  same  is  true  for 
a  set  of  weights.  Thus  to  express  from  i  to  100  gm.  9  weight 
are  ordinarily  provided ;  9  weights  in  the  scale  of  2  will  expre> 
up  to  511  gm.,  while  7  weights  suffice  for  100  gm.,  since  100  in 
the  scale  of  2  is  expressed  by  iiooioo. 

6.  The  curious  theory  of  trees  due  to  Profs.  Cayley  and 
Sylvester  (B.  A.  Report,  1875)  seems  to  promise  the  possibility 
of  computing  the  number  of  possible  compounds  formed  by 
elements  of  given  valency.  Thus  x  atoms  of  tetravalent  carbon 
will  combine  with  monad  hydrogen  to  form  N  compounds. 


9 
10 


N 
18 
42 
96 
229 
549 


X  N. 

11   1346 

12  3326 

13  8329 


If  of  the  first  thirteen  paraffin  hydrocarbons  alone  there  are 
13)952  possible  forms  each  with  its  own  series  of  derivatives, 
there  seems  little  chance  of  chemists  having  nothing  to  do  for 
some  time  to  come. 

7.  Natural  logarithms  are  required  by  some  formulae,  and  ari 
at  times  more  convenient  than  common  logarithms. 

According  to  Haughton  ("Animal  Mechanics,"  p.  282),  th.. 
study  of  the  action  of  certain  muscles  requires  the  use  of  natural 
logarithms. 

The  ratio  of  the  mean  absolute  pressure  P  to  the  initial 
absolute  pressure  /  in  a  steam-cylinder  at   the  given   rate   of 

expansion  r  is  expressed  by  -  r=  "  "*"  "^^-    ^^  ^ . 
p  r 

Weldon  supposed  (B.  A.   Report,   1881),  that  some  power  of 


Jan.  5,  1888] 


NATURE 


239 


he  atomic  weight  (X)  of  each  of  the  first  fourteen  elements  in 
VIendelejeff's  classification  is  a  simple  multiple  of  the  same 
)0wer  of  the  atomic  weight  of  lithium.     Or  X'    =  mf 

/.  X  =  1-9459  +  ^ 

It  is  easy  to  see  that  since  x  may  be  any  whole  number,  and  m 
iny  small  whole  number,  X  may  have  any  value  whatever  within 
;he  limits  of  errors  of  experiment  ;  or  the  relation  is  fanciful 
rather  than  real. 

2       ("    -    - 
8.   Values  of  the   definite  integral    -j-    \   ^     "^  ^^x  represent- 

Vir  J  o 
ing  tlie  probability  curve,  upon  which  the  whole  science  of  the 
adjustment    and    comparison    of    quantitative    experiments    is 
based. 

Tables  of  the  third  class,  which  ofter  special  facilities  to  those 
sngaged  in  any  one  kind  of  work,  are  very  numerous. 

The  physicist  has  Rankine's  "Rules  and  Tables,"  Everett's 
"Units  and  Physical  Constants,"  Hospitallier's  "  Formulaire  de 
I'Electricien,'   and  many  others. 

The  chemist  has  Biedermann's  "Kemiker  Kalendar,"  the 
"  Agenda  du  Chemiste,"  and  various  tables  for  analysis,  such  as 
those  at  the  end  of  Fresenius. 

The  needs  of  both  physicists  and  chemists  are  more  or  less 
supplied  by  Landolt  and  Bernstein's  "  Tabellen,"  the  "  Annuaire 
du  Bureau  des  Longitudes,"  and  my  own  more  portable 
"Numerical  Tables  and  Constants  in  Elementary  Science." 

I  know  of  no  such  numerical  compendium  dealing  with  biology, 
but  have  often  felt  the  want  of  one. 

To    sum    up    briefly   the    points   which    have    been    so    far 

touched  upon.     The  great  majority  of  numerical  problems  which 

eally  occur  in  scientific  work   only  require  four  figures  to  be 

ccurately  dealt   with  ;   hence  a  little  ingenuity  will  generally 

ring  them  within  the  range  of  small  tables.     They  should  be 

orked  out  neatly,  and  as  briefly  as  is  consistent  with  the  requisite 

ccuracy  ;  all  useless  figures  should  be  rigorously  excluded  as 

nisleading.     Some  few  problems  require  the  use  of  more  power- 

ul  tables.      Six-figure  tables,  such   as  those  in   Weale's  series, 

nd  Collins's  Logarithms  for  practical  men,  are  little  used,  and 

;  venient  in  practice.     Seven-figure  tables,  such  as  Callet, 

>n,  Babbage,  Chambers,  Schron,  Bremiker,  Bruhns,  Sang, 

,._.  ..a  as  numbers  go  are  nearly  equally  good  ;  they  differ  chiefly 

n  the  trigonometrical  ratios,  which  lie  outside  our  present  subject, 

md  also  considerably  in  price.  Sydney  Lupton. 

( To  be  continued. ) 


SOCIETIES  AND  ACADEMIES. 

London. 

Zoological  Society,  Decem'ier  20,  1887. — Prof.  W.  H. 
•"lower,  F. R.S.,  Pre-ident,  in  the  chair. — The  Secretary  read  a 
eport  on  the  additions  that  had  been  made  to  the  Society's 
lenagerio  during  the  month  of  November  1887. — Mr.  Sclater 
ead  a  letter  from  Dr.  H.  Burmeister  containing  a  description  of 
supposed  new  Humming-bird  from  Tucuman.  Mr.  Sclater 
roposed  to  call  this  species,  of  which  the  type  was  in  the 
fational  Museum  of  Buenos  Ayres,  C/uEtocercus  burmeisteri. — 
'he  Secretary  exhibited,  on  behalf  of  Major  Yerbury,  a  pair  of 
cms  of  the  Oorial  {Ovis  cycloceros),  which  formerly  belonged 
the  Royal  Artillery  Mess  at  Fort  Attock,  and  were  stated  to 
ave  been  originally  obtained  in  the  Chitta  Pahar  Range,  a  few 
liles  south  of  Attock.  Tliese  horns  were  apparently  of  the 
)rm  lately  described  by  Mr.  A.  O.  Hume  as  Ovis  blanfordi. — 
.n  extract  was  read  from  a  letter  received  from  Mr.  H.  M. 
hipson,  of  the  Bombay  Natural  History  Society,  offering  some 
ing  Snakes  for  the  Society's  collection. — Mr.  F.  E.  Beddard 
ad  a  paper  on  Hooker's  Sea-lion,  Otaria  (Arctocephalus) 
ookeri,  based  upon  the  specimens  of  this  species  recently 
ceived  by  the  Society,  one  of  which  had  lately  died.  Tne 
thor  called  attention  to  the  external  features,  visceral  anatomy, 
,d  osteology  of  this  Sea-lion,  in  comparison  with  the  corre- 
onding  characters  of  other  species  of  the  group. — Mr.  G.  A. 
ulenger  read  the  description  of  a  new  genus  of  Lizards  of  the 
pily  Teiidte,  founded  on  a  specimen  presented  to  the  British 
useum  by  Mr.  H.  N.  Ridley,  who  had  obtained  it  in  the 
[rest  of  Iguarasse,  Pernambuco.  The  author  proposed  to  name 
~  izarcl  Sifuolepis  ridleyi. — A  communication  from  the  Rev. 


H.  S.  Gorham,  entitled  a  "  Revision  of  the  Japanese  species  of 
EndoiJiychidcE,"  was  read.  In  this  paper  three  new  genera  and 
thirteen  new  species  were  characterized  and  described.  Addi- 
tional observations  were  made  upon  the  species  previously 
known  to  inhabit  Japan.  The  new  species  were  based  on 
specimens  obtained  by  Mr.  George  Lewis  during  his  last 
journey  to  the  islands  in  1880-81. — Mr.  G.  A.  Boulenger  gave 
an  account  of  the  fishes  obtained  by  Surgeon-Major  A.  S.  G. 
Jayakar  at  Muscat,  east  coast  of  Arabia,  which  had  been  pre- 
sented by  him  to  the  British  Museum.  The  collection  con- 
tained specimens  of  172  species,  many  of  which  were  unrepre- 
sented in  the  national  collection,  and  fifteen  of  which  were 
apparently  new  to  science. — Mr.  H.  Druce  read  a  paper 
containing  descriptions  of  some  new  species  of  Lepidoptera 
Heterocera,  from  Tropical  Africa. 

Edinburgh, 

Royal  Society,  December  19,  1887. — Sir  Douglas 
Maclagan,  Vice-President,  in  the  chair. — Mr.  John  Murray 
communicated  a  paper  on  the  height  and  volume  of  the  dry  land, 
and  the  depth  and  volume  of  the  ocean.  The  mean  height  of 
the  land  above  sea-level  is  2250  feet.  Only  2  per  cent,  of  the 
ocean  is  included  inside  a  depth  of  500  fathoms.  Seventy-seven 
per  cent,  lies  between  depths  of  500  and  3000  fathoms.  Ttie 
mean  depth  of  the  ocean  is  12,480  feet.  If  all  the  land  were 
utilized  to  fill  up  hollows  on  the  earth's  surface,  the  sea  would 
cover  it  to  a  uniform  depth  of  2  miles. — Sir  W.  Turner  read  a 
paper  on  the  pineal  gland  in  the  walrus.  The  gland  is  excessively 
developed  backwards,  being  visible  from  above  without  any  dis- 
section of  the  brain.  The  author  contrasted  it  with  the  same 
gland  in  the  lizard  which  is  prolonged  forwards  and  ends  in  the 
pineal  eye.  The  cerebral  lobes  in  the  lizard  are  small,  while 
those  of  all  mammals  are  large.  He  suggested  that  the  develop- 
ment of  the  lobes  may  have  carried  the  gland  backwards,  and 
caused  atrophy  of  the  prolongation  ending  in  the  pineal  eye.  The 
atrophy,  on  the  other  hand,  might  have  been  caused  by  ossification 
extending  over  the  aperture  where  the  eye  is  situated. — Dr. 
Byron  Bramwell  described  a  method  which  he  and  Dr.  Milne 
Murray  had  used  successfully  to  record  the  exact  time-relations 
of  cardiac  sounds  and  murmurs. — Prof.  Crum  Brown  sub- 
mitted a  paper  by  Prof.  Letts  on  the  benzyl  phosphines. 
—  Dr.  H.  R.  Mill  read  a  criticism  by  Dr.  Guppy  on  the 
theory  of  subsidence  as  explaining  the  origin  of  coral  reefs. — 
Prof.  Tait  discussed  the  compressibility  of  water  and  of  different 
solutions  of  common  salt.  Perkins  proved  sixty  years  ago  that 
water  becomes  less  compressible  as  the  pressure  is  raised.  At 
high  pressures  then  it  may  be  roughly  assimilated  to  an  extremely 
compressed  gas.  If  the  gas  be  regarded  as  consisting  of  hard 
spheres,  the  curve  representing  the  relation  between  pressure  and 
volume  is  approximately  hyperbolic.  The  first  asymptote  of  the 
hyperbola  indicates  what  must  be  added  to  the  external  pressure 
to  give  the  whole  pressure  to  which  the  liquid  is  subject.  The 
second  indicates  the  ultimate  volume  to  which  it  could  be  reduced 
by  an  infinite  pressure.  Applying  this  to  the  experimental 
results  given  to  the  Society  in  July  last,  the  author  showed  that 
the  pressure  in  water  under  ordinary  circumstances  is  somewhere 
about  thirty-two  tons'  weight  per  square  inch  ;  and  the  ultimate 
loss  of  volume  under  infinite  pressure  is  about  25  per  cent. 

Paris. 

Academy  of  Sciences,  December  26,  1887. — M.  Janssen, 
President,  in  the  chair. — Annual  address,  by  M.  Janssen. 
After  brief  reference  to  the  losses  sustained  by  the  Academy 
during  the  year  by  the  deaths  of  the  illustrious  savants  MM. 
Paul  Bert,  Gasselin,  Boussingault,  and  Vulpian,  the  President 
passed  on  to  speak  of  recent  scientific  progress  in  France. 
Special  mention  was  made  of  the  magnificent  Observatory  just 
completed  at  Nice,  for  which  the  munificent  founder,  M. 
Bischoffsheim,  receives  the  Arago  Medal,  now  for  the  first  time 
awarded.  Allusion  was  also  made  to  the  isolation  of  fluorine 
effected  by  M.  Moissan,  and  to  the  development  of  stellar 
photography,  declared  to  be  an  "invention  d'origine  toute 
fran9aise."  Nevertheless  reference  is  made  to  the  preliminary 
work  of  the  English  and  American  labourers  in  this  field, 
Rutherfurd,  Warren  de  la  Rue,  Bond,  and  Gould. — Tne 
Presidential  allocution  was  followed  by  the  announcement  of 
the  prizes  for  the  year  1887,  by  the  Secretary,  M.  J.  Bertrand, 
who  also  read  a  paper  on  the  life  and  work  of  the  distinguished 
engineer,   Stanislas    Charles   H.     Laurent    Dupuy    de    Lome. 


240 


NA  TURE 


\yan.  5,  1888 


Subjoined  are  the  names  of  the  successful  competitors  for  the 
annual  prizes.  Geometry  :  Prix  Francceur,  M.  Emile  Barbier  ; 
Prix  Poncelet,  M.  Appell.  Mechanics :  Extraordinary  Prize  of 
6000  francs,  divided  between  MM.  Heraud,  Dubois,  Rouvier, 
and  Moisson  ;  Prix  Montyon,  M.  Paul  Vieille ;  Prix  Plumey, 
M.  Guyou.  Astronomy  :  Prix  Lalande,  M.  Duner  ;  Prix  Valz, 
M.  Perigaud  ;  Prix  Janssen,  the  late  M.  Kirchhoff.  Physics : 
Grand  Prize  for  the  Mathematical  Sciences,  M,  Willotte  ;  Prix 
La  Caze,  MM.  Paul  and  Prosper  Henry.  Statistics:  Prix 
Montyon,  MM.  Victor  Turquan,  de  Saint-Julien,  and  G. 
Bienayme.  Chemistiy :  Prix  Jecker,  MM.  Arnaud  and  A. 
Haller ;  Prix  La  Caze,  M.  Moissan.  Geology :  Prix  Delesse, 
M.  Gorceix.  Botany :  Prix  Barbier,  MM.  Edouard  Heckel 
and  M.  Schlagdenhauffen  ;  Prix  Desmazieres,  MM.  Ardissone 
and  Dangeard ;  Prix  Montagne,  M.  Boudier.  Anatomy  and 
Zoology :  Grand  Prize  for  the  Physical  Sciences,  M.  Raphael 
Dubois.  Medicine  and  Surgery:  Prix  Montyon,  Drs.  Henri 
Leloir  and  E.  Motais,  and  MM.  Nocard  and  Mollereau  ;  Prix 
Breant,  MM.  Galtier,  Chantemesse,  and  Widal  ;  Prix  Godard, 
M.  Azarie  Brodeur  ;  Prix  Chaussier,  Dr.  Jaccoud  ;  Prix  Serres, 
M.  Alexandre  Kowalevsky  ;  Prix  Lallemand,  MM.  Pitres,  Vail- 
lard,  and  Van  Lair.  Physiology :  Prix  Montyon,  M.  Ch.  E.  Quin- 
quaud  ;  Prix  L.  La  Caze,  Dr.  Ch.  Rouget.  Physical  Geography  : 
Prix  Gay,  MM.  Alfred  Angot  and  Wilhelm  Zenker.  General 
Prizes :  the  Arago  Medal,  M.  Raphael  Louis  Bischoffsheim  ; 
Prix  Montyon  (Unhealthy  Industries),  Dr.  Edouard  Heckel; 
Prix  Tremont,  M.  Jules  Morin  ;  Prix  Gegner,  M.  Valson ;  Prix 
Petit  d'Ormoy  (Mathematical  Sciences),  the  late  M.  Laguerre  ; 
Prix  Petit  d'Ormoy  (Natural  Sciences),  M.  Balbiani ;  Prix 
Laplace,  M.  Jules  E.  R,  de  Billy. — Honourable  mention  was 
made  of  the  two  English  physiologists,  Drs.  Augustus  D.  Waller 
and  E.  Waymouth-Reid,  for  their  memoir  on  the  excised  heart 
of  mammals,  published  in  the  Comptes  rendus  for  May  31, 
1887.  This  study  contains  a  number  of  new  and  highly  interest- 
ing facts  regarding  the  electric  phenomena  of  the  heart,  the 
duration  of  the  regular  action  of  its  four  parts  after  excision,  and 
the  slowness  acquired  vinder  certain  circumstances  by  the  wave 
of  cardiac  contraction. — Amongst  the  more  important  prizes 
offered  for  competition  under  the  usual  conditions  during  the 
years  1888  and  1889  are  the  following : — Geometry  :  Grand 
Prize  for  the  Mathematical  Sciences,  to  complete  the  theory  of 
algebraic  functions  of  two  independent  variables  ;  Prix  Bordin, 
to  complete  in  some  important  particular  the  theory  of  the  move- 
ment of  a  solid  body.  Mechanics  :  Prix  Fourneyron,  theoretic 
and  practical  essay  on  the  progress  of  aerial  navigation  since 
1880.  Astronomy :  Prix  Damoiseau,  to  complete  the  theory  of 
the  irregularities  occurring  at  long  intervals  in  the  motion  of  the 
moon  caused  by  the  planets.  Physics:  Grand  Prize  for  the 
Mathematical  Sciences,  to  complete  in  some  important  particular 
the  theory  of  the  application  of  electricity  to  the  transmission  of 
labour.  Agriculture:  Prix  Vaillant  for  the  best  work  on  the 
diseases  of  cereals.  Anatomy  and  Zoology :  Grand  Prize  for  the 
Physical  Sciences,  a  complete  study  of  the  embryology  and 
evolution  of  any  animal,  at  the  option  of  the  candidate  ;  Prix 
Bordin,  comparative  study  of  the  auditory  apparatus  in  warm- 
blooded Vertebrates,  mammals  and  birds.  Physical  Geography : 
Prix  Gay,  to  prepare  monthly  charts  of  the  surface  currents  in 
the  Atlantic,  with  a  survey  of  the  movement  of  drift  ice  in  the 
waters  about  the  Arctic  regions  ;  Prix  Gay,  to  determine  by  a 
comparative  study  of  their  respective  faunas  and  floras  the 
relations  formerly  existing  between  the  Polynesian  Islands  and 
the  neighbouring  lands. 

Astronomical  Society,  November  9,  1887. — M.  Flam- 
marion.  President,  in  the  chair. — The  President  read  a  paper  on 
some  observations  on  the  relative  colours  of  stars,  which  he  had 
made  in  1875  by  means  of  a  specially  constructed  sextant  in 
which  the  images  of  two  stars  wide  apart  could  be  brought  into 
the  same  field. —  M.  Detaille  read  a  paper  on  the  photography 
of  the  solar  spectrum  with  a  direct-vision  spectroscope,  and 
stated  that  this  subject  was  quite  within  the  reach  of  amateurs, 
on  a  small  scale  of  course,  and  presented  many  interesting 
points.  He  showed  some  negatives  and  positives  obtained  with 
a  small  instrument. 

December  14. — M.  Flammarion,  President,  in  the  chair. — 
The  meeting  was  opened  by  the  distribution  of  the  calendar 
reform  prizes,  amounting,  in  medals  and  money,  to  the  value  of 
5000  francs  (an  anonymous  gift)  : — 1st  prize,  1500  francs,  M. 
Gaston  Armelin,  of  Paris;  2nd  prize,  1200  francs,  M.  Hanin, 
of  Auxferre  ;  3rd  prize,  1000  francs,    M.    Francis  de  Roucy,   of 


Compiegne  ;  4th  prize,  800  francs,  M.  Barnout,  of  Paris  ;  5th 
prize,  250  francs,  M.  Remy  Thouvenin,  of  Nancy  ;  6th  prize, 
250  francs,  M.  Blot,  of  Clermont  (Oise).— M.  Flammarion  read 
a  paper  on  some  probable  common  proper  movements  of  certain 
stars.  In  looking  over  the  catalogue  of  the  Paris  Observatory, 
he  had  observed  that  several  stars  in  Taurus — namely,  Lalande 
8178,  8209,  8237,  8256,  8297,  8404— had  no  motion  in  declina- 
tion, and  had  all  about  the  same  proper  motion  in  R.A.  The 
same  remarks  apply  to  d^  and  0^  Tauri.  The  two  stars  7  Leporis 
and  Lalande  1093 1  seem  also  to  be  connected. — Colonel  Lausse- 
dat.  Director  of  the  Conservatoire  des  Arts  et  Metiers,  exhibited  a 
curious  binocular  glass,  constructed  for  Louis  XIV.  by  Father 
Seraphin  in  1681.  This  huge  instrument  comprises  three  rect- 
angular bows  which  slide  into  each  other.  The  length  of  the 
whole  affair  is  no  less  than  3  metres  10  centimetres. — M.  Neu- 
ville,  in  a  letter,  notices  that  the  minimum  of  Algol  seems  longer 
than  6  minutes  as  given  by  several  authors.  He  adopts  18 
minutes,  and  gives  a  probable  size  of  Algol's  dark  companion. 
— MM.  Paul  Henry  and  Detaille  remark  that  Webb  gives 
18  minutes  as  the  duration  of  Algol's  minimum. 


BOOKS,  PAMPHLETS,  and  SERIALS  RECEIVED. 

Birds  of  Wiltshire  :  Rev.  A.  C.  Smith  (Porter). — Arithmetic  Papers  : 
S.  J.  D.  Shaw  (Deighton,  Bell,  and  Co.). — Major  Lawrence,  F.L. S.,  3  vols.  : 
Hon.  E.  Lawless  (Murray). — Catalogue  of  the  Fossil  Mammalia  in  the 
British  Museum  ;  Natural  History,  Part  v.  :  R.  Lydekker  (London). — 
Prodromus  of  the  Zoology  of  Victoria,  Decades  1-14  :  F.  McCoy  (Mel- 
bourne).— The  Theory  and  Use  of  a  Physical  Balance :  J.  Walker 
(Clarendon  Press). — Journal  of  Anatomy  and  Physiology,  January  (Williams 
and  Norgate). 


CONTENTS.  PAGE 

Electricity  for  Public  Schools  and  Colleges   ....    217 

Indo-China  and  the  Indian  Archipelago    ......    218 

The    Zoological    Results   of    the    Challenger    Expe- 
dition       219 

Saline  Deposits 220 

Our  Book  Shelf  :— 

Stone:   " Tenerife,  and  its  Six  Satellites" 221 

Lansdell :   "  Through  Central  Asia  " 221 

Letters  to  the  Editor  : — 

The  Star  of  Bethlehem.— John  T.  Nicolson  ;  Prof. 

Wm.  Pengelly,  F.R.S.  ;  E.  Coatham    ....    221 
On  some  Apparent  Contradictions  at  the  Foundations 

of  Knowledge. — S.  Tolver  Preston 221 

Christmas  Island. — Dr.  H.  B.  Guppy 222 

A  Mechanical  Cause  of  the  Lamination  of  Sandstone 
not   hitherto  noticed.     {Illustrated). — T.  Mellard 

Reade 222 

Total  Solar  Eclipse  of  October  29,  878.— Rev.  C.  S. 

Taylor 223 

Height  of  T'ai  Shan.— Prof.  Silvanus   P.  Thomp- 
son   224 

The  Shadow  of  a  Mist. — W.  Fawcett 224 

The  Ffynnon  Beuno  and   Cae   Gwyn  Caves. ^ — A.  J. 

Jukes  Browne      224 

The  Old  Mouth  and  the   New  :  a  Study  in  Verte- 
brate Morphology.     {Illustrated).     By  Dr.  J.  Beard    224 
Timber,  and  some  of  its  Diseases.   III.    {Illustrated.) 

By  Prof.  H.   Marshall  Ward 22* 

Professor  Alexander  Dickson 229 

Notes 23c 

Our  Astronomical  Column  : — 

Brazilian  Results  from  the  Transit  of  Venus 23. 

The  Asteroids 23 

Olbers'  Comet 23 

The  Clinton  Catalogue 23 

Occultation  of  Stars  by  Planets 23 

Astronomical     Phenomena     for      the    Week     1888 

January  8-14 23 

Duner  on  Stars  with  Spectra  of  Class  III.      I.  .    .    .    23 
The  Art  of  Computation  for  the  Purposes  of  Science. 

I.     By  Sydney  Lupton 2, 

Societies  and  Academies 2. 

Books,  Pamphlets,  and  Serials  Received 2. 


NA  TURE 


241 


THURSDAY,  JANUARY    12,    iJ 


PHYSICAL  CHEMISTRY. 

Lehrbuch  ckr  Allgemeinen  Chcmie.  Von  Dr.  Willi. 
Ostwald.  In  Zwei  Banden.  (Leipzig  :  W.  Engelmann, 
1885-87.) 

THE  larger  text-books  of  chemistry  have  generally 
been  devoted  to  describing  and  roughly  classifying 
the  facts  which  form  the  foundation  of  the  science. 
These  facts  are  so  numerous,  varied,  and  important,  that 
when  one  has  spent  years  in  arranging,  cataloguing,  and 
reciting  them,  his  chemical  vision  has  generally  acquired 
a  fixed  downward  direction,  and  he  is  almost  unable  to 
lift  his  eyes  from  the  foundation-stones  to  look  on  the 
buildings  which  other  workers  have  been  raising. 

But,  whether  such  a  one  will  look  at  the  building  or 
not,  the  building  is  surely  rising.  The  walls  already  are 
massive ;  there  are  adornments  of  conceits,  perhaps 
sometimes  too  quaint ;  windows  there  are  in  plenty  to 
admit  light  and  air :  the  house  will  never  oe  completed, 
because  nature  is  inexhaustible,  but  even  now  there  is 
promise  of  a  goodly  building.  Nor  shall  the  House 
Beautiful  want  fit  interpreters,  among  whom  an  honour- 
able place  will  be  held  by  the  Professor  of  Physical 
Chemistry  at  Leipzig. 

It  has  generally  been  admitted  that  chemistry  is  a 
branch  of  physical  science.  Individual  chemists  by  their 
researches  have  shown  that  the  relation  of  chemistry  to 
physics  is  that  of  the  less  to  the  greater ;  but  most  of  the 
attempts  to  set  forth  this  relationship  in  its  entirety  have 
failed.  To  treat  chemistry  as  a  branch  of  physics 
requires  one  who  is  almost  as  much  a  physicist  as  a 
chemist,  but  one  whose  physical  training  has  waited  on 
his  chemical  judgment.  Some  books  on  physical 
chemistry  have  been  books  on  descriptive  chemistry,  with 
scraps  of  physical  facts  thrown  in  ;  others  have  been 
books  on  physics  to  which  the  use  of  chemical  illustra- 
tions has  given  an  ill-defined  but  not  unpleasing  chemical 
tone.  Only  of  late  years  has  it  become  possible  to  set 
forth  the  connections  between  the  parent  science  and  the 
greatest  of  her  children  in  a  fairly  satisfactory  manner  ; 
and  this  possibility  has  come  through  the  recent  advances 
made  in  the  study  of  these  connections. 

It  was  therefore  fitting  that  one  of  the  men  whose 
work  forms  no  small  part  of  all  of  first-class  importance 
that  has  been  done  in  recent  years  in  the  sphere  of  physical 
chemistry  should  be  the  man  to  write  the  first  good  text- 
book on  general  chemistry  considered  as  a  branch  of 
physics.  Ostwald  prefers  to  call  his  work  "  Lehrbuch  der 
Allgemeinen,"  rather  than  "physikalischen,"  "  Chemie." 
The  title  very  happily  expresses  the  scope  and  character 
of  the  book  ;  but  the  treatment  of  chemical  principles 
in  a  general  manner  is  made  possible  in  this  treatise 
by  regarding  chemistry  as  a  special  branch  of  physics. 
The  book  is  intended  for  fairly  advanced  students  who 
have  already  a  tolerable  knowledge  both  of  descriptive 
chemistry  and  of  physical  principles.  Some  of  the  higher 
forms  of  mathematical  analysis  are  freely  employed. 
The  form  in  which  the  author  has  chosen  to  present  his 
treatise  is  the  historical-critical ;  he  justly  remarks  that 
Vol.  XXXVII. —  No.  950. 


the  historical  coincides  with  the  logical  development  of 
many  chemical  ideas. 

As  the  object  of  the  work  is  to  enable  the  student  to 
gain  a  firm  hold  of  the  principles  of  chemistry,  and  more 
especially  to  teach  him  that  very  many  of  these  principles 
have  been  reached  by  the  application  of  physical  methods 
to  chemical  phenomena,  much  care  is  taken  to  distinguish 
generalized  statements  of  facts  from  hypotheses,  to 
indicate  the  need  of  using  hypotheses,  to  trace  the 
merging  of  several  hypotheses  into  one  general  theory, 
and  to  avoid  mere  speculation. 

Th^  first  volume  is  devoted  to  stochiometry.  The  laws 
of  chemical  combination,  which  form  the  basis  of  the 
whole  science,  are  laid  down  in  a  singularly  clear  and 
succinct  manner ;  the  atomic  theory  of  Dalton  is 
sketched  ;  the  chemical  methods  by  which  combining 
weights  are  determined  are  classified,  and  this  is  followed 
by  a  short  critical  exposition  of  the  results  obtained  for 
each  element.  The  second,  third,  and  fourth  books  of  the 
first  volume  are  devoted  to  accounts  of  the  properties  of 
gaseous,  liquid,  and  solid  bodies,  respectively.  The 
relations  between  the  volume,  temperature,  and  pressure 
of  gases,  are  considered  ;  this  leads  to  a  statement  of 
the  law  of  Gay-Lussac,  and  a  consideration  of  Avogadro's 
hypothesis  ;  then  follows  an  account  of  the  kinetic  theory 
of  gases,  the  specific  heats,  and  the  optical  properties  of 
gases.  The  book  on  liquid  bodies  is  devoted  to  a  con- 
sideration of  (i)  the  general  properties  of  liquids  ;  (2) 
the  relations  between  the  liquid  and  gaseous  states  ;  (3)  the 
volume-relations  of  liquids  ;  (4)  solution ;  (5)  optical 
properties  of  liquids  ;  (6)  capillarity,  diffusion,  and 
osmosis  ;  (7)  electrical  conductivities  and  electrolysis  of 
liquids  ;  (8)  specific  heats  of  liquids.  The  book  on  the 
stochiometry  of  solid  bodies  includes  the  consideration 
of  crystallography,  especially  in  its  chemical  bearings,  the 
optical  and  electrical  properties  of  solids,  &c.  The  first 
volume  concludes  with  a  sketch  of  the  relations  between- 
atomic  weights  and  chemical  properties,  a  general  account 
of  the  molecular  theory  as  applied  in  chemistry,  and  a 
short  but  very  suggestive  chapter  on  theories  of  chemical 
composition  and  constitution. 

The  second  volume  deals  with  the  vast  and  widely- 
ramifying  subject  of  chemical  affinity.  The  first  part,  on 
chemical  energy,  comprises  what  is  really  a  comprehen- 
sive treatise  on  thermo-chemistry,  and  also  full  critical 
accounts  of  photo-chemistry  and  electro-chemistry.  The 
second  part,  dealing  more  distinctly  with  chemical 
affinity,  begins  with  an  historical  sketch  ;  this  is  followed 
by  about  150  pages  on  chemical  dynamics  ;  and  the  whole 
concludes  with  an  account  of  the  various  methods  whereby 
measurements  of  the  relative  affinities  of  various  bodies, 
especially  acids  and  bases,  have  been  obtained  ;  the  last 
chapter  deals  with  the  relations  between  the  nature,  com- 
position, and  constitution  of  bodies,  and  the  values  of 
their  affinity-constants. 

Ostwald  has  undertaken  and  brought  to  a  conclusion  a 
task  of  great  difficulty.  His  book  has  removed  the  sting 
froni  the  taunt  so  often  cast  at  the  chemist  that  chemistry 
is  the  pursuit  of  the  mere  fact-finder  and  formula-monger. 
If  Ostwald's  "  Lehrbuch"  had  only  made  evident  the  fact 
that  chemistry  is  one  of  the  exact  sciences  it  would  have 
done  much  ;  but  it  has  done  more  than  this ;  it  is  a 
repository   of   the  general   and   abstract   truths   of    the 

M 


242 


NA  TURE 


S^Jan.  12,  I 


science  arranged  in  logical  sequence  ;  it  is  a  guide  to 
the  student  and  the  investigator  (for  in  chemistry  these 
two  are  one) ;  and  it  is  full  of  suggestions  alike  to  the 
physicist  and  the  chemist. 

That  part  of  the  second  volume  which  deals  with  the 
recent  developments  of  the  study  of  chemical  affinity  will 
probably  be  found  by  many  to  be  the  most  interesting 
portion  of  the  book.  Everyone  knows  how  unsatisfactory 
is  the  treatment  of  this  subject  in  the  standard  text-books. 
Who  has  not  been  perplexed  as  he  attempted  to  gain 
clear  conceptions  about  affinity  ?  Affinity  is  one  of  those 
terms  that  escape  one  as  soon  as  one  tries  to  grasp  it  :  it 
is  protean,  and  each  form  which  it  assumes  scarcely  lasts 
long  enough  for  one  to  distinguish  it  from  the  others. 

The  work  of  Guldberg  and  Waage,  published  twenty 
years  ago,  did  not  bring  forth  much  fruit  for  some  time  ; 
perhaps  because  these  naturalists  were  obliged  to  go  back 
sixty  years  to  find  in  the  writings  of  BerthoUet  the  germs 
of  a  really  exact  treatment  of  the  subject  of  affinity.  But 
within  recent  years  great  advances  have  been  made — and 
made,  speaking  broadly,  on  the  lines  laid  down  by  the 
Norwegian  professors.  No  one  has  had  more  part  in 
these  advances  than  Ostwald  ;  to  him  we  are  indebted 
for  several  new  experimental  methods  for  finding  values 
for  the  affinity-constants  of  acids  and  bases — indeed  the 
proof  of  the  existence  of  a  measurable  affinity-constant 
for  each  acid  and  base  is,  for  the  most  part,  due  to  him. 
It  is  one  thing  to  know  that  memoirs  are  to  be  found  in 
the  journals  wherein  the  subject  of  affini:y  is  gradually 
advanced  stage  by  stage,  but  it  is  quite  another  t'ling  to 
have  a  clear,  logically  arranged,  and  condensed  account 
of  these  memoirs  in  a  text-book.  It  is  one  thing  to  bs 
told  that  the  modern  development  of  affinity  is  the  out- 
come of  the  views  which  BerthoUet  published,  in  1803,  in 
the  Essai  de  Statiqiie  Chimique ;  it  is  quite  another  thing 
to  have  this  historical  and  logical  development  set  before 
one  in  detail  in  a  masterly  manner. 

The  subject  of  affinity  is  largely  involved  in  the  wider 
conception  of  chemical  equilibrium.  Ostwald  gives  a 
short  account  of  the  attempts  which  have  been  made  to 
formulate  the  laws  of  chemical  equilibrium.  He  then 
narrows  the  meaning  of  affinity,  at  least  as  applied  to 
acids  and  bases  ;  by  doing  this  it  becomes  possible  to 
extricate  the  notion  of  affinity  from  the  mass  of  more  or 
less  connected  facts  which  had  threatened  to  swamp  it, 
and  to  give  it  a  quantitative  meaning. 

The  affinity-constants  of  acids  and  bases  are  numbers 
which  tell  how  much  of  a  definite  chemical  action  those 
bodies  are  capable  of  performing  under  definite  conditions. 
The  formulas  of  the  same  acids  and  bases  exhibit  the 
composition  of  definite  masses  of  these  compounds, 
which  masses  are  in  many  respects  chemically  compar- 
able. The  goal  of  chemistry  has  always  been  to  trace 
definite  connections  between  the  composition  of  bodies 
and  their  chemical  properties  ;  but  of  all  the  chemical 
properties  of  a  body  the  most  important  is  its  affinity- 
constant,  inasmuch  as  we  are  apparently  justified  in 
saying  that  this  value  quantitatively  conditions  all  the 
chemical  reactions  in  which  the  body  takes  part  :  hence 
the  importance  of  accurately  tracing  the  connections  be- 
tween the  changes  of  compositions  of  bodies,  as  repre- 
sented by  their  formulae,  and  the  variations  in  the  values 
of  the  affinity-constants  of  these  bodies,  must  be  very 


great.  Th  ^  data  are  as  yet  insu.fficient  to  allow  of  more 
than  a  beginning  in  this  direction  :  such  a  beginning  is 
made  in  the  last  chapter  of  Ostwald's  book. 

To  everyone  who  hopes  to  make  chemistry  the  business 
of  his  life  I  would  say— get  Ostwald's  "  Lehrbuch,"  read 
it,  study  it,  become  acquainted  w'.th  it,  use  it ;  for  by  doing 
this  you  must  become  more  fitted  for  doing  your  work  as 
a  chemist.  M.  M.  Patti^on  Muir. 


BRITISH  AND  IRISH  SALMOMDJ:. 
British  an.i  Irish   Salnwnidcr.      By  Francis    Day.      12 
Plates.      (London     and    Edinburgh  :     Williams    and 
Norgate,  1887.) 

IN  this  work  Mr.  Day  expounds  in  greater  detail  the 
views  he  made  known  in  his  "  British  and  Irish 
Fishes,"  concerning  the  characters  and  affinities  of  the 
several  British  forms  belonging  to  the  genus  Salmo.  He 
also  includes  in  the  volume  the  consideration  of  many 
other  important  problems  connected  with  the  natural 
history  of  British  Salm^noids.  On  p.  9  he  gives  a 
synopsis  of  the  British  genera  of  the  family,  viz.  Salmo, 
ThymiUus,  Coregonus,  Osmerus,  and  Argentina,  and 
then  proceeds  to  con5ider  Genus  i,  Salm-),  while  at  p.  278, 
is  the  heading  Genus  2,  ThymxUus,  Cuvier.  For  the 
designation  of  species  and  varieties  English  names  are 
generally  used,  but  with  each  is  given  a  copious  list  of 
the  Latin  Linnean  synonyms,  and  references  to  the 
works  where  they  occur.  The  species  considered  are  as 
follows  :  the  Salm:)n,  Trout,  British  Char,  American 
Char  or  Sabiu  fontinalis,  and  the  Grayling.  Thus 
Coregonus,  Oimerus,  and  Argentina  are  left  outside  the 
scope  of  the  book,  notwithstanding  its  comprehensive 
title. 

Very  elaborate  descriptions,  including  enumerations 
and  dimensions,  are  detailed  for  each  separate  form^  but 
concise  diagn  )suc  analysis  is  entirely  wanting.  In  the 
synopsis  of  species  of  Salmo  given  in  the  earlier  work, 
"British  and  Irish  Fishes,"  we  find  that  the  only  trust- 
worthy specific  character  differentiating  Salmo  salar  from 
Salmo  trutta  is  the  presence  in  the  former  of  eleven  rows  of 
scales  in  an  oblique  row  from  the  adipose  fin  to  the  lateral 
line,  all  forms  of  Salmo  trutta  having  fourteen  or  more  of 
such  scales.  In  the  work  before  us  one  has  to  wade 
through  two  pages  and  a  half  of  description  of  the  salmon 
before  reaching  a  mention  of  this  diagnostic  feature. 

The  views  here  expressed  concerning  the  forms  of 
sea-trout  are  somewhat  different  from  those  pub- 
lished in  the  "  British  and  Irish  Fishes "  In  the 
latter  work  Mr.  Day  described  Salmo  trutta  and  two 
varieties,  S.  albics  and  S.  camhricus.  In  the  present 
he  describes  Salmo  albus  (with  the  same  synonymy)  as 
the  immature  stage  or  grilse  of  the  northern  sea  race 
of  trout,  S.  cambricus  being  the  southern  sea  race.  Here 
again  the  want  of  a  short  diagnosis  of  the  two.  races  is 
much  felt  by  the  reader.  From  the  numerical  formulse  of 
the  two  races,  which  are  separated  by  several  pages,  it  is 
seen  that  the  range  of  variation  in  the  number  of  pyloric 
caeca  in  the  one  race  is  different  from  that  in  the  other. 
In  the  northern  form  it  is  33-61,  in  the  southern  33-52. 
But  it  is  extremely  difficult,  by  reading  and  comparing  the 
two  lengthy  descriptions,  to  discover  what  is  the  exact 
amount  of  difference  between  the  two  races.     However, 


Jan.  12,  1888] 


JVA  TURE 


243 


alter  the  descriptions  we  reach  a  discussion  of  this  very 
point,  and  we  find  that  most  of  the  differences  on  which 
emphasis  has  been  placed  by  other  authorities  are  not 
found  to  be  constant  when  a  large  number  of  specimens 
are  examined,  that  the  two  races  pass  by  gradual  tran- 
sition one  into  the  other,  but  that  as  a  rule  in  the  southern 
there  are  fewer  pyloric  cxca  than  in  the  northern,  and 
that  the  Sewin  usually  loses  the  teeth  on  the  body  of  the 
vomer,  at  an  earlier  age  than  the  northern  sea  trout. 

The  following  are  the  different  forms  of  non-migratory 
fresh-water  trout  which  have  been  distinguished  as  dis- 
tinct species,  and  whose  synonymy  is  given  in  the  present 
work  :  Brook  trout,  Lochleven  trout,  Crasspuill  trout, 
Estuary  trout,  Orkney  trout,  Cornish  trout,  Great  Lake 
trout,  Giilaroo  trout,  and  Swaledale  trout.  Short  de- 
scriptions of  these  are  given  in  footnotes,  excepting 
the  brook  trout  and  the  Lochleven  trout,  which  are 
discussed  at  length  in  the  text.  These  descriptions, 
though  brief,  are  not  diagnostic,  and  it  requires  the 
most  careful  reading  and  comparison  to  find  in  what 
respects  the  varieties  differ  from  one  another.  Mr. 
Day  believes  that  there  is  no  definite  line  to  be  drawn 
between  anadromous  sea  trout  and  non-migratory  fresh- 
water trout,  intermediate  forms  being  common  ;  nor 
between  the  different  varieties  of  fresh-water  trout.  But 
granting — for  we  are  inclined  to  agree  with  Mr.  Day's 
conclusions— that  in  all  these  forms  we  have  but  one 
species,  it  is  surely  worth  while  to  give  a  more  lucid  and 
more  definite  account  of  the  differences  between  them. 
The  arguments  which  Mr.  Day  employs  to  prove  that  all 
forms  of  trout,  whether  anadromous  or  confined  to  fresh 
water,  belong  to  one  species,  may  be  divide'd  into  three 
classes,  and  his  book  would  have  been  much  easier  to 
read  if  he  had  kept  them  separate.  The  first  class  are 
those  which  show  that  the  various  forms  graduate  into 
one  another,  or  that  the  peculiarities  of  one  are  included 
in  the  range  of  variation  of  another ;  the  second,  those 
which  show  that  removal  to  a  different  environment 
causes  the  characteristics  of  one  form  to  be  transmuted 
into  those  of  another  ;  the  third,  those  which  show  that 
the  several  forms  breed  freely  when  crossed. 

All  the  species  of  char  which  have  been  distinguished 
in  Britain  are  considered  in  this  book  as  belonging  to  one 
variable  species  which  is  identical  with  the  Sal/no  salve- 
linns,  Linn.,  and  S.  iimbla,  Linn  , — that  is,  with  the  Con- 
tinental char.  A  similar  criticism  may  be  passed  on  Mr. 
Day's  discussion  of  char  to  that  made  of  his  account  of 
trout. 

In  the  account  of  the  American  char,  Salmofontiiialis, 
we  have  again  a  minute  description,  with  no  specific 
diagnosis.  In  a  footnote  to  this  portion  of  the  work,  it  is 
pointed  out  that  in  the  article  "  Salmonidne "  of  the 
present  edition  of  the  "Encyclopaedia  Britannica"  the 
erroneous  statement  of  Dr.  Giinther,  that  the  Salmo 
naniayciish  of  America  is  a  true  trout,  is  repeated,  but  no 
reference  is  given  to  any  work  where  the  correct  descrip- 
tion of  S.  namaycush  as  a  char  can  be  found. 

We  have  up  to  this  point  been  criticizing  Mr.  Day's 
work  chiefly  from  a  speciegraphical  point  of  view  ;  we 
must  now  say  a  few  words  about  the  treatment  of  other 
branches  of  the  subject.  At  the  beginning  of  the  account 
of  the  genus  Salmo  is  a  short  description  of  the  anatomy 
of  Salmonoid  fishes,  followed  by  a  discussion  of  the  eggs 


and  iheir  development,  the  latter  especially  in  connection 
with  pisciculture  at  Sir  J.  Mailland's  establishment  at 
Howietoun.  The  description  in  the  text  of  the  mode  of 
packing  eggs  which  has  been  perfected  at  Howietoun 
seems  to  be  erroneous  :  it  is  stated  that  the  main  principle 
is  to  employ  thin  layers  of  well-picked  and  pressed  moss 
in  trays  with  perforated  bottoms,  the  eggs  being  separated 
from  the  moss  by  muslin  mosquito  netting,  swan's  down, 
calico,  or  butter  cloth  ;  while  in  a  quotation  in  a  footnote 
the  correct  account  is  given — namely,  that  the  ova  rest 
in  direct  contact  with  the  damp  moss,  and  are  covered 
by  another  layer  of  the  same,  the  muslin  being  only  used 
in  order  that  the  layer  of  moss  may  be  lifted  and  moved. 
Reference  is  made  in  this  part  of  the  book  to  the  subject 
of  hybridization  between  different  species  of  Salmo,  and 
a  review  of  the  history  of  the  subject  is  given,  but  the  full 
treatment  of  the  subject  occurs  in  a  chapter  specially 
devoted  to  it.  In  this  chapter  details  are  recorded  of 
definite  experiments  in  hybridization  made  at  Howietoun, 
This  chapter  on  hybrids  is  one  of  the  most  interesting 
in  the  book,  and  another  on  monstrosities  is  also  well 
worth  study. 

Scattered  throughout  the  pages  are  examples  of  that 
originality  in  sentence-construction  which  is  familiar  to 
all  who  know  Mr.  Day's  writings.  Thus  in  the  account 
of  artificial  fertilization  we  read  :  "This  is  gently  stirred 
with  the  hand  until  the  eggs  harden,  or  '  frees '  as  it  is 
termed,  being  a  period  from  one  to  three  quarters  of  an 
hour  according  to  the  temperature,  taking  longest  in  cold 
weather.''  In  another  place  we  find :  "  One  modifying 
circumstance  in  the  feeding  of  the  salmon  has  been 
observed  to  be  connected  with  a  muddy  state  of  the  river, 
possibly  interfering  with  respiration,  consequent  upon  the 
amount  of  mud  which  had  been  swallowed."  Another 
passage  which  is  worth  quoting  is  : — "As  regards  thirst  it 
would  seem  either  to  ba  unknown  to  these  creatures  ;  or, 
living  as  they  do  in  a  watery  medium,  it  may  be  quenched 
by  means  of  endosmosis  through  the  skin.  Were  this 
not  the  case,  it  would  be  difficult  to  conceive  how  such  a 
longing  could  be  satisfied  while  residing  in  salt  water." 

But  in  spite  of  its  defects  the  book  contains  a  mass  of 
new  and  accurate  information  concerning  the  forms  of 
Salmonidit  of  which  it  treats.  In  bibliography  it  is  un- 
usually rich,  the  results  of  previous  writers  being  freely 
quoted  in  footnotes,  so  that  several  of  the  pages  contain 
90  per  cent,  of  notes  and  only  10  per  cent,  of  text. 
Besides  the  woodcuts  in  the  course  of  the  work,  there  are 
twelve  plates  of  illustrations  at  the  end,  ten  of  which 
represent  different  forms  of  Salmonidte  in  beautifully 
coloured  lithographic  impressions.  The  excellence  of 
these  is  very  great,  and  testifies  to  great  care  and  skill  on 
the  part  of  the  draughtsman  {i.e.  the  author  himself),  the 
colourist,  and  the  lithographer. 


THE  ECHINOIDEA. 
Die  Japmiischen  Seeigel.     Von  Dr.  L.  Doderlein.     Pp.  59, 
PI.    I.-XI.,    Th,    I.,   Fam.    Cidarida^   and   Saleniidas. 
(Stuttgart :  E.  Schweizerbart'sche  Verlagshandlung,  E. 
Koch,  1887.) 

DR.  DODERLEIN  has  produced  the  first  part  of  a 
very  philosophical  study  of  the  beautiful  Echinoidea, 
which  are  in  their  paradise  in  the  Japanese  seas.     Some 


244 


NA  TURE 


{Jan. 


12,    I 


collections  of  considerable  importance  came  to  Dr. 
Doderlein  from  private  sources,  and  one  was  the  result 
of  the  collecting  during  the  expedition  of  the  Italian 
corvette  Vcttor  Pisani.  Descriptions  of  some  of  the 
species  of  Cidaridas,  Temnopleurida;,  Saleniidce,  and  of  a 
species  of  Hemipedina  were  published  by  this  author  in 
Wieg.  ArcJiiv,  1885,  v.  51,  pp.  73-112,  and  as  some  of  the 
forms  had  an  ancient  facies  they  attracted  attention. 
Dr.  Doderlein  seems  to  have  been  impressed  with  the 
importance  of  the  fauna  in  reference  to  the  past,  and 
prepared  the  way  for  the  present  publication  by  studying 
the  pre-Jurassic  and  Cretaceous  species  of  Cidaridae 
especially.  The  work  now  publishing  in  parts  will 
evidently  be  worthy  of  a  good  naturalist  who  sees  no 
vast  biological  breaks  in  the  continuity  of  the  Cidaridae 
since  the  appearance  of  the  Zechstein  Eocidaris,  which 
he  shows  to  be  inseparable  from  the  modern  family 
Cidaridae.  The  author  describes  the  new  species,  re- 
considers the  Cidaridas  already  known,  pays  especial 
attention  to  the  growth  of  the  structures  which  are  used 
in  classification,  and,  after  describing  some  peculiar 
structures  which  he  discovered  in  the  St.  Cassian 
Cidarids,  passes  on  to  subdivide  the  great  genus  so 
as  to  identify  groups  of  species  according  to  sub-genera 
in  the  Secondary  and  existing  times.  The  descriptions 
of  species  are  accompanied  by  fair  illustrations,  but  it 
would  be  as  well  if  more  of  the  denuded  tests  could  be 
shown. 

There  are  four  new  species  of  Cidaris,  a  new  Porocidaris, 
and  three  species  of  Goniocidaris  ;  the  depths  from  which 
the  specimens  were  derived  were  from  40  to  200  fathoms. 
Goniocidaris  mikado,  Dod.,  is  the  most  extraordinary  of 
the  species,  and  has  an  unusually  small  number  of  coronal 
plates,  characteristic  median  groovings,  and  wonderful 
spines — outdoing  any  other,  and  that  is  saying  a  good 
deal.  The  spines  are  essentially  according  to  Japanese 
art :  the  larger  have  umbrella-shaped  disks  at  their  top, 
and  some  another  disk  lower  down  ;  the  disks  are  circular 
in  their  deeply  incised  or  occasionally  serrate  outline. 
The  commonest  species  of  Cidaris  certainly  puts  one  in 
mind  of  the  Mediterranean  C.  histrix  and  of  the  North 
Atlantic  papillata,  but  these  Japanese  forms  are  con- 
sidered to  belong  to  a  different  sub-genus  by  Dr.  Doderlein. 
He  was  impressed  with  the  fact  that  some  striking  Cre- 
taceous Cidaridae  have  the  primary  tubercles  of  some  of 
the  coronal  plates  near  the  apical!  system,  aborted  or 
wanting,  and  that  a  similar  condition  occurs  in  the 
majority  of  the  Japanese  species.  He  would  establish 
a  better  definition  for  Stereocidaris,  Pomel,  and  thus 
link  the  Cretaceous  and  Japanese  species  together. 
There  is  something  very  candid  and  straightforward  in 
Dr.  Doderlein's  method  of  writing,  and  he  does  not 
hesitate  to  indicate  how,  in  a  comparatively  short  time, 
he  altered  his  opinion  regarding  the  particular  sub-genus 
under  which  his  own  and  other  species  should  go.  A 
similar  state  of  things  is  well  illustrated  in  the  instance  of 
A.  Agassiz,  and  his  synonymy  of  the  Cidaridae  shows,  as 
in  the  case  of  Dr.  Doderlein,  how  a  mind  desirous  of  truth 
has  to  suffer  in  the  attempt  to  subdivide  a  good  genus 
into  groups  which  are  not  founded  upon  differences  of 
structures  of  much  physiological  importance. 

As  a  matter  of  fact,  the  tubercles  of  Cidaris  {Stereo- 
ddaris) grandis,  diXidi  of  the  sp&cx&'s  japonica,  Dod.,  are  not 


much  more  deficient  than  in  many  specimens  of  the  common 
Cidaris  {Dorocidaris)  papillata  of  the  North  Atlantic  and 
Mediterranean  ;  and  the  shape  and  ornamentation  of  the 
coronal  plates  with  ill-developed  or  absent  primary 
tubercles,  in  the  well-known  Cidaris  sceptifera  from  the 
upper  chalk,  do  not  resemble  those  of  the  modern  forms. 
The  ornamentation  shown  on  PI.  II.,  Fig.  4,  is  more  like 
that  of  a  Tertiary  Cidaroid  from  Sind  than  of  the  tall- 
plated  Cretaceous  type.  But  there  is  a  decided  re- 
semblance between  Dr,  Doderlein's  C,  sceptriferoides  and 
the  Cretaceous  species. 

If  these  unsatisfactory  sub-genera  were  simply  used  to 
represent  groups  of  species  linked  together  by  some  un- 
important but  readily  recognized  structural  peculiarities, 
there  would  be  no  objection  to  be  made — indeed,  the  pro- 
ceeding is  very  useful ;  but  the  groups  are  allowed  to 
become  of  generic  significance,  and  thus  it  will  be  noticed 
at  the  conclusion  of  Dr.  Doderlein's  work,  that  a  list  of 
twenty-two  groups  equal  to  genera  is  given  ;  and  bad  sub- 
genera, good  ones,  and  good  genera  are  jumbled  up 
together.     Good  old  Cidaris  has  in  fact  fallen  to  pieces. 

In  considering  the  species  which  have  not  a  Japanese 
habitat,  Dr.  Doderlein  is  in  opposition  to  A.  Agassiz  and 
De  Loriol  in  reference  to  the  proper  sub-genus  under 
which  some  well-known  species  are  grouped,  and  it 
appears  to  be  the  case  that  Dr.  Doderlein  will  have  to 
arrange  the  species  of  Cidaris  proper  on  his  own  lines. 

The  particular  structure  to  which  Dr.  Doderlein  alludes 
in  noticing  the  Triassic  Cidaridas,  is  a  horizontal  groove 
on  the  interradial  side  of  each  pair  of  pores  ;  it  seems  to 
be  very  universal  ;  moreover,  there  is  a  more  decided 
overlap  and  ribbing  of  the  coronal  plates  in  these  pre- 
Jurassic  forms  than  in  the  Jurassic  and  subsequent. 

The  Salenia  described  by  Dr.  Doderlein  is  a  very  close 
neighbour  oi  S.  hastigera,  A.  Ag. 

Few  monographs  relating  to  the  recent  Echinoidea 
have  as  much  good  mattei-  and  logical  reasoning  in 
them  as  this  one  of  Dr.  Doderlein's,  and  the  second 
part  of  the  work  will  be  looked  for  with  great  interest. 

P.  Martin  Duncan. 


FRITSCH'S  PAL/EONTOLOGICAL 
RESEARCHES. 
Fajina    der    Gaskohle    tind  der  Kalksteine    der   Perm- 
formation,  Bohfuefts.    Von  Dr.  Ant.  Fritsch.    Band  II., 
Heft  I,  pp.  32,  Plates  49-60.     (Prague  :    In  Commission 
bei  Fr.  Rivac,  1885.) 

THE  first  part  of  this  admirable  work  was  briefly 
reviewed  in  Nature,  vol.  xxi.  p.  31.  It  was  then 
observed  that  the  book  was  almost  as  interesting  to 
the  stratigraphical  geologist  as  to  the  palaeontologist,  for 
the  Gaskohle  and  its  superincumbent  Kalksteine  rest 
upon  Silurian  rocks,  and  are  usually  not  covered  by  other 
strata  in  vertical  succession.  The  coals,  clays,  and 
ironstones  have  a  Carboniferous  facies,  and  the  conform- 
able  limestones  are  believed  to  be  true  Permians.  The 
palaeontological  evidence  regarding  the  age  of  the  beds 
is  somewhat  anomalous  in  the  views  of  purely  British 
fossilists,  but  it  speaks  very  forcibly  and  in  a  most 
suggestive  manner  to  the  students  of  the  Gondwana 
formations  of  Hindustan.  The  presence  of  Sigillaria, 
Stigmaria,  Calami tes,  and  Lepidodendra,  in  the  Gaskohle, 


Jan.  12,  1888] 


NA  TURE 


245 


in  association  with  Permian  species  of  ferns  and  a 
Walchia,  seems  however  to  place  these  Bohemian  beds 
on  a  lower  geological  horizon  than  the  Gondwana  series, 
which  have  had  their  palitobotany  studied  by  the  same 
pah^ontologist,  Feistmantel,  who  investigated  the  plant- 
remains  of  the  Permo-Carboniferous  of  Eastern  Europe. 

The  rich  fauna  of  Labyrinthodontia  of  the  Gaskohle, 
which,  as  was  explained,  Fritsch  prefers  to  study  under 
the  more  comprehensive  group  of  Stegocephali,  is  asso- 
ciated with  fish  of  the  genera  Ccratodus,  Orthacanthus, 
Pleuracanthus,  'Acanthodes,  and  Amblypterus,  and  also 
with  many  species  of /'rt!/<z'(?«m7/5',  found  elsewhere  in  true 
Permian  beds.  Amongst  the  Invertebrates  are  Arach- 
noidea,  Julidae,  Estheriae,  and  Anthracosiae. 

The  part  of  the  work  now  under  consideration 
is  palacontological,  and  refers  to  some  of  the  most 
interesting  of  the  many  sculptured-headed,  folded- 
toothed  Amphibia  which  preceded  the  Reptilia  in 
time.  Several  classificatory  alterations,  especially  in  the 
grouping  of  the  genera  in  families,  are  introduced,  and 
apparently  with  good  reason  ;  and  at  the  commencement 
it  will  be  noticed  that  the  Microsaurii,  Dawson,  suffer, 
and  a  new  family,  the  Dendrerpetontidas,  is  founded. 
Fritsch  considers  that  the  structure  of  the  teeth  of  such 
Microsaurs  as  Hylonovitis  and  Hylcrpcton^  prevents  their 
being  associated  in  the  same  family  with  Deiidrerpeton, 
the  species  of  which  have  teeth  strongly  grooved  from 
the  base,  with  simple  irregular  folds,  the  top  being  smooth  : 
the  new  family  has,  like  the  Microsaurs,  amphicoelian 
vertebrae.  It  is  certainly  remarkable  how  widely  these 
forms  were  distributed  geographically  during  that  long 
period  when  so  much  of  the  present  continental  areas 
was  land.  Fritsch  describes  two  new  species,  and  also 
a  thiid  about  the  generic  position  of  which  there  may  be 
some  doubt,  and  which  has  a  wonderful  arrangement  of 
cranial  bones  behind  the  orbits. 

The  most  interesting  parts  of  the  work  are  now  reached 
and  the  author  comes  to  the  consideration  of  those  extra- 
ordinary Stegocephali  which  have  such  curious  double  and 
multiple  developments  of  the  vertebral  centra.  The  first  of 
the  families  of  these  groups  is  the  DiplovertebridiC,  and  the 
solitary  form  of  it  is  carefully  described.  The  characters 
of  the  family  are  the  doubly  segmented  vertebral  centra 
at  the  caudal  end  of  the  column,  and  a  very  decided 
pitting  of  the  surfaces  of  the  bones  of  the  extremities  for 
vascular  canals. 

Fritsch  avails  himself  of  Cope's  terminology  ;  and  the 
peculiar  condition  of  the  vertebral  centra — the  anterior  of 
the  two  segments  carrying  the  spinous  processes  and  the 
ribs,  the  posterior  not  having  any  relics  of  arches,  and 
being  plain — necessitates  the  arrangement  of  the  species 
with  those  whose  vertebras  are  "  embolomeri,"  The  illus- 
trations of  the  species  on  Plates  50  and  52  are  admirable, 
and  their  comprehension  is  assisted  by  the  woodcut 
diagrams  placed  in  the  context. 

Sparagmitcs  lacerlinus,  Fr.,  is  placed  amongst  the 
Archa:;gosauridae,  and  it  will  be  observed  (Plate  50,  Figs.  15, 
16)  how  the  vertebral  centra  differ  from  those  of  the  last 
family.  The  centra  appear  to  be  broken  up,  and  each  has 
two  lateral  and  an  inferior  component,  coming  under  the 
division  "rachitomi"  of  Cope.  Miall's  family  Chaulio- 
dontiais  represented  in  the  Gaskohle  by  a  species,  and  the 
preserved  remains  show  the  dissimilar  teeth  with  a  semi- 


Labyrinthodont  structure  ;  the  genus  included  is  a  familiar 
one  to  English  palaeontologists,  and  is  Loxomina.  The 
last  family,  described  in  the  book,  has  genera  with  highly 
developed  crania  and  a  parietal  foramen  (which  also 
occurs  in  all  these  forms  from  the  Gaskohle),  and  the 
vertebrce  are  even  more  remarkable  than  in  the  other 
families.  In  the  Melosaurida;  the  caudal  portion  has  the 
centra  embolomerous,  whilst  those  of  the  fore-part  of 
the  column  are  rachitomous  ;  the  teeth  are  dissimilar,  and 
simply  and  irregularly  folded.  The  supra-occipital  bones 
occasionally  have  strongly  developed,  backward  project- 
ing, curved  processes  {Sehnenhockem).  The  genus 
Chelydosnurus,  with  a  well-developed  tarsus  and  a  most 
singular  growth  of  chest  and  body  plates,  belongs  to  the 
family.  Sphenosminis,  H.  von  Meyer,  comes  in  here,  and 
the  species  S.  Sternbcrgii,  elsewhere  a  Muschelkalk  form, 
is  found  in  the  red  sandstone  of  the  Bohemian  Permian  ! 
The  new  genus  Cochleosaurus  has  a  species  which  shows 
the  posterior  hooks  of  the  supra-occipital  bones  in  per- 
fection. 

The  book  which  contains  all  this  interesting  matter  will 
be  found  of  great  value  by  students  as  well  as  by  advanced 
palccontologists,  and  the  beauty  of  the  illustrations  leaves 
little  to  be  desired.  The  Geological  Society  presented 
Dr.  A.  Fritsch  with  the  Lyell  Medal  and  Fund,  and  the 
gift  was  mainly  owing  to  the  appreciation  of  his  excellent 
work  amongst  these  Upper  Palaeozoic,  Permo-Carb. 
fossils.  The  work  is  a  great  addition  to  the  natural  history 
of  the  early  Vertebrata.  P.  M.  D. 


OUR  BOOK  SHELF. 

The  Flora  of  Hoivtli.     By  H.  C.  Hart  (Dublin  :   Hodges, 
Figgis,  and  Co.,  1887.) 

Mr.  Hart  enthusiastically  describes  the  parish  of 
Howth  as  one  with  many  attractions.  He  thinks  that 
as  a  seabathing  summer  retreat  "its  equal  cannot  be 
found  in  Ireland"  ;  and  he  points  out  that  it  is  invested 
with  archiieological  interest  by  a  great  dolmen  in  the 
demesne  of  Lord  Howth,  by  the  ruins  of  an  early  abbey 
in  the  village  of  Howth,  by  the  earlier  church  or  chantry 
of  St.  Fintan's  on  the  Sutton  side,  with  its  holy  well,  and 
by  the  ancient  castle,  called  Corr  Castle,  of  the  Barons  of 
Howth.  A  little  way  from  the  shore  is  Ireland's  Eye, 
with  the  remains  of  a  church  of  the  sixth  or  seventh 
century.  For  the  ornithologist,  the  entomologist,  and  the 
marine  zoologist,  Howth,  according  to  Mr.  Hart,  provides 
much  material  for  study.  These  things,  however,  he 
notes  only  by  the  way  ;  it  is  with  the  flora  of  Howth  that 
he  is  especially  concerned.  For  this  he  claims  attention 
on  two  grounds  :  (i)  because  several  of  the  species  found 
are  rare  ;  (2)  because  it  does  not  often  happen  that  so 
many  forms  exist  in  so  small  a  space.  Mr.  Hart  has 
taken  great  pains  to  make  his  account  of  his  subject 
complete  and  readily  intelligible,  and  the  book  ought  to 
be  of  considerable  service  to  local  botanists  and  tourists, 

Mineralof^y.  By  Frank  Rutley.  Third  Edition.  (London  : 

Thomas  Murby,  1887.) 
We  are  glad  to  welcome  a  third  edition  of  this  excellent 
manual,  which  forms  one  of  Murby's  "Science  and  Art 
Department  "  series  of  text-books.  The  materials  of  the 
little  work  are  arranged  with  great  clearness,  and  the 
descriptions  of  minerals  are  invariably  simple  and  pre- 
cise. Nearly  the  whole  of  the  chapter  on  crystallography 
has  been  re- written,  and  other  alterations  have  been  made 
to  fit  the  book  for  the  present  requirements  of  students. 
More  than  fifty  fresh  woodcuts  have  been  added. 


246 


NA  TURE 


\Jan.  J 2,  1888 


LETTERS   TO    THE  EDITOR. 

[The  Editor  does  not  hold  himself  responsible  for  opinions 
expressed  by  his  correspondents.  Neither  can  he  under- 
take to  return,  or  to  correspond  zvith  the  writers  of, 
rejected  manuscripts.  No  notice  is  taken  of  anonymous 
communications. 

[The  Editor  urgently  requests  correspondents  to  keep  their 
letters  as  short  as  possible.  The  pressure  on  his  space 
is  so  great  that  it  is  impossible  othei~wise  to  insure  the 
appearance  even  of  co?ninunicatipns  containing  interesting 
and  novel  facts. 

"  A  Conspiracy  of  Silence." 
May  I  asli  yo-ir  correspondents  who  have  been  good  enough 
to  read  my  article  on  "  Darwin's  Theory  of  Coral  Islands,"  pub- 
lished in  the  September  number  of  the  Nineteenth  Century,  to 
begin  addres~.ing  themselves  to  the  merits  of  the  scientific  ques- 
tion there  dealt  with,  and  to  cease  wasting  their  own  time  and 
your  space  upon  scolding  me  for  a  few  wjrds — perhips  exagger- 
ated— respecting;  the  wide-spread  reluctance  to  question  any 
theory  advanced  by  Charles  Darwin  ?  I  have  already  explained 
in  your  columns  the  sense  in  which  I  spoke,  and,  subject  to  that 
explanation,  I  have  nothing  to  retract.  I  observe  in  Prof.  Tail's 
notice  of  Dr.  Balfour  Stewart,  published  in  your  latest  issue,  a 
passage  which  shows  that  this  veiy  eminent  man  of  science  speaks 
in  a  tone  very  similar  of  certa-n  "advanced"  geologists  who 
"ignore"  views  which  "tend  to  dethrone"  their  own  "pet 
theories."  Moreover,  since  I  last  addressed  you  in  explanation, 
I  have  observed  the  remarkable  passage  ("Darwin's  Life," 
vol.  ii.  p.  186)  in  which  my  censor.  Prof.  Huxley,  positively 
blasphemes  against  no  less  a  distinguished  body  of  scientific  men 
than  the  French  Institute  for  their  conduct  towards  evolutionism, 
lie  speaks  of  the  "ill-will  of  powerful  members  of  that  body 
producing  for  a  long  time  the  effect  of  a  conspiracy  of  silence." 
This  is  the  very  same  expression  which  I  used,  but  without  the 
offensive  aggravations  added  by  Prof.  Huxley. 

Inveraray,  Deceiiiber  30,  1S87.  Argyll. 

Mr.  Seebobm  on  Physiological  Selection. 
From  a  footnote  to  page  23  of  Mr.  Seebohm's  recently 
published  and  magnificent  monograph  on  the  Charadriidix?  I 
learn  tljat  I  owe  him  an  apology  for  having  inadvertently  mis- 
repi-esented  his  views  upon  a  point  of  considerable  importance 
in  the  philosophy  of  evolution.  In  his  Briti-;h  Association 
paper  (which  he  now  re-publishes)  he  went  even  further  than  I 
had  gone  in  recognizing  the  "swamping  effects  of  intercrossing" 
upon  incipient  varieties,  with  the  consequent  imporance  of 
isolation  in  the  differentiation  of  species.  1  therefore  supposed 
that  he  likewise  agreed  with  me  in  holding  it  improbable  that 
new  species  arise  as  a  result  of  many  beneficial  variations  of  the 
same  kind  arising  nt  the  same  time  and  in  the  same  place.  I 
now  find,  however,  that  he  is  a  strong  advocate  of  the  opposite 
opinion — apparently  going  further  than  Asa  Gray,  Niigeli, 
Mivart,  the  Duke  of  Argyll,  or  indeed  any  other  evolutionist, 
in  support  of  the  doctrine  of  teleological  variation  in  determinate 
lines.  I  therefore  write  to  withdraw  my  previous  misrepresenta- 
tion of  his  views  upon  this  matter,  and  to  apologize  for  my 
inadvertency  in  making  it. 

At  the  same  time,  I  may  observe,  it  does  not  seem  to  me 
quite  intelligible  how  Mr.  Seebohm  can  reconcile  his  doctrine 
of  teleological  variation  with  his  doctrine  of  the  paramount  im- 
portance of  geographical  isolation  For  it  is  evident  that,  in 
whatever  measure  geographical  isolation  i-;  found  to  be  of  im- 
portance as  a  condition  to  the  origin  of  species  {i.e.  by  pre- 
venting free  intercrossing),  in  that  measure  is  the  doctrine  of 
teleological  variation  invalidated.  Indeed,  Mr.  Seebohm  him- 
self puts  Mr.  Wallace  on  the  horns  of  a  dilemma  with  regard 
to  a  precisely  parallel  case.  In  order  to  meet  me  where  I  draw 
attention  to  the  difficulty  which  free  intercrossing  imposes  upon 
the  theory  of  natural  selection,  Mr.  Wallace  argue  1  in  favour 
of  collective  variation,  i.e.  of  the  doctrine  that  a  considerable 
percentage  of  identical  and  beneficial  variations  may  arise 
simultaneously  in  the  same  community.  Now,  Mr.  Seebohm 
very  pertinently  observes  (p.  13):— "It  seems  to  me  that,  by 
the  admission  of  this  fact,  Mr.  Wallace  has  dethroned  his  theory 
of  natural  selection  from  its  proud  posiii  )n  as  the  main  factor  in 
the  origin  of  species."  With  this,  of  course,  I  fully  agree ;  but 
does  it  not  equally  follow  that  by  his  admission  of  this  same 


"fact"  Mr.  Seebohm  is  no  less  effectually  dethroning  his  own 
theory  of  the  paramount  importance  of  isolation  as  one  of  the 
main  factors  in  the  origin  of  species  ? 

In  conclusion,  I  cannot  understand  why  Mr.  Seebohm  should 
have  igno"ed  my  answer  to  the  criticisms  which  he  now  re- 
publishes. For,  as  I  have  pointed  out  in  these  columns  before, 
the  whole  brunt  of  his  criticism  (like  that  of  Mr.  Wallace)  was 
directed  against  a  theory  which  never  so  much  as  occurred  to 
me.  Both  my  critics  took  it  for  granted  that  I  supposed  my 
"physiological  complements  "  to  arise  only  in  pairs  ;  and  there- 
fore they  both  had  an  easy  case  in  showing  how  improbable  it 
was  that  the  two  complements  should  chance  to  come  together. 
But  even  in  my  original  paper  there  were  passages  to  show  that 
I  supposed  these  -physiological  variations  to  occur  in  large 
numbers,  or  "collectively,"  leading  to  what  botanists  now  call 
"  prepotency,"  and  thus  explaining  why  hybridization  is  so  rare 
in  Nature.  Possibly  in  that  paper  I  was  not  sufficiently  explicit 
in  guarding  against  a  misconception  which  it  never  occurred  to 
me  could  arise.  But  certainly  in  my  reply  to  this  misconception, 
no  further  doubt  as  to  my  meaning  could  possibly  remain.  I  • 
confess,  therefore,  to  being  not  a  little  surprised  at  this  re- 
appearance of  Mr.  Seebohm's  criticism,  without  allusion  to  my 
full  repudiation  of  it  a  year  ago.  I  should  much  like  to  learn 
his  views  upon  the  theory  which  I  have  published,  but  must 
protest  ajainst  this  absurd  substitution  being  still  attributed  to 
me,  after  I  have  disclaimed  it  with  all  the  emphasis  of  which  the 
English  language  is  capable.  George  J.  Romanes. 


An  Incorrect  Footnote  and  its  Consequences. 

In  all  the  five  editions  of  Baltzer's  "  Theorie  und  Anvvendung 
der  Determinanten  "  there  stands  at  the  foot  of  the  first  page  an 
historical  note,  in  which  reference  is  made  jto  a  work  entitled, 
"  Demonstratio  eliminationis  Cramerianre,"  by  Mollweidc 
(Leipzig,  iSii).  About  a  year  ago  it  became  necessary  to 
exanine  this  demonstration  for  the  purpose  of  having  it  reported 
upon  in  an  historical  work.  The  University  Libraries  in  Scot- 
land were  applied  to  in  succession,  but  no  copy  could  be  heard 
of  Inquiries  made  at  the  more  important  libraries  in  Cambridge 
by  fiends  resident  there,  or  by  letter,  ended  in  the  same  un- 
satisfactory way.  Letters,  followed  by  an  actual  visit,  to  several 
libraries  in  London,  brought  no  better  result ;  and  after  every 
possible  biographical  scrap  about  Mo'lweide  had  been  ferreted 
out  in  the  British  Museum,  the  suspicion  began  to  form  itself 
that  som^  c.irious  error  had  crept  into  Baltzer's  footnote.  In 
order  to  get  to  the  bottom  of  the  matter,  the  excellent  mathe- 
matical library  of  Go^tingen  University  was  next  applied  to, 
and  the  library  of  Giessen  University,  where  Baltzer  was  Pro- 
fessor;  but  in  both  cases  in  vain.  A  last  effort  was  then  made 
about  a  month  ago  in  a  letter  to  the  University  Library  of 
Leipzig,  wdiere  the  reputed  author  Mollweide  had  taught,  and 
where  the  "  Demonstratio"  {ox  Demon,  as  it  had  for  more  th\n 
one  reason  come  to  be  called)  had  been  published.  Even  here, 
at  first,  there  was  failure.  But  Prof.  Virchl,  who  most  kindly  inter- 
ested himself  in  the  matter,  was  soon  successful  in  his  quest.  What 
he  found,  however,  was  not  a  "  Demonstratio  "  l)y  Mollweide ;  the 
title  was  simply  as  follows  :  "  Ad  memoriam  Kregelio-Sternbach- 
ianam  in  auditorio  philosophorum  die  xviii.  Julii,  MDCCCXI. 
h.  ix;  celebrandam  invitant  ordinum  Academia;  Lips.    Decani 

seniores    ca^terique    adsessores 'Demonstratio    eliminationis 

Crameriana;.' "  Either,  tharefjre,  no  author  should  have  been 
mentioned  by  Baltzer,  or  an  indication  should  have  been  given 
that  MoUweide's  name  was  an  interpolation  in  the  title.  One  or 
other  of  these  courses  would  likewise  have  been  less  hurtful  to 
Baltzer's  reputation  for  accuracy  ;  for,  after  all,  Mollweide  was 
not  the  author.  In  the  Leipzig  Library  Catalogue  the  work  is 
entered  under  the  name  of  De  Prasse,  and  Prof  Virchl  had  no 
doubt  whatever,  for  perfectly  conclusive  reasons  which  he  gave, 
that  De  Prasse  was  the  author.  The  work  extends  to  only 
15  pages  quarto,  and  is  considered  by  the  same  authority  to 
be  very  rare. 

The  ]ooint  which  we  have  now  reached  in  the  story  might  seem 
a  not  unfitting  one  to  stop  at  ;  but  the  end  is  not  yet.  De 
Praise's  modesty  requires  explanation,  and  so  likewise  does  the 
intrusion  of  Moilweide's  name.  Both  are  partly  cleared  up  by 
the  following  facts  supplied  by  Prof.  Virchl.  (i)  The  Kregel- 
Sternbach  dissertation  (which  the  "  Demonstratio"  was)  falls  to 
be  delivered  by  the  Dean  of  the  Philosophical  Faculty  for  the  time 
being  :  the  author's  name  was  thus  not  an  absolute  necessity  on 
the  invitation  title-pige.     (2)  Mollweide  wr.s  De  Pras  e's  sue- 


Jan.  12,  1 888] 


NA  TURE 


247 


cesser,  and  came  first  to  Leipzig  in  181 1,  the  very  year  we  are 
concerned  with  ;  so  that  in  that  year  both  men  may  have  held 
office,  and  consequently  if  an  author's  name  had  to  be  supplied 
Baltzer  might  easily  have  made  a  worse  guess. 

Both  guess-work  and  circumstantial  evidence,  however,  are 
quite  unnecessary.  After  these  facts  were  received  from  Leipzig, 
the  library  catalogue  of  University  College,  London,  was  turned 
up  at  De  Prasse's  name.  No  "  Demonstratio,"  it  is  true,  rewarded 
the  searcher :  but  as  a  work  with  the  miscellaneous-looking 
title,  "Commentationes  Mathematics,"  4to,  Lips.  1804-12,  was 
found  entered,  the  librarian  was  communicated  with.  In  a  day 
or  two  an  obliging  reply  came  to  hand  to  the  effect  that  the  lair 
had  indeed  been  found,  the  15  quarto  pages  sought  (or,  at  least, 
as  many  as  are  essential)  being  pp.  89-102  in  the  second  fasci- 
culus. The  Adl  title  of  the  whole  work  is  "Commenta- 
tiones Mathematicie,  auctore  Mauricio  de  Prasse,  Math, 
prof.  ord.  in  univers.  liter.  Lipsiensis."  The  first  fasciculus 
contains  54  pages,  and  is  dated  1804  ;  the  second  contains  66 
pages,  viz.  pp.  55-120,  and  is  dated  1812.  Of  the  eight 
separate  "Commentationes  "  the  *'  Demonstratio"  is  the  seventh. 
Doubtless,  copies  of  this  collection  of  mathematical  papers  are 
to  be  found  at  several  of  the  libraries  above  referred  to.  The 
work  at  any  rate  does  not  appear  to  be  rare  :  the  writer  already 
possesses  a  copy,  for  which  he  paid  the  not  extravagant  sum  of 
2.r.  8(/. 

The  moral  on  the  surface  of  this  tale  may  be,  "  Verify  your 
references  "  ;  it  is  not  the  only  moral,  however.  Baltzer,  in  his 
first  preface,  felt  called  upon  to  direct  attention  to  the  many 
inaccuracies  and  even  errors  (  "  manche  ungenauigkeiten  und 
selbst  unrichtigkeiten  "  )  of  Spottiswoode's  pioneer  treatise  ;  yet 
if  the  leaf  following  the  said  preface  be  turned  over,  a  footnote 
of  five  lines  is  found  containing  five  "ungenauigkeiten"  (say), 
one  of  which — being  that  referred  to  in  the  narrative  of  the 
"  Demon  " — might  well  be  put  in  a  worse  category.  Huma^mm 
est  errare.  Thomas  Muir. 

Bothwell,  Gla-gow,  December  26,  1887. 


The  Periodic  Law. 

Ln  none  of  the  chemistry  books  or  magazines  to  which  I  halve 
nccess  can  I  find  any  reference  to  a  curious  property  of  the 
chemical  elements  in  connection  with  the  Periodic  Law.  If 
instead  of  placing  the  elements  as  umal  in  seven  vertical  columns 
we  arrange  them  at  distances  corresponding  to  the  differences  of 
their  atomic  weighty  it  will  be  found  that  they  are  disposed  in 
curious  curves.     The  following  diagram  will  make  my  meaning 


clearer.  Arranging  the  monads  in  a  vertical  column,  and  taking 
it  for  a  base  line,  place  Ca  at  a  distance  from  K  corresponding  to 
the  difference  of  their  atomic  weights  ;  also  treat  Sr  and  Ba  in 
the  same  way  in  relation  to  Rb  and  Cs.     It   will  then  be  found 


that  they  are  arranged  on  a  curve  terminating  in  Li,  which  is 
known  to  unite  in  itself  the  properties  of  the  metals  of  the  alkalies 
and  those  of  the  alkaline  earths.  Mg,  Zn,  and  Cd  also  range 
them  elves  on  a  curve  when  measured  from  Na,  Cu,  and  Ag. 

R.nging  the  tetrads  vertically,  we  have  O,  S,  Cr  (Se?),  and 
Mo,  in  almost  a  straight  line,  also  P,  V  (As?),  Nb  and  Sb. 
Many  other  curious  relationships  develop  themselves  if  we  plot 
olit  the  elements  vertically  .as  well  as  horizontally.  Is  there  any 
explanation  of  these  curious  curves?  or  is  it  simply  accident  ? 
and  if  already  known  where  can  I  find  an  account  of  them  ? 

Do.MALu  Murray. 

IleraU  Office,  Auckland,  N.Z. 

[Would  not  the  position  of  Be  (Beryllium)  rather  affect  the 
apparent  parallelism  in  these  curves  ? — Ed.] 

The  Leaps  of  Lepus. 

While  rambling  in  the  wintertime  over  the  snow-covered 
plains  in  this  region,  I  have  recently  interested  myself  in  ascer- 
taining how  far,  en  a  level  surface,  a  hare  or  rabbit  may  leap  at 
each  spring,  at  a  time  when  either  of  these  animals  is  put  to 
its  best  speed.  Two  species  of  Le[>us  are  quite  abundant  in 
tliis  vicinity,  viz.  the  Mexican  hare  (Z.  callolis  callotis),  and  the 
sage  hare,  which  is  really  a  medium-sized  rabbit  (Z.  sylvaticus 
Nnttalli),  while  the  first-mentioned  is  a  big  hare.  It  is  not  cm- 
common  to  find  here,  in  certain  localities,  a  stretch  of  perfectly 
level  prairie  extending  fcr  a  distance  of  3  or  4  miles,  and  when 
this  is  covered  by  an  even  layer  of  i  inch  or  more  of  snow,  it 
offers  an  admirable  surface  on  which  to  take  account  of  the 
distance  which  may  teparate  any  two  tracks  of  one  of  these 
animals,  either  one  made  by  a  hare  or  one  made  by  one  of  the 
rabbits.  On  such  a  prairie  as  I  have  just  referred  to,  I  have  on 
numerous  occasions  fired  at  these  animals  when  they  have  been 
running,  and  at  the  same  time  beyond  the  range  of  my  fowling- 
piece  ;  such  a  shot  almost  invariably  has  the  effect  of  so  alarming 
the  game  as  to  make  it  run  at  its  very  best  rate  of  speed, 
and.  upon  com'ng  up  with  the  tracks  they  have  left  on  the 
snow  at  such  times,  I  have  been  surprised  at  the  distances  they 
can  clear  at  each  individual  leap.  Under  these  conditions  I 
once  measured  the  spaces  cleared  by  an  old  Mexican  hare,  and 
found  the  first  two  eciualled  12  feet  apiece,  while  the  third  effort 
was  rather  more  than  13  feet,  and  I  ha\e  never  known  this 
species  to  exceed  this,  although  I  have  tested  not  a  few  of  them. 
Of  course  the  rabbit  cannot  compete  with  such  magnificent 
gymnastics  as  this  :  it  will,  however,  when  thus  frightened, 
make  leaps  of  fully  6  feet  ;  and  on  one  occasion  I  measured  one 
on  the  dead-level  prairie,  which  w.as  rather  more  than  7  feet. 
At  their  common  rate  of  going,  the  hare  rai'ely  clears  more  than 
4  feet  at  any  single  leap,  while  the  rabbit  is  satisfied  with  rather 
more  than  2  feet,  and,  when  quietly  feeding  about  the  sage- 
brush, the  tracks  made  by  an  individual  of  either  species  may 
actually  overlap  each  other.  R.  W.  Shufeldt. 

Fort  Wingate,  New  Mexic^,  December  6,  1887. 


A  NEW  MAGNETIC  SURVEY  OF  FRANCE} 

THE  first  systematic 'series  of  magnetic  observati(  ns 
made  in  France  was  undertaken  by  Lamont,  who 
in  1856  and  1857  determined  the  absolute  value  of  the 
different  elements  at  forty-four  stations.  The  results  are 
contained  in  his  "  Uniersuchungen  liber  die  Richtung 
und  Starke  der  Erdmagnetismus  an  Verschiedenen 
Puncten  des  Siidwestlichen  Europa,"  and  are  reduced  to 
three  mean  epochs:  declination  to  March  1854;  hori- 
zontal component  to  June  1848  ;  and  dip  to  the  August  of 
the  same  year.  In  1868  and  1S69  the  Rev.  Father  Perry 
made  a  second  series  of  observations  of  the  intensity  and 
direction  of  the  earth's  magnetic  force  at  thirty-three 
stations  in  France  (Phil.  Trans.,  vols.  clx.  and  clxii.). 
Determinations  of  declination  have  also  been  made  at 
about  twenty  stations  by  MM.  Marie-Davy  and  Descroix 
in  1S75  ;  and  declination,  dip,  and  intensity  have  been 
observed  by  M.  de  Bernardi&res  at  various  points  along 

'  'Determination  des  Elements  Magne'tiq-.es  en  France."  Ouvraee  accom- 
pagr.e' de  nouvelles  Carles  Magnetiques  drestcts  pour  le  ler  Janvier.  1885 
Par  M.  Th.  >[oureaux,  Mete'orol  giste-Adjoint  au  Bureau  Centra!,  Charge 


du    Service    Magr.etique 
Gauthier-Viliars,  1886.) 


a   I'Observatoire    du    Pare  Saint-Maur.     (Paris  ; 


248 


NATURE 


\yan.  12,  I 


the  Mediterranean  littoral.  These  observations  comprised 
all  that  was  known  respecting  the  distribution  of  the 
magnetic  elements  and  rate  of  secular  change  in  France 
prior  to  the  appearance  of  the  important  work  which 
forms  the  subject  of  this  notice. 

The  observations  of  M.  Moureaux  were  undertaken 
at  the  instigation  of  M.  Mascart,  the  Director  of  the 
Meteorological  Observatory  of  the  Pare  Saint  Maur,  and 
were  made  during  the  years  1884  and  1885.  A  few 
observations  made  in  1882  by  M.  Mascart  and  M. 
Moureaux  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  Pyrenees  are  also 
included.     A  description  of  the  instruments  employed,  of 


the  methods  of  observation,  together  with  a  detailed 
account  of  the  results  obtained  from  about  eighty 
stations,  fairly  well  distributed  over  France,  constitute 
the  subject-matter  of  this  memoir. 

As  the  instruments  employed  by  M.  Moureaux  differ  in 
some  important  particularsfrom  those  which  are  ordinarily 
employed  for  field-work  by  us,  it  may  be  desirable  to 
point  out  their  peculiarities.  The  instruments  which  are 
mainly  made  use  of  in  this  country,  and  which  have  been 
employed  by  English  observers  who  have  made  magnetic 
surveys  in  other  parts  of  the  world  during  the  last  quarter 
of  a  century,  are  of  what  is  known  as  the  Kew  pattern, 


Portable  Magnetoir.cter.     B,  magnet ;  E,  apparatus 


for  steadying  magnet ;  N,  level  ;  M  M',  read.ng  microscopes  ;  L,  telescope  ;\iv,  torsion  head  ; 
K,  bar  fjr  deflection  experiments. 


and  embody  the  results  of  the  experience  of  such  practical 
magneticians  as  Lloyd,  Sabine,  Airy,  Welsh,  Balfour 
Stewart,  Whipple,  and  others.  Indeed  it  may  be  said 
that  almost  every  observer  who  has  made  any  extensive 
series  of  measurements  of  terrestrial  magnetism  has  influ- 
enced the  construction  of  the  Kew  magnetometer,  and 
there  is  no  question  that  this  instrument,  although  not 
absolutely  perfect,  has  now  reached  a  very  high  degree  of 
excellence.  In  some  respects,  however,  the  magnetometer 
employed  by  M.  Moureaux  possesses  advantages  over  the 
Kew  pattern,  and  these  are  especially  evident  in  surveys 
over  rough  and  difficult  country,  and  where  the  means  of 


transport  are  limited.  In  the  matter  of  weight  alone  there 
is  a  considerable  difterence.  A  Kew  magnetometer,  in 
its  box  complete,  and  exclusive  of  the  deflection  bar, 
which  is  now  usually  carried  in  a  hollow  leg  of  the  tripod, 
weighs  nearly  50  pounds,  whereas  that  of  the  French 
observersweighs  only  about  9  pounds.  A  further  advantage 
possessed  by  the  French  model  is  that  it  is  also  an  alt- 
azimuth instrument,  and  hence  the  observer  is  less 
dependent  upon  the  knowledge  of  true  time,  afforded  by 
his  chronometer,  in  determining  the  geographical  meridian 
in  a  declination  observation  than  he  is  with  the  English 
instrument.     In  the  magnetic  survey  of  Scotland  made 


Jan.  12,  i888] 


NATURE 


249 


by  Welsh  in  1857-58  it  was  necessary  to  make  use  of  a 
special  altazimuth  instrument,  or  of  a  sextant  and  artificial 
horizon,  in  order  to  determine  the  sun's  altitude  at  the 
time  of  observation,  and  a  similar  method  was  employed 
by  the  Rev.  P'ather  Perry  in  the  course  of  the  magnetic 
survey  of  France  to  which  reference  has  already  been 
made.  Thanks  to  the  admirable  arrangement  of  our 
Post  Office  by  which  signals  givini^  Greenwich  mean 
time  are  sent  to  all  the  postal  telegraph  stations  in  the 
United  Kingdom,  it  is  possible  for  an  observer  engaged 
in  magnetic  work  in  the  British  Isles  to  determine  the 
error  and  rate  of  his  chronometer  with  an  accuracy 
sufficient  to  enable  him  to  dispense  with  the  labour  and 
trouble  involved  in  the  use  of  an  altazimuth  instrument. 
But  unfortunately  Greenwich  mean  time  is  not  yet  flashed 
all  over  the  world,  and  a  surveyor  making  use  of  the  Kew 
magnetometer  in  distant  countries  would  be  under  the 
necessity  of  making  independent  observations  for  solar 


altitude,  and  hence  of  adding  to  his  iinpedimenta  some 
such  arrangement  as  those  used  in  former  surveys.  Nor 
does  this  diminution  in  weight  of  the  French  instrument 
materially  influence  the  accuracy  of  the  observations,  at 
all  events  so  far  as  declination  is  concerned.  It  is  hardly 
possible  with  the  English  instrument,  even  under  favour- 
able conditions,  to  obtain  a  declination  observation 
which  shall  be  accurate  to  within  2'.  And  yet,  so  far  as 
an  analysis  of  the  data  given  by  M.  Moureaux  enables  us 
to  judge,  his  instrument,  of  which  the  circle  is  only 
o  oS  m.  in  diameter,  gives  results  which  are  in  at  least  as 
close  accordance  with  the  truth.  The  method  of  observa- 
tion which  M.  Moureaux  adopts  in  determining  the  mag- 
netic meridian  allows  him  to  read  the  position  of  both 
ends  of  the  magnet  both  when  erect  and  inverted  in  its 
stirrup.  The  magnets  are  solid  and  cylindrical  in  form, 
65  cm.  in  length  and  04  cm.  in  diameter,  and  weigh 
about  7i  grammes,  and  are  suspended  by  a  single  thread 


Iclinometer.    m  m,  reading  microscopes ;  i.,  lifting  apparatus  for  needle  ;  i,  dipping  needle  ;  c,  cover  ;  n,  level. 


■of  silk  01 1  m.  in  length.  The  ends  of  the  magnets  are 
made  slightly  concave,  and  are  p^lished  so  as  to  reflect 
the  cross-wire  placed  in  each  of  the  microscope^,  through 
which  the  readings  for  position  are  made.  Each 
determination  of  geographical  meridian  is  the  mean 
result  of  from  four  to  six  independent  observations, 
which  rarely  differ  among  themselves  by  more  than  i' 
of  arc. 

The  same  magnet  which  serves  for  the  observation  of 
declination  is  used  as  in  the  Kew  instrument  for  the 
determination    of    the    horizontal    component,    which  is 

done,  as  with  us,  by   finding  the  relation  -    bv  Gauss's 

M      ' 

method  of  deflections,  and  the  proluct  HM  by  the 
method  of  vibrations,  whence  H  can  be  deduced.  For 
this  particular  determination  it  seems  to  us  that  the  Kew 
mode!    is    distinctly    to    be    preferred.     Indeed,    in    the 


observation  of  deflections  the  Kew  instrument  leaves  very 
little  to  be  desired,  provided  that  care  is  taken  to  avoid. 
sudden  alterations  of  temperature,  say  by  exposure  to 
sunshine.  The  main  error  in  the  estimation  of  the  period 
of  vibration  of  the  magnet  also  arises  from  the  uncertainty 
of  its  temperature  when  observing  in  the  field.  But  in 
the  French  instrument  no  special  pains  are  taken  either 
to  ascertain  or  to  correct  for  te  nperature.  M.  Moureaux 
indeed  is  of  opinion  that,  under  the  conditions  of  observa- 
tion, the  error  committed  by  neglecting  the  correction  is 
not  greater  than  that  which  results  from  the  difficulty  of 
knowing  whether  the  temperature  of  the  magnet  is  repre- 
sented by  that  of  the  outside  thermometer.  This  is  no 
doubt  true  of  the  instrument  employed  by  the  French 
observer,  but  in  the  Kew  pattern  special  attention  is  paid 
to  this  point,  and,  although  the  arrangement  leaves  some- 
thing to  be  desired,  there  is  no  doubt  that  with  care  the 
temperature   may    be    determined    with    a    fairly    close 


2  50 


IsTATURE 


{Jan. 


12,    I 


approximation  to  truth.  Moreover,  the  method  of  deter- 
mining the  time  of  vibration  of  the  magnet  as  generally 
practised  by  English  observers  also  appears  to  us  to  be 
preferable  to  that  adopted  by  M.  Moureaux,  although  this 
has  the  advantage  of  occupying  little  time  and  therefore 
of  minimizing  the  effect  of  any  alteration  in  temperature 
during  these  observations  and  those  of  the  deflections. 

As  regards  inclination,  there  can,  we  think,  be  little 
doubt  that  the  Kew  pattern  of  dip  circle,  as  made  by 
Dover,  is  distinctly  preferable  to  that  used  in  the  French 
survey.  Indeed  in  the  latter  instrument  it  would  seem 
to  be  difficult  to  avoid  draughts  and  dust,  the  two  great 
enemies  to  accuracy  in  field  work.  Only  one  needle  of 
o'o65m.  in  length  was  used  by  M.  Moureaux,  and  the 
memoir  gives  no  direct  evidence  of  the  degree  of  accuracy 
of  which  it  was  capable.  Still  M.  Moureaux's  instrument 
has  the  merit  of  portability,  since,  when  packed  in  its  box, 
it  weighs  less  than  2  kilos. 

As  regards  the  plan  of  operations,  we  cannot  speak  too 
highly.  Every  care  seems  to  have  been  taken,  by  a  pre- 
liminary study  of  the  ground,  to  select  stations  which 
should  be  as  free  as  possible  from  any  local  disturbance, 
such  as  the  proximity  of  railway-lines,  manufactories,  &c. 
It  would,  however,  have  added  to  the  completeness  of  INI. 
Moureaux's  work  if  to  the  description  of  the  stations 
there  had  been  given  some  account  of  their  general 
geological  character  and  of  that  of  the  districts  in  the 
immediate  neighbourhood,  since,  as  is  well  known,  the 
presence  of  igneous  rocks  or  of  rocks  containing  magnetic 
oxide  of  iron  is  the  chief  cause  of  local  disturbance. 

M.  Moureaux  began  operations  at  each  station,  as  a 
rule,  at  the  commendably  early  hour  of  7  a.m.,  so  as 
to  secure  the  determination  of  the  magnetic  meridian 
when  the  diurnal  variation  in  declination  was  at  about  its 
morning  minimum  and  nearly  stationary.  The  observa- 
tions for  the  geographical  meridian  were  made  between 
8.30  and  9  a.m.  ;  that  is,  at  about  the  best  period  for  the 
observation.  The  determination  of  the  horizontal  com- 
ponent was  next  made,  a  set  of  swings  being  taken  before 
and  after  the  deflection  observations,  all  of  which  were 
completed  by  about  10.30  a.m.  Between  this  time  and 
noon  was  occupied  in  the  dip  observations.  When  the 
circumstances  of  travel  or  of  weather  made  a  departure 
from  this  plan  necessary,  the  observations  of  declination 
were  made  either  at  the  time  of  maximum  of  diurnal 
variation  or  at  about  the  time  of  evening  minimum— say 
between  5  anrl.  6  p.m. 

The  results  of  the  various  observations  are  presented 
with  that  elegance  and  clearness  which  is  characteristic 
of  the  publications  of  the  Bureau  Central  Meteorologique. 
They  are  all  referred  to  the  Pare  Saint- Maur  as  a  base 
station,  by  direct  comparisons  with  the  photographic 
curves  of  the  registering  apparatus  at  work  in  the  mag- 
netic observatory  •  and  are  reduced  to  the  mean  epoch 
January  i,  1885,  by  adding  the  difference  between  the 
values  obtained  at  the  different  stations  and  Pare  Saint- 
Maur  at  the  time  of  observation  to  the  corresponding 
values  at  Pare  Saint- Maur  on  January  i,  1885,  obtained 
from  the  mean  of  the  observations  made  there  in 
December  1884  and  January  1885.  This  method  pre- 
supposes that  the  diurnal  variation  is  of  the  same  order 
throughout  the  whole  of  France,  which  is  not  strictly 
true,  but  the  error  resulting  from  this  mode  of  treatment 
is  probably  not  greater  than  the  errors  of  the  observa- 
tions themselves. 

The  final  values  are  then  tabulated  and  compared 
with  the  values  obtained  for  the  same  places  as  deduced 
from  the  curves  given  by  Lamont,  and  in  this  way  a 
measure  of  the  secular  change  is  obtained.  The  results 
are  finally  plotted  in  the  form  of  maps  on  Mercator's 
projection,  giving  lines  of  equal  declination,  force  (hori- 
zontal component),  and  dip,  and  there  is,  lastly,  a  map  of 
magnetic  meridians.  As  to  the  methods  employed  in 
the  construction  of  these  maps  there  are  unfortunately  no 


details.  It  would  seem  that  the  lines  are  simply  free- 
hand curves,  so  drawn  as  to  best  represent  the  observa- 
tional results.  There  is  at  least  no  evidence  that  the 
results  have  been  combined,  as  is  the  practice  among 
English  magneticians,  so  as  to  obtain  the  most  probable 
direction  of  the  lines  by  calculation,  and  therefore  inde- 
pendently of  bias  on  the  part  of  the  map-maker.  M. 
Moureaux  moreover  offers  us  no  direct  means  of  com- 
paring the  values  as  taken  out  from  his  curves  with  the 
actual  values  obtained  at  the  various  stations.-  The 
maps,  however,  show  certain  points  of  interest  which 
may  be  thus  briefly  summarized  : — 

(i)  In  the  north  of  France  the  declination  varies  about 
30'  for  each  degree  of  longitude  ;  this  proportion  decreases 
in  the  south.  The  difference  in  declination  between  two 
points  at  a  given  distance  apart  on  the  same  parallel 
increases  with  the  latitude,  and  the  isogonal  lines  are 
closer  together  in  the  north  than  in  the  south.  The  most 
remarkable  feature  in  the  declination  map  is  the  form  of 
the  curves  in  Brittany  and  more  especially  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  Rennes.  Their  regularity  is  broken  in  such 
manner  as  to  suggest  that  they  are  modified  by  the  par- 
ticular trend  of  the  coast-line.  Throughout  the  whole  of 
the  north-west  portion  of  France  the  declination  is  less 
than  would  be  expected  from  the  direction  and  character 
of  the  lines  over  the  rest  of  the  Continent.  A  comparison 
with  Lamont's  map  for  1854  shows  that  the  declination 
has  diminished  during  the  thirty  years  by  about  3"  58'  in 
the  north,  and  by  about  3°  19' in  the  south  of  France. 
The  mean  annual  decrease  in  declination  seems  to 
increase  pretty  regularly  from  south-south-east  to  north- 
north-west,  or  in  a  direction  approximating  to  that  of  the 
magnetic  north  ;  hence  the  curves  of  equal  declination 
have  not  been  displaced,  by  time,  parallel  to  themselves, 
but  have  gradually  approached  to  the  direction  of  the 
geographical  meridian. 

(2)  The  map  of  lines  of  equal  horizontal  component 
shows  that  the  minimum,  018460  (C.G.S.  units),  is 
observed  at  Dunkirk,  and  the  maximum,  o'22i24,  at 
Perpignan,  or  a  difference  of  003654  for  the  interval  of 
8^  of  latitude  which  separates  the  two  points.  The 
maximum  rate  of  decrease  of  the  horizontal  component 
takes  place  in  a  direction  approximating  to  that  of  the 
magnetic  meridian.  The  decrease  is  more  rapid  in  the 
south  than  in  the  north,  and  the  interval  between  two 
consecutive  curves  increases  pretty  regularly  with  the 
latitude.  The  direction  of  these  lines,  like  those  of 
declination,  seems  to  be  modified  towards  the  north-west 
of  France,  in  such  manner  that  the  line  corresponding  to 
o'i9o  is  nearly  straight  and  does  not  bend  to  the  south  as 
do  the  others.  At  places  in  the  extreme  north-west  of 
France  the  value  of  the  horizontal  component  is  therefore 
greater  than  the  general  direction  of  the  other  lines 
would  indicate  should  be  the  case.  A  comparison  with 
Lamont's  map  for  1848  shows  that  the  horizontal  com- 
ponent has  increased  from  about  oooS  to  0010  in  abso- 
lute value  during  the  thirty-six  years.  The  lines  of  equal 
horizontal  component  have  not  been  displaced  parallel  to 
themselves,  but  are  more  inclined  towards  the  east,  so  as 
to  approach  the  direction  of  the  geographical  parallels. 
The  secular  change  is  at  its  maximum  in  the  west,  and 
diminishes  slightly  towards  the  east. 

(3)  The  map  of  isoclinals  shows  that  these  lines  have 
sensibly  the  same  orientation  as  the  lines  of  equal  hori- 
zontal component ;  i.e.  these  are  very  nearly  normal  to 
the  direction  of  the  magnetic  needle.  Whilst  the  inclina- 
tion diminishes  in  general  towards  the  south,  the  interval 
between  two  consecutive  curves  decreases  pretty  regu- 
larly with  the  latitude.  The  direction  of  the  lines 
corresponding  to  66°  and  67'  seems  to  be  slightly 
modified  as  they  cross  the  north-west  part  of  France,  as 
are  the  lines  of  equal  horizontal  component.  During  the 
thirty-six  years  which  have  intervened  since  the  date  of 
Lamont's  map,  the  dip  has  decreased  by  about   i''  35'  in 


J 


an.  12, 


1 888] 


NA  TURE 


2^1 


the  north  and  by  about  2"  in  tlie  south,  and,  like  the  lines 
of  horizontal  component,  the  isoclinals  have  not  been 
displaced  parallel  to  themselves,  but  in  a  direction 
approximating  to  that  of  the  parallels  of  latitude.  The 
secular  change  is  least  in  the  north  east  and  gradually 
ncreases  towards  the  south,  and  attains  its  maximum 
dong  the  Pyrenees  and  towards  the  Gulf  cf  Genoa. 

M.  iMoureaux  is  to  be  congratulate ;l  on  the  results  of  his 
work,  for  his  countrymen  have  hitherto  scarcely  contributed 
their  fair  share  to  our  knowledge  of  terrestrial  magnetism. 
Even  the  surveys  of  their  own  country  have  been  made 
for  them  by  Germans  and  Englishmen.  Now  that 
Frenchmen  themselves  have  made  a  beginning,  it  is  to 
be  hoped  that  the  continuity  of  the  work  will  not  be 
interrupted,  for  it  is  only  by  systematic  survey  work  of 
the  kind  so  successfully  accomplished  by  AI.  iMoureaux 
that  our  knowledge  of  the  magnetic  state  of  the  earth  and 
)f  the  laws  which  regulate  its  cha-iges  can  be  elucidated. 

T.  E.  Thorpe. 


TIMBER,  AND  SOME  OF  ITS  DISEASES} 

IV. 

T)  EFORE  proceeding  further  it  v/ill  be  of  advantage  to 
-L'  describe  another  tree-killing  fungus,  which  has  long 
been  well  known  to  mycologists  as  one  of  the  commonest  ot 
our  toadstools  growing  from  rotten  stumps,  and  decaying 
wood-work  such  as  old  water-pipes,  bridges,  &c.  This  is 
A^arkies  melleiis  (Fig.  15),  a  tawny  yellow  toadstool  with 


KiG.  15  — A  small  group  of  A  ;a'iiiis  {Ar./tillaria.)  vielleus.  The  toad-stool 
is  tawny-yell  )w,  and  proiuc:s  white  spores;  the  gills  are  decurrent, 
and  the  stem  b^ari  a  ring.  The  fine  ha'.r-Iik;  append  iges  on  the  pileus 
should  be  bolder. 

a  ring  round  its  stem,  and  its  gills  running  down  on  the 
stem  and  bearing  white  spores,  and  which  springs  in  tufts 
from  the  base  of  dead  and  dying  trees  during  September 
and  October.  It  is  very  common  in  this  country,  and 
CortI;iiied  f.om  p.  229. 


\  have  often  found  it  on  beeches  and  other  trees  in 
Surrey,  but  it  has  been  regarded  as  simply  springing  from 
the  dead  rotten  wood,  &c.,  at  the  base  of  the  tree.  As  a 
matter  of  fact,  however,  this  toadstool  is  traced  to  a  series 
of  dark  shining  strings,  looking  almost  like  the  purple- 
black  leaf-stalks  of  the  maidenhair  fern,  and  these  strings 
branch  and  meander  in  the  wood  of  the  tree,  and  in  the 
soil,  and  may  attain  even  great  lengths— several  feet,  for 
instance.  The  interest  of  all  this  is  enhanced  when  wo 
know  that  until  the  last  {(t\\  years  these  long  black  cords 
were  supposed  to  be  a  peculiar  form  of  fungus,  and  were 
known  as  Rhizoniorpha.  They  are,  however,  the  subter- 
ranean vegetative  parts  (mycelium)  of  the  Agaric  we  are 
concerned  v/ith,  and  they  can  be  traced  without  break  of 
continuity  from  the  base  of  the  toadstool  into  the  soil  and 
tree  (Fig.  16).  I  have  several  times  followed  these  dark 
mycelial  cords  into  the  timber  of  old  beeches  and  spruce- 
fir  stumps,  but  they  are  also  to  be  found  in  oaks,  plums, 
various  Conifers,  and  probably  may  occur  in  most  of  our 
timber-trees  if  opportunity  offers. 

Th2  most  important  point  in  this  connection  is  that 
Agarlcus  inelleus  becomes  in  these  cases  a  true  parasite, 


Fig.  16.— Sketch  of  the  base  of  a  young  tree  (jr),  killed  by  Agarlcris  iitelieus, 
which  has  attacked  the  roots,  and  devel  )ped  rhizomorphs  at  r,  and 
f/uctificatiins.  To  t!ie  right  the  f/uctifications  have  been  traced  by 
dissection  to  the  rhizomorph  stranJs  which  produced  them. 

producing  fatal  disease  in  the  attacked  timber-trees,  and, 
as  Hartig  has  conclusively  proved,  spreading  from  one 
tree  to  another  by  means  of  the  rhizomorphs  underground. 
Only  this  last  summer  I  had  an  opportunity  of  witnessing, 
on  a  large  scale,  the  damage  that  can  be  done  to  timber 
by  this  fungus.  Hundreds  of  spruce-firs  with  fine  tall 
stems,  growing  on  the  hill  sides  of  a  valley  in  the 
Bavarian  Alps,  were  shown  to  me  as  "victims  to  a  kind 
of  rot."  In  most  cases  the  trees  (which  at  first  sight 
appeared  only  slightly  unhealthy)  gave  a  hollow  sound 
when  struck,  and  the  foresters  told  me  that  nearly  every 
tree  was  rotten  at  the  core.  I  had  found  the  mycelium 
of  Agarlcus  Jiielleus  in  the  rotting  stumps  of  previously 
felled  trees  all  up  and  down  the  same  valley,  but  it  was 
not  satisfactory  to  simply  assume  that  the  "rot"  was  the 
same  in  both  cases,  though  the  foresters  assured  me  it 
was  so. 

By  the  kindness  of  tlie  forest  manager  I  was  allowed 
to  fell  one  of  these  trees.  It  was  chosen  at  hazard,  after 
the  men  had  struck  a  large  number,  to  show  me  how 
easily  the  hollow  trees  could  be  detected  by  the  sound. 


2:^2 


NATURE 


[yau.  12,  I 


The  tree  was  felled  by  sawing  close  to  the  roots  :  the 
interior  was  hollow  for  several  feet  up  the  stem,  and  two 
of  the  main  roots  were  hollow  as  far  as  we  could  poke 
canes,  and  no  doubt  further.  The  dark-coloured  rotting 
mass  around  the  hollow  was  wet  and  spongy,  and  consisted 
of  disintegrated  wood  held  together  by  a  mesh-work  of 
the  rhizomorphs.  Further  outwards  the  wood  was  yellow, 
with  white  patches  scattered  in  the  yellow  matrix,  and, 
again,  the  rhizomorph-strands  were  seen  running  in  all 
directions  through  the  mass. 

Not  to  follow  this  particular  case  further — since  we  are 
concerned  with  the  general  features  of  the  diseases  of  I 
timber — I  may  pass  to  the  consideration  of  the  diagnosis  [ 
of  this  disease  caused  by  Agan'cus  vicllciis,  as  contrasted  j 
with  that  due  to  Traineies  radiciperda.  \ 

Of  course  no  botanist  would  confound  the  fructification 
of  the  Tramctes  with  that  of  the  Agaricus ;  but  the  fructifi- 
cations of  such  fungi  only  appear  at  certain  seasons,  and 
that  of  Tramctes  radiciperda  may  be  underground,  and 
it  is  important  to  be  able  to  distinguish  such  forms  in  the 
absence  of  the  fructifications. 

The  external  symptoms  of  the  disease,  where  young 
trees  are  concerned,  are  similar  in  both  cases.  In  a 
plantation  at  Freising,  in  Bavaria,  Prof.  Hartig  showed 
me  young  Weymouth  pines  {P.  Strobiis)  attacked  and 
killed  by  Ai^aricus  ntel/eus.  The  leaves  turn  pale  and 
yellow,  and  the  lower  part  of  the  stem  —the  so-called 
"collar'' — begins  to  die  and  rot,  the  cortex  above  still 
looking  healthy.  So  far  the  symptoms  might  be  those 
due  to  the  destructive  action  of  other  forms  of  tree-killing 
fungi. 

On  uprooting  a  young  pine,  killed  or  badly  attacked  by 
the  Agaric,  the  roots  are  found  to  be  matted  together  with 
a  ball  of  earth  permeated  by  the  resin  which  has  flowed  out  : 
this  is  very  pronounced  in  the  cise  of  some  pines,  less  so 
in  others.  On  lifting  up  the  scales  of  the  bark,  there  will 
be  found,  not  the  silky,  white,  delicate  mycelium  of  the 
Tramctes,  but  probably  the  dark  cord-like  rhizomorphs  : 
there  may  also  be  flat  white  rhizomorphs  in  the  young 
stages,  but  they  are  easily  distinguished.  These  dark 
rhizomorphs  may  also  be  found  spreading  around  into  the 
soil  from  the  roots,  and  they  look  so  much  like  thin  roots 
indeed  that  we  can  at  once  understand  their  name — 
rhizomorpb.  The  presence  of  the  rhizomorphs  and  (in  the 
case  of  the  resinous  pines)  the  outflow  of  resin  and  stick- 
ing together  of  soil  and  roots  are  good  distinctive  features. 
No  less  evident  are  the  differences  to  be  found  on 
examining  the  diseased  timber,  as  exemplified  by  Prof 
Hartig's  magnificent  specimens.  The  wood  attacked 
assumes  brown  and  bright  yellow  colours,  and  is  marked 
by  sharp  brown  or  nearly  black  lines,  bounding  areas  of 
one  colour  and  separating  them  from  areas  of  another 
colour.  In  some  cases  the  yellow  colour  i?  quite  bright — 
canary  yello-v,  or  nearly  so.  The  white  areas  scattered 
in  this  yellow  matrix  have  no  black  specks  in  them,  and 
can  thus  be  distinguished  from  those  due  to  the  Tramctes. 
In  advanced  stages  the  purple-black  rhizomorphs  will  be 
found  in  the  soft,  spongy  wood. 

The  great  danger  of  Agaricus  melieus  is  its  power  of  ex- 
tending itself  beneath  the  soil  by  means  of  the  spreading 
rhizomorphs  :  these  are  known  to  reach  lengths  of  several 
feet,  and  to  pass  from  root  to  root,  keeping  a  more  or  less  ! 
horizontal  course  at  a  depth  of  6  or  8  inches  or  so  in  the  | 
ground.     On  reaching  the  root  of  another  tree,  the  tips  of  j 
the  branched  rhizomorph  penetrate  the  living  cortex,  and  [ 
grow  forward  in  the  plane  of  the  cambium,  sending  off  | 
smaller  ramifications  into  the  medullary  rays  and  (in  the  \ 
case    of  the   pines,  &c.)  into    the    resin  passages.     The  j 
hyphae  of  the  ultimate  twigs  enter  the  tracheides,  vessels,  i 
&c.,  of  the  wood,  and  delignify  them,  with  changes  of  j 
colour  and  substance  as  described.     Reference  must  be 
made  to  Prof  Hartig's  publications  for  the  details  which  : 
serve  to  distinguish  histologically  between  timber  attacked 
by  Agaricus  melieus  and  by    Tramctes  or  other  fungi.  ■ 


Enough  has  been  said  to  show  that  diagnosis  is  possible, 
and  indeed,  to  an  expert,  not  difficult. 

It  is  at  leas);  clear  from  the  above  sketch  that  we  cm  ' 
distinguish  these  two  kinds  of  diseases  of  timber,  and  it 
will  be  seen  on  re:lection  that  this  depends  on  know- 
ledge of  the  structure  and  functions  of  the  timber  and 
cambium  on  the  one  hand,  and  proper  acquaintance  with 
the  biology  of  the  fungi  on  the  other.  It  is  the  victory  of 
the  fungus  over  the  timber  in  the  struggle  for  existence 
which  brings  about  the  disease  ;  and  one  who  is  ignorant 
of  these  points  will  be  apt  to  go  astray  in  any  reasonini^ 
which  concerns  the  whole  question.  Anyone  knowing 
the  facts  and  understanding  their  bearings,  on  the 
contrary,  possesses  the  key  to  a  reasonable  treatment  of 
the  timber  ;  and  this  is  important,  because  the  two 
diseases  referred  to  can  be  eradicated  from  young  planta- 
tions and  the  areas  of  their  ravages  limited  in  older 
forests. 

Suppose,  for  example,  a  plantation  presents  the  follow- 
ing case.  A  tree  is  found  to  turn  sickly  and  die,  with 
the  symptoms  described,  and  trees  immediately  surround- 
ing it  are  turning  yellow.  The  first  tree  is  at  once  cut 
down,  and  its  roots  and  timber  examined,  and  the 
diagnosis  shows  the  ^restncG  oi  Agaric i/s  melieus  or  of 
Tramctes  radiciperda,  as  the  case  may  be.  Knowing  this, 
the  expert  also  knows  more.  If  the  timber  is  being 
destroyed  by  the  Tramctes,  he  knows  that  the  ravaging 
agent  can  travel  from  tree  to  tree  by  means  of  roots 
in  contact,  and  he  at  once  cuts  a  ditch  around  the 
diseased  area,  taking  care  to  include  the  recently-infected 
and  neighbouring  trees.  Then  the  diseased  timber  is 
cut,  because  it  will  get  worse  the  longer  itstmds,  and  the 
diseased  parts  burnt.  \i  Agaricus  melieus  is  the  destroy- 
ing agent,  a  similar  procedure  is  necessary  ;  but  regard 
must  be  had  to  the  much  more  extensiv^e  wanderings  of 
the  rhizomorphs  in  the  soil,  and  it  may  be  imperative  to 
cut  the  moat  round  more  of  the  neighbouring  trees. 
Nevertheless,  it  has  also  to  be  remembered  that  the 
rhizomorphs  run  not  far  below  the  surface.  However, 
my  purpose  here  is  not  to  treat  this  subject  in  detail, 
but  to  indicate  the  lines  along  which  practical  applica- 
tion of  the  truths  of  botanical  science  may  be  looked 
for.  The  reader  who  wishes  to  go  further  into  the  sub- 
ject may  consult  special  works.  Of  course  the  spores 
are  a  source  of  danger,  but  need  be  by  no  means  so 
much  so  where  knowledge  is  intelligently  applied  in 
removing  young  fructifications. 

I  will  now  pass  on  to  a  few  remarks  on  a  class  of 
disease-producing  timber  fungi  which  present  certain 
peculiarities  in  their  biology.  The  two  fungi  which  have 
been  described  are  true  parasites,  attackmg  the  roots 
of  living  trees,  and  causing  disease  in  the  timber  by 
travelling  up  the  cambium,  &c.,  into  the  stem  :  the  fungi 
I  am  about  to  refer  to  are  termed  wound-parasites, 
because  they  attack  the  timber  of  trees  at  the  surfaces 
of  wounds,  such  as  cut  branches,  torn  bark,  frost-cracks, 
&c  ,  and  spread  from  thence  into  the  sound  timber.  When 
we  are  reminded  how  many  sources  of  clanger  are  here 
open  in  the  shape  of  wounds,  there  is  no  room  for  wonder 
that  such  fungi  as  these  are  so  widely  spread.  Squirrels, 
rats,  cattle,  &c.,  nibble  or  rub  off  bark  ;  snow  and  dew 
break  branches  ;  insects  bore  into  stems  ;  wind,  hail,  &c., 
injure  young  parts  of  trees  ;  and  in  fact  small  wounds  are 
formed  in  such  quantities  that  if  the  fructifications  of  such 
fungi  as  those  referred  to  are  permitted  to  ripen  indis- 
criminately, the  wonder  is  not  that  access  to  the  timber 
is  gained,  but  rather  that  a  tree  of  any  considerable  age 
escapes  at  all. 

One  of  the  commonest  of  these  is  Polyporus  sulphureus, 
which  does  great  injury  to  all  kinds  of  standing  timber, 
especially  the  oak,  poplar,  willow,  hazel,  pear,  larch,  and 
others.  It  is  probably  well  known  to  all  foresters,  as  its 
fructification  projects  horizontally  from  the  diseased 
trunks  as  tiers  of  bracket-shaped  bodies  of  a  cheese-like 


Jan.  12,  1888J 


NATURE 


25, 


consistency ;  bright  yellow  below,  where  the  numerous 
minute  pores  are,  and  orange  or  somewhat  vermilion 
above,  giving  the  substance  a  coral-like  appearance.  I 
have  often  seen  it  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Englefield 
Green  and  Windsor,  and  it  is  very  common  in  England 
generally. 

If  the  spore  of  this  Polyporus  lodges  on  a  wound  which 
exposes  the  cambium  and  young  wood,  the  filaments 
grow  into  the  medullary  rays  and  the  vessels,  and  soon 
spread  in  all  directions  in  the  timber,  especially  longi- 
tudinally, causing  the  latter  to  assume  a  warm  brown 
colour  and  to  undergo  decay.  In  the  infested  timber  are 
to  be  observed  radial  and  other  crevices  filled  with  the 
dense  felt-like  mycelium  formed  by  the  common  growth 
of  the  innumerable  branched  filaments.  In  bad  cases  it 
is  possible  to  strip  sheets  of  this  yellowish  white  felt-work 
out  of  the  cracks,  and  on  looking  at  the  timber  more 
closely  (of  the  oak,  for  instance)  the  vessels  are  found  to 
be  filled  with  the  fungus  filaments,  and  look  like  long 
white  streaks  in  longitudinal  sections  of  the  wood — 
showing  as  white  dots  in  transverse  sections. 

It  is  not  necessary  to  dwell  on  the  details  of  the 
histology  of  the  diseased  timber  :  the  ultimate  filaments 
of  the  fungus  penetrate  the  walls  of  all  the  cells  and 
vessels,  dissolve  and  destroy  the  starch  in  the  medullary 
rays,  and  convert  the  lignified  walls  of  the  wood  elements 
back  again  into  cellulose.  This  evidently  occurs  by  some 
solvent  action,  and  is  due  to  a  ferment  excreted  from  the 
fungus  filaments,  and  the  destroyed  timber  becomes 
reduced  to  a  brown  mass  of  powder. 

1  cannot  leave  this  subject  without  referring  to  a  remark- 
ably interesting  museum  specimen  which  Prof.  Hartig 
showed  and  explained  to  me  this  summer.  This  is  a  block 
of  wood  containing  an  enormous  irregularly  spheroidal 
mass  of  the  white  felted  mycelium  of  this  fungus,  Polyporus 
sulphureus.  The  mass  had  been  cut  clean  acros^s,  and 
the  section  exposed  a  number  of  thin  brown  ovoid  bodies 
embedded  in  the  closely-woven  felt:  these  bodies  were  of 
the  size  and  shape  of  acorns,  but  were  simply  hollow 
shells  filled  with  the  same  felt-like  mycelium  as  that  in 
which  they  were  embedded.  They  were  cut  in  all  direc- 
tions, and  so  appeared  as  circles  in  some  cases.  These 
bodies  are,  in  fact,  the  outer  shells  of  so  many  acorns, 
embedded  in  and  hollowed  out  by  the  mycelium  of 
Polyporus  sulphureus.  Hartig's  ingenious  explanation 
of  their  presence  speaks  for  itself.  A  squirrel  had  stored 
up  the  acorns  in  a  hollow  in  the  timber,  and  had  not 
returned  to  them — what  tragedy  intervenes  must  be  left 
to  the  imagination.  The  Polyporus  hid  then  invaded  the 
hollow,  and  the  acorns,  and  had  dissolved  and  destroyed 
the  cellular  and  starchy  contents  of  the  latter,  leaving 
only  the  cuticularized  and  corky,  shells,  looking  exactly 
like  fossil  eggs  in  the  matrix.  I  hardly  think  geology 
can  beat  this  for  a  true  story. 

The  three  diseases  so  far  described  serve  very  well  as 
types  of  a  number  of  others  known  to  be  due  to  the 
invasion  of  timber  and  the  dissolution  of  the  walls  of  its 
cells,  fibres,  and  vessels  by  Hymenomycetous  fungi,  i.e. 
by  fungi  allied  to  the  toadstools'and  polypores.  They  all 
"  rot "  the  timber  by  destroying  its  structure  and  sub- 
stance, starting  from  the  cambium  and  medullary  rays. 

To  mention  one  or  two  additional  forms,  Trametes 
Pint  is  common  on  pines,  but,  unlike  its  truly  parasitic 
ally,  Jr.  nidiciperda,  which  attacks  sound  roots,  it  is  a 
vyound-parasite,  and  seems  able  to  gain  access  to  the 
timber  only  if  the  spores  germinate  on  exposed  surfaces. 
The  disease  it  produces  is  very  like  that  caused  by  its 
ally :  probably  none  but  an  expert  could  distinguish 
between  them,  though  the  differences  are  clear  when  the 
histology  is  understood. 

Polyporus  fulvus  is  remarkable  because  its  hyphse 
destroy  the  middle-lamella,  and  thus  isolate  the  tracheides 
in  the  timber  of  firs  ;  Polyporus  borealis  also  produces 
disease  in  the  timber  of  standing  Conifer^  ;  Polyporus 


igniarius  is  one  of  the  commonest  parasites  on  trees  such 
as  the  oak,  &c.,and  produces  in  them  a  disease  not  unlike 
that  due  to  the  last  form  mentioned  ;  Polyporus  dryadcus 
also  destroys  oaks,  and  is  again  remarkable  because  its 
hyphaj  destroy  the  middle-lamella. 

With  refereace  to  the  two  fungi  last  mentioned  I  can- 
not avoid  describing  a  specimen  in  the  Museum  of  Forest 
Botany  in  Miinich,  since  it  seems  to  have  a  possible 
bearing  on  a  very  important  question  of  biology,  viz.  the 
action  of  soluble  ferments. 

It  has  already  been  stated  that  soma  of  these  tree- 
killing  fungi  excrete  ferments  which  attack  and  dissolve 
starch-grains,  and  it  is  well  known  that  starch-grains  are 
stored  up  in  the  cells  of  thi  medullary  rays  found  in 
timber.  Now,  Polyporus  dryadcus  and  P.  igniarius  are 
such  fungi ;  their  hyph^  excrete  a  ferment  which  com- 
pletely destroys  the  starch-grains  in  the  cells  of  the 
medullary  rays  of  the  oak,  a  tree  very  apt  to  be  attacked 
by  these  two  parasites,  though  P.  igniarius,  at  any  rate, 
attacks  many  other  dicotyledonous  trees  as  well.  It 
occasionally  happens  that  an  oak  is  attacked  by  both  of 
these  Polyporei,  and  their  mycelia  become  intermingled 
in  the  timber :  when  this  is  the  case  the  starch-grains 
remain  intact  in  thosi  cells  which  are  invaded  simul- 
taneously by  the  hyphcc  of  both  fungi.  Prof.  Hartig 
lately  showed  me  longitudinal  radial  sections  of  oak- 
timber  thus  attacked,  and  the  medullary  rays  showed  up 
as  glistening  white  plates.  These  plates  consist  of  nearly 
pure  starch  :  the  hyphae  have  destroyed  the  cell-walls,  but 
left  the  starch  intact.  It  is  easy  to  suggest  that  the  two 
ferments  acting  together  exert  (with  respect  to  the  starch), 
a  sort  of  inhibitory  action  one  on  the  other ;  but  it  is  also 
obvious  that  this  is  not  the  ultimate  explanation,  and  one 
feels  that  the  matter  deserves  investigation. 

It  now  becomes  a  question— What  other  types  of  timber- 
diseases  shall  be  described?  Of  course  the  limits  of  a 
popular  article  are  too  narrow  for  anything  approaching 
an  exhaustive  treatment  of  such  a  subject,  and  nothing 
has  as  yet  been  said  of  several  other  diseases  due  to 
crust- like  fungi  often  found  on  decaying  stems,  or  of  others 
due  to  certain  minute  fungi  which  attack  healthy  roots. 
Then  there  is  a  class  of  diseases  which  commence  in  the 
bark  or  cortex  of  trees,  and  extend  thence  into  the 
cambium  and  timber :  some  of  these  "  cankers,"  as  they  are 
often  called,  are  proved  to  be  due  to  the  ravages  of  fungi, 
though  there  is  another  series  of  apparently  similar 
"cankers"  which  are  caused  by  variations  in  the  environ- 
ment— the  atmosphere  and  weather  generally. 

It  would  need  a  long  article  to  place  the  reader  au 
courant  with  the  chief  results  of  what  is  known  of  these 
diseases,  and  I  must  be  content  here  with  the  bare  state- 
ment that  these  "  cankers  "  are  in  the  main  due  to  local 
injury  or  deUruction  of  the  cambium.  If  the  normal 
cylindrical  sheet  of  cambium  is  locally  irritated  or  de- 
stroyed, no  one  can  wonder  that  the  thickening  layers  of 
wood  are  not  continued  normally  at  the  locality  in  ques- 
tion :  the  uninjured  cells  are  also  influenced,  and  abnormal 
cushions  of  tissue  formed  which  vary  in  different  cases. 
Now,  in  "cankers"  this  is — put  shortly — what  happens: 
it  may  be,  and  often  is,  due  to  the  local  action  of  a  para- 
sitic fungus  ;  or  it  may  h^ — and,  again,  often  is— owing 
to  injuries  produced  by  the  weather,  in  the  broad  sense, 
and  saprophytic  organisms  may  subsequently  invade  the 
wounds. 

The  details  as  to  how  the  injury  thus  set  up  is  propa- 
gated to  other  parts— how  the  "  canker  "  spreads  into  the 
bark  and  wood  around— a/v  details,  and  would  require 
considerable  space  for  their  description  :  the  chief  point 
here  is  again  the  destructive  action  of  mycelia  of  various 
fungi,  which  by  means  of  their  powers  of  pervading  the 
cells  and  vessels  of  the  wood,  and  of  secreting  soluble 
ferments  which  break  down  the  structure  of  the  timber, 
render  the  latter  diseased  and  unfit  for  use.  The  only 
too  well  known  larch-disease  is  a  case  in  point ;  but,  since 


254 


NA  TURE 


\yan.  12,  I 


this  is  a  subject  which  needs  a  chapter  to  itself,  I  may 
pass  on  to  more  general  remarks  on  what  we  have  learnt 
so  far. 

It  will  be  noticed  that,  whereas  such  fungi  as  Trametes 
radiciperda  and  Agariciis  melleus  axq  true  parasites  which 
can  attack  the  living  roots  of  trees,  the  other  fungi  re- 
ferred to  can  only  reach  the  interior  of  the  timber  from 
the  exposed  surfaces  of  wounds.  It  has  been  pointed  out 
along  what  lines  the  special  treatment  of  the  former  dis- 
eases must  be  followed,  and  it  only  remains  to  say  of  the 
latter  :  take  care  of  the  cortex  and  cambium  of  the  tree, 
and  the  timber  will  take  care  of  itself  It  is  unquestion- 
ably true  that  the  diseases  due  to  wound- parasites  can  be 
avoided  if  no  open  wounds  are  allowed  to  exist.  Many  a 
fine  oak  and  beech  perishes  before  its  time,  or  its 
timber  becomes  diseased  and  a  high  wind  blows  the 
tree  down,  because  the  spores  of  one  of  these  fungi 
alight  on  the  cut  or  torn  surface  of  a  pruned  or 
broken  branch.  Of  course  it  is  not  always  possible  to 
carry  out  the  surgical  operations,  so  to  speak,  which  are 
necessary  to  protect  a  tree  which  has  lost  a  limb,  and  in 
other  cases  no  doubt  those  responsible  have  to  discuss 
whether  it  costs  more  to  perform  the  operations  on  a  large 
scale  than  to  risk  the  timber.  With  these  matters  I  have 
nothing  to  do  here,  but  the  fact  remains  that  by  properly 
closing  over  open  wounds,  and  allowing  the  surrounding 
cambium  to  cover  them  up,  as  it  will  naturally  do,  the 
term  of  life  of  many  a  valuable  tree  can  be  prolonged, 
and  its  timber  not  only  prevented  from  becoming  diseased 
and  deteriorating,  but  actually  increased  in  value. 

There  is  no  need  probably  for  me  to  repeat  that,  although 
the  present  essay  deals  with  certain  diseases  of  timber  due 
to  fungi,  tliere  are  other  diseases  brought  about  entirely 
by  inorganic  agencies.  Some  of  these  were  touched  upon 
in  the  last  article,  and  I  have  already  put  before  the 
readers  of  Nature  some  remarks  as  to  how  tree;  and 
their  timber  may  suffer  from  the  roots  being  in  an 
unsuitable  medium. 

In  the  next  paper  it  is  proposed  to  deal  with  the  so- 
called  "  dry-rot"  in  timber  which  has  been  felled  and  cut 
up — a  disease  which  has  produced  much  distress  at 
various  times  and  in  various  countries. 

H.  Marshall  Ward. 

{To  be  continued.) 


PERPETUAL  MOTIONS 

T  F  we  study  the  past  in  order  to  trace  the  development 
■*■  of  machines,  we  cannot  help  being  astonished  at  the 
long  centuries  during  which  man  was  content  to  employ 
only  his  own  muscular  effort  and  that  of  animals,  instead 
of  utilizing  the  other  forces  of  Nature  to  do  his  work  ;  for 
it  is  a  striking  fact  that  it  is  during  little  more  than  the 
last  quarter  of  a  century  that  the  power  of  the  steam- 
engine  has  in  the  aggregate  become  twice  as  great  as  that 
of  the  whole  working  population  of  the  world. 

Although  the  early  history  of  the  subject  is  shrouded 
in  obscurity,  there  is  little  doubt  that  the  power  of 
water  was  the  first  to  be  employed.  We  can  easily 
imagine  that,  in  those  early  days  when  the  laws  of 
Nature  were  so  little  understood,  the  idea  would  arise 
that,  if  some  machine  could  be  contrived  which  would 
not  get  tired  like  man  or  animal,  as  machines  appeared 
to  do  when  left  to  themselves,  and,  moreover,  one  which 
did  not  depend  upon  a  capricious  and  variable  supply 
of  water,  such  a  machine  would  go  on  for  ever — in 
short,  would  have  perpetual  motion.  As  a  matter  of 
fact,  Geiger.  the  German  philologist,  has  adduced  strong 
grounds  for  believing  the  Buddhist  praying-wheels — on 
which  the  prayers  of  the  worshippers  were  fastened,  and 

Abstract  of  a  Lecture  d-ilivered  by  Pr  f.  Hele  .Shaw,  University  College, 
on  December  2  1,  1887,  in  St.  George's  Hall,  Liverpool. 


which  were  turned  by  water  power — to  be  probably  the 
first  kind  of  water  motor  :  and  at  the  same  time  the 
first  record  of  a  proposal  for  a  perpetual  motion  machine 
appears  to  be  in  the  "  Siddhanta  Ciromani,"  a  Sanskrit 
t;xt-book  on  astronomy,  in  which  a  wheel  for  this  pur- 
pose is  suggested,  having  a  number  of  closed  equidistant 
holes  half  filled  with  mercury  upon  a  zigzag  line  round 
its  rim.  No  doubt  other  suggestions  of  this  kind  were 
made  from  time  to  time,  but  writers  and  literary  men 
did  not  condescend  to  notice  them,  or  even  the  progress 
of  the  really  practical  and  useful  machines.  We  are  thus 
brought  from  that  distant  date  down  to  the  thirteenth 
century,  when  we  find  in  the  sketch-book  of  an  architect, 
Wilars  de  Honecort  (the  original  being  now  in  the  Ecole 
des  Chartres,  at  Paris),  a  drawingof  a  proposed  perpetual 
motion  machine,  with  the  statement  which,  translated, 
runs  : — "  Many  a  time  have  skilful  workmen  tried  to  con- 
trive a  wheel  that  shall  turn  of  itself:  here  is  a  way  to 
make  such  by  means  of  an  uneven  number  of  mallets  or 
by  quicksilver."  The  engraving  shows  four  majlets  upon 
what  is  evidently  meant  to  be  the  descending  side  of  the 
wheel,  and  three  upon  the  ascending  side,  the  former 
therefore  overbalancing  the  latter.  To  get  the  mallets 
into  this  desirable  position  the  top  one  on  the  descending 
side  has  evidently  been  made  to  fall  over  before  its  time  ; 
but  independently  of  this  there  is  to  the  ordinary  mind  a 
strong  suggestion  of  speedy  dissolution  in  any  structure 
a  greater  number  of  whose  parts  are  going  in  one  direc- 
tion than  in  the  other,  but  this  little  difficulty  M.  de 
Honecort  does  not  allude  to  or  discuss.  The  unevenly 
weighted  wheel  in  which  the  action  of  gravity  is  to  be 
cheated  in  some  way  or  the  other  has  appeared  in  a  great 
variety  of  forms  since,  and,  from  the  words  "many  a 
time,"  probably  before,  and  is  by  far  the  most  important 
type  of  proposed  contrivance  for  perpetual  motion. 

About  two  centuries  after  De   Honecort,   the  famous 
Leonardi  da  Vinci   gives  sketches  of  six  designs,  either 
due  to  his  own  fertile  brain  or  taken  from  other  sources, 
and  since  then  there  has  been  an    incessant  flow  of  pro- 
posals of  this  type  of  machine,  a  large  number  of  which 
are  given  in  the  work  of  Dr.  Henry  Dirks,  "  Perpetuum 
Mobile,"  and   several    in    vol.   xii.   of    the    Mechanical 
World 
The  next  class  of  proposed  machines  we  may  consider 
I  are  those  in  which  gravity  was  to  be  made  use  of  in  one 
I  direction  and  evaded  in  the  opposite,  by  the  agency  of 
I  falling  water,  amongst  these  being  the  devices  of  Schott, 
j  Scheiner,  Bockler,  and  others.      The   idea  in  all  these 
was  that  a  quantity  of  water  might  be  kept  circulating 
between   two  tanks,  one  above,  and  one  below  ;    being 
raised  to  the  upper  one  by  means  of  pumps  driven  by  a 
water-wheel  which  derived  its  motion  from  the  selfsame 
water  in  falling  the  same  distance,  there  being  a  balance 
to  the  good  in  the  form  of  extra  work  to  be  done  by  the 
wheel. 

A  third  class  of  proposals  suggests  the  application  of 
capillary  action  to  raise  the  water  instead  of  employing 
pumps,  one  of  the  earliest  being  that  of  a  Professor  of 
of  Philosophy  in  Gla5gow  about  200  years  ag:o.  In  this 
case  and  others  the  drawings  show  (in  anticipation)  the 
water  thus  raised  flowing  out  at  the  top  in  a  good  sub- 
stantial stream,  as,  for  instance,  in  the  scheme  of  Branca 
about  the  date  of  the  Professor's  production. 

The  fourth  and  last  class,  which  partook  more  of  a 
philosophic  nature,  proposed  to  employ  magnets,  the 
attraction  of  which  is  to  be  eff'e;tive  in  one  position,  and 
masked  in  another.  There  are  many  proposed  ways  of 
effecting  this,  all  equally  futile,  although  one  contrived  by 
a  shoemaker  of  Linlithgow  actually  deceived  for  a  time 
Sir  David  Brewster,  who  communicated  an  account  of  it 
to  the  Annales  de  Chimie:  In  the  simplest  a  ball  is  to  fall 
through  a  certain  distance,  so  as  to  come  into  a  posi- 
tion where  it  can  be  raised  up  an  inclined  plane  by  mag- 
netic attraction.     The  first  part  is  carried  out  in  strict 


Jan.  12,  1888] 


NATURE 


255 


accordance  with  the  programme,  but  the  ball  refuses  to 
go  through  the  second  part  without  coercion. 

Now  most  of  these  schemes  had  a  very  definite  object 
in  view,  which  was  to  obtain  motiv.e  power,  and  not  at  all 
the  innocent  philosophic  notion  of  delighting  future  ages 
by  the  sight  of  a  machine  which,  like  the  sacred  flame 
Mark  Twain  tells  of,  had  been  going  for  so  many  cen- 
turies ;  in  short,  it  was  not  to  benefit  posterity  but  them- 
selves that  perpetual  motion  seekers  worked  and  patented 
their  inventions  ;  and  thus  the  question  naturally  arises. 
Did  any  of  their  inventions  appear  to  work?  Well,  they 
did ;  and  here  we  may  divide  these  machines  into  two 
classes,  those  which  did  not  succeed,  and  those  which  did. 
The  former  are  in  a  strong  majority,  but  the  latter  are 
important  ;  and  I  will  briefly  give  an  account  of  one  case, 
perhaps  the  most  celebrated,  of  the  latter.  About  the  year 
1712  a  great  stir  was  made  on  the  Continent  by  the  appear- 
ance of  a  wonderful  machine  contrived  by  a  German 
Pole,  by  name  Jean  Ernst  Elie-Bessler,  who  apparently 
(not  perhaps  having  enough  names)  had  assumed  the 
additional  surname  Orffyreus.  This  Orffyreus  had,  it 
was  said,  contrived  upwards  of  300  perpetual  motion 
machines,  and  at  last  had  got  one  that  worked.  Kings, 
princes,  landgraves,  not  to  say  professors  and  learned 
men,  were  all  convinced  of  the  absolute  certainty  of  the 
action  of  the  machine,  and  Baron  Fischer  writes  to 
the  celebrated  Dr.  Desaguliers  as  seriously  as  Prof. 
s'Gravesande  did  to  Sir  Isaac  Newton  about  it  as  follows, 
concerning  a  visit  paid  to  this  machine  in  the  castle  of 
Wissenstein,  in  Cassel : — "  The  wheel  turns  with  astonish- 
ing rapidity.  Having  tied  a  cord  to  the  axle,  to  turn  an 
Archimedian  screw  to  raise  water,  the  wheel  then 
made  twenty  turns  a  minute.  This  I  noted  several 
times  by  my  watch,  and  I  always  found  the  same  regu- 
larity. An  attempt  to  stop  it  suddenly  would  raise  a 
man  from  the  ground.  Having  stopped  it  in  this 
manner  it  remained  stationary  (and  here  is  the  greatest 
proof  of  a  perpetual  motion).  I  commenced  the  move- 
ments very  gently  to  see  if  it  would  of  itself  regain  its 
former  rapidity,  which  I  doubted  ;  but  to  my  great 
astonishment  I  observed  that  the  rapidity  of  the  wheel 
augmented  little  by  little  until  it  made  two  turns,  and 
then  it  regained  its  former  speed.  This  experiment,  show- 
ing the  rapidity  of  the  wheel  augmented  from  the  very 
slow  movement  that  I  gave  it  to  an  extraordinary  rapid 
one,  convinces  me  more  than  if  I  had  only  seen  the  wheel 
moving  a  whole  year,  which  would  not  have  persuaded 
me  that  it  was  perpetual  motion,  because  it  might  have 
diminished  little  by  little  until  it  ceased  altogether  ;  but 
to  gain  speed  instead  of  losing  it,  and  to  increase  that 
speed  to  a  certain  degree  in  spite  of  the  resistance  of  the 
air  and  the  friction  of  the  axles,  I  do  not  see  how  any 
one  can  doubt  the  truth  of  this  action."  The  inventor 
himself  wrote  various  pamphlets — with  dedications  60 
pages  in  length  in  German — entitled,  "  DasTriumphirende 
Perpetuum  Mobile  Orffyreanum,"  and  in  Latin,  "  Tri- 
umphans  Perpetuum  Mobile  Orffyreanum."  This  machine 
worked  hard,  raising  and  lowering  stones  or  water  as 
required,  being  locked  in  a  room  ;  the  people  outside  could 
see  the  work  done  by  msans  of  a  rope  which  passed 
through  an  opening  in  the  wall,  and  this  ought  to  have 
satisfied  them.  Still,  there  were  disbelievers,  and  amongst 
others  we  find  a  M.  Crousaz  writing  as  follows  :  — "  First, 
Orffyreus  is  a  fool  ;  second,  it  is  impossible  that  a  fool  can 
have  discovered  what  such  a  number  of  clever  people  have 
searched  for  without  success ;  third,  I  do  not  believe  in 
impossibilities;  .  .  .  fifth,  the  servant  who  ran  away  from 
his  house  for  fear  of  being  strangled,  has  in  her  possession, 
in  writing,  the  terrible  oath  that  Orffyreus  made  her 
swear  ;  sixth,  he  only  had  to  have  asked  in  order  to  have 
had  this  girl  imprisoned,  until  he  had  time  to  finish 
this  machine  ;  .  .  .  eighth,  it  is  true  that  there  is  a 
machine  at  his  house,  to  which  they  give  the  name  of 
perpetual  motion,  but  that  is  a  small  one  and  cannot  be 


removed."  These  are  serious  charges  even  if  not  in 
logical  sequence,  and  before  we  conclude  the  history  of 
this  invention  we  will  examine  a  machine  which  has  been 
made  at  University  College,  which  has  certainly  surpris- 
ing properties,  although  very  simple.  It  is  now  locked, 
for  we  may  say  of  it  what  was  said  of  a  machine  about 
twenty  years  ago  by  the  Boston  Journal :—"■  It  will  not, 
nay  cannot,  stop  without  a  brake,  as  it  is  so  fixed  by 
means  of  balls  and  arms  that  the  descending  side  of  the 
wheel  is  perpetually  farther  from  the  centre  of  motion 
than  the  opposition  ascending."  That  is  just  our 
machine,  which,  started,  behaves  exactly  as  Baron 
Fischer  describes,  and  raises  a  weight  or  does  other 
work.  This  machine  is  so  constructed  as  to  enable 
complete  examination  to  be  made,  and  all  possibility  of 
unfair  play  apparently  detected,  and  yet  it  is  a  fraud,i 
as  was  that  of  Mr.  Orffyreus,  which  was  afterwards 
exposed. 

The  conclusion  we  arrive  at  is,  that  it  would  have 
been  well  for  a  great  number  of  folks  if  the  saying  due  to 
Lucretius  nearly  2000  years  ago, "  Ex  nihilo  nihil  fit,"  -  had 
been  appreciated  and  believed  in  by  them.  Thus  the 
waste  of  many  lives  of  fruitless  work  might  have  been 
avoided  not  only  in  the  past  but  even  in  the  present  day, 
for  it  is  an  astonishing  fact  that  during  the  last  twenty 
years  more  than  loo  English  and  French  patents  for 
perpetual  motion  machines  have  been  obtained  ;  in  one 
case  a  gentleman  not  very  far  from  Liverpool  having 
spent  a  very  large  sum  on  this  profitable  subject.  The 
lecturer  stated  that  the  other  day  he  had  a  visit  in  propria 
persona  from  an  inventor  of,  and  of  course  believer  in, 
such  a  machine,  and  after  having  for  an  hour  and  a  half 
discussed  the  question  with  this  gentleman  as  calmly  as 
was  possible  under  the  circumstance?,  he  had  grounds 
for  feeling  that  his  lecture  would  be  utterly  incomplete  if 
he  left  the  subject  content  with  raising  a  laugh  at  the 
whole  matter  :  not  so  very  long  ago  it  was  easy  enough 
to  do  this  at  the  expense  of  railways  and  ocean  steamers. 
He  would  therefore  briefly  and  simply,  but  he  hoped 
conclusively,  state  the  general  nature  of  the  problem  of 
perpetual  motion.  Firstly,  all  machines  such  as  we  have 
seen  projected  for  creating  power  are  as  impossible  as  the 
idea  of  creating  matter.  Secondly,  many  machines  have 
been  projected  for  using  sources  of  energy,  such  as  heat, 
as  proposed  by  Desaguliers,  and  many  others  since,  in 
which  known  sources  of  power  were  to  be  rendered  avail- 
able. Such  machines  continue  to  work  only  while  the 
supply  of  energy  lasts,  therefore  have  not  perpetual 
motion.  Thirdly,  since,  just  as  energy  cannot  be  created, 
so  it  cannot  be  destroyed,  but  can  only  take  another 
form,  the  question  arises.  Cannot  the  causes  retarding  a 
body's  motion  be  removed  and  the  body  go  on  moving 
for  ever  ?  In  order  to  answer  this  reasonable  question, 
he  proposed  for  a  few  moments  to  search  for  perpetual 
motion.  He  then  proceeded  to  illustrate,  by  means  of  a 
variety  of  machines,  what  efforts  had  been  made  to  reduce 
frictional  resistance.  In  one  case,  an  inventor  working  on 
the  principle  that  in  a  wheel  of  half  the  size  the  friction 
was  reduced  in  the  same  proportion  proposed  to  employ 
two  in  this  ratio ;  no  doubt  with  the  same  idea  as  the  man 
who,  seeing  a  stove  advertised  to  save  half  the  usual 
quantity  of  coal,  bought  two  with  the  idea  of  saving 
it  all.  Many  people  thought  that,  theoretically,  friction 
was  entirely  removed  by  means  of  rolling  contact — 
illustrated  by  roller  and  ball-bearings — but  it  was  only 
because  the  theory  was  imperfect,  and  the  true  nature 
of  rolling  not  understood  ;  and,  by  means  of  lantern 
illustrations,  the  action  of  rolling  surfaces  was  experi- 
mentally examined.  The  irresistible  conclusion  must 
be  arrived  at  that  friction  is  as  universal  in  its  action 

'  Being  driven  by  concealed  cords  passing  down  the  hollow  legs  and 
actuated  by  a  youth  beneath  the  platform. 

2  Propounded,  indeed,  in  a  different  f  rm  by  Dernocritus  400  years  before 
that. 


256 


NATURE 


\yan.  12,  1888 


as  gravitation,  and  to  avoid  it  on  the  earth  is  impos- 
sible ;  and  with  this  conclusion  vanishes  all  hope  of  a 
perpetual  motion  machine.  If  we  are  inclined  to  regret 
this  fact,  a  little  reflection  on  what  would  occur  if  friction 
ceased  to  act  may  not  be  uninstructive,  for  the  whole  face 
of  Nature  v/ould  be  at  once  changed,  and  much  of  the 
dry  land,  and,  even  more  rapidly,  most  of  our  buildings, 
would  disappear  beneath  the  sea.  Such  inhabitants  as 
remained  for  a  short  time  alive  would  not  only  be  unable 
to  provide  themselves  with  fire  or  warmth,  but  would 
find  their  very  clothes  falling  back  to  the  original  fibre 
from  which  they  were  made ;  and  if  not  destroyed  in  one 
of  the  many  possible  ways — such  as  by  falling  meteors,  no 
longer  dissipated  by  friction  through  the  air,  or  by  falling 
masses  of  water,  no  longer  retarded  by  the  atmosphere 
and  descending  as  rain — would  be  unable  to  obtain  food, 
from  inability  to  move  themselves  by  any  ordinary  method 
of  locomotion,  or,  what  would  be  equally  serious,  having 
once  started  into  motion,  from  being  unable  to  stop 
except  when  they  came  into  collision  with  other  unhappy 
beings  or  moving  bodies.  Before  long  they,  with  all 
heavier  substances,  would  disappear  for  ever  beneath  the 
waters  which  would  now  cover  the  face  of  a  lifeless 
world. 

We  turn  to  the  motion  of  planetary  bodies — is 
that  perpetual  ?  At  first,  everything  seems  to  show 
that  it  is.  The  earth  with  its  mass  of  3000  trillion 
tons  turns  with  a  speed  which  enables  a  student  to 
go  bare-headed  a  good  many  miles  without  catching  cold 
in  the  act  of  saluting  a  Professor,  for  a  long  time 
defied  all  attempts  to  detect  in  it  loss  of  speed  ;  but 
with  the  friction  of  the  tides  continually  af  work  such 
loss  must  take  place,  and  now  it  is  pretty  certain  from 
the  calculations  of  Adams,  the  astronomer,  that  the  earth 
loses  about  an  hour  in  16,000  years,  and  is  coniing  to 
rest,  though  it  must  be  admitted  rather  leisurely.  So, 
also,  the  hurrying  up  of  the  comets  as  they  go  round 
the  sun  is  possibly  accounted  for  by  a  retarding  action 
in  space  which  makes  it  necessary  for  them  to  try 
and  make  up,  as  it  were,  for  lost  time  ;  and  in  fact  the 
general  arguments  in  the  present  day  are  in  favour  of 
what  Sir  Isaac  Newton  believed — that  the  motions  of  all 
bodies  in  space  are  suffering  retardation,  and  that  their 
velocity  is  becoming  less  and  will  ultimately  cease. 

Perpetual  motion,  then,  is  impossible.  By  no  means. 
We  have  duly  considered  motion  of  matter  in  its  visible 
and  mechanical  form,  and  if  the  foregoing  remarks  are 
true,  then  in  this  form  assuredly  it  is  ;  but  there  is,  as  we 
have  seen,  the  great  fact  of  indestructibility  of  energy, 
and  the  greatest  generalization  of  the  present  century  is 
that  which  accounts  for  the  disappearance  of  energy  in  the 
form  of  mechanical  and  visible  motion  by  showing  that  an 
exactly  equal  amount  appears  in  the  form  of  molecular 
and  invisible  motion.  To  this  all  outward  motion  tend-, 
and  friction  is  theagency  by  which  the  change  is  effected. 
Down  to  a  certain  point  the  change  can  be  effected  in 
either  direction,  and  the  heat-engine  converts  molecular 
motion  into  mechanical,  again  to  be  reconverted  into 
molecular  motion  in  all  its  working  parts,  as  well  as  in 
connection  with  the  useful  work  it  does.  This  stage 
reached,  there  is  no  process  known  to  us  by  which  the 
cycle  can  be  continued,  and  the  term  "  degradation,"  in 
the  sense  of  having  gone  down  a  step,  but  nevertheless 
a  step  which  can  never  be  reclaimed,  is  applied  to  the 
tendency  of  energy  to  assume  molecular  form  by  dissi- 
pation over  a  larger  mass  of  matter,  so  that  its  effect 
is  less  intense,  though  equal  numerically  in  amount.  To 
this  all  Nature  tends,  and  beyond  this  point  we  cannot 
go.  Here,  at  any  rate,  the  motion  is  perpetual,  but  it 
is  motion  that  tends  to  approach  a  state  unsatisfactory 
to  the  instinct  of  the  humnn  mind.  Great  intellects, 
such  as  Rankine  and  Siemens,  have  striven  to  con- 
jecture ways  at  present  unknown  to  us  by  which  the 
energy   now    spreading  itself  over   the  vast  expanse  of 


space  may  be  gathered  again  and  regenerated,  so  that  we 
may  look  forward  not  to  the  lowest  but  to  the  highest 
form  of  motion  as  that  which,  passing  through  all  its 
cycles,  shall  last  for  ever. 

THE  CHAIR  OF  DARWINISM  IN  PARIS. 

/^NE  of  the  most  interesting  evidences  of  the  differing 
^  ^  results  of  municipal  organization  in  foreign  countries, 
as  compared  with  those  resulting  from  such  organization 
in  our  own,  is  the  news  that  the  Municipal  Council  of 
Paris  intends  to  found  (in  connection  with  the  Sorbonne, 
or  the  Jardin  des  Plantes,  or  the  College  de  France,  we 
do  not  know  which)  a  Chair  of  Philosophical  Zoology, 
with  a  special  view  to  the  propagation  of  the  doctrine  of 
evolution  as  elaborated  by  Darwin.  It  appears  that  the 
official  naturalists  in  France— those  holding  the  leading 
professorships  and  museum  appointments — have  not 
hitherto  been  very  friendly  to  Darwinian  doctrine.  The 
Municipal  Council  of  Pans  has  recognized  the  fact  that 
there  is  an  undesirable  hostility  to  Darwin's  views 
amongst  the  official  group,  and  actually  proposes  to 
remedy  the  evil  results  of  this  hostility  by  establishing 
a  new  Chair,  destined  to  give  fair  play  and  a  full  hearing 
to  the  new  philosophy.  It  is  as  though  the  Corporation 
of  London  should  propose  to  build  and  endow  a  labora- 
tory of  physiological  experiment  or  of  bacteriology.  The 
imagination  recoils  before  the  task  of  picturing  Mr. 
Alderman  Greenfat  expounding  to  his  colleagues  the 
importance  to  the  community  of  scientific  research,  and 
carrying  with  him  a  large  majority  in  favour  of  a.  scien- 
tific enterprise  hitherto  neglected  and  even  penalized  by 
middle-class  authority. 

Tnere  is  very  little  doubt  as  to  who  is  the  fittest  man  in 
France  at  this  moment  to  hold  such  a  Chair  as  that  which 
is  now  to  be  created.  M.  Giard,  for  many  years  Professor 
of  Zoology  at  Lille,  and  only  this  year  called  to  a  similar 
Chair  in  Paris,  has  not  only  been  the  first  in  France  to 
teach  from  an  ofiicial  position  the  doctrine  of  evolution  in 
zoology,  but  has  made  many  most  valuable  researches 
himself,  and  has  created  a  school  amongst  whom  are  the 
ablest  of  the  younger  French  zoologists.  Every  embryo- 
logist  knows  the  works  not  only  of  Alfred  Giard,  but 
those  of  his  pupils  Barrois,  Halley,  Monnet,  and  others. 
Alfred  Giard  had  to  submit  to  some  painful  remon- 
strances, and  to  imperil  his  official  career  as  a  Pro- 
fessor of  Zoology  in  France,  when  he  determined  to  break 
with  the  traditions  of  his  eminent  master,  Henri  de 
Lacaze  Duthiers,  and  to  boldly  accept  Darwinism  and  the 
methods  of  the  modern  English  and  German  school.  It 
is  therefore  only  right  that  his  name  should  be  the  first  to 
be  considered  in  relation  to  the  new  Chair  in  Paris,  and 
we  have  no  hesitation  in  saying  that,  should  he  be 
appointed,  a  man  will  have  been  secured  as  the  first 
occupant  of  a  difficult  position  whose  qualifications  render 
it  certain  that  he  will  not  only  do  credit  to  himself,  but 
will  justify,  by  his  successful  teaching,  the  enlightened, 
patriotic,  and  high-minded  initiative  of  the  Municipality 
of  Paris.  E.  R.  L. 


NOTES.. 

On  the  3rd  of  this  month  there  passed  away  a  Scottish  parish 
minister,  who  though  not  himself  a  scientific  man  has  come  in 
contact  with  three  successive  generations  of  men  of  science 
whom  the  love  of  travel  or  of  geology  has  led  to  the  i)ictures'.iue 
island  of  Skye.  The  Rev.  Dr.  Donald  Mackinfion  was  the  thid 
of  his  family  who  have  been  ministers  of  the  parish  of  Strath. 
His  grandfather  was  appointed  to  the  incumbency  in  1777,  and 
held  it  for  forty-nine  years.  His  father  took  the  office  in  1826, 
and  held  it  for  thirty  years,  until  he  himself  succeeded  to  it  in 
1856.  The  parish  has  thus  been  presided  over  by  the  same 
family  for  'he  long  period  of  1 10  years.     Unfortunately  none  of 


Jafi.  12,  1888] 


NATURE 


257 


the  numerous  family  of  the  deceased  clergyman  have  entered 
ilie  Church,  so  that  the  interesting  ecclesiastical  connection  of 
the  family  with  the  parish  now  comes  to  an  end.  Dr.  Mackinnon 
was  a  noble  type  of  the  true  old  Highland  gentleman,  digni- 
fied, courteous,  kindly,  and  always  the  same,  whether  conversing 
with  crofter  or  countess.  He  was  delighted  to  tell  his  reminis- 
cences of  the  old  geologists.  It  was  his  uncle  who  put  into 
visible  expression  by  his  famous  but  unspeakable  "device  of 
the  pots"  (as  Barbour  has  it)  the  universal  indignation  of  Skye 
at  the  account  of  the  island  and  its  inhabitants  given  by  the 
geologist  Macculloch,  in  his  book  on  the  Highlands  and 
Western  Islands.  It  was  in  his  father's  house  that  Sedgwick 
and  Murchison  were  entertained  when  they  passed  through  the 
north-west  Highlands  in  1827,  and  he  had  some  amusing  stories 
about  the  impression  made  on  himself  and  his  brothers  by  the 
iloings  of  these  two  great  brethren  of  the  hammer.  In  later 
years  geologists  and  other  students  of  science,  as  well  as  artists 
an  I  distinguished  men  of  many  kinds,  have  enjoyed  the  hospi- 
tality of  his  home  at  Kilbride  under  the  shadow  of  the  great 
mountain,  and  in  sight  of  the  gleaming  Atlantic.  Only  a  few 
months  ago  he  had  an  opportunity  of  renewing  his  early  love  for 
mineralogy  and  geology,  and  while  riding  on  his  favourite  quiet 
coll,  looking  after  his  faroi-servants  as  they  harvested  between 
tiie  sh(jwers  of  a  Skye  September,  he  would  stop  now  and  again 
to  point  out  geological  features  that  had  been  familiar  and  in- 
teresting to  him  from  boyhood.  He  belonged  to  a  type  of 
Scottish. clergyman  that  is  slowly  disappearing,  and  carries  with 
hidi  the  affectionate  regrets  of  everyone  who  was  privileged  to 
enjoy  his  friendship. 

The  Annual  General  Meeting  of  the  Royal  Meteorological 
Society  will  be  held  at  25  Great  George  Street,  Westminster,  on 
Wednesday,  the  i8th  instant,  at  8  p.m.,  when  the  Report  of 
the  Council  will  be  read,  the  election  of  officers  and  Council  for 
the  ensuing  year  will  take  place,  and  Mr.  W.  Ellis,  the 
President,  will  deliver  his  address. 

On  Tuesday  next  (January  17),  Mr,  George  J.  Romanes  will 
begin  at  the  Royal  Institution  a  course  of  ten  lectures,  being 
the  first  part  of  a  course  on  "  Before  and  After  Darwin  ;"  Mr. 
Hubert  Herkoaier'will' on  Thursday  (January  19),  begin  a  course 
i)f  three  lectures  on  (i)  "The  Walker  School,"  (2)  "  My  Visits 
to  America,"  and  (3)  "Art  Education"  ;  and  Lord  Rayleigh 
will  on  Saturday  (January  21)  be2;in  a  course  of  seven  lectures 
on  "Experimental  Optics."  The  Friday  evening  meetings 
will  begin  on  January  20,  when  Lord  Rayleigh  will  give  a 
discourse  on  "  Diffraction  of  Sound." 

The  following  are  the  arrangements  for  the  Penny  Science 
Lectures  at  the  Royal  Victoria  Hall  for  the  present  month  : — 
January  10,  "The  Great  Sea- Serpent,"  by  Arthur  Stradling ; 
January  17,  "Caves  and  Cave-Men,"  by  Y.  W.  Rudler ;  Janu- 
ary 24,  "The  Oldest  Monuments  in  Brittany  and  Britain,"  by 
Prof.  Bonney,  F.R.S.  ;  January  31,  "Speech  made  Visible,  or 
Picture-Writing  as  it  was,  ard  as  it  is  now,"  by  Prof.  Ramsay. 

Lectures  will  be  dtlivered  in  Gresham  College,  Basinghall 
Street,  E.C.,  on  January  17,  18,  19,  and  20,  at  6  p.m.,  by  Dr. 
v..  Symes  Thompson,  on  "  Sleep,  Sleeplessness,  and  Pain." 

In  relerence  to  the  review  in  these  columns  last  week 
(p.  218)  of  the  second  series  of  collected  papers  on  Indo-China, 
we  observe  from  the  last  Annual  Report  of  the  Council  of  the 
Straits  Branch,  Royal  Asiatic  Society,  that  there  is  at  present 
11)  intention  of  proceeding  further  with  the  publication  of 
-elected  papers  on  the  East  Indian  Archipelago.  The  Council, 
however,  expresses  a  hope  that,  at  some  fiitU'-e  time,  an  effort 
will  be  made  by  the  Society  to  translate  and  publish  selected 
papers  which  have  appeared  in  the  Journals  of  Societies  in 
Holland  and  Java,  written  by  learned  Duic'i  Orientalists.  The 
Report  adds  that  the  new  nin^.   of  the  peninsul.i,  to  which  we 


have  several  times  referred,  was  finished  in  1886,  but  before  it 
could  be  sent  to  England  the  Siamese  Government  gave  further 
geographical  information  concerning  the  northern  part  of  the 
peninsula,  and  the  map  will  not  be  published  till  this  new 
information  is  incorporated  in  it. 

In  the  November  Bulletin  of  Miscellaneous  Information, 
issued  from  the  Royal  Gardens,  Kew,  attention  was  drawn  to 
the  subject  of  fruit-growing  in  British  colonies,  and  an  admir- 
able report  on  the  fruits  of  Canada  was  given.  The  treatment 
of  the  subject  is  continued  in  the  January  Bulletin,  which  con- 
tains full  reports  sent  by  the  Governments  of  Victoria,  South 
Australia,  Western  Australia,  Tasmania,  Nesv  Zealand,  Cape 
Colony,  and  Mauritius.  Prominence  is  given  to  the  quantity  of 
fruit  actually  available  for  export  in  each  colony.  To  this  the 
writers  add  the  months  during  which  the  fruit  is  in  season,  and 
the  prices  usually  paid  for  it  locally.  It  was  intended  to  publish 
tiie  reports  from  the  Australian  colonies,  Tasmania,  New 
Zealand,  and  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  in  one  series,  so  as  to 
present  a  general  review  of  the  fruit  industries  of  the  Southern 
Hemisphere  ;  and  this  was  to  have  been  followed  by  reports 
dealing  exclusively  with  the  fruits  of  tropical  colonies.  So  far, 
hov\  ever,  reports  from  New  South  Wales  and  Queensland  have 
not  been  received. 

An  interesting  paper,  by  Mr.  Daniel  Morris,  on  the  use  of 
Certain  plants  as  alexipharmics,  or  snake-bite  antidotes,  has  just 
been  issued.  Mr.  Morris  explains  that  his  enumeration  of  the 
plants  reputed  to  possess  alexipharmic  properties  is  offered 
without  any  expression  of  opinion. as  to  thejr  value.  It  is  in- ' 
tended  chiefly  as  an  attempt  to  bring  together  for  the  first  time 
a  summary  of  information  about  these  plants,  in  order  that 
inquiry  may  be  made  to  confirm  or  refute  the  popular  opinion 
respecting  them.  "  Opportunities,"  says  Mr.  Morris,  "to  test 
the  action  of  these  plants  on  a  person  actually  bitten  by  a  well- 
known  poisonous  snake  are  seldom  offered  to  a  competent 
investigator.  But  as  material  is  being  brought  together  which 
can  be  carefully  tested  by  chemical  and  therapeutical  investiga- 
tions, the  most  prominent  of  these  plants,  such  as  species  of 
Aristolochia  and  Mikania,  deserve  very  careful  attention." 

A  VAl.UAiii.E  paper,  by  Prof.  Marshall  Ward,  on  the  tuber- 
cular swellings  on  the  roots  of  Vicia  Faba,  has  just  been  printed 
in  the  Philosophical  Transactions  of  the  Royal  Society. 

Messrs.  Swan  Sonnenschein  and  Co.  will  publish  in  a 
few  days  a  new  work  by  Mr.  Theodore  Wood,  entitled 
"The  Farmer's  Friends  and  Foes."  The  book  describes  in 
considerable  detail  the  nature  and  habits  of  those  animals,  birds, 
and  insects  which  exercise  a  good  or  evil  influence  upon  the 
products  of  British  agriculture,  and  is  profusely  illustrate:!. 

We  have  received  the  "  Annuaire,"  for  1888,  of  L'Academie 
Royale  des  Sciences,  des  Lettres,  et  des  Beaux- Arts  de  Belgique. 
It  contains  full  information  as  to  the  organization,  rules,  and 
work  of  the  Academy  ;  and  there  are  several  rather  elaborate 
memoirs  of  late  members.  Each  of  these  memoirs  is  accom- 
panied by  a  carefully-engraved  portrait. 

Caft.  M.  Rykatschew,  the  Assistant  Director  of  the 
Central  Physical  Observatory  at  St.  Petersburg,  has  published 
in  the  Repertoriuin  filr  Meteorologie  (Bd.  xi.  No.  2)  a  discussion 
of  the  winds  and  pressure  of  the  Ca-pian  Sea.  The  title  is 
misleading,  as  the  observations  are  made  on  land,  ten  stations 
being  on  the  shores  of  the  Caspian  Sea,  and  nine  in  neigh- 
bouring districts.  And  the  mean  winds  are  deduced  by 
Lambert's  formula,  which  deals  with  the  number  of  observa- 
tions without  reference  to  the  force  of  the  wind.  Nevertheless 
the  work  is  a  valuable  and  elaborate  discussion,  based  on  trust- 
worthy observations  extending  from   three  to  forty-four  years. 


258 


NATURE 


[7 


an.  12,  I 


The  mean  wind-frequency  and  pressure  are  given  for  every 
month,  for  seasons,  and  for  the  year,  and  charts  are  drawn  for 
the  seasons  and  for  the  year.  The  work  is  a  continuation  of 
previous  similar  discussions  of  the  winds  of  the  Baltic,  the 
White  and  Black  Seas,  and  the  Sea  of  Azov. 

In  the  Archives  des  Sciences  Physiques  et  Natiirelles  for 
December  15  last,  M.  P.  Plantamour  publishes  the  results  of 
observations  of  the  periodic  movements  of  the  ground  from 
October  I,  1886,  to  September  30,  1887,  as  shown  by  spirit- 
levels  fixed  in  the  exterior  and  central  partition  walls  of  his 
house  at  Secheron,  near  Geneva.  The  oscillations  are  illustrated 
by  curves,  from  which  it  is  seen  that  the  movements  exhibited 
by  the  two  levels  are  not  always  parallel,  but  vary  in  a  regular 
manner,  and  that  both  curves  follow  the  variations  of  temperatute 
throughout  the  year.  Experiments  have  been  carried  on  for  nine 
years,  but  a  longer  series  is  necessary  to  arrive  at  definite  con- 
clusions. 

M.  A.  F.  SuNDELL  publishes  in  vol.  xvi.  of  the  Proceedings 
of  the  Scientific  Society  of  Finland,  the  results  of  comparisons 
of  the  standard  barometers  at  the  principal  Observatories  of 
Europe,  with  the  view  of  showing  what  corrections  are  to  be 
applied  to  reduce  the  readings  of  different  countries  to  absolute 
uniformity.  The  comparison  shows  the  existence  of  consider- 
able differences  between  the  various  standards.  But  as  the 
experiments  were  made  with  an  instrument  which  was  filled 
with  mercury  at  each  comparison  and  afterwards  emptied,  it  is 
a  question  whether  the  results  obtained  may  be  considered 
perfectly  trustworthy. 

A  NEW  compound  of  arsenic,  contaiaing  that  somewhat  re- 
markable substance,  hexiodide  of  sulphur,  has  recently  been 
prepared  by  Dr.  Schneider,  of  Berlin  {Joiirn.  fiiy prakt.  Chcinie, 
No.  22).  Hexiodide  of  sulphur,  SIg,  was  prepared  some  time 
ago  by  Landolt  by  evaporation  of  a  solution  of  iodine  and  sulphur 
in  carbon  bisulphide  at  a  low  temperature :  it  forms  pyramidal 
crystals,  shown  by  Von  Rath  to  belong  to  the  rhombic  system, 
and,  curiously,  is  isomorphous  with  iodine  itself.  It  is  a  com- 
pound of  considerable  theoretical  interest,  inasmuch  as  it  is  the 
only  known  instance  in  which  the  supposed  six  combining  bonds 
or  affinities  of  sulphur  are  satisfied  by  monad  atoms.  One 
would  naturally  imagine  that  such  a  compound  would  be 
eminently  saturated,  and  it  has  never  hitherto  been  known  to 
effect  any  further  combinations  ;  but  Dr.  Schneider  now  shows 
that  it  is  ca;iable  of  forming  a  crystalline  double  compound  with 
arsenious  iodide,  of  the  composition  2  Aslj.  SIg.  This  new  com- 
pound was  first  incidentally  obtained  during  a  lengthy  research 
upon  the  relations  between  arsenious  sulphide  and  iodine,  and 
its  discovery  forms  another  example  of  the  happy  manner  in 
which  important  results  are  often  most  unexpectedly  attained 
by  following  the  by-paths  which  so  frequently  lead  off  from  the 
high-way  of  systematic  research.  It  may,  however,  be  syntheti- 
cally prepared  by  gently  warming  a  mixture  of  SIg  and  Aslg  in 
the  proportion  of  one  molecule  of  the  former  to  two  of  the  latter  : 
the  two  substances  melt  together  to  a  deep-brown  liquid,  which, 
on  cooling,  solidifies  to  a  dark  gray  crystalline  mass.  The 
crystals  are  homogeneous,  tolerably  hard  and  brittle,  yielding  a 
reddish-brown  powder  on  pulverization  ;  they  cannot  be  pre- 
served in  the  air,  as  they  lose  all  their  iodine  in  twenty-four 
hours,  but  in  sealed  tubes  may  be  kept  any  length  of  time.  The 
double  compound  itrelf,  however,  is  nothing  near  so  Interesting 
as  the  important  theoretical  questions  which  it  suggests.  We 
may  well  ask.  Is  it  possible  that  the  atoms  of  sulphur  are  still 
endowed  with  a  certain  amount  of  combining  energy  after  their 
six  "  affinities  "  are  satisfied?  or  do  the  iodine  atoms  act  in  this 
case  in  one  of  their  higher  capacities  ? 

At  the  last  meeting  of  the  Geographical  Society  of  St.  Peters- 
burg, M.  Kuesenoff  gave  an  account  of  an  interesting  nomad  tribe 


in  the  Ural  Mountains,  calling  themselves  Vagueles.  In  the  winter 
they  dwell  in  wooden  huts,  and  in  the  summer  wander  among 
the  mountain^,  living  in  tents.  At  the  former  season  their 
clothing  consists  of  deerskin,  and  at  the  latter  of  linen  garments. 
They  worship  the  sun  and  some  of  the  stars,  and  have  a  super- 
stitious dread  of  ceriain  forests,  v/hich  they  deem  sacred. 
Women  hold  a  very  inferior  position,  being  treated  as  slaves. 
Daring  the  last  few  years  contact  with  more  civilized  tribes  has 
had  a  good  influence  on  the  Vagueles,  and  some  of  them  have 
begun  to  settle  down  as  tillers  of  the  soil.  The  tribe  is  said  to 
be  of  Finnish  origin. 

On  December  10,  about  6  p.m.,  a  meteor  was  seen  at 
Ilonefos,  in  Norway.  It  went  in  a  north-easterly  direction, 
emitting  a  brilliant  bluish- white  light,  and  lasted  a  few  seconds. 

On  December  18,  about  8  p.m.,  a  magnificent  meteor  was 
seen  in  several  parts  of  the  province  of  Stockholm,  going  in  a 
direction  north-west  to  south-east.  It  shone  with  a  bluish  light. 
It  left  a  broad  trail  in  the  sky,  and  eventually  burst  into  tiny 
fragments,  but  without  any  report. 

What  is  believed  to  be  a  meteorite  has  just  been  dug  out  of 
the  ferry  harbour  of  Nokjobing,  in  Denmark.  The  stone, 
which  weighs  about  half  a  ton,  was  fourd  in  soft  mud,  and 
no  other  stones  were  near  it.  It  is  very  dark  in  colour,  con- 
tains iron,  and  is  of  unusual  v.'elght  for  its  size,  ihe  work  of 
moving  it  being  very  laborious.  It  has  now  been  blasted  to 
pieces,  which  will  be  examined  scientifically. 

Last  year  a  Phanerogam  hitherto  never  met  with  in  Scan- 
dinavia {Jiiiicns  tenuis,  Willd. )  was  found  near  Vexio,  in 
Central  Sweden.  In  Europe  this  plant  is  found  only  in  a  few 
localities  in  Germany,  Holland,  and  Sc-ilaa  1. 

During  last  autumn,  in  October  and  November,  ornitho- 
logists in  the  province  of  Tromso,  in  the  extreme  north  of 
Norway,  were  interested  by  the  sudden  appearance  of  large 
flocks  of  the  so-called  "Nut-crow"  (Xitcifraga  ca>yocatactes), 
a  bird  hitherto  never  seen  in  Northern  Norway,  and  which  is 
scarce  even  in  the  southern  part  of  the  country.  Several  speci- 
mens were  shot  and  forwarded  to  the  Tromso  Museum.  It  is 
surmised  that  the  birds  were  driven  thus  far  north,  during  migra- 
tion, by  stormy  weather. 

Owing  to  unfavourable  weather,  the  cultivation  of  oysters  on 
the  coast  of  Norway  was  not  so  successful  last  year  as  in  previous 
years. 

Last  autumn  an  attempt  was  made  to  bring  liv€  cod  from 
Iceland  to  Norway  on  board  smacks,  and  6000  fish  were 
brought  over  to  Bergen  successfully.  Here,  however,  many  of 
them  died,  on  account  of  the  basin  in  which  they  were  kept 
until  the  sale  could  be  effected  being  too  small.  This  year 
fresh  attempts  will  be  made. 

The  temptation  of  French  architects  seems  to  be  to  attend  to 
the  decorative  rather  than  the  useful  parts  of  the  buildings  they 
design.  The  architect  who  designed  the  new  Medical  School 
in  Paris  took  so  little  pains  about  the  distribution  of  the  water- 
pipes,  that  in  very  cold  weather  the  laboratories  (chemistry, 
physiology,  bacteriology,  experimental  pathology,  &c.)  are 
wholly  deprived  of  water.  Last  week  ihe  water  in  all  the  pipes 
was  frozen,  so  that  not  a  drop  of  water  was  available  in  a  single 
laboratory.  Of  course,  everyone  connected  with  the  school 
complains  that  work  under  such  conditions  is  nearly  impossible. 

The  new  Sorbonne  M'ill  be  a  handsome  building,  but,  un- 
fortunately, the  work  is  soon  to  be  stopped  owin^  to  lack  of 
money.  The  ornamental  part  of  tlie  building  is  finished,  but 
the  useful  part  has  not  yet  been  begun. 

The  Ceylon  Observer,  writing  on  the  great  trigonometrical 
survey  of  that  island,  states  that  its   connection   with  the  con- 


Jan.  12,  1888] 


NATURE 


259 


tinent  of  India  by  a  network  of  triangles  is  now  an  accomplished 
fact,  Mr.  More,  District  Surveyor,  having  in  November  last 
finished  his  series  of  observations  with  the  large  theodolite. 
Nothing  now  remains  but  to  reduce  the  observations,  a  work 
which  it  is  anticipated  will  take  about  six  months.  Mr.  More 
had  enormous  difficulties  to  overcome  in  his  survey.  The  north 
of  the  island  is  so  much  covered  with  forests  that  he  was  com- 
pelled to  erect  lofty  stages  for  his  theodolite,  at  a  height  of  from 
40  to  70  feet  above  the  ground  ;  and  the  observed  signals  were 
in  many  cases  140  feet  from  the  earth.  All  these  stages  had  to 
be  made  on  the  spot,  the  appliances  at  hand  being  of  the  poorest 
description,  and  it  was  with  the  greatest  difficulty  that  the  struc- 
tures thus  made  were  kept  at  the  necessary  rigidity.  The  climate 
is  so  uncertain  that  the  surveyors  often  watched  for  days  without 
seeing  a  flash  fjom  the  heliostat,  and  at  other  times  every 
member  of  the  working  parties  was  prostrated  by  fever.  As  the 
observers  approached  the  coast,  stone  towers  were  put  up  instead 
of  timber  stages,  and  these  towers  will  serve  not  only  as  per- 
manent survey  stations,  but  as  landmarks  for  those  navigating 
the  neighbouring  waters.  In  all,  eleven  stone  towers  were 
erected,  and  verj'  many  wooden  stages.  Ceylon,  by  the  com- 
pletion of  this  trigonoxetrical  survey,  is  mw  free  from  the 
reproach  which  it  has  lain  under  since  the  Indian  surveyors 
finished  their  portion  of  the  work.  There  is  now  a  complete 
chain  of  triangles  from  Asiatic  Russia  to  the  south  of  Ceylon. 
The  Ohsn-vcr  adds  that  it  is  curious  to  note  that  exactly  one 
hundred  years  ago  (1787)  a  complete  triangular  connection  was 
formed  between  Great  Britain  and  Franc:  across  the  Channel 
under  the  superintendence  of  General  Roy,  R.E. 

The  aldition^  to  the  Zoological  Society's  Gardens  during  the 
past  week  include  a  B'lrrowing  Owl  {Spiotybo  ctinkiilana)  from 
South  America,  presented  by  the  Rev.  Basil  Wilberforce  ;  a 
Vulpine  Phalanger  {Phalangista  vulpina  ?)  born  in  the 
(^  hardens. 


OUR  ASTRONOMICAL  COLUMN. 
O'Gyalla.  Spectroscopic  Catalogue. — The  systematic 
survey  with  the  spectroscope,  undertaken  for  the  northern 
heavens  several  years  ago,  by  Piof.  Vogel  and  Dr.  Duner,  tlie 
former  examining  the  region  from  Decl  i"  S.  to  Decl.  40°  N., 
and  the  latter  that  from  Decl.  40""  N.  up  to  the  Pole,  has  been 
now  carried  some  considerable  distance  into  the  southern  hemi- 
sphere by  Dr.  N.  de  Konkoly  and  his  assistant.  Dr.  Koves- 
ligethy  ;  and  the  second  part  of  the  eighth  volume  of  the  O'Gyalla 
observations,  which  has  recently  appeared,  contains  a  spectro- 
scopic catalogue  of  the  stars  down  to  mag.  7-5,  lying  between 
Decl.  15°  S.  and  the  equator.  The  work  was  commenced  in 
August  18S3,  and  was  completed  in  August  1886,  2797  spectra 
having  been  observed  on  ninety  nights.  A  number  of  these 
were  observed  on  more  than  one  night,  so  that  the  resulting 
catalogue  contains  only  2022  stars.  Vogel's  arrangement  of 
types  was  followed,  so  that  the  present  catalogue  is  on  the  same 
lines  as  those  of  Vogel  and  Duner.  The  annexed  table  gives 
the  number  of  stars  ranged  under  each  type. 


I.rt.  I  \.h. 
990  I  4 


I  ^?|  I.' 
12  I    I 

Continuous. 
41 


\\\n.\  \\.b.\n\.a 
I  865    I      2      I     87 

M  inochromatic.  I    ? 

3  i  14 


\\\.b. 
3 


The   three   monochromatic 
minute  planetary  nebulcc. 


spectra  indicate  the  presence  of 
There  was  only  one  star  spectrum 
suspected  of  showing  a  bright  line,  a  star  of  mag.  65  about 
50'  «  of  C  Orionis.  This  latter  star,  together  with  j3,  5,  and  e  of 
the  same  constellation,  Dr.  Konkoly  finds  to  be  variable  as  to 
its  spectrum.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  the  details  of  the  observa- 
tions upon  which  so  important  a  statement  is  based  will  be 
published.  And  it  is  alsD  to  be  desired  that  the  work  which 
has  been  carried  so  far  may  now  be  taken  up  by  some  southern 
observer,  and  the  remaining  portion  of  the  heavens  surveyed. 
It  is  to  such   works  as  the  present,  and  the  similar  labours  of 


Vogel  and  Duner,  that  we  must  look  for  evidence  of  such 
physical  changes  amongst  the  stars  as  Dr.  Konkoly  would  seem 
to  predicate  of  the  principal  stars  of  Orion. 

ASTROKOMrCAL     PRIZES      OF      THE      PARIS     ACADEMY     OF 

Sciences. — The  Lalande  Prize  of  the  Academy  has  been 
decreed  to  M.  Duner  for  his  micrometric  measures  of  double 
stars,  and  for  his  researches  on  spectra  of  the  third  type.  M. 
Perigaud,  of  the  Observatory  of  Paris,  receives  the  Valz  Prize 
for  his  important  astronomical  labours.  Amongst  those 
specially  mentioned  are  his  determinations  of  the  division 
errors  of  four  of  the  circles,  and  of  the  absolute  flexure  of 
the  two  princioal  meridian  instruments  of  the  Paris  Observatory. 
The  Janssen  Prize  for  important  progress  in  physical  astronomy 
— in  the  recent  sense  of  the  term — awarded  this  year  for  the 
first  time,  was  most  appropriately  assigned  to  the  late  Prof. 
Kirchhoff.  Amongst  the  general  prizes  of  the  Academy  should 
be  noted  the  Arago  Medal  decreed  to  M.  Bischoffsheim  for  his 
great  and  generous  aid  to  science,  and  especially  for  his  magni- 
ficent foundation  of  the  Nice  Observatory.  This  prize  also  is 
now  given  for  the  first  time.  The  La  Caze  Physical  Prize  is 
given  to  MM.  Paul  and  Prosper  Henry,  chiefly  for  their  great 
achievements  in  astronomical  photography. 

The  subject  for  the  Damoiseau  Prize  for  1888  is  proposed  in 
the  following  question  :  To  perfect  the  theory  of  inequalities  of 
long  period  caused  by  the  planets  in  the  movement  of  the  moon  ; 
to  see  if  they  exist  sensibly  beyond  those  already  known. 

New  Observatory  in  Vienna. — The  observatory  of  Herr 
M.  von  Kufifner,  the  erection  of  which  was  commenced  in  the 
summer  of  1884,  has  been  practically  completed.  The  building 
is  cruciform  in  shape,  and  is  82  feet  from  east  to  west,  and  61 
from  north  to  south.  The  meridian  instrument  is  by  Repsold, 
and  has  an  aperture  of  4*9  inches,  and  a  focal  length  of  5  feet  ; 
the  eyepiece  and  object-gla^s  are  interchangeable  ;  the  circle  is 
21  "6  inches  in  diameter,  and  is  divided  to  2' and  read  by  four 
microscopes.  The  principal  equatorial  is  by  the  same  maker, 
and  has  an  aperture  of  106  inches,  and  focal  length  of  12  feet 
6  inches,  with  a  finder  of  2  "6  inches  aperture,  and  26  inches 
focal  length.  The  co-ordinates  of  the  observatory  are  pro- 
visionally given  as  long.  =  ih.  5m.  ii'is.  east  of  Greenwich, 
and  lat.   =  48'  12'  47"  "2  N. 


ASTRONOMICAL    PHENOMENA    FOR    THE 
WEEK  \U%  JANUARY  15-21. 

/"pO^  the  reckoning  of  time  the  civil  day,  commencing  at 
^  *■  Greenwich  mean  midnight,  counting  the  hours  on  to  24, 
is  here  employed.) 

At  Greenwich  on  January  15 

Sunrises,  8I1.  2m.  ;   souths,  I2h,  9m.   31.'3^- ;  sets,  r6h.  17m.  : 

right   asc.    on    meridian,    I9h.  47'im.  ;    decl.    21°   10'  S. 

Sidereal  Time  at  Sunset,  23H.  S5m. 
Moon  (at   First  Quarter  on  January  21,   5h.)   rises,  9h.   l8m.  ; 

souths,  I4h.  im. ;  sets,  l8fi.  51m,:  right  a^c.  on  meridian, 

2lh.  39 'Sm.  ;  decl.  15°  14'  S. 

Right  asc.  and  declination 

Planet.          Rises.  Souths.  Sets.  on  meridian. 

h.  m.  h.    m.  h.    tn,  h.       m.               ,       , 

Mercury..     8     9  ...  12     2    ..  15  55  ...  19  39-4  ...  23  26  S. 

Venus   ...     4  52  ...  9     7    ..  13  2J  ...  16  44-5   ...  20    o  S. 

Mars     ...     00...  5  36  ...  II   12  ...  13  12-8  ...     5  17  S. 

Japiter  ...     3  56  ...  8  16  ...  12  36  ...  1.5  52-5  ...   19  19  S. 

Saturn  ...   16  58*...  o  49   ...  8  40  ...  8  24  9  ...   19  47  N. 

Uranus...  23  56*...  5  28  ...  II     o  ...  13     4-5   ...     6     9  S. 

Nepttme..    12  23   ...  20     3  ...  3  43*...  3  42-1   ...   17  55  N. 

*  Indicates  that  the  risiii?  is  that  of  the  preceding  evening  and  the  setting 
that  of  the  following  morning. 


Jan 
i8 


h. 
20 


Mercury  in  superior  conjunction   with    the 
Sun. 

Meteor-  Skow:rs. 

R.A.  Decl. 

Near  irj  Orionis T2  ...  5  N.     ...     January  15-20. 

From  Canes  Venalici.    180  ...  35  N.     ...     Swift  ;  streaks. 

Near  fl  Aurigoe 295  ...  53  N.      ...  "January  14-17. 


2  6o 


NA  TURE 


\yan.  12,  1888 


Variable  Stars. 

Star. 

R.A. 
h.      m. 

Decl. 

h.    m. 

T  Cassiopeia; 

0    17-2  . 

.  55   10  N.  . 

.  Jan. 

19, 

M 

U  Cephei     

0   52-4  . 

.  81    16  N.  . 

15, 
20, 

22      I   ni 
21   41   ;;/ 

Algol     

3    0-9  . 

.  40  31  N,  . 

18, 
20, 

2  59  m 
23  48  »i 

V  Tauri        

4  45'6  • 

.  17  21  N.  . 

15. 

M 

{■Geminorum 

6  575  • 

.  20  44  N.  . 

19, 

7     0  m 

R  Canis  Majoris... 

7  14-5  • 

.  16  12  S.    . 

19, 
21, 

21     45     VI 

I    I   ;/; 

T  Canis  Minoris... 

7  27-8  . 

.  II  59  N.  . 

i9> 

.!/ 

W  Virginis 

13  20-3  .. 

.    2  48  S.   . 

17, 

3     0.1/ 

8  Libras        

14  550. 

.    8     4S. 

18, 

4     8  m 

W  Scorpii    

16    5-2  . 

.  19  SI  S.    . 

17, 

M 

U  Ophiuchi 

17  10-9  . 

.     I  20  N.  . 

15, 

17  47  m 

and  at  intervals  of 

20     8 

&  Lyrse 

18  460  . 

•  33  14  N.  . 

.  Jan 

16, 

6    oM 

R  Lyrse        

18  51-9. 

.  43  48  N.  . 

16, 

M 

T  Vulpeculse 

20  467  . 

.  27   50  N.  . 

I9> 

21     0  M 

Y  Cygni       

20  47-6  . 

.  34   14  N.  . 

16, 
19, 

20  54  »i 
20  47  m 

S  Cephei      

22  25-1  . 

•  57  51  N.  . 

17, 
18, 

6     0  m 
21     0  M 

M 

signifies  maximum  ;  vi  minimum. 

A 


DUNER  ON  STARS   WITH  SPECTRA  OF 
CLASS  III.  1 

IL 

SERIES  of  observations  such  as  ours  ought  to  add  at  least  a 
little  to  our  knowledge  of  the  development  by  which  the  spec- 
tra of  stars  pass  from  the  sec  md  class  to  one  of  the  two  sections 
of  the  third,  especially  if  these  observations  are  combined  with 
those  made  of  the  stars  of  the  two  first  classes  generally,  and  of 
our  sun  in  particular ;  we  might  even  draw  conclusions  as  to  the 
successive  development  of  stars  after  they  have  already  reached 
this  class.  He  who  sees  trees  in  a  forest  in  different  stages  of  de- 
velopment, some  old,  some  young,  some  decaying,  can  at  once 
form  an  idea  of  the  different  stages  undergone  by  each  :  it  is  just 
the  same  with  the  observer  of  the  different  classes  of  stellar 
spectra. 

The  spectra  of  the  first  cla5S  are  characterized  by  the  almost 
total  absence  of  all  metallic  lines  excepting  those  of  hydrogen. 
In  spite  of  that,  we  cannot  doubt  for  a  moment  the  presence  of 
metallic  gases  in  their  atmospheres,  for  even  in  the  spectrum  of 
Vega  we  can  faintly  distinguish  the  principal  rays  of  sodium, 
magnesium,  and  iron.  But  these  gases  are  probably  at  such  a  high 
temperature  that  their  power  of  absorption  is  very  slight.  But 
as  the  star  cools  and  the  spectrum  approaches  the  second  class, 
the  metallic  lines  become  stronger  and  more  numerous,  whilst, 
strange  to  say,  the  lines  of  hydrogen  diminish.  Thus  the  spec- 
trum becomes  more  and  more  like  that  of  our  sun  in  its  actual 
state,  and  at  length,  as  the  metallic  lines  increase,  it  resembles 
that  of  Arcturus. 

Up  to  this  stage  of  development  it  is  unnecessary  to  consider 
the  two  divisions  of  the  third  class  separately,  but  after  this  it 
becomes  indispensable. 

In  those  spectra  which  at  length  become  Ill.a,  the  change 
seems  to  operate  as  follows.  On  account,  probably,  of  the 
progressive  cooling,  the  metallic  lines,  especially  those  of  iron, 
magnesium,  calcium,  and  sodium,  become  larger,  and,  besides 
these,  numerous  weak  narrow  lines  are  seen  grouped  together, 
generally  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  stronger  lines.  At  this 
stage  it  is  often  difficult,  if  not  impossible,  to  decide,  with  spec- 
troscopes of  small  dispersion,  whether  one  sees  broad  lines  or 
real  bands  (or  fiatin^s).  This  happens  in  the  spectrum  of 
Aldebaran.  The  faint  lines  go  on  accumulating,  until  they  can- 
not be  separated  from  one  another  and  occupy  broader  spaces, 
and  now  the  spectruai  is  easily  seen  to  belong  to  Class  II La. 
At  first  the  bands  in  the  red  and  orange  are  the  only  ones  dis- 
tinctly visible  ;  but  later  the  bands  in  the  green-blue  and  in 
the  blue  become  very  strong  and  broad. 

While  the  development  of  the  stars  111. a  was  very  well  known 
before  my  researches,  former  observers  have  known  no  star 
with  a  spectrum  intermediate  between   II. a  and  111.3.     Thus, 

ji ,      .  '  Continued  from  p.  23'. 


M.  Pechiile  declares  the  hypothesis  of  the  co-ordination  of  the 
III. «  and  III. ^  classes  to  be  inadmissible.  On  the  other  hand, 
he  seems  disposed  to  think  that  the  spectra  III./^  represent  a 
phase,  perhaps  the  last  before  i*s  total  extinction,  in  the  deve- 
lopment of  each  star,  and  that  the  passage  from  type  I II. «  to 
IW.h  takes  place  suddenly  or  by  a  catastrophe,  during  which 
the  bright  lines  appear  ("Expedition  Danoise,"  pp.  22-25). 
M.  Pechiile  seems,  however,  to  consider  this  hypothesis  doubt- 
ful, and  at  length  declares  that  the  physical  role  of  the  stars 
III. 3  is  still  quite  a  mystery. 

A  very  simple  explanation  clears  up  at  least  part  of  this  mys- 
tery. If  the  hypothesis  which  I,  in  full  agreement  with  M. 
Vogel,  have  suggested  be  correct,  the  stars  intermediate 
between  the  seconcl  and  third  classes  must  necessarily  be  com- 
paratively rare,  considering  that  this  is  only  a  transitory  phase 
of  their  existence.  The  general  spectroscopic  observations  of 
M.  Vogel  affirm  this  fact,  for  amongst  the  numerous  stars 
examined  by  him  there  are  only  forty-eight  whose  spectra  are 
denoted  by  11. a  I  !  !  ll.a  !  !  or  II. a  !  But  as  the  lines  must 
be  very  distinctly  visible  in  the  spectra  of  the  stars  which  are  on 
the  point  of  passing  from  the  second  class  to  Class  III. a,  we  are 
obliged  to  acknowledge  that  almost  all  the  stars  of  this  category 
within  the  zone  examined  by  M.  Vogel  are  among  these  forty- 
eight  objects.  At  first  sight  one  might  be  disposed  to  seek  these 
stars  amon'3'  those  whose  spectra  are  designated  by  M.  Vogel 
by  ll.a  {Ul.a),  Il.a?  lll.a,  and  IILrt!  (Il.a);  but  a  clo^-r 
examination  shows  that  although  it  is  not  impossible  that  these 
spectra  may  be  among  these  objects,  they  must  be  so  rare  that 
that  is  of  no  essential  consequence  as  regards  the  question  which 
occupies  us. 

Amongst  these  stars  there  are  none  which  attain  the  magni- 
tude 4'5,  and  only  fourteen  which  surpass  the  magnitude  6*4. 
All  the  others  are  faint  objects,  and  the  ambiguous  symbols  show 
the  difficulty  M.  Vogel  found  in  recognizing  with  certainty  the 
details  in  the  spectra,  and  not  that  he  could  not  decide  with 
certainty  to  which  of  the  two  contiguous  classes  a  spectrum  of 
which  he  could  easily  perceive  the  details  belongs.  The  correct- 
ness of  this  supposition  is,  however,  proved  by  the  circumstance 
that  certain  spectra  are  designated  by  III.«(III./'),or  III.«?  lll.li. 
And  none  will  believe  that  M.  Vogel  meant  to  imply  that  these 
spectra  were  in  the  act  of  passing  f^i-om  one  section  of  the  thir  1 
class  to  the  other.  Besides,  one  of  these  stars  is  R  Serpentis, 
whose  spectrum  when  the  star  is  at  the  maximum  is  one  of  the 
most  strongly  marked  of  lll.a,  according  to  M.  Vogel's  earlier 
researches,  and  according  to  mine.  But  in  his  general  spectro- 
scopic review  M.  Vogel  examined  it  when  its  magnitude  was 
only  9"0,  and  therefore  it  was  easy  to  doubt,  on  account  of 
the  excessive  width  of  the  bands,  whether  the  spectrum  m'ght 
not  be  lll.b  instead  of  III. a. 

Consequently,  although  I  think  I  am  right  in  admitting  that 
most  of  these  stars  belong  to  the  pure  type  ll.a  or  Ill.«, 
I  will  nevertheless  suppose  that  a  third  of  them  really 
have  spectra  intermediate  between  II. «  and  Ill.rt.  Their 
number  in  M.  Vogel's  catalogue  is  1 20,  and  the  third  is  40,  so 
we  should  have  therefore  between  the  Pole  and  -25' declina- 
tion 160  spectra  intermediate  between  II. rt  and  lll.a.  I  found  also 
by  special  observations  that  among  the  spectra  designated  by 
Il.rt! !  I  !  Il.rt  :  !  and  IL«  !  a  fourth  part  really  belong  to  the 
intermediate  type.  Thus  there  would  be  in  all  200  such  spectra, 
a  number  evidently  much  too  great.  Then,  the  spectra  III./;  being 
about  fifty  times  rarer,  we  should  have  at  most  four  spectra 
intermediate  between  II.  rt!  and  lll.b,  and  if  only  stars  of  a  higher 
magnitude  than  6'o  are  reckoned,  there  would  scarcely  be  one. 

But,  if  we  con-ider  the  differences  between  the  spectra  Ill.rt 
and  lll.b,  we  shall  find  that  in  reahty  we  can  scarcely  expect  to 
find  any  spectrum  intermediate  between  ll.a  and  II 1. 1^.  As  we 
have  seen  above,  the  spectra  lll.a  are  formed  by  the  exaggeration 
of  the  essential  characteristics  of  the  spectra  ll.a.  There  must 
then  be  a  phase,  especially  if  the  star  is  not  very  bright,  in  which 
one  cannot  decide  to  which  of  the  two  classes  the  spectrum 
belongs.  Thus  in  the  spectra  lll.b  there  are  undoulotediy  well- 
marked  Fraunho'er  lines — for  instance,  D,  and  the  narrow  band  8, 
which  is  probably  nothing  but  the  collection  of  strong  lines  in 
the  neighbourhood  of  E,  and  the  very  narrow  band  5  (A.  — 576/u) 
which  is  almost  like  a  broad  line  ;  but  all  these  details  are  only 
secondary.  The  essential  characteristics  are  the  three  nebulous, 
very  broad  flutings,  which  owe  their  origin  to  some  carbon  com- 
pound. If  these  hands  are  visible,  the  spectrum  is  called  lll.b  ; 
if  they  are  not,  it  is  called  ll.a.  The  only  forms  intermediate 
between   the   spect'-a  of  the  type  of  Aldebaran  and  the  normal 


Jan.  12,  1888] 


NATURE 


261 


type  1 11./^  are  those  in  which  the  bandi  are  more  or  less  faint, 
or^eveu  scarcely  perceptible.  In  fact,  I  have  proved  not  only 
that  there  are  spectra  in  which  the  principal  bands,  and  especially 
band  6,  are  weak  on  account  of  the  briglitiiess  of  the  stars,  but  I 
have  found  a  spectrum  which  is  scarcely  a  spectrum  \\\.l>  yet, 
but  in  which  the  characteristics  of  this  class  are  undoubtedly 
l)resent. 

This  star  is  DM.  +  38'  3957  —  541  Birm.     In  its  spectrum 

rianche,  Fig.  6)  I  have  seen  a  rather  broad  and  well-marked 

ii;md,  whose  approximate  wave-length  is  SlQ^u,  and  the  spectrum 

terminates  abruiHly  at  475ju.    These  wave-lengths  are,  within  the 

Hmits  of  probable  errors,  the  same  a-;  those  of  the  less  refrangible 

Is  of  bands  9  and  10  in  the  spectra  III./'.     Once  I  thought 

perceived  a  very  faint  trace  of  light  beyond  475/*,  and  in  the 

iiest  atmospheric  conditions  I  caught  a  glimpse  of  faint  traces  of 

the   bands  4   and   6.      Unfortunately  the   star   is   only  of  the 

eighth   magnitude,  so    that    only    few    details   of   its  spectrum 

can  be  seen  with  a  telescope  like  ours.     Nevertheless,  wiiat  I 

(lid  see  seems   to   me  of  some   importance   in  explaining  the 

development  of  a  spectrum  W.a  into  \\\.b. 

If  this  spectrum  be  compared  with  those  of  other  stars  of  the 
line  or  even  of  'a  lower  magnitude,  such  a-  145  Schj.  DM. 
;  34°  56,  DM.  -f  36'  3168,  it  is  at  once  seen  that  in  the  former 
the  principal  bands  are  still  in  a  very  low  stage  of  development, 
and  if  the  bands  had  only  been  a  little  paler  nothing  unusual 
would  have  been  seen  in  the  s))ectrum  under  ordinary  atmo- 
spheric conditions.  The  aspect  of  this  star  seems  to  prove  what 
I  said  above,  that  there  is,  properly  speaking,  no  intermediate 
state  between  the  spectra  W.a  and  III./',  but  that  the  passage 
from  one  to  the  other  is  already  accomplished  before  the  first 
traces  have  been  perceived. 

lUit  there  is  still  one  more  circumstance  deserving  of  attention, 
which  may  perhaps  lead  to  the  knowledge  of  other  spectra  which 
are  still  nearer  to  the  critical  point ;  that  is,  the  very  strong  ab- 
sorption of  the  more  refrangible  rays,  which  makes  the  whole 
spectrum  very  short,  and  gives  to  the  star  itself  its  bright  orange 
ijolour.  We  know  that  there  are  many  stars  of  a  deep  colour 
id  with  short  spectra,  but  otherwise  not  striking  ;  they  ought  to 
'■  examined  from  time  to  time  with  very  powerful  microscopes, 
for  amongst  these  will  be  found,  I  believe,  the  new  spectra 
IW.h. 

There  are  other  spectra,  which,  although  they  undoubtedly 
belong  to  Class  III.^',  have  not,  it  appears,  reached  their  full  de- 
velopment. The  least  faint  of  these  stars  is  that  known  as 
7  Schj.  Before  my  researches,  nothing  had  been  published 
"  regarding  this  spectrum  except  this  short  remark  of  D'Arrest, 
"Irregular  spectrum,  probably  type  IV."  (  Vierteljalirschrift  der 
Aslr.  Ges.  ix.  Jahrg.  p.  255).  This  spectrum  presents  the  charac- 
teristics of  III./;  very  pronounced  ;  only  band  5  is  invisible,  and 
band  6  is  so  faint  that  at  first  sight  the  spectrum  has  not  the 
aspect  characteristic  of  well-developed  specti'a  of  this  class.  It 
is  for  this  reason  that  D'Arrest  would  say  nothing  positive  re- 
garding this  star.  If  the  spectrum  of  541  Birm.  represents  the 
first  step  in  the  passage  of  a  star  to  Class  lll.b,  this  star  doubtless 
represents  the  second  step.  Band  6  is  the  least  developed  of 
the  three  principal  ones.  Although  the  spectrum  of  this  star  is 
jjretty  bright,  band  5  is  not  visible,  whilst  band  4  is  well  visible, 
md  is  also  perceived  in  the  spectrum  of  541  Birm. 

In  the  spectrum  of  19  Piscium  (Fig.  4  on  the  map),  which  is 

me  of  the  most  magnificent  in  other  respects,  band  6  is   still 

considerably  fainter  than  the  other  two  principal  bands,  whilst 

in  that  of  152  Schj.  (Fig.  3)  it  is  quite  as  pronounced  as  band  10, 

and  almost  as  pronounced  as  band  9.     This  last  spectrum  is  in 

;in  advanced  stage  of  development  ;  but  in  spite  of  that,  band  4  is 

!>t  stronger  than  in  the  spectrum  of  7  Schj.,  and  rather  fainter 

•vxn  that  of  19  Piscium.     The  same  relation  is  repeated  in  other 

^cctra  of  this  class,  so  that  sometimes  band  4  is  very  visible  in  an 

therwiseless  developed  spectrum,  but  invisible  in  more  strongly 

;uked  spectra,  and  in  the  spectra  of  brighter  stars  of  this  class 

L'le  are  in  the  same  way  very  faint  band>,  7  and  8.     But  band 

i  is  in  itself  very  pale  ;  it  is  the  deep  sodium  line  which  makes  it 

1  emarkable,  and  the  bands  7  and  8  are  probably  only  groups  of 

Fraunhofer  lines. 

It  is  therefore  very  probable  that  the  more  or  less  easy  visi- 
bility of  these  bands  is  no  indication  as  to  the  phase  of  develop- 
ment in  which  the  star  is.  There  is,  on  the  contrary,  reason  to 
believe  that  the  strengthening  of  these  lines,  and  also  of  the  other 
l)rincipal  lines  of  the  spectrum  (except  those  of  hydrogen,  which 
grow  fainter  during  the  passage  of  a  star  to  Class  III.)  is  a 
I'rocess  of   relatively   small  importance   which   goes   on  whilst 


the  star  still  undoubtedly  belongs  to  Class  W.a  ;  and  even  when 
this  is  accomplished  there  is  still  nothing  to  show  whether 
the  star  will  become  Ill.rt  or  III./;,  unless  perhaps  in  those 
which  tend  towards  Class  III. a,  the  line,  or  rather  group  of  lines, 
with  wave-length  616.  is  very  well  marked,  which  seems  not  to 
take  place  in  the  spectra  Wl.l>.  But  in  the  stars  which  tend 
towards  the  latter  class  the  violet  rays  are  already  very  much 
absorbed,  and  the  stars  are  therefore  of  a  deep  orange. 

If  we  pass  on  to  consider  the  ulterior  development  of  the  star, 
it  is  evident  that  as  it  cools  farther  it  at  length  reaches  a 
temperature  at  which  the  carbon  which  must  be  present  in 
abundance,  either  in  its  atmosphere  or  under  some  form  in  its 
photosphei^e..  can  combine  with  hydrogen  or  some  other  element 
to  give  the  so-called  hydrocarbon  spectrum.  After  that,  the 
spectrum  appears  cut  by  a  broad  faint  band  with  the  wave-length 
516/*,  and  by  another  still  paler  at  473/i,  and  the  parts  of 
the  spectrum  beyond  this  are  very  faint.  But  gradually  these 
two  bands  increase  in  intensity,  and  at  the  same  time  the  band 
563,u  is  perceived,  at  first  very  faintly,  and  gradually  becoming 
stronger.  At  this  stage  the  narrow  band  $^6|x  is  developed, 
and  finally  the  three  principal  bands  are  nearly  of  equal  intensity, 
and  the  spectrum  shows  all  the  characteristic  details.  It  would 
be  useless  to  attempt  to  discuss  the  moment  at  which  the 
secondary  bands  in  the  red  and  orange  make  their  appearance, 
as  no  facts  on  the  subject  are  known. 

It  is  doubtless  very  remarkable  that  in  the  spectra  III.i^  no 
trace  of  the  carbon  band  with  the  wave-length  618  "J/U  is  seen, 
which  is  so  brilliant  in  Pliicker's  tubes  containing  hydrocarbon. 
This  is,  however,  in  perfect  analogy  with  what  is  seen  in  the 
spectra  of  comets,  which  owe  their  appearance  to  the  same 
carbon  compound  as  the  stellar  spectra  III./;,  and  there  are 
analogies  also  for  the  other  bands.  Thus  the  band  563,11  is 
often  very  weak  even  in  the  bright  comets,  and  the  band  in  the 
green  is  always  the  strongest  both  in  comets  and  stars.  The 
band  in  the  blue  is  sometimes  pretty  faint  in  cometary  spectra, 
whilst  in  the  stars  it  is  only  a  little  fainter  than  the  band  in  the 
green  ;  but  we  must  remember  that  it  is  situated  in  a  very  faint 
part  in  the  spectra  of  the  stars.  It  is  therefore  very  possible 
that  a  little  dimness  should  render  the  remaining  light  entirely 
imperceptible.  In  this  perhaps  there  is  no  diversity  between 
comets  and  these  stars.  The  violet  bands  are  very  faint  in 
Pliicker's  tubes,  but  strong  in  the  flame  of  alcohol.  A  trace  of 
them  has  been  seen  in  the  spectra  of  the  brightest  comets.  In 
very  brilliant,  not  too  red  stars  Wl.l>,  there  is  also  a  violet  zone, 
terminating  at  the  wave-length  430^,  of  which  there  is  a  band 
at  the  position  of  the  first  and  the  second  of  these  bands  in  the 
spectra  of  these  stars. 

We  will  now  pass  on  to  consider  the  changes  which  take 
place  in  stars  of  Class  III.  after  their  spectra  have  completely 
developed.  As  the  cooling  goes  on,  they  necessarily  grow  dim- 
mer and  dimmer,  and  at  length  become  extinct.  Either  the 
bands  in  their  spectra  must  increase  in  width  until  at  last  the 
shining  intervals  disappear,  or  else,  the  bands  keeping  their 
same  width,  the  whole  spectrum  grows  fainter.  Certainly  we 
see  that  there  are  stars  whose  bands  are  enormously  broad,  but 
none  the  breadth  of  who-se  bands  surpasses  that  of  the  bright 
zones. 

I  think,  therefore,  we  can  hardly  accept  the  first  hypothesis, 
but  there  are  reasons  which  give  very  valuable  support  to  the 
second.  We  know  that  the  weakness  of  the  light  in  the  solar 
spots  is,  in  the  first  place,  caused  by  a  general  obscuration  of 
the  spectrum,  and  that  the  enlargement  of  the  Fraunhofer  lines 
has  very  little  to  do  with  it.  Besides,  I  have  exanv'ned,  on 
different  occasions,  between  the  maximum  and  the  minimum, 
the  spectra  of  several  variable  stars  of  Class  III.,  and  found 
that  there  was  no  widening  of  the  bands  sufficient  to  explain 
the  weakening  of  the  stars.  There  is  no  doubt  a  remarkal  le 
analogy  between  the  spectra  of  the  sunspots  and  those  of  the 
stars  of  Class  III.,  and  one  which  we  have  no  cause  to  be  sur- 
prised at.  For,  on  a'ccount  of  the  relatively  low  temperature 
of  these  stars,  it  is  very  probable  that  their  surfaces  are  in  great 
part  covered  with  formations  similar  to  our  sunspots,  and  the 
absorption-bands  found  in  their  spectra  are  no  argument  against 
this  analogy.  They  prove  only  that  chemical  compounds  may 
be  formed  and  maintained  in  the  atmospheres  of  these  stars, 
which  is  not  possible  in  !our  sun,  not  even  in  the  masses  of 
relatively  low  temperature  of  which  the  spots  consist. 

Before  laying  down  my  pen  I  must  remark  that  the  induction 
by  which  I  arrived  at  these  conclusions  does  not  prove  that  the 
spectrum  of  each  star  commences  with  Class  I.  and  finishes  with 


262 


NATURE 


[Jan. 


12,    I 


Class  III.  The  develop Jient  might  just  as  well  be  ia  inverse 
order,  though  we  have  important  reasons  for  believing  it  is 
not  so. 

The  astronomy  of  the  future  must  decide  between  these  two 
alternatives.  My  object  in  undertaking  this  work  was  to  facili- 
tate this  decision  by  giving  as  exact  descriptions  as  possible  of 
the  spectra  presented  by  the  different  stars  of  Class  III.  in  the 
year  1880.  : 


THE   ART   OF  COMPUTATION  FOR 
PURPOSES  OF  SCIENCE} 

II. 


THE 


SOME  few  problems  in  astronomy  and  certain  theories  in  pure 
mathematics  require  more  than  seven  figures  to  be  calculated. 
In  these  cases  a  large  arithmometer  is  generally  the  most  con- 
venient. Ten-figure  tables  of  logarithms  may  be  obtained  second- 
hand ;  or  the  required  logarithms  must  be  calculated. 

The  tables  of  Vlacq,  re  edited  by  Vega  in  1749,  1794,  and 
1797  are  somewhat  difficult  to  obtain  and  cumbrous  to  use. 
The  logarithms  of  numbers  up  to  101,000  are  given  to  ten 
figures  with  first  and  second  differences.  Thus  to  find  log 
10  542  482  375,  from  the  table  directly 


log  10  S42 


•0229  230  119  Aj 
198  712  3 

5 


log  required      '0229  428  836  3 

The  true  log  of  10  542  482  375  is 
•022  942  883  626  562. 


=411  946 

482  375 

I  647  784 

329  557  + 

8  239  + 

I  236  + 

288  + 

20  - 


198  712  3  I  subtracted. 
A.,  =  40 
•48C48-   i)(-40)  ^  4.99,. 


In  default  of  Vega,  or  if  more  places  are  required,  the  log- 
arithm must  be  calculated,  and  this  is  by  no  means  such  a  serious 
affair  as  one  is  led  to  think  by  the  ordinary  books  on  algebra. 
I  am  much  indebted  in  what  follows  to  the  article  by  Mr.  J.  W. 
L.  Glaisher  on  logarithms  in  the  new  edition  of  the  "  Encyclo- 
paedia Britannica,"  to  which  I  refer  my  readers  for  further  par- 
ticulars in  theory,  restricting  myself  to  practical  details. 

The  easiest  way  to  calculate  a  table  of  logarithms  absolutely 
de  novo  would  be  by  the  method  of  differences,  with  some 
mechanical  assistance,  such  as  the  difference-engine  of  Babbage 
or  of  Scheulz.  It  seems  unlikely  that  larger  tables  will  be 
calculated  than  those  already  in  existence,  since  the  cost  increases 
with  great  rapidity.  Mr.  Sang  has,  however,  recently  calculated 
independently  the  logarithms  of  numbers  from  looooo  to 
200000,  where  the  ordinary  tables  are  weakest. 

Briggs  used  at  least  two  methods  for  the  calculation  of  log- 
arithms which  depended  upon  the  extraction  of  a  succession  of 
roots.  For  instance,  by  taking  the  square  root  of  10  fifty-four 
times  he  found  log  i-{py''>i  278  191  493tobe  -(0)150  555  in  512. 
Whence  assuming  that  very  small  numbers  vary  as  their  log- 
arithms, log  i-(o)i°i  =  555  III  512/r  278  191  493,  or  log 
i-{py-^i  —  0-43  429  448  =  M,  the  modulus.  And  if  x  be  small, 
log  I  -{of^x  =  ,r  X  0-43  429  448.  To  find  log  2  he  extracted 
the  square  root  of  the  tenth  power,  1024/1000  forty-seven  times, 
and  found  v{oY^i  685  160  570,  which  multiplied  by  M  gave 
•(0)1^0731  855936.  This  multiplied  by  2*''  gave  log  1'024; 
adding  3  and  dividing  by  10  gives  log  2.  .Another  more  simple 
method  was  to  find  a  series  of  geometrical  means  between  two 
numbers,  such  as  10  and  i,  the  logarithms  of  which  are  known. 
After  taking  22  of  these  roots,  log  5  is  found  to  be  0-69897. 

It  was  soon  found  that  logarithms  could  be  more  easily  calcu- 
lated by  the  summation  of  various  series,  and  many  great 
mathematicians,  such  as  Newton,  Gregory,  Halley,  Cotes, 
exercised  their  ingenuity  in  discovering  those  most  suitable  for  the 
purpose. 

Though  for  practical  purposes  the   use   of   series  has  been 

^  Continued  from  p.  239. 


almost  superseded,  three  very  simple  ones  are  still  occasionally 
useful : — 

log  (I  ±  .v)  =  M  f  ±  X  -  ■'■'  ±  -*"'  -  -l"  ±  :^' 
^  V  2345 

which  converges  rapidly  \i  x  be  small.  M  is  a  number  depend- 
ing upon  the  system  of  logarithms  adopted,  and  constant  for 
each  system.  If  M  be  i,  the  system  is  called  the  Naperian,  or 
natural  one  ;  and  if  M  =  0-434  &c.,  the  system  is  the  common 
one.  Unless  otherwise  stated  M  will  be  assumed  to  be  r,  or  the 
logarithms  will  be  natural  ones. 


Thus  to  calculate  lo"  l-i 


I  + —  ,  omitting  M  : — 
10 


log  I -I  =    —  - 
•^  10 


3000 


200       3000       40000 
01003  3534  -  00050  2517 


500000 
0-0953  IOI7- 


Suppose  X  be  small,  log  (l  ±  x)  —  ±  M.r  nearly.     Thus  if 
log  I  •(o)^"9  be  required  to  twenty  decimals,  it  is 

•(o)"9  -  1  (-9  X  lo-^T, 

or  the  error  caused  by  omitting  this  and  all  subsequent  terms  is 
only  4  in  the  twenty-first  decimal  place.  Using  common 
logarithms  the  multiplication  by  M  reduces  the  error  by  one- 
half.  This  result  is  of  great  importance  in  calculating  logarithms 
by  Flower's  method,  since  the  factors  which  have  to  be  dealt 
with  are  only  half  the  number  of  decimal  places  in  the  required 
logarithm. 

Writing   —  for  x  in  the  above  series,  we  obtain — 


log  (i  -f  -v)  -  log  X  —  M  (  _ 


I 

2.r- 


3X3 


I 

4x* 


\xfi~) 


S^ 


which  converges  rapidly  when  x  is  large.  Various  artifices  may 
he  used  to  render  x  large,  even  when  the  number  the  logarithm 
of  which  is  required  is  small.  Thus,  Prof.  J.  C.  Adams  has 
calculated  (Nature,  vol.  xxxv.  p.  381)  log  2,  log  3,  log  5,  log  7, 

—   and  M  to  270  places  of  decimal?. 
M 

Another  very  valuable  series  is — 

log(«±.r)  =  loT«±2M.f— :^  +  -(-^^\  +  H-~-\ +  ^''\ 
^  '        °  ^2a-t-x  ^  3V2a-i-.r/        5\2a-i-A7  j 

Thus,  supposing  log  219  known,  to  calculate  log  2198  : — 


log  2198  =  7-6916  5682  2810  +  2 

■0036  4630  81 13 
4039 


ijL^ 


3  \2i 


^V-f&c.l 


-i-    =  -0018  2315  40565 
2194 


log  2198  =  76593  0313  4962  1(7^)   "  ■°''^°^^ 

Using    common   logarithms,   the  third  term  of  the  series  is 

< -r  {  -\  ,  that  is  less  than  5  in  the  ninth  place   when 

27-6  \  a  I  ^ 

-  < .    Hence,  with  a  table  giving  the  logarithms  of  loo-ioco 


to  eight  figures  the  third  term  may  be  neglected,  or  the  required 

difference    is  ±  -^±-^  ,  or,  writing  log  (a  +  x)  -  log  a  =  }', 
2a  +  X 
_      2ay 


2M  -  y 

The  given  numbers  may  also  be  broken  up  into  factors  by  the 
aid  of  such  a  table  as  Burkhard's,  which  gives  the  factors  of 
all  numbers  up  to  3,036,000,  The  logarithms  of  the  factors 
may  then  be  found  from  tables  and  added  together.  Of  all 
tables  for  this  purpose,  that  of  Wolfram  is  the  most  valuable  ; 
it  gives  the  natural  logarithms  to  forty-eight  places  oi  all  num- 
bers up  to  2200,  and  of  all  which  are  not  easily  divisible  up  to 
10,009.  . 

The  multiplication  by  M  to  convert  into  common  logarithms 
is  tedious,  and  it  is  frequently  belter  to  dispense  with  it  in  heavy 
calculations.  If  necessary,  a  table  of  the  first  ninety-nine  mul- 
tiples of  M  should  be  prepared^  and  Oughtred's  short  method  of 
multiplication  used. 

If  any  of  my  readers  desire  to  test  themselves  and  their  tables 


Jan.  12,  1888] 


NATURE 


[63 


liy  along  but  easy  calculation,  the  amount  of  £\  laid  up  at 
5  per  cent,  compound  interest  for  a  thousand  years  will  be  found 
not  to  differ  very  much  from  ^^1,546, 318,923,73 1,927,238,982. 
All  answer  of  this  sort  is  of  course  of  no  practical  utility  whit- 
e^'er,  but  it  brings  vividly  before  us  an  important  point  in  p3!itical 
economy — the  accretion  of  wealth  in  the  hands  of  corporation-. 
It  was  computed  that  just  before  the  Revolatiou  m:)re  thai  half 
the  soil  of  France  was  owned  by  the  Church.  Looking  at  this 
array  of  figures,  and  remembering  that  since  the  Church  could 
never  alienate  its  property  all  surplus  income  must  be  regarded 
as  at  compound  interest,  we  can  only  wonder  that  it  was  the  half 
and  nat  the  whole. 

The  first  table  for  facilitating  the  computation  of  logarithms 
was  one  given  by  Long  (Phil.  Trans.,  1724)  of  the  decimal 
powers  of  10  to  nine  figures.  Thus,  to  find  the  number  the 
I  )garithm  of  which  is 

•30103  =  10-^  X  lo-"''^  X   lo'^''*"'*  =:  1-99525231  X  1-00230523 
X  I  -00006908  =  I  "99999997,  or  2. 

Fiiis  method  is  cambrous,  but  it  is  perhaps  one  of  the  most 
simple  for  explaiuing  the  calculation  of  logarithms  to  beginners. 

A  much  more  convenient  method  has  been  well  worked  out 
by  M.  Namur,  but,  unfortunately,  only  his  twelve-figure  table 
seems  to  be  still  in  print.  The  table  contains  the  logarithms  of 
numbers  from  433300  to  434300  to  twelve  figures,  and  the 
numbers  corresponding  to  logarithms  from  637780  to  638860. 
By  the  aid  of  certain  factors  which  are  tabul  ited  with  their 
complementary  logarithm >,  any  number  or  logarithm  can  be 
reduced  between  these  limits. 

Thus,  to  find  log  ir — 

314  159  265  359       X  1-3 
94  247  779  607  7 


40S  407  044  9%  7  X  1-063 
24  504  422  698  o 

I    225    221    134   9 

434  136  688  799  6 


log  from  table       637  625  800  474      A 
206  4 

41  3 

2  4 


r 030364 


637  626  489  524 
973  466  735  477 
886  056  647  693 


complementary  logs  of 
I  -3  and  I  -063 

=    log  TT. 


497   149  872  694 

The  last  method  I  shall  mention  is  generally  known  by  the 
name  of  Weddle  ;  it  was  probably  used  Ijy  Briggs,  and  published 
by  Flower  in  1771.    It  consists  in  multiplying  the  given  number 

by  a  series  of  factors  of  the  form  i  ±         until  it  is  reduced  to 

10" 

one.      The  complement  of  the  sum  of  the  logarithms  of  the 

factors  is  the  required  logarithm.     The  logarithms  of  the  factors 

are  easily  calculated  by  the  first  series ;  tliey  liave  been  tabulated 

to  about  thirty  place= 


Thus  to  find  log  3550 

26:— 

355026     X  2  ... 

3'io3 

"394  3 

710052     X  I  3 

3342  4 

2130156 

130  I 



3  9 

9230676  X   I  08 

738454 

44973  7 



55026     complement 

9969130  X  I  003 

29907 

9999037  X  I  00009 

Hence  log  3550-26  =  3-55026,  o>itw.e  have  a  number  which  is 
expressed  by  the  same  figurjjs;.a.s  its  logarithcni.. 

It  is  the  present  fashion,  -while  deprecia'.ing  our  own  country 

men,  to  extol  all  Germans,  iiji,  maters  connected  with  education, 

and  especially  to  award  them  the  palm  for  patient  plodding.     It 

will  be  some  time  before  a  German  rivals   Prof.    Adam.s^  and 

ven  then  there  is  a  height  beyond.     Of  all  monuntents  of  cal- 

ulation  the  value  of  7r,  o)  the  number  of  t lines   t'le,  circumfer- 


ence is  longer  than  the  diameter  of  a  circle,  is  most   astounding. 

Archimedes  found  it  to  be  ^^,  Wolf  calculated  it  to  16  places.  Van 

7  * 

Ceulen  to  35,  Machin  to  100,  Beerens  de  Ilaan  to  250,  Richter 
to  500.  But  in  1853  Mr.  Shanks  threw  all  these  results  into  the 
shade,  and  excited  the  admiration  even  of  De  Morgan  by  calcu- 
lating ir  to  530  places,  "throwing  aside  as  an  unnoticed  chip 
the  219th  power  of  9  "  !  Two  printers'  errors  were  pointed  out 
by  Mr.  John  Morgan,  which  Mr.  Shanks  corrected  from  his 
manuscript,    and   in    1873   gave   a    new  res"lt    to    707   places. 

Hence  the  vnlue  of  ir  is  known  to  within ? ,  an  exactness 

3  X  10'*'" 
which  is  useless  fron  the  inability  of  the  human  mind  to  com- 
prehend the  figures  which  express  it. 

Clerk  Maxwell  proposed,  possibly  in  irony,  to  take  the  wave- 
length of  a  certain  light  as  the  universal  unit  of  length. 
Choosing  for  this  purpose  about  the  middle  of  the  violet,  a  mile 
would  be  expressed  by  60000  x  63360  —  y%  y.  10"  units  nearly. 
Suppose  that  Sirius,  the  brightest  star  in  our  firmament,  has  an 
annual  parallax  of  i",  a  quantity  pei-ceptible,  but  barely  measur- 
able, by  our  best  telescopes,  the  distance  of  the  sun  from  Sirius 
is  about  5  X  206,265  x  92.300,000  miles,  or  3-5  x  10-^  units. 
Assume  again  that  Kant's  famdful  conjecture  is  correct,  and  that 
the  sun  revolves  round  Sirius  in  a  circle  the  length  of  which  is 
expressed  by  7  x  lo--'  x  ir  units.  Make  the  still  greater  assu  np- 
tion  that  all  our  measures  are  correct,  and  our  arithmetic  as  it 
ought  to  b?,  so  that  the  only  possible  error  would  be  in  the 
evaluation  of  tt.     The  greatest  possible  error  according  to  Mr. 

of  a 


7  X  10 
Shanks's  determination  would  be -^. 


3  X  10' 


43  X   IO«> 


wave-length  of  violet  light.  Whatever  metaphysicians  may  say, 
I  think  we  have  here  reached,  if  not  surpassed,  the  limits  of  the 
human  understanding.  Sydney  Lupton. 


SOCIETIES  AND  ACADEMIES. 

Paris. 

Academy  of  Sciences,  January  2. — M.  Janssen,  President, 
in  the  chair. — On  an  objection  made  to  the  employment  of 
electro-magnetic  regulators  in  a  system  of  synchronous  time- 
pieces, by  M.  A.  Cornu.  This  is  a  reply  to  M.  Wolf's  recent 
communication,  in  which  several  objections  were  urged  against 
the  apparatus  in  question.  It  is  shown  (i)  that  such  a  regulator 
does  not  necessarily  tend  to  stop  the  system  to  which  it  is  ap- 
plied ;  (2)  that  in  any  case  the  stoppage  may  be  prevented 
without  complication  or  expense  ;  and  (3)  that  in  a  public  time- 
distributing  service  the  stoppage  should  not  only  not  be  pre- 
vented, but  efforts  should  be  made  to  bring  it  about  whenever 
the  synchronizing  system  gets  out  of  order.  The  paper  was 
followed  by  some  further  remarks  on  the  part  of  M.  Wolf,  who 
reiterated  his  objections,  and  trea'ed  M.  Cornu's  third  point  as 
somewhat  paradoxical. — Remarks  on  Pere  Dechrevens's  letter 
regarding  the  artificial  reiiroduction  of  whirlwinds,  by  M.  H. 
Faye.  The  author  complains  that,  like  other  partisans  of  the 
prevailing  ideas  on  the  subject  of  tornadoes,  typhoons,  and 
cyclones,  M.  Dechevrens  endeavours  to  suit  the  facts  to  the  ex- 
ploded theory  of  an  ascending  motion  in  the  artificial  reproduc- 
tion of  these  aerial  phenomena. — On  the  meteorite  which  fell 
at  Phu-Long,  Cochin  China,  on  Septembsr  22,  1887,  by  M. 
Daubree.  In  supplement  to  M.  Delauney's  communication  of 
December  19,  the  author  adds  that  this  meteorite  was  an  oligo- 
siderite  of  somewhat  ordinary  type,  clo  ely  resembling  those  of 
Tabor  (Bohemia),  July  3,  1753  ;  Weston  (Connecticut),  Decem- 
ber 14,  1807;  Limerick,  September  10,  181^;  aiid  Ohaba 
(Transylvania),  October  10,  1817. — Remarks  in  connection  with 
the  presentation  of  the  "Annuaire  du  Bureau  des- Longitudes  " 
for  1888,  the  "  Connaissance  des  Temps"  and  the"^Extrait  de 
la  Connaissance  des  Temps"  for  1889,  by  M.  Faye.  Amongst 
the  fresh  matter  added  to  the  "  Annuaire"  this  year  are  papers 
by  M.  Janssen  on  the  age  of  the  star.-,  by  Admiral  Mouchez  on 
the  piogres.s  of  stellar  photography,  and  by  M.  d'Abbadie  on 
his  recent  expedition  to  the  East  in  order  to  determine  the  ele- 
ments of  terrestrial  magnetism  in  Egypt,  Palestine,  and  Syria. 
—Observations  of  'Olbers'  comet  made  at  the  Observatory  of 
Nice  (Gautier's  0-38  m.  equatorird),  by  M.  Charlois.  These 
observations  are  for  December  25,  26,  and  27,  after  the  comet 
vae  d  scovered  on  December  23,  '.nhen  the  nucleus  was  of  thi, 
fienth  magnitudio.  surrounded  by  a  bright  nebulosity,  and  with ; 
ji  fail  from  20'  ^i  25'  in  length. — OJithe  total,  aclipse  of  the.suQj 


264 


NATURE 


{Jan.  12,  1888 


observed  on  August  19,  1887,  at  Petrovsk,  Government  of 
Jarosiav,  by  M.  G.  M.  Stanoiewitch.  Owing  to  the  extremely 
unfavomable  atmospheric  conditions  the  observer  was  unable  10 
carry  out  any  important  part  of  his  pi-ogramme.  A  chief  result  of 
his  observations  was  the  conclusion  that  the  gloom  prevailing 
during  eclipses  is  all  the  deeper  the  less  clouded  is  the  sky  and 
the  flatter  the  ground,  especially  oi  the  horizon.  The  sky 
being  on  this  occasion  almost  completely  overcast,  he  was  able 
to  read  the  title  of  a  pamphlet  printed  on  a  red  cover  at  a 
distance  of  2  metres — On  the  variations  of  temperature  of  gases 
and  vapours  which  preserve  the  same  quantity  of  heat  under 
different  tensions,  by  M.  Ch.  Antoine.  A  simple  means  is 
proposed  for  avoiding  the  laborious  calculations  reqvtired  to 
determine  the  values  0  and  ©^  in  the  formula  j  =  25^/ ©  -  ©^ 
deduced  from  V.  Regnault's  experiments  on  atmospheric  air. — 
On  the  energy  needed  to  create  a  magnetic  field  and  to  mag- 
netize iron,  by  M.  Aime  Witz.  The  researches  here  described 
serve  to  verify  Lamont's  statement  that  the  effect  produced  by 
a  magnetic  field  on  a  magnet  is  greater  when  the  force  acts  to 
diminish  than  it  is  when  the  force  acts  to  increase  the  mag- 
netizing power. — On  the  rapidity  of  transformation  of  meta- 
phosphoric  acid,  by  M.  Paul  Sabitier.  Solutions  of  metaphos- 
phoric  acid  are  transformed  spontaneously  with  greater  or  less 
rapidity.  Berzelius  and  Thomsen  suppose  that  there  is  at  first  pro- 
duction of  pyrophosphoric  acid,  which  is  afterwards  changed  to 
orthophosphoric  acid.  Others,  with  Graham,  think  that  there  is 
immediate  formation  of  triba^ic  orthophosphoric  acid,  and  the 
author's  researches  tend  to  show  that  this  is  normally  the  case 
It  is  also  established  that  the  rapidity  of  transformation  is  at 
each  instant  proportional  to  the  mass  of  transformable  substance 
present  in  the  system. — On  an  alloy  of  titanium,  silicium,  and 
aluminium,  by  M.  Lucien  Levy.  Wohler  indicated  two  alloys 
of  these  metals  without  giving  their  composition.  The  author 
here  determines  a  similar  alloy  differing  in  some  of  its  properties 
from  those  of  Wohler.  He  has  also  determined  its  composition, 
as  apparently  a  mixture  of  two  isomorphous  bodies  crystallized 
together  with  formula  TiAl4  and  SiAl4.  The  same  preparation 
with  zinc  or  magnesium  substituted  for  aluminium  yielded  no 
results. — On  some  derivatives  of  cinchonine,  by  MM.  E. 
Jungfleisch  and  E.  Leger.  The  authors  were  able  some 
time  ago  to  announce  that  the  sulphate  of  cinchonine  being 
heated  to  120°  C.  for  forty-eight  hours  with  a  mixture  in  equal 
parts  of  sulphuric  acid  and  water,  the  alkaloid  changes  to  di- 
verse bases,  of  which  they  have  isolated  the  six  most  abundant. 
H^re  they  explain  the  process  by  which  they  have  succeeded  in 
separating  the  alkalie-. — On  the  presence  of  diaphragms  in  the 
aeriferous  ducts  of  roots,  by  M.  C.  Sauvageau.  The  transverse 
diaphragms  intersecting  the  aeriferous  ducts  of  vascular  plants 
have  hitherto  been  supposed  to  be  confined  to  the  middle  region 
of  the  bark  of  their  various  members.  But  the  author  has  now 
determined  their  presence  also  in  the  root  of  at  least  one  such 
aquatic  plant,  the  Hydrocharis  inorsiis-raiits, 

Berlin. 

Physiological  Society,  December  16,  1887. — Prof,  du  Bois 
Reymond,  President,  in  the  chair. — Herr  Meyer,  from  Hamburg, 
discussed  the  nature  of  ventriloquism,  and  combated  the  opinion, 
so  widely  spread  among  physiologists,  that  it  consists  in  speaking" 
while  inspiring,  and  without  the  cavity  of  the  mouth  acting  in 
any  way  as  a  resonator ;  on  the  contrary,  ventriloquists  speak 
while  expiring,  and  do  move  their  mouths.  An  extended  series 
of  laryngoscopic  observations  on  the  speaker,  who  has  practised 
ventriloquism  for  many  years,  has  shown  that  in  ventriloquizing 
the  vocal  opening  of  the  larynx  is  shortened  as  it  is  when  pro- 
ducing the  falsetto,  and  that  the  soft  palate  is  pressed  back 
and  that  the  uvula  becomes  invisible.  Everybody  who  naturally 
possesses  a  high  voice  can  easily  learn  to  ventriloquize.  One 
most  important  factor  in  the  deception  of  the  listeners  is  the 
contrast  between  the  loud,  full  and  metallic  tone  in  which  the 
question  is  asked  and  the  answer  which  immediately  follows  in  a 
high  and  gentle  falsetto.  Sibilants  and  the  high  I  should  be  as 
far  as  possible  avoided.  The  speaker  then  gave  a  series  of  ex- 
tremely successful  examples  of  ventriloquism,  which  did  not 
presuppose  any  particular  training,  and  showed  that  it  is  never 
accompanied  by  any  special  action  of  the  abdominal  muscles. 
Pi'of.  Gad  has  made  some  experiments  on  Herr  Meyer,  and  by 
graphically  recording  the  variations  in  pressure  of  the  air,  has 
shown  that  the  curve  obtained  when  a  certain  sentence  is  spoken 
in  the  ordinary  way  is  in  all  respects  identical  with  the  one 
which   is  described  when  the  same  sentence  is  spoken  ventri- 


loquially.  In  the  latter  case  the  volume  of  air  expired  was  con- 
siderably less  than  during  normal  speech  ;  in  one  particular  case 
it  amounted  to  only  900  c.c,  whereas  during  normal  speech  the 
volume  expired  was  1300  c.c.  Dr.  Benda  expressed  his  idea 
that  when  ventriloquizing  the  Eustachian  tubes  are  open  and  the 
cavity  of  the  tympanum,  together  with  the  tympanic  membrane,  are 
set  into  simultaneous  vibration.  He  had  not  been  able  to  detect 
any  resonance  of  the  tympanic  membrane  in  Herr  Meyer ;  but  he 
believes  that  this  explaniition  of  the  curiously  veiled  tones  emitted 
is  not  thereby  invalidated,  since  they  closely  resemble  the  tones 
produced  by  speaking  while  yawning,  in  which  case  the 
Eustachian  tubes  are  certainly  open  and  the  tympanic  cavity  acts 
as  a  resonator.-  -Dr.  Henda  gave  a  further  account  of  his  re- 
searches on  the  developiient  of  spermatozoa,  and  referred  to 
several  works  which  have  been  recently  published  and  do  not 
agree  with  the  results  obtained  by  himself.  For  his  own  part  he 
could  only  confirm  his  earlier  opinions  by  his  later  researches. 
In  Marsupials  he  finds  some  resemblance  to  that  which  holds 
good  in  Sauropsida.  In  general  it  maybe  said  that  the  very 
varying  relationships  observed  in  Mammalia  between  the  parent- 
cell  and  the  spermatozoa-cells  which  are  connected  with  this  may 
be  looked  at  from  one  common  piint  of  view  ;  it  is  only  neces- 
sary to  adopt  for  animals  the  differentiation  of  the  cells  of 
pollen-grains,  observed  by  botanists,  into  vegetative  or  nutritive, 
and  into  generative,  from  which  the  spermatozoa  then  arise. 
These  vegetative  and  generative  cells  can  be  made  out  both  in 
the  functioning  and  not  yet  active  testes  of  embryos,  the  cells 
having  extremely  varying  relations  each  to  the  other. 


BOOKS,  PAMPHLETS,  and  btCKlALS  KliCiilVED. 

A  Course  of  Elementary  Instruction  in  Practical  Biology  :  T.  H.  Huxley 
and  H.  N.  Martin  ;  Revised  Edi  ion.  extended  and  edited  by  Profs.  Howes 
and  Scott  (Macmillan) — Early  Christian  .4rt  in  Ireland:  Margaret  Stokes 
(Cnapman  and  Hall). — Diseases  of  the  D.>g  :  J.  H.  Steel  (Longman.s). — 
Papers  of  Fleeming  Jenkin.  2  vols.  (Longmans^ — Practical  Gtiide  to  Photo- 
graphic and  Photo-mechanical  Printing  :  W.  K.  Burton  (Marion). — United 
States  Commission  of  Fish  and  Fi>;heries,  Part  13,  Report  of  the  Commis- 
sioner for  1885  (Washington).  —  Mechanics  and  Experimental  Science  — 
Mechanics:  E.  Aveling  (Loigmins). — Astronomy  (  )T  Amateurs:  J.  A.  W. 
Oliver  (Longmans). —  .vlodern  Theories  of  Chemistry:  Dr.  L.  Meyer, 
translated  by  Profs.  Beds  m  an  J  Williams  (Longmans). — Calendar  of  the 
University  College  of  Wales.  AberystwUh.  1887-S8  (Cornish.  Manchester)  — 
The  C  lildren  :  How  to  SuiJy  Them  :  Dr.  F.  Warner  (Hodgson). 


CONTENTS.  PAGE 

Physical  Chemistry.     By  M.  M.  Pattison  Muir     .    .  241 

British  and  Irish  Salmonidae 242 

The    Echinoidea.     By    Prof.     P.    Martin    Duncan, 

F.R  S 243 

Fritsch's  Palseontological  Researches 244 

Our  Book  Shelf  :— 

Hart:   "The  Flora  of  Howth" 245 

Rutley :   "Mineralogy" 245 

Letters  to  the  Editor  : — 

"  A  Conspiracy  of  Silence." — The  Duke  of  Argyll, 

F.R.S 246 

Mr.     Seeboh'Ji     on     Physiological     Selection. — Dr. 

George  J.  Romanes,  F.R.S 246 

An    Incorrect    Footnote    and     its     Consequences. — 

Thomas  Muir 246 

The    Periodic     Law.       {With    Diagram.) —'Donald 

Murray 247 

The  Leaps  of  Z^//«.—R.  W.  Schufeldt 247 

A  New  Magnetic  Survey  of  France.   {Illustrated.)  By 

Prof  T.  E.  Thorpe,  F.R.S 247 

Timber,  and  some  of  its  Diseases.   IV.    (Illus'j'ated.) 

By  Prof.  H.   Marshall  Ward 251 

Perpetual  Motion.     By  Prof.  Hele  Shaw 254 

The  Chair  of  Darwinism  in  Paris 256 

Notes 256 

Our  Astionomical  Column  : — 

O'Gyalla  Spectroscopic  Catalogue 259 

Astronomical  Prizes  of  the  Paris  Academy  of  Sciences  259 

New  Observatory  in  Vienna 259 

Astronomical     Phenomena     for     the     Week     1888 

January  15-21 259 

Duner  on  Stars  with  Spectra  of  Class  III.    II.  .    .    .  260 
The  Art  of  Computation  for  the  Purposes  of  Science. 

II.     By  Sydney  Lupton 262 

Societies  and  Academies 263 

Books,  Pamphlets,  and  Serials  Received    ,    .    .   .    .  264 


NA  TURE 


265 


THURSDAY,  JANUARY    19,   li 


THE  TEACHING  OF  ELEMENTARY 
CHEMISTRY. 

Elementary  Chemistry.  By  M.  M.  Pattison  Muir,  M.A., 
Fellow  and  Praelector  in  Chemistry  of  Gonville  and 
Caius  College,  and  Charles  Slater,  M.A.,  M.B., 
formerly  Scholar  of  St.  John's  College,  Cambridge. 

Practical  Chemistry:  a  Course  of  Laboratory  Work. 
By  M.  M.  Pattison  Muir,  M.A.,  and  Douglas  Carnegie, 
B.A.,  Demonstrator  of  Chemistry,  and  formerly  Scholar 
of  Gonville  and  Caius  College.  (Cambridge,  at  the 
University  Press,  1887.) 

DURING  the  past  few  years  numerous  expressions 
of  dissatisfaction  have  been  more  or  less  openly 
uttered  by  members  of  the  younger  generation  of  English 
chemical  teachers,  and  the  opinion  is  gaining  ground 
that  instruction  in  the  elements  of  the  science  can  no 
longer  be  imparted  entirely  on  the  stereotyped  lines  of 
practice  devised  to  suit  the  requirements  of  a  bygone 
generation— of  a  time  when  a  science  of  chemistry  was 
but  beginning  to  exist,  and  the  conviction  had  not  yet 
been  acquired  that  the  subject  must  ultimately  be 
reckoned  as  a  necessary  element  of  a  liberal  education. 
Several  of  the  objectors  have  advanced  their  criticisms  to 
the  constructive  stage,  thereby  rendering  great  service  to 
the  cause  ;  nevertheless  we  believe  it  is  the  general  opinion 
that,  although  each  contains  numerous  good  points,  all 
the  schemes  hitherto  advanced  are  in  the  main  failures, 
and  that  it  is  impossible  to  accept  any  one  as  it  stands. 
The  senior  author  of  the  works  now  under  notice  has 
been  one  of  the  most  active  objectors  to  the  good  old- 
fashioned  style  of  teaching,  and  has  told  us  in  terms 
somewhat  vague  and  general  it  is  true,  but  none  the  less 
plainly,  what  we  ought  to  do.  Even  chemists  recognize, 
however,  how  comparatively  easy  it  is  to  preach  and  yet 
how  difficult  to  practice,  and  we  have  therefore  patiently 
awaited  the  publication  of  details  to  guide  us  on  the 
tortuous  and  narrow  path  to  success.  These  details  are 
now  before  us  in  the  two  books  of  which  the  titles  are 
given  at  the  head  of  this  article  ;  "  they  are  intended  to 
be  used  together,"  say  the  authors,  and  "  their  object  is 
to  teach  the  elements  of  chemical  science."  What  will  be 
the  verdict  of,  say,  a  jury  of  schoolmasters — by  far  the 
most  competent  judges  on  such  a  question — as  regards 
the  merits  of  the  scheme  put  forward  by  Messrs.  Muir, 
Carnegie  and  Slater?  We  venture  to  predict,  and  we 
trust,  that  it  will  be,  "  Impossible."  In  order  to  justify 
this  statement  we  shall  proceed  to  specify  our  objections 
to  the  scheme,  trusting  that,  by  so  doing,  some  service 
may  be  rendered  to  a  cause  in  which  so  many  are  now 
deeply  interested,  and  which  is  undoubtedly  of  the  highest 
importance  to  the  community  on  account  of  the  inestim- 
able advantages  to  be  derived  from  the  teaching  of  the 
elements  of  experimental  science,  and  especially  of 
chemistry,  in  schools  in  a  logical  and  systematic  manner. 
The  issue  of  two  companion  volumes  has  many 
advantages  :  indeed  we  believe  that  in  the  future  it  will 
be  thought  essential  to  separate  the  instructions  to  a 
student  stating  what  is  to  be  done  from  any  description 
Vol.  XXXVII. — No.  951. 


or  discussion  of  observations  or  inferences  to  be  deduced 
from  results,  in  order,  as  far  as  possible,  to  induce  the 
habit  of  observing  and  of  reasoning  from  observation  ;  in 
no  other  way  probably  is  it  possible  to  force  the  student 
to  become  an  independent  observer  and  thinker,  and  to 
prevent  the  teaching  of  science  from  degenerating  into 
mere  cram,  as  is  too  frequently  the  case  in  schools.  It 
appears  to  us,  however,  that  in  the  earlier  part  of  the 
"Practical  Chemistry"  Messrs.  Muir  and  Carnegie  do 
not  sufficiently  bear  in  mind  their  own  intention,  and  that 
much  of  the  matter  would  find  a  more  fitting  place  in  the 
companion  volume. 

In  the  "  Practical  Chemistry,"  we  learn  from  the 
preface,  "  the  aim  has  been  to  arrange  a  progressive  course 
in  which,  as  the  experiments  become  more  difficult,  the 
reasoning  becomes  more  close  and  accurate."  But 
surely,  in  a  scientific  work,  the  reasoning  should  through- 
out 'be  "  close  and  accurate  :  "  authors  who  make  such  a 
statement  almost  invite  suspicion,  and  it  is  to  be  feared 
that  in  this  case  such  suspicion  is  unfortunately  not 
entirely  unwarranted  ;  the  reasoning  is  indeed  but  rarely 
close,  and  not  infrequently  conspicuously  absent.  As  a 
typical  case,  and  as  an  illustration  of  the  manner  in 
which  the  experiments  are  usually  set  forth,  Experiment  I, 
Chapter  VI.,  p.  22,  may  be  quoted  : — 

"  Place  a  small  piece  of  sodium  in  a  little  cage  of  wire- 
gauze  attached  to  a  glass  rod.  Fill  a  large  test-tube  with 
water  and  invert  it  in  a  small  basin  of  water  ;  hold  the 
tube  with  one  hand,  and  with  the  other  bring  the  wire 
cage  containing  the  sodium  under  the  water,  so  that  the 
gas,  which  at  once  begins  to  bubble  through  the  water, 
passes  into  the  tube  and  collects  there.  When  the  tube 
is  full  of  gas,  cover  the  mouth  with  the  thumb,  invert  the 
tube,  and  bring  a  lighted  taper  to  the  mouth  ;  the  gas 
takes  fire,  and  burns  with  a  pale,  almost  non-luminous 
flame — the  gas  is  hydrogen.  Evaporate  the  water  in  the 
basin  to  dryness  ;  the  white  solid  which  remains  is  a 
compound  of  sodium,  hydrogen,  and  oxygen  ;  it  is  called 
sodium  hydroxide,  or  caustic  soda.  (The  composition  of 
this  compound  cannot  be  proved  at  present.)  By  the 
interaction  of  sodium  and  water,  hydrogen  and  a  com- 
pound of  sodium  with  hydrogen  and  oxygen  have  been 
formed.  Sodium  is  an  element :  if  this  is  taken  as  proved, 
it  follows  that  the  hydrogen  evolved  as  gas  in  the  fore- 
going experiment,  and  also  the  hydrogen  and  oxygen 
which  combined  with  the  sodium,  must  have  formed  part 
of  the  water  at  the  beginning  of  the  experiment.  {Here  we 
assume  that  the  material  of  the  vessel  was  not  chemic- 
ally changed  during  the  process.)  Water  therefore  is  a 
compound  of  hydrogen  and  oxygen." 

What  can  be  the  educational  value  of  an  experiment 
thus  described  and  discussed  }  That  water  therefore  is 
a  compound  of  hydrogen  and  oxygen  only  follows  when 
a  variety  of  assumptions  are  made.  The  tendency  of 
such  teaching  is  entirely  in  the  wrong  direction  :  the 
habit  of  assuming  that  such  and  such  is  the  case  is  one 
which  it  is  all-important  to  counteract  by  experimental 
teaching,  and  practical  chemistry  will  never  be  of  value 
as  a  rigid  mental  discipline  unless  the  student  be  led 
from  the  beginning  to  demand  and  obtain  proof  of  each 
successive  link  in  a  chain  of  arguments. 

Again,  the  directions  for  Experiment  3,  Chapter  II.,  p.  7, 
are  to  heat  copper  in  dried  air,  and  to  weigh  the  tube  con- 
taining it  before  and  after  heating  ;  the  weight  is  found 
to  increase,  whence  it  follows  that  the  metal  has  combined 

N 


266 


NA  TURE 


\yan.  19,  1 


with  some  other  kind  of  matter,  the  most  Hkely  source  of 
which  is  the  air.     We  then  read  :— 

"  We  must  now  make  two  assumptions  which  can  be, 
and  have  been,  proved  by  accurate  experiments.  We 
shall  assume  (i)  that  the  air  is  a  mixture  of  at  least  two 
gases  called  oxygen  and  nitrogen  ;  (2)  that  water  is  a 
compound  of  two  gases,  hydrogen  and  oxygen.  If  then 
hydrogen  is  brought  into  contact  with  a  heated  soHd  sub- 
stance and  water  is  produced,  it  follows  that  oxygen 
must  have  been  taken  away  from  the  heated  solid  by  the 
hydrogen." 

The  student  is  therefore  directed  to  heat  the  copper 
oxide  previously  obtained  in  a  current  of  hydrogen,  and 
finally  to  weigh  the  tube.  The  weight  is  the  same 
as  at  the  beginning  of  the  series  of  experiments. 

"  You  have  therefore  proved,  oil  the  basis  of  certain  as- 
sumptions, that  when  copper  is  heated  in  air  it  combines 
with  oxygen  in  the  air  to  produce  a  new  kind  of  matter 
called  copper  oxide  ;  and  that  the  weight  of  the  copper 
oxide  thus  produced  is  greater  than  that  of  the  copper 
from  which  it  has  been  produced.  By  experiments  too 
difficult  to  be  performed  at  p>rese?tt  it  can  be  proved  that 
the  difference  between  these  weights  is  the  weight  of  the 
oxygen  which  has  combined  with  the  copper." 

The  effect  of  such  teaching  must  be  that  the  mind  of  a 
student  with  inborn  intelligence,  instead  of  having  logic 
infused  into  it,  will  have  become  filled  with  profound  con- 
tempt of  chemical  experiments  ;  it  is  impossible  that  it 
should  lead  to  the  acquisition  of  precision  of  thought  or 
judgment.  In  a  properly  chosen  series  of  experiments 
everything  should  be  proved  ;  no  assumption  should  be 
necessary. 

"  The  arrangement  of  the  course  and  the  selection  of 
the  experiments  are  the  outcome  of  the  experience  gained 
in  teaching  chemistry  for  many  years  "  (preface).  Having 
in  mind  the  manifestos  issued  at  various  times  by  one  of 
the  authors,  we  naturally  are  led  by  this  paragraph  to 
expect  an  entirely  original  treatment  of  the  subject.  But, 
alas  !  we  fear  we  may  safely  say  that  "  what  is  true  is  not 
new,  and  what  is  new  is  not  true  "  !  Thus,  in  Chapter  IV., 
which  bears  the  imposing  heading,  "  Conservation  of 
Mass  of  Matter/'  we  no  longer  meet  with  the  classical 
candle  experiment,  and  we  confess  that  we  little  regret 
its  banishment ;  but  what  have  we  in  its  place  ?  ,  An  ex- 
periment in  which  zinc  is  dissolved  in  diluted  sulphuric 
acid,  the  hydrogen  being  retained  in  a  tube ;  and  a 
second,  in  which  marble  is  dissolved  in  acid,  the  carbon 
■dioxide  being  prevented  from  escaping  by  potash  solu- 
tion. We  venture  to  think  that  neither  experiment  is 
calculated  to  impress  the  beginner,  and  that  the  only 
proper  demonstration  in  this  case  is  by  some  form  of 
combustion  experiment  in  which  there  is  an  apparent 
destruction  of  matter  ;  but  we  hold  that  it  is  far  better 
simply  to  lead  the  student  to  observe  that  in  every  case 
of  apparent  disappearance  a  new  form  or  forms  of  mat- 
ter are  produced,  and  to  postpone  any  attempt  to  teach 
the  law  of  the  "conservation  of  matter"  until  a  time 
when  the  results  of  the  gigantic  labours  of  men  like  Stas 
can  be  appreciated.  Again,  is  a  blue  crystalline  solid 
obtained  (Experiment  3,  Chapter  III.),  on  dissolving 
copper  in  sulphuric  acid  and  evaporating  the  liquid 
nearly,  but  not  quite,  to  dryness — we  presume  in  a  water- 
bath,  as  directions  have  previously  been  given  (p.  3) 
always  to  use  a  water-bath,  unless  otherwise  directed. 


In  Experiment  8,  Chapter  V.,  the  student  is  directed  to 
electrolyze  water  containing  a  little  sulphuric  acid,  and 
the  accompanying  cut  represents  a  basin  in  which  tubes 
are  inserted  over  electrodes  connected  with  two  bunsen 
cells;  in  the  figure  the  bunsens  are  7/16  of  an  inch  in 
diameter,  the  basin  is  i  inch  across  at  the  base,  and  the 
liquid  column  3/16  of  an  inch  deep.  Assuming  the 
bunsens  used  to  be  4  inches  in  diameter,  the  basin 
would  be  7  inches  across  at  the  base,  and  the  liquid 
iy\  inches  deep;  there  would  consequently  be  a  fairly 
respectable  quantity  of  water  to  electrolyze.  Yet,  at  p.  7 
of  the  "  Elementary  Chemistry"  we  read:  "  If  the  pro- 
cess is  continued,  the  water  will  at  last  entirely  disappear, 
and  in  place  of  it  we  shall  have  two  colourless  gases. 
This  result  of  "  experience  gained  in  teaching  chemistry 
for  many  years "  is  indeed  remarkable  ;  the  store  of 
energy  in  two  bunsen  cells  is  truly  marvellous,  and  we 
had  not  previously  realized  how  great  is  the  capacity  of 
tubes  such  as  are  figured.  At  p.  3  the  direction  is  given  to 
add  sodium  to  water  in  a  basin,  and,  when  the  sodium  is 
all  gone,  to  place  the  basin  on  a  water-bath  and  evapor- 
ate until  the  water  is  wholly  removed.  A  white  hard 
lustreless  solid  called  caustic  soda  is  said  to  be  obtained. 
Here,  again,  the  authors'  experience  is  probably  extra- 
ordinary. We  are  also  under  the  impression  that  the 
student  would  be  disappointed  with  the  result  of  the 
experiment  figured  on  p.  30  of  the  "  Elementary 
Chemistry." 

Next,  as  to  the  arrangement  of  the  course.  What 
strikes  us  most,  and  what  we  are  least  prepared  to  excuse, 
in  the  "  Practical  Chemistry,"  is  the  entire  absence  of  any- 
thing approaching  to  a  .$/.y/^w<;?//f  arrangement.  Part  I. 
consists  of  102  pages,  and  the  chapters  bear  the  following 
headings:  I.  Chemical  and  physical  change;  II.  Ele- 
ments and  not-elements  ;  III.  Not-elements  divided  into 
mixtures  and  compounds  ;  IV.  Conservation  of  mass  of 
matter  ;  V.  Methods  of  bringing  about  chemical  changes  ; 

VI.  Chemical  properties  of  water;  VII.  Classification  of 
oxides;  VIII.  Acids  and  salts;  IX.  Classification  of 
salts  ;  X.  Alkalis,  and  alkaline  hydroxides;  XI.  Reactions 
between  acids  and  salts;  XII.-XV.  Classification  of  ele- 
ments ;  XVI.  Conditions  which  modify  chemical  change  ; 
XVII.  Oxidations  and  reductions;  XVIII.  Strong  and 
weak  acids.  In  Part  II.  (78  pages)  the  chapters  are  headed  : 
I.  Laws  of  chemical  combination  ;  II.  Equivalent  and 
combining  weights  ;  III.  Molecular  and  atomic  weights  ; 
IV.  Dissociation ;  V.  Reacting  weights  of  compounds 
determined  by  chemical  methods  ;  VI.  Chemical  change; 

VII.  Chemical  classification.  At  the  outset  the  authors 
are  strictly  conservative,  and  in  the  most  orthodox  manner 
possible  in  the  first  three  chapters  instruct  the  student  to 
dabble  with  a  variety  of  substances  never  heard  of  for 
the  most  part  in  ordinary  life,  and  to  this  we  most  stren- 
uously object.  We  are  convinced  that  the  only  way  of 
beginning  to  teach  chemistry,  if  the  object  be  to  cultivate 
the  faculties  of  experimenting,  observing  and  reasoning, 
is  to  deal  with  familiar  objects  and  phenomena  ;  and  that 
at  the  very  outset,  after  as  fat  as  possible  determining 
the  properties  of  familiar  objects  by  means  of  ordinary 
appliances,  we  ought  to  set  our  students  to  analyze.  We 
hold  that  air  and  the  phenomena  of  combustion  should  be 
first  studied  :  the  composition  of  air  should  be  determined, 
and  oxygen  should  be  discoveredhy\hQ  student.     This  we 


Jan.  19,  1888] 


NATURE, 


267 


believe  to  be  both  historically  and  scientifically  the  correct 
method.  The  composition  of  water  should  next  be  quali- 
tatively ascertained.  It  is  a  sine  quel  tton  that  the  experi- 
ments made  with  the  object  of  solving  such  problems  be 
throughout  logically  interrelated  ;  each  experiment  should 
be  suggested  by  the  experiment  or  experiments  previously 
made,  and  should  be  made  with  the  object  either  of 
verifying  or  extending  the  information  previously  gained. 
When  a  student  is  told  to  perform  experiments  selected 
by  the  teacher  for  no  apparent  reason  and  merely  with 
the  object  of  demonstrating  some  particular  point,  their 
value  as  a  logical  exercise  is  practically  ;«7.  In  solving 
such  problems  as  the  composition  of  air  and  water,  &c., 
the  student  insensibly  realizes  the  distinctions  which  are 
to  be  drawn  between  mixtures,  compounds  and  elements, 
and  soon  learns  to  appreciate  the  characteristic  difference 
between  chemical  and  so-called  physical  change  ;  but  we 
hold  it  to  be  a  positive  advantage  not  to  insist  too  strongly 
on  the  presumed  difference  now  that  it  is  becoming  prob- 
able that  many  phenomena  hitherto  regarded  as  physical 
essentially  depend  on  a  change  in  molecular  composi- 
tion. 

These  remarks  apply  also  toChapter  IV.,  already  referred 
to,  and  to  Chapter  V.  ;  in  this  latter,  the  slain  of  previous 
chapters  are  rekilled.  Chapter  VI.  is  headed  "  Chemical 
Properties  of  Water."  Experiment  i  was  quoted  above 
and  appears  to  be  intended  to  serve  as  proof  of  the  com- 
position of  water.  Experiments  2-7  have  nothing  what- 
ever to  do  with  water,  but  relate  to  the  preparation 
and  properties  of  hydrogen  and  oxygen.  Experiment  8 
involves  the  examination  of  the  residues  from  the  pre- 
paration of  hydrogen  and  oxygen.  Then  follows  the 
oracular  sentence  :  "  Water  is  a  compound  of  hydrogen 
and  oxygen  ;  let  us  examine  a  few  of  its  properties."  Ex- 
periment 9  therefore  directs  the  student  to  add  powdered 
copper  sulphate  crystals,  potassium  nitrate  and  tartar 
emetic  to  separate  portions  of  water,  and  to  take  note 
that  water  acts  on  these  as  a  solvent,  inasmuch  as  their 
composition  is  not  changed  by  it.  Experiment  10  con- 
sists in  adding  anhydrous  copper  sulphate,  and  also  solid 
sulphur  trioxide  to  water ;  in  both  cases,  it  is  found 
that  the  water  not  only  dissolves  but  acts  upon  the 
substances.  Here  the  chapter  ends  :  we  question  whether 
the  most  conscientious  performance  of  the  experiments 
will  lead  the  student  to  acquire  any  clear  conception  of 
the  "  chemical  properties  of  water." 

Thus  far  we  have  confined  our  remarks  to  the  opening 
chapters,  it  being  our  opinion  that  these  are  all-important 
in  a  work  which  purports  to  teach  the  elements  of 
chemistry.  But  there  is  much  in  the  arrangement  of  the 
remainder  of  the  book  to  which  we  venture  altogether  to 
take  exception.  Thus  a  fatal  error  of  judgment  has  led 
the  authors  to  postpone  the  experimental  discussion  of 
the  laws  of  chemical  combination  and  of  equivalent  and 
combining  weights,  as  well  as  of  molecular  and  atomic 
weights,  to  Part  II.,  placing  in  advance  of  these  all-im- 
portant subjects  a  variety  of  matters — among  others  a 
discussion  of  the  properties  of  the  various  elements 
classified  in  groups  in  accordance  with  the  periodic  law — 
which  cannot  properly  be  considered  without  a  fairly 
complete  knawledge  of  the  laws  of  chemical  combination. 
It  is  obvious  that  the  authors  to  some  extent  recognize 
their  mistake,  as  the  order  is  different  in  the  companion 


volume,  the  laws  of  chemical  combination,  and  symbols 
and  formulae  being  discussed  in  Chapters  V.  and  VI. 

The  ''Elementary   (Jhemistry"  contains  a  third  part 
dealing  with  subjects  which  are  only  touched  on  in  the 
companion  volume  ;  this  part  is  to  be  used  in  conjunction 
with  portions  of  the  "  Principles  of  Chemistry,"  by  one 
of  the  authors.     Chapter  I.  of  this  part  should  have  been 
included  in  Part  I.  ;  the  remaining  chapters  ought  never 
to  have  been  introduced  into  an  "Elementary  Chemistry," 
and  are  obviously  only  included  because  of  the  senior 
author's  well-known  tendency  to  worship  physical  con- 
stants.    Thus  Chapter  II.  is  headed   Dissociation,  and 
directions  are  given  for  the  performance  of  Lemoine's 
experiments  on  the  dissociation  of  hydrogen  iodide,  and 
of  Horstniann's  on  ammonium  carbamate  :   the  authors 
evidently  to  some  extent  foresee   the  probable  result  of 
making  such  experiments,  as,  in  summing  up  those  on 
hydrogen  iodide,  they  say  :  "  The  results  of  your  experi- 
ments ought  to  show "  that  such  and  such  is  the  case. 
How  often   would  they?     Chapter  III.    bears  the  title, 
"  Relative  Affinities  of  Acids,"  and  in  it  experiments  are 
described  illustrating  Thomsen's  and  Ostwald's  methods  ; 
the  same  subject  is  briefly  referred  to  in  Chapter  XVIII., 
Part   I.     The    main   objection   to   this   chapter   is   that 
students  of  elementary  chemistry  are  incapable  of  per- 
forming   such    experiments     with     sufficient    accuracy. 
Moreover,  it  cannot  yet  be  admitted  that  the  conception 
introduced  by  Thomsen   is   warranted  :    until   the  part 
which  the  water  plays  is  determined,  neither  Thomsen's 
nor   Ostwald's  results    can    be   accepted   as   furnishing 
estimates  of  the  relative  affinities  of  acids  for  a  given 
base.       A    similar     remark    applies    to    Menschutkin's 
etherification    experiments,    the   repetition   of,  which   is 
directed  in  Chapter  IV.  :  the  complete  interpretation  of 
these  is  yet  to  be  given. 

Nothing  is  farther  from  our  intention  than  the  desire  to 
disparage  the  study  of  so-called  physical  properties — on 
the  contrary,  we  hold  it  to  be  of  primary  importance  that 
a  proportionate  amount  of  attention  should  be  devoted  by 
students  of  chemistry  to  the  physical  side  of  their  science  ; 
but  let  them  learn  before  all  things  to  regard  the  pheno- 
mena from  the  true  chemist's  point  of  view.  Chemistry 
is  to  a  large  extent  an  art :  a  large  number  of  relationships 
and  peculiarities  which  are  obvious  to  the  skilled  chemist 
will  probably  always  elude  mathematical  treatment ;  it 
appears,  indeed,  to  be  as  impossible  to  give  formal  expres- 
sion to  them  by  means  of  physical  constants  as  it  would 
be  to  define  the  work  of  a  great  painter  after  spectroscopic 
analysis  in  terms  of  wave-lengths.  Especially  have  we 
felt  this  to  be  the  case  on  reading  through  Ostwald's 
invaluable  work  :  it  has  frequently  struck  us  that  he  has 
perhaps  unduly  forgotten  his  art  as  chemist  in  the  exercise 
of  his  great  technical  skill  in  determining  and  setting 
forth  physical  constants,  the  result  being  a  picture  which 
fails  to  satisfy.  But  it  is  not  to  be  denied  that  chemists 
as  a  class  have  not  yet  acquired  that  belief  in  the  power 
of  physicists  to  help  them  forward  which,  with  or  without 
reason,  is  demanded  of  them  ;  and  this  is  not  difficult 
to  understand.  The  establishment  of  the  doctrine  of 
structure — the  great  achievement  of  modern  chemistry — is 
the  outcome  solely  of  chemists'  labours  ;  in  this  particular 
case,  the  study  of  physical  properties  has  served  to  con- 
firm the  conclusions  of  chemists,  but  there  is  nothing  to 


NA  TURE 


\yan.  19,  1888 


show  that  it  could  ever  have  led  to  them.  And  all  recent 
attempts  to  directly  apply  the  results  of  physical  deter- 
minations have  'proved  most  unfortunately  barren  of 
results :  a  striking  example  of  this  is  afforded  by  the 
complete  failure  which  appears  to  have  attended  Thorn- 
sen's  attempt  to  deal  with  the  vast  mass  of  thermal  data 
accumulated  by  his  unwearied  study  of  carbon  com- 
pounds. Chemists  have  not  as  yet  received  much  assist- 
ance from  physicists :  the  determination  of  physical 
constants  has  served  to  give  precision  to  chemical  state- 
ments, but  little  else  ;  and  it  is  not  probable  that  it  will 
ever  be  otherwise.  In  fact,  the  attitude  of  the  two  classes 
of  observers  towards  natural  objects  is  different,  and 
appears  to  be  somewhat  as  follows.  The  physicists  are 
much  like  a  party  engaged  in  the  investigation  of  a  strange 
nation :  they  walk  through  the  streets  of  its  towns  and 
most  carefully  observe  how  the  houses  are  externally 
constructed  and  arranged,  and  study  the  traffic  in  the 
streets,  but  they  do  'not  enter  the  houses  or  take  note  of 
the  mental  peculiarities  of  the  people.  The  chemists, 
however,  enter  the  houses  :  they  observe  their  internal 
structure,  they  determine  the  influence  of  this  internal 
structure  on  the  character  and  occupations  of  the  inha- 
bitants, of  whose  mental  peculiarities  they  also  en- 
deavour to  gain  clear  conceptions.  Those  chemists  who 
are  satisfied  to  merely  cross  the  thresholds  without  con- 
tinuing their  studies  and  researches,  and  who  therefore 
have  much  to  learn  before  they  can'appreciate  the  labours 
of  their  more  active  and  curious  brethren,  have  no  right 
to  take  upon  themselves  the  functions  of  law-givers. 

Lastly,  a  few  words  regarding  the  illustrations.  It  will 
no  doubt  be  said  that  these  are  only  diagrammatic  ;  that 
students  are  to  perform  the  experiments  themselves  and 
therefore  will  become  acquainted  with  the  actual  appar- 
atus. But  even  diagrams  should  be  drawn  to  scale  :  Figs- 
37,  38,  and  43,  are  illustrations  which  show  how  frequently 
this  is  not  the  case  :  if  such  very  wide-mouthed  flasks 
were  always  used  as  are  pictured  in  most  of  the  diagrams 
a  small  fortune  would  be  expended  in  corks.  An  elemen- 
tary work  should  be  properly  illustrated  by  drawings 
which  fairly  represent  the  actual  apparatus,  as  such  a 
book  will  necessarily  fall  into  the  hands  of  those  who 
have  no  knowledge  of  apparatus,  and  therefore  need 
guidance. 

From  our  remarks  it  will  be  gathered  that  we  entirely 
disapprove  of  the  "  Practical  Chemistry  "  as  a  book  for 
beginners  :  we  do  not  recommend  it  even  to  more  ad- 
vanced students.  Teachers  will  no  doubt  be  able  to 
cull  a  few  useful  hints  from  it,  although  there  is  a  striking 
absence  of  originality  or  novelty  in  all  practical  details. 

We  have  little  to  say  of  the  "  Elementary  Chemistry.' 
It  is  an  infinitely  better  book  than  the  companion  volume, 
and  a  fairly  advanced  student  will  find  in  it  much  infor- 
mation of  interest  and  Value  not  to  be  met  with  in  any 
other  current  work  of  the  kind.  But  it  is  not  an  ele- 
mentary chemistry  in  any  proper  sense  of  the  term,  and, 
as  in  the  companion  volume,  the  attempt  is  made  to 
crowd  far  too  much  matter  into  the  space  at  disposal. 

In  expressing  our  opinion  thus  plainly,  we  have  been 
guided  by  the  desire  to  do  something  to  stem  the 
ever-flowing  tide  of  so-called  elementary  text-books  of 
chemistry  ;  these  are  mainly  the  outcome  of  the  existence 
in  this  country  of  a  vast  amount  of  pseudo-chemistry, 


and  of  little  true  chemistry,  and  the  very  existence  of 
such  books  is  doing  an  infinity  of  mischief  in  helping  to 
perpetuate  the  evil.  We  believe  that  it  would  be  of  great 
advantage  to  chemical  science  to  form  an  Association  to 
prevent  the  further  publication  of  elementary  works  other 
than  such  as  had  been  carefully  revised  and  approved  of 
by  a  Publication  Committee  of  the  Association.  The  harm 
done  by  unsystematic  and  illogical  teaching,  and  by  vague 
experimenting,  can  never  be  repaired,  and  it  is  incumbent 
on  an  author  to  ponder  the  meaning  and  effect  of  every 
word,  line,  and  sentence  of  an  elementary  text-book. 

The  authors  of  the  "  Elementary  Chemistry  "  say  that 
the  book  does  not  profess  to  be  a  descriptive  catalogue 
of  chemical  facts  regarding  the  properties  of  the  indi- 
vidual elements  and  compounds.  But  until  a  satisfactory 
practical  elementary  chemistry  shall  have  been  written, 
it  is  far  better  that  students  should  gain  simply  an  exact 
knowledge  of  chemical  facts,  and  that  in  their  practical 
work  they  should  be  guided  by  books  which  we  all  ac- 
knowledge to  be  sound,  though  we  may  think  that  they 
are  far  too  restricted  in  range.  Let  each  school  purchase 
as  many  copies  as  possible  of  a  grand  old  standard  work 
such  as  Miller's  large  "  Inorganic  Chemistry,"  full  of  honest 
common-sense  and  all  but  free^  from  fads,  and  let  this 
serve  as  the  book  of  reference.  A  fair  understanding  of 
the  broad  principles  which  underlie  the  science  may  be 
gained  from  books  such  as  Cooke's  "  New  Chemistry,' 
and  Wurtz's  "  Atomic  Theory,"  both  master-works  in 
their  way.  H.  E.  A. 


CHINESE  CIVILIZATION. 
China  :  its  Sodal,  Political,  and  Religious   Life.     From 
the  French  of  G.  Eug.   Simon.      (London :  Sampson 
Low  and  Co.,  1887.) 

THE  reader  who  takes  up  this  volume,  expecting  to 
find  it  an  ordinary  popular  sketch  of  Chinese  life 
and  manners,  similar  to  dozens  of  others  which  have 
gone  by  and  dozens  which  are  doubtless  yet  to  come,  will 
be  totally  mistaken.  For  in  place  of  a  colourless  account 
of  China — if  any  account  of  that  wonderful  country  with 
its  marvellous  civilization  could  be  written  wholly  devoid 
of  colour, — and  a  jejune  outhne  of  the  peculiarities  of 
the  Chinese,  the  reader  will  find  here  one  of  the  most 
closely  reasoned,  original,  and  powerful  defences  of  the 
Chinese  social  and  poUtical  system  that  have  ever  been 
pubhshed  in  Europe.  Writers  of  eminence,  indeed,  there 
have  been  who  have  selected  some  special  peculiarity 
of  Chinese  religion,  society,  or  politics,  and  hav^e  held  it 
up  to  the  West  as  worthy  of  imitation,  and  as  a  mark  of 
profound  wisdom  ;  but  M.  Simon  defends  Chinese  polity 
and  civilization  all  along  the  line.  He  lived  in  China  as 
a  French  official  in  the  critical  years  succeeding  the  war 
of  1861-62  ;  he  travelled  widely,  and  he  observed  keenly. 
This  volume  was  not  written  in  the  first  flush  of  pleasure 
and  surprise  at  the  strange  and  wonderful  things  he  saw 
about  him  ;  he  returned  home,  and  has  had  ample  time  to 
correct  first  impressions,  to  review  conclusions  formed  on 
the  spot  by  the  light  of  subsequent  experience  and  know- 
ledge, and  years  afterwards  he  is  able  to  tell  to  the  West 
that,  as  of  old,  the  wise  men  still  come  from  the  East, 
and  that  the  highest  product  of  the  human  mind  is  to 
be  found  in  the  civilization  of  China.     The  most  civilized 


Jan.  19.  1888] 


NATURE 


269 


State  is  that  "  in  which  on  a  given  area  the  largest 
possible  number  of  human  beings  are  able  to  pro- 
cure and  distribute  most  equally  amongst  themselves 
the  most  well-being,  liberty,  justice,  and  security." 
Measured  by  this  standard,  China  is  pronounced  to  be  the 
most  highly  civilized  country  in  the  world,  and  the 
Chinese  have  this  pecuHarity — that,  while  modern  nations 
are  only  the  collateral  successors  of  those  of  antiquity* 
China  is  the  direct  heir  of  the  generations  which  created 
it.  "  Its  history  shows  the  phenomena  of  heredity  in 
regular  succession,  neither  modified  nor  obstructed  by 
change  of  medium,  with  the  evolution  of  events  and  ideas 
— an  evolution  as  regular  as  that  of  living  beings,  freely 
proceeding  unshaken  and  untroubled  by  any  exterior 
influence,  by  which  its  direction  might  have  been  altered 
or  its  development  retarded  ;  and  it  is  here,  I  repeat,  that 
we  find  the  deep  and  original  interest  of  China,  and 
perhaps  also  the  secret  of  her  extraordinary  longevity." 
The  book  is  a  study  of  the  progress  and  organization,  in 
short  of  the  civilization,  attained  by  humanity  under  such 
conditions  of  liberty  and  development.  The  student  in 
this  case  is  full  of  love  of  his  subject,  and  this  no  doubt  is 
a  great  advantage,  although  it  has  its  disadvantages  also. 
M.  Simon  tells  us  of  a  land  flowing  with  milk  and  honey, 
moral  as  well  as  material.  Nothing  that  he  has  seen  is 
inharmonious  or  out  of  place  ;  everything  is  for  the  best, 
and  has  had  the  best  effects.  Chinese  civilization  is  not 
a  dead,  rotten  branch,  as  it  is  usually  represented  to  be, 
but  a  living  active  power  for  good  ;  in  fact,  "  nowhere  in 
the  world  is  there  such  proof  of  force  and  vitality  "  as  in 
the  Chinese  character  and  in  Chinese  civilization. 

The  book  is  divided  into  five  parts  :  (i)  the  family  ;  (2) 
labour  ;  (3)  the  State ;  (4)  the  Government  ;  (5)  the 
Ouang-ming-tse  family,  in  which  he  gives  the  history  of 
the  life,  labours,  and  pleasures  of  a  family  with  which  he 
got  acquainted  in  his  travels,  besides  illustrating  by  a 
concrete  instance  how  Chinese  polity  and  administration 
work  out  in  an  individual  case.  With  regard  to  the  family, 
he  says  that  it  is  at  the  hearth  that  the  government  of  the 
country  is  carried  on.  The  family  has  the  power  of 
passing  judgment  on  any  of  its  members  for  an  offence, 
and  can  sentence  the  delinquent  to  whipping,  exile,  and 
excommunication.  From  the  decision  of  the  domestic 
tribunal  an  appeal  is  permitted  to  the  ordinary  courts  of 
justice,  but  it  is  unusual  for  such  an  appeal  to  be  made. 
Such  is  the  respect  paid  by  the  Chinese  to  their  traditions 
that  there  are  few  who  do  not  submit  at  once  to  the 
sentence  passed  on  them  by  their  family.  No  punish- 
ment inflicted  on  a  Chinaman  can  be  more  terrible  than 
exclusion  from  the  family.  Socially  he  becomes  an 
outcast,  and,  driven  from  the  shelter  of  his  ancestral 
home,  and  the  protection  of  the  spirits  of  his  ancestors 
he  wanders  in  search  of  employment  over  the  world,  and 
it  is  the  thousands  of  these  abandoned  ones  who  flood 
the  American  labour-markets.  In  the  family,  ancestral 
worship  is  cultivated,  and  is  one  of  the  strongest  incen- 
tives to  labour  and  progress  :  each  member  looks  on 
himself  as  the  guardian  of  posterity,  toiling  for  their 
benefit,  and  satisfying  the  ancestors  who  watch  over  the 
family  home.  Each  family  religiously  preserves  the 
records  of  its  ancestors,  their  lives  and  acts  ;  and  to  the 
assembled  members  these  records  are  read  by  the  head 
of  the  house  at  regular  intervals.     At  each  meeting  one  j 


biography  is  read,  then  the  next,  and  so  on  in  order,  till 
the  last  of  the  series  is  finished,  when  a  commence- 
ment is  again  made  with  the  first.  With  regard  to  these 
family  records,  M.  Simon  sees  no  more  noble  sign  of 
the  honesty  and  independence  of  the  Chinese  than  the 
fact  that,  when  any  question  is  in  dispute,  an  entry  in 
one  of  these  sacred  family  books  referring  to  the  dispute 
is  looked  on  by  the  authorities  as  decisive.  To  be  able 
to  make  the  entries  in  this  book,  and  to  read  it  to  his 
family,  should  he  ever  become  its  head,  every  Chinaman  is 
taught  to  read  and  write  ;  of  this,  in  connection  with 
education,  we  shall  speak  later  on.  Property  is  collective 
and  individual  ;  and  the  living  holders  look  on  them- 
selves as  the  trustees  of  posterity.  The  fee-simple 
belongs  to  the  community,  except  in  a  few  fast-diminish- 
ing cases,  where  small  portions  of  land  are  owned  by 
each  family,  and  are  considered  inalienable  ;  and  he  who 
dares  to  introduce  a  stranger  into  this  patrimonial  land 
commits  sacrilege,  and  becomes  an  outcast.  China  has 
been  described  as  a  despotic  monarchy,  but  there  is 
perfect  liberty  to  all.  Religions  of  all  kinds  are  tolerated 
and  are  never  interfered  with  except  for  political  purposes. 
All  public  meetings  and  expressions  of  public  opinion  are 
freely  permitted.  To  prove  this,  M.  Simon  says  that  in  1863 
he  made  in  one  province  a  collection  of  proclamations  of 
great  virulence,  denouncing  the  Emperor  for  agreeing  to  the 
treaty  with  the  Europeans  after  the  sack  of  the  Summer 
Palace  and  the  burning  of  the  great  library,  and  they  are 
very  numerous  :  none  of  the  mandarins,  he  adds,  dared  to 
prosecute  their  authors.  Taxation  is  very  light — not  one- 
hundredth  part  of  what  it  is  in  France.  With  regard  to 
legislation,  the  Academy  of  Sciences  at  Pekin  is  the  only 
legislative  power.  If  any  official  thinks  that  a  custom, 
generally  observed  in  his  province,  might  with  advantage 
be  used  over  the  whole  country,  he  sends  an  account  of 
it  to  this  body,  which  examines  it,  and,  if  it  thinks  the 
custom  useful,  orders  it  to  be  tried  in  the  other  provinces  ; 
if  successful  there,  it  is  finally  adopted,  inscribed  in  the 
code,  and  becomes  law.  Though  M.  Simon  reserves  a 
more  extensive  account  of  education  in  China  for  another 
work,  it  is  easy  to  gather  his  views  from  the  present  book. 
The  Government  gives  full  liberty  to  all  to  open  schools. 
The  children  are  well  taught,  and  there  is  scarcely  a 
Chinaman  who  is  not  able  to  read,  write,  add  up  accounts, 
and  draw.  The  foundation  of  the  education  is  laid  in 
the  family.  From  their  earliest  years,  children  are 
taught  their  duties  and  their  rights.  They  are  taught 
respect  for  others,  and  hence  respect  for  themselves. 
Obedience  to  usages,  humanity,  justice,  and  right  feeling 
— these  are  the  foundations  of  their  education.  Besides 
the  family  education  there  are  two  kinds  of  public 
instruction, — primary  and  superior.  Primary  education 
is  given  in  the  institutions  attached  to  the  family  temples, 
where  there  are  such,  or  in  private  schools,  which  any- 
one is  at  liberty  to  open.  The  education  of  every  child 
is  provided  for,  apart  from  Governmental  aid,  the  rich 
paying  for  their  poorer  brethren.  Inasmuch  as  each 
Chinese  sign  conveys  an  idea,  the  child  that  is  taught  to 
write  the  Chinese  characters  learns  not  only  words,  but 
ideas,  and  he  is  forced  to  explain  and  comment  on  these 
to  his  teachers.  And  it  is  to  this  fact,  in  addition  to  the 
influences  of  family  councils  and  family  readings,  with 
the  profuse  inscriptions  in  -every  public  place,  that  M. 


270 


NA  TURE 


\yan.  19,  I 


Simon  ascribes  the  amazing  intelligence  and  precocity  of 
Chinese  children.  With  regard  to  higher  education,  it  is 
open  to  all.  The  Government  give  barely  the  necessary 
expenses  ;  the  rest  is  contributed  by  private  donors  and  by 
the  students  themselves,  of  whom  there  is  always  an 
abundance.  The  directing  staff  is  paid  by  Government, 
the  teaching  staff  by  the  students.  Those  who  wish  to 
enter  the  public  service  are  trained  and  examined  at  the 
Hanlin  College  or  University  of  Pekin.  All  appoint- 
ments are  given  to  the  graduates  according  to  their 
degrees  ;  the  higher  the  degree  the  more  honourable  and 
lucrative  the  post.  The  graduate  takes  precedence  of  all 
minor  officials,  and  ranks  with  a  minister  or  viceroy, 
whose  post  he  frequently  fills  when  he  has  had  a  little 
experience  in  public  life.  He  has  rooms  allotted  to  him 
in  the  palatial  universities.  For  these  degrees  the  com- 
petition is  very  severe.  All  the  professions  stand  on  an 
equal  footing,  except  those  of  teaching  and  letters.  In 
no  country  is  the  man  of  letters  of  such  influence  as  in 
China.  Old  age  alone  makes  others  as  worthy  of  respect 
as  he.  Whenever  M.  Simon  found  the  Chinese  distrustful 
or  indifferent  to  him,  he  always  humoured  this  opinion  of 
their  value  of  learned  men,  by  seeking  out  the  most 
learned  man  in  the  place  and  paying  his  respects  to  him. 
The  tutor  retains  a  life-long  power  over  his  pupil,  and 
frequently  the  people,  when  they  have  had  some  cause  of 
complaint  against  an  official,  have  sent  long  distances  to 
bring  his  tutor  to  expostulate  with  him.  The  great  goal  of 
the  literary  man  is  to  obtain  a  public  post,  such  posts  being 
held  in  high  esteem  in  China.  There  are  few  vacancies, 
however,  and  the  vast  majority  of  candidates  being  un- 
successful become  tutors,  public  writers,  &c.  ;  others 
turn  their  talents  to  commerce  and  agriculture,  and  so 
elevate  the  educational  standard  of  the  industrial  classes. 
Labour  is  so  honourable  that  handicraftsmen  rank  as 
high  in  public  estimation  as  lawyers  and  doctors. 

M.  Simon  sums  up  his  views  of  Chinese  civilization,  of 
which  a  few  examples  have  been  given  here,  by  stating  that 
the  fact  which  always  seemed  to  him  the  most  wonderful 
"  was  the  progressive  substitution  of  individual  for  col- 
lective action  in  all  the  works  of  civilizaion,  from  the 
simplest  to  the  most  complex,  from  mental  to  material. 
The  individual  freed  from  the  slavery  of  collectivity, 
independent,  and  free  in  unity,  thanks  to  that  unity,  is 
the  salient  fact  apparent  from  the  study  of  the  relations 
between  the  people  and  the  Government  in  China,  and 
appears  to  me  to  justify  the  theories  prevalent  there.'' 
Very  few  readers  who  possess  a  personal  acquaintance 
with  China  and  the  Chinese  will  be  found  to  agree  with 
all  of  M.  Simon's  statements  of  fact,  or  with  all  of  his 
conclusions  from  them.  But  he  has  nevertheless  pro- 
duced a  book  which  deserves  to  be  carefully  studied,  and 
which  will  strike  the  mind  by  the  originality  of  its  pro- 
positions and  the  skill  and  ingenuity  with  which  they  are 
defended.  In  these  days,  when  the  Chinese  are  treated 
amongst  many  highly  civilized  communities  in  different 
parts  of  the  globe  with  loathing  and  scorn,  and  when 
elective  Legislatures  do  not  hesitate  to  speak  of  members 
of  the  Chinese  race  as  hosteshttutani generis,  it  is  perhaps 
well  to  be  reminded,  as  M.  Simon  forcibly  reminds  us, 
that  this  race  has  solved,  apparently  with  success,  some  of 
the  social  and  political  problems  before  which  Western 
statesmen  and  philosophers  stand  helpless. 


THE  METHOD  OF  CREATION. 

The  Creator,  and  what  ive  may  know  of  the  Method  of 
Creation.  The  Fernley  Lecture  of  1887.  By  W.  H. 
Dallinger,  LL.D.,  F.R.S.  (London :  T.  Woolmer, 
1887.) 

T  T  is  not  the  province  of  this  journal  to  deal  with  theo- 
logical questions  ;  at  the  same  time,  the  one  dis- 
cussed in  this  volume  is  in  such  close  relation  with 
science,  and  of  such  universal  interest,  that  a  brief  sketch 
of  Dr.  Dallinger's  argument  may  be  permitted.  He  deals 
with  a  question  which  takes  precedence  of  those  sunder- 
ing Churches, — one  which  may  briefly  be  stated  thus  ; 
Have  the  recent  advances  in  physical  and  biological 
science  placed  the  Theist  in  an  unreasonable  position  ? 
Obviously  this  is  a  fundamental  question.  If  the  answer 
be  in  the  affirmative,  all  investigations  into  the  minutiae 
of  theology  are  less  than  the  shadows  of  a  shade. 

Dr.  Dallinger  commences  by  pointing  out  the  necessary 
limits  of  scientific  inquiry.  On  this  he  insists,  not  in  any 
hostile  spirit,  but  only  because  it  is  so  often  forgotten. 
"  The  researches  of  science  are  physical.  The  observable 
finite  contents  of  space  and  time  are  the  subjects  of  its 
analysis.  Existence,  not  the  cause  of  existence  ;  suc- 
cession, not  the  reason  of  succession  ;  method,  not  the 
origin  of  method,  are  the  subjects  of  physical  research.  A 
primordial  cause  cannot  be  the  subject  of  experiment  nor 
the  object  of  demonstration.  It  must  for  ever  transcend 
the  most  delicate  physical  reaction,  the  profoundest 
analysis,  and  the  last  link  in  the  keenest  logic.  Absolute 
knowledge  concerning  it  can  only  be  the  prerogative  of 
itself." 

This,  of  course,  is  a  position  which  many  so  called 
Agnostics  would  frankly  accept.  But  in  working  out  the 
argument  the  author  indicates  that  a  more  definite  creed 
is  attainable.  Commencing  with  the  physical  universe, 
he  shows  that  whatever  discoveries  have  been  made, 
whatever  simplifications  introduced  into  the  so-called 
laws  of  which  it  is  the  result,  the  physicist  is  at  last 
arrested  by  two  mysteries — matter  and  force.  But  what 
are  these,  "  the  alpha  and  omega  of  existence  "  as  some 
would  call  them  ?  They  are  two  names,  and  nothing 
more.  We  deal  with  the  properties  or  qualities  of  matter, 
with  the  consequences  of  force,  but  we  are  no  nearer  to 
knowing  the  one  or  the  other.  In  addition  to  these,  how- 
ever, many  bard-headed  thinkers  assert  "  the  existence 
of  a  third  thing  in  the  universe — to  wit,  consciousness." 
Now  we  may  juggle  as  we  please  with  these  terms,  we 
may  construct  on  them  elaborate  systems  explanatory  o^ 
the  universe  ;  but  beyond  laws  either  mechanical  or  vital 
there  lies  inevitably,  however  we  may  try  to  smother  it 
by  words,  the  idea  of  causation  ;  and  from  this  idea  that 
of  "volition"  cannot  be  separated.  We  are,  as  the 
author  shows  in  an  elaborate  argument,  reduced  at  last  to 
this  alternative  :  "either  chance  or  mental  purpose  gave 
primal  origin  to  all  that  is."  The  former  he  shows  is 
almost  inexpressibly  improbable :  most  men  will  not 
hesitate  to  accept  the  latter. 

Considerable  space  is  next  devoted  to  a  discussion  of 
Mr.  Herbert  Spencer's  view  that  "from  matter  in  motion, 
and  nothing  else,  the  whole  universe  is  supposed  to  arise ; 
life  emerges  ;  and  mind  in  its  most  transcendent  forms 
comes  forth."     In  this  discussion  we  are  again  confronted 


Jan.  19,  1888] 


NA  TURE 


271 


with  an  alternative  :  either  the  primordial  matter  was  in 
a  state  of  homogeneity,  and  so  "  infinitely  incapable  of 
change,"  or  the  homogeneity  was  disturbed  by  some  ex- 
ternal force.  But  an  outside  influence  is  not  in  the 
philosophic  system.  "  The  admission  of  inability  to 
evolve  the  universe  without  it  is  an  admission  that  the 
mechanical  philosophy  fails  at  the  outset.  Nor  can  it 
serve  the  emergency  to  invoke  '  force.'  A  Divine  origin 
of  the  universe  is  usually  rejected,  because  the  Divinity 
eludes  the  methods  of  science.  But  we  cannot  supplant 
the  Divinity  by  enthroning  force.  Science  can  tell  us 
what  force  does^  but  it  can  no  more  find  out  what  force  is 
than  what  an  infinite  mind  is.  Force  is  an  irresistible 
mental  inference  from  matter  in  motion,  but  its  ultimate 
nature  is  defiantly  beyond  the  reach  of  science." 

The  phenomena  of  life,  as  exhibited  in  one  of  the  lower 
and  more  minute  organisms,  are  then  considered.  These 
are  "free  and  self-originating  action";  multiplication; 
and  cyclic  change  in  each  new  organism.  Tiny  and 
humble  in  organization  as  these  creatures  are,  they  differ 
vastly  from  chemical  compounds  of  any  kind.  The  force 
which  animates  them  differs  widely  from  any  mode  of 
force  which  we  call  physical.  So  far  as  we  at  present 
know,  the  break  between  "life  and  not  life  "is  abrupt. 
Hence,  whether  or  not  in  the  remote  past  the  transition 
from  the  one  to  the  other  may  have  been  what  we  should 
call  continuous,  our  present  knowledge  offers  no  ex- 
planation of  it,  and  the  fact  is  a  stumbling-block  in  the 
way  of  a  purely  mechanical  philosophy. 

The  remainder  of  the  essay  is  chiefly  devoted  to  a  dis- 
cussion of  the  theological  aspect  of  the  theory  of  evolu- 
lution.  This,  as  designed  for  the  non-scientific  part  of 
his  audience,  need  not  be  further  mentioned  in  these 
pages.  It  will  be  enough  to  say  that,  as  is  now  generally 
admitted  by  the  more  intelligent  among  theologians,  he 
maintains  that  there  is  no  necessary  antagonism  between 
their  beliefs  and  scientific  theories. 

As  might  be  expected  from  him,  Dr.  Dallinger  is  tem- 
perate in  expression  and  eloquent  in  language.  Some 
readers  perhaps  would  have  preferred  a  little  more  con- 
ciseness in  style  and  statement,  but  it  must  be  borne  in 
mind  that  the  discourse  was  delivered  as  a  lecture  to  a 
non- scientific  audience,  who  required  leading  gradually 
or  even  alluring,  into  unfamiliar  paths  of  thought.  Among 
such  persons  the  book  cannot  fail  to  do  excellent  work  in 
allaying  needless  fear  and  silencing  ignorant  clamour  ; 
among  opponents  it  will  serve  to  show  that  the  Theist's 
position  is  more  defensible  than  they  suppose,  and  that, 
in  their  own,  unsuspected  difficulties  lurk  beside  the 
seemingly  easy  path  of  a  euphonious  terminology. 


OUR  BOOK  SHELF. 

The  Harpur  Euclid.     Book  I.     By  E.  M.  Langley  and 
W.  S.  Phillips.     (Rivingtons,  1888.) 

The  editors  are  mathematical  masters  of  two  Bedford 
schools  under  the  Harpur  Trust ;  hence  the  title.  For 
the  work  itself  the  title-page  further  informs  us  that  it  is 
an  edition  of  Euclid's  "  Elements"  revised  in  accordance 
with  the  Reports  of  the  Cambridge  Board  of  Mathematical 
Studies,  and  the  Oxford  Board  of  the  Faculty  of  Natural 
Science.  Extracts  from  these  Reports  are  given  in  a 
prefatory  note  :  this  is  the  only  part  of  the  work  which  is 
not  strictly  adapted  for  the  use  of  school-boys. 


We  began  our  task  with  no  special  liking  for  it,  but 
had  not  proceeded  far  when  we  found  that  there  were 
new  adornments  which  rendered  our  perusal  of  the 
familiar  lines  very  agreeable.  We  read  on  through  102 
out  of  the  120  pages  without  break,  and  then  ceased,  as 
we  had  come  to  some  matters  which  required  more  careful 
examination.  The  editors  have  kept  to  the  usual  sequence, 
but  in  many  cases  have  replaced  the  Simsonian  demonstra- 
tions by  easier  ones,  and  have  discarded  much  of  the 
superfluous  matter  which  has  led  anti-Euclidians  to  , 
inveigh  so  strongly  against  the  "  Elements." 

We  are  glad  to  see  that  exercises  come  in  right  from 
the  outset ;  these  all  seem  to  have  been  most  carefully 
selected,  and  are  such  as  a  fairly  intelligent  boy  ought  to 
be  able  to  solve  from  the  previous  propositions.  We  refer 
here  to  the  examples  in  the  body  of  the  book.  Frequent 
reference  is  made  to  that  excellent,  though  perhaps  hardly 
sufficiently  appreciated,  little  book  of  Prof.  Henrici, 
"  Congruent  Figures,"  and  to  the  "  Syllabus ''  of  the 
Association  for  the  Improvement  of  Geometrical  Teach- 
ing. At  the  end,  as  a  kind  of  appendix,  are  some  judicious 
sections  on  properties  of  triangles,  on  quadrilaterals,  on 
loci,  on  solving  geometrical  problems — (i)  method  of 
intersection  of  loci  ;  (2)  method  of  intersection  of  sets  ; 
(3)  method  of  analysis  and  synthesis.  Considerable  pains 
has  been  bestowed  on  the  arrangement  of  the  text,  the 
selection  of  the  various  types,  and  the  drawing  of  the 
figures  ;  in  fact,  the  little  book  is  the  beau-ideal  of  a 
Euclid  for  boys.  We  wish  we  had  had  such  a  book  in 
the  "  auld  lang  syne,"  and  then  our  first  perusal  would 
not  have  been  so  painful.  It  is  the  authors'  intention  to 
bring  out  the  successive  books  in  like  form.  We  wish 
them  like  success,  and  trust  that  their  venture  will  find  a 
welcome  in  many  a  school. 

A   Course  of  Otiajittalive   Analysis  for  Students.     By 

W.  N.  Hartley,  F.R.S.     (London  :  Macmillan  and  Co., 

1887.) 
After  the  almost  infinite  number  of  books,  mostly  small, 
"and  mostly  to  meet  certain  requirements  of  our  own 
students"  on  qualitative  analysis,  it  is  a  relief  to  meet 
with  a  small  book  for  students — beginners— on  quantita- 
tive analysis,  written  evidently  for  beginners,  and  in  a 
manner  to  really  lead  them  up  from  qualitative  notions, 
not  by  one  great  bound,  but  by  good  sober  practice  and 
order,  to  the  appreciation  of  the  care  and  exactitude,  and 
most  important  still,  the  "criticising"  state  of  mind 
necessary  to  make  a  real  analytical  chemist. 

As  the  author  says  in  his  preface :  "  To  be  a  good 
analyst  does  not  necessitate  a  profound  knowledge  of 
chemistry;"  but  any  student  who  has  worked  at  all 
well  through  this  little  book  will  have  a  good  platform  of 
knowledge  under  him,  and  be  in  a  position  to  enlarge  his 
knowledge  with  infinitely  greater  ease,  and  that  very 
necessary  regard  for  accuracy  which  is  not  possible  to  a 
student  who  has  not  done  any  quantitative  work. 

The  author  begins  in  a  sensible  manner  by  giving  the 
metric  weights  and  measures,  with  English  equivalents, 
and  then  the  dimensions  of  various  laboratory  apparatus, 
beakers,  &c.,  and  all  this  is  very  useful.  In  the  introduc- 
tion, manipulation  and  reagents  are  dealt  with.  The  author 
might  have  added  the  use  of  folded  or  plaited  .filters. 
It  is  quite  as  safe  and  accurate  to  use  them  for  quantitative 
purposes  as  to  employ  a  pump. 

Before  proceeding  to  simple  estimations  of  constituents 
of  salts,  &c.,  we  have  about  twenty  pages  of  introductory 
examples  devised  with  the  intention  of  enabling  students 
to  realize  the  meaning  of  the  atomic  and  equivalent 
weights  of  elements;  which  they  do  not  always  do  when  put 
on  to  determinations  without  any  introduction.  This  is  the 
most  useful  and  original  part  of  the  book.  The  following 
exercises,  "simple  estimations,"  are  fairly  in  order  of 
difficulty.  The  middle  portion  of  the  book  is  on  volu- 
metric analysis.     It  is  short  but  workable,  and  is  followed 


272 


NATURE 


[yan.  19,  I 


by  a  good  section  on  analysis  of  silicates  and  some 
technical  products.  The  book  does  not  attempt  to  cover 
all  the  field  of  analysis,  but  what  is  done  will  be  found 
really  useful  bv  a  beginner  or  a  junior  student. 

W.  R.  H. 


LETTERS   TO    THE  EDITOR. 

[TAe  Editor  does  not  hold  himself  responsible  for  opinions 
expressed  by  his  correspondents.  Neither  can  he  under- 
take to  return,  or  to  correspond  with  the  writers  oj, 
rejected  manuscripts.  No  notice  is  taken  of  anonymous 
communications. 

\_The  Editor  urgently  requests  correspondents  to  keep  their 
letters  as  short  as  possible.  The  pressure  on  his  space 
is  so  great  that  it  is  impossible  otherwise  to  insure  the 
appearance  even  of  communications  containing  interesting 
and  novel  facts. 


"A  Conspiracy  of  Silence." 

The  Duke  of  Argyll  can  scarcely  be  congratulated  upon  his 
latest  discovery  of  a  new  ground  of  attack  upon  geologists.  In 
the  year  1862  a  very  eminent  physicist,  whose  loss  we  all  so 
deeply  deplore,  made  the  somewhat  rash  suggestion  that  flint 
implements  are  found  deep  down  in  the  drift,  owing  to  their 
high  density  as  compared  with  that  of  the  matrix  in  which  they 
are  inclosed.  Seeing  that  the  material  in  which  the  implements 
are  found  is  usually  ay?^;^^gravel,  everyone  acquainted  with  the 
subject  saw  that  the  suggestion  was,  to  say  the  least,  a  somewhat 
unfortunate  one,  and  Prof.  P.  G.  Tait,  in  seeking  for  an  oppor- 
tunity to  sneer  at  "advanced  geologists,"  was  scarcely  kind_  to 
the  memory  of  a  deceased  friend  in  rescuing  such  a  suggestion 
from  oblivion.  But  to  the  Duke  of  Argyll,  the  finding  of  a  new 
basis  from  which  to  attack  geologists  seems  to  have  been  a 
chance  which  he  could  not  afford  to  let  slip. 

The  Duke  of  Argyll  now  asks  when  we  are  going  to  begin  to 
discuss  his  magazine- article  upon  coral  reefs.  I  reply  that  in 
the  article  in  question  there  is  not  a  single  new  fact  or  fresh 
argument — nothing  which  has  not  been  already  brought  forward 
by  Mr.  Murray  himself,  or  by  Dr.  Archibald  Geikie,  and  met 
by  Prof  Dana  in  a  singularly  exhaustive  memoir  well  known  to 
all  geologists.  The  subject  has,  moreover,  been  treated  at 
considerable  length  by  Profs.  Prestwich,  Green,  James  Geikie, 
De  Lapparent,  and  others.  Surely  no  exception  can  be  taken 
either  to  the  eminence  of  the  authorities  who  have  written  on  the 
subject,  to  the  length  to  which  their  notices  have  extended,  or 
to  the  prominence  of  the  journals  or  treatises  in  which  these  dis- 
cussions have  appeared.  If  it  be  said  that  the  general  scientific 
public  have  not  had  the  matter  fully  laid  before  them,  it  is  only 
necessary  in  reply  to  call  attention  to  the  pages  of  Nature,  in 
which  a  succession  of  articles  dealing  with  the  subject  will  be 
found. 

The  Duke  of  Argyll  says  that  he  has  "nothing  to  retract." 
Here  I  regret  to  have  distinctly  to  join  issue  with  him.  He  has 
asserted  that  scientific  men  have  refrained  from  discussing  a 
particular  theory,  and  that  in  taking  this  course  they  have  been 
actuated  by  the  worst  of  motives — a  fear  of  the  truth ;  he  has 
charged  the  Geological  Society  with  refusing  in  the  spring  of 
1885,  through  its  then  President,  to  accept  a  certain  paper  from 
the  same  cause  ;  and  now  he  adopts  and  gives  fresh  currency  to 
an  equally  offensive  charge  of  a  similar  kind. 

These  charges  have,  each  and  all  of  them,  been  shown  to  be 
absolutely  destitute  of  foundation.  The  Duke  of  Argyll  must  judge 
for  himself  if  the  principle  of  noblesse  oblige  should  not  lead  him, 
not  only  to  retract  the  charges,  but  also  to  apologize  for  having 
made  them.  But  his  Grace  may  rest  assured  that,  until  he  does 
so,  the  grounds  for  the  deep  indignation  at  his  conduct,  which  is 
so  strongly  felt  both  at  home  and  abroad,  will  still  remain. 

John  W.  Judd. 

On  the  Constant  P  in  Observations  of  Terrestrial 
Magnetism. 

I  REGRET  that  Prof  Riicker  should  have  largely  misunderstood 
my  last  letter.  I  have  not  raised  the  question  of  fallible  obser- 
vations at  ad.  Referring  to  the  correspondence  on  pages  127-8 
of  the  present  volume  of  Nature,  my  principal  contention  was 
and  is  that  the  ordinarily  accepted  formula  for  P  differs  by  terms 


of  the  second  and  higher  orders  from  Gauss's  theory,  and  that  that 
difference  necessarily  persists  in  any  rigorous  expansion  of  the 
formula.  By  the  ordinarily  accepted  formula  for  P  I  mean  Prof. 
Riicker's  formula  (a) ;  and  by  Gauss's  theory  I  mean  my  formulae 
(i),  (2),  and  (3).  From  two  observations  oi  f[u),  made  respec- 
tively at  the  distances  r  andr^,  the  L  of  Gauss's  theory  might  be 
found  by  a  direct  solution  of  equations  (i)  and  (2)  ;  but  instead 
of  that,  it  is  customary  to  find  L  from  equations  (7)  and  (8)  by 
substituting  in  them  the  value  of  Pq  computed  through  equation 
(a).  To  render  the  latter  procedure  rigorous,  P  should  be  used 
in  (7),  and  P^  in  (8).  Equation  (11)  shows  that  P  and  P^  differ 
by ;  quantities  of  the  second  and  higher  orders,  and  as  the 
ordinarily  accepted  value  of  Vq  lies  between  P  and  Pj,  it  neces- 
sarily differs  from  one  orVboth  of  these  quantities,  and  there- 
fore from  Gauss's  theory,  by  terms  of  the  second  and  ;_higher 
orders. 

While  freely  admitting  the  justice  of  Prof  Riicker's  criticism 
upon  my  arbitrary  assumption  that  Pq  —  ^  (P  +  P^),  I  cannot 
assent  to  the  process  by  which  he  has  deduced  equation  (7). 
Equations  (7)  and  (8)  show  that  we  may  have  either  one  L  and 
two  P's,  or  two  L's  and  one  P.  In  the  latter  case  these 
equations  become — 

y^\J  =  k(i  -  V,r--) (15) 

>^L"  =  Aid  -  Porr-) (16) 

and  Pfl  must  be  determined  so  as  to  make  L'  and  L"  as  nearly 
as  possible  identical  with  L.  To  that  end  we  must  have 
2h  =  U  +  L"  ;  and  then,  from  the  difference  between  (7)  +  (8) 
and  (15)  +  (16) 


Po=B(A-  Ai)- 


Ar■^^  +  A^r- 
Expanding  to  terms  of  the  second  order 

,(A  -  Ai)  r  -    ,         r"'      /A 


B' 


I  + 


Ai 


Whence,  by  equation  (13) 


Pn   = 


log  A  -  log  AA 

'^        M  J 

/log  A  -  log  A^-" 


(17) 


(18) 


(19) 


This  result  agrees  better  with  equation  (14)  than  with  equation 
(7).  Wm.  Harkness. 

Washington,  D.C.,  December  30,  1887. 


I  AM  afraid  that  the  new  method  of  calculating  Pq  adopted 
by  Prof  Harkness  is  not  less  arbitrary  than  that  which  he 
previously  employed.  He  says  that  "  Pq  must  be  determined 
so  as  to  make  L'  and  L"  as  nearly  as  possible  identical  with  L." 
If  the  object  is  only  to  deduce  a  correct  value  of  L  by  combining 
equations  (15)  and  (16),  this  condition  is  certainly  not  necessary. 
For  if  we  substitute  from  (17)  in  (15)  and  (16),  and  take  the 
mean  of  the  values  of  1/  and  L",  we  get  by  a  very  roundabout 
process  the  same  value  of  L  as  we  should  have  obtained  without 
using  Pq  at  all.  But  we  should  have  reached  the  same  final 
result  if  we  had  started  with  the  assumption  that 

{n  +  m)  L,  —  Ji  L,'  +  m  L'', 

where  n  and  m  are  any  numbers  whatever.  By  properly  choosing 
n  and  f/i  we  could  deduce  the  correct  value  of  L  with  any  assigned 
value  of  Pq.  It  appears  to  me  that  the  equation  2L  —  L'  4-  L" 
is  based  upon  the  tacit  assumption  that  L'and  L"  are  to  be  com- 
bined in  accordance  with  the  rules  applied  to  fallible  measures, 
and  cannot  otherwise  be  justified  if  the  only  object  is  the  correct 
deduction  of  L  from  (15)  and  (16). 

If,  however,  Po  is  introduced  to  enable  us  to  calculate 
another  approximate  value  of  L  by  observing  (say)  A,  at  some 
other  distance,  r^,  the  best  value  to  select  will  depend  on  circum- 
stances. If  ra  is  nearly  -  r  we  shall  get  the  best  result  by 
writing  Pq  =  P  and  so  on,  so  that  the  equation  2L  =  L'  -|-  L"  is 
again  arbitrary. 

I  am  quite  in  agreement  with  Prof.  Harkness  as  to  the  fact 
that  if  we  start  from  the  basis  of  equations  (i)  and  (2)  a  small 
theoretical  error  is  introduced  by  substituting  P,,  for  P  and  Pj. 
Indeed  I  think  this  step  can  only  be  justified  by  our  knowledge 
that  the  inaccuracy  thus  caused  is  less  than  the  error  of  experi- 


Jan.  19,  1 88 3] 


NATURE 


273 


ment.  It  is  thus  impossible  to  discuss  the  proper  vahie  of  P^,  as 
Prof.  Harkness  wishes  to  do,  without  raising  the  question  of 
fallible  observations.  If  it  is  raised,  the  method  of  treatment 
by  least  squares  follows. 

Prof.  Harkness  tried  to  show  that,  although  the  second  term 
which  I  introduced  brought  the  approximate  value  of  P^  nearer 
to  that  given  by  the  ordinary  formula,  it  removed  it  further 
from  another  value  which  he  regarded  as  the  standard.  I  venture 
to  think  that  I  have  justified  my  position  by  showing  that  the 
introduction  of  P,,  is  useless  unless  the  equations  are  regarded  as 
fallible  ;  that  the  ordinary  value  is  that  given  by  least  squares, 
and  that  the  standards  proposed  by  Prof.  Harkness  are  founded 
on  assumptions  which  have  no  theoretical  basis. 

In  conclusion  I  may  perhaps  be  allowed  to  make  two  remarks, 
one  of  which  would,  I  think,  from  the  point  of  view  assumed  by 
Prof.  Harkness  have  strengthened  his  case.  In  the  first  place  he 
is  wrong  in  saying  that  the  ordinary  value  of  P^  lies  between  P 
and  Pj.     It  is  smaller  than  both  of  them  if  A  is  >Ai. 

In  the  next  place  I  may  point  out  that  by  treating  a  number  of 
fallible  expressions  of  the  lype  of  equations  (i)  and  (2)  by  the 
meth;id  of  least  squares,  a  general  value  of  L  could  be  found 
without  the  introduction  of  the  small  theoretical  errors  which 
have  caused  this  correspondence.  There  is  however  little  doubt 
that  by  the  introduction  of  P„  we  obtain  a  more  convenient  and 
practically  no  less  accurate  method  of  dealing  with  the  observa- 
tions. Arthur  \V.  Rucker. 

Science  Schools,  South  Kensington,  January  10. 


The  Mist-Bow. 

In  a  letter  to  the  Turns  of  January  12,  Prof.  Tyndall  calls 
attention  to  a  white  mist-bow,  which  he  has  seen  on  one  or 
two  occasions,  and  mentions  its  rarity  of  occurrence.  It  may 
therefore  be  of  interest  to  record  that  I  witnessed  a  similar 
plienomenon  on  January  9  last.  My  point  of  view  was  an  elevated 
band-stand  at  the  head  of  Weymjuth  Pier;  the  time  il  a.m. 
The  air,  as  on  the  occasions  mentioned  by  Prof.  Tyndall, 
"swarmed  with  minute  aqueous  particles,"  i.e.  was  toggy,  and 
on  looking  away  from  the  sun,  which  was  shining  weakly,  I  saw 
a  well-defined  white  bow  cast  upon  the  mist.  The  bow  ap- 
peared to  be  about  60  feet  distant.  My  point  of  view  being 
high,  a  full  semicircle  was  visible.  It  was,  as  maybe  imagined, 
a  beautiful  and  graceful  object.  Albert  Bonus. 

St.  Leonards,  Exeter,  January  13. 

In  reference  to  Dr.  Tyndall's  letter  in  the  Times  of  Thursday 
last  upon  the  ullao  as  observe  I  by  hiai,  I  be^  to  call  your  at- 
tention to  my  paper  read  before  the  Stockport  Society  ot 
Naturalists  upon  the  same  subject  (see  pp.  ii  and  35).  Not 
having  seen  the  phenomenon  described  before,  I  ventured  to 
call  it  the  dew-bow.  THOMAS  Kay. 

Moorfield,  Stockport,  January  14. 

The  c'liricter  an  J  persistence  of  the  recent  fog  have  been  so 
exceptional  that  perhaps  you  may  deem  the  following  observa- 
tions on  it  worthy  a  record  in  Nature. 

I  was  staying  in  Mid-Devon  at  a  place  in  the  valley  of  the 
River  Taw,  some  10  miles  north  of  Dartmoor.  On  Monday,  the 
9th  instant,  we  were  enveloped  in  a  dense,  damp,  white  fog,  a 
rare  occurrence  in  that  part  of  the  country.  Surmising  that  the 
fog  had  no  great  vertical  thickness,  I  sallied  forth  in  the  after- 
noon to  mount  a  hill  immediately  to  the  eastward.  At  a  slight 
elevation  the  sun  was  already  making  his  appearance,  and  as  I 
continued  my  ascent,  and  the  fog  became  more  and  more  thin,  I 
saw  before  me  on  the  then  pale  blue  sky  a  beautiful  white  bow, 
similar  to  the  rainbow,  only  broader  and  without  colour.  When 
the  top  of  the  hill  was  reached,  the  fog  and  bow  had  disappeared, 
the  sky  was  deep  blue,  and  the  sun  shining  with  quite  spring- 
like warmth. 

The  scene  I  now  had  around  me  was  most  enchanting.  The 
fo^  could  be  traced  lying  in  the  river  valleys  like  arms  of  the 
sea,  with  the  bordering  hills  simulating  cliffs,  and  here  and 
there  an  island  appearing  in  the  midst,  whilst  the  distant  Dart- 
moor hills  stood  out  calm  in  unbroken  sunshine.  No  movement 
of  the  air  could  be  detected,  but,  below,  the  surface  of  the  fof 
seemed  as  if  being  rolled  along  by  a  wind  from  the  east  towards 
the  river  valley.  The  white  fog-bow  is  seldom  seen,  and  I 
imagine  owes  its  absence  of  colour  to  the  minuteness  and  close 
proximity  of  the  water  globules,  allowing  the  divided  rays  to 
coalesce  and  so  again  form  white  light.  C.   O.  Budd. 


Atmospheric  Effects  at  Sunset. 
On  Sunday,  January  8,  upon  leaving  the  house  at  half-past  four 
in  the  afternoon,  I  observed  that  the  clouds  were  suffused  with  a 
kind  of  pink  or  lurid  coppery  tinge,  a  sort  of  angry  sunset  tint 
spread  over  the  whole  sky.  The  clouds  were  of  the  stratus  type 
which  is  common  in  a  winter  anticyclone,  but  were  moving  or 
rather  driving  with  a  swiftness  quite  unusual  under  such  conditions. 
The  barometer  was  very  high  and  rising  rapidly  ;  but  during 
the  afternoon  there  were  several  violent  and  noisy  gusts  of  wind 
almost  amounting  to  squalls,  though  during  the  greater  part  of 
the  day  the  atmosphere  was  still  almost  to  stagnation.  The  air 
was  mild  and  intensely  humid,  and  everything  was  dripping  with 
moisture.  In  fact  the  weather  was  in  many  particulars  the 
opposite  of  what  we  expect  during  the  prevalence  of  an  anti- 
cyclone. The  diffused  sunset  effects  were  quite  unlike  anything  I 
ever  remember  to  have  witnessed  before.  The  gas-lamps  had 
just  been  lit,  and  the  flames  not  only  appeared  of  a  greenish  tint, 
but  seemed  to  be  inclosed  in  green  glass.  Several  persons 
stopped  me  in  the  street  and  inquired  what  it  all  meant,  and  one 
acquaintance  said,  "  What  is  going  to  happen  ?"  In  the  green 
tint  of  the  gas  there  is,  of  course,  some  suggestion  of  a  colour 
complementary  to  the  strange  red  glow  which  seemed  to  pervade 
the  atmosphere.  But  in  the  absence  of  all,  even  the  most  rudi- 
mentary, knowledge  of  the  subject,  I  should  be  glad  if  you  or 
some  of  your  readers  can  explain  the  cause  to  me  and  to  others 
who  witnessed  the  unaccustomed  phenomenon. 

Charles  Croft. 
;  Prestwich,  near  Manchester,  January  9. 


'  Newton's  "  Principia." 

It  may  perhaps  interest  your  readers  to  know  that  the  200th 
anniversary  of  the  publication  of  Newton's  "Principia"  was 
salemnly  celebrated  on  December  20  (old  style)  by  a  united  meet- 
ing of  two  learned  Societies  of  Mo>cow — the  Imperial  Society  of 
Friends  of  Natural  Knowledge,  and  the  Mathematical  Society. 
Prof.  Mendeleeff,  of  St.  Petersburg,  was  Honorary  President. 
Prof.  Stoletow  (President  of  the  Physical  Section  in  the  first- 
named  Society)  presented  a  sketch  of  Newton's  life,  and  spoke 
on  his  optical  discoveries;  Prof.  Zinger  (President  of  the 
Mathematical  Society)  treated  Newton's  mathemitical  work; 
Prof.  Joukowski  pointed  out  his  merits  as  founder  of  rational 
dynamics  ;  and  Prof.  Ceraski  exhibited  the  creation  of  celestial 
mechanics  by  Newton.  The  large  hall  of  the  Polytechnic 
Museum,  where  the  meeting  took  place,  was  attended  by  the 
elite  of  the  city.  The  lectures  were  illustrated  by  some 
optical  experiments  with  electric  light  and  some  lantern-slides 
relative  to  Newton's  biography.  A.  Stoletow. 

University  of  Moscow,  December  2£,  1887 
(January  2,  1888). 

Meteors. 

In  the  moonlight  on  the  evening  of  January  2,  at  loh.  58m., 
a  fine  meteor,  equal  in  brightness  to  Jupiter,  was  observed  by 
Mr.  D.  Booth  at  Leeds,  and  by  myself  at  Bristol.  As  seen 
from  Leeds,  the  meteor  passed  from  Musca  to  the  head  of  Cetus, 
and  terminated  its  course  about  3°  east  of  a  Ceti.  It  moved 
rather  quickly,  leaving  a  long  thin  train.  The  fore-part  of  the 
nucleus  was  tinted  with  red,  but  the  train  was  yellow.  At  the 
finish  the  motion  became  slower.  At  Bristol  the  meteor  was 
first  seen  when  about  6"  S.E.  of  C  Draconis,  and  it  travelled 
some  8"  in  the  direction  of  /S  Cephei.  Colour  yellow,  motion 
very  slow.  The  course  was  evidently  much  foreshortened  close 
to  its  radiant. 

Comparing  the  two  paths,  it  will  be  found  that  they  inter- 
sect each  other  at  250"  -h  57',  so  that  the  meteor  was  not  a 
member  of  the  January  Quadrantids,  which  attain  a  maximum 
on  January  2,  but  belonged  to  a  neighbouring  shower  of  Dra- 
conids,  which,  between  January  14  and  19,  I  have  previously 
observed  at  253"  -f  56°.  The  meteor  appears  to  have  been 
observed  earlier  in  its  flight  at  Bristol  than  at  Leeds,  for  at  the 
latter  place  the  observer  was  watching  the  southern  sky,  and 
only  caught  the  later  part  of  the  course.  From  a  mean  of  the 
two  observations  the  height  at  commencement  was  98  miles 
above  a  point  west  of  Appleby,  Westmoreland,  and  the  end 
occurred  at  60  miles  above  Chester.  The  earth-point  was  near 
Tiverton,  in  Devonshire.  The  real  length  of  path  was  109 
miles,  and  it  was  inclined  at  an  angle  of  20^"  to  the  horizon.  The 
meteor  was  travelling  in  a  direction  from  north  to  south,  the 
bearing  of  the  radiant  being  N.  84°  E.  '-.- 


74 


NA  TURE 


{Jan.  19,  1888 


It  would  be  interesting  to  hear  of  funher  observations  of  this 
bright  meteor.  It  must  have  been  seen  by  many  persons,  as  the 
night  was  very  clear. 

The  fireball  of  February  21,  1S65,  had  a  radiant  at  255°  +  55", 
and  close  to  that  of  the  meteor  of  January  2  last,  but  the  differ- 
ence of  date  is  too  considerable  to  permit  an  inference  that  the 
wo  bodies  diverged  from  the  same  stream. 

January  8.  W.  F.  Denning. 

In  Nature,  November  10,  p.  36,  it  is  stated  in.  reference  to  a 
meteor  that  "  a  Norwegian  astronomer"  is  of  the  opinion  that 
the  track  of  the  meteor  must  have  lain  too  high  to  be  heard. 
"  He  calculates  from  the  reports  to  hand  that  the  bursting  of  the 
meteor  occurred  at  an  altitude  of  about  6000  feet  [sic),  and  he 
thinks  that  even  this  figure  may  be  safely  doubled." 

It  may  interest  some  of  your  readers  to  know  that  on  the  night 
of  July  3,  1884,  at  8.27  p.m.  standard  time  of  the  75th  meridian, 
a  meteor  was  seen  by  me,  as  well  as  by  others,  here,  and  about 
fm,  17s.  afterwards  a  sound  was  heard  something  like  distant 
thunder,  except  that  it  seemed  to  swell  rapidly  and  steadily  to  a 
maximum  intensity,  and  then  diminish  again  in  much  the  same 
way,  but  more  slowly.  I  immediately  connected  the  sound  with 
the  appearance  of  the  meteor,  and  stated  that  it  must  have  been 
a  little  over  sixty  miles  distant,  and  from  the  estimated  angle  of 
elevation  about  thirty  miles  above  the  surface  of  the  earth.  This 
estimate  was  borne  out  by  the  accounts  from  other  places  of  the 
course  of  the  meteor.  The  sound  I  should  be  inclined  to 
attribute  to  the  rushing  together  of  the  air  in  the  wake  of  the 
meteor,  or  perhaps  more  probably  to  the  sudden  cr  mpression  of 
the  air  in  front  of  it,  and  not  to  its  bursting. 

The  following  account  of  the  meteor  was  given  in  the 
Canadian  Weather  Review  of  July  1884: — "A  magnificent 
meteor  was  seen  on  the  night  of  the  3rd  at  8.27  p.m.  standard 
time,  passing  from  south-east  to  north-west,  colours  brilliant  red 
and  green.  Two  distinct  explosions  are  reported  to  have  been 
heard.  After  the  first  explosion  a  sinuous  streak  remained 
visible  until  covered  by  clouds  ;  the  time  of  flight  was  from  seven 
to  eight  seconds,  and  the  apparent  size  about  one-fourth  that  of 
the  moon.  Reports  have  been  received  from  Listowel,  Hastings, 
Beatrice,  Belleville,  Lakefield,  Pembroke,  Peterborough,  Kings- 
ton, Deseronto,  Lindsay,  and  Huntingdon,  all  substantially 
agreeing  as  to  course,  size,  &c.  ;  it  passed  two  or  three  miles 
south  of  Belleville,  and  about  the  same  distance  north  of 
Lindsay."  Charles  Carpmael. 

Toronto,  December  16,  1887. 


The  Electrification  of  the  Air. 

In  writing  upon  the  electrical  condition  of  the  Peak  of 
Teneriffe,  the  Hon.  Ralph  Abercrombie  (Nature,  vol.  xxxvii. 
p.  31),  begins  by  stating  that  "the  limited  number  of  observa- 
tions on  atmospheric  electricity  which  have  been  already  made 
all  point,  with  one  exception,  to  a  normal  positive  difference  of 
potential  between  a  point  some  few  feet  above  the  earth  and  the 
ground  itself  ;"  and  farther  on  he  writes  :  "  the  electrical  con- 
ditions of  the  Peak  of  Teneriffe  [the  one  exception]  were  the 
same  as  in  every  other  part  of  the  world."  As  similar  state- 
ments still  find  their  way  into  text- books  and  treatises  on 
electricity  and  meteorology,  I  trust  you  will  permit  me  to  point 
out  that,  unless  a  very  special  m'.  aning  be  attached  to  the  word 
"  normal,"  this  generalization  is  decidedly  too  wide. 

In  a  paper  read  at  the  Aberdeen  meeting  of  the  British  Asso- 
ciation in  1885  (printed  Phil.  Mag.,  November  1885),  I  pointed 
out  that,  in  Madras  at  least,  a  negative  electrification  of  the  air 
was  a  normal,  and  not  an  abnormal,  condition  for  many  hours 
of  the  day  at  certain  seasons  of  the  year.  Observations  since 
taken  have  entirely  confirmed  the  opinion  that  with  a  hot,  dry, 
west  wind  the  air  at  Madras  is  usually  negatively  electrified,  and 
often  to  a  very  high  potential. 

With  regard  to  observations  made  on  mountains  in  the 
tropics,  though  perhaps  hardly  within  what  Mr.  Abercromby 
terms  "the  zone  of  constant  electrical  discharge,"  I  would 
venture  to  call  his  attention  to  a  short  paper  on  observations 
made  on  the  top  of  Dodabetta  (8642  feet)  in  the  Transactions  of 
the  Royal  Society  of  Edinburgh,  vol.  xxxii.  p.  583. 

I  may  add  that  during  the  periods  of  incessant  discharges  of 
sheet  lightning  which  we  often  experience  here  the  electrifica- 
tion of  ihe  air  is  sometimes  positive  and  at  other  times  negative, 
but  generally  positive.  C.   MiCHiE  Smith. 

Madras  Christian  College,  Madras,  December  14,  1887.  , 


Wind  Force  at  Sea. 

Prof.  Waldo,  in  the  American  Meteorological  Journal  for 
October,  recommends  the  use  of  instruments  for  determining  the 
velocity  of  the  wind  at  sea.  In  a  paper  read  before  the  Meteorologi- 
cal Society,  I  discussed  the  comparative  results,  obtained  from  a 
great  number  of  observations  under  all  conditions  at  sea,  between 
two  very  simple  and  small  anemometers,  showing  that,  although 
the  two  instruments  were  on  entirely  different  principles,  the 
results  obtained  differed  only  by  about  10  per  cent.  In  a  paper 
read  in  March  last  before  the  Meteorological  Society,  "Notes 
on  taking  Observations  at  Sea,  &c.,"  I  again  urged  the  desir- 
ability of  observers  using  some  form  of  anemometer,  so  that 
more  uniform  results  could  be  obtained,  and  I  gave  a  table  for 
correcting  the  apparent  velocity  of  the  wind  as  registered  by  the 
instrument  for  the  speed  of  the  ship  and  for  aberration. 

For  instance,  at  the  present  time  you  may  have  two  sailing- 
ships  close  together,  one  carrying  top-gallant  saih,  the  other  only 
reefed  top-sails,  and  the  wind  will  be  logged  accordingly.  Again, 
two  steamers  going  in  opposite  directions  are  very  likely  to  ex- 
perience apparently  different  wind  velocities,  and  the  senses  of 
officers  in  steamers  are  not  so  acute  for  detecting  differences  in 
wind  velocities  as  are  those  of  officers  in  sailing-ships.  The  use 
of  instruments  would  eliminate  there  errors. 

With  instruments  similar  to  those  I  use — the  coefficient  of 
friction  of  which  is  slight — the  relative  velocity  of  the  wind  may 
be  obtained  fairly  accurately  ;  and  I  contend  that  this  is  of  more 
importance  than  the  chance  there  is  of  obtaining  the  estimated 
true  velocity  ;  and,  I  may  add,  the  trouble  attending  the  use  of 
these  instruments  is  small. 

There  are  two  other  subjects  which,  up  to  the  present,  have 
received  little  attention  at  sea,  viz.  the  registration  of  rainfall 
and  the  electrical  condition  of  the  atmosphere.  Observations  on 
both  could  easily  be  carried  out  on  board  some  ships,  and  the 
observations  would  be  both  valuable  and  interesting. 

David  Wilson-Barker. 


A  Troublesome  Parasite  of  a  Brittle-Starfish. 

In  a  valuable  work  on  certain  parasitic  Crustacea  ("  Contri- 
butions a  I'Etude  des  Bopyriens,"  p.  181),  Prof.  A.  Giard  and  J. 
Bonnier  have  done  me  the  honour  of  calling  attention  to  my  dis- 
covery of  a  Copepod  (?)  which  lives  in  the  body  of  an  Ophiuran, 
AmJ-hinra  sqiiamata.  They  regard  the  mutual  relationship  of 
the  Copepod  and  the  Ophiuran  as  an  instance  of  the  castra- 
tion of  the  host  by  the  parasite.  Although  all  my  observations 
indicate  the  correctness  of  some  such  an  interpretation,  I  failed 
to  recognize  it  as  a  fact  until  after  they  had  pointed  it  out.  The 
explanation  seems  a  possible  one,  and  is  provisionally  accepted, 
with  a  few  modifications,  as  the  best  as  far  as  research  has  gone. 
The  modifications  are  important. 

The  state  of  knowledge  of  the  subject  is  as  follows.  Ova 
and  young  of  a  Crustacean  are  found  in  the  body  of  an  American 
brittle-star,  identified  as  Amphiura  squamata.  In  some  in- 
stances an  adult  Crustacean  was  also  found  in  the  same  place. 
When  these  ova,  young,  or  adults  are  found  parasitic  in  the 
Amphiura,  the  remains  of  the  ovary  of  the  host  appear  as  an 
amorphous  mass,  and  there  is  no  possibility  of  future  young 
of  the  Amphiura  in  the  brood  sac,  since  the  ova  have  been 
destroyed. 

The  conclusion  seems  inevitable,  for  observations  indicate  that    ^ 
the  mother  Crustacean  makes  her  way  somehow  into  the  body  of   jj 
the  host  (Amphiura),    then  affects  the  brittle-star  so  that  the     *- 
young  of  the  host   will   not   develop,    after   which   she   leaves 
packets    of  ova    to  mature  in  the  sacs  where  normally  young 
Amphiurse  would  develop.     It  thus  happens  that  the  products  J| 
of  the  ovary  of  the  host  are  destroyed  before  the  Crustacean  ova  ^ 
are    developed,  or  while  they  are  in  an  early  stage  of  cleavage. 
Consequently  it  is  legitimate    to    conclude    that  if  the  ova  of 
the  host  is  destroyed  it  may  be  done  by  the  adult  Crustacean. 

If  Prof.  Giard  and  Bonnier  are  right  in  their  interpretation 
that  this  is  an  instance  of  parasitic  castration,  as  I  think  they 
are,  we  possibly  have  an  interesting  case  of  a  parasite  destroy- 
ing the  reproductive  powers  of  the  host  for  the  future  good  oj 
her  own  offspring.  Such  a  condition  of  things  is  unique,  and 
among  Ophiurans  the  writer  recalls  but  the  single  instance  of 
the  present  case  of  Amphiura.  The  case  of  the  Crustacean  and 
its  brittle  star  h<  st  seems  to  differ  from  that  of  Entoniscus  in 
that  in  the  one  instance  the  destruction  of  the  ovary  maybe  of 
advantage  to  the  parasite,  while  in  the  other  the  destruction  or 


Jan.  19,  1888] 


NATURE 


275 


modification  of  the  spermary  of  the  host  is  simply  a  concomitant 
circumstance  of  the  parasitism.  It  seems  hard  to  believe  that 
the  simple  presence  of  the  packets  of  Crustacean  ova  in  the 
brood  sac  of  an  Amphiura  would  lead  to  a  destruciion  of  the 
ova  of  the  brittle-star,  but  it  does  not  seem  impossible  that  the 

lult  Crustacean  could  have  spayed  the  Amphiura. 

'\:\.\Q  character  of  this  phenomenon  is  so  unusual  that  one 
hesitates  to  accept  it  on  insufficient  data.  There  are  gaps  in 
my  observations  which  may  be  serious  to  the  theory.  In  the 
first  place,  it  has  not  been  observed  that  the  Crustacean  spayed 
the  Amphiura.  The  ovarian  gland  of  the  brittle-star  is  de- 
stroyed, and  indications  point  to  the  Crustacean  as  the  culprit. 
Secondly,  it  is  not  known  that  the  parasite  enters  the  brood  sac 
through  the  genital  slits  to  deposit  the  ova.  Thirdly,  the  ditlfi- 
cuUies  of  determination  whether  the  ova  are  in  the  body  cavity, 
stomach  walls,  or  brood  sac,  are  very  great.  I  believe  it  is 
probable  that  they  are  in  the  brood  sac.  Lastly,  the  family 
nam»  of  the  strange  parasite  who  repays  hospitality  so  un- 
graciously is  unknown.  There  is  no  doubt  that  it  is  a  Crus- 
tacean, as  I  have  traced  the  egg  through  a  nauplius  into  an 
adult. 

As  this  condition  of  life  is  believed  to  be  a  novel  one,  and 
needs  verification,  the  writer  takes  this  opportunity  to  call  the 
attention  of  marine  zoologists  to  it,  and  to  request  corre- 
spondence from  anyone  who  may  have  made  similar  observa- 
tions. Before  we  can  definitely  accept  the  conclusions  towards 
which  my  observations  lead,  there  is  a  call  for  re-examination 
and  verification  of  the  observations.  The  most  important 
questio  1  is  to  determine  whether  or  not  the  ova  of  the  Crus- 
tacean live  in  the  brood  sac. 

Cambridge,  Mass.,  U.S.A.  T.  Walter  Fewkes. 


Raised  Beaches  v:rsus  Higli-Level  Beaches. 

If  you  can  find  space  for  the  subjoined  list  of  shells  from  the 
ancient  beach  o;i  the  Thatcher  rock  in  Torbay,  it  may  prove 
acceptable  to  such  geologists  as  interest  themselves  i;i  the 
qaes'ion  recently  resuscitated  by  Prof.  McKenny  Hu^^hes,  as  to 
whether  the  ancient  Devonshire  beaches  are  "raised,"  as  com- 
monly suppjsed,  or  merely  high-level,  as  some  hold  them  to  be. 

Added  to  the  late  Mr.  Godwin  Austen's  "  Hope's  Nose"  list, 
my  list  runs  up  the  total  number  of  species  from  the  two  beaches 
to  forty-six,  and  this  without  reckoning  Mr.  Godwin  Austen's 
Cardlum  tuberculatum,  which  I  think  must  have  been  an  over- 
sight for  C.  tchini'.um.  This  number  has  not,  I  believe,  been 
beaten  by  any  British  raised  beach  hitherto. 

Wiien  the  Thatcher  beach   was    accumulated,   the   northern 

.11  Trophon  truncatus  was  abundant  in  the  neighbourhood  ;  so 
was  Tellinx  baUhlca,  a  shell  which  only  occurs,  I  believe,  in  this 
vicinity,  in  or  near  the  tidal  harbours  of  Torbay. 

Tne  Thatcher  collection  evidences  the  great  an'iquity  of  the 
beaeh,  a  considerab'e  change  of  temperature,  differences  in  the 
rock -components  of  the  cjast-line,  and  variatio;i  in  its  contour, 
or  these  subjects  I  hope  sone  day  to  treat,  but  in  the  meantime 
the  facts  so  far  as  they  have  been  ascertained  are  presented  to 
geologists  in  the  fallowing  list  of  shells  for  them  to  deal  with  as 
they  please  : — 


OstTjea  edulis 
Pinna  rudis 
Mytilus  edulis 
M.  modiolus 
Nuctda  nucleus 
C  irdiuin  cciiiiiatuni 
C.  edu'e 
C.  mrvegicum 
Cyprina  islandica 
■  Aitarle  sulcata 
yienus  exoleta 
V.  fascia  'a 
V.  gaUinx 
Tellinx  balthica 
L  'Uraria  elliptica 
Mictra  su  '■truncata 
Sy.en  vxginx 
Mya  arenaria 
Saxlcavx  ru^osa 

Patella  vulgala 
Trochui  zizyf>hinus 
Lacuna  putcolus 


Litorina  oblusata 
L.  rudis 
L.  liter ea 
Turritella  terebra 
Salaria  lurloncB 
Nxtica  alderi 
Adeorbis  subcarinatus 
Cerithium  reticulata 
Pupura  lapillus 
Btccinum  undatum 
M'.irex  erinaceus 
Trophon  truncatus 
Fusus  gracilis 
F.  jeffreysianus 
N  issa  reticulata 
N  incrasata 
Pleuro'omx  striolala 
P.  brachystoina 
P.  turricula 
Cylichna  cylindrasa 

42  species. 


The  shells  have  been  identified  in  odd  lots  and  at  different 
times  by  the  late  Mr.  Gwyn  Jeffreys,  Mr.  J.  T.  Marshall,  and 
Mr.  D.  Pidgeon,  to  whom  my  warmest  thanks  have  been  due. 
The  b.ilk  of  the  work  has,  however,  been  done  by  the  last- 
naned  gentleman,  without  whose  hearty  co-operation,  both  in 
searching  the  beach  material  and  naming  the  shells  and  frag- 
ments found  therein,  the  list  would  have  been  shorn  of  much  of 
its  goodly  proportions.  A.  R.  IIUNT, 

Torquay,  December  28,  1887. 


Vegetation  and  Moonlight. 

The  letter  of  your  Trinidad  correspondent,  given  in  Nature, 
vol.  xxxvi.  p.  586,  referring  to  a  Committee  appointed  to  deter- 
mine moon  influence,  has  a  practical  interest  for  me.  Among  the 
wood-cutters  in  Cape  Colony,  both  east  and  west,  there  is  a 
fixed  belief,  which  no  arguments  can  turn,  that  to  cut  timber  at, 
or  shortly  after,  full  moon,  is  to  cut  it  when  the  sap  is  up  ;  and 
when,  consequently,  it  is  out  of  season.  The  same  belief  pre- 
vails in  various  parts  of  Southern  India,  notably  in  Travancore. 
I  have  always  combated  the  belief,  pending  time  and  oppor- 
tunity to  test  it,  indulging  in  the  provisional  hypothesis  that  the 
bush-workers'  belief  may  be  due  to  the  fact  that  they  can  only 
work  by  night  at  or  near  full  moon  ;  and  that  at  night  trees 
should  contain  more  sap  than  by  day,  when  watery  exhalation  is 
active. 

It  seems  possible  that  in  the  habitually  cloudless  nights  of 
certain  countries  the  moon  may  exert  influences  not  noticeable 
elsewhere.  It  is  well  known  in  Cape  Colony  that  fish,  pork, 
and  other  provisions  go  bad  if  left  exposed  to  moonlight ; 
though  possibly  this  may  be  due  to  the  light  acting  as  a  guide  to 
insects.  D.  E.  HuTCHiNS, 

Cape  Colony,  December  8,  1887.      Conservator  of  Forests. 


Centre  of  Water  Pressure. 

Dr.  Routh  has  done  me  the  favour  of  pointing  out  that  in 
the  first  volume  of  his  "Rigid  Dynamics"  he  has  given  the 
following  very  simple  result  with  regard  to  the  centre  of  pressure 
of  a  triangle  occupying  any  position  in  a  liquid  : — -"This  point 
is  the  centre  of  gravity  of  three  particles  at  the  middle  points  of 
the  sides,  with  masses  p/oportional  to  their  depths." 

This  result  of  D  .  Rouih's  is  one  of  many  very  remarkable 
theorems  of  integration  published  by  him  in  the  Quarterly 
Journx',  No.  83,  iSS5.  George  M.  Minchin. 

A  New  Magnetic  Survey  of  France. 

It  should  not  be  difficult  to  do  foreigners  justice  without  be- 
littling our  own  countrymen,  and  a  fortiori  without  robbing  any 
of  the  latter  of  their  birthright. 

In  Prof  Thorpe's  paper  in  last  week's  Nature  there  occurs 
the  sentence,  "  Even  the  surveys  of  their  own  country  (France) 
have  been  made  for  them  by  Germans  and  Englishmen."  This 
sentence  taken  in  connection  with  the  opening  paragraph  of  the 
paper  conveys  the  unfortunate  impression  that  Von  Lamont,  the 
author  of  the  "  Untersuchungen  iiber  die  Richtung  und  Starke 
des  Erdmagne'ismus  .  .  ."  and  of  numerous  other  similar  works, 
was  a  German,  the  truth  being  that  he  was  merely  a  "  Scot 
abroad  "  (see  Nature,  vol.  xx.  p.  425).  T.  M. 

Bothwell,  Glasgow,  January  14. 


TIMBER,  AND  SOME  OF  ITS  DISEASES} 
V. 

IT  has  long  been  known  that  timber  which  has  been 
felled,  sawn  up,  and  stored  in  wood-yards,  is  by  no 
means  necessarily  beyond  danger,  but  that  either  in  the 
stacks,  or  even  after  it  h.is  been  employed  in  building 
con5tru:tion,  it  may  siffer  degeneration  of  a  rapid 
character  from  the  disease  known  generally  as  "dry-rot." 
The  object  of  the  present  paper  is  to  throw  some  light  on 
the  question  of  dry-rot,  by  sum;iiarizing  the  chief  results 
of  recent  botanical  inquiries  into  the  nature  and  causes  of 
the  disease— or,  rather,  diseases,  for  it  will  be  shown  that 
there  are  several  kinds  of  "  dry-rot." 

'  Continue  .1  from  p.  254. 


276 


NATURE 


{yait.  19,  I 


The  usual  signs  of  the  ordinary  dry-rot  of  timber  in 
buildings,  especially  deal-timber  or  fir- wood,  are  as  follows. 
The  wood  becomes  darker  in  colour,  dull  yellowish-brown 
instead  of  the  paler  tint  of  sound  deal ;  its  specific  weight 
diminishes  greatly,  and  that  this  is  due  to  a  loss  of  sub- 
stance can  be  easily  proved  directly.  These  changes  are 
accompanied  with  a  cracking  and  warping  of  the  wood, 
due  to  the  shortening  of  the  elements  as  water  evaporates 
and  they  part  from  one  another  :  if  the  disease  affects  one 
side  of  a  beam  or  plank,  these  changes  cause  a  pro- 
nounced warping  or  bending  of  the  timber,  and  in  bad 
cases  it  looks  as  if  it  had  been  burnt  or  scorched  on  the 
injured  side.  If  the  beam  or  plank  is  wet,  the  diseased 
parts  are  found  to  be  so  soft  that  they  can  easily  be  cut 
with  a  knife,  almost  like  cheese  ;  when  dry,  however,  the 
touch  of  a  hard  instrument  breaks  it  into  brittle  fibrous 
bits,  easily  crushed  between  the  fingers  to  a  yellow-brown, 
snuff-like  powder.  The  timber  has  by  this  time  lost  its 
coherence,  which,  as  we  have  seen,  depends  on  the  firm 
interlocking  and  holding  together  of  the  uninjured  fibrous 
elements,  and  may  give  way  under  even  light  loads — a 
fact  only  too  well  known  to  builders  and  tenants.  The 
walls  of  the  wood-elements  (tracheides,  vessels,  fibres, 


be  extending  themselves  on  to  neighbouring  pieces  of 
timber,  or  even  on  the  brick-work  or  ground  on  which  the 
timber  is  resting.  These  cord-like  strands  and  cake-like 
masses  of  felt,  with  their  innumerable  fine  filamentous 
continuations  in  the  wood,  constitute  the  vegetative  body 
or  mycelium  of  a  fungus  known  as  Mernlins  lacrymans. 
Under  certain  circumstances,  often  realized  in  cellars  and 
houses,  the  cakes  of  mycelium  are  observed  to  develop 
the  fructification  of  the  fungus,  illustrated  in  Fig.  18. 

To  understand  the  structure  of  this  fructification  we 
may  contrast  it  with  that  of  the  Polyporus  or  Travietcs 
referred  to  in  the  last  article  ;  where  in  the  latter  we  find 
a  number  of  pores  leading  each  into  a  tubular  cavity  lined 
with  the  cells  which  produce  the  spores,  the  Meruliiis 
shows  a  number  of  shallow  depressions  lined  by  the 
sporogenous  cells.  The  ridges  which  separate  these  de- 
pressed areolae  have  a  more  or  less  zigzag  course,  running 
together,  and  sometimes  the  whole  presents  a  likeness  to 


Fig.  17. — Portion  of  the  niyceliu.u  oi  Meriilius  laciymans  removed  fro  ii 
the  surface  of  a  beam  of  wood.  This  cake-like  mass  spreads  over  the 
surface  of  the  timber,  to  which  it  is  intimately  attached  by  hyphae  run- 
ning in  the  wood-substance.  Subsequently  it  develops  the  spore-bearing 
areolae  near  its  edges.  The  shading  indicates  differences  in  colour,  as 
well  as  irregularities  of  surface. 

or  cells,  according  to  the  kind  of  timber,  and  the  part 
affected)  are  now,  in  fact,  reduced  more  or  less  to 
powder,  and  if  such  badly  diseased  timber  is  placed  in 
water  it  rapidly  absorbs  it  and  sinks  :  the  wood  in  this 
condition  also  readily  condenses  and  absorbs  moisture 
from  damp  air,  a  fact  which  we  shall  see  has  an  important 
bearing  on  the  progress  of  the  disease  itself. 

If  such  a  piece  of  badly  diseased  deal  as  I  have  shortly 
described  is  carefully  examined,  the  observer  is  easily 
convinced  that  fungus  filaments  (mycelium)  are  present 
in  the  timber,  and  the  microscope  shows  that  the  finer 
filaments  of  the  mycelium  (hyphse)  are  permeating  the 
rotting  timber  in  all  directions — running  between  and  in 
the  wood  elements,  and  also  on  the  surface,  much 
as  in  the  case  shown  in  Fig.  17.  In  a  vast  number 
of  cases,  longer  or  shorter,  broader  or  narrower,  cords 
of  grayish-white  mycelium  may  be  seen  coursing  on  the 
surface  and  in  the  cracks  :  in  course  of  time  there  will 
be  observed  flat  cake-like  masses  of  this  mycelium,  the 
hyphas  being  woven  into  felt-like  sheets,  and  these  may 


Fig.  18.— Mature  frnciification  of  McriiUns  lacryjnans.  The  cake-hke 
mass  of  felted  mycelium  has  developed  a  series  of  areolae  (in  the  upper 
part  of  the  figure),  on  the  walls  of  which  the  spores  are  produced.  In 
the  natural  position  this  spore-bearing  layer  is  turned  downward  ■;,  and 
in  a  moist  environment  pellucid  drops  or  "  tears  "  distil  from  it.  The 
barren  part  in  the  foreground  was  on  a  wall,  and  the  remainder  on  the 
lower  side  of  a  beam  :  the  fungus  was  photographed  in  this  position  to 
show  the  structure. 

honey-comb  ;  if  the  ridges  were  higher,  and  regularly 
walled  in  the  depressed  areas,  the  structure  would  corre- 
spond to  that  of  a  Polyporus  in  essential  points.  The 
spores  are  produced  in  enormous  numbers  on  this  areolated 
surface,  which  is  directed  downwards,  and  is  usually 
golden-brown,  but  may  be  dull  in  colour,  and  presents 
the  remarkable  phenomenon  of  exuding  drops  of  clear 
water,  like  tears,  whence  the  name  lacrymatis.  In  well- 
grown  specimens,  such  as  may  sometimes  be  observed 
on  the  roof  of  a  cellar,  these  crystal-like  tears  hang 
from  the  areolated  surface  like  pendants,  and  give  an 
extraordinarily  beautiful  appearance  to  the  whole  ;  the 
substance  of  the  glistening  Mcridiiis  may  then  be  like 
shot-velvet  gleaming  with  bright  tints  of  yellow,  orange, 
and  even  purple. 

It  has  now  been  demonstrated  by  actual  experiment 
that  the  spores  of  the  fungus,  Aferulius  lacryma/is,  will 


Jan,  19,  1888J 


NATURE 


277 


germinate  on  the  surface  of  damp  timber,  and  send  their 
germinal  filaments  into  the  tracheids,  boring  through 
the  cell-walls,  and  extending  rapidly  in  all  directions. 
The  fungus  mycelium,  as  it  gains  in  strength  by  feeding 
upon  the  substance  of  these  cell-walls,  destroys  the  wood 
by  a  process  very  similar  to  that  already  described  (com- 
pare Fig.  14,  Article  III.). 

It  appears,  however,  from  the  investigations  of  Poleck 
and  Hartig,  that  certain  conditions  are  absolutely 
necessary  for  the  development  of  the  mycelium  and  its 
spread  in  the  timber,  and  there  can  be  no  question  that 
the  intelligent  application  of  the  knowledge  furnished  by 
the  scientific  elucidation  of  the  biology  of  the  fungus  is 
the  key  to  successful  treatment  of  the  disease.  This  is, 
of  course,  true  of  all  the  diseases  of  timber,  so  far  as  they 
can  be  dealt  with  at  all,  but  it  comes  out  so  distinctly  in 
the  present  case  that  it  will  be  well  to  examine  a  little  at 
length  some  of  the  chief  conclusions. 

Alerulius,  like  all  fungi,  consists  of  relatively  large 
quantities  of  water — 50  to  60  per  cent,  of  its  weight  at 
least — together  with  much  smaller  quantities  of  nitrogen- 
ous and  fatty  substances  and  cellulose,  and  minute  but 
absolutely  essential  traces  of  mineral  matters,  the  chief  of 
which  are  potassium  and  phosphorus.  It  is  not  necessary 
to  dwell  at  length  on  the  exact  quantities  of  these  matters 
found  by  analysis,  nor  to  mention  a  few  other  bodies  of 
which  traces  exist  in  such  fungi.  The  point  just  now  is 
that  all  these  materials  are  formed  by  the  fungus  at  the 
expense  of  the  substance  of  the  wood,  and  for  a  long  time 
there  was  considerable  difficulty  in  understanding  how 
this  could  come  about. 

The  first  difficulty  was  that  although  the  "  dry-rot 
fungus"  could  always  be  found,  and  the  mycelium  was 
easily  transferred  from  a  piece  of  diseased  wood  to  a" 
piece  of  healthy  wood  provided  they  were  in  a  suitable 
warm,  damp,  still  atmosphere,  no  one  had  as  yet  suc- 
ceeded in  causing  the  spores  of  the  Meruliiis  to  germinate, 
or  in  following  the  earliest  stages  of  the  disease.  Up 
to  about  the  end  of  the  year  1884  it  was  known  that  the 
spores  refused  to  germinate  either  in  water  or  in  decoc- 
tions of  fruit;  and  repeated  trials  were  made,  but  in  vain, 
to  see  them  actually  germinate  on  damp  wood,  until  two 
observers,  Poleck  and  Hartig,  discovered  about  the 
same  time  the  necessary  conditions  for  germination. 
It  should  be  noted  here  that  this  difficulty  in  persuading 
spores  to  germinate  is  by  no  means  an  isolated  instance: 
we  are  still  ignorant  of  the  conditions  necessary  for  the 
germination  of  the  spores  of  many  fungi— ^.^.  the  spores  of 
the  mushroom,  according  to  De  Bary  ;  and  it  is  known 
that  in  numerous  cases  spores  need  very  peculiar  treat- 
ment before  they  will  germinate.  The  peculiarity  in  the 
case  of  the  spores  of  Mcrulius  lacrymans  was  found  by 
Hartig  to  be  the  necessity  of  the  presence  of  an  alkali, 
such  as  ammonia  ;  and  it  is  found  that  in  cellars,  stables, 
and  other  outhouses  where  ammoniacal  or  alkaline 
emanations  from  the  soil  or  elsewhere  can  reach  the 
timber,  there  is  a  particularly  favourable  circumstance 
afforded  for  the  germination  of  the  spores.  The  other 
conditions  are  provided  by  a  warm,  still,  damp  atmosphere, 
such  as  exists  in  badly  ventilated  cellars,  and  corners,  and 
beneath  the  flooring  of  many  buildings. 

Careful  experiments  have  shown  beyond  all  question 
that  the  "  dry-rot  fungus  "  is  no  exception  to  other  fungi 
with  respect  to  moisture  :  thoroughly  dry  timber,  so  long 
as  it  is  kept  thoroughly  dry,  is  proof  against  the'  disease 
we  are  considering.  Nay,  more,  the  fungus  is  peculiarly 
susceptible  to  drought,  and  the  mycelial  threads  and  even 
the  young  fructifications  growing  on  the  surface  of  abeam 
of  timber  in  a  damp  close  situation  may  be  readily  killed 
in  a  day  or  two  by  letting  in  thoroughly  dry  air  :  of 
course,  the  mycelium  deeper  down  in  the  wood  is  not  so 
easily  and  quickly  destroyed,  since  not  only  is  it  more 
protected,  but  the  mycelial  strands  are  able  to  transport 
moisture  from  a  distance.     Much  misunderstanding  pre- 


vails as  to  the  meaning  of  "dry  air  "  and  "dry  wood": 
as  a  matter  of  fact,  the  air  usually  contains  much 
moisture,  especially  in  cellars  and  quiet  corners  devoid  of 
draughts,  such  as  Merulius  delights  in,  and  we  have 
already  seen  how  dry  timber  rapidly  absorbs  moisture 
from  such  air.  Moreover,  the  strands  of  mycelium  may 
extend  into  damp  soil,  foundations,  brick-work,  &c.  ;  in, 
such  cases  they  convey  moisture  to  parts  growing  in 
apparently  drj'  situations. 

A  large  series  of  comparative  experiments,  made 
especially  by  Hartig,  have  fully  established  the  correct- 
ness of  the  conclusion  that  damp  foundations,  walls, 
&c.,  encourage  the  spread  of  dry-rot,  quite  inde- 
pendently of  the  quality  of  the  timber.  This  is  im- 
portant, because  it  has  long  been  supposed  that  timber 
felled  in  summer  was  more  prone  to  dry-rot  than  timber 
felled  in  winter :  such,  however,  is  not  shown  to  be  the 
case,  for  under  the  same  conditions  both  summer-  and 
winter-wood  suffer  alike,  and  decrease  in  weight  to  the 
same  extent  during  the  progress  of  the  disease.  There 
is  an  excellent  opportunity  for  further  research  here 
however,  since  one  observer  maintains  that  in  one  case  at 
any  rate  {Pinus  sylvestris)  the  timber  felled  at  the  end  of 
April  suffered  from  the  disease,  whereas  that  felled  in 
winter  resisted  the  attacks  of  the  fungus  :  internal  evi- 
dence in  the  published  account  supports  the  suspicion 
that  some  error  occurred  here.  The  wood  which  suc- 
cumbed was  found  to  contain  much  larger  quantities  of 
potassium  and  phosphorus  (two  important  ingredients  for 
the  fungus),  and  Poleck  suggests  that  this  difference  Jn 
chemical  constitution  explains  the  ease  with  which  his 
April  specimens  were  infected.  ;  ■   : 

It  appears  probable  from  later  researches  and  criticism 
that  Poleck  did  not  choose  the  same  parts  of  the  two 
stems  selected  for  his  experiments,  for  (in  the  case  of 
Pin  us  sylvestris)  the  heart-wood  is  attacked  much  less 
energetically  than  the  sap-wood — a  circumstance  which 
certainly  may  explain  the  questionable  results  if  the 
chemist  paid  no  attention  to  it,  but  analyzed. the  sap-wood 
of  one  and  the  heart-wood  of  the  other  piece  of  timber, 
as  he  seems  to  have  done. 

The  best  knowledge  to  hand  seems  to  be  that  no 
difference  is  observable  in  the  susceptibility  to  dry-rot  of 
winter-wood  and  summer-wood  of  the  same  timber  ;  i.e. 
Merulius  lacrymans  will  attack  both  equally,  if  other 
conditions  are  the  same. 

But  air-dry  and  thoroughly  seasoned  timber  is  much 
less  easily  attacked  than  damp  fresh-cut  wood  of  the 
same  kind,  both  being  exposed  to  the  same  conditions. 

Moreover,  different  timbers  are  attacked  and  destroyed 
in  different  degrees.  The  heart-wood  of  the  pine  is  more 
resistant  than  any  spruce  timber.  Experimental  obser- 
vations are  wanted  on  the  comparative  resistance  of  oak> 
beech,  and  other  timbers,  and  indeed  the  whole  question 
is  well  worth  further  investigation. 

When  the  spore  has  germinated,  and  the  fungus  hyphas 
have  begun  to  grow  and  branch  in  the  moist  timber,  they 
proceed  at  once  to  destroy  and  feed  upon  the  contents  of 
the  medullary  rays ;  the  cells  composing  these  contain 
starch  and  saccharine  matters,  nitrogenous  substances, 
and  inorganic  elements,  such  as  potassium,  phosphorus, 
calcium,  &c.  Unless  there  is  any  very  new  and  young 
wood  present,  this  is  the  only  considerable  source  of 
proteid  substances  that  the  fungus  has  :  no  doubt  a  little 
may  be  obtained  from  the  resin-passages,  but  only  the 
younger  ones.  In  accordance  with  this  a  curious  fact 
was  discovered  by  Hartig  :  the  older  parts  of  the  hyphas 
-pass  their  protoplasmic  contents  on  to  the  younger  growing 
portions,  and  so  economize  the  nitrogenous  substances. 
Other  food-substances  are  not  so  sparse  ;  the  lignified 
walls  inclose  water  and  air,  and  contain  mineral  salts,  and 
such  organic  substances  as  coniferin,  tannin,  &c.,  and 
some  of  these  are  absorbed  and  employed  by  the  fungus. 
Coniferin  especially  appears  to  be  destroyed  by  the  hyphae. 


278 


NATURE 


[Jan.  19,  I 


The  structure  of  the  walls  of  the  tracheide^  and  cells  of 
the  wood  is  completely  destroyed  as  the  fungus  hyphse 
extract  the  minerals,  cellulose,  and  other  substances  from 
them.  The  minerals  are  absorbed  at  points  of  contact 
between  the  hyphee  and  the  walls,  reminding  us  of  the 
action  of  roots  on  a  mirble  plate  :  the  coniferin  and  other 
organic  substances  are  no  doubt  first  rendered  soluble  by  a 
ferment,  and  then  absorbed  by  the  hyphas.  This  e^creUon 
of  ferment  has  nothing  to  do  with -the  excretion  of  water 
in  the  liquid  state,  which  gives  the  fungus  its  specific  name : 
the  "tears"  themselves  have  no  solvent  a:tion  on  wood. 

It  will  be  evident  from  what  has  been  stated  that  the 
practical  application  of  botanical  knowledge  is  here  not 
only  possible,  but  much  easier  than  is  the  case  in  dealing 
with  many  other  diseases. 

It  must  first  be  borne  in  mind  that  this  fungus  spreads, 
like  so  many  others,  by  means  of  both  spores  and  my- 
celium :  it  is  easy  to  see  strands  of  mycelium  pissing 
from  badly-diseased  planks  or  beams,  &c.,  across  inter- 
vening brick-work  or  soil,  and  on  to  sound  timber,  which 
it  then  infects.  The  spores  are  developed  in  countless 
myriads  from  the  fructifications  described,  and  they  are 
extremely  minute  and  light :  it  has  been  proved  that  they 
can  be  carried  from  house  to  house  on  the  clothes  and 
tools,  &c.,  of  workmen,  who  in  their  ignorance  of  the 
facts  are  perfectly  careless  about  laying  their  coats,  imple- 
nients,  &c.,  on  piles  of  the  diseased  timber  intended  for 
removal.  Again,  in  replacing  beams,  &c  ,  attacked  with 
dry-rot,  with  sound  timber,  the  utmost  ignorance  and 
carelessness  are  shown  :  broken  pieces  of  the  diseased 
timber  are  left  about,  whether  with  spores  on  or  not ;  and 
I  have  myself  seen  quite  lately  sound  planks  laid  close 
upon  and  nailed  to  planks  attacked  with  the  "rot." 
Hartig  proved  that  the  spores  can  be  carried  from  the 
wood  of  one  building  to  that  of  another  by  means  of  the 
saws  of  v.'orkmen. 

But  perhaps  the  most  reckless  of  all  practices  is  the  usage 
of  partially  diseased  timber  for  other  constructive  purposes, 
and  stacking  it  meanwhile  in  a  yard  or  outbuilding  in  the 
neighbourhood  of  fresh-cut,  unseasoned  timber.  It  is 
obvious  that  the  diseased  timber  should  be  removed  as 
quickly  as  possible,  and  burnt  at  once  :  if  used  as  firewood 
in  the  ordinary  way,  it  is  at  the  risk  of  those  concerned. 
Of  course  the  great  danger  consists  in  the  presence  of 
many  ripe  spores,  and  their  being  scattered  on  timber 
which  is  under  proper  conditions  for  their  germination 
and  the  spread  of  the  mycelium. 

It  is  clearly  an  act  approaching  those  of  a  madman  to 
use  fresh  "green  "  timber  for  building  purposes;  but  it 
seems  certiin  that  much  improperly  dried  and  by  no 
means  "seasoned"  timber  is  employed  in  some  modern 
houses.  Such  wood  is  peculiarly  exposed  to  the  attacks 
of  any  spores  or  mycelium  that  may  be  near. 

But  even  when  the  beams,  door-posts,  window-sashes, 
&c.,  in  a  house  are  mide  of  properly  dried  and  seasoned 
deal,  the  danger  is  not  averted  if  they  are  supported  on 
damp  walls  or  floors.  For  the  sake  of  illustration  I  will 
take  an  extreme  case,  though  I  have  no  doubt  it  has  been 
realized  at  various  times.  Beams  of  thoroughly  seasoned 
deal  are  cut  with  a  saw  which  has  previously  been  used 
for  cutting  up  diseased  timber,  and  a  few  spores  of 
Meriilius  are  rubbed  off  from  the  saw,  and  left  sticking  to 
one  end  of  the  cut  beam  :  this  end  is  then  laid  on  or  in 
a  brick  wall,  or  foundation,  which  has  only  stood  long 
enough  to  partially  dry.  If  there  is  no  current  of  dry  air 
established  through  this  part,  nothing  is  more  probable 
than  that  the  spores  will  germinate,  and  the  mycelium 
spread,  and  in  the  course  of  time — it  may  be  months 
afterwards — a  mysterious  outbreak  of  dry-rot  ensues. 
There  can  be  no  question  that  the  ends  of  beams  in  new 
houses  are  peculiarly  exposed  to  the  attacks  of  dry-rot  in 
this  way. 

Tiie  great  safeguard— beyond  taking  care  that  no  spores 
or  mycelium  are  present  from  the  first — is  to  arrange  that 


all  the  brick-work,  floors,  &c.,  be  thoroughly  dry  before 
the  timber  is  put  in  contact  with  them  ;  or  to  interpose 
some  impervious  substance — a  less  trustworthy  method. 
Then  it  is  necessary  to  aerate  and  ventilate  the  timber  ; 
for  dry  timber  kept  dry  is  proof  against  "  dry-rot." 

The  veatilatioa  must  be  real  and  thorough  however, 
for  it  has  been  by  no  means  an  uncommon  experience  to 
find  window-sashes,  door-posts,  &c.,  in  damp  buildings, 
with  the  insides  scooped  out  by  dry-rot,  and  the  aerated 
outer  shells  of  the  timber  quite  sound  :  this  is  undoubtedly 
often  due  to  the  piint  on  the  outer  surfaces  preventing  a 
thorough  drying  of  the  deeper  parts  of  the  wood. 

Of  course  the  question  arises,  and  is  loudly  urged,  Is  there 
no  medium  which  will  act  as  an  antiseptic,  and  kill  the 
mycelium  in  the  timber  in  the  earlier  stages  of  the  disease  ? 
The  answer  is,  that  mineral  poisons  will  at  once  kill  the 
mycelium  on  contact,  and  that  creosote,  &c.,  will  do  the 
same  ;  but  who  will  take  the  trouble  to  thoroughly  impreg- 
nate timber  in  buildings  such  as  harbour  dry-rot  ?  And  it 
is  simply  useless  to  merely  paint  these  specifics  on  the  sur- 
face of  the  timber :  they  soak  in  a  little  way,  and  kill  the 
mycelium  on  the  outside,  but  that  is  all,  and  the  deadly 
rot  goes  on  destroying  the  inner  parts  of  the  timber  just 
as  surely. 

There  is  one  practical  suggestion  in  this  connection, 
however  ;  in  cases  where  properly  seasoned  timber  is  used, 
the  beams  laid  in  the  brick  walls  might  have  their  ends 
creosoted,  and  if  thoroughly  done  this  would  probably  be 
efficacious  during  the  dangerous  period  while  the  walls 
finished  drying.  I  believe  this  idea  has  been  carried  out 
lately  by  Prof.  Hartig,  who  told  me  of  it.  The  same 
observer  was  also  kind  enough  to  show  me  some  of  his 
experiments  with  dry-rot  and  antiseptics :  he  dug  up  and 
examined  in  my  presence  glass  jars  containing  each  two 
pieces  of  deal — one  piece  sound,  and  the  other  diseased. 
The  sound  pieces  had  been  treated  with  various  antiseptics, 
and  then  tied  face  to  face  with  the  diseased  pieces,  and 
buried  in  the  jar  for  many  months  or  even  two  years. 

However,  I  must  nov  leave  this  part  of  the  subject, 
referring  the  reader  to  Hartig's  classical  publications  for 
further  information,  and  pass  on  to  a  sketch  of  what  is 
known  of  other -kinds  of  "dry-rot."  It  is  a  remarkable 
fact,  and  well  known,  that  Merulius  lacrymxns  is  a 
domestic  fungus,  peculiar  to  dwelling-houses  and  other 
buildings,  and  not  found  in  the  forest.  We  may  avoid  the 
discussion  as  to  whether  or  no  it  has  ever  been  found 
wild  :  one  case,  it  is  true,  is  on  record  on  good  authority, 
but  the  striking  peculiarity  about  it  is  that,  like  some  other 
organisms,  this  fungus  has  become  intimately  associated 
with  mankind  and  human  dwellings,  &c. 

The  case  is  very  different  with  the  next  disease-producing 
fungus  I  propose  to  consider.  It  frequently  happens  that 
timber  which  has  been  stacked  for  some  time  in  the  wood- 
yards  shows  red  or  brown  streaks,  wdiere  the  substance  of 
the  timber  is  softer,  and  in  fact  may  be  "rotten"  :  after 
passing  through  the  saw-mill  these  streaks  of  bad  wood 
seriously  impair  the  value  of  the  planks,  beams,  &c.,  cut 
from  the  logs 

Prof.  Hartig,  who  has  devoted  much  time  to  the  in- 
vestigation of  the  various  for  ns  of  "dry-rot,"  informs  me 
that  this  particular  kind  of  red  or  brown  streaking  is 
due  to  the  ravages  of  Polyporus  vapjrarius.  The 
mycelium  of  this  fungus  destroys  the  structure  of  the 
wood  in  a  manner  so  similar  to  that  of  the  Merulius  that 
the  sawyers  and  others  do  not  readily  distinguish  between 
the  two.  The  mycelium  of  Polyporus  vaporarius  forms 
thick  ribbons  and  strands,  but  tliey  are  snowy  white,  and 
not  gray  like  those  of  Merulius  lacrymxns  :  the  structure, 
&c.,  of  the  fructification  are  also  different.  I  have  shown 
in  Fig.  19  a  piece  of  wood  undergoing  destruction  from 
the  a:tion  of  the  mycelium  of  this  Po'yporus,  and  it  will 
be  seen  how  the  diseased  timber  cracks  just  as  under  the 
influence  of  Merulius. 

Now  Polyporus  vaporarius  is  common  in  the  forests,^ 


Jan.  I  9,  1 888] 


NATURE 


279 


and  Hartig  has  found  that  its  spores  may  lodge  in  cracks 
in  the  barked  logs  of  timber  lying  on  the  ground — cracks 
such  as  those  in  Fig.  i  (seep.  182).  In  the  particular 
forests  of  which  the  following  story,  is  told,  the  felling  is 
accomplished  in  May  (because  the  trunks  can  then  be 
readily  barked,  and  also  because  such  work  cannot  be 
carried  on  there  in  the  winter),  and  the  logs  remain  exposed 
to  the  sun  and  rain,  and  vicissitudes  of  weather  generally, 
for  some  time.  Now  it  is  easy  to  see  that  rain  may  easily 
wash  spores  into  such  cracks  as  those  referred  to,  and  the 
fungus  obtains  its  hold  of  the  timber  in  this  way. 

The  next  stage  is  sending  the  timber  down  to  the 
timber-yards,  and  this  is  accomplished,  in  the  districts 
referred  to,  by  floating  the  logs  down  the  river.  Once  in 
the  river,  the  wood  swells,  and  the  cracks  close  up  ;  but  the 
fungus  spores  are  already  deeply  imprisoned  in  the  cracks, 
and  have  no  doubt  by  this  time  emitted  their  germinal 
hyphiE,  and  commenced  to  form  the  mycelium.  This  may 
or  may  not  be  the  case  :  the  important  point  is  simply 
hat  the  fungus  is  already  there.     Having  arrived  at  the 


11;.  19.— A  piece  of  pine-wooJ  attacked  by  the  mycelium  of  Polvporus 
vafior-arius.  The  timber  has  warped  and  cracked  under  the  action  of 
the  fungus,  becoming  of  a  warm  brown  colour  at  the  same  time  ;  in  the 
crevices  the  white  strands  of  felt-like  mycelium  have  ihen  increased, 
and  on  sp.itting  the  diseased  timber  they  are  found  creeping  and  apply- 
ing themselves  to  all  the  surfaces.  E.xcept  that  the  colour  is  snowy 
white,  instead  of  gray,  this  mycelium  may  easily  be  mistaken  for 
that  of  MeriiUus.  The  fructification  which  it  develops  is,  however 
very  different.     (After  R.  Hartig  )  ' 

timber-wharves,  the  logs  are  stacked  for  sawing  in  heaps 
as  big  as  houses  :  after  a  time  the  sawing  up  begins.  It 
usually  happens  that  the  uppermost  logs  when  cut  up  show 
little  or  no  signs  of  rot  ;  lower  down,  however,  red  and 
brown  streaks  appear  in  the  planks,  and  when  the  lower- 
most logs  are  reached,  perhaps  after  some  weeks  or 
months,  deep  channels  of  powdery,  rotten  wood  are 
found,  running  up  inside  the  logs  in  such  a  way  that  their 
transverse  sections  often  form  triangles  or  V-shaped 
figures,  with  the  apex  of  the  triangle  or  V  turned  towards 
the  periphery  of  the  log. 

The  explanation  is  simple.  The  uppermost  logs  on  the 
stack  have  dried  sufficiently  to  arrest  the  progress  of  the 
mycelium,  and  therefore  of  the  disease  :  the  lower  logs, 
however,  kept  damp  and  warm  by  those  above,  have 
offered  every  chance  to  the  formation  and  spread  of  the 
mycelium  deep  down  in  the  cracks  of  the  timber.  I  was 
much  impressed  with  this  ingenious  explanation,  given  to 
me  personally  by  Prof.  Hartig,  and  illustrated  by  actual 
specimens.     It  will  be  noticed  how  fully  it  explains  the 


curious  shape  of  the  rotten  courses,  because  the  depths 
of  the  cracks  are  firit  diseased,  and  the  mycelium  spreads 
thence. 

Obviously  some  protection  would  be  afforded  if  the 
bark  could  be  retained  on  the  felled  logs,  or  if  they  could 
be  at  once  covered  and  kept  covered  after  barking  ;  and, 
again,  something  towards  protection  might  be  done  by 
carting  instead  of  floating  the  timber,  when  possible.  At 
the  same  time,  this  is  not  a  reliable  mode  of  avoiding  the 
disease  by  itself;  and  even  the  dry  top  logs  in  the  saw- 
yard  are  not  sufe.  Suppose  the  following  case.  The  top 
logs  of  the  stack  are  quite  dry,  and  are  cut  into  beams  and 
used  in  building  ;  but  they  have  spores  or  young  mycehuin 
trapped  in  the  cracks  at  various  places.  If,  from  contact 
with  damp  brick-work  or  other  sources  of  moisture,  these 
spores  or  mycelia  are  enabled  to  spread  subsequently,  we 
may  have  "  dry-rot "  in  the  building  ;  but  this  "  dry-rot " 
is  due  to  Polyporus  vaporarius,  and  not  to  the  well-known 
Merulius  lacrynians. 

There  can  probably  be  no  question  of  the  advantage  of 
creosoting  the  ends  of  such  rafters,  beams,  &c. ;  since  the 
creosote  will  act  long  enough  to  enable  the  timber  to  dry, 
if  it  is  ever  to  dry  at  all.  But  the  mycelium  of  Polyporus 
vaporarius  makes  its  way  into  the  still  standing  timber  of 
pines  and  firs  ;  for  it  is  a  wound-parasite,  and  iti  mycelium 
can  obtain  a  hold  at  places  which  have  been  injured  by 
the  bites  of  animals,  &c.;  it  thus  happens  that  this  form  of 
"dry-rot  "is  an  extremely  dangerous  and  insid'ous  one, 
and  I  have  little  doubt  that  it  costs  our  Enghsh  timber- 
merchants  something,  as  well  as  Continental  ones.  Nor 
are  the  above  the  only  kinds  of  "  dry-rot  "  we  know. 
Hartig  has  described  a  disease  of  pine-wood  caused  by 
Polyporus  mollis,  which  is  very  similar  to  the  last  in  many 
respects,  and  the  suspicion  may  well  gain  ground  that  this 
important  subject  has  by  no  means  been  exh:uisted  yet. 

H.  Marshall  Ward. 


[  SCIENCE  IN  ELEMENTARY  SCHOOLS> 

NOTHING   could    be   more   unsatisfactory  than   the 
present  position  of  the  knowledge  and  teaching  of 
science  in  our  elementary  schools.     Notwithstanding  all 
the  advantages  that  have  been  offered  to  pupil-teachers 
for  the  btudy  of  science,  as  a  body  they  appear  to  be  in  a 
most  deplorable  state  in  this  respect.     Though  success  in 
the  examinations  of  the  Science  and  Art  Department  are 
now  taken  into  account  in  placing  the  students  of  the 
training    colleges    for    their    teaching    certificates,   and 
average  school  boys  when   they  have  been  fairly  taught 
are  quite  competent  for  these  examinations,  yet  very  few 
of  the  teachers  have  availed  themselves  of  this  privilege, 
and  it  does  not  appear  that  the  training  colleges  have 
helped  them  in  this  respect.     Very  little,  indeed,  can  be 
expected  while  the  ordinary  pupil-teacher  is  described,  as 
he  is  in  Mr.  Cakeley's   report   on   the  working  of  the 
Training    Colleges,    as    deficient    in    many    elementary 
branches,  notably  mathematics.     It  is  satisfactory,  how- 
ever, to   notice   that  the   quality  of   the  candidates  for 
admission   to   the  Training  Colleges  is  improving,  and 
that  these    institutions    are   growing   in   teaching  capa- 
city and  in  popularity.     The  reports  of  the  examiners 
for    admission    are    not,    with    regard    to    the    subject 
in   hand,  pleasant   reading.      Cne   cannot   expect  good 
answering    in   science   from   candidates   who   are   quite 
unable  to  paraphrase  an  ordinary  piece  of  poetry,  or  to 
explain  a  common  English  expression.     Accordingly  we 
find  that  in  Euclid,  algebra,  and  mensuration,  though  a 
few  papers  were  especially  meritorious,  the  vast  majority 
of  the  answers  were  very  inferior.    Few,  if  any,  attempted 
the  easy  riders  in  Euclid,  and  the  examiner  remarks  that 
he  fears  that  the  pupil-teachers  receive  but  little  assistance 

■"Report  of  Committee  of  Council  on  Educati,  n  (Eng'and  ar  J  Wale  X 

1S86-87." 


28o 


NATURE 


{Jan.  19, 


from  those  who  superintend  their  work.  It  is  not  easy  to 
say  whether  this  poor  teaching  or  defective  early  training 
is  at  the  root  of  the  evil.  It  is  worthy  of  remark  that  the 
metropolitan  candidates,  in  their  answers  to  the  questions 
on  Euclid,  far  surpass  their  provincial  competitors.  Many 
amazing  blunders  are  quite  common  in  the  algebra  papers, 
■such  as  subtracting  the  terms  of  the  numerator  from 
those  of  the  denominator,  and  completely  ignoring  the 
signs,  and  it  is  stated  that  the  pupil-teachers  at  Chester 
at  the  end  of  their  apprenticeship  were  unable  to  work  a 
simple  sum  in  algebra  or  to  write  out  an  easy  proposition 
Mr.  Fitch  has  a  very  able  report  on  the  Training  Colleges 
for  schoolmistresses,  and  from  him  it  is  plain  that  the 
same  defects  exist  among  the  female  as  among  the  male 
pupil-teachers.  At  the  admission  examination  the  work 
in  the  arithmetic  is  satisfactory  in  point  of  accuracy,  but 
it  displays  want  of  method,  failure  to  appreciate  the 
meaning  of  the  question  asked,  and  ignorance  of  princi- 
ples. Thus  very  few  of  the  candidates  were  able  to  give 
an  intelligent  explanation  of  simple  arithmetical  processes, 
such  as  subtraction  or  division.  With  them,  as  with  the 
male  pupil-teachers,  book-work  and  memory  are  wholly 
relied  on,  and  little  attention  is  paid  to  the  intelligent 
application  of  principles.  "Scarcely  three  per  cent,  are 
able  to  do  much  more  in  the  teaching  of  arithmetic  than 
work  sums  more  or  less  correctly  on  the  black-board." 

With  such  material  to  work  on,  it  is  not  surprising  that 
the  results  of  the  work  at  the  colleges  are  not  what  they 
otherwise  might  be.  Those  who  are  below  the  average 
at  admission  rarely  succeed  very  well  in  the  array  of 
subjects  to  be  learnt  in  two  years'  training.  With  regard 
to  the  male  students  the  reports  at  the  close  of  the  first 
year's  training  record  that  the  answering  of  the  questions 
set  on  the  first  book  of  Euclid  was  disappointing.  The 
students  appear  to  have  learnt  their  propositions  by  rote, 
and  to  have  displayed  great  want  of  neatness  and  accuracy. 
Though  the  riders  were  joined  to  the  propositions  on  which 
their  solution  depended,  and  though  all  these  riders  were 
easy,  very  few  of  the  papers  were  satisfactory.  This 
inability  to  solve  the  easiest  geometrical  deductions  is 
commented  on  again  and  again,  and  proves  beyond  doubt 
that  either  the  students  are  negligently  taught,  or  that  they 
commit  the  book-work  to  memory  without  understanding 
it,  and  consequently  are  quite  incapable  of  applying  their 
knowledge  to  solve  the  simplest  riders.  The  report 
for  the  second  year  is  rather  better ;  few  candidates 
answered  very  well,  and  few  answered  badly,  and  the 
majority  made  a  fair  percentage  of  marks  ;  but  the  same 
inability  to  apply  their  knowledge  to  the  solution  of  easy 
deductions  in  Euclid  is  recorded.  With  regard  to  the 
answering  in  algebra  and  mensuration,  there  is  nothing 
noticeable  except  that  some  students  show  a  discreditable 
ignorance  of  the  most  fundamental  questions,  while  the 
papers  were  generally  satisfactory. 

Summing  up  the  results  of  the  working  of  our  male 
Training  Colleges,  Mr.  Oakeley  gives  it  as  his  opinion  that 
the  students  are  over-lectured  at  some  of  the  colleges, 
and  that  the  lectures  are  mechanically  reproduced,  and 
transferred  as  closely  as  possible  to  the  examination 
papers.  This,  of  course,  is  due  to  the  defective  early 
training  of  the  students,  and  to  lectures  injudiciously 
delivered  on  subjects  about  which  students  know  abso- 
lutely nothing.  For  instance,  one  lecturer  delivered  a  very 
excellent  discourse  on  the  corrupt  form  of  Latin  used  by 
the  Roman  soldiers  in  Britain,  its  causes  and  its  effects, 
to  a  class  of  which  few,  if  any,  of  the  members  knew 
anything  whatever  of  Latin.  Mr.  Oakeley  also  points 
out  one  of  the  greatest  defects  in  the  present  system  of 
training  pupil-teachers  when  he  says  that  as  a  rule  pupil- 
teachers  see  but  one  school  at  work ;  they  have  no 
opportunity  of  comparing  the  mode  of  teaching  in  other 
schools.  This  is,  however,  obviated  at  Homerton,  and 
partly  at  Durham,  by  visiting  neighbouring  schools  during 
school-hours. 


The  reports  of  the  examiners  on  the  progress  made  by 
the  students  of  the  female  Training  Colleges  tell  us  that  in 
arithmetic,  questions  on  theory  and  principles  are  not  well 
done  ;  long  problems  are  inaccurately  done,  and,  as  a 
whole,  it  is  seen  that  there  is  yet  much  remains  before 
it  can  be  said  that  our  present  system  is  satisfactory  as 
regards  the  knowledge  given  and  the  methods  adopted. 
There  appears  to  be  among  the  students  a  very  narrow 
view  of  their  future  work,  a  desire  to  regard  the  obtaining 
of  their  certificates  as  the  goal  and  aim  of  their  existence. 
The  views  on  science  of  one  of  these  maidens  is  worth 
recording : — "If  I  am  successful  in  obtaining  my  certificate, 
I  intend  (D.V.)  going  in  for  two  sciences.  At  the  same 
time  I  propose  attending  a  tonic  sol-fa  class  to  get  my 
advanced  certificate.  Should  the  two  sciences  '  sound, 
light,  and  heat,'  and  '  electricity  and  magnetism  '  prove  a 
success,  I  shall  probably  take  up  the  science  of  hygiene." 
If  the  Training  Colleges  tend  to  remove  the  impression 
that  the  technical  qualification  is  the  end  of  the  pupil- 
teacher's  work,  if  they  awaken  a  spirit  of  emulation  among 
the  students,  and  enable  them  to  teach  more  thoroughly 
and  intelligently,  then  they  will  have  fulfilled  a  large 
portion  of  their  duties. 

This  being  the  stuff  of  which  our  elementary  teachers 

are  made,  let  us  now  glance  at  the  reports  of  the  work 

done  in  the  schools  under  their  guidance.     With  masters 

the  majority  of  whom  know  little  or  nothing  of  even  the 

elements  of   science  the  pupils  cannot  be   expected  to 

pass  well  in  these  subjects.     Thus  it  is  seen  in  the  return 

of  the  number  of  pupils  sent  up  on  "specific  subjects" 

(most  of  which  are  scientific),  that  only  i6*5i   of  those 

eligible  for  examination  have  been  so  examined,  and  of 

these  nearly  one-half  were  from  the  London  School  Board 

District.     One-half  of  the  passes  were   in   algebra  and 

animal  physiology.     By  a  new  arrangement  the  ten  chief 

inspectors  present  biennial  reports,  five  each  year,  and  in 

the  present  volume  the  five  divisions   reported   on   are  : 

the    North-Eastern,    the    North    Central,    the    Eastern, 

the  South- Western,  and  Wales.      All  these  agree  that, 

with  the  exception  of  some  of  the  cities  and  large  towns, 

throughout  the  elementary  schools  science  is  untaught. 

This  we  can  well  imagine,  when  we  have  seen  that  the 

average  teacher  is  completely  ignorant  of    any    of    its 

branches,  and  it  is  the  average  teacher  who  is  sent  to 

the  country  schools.      The  explanation  of  some  of  the 

inspectors,  that  in  the  country  for  a  great  portion  of  the 

year  the  attendance  of  the  children  who  are  fit  to  be 

taught  these  subjects  is  very  irregular,  does  not  meet  the 

question ;  for,  even  were  the  children  most  regular  in  their 

attendance,  the  subjects  could  not  at  present  be  taught, 

and  until  our  average  elementary  teacher  is  altered  they 

will  not  be   taught.      Following   the   individual   reports 

on  the  subject,  we  find  in  the  North-Eastern  Division 

that  arithmetic  is  accurately  but  unintelligently  studied. 

So    utterly   mechanical    is   the   teaching    that    in   many 

schools   mental    arithmetic    is    regarded   as   a   separate 

subject,  and  not  as  the  adjunct  and  preliminary  of  all 

arithmetic.     Having   seen  the  complaints  made  by  the 

examiners  of  the  quality  of  the  study  of  the  pupil-teachers, 

it  could  only  be  expected  that  the  same  defects  would 

show   themselves   in   the    scholars   under   their   charge. 

Elementary  science  is  unknown   in   the    North-Eastern 

schools,  except  in  Leeds,  Sheffield,  Bradford,  Newcastle, 

and   Sunderland,  where  algebra  and  animal  physiology 

are  taken  up  with  fair  results.    But  the  inspector  remarks 

that  physiology  is  seldom   so  taught  as   to   be   of    any 

practical  benefit,  and  in  the  teaching  of  algebra  there  is 

a  great  want   of   thoroughness.      In  the  North-Central 

Division,  specific  subjects  are  seldom  taken  ;  and  about 

one-half  the  pupils   sent   up  for  examination   on   them 

passed.     These  subjects,  taking  them  in  the  order  of  the 

number  of  pupils  sent  up  on  each,  are  algebra,  magnetism 

and  electricity,  physiology,  agriculture,  and  mechanics.   In 

this  division  "  arithmetic  is  always  the  most  unsatisfactory 


Jan.  19,  1888] 


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281 


subject  we  have  to  deal  with."  The  teaching  of  it  is  dull 
and  mechanical,  and  the  rules  are  rarely  intelligently- 
applied.  In  this  large  district  there  is  one  bright  spot, 
which  shows  what  can  be  done  by  ordinary  industry  and 
skill.  It  is  the  town  of  Nottingham,  in  which  2526 
children  were  examined  in  specific  subjects,  of  whom 
four-fifths  passed.  "  Mechanics  for  boys  and  domestic 
economy  for  girls,  are  the  subjects  principally  taken  by 
the  Nottingham  Board  Schools,  and  are  taught  by  a 
specially  qualified  science  demonstrator  and  assistant, 
who  visit  the  various  schools  in  turns,  bringing  the 
apparatus  with  them  in  a  specially  constructed  hand-cart. 
The  lectures  given  on  these  occasions  are  afterwards  gone 
through  again  by  the  teachers  of  the  schools,  from  notes 
taken  at  the  time.  These  lectures  are  simple  and  interest- 
ing, and  are  given  with  great  care  and  skill ;  the  results 
are  remarkably  good,  both  as  regards  the  actual  knowledge 
acquired  by  the  scholars  and  the  stimulus  given  to  the 
general  intelligence.  Besides  the  above-named  subjects, 
physiology  and  algebra  are  often  taken  with  very  good 
results,  and  in  one  school  the  principles  of  agriculture 
are  taught  with  marked  success."  This  extract  from 
Mr.  Blandford's  report  shows  that  the  neglect  of  element- 
ary science  is  due,  not  to  the  dullness  or  irregularity  of  the 
pupils,  as  some  of  the  inspectors  would  seem  to  imply,  but 
frequently  to  the  ignorance  and  incapacity  of  the  teachers. 
In  the  Eastern  Division  specific  subjects  are  rarely  taken, 
but  in  the  Norwich  district  mechanics,  chemistry,  and 
botany  have  been  taught  satisfactorily  in  one  or  more 
schools,  and  "  are  distinctly  a  gain  to  the  boys."  On  the 
whole,  however,  this  division  is  rather  at  a  standstill. 
The  quality  of  the  education  given  has  not  risen  as  one 
would  expect,  and  with  regard  to  scientific  and  technical 
education,  in  the  words  of  Mr.  Synge,  "  there  is  plenty  of 
room  and  need  for  progress  in  the  immediate  future,  but 
at  the  present  moment  too  little  sign  of  its  beginning." 
In  the  South-Western  Division  "elementary  science  has 
hardly  any  existence."  In  fact,  except  in  some  of  the 
large  towns,  it  is  practically  non-existent,  and  in  the 
whole  division,  there  were  only  about  600  children 
presented  on  specific  subjects.  In  Wales,  except  in 
a  few  higher-grade  schools,  the  teaching  of  science  is 
unknown. 

Some  of  the  causes  of  this  almost  total  absence  of 
any  scientific  teaching  in  our  elementary  schools  have 
been  pointed  out.  Where  science  has  been  well  taught 
it  has  borne  good  fruit,  and  where  teachers  and  managers 
have  set  themselves,  steadfastly  to  overcome  the  diffi- 
culties in  their  way  a  high  and  encouraging  measure  of 
success  has  been  obtained.  Thus  we  have  the  remarkable 
testimony  of  the  success  of  the  experiment  in  Nottingham, 
and  surely  there  are  many  other  districts  in  England 
quite  as  competent  to  carry  on  this  work  as  Nottingham, 
Why  it  could  not  be  done  in  any  town  in  England,  it  is 
difficult  to  see.  In  many  cases  where  these  subjects  have 
been  taught,  the  inspectors  have  wisely  set  their  faces 
against  them,  finding  but  a  wretched  smattering  amongst 
the  pupils.  Nothing  else  can  be  expected  in  remote  rural 
districts,  where  the  teacher,  whose  whole  time  is  scarcely 
sufficient  for  the  few  rudimentary  subjects,  is  so  ambitious 
as  to  attempt  to  cram  some  of  his  pupils  with  the 
elementary  knowledge  of  a  science  of  which  he  is  him- 
self confessedly  ignorant.  But  in  our  towns  and  cities 
competent  teachers  are  always  to  be  had.  If  the  Board 
masters  do  not  find  themselves  fit  for  the  extra  labour  and 
extra  knowledge  required,  there  should  be  no  difficulty  in 
obtaining  a  specialist,  as  has  been  done  at  Nottingham. 
And  in  no  place  could  the  foundations  of  technical 
education  be  more  surely  laid  than  amongst  the  elder 
children  of  our  elementary  schools.  In  the  Minutes 
and  Instructions  issued  to  Her  Majesty's  Inspectors, 
managers  are  requested  to  aid  in  every  way  they  can  the 
teaching  of  one  or  more  specific  subjects  appropriate  to 
the  industrial  or  other  needs  of  the  locality,  and  the  rudi- 


ments of  two  higher  subjects  to  supply  a  foundation  for 
future  work.  With  this  object  it  is  suggested  that  where 
the  teacher  is  not  competent  to  do  so — and  this,  according 
to  the  reportSjis  the  rule, and  not  the  exception— a  specialist 
might  be  employed  by  a  number  of  schools  in  a  district, 
whose  instruction  would  be  supplemented  by  that  of 
the  ordinary  teachers.  There  is  only  one  instance,  that 
of  Nottingham,  given  in  the  reports  of  such  suggestions 
having  been  followed. 

Geography.— XNh^ro.  there  is  "a  great  absence  of  culture 
and  general  intelligence  upon  the  part  of  a  considerable 
number  of  the  candidates,"  it  is  not  surprising  to  find 
that,  though  the  answers  to  the  geography  papers  for 
admission  to  the  male  training  colleges  were  fairly 
accurate,  they  were  not  inteUigent.  Here,  again,  the 
metropolitan  candidates  are  superior  to  the  provincial 
candidates,  particularly  in  the  map-drawing,  though,  in 
this  particular,  there  has  been  a  falling  away  of  late. 
Amongst  the  female  candidates,  the  geography  was  not 
very  satisfactory,  exhibiting  inaccuracies  in  map-drawing, 
indefiniteness  in  the  answers,  and,  generally,  marks  of 
defective  early  training.  In  the  examinations  for  the  first 
year's  certificates  the  male  candidates  answered  fully  and 
accurately  ;  but  usually  there  was  a  slavish  following  of 
the  words  of  the  text-books  and  the  lecturers'  notes.  At 
the  end  of  the  second  year,  there  is  the  same  report, 
book-knowledge  without  intelligence,  and  abundance  of 
information  imperfectly  digested.  With  the  females,  the 
result  is  the  same  :  verbatim  reproduction  of  the  books 
or  notes  they  had  read  ;  fairly  creditable  answering  ;  but 
"the  style  of  the  papers  reveals  the  painful  poverty  of  the 
general  reading  of  the  students,  and  the  utter  absence 
of  any  individuality,  or  attempt  at  description  in  their 
own  words."  In  many  papers  there  was  a  constant  itera- 
tion of  the  same  words  and  phrases,  suggesting  that  the 
candidates  had  learned  off  by  rote  the  answers  to  probable 
questions.  With  regard  to  the  elementary  schools,  all 
the  reports  agree  in  saying  that  there  has  been  a  marked 
improvement  in  the  teaching  of  geography.  Where  it  is 
intelligently  taught  it  is  the  favourite  subject ;  but  too 
frequently  the  children  are  not  well  grounded.  While  all 
divisions  report  progress  in  this  subject,  it  is  worthy  of 
remark  that  all  the  maritime  districts,and  particularly  those 
of  the  South-Western  Division,  including  the  counties  of 
Hampshire,  Dorset,  Devon,  Cornwall,  and  Somerset, 
surpass  the  inland  schools  in  the  knowledge  of  our  country, 
its  colonies,  and  its  trade.  And  this  is  only  natural.  The 
teacher  who  would  not,  in  Devonshire,  interest  a  class  of 
boys  in  the  voyages  of  Drake,  or  who,  in  Somerset,  would 
not  rivet  the  attention  of  his  pupils  on  the  victories  of 
Blake,  would  not  be  worthy  of  his  post.  Though  the 
teachers  may  be  congratulated,  speaking  generally,  on  the 
progress  made  in  geography,  there  are  many  faults  to 
be  found.  In  portions  of  Wales  and  of  the  centre  of 
England,  geography  is  only  fairly  satisfactory.  The 
pupils  are  weak  in  questions  of  latitude  and  longitude  ; 
they  do  not  learn  intelligently  ;  because,  most  probably, 
they  are  taught  mechanically  and  unintelligently.  It  should 
be  within  the  power  of  every  teacher  by  the  use  of  an  ordi- 
nary globe  to  make  this  portion  of  the  subject  intelligible  to 
any  ordinary  boy  ;  but  few  lads  could  understand  a  lesson 
on  meridians  and  parallels,  given  by  a  teacher  who  does 
not  use  a  globe  at  all.  And  yet  this  is  quite  common  ! 
Hence  it  is  that  the  map-drawing  is  very  poor,  even 
where  there  is  a  good  knowledge  of  geographical 
facts.  Many  of  the  inspectors  complain  of  lack  of  globes, 
maps,  &c.  ;  and  even  where  there  is  abundance  of  general 
maps,  there  are  no  local  maps,  a  want  which  is  very 
widely  felt.  In  this  respect  our  Board  of  Education 
might  take  a  lesson  from  the  Commissioners  of  National 
Education  in  Ireland,  who  have  published  local  maps, 
and  require  each  pupil  in  the  higher  grades  to  know, 
in  addition  to  general  geography,  the  map  of  his 
neighbourhood. 


282 


NATURE 


\yan.  19,  I 


NOTES. 
Last  week  we  printed  an  article  advocating  the  claims 
of  M.  Giard  to  the  new  Chair  of  Darwinism  in  Paris. 
We  are  now  informed  that  the  appointment  will  certainly  be 
offered  to  M.  Giard,  and  that,  if  he  declines  it,  it  will  be  offered 
to  Prof  Perrier,  of  the  Paris  Museum  of  Natural  History.  It  is 
generally  desired  that  the  Chair  s-hould  be  connected  with  the 
Faculty  of  Sciences  in  the  Sorbonne.  M.  Liard,  the  Director 
of  Superior  Instruction,  in  the  Department  of  Public  Instruction, 
is  favourable  to  the  whole  scheme,  and  hopes  are  expressed 
that  the  lectures  may  be  begun  in  the  course  of  two  or  three 
months. 

Mr.  G.  J.  Romanes  has  been  elected  Fullerian  Professor  of 
Physiology  at  the  Royal  Institution.  He  intends  to  devote  all 
the  three  years  of  his  professorship  to  one  continuous  course  of 
lectures  on  "  Before  and  after  Darwin."  This  year's  course — 
"Before  Darwin" — will  be  an  historical  survey  of  the  progress 
of  scientific  thought  and  discovery  in  biology  from  the  earliest 
times  till  the  publication  of  "The  Origin  of  Species."  Next 
year's  course  will  be  "On  the  Evidence  of  Organic  Evolution," 
and  the  third  year's  "  On  the  Factors  of  Organic  Evolution." 

On  Saturday,  the  21st  inst.,  at  three  o'clock.  Lord  Rayleigh 
will  deliver,  at  the  Royal  Institution,  the  first  of  a  course  of 
seven  lectures  on  Experimental  Optics.  The  remaining  lectures 
of  the  course  will  be  given  at  the  same  hour  on  the  following 
Saturdays. 

The  annual  general  meeting  of  the  Anthropological  Insti- 
tute of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland  will  .take  place  on  Tues- 
day, the  24th  inst.,  at  8  o'clock  p.m.  precisely,  Mr.  Francis 
Galton,  F.R.  S.,  President,  in  the  chair.  The  following  will  be 
the  order  of  business  : — Confirmation  of  the  minutes  ;  appoint- 
ment of  scrutineers  of  the  ballot  ;  Treasurer's  financial  state- 
ment ;  report  of  Council  for  1887  ;  the  Presidential  Address  ; 
report  of  scrutineers  ;  and  election  of  Council  for  1888. 

Dr.  H.  Lloyd  Snape  has  been  elected  to  fill  the  Chair  of 
Chemistry  at  University  College,  Aberystwi';h,  rendered  vacant 
by  the  death  of  Prof.  Ilampidge.  The  new  Professor  acted  for 
three  sessions  as  Demonstrator  of  Chemistry  at  University  Col- 
lege, Liverpool.  Afterwards  he  studied  at  the  Universities  of 
Berlin  and  Gottingen  under  the  direction  of  Profs.  Hofmann 
and  V.  Meyer  respectively.  On  his  return  to  England  he  was 
appointed  Director  of  the  Department  of  Pure  and  Applied 
Chemistry  in  the  Manchester  Technical  School. 

We  regret  to  announce  the  death  of  Mr.  Hayden,  the  well- 
known  American  geologist.     He  died  on  December  22  last. 

Mr.  Andrew  Garrett,  an  eminent  American  conchologist, 
died  at  his  residence  on  the  island  of  Huahine,  Society  Group, 
South  Seas,  on  November  i  last,  in  his  sixty-fifth  year. 

The  Meteorological  Council  has  recently  published  Part  III. 
of  the  Daily  Synchronous  Weather  Charts  of  the  North  Atlantic 
and  the  adjacent  continents.  Parts  I.  and  II.  were  respectively 
noticed  in  Nature,  vol.  xxxv.  p.  469,  and  vol.  xxxvi.  p.  178. 
The  part  just  issued,  dealing  with  the  period  from  February  15 
to  May  24,  1883,  comprises  the  weather  for  the  end  of  the 
winter  and  the  early  spring.  The  charts  show  clearly  how  very 
different  are  the  conditions  which  exist  over  the  Atlantic  in  the 
winter  from  those  which  exist  in  the  spring.  The  ea^  ly  charts 
contain  numerous  instances  of  storm=;,  and  the  barometrical 
disturbances  which  accompany  them  embrace  a  large  part 
of  the  North  Atlantic  Ocean.  An  interesting  case  of 
storm  development  is  shown  over  the  American  Lakes  on 
February  19.  The  disturbance  subsequently  traversed  the 
Atlantic,  and  passed  about  800  miles  to  the  north  of  Scotland  on 
the  24th,  causing  a  moderate  gale  in  the  north  of  our  islands, 


and  gales  generally  over  the  north-west  of  Europe.  There  is 
another  instance  of  rapid  storm  development  off  Florida  on 
April  2,  the  disturbance  growing  into  a  severe  humcane  when 
south  of  Newfoundland  on  the  4th.  A  storm-area  was  formed 
off  the  north-west  coast  of  Africa  on  February  20.  This  seems 
to  have  originated  in  an  intensifying  of  the  northerly  wind  on 
the  eastern  side  of  the  Atlantic  anticyclone.  On  the  22nd  the 
storm  was  fully  developed,  and  the  cyclonic  circulation  was 
complete,  the  barometer  registering  as  low  as  29-6  inches. 
This  disturbance  travelled  to  the  westward  as  far  as  the  middle 
of  the  Atlantic.  On  the  25th  it  was  clearly  dying  out,  but  on 
the  26th  it  apparently  gained  fresh  life,  and  on  February  28  and 
March  i  it  was  causing  a  gale  close  to  the  American  coast,  and 
to  the  south  of  Newfoundland  and  Nova  Scotia.  It  afterwards 
travelled  eastwards,  skirting  to  the  north-west  of  Iceland  on 
March  3,  and  finally  struck  the  north-west  coast  of  Norway  on 
the  4th.  There  is  also  a  case  of  a  double-headed  depression 
travelling  to  the  eastward  across  the  Atlantic  between  March  25 
and  31.  These  charts  show  very  clearly  the  explanation  of 
the  cold  northerly  and  north-easterly  winds  experienced  over 
England  during  the  spring,  the  isobaric  lines  indicating  a  general 
extension  of  the  Atlantic  high  pressure  over  our  islands  at  ihis 
season. 

At  the  meeting  of  the  French'_MeteoroIogical  Society  on  the 
.6th  ult.  a  paper  by  M.  Andre,  Director  of  the  Lyons  Ob- 
servatory, on  the  influence  of  altitude  on  temperature,  was  read. 
The  observations  were  made  in  the  environs  of  Lyons  in  the 
years  1S81-84.  The  mean  diurnal  range  was  18" '5  F.  at  the 
lowest  station  (574  feet),  and  12^-3  at  the  highest  station  (2050 
feet).  M.  Poincare  submitted  a  table  showing  the  relation 
between  the  barometric  movements  at  lat.  40°  and  10°  N.,  and 
the  phases  of  the  moon.  M.  Renon  made  a  communication  on 
the  observation  of  fog.  He  considered  the  present  method  of 
observation  to  be  defective,  as  the  observer  could  only  note 
what  exists  around  him  ;  a  knowledge  of  the  conditions  at  a 
considerable  height  above  him  was  necessary,  to  arrive  at  satis- 
factory conclusions.  This  desideratum  was  also  urged  by  M. 
Janssen. 

On  January  3,  snow  fell  in  Christiania  from  a  perfectly  clear 
sky.  After  a  strong  southerly  wind  with  cloudy  weather  in 
the  morning  the  weather  cleared,  but  at  about  noon  it  again 
thickened,  and  snow  and  sleet  fell.  In  the  afternoon  the  sky 
again  became  clear  and  continued  thus,  with  a  storm  blow  ing 
from  the  west.  Just  before  8  p.m.,  however,  thick  clouds  again 
gathered,  the  full  moon  became  obscured,  and  snow  began  to 
fall  heavily.  A  quarter  of  an  hour  later  the  wind  swept  the 
clouds  away,  and  the  sky  became  completely  clear,  with  the 
exception  of  a  few  clouds  in  the  east.  The  stars  shone  brightly, 
and  the  full  moon  illuminated  the  landscape  ;  still  snow  continued 
to  fall  thickly  for  some  ten  minutes.  That  the  snow  could  not 
have  originated  with  the  clouds  in  the  east  is  proved  by  the 
circumstance  that  the  wind  was  westerly.  A  well-known 
meteorologi-t  ascribes  the  phenomenon  to  the  presence  at  a 
certain  elevation  in  the  atmosphere  of  a  very  cold  layer  of  air  in 
which  the  a'  cending,  comparatively  warmer,  air  became  condensed, 
the  moisture  being  thrown  out  in  the  form  of  snow,  but  not  in  suffi- 
cient quantities  to  obscure  the  blue  sky,  the  stars,  and  the  moon. 
The  great  chilling  of  the  layer  of  air  referred  to  may  have  been 
caused  by  the  coldness  of  the  heavy  snow  clouds  which  a  few 
minutes  previottsly  filled  the  atmosphere. 

On  December  24,  at  9.45  p.m.,  a  brilliant  meteor  was  ob- 
served in  the  north-western  sky  at  Orebro,  in  Central  Sweden. 
The  light,  variegated  in  colour,  was  very  intense.  The  meteor 
seemed  to  fall  perpendicularly  to  the  earth  with  a  slow  motion, 
and  dissolved  itself  without  any  report.  On  ^December  25,  at 
about  5   p.m.,  another  meteor,  shining  with  an  intense  bluish- 


Jan.  19,  1888] 


NATURE 


283 


white   light,  was  seen  going   in   a  north-westerly  direction  at 
Kailskogo,  also  in  Central  Sweden. 

Another  important  paper  upon  the  synthesis  of  glucose  is 
communicated  by  Drs.  Emil  Fischer  and  Tafel  to  the  current 
number  of  the  Berichte.  They  have  succeeded  in  artificially 
preparing  glucose  directly  from  glycerine.  It  will  be  rciiiem- 
tjcred  that  this  synthesis  was  first  effected  by  decomposition   of 

lolein  dibromide,  CHjBr  .  CHBr  ,  CHO,  with  baryta  water; 
Jycerine  aldehyde,  CHgOH  .  CHOH  .  CHO,  being  probably 
fust  formed,  and  afterwards  polymerizing  into  glucose.  Hence  it 
miij;ht  be  expected  that  the  same  result  could  be  achieved  by 
direct  oxidation  of  glycerine  to  aldehyde  and  subsequent  con- 
densation by  means  of  alkalies.  This  supposition  ha^  been  com- 
pletely confirmed  by  experiment,  and  the  new  method  is  at  once 
an  easier  and  a  cheaper  one.  A  large  quantity  of  glycerine  was 
first  oxidized  by  means  of  soda  and  bro.nine,  the  temperature 
being  kept  down  to  10°.  The  bromine  readily  dissolved  on 
shaking,  and  the  evolution  of  carbonic  acid  ga;  soon  rendered 
evident  the  progress  of  the  change.  After  half  an  hour  the 
reaction  was  found  to  be  complete  ;  the  liquid  was  then  acidi- 
fied with  hydrochloric  acid  and  a  current  of  sulphur  dioxide 
passed  through  it  until  all  the  bromine  was  reduced.  The 
liquid,  afier  neutralization  with  soda,  was  found  to  contain  a 
large  quantity  of  glycerine  aldehyde.  About  i  per  cent,  more 
soda  was  then  added,  and  the  solution  alio  Ared  to  stand  at  a 
temperature  of  about  o"  for  four  or  five  days.  As  the  pDlymeriza- 
tioa  proceeded,  the  liquid  gradually  lost  the  powar  of  reducing 
alkaline  copper  solutions  in  the  cold,  but,  like  sugar,  rapidly 
reduced  them  on  warming.  In  order  to  isolate  the  sugar  thus 
formed,  the  phenylhydrazine  compound  was  prepared,  as  in  the 
former  experiments,  by  neutralizing  with  acetic  acid  and  adding 
phenylhydrazine  and  sodium  acetate,  heating  six  hours  upon  a 
water-bath.  After  some  time  crystals  of  the  phenylhydrazine 
compounl,  C^gH^jN^O^,  were  deposited,  and  after  purification 
were  found  to  possess  all  the  prjperties  of  the  compound 
obtained  from  acrolein  dibromide  ;  in  fact,  they  were  identical 
with  it.  This  cojipound  crystallizes  in  beautiful  yellow  needles, 
melting  at  217°  j  on  heating  it  with  zinc  dust  and  acetic  acid,  a 
base  is  obtained  which,  by  the  action  of  nitrous  acid  and  subse- 
quent neutralization  with  soda,  yields,  on  evaporation,  syrupy 
glucose  itself.  Not  only  does  this  later  work  of  Drs.  Fischer 
and  Tafel  confirm  their  former  striking  results,  but  it  leaves  the 
subject  in  a  much  more  complete  state,  an  1  furnishes  chemists 
with  a  far  readier  method  of  preparing  artificial  glucose  in  the 
laboratory. 

The  habits  of  a  running  spider  of  Southern  Europe,  Taran- 
tula narbonensis,  Latr.,  studied  by  Herr  Beck,  are  curious.  It 
makes  a  vertical  round  hole  in  the  ground  about  10  inches 
deep,  and  this,  with  a  small  earth  wall  sometimes  made  round 
the  mouth,  is  lined  with  web.  A  little  way  down  is  a  small 
lateral  hole,  into  which  the  spider  shrinks  when  an  animal  falls 
into  the  tube  ;  when  the  animal  has  reached  the  bottom  the  spider 
pounces  on  it.  One  can  readily  te'l  that  a  tube  is  tenanted,  by 
the  bright  phosphorescent  eyes  of  the  spider  turned  upwards. 
In  fight  the  spider  erects  itself  on  its  last  pair  of  legs,  striking 
with  the  others.  The  bite  is  not  fatal  to  man,  but  it  causes 
large  swellings.  The  children  in  Bucharest  angle  for  these 
spiders  by  means  of  an  egg-like  ball  of  kneaded  yellow  wax 
tied  to  a  thread.  This  is  lowered  with  jerks  into  the  hole,  and 
the  spider  fastens  on  it  and  can  be  pulled  out  ;  whereupon  an- 
other thread  is  passed  round  one  of  the  legs,  and  the  animal  is 
played  with. 

Lemmings  are  very  numerous  in  several  valleys  in  Southern 
Norway  this  winter.  In  many  places  the  snow  is  furrowed  for 
miles  by  the  march  of  these  little  animals  on  their  migration 
southwards. 


In  November  last  a  Runic  stone  was  found  at  Haggerstalund, 
in  Sweden.  A  lady  happened  to  notice  a  long  stone  in  the 
proximity  of  a  well-known  Runic  boulder,  and  having  had  it 
turned  found  that  there  was  an  inscription  on  the  other  .side> 
which  has  been  interpreted  thus  : — "  Gdrdar  and  Jorund  raised 
these  stones  after  (in  memory  of)  their  sister's  sons,  Emmund  and 
Ingemund."  The  newly-discovered  stone  is  of  importance,  as 
it  supplements  the  Runic  inscription  of  the  other  stone,  viz.  : — 
"  These  memorial  stones  are  made  after  (in  memory  of)  the  sons 
of  Inga.  She  took  heirloom  after  them,  but  these  brothers  (re- 
ferred to  on  the  other  sto  le)  will  take  heirloom  after  her. 
Gjad's  (?)  brothers  ;  they  died  in  Greece."  The  latter  stone  is 
made  particularly  interesting  by  the  reference  to  the  death  of  the 
two  men  in  Greece. 

Whilst  digging  for  potatoes  late  last  autumn  on  the  Island  of 
Fredoen,  on  the  west  coast  of  Norway,  a  man  unearthed  a  flat 
gold  armlet  with  Runic  inscriptions,  and  bearing  on  the  inside 
the  year  875.  On  the  outside  is  a  large  bright  stone,  but  of 
what  kind  has  not  yet  been  ascertained.  This  island  is  rich  in 
historical  traditions  from  the  Viking  era. 

In  a  late  issue  of  the  Izvestia  of  the  Russian  Geographical 
Society  M.  Krasnoff  makes  some  interesting  remarks  on  the 
antiquities  of  Turkistan.  He  poiuts  oat  that  ii  the  stone 
inscriptions  he  has  seen  in  the  Tiai-Shan  the  men  are  always 
represented  oa  horseback,  armed  with  bows,  arrows,  long  pikes 
with  flags,  and  curved  swords.  Their  dress  is  like  the  present 
khalat  of  the  Mongolians  and  the  Turks.  The  scenes  represented 
mostly  relate  to  hunting,  and  the  men  are  surrounded  by  stags, 
arkhars  (wild  sheep),  foxes,  tigers,  wild  boars,  and  some 
very  big  animal  with  a  thick  hairy  tail,  and  with  tusks  like 
those  of  the  mammoth.  In  the  gorge  of  the  Uzun-su,  M. 
Krasnoff  saw  the  drawing  of  a  camel.  There  are  no  inscriptions 
proper  by  the  side  of  these  drawings  ;  but  plenty  of  wild  sheep, 
like  the  tau-tek  of  our  days,  are  represented  in  files  along 
mountain-paths.  These  drawings  are  very  rapidly  obliterated, 
and  will  soon  disappear.  They  ought  to  be  reproduced  by 
archaeologists. 

The  second  number  of  the  "Bibliographies  of  Indian  Lan- 
guages," by  Jam2s  C.  Pilling,  has  just  been  issued  by  the  U.S. 
Bureau  of  Ethnology.     It  treats  of  the  Siouan  stock. 

A  USEFUL  Catalogue  of  British  Mollusca,  published  by  Mr. 
H.  W.  Marsden,  of  Gloucester,  has  been  sent  to  us.  The 
Catalogue  has  been  compiled  by  Mr.  Charles  Jeffreys,  from 
Jeffreys' "British  Conch ology,"  with  alterations  and  additions 
to  date. 

The  Royal  Botanic  Garden  of  Calcutta  has  just  completed 
the  first  hundred  years  of  its  existence,  having  been  established 
in  the  year  1787.  The  Times  of  India,  in  reviewing  the 
history  of  the  Garden,  points  out  the  many  aivantages  which  it 
has  conferred  on  India.  It  has  practically  established  and  has 
done  wonders  to  promote  the  now  flourishing  tea  industry  of 
India.  The  directors  were  the  first  to  introduce  potato-growing 
in  that  country,  and  they  imported  the  quinine-yielding  cin- 
chonas from  South  America,  and  thus  took  the  first  step  towards 
the  establishment  of  what  is  now  one  of  the  most  successful 
Indian  industries.  Besides  these  great  successes,  India  owes  to 
that  establishment,  the  Times  of  India  thinks,  almost  all  the 
efforts  that  have  been  made  to  improve  the  q.iality  of  Indian 
cotton,  and  to  push  its  sale  in  the  European  markets.  The  best 
sugar-cane  has  been  brought  from  the  West  Indian  Islands,  and 
has  been  planted  in  all  parts  of  the  country  ;  and  flax,  hemp, 
tobacco,  henbane,  vanilla,  coffee,  cocoa,  ipecacuanha,  india- 
rubber,  taoioca,  and  many  other  products  have  been  system- 
atically experimented  on  in  the  Garden.  Nor  has  horticulture 
b^en  neglected  by  the  superintendents,  for  the  presence  in  India 


284 


NA  TURE 


[Jan.  19,  1888 


of  a  large  portion  of  its  exotic  plants  is  due  to  them  ;  and  the 
improved  systems  of  cultivation  are  in  a  great  measure  attributable 
to  their  efforts. 

The  French  Government  has  commissioned  Count  Horace  de 
Choiseul,  a  member  of  the  Chamber  of  Deputies,  to  proceed  on 
a  voyage  of  botanical  research  to  Asia  and  the  United  States. 
He  will  visit  the  Botanical  Gardens  at  Ceylon,Calcutta,  Shanghai, 
Japan,  San  Francisco,  &c.,  to  collect  botanical  specimens  not 
indigenous  to  France. 

The  Royal  Physical  Society,  of  Edinburgh,  seems  to  be  doing 
much  good  work.  At  the  second  meeting  for  the  present 
session.  Sir  William  Turner  in  the  chair,  Mr.  Hoyle  read  a  note 
discussing  the  function  of  the  Laurer-Stieda  canal  in  the 
Trematoda  ;  Mr.  J.  Arthur  Thomson  submitted  an  elaborate 
paper  entitled  "A  Synthetic  Survey  of  the  Influence  of  the 
Environment  upon  the  Organism  "  ;  the  Secretary,  Dr.  Traquair, 
communicated  a  paper  on  an  ornithological  visit  to  the  Ascrib 
Islands,  by  Mr.  John  Swinburne  ;  and  Mr.  Brook  gave  some 
valuable  note?  on  the  marine  Crustacea  of  the  Clyde  Estuary. 

Capt.  Wiggins,  who  successfully  performed  the  sea  voyage 
from  Europe  to  Siberia  last  autumn  in  the  steamer  Pkcenix,  is 
shortly  expected  back  in  this  country.  He  states  that  at  the 
time  of  his  leaving  Yeniseisk,  in  Siberia,  in  October,  the  cold 
varied  from  70°  to  80°  below  zero,  and  that  the  mercury  was 
frozen  in  the  bulb. 

At  the  annual  meeting  and  distribution  of  prizes  at  the  School 
of  Science  and  Art  at  Bromley,  Kent,  on  Tuesday,  Sir  John 
Lubbock  delivered  an  interesting  address  on  technical  education. 
He  referred  to  a  recent  statement  of  Mr.  S.  Smith,  one  of  the 
Commissioners  on  Technical  Education,  to  the  effect  that  it  was 
not  so  much  the  longer  hours  and  lower  wages  of  Continental 
workmen,  nor  the  tariffs,  which  were  having  such  objectionable 
influence  on  our  industries,  but  rather,  in  nearly  all  instances,  the 
great  attractiveness  of  the  goods  themselves,  which  had  been 
made  by  workmen  who  had  received  special  training  in  schools. 
Sir  John  Lubbock  went  on  to  say  that  if  we  had  spent  one  tithe 
of  the  treasure  which  we  sent  abroad  every  year  to  buy  the  pro- 
duce of  the  skill  of  other  countries  on  the  training  of  our  own 
people,  we  should  have  been  making  these  goods  ourselves  and 
shipping  them  to  the  East  and  West  and  to  every  country  under 
the  sun-  We  were  constantly  crying  out  for  new  markets,  while 
there  was  a  new  market  in  every  house  in  the  country.  We  were 
apt,  indeed,  to  forget  how  much  we  owed  to  science,  because 
many  things  which  were  in  reality  scientific  discoveries  had 
become  so  familiar  to  us  that  we  looked  upon  them  almost  as  a 
matter  of  course.  The  electric  light  was  still  felt  to  be  a  triumph 
of  science,  but  we  forgot  sometimes  that  the  common  candle  was 
the  result  of  a  whole  series  of  chemical  discoveries.  The 
Chinese  were  said  to  have  examined  candidates  for  the  army 
until  lately  in  the  use  of  bows  and  arrows.  We  saw  the 
absurdity  of  this  ;  but  we  were  not  free  from  the  same  error  our- 
selves. 

In  a  recent  Consular  Report  there  is  a  complete  description 
of  the  Technical  University  of  Belgium,  which  was  founded  in 
1852,  as  well  as  a  general  sketch  of  the  system  of  commercial 
and  technical  training  prevailing  in  that  country.  Formerly  the 
education  in  Belgian  public  schools  {Athenees)  was  in  the  main 
classical,  but  in  recent  years  a  section  prnfessionelle  (commercial 
and  scientific)  has  been  added,  and  now  takes  its  place  as  an 
integral  portion  of  the  public-school  system.  Here  youths 
intended  for  commercial  pursuits,  from  the  fourth  class  upwards, 
receive  special  instruction,  and  then  pass  on  to  the  Institui,  or 
University,  where  the  course  lasts  two  years.  The  number  of 
pupils  is  150,  a  number  which  would  be  largely  increased,  but 
for  the  difficult  entrance  examination,  the  inability  of   many 


parents  to  keep  their  children  so  long  at  school,  and  the  prevail- 
ing idea  that  a  youth  intended  for  commerce  cannot  enter  a 
counting-house  too  soon.  The  course  at  the  Institut  includes, 
besides  languages,  book-keeping,  and  the  ordinary  practical 
work  of  a  merchant's  office,  a  technical  description  of  the 
ordinary  articles  of  commerce,  political  economy  and  statistics, 
commercial  and  industrial  geography,  maritime  and  Customs' 
legislation,  and  the  building  and  fitting  out  of  ships.  The  fees 
range  from  ;^ii  for  the  second  year  at  the  Institut,  \o  £1  <^s. 
per  annum  at  the  public  schools.  An  extensive  commercial 
museum,  a  chemical  laboratory,  and  a  commercial  library  are 
attached  to  the  Institut.  At  the  end  of  the  course  diplomas  are 
given  to  the  successful  candidates,  entitling  them  to  the  degree 
of  Licencie  en  Sciences  Comnierciales.  The  rules,  and  a  pro- 
gramme and  syllabus  of  the  lectures,  are  appended  to  the  Report. 
The  new  language,  Volapiik,  has  been  added  as  an  experiment, 
mainly,  it  would  appear,  because  of  its  possible  utility  for 
telegraphic  communication. 

The  additions  to  the  Zoological  Society's  Gardens  during  the 
past  week  include  a  Mexican  Deer  {Cariacus  niexicanus  9  )  from 
the  Island  of  Dominica,  presented  by  Mr.  George  Anderson  ;  a 
Water  Rail  {Ralhis  aquatic  us),  British,  presented  by  Mr. 
G.  J.  Payne  ;  two  Black-headed  Gulls  {Larus  ridibundus), 
British,  presented  by  Mr.  Thomas  A.  Cotton  ;  two  Common 
Peafowls  (Pavo  cnstatus<}  <})  fi^om  India,  presented  thy  Mr. 
Richard  Hunter  ;  sixty-six  Skylarks  (Alauda  arvensis),  British, 
purchased  ;  an  Egyptian  Vulture  {Neophron  percnopterus)  from 
North  Africa,  received  in  exchange. 


OUR  ASTRONOMICAL  COLUMN. 

The  Mauritius  Observatory. — Thereport  of  the  Director 
of  the  Royal  Alfred  Observatory,  Mauritius,  for  1886,  shows 
that  the  activity  of  the  institution  continues  to  be  exhibited  in 
two  directions,  viz.  meteorological  and  magnetic  observations, 
and  the  photographic  record  of  the  state  of  the  solar  surface. 
The  meteorological  observations  have  been  extended  during  the 
year  by  the  addition  to  the  daily  routine,  of  observations  of  the 
duration  of  bright  sunshine,  commenced  October  i,  of  maximum 
and  minimum  dry  and  wet  bulb  thermometers  in  screens,  begun 
November  i,  and  of  an  earth  thermometer  at  10  feet  below  the 
surface  of  the  ground,  begun  the  same  day,  the  necessary  instru- 
ments having  been  received  from  England.  The  year  1886  was  a 
particularly  dry  one,  the  rainfall  being  below  the  average  in 
every  month,  and  the  annual  fall  the  smallest  on  record.  No 
hurricane  visited  the  colony  ;  indeed,  the  last  took  place  so  long 
ago  as  March  21,  1879  ;  but  several  cyclones  occurred  in  the 
Indian  Ocean,  some  of  which  passed  near  the  island,  and  storm 
warnings  were  issued.  Dr.  Meldrum  gives  considerable  im- 
portance in  his  report  to  the  connection  between  the  meteorology 
of  the  island  and  its  health.  It  appears  that  wet  years  give 
specially  high  fever  and  death  rates,  the  greatest  mortality  usually 
following  the  maximum  rainfall  by  about  two  months.  At  the 
same  time  there  has  been  a  persistent  increase  in  the  death  rate  of 
late  years,  which  appears  to  be  independent  of  meteorlogical 
causes. 

The  photoheliograph  was  in  constant  operation,  533  photo- 
graphs having  been  obtained  on  353  days,  but  the  sunspots  were 
much  fewer  and  smaller  than  in  1884  and  1885.  Two  photo- 
graphs were  also  obtained  of  the  solar  eolipse  of  August  29, 
which  commenced  at  Mauritius  a  little  before  sunset. 

OCCULTATIONS  OF  STARS    BY   PLANETS. — The  following  lis 
of  possible  occultations  of  stars  by  planets  is  in  continuation  of 
that  given  in  Nature,  vol.  xxxvii.  p.  234  : — 

P'-«'-  [unabn  in  rT  Star.  Mag.  PI.  -  *,    S- 

h.      m.  ,  m. 

9  Jan.  25... 18  30'o...AOe2  No.  17179  ...8-5 -0-39...  5'o 
9  Z\...\1  30-S...S.D. -21"  No.  4933...9-3-t-o-58...  47 
h  Feb.  5...  II  18  ...D.M. -f-20°No.  2073...9-5-0-88...  108 
h  ■    16...  7  27  ...D.M. -f  20°  No.  2o62...9-5-)-o-38  ..  121 


Jan.  19,  1 888] 


NATURE 


285 


OLiiERs'  Comet. — The  following  ephemeris  for  Berlin  mid- 
night is  in  continuation  of  that  given  in  Nature,  vol.  xxxvii. 
P-  234:- 


1888. 

R.A.                Decl. 

h.     in.     s.           p 

Log  r. 

Log  A. 

Bright- 
ness. 

Ian.  22.. 

.  17  18.29  ...  3  49-6  s.  . 

.  0-2866  .. 

•  0-3932 

..  0-36 

24  • 

•  17  21  39  ••■  4    5'3 

26.. 

.  17  24  44  ...  4  20-4 

.  02958  .. 

.  0-3948  . 

■  0-34 

28.. 

.  17  27  44  ...  4  35-0 

30. 

.  17  30  40  ...  4  492 

.  0-3048  .. 

.  0-3961  . 

•  0-33 

I'eb.    I . 

•  17  33  31  •••  5     30 

3 

.  17  36  17  ...  5  16-3 

■  0-3137  .. 

.  0-3969  . 

.0-31 

5- 

•  17  38  59  •■■  5  29-2 

!■■ 

.  17  41  36  ...  5  417  S.  . 

.  0-3224  . 

•  0-3974  • 

.,  0-30 

The  brig 

itness  on  1887  August  27 

is  taken  as 

unity. 

ASTRONOMICAL  PHENOMENA  FOR  THE 

HEEK   1888  JANUARY  22-28. 

/"pOR  the  reckoning  of  time  the  civil  day,  commencing  at 
^  ■*"  Greenwich  mean  midnight,  counting  the  hours  on  to  24, 
is  here  employed.) 

At  Greenwich  on  fanuary  22 
Sun  rises,  7h.  5Sm. ;  souths,  I2h.  iim.  46-35.  ;  sets,  i6h.  28m.  : 

right   asc.    on   meridian,   2oh.    1 6 -9m.  ;   decl.    19°  44'    S. 

Sidereal  Time  at  Sunset,  oh.  34m. 
Moon  (Full  on  January  28,  23h.)    rises,    ilh.   58m.  ;  souths, 

igh.    8m.;    sets,     2h.    29m.*:     right    asc.   on    meridian, 

3h.  i4-6m. ;  decl.  12°  39'  N. 


Right  asc.  and  declination 

Planet. 

Rises. 

Souths. 

Sets. 

on  meridian. 

h.    m. 

h.    m. 

h.    m. 

h.      m.                0      / 

Mercury . 

8  16  .. 

.    12  24   . 

.    16   32    . 

.    20   29  3    ...    21    II  S. 

Venus. . . . 

5     7  •• 

•     9  15  • 

•    13   23    . 

.    17    19-6    ...    21      7  S. 

Mars 

23  47*.. 

.     5  19  ■ 

.    10   51    , 

.    13  22-8   ...     6  13  S. 

Jupiter.  . 

3  35  •• 

•     7  53  • 

.    12    II     . 

•  15  57*2  ...  19  33  S. 

Saturn . . . 

16  26*.. 

.    0  19  . 

.       8    12    . 

.     8  22-5  ...  19  56  N. 

Uranus  .. 

23  29*.. 

•51- 

■     10    33    . 

.   13    46  ...     6    9  S. 

Xeptune.. 

u  56  .. 

19  35  •• 

■     3  14*- 

.     3  418  ...  17  54  N. 

'  Indicates  that  the  rising  is  that  of  the  preceding  evening  and  the  setting 
I  hat  of  the  following  morning. 

Occultations  of  Stars  by  the  Moon  (visible  at  Greenwich). 

Corresponding 
angles  from  yer- 
Star.  Mag.        Disap.  Reap.        tex  to  right  for 

inverted  image. 

h.    m.  h.    m.  o        o 

I  19  near  approach  51  — 

...  o  36  ...  I  20  ...  178  258 

...  4  57  near  approach  215  — 

...  5  10  near  approach  209  — 


Jan. 


23  •• 
26  .. 
26  .. 
28    . 

Jan. 
22 

23 
24 

28 


/"Tauri 
X'*  Orionis 
68  Orionis 
.  B.A.C.  2683 

h. 


I 
14 
23 

14 


Uranus  stationary. 

Saturn  in  opposition  to  the  Sun. 

Jupiter  in  conjunction  with  and  o^  8'  south 

of  /3^  Scorpii. 
Saturn  in  conjunction  with  and  1°  10'  north 

of  the  Moon. 


Variable  Stars. 


Star. 

U  Cephei     

Algol     

S  Aurigse     

[\.  Canis  Majoris.., 

S  Cancri      

W  Virginis 

R  Camelopardalis., 
5  Librae        

U  Ophiuchi , 

ti  Lyrae 

V  Cygni       

S  Delphini 

V  Cygni       


R.A. 

h.      m. 

o  52-4 

3  0-9 

5  197 

7  I4'5 

8  37-6 

13  20-3 

14  261 
14  55"o 

17  10-9 

18  46-0 
20  37-7 
20  37-9 
20  47-6 


Jan. 


Decl. 

81    16  N. 

40  31  N. 

34     3N. 

16    12  S. 

19  26  N. 

2  48  S. 
84  20  N. 

8    4S. 


I  20  N.  ...     ,, 
and  at  intervals 

33  14  N.  ...  Jan. 
47  45  N.  ...     „ 
16  41  N.  ...     ,, 

34  14  N.  ...     ,, 


S  Cephei 


...  22  25-0  ...  57  SI  N.  ...     ,, 
M  signifies  maximum  ;  m  minimum. 


h. 

25.  21 

23,  20 
28, 

27,  20 

28,  23 
28,  22 

26,  5 

25, 
22,   19 

25,    3 

24,  3 
of    20 

25. 23 

22, 

24, 
22,  20 

25,  20 
28,    O 


20  w 

37  m 

M 

36  m 

52  w 

28  m 

o  m 

M 

51  m 

42  in 

4   VI 

8 

o  m 

M 

M 

40  m 

33  m 

o  tn 


Meteor-  Showers. 
R.A.  Decl. 


Near  i  Ursoe  Majoris  ...   133 

„     <r  Leonis      167 

,,     a  Coronoe  Borealis  236 


48  N. 

5  N.  ...  Very  swift. 
25  N.  ...  January  28. 
swift. 


Ver 


GEOGRAPHICAL  NOTES. 

Dr.  Meyer  has  been  giving  an  account  of  his  ascent  of 
Kilimanjaro  to  the  Berlin  Geographical  Society,  and  from  the 
brief  abstract  which  has  appeared  his  statements  are  not 
quite  consistent  with  those  made  in  his  letter  already  referred 
to.  For  one  thing,  Alpinists  are  doubtful  if  Dr.  Meyer  got  so 
close  to  the  summit  by  a  thousand  feet  as  he  himself  thinks 
he  did  ;  and  moreover,  from  his  own  statements,  his  aneroid 
was  quite  untrustworthy. 

A  SPECIAL  meeting  of  the  Paris  Geographical  Society  was 
held  on  Saturday,  to  welcome  MM.  Bonvalot,  Capus,  and 
Pepin,  who  have  been  journeying  in  Central  Asia.  We  have 
already  on  several  occasions  referred  to  this  journey,  during 
which  the  travellers  crossed  the  Pamir,  but  not  for  the  first 
time,  as  they  themselves  seem  to  believe.  So  far  it  would 
appear  as  if  the  original  results  of  this  expedition  were  of  no 
great  value. 

The  paper  at  Monday's  meeting  of  the  Royal  Geographical 
Society  was  by  a  young  engineer,  Mr.  VV.  J.  Steains,  on  an  ex- 
ploration of  the  Rio  Doce  and  its  northern  tributaries  (Brazil). 
The  Rio  Doce  has  been  in  past  years  a  classical  region  for 
research  in  natural  history,  but  for  many  years  it  has  been 
neglected.  It  flows  through  a  region  that  has  scarcely  been 
touched  by  the  influences  of  civilization,  a  region  which  is  the 
home  of  the  Botocudos,  one  of  the  most  primitive  |)eopIe  on 
the  face  of  the  earth.  The  Rio  Doce  lies  between  parallels 
l9°-2i''  S.  latitude,  and  is  formed  by  several  small  streams 
springing  from  the  eastern  slope  of  an  important  range  of  moun- 
tains known  by  the  name  of  the  Serra  da  Mantiqueira.  This 
range,  running  in  a  north-easterly  direction,  forms  a  portion  of 
the  irregular  "coast-range"  of  Brazil,  and  forms,  so  to  speak, 
the  "retaining  wall  "  of  the  series  of  elevated,  undulating  table- 
lands composing  the  greater  portion  of  Central  and  Southern 
Brazil.  The  total  length  of  the  Rio  Doce  is  a  little  over  450 
miles.  That  portion  of  the  Rio  Doce  basin  lying  east  of  the 
Serra  dos  Aymores  is  a  densely  wooded  lowland,  sloping  gradu- 
ally towards  the  coast  from  an  elevation  of  about  900  feet. 
Near  the  coast  this  plain  resolves  itself  into  a  long  stretch  of 
low  alluvial  groitnd,  studded  for  the  most  part  with  small  shallow 
lakes  that  communicate  with  each  other  by  means  of  long, 
narrow,  winding  streams,  called  "valloes."  The  largest  of 
these  lakes  is  the  Lagoa  Juparana,  which  communicates  with 
the  Doce  some  30  miles  above  its  mouth  by  means  of  a  narrow, 
tortuous,  deep  channel  7  miles  long.  The  lake  is  18  miles 
long,  and  about  2^  miles  broad  at  its  southern  extremity.  It  is 
very  deep,  and  with  the  exception  of  some  low  alluvial  ground 
at  its  northern  and  southern  ends,  is  surrounded  by  high  wooded 
bluffs,  composed  for  the  most  part  of  reddish  clay  overlying  a 
stratum  of  coarse  red  sandstone.  At  the  head  of  the  lake  is  a 
river— the  S.  Jose,  which  rises  in  the  Serra  dos  Aymores,  and 
flows  through  an  unexplored  district,  inhabited  by  wandering 
hordes  of  wild  Botocudo  Indians.  Throughout  the  whole  of 
its  course,  the  S.  Jose  flows  through  dense  forest  abounding  in 
the  much  .sought-after  "  Jacaranda,"  or  rosewood  tree  {Bignonia 
cceruka,  Will. )  The  Botocudos  number  about  7000  people,  and 
among  some  of  the  more  savage  tribes  cannibalism  still  prevails. 
Mr.  Steains  stayed  several  weeks  among  these  people,  and  is 
therefore  able  to  add  something  to  our  knowledge  of  them.  In 
appearance  Mr.  Steains  states,  the  Botocudos  can  scarcely  be 
called  prepossessing.  The  average  height  is  5  feet  4  inches. 
Their  chests  are  very  broad,  and  this  accounts  for  the  facility 
with  which  they  can  bend  their  bows,  which  are  exceedmgly 
strong,  being  made  out  of  the  tough  springy  wood  of  the  Ayn 
or  Brijauba  palm  {Astrocaryuin  Ayri,  Mart.).  The  feet  and 
hands  of  the  Botocudos  are  small  rather  than  delicate,  and  these 
are  in  fair  proportion  to  their  legs  and  arms,  which  are  lean  but 
muscular.  Concerning  the  colour  of  their  skin,  these  Indians 
are  of  all  shades,  some  being  of  a  dark  reddish-brown,  whilst 
others,  and  especially  the  women,  are  quite  light.  With  regard 
to  features,  the  Bjtocudos  struck  Mr.  Steains,  as  they  have  done 


286 


NA  TURE 


\yan.  19,  1888 


others,  as  bearing  a  wonderful  resemblance  to  the  Chinese,  and 
if,  instead  of  wearing  their  hair  cut  round  their  heads  so  as  to 
form  a  kind  of  mop,  they  wore  pigtails,  the  casual  observer 
would  scarcely  be  aisle  to  tell  where  the  difference  lay.  The 
hideous  custom  for  which  the  Botocudos  have  always  been  so 
famous,  viz.  that  of  wearing  huge  lip-  and  ear-ornaments  of 
wood,  is  fast  dying  out,  and  at  the  present  time  is  only  to  be 
met  with  among  some  of  the  older  members  of  the  tribe?,  who 
retain  all  the  habits  and  manners  of  their  primitive  forefathers 
intact.  ' 

The  January  number  of  Fetcrmann  s  Mitteilungen  contains 
a  paper  by  Count  Pfeil,  describing  his  journey  last  summer  in 
East  Africa,  from  Pangani  along  the  Pangani  River,  south  through 
Useguha  to  the  Kingani  River,  and  north  to  Bagamoyo.  Dr. 
Henry  Lange  briefly  describes  the  legion  watered  by  the  Rio 
Tubarao  and  Rio  Ararangua  in  Brazil.  Dr.  H.  Fritsche  con- 
tributes a  series  of  astronomico-geographical  and  magnetic  ob- 
servations at  thirty-one  places  in  North- West  Russia  and  North 
Germany  in  1885-6-7,  and  Mr.  S.  Brooke  gives  a  short  acoimt 
of  an  excursion  he  made  into  the  West  Australian  desert,  starting 
from  Israelite  Bay  on  the  south  coast. 

In  the  January  number  of  the  Scottish  Geographical  Magazine, 
Mr.  John  Murray  publishes  the  final  results  of  his  long  research 
on  the  height  of  the  land  and  the  depth  of  the  ocean.  The 
paper  consists  mainly  of  a  series  of  elaborate  measurements 
giving  the  detailed  data  on  which  he  founds  his  general  con- 
clusions. The  conclusions  to  which  Mr.  Murray  comes  are  of  great 
interest,  but  they  are  too  important  to  be  stated  in  a  note.  The 
mean  height  of  the  land  of  the  globe  he  estimates  at  2252  feet.  He 
finds  that  84  per  cent,  of  the  land  of  the  globe  lies  between  the 
sea-level  and  a  height  of  6000  feet.  The  mean  depth  of  the  ocean 
again  is  14,640  feet.  In  contrast  with  the  land,  only  42  per 
cent,  of  the  waters  of  the  ocean  lie  between  the  surface  and  a 
depth  of  60CO  feet ;  while  56  per  cent,  of  the  ocean  waters  are 
situated  between  depths  of  6000  and  18,000  feet.  The  total 
area  of  the  dry  land  Mr.  Murray  makes  to  be  55,000,000  square 
miles,  while  that  of  the  ocean  is  137,200,000  square  miles.  The 
bulk  of  the  dry  land  above  the  sea  is  23,450,000  cubic  miles,  and 
the  volume  of  the  waters  of  the  ocean  323,800,000  cubic  miles. 
The  amount  of  matter  carried  from  the  land  each  year  in  suspension 
and  solution,  he  estimates  at  37  cubic  miles  ;  it  would  thus  take 
6,340,000  years  to  transport  the  whole  of  the  solid  land  down 
to  the  sea.  Should  the  whole  of  the  solid  land  be  reduced  to 
one  level  under  the  ocean,  then  the  surface  of  the  earth  would 
be  covered  by  an  ocean  with  a  uniform  depth  of  about  two 
miles.  The  volume  of  the  whole  sphere,  IMr.  Murray  estimates 
at  259,850, 117,778  cubic  miles.  With  the  data  now  published 
should  be  compared  Mr.  Murray's  Aberdeen  lecture  (Nature, 
vol.  xxxii.  p.  581).  .^^^.»tv -•.-■•■    -T.' .     ''*H«-'''  ^.5--'^ 

f-  In  the  last  number  of  the  Comptes  rendus  of  the  Paris  Geo- 
graphical Society,  M.  Chaffaujon  gives  a  detailed  narrative  of 
his  recent  journey  up  the  Orinoco.  The  section  of  greatest 
interest  is  that  which  relates  to  the  upper  course  of  the  river, 
M  hich  M.  Chaffaujon  found  to  be  all  wrong  on  existing  maps. 
This  he  has  traced  with  much  care.  He  examined  also  with 
care  the  outlet  of  the  Casiquiare,  by  which  the  river  is  con- 
nected with  the  Rio  Negro  and  the  Amazons.  He  finds  the 
bank  of  the  river  here  to  be  mostly  gravel,  and  in  the  rainy 
season  the  river  coming  down  from  the  mountains  with  consider- 
able force  impinges  against  the  bank,  and  forces  a  passage  out. 
He  states  that  the  place  of  outlet  seems  to  be  shifting  down- 
wards every  year. 


THE  TOTAL  ECLIPSE  OF  THE  MOON, 
JANUARY  iZ. 

A  TOTAL  eclipse  of  the  Moon  offers  some  special  advantages 
-^"^  for  the  exact  determination  of  the  diameter  and  distance 
of  our  satellite.  Observations  of  the  bright  limbs  are  exposed 
to  considerable  errors  from  the  eff"ect  of  irradiation,  and  liable 
to  be  aff"ected  by  personal  habit  in  the  observer.  The  method 
of  occultationshas,  under  ordinary  circumstances,  proved  scarcely 
more  successful,  owing  chiefly  to  the  fact  that  immersion  and 
emersion  so  seldom  take  place  under  similar  conditions.  But 
in  a  total  eclipse  of  the  Moon,  the  disappearances  and  reappear- 
ances occur  at  limbs  under  similar  illumination,  and  since  the 
diminution  of  the  Moon's  light  allows  much  fainter  stars  to  be 
seen  close  to  the  Moon  than  can  usually  be  obsei-ved,  a  much 


greater  number  of  observations  can  be  made  than  under  ordinary 
conditions,  and  the  eff'ects  of  local  irregularities  of  the  Moon's 
circumference  can  be  eliminated  by  observations  made  at  a 
great  number  of  points.  If,  then,  as  many  Observatories  as 
possible  would  combine  to  observe  the  occultations  of  the 
small  s-tars  passed  over  by  the  Moon  during  its  eclipse,  the 
labours  of  a  few  hours  would  give  materials  for  a  better  deter- 
mination of  its  diameter  and  parallax  than  could  otherwise  be 
obtained  from  the  observations  of  many  years.  In  view 
of  these  advantages,  and  noting  too  how  hitherto  they  had 
been  neglected  by  astronomers.  Dr.  DoUen,  of  Pulkowa,  pub- 
lished a  paper  in  the  Astronoinische  Nachrichten,  No.  2615, 
previous  to  the  eclipse  of  October  4,  1884,  in  which  he  gave  a 
catalogue  of  n6  stars  which  would  be  occulted  during  that 
eclipse,  and  begged  for  the  co  operation  of  as  many  observers 
as  possible.  Unfortunately,  the  weather  in  many  places  was 
very  unfavourable,  and  even  where  the  sky  was  clear  an  unfore- 
seen hindrance  to  observation  was  experienced  in  the  unusual 
faintness  of  the  eclipsed  Moon.  The  part  of  the  sky,  too, 
through  which  it  was  passing  was  bare  of  stars  above  the  9th 
and  loth  magnitudes.  Still  the  results  were  sufficiently  success- 
ful to  encourage  Prof.  Struve  and  Dr.  DoUen  to  repeat  the 
attempt,  especially  as  under  several  aspects  the  approaching 
eclipse  of  January  28  presents  more  favourable  conditions  than 
that  of  October  4,  1884  :  the  magnitude  of  the  eclipse  will  be 
somewhat  larger,  and  the  duration  of  the  total  phase  a  few 
minutes  longer.  Accordingly,  Dr.  Dollen  has  drawn  up  a 
catalogue  of  300  stars  which  will  be  occulted,  whilst  Prof. 
Struve  has  computed  by  a  graphical  method  the  times  of  dis- 
appearance and  reappearance,  and  the  position-angles  of  the 
occulted  stars,  for  120  Observatories,  which  he  has  invited  to  co- 
operate with  him  in  the  work  of  observation.  The  experience 
gained  during  the  1884  eclipse  has  led  Dr.  Dollen  to  include  only 
those  stars  occulted  during  the  total  phase  or  immediately  before 
and  after,  but  he  has  thought  it  well  to  give  stars  down  to 
the  nth  magnitude. 

Of  the  300  stars  given  in  Dr.  Dollen's  catalogue,  the 
majority  of  course  will  not  be  seen  to  be  occulted  from  any 
part  of  this  country.  The  following,  however,  may  be  observed 
here  : — 


No. 


R.A. 


Decl. 


No. 


Decl. 


87.. 

.130  25-18.. 

.17  26-95  N. 

164.. 

•131     3-87. 

.17  26-81  N 

91.. 

.         27-98.. 

•       35-12 

165.. 

3-96.. 

•       25-64 

93-- 

28-70.. 

•       35-57 

166.. 

4-48.. 

.       32-90 

97- 

29-14.. 

.      45-66 

172.. 

626.. 

17-96 

98.. 

29-53.. 

•       3764 

180.. 

10-35.. 

.       3280 

100.. 

30-08.. 

•       38-14 

181.. 

12-61.. 

•       38-34 

102.. 

30-18.. 

•       23-95 

190.. 

16-58.. 

12-54 

108.. 

34-21.. 

•      44-27 

192.. 

18-52.. 

•       44-17 

no.. 

35-90.. 

30-12 

194.. 

19-26.. 

•       38-34 

112.. 

36-5I- 

•       47-21 

197- 

21-11.. 

19-06 

114.. 

•130  37"43-- 

.17  19-16  N. 

198  . 

.131  21-33.. 

.17  26-69  N 

115.. 

37'44" 

.       47-07 

201.. 

23-15.. 

•       37-63 

116.. 

.         37-89.. 

•       48-54 

207.. 

24-96.. 

26-65 

124.. 

40-69.. 

•       49-34 

209.. 

25-71.. 

•       22-85 

125.. 

40-76.. 

.       18-56 

210.. 

26-ir.. 

.       30-07 

126.. 

41-76.. 

.       30-46 

212.. 

28-48.. 

.       17-66 

128.. 

43 'SO.. 

.       34-10 

216.. 

30-76.. 

•       17-96 

130.. 

45-17.. 

•       45-27 

219.. 

31-77.. 

8-64 

I34-- 

48-24.. 

42-16 

221.. 

32-45.. 

•       35-77 

136.. 

49-50.. 

•       45-96 

223.. 

32-58.. 

26-14 

138.. 

.130  50-ro.. 

.17  26-35  N. 

224.. 

•131  33-05.- 

.17  32-50  N 

142.. 

.         54-18.. 

.       18-36 

225.. 

33-65- 

22-31 

144- 

54-71.. 

•       35-17 

226.. 

33-71.. 

.       13-84 

148.. 

56-91.. 

.       38-34 

233-. 

37-74.. 

9-24 

150.. 

57-53.. 

.         22-75 

236.. 

39-74.. 

21-26 

152.. 

57-97- 

.    28-93 

237.. 

40-51.. 

.       30-82 

I53-- 

59-04,. 

.     22-95 

242.. 

43-43.. 

17-36 

155- 

.         59-88.. 

.     15-96 

247  . 

.        48-32. 

•       24-55 

156.. 

.131     0-48.. 

.    36-32 

248.. 

48-44- 

11-24 

157- 

0-7S  . 

.     39-91 

251- 

49-29.. 

9-44 

The  positions  given  are  the  apparent  positions  for  January  28, 
1888,  and  are  expressed  for  R.A.,  as  well  as  declination,  in 
degrees,  minutes  of  a  degree,  and  hundredths  of  a  minute. 

The  following  are  the  times  of  disappearance  and  reappearance 
as  furnished  by  Prof.  Struve  for  the  stars  which  will  be  occulted 


Jan.  19.  1888] 


NATURE 


287 


by  the  Moon  at  Greenwich.  The  angles  ixi  ounted  from  the 
true  North  through  the  true  East  as  in  observations  of  double 
stars,  &c.  : — 


Disappearances.               \ 

Reappearances. 

Star's 

Angle. 

G.M.T.    ! 

Stir's 

An^le. 

tJ.MT. 

No. 

0 

h.      m.       1 

No. 

0 

h. 

m. 

14H 

...       74 

...      10  23-I     1 

87 

...   243 

...      10 

22-3 

152 

...     107 

25-8    1 

97 

..  316 

236 

156 

...      80 

30-5    I 

124 

...   351 

29-3 

Beginning  of  total  phase 

116 

...     339 

30-2 

150 

...     131 

...     10  32-3 

102 

.••     234 

302 

157 

...      65 

...          33-8 

Be 

ginning  ol 

total  phase 

»S3 

...     128 

34-8 

91 

...     277 

...     10 

323 

142 

...     154 

371 

112 

...     330 

32  7 

166 

...      89 

387 

93 

...     278 

337 

164 

...     Ill 

397 

i'5 

...     331 

346 

•65 

...     116 

41*1    i 

98 

...     2S6 

34-6 

180 

...       86 

520    1 

114 

...     211 

35-1 

15s 

...     163 

55-3 

1:0 

...     288 

35*4 

172 

...     145 

58-8    1 

108 

...     314 

357 

181 

...       63 

...     II     1-3    1 

125 

...     211 

42-5 

198 

...       lOJ 

17-6    1 

no 

...     264 

SO' I 

194 

...      57 

i8-6    1 

130 

...     328 

53-1 

197 

...     127 

24-4 

136 

..     337 

57  9 

207 

...      97 

25-5 

126 

...     269 

...     II 

37 

201 

...      56 

278 

134 

...     317 

64 

210 

84 

2S-I 

128 

...     283 

6-6 

209 

...     no 

29-4 

138 

...     260 

22'I 

190 

...     164 

342 

142 

...     228 

22 '3 

212 

...     127 

4f2 

144 

...     294 

29-8 

223 

...      94 

42-9 

148 

...     308 

302 

216 

...     124 

45'3 

155 

...     221 

31-5 

224 

...      70 

46-4 

157 

...     318 

34-5 

225 

...     107 

469 

1 5-5 

...     252 

38-1 

221 

...      56 

49'4 

156 

...     .303 

403 

226 

...     138 

58-2 

152 

...     275 

40*6 

236 

...     los 

...     12    08 

153 

...     254 

41-8 

^37 

...      70 

35 

166 

...     294 

52-5 

End  of  total  phase 

164 

...     273 

54'4 

242 

...     116 

...     12  ii'9 

172 

. . .     240 

54-5 

219 

...     168 

I2-I 

165 

...     26S 

547 

233 

...     155 

17-4 

181 

...     322 

597 

247 

...       87 

191 

180 

...     2y8 

...     12    4-8 

End  of  total  phase 

190 

...     222 

...     12  io'9 

194 

...     328 

1 1 -2 

201 

-.     330 

19-4 

The   following   table   gives 

the   magnitude   of  the   ( 

)cculte( 

stars  : 

— 

Star's 

Mag. 

Star's        -Mag. 

Star's 

Mag. 

Star's 

Mag. 

No. 

No. 

No. 

No. 

lOO 

9-5 

150          10 

181 

10 

219 

10 

loS 

93 

153           I^ 

197 

10 

221 

10 

126 

9"5 

157          94 

198 

9-5 

225 

10 

128 

9-5 

164         8"o 

201 

87 

226 

10 

136 

9*5 

165         94 

209 

10 

236 

9-5 

142 

10 

166         9'5 

210 

9-5 

247 

9-2 

148 

10 

180         9-5 

216 

10 

The  remaining  stars  are  all  of  the  eleventh  magnitude. 

It  would  be  advisable  for  intending  observers  to  make  a 
rough  map  of  the  stars  they  are  to  observe,  and  to  acquaint 
themselves  as  completely  as  they  are  able  with  their  configura- 
tion. The  observations  should  be  rehearsed  as  far  as  possible 
on  previous  evenings,  that  the  necessary  quickness  in  changing 
from  one  point  of  the  Moon's  limb  to  another  may  be  acquired, 
and  a  fair  acquaintance  made  with  the  sequence  of  the  settings. 
It  will  be  well  probably,  to  somewhat  reduce  the  list  of  stars  for 
observation  ;  since  some  of  the  phenomena  follow  each  other  s ) 
closely  that  some  must  be  lost,  and  if  the  work  of  selection  is 
left  for  the  actual  time  of  observation  probably  more  stars  will 
be  lost  than  necessity  demands,  and  a  risk  of  confusion  and 
mistake  will  be  incurred.  The  suggestion  has  also  been  made 
that  the  eye-piece  to  be  employed  should  not  be  placed  as  usual 
in  the  centre  of  the  field,  but  be  made  to  revolve  round  it  at  the 
distance  of  the  Moon's  radius.  The  Moon  would  then  be  brought 
to  the  centre  of  the  field,  and  kept  there  throughout  the  entire 
series  of  observatio:is,  and  only  the  eye-piece  would  be  moved. 
A  fairly  high  power  will  probably  be  found  the  best  for  the  work. 


UNIVERSITY    AND    EDUCATIONAL 
INTELLIGENCE. 

Cambridge. — Among  the  lectures  for  the  present  term 
we   note   the  following: — 

Chemistry :  Prof.  Dewar,  on  Organic  Chemistry ;  Mr. 
Pattison  Muir  (Caius),  on  Chemical  Affinity ;  Mr.  Heycock 
(King's),  on  Chemical  Philosophy  for  Natural  Sciences  Tripos, 
Part  I.  ;  Mr.  Robinson,  on  Agricultural  Chemistry. 

Physics :  Prof.  Stokes,  Physical  Optics  ;  Prof.  J.  J.  Thom- 
son, Properties  of  Matter  ;  Mr.  Shaw  (Emmanuel),  Thermo- 
dynamics and  Radiation. 

Geology  :  Prof.  Hughes,  Geology  of  a  District  to  be  visited 
at  Easter  ;'  Mr.  Marr,  Principles  of  Geology. 

Botany  :  Mr.  Gardiner,  Advanced  Anatomy  of  Plants  ;  Mr. 
Potter,  Advanced  Systematic  Botany. 

Zoology  :  Prof.  Newton,  Geographical  Distribution  of 
Vertebrates ;  Mr.  Sedgwick,  Morphology  of  Mollucsa  and 
Echinodermata  ;  Mr.  Gordon,  Morphology  of  Amniota,  recent 
and  extinct. 

Physiology  :  Dr.  Lea,  Chemical  Physiology  ;  Mr.  Langley, 
Advanced  Histology  and  Physiology  ;  Dr.  Gaskell,  Advanced 
Physiology  of  Vascular  System. 

Prof.  Ray  lectures  on  Pathology,  and  has  practical  classes ; 
Prof.  Latham  on  the  Physiological  Actions  and  Therapeutical 
Uses  of  Remedies ;  Dr.  Anningson  gives  demonstrations  in 
Practical  Hygiene. 

In  Mathematics  the  following  are  among  the  lectures : — 
Prof.  Cayley,  Analytical  Geometry ;  Mr.  Forsyth,  Modem 
Algebra,  symbolical  methods  and  ternary  forms  ;  Dr.  Ferrers, 
Elliptic  Functions  ;  Dr.  Besant,  Integral  Calculus,  Definite 
Integrals,  Mean  Value  and  Pro'iability,  Calculus  of  Variations, 
and  Differential  Equations ;  Mr.  Ball,  History  of  Mathematics 
up  to  1637  ;  Mr.  Mollison,  Discontinuous  Functions  and  Con- 
duction of  Heat  ;  Mr.  Whitehead,  Grassmann's  Ausdeh- 
nungslehre,  with  special  reference  to  its  applications. 

SOCIETIES  AND  ACADEMIES. 
London. 

Royal  Society,  December  22,  1887. — "  The  Early  Stages 
in  the  Development  of  Antedon  rosacea."  By  H.  Bury,  B.A., 
F.L.S.,  Scholar  of  Trinity  College,  Cambridge.  Communicated 
by  P.  Herbert  Carpenter,  D.Sc,  F.R.S.,  F.L.S. 

In  the  orientation  of  the  larva,  J.  Barrois'  suggestion  {Comptes 
rendus,  November  9,  1886)  has  been  adopted,  viz.  that  the  stalk 
of  the  Pentacrinoid  represents  the  prasoral  lobe  of  other  Echino- 
derms.  Besides  the  right  and  left  body-cavities,  an  anterior 
unpaired  body-cavity  is  developed  (distinct  from  the  hydrocele), 
and  opens  to  the  exterior  by  the  water-pore  in  the  free-swimming 
larva. 

A  larval  nervous  system  is  developed,  but  is  lost  after  fixation. 

The  vestibule  of  the  fixed  larva  (Cystid)  is  formed  by  invagina- 
tion, as  described  by  Barrois  {Comptes  rendus,  May  24,  1886). 

The  water-tube  (stone  canal),  by  opening  into  the  anterior 
body-cavity  (now  very  small),  places  the  water-vascular  ring  in 
indirect  communication  with  the  exterior. 

The  anus  opens  in  the  same  interradius  as  the  water-pore. 

In  the  skeleton,  besides  th2  parts  already  known,  three  under- 
basals  are  present,  which  are  of  great  phylogeijetic  interest. 

Geological  Society,  December  21,  1887. — Prof.  J.  W. 
Judd,  F.R.  S.,  President,  in  the  chair. — The  following  com- 
munications were  read : — On  the  correlation  of  some  of  the 
Eocene  strata  in  the  Tertiary  basins  of  England,  Belgium,  and 
the  north  of  France,  by  Prof.  Joseph  Prestwich,  F.  R.  S.  Al- 
though the  relations  of  the  several  series  have  been  for  the  most 
part  established,  there  are  still  differences  of  opinion  as  to  the 
exact  relation  of  the  Sable  de  Bracheux  and  of  the  Soissonnais  to 
the  English  series ;  of  the  Oldhaven  Beds  to  the  Woolwich 
series  ;  and  of  the  London  Clay  and  Lower  and  Upper  Bag- 
shots  to  equivalent  strata  in  the  Paris  basin.  The  author 
referred  to  the  usual  classification  of  the  Eocene  series,  and 
proceeded  to  deal  with  each  group  in  ascending  order.  The 
Calcaire  de  Mons  is  not  represented  in  England,  but  may  be 
in  France  by  the  Strontianiferous  marls  of  Meudon.  It  con- 
tains a  rich  molluscan  fauna,  including  300  species  of  Gastero- 
pods,  many  of  which,  are  peculiar,  but  all  the  genera  are 
Tertiary  forms.  The  Heersian  are  beds  of  local  occurrence, 
and  the  author  sees  no  good  reas  m  for  separating  them  from 
the  Lower  Landenian  or  Thanet  Sands.  He  gave  reasons  for 
excluding   the   Sands   of  Bracheux  from  this   group.       Out 


288 


NATURE 


\yan.  19,  I 


twenty-eight  Pegwell  Bay  species,  ten  are  cojamon  to  the 
Lower  Landenian,  and  five  to  the  Bracheux  Sands,  which 
present  a  marked  analogy  with  the  Woolwich  series.  These 
Sands  of  Bracheux  are  replaced  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Paris 
by  red  and  mottled  clays.  Out  of  forty-five  species  at  Beauvais, 
only  six  are  common  to  the  Thanet  Sands,  and  ten  to  the 
Woolwich  series.  Out  of  seventy-five  species  in  the  Woolwich 
and  Reading  Beds,  nineteen  occur  in  the  Bracheux  Beds,  if 
we  add  to  these  latter  the  sands  of  Chalon-sur-Vesles. 
Respecting  the  Basement  Bed  of  the  London  Clay  (Oldhaven 
Beds  in  part),  the  author  would  exclude  the  Sundridge  and 
Charlton  fossils,  which  should  be  placed  on  a  level  with  the 
Upper  Marine  Beds  of  Woolwich.  He  allowed  that  the  former 
were  deposited  on  an  eroded  surface,  but  this  involves  no  real 
imconformity,  whilst  the  palasontological  evidence  is  in  favour 
of  this  view,  since,  out  of  fifty-seven  species  in  the  Sundridge 
and  associated  beds,  only  sixteen  are  common  to  the  London 
Clay.  He  therefore  objected  to  the  quadruple  division.  Either 
the  Oldhaven  should  go  with  the  Woolwich  or  with  the 
Basement  Bed.  He  admitted  that  the  term  "  Basement  Bed" 
is  objectionable,  and  preferred  Mr.  Whitaker's  term  for  the 
series,  as  he  would  limit  it.  The  Lower  Bagshot  Sands  the 
author  would  call  "London  Sands,"  whose  Belgian  equivalent 
is  the  Upper  Ypresian,  and  the  French  the  Sands  of  Cuise-de  la- 
Motte,  forming  the  uppermost  series  of  the  Lower  Eocene.  A 
group  of  fossils  has  been  discovered  in  the  Upper  Ypresian 
sands  of  Belgium,  which  leaves  no  doubt  of  their  being  of  Lower 
Eocene  age,  and  consequently  the  Lower  Bagshots  must  t)e 
placed  upon  the  same  horizon.  There  is  no  separating  line  of 
erosion  between  the  Lohdon  Clay  and  the  Lower  Bagshots,  the 
upper  part  of  the  former  is  sandy,  and  the  lower  part  of  the  latter 
frequently  argillaceous.  Similarly  no  definite  line  can  be  drawn 
between  the  Upper  and  Lower  Ypresian  ;  but  in  both  countries 
this  series  is  separated  from  overlying  beds  by  a  well-marked 
line  of  erosion.  So  also  in  France  the  base  of  the  Calcaire 
Grossier  (Bracklesham  Beds)  is  a  pebbly  greensand  resting  on  i 
an  eroded  surface  of  the  Sands  of  the  Cuise-de-la-Motte.  In 
Belgium,  in  Whitecliff  Bay,  and  in  the  Bagshot  district  the 
Upper  Eocene  rests  upon  an  eroded  surface  of  the  Lower 
Eocene.  The  reading  of  this  paper  was  followed  by  a  discussion 
in  which  the  President,  Mr.  Whitaker,  Dr.  Evans,  Dr.  Geikie, 
and  others  took  part. — On  the  Cambrian  and  associated  rocks 
in  North- West  Caernarvonshire,  by  Prof.  J.  F.  Blake. 

PARIS. 

Academy  of  Sciences,  January  9. — M.  Janssen,  President, 
in  the  chair. — Remarks  on  M.  Cornu's  last  note  regarding  the 
synchronizing  of  time-pieces,  by  M.  C.  Wolf,  The  author  points 
out  that  M.  Cornu  has  misunderstood  the  language  of  the  English 
physicist,  Mr.  Everett,  whose  theory  is  shown  to  be  perfectly 
applicable  to  the  Verite  method  of  synchronization.  The 
efficiency  of  this  system  has  received  a  remarkable  confirmation 
from  the  circumstances  attending  an  accident  by  which  the 
synchronizing  apparatus  was  recently  put  out  of  order  in  the 
city  of  Paris. — Researches  on  ruthenium,  by  MM.  H.  Debray 
and  A.  Joly.  In  continuation  of  previous  studies  of  this  rare 
metal,  the  authors  here  deal  with  its  oxidation  and  the  dissocia- 
tion of  its  bioxide.  From  these  researches  it  appears  that 
hyperruthenic  acid  must  now  be  added  to  the  list  of  compounds 
which  are  easily  destroyed  by  heat,  although  obtained  at  such 
high  temperatures' that  their  existence  was  long  considered  pro- 
blematical. Their  formation  at  these  temperatures  is  analogous 
to  the  dissociation  of  bodies  that  were  supposed  to  be  incapable 
of  decomposition  before  H.  Sainte-Claire's  discovery. — Re- 
searches on  the  breath  of  man  and  other  mammals,  by  MM. 
Brown- Sequard  and  d'Arsonval,  These  researches  make  it 
evident  that  the  air  exhaled  by  mammals,  even  in  a  healthy  state, 
contains  a  very  powerful  toxic  element,  to  which  should  probably 
if  not  certainly  be  attributed  the  bad  effects  caused  by  breathing 
a  close  atmosphere. — Variation  of  temperature  of  a  condensed 
or  expanded  vapour  while  preserving  the  same  quantity  of  heat, 
by  M.  Ch.  Antoine.  An  easy  method  is  given  for  calculating  the 
final  tension  that  results  from  the  variation  of  a  given  temperature, 
and  the  final  temperature  that  results  from  a  given  degree  of 
condensation  or  expansion.' — On  the  influence  of  temperature  on 
the  magnetic  state  of  iron,  by  M.  P.  Ledeboer.  Although  it 
has  long  been  known  that  a  magnet  raised  to  a  red  heat  loses  its 
magnetic  properties,  no  successful  attempt  had  hitherto  been 
made  to  determine  by  direct  measurement  the  actual  degree  of 
temperature  at  which  iron  ceases  to  be  a  magnetic  body.  The 
experiments  here  described  now  show  that  iron  remains  magnetic 


up  to  650°  C. ,  after  which  a  rapid  variation  is  observed  in  its 
magnetic  condition.  At  750°  the  magnetic  properties  are  scarcely 
perceptible,  and  at  770°  they  disappear  altogether,  returning  in 
the  same  way  as  the  metal  cools  down.  This  presents  a  remark- 
able analogy  to  the  conclusions  of  !M.  Pionchon,  who,  in  his 
recent  paper  on  the  specific  heat  of  iron  at  high  temperatures, 
has  shown  that  this  metal  undergoes  a  sudden  change  of  state 
between  660°  and  720°. — On  the  present  value  of  the  magnetic 
elements  at  the  Observatory  of  the  Pare  Saint-Maur,  by  M.  Th. 
Moureaux.  The  absolute  values,  as  deduced  from  the  mean  of 
horary  observations  recorded  by  the  magnetograph  are  as  fol- 
low :  declination,  15°  52''!;  inclination,  65°  14''7  ;  horizontal 
component,  o '  19480  ;  vertical,  0"42245  ;  total  force,  0'4652O; 
longitude  of  the  Observatory,  0°  9'  23"  E.  of  Paris  ;  N.  lat., 
48°  48'  34". — On  the  employment  of  sulphureted  hydrogen  for 
purifying  the  salts  of  cobalt  and  nickel,  by  M.  H.  Baubigny. 
The  experiments  here  described  clearly  show  that  from  a  mix- 
ture of  the  salts  of  these  two  metals  it  is  impossible  to  obtain  a 
pure  sulphuret  either  of  nickel  or  of  cobalt  by  the  action  of  sul- 
phureted hydrogen.  Dellfs'  statements  regarding  the  action  of 
hydrogen  on  the  salts  of  the  heavy  metals  are  thits  shown  to  be 
groundless.' — On  a  new  method  of  quantitative  analysis  for  the 
nitrites,  by  M.  A.  Vivier.  This  method  consists  in  using  the 
reaction  discovered  by  Millon  for  the  analysis  of  urea,  but  with 
absorption  of  carbonic  acid  and  measurement  of  the  nitrogen 
liberated  in  the  process. 


BOOKS,  PAMPHLETS,  and  SERIALS  RECEIVED. 

A  Treatise  on  Algebra :  Charles  Smith  (Macmillan). — The  Nervous 
System  and  the  Mind  :  C.  Mercier  (Macmillan). — Reports  on  the  Mining 
Industries  of  New  Zealand,  1887  (Wellington). — The  lithic  of  Freethought : 
K.  Pearson  (Unwin). — Year-book  of  Pharmacy,  1887  (Churchill). — An  Ele- 
mentary Text-book  of  Physiology  :  J.  M'Gregor  Robertson  (Blackie). — 
Bergens  Museums  Aarsberetning  for  1886  (Griegs,  Bergen). — Zoological 
Record,  vol.  23,  1886  (Gurney  and  Jackson). — A  Course  of  Lectures  on 
Electricity  :  G.  Forbes  (Longmans). — Report  on  Indian  Fibres  and  Fibrous 
Substances  (Spon). 

CONTENTS.  PAGE 

The  Teaching  of  Elementary  Chemistry 265 

Chinese  Civilization 26S 

The  Method  of  Creation 270 

Our  Book  Shelf  :— 

Langley  and  Phillips  :"  The  Harpur  Euclid  "      .    .    .  271 
Hartley  :    "A  Course  of   Quantitative  Analysis  for 

Students" 271 

Letters  to  the  Editor  : — 

"  A  Conspiracy  of  Silence." — Prof.  John  W.  Judd, 

F.R.S 272 

On   the   Constant    P    in    Observations  of  Terrestrial 
Magnetism. — Prof.      Wm.      Harkness  ;      Prof. 

Arthur  W.  Rucker,  F.R.S 272 

The  Mist-Bow.— Albert  Bonus;     Thomas  Kay; 

C.  O.  Budd 273 

Atmospheric  Effects  at  Sunset. — Charles  Croft     .    .  f  273 

Newton's  "  Principia." — Prof.  A.  Stoletow      .    .    .  273 

Meteors. — W.  F.  Denning ;  Prof,  Charles  Carpmael  273 

The  Electrification  of  the  Air. — C.  Michie  Smith    .  274 

Wind  Force  at  Sea. — Capt.  David  Wilson- Barker  274 
A    Troublesome    Parasite  of    a    Brittle-Starfish. — ^J. 

Walter  Fewkes 274 

Raised  Beaches  versus  High-Level  Beaches. — A.  R. 

Hunt 275 

Vegetation  and  Moonlight.— D.  E.  Hutchins    ...  275 

Centre  of  Water  Pressure. — George  M.  Minchin     .  275 

A  New  Magnetic  Survey  of  France. — T.  M 275 

Timber,  and  some  of  its  Diseases.    V.     {Illustrated.') 

By  Prof.  H.  Marshall  Ward 275 

Science  in  Elementary  Schools 279 

Notes 282 

Our  Astronomical  Column : — 

The  Mauritius  Observatory 284 

Occultations  of  Stars  by  Planets 284 

Olbers' Comet 285 

Astronomical     Phenomena     for     the     Week     1888 

January  22-28 285 

Geographical  Notes 285 

The  Total  Eclipse  of  the  Moon,  January  28   ...    .  286 

University  and  Educational  Intelligence 287 

Societies  and  Academies 287 

Books,  Pamphlets,  and  Serials  Received 288 


NA  TURE 


289 


THURSDAY,  JANUARY  26,   1888. 


ODIUM  MEDICUM. 

NO  one  will  deny  the  truth  of  the  saying,  "  All  men  are 
mortal,"  but  very  few  have  any  definite  feeling  that 
it  applies  to  them  personally  so  long  as  they  are  in  the 
possession  of  health  and^strength.  Almost  everyone,  how- 
ever, Jias  either  suffered  at  a  former  time,  is  suffering 
now,  or  is  afraid  of  suffering  at  some  future  time,  from 
ailments  of  some  sort  ;  and  therefore  the  treatifient  of 
disease  has  a  personal  interest  for  everyone.  On  this 
account  the  discussions  which  have  been  going  on  for 
about  a  month  in  the  Times  regarding  homoeopathy  have 
attracted  a  good  deal  of  attention  ;  but  it  is  difficult  for 
lay  readers  to  understand  the  merits  of  the  discussion 
thoroughly  unless  they  know  something  about  the 
"  pathies "  generally.  The  fundamental  idea  of  the 
"  pathies  "  is  that  the  body  does  not  readily  tolerate  more 
than  one  diseased  process  at  the  same  time,  and  therefore 
one  morbid  condition  may  be  driven  out  by  inducing 
another. 

The  nucleus  of  our  present  medicine  may  be  said  to 
consist  of  the  accumulated  experience  in  the  observation 
and  treatment  of  disease  possessed  by  the  priests  of  Cos, 
and  recorded  by  Hippocrates,  who  is  justly  regarded  as 
the  father  of  medicine.  His  treatment  was  based  upon 
empiricism,  and  was  not  governed  by  any  absolute  rule,  for, 
although  he  stated  that  in  general  diseases  are  cured  by 
their  contraries,  he  also  allowed  that  disease  might  some- 
times be  relieved  by  medicines  which  produced  similar 
symptoms,  and  mentioned  that  under  certain  circum- 
stances purgatives  will  bind  the  bowels,  astringents  will 
loosen  them,  and  substances  which  cause  cough  and 
strangury  will  also  cure  them. 

The  principle  that  contraries  are  cured  by  contraries, 
e.g.  that  constipation  is  cured  by  purgatives,  attained  so 
much  importance  under  Galen  and  his  followers,  that  the 
other  principle  of  like  being  cured  by  like  was  nearly  lost 
sight  of,  and  so  the  antipathic  school  had  for  a  long  time 
the  preponderance.  But  the  use  of  evacuants,  which 
formed  a  large  portion  of  the  practice  of  Hippocrates  and 
of  medical  practice  down  to  the  present  day,  could  not 
always  be  brought  under  the  head  of  antipathy,  and  so  it 
came  to  be  admitted  that  one  abnormal  condition  in  the 
body  might  be  relieved  by  inducing  another,  which  was 
neither  of  the  same  kind  as  itself,  nor  of  an  opposite  kind, 
but  was  simply  of  a  different  nature,  and  this  is  the  allo- 
pathic form  of  treatment.  As  an  example  of  this  we  may 
take  the  fact  that  a  pain  in  the  head  may  be  cured  by  a 
medicine  which  does  not  act  on  the  head  at  all,  but  upon 
the  bowels. 

The  antipathic  and  the  allopathic  systems  of  medicine 
were  in  vogue  in  the  time  of  Hahnemann,  and  their  im- 
perfections were  very  evident  to  a  man  of  his  mental 
power  and  acuteness.  He  saw  clearly  that  the  enormous 
doses  which  were  given  in  his  time  were  often  productive 
of  great  harm,  and  in  experimenting  with  smaller  doses 
he  found  that  his  results  were  better.  He  also  found, 
what  had  been  noted  before  by  Hippocrates,  that  he 
obtained  curative  effects  from  small  doses  of  remedies 
which  in  large  doses  produced  symptoms  similar  to  those 
Vol.  XXXVII. — No.  952. 


of  the  disease.  In  the  recognition  of  this  fact  Hahne- 
mann agreed  with  Hippocrates  ;  but,  while  the  father  of 
medicine,  testing  everything  by  experiment  and  relying 
simply  on  the  result  of  experience,  regarded  the  rule 
"  simtlta  similibus  curantur"  as  only  of  partial  applica- 
tion, Hahnemann  converted  it  into  a  universal  rule.  He 
began  at  first  by  relying  on  experiment,  and  spoke  of  pure 
experience  as  the  "  only  infallible  oracle  of  medicine," 
but  he  afterwards  quitted  this  sure  ground,  and  committed 
himself  unreservedly  to  a  belief  in  his  theoretical  opinions, 
whether  supported  by  facts  or  not,  and  said  in  regard  to 
his  doses  that  the  maxim  as  to  the  very  smallest  being  the 
best  is  "  not  to  be  refuted  by  any  experience  in  the  world.' 
The  essence  of  his  system  of  homoeopathy  consisted  in 
the  universal  application  of  the  rule  regarding  the  similar 
action  of  the  drug  to  that  of  the  disease,  and  in  the  small- 
ness  of  the  dose. 

Some  modern  homoeopathists  are  inclined  to  regard  the 
minute  dose  as  not  essential  to  homoeopathy,  but  Hahne- 
mann says  :  "The  appropriation  of  the  medicine  to  any 
given  case  of  disease  does  not  depend  solely  upon  the 
circumstance  of  its  being  perfectly  homoeopathic,  but 
also  upon  the  minute  quantity  of  the  dose  in  which  it  is 
administered."  The  extent  to  which  he  carried  the  dilu- 
tion of  his  medicines  was  extraordinary,  and  he  imagined 
that  the  more  they  were  diluted  the  more  potent  did  they 
become.  Thus  he  says  in  his  "  Materia  Medica  Pura  " 
(Dr.  Dudgeon's  translation)  that  the  curative  power  of 
aconite  is  marvellous  when  it  is  given  "in  the  dose  of  a 
thousandth  part  of  a  drop  of  the  decillionth  development 
of  power."  But  even  this  astoundingly  minute  dose  was  un- 
necessarily strong  in  some  cases,  in  which  he  thought  "  a 
single  momentary  olfaction  at  a  phial  containing  a  globule 
the  size  of  a  mustard-seed,  moistened  with  the  decillionth 
potency  of  aconite,  is  quite  sufficient."  But  it  is  difiicult  for 
those  who  have  not  studied  the  action  of  potent  drugs  like 
aconite  to  form  any  definite  judgment  regarding  their  effect 
in  large  and  small  doses  ;  so  that  it  may  be  worth  while  to 
give  his  views  regarding  vegetable  charcoal,  a  substance 
about  which  everyone  can  form  an  opinion.  Most  people 
will  be  surprised  to  hear  that  Hahnemann  gives  no  fewer 
than  720  symptoms  as  being  caused  by  a  few  grains  of 
vegetable  charcoal  diluted  a  million-fold  with  milk  sugar. 
These  symptoms  are  of  the  most  varying  nature,  from, 
aching  of  the  corns  to  headache,  palpitation,  and  rheu- 
matism, with  sometimes  a  peevish  temper,  and  at  other 
times  an  excessively  cheerful  one.  The  variety  and 
severity  of  these  symptoms  clearly  show  that  they  were 
not  due  to  the  vegetable  charcoal  at  all,  but  would  have 
occurred  whether  the  charcoal  had  been  taken  or  not. 
But  the  most  remarkable  instance  of  a  fallacy  in  Hahne- 
mann's conclusions  appears  in  his  famous  experiment  on 
the  action  of  cinchona  bark  in  producing  ague,  which  has 
been  regarded  by  homoeopathists  as  one  of  the  most 
important  proofs  of  the  truth  of  the  system.  Hahnemann, 
at  one  time  of  his  life,  had  suffered  from  ague,  as  we 
learn  from  Ameke's  "  History  of  Homoeopathy,"  but  he 
had  probably  been  free  from  it  for  some  time  before  he 
made  his  experiment  with  cinchona.  It  is  well  known 
that  persons  who  have  once  suffered  from  ague  are  apt  to 
have  it  return  when  their  digestion  is  disturbed,  or  when 
they  are  subject  to  depressing  influences.  The  dose  of 
powdered  cinchona  bark  which  Hahnemann  took  was 

O 


290 


NATURE 


\ya71.  26,  I 


very  large,  and  similar  doses  have  produced  in  other 
people  vomiting  and  gastro-intestinal  irritation.  In 
Hahnemann  it  produced  symptoms  of  ague,  but  instead 
of  concluding  that  the  cinchona  had  simply  brought  back 
an  attack  of  his  old  enemy,  by  acting  as  an  irritant  to  his 
stomach,  he  concluded  that  cinchona  bark  had  a  specific 
power  to  produce  ague.  Others  who  have  tried  the  ex- 
periment, and  who  have  not  had  ague  before,have  naturally 
failed. 

Hahnemann's  system  was  greatly  ridiculed  and  opposed 
both  during  his  life  and  since,  and  yet,  in  spite  of  its 
absurdities  in  regard  to  dose,  it  has  a  number  of  adher- 
ents. The  reasons  of  this  are  perhaps  not  very  hard  to 
find.  For  instead  of  homoeopathic  medicines  being 
disagreeable  to  the  patient,  as  those  of  regular  practi- 
tioners too  often  are,  they  are  given  in  a  form  which  is 
rather  pleasant  than  otherwise,  and  Hahnemann's  rules 
of  diet  and  regimen  were  very  different  from  those  fol- 
lowed by  regular  practitioners  of  his  time.  While  they 
were  apt  to  consider  that  anything  that  seemed  agreeable 
to  the  patient  was  dangerous  and  to  be  forbidden,  Hahne- 
mann, placing  full  reliance  on  the  influence  of  his  in- 
finitesimal doses,  allowed  the  desire  of  the  patient  for 
food  and  drink  to  be  gratified  within  proper  limits,  and 
the  temperature  of  the  chamber  as  well  as  the  quantity 
of  the  bed-clothes  to  be  regulated  according  to  the  wishes 
of  the  patient.  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  the  attention 
given  by  Hahnemann  and  his  followers  to  diet  and  regi- 
men have  been  of  great  service,  not  only  to  the  patients 
they  have  treated,  but  to  the  whole  medical  profession. 
It  is  obvious  that  such  a  system  as  Hahnemann's — gratify- 
ing the  desires  of  the  patient  so  far  as  it  was  judicious, 
giving  remedies  in  such  minute  doses  as  could  at  all 
events  do  no  harm,  and  at  the  same  time  encouraging  the 
patientwith  the  positive  assurance  that  the  infinitesimal 
doses  were  of  the  utmost  potency  to  effect  a  cure — had  a  great 
advantage  over  the  system  of  allopathy.  This  advantage 
was  to  a  certain  extent  shared  by  antipathy,  inasmuch  as 
both  it  and  homoeopathy  acted  on  a  definite  plan,  and 
chose  their  drugs  according  to  what  they  supposed  to  be 
fixed  laws. 

Although  so  far  behind  the  other  two  in  some  respects, 
allopathy  had  this  great  advantage  over  them,  that  it 
depended  simply  on  the  results  of  experiment ;  and  al- 
though it  might  be  influenced,  and  was  influenced  at 
times,  by  prevailing  fashions,  its  followers  were  still 
searching  after  truth,  while  the  others  falsely  supposed 
they  had  already  found  it.  With  the  development  of 
pathology  and  a  truer  insight  into  the  nature  of  disease, 
the  term  allopathy  has  fallen  to  a  great  extent  into 
disuse,  and  most  of  what  we  might  term  the  orthodox 
practitioners  of  the  present  day  object  to  range  them- 
selves under  any  "pathy"  whatever,  but  aim  at  a  rational 
practice  founded  on  the  one  hand  upon  the  know- 
ledge of  the  nature  of  disease,  and  on  the  other  of 
the  action  of  remedies.  Where  these  are  insufficient  to 
guide  them,  they  fall  back  simply  upon  empiricism ; 
expecting,  however,  that  before  long,  wider  knowledge 
may  increase  their  power  to  cure  their  patients.  Their 
power  is  no  doubt  very  greatly  on  the  increase  ;  and  we 
have  only  to  look  at  the  fact  that  within  the  last  itw  years 
they  have  been  able  by  the  use  of  substances  belonging  to 
the  aromatic  series  of  chemical  compounds  to  regulate 


the  temperature  of  their  patients,  so  that  whereas 
formerly  physicians  were  obliged  to  stand  by  idly 
while  their  patients  died  of  high  fever,  they  can  now 
prevent  the  temperature  from  rising  too  high  with  almost 
perfect  certainty,  and  thus  save  their  patients'  lives. 
Every  day  fresh  contributions  are  being  made  both  to 
the  physician's  knowledge  of  the  nature  of  disease  and 
his  power  to  modify  it  or  prevent  it. 

Yet  still  the  regular  physician  is  but  a  seeker  after 
truth,  and  as  yet  no  infallible  rule  by  which  to  select  his 
medicines  is  known  to  him.  He  cannot  lay  down  with 
dogmatism  that  the  medicine  which  he  is  about  to  ad- 
minister is  the  only  one  or  the  very  best  one  that  can 
possibly  be  given,  as  a  homoeopath  might  do.  He  is 
therefore  to  a  certain  extent  at  a  disadvantage  as  com- 
pared with  the  homoeopath,  especially  in  the  treatment 
of  those  cases  where  the  disease  is  not  extremely  severe, 
and  where  the  effect  upon  the  mind  of  the  patient 
counts  for  as  much  or  more  than  the  action  of  the 
medicine  itself.  The  want  of  a  definite  rule  on  the 
one  hand  affords  an  opportunity  for  the  homoeopath 
to  sneer  at  the  regular  practitioner,  while  at  the  same 
time  he  complains  that  the  regular  practitioner  refuses  to 
have  any  dealings  with  him.  But  there  seems  to  be  no 
other  course  open  to  the  regular  practitioner,  for  he 
considers  that  the  homoeopath  must  do  one  of  two  things  : 
he  either  believes  in  homoeopathy,  or  he  does  not.  If  he 
believes  in  homoeopathy  as  founded  by  Hahnemann,  and 
prescribes  for  his  patients  infinitesimal  doses  with  a 
conviction  that  he  is  actually  modifying  the  disease 
from  which  they  suffer,  the  regular  practitioner  regards 
him  as  a  fool ;  while  he  would  apply  a  still  stronger  term 
to  the  man  who  does  not  believe  in  Hahnemann's  system, 
and  uses  powerful  drugs  in  large  doses,  but  nevertheless 
professes  to  treat  his  patients  homoeopathically.  It  is  as 
useless  for  a  regular  practitioner  to  treat  a  patient  along 
with  a  believer  in  homoeopathy  as  it  is  for  a  modern 
chemist  to  undertake  a  joint  research  with  a  believer  in 
phlogiston  ;  and  therefore  the  regular  practitioner  refuses 
to  meet  him  in  consultation  so  long  as  he  holds  homoeo- 
pathic doctrines.  But  if  the  homoeopath  gives  up  his 
belief  in  infinitesimal  doses,  and  in  the  universal  appH- 
cation  of  the  rule  "  similia  similibus  curantur,"  he  has 
given  up  the  essentials  of  homoeopathy,  and  has  no  more 
title  to  the  name  of  homoeopath  than  Hippocrates  had. 
If  he  has  given  up  the  thing  he  should  give  up  the  name 
and  join  the  ranks  of  orthodoxy,  but  if  he  still  retains 
the  name  for  the  sake  of  gain  he  can  hardly  expect  to  be 
welcomed  by  the  orthodox  part  of  the  medical  profession. 
It  is  very  unfortunate  that  the  "  odium  medicutn"  should 
exist,  but  the  homoeopaths  seem  more  to  blame  for  it 
than  the  followers  of  rational  medicine. 

DARWINISM  AND  ETHICS. 
The  Ethical  Import  of  Darwinism.      By  Jacob  Gould 

Schurman,  M.A.,  D.Sc,  Sage  Professor  of  Philosophy 

in     Cornell     University.       (London  :     Williams    and 

Norgate,  1888.) 
Morality  and   Utility.      By  George  Payne    Best,  B.A., 

M.B.     (London  :  Triibner  and  Co.,  1887.) 

WE  will  consider  these  two  little  books  together,  as 
in  some  measure  the  latter,  although  earlier  in 
publication,  answers  the  former. 


ya7i.  26,  1888] 


NATURE 


291 


More  than  half  of  Prof.  Schurman's  essay  (which  alto- 
gether extends  to  but  abDut  250  small  octavo  pages)  is  occu- 
pied with  a  preliminary  discussion  of  Darwinian  principles 
/^^-r  j't',  or  without  special  reference  to  ethic-;.  Here  his 
object  is  to  argue  in  favour  of  " teleological  variation" 
along  "beneficial"  or  "predetermined"  lines — support- 
ing this  argument  in  the  usual  way  by  denying  that 
natural  selection  is  a  cause  of  organic  change.  Natural 
selection  can  only  act  on  the  materials  supplied  to  it  by 
variation  :  it  does  not  itself  create  these  materials,  and 
therefore  leaves  where  it  was  before,  the  question  as  to 
the  origin  of  the  fittest.  This  argument  always  appears 
to  us  transparently  fallacious ;  but,  as  our  object  at  pre- 
sent is  to  consider  what  Prof.  Schurman  has  to  say  on 
"  the  ethical  import  of  Darwinism,"  we  will  not  occupy 
space  by  discussing  the  weaker  half  of  his  work.  In 
ethics,  however,  he  is  strong ;  and,  in  our  opinion,  has 
produced  one  of  the  best  defences  of  the  intuitional  side 
which  has  appeared  since  the  publication  of  the  "  Descent 
of  Man." 

He  begins  by  pointing  out  the  distinction  between  the 
utilitarianism  of  Bentham  and  of  Darwin — viz.  the  dif- 
ference between  "  pleasure-giving  and  power-giving,"  or 
hedonism  and  life-serving.  Next,  he  provisionally  allows 
that  the  Darwinian  theory  furnishes  a  proximate  or 
natural  explanation  of  the  "  innateness,  immutability, 
and  universality  of  moral  conceptions."  He  also  allows 
that,  at  all  events  to  a  large  extent,  this  theory  is  able  to 
explain  the  authoritativeness  of  conscience.  But,  having 
thus  frankly  conceded  all  that  the  Darwinist  has  to 
demand,  he  turns  upon  him  as  follows  :  — 

"Is  it  forgotten  that,  even  if  goodness  be  an  end  in 
itself — the  sole  end  worth  living  for^it  still  remains  true 
that  honesty  is  the  best  policy,  that  honest  acts  are  the 
most  advantageous  acts,  and  that  they  will  accordingly 
be  preserved  through  natural  selection  in  the  struggle  for 
existence?  All  that  natural  selection  requires  is  that 
something  shall  be  useful ;  what  else  it  viay  be,  what 
other  predicates  it  may  have,  natural  selection  knows 
not  and  seeks  not.  Be  virtue  a  proximate  or  an  ultimate 
end,  natural  selection  tells  us  it  will  be  preserved  and 
perpetuated  if  it  be  useful  ;  and  it  tells  us  no  more.  It 
is,  accordingly,  a  gratuitous  assumption  which  our  ex- 
ponents of  evolutionary  ethics  make,  when  they  decline 
to  allow  more  than  a  merely  relative  value  to  morality." 

The  first  thing  to  notice  about  this  position  is,  that  the 
Darwinian,  qud  Darwinian,  has  nothing  to  do  with  it. 
All  that  the  Darwinian,  as  such,  undertakes  to  show  is, 
that  conscience  and  the  moral  sense,  in  all  its  protean 
forms,  admit  of  being  explained  as  proximately  due  to 
natural  causes.  Whether  or  not  these  natural  causes 
are  themselves  the  results  of  a  final  cause,  intelligent  and 
moral — this  is  a  question  which  Darwinism  leaves  the 
ethical  philosophers  to  wrangle  about. 

But  now,  suppose  that  a  man  is  not  only  a  Darwinian, 
but  also  an  ethical  philosopher,  what  is  he  to  make  of 
I  Prof.  Schurman's  conclusion  that  "it  is  a  gratuitous 
assumption  which  our  exponents  of  evolutionary  ethics 
m  ike,  when  they  decline  to  allow  more  than  a  merely 
relative  value  to  morality"?  Surely  such  a  man  must 
feel  that  the  burden  of  proof  here  lies  with  the  intuitionists. 
It  is  they  who  affirm  a  supernatural  quality  of  the  moral 
sense,  over  and  above  the  natural  origin  of  it  which  (as 
agreed)  the  Darwinian  has  explained ;  therefore  it  is  for 


them  to  show  that  their  "  assumption  "  of  the  absolute 
value  of  morality  is  other  than  "gratuitous."  This  burden 
Prof.  Schurman  seeks  to  discharge  as  follows  : — 

"  In  opposition  to  this  mechanical  theory  of  conscience, 
we  hold  that  it  is  an  ultimate  function  of  the  mind,  and 
that  in  germ,  as  in  full  fruition,  it  must  be  regarded,  not 
as  an  action,  but  as  an  ideal  of  action.  .  .  .  This  view  of 
the  subject  may  be  affiliated  to  Darwinism  as  readily  as 
the  other.  For  an  abiding  ideal  of  action  is,  to  say  the 
least,  quite  as  beneficial  as  a  chance  action  ;  and  wher- 
ever there  is  an  advantage,  there  natural  selection  may 
operate." 

Now,  without  question,  "  an  ideal  of  action  is  quite  as 
beneficial  as  a  chance  action  "  ;  but  is  it  not  evident  that 
the  Professor  is  here  proving  too  much  ?  The  more  he 
can  show  that  "an  ideal  of  action"  admits  of  being 
developed  in  the  race  by  natural  causes'on  account  of  its 
utility  to  the  race,  the  more  is  he  playing  into  the  hands 
of  his  opponents,  so  long  as  they  do  not  agree  to  assume 
with  him  that  morality  is  of  any  absolute  or  ultra-human 
signification.  But  it  is  precisely  this  assumption  which 
he  is -required  to  justify;  and  the  above  attempt  to 
discharge  his  burden  of  proof,  far  from  making "  in 
opposition  to  the  mechanical  theory  of  conscience,"  is 
merely  a  re-statement  of  that  theory, //«i'  his  original 
assumption. 

Mr.  Best  is  not  nearly  so  matured  a  thinker  upon 
ethical  problems,  and  yet  upon  this  important  matter  he 
displays  a  clearer  vision  than  Prof.  Schurman.  He 
shows  that  the  intuitive  (or  instinctive)  side  of  conscience 
is  everywhere  an  "  ideal  of  action  "  ;  but  he  also  shows 
that  where  it  stands  alone,  or  without  reasoned  percep- 
tions of  utility,  it  is  everywhere  an  ideal  impossible  to 
realize.  With  considerable  originality  and  success,  he 
argues  that  the  moral  ideal,  in  all  phases  of  its  develop- 
ment, is  essentially  irrational,  inasmuch  as  it  could  only 
realize  itself  completely  in  a  population  all  the  members 
of  which  "  are  equal,  asexual,  and  immortal."  He  then 
goes  on  to  ask  : — 

"  Suppose  such  an  idea  should  become  actually 
operant,  and  endeavour  to  realize  itself  in  thought, 
or  in  action,  in  this  world  of  inequality,  sexuality,  birth 
and  death,  what  kind  of  phenomenon  might  we  expect  to 
arise  from  the  conflict  between  idea  and  fact  ?  Might  we 
not  expect  to  find  in  those  in  whom  the  moral  intuitions 
were  best  developed  a  constant  protest  against  things  as 
they  are?  Might  we  not  expect  to  find  a  hankering  after 
equality?  Might  we  not  expect  to  find  some,  in  reaction 
against  that  inequality  which,  in  the  form  of  wealth, 
obtrudes  itself  before  their  eyes,  take  refuge  in  voluntary 
poverty  ;  might  we  not  expect  others  to  endeavour  by 
force  or  contrivance  to  bring  about  the  reign  of  equality  ? 
Might  we  not  expect  the  dim  picture  of  an  asexual  world 
to  make  men  revolt  against  sex  and  sexual  relations,  and 
cry  up  celibacy  as  the  holiest  condition  possible  ?"  &c. 

Thus,  then,  the  moral  ideal  is  more  or  less  out  of  joint 
with  actual  fact ;  and  although  it  is  easy  enough  to 
understand  why  such  should  be  the  case  if  it  is  but  of 
relative  significance — or  of  no  further  meaning  than  that 
which  arises  from  its  utility  to  the  race — we  cannot  so 
well  understand  why  such  should  be  the  case  if  it  be  of 
absolute  significance.  And,  if  we  extend  our  view  beyond 
the  human  race,  we  are  met  by  a  similar  difficulty.  Not 
only  man,  but  the  whole  creation,  groans  in  pain  and 
travail — that  is  to  say,  the  unmoral  as  well  as  the  moral ; 


292 


NA  TURE 


{Jan.  26,  I 


and,  therefore,  the  creatures  whose  pain  and  travail  can- 
not'possibly  serve  any  moral  purpose.  Yet  the  moral 
sense  of  man,  in  its  most  "  intuitive ''  or  least  rational 
form,  is  outraged  even  by  the  practice  of  vivisection  with 
a  view  to  an  ultimate  amelioration  of  sentient  life. 

Our  object  in  saying  this  much  is  to  show  that  Prof. 
Schurman  does  not  appear  to  have  perceived  the  basal 
difficulty  against  which  he  has  to  contend.  The  question 
which  he  undertakes  to  answer  is  whether  the  moral  sense 
is  of  absolute  or  only  of  relative  significance.  But  this 
question  he  merely  begs  on  behalf  of  the  intuitionists.  Of 
course,  if  it  be  thus  assumed  that  the  moral  sense  is  of 
absolute  significance,  it  is  reasonable  enough  to  show 
that  the  fact  of  its  utility  is  not  opposed  to  the  assump- 
tion. But  where  the  validity  of  this  assumption  is  the 
matter  in  dispute,  an  intuitionist  only  plays  into  the 
hands  of  the  utihtarian  by  arguing  that  in  his  view  of 
morality  "an  ideal  of  action  may  be  affiliated  to 
Darwinism  as  readily  as  any  other."  Nevertheless, 
although  we  thus  deem  Prof.  Schurman's  essay  a  failure 
in  its  argument  against  the  mechanical  interpretation  of 
conscience,  it  is  otherwise  an  able  contribution  to  the 
literature  of  ethics;  and  anyone  who  is  already  an 
intuitionist  may  properly  accept  the  work  as  proving  that 
there  is  nothing  in  Darwinism,  per  se,  which  can  be 
logically  regarded  as  inimical  to  his  theory. 

George  J.  Romanes. 


AN  INDEX-CATALOGUE. 
Index-Catalogue  to  the  Library  of  the  Surgeon-General's 
Office,  United  States  Army.  Vol.  VIII.,  Legier— Medi- 
cine (Naval).  (Washington,  1887.) 
THE  regularity  with  which  the  large  annual  volumes 
of  this  great  work  reach  us  is  most  reassuring,  and 
now  its  completion  in  some  six  more  years  may  be 
looked  upon  as  practically  certain,  considering  the  vast 
resources  of  the  United  States,  and  the  energy  which  its 
editors  have  shown.  It  still  remains  unique  among 
printed  catalogues  in  its  immense  lists  of  articles  from 
every  species  of  periodical  literature,  arranged  under  sub- 
ject-headings, and  drawn  from  more  than  3400  Journals, 
Reviews,  Transactions,  &c.  It  has  added  to  its  list  last 
year  165  new  periodicals,  and  its  tastes  are  sufficiently 
catholic  to  include  such  as  the  Revue  Philosophique,  which 
contains  important  matter  bearing  on  the  fundamentals  of 
physiology  and  psychology,  but  hardly  touching  on  any 
professional  details. 

The  entries  are  carried  up  to  the  end  of  1886  ;  the 
volume  has  a  "few  words  of  preface  dated  June  1887. 
When  it  is  considered  that  the  papers  of  Delhi,  Madras, 
and  Adelaide,  for  example,  take  some  weeks  to  reach 
Washington,  and  that  any  of  these  may  contain  entries 
which  should  take  a  place  in  any  part  of  this  book  of  1078 
closely  printed  quarto  pages,  there  seems  to  us  certainly 
to  have  been  no  loss  of  time  in  publication.  There  are 
many  entries,  in  this  volume,  of  Chinese  and  Japanese 
books,  magazine  articles,  and  manuscripts,  which  the 
editors  insert  in  EngHsh  characters,  and  are  kind  enough 
to  translate  for  us.  Of  the  European  languages  also, 
Hungarian,  Russian,  and  Polish  are  as  a  rule  translated, 
much  more  ^freely  than  in  the  last  volume  ;  but  Swedish 
and  Danish'  rarely,  and  Portuguese,  Dutch,  Spanish, 
Italian,    and   Greek    not  at  all.     A  very  commendable 


practice  has  sprung  up,  though  it  is  not  found  everywhere 
possible,  of  putting  the  date  of  birth  after  a  hving  author's 
name.  Thus  we  read  Lussana  (1820— ),  Luys  (1828—),  &c. 
It  would  be  very  convenient  if  this  could  be  further  ex- 
tended, though    of   course    the    difficulties   in   the  way 
are  obvious.     There  are  some  very  large  collections  of 
entries  under  such  words  as   Liver  (70  pp.).  Lungs  (30 
pp.),  Lithotrity  and  Lithotomy  (40  pp.),  and  the  extent 
of  the  bibliography  is  well  illustrated  when  we  find  213 
books  and    646    articles    entered    under    such  a  simple 
heading  as  Measles.     By  far  the  largest  aggregation,  and 
one  as  yet  unfinished  in  this  volume,  is  under  Medicine, 
which  in  the  present  volume  occupies  288  pages.     It  is  a 
heading  under  which  the  subdivisions  have  been  difficult 
to  arrange  ;  but  the  large  bulk  of  matter  has,  on  the 
whole,  been  well  distributed.     Under  such  a  subdivision 
as  Medicine  (Anecdotes,  Curiosities,  &c.),  we  naturally  find 
strange  companions,  such  as  "  Uriel  to  his  Compeers  ; 
adapted  by  Ithuriel "  ;  "  The  Doctor,  by  the  Author  of 
'Betsy  Lee'";  "Sniggers  (J.),  Gnihtontuobaodahcum," 
the    last   a   Spiegelschrift   in   print.      Under    Medicine 
(Systems,  Theories,  and  Practice),  we  find  a  large  group 
of  the  elder  writers  who  are  chiefly  of  historical  interest, 
extending  from  "  Averrhoes  :  Incipit  Liber  de  medecina 
Averoys  qui  dicitur  Coliget,&c.,imp.foHo,  Venetiis,  1482 
(Gothic  letter),  to  the  writers  of  the  last  generation,  such 
as  Dr.  C.  J.  B.  Williams  (1842),  and,  curiously  enough, 
containing  only  one  small  volume  among   the   modern 
hand-books,  "  Elements  of  Practical  Medicine,  by  A.  H. 
Carter,  1881,"  which  might  have  come  more  appropriately 
among   Medicine   (Manuals)  or  Medicine  (Practice  of), 
along  with  the  mass  of  modern  text-books.     Groups  are 
chronicled  under  Medicine  (Magical,  Mystic,  Spagyric)  of 
some  300  books,  and  of  some  250  under  Medicine  (Chrono- 
thermal,  including  the  Thompsonian  system),  which  serve 
to  remind  us  of  the  chequered  history  and  varied  prin- 
ciples of  the  healing  art.     To  the  accuracy  of  this  vast 
body  of  references,  amounting  to  more  than  40,000  in  all, 
it  is  Time  that  will  bear  the  best  testimony,  as  it  has  borne 
to  those  of  the  earlier  volumes.     A  first  testing  on  such 
detail  as  is  practicable  shows  the  figures  right,  and  the 
text  sometimes— as,  for  instance,  in  the  case  of  M.  Luys- 
more  accurate  than  that  of  the  author's  own  publisher  in 
his   advertisement   columns.     It  is  a  mistake,  we  must 
allow,  but  we  trust  a  very  pardonable  one,  to  have  spelt 
the  name  of   a  distinguished  living   physician   as    "  S. 
Wilkes  "  ;  and  it  is  a  pity  that,  under  the  record  of  Hos- 
pital Reports  (London),  we  should  find  mention  only  of 
those  of  the  Hospitals  of  St.  Thomas  and  St.   George. 
But  these  are  trifles ;  when  we  close  the  heavy  volume 
we    cannot    help    feeling    a    hearty    admiration    of    so 
much  hard  and   careful   work   well    spent,   not   on   the 
aggrandizement  of  any  individual  fame,  but  on  the  steady 
and  strenuous  advancement  of  learning. 

A.  T.  Myers. 


OUR  BOOK  SHELF. 
A  Vertebrate  Fauna  of  Sutherland,  Caithness  and  West 

Cromarty.     By  J.  A.  Harvie-Brown  and  T.  E.  Buckley. 

(Edinburgh:  David  Douglas,  1887.) 
This  is  a  good  type  of  all  that  a  hand-book  on  local 
natural  history  ought  to  be  from  a  naturalist  s  point  ot 
view.     While  it  appears  to  be  as  exhaustive  as  any  two 


Jan.  26,  1888] 


NATURE 


workers  can  make  it  of  the  fauna  of  which  it  treats  its 
honest  tale  is  not  only  plainly  but  also  briefly  told   '  In 
other   words,   we    are    spared    those    poor    attempts    at 
poetical  prose  and  all  the  allied  sins  which  seem  so  easily 
to  beset   the  field   naturalist.      This    is   another  way  of 
saymg  that  the  work  has  been  undertaken  and  executed 
in  a  purely  scientific  spirit.      After  a  few  introductory 
chapters  on  the  geography,  topography,  physical  aspects, 
&c.,  of  the  area,  the  authors  proceed  to  give  a  systematic 
catalogue  of  the  entire  vertebrate  fauna,  beginning  with 
the  mammals  and  ending  with  the  fish.   In  this  catalogue 
everything  relating  to  distribution,  habits,  &c.,  which  ?an 
possibly  be  of  any  interest  is  likewise  set  forth  in  terse 
phraseology.    The  whole  catalogue  covers  between  200  and 
300  octavo  pages,  and  is  everywhere  indicative  of  pains- 
taking labour.    Several  well-executed  plates  embellish  the 
volume,  which  throughout  displays  good  taste  as  well  as 
sound   judgment.     We   are,  therefore,  particularly  glad 
to  read  in  their  preface  that  the  writers   intend  this  to 
constitute      the  first  volume  of  a  series,  which,  unlike 
most  local  faunas,  lays  aside  to  a  great  extent  political 
boundaries,  and    is    marked  out  by  others,  much  more 
natural,  such  as  watersheds."      We  trust  that  this  first 
volume  will  meet  with  the  recognition  which  it  deserves  • 
and  in  any  case  congratulate  the  writers  on  having  so 
successfully  accomplished   so  extensive  and  valuable  a 
piece  of  work.  G   T   R 

Gospel     Ethnology.      By     S.    R.     Pattison.      (London- 

Religious  Tract  Society.) 
The  author  observes  that  the  many-sided  investigations 
of  ethnologists  do  not  seem  to  have  included  a  study  of 
the   way  in   which    Christianity   has   been   received   by 
different  races.     The  problem  suggested  is  undoubtedly 
an  interesting  one,  but  the  present  volume  does  not  do 
much  to  solve  it,  being  mainly  made  up  of  a  series  of 
anecdotes  which  go  to  show  that  the  Gospel,  in  the  form 
in  which  It  is  set  forth  by  Protestant  missionaries  of  the 
Evangelical  school,  has  found  a  response  in  the  hearts  of 
individuals  of  almost  every  known  race.     It  is  reasonable 
to  infer  from  this  that  the  particular  type  of  Christianity 
to  \yhich   Mr.   Pattison  confines  his   attention  contains 
motives  that  appeal  to  men  in  almost  every  stage  of  social 
development  and  culture.     But  so  far  as  one  can  judge 
from  the  anecdotes,  which  are  not  chosen  with  a  view  to 
facilitating  scientific  analysis,  it  seems  probable  that  in 
every  case  the  really  effective  element  in  the  missionary 
teaching  lay  in  the  Gospel  story  itself,  not  in  the  dogmatic 
construction  built  on  it  by  missionaries  of  a  particular 
school.     At  any  rate,  it  is  plain  that  no  discussion  of  the 
problem  which  Mr.  Pattison  deals  with  can  claim  to  be  of 
scientific  value  so  long  as  it  deals  only  with  the  reception 
given  to  one  form  of  Christian  teaching.  Nor  is  it  enough 
to  know  that  individuals  of  almost  every  race  are  capable 
of  becoming   sincere  Christians  of  a  particular  school  : 
the  ethnologist,  from  his  point  of  view,  is  much  less  con- 
cerned  with   individuals   than   with  masses.     A  serious 
inquiry  into  the  fitness  of  Christianity  to   become   the 
religion  o{  societies  that  have  not  come  under  the  influence 
of  the  civilization  of  the   Roman   Empire  would  be  ex- 
tremely useful,  but  such  an    inquiry  cannot  be  made  to 
any  purpose  if  one  starts  by  identifying  Christianity  with 
one  of  its  local  and  particular  types. 

There  is  not  really  any  ethnology  in  the  book  before  us. 
There  is,  indeed,  a  chapter  which  professes  to  give  a  sur- 
vey of  the  races  of  mankind,  but  it  is  so  badly  done  that 
the  book,  which  is  really,  as  has  been  said,  a  collection  of 
anecdotes,  would  have  been  better  without  it.  There  are 
some  good  woodcuts  of  people  of  different  races. 
The  British  Journal,  Photographic  Almanac,  and  Photo- 
grapher's Daily  Compa/tion  for  1888.  Edited  by  J. 
Traill  Taylor.  (London  :  H.  Greenwood  and  Co.,  1888.) 
To  all  those  who  are  engaged  in  the  art  of  photography 
either  as  amateurs  or  as  professionals  this  work  will  be 


suchTlL"t'oS;  ^"'^^'^  ""-'^^  °^^'"^^  information, 
of  fh.  „  .  o*^  developing,  toning,  &c.,  there  are  articles 
of  the  most  practical  and  theoretical  nature-written  bv 
such  men  as  Captain  Abney,  F.R.S.,  Rev  S  J  Perry^ 
KR.S.,  &c.-on  subjects  which  are  most  interesting  and 
t£SLT.i^:Ji:  ^'°"  ^^'^  ^^^^  attained  theTg^r 

All  the  various  tables  and  formulae  are  here  added 
S'^lid-abfo'ad'.'"  °'^"  *e  Photographic  Socletta't 

Two  pictorial  illustrations  are  given,  one  being  of  the 
famous  yacht  Thistle,  printed  by  Messrs.  MorgL  and 
Kidd  on  their  argentic  bromide  paper  (360  beinf  able  to 

Dy  Mr.  A.  H.  Clark  ;  the  other  be  ng  a  callotvnp  hv 
Messrs  Waterlow  and  Sons  from  a  nefatle  by T   t' 

naught^boy."^'""   °"  ^  ^^"  ^^"  P^^'"'  '"''''^'^  "  Y°" 

..,1T  ^^.^  ?^^  u  ^  y°""g  photographers  the  Editor  has 
writ  en  twelve  chapters  to  present  in  simple  language  a 
few  lessons  m  the  practice  of  the  art 


LETTERS   TO   THE  EDITOR. 

[The  Editor  does  not  hold  himself  responsible  for  opinions 
expressed  by  his  correspondents.  Neither  can  he  under- 
take to  return,  or  to  correspond  with  the  writers  of 
rejected  manuscripts.  No  notice  is  taken  of  anonymous 
communications. 

[The  Editor  urgently  requests  correspondents  to  keep  their 
letters  as  short  as  possible.  The  pressure  on  his  space 
is  so  great  that  it  is  impossible  othenvise  to  insure  the 
appearance  even  of  communications  containing  interesting 
and  novel  facts. 

*' A  Conspiracy  of  Silence." 
When  I  read  Prof.  Judd's  letter  in  your  issue  of  last  week, 
I  felt  as  if  one  of  the  Eocene  volcanoes  of  the  Isle  of  Mull,  which 
he  has  described  so  well,  had  broken  out  afresh  and  covered  a 
great  extent  of  country  with  erupted  matter,  decidedly,  by  a 
wonderful  phenomenon,  of  the  "  acid  series." 
I  have  a  very  short  reply  to  give  : — 

First,  it  is  not  the  fact  that  I  have  made  any  attack  on 
geologists.  The  fathers  of  British  geology  were  among  my 
dearest  and  most  intimate  friends,  and  1  have  the  highest  respect 
for  many  of  the  (comparative)  specialists  among  whom,  by  the 
division  of  labour,  the  science  is  now  divided.  Among  the 
most  eminent  of  these  I  have  always  reckoned  Prof  Judd 
himself. 

Secondly,  it  is  not  the  fact  that  I  have  accused  anyone  of 
conscious  indifference  to  truth.  I  attacked  the  undue  influence 
ot  authority  in  science,  and  in  doing  so  I  used  the  well-known 
formula  "conspiracy  of  silence,"  which,  on  the  face  of  it,  is  a 
metaphorical  and  rhetorical  expression,  but  which  has  been  used 
in  his  latest  writings  by  Prol.  Huxley  precisely  in  the  same 
sense,  and  has  been  applied  by  him  to  the  most  distinguished 
scientific  body  in  the  world — the  French  Institute. 

Thirdly,  it  is  not  the  fact  that  I  have  challenged  discussion  on 
my  September  article  upon  "Coral  Reefs."  1  have  challenged 
discussion  upon  the  subject,  and  on  the  question  of  Darwin's 
theory— of  which  my  paper  was  a  mere  popular  abstract,  and 
nothing  more. 

Recent  discoveries  by  the  staff  of  the  C//<j://^«^'rr— the  observa- 
tions of  Prof.  Semper— the  papers  of  Mr.  John  Murray,  and  of 
Mr.  L.  Agassiz — and  lastly,  the  recent  admirable  observations 
of  Dr.  Guppy,  have,  in  their  combination,  afforded  ample 
ground  and  materials  for  a  review  of  the  whole  question  ;  and 
1  have  a  distinct  opinion,  which  I  repeat,  that  the  influence 
of  Darwinian  authority  and  prejudice  is  one  of  the  causes  which 
has  retarded,  and  is  now  retarding,  any  acknowledged  solution 
of  the  question. 

I  have  heard  with  extreme  regret  that  Dr.  Guppy,  the  most 
recent  witness  to  facts  irreconcilable  with  Darwin's  theory,  has 
felt  compelled  to  resign  his  position  as  member  of  the  London 
Geological  Society — for  what  reason  I  do  not  fully  know,  but 
for  some  reason  connected  wiih  his  views  on  this  subject. 


Inverary. 


Argyll. 


294 


NA  TURE 


\yan.  26, 


On  some  Unapparent  Contradictions  at  the  Foundations 
of  Knowledge. 

An  argument  parallel  to  that  by  which  Mr.  Tolver  Preston 
proposes  to  prove  that  Space  is  nothing  will  prove  with  equal 
cogency  that  Time  is  nothing.  But  if  Space  is  nothing  and  Titi.e 
is  nothing,  then  he  has  the  choice  of  two  alternatives,  neither  of 
which  will  he  find  particularly  acceptable.  If  Space  and  Time 
are  both  nothings,  they  are  identical.  If  Space  and  Time  are 
not  identical,  then  they  are  two  nothings  which  differ.  What  is 
the  difference  between  two  nothings  ? 

I  would  suggest  that  Mr.  Preston  should  read  Mr.  Herbert 
Spencer's  views  on  "The  Relativity  of  Knowledge,"  contained 
in  Chapter  IV.  of  "First  Principles."  On  his  carefully  thinking 
this  out,  and  understanding  it,  I  am  willing  to  hope  that  the 
title  I  have  adopted  for  this  letter  may  appear  to  him  appropriate 
to  the  subject-matter  which  he  has  brought  under  the  consideration 
of  your  readers.  F.  Howard  Collins. 

Churchfield,  Edgbaston. 


Extraordinary  Fog  in  January  1888,  at  Shirenewton 
Hall,  Chep&tow. 

The  recent  fog  has  been  so  remarkable  that  it  seems  desirable 
to  record  its  principal  features.  From  the  7th  to  the  14th  the 
air  was  completely  saturated  with  moisture.  The  most  notable 
feature  was  that  of  cold  air  passing  over  a  warm  ground,  for 
from  the  nth  to  the  15th  the  greatest  cold  on  the  grass  did  not 
descend  to  that  read  at  4  feet.  Such  a  condition  of  the  air  as 
this  has  not  been  noticed  since  I  commenced  observations  in 
1838. 

The  following  readings  of  the  thermometers  will  illustrate 
this :— 


Temp.  4ft. 

D.ff.  bet. 

Min. 

M:n. 

Date. 

10  a.m. 

wet  and 
dry. 

4  ft. 

grass. 

Diff. 

Jan. 

0 

0 

0 

0 

0 

7      • 

••       43-3      ■ 

..      00      ... 

40  0      . 

.        34-5      •• 

•       -5-5 

8     . 

-      45  6 

..      00      ... 

42  I       . 

•      37'2     .. 

.       -4-9 

9     • 

..      41-2     . 

. .      0 'O      . . 

370       . 

•      30-3     •• 

■       -67 

10 

••      34-3     • 

..     o-o     ... 

32-8     . 

.      28-1     .. 

•      -47 

II 

..      367     . 

..      O'O       ... 

33  "3     ■ 

•      37-3     •• 

.     +4  0 

12 

..      29-8     . 

..       Q-O       ... 

29  "3     • 

•      305     ■ 

.        +  1-2 

13 

..      28-3     . 

..       00       ... 

267     . 

.      28-3     . 

.      +1-6 

14 

..      320     . 

..       00       ... 

25-0     . 

■      29-5     . 

•      +4-5 

IS 

■•      33-9     • 

..        10       ... 

28-0     . 

.      300     . 

+  2-0 

16 

..      30 'o     • 

..     o-s     ... 

27-0     . 

27-0     . 

0"0 

17 

•■      30-5     • 

. .     10    . . . 

297     • 

■      297     . 

O'O 

18 

..      28-6     . 

. .       CO       . . . 

27-0 

27 'O      . 

O-O 

19 

..      317     • 

..   0-4   ... 

26 '4     . 

.    24-8    . 

.      -1-6 

Throughout  the  I2th  after  9  a.m.  the  temperature  on  the 
grass  was  above  32°,  whilst  it  was  a  frost  from  the  height  of  i 
foot  upwards  ;  at  10  a.m.  the  temperature  on  grass  \^as  32°  8,  at 
4  feet  29°"8,  and  at  10  feet  28° '6. 

The  fog  lasted  from  the  evening  of  the  6th  till  3  p.m.  of  the 
14th.  On  the  7th  the  clouds  moved  rapidly  in  W.  current,  and  on 
the  8th  they  moved  rapidly  in  S.W.  current  ;  on  the  9th  nearly 
calm  and  cloudless  overhead  ;  from  the  loth  to  14th  overcast 
(except  from  11  a.m.  on  the  12th  till  12.40  p.m.).  The  chief 
direction  of  the  wind  was  :  8th  S.S.W.,  9th  S.S.E.,  loth 
W.S.W.,  nth  and  12th  calm,  and  from  13th  to  l8th  between 
N.  and  N.E.,  and  on  the  19th  E.S.E. 

The  fog  was  wet  and  yielded  much  moisture,  viz.  : — 

7th  •079,8th  -008,  9th  -015,  loth  -017,  nth  -031,  I2th  -013, 
13th  '020,  i4ih  '020,  15th  -023. 

The  barometer  was  very  high,  and  almost  stationary,  reaching 
a  maximum  on  the  9th  at  loh.  30m.  a.m.,  viz.  3075  inches 
corrected  and  reduced  to  the  sea-level. 

On  the  nth  the  fog  cloud  moved  in  a  south  current  till  3  p.m., 
when  it  became  north,  and  continued  so  throughout  the  12th.  On 
this  day  on  the  side  facing  the  fog  current  every  leaf  and  twig 
had  a  horizontal  deposit  of  ice,  increasing  in  length  from  half  an 
inch  at  4  feet  above  the  ground  to  fully  an  inch  at  10  feet ;  the 
outside  edge  of  this  ice  being  as  thin  as  the  fine  edge  of  a  knife  ; 
and  the  whole  upper  surface  of  all  laurel  and  other  large  leaves 
that  were  horizontal  had  a  coating  of  ice,  so  thin  (although  it 
could  be  detached  without  breaking)  as  almost  to  resemble  gold- 
leaf,  on  which  were  transparent  impressions  of  ..very  irregularity, 
however  minute.  On  the  side  of  trees  opposite  to  this  current, 
instead  of  rime  there  were  nearly  pear-shaped  transparent  drops 


of  frozen  water,  of  various  sizes,  mostly  as  large  as  one-eighth 
of  an  inch  in  diameter  ;  they  were  situated  not  quite  at  the  point 
of  every  leaf;  no  leaf  was  without  a  frozen  drop,  and  this  had  an 
extraordinary  appearance,  more  especially  amongst  the  crowded 
leaves  of  such  plants  as  Pinus  insignis,  Abies  Webbiana,  &c. 
On  the  opposite  side  of  these  fir-trees  the  appearance  was 
equally  singular,  as  each  leaf  looked  like  a  knife-blade  of  one- 
sixth  of  an  inch  in  width,  with  a  ^square  apex.  The  ground- 
temperature  being  above  32°,  the  vivid  green  of  the  gra.ss  was  a 
great  contrast  to  the  ice  on  the  trees.  E.  J.  Lowe, 


"  The  Art  of  Computation  for  the  Purposes  of  Science." 

In  a  paper  with  the  above  title,  in  Nature,  vol.  xxxvii.  p.  237, 
Mr.  Sydney  Lupton  refers  to  some  of  our  work  as  affording  a 
good  example  of  "the  natural  tendency  of  the  human  mind 
.  .   .   .  to  exalt  the  accuracy  of  one's  own  experiments." 

The  experimental  work  referred  to  was  a  determination  by  the 
dynamical  method  of  the  vapour  pressures  of  liquid  benzene.  A 
curve  was  drawn  to  represent  these  relations  ;  three  points  were 
chosen,  and  the  constants  for  the  formula  log  p  =  a  -V  bat  were 
calculated.  Mr.  Lupton  finds  fault  with  the  number  of  decimal 
places  given  for  these  constants,  and  makes  three  statements 
which  are  intended  to  put  the  experimental  work  in  as  unfavour- 
able a  light  as  possible  so  as  to  heighten  the  contrast  with  the 
extreme  accuracy  of  the  calculations.  Mr.  Lupton  says  : 
"  Nine  places  of  decimals  are  given  with  apparent  confidence, 
when  (i)  only  three  of  the  whole  number  of  experiments  were 
made  even  in  duplicate."  We  do  not  quite  understand  this  state- 
ment, for  on  reference  to  the  original  paper  {Phil.  Mag.,  Jan. 
1887)  it  will  be  seen  that  the  last  six  experiments  in  Series  I. 
overlap  the  first  six  in  Series  II  ,  while  the  last  seven  of  Series 
II.  are  within  the  same  limits  of  temperature  as  the  first  four  of 
Series  III.  The  second  slati^ment  is  that  "the  last  pressure, 
755,  was  obtained  not  by  experiment  at  all,  but  by  extrapolation 
from  a  freehand  curve,  the  highest  experiment  being  79° '6  and 
743'i  mm."  We  would  point  out  that  the  experiment  referred 
to  is  not  the  highest,  for  on  the  preceding  page  in  our  paper 
the  bo  ling-point  79°'9  at  753*4  mm.  is  given.  Again,  the  curve 
was  not  drawn  by  freehand,  but  by  means  of  engineers'  curves, 
which  give  very  much  more  accurate  results.  It  is  quite  true 
that  the  last  pressure  was  obtained  by  extrapolation,  but  an 
extrapolation  ofo°'i,  or  even  of  0° '4  does  not  seem  very  excessive 
with  a  range  of  80°.  Mr.  Lupton  states,  thirdly,  that  "  a 
difference  of  ^°  at  low  temperatures  produced  no  change  in 
pressure  which  was  appreciable  by  the  apparatus  used."  But,  as 
a  matter  of  fact,  at  0°  a  difterence  of  o°'i  corresponds  to  a 
difference  of  pressure  of  0'i5  mm.,  which  is  quite  appreciable  on 
our  gauge.  Perhaps,  however,  Mr.  Lupton  refers  to  the  ex- 
periments at  36'I5  mm.,  in  which  at  the  same  pressure  two 
different  thermometers  registered  temperatures  which  differed 
by  r. 

Mr.  Lupton  lastly  gives  much  simpler  constants,  calculated 
from  our  data,  and  compares  the  pressure  at  60°,  calculated  from 
them  and  from  our  constants,  with  the  pressure  given  by 
Regnault.  It  happens  that  the  number  obtained  with  the 
simpler  eonstants  exhibits  greater  concordance  with  Regnauh's 
value.  Now  while  we  would  agree  with  Mr.  Lupton  in  classing 
Regnault  (as  far  at  least  as  some  of  his  work  is  concerned)  with 
the  select  few  who  are  entitled  to  an  extra  number  of  decimal 
places,  yet  we  would  point  out  that  Regnault  did  not  always 
succeed  in  obtaining  perfectly  pure  substances  to  work  with,  and 
some  of  his  results  are  rendered  almost  valueless  on  that  account. 
In  this  case,  for  instance,  the  melting-point  of  Regnault's  sample 
of  benzene  was  4°'44,  whereas  after  the  most  careful  purification 
we  find  that  it  melts  at  5°'58,  and  the  value  obtained  by  Fischer 
(  Wiedemann'' s  Annalen,  xxviii.  400)  is  almost  exactly  the  same 
as  ours.  Again,  Regnault  failed  to  obs^^erve  the  existence  of  a 
difterence  in  the  vapour  pressure  of  solid  and  liquid  benzene,- 
(and  other  substances)  at  the  same  temperature,  while  this 
difference  has  been  measured  by  Fischer  by  the  statical  and  by 
ourselves  by  the  dynamical  method. 

We  are  quite  willing  to  admit  that  our  decimal  points  are 
carried  further  than  is  necessary  for  the  calculation  of  the  vapour 
pressures,  but  we  have  frequently  had  occasion  to  calculate  the 

values  of  -i/     for  various  substances,  and  we  have  found  that 

dt  ■ 

in   order   to   obtain   regular  values  a  large  number  of  decimal 
places  are   required  ;    if  a  smaller  number  are  employed   the 


Jan.  26,  1888] 


NATURE 


295 


dp 


values  of    J-     themselves  require    smoothing,  which  involves 

dt  ^ 

additional  labour, 

liut  if — since  vapour  pressures  only  are  given  in  our  paper — we 
have  gone  to  one  extreme,  we  think  that  Mr.  Lupton  has  g  me  to 
the  other,  for  at  79° '9  the  pressure  calculated  from  his  constants 
differs  by  3 '8  mm,  (=  o°*l6)  from  that  calculated  from  ours, 
and  by  yi  mm.  (=  o°-i3)  from  our  observed  pressure,  and  this 
difference  is  certainly  too  great. 

It  might  also  be  supposed  from  Mr.  Lupton 's  constants  that 
the  value  of  b  in  the  formula  log  f>  =  a  +  ha.'  could  generally  be 
expressed  by  a  very  simple  number  such  as  the  one  he  gives 
(  ~  3 '3).  ^ut  this  is  not  so.  It  happens  that  our  constant  differs 
only  very  slightly  from  the  number  -  3  "3  ;  it  is  -  3  30052,  and 
by  staking  off  the  two  last  figures  in  this  constant  and  making  a 
corresponding  slight  alteration  in  the  value  of  a,  a  much  g.ejiter 
simplification  is  possible  than  would  usually  be  the  case. 

Mr,  Lupton  gives  five  decimal  places  for  log  re,  and  we  are 
unable  to  appreciate  the  advantage  of  using  a  table  of  four- 
figure  logarithms  where  five  places  are  required. 

While  recognizing  the  advantage  of  methods  of  computation, 
may  we  suggest,  in  conclusion,  that,  as  a  rule,  only  experi- 
mentalists are  capable  of  judging  the  limits  of  accuracy  of 
experiment,  and  that  they  may  be  trusted  to  save  themselves 
trouble  where  trouble  may  be  saved  without  sacrificing  accuracy  ? 

W,  Ramsay. 
Sydney  Young. 


"The  Mammoth  and  the  Flood." 

The  question  raised  in  my  previous  letter  is  too  important 
and  is  being  too  widely  discussed  to  allow  me  to  let  it  go  by 
default,  and  as  it  has  a  certain  freshness  I  cannot  help  thinking 
that  it  will  prove  interesting  to  many  of  your  readers. 

Your  critic  disposes  of  Sir  Andrew  Ramsey  in  a  very  uncere- 
monious fashion.  To  describe  the  head  of  the  Geological  Survey, 
and  the  former  President  of  the  British  Association  and  the 
Geological  Society,  as  an  irrational  iinifon/iilarian  is  to  get  rid 
of  my  attack  in  a  very  simple  way.  Surely  some  of  his  scholars 
or  some  of  his  subordinates  will  have  a  word  to  say  for  their  late 
chief,  and,  if  they  cannot  maintain  his  position,  will  offer 
some  alternative.  To  the  great  mass  of  scientific  men  who  are 
not  geologists,  teaching  froaa  such  a  source  is  naturally  accepted 
as  authoritative. 

To  pass  on,  however.  Yo'.ir  c  itic  speaks  of  my  invoking  a 
series  of  catastrophes  to  explain  the  difficulties  surrounding  the 
extinction  of  the  mammoth.  This  is  most  inexplicable  to  me, 
and  points  to  his  not  having  read  my  book  at  all,  which  was 
neither  fair  to  you  nor  me.  My  book  is  a  perpetual  protest 
against  such  a  series  of  catastrophes,  and  an  arguinent  in  favour 
of  one  catastrophe  only.  May  I  quote  one  statement  among 
others  ? 

"  If  we  are  to  summon  some  normal  cause  not  now  operating 
for  these  facts,  it  certainly  seems  mire  reasonable  that,  with 
effects  so  completely  alike  over  such  a  wide  area  we  should 
.summon  otie  catne,  and  not  several,  and  attribute  the  aberrant 
conditions  showing  so  much  uniformity  to  some  uniform  im- 
pulse. Here,  again,  the  burden  of  proof  is  upon  those  who 
deny  this  view,  and  treat  the  remains  not  as  the  result  of 
some  widespread  catastrophe,  but  as  evidence  of  as  many  cata- 
strophes as  there  are  skeletons, 

"  It  would  be  as  unreasonable  to  invoke  a  separate  storm  and 
a  separate  date  for  the  death  of  each  one  of  the  myriads  of 
razor-bills  and  guillemots  that  strewed  the  western  coasts  of 
Britain  on  a  fatal  occasion  a  few  years  ago,  and  whose  remains 
were  all  fresh  and  in  the  same  condition,  as  to  do  the  same  for 
the  myriads  of  fresh  skeletons  of  mammoths,  rhinoceroses, 
bisons,  &c.,  in  Siberia  or  in  Europe,  These  debris  of  a  former 
world  have  every  sign  that  they  formed  parts  of  a  contempora- 
neous fauna  destroyed  at  one  time,  and  are  not  the  wreckage  of 
centuries  of  deaths." 

I  now  come  to  what  is  more  important  ;  namely,  the  theory 
which  your  critic  resuscitates,  after  it  has  been  given  up  by  all 
the  Russian  inquirers,  save  one,  for  many  decades — namely,  the 
notion  that  the  mammoths  have  been  floated  by  the  rivers  from 
some  undefined  land  and  buried  by  river  action,  where  they  are 
now  found. 

Dr.  Bunge,  who  has  re:ently  returned  fnm  a  protracted 
residence  on  the  Lower  Lena,  and  has  described  his  researches 


in  detail  before  the  St.  Petersburg  Academy,  tells  us  expressly 
that  mammoth  remains  are  found  very  seldom  indeed  in  the  delta 
of  the  Lena,  and  very  seldom  also  near  that  river.  It  is  in  the 
higher  land  separating  the  great  rivers  that  the  remains  abound, 
and  especially,  as  Wrangell  and  others  showed  long  ago,  and 
as  Bunge  has  recently  confirmed,  in  the  mounds  and  low"hills  of 
the  tundra.  When  found  near  rivers,  it  is  near  the  short  rivers, 
like  those  of  North- Eastern  Siberia,  or  near  the  head  streams 
of  the  Lena,  the  Yjenissei,  &c.,  which  could  not  float  such 
carcasses. 

In  the  next  place.  Northern  Siberia  is  not  a  country  of  moun- 
tains and  small  valleys,  but  a  vast,  continuous  nearly  level 
waste  covered  with  moss,  called  a  tundra,  diversified  by  mounds 
and  rounded  hillocks,  and  threaded  here  and  there  by  rivers 
running  in  deep  channels — rivers  which  are  frozen  fast  for 
a  large  part  of  the  year. 

When  the  late  spring  conies,  and  the  ice  in  the  upper  reaches 
melts,  while  that  lower  down  is  still  locked  fast,  there  is  no  doubt 
a  considerable  flood  in  the  estuarine  parts  of  the  Obi  and  other 
rivers,  but  this  is  temporary  and  transient,  and  it  only  covers 
the  low  lands  where  mammoth  remains  are  most  infrequent.  It 
never  covers  and  cannot  cover  the  higher  land.  There  is  not 
supply  of  water  to  do  it.  To  cover  the  higher  points  where 
the  mammoth  and  other  remains  abound  would  require  such 
a  supply  as  would  put  the  whole  northern  part  of  the  con- 
tinent under  water,  and  thus  destroy  all  animal  life  there  eveiy 
spring  flood.  Even  if  we  could  postulate  river  floods  of  this 
kind  as  I  have  shown,  quoting  a  most  experienced  geologist, 
Schmidt,  the  Siberian  rivers  deposit  no  warp  that  could  cover 
in  the  mammoths  as  they  are  found  covered  in,  by  deep  beds  of 
clay  and  gravel,  not  when  lying  on  their  sides  only,  but  when 
standing  upright,  as  they  have  several  times  been  found.  They 
must  have  been  covered  in  by  more  than  two  yards  of  deposit 
also  in  a  single  year  in  all  parts  of  Siberia,  sinc2  the  ground 
melts  to  that  depth  in  the  summer,  which  melting  would  destroy 
iheir  soft  parts.  Appeals  to  river- floods  therefore  involve 
appeals  to  transcendental  causes  which  are  obsolete  in  other 
sciences  than  geology. 

Lastly,  why  is  this  river  portage  invoked  at  all  ?  We  have  not 
merely  the  mammoth  carcasses  to  account  for,  but  the  trees  found 
with  these  great  beasts  slill  rooted,  and  the  land  and  freshwater 
shelL  showing  a  different  climate  when  he  lived.  * 

Where  are  we  to  bring  these  debris  of  a  former  life  ft  om? 
We  cannot  go  outside  of  Siberia  ;  for  the  mammoth,  so  far  as  we 
know,  has  never  been  found  in  Asia  outside  that  province.  We 
cannot  bring  the  mammoths  found  in  Kamchatka,  and  the 
peninsula  of  the  Chukchi,  and  the  Liachov  Islands  (which  are 
150  miles  from  the  mainland),  from  Central  Siberia.  Again  the 
remains  are  very  infrequent  there  compared  with  their  abundance 
further  north,  while  the  mammo'hs  from  the  north  and  south  of 
Siberia  can  be  discriminated.  There  is  no  sign  of  rolling  on  the 
bones,  and  the  epiphyses  are  still  attached.  Evidence  of  every  kind 
converges  therefore  upon  the  conclusion  that  the  mammoths  lived 
and  died  where  their  remains  are  found,  and  the  problem  that  has 
to  be  faced  is,  how  they  were  exterminated  simultaneously  from 
the  Obi  to  Bering  Straits,  of  all  ages  and  sizes,  and  mixed  with 
various  incongruous  beasts ;  how  they  were  buried  in  the 
hillocks  and  high  ground  under  vast,  undisturbed,  and  continuous 
beds  of  gravel  and  clay  ;  and  how,  lastly,  their  flesh  was  subse- 
quently preserved.  If  all  this  can  be  explained  without  some 
appeal  to  the  forces  I  have  invoked,  then  otte  factor  out  of  many 
in  my  argument  can  be  answered.  If  not,  it  is  no  use  going  to 
Wonderland  for  hypotheses  which  only  arouse  ridicule  among 
students  of  those  sciences  which  claim  induction  for  their  basis. 
I  am  most  anxious  for  an  answer.  Henry  H.  Howorth. 
Bentcliffe,  Eccles. 


Is  Hail  so  formed  ? 

I  NOTlCEn  here  yesterdiy  a  curious  phenomenon — one  that 
has  not  before  come  under  my  observation. 

I  was  standing  under  a  pine-tree  that  was  laden  with  moisture 
from  the  foggy  atmosphere ;  drops  were  falling  to  the  ground 
from  the  branches,  but  what  struck  me  was  the  fact  that  although 
most  of  the  drops  reached  the  ground  in  a  liquid  state,  some  of 
them  were  converted  in  their  descent  mio  pellets  of  ice. 

It  was  very  cold,  but  I  had  no  reliable  means  of  ascertaining 
the  temperature  at  the  time  ;  it  could  not,  however,  have  been 
far  off  freezing-point. 


296 


NATURE 


\yan.  26,  I 


I  was  quite  unable  at  first  to  account  for  the  fact  that  some 
drops  were  frozen  while  others  were  not  ;  it  occurred  to  me  later, 
however,  that  the  drops  which  reached  the  ground  as  pellets  of 
ice  had  been  derived  from  the  topmost  branches,  while  those 
remaining  uncongealed  had  fallen  from  the  lower  ones. 

I  based  my  conclusion  on  the  assumption  that  the  drops  from 
the  top  of  the  tree  in  falling  a  greater  distance,  and  in  travelling 
more  rapidly,  than  those  beneath  them,  consequently  suffered  a 
greater  loss  of  heat  by  more  rapid  evaporation,  and  hence  were 
converted  into  ice  before  reaching  the  ground  ;  but  it  seems  to 
me  nevertheless  a  most  remarkable  thing  that  such  a  re-^ult 
should  depend  upon  so  small  a  difference  in  altitude  (10  ft.  at 
the  most),  and  the  atmospheric  conditions  favourable  for  the 
production  of  such  a  phenomenon  must  have  been  so  unusual  as 
to  make  its  recurrence  very  unlikely. 

I  have  heard  of  a  railway  train  becoming  coated  with  ice 
after  travelling  through  an  atmosphere  above  freezing-point  and 
laden  with  mist,  but  we  can  easily  grasp  the  phenomenon  when 
occurring  on  so  large  a  scale. 

Cecil  Carus-Wilson. 

Bournemouth,  January  14. 

"  British  and  Irish  Salmonidae." 

Although  calling  in  question  statements  made  by  reviewers 
is  eenerally  a  thankless  task,  still,  when  an  author  believes  him- 
self to  have  been  misquoted  as  well  as  erroneously  corrected,  a 
deviation  from  the  usual  course  may  sometimes  be  excusable. 
Acting  under  such  an  impression,  and  feeling  sure  that  the 
Editor  of  Nature,  and  the  reviewer  of  my  "British  and 
Irish  Salmonidse,"  would  be  equally  unwilling  to  promulgate 
errors  to  the  public,  I  must  a^k  for  a  small  space  with 
reference  to  the  review  of  my  work  which  appeared  in  your  last 
issue. 

Purporting  to  quote  a  sentence  of  mine  (p.  31)  as  an  example 
of  my  "originality  in  sentence  construction,"  the  reviewer  has 
rendered  it  misleading  by  omitting  five  words  which  I  have  here 
re-inserted  in  italics  and  within  brackets.  Alluding  to  the  water 
containing  the  recently  expressed  eggs  and  milt,  he  makes  me 
say  as  follows: — "This  is  gently  stirred  with  the  \\2iiiA.{and  then 
allowed  to  stand)  until  the  eggs  harden,  or  '  frees  '  as  it  is  termed, 
being  a  period  from  one-quarter  to  three-quarters  of  an  hour, "  &c. 
If  newly  expressed  eggs  and  milt  were  thus  stirred  up  from 
fifteen  to  forty-five  minutes  they  could  not  "set,"  and  would 
therefore  have  no  occasion  to  "free,"  as  the  Americans  have 
termed  it,  but  such  misplaced  energy  in  the  operator  (which  I 
never  proposed)  would  assuredly  destroy  their  vitality. 

The  reviewer  says,  "  the  description  in  the  text  of  the  mode  of 
packing  eggs  which  has  been  perfected  at  Howietoun  seems  to 
be  erroneous,  .  .  .  while  in  a  quotation  in  a  footnote  the  correct 
account  is  given — namely,  that  the  ova  lie  in  direct  contact  with 
the  damp  moss,  and  are  covered  by  another  layer  of  the  same, 
the  muslin  being  only  used  in  order  that  the  layer  of  moss  may 
be  lifted  and  moved."  The  reviewer  has  here  confused  the  text, 
or  general  principles  as  laid  down,  with  the  note  (p.  42)  of  the 
mode  pursued  at  Howietoun,  which  he  asserts  to  be  "the 
correct  account  "  ;  but  had  he  read  the  quotation  to  the  end  he 
would  have  seen  that,  besides  the  plan  adopted  at  Howietoun 
for  packing  eggs  going  long  distances  when  no  muslin  is  used,  a 
second  mode  is  employed  for  those  going  lesser  Journeys,  and 
was  described  as  follows:  "For  shorter  journeys  eggs  are 
thrown  off  the  frames  on  to  swans'  down,  which  takes  little 
more  than  half  the  time,  and  greatly  facilitates  the  unj^acking  at 
the  end  of  the  journey." 

The  reviewer  observes  that  "no  reference  is  given  to  any 
work  where  the  correct  description  of  6".  namaycus/t  as  a  char 
can  be  found."  If  this  remark  is  seriously  made  under  the  im- 
pression that  the  fish  is  not  a  char  or  a  Salvelinus,  I  would 
refer  among  others  to  Salvelinus  namaycush,  Jordan,  Bull.  16, 
U.S.  Mus.  1883,  p.  317;  Bean,  "Fish  Com.  Report,"  1884, 
p.  1042;  Garman  on  the  "American  Salmon  and  Trout," 
Boston,  1885,  p.  5  ;  to  Brown  Goode  in  his  "Game  Fishes  of 
the  United  States,"  and  his  more  recently  published  account  in 
the  "Fisheries  and  Fishery  Industries  of  the  United  States," 
1884,  p.  485,  &c.  In  this  last  work  he  observed  of  the  namaycush 
that  "  the  Lake  trout  is  in  fact  a  member  of  the  same  group  of 
the  salmon  family  with  the  chars,"  while  I  referred  to  his 
statements  at  p.  249. 

Francis  Day. 
Cheltenham,  January  14. 


PHYSICAL  SCIENCE   AND    THE   WOOLWICH 

LXA  MINA  TIONS. 
T  N  June  1884  we  called  the  attention  of  those  who  are 
interested  in  science  and  in  the  science-teaching  in 
otir  public  schools  to  some  new  regulations  for  admission 
to  Sandhurst  which  had  lately  been  announced,  and  to 
efforts  that  had  been  made  by  the  President  of  the 
Royal  Society,  and  others,  to  induce  the  authorities  at 
the  War  OfBce  to  reconsider  their  scheme,  which  ap- 
peared likely  to  seriously  handicap  those  public  schools 
in  which  real  attention  to  science  is  given  in  the  regular 
school  work,  and  to  be  unjust  to  young  men  of  scientific 
ability. 

Whilst  we  wrote,  those  regulations  were  already  under- 
going revision,  and  they  were  subsequently  replaced  by 
others  in  which  certain  improvements  had  been  made,  but 
in  which  the  mark  value  of  science  was  still  so  low  as  to 
be  likely  to  do  harm.  In  a  second  notice  of  the  subject 
in  August  of  the  same  year,  whilst  admitting  that  im- 
provements had  been  effected,  we  expressed  our  opinion 
that  even  in  their  new  form  the  regulations  would  tend 
to  check  freedom  and  progress  in  education,  and  act  un- 
favourably on  the  work  of  those  public  schools  which 
have  aimed  at  widening  the  basis  of  education  by  intro- 
ducing the  study  of  physical  science  into  the  regular 
school  work  of  all,  or  nearly  all,  their  pupils. 

We  regret  to  add  that  this  view  has  proved  to  be,  to  a 
considerable  degree,  correct.  We  hear,  for  example,  that 
almost  directly  after  the  issue  of  the  amended  regulations 
at  least  one  large  school  decided  to  omit  all  work  in 
science  from  the  instruction  given  to  boys  at  once  upon 
their  deciding  to  become  candidates  for  Sandhurst.  In 
the  interests  of  the  subsequent  career  of  the  boys  this  was, 
and  is  still,  considered  to  be  almost  invariably  necessary. 
And  we  find  that  at  the  last  four  examinations  only  about 
2  per  cent,  of  successful  Sandhurst  candidates  have 
offered  a  knowledge  of  some  branch  of  physical  science 
("  experimental  science "  in  the  regulations),  whereas 
formerly  the  very  moderate  but  much  larger  proportion  of 
8  per  cent,  did  so.  In  the  case  of  physical  geography  and 
geology  the  corresponding  proportions  are  19  per  cent, 
during  the  four  years  that  preceded  the  date  of  our 
article,  and  about  8  per  cent,  during  the  last  two  years. 

No  doubt  the  candidates  for  Sandhurst  are  not,  as  a  rule, 
drawn  from  the  class  of  boys  to  whom  the  study  of  science 
is  particularly  attractive,  and  it  is  not  impossible  that  to 
some  extent  the  present  regulations  for  admission  to 
Sandhurst  may  have  had  the  effect  of  inducing  scien- 
tific boys  to  enter  more  freely  for  the  scientific  branches 
of  the  army,  to  which  admission  is  gained  through 
Woolwich. 

In  the  examinations  for  Woolwich,  science  has  hitherto 
met  with  more  liberal  treatment  than  at  Sandhurst,  and 
has  been  taken  up  by  a  fair,  but  not  excessive,  proportion 
of  the  successful  candidates,  which  has  lately  tended  to 
increase  in  the  case  of  chemistry  and  physics.  It  is 
therefore  with  the  greatest  regret  that  we  learn  that 
new  regulations  for  admission  to  Woolwich  are  to 
come  into  effect  in  November,  which  will  be  likely 
to  seriously  further  discourage  the  teaching  of  physical 
science.  These  regulations  correspond  pretty  closely 
to  those  for  Sandhurst,  which  we  have  previously 
discussed  ;  it  will  be  sufficient,  therefore,  to  say  that 
compulsory  mathematics,  optional  mathematics,  Latin, 
P  rench,  and  German,  form  Class  I.,  have  each  of  them 
an  allotment  of  3000  marks  ;  that  Greek,  English  history, 
chemistry,  physics,  physical  geography  and  geology,  form 
a  second  class,  to  each  of  which  2000  marks  are  allotted  ; 
and  that  candidates  may  take  all  the  subjects  of  Group 
1,1  or  may  substitute  one  subject  from  Group  II.  in  place 
of  one  of  those  in  Group  I. 

'  They  may  ,^lso  take  any  or  all  of  Group  III.,  viz.  English  composition, 
freehand  :ind  geometrical  drawing,  to  each  of  which  500  marks  are  allotted. 


Jan.  26,  1888] 


NA  TORE 


297 


Hitherto  the  mark  values  of  all  subjects,  except  mathe- 
matics, have  been  equal  in  the  Woolwich  examination,  and 
free  choice  of  subjects  has  been  permitted  to  candidates.  ' 
This  has  been  fair  to  young  men  of  different  orders  of ; 
ability  ;  it  must  have  secured  officers  of  varied  powers,  and  | 
has  satisfied  the  schools  by  leaving  them  free  to  do  for  each 
boy  that  which  was  best  for  him.     In  one  respect  the  new 
scheme  is  better  than  the  old— viz.  in  the  grouping  of  the 
physical  science  subjects.     But  with  such  a  bribe  as  will 
now  be  oft'ered  for  Latin  and  modern  languages,  we  cannot 
think  that  it  will  often  be  worth  while  even  for  boys  of  i 
more  than  average  scientific  capacity  to  adopt  the  study 
of  science  if  they  desire  to  enter  Woolwich.     Jt  is  evident 
that,  other  things  being  equal,  those  who  do  so  will  come 
out  lower  in  the  listof  those  who  succeed,  and  be  more  likely 
to  find  themselves  amongst  those  who  have  failed,  than  will 
be  the  case  with  such  as  are  of  equal  ability  in  the  study  ; 
of  languages.     We  do  not  believe  that  it  is  the  intention  ! 
of  the  War  Office  authorities  thus  to  partly  bar  the  way 
into  the  scientific  branches  of  the  service  against  young 
men  of  more  than  average  promise  in  the  experimental 
sciences,  subjects  that  will  afterwards  form  a  very  im- 
portant   a   part    of  their   work   in  the    Royal    Military 
Academy;  and  we  trust  that  leaders  in  science,  and  the  re- 
presentatives of  those  schools  which  are  doing  their  best 
for  their  scientific  boys,  as  well  as  for  their  unscientific 


boys,  will  not  fail  to  unite  in  calling  attention  to  the 
inevitable  results  of  the  final  adoption  of  the  present 
scheme.  The  reception  that  such  representations  met 
with  in  1884,  and  the  position  accorded  to  physical  science 
in  the  course  of  study  for  the  cadets  after  having  entered 
Woolwich,  cause  us  to  feel  sure  that  such  representa- 
tions will  not  be  without  effect,  especially  if  they  be  not 
too  long  delayed. 


A  MODEL  OF  AN  EARTHQUAKE. 

T  N  the  latest  part  of  the  Journal  of  the  Science  College 
-*•  of  the  University  of  Tokio,  Prof.  Sekiya  describes  a 
very  curious  and  remarkable  model  he  has  made  to 
exhibit  the  manner  in  which  a  point  on  the  earth's  surface 
moves  during  an  earthquake.  Readers  who  have  followed 
the  recent  progress  of  seismometry  in  Japan  are  aware 
that  the  motion  which  is  recorded  at  an  earthquake 
observatory  is  a  prolonged  series  of  twists  and  wriggles  of 
the  most  complicated  kind,  so  that  the  path  pursued  by  a 
point  on  the  surface  of  the  soil  has  been  aptly  compared 
to  the  form  taken  by  a  long  hank  of  string  when  loosely 
ravelled  together  and  thrown  down  in  a  confused  heap. 
Prof  Sekiya  has  taken  advantage  of  a  very  complete 
earthquake  record  obtained  by  him  with  a  set  of  Prof. 


Professor  Sekiya's  Model  of  an  Earthquake. 


Ewing's  seismographs  to  follow  out  this  path  step  by  step, 
and  to  represent  it,  in  a  permanent  form,  by  means  of 
stiff  copper  wire.  The  earthquake  he  has  modelled  in 
this  way  took  place  on  January  15,  1887,  and  was 
imusually  severe,  for  Japan.  It  has  been  already  de- 
scribed in  Nature  (vol.  xxxvi.  p.  107),  and  we  have 
given  there  a  copy  of  the  seismographic  record  by 
help  of  which  the  model  has  been  constructed.  The 
seismogram  shows  the  vertical  displacement  and  two 
rectangular  components  of  the  horizontal  displacement, 
instant  by  instant,  throughout  the  disturbance. 

It  was  only  necessary  to  go  through  the  laborious  task 
of  compounding  the  three  displacements  in  order  to  find 
the  actual  path.  This,  Prof  Sekiya  has  done  for  the  first 
seventy-two  seconds  of  the  earthquake^a  period  which 
embraces  all  the  most  interesting  features,  although  large 
movements  in  a  horizontal  plane  continued  for  a  minute 
more,  and  small  movements  for  a  still  longer  time. 

After  the  seventy-second  second,  however,  the  vertical 
component  of  motion  had  virtually  disappeared,  so  that 
the  later  part  of  the  disturbance  might  be  represented 
by  a  curve  drawn  on  a  horizontal  plane.  To  avoid  con- 
fusion, the  model  (a  sketch  of  which  is  given  above)  is 
constructed  in  three  parts  :  the  first  and  second  parts  each 
refer  to  twenty  seconds,  the  third  to  thirty-two  seconds. 
The  parts  are  mounted  together  on  a  lacquered  stand 
3  feet   long,  genuinely   Japanese  as  to  its  legs,  as  the 


sketch  will  show.  The  model  represents  the  absolute 
motion  of  the  ground  magnified  fifty  times.  Little  metal 
labels  are  attached  to  the  wire  to  mark  successive  seconds 
of  time,  from  o,  where  the  shock  begins,  to  72,  where  the 
model  ends. 

Prof  Seki)  .^  is  to  be  congratulated  on  his  patience  and 
skill.  The  model  will  serve  to  show  at  a  glance  the  real 
character  and  enormous  complexity  of  earthquake  motion  ; 
it  may  also  serve  to  open  the  eyes  of  seismologists  of  the 
older  school  to  the  perfection  to  which  earthquake  measure- 
ment has  now  been  brought.  We  learn byajapanese  adver- 
tisement that  a  native  firm  (Seirensha  and  Co.,  Tokio)  has 
undertaken  to  sell  copies  of  Prof  Sekiya's  model,  lacquered 
stand  and  all,  at  a  price  so  low  that  it  should  induce  ninny 
private  persoits,  not  to  speak  of  curators  of  museums  and 
others  officially  interested  in  scientific  novelties,  to  pos- 
sess themselves  of  this  pretty  and  instructive  Japanese 
"  curio." 


ANTON  DE  BARY. 

ON  January  19,  after  a  painful  illness, died  Anton  De 
Bary,  for  many  years  the  Professor  of  Botany  in 
Strassburg.  He  had  been  suffering  for  some  time  since 
his  visit  to  this  country  in  September,  and  had  undergone 
an  operation  which  entailed  the  removal  of  parts  of  tha 
face,  but  he  did  not  recover. 


298 


NA  TURE 


\yan.  26,  1888 


He  was  born  in  Frankfurt  in  1831,  and  studied  in 
Berlin  under  Alexander  Braun.  From  an  early  age  he 
showed  extraordinary  powers  as  an  original  investigator, 
and  was  successively  Professor  of  Botany  in  Freiburg, 
Halle,  and  Strassburg,  having  held  the  latter  dis- 
tinguished post  since  1872.  His  indefatigable  labours  as 
the  editor  of  the  Botaiiische  Zei/ung,  since  1867,  are  well 
known  ;  and  English  agriculturists  knew  him  from  his 
admirable  exposition  of  his  investigations  of  the  potato 
disease,  in  1861,  and  in  the  Journal  of  the  Royal 
Agricultural  Society  for  1876. 

De  Bary's  influence  on  the  progress  of  biology  has 
been  enormous,  and  in  attempting  to  form  an  estimate  of 
the  value  of  his  contributions  to  science,  we  must  try  to 
picture  the  state  of  botany  in  1850  or  thereabouts,  when 
his  labours  began. 

Little  was  known  of  the  Thallophytes  beyond  the  ap- 
parently endless  species-making,  which  was  coming  into 
shape,  however,  under  the  discriminating  hands  of 
Agardh,  Harvey,  and  Kiitzing  ;  Fries,  Leveille,  Berkely, 
and  Corda  ."  the  zoospores  of  Vaucheria  had  been  seen, 
and  the  conjugation  of  Spirogyra  was  known.  Thuret 
and  Nageli  were  at  work  :  Hofmeister  was  publishing 
his  illustrious  work  on  the  embryology  of  the  Phanerogams 
and  Cryptogams :  von  Mohl  was  creating  a  new  school  of 
vegetable  anatomy. 

Surrounded  by  these  influences,  De  Bary  was  working 
at  the  structure  and  development  of  the  Fungi  causing 
"Rusts"  and  "Smuts,"  and  in  1853  he  published  his 
first  book  on  this  subject :  Thuret  observed  the  details  of 
the  fertilization  of  Fucus  in  the  same  year. 

De  Bary  was  also  occupied  with  the  Algae,  and  in  1854 
published  his  observations  on  CEdogoniiim  and  Bulbo- 
chcEte :  Pringsheim's  papers  on  Vaucheria,  GLdogonium, 
Saprolegnia,  and  Coleochccte  appeared  in  1855-58.  The 
great  botanical  questions  of  the  day  centred  around  the 
development  of  the  lower  Cryptogams. 

Then  came  De  Bary's  researches  on  the  Cotijiigatece, 
published  in  1858,  where  the  essentials  of  sexual  repro- 
duction are  described  with  wonderful  accuracy  ;  and  this 
was  followed  by  his  observations  on  the  germination  of 
Lycopodium,  a  piece  of  work  so  good  that  although  we 
have  only  come  into  possession  of  most  of  the  remaining 
facts  quite  recently,  his  old  figures  have  been  found  worth 
reproducing. 

But,  as  is  well  known,  De  Bary  abandoned  this  newer 
pursuit  of  ^he  green  plants  to  return  to  his  earlier  love, 
the  Fungi  ;  and  from  about  i860  onwards  he  sent  forth 
memoirs  and  books  into  the  world  of  a  nature  to  shake 
the  tottering  hypotheses  of  the  day  to  their  foundations, 
building  up  in  their  place  the  beginnings  of  what  is 
rapidly  becoming  a  mighty  and  coherent  superstructure. 

Until  about  1850  little  was  known  of  Fungi  beyond 
the  mycelium  and  spores  of  the  larger  forms.  The 
Tulasnes  were  at  work,  and  had  described  several  of  the 
"  Rusts,"  &c.,  before  De  Bary's  book  came  out,  and  by 
1853  the  development  of  the  Ergot  of  rye  had  been  ob- 
served. Then  followed  their  brilliant  descriptions  of  the 
development  and  germination  of  the  spores  of  Cystopus, 
Puccitiia,  Tilletia,  Ustilago,  and  in  1861-65  Tulasne's 
"  Selecta  Fungorum  Carpologia  "  appeared. 

De  Bary  was  already  bringing  forward  the  methods 
which  distinguish  his  work  so  eminently  from  the  ana- 
tomical method  of  his  predecessors,  and  by  1863  he  had 
not  only  cultivated  many  forms  of  Fungi,  and  re- 
peatedly seen  the  sexual  organs  of  the  Peronosporece,  but 
he  showed  that  the  fructification  of  the  Ascomycetes  is 
also  to  be  traced  back  to  the  interaction  of  sexual  or- 
gans. These  may  be  regarded  as  the  starting-points  of 
the  long  series  of  researches  into  the  sexuality  of  the 
Fungi  which  have  already  led  to  such  remarkable  results, 
and  with  which  the  names  of  De  Bary  and  his  school  are 
so  intimately  associated. 

In  1864,  De  Bary  published  the  second  edition  of  his 
book  on  the  Myxomycetes  (the  first  edition  was  in  Zeitschr. 


fiir  Wiss.  Zool.  1859),  and  we  ought  to  point  out  that  the 
first  edition  of  this  work,  coming  at  the  time  when  the 
observations  on  zoospores  by  A.  Braun,  Thuret,  Nageli, 
Pringsheim,  and  De  Bary  himself,  were  astounding  the 
botanical  world,  helped  much  towards  clearer  conceptions 
regarding  the  "  sarcode "  of  the  zoologists,  and  the 
protoplasm  of  the  botanists. 

This  year  (1864)  also  saw  the  first  number  of  the 
celebrated  "  Beitriige  zur  Morph.  u.  Phys.  d.  Pilze,"  and 
in  1865  were  produced  the  startling  results  of  his  further 
cultures  of  parasitic  Fungi,  in  which  he  showed  how — by 
regarding  a  parasite  as  an  organism  to  be  cultivated  on 
its  proper  medium,  just  as  we  regard  wheat  as  an 
organism  to  be  grown  on  suitable  soil — its  life-history  can 
be  followed  without  those  large  breaks  in  continuity 
which  render  so  much  of  the  anatomical  evidence  worth- 
less. By  means  of  these  researches  De  Bary  proved  the 
entrance  of  the  parasitic  Fungus  into  the  host,  and  its 
progress  in  the  tissues,  so  conclusively  that  any  doubts 
still  lurking  on  the  main  subject  were  for  ever  dispersed. 
The  importance  of  these  results  cannot  be  rated  too 
highly :  they  not  only  entirely  altered  the  position  of 
the  agriculturist  towards  his  fungoid  enemies,  but  they 
introduced  a  new  era  in  medicine.  Their  bearings  on 
science  were  simply  beyond  valuation.  From  this  point 
onwards  the  continuous  observations  of  cultures  under 
the  microscope  became  extensive;  and  in  the  hands  of 
those  who  were  not  too  readily  deterred  by  the  technical 
difficulties  and  the  laborious  patience  of  such  researches, 
there  sprang  up  the  beginnings  of  that  knowledge  of  the 
diseases  of  pl.ints  which  is  now  taking  shape  under  the 
action  of  workers  trained  by  De  Bary  himself. 

Nor  was  this  all.  The  startling  facts  of  heteroecism 
were  at  the  same  time  put  before  the  world,  and  on  such 
evidence  that  none  could  reject  the  phenomenon  :  De  Bary 
proved  that  the  so-called  /Ectdium  of  the  Berbery  is  only 
a  phase  in  the  life-history  of  the  pticcinia  of  the  rust  of 
wheat.  The  repeated  confirmation  of  this  in  later 
years,  and  the  numerous  similar  cases  which  have  been 
discovered  since,  sufficiently  attest  the  accuracy  of  the 
original  work  ;  while  its  practical  importance  is  obvious. 

In  1866  was  published  the  first  edition  of  the  "  Mor- 
phologie  und  Physiologie  der  Pilze,  Flechten,  und  Myxo- 
myceten,"  a  book  which  gave  definiteness  to  the  scattered 
knowledge  of  these  organisms,  and  enabled  the  scientific 
world  to  see  clearly  the  remarkable  power  of  the  man. 
His  unflinching  honesty  and  rigorous  self-criticism  and 
modesty  had  already  attracted  the  attention  of  all  who 
came  in  contact  with  him  or  his  work  ;  now,  however, 
was  seen  the  marvellous  grasp  of  details,  and  the  power 
of  logical  generalization  which  he  possessed,  and  thence- 
forward the  name  of  De  Bary  was  associated  with  the 
leadership  of  the  modern  school  of  biologists  he  was 
himself  creating. 

As  evidence  of  his  untiring  industry,  it  maybe  pointed 
out  that  not  only  did  he  publish  the  second  number  of 
the  "Beitrage  zur  Morph.  und  Phys.  d.  Pilze"  this  year,  but 
he  had  already  taken  in  hand  that  monument  of  laborious 
investigation  and  critical  reading,  the  "  Comparative 
Anatomy  of  the  Phanerogams  and  Ferns,"  which  was  not 
finished  until  1877.  The  years  1869,  1870,  and  1871  show 
indications  of  his  new  labours — undertaken,  it  should  be 
mentioned,  because  the  original  plan  had  been  interfered 
with — in  articles  in  the  Botantsche  Zcitung,  on  the  epi- 
dermis, on  Cycads,  &c.  Nevertheless  the  third  number 
of  the  "Beitrage"  appeared  in  1870,  full  of  new  work, 
and  important,  on  the  Erysiphece  and  Ascomycetes. 

During  1874  and  1875  he  published  two  papers  on  the 
fertilization  and  germination  of  Chara,  and  a  memoir  on 
Protomyces.  In  1877  was  published  his  and  Strasburger's 
joint  memoir  on  Acetabularia,  and  the  book  above 
referred  to — the  "  Comparative  Anatomy  of  the  Ferns  and 
Phanerogams  "—was  finished.  The  influence  of  this 
work  has  been  enormous  :  criticism  has  been  cast  on  the 
plan  and  mode  of  treatment,  but  probably  all  botanists 


Jan.  26,  1888] 


NATURE 


299 


capable  of  judging  are  unanimous  in  praising  its  extreme 
accuracy,  justice,  and  completeness.  1878  and  1879  saw 
the  publication  of  the  essays  on  Apogamy,  and  on 
Symbiosis,  two  bright  and  suggestive  papers,  which  have 
had  a  wide  influence  on  succeeding  work,  and  which  con- 
nect De  Bary's  name  paternally  with  new  doctrines  in 
biology. 

In  1881  he  was  busy  with  the  promulgation  of  his  new 
facts  and  deductions  in  connection  with  the  Perono- 
sporecB,  and  the  phenomenon  of  apogamy  in  the  Fungi. 
In  addition  to  articles  in  the  Botanische  Zeitung  on  the 
classification  of  the  Thallophytes  generally,  and  of  the 
Fungi  in  particular,  he  published  extended  and  important 
observations  on  the  Saprolegniea:  and  Peronosporece  (the 
4th  number  of  the  "  Beitrage  zur  Morph.  u.  Phys.  d.  Pilze."), 
and  the  philosophical  scheme  of  classification  of  the 
Fungi  which  forms  the  basis  of  our  present  system. 
Space  will  not  admit  of  our  referring  further  to  his 
other  memoirs,  and  it  is  impossible  to  even  mention  the 
numerous  illuminating  ideas  and  suggestions  which  are 
scattered  through  his  papers,  for  we  must  proceed  to  the 
passing  enumeration  of  his  -last  two  books,  either  of 
which  would  have  sufficed  for  the  reputation  of  an 
ordinary  great  man. 

In  1884  was  published  his  "  Comparative  Morphology 
and  Biology  of  the  Fungi,  Mycetozoa,  and  Bacteria,"  and 
the  best  idea  of  De  Bary's  influence  can  be  obtained  by 
comparing  this  work  with  his  "Morph.  u.  Phys.  d.  Pilze, 
Flechten,  u.  Myxomyceten,"  published  eighteen  years 
previously. 

In  1885,  De  Bary  brought  together  a  series  of  lectures 
on  Bacteria,  since  published  in  the  form  cf  a  book  :  it  is 
in  his  best  style,  and  brings  before  the  reader  by  far  the 
clearest  trustworthy  general  account  of  this  astonishing  and 
fruitful  subject.  Here,  as  everywhere,  to  take  a  subject 
in  hand  was  to  aid  it :  had  De  Bary  done  no  more  for 
"bacteriology"  than  observe  and  clearly  describe  the 
development  of  the  spores  of  Bacillus  Megateriiwi,  his 
influence  would  have  been  felt  ;  and  the  student  is 
especially  indebted  for  his  careful  sifting  of  the  literature, 
and  his  suggestive  indications. 

One  of  his  latest  efforts  was  on  the  subject  of  infec- 
tion, particularly  with  reference  to  certain  PezizcB  and 
Sclerotia :  he  placed  firmly  on  record  the  discovery  that 
some  of  these  Fungi  may  be  harmless  saprophytes  until 
they  have  been  cultivated — educated  up  to  a  higher 
degree  of  power — and  then  they  can  enter  into  and 
destroy  a  living  host,  which  resisted  them  previously. 

It  should  also  be  remembered  that  he  was  for  many 
years  editor  of  the  Botanische  Zeilimg,  and  lent  his  aid 
to  the  forwarding  of  numerous  botanical  projects. 

The  above  sketch  may  serve  to  convey  some  idea  of  the 
labours  of  the  great  Strassburg  botanist.  But,  although 
they  give  a  glimpse  of  the  specialist's  results,  they  afford 
no  insight  into  his  keen  appreciation  of  all  good  work  ;  of 
his  humorous  and  never  malicious  disposition,  in  the 
laboratory,  and  in  his  writings ;  and  of  his  sharp,  but  always 
just,  criticism  of  anything  pretentious.  Nor  is  it  possible  to 
enter  here  into  his  abundant  knowledge  of  species  :  he 
was  one  of  the  first  to  grasp  Darwin's  teachings,  and  per- 
haps never  misapplied  them.  His  close  acquaintance 
with  species  and  even  local  varieties  of  the  plants  around 
Strassburg,  at  any  rate,  could  only  be  known  to  those  who 
have  walked  with  him  ;  and  the  delight  of  those  walks  in 
Alsace  ! 

As  a  lecturer  he  was  not  brilliant :  he  appeared  shy  and 
nervous  when  on  the  dais,  but  in  spite  of  his  low  voice 
and  restless  fingers  he  kept  his  hearers  interested,  and 
always  taught  clearly.  Quaint  he  often  was,  in  speech 
and  manner,  but  the  impressive  truthfulness  of  his  nature, 
the  earnestness  of  his  teaching,  and  the  absence  of  any 
striving  after  effect,  gave  to  his  very  quaintness  a  charm 
and  dignity  the  influence  of  which  will  never  be  forgotten 
so  long  as  his  pupils  live.  H.  MARSHALL  Ward. 


NOTES. 

We  print  to-day  a  leading  article  on  "  Odium  Medicum." 
As  the  questions  to  which  it  relates  have  already  been  fully  dis- 
cussed in  the  Times,  it  may  be  well  to  state  that  we  do  not 
intend  to  publish  any  correspondence  on  the  subject. 

Some  time  ago  the  Australian  Governments,  through  Sir 
Graham  Berry,  represented  to  the  Home  Government  the  fact 
that  in  their  opinion  much  good  might  be  done  by  an  "Ant- 
arctic reconnaissance,"  preliminary  to  an  expedition  for  the 
thorough  exploration  of  the  Antarctic  regions.  In  order  that 
this  suggestion  might  be  carried  out,  the  Australian  colonies 
offered  to  contribute  ;^SOoo,  on  condition  that  a  like  sum  should 
be  given  by  the  mother  country.  The  proposal  was  supported 
by  the  Colonial  Office,  by  the  Royal  Society,  and  by  the  Royal 
Geographical  Society ;  nevertheless,  the  Treasury  has  an- 
nounced that  it  does  not  see  its  way  to  the  granting  of  an 
Imperial  contribution.  The  objects  to  be  attained  do  not  seem 
to  it  to  justify  the  payment  of  even  so  small  a  sum  as  ;if  5000. 
There  will,  of  course,  be  much  disappointment  in  the  Australian 
colonies,  but  it  may  be  hoped  that  the  idea  of  a  joint  Antarctic 
Expedition  will  not  be  abandoned.  Perhaps  a  larger  scheme 
than  the  one  which  has  just  been  rejected  would  have  had  a 
better  chance  of  success. 

The  scientific  education  of  the  mining  population  of  Cornwall 
was  for  many  years  in  the  hands  of  the  Miners'  Association  of 
Cornwall  and  Devon — an  institution  founded  in  1859,  at  the 
suggestion  of  the  late  Mr.  Robert  Hunt,  F.  R,S.  Some  time  ago 
this  body  was  amalgamated  with  another  Cornish  institution,  and 
the  united  organization  took  the  name  of  the  Mining  Association 
and  Institute  of  Cornwall.  A  movement  has  just  been  set  on  foot 
for  increasing  the  efficiency  of  this  Association  by  the  formation 
of  a  Museum  of  Mineralogy,  to  be  established  at  Redruth,  or 
elsewhere,  in  the  heart  of  the  great  tin  and  copper  mining 
district.  It  is  held  that  such  an  institution  will  in  no  way  inter- 
fere with  the  existing  museums  in  the  county — such  as  those  of 
the  Royal  Institution  at  Truro,  and  of  the  Royal  Geological 
Society  at  Penzance.  The  new  museum,  instead  of  seeking  to 
exhibit  attractive  specimens,  will  be  essentially  practical  and 
educational — a  place  for  the  earnest  student  rather  than  for  the 
casual  visitor.  It  will  endeavour  to  collect  characteristic 
samples  of  ores,  and  typical  specimens  of  such  other  minerals 
as  are  of  interest  to  the  miner  or  to  the  geologist.  In  recogni- 
tion of  the  services  which  .Mr.  Robert  Hunt  rendered  to  Corn- 
wall by  his  persistent  advocacy  of  the  necessity  of  giving  the 
young  miners  a  scientific  training,  it  is  proposed  that  the  new 
museum  shall  bear  his  name.  The  Committee  appeals  for 
contributions,  either  in  money  or  in  minerals,  and  for  sugges- 
tions as  to  the  development  of  the  scheme.  Communications 
should  be  addressed  to  Mr.  T,  C.  Peter,  Town  Hall,  Redruth. 

Mr.  J.  E.  Hap.ting  has  been  appointed  Librarian  and  Assist- 
ant Secretary  to  the  Linnean  Society  at  Burlington  House,  in  the 
place  of  Dr.  Murie,  resigned.  Mr.  Ilarting  has  for  some  years 
past  been  engaged  in  fulfilling  the  duties  of  Zoological  Librarian 
at  the  Natural  History  Museum,  South  Kensington,  where  he 
has  organized  what  is  now  the  best  zoological  library  in  this 
country,  although  possibly  not  the  largest  in  regard  to  the 
number  of  volumes.  The  new  appointment  has  been  made 
opportunely  at  the  expiration  of  the  Government  grant  for  the 
purchase  of  books  at  South  Kensington,  and  has  given  general 
satisfaction. 

The  forty-first  annual  general  meeting  of  the  Institution  of 
Mechanical  Engineers  will  be  held  on  Thursday,  February  2, 
and  Friday,  February  3,  at  25  Great  George  Street,  West- 
minster. The  chair  will  be  taken  by  the  President,  Mr.  Edward 
H.  Carbutt,  at  half-past  7  p.m.  on  each  evening.  The  dis- 
cussion on  Mr.  John  Richards's  paper,  on  "  Irrigating  Machinery 


300 


NATURE 


\yan.  26, 


on  the  Pacific  Coast,"  will  be  resumed.  The  following  papers 
will  be  read  and  discussed,  as  far  as  time  permits  : — "On  the 
Position  and  Prospects  of  Electricity  as  applied  to  Engineering," 
by  Mr.  William  Geipel,  of  Edinburgh  ;  "  Third  Report  of  the 
Research  Committee  on  Friction  :  Experiments  on  the  Friction 
of  a  Collar  Bearing." 

The  1888  Conference  of  the  Camera  Club,  the  central  insti- 
tute for  amateur  photographers,  will  be  held  in  the  theatre  of 
the  Society  of  Arts  on  Tuesday  and  Wednesday,  March  13  and 
14,  under  the  presidency  of  Capt.  W.  de  W.  Abney,  F.  R.S. 

The  eighth  annual  general  meeting  of  the  Essex  Field  Club 
will  take  placeat  the  Public  Hall,  Loughton,  Essex,  on  Saturday 
evening,  January  28,  at  seven  o'clock.  Mr.  T.  Vincent  Holmes 
will  deliver  the  annual  Presidential  address,  taking  as  his  subject 
"  The  Subterranean  Geology  of  South-Eastern  England." 

A  PUBLIC  Conference  on  the  Sanitary  Registration  of 
Buildings  Bill  will  be  held  at  the  Society  of  Arts,  John  Street, 
Adelphi,  on  Saturday,  February  4.  The  chair  will  be  taken  at 
4  o'clock  by  Sir  Joseph  Fayrer,  F. R.S. 

A  National  Hydrcgraphical,  Meteorological,  and  Climato- 
logical  Congress  is  to  be  held  at  Madrid  in  February. 

The  American  Society  of  Naturalists  held  its  annual  meeting 
in  the  Peabody  Museum,  New  Haven,  on  December  27  and 
the  two  following  days.  Science  explains  that  this  Society, 
composed  of  professors  and  specialists,  leaving  to  other  scientific 
associations  the  function  of  presenting  and  discussing  results, 
devotes  itself  to  the  publication  of  new  methods,  improved 
apparatus,  and  aids  to  science-teaching.  The  work  of  the 
Society  falls  into  two  sections — biology  and  geology — and  a  day 
of  each  meeting  is  devoted  to  each  of  these  topics,  while  the 
third  day  is  given  over  to  a  general  discussion  on  some  attractive 
subject.  The  attendance  at  the  recent  meeting  was  large,  and, 
according  to  Science,  the  proceedings  were  both  interesting  and 
profitable. 

The  Monthly  Weather  Revieiv,  published  by  the  Chief  Signal 
Officer  of  the  United  States  for  October  1887,  contains  a  discus- 
sion of  the  movements  of  high  barometer  areas  over  the  North 
Atlantic  Ocean  for  the  year  1885.  Fifty-two  well-defined  areas 
passed  off  the  coast,  of  which  seven  traversed  the  ocean  to 
Europe,  and  three  moved  north-easterly,  to  the  vicinity  of 
Iceland,  The  average  time  occupied  by  the  fifty-two  anti- 
cyclones in  advancing  from  the  90th  meridian  to  the  coast  was 
about  one  day  and  a  half,  this  rate  of  progression  being  con- 
siderably greater  than  the  average  velocity  of  cyclonic  areas  over 
that  region.  These  areas  of  high  pressure  have  an  important 
influence  on  the  paths  of  storms.  During  October  1887  the 
paths  of  sixteen  depressions  are  also  traced  ;  four  advanced  east, 
ward  over  Newfoundland,  one  of  which  traversed  the  ocean  from 
coast  to  coast. 

The  Meteorological  Council  have  published  the  observations 
taken  at  stations  of  the  second  order  during  the  year  1883  (218 
pp.  large  4to).  Observations  taken  twice  a  day  are  printed  in 
extenso  for  thirty  stations,  and  monthly  and  annual  summaries 
and  extremes  for  forty- four  stations.  The  positions  of  the  stations 
are  shown  upon  a  key-map,  but  the  map  also  shows  that  con- 
siderable districts  in  the  west  of  Scotland  and  Ireland,  and  even 
on  the  east  coast,  for  instance  between  Dundee  and  Seaham, 
are  still  unrepresented.  The  barometer  observations  (reduced  to 
mean  sea-level)  are  given  to  the  nearest  '01  inch,  instead  of  the 
■CX3I  inch  as  heretofore.  There  is  also  a  useful  summary  of  the 
hours  of  bright  sunshine  for  the  stations  which  are  furnished  with 
sunshine-recorders,  but  the  yearly  values  are  not  calculated. 

We  have  received  a  sheet  on  which  are  three  photographs  of 
the  total  eclipse  of  thesun,  August  19, 1887,  taken  at  Yomeiji-yama 


(long.  i38°59'23"E.,lat.  37°  37'  13" N.,  alt.  115  metres),  Echigo, 
Japan,  by  M.  Sugiyama,  the  observer  of  the  Tokio  Observatory, 
under  the  direction  of  I.  Arai,  the  Director  of  the  Tokio  Obser- 
vatory and  the  chief  of  the  Expedition.  The  photographs  were 
taken  in  the  following  order  :  L.M.T.  3h.  40m.  36 •5s.  (im.  8s. 
after  beginning  of  totality);  L.M.T.  3h.  41m.  25"4s.  (im.  57s. 
after  beginning  of  totality)  ;  L.M.T.  3h.  42m.  6 "as.  (34s.  before 
end  of  totality).  In  sending  us  these  photographs,  Mr.  I.  Arai 
writes  to  us  :— "  While  bad  weather  prevented  nearly  all  the 
observations  at  other  stations  in  our  country,  I  was  very  fortu- 
nate, my  station  being  entirely  fiee  from  clouds,  at  least  during 
the  totality-.  But  I  regret  to  inform  you  that,  as  we  were  not 
equipped  with  complete  instruments,  and  the  telescope  used  was 
only  of  small  size  and  not  sufficient  for  photographic  purposes, 
the  result  was  not  very  satisfactory,  because  some  of  the  coronal 
rays,  extending  outside  of  the  field  of  the  telescope,  do  not  appear 
in  the  photographs,  I  did  not,  however,  like  to  make  the  least 
modification,  neither  in  size,  nor  in  shape,  believing  that  it  would 
be  best  to  leave  the  actual  phenomena  just  as  represented  by  the 
photographic  apparatus." 

Severe  earthquakes  are  reported  from  Ontario  and  Quebec 
on  January  11,  but  no  damage  was  done.  Shocks  are  also 
reported  from  Columbia  (South  Carolina),  Siimmerville,  and 
Charlestown.  According  to  a  telegram  sent  from  New  York 
on  January  23,  three 'shocks  had  occurred  at  Newburyport,  in 
Massaclmsetts. 

Messrs.  Macmillan  have  arranged  to  publish  in  their 
"Student's  Series"  a  new  biological  text-book,  "Lessons  in 
Elementary  Biology,"  by  Prof.  T.  Jeffery  Parker,  of  the  Otago 
University,  New  Zealand.  The  book  will  be  written  on  a  modi- 
fication of  the  "type"  system,  the  earlier  chapters  consisting  of 
detailed  accounts  of  the  morphology,  physiology,  and  life-history 
of  selected  examples  of  the  lower  organisms.  Briefer  accounts  of 
important  types  of  the  higher  animals  and  plants  will  be  given, 
but,  as  the  work  is  intended  for  the  study  and  not  for  the  labora- 
tory, it  will  not  be  necessarily  limited  to  readily  accessible  forms, 
and  the  plan  will  sometimes  be  adopted  of  omitting  certain 
points  of  structure,  development,  &c.,  which  from  their  com- 
plexity or  aberrant  character  are  unsuited  to  an  elementary 
work.  The  book  will  be  written  throughout  in  such  a  way  as 
to  bring  clearly  before  the  student  the  fundamental  principles 
and  generalizations  of  biology,  and  will  be  fully  illustrated.  It 
is  hoped  that  it  may  serve  to  supplement  the  lecture-notes  of  a 
student  attending  an  ordinary  junior  University  course  of  bio- 
logy, and,  in  the  case  of  one  working  independently,  to  supply 
the  connected  narrative  which  is  not  readily  obtained  in  suitable 
form  either  in  a  laboratory  manual  or  in  the  ordinary  text-books 
of  zoology  and  botany. 

The  "Zoological  Record  "  fori886  has  just  been  issued.  For 
sixteen  years  the  annual  volume  of  this  most  useful  work  was 
issued  by  the  "Zoological  Record"  Association,  which  was 
aided  by  grants  from  various  sources.  At  the  close  of  1886  the 
Association  failed  to  obtain  the  renewal  of  some  of  these  grants  ; 
and,  being  unwilling  to  carry  on  the  publication  of  the  "Record" 
any  longer,  it  came  to  an  agreement  with  the  Zoological  Society, 
by  which  the  task  was  undertaken.  The  Council  of  the  Zoo- 
logical Society  appointed  a  Select  Committee  to  superintend  the 
new  enterprise,  and  Mr.  F,  E.  Beddard  was  made  editor.  In 
the  preface  to  the  present  volume  Mr.  Beddard  explains  that  the 
only  change  he  has  made  is  the  introduction  of  a  section  devoted 
to  general  subjects.  This  includes  text-books  and  works  of  a 
general  nature,  many  of  which  are  again  recorded  imder  the 
several  groups  with  which  they  are  more  especially  concerned. 

Under  the  title  "A  Year's  Insect-Hunting  at  Gibraltar," 
there  appears  in  the  January  number  of  the  Entomologist' s 
Monthly  Magazine,  a  valuable  paper  by  Mr.  James  J.  Walker, 


Jan.  26,  1888] 


NATURE 


301 


on  the  entomology  of  Gibraltar,  concerning  which  subject  next 
to  nothing  had  previously  been  written.  Mr.  Walker,  as  an 
officer  of  H.M.  gunboat  Grappler,  stationed  there,  had  ample 
opportunities  for  studying  the  insect- fauna.  His  observations 
are  mainly  confined  to  Lepidoptera  and  Coleoptcra.  He  says 
there  is  scarcely  a  day  throughout  the  year  on  which  butterflies 
may  not  be  found  ;  and  he  enumerates  fifty-five  species  for  the 
limited  district,  thirty  of  which  have  occurred  on  the  isolated 
r^ock  itself.  Coleopiera  are  very  numerous,  and  he  has  already 
found  900  species,  and  is  almost  daily  adding  to  the  number. 
Apart  from  its  purely  entomological  interest,  the  introductory 
portion  is  of  great  value,  being  a  lucid  resume  in  a  few  pages  of 
the  topography  of  the  Rock  and  the  immediate  neighbourhood, 
with  sketches  of  the  chief  botanical,  zoological,  geological,  and 
meteorological  features,  not  forgetting  the  Barbary  apes,  which, 
reduced  a  few  years  ago  to  less  than  a  dozen  individuals, 
are  now  so  numerous  as  to  cause  serious  depredations  in  the 
gardens. 

We  have  received  the  volume  for  1886  of  the  Journal  and 
Proceedings  of  the  Royal  Society  of  New  South  Wales.  Among 
the  contents  may  be  noted  the  Presidential  Address  by  Prof. 
Liversidge,  F.R.S.  ;  description  of  an  unrecorded  Ardisia  of 
New  Guinea,  by  Baron  von  Mueller,  F.R. S.  ;  a  comparison  of 
the  dialects  of  East  and  West  Polynesian,  Malay,  Malagasy,  and 
Australian,  by  the  Rev.  G.  Pratt ;  preliminary  notes  on  some 
new  poisonous  plants  discovered  on  the  Johnstone  River,  North 
Queensland,  by  T.  L.  Bancroft  ;  notes  on  the  process  of  polish- 
ing and  figuring  18-inch  glass  specula  by  hand,  and  experiments 
with  flat  surfaces,  by  H.  F.  Madsen  ;  notes  on  the  theory  of 
dissociation  of  gases,  by  Prof.  R.  Threlfall. 

A  LARGE  number  of  new  aromatic  fluorine  substitution  pro- 
ducts have  recently  been  prepared  by  Drs.  Wallach  and  Heusler 
{Liehigs  Annalen,  Band  243,  Heft  i  and  2),  the  properties  of 
which  point  to  some  interesting  conclusions  regarding  the 
physical  nature  of  fluorine  itself.  It  is  found  that  in  all  cases 
the  specific  gravity  of  a  compound  is  raised  by  the  introduction 
of  fluorine  instead  of  hydrogen.  Thus  while  benzene  at  20° 
has  the  specific  gravity  o'8846,  fluorbenzene,  CgHsF,  at  20° 
possesses  a  specific  gravity  of  I '0236.  But,  on  the  other  hand, 
the  substitution  of  fluorine  is  found  to  have  a  remarkably  small 
effect  in  raising  the  boiling-point  ;  for  instance,  fluorbenzene 
enters  into  ebullition  at  85°  C.,  a  temperature  only  5°  higher  than 
that  of  boiling  benzene.  What  is,  however,  still  more  interest- 
ing is  the  fact  that  the  difference  between  the  boiling-points  of 
corresponding  iodine  and  bromine  substitution  products,  and 
again  between  those  of  bromine  and  chlorine  is  smaller  than 
that  between  the  substitution  derivatives  of  chlorine  and  fluorine. 
Whilst  this  difference  of  boiling-point  between  corresponding 
bromides  and  chlorides  amounts  to  20-23°,  that  between 
chlorides  and  fluorides  approaches  40°.  This  fact,  coupled  with 
the  small  influence  which  the  substitution  of  fluorine  exerts  upon 
the  boiling  point,  indicates  the  interesting  probability  that  the 
boiling-point  of  free  fluorine  itself  lies  very  much  below  that  of 
chlorine  ( -  33°'5),  and  that  fluorine  much  more  nearly  approaches 
the  volatility  of  hydrogen.  Indeed,  it  appears  likely  that 
fluorine  is  one  of  the  so-called  permanent  gases,  and  might  form 
a  worthy  object  for  the  attentions  of  those  who  have  been  so 
successful  in  inducing  the  other  "permanent"  gases  to  reveal 
their  boiling-points  ;  the  difficulties  in  the  way  would  of  course 
be  immense,  but,  in  face  of  what  has  been  done,  are  not  perhaps 
insuperable.  Under  all  circumstances  fluorine  attaches  itself  to 
carbon  with  far  greater  tenacity  than  any  of  the  other  halogens, 
as  was  clearly  shown  by  leaving  one  of  the  new  fluorides,  brom- 
fluorbenzene,  C(,H4BrF,  in  cold  ethereal  solution  in  contact  with 
metallic  sodium.  After  eight  days  a  considerable  quantity  of 
sodium  bromide  had  formed,  but  not  a  trace  of  the  fluoride  of 


sodium.  The  fluor-compounds  themselves  form  a  most  valuable 
contribution  to  organic  chemistry,  and  fill  up  a  gap  which  has 
long  been  noticeable  in  the  literature  of  the  subject. 

Mr.  J.  A.  Crowe,  Her  Majesty's  Commercial  Attach^  for 
Europe,  reports  to  the  Board  of  Trade  that  the  French  Legis- 
lature has  recently  passed  a  law  enacting  that  a  prize  will  be 
given  to  the  discoverer  of  a  simple  and  practical  test  to  ascertain 
the  presence  in  spirits  and  alcoholic  drinks  of  substances  other 
than  pure  and  ethylic  alcohols.  The  conditions  under  which 
the  award  is  to  be  made  will  be  determined  by  the  Academy  of 
Sciences  of  the  French  Institute. 

In  the  last  number  of  the  Zoologischer  Anzeiger,  Dr.  Otto 
Zacharias  earnestly  recommends  the  establishment  of  a  zoological 
station  on  a  German  lake  for  the  observation  and  study  of  the 
freshwater  fauna. 

The  other  day  three  ladies  in  India  received  the  degree  of 
B.A., — two  at  the  University  of  Calcutta,  and  one  at  the 
University  of  Bombay. 

A  SEAM  of  good  coal  is  reported  to  have  been  discovered  in 
Cashmere.  An  officer  of  the  Indian  Geological  Survey  is  to  be 
sent  to  examine  it. 

Recently  an  elk  was  shot  in  Galicia.  It  is  now  130  years 
since  the  last  of  these  animals  was  killed  in  Austria.  It  is 
believed  that  the  one  referred  to  had  come  from  Lithuania. 

It  is  generally  believed  that  the  Polar  bear  cannot  be  tamed. 
Last  autumn,  however,  a  Norwegian  skipper  brought  one  of 
these  beirs  with  him  from  the  Arctic  Sea  toTromso,  and  it  has 
become  quite  tame.  The  bear  plays  like  a  dog  with  the  crew 
of  the  vessel,  and  follows  its  master  everywhere.  It  is  nearly 
full  grown. 

The  Spitzbergen  whale-fisheries  have  been  more  remunerative 
during  the  last  two  years  than  at  any  time  during  the  past 
quarter  of  a  century.  Last  year  131 1  animals  were  killed.  The 
whalers  are  English,  Russian,  and  Norwegian. 

A  magnificent  gift  has  lately  been  received  by  the  Ethno 
logical  Museum  at  Leipzig,  from  Dr.  Alphonse  Stiibel  (Dresden), 
Dr.  Wilhelm  Reiss  (Berlin),  and  Consul-General  Benedix 
Koppel  (London).  It  consists  of  a  rich  collection  of  articles 
illustrating  the  culture  and  industry  of  ancient  and  modern 
South  American  races.  The  collection  is  divided  into  two 
parts :  the  first  being  objects  belonging  to  the  period  before 
the  Spanish  conquest,  the  second  being  modern.  There  are 
many  figures,  vessels,  weapons,  and  implements  of  stone 
and  clay,  found  in  the  old  Columbian,  Bolivian,  and  Peruvian 
tombs,  as  well  as  ancient  silver,  copper,  and  bronze  orna- 
ments from  Ecuador  and  Peru.  The  Columbian  antiquities, 
and  the  ancient  gold  objects  of .  the  Chibchas,  are  specially 
noteworthy. 

The  additions  to  the  Zoological  Society's  Gardens  during  the 
past  week  include  two  Snow  Finches  {Montifringilla  nivalis), 
European,  presented  by  the  Lord  Lilford ;  two  Cockateels 
{Calopsitta  novcE-hollandice)  from  Australia,  two  Pale-headed 
Parrakeets  {Platycerctts  pallidiceps)  from  North-East  Australia, 
presented  by  the  Hon.  Stormont  Finch- Hatton  ;  an  African 
Buzzard  {Buteo  desertorum)  from  Africa,  presented  by  Mr. 
Sydney  H.  Carr,  four  Barbary  Turtle  Doves  (Titretir  risorius) 
from  North  Africa,  presented  by  Mr.  John  Biehl ;  two  Herring 
Gulls  {Larus  argentatiis),  British,  presented  by  Mr.  Thomas  A. 
Cotton  ;  a  Common  Barn  Owl  {Strix  flammea),  British,  by  Mr. 
Hugh  Bromley;  a  Moorish  Gecko  (Tarcniola  maitri(aiiica)hom 
France,  presented  by  Mr.  J.  C.  Warbury  ;  two  Viscachas  {Lago- 
stomus  trichodactylus)  born  in  the  Gardens. 


302 


NATURE 


\yan.  26, 


OUR  ASTRONOMICAL  COLUMN. 

The  Cape  Observatory. — The  second  portion  of  the  data 
upon  which  the  forthcoming  Cape  Catalogue  for  1885  will  be 
founded  has  recently  appeared.  The  first  portion,  containing 
the  results  of  the  meridian  observations  made  during  the  years 
1879,  1880,  and  1881,  was  published  by  Dr.  Gill  some  time  ago, 
and  the  present  volume  gives  the  results  from  the  beginning  of 
1882  to  February  8,  1885,  when,  the  programme  for  the  observa- 
tion of  the  fundamental  stars  of  Schonfeld's  Dttrchmtistening 
— which  stars  will  form  the  most  important  part  of  the  Catalogue 
— having  been  completed,  further  work  with  the  transit  instru- 
ment was  suspended.  An  additional  reason  for  the  internxption 
of  the  meridian  observations  lay  in  the  desirability  of  re-polishing 
the  object-glass,  and  of  replacin:^  the  micrometer  .t^crews  of  the 
circle  microscopes,  which  were  of  gun-metal,  by  steel  screws. 
The  investigation  of  the  errors  of  the  screws  used  in  the  present 
observations  forms  the  most  important  portion  of  the  introduc- 
tion, for  the  effect  of  wear  upon  them  has  attracted  Dr.  Gill's 
special  attention,  and  has  already  formed  thesubject  of  a  lengthy 
paper  by  him  in  the  Monthly  Notices  of  the  R.A.S.,  vol.  xlv. 
The  transit  instruments  of  the  Cape  and  Greenwich  Observa- 
tories are  almost  exactly  alike  in  construction  ;  it  is  therefore 
interesting  to  note  that  there  are  evident  differences  in  their 
behaviour  ;  thus  the  mean  horizontal  flexure  of  the  Cape  instru- 
ment, as  determined  by  the  collimators,  amounts  to  nearly  half 
a  second — o"'462 — whilst  that  of  the  Greenwich  telescope  is 
almost  insensible. 

The  introduction  is  followed  by  144  pages  giving  the  separate 
determinations  of  the  various  instrumental  corrections,  the 
readings  of  the  transit-circle  thermometers,  &c.  The  ledgers 
and  catalogues  for  the  years  1882,  1883,  and  1884  occupy  the 
remaining  400  pages,  the  catalogues  for  the  three  years  contain- 
ing respectively  863,  444,  and  130 1  stars,  reflex  or  sub-polar 
observations  of  stars  being  counted  separately. 

The  Parai-LAx  of  Mars. — We  have  received  a  letter  from 
Mr.  C.  G.  Stromeyer,  calling  attention  to  the  fact  that  Mars  is 
stationary  on  March  4,  and  urging  the  desirability  of  determining 
its  parallax  by  the  diurnal  method,  the  rather  that  it  will  then 
be  near  two  sixth -magnitude  stars,  as  will  be  seen^  by  the 
following  positions 


Mag. 


Decl. 


95  Virginis 

94  Virginis 

Mars    . . , 


R  A. 

h.    m.     s. 

14    o  48     ...     8  46  47  S. 

14      O   22      ...      8   21    27  S. 
13   56    16      ...      9      2   20  S. 

Unfortunately,  however,  the  parallax  is  small — only  ii""3,  and 
only  part  of  this  is  practically  available  for  the  diurnal  method, 
as  the  planet  cannot  be  observed  through  a  longer  period  than 
eight  hours  at  the  utmost. 

The  Longitude  of  Odessa. —The  Astronoviische  Nachrich- 
ten,  No.  2820,  gives  the  result  of  the  determination,  by  Dr.  E. 
Becker  and  Prof  Block,  of  the  difference  of  longitude  between 
Berlin  rnd  Odessa,  which  was  carried  out  in  July  and  August 
1876  by  the  telegraphic  m-thod.  The  deduced  distance  in 
longitude  of  the  centre  of  the  axis  of  the  Repsold  meridian- 
circle  of  the  Odessa  Observatory  to  the  east  of  the  centre  of  ihe 
great  domcof  the  Berlin  Observatory  is  given  as  ih.  9m.  27"29s. 

The  Winki.er  Observatory. — Ilerr  Winkler  notifies,  in 
No.  2821  of  the  Astrononiische  Nachrichten,  the  transference 
of  his  private  observatory  from  Gohlis,  near  Leipzig  (N.  lat, 
51°  21'  35"'i  ;  long.  E.  from  (Greenwich,  oh.  49m.  29-653.),  to 
the  neighbourhood  of  Jena.  The  growth  of  the  city  of  Leipzig 
rendered  the  old  site  no  longer  a  favourable  one  for  observation. 
The  transit-instrument  and  small  4-inch  refractor  are  already 
temporarily  mounted.  The  co-ordinates  of  the  new  observatory 
are  taken  at  present  as  being  N.  lat.  50°  55'  35" -6  ;  long.  E. 
from  Greenwich,  oh.  46m.  2o-8s.  Herr  Winkler  publishes  at 
the  same  time  some  observations  of  occultations  and  eclipses  of 
Jupiter's  satellites  made  in  the  first  half  of  1887,  which  were  the 
last  observations  made  at  Gohlis. 


ASTRONOMICAL    PHENOMENA     FOR    THE 
WEEK  1888  JANUARY  29— FEBRUARY  4. 

/pOR  the  reckoning  of  time  the  civil  day,  commencing  at 
^_  Greenwich  mean  midnight,  counting  the  hours  on  to  24, 

is  here  employed. ) 


At  Greenwich  on  January  29 

Sun  rises,  7h.  45m.  ;  souths,  I2h.  13m,  ig'gs. ;  sets,  l6h.  41m.  : 
right  asc.  on  meridian,  2oh.  46 'im.  ;  decl.  18°  o'  S. 
Sidereal  Time  at  Sunset,  ih.  14m. 
Moon  (at  Last  Quarter  on  February  4,  igh.)  rises,  i6h.  2om.*; 
souths,  oh.  15m.;  sets,  8h.  im.  :  right  afc.  on  meridian, 
8h.  46 -om.  ;  decl.  17°  56'  N. 

Right  asc.  and  declination 
on  meridian. 


Planet. 


Rise? 


Souths. 


Sets. 


Mercury.. 

8  16  .. 

.  12  46  . 

.  17  16  .. 

.  21  i8-8  . 

•  17  39  S. 

Venus  ... 

5  20  .. 

.     9  23  . 

.  13  26  .. 

.  17  55'5  • 

.  21  47  S. 

Mars     . . . 

23  32*., 

.50. 

.  10  28  .. 

•  13  3i"9  • 

.      7     2S. 

Jupiter  .. 

3  13  •• 

.     7  30  • 

.   II  47  ■• 

.16     1-6  . 

.  19  45  S. 

Saturn  ... 

15  51  •. 

23  45   •. 

•     7  39*.. 

.     8  19-8  . 

.20    6N, 

Uranus . . . 

23     I*.. 

.     4  33  • 

.10    5  .. 

•  13    4-5  • 

.     6    9  S. 

Neptune. 

II  29  .. 

.   19    8  . 

■     247*- 

.     3  41-6  . 

.  17  54  N. 

*  Indicates  that  the  rising  is  that  of  the  preceding  evening  and  the  setting 
that  of  the  following  morning. 

Occultations  0/ Stars  by  the  Moon  (visible  at  Greenwich). 


Corresponding 

angles  from  ver- 

Jan.            Star. 

Mag. 

Disap. 

Reap.         tex  to  right  for 
inverted  image. 

h.   m. 

h.    m.                   00 

29  ...  7  Leonis  ... 

...    b\   . 

..    17   41    ••■ 

17  55     ...  332  298 

29  ...  i//  Leonis  ... 

...  6     . 

..    21    13    ... 

21    24      ...    320   300 

Feb. 

3   ...   80  Virginis 

...  6     . 

..     3  33  ••• 

4  44      ...      38    256 

Feb.              h. 

3       ...       8     ... 

Mars  in 

conjunction 

with  and  2"  50'  south 

of  the 

^loon. 

VaHable  Stars. 

Star. 

R.A. 

Decl. 

h.      m. 

, 

h.    m. 

U  Cephei     

0  52-4 

...  81   16  N. 

...  Jan.  30,  21     0  m 

R  Canis  Majoris... 

7  14-5 

..  16  12  S. 

...     „     30,     3     8  m 

U  Monocerotis    ... 

7  25-5 

...    9  33  S. 

...     „     30,             Af 

U  Hydrse     

10  32-0 

...  12  48  S. 

...     ,,     29,             M 

R  Crateris 

10  55-1 

...  17  43  S. 

...  Feb.    2,              M 

5  Librae        

14  55  0 

...    8    4S. 

.  .  Jan.  29,  19  25  m 
Feb.     I,     3  16  PI 

U  Bootis      

14  49-2 

..  18     9  N. 

...  Jan.  30,               m 

U  Coronse   

15  I3'6 

...  32     3  N. 

...  Feb.     I,    4  44  fn 

S  Serpentis 

15   16-4 

••  14  43  N. 

...  Jan.  31,             M 

U  Ophiuchi 

17  10-9 

..     I  20  N. 

...     „     29,  23  57  w 

and  at 

ntervals  of    20    8 

X  Sagittarii 

17  40-5 

..  27  47  S. 

...  Feb.    2,    5     0  m 

U  Aquilse    

19  23-3 

..    7  16  S. 

...     ,,       4,    5     0  m 

T  Vulpeculae 

20  467 

...  27  50  N. 

...  Jan.  29,  19    0  m 
Feb.    2,    4     0  3/ 

YCygni       

20  47 '6 

...  34  14  N. 

...  Jan.  31,  20  22  m 
Feb.    I,  20  15  m 

M 

signifies  maximum  ;  tn  minimum. 

GEOGRAPHICAL  NOTES. 

General  Prjevalsky  has  begun  to  print  his  narrative  of  his 
fourth  journey  in  Central  Asia.  It  is  expected  to  appear  in  May, 
and  we  may  hope  that  it  will  find  an  English  translator. 

We  are  glad  to  learn  that  the  French  explorer  of  the  Gran 
Chaco,  M.  Thouars,  is  safe.  The  Bolivian  Government  succeeded 
in  rescuing  him  from  a  perilous  position  among  hostile  Indians. 

A  Scotch  merchant  captain,  Mr.  Strachan,  has  just  returned 
from  New  Guinea,  many  hitherto  unexplored  parts  of  which  he 
seems  to  have  visited.  It  is  expected  that  he  will  be  able  to  give 
information  that  will  seriously  modify  the  cartography  of  the  Fly 
River  region.  He  maintains  that  the  forests  in  New  Guinea  are 
confined  to  a  fringe  along  the  banks  of  the  rivers,  and  that  the 
bulk  of  the  interior  is  covered  with  grass.  Captain  Strachan  has 
brought  home  with  him  a  young  Papuan  boy. 

The  steamer  Essex,  of  the  United  States  Navy,  has  been 
making  a  series  of  soundings  between  Cape  Guardafui  and 
Ceylon.  In  the  Indian  Ocean,  between  60°  and  70°  E.  long.,  a 
uniform  depth  of  about  2000  fathoms  is  almost  constantly  met 
with,  gradually  decreasing  as  the  coast  is  approached.  The 
greatest  depth  met  with  was  2705  fathoms,  off  the  coast  of 
Africa,   160   miles  from  Cape  Guardafui.     To  the  east  of  this 


Jan.  26,  1888] 


NATURE    3^ 


303 


maximum,  the  sea-bed  rises  suddenly  to  a  depth  of  only  857 
fathoms  below  the  surface. 

The  new  part  of  the  Mittheilungen  of  the  Hamburg 
Geographical  Society  contains  several  papers  of  interest.  Dr. 
[  Sievers  concludes  the  long  series  of  papers  describing  the  results 
of  his  journeys  in  Venezuela  with  some  remarks  on  his  original 
route  map  of  the  Venezuelan  Cordilleras,  which  are  accompanied 
by  an  admirable  reproduction  of  this  map.  In  addition  to 
this,  Herr  Frohberg  arranges  and  discusses  the  barometric  results 
obtained  by  Dr.  Sievers.  Dr.  Zintgraff  describes  the  Lower 
Congo  from  Banana  to  Vivi,  and  insists  on  the  importance  of  the 
Congo  for  the  exploration  of  the  region  behind  the  German 
Cameroons  protectorate.  Herr  Weisser  gives  a  fairly  cooiplete 
account  of  German  New  Guinea  and  the  Bismarck  Archipelago  ; 
and  Herr  Hernsheim  does  the  same  for  the  Marshall  Islands. 

As  a  supplement  to  the  Indian  Survey  Report  for  i88s-86> 
there  has  just  been  issued  the  narrative  of  the  journey  of  a 
native  explorer,  M — H,  through  Eastern  Nepaul  into  Southern 
Tibet,  as  far  as  the  town  of  Dingri,  and  westwards  and  south- 
wards through  Central  Nepaul.  M — H  has  succeeded  in  rectifying 
in  many  points  existing  information  on  the  hydrography  of  the 
region  traversed,  and  gives  many  useful  notes  on  its  physical 
geography  and  its  flora,  as  well  as  on  the  people. 


OUR  ELECTRICAL  COLUMN. 

The  additional  facts  added  to  our  knowledge  of  electricity 
in  1887  are  not  very  numerous,  but  the  impetus  given  to  its 
practical  applications  was  very  encouraging.  One  of  the  most  im- 
portant scientific  discoveries  was  that  of  Prof.  J.  J.  Thomson, 
which  formed  the  subject  of  the  Bakerian  Lecture,  viz.  that  sparks 
in  tubes  dissociated  iodine,  bromine,  and  chlorine.  In  iodine 
the  dissociation  produced  at  214°  C.  was  as  much  as  that  effected 
directly  by  Victor  Meyer  at  1570°  C. 

Prof.  Ewing  showed  that  there  was  apparently  no  limit  to 
the  magnetization  of  iron  in  strong  magnetic  fieldi  when  we  in- 
creased the  magnetizing  force,  and  Prof.  Roberts  Austen  showed 
that  it  was  impossible  to  separate  the  elements  of  alloys  by  means 
of  electric  currents. 

Immense  improvements  have  been  made  in  the  construction 
of  dynamos,  motors,  accumulators,  and  secondary  generators, 
and  in  consequence  electric  lighting  and  working  of  railways  and 
tramways  are  upon  a  commercial  and  useful  stage.  Many  other 
causes  besides  restrictive  legislation  have  retarded  electric  light- 
ing in  England,  but  there  are  now  many  signs  that  this  useful 
industry  is  in  more  senses  than  one  about  to  commence  a  very 
bright  career. 

Several  useful  constants  have  been  added  to  our  note- 
books during  the  past  year.  Dr.  John  Hopkinson  is  pursuing 
his  examination  of  the  specific  inductive  capacity  of  oils  and 
other  liquids. 

Mr.  Preece  has  determined  the  coefficient  of  self-induction 
of  straight  iron  telegraph  aerial  wires  to  0'005  x  10®  centimetres 
per  mile,  while  that  of  copper  wire  is  practically  nil.  He  has 
also  measured  the  current  which  will  just  actuate  a  B2II  telephone, 
and  he  found  it  to  ba  6  x  lO"^^  ampere. 

The  application  of  powerful  electric  currents  to  smeltinj,  as 
in  the  Cowles  process  for  producing  aluminium,  and  to  welding,  as 
proposed  by  Elihu  Thompson,  is  gaining  rapid  progress,  while 
the  use  of  enormous  dynamos  for  the  deposition  of  pure  copper 
from  impure  ores  is  gaining  ground  with  giant  strides.  Messrs. 
Bolton,  at  Widnes,  and  Messrs.  Vivian,  as  well  as  Messrs. 
Lambert  at  Swansea,  are  each  depositing  from  fo  ty  to  fifty  tons 
of  copper  per  week  by  currents  of  from  5000  to  10,000  amperes. 

The  Society  of  Telegraph-Engineers  and  Electricians  has  de- 
cided to  change  its  title  to  that  of  the  Institution  of  Electrical 
Engineers — a  change  for  the  better.  Mr.  Graves,  the  new  Pre- 
sident, gave  an  exceedingly  interesting  address  on  the  industrial 
importance  of  electricity,  and  he  brought  out  the  remarkable  fact 
that  there  are  at  least  300,000  persons  in  the  United  Kingdom 
depending  upon  electrical  industry  for  their  daily  bread. 

Some  of  our  prominent  workers  in  the  field  of  electricity, 
such  as  Lord  Rayleigh,  Sir  William  Thomson,  and  Prof  Hughes, 
are  conspicuous  by  their  absence  during  the  past  year,  although 
the  two  former  have  been  by  no  means  idle  in  other  directions. 


A  NOTE  ON  VALENCY,  ESPECIALLY  AS 
DEFINED  BY  HELMHOLTZ,^ 

'\7'ERY  little  has  been  either  said  or  written  of  late  on  the  sub- 
*  ject  of  valency — not  because  the  topic  is  admitted  to  be 
exhausted,  nor  because  our  views  can  be  regarded  as  reposing 
on  a  fixed  basis  of  fact,  but  more  I  believe  on  account  of  the 
feeling  being  almost  universally  entertained  that  little  is  to 
be  gained  by  continuing  the  discussion  from  our  present 
standpoint. 

My  purpose  in  this  note  is  to  call  attention  to  the  extreme 
importance  of  reopening  the  discussion  on  account  of  the 
intimate  bearing  that  it  has  on  the  work  in  which  the 
Electrolysis  Committee,  jointly  appointed  by  Sections  A  and  B, 
are  now  engaged  ;  and  to  urge  that  it  is  time  that  the  gage 
thrown  down  by  Helmholtz  in  the  Faraday  Lecture  (Chem. 
Soc.  Trans.,  1S81,  p.  277)  was  uplifted  by  chemists. 

We  are  told  by  Helmholtz  that  it  is  a  necessary  deduction 
from  the  fundamental  law  of  electrolysis  established  by  Fara- 
day, that  definite,  as  it  were  atomic,  charges  of  electricity  ai-e 
associated  with  the  atoms  of  matter  ;  that,  in  fact,  a  monad 
bears  a  single  charge,  a  dyad  two,  a  triad  three  ;  and  that 
when  combination  occurs  the  charges  are  still  retained  by  the 
atoms  but  neutralize  each  other — "thj  atoJis  cling  to  their 
charges,  and  opposite  electric  charges  cling  to  each  other."  I 
cannot  help  thinking,  however,  that  Helmholtz  deprives  his 
statement  of  much  of  its  force  and  simplicity  by  adding : 
"But  I  do  not  suppose  that  other  molecular  forces  are 
excluded,  working  directly  from  atom  to  atom."  He  is  led  to 
do  this  apparently  by  being  aware  of  the  distinction  which  it 
is  usual  to  draw  between  atomic  and  molecular  compouads. 
The  attempt  should  at  all  events  be  made — and  in  my  paper 
on  "Residual  Affinity"  I  have  already  ventured  the  first  step 
— to  include  both  classes  of  compounds,  molecular  as  well  as 
atomic,  in  the  discussion  ;  indeed  it  is  somewhat  difficult  to 
reconcile  the  passage  above  quoted  with  the  following  state- 
ment which  occurs  previously  in  the  lecture:  "The  law  of 
the  conservation  of  energy  requires  that  the  electromotive  force 
of  every  cell  must  correspond  exactly  with  the  t  )tal  amount 
of  chemical  forces  brought  into  play,  not  only  the  mutual 
affinities  of  the  ions,  but  also  thne  mino/  molecular'  attradims 
produced  by  ike  -wa'.er  and  other  constituents  of  the  fluid." 
The  italics  are  mine.  But  if  the  "  minor  molecular  attrac- 
tions "  contribute  to  the  electromotive  force  of  the  cell,  then 
conversely  these  also  will  have  to  be  overcome  in  effecting 
electrolysis,  aid  are  as  much  to  be  reckoned  as  are  the  "mutual 
affinities  of  the  ions  "  ! 

It  is  obvious  that  if  it  should  prove  possible  to  decide  what 
nu  nber  of  charges  are  necessarily  associated  with  any  particular 
atom,  the  conception  of  valency  will  have  acquired  a  definiteness 
which  cannot  possibly  be  attached  to  it  as  lon^  as  the  views  that 
have  hitherto  guided  us  are  adhered  to.  A  decision  must  involve 
the  discussion  of  the  question  of  the  existence  of  molecular  as 
distinct  from  atomic  compounds. 

To  cast  the  apple  of  discord  without  further  preface,  I  would 
direct  attention  to  the  insufficiency  of  the  evidence  on  which  it 
is  usual  to  rely  as  proof  that  nitrogen,  for  example,  is  a 
pentad  ;  nay  more,  I  would  assert  that  this  very  evidence  should 
be  interpreted  as  proof  that  nitrogen  is  not  a  pentad.  It  is 
commonly  held  that  the  behaviour  of  the  alkyl  tetra-substituted 
derivatives  of  ammonium  is  such  as  to  negative  the  idea  that 
these  are  "  molecular  compounds "  of  triad  nitrogen,  and  that 
it  must  be  assumed  that  the  elements  of  the  binary  compound 
which  are  added  to  the  ammonia  derivative  are  distributed 
in  the  ammonium  derivative  ;  for  example,  that  in  the  formation 
of  tetramethylammonium  iodide  from  tri  nethylamine  and  methyl 
iodide  the  methyl  and  iodine  of  the  iodide  part  company  and 
separately  attach  themselves  to  the  nitrogen,  thus  :  — 


^K^a-z 

CH 

N— CH3     -f 

1 

^CH, 

I 

CH, 


.CH, 


^N— CHj 
^     \CH. 


But  I  contend  that  the  properties  of  tetramethylammonium  iodide 
and  hydroxide  prove  that  such  is  not  the  case  :  the  iodide,  it  is 
well  known,  can  be  boiled  for  hours  with  the  strongest  caustic 
potash  solution  without  undergoing  change  ;  there  is  not  a  single 

'  A  Paper  read  by  Prof.    Henry  E.  Armstrong,  F.R  S..  in  Section  B  oC 
the  British  Association  at  Manchester.     Communicated  by  the  Author. 


304 


NATURE 


{yan,  26,  1888 


case  on  record,  however,  of  any  haloid  compound  other  than  an 
alkylic  compound  behaving  in  this  manner ;  the  chlorides, 
bromides,  and  iodides  of  every  element  except  carbon  are  almost 
at  once  converted  into  hydroxides  by  such  treatment,  and  a 
nitrogen  iodide  would  surely  be  acted  on.  The  behaviour  of 
the  iodine  is  much  more  nearly  that  of  iodine  in  methyl  iodide, 
and,  it  may  be  said,  exactly  that  of  the  iodine  in  iodobenzene  ; 
indeed  it  would  seem  that  in  the  alkyl-ammonium  haloid  com- 
pounds the  halogen  is  always  less  easily  displaced  by  the  action 
of  alkalies  than  it  is  in  the  parent  haloid  alkylic  compound. 

The  remarkable  resemblance  of  the  tetra-substituted  am- 
monium hydroxides  to  potassium  hydroxide  has  led  to  their 
being  regarded  as  in  every  respect  analogous  to  this  latter, 
and  would  appear  to  preclude  the  idea  that  they  are  molecular 
compounds  of  an  alcohol  with  an  ammonium  derivative.  But 
attentive  consideration  of  their  properties  will  suffice,  I  think, 
to  show  that  the  apparent  discreiJancies  are  not  only  explic- 
able, but  that  they  actually  support  the  molecular  compound 
hypothesis.  Thus  it  might  be  said  to  be  improbable  that  tetra- 
methylammonium  hydroxide  should  behave  as  a  powerful  base, 
and  have  the  same  heat  of  neutralization  as  potassium  hydroxide, 
if  methyl-alcohol  were  one  of  its  proximate  constituents  ;  but  it 
is  to  be  remembered  that  the  salt  which  results  from  the  action 
of  an  acid  on  methyl-alcohol  is  liable  to  suffer  reconversion  into 
the  alcohol  by  the  action  of  the  water  produced  in  the  inter- 
change ;  also  that  in  many  cases  the  methyl  salt  is  insoluble  in 
water,  or  nearly  so.  The  heat  developed  on  neutralizing  methyl - 
alcohol  therefore  falls  far  short  in  amount  of  that  which  would 
be  evolved  if  the  interchange  were  complete,  and  if  the  product 
were  capable  of  interacting  with  water,  and  perhaps  also  with 
itself  in  the  way  that  apparently  is  possible  in  the  case  of  metallic 
salts.  In  the  case  of  the  tetramethylammonium  hydroxide,  the 
action  of  acids  is  total  as  the  change  is  irreversible,  or  almost 
so,  under  the  conditions  which  obtain  during  the  formation  of 
the  salt,  just  as  in  the  case  of  the  conversion  of  potassium 
hydroxide  into  a  salt ;  moreover,  the  product  is  easily  soluble, 
even  when  acids  like  muriatic  are  used.  Why  the  methyl- 
alcohol,  or  other  methyl  derivative,  retained  in  the  ammonium 
compound  behaves  so  differently  as  compared  with  the  unasso- 
ciated  methyl  derivative,  is  a  question  which,  for  the  present, 
we  must  be  content  to  put  aside  unanswered.  I  am  also  of 
opinion  that  in  discussing  their  constitution  no  particular  weight 
can  be  attached  to  the  mode  in  which  the  tetralkylic  ammonium 
hydroxides  undergo  decomposition  when  heated,  as  the  products 
in  some  cases  are  an  amine  and  an  alcohol,  but  in  others  an 
olefine  and  water,  instead  of  an  alcohol ;  in  the  ease  of  the 
phosphonium  salts  the  diversity  is  still  greater  (Chem.  Soc. 
Proceedings,  1886,  p.  164).  That  amines  may  act  as  "de- 
hydrating" agents  in  the  manner  required  if  the  molecular 
compound  hypothesis  be  adopted,  appears  by  no  means  im- 
probable. 

What  is  here  stated  of  the  tetramethyl  compounds  is  true 
of  tetralkylic  ammonium  haloid  compounds  generally,  in  the 
sense  that  they  are  all  less  readily  acted  on  by  alkalies  than  are 
the  parent  alkylic  haloid  compounds  ;  but  just  as  these  latter 
are  more  readily  attacked  by  alkalies  and  other  agents  the  more 
complex  the  alkyl,  so  are  the  tetralkyl  ammonium  compounds; 
in  no  case,  however,  do  they  manifest  a  reactivity  at  all  com- 
parable with  that  of  simple  metallic  or  non-metallic  haloid 
compounds—always  excepting  those  of  carbon. 

The  argument  used  above  would  apply  equally  to  the  phos- 
phonium and  sulphine  compounds  ;  indeed  with  greater  force. 

In  many  other  respects  the  behaviour  of  nitrogen  in  aminic 
compounds  is  altogether  peculiar  and  irreconcilable  with  the 
assumption  of  pentadicity.  Thus  it  is  commonly  pointed  out 
that  the  basic  properties  of  aniline,  for  example,  become  lessened 
and  ultimately  almost  annulled  by  the  introduction  of  chlorine 
or  bromine  into  the  phenyl  radicle ;  and  that  acetamide, 
C2H3O  .  NHg,  and  other  similar  compounds  formed  by  the 
introduction  of  acid  radicles  into  ammonia  are  all  but  destitute 
of  basic  properties  ;  the  power  to  form  ammonium  compounds, 
therefore,  is  not  a  simple  function  of  the  nitrogen  atom,  but  is 
largely  dependent  on  the  nature  of  the  radicles  associated  with 
the  nitrogen  atom.  Other  illustrations  are  afforded  by  the 
hydrazines.  Thus  phenyl-hydrazine,  CgHs.NH.NHj,  al- 
though it  contains  two  atoms  of  (triad)  nitrogen,  forms  with 
hydrogen  chloride  the  compound  CgHj.  N.2H3 .  HCl,  which 
crystallizes  unchanged  from  fuming  muriatic  acid,  in  which, 
moreover,  it  is  almost  insoluble.  Ethyl-hydrazine,  however, 
forms  a  dichlorhydride,  CgHg .  NgHg .  2HCI,  but  on  evapor- 
ating the  aqueous  solution  of  this  salt  a  monochlorhydride  is 


obtained  ;  and  unsymmetric  diethyl-hydrazine,  (C2Hg)2N  .  NHg, 
is  a  monobase  like  phenyl  hydrazine. 

Hence  it  may  well  be  argued  that  we  have  no  reason  to 
assume  that  nitrogen  is  pentad  in  the  ammonium  compounds, 
or  phosphorus  pentad  in  the  phosphoniucn  compounds,  or 
sulphur  tetrad  ^  in  the  sulphine  compounds  ;  but  that  these  are 
all  to  be  reckoned  as  molecular  compounds. 

What  then  is  the  valency  of  the  elements  in  question  ?  and 
what  is  a  molecular  compound  ? 

In  answer  to  the  first  of  these  questions,  the  proposition 
may  be  advanced  that  gasefiable  hydrogen  compounds  are 
the  only  compounds  available  for  the  direct  determination  of 
valency,  and  that  the  valency  of  an  element — the  number  of 
unit  charges  necessarily  associated  with  its  atom — is  given  by 
the  number  of  hydrogen  atoms  combined  with  the  single  atom 
of  the  element  in  its  gasefiable  hydride.*  In  cases  where  such 
hydrides  are  unknown,  the  determination  of  valency  is  very 
difficult ;  it  can  be  but  provisionally  effected,  and  only  by  most 
carefully  weighing  all  the  evidence  relating  to  the  constitution  of 
the  compounds  available  for  discussion. 

But  if  it  be  granted,  for  example,  that  nitrogen  is  a  triad, 
and  that  iodine  is  a  monad,  how  are  we  to  explain  the  fact  that 
the  methyl  compounds  of  these  two  elements  unite  to  form 
so  well  characterized  a  molecular  compound  as  tetramethyl- 
ammonium iodide  ?  how  are  such  molecular  compounds  con- 
stituted ?  My  own  view  has  long  been  that  the  nitrogen  and 
iodine  in  such  a  case  are  both  possessed  of  a  certain  amount  of 
residual  affinity  ;  and  I  would  define  a  molecular  compound  as 
one  formed  by  the  coalescence  of  two  or  more  molecules,  un- 
attended by  redistribution  of  the  constituent  radicles,  and  in 
which  the  integrant  molecules  are  united  by  residual  affinities. 
In  other  words,  the  unit  charge  must  be  capable  in  certain  cases 
of  directly  promoting  the  association,  not  merely  of  two,  but  of 
at  least  three,  atoms.  '  To  put  this  hypothesis  in  terms  which 
cannot  be  misunderstood,  let  unit  valency  or  charge  be  repre- 
sented by  a  unit  line,  and  further  be  it  supposed  that  the  charge 
penetrates  the  atom,  then  the  atom  with  its  unit  charge  may  be 
represented  thus  : — 


f 


e 


f 


i.e.  the  unit  charge  may  be  held  to  consist  of  three  portions, 
the  buried  portion  «,  and  the  free  portions /-f-/'.  The  facts, 
as  they  present  themselves  to  me,  also  appear  to  necessitate 
the  assumption  that,  in  the  case  of  different  elements,  the  charge 
penetrates  the  atom — and  in  the  case  of  some  polyad  atoms, 
different  directions  in  the  atom — with  varying  degrees  of  freedom.^ 
The  union  of  two  atoms  may  then  be  pictured  as  an  overlapping 
of  the  unit  lines.  If  the  atoms  are  freely  penetrated  by  their 
charges,  each  atom  may  tend  to  move  out  to  the  end  of  the  line, 
leaving  either  no  portion,  or  but  a  very  small  portion,  free  ;  a 
conception  of  this  order  would  appear  to  apply  in  the  case  of 
hydrogen,  and  may  be  represented  thus  : — 


H. 


H, 


But  if  the  atom  be  not  easily  penetrated  by  its  charge,  it  will 
not  move  out  to  the  end  of  its  line,  and  the  resulting  com- 
pound molecule  will  possess  more  or  less  "  residual  affinity  ; " 
this  conception  would  appear  to  apply  to  the  non-metals 
generally,  and  to  some  of  the  metals  ;  it  may  be  illustrated 
thus  :  — 


e 


^ 


v_y 


e 


JZh. 


KJ 


II. 


CI. 


HCl. 


I  have  thought  it  permissible  to  state  my  views  in  this  form 
merely  in  order  to  advance  the  study  of  molecular  compounds 

'  Probably  one  of  the  strongest  arguments  in  favour  of  the  conclusion  tha* 
sulphur  is  divalent  may  be  based  on  its  inactivity  in  the  cbsed-chain  com- 
pound thiophen,  which  does  not  unite  wUh  methyl  iodide,  nor  does  the 
sulphur  in  it  or  its  homologues  permit  of  oxidation  in  the  manner  that  is 
characteristic  of  the  element  m  thioethers. 

^  If  this  be  granted,  it  follows  that  the  maximum  number  of  charges 
which  an  ato.n  can  carry  is  four  ;  in  ottier  words,  t.iat  the  posiibla  maximum 
valency  is  attained  in  the  case  of  carbon. 

3  This  is  practically  but  a  modification  of  Helmholtz's  statement  that 
"  the  phenomena  are  the  same  as  if  equivalents  of  positive  and  negative 
electricity  were  attracted  by  different  atoms,  and  perhaps  also  by  the 
different  v.-ilues  of  affinity  belonging  to  the  same  atom,  with  different  force. 


Jan.  26,  1888] 


NA JURE 


)C5 


by  the  introduction  of  a  working  hypothesis,  an  absolutely 
artificial  mode  of  expression  such  as  is  here  adopted  being 
perhaps  pardonable  in  the  absence  of  any  explanation  which 
may  serve  to  guide  us  in  extending  o.ur  inquiries  as  regards  the 
structure  of  such  compounds,  a  knowledge  of  which  is  all-im- 
portant to  a  rational  conception  of  the  nature  of  chemical  change 
generally.  Moreover,  I  do  not  hesitate  to  affirm  that,  from  the 
chemical  point  of  view,  it  is  impossible  to  adopt  the  Helmholtz 
explanation  of  valency,  unless  physicists  are  prepared  to  grant 
the  possibility  of  the  "  division  "  of  the  unit  charge  soir.ewhat 
in  the  manner  here  suggested  ;  and  it  is  in  order  to  impress  this 
that  I  have  ventured  to  give  utterance  to  these  speculations. 

To  return  to  the  consideration  of  the  compounds  previously 
referred  to,  it  may  be  supposed  that  the  nitrogen  of  irirr.ethyl- 
amine  and  the  iodine  of  methyl  iodide  are  possessed  of  residual 
affinity,  and  hence  the  two  molecules  unite  to  form  the  molecular 
compound  tetramethylanimonium.  iodide,  which  may  be  repre- 
sented thus : — 


=N- 


cn. 


The  phosphonium  and  sulphine  iodides  may  be  regarded  as 
similarly  constituted.  It  is  well  known  that  the  ammonium 
haloid  compounds  and  their  analogues  are  also  capable  of  form- 
ing still  more  complex  molecular  aggregates  with  the  halogens, 
&c.  :  they  are  therefore  to  be  regarded  as  possessed  of  residual 
affinity  ;  and  that  polyad  elements,  e.g.  nitrogen,  phosphorus, 
and  sulphur,  should  still  exhibit  residual  affinity  in  such  com- 
pounds is  not  surprising  in  the  light  of  the  hypothesis  advocated 
in  this  note  ;  but  it  is  scarcely  compatible  with  the  assumption 
that  the  halogen  in  the  ammonium  haloid  compounds  serves  as 
the  bond  of  union.  On  the  other  hand,  if  it  be  assumed,  as  I 
think  it  should  be,  that  the  formation  of  double  metallic  chlor- 
ides, &c.,  is  the  outcome  of  the  possession  of  residual  affinity 
by  the  halogen,  the  complete  analogy  which  appears  to  exist 
between  the  ammonium  haloid  compounds  and  those  of  the 
alkali  metals  would  seem  logically  to  involve  the  inference  that 
the  halogen  of  the  ammonium  compound  doe>  not  serve  as  the 
bond  of  union.  I  see  but  one  mode  of  escape  from  this  conflict 
of  evidence,  and  that  is  to  call  in  question  the  time-honoured 
assumption  that  the  radical  ammonium  is  the  true  analogue  of 
potassium  and  sodium,  which,  be  it  remarked,  is  of  necessity 
subject  to  doubt  if  the  hypothesis  that  the  ammonium  salts  are 
molecular  compounds  be  entertained  ;  and  evidence  which  sup- 
ports the  conclusion  that  the  per-haloid  compound  is  formed  by 
the  addition  of  the  halogen  to  the  nitrogen  (phosphorus  or  sul- 
phur) is  afforded  by  the  observation  that  not  only  haloid  ammo- 
nium and  sulphine  compounds,  but  also  the  sulphates,  combine 
with  halogens  (Dobbin  and  Masson,  Chetn.  Soc.  Trans.,  1885, 
p.  56  ;   18S6,  p.  846). 

It  is  now  proved  by  abundant  experimental  evidence  that, 
whatever  the  order  in  which  the  radicles  A,  13,  C,  D  are 
introduced  in  forming  a  tetralkylic  ammonium  compound 
N(ABCD)X,  one  and  the  same  end  product  always  results. 
This  is  commonly  regarded  as  proof,  not  only  that  nitrogen  is 
pentad,  but  also  that  the  five  affinities  of  the  nitrogen  atom  are 
of  equal  value,  and  it  would  appear  to  favour  the  conclusion 
that  the  ammoniu.n  salts  are  in  truth  "atomic"  compounds; 
but  I  see  no  reason  why  isomeric  change  should  not  occur  at  the 
moment  of  formation  of  a  molecular  compound— why  the  in- 
tegrant molecules,  in  fact,  should  not  interchange  radicles.  If 
the  statement  be  confirmed  ^  that  the  compound  formed  from 
dimethyl  sulphide  and  ethyl  iodide  is  different  from  that  ob- 
tained on  combining  methyle:hyl  sulphide  and  ethyl  iodide 
(Krliger, /^«r«.  pr.  Cheiii.,  1876,  xiv.  p.  193),  it  \yill  follow, 
not  that  sulphur  is  a  tetrad,  and  that  the  four  affinities  are  of 
unequal  value,  but  that  there  is  little  or  no  tendency  for  isomeric 
change  to  occur  in  the  formation  of  sulphines.  The  possible 
occurrence  of  isomeric  change  in  the  formation  of  molecular 
compounds,  however,  is  a  subject  which  certainly  deserves 
careful  study  at  the  present  time. 

In  the  case  of  phosphorus,  the  existence  of  the  highly  stable 
gaseous  peniafluoride  PFj,  discovered  by  Thorpe,  is  undoubt- 
edly regarded  by  many  as  final  proof  of  the  pentadicity  of  this 

I  The  number  ol Liebig' s  Annalen  last  issued  contains^a  valuable  paper  by 
KlingeranJ  Maassen  disproving  Kriiger's  statement. 


element ;  but  the  existence  of  compounds  such  as  HjFj,  HFFR, 
&c. ,  which  clearly  belong  to  the  class  of  molecular  compounds, 
is  an  indication  of  so  marked  a  tendency  on  the  part  of  fluorine 
to  combine  with  itself,  that  for  this  reason  alone  (as  Naumann 
and  others  have  asserted)  the  pentafluorideisby  no  means  neces- 
sarily regarded  as  an  atomic  compound.  And  I  would  here  add 
that  stability  affords  no  criterion  as  between  atomic  and  mole- 
cular compounds,  every  degree  of  stability  being  met  with  even 
among  those  of  the  former  class. 

An  argument  in  favour  of  the  pentadicity  of  phosphorus 
which  apparently  cannot  be  disposed  of  by  any  explanation 
based  on  conventional  considerations  has,  however,  been  ad- 
vanced by  La  Coste  and  Michaelis  {Berichte,  1885,  p.  21 18), 
who  have  shown  that  the  compounds  obtained  from  diphenyl- 
chlorophosphine,  PCKCeHg).^,  and  phenol  is  not  identical  with 
the  triphenyl-phosphine  oxide,  OP(C(jH5)3,  obtained  by  oxidiz- 
ing triphenyl-phosphine,  as  it  should  be  if  the  latter  were  a 
compound  of  the  formula  {CQHr^.2V  .  OCgH.,  ;  this  last  corre- 
sponding to  the  formula  ClgP  .  OCl,  which  has  been  suggested 
as  that  of  phosphorus  oxychloride,  and  which  appears  to  derive 
considerable  support  from  Thorpe's  observations  on  the  specific 
volume  of  the  oxychloride  (Chem.  Soc.  Trans.,  1880,  p.  388). 
It  is,  however,  conceivable  that  the  oxygen  and  phosphorus  are 
united  by  residual  affinities,  thus  ; — 


D^ 


-CI 
-CI 
-CI 


03 


a 


CgHg 
.  CrHs 


Michaelis  and  Polls  {Berichte,  1887,  p.  52)  have  argued  in  the 
case  of  bismuth,  which  also  is  a  member  of  the  nitrogen  group, 
that  the  pentadicity  of  this  element  is  proved  by  the  existence 
of  the  triphenyl  dibromide,  (CoH5)3BiBro.  But  the  mere  pro- 
duction of  such  a  compound  proves  nothing  so  long  as  its  con- 
stitution is  undetermined  ;  it  at  most  serves  to  strengthen  the 
conviction  gained  from  the  general  study  of  the  element,  that 
bismuth  is  a  member  of  the  nitrogen- phosphorus  group. 

In  other  cases  also  it  is  possible  that  undue  importance  may  have 
been  attached  to  the  existence  of  alkylic  compounds  of  particular 
types  :  thus  lead,  judging  from  its  general  chemical  behaviour, 
would  appear  to  be  a  dyad  ;  yet  the  existence  of  the  tetrethi.- 
Pb(C2Hg)4,  is  commonly  held  to  be  a  proof  that  it  can  functi< 
as  a  tetrad.  But  the  properties  of  lead  are  such  that  I  am 
tempted  to  suggest  that  it  is  one  of  the  metals  in  which  the 
"charges  "  have  but  a  small  degree  of  freedom  ;  and  it  is  con- 
ceivable that  the  tetrethide  is  actually  a  compound  of  dyad  lead, 
each  charge  serving  to  bind  two  ethyl  groups,  thus  : — 


H5C2 
H5C., 


^ 


■C.2HS 
-C2H5 


The  same  may  be  true  of  tin,  although  in  this  case  the  fact  tha 
we  are  dealing  with  an  element  of  the  carbon-silicon  family  tend 
to  favour  the  conclusion  that  it  may  be  a  tetrad. 

Also  too  much  importance  must  not  be  attached  to  the  exist- 
ence of  stable  volatile  chlorine  compounds  :  thus  tellurium  tetra- 
chloride  may  well  be  a  compound  of  dyad  tellurium,  thus  : — 


Iron,  and  the  other  members  of  the  family  which  boron  heads, 
in  like  manner,  I  feel  convinced,  are  triads  even  in  their  ic  com- 
pounds :  recent  vapour-density  determinations  all  support  this 
conclusion. 

It  IS  even  conceivable  that  chlorine  may  form  closed-chain  com- 
pounds, and  that  a  tetrachloride  may  exist,  such  as  is  represented 
by  the  formula  : — 


-eir 


-et- 


Te. 


-Gir 


-€i- 


I  think  it  is  especially  noteworthy  that  so  many  well  charac- 
terized and  comparatively  stable  double  chlorides  exist  formed  by 
the  union  of  chlorides  of  which  one  at  least  is  persevevy  unstable  ; 
the  tin-sulphur  chloride,  SnC^  .  2SCI4,  and  the  remarkable 
series  of  aurous  compounds  recently  described  by  Lepetit  (.Ann. 
Chim.  Phys.,  1887,  p.  11)  may  be  cited  as  examples. 


306 


NATURE 


{Jan.  26,  1888 


If  my  contention  in  this  and  previous  papers  be  correct,  that 
residual  affinity  thus  plays  a  far  more  important  part  than  has 
hitherto  been  supposed,  and  that  it  must  be  taken  into  account 
in  all  discussions  on  valency,  it  folio  a^s  of  necessity  that  our 
views  regarding  the  constitution  of  the  majority  of  compounds 
at  present  rest  upon  a  most  uncertain  basis  :  the  constitution  of 
the  paraffins,  of  the  benzenes,  and  of  the  haloid  co.npounds  and 
alcohols  derived  from  the  hydrocarbons  of  these  series,  may  be 
regarded  as  determined  vi^ith  a  degree  of  precision  almost 
amounting  to  certainty  ;  but  in  the  vast  majority  of  other  cases 
we  have  as  yet  no  secure  method  of  arriving  at  conclusions 
which  in  any  sense  approach  finality.  There  can  belittle  doubt 
that  in  framing  our  modern  conceptions  of  valency  we  have 
been  too  much  influenced  by  the  graphic  symbols  which  have 
been  so  widely  made  use  of.  In  the  future  it  will  be  necessary 
to  attach  a  more  liberal  interpretation  to  the  facts,  and  it  may  be 
hoped  that  it  will  some  day  be  pos5ible  also  to  take  into  account 
differences  depending  on  the  relation  of  the  different  forms  of 
matter  to  the  pervading  medium. 

The  properties  of  compounds  being  demonstrably  dependent 
on  the  intramolecular  conditions,  it  is  difficult  for  a  chemist  to 
resist  the  feeling  that  the  peculiarities  manifested  by  the  different 
elements  are  also  very  probably  the  outcome  of  differences  in 
structure  ;  such  an  assumption  in:leed  affords  at  present  ap- 
parently the  only  explanation  that  can  be  given  of  the  relationship 
manifest  between  different  elements  when  these  are  classified  in 
groups  of  "  homologues "  in  accordance  with  the  suggestion 
originally  made  by  Dumas,  which  has  now  found  full  expression 
in  the  so-called  periodic  system  of  classification.  There 
appears  to  be  an  increasing  weight  of  evidence  to  favour  the 
assumption  that  the  influence  exercised  by  compounds  in  cases 
of  chemical  change  is  local  in  its  origin  :  that  it  is  exercised 
more  by  a  particular  constituent  or  constituents — in  particular 
directions,  in  fact — than  by  the  molecule  as  a  whole.  The  sug- 
gestion above  made  that  ' '  affinity  "  acts  in  particular  directions  in 
elementary  atoms,  and  perhaps  with  different  degrees  of  freedom 
in  various  directions,  is  therefore  but  an  extension  to  elements 
of  what  is  more  or  less  generally  recognized  as  the  case  in  com- 
pounds. Some  such  hypothesis  is  certainly  required  to  account 
for  the  existence  of  allotropic  modifications  both  of  non-metals 
and  of  metals  ;  for  the  remarkable  changes  in  magnetic  and 
other  properties  which  iron  undergoes  with  change  of  tempera- 
ture ;  for  the  different  values  of  the  dielectric  constant — along 
the  several  axes  in  sulphur  crystals  ;  for  the  difference  in  electric 
conductivity  of  bismuth  in  two  different  directions  in  bismuth 
crystals  ;  for  the  existence  of  planes  in  crystals  in  which  cleavage 
takes  place  with  special  readiness,  &c. — all  these  are  instances 
which  apparently  afford  evidence  of  atomic  dissymmetry.  May 
not  valency  after  all  depend — not  in  the  number  of  "charges" 
carried  by  the  atom,  but — on  the  number  of  directions  in  which 
the  ever-present  "  lines  of  force  "  are  free  to  act  ? 


WORK  OF  THE  KEW  OBSERVATORY  IN 
1887. 

nrilE  Annual  Report  of  the  Kew  Committee,  just  issued,  shows 
•^  that  the  activity  of  the  staff  of  the  Kew  Observatory  is  still 
well  sustained,  and  the  various  departments  devoted  to  observa- 
tions— magnetic,  meteorological,  and  solar — verification  of 
scientific  apparatus  of  various  kinds,  rating  of  timepieces,  and 
experiment,  all  show  a  considerable  turn  out  of  work.  In 
addition  to  the  regular  periodical  magnetical  observations, 
the  main  results  of  which  are  given  in  a  concise  form  in  the 
appendixes,  assistance  was  rendered  to  Profs.  Riicker  and 
Thorpe  in  respect  to  their  valuable  magnetic  survey  of  Great 
Britain,  M'hich  we  are  glad  to  learn  they  have  now  completed, 
after  having  devoted  the  greater  portion  of  their  vacations  to 
the  task  for  the  la=t  four  years.  The  labours  of  the  Krakatao 
Committee  of  the  Royal  Society,  the  Magnetic  Committee  of 
the  British  Association,  the  late  Prof.  Balfour  Stewart,  and 
other  investigators,  have  also  been  supplemented  by  aid  afforded 
by  the  Kew  staff. 

The  meteorological  staff  have  during  the  year  recorded, 
principally  on  behalf  of  the  Meteorological  Council,  who  defray 
the  expenses  attendant  on  the  work,  some  57,126  observa- 
tions averaging  over  150  per  diem  ;  the  resulting  monthly  and 
annual  means  are,  by  permission  of  the  Council,  published  as  1 
appendixes. 

The  multiplication  of  Observatories  engaged  in  solar  photo-  j 


graphy  at  home  and  abroad  having  rendered  unnecessary  the 
co-operation  of  Kew  in  that  branch  of  science,  so  energetically 
carried  on  there  by  the  present  Chairman,  Mr.  De  la  Rue,  and 
the  late  Prof.  Balfour'  Stewart,  twenty  years  ago,  the  photo- 
heliograph  has  only  been  employed  of  late  years  as  an  ordinary 
telescope,  by  means  of  which  the  counting  of  new  sunspot 
groups  is  continued  after  Schwabe's  method. 

An  appendix  shows  that  during  the  last  year  44  new  groups 
were  catalogued,  and  that  on  60  days  out  of  180  days  of 
observations  the  sun's  surface  was  free  from  spots. 

Under  the  heading  "Experimental  Work"  we  find  a  good 
deal  of  attention  has  been  devoted  to  the  photography  of  high 
cirrus  clouds  simultaneously  from  two  points,  with  the  view  of 
determining  their  position  and  motions  ;  and  to  the  question  of 
the  proper  construction  of  black  bulb  thermometers  ;  and  also  to 
preparatory  operations  with  the  Indian  Government  pendulum 
apparatus,  prehminary  to  repeating  the  observations  made  at  the 
Observatory  by  Basevi,  Heaviside,  and  Herschel. 

There  is  a  long  list  of  various  instruments  compared  and 
certified  during  the  year  in  the  verification  department,  which 
shows  that  nearly  14,000  articles  belonging  to  one  or  the  other 
of  twenty-seven  different  classes  have  undergone  treatment ;  as 
instruments  newly  brought  within  the  influence  of  the  verifier, 
attention  is  di-ected  to  range-finders  for  the  use  of  the  Army 
and  Navy,  telescopes  of  the  Admiralty  pattern,  and  surveying 
aneroids. 

The  popularity  of  the  Kew  certificates,  a^  to  the  time-keeping 
of  watches,  shows  that  the  demand  for  a  guarantee  as  to  the 
accuracy  of  performance  of  a  watch  other  than  the  maker's  name 
actually  exists,  and  no  less  than  510  watches  and  27  marine 
chronometers  have  been  submitted  to  the  rating  department 
since  the  last  report  was  issued. 

An  appendix  showing  the  behaviour  of  the  best  of  the  watches 
during  the  test  is  given,  and  it  is  found  that  places  in  this  list 
are  being  strongly  contested  for  by  watch  manufacturers,  as  the 
blue  ribbons  of  the  trade.  In  consequence  of  the  growth  of  the 
work  done  at  Kew,  steps  have  been  taken  to  obtain  the  per- 
mission of  Her  Majesty's  Chief  Commissioner  of  Works  and 
Public  Buildings  to  enlarge  the  Observatory,  which  at  present 
remains  almost  in  the  same  condition  as  it  stood  130  years  ago 
when  originally  erected  as  His  Majesty  George  III.'s  private 
Observatory  at  Richmond. 


THE  TOTAL  ECLIPSE  OF  THE  MOON, 
JANUARY  2%. 

T3Y  the  kindness  of  the  Astronomer  Royal  for  Scotland,  Mr. 
Gledhill,  of  Mr.  Crossley's  observatory  at  Bermerside,  and 
Mr.  Stothert,  all  of  whom  took  part  in  the  observation  of  the 
eclipse  of  October  4,  1884,  we  are  enabled  to  give  Prof.  Struve's 
times  and  position-angles  for  the  stars  that  will  be  seen  to  be 
occulted  by  observers  stationed  at  Edinburgh,  Halifax,  and 
Bath.  A  comparison  of  these  tables  will  enable  intending 
observers  in  other  parts  of  England  to  form  a  sufficieniy  correct 
list  for  their  own  locality. 

The  fol 'owing  ten  stars,  not  included  in  the  list  given  in 
Nature  for  January  19,  will  be  occulted  as  seen  from  Edin- 
burgh : — 


Star's 

R.A. 

Decl. 

Star's 

R.A. 

Decl. 

No. 

/ 

No. 

103.. 

130  3076.. 

17  1871  N. 

i8v3- 

131    13-94  - 

17     8-64  N. 

106.. 

33-62.. 

1668 

206.. 

24-79-- 

7-44 

117.. 

37-99- 

14-54 

213.. 

29-29.. 

6-II 

129.. 

4471.. 

13-74 

217.. 

31-16.. 

5 -36 

I4I-. 

53  76- 

14-84 

228.. 

34-65  • 

6-26 

Star  No,  106  is  of  mag.  9-3  ;  No.  129,  9*5  ;  No.  206  is  of  the 
loth  magnitude  ;  the  others  are  all  of  the  nth  magnitude. 

Edinburgh. 
Lat.  =  55°  57'  23"  ;  Long.  =  3°  10'  54"  W. 

Disappearances.  Reappearances. 

Star's        Mag.       Angle.     G.M.T.  Star's      Mag.        Angle.        G.MT. 

No.                                  o            h.      m.  No.                                 o            h.      m. 

II       ...     94  ...   10  24-3  108  ...     Q-^  ...   ^^^  ...   10  26-0 
10       ...   116  ...          26-9 
135  ...          272 


No. 
152  ...  II   ...  94...  1024-3   108...  9-3  --•  333 

150  ...  10   ...  116  ...   26-9   87  ...  II   ...  259  ...  260 

142  ...  10   ...  135  ...   272   103  ...  II   ...  226  ...  28-5 

148  ...  10  ...  57,..   278   106...  9-3  ..  216  ...  29-8 

129...  9-5  ...  173  ...   280   91  ...  II   ...290...  30-3 


Jan.  26,  1888] 

Edinburgh 

Disappea  ranees. 

Star's      Mag.        Angle.        G.M.T. 

No.  „  b.       m. 

153  ...   10       ..,   114  ...  10  296 

Beginning  of  total  phase 


NATURE 


307 


156 
141 . 
164 . 
165. 

1 66 
157  • 
155  • 
172  . 
180  . 
i8i  . 
198  . 
197  . 
190  . 
207  . 

209  . 

194  • 

210  . 
183. 

212  . 
201  . 

216  . 

223  . 

225  . 

224  , 

226  . 
206  . 
219  . 

236  . 
221  . 

213  . 
233  ■ 

237  ■ 
242  . 

217  . 
228  . 

247  . 


II 


64 
152  ... 

97  ... 
lOI  ... 

74... 

45  ••• 
141  ... 
128  ... 

70... 

43  ••• 

87... 
114  ... 
143  ... 

85... 

97  ••• 

32  ... 

70  ... 
171  ... 
114... 

31  ••• 
III  ... 

80... 

94  ... 

SZ  - 
124  ... 

163  ... 

147  ... 

94-. 

30  ... 
166  ... 
140  ... 

54  •■ 
105  ... 
168  ... 

157  ... 
End  of  total  phase 
.  9-2  ...  75  ...  12  l6-i 


II 
II 

80  ... 

9'4  ... 

9'5  ... 

9-4  •■• 
II 
II 

9'5  ••• 
10 

9-5  ••• 
9  ... 

II 

II 

10  ... 
II 

9-5  - 

11  ... 
II 

87... 
10  ... 
II 

10  ... 
II 

10  ... 
10  ... 
10 

9-5  ... 
10 
II 
II 
II 
II 
II 
II 


1033-4 
35  "o 
37 '3 
37  "9 
396 
40-5 
42-3 
So-i 
529 
7-8 
15-2 
17-6 
197 
231 
24-9 
27*5 
27"5 
301 
33 '9 
36-4 
38-2 
40*3 
42*2 

48-3 

48-5 

492 

55-3 

55 '5 

57"6 

0-9 

4-2 

4'4 

5-0 

6-6 

72 


12 


-{continued). 

Reappearances. 

Star's      Mag.        Angle.         G.M.T. 

No.  „  h.      m. 

117  ...   II       ...  200    ..   10  30-3 

98  ...   II       ...  300  ...         309 

Beginning  of  total  phase 


II 


100  ...  9'5  ...  302  ... 

93  ...  II  ...  292  ... 

102  ...  II   ...  250  ... 

114  .  .  II  ...  235  ... 

129  ...  9*5  ...  206  ... 

no  ...  11  ...  277  ... 

125  ...  n  ...  235  .. 
134  ...  II  ...  334  ... 

126  ...  9*5  ...  282  ... 
128  ...  9-5  ...  29s  ... 
141  ...  li  ...  227  ... 
138  ...  II  ...  272  ... 
148  ...  10  ...  323  ... 

157  ...  9'4  -  335  ••• 
144  ...  II  ...  307  ... 
142...  10  ...  245  ... 
156  ...  II  ...  318  ... 
152  ...  II  ...  287  ... 
150  ...  10  ...  265  ... 
15s  ...  II  ...  240  ... 
166  ...  9*5  ...  306  ... 
181  ...  10  ...  340  ... 

164  ...  80  ...  284  ... 

165  ...  9-4  ...  280  ... 
194  ...  II  ...  351  ... 
172  ...  II  ...  254  ... 
180  ...  9-5  ...  311  ... 
183  ...  II  ...  213  ... 
201  ...    87  ...  352  ... 

End  of  total  phase 
190  ...  II      ...  240  ...  12  14*3 


1031-3 
31  "4 
35-1 
46-4 
48  I 
492 
53-5 
55  "o 
i-o 

2-2 
19-0 
20*4 

20 '4 

22'I 
22-7 

26 '3 
31  3 
35 '9 
36-8 
372 
447 
45 '2 
49 '5 
50-4 
53-3 
547 


11  56-2 

12  0-9 


Bermerside,  Halifax, 
Lat.  =  53°  42'  10"  ;  Long.  =  1°  5'  58"  W. 


136. 

•  9-5 

..    29  . 

152 . 

.  II 

..  lOI  .. 

148  . 

.  10 

..    67. 

150  • 

.  10 

..  123  . 

142 . 

.  10 

..  144  . 

156. 

.  II 

..    72  . 

Be 

ginning 

of  total 

153  • 

.  10 

..  122  . 

157  • 

•    94 

••    57  ■• 

164  . 

.    8 

..  105  . 

166  . 

•    9-5 

..    82. 

165. 

•    9-4 

..  108  .. 

141  . 

.  II 

..  167  .. 

15s  ■ 

.  II 

..  152  .. 

180  . 

•    9-5 

..    79  .. 

172  . 

.  II 

..  137  .. 

181  . 

.  10 

••    53  •• 

198  . 

•    95  • 

..    93  ■• 

197  . 

.  10 

..  121  .. 

194  . 

.  II 

..    47  .. 

207  . 

.  II 

..    91  •• 

190  . 

.  II 

••  153  •• 

209 

.  10     . 

..  104  .. 

210  . 

•    9-5  • 

..    78.. 

201  . 

.    87. 

..    47.. 

212  . 

.  II 

..  121  .. 

223  . 

.  II 

..    88  .. 

216  . 

.  10 

..  118    . 

225  . 

.  10 

..  100  .. 

224  . 

.  II 

..    62.. 

221  . 

.  10 

..    46.. 

226  .. 

.  10 

..  137  .. 

236  .. 

•    9'5  • 

•    99  •• 

2C6   .. 

.  10 

.  181  .. 

.  1023-9 
24-3 
24-4 
289 

.  309 
31-0 

pha«e 
.  10  316 
36-0 
.       37-8 

•  383 
.       38-8 

■  42-7 
47  "4 

■  517 

•  53-5 

•  II    3"3 
.        15-6 

20-4 
2 10 
23  6 

•  25-7 
26-4 
26-9 
300 
368 
40-8 
41-0 

•  43-8 
46  2 

■  51-3 

.       53-5 

■  57-5 

,    12     2-2 


103   ,..  II 

87  ...  II 

112   ...  II 

115   ...  II 

ic8  ...  9-3 

91  ...  II 

Beginning 


93  ••• 
98... 

102  ... 

100  ... 

114  ... 
130  ... 

136... 

125  ... 
no  ... 

134  ... 

126  ... 
128  ... 

141  ... 
138  ... 

142  ... 
148  ... 
144  ... 
157  ... 
155  .. 
156... 
150  ... 
152... 

153  ••• 
166  ... 
164  ... 
16s  ... 
181    ., 


II 
II 
II 

9-5 
II 
II  ■ 

9 '5 

II 

II 

II 
9  5 
9-5 

II 

II 

10 

10 

II 

9 '4 
II 
II 
10 
II 
10 

9-5 
8      , 

9'4 
10 


..   212  , 

.  10  20-8 

...  252  . 

•     23-9 

..   342  . 

.     25-1 

..   342  . 

.     27-1 

..   323   • 

30-9 

..  283  . 

30-9 

of  total 

phase 

..  185  • 

.  10  32-1 

••  293  • 

•        32-4 

..  242  . 

•        32-4 

..  29s  . 

.        32-9 

..  225  . 

41-8 

••  339  • 

•       457 

..  352  . 

47*4 

..  225  .. 

49-0 

..  271  . 

•       49-3 

..  325  .. 

.  II    0-7 

..276.. 

21 

..  289  . 

4"o 

..  215  .. 

131 

..  267  .. 

2I-0 

..  238  .. 

•         24-3 

••  315-. 

25-2 

..  301  .. 

.          25-9 

..  326  .. 

.          28-3 

..  232  .. 

•       34-5 

..  310.. 

•       35-5 

..  258  .. 

•       37-1 

..  281  .. 

37-9 

..  261  .. 

40-5 

Bermerside — {continued). 


..  301 

,.  278 

.  274 
•  331 


48-3 
51-6 
521 

52-5 


Disappeara  nces. 
Star's      Mag.        Angle.        G.M.T. 
No.  ,  h.  m. 

219  ...   10       ...   157  ...   12     2-4 
237  ...   II        ...      63  ...  30 

242     .  II      ...  no  ...         78 

End  of  total  phase 
233  ...  II      ...  147  ...  12    9-9 
213  ...  II      ...  187  ...        161 


R(  appearances. 
Star's      Mag.        Angle.        G.M.T. 
No.  ,  h.  m. 

172  ...  II  ...  247  ...  II  544 
180  ..  9-5  ...  305  ...  12  00 
194  ...   II       ...  338  ...  3-0 

End  of  total  phase 
201  ...    87  ...  339  ...  12  ii-i 
190  ...  II      ...  232  ...        12-9 


Lat. 

152  ...  II 

156  ...  II 
150  ...  10 

157  ...    9-4 
Beginning 

153  ...  10 
142  ..  10 
166  ...    9-5 

164  ...    8-0 

165  ...    9-4 


=  51 
,  108 
..    80 


Bath. 
23'  19";  Long. 


=  2°  22'  51"  W. 


10  226 
27-0 
29 '3 
303 
of  total  phase 
129  ...  10  31-7 


131 
66 


180 

155 
172 
181 
198 
194 
197 
207 
201 
210 
209 
190 
212 
223 
216 
224 
225 
221 
226 
236 

237 
242 

219 
233 
247 


■••    9-5 

..  II 

...  II 

...  10 

...    9-5 

...  II 

...  10 

...  II 

...    87 

•.    9-5 

..  10 

..  II 

..  II 

..  II 

..  10 

..  II 

..  10 

..  10 

..  10 

••    9-5 

..  II 

..  II 
End  of 

..  10 

..  II 

..  9'2 


156 

90... 

112  ... 

116  ... 

87... 
165  ... 
146  ... 

64... 
102  ... 

58... 
128  ... 

98... 

58... 

86  ... 
Ill  ... 
167  ... 
128  ... 

95  ... 
126  ... 

71  ... 
108  ... 

57  ... 
139  ... 
107  ... 

72  ... 
117 


34*3 
35 '3 
36-6 
37 '9 
48-5 
52-9 
55-9 
575 

11  i3"9 
14-5 

21*2 
21-9 
23 '4 
24 '3 
25'9 
32  o 
38-0 
39 '2 
42  o 
42*2 

43-5 

45-1 
55-2 
57-4 
59-5 

12  8-6 


97  . 
102  . 

124  . 
116  . 

91  • 
112  . 

93  • 

114. 

Bei 

98.' 
115- 
100  . 
108  . 

125  ■ 
no  . 
130  . 
136. 

126  . 
128  . 

134. 
142  . 

138. 
144  . 

155  . 
148  . 

157  • 
150. 

152. 
156. 
153  • 
166  . 
172  . 
164  . 

165. 
181  . 
180  . 
190  . 
194  . 

201  .. 

The  Chief  Assistant,  Royal  Observatory,  Greenwich,  Mr.  H. 
H.  Turner,  will  be  obliged  if  successful  observers  will  write  or 
telegraph  to  him,  itnmediately  after  the  eclipse  is  over,  the  num- 
ber of  immersions  and  emersions  observed,  and  the  character  of 
the  night  for  observing. 


UNIVERSITY  AND  EDUCATIONAL 
INTELLIGENCE. 

Oxford. — Prof  Sylvester  is  not  to  lecture  this  term ;  Mr. 
Es  on  will  give  for  him  courses  on  Higher  Plane  Curves  and  on 
Involution. 

Prof.  Pritchard  promises  two  lectures  on  Modern  Methods  of 
determining  Stellar  Paralla.x,  besides  a  longer  course  on  Lunar 
and  Planetary  Theories. 

In  Physics,  Prof.  Clifton  is  giving  only  an  elementary  lecture  ; 
Mr.  Walker  lectures  on  the  Polarization  of  Light,  treated 
mathematically,  and  Mr.  Baynes  is  to  take  up  Fourier's 
Theorem  and  its  Application  to  the  Conduction  of  Heat. 

In  Chemistry,  besides  the  usual  systematic  courses.  Prof. 
Odling  is  lecturing  on  the  Paraffins,  and  Mr.  Veley  on  Physical 
Chemistry. 

In  the  absence  of  Prof.  Moseley,  Dr.  Hickson  is  lecturing  on 
the  Morphology  of  the  Chordata  ;  Mr.  Hatchett  Jackson  lectures 
on  Parlhenogeresis. 


total  phase 
...  172  ...  12  10-7 
..  158  ...        15-2 
...    88  ...       i6-o 


..  II 

..  316  . 

..  10  20-5 

..  II 

••  233  • 

..        266 

..  II 

..  349  . 

27-0 

..  II 

••  338  . 

••        27-3 

.,  n 

..  276  . 

29-1 

..  II 

..  329  ■ 

297 

..  II 

..  278  . 

..        30-4 

.  II 

..  208  . 

30-9 

ginning 

of  total 

phase 

..  II 

..  286  . 

..  10  31  3 

..  II 

..  329  . 

■•        317 

..    9-5 

..  288  . 

32-2 

••    9-3 

..  314  • 

326 

..  II 

..  208  . 

..       38-3 

..  II 

.    264  . 

..       46-6 

..  II 

..  328  . 

50'2 

..    95 

•■  336  . 

-       55-2 

••    9-5 

..  268  . 

..   II     OI 

■•    9*5 

..  282  . 

3-2 

..  II 

..316. 

33 

..  10 

..  226  . 

..       178 

..  n 

..  259  . 

..       i8-3 

..  II 

••  294  • 

26-3 

.  II 

..  218  . 

..       26-5 

..  10 

■•  307  • 

269 

■    9-4 

..316. 

••        31 '4 

.  10 

..  251  . 

34-0 

.  n 

..  274  . 

••        36-9 

.  II 

..  302  . 

■  •        369 

.  10 

..  253  . 

..       37'8 

••    9-5 

..  292  . 

..       49'i 

..  II 

..  238  . 

502 

.    8-0 

..  271  . 

50-6 

•    9-4  • 

..  267  . 

509 

.  10     . 

..  321  ■ 

56-8 

•    9-5 

..  297  . 

..  12    1-6 

.  n 

..  219  . 

5-8 

.  II 

■•  327  . 

8-6 

End  of  total  phase 

.    87. 

..  328  . 

.  12  17-1 

3o8 


NATURE 


{Jan.  26,  1888 


Prof.  Burdon  Sanderson  is  treating  of  the  Nervous  System, 
and  Prof.  Bayley  Balfour  of  the  Algae. 

Dr.  Tylor  is  giving  Anthropological  Elucidations  of  Greek 
and  Latin  authors,  and  the  Reader  in  Geography  is  continuing 
the  courses  which  he  began  last  term. 

The  Professorship  of  Geology  is  to  be  filled  up  in  the  course 
of  this  term  :  applications  will  be  received  by  the  Registrar  up 
to  February  i. 

The  Radclifie  Fellowship  will  be  awarded  this  term  ;  also  the 
Burdett-Coutts  Scholarship,  as  soon  as  the  Professor  of  Geology 
is  appointed. 

The  number  of  men  reading  Medicine  is  steadily  increasing, 
and  now  that  it  is  possible  for  a  man  to  pass  his  B.A.  examina- 
ions  and  his  first  M.B.  examination  in  four  years,  there  can  be 
little  doubt  that  the  increase  will  continue. 

Cambridge.— Mr.  H.  D.  Rolleston,  B.A.,  M.B.,  of  St. 
John's  College,  has  been  appointed  Demonstrator  of  Pathology. 

Sir  F.  A.  Abel,  F.R.  S. ,  has  been  appointed  to  deliver  the 
Rede  Lecture  this  year. 

The  Disney  Professor  (the  Rev.  G.  F.  Browne)  will  lecture 
on  Tuesdays  this  term  on  Sculptured  Stones  of  pre-Norman 
type  in  the  British  Islands.  The  inaugural  lecture  will  be  given 
in  the  Senate  House  on  January  31. 

Dr.  F.  Warner's  lectures  on  the  Growth  and  Development  of 
the  Intellectual  Faculty  began  on  January  25.  The  lectures 
aim  at  describing  and  analyzing  the  action  of  the  brain  of  a 
child,  with  special  application  to  educational  methods. 


SCIENTIFIC  SERIALS. 

The  most  important  article  in  the  numbers  of  the  Journal  0/ 
Botany  for  December  1887  and  January  18S8  is  one  by  Mr. 
S.  Le  M.  Moore,  "  On  Epidermal  Chlorophyll,"  in  which  he 
shows  that  the  presence  of  chlorophyll-corpuscles  in  the  cells  of 
the  epidermis  is  of  much  more  common  occurrence  than  is 
usually  stated  intextbooks,  and  that  these  chlorophyll -corpuscles 
very  commonly  contain  starc'i-grains.  The  other  articles  relate 
to  botanical  nomenclature  and  to  the  distribution  of  British  plants. 
In  addition,  Mr.  J.  G.  Baker  continues  his  "  Monograph  of  the 
Tillandsiece,"and  Colonel  Beddome  contributes  a  piper  on  Ferns 
of  Perak  and  Penang. 

In  the  Botanical  Gazette  (Crawfordsville,  Indiana)  for  Decem- 
ber 1887  is  an  interesting  paper  by  Mr.  Byron  D.  Halsted, 
showing  that  under  certain  coiditions  pollen-grains  may  contain 
three  nuclei,  instead  of  the  two  usually  found  in  the;n. 

Bulletin  de  VAcademie  Royale  de  Bels^que,  November  1887. — 
Action  of  the  acids  on  the  taste,  by  j.  Corin,  The  object  of 
these  researches  has  been  to  ascertain  what  relation  there  may 
exist  between  the  acid  taste  and  chemical  composition.  The 
author  arrives  at  the  curious  result  that  acidity  increases  with 
the  quantity  of  basic  hydrogen  contained  in  the  acid  molecule, 
and  decreases  with  the  weight  of  the  molecule  itself.  —  Physical 
observations  on  Saturn,  by  Paul  Stroobant.  These  observa- 
tions, extending  over  the  period  from  January  27  to  April  20, 
1887,  show  that  the  famous  divisions  of  Encke  and  Struve 
appear  to  be  subject  to  great  modifications,  especially  as  regards 
the  actual  position  occupied  by  them.  No  doubt  the  state  of 
the  terrestrial  atmosphere,  the  proximity  of  the  moon,  and  other 
outward  circumstances,  must  exercise  a  considerable  influence 
on  the  character  of  the  manifestations.  But  the  changes 
here  recorded,  such  as  the  disappearance  of  Encke's  division 
while  that  of  Struve  is  still  visible,  make  it  evident  that  other 
and  more  recondite  causes  are  at  work  in  producing  these  shift- 
ing appearances. — Experimental  researches  on  the  sense  of 
vision  in  the  Arthropods  (second  part),  by  Felix  Plateau.  la 
this  section  the  author  passes  from  a  study  of  the  Myriapods  to 
that  of  the  higher  order  of  the  Arachnidae,  and  arrives  at  the 
general  conclusion  that  in  all  the  sub-groups  of  the  Spiders, 
Scorpions,  and  Phalangidae  the  visual  sense  is  very  feebly  deve- 
loped. They  exhibit  in  general  a  vague  perception  of  move- 
ment acting  on  their  nervous  system,  rather  than  a  clear  sight  of 
any  definite  object.  In  the  case  of  Epiblemum  sceniciim,  dis- 
tinct vision  does  not  seem  to  extend  beyond  a  distance  of  i 
centimetre,  while  Tegenaria  domestica  and  others  seem  unable 
to  distinguish  form  at  all.  Even  in  the  closest  proximity  they 
rush  with  equal  avidity  on  true  or  false  objects  of  prey.     The 


scorpions  also  show  little  evidence  of  sight,  shunning  the  light 
and  awaiting,  rather  than  pursuing,  their  prey,  which  they  fail 
to  detect  except  at  very  short  distances.  The  same  remark 
applies  to  the  Phalangidae,  which  compensate  the  defect  of 
vision  by  the  exquisite  tactile  sense  of  their  extremities. 

Rivista  Scicntifico-Indtistriale,  November  1887.  —  On  the 
heating  of  metallic  points  when  discharging  their  electricity,  by 
Prof.  Eugenio  Semmola.  Some  experiments  are  described 
scientifically  demonstrating  the  fact  that  heat  is  generated  while 
metallic  points  discharge  their  electricity,  the  points  themselves 
becoming  at  the  same  time  heated.  It  is  suggested  that  thi^ 
fact,  now  for  the  first  time  verified,  might  under  certain  con- 
ditions be  utilized  as  a  new  means  of  studying  atmospheric 
electricity. — On  the  anassthesis  and  poisoning  of  plants,  by  Dr. 
Flaminio  Tassi.  An  analysis  is  given  of  the  researches  and 
experiments  carried  out  by  Prof.  T.  Caruel,  tending  to  show 
that  certain  plants  really  possess  a  property  analogous  to  the 
irritability,  excitability,  sensitiveness,  or  contractibility  of 
animals,  as  it  is  variously  called  ;  that  this  property  is  not 
derived  from  any  particular  nervous  system,  but  from  the  veget- 
able protoplasm  itself;  that  certain  organic  substances  are  alike 
fatal  to  p^lants  and  animals  ;  and  that  a  state  resembling  animal 
an^sthesis  is  also  produced  especially  in  those  plants  which  art- 
endowed  with  excitable  organs,  and  in  many  flowers  that  open 
and  close  at  fixed  times. 

The  last  two  parts  of  vol.  xviii.  of  the  Tzuestia  of  the  East 
Siberian  branch  of  the  Russian  Geographical  Society  contain  a 
variety  of  valuable  information.  In  a  paper  on  the  lower  course 
of  the  Upper  Angara,  Dr.  Kiriloft"  brings  together  some  inter- 
esting facts  about  the  fishing  in  Lake  Baikal,  which,  notwithstand- 
ing complaints  about  the  disappearance  of  the  Salmo  omul,  still 
yields  every  year  about  30,000  cwt.  of  fish.  MM.  Priklonsky 
and  Slycptsoff  contribute  notes  on  the  religious  beliefs  of  the 
Yakutes,  who,  although  christened,  have  retained  in  full  their 
Shamanist  religion  and  practices.  M.  Karpinsky  gives  some 
notes  on  the  gold-diggings  of  the  Olekma  system.  Especially 
valuable  papers  are  contributed  by  M.  Savenkofif,  on  his  archa-o- 
logical  researches  on  the  Yenisei,  and  by  M.  Eleneff  on  the 
caves  on  the  banks  of  the  Biryusa  River.  It  would  be  impo^ 
sible  to  enumerate  in  a  short  note  all  the  interesting  data  men- 
tioned in  M.  Savenkoff^'s  preliminary  report.  His  numerous 
collections  contain,  among  other  things,  big  bones  of  the  mam- 
moth and  the  rhinoceros,  which  bear  unmistakable  traces  of 
having  been  broken  by  man  for  the  sake  of  the  marrow,  and  thus 
belong  to  the  very  rare  relics  of  the  Palaeolithic  period  in 
Siberia.  His  collections  also  include  bones  with  grooves  for 
the  insertion  of  a  stone  arrow-head,  and  many  interesting  im- 
plements, showing  that  stone  implements  were  largely  used 
during  the  Bronze  Age,  and  partly  during  the  Iron  Age.  The 
full  report  of  M.  Savenkoff,  which  will  contain  accurate  draw- 
ings of  the  Yenisei  inscriptions,  will  be  most  valuable.  As  to 
the  exploration  of  caverns  on  the  ban^cs  of  the  Biryusa  and  the 
Yenisei,  M.  Eleneff  gives  only  a  short  description  of  his  diggings, 
with  detailed  drawings  and  lists  of  the  implements  and  various 
things  found  :  Chinese  miney  from  the  thirteenth  or  fourteenth 
century  in  the  upper  layers,  various  iron  implements  in  the 
middle  layers,  and  Neolithic  stone  implements  in  the  lowest 
layers.  The  same  parts  of  the  Izvestia  contain  preliminary 
reports  about  an  excursion  to  Lake  Kosogol  and  the  Munku- 
Sardyk,  by  MM.  Prein  and  Yaczewski,  during  which  excursion 
the  glacier  of  this  peak  was  thoroughly  mapped  and  photo- 
graphed, and  large  collections  of  Alpine  flora  were  gathered. 


SOCIETIES  AND  ACADEMIES. 

London. 

Royal  Society,  December  22,  1887. — "Heat  Dilatation  of 
Metals  from  Low  Temperatures."  By  Thos.  Andrews,  F. R.S.E. 

The  experiments  of  this  paper  were  made  to  approximately 
determine  the  coefiicients  of  heat  dilatation  of  modern  steels 
from  low  temperatures.  The  metals  employed  were  wrought 
iron,  "soft"  Bessemer  steel,  "hard"  Bessemer  steel,  "sofc" 
Siemens-Martin  steel,  "hard"  Siemens- Martin  steel,  "soft" 
cast  .'teel,  "hard"  cast  steel,  &c.,  of  known  composition, 
specific  gravity,  &c. ,  given  in  detail  in  the  paper.  The 
terms  "soft"  and  "hard"  relate  only  to  difference  of 
percentage   of    combined    carbon.      The   ranges    of    tempera- 


Jan,  26,  1888J 


NATURE 


309 


tare  chosen  for  the  observations  were  Irom  -  45°  C.  to 
3CX)°  C.  The  experiments  were  made  on  rolled  bars  of  the 
various  steels  and  also  on  large  hammered  forgings  5  inches 
diameter.  Details  are  given  in  the  paper  of  the  general  method 
\  of  experimentation,  and  also  of  the  methods  adopted  for  reducing 
the  metals  to  the  very  low  temperature  employed.  The  results 
of  an  extensive  series  of  experiments  are  recorded  in  tabular 
form  in  the  paper.  The  coefficients  of  dilatation  were  found 
generally  to  decrease  with  the  reduced  temperature.  The  author 
also  found  such  to  be  the  case  in  his  recent  observations  on  the 
heat  dilatation  of  pure  ice  from  low  temperatures.  There 
seemed  to  be  a  slightly  greater  dilatation  in  the  direction  of 
the  length  of  the  forged  metallic  cylinders  than  when  measured 
across  the  diameter.  It  was  also  noticed  that  the  coefficients  of 
dilatation  were  greater  in  the  case  of  steels  having  a  lower  per- 
centage of  combined  carbon  than  in  those  containing  a  higher 
percentage. 

January  12. — "Invariants,  Covariants,  and  Quotient  Deriva- 
tives associated  with  Linear  Differential  Equations."  By  A. 
R.  Forsyth,  F.R.S. 

The  memoir  deals  with  the  covariantive  forms  associated  with 
the  general  ordinary  linear  differential  equation.  The  most 
general  transformation  to  which  such  an  equation  can  be  sub- 
jected without  changing  its  character  is  one  whereby  the 
dependent  variable  j  is  changed  to  «  by  a  relation/  —  ttf[x), 
and  at  the  same  time  the  independent  variable  is  changed,  say, 
from  X  to  z.  When  these  transformations  are  effected  there  are 
n  relations  between  the  coefficients  P  and  Q  of  the  equation  in 
its  two  forms,  and  it  is  shown  that  from  these  others  can  be 
deduced  which  are  of  the  form 


.^(P)=( 


dx) 


^{Q)- 


Such  a  function  \p  is  called  an  invariant  of  index  p. 

Irreducible  invariants  are  proved  to  be  divisible  into  two 
classes,  fundamental  and  derived.  Each  of  the  former,  which 
are  «  -  2  in  number,  consists  of  two  parts  ;  one  of  these  is 
linear  in  the  quantities  P  and  their  derivatives,  the  other  is  not 
linear,  but  has  in  every  term  as  a  factor  either  Pg  or  some  deri- 
vative of  Pg.     It  is  shown  that  the  differential  equation  can  be 

d"  ~  ^  u 
reduced  to  a  canonical  form  without  any  term  in  — or 

dz"--" 
;  and  hence  each    of   the  prior  class  of  invariants  is 


d"  - 


dz"- 


linear  in  the  coefficients  of  the  canonical  form  and  their  deri- 
vatives. These  fundamental  invariants  are  called  priminvariants. 
The  derived  invariants  are  obtained  from  the  priminvariants  by 
two  processes,  which  are  called  the  quadriderivative  and  the 
Jacobian  ;  they  are  most  conveniently  arranged  in  classes 
according  to  their  degrees  in  the  coefficients  of  the  equation. 
The  number  of  quadrinvariants  is  2«  —  5  ;  the  number  of  in- 
variants of  every  degree  higher  than  the  second  is  n  -  2. 

The  relation  between  the  independent  variables  of  a  semi- 
canonical  form  and  of  the  canonical  form  shows  that  the 
dependent  variable  may  be  considered  as  a  covariant.  It  is 
proved  that  there  are  other  n  -  2  associate  dependent  variables, 
each  satisfying  a  linear  equation  and  possessing  for  the  canonical 
form  the  invariantive  property. 

From  this  aggregate  of  dependent  variables,  a  set  of  irre- 
ducible identical  covariants  is  derived  by  the  two  processes 
formerly  used  for  the  invariants  ;  when  the  equation  is  taken  in 
its  canonical  form,  all  these  covariants  up  to  a  certain  order 
involve  the  dependent  variables  alone.  There  is  also  a  set  of 
irreducible  mixed  covariants  which  are  the  Jacobians  of  each  of 
the  dependent  variables  in  turn,  and  one  of  the  invariants. 

Illustrations  of  the  results  are  given  for  the  equations  of  the 
second,  the  third,  and  the  fourth  orders  ;  and  in  this  connection, 
functions,  called  quotient  derivatives,  are  obtained.  Some  of 
their  properties  are  given,  one  of  the  most  important  being  that 
they  are  covariantive  for  homographic  transformation  of  both 
the  dependent  and  the  independent  variables. 

Finally,  the  characteristic  differential  equations  satisfied  by  all 
concomitants  are  obtained ;  and  among  other  inferences  it  is 
proved  that  the  aggregate  of  concomitants  constituted  by  the 
invariants  and  covariants  obtained  in  the  earlier  part  of  the 
memoir  is  complete,  i.e.  that  any  concomitant  can  be  algebraic- 
ally expressed  in  terms  of  the  members  of  that  aggregate. 


"  Preliminary  Note  on  the  Nephridia  of  Perichaeta."  By 
Frank  E.  Beddard,  M.A. 

The  following  observations  are  the  result  of  a  study  of  a 
species  of  Perichseta,  which  is  probably  identical  with  Perrier's 
P.  aspergillmn.  I  owe  a  number  of  excellently  preserved  ex- 
amples to  the  kindness  of  Mr.  Shipley,  Fellow  of  Christ's 
College,  Cambridge. 

In  transverse  sections  of  the  anterior  segments  the  nephridia 
are  seen  to  form  numerous  tufts  of  glandular  tubules  closely 
related  to  the  body-wall  and  to  the  septa.  This  appearance, 
which  is  also  seen  in  dissections,  is  very  different  from  that  of 
most  earthworms,  and  has  been  commented  upon  by  other 
observers. 

The  remarkable  appearance  of  the  nephridia  led  me  to  infer 
that  I  should  find  the  external  apertures  in  each  segment  to  be 
numerous,  as  I  showed  to  be  the  case  in  Acanthodrilus.  I  am 
now  able  to  state  that  this  is  also  the  case  in  Perichaeta  (in 
all  probability  in  other  species  besides  P.  aspergillum).  The 
external  pores  lie  between  the  setae,  but  have  no  regularity  in 
their  arrangement ;  frequently  there  were  three  or  four  between 
two  successive  setae,  as  often  there  seemed  to  be  only  one  or  two. 
The  minute  structure  of  the  terminal  section  of  nephridia  is 
slightly  different  from  that  of  Acanthodrilus.  Another  point,  to 
which  I  wish  to  direct  attention  in  this  communication,  is  that 
in  Perichceta  there  is  a  connection  between  the  nephridia  of 
successive  segments. 

Quite  recently,  Ed.  Meyer  and  Cunningham  have  shown  that 
in  Lanice  conchilega  the  nephridia  of  each  side  are  connected  by 
a  continuous  longitudinal  duct.  This  discovery  is  in  accord  with 
the  presumed  origin  of  the  Annelid  from  the  Platyhelminth 
excretory  system,  and  also  with  the  development  of  Polygordius 
(Hatchek)  and  Lumbricus.  In  Perichaeta  the  connection  be- 
tween the  nephridial  tufts  of  successive  segments  is  not  brought 
about  by  a  continuous  longitudinal  duct,  one  on  each  side  of  the 
body,  but  by  numerous  tubules  which  perforate  the  interseg- 
mental septa.  Thus  it  appears  that  the  nephridial  system  of 
Perichceta  consists  of  a  network  of  tnbules.  In  this  respect 
Perichaeta  agrees  with  the  leech  Pontobdella,  but  differs  in  the 
presence  of  numerous  nephridiopores  in  each  segment.  These 
facts  appear  to  lend  further  support  to  the  view  that  it  is 
possible  to  derive  the  Annelid  from  the  Platyhelminth  excretory 
system. 

Lang  has  pointed  out  that  the  "  secondary  "  pores  by  which 
the  excretory  organ  of  the  Platyhelminths  communicates  with 
the  exterior  have  probably  given  rise  to  the  nephridial  pores  in 
the  Annelida  ;  by  a  subsequent  arrangement  of  these  in  a  meta- 
meric  fashion,  and  by  the  breaking  up  of  the  nephridial  net- 
work, the  paired  nephridia  have  originated.  The  longitudinal 
canal  has  disappeared,  except  in  the  cases  that  I  have  already 
mentioned.  In  some  Platyhelminths  the  longitudinal  canals  are, 
partly  at  least,  broken  up  into  a  network  ;  and  it  is  this  con 
dition  which  has  persisted  in  Perichaeta  and  Pontobdella  ;  more 
over,  in  some  Platyhelminths,  where  the  "  secondary  "  pores  have 
become  metamerically  arranged,  there  are  more  than  one  pair 
to  each  "  segment."  For  this  reason  it  is  perhaps  allowable  to 
regard  the  condition  of  the  nephridia  in  Perichaeta  as  more 
archaic  than  Pontobdella.  The  disappearance  of  the  connection 
between  the  nephridia  of  successive  segments  leads  to  the  con- 
dition which  exists  in  Acanthodrilus ;  the  reduction  of  the  ex- 
ternal pores,  already  perceptible  in  the  posterior  segments  of 
A.  mu/tiportts, calm'mntes  in  the  disappearance  of  all  but  two  in 
each  segment.  The  irregularity  in  the  position  of  these,  which 
is  best  marked  in  Plutellus,  is  the  last  trace  of  the  presence  of 
multiple  nephridiopores  in  each  segment. 

Royal  Meteorological  Society,  January  18. — Mr.  W.  Ellis, 
President,  in  the  chair. — The  paper  read  was  on  the  non-instru- 
mental meteorology  of  England,  Wales,  and  Ireland,  by  Mr.  G. 
M.  Whipple.  This  is  a  discussion  of  the  observations  of  wind, 
cloud,  thunderstorms,  hail,  snow,  &c.,  made  at  the  stations  of 
the  Royal  Meteorological  Society  during  the  eight  years  1878- 
85,  and  published  in  the  Meteorological  Record.  The  S.W. 
wind  is  the  most  prevalent,  and  blows  on  the  average  seventy- 
four  days  in  the  year  ;  the  W.  wind  occurs  almost  as  frequently, 
blowing  sixty-five  days.  The  least  dominant  winds  are  tlie 
S.E.  and  N.,  which  occur  on  twenty-seven  days,  and  the  N.E. 
on  thirty-two  days.  Thunderstorms  are  most  frequent  in  the 
eastern  and  midland  counties,  and  least  frequent  in  the  north  of 
Wales. — After  the  reading  of  this  paper,  the  annual  general 
meeting  was  held.  The  report  of  the  Council  showed  t'^'^" 
Society  to  be  in  a  satisfactory  condition,  the  number  of  Fel' 


3IO 


NA1  URE 


\yan.  26, 


being  522. — Mr.  Ellis  in  his  Presidential  address  reviewed  briefly 
the  work  and  position  of  the  Society,  remarking  that  such  a 
Society,  whilst  unable  to  carry  out  expensive  original  or  experi- 
mental work,  could  yet  act  with  great  advantage  in  inciting 
volunteer  workers  throughout  the  country  to  united  action,  of 
which  one  recent  example  was  the  ready  response  to  the  request 
of  the  Society  for  photographs  of  lightning,  an  excellent  collec- 
tion of  which  had  been  obtained,  and  which  would  shortly  be 
exhibited  ;  in  addition  to  which  arrangements  were  being  made 
for  the  more  systematic  observation  of  thunderstorms.  Referring 
to  the  question  of  sympathetic  relation  between  .sunspots  and 
magnetism  and  meteorology,  he  thought  that  any  complete 
treatment  of  the  question  in  its  meteorological  aspect  seemed  to 
require  that  it  should  be  dealt  with  in  a  much  more  c.:)mprehen- 
sive  manner  than  before,  for  which  purpose  observations  more 
completely  covering  the  surface  of  the  globe  might  be  necessary, 
if  indeed  not  necessary  also  for  the  solution  of  many  other 
meteorological  questions,  the  present  meteorological  stations 
being  distributed  over  the  earth  in  such  isolated  clusters.  The 
attention  given  to  synoptic  charts  was  most  important,  but  the 
general  meteorological  characteristics  of  places  should  also  still 
continue  to  be  studied.  After  remarking  upon  other  matters,  he 
laid  before  the  meeting  tables  showing  the  monthly  means  of 
amount  of  cloud  from  observations  made  in  three  different  series 
at  the  Royal  Observatory,  Greenwich,  extending  in  all  from  i'8i8 
to  the  present  time.  In  concluding,  Mr.  Ellis  said  that  at  one 
time  the  science  of  meteorology  seemed  likely  to  form  an 
exception  to  the  general  rule  of  advance,  for  more  than  any 
other  it  has  required  the  united  action  of  many  workers,  but  the 
field  of  inquiry  of  late  years  opened  out  allows  us  already  to 
talk  of  the  new  or  modern  meteorology,  phrases  typical  of  the 
advance  achieved,  although  the  knowledge  gained  seems  only  to 
remind  us  of  how  much  has  yet  to  be  done. — The  following 
gentlemen  were  elected  the  officers  and  Council  for  the  ensuing 
year: — President:  Dr.  Wm.  Marcet,  F. R. S.  Vice-Presidents: 
Francis  Campbell  Bayard,  William  Ellis,  Charles  Harding, 
Richard  Inwards.  Treasurer  :  Henry  Perigal.  Trustees  :  Hon. 
Francis  Albert  Rollo  Russell,  Stephen  William  Silver.  Secret- 
aries :  George  James  Symons,  F.R.S.,  Dr.  John  William  Tripe. 
Foreign  Secretary:  Robert  Henry  Scott,  F. R.S.  Council: 
Hon.  Ralph  Abercromby,  Robert  Andrew  Allison,  M. P., 
Edmund  Douglas  Archibald,  William  Morris  Beaufort,  Henry 
Francis  Rlanford,  F.  R.  S. ,  Arthur  Brewin,  George  Chatterton, 
William  Henry  Dines,  Henry  Storks  Eaton,  Baldwin  Latham, 
Edward  Mawley,  Dr.  Charles  Theodore  Williams. 

Chemical  Society,  December  15,  1887. — Mr.  William 
Crookes,  President,  in  the  chair. — The  following  papers  were 
read  : — An  apparatus  for  comparison  of  colour-tints,  by  Alfred 
W.  Stokes. — The  alloys  of  copper  and  antimony  and  of  copper 
and  tin,  by  E.  J.  Ball. — The  constitution  of  the  so-called  mixed 
azo-compounds,  by  Francis  R,  Japp,  F.  R.  S.,  and  Felix 
Klingemann. — The  interpretation  of  absorption-spectra,  by  G. 
H.  Bailey. — The  reduction  of  potassium  bichromate  by  oxalic 
acid,  by  C.  H.  Bothamley. — The  reduction  of  chlorates  by  the 
zinc-copper  couple,  by  C.  H.  Bothamley  and  G.  R.  Thompson. 
— Preliminary  notice  on  the  oxidation  of  oxalic  acid  by  potas- 
sium dichromate,  by  Emil  A.  Werner. — Isomeric  change  in  the 
naphthalene  series  ;  No.  i,  by  Henry  E.  Armstrong. — Isomeric 
change  in  the  naphthalene  series;  No.  2,  y3-Ethoxynaphthale:ie- 
sulphonic  acids,  by  E.  G.  Amphlett  and  Henry  E.  Armstrong. 
— Isomeric  change  in  the  naphthalene  series ;  No.  3,  jS-Chloro- 
naphthalenesulphonic  acids,  by  Henry  E.  Armstrong  and  W. 
P.  Wynne. — Isomeric  change  in  the  naphthalene  series  ;  No.  4, 
o-Haloidnaphthalenesulphonic  acids,  by  Henry  E.  Armstrong 
and  S.  Williamson. — The  sulphonation  of  naphthalene,  by 
Henry  E.  Armstrong  and  W.  P.  Wynne. 

Entomological  Society,  January  18.— Fifty-fifth  aniversary 
meeting. — Dr.  D.  Sharp,  President,  in  the  chair.— -An  abstract 
of  the  treasurer's  accounts  was  read  by  Mr.  H.  T.  Stainton, 
F.R.S.,  one  of  the  auditors  ;  and  Mr.  H.  Goss,  the  Secretary, 
read  the  Report  of  the  Council. — It  was  announced  that  the 
following  gentlemen  had  been  elected  as  Officers  and  Council  for 
1888  : — President :  Dr.  David  Sharp.  Treasurer  :  Mr.  Edward 
Saunders.  Secretaries :  Mr.  Herbert  Goss  and  the  Rev.  Canon 
Fowler.  Librarian :  Mr.  F.  Grut.  As  other  Members  of 
Council :  Mr.  Henry  J.  Elwes  ;  Sir  John  Lubbock,  Bart.,  M.P., 
F.R.S.  ;  Mr.  Robert  McLachlan,  F.R.S.  ;  Dr.  P.  Brooke- 
reason;  Mr.  Edward  B.  Poulton ;  Mr.  Osbert  Salvin,  F.R.S.  ; 
Henry  T.  Stainton,  F.  R.  S.  ;  and  Lord  Walsingham,  F.  R.  S. 


— The  President  delivered  an  address,  and  a  vote  of  thanks  to 
him  was  moved  by  Mr.  McLachlan,  seconded  by  Mr.  F.  Pascoe, 
and  carried. — A  vote  of  thanks  to  the  Treasurer,  Secretaries, 
and  Librarian,  was  moved  by  Mr.  Kirby,  seconded  by  Mr. 
Waterhouse,  and  carried.  Mr.  E.  Saunders,  Mr.  H.  Goss, 
Canon  Fowler,  and  Mr.  F.  Grut  replied. 

Mathematical  Society,  January  12. — Sir  J.  Cockle,  F.R.S., 
President,  in  the  chair. — Messrs.  J.  M.  Dodds  and  G.  G. 
Morrice  were  elected  members,  and  Mr,  E.  W.  Hobson  ad- 
mitted into  the  Society. — The  following  communications  were 
made : — The  theory  of  distributions,  Capt.  P.  A.  Macmahon, 
R.A. — On  the  analogues  of  the  nine-points  circle  in  space  of 
three  dimensions,  S.  Roberts,  F.R.S. — On  a  theorem  analogous 
to  Gauss's  in  continued  fractions  with  applications  to  elliptic 
functions,  L.  J.  Rogers. — A  theorem  connecting  the  divisors  of 
a  certain  series  of  numbers,  Dr.  Glaisher,  F.R.S. — On  reciprocal 
theorems  in  dynamics.  Prof.  H.  Lamb,  F.R.S. 

Mineralogical  Society,  January  10. — Mr.  L.  Fletcher, 
President,  in  the  chair. — The  following  papers  were  read  : — On 
the  development  of  lamellar  structure  in  quartz  crystals  by 
mechanical  means,  by  Prof.  J.  W.  Judd,  F.R.S. — On  the  poly- 
synthetic  structure  of  some  porphyritic  quartz  crystals  in  a 
quartz-felsite,  by  Colonel  C.  A.  McMahon. — Notes  on  hornblende 
as  a  rock-forming  mineral,  by  Mr.  A.  Harker. — On  the  invita- 
tion of  the  President,  Mr.  Allan  Dick,  who  was  present  as  a 
visitor,  made  some  remarks  on  the  process  of  kaolinization, 
illustrated  by  models  of  crystals. 

Paris. 

Academy  of  Sciences,  January  16. — M.  Janssen,  President, 
in  the  chair. — Remarks  onM.  Wolf's  last  note  on  the  subject  of 
synchronization,  by  M.  A.  Cornu.  The  author  is  glad  to  find 
himself  in  harmony  with  M.  Wolf  on  the  important  points  that 
no  synchronizing  system  is  possible  without  some  controlling  or 
regulating  apparatus,  and  that  such  apparatus  forms  an  essential 
feature  of  the  systems  of  Jones  and  Verite. — Remarks  accom- 
panying the  presentation  of  the  third  volume  of  the  "  Annales 
de  rObservatoirede  Rio  Janeiro,"  by  M.  H.  Faye.  This  volume, 
which  was  presented  by  the  Emperor  of  Brazil,  is  entirely  de- 
voted to  the  three  Brazilian  expeditions  sent  to  the  Island  of  Saint 
Thomas,  Pernambuco,  and  Punta  Arenas  (Patagonia)  to  observe 
the  transit  of  Venus  in  the  year  1882.  From  a  comparative  study 
of  the  recorded  results,  M.  Cruls  has  calculated  the  solar  parallax 
at  8"'8o8. — Fresh  researches  on  the  phenomena  produced  by  a 
potent  toxic  agent,  which  is  constantly  emitted  with  the  air  ex- 
haled from  the  lungs  of  man  and  other  mammals,  by  MM. 
Brown- Sequard  and  d' Arson val.  Th2  experiments  here  described 
and  made  on  seven  rabbits  entirely  confirm  the  conclusions 
already  announced  regarding  the  powerful  character  of  this 
volatile  organic  poison,  which  appears  to  be  almost  certainly  an 
alkaloid.  Further  researches  have  been  undertaken  in  order  to 
determine  this  point  by  direct  proof. — On  spontaneous  tetanus, 
by  M.  Verneuil.  A  case  reported  by  Dr.  Buisson,  of  Auber- 
chicourt,  is  referred  to  as  confirming  in  a  striking  way  the  author's 
opinion  that  there  is  no  such  thing  as  spontaneous  tetanus,  and 
that  all  reported  cases  will  be  found,  if  carefully  studied,  to  be 
caused  by  some  virus  introduced  in  some  way  into  the  system. — 
On  the  canalization  of  the  Isthmus  of  Panama,  by  M.  de  Lesseps. 
In  supplement  to  his  recent  remarks  on  this  scheme  the  author 
announced  that  the  proposal  to  establish  provisionally  a  lock 
canal  for  one  at  a  dead  level  has  just  been  adopted  by  the 
Company.  He  further  explained  how  the  extensive  works  already 
executed  can  be  adapted  to  the  new  design,  so  that  the  Canal 
might  still  be  completed  and  opened  for  traffic  by  the  year  1890. 
It  would  moreover  be  so  constructed  that  the  original  plan  of  a 
level  canal  might  be  gradually  carried  out  without  any  inter- 
ruption to  the  navigation.  Both  would  be  of  the  same  length 
of  74  kilometres,  with  a  breadth  of  22  metres  at  the  bottom, 
and  44  on  the  surface.  Four  locks  will  be  needed,  each 
18  metres  wide  at  the  entrance,  and  with  a  total  length 
of  180  metres. — On  the  barometric  curves  recorded  dur- 
ing the  third  scientific  expedition  of  the  Hirondelle,  by 
Prince  Albert  of  Monaco.  These  barometric  readings 
seem  to  show  that  the  motions  of  the  ship  are  insufficient 
to  explain  the  oscillations  recorded  during  the  course  of 
a  storm,  and  that  these  oscillations  accompany  certain  meteoro- 
logical disturbances  without  at  all  aiding  to  forecast  the 
weather, — On    the    measurement    of    the   absolute    intensity 


yan.  26,  1888] 


NATURE 


311 


of  weight,  by  M.  G.  Defforges.  The  apparatus  constructed  by 
MM.  Brunner  Brothers  on  the  principles  here  laid  down  has 
already  been  applied  with  satisfactory  results  to  the  measurement 
of  absolute  gravity  at  Paris,  Lyons,  Dunkirk,  Algiers,  Laghwat, 
and  Nice.— On  elliptical  polarization  by  transmission  through 
metals,  by  M.  Georges  Meslin.  The  author  heie  studies  the 
modifications  which  polarized  light  undergoes  in  its  passage 
through  metal  plates  thin  enough  to  be  transparent.  As  in 
metallic  reflection,  the  two  polarized  vibrations  in  the  plane  of 
incidence  and  in  the  perpendicular  plane  undergo  in  relation  to 
each  other  a  certain  retardation,  while  the  rectilinear  polarization 
becomes  elliptical.— On  the  application  of  the  phenomenon  of 
transversal  magnetization  to  the  study  of  the  coefficient  of 
magnetization  of  iron,  by  M.  Paul  Janet.  This  question  is  here 
studied  by  means  of  a  method  of  mutual  induction  which  presents 
\  several  advantages  over  other  processes-,  and  which  may  be  easily 
\  applied  to  the  study  of  the  influence  of  the  medium  in  the 
phenomena  of  induction.  — On  the  decreasing  solubility  of  the 
sulphates,  by  M,  A.  Etard.  The  author  has  already  shown 
that  between  103°  and  150°  C.  the  sulphate  of  copper  becomes 
less  soluble  according  as  the  temperature  increases.  He  now 
finds  that  most  of  these  salts  undergo  a  certain  disturbance  at 
some  point  of  the  line  of  complete  solubility,  beyond  which  point 
the  solubility  increases  less  rapidly  and  even  remains  almost 
stationary.  Details  are  given  for  the  sulphates  of  zinc, 
manganese,  and  potassium.  — Symmetric  disposition  of  the 
centres  of  the  four  chief  continents,  by  M.  Alexis  de  Tillo.  By 
graphic  processes  the  author  finds  that  the  co-ordinates  of  the 
orographic  centres  of  the  continents  are  as  under :  Asia  (with 
Europe)  43°  N.,  85°  E,  of  Greenwich  ;  Africa,  4°  N.,  27°  E,  ; 
North  America,  45°  N-,  102°  W.  ;  South  America,  14°  S.,  56^  W. 
The  geometric  centre  of  the  Old  and  New  World  lies  in  the 
region  of  the  Azores  and  Canaries,  and  the  meridian  of  Delisle 
(20"  W.  of  Paris)  may  in  some  respects  be  regarded  as  the 
natural  meridian  of  the  globe. 

Berlin. 
Physical    Society,    December   23,    1887.— Prof,    du    Bois 
Reymond,    President,    in   the   chair.— Prof.    Schwalbe   gave   a 
detailed  account  of  the  research  which  Dr.   Aubel   and   Prof, 
Spring  have  carried  out  on  the  rapidity  of  the  interaction  between 
acids  and  zinc  which  is  mixed  with  lead.  — Prof.  Vogel  made  a 
statement  of  his  observations  of  the  solar  eclipse  of  August  19. 
As   is  well  known,   the  observations. during  the  whole°of  the 
lengthy  period  of  totality  were  unproductive  of  results  at  all 
stations  except  those  in  Siberia — which  were  not  much  utilized 
by  observers — owing  to  unfavourable  weather.      The   speaker 
appears  to  have  been  among  the  most  fortunate  at  Jurjewetz, 
where  he  was  stationed  in  company  with  the  Belgian  astronomer 
Niesten,  and  the  Russian  astronomers  Kortazzi  and  Belopolski, 
for  at  this  place  the  sun  was  momentarily  visible  through  the 
clouds.     As  a  matter  of  fact,  several  photographs  were  success- 
fully obtained,  on  which,   as  shown  by  a  specimen  exhibited, 
a  corona  and  several  protuberances  were  visible.     These  photo- 
graphs, however,   scarcely  suffice  as  a  basis  for  any  scientific 
research.     Prof.  Vogel  had  also  received  a  photograph  of  the 
eclipse   taken    in   clear  weather   by  an    amateur   in    the    Ural 
Mountains  ;  it  showed  a  complete  but  small  corona,  and  near  it 
is  the  image  of  a  star,   probably  Mercury.      Unfortunately  no 
details  are  given  about  this  photograph.       The   iJhotographer 
Karelin  has  secured  some  very  interesting  results  at  Ju^ewetz. 
This  observer,  using  a  very  sensitive  apparatus,  had  obtained 
some  very  successful  photographs  of  the  lunar  eclipse,  which  had 
taken  place  about  a  fortnight  before   the  solar  eclipse.     The 
plates  were  only  exposed  for  1/60  of  a  second,  and  working  upon 
this  experience  he  obtained  photographs  during  the  solar  eclipse 
by  a  similar  exposure  of  1/60  of  a  second.     The  results  were  quite 
satisfactory,  and  from  this  the  important  conclusion  may  be  arrived 
at  that  exposures  of  the  above  very  short  duration  may  be  used 
during  future  solar  eclipses,     Herr  Karelin  has  further  taken  a 
photographic  landscape  during  the  eclipse,   and  from   a  com- 
parison  of  the   time   necessary   to   obtain    this  with  the   time 
required  by  the  speaker's  son  to  obtain  a  similar  picture  during 
full  moon,  the  speaker  concluded  that  the  brightness  during  the 
solar  eclipse  was  fifty-six  times  as  great  as  that  of  the  full  moon. 
Prof,  Vogel  had  intended  to  photograph  the  spectrum  of  the 
corona,    but  was   not   successful   in   his   attempt.     He   further 
exhibited  a  photograph  of  the  spectrum  of  pure  oxygen  contained 
in  a  Geissler  tube  and  made  luminous  by  the  sparks  from  a 
battery.     The  photograph  was  then  photographically  enlarged. 


so  that  It  could  readily  be  seen  by  a  large  audience  at  the  same 
time,  and  in  this  form  it  showed  the  red  and  green  line,  together 
with  a  long  series  of  bands  and  lines  extending  far  into 
the  ultra-violet  region.  Many  of  the  lines  described  by  Dr, 
Schuster  as  single  could  be  seen  to  be  double  in  this  photograph. 
One  of  the  chief  things  shown  by  the  enlarged  photograph  is  that 
the  oxygen-spectrum  of  the  positive  pole,  and  of  the  negative 
pole,  as  well  as  the  spark-spectrum  of  the  oxygen  itself  are  here 
combined  into  a  single  spectrum.  The  speaker  intends  to  apply 
this  method  of  magnifying  the  photographs  to  the  spectra  of 
other  gases,  and  thus  make  the  enlarged  spectra  accessible  for 
teaching  purposes  in  the  form  of  diagrams, 

January  6,  —  Prof,    du     Bois    Reymond,  President,   in   the 
chair.— Prof.    Oettingen,  of  Dorpat,  spoke   on    the   explosion 
of  a   mixture  of   hydrogen   and   oxygen   obtained   by   electro- 
lysis.      As     is      well     known,     Bunsen     has     advanced    the 
following  view,   based  on   his   experiments,  on   the   explosion 
of  electrolytic    gas  :     by   the   explosive   union  of  the   oxygen 
and    hydrogen,     when    the    spark    is   passed,    a    temperature 
of  3000°  C.  is  produced,  the  water  formed  being  at  once  dis- 
sociated at  this  temperature  ;  the  temperature  of  the  mixture  of 
gases  formed  by  the  dissociation  then  falls,   whereupon  a  new 
union  between  the  two  takes  place,  and  so  on  ;  hence  the  ex- 
plosion of  electrolytic  gas  is  to  be  regarded  as  made  up  of  a 
series    of   partial   explosions   following    each    other    in    rapid 
succession.  The  speaker  had  intended  several  years  ago  to  subject 
Bunsen's  theory  to  an  experimental  investigation,  and  hoped  to 
be  able  to  analyze  the  phenomenon  by  the  use  of  a  rapidly 
revolving  mirror.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  when  the  mirror  was  rotated 
at  a  suitable  speed,  the  image  observed  was  not  that  of  a  single 
narrow  strip  of  light,  but  was  rather  of  considerable  width  ;  it 
was  not  found  possible  to  interpret  this  image,  notwithstanding 
that  the  somewhat  complicated  experiments  were  repeated  many 
times.     An  endeavour  was  next  made,  with  the  assistance  of  a 
photographer,   to   obtain  a  record   of   the   image,    which   was 
equally  unsuccessful.     He  then  underwent  a  cour.-e  of  photo- 
graphic study  ;  and  when  he  had  acquired  sufficient  experience, 
he  last  year  repeated  his  former  expeiiments,  with  a  positive 
result,  using  the  new  methods  of  sensitizing  the  plates  for  the 
less   refractive  parts  of  the  spectrum,   and  the  most   sensitive 
possible  dry  plates.     The   speaker  had   further  shown,  by    a 
spectroscopic   examination   of  the   light    emittted    during    the 
explosion  of  electrolytic  gas,  that  the  light  is  due,  not  to  the 
combustion  of  the  gases,   but  of  sodium,   which   is   doubtless 
accounted  for  by  the  incandescence  of  small  particles  of  glass 
torn  oft'  by  the  passage  of  the  sparks.     He  hence  introduced,  in 
accordance  with  the  method  of  Dewar  and  Liveing,  portions  of 
finely  powdered  salts  of  various  metals,  such  as  copper,  zinc, 
lithium,  and  cadmium,  &c.,   into  the  eudiometer  in  which  the 
explosion   of  the  electrolytic   gas  was   to    be  made,  and    now 
obtained,  not  only  excellent  spectra  of  the  respective  metals,  but 
also  quitedistinct  p!:otographs  of  theimages  inthe  rotating  mirror. 
A  plane  mirror  was  used,  placed  at  fixed  distances  from  the 
eudiometer  and  camera,    which  projected   the  images   of  the 
successive  events  takins;  place  during  the  explosion  on  to  the 
flat  sensitized  plate.     The  speaker  exhibited   a  series   of  the 
photographs    thus    obtained  :    these   presented    the    following 
appearances,  most  clearly  when  the  salt  used  was  chloride  of 
copper.     In  the  first  place,  a  bright  point,  corresponding  to  the 
place  of  passage  of  the  spark,  from  which  a  short  bright  ray 
passed  both  upwards  and  downwards  in  the  tube  ;  then  secondly, 
at  a  fixed  distance  from  this  and  occupying  the  whole  length  of 
the  eudiometer,  a  bright  image  intersected  lengthways  from  end 
to  end  by  zigzag  lines  and  transversely  by  parallel  sinuous  waves. 
The  speaker  interpreted  the  above  images  by  referring  the  inter- 
secting zigzag  lines  to  a  series  of  waves  of  impulse  caused  by 
successive  explosions  ;  he  considered  on  the  other  hand  that  the 
sinuous  waves  are  due  to  the  small  particles  of  the  metal  which 
are  set  in  motion  by  the  impulse  waves,  and  hopes  to  render  this 
explanation  still  more  probable  by  a  new  series  of  experiments 
on   the   explosion   of  carbon-disulphide.     According  to   Prof, 
Oettingen,    the  experiments  of  Berthelot,   and   Vieille,  and_  of 
Mallard  and  Lechatelier,  have  no  bearing  upon  the  explosion 
which  he  has  studied,  occurring  as  it  does  in  a  few  thousandths 
of  a  second,  but  refer  to  the  combustion  which  occurs  subse- 
quently to  the  explosion. — Dr.  Kotter  spoke  on  the  problem  of 
determining  the  pressure  exerted  by  the  earth,   discussed  the 
difficulties  in  the  way  of  estimating  the  pressure  which  the  earth 
exerts  upon  a  wall   built  into  it,  and  stated  the  limits  withir 


312 


NATURE 


\yan.  26,  1888 


which  some  theoretical  calculations  may  be  relied  upon. — Prof. 
Schwalbe  announced  that  he  is  engaged  in  drawing  up  a  Greek 
nomenclature  in  connection  with  physics,  and  invited  the 
members  of  the  Society  to  communicate  to  him  any  expressions 
borrowed  from  Greek  which  are  either  rare  or  difficult  to 
understand. 

Meteorological  Society,  January  3.  —  The  President, 
Prof.  von.  Bezold,  opened  the  meeting  with  a  short  speech 
in  memory  of  the  late  member  of  the  Society,  Prof.  Kirchhofif, 
whose  many-sided  works  had  not  been  without  importance  to  the 
science  of  meteorology. — The  Secretary  then  made  his  report  on 
the  activity  of  the  Society  during  the  past  year,  and  on  the 
establishment  of  new  meteorological  stations  in  connection  with 
the  circle  of  such  stations  surrounding  Berlin  promoted  by  the 
Society. — At  the  election  of  officers  which  then  followed  Dr. 
Vettin  was  chosen  as  President,  and  Prof.  Von  Bezold  as  Vice- 
President. — Dr.  Hellmann  spoke  on  the  meteorology  of  the 
Iberian  Peninsula.  During  a  prolonged  stay  in  Spain  in  the 
years  1875-76,  the  speaker  was  unable  tD  study  the  rainfall  of  the 
country  owing  to  insufficient  data.  Since  then,  however,  some  760 
annual  statements  have  been  published  from  70  stations,  so  that 
he  was  now  in  a  position  to  work  out  the  rainfall,  and  he 
presented  the  results  of  this  in  the  form  of  a  chart,  which  formed 
the  basis  of  his  communication.  The  local  distribution  of  rain- 
fall is  very  varying.  In  the  district  of  the  Ebro  and  the  whole 
of  the  south-east  part  of  the  country  as  far  as  Carthagena  and 
Old  Castile,  the  rainfall  is  very  slight,  the  annual  fall  being  about 
270  mm.  ;  on  the  other  hand,  on  the  west  coast,  and  in  the 
district  of  the  Pyrenees,  the  rainfall  is  considerable,  presenting  a 
fall  of  some  1600  mm.  per  annum.  The  maximum  fall  is 
found  in  Serra  da  Estrella,  where  it  amounts  to  3500  mm. 
The  course  of  the  lines  of  equal  rainfall  of  300,  400,  600,  800, 
1000,  and  1600  mm.  per  annum  is  extremely  curious,  and 
M'as  carefully  discussed  by  the  speaker.  Two  sections  through 
the  peninsula,  on  which  the  rainfall  was  represented  by  ordinates, 
showed  how  steep  the  gradients  are  when  passing  from  the  west 
coast  towards  the  interior.  The  speaker  threw  a  good  deal  of 
interesting  light  on  the  close  connection  which  exists  between 
the  agricultural  and  social  conditions  of  the  inhabitants  and  the 
rainfall.  It  appeared  that  very  profound  differences  have  deve- 
loped themselves  between  the  districts  where  the  rainfall  is  great 
and  small,  and  in  the  latter  where  the  district  is  well  supplied 
with  water  or  not,  these  differences  completely  governing  the 
character  and  mode  of  life  of  the  inhabitants.  All  the  stations  in 
common  showed  a  minimal  rainfall  in  the  summer,  occurring  in 
the  months  of  July  and  August.  In  the  most  southerly  stations 
this  minimum  falls  to  4  mm.  for  the  above  two  months,  whereas 
in  the  north-west  it  rises  to  more  than  loo  mm.  The  curve  of 
maximal  rainfall  shows  three  typical  forms  and  three  transitional 
forms.  One  set  of  stations  shows  a  maximum  in  winter,  another 
set  has  its  maximum  in  the  spring,  and  the  third  shows  it  in  the 
autumn,    and   between   these   three   a   graduated   transition   is 

,  1       T'l.  ^-     ,  maximum  .  ... 

observed.      1  he  quotient  — t—. mcreases  raoidly  on  eomgf 

mmimum  .      /         &      t> 

south.  The  difference  in  the  amount  of  rainfall  per  annum 
could  only  be  calculated  for  thirty-two  stations,  since  it 
must  be  based  on  the  records  of  ten  consecutive  years  at  least. 
The  ratio  of  the  extreme  to  the  mean  annual  rainfall  in  the 
north-west,  as  well  as  in  Central  Europe,  was  two,  while  in  the 
interior  of  the  country  this  ratio  rose  to  five.  The  rainstorms 
are  rarely  continuous  ;  they  occur  chiefly  in  the  morning,  and  are 
followed  by  sunshine  :  three  days  of  continuous  rain,  or  even  of 
clouds,  scarcely  ever  occur  in  the  whole  of  Spain.  This  state- 
ment was  confirmed  by  the  records  of  the  autographic  sunshine 
recorder.  Snow  rarely  falls  in  the  Iberian  Peninsula;  the 
maximum  fall  of  twenty-two  snowy  days  was  observed  at  a 
station  on  the  upper  Douro.  At  the  southern  stations  snow  falls 
once  in  thirty  years,  and  it  never  falls  at  all  at  many  stations. 
It  is  impossible  to  give  any  account  here  of  the  large  mass  of 
further  details  which  the  speaker  brought  before  the  meeting  ; 
they  will  shortly  be  published  by  him  in  a  very  extended  form. 

Stockholm. 

Royal  Academy  of  Sciences,  January  11. — An  account  of 

a  memoir  by  Prof.  Ewart,  of  Edinburgh,  on  ri^or  marh's  and  ils 

J  relation  to  the  putrefaction  of  fish,  by  Prof.  Smith. — A  report 

j-of  the  work  done  by  the  Swedish  Ornithological  Society,  by  the 

-me.— On  the  organs  and  modes  of  attachment  of  the  marine 


Algse,  by  Count  H.  Stromfelt. — Mycological  studies  in  Jemt- 
land,  by  Dr.  E.  Henning. — On  freshwater  Algae  from  Spain,  by 
Miss  M.  Lewin.  —  Astrophotometric  studies,  by  Dr.  Charlier. — 
On  the  conductibility  of  illuminated  air,  by  Dr.  S.  Arrhenius. — 
Remarks  on  the  paper  of  Prof.  Hoppe,  "  Zur  magnetelectri- 
schen  induction,"  by  Dr.  Mebius. — On  electric  currents  caused  by 
mechanical  pressure,  by  M.  P.  A.  Siljestrom. — Some  derivates  of 
naphthostyrite,  by  Dr.  Ekstrand. — On  barysite,  a  silicate  of  lead 
from  the  mines  of  Harstig,  by  Messrs.  Sjogren  and  Lundstrom. 
On  the  recent  remarks  of  M.  Lebesconte  concerning  the 
Cruziana,  by  Prof.  Nathorst.  —  Demonstration  of  some  proposi- 
tions of  the  theory  of  the  elliptic  functions,  by  Dr.  Talk. 


BOOKS,  PAMPHLETS,  and  SERIALS  RECEIVED. 

Institute  of  Actuaries'  Text-book;  Part  2,  Life  Contingencies;  G.  King 
(Layton). — Geography  for  Schools  ;  Part  i,  Practical  Geography  :  A.  Hughes 
(Clarendon  Press).— Histoire  des  Sciences  Mathematiques  et  Physiques, 
tome  xii.  :  M.  iMarie  (Gauthier- Villars,  Paris).  —  The  Elements  of 
Graphical  Arithmetic  and  Graphical  Statics  :  J.  Y.  Gray  and  G.  Lowson 
(Collins).— Dr.  H.  G.  Bronn's  Klassen  und  Ordnungen  des  Thier-Reichs  ; 
Erster  Band,  Protozoa,  35  to  41  Lieferung  (Williams  and  Norgate). — 
Dynamics  and  Hydrostatics :  R.  H.  Pinkerton  (Blackie). — The  Farmers' 
Friends  and  Foes  :  T.  Wood  (Sonnenschein). — Annuaire  de  L'Observatoire 
Royal  de  Bruxelles,  1888,  55  Annee  (Bruxelles).— Prodromus  of  the  Zoology 
of  Victoria,  Decade  xv.  :  F.  McCoy  (Triibner).— Pflanzenleben.  i.  Band  : 
Kerner  von  Marilann  (Leipzig).— Le  Climat  de  la  Belgique :  A.  Lancaster 
(Bruxelles). — Tableaux  Resumes  des  Observations  Met^orologiques  faites  a 
Bruxelles  (Bruxelles). — Untersuchungen  iiber  die  Schneegrenze  im  Gebiete 
des  Mittleren  Innthales:  F.  R.  Kerner  von  Marilann  (Wien). — Journal  of  the 
Chemical  Society,  January,  and  Supplementary  No.  (Gurney  and  Jackson). 
— Transactions  of  the  Seismological  Society  of  J.apan,  vol.  xi.  (Yokohama). 
— Journal  of  the  Society  of  Telegraph-Engineers  and  Electricians,  vol.  xvi. 
No.  68  (Sp)n).— B  jtanische  Jahrbucher  fiir  Systematik,  Pflanzengeschichte, 
und  Pflanzengeographie,  Neunter  Band,  iii.  Heft:  Dr.  A.  Engler (Williams 
and  Norgate).— Actes  de  la  Societe  Helvelique  des  Sciences  Naturelles, 
Locle  85  (Neuchatel). 


CONTENTS.  PAGE 

Odium  Medicum 289 

Darwinism  and  Ethics.   By  Prof.  George  J,' Romanes^ 

FRS 290 

An  Index-Catalogue.     By  A.  T.  Myers  202 
Our  Book  Shelf  :— 

Plarvie-Brown  and  Buckley:   "  A  Vertebrate  Fauna 

of  Sutherland,  Caithness,  and  West  Cromarty "  .    .  292 

Patlison  :   "  Gospel  Ethnology  " 293 

Taylor:  "  The  British  Journal,  Photographic  Almanac, 

and  Photographer's  Daily  Companion  for  1888  "      .  293 
Letters  to  the  Editor  : — 

"  A  Conspiracy  of  Silence." — The  Duke  of  Argyll, 

F-RS 293 

On  some  Unapparent  Contradictions  at  the  Foundations 

of  Knowledge. — F.  Howard  Collins 294 

Extraordinary  Fog  in  January  1888,   at   Shirenewton 

Hall,  Chepstow. — E'.  J.  Lowe,  F.R.S 294 

' '  The  Art  of  Computation  for  the  Purposes  of  Science. " 

— Prof.  W.  Ramsay  and  Dr.  Sydney  Young    .  294 
"The    Mammoth     and     the     Flood." — Henry    H. 

Howorth,  M.P 295 

Is  Hail  so  formed  ? — Cecil  Carus- Wilson      ....  295 

"British  and  Irish  Salmonidae." — Dr.  Francis  Day  .  296 

Physical  Science  and  the  Woolwich  Examinations  296 

A  Model  of  an  Earthquake.     {Illustrated.) 297 

Anton  de  Bary.     By  Prof.  H.  Marshall  Ward     ...  297 

Notes      299 

Our  Astronomical  Column : — 

The  Cape  Observatory 302 

The  Parallax  of  Mars 302 

The  Longitude  of  Odessa 302 

The  Winkler  Observatory 302 

Astronomical     Phenomena     for     the     Week     1888 

January  29 — February  4 302 

Geographical  Notes \\  302 

Our  Electrical  Column '..'.'.  303 

A  Note  on  Valency,  especially  as  defined  by 
Helmholtz.  {Ilhistrated.)  By  Prof.  Henry  E.  Arm- 
strong, F.R.S 303 

Work  of  the  Kew  Observatory  in  1887  ......    .*  306 

The  Total  Eclipse  of  the  Moon,  January  28    ...    .  306 

University  and  Educational  Intelligence 307 

Scientific  Serials 308 

Societies  and  Academies 308 

Books,  Pamphlets,  and  Serials  Received    ....,*  312 


NA TURE 


OM 


THURSDAY,   FEBRUARY   2,    i! 


THE  COMPOSITION  OF  WATER. 

DUMAS,  in  his  well-known  memoir  on  the  gravi- 
metric composition  of  water,  which  every  student 
is  taught,  and  rightly  so,  to  regard  as  one  of  the  classics 
of  chemistry,  states  that  of  all  analyses  presented  to  a 
chemist  that  of  water  is  the  one  which  ofifers  the  greatest 
uncertainty.  Critics  of  a  certain  type  may  possibly  take 
exception  to  the  literal  accuracy  of  this  remark.  No  one, 
however,  will  gainsay  the  statement  that,  in  view  of  the 
momentous  issues  which  depend  upon  our  knowledge  of 
the  composition  of  water,  this  knowledge  is  not  by  any 
means  so  exact  as  the  state  of  contemporary  science 
demands.  It  is,  of  course,  not  merely  the  question  of  the 
quantitative  composition  of  water,  but  the  far  more  im- 
portant matter  of  the  relative  values  of  the  atomic  weights 
of  hydrogen  and  oxygen.  Of  all  stoichiometrical  con- 
stants required  by  chemists  nowadays,  those  of  hydrogen 
and  oxygen  are  infinitely  the  most  important.  Every 
chemist  knows  what  is  dependent  on  these  ratios,  and  he 
knows  too  that  the  difficulties  which  their  direct  determi- 
nation involves  are  well-nigh  insuperable. 

All  the  discussions  within  recent  years  on  the  vahdity 
of  Prout's  law  have  tended  to  show  that  so  far  as  experi- 
mental work  is  concerned,  the  question  may  now  be  said 
to  hang  upon  these  particular  values.  It  is  not  too  much 
to  say  that,  if  any  chemist  could  succeed  in  showing  by 
irrefragable  experimental  evidence  that  the  atomic  weight 
of  oxygen  was  exactly  sixteen  times  that  of  hydrogen, 
he  would  in  the  present  state  of  scientific  opinion  at 
once  succeed  in  inducing  his  brethren  to  accept  Prout's 
law  and  all  its  far-reaching  consequences  as  articles  of 
their  chemical  creed. 

It  may  be  worth  while  to  examine  very  briefly  the 
nature  of  the  ground  upon  which  the  present  accepted 
values  for  the  relative  atomic  weights  of  hydrogen  and 
oxygen  are  based.  It  will  be  generally  conceded  that  the 
evidence  upon  which  chemists  have  almost  exclusively 
relied  is  that  afforded  by  Dumas'  gravimetric  analysis  of 
water,  and  by  Regnault's  determination  of  the  specific 
gravities  of  oxygen  and  hydrogen. 

Dumas'  work  was  published  in  1843.  His  method 
was  identical  in  principle  with  that  employed  by  Dulong 
and  Berzelius  for  the  same  purpose,  and  consisted,  as  is 
well  known,  in  heating  copper  oxide  with  an  unknown 
weight  of  hydrogen,  and  determining  (i)  the  loss  of  weight 
suffered  by  the  oxide,  and  (2)  the  weight  of  the  water 
formed.  The  decrease  in  weight  of  the  copper  oxide  was 
assumed  to  represent  the  weight  of  the  oxygen  evolved, 
and  the  difference  between  this  weight  and  that  of  the 
water  formed  was  held  to  be  the  amount  of  hydrogen 
which  had  combined  with  that  of  the  oxygen. 

In  all,  nineteen  experiments  were  completed,  in  which 
quantities  of  water  varying  from  about  fifteen  to  eighty-six 
grammes  were  formed.  Treating  the  results  in  the  manner 
adopted  by  Meyer  and  Seubert — that  is,  in  accordance 
with  the  equation 

X  =  ^1  +  ^a  +  ^3+  ■    •    ■  +  ^«  =  [^^ 
.  +  a„       {«] 


Vol.  XXXVII  — No.  953. 


4^ 


in  which  a  =  weight  of  oxygen  used,  and  i  =  weight  of 
water  formed— it  follows  that  [a]  =  840-16  grammes,  and 
[i>]  =  945 '44  grammes,  whence  the  ratios  H  :  O  =  i  ;  I5"96. 
When,  however,  we  come  to  examine  more  nearly  the 
details  of  the  method  of  determination,  we  find  that  these 
ratios  are  certainly  affected  by  errors  of  which  the  magni- 
tude cannot  be  even  approximately  known.  In  the  first 
place,  the  sulphuric  acid  solution  employed  to  generate 
the  hydrogen  must  have  contained  dissolved  air,  the 
effect  of  which  would  be  to  lower  the  ratio  of  the  oxygen. 
This  fact  was  not  indeed  unnoticed  by  Dumas,  but  its 
effect  could  not  be  estimated  with  any  certainty.  More- 
over, it  seems  almost  impossible  to  prepare  hydrogen 
from  zinc  and  sulphuric  acid  without  the  formation  of 
more  or  less  sulphur  dioxide,  the  last  traces  of  which  can 
only  be  removed  by  prolonged  exposure  to  potash  solu- 
tion. Copper  is  one  of  the  few  metals  that  have  the 
power  of  forming  a  hydride,  and  although  this  hydride, 
like  the  palladium  hydride,  is  more  or  less  readily 
decomposed  by  heat,  the  affinity  of  hydrogen  for  copper 
may  be  still  traceable  even  at  moderately  high  tempera- 
tures. Melsens,  working  in  Dumas'  laboratory,  found 
that  the  reduced  copper  did  actually  retain  hydrogen,  and 
in  amount  varying  with  the  temperature  to  which  it  had 
been  heated.  The  weight  of  the  condensed  water  must 
have  been  increased,  as  Berzelius  pointed  out,  by  the  air 
which  it  eventually  dissolved.  Now  the  effect  of  all  these 
errors  would  be  to  lower  the  value  for  the  atomic  weight 
of  oxygen.  Of  course  there  may  have  been  errors  working 
in  the  opposite  direction  of  which  we  know  nothing,  but 
it  is  reasonably  certain  that  the  net  result  of  the  constant 
errors,  so  far  as  these  can  be  ascertained,  is  to  give  too 
small  a  value  for  oxygen.  Above  all,  there  are  the  for- 
tuitous errors,  such  as  those  caused  by  differences  in  the 
power  of  surface-condensation  of  the  vessels  employed  ; 
errors  of  weighing  and  of  reduction  to  a  standard  atmo- 
sphere, &c.  ;  which,  although  theoretically  allowed  for 
and  eliminated  by  a  sufficiently  frequent  repetition  of  the 
experiments,  may,  on  the  whole,  tend  to  operate  in  a  given 
direction.  Lastly,  there  is  a  source  of  error  of  the  same 
order  in  a  circumstance  which,  as  there  is  a  certain 
touch  of  pathos  in  them,  may  be  stated  in  Dumas'  own 
words : — 

"  II  faut  meme  ajouter  que  la  durde  ndcessaire  de  ces 
operations,  en  m'obligeant  k  prolonger  le  travail  fort  avant 
dans  la  nuit,  en  pla^ant  les  pesdes  vers  deux  ou  trois 
heures  du  matin  dans  la  plupart  des  cas,  constitue  une 
cause  d'erreur  rdelle.  Je  n'oserais  pas  assurer  que  de 
telles  pesdes  mdritent  autant  de  confiance  que  si  elles 
avaient  6t6  exdcutees  dans  des  circonstances  plus  favor- 
ables  et  par  une  observateur  moins  accabld  de  la  fatigue 
inevitable  apres  quinze  ou  vingt  heures  d'attention 
soutenue." 

There  is,  above  and  beyond  all,  a  fundamental  flaw 
in  the  principle  of  the  method,  of  which  Dumas  him- 
self was  fully  conscious.  After  having  declared  that  of 
all  analyses  presented  to  a  chemist  water  is  the  one 
which  offers  the  greatest  uncertainty,  he  goes  on  to  state 
to  what  this  uncertainty  is   due  : — 

"  En  effet,  i  partie  [d'hydrogene  se  combine  avec  8 
parties  d'oxygene  pour  former  de  I'eau,  et  rien  ne  serait 

P 


SH 


NATURE 


\Feb.  2,  I 


plus  exact  que  I'analyse  de  I'eau,  si  Ton  pouvait  peser 
rhydrogfene  et  peser  I'eau  qui  proviendrait  de  sa  com- 
bustion. Mais  I'exp^rience  n'est  pas  possible  sous  cette 
forme.  Nous  sommes  obliges  de  peser  I'eau  formee,  et 
I'oxygene  qui  a  servi  a  la  produire,  pour  en  ddduire, 
par  difference,  le  poids  de  I'hydrogene  qui  en  fait 
partie.  Ainsi,  une  erreur  de  1/900  sur  le  poids  de 
I'eau,  ou  de  1/800  sur  le  poids  de  I'oxygene,  affecte 
•d'une  quantity  dgale  a  1/90  ou  k  1/80  le  poids  de 
I'hydrog&ne.  Que  ces  erreurs  dtant  dans  le  meme 
sens  viennent  k  s'ajouter,  et  Ton  aura  des  erreurs  qui 
iront  k  1/40." 

Let  us  now  turn  our  attention  to  the  evidence  afforded 
by  Regnault's  determinations  of  the  densities  of 
oxygen  and  hydrogen.  Prof  Le  Conte  has  detected 
some  slight  numerical  errors  in  Regnault's  reductions 
{Phil.  Mag.  [4]  27-29),  and  when  the  necessary  correc- 
tions are  made  it  follows  that  the  density  of  oxygen 
is  1-105612,  and  that  of  hydrogen  o"o69269  ;  whence,  on 
the  assumption  of  Avogadro's  law,  we  have  the  ratio 
O  :  H  =  I5"96i  1  :  i.  This  result  is  in  such  striking  agree- 
ment with  Dumas'  value  that  it  is  generally  held  to  afford 
the  strongest  corroboration  of  it.  The  number  given  for 
oxygen  is  probably  among  the  most  accurate  of  Regnault's 
determinations  of  gaseous  densities  ;  the  subsequent 
results  of  Von  Jolly,  which  are  alone  comparable  in  cha- 
racter with  those  of  Regnault,  when  reduced  to  the 
geographical  position  of  Regnault's  laboratory  have  not 
materially  altered  the  value.  The  number  given  for 
hydrogen  is  certainly  not  entitled  to  the  same  degree  of 
confidence.  Indeed,  it  has  been  stated  that  Regnault 
was  himself  of  this  opinion,  on  account  of  the  great 
difficulty  of  procuring  hydrogen  free  from  air.  It  is 
hardly  necessary  to  point  out  that  even  an  extremely 
minute  admixture  of  air  would  tend  to  lower  the  relative 
value  of  the  atomic  weight  of  oxygen.  Moreover,  the 
hydrogen  in  the  course  of  its  preparation  must  have  been 
saturated  with  moisture  ;  and  although,  of  course,  all  pre- 
cautions at  that  time  known  were  taken  to  dry  the  gas,  it 
is  quite  certain  that  it  could  not  have  been  absolutely  free 
from  traces  of  water.  The  experiments  of  Dixon  have 
shown  how  extremely  difficult  it  is  to  dry  a  gas  perfectly, 
and  it  is  now  recognized  that  the  ordinary  methods  of 
desiccation  still  leave  appreciable  traces  of  moisture  in  it. 
The  effect  of  this  moisture  in  the  case  of  hydrogen  would 
be  to  increase  its  density,  whereas  in  the  case  of  the 
oxygen  it  would  tend  to  decrease  it.  On  the  other  hand, 
oxygen  and  hydrogen  when  measured  under  the  standard 
conditions  of  temperature  and  pressure  are  not,  strictly 
speaking,  under  exactly  comparable  conditions,  and  the 
assumption  of  the  validity  of  Avogadro's  law  is  not 
mathematically  correct. 

Within  recent  years  the  question  of  the  composition  of 
water  has  been  again  attacked,  and  with  a  fuller  know- 
ledge of  the  various  sources  of  error  which  the  progress 
of  science  has  shown  to  be  present  in  the  older  methods. 
Julius  Thomsen  found  that  i  litre  of  dry  hydrogen,  mea- 
sured under  standard  conditions  of  temperature  and 
pressure,  when  burnt  with  oxygen  gave,  as  the  mean  of 
eight  concordant  experiments,  o'8o4i  grammes  of  water. 
Accordingly,  2  litres  of  hydrogen,  on  combining  with 
oxygen,  would  give  1-6082  grammes  of  water.  Assuming 
the  validity  of  Gay-Lussac's  law,  and  using  Regnault's 


values  for  the  weights  of  the  gases  at  standard  tempera- 
ture and  pressure,  the  calculated  weight  becomes — 

2  litres  hydrogen  ~  o'lygi  grammes 
I  litre  oxygen       =  1-4298        ,, 


water         =  1-6089        >> 

The  difference  is  o"]  milligramme.  But  the  question 
may  be  immediately  asked,  "  Is  Gay-Lussac's  law  actu- 
ally valid?"  The  work  of  Regnault  and  Amagat  on  the 
relation  of  volumes  of  gases  to  heat  and  pressure  indi- 
cates that,  as  ordinarily  stated,  it  cannot  be  absolutely 
valid.  Dr.  A.  Scott  has  recently  put  the  question  to  the 
test  of  experiment,  and,  from  a  long  series  of  trials  in 
which  large  volumes  of  gases  were  caused  to  combine, 
he  finds  that  the  most  probable  ratio  is  i  -994  :  i  (Proc. 
Roy.  Soc,  1887,  398).  Taking  Regnault's  data  as  before, 
we  have — 

I -994  litres  hydrogen  =  0-1876  gramme 
I  litre  oxygen         =  I  '4298       ,, 

water        =  1-6084      >> 

which  differs  only  by  0-2  milligramme  from  Thomsen's 
result. 

Now,  from  Regnault's  densities  of  oxygen  and  hydro- 
gen, as  recalculated  by  Prof.  Le  Conte,  it  follows  that 
the  weights  of  equal  volumes  of  the  gases  are  as 
I  :  15-961 1,  which,  on  the  basis  of  Dr.  Scott's  ratio  for 
the  combining  volumes,  gives — 

O  =  16-009. 

Prof.  J.  P.  Cooke  and  Mr.  T.  W.  Richards,  of  Harvard 
College,  have  recently  presented  us  with  a  further  con- 
tribution to  the  subject  (Proc.  Amer.  Acad,  of  Arts  and 
Sciences,  xxiii.  149),  which  merits  very  special  attention, 
not  only  on  account  of  the  intrinsic  excellence  of  the  experi- 
mental work  of  which  it  is  an  account,  but  also  because  it  is 
here  attempted  to  obviate  certain  of  the  sources  of  error 
which  have  already  been  pointed  out  as  inherent  in 
Dumas'  method.  The  method  adopted  by  the  American 
chemists  was  to  pass  a  known  weight  of  hydrogen  over 
heated  copper  oxide  and  to  weigh  the  amount  of  water 
formed.  It  will  be  seen  that  the  essential  feature  in  this 
method  is  that  the 'weight  of  the  hydrogen  is  known 
whilst  that  of  the  oxygen  is  obtained  by  difference  ;  in 
contradistinction  to  the  method  of  Dumas,  where  the 
weight  of  the  oxygen  was  known  and  that  of  the  hydro- 
gen found  by  difference.  The  preparation  of  this  hydro- 
gen and  the  determination  of  its  weight  were,  however, 
problems  which  required  the  highest  manipulative  skill. 
Obviously,  everything  depends  upon  the  purity  of  the 
hydrogen.  A  glass  globe  of  about  5  htres  capacity  and 
weighing  about  570  grammes  was  so  provided  with  stop- 
cocks that  it  could  be  evacutated  by  the  air-pump.  The 
vacuous  globe  was  weighed  against  a  similar  globe,  in  the 
manner  already  adopted  by  Regnault,  filled  with  hydro- 
gen, and  its  weight  again  determined.  The  weight  of 
hydrogen  taken  was  about  0-42  gramme.  The  hydrogen 
was  then  driven  over  the  heated  copper  oxide  by  a  current 
of  dry  air,  and  the  water  formed  collected  partly  in  a 
weighed  tube,  and  partly  by  means  of  sulphuric  acid  and 
phosphoric  oxide.  The  hydrogen  was  obtained  by  three 
different  methods  :    (i)  by  the  action  of  sulphuric  acid 


Feb.  2,  1888] 


NATURE 


315 


upon  zinc  ;  (2)  by  means  of  caustic  potash  and  alu- 
minium ;  and  (3)  by  electrolysis.  In  all,  sixteen  experi- 
ments are  given.  The  results  are  stated  in  the  following 
table  :— 


c 
o-C 

(2 

p     Sum  of  the 
1     weights  of 
§     hydrogen. 

p     Sum  of  the 
3     weights  of 
^        water. 

Atomic 

weight  of  oxyjjen. 

max. 

min. 

Calc.  from 
sums. 

I. 

II. 

III. 

5 
5 
6 

2-0876 
2-0803 
2-5350 

18-7406 
18-6740 
22-7541 

15-977 
15-962 
15-967 

15-937 
15-942 
15-937 

15-954 
15-953 
15-952 

The  final  mean  is  O  =r  o"ooi7. 

This  very  bald  account  does  but  scanty  justice  to  the 
beauty  and  simplicity  of  the  methods  adopted  by  Prof. 
Cooke  and  Mr.  Richards,  and  to  the  manipulative  skill 
and  patience  with  which  they  carried  them  out.  With 
respect  to  the  bearing  of  their  result  on  Prout's  hypothesis, 
the  question  seems  to  them  to  narrow  itself  to  this  point  : 
Is  the  hydrogen  they  have  made  use  of  the  typical  hydrogen 
element  ?  They  are  inclined  to  believe  that  the  theoretical 
question  in  regard  to  Prout's  law  has  been  settled  so  far 
as  analytical  work  can  solve  the  problem.  On  this  point, 
however,  we  are  at  issue  with  them.  That  statement 
impHes  a  finality  about  our  present  quantitative  methods 
which  we  have  no  right  to  assume.  It  implies,  too,  that 
the  methods  employed  by  the  authors  have  yielded  as  close 
an  approximation  to  the  typical  element  as  we  are  ever 
likely  to  obtain.  Their  method  in  principle  no  doubt 
removes  one  fundamental  objection  to  Dumas'  plan  of 
work,  considered  as  an  experimental  process,  but  it  by  no 
means  removes  all  the  sources  of  error,  and  anybody  who 
will  patiently  sift  out  these  sources  and  seek  to  appreciate 
their  net  effect  must  admit  that  the  ultimate  tendency 
is  to  apparently  lower  the  relative  value  of  the  atomic 
weight  of  oxygen. 

If  we  have  regard  to  this  fact,  and  if  we  consider  too 
what  we  may  call  the  volumetric  evidence,  as  given  above, 
it  seems  premature  to  assume  that  the  ultimate  question 
has  actually  been  narrowed  down  to  the  point  to  which 
Prof.  Cooke  and  Mr.  Richards  are  disposed  to  conclude 
that  they  have  brought  it.  T.  E.  THORPE. 


PHYSICAL  GEOGRAPHY  OF  THE  SEA. 
Handbuch   der    Ozeanographie.      Von    Dr.  Georg    von 

Boguslawski    und    Prof.    Dr.    Otto    Kriimmel.       Two 

Vols.  (Stuttgart:  Engelhorn,  1884-87.) 
'T^HESE  volumes  belong  to  a  series  of  geographical 
-•-  hand-books — each  written  by  an  acknowledged 
master  of  the  subject — brought  out  on  a  uniform  plan 
under  the  editorship  of  Prof.  Dr.  F.  Ratzel,  by  the 
well-known  Stuttgart  publishing  firm  of  Engelhorn. 

Dr.  Ratzel's  own  volume  on  Anthropogeography,  Dr. 
Hann's  on  Climatologj'^,  and  Dr.  Heim's  on  Glaciers 
have  already  appeared  ;  and  now,  under  the  somewhat 
novel  name  of  "  Oceanography,"  the  physical  geography 
of  the  sea  has  been  exhaustively  treated.  The  editor 
has  divided  the  subject  into  two  parts,  and  given  each  to 
a  specialist.     In  Volume  I.,  Prof.  Dr.  G.  von  Boguslawski, 


of  the  Hydrographical  Department  of  the  German  Ad- 
miralty, treats  of  the  distribution,  physical  condition,  and 
chemical  composition  of  sea- water  ;  while  in  Volume  II., 
Dr.  Otto  Kriimmel,  Professor  of  Geography  in  the  Uni- 
versity of  Kiel,  discourses  on  the  motions  of  the  ocean. 
Each  part  is  complete  in  itself,  but  the  index  to  both  is 
given  only  in  the  second  volume. 

It  is  somewhat  difficult  to  give  an  idea  of  the  multi- 
farious contents  of  this  exhaustive  treatise.  In  Volume  I., 
Dr.  Boguslawski  begins  with  an  account  of  the  shape 
and  area  of  the  different  oceans,  and  then  naturally  de- 
scribes successively  the  physical  character  of  their  various 
coast-lines,  and  the  depths  of  the  sea  all  over  the  world. 
But  we  must  remark  on  the  poverty  of  illustration  and  the 
absence  of  maps  which  characterize  this  and  so  many 
other  first-rate  German  books.  Here  we  have  actually 
no  map,  however  rough,  to  show  graphically  the  depth  of 
the  oceans.  The  unfortunate  reader  who  wants  to  get 
his  information  as  easily  and  quickly  as  possible  has  first 
to  read  through  about  100  pages  of  closely-printed  type, 
and  then  to  try  and  picture  to  himself  the  relief  of  the 
floor  of  the  sea. 

After  discussing  ocean  depths,  the  author  devotes  a 
short  chapter  to  the  chemical  composition  of  salt  water  ; 
and  then  a  somewhat  longer  space  to  the  density  or 
specific  gravity  of  the  sea.  Colour  and  transparency  are 
next  discussed,  and  the  last  200  pages  are  occupied  with 
what  is  called  maritime  meteorology. 

Of  this  space  only  thirty-four  pages  are  devoted  to  wind 
and  storms,  and  very  rightly,  as  these  subjects  would  re- 
quire a  special  volume  for  their  proper  treatment.  The 
remainder  is  occupied  with  a  minute  account  of  the  tem- 
perature of  the  ocean,  both  on  the  surface  and  at  various 
depths  ;  and  with  a  notice  of  the  distribution  of  ice  in 
high  latitudes.  Here  too,  the  value  of  the  admirable  text 
is  greatly  diminished  by  the  absence  of  maps. 

So  far  no  mathematics  have  been  required,  but  it  is 
impossible  to  treat  of  the  motions  of  the  sea  without 
algebraical  formulae.  Dr.  Kriimmel,  however,  uses  great 
judgment  in  only  giving  the  formulae  of  motion,  which 
only  involve  simple  algebra,  and  not  the  investigation  of 
the  formulae,  that  would  require  much  higher  analysis. 

In  the  second  volume  he  begins  with  the  consideration 
of  waves.  The  theory  of  wave-motion,  both  in  deep  and 
shallow  water,  he  gives  first,  mostly  following  Airy  ;  while 
experimental  illustrations,  and  observations  on  the  actual 
length,  height,  and  speed  of  waves  follow  next.  Breakers 
and  rollers  are  then  discussed,  together  with  their  in- 
fluence on  the  abrasion  of  coast-lines.  Earthquake  and 
volcanic-  waves  are  illustrated  by  a  self-recorded  tidal 
trace  from  South  Georgia,  which  will  be  new  to  Enghsh 
readers  ;  and  the  section  ends  with  a  capital  account  of 
stationary  waves,  seches,  and  of  the  curious  tidal  pheno- 
mena in  the  Straits  of  Euripus,  which  so  puzzled  the 
ancient  Greeks. 

The  author  then  turns  to  tides,  dealing  mostly  with 
the  theories  of  Laplace,  Whewell,  Ferrel,  Airy,  Thom- 
son, &c.,  but  very  wisely  ending  with  a  chapter  on 
"unsolved  problems."  The  difficult  subject  of  the  ver- 
tical circulation  of  the  ocean  is  next  discussed,  and  an 
admirable  account  given  of  the  cold  aufreibwasser — 
up-rubbed  water — of  tropical  weather  coasts.  This  un- 
euphonious  term  is  applied  to  the  cold  water  that  is  found 


3i6 


NATURE 


{Feb. 


2,    I 


close  to  many  tropical  shores  off  which  the  wind  blows 
steadily.  For  instance,  near  Cape  Guardafui,  when  the 
south-west  monsoon  blows  off  shore,  cold  water  is  found 
near  the  land,  but  when  the  north-east  monsoon  blows  on 
shore  nothing  but  warm  water  can  be  discovered.  The 
theory  is  that  an  off-shore  wind  blows,  or  rubs,  the 
sun-heated  surface  water  to  leeward,  and  that  the  proper 
level  of  the  sea  is  maintained  by  cold  water  welling  up 
from  below.  Mr.  J.  Murray,  of  the  Challenger,  has  dis- 
covered a  similar  effect  in  the  long,  narrow,  deep  waters 
of  Loch  Ness.  With  a  south-west  wind  the  coldest 
water  is  at  the  south-west  end  of  the  lake,  but  when  the 
wind  changes  to  north-east  the  lowest  temperature  is 
found  at  the  north-east  extremity. 

The  remainder  of  the  work  is  taken  up  by  a  descrip- 
tion of  the  currents  of  the  ocean.  The  theory,  of  course, 
is  fully  given,  and  we  may  note  that  the  author  uses 
Ferrel's  formula  for  the  deflection  of  a  moving  particle  to 
the  right,  through  the  influence  of  the  earth's  rotation, 
which  has  been  accepted  in  every  country  except  England. 
The  long  detail  of  the  currents  in  different  oceans  of 
course  contains  little  novelty,  but  is  illustrated  by  an 
excellent  map  in  blue  and  red  of  the  direction  and 
velocity  of  these  well-known  cold  and  hot  streams. 

Both  of  these  volumes  are  to  a  certain  extent  uncritical 
compilations,  for  the  results  of  various  experiments  and 
observations  are  merely  recorded,  without  any  comment 
on  the  varying  quality  of  the  work.  We  have  already 
commented  on  the  absence  of  maps  ;  and  the  instru- 
ments used  in  oceanic  research  might  well  have  been 
much  more  copiously  illustrated.  Still  this  work  is  a 
most  valuable  addition  to  the  literature  of  the  subject, 
and  we  wish  that  it  could  be  translated  into  English. 

There  is  no  text-book  of  the  subject  in  England, 
beyond  School-Board  primers,  except  the  work  of  Maury  ; 
and  this,  in  spite  of  a  fascinating  style,  is  too  fanciful,  and 
too  much  out  of  date,  to  be  of  any  use. 

Though  the  volumes  now  under  review  can  never  be 
popular  in  the  ordinary  sense  of  the  word,  still  they 
would  be  invaluable  to  scientific  men  and  others,  who 
though  not  specialists  wish  to  study  in  a  compact  and 
available  form  the  present  state  of  knowledge  of  one 
of  the  most  interesting  branches  of  modern  research, 

Ralph  Abercromby. 


BULLETIN  OF   THE    UNITED   STATES  FISH 
COMMISSION. 

Bulletin  of  the  United  States  Fish  Commission.   Vol;  VI., 
for  1886.     (Washington :  Government  Printing  Office, 
1887.) 
nPHE  immense  number  of  short  articles  in  this  volume 

-L  are  as  usual  classified  in  a  topical  synopsis  of  the 
contents.  The  largest  class  is  that  of  articles  concerning 
the  fisheries,  the  next  in  size  contains  those  concerning 
aquiculture,  the  next  those  concerning  natural  history,  and 
there  are  two  other  classes  headed  U.S.  Fish  Commission 

—General,  and  Miscellaneous.  Of  the  biological  articles 
Mr.  John  A.  Ryder  contributes  only  three,  and  the  reader 
regrets  there  are  not  more  from  his  hand.  One  is  on  the 
early  development  of  the  toad-fish,  Batrachus  tau,  whose 
eggs  arel  described  as  adherent,  being  fixed  to  the  under 
surface   of   submerged  boulders.      The    young  toad-fish 


have  this  unique  peculiarity,  that  when  the  egg-membrane 
bursts  they  are  not  set  free  but  the  lower  surface  of  the 
yolk-sac  remains  firmly  fixed  to  the  adherent  portion  of 
the  membrane,  and  this  adhesion  continues  until  the  yolk- 
sac  has  become  almost  entirely  intra-abdominal.  The 
second  of  Mr.  Ryder's  papers  is  on  the  cleavage  of  the 
blasto-disk  in  the  ovum  of  Raja  erinacea ;  and  the  third 
on  the  intra-ovarian  gestation  of  the  viviparous  Sebastes 
marinus :  this  last  is  based  upon  the  examination  of  a 
gravid  specimen  obtained  by  the  Albatross. 

The  few  articles  on  the  reproduction  and  generative 
organs  of  eels  are  of  little  value,  as  the  information 
contained  in  them  is  not  up  to  date.  One,  for  instance, 
is  a  translation  of  a  paper  by  Prof.  Pavesi,  published  in 
1880,  and  therefore  of  course  treating  as  probabilities 
propositions  concerning  the  testes  which  were  proved  in 
1881  by  Otto  Hermes. 

Among  the  aquicultural  articles  there  are  a  great  many 
on  the  shad-hatching  work  of  the  Commission,  most  of 
them  detailing  statistics  of  the  operations  of  1886.  In 
one  of  these  Marshall  McDonald  announces  that  for  the 
entire  period  of  the  Commission's  work  up  to  and  including 
1882,  200,000,000  of  young  shad  were  produced,  while 
for  1886  alone  the  total  was  90,000,000,  and  this  last 
number  was  fifteen  times  as  great  as  the  number  of  adult 
shad  captured  for  market  in  one  season.  In  another 
report  by  the  same  writer  we  find  that  the  cost  of  pro- 
duction of  shad-fry  was  $127  •66,  or  about  ^{^25,  per  million. 
The  exact  effect  of  the  artificial  production  of  shad-fry  on 
the  supply  of  the  adult  fish  is  not  estimated,  but  in  one 
place  we  find  that  the  catch  in  the  Potomac  was  much 
larger  in  1886  than  in  1885  ;  and  in  another  that  in 
Connecticut  pollutions  and  sewage  are  diminishing  tlie 
number  of  shad  in  the  rivers. 

Evidence  is  given  that  shad  are  now  fairly  abundant 
on  the  whole  coast  of  California,  apparently  from  plant- 
ings in  the  River  Sacramento,  but  no  regular  run  of  shad 
seems  to  have  been  produced  in  that  river  ;  and  we  find 
statistics  of  plantings  in  1886,  in  the  Columbia  and 
Colorado,  from  which  a  better  result  is  expected.  But  of 
course  thie  Bulletin  is  not  the  place  to  look  for  a  connected 
and  logical  discussion  of  the  operations  carried  out  and 
their  results.  The  publication  contains  occasional  notes 
and  statistics  which  are  interesting  to  those  who  are 
familiar  with  the  matters  to  which  they  belong,  and  which 
place  on  record  facts  which  form  materials  for  a  connected 
study. 

Of  the  very  large  amount  of  information  comprised 
under  the  heading  Fisheries,  we  cannot  say  more  here 
than  that  it  includes  details  and  statistics  not  only  of 
American  fisheries  but  of  those  of  all  parts  of  the  world. 


OUR  BOOK  SHELF. 

Flour  Manufacture :  a  Treatise  on  Milling  Science  and 
Practice.  By  Friedrich  Kick  ;  translated  by  H.  H.  P. 
Powles.     (London:  Crosby  Lockwood  and  Son,  1888.) 

The  art  of  flour-milling,  which  of  late  years  has  under- 
gone changes  in  its  method  of  the  most  marked  character, 
has  at  no  time  been  productive  of  anything  like  a  copious 
technology  ;  and,  in  the  attempt  to  supply  this  deficiency, 
it  was  natural  that  Mr.  Powles  should  turn  his  regard 
towards  Austria,  where  the  manufacture  of  flour  had 
engaged  the  attention  of  scientific  experts  long  before  the 


Feb.  2,  1888] 


NATURE 


Z^^l 


necessity  for  systematic  inquiry  into  its  processes  became 
obvious  in  this  country.  The  publication  of  Dr.  F 
Kick's  supplement  to  his  treatise  "  Die  Mehlfabrication," 
which  tabulated  the  improvements  in  machinery  for  pre- 
paring and  grinding  cereals  introduced  up  to  the  year 
1883,  placed  at  the  disposal  of  the  translator  a  manual 
complete  in  its  investigations  into  the  nature  of  grain 
from  the  miller's  technical  standpoint,  and  into  the  best 
means  of  reducing  it  to  flour.  It  is  true  that  the  book 
does  not  concern  itself  with  the  construction  of  the  mill 
building  nor  with  the  motive  power  to  be  employed  ;  but, 
from  this  point  onward,  the  leading  principles  which 
should  guide  the  milling  engineer  are  carefully*  and 
accurately  related,  and  their  application  justified  when 
necessary  by  mathematical  demonstration  ;  the  rationale 
at  the  same  time  being  within  the  comprehension  of 
the  practical  miller.  Of  this  method  the  chapters  on 
"  balancing  millstones  "  (p.  113),  and  on  "disintegrators  " 
(supplement,  p.  25),  afford  admirable  examples.  The 
various  operations  of  grain  preparation,  grinding,  and  of 
bolting,  sifiing,  and  dressing  the  meal,  with  descriptions 
and  plates  of  the  best  known  machines  employed,  are 
fully  detailed,  whilst -the  controversy  between  the  advo- 
cates of  "  high  "  milling  and  "  low  "  milling  is  discreetly 
adjusted  by  the  author  in  the  incidental  remark  that 
"  which  of  these  methods  is  to  be  used  can  only  be  settled 
by  the  local  demand,  if,  as  is  generally  the  case,  the  mill 
works  for  the  home  market." 

It  is,  however,  to  those  portions  of  the  work  which 
relate  to  roller-mills  that  the  reader  at  the  present  time 
will  probably  turn  in  the  first  instance.  He  will  find  here, 
not  only  information  as  to  the  various  kinds  in  use  and  as 
to  the  manner  in  which  they  have  been  found  to  perform 
their  work,  but  an  intelligible  account  of  the  operations 
involved  in  the  reduction  of  cereals  by  rollers,  and  good 
reason  shown  why  the  time  honoured  millstones  have 
become  almost  entirely  discarded  in  the  manufacture  of 
wheaten  flour. 

The  book  is  very  fully  illustrated  by  woodcuts  through- 
out the  text,  and  by  some  thirty  supplementary  sheets  of 
diagrams;  whiilst  a  preliminary  chapter  contributed  by  Dr. 
August  Vogel,  of  Vienna,  on  the  histology  of  farinaceous 
grains,  adds  completeness  to  the  work. 

We  congratulate  the  translator  on  his  introducing  to 
the  English  reader  a  volume  of  the  utmost  value  to  millers 
and  engineers,  and  of  great  interest  to  many  other 
persons  more  or  less  concerned  with  this  important 
industry. 

Elements  of  Chemistry  :  a  Text-book  for  Beginners.    By 
Ira  Remsen.     (London  :  Macmillan  and  Co.,  1887.) 

Opinions  no  doubt  differ  much  as  to  what  is  simple 
enough  for  a  beginner.  A  good  deal  depends  on  the  age 
of  the  beginner.  We  hold,  in  opposition  to  the  author 
in  his  preface,  that  the  present  production  is  not  well 
adapted  for  very  young  pupils. 

There  is  a  good  deal  of  promise  in  the  book  which 
might  be  better  fulfilled,  and  there  is  an  attempt  to  cover 
far  too  large  a  field,  with  the  result — not  intended  by  the 
author — that  it  reads  more  like  a  book  on  general  chemical 
information  than  an  elementary  introduction  to  chemistry. 

Metals  and  non-metals  are  dealt  with  under  "  family  " 
groups,  and  most  of  their  common,  and  many  uncommon, 
compounds  described,  generally  with  formulas,  and  this  in 
cases  and  with  equations  which  cannot  be  termed  simple ; 
for  instance,  technical  processes  like  soda-making,  or 
bleaching  powder,  or  potassium  chlorate,  or  nitro-benzene, 
&c.  Otherwise  the  order  and  arrangement  of  matter  and  the 
questions  attached  to  each  section  are  most  excellent,  and 
the  book  would  be  most  useful  even  for  general  reading, 
exercise,  and  information  on  the  chemistry  of  common 
things  to  the  great  mass  of  partially  informed,  ordinarily 
well  educated,  people  of  any  age.  To  the  senior  boys  of 
public  schools,  who  have  already  had  a  little  instruction 


in  science,  this  book  would  be  really  useful,  as  taking 
them  in  a  different  manner  over  ground  already  partially 
covered,  widening  their  general  knowledge,  and  culti- 
vating the  main  thing,  "  thinking.  " 

A  Primary  Geometry,  with  Simple  and  Practical 
Examples  in  Plane  ajid  Projection  Drawing,  and 
suited  to  all  Beginfters.  By  S.  E.  Warren,  C.E. 
(New  York :  Wi'ley  and  Sons  ;  London :  Triibner, 
1887.) 

This  work  bears  as  motto,  "  Geometry  should  be  begun 
as  early  and  as  simply  in  behalf  of  industrial  life  as  arith- 
metic is  in  behalf  of  business  life";  and  its  object  is, 
accordingly,  to  contribute  to  a  general  earlier  beginning 
of  the  study  of  geometry.  "  The  truths  oiform,  as  needed 
in  drawing,  have  been  made  prominent,  while  not  neglect- 
ing elementary  ones  of  measure^'' 

The  text  treats  of  straight  lines,  triangles,  regular 
figures,  areas,  lines  and  planes  in  space,  the  elementary 
bodies,  and  projections  of  elementary  solids,  the  subject 
being  considered  in  a  common-sense  fashion  without 
much  use  of  purely  geometrical  proofs.  Having  perused 
a  very  large  portion  of  his  book  without  detecting  any 
flaw,  we  consider  the  author  competent  for  the  task  he  has 
undertaken,  but  we  do  not  take  kindly  to  such  present- 
ments of  geometry.  We  believe,  however,  the  book  to  be 
well  adapted  to  junior  pupils  as  an  introduction  to  the 
study,  and  also  to  artisans  and  others  who  are  likely  to  be 
able  to  grasp  the  illustrations  given  better  than  they 
would  purely  geometrical  proofs  for  which  their  ante- 
cedents have  not  prepared  them. 


LETTERS   TO    THE  EDITOR. 

[The  Editor  does  not  hold  himself  responsible  for  opinions 
expressed  by  his  correspondents.  Neither  can  he  under- 
take to  return,  or  to  correspond  with  the  writers  of, 
rejected  manuscripts.  No  notice  is  taken  of  anonymous 
communications. 

[The  Editor  urgently  requests  correspondents  to  keep  their 
letters  as  short  as  possible.  The  pressure  on  his  spcue 
is  so  great  that  it  is  impossible  otherwise  to  insure  the 
appearance  even  of  communications  containing  interesting 
and  novel  facts. 

The  Duke  of  Argyll's  Charges  against  Men  of  Science. 

I  REGRET  to  find  that  the  Duke  of  Argyll  has  once  more 
evaded  the  point  at  issue.  The  question  is  one  not  ol  formulas 
but  oi  facts.  If  the  statements  upon  which  his  Grace  bases  the 
severe  strictures  of  his  "Great  Lesson"  were  true,  I  for  one 
should  take  no  exception  to  any  "metaphorical  or  rhetorical 
expression  "  by  which  he  chose  to  enforce  his  lesson. 

Three  months  have  elapsed  since  the  Duke's  attention  was 
directed  to  the  discussions  which  during  the  last  seven  years 
have  taken  place  upon  the  subject  of  Mr.  Murray's  theory  of 
coral  reefs — and  especially  to  that  one  in  which  the  Director- 
General  of  our  Geological  Survey,  and  the  most  eminent  of 
American  geologists,  Prof.  J.  D.  Dana,  bore  the  leading  parts  ; 
the  Duke  has  been  referred  to  the  scientific  journals  in  which 
this  and  the  other  discussions  have  been  carried  on  ;  and  the 
fact  has  been  pointed  out  to  him  that  all  the  principal  text-books 
of  geology,  foreign  as  well  as  British,  which  have  been  published 
since  the  theory  was  announced,  have  given  it  a  prominent 
position  in  their  pages.  In  the  face  of  these  facts,  is  the  Duke 
of  Argyll  still  prepared  to  maintain  that,  with  respect  to  the 
theory  in  question,  there  has  been  "a  grudging  silence  as  far 
as  public  discussion  is  concerned"  ;  that  there  has  been  "a 
silence  of  any  effective  criticism"  ;  and  that  "no  serious  reply 
has  ever  been  attempted"?  If  his  Grace  admits  that  he  was 
mistaken  in  making  these  assertions,  is  he  prepared  to  withdraw 
them  and  also  the  comments  which  he  has  based  upon  them  ? 

Instead  of  doing  anything  of  the  kind  up  to  the  present,  the 
Duke  of  Argyll  has  fathered  two  stories  about  the  wrong-doings 
of  geologists — both  of  which  stories  have  as  little  foundation  in 
fact  as  his  statements  in  "  the  Great  Lesson." 


3i8 


NATURE 


[Feb.  2,  I 


The  first  of  these  stories  is  related  in  very  circumstantial  terms, 
but  without  any  authority  being  given  for  it.  It  is  said  that  a 
Fellow  of  the  Geological  Society  offered  a  certain  paper,  which 
the  authorities  of  the  Society  refused  ;  and  it  is  asserted  that  the 
reason  of  their  refusal  was  that  the  paper  "was  not  orthodox," 
and  "they  probably  smelt  heresy."  Now  the  Duke  of  Argyll 
is  well  aware  that  every  Fellow  of  the  Geological  Society  has  the 
right  to  present  papers  for  reading,  and  that  the  responsibility  for 
accepting  or  refusing  papers  rests  in  the  first  instance  with  the 
President ;  but  he,  in  the  case  of  exercising  his  veto,  is  bound  to 
report  the  fact,  and  the  reasons  for  his  action,  at  the  next  meeting 
of  the  Council.  The  records  of  the  Society  show  that  no  such 
paper  was  ever  offered  to  it ;  that  the  President  never  exercised 
Ms  right  of  veto  ;  and  that  the  Council  never  discussed  the 
grounds  of  the  supposed  refusal.  The  Duke  of  Argyll  has  been 
informed  of  these  facts,  but  he  has  not  yet  retracted  the  very 
serious  charge  which  he  has  made  affecting  the  honour  and  good 
faith  of  the  President  and  the  other  twenty-two  members  of  the 
Council  of  the  Geological  Society. 

In  the  case  of  the  second  story  circulated  by  the  Duke  of 
Argyll,  the  authority  is  given.  The  complaint  is  made  that  since 
1862  "advanced  geologists"  have  "i^^nored"  views  which 
"tend  to  dethrone "  their  own  "pet  theories."  Anyone  who 
chooses  to  refer  to  the  Philosophical  Magazine  for  1862  will 
see  that  the  "pet  theories"  in  question  are  those  relating  to  the 
antiquity  of  man;  that  the  "advanced  geologists"  implicated 
in  the  charge  must  have  been  the  late  Sir  Charles  Lyell,  Prof. 
Prestwich,  and  those  who  have  followed  up  their  researches  and 
arguments  ;  and  that  the  "views  "  which  they  "ignored"  were 
the  suggestions  which  I  described  in  my  last  letter  ! 

John  W.  Judd. 


The  Total  Eclipse  of  the  Moon  of  1888  January  28,  as 
observed  at  Birr  Castle  Observatory,  Parsonstown. 

The  total  eclipse  of  the  moon  on  Saturday  last  was,  like  its 
predecessor  in  1884  (see  Nature,  vol.  xxx.  p.  589,  and  Trans, 
Royal  Dublin  Society  for  October  1885),  favoured  by  a  very 
clear  sky  during  the  whole  time  of  its  progress,  so  that  very 
extensive  observations  of  the  changes  of  the  moon's  heat  in 
consequence  of  the  passing  over  of  the  earth  shadow  could  be 
made.  The  apparatus  used  was  essen'ially  the  same  as  that 
used  before  ;  yet  the  two  old  thermopiles  had  been  replaced  by 
two  new  ones  especially  made  for  this  occasion  by  the  Earl  of 
Rosse. 

The  observations  began  at  yh.  19m.  M.T.  Greenwich,  and 
were,  as  much  as  possible,   uninterruptedly  continued  till  I5h. 

45™- 

During  this  time  638  distinct  readings  of  the  galvanometer 
were  obtained,  which,  when  fully  reduced,  will  enable  a  very 
satisfactory  heat-curve  to  be  drawn.  A  few  preliminary  results, 
reduced  to  zenith,  I  communicate  at  once. 

Galvanometer. 

739 '4  ...  ih.  lom.  before  first  contact  with  penumbra. 

663-4  ...  24m.  ,,  „  „ 

624-1  ...  First  contact  with  penumbra. 

252-1  ...  ,,  shadow. 

34-9  ...  22m.  before  beginning  of  total  phase. 

30-2  ...  22m.  after  ,,  ,, 

231-9  ...  Last  contact  with  shadow. 

545 '6  ...  ,,  penumbra. 

540'8  ...  ih.  34m.  after  last  contact  with  penumbra. 

From  these  figures  it  will  be  seen — 

(i)  That  the  heat  radiated  by  the  moon  begins  to  decrease  a 
considerable  time  before  the  first  contact  with  the  penumbra. 

(2)  That  22m.  before  the  beginning  of  totality  the  heat  is  only 
47  per  cent,  of  the  value  obtained  ih.  10m.  before  the  first 
contact  with  the  penumbra.  Unfortunately  an  unforeseen 
stoppage  of  the  driving-clock  prevented  the  observations  from 
being  carried  on  closer  up  to  and  during  the  total  phase. 

(3)  That  in  spite  of  the  rapid  fall  on  approach  to  totality,  the 
heat,  after  the  last  contact  with  the  penumbra,  does  not  at  once 
increase  to  anything  like  the  value  observed  at  corresponding 
times  before  the  first  contact. 

It  is  worth  remarking  that  points  2  and  3  are  confirmatory  of 
the  results  arrived  at  in  1884.  Otto  Boedicker. 

Birr  Castle  Observatory,  Parsonstown,  January  30. 


"  Elementary  Chemistry,"  and  "  Practical  Chemistry." 

I  CRAVE  leave  from  the  Editor  for  space  in  which  to  reply,  on 
my  own  behalf  and  on  that  of  my  fellow-authors  Messrs.  Slater 
and  Carnegie,  to  the  charges  brought  by  "  H.  E.  A."  in 
Nature  of  January  19  (p.  265)  against  our  method  of  teaching 
chemistry.  At  the  outset  I  thank  "  H.  E.  A.  "  for  the  patience 
which,  as  he  publicly  announces,  he  has  shown  in  waiting  for  the 
publication  of  these  books,  and  I  condole  with  him  in  his  dis- 
appointment. Like  him,  I  too  am  waiting  patiently  ;  I  trust  my 
disappointment  will  be  less  bitter. 

One  of  the  important  points  in  our  plan  of  chemical  teaching 
is  the  connection  of  the  work  in  the  laboratory  with  the  student's 
reading  and  lecture-work.  To  emphasize  this  connection,  and  to 
make  our  course  run  fairly  smoothly,  we  have  published  two 
books,  one  to  be  used  in  the  laboratory,  the  other  to  be  used 
in  the  lecture-room  and  in  reading  in  connection  with  the  whole 
work  of  the  student.  "  H.  E.  A.  "  acknowledges  the  advant- 
ages of  this  division,  but  throughout  his  review  he  ignores  the 
statement  distinctly  made  by  us,  that  one  book  is  complementarj 
to  the  other  and  that  both  must  be  used  together.  He  confines 
his  remarks  almost  wholly  to  one  of  our  books,  viz.  the 
"Practical  Chemistry";  and  yet  he  condemns  our  system  of 
teaching.  On  this  ground  alone  I  claim  that  his  review  is  mis- 
leading and  unfair.  I  go  further,  and  assert  that  "  H.  E.  A." 
has  condemned  our  system  without  acquainting  himself  with  its 
essential  features.  He  says  that  "in  the  earlier  part  of  the 
'  Practical  Chemistry '  Messrs.  Muir  and  Carnegie  do  not 
sutficiently  bear  in  mind  their  own  intention,  and  that  much  of  the 
matter  would  find  a  more  fitting  place  in  the  companion  volume." 
No  one  reading  this  would  suppose  that  almost  every  experiment 
used  in  Chaps.  I.  to  VIII.  of  the  "Practical  Chemistry" 
is  also  used  in  Chaps.  I.  to  IX.  of  the  "  Elementary 
Chemistry."  Yet  this  is  the  case.  In  one  book  the 
experiments  are  described,  along  with  others,  in  such 
terms  as  allow  attention  to  be  concentrated  on  their  results  and 
on  the  reasoning  on  these  results  ;  in  the  other  book  the  experi- 
ments are  described  in  detail  in  order  that  the  student  may  repeat 
them  in  the  laboratory.  In  another  part  of  his  review  "  H.  E.  A." 
says  that  most  of  the  subjects  dealt  with  in  the  third  part  of  the 
"  Elementary  Chemistry"  "  ought  never  to  have  been  introduced 
into  an  '  Elementary  Chemistry.'  "  He  has  here  made  a  slip  : 
it  is  the  third  part  of  the  "  Practical  Chemistry  "  which  includes 
subjects  not  touched  on  in  the  other  book.  This  correction  in- 
volves a  point  of  some  importance.  Although  the  preface  to  our 
"  Practical  Chemistry  "  states  that  the  book  forms  part  of  a 
course  of  elementary  chemistry,  yet  the  student  who  uses 
both  books  will  see  that  the  course  of  work  laid  down  in  the 
practical  book  carries  him  much  beyond  the  limits  of  treatment 
adopted  in  the  other  volume.  There  are  numerous  direct  and 
indirect  indications  of  this  in  the  book  itself,  which  those  for 
whom  the  work  is  intended  will  not  fail  to  notice.  One  cannot 
put  the  whole  of  one's  book  into  the  preface.  I  admit  that  it 
would  have  been  better  had  we  indicated  in  the  preface  to  the 
"Practical  Chemistry"  that  many  experiments  in  Parts  II.  and 
III.  are  difficult  to  perform,'and  require  skill  and  training  ;  but 
I  assert  that  the  nature  of  the  experiments  themselves,  the 
references  to  the  original  papers  to  be  read  before  conducting 
these  experiments,  and  the  suggestions  as  to  other  work  to  be 
done  preparatory  to  Parts  II.  and  III.  respectively,  suffice  to 
indicate  to  the  student,  although  not  necessarily  to  the  reviewer, 
the  character  of  the  work  described  in  the  later  chapters  of  the 
"Practical  Chemistry." 

Chapter  I.  of  Part  III.  of  the  "Practical  Chemistry"  involves 
a  repetition  of  some  of  Stas's  determinations  of  the  atomic  weight 
of  silver.  "  H.  E.  A.  "  says  that  this  chapter  should  have  been 
included  in  Part  I.,  and  he  adds,  "the  remaining  chapters  ougbt 
never  to  have  been  introduced  into  an  '  Elementary  Chemistry,'  " 
kindly  informing  his  readers  that  these  chapters  are  included 
"  because  of  the  senior  author's  well-known  tendency  to  worship 
physical  constants."  I  venture  to  remind  "  H.  E.  A."  that  no 
election  has  taken  place  to  the  office  of  supreme  pontiff  of 
chemistry.  Were  that  official  in  existence,  I  feel  inclined  to 
think  he  would  admit  that  accurate  determinations  of  atomic 
weights  — and  "  H.  E.  A."  allo-,vs  these  in  the  most  elementary 
part  of  the  course — are  determinations  of  constants  which  have 
physical  as  well  as  chemical  meanings. 

"  H.  E.  A.  "  says  that  in  the  "  Practical  Chemistry"  there  is 
an  "entire  absence  of  anything  approaching  to  a  systematic 
arrangement."  The  boldness  and  baldness  of  the  assertions 
made  by  the  reviewer  encourage  me  to  meet  this  statement  with 


Feb.  2,  1888] 


NA  JURE 


319 


a  direct  denial.  There  is  a  systematic  arrangement  in  the  whole 
book,  or  rather  in  the  whole  scheme  embodied  in  both  books. 
Because  "  H.  E.  A."  fails  to  discover  that  plan  which  finds 
favour  with  him,  it  does  not  follow  that  systematic  arrangement 
is  absent.  To  say  that  the  arrangement  is  not  that  which  one 
would  like  to  see  adopted  is  fair  criticism  ;  but  to  imply  that 
there  is  no  alternative  between  one's  own  system  and  chaos  is  to 
expose  one's  own  ignorance.  And  what  is  the  feature  of  that 
system  of  practical  chemistry  in  which  alone  the  reviewer  thinks 
the  student  can  find  salvation?  He  says,  "in  a  properly  chosen 
series  of  experiments  everything  should  be  proved  ;  no  assump- 
tion should  be  necessary."  In  another  part  of  the  review  he 
tells  us  that  "air  and  the  phenomena  of  combustion  should  be 
first  studied  :  the  composition  of  air  should  be  determined,  and 
oxygen  should  be  discovered  by  the  student  .  .  .  The  com- 
position of  water  should  next  be  qualitatively  a'^cerlained."  I 
should  be  deeply  indebted  to  "  H.  E.  A."  if  he  would  kindly 
describe  experiments  on  these  subjects,  suited  to  beginners  in 
chemistry,  in  which  no  assumptions  are  made,  and  which  convey 
sound  teaching.  He  must  not  get  over  the  difficulty  by  cleverly 
hiding  the  assumptions  made,  and  so  appearing  to  make  none  ; 
everything  must  be  proved,  and  proved  by  experiments  which  the 
beginner  can  satisfactorily  conduct.  I  hold,  and  I  am  convinced 
that  the  history  of  science  bears  me  out,  that  all  scientific  reason- 
ing starts  with  certain  assumptions,  and  that  in  every  particu- 
lar train  of  reasoning  assumptions  are  made.  If  the  beginner 
can  be  taught  to  recognize  the  assumptions  which  are  involved 
in  his  reasoning  on  experimental  data,  he  will  do  well.  In  the 
"  Practical  Chemistry  "  we  have  tried  to  emphasize  the  assump- 
tions which  the  beginner  must  make.  In  our  opinion  the  fatal 
thing  is  to  cover  over  and  hide  away  the  assumptions  ;  by  doing 
this,  the  student  acquires  a  habit  of  confounding  hypotheses  with 
facts,  and  so  unconsciously  he  slides  into  loose  methods  of 
reasoning.  I  fancy  I  can  detect  the  effects  of  such  a  method  in 
the  whole  review  :  has  not  "  H.  E.  A."  tacitly,  probably  un- 
consciously, assumed  that  chemical  truth  abides  with  him  and 
with  him  only  ? 

We  thank  "  H.  E.  A."  for  indicating  some  points  in  the 
descriptions  of  certain  experiments  which  might  be  improved,  and 
also  for  reminding  us  that  the  drawings  of  apparatus  are  not  as 
good  as  they  might  be.  These  things  can  and  will  be  improved. 
The  mistake  in  the  description  of  the  diffusion-experiment,  on 
p.  30  of  the  "  Elementary  Chemistry,"  to  which  "  H.  E.  A." 
alludes,  has  been  already  pointed  out  to  us,  and  a  slip  has  been 
inserted  in  all  copies  except  the  first  few  hundred  correcting  this 
mistake.  We  cannot  congratulate  the  reviewer,  nor  do  we 
think  he  will  be  inclined  on  second  thoughts  to  congratulate 
himself,  on  the  trifling  quibbles  in  which  he  has  indulged  regard- 
ing one  of  our  experiments  on  the  electrolysis  of  water. 

Cambridge,  January  23.  M.  M.  Pattison  MuiR. 


"Physical  Science  and  the  Woolwich  Examinations." 

I  AM  afraid  that  the  moderation  of  your  article  on  the  regula- 
tions for  admission  to  the  military  colleges  may  give  some  readers 
the  impression  that  science  is  merely  being  discouraged  more  or 
less  seriously  in  their  examinations.  The  fact  is,  however,  that 
it  is  being  ousted  with  absolute  certainty,  for  hardly  anyone  can 
afford  to  take  up  an  optional  subject  which  is  at  a  disadvantage  of 
1000  marks.  Severity  of  competition  has  within  the  last  few  years 
quite  doubled  the  number  of  marks  qualifying  for  admission  to 
Sandhurst,  and  it  will  soon  be  impossible,  even  if  it  is  not  so  at 
present,  for  a  candidate  to  gain  a  place  if  he  takes  up  any  subject 
other  than  Latin,  French,  German,  or  mathematics. 

This  making  all  the  men  fit  square  holes  whether  they  are 
round  or  not  can  hardly  be  for  the  advantage  of  the  service,  and 
one's  curiosity  is  aroused  as  to  the  reason  for  such  retrogressive 
changes — whether  it  is  due,  as  has  been  asserted,  to  the  action  of 
head  masters  who  do  not  desire  to  accumulate  or  encourage  new- 
fashioned  lore  ;  or  whether  the  military  authorities  really  opine 
that  to  an  officer  who  may  have  to  deal  with  telegraphy,  to 
choose  a  camping-ground,  or  perhaps  direct  a  search  for  water, 
Latin  is  half  as  important  again  as  electricity  or  physical 
geology. 

Is  it  really  too  much  to  expect  that  they  might  insist  first  on  a 
thorough  knowledge  of  those  parts  of  an  ordinary  education 
which  are  specially  necessary  or  helpful  to  an  officer,  and  then 
treat  the  unessential  subjects  on  an  equality  as  far  as  possible, 
and  let  a  boy  do  in  his  preparation  as  he  will  when  a  man — 


adequately  fulfil  the  duties  of  his  position,  and  then  follow  his 
own  bent  ?  W.  A. 

January  30. 

"  The  Art  of  Computation  for  the  Purposes  of  Science." 

Having  read  with  much  interest  Mr.  Sydney  Lupton's 
second  article  on  this  subject,  I  think  it  right  to  draw  his  atten- 
tion, and  that  of  your  readers,  to  Table  III.  of  my  book  of  five- 
figure  and  other  logarithms  published  by  Messrs.  C.  and  E. 
Layton  in  1870. 

This  table  was  framed  by  me  for  the  purpose  of  enabling 
computers  who  occasionally  require  to  use  logarithms  to  ten 
places  to  get  same  with  as  little  trouble  as  possible,  and  without 
shifting  to  any  other  book.  In  fact,  I  believe  results  can  be  got 
from  my  table  almost  as  quickly  as  from  the  voluminous  and 
beautiful  volume  of  George  Vega. 

For  instance,  referring  to  Mr.  Lupton's  example,  I  find  from 
my  table  and  the  instructions  that  log  I  '0542482375  =  log  i  "05 
-(-  log  I  '0040459405 — this  by  simple  division  ;  then — 

By  part  A  log  1-05  =  0-0211892991 

By  part  B  log  1-0040459405  =  0-0017535845 

log  1-0542482375  =  0-0229428836 

correct  by  Mr.  Lupton's  solution  from  Vega. 

My  whole  table  is  contained  in  eight  octavo  pages,  and  I 
believe  is  in  as  narrow  a  compass  as  is  consistent  with  utility. 

I  may  add  that  in  the  preliminary  part  of  my  book  will  be 
found  a  method  of  finding  the  logarithms  of  all  numbers  by  nothing 
more  than  simple  multiplication. 

The  late  Prof,  Augustus  De  Morgan,  when  I  showed  him  this 
Table  No.  III.,  I  well  remember,  replied:  "It  is  very  good 
indeed,  but  you  will  get  no  one  to  look  at  it,"  showing  how  rarely 
logarithms  are  ever  required  for  any  practical  use  beyond  five, 
or  at  the  most  seven,  figures.  E.  Erskine  Scott. 

6  Bond  Court,  Walbrook,  London,  E.G., 
January  i8. 

The  articles  of  Mr.  Sydney  Lupton  on  the  above  subject, 
which  have  appeared  in  recent  numbers  of  your  paper,  do  not 
profess  to  be  complete  ;  still,  as  their  declared  object  is  to  assist 
those  who  are  not  mathematicians  to  work  sums  by  the  aid  of 
tables,  it  seems  to  me  that  the  best  methods  should  not  be  passed 
over  in  silence,  while  others  that  are  practically  obsolete  are  dis- 
cussed at  length. 

I  beg  of  you  therefore  to  allow  me  to  call  attention  to  the 
labours  of  the  late  Peter  Gray,  F.R.A.S.,  in  the  direction  of 
supplying  facilities  for  computing  logarithms  and  antilogarithms. 
He  contributed  papers  on  the  subject  to  various  magazines  ; 
notably  a  series  (with  a  table  for  formation  of  logarithms  and 
antilogarithms  to  twelve  places)  to  the  Journal  of  the  Institute  of 
Actuaries  in  1865.  His  most  important  work  on  this  subject  was, 
however,  published  as  an  independent  volume  in  1876.  It  is 
entitled  "  Tables  for  the  Formation  of  Logarithms  and  Anti- 
logarithms  to  Twenty-four  or  any  less  number  of  places  "  ;  and 
it  contains,  besides  the  tables,  an  explanatory  introduction  and 
an  exhaustive  historical  preface.  The  published  price  is  only 
7^,  6^/.,  and  it  is  therefore  not  beyond  the  reach  of  those  who 
require  such  tools. 

Weddle's  method,  the  last  mentioned  by  Mr.  Lupton,  consists 
in  multiplying  the  given  number  down  to  unity,  by  means  of  a 
series  of  factors  of  the  form  I  -  ('i),,  x  r,  where  r  may  take 
any  integral  value  from  i  to  9.  The  logarithms  of  the  factors 
are  then  obtained  from  a  previously  prepared  table,  and  the 
complement  of  the  sum  of  these  logarithms  is  the  logarithm  of 
the  given  number.  Weddle  also  used  his  method  conversely,  to 
calculate  antilogarithms. 

Hearn,  of  the  Royal  Military  College,  Sandhurst,  improved 
upon  Weddle's  method,  by  substituting  factors  of  the  form 
I  +  (•!)"  X  ;-  for  the  computation  of  antilogarithms,  r,  as  before, 
ranging  in  value'  from  i  to  9  ;  but  he  retained  the  factors 
I  -  (•!)"  X  r  for  computing  logarithms. 

Gray's  improvements  on  Hearn  were  twofold.  In  the  first 
place,  he  gave  r  the  range  from  i  to  999,  taking  for  factors 
I  -t-  (-ooi)"  X  ;-,  and  he  thereby  brought  within  narrow  compass 
the  arithmetical  work  involved.  In  the  second  place,  by  a 
simple  arrangement  of  the  calculations,  he  showed  how  to  use 
factors  of  the  form  i  -f-  (-ooi)"  x  r,  instead  of  i  -  (-ooi)»  x  r. 


320 


NATURE 


[Fed.  2,  I 


for  computing  logarithms  as  well  as  antilogarithms  ;  and  thus, 
not  only  made  the  operations  more  convenient,  but  also  caused 
one  set  of  preparatory  tables  to  he  sufficient. 

The  principal  table  in  Gray's  book  above-named  consists  of  the 
logarithms  to  twenty-four  places  of  all  the  possible  factors 
I  +  (•ooi)»«  X  r,  up  to  that  limit.  An  auxiliary  table  contains, 
also  to  twenty-four  places,  the  logarithms  and  their  comple- 
ments of  the  natural  numbers  I  to  9,  these  being  frequently 
required  to  "prepare  "the  given  number.  A  smaller  table  to 
twelve  figures  only  appeared,  as  already  mentioned,  in  the 
Journal  of  the  Institute  of  Actuaries,  and  was  subsequently 
published  separately  by  Messrs.  C.  and  E.  Layton  ;  but  as  the 
twenty-four-figure  table  can  be  worked  quite  easily  to  any  extent 
up  to  that  limit,  there  is  no  particular  advantage  in  the  smaller 
one. 

By  means  of  Gray's  tables  the  work  of  forming  logarithms  and 
antilogarithms  is  reduced  to  a  minimum,  and  the  process  is  so 
simple  that  any  arithmetician  can  perform  it,  the  more  especially 
as  many  numerical  examples  are  given  in  the  introduction. 

London,  January  23.  George  King. 

Note  on  a  Problem  in  Maxima  and  Minima. 

To  find  a  point  such  that  the  sum  of  the  straight  lines  joining 
it  with  the  angular  points  of  a  given  triangle  shall  be  a 
minimum. 

This  problem  was  proposed  by  Fermat  to  Torricelli,  who 
solved  it,  and  sent  it  to  Vincent  Viviani,  who  also  solved  it,  but 
called  it  a  problem  ' '  quod,  ut  vera  fateor,  non  nisi  iteratis 
oppugnationibus  tunc  nobis  vincere  datum  fuit." 

The  solution  is  given  in  Gregory's  "Examples  of  the  Differ- 
ential and  Integral  Calculus,"  and  in  Todhunter's  "  Differential 
Calculus,"  pp.  240-42. 

Yet  it  can  be  solved  in  the  most  elementary  manner. 


Let  ABC  be  the  triangle.  Describe  an  equilateral  triangle 
on  BC  on  the  side  remote  from  A.  Describe  a  circle  round  the 
triangle  BCD,  Join  AD.  Then  E  is  the  point  required.  Join 
BE,  CE. 

(i)  It  follows,  from  Euc.  vi.  D,  that 

BE  -i-  EC  =  ED, 
.  •.  BE  -1-  EC  -^  AE  =  AD, 

and  evidently  /  BEC  =  BE  A  -  AEC  =  120°. 
(2)  Let  F  be  a  point  on  the  circumference  BC. 

BF  -h  FC  =  FD     (Euc.  vi.  D), 
.-.  BF  -f  FC  -t-  FA  =  FD  -f  FA  >  AD. 

{3)  Let  P  be  a  point  not  on  the  circumference.     Join  DP, 


and  produce  it  to  the  circumference  at  G.      Let  fall  the  perpen- 
diculars PH  and  PK,  on  GB  and  GC  respectively. 

By  Euc.  i.  26,  GH  =  GK  =  -iGP. 

Since  z  GPH  =  30°  =  GPK, 

.-.  BH  -f  KC  =  PD, 

.-.  BP  -f  PC  >PD, 

.  .  BP  -f  PC  -I-  PA  >  PD  +  PA  >  AD. 

(4)  It  also  follows  from  the  above  that  if  z  A  =:  120",  then 
the  point  required  is  A  ^  E. 

If  /  A  >  120°,  the  point  A  will  be  within  the  circle,  and  A 
itself  will  be  the  point  required.  R.  Chartres. 


Note  on  the  Dimensions  and  Meaning  of  J,  usually 
called  the  Mechanical  Equivalent  of  Heat. 

The  title  "  mechanical  equivalent  of  heat  "  tends  to  make 
one  consider  that  J  means  the  ratio  of  a  quantity  of  mechanical 
energy  to  an  equivalent  quantity  of  heat  ;  but  since  heat  is 
mechanical  energy  (in  a  molecular  form)  it  follows  that  J  on  this 
supposition  is  equal  to  tmity,  and  therefore  unnecessary. 

Another  way  in  which  J  is  sometimes  regarded  is  as  the  ratio 
between  the  ordinary  units  of  heat  and  work  ;  that  is  to  say,  in 
England,  it  is  the  ratio  of  the  British  thermal  unit  to  a  foot- 
pound, viz.  the  number  772.  This  definition  makes  it  a  simple 
number,  the  number  of  work  units  in  a  heat  unit,  a  number 
which  depends  on  the  units  of  heat  and  work  employed,  and  is 
different  in  France  and  England. 

Now  although  J  generally  has  one  or  other  of  these  signifi- 
cations— that  is,  must  be  either  unity  or  some  pure  number — yet 
people  speak   of  the  dimensions  of  J  as  being,  not  zero,  but 

Work 

Mass  X  Temperature 

It  is  evident  that  there  must  be  some  confusion  here,  a  con- 
fusion arising  from  the  fact  that  most  people  when  talking  of 
quantities  mean  only  so  many  times  the  units  of  those  quantities, 
and  so  are  not  always  sufficiently  careful  about  the  definitions  of 
the  various  quantities  which  they  introduce. 

Now  if  we  confine  our  attention  to  quantities  themselves, 
independently  of  any  systems  of  measurement,  we  shall 
be  led  to  a  perfectly  consistent  mode  of  regarding  J,  a  way 
moreover    in    which    it    will    have    the    required    dimensions 

Work 
Mass  X  Temperature 

A  British  thermal  unit  is  the  heat  required  to  raise  a  pound 
of  water  at  freezing-point  through  i°  F.,  and  Joule  discovered 
that  the  mechanical  equivalent  of  that  amount  of  heat  was  about 
772  foot-pounds. 

Hence  if  we  wish  to  consider  the  work  necessary  to  raise  any 
other  mass  of  water  at  freezing-point  through  any  small 
range    of    temperature,    we    have    only    to    notice    that    the 

quantity    ^ is  constant,  and  equal 

Mass  X  Range  of  Temperature 

772  foot-pounds 


to  ^      . 

I  pound  X   I    F. 
This  quantity  is  very  fitly  denoted  by  J,  and  might,  if  thought 
convenient,  be  called  a  Joule. 

But  this  quantity  is  the  specific  heat  of  water,  according  to  the 
definition  that  specific  heat  is  the  heat  required  to  raise  a  mass 
through  a  small  range  of  temperature  divided  by  the  mass  and 
the  range.  So  that  we  have  arrived  at  these  conclusions  :  a 
quantity  of  heat  is  the  same  thing,  whether  expressed  in  British 
thermal  units,or  in  foot-pounds,  or  in  termsof  any  other  standard  ; 
and  the  specific  heat  of  water  at  0°  C.  is  denoted  by  the 
letter  J. 

Indeed  it  may  be  said  that  the  result  of  Joule's  experiments 
is  the  determination  of  the  specific  heat  of  water  in  absolute 
measure.  Again,  if  c  is  the  ratio  of  the  specific  heat  of  any 
substance  to  that  of  water,  the  full  expression  of  its  specific  heat 
is  fj  ;  that  is,  its  specific  heat  is  some  multiple  or  fraction  of 
■X  Joule. 

The  first  law  of  thermo-dynamics  will  then  be  expressed 
as — 

r/Q  -  /  .  dN  ~  c]m  .  dd  +  m  .  dl, 
where   ^Q  -  pdV  is  the  total  energy  supplied,  epndO  is  the 
amount  of  new  energy  evidenced  by  increase  of  temperature, 
and    i?idl  is  the  increment  of  the  latent  energy  of  the  body. 

Coopers  Hill,  Staines,  January  19.  Alfred  Lodge. 


Feb.  2,   1888] 


NA  TURK 


321 


The  Temporary  Thermo-Current  in  Iron. 

In  the  Pkilosopliical  Magazine  for  January,  Mr.  Herbert 
TomUason  has  proposed  an  explanation  of  the  remarkable  fact 
that  in  an  iron  wire,  heated  red  hot  by  a  burner,  an  electric 
current  is  produced  when  the  flame  is  shifted  along  the  wire 
(see  Wiedemann's  "  Galvanismus,"  ii.  453). 

As  his  explanation  is  inadequate,  perhaps  I  may  be  excused 
again  drawing  attention  to  this  subject.  Briefly  his  explanation 
is  as  follows  : — That,  as  the  portion  of  the  wiie  in  the  flame  rises 
in  temperature,  it,  thermo-electrically  speaking,  becomes  in  fact 
like  a  different  metal,  and  that  then,  on  shifting  the  flame,  the 
junction  with  the  unaltered  wire  on  the  side  moved  towards 
becomes  hotter  than  before,  while  the  one  on  the  other  side 
falls  in  temperature,  thus  presenting  the  ordinary  case  of  a 
thermo-couple  with  junctions  at  different  temperatures.  Now 
this  explanation  entirely  overlooks  the  fact  that,  by  the  first 
assumption,  just  as  fast  as  the  temperature  on  one  side  rises,  the 
wire  there  changes  into  tlie  "second  state,"  and  corre- 
spondingly changes  back  on  the  other  side  as  the  tempera- 
ture falls  there  ;  so  that,  as  far  as  this  explanation  goes,  there 
ought  to  be  no  current  whatever,  for  thus  both  junctions 
must  always  be  at  the  same  temperature. 

When  I  first  noticed  this  current,  which  from  considerations 
to  follow  I  have  ventured  to  call  the  "temporary  thermo- 
current,"  it  appeared  to  me  to  be  due  to  the  difference  in  the 
temperature-slope  (or  gradient)  along  the  wire  in  front  from  that 
behind  the  flame,  as  it  heats  more  rapidly  in  front  than  it  cools 
behind,  and  to  the  electromotive  force  being  a  function  of  the 

la 

slope,    i.e.  of  ^^.     But  this  hypothesis  did  not  stand  the  test  of 

ax 
experiment,  as  I  have  shown  in  a  paper  published  in 
the  Proceedings  of  the  Royal  Dublin  Society,  July  1886. 
So  that  as  there  is  a  current,  we  must  suppose  the 
"second  state"  to  be  not  only  a  function  of  the  tempera- 
ture, but  also  of  the  time,  i.e.  that  the  wire  changes  into 
(or  from)  the  "second  state"  more  slowly  than  it  is  possible 
for  it  to  change  in  temperature.  So  that  the  electromotive  force 
at  any  point  depends  on  the  rate  of  change  of  the  temperature 

slope,  or  equals  <p  (  't  '—  ].     In  support  of  this  it  will  be  found 
\<U  ax) 

that  if  the  flame  he  steadily  moved  along  very  slowly  no  current 
is  produced — at  all  events  less  than  would  be  otherwise  ex])ected  ; 
and,  secondly,  that  the  maximum  current  is  got  by  moving  the 
flame  the  fastest  consistent  with  the  condition  of  keeping  the 
wire  red  hot. 

It  is  with  the  view  of  emphasizing  this  dependence  on  the 
time  that  the  term  "temporary  thermo-current  "  seems  appro- 
priate. Fred.  T.  Trouton. 

Physical  Laboratory,  Trinity  College,  Dublin. 


Causes  influencing  the  Bathymetrical  Range  of  Deep- 
Sea  Fishes. 

You  refer  (p.  219)  to  the  fact  that  Dr.  Giinther  has 
adopted  the  lOO-fathom  line  as  the  boundary  at  which 
with  the  extinction  of  sunlight  the  bathybial  fauna  com- 
mences. This  selection  of  100  fathoms  as  the  limiting 
horizon  is  of  much  interest  in  connection  with  the  theory 
that  the  shallow-water  marine  fauna  is  greatly  influenced  by 
wave-currents.  In  a  letter  you  published  in  1885  (Nature, 
vol.  xxxii.  p.  390)  I  indicated  100  fathoms  as  the  depth  to  which 
wave-action  nf  some  sort  must  extend,  as  evidenced  by  the 
character  of  the  deposits  at  the  mouth  of  the  English  Channel. 
Dr.  Giinther  now  shows  that  the  deep-sea  fishes  do  not  rise 
above  that  horizon.  But,  although  the  loo-fathom  horizon 
agrees  very  well  with  the  apparent  limit  of  wave-action,  it  does 
not  seem  to  agree  with  the  most  recent  experiments  on  the  pene- 
tration of  sunlight  in  water. 

So  recently  as  November  last  you  recorded  the  fact  that 
during  the  pait  year  Prof.  Forel  found  that  the  greatest 
"depth-limit  of  absolute  darkness"  from  March  to  July  in  the 
Lake  of  Geneva  was  100  metres  (Nature,  vol.  xxxvii.  p.  88). 
If  experiments  in  a  fresh-water  lake  may  be  taken  as  a  guide  to 
light-penetration  in  the  ocean,  50  fathoms  will  be  nearer  the 
limit  than  too.  In  this  case  the  bathymetrical  range  of  the 
bathybial  fauna  cannot  be  much  influenced,  if  at  all,  by  the 
presence  or  absence  of  sunlight.  This  view  is  moreover  fortified 
by  the  fact  that,  though  the  deep-sea  forms  do  not  usually  ascend 


above  the  loo-fathom  line,  the  shallow-water  forms  go  far  below 
it  ;  and  there  is  no  reason  why  they  should  not  do  so  ;  for, 
although  a  form  unfitted  to  withstand  wave-currents  cannot  face 
them,  there  is  nothing  to  prevent  a  flat-fish,  fully  equipped  in 
this  respect,  from  passing  at  will  from  the  disturbed  to  the 
tranquil  horizon,  and  vice  versa.  A.  R.  Hunt. 

Torquay,  January  10. 


Wind  Force  at  Sea. 

In  reference  to  a  letter  on  the  above  subject  in  Nature 
(P-  274),  I  beg  to  acquaint  your  readers  that  Capt.  Barker's 
wish  that  anemometers  should  be  used  more  on  board  ship  has 
been  endeavoured  to  be  met  by  an  instrument  designed  by 
myself  on  the  sail  principle.  It  has  now  been  in  use  on  some 
ships  at  sea  for  long  voyages  for  five  years,  and  daily  observa- 
tions have  been  obtamed  and  sent  home  of  the  data  observed,  of 
pressure,  direction,  and  velocity  of  the  winds  met  with. 

Regardingthefurtherinquiry  of  ascertaining  the  rainfall  at  sea, 
this  has  now  been  carried  on  for  about  ten  years  by  means  of  a 
rain-gauge  designed  by  my>elf  on  the  pivot  principle,  and  it  has 
been  used  by  many  vessels  in  all  the  great  seas. 

The  daily  observations  have  been  sent  home  and  are  now  on 
hand,  and  about  five  years  of  the  returns  have  already  been 
announced,  and  a  further  compilation  of  the  data  may  be  prepared 
when  the  materials  become  sufficient. 

It  may  be  added  that  the  late  Capt.  Symington,  of  the  s.s, 
Hankcnv,  amongst  his  meteorological  observations  took  the 
rainfall  by  rain-gauge  on  his  ship  for  twenty  years  or  more. 
The  marine  anemometer  and  rain-gauge  at>ove  mentioned  were 
exhibited  at  the  Liverpool  Exhibition  in  1886,  and  at  the 
Meteorological  Exhibition  of  last  year.  W.  G.  Black. 

Edinburgh,  January  21. 

Untimely  Insect  Development. 

Some  of  your  readers  may  be  interested  in  a  case  of  untimely 
insect  development,  caused  no  doubt  by  the  phenomenal  mild- 
ness of  the  weather  in  this  part  of  the  country  during  the  last 
few  days.  Last  evening  a  perfect  imago  of  the  common  tortoise- 
shell  butterfly  (Vanessa  urtica)  was  found  inside  my  house  on  the 
wall  of  my  nursery.  It  is. fully  developed  in  every  way,  and  the 
only  thing  in  its  appearance  at  all  abnormal  is  that  the  antennae 
are  bent  back  and  he  between  the  wings,  which  are  in  the  erect 
position  usual  in  repose.  The  insect  has  evidently  only  just 
emerged  from  the  pupa,  and  is  in  a  torfad  condition,  only  just 
flapping  its  wings  when  touched.  The  nursery  is  a  warm  room 
looking  to  the  south,  and  has  a  fire  in  it  all  day. 

St.  Albans,  January  10.  John  Morison. 


Weasels  killing  Frogs. 

Seeing  a  note  in  Nature  (December  29,  1887,  p.  208),  about 
weasels  killing  frogs,  I  thought  that  the  following  fact  would  be 
a  further  confirmation. 

I  was  walking  near  the  village  of  Clifton  Hampden  in  August 
last,  when  I  saw  a  weasel,  carrying  a  good-sized  frog  in  its  mouth, 
come  cautiously  out  of  the  rank  grass  by  the  road-side  ;  directly 
the  weasel  perceived  me,  it  dropped  its  prey  on  the  road  and 
retreated  to  the  cover  of  the  grass.  The  frog  was  dead.  I  kept 
silence,  and  the  weasel  left  its  hiding-place,  and  advanced  a  few 
steps,  but  again  retreated.  Soon,  after  several  advances  and 
retreats,  it  rushed  out,  seized  the  frog  with  its  teeth,  and  running 
across  the  road  disappeared  in  the  long  grass  on  the  other  side. 

January  20.  M.  S.  Pembrey. 

"British  and  Irish  Salmonidae." 

The  author  of  "British  and  Irish  Salmoniure "  calls  in 
question  the  justice  of  three  criticisms  in  my  review  of  that 
book.  In  reply  to  his  first  objection,  I  have  to  point  out  that 
my  quotation  of  the  sentence  referred  to  was,  as  Mr.  Day  has 
himself  noted,  made  to  draw  attention  to  its  grammatical  errors, 
and  therefore  the  omission  of  a  few  words  which  affected  the 
sense  but  not  the  construction  was  of  no  consequence  at  all.  I 
omitted  ihe  words  intentionally,  to  shorten  the  quotation,  and 
gave  no  opinion  on  the  statement  contained  in  the  sentence  :  the 
statement  which  is  implied  rather  than  expressed  is  perfectly 
correct. 


322 


NATURE 


\_Feb.  2,  I 


With  regard  to  the  second  point,  the  statement  in  the  text  of 
the  book  which  I  questioned  is  as  follows  : — "The  main  principle 
is  to  employ  thin  layers  of  well-packed  and  pressed  moss  in  trays 
with  perforated  bottoms,  the  eggs  being  separated  from  the  moss 
by  muslin,  mosquito-netting,  swans'  down,  calico,  or  butter-cloth, 
and  that  each  tray  contains  two  or  three  layers."  In  all  the 
methods  of  packing  salmonoid  eggs  in  which  moss  is  employed, 
the  descriptions  I  have  read  state  that  the  eggs  are  placed  in 
direct  contact  with  the  moss,  and  Mr.  Day  does  not  justify  the 
statement  above  quoted  by  referring  to  another  statement  in  his 
notes,  that  for  shorter  journeys  eggs  are  thrown  off  the  frames  on 
to  swans'  down.  I  doubted,  and  still  doubt,  if  there  is  any 
method  practised  in  which  layers  of  moss  are  used,  and  are 
separated  from  the  eggs  by  muslin  or  similar  material. 

With  regard  to  the  third  point,  it  is  true  that  on  p.  249  of  his 
book,  in  the  chapter  on  5.  fontinalis,  Mr.  Day  refers  to  Brown 
Goode's  "  Game  Fishes  of  the  United  States,"  and  to  the 
statement  in  that  work  that  S.  namaycush  has,  as  its  nearest 
relative,  S.  fontinalis.  But  I  think  a  more  direct  reference  to  a 
speciegraphical  description  of  6".  namaycush  might  have  been 
expected  in  a  footnote  referring  to  errors  in  the  descriptions  of 
this  fish  by  certain  writers.  My  remark  about  the  omission  of 
such  reference  was  not  made  under  the  impression  that  S. 
namaycush  was  not  a  char,  for  I  am  aware  that  it  is  described  as 
such  in  recent  American  reports  on  pisciculture,  and  have  no 
doubt  that  such  description  is  correct.  But  reference  to  specie- 
graphical  determinations  are  rare  in  such  reports,  and  I  think 
readers  of  Mr.  Day's  book  would  have  been  glad  of  the  references 
which  he  now  supplies  in  his  letter.  Your  Reviewer. 


MODERN  VIEWS  OF  ELECTRICITY} 

Part  III.  {continued). 

VI. 

T  ET  us  now  pass  in  review  the  various  facts  and 
-*— '  experiences  which  have  led  us  to  a  dual  view  of 
electricity ;  a  kind  of  two-fluid  theory,  but  in  a  very 
modified  form. 

First,  there  are  the  old  experiments  which  vaguely 
suggest  the  separate  existence  of  negative  electricity, 
such  as : — 

(i)  The  wind  from  a  point  whether  positive  or  negative  ; 
so  that  a  candle  gets  blown  always  away  from  it,  whether 
the  point  be  on  the  prime  conductor  and  the  candle  held 
in  hand,  or  whether  the  point  be  held  in  the  hand  and 
presented  to  the  candle  or  prime  conductor  ;  so,  also, 
that  a  point  whirligig  turns  the  same  way,  whether 
supported  on  the  prime  conductor,  or  whether  attached 
to  the  earth  and  placed  near  it. 

(2)  Phenomena  connected  with  the  spark  discharge, 
such  as  Wheatstone's  old  experiment  on  what  he  called 
the  velocity  of  electricity,  with  the  three  pair  of  knobs  ; 
arid  the  double  burr  produced  in  cardboard  when  pierced 
with  a  spark,  suggesting  that  something  has  pierced  it 
both  ways  at  once. 

Then  there  are  the  more  recently  observed  facts  ;  as, 
for  instance : — 

(3)  The  fact  that  an  electrostatic  strain  scarcely  affects 
the  volume  of  a  dielectric  ;  thereby  at  once  suggesting 
sornething  of  the  nature  of  a  shearing  or  distorting  stress, 
which  alters  shape  but  not  size  ;  a  displacement  of  positive 
outwards  and  simultaneous  negative  inwards. 

(4)  The  facts  of  electrolysis,  and  the  double  procession 
of  atoms  past  each  other  in  opposite  directions. 

(5)  The  phenomena  of  self-induction,  and  the  behaviour 
of  a  thick  wire  to  an  alternating  current.  The  delay  also 
in  magnetizing  iron,  and  especially  the  possibility  of 
permanent  magnetism  ;  combined  with 

(6)  The  absence  of  momentum  in  an  electric  current, 
or  moment  of  momentum  in  an  electro-magnet,  as  tested 
by  all  mechanical  means  yet  tried. 

I  admit  at  once  that  many  of  these  are  mere  superficial 
suggestions   which   may  hardly  bear   examination    and 

'  Continued  from  p.  no. 


criticism.  Only  (3),  (4),  (5),  and  (6)  can  be  at  all  seriously 
appealed  to  ;  but  (5)  and  (6),  in  conjunction,  seem  to  me  to 
afford  a  sort  of  provisional  and  hypothetical  proof,  which 
(3)  greatly  strengthens. 

At  this  point  we  must  for  the  present  again  leave  the 
question. 

Representation  of  a  Magnetic  Field. 

The  disturbance  called  magnetism,  which  we  have 
shown  to  be  something  of  the  nature  of  a  spin— a  rotation 
about  an  axis — is  conspicuously  not  limited  to  the  steel 
or  iron  of  the  magnet :  it  spreads  out  through  all  adjacent 
space,  and  constitutes  what  is  called  the  magnetic  field. 
A  map  of  the  field  is  afforded  by  the  use  of  iron  filings, 
which  cling  end  to  end  and  point  out  the  direction  of  the 
force  at  every  point. 

These  lines  of  force  so  mapped  are  to  be  regarded  as 
the  axes  of  molecular  whirls.  They  are  continuous  with 
similar  lines  in  the  substance  of  the  steel,  and  every  line 
really  forms  a  closed  curve,  of  which  a  portion  is  in  the  steel 
and  a  portion  in  the  air.  In  a  wire  helix,  such  as  Figs. 
16  or  29,  the  lines  are  wholly  in  the  air,  but  in  one  part 
of  their  course  they  thread  the  helix,  and  in  another  part 
they  spread  out  more  or  less  between  its  faces. 

But  according  to  Ampere's  theory  of  molecular  currents 
there  is  no  essential  difference  between  such  a  helix  and 
a  steel  magnet ;  directly  the  currents  in  the  molecules  of 
the  magnet  are  considered,  everything  resolves  itself  into 
chains  of  molecular  currents,  threading  themselves  along 
a  common  closed  curve  or  axis.  Each  atom,  whether  in 
the  steel  or  in  the  air,  is  the  seat  of  a  whirl  of  electricity, 
more  or  less  faced  round  so  as  on  the  average  to  have 
its  plane  at  right  angles  to  the  lines  of  force.  The 
simplest  plan  of  avoiding  having  to  consider  those  only 
partially  faced  round,  is  to  imagine  the  whole  number 
divided  into  a  set  which  face  accurately  in  the  right 
direction,  and  a  set  which  look  any  way  at  perfect 
random,  and  to  neglect  this  latter  set. 


Fig.  30. — A,  an  element  of  a  magnetic  line  of  force  with  the  electric  whirl 
round  it  ;  b,  a  bit  of  an  electric  circuit  with  one  of  its  magnetic  lines  of 
force  shown  round  it,  and  the  electric  whirl  round  this  ;  each  magnetic 
line  of  force  round  a  current  being  an  electric  vortex  ring. 

Well  now  try  and  picture  a  chain  of  whirls  like  beads 
spinning  on  a  wire  threading  them  all,  and  think  of  the 
effect  of  a  material  fluid  thus  rotating.  Obviously  it 
would  tend  to  whirl  itself  fatter,  and  to  shorten  its  length. 
An  assemblage  of  such  parallel  straight  whirls  would  thus 
squeeze  each  other  laterally,  or  cause  a  lateral  pressure,, 
and  would  tend  to  drag  their  free  ends  together,  causing 
a  longitudinal  tension. 

Such  whirls  cannot  in  truth  have  free  ends  except  at 
the  boundary  of  a  medium — as  at  the  free  surface  of  a 
liquid.    Magnetic  whirls  are  in  reality  all  closed  curves  ; 


Feb.  2,  1888] 


NATURE 


32, 


Init  inasmuch  as  part  of  them  may  be  in  a  mobile  fluid 
like  air,  and  part  of  them  in  a  solid  like  iron  or  steel,  it  is 
convenient  to  distinguish  between  their  two  portions  ; 
and  one  may  think  of  the  air  whirls  alone  as  reaching 
from  one  piece  of  iron  to  another  and  by  their  shortening 
tendency  or  centrifugal  force  pulling  the  two  pieces 
together. 

The  arrangement  shown  in  Fig.  31  illustrates  the  kind 


Fig.  31. — A  "shape  of  the  earth"  model  which,  when  whirled,  exerts  a 
tension  along  its  axis,  pulling  up  the  weight  attached  to  it,  and  a 
pressure  at  right  angles,  by  reason  of  its  bulging  out. 

of  force  exerted  by  a  spinning  elastic  framework  along 
and  perpendicular  to  its  axis  of  rotation. 

One  can  easily  see  this  effect  of  a  whirl  in  a  tea-cup  or 
inverted  bell-jar  full  of  liquid.  Stir  it  vigorously,  and 
leave  it.  It  presses  against  the  walls  harder  than  before, 
so  that  if  they  were  elastic  they  would  bulge  out  with  the 
lateral  pressure ;  and  it  sucks  down  the  top  or  free  end  of 
its   axis   of  rotation,  producing  quite   a  depression    or 


Fig.  32.— -An  elastic-walled  cylindrical  vessel  full  of  liquid  hanging  from  a 
whirling  table,  and,  by  reason  of  centrifugal  force,  raising  a  weight  and 
bulging  out  laterally  when  spun,  thereby  illustrating  a  tension  along  the 
axis  of  rotation  and  a  pressure  in  every  perpendicular  direction. 

hollow  against  the  force  of  gravity.   Or,  as  a  more  striking 
illustration,  make  the  following  apparatus. 

Two  circular  boards  joined  by  a  short  wide  elastic  tube 
or  drum  :  a  weight  hung  to  the  lower  board,  the  top  board 
hung  from  a  horizontal  whirling  table,  the  drum  filled  with 
water,  and  the  whole  spun  round.  The  weight  is  raised 
by  the  longitudinal  tension  ;  the  sides  bulge  out  with  the 
lateral  pressure. 


There  is  no  need  for  the  whole  vessel  to  rotate.  If  the 
liquid  inside  rotates,  the  same  effect  is  produced. 

Imagine  now  a  medium  composed  of  a  multitude  of 
such  cells  with  rotating  liquid  inside  :  let  the  cells  be 
either  very  long,  or  else  be  joined  end  to  end  so  as  to 
make  a  chain — a  series  of  chains  side  by  side — and  you 
have  a  picture  of  a  magnetic  medium  traversed  by  a  field 
of  force.  End-boundaries  of  the  field  will  be  dragged 
together,  thus  representing  magnetic  attraction  ;  while, 
sideways,  the  lines  of  force  (axes  of  whirl)  squeeze  each 


Attraction. 


Repulsion. 

E.G.  33. — Attraction  and  repulsion.  The  tension  along  the  lines  of  force  or 
axes  of  rotation  drags  the  one  par  of  poles  together  ;  and  the  pressure 
in  directions  perpendicular  to  the  axis  of  rotation  due  to  the  centrifugal 
force  of  the  whirls  drives  the  other  pa',  r  apart. 

Other  apart,  thus  illustrating  repulsion.  This  is  Clerk- 
Maxwell's  view  of  an  electro-magnetic  medium,  and  of 
the  mode  in  which  magnetic  stress,  and  magnetic 
attractions  and  repulsions  between  bodies,  arise. 

Wherever  lines  of  force  reach  across  from  one  body  to 
another,  those  bodies  are  dragged  together  as  if  pulled 
by  so  many  elastics  (Fig.  33);  but  wherever  lines  of  force 
from  one  body  present  their  sides  to  those  proceeding 
from  another  body,  then  those  bodies  are  driven  apart. 

Oliver  J,  Lodge. 

(.To  be  continued.) 


LANGUA  GE-REA  SON. 

THE  inclosed  letter  on  "Reason-Language"  waswritten 
to  an  American  friend,  and  has  been  published  in 
an  American    paper    in  Chicago.      I    thought   it    might 
possibly  interest  the  readers  of  Nature^ 
Oxford,  January  22.  ^ 


F.  Max  Muller. 


324 


NA  TURE 


[Fed.  2,  1888 


"  You  tell  me  that  my  book  on  the  '  Science  of 
Thought '  is  thoroughly  revolutionary,  and  that  I  have 
all  recognized  authorities  in  philosophy  against  me.  I 
doubt  it.  My  book  is,  if  you  like,  evolutionary,  but  not 
revolutionary  ;  I  mean  it  is  the  natural  outcome  of  that 
philosophical  and  historical  study  of  language  which 
began  with  Leibniz,  and  which  during  our  century  has 
so  widely  spread  and  ramified  as  to  overshadow  nearly 
all  sciences,  not  excepting  what  I  call  the  science  of 
thought. 

"  If  you  mean  by  revolutionary  a  violent  breaking  with 
the  past,  I  hold  on  the  contrary  that  a  full  appreciation 
of  the  true  nature  of  language  and  a  recognition  of  its 
inseparableness  from  thought  will  prove  the  best  means 
of  recovering  that  unbroken  thread  which  binds  our 
modern  schools  of  thought  most  closely  together  with 
those  of  the  Middle  Ages  and  of  ancient  Greece.  It  alone 
will  help  us  to  reconcile  systems  of  philosophy  hitherto 
supposed  to  be  entirely  antagonistic.  If  I  am  right — and 
I  must  confess  that  with  regard  to  .  the  fundamental 
principle  of  the  identity  of  reason  and  language  I  share 
the  common  weakness  of  all  philosophers,  that  I  cannot 
doubt  its  truth — then  what  we  call  the  history  of  philo- 
sophy will  assume  a  totally  new  aspect.  It  will  reveal 
itself  before  our  eyes  as  the  natural  growth  of  language, 
though  at  the  same  time  as  a  constant  struggle  of  old 
against  new  language — in  fact,  as  a  dialectic  process  in 
the  true  sense  of  the  word. 

"  The  very  tenet  that  language  is  identical  with  thought 
— what  is  it  but  a  correction  of  language,  a  repentance,  a 
return  of  language  upon  itself? 

"  We  have  two  words,  and  therefore  it  requires  with  us 
a  strong  effort  to  perceive  that  behind  these  two  words 
there  is  but  one  essence.  To  a  Greek  this  effort  would 
be  comparatively  easy,  because  his  word  /og'os  continued 
to  mean  the  undivided  essence  of  language  and  thought. 
In  our  modern  languages  we  shall  find  it  difficult  to  coin 
a  word  that  could  take  the  place  of  logos.  Neither  dis- 
cours  in  French,  nor  Rede  in  German,  which  meant 
originally  the  same  as  ratio,  will  help  us.  We  shall  have 
to  be  satisfied  with  such  compounds  as  thought-word 
or  word-thought.  At  least,  I  can  think  of  no  better 
expedient. 

"  You  strongly  object  to  my  saying  that  there  is  no  such 
thing  as  reason.  But  let  us  see  whether  we  came  honestly 
by  that  word.  Because  we  reason — that  is,  because  we 
reckon,  because  we  add  and  subtract — therefore  we  say  that 
we  have  reason  ;  and  thus  it  has  happened  that  reason  was 
raised  into  something  which  we  have  or  possess,  into  a 
faculty,  or  power,  or  something,  whatever  it  may  be,  that 
deserves  to  be  written  with  a  capital  R.  And  yet  we  have 
only  to  look  into  the  workshop  of  language  in  order  to  see 
that  there  is  nothing  substantial  corresponding  to  this  sub- 
stantive, and  that  neither  the  heart  nor  the  brain,  neither 
the  breath  nor  the  spirit,  of  man  discloses  its  original 
whereabouts.  It  may  sound  violent  and  revolutionary  to 
you  when  I  say  that  there  is  no  such  thing  as  reason  ;  and 
yet  no  philosopher,  not  even  Kant,  has  ever  in  his  defini- 
tion of  reason  toll  us  what  it  is  really  made  of.  But 
remember,  I  am  far  from  saying  that  reason  is  a  mere 
word.  That  expression,  '  a  mere  word,'  seems  to  me  the 
most  objectionable  expression  in  the  whole  of  our  philo- 
sophical dictionary. 

"  Reason  is  something — namely,  language — not  simply 
as  we  now  hear  it  and  use  it,  but  as  it  has  been  slowly 
elaborated  by  man  through  all  the  ages  of  his  existence 
on  earth.  Reason  is  the  growth  of  centuries,  it  is  the 
work  of  man,  and  at  the  same  time  an  instrument  brought 
to  higher  and  higher  perfection  by  the  leading  thinkers 
and  speakers  of  the  world.  No  reason  without  language — 
no  language  without  reason.  Try  to  reckon  without 
numbers,  whether  spoken,  written,  or  otherwise  marked  ; 
and  if  you  succeed  in  that  I  shall  admit  that  it  is  possible 


to  reason  or  reckon  without  words,  and  that  there  is  in 
us  such  a  thing  or  such  a  poiver  or  faculty  as  reason, 
apart  from  words. 

"  You  say  I  shall  never  live  to  see  it  admitted  that 
man  cannot  reason  without  words.  This  does  not  dis- 
courage me.  Through  the  whole  of  my  life  I  have  cared 
for  truth,  not  for  success.  And  truth  is  not  our  own. 
We  may  seek  truth,  serve  truth,  love  truth  ;  but  truth 
takes  care  of  herself,  and  she  inspires  her  true  lovers 
with  the  same  feeling  of  perfect  trust.  Those  who  can- 
not believe  in  themselves,  unless  they  are  believed  in  by 
others,  have  never  known  what  truth  is.  Those  who 
have  found  truth  know  best  how  little  it  is  their  work, 
and  how  small  the  merit  which  they  can  claim  for  them- 
selves. They  were  blind  before,  and  now  they  can  see. 
That  is  all. 

"  But  even  if  I  thought  that  truth  depended  on  majorities, 
I  believe  I  might  boldly  say  that  the  majority  of  philo- 
sophers of  all  ages  and  countries  is  really  on  my  side  (see 
'  Science  of  Thought,'  pp.  31  et  seq.),  though  few  only  have 
asserted  the  identity  of  reason  and  language  without 
some  timorous  reserve,  still  fewer  have  seen  all  the 
consequences  that  flow  from  it. 

"Some  people  seem  to  resent  it  almost  as  a  personal 
insult  that  what  we  call  our  divine  reason  should  be  no 
more  than  human  language,  and  that  the  whole  of  this 
human  language  should  have  been  derived  from  no  more 
than  800  roots,  which  can  be  reduced  to  about  120  con- 
cepts. But  if  I  had  wished  to  startle  my  readers  I  could 
easily  have  shown  that  out  of  these  800  roots  one-half 
could  really  have  been  dispensed  with,  and  has  been 
dispensed  with  in  modern  languages  (see  '  Science  of 
Thought,'  p.  417),  while  among  the  120  concepts  not  a 
few  are  clearly  secondary,  and  owe  their  place  in  my 
list  {ib.  p.  619)  merely  to  the  fact  that  in  Sanskrit  they 
cannot  be  reduced  to  any  more  primitive  concept.  To 
dance,  for,  instance,  cannot  be  called  a  primitive  concept ; 
perhaps  not  even  to  hunger,  to  thirst,  to  cook,  to  roast, 
&c.  Only  it  so  happens  that  in  Sanskrit,  to  which  my 
statistical  remarks  were  restricted,  we  cannot  go  behind 
such  roots  as  N^^iT,  KSHUDH,  TiRSH,  PA/ir,  &c.  It 
is  in  that  limited  sense  only  that  such  roots  and  such 
concepts  can  be  called  primitive.  The  number  of  really 
primitive  concepts  would  be  so  alarmingly  small  that  for 
the  present  it  seemed  wiser  to  say  nothing  about  it.  But 
so  far  from  being  ashamed  of  our  modest  beginnings,  we 
ought  really  to  glory  rather  in  having  raised  our  small 
patrimony  to  the  immense  wealth  now  hoarded  in  our 
dictionaries. 

''  When  we  once  knowwhat  our  small  original  patrimony 
consisted  in,  the  question  how  we  came  in  possession  of 
it  may  seem  of  less  importance.  Yet  it  is  well  to  re- 
member that  the  theory  of  the  origin  of  roots  and  con- 
cepts, as  propounded  by  Noire,  differs,  not  in  degree, 
but  toto  ca'lo  from  the  old  attempts  to  derive  roots  from 
interjections  and  imitations  of  natural  sounds.  That  a 
certain  number  of  words  in  every  language  has  been 
derived  from  interjections  and  imitations  no  one  has 
ever  denied.  But  such  words  are  not  conceptual  words, 
and  they  become  possible  only  after  language  had  be- 
come possible — that  is,  after  man  had  realized  his  power  of 
forming  concepts.  No  one  who  has  not  himself  grappled 
with  that  problem  can  appreciate  the  complete  change 
that  has  come  over  it  by  the  recognition  of  the  fact  that 
roots  are  the  phonetic  expressions  of  the  consciousness  of 
our  own  acts.  Nothing  but  this,  our  consciousness  of 
our  own  repeated  acts,  could  possibly  have  given  us 
our  first  concepts.  Nothing  else  answers  the  necessary 
requirements  of  a  concept,  that  it  should  be  the  con- 
sciousness of  something  manifold,  yet  necessarily  realized 
as  one.  After  the  genesis  of  the  first  concept,  everything 
else  becomes  intelligible.  The  results  of  our  acts  become 
the  first  objects  of  our  conceptual   thought  ;    and  with 


Feb.  2,  1888] 


NATURE 


325 


conceptual  thought,  language,  which  is  nothing  if  not 
conceptual,  begins.  Roots  are  afterwards  localized,  and 
made  the  signs  of  our  objects  by  means  of  local  exponents, 
whether  suffixes,  prefixes,  or  infixes.  What  hns  been 
scraped  and  sliaped  again  and  again  becomes  as  it  were 
'  shape-her','  i.e.  a  shaft  ;  what  has  been  dug  and  hol- 
lowed out  by  repeated  blows  becomes  *  dig-her','  i-c.  a 
hole.  And  from  the  concept  of  a  hole  dug,  or  of  an  empty 
cave,  there  is  an  uninterrupted  progress  to  the  most 
abstract  concepts,  such  as  empty  space,  or  even  nothing. 
No  doubt,  when  we  hear  the  sound  of  cuckoo,  we  may  by 
one  jump  arrive  at  the  word  cuckoo.  This  may  be  called 
a  word,  but  it  is  not  a  conceptual  word,  and  we  deal  with 
conceptual  words  only.  Before  we  can  get  at  a  single 
conceptual  word,  we  have  to  pass  through  at  least  five 
stages  : — 

"  (i)  Consciousness  of  our  own  repeated  acts. 

"  (2)  Clamor  concomitans  of  these  acts. 

"  (3)  Consciousness  of  that  clamor  as  concomitant  of 
the  act. 

"  (4)  Repetition  of  that  clamor  to  recall  the  act. 

"  (5)  Clamor  (root)  defined  by  prefixes,  suffixes,  &c.,  to 
recall  the  act  as  localized  in  its  results,  its  instruments, 
its  agents,  &c. 

"  You  can  see  from  my  preface  to  the  '  Science  of 
Thought '  that  I  was  quite  prepared  for  fierce  attacks, 
whether  they  came  from  theologians,  from  philosophers, 
or  from  a  certain  class  of  scholars.  So  far  from  being 
discouraged,  I  am  really  delighted  by  the  opposition 
which  my  book  has  roused,  though  you  would  be  sur- 
prised to  hear  what  strong  support  also  I  have  received 
from  quarters  where  I  least  expected  it.  I  have  never 
felt  called  upon  to  write  a  book  to  which  everybody  should 
say  Amen.  When  I  write  a  book,  I  expect  the  world 
to  say  tamen,  as  I  have  always  said  tamen  to  the  world 
in  writing  my  books.  I  have  been  called  very  audacious 
for  daring  to  interfere  with  philosophy,  as  if  the  study  of 
language,  to  which  I  have  devoted  the  whole  of  my  life, 
could  be  separated  from  a  study  of  philosophy.  I  have 
listened  very  patiently  for  many  years  to  the  old  story 
that  grammar  is  one  thing  and'  logic  another  ;  that  the 
former  deals  with  such  laws  of  thought  as  are  observed, 
the  latter  with  such  as  ought  to  be  observed.  No,  no. 
True  philosophy  teaches  us  another  lesson— namely,  that 
in  the  long  run  nothing  is  except  what  ought  to  be,  and 
that  in  the  evolution  of  the  mind,  as  well  as  in  that  of 
Nature,  natural  selection  is  rational  selection  ;  or,  in  reality, 
the  triumph  of  reason,  the  triumph  of  what  is  reasonable 
and  right ;  or,  as  people  now  say,  of  what  is  fittest.  We 
must  learn  to  recognize  in  language  the  true  evolution  of 
reason.  In  that  evolution  nothing  is  real  or  remains 
real  except  what  is  right  ;  nay,  in  it  even  the  apparently 
irrational  and  anomalous  has  its  reason  and  justification. 
Towards  the  end  of  the  last  century,  what  used  to  be 
called  Grammaire  Generale  formed  a  very  favourite  sub- 
ject for  academic  discussions  ;  it  has  now  been  replaced 
by  what  may  be  called  Grammaire  Historique.  In  the 
same  manner,  Fortnal  Logic,  or  the  study  of  the  general 
laws  of  thought,  will  have  to  make  room  for  Historical 
Logic,  or  a  study  of  the  historical  growth  of  thought. 
Delbriick's  essays  on  comparative  syntax  show  what  can 
be  done  in  this  direction.  For  practical  purposes,  for 
teaching  the  art  of  reasoning,  formal  logic  will  always 
retain  its  separate  existence  ;  but  the  best  study  of  the 
real  laws  of  thought  will  be  hereafter  the  study  of  the 
real  laws  of  language.  If  it  was  really  so  audacious  to 
make  the  identity  of  language  and  reason  the  foundation 
of  a  new  system  of  philosophy,  may  I  make  the  modest 
request  that  some  philosopher  by  profession  should  give 
us  a  definition  of  what  language  is  without  reason,  or 
reason  without  language  ?  "  F.  M.  M." 


FERDINAND    VANDEVEER   HAYDEN. 

YYT'E  reprint  from  the  American  journal  Science 
^  *  (January  6)  the  following  article  on  Dr.  Hayden, 
whose  death  we  lately  announced  : — Prof.  Ferdinand 
Vandeveer  Hayden,  M.D.,  Ph.D.,  LL.D.,  who  died  in 
Philadelphia  on  the  morning  of  December  22,  was  born 
in  Westfield,  Mass.,  September  7,  1829.  Early  in  life  he 
went  to  Ohio.  In  1850  he  was  graduated  from  Oberlin 
College,  and  soon  afterward  read  medicine  at  Albany, 
N.Y.,  receiving  his  degree  from  the  Albany  Medical 
College  in  1853.  He  did  not  begin  the  practice  of  medi- 
cine, but  in  the  spring  of  the  year  of  his  graduation  was 
sent  by  Prof  James  Hall  of  Albany,  with  Mr.  F.  B.  Meek, 
to  visit  the  Bad  Lands  of  White  River,  to  make  collections 
of  the  Cretaceous  and  Tertiary  fossils  of  that  region. 
^This  was  the  beginning  of  his  explorations  of  the  West, 
which  continued  with  little  interruption  for  more  than 
thirty  years. 

In  the  spring  of  1854,  Dr.  Hayden  returned  to  the 
Upper  Missouri  region,  and  spent  two  years  in  exploring 
it,  mainly  at  his  own  expense,  although  he  was  aided  a 
portion  of  the  time  by  gentlemen  connected  with  the 
American  Fur  Company.  During  these  two  years  he 
traversed  the  Alissouri  River  to  Fort  Benton,  and  the 
Yellowstone  to  the  mouth  of  the  Big  Horn  River,  and 
explored  considerable  portions  of  the  Bad  Lands  of 
White  River  and  other  districts  not  immediately 
bordering  upon  the  Missouri.  The  large  collections  of 
fossils  he  made  were  given  partly  to  the  Academy  of 
Sciences  in  St.  Louis,  and  partly  to  the  Academy  of 
Natural  Sciences  of  Philadelphia. 

As  one  of  the  members  of  the  Geological  Survey  has 
recently  said,  these  collections  and  researches  mark 
the  commencement  of  the  epoch  of  true  geologic  in- 
vestigation of  the  Great  West.  The  collections  at- 
tracted the  attention  of  the  officers  of  the  Smithsonian 
Institution;  and  in  February  1856,  Dr.  Hayden  was 
employed  by  Lieut.  G,  K.  Warren,  of  the  United  States 
Topographical  Engineers,  to  make  a  report  upon  the 
region  he  had  explored  ;  so  that  the  results  of  his 
labours  during  the  three  previous  years  were  utilized  by 
the  Government.  This  report  was  made  in  March  of 
the  same  year,  and  in  May  following  he  was  appointed 
geologist  on  the  staff  of  Lieut.  Warren,  who  was  then 
engaged  in  making  a  reconnaissance  of  the  North- 
west. He  continued  in  this  position  until  1859,  when  he 
was  appointed  naturalist  and  surgeon  to  the  Expedition 
for  the  exploration  of  the  Yellowstone  and  Missouri 
Rivers,  by  Capt.  William  F.  Raynolds  of  the  Corps  of 
Engineers  of  the  United  States  Army,  with  whom  he 
remained  until  1862.  The  results  of  his  work  while  with 
Liutenant  Warren  were  published  in  a  preliminary  report 
of  the  War  Department,  and  in  several  articles  in  the 
Proceedings  of  the  Academy  of  Natural  Sciences  of 
Philadelphia  for  the  Years  1857  and  1858,  and  more 
fully  in  a  memoir  on  the  geology  and  natural  history  of 
the  Upper  Missouri,  published  in  the  Transactions  of 
the  American  Philosophical  Society,  Philadelphia,  1862. 
This  paper  also  included  chapters  on  the  mammals,  birds, 
reptiles,  fishes,  and  recent  molluscaof  the  region  in  which 
his  geological  investigations  were  carried  on.  During 
this  period  also  he  found  time  to  make  notes  upon  the 
languages  and  customs  of  the  Indian  tribes  with  which 
he  came  in  contact.  These  notes  were  embodied  in 
"  Contributions  to  the  Ethnography  and  Philology  of  the 
Indian  Tribes  of  the  Missouri  River,"  published  in  the 
Transactions  of  the  American  Philosophical  Society, 
Philadelphia,  1862  ;  in  a"  Sketch  of  the  Mandan  Indians, 
with  some  Observations  illustrating  the  Grammatical 
Structure  of  their  Language,"  published  in  the  American 
Journal  of  Science  in  1862  ;  and  in  "  Brief  Notes  on  the 
Pawnee,  Winnebago,  and  Omaha  Languages,"  published 


126 


NATURE 


[Feb. 


2,    I 


in     the    Proceedings    of    the    American     Philosophical 
Society,  Philadelphia,  1869. 

In  May  1862,  Dr.  Hayden  was  appointed  acting- 
assistant  surgeon  of  volunteers  by  the  Surgeon-General  of 
the  United  States  Army,  and  was  sent  to  Satterlee 
Hospital  in  Philadelphia.  He  was  confirmed  by  the 
United  States  Senate  as  assistant-surgeon  and  full 
surgeon  of  volunteers  on  the  same  day  (February  16, 
1863),  and  sent  to  Beaufort,  S.C,  as  chief  medical  officer, 
where  he  remained  for  one  year,  when  he  was  ordered  to 
Washington  as  assistant  medical  inspector  of  the  Depart- 
ment of  Washington.  On  February  19,  1864,  he  was 
sent  to  Winchester,  Va.,  as  chief  medical  officer  of  the 
army  in  the  Shenandoah  valley.  Here  he  remained  until 
May  1865,  when  he  resigned,  and  was  brevetted  lieu- 
tenant-colonel for  meritorious  services  during  the  war. 
During  the  remainder  of  the  year  1865  he  was  employed 
in  work  at  the  Smithsonian  Institution.  It  was  during 
this  year  that  he  was  elected  Professor  of  Geology  and 
Mineralogy  in  the  University  of  Pennsylvania, — a  position 
he  held  until  1872,  when  the  increased  executive  duties  in 
connection  with  the  Geological  Survey  of  the  Territories 
induced  him  to  resign  it. 

In  the  summer  of  1866  he  undertook  another  expedition 
to  the  Bad  Lands  of  Dakota,  under  the  auspices  of  the 
Academy  of  Natural  Sciences  of  Philadelphia,  for  the 
purpose  of  clearing  np  some  doubtful  points  in  the 
geology  of  that  region,  and  returned  with  large  and 
valuable  collections  of  vertebrate  fossils,  which  were 
described  in  a  memoir  published  by  the  Academy  of 
Natural  Sciences  of  Philadelphia  in  1869.  From  1867  to 
1879  the  history  of  Dr.  Hayden  is  the  history  of  the 
United  States  Geological  and  Geographical  Survey  of  the 
Territories,  of  which  he  was  geologist-in-charge,  and  to 
the  success  of  which  he  devoted  all  his  energies  during 
the  twelve  years  of  its  existence.  In  this  time  more  than 
fifty  volumes,  together  with  numerous  maps,  were  issued 
under  his  supervision.  One  of  the  results  of  his  surveys, 
and  the  one  in  which  he  probably  took  the  greatest  interest, 
was  the  setting  aside  by  Congress  of  the  Yellowstone 
National  Park.  The  idea  of  reserving  this  region  as  a 
park  or  pleasure-ground  for  the  people  originated  with 
Dr.  Hayden,  and  the  law  setting  it  apart  was  prepared 
under  his  direction.  The  work  of  the  Geological  Survey 
of  the  Territories  had  its  consummation  in  the  Atlas  of 
Colorado,  which  increased  greatly  our  knowledge  of  one 
of  the  most  interesting  portions  of  the  Great  West.  In 
1879,  after  the  disbanding  of  the  Survey  of  the  Territories, 
Dr.  Hayden  received  an  appointment  as  geologist  on  the 
newly  organized  United  States  Geological  Survey.  For 
about  three  years  he  was  occupied  in  the  completing  of 
the  business  of  the  Geological  and  Geographical  Survey 
■of  the  Territories,  and  the  preparation  of  the  final  results 
of  that  survey.  His  health  had  already  begun  to  fail,  but 
early  in  1883  he  asked  to  be  reheved  from  the  supervision 
of  the  printing  of  the  reports,  and  during  the  three 
following  seasons  he  undertook  field  work  in  Montana. 
By  the  latter  part  of  the  year  1886  his  health  had  become 
so  poor  that  he  was  confined  most  of  the  time  to  his  bed. 
He  then  resigned  his  position  as  geologist,  closing  an 
honourable  connection  with  the  Government  that  included 
twenty-eight  years  of  actual  service  as  naturalist,  surgeon, 
^  and  geologist.  To  the  general  interest  in  science  excited 
by  the  enthusiastic  labours  of  Dr.  Hayden  in  his  geologic 
explorations,  is  due  in  a  great  degree  the  existence  and  con- 
tinuance of  the  present  United  States  Geological  Survey. 

In  1876  the  degree  of  LL.D.  was  conferred  upon  him 
by  the  University  of  Rochester,  and  in  June  1886  the 
same  degree  was  conferred  upon  him  by  the  University 
of  Pennsylvania,  Dr.  Hayden  was  a  member  of  the 
National  Academy  of  Sciences  and  of  many  other 
Societies  scattered  throughout  the  country.  He  was  also 
honorary  and  corresponding  member  of  a  large  number  of 
foreign  Societies. 


As  to  Dr.  Hayden's  personal  character,  those  who  were 
personally  associated  with  him  know  best  how  genial  he 
was,  and  how  sincere  and  enthusiastic  his  desire  to 
forward  the  cause  of  science.  Although  impulsive  at 
times,  he  was  generous  to  a  fault.  His  subordinates 
all  knew  that  each  one  stood  upon  his  own  merits,  and 
that  due  credit  would  be  awarded  to  his  successful  efforts. 
The  same  spirit  actuated  him  in  respect  to  those  not 
immediately  connected  with  him.  His  views  are  ex- 
pressed as  follows  in  one  of  his  earliest  reports,  when 
speaking  of  those  who  had  preceded  him :  "  Any  man 
who  regards  the  permanency  or  endurance  of  his  own 
reputation  will  not  ignore  any  of  these  frontier  men  who 
made  their  early  explorations  under  circumstances  of 
great  danger  and  hardship." 

His  ideas  were  broad  and  liberal.  He  aimed  to  make 
a  thorough  astronomical,  topographical,  geological,  and 
botanical  survey  of  the  Great  West,  with  a  view  to  the 
development  of  its  mining  and  agricultural  resources. 
The  greater  part  of  his  work  for  the  Government  and  for 
science  was  a  labour  of  love. 


To  the  foregoing  notice  some  token  of  recognition  and 
regret  on  the  part  of  brother  geologists  on  this  side  of  the 
Atlantic  may  perhaps  be  fittingly  appended  by  one  who 
knew  Dr.  Hayden  personally,  was  familiar  with  his  writings, 
and  had  wandered  in  his  footsteps  among  the  solitudes  of 
the  Far  West.  The  first  impression  which  the  late  geologist 
made  on  those  who  came  to  know  him  was  one  of  gentle- 
ness, almost  of  timidity.  They  could  hardly  help  asking 
themselves,  "Can  this  be  the  man  who  has  so  successfully 
won  over  the  blustering  Congressmen  to  grant  him  year 
after  year  such  large  appropriations  for  his  western  sur- 
veys ;  who  has  organized  such  wonderful  expeditions  ; 
who  has  gone  through  such  hardships,  and  in  an  incredibly 
short  space  of  time  has  made  such  excellent  reconnaissances 
and  published  such  voluminous  Reports  and  admirable 
maps  .'"'  It  was  some  time  before  one  could  see  the  real 
underlying  secret  of  his  success.  This  was  undoubtedly 
a  quiet  enthusiasm  for  science,  supported  by  an  unde- 
monstrative but  indomitable  courage,  and  a  determination 
to  gain  the  pjoposed  end,  cost  what  it  might  in  bodily 
and  mental  endurance.  No  one  who  has  not  been  in 
some  measure  admitted  behind  the  scenes  of  political 
wire  pulling  in  the  States,  can  realize  what  had  to  be 
undertaken  by  the  man  of  science  who  would  obtain  and 
retain  an  annual  subsidy  from  Congress  for  scientific 
investigation  in  the  days  when  Hayden  carried  on  his 
explorations.  There  were  other  rival  claimants  for 
Parliamentary  aid  who  were  doing  similar  work,  under 
other  Government  Departments.  There  was  likewise 
the  wide  outside  circle  of  scientific  men  who  had 
no  State  employment,  and  some  of  whom  thought  them- 
selves at  least  as  deserving  of  it  as  those  who  fortunately 
had  gained  it.  Then  there  were  the  Gallios  of  Congress, 
who  cared  nothing  about  science  of  any  kind,  those  who 
grudged  money  spent  out  of  their  own  States,  those  who 
required  to  see  on  their  drawing-room  table  a  well  got  up 
Annual  Report  with  pictures  and  maps  before  they  could 
be  made  to  believe  that  the  money  was  well  besto\yed. 
And  the  weeks  and  months  of  early  summer,  so  precious 
for  field  work,  had  to  be  passed  in  the  lobbies  of  the 
Capitol,  making  sure  that  there  would  be  no  failure  in 
the  granting  of  the  appropriation.  The  most  wearisome 
and  profitless  part  of  his  year  was  this  "lobbying"  at 
Washington.  But  Hayden  had  no  choice  in  the  matter. 
He  must  either  go  through  with  that  part  of  his  work  or 
abandon  his  western  surveys  altogether.  This  alternative 
has  not  always  been  borne  in  mind  by  those  who  have 
judged  of  him. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  among  the  names  of  those 
who  have  pioneered  into  the  marvellous  geology  of 
Western    North  America,    that   of    F.   V.    Hayden   will 


Feb.  2,  1888] 


NATURE 


327 


always  hold  a  high  and  honoured  place.  This  place  will 
be  his  due,  not  only  because  of  his  own  personal  achieve- 
ments in  original  exploration.  His  earlier  work  exhibits 
much  of  that  instinctive  capacity  for  grasping  geological 
structure  which  is  the  main  requisite  for  a  field  geologist. 
He  had  a  keen  "eye  for  a  country."  But  he  likewise 
possessed  the  art  of  choosing  the  best  men  for  his  assist- 
ants, and  the  tact  of  attaching  them  to  himself  and  his 
corps.  In  this  way  he  accomplished  much  excellent  work, 
keepinghimself  latterly  rather  in  the  background  so  far  as 
actual  personal  geological  investigations  were  concerned, 
and  contenting  himself  with  the  laborious  task  of  organ- 
ization and  supervision,  while  he  encouraged  and  pushed 
forward  his  coadjutors. 

The  abohtionof  his  Survey  and  the  appointment  of  one 
of  his  rivals  to  the  post  of  Director  of  the  reconstituted 
Geological  Survey  of  the  United  States,  was  a  blow  from 
which  he  does  not  seem  ever  to  have  recovered.  He  was 
treated,  however,  with  great  generosity  by  the  new 
Director,  and  had  a  share  of  the  large  annual  appropria- 
tion to  enable  him  to  complete  his  Reports.  He  was 
urged  to  condense  these  voluminous  works,  and  to  present 
a  concise  and  readable  account  of  what  he  and  his  fellow- 
workers  had  done  for  the  geology  of  the  far  West.  But 
he  had  no  literary  proclivities,  and  in  the  end  gladly  sur- 
rendered the  task  of  writing  for  the  more  congenial  em- 
ployment of  renewing  his  personal  acquaintance  with  the 
geology  of  the  Western  Territories.  Perhaps  among  those, 
and  there  must  be  many,  who  personally  knew  and 
esteemed  him,  there  may  be  one  competent  and  willing  to 
compile  or  complete  the  summary  which  he  never  com- 
pleted, and  thus  to  erect  to  his  memory  a  more  fitting  and 
lasting  monument  than  one  of  brass  or  marble.       A.  G. 


NOTES. 

We  regret  to  announce  the  death  of  Dr.  Asa  Gray,  the  most 
eminent  of  American  botanists.  He  died  at  Cambridge, 
Massachusetts,  on  Monday,  aged  seventy-seven.  Next  week 
we  shall  give  some  account  of  his  services  to  science. 

Mr.  George  Godwin,  F.R.S.,  well  known  as  the  editor 
of  the  Builder,  died  on  January  27.  He  was  seventy-three 
years  of  age.  Among  his  writings  were  several  works  in  which, 
with  great  earnestne.s,  he  pressed  upon  the  attention  of  the 
public  the  evil  consequences  springing  from  the  reglect  of 
sanitary  laws. 

Mr.  George  Robert  Waterhouse,  late  Keeper  of  the 
Department  of  Geology  in  the  British  Museum,  died  at  his  resi- 
dence, Curton  Lodge,  Putney,  on  January  21,  in  his  seventy- 
eighth  year. 

We  have  also  to  record  the  death  of  the  well-known  botanist, 
Dr.  J.  T.  I.  Boswell,  who  was  for  many  years  Curator  to  the 
Botanical  Society  in  London,  and  a  Lecturer  at  the  Charing 
Cross  and  Middlesex  Schools  of  Medicine. 

The  Medals  and  Funds  to  be  given  at  the  annual  meeting  of 
the  Geological  Society  on  February  17  have  been  awarded  as 
follows  :—Wollaston  Medal  to  H.  B.  Medlicott,  F.R.S.  ; 
Murchison  Medal  to  Prof.  J.  S.  Newberry,  M.D.,  of  New  York  ; 
Lyell  Medal  to  Prof.  H.  Alleyne  Nicholson,  M.D.,  D.Sc.  ; 
Wollaston  Fund  to  John  Home,  F.  R.  S.  E.  ;  Murchison  Fund 
to  E.  Wilson  of  the  Bristol  Museum  ;  Lyell  Fund  to  Arthur  H. 
Foord,  and  T.  Roberts,  B.A. 

The  Academy  of  Sciences  at  Turin  has  awarded  the  great 
Bressa  prize  of  12,000  francs  (;^48o)  to  M.  Pasteur. 

The  eighteenth  International  Congress  of  Orientalists  will  meet 
in  Stockholm  on  September  2  next,  and  be  opened  by  King 
Oscar  in  person,  attended  by  the  whole  of  the  Royal  family. 
The  Congress  will  sit  till  September  6,  when  the  members  wilj 
visit  Chrisliania  as  guests  of  the  King,  in  whose   name  they  will 


be  entertained  in  the  Norwegian  capital  for  two  days.  They 
will  then  proceed  to  Gothenburg,  where  the  Congress  will  be 
dissolved.  In  honour  of  the  Congress  a  bibliography  is  to  be 
issued,  containing  the  portraits  in  heliography  of  all  living 
Orientalists,  and  a  resume  of  the  works  published  by  each.  The 
work  is  to  be  most  sumptuously  got  up.  The  editor  is  Count 
Carlo  Landbei^. 

The  following  arrangements  have  been  made  for  the  Penny 
Science  Lectures  at  the  Royal  Victoria  Hall :  February  7,  by 
Dr.  Percy  Frankland,  "  Germs  in  the  Air,  and  what  they  do  for 
us";  February  14,  by  E.  Wethered,  "Earthquakes  and 
Volcanoes";  Februaiy  21,  by  F,  R.  Cheshire,  "Insects  as. 
Florists  and  Fruit -makers "  ;  February  21,  by  E.  Hodder» 
"Incidents  in  the  Life  of  Lord  Shaftesbury." 

Information  has  been  received  of  the  arrival  of  H,M,  sur- 
veying-ship Egeria,  Capt.  P.  Aldrich,  at  King  George's  Sound, 
after  a  very  successful  deep-sea  sounding  cruise  across  the  Indian 
Ocean.  Between  latitudes  10°  and  35°  S., — a  belt  1500  miles 
wide, — not'a  single  sounding  has  heretofore  been  obtained  in  this 
ocean,  and  it  is  therefore  satisfactory  to  learn  that  forty-three 
soundings,  all  of  them  accompanied  with  several  sets  of  tem- 
perature observations,  have  been  now  obtained.  The  Egeria's 
track  was  from  Sunda  Strait  to  Mauritius,  thence  south  to 
latitude  sS^'S,  and  thence  to  Western  Australia. 

Memorials  are  being  sent  from  various  public  bodies  in 
Hampshire  to  the  Lord  President  of  the  Council,  requesting 
that  the  proposed  Forestry  School  for  England  may  be  estab- 
lished in  that  county.  It  is  pointed  out  that  the  extensive 
Crown  lands  of  Hampshire  are  peculiarly  well  fitted  for  scientific 
and  practical  forestry. 

A  PAPER  of  exceptional  interest  was  read  by  Prof.  Victor 
Meyer  at  the  meeting  of  the  Chemical  Society  of  Gottingen 
held  on  January  24  In  it  were  embodied  some  remarkable 
speculations  upon  the  shape  of  the  ultimate  atoms  of  carbon. 
These  ideas  are  the  outcome  of  his  recent  work  upon  the  oxims 
of  benzil  and  certain  other  complicated  organic  compounds,  and 
may  be  briefly  summed  up  as  follows.     Certain  compounds  o*  . 


C  =  3 
the  type    |  (where  a  represents  a   monad  and   b   a  dyad 

C  =  /' 


radicle)  exist  in  two  isomeric  modifications  which  can  only  be 
expressed  by  the  following  different  geometrical  arrangement  i 
a  b  a  b 

\     //  \    ^ 

C  C 

I        and  I  .     This  necessitates  an  expansion  of  the 

C  C 

/    ^  ^    \ 

a  b  b  a 

theory  of  Van  t'  Hoff  and  Wislicenus,  according  to  which,, 
by  rotation  of  one  of  the  carbon  atoms  in  the  first  case,  the 
latter  would  be  the  only  s-table  form  ;  there  are  cases  in  which 
this  rotation  is  free  to  occur,  and  cases  like  the  present  where  it 
is  prevented.  From  a  consideration  of  the  geometrical  isomers 
of  the  benzyl  cyanides,  Prof  Meyer  further  shows  that  the 
valencies  of  carbon  may  be  displaced  out  of  their  normal  posi- 
tions at  the  corners  of  a  regular  tetrahedron  by  the  unequal 
attractions  of  unlike  radicles.  Finally,  as  the  only  means  of 
accounting  for  all  these  varied  phenomena.  Prof.  Meyer  ex- 
presses his  conviction  that  the  atoms  of  carbon  are  spheres,  each 
surrounded  by  an  ether-shell,  which  forms  the  seat  of  the  four 
valencies.  On  account  of  their  probable  electrical  connection 
he  terms  these  valencies  "  electrules,"  and  considers  that  the 
electrules  of  the  same  atom  are  in  isochronous  oscillation,  and 


328 


NATURE 


IFeb. 


2,   I 


therefore,  in  accordance  with  the  law,  repel  each  other  but  are 
attracted  by  the  dissimilar  oscillations  of  other  atoms.  In  con- 
sequence of  this  repulsion  they  must  take  up  the  regular  tetra- 
hedral  position,  from  which,  however,  under  the  circumstances 
mentioned  above,  they  may  be  slightly  displaced.  In  course  of 
the  discussion  which  ensued,  Prof.  Riecke  followed  up  the  sub- 
ject with  a  preliminary  notice  of  his  own  researches  upon  the 
shape  of  odd-valent  atoms,  and  showed  that,  in  case  of  nitrogen, 
phosphorus,  and  other  pentad  elements,  the  ether-shell  is  pro- 
bably not  spherical,  but  an  ellipsoid  ;  three  valencies  being 
situate  upon  the  great  circle  at  the  angles  of  an  equilateral  tri- 
angle, whilst  the  other  two  are  located  at  the  poles.  If  this 
indeed  be  the  case,  the  tri-  and  penta-valency  of  the  nitrogen 
group  will  be  completely  and  very  simply  explained. 

In  a  paper  contributed  to  the  Royal  Society  of  Edinburgh, 
and  to  be  published  in  a  forthcoming  volume  of  the  Society's 
Transactions,  Mr.  A.  Crichton  Mitchell  gives  the  results  of  an 
experimental  inquiry,  made  at  the  Edinburgh  University  Physical 
Laboratory,  into  the  thermal  conductivity  of  iron,  copper,  and 
German  silver.  The  method  employed  was  that  of  Forbes.  The 
experiments  were,  for  the  most  part,  a  repetition  of  those  made 
by  Prof.  Tait  about  ten  years  ago  ;  the  main  difference  being  that 
the  bars  used  were  nickel-plated  in  order  to  prevent  oxidation, 
and  thus  render  the  estimation  of  the  amount  of  surface  loss  of 
heat  a  matter  of  greater  certainty  than  hitherto.  The  results 
arrived  at  confirm,  in  the  main,  those  of  the  previous  work,  on 
the  same  bars,  already  mentioned,  and  are  of  some  importance 
in  deciding  the  question  as  to  whether  thermal  conductivity  in- 
creases or  decreases  with  increase  of  temperature.  The  principal 
conclusion  in  the  paper  is,  that  in  iron,  thermal  conductivity 
increases  with  increased  temperature,  and  that  therefore  iron  can 
no  longer  be  looked  upon  as  an  exception  to  the  rule  followed 
by  the  other  metals,  viz.  that  their  conductivity  increases  with 
temperature. 

The  first  rack-railway  in  France  was  opened  lately  at  Langres 
(in  Haute-Marne),  which  is  perched  on  a  hill  1460  feet  high, 
and  is  the  principal  seat  of  the  French  manufacture  of  fine 
cutlery.  The  two  railway- stations  which  have  hitherto  served 
it  are  several  kilometres  from  the  town,  and  much  inconvenience 
has  been  felt.  The  new  line  is  made  on  the  type  of  the  Ri^hi 
railway,  and  rises  to  the  heart  of  the  town.  A  company  has 
recently  been  formed  to  construct  a  funicular  railway  at  Hong 
Kong,  for  ascent  of  the  hill  overlooking  the  town,  and  much 
frequented  by  the  inhabitants.  This  line  will  rise  to  a  height  of 
500  metres,  and  will  be  l6oo  metres  in  length.  The  formation 
of  the  ground  is  exclusively  granite,  affording  a  fine  solid  base. 
There  will  be  three  viaducts,  the  largest  30  metres  in  length. 
Two  compound  engines  of  forty  horse-power  each  will  be 
installed  at  the  upper  station. 

One  of  the  most  important  questions  in  optics  is  whether  the 
velocity  of  propagation,  and  therewith  the  wave-length  of  light, 
depend  on  its  intensity  or  not.  A  determination  of  wave-length 
from  prismatic  decomposition  is  not  capable  of  great  accuracy. 
Dr.  Ebert,  of  Erlangen,  in  studying  the  subject,  preferred  a 
more  accurate  method  based  on  interference  phenomena.  Using 
eight  variously  coloured  light  sources  (lithium,  hydrogen, 
sodium,  &c.),  varied  in  intensity  between  the  values  I  and  250, 
he  established  the  constancy  of  the  wave-length  and  velocity  of 
propagation  to  nearly  a  millionth  within  those  limits  of  intensity. 
Considering,  with  these  results,  that  the  great  brightness  of  the 
sun  does  not  destroy  the  coincidences  of  the  Fraunhofer  lines 
with  lines  of  our  terrestrial  light  sources,  even  with  the  greatest 
dispersions,  Dr.  Ebert  thinks  his  affirmation  (of  independence  of 
intensity)  is  generally  valid  within  ordinarily  occurring  limits  of 
brightness. 


Mr.  M.  W.  Harrington  has  contributed  to  the  American 
Meteorological  Journal  for  December  the  results  of  an  interesting 
inquiry  as  to  whether  the  rainfall  is  increasing  on  the  plains. 
The  subject  is  one  of  importance,  as  an  annual  increase  of  the 
rainfall  would  increase  the  agricultural  capacity  of  a  large 
territory.  In  order  to  come  to  a  definite  Conclusion  he  has  used 
two  long  series  of  observations  representing  the  average  condi- 
tions at  the  epochs  of  1850  and  1880.  The  author  compares  the 
lines  of  equal  rainfall  for  the  two  periods,  and  shows  that,  if 
there  had  been  an  increase,  any  one  line  should  have  travelled 
westwards  in  the  interval  between  the  two  epochs.  The  result 
of  the  inquiry  shows  an  apparent  advance  along  the  zone  in- 
cluded between  the  parallels  of  35°  and  45°,  and  a  regression 
above  and  below  these  latitudes,  in  other  words  that  there  has 
been  apparently  a  consistent  increase  of  rainfall  toward  the 
plains. 

M.  a.  Lancaster,  Meteorologist  at  the  Royal  Observatory 
of  Brussels,  and  Inspector  of  Meteorological  Stations  in  Bel- 
gium, has  published  a  paper  on  the  climate  of  that  country  in 
1887,  based  on  the  observations  at  Brussels,  and  three  other 
stations  at  the  west,  north,  and  east  limits  of  the  kingdom,  the 
stations  selected  being  typical  of  all  other  points  of  observation. 
The  weather  for  each  month  is  discussed  at  considerable  length, 
and  the  results  are  compared  with  the  normal  values.  The  ob- 
servations show  that  the  mean  barometer  is  highest  in  December 
and  lowest  in  October ;  the  absolute  maximum  temperature 
during  the  year  at  Brussels  was  9l°'o,  and  the  minimum  I5°'4. 
The  prevalent  winds  are  from  west-south-west  to  south-south- 
west. The  rainfall  during  the  year  amounted  to  24-42  inches, 
being  considerably  below  the  average,  viz.  2878  inches.  The 
rainfall  diminishes  with  the  distance  from  the  sea,  excepting  in 
the  neighbourhood  of  the  forests  ;  the  amount  increases  notably 
in  the  Ardennes. 

Dr.  Fines  has  published,  in  the  fifteenth  Bulletin  Meteoro- 
logique  of  the  Department  of  the  Pyrenees-Orientales,  the  results 
of  experiments  carried  on  at  the  Perpignan  Observatory : — 
(i)  To  test  the  theory  of  M.  Kammermann,  of  Geneva,  for  the 
prediction  of  spring  frosts  by  comparison  of  the  readings  of  the 
wet-hulb  and  minimum  thermometers  (explained  in  the  Archives 
dcs  Sciences  physiques  et  naturelles,  vol.  xiv.  p.  425)  ;  the  result 
being  that  the  data,  so  far  as  Perpignan  is  concerned,  do  not 
bear  out  the  character  of  accuracy  attributed  to  them  elsewhere. 
(2)  To  compare  the  results  of  wind- velocity  given  at  each  instant 
by  a  Bourdon's  anemometer  (presented  to  the  Academy  of 
Sciences,  July  30,  1882)  with  the  records  of  Robinson's  velocity 
anemometer.  The  result  of  this  inquiry  shows  a  mean  increase 
in  the  maximum  velocities  of  over  21  per  cent,  by  the  use  of 
Bourdon's  instrument  as  compared  with  the  means  of  the  greatest 
velocities  obtained  by  Robinson's  anemometer. 

We  have  received  from  the  Imperial  Observatory  at  Tokio 
the  monthly  summaries  and  means  of  the  observations  of  the 
meteorological  service  in  Japan  for  the  year  1886,  accompanied 
by  charts  showing  the  tracks  of  central  areas  of  high  and  low 
barometer  and  by  synoptic  weather  charts  for  each  month.  The 
stations  are  supplied  with  good  instruments  (in  some  cases  with 
self-recording  apparatus),  and  thee  obsrvations  which  have  now 
been  regularly  taken  for  about  eleven  years  under  the  present 
organization  compare  favourably  with  those  of  European 
systems.  The  climate  is  generally  of  the  oceanic  type — ^the 
highest  mean  temperature  at  Tokio  occurring  in  August.  The 
winds  are  governed  by  the  monsoon  seasons  ;  during  the  first 
three  months  of  the  year  the  prevalent  directions  at  Tokio  are 
north  and  north-west.  From  April  to  June  the  winds  shift 
round  to  the  south,  through  east.  In  July  and  August  southerly 
winds  predominate,  but  in  September  a  sudden  change  to  the 
north  occurs,  and  continues  generally  until  December.     Warn- 


Feb,  2,  1888] 


NATURE 


329 


ings  of  wind  and  weather  are  issued  to  various  stations  ;  the 
general  percentage  of  success  for  both  elements  during  the  year 
1886  was  80.  Rainfall  maps  for  each  month  and  for  the  year 
are  also  given. 

We  have  received  the  Annuaire  for  the  year  1SS8,  pub- 
lished by  the  Bureau  des  Longitudes  with  Messrs.  Gauthier- 
Villars,  Paris.  It  contains,  besides  the  tables  usually  expected 
in  works  of  this  class,  much  useful  information  as  to  the 
monetary  systems  of  the  various  nations  of  the  world,  minera- 
logy, meteorology,  and  other  subjects.  We  may  especially  note 
an  excellent  account,  by  Admiral  Mouchez,  of  the  International 
Astronomical  Congress  which  met  in  Paris  in  April  1887,  to 
prepare  the  way  for  the  execution  of  a  photographic  chart  of 
the  heavens. 

The  Syndics  of  the  Cambridge  University  Press  have  under- 
taken the  publication  of  a  collected  edition  of  the  mathematical 
papers  of  Prof.  Cayley.  These  papers,  originally  contributed  to 
the  Royal  and  other  Societies  and  to  various  mathematical 
journals,  will  be  arranged  for  publication  by  Prof.  Cayley  him- 
self, who  will  add  notes  containing  references  to  the  writings  of 
other  mathematicians  on  allied  subjects.  It  is  expected  that  the 
edition  will  extend  to  ten  quarto  volumes  ;  it  is  intended  to 
publish  two  volumes  each  year  until  the  completion  of  the 
work. 

"My  Telescope;  a  Simple  Introduction  to  the  Glories  of 
the  Heavens,"  is  the  title  of  a  little  half-crown  work  on 
iistronomy  by  "A  Quekett  Club  Man,"  whose  kindred  volumes 
on  "  The  Microscope"  have  been  so  successful.  It  will  be  issued 
in  a  few  days  by  Messrs.  Roper  and  Drowley. 

A  NEwr  geological  map  of  the  Government  of  Kutais,  by 
MM.  Simcnovitch  and  Sorokin,  has  been  published  at  Tiflis  by 
the  Mining  Department. 

At  a  recent  meeting  of  the  Asiatic  Society  of  Japan  (reported 
in  the  Japan  Weekly  Mail  of  November  19),  Mr.  Batchelor 
read  a  paper  on  the  Kaimd,  or  gods  of  the  Ainos  of  Yezo.  He 
enumerated  under  thirteen  heads  these  deities  as  they  appear 
to  be  arranged  in  the  Aino  mind.  These  are:  (i)  the 
chief  of  all  the  deities,  the  possessor  of  heaven  and  the 
maker  of  worlds  and  places  ;  (2)  the  progenitor  of  the  Aino 
race,  and  presider  over  the  affairs  of  men,  who  is  the  only 
human  being  worshipped  by  the  people  ;  (3)  the  sun  and  moon 
(the  stars  are  not  worshipped) ;  (4)  the  fire-god,  worshipped 
because  of  its  general  usefulness  in  cooking,  healing,  purifying, 
&c., — sometimes  spoken  of  as  the  "  messenger  "  or  mediator 
between  gods  and  men;  (5)  the  goddesses  who  preside  over 
springs,  lakes,  rivers,  and  waterfalls, — they  are  worshipped  as 
benefactors  of  mankind,  particularly  in  alluring  fish  to  ascend 
and  descend  the  rivers  ;  (6)  the  sea-gods,  two  in  number,  one 
being  good  and  one  evil, — the  latter  is  the  originator  of  all  storms, 
and  the  direct  cause  of  shipwrecks  and  death  from  drowning  at 
sea ;  (7)  bears,  the  most  powerful  animals  known  to  the  Ainos 
as  well  as  the  most  useful,  supplying  them  at  once  with  food  and 
clothing  ;  (8)  the  autumn  salmon,  the  largest  fish  ascending  the 
rivers, — it  is  not  worshipped,  but  the  term  Kamui  or  deity  is 
applied  to  it  ;  (9)  many  birds,  some  of  good,  others  of  ill,  omen, 
though  not  worshipped,  are  called  deities.  The  same  term  is 
applied  to  beautiful  localities,  to  high  mountains,  to  regions  full 
of  bears  or  rivers  full  of  fish,  to  large  trees,  to  cool  breezes  on  a 
warm  day,  to  men  of  official  rank,  to  devils,  evil  spirits,  and 
reptiles.  When  applied  to  anything  good,  the  term  Kamui 
expresses  the  quality  of  useful aess,  beneficence,  divinity ;  when 
applied  to  anything  evil,  it  implies  dread,  hatefulness,  and  such 
like.  Applied  to  animals,  it  represents  the  greatest,  fiercest,  or 
most  useful  ;  to  men,  it  is  a  mere  title  of  respect.  Subsequently 
in  the  course  of  the  discussion,  Mr.  Batchelor  said  that  the  facts 


of  the  Aino  religion  were  very  simply  stated.  They  had  one 
chief  god,  and  all  the  others  were  officers  or  messengers  of  this 
supreme  being  ;  there  was  no  lightning-  or  thunder-god.  These 
were  the  facts,  but  he  could  not  explain  them.  The  Ainos,  he 
said,  regarded  the  sun  as  a  body  in  whicli  a  deity  resides, 
"  distinguishing,  so  to  speak,  between  a  body  and  a  soul." 

The  fossil  head  of  a  mammoth  has  just  been  unearthed  in  the 
Montmartre  cemetery  in  Paris.  The  distance  between  the  tusks 
is  nearly  2  feet.  Further  excavations  are  being  made  in  the 
hope  that  the  remainder  of  the  skeleton  may  be  discovered. 

About  20  cwt.  of  bones  of  prehistoric  animals  have  been 
found  in  the  bear  cave  near  Riibeland,  in  the  Harz  Mountains. 
Only  a  part  of  the  cave  has  yet  been  explored. 

The  University  of  Upsala  has  recently  been  presented  with 
the  fossil  skeleton  of  a  whale,  found  in  a  layer  of  marl  at  a  depth 
of  10  feet  in  the  province  of  Halland,  in  the  south  of  Sweden. 
The  skeleton,  which  is  almost  perfect,  is  that  of  a  whale  which 
has  been  called  Eubalcena  svedenborgii,  from  some  portions  of  a 
whale  skeleton  found  last  century  in  the  province  of  West 
Gothia,  and  now  also  in  the  Museum  at  Upsala.  The 
skeleton  is  the  only  one  complete  ever  found.  It  is  that  of  a 
young  whale. 

On  January  8,  about  4  p.m.,  a  magnificent  meteor  was  seen 
at  Porsgrund,  in  the  south-east  of  Norway.  It  moved  rapidly 
in  an  easterly  direction  towards  the  constellation  Taurus.  It 
was  square  in  appearance,  but  the  corners  were  rounded,  the 
colours  being  intense  green  and  violet,  increasing  in  strength  as 
the  meteor  disappeared  behind  a  hill.  The  size  was  about  that 
of  the  full  moon.  No  sound  was  heard,  nor  did  it  leave  a  train. 
The  passage  occupied  about  two  seconds. 

The  fog  which  lately  prevailed  over  our  islands  and  the  North 
Sea  extended  far  into  the  heart  of  Norway. 

On  December  27,  about  n.30  p.m.,  a  severe  shock  of  earth- 
quake was  felt  at  Solum,  in  the  province  of  Bratsberg,  in  the 
south-east  of  Norway.  The  shock  was  so  severe  that  beds 
seemed  lifted  from  the  floor,  and  the  occupants  fled  in  terror 
into  the  open.  The  shock  lasted  several  seconds,  and  was 
accompanied  by  several  deep  detonations.  Large  cracks  were 
afterwards  seen  in  the  earth.  The  motion  was  from  east  to 
west. 

A  SEVERE  earthquake  occurred  at  Algiers  on  January  8.  It 
was  noticed  throughout  the  whole  province.  In  one  village 
a  house  fell  in,  and  the  church  and  the  school-house  were 
damaged. 

From  the  Consular  Report  on  the  Trade  of  France  for 
1886-87,  it  is  apparent  that  the  desire  for  technical  edu- 
cation is  not  at  present  widespread  throughout  that  country. 
M.  Lockroy,  thinking  that  one  of  the  great  causes  of  the 
depression  in  trade,  from  which  France,  like  England, 
has  been  suffering  for  some  yeais,  was  the  almost  total 
absence  of  technical  education  in  France,  and  that  the  usual 
i-emedies  were  of  little  or  no  avail  unless  aided  by  a  sounder 
education  of  tradesmen  and  merchants,  founded  a  new  depart- 
ment in  the  Ministry  of  Commerce  to  supervise  the  carrying  out 
of  his  plans.  By  his  help  and  that  of  other  supporters  of  his 
scheme,  technical  schools  have  so  increased  and  multiplied,  that 
there  are  at  present  ninety  of  these  institutions  in  Paris  and  the 
provinces  subsidized  by  the  State.  Very  few  of  them  are  self-sup- 
porting, and  the  number  of  students  in  attendance  is  lamentably 
small.  Students  now,  it  is  said,  are  not  anxious  to  attend,  but  it  is 
thought  that  if  technical  schools  received  the  power  of  conferring 
degrees  equivalent  to  the  lower  degrees  in  a  University,  the 
students  would  come  more  readily.  It  is  also  urged  that  these 
schools  should  be   freed  from  Governmental  control,  and  be 


330 


NATURE 


[Feb. 


2,    I 


handed  over  to  the  mercantile  bodies  that  in  France  correspond 
to  our  Chambers  of  Commerce,  who  understand  local  needs  and 
local  industries  better  than  any  department  of  State.  Most  of 
these  institutions  are  behind  the  age,  and  the  collections  at  the 
Conservatoire  des  Arts  et  Metiers,  Paris,  are  not  so  full  as  those 
in  other  c-ountries,  and  the  building  itself  is  in  a  half-ruinous 
condition.  If  the  other  establishments  are  inferior  to  this,  as 
the  Report  seems  to  imply,  perhaps  it  is  not  so  difficult  to  account 
for  the  paucity  of  students  and  their  lack  of  interest  as  the 
Ministry  of  Commerce  seems  to  thinkit  is. 

The  additions  to  the  Zoological  Society's  Gardens  during  the 
past  week  include  two  Poe  Honey-eaters  {Prosthetnadero.  nova- 
zealandia)  from  New  Zealand,  presented  by  Capt.  Brabazon 
J.  Barlow,  s.s.  Tamui ;  a  Brazilian  Hangnest  {Icterus  jamaicai) 
from  Brazil,  presented  by  Mr.  Geo.  D.  Morce  ;  a  White-bellied 
Sea  Eagle  {Haliaetus  leucocephalus)  from  Newfoundland,  pre- 
sented by  Mr.  Geo.  M.  Johnson  ;  three  Egyptian  Cobras  {Naia 
haje),  three  Cerastes  Vipers  ( Vipera  cerastes),  two  Hissing  Sand 
Snakes  {Psainmophis  sibilans),  a  Clifford's  Snake  {Zameiiis 
cliffvrdi),  an  Egyptian  Eryx  {Eryx  Jactilus),  a  Blunt-nosed  Snake 
{Dipsas  obtusa)  from  Egypt,  presented  by  Capt.  W.  G.  Burrows ; 
twenty-one  Horrid  Rattlesnakes  {Crotalus  horridus)  born  in  the 
Gardens. 


OUR  ASTRONOMICAL  COLUMN. 

American  Observatories. — The  January  number  of  the 
Sidereal  Messenger  states  that  the  University  of  California  has 
allotted  $19,000  for  the  current  expenses  of  the  Lick  Observa- 
tory during  the  present  year.  The  Observatory  has  received  an 
accession  to  its  staff  in  Mr.  Charles  B.  Hill,  formerly  of  Chabot 
Observatory.  The  equipment  of  the  Ob.  ervatory  has  also  been 
furthered  by  the  arrival  of  the  36-inch  photographic  corrector 
and  the  micrometer  for  the  great  telescope.  The  micrometer 
is  by  Fauth  and  Co. 

A  new  Observatory  has  been  opened  in  connection  with  the 
Syracuse  University,  New  York.  This  Observatory,  erected  in 
memory  of  Mr.  C.  D.  Holden,  a  former  graduate  of  the 
University,  was  dedicated  on  November  18,  1887,  Prof. 
Newcomb  pronouncing  the  inaugural  address.  The  new  insti- 
tution possesses  a  transit  instrument  by  Troughton  and  Simms, 
of  3  inches  aperture,  a  chronometer  by  Dent  and  Co.,  a  chrono- 
graph by  Fauth  and  Co.,  and  an  8-inch  equatorial  by  the  Alvan 
Clarks.     Prof.  John  R.  French  is  the  Director. 

At  the  Washburn  Observatory,  Prof.  Brown,  the  new  Director, 
who  was  formerly  at  the  Naval  Observatory,  Washington,  is 
engaged  at  Prof  Auwers'  request  in  the  determination  of  the 
fundamental  star-places  of  the  Zusatz-sterne  in  Auwers'  system. 


ASTRONOMICAL  PHENOMENA  FOR  THE 
WEEK   1888   FEBRUARY  5-11. 

/pOR  the  reckoning  of  time  the  civil  day,  commencing  at 
Greenwich  mean  midnight,  counting  the  hours  on  to  24, 
is  here  employed.) 

At  Greenwich  on  February  5 
Sun  rises,  7h.  35m. ;  souths,  I2h.  14m.  I3"6s.  ;  sets,  i6h.  53m.  : 
right  asc.  on  meridian,  2ih.  I4'6m.  ;  decl.  16°  o'  S. 
Sidereal  Time  at  Sunset,  ih.  54m. 
Moon  (between  Last  Quarter  and  New)  rises,  ih.  20m.  ;  souths, 
6h.  24m.;  sets,  iih.  19m.:  right  asc.  on  meridian, 
I5h.  23-5m. ;  decl.  13°  16'  S. 


Right  asc. 

and  declination 

Planet. 

Rises. 

Souths. 

Sets. 

on 

meridian. 

h.    m. 

h.    m. 

h.    m. 

h.      m. 

Mercury. 

8  10  .. 

•   13     6  . 

.    18      2    . 

.    22      6-3 

...    12   58  S. 

Venus 

s  30  .. 

•     9  32  . 

■   13  34  • 

.   18  31-8 

...    21    58  S. 

Mars 

23  17*.. 

•     4  41   ■• 

.  10    5  . 

•  13  40*0 

...     7  44  S. 

Jupiter... 

2  50  .. 

7    6  .. 

.   II  22  .. 

.   16    5-6 

...   19  55  S. 

Saturn 

15  20  .. 

•  23  IS  .. 

.     7  10*.. 

•     8  17-5 

...   20  14  N. 

Uranus  ... 

22  33*.. 

•45- 

•     9  37  •• 

•   13    42 

...     6     7S. 

Neptune.. 

II     I  .. 

.  18  40  . 

2  19*. 

•     3  41-6 

...   17  54  N. 

*  Indicates  that  the  rising  is  that  of  the  preceding  evening  and  the  setting 
that  of  the  following  morning. 


Feb.  h. 

6  ...        I     ...     Jupiter  in  conjunction  with  and  4°  2' south 

of  the  Moon. 

7  ...       6     ...     Neptune  stationary. 

8  ..     21     ...     Venus  in   conjunction  with  and  1°  24'  south 

of  the  Moon 

February  I1-12. — A  partial  eclipse  of  the  Sun  :  not  visible  in 
Europe. 

Saturn,  February  5. — Outer  major  axis  of  outer  ring  =  46"'i  ; 
outer  minor  axis  of  outer  ring  =  16" 'o  ;  southern  surface  visible. 

Variable  Stars. 
Star.  R.A.  Decl. 

h.      m.             a      /  h.  m. 

U  Cephei     o  52-4  ...  81   16  N,  ...  Feb.  9,  20  19  m 

Algol    3    o'9  ...  40  31  N.  ...     ,,  10,     I  30  in 

R  Canis  Majoris...     7  I4'5  ...  16  12  S.    ...     ,,  5,  22  43  m 

„  7,  I  59  w 

S  Hydrae      8477...     3  30  N.  ...     ,,  9,  M 

T  Virginis    12     8"9  ...     5  24  S.    ...     ,,  7,  M 

5  Librae        14  5S"o  ...    8     4  S.    ...     ,,  8,  2  50  m 

U  Coronae   15  13*6  ...  32     3  N.  ...     ,,  8,  2  26  w 

V  Coronas ^5  45"5  •••  39  55  N.  ...     ,,  5,  m 

U  Ophiuchi 17  10-9  ...     i  20  N ,  9,  l  29  m 

and  at  intervals  of    20  8 

X  Sagittarii I7  40"5    ..  27  47  S.    ...Feb.    9,    5  o  yJ/ 

Z  Sagittarii 18  14*8  ...  18  55  S.    ...     ,,       6,    o  o  m 

/8  Lyrae 18  46-0  ...  33  14  N 7,  21  o  m 

,,     II,    2  o  M 

U  Aquilas    19  23-3  ...     7   16  S.    ...     ,,     11,     5  o  m 

r?  Aquilae     19  46'8  ...    o  43  N.  ...     ,,      11,  2i  oM 

S  Sagittae    19  50*9  ...  16  20  N.  ...     ,,       6,    4  o  m 

„       9,    4  oM 

Y  Cygni       20  47'6  ...  34  14  N.  ...     ,,       6,  20  9  m 

,,       9,  20     3  m 
M  signifies  maximum  ;  m  minimum. 
Meteor- Showers. 


R.A. 


Decl. 


Near  Capella 

...     74     • 

•     43  N. 

,,     A  Draconis  ... 

...    165     . 

.     73  N. 

,,     e  Draconis  ... 

...   240     . 

.     62  N. 

February  6. 


GEOGRAPHICAL  NOTES. 

At  Monday's  meeting  of  the  Royal  Geographical  Society, 
Admiral  Mayne  gave  an  account  of  recent  explorations  in 
British  North  Borneo.  The  paper  of  most  original  interest  was, 
however,  that  of  Mr.  Maurice  Portman,  on  the  exploration  and 
surveys  of  the  Little  Andaman,  As  an  official  on  the  Andaman 
Islands,  Mr.  Portman  made  it  his  business  to  conciliate  the 
natives  of  the  Little  Andaman,  who  were  regarded  as  quite 
intractable,  and  had  been  severely  punished  several  times  for 
murdering  shipwrecked  sailors.  After  a  great  deal  of  trouble 
and  much  risk,  Mr.  Portman  succeeded  in  making  friends  with 
the  natives,  with  the  result  that  he  and  those  who  accompanied 
him  could  visit  the  island  with  impunity.  He  has  thus  been 
able  to  collect  much  welcome  information  both  concerning  the 
island  and  its  highly  interesting  inhabitants.  He  completely 
surveyed  the  island,  and  has  thus  been  able  to  make  iinportant 
corrections  on  our  maps.  At  the  north  end  the  island  consists 
of  mangrove  swamp  and  low  belts  of  sandy  soil,  on  which  the 
aborigines  have  their  huts.  On  the  west  and  south-west  the 
land  rises  into  low  hills  of  a  coarse  sandstone,  running  more  or 
less  north  and  south.  The  timber  appears  to  be  much  the 
same  as  that  of  the  South  Andaman,  though  Mr.  Portman  saw 
no  padouk  and  very  few  bamboos.  The  rocks  are  chiefly  lime 
and  sandstone,  with  a  good  deal  of  actual  coral  rock  on  the  east 
and  south  coasts.  In  one  place,  south  of  Daogule  Bay,  Mr. 
Portman  noticed  an  outcrop  of  igneous  rock.  He  found  no 
minerals  of  importance.  This  island  is  about  27  miles  long  by 
15  miles  broad,  and  is  encircled  by  a  fringing  coral  reef.  The 
products  of  the  sea  are  the  same  as  at  the  Great  Andaman  ;  but 
the  Tubiporine  family  of  coral,  particularly  Tiibipora  vuisica, 
occur  in  profusion.  Dugong  and  turtle  are  very  plentiful.  On 
the  South  Sentinel  Island,  about  12  miles  west  of  the  Little 
Andaman,  the  turtle  appear  to  have  their  breeding-station.  This 
island,  which  is  composed  entirely  of  coral  rock,  is  infested  by 
large  iguanas,  and  the  Birgiis  lairo,   or  cocoa-nut-stealing  crab 


Feb.  2,  .^m'] 


NATURE 


331 


(which  certainly  does  not  live  on  cocoa  nuts  there,  as  there  are 
none).  In  rough  weather  landing  is  almost"  impassible  on  the 
coast  of  the  Little  Andaman,  and  even  in  fine  weather  there  are 
heavy  ground-swells  and  tide-rips.  On  the  north  coast  large  iso- 
lated reefs  and  ledges  exist,  which  make  navigation  dangerous. 
With  regard  to  the  aborgines  of  the  island,  Mr.  Portman  is  of 
opinion  that  the  whole  of  the  Little  Andaman  Island  is  peopled 
by  one  race,  calling  themselves  Onges.  These  people  are  sub- 
divided into  tribes,  who  adhere  more  or  less  to  their  own  villages, 
and  who  quarrel  and  fight  with  each  other  considerably.  They 
appear  healthy  ;  their  principal  diseases  being  chest  complaints, 
colds,  fever,  and  itch.  In  physique  they  compare  favourably 
with  the  inhabitants  of  the  Great  Andaman.  Their  manners 
and  customs  differ  somewhat  from  those  of  the  Great  Andaman 
people,  the  principal  differences  being  the  following  : — Instead 
of  small  lean-to's,  they  build  large  circular  huts,  some  measuring 
as  much  as  35  feet  in  height,  and  60  feet  in  diameter.  In  these 
huts  the  various  families  sleep  on  charpoys  of  wood  and  cane 
matting,  raised  from  6  to  18  inches  off  the  ground,  and  about 
2  feet  6  inches  square,  Their  habits  are  more  cleanly,  par- 
ticularly as  regards  their  huts,  and  the  manner  of  preparing  their 
food,  which  is  invariably  cooked.  They  cook,  dry,  and  store  in 
baskets,  a  small  fish  like  a  sprat,  and  this,  with  the  boiled  seed 
of  the  mangrove,  seems  to  be  their  principal  food,  which  they 
supplement  with  what  they  can.  Their  canoes,  utensils,  orna- 
ments, and  bows,  are  different  from  those  of  other  Andamanese, 
and  the  women  wear  a  tassel  of  yellow  fibre  in  place  of  the  leaf. 
They  do  not  smear  their  bodies  over  with  red  ochre,  or  tattoo 
themselves,  nor  do  the  women  keep  their  heads  clean  shaved. 
They  are  by  no  means  expert  in  the  use  of  a  canoe  in  rough 
water,  and  do  not  harpoon  turtle  or  dugong,  though  very  fond 
of  the  former.  They  have  no  religion  of  any  kind,  and  Mr. 
Portman  learnt  nothing  of  their  traditions  or  superstitions, 
from  which  they  seem  even  more  free  than  their  neighbours. 

Mr.  C.  M.  Woodford  has  recently  returned  from  a  two  years' 
visit  to  the  Solomon  Island-,  with  extensive  collections  of  mam- 
mals, birds,  reptiles,  Lepidoptera,  &c.  Nearly  six  months  were 
spent  on  Guadalcanar,  an  island  the  interior  of  which  has  never 
been  previously  explored.  Ascents  were  made  of  several  rivers, 
the  furthest  point  reached  being  about  fifteen  miles  from  the  coast  ; 
but  the  hostility  of  the  bushmen  prevented  the  ascent  of  Mount 
Lammas. 


OUR  ELECTRICAL   COLUMN, 

Mr.  Willaru  Case,  of  Auburn,  N.Y.,  U.S.A.,  whose 
extremely  interesting  paper  on  a  thermic  voltaic  cell  was  read 
before  the  Royal  Society  on  May  6,  1886,  is  systematically  pur- 
suing his  studies  to  obtain  electric  energy  direct  from  carbon 
without  passing  through  the  intermediate  stage  of  heat.  A 
paper  read  on  January  10,  1888,  in  New  York,  narrates  his  latest 
experiments.  Jablochkoff  tried  to  do  it  by  immersing  plates  of 
carbon  and  iron  in  fused  nitre.  Mr.  Case  has  been  using 
chlorate  of  potassium  and  chlorine  peroxide  (perchloric  acid),  and 
with  the  latter  has  obtained  an  E.  M.F.  with  certain  forms  of 
carbon  varying  from  0*3  to  i'24  volt. 

In  1869,  Dr.  Gore  proposed  a 'thermo- magnetic  generator  of 
electricity  (Proc.R.S.  1868-69,  P-  261),  in  which  an  increasing  or 
decreasing  magnetic  field  was  produced  by  heating  and  cooling 
an  ironnvire  placed  as  a  core  to  a  coil  of  wire.  Mr.  Edison  has 
recently  endeavoured  to  make  this  principle  practical,  but  M. 
Menges,  of  the  Hague,  has  been  more  successful.  The  difficulties 
to  overcome  are  waste  of  heat,  energy,  and  consumption  of  time, 
in  heating  and  cooling.  The  results  obtained  at  present  are,  how- 
ever, poor,  though  encouraging. 

M.  Tereschin,  following  Quincke's  examples  and  directions, 
has  found  with  water,  methyl  and  ethylic  alcohol,  bisulphide  of 
carbon,  ether,  oil  of  turpentine,  and  rape  oil,  a  considerable 
transport  of  mass  in  capillary  tubes  in  the  direction  of  the 
positive  current  {Beibldttir  No.  10,  1887) ;  and  Prof.  Horace 
Lamb,  in  the  Phil.  Mag.  for  January,  prints  the  admirable  paper 
on  the  subject  which  was  read  before  Section  A  of  the  British 
Association  at  Manchester  last  September,  in  which  he  criticizes 
the  work  of  Wiedemann  and  Helmholtz,  and  explains  the 
phenomenon  on  the  assumption  of  Quincke,  that  there  is  a 
contact  potential  difference  between  the  fluid  and  its  solid 
boundaries,  and  his  own  conclusion  that  there  is  a  sliding 
coefficient  for  a  fluid  in  contact  with  a  solid.     This  transport  of 


mass,  due  to  currents,  and  the  electromotive  forces  produced  by 
the  passage  of  liquids  through  capillary  tubes,  and  porous 
diaphragms  are  facts  undeveloped  and  unapplied  at  present. 

Considerable  attention  is  being  devoted  to  the  heating  and 
fusmg  of  wires  by  currents.  Sh  )rt  lengths  of  fine  wire  are  used 
in  nearly  all  electric  light  equipments  as  safety  valves  or  cut 
outs  ;  but  the  law  determining  the  behaviour  of  these  fuses  was 
little  known.  Mr.  Preece  has  written  two  papers  for  the  Royal 
Society.  Profs.  Ayrton  and  Perry  introduced  the  subject  in  a 
recent  paper  read  at  the  Society  of  Electrical  Engineers,  and 
Mr.  Cockburn  has  brought  the  whole  subject  before  that  Society, 
where  it  has  been  well  threshed  out.  For  fine  wires,  viz.  those 
under   -oio  in.,   the  fusing  current  varies  with  the  diameter; 

but  for  wires  over  'oio  in.,  is  given  by  the  equation 

C  =  «r/3/2. 
The  constant  a  has  been  determined  for  all  metals.  The 
behaviour  of  tin,  which  is  very  commonly  used,  is  peculiar. 
When  it  approaches  the  temperature  of  fusion,  its  surface 
oxidizes  and  coats  the  wire  with  a  thin  skin,  which  acquires  a 
higher  temperature  and  allows  a  greater  current  to  flow  before 
fusing.  Mr.  Cockburn  breaks  through  this  skin  with  a  weight 
—a  pellet  of  lead  ;  while  Mr.  Preece  prevents  the  skin  forming 
by  covering  the  wire  with  shell-lac,  which  acts  as  a  flux  and 
prevents  oxidation. 

Major  King,  U.S.A.,  has  recently  made  a  mammoth 
electro-magnet  out  of  two  Rodman  guns,  weighing  about  60 
tons.  It  was  excited  by  a  powerful  dynamo,  and  the  armature 
resisted  a  pull  of  neariy  10  tons.  The  field  was  felt  and 
watches  were  stopped  at  very  great  distances. 

Von  Bernardo's  system  of  welding  by  directing  an  arc 
itself  along  the  crack,  fissure,  or  edge  of  the  metal  to  be  welded 
is  attracting  great  attention  on  the  Continent.  Prof.  Ruhlmann, 
of  Chemnitz,  has  read  a  very  interesting  paper  before  the  Electro- 
technical  Society  of  Beriin.  A  carbon  rod  is  the  positive  and 
the  metal  to  be  fused  the  negative  pole  of  the  arc.  The  arc  acts 
like  a  blow-pipe  flame.  It  is  eminently  adapted  to  repair  cracks 
and  leaks  in  boilers,  heaters,  and  condensers,  to  repair  tools  and 
generally  to  cover  the  ground  of  soldering  and  welding. 

A  novel  mode  of  forming  electrolytically  deposited  copper 
tubes  is  attracting  considerable  attention.  The  copper  is  slowly 
deposited  in  a  thin  coating  on  an  iron  mandril  kept  constantly 
rotating  in  the  bath.  As  the  copper  forms  it  is  pressed  by  an 
agate  burnisher,  which  compresses  the  molecular  structure  into 
a  hard  and  solid  mass  of  great  tensile  strength.  Such  copper 
has  reached  a  breaking  strain  of  40  tons  on  the  square  inch.  The 
process  is  due  to  Mr.  W.  Elmore. 

A  curious  experiment  is  mentioned  by  the  Electrician 
(January  27).  A  disk  of  soft  iron  has  a  spindle  put  through  it  so 
that  it  can  be  spun  like  a  top.  When  at  rest  or  moving  slowly 
the  disk  is  attracted  by  the  poles  of  a  magnet  ;  but  when  it  turns 
with  sufficient  velocity  it  is  repelled  by  the  magnet.  The  re- 
action of  the  induced  currents  in  the  mass  of  the  metal  is  greater 
than  the  magnetic  attraction. 

H.  F.  Webf.r  has  cast  doubts  on  the  dull  red  rays  being  the 
first  luminous  rays  to  appear.  He  says  that  the  carbon  filaments, 
platinum,  gold,  and  iron  give  a  "gray  glow,"  which  is  evident 
at  temperatures  much  below  that  of  dull  red,  viz.  525°  C.  Gold 
gives  this  gray  effect  at  417°,  iron  at  377°,  and  platinum  at  390°. 


THE    PROPOSED     TEACHING     UNIVERSITY 
FOR  LONDON. 

HTHE  following  is  the  text  of  the  petition  which  has  been 
-*■  drawn  up  by  the  Association  for  Promoting  a  Teaching 
University  for  London  : — 

To  the  Queen's  Most  Excellent  Majesty  in  Council. 

The  Humble  Petition  of  the  Association  for  Promoting  a 
Teaching  University  for  London 

Showeth — 

I.  That  the  Association  for  Promoting  a  Teaching  University 
for  London  was  formed  in  1884,  and  has  enrolled  up  to  the 
present  time  about  250  members,  each  of  whom  was  specially 
invited  to  join  on  the  ground  of  eminence,  or  of  experience  in 
matters  affecting  University  teaching  in   London,  or  of  being 


332 


NATURE 


[Feb.  2,  I 


actively  engaged  in  educational  or  administrative  work  in  one 
of  the  institutions  in  which  such  teaching  is  given. 

2.  That  your  petitioners  have  been  engaged  for  the  la^^t  three 
years  in  examining  the  state  and  requirements  of  University 
education  in  London,  and  in  conferring  with  the  persons  respon- 
sible for  the  teaching  and  administration  of  the  institutions  in 
which  such  education  is  carried  on.  They  have  thus  been  led 
to  the  conclusion  that  there  exists  in  the  metropolis  and  its 
suburban  districts  a  general  and  growing  demand  for  the  develop- 
ment of  University  education.  They  are  convinced  that  this 
demand  cannot  be  met  while  higher  education  in  London 
remains  in  its  present  unorganized  state,  and  while  the  various 
institutions  giving  University  instruction  are  deprived  of  the 
means  of  common  discussion  and  concerted  action.  For  the 
teaching  given  in  these  institutions  their  respective  governing 
bodies  are  alone  responsible,  and  each  of  these  bodies  for  the 
most  part  acts  in  educational  matters  on  the  advice  of  its  own 
teachers  ;  but  there  is  no  common  centre,  such  as  a  University 
would  supply,  where  these  governing  bodies  and  their  teachers 
could  meet  for  purp9ses  of  conference,  and  wherein  measures 
for  the  better  organization  of  teaching  could  be  discussed  and 
settled.  It  is  matter  of  experience  to  those  who  have  taken  part 
in  the  administration  of  such  institutions  that  they  suffer  from 
the  want  of  public  recognition  and  support — a  want  due,  not  to 
defects  in  their  work,  but  mainly  to  the  anomaly  of  their 
position  as  institutions  performing  some  of  the  functions  without 
having  the  status  of  a  University. 

3.  That  the  severance  from  the  work  of  teaching  of  the  work 
of  examination  for  degrees,  and  the  assignment  of  such  examin- 
ation to  the  existing  University  for  London  as  its  sole  function, 
has  had  an  injurious  effect  upon  University  education  in  London. 
The  restraint  exercised  over  efficient  institutions  through  examin- 
ations held  by  a  body  which  is  neither  responsible  for  their 
teaching  nor  in  communication  with  their  teachers  acts  as  a 
fetter  upon  education,  and  gives  undue  consequence  to  examin- 
ations and  their  results.  Examinations  so  arranged  are  less 
efficient  than  they  might  be  made  as  a  test  of  real  merit,  and  tend 
to  encourage  dissipation  of  intellectual  energy.  In  the  Faculty 
of  Medicine,  although  a  systematic  course  of  study  in  a  recog- 
nized school  is  now  required  by  the  existing  University  of 
London,  the  want  of  due  relations  between  the  examining 
institution  on  the  one  hand  and  the  teaching  bodies  and  pro- 
fessional authorities  on  the  other  has  led  to  unsatisfacto  y 
results. 

4.  That  the  evils  above  mentioned  cannot  be  fully  remedied 
but  by  the  establishment  in  London  of  a  Teaching  University— 
that  is  to  say,  a  University  which  (i)  provides  for  the  student  in 
all  the  subjects  included  in  its  Faculties  the  best  attainable 
teaching  with  the  necessary  aids  and  appliances  ;  (2)  requires  a 
regular  course  of  attendance  on  such  teaching  as  a  preliminary 
to  graduation  ;  and  (3)  secures  to  the  teacher  a  direct  and 
adequate  representation  in  its  councils,  and  a  due  share  in  its 
administration. 

5.  That  such  a  University  may  be  formed  without  trenching 
upon  the  province  of  the  existing  University  of  London,  the 
functions  of  which  are  entirely  different,  and  without  superseding 
any  institution  now  giving  genuine  University  instruction  in  the 
metropolis.  A  Teaching  University  for  London  would  incor- 
porate or  associate  such  institutions  without  injury  to  their 
individual  life,  as  the  Victoria  University  has  incorporated 
Colleges  in  the  North  of  England. 

6.  That  the  metropolis;,  regarded  as  the  seat  of  a  Teaching 
University,  possesses  for  students  in  every  Faculty,  but  especially 

.  in  the  Faculties  of  Laws  and  Medicine,  advantages  which  cannot 
be  equalled  in  any  other  place  in  the  United  Kingdom.  Such 
a  University,  once  established,  would  supply  the  motive  power 
for  various  amendments  in  the  University  education  of  London, 
which  are  generally  admitted  to  be  needful,  such  as  the  greater 
concentration  of  the  teaching  of  particular  subjects  in  the  earlier 
scientific  stages  of  medical  education  ;  the  foundation  of  addi- 
tional chairs,  attached  either  to  particular  institutions  or  to  the 
University,  for  the  further  prosecution  of  special  studies  ;  the 
promotion  of  new  Faculties  ;  the  encouragement  of  general 
education  as  a  preliminary  to  the  training  for  all  professions  ; 
and,  finally,  such  a  presentation  (to  the  public  of  the  needs  of 
higher  education  in  London  as  might  secure  from  the  corporate 
or  private  munificence  of  the  metropolis  the  endowments 
necessary  to  enable  it  to  keep  pace  with  the  growth  of  popula- 
tion and  with  the  progress  of  learning. 

7.  That  your  petitioners,  wishing  to  promote  the  foundation 


of  a  Teaching  University  in  London,  have  held  conferences  with 
representative  London  teachers  of  University  rank  in  the  Faculties 
of  Arts,  Science,  and  Medicine,  and  have  submitted  to  them  the 
following  statement  of  the  objects  to  be  aimed  at  in  the  founda- 
tion of  such  a  University  :  — 

(i)  The  organization  of  University  teaching  in  and  for  London, 
in  the  form  of  a  Teaching  University,  with  Faculties  of  Arts, 
Science,  Laws,  and  Medicine. 

(2)  The  association  of  University  examinations  with  Uni- 
versity teaching,  and  the  direction  of  both  by  the  same 
authorities. 

(3)  The  conferring  of  a  substantive  voice  in  the  government 
of  the  University  upon  those  engaged  in  the  work  of  University 
teaching  and  examination. 

(4)  Existing  in'-titutions  in  London  of  University  rank  not  to  be 
abolished  or  ignored,  but  to  be  taken  as  the  basis  or  component 
parts  of  the  University,  and  either  partially  or  completely 
incorporated,  with  the  minimum  of  internal  change. 

(5)  An  alliance  to  be  established  between  the  University  and 
the  professional  societies  or  corporations,  the  Council  of  Legal 
Education  as  representing  the  Inns  of  Court,  the  Royal  College 
of  Physicians  of  London,  and  the  Royal  College  of  Surgeons  of 
England. 

8.  That  these  conferences  have  resulted  in  three  reports,  each 
embodying  a  substantial  approval  of  the  objects  above  stated 
and  of  the  proposals  of  your  petitioners  for  the  purpose  of 
effecting  them. 

9.  That  your  petitioners  have  also  held  conferences  with 
committees  of  the  Senate  and  Convocation  of  the  existing 
University  of  London,  and  that,  simultaneously  with  the  action 
taken  by  your  petitioners,  and,  as  they  believe,  in  consequence 
thereof,  the  questions  at  issue  have,  it  is  understood,  been  under 
the  consideration  of  the  Senate  and  Convocation.  Their  deli- 
berations have  resulted  in  a  report,  which  has  been  communicated 
to  your  petitioners,  and  recommends  various  changes  in  the  con- 
stitution of  the  Senate  as  the  governing  body  of  the  University, 
the  establishment  of  P'aculties  and  Boards  of  Studies,  and  the 
introduction  on  the  governing  body  of  representatives  of  such 
Faculties. 

10.  That  such  proposals  differ  from  the  proposals  of  your 
petitioners  in  the  following,  among  other,  respect<  :  — 

(i)  In  not  requiring,  as  a  preliminary  to  graduation  in  the 
Faculties  of  Arts  and  Science,  a  regular  course  of  instruction  in 
some  recognized  teaching  institution.  Such  a  course  of  instruc- 
tion, however,  continues  to  be  required  by  the  existing 
University  as  a  preliminary  to  graduation  in  the  Faculty  of 
Medicine. 

(2'\  In  admitting  Colleges  not  situated  within  the  London 
district,  the  effect  of  this  provision  being  that  the  suggested 
Faculties  and  Boards  of  Studies  could  meet  but  seldom,  and 
thus  would  not  afford  to  the  teaching  institutions  of  the 
metropolis  adequate  means  of  common  discussion  and  concerted 
action. 

(3)  In  the  absence  of  any  sufficient  conditions  for  securing 
that  the  associated  Colleges  shall  be  doing  effective  University 
work. 

(4)  In  not  providing  for  the  direct  representation  upon  the 
governing  body  of  the  associated  institutions,  or  of  University 
teachers. 

(5)  In  granting  an  unduly  large  representation  to  the  graduates 
of  the  University. 

11.  That  it  appears  to  be  difficult,  if  not  impossible,  for  the 
University  of  London,  consistently  with  its  relations  towards 
institutions  situated  elsewhere,  and  towards  private  students,  to 
accept  modifications  which  would  enable  it  to  fulfil  the  objects 
above  mentioned. 

12.  That  your  petitioners  have  also  held  conferences  with 
committees  of  the  Councils  of  University  College,  London,  and 
King's  College,  London,  respectively,  and  have  submitted  to 
them  the  above  statement  of  the  objects  of  the  Association. 
The  subject  having  been  subsequently  brought  by  the  committees 
before  their  respective  Councils,  these  Councils  adopted  resolu- 
tions expressing  their  approval  of  the  objects  above  stated,  and 
have  since  determined  to  petition  Your  Majesty  to  the  same 
general  effect  as  is  set  forth  in  this  petition. 

13.  That  an  alliance  between  the  Teaching  University  above 
described  and  the  chief  professional  societies  and  corporations  of 
the  metropolis,  such  as  the  Inns  of  Court,  the  Royal  College  of 
Physicians  of  London,  and  the  Royal  College  of  Surgeons  of 
England,  would  be  desirable  as  securing  professional  interests  in 


Feb.  2,  1888] 


NA  TURE 


ZZZ 


the  arrangements  for  graduation,  and  in  simplifying  and  re- 
arranging examinations  in  the  Faculties  of  Laws  and  Medicine. 
Your  petitioners  have  accordingly  opened  communications  with 
the  above-named  bodies  regarding  this  subject.  They  under- 
stand, however,  that  the  Royal  College  of  Physicians  and  the 
Royal  College  of  Surgeons  are  disposed  to  seek  conjointly  for 
independent  powers  of  granting  degrees  in  a  Faculty  of  Medi- 
cine. V'our  petitioners  deprecate  any  severance  of  the  machinery 
for  granting  degrees  in  London  from  academic  influences.  Many 
serious  defects  of  University  education  in  London  are  due  to 
such  a  severance. 

14.  That,  with  a  view  to  avoid  multiplication  of  bodies  con- 
ferring a  diploma  or  a  licence  to  practise,  it  is  expedient  that 
the  possession  of  the  conjoint  diploma  of  the  two  Royal  Colleges 
above  named  should  be  a  preliminary  condition  for  obtaining  a 
medical  degree  in  the  University,  the  conferring  of  such  diploma 
remaining,  as  at  present,  the  function  of  the  said  Royal  Colleges. 

15.  That  the  objects  above  set  forth  would,  in  the  opinion  of 
your  petitioners,  be  most  readily  accomplished  by  the  issue  of 
a  charter  to  a  body  of  persons  suitably  constituted  to  be  the 
governing  body  of  a  new  University  in  and  for  London ;  such 
body  to  consist  of  the  following  persons  : — 

(i)  The  Chancellor  of  the  University  ;  the  first  Chancellor  to 
be  appointed  by  Your  Majesty,  and  named  in  the  charter. 

(2)  Members  to  be  named  by  Your  Majesty  in  the  charter. 
Vacancies  to  be  filled  by  the  Lord  President. 

(3)  Members  chosen  by  the  governing  bodies  of  University 
College,  London ;  King's  College,  London ;  and  such  other 
Colleges  as  may  be  associated  with  the  Univers  ity. 

(4)  Members  chosen  by  the  governing  bodies  of  the  profes- 
sional societies  and  corporations  hereinbefore  referred  to,  if 
associated  with  the  University. 

(5)  Members  chosen  by  the  professors  or  teaching  staff  of 
associated  institutions  doing  University  work,  and  assembled  in 
the  Faculties,  whether  of  Arts,  Science,  Laws,  or  Medicine,  to 
which  they  respectively  belong,  such  members  to  be  in  number 
not  less  than  one-third  of  the  whole  governing  body. 

16.  That  power  should  be  given  to  the  governing  body  of  the 
new  University  to  accept  the  application  for  association  with  the 
University  of  any  teaching  institution  in  the  metropolis,  the  con- 
ditions of  such  association  to  be— (a)  that  the  institution  is 
giving  instruction  of  a  University  character ;  [b)  that  it  has 
established  a  complete  curriculum,  and  possesses  a  sufficient 
teaching  staff  in  at  least  one  of  the  recognized  Faculties  ;  {c)  and 
that  it  has  furnished  proofs  of  its  means  and  appliances  for 
teaching  being  established  on  a  satisfactory  basis. 

Your  petitioners  therefore  humbly  pray  Your  Majesty  to  be 
pleased  to  grant  a  charter  to  a  body  of  persons  appointed  as  is  de- 
scribed in  this  petition,  or  to  such  other  person  as  Your  Majesty  may 
be  pleased  to  select,  constituting  a  University  in  and  for  London 
upon  the  principles  and  for  the  purposes  hereinbefore  stated,  and 
having  power  to  grant  its  own  degrees  in  the  Faculties  of  Arts, 
Science,  Laws,  and  Medicine,  and  that  Your  Majesty  will  be 
pleased  to  make  such  orders  in  the  premises  as  to  Your  Majesty, 
in  your  Royal  wisdom  and  justice,  may  seem  meet. 

And  your  petitioners  will  ever  pray,  &c. 

Executive  Committee  of  the  Association  for  Promoting  a 
Teaching  University  for  London: — W.  Grylls  Adams,  M.A., 
F.R.S.,  f.  W.  Cunningham,  Sec.  King's  College,  J.  Curnow, 
M.D.,  F.R.C.P.,  Sir  Dyce  Duckworth,  M.D.,  F.R.C.P.,  G. 
Carey  Foster,  B.A.,  F.R.S.,  M.  Berkeley  Hill,  M.B.,  F.R.C.S., 
W,  H.  H.  Hudson,  M.A.,  LL.M.,  J.  Marshall,  LL.D.,  F.R.S. 
(Chairman),  Norman  Moore,  M.D.,  F.R.C.P.,  H.  Morley, 
LL.D.,W.  M.  Ord,  M.D.,  F.R.C.P.,  F.  Pollock,  M.A.,  R.  S. 
Poole,  LL.D.,  W.  J.  Russell,  Ph.D.,  F.R.S.,  T.  E.  Scrutton, 
M.A.,  LL.B  ,  Rev.  Henry  Wace,  D.D.,  G.  C.  W.  Warr,  M.A., 
A.  W.  Williamson,  LL.D.,  F.R.S.,  Gerald  F.  Yeo,  M.D., 
F.R.C.S.,  Sir  George  Young,  LL.D.  ;  Secretary,  F.  C. 
Montague,  M.  A.,  12  New  Court,  Carey  Street,  W.C. 


THE  TOTAL  ECLIPSE  OF  THE  MOON, 
JANUARY  2^. 

"TTIE  weather  on  the  night  of  January  28  proved  decidedly 
unfavourable  for  those  astronomers  in  London  and  the 
neighbourhood  who  had  prepared  to  observe  the  occultations 
of  small  stars  by  the  eclipsed  moon.  The  sky,  which  had  been 
beautifully  clear  in  the  morning,  but  which  had  become  partially 
clouded  towards  evening,  had  cleared  again  a  little  before  the 


commencement  of  the  eclipse,  thus  raising  hopes  which  were 
destined  to  be  disappointed,  for  the  clouds  returned,  and,  with 
the  exception  of  two  or  three  short  breaks,  the  moon  was  enve- 
loped in  cloud  more  or  less  dense  during  the  entire  duration  of 
the  total  phase.  Very  full  preparations  for  the  observation  of 
the  occultations  had  been  made  at  the  Royal  Observatory, 
Greenwich,  but  only  the  observers  at  the  f  )ur  largest  telescopes 
were  able  to  see  even  one  of  the  predicted  phenomena.  At  the 
Cambridge  Observatory  a  similar  disheartening  experience  was 
recorded,  and  at  Mr.  Crossley's  Observatory,  Halifax,  it  was 
quite  cloudy,  but  in  the  west  and  south  of  England,  and  in  Ire- 
land at  Dublin  and  Belfast,  the  conditions  for  observing  were  very 
favourable.  On  the  Continent,  at  Vienna  no  observations  could 
be  made,  the  moon  being  enveloped  in  thick  haze  ;  at  Paris  and 
Berlin  the  sky  had  been  overcast,  and  there  had  been  a  fall  of 
snow  before  the  eclipse,  but  the  latter  half  of  the  eclipse  was 
well  observed  at  the  former  station,  and  some  good  results  were 
obtained  at  thelatter  during  a  clear  interval  about  a  quarter  of 
aa  hour  after  the  commencement  of  totality.  At  Moscow  the 
eclipse  was  seen  in  a  very  clear  sky,  aid  at  Madrid  it  was 
partially  clear. 

The  following  table  gives  the  number  of  observations  obtained 
at  those  Observatories  from  which  accounts  have  been  received 
up  to  the  present  time  : — 


Aperture 
Observatory.                   of  telescope, 
inches 

No.  of  Stars  observed. 
Dis.                  Reap. 

Royal  Observatory,  Greenwich 

24 

3 

7 

))                 i>                )) 

12?         . 

I 

4 

>>                 •>                >» 

6 

3 

I 

J)                »>                >> 

6i       . 

0 

3 

Col.  Tupman's — Harrow 

18 

3 

2 

Mr.    Penrose's — Wimbledon 

6 

3 

2 

Mr.  Brodie's— Fernhill,  L  of  W 

H     . 

9 

5 

Mr.  Stothert's— Bath 

6 

II 

...       13 

Cambridge  Observatory 

12 

0 

2 

Miss  Petrie — Bradford 

6 

I 

I 

Mr.  Backhouse's— Sunderland 

— 

I 

0 

Glasgow  Observatory 

9 

6 

7 

Mr.  Heath — Edinburgh 

3i       ■ 

3 

I 

Dunsink  Observatory 

17 

...       18 

No.  of  Stars  observed 

Stonyhurst  Observatory 

8 

I 

,,                 ,, 

5i      • 

12 

))                  >> 

4 

4 

The  8-inch  refractor  at  Stonyhurst  was  devoted  to  spectro- 
scopic observations  during  the  greater  part  of  the  eclipse.  It 
had  been  in  the  programme  to  make  similar  observations  at 
Greenwich  had  the  night  proved  favourable,  and  also  to  take  a 
series  of  photographs  showing  the  progress  of  the  eclipse.  Three 
photographs  were  secured,  but  the  clouds  prevented  all  spectro- 
scopic work.  Dr.  Copeland  also  at  Dun  Echt  had  intended 
to  make  spectroscopic  observations,  but  was  almost  completely 
thwarted  by  snow-squalls. 


SOCIETIES  AND  ACADEMIES. 
London. 

Royal  Society,  January  19. — "  On  the  Secondary  Carpals, 
Metacarpals,  and  Digital  Rays  in  the  Wings  of  existing  Carinate 
Birds."     By  W.  K.  Parker,  F.R.S. 

In  a  paper  "  On  the  Morphology  of  Birds,"  already  sent  in  to 
the  Royal  Society,  but  not  yet  published,  I  have  described 
certain  additional  parts  in  the  wings  of  Gallinaceous  birds. 

One  of  these  lies  on  the  radial  side  of  the  first  metacarpal  ; 
the  other  two  are  on  the  ulnar  side  of  the  second  and  third 
metacarpals. 

These  parts,  which  at  first  caused  me  considerable  surprise, 
being  wholly  unexpected  by  me,  are  only  part  of  what  I  hare 
since  found  in  other  families. 

During  the  past  year  I  have  worked  out  the  development  of 
the  skeleton  in  the  Duck  tribe  ("  Anatidae  "),  in  the  Auk  tribe 
("Alcidse"),  and  in  the  Gull  tribe  ("Laridae"),  and  to  some 
degree  in  some  other  families.  The  subject  appears  to  me  to  be  of 
great  interest,  and  I  have,  through  various  English  and  American 
friends,  obtained  many  scores  of  embryos  and  young  birds,  &c., 
that  I  may  be  able  to  trace  these  parts  in  every  main  group  of 
the  class.      Normally,  both  the  existing  Carinatae  and  Ratitse, 


334 


NATURE 


\_Feb,  2,  I 


and  such  extinct  forms  as  have  been  worked  out — Archesopteryx, 
Hespercrnis,  Ichthyornis — show  that  the  primary  form  of  the 
bird's  wing  is  simply  tri-digitate.  In  this  I  agree  with  Baur, 
who  has  helped  me  greatly  in  this  matter,  both  by  his  valuable 
papers  and  also  by  personal  discussion  with  me. 

The  normal  "  manus  "  of  a  Carinate  bird  contains  two  per- 
manently distinct  carpals :  three  carpals  that  lose  their  independ- 
ence by  anchylosis  with  the  metacarpals,  and  three  digital  rays 
extending  from  the  three  fused  metacarpals. 

In  some  birds,  e.g.  the  Passerinae,  the  pollex  of  the  first  digit 
has  only  one  phalanx  attached  to  its  short  metacarpal,  the  second 
only  two,  and  the  third  only  one,  phalanx.  In  others.  Plovers, 
Gulls,  Cormorants,  &c.,  an  additional  or  «<«^<a/ phalanx  is  found 
on  the  first  and  second  digit ;  and  in  some  birds,  e.g.  Nitmenitis, 
during  their  embryonic  state,  a  small  semi-distinct  nucleus  is  seen 
on  the  end  of  the  aborted  phalanx  of  the  third  digit. 

In  my  as  yet  unpublished  paper  I  have  mentioned  a  sub-distinct 
tract  of  very  solid  fibro-cartilage,  which  evidently  corresponds 
with  what  has  been  called  "pr?e-pollex"  by  Kehrer  and  others.^ 

I  am  satisfied,  now,  that  this  very  notable  part  is  the  remnant 
of  the  skeleton  of  the  spur,  so  remarkably  developed  in  the 
Palamedidae,  certain  Geese,  Plovers,  and  Jacanas. 

This  part  therefore  need  not  interfere  with  the  consideration 
of  the  true  secondary  digital  parts. 

Among  the  last  communications  received  by  me  from  Dr. 
Baur,  I  find  in  print  what  I  had  already  learned  from  him 
orally. 

In  some  "General  Notes"  published  in  the  American 
Naturalist,  September  1887,  p.  839,  I  find  the  following 
paragraph  : — "The  oldest  Ichthyopterygia  had  few  phalanges  and 
not  more  than  five  digits  ;  the  radius  and  ulna  were  longer  than 
broad,  and  separated  by  a  space.  Later,  through  the  adaptation 
to  the  water,  more  phalanges  were  developed,  more  digits 
appeared,  mostly  by  division  of  the  former,  or  by  new  formation 
on  the  ulnar  side.  I  have  never  found  a  new  digit  developed  on 
the  radial  side." 

These  are  most  important  facts,  some  of  which — namely,  the 
bifurcation  of  the  digital  rays — I  had  received  some  light  upon 
before,  both  from  Dr.  Gadow  and  from  Prof  D'Arcy  W. 
Thompson.^ 

I  find  that  the  carpus,  tnetacatpus,  and  digital  rays  are  all  apt 
to  increase  in  number  beyond  what  is  normal. 

Long  ago  I  found,  in  one  of  the  Palamedidse,  e.g.  Chauna 
chavaria,  two  ulnar  carpals,  apparently  an  ' '  ulnare  "  proper, 
and  "  centrale."  More  recently,  in  the  embryo  of  a  more 
normal  Chenomorph — the  Falkland  Island  Goose  {Chlo'ephaga 
poliocephala) — I  '  found  the  ulnare  nearly  divided  into  two 
segments. 

On  the  other  side  of  the  carpus  in  an  embryo  Kestrel  {Falco 
tinnunculus)  and  in  a  young  Sparrow-hawk  {Accipiter  nisus),  I 
found  a  ' '  radiale "  in  two  pieces,  the  outer  of  which  in  the 
latter  was  degenerating  into  the  large  " os proi/iineus"  which  is 
found  in  the  tendon  of  the  "tensor  patagii  "  muscle  of  rapacious 
birds. 

In  the  embryos  of  Gulls,  Auks,  Guillemots,  &c.,  the  large 
"distal  carpal"  of  the  index  or  second  digit  sends  forward  a 
long  wedge  of  cartilage  towards  an  additional  metacarpal 
nucleus.  Evidently  this  is  the  rudiment  of  another  carpal  seeking 
to  be  attached  to  its  own  intercalary  metacarpal. 

Further  on,  on  the  large  second  digit,  the  flat  dilated  part  of 
the  proximal  phalanx,  on  its  ulnar  side,  also,  is  developed  from 
a  distinct  tract  of  true  cartilage,  but  soon  loses  its  independence  ; 
it  forms  the  plate  on  which  some  of  the  primary  quills  are  fixed. 

Still  further  on,  on  the  ulnar  side,  near  the  small  well-developed 
ungual  phalanx  of  the  embryo,  but  later,  after  hatching,  a  small 
oval  cartilage  appears,  and  is  ossified  independently. 

A  similar  tract  of  cartilage  is  formed  on  the  pollex  or  first 
digit,  also,  but  is  somewhat  smaller  than  that  on  the  second  ;  it 
is  on  the  ulnar  side  and  near  the  ungual  phalanx. 

In  the  feeble  third  digit  I  only  find  a  rudimentary  secondary 
metacarpal,  on  the  ulnar  side ;  this  is  very  constant  throughout 
the  CarinatcB ;  and  sometimes,  as  I  have  already  mentioned, 
there  is  a  small  rudiment  of  a  second  phalanx  on  that  digit  which, 
in  the  Lizard,  has_;^«^  phalanges.^ 

'  "  Beitrage  zur  Kentniss  des  Carpus  und  Tarsus  der  Amphibien,  Rep- 
tilien,und  Sniieer," Berzckte  der  Naturforsclienden  Gesellschaft  zu  Freiburg 
i.  B.,  vol.  i,  1886  (Heft  4  und  Taf.  4). 

^  See  his  paper  on  the  hind  limbs  of  Ichthyosaurus,  8ic.,  Journ,  Anat, 
Physiol.,  vol.  xx,  pp.  1-4  (reprint). 

3  The  figures  of  these  parts,  and  also  of  the  rest  of  the  developing 
skeleton  in  ,  these  birds— Ducks,  Auks,  Guillemots,  &c. — are  ready  for 
publication. 


In  seeking  for  evidence  of  the  manner  in  which  these  high  and 
noble  hot-blooded  feathered  forms  arose  from  among  the  Archaic 
Reptilia,  I  think  that  something  has  been  gained  in  what  I  have 
stated  above. 

The  skull  brings  evidence  of  the  same  sort  during  its  develop- 
ment, and  it  is  to  ancient  long-beaked  forms,  and  not  to  modern 
short-faced  types  of  Reptilia,  that  we  must  look  for  any  near 
relationship  of  the  Reptiles  in  the  Birds. 

In  the  GmWtraoi  {Uria  troile)  I  have  satisfied  myself  that 
there  has  been  a  considerable  amount  of  secular  shortening  of 
the  beak  (rostrum  and  fore-part  of  mandibles),  and  if  we  look  at 
Dr.  Marsh's  figures  of  Hesperornis  and  Ichthyornis  we  shall  see 
what  long  bills  these  toothed  birds  possessed. 

But  there  is  no  part  of  a  developing  bird's  skeleton  that  is  not 
rich  with  suggestive  facts  of  this  kind,  as  I  propose  to  show  in 
due  lime. 

January  26.  —  "On  the  Emigration  of  Amoeboid  Corpuscles 
in  the  Star-fish  {Asterias  ruliens)."  By  Herbert  E.  Durham, 
B.A.,  lately  Vintner  Exhibitioner,  King's  College,  Cambridge. 
Communicated  by  Dr.  P.  H.  Carpenter,  F.R.S.,  F.L.S. 

When  small  particles  {e.g.  Indian  ink)  are  introduced  into  the 
body  cavity  of  a  specimen  of  Asterias  rubens,  they  are  soon 
ingested  by  the  amoeboid  corpuscles  of  the  ccelomic  fluid  ;  the 
latter  are  carried  in  various  directions  by  the  currents  set  up  by 
the  cilia  of  the  coelomic  epithelium.  In  the  dermal  branchi^ 
these  granule-laden  corpuscles  were  observed  to  adhere  to  the 
wall  of  the  branchia,  and  migrate  by  amoeboid  movement  to  the 
exterior.  [Where  such  migration  is  proceeding  very  actively,  a 
perforation  filled  by  a  plug  of  the  corpuscles  is  formed.] 
Arrived  at  the  exterior,  the  corpuscles  retain  an  irregular 
shape  for  a  while,  then  they  become  spherical,  swell  up,  and 
disintegrate. 

Besides  corpuscles  thus  laden  with  foreign  granules,  corpuscles 
containing  refringent  sphaerules  (sphseruliferous  corpuscles,  "  Plas- 
ma-Wanderzellen  ")  were  observed  in  the  extruded  material  : 
emigration  of  such  corpuscles  was  also  noted  to  take  place  in 
specimens  kept  in  captivity  in  glass  vessels.  Hamann's  observa- 
tion that  "  Plasma- Wanderzellen"  occur  in  the  branchia;  of 
Echinids  helps  to  confirm  the  view  that  this  a  normal  process  : 
further  observations  are  necessary  to  elucidate  its  significance. 
[Dr.  Hartog's  statements  as  regards  the  outward  current  in  the 
water-tube  (stone-canal),  were  confirmed  by  the  presence  of 
corpuscles  in  the  pore-canals  of  the  madreporite.] 

With  regard  to  the  other  point,  it  seems  clear  that  minute 
foreign  bodies  introduced  into  the  system  of  a  star-fish  can  be, 
and  are,  got  rid  of  by  scavenging  corpuscles. 

"Note  on  the  Madreporite  of  Cribrella  ocellata."  By  the 
same. 

The  dogma  laid  down  by  Ludwig  is  that  the  cavity  of  the 
water-vascular  system  is  isolated  from  other  cavities.  In  a  series 
of  sections  carried  through  the  madreporite,  &c.,  of  Cribrella 
ocellata,  it  was  seen  that  a  few  pore-canals  of  the  madreporic 
plate  open  directly  into  the  "  Schlauchformiger  Kanal "  ;  the 
ampulla  into  which  the  water-tube  (stone-canal)  dilates  being 
also  connected  by  an  opening  with  the  "  Schlauchformiger 
Kanal  "  :  this  latter  space  being  enterocoelic  in  origin,  it  is 
interesting  to  compare  the  arrangement  in  Crinoids. 

Zoological  Society,  January  17. — Dr.  A.  Giinther,  F.R.S., 
Vice-President,  in  the  chair. — The  Secretary  read  a  report  on 
the  additions  that  had  been  made  to  the  Society's  Menagerie 
during  the  month  of  December  1887,  and  called  attention  to  a 
small  Fox  from  Afghanistan,  presented  by  Lieut. -Col.  Sir  O.  B. 
C.  St.  John,  which  should  probably  be  referred  to  the  species 
shortly  noticed  by  Blyth  as  Vulpes  griffithi.  It  was,  however, 
somewhat  doubtful  whether  the  species  was  really  distinct  from 
Vulpes  leucopus,  Blyth,  the  small  Desert  Fox  of  Western  India. 
— Mr.  Francis  Day  exhibited  and  made  remarks  on  some  hybrid 
fishes  from  Howietoun,  and  on  a  British  specimen  of  the  Spined 
Loche. — Mr.  Oldfield  Thomas  read  a  report  on  a  collection  of 
Mammals  obtained  by  Emin  Pasha  in  Central  Africa,  and  pre- 
sented by  him  to  the  Natural  History  Museum.  The  collection 
contained  115  specimens  belonging  to  39  species.  The  great  mass 
of  the  collection  had  been  obtained  in  a  district  called  Monbuttu, 
just  within  the  Congo  Basin.  A  new  Flying  Squirrel,  of  small 
size,  was  named  Anomukirus  pusi litis,  and  a  new  Tree-Hyrax, 
Dendrohyrax  emini,  after  its  discoverer. — Capt.  G.  E.  Shelley, 
read  a  paper  on  a  collection  of  birds  made  by  Emin  Pasha  in 
Equatorial  Africa.  The  series  had  been  formed  partly  in  the 
Upper  Nile  district  and  partly  in  the  Monbuttu  country  in  the 


Feb.  2,  1888] 


NA  TURE 


335 


Congo  Basin,  and  contained  examples  of  four  species  new  to 
science,  proposed  to  be  called  Indicator  emini,  Sperinospiza 
ruficapilla,  Ploceiis  castanops,  and  Glareola  emini. — Dr.  A. 
Gunther,  F.R.S. ,  read  a  report  on  a  collection  of  Reptiles  and 
Batrachians  from  Monbuttu,  sent  by  Emin  Pasha.  The  author 
enumerated  seventeen  specimens,  of  which  nine  were  almost 
generally  distributed  over  the  African  region  ;  of  the  remainder, 
seven  were  known  from  various  parts  of  West  Africa.  One 
Tree-Snake  was  described  as  new,  and  called,  after  its  discoverer, 
AfuEtulhi  emini. — Mr.  Edgar  A.  Smith,  read  an  account  of  the 
Shells  coUectel  by  Dr.  Emin  Pasha  on  the  Albert  Nyanza, 
Central  Africa.  Of  the  five  species  of  which  examples  were 
obtained,  three  were  referred  to  new  species.  It  was  stated  that 
fifteen  species  of  shells  were  now  known  from  Lake  Albert,  of 
which  seven  were  peculiar  to  it. — Mr.  Arthur  G.  Butler  gave 
an  account  of  the  Lepidoptera  received  from  Dr.  Emin  Pasha. 
The  collection  contained  examples  of  155  species,  of  which 
thirteen  Butterflies,  and  two  Moths  were  new  to  science. — A 
communication  was  read  from  Mr.  Charles  O.  Waterhouse,  con- 
taining an  account  of  the  Coleoptera  from  Eastern  Equatorial 
Africa  received  from  Emin  Pasha.  One  of  the  species  was  new 
to  science,  and  six  of  them  had  previously  been  received  at  the 
British  Museum  from  West  Africa  only. 

Geological  Society,  January  11. — Prof.  J.  W.  Judd, 
F.R.S. ,  President,  in  the  chair. — The  following  communica- 
tions were  read  : — On  the  law  that  governs  the  action  of  flowing 
streams,  by  R.  D.  Oldham. — Supplementary  notes  on  the 
stratigraphy  of  the  Bagshot  Beds  of  the  London  Basin,  by  the 
Rev.  A.  Irving.  This  paper  contained  the  results  of  field-work 
during  the  year  1887.  Additional  notes  on  the  stratigraphy  of 
the  Bracknell  and  Ascot  Hills  were  given,  justifying  the  reading 
of  the  country  as  shown  in  Figs,  i  and  2  of  the  author's  last 
paper  (Q.J.G.S.,  August  1887),  the  examination  of  this  line  of 
country  having  been  extended  as  far  as  Englefield  Green. 
Sections  of  the  beds  of  the  Middle  Group  as  they  crop  out  at 
Caesar's  Camp,  Swinley  Park,  Ascot,  and  Suuningdale,  were 
described  and  correlated  with  the  76  feet  of  beds  which  constitute 
that  group  in  the  Well-section  at  Wellington  College.  The 
stratigraphy  of  the  hills  known  as  Finchampstead  Ridges  has 
been  worked  out  from  numerous  sections  on  their  flanks  ;  and 
the  strata  of  the  Bearwood  Hills  were  correlated  directly  with 
them.  All  along  the  northern  margin  a  general  attenuation  of  (a) 
the  Lower  (fluviatile)  Sands,  and  of  (b)  the  Middle  (green 
earthy)  Sands  was  shown  to  occur,  and  in  some  places  on  the 
northern  margin  they  are  found  to  have  entirely  thinned  away, 
admitting  of  distinct  overlap  at  more  tlian  one  horizon.  The 
second  part  of  the  paper  dealt  with  the  Highclere  district,  where 
the  author  believes  he  has  established  the  full  succession  of  the 
three  stages  of  the  Bagshot  formation,  a  section  being  given 
across  the  valley  south  of  Highclere  Station,  showing  the 
succession  of  the  whole -.Eocene  series  (with  the  Ostrea  bellovacina 
bed  for  its  base)  as  it  is  developed  there.  Some  important  con- 
clusions were  drawn  as  to  the  Tertiary  physiography  of  the 
South  of  England  ;  and  the  revised  tabulation  of  the  Tertiaries 
put  forward  by  Prof.  Prestwich  at  the  Society's  last  meeting  was 
referred  to  as  supporting  some  of  the  main  points  for  which  the 
author  has  contended.  The  reading  of  this  paper  was  followed 
by  a  discussion  in  which  the  President,  Mr.  Monckton,  Mr. 
Herries,  and  Mr.  Drew  took  part. — The  red-rock  series  of  the 
Devon  coast  section,  by  the  Rev.  A.  Irving. 

Chemical  Society,  January  19. — Mr.  W.  Crookes,  F.R.S., 
in  the  chair. — The  following  papers  were  read  : — Morindon,  by 
T.  E.  Thorpe,  F.R.S.,  and  W.  J.  Smith.  Morindin,  the  active 
colouring-matter  of  A'l,  the  root-bark  of  Morinda  citri folia, 
yields  48*4  per  cent,  of  morindon  on  hydrolysis.  This  latter  sub- 
stance is  a  methylanthracene-derivative  of  the  composition 
CigHjoOg,  and  differs  from  all  of  the  eight  known  compounds  of 
the  same  formula. — Manganese  trioxide,  by  T.  E.  Thorpe, 
F.R.S.,  and  F.  J.  Hambly.  The  authors  have  repeated  Franke's 
experiments  {Journ.  fUr  prakt.  Chem.,  1887)  on  the  so-called 
volatile  oxides  of  manganese,  and  have  been  unable  to  obtain 
any  evidence  of  the  existence  of  the  blue  gaseous  manganese 
tetroxide.  They  find,  however,  that  manganese  trioxide  exists, 
and  can  be  fonned  by  the  action  of  a  solution  of  potassium  per- 
manganate in  sulphuric  acid  on  dry  sodium  carbonate. — Note 
on  Chatard's  process  for  the  estimation  of  small  quantities  of 
manganese,  by  the  same. — Contributions  to  the  theory  of  the 
vitriol-chamber  process,  by  G.  Lunge.  The  theory  has  been  re- 
cently advanced  by  Raschig  {Liebig's  Annalen,  241,   161)  that 


the  vitriol-chamber  process  consists  in  the  formation  in  the  first 
instance  from  nitrous  acid  and  sulphurous  acid  of  dihydroxyl- 
aminesul phonic  acid,  which,  being  acted  on  by  nitrous  acid,  yields 
sulphuric  acid  and  nitric  oxide,  the  latter  being  reconverted  into 
nitrous  acid.  This  theory  is  regarded  by  the  author  as  untenable 
on  all  points,  since  it  completely  ignores  the  existence  of  nitrosyl 
sulphate  (chamber-crystals),  whilst  nitric  oxide,  oxygen  in  excess, 
and  water  do  not  yield  nitrous  acid,  but  nitric  acid.  In  the 
author's  view  it  is  not  NO,  but  N2O3  which  acts  as  a  carrier  of 
the  oxygen  in  the  vitriol-chamber,  and  the  principal  reac- 
tions are  :  2S0.^  +  N2O3  -»-  0„  -f  H^  =  2SOo(OH)(ONO)  ; 
2S02(OH)(ONO)  -f  H.p=  2Sb2(OH)2  -1-  N^Og.  Much  NO 
is  present  in  the  front  chambers  along  with  N2O3  ;  it  is  formed 
by  a  secondary  reaction  from  nitrosyl  sulphate,  "2S02(OH)(ONO) 
4-  SO2  +  2H0O  =  3SOH0SO4  +  2NO,  and  is  principally  ab- 
sorbed by  the  direct  reaction,  4SO2  -*-  4NO  -t-  3O2  -f  2H2O  = 
4S02(OH)(ONO) ;  none  of  it  can  pass  into  NOg  (which  does 
not  occur  at  all  in  normally  working  chambers),  but  some  of 
it  may  pass  into  HNO3,  which  is  at  once  acted  on  by  SO2  ; — SO 
■V  HNO3  =  S02(OH)(ONO).  Thus  the  normal  vitriol-chamber 
process  is  not  as  hitherto  understood  an  alteration  of  reductions 
and  oxidations,  but  it  is  a  condensation  of  nitrous  acid,  or  of  NO 
with  SO2  and  O2  to  nitrosyl  sulphate,  and  a  splitting  up  of  the 
latter  into  N2O3  and  sulphuric  acid. 

Edinburgh. 

Royal  Society,  January  6. — Sir  W.  Thomson,  President, 
in  the  chair. — Mr.  J.  T.  Bottomley  described  and  exhibited  a 
practical  constant-volume  air  thermometer.  This  instrument  has 
been  designed  by  Mr.  Bottomley  so  as  to  be  more  sensitive, 
more  accurate,  and,  at  the  same  time,  of  much  greater  range 
than  air  thermometers  hitherto  in  use.  Mr.  Bottomley  also  ex- 
hibited some  glass  globes  with  internal  cavities  produced  by 
cooling. — Prof.  Tait  communicated  a  paper  by  Dr.  G.  Plarr  on 
the  roots  of  e^  —  _  j  .  ^nd  a  paper  by  Prof.  Burnside  on  a 
simplified  proof  of  Maxwell's  theorem. — Prof,  Tait  also  read  a 
paper  on  the  Thomson  effect  in  iron. — Dr.  Thomas  Muir  read  a 
paper  on  vanishing  aggregates  of  determinants.  He  has  ob- 
tained the  general  theorem  of  which  a  particular  case  was  dis- 
covered lately  by  Kronecker,  and  attracted  much  attention  in 
Germany. — Prof.  Crum  Brown  communicated  a  paper  by  Dr. 
Griffiths  on  the  Malpighian  tubes  and  the  "hepatic  cells  "  of 
the  araneina  and  the  diverticula  of  the  asteridea. 

Paris. 

Academy  of  Sciences,  January  23. — M.  Janssen,  President, 
in  the  chair. — Remarks  in  reference  to  M.  J.  Bertrand's  recent 
note  on  the  law  of  probability  of  error,  by  M.  F.  Tisserand. 
A  solution  is  given  of  the  problem,  "  To  determine  the  function 
«|^  (xj  -  x^,  x^-x^,  .  .  .  .  Xi-  x„),  where  x^,  x^,  .  .  .  .  x„ 
indicate  n  arbitrary  quantities  independent  one  of  the  other, 
in  such  a  way  that  this  function  is  symmetrical  in  relation 
to  Xx,  x.^,  ....  x„." — The  paper  is  followed  by  a  communi- 
cation from  M.  F.  Tisserand  on  the  law  of  probability  as 
applied  to  target-firing. — On  some  notions,  principles,  and 
formulas,  which  come  into  play  in  several  questions  connected 
with  algebraic  curves  and  surfaces,  by  M.  de  Jonquieres. 
A  rapid  summary  is  given  of  these  principles,  &c.,  some  of 
which  have  been  established  by  the  author  himself,  some 
by  other  mathematicians. — Note  on  the  second  volume  of  the 
"  Annales  de  I'Observatoire  de  Bordeaux,"  by  M.  M.  Loewy. 
This  volume  is  largely  occupied  with  the  important  observations 
undertaken  for  the  purpose  of  revising  the  positions  of  the  stars 
in  Argelander-Oeltzen's  catalogue.  It  contains  the  precise  co- 
ordinates of  about  3500  stars  belonging  to  the  southernmost 
region  of  the  northern  hemisphere. — Contributions  to  the  history 
of  the  problematical  organisms  of  old  marine  basins,  by  M 
Stanislas  Meunier.  The  paper  deals  with  the  so-called  Bilo- 
bites,  regarded  by  some  palaeontologists  as  mere  physical 
tracings,  by  others  as  real  organic  remains.  Several  arguments 
are  advanced  in  favour  of  the  latter  opinion,  which  is  regarded 
as  fairly  well  established,  although  not  yet  rigorously  demon- 
strated.—On  the  rapidity  with  which  the  report  of  fire-arms  is 
propagated,  by  M.  Journee.  All  the  facts  here  described  tend 
to  show  that  a  projectile  possessing  a  greater  velocity  than  that 
of  the  report  produces,  during  its  passage  through  the  air,  a 
continuous  sound  analogous  to  the  explosion  of  gunpowder. — On 
the  mean  distances  of  the  planets  from  the  sun,  by  M.  Roger. 
It  is  shown  that,  apart  from  certain  deviations  within  a  defined 


336 


NA  TURE 


{Feb.  2,  1888 


limit,  these  distances  form  a  geometric  progression  modified  by  a 
periodic  irregularity.  In  a  future  communication  the  connection 
will  be  pointed  out  between  this  law  and  the  theoretic  views 
advanced  by  the  author  on  the  formation  of  the  planetary 
system. — Summary  of  the  solar  observations  made  at  Rome 
during  the  last  quarter  of  the  year  1887,  by  M.  P.  Tacchini. 
The  diminution  of  spots  already  noted  in  September  was  con- 
tinued during  the  two  ensuing  months,  so  that  the  mean  was 
even  less  than  in  the  previous  quarter.  The  protuberances  also 
were  less  frequent. — On  the  phases  of  Jupiter,  by  Dom  E. 
Siffert.  Most  of  these  observations,  which  were  taken  at  the 
Observatory  of  Grignon,  are  tabulated  for  the  period  from 
March  to  December,  1885. — On  the  application  of  the  Cre- 
monian  quadratic  sulistitutions  to  the  integration  of  the 
differential  equation  of  the  first  order,  by  M.  Leon  Autonne.  In 
this  paper  the  author  develops,  for  the  integration  of  the 
differential  equation  of  the  first  order,  the  method  based  on  the 
employment  of  the  Cremonian  quadratic  substitutions,  and 
applies  this  method  to  some  special  cases  of  a  simple  and  com- 
prehensive character. — Electric  solution  of  algebraic  equations, 
by  M.  Felix  Lucas.  It  is  shown  how,  by  means  of  electricity, 
the  solution  of  equations  of  any  degree  /,  whose  real  or 
imaginary  coefficients  are  given  numerically,  may  be  reduced  to 
that  of  equations  of  degrees  lower  than  /. — Action  of  vanadic 
acid  on  the  alkaline  fluorides,  by  M.  A.  Ditte.  The  present 
paper  deals  with  the  fluorides  of  sodium  and  ammonium,  whose 
composition  is  shown  to  be  analogous  to  that  of  the  fluoride  of 
potassium. — Action  of  hydrochloric  acid  on  cupric  chloride,  by 
M.  Engel.  The  results  are  tabulated  of  a  series  of  experiments 
with  the  hydrochlorate  of  cupric  chloride.  In  this  substance  the 
chloride  of  copper  appears  to  be  in  the  anhydrous  state,  all  the 
water  being  ultimately  combined  with  the  hydrochloric  acid. — 
On  the  alcoholic  fermentation  of  galactose,  by  M.  Em.  Bourque- 
lot.  From  these  experiments,  undertaken  to  determine  the 
true  character  of  the  action  of  the  yeast  of  beer  on  galactose,  the 
author  concludes  that  pure  galactose  does  not  ferment  in  the 
presence  of  the  yeast  at  15°  to  16°  C,  but  that  it  undergoes 
alcoholic  fermentation  when  glucose,  laevulose,  or  maltose  are 
added. — On  two  new  genera  of  Epicarides,  by  MM.  A.  Giardand 
J.  Bonnier.  The  specimens  here  described  live  in  the  fresh 
waters  of  the  Dutch  East  Indies,  and  are  regarded  as  the  types 
of  two  new  genera,  Probopyrus  and  Palegyge,  whence  are 
respectively  derived  the  genera  Bopyrus  and  Gyge.  They  are 
here  named  Probopyrus  atcendens,  Semper,  and  Palegyge 
borrei,  G.  and  B. 

Berlin. 

Physiological  Society,  January  13. — Prof,  du  Bois  Rey- 
mpnd,  President,  in  the  chair. — Prof.  Fritsch  described  the 
detent-joint  of  a  Sheat-fish  (Siluridee).  In  this  fish,  as  found  in 
the  Nile,  the  adjusting  and  fixing  of  the  dorsal  and  pectoral  fins 
is  provided  for  by  the  various  shape  and  arrangement  of  the 
surfaces  of  the  joints,  which  take  the  form  of  hooks  and  de- 
tents. The  speaker  explained  the  above  arrangements  by  means 
of  drawings  and  preparations,  by  means  of  which  it  w^as  easily 
seen  that  when  once  the  dorsal  spine  is  fixed  it  will  withstand 
a  very  considerable  force.  These  spines  constitute  a  protective 
mechanism  against  other  predatory  fishes,  and  accounts  for  the 
numerical  development  of  these  fishes  in  the  Nile.  The  speaker 
stated  his  inability  to  accept  Sorensen's  view  that  the  detent- 
joints  of  these  fishes  are  organs  for  the  production  of  sound. — Dr. 
Joseph  had  studied  the  minute  structure  of  the  axis-cylinder  in 
the  nerves  of  the  electric  organ  of  Torpedo  niarmorata  treating 
them  with  osmic  acid  and  various  staining  reagents.  By  making 
a  careful  series  of  transverse  sections  he  has  become  convinced 
that  not  only  the  medullary  sheath,  but  also  the  axis  cylinder, 
possesses  a  fan-like  structure,  and  that  the  longitudinal  fibrils 
run  in  the  meshes  of  the  radiating  fibres,  and  are  the  true  con- 
ducting tissue  of  the  nerve.  The  diameter  of  the  axis  is  six 
or  seven  times  as  great  as  that  of  the  sheath. — Dr.  Weyl  had  sub- 
jected silk  to  a  thoroughly  chemical  examination,  and  obtained 
values  for  its  percentage  composition,  after  purification  by  treatment 
with  caustic  soda,  which  corresponded  with  those  given  twenty- 
five  years  ago  by  Cramer  ;  according  to  these,  silk  may  be  taken 
as  belonging  to  the  proteid  class  of  bodies.  Raw  silk,  and  to  a 
greater  degree  that  which  has  been  purified  by  soda,  is  soluble  in 
fuming  hydrochloric  acid  ;  if  this  solution  is  poured  into  alcohol, 
a  white  cloudiness  is  produced,  which  speedily  increases  in  in- 
tensity, and  on  cooling  gives  rise  to  a  solid  white  gelatinous 
mass.  The  "percentage  composition  of  this  new  substance  ob- 
tained from  silk,  and  called  by  the  speaker  seroin,  is,  as  regards 


its  carbon  and  hydrogen,  the  same  as  that  of  silk,  but  it  contains 
less  nitrogen.  It  possessed  in  ail  cases  the  same  composition,  so 
that  it  is  undoubtedly  a  distinctly  characterized  chemical  sub- 
stance, and  is  neither  pure  silk  nor  some  closely  related  proteid 
formed  by  a  splitting-off  of  ammonia.  When  treated  with  dilute 
acids,  seroin  yields  the  same  products  of  decomposition  as  does 
fibroin — namely,  large  quantities  of  leucin  and  tyrosin,  by  which 
it  is  characterized  as  being  a  proteid.  Dr.  Weyl  hoped  shoiily 
to  resume  this  investigation  in  the  direction  of  a  general  con- 
sideration of  the  proteid  group. 


BOOKS,  PAMPHLETS,  and  SERIALS  RECEIVED. 

Voltaic  Electricity  :  T.  P.  Treglohan  (Longmans). — Practical  Physics  for 
Schools  and  ihe  Junior  Students  of  Colleges,  vol.  i.  Electricity  and  Magnet- 
ism :  Stewart  and  Gee  (Macmillan). — Behind  the  Tides  :  C.  B.  Radcliffe 
(Macmillan). — Pflanzen-'Ieratologie  :  M.  T.  Masters ;  German  by  U. 
Dammer  (Leipzig). — Practical  Amateur  Photography;  C.  C.  Vevers, 


CONTENTS.  PAGE 

The  Composition  of  Water.  By  Prof.  T.  E.  Thorpe, 

F.R.S y^ 

Physical  Geography  of  the  Sea. — Hon.  Ralph  Aber- 

cromby 315 

Bulletin  of  the    United  States  Fish  Commission    .    .    316 
Our  Book  Shelf  :— 

Kick:   "  Flour  Manufacture  " 316 

Remsen  :   "  Elements  of  Chemistry  " 317 

Warren:   "  A  Primary  Geometry  " 317 

Letters  to  the  Editor  : — 

The  Duke  of  Argyll's  Charges  against  Men  of  Science. 

—Prof.  John  W.Judd,  F.R.S 317 

The  Total  Eclipse  of  the  Moon  of    1888  January  28, 
observed  at  Biir  Castle  Observatory,  Parsonstown. 

Otto  Boedicker       318 

"  Elementary  Chemistry  "  and  "Practical  Chemistr}'." 

— M.  M.  Pattison  Muir 318 

"  Physical  Science  and  the  Woolwich  Examinations." 

— W.  A 319 

' '  The  Art  of  Computation  for  the  Purposes  of  Science." 

— E.  Erskine  Scott  ;  George  King 319 

Note  on  a  Problem  in    Maxima  and  Minima.     (  With 

Diagram.) — R.  Chartres 320 

Note  on  the  Dimensions  and  Meaning  of  J,  usually 
called  the  Mechanical  Equivalent  of  Heat. — Alfred 

Lodge 320 

The  Temporary  Thermo-Current  in  Iron. — Fred.  T. 

Trouton 321 

Causes  influencing  the  Bathymetrical  Range  of  Deep- 

Sea  Fishes. — A,  R.  Hunt 321 

Wind  Force  at  Sea. — W.  G.  Black 321 

Untimely  Insect  Development. ^ohn  Morison    .    .    321 

Weasels  killing  Frogs. — M.  S.  Pembrey 321 

"British  and  Irish  Salmonidae." — Your  Reviewer    .    321 
Modern  Views  of  Electricity.  Part  III.     VI.     {Illus- 
trated).    By  Dr.  Oliver  J.  Lodge,   F.R.S 322 

Language-Reason.     By  Prof.  F.  Max  Miiller     .    .    .    323 

Ferdinand  Vandeveer  Hayden 325 

Notes     327 

Our  Astronomical  Column  : — 

American  Observatories 330 

Astronomical     Phenomena     for     the     Week     1888 

February  5-1 1 330 

Geographical  Notes 330 

Our  Electrical  Column 331 

The  Proposed  Teaching  University  for  London    .    .    331 
The  Total  Eclipse  of  the  Moon,  January  28    ....    333 

Societies  and  Academies 333 

Books,  Pamphlets,  and  Serials  Received    .   .   ,   .   ,     33$ 


NA  TURE 


oj7 


THURSDAY,  FEBRUARY  9,   1888. 

MESSRS.  GOSCHEN  AND  HUXLEY  ON 
ENGLISH  CULTURE. 

WITHIN  the  last  few  days  two  noteworthy  utterances 
on  the  subject  of  our  national  prospects  have  been 
made  by  men  whose  opinions  deserve  and  command  at- 
tention. Prof.  Huxley  has  told  us,  in  the  Nineteenth 
Century,  that  though  the  restraints  imposed  by  civilization 
have  altered  the  methods  by  which  the  struggle  for  existence 
is  carried  on,  they  have  not  made  it  less  real  or  less  bitter. 

"  In  a  real,  though  incomplete,  degree  we  have  attained 
the  condition  of  peace  which  is  the  main  object  of  social 
organization  ;  and  it  may,  for  argument's  sake,  be  assumed 
that  we  desire  nothing  but  that  which  is  in  itself  innocent 
and  praiseworthy — namely,  the  enjoyment  of  the  fruits  of 
honest  industry.  And  lo  !  in  spite  of  ourselves,  we  are 
in  reality  engaged  in  an  internecine  struggle  for  existence 
with  our  presumably  no  less  peaceful  and  well-meaning 
neighbours.     We  seek  peace,  and  we  do  not  ensue  it." 

This  application  of  Darwin's  great  theory  to  commer- 
cial competition  is  more  than  a  parable.  It  is  the  scien- 
tific explanation  of  causes  which  have  wrecked  civilizations 
in  the  past  and  may  wreck  them  in  the  future. 

The  struggle  must  go  on  while  men  are  impelled  by  the 
desire  for  a  greater  profusion  of  what  sustains  life  or 
makes  it  happier.  It  often  has  been,  and  often  is,  carried 
on  by  the  sword,  but  important  victories  may  be  won,  and 
disastrous  defeats  sustained,  by  more  peaceful  means. 
The  discovery  of  the  passage  round  the  Cape  transferred 
the  trade  of  the  East  from  the  Mediterranean  to  London 
and  Amsterdam,  and  most  merchants  in  the  City  affirm 
that  the  cutting  of  the  Suez  Canal  has  once  more  deprived 
England  of  the  advantage  of  situation.  The  commercial 
success  of  Switzerland,  however,  proves  that  national 
characteristics  are  at  least  as  important  as  geographical 
position,  and  it  is  well  from  time  to  time  to  ask  if  we  are 
doing  all  that  in  us  lies  to  train  those  who  shall  follow  us 
to  maintain  what  our  predecessors  have  won. 

It  is  from  this  point  of  view  that  the  second  of  the  two 
utterances  we  have  referred  to  is  specially  interesting. 
Mr.  Goschen  is  at  one  with  Prof.  Huxley  as  to  the  severity 
of  the  struggle  in  which  we  are  engaged.  "  Our  position 
in  the  race  of  civilized  nations,"  he  told  the  undergraduates 
at  Aberdeen,  "is  no  longer  what  it  was.  We  had  a 
great  start  in  industries  and  commerce,  and  by  virtue  of 
that  start  we  attained  to  a  station  of  unprecedented  and 
long  unchallenged  supremacy.  That  supremacy  is  no 
longer  unchallenged.  Others  are  pressing  on  our  heels. 
We  require  greater  efforts  than  formerly  to  hold  our  own." 
Theory  and  experience  agree.  The  biologist  tells  us  that 
a  state  of  struggle  is  the  normal  condition  of  man  as  of 
all  other  living  beings,  and  that  it  must  become  keener  as 
our  numbers  augment.  The  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer, 
with  his  hand  on  the  pulse  of  English  trade,  is  witness 
that  the  strife  is  growing  in  severity. 

And  this  is  not  all.  Mr.  Goschen  is  not  satisfied  that 
we  have  as  a  nation  all  the  qualifications  for  success.  In 
a  powerful  address,  which  evidently  expressed  a  matured 
conviction,  he  insisted  that  Englishmen  lack  "  intellectual 
interest"  in  their  work.  They  regard  their  business  as  a 
necessary  evil,  from  which  they  delight  to  sever  themselves 
as  often  and  as  completely  as  possible.  They  are  ignorant 
Vol.  XXXVII. — No.  954. 


of 'the  general  principles  which  underlie  the  conduct  of 
trade,  or  at  least  are  careless  in  noting  their  application 
to  particular  instances.  It  is  quite  in  accord  with  this 
that  they  regard  education  not  so  much  as  an  essential  to 
fit  a  man  for  the  battle  of  life  as  an  ornament  for  his 
leisure  hours.  And  here  again  Professor  and  politician 
are  at  one.  The  highest  intellectual  ideal  of  our  Univer- 
sity men,  says  Mr.  Goschen  in  effect,  is,  or  at  all  events 
until  very  lately  was,  perfection  of  literary  form.  Our  public 
schools  have  aimed  chiefly  at  turning  out  scholars  who  could 
write  Latin  verse.  Our  educational  systems,  echoes  Prof. 
Huxley,  were  fashioned  "  to  meet  the  wants  of  a  bygone 
condition  of  society.  There  is  a  widespread  and,  I  think, 
well  justified,  complaint  that  [our  system  of  elementary 
education]  has  too  much  to  do  with  books  and  too  little 
to  do  with  things." 

To  discuss  the  whole  question  thus  opened — an  indict- 
ment of  University  and  Board-school  alike— would  be 
impossible  in  the  limits  of  space  at  our  disposal,  but 
regarding  it  from  the  point  of  view  in  which  our  readers, 
like  ourselves,  are  specially  interested,  we  cannot  but  note 
a  sad  corroboration  of  Mr.  Goschen 's  words.  In  no  trades 
could  a  genuine  intellectual  interest  be  more  easily 
excited  than  in  those  which  involve  a  knowledge  of 
science,  and  in  none  have  EngHshmen  more  conspicuously 
failed.  It  is  needless  to  recapitulate  stories  like  that  of 
the  discovery  of  the  aniline  dyes  in  an  English  laboratory, 
and  the  wholesale  appropriation  of  the  trade  to  which  that 
discovery  gave  rise  by  German  manufacturers.  The  fact 
is  patent  and  obvious  to  all  who  have  studied  the  ques- 
tion. Science  can  only  be  successfully  cultivated  by  men 
who  take  an  "intellectual  interest"  in  their  work  ;  and  in- 
trades  which  depend  upon  a  knowledge  of  science,  it  is  the 
foreigner  who  achieves  success.  Where  does  the  fault 
lie  1  For  the  masters  and  foremen,  the  colleges  which 
are  springing  up  all  over  the  country  may  do  much.  They 
are,  we  believe,  slowly  creating  a  class  of  men  who  have 
a  sound  foundation  of  scientific  knowledge,  and  a  genuine- 
interest  in  scientific  progress.  But  for  the  rank  and 
file,  for  the  clerk  and  artisan,  it  is  upon  evening 
classes  that  Prof.  Huxley  thinks  we  must  chiefly  rely, 
and  here  the  main  difficulty  seems  to  be  to  secure  good 
teachers  for  classes  in  science  and  technology.  They  are, 
says  Prof.  Huxley,  "not  to  be  made  by  the  processes 
in  vogue  at  ordinary  training  colleges."  "As  regards  evening 
science  teaching" — we  quote  from  the  Report  of  the  Royal 
Commissioners  on  Technical  Instruction — "there  seems 
to  be  nowhere  in  Europe  any  organization  for  systematic 
evening  instruction  comparable,  as  regards  the  number  of 
subjects  taught,  and  the  facilities  afforded  for  the  establish- 
ment of  classes,  and  for  the  examination  of  the  students' 
work,  with  that  undertaken  by  the  Science  and  Art  De- 
partment in  this  country,  and  recently  supplemented,  in 
the  application  of  science  to  special  industries,  by  the  City 
and  Guilds  of  London  Institute. 

"At  the  same  time  it  must  be  borne  in  mind  that  in 
many  towns  visited  by  the  Commissioners  the  evening 
science  teaching  was  conducted  by  Professors  of  higher 
standing  than,  and  of  superior  scientific  attainments  to, 
the  ordinary  science  teachers  who  conduct  courses  in 
some  of  the  largest  and  most  important  of  the  manu- 
facturing centres  of  this  country." 

Here,  then,  appears  to  be  at  all  events  ope  weak  point. 

Q 


138 


NA  TURE 


[Feb.  9,  iSSS 


The  Science  and  Art  Department  has  a  flexible  system, 
capable  of  application  to  the  wants  of  town  and  country. 
Students  are  examined  by  the  thousand  every  May,  but 
though  the  standard  of  attainment  is  rising,  there  is  a 
general  opinion — which  is  supported  by  the  statements  of 
the  Royal  Commissioners — that  the  instruction  given  by 
the  teachers  falls  far  short  of  an  ideal  which  might  be  and 
ought  to  be  reached.  And  yet  this  matter  of  good  or  bad 
teaching  is  vital.  "  It  is  absolutely  essential,"  says  Prof. 
Huxley,  "  that  the  mind  [of  the  teachers  of  scientific 
subjects]  should  be  full  of  knowledge  and  not  of  mere 
learning,  and  that  what  he  knows  should  have  been 
learned  in  the  laboratory  rather  than  in  the  library." 
"  This,"  according  to  Mr.  Goschen,  "  is  the  first  test  of  the 
value  of  an  educational  system,  whatever  its  curriculum 
may  be.  Is'it  intelligent  ?  Is  it  thorough  ?  Above  all,  is  it 
rousing  ?  Does  it  excite  intellectual  interest  in  those 
who  come  under  its  influence  ?  Does  it  develop  in 
them  the  temper  which  always  asks  for  a  reason  and 
struggles  to  arrive  at  a  principle?" 

Teachers  competent  to  work  an  educational  system 
which  satisfies  these  requirements  must  be  themselves 
highly- finished  educational  products.  They  must  have 
risen  above  the  vulgar  pocket-filling  ambition  of  passing 
so  many  students  per  annum.  Risen  above  it,  not  in  the 
sense  of  ignoring  it,  for  in  this  prosaic  world  a  livelihood 
must  be  earned,  but  in  the  sense  that  the  mere  drudgery 
of  bread-winning  is  for  them  lit  up  with  a  glow  of  the 
enthusiasm  of  the  student  who  has  knowledge  to  impart 
which  he  himself  values  for  its  own  sake. 

We  want  as  science  teachers  not  men  who  have 
crammed  just  enough  to  enable  them  to  cram  their  pupils 
in  turn,  but  men  — and  we  believe  there  are  many,  though 
far  too  iew  of  them — who  have  learnt  to  regard  themselves 
as  members  of  the  great  scientific  army  the  advance  of 
which  is  the  most  remarkable  movement  of  the  age. 

How  are  they  to  be  got  ?  They  cannot  be  obtained  in 
the  requisite  numbers  without  a  systematic  search  and 
preparation.  It  may  be,  as  Prof.  Huxley  hints,  that 
additional  pecuniary  inducements  must  be  held  out  to 
secure  them.  This  is  a  question  on  which  the  Chancellor 
of  the  Exchequer  may  have  an  opportunity  of  giving 
practical  aid  to  English  science  and  education.  Or,  if  this  is 
Utopian,  let  us  suggest  to  Mr.  Goschen  that  it  would  be  well 
if  his  great  influence  were  used  to  urge  the  Government 
to  make  the  most  of  the  machinery  it  already  possesses. 

Prof.  Huxley  has  been  for  years  the  Dean  of  the 
Science  Schools  which  are  the  centre  of  the  system  of 
evening  teaching  which  the  Royal  Commission  on 
Technical  Instruction  has  pronounced  to  be  in  many 
respects  the  best  in  Europe.  Among  the  highest  rewards 
given  to  the  successful  candidates  in  the  May  Examina- 
tions are  free  passes  for  more  or  less  prolonged  courses 
of  study  at  South  Kensington. 

Teachers  in  training  attend  the  classes,  and  year  by 
year  batches  of  science  teachers  are  brought  together  to 
receive  special  instruction  in  the  subjects  they  are 
engaged  in  teaching.  One  of  the  great  difficulties  to  be 
encountered  by  a  provincial  College  is  the  fact  that  the 
calls  upon  the  Professors  are  too  multifarious.  Students 
of  all  classes  — would-be  engineers,  doctors,  electricians, 
and  a  dozen  similar  groups — all  desire  courses  of  instruc- 
tion   designed   to  meet   their  particular  wants.     It   has 


been  rightly  decided  that  this  obstacle  shall  not  impede 
the  progress  of  the  State-aided  system  of  evening  in- 
struction. A  special  institution  is  provided  to  meet  the 
special  requirements  of  those  who  are  engaged  in  it.  The 
union  of  the  Normal  School  of  Science  with  the  Royal 
School  of  Mines  has  not  interfered  with  the  attainment 
of  this  end,  while  it  has  secured  the  advantages  which 
result  from  the  mingling  of  students  who  are  studying  the 
same  subjects  with  different  aims. 

The  State,  then,  has  recognized  the  need  for  trained 
science  teachers,  just  as  it  feels  the  necessity  for  pro- 
viding properly- educated  officers  for  the  Navy.  It  is 
admitted  that  both  classes  can  best  receive  the  instruc- 
tion they  need  at  special  institutions.  The  Royal  Naval 
College  at  Greenwich  has  been  provided  for  the  one,  the 
Normal  School  of  Science  for  the  other. 

The  school  gives  evidence  of  vitality  and  success. 
Within  the  last  five  years  the  number  of  students  has 
doubled.  A  very  considerable  amount  of  original  re- 
search is  done  in  its  laboratories.  Now,  however,  its 
very  efficiency  is  a  danger.  It  has  outgrown  the  build- 
ings which  have  been  assigned  to  it.  By  permission  of 
the  Commissioners  of  the  1851  Exhibition,  classes  are 
carried  on  in  what  was  the  Colonial  Exhibition.  But 
duty  to  the  interests  with  which  they  are  primarily  charged 
will,  before  long,  compel  them  to  withdraw  this  hospi- 
tality. Driven  from  the  holes  and  corners  in  which  it 
has  been  compelled  to  seek  refuge,  the  Central  School  for 
the  training  of  teachers  of  evening  science  classes  may  be 
compelled  to  reduce  its  numbers,  and  to  limit  its  useful- 
ness at  the  very  moment  when  Mr.  Goschen,  Prof.  Huxley, 
and  all  competent  educationalists  are  agreed  that  one  of 
our  most  pressing  national  wants  is  the  elevation  of  our 
teachers,  and  of  their  type  of  teaching. 

We  have  chosen  this  as  a  single  example  which  serves 
to  illustrate  the  wide  generalization  which  we  have  been 
discussing.  Is  the  interest  of  the  average  Member  of 
Parliament  in  the  dangers  which  threaten  our  trade 
sufficiently  intellectual  to  lead  him  to  sanction  the  cost  of 
necessary  precautions  ?  In  these  democratic  days  the  fate 
of  the  English  people  is  in  their  own  hands.  If  they  choose 
that  the  education  of  their  bread-winners  shall  be  conducted 
on  the  principles  on  which  the  "  accomphshments  "  were 
taught  in  an  old-fashioned  ladies'  school — if  they  choose 
to  send  competent  Commissioners  all  over  Europe,  and, 
when  they  tell  them  that  one  of  the  chief  defects  of  their 
educational  system  is  the  comparative  inefficiency  of 
their  teachers,  they  nevertheless  deliberately  half-close 
the  doors  of  the  school  specially  provided  to  remedy  this 
defect — there  is  no  help  for  it,  and  but  little  hope  for  them. 

Wars  may  be  caused  by  race  hatreds  which  have  taken 
centuries  to  gather,  but  success  or  failure  often  depends  on 
the  placing  or  misplacing  of  a  few  thousand  men.  Com- 
mercial competition  may  be,  as  Prof.  Huxley  tells  us,  due 
to  causes  which  affect  all  living  things.  The  progress  or 
decadence  of  England  will  depend  upon  how  it  adjusts 
itself  to  the  altering  character  of  the  strife  ;  and  we  confess 
that  we  shall  watch  with  interest  to  see  what  amount  of 
practical  support  the  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer  is  pre- 
pared to  give  to  the  views  of  the  Lord  Rector  of  Aberdeen. 
The  test  will  be  applied  when  the  Technical  Education  Bill 
is  again  brought  forward,  and  when  the  particular  need 
which  we  have  chosen  as  an  illustration  has  to  be  met. 


Feb.  9,  1888] 


NATURE 


339 


THE    PROPOSED     TEACHING     UNIVERSITY 
FOR  LONDON. 

\A/^  printed  last  week  the  petition  which  has  been 
*  V  presented  to  the  Privy  Council  by  the  Associa- 
tion for  Promoting  a  Teaching  University  in  London. 
We  have  now  before  us  the  petition  of  University  Col- 
lege and  King's  College,  to  which  is  appended  a  proposed 
draft  charter  for  the  University,  under  the  name  of  the 
Albert  University  of  London.  If,  as  seems  probable,  the 
promoters  have  been  well  advised  in  claiming  no  less  a 
surname  than  that  of  the  Metropolitan  district  for  which 
the  University  is  to  serve,  the  prefi-ced  name  of  the  late 
Prince  Consort,  to  whom  England  is  undoubtedly  in- 
debted for  the  encouragement  his  influence  gave  to  edu- 
cational and  scientific  work,  is  perhaps  as  good  a  way  as 
could  have  been  hit  upon  for  avoiding  confusion  with  the 
existing  University.  For  the  rest,  the  charter  appears  to 
be  an  adaptation  to  the  circumstances  of  that  granted  to 
the  Victoria  University  ;  the  principal  differences  being — 
the  place  reserved  for  the  Royal  College  of  Physicians 
and  Royal  College  of  Surgeons  in  the  University,  which 
is  one  of  complete  equality  with  the  governing  bodies  of 
the  University  Colleges  themselves  ;  the  power  conferred 
upon  the  legally  recognized  medical  schools  of  London, 
as  such,toclaim,  as  of  right,  admittance  to  the  University, 
on  equal  terms  with  the  Medical  Faculties  of  University 
College  and  King's  College  ;  and  the  greater  simplicity  of 
the  governing  body.  In  the  case  of  the  Victoria  Univer- 
sity a  complicated  division  of  authority  was  resorted  to, 
with  the  view  of  obviating  mutual  jealousies  between  the 
various  cities  and  towns  in  which,  in  that  case,  the 
several  Colleges  were  to  be  situated.  The  Senate  proposed 
for  the  Albert  University  consists  of  three  members  chosen 
by  the  governing  body  of  each  College  associated  with 
the  University  ;  the  College  of  Physicians  and  College  of 
Surgeons  being  reckoned  among  associated  Colleges,  if 
willing  to  accept  the  position,  but  the  twelve  medical 
schools  not  being  so  reckoned  ;  of  four  members  repre- 
senting the  assembly  of  each  Faculty,  such  assemblies 
being  composed  of  the  teaching  staflfs  of  all  Colleges  or 
medical  schools  admitted  in  respect  of  the  Faculty  ;  and 
of  six  representatives  nominated  by  the  Crown  in  the  first 
instance,  of  whom  three  are  eventually  to  be  replaced  by 
representatives  of  the  graduates  in  Convocation. 

Compared  with  this  body,  the  composition  of  the 
Senate  of  Physicians  and  Surgeons  proposed  in  the 
petition  of  the  two  Royal  Colleges  presents  an  even 
greater  degree  of  simplicity.  No  provision  is  made  for 
the  representation  of  any  other  interest  than  that  of  the 
petitioners  themselves  ;  and  the  two  Colleges  divide  the 
representation  equally  between  their  respective  governing 
bodies.  It  is  understood,  however,  that  in  the  case  ol 
the  College  of  Surgeons  this  proposal  has  not  given  satis- 
faction, even  within  the  limits  of  the  College  ;  and  that 
some  representation  will  be  claimed  for  Fellows  of  the 
College  other  than  those  who  constitute  the  Council  which 
governs  it. 

From  the  point  of  view  which  is  especially  our  own, 
the  quarrel  about  degrees,  and  the  interests  of  rival  insti- 
tutions, occupy  a  place  secondary  in  importance  to  con- 
siderations affecting  the  promotion  of  knowledge  and 
science,  and  only  important  in  so  far  as  they  are  concerned. 
If  the  proposal  of  the  Royal  Colleges  is  carried  into  effect. 


and  a  committee  of  eminent  physicians  and  surgeons  is 
mtrusted  with  the  power  of  e.xamining  for  and  giving 
medical  degrees,  there  can  be  little  doubt  that  the  great 
building  on  the  Thames  Embankment,  and  the  space 
behind  it  shortly  to  be  covered  with  building,  will  speedily 
develop  into  a  teaching  institution,  with  provision  for 
research;  and  thus  knowledge  will  be  increased,  and 
science  promoted,  by  the  addition  of  one  more  to  the 
number  of  efficient  schools  for  special  purposes  which 
are  now  open  in  London.  The  promoters  of  the  Albert 
University  do  not  offer  us  any  immediate  addition  of  this 
nature  to  the  resources  which  are  now  available.  We 
have  examined  the  draft  charter  with  care,  in  order  to 
detect,  if  possible,  the  traces  of  a  design  to  check  the 
foundation  or  perfecting  of  new  institutions,  in  the  in- 
terest of  those  already  existing.  But  the  promoters,  we 
are  bound  to  say,  appear  to  have  guarded  against  all 
objection,  by  following,  in  this  respect,  the  charter  of  the 
Victoria  University.  The  appeal  which  is  given  to  the 
Privy  Council,  in  case  of  the  refusal  of  the  University  to 
admit  a  new  College,  is  a  satisfactory  provision  against 
the  spirit  of  monopoly.  In  the  absence  of  danger  from 
this  point  of  view,  the  Teaching  University  promises 
more  than  is  offered  by  the  Senate  of  Physicians  and 
Surgeons,  in  the  interests  of  science.  The  prospect  of 
establishing,  as  a  qualification  for  admission  to  the  Uni- 
versity, a  general  standard  of  efficiency  for  Colleges 
professing  to  do  the  work  of  scientific  teaching,  has 
greater  attractions  for  us  than  that  of  the  opening  of  a 
single  new  school  of  medical  and  surgical  research. 
Moreover,  by  the  institution  of  the  Teaching  University, 
we  shall  secure  the  first,  without  rendering  it  less 
probable  that  in  time  the  second  also  may  follow. 

We  notice  that  the  right  of  admission  offered  to  all  the 
London  medical  schools,  though  absolute  so  far  as  the 
Medical  Faculty  is  concerned,  is,  in  regard  to  the  Faculty 
of  Science,  made  conditional  on  efficiency.  This  is  as  it 
should  be.  Probably  some  of  the  smaller  hospitals  will 
regard  with  equaminity  the  extinction  of  their  pretensions 
to  be  recognized  as  efficient  schools  of  science.  Others 
will  be  incited  to  render  themselves  efficient.  In  both 
cases  the  result  to  science  will  be  a  pure  gain.  One 
matter  of  importance  appears  omitted  in  the  programme 
of  the  Albert  University :  the  position  to  be  assigned 
within  the  University,  if  its  admission  is  contemplated,  to 
the  Royal  School  of  Mines  and  Normal  College  of 
Science.  It  would  appear  proper  that  this  point  should 
be  further  considered,  if  the  project  ever  reaches  a  more 
definite  stage. 

Upon  the  matters  in  dispute  between  the  University  of 
London  and  the  University  Colleges  we  desire  to  main- 
tain an  attitude  of  impartiality.  On  the  one  hand,  it  is 
urged  that  the  credit  of  a  degree  will  not  stand  the  strain 
consequent  on  the  creation  of  a  second  degree-giving 
body  in  London  ;  and  that  all  the  reform  desirable,  in 
the  interests  of  education,  is  the  introduction  of  a  larger 
number  of  teachers  on  the  governing  body  of  the  exist- 
ing University.  On  the  other,  stress  is  laid  upon  the 
importance,  for  educational  purposes,  of  the  independence 
of  teachers  from  irresponsible  external  control,  and  upon 
the  necessity  of  an  organization  of  teaching  for  London 
more  thorough  than  can  be  afforded  by  any  constitution 
or  reconstitution  of  an  examining  body.     But  whether 


340 


NATURE 


[Feb.  g,  1888 


the  desired  reforms  are  carried  out  by  changing  the 
constitution  of  the  University  of  London,  or  by  instituting 
a  new  University,  two  things  appear  in  any  case  to  be 
incontestable :  that  the  open  examinations  conducted  by 
the  existing  University  shall  continue  to  be  conducted  by 
an  impartial  authority  ;  and  that  the  Colleges  shall  be 
allowed  to  organize  their  work  in  the  manner  best  suited 
to  promote  their  own  efhciency. 

Sir  Philip  Magnus,  in  a  letter  which  appeared  in  the 
Times  on  Thursday,  appears  to  consider  the  dispute  as 
one  between  the  efficiency  of  "  lectures  "  on  the  one  hand, 
and  of  "  reading  "  on  the  other  ;  and  he  cites  the  now 
well-known  dictum  of  Darwin,  in  favour  of  reading,  and 
against  lectures.  But  it  would  be  to  mis-read,  in  a 
strange  manner,  the  lesson  of  Darwin's  life,  if  from  it  were 
to  be  drawn  a  conclusion  against  the  existence  of 
Universities  for  teaching  purposes,  and  in  favour  of 
examinations.  If  Darwin  carried  from  Edinburgh  a  pro- 
found dislike  to  unintelligent  lecturing,  of  the  epideictic 
sort,  he  was  at  Cambridge  known  as  "  the  man  who 
walks  with  Henslow."  In  Sir  W.  Hamilton's  famous 
analysis  of  the  work  of  Universities,  examination  holds 
the  first  place  only  among  no  less  than  seven  "  exercises  " 
by  which  study,  in  a  teaching  institution,  can  be  pro- 
moted ;  the  others  being  "  disputation,  repetition,  written, 
composition,  the  practice  of  teaching,  conversation  with 
and  interrogation  of  the  learned,  and  social  study."  To 
these  must  be  added,  by  the  student  of  science,  the 
practice  of  experiment  under  competent  supervision.  Some 
of  these  appear  to  us  of  more  value  than  examinations, 
some  of  less  ;  but  it  is  obvious  that  an  institution  which 
is  solely  concerned  with  examinations  does  not  cover  the 
whole  ground  of  institutional  aid  to  study  ;  and  it  is  of 
no  avail,  as  between  one  institution  and  another,  to  exalt 
the  benefits  of  "  reading,"  which  is  not  peculiar  to  either. 
In  conclusion,  we  trust  all  parties  to  the  controversy 
will  bear  constantly  in  mind  that  degrees  and  examina- 
tions, lectures  and  colleges,  are,  after  all,  but  means  to  an 
end.  The  end  is  the  spread  and  advancement  of 
knowledge,  through  educational  methods  and  research. 

MANUAL  OF  BRITISH  DISCOMYCETES. 
A    Manual  of  the  British    Discomycetes.      By  William 
Phillips,  F.L.S.  8vo,  446  pages,  12  plates.   International 
Scientific  Series.     (London  :  Kegan  Paul,  Trench,  and 
Co.,  1887.) 
T  T  is  by  no  means  an  uncommon  misfortune  to  find  that 
-L     text-books  are  not  written  by  persons  the  most  com- 
petent, or  with  the  widest  experience  ;  hence  the  results 
are  very  far  from  satisfactory,  and  no  one  expresses  much 
gratification.     Now  and  then  notable  exceptions  to  this 
rather  general  rule  may  be  discovered,  to  the  delight  of 
all  who  are  interested  in  that  special  branch  of  science 
to  which  the  book  is  devoted,  and  the  great  edification  of 
the  student.     It  is  beyond  our  province  to  inquire  why 
the  most   suitable   men   are  so  seldom  engaged   in   the 
production    of    "manuals,"    or    why    the    most     skilful 
manipulator,    with     a    few    months'    study    and    much 
"  coaching,"  cannot  compete  successfully  with  the  practical 
hand  well  steadied  with  a  twenty  years'  experience.     It 
will  be  enough  to  intimate  that  no  one  acquainted  with 
British     Cryptogamic     botany     would     for    a    moment 


hesitate  to  pronounce  that  the  most  suitable  person 
to  undertake  a  manual  of  the  Discomycetes  would  be 
Mr.  W.  Phillips,  of  Shrewsbury,  if  practical  knowledge, 
and  persistent  investigation,  extending  over  at  least  two 
decades  of  years,  are  to  be  accepted  as  qualifications. 

With  these  preliminary  observations  it  will  be  at  once 
evident  that,  in  general  terms,  and  as  a  whole,  we  feel 
bound  to  give  this  little  volume  our  heartiest  com- 
mendation ;  and  if,  in  the  course  of  our  remarks,  we 
indicate  any  weak  places,  it  will  be  with  the  desire  to  act 
with  the  tenderness  of  a  friend,  and  to  point  out  how,  in 
our  conception,  an  admirable  manual  may  be  rendered 
more  perfect  or  more  useful. 

No  apology  is  needed  for  restricting  a  book  like  the 
present  to  a  small  controllable  group  of  some  600  species, 
especially  when  the  limits  are  so  well  defined  that  a 
student  may  devote  himself  exclusively  to  it,  with  advan- 
tage to  himself,  without  any  special  acquaintance  with 
outside  groups.  It  is  generally  admitted  that  the  entire 
British  Fungi,  with  its  thousands  of  described  species, 
is  become  too  unwieldy  and  extensive  for  any  ordinary 
individual,  not  content  to  become  a  slave  to  his  subject 
and  a  martyr  to  science.  The  Discomycetes  present 
an  admirable  group,  capable  of  isolated  study  ;  and 
for  this  purpose  a  careful  and  trustworthy  manual,  at  a 
moderate  price,  is  now  ready  at  the  student's  hands. 

"  The  subject  of  classification,"  the  author  says  in  his 
preface,  "will  not  fail  to  awaken  some  controversy." 
"  To  adhere  as  closely  as  possible  to  the  long-accepted 
Friesian  system  has  been  the  practice  of  English  authors, 
but  this  has  been  carried  a  little  too  far,  owing  to  our 
'insular  prejudices,'  and  the  time  has  come  when  a  new 
departure  must  be  made."  We  are  prepared  to  accept 
this  paragraph — exclusive  of  "  insular  prejudices,"  which 
we  cannot  admit — and  with  it  the  "  new  departure."  To 
our  mind  this  is  a  most  moderate  concession,  and  we  doubt 
not  that,  if  controversy  there  should  be,  its  direction  will 
be  in  favour  of  far  greater  innovation  than  Mr.  Phillips 
or  ourselves  would  approve.  The  details  of  the  new 
arrangement  must  be  subjected  to  closer  examination  and 
the  test  of  experience,  but  at  present  we  see  no  reason  to 
take  exception  to  them.  We  have  long  been  of  opinion 
that  some  such  modification  of  the  old  classification  was 
desirable. 

There  is,  nevertheless,  one  point  on  which  we  have 
always  uttered  a  protest,  and  repeat  it  again,  since  in  two 
or  three  instances  in  the  present  volume  the  error  has 
been  committed.  We  allude  to  the  addition  to,  or 
alteration  of,  a  generic  description,  and  the  appending  of 
the  original  author's  name,  with  the  word  "  amended  " 
after  it.  We  protest  against  amended  genera,  be- 
cause they  are  nobody's  genera  ;  they  are  not  the  genera 
of  the  original  author,  but  a  "  thing  of  shreds  and 
patches."  A  genus  should  not  be  altered  or  amended, 
in  order  to  fit  any  subsequent  species  which  a  later  author 
may  desire  to  incorporate.  He  should  keep  the  new  species 
outside,  and  accommodate  it  in  other  ways,  rather  than 
modify  or  "  tinker"  the  work  of  a  predecessor,  and  assume 
the  change  to  be  an  "  amendment,"  whereas  it  may  be 
something  very  different,  and  probably  would  be  to  the 
old  author  himself,  if  he  could  be  resuscitated  to  gaze  on 
the  freaks  of  his  successors. 

As  for  the  number  of  species  described  in  this  volume. 


Feb.  9,  1888] 


NATURE 


341 


we  may  remark  that  it  is  more  than  double  that  which 
the  "Hand-book  of  British  Fungi"  included  in  1871.  One 
of  the  many  valuable  features  of  the  book  is,  that, 
wherever  possible,  measurements  are  given  of  the  sporidia 
of  the  various  species,  in  micromillimetres,  in  addition 
to  the  dimensions  of  the  fungus  in  its  entirety.  We 
specially  allude  to  this  feature  in  order  to  have  an 
opportunity  of  adding  that  in  our  experience  we  have 
never  met  with  a  more  careful  or  expert  hand  at  micro- 
scopical measurement  than  the  author  of  the  present  work, 
an  opinion  based  on  hundreds  of  observations  made  in 
concert  during  a  series  of  years.  Yet  we  must  urge  that, 
however  useful  the  micromillimetre  undoubtedly  is  in 
spore-measurement,  it  is  not  so  well  to  use  it  for  larger 
bodies,  such  as  the  cup  of  a  Peziza,  when  the  millimetre 
or  its  decimal  part  would  appeal  more  directly  to  the  eye 
and  experience.  500  fi  may  be  equal  to  half  a  millimetre, 
but  the  mind  more  quickly  and  readily  conceives  the  half 
millimetre  than  the  500  fi.  We  observe  a  lack  of  uniformity 
in  dimensions  appreciable  by  the  naked  eye,  which  is 
avoided  in  measurements  under  the  microscope.  For 
instance  "X  to  }i  line  broad"  (p.  249),  "cups  200  to 
500 /*"  (p.  257),  "cups  500  to  800 /Lt"  (p.  321).  What 
relation  does  the  "  line "  bear  to  the  micromillimetre  ? 
If  half  a  line  is  about  500  /x,  why  use  the  two  units 
of  measurement  ?  Would  it  not  have  been  better  to 
follow  Stevenson  in  his  "  British  Fungi,"  and  to  reduce 
all  measurements  to  the  centimetre,  millimetre,  and 
micromillimetre,  which  would  have  been  much  more  con- 
sistent, and  far  better  than  the  mysterious  "  line,"  and 
had  the  merit  of  being  more  intelligible  to  the  foreigner 
than  a  unit  of  which  he  has  no  knowledge  or  experience. 

It  would  be  useless  to  assume  that  the  work  is  absolutely 
free  from  errors,  but  these  are  mostly  of  a  trivial 
character,  although  more  numerous  than  we  could  have 
wished.  We  doubt  whether  "conidia"  would  not  have 
been  a  better  term  than  "  spermatia "  in  such  a  con- 
nection as  Calloria  fusaiioides ;  and  we  also  doubt 
whether  our  author  accurately  appreciates  the  value  of 
the  terminations  in  such  words  as  violascens,  virescens, 
fuscescens,  nigrescens^  &c. 

As  for  the  general  scope  of  the  work,  we  may 
say  that  each  species  begins  with  the  diagnosis,  then 
follows  its  synonymy,  especially  in  British  works,  refer- 
ences to  figures,  and  published  specimens.  If  these 
are  in  the  main  accurate,  as  we  have  no  reason  to  doubt, 
they  will  be  exceedingly  valuable,  but  manifestly  only 
experience  oan  prove  this,  and  figures  are  very  liable  to 
become  displaced  or  transposed.  The  habitat  succeeds  the 
synonymy,  which  is  followed  by  special  notes  or  comments; 
then  the  derivation  of  the  specific  name,  now  and  then 
hardly  successfully  interpreted,  as  for  instance  on  pp. 
29 ^>  325?  a'^d  369,  where  ater  would  have  been  better 
rendered  "dark"  instead  of  "black";  and  finally  a  list 
of  localities. 

At  page  358,  Ephelis  is  inserted  as  a  genus  of  Fries's. 
The  same  genus  is  claimed  by  Saccardo  ("  Sylloge,"  iii. 
p.  691)  for  a  genus  of  Sphseropsideae,  and  we  fear  that 
Phillips  will  have  to  give  way  to  Saccardo,  as  both  cannot 
stand,  and  there  is  no  evidence  that  Fries  regarded  his 
genus  as  ascigerous. 

Forty  pages  at  the  end  are  most  useful  appendages 
to  the  work,  consisting  of  a  glossary  of  terms,  full  titles 


of  the  various  works  quoted,  and  an  exhaustive  index. 
To  the  last  page  Mr.  PhilUps  has  spared  no  trouble  to 
make  his  work  as  complete  and  useful  as  practicable,  and 
we  trust  that  he  may  be  rewarded  for  his  labour  of  love 
(for  such  it  undoubtedly  has  been)  by  being  called  upon 
speedily  to  correct  the  verbal  errors  in  preparation  for  a 
new  edition.  M.  C.  C. 


OUR  BOOK  SHELF. 

Physiography :  an  Elementary  Text-book.  By  W.  Mawer, 
F.G.S.     (London  :    Marshall  and  Co.,  1888.) 

This  is  another  addition  to  the  steadily  increasing  number 
of  text-books  adapted  to  the  elementary  stage  of  physio- 
graphy. The  usual  plan  of  dividing  a  book  into  chapters 
is  not  adhered  to,  but  probably  the  author  is  of  opinion 
that  he  is  working  according  to  the  true  spirit  of  physio- 
graphy in  drawing  no  hard  and  fast  lines. 

In  the  majority  of  cases  the  author  has  succeeded  in  his 
endeavours  to  explain  everything  in  the  simplest  way,  but 
in  a  few  cases  his  anxiety  to  do  so  has  led  him  astray. 
The  following  may  be  quoted  as  examples,  and  the 
obvious  shortcomings  need  no  further  comment : — 

"  Work  is  the  moving  of  matter "  (p.  8)  ;  "  Energy, 
when  active — when  actually  doing  work — is  in  the  condi- 
tion called  kinetic  ;  when  it  is  passive  and  only  ready  to 
do  work,  it  x's,  potentiaV  (p.  9). 

With  a  few  exceptions  of  this  kind,  the  book  is  admir- 
ably adapted  to  the  syllabus  which  it  is  intended  to  cover. 
That  it  is  not  a  mere  cram-book  is  evidenced  by  the  mass 
of  useful  information  which  is  given.  A  good  general 
outline  of  the  nebular  hypothesis  is  presented,  in  so  far  as 
it  concerns  the  history  of  our  globe,  and  there  is  also  an 
outline  of  the  classification  of  animals  and  plants.  The 
astronomical  portion  of  the  syllabus  also  receives  a  fair 
share  of  attention.  One  omission,  however,  has  been 
made,  and  that  is  the  use  and  meaning  of  the  term 
"  stress  " :  the  word  apparently  does  not  occur  even  once 
in  the  whole  book  ;  this  is  rather  unfortunate  now  that 
modern  physicists  are  beginning  to  regard  gravitation, 
magnetism,  &c.,  as  stresses. 

Apart  from  its  use  as  a  class-book,  it  can  be  recom- 
mended to  the  general  reader  as  an  outline  of  science. 

A.  F. 

Early  Christian  Art  i?t  Ireland.  By  Margaret  Stokes. 
(Published  for  the  Committee  of  Council  on  Education, 
by  Chapman  and  Hall,  1887.) 

This  is  one  of  the  South  Kensington  Museum  Art  Hand- 
books, and  it  deserves  to  rank  among  the  best  of  the 
series.  The  Christian  antiquities  of  Ireland  are  in  their 
own  way  as  remarkable  as  any  group  of  antiquities  in  the 
world,  and  a  satisfactory  account  of  them,  such  as  ordinary 
readers  might  understand  and  appreciate,  was  greatly 
needd.  In  undertaking  to  'supply  what  was  wanted. 
Miss  Stokes  devoted  herself  to  a  task  for  which  she  was 
well  equipped  by  previous  study,  and  she  has  produced  a 
little  book  which  can  hardly  fail  to  excite  interest  in  her 
subject,  and  which  will  be  welcomed  even  by  antiquaries 
to  whom  the  facts  of  Irish  archaeology  are  already  well 
known.  A  chapter  on  illumination  is  followed  by  one  on 
Irish  scribes  on  the  Continent  ;  and  then  come  chapters 
on  metal-work,  sculpture,  building  and  architecture, 
with  a  chronological  table  of  examples  of  Irish  art  the 
date  of  which  can  be  approximately  fixed.  The  work  is 
illustrated  by  upwards  of  a  hundred  good  woodcuts.  In 
her  treatment  of  all  questions  relating  to  early  Christian 
art  in  Ireland,  Miss  Stokes  displays  a  thoroughly  scien- 
tific spirit,  and  her  style  has  the  merit  of  being  always 
clear,  fresh,  and  unpretending.  She  rightly  claims  for 
her  subject  that  it  has  a  practical  as  well  as  an  intellectual 


342 


NA  1  URE 


[Fed.  9,  1 888 


interest.  If  the  higher  class  of  workers  in  Ireland  took 
the  trouble  to  study  systematically  the  objects  here  so 
carefully  described,  an  epoch  might  be  marked  in  the 
development  of  Irish  technical  skill. 


LETTERS   TO    THE  EDITOR. 

[The  Editor  does  not  hold  himself  responsible  for  opinions 
expressed  by  his  correspondents.  Neither  can  he  under- 
take to  return,  or  to  correspond  with  the  writers  of, 
rejected  manuscripts.  No  notice  is  taken  of  anonymous 
communications. 

[The  Editor  U7-gently  requests  correspondents  to  keep  their 
letters  as  short  as  possible.  The  pressure  on  his  space 
is  so  great  that  it  is  impossible  othenvise  to  insure  the 
appearance  even  of  communications  containing  interesting 
and  novel  facts. 

The  Duke  of  Argyll's  Charges  against  Men  of  Science. 

The  Duke  of  Argyll's  singular  appetite  for  besmirching  the 
characters  of  men  of  science  appears  to  grow  by  w  hat  it  feeds 
on  ;  and,  as  fast  as  old  misrepresentations  are  refuted,  new  ones 
are  evolved  out  of  the  inexhaustible  inaccuracy  of  his  Grace's 
imagination. 

In  the  last  two  letters  which  the  Duke  of  Argyll  has  addressed 
to  you,  he  accuses  me  of  having  charged  the  members  of  the 
French  Institute  with  having  entered  into  a  "  conspiracy  of 
silence  "  in  respect  of  Mr.  Darwin's  views.  I  desire  to  say  that 
the  assertion  that  I  have  done  anything  of  the  kind  is  untrue 
and  devoid  of  foundation. 

My  words,  in  the  passage  of  which  the  Duke  has  cited  as  much 
as  suited  his  purpose,  stand  as  follows:  "In  France,  the  in- 
fluence of  Elie  de  Beaumont  and  of  Flourens — the  former  of 
whom  is  said  to  have  'damned  himself  to  everlasting  fame'  by 
inventing  the  nicknr.me  of  '  la  science  moussante  '  for  evolu- 
tionism— to  say  nothing  of  the  ill-will  of  other  powerful  members 
of  the  Institute,  produced,  for  a  long  time,the  effect  of  a  conspiracy  of 
silence."^  I  used  the  words  I  have  italicized  advisedly,  for  the 
purpose  of  indicating  that,  though  the  members  of  the  Institute 
did  not  enter  into  a  conspiracy  of  silence,  the  notorious 
antagonism  of  some  of  them  to  evolution  produced  much  the 
same  result  as  if  they  had  done  so. 

If  the  Duke  of  Argyll  were  properly  informed  upon  the  topics 
about  which  he  ventures  to  speak  so  rashly,  he  would  know  that 
M.  Flourens  wrote  a  book  in  vehement  denunciation  of  evolu- 
tionism. As  I  reviewed  that  book  not  very  long  after  its  ap- 
pearance, I  could  not  well  be  ignorant  of  its  existence.  And 
being  aware  of  its  existence,  I  could  not  possibly  have  charged 
M.  Flourens  with  taking  any  part  in  a  "  conspiracy  of  silence." 

The  "effect"  of  the  known  repugnance  to  Mr.  Darwin's 
views  of  some  of  the  most  prominent  members  of  the  Institute, 
to  which  I  refer,  is  the  effect  upon  the  younger  generation  of 
French  naturalists.  Considering  the  influence  of  the  Institute 
upon  scientific  appointments,  the  chances  of  a  candidate  known 
to  be  an  evolutionist  would  have  been  small  indeed ;  and 
prudence  dictated  silence. 

Mr.  Carlyle  has  celebrated  the  courag?,  if  not  the  discretion, 
of  a  certain  "  Rex  Sigismundus,"  who,  his  Latin  being  called  in 
question,  declared  that  he  was,  as  a  Royal  personage,  "supra 
grammaticam."  The  Duke  of  Argyll  appears  to  be  of  King 
Sigismund's  opinion  in  respect  of  the  obligations  which  are  felt 
by  humbler  persons,  who  have,  wittingly  or  unwittingly,  accused 
their  fellows  wrongfully  ;  and  I  do  not  suppose  that  he  will 
descend,  on  my  account,  from  a  position  which  may  be  sublime 
or  may  be  ridiculous,  according  to  one's  point  of  view.  The 
readers  of  Nature  will  choose  their  own. 

T.  H.  Huxley. 

Bournemouth,  February  4. 

'  "  Life  and  Letters  of  Charles  Darwin,"  vol.  ii.  pp.  185-85. 


An  Explanation. 


Since  the  Duke  of  Argyll's  references  to  myself  have  been 
interpreted  in  a  manner  likely  to  convey  an  erroneous  impression  . 
to  the  readers  of  Nature,  it  seems  to  me  to  be  now  necessary  to 
give  some  explanation  of  the  facts  in  which  I  am  concerned.  I 
intend,  however,  to  go  no  further  than  to  establish  the  position 
his  Grace  has  taken  up  as  regards  myself  Such  a  step,  savour- 
ing somewhat  of  presumption  on  my  part,  would  not  have  been 
taken  if  Prof.  Judd  had  admitted  that,  although  no  paper  of  mine 
was  ever  before  the  Council  of  the  Geological  Society,  an  offer  to 
present  such  a  paper  was,  doubtless  for  sufficient  reasons,  at  once 
declined. 

In  the  spring  of  1885,  by  the  advice  of  Mr.  Murray,  who  had 
been  for  some  time  engaged  in  examining  my  recent  geological 
collections  from  the  Solomon  Islands,  I  offered  to  Prof.  Judd, 
then  Secretary  of  the  Geological  Society,  to  present  my  observa- 
tions on  the  upraised  coral-reef  formations  in  th2  form  of  a 
paper,  in  which,  as  I  slated,  Mr.  Darwin's  theory  of  coral  reefs 
would  be  brought  under  consideration.  This-ofFer  being  declined, 
my  observations  were  taken  up  by  Mr.  Murray  and  were  pub- 
lished in  the  Transactions  of  the  Royal  Society  of  Edinburgh  for 
1885.  As  I  saw  too  plainly  that  the  new  view  of  the  origin  of  coral 
reefs  was  very  far  from  being  generally  accepted,  I  deemed  it 
advisable  in  preparing  my  paper  to  draw  no  inferences  and  to 
allow  the  facts  to  speak  for  themselves.  However,  f-ix  months 
after  the  reading  of  the  paper,  whilst  going  over  the  proofs, 
having  been  assured  that  the  theory  of  Mr.  Darwin  was  rapidly 
losing  ground,  I  appended  some  remarks  in  which  I  gave  the 
general  bearing  of  my  discoveries. 

Had  I  harboured  a  desire  in  my  mind  to  record  any  dis- 
appointment in  connection  with  the  appreciation  of  my  work,  I 
might  have  done  so  in  the  preface  of  my  small  geological  volume 
recently  published.  The  reflection  that  I  had  succeeded,  and 
that  Mr.  Murray's  views,  as  I  was  told,  were  being  generally 
received,  gave  me  ample  grounds  for  satisfaction  ;  and  there  was 
therefore  no  reason  why  1  should  refer  to  any  difficulties  of  a 
personal  character.  I  must  confess,  howeve--,  I  was  afterwards 
deeply  disappointed  on  finding  that,  although  the  nature  of  my 
discoveries  was  first  announced  in  the  columns  of  this  journal  in 
January  1884,  whilst  the  observations  theu  selves  had  been  nearly 
two  years  before  the  world,  my  name  and  work  were  studiously 
ignored  in  the  recent  controversy  by  those  who  spoke  on  behalf 
of  English  men  of  science,  and  particularly  on  behalf  of  the 
Geological  Society.  Naturally  it  was  there  that  I  looked  most 
for  approval.  I  soon  perceived,  however,  that  it  could  not  be  in 
the  want  of  publicity  that  the  reason  lay,  nor  even  in  the  in- 
sufficient lapse  of  time  since  the  publication  of  my  papers.  Long 
abstracts  were  given  in  the  columns  of  this  journal  of  the  principal 
paper  (Trans.  Ed.  Roy.  Soc,  1885),  and  of  a  paper  also  read 
before  the  Royal  Society  of  Edinburgh  (Proc,  1886).  At  the 
beginning  of  1885  (or  perhaps  earlier)  I  sent  to  Prof  Judd  a 
blue  pamphlet  published  in  New  Zealand,  in  which  I  briefly 
described  the  discoveries  I  had  made  up  to  the  end  of  1883. 
At  the  beginning  of  1886  I  sent  to  him  my  principal  Edinburgh 
paper  of  the  previous  year. 

It  then  occurred  to  me  that  since  Prof  Dana's  last  paper,  of 
September  1885,  was  the  chief  rallying  point  of  the  opponents 
of  Mr.  Murray's  views,  the  cue  in  estimating  the  value  of  my 
work  might  have  been  thence  derived.  I  found,  however,  that 
Prof.  Dana  had  only  before  him,  when  referring  to  my  dis- 
coveries, an  extract  from  a  private  letter  of  mine  t<)  Mr.  Murray 
written  in  the  midst  of  my  work,  and  published  in  Nature  in 
January  1884.  Rightly  enough,  he  did  not  consider  such  a 
brief  account  as  at  ail  conclusive.  My  published  observations 
had  yet  to  come  before  him.  It  was  not,  therefore,  from  the 
other  side  of  the  Atlantic  that  in  estimating  the  value  of  my 
observations  Mr.  Murray's  opponents  had  taken  their  cue. 

I  was  forced,  therefore,  to  the  conclusion  that  the  reason  lay 
rather  in  the  competency  than  in  the  bearing  of  my  observations. 
I  could  find  no  other  explanation  of  the  fact  that  in  the  succes- 
s-ion of  replies  to  the  Duke  of  Argyll's  article,  entitled  "A 
Great  Lesson,"  no  reference  whatever  was  made  to  the  recent 
important  evidence  I  had  adduced — evidence  of  which  at  least 
one  of  the  writers  had  been  previously  aware  during  a  period  of 
two  if  not  three  years.  Under  these  circumstances,  I  accei  ted 
the  decision  which  the  lapse  of  nearly  three  years  had  not 
afTected ;  and,  having  naturally  some  degree  of  sensitiveness,  I 
withdrew  from  the  Geological  Society.^ 

'   Mr.  Guppy  was  induced  afterwards  to  withdraw  his  resignation. — Ed. 

Nature. 


Feb.  9,  1888] 


NATURE 


343 


In  conclusion,  I  may  say  that  these,  circumstances  do  not 
alter  my  conviction  of  fighting  on  the  winning  side.  The 
reasons  of  my  faith  I  hope  to  give  in  the  next  journal  of  the 
Royal  Scottish  Geographical  Society.  H.   B.  Guppy. 

17  Woodlane,  Falmouth. 


Snow  Crystals. 

Yesterday  was  very  favourable  for  observing  the  beautiful 
appearance  of  sunlight  reflected  from  snow  crystals.  As  one 
walked  across  a  field,  stars  appeared  to  start  forth  by  thousands 
from  amongst  the  fresh-fallen  snow.  They  were  particularly 
bright  and  numerous  when  one  walked  in  the  direction  of  the  sun. 
They  appeared  almost  at  all  distances,  and  almost  of  all  sizes, 
those  near  at  hand  being  never  very  large  but  of  great  brilliancy 
and  most  exquisite  colour.  The  phenomenon  was  sufficiently 
striking  to  induce  me  to  stop  and  observe  it  more  closely,  and 
the  first  thing  I  noticed  on  stopping  was  the  permanence  of 
each  little  star  of  light,  although  the  snow  was  dropping  melted 
from  the  hedges  and  trees  by  the  heat  of  the  sun.  A  slight 
movement  of  the  head  was  sufficient  to  change  the  colour  of  a 
red  star  to  green  or  vice  versa.  It  seemed  as  if  the  most  brilliant 
colours  were  seen  when  looking  in  a  direction  nearly  but  not 
quite  towards  the  sun.  The  level  surface  of  the  Snow  appeared 
as  if  strewn  with  gems — and  not  only  near  at  hand,  for  even 
twenty  and  thirty  yards  away  a  large  star  would  shine  forth 
with  a  subdued  but  fine  colour.  I  then  noticed  a  peculiar  uni- 
formity of  shape  in  these  reflect'ons  from  snow  crystals.  The 
shape  never  varied  from  that  of  a  blunt  arrow-head.  This  was 
very  striking  in  the  large  stars  which  appeared  at  a  distance  ; 
but  once  noticed,  it  was  obvious  enough  that  even  the  minute 
specks  at  one's  feet  were  all  of  this  form.  Nor  did  the  position 
of  the  snow  vary  to  any  appreciable  extent.  The  inclination 
seemed  always  a  little  to  the  right,  and  this  occurred  no 
matter  in  what  direction  I  looked,  whether  towards  the  sun, 
or  away  from  it,  or  in  any  other  direction.  Wishing  to  know 
the  absolute  size  of  the  larger  snow  crystals,  or  combination 
of  crystals,  I  looked  for  a  fine  appearance,  and  estimated  as 
well  as  I  could  its  magnitude  by  covering  it  with  a  small 
object  held  at  arm's  length.  The  distance  of  the  spot  where 
the  crystal  appeared  proved  to  be  forty-three  paces  from  where 
I  stood,  and  its  magnitude  could  not  have  been  much  less  than 
three  inches  in  this  particular  case.  Now  if,  as  I  suspect,  the 
form  of  the  star  which  appears  so  persistently  is  due  to  the  upper 
or  lower  stem  only  of  a  complete  arrangement  of  crystals  in  an 
hexagonal  shape,  these  combinations  must  occasionally  be  six 
inches  or  more  in  diameter.  I  did  not  succeed  in  recognizing 
any  larger  than  very  minute  arrangements  of  crystals  in  the  snow 
itself,  but  it  is  obvious  that  the  sun's  rays  reflected  from  a  long 
distance  must  single  out  those  faces  of  crystals  which  happen  to 
be  parallel  to  one  another  over  a  certain  limited  area.  Obser- 
vation of  these  reflections,  therefore,  calls  in  to  our  aid  a  power 
of  analysis  in  the  sun's  rays  to  detect  symmetrical  arrangements 
of  snow  crystals  quite  unrecognizable  by  mere  inspection. 
Might  I  ask  for  some  explanation  of  the  phenomena? 

Hull,  January  30.  A.  N.  S. 


"  The  Mammoth  and  the  Flood." 

Mr.  Howorth's  letter  does  little  more  than  travel  aj;ain  over 
old  ground,  and  two  only  of  the  points  raised  require  any  notice 
on  my  part ;  the  third — the  value  to  be  attributed  to  the  opinion 
of  any  particular  geologist — being  immaterial  to  the  main  ques- 
tion. As  another  President  of  the  Geological  Society  has  said  : 
"  Science  needs  no  infallible  Church,  and  admits  of  no   Pope." 

In  regard  to  the  localities  in  which  mammoth  remains  have 
been  found,  I  have  not  "resuscitated"  any  theory,  but  have 
taken  my  facts  from  Mr.  Howorth's  book.  His  second  letter 
appeai-s  to  me  to  ignore  a  distinction  which  I  was  careful  to  draw 
in  my  reply  to  his  f  )rmer  one.  That  mammoth  bones  should  be 
found  at  considerable  distances  from,  and  elevations  above,  the 
existing  rivers,  offers  no  difficulty.  Indeed,  they  could  not  occur, 
except  accidentally,  in  deltas  which  are  now  in  course  of  forma- 
tion. But,  so  far  as  I  can  ascertain,  there  is  no  reason  why 
these  "beds  of  clay  and  gravel"  should  not  be  deposits  of 
rivers  wliich  drained  the  same  regioas  under  different  climatal 
conditions,  in  the  distant  ages  when  the  mammoth  lived  in 
Siberia.  The  case  is  precisely  similar  in  England.  We  should 
not  expect  to  find  mammoth  bones  in  the  mud-flats  about  the 
mouths  of  our  southern  rivers,  but  in  the  old  valley  gravels  which 


occur  sometimes  even  90  or  100  feet  above  the  present  level  of 
the  rivers.  But  the  facts  most  difficult  to  explain  are  the  occur- 
rences of  the  carcasses  of  mammoths.  It  was  of  these,  and  of 
these  only,  that  I  was  speaking  in  my  letter,  as  I  think  would 
be  clear  to  most  readers.  No  geologist,  so  far  as  I  know,  would 
deny  tliat  the  Siberian  climate  has  considerably  changed  since 
the  mammoth  wandered  over  its  tundras,  and  very  likely  not 
seldom  got  bogged  ;  but  the  question  is.  Has  it  changed  sud- 
denly or  gradually  ?  The  occurrence  of  the  frozen  carcass  is 
undoubtedly  most  simply  explained  by  postulating  a  sudden 
change ;  but  when  we  begin  to  consider  what  this  means,  the 
remedy,  though  apparently  so  simple,  seems  as  heroic  as  that  of 
the  father  "who  cut  off"  his  little  boy's  head  to  cure  him  of 
squinting."  It  is  then  for  the  best  preserved  of  these  frozen 
carcasses  that  I  suggest  the  possibility  of  a  drifting  and  a  gradual 
entombment  by  the  deposits  of  the  ancient  rivers.  I  have  again 
consulted  Mr.  Howorth's  book,  and  find,  between  pp.  82  and  89, 
notices  of  the  discovery  of  at  least  ten  mammoth  carcasses,  mostly 
occurring  very  far  north  in  Siberia,  and  nearly  all  mentioned  in 
connection  with  rivers:  of  one  it  is  even  said,  "like  most  of 
the  others,  it  is  found  on  the  bank  of  the  river,  which  had  been 
undermined  by  floods." 

Mr.  Howorth  further  asserts  that  I  cannot  have  read  his  bDok 
because  I  charge  him  with  invoking  a  series  of  catastrophes 
when  he  argues  "in  favour  of  one  catastrophe  only."  But,  not- 
withstanding his  disclaimer,  I  would  like  to  know  how  we  are  to 
bring  about  a  deluge  to  drown  the  mammoth  and  a  sudden  per- 
manent fall  in  temperature  to  freeze  his  carcass  (query,  one 
catastrophe,  or  two?)  without  "a  series  of  catastrophes."  I 
presume  that,  as  this  is  a  scientific  question,  we  must  not  invoke 
a  miracle.  If  continents  gambolled  like  whales — which  would 
be  needed  for  Mr.  H  )worth's  far-reaching  flood — would  this, 
unless  there  were  a  very  special  arrangement  of  continents,  so 
materially  alter  the  climate?  and,  if  they  did  so  disport  them- 
selves, what  set  them  dancing  ?  If  a  number  of  insular  volcanoes 
exploded  with  twenty-Krakata"b  force,  this  would  be  a  series  of 
catastrophes,  but  it  would  probably  -leave  the  climate  unchanged. 
If  the  earth's  axis  of  rotation  were  suddenly  altered  materially 
in  position — perhaps  the  simplest  mode  of  bringing  about  the  two 
results  —would  no  catastrophic  changes  be  needed  to  effect  this 
alteration  ?  Mr.  Howorth's  retort,  in  fact,  indicates  better  than 
anything  which  I  can  write  how  completely  he  has  failed  to 
realize  the  conditi  )ns  of  the  problem  which  he  attempts  to 
solve. 

But  enough.  It  is  Impossible  for  me  to  continue  this  corre- 
spondence. The  reviewer's  task  is  often  not  a  very  pleasant  one, 
but  a  new  terror  would  be  added  to  the  work  if  it  involved  an 
interminable  controversy  with  authors  on  matters  of  opinion. 
Dreading  this,  I  deliberately  abstained  from  signing  the  review, 
because  I  knew  from  past  experience  that  this  was  my  only 
chance  of  escape  from  the  flood  of  Mr.  Howorth's  controversial 
eloquence,  which,  like  the  proverbial  river,  Labitttr  el  labetur  in 
o/nne  vohibilis  cevuin.  YoUR  Reviewer. 


An  Incorrect  Footnote  and  its  Consequences. 

In  following  up  Baltzer's  erroneous  reference  concerning  the 
"  Demonstratio  eliminationis  Crameriante,"  Mr.  Muir,  as  de- 
scribed in  his  letter  on  p.  246,  seems  at  first  to  have  been 
singularly  unlucky.  For,  on  referring  to  the  catalogue  of  Lord 
Crawford's  mathematical  library  under  "Mollweide,"  although 
the  work  itself  was  not  immediately  forthcoming,  there  was  a 
cross-reference  to  "  Prasse,  M.  von,"  under  who:e  name  the 
essay  was  duly  catalogued.  The  Dun  Echt  copies,  for  there  are 
two  of  them  bound  up  in  volumes  of  mathematical  pamphlets, 
are  copies  of  the  original  "Demonstratio,"  in  8  folios,  with  the 
pajes4  to  15  numbered,  and  the  last  blank.  In  a  gap  on  the 
title-page  of  one  copy  has  been  written  "  auct.  Mauricius  de 
Prasse,"  apparently  long  ago,  and  in  a  German  han  1.  But  apart 
from  this  the  last  sentence  of  the  first  paragraph  identifies  the 
author  as  the  writer  of  "  Usus  logarithmorum,"  which  bears 
the  same  Latin  form  of  the  name  in  print. 

The  cross-reference  is  due  to  the  presence  in  the  library  of  a 
little  book  the  title  of  which  is  worth  giving  in  full,  as  it 
contains  the  names  between  which  Baltzer's  mistake  arose,  and 
it  also  gives  the  German  form  of  von  Prasse's  name :  it  is 
"  Logarithmische  Tafeln  fiir  die  Zahlen,  Sinus  und  Tangenten, 
neu  geordnet  von  Moritz  von  Prasse  ehemals  Prof,  der  Mathe- 
matik  in  Leipzig,  revidirt  und  vermehrt  von  Karl  Brandan 
Mollweide  ordentl.  Prof,  der  Matbematik  in  Leipzig,     Leipzig, 


344 


NATURE 


{Feb.  9,  1888 


1821,"  ix,  +  no  pp.  i6mo.  In  the  preface  Mollweide  says 
that  von  Prasse  was  his  predecessor  in  the  Chair  of  Mathematics, 
as  stated  by  Prof.  Virchl.  This  work  is  entered  under  both 
the  title-names  in  Poggendorff's  "  Biographisch-literarisches 
Hand  wort  erbuch,"  a  circumstance  that  might  have  given  a  clue 
to  the  authorship  of  the  "  Demonstratio."  Strangely  enough, 
this  is  not  the  only  instance  in  which  von  Prasse  omitted  his 
name  in  essays  written  by  him  for  academical  celebrations.  _  I 
can  only  surmise  that  this  was  done  with  a  view  to  republication 
in  his  "  Commentationes  Mathematicas/'and  that  the  name  was 
written  on  the  copies  distributed  as  invitations  to  the  celebra- 
tions. Whatever  the  reason,  it  has  in  this  instance  obviously 
added  greatly  to  the  trouble  ordinarily  experienced  when  dealing 
with  this  class  of  academical  essay,  the  bibliography  of  which 
is  so  complicated,  and  at  the  same  time  often  so  important. 

Ralph  Copet.and. 
Lord  Crawford's  Observatory,  Dun  Echt,  January  25. 


A  New  Historic  Comet  ? 

At  a  recent  meeting  of  the  Asiatic  Society  of  Japan,  a  paper 
was  read  by  Mr.  W.  G.  Aston,  H.B.M.  Consular  Service. 
This  paper  will  certainly  rank  high  amongst  historic  papers  re- 
lating to  Japan  and  Korea.  Briefly  described,  it  is  a  comparison 
between  the  ancient  records  of  these  two  countries  and  China, 
and  its  aim  is  to  establish  the  relative  credibility  of  these  various 
records.  Mr.  Aston  has  so  far  confined  his  attention  to  the 
period  preceding  A.  D.  500;  and  his  general  conclusion  is  that, 
as  historic  writings,  the  Korean  and  Chinese  chronicles  are 
far  superior  to  the  Japanese  of  the  same  date. 

In  the  Tongkan,  as  the  ancient  records  of  the  Korean  king- 
doms are  called,  there  is  a  notice,  of  which  the  following  is  a 
translation  :  "  Summer,  fourth  month,  Pekche  ;  comet  visible  ; 
day-time."  The  fourth  month  began  on  May  14  or  15.  At 
the  request  of  Mr.  Aston,  I  tried  to  find  out  if  any  such 
comet  had  been  observed  elsewhere.  The  only  list  of  historic 
comets  obtainable  in  Japan  was  the  list  given  in  Faye's 
"  Astronomy"  ;  and  I  am  not  sure  if  this  is  meant  to  be  com- 
plete. According  to  Mr.  Aston,  the  Pekche  comet  appeared 
in  May  or  June,  a.d.  302.  The  nearest  date  in  Faye's  list  is 
A.D.  295.  If  this  is  the  same  comet,  then  one  at  least  of  the 
dates  must  be  wrong.  It  is  quite  possible,  however,  that  both 
are  correct ;  in  which  case  we  shall  be  indebted  to  Mr.  Aston 
for  having  added  one  more  to  our  list  of  historic  comets.  In 
coming  to  a  conclusion,  we  must  know  to  what  source  we  owe 
the  knowledge  of  the  295  comet,  and  whether  this  source  has 
greater  claims  to  chronological  accuracy  than  have  the  Korean 
records.  Not  having  the  references  at  hand  for  studying  these 
points,  I  have  written  this  note  to  Nature,  in  the  hope  that 
someone  interested  in  the  matter  may  be  able  to  come  to  a 
decision  on  this  question  of  a  possibly  new  historic  comet. 

Cargill  G.  Knott. 

Imperial  University,  Tokio,  Japan,  December  19,  1887. 


"Is  Hail  so  formed?" 

Under  the  above  heading  in  Nature  of  January  26  (jd.  295) 
there  is  a  short  paper  by  Cecil  Carus-Wilson,  in  which  the 
writer  assumes  that  under  certain  conditions,  drops  of  water, 
whilst  falling  from  the  upper  branches  of  a  tree,  become  converted 
into  ice  before  reaching  the  ground,  whilst  other  drops  falling  from 
the  same  tree,  but  at  10  feet  less  altitude,  came  to  the  ground  in  a 
fluid  state.  There  is,  I  think,  a  simpler  solution  of  this  question 
than  the  one  given.  Suppose  the  following  conditions — namely, 
a  frost  sufficiently  severe  as  to  lower  the  temperature  of  the 
leaves  and  branches  of  a  tree  to  a  few  degrees  below  the  freezing- 
point  ;  after  which  a  very  gradual  thaw  comes  on,  accompanied 
by  a  fine  rain  or  Scotch  mist  which  freezes  on  the  tree. 

Where  the  leaves  and  smaller  branches  hang  downwards,  small 
beads  of  ice  would  form  on  their  points.  As  the  air  became  warmer 
the  ice  would  thaw,  and  fall  to  the  ground  either  in  the  liquid 
form,  or  the  beads  at  the  ends  of  the  leaves  and  twigs  would 
become  detached  in  their  solid  state,  and  reach  the  ground  as 
ice-pellets. 

Sometimes  these  ice  pellets  extend  in  length,  and  assume  the 
form'of  small  icicles.  J.  Kae. 

4  Addison  Gardens,  January  28. 


MODERN  VIEWS  OF  ELECTRICITY.^ 

Part  III.  {continued). 

VII. 

First  Representation  of  the  Field  due  to  a  Current. 

RETURN  now  to  the  consideration  of,a  simple  circuit, 
or,  say,  a  linear  conductor,  and  start  a  current  through 
it ;  how  are  we  to  picture  the  rise  of  the  lines  of  force  in 
the  medium  ?  how  shall  we  represent  the  spread  of  mag- 
netic induction  "i  First  think  of  the  current  as  exciting 
the  field  (instead  of  the  field  as  exciting  the  current, 
which  may  be  the  truer  plan  ultimately). 


Fig. 


If  we  can  think  of  electricity  in  the  several  molecules 
of  the  insulating  medium  connected  like  so  many  cog- 
wheels gearing  into  one  another  and  also  into  those  of 
the  metal,  it  is  easy  to  picture  a  sideways  spread  of  rota- 
tion brought  about  by  the  current,  just  as  a  moving  rack 
will  rotate  a  set  of  pinions  gearing  into  it  and  into  each 
other  (Fig.  34).  But  then  half  the  wheels  will  be  rotating 
one  way  and  half  the  other  way,  which  is  not  exactly 
right. 

How  is  it  possible  for  a  set  of  parallel  whirls  to  be  all 
rotating  in  the  same  direction  ? 


000 
000 


Fig.  35. 

If  there  is  any  sort  of  connection  between  them  they 
will  stop  each  other,  because  they  are  moving  in  opposite 
directions  at  their  nearest  points  ;  and  yet,  if  there  is  no 
connection,  how  can  the  whirl  spread  through  the  field  ? 

Well,  return  to  the  old  models  by  which  we  endea- 
voured to  explain  electrostatics,  and  think  whether  they 
will  help  us  if  we  proceed  to  superpose  upon  them  a 
magnetic  whirl  in  addition  to  the  properties  they  already 


Fig.  36." 


-Rows  of  cells  alternately  positive  and  negative,  geared  together; 
free  to  turn  about  fixed  axles. 


possess.  Looking  at  Figs.  5,  6,  and  13,  we  remember  we 
were  led  to  picture  atoms  and  electricity  like  beads 
threaded  on  a  cord.  And  these  cords  had  to  represent, 
alternately,  positive  and  negative  electricity,  which  always 
got  displaced  in  different  directions. 

We  are  forced  to  a  similar  sort  of  notion  in  respect  of 
the  wheels  at  present   under  discussion  :  in  order  that 

'  Continued  from  p.  323. 


Feb,^,  1888] 


NATURE 


345 


they  may  co-operate  properly,  they  must  represent  posi- 
tive and  negative  electricity  alternately.  If  they  then 
rotate  alternately  in  opposite  directions,  all  is  well,  and 
the  electrical  circulation  or  rotation  in  the  field  is  all  in 
one  direction.  Each  wheel  gears  into  and  turns  the  next, 
and  so  the  spin  gets  propagated  right  away  through  the 
medium,  at  a  speed  depending  on  the  elasticity  and 
density  concerned  in  such  disturbances. 

It  is  not  convenient  at  the  present  stage  to  ask  the 
question  whether  the  wheels  represent  atoms  of  matter 
or  merely  electricity.  It  may  be  that  each  atom  is 
electrostatically  charged  and  itself  rotates,  in  which  case 
it  would  carry  its  charge  round  with  it,  and  thereby  con- 
stitute the  desired  molecular  current. 

The  apparent  inertia  of  electricity  would  thus  be 
explained  simply  enough,  as  really  the  inertia  of  the 
spinning  atoms  themselves ;  and  the  absence  of  any 
moment  of  momentum  in  an  electro-magnet  as  tested 
mechanically  would  be  equally  explained  by  the  simul- 
taneous opposite  rotation  of  adjacent  atoms.  .  A  question 
may  arise  as  to  why  the  opposite  molecules  should  have 
exactly  equal  opposite  inertitC,  as  they  have,  else  a  fluid 
magnetized  medium  would  bodily  rotate  ;  and  there  nay 
be  other  difficulties  connected  with  a  bodily  rotation  of 
electrostatically  charged  molecules  :  it  is  merely  a  possi- 
bility upon  which  stress  must  not  be  laid  till  it  has  been 
proved  able  to  bear  it.  For  our  present  purpose  a  spin 
of  the  electricity  inside  each  atom,  or  even  independently 


row  slip,  then  the  direct  and  return  circuit  are  on  opposite 
sides  of  the  row.  But  a  large  area  of  any  shape  with  nc 
slip  inside  it  may  be  inclosed  by  a  line  of  slip,  and  this 
gives  us  a  circuit  of  any  shape,  but  always  closed.  Under- 
stand :  one  is  not  here  thinking  of  a  current  as  analogous 
to  a  locomotion  of  the  wheels — their  axes  may  be  quite 
stationary, — the  slip  contemplated  is  that  of  one  rim  on 
another. 

Imagine  all  the  wheels  inside  the  empty  contour  of 
Fig.  38  to  be  rotating,  the  positive  clockwise,  the  negative 
counter  clockwise,  and  let  all  those  outside  the  contour 
be  either  stationary  or  rotating  at  a  different  rate  or  in 


Fig.  37. — Portion  of  a  magnetic  field.     Aoother  mode  of  drawing  Fig.  36. 

of  any  atoms,  is  quite  sufficient.  Besides,  since  magnetic 
induction  can  spread  through  a  vacuum  quite  easily,  the 
wheel-work  has  to  be  largely  independent  of  material 
atoms. 

If  any  difficulty  is  felt  concerning  the  void  spaces  in 
Fig.  36  it  is  only  necessary  to  draw  it  like  Fig.  37,  which 
does  every  bit  as  well,  and  reduces  the  difficulty  to  any 
desired  minimum. 

Ri'.presentation  of  an  Electric  Current. 

Now  notice  that  in  a  medium  so  constituted  and  mag- 
netized— that  is,  with  all  the  wheel-work  revolving  properly 
— there  is  nothing  of  the  nature  of  an  electric  current  pro- 
ceeding in  any  direction  whatever.  For,  at  every  point 
of  contact  of  two  wheels  the  positive  and  negative  elec- 
tricities are  going  at  the  same  rate  in  the  same  direction  ; 
and  this  is  no  current  at  all.  Only  when  positive  is  going 
one  way  and  negative  going  the  opposite  way,  or  standing 
still,  or  at  least  going  at  a  different  rate,  can  there  be  any 
advance  of  electricity  or  anything  of  the  nature  of  a 
current. 

A  current  is  nevertheless  easily  able  to  be  represented  : 
for  it  only  needs  the  wheels  to  gear  imperfectly  and  to 
work  with  slip.  At  any  such  slipping-place  the  positive 
is  going  faster  than  the  negative,  or  vice  versa,  and  so 
there  is  a  current  there.  A  line  of  slip  among  the  wheels 
corresponds  therefore  to  a  linear  current ;  and,  if  one 
thinks  of  it,  it  is  quite  plain  that  such  a  line  of  slip  must 
always  have  a  closed  contour.  For,  if  only  one  wheel 
slip,  then  the  circuit  is  limited  to  its  circumference  ;  if  a 


Fig.  38.— Diagram  of  a  peripheral  current  partitioned  off  frjm  surrounding 
medium  by  a  perfect  conductor,  which  transmits  no  motion,  and  there- 
fore acts  as  a  perfect  magnetic  screen. 

an  opposite  direction  ;  then  the  boundary  of  the  inside 
region  is  a  line  of  slip  along  which  the  positive  rims  are 
all  travelling  clockwise,  and  the  negative  rims  the  other 
way,  and  hence  it  represents  a  clockwise  positive  current. 
But  it  may  be  said  that  the  spin  inside  the  contour,  if 
maintained,  must  sooner  or  later  rotate  the  wheels  outside 
as  fast  as  themselves,  and  then  all  slip  will  cease.  Yes, 
that  is  so,  unless  there  is  a  complete  breach  of  connection 
at  the  contour,  as  in  Fig.  38  there  is.  If  the  outer  region 
has  any  sort  of  connection  with  the  inner  one  the  slip  at 
its  boundary  can  only  be  temporary,  lasting  during  the 
era  of  acceleration. 

Distinction  between  a  Dielectric  and  a  Metal,  as  affected 
by  a  spreading  Magnetic  Field. 

In  a  dielectric  the  connection  between  the  atoms  is 
definite  and  perfect.  If  one  rotates,  the  next  must  rotate 
too  ;  there  is  no  slip  between  the  geared  surfaces  ;  it 
is  a  case  of  cogged  wheels.  A  conduction-current  is 
impossible. 

But  in  a  metallic  conductor  the  gearing  is  imperfect ;  it 
is  a  case  of  friction-gearing  with  more  or  less  lubrication 
and  slip,  so  that  turning  one  wheel  only  starts  the  next 
gradually— it  may  be  very  quickly,  but  not  instantaneously 
— and  there  is  a  motion  of  a  positive  rim  incompletely 
compensated  by  an  equal  similar  motion  of  a  negative 
rim  while  getting  up  speed ;  in  other  words,  there  is  a 
momentary  electric  current,  lasting  till  the  wheels  have 
fairly  started. 

In  a  perfect  conductor  the  gearing  is  absent ;  the  lubri- 

j  cation  is  so  perfect  that  all  the  atoms  are  quite  free  of  one 

another,  and  accordingly  a  spin  ceases  to  be  transmitted 

into  such  a  medium  at  all.     The  only  possible  current  in 

a  perfect  conductor  is  a  skin-deep  phenomenon. 

A  magnetized  medium  of  whatever  sort  is  thus  to  be 
regarded  as  full  of  spinning  wheels,  the  positive  rotating 
one  way  and  the  negative  the  other  way.  If  the  medium 
is  not  magnetized,  but  only  magnetic — i.e.  capable  of 
being  magnetized — it  may  be  thought  of  either  as  having 
its  wheels  stationary,  or  as  having  them  facing  all  ways  at 
random  ;  the  latter  being  probably  the  truer,  the  former 
the  easier,  representation,  at  least  to  begin  with. 


346 


NATURE 


{Feb.  9,  1888 


Whether  the  medium  be  conducting  or  insulating  makes 
no  difference  to  the  general  fact  of  spinning  wheels  inside 
it  wherever  lines  of  force  penetrate  it ;  but  the  wheels  of  a 
conductor  are  imperfectly  cogged  together,  and  accordingly 
in  the  variable  stages  of  a  magnetic  field,  while  its  spin  is 
either  increasing  or  decreasing,  there  is  a  very  important 
distinction  to  be  drawn  between  insulating  and  conducting 
matter.  During  the  accelerating  era  conducting  matter 
is  full  of  slip,  and  a  certain  time  elapses  before  a  steady 
state  is  reached.  A  certain  time  may  be  necessary  for 
the  propagation  of  spin  in  a  dielectric,  but  it  is  excessively 
short,  and  the  process  is  unaccompanied  by  slip,  only  by 
slight  distortion  and  recovery.  As  for  a  strongly  magnetic 
substance  like  iron,  nickel,  or  cobalt,  one  must  regard 
them  as  constituted  in  the  same  sort  of  way,  but  with 
wheels  greatly  more  massive,  or  very  much  more 
numerous,  or  both. 

Phenomena  connected  with  a  varyhtg  Current.     Nature 
of  Self-induction. 

Proceed  now  to  think  what  happens  in  the  region 
round  a  conductor  in  which  a  current  is  rising.  Without 
attempting  a  complete  and  satisfactory  representation  of 
what  is  going  on,  we  can  think  of  some  mechanical 
arrangements  which  have  some  analogy  with  electrical 
processes,  but  do  not  pretend  to  imitate  them  exactly. 

Take  first  a  system  of  wheel-work  connected  together 
and  moved  at  some  point  by  a  rack.     Attend  to  alternate 


Fig.  39.— a  p-ovisional  representation  of  a  current  surrounded  by  dielectric 
medium,  either  propelling  or  being  propelled. 

wheels  more  especially,  as  representing  positive  elec- 
tricity. The  intermediate  negative  wheels  are  necessary 
for  the  transmission  of  the  motion,  and  they  also  serve  to 
neutrahze  all  systematic  advance  of  positive  electricity  in 
any  one  direction,  except  where  slip  occurs,  but  they 
need  not  otherwise  be  specially  attended  to. 

Remember  that  every  wheel  is  endowed  with  inertia, 
like  a  fly-wheel. 

Directly  the  rack  begins  to  move,  the  wheels  begin  to 
rotate,  and  in  a  short  time  they  will  all  be  going  full 
speed.  Until  they  are  so  moving,  the  motion  of  the 
rack  is  opposed,  not  by  friction  cr  ordinary  resistance, 
but  by  the  inertia  of  the  wheel-work. 

This  inertia  represents  what  is  called  self-induction, 
and  the  result  of  it  is  what  has  been  called  the  "  extra 
current  at  make,"  or,  more  satisfactorily,  the  opposing 
E.M.F.  of  electro-magnetic  inertia  or  self-induction. 

So  long  as  the  rack  moves  steadily  forward,  the  wheel- 
work  has  no  further  effect  upon  it  ;  but  directly  it  tries  to 
stop,  it  finds  itself  unable  to  stop  dead  without  great 
violence  :  its  motion  is  prolonged  for  a  short  time  by  the 
inertia  of  the  wheel-work,  and  we  have  what  is  known  as 
the  "  extra  current  at  break." 

If  the  rack  is  for  a  moment  taken  to  represent 
the  advancing  electricity  in  a  copper  wire,  then  the 
diagram  may  be  regarded  as  a  section  of  the  complete 


field  :  the  complete  field  being  obtained  from  it  by  rotat- 
ing it  round  the  axis  of  the  wire.  Imagining  this  done, 
we  see  that  the  axis  of  each  wheel  becomes  prolonged 
into  a  circular  core,  and  each  wheel  into  a  circular  vortex 
ring  surrounding  the  rack  and  rolling  down  it  as  it  moves 
forward,  as  when  a  stick  is  pushed  through  a  tight-fitting 
umbrella-ring  held  stationary  (see  Fig.  30  b). 

As  one  goes  further  and  further  from  the  rack  the 
lengths  of  the  vortex  cores  increase,  but  there  is  only  a 
given  amount  of  rotation  to  be  shared  among  more  and 
more  stuff,  hence  it  is  not  difficult  to  imagine  the  rate  of 
spin  diminishing  as  the  distance  increases,  so  that  at  a 
reasonable  distance  from  the  conductor  the  medium  is 
scarcely  disturbed. 

To  perceive  how  much  rotation  of  the  medium  is 
associated  with  a  given  circuit,  one  must  consider  the 
shape  of  its  contour — the  position  of  the  return  current. 
Take  first  a  long  narrow  loop  and  send  a  current  up  one 
side  and  down  the  other.  The  rotations  belonging  to 
each  are  superposed,  and  though  they  agree  in  direction 
for  the  space  inclosed  by  the  loop,  they  oppose  each  other 
outside,  and  so  there  is  barely  any  disturbance  of  the 
medium  outside  such  a  looped  conductor ;  very  little 
dielectric  is  disturbed  at  all,  and  accordingly  the  inertia 
or  self-induction  is  very  small. 

If  the  loop  opens  out  so  as  to  inclose  an  area,  as  the 
centrifugal  force  of  the  wheels  will  tend  to  make  it  do, 


Fio.  40. -^Diagram  of  a  direct  and  return  current  close  together,  showing 
distribution  of  rotation  and  of  slip  in  tie  thickness  of  t'le  conductor, 
and  in  the  dielectric  between.  The  dielectr.c  outside  is  very  little 
disturbed. 


then  there  is  a  greater  amount  of  rotation,  a  greater 
moment  of  momentum  inside  it,  and  accordingly  its 
self-induction  is  increased.  The  axis  of  every  wheel  is, 
however,  continuous,  and  must  return  outside  the  loop  : 
so  the  outside  region  is  somewhat  affected  by  rotation, 
but  of  a  kind  opposite  to  that  inside. 

Figs.  38  and  41  show  the  state  of  things  for  a  closed 
circuit  conveying  a  current.  The  free  space  in  Fig.  38 
represents  a  perfect  conductor,  or  perfect  breach  of  con- 
nection. Along  one  side  of  this  space  positive  electricity 
is  seen  streaming  in  the  direction  of  the  arrows,  and  it 
may  be  streaming  on  the  other  side  also,  but  nothing 
happens  in  its  interior — which  is  therefore  not  represented. 

The  corresponding  portion  in  Fig.  41  is  intended  for  an 
ordinary  conductor,  full  of  wheels  capable  of  slip.  And 
slip  in  this  case  is  a  continuous  necessity,  for  the  rotation 
on  either  side  of  the  conductor  is  in  opposite  directions, 
so  the  atoms  of  the  conductor  have  to  accommodate 
themselves  as  best  they  can  to  the  conditions  ;  some  of 
them  rotating  one  way,  some  the  other,  and  some  along  a 
certain  neutral  line  of  the  conductor  being  stationary.  If 
a  conductor  is  straight  and  infinitely  long,  the  neutral 
line  of  no  rotation  is  in  the  middle.  If  it  be  a  loop,  the 
neutral  line  is  nearer  the  outside  than  the  inside,  because 
the  rotation  of  the  medium  inside  is  the  strongest.    If  the 


Feb.  9,  1888] 


NATURE 


347 


loop  be  shut  up  to  nothing,  the  neutral  line  is  its  outer 
boundary  or  nearly  so  (Fig.  40).  If,  again,  the  circuit  is 
wound  round  and  round  a  ring,  as  string  might  be  lapped 
upon  a  common  curtain-ring  to  cover  it,  then  the  axes  of 
whirl  are  wholly  inclosed  by  the  wire,  and  there  is  no 
rotation  outside  at  all. 


00000000^ 
^00000000 

000000000 
000000000 

000000000 
000000000 

00000000^ 

00000000 


Fig.  41.— Diagram  of  simple  conducting  circuit  like  a  galvanometer  ring, 
with  the  alternate  connecting- wheels  omitted.  The  same  number  of  di- 
electric wheels  are  drawn  outside  as  inside,  to  indicate  the  fact  that  the 
total  spin  is  equal  inside  ar.d  out,  though  the  outside  is  so  spread  out  as 
to  be  much  less  intense. 

Fig.  42  shows  a  section  of  this  last-mentioned  condition, 
and  here  the  wheels  of  the  dielectric  outside  are  not 
rotating  at  all.  The  inside  is  revolving,  it  may  be  furiously, 
and  so  between  the  inner  and  outer  layers  of  the  conductor 
we  have  a  great  amount  of  slip  and  dissipation  of  energy. 


Fig.  42. — Section  of  a  closed  magnetic  circuit,  or  electric  vortex-ring,  or 
hollow  bent  solenoid  hke  Fig.  29,  inclosing  an  anchor-ring  airspace; 
the  axis  of  the  ring  being  A  B,  the  sections  of  the  core  being  H  and  F. 
The  arrows  indicate  the  intensity  of  the  spin,  i.e.  of  the  magnetic  field, 
which  is  a  maximum  at  the  middle  of  each  section  and  nothing  at  all 
outside.  If  the  core  contains  iron  instead  of  air,  its  wheels  have  to  be 
from  ICO  to  300  times  as  massive  :  slipping  wlieeli  if  solid  iron,  cogged 
wheels  if  a  bundle  of  fine  varnished  iron  wires. 

The  process  of  slip  which  we  have  depicted  goes  on  in 
all  conductors  conveying  a  current,  whether  steady  or 
variable,  and  in  fact  is  the  current.  The  slip  is  neces- 
sarily accompanied  by  dissipation  of  energy  and  pro- 
duction of  heat :  only  in  a  perfect  conductor  can  it  occur 
without  friction.  In  a  steady  current  the  slip  is  uniformly 
distributed  throughout  the  section  of  the  conductor  ;  in 


the  variable  stages  it  is  unequally  distributed,  being  then 
more  concentrated  near  the  periphery  of  the  wire. 

When  a  current  is  started  in  a  wire,  the  outer  layers 
start  first,  and  it  gradually  though  very  quickly  penetrates 
to  the  axis.  Hence  the  lag  or  self-induction  of  a  wire 
upon  itself  is  greater  as  the  wire  is  thicker,  and  also  as  it 
is  made  of  better  conducting  substance.  If  it  is  of  iron, 
the  mass  or  number  of  the  wheels  is  so  great  that  the  lag 
is  much  increased,  and  the  spin  of  its  outer  layers  is 
great  enough  to  produce  the  experimental  effects  dis- 
covered by  Prof.  Hughes. 

One  must  never  confuse  the  slip  with  the  spin.  Slip  is 
current,  spin  is  magnetism.  There  is  no  spin  at  the  axis 
of  a  straight  infinite  wire  conveying  a  current,  and  it 
increases  in  opposite  directions  as  you  recede  from  the 
axis  either  way  ;  arranging  itself  in  circular  vortex  cores 
round  the  axis.  But  the  slip  is  uniformly  distributed  all 
through  the  wire  as  soon  as  the  current  has  reached  the 
steady  state.  The  slip  is  wholly  in  the  direction  of  the 
wire.  The  axes  of  spin  are  all  at  right  angles  to  that 
direction. 

Rise  of  Induced  Current  iti  a  Secondary  Circuit. 

To  study  the  way  in  which  a  magnetic  field  excited  in 
any  manner  spreads  itself  into  and  through  a  conducting 
medium,  look  at  Fig.  43,  and  suppose  the  region  inside 
the  contour  A  B  c  D  to  be  an  ordinary  conducting  region — 
that  is,  full  of  wheels  imperfectly  geared  together,  and 
capable  of  slip. 


Fig.  43.— Diagram  illustrating  the  w.yy  in  which  an  induced  current  arise 
in  a  mass  of  metal  immersed  in  an  increasing  magnetic  field  ;  also  how 
it  decays.  The  dotted  lines  a  b  CD,  e  fg  h,  i  j  k  i.,  are  successive  lines 
of  slip. 

■Directly  the  rack  begins  to  move,  all  the  wheels  outside 
A  B  c  D  begin  to  rotate,  and  quickly  get  up  full  speed. 
The  outer  layer  of  wheels  inside  the  contour  likewise 
begins  to  rotate,  but  not  at  once  ;  there  is  a  slight  delay  in 
getting  them  into  full  motion.  For  the  next  inner  layer 
the  delay  is  rather  greater,  and  so  on.  But  ultimately  the 
motion  penetrates  everywhere  equally,  and  everything  is  in 
a  steady  state. 

But  while  the  process  of  starting  the  wheels  was  going 
on,  a  slip  took  place  round  the  contour  A  B  C p,  and  round 
every  concentric  contour  inside  it  ;  the  periphery  of  the 
positive  wheels  moving  in  a  direction  opposite  to  that  of 
the  wheel  in  contact  with  the  rack,  and  so  suggesting  the 
opposite  induced  current  excited  at  "make"  in  the  sub- 
stance of  a  conductor  near  a  growing  current,  or  generally 
in  an  increasing  magnetic  field. 

The  penetration  of  the  motion  deeper  and  deeper,  and 
the  gradual  dying  away  of  all  slip,  illustrate  also  the  mode 
in  which  this  induced  current  arises  and  gradually  dies 
away,  becoming  nil  as  soon  as  the  magnetic  field  {t.e.  the 
rotation)  has  penetrated  to  the  interior  of  all  conductors 
and  become  permanently  estabhshed  there  as  elsewhere. 

Suppose  the  motion  of  the  rack  now  stopped  :  all  the 
cogged  wheels  stop  too,  though  it  may  be  with  a  jerk  and 


548 


NATURE 


[Feb.  9,  1^88 


some  violence  and  oscillation  due  to  their  momentum  ; 
but  those  inside  the  contour  A  B  c  D  will  continue  moving 
for  a  little  longer.  The  outside  layer  of  this  region  will 
slip  in  such  direction  as  to  illustrate  the  direct  induced 
current  at  "  break,"  and  will  begin  to  stop  first  ;  tfee  slip 
and  the  stop  gradually  penetrating  inwards,  just  as 
happened  during  the  inverse  process,  until  all  trace  of 
rotation  ceases.  This  inverse  slipping  process  is  the 
direct  induced  current  at  "  break." 

Through  a  perfect  conductor  the  disturbance  could 
never  pass,  for  the  slip  of  the  dielectric  wheels  on  its 
outer  skin  would  be  perfect,  and  would  never  penetrate 
any  deeper.  A  superficial  current  lasting  for  ever,  or 
rather  as  long  as  the  magnetic  field  (the  rotation  of  the 
dielectric  wheels)  lasts,  is  all  that  would  be  excited,  and 
it  would  be  a  perfect  magnetic  screen  to  any  dielectric 
beyond  and  inclosed  by  it.  Oliver  J.  Lodge. 

( To  be  cojittnued.) 


THE  BIRDS'-NEST  OR   ELEPHANT  ISLANDS 
OF  THE  MERGUI  ARCHIPELAGO. 

r\^  the  geological  structure  of  this  group  of  islands 
^^  lying  off  the  coast  of  British  Burmah  not  much  is 
yet  known.  Our  readers  will  probably  be  interested  in 
the  following  account  of  a  visit  to  one  portion  of  the 
archipelago,  furnished  by  Commander  Carpenter,  R.N., 
to  the  Hydrographer  of  the  Admiralty,  to  whose  kindness 
we  are  indebted  for  permission  to  publish  it. 

The  remarkable  group  of  islands  called  by  the  Burmans 
Ye-ei-gnet-thaik  (///.  sea-birds'  nests)  is  located  on  the 
south-east  side  of  Domel  Island,  one  of  the  largest  of  the 
Mergui  Archipelago.  It  is  composed  of  six  marble  rocks, 
the  highest  and  largest  of  which,  looo  feet  in  altitude,  and 
about  one  mile  in  length,  is  oval-shaped,  and  rises  very 
abruptly  out  of  a  depth  of  only  5  fathoms.  The  islands 
present  a  very  striking  appearance,  particularly  if  the 
■weather  is  hazy,  when  they  are  not  seen  until  within  five 
or  six  miles,  for  then  they  gradually  loom  out  through  the 
mist  like  some  huge  misshapen  monsters  that  have  strayed 
away  from  civilization.  Their  sides  are  partly  clothed 
with  vegetation  wherever  a  break  in  the  limestone  has  left 
a  cleft  in  which  moisture  and  dust  can  lodge.  Conspicuous 
because  of  its  leaning  attitudes  is  a  species  of  tree-fern 
which  grows  at  any  angle,  but  only  above  a  height  of  200 
feet  from  the  water.  The  face  of  the  rocks  is  reddish, 
partly  from  weathering  and  partly  from  soil,  and  where 
cliffs  exist  the  most  beautiful  though  uncouth  stalactites 
have  been  formed,  showing  grotesque  and  snake-like 
patterns  varying  in  hue  and  shape  till  one  feels  as  if  in 
some  enchanted  land.  But  the  great  feature  of  the  group 
is  the  birds'-nest  caverns,  which  as  a  rule  open  into  the 
sea,  the  entrance  being  below  high-water  mark  ;  fortun- 
ately I  visited  them  at  spring  tides,  and  had  plenty  of 
leisure  to  examine  each  cavern  at  low  water  during  two 
days. 

At  the  south  end  of  the  largest  island  stands  a  "  nine- 
pin  "  of  gray  marble  370  feet  high,  almost  separated  from 
the  rest.  It  is  hollow,  like  a  huge  extinguisher,  and  the 
polished  light-blue  and  yellow  sides  of  the  interior  seem 
to  point  to  its  having  been  hollowed  by  the  swell  of  the 
sea,  which  on  entering  the  cave  would  probably  expend  its 
force  vertically,  the  mouth  of  the  cave  being  open  to  the 
direction  of  the  strongest  seas.  This  sea-stack  forms  the 
western  point  of  a  nearly  circular  cove,  360  yards  in 
diameter,  which  runs  back  into  the  island,  and  the  sides 
of  the  cove  rise  steeply  though  not  perpendicularly  from 
it.  At  the  head  of  the  cove  is  a  perpendicular  wall  of  rock 
over  which  can  just  be  seen  the  1000-foot  summit  in  the 
distance. 

At  half-tide  a  tunnel,  passable  for  a  canoe,  opens  under 
the  wall  of  rock  at  the  head  of  the  cove,  but  a  ship's  gig 
can  only  enter  within  an  hour  of  low-water  spring  tides. 


This  tunnel  has  a  roof  covered  with  large  stalactitic  knobs 
except  at  its  narrowest  part,  where  it  is  apparently  scoured 
smooth  by  the  action  of  the  tidal  rush.  It  is  about  250 
feet  long,  and  4  feet  deep  at  low  water  (the  rise  and  fall 
of  the  tide  being  16  feet),  and  is  covered  with  dripping 
marine  life,  corallines,  small  corals,  Comatulae,  sponges, 
and  sea-horses.  Passing  through  this  submarine  passage 
one  emerges  into  another  circular  crater-shaped  basin 
with  perpendicular  sides.  This  basin  is  only  open  to  the 
sky  ;  caves  here  and  there  enter  it,  some  of  which  may 
perhaps  lead  by  long  tunnels  to  other  basins.  Water  was 
running  freely  into  it  from  the  foot  of  the  cliffs  in  several 
places  as  the  tide  fell,  showing  that  water  spaces  existed, 
and  strange  gurgling  sounds  as  of  air  taking  the  place  of 
water  could  be  heard  now  and  again.  There  were  hardly 
any  signs  of  the  place  being  frequented  by  man  except 
here  and  there  the  worn  ropes  of  birds'-nest  climbers.  It 
was  either  not  the  season  for  the  swallows  or  they  had 
deserted  the  islands,  for  none  were  seen.  A  little  red- 
dish guano  was  noticed  in  some  of  the  caves.  There 
can  be  but  little  traffic  through  the  tunnel  by  which  we 
entered,  for  the  delicate  growth  on  its  sides  was  hardly 
injured. 

On  the  west  side  of  the  northern  large  island  a  lofty 
cavern  is  connected  at  half-tide  with  another  nearly 
circular  basin  of  about  the  same  size  as  that  we  have  just 
described,  but  in  this  case  the  basin  also  opens  into  the 
sea  on  the  east  side  of  the  island.  After  contemplating 
the  cliffs  that  surround  these  basins,  the  general  cir- 
cular contour  of  the  ridges  of  the  islands,  the  under- 
mining action  of  the  sea  at  the  water-line,  which  causes  in 
some  places  an  overhang  of  20  to  25  feet,  and  the  softening 
of  the  marble  surface  of  the  cavern  roofs  by  moisture,  the 
conviction  gradually  forces  itself  on  the  mind  that  these 
circular  basins  were  themselves  at  one  time  the  floors  of 
huge  caverns  ;  that  in  days  gone  by  the  islands  rose  far 
higher,  with  cavern  piled  on  cavern,  and  that  the  work  of 
disintegration  by  solution  and  wave  action  is  slowly 
going  on,  pulling  down  these  marble  monuments  of  a 
giant  age.  Indeed,  here  and  there  a  fall  of  blocks  has 
occurred  lately,  and,  as  there  is  no  shoal  off  the  base  of 
the  slip,  the  destructive  action  is  probably  rapid. 

A  small  oyster  covers  the  rocks  at  the  water-line.  A 
handsome  kingfisher  was  secured  and  sent  to  the  British 
Museum.  A  few  doves  and  an  eagle  or  two  were  the  only 
other  birds  seen,  besides  a  small  bat  in  the  caves.  By 
the  position  of  the  nest-seekers'  ropes,  the  swallows 
appear  to  build  only  on  the  roofs  of  the  caves.  The 
islands  appeared  to  be  entirely  composed  of  a  blue-tinted 
marble.  A  vessel  could  lie  alongside  them  and  lower  the 
cut  blocks  straight  into  her  hold,  but  it  is  probably  of  too 
poor  a  quality  to  be  worth  shipment. 

Alfred  Carpenter. 


PRIZE  FOR  RESEARCHES  IN  NATURAL 
HISTORY. 

IN  accordance  with  the  intentions  of  the  founder,  the 
Committee  of  Schnyder  of  Wartensee's  Foundation, 
Zurich,  have  decided  to  offer  for  the  year  1890  a  prize  for 
the  following  researches  in  natural  history  : — 

"  New  investigations  are  desired  regarding  the  relation 
which  the  formation  of  the  bones  bears  to  the  statics  and 
mechanics  of  the  vertebrate  skeleton.  The  results  of  the 
investigations  as  a  whole  are  to  be  demonstrated  in 
detail  by  way  of  example  on  the  skeleton  of  a  definite 
species." 

The  conditions  are  as  follow  : — • 

Art.  I.  Competitors  for  the  prize  must  send  in  their 
work  in  German,  F>ench,  or  English,  by  September  30, 
1890,  at  the  latest,  to  the  address  given  below  in  Art.  6. 

Art.  2.  The  award  will  be  made  by  a  Committee  con- 
sisting of  the  following  gentlemen  : — Prof.  Hermann  von 


Feb.  9.  1888] 


NATURE 


349 


Meyer,  Zurich  ;  Prof.  L.  Riitimever,  Basle ;  Prof.  H. 
Strasser,  Berne  ;  Prof.  Otto  Mohr,"  Dresden  ;  and  Prof. 
Albert  Heim,  of  Zurich,  representing  the  Committee 
offering  the  prize. 

Art.  3.  The  judges  are  authorized  to  award  a  first 
prize  of  two  thousand  francs  ;  and  a  further  sum  of  one 
thousand  francs  is  placed  at  their  disposal  for  distribution 
in  minor  prizes  according  to  their  discretion. 

Art.  4.  The  work  awarded  the  first  prize  becomes  the 
property  of  the  Foundation  of  Schnyder  of  Wartensee, 
which  will  arrange  with  the  author  regarding  the 
publication  of  the  same. 

Art.  5.  Each  competing  work  must  bear  on  the  title- 
page  a  distinguishing  motto,  and  must  be  accompanied 
by  a  sealed  envelope  containing  the  name  of  the  author, 
and  bearing  on  the  outside  the  same  motto. 

Art.  6.  Competing  works  are  to  be  sent  in  by  the  date 
named  in  Art.  i,  to  the  following  address:  "An  das 
Prasidium  des  Conventes  der  Stadtbibliothek  in  Zurich 
(betreffend  Preisaufgabe  der  Stiftung  von  Schnyder  von 
Wartensee  fijr  1890)." 


NOTES. 
The  death  of  Sir  Henry  Maine,  F.R.S.,  has  created  a  great 
blank  in  the  serious  literature  of  England.  He  was  the  first 
Englishman  who  applied  to  the  study  of  law  and  early  institu- 
tions the  rigid  methods  of  science,  and  the  results  at  which  he 
arrived  marked  an  epoch  in  the  investigation  of  these  subjects. 
His  literary  style,  combining  as  it  did  extraordinary  vigour, 
lucidity,  and  grace,  was  scarcely  less  remarkable  than  his 
grasp  of  far-reaching  principles.  He  died'suddenly,  of  apoplexy, 
at  Cannes,  on  Friday  evening  last.  He  was  in  his  sixty-sixth 
year. 

In  a  letter  received  from  Mr.  John  Whitehead,  dated  Labuan 
December  13,  1887,  that  gentleman  writes :—"  To-day  or  to 
morrow  I  start  for  Kina  Balu,  and  I  hope  to  make  this  a 
famous  and  last  expedition  into  Borneo,  for  I  really  am  in 
wonderful  health  considering  everything,  but  at  the  same  time  I 
am  rather  tired  of  Borneo,  with  its  fevers,  heat,  and  mosquitoes. 
I  hope  to  be  back  in  England  in  August  and  September.  I  do 
not  like  to  brag  of  what.l  hope  to  do,  as  things  are  so  uncertain. 
Natives  may  refuse  to  help  me,  and  may  perhaps  attack  me,  for 
the  country  round  this  fine  mouutain  is  by  no  means  settled." 
On  the  last  occasion  of  his  visiting  Kina  Balu  a  year  ago,  Mr. 
Whitehead  was  only  able  to  remain  a  month  upon  the  moun- 
tain, but  he  discovered  nineteen  new  species  of  birds  in  that  ' 
short  time,  some  of  them  being  really  wonderful  novelties.  He 
now  hopes  to  remain  for  at  least  six  months,  and  this  he  will 
doubtless  be  able  to  do,  if  he  can  secure  supplies  for  his  hunters, 
and  keep  open  his  communication  with  Labuan. 

Mr,  Whitehead's  collections  from  the  island  of  Palawan 
have  now  arrived  in  this  country,  and  a  brief  account  of  them 
will  appear  in  the  April  number  of  the  Ibis.  This  island  has 
already  been  visited  by  Prof.  Steere,  Mr.  Alfred  Everett,  and 
Mr.  E.  Lempriere,  all  of  whom  made  collections  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  Puerto  Princesa.  Mr.  Whitehead's  labours  were 
also  confined  to  the  vicinity  of  this  post,  as  he  was  prevented 
from  visiting  the  interior.  He  has  succeeded,  however,  in  pro- 
curing specimens  of  every  species  met  with  by  the  three  tra- 
vellers above-mentioned,  and  has  besides  obtained  about  sixty 
additional  species,  several  being  new  to  science. 

The  Council  of  the  Royal  Meteorological  Society  have 
arranged  to  hold,  at  25  Great  George  Street,  Westminster,  on 
March  20-23  next,  an  Exhibition  of  Apparatus  connected  with 
Atmospheric  Electricity,  including  lightning-conductors,  photo- 
graphs of  lightning,  and  damaged  objects.  The  Committee  will 
also   be  glad  to  show  any  new  meteorological  instruments  or 


apparatus  invented  or  first  constructed  since  last  March  ;  as  well 
as  photographs  and  drawings  possessing  meteorological  interest. 

A  FRIENDLY  meeting  of  employers  and  working  men,  to 
discuss  the  best  means  of  obtaining  technical  education,  will  be 
held  at  the  Royal  Victoria  Hall,  Waterloo  Bridge  Road,  on 
Wednesday,  February  15,  at  eight  o'clock.  The  chair  will  be 
taken  by  Sir  Douglas  Galton.  This  meeting  has  been  arranged 
in  consequence  of  the  great  interest  shown  in  a  similar  meeting 
held  at  the  same  place  on  December  14,  The  speakers  will  be 
limited  to  ten  minutes,  and  those  who  wish  to  speak  must  send 
in  their  names  the  day  before  the  meeting. 

The  new  American  Folk-Lore  Society  was  definitely  organized 
at  a  meeting  held  at  Harvard  College  on  January  4.  The  object 
of  the  Society  is  the  study  of  folk-lore  in  general,  and  especially 
of  folk-lore  in  North  America.  The  first  President  is  Prof. 
F.  J.  Child,  of  Harvard,  and  the  acting  Secretary  is  Mr. 
W.  W.  Newell,  of  Cambridge,  Mass.  It  is  expected  that 
the  first  number  of  the  Society's  journal  will  be  published  in 
April. 

The  Duchess  of  Albany  has  become  Patroness  of  the  Parkes 
Museum,  of  which  the  Duke  of  Albany  was  President  until  his 
death; 

During  the  coining  spring  the  construction  of  the  North  Sea 
and  Baltic  Canal  will  be  begun  along  the  whole  line.  There 
will  be  seven  camps  of  workmen,  and  4000  men  employed. 

The  Education  Department  of  Scotland  has  issued  a  circular 
to  the  various  School  Boards  in  that  country,  in  which  are 
embodied  the  results  of  the  careful  inquiries  that  have  recently 
been  made  into  the  existing  sy-tem  of  elementary  scientific 
teaching  in  Scottish  schools.  Technical  instruction  is  dis- 
couraged in  primary  schojls  till  the  boys  have  reached  the 
higher  standards,  and  even  then,  the  Department  thinks,  no 
attempt  should  be  made  unless  skilled  teachers  and  abundance 
of  scientific  apparatus  are  available.  In  most  instances  the 
thorough  teaching  of  elementary  science  is  beyond  the  reach  of 
the  primary  schools  ;  but  by  various  School  Boards  uniting  to 
employ  a  trained  staff  of  teachers  much  of  the  difficulty  will  be 
overcome.  School  Boards  are  also  recommended  to  seek  the 
aid  of  local  committees  consisting  of  manufacturers  who  know 
what  technical  education  is  most  needed  in  the  district.  The 
Department  also  recommends  the  extension  of  the  system  of 
giving  evening  lectures,  which  have  been  so  successful  in  the 
past,  and  the  charging  of  fees  low  enough  to  be  within  the 
reach  of  all.  Nothing  would  tend  to  make  technical  education 
more  popular  than  a  small  rate  of  charge,  combined,  as  it 
should  always  be,  with  trained  help  and  an  abundant  supply  of 
scientific  instruments. 

A  striking  new  experiment,  exhibiting  the  terribly  explosive 
nature  of  chloride  of  nitrogen,  is  described  by  Prof,  Victor 
Meyer  in  the  current  number  of  the  Berichte.  A  few  drops  of 
the  yellow  chloride  were  prepared  in  the  usual  manner  by  invert- 
ing an  exceptionally  thin  flask  filled  with  chlorine  gas  in  a  leaden 
dish  containing  a  solution  of  ammonium  chloride.  Instead,  how- 
ever of  gently  agitating  the  apparatus  so  as  to  cause  the  drops  to 
fall  into  a  smaller  leaden  capsule  placed  beneath  the  mouth  of 
the  flask,  they  were  allowed  to  float  freely  upon  the  surface. 
The  whole  apparatus  was  then  inclosed  in  a  cover-box  fitted  with 
stout  plate-glass  sides,  through  the  top  of  which  was  passed  a 
bent  pipette,  turning  up  below  just  under  the  mouth  of  the  flask 
and  connected  outside  with  a  dropping  funnel  containing  chloride 
of  ammonium  solution  and  a  few  drops  of  turpentine.  When 
sufficient  chloride  of  nitrogen  had  collected,  the  tap  of  the  funnel 
was  carefully  turned  so  as  to  allow  a  little  turpentine  to  slowly 
rise  in  the  flask.  After  a  moment  or  two  it  reached  the  surface 
and  mingled  with  the  chloride  of  nitrogen,  causing  a  brilliant 


350 


NA  TURE 


[Fed.  9,  1888 


flash  of  light  and  a  loud  explosion,  which  Prof.  Meyer  likens  to 
a  thunder-clap,  so  much  more  powerful  is  the  detonation  in  a 
confined  space.  The  flask  of  course  was  shattered,  not  into 
powder,  but  into  tolerably  large  fragments  ;  the  plate-glass  box, 
however,  even  after  many  repetitions  of  the  experim^ent,  remained 
intact,  a  small  door  on  the  side  away  from  the  observers  having 
been  left  ajar  so  as  to  prevent  any  notable  increase  of  pressure. 
Curiously,  the  chloride  of  nitrogen  never  entirely  exploded  ;  a 
part  remained  in  the  distorted  leaden  dish  and  maintained  an 
incessant  fusillade  for  more  than  a  minute. 

At  the  last  meeting  of  the  Gottingen  Chemical  Society,  Dr. 
Gattermann  read  a  preliminary  note  upon  his  recent  researches 
as  to  the  nature  of  chloride  of  nitrogen.  From  his  analyses  it 
appears  pretty  clear  that  the  yellow  liquid  is  a  mixture  of  at  least 
two  distinct  chlorides,  which  he  has  hopes  of  being  able  to 
separate.  During  the  course  of  the  experiments  the  reason  of 
its  capricious  behaviour,  the  cause  of  so  many  painful  accidents 
in  the  past,  was  happily  discovered.  It  is  decomposed  by  the 
actinic  rays  of  light,  being  rapidly  acted  upon  by  sunlight  with 
periodic  spontaneous  explosion,  and  is  at  once  fired  by  exposure 
to  the  rays  of  burning  magnesium.  Hence  further  light  upon 
this  difficult  and  dangerous  subject  can  only  emanate  from  the 
dark  room,  a  paradox  the  truth  of  which  Dr.  Gattermann  is 
endeavouring  to  demonstrate. 

On  tte  morning  of  Tuesday,  January  31,  a  distinct  shock  of 
earthquake  is  said  to  have  been  felt  near  Birmingham.  In  and 
around  Coventry,  too,  several  persons  say  that  they  experienced 
sensible  vibrations  of  their  houses  and  heard  rumbling  noises. 
At  Hartshill  the  ceiling  of  a  house  was  cracked  by  the  shock. 
On  Thursday,  February  2,  a  sharp  shock  of  earthquake  was 
felt  over  a  laj-ge  part  of  Scotland.  The  following  details  regard- 
ing this  shock  are  taken  from  the  Times  of  Friday,  February  3: 
— "  The  shock  was  distinctly  felt  at  a  quarter  pa-t  5  o'clock  in 
Perth,  The  tremor  lasted  about  one  minute,  and  consisted  of 
five  or  six  slight,  wave-like  motions  from  west  to  east.  In  the 
Breadalbane  [and  Grantully  districts  of  Perthshire  the  shock 
lasted  six  seconds.  It  was  also  felt  very  distinctly  in  Aberfeldy, 
Acharn,  Kenmare,  and  Strathay.  It  is  twenty  years  since  these 
districts  were  similarly  affected.  In  Strathearn  two  shocks  were 
felt,  the  first  about  half  past  3  o'clock,  and  the  second  about 
5  o'clock.  Further  north,  in  Invei-ness-shire  and  Ross-shire, 
a  shock  was  felt  about  5.  It  was  sharper  and  seemed  to  travel 
from  south-west  to  south-east.  The  tremor  in  Dingwall  is 
likened  to  the  vibration  caused  by  a  heavy  waggon  passing  along 
a  road,  while  at  Crieff  it  was  like  a  very  heavy  body  thrown  to 
the  ground.  In  Beauly  and  Strathglass  people  were  greatly 
alarmed.  Their  houses  shcok,  dishes  fell,  furniture  was  broken, 
and  numbers  of  people  rushed  from  their  beds  and  out  of  houses 
without  dressing.  On  the  west  coast  the  shock  was  very  violent. 
It  was  also  felt  at  Mull.  From  Fort  William  it  is  reported  that 
there  was  a  slight  shock  at  5  a.m  ,  which  affected  the  old 
Caledonian  valley,  and  extended  down  to  the  line  of  the  Moray 
Firth." 

The  February  Bulletin  of  Miscellaneous  Inf..rmation,  issued 
from  the  Royal  Gardens,  Kew,  contains  a  list  of  such  hardy 
herbaceous  annual  and  perennial  plants  as  have  matured  seeds 
under  cultivation  in  the  Kew  Gardens  during  the  year  1887. 
"These  seeds,"  it  is  explained,  "are  available  for  exchange 
with  colonial,  Indian,  and  foreign  botanic  gardens,  as  well  as 
with  regular  correspondents  of  Kew.  But  the  seeds  are  for  the 
most  part  only  available  in  moderate  quantity,  and  are  not  sold 
to  the  general  public.  In  the  years  1885  and  1886  the  list  was 
printed  as  an  independent  publication.  It  has  now  been  thought 
more  convenient  to  issue  it  as  a  number  of  the  Bulletin.  Every 
effort  is  made  to  correctly  determine  the  nomenclature  of  the 
plants  in  the  list.     As  far  as  it  goes,  it  will  serve  as  a  record  of 


the  herbaceous  species  cultivated  at  Kew.  It  must,  however,  be 
remembered  that  a  considerable  proportion  of  herbaceous  plants 
do  not  mature  seeds  in  the  climate  of  England,  and  these  are 
necessarily  not  included  in  the  list." 

Much  inconvenience  is  caused  by  the  fact  that  lists  of  recent 
additions  to  public  libraries  are  not  always  readily  accessible  to 
persons  who  would  like  to  make  use  of  them.  Readers  at  the 
Darvven  Free  Public  Library  may  congratulate  themselves  that 
in  their  case  this  difficulty  has  been  overcome.  The  other  day 
the  Darwen  Netvs  printed  the  first  instalment  of  a  list  of  books 
which  have  been  lately  added  to  the  collection  belonging  to  that 
institution,  and  which  are  not  to  be  found  in  the  catalogue. 
Two  similar  instalments  will  follow,  and  afterwards  lists  will  be 
given  as  books  are  purchased.  If  readers  will  take  the  trouble 
to  cut  out  these  lists  and  place  them  at  the  end  of  their  copies  of 
the  catalogue,  they  will  know  exactly  what  works  have  been 
secured  for  the  library.  From  the  instalment  just  i-:sued,  it  is 
obvious  that  the  managers  of  the  Darvven  Free  Public  Library 
exercise  great  discretion  in  their  choice  of  books,  and  we  are 
glad  to  see  that  among  the  works  selected  by  them  science  is 
very  fairly  represented. 

Several  correspondents  have  written  to  us  about  Mr.  John 
Mori;on's  letter,  printed  last  week  (p.  321),  on  what  he  sup- 
posed to  be  a  ca^e  of  untimely  insect  development.  Mr.  Edward 
Buckell,  of  Romsey,  writes: — "Surely  Mr.  Morison  has  over- 
looked the  fact  that  Vanessa  tirtiac  hibernates  in  the  imago 
state,  selecting  for  that  purpose  houses  and  such  other  warm 
quarters  as  it  can  find.  I  have  counted  nine  in  one  house. 
During  hibernation  the  insect  is  naturally  in  a  semi-torpid  con- 
dition. As  to  the  '  abnormal  appearance  '  of  the  antenna?,  I 
think  that  if  Mr.  Morison  observes  other  specimens,  both  during 
the  winter  months  and  after  sundown  in  the  summer,  he  will 
find  the  position  noted  by  him  to  be  the  usual  one," 

We  referred  last  week  (p.  328)  to  M.  Lancaster's  work  on 
the  climate  of  Belgium  in  1887  ;  we  are  also  indebted  to  him  for 
an  elaborate  discussion  of  the  barometer  observations  taken  at 
Brussels  Observatory  during  the  fifty  years  1833-82.  That 
Observatory  owes  its  origin  to  the  efforts  of  the  late  L.  A.  J. 
Quetelet,  President  of  the  International  Maritime  Conference 
held  at  Brussels  in  1853,  to  which  Conference  our  own  Meteoro- 
logical Office  owes  its  origin.  The  Annals  of  the  Observatory 
contain  one  of  the  most  complete  series  of  climatological  and 
phenological  observations  extant.  The  barometrical  results, 
which  M.  Lancaster  has  carefully  resumed,  are  drawn  from  the 
eye  observations  taken  up  to  June  1 841,  and  since  that  time 
from  self-recording  instruments,  one  of  which  is  a  photographic 
barograph  of  the  Kew  pattern.  In  addition  to  the  usual  monthly 
and  annual  means,  the  tables  contain  summaries  of  the  days 
on  which  the  barometer  was  above  or  below  certain  values,  the 
epochs  of  all  remarkable  falls  and  rises,  five-day  and  seasonal 
means.  The  mean  for  the  whole  period  was  29766  inches  (not 
reduced  to  sea-level)  ;  the  greatest  height  was  30753  inches  on 
January  17,  1882  ;  and  the  lowest,  28'367  inches,  on  December 
10,  1872.  The  mean  diurnal  range  for  the  year  wa^  0^023  inch. 
The  diurnal  and  monthly  variations  are  greatest  in  winter  and 
least  in  summer  ;  the  highest  and  lowest  absolute  readings  occur 
generally  in  the  month  of  January. 

Mr.  R.  H.  Scott  delivered  a  lecture  on  British  and  Atlantic 
weather,  at  the  London  Institution,  on  the  2nd  instant.  After 
some  interesting  remarks  on  the  effect  of  difference  of  height 
upon  vapour,  the  dependence  of  our  weather  on  the  upward  or 
downward  movement  of  the  atmosphere  in  cyclonic  and  anti- 
cyclonic  systems,  and  on  the  cause  of  fogs,  he  discussed  the 
utility  of  the  present  American  reports  in  forestalling  storms, 
based  on  a  consideration  of  their  movemen's  as  shown  by  the 
Atlantic  Weather  Charts  lately  published  by  the  Meteorological 


Feb.  9,  1888] 


NATURE 


351 


Council.  These  charts  showed  that  only  a  small  proportion  of 
storms  travelled  across  the  Atlantic.  The  track  of  the  depressions 
is  determined  by  the  distribution  of  pressure  over  the  ocean,  and 
of  this  distribution  we  are  ignorant  at  the  time  of  despatch  of 
telegrams  fro3i  America.  The  lecturer  stated  that  in  their 
present  incomplete  form  the  telegrams  were  of  no  assistance  to 
the  Meteorological  Office  in  issuing  storm  warnings. 

g;DR.  BiLLWiLLER  reports  the  establishment  of  a  permanent 
observatory  on  the  sum  nit  of  the  Santis,  in  October  last.  This 
observatory  ranks  as  the  third  in  height  in  Europe,  being  at  an 
elevation  of  8200  feet,  and  108  feet  higher  than  the  temporary 
station  at  the  Gasthaus,  on  the  Santis,  where  the  observations 
have  been  taken  for  the  last  five  years.  The  results  of  these 
observations  are  published  in  a  Neiijahrsblatt,  by  the  scientific 
Society  of  Zurich.  The  lowest  temperature  during  the  five  years 
was-9°F.  on  March  13,  1883,  and  the  highest,  69°,  on 
July  21,  1886.  The  prevalent  winds  were  westerly  and  south- 
westerly, which  usually  occur  on  high  mountains  in  these 
atitudes. 

According  to  the  last  annual  report  on  the  Dutch  East, 
Indies,  rainfall  was  measured  at  183  stations  in  these  posses- 
sions. The  military  portion  of  the  report,  the  topographical 
survey  of  Java,  on  a  scale  of  i  :  200,000,  is  completed,  and 
the  members  of  the  Survey  have  been  sent  to  the  west  coast 
of  Borneo,  where  a  preliminary  survey  to  join  certain  points 
already  astronomically  determined  has  been  undertaken.  The 
survey  on  the  west  coast  of  Sumatra  will  also  be  continued.  A 
considerable  part  has  already  been  triangulated,  and  344  posi- 
tions have  been  determined.  The  definitive  calculation  of  the 
triangulation  work  of  Java,  on  which  Prof.  Oudemans,  of 
Utrecht,  has  been  at  work  for  five  years,  is  not  yet  completed. 

Recent  Java  journals  give  particulars  of  a  remedy  for  coffee- 
leaf  disease,  discovered  by  Dr.  Burck,  manager  of  the  Govern- 
ment [Botanic  Gardens  at  Buitenzorg,  near  Batavia.  The 
specific  is  said  not  only  to  cure  the  disease,  but  also  to  prevent 
its  recurrence.  For  preventive  purposes,  he  makes  use  of  a 
highly  attenuated  solution  of  chloride  of  iron  applied  to  the 
under  portion  of  the  leaves  by  means  of  a  pulverisator.  The 
sticky  nature  of  the  solution  enables  it  to  adhere  two  months  to 
the  coffee-leaves.  It  is  a  powerful  antidote  to  the  HetJiileia 
vastatrix.  To  stay  the  progress  of  the  latter  when  it  has  once 
taken  hold,  a  different  method  is  employed.  The  coffee-leaves 
in  which  the  Hemikia  first  manifests  itself  in  the  form  of  orange- 
coloured  spots  are  at  once  taken  in  hand.  Holes  are  pricked  in 
the  spots  with  a  needle  dipped  in  a  strong  solution  of  sulphuric 
acid,  which  kills  all  the  germs  of  the  disease  in  the  leaf.  Dr. 
Burck  estimates  the  cost  of  the  preventive  specific  at  2 J  guilders 
per  133  lbs.,  and  the  healing  remedy  at  4  guilders.  He  antici- 
pates that  the  price  of  coffee  will  be  enhanced  in  consequence. 
The  second  specific  in  particular  is  said  to  have  yielded  good 
results  and  to  be  easy  to  administer.  The  econo  jnic  value  for  Java 
of  the  discovery  of  the  remedies,  should  they  prove  successful, 
can  scarcely  be  over-estimated.  In  Ceylon  the  disease  in  the 
coffee-plant  produced  a  revolution  in  planting  ;  year  after  year 
the  coffee  crops  were  failures,  many  planters  were  ruined,  and 
ultimately  tea-growing  took  the  place  of  coffee  with  results  which 
are  just  now  astonishing  the  world.  But  the  period  of  transition 
from  one  staple  to  the  other  was  one  of  economic  disaster,  from 
which  perhaps  Dr.  Burck  has  saved  Java. 

We  have  received  the  recent  issues  of  the  Journal  of  tin 
Asiatic  Society  of  Bengal.  Vol.  Iv.  Part  2,  No.  5,  is  wholly 
occupied  by  the  second  instalment  (Rhopalocera)  of  the  Lepido- 
pterous  insects  collected  in  Tavoy  and  Siam  during  1884-85, 
under  the  superintendence  of  Mr.  Pit'jian,  the  Chief  Super- 
intendent of  Telegraphs.     Of  this  list  nearly   100  species  are 


quite  new.  The  list  is  drawn  up  by  Messrs.  Elwes  and  L.  de 
Niceville.  Vol.  Ivi.  Part  2,  has  numerous  and  varied  contribu- 
tions. The  first  paper  is  by  Mr.  Blanford,  on  the  influence  of 
Indian  forests  on  the  rainfall.  The  other  papers  are  :  the 
changes  in  the  density  of  sea-water,  by  S.  R.  Elson  ;  notes  on 
Indian  Rhynchota,  Heteroptera,  Part  i,  by  E.  T.  Atkinson ; 
new  species  of  Ficus  from  New  Guinea  and  Sumatra,  by  G. 
Kini,  where  eleven  new  species  are  spoken  about ;  the  mam- 
mals and  birds  collected  by  Captain  Yate  with  the  Afghan 
Boundary  Commission,  each  species  briefly  described  and  com- 
mented on  by  J.  Scully  ;  the  species  of  Loranthus  indigenous 
to  Perak,  by  G.  King;  Etude  sur  les  Arachnides  de  I'Asie 
meridionale,  by  M.  Eug.  Simon;  the  differential  equation  of 
a  trajectory,  by  H.  Mukhopadhyay. 

The  current  number  of  the  Folk- Lore  Journal  (vol.  vi.  part  i.) 
contains  a  most  interesting  collection  of  Aino  tales  and  legends, 
made  by  Prof.  Chamberlain,  the  well-known  Japanese  scholar. 
We  are  glad  to  see  that  he  was  encouraged  to  publish  the  col- 
lection by  certain  observations  contained  in  a  review,  in  these 
columns,  of  his  recent  monograph  on  the  Ainos.  The  collection 
consists  of  fifty-four  tales  (a  few  being  omitted  as  unfit  for 
general  publication),  classified  under  the  headings— tales  ac- 
counting for  the  origin  of  phenomena,  moral  tales,  tales  of  the 
Panaumbe  and  Penaumbe  cycle,  miscellaneous  tales,  and,  finally, 
scraps  of  folk-lore.  These  were  all  taken  down  from  the  mouths 
of  Ainos.  The  other  papers  in  the  number  include  a  con- 
tinuation of  one  on  Irish  folk-lore  collected  from  a  "  Statistical 
Account  or  Parochial  Survey  "  of  that  country  published  more 
than  seventy  years  ago  ;  and  a  collection  of  the  traditions  of  a 
race  as  curious  in  its  way  as  the  Ainos,  the  Mentra,  or  aborigines 
of  Malacca  and  the  adjoining  States. 

The  January  number  of  the  Auk  announces  that  the  affairs 
of  the  American  Ornithologists'  Union  have  considerably  bright- 
ened, and  that  by  the  public  spirit  of  some  of  its  members  the 
Association  begins  the  new  year  free  from  debt.  The  new  part 
also  strikes  us  as  full  of  vigour,  and  of  more  than  ordinary 
interest,  and  it  is  evident  that  the  recent  exertions  of  the 
Americans  in  getting  collections  from  little-known  parts  of  the 
Western  world,  such  as  Texas  and  Northern  Mexico,  are  being 
amply  rewarded.  The  reviews  are  as  good  as  ever,  and  some  of 
the  original  papers  are  excellent.  Mr.  Sennett  describes  a  new 
finch  from  Arizona,  and  gives  an  account  of  the  North  American 
species  of  Peuccra,  but  not  one  word  is  said  respecting  the 
"  Biologia  Centrali-Americana "  of  Messrs.  Salvin  and  God- 
man,  where  all  Mr.  Sennett's  facts  were  duly  set  forth  a  year 
ago.  The  new  Arizona  finch,  Peuccea  rujiceps  scolli,  of  Mr. 
Sennett,  was  also  described  some  months  ago  by  Mr.  Bowdler 
Sharpe  as  Peuccea  hoinochlamys  in  the  twelfth  volume  of  the 
"  Catalogue  of  Birds,"  but  as  this  work  has  only  just  appeared, 
Mr.  Sennett's  name  secures  priority  of  publication.  Mr. 
Brewster's  new  species  from  Mexico  seem  to  rest  on  somewhat 
trivial  characters,  at  least  in  the  ca.se  of  the  small  owls  {Scops\ 
and  the  Aimophilce. 

Amongst  the  subjects  of  special  interest  referred  to  in  the 
report  of  the  Smithsonian  Institution  for  the  past  year  is  the 
exploration  for  a  collection  of  skeletons  and  skins  of  the  now 
almost  extinct  American  bison  or  buffalo.  The  expljraton 
was  very  successful,  a  small  herd  being  found  in  a  wild 
part  of  Montana,  from  which  the  officers  of  the  Institution 
secured  a  series  of  skins,  as  well  as  sixteen  cojaplete  skeletons, 
and  fifty-one  dry  skulls.  The  herd  appears  to  liave  been  com- 
pletely exterjainated  by  the  settlers  soon  afterwards.  An  expedi- 
tion was  also  despatched  to  the  Swan  Islands  in  the  Caribbean 
Sea,  which  are  said  to  abound  in  land  birds  in  great  variety,  and 
also  in  large  iguanas  and  other  reptiles.     The  National  Museum 


352 


NATURE 


l^Feb.  9,  1888 


collections  are  extending  so  rapidly  that  the  provision  of  addi. 
tional  and  adequate  space  for  their  exhibition  is  becoming  a 
matter  of  pressing  importance.  In  1884  the  number  of  specimens 
was  estimated  at  1,471,000;  the  number  is  now  increased  by 
more  than  a  million.  At  the  beginning  of  the  present  decade 
there  was  only  one  curator  with  a  few  assistants  ;  now  there  are 
thirty-one  regularly  organized  departments  and  sections,  under 
the  care  of  twenty-six  curators  and  numerous  assistants.  The 
work  of  the  Ethnological  Bureau  in  all  its  branches — mound 
explorations,  general  field  studies,  and  office  work — appears  to 
proceed  as  vigorously  as  in  previous  years.  The  most  important 
forthcoming  work  of  the  Bureau  appears  to  be  a  report  by  Mr. 
E.  W,  Nelson,  on  the  Eskimo  of  Northern  Alaska.  During 
1886  the  vocabularies  of  twelve  Eskimo  dialects  were  arranged 
in  the  form  of  a  dictionary,  which  will  form  one  part  of  his 
report ;  the  other  will  contain  chapters  on  Eskimo  life  and 
customs  in  Alaska,  illustrated  by  photographs  taken  on  the 
spot. 

An  elaborate  review  of  the  mineral  industries  of  the  United 
States  during  the  year  1886  has  just  been  issued  by  the  United 
States  Geological  Survey.  It  is  the  fourth  of  a  series  of  volumes 
entitled  "Mineral  Resources  of  the  United  States."  The  first 
three  volumes  contain  the  statistics  from  1882  to  December  31, 
1885. 

The  U.S.  Bureau  of  Education  has  issued  the  first  of  what 
promises  to  be  a  most  interesting  series  of  *'  Circulars  of  Infor- 
mation." The  present  Circular  is  by  Dr.  H.  B.  Adams,  who 
has  chosen  as  his  subject  the  College  of  William  and  Mary. 
This  College  was  founded  in  1693  by  Royal  grant,  and  was  long 
supported  by  popular  legislation  in  Virginia.  The  greater  part 
of  its  property  was  destroyed  during  the  Civil  War,  and  since 
that  time  the  institution  has  been  allowed  to  decline  almost  to 
ruin.  Dr.  Adams'  aim,  as  explained  in  a  prefatory  letter,  has 
been  to  discover  the  historical  beginnings  of  the  higher  educa- 
tion in  the  South  ;  to  trace  the  causes  of  the  early  prosperity  of 
William  and  Mary  College  ;  to  show  its  influence  upon  Virginia 
statesmen  and  the  Southern  States,  its  relation  to  the  University 
ideas  of  Jefferson  and  Washington,  and  its  significance  to  the 
whole  country ;  to  point  out  the  causes  of  the  decline  of 
William  and  Mary  College  ;  to  explain  the  rise  of  the  University 
of  Virginia,  and  the  necessity  of  popular  support  for  the  higher 
education. 

Popular  editions  of  the  late  Dr.  Parkin's  volumes—"  Are 
Epidemics  Contagious?"  and  "The  Volcanic  Origin  of  Epide- 
mics" (Sampson  Low) — have  been  published.  Dr.  Parkin 
died  nearly  two  years  ago  at  the  age  of  eighty-five,  and  it  is 
explained  in  an  editorial  note  that  "  his  long  and  strenuous  life 
had  been  devoted  to  the  study  of  cholera  and  similar  epidemics. " 
His  attention  was  first  specially  directed  to  the  subject  of  cholera 
more  than  fifty  years  ago,  when  he  was  visiting  India  and  China. 
A  prolonged  series  of  observations  and  experiments  satisfied 
him  that  "the  cause  of  the  disease  was  atmospheric,  and  that 
carbonic  acid  gas  was  its  antidote."  The  editor  of  these  volumes 
admits  that  Dr.  Parkin's  theories  have  met  with  comparatively 
limited  acceptance  in  England.  This  fact  he  attributes  in  part 
to  the  comparative  mildness  of  cholera  outbreaks  in  England, 
in  part  to  "an  erroneous  notion  that  the  results  of  Dr.  Parkin's 
teaching  were  hostile  to  sanitation." 

Messrs.  Longmans  have  just  issued  the  ninth  edition  of  Mr. 
William  Jago's  "Inorganic  Chemistry,  Theoretical  and  Prac- 
tical." In  this  edition  the  paragraphs  are  numbered,  and  have 
side-headings.  The  more  important  statements  and  definitions 
are  printed  in  bolder  type.  A  number  of  students  and  teachers 
have  pointed  out  to  Mr.  Jago  that  they  have  been  using  his  boak 
in  preparing  for  the  Matriculation  Examination  of  the  London 
University,  and  have  been  inconvenienced  by  its  not  covering 


the  whole  syllabus  of  that  examination.     Chapters   have  now 
been  added  to  supply  this  want. 

At  the  last  meeting  of  the  Society  of  Science  of  Christiania 
Prof.  Schoyen  exhibited  and  described  four  species  of  Lepi- 
doptera  new  to  the  Norwegian  fauna  ;  viz,  Agrotis  prcecox,  L. , 
found  as  larva  in  the  Hval  Islands,  in  the  Christiania  Fjord  ; 
Asopia  glaucinalis,  L.,  produced  from  larva  at  Christiania  ; 
Tortrix  inopiana,  Haw.,  from  southern  Aurdal  ;  and  Cerestoma 
nemorella  from  Christiansand.  At  the  same  meeting  Prof. 
Blytt  read  a  paper  on  the  alterations  of  the  so-called 
"  Strandlinjer,"  or  shore-lines,  in  Norway,  maintaining  that  the 
changes  in  the  division  of  land  and  sea  might  have  been  caused 
by  an  alteration  in  the  length  of  day  and  night. 

A  RESIDENT  in  the  isolated  little  island  of  Bornholm,  in  the 
Baltic,  writes  to  a  Danish  journal  that  a  curious  Christmas 
custom  is  observed  in  that  island.  When  the  so-called  "  Christ- 
mas table"  has  been  spread  on  Christmas  Eve,  a  large  long  loaf 
of  rye  bread  is  laid  at  the  upper  end  of  it.  In  this  loaf,  before  it 
is  baked,  two  transverse  grooves  are  made  about  3  inches  from 
each  end.  On  the  top  of  the  loaf  a  large  cheese  and  various  articles 
of  food  are  laid.  This  is  the  so-called  ^'Julegalt."  It  remains 
untouched  throughout  Christmas,  and  when  the  table  is  not  in 
use,  the  cloth  is  gathered  from  the  other  end  and  laid  over  the 
^^ gait."  This  curious  custom  is  believed  to  have  been  handed 
down  from  Pagan  times,  the  gait  (pig)  having  reference  to 
Frey's  gait  or  pig  "  Gyldenborste  "  ("Gold  bristle").  Frey 
was  the  god  of  rain,  sunshine,  harvest,  and  general  felicity. 

The  acclimatization  of  the  so-called  "  American  "  trout  in 
Norwegian  waters  has  been  very  successful.  Attempts  are  now 
about  to  be  made  to  acclimatize  black  bass  obtained  from 
America. 

The  Danish  Government  has  decided  upon  forming  an 
oyster  bank  in  the  Limfjord,  in  Jutland,  and  has  despatched  the 
inspector  of  the  Danish  fisheries  to  Norway  to  obtain  all  possible 
information  respecting  the  artificial  banks  formed  in  that  country 
during  the  last  few  years. 

The  manner  in  which  the  spruce  and  pine  forests  of  Norway 
are  being  exterminated,  is  becoming  so  serious  that  the  Govern- 
ment is  called  upon  to  put  a  stop,  by  legislation,  to  the  deforesta- 
tion of  the  country.  At  present  there  is  no  law  to  prevent  the 
purchaser  of  a  forest  from  felling  everything,  even  down  to  the 
tiniest  saplings.  It  is  urged  by  forest  officials  that  trees  under  a 
certain  diameter  should  not  be  permitted  to  be  cut,  and  that  the 
branches  of  the  trees  should  not  be  left  in  the  forest  (as  is  now 
nearly  always  done),  because  they  stifle  the  growth  of  the  young 
trees.  Apart  from  the  wanton  exhaustion  of  this  commercial 
wealth,  it  is  maintained  that  wholesale  felling  has  the  effect  of 
changing  the  climate  in  the  forest  localities. 

The  strict  preservation  of  the  eider  fowl  on  the  south-east 
coast  of  Sweden  during  recent  years  has  had  the  effect  of  greatly 
augmenting  the  number  of  these  valuable  birds.  The  penalty 
for  killing  one  is  very  heavy,  and  informers  receive  a  considerable 
reward. 

During  the  present  winter  term,  there  are  26,945  German 
students  at  the  German  Universities.  Of  this  number  5791  study 
theology,  5769  law,  6650  medicine,  and  8735  belong  to  the 
Philosophical  Faculty.  1644  students  are  foi'eign.  The  Vienna 
University  has  238  theologians,  2569  law  student?,  1565  medical 
students,  and  634  of  the  Philosophical  Faculty.  In  Graz  there 
are  1305  students,  and  in  Innsbruck  863.  Prague  has  3805 
Cracow  1234,  Lemberg  11 12,  and  Czernowitz  259.  At  Berne 
University  there  are  637  students,  51  theologians,  158  law 
students,  287  medical  students,  and  141  physical  science  students. 
At  Zurich  there  are  70  female  student<;,  40  being  medical. 


Feb.  9,  1888] 


NATURE 


353 


The  Bulletin  Pltarmaceutiqiie  states  that  a  new  remedy  for 
Phylloxera  has  been  discovered  by  M.  LafFon,  of  Capendu,  and 
it  has  proved  successful.  It  consists  of  a  weak  solution  of 
nitrate  of  mercury. 

The  additions  to  the  Zoological  Society's  Gardens  during  the 
past  week  include  a  Red-winged  Parrakeet(^/;'^j';«;V/?/j-^ryMro- 
pterus)  ;  eight  Peaceful  Doves  {Geopelia  trajiqtiilla)  from  Aus- 
ralia,  presented  by  the  Hon.  Stormont  Finch-Iiatton ;  a 
Fulmar  Petrel  {Fulmarus  glacialis)  from  Norfolk,  presented  by 
Mr.  H.  M.  Upcher,  F.Z.S.  ;  a  Jardine's  Parrot  {Pceocephalus 
gulielmi)  from  West  Africa,  received  in  exchange. 

OUR  ASTRONOMICAL  COLUMN. 

The  Royal  Astronomical  Society's  Memoirs. — The  first 
part  ofvol.  xlix.  of  the  Memoirs  of  the  Royal  Astronomical  Society 
has  just  been  pu'ilished,  and  contains  a  new  General  Catalogue 
of  nebulae,  by  Dr.  J.  L.  E.  Dreyer.  Sir  John  Herschel's  General 
Catalogue,  published  in  the  Philosophical  Transactions  for  1864, 
was  almost  entirely  founded  upon  his  own  and  his  father's 
observations,  and  hence,  since  several  observers  have  devoted 
themselves  to  the  work  of  searching  for  nebulae  since  that  cata- 
logue was  prepared,  the  number  known  to  us  has  been  very 
largely  increased.  D'Arrest's  great  work  on  nebulae,  which 
appeared  three  years  later  than  the  General  Catalogue,  gave  the 
means  of  correcting  many  of  its  positions,  and  hence  Dr. 
Dreyer  had  been  induced  as  early  as  1876  to  comoile  a  supple- 
ment to  the  General  Catalogue,  which  he  published  in  the  Trans- 
actions of  the  Royal  Irish  Academy  in  1878  (v)!.  xxvi.), 
containing  a  list  of  corrections  to  it,  and  a  catalogue  of 
recently-discovered  nebulae.  In  1886,  Dr.  Dreyer  presented  a 
second  similar  supplement — in  which  the  later  discoveries  of 
Messrs.  .Stephan,  Swift,  Ormond  Stone,  and  other  observers  had 
been  incorporated — to  the  Council  of  the  Roy  al  Aslronomical 
Society  ;  but  the  Council,  considering  that  the  General  Cata- 
logue was  practically  out  of  print,  and  that  the  use  of  three 
catalogues  and  two  lists  of  corrections  would  be  very  incon- 
venient, proposed  to  Dr.  Dreyer  that  he  should  prepare  from 
the  whole  of  his  materials  a  single  new  General  Catalogue.  This 
work  he  has  now  carried  out,  and  the  present  catalogue  contains 
7840  objects,  the  positions  of  which  have  been  as  thofoughly 
corrected  and  revised  as  the  materials  available  permitted.  The 
epoch  of  the  first  General  Catalogue,  and  of  D'Arrest's  final 
positions — 1860 — has  been  retained,  as  it  is  close  to  the  epochs 
of  the  great  star-charts  of  A rgelander,  Schonfeld,  Chacornac,  and 
Peters,  and  nearly  all  the  modern  micrometric  observations 
of  nebulae  are  referred  to  an  epoch  but  little  later.  The 
precessions  have  been  given  for  1880,  as  done  by  Sir 
John  Herschel,  and  the  descriptions  have  been  care- 
fully revised.  The  work  also  contains  an  index  to  published 
figures  of  nebulae  and  clusters,  and  an  appendix  giving  the  places 
of  several  new  nebulae  discovered  by  Prof.  Safiford  and  Mr. 
Swift,  but  published  too  late  to  be  incorporated  in  the  catalogue 
itself.  These  are  added  that  the  volume  may  contain  a  com- 
plete record  of  all  nebulae  of  which  the  places  have  been  pub- 
lished up  to  December  1887. 

Publications  of  Dunsink  Observatory. — Tiie  sixth  part 
of  theobservations  of  the  Observatory  of  Trinity  College,  Dublin,  at 
Dunsink,  has  just  been  ]:)ublished,  and  contains  the  separate  results 
reduced  to  1885 'o,  and  the  mean  places  for  1012  southern  stars 
observed  with  the  transit  circle  by  Dr.  Dreyer,  the  late,  and  Mr. 
Kambaut,  the  present,  Assistant  Astronomers.  These  stars  are 
nearly  all  in  the  Southern  Durchmusterung  Belt,  between 
S.  Decl.  2°  and  23°,  and  were  suggested  for  observation  by  Prof, 
Schonfeld  on  account  either  of  their  proper  motion  or  of  dis- 
cordances between  their  places  as  given  in  different  catalogues. 
A  few  other  stars  were  observed  either  at  the  request  of  Prof. 
Peters  or  Dr.  Auwers.  The  work  had  been  commenced  by 
Dr.  Dreyer  in  September  1881,  who  continued  it  until  his 
appointment  to  the  Armagh  Observatory  in  May  1882,  and  Mr. 
Rambaut  took  it  up,  on  succeeding  to  Dr.  Drever's  position,  in 
November  of  the  same  year.  Mr.  Rambaut  gives  the  probable 
error  of  a  single  observation — most  of  the  stars  were  observed 
only  once— as  ±  o-o65s.  in  R.  A.,  ±  o"-864  in  Decl.  ;  the  faint- 
ness  of  the  objects  and  their  low  altitude  at  meridian  passage 
making  observation  somewhat  difficult.  A  plate  at  the  end  of 
the  volume  shows  a  portion  of  one  of  the',chronograph  sheets,  and 


illustrates  a  convenient  method  of  making  notes  whilst  at  the 
telescope  by  sending  special  signals  to  the  chronograph. 

RousDON  Observatory. — Astronomical  observations  have 
been  steadily  carried  on  during  the  past  year  at  Mr.  Peek's 
private  observatory,  Rousdon,  Lyme  Regis.  The  principal  work 
undertaken,  besides  transit  observations  for  time,  has  been  the 
observation  of  twenty  long-period  variable  stars.  It  is  proposed, 
so  soon  as  any  star  has  been  observed  over  several  complete 
periods,  to  publish  a  memoir  with  plates  showing  the  variations 
in  the  light  curve.  The  record  of  the  Observatory  shows  that 
there  were  165  good  observing  nights  in  1887,  as  against  146  in 
1886. 

;3  Delphini. — Mr.  J.  E.  Gore  published  two  years  ago 
elements  for  this  difficult  and  interesting  binary  (Nature,  vol. 
xxxiii.  p.  518),  in  which  he  gave  the  period  as  30"9I  years,  a 
value  fairly  corresponding  to  that  found  by  Dubiago  a  couple  of 
years  earlier,  viz.  26'07.  Sig.  Celoria  having  been  placed  in 
possession  of  Prof.  Schiaparelli's  observations  made  in  1875  and 
1886-87,  and  those  of  Engelmann  made  in  1885  and  1886,  has 
re-investigated  the  orbit,  and  deduced  elements  differing  widely 
from  these  two  earlier  sets,  particularly  in  the  period,  which  he 
finds  to  be  a  little  short  of  seventeen  years  {Astr.  Nachr.  No. 
2824).  If  this  last  orbit  be  correct,  the  star  has  already  been 
watched  through  nearly  a  complete  revolution.  There  is,  how- 
ever, a  considerable  divergency  between  the  recent  observations 
of  Schiaparelli  and  Engelmann,  and  those  of  the  latter  would 
accord  better  with  a  longer  period.  It  is,  therefore,  much  to  be 
desired  that  astronomers  who  possess  sufficient  optical  power 
should  give  early  and  careful  attention  to  this  star.  The 
following  are  Sig.  Celoria's  complete  elements  : — 

T  =  i868'85o  ...  6  —  0-09622 

il  =      10" '938  ...  a  —  o"  "46000 

A  =    220'952  ...  P  =  16-955  years 
7  =      61-582 

Olbers'  Comet. — The  following  ephemeris  for  Berlin  mid- 
night is  in  continuation  of  that  given  in  Nature,  vol.  xxxvii. 
P-  234  :— 

1888.  R.A.  Decl.  Log  n  Log  <i.        Bright- 

h.     m.     s.  o       /  ness. 

Feb.  II...  17  46  35  ...  6    5-7  S.  ...  0-3320  ...  03974   ..  0-29 

13...        48  57  ...  6  17-2 

15...    51  IS  ...  6  28-4   ...  0-3394  ...  0-3970  ...  0-28 

17...    53  28  ...  6  393 

19...    55  36  ...  6  50-0   ...  0-3477  ...  0-3962  ...  0-27 

21...    57  39  ...  7  0-4 

23--    59  36 -•  7  10-7   ...  0-3558  ...  0-3951  ...  0-26 

25...  18  I  28  ...  7  20-8 

27--  3  15  •••  7  307  S.  ...  0-3638  ...  0-3936  ...  0-25 

The  brightness  on  1887  August  27  is  taken  as  unity. 

New  Minor  Planet. — A  new  minor  planet.  No.  272, 
mag.  13,  was  discovered  by  M.  Charlois,  of  the  Nice  Observatory, 
on  February  4. 

ASTRONOMICAL    PHENOMENA    FOR    THE 
WEEK  1888  FEBRUARY  12-18. 

/LJ'OR  the  reckoning  of  time  the  civil  day,  commencing  at 
^  Greenwich  mean  midnight,  counting  the  hours  on  to  24, 

is  here  employed. ) 

At  Greenwich  on  February  12 
S  m  rises,  7h.  22m.  ;  souths,  I2h.  14m.  28-6s.  ;  sets,  I7h.  7m  : 
right  asc.  on  meridian,  2lh.  42-4m.  ;  decl.  13"  46'  S. 
Sidereal  Time  at  Sunset,  2h.  36m. 
Moon  (New,  February  12,  oh.)  rises,  7h.  47m.;  souths, 
I2h,  41m. ;  sets,  I7h.  43m.  :  right  a^^c.  on  meridian, 
22h.  9 -2m.  ;  decl.  13"  19'  S. 

Right  asc.  and  declination 
Planet.  Rises.  Souths.  Sets.  on  meridian. 

h.  m.  h.  m.  h.  m.  h.  m.  „  , 
.Mercury..  7  54  ...  13  19  ..  18  44  ...  22  47-5  ...  7  39  S. 
Venus  ...  5  37  ..  9  41  ...  13  45  ...  19  8-2  ...  21  38  S. 
Mars  ...  22  59*...  4  20  ...  9  41  ...  13  46-6  ...  8  18  S. 
Jupiter  ...  2  27  ...  6  42  ...  10  57  ..  16  9-1  ...  20  4  S. 
Saturn  ...  14  51  ...  22  46  ...  6  41*...  8  154  ...  20  22  N. 
Uranus...  22  4*...  3  37  ...  9  10  ...  13  3-9  ...  6  4  S. 
Neptune..  10  33  ...  18  13  ...   i  53*...  3  41*6  ...  17  55  N. 

•  Indicates  that  the  rising  is  that  of  the  preceding  evening  and  the  setting 
that  of  the  following  morning. 


354 


NATURE 


{Feb.  9,  1888 


Feb. 

16 
17 


Star. 


9     ...     Mercury  in  conjunction  with  and  3° 8'  north 

of  the  Moon. 
12     ...     Mercury  at    greatest    elongation   from    the 

Sun  18°  east. 
o     ...     Mercury  at  least  distance  from  the  Sun. 

Variable  Stars. 
R.A.  Decl. 


h.     m. 

^ 

h.   m. 

U  Cephei     

.     0  52-4  . 

..  81   16  N. 

...  Feb.  14, 

19  58  m 

Algol    

•     3    0-9  . 

.  40  31  N. 

...     „     12, 

22  19  m 

R  Aurigse    

5     8-3. 

.  53  28  N. 

...     „     18, 

M 

R  Canis  Majoris.. 

7  14-5  • 

.  16  12  S. 

...     „     13, 
„     15. 

21  35  m 
051  ;// 

S  Cancri      

8  37-5  • 

.  19  26  N. 

...     „     16, 

21  43  m 

S  Ursse  Majoris  .. 

12  39-1  . 

.  61  42  N. 

...          M          15, 

m 

R  Bootis      

14  32-3  - 

.  27  13  N. 

.••          „          17, 

m 

5  Librae        

14  55  "o. 

.    8     4S. 

...         M         15. 

2  24  7n 

U  Coronse 

IS  13*6  . 

.32     3  N. 

...         „         15, 

0     9  ?« 

W  Herculis 

16  31*3  •■ 

•  37  34  N. 

...         „          18, 

M 

U  Ophiuchi. 

17  10-9  .. 

.     I  20  N. 

...         „          14, 

2  16  m 

and  at  i 

ntervals  of 

20    8 

W  Sagittarii 

17  S7'9  • 

•  29  35  S. 

...  Feb.  16, 

0    0  t)i 

U  Sagittarii 

18  25-3  .. 

.  19  12  S. 

..     ,,     16, 

4    0  ?n 

R  Scuti 

18  41-5  •• 

•    5  50  S. 

...     „     18, 

M 

R  Lyrae        

18  51-9.. 

.  43  48  N. 

...     „     16, 

m 

R  Aquilse    

19     10  .. 

.    8    4N, 

...     „     16, 

M 

S  Vulpeculse 

19  43-8  .. 

.27     I  N. 

...     „     12, 

M 

Y  Cygni       

20  47-6  .. 

•  34  14  N. 

...     ,,     12, 

M          15. 

19  56  m 
19  50  m 

8  Cephei      

22  25*0  .. 

.  57  51  N. 

...         ,,          13, 

20m 

it/ signifies  maximum  ;  m  minimum. 

Meteor- Showers. 

R.A. 

Decl. 

Near  49  Camelopa 

•dalis  110° 

...     62°  N. 

...     Slow. 

From  Monoceros 

...    1 20 

...      5S. 

Slow. 

Near  i;  Herculis  .. 

...   238 

...     46  N. 

...     February  17. 

,,     a  Ophiuchi.. 

...   260 

...       3N. 

..     Swift 

streaks. 

GEOGRAPHICAL  NOTES. 

The  PVench  traveller,  M.  Thjuar,  who  was  believed  to  have 
perished  on  his  way  to  the  Gran  Chaco,  has  returned  to  Port 
Pacheco  with  his  companions.  This  news  was  lately  sent  from 
Buenos  Ayres  to  Chuquisaca  (Sucre). 

In  the  new  number  oi  Appal achia  Mr.  F.  H.  Chapin  describe^ 
his  ascent  of  a  glacier  on  Mummy  Mountain,  Northern  Colorado, 
lying  directly  north  of  Long's  Peak,  and  in  line  with  the  centre 
of  Estes  Park.  A  single  glance  at  the  series  of  crevasses  con- 
vinced Mr.  Chapin  that  it  was  really  a  glacier,  and  not  a  mere 
accumulation  of  snow.  To  the  same  number  Mr.  S.  H.  Scudder 
contributes  a  paper  on  the  White  Mountains  as  a  home  for 
butterflies. 

In  the  paper  contributed  to  the  Berlin  Geographical  Society 
by  Dr.  H.  Meyer  on  his  ascent  of  Mount  Kilimanjaro,  he 
modifies  his  first  statements  as  to  the  height  which  he  attained  ; 
according  to  a  statement  of  his  companion.  Dr.  Meyer  did  not 
get  within  2000  feet  of  the  top. 

In  the  new  Bulletin  of  the  American  Geographical  Society 
will  be  found  a  useful  paper  by  Mr.  A.  S.  Packard,  in  which 
he  brings  together  a  precis  of  what  was  known  of  Labrador. 
Accompanying  the  paper  is  a  good  map,  in  which  Mr.  Packard 
has  embodied  information  hitherto  unpublished.  Dr.  Fr.  Boas 
gives  the  results  of  his  year's  sojourn  among  the  Eskimo. 

In  the  last  number  of  the  Proceedings  of  the  Victoria  Branch 
of  the  Australasian  Geographical  Society  will  be  found  a 
detailed  account  of  Mr.  Cuthbertson's  expedition  to  explore  the 
highlands  of  British  New  Guinea.  The  accompanying  map 
gives  a  good  idea  of  the  nature  of  the  country.  Mount  Obr<;e 
was  found  to  be  only  8000  feet  high,  2000  feet  lower  than 
previous  estimates. 

We  learn  from  the  Izvestia  of  the  East  Siberian  Branch  of 
the  Russian  Geographical  Society  (vol.  xvii.  fasc.  i)  that  the 
vertical  section  of  the  Angara  at  i's  issue  from  Lake  Baikal  is 
17,920  feet,  and  that  the  volume  of  water  discharged  from  the 
great  Siberian  lake  reaches  121,353  cubic  feet  per  second.     If 


this  outflow  were    checked,  the  level  of   the  lake   would   rise 
7  feet  in  thirteen  months. 

Dr.  Robert  Sieger  contributes  to'the  Geographical  Society 
of  Vienna  University  a  paper  in  which  he  discusses  what  in- 
formation exists  as  to  the  changes  of  level  in  the  African  lakes. 
This  shows  clearly  that  for  the  last  ten  years  at  least  these  have 
been  lowering  in  level,  and,  in  the  case  of  Tanganyika,  to  the 
extent  of  many  feet.  The  changes  which  take  place  are  almost 
entirely  dependent  on  rainfall,  and  the  probability  is  that  there 
are  periods  of  depression  and  periods  of  elevation.  It  is  im- 
portant that  observations  should  be  carried  on  both  in  African 
lakes  and  African  rivers  for  a  period  sufiiclently  long  to  afford 
data  numerous  enough  to  warrant  any  conclusion  to  be  drawn. 

Prof.  Euard  Suss,  the  able  author  of  "Das  Antlitz  der 
Erde,"  recently  read  a  paper  to  the  Vienna  Geological  Society,  on 
the  history  of  the  ocean,  which  is  to  some  extent  supplementary 
to  that  work.  In  this  he  points  out  that  from  the  mouths  of  the 
Ganges  all  round  the  Pacific  c:)asts  of  Asia  and  America  to 
Cape  Horn,  the  coasts  are  outlined  by  mountain-ranges  which 
close  in  upon  each  other  in  great  curves.  From  Cape  Horn, 
again,  all  round  the  Atlantic  and  the  Indian  Oceans  to  the 
mouths  of  the  Ganges,  the  coasts  are  unconnected  with  mountain- 
ranges,  but  are  encircled  by  tablelands  or  broken  mountain 
patches.  We  have  thus,  then,  so  far  as  the  structure  of  the  ocean 
basins  is  concerned,  to  distinguish  between  a  Pacific  and  an 
Atlantic  type.  As  regards  the  age  of  the  oceans.  Prof.  Siiss 
concludes  from  the  geological  formations  that  the  Pacific  is 
the  oldest,  next  to  that  the  Indian,  and  last  of  all  the  Atlantic. 
The  oceans,  he  points  out,  are  areas  of  depression.  Each  new 
depression  would  form  a  fresh  receptacle  for  water,  and  so  the 
shore-line  of  the  land  would  be  lowered.  Prof.  Siiss  seems  to 
maintain  that  it  is  to  this,  and  not  to  the  actual  rising  of  the  land, 
that  the  elevation  of  the  coast-line  in  certain  regions  is  due. 

Mr.  J.  F.  Needham  has  been  engaged  to  conduct  an  ex- 
pedition from  Sadiya  to  the  Hukeng  Valley,  and  thence  to 
Bhamo  on  the  Upper  Irrawady.  His  previous  achievements  in 
the  Abor  Hills,  and  the  country  lying  between  the  Brahmaputra 
and  the  Zayal  Chu,  and  his  success  in  conciliating  the  unfriendly 
tribes  on  that  frontier  region,  marked  him  out  for  selection  as  the 
proper  officer  to  conduct  the  present  mission. 

The  new  part  (Vos.  133-34)  of  the  Zeitschrift  of  the  Berlin 
Geographical  Society  is  mainly  occupied  with  Dr.  W.  Sievers's 
account  of  the  residts  of  his  exploration  of  the  Sierra  Nevada  of 
Santa  Marta  in  the  north-east  of  the  United  States  of  Columbia, 
an  excellent  large-scale  map  accompanying  tlie  number.  A 
considerable  section  of  the  paper  deals  with  the  geology  of  the 
region,  after  which  Dr.  Sievers  treats  of  the  surfice  formation, 
altitude.',  climate,  vegetation,  and  agriculture,  the  land-snails 
population. 

News  from  Victoria,  in  the  Cameroons,  states  that  the 
African  traveller.  Dr.  Zintgraff",  started  for  Rio  del  Rey  in  the 
steamer  Nachtigal,  accompanied  by  thirty  porters.  He  is  on 
his  way  to  the  Elephant  Lake  in  order  to  esta'ihsh  a  scientific 
station.  The  other  half  of  the  Expedition,  under  the  command 
of  Lieut.  Zeuner,  is  to  proceed  up  the  Mungo  River  to 
Mundame,  to  reach  the  Elephant  Lake  from  that  part. 


OUR  ELECTRICAL  COLUMN. 

If  a  platinum  plate  be  immersed  in  a  porcelain  or  glass  vessel 
containing  dilute  sulphuric  acid,  and  another  similar  plate  be 
immersed  in  another  vessel  containing  caustic  potash  solution, 
then  if  the  two  vessels  be  connected  by  a  siphon  tube  or  a 
cotton  wick,  a  current  will  be  set  up,  but  which  rapidly 
diminishes  o.ving  to  the  polarization  of  the  metal  plates  by  the 
deposition  of  oxygen  and  hydrogen  upon  them.  Becquerel 
removed  the  hydrogen  by  using  nitric  instead  of  sulphuric  acid, 
and  increased  the  current  considerably.  Dr.  Alder  Wright  and 
Mr.  C.  Thomson  (Royal  Society,  February  2,  1S88)  have  been 
examining  this  form  of  battery,  and  have  found  many  other  acids 
which  act  in  the  same  way,  such  as  potassium  permanganate, 
potassium  bichromate,  potassium  ferricyanide,  and  bromine  dis- 
solved in  sulphuric  acid,  ferric  chl.)ride,  hydrochloric  acid  and 
chlorine.  Moreover,  they  have  removed  the  oxygen  by  using  a 
concentrated  solution  of  sodium  hyposulphite  made  strongly 
alkaline  with  caustic  soda,  strong  caustic  soda  with  pyrogallol, 
cuprous  chloride,  ferrous  sulphate,  and  ammonium  chloride  dis- 
solved in  ammonia.     They  also  found  the  quantity  of  oxygen 


Feb.  9,  1888] 


NA  TURE 


355 


and  hydrogen  evolved  exactly  proportional  to  the  current 
passing.  If  a  silver  voltameter  were  included  in  the  circuit,  for 
every  milligramme-equivalent  (108  milligramme!-)  of  silver  de- 
jwsited,  I  milligramme-equivalent  of  hydrogen  occupying  li*2 
cubic  centimetres  and  8  milligrammes  of  oxygen  occupying  5  •6 
cubic  centimetres  at  0°  C.  and  760  millimetres,  were  liberated. 

Although  Sir  William  Thomson  did  not  publish"any  electrical 
theoretical  work  in  1887,  he  perfected  during  that  year  his 
practical  electrical  measuring  instruments.  They  are  in  use  at 
the  Grosvenor  Gallery  central  station  in  London.  There  are 
no  more  beautiful  or  accurate  instruments  in  the  world,  and  they 
reach  over  an  enormous  range  both  of  potential  and  of  current 
measurement.  They  were  admirably  illustrated  and  described 
in  Industries  of  January  27  by  Prof.  Fleming. 

Hertz  {^Wiedemann  Ann.  1887),  has  shown  that  the  ultra- 
violet rays  have  an  influence  on  the  passage  of  sparks.  E. 
Wiedeman  and  H.  Ebert  have  been  repeating  and  verifying  his 
experiments.  The  effect  of  light  falling  on  the  spark  region  was 
to  lower  the  potential  required  to  produce  it.  If  a  succession  of 
sparks  be  sent,  and  a  telephone  be  used,  the  effect  of  light 
falling  on  the  sparks  was  to  change  not  only  the  note  but  the 
whole  character  of  the  sound  heard  in  the  telephone.  If  a 
Geissler's  tube  were  used,  an  intermittent  and  irregular  dis- 
charge became  steady  and  continuous.  The  effect  was  evident 
only  on  the  negative  pole. 

It  is  known  that  the  magnetic  qualities  of  iron  diminish  con- 
siderably when  raised  to  525°  C.  (red  heat),  but  iron  remains 
magnetic  up  to  650°  C.  Nickel  loses  its  magnetic  properties 
suddenly  at  300°  C.  Lodeboer  recently  (January  9)  read  a 
paper  before  the  Academie  des  Sciences,  in  which  he  showed 
that  with  magnetizing  forces  of  35,  loo,  and  200  C.G.S.  units 
the  iron  retains  its  magnetic  properties  up  to  6So°  C.  ;  that 
beyond  this  temperature  it  rapidly  loses  them  ;  that  at  750°  C. 
they  scarcely  exist,  and  at  770°  C.  they  entirely  disappear,  to  re- 
appear only  on  cooling.  It  is  known  that  the  specific  heat  of 
iron  undergoes  a  change  of  condition  between  660^  and  720°  C., 
and  the  coincidence  of  these  two  changes  is  very  interesting. 

The  treatment  of  sewage  by  electricity  is,  it  seems,  likely  to 
receive  a  practical  test  at  the  Metropolitan  Board  of  Works' 
outfall  at  Crossness.  Mr.  Fewson,  of  Buckingham,  made  some 
experiments  in  this  direction  at  Wimbledon  last  summer,  and 
now  Mr.  W.  Webster  is  about  to  do  the  same  thing  at  one  of 
the  large  tanks  on  the  Thames.  The  electric  current  is  said  to 
have  a  wonderful  disinfecting  and  purifying  influence.  The 
evolution  of  gas  stirs  up  the  liquid,  the  nascent  oxygen  is  brought 
into  rapid  contact  with  the  impurities  and  reduces  them,  precipita- 
tion is  expedited,  and  the  whole  cleansed.  It  is  to  be  hoped 
that  the  cost  will  not  swamp  this  new  and  useful  field  for 
electricity. 

The  extraordinary  rise  in  the  price  of  copper  has  attracted 
much  attention  to  the  use  of  iron  for  lightning  conductors. 
Prof.  Silvanus  Thompson  advocates  iron  in  preference  to  copper 
under  all  circumstances.  Iron  is  much  used  by  the  War  Depart- 
ment to  protect  magazines.  Dr.  L.  Weber  recommends  it  even 
in  a  solid  form  rather  than  as  a  stranded  rope,  but  the  latter  form 
is  much  more  portable  and  workable  ;  moreover,  Prof.  Hughes 
showed  it  to  be  less  subject  to  self-induction  than  a  solid  rod — 
an  obstruction  not  to  be  neglected.  Iron  conductors  are  stronger, 
much  cheaper,  less  easily  fused,  and  less  liable  to  theft  than 
copper.     There  can  be  no  objection  to  the  use  of  iron. 

The  electro-deposition  of  aluminium  has  attracted  much 
attention  since  the  introduction  of  the  Cowles  process. 
Herman  Reinbold  has  proposed  the  following  solution,  with 
which  he  has  obtained  good  but  small  results  :  alum  50  parts, 
water  300  parts,  aluminium  chloride  10  parts.  This  solution  is 
heated  to  200°  F.,  and  after  cooling  39  parts  of  potassic  chloride 
are  added. 


THE    INSTITUTION    OF   MECHANICAL 
ENGINEERS. 

"T^HIS  Society  held  its  forty-first  annual  general  meeting  in 
*■  the  theatre  of  the  Institution  of  Civil  Engineers  on 
Thursday  and  Friday  of  last  week.  After  the  Annual  Report 
had  been  presented  and  accepted,  Mr.  John  Richards'  paper 
"  On  Irrigating  Machinery  on  the  Pacific  Coast  "  was  read  and 
discussed.      The  need  of  irrigation  in  this  district  arises  from 


three  causes  :  the  lack  of  rain,  which  ceases  altogether  along 
the  coast  in  summer-time ;  the  want  of  surface-water ;  and  the 
free  percolation  into  the  sandy  soil  beneath.  The  whole  of  the 
land  in  the  country,  excepting  the  low-lying  sedimentary  plains 
near  the  mouths  of  the  rivers,  and  around  the  Bay  of  San 
Francisco,  where  water  reaches  the  surface  by  capillary  satura- 
tion, requires  irrigation.  Nearly  all  the  land  upon  which  water 
can  be  led,  either  by  training  small  mountain  streams,  or  by 
leading  long  canals  from  the  rivers,  has  been  occupied,  so  that 
the  only  remaining  resource  for  getting  water  will  be  by  lifting 
it  from  the  rivers  or  the  gravel  strata  by  machinery.  The  paper 
is  descriptive  of  the  various  pumps  and  hydraulic  rams  employed, 
and  was  illustrated  by  means  of  thirty- five  figures. 

Mr.  William  Geipel's  paper  "  On  the  Position  and  Prospects 
of  Electricity  as  applied  to  Engineering  "  refers  to  those  branches 
of  electric  engineering  which  involve  the  employment  of  con- 
siderable power,  and  are  in  some  way  or  other  connected  with 
the  use  of  dynamos.  They  comprise  electric  transmission  and 
distribution  of  power,  and  electric  lighting,  locomotion,  and 
metallurgy. 

In  the  author's  opinion  the  transmission  and  distribution  of 
power  by  electricity  will  occupy  in  the  near  future  most  of  the 
attention  of  the  electric  engineer.  Owing  to  its  simplicity,  the 
ease  with  which  an  electric  motor  can  be  applied  to  any  purpose 
requiring  power,  and  its  high  efficiency,  it  is  certainly  an 
approach  to  an  ideally  perfect  sy^■tem  of  transmission.  In  the 
United  States  great  strides  have  been  made  in  the  applications 
of  electric  motors,  which  already  rival  those  for  lighting  purposes. 
One  of  the  great  advantages  of  these  applications  is  due  to  the 
low  efficiency  of  belts  and  shafting  where  high  speed  is  required 
and  the  demand  for  power  is  variable.  By  getting  rid  of  shaft- 
ing the  necessity  for  additional  stability  in  buildings  is  obviated, 
and  constant  lubrication  is  done  away  with.  The  distribution 
of  power  by  elec'ricity  from  a  central  station  to  small  users  can 
be  effected  from  the  same  mains  and  generators  as  are  used  for 
electric  light  purposes  ;  as  to  whether  gas  through  the  medium 
of  gas  engines  or  electricity  by  means  of  electric  motors  should 
be  used,  will  become  entirely  a  question  of  economy  and  con- 
venience. On  the  one  hand  the  electric  motor  can  be  started 
and  stopped  with  the  greatest  ease,  it  requires  little  attention, 
occupies  little  space,  and  can  be  placed  anywhere,  while  against 
the  use  of  the  gas  engine,  the  author  brings  forward  its  irregu- 
larity of  speed  owing  to  the  intermittent  impulse  and  the  wear 
and  tear  in  the  valves  and  working  parts.  Shunt  motors,  which 
are  now  almost  exclusively  used,  possess  a  practically  perfect 
power  of  self-control,  not  only  over  their  rate  of  speed  with 
varying  load,  but  over  the  energy  absorbed,  for  they  help  them- 
selves, as  it  were,  to  only  such  an  amount  of  energy  as  will 
enable  them  to  deal  with  the  work  imposed  upon  them.  Another 
advantage  in  shunt  motors,  first  pointed  out  by  the  late  Sir 
William  Siemens  in  1880,  is  that  they  act  as  generators  when 
themselves  driven  by  any  extraneous  power,  without  any  com- 
plication of  the  switch  gear  required  with  series  motors.  The 
author  refers  to  various  installations  which  have  already  taken 
place  in  Europe  and  America,  which  are  paying  their  way, 
whilst  at  the  Falls  of  Niagara  plant  is  being  put  down  to  dis- 
tribute power  obtained  from  the  Falls  to  neighbouring  towns, 
including  Buffalo,  which  is  twenty  miles  distant ;  the  amount  of 
power  is  stated  at  15,000  h.p.,  of  which  10,000  h. p.  is  contracted 
for  at  ;^3  per  h.p. 

Electricity  has  been  applied  with  efficiency  in  collieries  for 
underground  hauling,  pumping,  ventilating,  and  drilling  ;  in 
ship-yards  and  similar  works  it  has  been  proved  to  be  a  suitable 
and  economical  means  of  transmitting  power  for  riveting,  drill- 
ing, &c. 

In  its  application  to  the  transmission  of  power  to  great  distances, 
electricity  is  found  to  be  more  economical  than  either  hydraulic, 
pneumatic,  or  wire-rope  transmission,  and  comparative  tables  are 
given  i-howing  the  first  cost  of  plant  per  horse-power  transmitted, 
and  also  the  working  cost  per  horse-power  transmitted  per 
hour.  For  a  distance  of  22,000  yards  the  cost  of  ^installation 
for  the  transmission  of  100  h.p.  is  ;^87,  ;,C3io,  ;[^I92,  and 
;,^i62  per  h.p.  for  electric,  hydraulic,  pneumatic,  and  wire-rope 
transmission  respectively  ;  whilst  the  cost  per  h.p.  transmitted 
per  hour  is  4x8,  6-84,  4*50,  and  973  pence. 

Amongst  many  interesting  applications,  that  made  by  the 
Marquis  of  Salisbury  at  Hatfield  may  be  specially  referred  to. 
The  River  Lea  is  utilized  to  generate  electricity  by  means  of 
turbines,  the  electricity  being  transmitted  to  the  house  and  over 
the  estate  for  a  variety  of  purposes.     The  motors  at  the  house 


356 


NATURE 


{Feb.  9,  1888 


drive  pumping  and  ice-making  machinery  and  an  air-propeller 
fixed  in  the  roof  for  ventilating  ;  on  the  farm  the  motors  are  used 
for  elevating  hay  and  corn  sheaves  to  the  top  of  the  stacks,  for 
thrashing,  for  cutting  rough  grass  with  a  chaff-cutting  machine 
for  ensilage,  in  fields  extending  to  a  distance  of  two  miles,  for 
grinding  corn,  &c.,  to  make  fodder,  and  for  other  purposes.  The 
motors  have  also  been  used  for  pile-driving,  for  making  coffer- 
dams where  necessary  in  the  river,  and  also  for  dredging  the 
river  and  clearing  it  of  weeds,  and  for  pumping  the  town  sewage 
into  a  tank  at  the  height  of  thirty  feet  for  irrigation.  The  con- 
ductors are  carried  overhead  on  poles  about  the  farm  and  under- 
ground in  wooden  troughs  to  the  house.  The  practical  methods 
employed  for  electric  locomotion — being  those  of  a  third  insulated 
rail,  an  overhead  conductor,  an  underground  insulated  conductor, 
and  storage  batteries — are  described,  and  examples  of  the  applica- 
tion of  all  are  given.  To  the  first  belong  the  Portrush  Railway, 
and  Besbrook  and  Newry  Tramway  ;  to  the  next  the  electric 
railway  at  Moedling,  near  Vienna,  and  the  Frankfort-Offenbach 
railway.  This  plan  has  been  most  largely  adopted  in  America, 
where  there  are  probably  not  far  short  of  one  hundred  electric 
railways  at  work  and  projected.  Of  the  underground  conductor, 
the  most  important  example  is  the  electric  tramway  at  Blackpool, 
while  storage  batteries  are  being  employed  on  the  North  Metro- 
politan Tramway  in  London.  The  ordinary  rails  have  been  used 
as  conductors  in  the  short  electric  railway  at  Brighton,  where 
the  expenses  amount  to  twopence  per  car-mile. 

The  plan  of  transporting  material  in  skips  on  overhead  wire- 
ropes  by  means  of  electricity,  introduced  under  the  name  of 
telpherage  by  Prof.  Fleeming  Jenkin,  has  been  employed  with 
success  for  two  years  past  at  Glynde,  near  Lewes,  for  trans- 
porting clay  to  the  railway  over  a  distance  of  1600  yards,  and  is 
applicable  for  use  in  places  where  material  has  to  be  conveyed 
across  hilly  districts.  In  the  author's  opinion  a  modification  of 
this  plan  might  be  advantageously  applied  to  alleviate  the  heavy 
street  traffic  in  our  larger  cities. 

The  author  considers  the  question  of  electric  lighting  under 
the  three  aspects  of  comfort,  convenience,  and  economy.  As 
regards  the  first  two,  electric  lighting  has  the  advantage  over 
other  systems  ;  whilst  as  regards  cost,  although  electric  lighting, 
and  especially  incandescent  electric  lighting,  is  still  heavy,  yet 
for  lighting  main  streets  and  railway  stations,  or  other  places 
where  concentrated  light  is  required,  the  arc  light  is  cheaper 
than  gas.  As  its  use  extends,  the  cost  of  working  becomes  re- 
duced. Thus  in  the  Waverley  Station,  Edinburgh,  on  the  North 
British  Railway,  thirty-three  arc  lamps,  with  41,884  lamp  hours, 
cost  277  pence  per  lamp  hour  from  July  to  December  1884; 
whilst  in  1886,  thirty-nine  arc  lamps,  having  55,068  lamp  hours, 
cost  I  "79  penny  per  lamp  hour. 

The  cost  of  incandescent  lighting  is  especially  variable,  and 
affected  by  the  local  conditions  of  the  installation.  The  chief  of 
these  are  the  average  number  of  hours  of  lighting  each  lamp,  and 
the  average  distance  of  the  lamps  from  the  generating  station. 
Where  conditions  are  favourable,  incandescent  lighting  can 
already  compete  with  gas.  Messrs.  George  Jager  and  Sons' 
yearly  cost  of  lighting  their  sugar  refinery  at  Leith  is  given  as 
an  example,  it  having  been  ^347  with  gas  and  ^204  with  in- 
candescent lamps.  The  author  draws  special  attention  to  the 
circumstance  of  the  much  larger  application  of  electricity  to 
lighting  in  the  United  States  as  compared  with  this  country.  Tn 
the  United  States  there  is  hardly  a  city  or  town  of  20,000  in- 
habitants which  has  not  a  central  station  for  arc  or  incandescent 
lamps ;  and  many  towns  of  3000  to  4000  inhabitants  are  also 
supporting  them. 

The  efficiency  of  dynamo  machines  being  as  high  as  95 
per  cent.,  and  there  not  being  much  likelihood  of  material 
improvement  in  steam  engines,  the  author  draws  attention  to 
the  importance  of  improving  the  lamps  by  making  them  with  a 
higher  resistance  and  greater  efficiency,  the  voltage  having  a  great 
effect  on  the  cost  of  working  distant  lamps.  Transformers,  by 
means  of  which  high  tension  currents  of  electricity,  sent  from  a 
distant  generating  station  along  a  small  conductor  with  com- 
paratively small  percentage  of  loss,  can  then  be  converted  into 
low  tension  currents  for  the  supply  of  ordinary  incandescent 
lamps,  are  receiving  a  large  amount  of  attention,  the  loss  by 
conversion  being  as  low  sometimes  as  5  per  cent.  Efforts  are 
also  being  made  to  introduce  the  system  of  secondary  batteries, 
charged  in  series  by  a  high  tension  current,  and  discharged  in 
parallel  circuit,  and  if  it  can  once  be  demonstrated  to  be 
economical,  there  would  be  a  large  field  of  application.  At 
Leamington  an  extensive  central  station  is   now  at  work,  the 


cost  of  the  undertaking  being  ;iC30,ooo  ;  while  the  Bradford 
Corporation  have  recently  voted  a  sum  of  ;^i5,ooo  for  erecting  a 
central  station  in  their  town.  Both  these  are  instances  of  direct 
supply  without  transformers  or  secondary  batteries.  Electric 
metallurgy  is  a  branch  of  electric  engineering  to  which  attention 
was  first  drawn  by  the  late  Sir  William  Siemens,  whose  death 
occurred  before  he  had  perfected  his  invention.  The  electro- 
chemical separation  of  ores  on  a  commercial  scale  by  the  electric 
furnace  has  been  recently  put  to  the  test,  chiefly  in  obtaining 
aluminium  from  conundrum.  The  furnace  designed  by  Prof. 
Mabery  is  built  of  fire-brick  and  lined  with  powdered  charcoal ; 
electricity  is  conducted  to  the  ore  by  carbon  rods,  meeting  near 
the  centre.  The  ore  mixed  with  charcoal  and  granulated  copper 
surrounds  and  covers  the  carbons  ;  the  furnace  is  closed  with  a 
layer  of  charcoal  and  a  lid  lined  with  fire-brick.  A  current  of 
50  volts  electromotive  force  is  supplied  and  melts  the  metal 
around  the  electrodes,  which  are  moved  apart  gradually  until  the 
whole  is  melted.  The  conundrum  becomes  gradually  deoxi- 
dized, the  aluminium  combining  with  the  copper,  while  the 
oxygen  with  the  carbon  escapes  as  carbonic  oxide,  about  five 
hours  sufficing  to  complete  the  reduction.  Aluminium,  being 
only  one-third  the  weight  of  iron,  and  possessing  great  strength, 
its  production  at  a  cheap  rate  would  probably  cause  a  revolution 
in  engineering  construction. 

The  meeting  was  presided  over  by  Mr.  E.  H.  Carbutt,  the 
President,  who  was  re-elected  to  the  chair,  whilst  Sir  Douglas 
Galton,  K.C.B.,  was  the  new  member  elected  on  the  Council. 
The  meeting  was  as  usual  of  a  very  successful  character. 


THE  NATIONAL   SMOKE  ABATEMENT 
INSTITUTION} 

IN  presenting  the  Report  to  the  members  for  the  year  1887, 
the  Council  consider  it  desirable  to  reprint  from  the  Memo- 
randum of  Association  the  objects  for  which  the  Institution  was 
established.     These  are  the  following  : — 

To  promote  the  abatement  of  coal  smoke  and  other  noxious 
products  of  combustion  in  cities  and  other  places,  in  order  to 
render  the  atmosphere  as  pure  and  as  pervious  to  sunlight  as 
practicable.  To  check  the  present  serious  waste  of  coal,  and 
the  direct  and  indirect  loss  and  damage  accompanying  the  over- 
production of  smoke  and  noxious  products  of  combustion.  To 
continue,  organize,  and  extend  the  public  movement  inaugurated 
and  hitherto  carried  on  by  the  Smoke  Abatement  Committees 
(otherwise  known  as  the  Joint  Committees  for  Abatement  of 
Smoke,  apjsointed  by  the  National  Health  Society  and  Kyrle 
Society  of  London,  and  the  Smoke  Abatement  Committee  of 
MancDester),  and  to  take  up  and  proceed  with  any  work  under- 
taken or  commenced  by  such  Committees.  To  advance  the 
aforesaid  objects  by  promoting  and  enc  .uraging  the  better  and 
more  economical  use  of  coal  and  coal  pro-iucts,  and  the  selection 
of  suitable  fuel,  as  well  as  general  improvement  in  the  various 
modes  of  obtaining,  applying,  and  using  heat  and  light  for 
domestic  and  industrial  purposes.  And  in  connection  with  such 
objects  to  obtain  and  provide  such  buildings,  appliances,  and 
assistance  as  may  be  deemed  expedient.  And  without  prejudice 
to  the  advancement  of  the  objects  aforesaid  by  other  means  to 
advance  the  same  by  the  following  means  more  particularly  : — 

(a)  By  calling  public  attention  to  the  serious  pecuniary  loss 
and  injury,  to  the  health  and  comfort,  which  arise  from  coal 
smoke,  and  from  defective  heating,  ventilating,  and  lighting 
arrangements. 

(h)  By  stimulating,  assisting,  and  encouraging  inventors, 
manufacturers,  traders,  and  others  to  bring  forward,  develop, 
and  perfect  new  or  improved  fuels,  substances,  methods,  and 
appliances  for  the  generation  or  application  of  heat  or  light, 
and  for  consuming  or  lessening  the  production  of  smoke  and 
noxious  products  of  combustion. 

(f)  By  conducting  practical  trials  of  fuels,  apparatus,  and 
systems  connected  with  the  genei-ation  or  application  of  heat  or 
light,  and  causing  reports  to  be  made  thereon  for  the  guidance, 
assistance,  or  information  of  inventors,  traders,  intending  users, 
and  the  public  generally. 

{d)  By  granting  awards,  certificates,  medals,  or  prizes  in 
connection  with  approved  fuels,  methods,  or  apparatus. 

{e)  By  establishing,  or  assisting  in  establishing,  public  ex- 
hibitions, either  periodical  or  otherwise,  of  appliances  pertaining 
to  heating,  ventilating,  or  lighting. 

*  Report  of  the  Council  for  the  year  1SS7. 


Feb.  9,  1888] 


NATURB^. 


357 


(/)  By  collecting  and  recording  statistics  and  information,  and 
making,  assisting,  or  encouraging  experiments  or  researches  as  to 
the  effects  upon  the  atmosphere,  and  upon  life,  health,  and 
property  of  the  use  of  coal  and  other  fuels  and  means  employed 
or  to  be  employed  in  connection  with  heating  or  lighting  ;  and  by 
printing,  publishing,  and  circulating  any  such  statistics  or  infor- 
mation, including  the  intended  report  of  the  Committees  afore- 
said, or  any  similar  composition  or  literary  work. 

^^g)  By  imparting  information,  instruction,  and  assistance  to 
local  authorities,  manufacturers,  workmen,  householders,  servants, 
and  the  public  generally  whether  by  means  of  lectures,  demon- 
sUations,  pamphlets,  written  articles,  or  otherwise  in  relation  to 
the  subject  of  smoke  prevention  or  abatement. 

{li)  By  joining  or  concurring  with  any  other  institution,  society, 
or  persons,  in  doing  or  causing,  or  procuring  to  be  done,  any  of 
the  things  aforesaid. 

To  promote  the  abatement  of  noxious  vapours  arising  from 
manufactures  or  manufacturing  processes,  and  to  resort  to  and  use 
for  that  purpose  powers  and  means  analogous  to  those  hereinbefore 
contemplated  with  reference  to  Smoke  Abatement  and  any  other 
reasonable  means.  For  all  or  any  of  the  purposes  aforesaid, 
cither  alone  or  in  conjunction  with  others,  to  promote  legislation 
and  parochial  and  other  regulations,  and  to  assist  in  the  enforce- 
ment thereof,  and  of  any  existing  or  future  legislative,  parochial, 
or  other  regulations. 

In  reporting  upon  the  business  transacted  by  the  Institution 
I  luring  the  past  year,  it  is  essential  that  the  members  should 
he  reminded  of  the  urgency  for  further  legislation  on  the  subject 
>f  smoke  prevention. 

The  Institution  has  been  in  communication  with  the  medical 
officers  of  health  and  chief  constables  throughout  the  country, 
and  the  most  valuable  information  obtained  with  reference  to  the 
working  of  existing  by-laws  is  given  as  supplements  Nos.  i, 
2,  3,  4,  5,  and  6,  to  a  paper  on  Smoke  Abatement,  read  at  the 
Bolton  Congress  of  the  Sanitary  Institute.  These  supplements 
are  published  in  the  Transactions  of  the  Sanitary  Institute  of 
Great  Britain,  and  by  reference  to  them  it  will  be  seen  that  the 
municipal  authorities  of  Liverpool  are  much  more  alive  to  the 
necessity  of  prosecuting  offenders  against  the  Smoke  Abatement 
Acts  than  the  authorities  in  any  of  the  other  places  from  which 
reports  have  been  obtained. 

By  comparison  with  the  Report  issued  by  the  Commissioner 
of  Police  for  the  Metropolis  of  1886,  it  will  be  seen  that  the 
number  of  cases  in  which  fines  were  imposed  in  Liverpool  was 
545,  whereas  the  number  of  convictions  in  the  metropolis 
amounted  only  to  82.  It  might  further  be  noted,  however,  in 
respect  to  the  penalties  imposed,  that  the  average  of  all  the 
fines  in  Liverpool  was  igy.  \l\d.  The  average  in  London  was 
£\  175.  5r/.  The  inadequacy  of  the  fines  imposed  is  a  serious 
obstacle  in  dealing  with  police  prosecutions,  and  the  fines  have 
little  effect,  if  any,  in  the  prevention  of  smoke,  in  consequence 
of  the  amount  of  the  penalty  being  so  disproportionate  to  the 
financial  positions  of  the  persons  on  whom  they  are  imposed. 

During  the  year  attention  was  prominently  called  by  Lord 
Stratheden  and  Campbell  to  the  provisions  in  the  Bill  intro- 
duced by  him  to  the  House  of  Lords  "  To  amend  the  Acts  for 
abating  the  nuisance  arising  from  the  smoke  of  furnaces  and 
fire-places  within  the  Metropolis,"  and  resulted  in  a  Select 
Committee  being  appointed  to  consider  the  terms  of  the  Bill, 
and  to  report  to  the  House  of  Lords.  The  minutes  of  evidence 
were  laid  before  the  House  of  Lords  on  the  15th  of  July,  1887, 
and  the  published  Report  contains  much  valuable  information 
with  respect  to  the  working  of  the  Smoke  Abatement  Acts  : — 
The  nuisance  created  by  steamers  on  the  Thames;  the 
necessity  for  extension  of  the  metropolitan  area  to  be  within  the 
Acts  ;  the  necessity  for  controlling  the  emission  of  smoke  from 
club-houses,  hotels,  private  residences,  and  other  buildings  not 
within  the  scope  of  the  existing  Acts ;  the  usual  course  followed 
by  the  police  in  instituting  prosecutions  ;  a  return  showing  the 
number  of  police  employed  in  carrying  out  the  Smoke  Nuisance 
Abatement  Acts  ;  the  effect  of  the  increase  of  smoke  on  the 
health  of  the  people,  and  the  advantages  from  a  sanitary  point 
of  view  to  be  derived  by  the  prevention  of  smoke  ;  also  par 
ticulars  regarding  the  commercial  advantages  to  be  derived  by 
the  consumption  of  smoke  ;  particulars  of  the  methods  which 
might  be  adopted  for  the  complete  combustion  of  fuel  in 
domestic  grates  ;  and  generally,  a  great  mass  of  information 
dealing  with  the  subject  laid  before  the  House  of  Lords  by  the 
following    gentlemen  :     Mr.  W.   R.     E.    Coles,    the    engineer 


appointed  by  the  Home  Secretary  to  examine  furnaces  in  the 
metropolis  ;  Mr.  James  Edward  Davis,  of  the  Home  Office, 
legal  adviser  to  the  Commissioners  ;  Mr.  Charles  Cutbush, 
Superintendent  of  Police ;  and  Mr.  Ernest  Hart,  Chairman 
of  Council  of  the  National  Smoke  Abatement  Institution. 

By  reference  to  the  Police  Orders  and  Regulations  reprinted 
at  the  end  of  this  Report,  it  will  be  observed  in  paragraph  36 
that  hotel-keepers  in  the  metropolis  not  using  steam-engines  can 
only  be  proceeded  against  under  Section  19,  Sub-Section  3,  of 
29  and  30  Vict.,  cap.  90,  and  be  guilty  of  an  offence  under  that 
Section.  In  consequence  of  this  Act  of  Parliament,  Section 
19,  Sub-Section  3,  stipulates  that  any  chimney  (not  being  the 
chimney  of  a  private  dwelling-house)  sending  forth  black  smoke 
in  sucn  quantity  as  to  be  a  nuisance  is  exempt  from  the  working 
of  the  Act  and  it  is  left  to  the  justices  to  dismiss  the  complaint 
if  they  are  satisfied  such  fire-place  or  furnace  is  constructed  in  a 
manner  to  consume,  as  far  as  practicable,  all  smoke  arising 
therefrom,  but  it  does  not  state  any  standard  smoke  shade  or 
any  degree  to  be  fixed  upon  as  the  limit,  and  therefore  the 
justices  may  or  may  not  convict  at  their  option. 

The  purpose  of  Lord  Stratheden  and  Campbell's  Bill  is  to 
prohibit  or  regulate  the  emission  of  smoke  from  any  building, 
no  immunity  being  granted  to  hotels,  club-houses,  or  domestic 
fire-places  now  exempted  from  the  existing  Acts.  The  effect  of 
the  general  evidence  brought  before  the  Select  Committee  of 
the  House  of  Lords  was  a  resolution  to  await  the  results  of  the 
furth^  operation  of  the  existing  Acts,  the  purpose  and  intention 
of  which  should,  it  was  held,  be  more  fully  carried  into  effect. 

The  Council  invite  the  careful  consideration  of  members  to 
the  necessity  for  legislation,  and  on  an  early  date  will  arrange 
for  a  series  of  meetings  to  be  held,  at  which  it  is  expected  the 
sanitary  inspectors  from  the  leading  provincial  towns  will 
assemble,  in  order  to  compare  and  suggest  revisions  for  the 
existing  municipal  by-laws,  as  well  as  for  the  purpose^  of 
drafting  propositions  to  submit  to  the  authorities  on  the  subject 
of  improved  legislation  in  the  metropolis. 

The  Council  having  considered  the  desirability  of  taking  the 
first  opportunity  for  conducting  simultaneous  tests  of  the 
furnaces  of  a  large  number  of  steam-boilers  under  equal  con- 
ditions, thought  that  such  an  opportunity  might  be  offered  at  the 
forthcoming  Exhibition  to  be  held  in  Glasgow.  They  accord- 
ingly directed  the  Secretary  to  write  to  the  Lord  Provost  of 
Glasgow,  laying  the  outlines  of  their  scheme  before  him,  and 
suggesting  its  adoption  by  the  Exhibition  authorities.  Briefly 
stated,  the  proposal  was :  That  the  whole  range  of  boilers  to  be 
used  for  working  the  machinery  of  the  Exhibition  should  be 
erected  in  such  a  manner  that  each  boiler  should  have  its  setting 
and  chimney  independent  of  the  other  boilers,  so  that  the 
several  systems  of  stoking  and  arrangement  of  furnaces  could  be 
fully  tested  under  identical  conditions  of  fuel,  atmosphere,  and 
time ;  while  the  results  as  regards  smoke  would  be  evident  to 
the  public. 

It  is  to  be  regretted  that  the  authorities  in  charge  of  the 
Glasgow  Exhibition  have  not  been  able  to  see  their  way  to  co- 
operating with  the  Smoke  Abatement  Institution  as  proposed. 
Simultaneous  tests  on  such  a  large  scale  have  never  previously 
been  made.  Many  tests  of  great  value  have  been  made  on 
furnaces,  but  these  have  been  at  separate  times,  and  under 
different  atmospheric  conditions,  and  the  results,  however  favour- 
able in  themselves,  have  been  incapable  of  classification  for 
comparison.  The  proposal  of  the  Council,  if  adopted,  would 
have  supplied  what  is  wanting  by  making  these  tests  of 
several  boilers  at  the  same  time,  and  under  the  supervision  of  an 
impartial  body. 

With  reference  to  this  subject,  a  correspondence  has  taken 
place  with  Mr.  Fletcher,  Chief  Inspector  under  the  Alkali  Acts, 
as  he  has  in  preparation  a  report  upon  the  injurious  effect  of  the 
impurities  of  the  air  and  water  on  the  Clyde.  Mr.  Fletcher 
was  asked  to  furnish  a  copy  of  the  report,  but  replied  that  it  was 
in  the  hands  of  the  Secretary  for  Scotland.  Application  has 
been  made  to  the  Secretary  for  Scotland,  and  attention  drawn 
to  the  importance  of  the  series  of  tests  which  the  Council  pro- 
posed. The  Secretary  for  Scotland  in  his  reply  stated  that  Mr. 
Fletcher's  report  has  not  yet  been  brought  before  Parliament, 
and  with  respect  to  the  testing  of  the  boilers,  said  that  he  would 
inform  the  Committee  of  the  Glasgow  Exhibition  that  he  con- 
siders the  suggestion  of  the  Institution  to  be  deserving  of  con- 
sideration and  adoption. 

At  a  meeting  of  the  Institute  of  Engineers  and  Shipbuilders 
in  Scotland,  on  the  8th  of  December,  a  very  comprehensive  paper 


358 


NATURE 


[Feb.  9, 


was  read  by  Mr.  George  C.  Thomson  on  "  Smolie,"  and  in  the 
discussions  which  followed,  Mr.  W.  R.  W.  Smith,  Chairman  of 
the  Health  Committee  of  the  Glasgow  Corporation,  urged  upon 
the  members  present  the  desirability  of  doing  all  in  their  power 
to  secure  that  at  the  forthcoming  International  Exhibition  in 
Glasgow  each  of  the  boilers  be  supplied  with  a  separate 
chimney,  so  that  a  series  of  exhaustive  trials  may  be  made  with 
mechanical  stokers,  &c.,  and  other  means  for  the  purpose  of 
showing  what  might  be  done  in  the  way  of  smoke  prevention. 

With  reference  to  the  subject  of  testing,  the  Committee  are 
of  opinion  that  arrangements  should  be  made  as  soon  as 
possible  for  obtaining  the  use  of  three  testing-rooms  for  testing 
stoves,  gi-ates,  and  ranges,  the  rooms  being  conveniently 
accessible  for  such  articles,  and  having  gas  connections  under 
command.  The  tests  made  in  these  rooms,  under  the  same 
conditions  of  chimney  and  cubic  capacity,  would  then  become 
of  greater  comparative  value  than  tests  made  in  independent 
rooms. 

Arrangements  will  be  made  as  soon  as  practicable  for  pro- 
curing such  accommodation  for  testing,  and  also  for  providing 
the  necessary  instruments  used  for  testing  ;  and  as  the  system 
develops,  attention  will  be  given  to  the  establishment  of  a 
chemical  laboratory,  the  analysis  of  gases,  and  tesling-rojms  for 
testing-apparatus  incidental  to  the  work  of  the  Institution. 


SCIENTIFIC  SERIALS. 

American  Journal  of  Science,  December  1887. — On  the  de- 
struction of  the  passivity  of  iron  in  nitric  acid  by  magnetization, 
by  Edward  L.  Nichols  and  W.  S.  Franklin.  From  the  experi- 
ments described  in  this  paper,  which  was  originally  read  before 
the  Kansas  Academy  of  Science,  November  1885,  it  appears 
that  the  action  of  the  magnet  tends  to  lower  the  temperature  of 
transition  to  the  active  state,  and  that  the  intensity  of  the  mag- 
netic field  necessary  to  convert  passive  into  active  iron  at  a  given 
temperature  increases  rapidly  with  the  concentration  of  the 
acid.  An  account  is  promised  of  fui-ther  researches  offering  a 
satisfactory  explanation  of  the  manner  in  which  the  chemical 
behaviour  of  iron  is  modified,  and  its  passivity  destroyed  in  the 
magnetic  field. — On  a  method  of  making  the  wave-length  of 
sodium  light  the  actual  and  practical  standard  of  length,  by 
Albert  A.  Michelson  and  Edward  W.  Morley.  The  preliminary 
experiments  recently  carried  out  according  to  the  method  here 
proposed  seem  to  confirm  the  anticipation  that  it  would  furnish 
results  more  accurate  than  any  of  those  hitherto  suggested.  The 
apparatus  for  observing  the  intei-ference  phenomena  is  the  same 
as  that  used  in  the  experiments  on  the  relative  motion  of  the 
earth  and  the  luminiferous  ether. — The  work  of  the  International 
Congress  of  Geologists,  by  G.  K.  Gilbert.  This  is  a  reprint  of 
an  address  delivered  before  the  Section  of  Geology  and  Geo- 
graphy of  the  American  Association  for  the  Advancement  of 
Science  at  the  New  York  meeting,  August  10,  1887.  It  deals 
largely  with  a  revised  system  of  geological  terminology,  the 
substance  of  which  has  already  been  published.  The  question 
of  geological  coloured  maps  is  also  considered,  and  practical 
suggestions  made  for  their  greater  efficiency  and  economy. — On 
the  existence  of  certain  elements  together  with  the  discovery  of 
platinum  in  the  sun  :  contributions  from  the  physical  laboratory 
of  Harvard  University,  by  C.  C.  Hutchins  and  E.  L.  Holden. 
These  investigations,  carried  on  with  Prof.  Rowland's  magnificent 
diftVaction  grating,  deal  with  cadmium,  lead,  tin,  silver,  potas- 
sium, and  several  other  elements,  including  platinum,  the 
presence  of  which  in  the  solar  atmosphere  is  here  for  the  first 
time  determined.  Between  4250  and  4950  wei'e  found  sixty- 
four  lines  of  platinum,  sixteen  of  which  agree  with  the  solar 
lines. — The  flora  of  the  coast  islands  of  California  in  relation 
to  recent  changes  of  physical  geography,  by  Joseph  Le  Conte. 
A  careful  study  of  these  insular  groups,  at  present  from  20  to  30 
miles  distant  from  the  coast,  shows  that  they  at  one  time  formed 
part  of  the  mainland,  from  which  they  were  undoubtedly 
separated  during  the  Quaternary  period.  That  they  still 
formed  part  of  the  continent  during  later  Pliocene  times  is 
shown  by  the  remains  of  the  mammoth  found  on  Santa  Rosa, 
one  of  the  largest  and  furthest  off  of  the  whole  group. — 
A  new  instrument  for  the  measurement  of  radiation,  by  C.  C. 
Hutchins.  The  instrument  here  described  and  illustrated 
presents  great  advantages  over  the  thermopile  as  an  accurate 
measurer  of  radiations.     It  is  much  more  sensitive  and  requires 


no  longer  time  to  return  to  zero  than  for  the  galvanomsler 
needle  to  come  to  rest.  A  lighted  match  at  6  feet  drives  the 
needle  round  to  its  stop. — Mineralogical  notes,  by  George  F. 
Kunz.  Descriptions  with  analyses  are  given  of  a  rhodochrosite 
from  Colorado,  of  crystals  of  hollow  quartz  from  Arizona,  of 
hydrophane  from  Colorado,  and  of  a  remarkable  silver  nugget 
weighing  606  ounces  from  the  Greenwood  mines  of  Michoacan, 
Mexico. 

January.  —  The  speed  of  propagation  of  the  Charleston 
earthquake,  by  Prof.  Simon  Newcomb  and  Captain  C.  E. 
Dutton.  A  careful  comparative  study  of  the  reports  from  all 
parts  of  the  disturbed  area  shows  a  general  average  speed  of 
3'2I4±0'072  miles,  or  5171^116  metres  per  second. — 
History  of  the  changes  in  the  Mount  Loa  crater-;,  Hawaii  ; 
Part  I,  Kilauea,  by  James  D.  Dana.  The  first  paper  embraces 
the  whole  period  from  1823  to  1886,  during  «hich  there  appear 
to  have  been  at  least  eight  discharges  from  Kilauea.  The 
general  dynamical  conclusions  are  that  the  cycle  of  movement 
is  simply  (i)  a  rising  in  level  of  the  liquid  lavas,  and  of  the 
bottom  of  the  crater  ;  (2)  a  discharge  of  the  accumulated  lavas 
down  to  some  level  in  the  conduit  determined  by  the  outbreak  ; 
(3)  a  down-plunge  of  more  or  less  of  the  floor  of  the  region 
undermined  by  the  discharge.  It  is  further  shown  that  Kilauea 
is  a  true  basalt  volcano  in  its  normal  state,  the  rock  material 
being  dolerite  or  basalt,  and  the  heat  sufficing  for  the  perfect 
mobility  of  the  lavas. — The  analysis  and  composition  of  tourma- 
line, by  R.  B.  Riggs.  The  methods  of  analysis  are  described, 
with  results  for  various  specimens  from  different  parts  of  North 
America  and  Brazil.  The  general  inference  is  that  there  are 
three  types,  lithia,  iron,  and  magnesia  tourmaline,  with  an  in- 
definite number  of  intermediate  varieties,  iron  appearing  to  be 
the  connecting  link  between  the  whole  series.  The  special 
formulas  of  the  three  distinct  types  are  : — 

(i)  Lithia  :  i2Si02,  3B2O0,  4H2O,  SAl/).^,  2(NaLi)20. 

(2)  Iron:   i2Si02,  3B2O3,  4H2O,  7AI2O3,  4FeO,  Na20. 

(3)  Magnesia:  i2Si02,  3B2O3,  4H2O,  5AI2O3,  .^MgO,  fNaiO. 

— On  the  different  types  of  the  Devonian  system  in  North  America, 
by  Henry  S.  Williams.  It  is  shown  that  in  North  America  the 
Devonian  system  offers  at  least  four  distinct  types  in  four  corre- 
sponding areas,  blending  somewhat  at  their  borders,  but  in  their 
central  parts  presenting  marked  peculiarities.  The  four  areas 
are:  (i)  Eastern  Border,  mainly  in  Northern  New  England; 
(2)  Eastern  Continental,  including  New  York,  thence  southwards 
to  West  Virginia  and  north-westwards  to  Canada  West  and 
Michigan;  (3)  Interior  Continental,  chiefly  Iowa  and  Missouri, 
extending  northwards  probably  to  the  Mackenzie  basin  ;  {4) 
Western  Continental,  in  Nevada  and  conterminous  States. — 
On  the  law  of  double  refraction  in  Iceland  spar,  by  Charles  S. 
Hastings.  The  general  inference  from  these  researches  is  that 
Huyghens'  law  of  double  refraction  in  uniaxial  crystals  is 
probably  true  to  less  than  i  part  in  500,000,  and  consequently 
that  there  is  no  known  method  by  which  any  error  in  it  can  be 
detected  by  observation  alone. — In  the  Appendix,  Mr.  O.  C. 
Marsh  describes  a  new  genus  of  Sauropoda  and  other  new 
Dinosaurs  from  the  Potomac  formation  ;  also  a  new  fossil 
Sirenian  from  California. 


SOCIETIES  AND  ACADEMIES. 
London. 

Royal  Society,  January  19. — "Notes  on  the  Spectrum  of 
the  Aurora."     By  J.  Norman  Lockyer,  F.R.  S. 

I  exhibited  to  the  Society  on  November  17,  1887,  a  tabular 
statement  showing  the  bright  lines  seen  in  the  spectra  of  various 
celestial  bodies,  and  I  also  gave  those  recorded  in  the  spectrum 
of  the  aurora,  showing  many  remarkable  coincidences. 

I  now  find  that  the  connection  is  closest  between  the  auroral 
spectrum  and  that  of  stars  III. a,  and,  in  anticipation  of  a  sub- 
sequent communication  of  details,  I  send  on  the  accompanying 
table,  showing  the  origin  of  Duner's  bands,  so  far  as  I  have  at 
present  made  them  out,  and  their  connection  with  the  spectrum 
in  question. 

The  individual  observations  which  I  have  used  in  the  table  are 
those  collected  by  Mr.  Capron  and  Mr.  Backhouse  (Nature, 
vol.  vii.  pp.  182  and  463). 


Feb.  9,  1888] 


JVA  TURE 


359 


Table  ok  Wave-lengths  of  Auroral  Lines. 


Barker 

Smyth 

Zollner        

A.  Gierke 

Herschel     

Backhouse  

I.orrl  Crawford 

H.  F.  Proctor 

Vogel 

Ellery 

O.  Struve 

Angstrom 

Lemstrom 

German  North  Polar  Expedition 

Respighi     

Peirce 

Probable  origin 

Wave-lengths  of  probable  origin 


Duner's  bands    ... 


431 

470 

430 

469 

426 

472 
469 

431 

464 

CH 
431 

C  (hot) 
474 

482 

485 

more  ref.  than  F 


46o_^474 
10 


486 

C  (cold) 
483 
477_48S 


502 


501 


Mg 
SCO 


517 


5165 


C  (hot) 
516-5 


523 


521 

525 


520 

Mg 
5201 


562 

^21 

558 

635 
628 

532 

531 

532 

554 
556 

557 
557 

606 
635 

531 

545 

557 

* 

Znt(i)t 

Mn(i) 

Fed) 

546 

558 

615 

495  503     516       521 


S50J45 

7 


616  627 
2 


564_J59 
4 


Coronal  line. 


t  Another  jjrobable  origin  for  this  in  the  aurora  is  540  Mn. 


This  means  brightest  fluliug. 


Addendum. — The  following  table  shows  the  above  figures 
a.  another  form  and  includes  the  bright  lines  recorded  in 
y  Cassiopeiae : — 


Bright 

Wave-length 

Aurora. 

Duner's  bands. 

lines  in 

of  probable 

T  Cassiopeiae. 

origin. 

origin. 

431 

CH 

431 

474 

460-474  (10) 

C  (hot) 

474 

462-3 

Sr 

460-7 

483 

477-485     (9) 

C  (cool) 

483 

500 

495-503     (8) 

499 

Mg 

500 

516-5 

Si6-52ij(7) 

516-7 

C  (hot) 

516-5 

520-1 

Mg 

520-1 

531 

531 

Coronal  line 

542-2 

Mn 

540 

545 

545-550    (5) 

Zn  (r) 

546 

558 

559-564    (4) 

5557 

Mn(i) 

558 

585-595    (3) 

586 

Ma(2) 

586 

615 

616-627    (2) 

616 

Te  (I) 

615 

fe  635 

635-6 

* 

kological  Society,  January  25.— Prof.  J.  W.  Judd. 
LS.,  President,  in  the  chair. — The  following  communications 
read  : — On  Ailnrus  anglictis,  a  new  Carnivore  from  the 
Crag,  by  Prof.  W.  Boyd  Dawkins,  F.  R.  S.  The  specimen 
cribed  is  a  small  fragment  of  the  right  lower  jaw  with  the 
three  molar  teeth  in  position,  and  belongs  to  the  Crag 
Ection  of  the  Yorkshire  Philosophical  Society.  It  differs  in 
fmarked  degree  from  all  fossil  European  Carnivores,  and 
resents  no  important  points  of  difference  when  compared  with 
^series  of  jaws  of  recent  ^i7«m^.  The  author  gave  a  descrip- 
of  the  fossil,  and  comparison  of  it  with  Ailurtis  fulgens,  and 
a  table  giving  the  comparative  measurements  of  the  teeth 
jaws  of  the  fossil  and  of  recent  Ailiiri.  The  species  from 
Crag  was  a  more  powerful  animal  than  any  recent  Ailuri  in 
British  Museum.  The  paper  concluded  with  a  notice  of  the 
Sge  oiAiliirus  in  space  and  time.  After  the  reading  of  this 
er  the  President  remarked  that  seldom  had  a  fact  of  greater 
rest  in  its  bearing  upon  geographical  distribution  in  past 
»s  been  brought  before  the  Society.  Some  comments  on  the 
^r  were  also  made  by  Mr.  Lydekker,  Prof.  Seeley,  Mr. 
ton,  and  Mr.  Blanford.— A  contribution  to  the  geology 
physical  geography  of  the  Cape  Colony,   by  Prof.  A.  H. 

This  line  is  seen  as  a  pretty  bright  line  in  the  spectrum  of  the  Limerick 
ante,  but  its  origin  has  not  yet  been  determined,  although  comparisons 
1  been  made  w.th  most  of  the  common  elements.  So  far,  it  has  not  been 
ved  in  any  other  meteorite. 


Green,  F.R.S.— On  two  new  Lepidotoid  Ganoids  from  the  early 
Mesozoic  dejxjsits  of  Orange  Free  State,  South  Africa,  by  Mr.. 
A.  Smith  Woodward.  The  results  presented  in  Prof.  Green's  and 
Mr.  Woodward's  papers  were  discussed  by  the  President,  Prof. 
Rupert  Jones,  Mr.  Blanford,  Dr.  Geikie,  Mr.  Clement  Reid 
Prof.  Hughes,  and  Mr.  Irving. 

Royal    Microscopical    Society,   January    11.— Rev.    Dr. 
Dallinger,    F.R.S.,    President,    in   the   chair.— The    President 
referred  to  the  death  of  Dr.  Arthur  Farre,  a  former  President  of 
'the  Society,  and  one  of  its  earliest  Fellows. — Prof.  C.  Stewart 
exhibited  specimens  of  Tliecalia  concatneraia.      In  this   genus 
the  female  shell  exhibited  a  peculiarity  which  was  quite  unique. 
As  age  advanced  the  mantle  became  folded  back  upon  itself  in 
a   very   curious   manner,    and   simultaneously   with   this    there 
occurred  a  similar  in-folding  of  the  contiguous  portions  of  the 
shell  by  which  two  depressions  were  produced,  forming  a  fusi- 
form  chamber  when    the  two  valves   came  together.     In   this 
cavity  the  embryonic  shells  were  found. — Edmond's  automatic 
mica  stage  rotating  by  clockwork  was  exhibited  and  described. 
— Mr,   A.  W.    Bennett  gave  a  resutni  of  his  paper  on  fresh- 
water Algae  of  the  English  Lake  District,  with  a  description  of 
a  new  genus  of  Capsiilococctis  and  five  new  species,  in  continu- 
ation of  his  previous  communication  on  the  same  subject.— Dr. 
G.    Gulliver  read  a  paper  on  Pelamyxa  palustris.     The  large 
size  of  this  amoeboid  organism  had  enabled  it  to  be  cut  into 
sections,    and   the  granulated   structure   of  its  exoplasm   thus 
revealed  was  described.     As  regarded  its  classification,  it  was 
thought   that   ultimately  it   would  be  found   to  have   a  nearer 
relationship    to   the   true   Heliozoa    than    to   the   more   lowly 
Amoebae. — Mr.  E.  M.  Nelson  handed  round  for  inspection  two 
photographic  positives  ;  one  of  Amphipletira  pelhicida,  and  the 
other  of  a  fungus  growth  which  attacked  calcareous  sand,  as  de- 
scribed by  Mr.  J.  G.  Waller  in  the  Journal  of  the  Quekett  Micro- 
scopical Club,  i.  p.  345.    This  object  presented  some  photographic 
difficulty  because  of  its  non-actinic  colour.     With  regard  to  the 
other  he  remarked  that  in  resolving  diatoms  with  oblique  light 
it  was  essential  to  decide  whether  they  intended  to  focus  upon 
the  real  surface  or  upon  the  optical  image  produced  in  a  higher 
plane,  in  consequence  of  the  double  nature  of  the  structure  of 
the  valve.     In  the  latter  case  they  would  obtain  a  result  such  as 
he  exhibited,  which  was  a  photograph  of  the  optical  image  and 
not  of  the  real  diatom. — Mr.  Nelson  also  called  attention  to  a 
curious  optical  effect  for  which   at  present  he  was  unable  to 
account.     In  a  flat  box  he  had  placed  a  glass  positive  of  A. 
pelhuida  which  was  viewed  as  a  transparency  through  a  piece  of 
tube  fitted  at  right  angles  to  the  surface.     If  this  was  looked  at 
when  held  towards  a  surface  of  light  such  as  an  optical  lamp- 
shade or  a  sunlight  gas-burner,  the  black  lines  appeared  to  be 
slightly  smaller  than  the  white  lines  ;  but  if  it  was  turned  towards 
a  small  light  at  a  distance,  then  the  black  lines  appeared  very 


36o 


NATURE 


{Feb.  9,  1888 


lai^e  and  the  white  ones  were  reduced  to  mere  threads.  The 
scale  of  the  photograph  showed  that  the  effect  was  not  due  to 
the  operation  of  the  first  diffraction  spectrum,  and  it  was  still 
more  curious  to  note  that  in  the  case  of  another  positive  taken 
from  the  same  negative  and  upon  the  same  scale  this  optical 
illusion  was  not  observed. 

Anthropological  Institute,  January  24.  —  Anniversary 
Meeting. — Prof.  Flower,  C.B.,  F.R.S.,  Vice-President,  in  the 
chair. — The  following  were  elected  Officers  and  Council  for  the 
ensuing  year: — President:  Francis  Gallon,  F. R.S.  Vice- 
Presidents  :  J.  G.  Garson,  Prof.  A.  H.  Keane,  F.  G.  H.  Price. 
Secretary :  F.  W.  Rudler.  Treasurer :  A.  L.  Lewis.  Council  : 
G.  M.  Atkinson,  E.  W.  Brabrook,  C.  H.  E.  Carmichael, 
Hyde  Clarke,  A.  W.  Franks,  F.R.S.,  Lt.-Col.  H.  H.  Godwin- 
Austen,  F.R.S.,  T.  V.  Holmes,  H.  H.  Howorth,  M.P.,  Prof. 
A.  Macahster,  F.R.S.,  R.  Biddulph  Martin,  M.P.,  Prof. 
Meldola,  F.R.S.,  Rt.  Hon.  the  Earl  of  Northesk,  C.  Peek, 
Charles  H.  Read,  Lord  Arthur  Russell,  M.P.,  Prof.  A.  H. 
Sayce,  H.  Seebohm,  Oldfield  Thomas,  M.  J.  Walhouse,  Lieut. - 
Gen.  SirC.  P.  Beauchamp  Walker,  K.C.B. 

Paris. 

Academy  of  Sciences,  January  30. — M.   Janssen   in  the 
chair. — Note   on  the  first  volume  of  the  Annales  de  rinstitut 
Pasteur,  presented  to  the  Academy,  by  M.  L.   Pasteur.     This 
volume  contains  the  first  twelve  numbers  of  a  monthly  serial 
established  and  directed  by  Prof.  Duclaux,  of  the  Sorbonne,  and 
entirely  devoted  to  the  progress  of  the  new  branch  of  patho- 
logical  physiology  to   which   M.    Pasteur   gives   the   name   of 
"  Microby  "   or  "Microbiology."      His  remarks  were    mainly 
confined  to  the  important  memoir  by  MM.  Roux  and  Chamber- 
land,  entitled  "  Immunite  contre  la  septicemic,  conferee  par  des 
substances  soluble."."     In  this  memoir  is  contained  the  rigorous 
demonstration  of  the  far-reaching  fact  that  the  septic  vibiion,  a 
living  ferment  analogous  to  the  butyric  vibrion,  develops  soluble 
chemical  products,  which  gradually  act  as  an  antiseptic  on  the 
organism     itself.       These     pi-oducts,    introduced    in    sufficient 
quantities  into  the  body  of  the  guinea-pig,  confer  absolute  im- 
munity from  the  deadly  attacks  of  the  virus,  to  which  that  animal 
is   specially  susceptible. — Note   on  the   total   lunar   eclipse  of 
January  28,  by  M.  J.  Janssen.     The  observations  taken  at  the 
Observatory  of  Meudon  were  mainly  directed   towards  deter- 
mining a  point  of  telluric  spectroscopy  connected  with  the  ab- 
sorption bands  of  oxygen.     They  were  necessarily  of  a  somewhat 
preliminary  character,  and  will  be  continued  during  future  total 
eclipses  of  the  moon. — Researches  on  ruthenium,  by  MM.  H. 
Debray  and  A.  Joly.     The   paper  deals  more  especially  with 
hyperruthenic   acid,    its    purification,    physical    properties,    be- 
haviour in  the  presence  of  water,  and  under  varying  temperatures. 
— An  apparatus  adapted  for  experiments  at  high  temperatures  in 
the  presence  of  gases  under  high  pressure,  by  M.  L.  Cailletet. 
For  this  apparatus,  which  the  inventor  has  had  in  use  for  some 
years,  it  is  claimed  that  it  enables  experimenters  to  raise  sub- 
stances to  temperatures  near  the  fusion  of  platinum  while  keep- 
ing them  in  a  gaseous  atmosphere,  the  nature  and  pressure   of 
which  may  be  varied   at   pleasure. — On   double    dielectric   re- 
fraction ;   simultaneity  of  electric   and   optical  phenomena,  by 
M.  R.  Blondlot.     These  experiments  have  been  undertaken  in 
order  to  determine  whether  the  double  dielectric  refraction  of  a 
condenser  is  produced  and  ceases  simultaneously  with  the  charge, 
or  whether  there  exists  an  appreciable  interval  of  time  either 
between  the  production  of  the  electric  phenomenon  and  that  of 
the   luminous  phenomenon,  or  between  periods  of  cessation  of 
both  phenomena.     The  conclusion  seems  to  be  that,  if  there  is 
any  difference  in  point  of  time  between  these  several  manifesta- 
tions, it  cannot  exceed  1/40000  of  a  second. — On  the  laws  of 
chemical  equilibrium,  by  M.  H.  La  Chatelier,     It  is  shown  that 
the  numerical  laws  of  chemical  equilibrmm,  such  as  they  are 
deduced  from  the  two  principles  of  thermodynamics,  may  be 
expressed   in   a  very  simple  way  by  means   of  M.    Massieu's 
characteristic  function  H',  which  may  be  regarded  as  the  true 
measure   of   chemical   force. — On    cinchonigine,    by   MM.    E. 
Jungfleisch  and  E.  Leger.     The  authors  describe  the   process 
of  preparation,  the  chemical  properties,  and  the  salts  of  this 
substance,    whose   composition    is    expressed    by   the   formula 
C28H22N2O2. — Persistence  of  the  virus  of  rabies  in  dead  bodies, 
by  M.  V.  Galtier.     These  researches  show  that  the  virus  retains 
all  its  virulence  in  the  bodies  of  dogs  that  have  been  dead  seven- 
teen and  buried  fifteen  days.    Inoculation  from  the  bulb  produces 


rabies  in  ten  and  kills  in  fifteen  days  after  trepanation. — On  the 
antiseptic  properties  of  naphthol-a,  by  M.  J.  Maximovitch.  The 
experiments  here  described  show  that,  owing  to  its  feebler  toxic 
and  stronger  anti:  eptic  properties,  this  substance  is  in  every  way 
superior  as  an  antiseptic  to  M.  Bouchard's  naphthol-j3. — On  the 
presence  of  primordial  fauna  (Paradoxidian)  in  the  neighbour- 
hood of  Ferrals-les-Montagnes  (southern  slope  of  the  Montagne 
Noire),  Herault :  (i)  stratigraphic  study  by  M.  Jules  Bergeron; 
(2)  palseontological  study,  by  MM.  Munier-Chalmas  and  J. 
Bergeron.  Considerable  interest  attaches  to  the  recent  discovery 
of  these  organism;  by  M.  Bergeron,  for  the  first  iime  in  any 
part  of  France.  They  belong  to  the  earliest  forms  of  the 
Silurian  group,  forms  which  were  not  known  to  exist  when  that 
group  was  first  established  by  Murchison  in  1835.  These  first 
French  Trilobites  of  the  primordial  fauna,  as  it  was  named  by 
Barrande,  include  soaie  exceptionally  fine  specimens  of  the 
genera  Conocephalites  and  Paradoxides,  the  latter  closely  allied 
to  the  P.  rugiilosus  of  Bohemia,  and  the  P.  Pradoamis  common 
in  the  Cambrian  of  Spain. 


BOOKS,  PAMPHLETS,  and  SERIALS  RECEIVED. 

Astronomical  Observations  and  Researches  made  at  Dunsink,  sixth  part 
(Hodges,  DubHn). — A  Student's  Manual  of  Psychology,  adapted  from 
Kirchner  by  E.  D.  Drought  (Sonnenschein). — The  Cardinal  Numbers  :  M. 
Hopkins  (Low). — Civilization  and  Progress;  new  edition:  J.  B.  Crozier 
(Longmans). — Lessons  on  Prescriptions  and  the  Art  of  Prescribing  ;  new 
edition:  W.  H.  Griffiths (Macraillan). — Lehrbuch  der  Entwicklungsgeschichte 
des  Menschen  und  der  Wirbelthiere.  Zweite  Abthg.  :  Dr.  O.  Hertwig 
(Jena). — Practical  Forestry  :  C.  E.  Curtis. — South  African  Butterflies;  two 
vols :  R.  Trimen,  assisted  by  J.  H.  Bowker  (Triibner).— Journal  of  the 
Society  of  Telegraph-Engineers  and  Electricians,  No.  69,  vol.  xvi.  (Spon).— 
Journal  of  the  Royal  Statistical  Society,  Decembjr  (Stanford). — Annalen 
der  Physik  und  Chemie,  1888.  No.  2  (Leipzig). — Beiblatter  der  Physik  und 
Cheraie,  1888,  No.  i  (Leipzig). — Brain,  parts  39  and  40  (Macmillan). 


CONTENTS.  PAGE 

Messrs.  Goschen  and  Huxley  on  English  Culture    .    337 
The  Proposed  Teaching  University  for  London    .    .    339 

Manual  of  British  Discomycetes 340 

Our  Book  Shelf  :— 

Mawer :  "Physiography" 341 

Stokes:   "  Early  Christian  Art  in  Ireland  " 341 

Letters  to  the  Editor  : — 

The  Duke  of  Argyll's  Charges  against  Men  of  Science. 

Prof.  T.  H.  Huxley,  F.R.S 342 

An  Explanation. — Dr.  H.  B.  Guppy 342 

Snow  Crystals. — A.  N.   S 343 

"The  Mammoth  and  the  Flood." — Your  Reviewer  .    343  j 
An    Incorrect    Footnote    and     its     Consequences. —  i 

Ralph  Copeland 343  j 

A  New  Historic  Comet  ?— Prof.  Cargill  G.  Knott   .    344  l 

"Is  Hail  so  formed  ?"— Dr.  J.  Rae,  F.R.S 344  j 

Modern  Views  of  Electricity.  Part  III.    VII.     {lllus-  j 

trated).     By  Dr.  Oliver  J.  Lodge,    F.R.S 344  j 

The  Birds'-Nest  or  Elephant  Islands  of  the  Mergui  I 

Archipelago.      By  Commander  Alfred  Carpenter,  j 

R.N 348  j 

Prize  for  Researches  in  Natural  History 348 

Notes 349 

Our  Astronomical  Column : — 

The  Royal  Astronomical  Society's  Memoirs      ....    335  [ 

Publications  of  the  Dunsink  Observatory 353  ! 

Rousdon  Observatory 353  • 

j3  Delphini 353  j 

Olbers'  Comet 353  , 

New  Minor  Planet 353  ' 

Astronomical     Phenomena     for     the     Week     1888 

February  12-18 3 

Geographical  Notes 354 

Our  Electrical  Column 354 

The  Institution  of  Mechanical  Engineers 355  ■ 

The  National  Smoke  Abatement  Institution  ....    35^1 

Scientific  Serials 35^  i 

Societies  and  Academies 35^  ; 

Books,  Pamphlets,  and  Serials  Received 3^" 


NA  TURE 


361 


THURSDAY,   FEBRUARY    16,    i! 


KINEMATICS  AND  DYNAMICS. 
An  Elementary  Treatise  on  Kinematics  and  Dynamics. 
By  James  Gordon  MacGregor,  M.A.,  D.Sc,  &c  ,  Munro 
Professor  of  Physics,  Dalhousie  College,  Halifax,  N.S. 
(London:  Macmillan  and  Co.,  1887.) 

THE  logical  order  of  arrangement  has  been  carefully 
attended  to  in  this  book  :  Part  I.,  on  "  Kinematics," 
building  up  a  new  subject  on  the  foundation  of  Euclid's 
axioms  in  conjunction  with  the  idea  of  the  variables,  such 
as  velocity  and  acceleration,  due  to  the  flow  of  time ; 
while  Part  II.,  on  "  Dynamics,"  requires  three  new  axioms 
— Newton's  Laws  of  Motion — to  make  a  fresh  start  and 
connect  mechanical  effects  with  their  causes. 

But  it  is  doubtful  if  the  strictly  logical  order  is  the  best 
order  for  the  student  to  make  his  first  acquaintance  with 
a  new  mathematical  subject :  the  ideas  must  grow  in  his 
brain  by  accretion  round  simple  fundamental  problems. 
A  student  would  master  the  present  treatise  more  easily  by 
reading  Part  II.  first,  and  referring  back  to  Part  I.  as  occa- 
sion required,  for  the  explanation  of  the  details  of  the 
mathematical  calculations.  There  is  nothing  to  prevent 
this  order  of  study  here,  although  the  author  has,  from 
logical  considerations,  placed  the  kinematical  part  first. 

One  defect  of  the  logical  system  is  that  it  places  some 
of  the  most  difficult  parts  of  the  subject  in  the  way  of 
beginners  :  for  instance,  the  theory  of  the  change  of  units, 
a  theory  of  which  the  importance  can  only  be  appreciated 
by  those  who  have  made  considerable  progress  in  the 
subject. 

In  Part  I.,  "  Kinematics,"  the  treatment  is  simple  and 
concise,  but  we  should  like  to  see  more  examples  of 
phenomena  on  a  large  scale,  such  as  those  of  physical 
astronomy,  or  even  of  railway-train  problems. 

In  questions  involving  the  size  of  the  earth  (pp.  74  and  80) 
it  is  the  circumference  and  not  the  diameter  which  should 
be  given  in  metres,  the  circumference  being  40,000,000 
metres,  a  kilometre  being  a  centesimal  minute  of  latitude. 
Or,  if  the  size  of  the  earth  is  given  in  miles,  it  is  the 
nautical  mile  which  should  be  used,  the  circumference  of 
the  earth  being  360  X  60  =  21,600  nautical  miles,  a 
nautical  mile  being  a  sexagesimal  minute  of  latitude. 

The  expression  "  knots  an  hour "  (p.  60)  is  irritating 
to  a  sailor,  as  emanating  from  the  engine-room  ;  the 
proper  nautical  expression  is  "knot"  simply,  a  speed  of 
10  knots  being  10  nautical  miles  an  hour. 

The  formula  \v'^  =  \v^  +  as  is  to  be  preferred  to  that 
on  p.  34,  v^  =  v^  +  2asj  in  all  cases  the  factor  \ 
should  go  with  the  v"'  in  the  equation  of  energy,  so  that 
the  objectionable  expression  "  vis  viva  "  may  finally  be 
stamped  out  from  all  dynamical  treatises. 

In  dealing  with  rotation,  in  Chapter  V.,  the  author 
would  do  well  to  study  Maxwell's  geometrical  representa- 
tion of  the  direction  by  means  of  the  screw,  right- 
handed  or  left-handed  ;  and  to  discard  all  attempts  by 
comparison  with  a  clock-wise  or  counter-clock-wise  rota- 
tion, requiring  as  these  do  a  specification  of  the  aspect  of 
the  plane  of  motion. 

Pure  homogeneous  strain  is  analyzed  in  Chapter  VII. 
as  far  as  is  possible  by  simple  geometrical  methods  ;  such 
a  strain  may  be  produced  by  the  superposition  of  three 
Vol    XXX  VI]  -  Ko.  955. 


linear  strains  in  directions  at  right  angles  to  one  another. 
In  a  linear  strain  the  increment  of  distance  of  two  points 
in  the  line  of  the  strain  is  properly  their  elongation; 
while  the  ratio  of  the  elongation  to  the  original  distance 
is  called  the  extension,  not  the  elongation,  as  on  p.  167. 

In  Part  II.,  "  Dynamics,"  we  find  in  Chapter  I.  the  dis- 
cussion on  the  units  of  measurement  of  weight,  mass, 
and  force  customary  in  mathematical  treatises,  and  of  the 
usual  unsatisfactory  nature.  The  author,  disregarding 
the  vernacular  use  of  the  word  "  weight,"  defines  the 
weight  of  a  body  as  the  force  with  which  it  is  attracted  by 
the  earth,  but  is  at  variance  with  his  own  definition  in  the 
statement  of  the  majority  of  the  subsequent  examples, 
relapsing  into  the  language  of  ordinary  life.  A  collection 
of  500  different  ways  of  spelling  the  name  of  the  town  of 
Birmingham  has  been  made,  and  a  similar  collection 
could  be  made  from  the  present  treatise  of  different  ways 
of  expressing  the  simple  ideas  of  the  pound  weight 
and  the  pound  force,  to  use  the  ordinary  language  of 
practical  men.  The  attraction  of  the  earth  on  a  pound  is, 
in  the  vernacular, "  the  force  of  a  pound,"  not  the 
"  weight  of  a  pound,"  the  latter  implying  what  the  mathe- 
matician likes  to  distinguish  as  the  "mass  of  a  pound." 
Thus  a  mathematical  precisionist,  to  express  the  simple 
idea  of  a  force  of  10  pounds,  to  be  consistent  should  call 
it  "  a  force  equal  to  the  weight  of  the  mass  of  10  pound 
weights,''  the  absurdity  of  which  is  evident. 

Again,  in  straining  after  the  equation  F  =  ma,  when 
using  the  gravitation  unit  of  force,  the  mathematician  in 
the  F.P.S.  (foot-pound-second)  system  of  units  is  obliged 
to  use  the  variable  unit  of  mass  of  ^  pounds  to  measure 
the  invariable  quantity,  the  mass  of  the  body  ;  while 
what  he  calls  the  weight  of  the  body,  and  denotes  by  iv, 
measuring  it  in  pounds,  is,  although  variable  with  g, 
always  measured  by  the  same  number. 

Next  we  have  the  equation  w  —  mg,  the  source  of 
all  the  confusion  in  dynamical  teaching,  and  only  to  avoid 
writing  the  dynamical  equation  with  gravitation  units  in 
the  form 


This  terminology  culminates  in  the  solecisms  that  on 
p.  477  we  must  suppose  pressure  to  be  measured  in 
poundals  on  the  square  foot  in  hydrostatical  problems  ; 
and  that  if  the  equation  w  =  mg  is  supposed  to  be  used 
with  absolute  units,  that  the  weight  of  a  body  is  measured 
in  poundals  ;  as  if  a  mathematician  asked  in  a  shop  for 
"  half  a  poundal  of  tea,  or  tobacco."  Ordinary  people 
measure  weight  in  pounds,  so  that  if  mass  is  also  measured 
in  pounds,  then  w  =  m. 

It  is  time  now,  as  Prof.  Minchin  has  pointed  out,  that 
"the  astronomical  unit  of  mass,"  defined  in  §  315,  should 
disappear,  and  that  in  all  problems  of  physical  astronomy 
the  gravitation  constant  k  should  be  retained,  while  m, 
the  mass,  is  measured  in  terms  of  the  ordinary  units. 

Although  the  author  does  not  allow  himself  the  use  of 
the  methods  and  notation  of  the  Calculus,  still  he  has 
managed  to  discuss  a  number  of  interesting  problems 
in  the  dynamics  of  a  rigid  body,  usually  proved  by  the 
methods  of  Analytical  Mechanics. 

Working  under  these  restrictions,  he  has  given  elegant 
elementary  proofs  of  the  chief  properties  of  the  common 
catenary  ;  but  here,  again,  it  is  time  that  the  equation 

R 


362 


NA  TURE 


{Feb.  1 6,  1888 


should  be  presented  in  the  form  y\a  =  cosh  x^a,  using  the 
notation  of  the  hyperbolic  functions  ;  which  might  also  be 
employed  with  advantage  in  the  statement  of  the  results 
of  the  examples  on  p.  302.  Chains  of  5000  feet  span, 
and  400  feet  versed  sine,  are  in  existence,  providing 
striking  numerical  examples  in  this  part  of  the  subject. 

Most  of  the  examples  are  carefully  chosen,  but  the 
author  by  diligent  search  could  easily  add  more  interest 
to  the  collection,  particularly  to  the  examples  on  para- 
bolic trajectories,  and  problems  concerning  the  motion  of 
railway-trains.  Ex.  85,  p.  499,  certainly  requires  careful 
revision.  The  diagrams  of  the  simple  machines  are  of 
the  usual  academic  nature ;  the  author  should  consult 
Prof  Kennedy's  "  Mechanics  of  Machinery  "  for  better 
illustrations,  especially  of  the  differential  pulley,  and  of 
pulley  tackle  in  general.  If  the  differential  screw  is  given 
(p.  43S),  why  not  also  the  integral  screw,  which  is  to  be 
met  with  more  commonly  in  real  life — for  instance,  in 
railway  couplings,  and  in  the  rigging  of  ships. 

Except  for  the  parts  criticized  above,  on  the  units  of 
weight,  mass,  and  force,  the  present  treatise  shows  that 
the  author  1ms  read  with  profit  and  discrimination  the 
most  recent  treatises  on  dynamics  ;  he  has  produced 
a  very  useful  work,  suitable  for  instruction  in  technical 
colleges,  and  likely  also  to  prove  a  necessary  corrective 
to  the  very  abstract  treatment  of  the  subject  of  mechanics 
too  common  in  the  character  of  University  instruction. 

A.  G.  Greenhill. 

ATLAS  OF  THE  DISTRIBUTION  OF  PLANTS. 
Atlas  der  PJlanzenverbreitung.     (Berghaus's  "  Physikal- 

ischer  Atlas,"  Abtheilung  V.)     Bearbeitet  von  Dr.  Oscar 

Drude.     (Gotha  :  Justus  Perthes,  1887.) 

THE  history  of  the  science  of  the  distribution  of  plants 
begins  with  Linneeus,  who  was  the  first  to  cite 
systematically  the  countries  and  situations  in  which  the 
plants  he  described  grew.  This  we  find  carefully  done 
in  the  first  edition  of  the  "  Species  Plantarum,"  published 
in  1753.  No  perceptible  advance  beyond  this  was  made 
before  the  appearance  of  Humboldt  and  Bonpland's 
"  Essai  sur  la  Gdographie  des  Plantes  "  in  1805,  which 
work  may  be  designated  the  real  foundation  of  the 
science.  It  was  followed  in  1823-24  by  the  Dane, 
Schouvv's  "  Grundtrsek  "  and  "  Plantegeographisk  Atlas," 
the  latter  containing  twenty-two  maps  illustrating  the 
vegetation  of  the  world,  and  especially  the  distribution  of 
plants  cultivated  for  food.  There  is  also  a  German  edi- 
tion of  both  the  "  Outhnes"  and  the  "Atlas."  From  this 
date  onward  many  of  the  most  eminent  botanists  investi- 
gated distribution  in  connection  with  classification  of 
plants,  notably  R.  Brown,  A.  P.  De  Candolle,  H.  C. 
Watson,  C.  Darwin,  A.  De  Candolle,  J.  D.  Hooker, 
Edward  Forbes,  Von  Martius,  and  Grisebach,  to  say 
nothing  of  the  younger  botanists.  But  the  results  of 
their  labours  ars  still  scattered,  or  at  least  only  partially 
elaborated  ;  for  Grisebach,  in  his  "  Vegetation  der  Erde," 
deals  with  the  facts  from  a  peculiarly  narrow  stand-point. 
It  is  true  that  both  Drude  and  Engler  ("  Versuch  einer 
Entwicklungsgeschichte  der  Florengebiete ")  have  at- 
tempted something  beyond  this,  but  neither,  we  suspect, 
regards  his  work  as  more  than  a  preliminary  effort.  The 
primary  geographical  divisions  of  these  two  writers  are 
essentially  the  same,  though  their  nomenclature  differs  ; 


but,  considering  the  complexity  of  the  subject,  probably 
no  two  persons  would  agree  exactly  on  these  points  ;  yet 
it  is  highly  desirable  that  there  should  be  something 
approaching  uniformity  in  the  names  of  the  divisions. 
Grisebach  designates  his  primary  divisions  "  Gebiete," 
and  Drude  his  "  Reiche  "  ;  whilst  Engler's  four  primary 
divisions  are  designated  "  Reiche,"  and  his  secondary 
ones  "  Gebiete."  Let  us  now  briefly  examine  the  main 
features  of  Drude's  Atlas.  Following  the  most  authori- 
tative English  writers  on  zoological  and  botanical  geo- 
graphy, we  will  call  the  primary  divisions  regions,  and 
the  secondary  divisions  sub-regions. 

Drude  divides  the  world  into  fourteen  floral  regions, 
and  each  of  these  into  a  number  of  sub-regions,  indicating 
by  lines  and  dots  the  overlapping  of  the  elements  of  con- 
tiguous sub-regions.  The  regions  are  :  (i)  Northern,  (2) 
Central  Asia,  (3)  Mediterranean,  (4)  East  Asia,  (5)  Middle 
North  America,  (6)  Tropical  Africa,  (7)  East  African  Is- 
lands, (8)  Indian,  (9)  Tropical  America,  (10)  Cape,  (11) 
Australia,  (12)  New  Zealand,  (13)  Andes,  (14)  Antarctic. 

While  agreeing  in  the  main  with  the  foregoing  divisions, 
we  cannot  but  regard  some  of  them  as  including  too, 
much  or  too  little,  according  to  the  number  of  primary 
divisions  adopted.  We  recognize  the  difficulties  of  the 
task,  and  admit  that  it  is  practically  impossible  to  divide 
the  vegetation  of  the  world  into  regions  of  equal  value 
and  importance,  even  leaving  out  of  consideration  the 
mountain  flora  within  the  tropics.  Instead,  however,  of 
giving  Madagascar  and  the  neighbouring  islands  the  rank 
of  an  independent  region,  we  should  treat  it  as  a  sub-region 
of  the  tropical  African  flora.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Indian 
region  seems  too  comprehensive,  as  it  includes  the  whole 
of  tropical  India,  Malaya,  Cochin-China,  the  Malayan 
Archipelago,  New  Guinea,.North  Australia,  and  Polynesia, 
even  to  the  Sandwich  Islands.  The  very  extensive  recent 
collections  of  Madagascar  plants,  made  by  various  English 
and  French  travellers,  prove  that  the  flora  is  really  a 
sub-region  of  the  tropical  African  flora.  With  regard  to 
the  flora  of  Polynesia,  it  is  true  that  the  littoral  element 
consists  almost  exclusively  of  species  common  to  the 
Malayan  Archipelago  and  North  Australia,  many  having 
an  even  wider  range  ;  but  the  Australian  and  American 
affinities  of  the  endemic  element  are  certainly  too 
pronounced,  in  our  opinion,  to  treat  this  flora  as  a  sub- 
region  of  the  Indian  ;  and  the  Sandwich  Island  flora  is 
as  highly  specialized,  to  say  the  least,  as  that  of  New 
Zealand.  Perhaps  it  would  be  more  convenient  to 
make  it  an  independent  region.  Again,  the  purely 
Australian  types  surely  predominate  largely  over  the 
Asiatic  in  North  Australia,  especially  if  we  eliminate  the 
widely-dispersed  coast  plants.  Dr.  Drude's  New  Zealand 
region  includes  the  surrounding  islands,  except  the  more 
southern  Macquarie  ;  yet,  of  the  eighteen  vascular  plants 
recorded  from  this  island,  sixteen  are  common  to  the 
New  Zealand  group.  The  Auckland  and  Campbell 
groups  should  be  reckoned  in  the  Antarctic  region  rather 
than  New  Zealand ;  and  St.  Paul  and  Amsterdam  Islands, 
as  well  as  the  Tristan  d'Acunha  group,  do  not  belong  to 
the  same  category.  Further,  the  higher  mountain  flora 
of  Central  America  and  South  Mexico  has  certainly  a 
greater  claim  to  be  included  in  the  Andine  region  than 
has  that  of  the  Galapagos,  though  Dr.  Drude  separates  them. 
We  have  called  attention  to  these  defects  or  incon- 


Feb.  1 6,  1888] 


NATURE 


Z^Z 


sistencies  in  the  limitation  of  the  regions,  because  we 
believe  that  the  latest  and  fullest  data  relating  to  the 
regions  in  question  clearly  indicate  that  it  is  not  a  matter 
of  opinion. 

The  Atlas  as  a  whole  is  a  most  laborious  and  careful 
compilation,  and  we  do  not  doubt  that  it  will  meet  with 
the  favour  it  deserves.  The  second  sheet  of  maps  illus- 
trates the  areas  of  certain  important  natural  orders  and 
genera  ;  the  third,  the  horizontal  zones  of  vegetation  of 
the  world  ;  the  fourth,  the  flora  of  Europe  ;  the  fifth,  the 
floras  of  Europe  and  Asia  ;  the  sixth,  the  floras  of  Africa 
and  Australia ;  the  seventh,  the  floras  of  America ;  and 
the  last  represents  the  areas  of  plants  cultivated  for  their 
economic  products. 

It  would  be  easy  enough  to  find  fault  with  some  of  the 
details  of  the  limitation  of  Dr.  Drude's  sub-regions,  those 
of  tropical  Africa  and  Eastern  Asia  for  example,  though 
it  would  not  always  be  so  easy  to  suggest  more  satisfac- 
tory ones ;  but  we  prefer  judging  the  work  by  its  merits 
rather  than  by  its  real  or  assumed  defects. 

This  Atlas,  it  should  be  added,  is  a  cartographical  deve- 
lopment of  Dr.  Drude's  "  Florenreiche  der  Erde,"  which 
appeared  in  1884,  and  formed  the  Erganzungsheft  74  to 
Petermanri's  GeographischeMitiheilimgenj  that  is  to  say,  it 
is  a  development  so  far  as  the  maps  are  concerned,  but  the 
explanatory  letterpress  has  been  reduced  to  four  pages 
folio.  The  maps,  sixteen  in  number,  are  admirably  exe- 
cuted, and  exceedingly  elaborate  ;  indeed,  the  only  fault 
we  find  in  them  is  an  excess  of  detail,  with  perhaps  too 
little  explanatory  te.Kt  for  beginners. 

As  the  author  very  truly  observes,  the  material  available 
for  such  a  work  is  now  almost  inexhaustible,  and  the  task 
of  selecting  from  it  for  the  purposes  in  view  was  no  easy 
one.  He  brings  into  contrast  the  position  of  botanical 
geography  in  1848,  when  the  first  edition  of  Berghaus's 
'*'  Physical  Atlas  "  was  published,  and  there  was  nothing 
approaching  a  complete  flora  of  any  of  the  larger  areas 
outside  of  Europe  in  existence.  Even  in  1855,  when  De 
CandoUe  gave  to  the  world  his  now  classical  work,  "  Geo- 
graphic Botanique  Raisonrx^e,"  he  could  only  deal  with 
fragments  of  floras.  Now,  though  it  may  safely  be 
asserted  that  future  discoveries  can  in  no  way  afiect  the 
main  theories  of  distribution  based  upon  what  is  already 
known,  very  much  remains  to  be  done  in  fossil  botany 
before  we  shall  be  able  to  trace  in  detail  the  early  migra- 
tions of  plants.  Therefore  the  only  thing  that  can  be 
successfully  accomplished  yet  is  to  work  out  more  com- 
pletely the  present  distribution  of  plants,  which  is  prac- 
tically all  that  Wallace  has  done  for  animals.  But  he 
deals  specially  with  the  quality  and  probable  origin  of 
the  zoology-  of  his  regions ;  and  it  is  just  this  aspect  of 
botanical  geography  that  awaits  further  development. 


OUR  BOOK  SHELF. 

Tenants  of  an  Old  Farm.     By  Henry  C.  McCook,  D.D. 
(London  ;  Hodder  and  Stoughton,  1888.) 

The  object  of  this  book  is  to  present  "  a  series  of  exact 
truths  from  natural  history  in  a  popular  form."  The 
author's  original  intention  was  to  write  a  number  of  essays 
upon  insect  life,  and  particularly  upon  the  life  of  ants  and 
spiders,  which  he  has  especially  studied.  Friends,  how- 
ever, persuaded  him  to  give  the  essays  a  colloquial  form, 
so  that  they  might  appeal  to  as  wide  a  circle  of  readers 


as  possible.  We  are  not  sure  that  the  change  was  in  all 
respects  an  improvement,  for,  as  Dr.  McCook  says,  "  the 
truths  of  Nature  are  attractive  enough  in  themselves,  and 
need  not  the  seasoning  of  fiction."  The  book  is  very 
popular  in  the  United  States,  and  there  can  be  little 
doubt  that  it  will  also  be  appreciated  on  this  side  of  the 
Atlantic.  The  author  is  a  keen  and  accurate  observer  of 
Nature,  and  his  enthusiasm  for  his  subject  is  so  steadily 
maintained  that  it  cannot  but  exert  some  influence  on  the 
minds  of  young  students.  For  the  present  edition  a 
brief  introduction  has  been  written  by  Sir  John  Lubbock, 
who  bears  cordial  testimony  to  the  fidelity  and  skill  with 
which  Dr.  McCook  has  carried  on  his  researches.  The 
work  is  remarkably  well  illustrated. 

Diggings  Squatting,  and  Pioneering  Life  in  the  Northern 
Territory  of  South  Australia.  By  Mrs.  Dominic  D, 
Daly.     (London  :  Sampson  Low,  1887). 

This  is  an  interesting  account  of  a  part  of  South 
Australia  which  is  sure  to  become  more  and  more 
important.  The  writer  spent  three  years — from  1870  to 
1873 — in  the  Northern  Territory,  and  by  far  the  best 
chapters  are  those  in  which  she  records  her  own  ex- 
periences. The  history  of  the  district  during  the  last 
fourteen  years  has,  however,  been  carefully  compiled  from 
the  most  trustworthy  sources.  She  has,  of  course,  a  good 
deal  to  say  about  the  natives,  her  accounts  of  whom  are 
freshly  and  brightly  written.  Mrs.  Daly  is  of  opinion 
that,  so  far  as  the  treatment  of  the  aborigines  is  concerned, 
only  one  rule  holds  good — "  firmness  accompanied  by 
kindness,  fair  play,  and  an  honest  payment  for  work 
done."  If  they  make  themselves  disagreeable,  they  must 
be  kept  "  in  their  proper  place,"  "  for,"  she  says,  "  when  a 
native  shows  signs  of  sulkiness  and  defiance,  it  is  perfectly 
certain  some  mischief  is  brewing." 

Photography  Simplified.     (London:  Mawson  and  Swan, 

1887.) 
This  is  a  third  edition,  considerably  revised  and  enlarged, 
of  an  elementary  and  practical  treatise,  intended  chiefly 
for  amateurs  and  those  about  to  become  acquainted  with 
the  subject.  The  earlier  chapters  deal  with  the  purchasing 
of  apparatus,  followed  by  the  various  processes  of  taking 
the  negative,  developing,  printing,  &c.,  and  are  written  in 
a  very  plain  and  intelligent  way.  The  book  concludes 
with  an  appendix  containing  additional  useful  formute, 
together  with  a  set  of  labels  for  the  photographic  labora- 
tory. 


LETTERS   TO    THE  EDITOR. 

\The  Editor  does  not  hold  himself  responsible  for  opinions 
expressed  by  his  correspondents.  Neither  can  he  under- 
take to  return,  or  to  correspond  with  the  writers  of, 
rejected  manuscripts.  No  notice  is  taken  of  anonymous 
communiccitions. 

{The  Editor  urgently  requests  correspondents  to  keep  their 
letters  as  short  as  possible.  The  pressure  on  his  space 
is  so  great  that  it  is  impossible  otherwise  to  insure  the 
appearance  even  of  communications  containing  interesting 
and  novel  facts.'\ 

An  Explanation  explained. 

I  AM  glad  to  find  that  Dr.  Guppy  has  at  last  enabled  us  to  get 
to  the  bottom — I  cannot  say  to  the  foundation — of  the  story 
which  was  related  by  the  Duke  of  Argyll  on  November  17  in 
last  year,  to  the  discredit  of  Prof.  Bonney  and  the  authorities 
of  the  Geological  Society.  It  is  now  admitted  that  the  paper, 
said  to  have  been  "offered  to,"  and  "refused  by,"  the  Society, 
never  came  before  the  President  and  Council  in  any  form  what- 
ever ;  and  that  in  fact  the  paper  was  not  only  never  presented, 
but  was  never  even  written  ! 

Dr.  Guppy's  references  to  myself  are  capable  of  the  simplest 
explanation.  During  the  whole  time  that  he  was  absent  in 
the  Solomon  Islands,  I  was  in  the  habit  of  receiving  specimens 


16^ 


NA  TURE 


[Feb.  1 6,  1888 


and  letters  from  him  ;  and,  as  he  has  acknowledged  in  his  book, 
I  carefully  studied  these  specimens  and  gave  him  all  the  advice 
and  assistance  in  my  power  in  carrying  on  his  geological  in- 
vestigations. Upon  his  return  we  had  several  conversations, 
always  of  the  most  friendly  character,  concerning  the  best  mode 
of  embodying  his  observations  for  cooomunication  to  different 
Societies  ;  and  until  the  present  time  I  had  not  the  smallest  idea 
that  he  was  in  any  way  dissatisfied  with  anything  I  had  ever 
said  or  done  in  connection  with  the  subject. 

With  respect  to  a  particular  conversation  referred  to  by  Dr. 
Guppy  as  having  occurred  in  the  spring  of  1885,  I  have  no 
recollection  whatever  ;  but  I  unreservedly  accept  his  statement 
as  to  the  facts  of  the  case,  and  only  demur  to  his  interpreta- 
tion of  them.  If  Dr.  Guppy  or  anyone  else  asked  my  opinion 
as  to  the  fitness  for  the  Geological  Society  of  "  a  paper  in 
which  Mr.  Darwin's  theory  of  coral  reefs  would  be  brought 
under  con>ideration,"  I  should  undoubtedly  point  out  to  him 
that  the  Geological  Society  had  alv/ays  been  averse  to  publishing 
papers  dealing  with  such  broadly  theoretical  questions  as  the 
origin  of  coral  reefs,  and  I  should  advise  some  other  means  of 
publication  as  more  appropriate. 

That  the  Geological  Society  is  not  partial  in  its  reluctance  to 
publish  papers  of  a  theoretical  character  will  be  seen  from  the 
fact  that  although  Mr.  Darwin  in  1837  read  a  paper  to  the 
Society,  embodying  the  chief  points  of  his  theory  of  coral  reefs, 
yet  the  Society  never  published  the  paper  in  their  Transactions. 
At  the  time  that  this  occurred  Darwin  was  a  member  of  the 
Council,  and  a  few  months  later  he  became  Secretary  of  the 
Society. 

It  is  surely  unnecessary  for  me  to  remark  that  in  any  advice 
which  I  gave  to  Dr.  Guppy,  I  was  acting  simply  on  my  own 
judgment  and  individual  responsibility.  Dr.  Guppy  was  a 
Fellow  of  the  Society  at  the  time,  and  had  precisely  the  same 
right  to  present  papers  to  it  which  I  had  myself.  Dr.  Guppy 
chose  to  ask  my  advice  ;  I  gave  it  to  him  as  to  a  friend,  and  he 
was  perfectly  free  to  act  upon  it  or  to  reject  it  as  he  thought  fit. 
I  may  add  that  the  Secretary  of  the  Geological  Society  has 
nothing  to  do  with  the  acceptance  or  rejection  of  papers,  except 
as  a  member  of  the  Council,  and  then  only  when  the  question 
has  been  brought  up  by  the  President  for  the  approval  or 
condemnation  of  his  own  action. 

How  my  imofficial  act  of  friendly  advice  concerning  the 
destination  of  an  unwritten  paper  came  to  be  represented  as  the 
refusal  of  a  paper  offered  to  the  Society  I  am  at  a  loss  to  con- 
ceive !  Why  the  Duke  of  Argyll,  having  received  the  statement 
which  is  now  before  us,  should  proceed  to  formulate  the  very- 
grave  accusation  against  Prof.  Bonney  personally,  and  the 
authorities  of  the  Geological  Society,  it  is  for  his  Grace  to 
explain. 

With  respect  to  Dr.  Guppy's  complaint  that  his  memoirs 
have  been  "  studiously  ignored  "  during  the  recent  controversy,  I 
cannot  help  thinking  that  he  has  been  unduly  sensitive.  Writing 
to  Prof.  Huxley  in  October  last  year,  and  pointing  out  that  the 
Duke  of  Argyll  was  mistaken  in  supposing  there  had  been  no 
discussion  on  Mr.  Murray's  theory,  I  said  "it  would  be  an  end- 
less task  to  attempt  to  give  references  to  the  various  scientific 
journals  which  have  discussed  the  subject,"  but  in  penning  these 
words  I  had  not  the  smallest  idea  of  speaking  slightingly  of 
any  of  the  memoirs  which  want  of  space  prevented  me  from 
citing,  and  least  of  all  concerning  those  which  contain  the  facts 
and  observations  of  Dr.  Guppy,  of  the  value  and  importance  of 
which  I  had  such  good  opportunities  of  judging. 

John  W,  Judd. 


Reason  end  Language. 

Prof,  Max  Muller  has  been  so  kind  as  to  favour  the 
readers  of  Nature  with  his  views  on  language  and  reason, 
concisely  expressed  in  a  letter  to  an  American  friend.  As  one 
grateful  reader,  I  much  desire  both  to  express  my  thanks,  and  also 
to  beg  for  yet  a  little  further  information  with  respect  to  matters 
of  suih  extreme  interest. 

The  Professor  says  :  "  Becavse  we  reason — that  is,  because  we 
reckon,  because  we  add  and  subtract — therefore  we  say  that 
we  have  reason."  Now,  in  the  first  place,  I  shouM  be  glad  to 
be  told  why  "reason  "  is  to  be  regarded  as  identical  with  such 
"  recl'Oning  "  ?  I  have  been  taught  to  distinguish  two  forms  of 
intellectual  activity  :  (i)  acts  of  intuition,  by  which  we  directly 
apprehend  certain  truths,  such  as  eg.  our  own  activity,  or  that  A 
is  AS;   and  (2)  Acts  of  inference,  by  which  we  indirectly  ap- 


prehend others,  with  the  aid  of  the  idea  "  therefore  " — evolving 
into  explicit  recognition  a  truth  previously  implicit  and  latent  in 
premisses.  The  processes  of  addition  and  subtraction  alone, 
seem  to  me  to  constitute  a  very  incomplete  representation  of  our 
mental  processes. 

The  Professor  also  identifies  language  and  reason,  denying  to 
either  a  separate  existence.  As  to  "reason"  he  says  :  "We 
have  only  to  look  into  the  workshop  of  language  in  order  to  see 
that  there  is  nothing  substantial  corresponding  to  this  substan- 
tive, and  that  neither  the  heart  nor  the  brain,  neither  the 
breath  nor  the  spirit,  of  man  discloses  its  original  whereabouts." 
The  expression  "  whereabouts  "  would  seem  to  attribute  to 
those  who  assert  the  existence  of  "reason,"  the  idea  that  it 
possesses  the  attribute  of  extension  !  In  order  to  understand 
clearly  the  passage  quoted,  we  should  learn  what  Prof.  Max 
Midler  really  means  by  the  term  "  spirit,"  which  here  figures  as 
one  species  of  a  genus  also  comprising  the  breath,  the  brain, 
and  the  heart.  Reason,  however,  is  not  represented  as  being 
simply  language  "as  we  now  hear  it  and  use  it,"  but  "as  it 
has  been  slowly  elaborated  by  man  through  all  the  ages  of  his 
existence  upon  earth."  Ihus  understood,  the  Professor 
"cannot  doubt"  "the  identity  of  reason  and  language." 
Nevertheless,  he  immediately  proceeds  to  point  out  a  strik- 
ing want  of  identity  between  them.  He  says,  quite  truly, 
"  We  have  two  words,  and  therefore  it  requires  with  us  a 
strong  effort  to  perceive  that  behind  these  two  words  there  is 
but  one  essence," — namely,  that  denoted  by  the  Greek  word 
logos — "  the  undivided  essence  of  language  and  thought."  Now, 
the  intimate  connection  of  language  (whether  of  speech  or 
gesture)  with  thought  is  unquestionable  ;  but  intimate  connection 
is  not  "identity."  If  thought  and  language  are  ^'■identical,'" 
how  came  two  words  not  to  have  two  meanings,  or  two  thoughts 
to  be  expressed  by  one  word  ?  The  plain  fact  that  we  have 
different  words  with  one  meaning,  and  different  meanings  with 
one  word,  seems  to  demonstrate  that  thought  and  language 
cannot  be  "identical." 

"No  reason  without  language — no  language  without  reason  " 
is  a  statement  true  in  a  certain  sense,  but  a  statement  which 
cannot  be  affirmed  absolutely.  Language  (meaning  by  that 
term  only  intellectual  expression  by  voice  or  gesture)  cannot 
manifestly  exist  without  reason  ;  but  no  person  who  thinks  it 
even  possible  that  an  intelligence  may  exist  of  which  ours  is  but 
a  leeble  copy,  can  venture  dogmatically  to  affirm  that  there  is 
no  reason  without  language,  unless  he  means  by  reason,  mere 
"reasoning,"  which  is  evidently  the  makeshift  of  an  inferior 
order  of  intellect  unable  to  attain  certain  truths  save  by  the 
roundabout  process  of  inference. 

But  I  demur  to  the  assertion  that  truly  intellectual  processes 
cannot  take  place  in  us  apart  from  language.  In  such  matters  our 
ultimate  appeal  must  be  to  our  own  reflective  consciousness. 
Mine  plainly  tells  me  that  I  have  every  now  and  then  appre- 
hensions which  flash  into  my  mind  far  too  rapidly  to  clothe 
themselves  even  in  mental  words,  which  latter  require  to  be 
sought  in  order  to  express  such  apprehensions.  I  also  find  myself 
sometimes  expressing  a  voluminous  perception  by  a  sudden 
gesture  far  too  rapid  even  for  thought-words,  and  I  believe  that 
other  persons  do  the  same.  A  slight  movement  of  a  finger,  or 
the  incipient  closure  of  an  eyelid,  may  give  expression  to  a 
meaning  which  could  only  be  thought  in  words  by  a  much  slower 
process. 

It  is  the  more  remarkable  that  Prof.  Max  Miiller  should  deny 
the  existence  of  reason,  ^ince  he  unequivocally  affirms,  in  rather 
lofty  language,  the  existence  of  truth.  Yet  surely  the  existence  of 
truth,  in  and  by  itself,  is  inconceivable.  What  can  truth  be,  save 
a  conformity  of  thoughts  and  things  ?  I  affirm,  indeed,  the  certain 
existence  of  truth,  but  I  also  affirm  that  of  reason,  as  existing 
anteriorly  to  language — whether  of  voice  or  gesture.  What  is 
the  teaching  of  experience  ?  Do  men  invent  new  concepts  to 
suit  previously  coined  words,  or  new  words  to  give  expression 
to  freshly  thought-out  concepts  ?  The  often-referred-to  jabber 
of  Hottentots  is  not  in  point.  No  sounds  or  gestures  which  do 
not  express  concepts  would  be  admitted  by  either  Prof.  Max 
Miiller  or  myself  to  be  "latiguage." 

The  Professor  speaks  of  the  "alarmingly  small"  number  of 
primitive  concepts ;  but  who  is  to  be  thereby  alarmed  ?  Not 
men  who  occupy  a  similar  stand-point  to  mine.  I  fully  agree 
with  Prof.  Max  Miiller  in  saying,  "  After  the  genesis  of  the  first 
concept,  everything  else  becomes  intelligible." 

We  come  now  to  the  supreme  question  of  the  origin  of  languages. 
As  to  this,  the  Professor  observes  :  "No  one  who  has  not  himself 
grappled  with  that  problem  can  appreciate  the  complete  change 


Feb.  1 6,  1 888 J 


NATURE 


365 


that  has  come  over  it  by  the  recognition  of  the  fact  that  roots  are 
the  phonetic  expressions  of  the  consciousness  of  our  own  acts. 
Nothing  but  this,  our  consciousness  of  our  own  repeated  acts, 
could  possibly  have  given  us  our  first  concepts.  Nothing  else 
answers  the  necessary  requirements  of  a  concept,  that  it  should 
he  the  consciousness  of  something  manifold,  yet  necessarily 
realized  as  one.  .  .  The  results  of  our  acts  become  the  first 
objects  of  our  conceptual  thought."  The  truth  of  these  state- 
ments I  venture  to  question.  After  noting  the  dogmatic  nature 
of  the  assertion  "Nothing  but  this  could,  &c.,"  I  must  object 
to  the  statement  of  fact  as  regards  human  beings  now.  I 
do  not  believe  that  the  infant's  first  object  of  thought  is  "the 
results  of  its  own  acts."  In  the  first  place,  no  object  of  our  early 
thoughts  is  merely  the  "  results  of  our  own  acts,"  but  a  combined 
result  of  our  own  activity  and  of  the  action  on  us  of  our  environ- 
ment. .Secondly,  my  observations  lead  me  to  believe  that  the 
infant's  first  thoughts  relate  to  things  external,  and  certainly  not 
to  the  results  of  its  own  activity  as  such,  which  is  a  highly  com- 
plex and  developed  thought.  It  may  be  that  the  Professor,  when 
he  says  "  The  results  of  our  acts  beco>ne  the  first  object  of  our 
conceptual  thoughts,"  means  that  such  acts  in  remote  antiquity 
hecame  the  object  of  man's  first  thought.  This  is  probably  the 
case,  since,  with  respect  to  the  origin  of  thought  and  language, 
Prof.  Max  Miiller  has  adopted  Noire's  crude  notion  that  they 
sprang  from  sounds  emitted  by  men  at  work,  conscious  of  what 
they  were  doing,  in  the  presence  of  others  who  beheld  their 
actions  and  heard  the  sounds  ;  the  result  being  the  formation  of 
a  conceptual  word,  to  attain  which  five  stages  had  to  be  gone 
through,  as  follows  : — 

"  (i)  Consciousness  of  our  own  repeated  acts. 

"  (2)  Clamor  concomitans  of  these  acts. 

"  (3)  Consciousness  of  our  clariior  as  concomitant  to  the  act. 

"  (4)  Repetition  of  that  clamor  to  recall  the  act. 

"  (5)  Clamor  (root)  defined  by  prefixes,  suffixes,  &c.,  to  recall 
the  act  as  localized  in  its  results,  its  instruments,  its  agents,  &c." 

But,  if  languao;e  and  reason  are  identical,  reason  could  not 
exist  before  a  single  conceptual  word  existed.  Nevertheless, 
to  attain  to  this  first  single  word,  we  see,  from  the  above  quotation, 
that  man  must  have  had  the  notion  of  his  own  acts  as  such  ;  the 
notion  of  their  repetition  ;  the  notions  of  clamor,  action,  and  the 
simultaneity  of  clamor  and  action;  the  will  to  recall  the  act 
(yet  nihil  volitum  quia  pmcognitum)  ;  and  finally  the  notions 
of  consequence,  instrumentality,  agency,  or  whatever  further 
notions  the  Professor  may  intend  by  his  "  &c." 

Thus  he  who  first  developed  language  must  be  admitted  to 
have  already  had  a  mind  well  stored  with  intellectual  notions  ! 
But  can  it  for  one  instant  be  seriously  maintained,  close  as 
is  the  connection  of  language  with  reason,  that  their  genesis 
(miracle  apart,  of  which  there  is  no  question)  was  absolutely 
simultaneous?  He  must  be  a  bold,  not  to  say  a  rash,  man 
who  would  dogmatically  affirm  this.  But  if  they  were  not 
absolutely  simultaneous,  one  must  have  existed,  for  however 
brief  a  space,  before  the  other.  That  intellectual  language  could 
have  existed  without  reason  is  absurd.  Reason,  then,  must, 
for  however  short  a  period,  have  preceded  language. 

In  conclusion,  I  desire  to  point  out  a  certain  misrepresentation 
with  respect  to  natural  selection.  The  Professor  says:  "In 
the  evolution  of  the  mind,"  as  well  as  in  that  of  Nature,  natural 
selection  is  rational  selection  ;  or,  in  reality,  the  triumph  of 
reason,  the  triumph  of  what  is  reasonable  and  right ;  or,  as 
people  now  say,  of  what  is  fittest."  But,  we 'may  ask  in  passing, 
if  reason  has  no  existence,  how  can  it  "triumph"?  The  mis- 
representation of  natural  selection,  however,  lies  in  his  use  of 
the  word  "fittest."  When  biologists  say  that  the  "fittest" 
survives,  they  do  not  mean  to  say  that  that  survives  which  is 
the  most  "reasonable  and  right,"  but  that  that  survives  which 
is  able  to  survive.  What  there  is  less  "reasonable  and  right  "  in 
a  Rhytina  than  in  a  Dugong,  or  in  a  Dinornis  than  an  Apteryx, 
would,  I  think,  puzzle  most  of  our  zoologists  to  determine  ;  nor 
is  it  easy  to  see  a  triumph  of  reason,  in  the  extermin.alion  of 
the  unique  flora  of  St.  Helena  by  the  introduction  of  goats  and 
rabbits.  Sx.  George  Mivart, 


and  I  do  not  think  it  is  the  meaning  generally  attached  to  the 
symbol,  though  it  seems  to  me  that  it  should  be  so  ;  that  is  to 
say,  J  should  always  be  considered  as  denoting  the  specific  heat 
of  water  at  the  temperature  0°  C.  ALFRED  LoDGE. 

Coopers  Hill,  Staines,  February  6, 


Mechanical  Equivalent  of  Heat. 

I  FIND  that  the  mode  of  regarding  J  advocated  in  my  letter 
in  last  week's  Nature  (p.  320)  is  not  quite  new,  for  my  brother. 
Dr.  Oliver  Lodge,  writes  to  tell  me  that  Clerk-Maxwell,  on 
p.  298  of  his  "Theory  of  Heat,"  has  called  J  the  specific  heat 
of  water.     However,  he  has  not  done  so  throughout  the  book. 


"Is  Hail  so  formed?" 

I  CANNOT  accept  Dr.  Rae's  explanation  as  a  "simpler  solu- 
tion "  of  the  phenomenon  described  by  me  in  NATURE  of 
January  26  ([).  295),  because  it  is  based  upon  meteorological 
conditions  that  were  at  the  time  non- existent. 

My  own  observation  of  the  pine-tree  convinced  me  that  at  or 
near  the  summit  there  was  no  adherent  ice  or  rime  ;  and  had 
there  been  beads  of  ice  upon  the  leaves  I  should  still  have  failed 
to  see  what  should  have  caused  them  while  frozen  to  become 
detached  and  change  from  beads  to  pellets. 

There  was  a  fine  mist  during  the  whole  of  the  day,  and  I 
observed  the  phenomenon  at  3.30  p.m. 

A  letter  appeared  in  Nature  upon  the  same  day  as  mine, 
drawing  attention  to  the  unusual  atmospheric  conditions  observed 
about  that  time,  and  containing  facts  which  manifestly  support 
my  theory.  Cecil  Carus- Wilson. 

Bournemouth,  February  11. 

The  New  Army  Regulations. 

The  new  regulations  for  the  Woolwich  entrance  examina- 
tion have  been  very  unfavourably  received  by  men  of  science.  This 
hostile  criticism  is  in  some  respects  the  consequence  of  the 
absence  of  clear  discrimination  between  them  and  those  already 
in  force  for  the  Sandhurst  examination. 

It  must  be  remembered  that  candidates  for  Woolwich  cadet- 
ships  must  be  between  the  ages  of  16  and  18  ;  that  6000  marks 
are  awarded  for  mathematics,  with  1500  more  for  drawing  and 
English  composition  ;  and  that  in  both  the  last  June  and  Decem- 
ber competitions  less  than  4000  marks  sufficed  to  place  a  student 
among  the  successful  competitors.  Since  candidates  can  pass  in 
these  subjects  alone,  it  appears  unreasonable  to  complain  that 
youths  of  scientific  power  are  excluded  from  the  Royal  Military 
Academy.  Classics  are  sufficiently  discouraged  by  the  fact  'that 
they  have  no  mark  value  after  the  cadet  has  entered  the 
Academy.  The  5000  marks  offered  in  the  entrance  examina- 
tion for  Latin  and  Greek  merely  serve  to  encourage  candidates 
who  have  been  educated  on  the  classical  sides,  which  are  almost 
always  the  stronger  at  our  public  schools.  They  really  tend  to 
widen  rather  th\n  to  narrow  the  sources  from  which  candidates 
are  drawn. 

After  a  quarter  of  a  century  of  continuous  experience  as  a 
student  and  teacher  of  elementary  science,  I  find  myself  reluc- 
tantly forced  to  the  conclusion  that  chemistry,  physics,  and 
geology  are  not  good  educational  subjects  for  lads  under  16 
years  of  age.  I  believe  that  it  is  in  most  cases  desirable  that 
youths  intended  for  a  scientific  career  should  not  specialize  too 
early.  A  sound  foundation  of  mathematics  and  modern  lan- 
guages is  almost  necessary  to  enable  them  to  attack  their  scientific 
subjects  efficiently.  With  minds  trained  to  the  use  of  the  e.xact  and 
powerful  processes  of  mathematical  reasoning,  and  able  to  readily 
appreciate  and  avail  themselves  of  the  wealth  of  scientific 
literature  in  France  and  Germany,  they  will  probably  become 
more  useful  officers  than  if  they  had  acquired  a  smattering  of 
science. 

On  the  other  hand,  your  wise  censure  of  the  discouragment  of 
science  in  the  Sandhurst  regulations  must  commend  itself  to  all 
thoughtful  men.  The  case  is  even  stronger  than  at  first  sight 
appears  in  the  studious  moderation  of  your  judicious  article. 
The  limits  of  age  are  higher  for  Sandhurst,  being  20,  or  in  some 
cases  24.  The  training  of  the  Line  cadets  is  less  complete.  As 
they  only  spend  one  year  at  Sandhurst,  they  are  obliged  to  con- 
fine their  attention  more  strictly  to  professional  subjects. 
Officers  of  the  Line  have  often  more  leisure  than  those  in  the 
scientific  corps,  and  there  are  many  reasons  why  even  a  slight 
acquaintance  with  science  would  be  helpful  to  them.  It  also 
seems  hard  that  a  candidate  should  be  handicapped  by  not  taking 
up  Latin.  Sometimes  it  has  been  discontinued  for  a  consider- 
able period,  and  a  candidate  can  ill  affijrd  to  take  up  "a  2000 
subject,"  considering  the  severity  of  the  competition. 

I  would  wish  respectfully  to  suggest  that  a  memorial  should  be 
presented  to  the  War  Office  by  all  interested  in  the  teaching  of 
science,  praying  that,  if  a  candidate  for  an  army  examination 


366 


NATURE 


[Feb.  1 6,  I 


wishes  to  substitute  for  Latin  one  of  the  sciences  enumerated  in 
Group  II.,  it  should  be  allowed  a  maximum  of  3000  marks. 
2  Powis  Square,   W.  Henry  Palin  Gurney. 


•'  British  and  Irish  Salmonidse." 

As  your  reviewer  allows  that  he  "  intentionally  omitted  "  five 
words  from  a  sentence  of  mine  which  he  quoted  in  order  to 
criticise,  I  may  well  leave  comments  on  such  a  proceeding  to 
your  readers.  I  willingly  acquit  him  of  having  purposely  made 
me  to  suggest  utter  nonsense,  as  I  cannot  help  thinking  that  his 
knowledge  of  fish-culture  was  such  that  he  was  unaware  he  was 
doing  so. 

As  to  the  second  point  he  says,  "  I  doubted  and  still  doubt 
if  there  is  any  method  practised  in  which  layers  of  moss  are 
used  and  are  separated  from  the  eggs  by  muslin  and  similar 
material."  As  he  rejects  the  Howietoun  account  which  I  gave, 
I  now  submit  extracts  from  two  standard  works,  one  American, 
the  other  English,  which  will,  I  believe,  be  conclusive  to  those 
who  are  ignorant  of  fish-culture,  for  every  fish-culturist  is 
aware  that  this  plan  is  commonly  adopted.  Livingstone-Stone 
("  Domesticated  Trout,"  ed.  3,  1877)  remarked  : — "  Theodore 
Lyman  recommends  placing  each  layer  of  eggs  in  a  fold  of 
mosquito  netting  to  keep  them  from  mixing  with  the  moss  and 
so  facilitate  the  unpacking  of  them.  This  is  a  great  improvement. 
By  all  means  use  mosquito  netting"  (p.  149).  Mr.  Andrews, 
of  Guildford,  wrote  thus  in  the  Badminton  Series  ("  Salmon 
and  Trout,"  1885)  : — "The  plan  of  packing  does  not  vary  much 
with  trout  breeders.  The  eggs  are  placed  in  alternate  layers 
between  moss,  and  protected  by  a  covering  of  mosquito  netting, 
muslin,  swans'  down,  calico,  or  butter  cloth,  so  arranged  that  the 
eggs  shall  not  be  crushed  or  escape  "  (p.  447). 

As  regards  the  third  point,  your  reviewer  now  appears  to  be 
convinced  that  Saltno  namaycush  is  a  char,  as  I  stated  it  to  be. 
It  must  be  a  matter  of  regret  that  he  omitted  to  investigate  the 
foregoing  questions  prior  to  authoritatively  writing  upon  them  in 
such  a  well-known  publication  as  Nature. 

Cheltenham,  February  4.  Francis  Day. 

In  his  last  letter  Mr.  Day  has  certainly  proved  the  correctness 
of  the  statement  in  his  book  that  salmonoid  eggs  are  packed 
with  layers  of  moss  from  which  they  are  separated  by  muslin  or 
other  textile  fabric.  If  I  had  known  as  much  about  salmon- 
culture  as  he,  I  certainly  should  not  have  questioned  the  state- 
ment ;  it  is  to  be  noted  that  I  only  questioned  and  did  not  deny. 
If  I  had  been  as  completely  versed  in  the  knowledge  of  Sal- 
monidte  as  Mr.  Day,  I  should  have  written  a  book  on  the  subject 
instead  of  reviewing  his.  But  the  essential  point,  which  Mr. 
Day  seems  incapable  of  appreciating,  is  this  :  that  there  was 
nothing  in  the  notes  on  the  subject  of  packing  in  his  book  which 
confirmed  the  statement  in  the  text  ;  and  although  my  doubts  as 
to  the  correctness  of  that  statement  are  removed  by  his  letter, 
they  were  perfectly  justifiable  in  a  reader  of  his  book.  Mr.  Day 
does  not  apparently  suspect  that  people  interested  in  the  subject, 
including  the  reviewer,  read  his  book  for  the  sake  of  gaining 
information,  and  not  because  they  already  know  as  much  about 
the  subject  as  himself.  All  I  had  to  do  was  to  give  my  impres- 
sions of  the  book  as  I  found  it  :  the  fitness  of  my  criticisms  is 
only  the  more  established  by  the  lengthening  appendix  to  his 
book  which  Mr.  Day  is  now  publishing  in  your  correspondence 
columns.  Your  Reviewer. 


MODERN  VIEWS  OF  ELECTRICITY^ 
Part  III.  Mk.Q,^-KX\^^i~{contimied.) 

VIII. 

TT  will  now  be  perceived  that  a  fly-wheel  in  rotation  is 
•*•  the  mechanical  analogue  of  magnetism,  or  more  de- 
finitely of  a  section  of  a  line  (or  tube)  of  magnetic  force  ; 
and  that  a  brake  applied  to  such  a  fly-wheel,  with  consequent 
slip,  dissipation  of  energy,  and  production  of  heat,  is  in 
some  sort  a  mechanical  analogue  of  an  electric  current. 

The  field  is  regarded  as  full  of  geared  elastic  vortices 
or  whirls,  some  of  which  are  cogged  together,  so  to  speak, 
while  others  are  merely  pressed  together  by  smooth  rims. 

'  Continued  from  p.  348. 


It  is  among  these  latter  that  shp  is  possible,  and  in  the 
regions  occupied  by  them  that  currents  exist ;  the  energy 
dissipated  here  being  transmitted  through  tlie  non-slippery 
or  dielectric  regions  from  the  source  of  power,  just  as 
energy  is  transmitted  from  a  steam-engine  through  mill- 
work  or  shafting  to  the  various  places  where  it  is  dissipated 
by  friction. 

Mechanical  Force  acting  Oft  a  Conductor  conveying  a 
Current. 

In  Fig.  41  the  conducting  portion  is  shown  with  opposite 
rotations  on  either  side  of  it.  Now  superpose  a  uniform 
rotation  all  in  one  direction  upon  this,  so  as  to  increase  the 
spin  on  one  side  and  diminish  it  on  the  other.  Imme- 
diately the  extra  centrifugal  force  on  one  side  will  urge  any 
movable  part  of  the  conductor  from  the  stronger  to  the 
weaker  portion  of  the  field. 

The  field  for  a  direct  and  return  circuit  may  be  similarly 
drawn  by  superposition  of  their  separate  w'hirls  (see  Fig. 
40) ;  and  so  it  becomes  evident  why  a  circuit  tends  to 
expand  so  as  to  inclose  the  largest  possible  area,  even  if 
no  other  magnetic  field  than  its  own  be  acting  on  it. 

Also  if  two  circuits  are  arranged  near  each  other  in  a 
plane,  with  their  currents  in  opposite  directions,  they  will 
more  or  less  neutralize  each  other's  effect  on  the  space 
between  them,  causing  (if  equal)  a  region  of  no  spin  there. 
Their  neighbouring  portions  will  thus  get  urged  together 
by  the  unbalanced  pressure  on  the  other  side  :  or,  currents 
in  the  same  direction  attract. 


Fig.  44. — Two  parallel  conductors  conveying  equal  currents  in  one  directioii 
and  getting  pu'shed  together  by  the  centrifugal  force  of  the  outside 
whirls,  no  whirl  existing  between  them.  The  length  of  the  arrows 
again  suggests  the  distribution  of  magnetism  in  the  conductors.  Fig.  4c 
showed  the  correlative  repulsion  of  opposite  currents. 

As  for  the  effect  of  iron  introduced  into  a  circuit,  it 
brings  into  the  region  of  space  it  occupies  some  two  or 
three  hundred  times  as  many  lines  of  whirl  as  were  there 
before,  and  these  naturally  contribute  mightily  to  the 
effects,  both  those  exhibiting  mechanical  force  and  those 
exhibiting  inertia. 

When  one  says,  as  roughly  one  may  do,  that  iron  brings 
300  fresh  lines  into  the  field,  one  means  that  for  every 
whirl  otherwise  excited,  300  more  are  faced  round  in 
the  iron.  And  this  process  goes  on  while  the  field  is 
increasing  in  strength  until  the  total  number  of  whirls  in 
the  iron  begins  to  be  called  upon  ;  when  this  point  is 
reached  the  rate  of  addition  is  not  maintained,  and  the 
iron  is  said  to  show  signs  of  saturation.  Ultimately,  if 
ever  all  its  whirls  were  faced  round,  the  iron  would  be 
quite  saturated  ;  but  long  before  this  point  is  reached 
another  cause  is  likely  to  make  itself  felt,  viz.  the  falling 
off  in  the  strength  of  the  whirls  already  faced  round,  by 
the  action  of  the  strong  magnetic  induction,  which  is  all 
the  time  acting  so  as  to  weaken  the  iron  currents  so  far 
as  it  is  able.  And  thus  at  a  certain  point  hitherto  un- 
reached by  experiment  the  iron  may  not  only  fail  to- 
increase  the  strength  of  the  field  any  more,  but  may 
actually  begin  to  diminish  it. 


Feb.  1 6,  1888] 


NA  TURE 


3^7 


The  easiest  way  to  picture  the  effect  of  iron  is  to  think 
of  its  wheels  as  some  two  or  three  iiundred  times  as  mas- 
sive as  those  of  air,  so  that  their  energy  and  momentum 
are  very  great. 

That  which  is  commonly  called  magnetic  permeability 
may  in  fact  be  thought  of  as  a  kind  of  inertia,  an  inertia 
per  unit  volume  ;  though  how  it  comes  to  pass  that  the 
ether  inside  iron  is  endowed  with  so  great  inertia  one 
cannot  say.  Perhaps  it  is  that  the  iron  atoms  themselves 
revolve  with  the  electricity,  perhaps  it  is  something  quite 
different.  Whatever  the  peculiar  behaviour  of  iron, 
nickel,  &c.,  be  due  to,  it  must  be  something  profoundly 
interesting  and  important  as  soon  as  our  knowledge  of 
their  molecular  structure  enables  us  to  perceive  its 
nature. 

Induction  in  Conductors  not  originally  carrying  Currents 
but  moving  in  a  Magnetic  Field. 

To  explain  the  currents  induced  in  a  conductor  moving 
through  a  uniform  magnetic  field  is  not  quite  easy,  be- 
cause none  of  the  diagrams  lend  themselves  naturally 
and  simply  to  the  idea  of  circuits  changing  in  form  or  size. 

If  we  take  a  rigid  circuit  in  a  magnetic  field,  like  Fig. 
45,  and  revolve  it  out  of  its  plane  180'',  it  is  obvious  that  a 
current  will  be  excited  in  it,  for  the  process  is  essentially 
the  same  as  if  the  conductor  were  kept  still  and  the  field 
reversed. 


Fig.  45. — Section  of  a  uniform  magnetic  field  with  two  rails  and  a  slider 
in  it.  If  the  slider  be  moved  to  or  fro,  the  wheels  inside  get  initially, 
compressed  or  extended,  and  thereby  gain  or  lose  energy  respectively 
thus  exciting  the  state  of  sUp  known  as  induced  current. 

But  to  understand  the  current  excited  in  a  closed 
circuit  when  a  portion  of  it  moves  across  the  lines  so  as  to 
embrace  a  greater  number  of  them,  one  has  to  take  into 
account  the  fact  that  the  inside  whirls  are  expanding  and 
doing  work  in  forcing  the  conductor  away,  while  the  outer 
whirls  are  resisting  the  motion,  and  being  thereby  com- 
pressed and  rendered  more  energetic.  Thus  the  wheels 
inside  revolve  slightly  slower  as  the  circuit  expands,  and 
those  outside  revolve  slightly  quicker.  Both  these  processes 
cause  a  slipping  of  the  gearing,  first  all  round  the  inside 
and  then  all  through  the  substance  of  the  wire,  whereby 
positive  electricity  moves  forward  in  one  direction  round 
the  circuit,  the  negative  moving  oppositely  ;  and  so  a 
current  is  accounted  for.  It  is  not  to  be  supposed,  how- 
ever, that  any  finite  expansion  of  the  wheels  really 
occurs :  the  motion  is  rapidly  equalized  by  diffusion 
through  the  wire,  and  fresh  wheels  come  in  round  it  from 
outside  ;  hence  directly  after  the  conductor  has  stopped 
moving  the  field  is  again  steady,  but  with  many  more 
wheels  inside  the  contour  than  it  possessed  at  first. 

Representation  of  an  Electrostatic  Field  again,  and 
superposition  of  it  on  a  perpendicular  Magnetic  Field. 

An  electrostatic  strain  is,  we  know,  caused  by  a  dis- 
placement of  positive  electricity  one  way  along  the  lines 


of  force,  and  by  an  equal  displacement  of  negative  the 
other  way.  Half  the  process  was  indicated  crudely  in 
Fig.  6  ;  we  may  now  represent  it  rather  more  fully  with 
the  help  of  our  elastic  cells  by  Fig.  46. 


Fig.  46— a  portion  of  an  electrostatic  iield  between  two  oppositely  charged 
bodies,  wilh  its  lines  of  force  going  from  right  to  left,  and  showing  a 
tension  along  and  a  pressure  at  right  angles  to  them,  due  to  the  elasti- 
city of  the  cells  (which  elasticity  may  be  due  to  their  containing  fluid  in 
a  slate  of  whirl).  Magnetic  lines  of  force  perpendicular  to  the  paper  are 
also  shown  in  section.  While  this  magnetic  field  was  being  excited  and 
propagated  from  below  upwards,  a  slight  strain  would  be  produced  in 
the  elastic  cells,  like  but  immensely  less  than  that  shown  ;  as  contrasted 
with  its  normal  condition  (Fig.  37).  Conversely,  while  this  electrostatic 
strain  was  being  produced,  the  positive  whirls  would  be  infinitesimally 
quickened  and  the  negative  ones  retarded  during  the  displacement,  thus 
producing  a  minute  magnetic  effect.  If  the  medium  is  not  magnetized, 
the  whirls  aie  not  necessarily  absent,  only  faced  all  w:iys. 

Here  the  positive  cells  have  been  pulled  one  way,  the 
negative  the  other  way  ;  and  when  the  distorting  force  is 
removed,  the  medium  tends  to  spring  back  to  its  normal 
condition,  exerting  an  obvious  tension  on  bodies  attached 
to  it  in  the  direction  of  its  hnes  of  force,  its  elongated 
direction,  and  an  obvious  pressure  in  all  perpendicular 
directions,  its  compressed  directions. 

Now,  if  all  the  cells  are  full  of  parallel  whirls,  as  in  the 
preceding  magnetic  diagrams,  it  is  not  improbable  that 
this  electrostatic  distortion  or  "  shear  "  of  the  medium 
may  affect  its  magnetic  properties  slightly,  and  that,  if  the 
direction  of  electrostatic  strain  were  rapidly  reversed, 
a  small  magnetic  oscillation  would  also  ensue  ;  but  the 
exact  details  of  these  mutual  actions  are  difficult  to 
specify  at  present. 

Disruptive  Discharge. 

Disruptive  discharge  may  be  thought  of  as  a  pulling  of 
the  shaded  cells  violently  along  past  the  others ;  the 
process  being  accompanied  by  a  true  disruption — a  sort 
of  electrolysis — of  the  medium,  and  a  passage  of  the 
two  electricities  in  opposite  directions  along  the  line  of 
discharge. 

Consider  the  locomotion  of  any  one  horizontal  row  of 
shaded  cells  in  Fig.  46  during  the  occurrence  of  such  a 
disruption  of  the  medium.  The  cells  slide  on  towards 
the  right,  and,  as  they  slide,  the  spin  of  the  negative  cells 
above  them  is  retarded  while  that  of  those  below  them 
is  accelerated  ;  consequently  a  true  magnetic  effect  is 
produced,  just  like  that  accompanying  a  current,  and  a 
disruptive  discharge  has  therefore  all  the  magnetic 
properties  of  a  current. 

Effects  of  a  Moving  Charge. 

This  locomotion  of  a  set  of  positive  cells,  or  of  negative 
cells  the  other  way,  as  just  considered,  is  very  near  akin 
to  the  motion  of  a  charge  through  a  dielectric  medium. 

A  charge  can  only  exist  at  the  boundary  between  a 
dielectric  and  a  conductor,  or  at  least  between  one  di- 
electric and  another  of  greater  density.  So,  when  a 
charged  body  moves  along  with  extreme  rapidity,  it  can 
be  thought  of  as  exciting  a  rotation  in  the  cells  rnost 
closely  in  contact  with  it  greater  than  that  which  it  excites 
in  the  opposite  kind  of  cells,  and  thus  produces  the  whirl 
proper  to  a  magnetic  field.  Thus  does  a  moving  charge 
behave  just  like  a  current  of  a  certain  strength. 

It  may  be,  indeed,  that  this  is  the  customary  way  of 
exciting  a  voltaic  current  ;  for  the  chemical  forces  in  a 
cell  cause  a  locomotion  of  charged  atoms,  and  thus  set 


368 


NA  TURE 


[Feb.  1 6,  1888 


up  a  field,  which,  spreading  out  in  the  way  Prof.  Poynting 
has  sketched,  reaches  every  part  of  the  metallic  circuit 
and  excites  the  current  there. 

Electrostatic  Ejects  of  a  Moving  or  Varying  Magnetic 
Field. 

Just  as  we  have  seen  that  a  moving  or  varying  electro- 
static field  may  produce  slight  magnetic  effects,  so  one 
can  perceive  that  a  moving  or  varying  magnetic  field 
brings  about  something  of  the  nature  of  an  electrostatic 
strain. 

For  a  spreading  out  field  is  continually  propagating 
the  rotation  on  from  one  layer  of  wheels  to  the  next.  If 
there  is  any  slip,  we  thus  get  induced  currents,  and  the 
rate  of  propagation  is  comparatively  slow,  being  a  kind 
of  diffusion  ;  but  even  if  there  is  not  any  slip,  yet,  unless 
the  wheel-work  is  absolutely  rigid,  the  rate  of  propaga- 
tion will  not  be  infinite.  The  actual  rate  of  propagation 
is  very  great,  which  shows  that  the  rigidity  of  the  wheels 
is  very  high  in  proportion  to  their  inertia,  but  it  is  not 
infinite  ;  and  accordingly  the  propagation  of  rotation  is 
accompanied  by  a  temporary  strain.  One  part  of  the 
field  is  in  full  spin,  another  more  distant  part  is  as  yet 
unreached  by  the  spin ;  between  the  two  we  have  the 
region  of  strain,  the  wheel-work  being  distorted  a  little 
while  taking  up  the  motion.  Thus  does  a  spreading  out 
magnetic  field  cause  a  slight  and  temporary  electrostatic 
strain,  at  right  angles  both  to  the  direction  of  the  lines  of 
force  and  to  the  direction  of  their  advance. 

Generation  of  a  Magnetic  Field.      Induction  in   Closed 
Circuits. 

Picture  to  oneself  an  unmagnetized  piece  of  iron  :  its 
whirls  are  all  existent,  but  they  are  shut  up  into  little 
closed  circuits,  and  so  produce  no  external  effect.  Mag- 
netize it  slightly,  and  some  of  the  closed  circuits  open  out 
and  expand,  with  one  portion  of  them  in  the  air.  Mag- 
netize it  strongly,  and  we  have  a  whole  set  of  them  opened 
out  into  vortex  cores,  still  with  the  whirl  round  them,  and 
constituting  the  common  magnetic  lines  of  force.  There  is 
no  need  to  think  of  iron  and  steel  in  this  connection.  In  air 
or  any  substance  the  whirls  are  still  present,  though  much 
fewer  or  feebler,  and  their  axes  ordinarily  form  little  closed 
circuits — it  may  be  inside  the  atoms  themselves.  But 
wrap  a  current-conveying  wire  round  them,  and  at  once 
they  open  out  into  the  lines  of  force  propei:  to  a  circular 
current. 

Again,  think  of  an  iron  ring,  or  a  hank  of  wire  as  bought 
at  an  ironmonger's :    wrap  a  copper  wire  several  times 


Fig.  47. — Closed  magnetic  circuit  like  Fig.  42,  with  a  single-ring  second.iry 
circuit,  and  another  open  secondary  loop;  alsa  with  a  short  conducting- 
rod  standing  up  in  it. 

round  it,  as  a  segment  of  a  Gramme  ring  is  wound  (Fig. 
47),  and  pass  a  current.  The  closed  vortices  in  the  iron 
at  once  expand :  a  portion  of  each  flashes  out  and 
across  the  air-space  inclosed  by  the  ring  (not  by  any 
means  confining  itself  to  a  plane,  of  course),  and  enters 
the  ring  on  the  opposite  side  ;  so  that  directly  the  current 
is  steady  the  lines  all  lie  inside  the  iron  again,  but  now 
inclosing  an  area — the  area  of  the  ring — instead  of  being 
shut  up  into  infinitesimal  links.-  In  a  sense  the  iron  is 
still  unmagnetized,  for  its  lines  of  force  still  form  closed 
contours  within  it,  and  none  protrude  any  part  of  them- 
selves into  the  air,  except  for  irregularities.  But  in 
another  sense  it  is  highly  and  permanently  magnetized 


round  and  round  in  itself,  the  magnetism  being  not  easy 
to  get  out  of  it  again,  except  by  judiciously  arranged 
reverse  currents. 

It  is  now  like  one  great  electric  vortex  rmg  instead  of 
like  a  confused  jumble  of  microscopic  ones.  Its  section 
was  shown  in  Fig.  42. 

During  the  variable  period,  while  the  current  is  increas- 
ing in  strength,  or  while  it  is  being  reversed,  the  region 
inclosed  by  the  ring  and  all  around  it  is  full  of  myriads  of 
expanding  lines  of  force  flashing  across,  broadside  on, 
from  one  side  of  the  iron  to  the  other,  and  there 
stopping.  It  is  the  presence  of  these  moving  lines, 
changing  rapidly  from  a  "simply-connected"  into  a 
"  multiply-connected "  state,  or  vice  versa,  which  causes 
the  powerful  induced  currents  of  "  secondary  generators." 

In  every  case  of  varying  magnetic  field,  in  fact,  we 
have  lines  moving  broadside  on,  propagating  their  whirl, 
and  more  or  less  disturbing  the  medium  through  which 
they  move. 

Next  consider  a  moving  or  spinning  magnet.  Its  lines 
travel  with  it,  and,  being  closed  curves,  they  also  must 
move  broadside  through  the  field,  so  that  in  this  case  we 
may  expect  Just  the  same  effect  as  can  be  obtained  from 
a  varying  magnetic  field. 

If  a  broadside-moving  line  of  force  cut  across  a  con- 
ductor, its  motion  is  delayed,  for  its  wheels  slip  and  only 
gradually  get  up  a  whirl  inside  the  ill-geared  substance  ; 
thus,  as  we  know,  causing  an  induced  current  (see  Fig.  43). 

If  a  conducting  ring  is  looped  with  the  iron  ring 
previously  mentioned,  as  a  snap-hook  is  looped  with  an 
eye,  then  every  expanding  vortex,  while  the  ring  is  being 
magnetized,  has  necessarily  to  cut  through  the  conducting 
ring  once  and  no  more,  no  matter  what  its  shape  or  size. 
The  electromotive  force  of  induction  is  in  this  case  there- 
fore perfectly  definite,  and  simply  proportional  to  the 
number  of  turns  made  by  the  secondary  round  the  core 
of  the  ring  (Fig.  47). 

Instead  of  supposing  a  closed  conducting  secondary 
circuit,  imagine  an  open  one  :  there  is  still  an  E.M.F.  in 
it,  though  rather  less  than  before  because  a  few  of  the 
expanding  lines  flash  through  the  gap  and  produce  no 
effect,  so  the  electricity  must  surge  to  and  fro  in  the 
conductor  as  water  surges  up  and  down  in  a  tilted 
trough,  and  a  small  condenser  attached  to  the  free  ends 
will  be  alternately  charged  and  discharged.  The  gap 
might  become  so  large  that  nothing  is  left  but  a  short  rod 
(Fig,  47) :  in  this  also  similar  oscillations  would  occur. 

But  now  suppose  no  secondary  conductor  at  all ; 
nothing  but  dielectric  inclosed  by  the  ring.  In  it  there 
must  be  an  electric  displacement  excited  every  time  the 
magnetism  of  the  ring  is  reversed.  It  may  be  an  oscil- 
latory displacement,  but  still  on  the  whole  in  one  direction 
during  rise  of  magnetism,  and  in  an  opposite  direction 
during  reversal  of  magnetism.  A  charged  body  delicately 
suspended  within  the  ring  may  feel  the  effect  of  the  minute 
electrostatic  strain  so  magnetically  produced. 

To  see  the  mode  in  which  an  electrostatic  displace- 
ment arises  in  the  space  embraced  by  the  ring  we  have 
only  to  turn  to  Fig.  42,  and  look  at  the  set  of  wheels  along 
the  line  A  B  separating  one  half  the  section  from  the  other. 
They  cannot  steadily  rotate  either  way,  for  they  are  urged 
in  opposite  directions  by  the  two  halves  ;  in  other  words, 
there  is  no  magnetic  field  near  such  a  ring,  as  is  well 
known  ;  but,  nevertheless,  during  a  change  of  magnetism, 
while  the  whirls  inside  are  changing  in  speed,  the  rub  on 
the  dielectric  necessary  for  checking  the  outer  wheels  of 
the  conductor  is  either  increased  or  diminished ;  and  if 
the  wheels  have  any  elastic  "give"  in  them,  as  we  know 
they  have,  the  electrostatic  strain  in  the  field  is  thereby 
altered  during  the  varying  stage  of  the  magnetism. 

Oliver  J.  Lodge. 

END  OF  PART  III. 

[To  be  continued.) 


Feb.  i6.  1888] 


NATURE 


369 


THE  MECHANISM  OF  THE  FLIGHT  OF  BIRDS. 

THE  following  is  a  translation  o£  an.  article  in  La 
Nature  (December  /,  1887),  on  the  mechanism  of 
the  fligjit  of  birds,  by  Prof.  E.  H.  J.  Marey.  Through 
the  courtesy  of  the  editor  of  our  French  contemporary 


we  are   able  to    reproduce  the   figures   illustrating   M. 
Marey's  interesting  paper. 

In  a  preceding  article  [see  Nature,  vol.  xxvi.  p.  84], 
I  showed  that  photography  could  represent  the  successive 
positions  of  a  bird's  wing,  at  different  moments  in  its 


Fig.  I. — Sea-gull.     Transverse  flight.    Ten  images  per  secqnd. 


flight ;  that  there  might  be  obtained  at  the  same  time  the 
positions  of  the  bird  in  space  at  equal  and  known  inter- 
val?  of  time  ;  and  I  expressed  the  hope  of  solving  by  this 
method  the  obscure  problem  of  the  mechanism  of  flight. 
Since  that  time,  the  photographic  method  has  been 


perfected,  and  the  number  of  species  of  birds  to  which 
my  researches  have  extended  has  been  multiplied. 

From  the  comparison  of  the  several  species  which  I 
have  had  at  my  disposal,  the  results  show  that,  except  in 
certain  differences  in  details,  they  all  execute  movenients 


Fig.  2. — Small  herun.     I'ransverse  flight.     Ten  images  per  second. 


of  the  same  nature ;  in  all,  the  wings  bend  up  at  the  moment 
of  ascension,  spread  out  quickly  when  at  the  wished  for 
height,  are  then  lowered,  carried  in  front,  and  approached 
to  the  body  ;  at  the  close  of  the  descent,  the  ioints  anew 
bend  up,  and  the  ascent  recommences. 


The  illustrations  i,  2,  3,  4,  and  5  represent  the  flight  of 
the  sea-gull,  the  heron,  the  pigeon,  and  the  pelican. 

These  illustrations  reveal  curious  attitudes  which  the  eye 
has  not  time  to  seize,  and  with  which  we  are  not  familiar- 
ized in  the,  artistic  interpretations  of  birds.     According 


Fig.  3.— Pigeon.    Transverse  flight.     Ten  images  per  second.     (Fac-simile  of  instantaneous  photographs  taken  by  the  author.) 


to  -a  just  remark  of  Mr.  Muybridge,the  European  painters 
almost  always  represent  birds  flying  with  their  wings 
elevated  ;  the  Chinese  and  Japanese,  on  the  contrary, 
represent, them  indiflerently  with  wings  both  raised  and 
lowered.  That  does  not,  however,  mean  that  the  artists 
:,of   the    extreme   East    have    faithfully  reproduced    the 


different  attitudes  ot  birds  :  the  comparison  of  their  re- 
.presentations  with,  those  of  instantaneous. photography 
shows  clearly  that  no  more  in  China  than  here  does  the 
eye  perceive  actions  >vhich  last  only  for  a  very  brief 
moment.        ,  , 

Seen  only  under,  one  aspect,  representations  of  a  bird 


^1o 


NATURE 


[Feb.  1 6,  1888 


pn  the  wing  do  not  give  us  correct  ideas  or  the  move- 
ments of  the  wings  ;  we  must  photograph  the  bird  under 
several  aspects  in  order  thoroughly  to  comprehend  this 


mechanism.  We  have  made  several  arrangements  in 
order  to  procure  this  effect.  One  of  these,  placed  at  a 
height  of  12  metres  (nearly  13^  yards),  gave  representa- 


FiG.  4. — Crested  heron.    Transverse  flight.    Ten  images  per  second. 


J. 


Tf^ 


Fig.  s- — Pelican.    Transverse  descending  flight.     Ten  images  per  second. 


Fig.  6. — Sea-gull  seen  from  above.    Ten  images  per  second.     (Fac-simile  of  instantaneous  photographs  taken  by  the  author.) 


lions  of  the  bird  as  seen  from  above  (Fig.  6) ;  others, 
variously  placed,  showed  it  from  the  side,  or  flying  in 
the  direction  of  the  photographic    apparatus   (Fig.   7). 


These  representations,  taken  under  different  conditions, 
complement  each  other.  Thus,  the  birds  seen  from 
above  show  a  singular  curvature  in  the  flat  surface  of  the 


Feb,  i6,  j888] 


NATURE 


371 


.  wing,  the  existence  of  which  one  would  not  suspect  from 
the  profile  representations.  This  curvature  appears  at  the 
end  of  the  depression  of  the  wing,  at  the  moment  in 
which  the  joints  begin  to  bend  upwards  in  order  to  pre- 
pare for  an  ascent.  Hence  results  a  spiral  aspect  of  the 
wing,  recalling  the  form  which  Mr.  Pettigrew  considers 
the  essential  element  in  a  bird's  propulsion.  But  we  must 
observe  that  this  form  is  only  produced  at  the  very  close 
of  the  act  of  descent,  at  the  ^'^ point  mart"  of  the  wing's 
action,  as  we  say  in  mechanics,  and  at  a  moment  in 
which  it,  having  become  passive,  is  about  to  remount  by 
the  resistance  of  the  air.  These  figures  also  show  a  fact 
wholly  unforeseen — namely,  that  the  movements  in  flying 
are  not  symmetricaL  It  had  been  previously  supposed  that 
the  bird,  when  desirous  of  turning  laterally  the  direction 
of  its  flight,  executes  movements  more  extended  from  the 
side  which  is  to  progress  most  rapidly  ;  that  is  to  say, 
that  it  gives  more  amplitude  to  the  movements  of  the 
right  wing  if  it  wishes  to  turn  to  the  left,  and  reciprocally. 
It  is  scarcely  needful  to  say  that  photochronography  con- 
demns entirely  the  hypothesis  in  which  it  was  supposed 
that  one  of  the  wings  of  the  bird  could  bend  more  frequently 
than  the  other  ;  the  movements  of  the  two  wings  are 
perfectly  synchronous,  if  not  equal,  in  extent.     It  is  seen, 


in  short,  from  these  representations,  that  the  body  of  the 
bird  inclines  and  moves  in  different  ways,  so  as  to  carry 
its  centre  of  gravity  to  one  side  or  the  other,  according 
to  the  necessities  of  the  equihbrium.  The  bird  whose 
attitudes  are  portrayed  in  Fig.  6  seemed  careful  to  bear 
the  weight  of  its  body  to  the  left  on  account  of  the 
smaller  surface  of  its  right  wing,  from  which  some 
feathers  were  missing. 

The  representations  taken  in  front  and  a  little  ob- 
liquely, as  in  Fig.  7,  give  also  useful  information.  They 
show  that  the  extremity  of  the  wing — a  part  of  the  organ- 
ism in  full  activity,  since  it  strikes  the  air  with  greater 
speed — presents,  at  the  time  of  lowering,  changes  of 
surface  whicli  the  secondary  remiges  extending  from  the 
carpus  to  the  shoulder  do  not  offer.  Th^rp  exists  in  the 
wing  feathers  of  the  different  orders  a  species  of  separation, 
showing  that  the  carpal  articulations  are  the  seat  of  a  light 
twisting  movement  favourable  to  the  bending  of  the  surface 
of  the  carpal  remiges.  In  these  representations  may  also  be 
readily  seen  the  bending  and  convergence  of  the  wings  at 
the  close  of  their  lowering,  the  depression  which  the  ante- 
rior side  of  the  wing  presents  at  this  moment  from  the 
effect  of  a  flexion  beginning  at  the  elbow.  In  order  to 
follow  in  all  their  details  the  changes  of  movement  in  the 


Fig.  7. — Sea-gull  flying  obliquely  in  the  direction  of  the  photochronographioapparatus.    (Fac-simile  of  instantaneous  photograph  taken  by  the  author.) 


wings,  it  has  been  necessary  to  make  many  experiments, 
so  as  to  obtain,  during  a  single  stroke  of  the  wing,  ten  or 
twelve  successive  views  of  the  bird  seen  under  each  of 
these  different  aspects. 

These  representations  having  once  been  obtained,  I 
was  in  possession  of  all  the  elements  necessary  to  under- 
stand completely  the  motions  of  the  wings  according  to 
the  three  dimensions  of  space.  But  in  order  to  repre- 
sent them,  figures  in  relief  were  necessary  ;  and  circum- 
stances were  favourable  to  this.  At  Naples,  where  I 
then  was,  the  almost  lost  industry  of  casting  bronze  in  wax 
has  been  preserved  from  the  most  remote  antiquity.  I 
modelled  in  wax  a  series  of  figures  representing  the 
successive  attitudes  in  a  single  revolution  of  the  wing, 
ten  for  the  sea-gull,  eleven  for  the  pigeon  :  these  models, 
when  given  to  a  skilful  moulder,  were  reproduced  in 
bronze  with  perfect  fidelity. 

Fig.  8  represents,  disposed  in  a  series,  and  following 
each  other  in  their  order  of  succession,  at  intervals  of 
1/88  of  a  second,  the  phases  of  one  stroke  of  a  pigeon's 
wing. 

These  bronze  figures  were  made  white,  in  order  to 
render  more  apparent  the  effects  of  light  and  shade. 
.Thanks  to  the  multiplicity  of  the  attitudes  represented  in 


this  series,  all  the  phases  of  the  motion  of  the  wings  are 
easily  followed :  it  is  seen  how  they  fold,  rise,  expand, 
and  sink. 

In  order  the  better  to  understand  how  the  movements 
of  the  bird's  wing  follow  each  other,  of  which  photo- 
chronography gives  an  analysis,  I  have  had  recourse  to 
the  use  of  the  zootrope,  which  recomposes  them,  and 
gives  to  the  sight  the  impression  of  a  bird  flying. 

The  zootrope,  represented  in  Fig.  9,  offers  this  speciality, 
that  it  is  formed  by  figures  in  relief.  This  is  a  great 
advantage  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  impression  which 
it  gives  ;  in  fact,  these  small  figures  of  birds,  arranged  in 
a  circle  in  the  apparatus,  present  themselves  to  the  ob- 
server under  various  aspects. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  movement  the  bird's  backs  are 
seen  ;  then,  in  their  circular  course,  they  present  their 
sides,  pass  across  in  full  view,  and  at  last  return  to  the 
observer.  Besides,  the  movements  of  the  wings,  which  in 
nature  are  extremely  rapid,  and  consequently  imperfectly 
seen,  are  here  much  slower,  so  that  the  phases  may  be 
easily  followed,  and  in  an  instant,  more  may  be  per- 
ceived than  the  most  attentive  observer  of  the  flight  of 
birds  could  discover  by  the  most  careful  observation. 

Fig.  9  shows  the  arrangement  of  the  zootrope;-  it 


37^ 


NATURE 


\Feb.  1 6,  J 


cannot  unfortunately  give  an  idea  of  the  effect"  produced 
by  the  apparatus  in  motion. 

;  But  it  may  be  said  that  this  rotatory  method  interprets 
the  movements  of  the  bird  without  indicating  the  forces 
which  produces  them.  While  it  would  be  well  to  know 
that  force,  it  is  better  still  to  measure  the  mechanical 


labour  expended  in  order  to  sustain  and  transport  itself 
in  the  air. 

Let  us  see  whether  our  photographic  images  reveal  to 
us  anything  in  regard  to  this. 

When  one  knows  the  mass  of  a  body,  and  the 
speed  with  which  it  moves,  one  can  calculate  the  force 


Fig.  8. — Bronze  figures  representing  eleven  successive  positions  at  successive  moments  in  the  stroke  of  a  pigeon's  wing. 


which  has  set  this  body  in  motion,  and  the  labour  ex- 
pended by  this  force.  If  we  take  a  projectile  of  a  certain 
weight,  and  throw  it  before  the  photochronographic 
apparatus,  and  take  a  series  of  images  of  this  projectile 
at  intervals  of  i/ioo  of  a  second,  Fig.  lo  shows  the 
trajectory  curve  followed,  and  the  space  which  separates 


the  images  from  each  other  shows  the  space  traversed  by 
the  projectile  in  each  of  the  hundredth  parts  of  a  second 
during  which  its  movement  has  lasted.  From  ten  to  ten 
a  more  brilliant  image  has  been  produced  by  an  aperture 
in  the  diaphragm  larger  than  the  others  :  these  marks  are 
useful  in  order  to  facilitate  the  numbering  of  the  images, 


Fig.  9. — Zootrope,  in  which  are  placed  ten  figures,  in  relief,  of  a  sea-gull  in  the  successive  positions  of  flight. 


a  £xed  metrical  scale,  photographed  at  the  same  time  as 
the  object  in  motion,  serves  to  measure  the  spaces  tra- 
versed at  each  moment ;  then  it  is  a  problem  in  dynamics, 
\i  hose  solution  may  be  readily  obtained  by  the  usual 
r  ethods  of  calculation. 
3i TJiB isuccessiyfi.  image?  of  the jflying  bird  lepd, them- 


selves to  the  same  dynamical  analysis.  The  balance 
indicates  to  us  the  weight  of  the  bird  ;  we  know  its  size  ; 
and  in  order  that  photochronography  may  give  us  to  per- 
fection the  trajectory  of  this  mass,  it  only  requires  mani- 
fold multiplication  of  the  images  obtained  (a  hundred 
may  be  taken  in  a  second  if  need  be}^  _  But.those  images 


Feb.  1 6,  1888] 


NATURE 


in 


will  be  partially  confused,  because  the  bird,  in  the 
hundredth  part  of  a  second,  only  traverses  a  space  equal 
to  the  length  of  its  body :  the  image  of  the  second  will 
therefore  partly  cover  that  of  the  first,  the  third  that  of 
the  second,  and  so  on.  In  this  confusion  one  can 
scarcely  distinguish  the  moment  in  which  the  wing  lowers 
itself,  or  that  in  which  it  is  raised.  But  this  is  of  no  im- 
portance :  we  fix  on  the  head  of  the  bird  a  small  but  very 
brilliant  metallic  point,  and  the  image  of  this  point, 
clearly  seen  in  the  series  of  figures,  reveals  the  trajectory 


of  the  bird,  together  with  its  speed,  and  the  accelerations 
and  slackening  of  speed  produced  by  the  movements  of 
the  wings.  One  may  then  face  the  dynamic  problem 
of  flight.  It  is  granted  first  that  the  bird  does  not  oscil- 
late sensibly  in  the  vertical  sense,  whence  one  must  con- 
clude that  the  resistance  of  the  air  under  its  wings  is 
precisely  equal  to  its  weight.  On  the  other  hand,  it  is  to 
be  observed  that  the  motion  of  the  animal  presents 
alternations  of  speed  and  slowness,  showing  that  the 
propelling  force  and  the  resistance  of  the  air  predominate 


Fig.  10.— Trajectory  of  a  white  ball  thrown  in  front  of  a  black  screen.    The  interval    between  two  successive  images  is  measured   on  the  metrical  scale. 

The  time  taken  to  travel  over  this  interval  is  i/ioo  of  a  second. 


by  turns.  From  the  value  of  these  accelerations  there 
must  be  deducted  the  value  of  the  horizontal  component 
of  the  bird's  motion,  and  that  of  the  resistance  of  the  air. 

The  calculations  based  on  these  experiments  have 
given  the  following  results  for  the  forces  which  act  during 
the  flight  of  the  sea-gull : — 

Vertical  component         o'623  kilogramme 

Horizontal  component    o' 

Total     ... 


These  forces  develop  themselves  during  the  act  of 
lowering  the  wings  ;  the  ascent  is  passive,  and  is  due  to 
the  pressure  of  the  air  upon  the  lower  surface  of  the  wings, 
which  act  then  for  the  support  of  the  bird,  as  in  a  paper 
kite. 

As  the  resistance  of  the  air  under  the  wings  acts?'  at  a 
point  a  considerable  distance  from  the  articulation  of 
the  shoulder,  and  as  the  pectoral  muscles,  by  which  the 
wings  are  lowered,  act  very  near  the  articulation — that  is 
to  say,  on  the  arm  of  a  very  unfavourable  lever — it  results 


Fig.  II. — Curves  and  nodes  produced  by  a  vibrating  stalk,  one  end  of  which  is  fixed.     (Fac-simile  of  instantaneous  photographs  taken  by  the  author.) 


that  the  effort  of  the  muscles  is  much  greater  than  the 
resistance  of  the  air  which  they  surmount.  For  the 
pectorals  of  the  sea-gull,  the  effort  developed  would  be 
19  kilogrammes. 

It  is  frequently  asked  whether  the  muscles  of  birds 
have  not  a  specific  strength  greater  than  those  of  other 
animals — that  is  to  say,  whether  two  bundles  of  the  same 
thickness  of  muscles  belonging,  one  to  a  bird,  the  other 
to  a  mamuial,  would  have  different  powers.  In  the  sea-gull 


which  served  for  my  experiments,  one  transverse  section 
of  the  pectoral  muscles  arranged  perpendicularly  to  the 
direction  of  their  fibres  had  about  1 1  centimetres  square 
of  surface,  or  about  r6oo  kilogramme  per  square  centi- 
metre. Other  birds  had  formerly  given  me  nearly  similar 
returns  for  their  specific  strength  ;  thus,  the  buzzard  de- 
veloped 1200  grammes  per  square  centimetre,  the  pigeon 
1400  grammes. 
Aeronauts  hope  that  they  will  one  day  invent  a  machine 


174 


ISTATURE 


fFeb.  i^,  1888 


capable  of  transporting  man  through  the  air,  but  many 
of  them  are  troubled  by  a  doubt ;  for  they  ask  themselves 
whether  the  force  of  the  bird  does  not  exceed  that  of  the 
known  motors.  The  experiments  on  that  subject  may 
reassure  them,  for,  if  we  compare  the  muscular  force  of 
the  bird  with  that  of  steam,  we  see  that  one  muscle  would 
be  comparable  to  an  engine  at  very  low  pressure.  In 
fact,  the  steam  which  would  develop  1*600  kilogramme 
per  square  centimetre  would  scarcely  have  more  than  an 
atmosphere  and  a  half  of  pressure.  But  the  true  com- 
parison to  establish  between  the  animated  motors  and 
the  engines  consists  in  measuring  the  work  which  each 
of  these  motors  can  furnish,  with  equal  weight,  in  the 
unity  of  time. 

The  measure  of  the  work  of  a  motor  is  obtained  by 
multiplying  the  effort  put  forth,  by  the  path  which  the 
point  of  application  of  that  effort  traverses.  Photo- 
chronography  expresses  at  each  moment  the  spaces  tra- 
versed by  the  mass  of  the  bird  and  the  displacement  of 
the  centre  of  pressure  of  its  wings,  giving  thus  the  factor 
path  in  the  measure  of  the  work.  In  this  way  it  is  found 
that  for  the  five  strokes  of  its  wing  which  the  sea-gull 
gives  every  second,  at  the  moment  when  it  flies  away, 
the  labour  done  would  be  3-668  kilogrammes.  This  calcula- 
tion is  very  high  ;  it  corresponds  to  that  which  an  engine 
would  make  in  raising  its  own  weight  to  a  height  of  more 
than  5  metres  in  a  second. 

But  that  is  only  a  maximum  which  the  bird  does  not 
attain  to  except  at  the  moment  of  flight,  when  it  has  not 
attained  much  speed.  In  fact,  according  as  the  passage 
.of  the  bird  is  accelerated,  the  air  under  its  wings  presents 
a  more  resisting  fulcrum.  I  have  previously  experiment- 
ally demonstrated  this  fact,  announced  by  the  brothers 
Planavergue,  of  Marseilles,  and  of  which  the  following  is 
the  theory. 

When  the  bird  is  not  yet  in  motion,  the  air  which  is 
struck  by  its  wings  presents,  in  the  first  instance,  a 
resistance  due  to  its  inertia,  then  enters  into  motion,  and 
flies  below  the  wing  without  furnishing  to  it  any  support. 
"When  the  bird  is  at  full  speed,  on  the  contrary,  its  wing 
is  supported  each  moment  upon  new  columns  of  air,  each 
one  of  which  offers  to  it  the  initial  resistance  due  to  its 
inertia.  The  sum  of  these  resistances  presents  to  the 
wing  a  much  firmer  basis.  One  might  compare  a  flying 
bird  to  a  pedestrian  who  makes  great  efforts  to  walk  on 
shifting  sand,  and  who,  in  proportion  as  he  advances, 
finds  a  soil  by  degrees  firmer,  so  that  he  progresses  more 
swiftly  and  with  less  fatigue.  The  increase  of  the  resist- 
ance of  the  air  diminishes  the  expenditure  of  labour  ;  the 
strokes  of  the  bird's  wing  become,  in  fact,  less  frequent  and 
less  extended.  In  calm  air,  a  sea-gull  which  has  reached 
its  swiftest,  expends  scarcely  the  fifth  of  the  labour  which 
it  had  to  put  forth  at  the  beginning  of  its  flight.  The 
bird  which  flies  against  the  wind  finds  itself  in  still  more 
favourable  conditions,  since  the  masses  of  air,  continually 
renewing  themselves,  bring  under  his  wings  their  resist- 
ance of  inertia.  It  is,  then,  the  start  which  forms  the 
most  laborious  phase  of  the  flight.  It  has  long  been 
observed  that  birds  employ  all  kinds  of  artifices  in 
order  to  acquire  speed  prior  to  flapping  their  wings  :  some 
run  on  the  ground  before  darting  into  the  air,  or  dart 
rapidly  in  the  direction  they  wish  to  take  in  flying  ;  others 
let  themselves  fall  from  a  height  with  extended  wings, 
and  glide  in  the  air  with  accelerated  speed  before  flapping 
their  wings  ;  all  turn  their  bill  to  the  wind  at  the  moment 
of  starting. 

My  experiments  have,  up  to  the  present,  only  been  able 
to  apply  to  the  flight  of  departure.  In  order  to  study  the 
full  flight  there  are  conditions  difficult  to  realize.  With  a 
courtesy  for  which  I  thank  him,  M.  Eiffel  has  offered  to 
me  on  the  gigantic  tower  which  he  is  erecting  (at  Paris)  a 
post  of  observation  which  will  leave  nothing  to  be  desired. 
From  that  enormous  height,  birds  photographed  during  a 
long  flight  will  give  photochronographic  images  much 


more  instructive  than  those  which  I  have  hitherto  been 
able  to  obtain. 

Without  entering  into  the  dry  details  of  experiments 
and  calculations  made,^  I  have  aimed  at  showing  that  the 
movements  of  birds,  if  they  escape  the  sight,  may  be  faith- 
fully recorded  by  a  new  method  which  is  applicable  to  the 
most  varied  problems  of  rotation  and  of  mechanics. 

Photochronography,  in  fact,  gives  experimentally  the 
solution  of  problems  often  very  difficult  to  solve  by 
calculation. 

Imagine  a  certain  number  of  forces  acting  in  different 
ways  upon  a  known  mass  ;  the  complicated  way  in  which 
those  forces  are  arranged  sometimes  renders  long  calcula- 
tions needful  in  order  to  determine  the  positions  which  the 
moving  object  will  occupy  at  successive  moments  ;  whilst 
if  the  body  itself,  submitted  to  those  different  forces,  can 
be  placed  before  the  photochronographic  apparatus,  the 
path  which  it  will  follow  expresses  itself  upon  the  sensitive 
plate. 

Distinguished  physicists  disputed  lately  as  to  the  form 
the  free  extremity  of  a  vibrating  stalk  ought  to  present  in 
which  are  produced  curves  and  nodes  :  the  greater  number 
of  them  supposed  that  between  the  last  node  and  its  free 
extremity  the  stalk  would  present  a  bent  form.  Experi- 
ment has  shown  that  it  is  not  so,  and  that  the  last  elements 
of  the  vibrating  stalk  are  perfectly  rectilinear  (Fig.  1 1), 

How  many  problems  whose  solution  has  formerly  cost 
efforts  of  genius  might  be  solved  by  a  very  simple  experi- 
ment !  Galileo  in  our  day  would  not  have  needed  to 
lessen  the  speed  of  the  falling  body  in  order  to  observe 
its  motion.  He  would  let  fall  a  brilliant  ball  before  a  dark 
field,  and  would  receive  from  it  photographically  successive 
images.  Upon  the  sensitive  plate  he  would  have  read,  in 
the  simplest  way  possible,  the  laws  of  space,  of  the  speed 
and  the  accelerations  which  he  has  had  the  glory  to 
discover. 

To  return  to  our  subject,  the  laws  of  the  resistance  of  the 
air  to  the  living  creatures  of  different  forms  which  move 
in  it  ought  to  be  searched  into  by  photochronography. 
Already  interesting  results  have  been  acquired  :  we  have 
been  able  to  determine  the  path  of  motion  and  the  speed 
of  small  polished  bodies  {petits  appareils  planeurs) 
which  move  freely  in  the  air,  and  which  the  eye  has  not 
time  to  follow  in  their  rapid  motions.  Studies  like 
these,  undertaken  and  methodically  carried  out,  will 
certainly  lead  to  a  comprehension  of  the  still  obscure 
mechanism  of  the  hovering  of  birds. 


TECHNICAL  EDUCATION. 

WHEN  the  time  comes  for  the  discussion  of  the 
"new  Technical  Instruction  Bill,  attention  will  no 
doubt  be  given  to  an  important  series  of  resolutions 
(printed  on  the  next  page)  which  have  just  been 
passed  by  the  Executive  Committee  of  the  North 
of  England  Branch  of  the  National  Association  for 
the  Promotion  of  Technical  Education.  The  first  six 
of  these  resolutions  were  unanimously  adopted  by  the 
Committee,  and  the  seventh  was,  on  the  motion  of  Mr. 
T.  Burt,  M.P.,  seconded  by  Mr.  J.  H.  Girhng  (President 
of  the  Trades  Council),  adopted  with  one  dissentient. 
The  following  are  the  advantages  which  the  Committee 
desire  to  secure  : — (i)  For  primary  and  secondary  educa- 
tion a  greater  freedom  of  instruction  under  the  existing 
code  preparatory  to  technical  education  in  the  higher 
schools.  (2)  A  direct  or  indirect  pecuniary  aid  for  superior 
education  in  science  and  art  schools  and  in  Colleges 
which  afford  technical  education.  (3)  For  all  apprentice- 
ship schools  or  trade  classes  a  supervision  by  members  of 
the  trade,  but  no  Government  grant,  thus  to  avoid  any 
objections  which  might  be  raised  by  Trades  Unions,  or 
any  jealousy  arising  from  an  apparent  protection  of  one 
*  See  the  Comptes  rettdus  of  the  Academie  des  Sciences  1886-37. 


Feb.  1 6,  1888] 


NATURE 


375 


or  more  particular  trades.  (4)  For  University  Colleges 
a  grant  similar  to  that  made  to  training  Colleges  for 
education  afforded  to  persons  intending  to  become 
teachers. 

The  resolutions  are  as  follow : — 

1.  That  public  funds  (rates  and  taxes)  should  not  be  employed 
to  meet  the  current  expenses  of  teaching  specific  trades. 

2.  That  it  is  undesirable  that  instruction  in  the  use  of  tools 
should  be  introduced  into  primary  schools  as  a  grant-earning 
subject. 

3.  That  with  a  view  to  preparing  pupils  for  technical  education 
later  on — 

(a)  The  grant  to  day-schools  should  depend,  to  a  much  less 
extent  than  at  present,  on  the  results  of  the  examina- 
tion of  individual  pupils  in  reading,  writing,  and 
arithmetic,  and  should  be  largely  dependent  on  the 
inspector's  report  of  the  general  character  of  the 
teaching  and  the  equipment  of  the  school. 

{b)  There  should  be  greater  liberty  in  the  choice  of  subjects 
in  primary  schools,  and  the  same  class  subject  should 
not  necessarily  be  taken  throughout  the  school. 

(f)  The  grant  to  evening  continuation  schools  should  be 
regulated  by  the  report  of  the  inspector  on  the 
character  of  the  teaching,  and  on  the  attendance  list, 
and  not  upon  the  result  of  the  examination  of 
individual  pupils. 

4.  That  when  a  technical  school  is  combined  with  a  science 
and  art  school,  the  contribution  to  the  building  fund,  through 
the  Science  and  Art  Department,  should  exceed  ;^iooo,  if,  in 
the  opinion  of  the  Department,  the  requirements  of  the  locality 
demand  it. 

5.  That  it  is  desirable  that,  when  specific  trades  are  taught  in 
technical  schools,  the  practical  teaching  of  each  trade  should  be 
under  the  general  direction  of  a  committee,  consisting  mainly  of 
members  of  that  trade  ;  that  the  teaching  should  be  given  in  the 
evening,  and  be  restricted  to  pupils  actually  engaged  in  the 
respective  trades,  and  that,  when  specific  trades  are  taught,  any 
deficiency  in  current  expenses  should  be  guaranteed  by  the  trade 
of  the  district. 

6.  That  a  certain  percentage  of  persons  preparing  for  appoint- 
ments as  teachers  in  elementary  schools  should  be  allowed  to 
attend  lectures  and  laboratory  work  at  Universities  and  Uni- 
versity Colleges,  where  a  curriculum  satisfactory  to  the  Educa- 
tion Department  is  provided,  and  that  the  same  grant  should  be 
made  on  account  of  such  students  as  in  the  case  of  ordinary 
training  Colleges. 

7.  That  it  is  desirable  that  University  Colleges  in  which 
higher  scientific  and  technological  training  are  cjmbined  should 
be  assisted  by  a  Government  grant,  provided  that  evening 
instruction  is  given  in  all  the  subjects  taught,  at  fees  which  shall 
bring  the  advantages  of  the  College  within  the  reach  of  all 
classes.  The  due  administration  of  the  grant  should  be  secured 
by  the  appointment  of  certain  nominees  of  the  Government  on 
the  Executive  Council  of  the  College. 


THREATENED  SCARCITY  OF  WATER. 

THE  appendices  to  the  Weekly  Weather  Reports  for 
the  year  1887,  recently  published  by  the  Meteoro- 
logical Office,  contain  some  interesting  details  relative  to 
the  rainfall.  It  is  shown  that  the  mean  rainfall  for  the 
whole    of  the    British    Islands    during    1887    was    only 

2 5  8  inches,  whereas  the  mean  for  the  twenty-two  years 
1866  to  1887  was  35'3  inches,  so  that  there  is  a  deficiency 
of  nearly  10  inches  over  the  whole  area  of  the  British 
Islands,  or  27  per  cent,  less  than  usual.  In  the  wheat- 
producing  districts,  which  comprise  the  east  of  England 
and  Scotland,  the  south  of  England,  and  the  Midland 
Counties,  the  fall  during  1887  was  21  inches,  and  the  aver- 
age value  for  twenty-two  years  is  28*5  inches,  showing  a 
deficiency  in  these  parts  of  the  Kingdom  of  7*5  inches,  or 

26  per  cent,  less  than  usual.  In  the  principal  grazing 
districts,  which  comprise  the  west  of  England  and  Scot- 
land, as  well  as  Ireland,  the  fall  in  1887  was  30*5  inches, 
and  the  value  for  the  twenty-two  years  is  420  inches, 
showing  a  deficiency  of  1 1  '5  inches,  or  27  per  cent,  less 


than  the  average.  In  the  north-west  of  England  the  rain- 
fall for  1887  was  only  24*9  inches,  which  is  157  inches  or 
39  per  cent,  less  than  the  average,  and  in  the  south-west 
of  England  the  fall  was  28'3  inches,  which  is  i6'6  inches 
or  37  per  cent,  less  than  usual.  Last  year  was  the  driest 
of  any  year  since  1866,  and  this  feature  was  common  to 
all  parts  of  the  United  Kingdom  ;  the  amount  of  rain 
measured  was  only  about  one-half  of  that  recorded  in 
1872,  which  was  the  wettest  year  of  the  period.  If  the 
comparison  is  confined  to  the  last  ten  years,  the  deficiency 
is  nearly  as  marked,  and  1887  is  still  found  to  be  about 
25  per  cent,  below  the  average,  but  the  greatest  deficiency 
in  this  case  occurs  in  the  Midland  Counties,  where  it 
amounts  to  36  per  cent,  of  the  average.  The  reports 
issued  by  the  Meteorological  Office  for  the  first  five  or  six 
weeks  of  the  present  year  show  the  deficiency  of  rainfall 
still  to  be  augmenting,  and  even  more  quickly  than  in  any 
period  last  year.  In  the  Midland  Counties  the  rainfall  to 
February  6  was  only  o*6  inch  instead  of  29  inches,  so  that 
the  deficiency  from  January  3  is  as  much  as  79  per  cent  of 
the  average  fall ;  and  at  Hereford,where  the  total  fall  is  only 
0*29  inch,  the  deficiency  is  90  per  cent,  of  the  average. 
In  the  east  of  England  the  deficiency  is  64  per  cent.,  in 
the  south-west  of  England  61  per  cent.,  and  in  the  north- 
west of  England  58  per  cent.  There  has  been  a  deficiency 
of  rain  in  all  districts  of  England  each  week  for  seven 
consecutive  weeks  since  December  19,  with  the  exception 
of  a  single  district  (England  N.E.)  in  one  week,  and 
since  the  beginning  of  October  there  have  been  but  four 
weeks  in  which  the  excess  of  rain  was  at  all  general.  Out 
of  fifty-seven  weeks  since  the  commencement  of  1887 
there  have  been  but  ten  in  the  south-west  and  east  of 
England  with  an  excess  of  rainfall,  and  only  eleven  in 
the  north-west  of  England.  With  these  facts  to  hand, 
there  seems  reasonable  ground  for  alarm  being  felt  in 
some  localities  at  the  threatened  scarcity  of  water. 

Charles  Harding. 


PROFESSOR  ASA  GRA  Y. 

WHEN  the  history  of  the  progress  of  botany  during 
the  nineteenth  century  shall  be  written,  two 
names  will  hold  high  positions  :  those  of  Prof.  Augustin 
Pyrame  De  Candolle  and  of  Prof.  Asa  Gray.  In  many 
respects  the  careers  of  these  men  were  very  similar,  though 
they  were  neither  fellow-countrymen  nor  were  they  con- 
temporaries, for  the  one  sank  to  his  rest  in  the  Old  World 
as  the  other  rose  to  eminence  in  the  New.  They  were 
great  teachers  in  great  schools,  prolific  writers,  and  authors 
of  the  best  elementary  works  on  botany  of  their  day. 
Each  devoted  half  a  century  of  unremitting  labour  to  the 
investigation  and  description  of  the  plants  of  continental 
areas,  and  they  founded  herbaria  and  libraries,  each  in  his 
own  country,  which  have  become  permanent  and  quasi- 
national  institutions.  Nor  were  they  unlike  in  personal 
qualities,  for  they  were  social  and  genial  men,  as  active 
in  aiding  others  as  they  were  indefatigable  in  their  own 
researches ;  and  both  were  admirable  correspondents. 
Lastly,  there  is  much  in  their  lives  and  works  that  recalls 
the  career  of  Linnaeus,  of  whom  they  were  worthy  disciples, 
in  the  comprehensiveness  of  their  labour,  the  excellence 
of  their  methods,  their  judicious  conception  of  the  limits 
of  genera  and  species,  the  terseness  and  accuracy  of 
their  descriptions,  and  the  clearness  of  their  scientific 
language. 

Asa  Gray  was  born  in  Paris,  Massachusetts,  on 
November  18,  1810,  and  took  his  MD.  degree  when 
twenty,  at  the  Medical  College  of  Fairfield,  Oneida 
County.  His  proclivities  were  all  scientific  from  a  very 
early  age,  and  he  is  said  to  have,  whilst  still  a  student, 
delivered  lectures  on  chemistry,  geology,  and  botany,  in 
private  establishinents  of  that  county.  The  two  former 
subjects  weire  at  first  his  favourites— indeed,  his  earliest 


376 


'NATURE 


\:Feb.i6,  rS8'8 


contribution  to  science  is  a  paper,  by  G.  B.  Crawe  and 
himself,  on  the  mineralogy  of  Jefferson  and  St.  Lawrence 
Counties  (N.  Y.),  in  SillimarCs  Journal  ( 1 834, 346)~but  they 
soon  gave  place  to  botany,  owing  to  his  having  attracted 
the  attention  of  Dr.  John  Torrey,  State  Botanist  for  New 
York,  and  Professor  of  Chemistry  and  Botany,  but  prac- 
tically of  botany  only,  in  the  New  York  Medical  College. 
In  1833,  Dr.  Torrey  made  Gray  his  laboratory  assistant, 
a  post  he  held  for  some  months,  during  which  he  pre- 
sented what  was  his  first  botanical  paper  to  the  Annals 
of  the  New  York  Lyceum.  This,  which  was  on  a  very  intri- 
cate and  much  misunderstood  group  of  American  sedges 
{Rhynchospord)  showed  Gray's  acuteness  as  an  observer, 
and  skill  in  systematizing,  as  clearly  as  anything  he  has 
since  written.  In  the  following  year  he  was  appointed 
Curator  of  the  New  York  Lyceum,  where  he  extended  his 
studies  to  the  North  American  grasses  and  Cyperaceae, 
and  prepared  his  first  botanical  text-book,  which  was 
pubhshed  in  1836,  under  the  title  of  "  Elements  of 
Botany."  The  "Elements"  is  a  noteworthy  book;  it 
was  at  once  accepted  as  the  best  that  had  appeared  in 
the  States,  and  as  second  to  ^none  in  the  English  lan- 
guage ;  its  only  rival  was  Lindley's  "  Introduction  to  the 
Natural  System  of  Botany,"  the  first  edition  of  which  had 
(in  1 831)  been  reprinted  under  Dr.  Torrey's  supervision 
for  the  use  of  the  American  schools. 

Whilst  still  attached  to  the  New  York  Lyceum,  Gray 
accepted  the  appointment  of  naturalist  to  Capt.  Wilke's 
South  Pacific  Exploring  Expedition,  which  was  then 
being  fitted  out ;  but  after  two  years'  delay,  and  the  cur- 
tailment of  the  opportunities  for  research  that  were  to 
have  been  afforded  him  on  the  voyage,  he  threw  up  the 
appointment.  This  result  is  much  to  be  deplored,  for  no 
young  naturalist  was  ever  better  fitted  by  education,  and 
by  training  as  an  observer  and  collector,  to  have  taken 
advantage  of  the  splendid  opportunities  which  that 
expedition  afforded. 

Having  relinquished  the  prospect  of  Pacific  explora- 
tion, Dr.  Gray  was  invited  by  his  friend  Dr.  Torrey  to 
co-operate  with  him  in  the  preparation  of  a  flora  of  the 
North  American  Continent ;  and  into  this  work,  which 
became  the  leading  object  of  his  scientific  life,  he  eagerly 
entered.  At  the  same  time  he  accepted  the  Chair  of 
Botany  in  the  University  of  Michigan,  subject  to  the  con- 
dition of  being  allowed  a  year's  leave  to  be  passed  in 
Europe  for  the  purpose  of  verifying  the  nomenclature  of 
the  American  flora  by  a  study  of  the  species  of  which  the 
types  existed  only  in  European  herbaria.  This  was  in 
1838,  and  his  first  visit  was  to  Glasgow,  where  the  then 
■  Professor  of  Botany  (Sir  W.  Hooker)  was  engaged  on  a 
flora  of  British  North  America,  under  the  auspices  of 
the  Secretary  of  State  for  the  Colonies.  After  a  long 
sojourn  in  Glasgow,  Dr.  Gray  visited  the  principal 
herbaria  in  London,  France,  Switzerland,  Italy,  Austria, 
-and  Prussia,  making  life-long  friendships  with  scientific 
men  of  all  pursuits  wherever  he  went ;  his  letters  of  intro- 
duction, coupled  with  his  bright  intelligence,  genial  dis- 
position, and  charming  personality,  giving  him  the  entree 
•to  salons  as  well  as  to  the  museums  of  every  capital.  This 
was  the  first  of  seven  visits  that  Dr.  Gray  paid  to  Europe, 
and  of  which  the  last  was  concluded  a  very  few  weeks 
before  his  fatal  illness. 

On  his  return  to  America  in  1839,  Dr.  Gray  resided  at 
New  York,  when  the  first  volume  of  the  flora  of  North 
America  was  completed,  in  conjunction  with  Dr.  Torrey, 
and  the  second,  elaborated  wholly  by  himself,  was  begun, 
but  not  completed  till  1843.  In  the  meantime  (in  1842) 
he  had  been  appointed  by  the  Fellows  of  Harvard  College, 
Cambridge,  Fisher  Professor  of  Natural  History,  the 
duties  of  which  Chair  were  restricted  to  an  annual 
course  of  lectures  on  botany,  and  the  charge  of  the 
College  Botanical  Gardens,  to  which  an  official  residence 
is  attached.  This  was  his  home  for  the  rest  of  his  life, 
and  here,  with  funds  partly  derived  fromthe  College,  and 


partly  from  private  sources,  largely  supplemented  by 
interchanges  of  specimens  and  books,  he  founded  the 
Harvard  Herbarium  and  Library. 

The  great  desideratum  for  the  conduct  of  Dr.  Gray's 
new  duties  was  a  much  fuller  class-book  of  botany  than 
the  "  Elements  "  of  1836,  and  in  the  same  year  he  com- 
pleted the  first  edition  of  his  "  Botanical  Text-book."  In 
this  the  subject-matter  is  divided  into  two  parts,  one 
devoted  to  structural  and  physiological  botany,  the  other 
to  the  principles  of  systematic  botany,  including  chapters 
upon  plants  useful  to  man.  This  was  the  first  of  a  series  of 
editions  of  a  work  that  has  been  for  nearly  half  a  century  the 
text-book  of  schools  and  colleges  throughout  the  United 
States,  and  the  latter  issues  of  which  have  been  generally 
recommended  by  the  botanical  professors  of  the  United 
Kingdom  as  the  best  of  its  class.  In  1880  the  first  volume 
of  the  sixth  edition  appeared,  but  the  advances  in  botanical 
science  made  since  the  fifth  was  published,  quite  a 
quarter  of  a  century  before,  had  been  so  many  and  great 
that  the  amount  of  matter  which  this  sixth  will  contain  is 
quadruple  that  of  the  fifth.  It  will  be  when  complete 
a  co-operative  work  in  four  volumes.  The  first  is  by  Gray 
himself,  and  is  devoted  to  morphology,  taxonomy,  and 
phytography  ;  the  second,  by  Prof  Goodale,  Gray's  able 
successor  in  the  Fisher  Professorship,  includes  vegetable 
histology  and  physiology ;  the  third,  by  Prof  Farlow, 
will  treat  on  Cryptogams  ;  and  the  fourth,  which  Dr.  Gray 
reserved  for  himself,  was  intended  to  be  occupied  by  the 
classification  of  Phaenogams,  their  special  morphology, 
distribution,  and  products.  Gray's  other  educational  works 
are  :  "  Lessons  in  Botany  and  Vegetable  Physiology," 
somewhat  on  the  plan  of  Lindley's  "  School  Botany,"  but 
much  fuller  ;  also  two  smaller  works,  that  for  charm  of 
matter  and  style  have  no  equal  in  botanical  literature — 
"How  Plants  Grow,"  and  "How  Plants  Behave" — they 
rival  chapters  in  Kirby  and  Spence's  introduction  to 
entomology  in  instruction  and  interest ;  and  lastly,  "  Field, 
Forest,  and  Garden  Botany." 

The  great  outcomes  of  Gray's  labours  in  systematic 
botany  are  his  works  on  the  flora  of  North  America,  from 
the  Arctic  islands  to  Mexico,  and  from  the  Atlantic  to  the 
Pacific  Ocean.  In  one  form  or  another  these  embrace  a 
great  proportion  of  the  10,000  or  12,000  species  which  that 
continent  is  supposed  to  contain.  More  than  half  are  in- 
cluded in  the  two  volumes  published. in  conjunction  with 
Torrey,  and  in  his  "  Synoptical  Flora,"  of  which  two  parts 
are  published,  and  in  his  "  Manual  of  the  Botany  of  the 
Northern  States."  The  remainder  are  described  or  men- 
tioned in  more  or  less  detail  in  multitudes  of  detached 
papers,  and  especially  in  memoirs  upon  collections  made 
by  naturalists  attached  to  the  many  Expeditions  organized 
by  the  Government  for  the  exploration  of  railway  routes 
across  the  continent,  and"  By" 'coire"cfofs'"an3^p!^vate  in- 
dividuals in  previously  unexplored  regions.  It  was  the 
hope  of  their  author  that  the  publication  of  these  collec- 
tions would  have  accelerated  the  completion  of  the  general 
flora,  and  such  would  have  been  the  case  had  their  author 
lived  ;  but  as  it  is,  the  stars  have  in  great  measure 
obscured  the  planet,  for  one  of  the  greatest  obstacles  to 
the  study  of  North  American  plants  is  the  multitude  of 
these  detached  memoirs,  with  complicated  titles,  in  which 
so  many  genera  and  species  are  to  this  day  buried. 
If  the  great  work  cannot  be  continued,  as  it  is  to  be  hoped 
it  may  be,  by  Dr.  Gray's  most  competent  herbarium 
keeper,  Sereno  Watson,  it  is  most  desirable  that  the  con- 
tents of  these  memoirs  should  be  reduced  to  a  systematic 
form  with  the  least  possible  delay. 

Next  to  the  synoptical  flora,  Dr.  Gray's  most  original 
work  is  his  "  Genera  Florae  Boreali-Americana  Orientalis," 
which  was  intended  to  contain  descriptions,  with  figures, 
of  every  genus  of  the  Eastern  States,  with  discussions 
upon  their  affinities,  morphology,  and  distribution.  Only 
two  volumes  had  appeared  when  want  of  funds  decreed 
its  eiid.      As  a.  fragment  it  is  unique,,  and  had  it  but  been 


Feb.  1 6.  1888] 


NATURE 


Z77 


completed  it  would  have  been  of  great  morphological 
value.  To  have  done  this  would,  however,  have  required 
more  than  the  ten  volumes  that  were  regarded  when  the 
work  was  commenced  as  sufficient  to  complete  it,  and  this 
independently  of  the  Cryptogams. 

Nor  was  Dr.  Gray's  all  closet  work:  he  diligently  collected 
and  observed  over  a  considerable  area  of  his  native 
continent  ;  along  the  Altantic  coast  from  Canada  to 
Florida  ;  in  the  prairie  and  Rocky  Mountain  regions 
from  Wyoming  to  the  borders  of  New  Mexico  ;  in  the 
great  basin  of  Utah  and  Nevada  ;  and  along  the  Pacific 
coast  from  Oregon  to  St.  Barbara. 

With  two  notable  exceptions,  Dr.  Gray  confined  his 
descriptive  work  to  North  American  botany.  These 
exceptions  were :  one,  the  fragmentary  botany  of 
Wilkes's  South  Pacific  Exploring  Expedition,  with  the 
execution  of  which  he  was  intrusted,  but  which  came  to 
an  end  before  it  was  half  finished,  for  want  of  funds  it  is 
believed,  after  the  publication  of  one  quarto  volume  with 
a  superb  atlas  of  plates  ;  the  other  is  a  memoir  on  the 
flora  of  Japan,  founded  chiefly  on  the  collections  made 
in  that  country  by  the  United  States  North  Pacific 
Exploring  Expedition,  which  in  point  of  originality  and 
far-reaching  results  was  its  author's  opus  magnum.  By  a 
comparison  of  the  floras  of  Japan  with  those  of  Eastern 
and  Western  America,  and  of  these  with  one  another,  and 
all  with  the  Tertiary  floras  of  the  Northern  States,  he 
drew  in  outline  the  history  of  the  vegetation  of  the  north 
temperate  hemisphere  in  relation  to  its  geography,  from 
the  Cretaceous  period  to  the  present  time.  It  is  a  brilliant 
generalization,  bearing  the  unmistakable  stamp  of  genius. 

It  remains  to  allude  to  Gray's  admirable  defence  of  the 
doctrine  of  "  the  origin  of  species  by  natural  selection," 
of  which  he,  as  one  of  a  favoured  few,  had  been  fully 
informed  by  Darwin  himself  in  1857  ("Life  and  Letters," 
ii.  120),  before  it  appeared  in  the  Linnean  Journal.  His 
opinion,  which  was,  from  the  first,  cautiously  favourable, but 
with  reserve,  soon  ripened  into  a  conviction  of  the  truth 
of  the  principles  involved.  He  alludes  to  it  first  in  the 
concluding  remarks  to  his  essay  on  the  flora  of  Japan, 
cited  above,  published  in  1859,  wherein  he  says  that 
he  is  "  disposed  to  admit  that  closely  related  species  may, 
in  many  cases,  be  lineal  descendants  from  a  pristine 
stock."  Again,  in  a  letter  to  Mr.  Darwin,  dated  early  in 
July  i860,  speaking  in  terms  of  highest  praise  of  the 
"  Origin,"  the  following  passages  occur  : — "  The  moment  I 
understood  your  premisses,  I  felt  sure  that  you  had  a  real 
foundation  to  hold  on.  Well,  if  one  admits  your  pre- 
misses, I  do  not  see  how  he  is  to  stop  short  of  your  con- 
clusions, as  a  probable  hypothesis  at  least."  And,  referring 
to  his  own  review  of  it  in  Silliman's  Journal  (March 
r86o),iie  says  :^»-"  It  naturally  happens  that  my  review  of 
your  book  does  not  exhibit  anything  hke  the  full  force  of 
the  impression  the  book  has  made  upon  me.  Under  the 
circumstances,  I  suppose  I  do  your  theory  more  good 
here  by  bespeaking  for  it  a  fair  and  favourable  consider- 
ation, and  by  standing  non-committed  as  to  its  full  con- 
clusions, than  I  should  if  I  announced  myself  a  convert ; 
nor  could  I  say  the  latter  with  truth."  It  may  be  re- 
marked here  that  just  at  this  time  a  battle  over  species 
was  raging  in  America,  of  which  but  faint  echoes  reached 
our  shores.  This  was  over  the  question  of  the  single 
or  multiple  origin  of  species  by  creation.  Gray  was  the 
champion  of  single  creations,  and,  believing  himself 
strongly  supported  by  theological  considerations,  may 
well  have  felt  that  the  further  leap  to  evolution  was  one 
into  the  dark.  Be  this  as  it  may,  for  the  five  years  fol- 
lowing the  publication  of  the  "  Origin,"  Gray  devoted 
himself  to  impressing  upon  the  American  public  his 
opinion  of  its  extraordinary  merits  by  reviews  in  weekly 
and  monthly  periodicals,  by  lectures,  and  by  discourses 
at  scientific  Academies.  Latterly  (in  1876)  he  collected 
many  of  these  into  a  single  volume  which  he  en- 
titled "  Darwiniana."     In  it  he   defines  his   own   posi- 


tion "as  one  who  is  scientifically,  and  in  his  own 
fashion,  a  Darwinian,  philosophically  a  convinced  theist, 
and  religiously  an  acceptor  of  the  '  creed  commonly 
called  the  Nicene,'  as  the  exponent  of  the  Christian 
faith."  From  this  position  he  never  moved,  and  he  sub- 
sequently delivered  two  lectures  in  further  exposition  of 
these  views,  at  the  Divinity  School  of  Yale  College, 
These  were  published  in  1880,  under  the  title  of"  Science 
and  Religion."  Finally,  Mr.  Darwin,  whilst  fully  recog- 
nizing the  different  stand-points  from  which  he  and  Gray 
took  their  departures,  and  their  divergence  of  opinion  in 
some  important  matters,  regarded  him  as  the  naturalist 
who  has  most  thoroughly  gauged  his  work,  and  as  a  tower 
of  strength  to  himself  and  his  cause. 

As  a  reviewer  and  bibliographer,  Gray's  labours  must 
have  been  Herculean,  and  they  were  uninterrupted  for 
nearly  half  a  century.  Even  when  on  his  travels  in 
Europe,  he  was  in  the  habit  of  contributing  scientific 
notices  to  periodicals  in  the  States.  In  1836  he  com- 
menced writing  reviews  of  botanical  works,  and  notices  of 
botanists,  travellers,  and  collectors  for  Silliman's  Journal 
of  Science  and  Arts ;  and  this  function  he  continued  to 
perform  without  intermission  (latterly  as  a  co-editor  of 
that  important  periodical)  till  within  a  few  days  of  his  last 
illness.  The  number  of  these  articles  is  truly  astonishing, 
as  is  the  knowledge  they  display  of  all  branches  of  botany,' 
Phasnogamic  and  Cryptogamic.  They  are  without  exception 
just,  sober,  and  discriminating,  critical  rather  than  lauda- 
tory, and  eminently  considerate  in  tone  where  censure  is 
necessary.  A  selection  from  these,  many  being  discussions 
full  of  original  matter  and  suggestive  observations,  would 
be  an  instructive  and  acceptable  contribution  to  the 
botanical  literature  of  the  century,  and  a  meet  tribute  to 
their  author's  merits  and  memory. 

Dr.  Gray's  figure  and  features  were  familiar  in  the 
scientific  circles  of  this  country  ;  but  for  the  information  of 
others  it  may  be  stated  that  he  was  of  spare,  wiry  figure, 
rather  below  the  average  height,  his  expression  was  keen 
and  vivacious,  and  his  movements,  like  his  intellect,  alert. 
He  was  a  Foreign  Fellow  of  the  Royal  and  Linnean 
Societies,  a  correspondent  of  the  Institute  of  France,  and 
of  the  other  Continental  Academies,  a  Doctor  of  Laws  of 
Oxford,  Cambridge,  and  Edinburgh,  and  had  served  as 
President  of  the  American  Academy  of  Arts  and  Science, 
of  the  American  Association  for  the  Advancement  of 
Science,  and  as  a  Regent  of  the  Smithsonian  Institution. 
Accompanied  by  Mrs.  Gray  he  spent  the  summer  of  1887 
in  Europe,  chiefly  in  England,  returning  to  Cambridge 
in  September.  In  October  he  went  to  Washington  on  the 
affairs  of  the  Smithsonian  Institute.  Soon  after  his 
return,  on  the  28th  of  November,  he  was  struck  with  para- 
lysis, from  which  he  never  rallied,  and  he  died  at  the  end 
of  the  following  January.  It  is  characteristic  of  him  that 
his  last  letter,  written  in  pencil  immediately  before  his 
seizure  to  the  contributor  of  these  lines,  was  on  the  sub- 
ject of  a  review  for  Silltman's  Journal  of  Planchon's 
"  Review  of  the  Vines."  Dr.  Gray  married  in  1848,  Jane, 
daughter  of  Judge  Charles  G.  Loring,  of  Boston,  who  survives 
him.  He  left  no  family.  An  excellent  medallion  likeness 
of  him  in  bronze  was,  on  his  seventy-fifth  birthday,  pre- 
sented by  his  friends  to  Harvard  College,  Cambridge,  U.S. 

J.  D.  H. 


NOTES. 
On  Tuesday  evening  a  question  was  asked  in  the  House  of 
Commons,  by  Mr.  Howorth,  about  the  new  regulations  for  the 
entrance  examination  at  Woolwich.  Mr.  Howorth  inquired 
whether  these  regulations  were  final  and  permanent,  or  only 
temporary.  Mr.  Stanhope,  we  regret  to  say,  replied  that  the 
regulations  are  intended  to  be  of  permanent  application.  If 
that  be  so,  it  is  the  more  necessary  that  a  vigorous  protest 
against   the  scheme  should   be   made  by  those  who  have  any 


378 


NATURE 


{Feb.  1 6,  1888 


true  appreciation  of  the  place  which  properly  belongs  to  the 
study  of  science  in  education. 

On  Tuesday  the  Committee  of  the  Athenaeum  Club  elected 
three  new  members  in  accordance  with  the  rule  which  em- 
powei^s  the  election  of  nine  persons  annually  "of  distinguished 
eminence  in  science,  literature,  or  the  arts,  or  for  public 
services."  The  names  of  two  of  the  new  members  are  familiar 
to  students  of  science — Major-General  Donnelly,  R.E.,  C.B., 
Secretary  to  the  Department  of  Science  and  Art;  and  Prof 
G.  Carey  Foster,  F.R.S. 

.  One  of  the  leading  native  residents  of  Bombay,  Sir  Dinshaw 
Petit,  has  just  given  the  Bombay  Government  a  property  valued 
at  300,000  rupees  for  the  establishment  of  the  proposed  Technical 
Institute  of  Bombay. 

We  regret  to  announce  the  death  of  Dr.  Maximilian  Schmidt, 
an  eminent  geologist  and  Director  of  the  Zoological  Gardens  at 
Berlin.     He  was  born  at  Frankfurt  in  1834,  and  died  at  Berlin. 

Emile  Rousseau,  the  well-known  French  chemist,  died  on 
the  4th  inst.,  at  the  age  of  seventy-three. 

The  annual  general  meeting  of  the  Fellows  of  the  Royal 
Horticultural  Society  was  held  on  Tuesday,  Sir  Trevor  Lawrence, 
President  of  the  Society,  in  the  chair.  The  special  Committee 
appointed  to  inquire  into  the  working  of  the  Society  recom- 
mended that  premises  in  No.  in  Victoria  Street  should  be 
secured,  and  that  for  shows  and  meetings  the  Society  should 
hire  the  drill-hall  of  the  London  Scottish  Rifle  Volunteers. 
The  Committee  also  reported  that  they  had  under  consideration 
"the  construction  of  new  by-laws  intended  to  facilitate  the 
carrying  out  of  as  complete  a  horticultural  jaolicy  as  possible — 
one  in  which  all  aspects  and  departments  should  be  considered 
to  the  undue  preponderance  of  none  ;  but  to  the  general  advan- 
tage of  all."  After  some  discussion  the  Committee's  recommen- 
dations were  adopted.  Several  members  of  the  Council  having 
placed  their  resignation  in  the  hands  of  the  Fellows,  it  was 
resolved  on  the  motion  of  Mr.  Wilks,  seconded  by  Mr.  Veitch, 
to  decline  to  accept  their  resignation,  and  they  were  then  all 
formally  re-elected,  including  Sir  Trevor  Lawrence,  who  was 
re-appointed.  President. 

The  Calendar  and  General  Directory  of  the  Science  and  Art 
Department  for  1888  has  been  issued. 

The  curious  fact  was  some  time  ago  brought  to  light  by 
Nahrwold  that  solid  particles  are  ejected  from  a  platinum  wire 
glowing  under  the  influence  of  an  electric  current,  and  form  a 
metallic  incrustation  upon  the  walls  of  a  glass  tube  by  which 
the  wire  is  surrounded.  The  cause  of  the  emission  of  these 
solid  particles  of  platinum  has,  however,  until  recently,  remained 
a  complete  mystery.  In  the  number  of  the  Annalen  der  Physik 
und  Che?me  just  received  will  be  found  an  interesting  paper  by 
Dr.  Alfred  Berliner,  who,  in  the  course  of  a  series  of  experi- 
ments upon  the  occlusion  of  gases  by  platinum  and  palladium, 
has  discovered  the  source  of  this  singular  phenomenon.  Thin 
strips  of  platinum,  before  being  charged  with  the  gas  under 
experiment,  were  inclosed  in  a  narrow  glass  tube,  and  freed  from 
all  occluded  gas  by  being  heated  to  redness,  in  vacuo,  by  the 
passage  of  a  constant  electric  current  for  several  hours.  At  the 
expiration  of  this  time  the  metallic  incrustation  was  invariably 
found  when  occluded  gas  had  been  evolved.  On  charging  the 
strips  with  various  quantities  of  any  particular  gas,  the  amount 
of  incrustation  formed  after  the  complete  expulsion  of  the  gas 
in  each  experiment  was  found  to  vary  in  the  same  proportion. 
Hence  it  appears  pretty  clear  that  the  evolution  of  gas  is  neces- 
sary for  the  emission  of  solid  particles.  This  result  is  strongly 
confirmed  by  the  fact  that  palladium,  which  has  such  a  remark- 
able power  of  occluding  gases,  produces  a  similar  incrustation 


much  more  readily  and  at  a  lower  temperature.  It  appears 
probable  that  the  action  is  merely  mechanical ;  that  we  have,  in 
fact,  an  immense  number  of  microscopic  volcanoes  or  solfataras, 
evolving  the  occluded  gases  with  such  energy  that  portions  of 
the  crater  walls  are  detached  and  carried  away  by  main  force, 
like  their  brethren  on  the  large  scale,  the  scoriae  and  lapilli,  to 
distances  very  considerable  in  comparison  with  the  size  of  the 
vents. 

The  next  meeting  of  the  French  Association  for  the  Advance- 
ment of  Science  will  be  held  in  Oran  from  March  29  to  April  3. 
Interesting  excursions  will  be  made  to  Biskra  and  other  places. 

At  the  meeting  of  the  Meteorological  Society  of  France,  on 
December  20,  M.  E.  Lemoine  was  elected  President  for  the 
ensuing  year.  M.  Renou  made  a  communication  on  the  rela- 
tions which  exist  between  the  annual  number  of  solar  spats  and 
thunder-storms"  in  various  places,  and  concluded  that  the  works 
hitherto  published  were  far  from  sufficing  to  show  any  direct 
dependence  between  the  two  phenomena.  At  the  meeting  of 
January  11,  M.  Janssen,  the  retiring  President,  expressed  his 
opinion  of  the  necessity  of  organizing  meteorological  stations  on 
a  uniform  plan  at  a  certain  number  of  stations,  under  the  super- 
intendence of  professional  and  paid  observers  on  whom  a  definite 
programme  could  be  imposed,  instead  of  having  volunteer 
observers  ;  this  view  was  also  supported  by  M.  Renou.  The 
latter  gentleman  also  spoke  of  the  importance  of  adopting  a 
uniform  cloud  nomenclature,  and  announced  that  he  would 
shortly  present  to  the  Society  a  work  upon  this  subject.  The 
general  secretary  presented  a  note  from  M.  Garrigou- Lagrange 
on  a  new  electrical  anemometer  giving  the  direction  of  the  wind, 
and  the  horizontal  and  vertical  components  of  its  force  (see 
Nature,  November  3,  18S7,  p.  18),  and  recommended  its 
adoption  at  some  coast  stations. 

The  Council  of  the  Royal  Meteorological  Society,  30  Great 
George  Street,  Westminster,  S.W. ,  have  appointed  a  Com- 
mittee to  collect  observations  on  British  hail-  and  thunder-storms 
from  volunteer  observers.  The  objects  which  they  hope  to 
attain  thereby  are  : — (i)  A  knowledge  of  the  nature  and  causes 
of  the  different  kinds  of  thunder-storms,  their  attention  having 
been  specially  called  to  the  subject  by  the  great  loss  of  life  and 
property  during  the  past  summer.  (2)  A  discovery  of  the 
localities  where  hail  and  thunder  are  most  frequent  and  destruc- 
tive. (3)  If  possible,  to  obtain  an  increased  power  of  forecasting 
hail  and  thunder,  whereby  they  hope  that  eventually  damage  to 
persons,  stock,  and  property  might  be  lessened.  Forms  and 
instructions  will  be  sent  to  intending  observers. 

We  have  received  a  "  Brief  Sketch  of  the  Meteorology  of  the 
Bombay  Presidency  in  1886-87."  It  is  by  Mr.  F.  Chambers, 
Meteorological  Reporter  for  Western  India.  Mr.  Chambers 
points  out  that  the  meteorology  of  the  year  1886-87  in  the 
Bombay  Presidency  presents  several  features  of  special  interest. 
There  was  a  decided  reappearance,  for  some  time,  of  almost 
exactly  the  same  unfavourable  meteorological  conditions  which 
characterized  the  year  1877,  when  the  rainfall  in  many  parts  of 
the  Presidency  was  disastrously  deficient.  Fortunately,  these 
unfavourable  condhions  did  not  last  long  enough  to  produce 
distress,  for  although  a  prolonged  break  in  the  rains  caused 
considerable  anxiety  for  a  time,  an  excessive  fall  of  rain  late  in 
the  season  brought  relief,  and  on  the  whole  the  year  was  a 
favourable  one. 

A  severe  earthquake  occurred  in  Grenada  on  January  10. 
A  rumbling  noise  was  immediately  followed  by  a  slight  shock 
and  gentle  lateral  oscillations.  Then  came  a  very  violent  shock 
and  vertical  undulating  oscillations.  These  were  succeeded  by 
gentle  oscillations.  The  shock  is  supposed  to  have  lasted 
from  twenty  to  thirty  seconds.     Several  houses  in  the  town  of 


Feb.  1 6,  1888] 


NATURE 


Z19 


St.  George's  were  so  much  damaged  thatthey  cannot  be  safely 
occupied.  The  walls  of  the  St.  David's  Roman  Catholic  Church 
are  so  seriously  injured  that  they  will  have  to  be  taken  down  in 
some  places  and  rebuilt.  The  sacristy  was  all  but  demolished  ; 
the  basement  wall  of  the  presbytery  was  thrown  down,  and  the 
building  itself  had  to  be  propped  up  with  posts.  The  Court 
House  in  the  same  parish  sustained  considerable  injury.  The 
tower  of  the  Anglican  Church  in  Granville  was  cracked.  During 
the  succeeding  week  several  mild  shocks  of  earthquake  were 
experienced  in  the  island,  the  strongest  of  which  occurred 
between  7  and  8  o'clock  on  the  night  of  Sunday,  January  15. 

Dr.  Forbes  Watson's  collection  of  commercial  products, 
which  was  lately  offered  to  the  University  of  Aberdeen  at  the 
comparatively  small  price  of  £zy>,  has  been  bought  by  Dr. 
Carnelley  and  his  father,  and  presented  to  University  College, 
Dundee.  Prof.  D'Arcy  W.  Thompson,  at  whose  suggestion  the 
purchase  was  made,  writes  to  the  Dundee  Advertiser :  "  This 
excellent  gift  puts  us  at  once  in  possession  of  a  museum  which  is 
first-class  of  its  kind,  and  of  which  town  and  College  should  be 
proud  for  ever.  Dr.  Forbes  Watson  is  well  known  to  many  of 
the  older  men  in  Dundee  for  his  knowledge  of  jute  and  all  other 
commercial  fibres.  His  works  are  standard  on  the  subject.  His 
collection  was  amassed  with  unrivalled  opportunities  and  the 
highest  technical  skill.  Great  part  of  it  was  brought  together  as 
an  official  duty  for  the  India  Museum,  and  was  presented  by  the 
Department  to  Dr.  Forbes  Watson  when  that  Museum  was 
broken  up.  It  contains  nearly  7500  samples.  Between  700  and  800 
of  these  are  fibres,  including  textiles  and  paper- making  materials. 
There  are  over  500  dyes  and  dye-stuffs,  500  oils  and  oil-seeds, 
600  or  700  gums,  resins,  and  guttas,  nearly  2003  medicinal 
substances  (may  they  be  useful  to  us  in  the  future),  and  more  than 
as  many  samples  of  food-stuffs.  The  bulk  of  the  collection  is 
stored  in  bottles,  filling  fourteen  cabinets,  and  there  are  also 
stands  and  cases  for  the  display  of  specimens.  Altogether  the 
cases  and  bottles  in  which  this  great  collection  is  stored  repre- 
sent a  cost  greater  than  the  price  which  Dr.  Forbes  Watson  now 
asks  and  receives." 

The  Batavia  Nieiusblad  announces  that  the  Government  has 
decided  upon  establishing  a  bacteriological  laboratory  in  that 
town.  An  institution  for  the  pursuit  of  that  special  branch  of 
study  will  be  built  immediately  the  funds  for  the  purpose  become 
available.  The  existing  laboratory  arrangements  will  be  improved 
and  extended,  so  as  to  admit  of  pathological  and  bacteriological 
investigations. 

We  are  glad  to  learn  from  the  American  Naturalist  that  the 
project  of  a  Marine  Biological  Laboratory  on  the  New  England 
coast  is  not  languishing.  Several  thousand  dollars  have  already 
been  subscribed  towards  the  erection  of  the  necessary  building 
and  its  equipment  and  maintenance.  The  Cominittee  on  the 
Laboratory  have  arranged  a  course  of  eight  lectures,  the  proceeds 
of  which  are  to  be  added  to  the  fund. 

Lieut.  Niblack,  U.S.N.,  has  returned  to  Washington  from 
a  three-years'  voyage  to  Southern  Alaska,  where  he  has  been 
engaged  on  coast-survey  duty.  He  has  brought  with  him  many 
photographs  and  objects  which  will  be  of  interest  to  students  of 
ethnology  and  anthropology.  He  devoted  special  attention  to 
the  totem  posts  of  Southern  Alaska.  He  says  that  in  that 
country  winter  is  the  best  season  for  ethnological  studies.  The 
natives  are  then  at  home,  whereas  in  the  summer  they  are  often 
far  inland. 

Assistant  Charles  x\.  Schott,  assistant  in  charge  of  the 
Computing  Division  of  the  United  States  Coast  and  Geodetic 
Survey,  has  addressed  a  letter  to  the  Superintendent  of  his  Bureavi 
about  the  recent  discovery,  by  Assistant  G.  Davidson,  of  records 
of  the  magnetic  declination,  a.d.  1714.  He  says  that  these 
records  greatly  increase  our  knowledge  of  the  secular  variation 


of  the  declination.  »SV/t'w<r^  gives  the  following  account  of  the 
substance  of  M.  Schott's  letter  :— "  By  means  of  these  observa- 
tions we  are  able  to  improve  materially  the  expressions  for  San 
Bias  and  Magdalena  Bay,  to  add  the  new  station  Cape  San  Lucas, 
and  to  make  their  influence  felt  as  far  north  as  San  Diego  and 
Santa  Barbara.  It  is  the  range  which  is  greatly  improved  ; 
besides,  the  epoch  of  maximum  declination  is  shifted  in  the  right 
direction.  Apart  from  the  fact  that  a  region  of  west  declination 
is  here  for  the  first  time  observationally  indicated  on  the  Pacific 
coast,  the  power  of  the  newly  recovered  declinations  is  due  to 
the  circumstance,  that,  as  far  as  known,  they  cover  a  time  when 
the  needle  was  in  or  near  a  phase  the  opposite  of  the  present  one. 
For  want  of  early  observations,  those  previously  collected  f©r 
San  Diego  and  Santa  Barbara,  Cal. ,  were  extremely  difficult  to 
handle  ;  and,  while  it  was  not  an  easy  matter  to  establish  new 
expressions  for  these  stations,  their  correctness,  or  rather  applic- 
ability over  the  whole  period  of  time  the  observations  cover,  is 
quite  reassuring.  He  points  out  the  desirability  of  new  obser- 
vations (either  using  funds  yet  available  before  July  next,  or 
providing  funds  to  be  used  after  that  date)  at  San  Diego,  Santa 
Barbara,  and  Monterey,  and  states  that  these  stations  have  re- 
ceived no  attention  for  seven  years.  These  observations  are 
demanded  to  give  greater  precision  to  the  computed  variations 
on  our  charts." 

A  NUMBER  of  American  geographers,  all  belonging  to  Wash- 
ington, have  incorporated  the  American  National  Geographical 
Society  for  a  term  of  100  years.  The  principal  objects  of  the 
Society  are  to  increase  and  diffuse  geographical  knowledge,  to 
publish  the  T  ransactions  of  the  Society,  to  publish  a  periodical 
magazine  and  other  works  relating  to  the  science  of  geography, 
to  dispose  of  such  publications  by  sale  or  otherwise,  and  to 
acquire  a  library  under  the  restrictions  and  regulations  to  be 
established  by  its  by-laws. 

The  Commissioners  of  Public  Schools  of  Baltimore,  Md., 
deserve  much  credit  for  the  efforts  they  are  making  to  secure 
for  the  schools  under  their  care  important  reforms  which  have 
always  been  advocated  by  students  of  sanitary  laws.  They  lately 
resolved  that  the  Mayor  and  City  Council  of  Baltimore  should  be 
requested  to  authorize  them  to  appoint  an  officer,  to  be  known 
as  the  Sanitary  Superintendent  of  Public  Schools,  whose  duty 
would  be  :  (i)  to  carefully  examine  all  plans  submitted  for  the 
construction  of  new  school-houses,  and  suggest  such  modifica- 
tions as  may  be  necessary  from  a  sanitary  point  of  view  ;  (2)  to 
advise  with  the  Commissioners  with  reference  to  necessary  alter- 
ations in  school-buildings  to  improve  their  hygienic  condition  ; 
(3)  to  examine  all  text-books  before  adoption,  in  order  that  type, 
printing,  or  paper  injurious  to  the  eyesight  of  pupils  may  be 
avoided  in  selecting  such  books  ;  (4)  to  satisfy  himself,  by  per- 
sonal examination  if  necessary,  that  all  pupils  admitted  to  the 
schools  have  been  properly  vaccinated,  or  are  otherwise  pro- 
tected against  small-pox  ;  (5)  to  take  such  other  measures,  in 
conjunction  with  the  Plealth  Commissioner  of  the  city,  as  may 
be  necessary  to  prevent  the  spread  of  contagious  diseases  in,  or 
through  the  medium  of,  the  public  schools  ;  (6)  to  examine 
annually  the  eyesight  of  all  children  attending  the  public 
schools,  and  keep  an  accurate  record  of  such  examinations  j 
(7)  to  report  annually,  or  as  often  as  may  be  required  by  the 
Commissioners,  upon  the  sanitary  condition  of  the  schools,  and 
of  the  pupils  attending  them,  and  to  advise  the  Commissioners 
upon  sanitary  questions  connected  with  schools  whenever  re- 
quired ;  (8)  to  give  instruction,  by  lectures  or  otherwise,  to  the 
teachers  in  the  schools  upon  the  elementary  principles  of  school 
hygiene. 

We  have  received  the  second  volume  of  the  Transactions  of 
the  Meriden  (Conn.,  U.S.A.)  Scientific  Association.  It  contains, 
among  other  things,  a  valuable  list,  drawn  up  by  Mr.  Franklin 
Piatt,  of  the  birds  of  Meriden. 


38o 


NATURE 


\_Feb.  1 6,  I 


A  THIRD  edition  of  Mr.  John  Venn's  "Logic  of  Chance" 
(Macmillan)  has  just  been  issued.  The  work  has  been  re- 
written, but  the  author  explains  that  the  alterations  he  has  made 
do  not  imply  any  appreciable  change  of  view  on  his  part  as  to 
the  foundations  and  province  of  probability.  In  the  preface 
Mr.  Venn  mentions  that  he  is  engaged  in  preparing  a  work  on 
inductive  logic. 

The  scientific  writings  of  Jean  Mery  (1645-1722)  have  been 
brought  together  in  a  work  edited  by  M.  L.  H.  Petit,  Assistant 
Librarian  to  the  Medical  Faculty  of  Paris.  The  work  contains 
many  contributions  to  biology  which  have  not  hitherto  been 
generally  known. 

Tome  hi.,  Cahier  i,  of  the  "Memoires  de  la  Societe  des 
Sciences  Physiques  et  Naturelles  de  Bordeaux,"  is  devoted  to  a 
full  bibliography  of  the  r  function. 

We  have  received  the  Annuaire  de  V Observatoire  Royal  de 
Bruxelles  for  1888,  this  being  the  fifty-fifth  year  of  its  publica- 
tion. It  contains  the  usual  astronomical  tables  and  data  for  the 
current  year,  and  a  mass  of  meteorological,  geographical,  finan- 
cial, and  other  statistics.  There  is  a  complete  list  of  the  asteroids 
and  comets  discovered  in  the  past  year,  with  the  elements  of 
their  orbits,  and  there  is  also  an  account  of  the  state  of  solar 
activity  in  1886.  The  tables  of  units  and  physical  constants 
have  been  considerably  extended,  and  a  detailed  account  of 
electrical  and  magnetic  measurements  has  been  added.  In 
addition  there  are,  as  usual,  several  scientific  papers  by  the 
officials  of  the  Observatory.  M.  Folic  gives  an  account  of  his 
further  investigations  into  the  movements  of  the  earth's  axis, 
and  in  a  subsequent  article  M.  Niesten  applies  the  correction  for 
diurnal  nutation  to  the  various  and  widely  differing  determina- 
tions of  the  annual  parallax  of  7  Draconis  ;  the  value  obtained 
is  -t-o""o86.  The  important  series  of  barometric  observations, 
extending  over  a  period  of  fifty  years,  are  discussed  at  great 
length,  and  illustrated  by  diagrams. 

Mr.  John  Heyvvood,  of  Manchester  and  London,  has 
issued  a  little  book  called  "  Flower- Land,"  by  the  Rev.  R. 
Fisher.  It  is  written  in  a  simple  style,  and  will  no  doubt  be 
useful  as  an  introduction  to  botany  for  children. 

The  Perthshire  Society  of  Natural  Science  has  begun  to 
issue  Transactions  and  Proceedings.  We  have  received  the 
first  part  of  the  first  volume.  It  contains  notes  on  some  rare 
birds  lately  placed  in  the  Society's  Museum,  by  Colonel  H.  M. 
Drummond  Hay  ;  mnium  riparium,  by  R.  H.  Meldrum ;  some 
localities  for  Perthshire  plants,  by  R.  H.  Meldrum  ;  origin  of 
the  interbedded  and  intrusive  volcanic  rocks  of  Kinnoull  Hill, 
by  H.  Coates  ;  and  the  flora  of  the  Woody  Island,  by  W. 
Barclay, 

Messrs.  Kegan  Paul,  Trench,  and  Co.  will  publish 
immediately,  in  the  "International  Scientific  Series,"  Sir  J. 
William  Dawson's  new  book  entitled  "  The  Geological  History 
of  Plants." 

"A  History  of  Photography,"  by  Mr.  W.  J.  Harrison,  will 
shortly  be  published.  It  is.  intended  to  serve  as  a  practical 
guide  to  photography,  and  as  an  introduction  to  its  latest 
developments. 

A  work  containing  a  full  account  of  the  volcanic  eruptions  for 
the  last  sixty-four  years  on  the  island  of  Hawaii  has  been  printed 
and  will  shortly  be  published  in  the  city  of  Honolulu.  The 
author  is  Mr.  William  Lowthian  Green,  at  present  Prime 
Minister  of  the  kingdom  of  Hawaii,  whose  work  on  ' '  The 
Vestiges  of  the  Molten  Globe  "  appeared  in  England  some  years 
ago,  and  has  since  attracted  the  attention  of  M.  Lapparent  and 
other  Continental  geologists.  Mr.  Green's  new  work  will  contain 
a  complete  tabular  statement  of  the  eruptions,  and  a  map  of  the 
island  of  Hawaii. 


Mr.  Edgar  Thurston,  Superintendent  of  the  Government 
Central  Museum,  Madras,  has  printed  a  list  of  fishes  obtained 
during  a  residence  of  three  weeks  at  Rameswaram  Island,  which 
is  separated  on  the  one  hand  from  the  Indian  continent,  and  on  the 
other  from  the  Island  of  Manaar,  by  an  interrupted  ridge  of  rocks 
known  as  Adam's  Bridge.  The  fish-fauna  of  the  coral  reefs  of  this 
island  stands  out  in  striking  contrast  with  that  of  other  places 
on  the   Madras  coast.      "Coral  Fishes,"   j.^.  brightly  coloured 
fishes — Chcetodon,  Platyglossus,  Heniochus,  Pseudoscarus,  &c. — 
abound  round  the  reefs,  and  feed  either  on  the  small  delicate 
marine  Invertebrata  which  swarm  on    the  living  corals,  or,  if 
their  teeth  are  adapted  for  the  purpose,  on  the  hard  calcareous 
substance  of  the  corals.     The  bright  colouring  of  the  fishes  is 
explained  by  Mr.  Thurston  on  the  well-known  principle  that 
"  the  less  the  predominant  colouring  of  any  creature  varies  from 
that  of  its  surroundings,  the  less  will  it  be  seen  by  its  foes,  the 
more  easily  can  it  steal  upon  its  prey,  and  the  mote  it  is  fitted 
for  the  struggle  for  existence. "     Conspicuous  by  their  abundance 
are  several  species  belonging  to  the  family  Sclerodermi,  includ- 
ing Batistes  (lile-fish),  whose  jaws  are  armed  with  teeth  well 
suited  for  breaking  off  pieces  of  hard  coral,  or  boring  holes  into 
the  shells  of  the  Mollusca,  on  the  soft  parts  of  which  they  feed. 
The  file-fishes  are  said  to  destroy  an  immense  number  of  mol- 
lusks,    thus    becoming   most   injurious    to    the    pearl-fisheries. 
Present,  too,  in  great  numbers  are  several  species  of  the  family 
Gymnodontes  :   Tetrodons  (globe  fishes),  including  the  beauti- 
fully marked  little  Tetrodon  margaritiferus ,  and  Diodons,  which 
have  a  very  bad  reputation  among  the  natives   as  being  very 
poisonous. 

It  is  generally  supposed  that  the  Ainos  of  Yezo  are  amongst 
the  disappearing  races  of  the  earth,  and  that  they  are  "fast 
dying  out,"  as  the  phrase  usually  runs.  This  appears  to  be  an 
error,  for  according  to  a  communication  on  the  subject  in  the 
Japan  Weekty  Mail,  from  Mr.  Bachelor,  during  the  past  fifteen 
years  there  has  been  little,  if  any,  diminution  in  their  number, 
which  he  puts  down,  so  far  as  the  Island  of  Yezo  is  concerned,  at 
from  1300  to  1600  souls.  Actual  detailed  statistics  respecting 
the  numbers  of  the  Ainos  do  not  appear  to  be  given  in  the 
Japanese  censuses,  but  official  statistics  do  exist  for  certain  Aino 
settlements  since  187 1,  which  may  be  taken  as  an  index.  These 
show  an  increase  of  129  persons  in  sixteen  years,  although,  by  a 
careful  examination  of  the  data,  it  appears  that  one  village  not 
included  in  the  earlier  was  given  in  the  later  years.  In  1871, 
there  were  665  males,  639  females,  and  260  huts  ;  in  1886,  the 
numbers  were  691,  742,  and  318  respectively.  These  figures, 
making  every  reasonable  allowance,  show  at  least  that  there  is 
good  ground  for  doubting  whether  the  Ainos  are  dying  out,  in 
Yezo  at  least,  as  rapidly  as  it  is  the  fashion  to  assume  that  they 
are. 

The  seventh  annual  meeting  of  the  members  of  the  Sanitary 
Assurance  Association  was  held  at  their  offices,  S  Argyll  Place, 
Regent  Street,  on  Monday.  Prof.  Roger  Smith  presided,  and 
expressed  his  satisfaction  at  the  continued  prosperity  of  the 
Association. 

In  the  footnote  in  Nature,  December  15,  1887,  p.  152, 
second  column,  line  5  from  foot, /^r  Careton  read  Cureton. 

The  additions  to  the  Zoological  Society's  Gardens  during  the 
past  week  include  a  Common  Boa  {Boa  constrictor)  from  South 
America,  a  Royal  Python  {Python  regius),  two  West  African 
Pythons  {Python  sebce)  from  West  Africa,  an  Indian  Python 
{Python  molurus)  from  India,  presented  by  Mr.  Leopold  Field  ; 
a  Griffith's  Fox  {Canis  griffithi)  from  Persia,  two  Cockateels 
{Calopsitta  nova-hollandia)  from  Australia,  deposited ;  a  Pluto 
Monkey  {Cercopithectis  pluto)  from  West  Africa,  an  Antarctic 
Skua  {Stercorarius  antarcticus)  from  the  Antarctic  Seas,  received 
in  exchange.  


Feb.  16,  1 888 J 


NATURE 


381 


OUR  ASTRONOMICAL  COLUMN. 

Melbourne  Observatory. — The  Annual  Report  of  this 
Observatory,  dated  August  14,  1887,  states  that  the  buildings 
and  equipment  of  the  Observatory  were  in  good  condition  with 
the  exception  of  the  mirrors  of  the  great  Cassegrain  reflector, 
which  had  become  so  dull  as  materially  to  interfere  with  the 
observation  of  the  fainter  nebulae.  It  was  proposed  to  substitute 
mirror  A,  the  less  tarnished  of  the  two,  for  mirror  B,  now  in  the 
telescope,  and  either  to  have  B  repolished  on  the  spot  or  to  send 
it  to  Dublin  to  be  re-polished  under  the  care  of  Sir  H.  Grabb. 
The  new  transit  circle  was  in  excellent  order,  and  2487  right 
ascensions  and  1301  polar  distances  had  been  observed  during  the 
year.  Eighty-seven  southern  nebulae  had  been  examined  with 
the  great  reflector,  and  four  searched  for,  but  not  found.  The 
use  of  the  photo-heliograph,  which  had  been  altered  in  July 
1886,  so  as  to  take  pictures  on  a  scale  of  8  inches  to  the  solar 
diameter,  had  been  much  interfered  with  by  bad  weather,  and 
only  121  photographs  had  been  secured.  The  principal  fresh 
work  proposed  for  the  Observatory  was  the  co-operation  in  the 
photographic  survey  of  the  heavens  ;  the  Victorian  Government 
having  consented  to  the  Observatory  joining  in  that  undertaking, 
and  having,  placed  ;(i^iooo  on  the  estimates  of  the  current  year 
towards  the  necessary  expenditure. 

The  American  Nautical  Almanac  Office. — The  Re- 
port of  Prof.  Newcomb,  Superintendent  of  the  Office,  for  the 
year  ending  1887  June  30  has  recently  appeared.  From  this  we 
learn  that  the  printing  of  the  several  Nautical  Almanacs  published 
by  the  Office  fell  a  little  into  arrear  in  1887,  the  printing  of  the 
American  Ephemeris  for  1890,  which  should,  according  to  custom, 
have  appeared  in  June,  not  being  quite  ready  in  October.  The 
computations  for  the  following  years  were  in  their  usual  slate  of 
forwardness.  The  principal  part  of  the  Report  deals  with  the 
new  tables  of  the  planets  on  which  Prof.  Newcomb  and  his 
assistants  are  engaged.  The  work  is  divided  into  four  sections — 
viz.  :  (I.)  The  computation  of  the  general  perturbations  of  the 
planets,  the  work  now  in  hand  relating  to  those  of  the  four  inner 
planets  ;  on  twelve  of  the  fourteen  pairs  of  planets  which  come 
into  play  in  this  part  of  the  undertaking,  the  work  has  already 
been  completed.  The  incomplete  perturbations  are  those  of 
Venus  and  Mars  by  Jupiter.  (II. )  The  re-reduction  of  the  older 
observations,  and  discussion  of  the  later  ones,  with  a  view  of 
reducing  them  all  to  a  uniform  system.  In  this  section  Maske- 
lyne's  Greenwich  observations  from  176510  i8ii,  and  Bradley'.*, 
1750  to  1762,  have  been  already  reduced,  the  latter  by  Dr. 
Auwers.  Airy's  Greenwich  observations,  the  Paris  observations 
from  1800  as  reduced  by  Leverrier,  and  Bessel's  Konigsberg 
observations,  will  need  no  discussion  except  that  necessary  to 
reduce  them  to  the  adopted  standard  system.  The  re-reduction 
of  Piazzi's  Palermo  observations,  1 791-1813,  is  in  hand,  but  it  is 
not  yet  decided  as  to  whether  Taylor's  Madras  observations  should 
be  included.  (III.)  The  computation  of  tabular  places  of  the 
planets  from  Leverrier's  tables  up  to  the  year  1864 — the  most 
laborious  and  difficult  part  of  the  work — is  in  a  fairly  advanced 
state.  (IV.)  The  final  discussion  of  the  results.  Prof.  Newcomb 
estimates  that  the  equations  of  condition  for  correcting  the 
elements  of  the  four  inner  planets  will  be  ready  for  solution 
towards  the  end  of  1889,  but  they  will  involve  extended  dis- 
cussion and  comparison  in  order  to  get  the  results  in  the  final 
form  for  publication.  Of  the  work  on  the  four  outer  planets, 
Uranus  and  Neptune  are  yet  untouched  ;  but  Mr.  Hill's  new 
theory  of  Jupiter  and  Saturn  is  in  the  hands  of  the  printer,  and 
Mr.  Hill  is  now  engaged  in  the  construction  of  the  tables  and 
ephemerides  for  finally  correcting  their  elements.  In  connection 
with  the  lunar  theory,  the  principal  work  on  hand  is  the  com- 
parison of  Hansen's  tables  with  observed  occultations  since 
1750.  Another  branch  of  the  planetary  work  is  the  determina- 
tion of  the  mass  of  Jupiter  from  the  motions  of  Polyhymnia  : 
the  perturbations  of  the  planet  have  been  computed  from  its 
discovery  in  1850  to  October  1888,  and  the  work  awaits  the 
observations  during  the  approaching  opposition  to  be  brought  to 
a  final  discussion. 


ASTRONOMICAL  PHENOMENA  FOR  THE 

WEEK  1888  FEBRUARY  19-25. 

/"pOR  the  reckoning  of  time  the  civil  day,  commencing  at 

*  ^       Greenwich  mean  midnight,  counting  the  hours  on  to  24, 

is  here  employed.) 


At  Greenwich  on  February  19 
Sun  rises,  7h.  9m.  ;  souths,  I2h.   14m.  6'2S.  ;  sets,  I7h.  19m.  : 

right    asc.    on   meridian,   22h.    97m.  ;    decl.    Il°    22'    S. 

Sidereal  Time  at  Sunset,  3h.  15m. 
Moon  (at  First  Quarter  February  20,   2h.)  rises,  loh.  25m.  ; 

souths,  I7h.  46m.  ;  sets,  ih.  i8m.*  :  right  asc.  on  meridian, 

3h.  42'8m. ;  decl.  14°  34'  N. 


Right  asc.  and  declination 

Planet. 

Rises. 

Souths. 

Sets. 

on  meridian. 

h.     m. 

h.    m. 

h.    m. 

h.      m.                0       ( 

Mercury. 

7  29  .. 

•   1.3  17  • 

•  19    5  • 

•  23  13-3  ...    3    7  s. 

Venus 

5  39  ■• 

•     9  49  •• 

•   13  59  • 

.   19  44'5  •••  20  46  S. 

Mars 

22  38*.. 

•     3  57  •■ 

9  16    . 

•   13  517  •••     8  43  S. 

Jupiter.  . 

2     3  ■■ 

.     6  17  .. 

.   10  31   .. 

.    16    I2*I    ...    20    12  S. 

Saturn . . . . 

14  20  .. 

.  22  16  .. 

.     6  12*.. 

8  13-4  ...  20  29  N. 

Uranus  .. 

21  36*.. 

•     3     9  •• 

.     8  42  . 

•   13     3"3  ■••     60S, 

Neptune.. 

10    5  .. 

■   17  45  •■ 

I  25*. 

.     3  417  •■•  17  56  N. 

*  Indicates  that  the  rising  is  that  of  the  preceding  evening  and  the  setting 
that  of  the  following  morning. 

Occultations  of  Stars  by  the  Moon  (visible  at  Greenwich). 

Corresponding 

angles  from  ver- 

Disap.  Reap.        tex  to  right  for 

inverted  image. 

h.    m.  h.    m.  no 


Feb. 


Star. 


Mag. 


20  ...  Aldebaran 

...   I     ...   15  56  near  appro 

ach  346    — 

21   ...   119  Tauri... 

...  5i  ...   19  10  near  approach       7    — 

24  ...  d'  Cancri ... 

...  6     ...  21  30  ... 

22  28 

...   112  226 

Feb.              h. 

23     ...       I     ... 

Mercury  stationary. 

24     ...     20     ... 

Saturn  in  conjunction 

with  and  1°  22'  north 

of  the  Moon. 

Variable  Stars. 

Star. 

R.A.                Decl. 

h.      m.              ,      , 

h.  m. 

U  Cephei     

0  52-4  ...  81   16  N. 

...  Feb. 

19,  19  38  m 
24,  19  17  m 

R  Arietis      

2     9-8  ...  24  32  N. 

, 

22,                 M 

R  Tauri        

4  22-2  ...     9  55  N. 

,, 

21,                 M 

R  Leporis    

4  54-5  •■•  14  59  S. 

...     ,, 

23,             M 

R  Canis  Majoris... 

7  i4'5  ...  16  12  S. 

,, 

21,  20  26  m 

,» 

22,  23  42  m 

5  Librae        

14  55'o  ...    8    4  S. 

-  .     >, 

22,     I   58  m 

U  Coronse 

15  13-6  ...  32    3N. 

...     ,, 

21,  21   51  m 

U  Ophiuchi  .. 

17  io*9  ...     I  20  N. 

,, 

19,     3     2  m 

and  at  in 

tervals  of       20     8 

X  Sagittarii 

17  40-5    ..  27  47  S. 

...Feb. 

19,    2     0  M 

W  Sagittarii 

17  57'9  •••  29  35  S. 

,, 

19,    4     0  M 

Z  Sagittarii 

18  14-8  ...  18  55  S. 

,, 

25,     I     0  M 

e  Lyrse...     .,.     .. 

18  46-0  ...  33  14  N. 

,, 

24,    0    0  M 

S  Sagittarii  ...     . . 

19  12-9  ...  19  14  S. 

,, 

24,             M 

8  Cephei       

22  25-0  ...  57  51  N. 

», 

20,    2     0  M 

,, 

23,  20    0  OT 

M 

signifies  maximum  ;  vi  minimum. 

Meteor-  Showers. 

R.A.               Decl. 

Near  ^  Trianguli.. 

.     ...     30°    ...     35°N. 

...  F'ebruary  24. 

From  Canes  Venatici...   181     ...     34  N. 

...   February  20. 

Near  S  Serpentis  . . 

.     ...  234     ...     II  N. 

. . .    Swift ;  streaks. 

,,     -K  Herculis  .. 

.     ...  262     ...     36  N. 

..  Feb 

.  20,     Swift. 

GEOGRAPHICAL  NOTES. 

At  Monday's  meeting  of  the  Royal  Geographical  Society,  the 
paper  read  was  by  Mr.  Randle  F.  Holme,  on  Labrador,  which 
he  visited  in  July-October  of  last  year.  Mr.  Holme  succeeded 
in  penetrating  into  the  heart  of  Southern  Labrador,  as  far  as 
Lake  Waminikapou,  and  not  far  from  the  Grand  Falls,  which 
Mr.  Holme  believes  will  turn  out  to  be  the  greatest  falls  in  the 
world  ;  but,  as  General  Strachey  pointed  out  in  the  discussion,  Mr. 
Holme's  conception  of  the  height  is  probably  exaggerated.  Mr. 
Holme  went  from  Newfoundland  to  Bonne  Esperance  on  the  south- 
east coast  of  Labrador,  and  sailing  northwards  touched  at  several 
points,  proceeding  up  Hamilton  Inlet  and  the  Grand  River,  to  the 
point  mentioned  above.  Mr.  Holme  found  many  difficulties  in 
the  way,  and  much  of  the  country  he  visited  was  virtually 
unexplored.  With  regard  to  the  height  of  the  Grand  Falls,  Mr. 
Holme  states  that  the  centre  of  Labrador,  as  is  generally  known,  is 
a  vast  tableland,  the  limits  of  which  are  clearly  defined,  though 


382 


NA  TURE 


{Feb.  1 6,  I 


of  course  the  country  intervening  between  this  limit  and  the 
coast  always  consists,  more  or  less,  of  a  slope.  Roughly  speak- 
ing, it  may  be  said  that  in  the  south  and  north  there  is  a  more 
or  less  gradual  slope  from  the  height  of  land  to  the  coast,  while 
in  the  south-east  the  descent  is  sudden,  and  almost  immediately 
after  leaving  the  tableland  there  is  reached  a  level  which  is  but 
little  above  that  of  the  sea.  In  the  north-east  portion  the  edge 
of  the  tableland  approaches  nearest  to  the  coast,  while  it  trends 
considerably  to  the  west  in  the  rear  of  Hamilton  Inlet.  The 
most  fertile  part  of  the  country  is  that  which  lies  between  the 
tableland  and  the  sterile  belt  on  the  coast,  though  the  height  of 
land  itself  is  by  no  means  a  desert.  On  the  height  of  land  there 
is  found  a  succession  of  great  lakes  joined  together  by  broad 
placid  stream^.  When  the  streams  of  water  reach  the  edge  of 
the  tableland,  they  of  course  commence  a  wild  career  down 
towards  the  sea.  In-  the  case  of  the  Grand  River  this  rapid 
■descent  commences  with  the  Grand  Falls,  and  almost  the  whole 
of  the  great  drop  to  the  sea-level  is  effected  in  the  one  waterfall. 
The  elevation  of  the  Labrador  tableland  is  given  by  Prof.  Hind 
as  2240  feet.  From  this  height  the  Moisie  and  Cold  Water 
Rivers  descend  to  the  sea  by  means  of  a  considerable  number  of 
falls.  But  in  the  Grand  River  below  Lake  Waminikapou  there 
is  only  one  fall,  viz.  that  which  occurs  25  miles  from  the  river- 
mouth.  This  fall  is  70  feet.  It  is  true  that  the  whole  of  the 
river  from  Lake  Waminikapou  to  the  First  Falls  is  rapid,  but 
there  is  no  place  wliere  there  is  any  considerable  drop,  and 
indeed  no  place  where  it  is  necessary  to  take  the  boat  out  of  the 
water.  Now  the  lake  first  above  the  Grand  Falls  is  on  the 
height  of  land.  In  the  channels  joining  the  various  lakes  above 
the  falls  there  are  no  rapids  and  there  is  scarcely  any  stream. 
It  therefore  follows,  assuming  the  elevation  of  the  tableland  on 
the  east  to  be  approximate  to  that  on  the  south,  that  in  the  30 
miles  beginning  with  the  Grand  Falls  and  ending  with  Lake 
Waminikapou,  there  is  a  drop  of  about  2000  feet.  Some  of  this 
drop  is  probably  effected  by  the  rapids  immediately  below  the 
falls,  but  the  greater  part  is  no  doubt  made  by  the  fall  itself 
The  river  is  said  by  Maclean  to  be  500  yards  broad  above  the 
falls,  contracting  to  50  yards  at  the  falls  themselves.  The 
interior  of  the  country  Mr.  Holme  found  was  richly  wooded,  and 
the  climate  mild,  though  the  plague  of  flies  and  mosquitoes  was 
almost  "intolerable.  The  few  Indians  who  inhabit  Labrador 
belong  mostly  to  the  Cree  nation,  and  according  to  Mr.  Holme 
are  probably  perfectly  unmixed  with  either  whites  or  Eskimo. 
As  an  agricultural  or  pastoral  country  Mr.  Holme  thinks 
Labrador  has  no  future,  though  something  may  be  made  of  its 
iron,  of  the  existence  of  which  strong  indications  exist.  Mr. 
Holme's  observations  have  enabled  us  greatly  to  improve  our 
maps  of  Labrador,  and  the  photographs  he  brought  home  give 
an  excellent  idea  of  the  general  character  of  the  country. 


OUR  ELECTRICAL  COLUMN. 

Some  very  interesting  and  remarkable  trials  of  the  trans- 
mission of  energy  were  recently  made  between  Kriegstetten  and 
Solothurn  in  Switzerland,  by  Prof.  H.  F.  Weber  and  others, 
when  it  was  found  that  30  horse-power  put  in  at  the  first  place 
delivered  23  horse-power  at  the  other,  8  kilometres  away — 
showing  an  efficiency  of  75  per  cent.  The  current,  11  amperes, 
driven  under  an  E.  M.  F.  of  2000  volts,  showed  absolutely  no 
Joss  whatever,  owing  to  the  use  of  Johnson  and  Phillips'  "  oil  " 
insulators.     This  mode  of  insulation  proved  absolutely  perfect. 

The  distribution  of  electricity  for  lighting  purposes  by  means 
of  secondary  generators,  is  now  being  discussed  at  the  Society 
of  Electrical  Engineers.  This  mode  of  working  seems  to  have 
solved  the  question  of  the  economical  erection  of  conductors. 
Alternate  currents  of  high  tension  in  the  main  conductors  allow 
wires  of  small  diameter  to  be  used,  and  a  special  form  of  induc- 
tion coil  transforms  these  currents  of  high  tension,  2000  volts, 
to  currents  of  low  tension,  100  volts  and  under,  for  use  in 
private  houses.  The  system,  due  to  Messrs.  Gaulard  and  Gibbs, 
is  in  use  at  the  Grosvenor  Gallery  installation,  as  well  as  at 
Eastbourne  and  Brighton,  and  is  probably  going  to  be  largely 
used.  Mr,  Kapp's  paper  "  On  Alternate  Current  Transformers, 
with  Special  Reference  to  the  Best  Proportion  between  Iron  and 
Copper,"  will  lead  to  an  interesting  discassion.  All  induction 
coils,  when  used  as  transformers,  are  simply  a  magnetic  circuit 
or  closed  iron  core  interlaced  with  an  electric  circuit  or  a  closed 
copper  core,  and  constructed  so  that  the  electric  circuit  shall 
embrace  as  many  as  possible  of  the  lines  of  force  of  the  mag- 


netic circuit.  Mr.  Kapp  divides  transformers  into  two  classes 
— one  in  which  the  copper  coils  are  spread  over  the  surface  of 
the  iron  core  as  in  a  Gramme  armature,  and  the  other  in 
which  the  iron  core  is  spread  over  the  surface  of  the  copper 
coil.  The  former  he  calls  "core  transformers,"  and  the  latter 
"shell  transformers."  He  advocates  working  transformers  at 
low  inductions — that  is,  far  below  the  point  of  saturation  of  iron 
— because  it  increases  the  plant- efficiency,  reduces  the  heat  or 
energy  lost  in  the  iron  core  through  hysteresis,  and  prevents  the 
production  of  sound.  The  plant- efficiency  of  transformers 
sometimes  reaches  as  high  as  99  per  cent. ,  and  they  are  perfectly 
self-regulating.  There  is  very  little  choice  between  core-  and 
shell-transformers,  but  the  former  have  the  advantage.  Economy 
in  construction  and  facility  in  manufacture  and  repair  seem  to 
be  principal  points  of  advantage  to  reach.  It  is  amusing  to  find 
how,  now  that  the  system  has  proved  to  be  practical,  every  man 
is  devising  his  own  transformer,  and  labouring  to  show  that 
Gaulard  and  Gibbs  were  not  the  inventors  of  the  system,  and 
that  their  transformers  are  not  the  best. 

Prof.  Ewing's  discovery  of  hysteresis  in  iron  has  been 
shown,  both  by  Kapp  and  Ferrari,  to  play  a  very  significant 
figure  in  the  efficiency  of  transformers. 

GUGLIELMO,  of  Turin,  has  shown  that  no  loss  of  electricity 
takes  place  through  moist  air  surrounding  an  aerial  wire  unless 
the  E.M.F.  exceeds  600  volts,  after  which  the  leakage  increases 
with  the  E.M.F.  and  the  saturation  of  the  air. 

In  Boston  an  electric  lamp  has  recently  been  used  to  search 
for  a  body  drowned  in  the  harbour.  The  U.S.  steamship 
Albatross  is  furnished  with  a  full  complement  of  lamps  for 
fishing.  The  glow-lamp  is  encased  in  a  wire  netting,  which 
acts  as  a  trap.  The  fish,  being  'attracted  by  the  light,  swarm 
into  the  net,  which  is  then  closed  and  pulled  in. 

The  new  number  just  issued  (No.  201)  of  the  Proceedings  of 
the  Royal  Society  contains  the  following  electrical  papers  : 
"  On  the  Photometry  of  the  Glow-lamp,"  by  Captain  Abney 
and  General  Festing  ;  "On  the  Development  of  Feeble  Cur- 
rents," by  Dr.  Alder  Wright  and  Mr.  C.  Thompson  ;  and  "  On 
the  Heating-Effects  of  Electric  Currents,"  by  Mr.  Preece. 


MAKING  GLASS  SPECULA  B  V  HAND} 

'T*HE  author  of  this  paper  gives  a  very  interesting  account 
of  the  construction  of  glass  specula,  discusses  the  actual 
difference  in  form  between  a  spherical  and  a  parabolic  mirror,  and 
gives  an  account  of  some  experiments  to  determine  the  thickness 
of  the  silver  film.  In  making  the  specula  Mr.  Madsen  used 
glass  for  the  grinding  tool  in  place  of  metal,  as  he  considered 
'hat  the  coefficient  of  expansion  of  iron  and  glass  being  different, 
greater  truth  would  be  obtained  by  the  use  of  the  same  material 
for  the  tool,  thus  following  the  practice  of  Foucault  and  of  the 
French  opticians  of  the  present  day.  When  a  true  spherical 
surface  was  thus  obtained  the  polish  was  given  by  rouge  on  pitch 
with  a  tool  the  same  size  as  the  mirror,  and  the  correction  of 
the  spherical  curve  was  obtained  by  a  very  ingenious  plan  of 
graduating  the  polisher  in  such  a  way  that  the  greatest  action 
would  be  on  the  required  part  of  the  mirror,  the  arrangement 
of  the  squares  of  pitch  being  such  as  to  prevent  the  occurrence 
of  rings  of  unequal  polish.  In  this  Mr.  Madsen  seems  to  have 
been  most  successful. 

In  working,  the  mirror  was  uppermost,  and  this  is  a  very 
important  point  in  many  respects.  There  is  no  doubt  that  in 
working  this  way  the  mirror  is  in  the  condition  of  least  strain, 
and  if  it  were  possible  this  plan  should  always  be  followed,  but 
it  is  absolutely  impossible  to  do  this  with  a  mirror  much  larger 
than  the  size  he  worked,  which  might  almost  be  taken  as  the 
limiting  size  of  mirror  possible  with  this  method  of  working. 
Short,  Mudge,  Herschel,  and  all  the  early  workers  used  this 
plan  in  making  their  comparatively  small  mirrors ;  but  since, 
with  larger  sizes,  the  mirrors  have  been  worked  face  upwards  as 
the  only  possible  way,  and  it  is  to  be  regretted  that  this  plan 
was  not  followed. 

In  discussing  the  actual  amount  of  the  glass  to  be  abraded  to 
obtain  the  correction,  the  author  finds  that  for  telescopes  where 
the  focal  length  exceeds  twentytimes  their  diameter  this  amount  is 

'  "  Notes  on  the  Process  of  polishing  and  figuring  18-inch  Glass  Specula 
by  Hand,  and  Experiments  with  Flat  Surfaces,"  by  H.  F.  Madsen. 
(Journal  and  Proceedings  of  the  Royal  Society  of  New  South  Wales, 
vol.  XX.,  1886,  pp.  79-91). 


Feb,  1 6,  1888] 


NATURE 


383 


so  small  that  it  can  be  neglected,  and  that  a  spherical  form  is  as 
good  if  not  better  than  any  other  ;  and  there  is  no  doubt,  for  tele- 
scopes of  about  this  ratio,  Sir  John  Herschel  is  quite  right  when 
he  makes  the  statement  in  "The  Telescope,  "p.  81,  "that  is  a  good 
form  that  gives  a  good  image .;  and  that  the  geometrical  distinc- 
tions between  the  parabola,  sphere,  and  hyperbola,  become 
mere  theoretical  abstractions  in  the  figuring  and  polishing  of 
specula."  But  in  the  case  where  the  aperture  of  the  mirror  is 
about  one-sixth  of  the  focal  length  the  distinction  betwen  the 
sphere  and  the  parabola  does  exist  and  becomes  a  large  quantity, 
which  only  the  Foucault  method  of  working  allows  to  be  dealt 
with  properly.  In  enumerating  the  different  plans  used  by  opti- 
cians in  getting  the  parabolic  curve,  the  author  is  in  error  in 
stating  that  Lassell  adopted  the  method  of  local  polishing,  as  he 
always  used  a  large  tool,  and  got  the  figure  by  alterations  of 
the  stroke.  Foucault  was  the  inventor  of  the  system  of  local 
polishing,  and  this  was  afterwards  used  by  Draper,  who  finally 
rested  on  that  as  the  best  method  of  working. 

The  author  considers  that  when  the  focal  length  exceeds  40  feet 
even  with  a  theoretically  perfect  mirror  the  slightest  touch  or 
variation  in  temperature  will  be  sufficient  to  destroy  good 
definition  with  high  powers,  irrespective  of  the  disturbing  effects 
of  the  atmosphere,  and  he  comes  to  the  remarkable  conclusion 
that  "by  decreasing  the  focal  length  the  rays  cross  at  a  less 
acute  angle,  and  small  variations  in  the  reflecting  surface  have 
not  so  detrimental  an  effect " — a  statement  that  is  entirely 
unsupported. 

No  actual  tests  of  the  work  that  the  18-inch  mirrors  will  do  are 
given.  The  experiments  on  the  thickness  of  silver-on-glass 
films  are  interesting,  as  are  also  those  on  the  effect  of  pressure 
or  heat  in  altering  the  colours  or  colour-bands  seen  between  two 
plane  surfaces  almost  in  contact.  Dr.  Draper,  by  actually 
weighing  the  amount  of  silver  deposited  on  a  large  surface,  came 
to  the  conclusion  that  it  was  about  1/200,000  of  an  inch  thick  ; 
and  the  author,  by  comparing  its  thickness  with  the  length  of  a 
wave  of  light,  comes  to  about  the  sam.e  conclusion,  and  considers 
that  by  ordinary  care  in  polishing  no  optical  change  will  be 
produced  in  the  reflecting  surface  by  the  film'  of  silver 
deposited  upon  it. 

The  roads  to  success  in  making  the  mirrors  of  a  reflecting 
telescope  are  many  and  various.  Almost  every  maker  in  this 
fascinating  pursuit  had  his  own  that  gave  to  him  best  results. 
This  was  more  particularly  the  case  before  Foucault  published 
his  most  admirable  memoir  on  the  construction  of  silver-on-glass 
telescopes.  In  this  memoir  Foucault  describes  his  method  of  local 
polishing,  and  the  tests  that  can  be  applied  to  the  concave  surface, 
and  a  method  of  obtaining  the  true  parabolic  surface  with 
absolute  certainty,  bringing  the  art  of  specula-making  at  once  to 
a  system  of  working  by  measurements  in  place  of  the  old 
empirical  process  that  had  up  to  that  time  been  in  use ;  and 
everyone  now  uses  Foucault's  method  of  testing  concave  surfaces, 
and  nearly  everyone  his  plan  of  figuring  by  local  polishing. 
Mr.  Madsen  gives  a  very  interesting  account  of  the  road  he  took, 
an  account  that  would  have  been  much  more  valuable  if  the 
details  of  the  processes  used  in  making  both  the  concave  and 
the  flat  mirrors  had  been  fully  given,  as  it  is  now  more  in 
the  improvements  in  these  details  that  gain  is  to  be  looked 
for  than  in  any  of  the  main  lines  already  known. 

A.  AiNSLiE  Common. 


SOCIETIES  AND  ACADEMIES. 
London. 

Royal  Society,  February  2.— "On  the  Spectrum  of  the 
Oxyhydr(^en  Flame."  By  Profs.  G.  D.  Liveing  and  J. 
Dewar. 

In  a  former  communication  the  authors  described  simultaneously 
with  Dr.  Huggins  the  strongest  portion  of  the  spectrum  of  water  ; 
subsequently  they  described  a  second  less  strong  but  more  re- 
frangible section  of  the  same  spectrum.  M.  Deslandres  has 
noticed  a  third  still  more  refrangible  section.  The  authors  now 
find  that  the  spectrum  extends,  with  diminishing  intensity,  into 
the  visible  region  on  the  one  hand,  and  far  into  the  ultra-violet 
on  the  other.  These  faint  parts  of  the  spectrum  they  have 
photographed,  using  the  dispersion  of  a  single  calcite  prism  and 
a  lengthened  exposure  ;  and  in  the  present  communication  they 
give  a  map  of  the  whole  extent  observed,  and  a  list  of  wave- 
lengths of  upwards  of  780  lines. 


The  spectrum  exhibits  the  appearance  of  a  series  of  rhythmical 
groups  more  or  less  overlapping  one  another,  and  the  arrange- 
ment of  the  lines  in  these  groups  is  shown  to  follow,  in  many 
cases,  the  law  that  the  distances  between  the  lines,  as  measured  in 
wave-lengths,  are  in  an  arithmetic  progression.  M.  Deslandres 
had  previously  announced  that  the  succession  of  lines  in  several 
spectra,  as  well  as  in  the  telluric  groups  A,  B  and  a  of  the  solar 
spectrum,  follow  this  law  when  their  distances  are  measured  in 
reciprocals  of  wave-lengths,  and  he  has  stated  that  the  groups 
A,  B  and  o  have  counterparts  in  the  spectrum  of  water. 
The  authors  find  a  striking  resemblance  between  those  groups 
and  certain  parts  of  the  water  spectrum,  but  no  exact  corre- 
spondence. 

Dr.  Griinwald,  of  Prague,  predicted  on  theoretical  grounds 
that  certain  lines  would  appear  in  the  spectrum  of  water,  and 
the  authors  have  found  a  considerable  number  of  lines  which  tally 
closely  with  Dr.  Griinwald's  predictions,  some  of  them,  in  the 
extremities  of  the  spectrum,  being  the  strongest  lines  observed 
in  those  regions. 

February  9. — "True  Teeth  in  the  Young  Ornithorhynchus 
paradoxus."  By  Edward  B.  Poulton,  M.A.,  F.L. S.,  of  Keble 
and  Jesus  Colleges,  Oxford.  Communicated  by  W.  K.  Parker, 
F.P.S. 

This  paper  was  a  preliminary  account  of  typical  mammalian 
teeth  developing  beneath  the  site  of  the  horny  plates,  which  sub- 
serve mastication  in  the  adult  animal.  In  the  upper  jaw  there 
are  three  teeth  on  each  side  :  in  the  lower  jaw  two  teeth,  corre- 
sponding to  the  two  posterior  teeth  of  the  upper  jaw,  were  proved 
to  exist,  but  the  anterior  one  may  be  also  present,  for  the  jaws  ex- 
amined were  not  complete.  The  animal  in  which  the  teeth  were 
found  was  about  8  "3  decimetres  long  in  the  curled  up  attitude  in 
which  it  had  been  received,  and  the  larger  hairs  had  alone  ap- 
peared above  the  skin. 

The  anterior  tooth  of  the  upper  jaw  was  long,  narrow,  and 
simple,  as  compared  with  the  others  ;  it  was  very  fully  developed, 
containing  completely  formed  dentine  and  enamel,  and  its  apex 
was  nearly  in  contact  with  the  lower  surface  of  the  oral  epi- 
thelium. All  the  other  teeth  were  broad  and  large,  those  of 
the  upper  jaw  possessing  two  chief  cusps  on  the  inner  side  of 
the  crown,  and  three  or  four  small  cusps  on  the  outer  side,  while 
this  arrangement  was  reversed  in  the  lower  jaw.  Dentine  was 
only  formed  upon  the  large  cusps,  and  was  not  present  upon  all 
of  these.  The  histological  details  and  the  manner  of  develop- 
ment appear  to  be  precisely  as  in  the  higher  Mammalia,  a  fact 
which  strongly  supports  the  identification  of  teeth  with  the 
placoid  scales  of  Elasmobranchs.  If  teeth  are  so  extremely 
ancient,  then  we  should  expect  them  to  be  unmodified  in  the 
ancestral  Mammalia,  although  the  other  more  recently  special- 
ized characters  in  the  higher  mammals  are  found  in  a  more 
primitive  condition  in  the  former. 

The  teeth  were  found  in  some  sections  of  the  skull  prepared 
for  Dr.  Parker  by  his  son.  Prof.  W.  Newton  Parker.  These 
sections,  which  had  not  been  examined  by  Dr.  Parker,  were 
lent  to  the  author,  and  Dr.  Parker  most  generously  encouraged 
the  publication  of  the  discovery,  and  assisted  the  investigation 
with  other  material. 

Mathematical  Society,  February  9. — Sir  J.  Cockle,  F.R.S., 
President,  in  the  chair. — Messrs.  A.  E.  H.  Love  and  G.  G. 
Morrice  were  admitted  into  the  Society. — The  following  com- 
munications were  made  :—  Further  remarks  on  the  theory  of  dis- 
tributions, by  Capt.  Macmahon,  R.A. — The  free  and  forced 
vibrations  of  an  elastic  spherical  shell  containing  a  given  mass 
of  liquid,  by  A.  E.  H.  Love. — On  the  volume  generated  by  a 
congruency  of  lines,  by  R.  A.  Roberts, — Isoscelians,  by  R. 
Tucker. 

Edinburgh. 

Royal  Society,  January  16. — Prof.  Chr3rstal,  Vice-President, 
in  the  chair. — Obituary  notices  of  some  former  Vice-Presidents 
of  the  Society  were  read. — Prof.  Tait  communicated  a  paper  by 
Prof.  A.  Macfarlane,  on  a  problem  in  relationship.  —  Mr.  W. 
Peddie  read  a  paper  on  transition-resistance  and  polarization  at 
platinum  surfaces.  He  showed  that  transition-resistance  in- 
creases greatly  while  polarization  is  proceeding.  The  ratio  of 
the  final  to  the  initial  resistance  is  in  some  cases  as  2  to  I, 
when  the  electromotive  force  of  polarization  is  equal  to  that  of 
a  Daniell  cell.  From  his  results  regarding  the  time-rate  of  in- 
crease of  polarization  he  deduced  (lO"")  cm.  as  the  value  of 
the   distance    between    the    platinum   and    the    layer    of   gas 


384 


NATURE 


{Feb.  1 6, 


condensed  upon  it. — Mr.  Peddle  also  read  a  note  showing 
that  the  phenomenon  of  "electric-absorption"  must  be 
exhibited  if  a  dielectric  has  a  film  of  gas  condensed  on 
its  surface. — Prof.  Tait  communicated  a  paper  by  Mr.  Albert 
Campbell  on  the  change  in  the  thermo-electric  properties 
of  tin  at  its  melting-point.  While  the  tin  is  solid  its  line  on 
the  thermo-electric  diagram  is  inclined  upwards.  Liquefaction 
occurs  before  the  line  reaches  that  of  iron.  At  this  point  the 
direction  of  the  line  changes  and  becomes  nearly  identical  with 
that  of  iron.  Thus  the  "specific  heat  of  electricity"  in  tin 
changes  sign  at  the  melting-point.  This  shows  that  the  loosening 
of  molecular  attraction,  which  occurs  at  the  melting-point,  pro- 
duces the  same  effect  in  tin  as  is  produced  in  iron,  while  still 
solid,  at  the  higher  of  the  two  temperatures  at  which  its  magnetic 
and  other  properties  suddenly  alter, — Prof  Tait  read  a  paper  on 
the  thermo-electric  properties  of  Signor  Battelli's  iron  ;  and 
showed  from  Mr.  Omond's  Ben  Nevis  observations  that  ice- 
crystals  may,  in  the  greater  number  of  cases,  have  at  least  a 
share  in  the  production  of  the  observed  phenomena. 

Paris. 

Academy  of  Sciences,  February  6.— M.  Janssen  in  the 
chair. — Second  note  on  the  law  of  probabilities  as  applied  to 
target-firing,  by  M.  J.  Bertrand.  The  paper  deals  specially  with 
the  objections  urged  by  General  Putz  in  the  Revue  d'Artilleric 
against  the  principle  admitted  by  Poisson,  and  against  the  law  of 
probability  now  generally  adopted  in  schools  of  gunnery. 
Reference  was  also  made  by  General  Menabrea  to  the  important 
researches  of  M.  Siacci  in  this  field  of  inquiry. — Remarks  in 
reply  to  an  objection  raised  by  M.  Khandrikoff  to  the  theory  of 
solar  spots  and  protuberances,  by  M.  H.  Faye.  During  his 
observation  of  the  recent  lunar  eclipse  Prof.  Khandrikoff  noted 
some  protuberances,  the  presence  of  which  in  the  absence  of 
spots  for  some  days  before  the  eclipse  seemed  to  militate  against 
M.  Faye's  well-known  theory.  To  this  objection  M.  Faye  replied 
at  some  length,  pointing  out  that  it  is  partly  based  on  a  misunder- 
standing of  the  true  character  and  bearing  of  his  views. — On 
perfect  numbers,  by  Prof  Sylvester.  Recently  M.  Servais 
stated  that  a  perfect  number  (if  such  exist)  containing  only  three 
distinct  prime  factors  is  necessarily  divisible  by  3  and  5.  It 
is  here  shown  that  no  such  number  exists,  the  line  of  argument 
employed  at  the  same  time  demonstrating  the  theorem  that  there 
exists  no  perfect  number  containing  less  than  six  distinct  prime 
factors. — Observations  made  at  the  Observatory  of  Algiers 
during  the  total  lunar  eclipse  of  January  28,  by  M.  Ch.  Trepied. 
These  observations  comprise,  among  other  matters,  a  study  of 
the  colours  assumed  by  the  lunar  disk  ;  a  spectroscopic  examina- 
tion of  the  eclipsed  portion  of  the  disk  ;  and  the  occuitations  of 
the  stars  contained  in  the  list  prepared  by  the  Observatory  of 
Pulkowa  for  the  purpose  of  obtaining  an  exact  determination  of 
the  apparent  diameter  of  the  moon.  Communications  were  also 
received  from  the  Observatories  of  Bordeaux  and  Nice  on  various 
phases  of  the  same  occurrence. — Ephemeris  of  the  planet  252  for 
the  opposition  of  the  year  1888,  by  M.  Charlois.  The  true 
positions,  right  ascension  and  declination,  are  given  for  the 
period  from  March  5  to  March  19.  At  opposition  (March  12) 
the  magnitude  will  be  I3'4. — Note  on  permanent  deformations 
and  thermodynamics,  by  M.  Marcel  Brillouin.  Two  propositions 
are  established  :  (i)  that  for  most  elastics  solids  there  exists  no 
finite  relation  between  the  temperature  t,  the  mechanic  variable 
X,  and  the  geometric  variable  x  ;  (2)  that  for  most  solid  bodies 
there  exists  a  linear  equation  with  total  differentials  between  t, 
X,  and  j; :  or,  more  correctly,  there  exist  as  many  equations  of 
this  class  as  there  are  independent  geometric  variables.  In  a 
future  communication  the  theoretic  results  of  this  study  will  be 
announced. — Influence  of  diet  in  determining  the  fixation  and 
elimination  of  carbon  in  man,  by  MM.  Hanriot  and  Ch.  Richet. 
The  results  are  tabulated  of  mixed  nitrogenous,  fat,  and  feculent 
diets,  including  beef,  bread,  potatoes,  butter,  cheese,  sugar,  wine, 
and  coffee,  continued  for  a  period  of  fifteen  days, — On  the 
presence  of  striated  muscles  in  mollusks,  by  M.  Raphael 
Blanchard.  M.  Hermann  Fol's  recent  statement  that  true 
transversal  striation  of  the  muscular  fibre  is  found  in  no  mollusk, 
is  shown  to  be  erroneous  and  based  on  defective  observation  of 
these  organisms,  in  some  of  which  true  transversal  striation  cer- 
tainly occurs. — On  the  endomorphic  modifications  of  the  granu- 
litic  systems  in  Morbihan,  Brittany,  by  M.  Charles  Barrois.  This 
paper  is  devoted  to  a  careful  study  of  the  remarkable  endo- 
morphic modifications  and  mechanical  transformations  of  the 
Guemene,     Saint -Jean    Brevelay,  and   Grandchamp    granulitic 


formations,  which  traverse  the  Department  of  Morbihan  in  its 
entire  length,  and  the  typical  constituents  of  which  are  : 
(i)  zircon,  apatite,  black  mica,  oligoclase,  orthose,  and  quartz  ; 
(2)  orthose,  microcline,  quartz,  tourmaline,  and  white  mica. — On 
the  Senonian  and  Danian  systems  of  South-East  Spain,  by  M. 
Rene  Nickles.  Without  attempting  accurately  to  determine  the 
respective  limits  of  these  formations,  the  author  indicates  the 
presence  of  extensive  marine  deposits  in  the  Devonian  contain- 
ing fossiliferous  limestones  with  several  species  of  Hemipneustes 
associated  with  large  banks  of  Hippurites  and  Pironea. — General 
Menabrea  presented  to  the  Academy  the  prospectus  of  a  new 
edition  of  the  works  of  Galileo,  in  about  twenty-five  volumes, 
which  is  about  to  be  issued  at  the  expense  of  the  Italian  Govern- 
ment, and  copies  presented  to  all  the  more  important  public  libra- 
ries,— The  Administrative  Commission  of  the  Academy  announces 
that  it  has  decided  to  supply  Corresponding  Members  with  the 
Coniptes  rendtis  free  of  charge  from  January  i,  1888.  Cor- 
respondents are  requested  to  acknowledge  receipt  of  the  first 
number,  and  notify  their  change  of  address  to  Messrs.  Gauthier- 
Villars  et  Fils,  publishers,  Paris. 


BOOKS,  PAMPHLETS,  and  SERIALS  RECEIVED. 

A  Treatise  on  Photography,  5th  edition :  Capt.  Abney  (Longmans). — The 
Story  of  Creation  :  E.  CloUd  (Longmans). — British  Dogs,  parts  15  and  16  :  H. 
Dalziel  (U.  Gill). — Beobachtungen  der  Rtissischen  Polarstation  an  der  Lena- 
miindung,  ii.  Thiel,  Meteorologische  Beobachtungen:  A.  Eigner  ;  H.  Liefg. 
Beobachtungen  vom  Jahre  1883-84  :  R.  Len2. — Meteorological  Observations 
at  Stations  of  the  Second  Order  for  the  Year  1883  (Eyre  and  Spottiswoode). 
— The  Geographical  Distribution  of  the  Family  Charadnidae,  H.  Seebohm 
(Sotheran). — Annuario  publicado  pelo  Imperial  Observatorio  do  Rio  de 
Janeiro,  1885-86-87  (Rio  de  Janeiro). — Memoirs  and  Proceedings  of  the 
Manchester  Literary  and  Philosophical  Society,  4lh  Series,  vol.  i.  No.  2. — 
(Manchester). — Proceedings  of  the  Manchester  Literary  and  Philosophical 
Society,  vol.  xxvi.  (Manchester). — Zeitschrift  der  Gesellschaft  fiir  Erdkuml 
zu  Berlin,   Nos.   133  und   134  (Reimer,   Berlin). 


CONTENTS.  PAGE 

Kinematics  and  Dynamics.     By  Prof.  A.  G.  Green- 
hill  ." 361 

Atlas  of  the  Distribution  of  Plants 362 

Our  Book  Shelf:— 

McCook  :   "  Tenants  of  an  Old  Farm  " 363 

Daly  :   "  Digging,  Squatting,  and  Pioneering  Life  in 
the  Northern  Territory  of  South  Australia  "...    363 

' '  Photography  Simplified  " 363 

Letters  to  the  Editor  : — 

An  Explanation  explained. — Prof.  John  W.  Judd, 

F.R.S 363 

Reason  and   Language. — Dr.   St.    George    Mivart, 

F.R.S 364 

Mechanical    Equivalent    of     Heat. — Prof.      Alfred 

Lodge 365 

"  Is  Hail  so  formed  ?  " — Cecil  Carus- Wilson  .  .  .  365 
The  New  Army  Regulations. — Henry  Palin  Gurney  365 
"British  and  Irish  Salmonidae." — Dr.  Francis  Day  ; 

Your  Reviewer 366 

Modern  Views  of  Electricity.  Part  III. — Magnetism. 
VIII.      {Illustraied.)      By    Dr.     Oliver   J.     Lodge, 

F.R.S 366 

The  Mechanism  of  the  Flight  of  Birds.     {Illustrated.) 

By  Prof.  E.  H.  J.  Marey      369 

Technical  Education 374 

Threatened  Scarcity  of  Water.     By  Charles  Harding  375 

Professor  Asa  Gray 375 

Notes 377 

Our  Astronomical  Column  : — 

Melbourne  Observatory 381 

The  American  Nautical  Almanac  Office 381 

Astronomical     Phenomena     for    the     Week     1888 

February  19-25 381 

Geographical  Notes     381 

Our  Electrical  Column 382 

Making  Glass  Specula    by   Hand.     By   A.    Ainslie 

Common,  F.R.S 382 

Societies  and  Academies 3^3 

Books,  Pamphlets,  and  Serials  Received 384 


NA  TURE 


385 


THURSDAY,   FEBRUARY   23,   \\ 


PHYSICAL  SCIENCE  AND    THE    WOOLWICH 
EXAMINA  TIONS. 

SINCE  the  appearance  of  our  article  of  January  26  con- 
siderable interest  has  been  manifested  in  this  ques- 
tion, and  during  the  past  week  important  communications 
on  the  subject  have  come  from  the  Secretary  of  State  for 
War,  and  from  the  head  master  of  Clifton  College.  We 
learn  from  Mr.  Wilson's  letter  to  the  Times  that  the 
new  regulations  are  not  only  calculated  to  do  harm  by 
the  discouragement  of  science,  but  that  they  are  also 
retrograde  in  another  very  important  particular.  By 
increasing  the  range  of  the  obligatory  examination  in 
mathematics,  though  they  will  not  very  greatly  affect  the 
selection  of  candidates,  yet,  in  the  case  of  very  many  of 
them,  by  compelling  wider  and  less  thorough  study,  they 
will  damage  the  training  in  that  subject. 

In  answer  to  a  question  put  by  Mr.  Howorth,  in  the 
House  of  Commons  on  February '15,  the  Secretary  of 
State  for  War  is  reported  to  have  said  that  the  new 
regulations  are  intended  to  encourage  those  subjects 
which  it  is  believed  can  be  least  easily  crammed  ;  to  give 
a  preponderance  to  those  subjects  which  are  to  the  ma- 
jority of  officers  of  greatest  practical  importance  ;  and  that 
the  new  regulations  are  to  be  of  permanent  application. 

Are  the  regulations  calculated  to  achieve  these  pur- 
poses ?  We  think  it  can  be  shown  very  clearly  that  they 
are  not.  It  is  therefore  with  renewed  hope  that  dis- 
cussion will  lead  to  their  amendment  that  we  enter  upon 
the  following  examination  of  them. 

(i)  The  new  regulations  are  intended  to  encourage 
subjects  which  it  is  believed  can  be  least  easily  crammed. 
Mr.  Wilson,  as  we  have  already  pointed  out,  has  indicated 
that  in  the  case  of  mathematics  they  will  distinctly  tend  to 
encourage  quantity  at  the  expense  of  quality.  With  regard 
to  science  subjects,  the  examination  statistics  which 
we  published  in  1884  clearly  proved  that  experimental 
science  was  not  then  chosen  by  candidates  on  account 
of  susceptibility  to  cram,  for  it  was  at  that  time  less 
frequently  selected  than  any  other  subject  by  successful 
candidates.  During  the  three  or  four  years  that  pre- 
ceded 1884,  a  branch  of  experimental  science  was  offered 
by  only  22  per  cent,  of  the  successful  candidates  ; 
since  that  date  the  numbers  have  risen,  notwithstanding 
the  increased  thoroughness  of  some  parts  of  the  examina- 
tion ;  and  in  1887  about  38  per  cent,  of  the  successful 
candidates  offered  a  branch  of  experimental  science. 
This  development  is  noteworthy,  and  may  be  con- 
sidered to  indicate  an  increased  appreciation  of  the 
value  of  such  work  by  teachers  and  students,  since  it 
has  taken  place  in  spite  of  the  subject  being  rather  a 
bad  than  a  good  one  from  the  mark-winning  point  of 
view,  and  also  during  a  period  notable  for  improvement 
in  some  parts  of  the  examination.  Geography  and 
geology,  which  may  be,  as  some  hold,  more  susceptible  of 
cramming  than  chemistry  and  physics,  show  no  cor- 
responding tendency.  In  1887  this  subject  was  taken  up 
by  a  distinctly  smaller  proportion  of  successful  candidates 
than  in  the  years  that  preceded  1884. 

There  does  not  appear,  then,  to  be  any  justification  for 
treating  science  as  a  subject  more  easy  to   cram  than 
Vol  XXXVII — No.  956. 


others  that  are  more  favourably  treated.  Had  it  beea 
true  that  it  is  so,  it  would  have  been  selected  by  a  greater 
proportion  of  candidates  formerly,  and  it  would  certainly 
have  been  discouraged  by  the  nature  of  the  examination 
during  the  last  few  years. 

(2)  Are  the  subjects  selected  those  most  calculated  to 
be  of  practical  importance  to  a  majority  of  officers  in  the 
Engineers  and  Artillery  ?  A  flood  of  light  is  thrown 
upon  this  point  by  the  course  of  instruction  given  to  the 
cadets  in  the  Royal  Military  Academy. 

During  the  first  year  of  training  at  Woolwich,  cadets  will 
study  in  the  compulsory  courses  the  following  subjects: — 

Mathematics,  for  which  3000  marks  are  given. 

Field  Fortification,  ,,  2000         ,,         ,, 

Military  Topography,  ,,  2000         ,,         ,, 

French  or  German,  ,,  io_;o        ,,         ,, 

Chemistry  and  Physics,         ,,  1000         ,,         ,, 

Model  Drawing,  ,,  300         ,,         ,, 

During  the  second  year  of  training,  the  cadets  are 
divided  into  two  classes.  Those  who  are  selected  for  the 
Engineers  will  then  study,  in  addition  to  purely  profes- 
sional subjects — 

Mathematics,  for  which    2000  marks  are  given. 

Chemistry  and  Physics,         ,,  1000         ,,         ,, 

Freehand  Drawing,  ,,  1000         ,,         ,, 

In  the  case  of  the  Artillery  cadets  during  their  second 
year,  chemistry  and  physics  alone  of  the  ten  or  eleven 
subjects  examined  in  the  entrance  competition  are  con- 
sidered to  be  of  sufficient  practical  importance  to  be 
retained. 

Thus  it  stands  admitted  by  the  military  authorities, 
according  to  their  own  regulations  for  the  education  of 
cadets,  that,  of  the  subjects  examined  in  the  competition 
for  Woolwich,  experimental  science  stands  next  to  mathe- 
matics as  a  subject  of  practical  importance  in  the  train- 
ing of  officers  for  the  scientific  branches  of  the  army. 

That  very  great  weight  should  be  given  to  mathematics 
and  modern  languages  in  the  examinations  for  Woolwich 
cadetships  is  obviously  proper  ;  but  since  it  is  admitted,  by 
the  courses  of  instruction  in  the  Royal  Military  Academy, 
that  capacity  for  and  extensive  training  in  experimental 
science  form  part  of  the  necessary  equipment  of  an  officer 
of  Engineers  or  Artillery,  a  system  of  selection  which  in- 
cludes no  means  whatever  of  securing  youths  capable  of 
such  studies  in  the  preliminary  examination,  and  which 
places  youths  of  scientific  power  at  such  considerable 
disadvantages  in  the  competitive  part  of  the  examina- 
tion, plainly  needs  to  be  amended,  in  the  interest  both 
of  the  service  and  of  the  candidates.  We  do  not  doubt 
that  those  who  get  into  the  Academy  will  be  excellently 
taught  there,  but  under  these  regulations  many  will  be 
rejected  who  are  eminently  fitted  to  do  well,  in  favour 
of  others  who  are  less  gifted  with  the  qualities  that  are 
admittedly  most  valuable. 

The  Committee  who  framed  these  regulations  has, 
we  fear,  forgotten  that  the  Professors  at  Woolwich  will 
not  create  a  capacity  for  science  work  by  the  mere 
teaching  of  science  to  the  successful  cadets,  and  that 
the  utmost  they  can  do  in  the  case  of  those  whose 
talents  are  linguistic  rather  than  scientific,^  will  be  to 
compel  them  to  acquire  by  hard,  uncongenial  labour 
the  necessary  minimum  of  knowledge  that  is  required 
in    the    subsequent    examinations.       It    is    abundantly 

*  The  enormous  value  to  be  given   to   mo.^ern   languages    is   liicely   to 
result  in  many  such  winninjj  admission  to  Woolwich  in   future. 


386 


NA  rURE 


\_Feb.  23,  1888 


evident  that  the  War  Office  Committee  has  made  a 
serious  mistake.  The  new  regulations,  so  far  as  ex- 
perimental science  is  concerned,  are  needless  as  pre- 
cautions against  cramming;  they  will  not  give  due 
weight  to  the  subjects  which  are,  by  their  own  showing, 
of  most  practical  importance  to  officers  ;  and  they  will 
influence  most  unfairly  the  selection  of  candidates  by 
giving  no  chance  for  scientific  power  to  tell  in  the  results 
of  the  examinations. 

There  is  another  side  of  this  question  which  is  of 
very  great  public  importance,  viz.  the  influence  of  these 
and  other  examinations  on  school  work  in  general. 
Regulations  such  as  those  now  in  force  at  Sandhurst, 
and  those  about  to  come  into  operation  at  Woolwich, 
make  it  increasingly  difficult  for  science  subjects  to  main- 
tain their  proper  place  in  schools  where  they  are  already 
adopted,  and  hinder  their  adoption  elsewhere.  Many  of 
the  ablest  youths  in  our  public  schools  enter  as  com- 
petitors in  these  and  other  examinations,  and  as  they 
must  offer  the  subjects  that  pay  best,  such  regulations  as 
those  under  discussion  lower  the  general  standard  of 
school  work  by  constantly  withdrawing  from  the 
science  classes  a  large  proportion  of  the  best  stu- 
dents. At  present  good  work  in  science  pays  less  well 
very  often  than  mediocrity  in  other  subjects.  This, 
as  was  pointed  out  by  Sir  Lyon  Playfair  in  his  Pre- 
sidential Address  to  the  British  Association  in  1885,  helps 
to  arrest  progress  in  science  teaching.  We  do  not,  of 
course,  claim  that  the  interests  of  science  in  schools 
should  be  allowed  to  outweigh  the  manifest  needs  of  the 
public  services.  But  the  fact  that  public  examinations 
exercise  a  potent  influence,  not  only  on  the  education  of 
the  candidates,  but  also  on  the  general  tendency  of  school 
work,  throws  great  responsibility  on  those  who  con- 
trol them,  and  makes  it  our  duty  to  urge  that  this 
influence  shall  not  be  lost  sight  of,  especially  when,  as 
in  the  case  of  Woolwich  cadets,  an  aptitude  for  experi- 
mental science  is  admittedly  a  quality  that  will  be  of 
great  practical  value  in  the  professional  work  of  the 
successful  competitors. 


THE  MO  TBS  OF  INDIA. 

A  Catalogue  of  the  Moths  of  India.  Compiled  by  E.  C. 
Cotes,  First  Assistant  to  the  Superintendent,  Indian 
Museum,  and  Colonel  C.  Swinhoe,  F.L.S.,  F.Z.S.,  &c. 
Part  I.  Sphinges.  Part  II.  Bombyces.  (Calcutta: 
Printed  by  the  Superintendent  of  Government  Print- 
ing, 1887.) 

j  T  is  not  too  much  to  say  that  the  task  of  writing  a 
^  catalogue  of  the  moths  of  India  is  one  which  might 
appal  an  entomologist  of  far  longer  experience  than 
either  of  the  authors  of  this  work.  For  when  we  consider 
that  no  general  catalogue  or  revision  of  the  Heterocera 
exists  more  recent  than  that  of  Gu^nde,  that  almost  the 
whole  of  the  types  of  the  described  species  are  in  Eng- 
land, whilst  both  the  authors  of  this  book  are  in  India, 
and  that  the  number  of  Indian  moths  is  so  great  that  in 
the  two  first  families  alone  upwards  of  1600  species  or 
supposed  species  are  catalogued,  it  is  evident  that  the 
difficulty  of  such  a  work  is  enormous  ;  and  as  the  authors 
are  not  known  as  lepidopterists  of  long  standing,  and 
are  resident  on  opposite  sides  of  India,  no  one  would 
expect  too  much  from  the  first  attempt  at  what  has  long 


been  very  much  wanted— namely,  some  work  which  would 
enable  the  rapidly-growing  circle  of  working  naturalists 
in  India  to  know  what  has  already  been  described  and 
where  the  descriptions  have  appeared. 

I  think,  therefore,  that  the  cordial  thanks  of  all  will  be 
given  to  Colonel  Swinhoe  and  Mr.  Cotes  for  their  bold 
attempt  to  fill  this  blank,  and  that  no  one  will  be  too 
critical  as  to  how  their  task  has  been  done  when  the 
great  difficulties  under  which  they  labour  are  remembered. 
There  is  not  a  word  of  introduction  to  say  to  what  extent 
either  of  the  authors  is  responsible  for  the  work,  but  I 
believe  that  Mr.  Cotes  is  really  the  compiler,  and  that 
Colonel  Swinhoe,  whose  collection  is  much  richer  than 
that  of  the  Indian  Museum  in  the  species  which  occur  in 
Western  India,  has  added  such  additional  species  and 
notes  as  he  possesses. 

The  plan  of  the  work  is  nothing  more  than  a  bare 
catalogue  of  names  and  references,  with  localities  so  far 
as  known  to  the  compilers  or  to  the  authors  of  these 
names  ;  and,  as  we  see  that  in  some  genera  almost  all  the 
species  are  unknown  to  either  of  the  authors  except  from 
the  descriptions  or  plates,  it  is  evident  that  a  large  pro- 
portion of  the  names  are  names  and  nothing  more. 

In  the  genus  Syntomis,  for  instance,  we  find  forty-two 
supposed  species  catalogued,of  which  fifteen  are  described 
by  Moore,  nine  by  Walker,  and  ten  by  Butler ;  of  all 
these  only  eleven  are  in  Colonel  Swinhoe's  collection,  and 
thirteen  in  that  of  the  Indian  Museum,  and  we  do  not 
find  that  a  single  attempt  has  been  made  to  discover 
how  many  of  these  forty-two  names  represent  distinct 
species. 

As  long  as  authors  continue  to  do  as  Messrs.  Moore, 
Butler,  and  the  late  Mr.  Walker  have  so  freely  done — 
namely,  to  describe  anything  they  do  not  personally 
know,  with  little  regard  to  what  has  already  been 
described — it  is  evident  that,  when  their  views  as  to 
variation  are  also  extremely  narrow,  a  great  many 
synonyms  must  result,  and  we  think  a  little  genuine 
work  would  tend  to  show  that  of  the  forty-two  supposed 
species  of  Syntomis  not  more  than  perhaps  twenty  really 
exist  in  nature.  It  is,  however,  quite  as  probable  that 
while  not  more  than  twenty  distinct  species  are  described 
from  India,  at  least  twenty  more  remain  undiscovered, 
for  it  is  hardly  possible  for  anyone  who  does  not  know 
India  personally  to  understand  how  infinitesimal  our 
knowledge  of  the  moths  is,  except  in  some  half-dozen 
localities  like  Bombay,  Calcutta,  and  Sikkim  ;  and  even 
in  such  places  as  these  what  we  know  is  but  little  com- 
pared to  what  we  do  not  know.  Surely  here  is  a  field 
for  study  and  amusement  which  must  attract  many  who 
will,  sooner  or  later,  provide  the  materials  and  collect  the 
knowledge  necessary  for  a  "  Catalogue  raisonne^''  but 
the  sooner  a  good  example  is  set,  by  the  careful  anc! 
scientific  description  of  the  genera  and  species  which  are 
known,  with  due  regard  to  distribution  and  variation, 
the  more  and  better  will  be  the  work  done. 

A  book  is  projected  by  Mr.  F.  Moore,  whose  knowledge 
of  Indian  moths  is  certainly  greater  than  that  of  all  other 
entomologists  combined  ;  but  it  is  sincerely  to  be  hoped 
that  he  will  not  adopt  such  a  plan  or  style  of  work  as 
his  recently  published  "  Lepidoptera  of  Ceylon."  The 
bulk  and  cost  of  such  a  work  on  the  Lepidoptera  of 
India  would  quite  prevent  its  use  by  those  most  likely 
to  use  it  to  advantage,  and  even  if  it  was  completed  in 


Feb.  23.  1888] 


NA  TURE 


!87 


his  lifetime  the  earlier  parts  would  be  out  of  date  before 
the  last  were  published. 

What  is  wanted  is  something  like  Stainton's  "  Manual 
of  British  Lepidoptera,"  together  with  a  serial  publica- 
tion which  would  give  such  a  medium  to  entomologists 
for  publishing  their  discoveries  as  Stray  Feathers  gave  to 
Indian  ornithologists.  When  such  a  journal  has  been 
going  on  for  twenty  years  or  so,  it  will  be  time  to  think 
of  a  Catalogue  of  the  moths  of  India  really  worthy  of 
the  name.  At  present  such  an  ambitious  scheme  as  that 
proposed  by  Mr.  Moore  seems  to  me  only  likely  to  stand 
in  the  way  of  something  better  hereafter. 

It  is  a  great  pity  that  no  references  are  given  in  this 
Catalogue  to  the  descriptions  of  the  very  numerous  genera, 
so  many  of  which  are  the  creation  of  Mr.  Moore.  How 
many  of  them  will  eventually  stand,  time  alone  can  show, 
but  certainly  many  of  them  will  merge  in  genera  known 
in  other  parts  of  the  world  besides  India. 

I  think  also  that  if  the  authorities  for  the  localities  given 
for  the  various  species  were  stated,  as  has  been  done  in  the 
case  of  specimens  in  the  Calcutta  Museum,  this  would  be  a 
great  addition  to  the  Catalogue.  It  is  quite  as  important  to 
know  who  collected  a  particular  species  as  to  know  in 
whose  collection  it  exists  ;  and  many  localities  are  given 
without  any  good  authority. 

Another  improvement  in  the  form  of  the  work  would 
be  an  abbreviation  of  the  references,  in  the  same  way  as 
is  done  in  Standinger's  "  Catalogue  of  European  Lepido- 
ptera"; a  short  bibliography  of  works  cited,  and  their 
abbre  viated  citations,  will  take  away  any  possibility  of 
doubt,  and  save  innumerable  repetitions  of  such 
references  as 

"  Walker,  Cat.  Lep.  Het.  B.  M.," 
"  Moore,  Proc.  Zool.  Soc.  Lond.," 
"  Felder,  Reise  Novara  Lep.," 
"  Butler,  111.  Typ.  Lep.  Het.  B.  M.," 

which  might  be  reduced  with  advantage  to 

"Walk.,  B.M.," 
"Moore,  P.Z.S.," 
"  Feld.,  Nov.," 
"  Butl.,  B.M." 

But  notwithstanding  the  imperfections  of  this  Cata- 
logue, its  publication  will  be  a  real  blessing  to  naturalists 
if  only  by  saving  them  an  immense  deal  of  the  most 
tedious,  troublesome,  and  unsatisfactory  work— the  hunt- 
ing up  of  descriptions  and  references.  How  far  these  are 
correct,  I  have  not  as  yet  been  able  to  prove  ;  but  the 
few  omissions  which  I  have  discovered  may  easily  be 
forgiven.  H.  J.  Elwes. 


PROLEGOMENA     TO     THE    STATISTICS     OF 
THOUGHT. 

Die  Welt  in  ihrcn  Spiegeltingen  imter  dein  Wandcl  ties 
Vdlkergeda7ikens.  Prolegomena  zu  eincr  Gedanken- 
statistik.  ("  The  Universe  as  reflected  in  the  Move- 
ment of  Thought  among  the  Races  of  Mankind.  Prole- 
gomena to  the  Statistics  of  Thought.")  By  A.  Bastian. 
One- vol.  in  8vo,  with  an  Atlas  or  Ethnographical  Pic- 
ture-book in  oblong  folio.     (BerUn  :  E.S.Mittler,  1887.) 

DR.  BASTLA.N'S   idea   is  that    the   new  science  of 
ethnology   supplies    materials    from   which    it   is 
possible   to   construct   a  system   of  psychology   on   the 


inductive  methods  of  natural  science.  The  inductive 
study  of  the  material  universe  has  given  us  our  modern 
science,  and  with  it  modern  materialism.  But  material- 
ism, says  Dr.  Bastian,  i  5  but  a  one-sided  expression  of 
the  legitimate  tendency  of  the  age  towards  induction  and 
natural  science.  It  overlooks  the  fact  that  the  world  of 
ideas  offers  as  legitimate  a  field  for  the  application  of 
scientific  method  as  the  world  of  material  phenomena. 
Ethnology,  which  considers  man  not  as  an  individual, 
but  in  his  social  aspects,  teaches  us  that  the  universe 
of  thought  also  obeys  laws,  and  can  be  studied  by  the 
genetic  method.  And  therefore  Dr.  Bastian  desires  to 
see  the  statistics  of  thought  put  together  in  a  way  that 
will  exhibit  the  whole  range  of  ideas  about  the  universe 
and  its  contents  which  have  been  prevalent  among  the 
various  races  of  men.  These  statistics  will  form  the  basis 
for  a  psychology  constructed  on  inductive  principles. 

The  description  of  a  science  which  has  still  to  be 
created  must  necessarily  be  vague  and  hazy,  and  in 
the  present  case  the  vagueness  is  increased  by  the  fact 
that  Dr.  Bastian  writes  in  a  very  involved  and  enigmatic 
style,  so  that  his  meaning  cannot  be  read,  but  must  be 
divined.  But  so  far  as  we  have  been  able  to  follow  him 
we  gather  that  in  his  "  Prolegomena  to  the  Statistics  of 
Thought "  he  designs  something  different  from  what  is 
given  in  ordinary  Prolegomena,  and  that  the  volume 
should  rather  be  called  a  provisional  collection  of 
materials  for  the  comparative  study  of  the  ideas  enter- 
tained by  different  races,  or  in  ditferent  stages  of  culture, 
as  to  the  universe  and  the  leading  matters  of  human 
interest  that  it  contains.  It  would  seem  that  Dr.  Basti  m, 
whose  great  range  sf  knowlege  in  matters  ethnological 
is  well  known,  and  who  is  also  a  voracious  and  somewhat 
undiscriminating  reader  of  books  on  all  possible  subjects 
connected  with  the  history  of  human  thought,  has  accu- 
mulated huge  commonplace-books  to  illustrate  his 
favourite  project.  The  small-type  sections  which  make 
up  a  large  part  of  the  volume  are  simply  chunks  from 
these  note-books,  to  all  appearance  entirely  undigested. 
Commonplace-books  have  always  a  tendency  to  become 
chaotic,  especially  in  the  hands  of  a  man  who  reads  so 
widely  and  miscellaneously  as  Dr.  Bastian  has  done  ; 
but  we  have  never  seen  anything  quite  so  formless 
as  these  pages.  In  themselves  many  of  the  extracts 
given  are  interesting  or  curious,  but  the  disorder  ia 
which  they  stand  is  simply  bewildering.  Moreover, 
there  are  no  exact  references  to  chapter  and  verse  of 
the  authors  quoted,  and  verbal  excerpts  stand  side  by 
side  with  brief  jottings  and  condensed  indications  such 
as  a  man  may  make  for  his  own  use,  but  which  are  so 
many  enigmas  to  the  reader.  There  has  evidently  been 
no  verification  and  no  revision  of  the  notes  originally 
made  by  the  author  for  himself,  and  many  of  them,  there- 
fore, are  not  only  obscure,  but  not  quite  accurate;  while 
others  were  not  worth  printing  at  all.  The  last  remark 
is  specially  applicable  to  a  vast  number  of  quotationi. 
from  ancient  and  modern  metaphysicians,  into  whonij 
Dr.  Bastian  has  evidently  dippei  at  hazard,  without; 
having  any  clear  conception  of  the  history  of  philosophy 
as  a  whole.  On  half  a  page  we  find  Proclus,  Anaxim- 
ander,  Philolaus,  Aristotle,  the  Pythagoreans,  ¥.  A. 
Miiller,  Spencer,  Schelling,  Samuel  ben  Clebirol,  ami 
Anaxagoras.     Who  can  hope  to  be  instructed  by  such  a 


388 


NATURE 


{Feb.  23,  I 


jumble?  The  large-type  sections  that  connect  these 
masses  of  confused  notes  are  still  more  perplexing. 
Here,  also,  the  commonplace-book  predominates,  but  the 
extracts  are  worked  up  into  some  semblance  of  a  con- 
tinuous exposition.  It  is  very  seldom,  however,  that  one 
can  read  a  page  on  end  without  losing  the  thread.  The 
reason  soon  becomes  obvious.  What  is  offered  as  a 
book  is  really  nothing  more  than  a  transcript  of  rough 
jottings,  in  which  Dr.  Bastian  had  from  time  to  time 
recorded  his  ideas  in  a  form  just  sufficient  to  preserve  a 
record  for  his  own  use.  The  sentences  are  often  not 
even  grammatical,  and  in  brief  the  volume  is  only  the 
roughest  of  rough  note-books  printed  without  revision. 
In  spite,  therefore,  of  the  enormous  labour  and  learning 
which  it  attests,  the  whole  must  be  pronounced  a  failure, 
for  the  elementary  reason  that  it  is  not  a  book.  We 
trust  that  the  publication  may  be  useful  to  the  author  in 
helping  him  to  get  his  superabundant  material  better 
under  control,  and  so  to  produce  hereafter  something 
that  is  a  book  and  can  be  read. 

The  ethnological  picture-book  is  designed  for  young 
people,  and  its  illustrations  of  cosmogonic  and  cosmo- 
graphic  ideas,  of  various  conceptions  of  the  future  life 
and  so  forth,  are  well  calculated  to  excite  their  curiosity 
and  stimulate  their  interest  in  such  things. 


OUR  BOOK  SHELF. 

Experimental  Chemistry  for  Junior  Students.     By    J. 

Emerson  Reynolds,  M.D.,  F.R.S.     Part    IV.  Organic 

Chemistry.      (London :    Longmans,   Green,  and    Co., 

1887.) 
This  volume  on  organic  completes  the  author's  course  of 
experimental  chemistry.  Whatever  may  be  the  opinions 
on  the  three  previous  volumes,  there  is  no  doubt  this  is 
the  most  rational  attempt  to  treat  organic  chemistry 
practically — as  a  thing  for  students  actually  to  do— that 
has  as  yet  appeared.  There  is  scarcely  an  experiment 
in  the  book  that  a  student  will  be  unable  to  do  from  the 
description  given,  and  the  order  in  which  they  are  taken 
and  general  arrangement  is  the  natural  order  of  synthesis, 
proceeding  from  the  less  complex  and  easy  to  the  most 
complex  and  least  known. 

The  author  begins  with  destructive  distillation,  and  the 
production  of  alcohols,  their  salts,  &c.  The  fourth  chapter 
deals  with  metallic  compounds  or  organo-metallic  bodies. 
In  the  description  of  the  manufacture  of  zinc  ethide  the 
method  of  making  from  zinc,  C2H5I,  and  iodine  might 
have  been  given,  as  the  action  is  much  quicker  than  with 
the  Cu — Zn  couple  and  the  yield  greater.  The  current  of 
CO2  can  also  be  dispensed  with  advantageously.  Two 
experiments  here  we  must  take  exception  to  as  being  rather 
dangerous  for  beginners — sealing  up  sodium  with  zinc 
ethide,  and  in  Experiment  691  making  mercuric  ethide 
as  a  sort  of  starting-point  material.  The  author  cautions 
against  inhaling  the  vapour  of  this  substance,  as  it  is 
"  supposed  to  be  poisonous."  We  thought  it  was  quite 
settled  that  it  is  about  the  most  dangerous  substance  one 
has  to  deal  with  ;  and  we  certainly  do  not  agree  with  the 
author  that  the  method  of  employing  mercuric  ethide  for 
making  zinc  ethide  is  the  easiest  of  all  methods  for  making 
the  last-named  substance. 

In  the  remainder  of  the  little  book  there  is  nothing 
either  in  arrangement  or  process  to  which  objection  can 
be  taken,  and  undoubtedly  it  should  be  most  useful  to 
students  attending  a  course  of  organic  lectures.  As  a  rule 
English  students  stop  off  with  organic  before  they  have 
really  made  its  acquaintance ;  very  few  indeed  continue 
its  study  long  enough  for  it  to  be  of  any  use  to  them. 


Most  of  the  works  in  England  where  "  organic 
chemistry"  is  the  rule  are  obliged  to  obtain  the  services 
of  German  chemists  ;  the  English  student's  acquaintance 
with  the  subject  generally  stopping  at  the  knowledge  that 
there  are  such  things  as  hydrocarbons,  or  "  hydrocarbides," 
as  the  author  of  this  book  calls  them. 

Perhaps  when  such  practical  instruction  is  given  in  our 
schools  as  the  course  outlined  by  this  book,  we  may  begin 
to  produce  students  who  can  go  into  "a  works"  and  be 
trusted  not  only  to  follow  a  process  but  to  originate  new 
ones.  W.  R.  H. 

The  Farmer's  Friends  and  Foes.     By  Theodore  Wood, 

F.E.S.     (London  :    Swan  Sonnenschein,  Lowrej',  and 

Co.,  1888.) 
This  is  a  well-meant  and  well-put-together  little  volume, 
giving  an  account  of  the  life-history  of  most  of  the 
animals  which,  for  good  or  for  evil,  come  across  the  path 
of  the  British  agriculturist.  Throughout,  the  attempt  is 
made  to  prove  that,  when  it  is  necessary  for  the  saving  of 
a  crop  to  destroy  any  animal,  it  is  far  better  to  trust  to 
Nature,  as  being  more  competent,  than  to  man  ;  but  then 
this  seems  to  beg  the  whole  question,  as  it  presumes  that 
man  has  not  already  very  much  interfered  with  Nature's 
regulations. 

The  volume  is,  in  part,  the  result  of  personal  investiga- 
tion, but  the  author  quotes  freely  from  all  our  best-known 
writers  on  the  subjects  of  which  he  treats. 

The  figures  are  good.  A  table  of  contents  would  have 
added  to  the  usefulness  of  the  work,  especially  as  the 
index  is  not  very  detailed.  The  volume  may  be  safely 
placed  in  the  hands  of  all  interested  in  the  subject. 

The  Story  of  Creation.     By  Edward  Clodd.     (London  : 

Longmans,  Green,  and  Co.,  1888.) 
The  author  of  this  book  does  not  pretend  to  make  his 
readers  acquainted  with  new  facts  and  ideas.  His  object 
is  to  present  a  popular  exposition  of  the  theory  of  evolu- 
tion, using  the  word  evolution  in  its  widest  sense.  The 
work  is  divided  into  two  parts — one  descriptive,  the  other 
explanatory.  In  the  descriptive  part  he  begins  with  a 
chapter  on  matter  and  power.  He  then  considers  the 
distribution  of  matter  in  space,  and  gives  a  general 
account  of  the  sun  and  the  planets,  of  the  past  life-history 
of  the  earth,  and  of  present  life-forms.  In  the  explana- 
tory part  he  discusses  the  questions  relating  to  inorganic 
evolution  and  to  the.  origin  of  life  and  life-forms,  and 
sets  forth  in  logical  order  the  arguments  which  are  held 
to  establish  the  truth  of  Darwin's  theory  of  the  origin  and 
development  of  species.  A  final  chapter  is  devoted  to 
social  evolution,  including  the  evolution  of  mind,  society, 
language,  art  and  science,  morals,  and  theology.  The  book 
is  vigorously  written,  and  well  illustrated  ;  and  readers 
who  have  had  no  special  scientific  training  will  find  that 
it  enables  them  to  understand  and  appreciate  some  of 
the  greatest  and  most  fruitful  generalizations  of  modern 


LETTERS   TO    THE  EDITOR. 

\The  Editor  does  not  hold  himself  responsible  for  opinions 
expressed  by  his  correspondents.  Neither  can  he  under- 
take to  return,  or  to  correspond  with  the  writers  of, 
rejected  manuscripts.  No  notice  is  taken  of  anonymous 
communications. 

\The  Editor  urgently  requests  correspondents  to  keep  theit 
letters  as  short  as  possible.  The  pressure  on  his  space 
is  so  great  that  it  is  impossible  otherwise  to  insure  the 
appearance  even  of  communications  containing  interesting 
and  novel  facts. '\ 

Botanists  and  the  Micromillimetre. 
I  NOTICE  that  in  a  review  of  a  "  Manual  of  British  Disco- 
mycetes  "  which  appeared  in  Nature  on  February  9  (p.  340), 
and  apparently  also  in  that  work  itself,  the  word  micromilli- 
metre is  used  as  equivalent  to  the  thousandth  of  a  millimetre. 


Feb.  23,  1888] 


NATURE 


38) 


I  have  made  some  inquiry,  and  am  told  that  it  is  now  commonly 
employed  by  biologists,  and  especially  by  botanists,  with  that 
meaning. 

As  it  would  be  very  unfortunate  if  the  same  word  were 
habitually  used  in  different  senses  by  students  of  different 
branches  of  science,  may  I  be  allowed  to  point  out  that, 
according  to  the  definitions  of  the  C.G.S.  system,  a  micromilli- 
metre  is  the  millionth  of  a  millimetre. 

In  the  well-known  Report  of  the  Committee  of  the  British 
Association  for  the  "  Selection  and  Nomenclature  of  Dynamical 
and  Electrical  Units  "  it  is  laid  down  that  the  prefixes  mega  and 
micro  are  to  be  employed  "  for  multiplication  and  division  by  a 
million." 

This  ruling  has  been  generally  accepted  not  only  by  scientific 
men,  but  also  by  those  engaged  in  commerce.  Megohm  and 
microfarad  are  terms  which  are  used  in  contracts,  and  are  uni- 
versally understooi  to  mean  a  million  ohms  and  a  millionth  of  a 
farad  respectively.  It  will  be  hopeless  to  try  to  introduce  scien- 
tific systems  of  measurement  into  the  affairs  of  daily  life  if 
scientific  men  themselves  disregard  the  rules  on  which  those 
systems  are  framed. 

It  would  also  be  particularly  confusing  if  the  micromillimetre 
were  wrongly  used  by  microscopists.  In  its  proper  sense  it  is 
the  most  convenient  unit  in  which  to  express  molecular  magni- 
tudes. It  has  been  employed  for  that  purpose  by  Sir  William 
Thomson  and  others  in  England,  and  also  by  physicists  abroad. 
If  the  micromillimetre  of  the  microscopist  is  1000  times  too 
large,  all  sorts  of  mistakes  will  be  rife  as  to  the  relative  dimensions 
of  molecules  and  of  the  smallest  objects  visible  with  the  micro- 
scope. 

The  proper  name  for  the  thousandth  of  a  millimetre  (/i)  is  the 
micrometre,  and  though  the  similarity  of  this  word  to  micrometer 
is  no  doubt  a  drawback,  it  is  not  likely  that  confusion  could  often 
arise  between  them. 

If,  therefore,  I  am  rightly  informed  as  to  the  custom  of 
botanists  in  this  matter,  I  beg  respectfully  to  suggest  that  they 
should  bring  their  nomenclature  of  units  of  length  into  con- 
formity with  the  definitions  of  the  C.G.S.  system.  Otherwise 
there  will  be  a  permanent  confusion  between  the  micrometre  {/j.) 
and  the  micromillimetre  (/xfj.).  Arthur  VV.  Rucker. 

Science  Schools,  South  Kensington,  February  17. 

"The  Teaching  of  Elementary  Chemistry." 

Allow  me  to  draw  the  attention  of  the  chemical  section  of  your 
readers  to  a  few  highly  misleading  passages  in  the  two  books 
reviewed  under  the  above  heading  in  Nature  of  January  19 
(p.  265). 

On   p.   65  of  the    "  Elementary  Chemistry "  we   read: — 

"  Hence  when  sodium  and  water  interact,  a  portion  of  the 
hydrogen  which  was  combined  with  oxygen  is  evolved  as  hydro- 
gen ga-j,  and  another  portion  enters  into  combination  with  the 
sodium  and  the  oxygen  to  produce  caustic  soda." 

On  pp.  1 16-17  is  to  be  found  the  following  astounding 
passage  : — 

"To  prepare  Cl.^O,  mercuric  oxide  (HgO)  is  heated  in  a 
stream  of  dry  chlorine.  When  mercuric  oxide  is  heated  it  is 
decomposed  into  mercury  and  oxygen  ;  therefore  by  passing 
chlorine  over  heated  mercuric  oxide  we  carry  out  a  reaction  in 
which  oxygen  is  produced  in  presence  of  chlorine." 

In  the  "Practical  Chemistry,"  under  Experiment  i,  Chap- 
ter II.  (p.  6),  occurs  the  following  warning  to  the  student : — 

"  Do  not  remove  the  lid  at  any  time  for  more  than  a  second 
or  so,  else  some  of  the  magnesia  will  be  volatilized  and  lost ;" 
while  on  p.  285  of  the  "  Elementary  Chemistry  "  we  read  : — 

"  No  compound  of  Mg  has  been  gasified." 

Even  this  contradiction  is  excelled  by  one  on  pp.  62  and  63 
of  the  "  Practical  Chemistry,"  which  is  not  so  manifestly  a  slip. 
We  read  (p.  62)  : — 

"  The  reactions  between  aqueous  solutions  of  alkalies  and  the 
three  elements,  chlorine,  bromine,  and  iodine,  are  similar  ;  com- 
pounds of  similar  compositions  and  similar  properties  are  pro- 
duced under  similar  conditions." 

Under  Experiments  19  and  20,  which  follow,  the  student  is  told 
to  treat  cold  solutions  of  potassium  hydroxide  with  chlorine  and 
bromine  respectively.  The  well-known  changes  are  described, 
and  the  bleaching  properties  of  the  solutions  after  addition  of  a 
little  acid,  are  to  be  tried.     Then  follows  (p.  63) : — 

"Exp.  21.  Perform  an  experiment  similar  to  19  and  20, 
but   use   iodine   in  place  of    chlorine  or  bromine  :    the  liquid 


which  is  produced  does  not  bleach.     No  compound  of  iodine 
analogous  to  KCIO  and  KBrO  has  been  obtained." 

Tnilythis  is  "seeing  things  as  they  are"  with  a  vengeance. 

Z. 

Natural  Science  and  the  Woolwich  Examinations. 

May  I  be  allowed,  as  one  of  the  most  experienced  science 
masters  in  the  public  schools,  to  say  a  word  in  reply  to  Mr. 
Gurney's  letter  in  Nature  of  this  week  (February  16,  p.  365)? 

There  seems  to  me  a  general  fallacy  running  through  that 
letter  arising  from  "the  absence  (on  the  writer's  part)  of  clear 
discrimination"  between  the  nature  and  methods  of  mathe- 
matical science  (which,  as  J.  S.  Mill  taught  us  long  ago,  are 
mainly  deductive)  and  experimental  science  (which  proceeds  by 
inductive  methods).  It  is  on  this  ground  mainly,  coupled  with 
the  extent  to  which  it  cultivates  the  faculty  of  observation,  that 
we  claim  for  it  a  special  educational  value. 

After  an  educational  experience  at  least  as  extensive  as  Mr. 
Gurney's,  I  join  issue  with  him  most  distinctly  on  this  point.  I 
am  afraid  there  lurks  behind  Mr.  Gurney's  depreciation  of  the 
educational  value  of  science  the  disappointment  which  other 
mathematicians  have  experienced  in  finding  that  the  man  who 
takes  to  experimental  science  as  a  mere  excursion-ground  for  the 
diversion  of  the  mathematician  is  not  infrequently  brought  to 
confusion  by  Nature.  Science  is  something  more  than  measure- 
ment. Mr.  Gurney's  notion  that  mathematics  and  a  knowledge 
of  French  and  German  are  a  sufficient  groundwork  for  true 
scientific  knowledge  is  such  a  confession  on  his  part  of  the  small 
value  he  attaches  to  experimental  demonstration  and  to  labora- 
tory training  (or  to  field-work  in  the  case  of  geology)  as  is 
sufficient  to  put  him  out  of  court  as  a  witness  on  this  question. 
Nor  do  I  think  that  he  is  competent  to  speak  with  any  authority 
on  the  work  done  in  the  public  schools.  If  he  fancies  that  the 
best  boys  of  the  public  schools  go  to  Powis  Square  to  finish  their 
education,  he  is  labouring  under  a  delusion. 

The  whole  argument  of  the  letter  is  retrogressive  ;  nor  is  it 
strengthened  by  the  writer's  condemnation  ol  a  "smattering" 
of  science,  which  is  no  discovery.  But  I  maintain  that  a  boy 
can,  by  the  age  of  eighteen,  get  a  sound  groundwork  in  science 
laid,  though  not  by  the  cramming  system  ;  and  that  to  this  the 
term  does  not  apply  at  all.  Again,  he  condemns  premature 
specialization  of  a  boy's  studies  in  favour  of  science,  while  he 
inconsistently  advocates  a  much  narrower  specialization  in  favour 
of  mathematical  studies. 

How  far  Mr.  Gurney  is  from  being  convinced  by  his  own 
arguments  is  shown  by  the  fact  that  in  the  concluding  paragraph 
of  his  letter  he  practically  surrenders  the  point  on  which  the 
whole  question  turns. 

In  conclusion  I  would  commend  to  his  careful  consideration 
the  letter  which  appears  in  the  Times  to-day  from  the  head 
ma.ster  of  Clifton  College,  whose  competence  to  form  a  judg- 
ment on  the  educational  aspect  of  this  question  I  suppose  no 
one  doubts.  A.  Irving, 

Wellington  College,  Berks,  February  17, 


With  your  kind  permission,  and  in  consideration  of  the 
importance  of  the  matter,  I  crave  leave  for  space  for  a  few 
remarks  in  addition  to  those  contained  in  my  reply  to  Mr. 
Gurney. 

(1)  Looking  at  the  history  of  education  in  this  country,  we 
can  account  for,  though  we  deplore  the  existence  of,  a  prevalent 
notion,  a  sort  of  fashionable  superstition,  which  regards  scien- 
tific studies  as  outside  the  range  of  what  is  called  "  culture  "  ;  a 
superstition  for  which  some  of  those  who  have  fspoken  in  the 
name  of  science  are  not  altogether  unanswerable,  but  which 
derives  its  chief  strength  from  that  profound  ignorance  of  natural 
science — its  nature,  its  methods,  and  its  object — upon  which  so 
large  a  proportion  of  educated  Englishmen  seem  rather  to  pride 
themselves  than  otherwise.  There  can  be  but  little  doubt  that 
this  has  been  turned  to  account  as  an  influence  in  favour  of  the 
contemplated  scheme. 

(2)  It  is  in  no  spirit  of  hostility  to  literary  studies  that  one 
writes  in  these  terms ;  on  the  contrary,  it  is  as  a  lover  of 
literature  of  the  better  sort  that  one  would  gladly  see  the  literary 
spirit  in  this  country,  as  in  Germany,  strengthened  and  braced 
by  the  strong  atmosphere  of  scientific  criticism,  and  a  little  more 
first-hand  acquaintance  with  things  as  they  are,  which  is  the  true 


390 


NA  TURE 


[Fed. 


1888 


aim  of  science.  Jt  is  impossiiile  to  estimate  the  good  thnt  might 
be  done  in  this  direction,  if  only  the  Universities  had  the  wisdom 
and  the  courage  to  insist  upon  a  knowledge  of  some  one  branch 
of  science  for  all  degrees,  as  was  strenuously  advocated  years  ago 
by  Charles  Kingsley. 

(3)  It  seems  a  great  pity  that  such  a  change  as  is  contemplated 
should  be  adopted  just  now,  since  within  the  last  three  or  four 
years  some  of  us  who  are  teachers  of  standing  and  experience 
have  gladly  recognized  considerable  improvement  in  the 
examinations  in  science  as  they  are  conducted  by  the  Civil 
Service  Commissioners.  It  would  appear  that  the  (ramming  of 
these  subjects  has  been  considerably  handicapped,  if  one  may 
judge  from  the  considerable  increa^^e  in  the  number  of  o's 
affixed  to  the  names  of  candidates  in  the  published  lists  pari 
passu  with  a  considerable  increase  in  the  number  of  marks 
gained  by  one's  own  pupils,  who  have  had  the  same  teaching 
and  laboratory  ti^aining  as  those  of  previous  years. 

(4)  It  is  surely  fairly  within  the  provinca  of  Parliament  to 
consider  the  question  whether  it  is  expedient  or  conducive  to  the 
common  weal,  that  science  shall  be  placed  at  such  a  dis- 
advantage that  young  men,  who  are  candidates  for  the  more 
scientific  branches  of  the  military  service,  shall  be  strongly 
tempted  to  eschew  all  preliminary  training  in  science,  as  they 
certainly  will  be  unless  the  regulations  are  somewhat  modified. 

Four  years  ago  the  action  of  a  single  Member  of  Parliament 
(Sir  John  Lubbock),  backed  up  by  the  influence  of  the  Councils 
of  the  Royal  Society  and  the  British  Association,  was  effectual 
in  securing  a  reconsideration  of  the  provisional  examination 
scheme  for  admission  to  Sandhurst ;  so  that,  although — as  ulti- 
mately issued — the  regulations  contained  an  absurd  anachronism 
in  the  proportion  of  marks  assigned  to  scientific  subjects,  this 
was  reduced  to  less  startling  proportions. 

Can  it  be  doubted,  then,  that  if  on  the  present  occasion  the 
three  Members  of  Parliament  who  may  be  said  to  be  the 
representatives /ar  (?jr(r^//^«<r£  of  science  in  the  Legislature  (the 
President  of  the  Royal  Society,  the  President  of  the  British 
Association,  and  the  Member  for  the  University  of  London), 
were  to  take  united  action  in  Parliament,  the  position  of  science 
(so  far  as  the  Army  Entrance  Examinations  are  concerned)  might 
be  changed  from  one  of  semi -strangulation  to  one  of  free  and 
fair  competition,  which  is  all  that  its  most  ardent  advocates  can 
desire  for  it  ?  This  could  be  effected  to  the  advantage  of  the 
studies  of  the  cadet,  by  such  a  simple  modification  of  the  pub- 
lished regulations  as  would  be  involved  in  limiting  the  choice  of 
optional  subjects  in  Class  I.  to  two,  and  allowing  two  subjects  of 
Class  II.  to  be  taken  up.  A.  Irving. 

Wellington  College,  Berks,  February  20. 


The  Composition  of  Water. 

Prof.  Thorpe,  in  his  interesting  article  on  the  composition 
of  water  (p.  313),  alludes  to  Dr.  Scott's  very  valuable  determina- 
tions of  the  ratio  of  the  volumes  of  hydi'ogen  and  oxygen  which 
combine  to  form  water. 

If  we  assume  with  Dr.  Scott  that  the  small  amount  of  im- 
purity present  in  his  gases,  and  which  he  estimated  in  each  case 
after  the  explosion,  was  evenly  distributed  between  them,  a 
curious  relation  may  be  observed  between  the  amount  of  impurity 
present  and  the  calculated  ratio  of  the  volumes. 

This  relation  is  apparent  if  we  subtract  the  ratios  calculated 
by  Dr.  Scott  from  some  fixed  number,  say  2"000,  and  compare 
these  differences  with  the  relative  amounts  of  impurity.  It  will 
be  seen  from  the  following  table  that  the  greater  the  amount  of 
impurity  present  the  greater  is  the  difference  of  the  ratio  from 
the  constant  number,  or,  in  other  words;  the  lower  is  the  ratio. 
The  impurity  is  given  in  volmnes  per  100,000,  and  the  differences 
are  multiplied  by  10,000. 


The  relation  is  better  seen,  however,  by  mapping  the  results, 
taking  the  ratios  as  absciss^^,  and  the  impurity  in  volumes  per 
100,000  as  ordinates.  The  dotted  straight  line  (Fig.  i)  passes 
so  well  through  the  points  that  it  leaves  ten  of  them  on  the  one 
side  and  eleven  on  the  other. 

It  seems  difficult  to  believe  that  this  apparent  relation  can  be 
merely  a  chance  coincidence  ;  the  direction  taken  by  the  points 
is  too  definite  .     Nor  can  it  well  be  due  to  any  chemical  action 


Relative 

Difference  of  ratio 

impurity. 

from  constant. 

35 

83 

36 

55 

41 

66 

47 

44 

52 

32 

56 

90 

66 

72 

72 

46 

75 

80 

78 

120 

98 

73 

Bwm  ■■■■(!■■■■■ 
■r/BL  «■■■■■■ 

■■■  ■■■■■»■!! 


Fig.  I. 

between  oxygen  and  nitrogen,  for  Dr.  Scott  states  that  the  water 
produced  was  free  from  any  acid  reaction,  and  that  no  trace  of  the 
oxides  of  nitrogen  could  be  detected.  The  relation  is  even 
more  marked  if  we  assume  that  the  whole  of  the  impurity  was 
in  the  hydrogen.  This  is  shown  in  Fig.  2  ;  the  points  obviously 
fall  about  a  line  which  is  nearly,  if  not  quite,  straight. 


Relative 

Difference  of  ratio 

impurity. 

frjra  constant. 

102 

125 

105 

133 

ic6 

146 
162 

140 

154 
106 

167 

188 

224 
118 

254 

187 

495 
498 

540 
506 

Fig. 


If,  however,  we  assume  that  the  whole  of  the  impurity  was  in 
the  oxygen,  and  if  we  neglect  the  two  experiments  with  the 
excessive  amount  of  impurity,  no  such  relation  is  to  be  observed 
(see  Fig.  3),  but  the  ratios  are  distributed  with  fair  regularity 
about  a  mean  value  of  I-9965  or  1-9970.  The  simplest  ex- 
planation of  the  facts  appears  to  be  that  the  whole,  or  at  least 
the  greater  part,  of  the  impurity  was  really  in  the  oxygen,  and 
that  the  apparent  relation  of  the  amount  of  impurity  to  the  ratio 


Feb.  23,   1888J 


NATURE 


;9i 


is  due  to  the  error  introduced  into  the  calculations  by  referring 
the  impurity  to  the  hydrogen.  But,  whether  this  explanation  be 
accepted  or  not,  it  is  clear  that  the  three  lines  drawn  through 
the  points  representing  the  three  series  of  ratios  ought  to  meet 
at  a  point  on  the  horizontal  line  of  zero  impurity,  for  the  errors, 
whether  due  to  chemical  action  or  to  calculation,  would  disappear 
with  the  cause  that  produced  them.  Hence,  if  no  other  source  of 
error  is  present,  the  true  ratio  may  be  found  by  taking  the  most 
probable  point  of  intersection  of  the  three  lines  on  the  horizon- 
tal line  of  zero  impurity.  It  is  not  easy  to  determine  exactly  the 
position  of  this  point  :  it  probably  lies  between  the  values  I  996 


^    MIBUBBBU  3R3I 

■■B  ■■■■itiiasHB  mn 

!■■■  ■■■■■■■■■■  ■■■ 

:■■  ■■■■■■aain  | 
nailgHiiiaf-' 


we  may  calculate  the  angular  radius  of  the  bow  by  three  different 
methods. 


Fig.  3. 

and  I  -998,  and  the  true  ratio   may  perhaps  be  taken  as  i  '997 
Dr.  Scott  adopts  the  ratio  I  '994,  but  this  appears  to   me  to  be 
certainly  a  little  too  low. 

Prof  Thorpe  shows  that  the  atomic  weight  of  oxygen,  calcu- 
lated from  Regnauit's  densities  of  oxygen  and  hydrogen,  corrected 
by  Prof.  Le  Conte,  and  Dr.  Scott's  ratio  (i'994)  for  the  com- 
l)ining  volumes,  is  i6'039.  The  ratio  i'997  would  make  the 
atomic  weight  O  =  15  985.  Sydney  Young. 

University  College,  Bristol. 


The  Fog  Bow^  and  Ulloa's  Ring. 

In  the  summer  of  1875,  I  made  a  tour  of  inspection  to  our 
meteorological  stations  in  the  surveying-steamer  Haitsteen,  Capt. 
M.  Petersen,  R.N.  During  the  morning  hours  of  August  7,  I 
was  on  shore  at  Gandfjoid,  on  the  south  side  of  the  Varangerfjord, 
and  measured  the  height  of  some  terraces  there.  At  ih.  loni. 
p.m.  we  took  serial  temperatures  in  the  Gandfjord  with  the  deep- 
sea  thermometer.  The  weather  was  calm,  and  a  dense  fog  pre- 
vailed. The  temperature  of  the  air  was  12"  C.  Leaving  the 
Gandfjord  we  proceeded  northwards.  The  dense  fog  continued. 
At  once  the  fog  began  to  be  lighter  and  the  sun  to  shine  through, 
and  a  few  minutes  afterwards  we  were  out  of  the  fog,  which  was 
standing  as  a  white  wall  in  the  south-west.  In  tlie  moment  the 
sun  appeared,  but  before  we  were  quite  clear  of  the  fog,  I  saw 
in  the  north-east  a  bow  having  the  shape  of  a  rainbow,  but  quite 
white,  projected  on  the  fog.  With  a  sextant  I  measured  its 
amplitude,  or  the  chord  along  the  horizon,  and  the  height  of  the 
summit  above  the  horizon — in  both  cases  the  middle  between  the 
outer  and  inner  edge  of  the  bow.  The  horizon  not  being  dis- 
tinctly visible,  it  is  probable  that  the  measures  taken  do  not 
exactly  refer  to  the  true  horizon,  nor  is  it  certain  that  the  height 
of  the  summit  was  taken  from  the  same  horizontal  plane  in 
whicli  the  amplitude  was  measured.  By  the  captain's  reckoning, 
the  apparent  ship's  time,  at  the  moment  of  observation,  was 
2h.  40m.,  and  the  latitude  70^  i'.  From  these  data,  and  the 
declination  of  the  sun,  I  computed  the  azimuth  of  the  sun  at 
south  46°  5'  west,  and  its  apparent  altitude  at  31"  12'.  Supposing, 
as  the  results  of  the  several  computations  tend  to  indicate,  that 
the  white  bow  is  circular,  and  has  its  centre  in  the  anthelic  point, 


Let  //  represent  the  height  of  the  summit  of  the  bow  above  the 
horizon,  a  half  the  amplitude  or  chord  along  the  horizon, 
H  the  dip  of  the  centre  of  the  bow  below  the  horizon,  supposed 
to  equal  the  altitude  of  the  sun,  and  ;-  the  angular  radius  of  the 
bow.     Then  we  have — 

r=  H  -t-// (i) 

dr  =  dVL-^  ah (i')~ 

cos  r  =  cos  a  cos  H (2) 

,       tana    ,     ,    tan  H  ,,,  ,  ,>, 

<ir  = (la  +  all (2)' 

tan  r  tan  r 

cos  ;-  =  cos  a  cos  (;-  -  /;) 

.  I  -  cos  a  cos  A  ... 

tan  r  =  , — -— ,  or  putting 

cos  a  sm  n 

cos  a  cos  A  =  sin-  M 

tan  r  =  cot-  M  cot  >4 (3) 

dr  =  cos  {?■  -  h)  ^— 'I  tan  a  da  -  sin  (r  -  h)  '^^^ dh     (3') 

sm  h  sm  n 

The  observations  gave  za  =  49°,  a  =  2^"  30',  and  ^  =  7°  (or  a 
little  more). 

From  (i)  we  have  r  =  31°  12'  +  f  =  38°  12'. 

Putting  dR  =  ±2',dk  =  ±  15',  we  have  by  (i') 

dr  -  ±   sji''  -f-  15-  =  ±  I5''l  =  ±o°-25. 

From  (2)  we  have  r  =  38°  53' '5, 

and  by  (2')  dr  =  0-577  da  +  0770  dR,  dH  being  the  error  in 

the  altitude  of  the  measured  chord,  or  the  chord's  altitude  or 

depression,  reckoned  from  the  horizon. 

Putting  da  =  dll  =  ±  15'  =  ±  o°'25,  we  get — 

dr  =  do  o^'24. 

From  (3)  we  have  ^'  =  41°  8', 

and  by  (3')  dr  =  2-315  da  -  3-074  d/i. 

Putting  da  =  di  =  ±  o°'25,  we  get — 

dr  =  ±  0^-97. 

Taking  the  weights  inversely  as  the  squares  of  the  probable 
errors,  we  find  that  the  results  from  (i)  and  (2)  have  a  weight 
of  15  times  that  found  by  (3),  and  the  mean  will  be— 
r  =  38°  38'  ±  6' -4. 

From  this  mean  we  find  that  A  should  have  been  38°  38'  - 
31°  12',  or  7°  26'  instead  of  7°,  or  somewhat  greater  than  mea- 
sured, as  supposed  in  my  note-book.  Computing  from  (2)  we 
find  that  we  should  have  calculated  with  H  =  30"  51'  instead  of 
31°  12',  or  the  chord  has  been  measured  in  a  level  21'  lower  than 
the  horizon,  which  is  highly  probable  with  the  fog  spreading  over 
the  surface  of  the  sea.  The  measured  chord  being  too  great,  and 
the  measured  height  too  small,  it  follows  from  (3')  that  {3)  must 
give  the  radius  by  far  too  large. 

'!  he  next  occasion  I  had  to  observe  the  fog  bow  was  m  1878, 
on  the  North  Atlantic  Expedition,  when  returning  from  Spitz- 
bergen.  During  August  30,  our  ship,  the  Vdnngen,  had  a  rather 
tedious  work  in  advancing  southwards,  on  account  of  the  fogi;y 
weather  prevailing  the  whole  day.  In  the  afternoon  we  had 
advanced  so  far  south  of  Bodo  as  to  approach  the  Sandhorn,  a 
mountain  about  3000  feet  high,  lying  to  the  east  of  the  route. 

At  5h.  20m.  p.m.  I  saw  an  anthelic  fog  bow,  white,  with  the 
outer  edge  reddish,  the  inner  edge  bluish.  I  measured,  with  the 
sextant,  the  amplitude  along  the  horizon  at  76  ,  the  sun  s  altitude 
at  12°,  and  the  breadth  of  the  bow  at  2°.  The  teinperaiure  of 
the  air  was  about  14°  C.     The  latitude  was  about  67    10 . 

Assuming  the  measured  chord  to  lie  in  the  true  horizon,  we 
get  by  (2)  from  «  =  38^  H  =  12°,  r  =  39°  35'-5-  l^;'t  it  is 
highly   probable,  that  the  measured  chord  lay  deeper  than  the 


392 


NATURE 


{Feb,  23,  1888 


fog-veiled  horizon,  perhaps  some  degrees  deeper,  and  it  may  be 
quite  as  possible  that  i  have  measured  the  diameter  as  a  chord. 
This  supposition  gives  r  =  ^  76°  or  38°.  The  mean  of  these  two 
determinations  is  38°  48',  with  a  probable  error  surely  not  less 
than  ±  48',  or  half  the  difference. 

At  6h  im.  p.m.,  the  circumstances  were  more  favourable.  I 
measured  Q.a  =  76°  11',  H  =  8'  ii',  the  breadth  of  the  bow  2°. 
The  latitude  was  67°  7'.  From  these  data  we  have,  by  (2) 
f  —  38°  50'.  Assuming  the  observed  amplitude  to  have  been  the 
diameter,  which  is  very  probable,  we  have  r  =  38"  5' -5.  The 
mean  value  is  38°  28'  ±  22'. 

If  the  fog  bow,  like  the  rainbow,  has  always  the  same  dia- 
meter, we  can  join  the  three  values  thus  found  for  the  radius 
into  a  mean  result.     We  have  thus,  giving  the  single  determina- 
tions a  weight  inversely  as  the  squares  of  their  probable  errors — 
1875  August    7,  2h.  46m.  r  =  38°  38'  ±    6' 
1878  August  30,  5h.  20m.  ;-  =  38°  48'  ±  48' 
1878  August  30,  6h.     im.  r  =  38°  28'  ±  22' 


When  I  saw  the  fog  bow,  I  had,  I  am  sorry  to  say,  no  polari- 
scope,  so  that  I  was  unable  to  investigate  the  polarization  of  its 
light,  so  characteristic  for  the  rainbow.  H.  MoHN. 

"christiania,  January  31. 

The  Shadow  of  a  Mist. 

The  reticulated  rippling  shadow  of  the  mist  described  in 
Mr.  Fawcett's  letter  (Nature,  January  5,  p.  224)  reminds 
me  of  a  somewhat  parallel  phenomenon  seen  by  me  a  few  years 
ago  I  saw  a  snow-storm  some  miles  away  crossing  the  valley  be- 
tween the  Mendips  and  the  Quantocks.  It  hung  like  a  long, 
heavy  curtain  partially  obscuring  the  Mgki  western  sky.     The 


Mean 


r  =  38°38'±i'-4 


The  breadth  of  the  bow  being  2°,  with  a  probable  error  of  ^V 
or  ±  6',  we  get — 

for  the  outermost  red  ring  r  =  39°  38'  ±  6' "2 
for  the  innermost  blue  ring  r  =  37°  38'  ±  6''2, 

At  7h.  p.m.  the  bow  stood  white  against  the  blue  sky,  the 
Sandhorn  below  it.  At  6h.  40m.  p.m.,  and  sometimes  before, 
I  remarked  that  my  own  shadow  was  visible  on  the  fog  wall. 
In  order  to  get  a  wider  view  of  the  phenomenon,  I  went  up  upon 
the  roof  of  the  chart-house,  where  my  eye  was  27*5  feet  (8'4m.) 
above  the  surface  of  the  sea.  From  here  I  saw  how  my  shadow 
distinctly  imitated  all  my  movements.  The  shadow  of  my  head 
appeared  dark  on  a  lighter  white  ground,  and  from  a  certain 
distance  surrounded  by  a  concentric  coloured  glor}%  in  which  the 
colours  were  arranged  in  the  order  of  the  spectrum,  so  that  the 
outermost  circumference  was  red,  the  middle  yellow,  and  the 
innermost  blue.  There  was  no  white  band  in  the  glory.  With 
the  sextant  I  measured  the  radius  of  the  yellow  ring,  which  was 
the  most  intense,  at  1°  31'.  The  intensity  of  the  other  coloured 
rings  was  too  feeble  to  allow  their  radius  to  be  measured  with  the 
sextant.  From  a  comparison  with  the  radius  of  the  yellow  ring 
I  judged  that  of  the  blue  at  1°  15',  and  that  of  the  red  at  1°  45', 
with  a  possible  error  on  both  sides  of  ±  5'.  This  phenomenon 
is  Ulloa's  Ring. 

Taking  all  my  results  together,  we  have  the  following  synop- 
tical table  :  — 


Ulloa's  Ring.     Radius  of  inner  blue 
„         ,,  ,,  ,.       yellow 


I    15  ±5- 

1°  31'  ±  2'. 

,,         ,,  ,,  „       outer  red      1°  45'  ±  5'. 

Fog  Bow  ,,  ,,       inner  blue  37°  38'  ±  6'. 

,,     „  ,,  „       middle        38°  38'  db  i'. 

„     „  „  „       outer  red    39°  38' ±  6', 

The  fog  bow  cannot  be  the  rainbow  with  three  or  four  inner 
reflections,  as  these  rainbows,  if  visible,  would  not  be  anthelic  but 
have,  for  the  red  rays,  distances  from  the  sun  of  42°  and  43°. 
Moreover,  the  intensity  of  the  fog  bow  is  too  considerable  to  be 
the  result  of  so  many  reflections  in  drops  of  rain.  The  ordinary 
or  first  rainbow,  with  one  inner  reflection,  has  a  radius  or  distance 
from  the  anthelic  point  of  42°  30'  for  the  red,  and  40°  30'  for  the 
violet  rays,  which  gives,  the  sun's  radius  being  16',  its  innermost 
radius  like  40°  14'.  The  outermost  red  ring  of  the  fog  bow  has  a 
radius  of  39°  38'.  Its  distance  from  the  ordinary  rainbow  is  con- 
sequently only  36'.  This  space  we  see  sometimes  covered  by 
the  supernumerary  rainbows,  caused,  as  Sir  G.  B.  Airy's  inves- 
tigations have  shown,  by  the  interference  of  the  rays  leaving  the 
raindrop. 

It  seems  probable  that  the  smallness  of  the  fog  globules  as 
contrasted  by  the  larger  size  of  the  raindrops,  must  enter  as'  an 
essential  part  in  the  explication  of  the  fog  bow.  In  Giinther's 
"Lehrbuch  der  Geophysik  und  physikalischen  Geographic,"  ii.  p. 
151,  he  speaks  of  white  rainbows,  the  description  of  which  agrees 
with  the  aspect  and  position  of  my  fog  bows,  and  for  which 
Bravais  has  given  an  explanation  ("  Sur  le  Phenomene  de  I'Arc- 
en-ciel  blanc,"  Ann.  de  Ckim  et  Phys.  [3],  vol.  xxi.  p.  348). 
Not  having  Bravais'  memoir  at  hand,  I  may  only  remark  that 
as  far  as  I  can  see  from  Giinther,  he  assumes  the  fog  drops  to  be 
hollow,  a  supposition  which  is  hardly  in  accordance  with  modern 
investigations. 


'■'V'JW'JjJM-- 


light  shining  through  the  shower  showed  a  fairly  regular  pattern. 
On  a  reddish-brown  ground  the  darker,  because  denser,  parts  of 
the  shower  took  the  form  indicated  roughly  by  the  accompanying 
diagram.  Was  the  snow  falling  in  spiral  streams,  and  would  a 
similar  explanation  apply  to  the  shadow  of  the  mist  seen 
by  Mr.  Fawcett  ?  Henry  Bernard. 

The  English  Church,  Moscow,  January  31. 


Instability  of  Freshly  Magnetized  Needles. 

I  MADE  no  attempt  to  investigate  the  fluctuations  of  the 
dipping  needle.  They  seemed  to  me  to  pass  away  after  a  few 
minutes,  and  I  therefore  took  that  method  to  get  rid  of  them, 
supposing  that  the  phenomenon  was  well  known  to  other  ob- 
servers The  variations  that  I  observed  amounted  to  three  or 
four  minutes,  I  should  think.  It  is  true  that  the  dip  circle  which 
I  used  was  of  an  ancient  pattern  ;  as  Prof.  Riicker  says,  hardly 
up  to  modern  requirements.  I  did  not  send  it  back  to  the 
maker  for  adjustment,  as  Mr.  Whipple  says  he  would  have  done, 
because  it  was   lent   to  me,  and  it  was  the   best   I   was  able 

°  Recognizing  the  fact  that  we  could  not  expect  to  get  the  best 
results  from  our  outfit,  it  was  deemed  best  to  make  only  one  set 
of  observations  at  each  station,  and  multiply  the  number  of 
stations  as  greatly  as  possible.  This  made  it  necessary  to  do  the 
work  quickly  at  some  stations  in  order  to  adapt  our  time  to  that 
of  trains,  or  in  order  to  get  the  drudgery  involved  in  camp-life 
done  within  the  twenty-four  hours.  It  is  probable  that  at  some 
stations  we  overdid  the  matter,  and  that  tlie  observations  would 
have  been  better  if  more  time  had  been  taken.  The  dip  obser- 
vations I  always  regarded  as  least  satisfactory.  But  all  of  the 
work  has  been  published  in  such  a  way  that  its  value  can  be  es- 
timated by  anyone  interested,  and  everyone  is  welcome  to 
place  whatever  value  he  pleases  upon  it.  We  did  the  best  we 
could  under  the  circumstances,  and  the  expense  was  met  by 
private  means.  ,  ^    ,  .  , 

The  dip  circle  was  returned  to  Washington  when  we  were 
done  with  it,  so  that  I  am  not  n<  w  in  a  position  to  throw  any 
light  upon  the  subject  under  discussion.  For  most  of  the  stations 
at  which  observations  were  made,  I  think  the  magnetic  elements 
were  determined  with  as  great  precision  as  a  single  observation 
would  give  them,  and  they  seem  to  me  to  be  as  valuable  as  they 
profess  to  be,  and  not  very  much  more.  The  fact  that  so  little 
magnetic  work  had  been  done  in  the  central  part  of  the  United 
States  seemed  to  me  to  justify  the  plan  of  making  the  number  o 
stations  large,  rather  than  of  trying  to  attain  the  precision  ot 
observatory  methods  in  field  work  at  a  f-^tauon.  ^^^^^^_ 


Feb.  23,  1888] 


NATURE 


393 


Microsauria  and  Dendrerpeton. 

In  the  notice  in  Nature  of  January  12  (p.  244)  of  Fritsch's 
new  number  of  his  excellent  work  on  the  Permian  fauna  of 
Bohemia,  which  has  not  yet  reached  me,  I  observe  a 
reference  to  Microsauria,  which  would  seem  to  imply  that  I 
had  included  Dendrerpeton  in  that  group.  Possibly  this  was  not 
intended  by  the  reviewer,  as  it  certainly  could  not  have  been 
intended  by  Fritsch,  who  knows  my  views  quite  well  ;  but  in 
case  it  should  be  misunderstood  I  beg  to  say  that  I  have  not  held 
this  view,  but  on  the  contrary  have  confined  the  name  Micro- 
sauria to  species  with  simple  teeth,  and  have  placed  Dendrerpeton 
with  Labyrinthodonts,  though  by  no  means  as  a  typical  genus  of 
that  group.  In  my  last  paper  on  this  subject  (Trans.  Royal 
Society,  1882),  I  expressly  exclude  the  two  species  o{  Dendrerpe- 
ton referred  to  from  Microsauria,  and  define  the  latter  as  having 
non-plicated  teeth  (pp.  634-35).  ^  ™^y  ^^^^  however,  that  I 
have  always  held  and  now  hold  that  the  Microsauria,  though  in 
some  respects  inferior  to  Labyrinthodonts,  embrace  in  their 
structures  premonitions  of  the  true  reptiles  not  found  in  the 
latter. 

The  study  of  these  creatures  was  one  of  those  bye-efforts 
thrust  on  me  by  circumstances,  and  which  I  have  closed  up  so 
far  as  I  am  concerned  in  the  paper  referred  to ;  but  I  have 
learned  to  love  the  little  Microsaurs  and  to  regard  them  as  a 
hopeful  and  prophetic  group.  J.  Wm,  Dawson. 

McGill  College,  January  26. 


A  New  Historic  Comet  .' 

Permit  me  to  inform  Mr.  Knott  that  the  "new  historic 
comet  "  is  not  a  new  comet  at  all.  He  will  find  it  as  No.  154  in 
Mr.  Chambers's  Catalogue  No.  II.  in  his  well  known  "  Hand- 
book of  Descriptive  Astronomy."  It  is  there  described,  302  A.  D. 
"in  May-June  a  comet  was  visible  in  the  morning — (Ma-tuoan- 
lin:  Williams  26)."  W.  H.  S.  MoNCK. 

Dublin,  February  10. 


The  Proposed  Teaching  University  for  London. 

No  one,  I  am  sure,  who  has  carefully  real  my  letters  in  the 
Times  on  this  subject  could  agree  with  the  writer  of  your  article 
that  I  appear  "to  consider  the  dispute  as  one  between  the 
efficiency  of  '  lectures  '  on  the  one  hand,  and  of  '  reading  '  on  the 
other. " 

The  writer  of  the  article  has  certainly  misunderstood  my  views 
"upon  the  matters  in  dispute,"  as  well  as  my  object  in  quoting 
Darwin's  dictum  on  the  advantages  of  "reading"  as  compared 
with  "lectures."  Philip  Magnus. 

Exhibition  Road,  London,  S.W.,  February  10. 


Institute  of  Chemistry. 

With  reference  to  a  circular  letter  dated  the  12th  inst.,  and 
bearing  the  signature  of  Mr.  W.  Thomson,  which  has  been  sent 
to  the  Fellows  of  the  Institute  of  Chemistry,  we  beg  that  you 
will  be  so  good  as  to  allow  us  to  infor.n  the  Fellows,  through 
your  columns,  that  we  have  not  been  consulted  in  regard  to  the 
action  taken  by  Mr.  Thomson,  and  that  we  decline  to  offer  our- 
selves as  candidates  for  election  in  opposition  to  the  nominations 
of  the  Council.  Boverton  Redwood. 

London,  February  20.  Alfred  Gordon  Salamon. 


CORAL  FORMATIONS. 

T  DESIRE  to  call  attention  to  a  condition  of  reef  that 
-^  I  think  has  been  very  little  studied,  but  that  may 
contain  a  clue  to  a  solution  of  some  of  the  difficulties 
that  still  surround  the  subject  of  coral  formations 
generally. 

I  may  as  well  at  once  avow  myself  to  be  one  of  those 
who,  on  reviewing  the  later  evidence  on  coral  growth, 
have  come  to  the  conclusion  that  it  is  sufficient  to  justify 
an  abandonment  of  the  supposition  that  subsidence  plays 
a  principal  part  in  the  production  of  barrier  reefs  and 
atolls,  but  are  at  the  same  time  not  satisfied  with  one 
part  of  the  explanation  offered  by  Mr.  J.  Murray. 

I  refer  to  the  great  effects  attributed  by  him  to  the 
disintegration  and  solution  of  dead  coral  by  the  chemical 


action  of  sea-water,  in  hollowing  out  and  deepening  the 
large  and  deep  lagoons  inside  both  these  classes  of  reefs. 

Mr.  Murray's  theory  on  this  point,  as  summarized  by 
himself,  is  that — 

"(i)  When  coral  plantations  build  up  on  submarine 
banks,  they  assume  an  atoll  form,  owing  to  the  more 
abundant  supply  of  food  to  the  outer  margins,  and  the 
removal  of  dead  coral  rock  frojn  the  interior  portions  by 
currents  and  by  the  action  of  the  carbonic  acid  dissolved 
in  sea-water.  (2)  That  barrier  reefs  have  built  out  from 
the  shore  on  a  foundation  of  volcanic  debris,  or  a  talus 
of  coral  blocks,  coral  sediment,  or  pelagic  shells,  and  the 
lagoon  channel  is  formed  in  the  saine  way  as  a  lagoon." 

The  italics  are  mine,  and  indicate  the  part  of  his  theory 
to  which  from  my  view,  and,  I  believe,  that  of  others, 
there  are  objections,  but  to  which  Mr.  Murray  attaches 
considerable  weight. 

Is  it  necessary  thus  to  invoke  the  aid  of  dissolution  of 
the  dead  coral  by  chemical  action  as  an  important  agent 
in  the  formation  of  these  deep  lagoons  and  channels  ?  I 
think  not. 

An  examination  of  the  forms  of,  and  depths  on,  well- 
surveyed  submerged  banks  in  different  regions  reveals  a 
considerable  number  of  reefs,  which,  if  their  development 
continues  on  the  same  lines  as  apparently  heretofore, 
must,  in  the  course  of  time  necessary  to  bring  them  to 
the  surface,  form  perfect  atolls  of  large  size,  inclosing 
deep  lagoons,  without  any  further  scooping  out  by 
solution. 

Many  instances  occur  in  the  China  Sea.  The  Tizard 
Bank,  in  lat.  10'  20'  N.,  and  long.  1 14°  25'  E.,  is  32  nautical 
miles  in  length,  with  an  extreme  breadth  of  10  miles,  and 
was  well  surveyed  in  1867.  The  central  portion  is  very 
flat  and  almost  void  of  patches.  Its  depth  is  from  30 
to  47  fathom?.  Its  edge  is  crowned  with  a  coral  rim 
varying  from  4  to  10  fathoms  in  depth,  broken  here  and 
there  by  openings,  in  some  cases  over  30  fathoms  deep. 
The  bank  rises  steeply  from  deep  water,  but,  as  no  sec- 
tional soundings  were  taken,  the  precise  angle  of  slope 
is  unknown.  The  rim  is  composed  of  coral  in  luxuriant 
growth,  and  it  can  scarcely  be  doubted  that  in  time  it 
will  reach  the  surface.  In  fact,  on  its  periphery  of  100 
miles,  in  eight  places  small  patches  of  reef,  three  of 
which  bear  islets,  have  already  done  so. 

When  the  remaining  portions  of  the  rim  are  also 
awash,  the  reef  will  be  in  all  respects  an  atoll  similar 
to  the  great  Maldive  atolls,  without  any  necessity  for 
solvent  action  enlarging  or  deepening  it. 

Eight  other  banks  of  similar  character,  and  in  various 
stages,  occur  not  far  from  this  reef. 

The  great  Macclesfield  Bank,  farther  north,  over  70 
miles  in  length,  and  40  miles  in  width,  is  of  precisely  the 
same  nature,  but  its  development  is  not  so  far  advanced  ; 
the  rim  being  in  no  spot  nearer  the  surface  than  10 
fathoms,  the  water  on  it  varying  from  that  amount  to  19 
fathoms,  while  the  depth  of  the  inclosed  area  is  from  »^ 
to  60  fathoms.  The  survey  of  this  bank  is  -^^  />^  u^^^^" 
plete  as  in  the  case  of  some  others.  b"<^  enough  has  been 
done  to  show  its  character  very  plainly.  ^  ,     „. 

The  Prince  Conaurt  Shoal  (300  miles  S.W.  of  the  Tizard 
Bank)  is  apparently  at  a  still  earlier  stage,  a  few  patches 
of  17  fathoms  and  a  considerable  area  of  30  fathoms 
partly  inclosing  a  central  area  of  40  fathoms  depth.  The 
great  Seychelles  Bank  in  the  Indian  Ocean,  200  miles  by 
TOO,  is  very  imperfectly  known,  but  in  most  places  the 
lines  of  soundings  over  its  edge  exhibit  this  tendency  to 
form  a  rim.  Here,  however,  the  general  depth  on  the 
bank  is  not  over  30  fathoms.  The  Amirante  Bank  is  a 
similar  example. 

Theevidence  afforded  by  these  reefs  has  probably  escaped 
notice  from  the  fact  that  as  published  in  charts  for  the  pur- 
pose of  navigation  they  are  mostly  shown  on  a  very  small 
scale,  in  which  their  character  is  scarcely  apparent.  The 
original  manuscript  surveys  in  the  records  of  the  Hydro- 


394 


NA  TURE 


{Feb. 


Oi 


1888 


graphic  Department  being  not  generally  available,  no 
opportunity  has  been  afiforded  for  their  examination,  but 
on  these  their  form  is  highly  suggestive.  It  should  also 
be  remembered  that  few  submerged  banks  have  yet  been 
surveyed  on  a  sufficiently  large  scale  and  in  sufficient 
detail  to  show  their  characteristics. 

I  may,  however,  add  that  it  is  well  known  to  seamen 
experienced  in  navigation  in  coral  waters  that  shallower 
soundings  are  frequently  found  on  the  edges  of  banks. 

How  precisely  it  comes  about  that  coral  is  growing  on 


the  yet  deep  rims  of  these  large  banks,  and  that  little  or 
none  is  flourishing  in  the  interior,  evidence  is  yet  wanting 
to  show.  These,  however,  are  the  facts,  and  the  result, 
so  far  as  the  necessity  for  future  scooping  out  is  concerned, 
seems  indisputable.  I  may  nevertheless  offer  a  suggestion. 
This  condition  of  reef  is  apparently  only  to  be  accounted 
for  in  two  ways.  Either  by  subsidence  ;  or  by  assuming 
that  the  animals,  be  they  corals  or  other  lime-secreting 
organisms,  that  settle  on  the  bank,  do,  when  it  gets,  by 
their    accumulation,   within   a   certain    distance   of    the 


3IS 

zoo 

s 

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gi-oz  v4-  ,,,  (/0/j/  29    29   2^-'  -''             s    ^^  TO        ■^•■Mb 

..-■■-^s                          ''^                  42    J.?    / 

■wr%             -n                           .4              ■^^              46             40  ^     .■•■■■ 

/;:.'•  40  3^  •=•■'  ^  ^7  *? '           -^^      .-     /■■ 

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'%■:.     90  =,,,,              -^       44   "^^   40  y 

loos-.chj-      "■■"12/43     so               .,                                  ^ /f:^:5/ 
gl.oz.s..       40          -,»  "         4S       jfi      ''''                                    ■    y/T2^ 

\  ,137       s                   ^s  ^                                  /.  crl                         MACCLESFIELD  BANK 

~\<3-                  50     4->                   ** 

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■^          "-■ -.'.4/0 -v_..-/5-            ...■•■                                                                         Scale  of  Sea  Miles 

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J>                    JOO 

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.     .47   '^oL ^;' ■' ., ,     crl,'     2JO 
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s3    ^4      ^..     ->     ,..^,-fAj 

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'    •  ■    —Ill 

surface,  and  under  certain  conditions  of  currents  and  food 
supply,  intercept  so  much  of  the  food  borne  in  by  the 
currents,  that  similar  life,  suitable  to  that  depth  zone, 
cannot  be  supported  in  the  central  area.  Thenceforward, 
the  rim  alone  will  grow,  and  the  organisms  fitted  to  live 
in  the  successively  shallower  zones  to  the  surface  will  only 
find  on  it  foothold. 

This  would  be  the  perfect  atoll,  but,  with  less  nicely 
balanced  conditions,  growth  would  also  take  place  in 
patches  in  the  central  area,  as  is  so  often  the  case. 


It  is  to  be  observed  that  the  depths  on  the  more  or  less 
level  tops  of  these  large  banks,  as  also  in  many  perfect 
atolls,  is  frequently  between  30  and  50  fathoms. 

The  smaller  the  bank,  the  less  would  be  its  general 
depth  when  the  rim  is  formed,  owing  to  the  different  pro- 
portions in  which  an  area  and  its  periphery,  over  which 
the  non-consumed  food  must  pass,  relatively  increase, 
and  assuming  that  the  animals  that  live  nearer  the 
surface  consume  more  than  those  at  greater  depths. 

I  am  fully  aware  that  this  view  of  the  growth  of  an 


Feb.  23,  1888] 


NA  TURE 


395 


atoll  is  not  new.  Darwin  says,  "  A  bank  at  the  proper 
depth  beneath  the  surface  would  give  rise  to  a  reef  which 
could  not  be  distinguished  from  an  atoll  formed  during 
subsidence."  Murray  says,  "  Very  early  in  the  history  of 
such  an  atoll,  and  while  yet  several  fathoms  submerged, 
the  corals  situated  in  the  central  parts  would  be  placed  at 
a  disadvantage."  It  does  not,  however,  appear  to  have 
been  contemplated  that  the  inclosed  lagoon  would,  under 
any  circumstances,  without  some  further  agency  than  the 
simple  growth  of  the  rim,  be  so  deep  as  it  appears  to 
me,  from  the  cases  above  cited,  that  it  can  be  ;  nor,  so  far 
as  I  can  find,  have  any  such  instances  been  before  re- 
marked. 

Darwin  notices  the  case  of  the  Chagos  Bank,  but,  on 
the  authority  of  Captain  Moresby,  he  states  that  the  rim 
is  dead,  and  concludes  that  life  was  killed  by  subsidence, 
and  he  apparently  also  infers  that  it  will  not  grow  to  the 
surface. 

I  can  find  no  fresh  evidence  on  this  particular  reef,  but 
for  some  of  the  banks  in  the  China  Sea  I  have  the  in- 
dependent testimony  of  two  of  the  officers  employed  in 
their  survey,  Stafif-Commanders  Tizard  and  Petley,  R.N., 
that  the  coral  growth  is  most  luxuriant. 

Touching  for  a  moment  on  the  point  of  the  formation 
of  banks  at  a  proper  distance  below  the  surface  ;  the  in- 
vestigation of  banks  in  the  Atlantic,  recently  described  by 
Mr.  J.  Buchanan,  shows  that  banks  with  almost  wall- 
like slopes  are  growing  up  by  the  accumulation  of 
organisms. 

Turning  to  barrier  reefs,  similar  instances  can  be 
found.  Off  the  coast  of  the  island  of  Palawan,  a  shallow 
rim  is  forming  on  the  edge  of  the  bank  which  stretches 
from  the  island  to  a  distance  varying  from  15  to  30 
miles,  having  a  general  depth  on  it  of  40  fathoms.  The 
length  of  the  rim  is  250  miles,  and  it  consists  of  streaks 
and  patches  of  coral  with  from  4  to  30  fathoms  on  them. 

On  the  south  of  the  eastern  end  of  New  Guinea,  a 
formation,  known  to  navigators  as  the  sunken  barrier,  lines 
the  edge  of  a  bank  similar  to  the  above,  and  is  of  precisely 
the  same  character.  Its  length  is  140  miles,  and  the 
depth  between  it  and  the  land  varies  from  30  to  60 
fathoms. 

Dr.  Guppy  has  recently  pointed  out  some  smaller 
instances  of  the  same  tendency  in  the  Solomon  Islands, 
and  has  made  some  remarks  on  the  formation  of  barrier 
reefs  in  the  same  sense  as  my  suggestions.  I  am  not 
therefore  advancing  anything  novel,  but  simply  pointing 
out  evidence  which  tends  to  show  that  the  principle  may 
be  carried  further  than  has  hitherto  been  supposed. 

Looking  now  at  the  fringing  class,  how  comes  it  that  so 
many  wide  reefs  of  this  character  exist,  which,  if  Mr. 
Murray's  contention  be  correct,  should  surely  show  more 
signs  of  the  formation  of  a  lagoon  channel  than  they  do .'' 
Take  the  case  of  Rodriguez,  in  the  Indian  Ocean,  with 
which  I  am  personally  intimately  acquainted.  Here  a 
fringing  reef  surrounds  the  western  sides  of  the  island  for 
a  width  of  4^  miles.  There  are  narrow  channels  it  is 
true,  but  so  shallow  that  in  many  places  boats  cannot  pass 
at  low  water.  The  island  is  situated  in  the  heart  of  the 
strong  trade  winds,  and  the  reefs  are  exposed  to  a  heavy 
sea,  which,  with  a  rise  of  tide  of  nearly  6  feet,  gives  every 
facility  for  scour  and  rapid  change  of  water. 

I  am  not  disputing  the  fact  that  calcareous  dead 
organisms  are  dissolved  by  carbonic  acid.  I  am  no 
chemist,  and  moreover  the  C7/i3;//^/74'"^r  observations  amply 
prove  it,  but  I  would  ask  Mr.  Murray  if  there  is  not  a 
great  difference  between  the  position  of  small  shells  falling 
in  water  which  completely  surrounds  them  whilst  they 
are  constantly  coming  in  contact  with  fresh  particles  of  it, 
and  of  the  more  or  less  solid  mass  of  a  coral  reef,  which 
can  only  be  attacked  on  its  upper  side  to  advantage,  and 
where  the  resultant  fine  mud  covers  and  protects  the  re- 
maining rock,  especially  in  the  case  of  lagoon  channels, 
when  the  bottom  is  partly  composed  of  detritus  from  the  land. 


At  the  bottom  of  a  lagoon  of  any  depth,  moreover,  the 
motion  of  the  water  must  often  be  comparatively  slight, 
and  the  action  consequently  extremely  slow. 

The  rotten  state  of  the  surface  of  every  coral  reef  awash 
with  the  water  shows  that  this  disintegration  is  going  on, 
but  the  fact  that  for  large  areas  it  remains  awash,  and  must 
have  so  remained  for  ages,  seems  to  me  to  point  to  the 
supposition  that  the  removal  of  matter  is  too  insignificant 
to  account  for  the  formation  of  deep  lagoon  channels  in 
this  manner,  though  doubtless  it  may  explain  the  shallow 
pools  and  creeks  found  in  all  fringing  reefs. 

I  have  addressed  myself  solely  to  one  point  in  this 
many-sided  question,  but  I  may  add  my  opinion  that, 
before  any  explanation  which  will  fully  account  for  the 
almost  infinite  variety  of  coral  formations,  can  be  given, 
much  more  knowledge  of  details  of  the  complex  conditions 
under  which  they  may  grow  is  required. 

Certain  knowledge  of  the  depths  at  which  different 
corals  and  other  lime-secreting  animals  live  under  vary- 
ing circumstances  ;  of  the  amount  of  food  carried  in  the 
different  strata  and  in  different  waters  ;  of  the  effect  of 
the  velocity  of  the  currents  that  bring  the  food  to  the 
banks ;  and  more  accurate  surveys  on  large  scales, 
especially  of  the  shapes  and  contours  of  coral  reefs,  and 
of  their  composition,  are  all  wanting.  These  details  must 
greatly  affect  coral  growth,  and  the  results  must  greatly 
vary.  On  the  other  hand,  similar  results  may  be  brought 
about  by  different  causes. 

It  may  surprise  some  to  learn  how  little  in  the  prelimin- 
ary matter  of  surveys  alone  has  been  done  in  the  principal 
coral-reef  regions,  especially  in  the  Pacific,  which  is 
generally  quoted  ;  and  consequently  how  very  inexact  our 
knowledge  is  of  the  depth  both  inside  and  outside  of  the 
majority  of  atolls  in  the  world,  and  also  of  the  state  of 
the  bottom  of  the  sea,  on  which  it  is  very  possible  that 
many  elevations  may  be  found  in  the  condition  of  those 
to  which  I  have  called  attention. 

In  the  Pacific  the  vast  majority  of  islands  have  been 
merely  sketched  without  a  single  sounding  having  been 
taken,  either  inside  or  outside  lagoons. 

I  append  a  few  statistics  relating  to  the  larger  coral 
groups  to  show  our  position  in  this  respect  ;  merely  re- 
marking that  the  waters  of  the  Fiji  and  the  Society  Islands 
are  the  only  ones  which  can  be  said  to  be  in  any  sense 
surveyed. 

No.  of  Islands.  No.  surveyed. 

PauT.otu  Islands      ...         74         ...  I  partially. 


Ellice 

10 

none. 

Gilbert 

16 

none. 

Marshall 

30 

none. 

Caroline 

43 

3  partially. 

Tonga 

...  6  groups 

...   2  groups  partially 
W.  J.  L.  Wh.\rto 

THE  AKKAS,  A  PYGMY  RACE  FROf 
CENTRAL  AFRICA. 

AT  the  last  meeting  of  the  Anthropological  Institute, 
Prof  Flower  gave  a  description  of  two  skeletons 
of  Akkas,  lately  obtained  in  the  Monbuttu  country, 
Central  Africa,  by  Emin  Pasha,  and  by  him  presented 
to  the  British  Museum.  Since  this  diminutive  tribe  was 
discovered  by  Schweinfurth  in  1870,  they  have  received 
considerable  attention  from  various  travellers  and  anthro- 
pologists, and  general  descriptions  and  measurements  of 
several  living  individuals  have  been  published,  but  no 
account  of  their  osteological  characters  has  been  given, 
and  no  specimens  have  been  submitted  to  careful 
anatomical  examination.  The  two  skeletons  are  those 
of  fully  adult  people,  a  male  and  a  female,  but  un- 
fortunately neither  is  quite  complete.  The  evidence 
they  afford  entirely  corroborates  the  view,  previously 
derived   from   external    measurements,   that    the  Akkas 


\^6 


NATURE 


[Feb.  23.  1888 


are  among  the  smallest,  if  not  actually  the  smallest, 
people  upon  the  earth.  There  is  no  reason  to  suppose 
that  these  skeletons  were  selected  in  any  way  as  ex- 
ceptional specimens,  yet  they  are  both  of  them  smaller 
than  any  other  normal  skeletons  known,  smaller  certainly 
than  the  smallest  Bushman  skeleton  in  any  Museum  in 
this  country,  and  smaller  than  any  out  of  twenty-nine 
skeletons  of  the  diminutive  inhabitants  of  the  Andaman 
Islands,  of  which  the  dimensions  have  been  recorded  by 
Prof.  Flower  in  a  previous  paper  communicated  to  the 
Institute.  The  most  liberal  calculation  of  the  height  of 
these  two  skeletons  places  that  of  the  male  at  about  an 
inch  below  4  feet,  and  the  female  at  less  than  an  inch 
above.  We  may  say  4  feet,  or  i"2i9  metre,  as  the  average 
height  of  the  two,  while  a  living  female  of  whom  Emin 
Pasha  has  sent  careful  measurements  is  but  1*164  metre, 
or  barely  3  feet  10  inches.  The  results  previously 
obtained  from  the  measurements  of  about  half-a  dozen 
living  Akkas  are  not  quite  so  low  as  these,  varying  from 
I"2i6  to  1*420,  and  give  a  mean  for  both  sexes  of  r356,  or 
4  feet  sj  inches.  Schweinfurth's  original  measurements 
were  unfortunately  lost,  and  the  numbers  since  obtained 
are  quite  insufficient  for  establishing  the  true  average  of 
the  race,  especially  as  it  is  not  certain  that  they  were  all 
pure-bred  specimens. 

In  the  list  given  in  the  third  edition  of  Topinard's 
"  Anthropologie "  (1879)  only  two  races  appear  which 
have  a  mean  height  below  1*500  metres,  viz.  the  Negritos 
of  the  Andaman  Islands  1*478,  and  the  Bushmen  1*404.  Of 
the  real  height  of  the  former  we  have  abundant  and  exact 
evidence,  both  from  the  living  individuals  and  from 
skeletons,  which  clearly  proves  that  they  considerably  ex- 
ceed the  Akkas  in  stature.  That  this  is  also  the  case  with 
the  Bushmen  there  is  little  doubt,  although  the  measure- 
ments of  this  diminutive  race  are  less  numerous  and 
carefully  made. 

The  point  of  comparative  size  being  settled,  it  remains 
to  consider  to  what  races  the  Akkas  are  most  nearly  allied. 
That  they  belong  in  all  their  essential  characteristics  to 
the  black  or  Negroid  branch  of  the  human  species  there 
can  be  no  doubt,  in  fact  they  exhibit  all  the  essential 
characteristics  of  that  branch  even  to  exaggeration. 
With  regard  to  the  somewhat  more  rounded  form  of 
head  (the  cephalic  index  in  these  examples  being  74*4 
and  77*9  respectively),  Hamy  has  long  since  pointed  out 
that  in  equatorial  Africa,  extending  from  the  west  coast 
far  into  the  interior,  are  scattered  tribes  of  Negroes,  dis- 
tinguished from  the  majority  of  the  inhabitants  of  the 
continent  by  this  special  cranial  character,  as  well  as  by 
their  smaller  stature.  The  Akkas  are  grouped  by  Hamy 
and  Ouatrefages  as  members  of  this  race,  to  which  the 
distinctive  name  of  "  Negrillo  "  has  been  applied.  Their 
small  size  has  naturally  led  some  anthropologists,  includ- 
ing Schweinfurth,  to  ally  them  to  the  diminutive  African 
race  inhabiting  the  southern  part  of  the  continent — the 
Bushmen;  but  beyond  certain  characters  met  with  in  the 
whole  Negroid  branch,  including  the  frizzly  hair,  there  is 
little  in  common  between  them.  The  B-ushmen  are  a  very 
strongly  marked  race,  and  both  their  external  appearance 
and  osteological  characters  are  so  exceptional  that  they 
can  never  be  confounded  with  any  other.  The  natives  of 
the  Andaman  Islands  have  also  very  distinctive  characters, 
which  they  do  not  share  with  the  Akkas,  whose  position 
all  recent  investigations  show  to  be  that  assigned  to  them 
by  Hamy  as  members  of  the  Negrillo  division  of  the 
Negroid  branch  of  mankind.  It  is  possible  that  these 
people  gave  origin  to  the  stories  of  pygmies  so  common 
in  the  writings  of  the  Greek  poets  and  historians,  and 
whose  habitations  were  often  placed  near  the  sources  of 
the  Nile.  The  name  "Akka,"  by  which,  according  to 
Schweinfurth,  the  tribe  now  call  themselves,  has,  singularly 
enough,  been  read  by  Mariette  Pasha  by  the  side  of  a 
portrait  of  a  dwarf  on  a  monument  of  the  ancient  Egyptian 
empire. 


REV.  JOHN  HEWITT  JELLETT,  D.D.,  D.C.L. 

T  T  is  with  extreme  regret  that  we  announce  the  death 
A  of  the  Reverend  the  Provost  of  Trinity  College, 
Dublin.  He  died  last  Sunday  evening  after  a  very  short 
illness. 

The  Provost  was  present  in  his  usual  health  at  the 
Spring  Commencements,  which  were  held  on  the  14th 
inst.  in  the  Hall  of  Trinity  College  ;  on  the  i6th  he  was 
not  quite  well  ;  on  the  18th  some  dangerous  symptoms 
appeared  ;  and  the  end  came,  painlessly  and  unexpectedly, 
on  the  19th  inst. 

John  Hewitt  Jellett  was  born  at  Cashel  in  the  county 
of  Tipperary  on  December  25,  1817.  He  entered  Trinity 
College,  Dublin,  when  seventeen  years  of  age.  Obtaining 
a  Scholarship  in  1836,  he  graduated  as  a  Senior  Modera- 
tor and  Gold  Medallist  in  Mathematics  in  1837,  and 
three  years  afterwards  he  obtained  a  Fellowship. 

In  1 848,  he  was  appointed  to  the  Professorship  of  Natural 
Philosophy  ;  in  1870,  on  the  death  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Luby, 
he  was  co-opted  a  Senior  Fellow  of  Trinity  College,  and 
on  the  death  of  the  Rev  Dr.  Lloyd,  in  1881,  he  was 
nominated  by  the  Crown  to  the  Provostship. 

Twenty  years  ago  he  was  made  one  of  the  Commis- 
sioners of  National  Education  in  Ireland,  and  he  was 
President  of  the  Royal  Irish  Academy  from  1869  to  1873. 

In  1850,  Jellett  published  his  well-known  "Treatise  on 
the  Calculus  of  Variations,"  a  subject  which  had  engaged 
the  attention  of  some  of  the  noblest  mathematical  intel- 
lects of  the  world.  The  volume  contains  improvements 
of  previously  existing  methods,  which,  had  they  been  given 
as  so  many  separate  treatises,  would  in  themselves  have 
formed  no  ordinary  title  to  fame  ;  but  the  author's  aim 
was  rather  to  compile  a  memoir  which  would  enable  the 
earnest  student  to  be  on  a  level  with  the  knowledge  he 
had  himself  attained  to,  however  little  that  aim  might 
be  to  his  own  glory. 

For  this  work  the  Royal  Irish  Academy  awarded  Jellett 
in  185 1  their  Cunningham  Gold  Medal.  In  1872  appeared 
the  "  Treatise  on  the  Theory  of  Friction,"  a  work  well 
known  and  highly  appreciated.  In  addition  to  these 
volumes  a  number  of  scientific  memoirs  were  from  time  to 
time  published  by  him  in  the  Transactions  of  the  Royal 
Irish  Academy,  and  in  Leonville's  Journal  de  Mathe- 
inatique,  of  which  perhaps  the  more  important  were  on 
the  "  Equilibrium  and  Motion  of  an  Elastic  Solid " 
and  "  On  Researches  in  Chemical  Optics.'' 

Like  other  well-known  mathematicians  of  the  Dublin 
University,  Jellett  was  as  much  thought  of  for  his  pulpit 
discourses  as  for  his  scientific  memoirs.  He  was  of  good 
presence,  had  a  clear  articulation  and  a  very  persuasive 
style  ;  and  his  appearance  in  the  pulpit  of  the  College 
chapel  was  always  welcomed.  When  he  dwelt  on  the  moral 
difficulties  of  the  Old  Testament,  none  went  their  way 
without  being  impressed  by  the  straightforward  honesty 
of  the  man. 

Occupying  a  very  conspicuous  position  in  a  University 
city  like  Dublin,  the  Provost  seemed  to  command  the 
respect  of  all.  Some  perhaps  there  are  who  would  have 
preferred  that  the  head  of  so  ancient  a  seat  of  learning 
should  have  taken  no  part  in  modern  political  strife  ;  but, 
even  amid  the  feverish  excitement  of  party  warfare,  the 
Provost  of  Trinity  College,  though  he  often  fearlessly  and 
eloquently  put  forward  his  own  views,  did  so  without  giving 
offence  to  any. 

Intimately  associated,  from  the  year  1834,  with  the  life 
of  the  College  over  which  he  at  the  last  presided,  the 
Provost  knew  much  of,  and  was  a  prime  mover  in,  many 
of  the  changes  which  have  marked  out  a  new  life  in  the 
place.  Within  its  walls  he  was  known  and' respected, 
while  the  tribute  to  his  memory  paid  by  all  classes  of 
the  Dublin  citizens  is  a  striking  proof  of  how  he  was 
loved. 

This  is  not  the  place  to  dwell  on  the  intense  loss  his 


Feb. 


O' 


1888] 


NATURE 


397 


death  brings  to  those  who  had  experienced  the  charm  of 
that  hidden  inner  life  which  was  known  to  his  friends  as 
both  kind  and  just,  affectionate  and  sympathetic. 


NOTES. 

The  retirement  of  the  veteran  Prof.  Prestwich  from  the 
Chair  of  Geology  at  Oxford  is  an  event  which  cannot  be  chroni- 
cled without  regret.  But  it  is  pleasant  to  know  that  he  re- 
linquishes the  post  which  he  has  dignified  for  so  many  years 
to  find  in  the  quiet  of  his  country  home  that  leisure  and  rest  to 
which  his  long  devotion  to  the  cause  of  science  so  justly  entitles 
\\\\\\.  He  has  crowned  his  professorial  career  by  the  publication 
of  the  splendid  volume  which  completes  his  great  work  on  geology. 
On  the  very  day  after  the  appearance  of  that  volume  the  electors 
met  at  Oxford  to  select  from  the  numerous  candidates  a  successor 
to  fill  his  place.  His  University  and  the  science  of  geology  may 
both  be  congratulated  on  their  choice.  Prof  Green,  whom  they 
have  chosen,  is  one  of  the  most  accomplished  geologists  in  the 
country,  one  who  has  been  trained  in  the  practical  school  of  the 
Geological  Survey,  who  has  done  admirable  original  work,  and 
who  possesses  in  no  common  measure  the  power  of  luminous 
exposition.  He  is  gifted,  moreover,  with  a  faculty  in  which 
geologists  are  often  singularly  defective,  that  of  mathematical 
investigation,  and  we  may  hope  that  one  of  the  results  of  his 
transference  to  Oxford  will  be  to  afford  him  an  opportunity  of 
devoting  himself  to  the  attack  of  many  geological  problems 
from  the  mathematical  side.  He  carries  with  him  to  his  new 
sphere  of  labour  the  best  wishes  of  all  to  whom  the  progress  of 
geology  and  the  cultivation  of  science  at  the  Universities  are 
dear. 

On  May  27  next  Prof  F,  C.  Bonders,  of  Utrecht,  will  be 
seventy  years  of  age.  The  law  requires  that  he  shall  then  re- 
sign his  duties  as  Professor  at  the  University  and  as  Director  of 
the  Physiological  Laboratory,  and  it  is  thought  that  men  of  science 
in  all  parts  of  the  world  may  be  glad  to  take  the  opportunity  of 
expressing  their  appreciation  of  the  great  services  Prof  Bonders 
has  rendered  to  the  study  of  physiology  and  physiological  optics. 
An  influential  committee  has  been  formed  in  Holland  for  the  pur- 
pose of  giving  effect  to  this  idea,  and  the  proposal  is  that  Prof. 
Bonders'  name  should  be  connected  in  a  permanent  way  with  the 
spot  where  he  has  lived  and  worked  for  more  than  forty  years,  by 
the  creation  of  a  fund  to  be  devoted  to  a  scientific  purpose,  and  to 
be  known  as  the  "  Bonders  Memorial  Fund."  The  uses  to  which 
the  fund  will  be  put,  and  the  rules  by  which  its  administration 
will  be  governed,  will  of  course  be  determined  in  accordance 
with  the  wishes  of  Prof  Bonders.  The  Ophthalmological  and 
Physiological  Societies  have  taken  the  matter  in  hand  in  this 
country,  and  we  have  no  doubt  that  the  committees  they  have 
appointed  will  do  their  work  satisfactorily.  It  ought  not  to  be 
difficult  for  them  to  secure  an  adequate  token  of  the  respect  felt 
in  England  for  an  illustrious  man  of  science  to  whom  the  medical 
]irofession  and  the  public  are  so  deeply  indebted.  It  is  proposed 
that  the  amounts  contributed  by  the  several  donors  be  not  specified, 
but  that  they  be  grouped  into  a  common  sum  for  transmission  to 
the  Butch  Committee  ;  and  that  the  names  of  those  contributing 
be  inscribed  in  a  suitable  form  for  presentation  to  Prof  Bonders. 
For  this  reason  smaller  as  well  as  larger  subscriptions  will  be 
acceptable.  Subscriptions  may  be  sent  to  Br.  Gerald  F.  Yeo, 
Secretary  of  the  Committee  of  the  Physiological  Society  (address — 
King's  College,  London,  W.C),  or  to  Br.  W.  A.  Brailey, 
Secretary  of  the  Committee  of  the  Ophthalmological  Society  of  the 
United  Kingdom  (address — 11  Old  Burlington  Street,  London, 
W.).  Subscriptions  may  also  be  sent  to  the  office  of  this 
journal. 


At  a  meeting  of  the  Royal  Society  of  Edinburgh,  held  on 
January  30,  Profs.  Clausius,  Haeckel,  and  Mendeleeff  were 
elected  Honorary  Fellows. 

Sir  James  Paget,  F.R.S.,  has  consented  to  give  the  annua' 
address  to  the  students  of  the  London  Society  for  the  Extension 
of  University  Teaching,  at  the  Mansion  House,  on  Saturday, 
March  3,  at  3.30  p.m.,  under  the  presidency  of  the  Lord 
Mayor.     The  subject  of  the  address  will  be  "  Scientific  Study." 

A  MARBLE  medallion  portrait  of  the  distinguished  palaeonto- 
logist, Br.  Thomas  Bavidson,  F.R.S.,  first  chairman  of  the 
Brighton  Museum  Committee,  was  unveiled  in  the  geological 
room  of  the  Free  Town  Museum,  Brighton,  by  the  Mayor,  Mr. 
E.  Martin,  on  Friday,  the  17th  inst.  The  medallion,  which  is 
much  admired,  is  the  work  of  Mr.  Brock,  A.R.A.  It  was 
presented  to  the  town  on  behalf  of  the  subscribers  by  Mr. 
Edward  Crane,  chairman  of  the  Museum  Committee,  who 
referred  in  detail  to  Br.  Bavidson's  services  to  science  and 
to  the  Museum.  Sir  R.  Owen  sent  a  letter  regretting  that  failing 
health  prevented  his  paying  the  respect  of  personal  attendance 
to  the  memory  of  his  distinguished  fellow-worker.  Prof  Judd 
also  wrote  bearing  cordial  testimony  to  the  skill  and  enthusiasm 
with  which  Br.  Bavidson  carried  on  his  researches. 

General  Perrier,  the  most  eminent' French  authority  on 
geodesy,  died  at  Montpellier  on  Monday  at  the  age  of  fifty-five. 
He  had  attained  the  rank  of  Brigadier- General  in  the  French 
army,  and  was  at  the  head  of  the  Geode  tic  Bepartment  at  the 
War  Office.     He  was  a  member  of  the  Academy  of  Sciences. 

The  relations  of  science  and  religion  do  not  form  one  of  those 
topics  which  we  permit  ourselves  to  discuss  in  Nature.  At  the 
same  time  we  may  call  attention  to  a  series  of  three  remarkable 
articles  on  "  Barwinism  and  the  Christian  Faith "  recently 
published  in  the  Guardian  (January  18,  January  25,  and 
February  i,  1888),  and  now  reprinted  as  a  pamphlet.  The 
author  is  anonymous,  but  is  understood  to  be  an  Oxford  College 
tutor,  and  Honorary  Canon  of  Christ  Church.  The  orthodoxy 
of  the  Guardian  is,  we  believe,  unimpeachable.  We  notice 
therefore  with  gratification  that  not  only  is  Barwinism 
thoroughly  accepted  and  lucidly  expounded  by  the  writer  in  the 
Guai-dian,  but  that  he  is  an  exceptionally  well-informed  and 
capable  critic,  whose  scientific  knowledge  is  varied  and  sound. 
The  publication  of  these  articles  in  the  Guardian  is  a  proof  that 
the  clergy  as  a  body  are  not  so  unwilling  to  accept  new  scientific 
views  as  might  be  supposed  were  we  to  regard  Bean  Burgon  as 
a  fair  sample  of  his  class.  The  Guardian' s  conixihwiox  discusses 
the  difficulty  of  reconciling  the  existence  of  a  just,  omnipotent, 
and  omniscient  God  with  the  existence  of  pain  and  the  ceaseless 
"struggle  for  existence,"  rand  a  propos  has  a  remark  tinged 
with  local  colour  which  is  worth  reproducing.  "And  yet,"  he 
says,  "  man,  who  is  so  wise  and  good  that  he  is  always  saying, 
with  King  Alphonso  of  Castile,  '  If  God  had  called  me  to  His 
councils  things  would  have  been  in  better  order,'  has  invented 
competitive  examinations,  which  mean  suffering  and  pain  for  all, 
without  even  a  compensating  '  survival  of  the  fittest '  or  improve- 
ment of  the  race  !  "  We  believe  that  competitive  examinations 
were  invented  by  the  Chinese,  and  introduced  into  Europe  by 
Jesuit  missionaries.  The  Chinese  are  celebrated  among  the 
nations  of  the  world  for  the  elaborate  system  of  cruel  tortures 
employed  in  their  administration  of  justice.  On  the  other  hand, 
wie  owe  tea  and  many  other  nice  things  to  them. 

The  annual  winter  meeting  of  the  Department  of  Super- 
intendence of  the  U.S.  National  Education  Association  was 
held  lately  at  Washington.  The  most  important  topics  treated 
were  "  How  and  to  what  extent  can  Manual  Training  be  in- 
grafted on  our  System  of  Public  Schools  ?  "  and  "  How  can  the 
Qualifications  of  Teachers  be  determined  ?  " 


398 


NATURE 


[Feb.  23, 


The  Archaeological  Congress  which  is  to  be  held  at  Moscow, 
in  1890,  will  have  an  international  character,  many  German, 
French,  Italian,  and  other  men  of  science  having  already  been 
invited  to  attend.  The  Congress  will  consider  the  following 
subjects :  (l)  prehistoric  antiquities  ;  (2)  historical,  geo- 
graphical, and  ethnographical  questions  ;  (3)  Russian  art  monu- 
ments ;  (4)  ecclesiastical  monuments  ;  (5)  Slavo-Russian  language 
and  writing ;  (6)  Slavo-Byzantine  and  West  European  anti- 
quities ;  (7)  Oriental  and  heathen  antiquities  ;  (8)  latest  progress 
of  archaeology. 

Mrs.  Zelta  Nuttall  has  been  elected  a  Fellow  of  the 
American  Association  for  the  Advancement  of  Science  in 
recognition  of  her  researches  in  Mexican  archaeology. 

A  TRANSLATION  of  Dr.  E.  B.  Tylor's  hand-book  of  "  Anthro- 
pology "  into  Spanish  by  D.  Antonio  Machado  has  just  been 
published  in  Madrid.  The  author  contributes  a  special  preface 
drawing  attention  to  the  valuable  anthropological  material  still 
to  be  found  in  Spanish  America. 

The  first  number  of  what  will  no  doubt  prove  to  be  an  im- 
portant and  valuable  periodical  has  just  been  issued.  It  is  called 
Internationales  Archiv  fiir  Ethnographie,  and  is  edited  by  J. 
D.  E.  Schmeltz,  of  the  Ethnographical  Museum  of  Leyden,  who 
has  received  promises  of  co-operation  from  many  of  the  foremost 
ethnologists  and  anthropologists  in  Europe  and  America.  The 
present  number  (which  contains  German,  Dutch,  and  French 
contributions)  opens  with  a  striking  article,  in  German,  by  Dr. 
L.  Serrurier,  Director  of  the  Leyden  Ethnographical  Museum, 
on  the  arrows  of  New  Guinea.  Representations  of  the  various 
types  of  New  Guinea  arrows,  admirably  printed  in  colours, 
illustrate  this  interesting  paper. 

We  have  received  the  first  number  of  Thi  American 
Anthropologist.  This  new  quarterly  periodical  is  issued  under 
the  auspices  of  the  Anthropological  Society  of  Washington,  and 
the  editorial  committee  seek  the  co-operation  of  all  who  are 
interested  in  the  advancement  of  anthropological  science.  In 
the  first  number  there  are  papers  on  the  law  of  Malthus,  by  Dr, 
James  C.  Walling  ;  the  development  of  time-keeping  in  Greece 
and  Rome,  by  F.  A.  Seely  ;  the  human  hand,  by  Dr. 
Frank  Baker  ;  and  the  Chane-abal  (four-language)  tribe  and 
dialect  of  Chiapas,  by  Dr.  D.  G.  Brinton. 

The  American  Meteoj'ological  ^otirnal  for  January  contains  : — 
(l)  An  article  by  F.  Waldo  on  instruments  for  measuring 
atmospheric  pressure,  showing  the  differences  that  exist  in  the 
standard  barometers  of  different  countries,  and  that  the  standards 
do  not  always  remain  constant  for  a  number  of  years.  (2)  A 
paper  by  Prof,  H.  A.  Hazen  on  the  exposure  of  thermometers, 
with  a  discussion  of  a  new  plan  proposed  by  Dr.  R.  Assmann. 
The  latter  paper  was  presented  to  the  Berlin  Academy  in 
November  last.  (3)  On  a  thirty-day  period  of  the  weather,  by 
H.  Helm  Clayton.  The  writer  considers  that  the  period  is 
strongly  substantiated  by  facts,  although  at  present  they  remain 
empirical  facts. 

The  Deutsche  Seewarte  ;has  published  the  seventh  volume 
of  the  results  of  meteorological  observations  for  1°  squares  of 
the  North  Atlantic  Ocean.  The  object  is  to  discuss  the  ob- 
servations collected  by  German  and  Dutch  vessels  between 
latitude  50°  and  20°  N.  in  the  North  Atlantic,  adjoining  the 
district  of  the  nine  equatorial  10°  squares  between  lati- 
tude 2D°  N.  and  10*  S.,  and  longitude  10°  and  40°  W.,  the 
observations  for  which  have  been  discussed  by  the  Meteoro- 
logical Council.  The  district  now  covered  by  the  two  institu- 
tions embraces  60°  of  latitude  and  30*  of  longitude,  with  the 
exception  of  one  10°  square,  which  will  shortly  be  pub- 
lished. The  German  observations  are  published  in  a  tabular 
ibrm,  showing  for  each  degree  the  direction  of  the  winds  under 


sixteen  points,  the  number  of  storms,  the  mean  wind  force, 
pressure,  temperature  of  air  and  sea,  rainfall,  and  other  parti- 
culars. The  number  of  observations  for  each  subdivision  is 
sometimes  small,  but  always  quoted,  and  in  their  present  form 
the  observations  may  be  added  to  subsequently,  or  amalgamated 
with  those  of  other  countries.  A  small  but  important  district 
south  of  20°  N.  (the  limit  of  the  German  investigation)  and  west 
of  40°  W.  (the  limit  of  the  English  investigation),  embracing 
the  region  of  the  origin  of  the  West  India  cyclones,  has  yet  to 
be  undertaken  by  some  body,  to  complete  these  important  con- 
tributions to  maritime  meteorology. 

A  NEW  chloride  of  gold,  AujC^,  has  been  prepared  by  Prof. 
Julius  Thomsen,  of  Copenhagen  {Joitrn.  fiir  Prakt.  Chemie, 
1888,  No.  2).  The  method  of  preparation  is  remarkably  simple, 
gaseous  chlorine  being  merely  brought  into  contact  with  gold  in 
a  fine  state  of  subdivision  and  at  a  moderately  elevated  tempera' 
ture.  About  50  grammes  of  finely  divided  gold,  obtained  by 
precipitating  a  solution  of  the  trichloride  with  sulphurous  acid, 
was  thoroughly  washed,  partially  dried  to  the  consistency  of  a 
thick  mud,  and  placed  in  a  previously  weighed  glass  tube.  At 
its  lower  end  the  tube  was  drawn  out  and  the  delivery  tube  of  a 
chlorine  generator  sealed  on  to  it.  A  stopper  and  exit  tube  at 
the  upper  end  completed  the  arrangement.  A  rapid  stream  of 
chlorine  gas  (half  a  litre  per  minute)  was  then  passed  through 
the  apparatus,  the  lower  end  of  the  wider  portion  containing  the 
gold  being  gently  heated  to  start  the  reaction.  The  whole  was 
then  placed  in  a  glass  beaker  surrounded  by  cotton-wool  in  order 
to  prevent  too  rapid  cooling,  by  which  device  the  heat  of  the 
reaction  itself  was  sufficient  to  complete  the  combination.  At 
the  commencement  the  absorption  of  chlorine  was  perfect,  not  a 
bubble  escaping,  but  at  the  expiration  of  half  an  hour  the  point 
of  saturation  was  reached.  After  expelling  the  uncombined 
chlorine  the  tube  was  again  weighed,  and  the  amount  of  chlorine 
thus  taken  up  determined.  In  every  experiment  the  proportion 
of  chlorine  to  that  of  gold  was  found  to  be  very  slightly  more 
than  two  to  one,  the  average  ratio  being  2*09  to  i"0.  The  slight 
excess  of  chlorine  was  due  to  minute  spangles  of  trichloride  of 
gold  sparsely  disseminated  throughout  the  mass.  The  simplicity 
of  this  mode  of  preparation  and  the  constancy  of  the  results 
may  perhaps  excite  wonder  that  Au.,Cl4  has  not  hitherto  been  as 
well  known  as  AuCl  and  AUCI3.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  Prof. 
Thomsen  discovered  it  several  years  ago,  and  published  his 
results,  but  owing  to  the  adoption  of  different  methods  by  later 
workers  the  conclusions  of  Prof.  Thomsen  were  not  considered 
confirmed.  Now  that  the  work  has  been  repeated  and  com- 
pletely verified  there  is  no  longer  any  reason  why  AU2CI4  should 
remain  in  the  background.  It  is  interesting  theoretically  as 
being  the  aurous  salt  of  chlor-auric  acid,  HAuCU. 

From  the  Annual  Report  of  the  New  York  State  Department 
of  Public  Instruction,  it  appears  that  during  last  year  over 
31 ,000  teachers  were  employed  in  the  State  of  New  York,  and 
that  of  this  number  only  5821  were  males.  The  number  of 
children  of  school  age  was  1,763,115;  the  total  enrolment, 
1,037,812  ;  the  average  attendance,  625,610.  Mr.  Draper,  the 
Superintendent,  the  author  of  the  Report,  says  that  the  attend- 
ance in  the  schools  does  not  keep  pace  with  the  growth  of  the 
population,  and  that  the  uneducated  class  is  increasing. 

Colonel  Le  Messurier  has  just  brought  out  a  third  edition 
of  his  useful  pocket  hand-book  on  the  "Game,  Shore,  and  Water 
Birds  of  India."  The  utility  of  this  unpretending  little  work 
has  been  vouched  for  by  the  call  for  its  re-issue  in  an  octavo  form 
with  the  addition  of  many  drawings  made  by  the  author  during 
his  recent  furlough  in  England,  and  we  are  glad  to  see  to  what 
practical  use  he  has  turned  some  of  Prof.  Flower's  exhibits  at 
the  Natural  History  Museum.  Colonel  Le  Messurier  writes  as 
a  field-naturalist  fu-   field-naturalists  and  sportsmen,  without  any 


Feb.  23,  1888] 


NATURE 


399 


i;ieat  pretensions  to  scientific  knowledge^  but  there  is  no  doubt 
that  all  naturalists  will  gain  useful  hints  from  this  little  volume, 
which  is  profusely  illustrated  with  woodcuts,  giving  the  charac- 
teristic features  of  most  of  the  species. 

"The  Statesman's  Year-book"  for  1888  has  been  pub- 
lished. It  contains  additions  and  alterations  which  largely 
increase  the  value  of  the  work,  and  the  statistical  and  other 
information  has  been  brought  up  to  the  latest  available  date. 

We  have  received  three  issues  of  the  "  Annuario  "  published 
by  the  Imperial  Observatory  at  Rio  de  Janeiro — the  issues  for 
1885,  1886,  and  1887.  The  work  is  well  compiled,  and  the 
editor  evidently  takes  great  pains  to  secure  that  each  issue  shall 
be  decidedly  better  than  its  predecessors.  Besides  the  usual 
collection  of  astronomical  facts,  the  work  contains  useful  tables 
relating  to  meteorology,  chemistry,  physics,  geography,  and 
other  sciences. 

THE"Annuaire  Geologique  Universel "  of  Dr.  Dagincourt, 
which  has  just  been  issued  for  the  third  time,  has  been  much 
enlarged  and  improved.  The  new  volume  contains  an  exhaustive 
review  of  recent  work  in  palaeontology  and  geology. 

A  FOURTH  edition  of  Prof.  Nichol's  "  Tables  of  European 
History,  Literature,  Science,  and  Art,  from  A.D.  200  to  1888" 
(Maclehose)  has  been  issued.  The  idea  of  the  work  is  good, 
but  we  cannot  say  that  the  scientific  tables  are  always  quite 
satisfactory.  In  his  lists  of  men  of  science  the  compiler  includes 
the  names  of  some  writers  who  have  a  very  inadequate  claim  to 
the  place  he  accords  to  them. 

The  Trustees  of  the  Australian  Museum  have  issued  a  de- 
scriptive catalogue,  by  Dr.  R.  von  Lendenfeld,  of  the  Medusa; 
of  the  Australian  seas.  Speaking  of  the  Scyphomedusa;,  Dr. 
von  Lendenfeld  says  that  he  has  observed  three  species  in 
New  Zealand,  three  species  on  the  coast  of  Victoria,  and  five 
species  in  Port  Jackson.  Two  of  the  latter  are  identical  with 
the  Victorian  species.  Of  the  nine  species,  six  have  been 
described  by  Dr.  von  Lendenfeld  ;  his  specimens  of  the  remain- 
ing three  were  not  sufficiently  well  preserved  for  description. 
The  difficulty  connected  with  the  preservation  of  t  ese  beautiful 
animals  has,  he  points  out,  been  a  great  obstacle  in  the  way 
of  a  thorough  knowledge  of  them. 

The  fifth  volume  of  the  collected  works  of  Paul  Broca  has 
just  been  issued  by  M.  Reinwald,  in  Paris.  This  volume,  which, 
like  the  others,  is  sold  separately,  is  particularly  interesting  to 
zoologists.  It  contains  Broca's  numerous  and  important  memoirs 
on  the  brain  of  man  and  primates.     It  is  well  illustrated. 

M.  Zograff's  new  work  on  the  structure  of  the  Acipcnscr 
rnthemts,  which  appeared  in  the  Izvestia  of  the  Moscow  Society 
of  Amateurs  of  Natural  Science  (vol.  Hi.  fasc.  3),  will  be  most 
welcome  to  zoologists.  Following  the  methods  adopted  by 
Giinther,  Johann  MuUer,  and  Pallas,  and  more  especially  by  the 
Swedish  ichthyologist,  F,  A.  Smitt,  who  has  applied  the  system 
of  numerous  measurements  used  in  anthropology  to  the  study  of 
fishes,  M.  Zograff  has  undertaken  to  give  anew  a  complete  de- 
scription of  the  Russian  species  of  Acipenscr,  and  the  Central 
Asian  species  of  Scaphirhynchus.  He  begins  his  work  by  a 
gene  al  description  of  the  body  of  the  Russian  Acipenseridoe  : 
the  varying  shapes  of  their  heads  ;  the  indexes  of  length,  width, 
and  thickness  of  the  body  ;  the  skin  and  spines  ;  the  teeth  ;  the 
muscles  ;  and  the  brain.  The  whole  is  accompanied  by  numerous 
engravings  and  coloured  plates,  great  attention  being  given  to 
the  minute  anatomy  of  all  parts  of  the  diffisrent  species. 

Amongst  the  papers  contained  in  the  last  issue  of  the 
Transactions  of  the  Seismological  Society  of  Japan  (vol.  xi.)  is 
one  on  earth  tremors  in  Central  Japan,  by  Prof.  Milne.  The 
paper  is  a  continuation  of  one  on  the  same  subject  read  before 


the  same  Society  in  1883,  which  was  referred  to  in  these  columns 
at  the  time.  In  the  present  paper  the  writer  discusses  recent 
investigations  into  earth  tremors  in  Italy,  describes  tremor  re- 
corders, with  special  reference  to  an  automatic  tromometer, 
gives  numerous  tables  of  records  of  the  latter  instrument,  and 
finally  refers  to  the  subject  of  earth  tremors  on  mountains.  The 
paper  is  one  of  great  length,  and  is  accompanied  by  numerous 
charts  and  tables,  which  make  it  a  respectable  volume  in  itself 
The  conclusions  may,  however,  be  given  in  a  brief  space. 
Prof  Milne  says  that  his  chief  object  has  been  to  show  the 
relationship  which  earth  tremors  hold  to  barometrical  fluctua- 
tions, barometrical  gradients,  and  the  wind.  He  concludes 
that  they  are  more  frequent  with  a  low  than  a  high  barometer, 
but  even  with  the  former  they  may  often  not  be  observed  ;  that 
with  a  high  gradient  they  are  almost  always  observed,  but  with 
a  small  gradient  only  seldom  :  that  the  stronger  the  wind  the  more 
likely  they  are  to  be  observed  ;  when  there  has  been  a  strong  wind 
and  no  tremors  it  has  often  been  a  local  wind,  or  one  blowing 
inland  from  the  Pacific  Ocean  ;  the  recorded  earthquakes  do 
not  appear  to  be  connected  with  earth  tremors,  more  than  that 
both  are  more  frequent  at  the  same  seasons ;  and  tremors  are  as 
severe  on  the  summit  of  a  lefty  mountain  as  on  the  plains.  So 
far  as  his  observations  have  hitherto  gone  in  Japan,  it  appears 
that  the  majority  of  earth  tremors  are  movements  produced  by 
the  action  of  the  wind  upon  the  surface  of  the  earth,  and  that 
these  may  often  be  propagated  to  distant  places  where  wind 
disturbances  have  not  occurred. 

On  January  13,  at  II.IO  p.m.,  a  faint  shock  of  earthquake 
was  felt  in  the  district  of  Orebro,  in  Central  Sweden.  It  was 
not  accompanied  by  any  subterranean  noise. 

At  five  o'clock  on  Sunday  afternoon  a  cyclone  broke  over 
Mount  Vernon,  a  town  in  Illinois,  sixty  miles  to  the  south- 
east of  St.  Louis.  Many  persons  were  killed  or  injured,  and 
five  hundred  buildings  were  demolished  in  a  few  minutes. 
The  cyclone  is  said  to  have  come  up  from  the  south-west 
with  a  rotary  whirling  motion,  sweeping  a  path  five 
hundred  yards  wide  and  several  miles  long,  within  which 
everything  was  destroyed. 

During  last  month  the  so-called  "red  after-glow"  was 
observed  at  sunset  in  the  vicinity  of  Stockholm.  Varying  in 
intensity  the  glare  extended  considerably  towards  the  zenith. 

The  Finnish  Government  is  on  the  point  of  organizing  a 
number  of  stations  along  the  coast  of  Finland  for  the  observation 
of  the  nature  and  peculiarities  of  the  drift-ice  during  the  winter 
months. 

A  LARGE  block  of  stone  with  rude  drawings  and  some  Runic 
inscriptions  has  just  been  discovered  in  the  island  of  Tjorn,  on 
the  south-west  coast  of  Sweden.  It  is  of  particular  interest  as 
being  the  first  of  its  kind  found  in  the  southern  part  of  the 
province  of  Bohus. 

A  MEETING  has  just  been  held  at  Tonsberg,  in  Norway,  of 
those  interested  in  the  Arctic  seal  fisheriijs  in  that  country,  for 
the  purpose  of  considering  the  Scottish  Fishery  Board's  proposals 
that  the  close  time  for  seal  should  end  on  April  10  instead  of  as  at 
present  April  3,  and  begin  on  July  10  instead  of  July  15. 
Both  proposals  were  unanimously  rejected,  the  reason  advanced 
being  that  their  adoption  would  tend  to  ruin  the  industry,  so 
far  as  Norway  is  concerned.  The  Scotch  proposal  that 
young  and  old  seal  should  be  treated  alike  during  the  open 
season  was  adopted.  Finally,  the  following  resolutions  were 
passed  :  (i)  that  it  was  advisable  that  the  close  season  should  end 
at  6  a.m.  on  April  3  instead  of  at  midnight  ;  (2)  that  the  law 
of  preservation  of  seal  should  be  al  tered  so  that  the  area  covered 
by  it  should  range  from  60°  to  70°  N.,  and  from  10°  E.  to  the  coast 
of  Greenland.  A  report  of  the  meeting  will  be  forwarded  to  the 
Scottish  Fishery  Board  for  their  consideration. 


400 


NATURE 


[Feb.  23,  I 


The  Norwegian  Fi-hery  Promotion  Society  of  Bergen  has 
petitioned  the  Government  for  a  grant  of  ;^i5,oco  for  the 
development  of  the  deep-sea  fisheries  of  Norway. 

The  Merchant  Taylors  Company  have  recently  voted  ten 
guineas  to  the  Parkes  Museum  to  aid  in  its  work  of  practical 
teaching  and  demonstrating  sanitary  science. 

The  additions  to  the  Zoological  Society's  Gardens  during  the 
past  week  include  a  Bonnet  Monkey  {Macacus  siniciis  $ ),  two 
Rhesus  Monkeys  (Macaaes  rhesus  ?  ?  )  from  India,  an  Alpine 
Marmot  {^Arctomys  marmotta  Q  ),  European,  a  Vulpine  Phalan- 
ger  i^Phalangista  vulpina  cJ )  from  Australia,  presented  by  Mr. 
H.  Austin  Clow,  F.Z. S.  ;  three  Esquimaux  Dogs  {Canis 
familiaris)  from  Greenland,  presented  by  Mr.  W.  T.  Tournay, 
F.Z.S.  ;  three  Derbian  Wallabys  {Halmahirus  derbianus)  from 
Australia,  presented  by  Lieut.  C.  M.  Ilepworth,  R.N,  R.  ;  four 
Alpine  Accentors  {Accentor  alpinus),  European,  presented  by  the 
Lord  Lilford,  F.Z.S.  ;  a  Cardinal  Grosbeak  (Cardinalis  virgini- 
anus)  from  North  America,  presented  by  Mr.  Ayerst ;  four  Lion 
Marmosets  {Midas  rosalia),  an  Eyra  {Felis  eyra)  from  Brazil, 
four  Parrot  Finches  {Erythrura psittacea)  from  New  Caledonia, 
two  Common  Gulls  {Lams  caniis),  a  Black-headed  Gull  {Larus 
ridibundus),  British,  purchased  ;  four  Cereopsis  Geese  {Cereopsis 
novce-hoUandicE)  bred  in  the  Gardens. 


OUR  ASTRONOMICAL  COLUMN. 

Mr.  Tebbutt's  Observatory,  Windsor,  New  South 
Wales. — Mr.  John  Tebbutt,  the  well-known  and  enthusiastic 
amateur  astronomer  of  New  South  Wales,  has  just  published  a 
little  pamphlet  giving  a  history  and  description  of  his  private 
observatory,  the  work  of  which,  he  remarks  with  justifiable  pride, 
"  has  proved  of  sufficient  importance  to  admit  of  Windsor  being 
placed  in  the  list  of  observatories  in  the  British  and  American 
Nautical  Almanacs,  the  Connaissance  des  Temps,  and  the 
Berliner  Astronomisches  Jahrbtich."  And  this  distinction  has 
been  well  earned,  for  the  lists  here  given  of  observations 
made,  and  of  papers  contributed  to  various  scientific  publi- 
cations, show  the  history  of  the  little  observatory  to  have 
been  a  most  honourable  one.  Mr.  Tebbutt  has  made  all  the 
observations  himself,  and  until  i88l  performed  all  the  reduc- 
tions ;  latterly  he  has  received  occasional  assistance  in  the 
computations  from  his  son  or  friends  near.  His  instrumental 
equipment  was  for  many  years  of  the  most  modest  description  : 
for  seven  years  it  consisted  principally  of  a  sextant,  and  a 
telescope  of  if  inches  aperture.  In  1861  a  refractor  of  3^ 
inches  aperture,  and  in  1864  a  transit  instrument  of  2  inches, 
were  added.  In  1872,  Mr.  Tebbutt  became  the  possessor  of  an 
equatorial  of  43  inches,  which  was  his  chief  instrument  until 
about  a  year  and  a  half  ago,  when  he  bought  a  fine  8-inch 
equatorial  by  Grubb,  once  the  properly  of  the  late  Dr.  Bone,  of 
Castlemaine.  The  observations  made  have  been  principally  of 
comets,  for  a  number  of  which  Mr.  Tebbutt  has  also  computed 
orbits,  but  daily  meteorological  observations  have  been  kept  up 
for  twenty-five  years,  the  results  of  which  have  been  published 
in  five  parts,  and  transit  observations  have  been  taken  regularly 
for  time.  Mr.  Tebbutt  has  also  done  good  service  to  science  by 
his  papers  on  astronomical  subjects  in  various  organs  of  the 
colonial  press,  for  hitherto  the  private  pursuit  of  astronomy 
has  been  greatly  neglected  in  the  Australian  colonies,  and  he 
has  almost  stood  alone  as  an  amateur  observer.  It  is  to 
be  hoped  that  this  record  of  his  labours  and  his  success  may  call 
forth  many  imitators. 

PULKOWA  Observatory. — The  Report  of  this  Observatory 
for  the  year  ending  May  31,  1887,  refers  to  the  heavy  loss  the 
institution  sustained  in  the  death  of  Dr.  August  Wagner.  Owing 
to  his  death,  the  work  of  publication  has  been  somewhat  de- 
layed ;  he  had,  indeed,  finished  a  memoir  on  personal  and 
instrumental  errors  for  the  introduction  of  vol.  xii.,  but  the 
materials  he  left  for  the  stellar  and  planetary  catalogues  were 
not  so  readily  dealt  with.  Still,  it  is  expected  that  this  volume, 
and  the  introduction  to  vol.  xiv.,  may  soon  be  ready  for  publi- 
cation ;  vols.  XV.  and  xvi.,  which  will  contain  meridian  observa- 
tions for  the  period  1872-80,  and  the  catalogue,  are  ready  to  fol- 


low vol.  xiv.  through  the  press.  Of  vol.  viii.,  the  catalogue,  form- 
ing the  first  part — meridian  observations  1840-69  of  Bradley  and 
other  stars  down  to  mag.  6 — has  already  been  distributed,  and  the 
remainder  is  in  hand  ;  vol.  x.,  Prof.  Struve's  double-star  obser- 
vations, is  still  incomplete.  The  observational  work  of  the 
Observatory  has  suffered  no  great  change.  The  30-inch  refractor 
has  been  used  by  Dr.  H.  Struve  for  the  measurement  of  the 
more  difficult  of  Burnham's  stars,  the  fainter  satellites  of  Saturn, 
and  the  satellite  of  Neptune.  The  old  15-inch  has  been  used 
by  Drs.  H.  Struve  and  Hasselberg  for  photographic  experiments, 
and  by  Prof.  O.  Struve  for  observations  of  Procyon,  which  has 
now  been  followed  through  nearly  a  complete  period  of  its 
orbital  motion. 

WoLSiNGHAM  OBSERVATORY. — The  Rev.  T.  E.  Espin  re- 
ports that  during  the  last  year  he  has  continued  his  sweeping 
for  red  stars  and  stars  with  remarkable  spectra,  and  that  he  has 
published  spectra  of  126  objects  in  the  Astronomische  Nach- 
richten,  Nos,  2788  and  2825,  of  which  eighty-six  were  found  in 
the  sweeps.  Fifteen  of  the  stars  were  of  Secchi's  type  IV. 
Three  new  variables  of  long  period  have  been  discovered,  and 
the  usual  observations  of  variables  have  been  made  and  for- 
warded to  Prof.  E.  C.  Pickering.  The  Observatory  has  been 
enriched  by  the  present  from  Canon  Slatter  of  a  fine  4"8-inch 
equatorial  by  Troughton  and  Simms.  The  new  edition  of 
Birmingham's  Red  Star  Catalogue  will  be  ready  for  the  printer 
in  a  few  weeks. 


ASTRONOMICAL    PHENOMENA    FOR    THE 
WEEK  1888  FEBRUARY  26— MARCH  3. 

/I7OR  the  reckoning  of  time  the  civil  day,  commencing  at 
^  Greenwich  mean  midnight,  counting  the  hours  on  to  24, 

is  here  employed.) 

At  Greenwich  on  February  26 
San  rises,  6h.  S4m.  ;  souths,  I2h.  13m.  lo'os. ;  sets,  I7h.  32m.  : 

right   asc.    on    meridian,    22h.    36"3m.  ;    decl.    8°   48'  S. 

Sidereal  Time  at  Sunset,  3h.  56m. 
Moon    (Full,    February    27,    I2h.)    rises,   i6h.    22m.  ;   souths, 

23h.    50m.;    sets,    7h.    4m.*:    right    asc.     on    meridian, 


•     loh.  15  •3m.  ; 

decl.  12°  5; 

'N. 

Right  asc.  and  declination 

Planet.          Rises. 

Souths. 

Sets. 

on  meridian. 

h.   m. 

h.    m. 

h.    m. 

h.       m. 

Mercury..     6  53 

..    12   50     .. 

18  47    ... 

23    13-3    -• 

I 

26  S. 

Venus   ...     5  39 

..     9  58    .. 

14    17    ••• 

20   20'4    ... 

19 

26  S. 

Mars      ...  22   15* 

•  •     3  33    -• 

8  51   ... 

13  55-0  ... 

8 

58  s. 

Jupiter  ...     I  40 

••     5  53  ■•• 

10     6  ... 

16  14-6  ... 

20 

17  s. 

Saturn  ...    13  50 

..  21  47   ... 

5  44*- 

8  II-6  ... 

20 

35  N. 

Uranus...  21     8* 

..     2  41  ... 

8  14  ... 

13     2-6  ... 

5 

56  S. 

Neptune..     9  38 

..  17  18  ... 

0  58*... 

3  42-0  ... 

17  57  N. 

*  Indicates  that  the  rising  is  that  of  the  precedi 

ig  evenmg  an 

ithe 

setting 

that  of  the  following  morning. 

Variable  Stars. 

Star. 

R.A. 

Decl. 

h.      m. 

h. 

m. 

U  Cephei     

.      0   52-4  .. 

si  16  N, 

...  Feb.  29, 

18 

56  m 

Algol      

•     3    o'9  •• 

40  31  N, 

...Mar.    I, 

3 

12  m 

\  Tauri 

3  54-5  •• 

12  10  N, 

...     ,,       3, 

I 

28  tn 

^  Geminorum 

•     6  57-5  .. 

20  44  N. 

...  Feb.  28, 

22 

0  m 

R  Canis  Majoris.. 

7  i4'5  ••• 

16  12  S. 

...     „     29, 

19 

18  m 

Mar.    I, 

22 

34  '« 

U  Monocerotis    .. 

•     7  25-5  .. 

9  33  S. 

...  Feb.  26, 

m 

5  Librae        

14  55-0.. 

8    4S. 

...     M     29, 

I 

32  w 

R  Ophiuchi 

17     1-3... 

15  57  S. 

...     „     28, 

M 

U  Ophiuchi 

.  17  IO-9  .. 

I  20  N. 

...  Mar.    I, 

0 

42  ;;/ 

and  at  intervals  of 

20 

8 

X  Sagittarii 

•  17  40-5    • 

•  27  47  S. 

...  Feb.  26, 

2 

oM 

W  Sagittarii 

17  579  •• 

29  35  S. 

...  Mar,    2, 

5 

0  m 

R  Lyrae        

18  51-9.. 

43  48  N. 

...     „       2, 

M 

U  Aquilse    

19  23-3  .. 

7  16  S. 

...     „       3, 

5 

0  m 

S  Aquilse     

.  20    6-5  .. 

15  17  N. 

...  Feb.  26, 

m 

Y  Cygni       

.  20  47-6  .. 

34  14  N. 

27, 

19  24  m 

Mar.    X, 

19 

18  m 

S  Cephei     

21  36-6  .. 

78    7N. 

...     >>       3> 

M 

5  Cephei       

.  22  25*0  ... 

57  51  N. 

...     „       I, 

21 

0  M 

M  signifies  maximum  ;  tit  minimum. 


I^eb.  23,  1888] 


NA  TURE 


401 


OcciiUation  of  Star  by  the  Moon  (visible  at  Greenwich). 

Corresponding 
angles  from  ver- 

Feb.  Star.  Mag.  Disap.  Reap.  tex  to  right  for 

inverted  image, 
h.    m.  h.    m.  o        q 

26  ...  7  Leonis 6J  ...     5   16  ...     6     7     ...   112  291 

March.  h. 

I     ...     23     ...     Mars  in  conjunction  with  and  2"  37'  south 

of  the  Moon. 
3     ...     19     ...     Mercury   in   inferior   conjunction  with   the 

Sun. 

Meteor-  Showers. 
R.A.  Decl. 

Near  5  Virginis    192     ...       2  N.  ...  March  2  and  3. 

From  Sagittarius 280     ...     17  S.   ...  Very  swift;  streaks. 


THE  RELATIONS  BETWEEN  GEOLOGY  AND 
THE  BIOLOGICAL  SCIENCES?- 

T  N  the  remarks  which  at  our  last  anniversary  I  had  the  honour 
of  offering  from  tliis  chair,  I  congratulated  the  students  of 
geology  and  mineralogy  upon  the  new  and  intimate  relations 
which,  to  their  mutual  advantage,  are  now  growing  up  between 
those  departments  of  science.  It  has,  however,  been  suggested 
that,  while  geologists  are  thus  being  brought  into  closer  alliance 
with  mineralogists,  the  strong  bonds  of  union  which  have  so 
long  united  us  with  the  biologists  are  becoming  somewhat 
relaxed,  and,  indeed,  stand  in  no  small  danger  of  actual 
dissolution. 

Highly  as  I  estimate  the  value  of  the  rapprochement  between 
the  geological  and  mineralogical  sciences,  I  for  one  should 
regard  such  a  result  as  far  too  dearly  purchased,  if  it  necessarily 
involved  any  interruption  of  the  close  relations  which  have  so 
long  subsisted  between  geology  and  biology.  But  I  cannot  for 
one  moment  believe  that  such  a  grievous  misfortune  seriously 
threatens  the  cultivators  of  the  two  great  departments  of  natural 
science. 

Notwithstanding  certain  divergencies  of  opinion  which  have 
made  themselves  heard  within  an  ancient  University,  and  have 
awakened  a  faint  echo  in  the  halls  of  our  National  Museum,  I 
cannot  doubt  that  the  teachers  of  geology  and  biology  will  easily 
discover  a  modus  vivendi  upon  what  is,  after  all,  a  subject  of 
very  secondary  importance — the  arrangement  of  natural-history 
collections. 

No  one  can  read  recent  declarations  of  the  present  Director  of 
our  National  Museum  without  being  impressed  by  his  manifest 
desire  to  make  the  splendid  collections  under  his  care  reflect, 
as  completely  as  possible,  the  present  condition  of  our  knowledge 
of  natural  hi>tory.  And  if,  on  the  other  hand,  we  turn  to  the 
remarks  made  by  the  Keeper  of  the  Zoological  Department,  at 
Swansea,  in  1880,  and  to  those  of  the  Keeper  of  the  Paiseonto- 
logical  Department,  at  Manchester,  last  year,  we  shall  find  in 
those  utterances  ample  guarantees  that,  in  the  arrange nent  of 
their  collections,  questions  of  practical  convenience  will  not  be 
lost  sight  of  ;  we  shall  be  satisfied  that  there  is  not  the  smallest 
danger  of  revolutionary  ideas  leading  to  the  removal  of  "ancient 
landmarks,"  or  of  unattainable  ideals  being  sought  through  the 
wholesale  commingling  of  incongruous  elements.  The  collections 
of  our  Universities  are  happily  free  from  the  conditions  which 
must  always  hamper  an  institution  where  the  interests  of  pooular 
amusement  have  to  be  reconciled  with  those  of  scientific  work  ; 
and  it  is  for  the  teachers  of  natural  science  in  those  centres  of 
thought  to  agree  upon  an  arrangement  which  may  best  serve  to 
illustrate  their  courses  of  instruction. 

But  while  the  discussion  on  museum-arrangement  may  be 
regarded  as  a  purely  academical  one,  which,  after  scintillating 
for  a  while  in  letters  and  pamphlets,  died  out  in  some  not  very 
formidable  explosions  at  the  recent  meeting  of  the  British 
Association,  it  may  be  wise  on  our  part  not  to  pass  by  quite 
unnoticed  some  indications  of  the  attitude  of  the  younger  school 
of  biologists  towards  palseontological  science,  this  attitude 
having  been  very  conspicuously  manifested  during  the  discussion 
in  question. 

If  I  rightly  apprehend  the  views  of  some  of  my  biological 
friends,  as  gathered  not  only  from  their  published  utterances, 

•  Address  to  the  Geological  Societjr  by  the  President,  Prof.  Joha  W. 
Judd,  F.R.S.,  at  the  Anniversary  Meeting,  on  February  17. 


but  also  from  private  conversations,  the  position  they  are  inclined 
to  take  up  may  be  expressed  somewhat  as  follows  : — 

"Palaeontology  has  no  right  whatever  to  separate  existence  as 
a  distinct  branch  of  science.  Fossils  are  simply  portions  of 
animals  and  plants,  and  ought  to  be  dealt  with  as  such  ;  for  all 
scientific  purposes  it  is  quite  immaterial  whether  the  organism 
which  we  are  called  upon  to  study  expired  only  an  hour  since  or 
died  millions  of  years  ago.  Imperfect  fragments  can  only  be 
properly  interpreted  in  the  light  afforded  by  the  more  complete 
structures  found  in  recent  organisms  ;  and  hence  the  naturalist 
who  is  engaged  in  studying  a  particular  group  of  living  organisms 
is  the  only  person  competent  to  deal  with  its  fossil  representa- 
tives. In  our  laboratories  and  our  museums  alike,  therefore, 
fossil  remains  ought  to  be  studied  side  by  side  with  the  living 
types  which  most  nearly  resemble  them,  and  always  by  the  same 
investigators.  This  being  the  case,  it  is  neither  necessary  nor 
expedient  that  there  should  be  a  class  of  students  whose  chief 
concern  is  with  extinct  forms  of  life  ;  and  as  for  the  geologists, 
they  have  really  no  farther  concern  with  fossils  than  just  to  find 
them,  attach  a  label  indicating  the  period  at  which  they  must 
have  lived,  and  hand  them  over  to  the  biologist  for  study  and  in- 
corporation in  his  collections.  Any  action  beyond  this  can  only 
be  regarded,  indeed,  as  an  act  of  usurpation  on  the  part  of  geo- 
lo.2;ists,  and  must  tend,  not,to  the  advancement,  but  to  the  injury 
of  true  science. " 

Such,  so  far  as  I  have  been  able  to  gather  them,  are  the  ex- 
treme opinions  which  some  biologists  now  entertain.  It  may, 
perhaps,  seem  presumptuous  on  my  part  to  venture  to  offer  a  plea 
for  palaeontology,  but  there  are  considerations  which  may  induce 
us  to  regard  such  a  plea  as  coming  better  from  one  whose  place 
in  the  ranks  of  the  geological  army  lies  nearer  the  centre  than 
in  the  biological  wing  ;  from  one  who  regards  palaeontology 
as  the  borderland  of  the  geological  and  biological  sciences — a 
borderland  where  the  cultivators  of  both  ought  ever  to  meet,  not 
for  rivalry  and  aggression,  but  for  the  necessities  of  intellectual 
commerce  and  the  advantages  of  mutual  help. 

The  view  of  palaeontology  which  1  have  ascribed,  I  believe 
not  unjustly,  to  some  biologists  is  one  which  has  just  such  an 
amount  of  truth  in  it  as  to  render  it  plausible,  but  at  the  same 
time,  as  I  cannot  but  believe,  is  one  of  those  half-truths  which 
are  proverbially  more  dangerous  than  downright  errors.  Palae- 
ontology is  not,  as  has  often  been  confidently  asserted,  simply  a 
branch  of  biology  ;  it  is  equally  a  part  of  geological  science,  and 
there  are  the  strongest  grounds,  both  of  reason  and  expediency, 
for  retaining  it  in  that  position.  All  geological  science  is  based 
on  the  principle  that  the  past  can  only  be  interpreted  by  the  study 
of  the  present ;  Darwin  was  the  intellectual  child  of  Lyell,  and 
the  "Origin  of  Species"  was  the  logical  outcome  of  the 
"Principles  of  Geology."  No  palaeontologist,  worthy  of  the 
name,  has  ever  dreamed  of  studying  fossils  except  in  the  light 
afforded  by  the  investigation  of  their  recent  analogues.  Indeed, 
if  we  were  to  carry  out  the  aggressive  ideas  of  some  biologists  to 
their  legitimate  con-equences,  there  would  be  left  to  us  no 
science  of  geology  at  all ;  for  why,  it  may  be  asked,  should  the 
study  of  physical  processes  in  the  past  be  carried  on  separately 
from  the  investigation  of  the  same  processes  as  exhibited  at  the 
present  time  ?  But  then,  by  a  strange  Nemesis,  I  fear  the  same 
all-devouring  physics,  after  swallowing  up  geology,  would  make 
very  short  work  indeed  with  biology  itself.  And  there  is  still 
in  the  background  another  claimant  for  universal  empire  in  the 
realms  of  thought,  for  are  there  not  some  who  dream  of  all 
sciences  ultimately  becoming  the  victims  of  that  new  portent  of 
ambition — ' '  geography  "  ? 

In  considering  the  present  position  and  future  claims  of 
palaeontology,  I  may  be  permitted  at  the  outset  to  offer  a  protest 
against  a  class  of  objections  which  has  sometimes  been  very  un- 
fairly urged  against  the  votaries  of  that  branch  of  science.  It  has 
often  been  assumed  that  the  students  of  fossils  are  contented  with 
a  lower  standard  of  excellence  than  that  which  is  aspired  to  by 
the  cultivators  of  other  branches  of  natural  history.  Now, 
setting  aside  for  a  moment  the  very  important  consideration  that, 
owing  to  the  imperfection  of  the  remains  which  they  are  called 
upon  to  study,  palaeontologists  are  confronted  by  difficulties  which 
do  not  beset  the  investigators  of  recent  forms,  I  maintain  that 
the  charge  is  an  altogether  unjust  one.  Palaeontologists  are  no 
more  responsible  for  the  unwise  use  made  of  fossils  by  incom- 
petent persons  than  are  zoologists  for  the  vagaries  of  shell-  and 
butterfly-hunters,  or  botanists  for  the  absurdities  of  fern-  and 
diatom-collectors. 

Doubtless  there  has  been  much  work  done  in  connection  with 


402 


NA  TURE 


[Fed.  23,  1888 


fossils,  as  well  as  with  other  natural  history  objects,  of  which 
we  can  only  speak  with  shame  and  regret  as  havin^j  been  under- 
taken unadvisedly  and  performed  ignorantly, — -work  which, 
prompted  by  an  unwise  ambition,  has  been  conceived  in  error 
and  brought  forth  in  presumption. 

It  would  ill  become  anyone  from  this  chair  to  speak  lightly  of 
the  great,  the  inestimable  services  rendered  to  our  science  by  the 
collectors  of  fossils.  How  many  interesting  and  novel  forms 
have  been  brought  to  light  by  their  patient  efiForts  !  How  often 
has  the  structure  of  ob  cure  types  been  rendered  clear  througli 
their  constant  and  persevering  endeavours  to  obtain  more  perfect 
specimens  !  Yet  sometimes  the  very  zeal  of  collectors  has  led 
them  astray.  Des])airing  of  finding  systematic  zoologists  and 
botanists  who  could  devote  the  necessary  time  and  attention  to 
the  study  of  objects  which  they  have  obtained  with  so  much 
t'ouble  and  pains,  they  have  unwisely  undertaken,  without  the 
necessary  training  and  knowledge,  the  naming  and  description  of 
forms  of  life  which  required  for  their  proper  interpretation  all  the 
skill  and  experience  of  the  most  able  comparative  anatomist  or 
vegetable  morphologist. 

I  feel  sure  that,  if  those  who  have  thus  erred,  through  acting 
with  "a  zeal  which  is  not  according  to  knowledge,"  ciuld 
realize  the  injury  done  to  science  by  such  proceedings,  they 
would  pause  before  burdening  scientific  literature  with  preinature 
names,  imperfect  diagnoses,  and  ill-digested  materials.  Fossils 
are,  it  is  true,  "the  medals  of  creation,"  and  for  the  purposes 
of  the  historian  of  past  geological  times,  it  may  seem  that  any 
name,  however  bad,  which  can  be  employed  for  purposes  of 
reference  must  be  better  than  none  at  all.  But  fossils,  it  must 
be  remembered,  are  much  more  than  mere  "medals."  They  are 
the  precious  relics  of  the  faunas  and  floras  of  bygone  times  ; 
landmarks — the  only  ones  we  can  ever  hope  to  discover — which 
may  serve  to  guide  us  in  tracing  the  wonderful  story  of  the 
evolution  of  the  existing  forms  of  life.  Reverently — as  the 
mineralogist  treats  meteorites,  those  pocket-planets  and  errant 
members  of  the  outer  universe — should  the  biologist  regard  fossils, 
the  fragments  of  an  earlier  life,  the  collateral,  if  not  the  direct, 
ancestors  of  living  types. 

So  far  I  am  from  thinking  that  the  study  of  fossils  ought  in  all 
cases  to  be  undertaken  by  those  who  are  actually  engaged  in 
working  out  their  recent  representatives,  that  I  believe  such  a 
practical  abolition  of  palaeontology  as  a  distinct  branch  of 
science  would  tend,  not  to  the  advantage,  but  to  the  injury,  of 
both  biology  and  geology.  And  I  will  venture  to  set  forth  my 
grounds  for  this  conclusion. 

It  may  be  remarked  at  the  outset  that  at  a  time  when  all  the 
tendencies  of  biological  science  appear  to  be  towards  an  extreme 
specialization,  it  is  strange  to  find  that  there  are  advocates  for 
the  suppression  of  what  is  now  so  well-developed  a  department 
of  biological  science  as  palaeontology.  When  the  work  to  be 
done  has  become  so  vast  that  some  biologists  feel  themselves 
compelled  to  restrict  their  studies  and  labours  to  the  morpho- 
logical, or  even  to  the  histological  department,  others  to  the 
embryological,  the  physiological,  the  taxonomic,  or  the  choro- 
logical  branches  of  i oology  or  botany  respectively,  why  should 
not  some  concentrate  their  efforts  upon  the  elucidation  of  the 
ancient  forms  of  life?  When  the  study  of  a  single  group,  often 
a  very  lirnited  group,  of  animals  or  plants  is  sufficient  to  exhaust 
the  energies  of  a  particular  naturalist,  it  is  surely  not  unreason- 
able that  forms  which  have  become  extinct  and  have  left  only 
very  imperfect  evidence  of  their  structure  and  affinities,  and^these 
requiring  peculiar  methods  for  their  study,  should  attract  the 
attention  of  special  investigators. 

The  study  of  fossils,  we  may  remark,  if  it  be  undertaken  by 
any  biologists,  must  fall  to  systematic  zoologists  and  botanists, 
and  these  have  become  somewhat  rare  and  out  of  fashion  in 
modern  times  ;  so  few  in  numbers,  indeed,  do  they  seem  as  to 
be  scarcely  able  to  cope  with  the  ever-increasing  array  of  living 
forms  ;  and  it  would  be  a  hopeless  task  if  upon  them  were  also 
cast  the  overwhelming  mass  of  fossil  ones. 

Imagine  the  embarrassment  and  dismay  of  a  student  of  living 
sponges,  whose  favourite  (possibly  his  only)  method  of  research 
has  consisted  in  studying  with  the  microscope  innumerable  thin 
slices  cut  from  tissues  and  embryos,  if  a  cartload  of  chalk-flinks 
were  thrown  down  at  his  door,  and  he  were  required  to  interpret 
the  fragments  of  sponge-skeletons  which  they  contained  in  every 
conceivable  variety  of  disguise  through  pecidiar  processes  of 
mineralization  ! 

There  are,  indeed,  a  variety  of  special  reasons  why  ordinary 


systematic  zoologists  and  botanists  become,  by  the  very  habit.^ 
acquired  in  their  daily  pursuits,  singularly  ill  fitted  for  dealing 
with  fossil  forms. 

In  studying  recent  forms  the  zoologist  or  botanist  is  bound  to 
take  into  consideration,  in  fixing  the  systematic  position  of  an 
organism,  not  only  its  skeleton,  but  ad  its  soft  parts,  and  even 
the  structure  and  mode  of  development  of  its  embryo  ;  he  may 
also  be  called  upon  to  note  physiological  iDeculiarities,  before  he 
is  in  a  position  to  arrive  at  a  decision  as  to  its  place  in  the 
zoological  or  botanical  series.  But  for  the  student  of  fossil  forms 
none  of  these  aids  are  available,  he  is  compelled  to  do  his  best 
without  them.  Investigators  of  the  recent  Mollusca  are,  of 
course,  "  malacologis:s,"  but  he  who  studies  the  extinct  fornix 
of  the  group  must  perforce  labour  under  the  stigma  of  being  "  p. 
mere  conchologist."  In  examining  recent  vertebrates  it  is 
allowable  to  make  every  possible  u>e  of  the  aid  afforded  by 
a  study  of  the  ligamental  skeleton,  in  unravelling  their  affinities  ; 
but  he  who  works  on  fossil  vertebrates  is  and  must  remain  a 
pure  osteologist.  Botanists  have  been  led  to  the  conclusiort 
that  for  the  classification  of  plants  the  reproductive  organs 
always  afford  the  safest  guides  ;  but  palaeontologists,  alas  !  are 
frequently  called  upon  to  do  their  best  in  deciphering  frag- 
mentary remains  of  the  vegetative  organs. 

It  is  not,  as  some  biologists  would  almost  seem  to  imagine, 
that  palc'eontologists  are  led  by  any  perversity  of  mind  to  reject 
the  light  which  is  afforded  to  them,  or  that  they  are  not  deeply 
sensible  of  the  great  value  and  importance  of  many  rec.-nt  re- 
searches in  respect  to  living  forms  ;  but  simply  that  they  realize 
— often  very  sadly  realize — the  impossibility  of  availing  them- 
selves of  the  help  afforded  by  such  researches,  in  connection 
with  the  very  imperfect  material  with  which  they  are  called  upoa 
to  deal. 

If  we  were  to  suppose  that  a  surveying  ship  brought  home  from 
a  newly-discovered  island  a  heterogeneous  mixture  of  isolate  I 
bones  and  teeth,  of  shells,  bits  of  stick  and  fallen  leaves 
zoologists  and  botanists  might  be  perfectly  justified  in  refusin  ^ 
to  waste  their  time  upon  such  unsatisfactory  materials.  But  if, 
subsequently,  news  arrived  that  after  the  departure  of  the  ship 
the  whole  island  had  sunk  beneath  the  ocean,  then  the  circum- 
stances would  have  completely  changed,  and  no  pains  and  care 
would  be  felt  to  be  too  great  if  expended  in  dealing  with  such  a 
unique  collection,  however  imperfect  it  might  be.  Or,  to  take 
a  case  which  has  actually  occurred,  the  curators  of  the  Ashmolean 
Museum  were  fully  justified  in  ordering  the  destruction  of  the 
moth-eaten  dodo  skin,  so  long  as  they  had  no  reason  for 
doubting  that  other  and  better  specimens  were  procurable  ;  but 
now  no  labour  and  pains  is  considered  too  great  in  studying  the 
most  imperfect  fragment  of  the  bird. 

And  here  I  may  perhaps  be  permitted  to  say  a  word  in  defence 
of  what  has  been  treated  as  an  absurd  practice  on  the  part  of 
paleontologists — that  of  giving  names  to  small  fragments  of 
organisms.  It  must  be  admitted  that  when  subsequent  investi- 
gation proves  that  distinct  generic  and  specific  names  have  been 
given  to  the  root,  the  stem,  ihe  outer  and  the  inner  bark,  the  pith, 
the  foliage,  and  the  fruit  of  the  same  plant,  the  absurdity  does 
seem  striking.  But  it  is  impossible  to  defer  giving  a  name  to  a 
fossil  until  all  doubts  about  its  structure  and  alfmities  have  been 
completely  settled  by  the  finding  of  exceptionally  perfect  speci- 
mens. Nevertheless,  it  ought  certainly  to  be  insisted  on  that 
names  should  be  given  to  very  fragmentary  fossils  only  by  a 
competent  naturalist,  and  that  he  must  accept  the  responsibility 
of  his  act.  A  single  tooth  of  a  mammal  may  afford  gocd 
grounds  for  the  estab'ishment  of  a  genus  and  species,  while  it 
might  be  utter  folly  to  treat  the  tooth  of  a  shark  in  the  same 
manner. 

The  remains  of  many  extinct  forms  are  in  such  a  peculiarly  min- 
eralized condition  as  to  require  special  skill  and  training  for  their 
proper  interpretation.  Skeletal  elements  which  were  originally 
siliceous  are  now  represented  by  pseudomorphs  in  calcite,  and 
vice  versa.  Characteristic  structures  in  bones,  shells,  or  wood 
may  be  wholly  obliterated,  and  mineral  structures  of  a  strangely 
deceptive  kind  may  be  developed  in  their  place.  The  curious 
story  oi Eozoon  canadense  and  its  supposed  allies  is  surely  a  suffi- 
cient justification  for  the  existence  of  palaeontologists — that  is, 
of  specialists  trained  equally  in  the  interpretation  of  biological 
and  petrological  structures.  Dr.  Sorby  has  shown  that  whole 
families  of  Mollusca  may  disappear  from  a  fauna  because  of  the 
unstable  condition  of  the  calcic  carbonate  which  composes  their 
shells,  and  his  conclusions  have  been  confirmed  by  INIr.  Kendall. 
Prof.  Sollas  has  similarly  shown  that  the  absence  of  the  por- 


Feb.  23,  1888] 


NATURE 


403 


cellanous  types  ot  the  Foraininifera  from  itie  Pala;;uzoic  rocks  m  ly 
he  due,  not  to  their  non-existence  when  those  rocks  were  formed, 
but  to  the  fact  of  their  shells  being  composed  of  the  unstable 
aragonite. 

Such  facts  as  these  must  convince  any  unprejudiced  parson  of 
the  absolute  necessity,  to  the  naturalist  who  attempts  to  study 
•extinct  forms,  of  an  acquaintance  with  the  nature  of  the  mineral 
•changes  which  organic  remains  undergo.  In  his  interesting 
memoir  upon  those  curious  and  enigmatical  fossils,  the  Recepta- 
culitida:,  Dr.  Hinde  has  admirably  shown  the  advantages  of  this 
combination  of  biological  and  petrographical  study. 

In  this  connection  I  cannot  avoid  alluding  to  a  very  prevalent 
and,  as  I  cannot  help  thinking,  very  erroneous  notion,  that  an 
intermingled  zoological  and  palaeontological  collection,  however 
inconvenient,  would  certainly  be  very  instructive.  To  this  view 
I  offer  the  strongest  protest,  for  1  believe  that  the  mistakes 
which  would  arise  from  the  examination  of  such  a  collection 
would  far  outweigh  any  instruction  to  be  derived  from  it. 

I  fail  to  see  what  useful  lesson  would  be  taught  by  swamping 
a  collection  of  the  lizirds,  snakes,  tortoises,  and  crocodiles  living 
at  the  present  day  with  the  vast  slabs  containing  the  relics  of 
Keptilia  which  have  existed  in  periods  ranging  from  the  Permian 
10  the  Pliocene.  Nor  is  it  apparent  to  me  why  the  precious 
remains  of  Arclueopteryx  should  be  hidden  away  among  a  wilder- 
ness of  bird-skins. 

Any  arrangement  which  could  lead  to  the  idea  that  even  the 
richest  collection  of  fossils  is  in  any  way  commensurable  with 
ihe  assemblages  of  specimens  that  in  our  museums  represent  the 
■existing  fauna  is  very  greatly  to  be  deprecated.  So  numerous 
are  the  gaps  among  fossil  faunas,  owing  to  the  fact  that  only 
animals  with  hard  parts,  and,  as  a  rule,  only  those  that  lived  in 
the  sea,  had  any  chance  of  preservation,  that  the  finest  pala;onto- 
4ogical  collections  are,  and  must  always  remain,  extremely  frag- 
mentary. We  have,  in  the  past,  fallen  into  so  many  and  such 
/grievous  eiTors,  by  ignoring  the  imperfection  of  the  geological 
record,  that  we  may  well  hesitate  before  doing  anything  that 
■would  confirm  this  mischievous  delusion. 

On  the  other  hand,  it  may  be  pointed  out  that  our  acquaint- 
ance with  extinct  forms  of  life  has  increased  to  such  an  extent  in 
•recent  years  that  a  biologist  may  well  be  pardoned  for  not 
aealizing  the  vastness  and  importance  of  the  problems  involved 
in  the  study  of  fossils.  It  can  only  be  a  very  inadequate  idea  of 
the  value  of  palaeontological  evidence  which  leads  fossils  to  be 
'garded  (like  the  fauna  and  flora  of  a  newly-discovered  territory) 
i;  simply  supplying  a  few  missing  links  required  to  fill  up  gaps 
in  a  natural-history  classification,  or  as  the  appropriate  ballast 
/or  a  Noah's  Ark  on  a  scale  of  national  grandeur.  Small  as  may 
l)e  the  whole  bulk  of  a  palfeontological  collection  in  the  eye  of 
the  student  of  recent  forms,  its  great  and  transcendent  value 
depends  on  the  fact  that  the  objects  composing  it  belong  to  the 
/faun IS  and  floras  of  periods  widely  separated  from  the  present 
and  from  one  another.  The  discovery  of  a  new  type  of  reptiles 
in  the  Trias  is  a  very  different  matter  from  the  detection  of  an 
equally  remarkable  form  living  in  New  Zealand.  The  latter 
may,  it  is  true,  be  a  singular  survival  of  some  old  type  ;  but  the 
former  is  an  actual  landmark  in  the  course  of  reptiHan  develop- 
ment ;  and  by  the  study  of  the  fossil  we  are  actually  brought 
much  nearer  to  the  solution  of  the  problems  connected  with  the 
history  of  that  development  than  is  possible  by  the  study  of  any 
recent  form. 

In  pointing  out  how  vast  has  been  the  progress  of  our  know- 
ledge in  recent  years  concerning  the  ancient  life  of  the  globe,  I 
may  remind  you  of  the  estimates  made  by  Prof.  Huxley  when 
speaking  from  this  chair  a  little  more  than  a  quarter  of  a  century 
ago.  He  then  characterized  "  the  positive  change  in  passing 
from  the  recent  to  the  ancient  animal  world"  as  "singularly 
small  "  ;  and  he  regarded  the  extinct  orders  of  animals  as  not 
amounting  "on  the  most  liberal  estimate"  to  more  than  one- 
•tenth  of  the  whole  number  known.  The  evidence  which  has 
been  accumulated  during  the  last  twenty-five  years,  however, 
lias  modified  this  estimate  in  a  remarkable  manner,  as  no  one 
would  be  more  ready  to  admit  than  the  author  of  it  himself. 

There  is  no  little  difficulty  in  making  a  calculation  of  the  pro- 
portion of  living  to  extinct  orders,  owing  to  the  discrepancies  in 
the  opinions  of  zoologists  and  comparative  anatomists  as  to  what 
are  the  characters  which  ought  to  be  considered  as  of  ordinal 
rank.  For  my  present  purpose  I  very  gladly  avail  myself  of  the 
useful  "  Synopsis  of  the  Animal  Kingdom  "  prepared  by  Mr.  E. 
T.  Newton,  which  is  "founded  on  the  classification  proposed  by 
Prof.  Huxley,  with  such  modifications  as  are  rendered  necessary 
by  recent  discoveries." 


We  may,  I  think,  take  the  whole  number  of  living  orders  of 
animals  generally  accepted  by  zoologists  at  about  108.  But  in 
any  comparison  of  these  with  fossil  forms,  it  is  only  fair  10 
exclude  from  our  consideration  such  as  possess  no  hard  parts 
and  stand  little  or  no  chance  of  being  preserved  in  a  fossil  state. 
Few  would  be  bold  enough  to  doubt  that  such  soft-bodied  forms 
must  have  existed  in  the  past,  or  that  they  probably  bore  about 
the  same  proportion  to  the  forms  with  hard  skeletons  as  in  the 
existing  fauna  ;  even  the  boldest  sceptic  on  this  subject  would, 
I  should  think,  be  convinced  by  such  singular  accidents  as  that 
of  the  finding  of  the  impre-ision  of  Khizosto miles,  one  of  the 
Discophoroe,  preserved  in  the  soft  calcareous  mud  of  the  Solen- 
hofen  Slate. 

Now  among  the  108  living  orders  of  animals,  at  least  36 
are  totally  destitute  of  any  hard  parts  capable  of  being  preserved 
in  a  fossil  state,  and  we  have  thus  left  72  living  orders  with 
which  our  comparison  of  the  extinct  orders  must  be  made. 

What  is  the  number  of  orders  which  must  be  created  to  receive 
extinct  forms,  is  a  question  that  has  given  rise  to  wide  diversities 
of  opinion  in  recent  years.  While  few  naturalists  would  c  )n- 
sider  18  as  an  excessive  estimate,  there  are  others  who  would 
probably  double  that  number. 

Taking  the  lower  estimate  and  comparing  the  18  extinct 
orders  with  the  72  living  ones  which  contain  animals  with  hard 
parts,  we  find  the  proportion  of  extinct  orders  to  be  20  per  cent, 
of  the  whole  number  known  at  the  present  time. 

But  in  comparisons  of  this  kind,  it  must  be  remembered  that 
there  is  an  unconscious  tendency  among  the  students  of  recent 
forms  of  life  to  under-cstimate  the  differences  between  extinct  and 
living  forms.  If  we  take  such  groups  as  the  Graptolitida,  the 
MontictiliporidcE,  and  the  Slroinatoporida,  of  the  nature  of  the 
polyps  of  which  we  can  know  nothing,  we  can  only  place  them 
in  existing  orders  on  the  ground  of  some  very  general  analogies 
in  the  skeleton.  How  little  this  may  be  worth,  recent  zoological 
researches,  like  those  of  Prof.  Moseley  on  the  Milleporida  and 
the  StylasteridcE  have  amply  shown. 

The  students  of  existing  forms  of  life  have  arranged  their 
pigeon-holes  ;  and  into  those  pigeon-holes  our  unfortunate  fossils 
are  too  often  made  to  go.  If  there  were  no  other  objection  to 
the  wholesale  commingling  of  recent  and  fossil  types  in  a 
museum,  there  would  be  the  valid  and  insuperable  one  arising 
from  the  fact  that  there  are  very  considerable  and  important 
groups  of  fossils  which  cannot,  without  violence,  be  made  to  find 
any  place  in  our  accepted  classification  of  existing  animals— and 
perhaps  never  will. 

If,  however,  we  consider  the  modifications  which  have  been 
brought  about  in  our  views  concerning  the  relations  of  extinct 
to  living  forms  by  the  important  discoveries  that  have  been  made 
since  1862,  we  shall  be  impressed  by  the  conviction  that  no  com- 
parison of  the  numbers  of  living  and  extinct  orders  can  give  any 
adequate  idea  of  the  important  influence  of  palaeontological 
studies  upon  biological  thought.  The  discovery  of  transitorial 
forms,  like  the  Archaopteryx,  the  toothed  birds  of  America,  and 
the  leptiles  with  avian  affinities,  together  with  the  working  out 
of  the  rich  faunas  of  the  Rocky  Mountains,  of  Pikermi,  Quercy, 
and  the  Siwaliks,  of  the  Pampean  formations  of  South  America, 
the  Karoo  beds  of  South  Africa,  and  the  caves  of  Australia,  have 
already  done  much  towards  revolutionizing  the  ideas  held 
twenty-five  years  ago  by  biologists  concerning  the  significance 
and  value  of  fossil  forms.  While  the  recognition  of  the 
less  specialized  precursors  of  such  types  as  the  horse  and  the 
elephant  have  perhaps  produced  most  effect  in  removing 
objections  to  evolutionary  doctrines,  the  light  thrown  by  the 
stlxdy  of  fossil  forms  on  the  manner  in  which  individual  structures 
have  arisen,  as  has  been  so  well  shown  by  Prof.  Alexander  Agassiz, 
in  the  case  of  the  Echinodermata,  opens  up  to  us  a  wide  and 
perhaps  far  more  hopeful  field  of  inquiry.  Wft  are,  however, 
only  at  the  beginning  of  the  great  task  of  utilizing  the  grand 
palaeontological  collections  of  mammals,  of  reptiles,  of  fishes, 
and  of  the  various  groups  of  the  invertebrates,  for  explaining 
the  significance  and  tracing  the  origin  of  the  structures  found  in 
living  types. 

While  maintaining  that  studies  of  this  kind  demand  and  justify 
the  concentration  of  the  labours  of  a  special  class  of  investigators, 
I  feel  sure  that  no  one  will  misinterpret  my  meaning  as  to  the 
qualifications  required  by  the  students  of  fossil  forms.  Far  from 
suggesting  that  the  palaeontologist  may  be  one  destitute  of  a 
proper  biological  training,  or  that  he  may  be  satisfied  with  an 
equipment  of  knowledge  which  would  be  insufficient  for  a 
systematic  zoologist  or  botanist,  I  would  maintain  thit  no  one 


404 


NATURE 


[Feb.  23,  1888 


has  a  right  to  take  up  the  study  and  description  of  any  fossil 
group  until  he  has  made  a  very  careful  and  exhaustive  study  of 
its  nearest  living  allies  ;  but,  in  addition  to  this,  he  ought  also  to 
have  made  himself  acquainted  with  the  peculiar  mineral  changes 
which  organic  remains  are  liable  to  undergo.  He  will,  more- 
over, be  far  more  likely  to  interpret  aright  and  to  make  the  best 
use  of  the  materials  that  come  to  his  hand,  if  he  have  at  least  a 
general  knowledge  of  what  others  working  on  siinilar  materials 
belonging  to  other  departments  of  the  animal  or  vegetable 
world  have  been  able  to  accomplish,  and  of  the  methods  which 
they  have  followed.  Such  palaeontologists,  I  insist,  have  as 
much  right  to  recognition  as  any  other  class  of  biological 
specialists. 

Still  less  should  I  wish  it  to  be  implied  that  I  think  systematic 
biologists  can  afford  to  be  ignorant  of  the  results  of  palseonto- 
logical  studies,  in  their  own  particular  fields  of  labour.  One  of 
the  most  mischievous  weeds  that  have  accompanied  the  evolu- 
tionist in  his  incur>ions  into  various  parts  of  the  biological  field 
is  the  preposterous  "  genealogical  tree."  We  can  scarcely  turn 
over  the  leaves  of  a  modern  systematic  work  without  finding  it 
flourishing  in  full  luxuriance.  No  sooner  has  the  student  of  a 
particular  group  arranged  his  families,  genera,  and  species,  than 
he  thinks  it  incumbent  upon  him  to  show  their  genetic  relations. 
Very  admii-ably  has  Prof  Alexander  Agassiz  pointed  out  the 
utter  fatuity  of  such  a  proceeding.  As  Lyell  used  to  say,  in 
speaking  of  such  proceedings,  the  imagination  of  the  systematist, 
untrammelled  by  an  acquaintance  with  the  past  history  of  the 
group,  "revels  with  all  the  freedom  characteristic  of  motion  in 
vacuo."  If  for  no  other  reason,  zoologists  and  botanists  ought 
to  study  fossil  forms  in  order  that,  by  encountering  a  few  hard 
facts  in  the  shape  of  fossils,  they  may  be  saved  from  these 
unprofitable  flights  of  the  imagination. 

(To  be  continued.) 


SCIENTIFIC  SERIALS. 

Rendiconti  del  Reale  Istituto  Lombardo,  December  1887. — On 
the  Tertiary  formations  near  Cape  La  Mortola,  in  Liguria,  North 
Italy,  by  Prof.  T.  Taramelli.  The  paper  deals  specially  with 
the  abrupt  interruption  which  occurs  in  the  prevailing  Eocene 
and  Secondary  systems  about  this  part  of  the  Ligurian  coast. 
This  interruption  is  brought  into  connection  with  the  great 
development  in  Liguria  of  the  marine  Pliocene  formation,  which 
in  the  Varo  basin  and  near  Ventimiglia  stands  at  a  present 
altitude  of  over  550  metres  above  the  sea,  but  which  does  not 
occur  at  all  further  east  in  Istria  and  Friuli,  where  it  is  repre- 
sented by  thick  alluvial  deposits  of  vast  extent. — On  the  neutra- 
lizers  of  tubercular  virus,  by  Prof  Giuseppe  Sormani.  In 
continuation  of  his  previous  studies,  the  author  here  deals  with 
twenty-one  additional  substances,  or  chemical  reagents,  making 
eighty  altogether.  According  to  their  different  action  on  Koch's 
Bacillus  these  are  grouped  in  three  categories  :  those  that  have 
no  effect ;  those  that  only  attenuate,  and  those  that  entirely 
destroy,  the  virus.  As  many  as  twenty-two,  including  camphor- 
ated chloral,  the  bromide  of  ethyl,  and  the  nitrite  of  ethyl,  are 
found  to  be  effective. — Meteorological  observations  made  at  the 
Brera  Observatory  during  the  month  of  November  1887. 

Rivista  Scientifico-Indiistriale,  January  15. — The  crepuscular 
tints  in  connection  with  the  hygrometric  state  of  the  atmosphere, 
by  Prof  Costantino  Rovelli.  Constant  observation  shows  that 
red  and  orange  tints  prevail  in  a  dry,  yellow  and  green  in  a 
moist,  state  of  the  atmosphere.  This  suggests  a  threefold  divi- 
sion of  the  solar  spectrum  into  (i)  the  region  of  warm  rays  trans- 
mitted by  the  lowe  r  atmospheric  strata,  and  corresponding  to  a 
dry  condition  of  th  e  air  ;  (2)  the  region  of  middle  rays,  yellow 
and  green,  more  easily  diff'used  and  partly  transmitted  by  the  air 
in  moist  weather  ;  (3)  the  region  of  cold  ray  s  diffused  by  an 
atmosphere  abounding  in  aeriform  vapour.  The  terrestrial  dust 
suspended  in  the  air,  by  condensing  the  aqueous  vapour,  as 
is  now  generally  accepted,  may  also  tend]  to  produce  those 
occasional  after-glows  of  intense  brightness,  which  have  been  so 
often  obierved  after  violent  volcanic  eruptions.  The  various 
character  and  intensity  of  the  tints  may  all  be  thus  explained  by 
the  theory  of  the  eclectic  transmission  of  the  coloured  rays  by  the 
corresponding  states  of  the  atmosphere,  and  partly  also  by  the 
particles  of  dust  held  in  suspense. — On  the  constitution  of  fogs 
and  clouds,  by  Prof.  F.  Palagi.  These  phenomena  are  attributed 
to  the  presence  of  minute  drops  of  water  with  diameter  of  i/io 
to  1/20  mm.  at  a  temperature  above  zero.     The  recent  observa- 


tions made  by  the  author  on  Mount  Titano  show  that  when  the 
temperature  falls  below  zero  these  globules  are  converted  into 
minute  hexagonal  needles  and  flakes  of  the  same  form,  the  former 
about  1/20  mm.  thick,  and  from  two  to  ten  times  longer,  the 
latter  from  i/io  to  1/4  mm.  in  diameter.  In  their  passage  from 
the  higher  regions  through  the  lower  and  less  cold  strata,  but 
still  below  zero,  these  simple  crystalline  forms  appear  to  be  trans- 
formed by  the  process  of  condensation  and  agglomeration  into 
the  stars  and  flakes  of  ordinary  snow.  But  when  the  tempera- 
tare  rises  above  zero  they  are  again  changed  to  the  minute  liquid 
drops  of  clouds,  fog,  and  rain  according  to  the  varying  degrees 
of  altitude  and  temperature. 

Bulletin  deT Academic  des  Sciences  de  St.  Petersbourg,  vol.  xxxii. 
No.  I. — On  the  effects  of  the  earthquake  of  February  23,  1887, 
at  the  Observatory  of  Pavlovsk,  by  Dr.  Wild  (in  German).  The 
effects  of  the  catastrophe  having  been  observed  at  the  Observa- 
tories of   England,    France,    Italy,    Germany,  and  Austria,  in 
trepidations  of  the  magnetic   instruments,  it  was  interesting  to 
see  whether  the  earthquake  was  felt  as  far  as  St.  Petersburg.   The 
results  indicate  that  it  was  not. — On  the  genus  Hemiculter  and  a 
new  species  of  Hemiculterella,  by  N.  Warpachowski  (in  German). 
— Russian  words  used  in  the   Sagai  dialect,  and  their  phonetic 
modifications,   by  N.   Katunoff ;    and    lists  of  Sagai  names  of 
rivers,  villages,  and  tribes,  by  the  same.     This  little  dictionary 
is  highly  spoken  of  by  M.  Radlof.  — Studies,  by  O.   Backlund, 
about  the  Pulkowa  catalogue  of  stars,  "  Positions  moyennes  de 
3542  etoiles,"  published  in  1886  (in  German).     A  detailed  com- 
parison of  the  Pulkowa  catalogue  with  the  measurements  by  Herr 
Romberg  at  Pulkowa,  as  also  with  the  catalogues  of  Becker,  Res- 
pighi,  and  Boss. — Hydrological  researches,  by  Dr.  Carl  Schmidt. 
— The    temperature-maxima    before    midday   in   tropical   seas, 
according  to  the  observations  of   the  corvette    Vityaz,  by  M. 
Rykatcheff"(in  German).  They  show  the  existence  of  two  separate 
maxima,  one    of  which  sets  in  half  an  hour  before  midday  and 
the   other  half    an  hour  later.      More    extensive   observations 
are   needed. — On    the    synthesis  of    albumen   in    chlorophyll- 
bearing  plants,  by  Chrapowitzki  (in  German).     The  chlorophyll 
spots  must  be  considered  as  places  where  synthesis  of  both  carbo- 
hydrates and  albumen  is  going  on. — New  additions  to  the  Asiatic 
Museum,   by  C.    Salemann.     Summaries  of  two   Persian   and 
three  Kagatai  manuscripts  brought  in  by  M.  Pantusoff"  from  the 
Semiryetchensk  province. 

The  Izvestia  of  the  Russian  Geographical  Society  (1887, 
iv.),  contains  most  valuable  papers  and  maps.  Dr.  Junker 
contributes  a  report  on  his  seven  years'  journeys  in  Equatorial 
Africa,  and  his  paper  is  accompanied  by  a  map,  53  miles 
to  the  inch,  of  the  region  extending  for  ten  degrees  on  the 
north  of  the  Equator,  between  the  22nd  and  33rd  degrees  of 
longitude.  Two  papers,  by  M.  Potanin,  contain  a  summary 
of  the  information  gathered  from  the  natives  as  to  Eastern 
Tibet  (the  regions  of  Amdo  and  Kam),  and  the  region  of  Central 
Mongolia  situated  between  the  Nan-shan,  the  Khangai,  Hami, 
and  the  Utai-shan.  Both  papers  are  accompanied  by  maps,  on 
a  scale  of  100  miles  to  an  inch,  and  the  two  maps  complement 
one  another,  so  as  to  give  a  very  accurate  idea  of  the  upper 
Hoang-ho.  Of  the  other  papers,  one  by  M.  KrasnofF,  on  the 
manners  of  life  of  the  Kirghizes  in  the  Semiryetchensk  province, 
will  be  welcome  to  ethnographers.  The  same  number  contains 
also  a  list  of  fifteen  places  in  Laponia,  the  latitudes  and  longi- 
tudes of  which  have  been  measured  in  1864  by  Captain  Ernefeld ; 
and,  in  a  separate  appendix,  tables,  by  Prof.  Sharnhorst,  for 
the  calculation  of  heights  from  barometrical  observations.  It  is 
self-evident,  although  it  is  too  often  lost  of  sight,  that  the  calcu- 
lation of  heights  upon  observations  of  the  barometer,  when  it  is 
made  by  means  of  logarithms,  means  a  much  greater  accuracy  of 
results  than  anything  that  can  be  obtained  from  a  few  observations 
of  atmospheric  pressure  during  a  journey,  and  that  some  plainer 
tables  would  give  the  results  with  an  accuracy  quite  sufficient 
for  the  accuracy  of  the  data  themselves.  M.  Sharnhorst's  tables 
are  an  improvement  upon  those  formerly  in  use,  and  ought  to  be 
introduced  into  every  manual  for  travellers,  instead  of  the  usual 
logarithmical  tables. 


SOCIETIES  AND  ACADEMIES. 

London. 

Royal  Society,  January  26.—"  Report  on  Hygrometric 
Methods.  First  Part,  including  the  Saturation  Method  and  the 
Chemical  Method,  and  Dew-point  Instruments."     By  W.  N. 


Feb.  23,  1888] 


NATURE 


405 


Shaw,  M.A.    Communicated  by  R.  H.  Scott,  F.R.S.,  Secretary 
to  the  IVIeteorolo}^ical  Council. 

With  the  exception  of  certain  "  absolute  hygrometers,"  the 
behaviour  of  which  has  not  yet  been  sufficiently  tested,  the 
determination  of  the  pressure  of  water-vapour  in  the  air  is  in- 
direct, and  requires  a  formula  of  reduction.  The  formulae  in  use 
are  based  upon  assumptions  which  are  at  present  not  so  com- 
pletely verified  by  experiment  that  any  hygrometric  method  can 
be  rc-lied  upon  to  give  measures  of  the  pressure  of  aqueous 
vapour  trustworthy  to  within  O'l  mm.  of  mercury.  The 
authority  for  these  state. nents  is  given  in  detail  in  an  account 
of  the  hygrometric  work  done  since  1830,  appended  to  the 
report  as  Note  A. 

In  the  report,  the  chemical  hygrometric  method  is  provisionally 
regarded  as  a  standard. 

The  assumptions  upon  which  the  formula  of  the  method  is 
based  are  (i)  that  it  is  possible  to  absorb  the  whole  of  the 
moisture  from  air  by  pa'^sing  it  over  desiccating  substances  ;  and 
(2)  that  a  numerical  value  can  be  assigned  to  d,  the  specific 
gravity  of  aqueous  vapour  referred  to  air  at  the  same  temperature 
and  pressure.  The  first  assumption  is  sufficiently  nearly  accurate 
for  hygrometric  observations.  With  regard  to  the  second, 
Regnault's  direct  observations  upon  steam  (free  from  air)  and 
other  evidence  point  to  the  value  o'622.  The  assumption  can, 
moreover,  be  tested,  by  applying  the  chemical  method  to  air 
saturated  at  a  known  temperature,  assuming  the  value  o"622  for 
d,  and  comparing  the  results  with  the  table  of  saturation  pres- 
sures ill  vacuo.  This,  however,  assumes  Dalto>i-s  law  to  be 
strictly  accurate,  an  open  question  upon  which  opinion  is  re- 
served until  further  experimental  investigation  is  concluded. 
Regnault  found  that  the  value  o'622  gave  results  for  saturated 
air  which  were  less  than  the  tabulated  pressures,  the  errors  being 
always  of  the  same  sign,  but  so  small  in  amount  that  he  neglected 
theui  in  his  subsequent  work. 

The  ultimate  object  of  the  experiments  described  in  the  report 
was  to  examine  the  behaviour  of  dew-point  instruments  in  air  of 
known  state,  and  for  this  purpose  air  was  saturated  at  a  known 
temperature  and  drawn  by  an  aspirator  through  vessels  in  which 
the  dew-point  instruments  could  be  placed  when  required,  and 
subsequently  through  drying  tubes  of  special  pattern.  The 
vapour- pressure  was  thus  obtained  at  the  two  extremities  of  the 
train  of  apparatus  and  the  results  compared. 

The  following  questions  are  raised  and  discussed  : — 

(i)  Were  the  drying  tubes  used  as  efficient  as  Regnault's?  (2) 
Does  the  pressure  of  vapour  in  the  air  become  changed  by 
passing  through  the  apparatus  designed  to  contain  the  dew- 
point  instruments,  or  by  the  mere  presence  of  those  instruments 
themselves?  (3)  Do  the  results  of  the  chemical  method  agree 
with  the  tabulated  vapour-pressures  in  vacuo  when  the  air  is 
more  or  less  heated  after  being  saturated  ?  (4)  Can  the  observed 
differences  between  the  results  be  obviated  by  assuming  a  value 
for  d  (other  than  0*622),  which  is  compatible  with  values 
obtained  by  other  methods  ?  (5)  Can  any  reason  be  assigned 
for  the  differences  observed  by  Regnault  in  the  case  of  saturated 
air? 

(l)  The  answer  to  the  first  question  is  given  in  an  account  of  a 
series  of  twelve  experiments  practically  repeating  Regnault's 
observations  with  saturated  air.  The  tabulated  results  show 
divergences  in  the  same  direction  and  of  the  same  order  of 
magnitude  as  those  in  Regnault's  paper.  Some  incidental 
points  are  also  discussed — namely,  the  comparative  efficiency  of 
phosphoric  anhydride,  sulphuric  acid,  and  calcium  chloride,  and 
the  effect  of  inrlia-rubbcr  and  glass  connections  between  drying 
tubes.  It  is  shown  that  the  sulphuric  acid  and  phosphoric 
anhydride  tubes  are  efficient,  that  as  a  rule  one  tube  is  all  that  is 
strictly  necessary,  but  that  two  should  be  used  to  provide  for  the 
case  of  exhaustion  of  the  first  tube  or  too  rapid  flow  of  air,  and 
further,  that  the  glass-and-mercury  connections  between  the  tubes 
employed  in  the  second  series  of  experiments  cannot  be  regarded 
as  producing  any  effect. 

(2  and  3)  The  answers  to  the  second  and  third  questions  are 
furnished  by  the  results  of  eighty-two  experiments  with  the 
chemical  method  upon  air  saturated  at  known  temperatures  by  a 
specially  designed  "saturater"  in  a  water-bath.  The  tempera- 
tures of  saturation  lay  between  l°  C.  and  21°  C,  and,  with  one 
exception,  were  below  the  temperature  of  the  surrounding  air. 
Each  experiment  involves  upwards  of  thirty  readings  of  weight, 
pressure,  and  temperature.  The  temperature  readings  are 
corrected  by  means  of  a  special  comparison  at  Kew.  Of  the 
eighty-two  observations  thirty-two  are   retained  as  being  free 


from  any  known  disturbing  causes,  and  from  them  it  appears 
that,  with  (/equal  too"622,  the  pressure  deduced  by  the  chemical 
method  is  on  the  average  greater  by  0*03  mm.  than  that  given 
in  Regnault's  table  "of  vacuum  pressures,  as  recalculated  in 
Landolt  and  IJornstein's  tables.  This  difference  is  very  small 
compared  with  the  discrepancies  from  Dalton's  Law  observed  by 
Regnault  in  the  case  of  water  vapour. 

(4)  With  regard  to  the  fourth  question  ;  if  the  observations  be 
employed  to  determine  the  value  which  must  be  substituted  for 
d,  the  value  obtained  is  o"6245,  which  agrees  very  closely  with 
0"6240,  the  mean  value  for  the  same  range  of  temperature  de- 
duced from  Claudius's  calculations  based  on  thermo-dynamical 
reasoning.  The  value  0622  is  probably  correct  if  the  air  is  not 
nearly  saturated  ;  in  that  case  the  measure  of  the  pressure  of 
vapour  in  the  air  is  2/622  greater  than  it  would  be  if  the  same 
air  were  reduced  in  temperature  (at. constant  pressure)  until  it 
was  saturated. 

(5)  The  one  observation  of  the  second  series  with  saturated 
air  gives  a  result  o*i8  mm.  smaller  than  the  tabulated  pres- 
sure, and  thus  with  the  twelve  experiments  of  the  first  series 
confirms  the  results  of  Regnault's  observations.  To  account  for 
this  it  is  suggested  that  air  which  is  very  nearly  or  quite  satur- 
ated would  deposit  some  of  its  moisture  on  the  glass  tubes  used 
to  conduct  it  from  one  ve>sel  to  another.  This  behaviour  of 
nearly  saturated  air  has  been  already  noticed,  and  it  is  confirmed 
by  the  observations  on  dew-point  instruments,  and  moreover,  by 
experiments,  directly  designed  for  the  purpose,  quoted  in  a 
note. 

Details  are  given  of  observations  with  Regnault's  hygrometer 
and  Dincs's  hygrometer  when  exposed  in  glass  vessels  between 
the  saturater  and  the  drying  tubes.  The  two  instruments  are 
separately  discussed.  With  Regnault's  instrument,  after  some 
practice,  two  different  observers  obtained  practically  identical 
results.  In  ordinary  observations,  the  observed  temperatures  of 
the  dew-point  were  below  the  temperature  of  saturation,  but 
seldom  by  more  than  o°'i  C.  A  considerable  amount  of  un- 
certainty was  shown  to  be  attached  to  the  readings,  and  by  very 
close  inspection  readings  of  the  dew-point  were  obtained  above 
the  temperature  of  saturation,  in  one  case  by  as  much  as 
o°7  C. 

From  the  experiments  with  Dines's  hygrometer,  it  appears 
that  the  instrument  is  likely  to  give  very  easy  dete  minations  of 
the  dew-point  that  are  within  small  limits  of  error  ;  but  that,  if 
it  be  observed  with  the  closest  attention,  the  result  will  be  con- 
siderably too  high  in  consequence  of  the  formation  of  a  dew 
deposit  at  a  temperature  above  the  dew-point,  and  it  may 
possibly  be  erroneous  in  consequence  of  variations  in  tempera- 
ture of  the  different  parts  of  the  box  containing  the  thermo- 
meter. 

An  account  is  given  of  Alluard's  modification  of  Regnault's 
hygrometer,  and  of  Bogen's  hygrometer.  ^ 

A  second  note,  B,  is  appended  to  the  report,  showing  the 
tables  used  in  various  countries  for  the  reduction  of  wet  and 
dry  bulb  observations. 

Chemical  Society,  February  2. — Mr.  W.  Crookes,  F.R.S., 
in  the  chair. — Profs.  Geuther,  Ladenburg,  Landolt,  Nilson, 
Van't  Hoff,  Wislicenus  and  M.  Lecoq  de  Boisbaudran  were 
elected  foreign  members  of  the  Society. — The  following  lecture 
was  delivered  : — The  range  of  molecular  forces,  by  Prof. 
A.  W.  Riicker,  F.R.  S.  In  discussing  the  range  of  molecular 
forces  it  is  convenient  to  adhere  to  the  language  of  the  theory  of 
action  at  a  distance,  though  with  full  expectation  that  it  will 
ultimately  be  replaced  by  another,  such  as  the  vortex-atom 
theory  of  Sir  W.  Thomson,  or  the  granular  theory  of  Prof. 
Osborne  Reynolds,  which  involves  only  action  in  proximity.  If 
we  do  this,  however,  it  must  be  admitted  that  the  law  of  mole- 
cular action  may  be  very  complicated.  It  may  be  granted  that 
we  naturally  look  for  simplicity  in  our  fundamental  assumptions, 
but  it  is  certain  that  we  have  a  priori  no  more  right  to  expect 
simplicity  in  the  results  of  the  action  of  a  medium  than  simplicity 
in  its  constitution,  and  that  the  two  are  not  necessarily  obtained 
together.  The  largest  values  of  the  magnitude  of  the  radius  of 
molecular  action  which  have  been  published  have  been  deduced 
from  observations  on  the  condensation  of  gases  and  vapours  on 
the  surfaces  of  solids.  Estimates  on  this  basis  made  by  Miiller- 
Erzbach  {Exiier's  Rep.,  1885,  xxi.  409)  and  Kayser  {Wied. 
Ann.,  1881,  xiv.  450)  have  ranged  between  1500  and  3000 
micromillimetres  ^  (/U/t).       Such  observations  are  open  to  many 

»  The  mlcromillimetre  is  t  lie  millionth  of  a  millimetre. 


4o6 


NATURE 


lFel\ 


objections.  Biinsen  {fVtec/.,  1885,  xxiv,  335)  has  shown  that  CO^ 
will  not  condense  on  glass  unless  a  fihn  of  water  be  previously 
formed.  Warburg  and  Ihmori  {IVied.,  1886,  xxvii.  481,  and 
VVied.,  1887,  xxxi.  1006)  adduce  reasons  for  believing  that  the 
water  film  is  largely  due  to  uncombined  or  loo-ely  combined 
alkalies  on  the  surface.  On  clean  unvarnished  metals,  wcshed 
glass  and  quartz,  the  thickness  of  the  water  film  which  can  be 
removed  by  dry  air  without  heating  does  not  exceed  12  /x,u.  A 
striking  exception  is  agate,  on  which  films  1640  /u,ii  thick  are 
stated  to  have  been  formed.  As  this  substance,  however,  is 
composed  of  alternate  layers  of  quartz  and  a  porous  impure  opal, 
the  basis  for  an  accurate  calculation  does  not  exist.  On  the 
whole,  it  seems  that  no  definite  conclusions  as  to  the  magnitude 
of  the  radius  of  molecular  action  (p)  can  at  present  be  drawn  from 
these  experiments.  Quincke  [Po^g.  Aim.,  1869,  cxxxvii.  402), 
as  is  well  known,  by  measuring  the  capillary  elevation  of  liquids 
between  glass  plates  coated  with  thin  wedge-shaped  films,  found 
p  =50ju;u.  Plateau ("Statiquedes  Liquides,"  1873,  i.  2io)shov\ed 
that  the  turface-tension  of  a  soap-bubble,  which  thinned  until  its 
thickness  was  118  /x,u,  was  unaltered.  He  concluded  that 
p  <  59  fjifi.  Maxwell  ("  Ency.  Brit.,"  9th  ed.,  Ait.  "Capillary 
Action ''),  however,  though  by  a  confessedly  imperfect  theory, 
shows  that  the  surface-tension  may  not  change  until  the  thick- 
ness of  the  film  =  p.  Hence  Plateau's  result  may  mean  only 
that  p  <  Ii8/x/x.  Reinold  and  Riicker  (Phil.  Trans.,  clxxvii. 
Part  ii.  1886,  627)  have  proved  that  the  surface-tension 
does  not  alter  by  05  per  cent,  when  the  film  is  so  thin 
as  to  show  the  black  of  the  first  order  of  Newton's  colours 
This  appears  at  first  sight  at  variance  with  Quincke's  result, 
but  their  observations  are  really  in  remarkable  accord  with 
his.  The  black  and  coloured  parts  of  a  film  are  separated 
by  a  sharp  line,  which  proves  a  discontinuity  in  the  thickness 
(Proc.  Roy.  Soc,  1887,  No.  182,  340).  The  colours,  which 
correspond  to  certain  thicknesses,  which  may  be  called  the 
unstable  range  of  thickness,  are  always  missing.  The  black 
part  of  the  film  has  been  proved  by  Reinold  and  Riicker  (Phil. 
Trans.,  Part  ii.  1883,  645)  to  be  of  a  uniform  thickness,  which 
differs  but  little  from  12  /tt/i.  Sir  William  Thomsjn  (Proc. 
Royal  Institution)  and  these  observers  independently  arrived  at 
the  conclusion  that  these  curious  phenomena  are  due  to  the  fact 
that  the  surface-tension  diminishes  to  a  minimum,  and  then  in- 
creases again  when  the  thickness  is  somewhat  >I2  ix'j..  The 
colours  of  the  film  prove  that  the  upper  limit  of  the  range  of 
un^table  thickness  is  between  96  and  45  ixfx.  Quincke's  result 
indicates  that  it  lies  between  loo  ju/^  and  50  /u,u,  according  as  we 
adopt  Plateau's  or  Maxwell's  views.  These  calculations  are 
therefore  in  complete  accord.  Quincke's  result  is  not  an 
isolated  fact,  but  is  supported  by  observations  on  soap  films. 
The  statement  that  50  ^ft.  and  the  radius  of  molecular  action  are 
of  the  same  order  of  magnitude  may  now  perhaps  rank  as  an 
ascertained  fact.  Another  method  of  investigating  the  radius  of 
molecular  action  is  based  on  the  phenomena  of  electrolytic 
polarization,  by  observing  the  change  in  the  difference  of  poten- 
tial between  a  metal  and  a  liquid  in  which  it  is  immersed,  when 
a  gas  or  metal  is  deposited  on  it  by  electrolysis.  In  the  former 
case  we  do  not  know  the  density  of  the  gas,  in  the  latter  Ober- 
beck  {Wied.,  1887,  xxxi.  337)  concludes  that  a  plate  of  platinum 
is  completely  polarized  by  a  film  of  another  metal  of  from  3  to 
I  fifjt.  in  thickness.  The  method  of  experiment  is,  hov/ever,  open 
to  objections,  which  are  indicated  by  Oberbeck  himself.  Measure- 
ments of  the  thickness  of  the  double  electric  layer  of  Helmholtz, 
which  is  closely  related  to  the  distance  between  two  consecutive 
layers  of  molecules,  have  been  made  by  Lippmann  {Co/npt. 
rend.,  1882,  xcv.  687),  and  by  Oberbeck  and  Falck  ( IVied.,  1884, 
xxi.  157)-  1'he  values  they  give  vary  between  i  and  0'02  ixix. 
Wiener  (/^F/^(/.,  1887,  xxxi.  624)  has  studied  the  alteration  in 
the  phase  of  light  reflected  from  very  thin  silver  plates  deposited 
on  mica.  He  finds  that  the  effect  begins  to  alter  when  the 
thickness  is  reduced  to  12  yu^,  and  that  it  was  possible  to 
delect  a  silver  film  the  thickness  of  which  did  not  exceed 
o'2  fill.  The  diameter  of  a  molecule  is  a  conventional 
term  for  the  mean  distance  of  the  centres  of  two  molecules 
during  an  encounter.  It  may  therefore  be  different  in  the 
liquid  and  gaseous  states.  Sir  William  Thomson  ("Natural 
Philosophy,"  Thomson  and  Tait,  Part  ii.  295,  1883),  as  the 
result  of  his  celebrated  discussion  of  this  point,  concludes 
that  the  mean  distances  between  the  centres  of  molecules  in 
liquids  (supposed  arranged  uniformly)  is  between  0*07  and  002 
/tjti,  and  that  the  latter  quantity  is  an  inferior  limit  to  the 
diameter  of  a  gaseous  molecule.  The  diameters  of  molecules 
(0?)  may  be  calculated  if  we  know  the  mean  free  path  (L),  and 


the  so-called  condensation  coefficient  {v),  which  is  the  volume  of 
the  molecules  coi.tained  in  a  unit  volume  of  the  gas.  Loschmidt 
{Sil'^iingsher.  IVieii.  Akad.  Math.  Classe,  lii.  abt.  2)  and  O. 
Meyer  ("  Die  Kinetische  Theorie  der  Gase,"  225,  1887)  have 
calculated  d  on  the  assumption  that  the  molecules  in  a  liquid 
practically  fill  the  whole  space  it  occupies.  Exner  {Rep.  der 
Physik,  xxi.  226,  1885),  using  a  formula  given  by  Clausius, 
V  ~  {\L  -  l)/(K  -f  2),  where  K  is  the  specific  inductive  capacity, 
and  can  be  replaced  by  f  =^  {li-  -  i)  (//'-'  -r  2),  where  n  is  the  re- 
fractive index,  finds  values  of  a' about  five  times  smaller.  Three 
independent  methods  of  calculating  the  diameter  of  a  gaseous 
hydrogen  molecule  lead  to  results  between  o"i4  ando'il  ju/t. 
The  most  reliable  conclusions  which  have  been  reached  as  to 
molecular  magnitudes  may  be  summed  up  in  the  following 
table,  which  is  reproduced  from  a  diagram  exhibited  during  the 
lecture. 


{ 

thickness  / 


1 18  Superior  limit  to  p  . 

96-45        Range    of   unstable 

begins 

59         I  Superior  limit  to  p 

50         i  Magnitude  of  p         

12         I  Range    of   unstable    thickness/ 

{       ends       \ 

12        I  Action  of  silver  plate  on  phase  V 

I       of  reflected  light  alters        ...  / 

iO'5        I  Thickness  of  permanent  water) 

film  on  glass  at  23"'  C.         ...  / 

4  3        I  Mean  distance  between  centres 

j       of    molecules     in    gases    at 

1       760  mm.  and  0°  C 

3-1        I  Thickness  of  metal  films  which"} 

polarize  platinum         j 

1-0 '02     i   Thickness    of    electric   double/ 

I       layer       \ 

o*2        j  Smallest  appreciable  thickness  Y 
I       of  silver  film         / 

o'i4-o'ii  :  Diameter  of  gaseous  hydrogen  \ 
molecule       i 

0'07-0*02     Mean  distance  between  centres 

of  liquid  molecules      

Inferior  limit    to    diameter  of 
gaseous  molecule . 


"} 


Plateau 
(Maxwell) 
Reinold  and 
Kiicker 
Plateau 
Quincke 
Reinold  and 
Riicker 

Wiener 
Bunsea 


O.  Meyer 

Oberbeck 

Lippmann  and 
Oberbeck 

Wiener 

Exner 
O.  Meyer 
Van  der  Waals 

W.  Thomson 
W.  Thomson 


— The  following  papers  were  read  : — A  new  method  of  obtain- 
ing monohydrazides  of  o-diketones,  by  Prof.  F.  R.  Japp,  F.  R.  S.,. 
and  Dr.  F.  Klingemann.  The  authors  have  prepared  von 
Pechmann's  monohydrazide  of  diacetyl  by  the  action  of  di- 
azobenzene  chloride  on  sodium  methacetate. — The  formation  of 
dihydrazides  of  a-diketones,  by  the  same. — The  action  of 
phenylhydrazine  on  anhydracetophenonebenzil,  by  Prof.  F.  R. 
Japp,  F.R.S.,  and  Mr.  G.  N.  Huntly. — The  supposed  identity 
of  rutin  and  quercitrin,  by  Dr.  E.  Schunck,  F.  R.S.  A  com- 
parative examination  of  rutin  obtained  from  the  leaves  of 
PolygontiDi  fagopyruiii  and  of  quercitrin  shows  that,  though 
they  are  extremely  similar,  yet  they  differ  in  composition  and 
in  some  of  their  properties.  Rutin  has  the  composition 
C4.2H50O03,  and  yields,  on  hydrolysis,  one  molecule  quercetin 
and  three  molecules  isodulcite,  whilst  quercitrin  CsgHsgOao,  as 
is  known,  yields,  under  like  conditions,  one  molecule  quercetin 
and  two  molecules  isodulcite. — The  composition  of  bird-lime,  by 
Dr.  E.  Divers,  F.R.S.,  and  M.  Kawakita.  Japanese  bird-liuie 
prepared  from  Ilex  ititegra  contains,  in  addition  to  6  per  cent, 
of  caoutchouc  and  minute  quantities  of  oxalates,  the  ethereal 
salts  of  palmitic  acid,  and,  in  small  quantity,  of  a  semi-solid 
undetermined  fatty  acid.  On  hydrolysis  these  yield  ilicyhc 
alcohol,  CoHagO,  diftering  only  slightly  from  Personne's  ihcic 
alcohol,  and  mochylic  alcohol  <Z.,^\\^^0.  A  resinoid  body, 
C26H44O,  was  also  separated.  When  heated  with  palmitic  acid, 
the  two  alcohols  are  converted  into  compounds  just  like  punned 
bird-lime.  The  authors  consider  bird-lime  to  be  closely  allied 
to  the  waxes  in  chemical  constitution. 

Errata.— -P.  335,  line  15   (from  top),  for  3SOnjS04  read 
3II2SO4;  line  19  (from  top),/c;r  SO  read  SO,. 


Feb.  23.  1888] 


NATURE 


407 


Physical  Society,  January  28. — Prof.  W..G.  Adams,  F.R.S., 

Vice-President,  in  the  chair. — In  opening  the  proceedings  the 
•Chairman  referred  to  the  great  loss  which  the  Society  had  sustained 
by  the  death  of  Dr.  Balfour  Stewart,  their  late  President,  and 
-said  that  his  loss  would  be  deeply  felt  by  the  whole  scientific 
world. — The  following  papers  were  read: — On  the  effect  of 
magnetization  on  the  thermoelectrical  properties  of  bismuth,  by 
Vir.  Herbert  Tomlinson. — On  the  influence  of  magnetism  and 
temperature  on  the  electrical  resistance  of  bismuth  and  its  alloys 
with  lead  and  tin,  by  M.  Ed.  von  Aubel. — On  a  water-dropping 
influence  machine,  by  Prof.  S.  P,  Thompson, — On  the  price  of 
the  factor  of  safety  in  lightning-rods,  by  the  same.  It  is  here 
shown,  upon  certain  assumptions,  that  the  safety  against  fusion 

f  s 

varies  as  total  cost  X  -^, ;  where  j   =  temperature  of  fusion 

p  it  I-  k 
of  material  above  atmosphere,  s  =   specific  thermal  capacity, 
p  =  specific  electric  resistance,  d  =  density,  /;  =  cost  in  pence 
per  lb.,   and  /  =   length  of  the  conductor.      If  the  total  cost 
and   length   are   supposed   to    be  given,  the  factor    of   safety 


Of  the  common  metals-jiron  has  the  greatest  factor 


=    /  L 

pdi' 

of  safety,  being  more  than  four  times  that  of  copper.  Such 
being  the  case,  the  author  thinks  it  desirable  that  the  Report  of 
the  Lightning- Rod  Conference  be  reconsidered. — On  the  optical 
<lemonstration  of  electrical  stress,  by  Prof.  A.  W.  Riicker, 
F.R.  S.,  and  Mr.  C.  V.  Boys.  A  number  of  lecture  experiments 
were  shown  illustrating  that  electrical  stress  exists  in  the 
dielectric  separating  two  charged  bodies.  The  bodies  were 
placed  in  carbon  bisulphide,  between  two  crossed  Nicols,  and  on 
electrifying  them  by  means  of  a  Holtz  machine,  light  passed 
through  the  analyzer.  Two  concentric  cylinders  gave  a  black 
cross  on  the  screen  similar  to  those  seen  on  interposing  a  plate 
of  so  ne  uniaxial  crystal,  and  a  model  illustrating  a  charged 
Leyden  jar  was  shown. 

February  11. — Annual  General  Meeting. — Dr.  J,  H.  Glad- 
stone, F.R.S.,  Vice-President,  in  the  chair, — The  Chair- 
man read  the  Report  of  the  Council  for  the  past  year,  and 
expressed  regret  at  the  losses  the  Society  had  sustained  by 
the  deaths  of  Dr.  Stewart  (their  late  President),  Prof.  Kirchhoff, 
Mr.  Coutts  Trotter,  and  Prof.  Humpidge.  The  Council  regret 
that  no  increase  of  mejibers  has  taken  place  during  the  past  year, 
and  h  ope  that  the  advantages  offered  by  the  Society  may  be 
more  fully  appreciated  in  future.  Obituary  notices  of  Dr.  B. 
Stewart,  Mr.  Coutts  Trotter,  and  Prof.  Humpidge  were  then 
read.  The  Treasurer's  Report  shows  that  the  financial  condition 
of  the  Society  is  very  satisfactory.  On  the  motion  of  Mr.  Lant 
Carpenter,  seconded  by  Mr.  Inwards,  the  Reports  were  adopted,  — 
The  following  gentlemen  were  elected  members  of  Council  for 
the  present  year  : — President :  Prof.  A.  W.  Reinold,  F.  R.  S. 
Vice  Presidents  :  Dr.  E.  Atkinson,  Prof.  W.  E.  Ayrton,  F.R.S., 
Mr.  Shelford  Bidwell,  F.R.S.  and  Prof.  H,  McLeod,  F.R.S. 
Secretaries:  Mr.  Walter  Baily,  and  Prof.  J.  Perry,  F.R.S. 
Treasurer :  Prof.  A.  W.  Riicker,  F.  R.  S.  Demonstrator 
and  Librarian  :  Mr.  C.  V.  Boys.  Ocher  members  of  Coun- 
■cil :  Hon.  R.  Abercromby,  R.  H.  M.  Bosanquet,  M.  A., 
W.  H.  Coffin,  Conrad  W.  Cooke,  Prof.  F.  Fuller,  W. 
N,  Shaw,  A.  Stroh,  Prof.  S.  P.  Thompson,  H.  Tomlinson, 
G.  M,  Whipple.  On  taking  the  chair  the  new  President 
•expressed  his  sincere  thanks  for  the  great  honour  the  Society 
had  conferred  upon  him.  Prof.  Fuller  proposed  a  vote  of 
thanks  to  the  Lords  of  Committee  of  Council  on  Education 
for  the  use  of  the  rooms  and  apparatus  of  the  Normal  School 
of  Science,  which  was  seconded  by  Mr.  Shaw,  and  passed 
unanimously.  A  cordial  vote  of  thanks  to  the  Council  and 
officers  of  the  past  year,  moved  by  Dr.  Blaikley,  and  seconded 
by  Prof.  Ramsay,  was  dul/  acknowledged  by  the  President.  A 
similar  vote,  proposed  by  Mr.  Bosanquet,  and  seconded  by  Mr. 
Hadden,  to  the  auditors  for  the  past  year,  was  passed  unani- 
mously.— The  meeting  was  then  resolved  into  an  ordinary  science 
meeting,  at  which  the  following  papers  were  read  : — On  the 
limit  of  refraction  in  relation  to  temperature  and  chemical  com- 
position, by  Mr.  T.  Pelham  Dale. — Note  on  the  use  of  the 
term  "resistance"  in  the  description  of  physical  phenomena, 
by  Mr.   R.  H.   M.  Bosanquet. 

Paris. 

Academy  oi   Scien:es,  February  13. — M,  Janssen   in  the 
chair. — On  an  an::ient  process  for  rendering  gens  and  vitrifica- 


tions phosphorescent ,  by  M.  Berthelot.  The  treatise  in  which 
this  process  is  described  occurs  in  the  collection  of  Greek 
alchemists  transcribed  in  certain  manuscripts  of  the  thirteenth 
and  fifteenth  centuries  (Bibliotheque  Nationale,  Nos.  2325  and 
2327).  It  contains  a  series  of  purely  technical  receipts  analogous 
to  those  of  the  Leyden  papyrus,  some  apparently  of  great 
antiquity,  explaining  certain  methods  of  "colouring  artificial 
precious  stones,  emeralds,  carbuncles,'hyacinths,  according  to  the 
book  taken  from  the  shrine  of  the  Temple."  Several  Egyptian 
alchemists  are  mentioned,  such  as  Agathodemon,  the  pseudo- 
Moses,  Ostanes,  and  Democritus,  and  the  text  leaves  no  doubt 
as  to  the  ancient  practice  of  rendering  certain  gems  phos- 
phorescent in  the  dark  by  means  of  surface  colouring  prepared 
from  substances  which  are  still  known  to  possess  such  properties. 
— On  the  properties  of  a  new  hydraulic  machine  intended  for 
irrigation  purposes,  by  M.  A.  de  Caligny.  For  this  apparatus, 
which  has  been  for  some  time  in  use  both  at  Aubois  and  on  the 
canal  between  Mons  and  La  Louviere,  the  author  claims  the 
advantages  of  great  simplicity  of  structure  as  well  as  economy  on 
the  first  outlay.  It  may  also  be  utilized  for  replenishing  cattle- 
troughs,  and  other  secondary  uses,  at  a  minimum  cost.  It  was 
awarded  a  gold  medal  at  the  Antwerp  Universal  Exhibition. — 
On  the  part  played  by  the  absorbing  power  of  the  soil  in  the 
formation  of  the  natural  carbonates  of  soda,  by  M.  Paul  de 
Mondesir.  The  paper  deals  with  Berthollet's  well-known  theory 
regarding  the  formation  of  Egyptian  natron,  and  shows  that 
Berthollet's  explanation  is  so  far  true  that  the  marine  salt  really 
furnishes  the  soda,  and  carbonate  of  lime,  the  carbonic  acid.  But 
the  reaction  is  neither  direct  nor  continuous,  and  is  produced  in 
two  distinct  phases.  In  the  first,  the  soil  reacts  on  the  marine 
salt,  transforming  it  into  chloride  of  calcium  while  yielding  lime 
and  absorbing  soda.  In  the  second,  which  can  set  in  only  after 
removal  of  the  chloride  of  calcium,  the  bicarbonate  of  lime  and 
the  carbonic  acid  extract  the  soda  from  the  ground,  replacing  it 
with  lime.  Berthollet's  theory  is  thus  left  fundamentally  intact, 
but  so  modified  as  to  become  universally  applicable.  In  fact,  the 
carbonate  of  soda  is  produced  in  all  permeable  calcareous  soils  in 
proportion  to  the  quantity  of  marine  salt  contained  in  them. — 
Observations  of  the  new  planet  272,  discovered  on  February  4, 
at  the  Observatory  of  Nice,  by  M.  Charlois.  The  observations, 
including  right  ascension,  polar  distance,  and  the  positions  of 
comparison  stars,  extend  over  the  period  from  February  4  to 
February  9.  When  discovered  the  planet  was  of  13 '5  magnitude. 
— New  obseri^ations  on  the  variability  of  Saturn's  rings,  by  M. 
E.  L.  Trouvelot.  It  is  pointed  out  that  the  observations  made 
during  the  last  few  years  by  Perkins,  Offord,  Davis,  Stanley 
Williams,  Stroobant,  and  others,  all  tend  definitely  to  establish 
the  proposition  announced  by  the  author  in  1884,  that,  so  far 
from  being  stable,  the  rings  of  Saturn  are  on  the  contrary 
essentially  variable,  and  subject  to  constant  fluctuations.  The 
same  truth  is  confirmed  by  the  author's  own  observations  made 
in  1886  and  1887  at  the  Observatory  of  Meudon,  and  here  com- 
municated to  the  Academy.  — Theorems  on  Campbell's  algebraic 
equations  and  quadratic  functions,  by  Father  Aug.  Poulain. 
Newton,  or  rather  Campbell,  formulated  a  very  simple  rule 
for  determining  the  existence  of  the  imaginary  roots  in  algebraic 
equations.  The  author  here  proposes  a  few  theorems,  by  means 
of  which  the  application  of  this  law  may  be  extended  and 
the  accompanying  calculations  much  simplified. — On  chemical 
equiUbria,  by  M.  P.  Duhem,  In  a  recent  note  M,  H.  Le 
Chatelier  announced  that  the  numerical  laws  of  chemical 
equilibrium,  as  deduced  from  the  two  principles  of  thermo- 
dynamics, may  be  expressed  in  a  simple  way  by  means  of 
M,  Massieu's  characteristic  function  H'.  Here  it  is  shown  that 
this  law  may  be  thus  formulated :  The  variation  imposed  on  M. 
Massieu's  function  H'  by  a  virtual  isothermic  modification  of  the 
system  is  equivalent  to  zero,  .  It  is  further  pointed  out  that  the 
reiults  obtained  by  M.  Le  Chatelier  are  practically  identical  with 
those  arrived  at  by  the  author  during  a  series  of  investigations 
spread  over  several  years. — O.i  the  mineralizing  action  of  the 
alkaline  sulphides:  reproduction  of  chrysoberyl,  by  MM.  P. 
Hautefeuille  and  A.  Perrey.  During  a  protracted  series  of  re- 
searches on  the  mineralizing  action  of  the  sulphides,  the  authors 
have  succeeded  in  obtaining  the  crystallization  of  glucine,  the 
separation  of  alumina  and  glucine,  or  inversely  the  reproduction  of 
the  aluminate  of  glucine,  a  combination  which  occuri  in  nature, 
and  which  is  known  by  the  name  of  cymophane  (chrysoberyl). 
A  simple  process  is  described  by  means  of  which  from  a  com- 
bination of  glucine  and  alumina  extracted  from  the  emerald  the 


4o8 


NATURE 


[Feb.  23,  I 


glucine  may  be  obtained  with  a  loss  of  not  more  than  10  per  cent., 
and  in  such  a  state  of  purity  that  its  equivalent  has  been  found 
equal  to  I2'58. — Influence  of  various  diets  on  the  interchange  of 
the  gases  in  respiration,  by  MM.  Hanriot  and  Ch.  Richet.  Con- 
tinuing their  researches  on  the  respiratory  function,  the  authors 
find  that  respiration  increases  with  the  increase  of  food,  but 
only  when  this  consists  of  the  hydrates  of  carbon  ;  that  the  inter- 
change of  the  gases  is  but  slightly  affected  by  a  nitrogenous 
and  fatty  diet ;  that  feculent  substances  increase  the  absorption 
of  oxygen  and  especially  the  production  of  COg  ;  that  the  cen- 
tesimal proportions  of  the  absorbed  oxygen  or  of  the  generated 
carbonic  acid  varies  little  during  muscular  repose  ;  that  the  pro- 
portion of  absorbed  oxygen  averages  about  4*2  per  cent.,  and 
of  generated  CO.2  about  3*4  per  cent.  The  subject  is  illustrated 
by  a  diagram  showing  by  a  graphic  process  the  influence  of  a 
nitrogenous  and  feculent  diet  on  the  respiratory  functions 
generally. — Discovery  of  a  worked  flint  and  a  mammoth's  tusk 
at  Vitry-en  Artois,  by  M.  Ladriere.  The  position  in  which 
these  remains  were  found  seems  to  confirm  the  author's  view  that 
towards  the  close  of  the  early  Quaternary  epoch  (Mousterian 
age)  Elephas  primigcnitis  and  other  large  mammals,  as  well  as 
man,  were  already  spread  over  the  west  of  Europe. 


Berlin. 

Physical  Society,  January  20. — Prof,  von  Helmholtz,  Presi- 
dent, in  the  chair. — Prof.  Oettingen  spoke  on  the  interference  of 
electrical  vibrations  which  is  produced  by  the  electrical  oscilla- 
tions discovered  by  Feddersen,  during  the  spark  discharge.  The 
discharge  oscillations  of  two  Leyden  batteries,  differing  in  fre- 
quency and  amplitude,  were  allowed  to  produce  an  interference 
in  the  path  of  a  third  spark,  and  this  led  to  a  constant  succession 
of  alternatingly  increased  and  diminished  intensities  of  this  spark. 
The  phenomenon  was  analyzed  by  means  of  a  rotating  mirror, 
which  resolved  it  into  its  several  phases,  and  the  events  taking 
place  in  each  spark  were  recorded  by  instantnneous  photography. 
The  speaker  exhibited  a  large  number  of  these  photographs, 
both  as  negatives  and  as  positive  reproductions,  and  explained 
them  fully.  In  these  experiments,  as  in  those  described  at  the 
previous  meeting  of  the  Society  on  the  explosion  of  an  electro- 
lytic mixture  of  oxygen  and  hydrogen.  Prof  Oettingen  had 
succeeded  in  obtaining  accurate  results  only  when  he  had 
replaced  the  concave  rotating  mirror  by  a  plane  one,  whose 
action  he  then  thoroughly  discussed. — Prof.  Bornstein  exhibited 
a  preparation  which  he  had  recently  obtained  quite  by  chance, 
during  one  of  his  lectures.  When  lecturing  on  the  diffusion  of 
liquids,  he  was  in  the  habit  of  using  a  Traube  artificial  cell.  On 
placing  a  blue  crystal  of  sulphate  of  copper  in  a  solution  of 
soluble  glass,  a  precipitate  is  formed  as  a  film  on  the 
surface  of  the  salt,  when  it  comes  in  contact  with  the  soluble 
glass.  The  water  from  the  solution  then  diffuses  through  the 
film,  dissolving  the  salt  and  stretching  the  film  until  it  is  ruptured 
at  some  one  point.  When  this  occurs  the  solution  of  the  sulphate 
of  copper  comes  again  into  contact  with  the  soluble  glass,  a  new 
film  is  formed  at  the  surface  of  contact,  closing  up  the  aperture, 
and  the  diffusion  begins  again.  The  film  thus  grows  continually 
in  a  tubular  form,  until  it  finally  permeates  the  whole  solution. 
When  recently  repeating  this  lecture  experiment,  the  speakei 
noticed  that  the  film  did  not  grow  in  the  usual  tubular  way,  but 
took  the  form  of  flattened  parallel  membranes  which  advanced 
through  the  solution  at  right  angles  to  their  length.  He  was  at 
present  unable  to  offer  any  explanation  of  this  latter  phenomenon. 
— Dr.  Budde  had  recently  submitted  Clausius's  fundamental  law 
of  electro-dynamics  to  a  recalculation,  while  taking  into  account  a 
large  series  of  special  conditions ;  among  these  he  allowed  for 
the  motion  of  translation  of  the  earth,  and  found  that  it  had  no 
influence  on  the  validity  of  the  law.  At  that  time  he  had  not 
calculated  the  influence  of  the  earth's  rotation  ;  he  had  however, 
since  then,  repeated  his  former  work,  and  gave  an  account  of 
the  results  of  his  calculation,  which  showed  that  the  rotatory 
motion  of  the  earth  had  also  no  influence  on  the  law.  The 
same  speaker  finally  drew  attention  to  an  error  which  occurs  in 
all  text-books,  in  connection  with  the  determination  of  the 
potential  of  a  system  of  points,  and  showed  how  illogical  is  the 
usual  definition  and  of  deducing  of  potential  energy.  Prof,  von 
Helmholtz  then  directed  attention  to  the  fact  that  he  was  in  the 
habit  of  determining  potential  energy  in  a  different  way,  and  that 
its  derivation  from  a  system  of  points  is  fraught  with  great 
difficulties. 


BOOKS,  PAMPHLETS,  and  SERIALS  RECEIVED. 

Contributions  to  the  Paleontology  of  Brazil :  C.  A.  White  (Washington).— 
Die  Entstehung  der  Arten,  i  Thiel :  Dr.  G.  H.  T.  Eimer  (Fischer,  Jena). 
— Key  to  Todhunter's  DiflFerential  Calculus  :  H.  St.  J.  Hunter  (Macmillan). 
— Annals  of  the  Astronomical  Observatory  of  Harvard  College,  vol.  xiii. 
Part  2,  Zone  Observations  made  with  the  Transit  Wedge  Photometer  (Wilson, 
Cambridge,  Mass.). — Calendar  and  General  Directory  of  the  Department 
of  Science  and  Art  for  the  year  1888  (Eyre  and  Spottiswoode). — Electrical 
Instrunient  Making  fjr  Amateurs :  S.  R.  Bottone  (Whittaker).— Practical 
Education  :  C.  G.  Leland  (Whittaker). — Volapiik,  or  Universal  Language  : 
A.  Kirchhoff  (Sonnenschein). — Geology:  Chemical,  Physical,  and  Strati- 
graphical,  vol.  ii.  :  J.  Prestwich  (Clarendon  Press). — Observations  made 
during  1883  at  the  U.S.  Naval  Observatory  (Washington). — Die  Prahistori- 
schen  Denkmaler  der  Provinz  Westpreussen  und  der  Angrenzenden  Gebiete  : 
Dr.  A. Lissauer( Williams  and  Norgate). — The  Shell  Collector's  Hand-book  for 
the  Field  :  J.  W.  Williams  (Roperand  Drowley). — My  Telescope  :  A  Quekett 
Club  Man(Roper  and  Drowley). — Through  the  Yang-tse  Gorges  :  A.  J.  Little 
(Low). — Report  on  the  Administration  of  the  Meteorological  Department  of 
the  Government  of  India  in  1886-87. — Indian  Meleorological  Memoirs,  vol. 
iii.  Part  2  (Calcutta). — A  Manual  of  the  Geology  of  India  ;  Part  4, 
Mineralogy:  F.  R.  Mallet  (Trubner). — Bulletin  of  the  U.S.  Geological 
Survey,  No.  39  (Washington)  — The  Law  of  the  Univer.se  :  G.  W.  Cleverley 
(ferown.  Hull). — Quarterly  Journal  of  the  Geological  Society,  vol.  44, 
Part  I,  No  173  (Longmans). — Proceedings  of  the  Lmnean  Society  of  New 
South  Wales,  2nd  .series,  vol.  ii.  Part  3  (Sydney). — List  of  Contributors  to 
ditto,  1st  series  (Sydney). — Quarterly  Journal  of  Microscopical  Science, 
February  (Churchill)  — Journal  of  the  Royal  Microscopical  Society,  February 
(Williams  and  Norgate). 


CONTENTS. 


PAGE 


Physical  Science  and  the  Woolwich  Examinations  .    385 

The  Moths  of  India.     By  H.  J.  Elwes 386 

Prolegomena  to  the  Statistics  of  Thought 387 

Our  Book  Shelf  :— 

Reynolds:     "Experimental     Chemistry    for    Junior 

Stitdents" 388 

Wood:   "  The  Farmer's  Friends  and  Foes  "    ....     388 

Clodd  :   *'  The  Story  of  Creation  "      388 

Letters  to  the  Editor  : — 

Botanists   and  the    Micromillimetre. — Prof.    Arthur 

W.  Riicker,  F.R.S ...    388 

"  The  Teaching  of  Elementary  Chemistry." — Z.     .    .    389 
Natural  Science  and  the  Woolwich  Examinations. — 

Rev.  A.  Irving ....    389 

The  Composition  of  Water.     (  With  Diagrams.) — Dr. 

Sydney  Young 390 

The  Fog  Bow  and  Ulloa's  Ring.     ( With  Diagram.) — 

Dr.  H.  Mohn 391 

The  Shadow  of  a  Mist.     {Illustrated.) — Rev.  Henry 

Bernard [392 

Instability   of  Freshly  Magnetized    Needles. — Prof. 

Francis  E.  Nipher 392 

Microsauria  and  Dendrerpeton. — Sir  J.  Wm.  Daw- 
son, F.R.S 393 

A  New  Historic  Comet?— W.  H.  S.  Monck     ...    393 
The    Proposed  Teaching    University   for   London. — 

Sir  Philip  Magnus 393 

Institute  of  Chemistry. — Boverton    Redwood   and 

Alfred  Gordon  Salamon 393 

Coral  Formations.    {With  Charts).    By  Capt.  W.  J.  L. 

Wharton,  R.N.,  F.R.S.,  Hydrographer  to  the  Navy   393 
The  Akkas,  a  Pygmy  Race  from  Central  Africa    .    .    395 

Rev.  John  Hewitt  Jellett,  D.D.,  D.C.L 396 

Notes     397 

Our  Astronomical  Column  : — 

Mr.    Tebbutt's    Observatory,    Windsor,  New   South 

Wales 400 

Pulkowa  Observatory 4°° 

Wolsingham  Observatory      40° 

Astronomical     Phenomena     for     the     Week     1888 

February  26 — March  3 4*^0 

The  Relations  between  Geology  and  the  Biological 
Sciences.     By  Prof.  John  W,  Judd,  F.R.S.     ...    401 

Scientific  Serials 404 

Societies  and  Academies 4^4 

Books,  Pamphlets,  and  Serials  Received 40S 


NA  TURE 


409 


THURSDAY,   MARCH    i,   i! 


PHYSICAL    SCIENCE  AND    THE  WOOLWICH 
EXAMINATIONS. 

WE  are  glad  to  learn  that  several  Members  of  Parlia- 
ment are  interesting  themselves  in  this  important 
matter,  and  that  Sir  John  Lubbock  and  Sir  Henry 
Roscoe  have  both  put  down  notices  of  motion  calling 
attention  to  the  changes  that  it  is  proposed  to  make  in  the 
regulations  for  admission  to  Woolwich.  We  hope  and 
believe  that  their  efforts  will  result  in  a  rectification  of 
these  ill-conceived  regulations. 

We  have  already  shown  in  our  previous  articles  on 
this  subject  how  completely  the  new  regulations  fail  to 
find  any  justification,  so  far  as  their  treatment  of 
experimental  science  is  concerned.  We  have  demon- 
strated, by  an  examination  of  the  professional  course 
of  training  which  the  successful  cadets  will  go  through 
when  at  the  Royal  Military  Academy,  that  of  the  subjects 
of  general  education  experimental  science  stands  below 
mathematics  alone  in  practical  importance  for  Woolwich 
cadets  ;  whilst  even  a  cursory  inspection  of  the  results  of 
past  examinations  is  sufficient  to  reveal  the  hollowness  of 
the  suggestion  that  in  scientific  subjects  marks  may  be 
easily  obtained  by  superficial  study  or  cram.  When  we 
consider  that  the  results  of  applying  similar  regulations 
in  the  case  of  the  Sandhurst  examinations  are,  or  ought  to 
be,  familiar  to  the  War  Office  authorities,  it  is  astonish- 
ing that  their  extension  to  the  scientific  branches  of  the 
army  should  ever  have  been  seriously  contemplated. 

The  deliberate  adoption  of  this  scheme  for  selecting 
young  men  for  a  highly  scientific  profession,  after  the 
experience  of  several  years  had  so  completely  established 
that  it  is  eminently  calculated  to  reduce  the  chances  of 
candidates  of  scientific  power  to  a  minimum,  can  only  be 
regarded  as  a  remarkable  example  of  official  blundering. 
The  rectification  of  the  mistake  is  the  more  imperatively 
required  because  the  treatment  of  natural  science — that  is, 
of  candidates  whose  abilities  are  rather  scientific  than 
linguistic  or  mathematical — in  public  examinations  has 
hitherto  been  altogether  unsuited  to  the  real  wants  of 
the  age.  Science  in  examinations  being  to  a  great 
extent  a  non-paying  subject,  the  quality  or  even  the 
existence  of  science  teaching  is  regarded,  at  the  best, 
as  a  matter  of  secondary  importance  in  many  or  most  of 
our  schools.  The  question,  therefore,  deserves  the  closest 
attention  from  all  who  hold  that  it  is  absolutely  essential 
that  there  shall  be  a  steady  and  sure  advance  in  the 
standard  of  elementary  science  teaching  in  this  country. 

In  his  reply  to  Mr.  Howorth,  the  Secretary  of  State  for 
War  is  stated  to  have  said  that  these  Woolwich  regula- 
tions had  been  considered  by  a  "  strong  Committee."  It 
would  be  interesting  to  know  of  whom  this  Committee 
consisted,  and  whether  it  was  strong  from  a  military 
or  an  educational  point  of  view.  Such  information  as  we 
have  been  able  to  obtain  leads  us  to  conclude  that 
it  was  a  military  Committee,  and  that  though,  as  such^ 
it  was  no  doubt  eminently  fitted  to  come  to  wise  con- 
clusions on  military  questions — such,  for  example,  as  the 
proper  training  to  be  given  to  successful  cadets  after 
their  admission  to  the  Royal  Military  Academy — it  was 
Vol.  XXXVII.— No.  957. 


by  no  means  composed  of  men  equally  fitted  by  ex- 
perience to  deal  with  the  other  side  of  the  question.  It 
is  surprising  to  find  that  this  important  change,  which 
will  profoundly  affect  much  of  the  higher  school  work 
of  the  country,  was  apparently  decided  upon  with- 
out, or  almost  without,  consultation  with  those  most 
experienced  in  such  questions  This  helps  us  to  under- 
stand how  it  has  happened  that  regulations  not  altogether 
unsatisfactory,  and  to  which  many  places  of  education 
had  adapted  themselves,  often  at  considerable  expense 
and  trouble,  are  suddenly  to  be  displaced  by  others  that 
are  open  to  the  gravest  objections. 

The  new  regulations  seem  to  have  almost  every  order 
of  fault.  They  will  be  unfair  to  the  candidates,  leading 
to  the  rejection  of  those  best  fitted  for  the  work  to  be 
done.  It  is  to  be  feared,  too,  that  they  will  encourage 
residence  and  study  abroad,  with  the  consequent  loss  of 
the  valuable  moral  and  physical  training  that  can  be  had 
only  in  England.  They  will  also  act  prejudicially  on  the 
general  tendency  of  school  education.  We  hope  we  may 
soon  hear  that  better  counsels  have  prevailed,  and  that 
these  unfortunate  regulations  are  to  be  replaced  by 
others  more  in  accordance  with  modern  needs  and 
ideas. 


TEA  CULTIVATION  IN  INDIA. 
Die  Theekuliur  in   Britisch-Ost-Indieti,  iin  fiinfzigsten 
Jahre     ihres    Bestandes,     Historisch,     Naturwissen- 
schaftlich,  tmd  Statistisch.     Dr.  Ottokar  Feistmantel. 
(Prague:  O.  Beyer,  1888.) 

THE  subject  of  tea  cultivation  in  India  is  one  to  which 
innumerable  writers  have  devoted  their  attention, 
and  not  the  least  valuable  portion  of  Dr.  Feistmantel's 
work,  "Die  Theekultur  in  Britisch-Ost-Indien,"  is  the 
bibliography  of  the  subject  with  which,  while  re- 
cording his  indebtedness  for  much  of  his  information 
to  many  of  the  English  and  German  authors  enu- 
merated, he  commences  his  remarks.  In  his  preface 
he  explains  that  in  the  course  of  an  address  on  the 
products  and  exports  of  British  India,  recently  de- 
livered by  him  in  Prague,  he  alluded  to  the  fact  that 
on  the  Continent  of  Europe  tea  was  generally  known- 
only  as  either  Russian  or  Chinese,  and  that  it  was  barely 
known  that  India  produced  a  large  and  annually  increasing 
quantity  of  high-class  teas,  which  are  largely  used  in- 
London  for  mixing  with  and  improving  China  tea.  The 
correspondence  which  ensued  when  these  remarks  were 
reported  by  the  local  press  induced  him  to  publish  the 
present  work  as  the  result  of  information  he  had  the 
opportunity  of  collecting  while  serving  in  India  for  eight 
years  as  palaeontologist  to  the  Geological  Survey. 

It  is  Dr.  Feistmantel's  aim  to  place  before  the  German- 
speaking  peoples  of  the  Continent  as  complete  an  ex- 
position of  the  conditions  of  the  tea  industry  in  India  as 
has  already  been  laid  before  English-speaking  people  by 
other  writers  ;  and  he  therefore  begins  with  an  abstract 
of  the  early  history  of  the  tea-plant  in  India,  the  dates 
of  its  first  discovery  as  an  indigenous  shrub,  and  its  first 
introduction  into  the  different  districts  in  which  it  is  now 
cultivated.  He  mentions  the  first  export  from  India  to 
England  in  1838  of  twelve  chests  of  tea,  which  sold  for 
19J.  id.  per  pound. 

T 


4IO 


NATURE 


[_MarcIi  I,  1888 


He  points  out  the  differences  between  the  indigenous, 
the  "  China,"  and  the  hybrid  varieties  of  the  plant  whicli 
are  cultivated  in  India,  and  enumerates  the  various  pseudo- 
teas  which  are  known  either  in  the  frontier  countries  of 
India  or  in  other  countries  :  such  as  Osyris  nepalensis  or 
arborea,  in  Kumaon,  Garhwal,  and  lately  in  Kashmir ; 
ElcBodendron  perstcutn,  in  Burmah,  from  which,  when 
mixed  with  oil,  salt,  garlic,  and  assafoetida,  is  prepared  the 
nauseous  compound,  to  European  taste,  known  as  "pickled 
tea"  ;  Ilex  paraguaycnsis,  the  Paraguay  tea,  or  "  Mate," 
of  South  America ;  Ledum  pahtstre,  or  Labrador  tea  ; 
the  Tasmanian  tea,  made  from  various  varieties  of 
Melaleuca  and  Leptospermiim  j  and  the  Faham  tea, 
Angrcecuni  fragrans  of  Mauritius  ;  and  others. 

The  number  of  plantations  in  the  various  pro- 
vinces, area  under  cultivation,  and  annual  yield  of 
tea  for  all  India,  are  given  in  detail ;  and  the  differ- 
ences between  the  various  kinds  of  China  and  Indian 
tea,  as  proved  by  analysis,  are  very  fully  treated  of. 
The  principal  black  teas  made  in  India  are  flowery 
pekoe,  orange  pekoe,  souchong,  pekoe  souchong,  congou, 
and  bohea ;  as  also  the  several  varieties  of  broken  leaf, 
such  as  broken  pekoe,  pekoe  dust,  &c.  All  these  are 
not,  as  is  commonly  supposed,  the  produce  of  different 
plants,  but  are  prepared  from  one  and  the  same  plant, 
the  classification  being  caused  by  the  difference  of  age  and 
development  of  the  leaves  used  for  the  several  varieties. 
The  principal  kinds  of  green  tea  are  gunpowder,  hyson, 
and  young  hyson,  and  these  are  manufactured  almost 
exclusively  in  the  North-West  Provinces  and  Kangra. 

It  may  be  accepted  as  a  fact  that  Indian  tea  is  very 
rarely  adulterated,  being  packed  on  the  plantation,  and 
shipped  direct  from  the  planter  to  the  market ;  but ''  China 
tea"  passes  through  many  hands  before  it  is  packed 
for  shipment,  and  is  frequently  mixed  with  willow  or  other 
leaves,  or  with  artificial  colouring-matter.  But  the  adulter- 
ated tea  is  not  now  readily  saleable  in  London,  and  is 
therefore  re-exported  to  the  Continent.  A  direct  importa- 
tion of  tea  from  India  to  the  Continent  would  insure  the 
purity  of  the  supply. 

In  a  lecture  given  before  the  Society  of  Arts,  in  May 
Jast,  by  Mr.  J.  Berry  White,  and  quoted  by  Dr.  Feistmantel, 
a  table  is  given  showing  the  steady  rise  of  the  Indian  tea 
crop  from  232,000  pounds  in  1852  to  76,585,000  pounds 
in  1886;  and  Mr.  White  estimated  that  the  crop  for 
1887  would  not  fall  far  short  of  90,000,000  pounds.  The 
amount  of  tea  exported  from  India  between  October  i, 
1885,  and  September  30,  1886,  is  officially  returned  as 
68,784,249  pounds,  of  which  66,640,749  pounds  went  to 
England.  Nearly  the  whole  of  this  tea  is  consumed  in 
Great  Britain,  a  small  quantity  being  sent  to  the  Con- 
tinent mixed  with  inferior  China  teas,  and  consequently 
sold  as  China  tea.  The  percentage  of  Indian  tea  used  in 
England  has  also  been  steadily  rising,  for  whereas  in  1865 
China  tea  formed  97  per  cent,  of  the  entire  consumption, 
in  the  first  quarter  of  18S7  the  proportion  was  51  per  cent, 
of  Indian  to  49  per  cent,  of  China  tea. 

Notwithstanding  the  steadily  increasing  production 
in  India,  China  tea  is  still  impKjrted  into  the  country  ;  in 
1885-86  about  four  million  pounds  were  imported,  but 
mainly  into  Bombay,  where  none  is  grown,  and  much  of  it 
for  re-export  to  the  Persian  Gulf,  Afghanistan,  and  some 
to  Trieste,  where  it  arrives  as  Indian  tea. 


Statistics  concerning  the  consumption  of  tea  show 
that  the  greatest  tea-drinkers  are  the  Australians,  who 
in  1 88 1  consumed  81  ounces  per  head  of  the  popula- 
tion. England  ranked  next  with  73  ounces,  while  the 
United  States  of  America  came  next  with  21  ounces. 
Russia,  Belgium,  Holland,  and  Denmark  rank  highest 
among  Continental  nations  as  tea-drinkers,  but  they  only 
consume  from  7  to  8  ounces  per  head  of  the  population. 

Dr.  Feistmantel  fully  indorses  the  prevalent  English 
opinion  as  to  the  superiority  of  Indian  to  China  tea,  and 
attributes  its  being  almost  unknown  on  the  Continent 
mainly  to  the  fact  that  "  China  tea "  is  a  much  older, 
and  therefore  better  known,  product  throughout  Europe. 
Even  in  England  Indian  tea  took  years  to  establish  its 
reputation.  It  will  in  the  end  be  as  much  appreciated 
on  the  Continent  as  it  is  in  this  country  if  a  few 
merchants  and  tradesmen  in  different  Continental  cities, 
whose  commercial  standing  will  be  a  guarantee  for 
the  purity  of  the  goods  they  supply,  are  induced  to 
keep  it. 

A  special  chapter  is  devoted  to  the  cultivation  of  tea  in 
Ceylon,  and  shows  the  marvellous  progress  made  by  this 
new  industry  in  consequence  of  the  coffee  disease  having 
caused  the  conversion  of  so  many  coffee  plantations  into 
tea  plantations.  In  1875  orily  1080  acres  were  under  tea, 
whereas  in  18S5  no  less  than  102,000  acres  were  occupied 
by  it,  and  the  exports  rose  from  282  pounds  in  1875-76 
to  nearly  four  million  pounds  in  1884-85.  The  plantations 
are  principally  in  the  western  and  southern  provinces  of 
Ceylon. 

Dr.  Feistmantel's  work  concludes  with  an  interesting 
chapter  on  caravan  teas,  compiled  from  an  article  by 
Herr  Walter  Japha,  published  in  the  Revue  Coloniale 
Internationale  for  September-October  1887. 

Some  amongst  us  are  apt  to  feel  a  certain  amount  of 
jealousy  at  the  not  infrequent  employment  of  foreigners 
in  Government  appointments,  and  this  feeling  is  pei-haps 
intensified  by  the  knowledge  that  in  this  matter,  as  in 
Free  Trade,  there  is  no  apparent  reciprocity — for  we 
seldom  hear  of  the  employment  of  Englishmen  by  Con- 
tinental Governments  ;  but  the  present  is  an  instance, 
and  by  no  means  a  sohtary  one,  of  the  great  service  done 
to  us  by  foreigners  who  avail  themselves  of  the  in- 
formation they  have  collected  in  the  course  of  their 
employment  by  our  Government  to  diffuse  among 
their  fellow-countrymen  such  an  intelligent  knowledge  of 
the  productions  of  our  distant  possessions  as  is  calcu- 
lated to  largely  benefit  our  commerce  by  leading  to  an 
extensive  demand  for  the  goods  of  which  they  write. 

It  would  seem,  however,  scarcely  just  that  the  work  of 
diffusing  this  knowledge  should  be  left  to  other  nations, 
seeing  that  the  benefits  are  to  be  reaped  by  ourselves.  It 
is  hardly  likely  that  in  England  it  will  be  recognized,  as 
it  is  in  some  other  countries,  to  be  part  of  the  duties  of 
any  Government  Department  ;  but  why  should  it  not  be 
part  of  the  work  of  such  a  body  as  the  London  Chamber 
of  Commerce,  or  the  new  Imperial  Institute,  to  disseminate 
information  regarding  our  Colonial  and  Indian  products 
among  Continental  nations,  and  to  translate  and  circulate 
any  useful  works  on  commercial  and  kindred  subjects,  pub- 
lished in  foreign  languages,  among  such  classes  of  the 
community  as  they  would  be  likely  to  interest .? 

J.  R.  ROYLE. 


March  i,  1888J 


NATURE 


411 


LIVING  LIGHTS. 
Living  Lights :   a   Popular  Account   of  Phosphorescent 
Animals  and  Vegetables.     By  C.  F.  Holder.     (London  : 
Sampson  Low,  Marston,  Searle,  and  Rivington,  1887.) 

THIS  pleasant  volume  of  167  pages  is  intended  foryoung 
students  of  science, "  their  unscientific  elders,  and 
the  boys  and  girls  in  general  who  have  not  yet  had  their 
interest  aroused  in  Nature's  works."  The  field  covered  is 
very  wide,  and  the  book  is  truly  Germanic  in  its  meander- 
ings.  The  author  would  appear  to  be  under  the  spell  of 
those  who  "  not  only  know  all  that  is  known  by  other 
people,  but  also  all  that  they  themselves  imagine,  which 
nobody  else  can  possibly  know."  When  it  is  said  that 
the  results  obtained  by  the  expeditions  of  the  Challenger, 
Talisman,  Albatross,  Travailleur,  and  Magenta,  are  in- 
corporated, no  one  can  raise  the  charge  of  antiquity. 
The  author  discusses  all  possible  sides  of  his  subject^ 
from  luminous  man  to  cosmic  dust  in  its  relation  to 
sun-glow  and  even  luminous  paint  itself,  which  was, 
as  is  well  known,  anticipated  by  the  Chinese  (oh,  Mr. 
Balmain  !).  It  must  not,  however,  be  imagined  that  the 
volume  is  a  mere  compilation.  Quite  the  reverse ;  for, 
while  the  author  embodies  much  that  is  original,  he  incor- 
porates manuscript  notes,  placed  at  his  disposal  by  our 
veteran  Gosse,  and  by  luminologists  such  as  Giglioli, 
Dubois,  and  others. 

Technicalities  are  for  the  most  part  relegated  to  an 
appendix,  with  full  references  to  authorities ;  the  result 
being  that  while  the  book,  as  a  whole,  furnishes  the 
specialist  with  a  work  of  reference  the  body  of  it  is 
rendered  assimilable  by  the  feeblest  tyro.  The  subject 
is  introduced  by  a  consideration  of  the  bottom  of 
the  ocean,  which  the  author  naively  terms  the  "lower 
firmament " — an  idea  which  he  elaborates  in  the  subse- 
quent chapters,  treating  of  "meteors*'  and  "fixed  lumin- 
aries" of  the  sea.  We  meet  with  many  friends  of  our 
youth,  such  as,  for  example,  M.  de  Tessan's  well-worn 
picture  of  the  phosphorescent  sea  at  Simon's  Town,  with 
its  accompanying  description. 

By  way  of  relieving  monotony,  anecdotes  and  similes 
are  freely  intercalated  with  the  text.  Some  of  the  latter 
are  very  happy,  as,  for  example,  the  comparison  drawn 
between  the  blind-man  and  the  Bathypterus  (p.  92).  On 
p.  13  we  read  :  "  By  having  a  companion  to  keep  up  a 
continuous  motion  of  the  (luminous)  water,  I  have  almost 
been  able  to  read  the  print  of  a  newspaper  by  the  light  of 
these  disintegrated  (animal)  forms  " — a  literal  stern  reality 
this,  sufficient  to  break  the  heart  of  a  Ruskin. 

The  author  appears  to  be  suffering  under  a  phos- 
phorescence mania.  He  leads  off  with  the  rather  extra- 
vagant statement,  "  Among  the  revelations  of  modern 
science  none  have  a  more  absorbing  interest  than 
those  relating  to  the  illumination  of  the  deep  sea."  He 
is,  moreover,  a  genuine  enthusiast,  and,  like  all  such, 
sees  the  salvation  of  his  race  in  his  own  hobby,  for  he 
gives  it  as  his  opinion  (p.  41)  that  "the  discovery  of  the 
secret  of  phosphorescence,  and  its  practical  application 
to  the  wants  of  mankind,  would  result  in  revolutionizing 
present  systems  ;  a  heatless,  inexpensive,  inex-tinguishable 
light  being  the  perfection  of  possibilities  in  this  direction." 
Similar  sentiments  are  expressed  in  the  peroration  :  these 
we  commend  to^the  physicist. 


The  book  is  exceedingly  well  got  up,  and  illustrated  by 
twenty-six  plates,  most  of  which  have  been  especially 
designed  for  it.  One  of  these,  representing  the  now 
famous  giant  Pyrosoma  of  the  Challenger,  in  size  propor- 
tionate to  that  of  a  man,  is  especially  striking,  and  the 
publishers  have,  very  properly,  reproduced  it  on  the 
cover.  We  would,  however,  suggest  that,  in  the  case  of 
sponges  and  corals  more  especially,  the  animals  them- 
selves, and  not  their  mere  skeletons,  should  be  delineated  ; 
the  course  here  adopted  is  too  suggestive  of  a  "  matching  " 
of  ordinary  museum  specimens  for  the  sake  of  effect. 
Here  and  there  we  note  a  looseness  of  style  and  expres- 
sion such  as  is  frequently  met  with  in  a  first  issue. 
The  book— strictly  a  general  treatise  on  luminosity — is  a 
conscientious  exposition  of  a  fascinating  subject,  sound 
though  superficial,  and  in  no  sense  sensational.  We 
wish  it  success. 


OUR  BOOK  SHELF. 

Food  Adulteration  and  its  Detection.     By  J.  P.  Batters- 
hall,  Ph.D.,  F.C.S.     (New  York  :  Spon,  1887.) 

The  most  striking  points  of  this  book  are  the  photo- 
graphic reproductions  of  various  food-stuffs  :  starch- 
grains,  fat-crystals,  also  margarine,  milk,  tea-leaves,  &c. 
In  the  introduction  Dr.  Battershall  laments  the  general 
inefficient  state  of  the  law  in  America,  which  would 
apply  very  much  more  forcibly  to  us,  regarding  adultera- 
tion. 

The  author  does  very  good  service  in  his  introduction, 
drawing  attention  to  the  statistics  of  recent  adulteration. 
From  one  table,  taken  from  the  work  of  the  Public 
Analysts'  Society  in  England,  it  appears  the  percentage  of 
adulteration  has  not  decreased  in  any  appreciable  degree, 
having  been  iS'io  per  cent,  in  1875-76,  and  17*47  ii"^  1880, 
and  i6'4  in  1883.  The  Annual  Report  of  the  New  York 
City  Board  of  Health  for  1885  furnishes  some  statistics 
of  adulteration  which  are  by  no  means  pleasant,  and  show 
a  not  very  high  commercial  morality,  although  the  majority 
are  said  not  to  be  injurious  adulterations — merely  fraudu- 
lent. The  author  is  quite  right  when  he  says  "  that  attempts 
to  awaken  public  interest  in  the  subject  are  only  of  real 
service  as  they  are  conducive  to  the  adoption  of  more 
advanced  and  improved  measures  for  the  suppression  of 
the  practice." 

Generally,  the  subjects  are  treated  in  the  book  in  a  very 
practical  manner,  and  a  good  deal  of  information  is  also 
contained  under  each  heading.  Regarding  the  adultera- 
tion of  wines,  for  instance,  a  good  many  interesting  receipts 
for  making  wines  are  given,  and  similarly  in  the  case  of 
spirits  and  liquors.  The  section  on  water  is  a  good 
resume  of  processes  of  water  analysis.  Prominence 
is  rightly  given  to  Prof.  Mallet's  very  sensible  con- 
clusions as  to  the  value  of  analytical  methods  in  re- 
spect to  the  hygienic  character.  Dr.  Koch's  biological 
method,  cultivation  in  prepared  gelatine,  is  mentioned, 
and  a  plate  showing  the  living  forms  in  Croton  water  and 
Brooklyn  water  is  given,  but  we  are  not  frightened  by 
any  alarmist  theories  or  statements  as  to  the  injurious 
nature  of  these  organisms  ;  indeed,  we  are  told  that  the 
greater  number  are  unobjectionable,  and  frequently  even 
of  service,  which  is  doubtless  the  case.  The  really  active 
Bacteria  are  much  less  impressive  in  appearance. 

There  is  a  pretty  long  chapter  on  legislation  in  the 
United  States  on  adulteration,  which  is  not  of  much  use, 
but  is  still  interesting,  to  an  English  reader.  The  biblio- 
graphy is  very  useful.  Altogether  it  is  a  readable  and 
useful  book,  and  will  doubtless  meet  with  a  good 
reception.  W.  R.  H. 


412 


NATURE 


\_March  i,  i 


Dynamics  and  Hydrostatics.  By  R.  H.  Pinkerton,  B.A. 
(London  :  Blackie  and  Son,  1888.) 

This  is  a  first  course  of  dynamics  intended  for  the  use  of 
science  classes  and  colleges,  and  specially  adapted  to  the 
requirements  of  the  Science  and  Art  Examinations  in 
theoretical  mechanics.  The  subject  is  treated  mathe- 
matically, but  the  mathematical  knowledge  required  for 
an  intelligent  perusal  of  the  book  is  limited  to  elementary 
algebra  and  trigonometry.  The  fundamental  units  are 
thoroughly  well  explained,  and,  which  is  saying  a  great 
deal,  they  are  used  consistently  throughout.  Every 
important  proposition  is  followed  by  a  number  of  good 
examples  fully  worked  out,  and  many  others  are  given  as 
exercises. 

The  book  is  excellently  adapted  to  the  Second  Stage  of 
the  Science  and  Art  Syllabus,  and  teachers  will  not  have 
much  difficulty  in  selecting  the  portions  suitable  for 
students  working  for  the  First  Stage.  It  is  also  well 
adapted  for  the  use  of  students  working  at  the  subject  for 
the  London  Matriculation  and  other  University  Exam- 
inations. But,  notwithstanding  these  qualifications,  it  is 
thoroughly  conscientious.  In  fact,  from  a  mathematical 
point  of  view,  the  book  leaves  nothing  to  be  desired, 
lout  in  this  practical  generation  a  greater  number  of 
illustrations  from  every-day  life  would  not  have  been  out 
of  place.  A.  F. 

Geography  for  Schools.  By  Alfred  Hughes,  M.A.  Part 
I.  Practical  Geography.  (Oxford :  At  the  Clarendon 
Press,  1887.) 

There  are  many  signs  that  the  study  of  geography  will 
in  future  take  a  much  more  important  place  in  the  or- 
dinary school  course  than  has  hitherto  been  assigned  to 
it.  E\en  from  the  point  of  view  of  those  severely  practical 
persons  who  care  little  about  the  purely  intellectual 
aspects  of  education,  there  can  be  no  doubt  as  to  the 
value  of  the  kind  of  geographical  knowledge  with  which 
this  book  is  chiefly  concerned  ;  and  the  subject,  if 
properly  treated,  is  one  in  which  young  scholars  may 
easily  be  led  to  take  genuine  interest.  The  present  volume 
will  be  of  great  service  to  schoolmasters  who  may  wish  to 
make  a  fresh  start  in  geographical  teaching.  It  is  based, 
as  Mr.  Hughes  explains,  on  the  results  of  seven  years' 
experience  in  the  modern  side  at  the  Manchester  Grammar 
School ;  and  no  one  who  examines  the  book  will  be  sur- 
prised that  he  has  found  it  possible,  within  the  limits  of 
an  ordinary  term's  geographical  course,  to  give  instruction 
on  many  classes  of  problems  which  are  not  usually  treated 
at  school.  He  begins  with  the  consideration  of  latitude 
and  longitude,  and  with  rules  for  the  drawing  of  maps 
from  the  atlas  and  from  memory.  He  then  deals  with  the 
measurement  of  the  distance  between  two  places  on  the 
earth's  surface,  and  explains  the  rotation  of  the  earth, 
with  the  consequent  difference  in  the  time  of  day  at  two 
places  on  the  earth.  The  remaining  subjects  are  the  ap- 
parent movements  of  the  fixed  stars  ;  the  Pole  star  ; 
Polar  distance  ;  the  apparent  movements  of  the  sun  ;  the 
seasons  ;  meridian  altitude  of  the  sun  ;  declination  ;  the 
length  of  day  and  night  at  any  time  and  place  ;  the  sun's 
altitude  ;  place  of  sunrise  and  sunset  ;  the  length  of 
twilight ;  apparent  and  Greenwich  mean  time  ;  move- 
ments of  the  earth  ;  the  length  of  shadows  ;  the  distance 
to  be  seen  from  mountain  summits  ;  the  trade  winds  ; 
and  the  calendar.  The  questions  connected  with  these 
subjects  are  discussed  in  a  way  that  secures  the  combina- 
tion of  geography,  geometrical  drawing,  arithmetic,  and 
the  elementary  ideas  of  geometry ;  and  the  author's 
aim  is  to  induce  the  student  to  think  for  himself, 
rather  than  to  burden  his  memory  with  disconnected 
facts.  It  is  hardly  necessary  to  say  how  much  better  this 
is  than  .the  learning  of  the  names  of  capes,  mountains, 
rivers,  &c.,  by  heart.  With  such  a  work  in  their  hands, 
teachers  should  be  able  to  make  lessons  in  geography  a 


most  useful  introduction  to  the  study  of  some  important 
branches  of  scientific  method. 

Key  to  Todhunter's  Dijfferential  Calculus.     By  H.  St.  J. 
Hunter,  M.A.     (London  :  MacQiillan  and  Co.,  1888.) 

This  "  Key"  will  be  extremely  useful  to  those  who  are  teach- 
ing the  subject,  but  more  so  to  those  who  are  getting  it  up 
by  themselves.  The  examples  are  worked  out  in  a  clear 
and  intelligible  manner,  the  geometrical  problems  being  so 
worded  that  the  student  can  supply  figures  to  enable  him 
more  readily  to  follow  the  reasoning.  To  the  chapters  on 
"  Curve  Tracing  "  and  "  Miscellaneous  Propositions  "  the 
author  has  added  figures  ;  and  in  the  solutions  to  some  ot 
the  examples  in  chaps,  xi.,  xiii.,  xv.,  xx.,  and  xxii.,  improved 
methods  have  been  adopted,  making  the  book  more  useful 
and  complete.  Great  care  seems  to  have  been  taken  to 
insure  accuracy. 

Electrical  Instrument  Making  for  Amateurs.     By  S.  R. 
Bottone.     (London  :  Whittaker  and  Co.,  1888.) 

In  this  little  book  the  author  has  placed  before  the  reader 
very  good  and  economical  methods  of  making  the  more 
useful  pieces  of  electrical  apparatus,  using  only  tools  of 
the  simplest  kind,  such  as  may  be  found  in  any  house- 
hold. The  instructions  are  given  in  a  clear  and  simple 
manner,  and  are  illustrated  by  woodcuts,  showing  the 
various  parts  of  the  apparatus,  with  the  proportions 
marked  on  them.  Those  who  are  attending  courses  of 
lectures  on  this  subject  will  find  this  volume  immensely 
useful,  as  a  more  thorough  and  practical  insight  is  obtained 
by  making  and  using  these  instruments,  however  rough, 
than  by  mere  reading. 


LETTERS   TO    THE  EDITOR. 

\The  Editor  does  not  hold  himself  responsible  for  opinions 
expressed  by  his  correspondents.  Neither  can  he  under- 
take to  return,  or  to  correspond  with  the  writers  of, 
rejected  manuscripts.  No  notice  is  taken  of  anonymous 
comm  tin  ications. 

\The  Editor  urgently  requests  correspondents  to  keep  their 
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is  so  great  that  it  is  impossible  otherwise  to  insure  the 
appearance  even  of  communications  containing  interesting 
and  novel  facts.  ^ 

Language  ==  Reason. 

Prof.  St.  George  Mivart  has  read  my  letter  on  "  Lan- 
guage =  Reason  "  in  Nature  of  February  2  (p.  323)  with  very 
great  care,  and  I  feel  grateful  to  him  for  several  suggestive 
remarks.  But  has  he  read  the  heavy  volume  to  which  that  letter 
refers — my  "Science  of  Thought  "  ?  I  doubt  it,  and  have  of 
course  no  right  to  expect  it,  for  I  know  but  too  well  myself  how 
difficult  it  is  for  a  man  who  writes  books  to  read  any  but  the  most 
necessary  books.  I  only  mention  it  as  an  excuse  for  what  might 
otherwise  seem  conceited — namely,  my  answering  most  of  his 
questions  and  criticisms  by  references  to  my  own  book. 

Prof.  Mivart  begins  by  asking  why  I  should  have  ex^jlained 
reasoning  by  reckoning. 

Now,  first  of  all,  from  an  historical  point  of  view — and  this 
to  a  man  who  considers  evolution  far  more  firmly  established  in 
language  than  in  any  other  realm  of  Nature  is  always  the  most 
important — the  Latin  ratio,  from  which  came  raison  and  our  own 
reason,  meant  originally  reckoning,  casting  up,  calculation,  com- 
putation, long  before  it  came  to  mean  the  so-called  faculty  of  the 
mind  which  forms  the  basis  of  computation  and  calculation, 
judgment,  understanding  and  reason. 

Secondly,  I  began  my  book  on  the  "Science  of  Thought" 
with  a  quotation  from  Hobbes,  that  all  our  thinking  consisted 
in  addition  and  subtraction,  and  I  claimed  the  liberty  to  use  the 
word  thinking  throughout  my  own  book  in  the  sense  of  com- 
bining. Such  a  definition  of  thinking  may  be  right  or  wrong, 
but  provided  a  word  is  always  used  in  the  sense  in  which  from 
the  beginning  it  has  been  defined  there  can  at  all  events  be  no 
misapprehension  nor  just  cause  of  complaint  on  the  part  of  the 
critic  ...  ^     ^ 


March  i,  1888] 


NATURE 


413 


What  I  meant  by'combination,  or  by  addition  and  subtraction 
being  the  true  character  of  thinking,  I  explained  very  fully. 
"  Any  book  on  logic,"  I  said,  "will  teach  that  all  our  proposi- 
tions are  either  affirmative  or  negative,  and  that  in  acquiring  or 
communicating  knowledge  we  can  do  no  more  than  to  say  that 
A  is  B,  or  A  is  not  B.  Now,  in  saying  A  is  B,  we  simply  add 
A  to  the  sum  already  comprehended  under  B,  and  in  saying  A 
is  not  B,  we  subtract  A  from  the  sum  that  can  be  comprehended 
under  B.  And  why  should  it  be  considered  as  lowering  our  high 
status,  if  what  we  call  thinking  turns  out  to  be  no  more  than 
adding  or  subtracting?  Mathematics  in  the  end  consist  of 
nothing  but  addition  and  subtraction,  and  think  of  the  wonder- 
ful achievements  of  a  Newton  or  a  Gauss — achievements  before 
which  ordinary  mortals  like  myself  stand  simply  aghast." 

Prof.  Mivart  holds  that  there  are  but  two  forms  of  intellectual 
activity:  (l)  acts  of  intuition,  by  which  we  directly  apprehend 
certain  truths,  such  as,  e.g.,  our  own  activity,  or  that  A  is  A  ;  and 
(2)  acts  of  inference,  by  which  we  indirectly  apprehend  others, 
with  the  aid  of  the  idea  "therefore." 

There  is  a  wide  difference  between  our  apprehending  our  own 
activity  and  our  apprehending  that  A  is  A.  Apprehending  our 
own  activity  is  inevitable,  apprehending  that  A  is  A  is  voluntary. 
Besides,  the  "therefore"  on  which  Prof.  Mivart  insists  as  a  dis- 
tinguishing feature  between  the  two  forms  of  thought  is  present 
in  the  simplest  acts  of  cognition.  In  order  to  think  and  to 
say  "  This  is  an  orange,"  I  must  implicitly  think  and  say,  "  This 
is  round,  and  yellow,  has  a  peculiar  skin,  a  sweet  juice,"  &c.  ; 
therefore  \i  is  an  orange.  The  "  therefore  "  represents  in  fact 
the  justification  of  our  act  of  addition.  We  have  by  slow  and 
repeated  addition  formed  the  concept -name  orange,  and  by  saying 
"  This  is  an  orange,"  we  say  no  more  than  that  we  feel  justified, 
till  the  contrary  is  proved,  in  adding  this  object  before  us  to  the 
sum  of  oranges  already  known  to  us.  If  the  contrary  is  proved, 
we  subtract,  and  we  add  our  pre=ent  object  either  to  the  class  and 
name  of  lemons,  citrons,  &c.,  or  to  a  more  general  class,  such  as 
apples,  fruit,  round  objects,  &c.  We  ought  really  to  distinguish, 
as  I  have  tried  to  show,  not  only  two,  bat  four  phases  in  every 
act  of  cognition,  viz.  sensation,  perception,  conception,  and 
naming  ;  and  I  contend  that  these  four  phases,  though  dis- 
tinguishable, are  not  separable,  and  that  no  act  of  cognition  is 
perfect  without  the  last  phase  of  naming. 

But  how  is  it.  Prof.  Mivart  continues,  that  different  words  in 
our  language  have  one  meaning,  and  different  meanings  one 
word  ?  Does  not  this  show  that  thought  and  language  cannot  be 
itlentical  ? 

It  has  been  the  principal  object  of  all  my  mythological  studies 
to  account  not  only  for  the  origin  of  polyonymy  and  homonymy, 
but  to  discover  in  them  the  cause  of  much  that  has  to  be  called 
mythology,  whether  in  ancient  tradition,  religion,  philosophy,  or 
even  in  modern  science.  I  must  therefore  refer  Prof.  Mivart  to 
my  earlier  writings,  and  can  only  mention  here  a  few  well-known 
cases  of  mythology  arising  from  polyonymy  and  homonymy. 

We  can  easily  understand  why  people  should  have  called  the 
planet  Venus  both  the  morning  and  the  evening  star  ;  but  we 
know  that  in  consequence  of  these  two  names  many  people  have 
believed  in  two  stars  instead  of  one.  The  same  mountain  in 
Switzerland  is  called  by  the  people  on  the  south  side  Blackhorn, 
by  the  people  on  the  north  side  Whitehorn,  and  many  a  traveller 
has  been  misled  when  asking  his  way  to  the  one  or  the  other. 
Because  in  German  there  are  two  words  Verstand  ^nA  Vernunft, 
originally  meaning  exactly  the  same  thing,  German  meta- 
physicians have  changed  them  into  two  distinct  faculties,  and 
English  philosophers  have  tried  to  introduce  the  same  distinction 
between  the  understanding  as  the  lower  and  reason  as  the  higher 
faculty. 

Nothing  is  really  easier  to  understand,  if  only  we  consult  the 
ancient  annals  of  language,  than  why  the  same  object  should 
have  had  several  names,  and  why  several  objects  should  have  had 
the  same  name.  But  this  proves  by  no  means  that  therefore  the 
name  is  one  thing  and  the  concept  another.  We  can  distinguish 
name  and  concept  as  we  distinguish  between  the  concave  and 
convex  sides  of  a  lens,  but  we  cannot  separate  them,  and  in  that 
sense  we  may  call  them  inseparable,  and,  in  one  sense,  identical. 

Lastly,  Prof.  Mivart  starts  the  same  objection  to  my  system  of 
psychological  analysis  which  was  raised  some  time  ago  in  these 
columns  with  so  much  learning  and  eloquence  by  Mr.  Francis 
Gallon.  He  appeals  to  his  own  experience,  and  maintains  that 
certain  intellectual  processes  take  place  without  language.  This 
is  generally  supposed  to  put  an  end  to  any  further  argument,  and 
we  are  even  told  that  it  is  a  mistake  to  imagine  that  all  men  are 


alik?,  so  far  as  their  psychological  processes  are  concerned,  and 
th\  psychologists  should  study  the  peculiarities  of  individuals 
rather  than  the  general  character  of  the  human  intellect.  Now, 
it  seems  to  me  that  Vtm  n'empkhepas  i  autre,  but  that  in  the  end 
the  object  of  all  scientific  inquiry  is  the  geieral,  and  not  the 
individual.  The  true  life  of  language  is  in  the  dialects,  yet  the 
grammarian  aims  at  a  general  grammar.  In  the  same  way  the 
psychologist  may  pay  any  amount  of  attention  to  mere  individual 
peculiarities  and  idiosyncrasies  ;  only  he  ought  never  to  forget 
that  in  the  end  man  is  man. 

But  it  does  not  even  seem  to  me  that  intellectual  processes 
without  language,  as  described  by  Mr.  Gallon  and  Prof.  Mivart, 
are  at  all  peculiar  and  exceptional.  I  have  described  similar 
cases,  and  tried  to  account  for  them,  in  different  parts  of  my 
book.  If  Prof.  Mivart  says  that  "  a  slight  movement  of  a  finger 
may  give  expression  to  a  meaning  which  could  only  be  thought 
in  words  by  a  much  slower  process,"  I  went  much  further  by 
saying  that  "silence  might  be  more  eloquent  than  words." 

Mr.  Gallon  asked  me  to  read  a  book  by  Alfred  Binet,  La 
Psychologie  du  Raisonnement,  as  showing  by  experiments  how 
many  intellectual  acts  could  lake  place  without  language.  I 
read  the  book  with  deep  interest,  but  great  was  my  surprise 
when  I  found  that  M.  Binet's  observations  confirmed  in  the  very 
strongest  way  my  own  position.  I  had  shown  how  percepts — 
that  is,  images — could  exist  with  a  mere  shadow  of  language,  and 
that  nothing  was  more  wonderful  than  what  Leibniz  called  the 
algebra  of  thought.  Now,  what  do  M.  Binet's  experiments 
prove  ?  That  there  are  two  kinds  of  images,  the  consecutive,  re- 
produced spontaneously  and  suddenly,  and  the  memorial, 
connected  with  an  association  of  ideas.  The  consecutive  image, 
a  kind  of  impression  avant  la  lettre,  may  reappear  long  after  the 
existing  sensation  has  ceased  to  act,  and  it  reappears  without 
any  rhyme  or  reason.  But  how  are  the  memorial  images  re- 
called, seen  by  people,  such  as  M.  Binet  describes,  in  a  state  of 
hypnotism  ?  Entirely  by  the  word.  Show  a  hypnotized  patient 
her  portrait,  and  she  may  or  may  not  recognize  it.  But  tell  her, 
in  so  many  words,  "  This  is  your  portrait,"  and  she  will  see  her 
likeness  in  a  landscape  of  the  Pyrenees  (pp.  56-57).  M.  Binet 
is  fully  aware  of  what  is  implied  by  this.  Thus,  on  p.  58,  he 
writes:  ^^ L' hallucination  hypnotique  est  formie  d'un  image 
suggJree par  \a  parole."  So,  again,  when  describing  the  simplest 
acts  of  perception,  M.  Binet  explains  how  much  is  added  by 
ourselves  to  the  mere  impressions  received  through  the  senses  by 
"  ce  qu'on  croit  voir,"  by  ^' ce  qtioncroit  sentir,"  and  by  "/tf 
notn  qiCon  croit  entendre  prononcer. "  The  facts  and  experiments, 
therefore,  contained  in  M.  Binet's  charming  volume  seem  to  me 
entirely  on  my  side,  nor  do  I  see  that  that  thoughtful  observer 
has  ever  denied  the  necessity  of  language  or  signs  of  some  sort 
for  the  purpose  of  reasoning,  nay  even  of  imagination. 

I  find  it  difficult  to  answer  all  the  questions  which  the  Pro- 
fessor has  asked,  because  it  would  seem  like  writing  roy  own 
book  over  again.  However,  I  shall  confess  that  I  have  laid 
myself  open  to  some  just  criticism  in  not  renouncing  altogether 
the  metaphorical  poetry  of  language.  I  ought  not  to  have 
spoken  of  Truth  as  a  kind  of  personal  being,  nor  cf  Reason  as  a 
power  that  governs  the  universe.  But  no  astronomer  is  blamed 
when  he  uses  the  old  terminology  of  sunrise  and  sunset  ;  no 
biologist  is  misunderstood  when  he  speaks  of  mankind  ;  and  no 
philosopher  is  denounced  when  he  continues  to  use  the  big  I 
instead  of  "  succession  of  states  of  consciousness."  If,  therefore, 
I  said  that  I  recognized  in  evolution  the  triumph  of  reason,  I 
meant  no  more  than  that  I  could  not  recognize  in  it  the  triumph  of 
mere  chance.  Prof.  Mivart  imagines  that  I  misunderstood  what  the 
biologist  means  by  the  survival  of  the  fittest.  Far  from  it,  I  under- 
stand that  phrase,  and  decidedly  reject  it.  For,  either  the  survival 
of  the  fittest  means  no  more  than  that  that  survives  which  is  able 
to  survive, — this  would  be  mere  truism  and  a  patent  tautology, — 
or,  if  we  take  in  the  whole  circumstance  of  Nature,  the  survival 
of  the  fittest  implies  some  kind  of  inherent  fitness  and  reason- 
ableness. Prof.  Mivart  writes  :  "What  there  is  less  reasonable 
and  right  in  a  Rhytina  than  in  a  Dugong,  or  in  a  Dinomis  than  in 
an  Apteryx,  would,  I  think,  puzzle  most  of  our  zoologists  to 
determine  ;  nor  is  it  easy  to  see  a  triumph  of  reason  in  the  exter- 
mination of  the  unique  flora  of  St.  Helena  by  the  introduction  of 
goats  and  rabbits."  No  doubt,  it  is  not  easy  to  see  this.  But 
need  I  remind  Prof.  Mivart  that  many  things  may  be  true,  though 
it  is  not  easy  to  see  them?  We  often  do  what  we  think  is 
reasonable  and  right,  though  we  seem  to  see  nothing  but  mischief 
to  ourse'ves  and  others  arising  from  our  acts.  Why  do  we 
do  this  ?     Because  we  believe  in  the  ultimate  triumph  of  reason 


414 


NATURE 


{March  i,  1888 


and  right,  though  it  may  take  millions  of  years  to  prove  that 
right  is  right.  I  have  the  same  faith  in  Nature  ;  and,  taking  my 
stand  on  this  scientific  faith,  I  believe  that  natural  selection 
must  in  the  end  prove  rational  selection,  and  that  what  has 
vaguely  been  called  the  survival  of  the  fittest  will  have  to  be 
interpreted  in  the  end  as  the  triumph  of  reason,  not  as  the  mere 
play  of  chance.  F.  Max  Muller. 

Oxford,  February  21. 

"Coral  Formations." 

Captain  Wharton's  paper  on  coral  formations  in  last 
week's  Nature  (p.  393)  will  have  been  read  with  great  interest 
by  all  who  have  examined  and  studied  coral  reefs.  It  is  unlikely 
that  any  objections  will  be  raised  to  the  illustrations  he  has 
brought  forward  of  how  the  coral  plantations  may  be  built  up 
from  deeply  submerged  banks,  and  eventually  formed  into  com- 
plete atolls  and  barrier  reefs  at  a  great  distance  from  continental 
and  other  shores.  The  mode  of  formation  has  been  dwelt  upon 
by  Le  Conte  and  Guppy  in  the  case  of  barrier  reefs,  and  I  have 
pointed  out  the  same  thing  in  my  remarks  about  the  Maldlve  and 
similar  atoll  groups.  The  instances  cited  by  Captain  Wharton 
are  of  great  value,  especially  as  he  has  been  able  to  consult  large 
manuscript  plans. 

Captain  Wharton  apparently  considers  that  the  solution  of 
carbonate  of  lime  by  sea-water  plays  no  important  part  in  deepen- 
ing, widening,  and  modifying  the  form  of  such  atolls  and  barrier 
reefs  ;  in  this  I  cannot  agree  with  him. 

By  reference  to  what  is  now  taking  place  in  Nature,  as  well  as 
to  experiments  conducted  in  the  laboratory,  it  has  been  shown 
that  the  solution  of  the  carbonate  of  lime  of  dead  shells  and 
skeletons  by  the  sea  is  as  constant  and  universal  as  its  secretion 
by  the  living  organisms.  From  some  considerations  which  I 
recently  laid  before  the  Royal  Society  of  Edinburgh,  it  is  prob- 
able that  there  is  moi-e  secretion  and  deposition  of  carbonate  of 
lime  in  the  ocean,  as  a  whole,  than  removal  by  solution,  and  it 
is  almost  certain  that  at  the  present  time  there  is  a  vast  accumu- 
lation of  carbonate  of  lime  going  on  within  the  coral-reef  regions 
of  the  ocean.  The  amount  of  secretion  becomes  less  with  in- 
creasing depth  beyond  one  hundred  fathoms,  and  laboratory 
expei-iments  under  great  pressures  have  shown  that  the  rate  of 
solution  becomes  greater  with  increasing  depth  ;  but  both 
processes  are  always  in  action  wherever  there  are  life  and  growth, 
death  and  decay.  In  some  regions  secretion  is  in  excess,  and 
there  is  a  formation  of  calcarous  deposits  ;  in  others  solution  is 
equal  to  secretion,  as  over  the  red  clay  areas  of  the  ocean. 
Again,  solution  may  be  in  excess  of  secretion,  as  in  the  larger 
and  more  perfect  coral  lagoons.  The  role  of  carbonate  of  lime 
in  the  ocean  may  not  inaptly  be  compared  to  that  of  aqueous 
vapour  in  the  atmosphere  over  land  surfaces.  Where  precipita- 
tion is  in  excess  of  evaporation,  fresh-water  lakes  are  formed,  and 
rivers  carry  the  surplus  water  down  to  the  ocean  ;  where  evapora- 
tion is  in  excess,  there  is  a  formation  of  inland  drainage  areas, 
deserts,  and  salt  lakes. 

In  small  coral  atolls  the  periphery  is  large  relatively  to  the 
size  of  the  lagoon,  and  the  secretion  of  lime  and  formation  of 
coral  sand  are  greatly  in  excess  of  the  solution  that  takes  place, 
hence  the  lagoon  becomes  filled  up ;  in  it  are  frequently  found 
deposits  of  sulphate  of  lime,  guano,  magnesian  and  phosphatic 
rocks.  On  the  other  hand,  when  a  coaiparatively  large  atoll 
reaches  the  surface,  the  periphery  being  small  relatively  to  the 
size  of  tlie  lagoon,  there  is  less  secretion  and  formation  of  coral 
sand  by  the  living  outer  surface  than  is  removed  in  solution  from 
the  lagoon  ;  it  is  in  consequence  widened,  deepened,  and  re- 
duced to  a  more  or  less  uniform  appearance,  while  the  islands 
on  such  reefs  never,  so  far  as  I  know,  contain  deposits  of  sulphate 
of  lime,  guano,  magnesian  or  phosphatic  rocks.  On  open 
banks,  such  as  the  Macclesfield  and  Tizard  Banks,  the  coral 
sand  is  generally  largely  made  up  of  bottom-living  Foraminifera, 
Polyzoa,  Serpulae,  and  Calcareous  Algse,  and  the  bank  may  be 
rising  from  the  secretions  of  these  organisms ;  but  when  the  peri- 
pheral reefs  reach  the  surface  the  conditions  become  more  or  less 
inimical  to  vigorous  growth,  and  in  a  perfect  atoll  the  fine 
calcareous  mud  is  removed  at  a  relatively  rapid  rate. 

My  answer  to  Captain  Wharton's  question  is  that  in  all  normal 
conditions  the  extent  of  surface  in  the  shell,  coral,  or  fragment 
of  coral  sand  exposed  to  the  action  of  sea- water  compared  with 
the  mass  determines  the  rate  at  which  these  organisms  will  dis- 
appear in  solution.  It  is  improbable  that  this  action  is  extremely 
slow  at  the  bottom  of  the  deep  lagoons.      Independently  of  the 


mixing  by  convection  currents,  even  a  very  slight  wind  over  the 
surface  of  the  lagoon  will  set  the  whole  water  in  motion.  This 
is  clearly  shown  by  my  observations  in  the  western  lochs  of 
Scotland,  which  are  much  deeper  than  any  lagoon  ;  a  moderate 
breeze  produces  motion  at  a  depth  of  sixty  fathoms  in  a  very 
short  space  of  time.  The  water  mixed  up  with  the  mud  at  the 
bottom  is  thus  changed  long  before  the  point  of  saturation  is 
reached. 

I  have  never  seen  any  wide  extent  of  fringing  reef  but  what  was 
very  deeply  cut  upwith  channels,and  from  Captain  Wharton's  own 
description  this  appears  to  be  the  case  at  Rodriguez.  That  a  ship 
channel  has  not  there  been  formed  is  probably  due  to  the  shallow 
water  surrounding  the  island  and  the  probably  rapid  growth  out- 
ward of  the  reef ;  the  average  depth  outside  the  reef  is  usually  less 
than  ten  fathoms,  and  at  a  distance  of  two  miles  seaward  it  is 
only  from  twenty  to  thirty  fathoms.  In  some  instances  the  large 
proportion  of  Calcareous  Algse  on  the  reefs  appears  to  compensate 
for  the  removal  in  solution,  and  thus  to  retard  the  formation  of 
ship  channels. 

I  doubt  if  any  recent  writer  has  attempted  to  give  an  *'  ex- 
planation which  will  fully  account  for  the  almost  infinite  variety 
of  coral  formations."  It  is  unnecessary  to  state  that  each  reef 
must  have  peculiarities  depending  on  the  nature  and  form  of  i's 
foundation,  and  the  meteorological  and  other  conditions  of  the 
seas  in  which  the  reef  is  situated  ;  it  is  only  by  a  careful  and 
detailed  study  of  all  these  conditions  that  the  peculiarities  of  any 
individual  reef  can  be  fully  explained.  At  the  same  time  it 
appears  to  me  beyond  doubt  that  the  general  and  well-known 
characteristic  features  and  form  of  coral  reefs  can  be  accounted 
for  by  reference  to  certain  general  considerations,  chief  among 
these  being  the  vigorous  growth  of  reef-forming  species  in  posi- 
tions and  at  depths  where  the  supply  of  pelagic  oceanic  organisms, 
which  form  their  food,  are  most  abundant,  and  the  removal  of 
dead  coral  and  coral  debris  wherever  this  is  exposed  to  the  action 
of  sea-water. 

Captain  Wharton  calls  attention  to  our  imperfect  knowledge 
of  the  coral  groups  of  the  Pacific,  but  he  understates  the  case 
in  saying  "that  the  waters  of  the  Fiji  and  the  Society  Islands 
are  the  only  ones  which  can  be  said  to  be  in  any  sense  surveyed." 
Cook,  Kotzebue,  Duperrey,  Beechy,  and  Wilkes  have  given 
running  surveys  of  many  of  the  Paumotus,  and  we  know  some- 
thing about  the  depths  inside  and  outside  of  a  good  many  of 
them.  We  know  much  about  the  islands  containing  guano.  The 
French  have  made  some  excellent  charts  of  the  New  Caledonia 
reefs,  and  the  Americans  have  done  the  same  for  some  of  the 
Hawaiian  Islands.  Captain  Wharton  will  acknowledge  that  we 
have  a  splendid  survey  of  the  Maldives,  the  most  extensive 
group  of  atolls  in  the  world  ;  the  islands  marked  with  names  in 
this  British  Survey  number  602.  Other  groups  in  the  Indian 
Ocean  are  well  surveyed,  and  nearly  all  the  Atlantic  reefs  have 
been  correctly  laid  down  on  charts. 

I  feel  sure  that  all  who  take  an  interest  in  this  subject  will 
hope  for  many  more  contributions  from  Captain  Wharton's  pen 
on  coral  formations.  John  Murray. 

I  have  read  with  great  interest  the  article  on  ciral  formations 
in  your  last  number  (p.  393),  by  Capt.  W^harton.  It  is  not 
because  I  wish  to  claim  to  have  anticipitated  the  views  which  he 
gives  as  to  the  formation  of  atoll  lagoons  and  barrier  reef 
lagoons  that  I  am  writing  to  state  that  at  the  very  date  of  the 
publication  of  Capt.  Wharton's  article  I  was  engaged  in  writing 
a  paper  on  coral  formations,  based  upon  a  study  of  living  corals 
at  Uiego  Garcia,  and  on  a  consideration  of  the  great  submerged 
atolls  known  as  the  Great  Chagos  Bank  and  the  Pitt  and 
Centurion  Banks,  situated  north  and  west  of  that  island,  in 
which  I  arrive  at  conclusions  nearly  identical  with  his.  It  has 
seemed  to  me,  as  it  has  to  him,  that  the  solution  of  dead  coral 
rock  in  the  interior  of  a  reef  does  not  sufficiently  account  for 
the  formation  of  lagoons,  and  that  the  true  cause  of  the  atoll 
and  barrier  lagoons  surrounded  either  by  a  reef  which  is  awash, 
or  by  a  strip  of  low  land,  lies  in  the  peculiarly  favourable  con- 
ditions for  coral  growth  present  on  the  steep  external  slopes  of 
the  reef.  In  Diego  Garcia  I  observed  that  although  the  shore 
reefs  are  for  the  most  part  covered  with  I  or  2  feet  of  water,  even 
at  the  lowest  spring  tides,  yet  their  flat  surfaces  are  nearly  in- 
variably barren  of  growing  coral.  Just  at  their  edges,  however, 
and  on  the  steep  external  slopes  beyond  th^  edges,  reef-building 
corals  grow  luxuriantly.  According  to  Capt.  Moresby,  quoted 
by  Mr.  Darwin  in  his  book  on  "Coral  Reefs,"  the  flat  surface 
of  the  rim  of  the  Great  Chaijos  Bink  is  barren  of  living  corals, 


March  i,  1888] 


NATURE 


415 


just  as  are  the  shore  reefs  of  the  neighbouring  atoll  of  Diego 
Garcia  ;  but  the  lagoon  contains  many  knolls  abundantly  covered 
with  living  coral,  and  there  is  reason  to  think  that  living  coral 
also  occurs  on  the  external  slopes  at  Diego  Garcia.  Unlike 
Capt.  Wharton,  I  do  not  consider  the  favourable  conditions  for 
coral  growth  on  the  external  slopes  to  be  connected  with  a 
better  food  supply,  for  this  would  be  at  variance  with  the 
existence  of  thriving  coral  patches  within  the  lagoon,  which,  as 
I  have  seen  at  Diego  Garcia,  bear  no  relation  to  the  lagoon 
mouths,  through  which  food-bearing  currents  might  be  supposed 
to  enter  to  the  interior.  Indeed,  at  the  last-named  atoll  some 
of  the  most  luxuriant  coral  patches  are  found  at  the  south  end  of 
the  lagoon,  furthest  away  from  the  lagoon  outlet.  The  favour- 
able conditions  are  due,  I  believe,  to  the  action  of  currents  on 
coral  growth.  I  noticed  at  Diego  Garcia,  and  Dr.  Hickson  has 
made  similar  observations  in  the  reefs  near  North  Celebes,  that 
corals  do  not  thrive  where  they  are  subjected  to  the  direct 
action  of  a  strong  current,  nor  do  they  grow  in  still  water, 
where  they  are  killed  by  the  sand  deposited  upon  them, 
but  they  flourish  in  places  where  a  moderate  current  flows 
over  them,  not  so  strong  as  to  dash  them  to  pieces,  but  strong 
enough  to  prevent  deposition  of  sand.  Such  conditions 
are  found  everywhere  on  the  external  slopes.  At  the  side 
where  a  current  impinges  directly  on  a  slope,  the  deeper 
parts  of  the  current  strike  the  slope  first,  and  are  in  part  thrown 
upwards  over  the  sloping  surface,  thus  moderating  the  direct 
force  of  the  more  superficial  part  of  the  same  current.  The 
main  part  of  the  current  flows  tangentially  around  the  obstruc- 
tion, and  thus  aff"ords  favourable  conditions  at  the  sides  of  the 
atoll  or  reef,  and  finally,  on  the  side  furthest  from  the  current, 
the  back-wash  causes  weak  superficial  currents  which  are  also 
highly  favourable  to  coral  growth.  Thus  the  coral  grows  to  the 
greatest  advantage  around  the  periphery  of  a  reef,  and,  as 
Capt.  Wharton  says,  a  ring-shaped  reef  is  the  result,  and  no 
theory  of  solution  is  required  to  explain  the  central  depression. 

Capt.  Wharton  states  that  live  coral  exists  in  abundance  on 
the  rim  of  the  Tizard  Reef.  It  is  not  clear  whether  this  means 
on  the  external  slopes  and  on  the  extreme  edge  of  the  reef,  or  on 
the  flat  upper  surfaces  of  the  reef  itself  From  what  I  have  ob- 
served at  Diego  Garcia,  it  appeare  to  me  hardly  probable  that 
the  latter  can  be  the  case.  Coral  debris,  torn  from  the  corals 
growing  on  the  slopes,  is  always  carried  across  those  flat  surfaces 
in  such  quantity  as  to  destroy  any  living  corals  upon  them.  In 
some  cases  corals  may  grow  there,  but  then  there  are  other 
favourable  conditions  neutralizing  the  eftect  of  the  debris.  I  am 
hoping  soon  to  publish  a  full  account  of  my  observations  at 
Diego  Garcia.  G.  C.  Bourne. 

Anatomical  Department,  Oxford,  February  28. 


Natural  Science  and  the  Woolwich  Examinations. 

In  accordance  with  Mr.  Irving's  recommendation,  I  have 
carefully  considered  the  letter  in  the  Times  from  the  head 
master  of  Clifton  College  ;  but,  with  all  due  respect  to  his 
distinguished  position,  I  find  myself  unable  to  accept  his  conclu- 
sions. Men  of  science  will  pardon  me,  if  I  ask  them  to  examine 
facts,  rather  than  to  follow  blindly  even  the  highest  authority. 

The  obligatory  mathematics  to  be  required  from  candidates 
for  Woolwich  are  defined  as  follows  in  the  official  regulations, 
dated  December  1887  : — 

"Algebra  up  to  and  including  the  binominal  theorem;  the 
theory  and  use  of  logarithms ;  Euclid,  Books  i.  to  iv.  and  vi.  ; 
plane  trigonometry  up  to  and  including  t'r.e  solution  triangles  ; 
mensuration  ;  statics — the  equilibrium  of  forces  acting  in  one 
plane  and  of  parallel  forces,  the  centre  of  gravity,  the  mechanical 
powers  ;  dynamics — uniform,  uniformly  accelerated,  and  uniform 
circular  motion,  falling  bodies  and  projectiles  in  vacuo.  (Ana- 
lytical methods  of  solution  will  not  be  required.) 

"  N.B. — A  thorough  knowledge  of  each  of  the  above  branches 
of  mathematics  will  be  required.  ' 

This  amount  of  mathematics  is  not  beyond  the  reach  of  a  fairly 
intelligent  lad  of  seventeen  who  has  been  properly  taught. 

The  inductive  process  which  leads  Mr.  Irving  to  denounce  so 
severely  my  supposed  inappreciation  of  the  value  of  experimental 
demonstration,  laboratory  training,  and  field  work  is  hardly 
worthy  of  so  eminent  a  teacher.  Although  there  are  good 
grounds  for  my  opinion  that  chemistry,  physics,  and  geology, 
are  not  good  educational  subjects  for  ordinary  lads  under  sixteen, 
I  am  entirely  consistent  in  the  expression  of  my  regret  that  the 


War  Oflice  should  have  thought  it  desirable  to  discourage  these 
sciences.  Your  able  article  conclusively  proves  that  these 
subjects  cannot  be  hastily  and  superficially  learned  in  such  a  way 
as  to  gain  unmerited  marks.  There  are  youths  with  apt  in- 
telligences, quick  eyes,  and  skilful  fingers,  who  ought  to  be 
allowed  the  advantage  of  their  scientific  capacity  in  the  Wool- 
wich competition.  But  I  am  unable  to  see  that  Mr.  Irving's 
suggestion  would  do  justice  to  these.  A  candidate  who  offered 
optional  mathematics,  one  language,  and  two  sciences,  would  be 
placed  at  a  great  disadvantage  with  those  offering  optional 
mathematics,  and  three  languages,  both  on  account  of  the  lower 
maximum,  and  also  because,  with  the  same  relative  proficiency, 
it  is  so  much  harder  to  score  in  mathematics  and  experimental 
sciences  and  geology  than  in  languages.  I  therefore  respectfully 
submit  that  all  who  have  the  interests  of  science  at  heart  should 
urge  that  the  maximum  should  be  raised  to  3000  marks,  but  I 
do  not  think  it  would  be  desirable  to  allow  candidates  to  take 
more  than  one  subject  from  Class  II.,  as  it  would  tend  to  the 
neglect  of  more  important  studies. 
2  Powis  Square.  Henry  Palin  Gurney. 


International  Tables. 

I  AM  instructed  by  the  Meteorological  Council  to  request  your 
insertion  of  the  following  notice  : — 

The  International  Meteorological  Congres«,  which  met  at 
Rome  in  1879,  recommended  that  a  series  of  international  tables 
should  be  prepared  and  issued. 

The  work  was  ultimately  intrusted  to  a  Sub-Committee,  con- 
sisting of  Prof.  Wild  and  Prof.  Mascart. 

The  Sub-Committee  has  prepared  a  scheme  of  tables,  which 
has  met  with  a  general  acceptance  among  the  heads  of  European 
meteorological  organizations. 

The  tables  will  be  in  royal  quarto,  and  will  cover  about  400 
pages.  The  price  of  the  work,  to  be  published  by  Gauthier- 
Villars,  will  be  35  francs. 

The  Council  are  requested  by  the  gentlemen  who  have 
prepared  the  tables  to  ascertain  the  probable  demand  for  the 
work  in  this  country,  and  I  am  therefore  to  request  through  your 
columns  that  any  intending  purchaser  will  send  his  name  to  me. 

Robert  H.  Scott. 

Meteorological  Office,  116  Victoria  Street,  London,  S.W., 
February  16. 

PLAN  OF  TABLES. 


CHAPTER  I. 

Section  I.    Length. 

I.  French  lines 

to  mm.                         ... 

0— TOD  lines 

2.            ,, 

,,    English  inches 

3.  French  inches  and  lines  ,,  mm. 

20 — 30  inches 

4.  French  lines 

,,  English  inches 

250— 353  lines 

5.  English  inches 

,,  mm. 

0— TOO  inches 

6.             „ 

"      " 

17—32    .    .' 
(in  'ooi  inch) 

7.  mm. 

,,  English  inches 

0— ICO  mm. 

8.      „ 

»                )> 

440 — 800    ,, 

9.  Russian  half-lines 

,,  mm.  _ 

lO-             )i                 .) 

,,  English  inches 

II.  French  feet 

,,  metres 

12.               ,, 

,,  English  feet 

13.  English  feet 

,,  metres 

14.  Metres 

„   English  feet 

15.  Kilometres 

,,  English  miles 

16.  English  miles 

,,  kilometres 
Section  11.     Weight. 

I.  Grains 

to  grammes 

1 

2.  Grammes 

,,  grains 

Section  III 

.     Time  and  Angular  Measu?-e. 

I.  Days  of  year 

to  decimals  of  year  and 

to  angles 

2.  Hours 

,,                ,, 

,, 

3.  Minutes 

>•                >> 

,, 

4.   Hours 

,,  decimals  of  day 

5.   Minutes 

„         )>        >j 

6.  Seconds 

»        »t        )t 

7.  Minutes  or  seconds 

,,  decimal  of  the  hour  or  m'nute 

8.  Seconds 

,,  decimals  of  hour 

9.  Longitude 

,,  time 

10.  Time 

,,  longitude 

CHAPTER  II.-Geodetical. 

1.  Variation  of  gravity  with  latitude  and  altitude. 

2.  Degrees  on  the  meridian. 

3.  ,,      on  circles  of  latitude. 

4.  Duration  of  sunshine. 


4i6 


NATURE 


IMarck  I,  1888 


CHAPTER  Iir.— THERMOMErER. 

Section  I.     Coiwersion. 


1.  R. 

2.  F. 

3-   C. 

4.  F. 

5.  C. 


C. 

c. 

F. 

C.  differences 
F. 


Section  II,    Reduction  of  Temperattire  to  Sea-level. 

X.   Metric. 
2.  English. 

CHAPTER  IV.— Barometer. 

1.  Barometer  to  0°  C.     Metric  (o°'i  C.  and  5  mm.). 

2.  ,,         ,,     32°  F.  (o°'5  F.  and  o"2  ins.). 

3.  Gravity        ...        Latitude        ...        metric. 
4-       ,,  ...  ,,  ...        English. 

5.  „  ...         Altitude  ...         metric. 

6.  ,,  ...  ,,  ...        English. 

7.  Barometer  to  sea-level     metric. 

8.  „  , English. 

CHAPTER  V. — Hygro.metrv,  Rain,  and  Evaporation. 

1.  Vapour-tension  to  o'l  C.  from  -  30°  C.  to  -1-  101°  C. 

2.  .  ,,  ,,         0-2  F.     „     -  20°  F.  „  +  214°  F. 

3.  Boihng-point  (from  680  mm. — S03  mm.)     ...        metric. 
4-  t>        .  >.  „       English. 

5.  Vapour-tension  about  100'  C.  metric. 

6.  „  ,,  212°  F.  English. 

7.  Weight  of  water  in  cubic  metre  of  air         ...        metric. 
8-            .'<.."            f-"^'      "            '••        English. 
9.  Relative  humidity        metric. 

10.  „  ,,  English. 

CHAPTER  VI.— Wi.MD. 

1.  Lambert's  formula. 

2.  Natural  tangents. 

3.  Kilometres  per  hour  to  metres  per  second. 

4.  Metres  per  second      ,,  kilometres  per  hour. 

5.  Miles  per  hour  ,,  metres  per  second. 

6.  Metres  per  second      ,,  miles  per  hour. 

CHAPTER  VII. — Magnetism  and  Electricity. 

1.  English  mag.  units  to  C.G.S.  units. 

2.  C.G.S.  „  Eng.  mag. 


Weight  and  Mass. 

Ihe  review  of  Kennedy's  "Mechanics  of  Machinery "  in 
Nature,  December  29,  1887  (p.  195),  strikes  at  least  one  respon- 
sive chord  on  this  side  of  the  world.  There  are  some  questions  in 
reference  to  the  nomenclature  of  dynamics  which  "will  not  down  " 
until  they  are  "downed"  by  a  convention  or  agreement  between 
those  who  have  to  do  with  the  theory  of  mechanics  and  those 
who  have  to  do  mostly  with  practice,  and  in  this  some  conces- 
sions will  doubtless  be  necessary  on  both  sides.  While  in  hearty 
sympathy  with  much  that  the  reviewer  sa3's  in  his  discussion  of 
dynamical  terms  (the  book  under  notice  I  have  not  yet  seen),  I 
wish  to  dissent  from  and  to  protest  against  one  of  his  leading 
propositions. 

It  must  be  admitted  that  in  the  "  vernacular  "  the  word  pound 
is  used  in  two  distinct  senses — that  is,  as  a  unit  of  force  and  a 
unit  of  mass.  Authors  of  mathematical  treatises  have  some- 
times, and  perhaps  unconsciously,  ignored  the  latter  meaning, 
and  at  other  times  have  failed  to  recognize  the  former. 

The  proposition  of  the  reviewer  is  to  eliminate  the  word  mass 
altogether  and  to  use  weight  in  its  stead.  To  accomplish  this  he 
isjobliged  to  use  the  word  lueight  as  meaning  what  is  now  gener- 
ally expressed  by  the  word  mass.  This,  it  seems  to  me,  would 
be  a  grave  error.  Is  it  not  true  that  zveight,  as  understood  by  both 
the  "learned  and  the  unlearned"  always  carries  with  it  the  idea 
of  force,  the  force  of  attraction  between  the  earth  and  the  par- 
ticular body  under  consideration  ?  And  is  it  not  also  true  that 
there  are  many  problems  in  the  work  of  the  practical  engineer 
in  which  mass,  in  the  ordinarily  accepted  sense,  is  the  essential 
element,  rather  than  weight,  in  the  ordinarily  accepted  sense  ?  In 
short,  in  my  judgment,  the  engineer  does  require  the  word  "  mass," 
andhealso  needs  the  word  "  weight."  It  is  a  misfortune  when 
one  word  must  be  used  to  mean  two  entirely  different  things  (as 
is  the  case  of  the  word  "  pound  "),  and  we  ought  to  congraUilate 
ourselves  that  we  have  the  words  "mass"  and  "weight"  so 
commonly  and  generally  used  to  represent  two  distinct  ideas. 
To  discard  one  of  them  and  force  the  other  into  its  place  would 
be  to  introduce  confusion  rather  than  order.  To  satisfy  the  re- 
quirements of  both  mathematical  or  theoretical  and  practical 
convenience  I  have  been  accustomed  to  use  the  following  : — 

The  word  pound  is  used  in  tv\o  senses ;  it  may  mean  a  unit  of 


mass  or  a  unit  of  force.      It  is  always  easy  by  the  context  to  tell 
in  which  sense  it  is  used. 

As  a  unit  of  force  it  has  not  yet  been  accurately  defined,  but  it 
means,  in  general,  a  force  equal  to  the  attraction  between  the 
earth  and  a  mass  of  one  pound.  As  this  attraction  varies 
slightly,  the  pound  as  a  unit  force  cannot  be  regarded  as  abso- 
lutely constant,  but  is  sufficiently  so  for  practical  purposes. 

When,  by  a  convention  of  authorities,  the  conditions  under 
which  this  attraction  is  accepted  as  equal  to  one  pound  are  pre- 
scribed, it  will  become  an  invariable  unit. 

There  are  in  the  English  system  two  units  of  force,  the  poundal 
and  the  pound.  There  are  also  two  units  of  work,  the  foot- 
poundal  and  the  foot-pound  ;  each  is  the  work  done  by  the 
corresponding  unit  of  force  working  through  a  distance  of  one 
foot. 

The  ordinary  equations  of  dynamics,  when  the  foot-pound- 
second  units  are  used,  give  results  in  poundals  or  fo5t-poundaIs, 
which  may  at  once  be  reduced  to  pounds  or  foot-pounds. 

The  above  is  open  to  the  objection  that  the  pound  as  a  unit 
of  force  is  not  constant,  but  the  remedy  for  this  is  indicated,  and  , 
the  errors  introduced  are  of  no  moment  in  "  practice." 

To  lessen  the  confusion  somewhat,  I  have  often  used,  in  writ- 
ing, the  symbol  lb.  to  represent  the  unit  of  mass,  and  the  word 
pound  that  of  force.  In  my  own  experience  the  adoption  of 
these  definitions  has  greatly  facilitated  the  work  of  students. 

I  entirely  agree  with  the  criticisms  made  upon  the  equation  so 
constantly  appearing,  zv  —  mg.  To  the  learner  it  is  generally 
"confusion  confounded,"  and  I  would  cheerfully  join  in  a 
"  boycott"  against  it.  T.  C.  Mendenhall. 

Rose  Polytechnic  Institute,  Terre  Haute,  Indiana, 
U.S.A.,  January  26. 


Once  more  Prof.  Greenhill  devotes  a  large  portion  of  a  review 
to  emphasizing  and  insisting  on  his  paculiar,  and  I  may  say 
extraordinary,  mode  of  regarding  the  meaning  of  elementary 
terms  (see  Nature,  February  16,  p.  361  ;  also  December  29, 
1887,  p.  195). 

One  must  assume,  therefore,  that  these  views  are  regarded  by 
him  as  useful  and  conducive  to  clearness. 

I  find  it  difficult  to  express  strongly  enough  my  entire  disse.it 
from  such  a  proposition  without  being  apparently  impolite. 

That  engineers  are  entitled  if  they  see  fit  to  employ  as  their 
third  fundamental  standard  a  standard  of  force  rather  than  one  of 
mass,  I  admit.  I  do  not  think  the  plan  satisfactory  or  clear,  bat 
there  are  temptations  towards  it,  and  perhaps  no  very  serious 
objections.  My  own  experience  of  engineering  students  is,  how- 
ever, that  they  are  beautifully  uncertain  whether  to  put  g  into 
the  numerator  or  the  denominator  of  a  new  expression,  or 
whether  to  leave  it  out  altogether  ;  and  that  they  generally  get 
over  the  difficulty  either  by  asking  where  it  must  go,  or  by 
seeing  which  plan  will  give  an  answer  of  most  reasonable 
magnitude.  The  real  rule  on  engineers'  principles  would  be  to 
put  g  somewhere  into  the  expression  for  any  quantity  with  which 
gravity  has  nothing  to  do,  and  to  leave  g  out  whenever  gravity  is 
primarily  concerned. 

But,  irrespective  of  this  standing  and  well-known  controversy, 
Prof.  Greenhill's  attempt  to  simplify  matters  does  indeed  make 
confusion  worse  confounded.  He  says  that  in  the  vernaculat 
the  term  "weight"  does  not  mean  the  force  with  which  the 
earth  pulls  a  body,  but  does  mean  the  body's  mass  or  inertia. 

What  kind  of  "  vernacular"  can  he  be  thinking  of? 

Ask  any  ordinary  member  of  the  British  public  what  he  or  sh^ 
means  by  the  "  weight  "  of  a  thing,  and  you  will  get  answers 
such  as  "its  heaviness,"  or  "  its  heft,"  or  the  "  force  reqi'.red  to 
lift  it,"  or  "the  difficulty  of  raising  it,"  or  "the  pull  up  you 
must  give  it,"  or  any  number  of  such  replies  ;  but  if  he  ever  got 
the  answer,  "  I  mean  the  mass  of  the  body,  in  other  words  its 
inertia,  a  measure  of  the  quantity  of  matter  i\\2  body  contains," 
surely  he  would  not  be  satisfied  with  this  as  a  fair  specimen  of 
the  vernacular,  but  would  rather  regard  it  as  one  of  those  answers 
so  frequently  given  to  examiners — the  product  oi  a  mind  so 
tortured  by  instructors  that  its  com.non-sense  and  vernacular  are 
completely  atrophied.  Oliver  J,  Lodge. 


The  Composition  of  Watar 

Two  days  after  the  publication  of  my  letter  in  Nature  (p. 
390),  on  the  composition  of  water,   I  received  the  Manchester 


March  i,  1888J 


NATURE 


417 


Report  of  the  British  Association,  in  which  (p.  668)  further 
experiments  by  Dr.  A.  Scott  are  reported.  Dr.  Scott  has 
succeeded  in  reducing  the  amount  of  nitrogen  present  as  impurity 
to  I  part  in  15,000,  and  the  ratio  of  hydrogen  to  oxygen  which  he 
calculates  from  the  newer  and  more  accurate  experiments  is 
1*996  or  1*997  to  I  "000.  This  ratio  agrees  very  well  with  that 
deduced  by  me  from  the  older  experiments,  but  is  considerably 
higher  than  the  ratio  previously  adopted  by  Dr.  Scott,  and 
quoted  by  Prof.  Thorpe  in  his  article  on  the  comp.jsition  of 
water.  Sydney  Young. 

Univeriity  College,  Bristol. 

ON  TRE  DIVISORS  OF  THE  SUM  OF  A  GEO- 
METRICAL SERIES  WHOSE  FIRST  TERM 
IS  UNITY  AND  COMMON  RA  TIO  ANY  POSI- 
TIVE OR  NEGA  TIVE  INTEGER. 


"Nein! 


Wir  sind  Dichter."  1 

— Kronecker  in  Berlin. 


A 


REDUCED   Fermatian.^ ,  is   obviouslv  only 

'      r-i  -         ^ 

another  name  for  the  sum  of  a  geometrical  series 

whose  first  term  is  unity  and  common  ratio  an  integer,  r. 

\i p  is  a  prime  number,  it  is  easily  seen  that  the  above 
reduced  Fermatian  will  not  be  divisible  by  j^J,  unless  r~\ 
is  so,  in  which  case  (unless  /  is  2)  it  will  bs  divisible  by 
p,  but  not  by  />-. 

This  is  the  theorem  which  I  meant  to  express  in  the 
footnote  to  the  second  column  of  this  journal  for  December 
15,  1887,  p.  153,  but  by  an  oversight,  committed  in  the  act 
of  committing  the  idea  to  paper,  the  expression  there 
given  to  it  is  erroneous. 

Following  up  this  simple  and  almost  self-evident 
theorem,  I  have  been  led  to  a  theory  of  the  divisors  of  a 
reduced  Fermatian,  and  consequently  of  the  Fermatian 
itself,  which  very  far  transcends  in  completeness  the 
condition  in  which  the  subject  was  left  by  Euler  (see 
Legendre's  "  Theory  of  Numbers,"  3rd  edition,  vol.  i., 
chap.  2,  §  5,  pp.  223-27,  of  Maser's  literal  translation, 
Leipzig,  1886),^  and  must,  I  think,  in  many  particulars  be 
here  stated  for  the  first  time.  This  theory  was  called  for 
to  overcome  certain  difficulties  which  beset  my  phantom- 
chase  in  the  chimerical  region  haunted  by  those  doubtful 
or  supposititious  entities  called  odd  perfect  numbers.  Who- 
ever shall  succeed  in  demonstrating  their  absolute  non- 
existence will  have  solved  a  problem  of  the  ages  comparable 
in  difficulty  to  that  which  previously  to  the  labours  of 
Hermite  and  Lindemann  (whom  I  am  wont  to  call  the 
Vanquisher  of  PI,  a  prouder  title  in  my  eyes  than  if  he 
had  been  the  conqueror  at  Solferino  or  Sadowa)  environed 
the  subject  of  the  quadrature  of  the  circle.  Lambert  had 
proved  that  the   Ludolphian  *  number  could  not   be   a 

•  Such  were  the  pregnant  words  recently  uttered  by  the  youngest  of 
the  splendid  tr.umvirate  of  Berlin,  when  challsnged  to  declare  if  he  still 
held  the  opinion  advanced  in  his  early  inaugural  th;sis  (to  the  effect 
that  riiathematic  consists  exclus^•ely  in  tie  setting  out  of  self-evident 
truths, — in  fact,  amounts  to  no  more  than  showing  that  two  and  two 
make  four),  and  maintained  unflinchingly  by  him  in  the  face  of  the  elegant 
raillery  of  the  late  M.  Duhamel  at  a  dinner  in  Paris,  wh;re  his  inerro^jat.  r 
— the  writer  of  these  lines — was  present.  This  doctoral  thesis  ought  tj  be 
capable  of  being  found  in  the  archives  of  the  University  (I  believe)  of 
Ureslau. 

^  The  word  Fermatian.  formed  in  analogy  with  the  words  Hessian, 
Jacobian,  Pfaffian,  Bezoutiant,  Cayleyan,  is  derived  from  the  name  of 
Fermat,  to  whom  it  owes  its  exisience  among  recognized  algebraical  forms. 

3  I  find,  not  without  surprise,  that  some  of  the  theorems  here  produced, 
including  the  one  contained  in  th;  corrected  footnote,  have  been  previously 
stated  by  myself  i.i  a  portion  of  a  paper  "  On  certain  Ternary  Cubic  Form 
Equati  )ns,"en-itled  "Excursus  A — On  the  Divisors  of  Cyclotomic  Functions" 
{American  Journal 0/ Mathematics,  v A.  ii.,  1879,  p.  357)  the  contents  a  .d 
almost  the  existence  of  which  I  had  forgotten  :  but  the  mode  of  presentation  of 
the  theory  is  different,  and  I  think  clearer  and  more  compact  here  than  in  th; 
preceding  paper ;  the  concluding  theorem  (which  is  the  important  one  for 
the  theorj^  of  perfect  numbers)  and  the  propositi  )ns  immediately  leading  up 
to  it  in  this,  are  undoubtedly  not  contained  in  the  previous  paper. 

I  need  hardly  add  that  the  term  cyclotomic  function  is  einployed  to  desig- 
nate the  core  or  primitive  factor  of  a  Fermatian,  because  the  resolution  into 
factors  of  such  function,  whose  index  is  a  given  number,  is  virtually  the 
same  problem  as  to  divide  a  circle  into  that  number  of  equal  parts. 

*  So  the  Germans  wisely  name  ir,  after  Ludolph  van  Ceulen,  best  known  to 
us  by  his  second  name,  as  the  calculator  of  tt  up  to  thirty-six  places  of 
de:imals. 


fraction  nor  the  square  root  of  a  fraction.  Lindemann 
within  the  last  few  years,  standing  on  the  shoulders  of 
Hermite,  has  succeeded  in  showing  that  it  cannot  be  the 
root  of  any  algebraical  equation  with  rational  coefficients 
(see  Weierstrass'  abridgment  of  Lindemann's  method, 
Sitzungsberichte  der  A.D.  IV.  Berlin,  Dec.  3,  1885), 

It  had  already  been  shown  by  M.  Servais  ("  Mathesis," 
Lifege,  October  1887),  that  no  one-fold  integer  or  two-fold 
odd  integer  could  be  a  perfect  number,  of  which  the  proof 
is  extremely  simple.  The  proof  for  three-fold  and  four- 
fold numbers  will  be  seen  in  articles  of  mine  in  the  course 
of  publication  in  the  Comples  rendiis,  and  I  have  been 
able  also  to  extend  the  proof  to  five-fold  numbers.  I 
have  also  proved  that  no  odd  number  not  divisible  by 
3  containing  less  than  eight  elements  can  be  a  perfect 
number,  and  see  my  way  to  extending  the  proof  to  the 
case  of  nine  elements. 

How  little  had  previously  been  done  in  this  direction  is 
obvious  from  the  fact  that,  in  the  paper  by  M.  Servais 
referred  to,  the  non-existence  of  three-fold  perfect  numbers 
is  still  considered  as  problematical  ;  for  it  contains  a 
"  Theorem  "  that  if  such  form  of  perfect  number  exists  it 
must  be  divisible  by  fifteen :  the  ascertained  fact,  as  we 
now  know,  being  that  this  hypothetical  theorem  is  the 
first  step  in  the  reductio  ad  absurduni  proof  of  the  non- 
existence of  perfect  numbers  of  this  sort  (see  Nature, 
December  15,  1887,  p.  153,  written  before  I  knew  of 
M.  Servais'  paper,  and  recent  numbers  of  the  Comptes 
rendiis). 

But  after  this  digression  it  is  time  to  return  to  the 
subject  of  the  numerical  divisors  of  a  reduced  Fermatian. 

We  know  that  it  can  be  separated  algebraically  into  as 
many  irreducible  functions  as  there  are  divisors  in  the 
index  (unity  not  counting  as  a  divisor,  but  a  number 
being  counted  as  a  divisor  of  itself),  so  that  if  the  com- 
ponents of  the  index  be  a",  b^,  c,  .  .  .  the  number  of  such 
functions  augmented  by  unity  is 

(a+l)(3+l)(X+l) 

All  but  one  of  these  algebraical  divisors,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  a  single  one,  will  also  be  a  divisor  of  some  other 
reduced  Fermatian  with  a  lower  index :  that  one,  the 
core  so  to  say  (or,  as  it  is  more  commonly  called,  the  irre- 
ducible primitive  factor),  I  call  a  cyclotomic  function  of  the 
base,  or,  taken  absolutely,  a  cyclotome  whose  index  is  the 
index  of  the  Fermatian  in  which  it  is  contained. 

It  is  obvious  that  the  whole  infinite  number  of  such 
cyclotomes  form  a  single  infinite  complex.  Now  it  is  of 
high  importance  in  the  inquiry  into  the  existability  of 
perfect  numbers  to  ascertain  under  what  circumstances 
the  divisors  of  the  same  reduced  Fermatian,  i.e.  cyclotomes 
of  different  indices  to  the  same  base  can  have  any,  and 
what,  numerical  factor  in  common.  For  this  purpose  I 
distinguish  such  divisors  into  superior  or  external  and 
inferior  or  internal  divisors,  the  former  being  greater,  and 
the  latter  less,  than  the  index. 

As  regards  the  superior  divisors,  the  rule  is  that  any 
one  such  cannot  be  other  than  a  unilinear  function  of  the 
index  (I  call  kx  -j-  i  a  unilinear  function  of  x,  and  k  the 
unilinear  coefficient)  and  that  a  prime  number  which  is 
a  unilinear  function  of  the  index  will  be  a  divisor  of  the 
cyclotome  when  the  base  in  regard  to  the  index  as  modu- 
lus is  congruous  to  a  power  of  an  integer  whose  exponent 
is  equal  to  the  unilinear  coefficient. 

As  regards  the  inferior  divisors,  the  case  stands  thus. 
If  the  index  is  a  prime,  or  the  power  of  a  prime,  such 
index  will  be  itself  a  divisor.  I  f  the  index  is  not  a  prime,  or 
power  of  a  prime,  then  the  only  possible  internal  divisor 
is  the  largest  element  contained  in  the  index,  and  such 
element  will  not  be  a  divisor  unless  it  is  a  unilinear  func- 
tion of  the  product  of  the  highest  powers  of  all  the  other 
elements  contained  in  the  index. 

It  must   be  understood   that  such  internal  divisor  in 


4i8 


NATURE 


{March  i,  1888 


either  case  only  appears  in  the  first  power  ;  its  square 
cannot  be  a  divisor  of  the  cyclotome. 

It  is  easy  to  prove  the  important  theorem  that  no  two 
cyclotomes  to  the  same  base  can  have  any  the  same 
external  divisor.^ 

We  thus  arrive  at  a  result  of  great  importance  for  the 
investigation  into  the  existence  or  otherwise  of  perfect 
odd  numbers,  which  (it  being  borne  in  mind  that  in  this 
theorem  the  divisors  of  a  number  include  the  number 
itself,  but  not  unity)  may  be  expressed  as  follows  : — 

The  sum  of  a  geo7netrical  series  whose  first  term  is  unity 
and  common  ratio  any  positive  or  negative  integer  other 
than  -\-  I  or  I  —  must  contain  at  least  as  many  distinct 
prime  divisors  as  the  number  of  its  terms  co7itains  divisors 
of  all  kinds ;  except  ivhen  the  commojt  ratio  is  -  2  or  2, 
and  the  nwnber  of  terms  is  even  in  the  first  case,  and  6  or 
a  multiple  of  6  in  the  other,  in  which  cases  the  nufnber  of 
prime  divisors  may  be  one  less  than  in  the  general  case.- 

In  the  theory  of  odd  perfect  numbers,  the  fact  that,  in 
every  geometrical  series  which  has  to  be  considered,  the 
common  ratio  (which  is  an  .element  of  the  supposed 
perfect  number)  is  necessarily  odd  prevents  the  exceptional 
case  from  ever  arising. 

The  estabhshment  of  these  laws  concerning  the  divisors 
and  mutual  relations  of  cyclotomes,  so  far  as  they  are  new, 

'  The  proof  of  this  valuable  theorem  is  extremely  simple.  It  rests  on 
the  following  principles  : — 

(i)  That  any  number  which  is  a  common  measure  to  two  cyclotomes  to  the 
same  base  must  divide  the  Fermatian  to  that  base  whose  index  is  their 
greatest  common  measure.  This  theorem  need  only  to  be  stated  for  the  proof 
to  become  apparent. 

(2)  That  any  cyclotome  is  contained  in  the  quotient  of  a  Fermatian  of 
the  same  index  by  another  Fermatian  whose  index  is  an  aliquot  part  of  the 
former  one.  The  truth  of  this  will  become  apparent  on  considering  the  f  ^rm 
of  the  linear  factors  of  a  cyclotome. 

Suppose  now  that  any  prime  number,  k,  is  a  common  measure  to  two  cyclc- 
tonies  whose  indices  are   PQ,  PR  respectively,  where  Q  is  prime   to  R,  and 

e^Q  -    I; 

whose  common  base  is  ©.    Then  ^must  measure  0     —  I  and  alsa  0P  _   j 
it  will  therefore  measure  Q,  and  similarly  it  will  measure  R  ;  therefore  k  =  i 

©PQ  -  I . 

—   is  unity,  and 


[unless   Q  =  r   or  R  =  i ;  for  suppose   Q  =  i,  then  — 

no  longer  contains  the  core  of  0"Q  —  I].  Hence/?;  being  contained  in  R  can 
only  be  an  internal  factor  to  one  of  the  cyclotomes  (viz.  the  one  whose  index 
is  the  greater  of  the  two).     [See  footnote  at  end.] 

The  other  theorem  preceding  this  one  in  the  text,  and  already  given  in  the 
"  Excursus,"  may  be  proved  as  follows  : — 

Let  A,  any  non-unilinear  function  of  P,  the  index  of      cy  1  to  ne  X,  bs  a 
divisor  thereto.     Then,  by  Euler's  law,  there  exists  some  number,  yU,  such 

P 
that  k  divides  Xij.   —  I,   but   the   cyclotome   is   contained   algebraically  in 


P  ;  hence  k  must  be  continued  in  /^i,  and  therefore  in  P.      Also,  k  will 

X^  -  I 

I  X^   -I  I 

be  a  divisor  of  .^*  -  I  and  of    p         ,  which  contain  X'^  —  I  and  X  respect- 
x^  -I 

X^  -I 
ively  ;  consequently,  if  k  is    odd,  ,4^  will  not  be  a  divisor  of     p         ,  and 

X^  -  I 
a  fortiori  not  of  X-       [A  proof  may  easily  be  given  applicable  to  the  case 

0f^  =  2.] 

Again,  let  P  =  Q^',  where  Q  does  not  contain  k.  Then,  by  Fermat's 
theorem,  xk''=x  [mod.  k].  and  therefore  k  divides  X*^  —  I  ;  but  it  is  prime  to 
Q.  Hence,  by  what  has  been  shewn,  k  must  be  an  external  divisor  of  this 
function,  and  consequently  a  unilii  ear  functi,n  of  Q.  Thus,  it  is  seen 
that  a  cyclotome  can  have  only  one  internal  divisor,  for  this  divisor,  as  has 
been  shown,  must  be  an  element  of  the  index,  and  a  unilinear  function  of 
the  product  of  the  highest  powers  of  all  the  o.her  elements  which  are 
contained  in  the  index. 

For  an  extension  of  this  law  to  "cyclotomes  of  the  second  order  and 
conjugate  species,"  see  the  "  Excursus,"  where  I  find  the  words  extrinsic 
and  intrinsic  are  used  instead  of  external  and  internal. 

^  A  reduced  Fermatian  obviously  may  be  resolved  into  as  many  cyclotomes, 
less  one,  as  its  index  contains  divisors  (ur.ity  and  the  number  itself  as  usual 
counting  among  the  divisors).  But,  barring  the  internal  d. visors,  all  these 
cyclotomes  to  a  given  base  have  been  proved  to  be  prime  to  one  another, 
and,  consequently,  there  must  be  at  least  as  many  distinct  prime  divisors  as 
there  are  cyclotomes,  except  in  the  very  special  case  where  the  base  and 
index  are  such  that  one  at  least  of  the  cyclotomes  becomes  equal  to  its 
internal  divisor  or  to  unity.  It  may  easily  be  shown  that  this  case  only 
happens  when  the  base  is  -  2  and  the  index  any  even  number,  or  when  the 
base  is  +  2  and  the  index  divisible  by  6  ;  and  that  in  either  of  these  cases 
there  is  f  nly  a  single  unit  lost  in  the  inferior  limit  to  the  number  of  the 
elements  in  the  reduced  Fermatian. 


has  taken  its  origin  in  the  felt  necessity  of  proving  a  purely 
negative  and  seemingly  barren  theorem,  viz.  the  non-exist- 
ence of  certain  classes  of  those  probably  altogether  ima- 
ginary entities  called  odd  perfect  numbers  :  the  moral 
is  obvious,  that  every  genuine  effort  to  arrive  at  a  secure 
basis  even  of  a  negative  proposition,  whether  the  object 
of  the  pursuit  is  attained  or  not,  and  however  unimportant 
such  truth,  if  it  were  established,  may  appear  in  itself,  is 
not  to  be  regarded  as  a  mere  gymnastic  effort  of  the 
intellect,  but  is  almost  certain  to  bring  about  the 
discovery  of  solid  and  positive  knowledge  that  might 
otherwise  have  remained  hidden.^  J.  J.  Sylvester. 
Torquay,  February  11. 


LORD  RAYLEIGH  ON  THE  RELATIVE 
DENSITIES  OF  HYDROGEN  AND  OXYGEN:^ 

THE  appearance  of  Prof.  Cooke's  important  memoir 
upon  the  atomic  weights  of  hydrogen  and  oxygen,'* 
induces  me  to  communicate  to  the  Royal  Society  a  notice 
of  the.  results  that  I  have  obtained  with  respect  to  the 
relative  densities  of  these  gases.  My  motive  for  under- 
taking this  investigation,  planned  in  1882,^  was  the  same 
as  that  which  animated  Prof.  Cooke— namely,  the  desire 
to  examine  whether  the  relative  atomic  weights  of  the  two 
bodies  really  deviated  from  the  simple  ratio  i  :  16, 
demanded  by  Prout's  law.  For  this  purpos  a  knowledge 
of  the  densities  is  not  of  itself  sufficient ;  but  it  appeared 
to  me  that  the  other  factor  involved,  viz.  the  relative 
atomic  volumes  of  the  two  gases,  could  be  measured  with 
great  accuracy  by  eudiometric  methods,  and  I  was  aware 
that  Mr.  Scott  had  in  view  a  redetermination  of  this 
number,  since  in  great  part  carried  out.''  If  both  in- 
vestigations are  conducted  with  gases  under  the  normal 
atmospheric  conditions  as  to  temperature  and  pressure, 
any  small  departures  from  the  laws  of  Boyle  and  Charles 
will  be  practically  without  influence  upon  the  final  number 
representing  the  ratio  of  atomic  weights. 

In  weighing  the  gas  the  procedure  of  Regnault  was 
adopted,  the  working  globe  being  compensated  by  a 
similar  closed  globe  of  the  same  external  volume,  made 
of  the  same  kind  of  glass,  and  of  nearly  the  same  weight. 
In  this  way  the  weighings  are  rendered  independent  of  the 
atmospheric  conditions,  and  only  small  weights  are  re- 
quired. The  weight  of  the  globe  used  in  the  experiments 
here  to  be  described  was  about  200  grammes,  and  the 
contents  were  about  1800  c.c. 

The  balance  is  by  Oertling,  and  readings  with  successive 
releasements  of  the  beam  and  pans,  but  without  removal 
of  the  globes,  usually  agreed  to  one-tenth  of  a  milligramme. 
Each  recorded  weighing  is  the  mean  of  the  results  of 
several  releasements. 

The  balance  was  situated  in  a  cellar,  where  temperature 
was  very  constant,  but  at  certain  times  the  air  currents,, 
described  by  Prof.  Cooke,  were  very  plainly  noticeable. 
The  beam  left  swinging  over  night  would  be  found  still  in 
motion  when  the  weighings  were  commenced  on  the 
following  morning.  At  other  times  these  currents  were 
absent,  and  the  beam  would  settle  down  to  almost  absolute 
rest.  This  difference  of  behaviour  was  found  to  depend 
upon  the  distribution  of  temperature  at  various  levels  in 
the  rooms.  A  delicate  thermopile  with  reflecting  cones, 
was  arranged  so  that  one  cone  pointed  towards  the  ceiling 

'  Since  receiving  the  revise,  I  have  no' iced  that  it  is  easj' to  prove  that 
the  algebraical  resultant  of  two  cyclotomes  to.  the  same  base  is  unity,  ex- 
cept when  their  indices  are  respectively  of  the  forms  Q(/tQ  +  i)'''  and 
Qt-^Q  +  i)S  where  (/tQ  +  i)  is  a  prime  number,  .ltd  Q  any  number  (unity 
not  excluded),  in  which  case  the  lesultant  is  kf^  -|-  i.  This  theorem  sup- 
plies the  raison  raisonnee  of  the  proposition  proved  otherwise  in  the  first 
part  of  the  long  footnote. 

^  A  Paper  read  at  the  Royal.  Society  on  February  9. 

3  "The  Relative  Values  ot  the  Atomic  Weights  of  Hydrogen  and 
Oxygen,"  by  J.  P.  Cooke  and  'i".  W.  Richards,  Amer.  Acad.  Proc,  vol. 
xxiii.,  1887. 

4  Address  to  Section  A,  British  Association  Report,  78?2. 

5  "  On  '.he  Composition  of  Water  by  Volume,"  by  A.  Scott,  Roy.  Soc. 
Proc.,  June  16,  1887  (vol.  xlii.  p.  396). 


March  i,  1888] 


NATURE 


419 


and  the  other  to  the  floor.  When  the  galvanometer  in- 
dicated that  the  ceihng  was  the  warmer,  the  balance 
behaved  well,  and  vice  versa.  The  reason  is  of  course 
that  air  is  stable  when  the  temperature  increases  upwards, 
and  unstable  when  heat  is  communicated  below.  During 
the  winter  months  the  ground  was  usually  warmer  than 
the  rest  of  the  room,  and  air  currents  developed  them- 
selves in  the  weighing  closet.  During  the  summer  the 
air  cooled  by  contact  with  the  ground  remained  as  a 
layer  below,  and  the  balance  was  undisturbed. 

The  principal  difference  to  be  noted  between  my 
arrangements  and  those  of  Prof.  Cooke  is  that  in  my 
case  no  desiccators  were  used  within  the  weighing  closet. 
The  general  air  of  the  room  was  prevented  from  getting 
too  damp  by  means  of  a  large  blanket,  occasionally  removed 
and  dried  before  a  fire.^ 

In  Regnault's  experiments  the  globe  was  filled  with  gas 
to  the  atmospheric  pressure  (determined  by  an  inde- 
pendent barometer),  and  the  temperature  was  maintained 
at  zero  by  a  bath  of  ice.  The  use  of  ice  is  no  doubt  to 
be  recommended  in  the  case  of  the  heavier  gases  ;  but  it 
involves  a  cleaning  of  the  globe,  and  therefore  diminishes 
somewhat  the  comparability  of  the  weighings,  vacuous 
and  full,  on  which  everything  depends.  Hydrogen  is  so 
light  that,  except  perhaps  in  the  mean  of  a  long  series, 
the  error  of  weighing  is  likely  to  be  more  serious  than 
the  uncertainty  of  temperature.  I  have  therefore  con- 
tented myself  with  inclosing  the  body  of  the  globe  during 
the  process  of  filling  in  a  wooden  box,  into  which  passed 
the  bulbs  of  two  thermometers,  reading  to  tenths  of  a 
degree  centigrade.  It  seems  probable  that  the  mean  of 
the  readings  represents  the  temperature  of  the  gas  to 
about  one-tenth  of  a  degree,  or  at  any  rate  that  the  differ- 
ences of  temperature  on  various  occasions  and  with  various 
gases  will  be  given  to  at  least  this  degree  of  accuracy. 
Indeed  the  results  obtained  with  oxygen  exclude  a  greater 
uncertainty. 

Under  these  conditions  the  alternate  full  and  empty 
weighings  can  be  effected  with  the  minimum  of  inter- 
ference with  the  surface  of  the  globe.  The  stalk  and 
tap  were  only  touched  with  a  glove,  and  the  body  of  the 
^lobe  was  scarcely  touched  at  all.  To  make  the  symmetry 
as  complete  as  possible,  the  counterpoising  globe  was 
provided  with  a  similar  case,  and  was  cairied  backwards 
and  forwards  between  the  balance  room  and  the  labora- 
tory exactly  as  was  necessary  for  the  working  g'obe. 

In  my  earliest  experiments  (1885)  hydrogen  and  oxygen 
were  prepared  simultaneously  in  a  U-shaped  voltameter 
containing  dilute  sulphuric  acid.  Since  the  same  quantity 
of  acid  can  be  used  indefinitely,  I  hoped  in  this  way  to 
eliminate  all  extraneous  impurity,  and  to  obtain  hydrogen 
contaminated  only  by  small  quantities  of  oxygen,  and  vice 
-oersd.  The  final  purification  of  the  gases  was  to  be 
•effected  by  passing  them  through  red-hot  tubes,  and  sub- 
sequent desiccation  with  phosphoric  anhydride.  In  a  l^w 
trials  I  did  not  succeed  in  obtaining  good  hydrogen,  a 
result  which  I  was  inclined  to  attribute  to  the  inadequacy 
of  a  red  heat  to  effect  the  combination  of  the  small  residue 
of  oxygen.''^  Meeting  this  difificulty,  I  abanioned  the 
method  for  a  time,  purposing  to  recur  to  it  after  I  had 
obtained  experience  with  the  more  usual  methods  of  pre- 
paring the  gases.  In  this  part  of  the  investigation  my 
experience  runs  nearly  parallel  with  that  of  Prof.  Cooke. 
The  difficulty  of  getting  quit  of  the  dissolved  air  when,  as 
in  the  ordinary  preparation  of  hydrogen,  the  acid  is  fed 
in  slowly  at  the  time  of  working,  induced  me  to  design  an 
apparatus  whose  action  can  be  suspended  by  breaking  an 
-external  electrical  contact.  It  may  be  regarded  as  a  Smee 
cell  thoroughly  inclosed.     Two  points  of  difference  may 

'  I  can  strongly  recommend  this  method.    In  twenty-four  hours  the  blanket 
will  frequently  absorb  twj  pounds  of  moisture. 

^  From  Prjf.   Cooke'.s  e.vperienc :    it   appears  nit    improbable   that   the 
1  mpurity  may  have  been  sulphurous  acid.     Is  it  certain  that  in  his  combus- 
tions no  hydrogen  (towa-ds  the  close  largely  diluted  with  nitrogen)  escapes   ' 
the  action  of  the  cuprx  oxide  ?  I 


be  noted  between  this  apparatus  and  that  of  Prof.  Cooke- 
In  my  mnnner  of  working  it  was  necessary  that  the 
generator  should  stand  an  internal  vacuum.  To  guard 
more  thoroughly  against  the  penetration  of  external  air, 
every  cemented  joint  was  completely  covered  with  vase- 
line, and  the  vaseline  again  with  water.  Again,  the  zincs 
were  in  the  form  of  solid  sheets,  closely  surrounding  the 
platinized  plate  on  which  the  hydrogen  was  liberated, 
and  standing  in  mercury.  It  was  found  far  better  to  work 
thcs2  cells  by  their  own  electromotive  force,  without 
stimulation  by  an  external  battery.  If  the  plates  are  close, 
and  the  contact  wires  thick,  the  evolution  of  gas  may  be 
made  more  rapid  than  is  necessary,  or  indeed  desirable. 

Tubes,  closed  by  drowned  stopcocks,  are  provided,  in 
order  to  allow  the  acid  to  be  renewed  without  breaking 
joints ;  but  one  charge  is  sufficient  for  a  set  of  experi- 
ments (three  to  five  fillings),  and  during  the  whole  of  the 
time  occupied  (10  to  14  days)  there  is  no  access  of 
atmospheric  air.  The  removal  of  dissolved  air  (and  other 
volatile  impurity)  proved,  however,  not  to  be  so  easy  as 
had  been  expected,  even  when  assisted  by  repeated  ex- 
haustions, with  intermittent  evolution  of  hydrogen  ;  and 
the  results  often  showed  a  progressive  improvement 
in  the  hydrogen,  even  after  a  somewhat  prolonged 
preliminary  treatment.  In  subsequent  experimeats 
greater  precautions  will  be  taken.^  Experience  showed 
that  good  hydrogen  could  not  thus  be  obtained 
from  zinc  and  ordinary  "pure"  sulphuric  acid,  or 
phosphoric  acid  without  the  aid  of  purifying  agents. 
The  best  results  so  far  have  been  from  sulphuric  and 
hydrochloric  acid,  when  the  gas  is  passed  in  succession 
over  liquid  potash,  through  powdered  corrosive  sublimate, 
and  then  through  powdered  caustic  potash.  All  the  joints 
of  the  purifying  tubes  are  connected  by  fusion,  and  a  tap 
separates  the  damp  from  the  dry  side  of  the  apparatus. 
The  latter  includes  a  large  and  long  tube  charged  with 
phosphoric  anhydride,  a  cotton-wool  filter,  a  blow-off 
tube  sealed  with  mercury  until  the  filling  is  completed, 
besides  the  globe  itself  and  the  Toppler  pump.  A  detailed 
description  i.s  postponed  until  the  experiments  are  com- 
plete. It  may  be  sufficient  to  mention  that  there  is  but 
one  india-rubber  connection — that  between  the  globe  and 
the  rest  of  the  apparatus,  and  that  the  leakage  through 
this  was  usually  measured  by  the  Toppler  before  com- 
mencing a  filling  or  an  evacuation. 

The  object  of  giving  a  considerable  capacity  to  the 
phosphoric  tube  was  to  provide  against  the  danger  of  a 
too  rapid  passage  of  gas  through  the  purifying  tubes  at 
the  commencement  of  a  filling.  Suppose  the  gas  to  be 
blowing  off,  all  the  apparatus  except  the  globe  (and  the 
Toppler)  being  at  a  pressure  somewhat  above  the  atmo- 
spheric. The  tap  between  the  damp  and  dry  sides  is 
then  closed,  and  that  into  the  globe  is  opened.  The  gas 
which  now  enters  somewhat  rapidly  is  thoroughly  dry, 
having  been  in  good  contact  with  the  phosphoric  an- 
hydride. In  this  way  the  pressure  on  the  dry  side  is 
reduced  to  about  2  inches  of  mercury,  but  this  residue  is 
sufficient  to  allow  the  damp  side  of  the  apparatus  to  be 
exhausted  to  a  still  lower  pressure  before  the  tap  between 
the  two  sides  of  the  apparatus  is  reopened.  When  this 
is  done,  the  first  movement  of  the  gas  is  retrograde  ;  and 
there  is  no  danger  at  any  stage  of  .imperfect  purification. 
The  generator  is  then  re-started  until  the  gas  (after  from 
two  to  five  hours)  begins  to  blow  off  again. 

In  closing  the  globe,  some  precaution  is  required  to 
secure  that  the  pressure  therein  shall  really  be  that  mea- 
sured by  the  barometer.  The  mercury  seal  is  at  some 
distance  from,  and  at  a  lower  level  than,  the  rest  of  the 
apparatus.  After  removal  of  the  mercury,  the  flow  of 
gas  is  continued  for  about  one  minute,  and  then  the  tap 
between  the  dry  and  damp  sides  is  closed.  From  three 
to  five  minutes  more  were  usually  allowed  for  the  com- 

'  Spectrum  analysis  appears  t )  be  incapable  of  indicating  the  presence  of 
comparatively  large  quantities  of  nitrogen. 


420 


NATURE 


[March  i,  1888 


plete  establishment  of  equilibrium  before  the  tap  of  the 
globe  was  turned  off.  Experiments  on  oxygen  appeared 
to  show  that  two  minutes  was  sufficient.  For  mea- 
suring the  atmospheric  pressure,  huo  standard  mercury 
barometers  were  employed. 

The  evacuations  were  effected  by  the  Toppler  to  at 
least  1/20000,  so  that  the  residual  gas  (at  any  rate  after 
one  filling  with  hydrogen)  could  be  neglected. 

I  will  now  give  some  examples  of  actual  i-esults.  Those 
in  the  following  tables  relate  to  gas  prepared  from  sul- 
phuric acid,  with  subsequent  purification,  as  already 
described : — 


Globe  (14^,  empty 

• 

Date. 

Left. 

Right. 

Bnlance 
reading. 

1887. 

Oct.  27-Nov.  5      

Nov.  7-N0V.  8       

Nov.  9-N0V.  10     

Nov.  ii-Nov.  12 

Gi4  + 0-394 

G„ 

22-66 

22-89 
23-00 
21-72 

Globe  {l^),full. 


Date. 

Left. 

Right. 

Balance 
rsading. 

Baro- 

mettr. 

Temiera- 
ture. 

1887. 
Nov.  5-7     ... 
Nov.  8-9     ... 
Nov.  lo-ii... 
Nov.  12-14... 

Gi4  + 0-2400 

G14+ 0-2364 
G14+ 0-2360 
Gi4  +  o-2340 

Gu 
G„ 
Gn 
Gu 

20-52 

19-77 
19-18 

29-51 

in. 
29-416 
29  830 
22-807 
30-135 

<*c. 

14-7 
123 
1 1 -2 
103 

The  second  column  shows  that  globe  (14)  and  certain 
platinum  weights  were  suspended  from  the  left  end  of  ihe 
beam,  and  the  third  column  that  (in  this  series)  only  the 
counterpoising  globe  (11)  was  hung  from  the  right  end. 
The  fourth  column  gives  the  mean  balance  reading  in  divi- 
sions of  the  scale,  each  of  which  (at  the  time  of  the  above 
experiments)  represented  0-000187  gramme.  The  degree 
of  agreement  of  these  numbers  in  the  first  part  of  the 
table  gives  an  idea  of  the  errors  due  to  the  balance,  and 
to  uncertainties  in  the  condition  of  the  exteriors  of  the 
globes.  A  minute  and  unsystematic  correction  depend- 
ing upon  imperfect  compensation  of  volumes  (to  the 
extent  of  about  2  cubic  centimetres)  need  not  here  be 
regarded. 

The  weight  of  the  hydrogen  at  each  filling  is  deduced, 
whenever  possible,  by  comparison  of  the  "full"  reading 
with  the  mean  of  the  immediately  preceding  and  follow- 
ing "  empty  "  readings.  The  difference,  interpreted  in 
grammes,  is  taken  provisionally  as  the  weight  of  the  gas. 
Thus,  for  the  filhng  of  Nov.  5 — 

H  =  0-154  -  2-25  X  0-000187  =  0-15358. 

The  weights  thus  obtained  depend  of  course  upon  the 
temperature  and  pressure  at  the  time  of  filling.  Reduced 
to  correspond  with  a  temperature  of  12°,  and  to  a  baro- 
metric height  of  30  inches  (but  without  a  minute  correc- 
tion for  varying  temperature  of  the  mercury)  they  stand 
thus — 

November  5     ...         ...         ...     0-15811 

,,  8      015807 

,,         10     0-15798 

M         1-2     0-15792 


Mean 


0-15802 


so    light,    the    mean    of    two    accordant    series    being 
0-15812. 

The  weighing  of  oxygen  is  of  course  a  much  easier 
operation  than  in  the  case  of  hydrogen.  The  gas  was 
prepared  from  chlorate  of  potash,  and  from  a  mixture  of 
the  chlorates  of  potash  and  soda.  The  discrepancies 
between  the  individual  weighings  were  no  more  than 
might  fairly  be  attributed  to  thermometric  and  mano- 
metric  errors.  The  result  reduced  so  as  to  correspond 
in  all  respects  with  the  numbers  for  hydrogen  is  2-5186.^ 

But  before  these  numbers  can  be  compared,  with  the 
object  of  obtaining  the  relative  densities,  a  correction  of 
some  importance  is  required,  which  appears  to  have  been 
overlooked  by  Prof.  Cooke,  as  it  was  by  Regnault.  The 
weight  of  the  gas  is  not  to  be  found  by  merely  taking  the 
difference  of  the  full  and  empty  weighings,  unless  indeed 
the  weighings  are  conducted  in  vacuo.  The  external 
volume  of  the  globe  is  larger  when  it  is  full  than  when  it 
is  empty,  and  the  weight  of  the  air  corresponding  to  this 
difference  of  volume  must  be  added  to  the  apparent  weight 
of  the  gas. 

By  filling  the  globe  with  carefully  boiled  water,  it  is  not 
difficult  to  determine  experimentally  the  expansion  per 
atmosphere.  In  the  case  of  globe  (14)  it  appears  that 
under  normal  atmospheric  conditions  the  quantity  to  be 
added  to  the  apparent  weights  of  the  hydrogen  and  oxygen 
is  o  00056  gramme. 

The  actually  observed  alteration  of  volume  (regard 
being  had  to  the  compressibility  of  water)  agrees  very 
nearly  with  an  a  priori  estimate,  founded  upon  the  theory 
of  thin  spherical  elastic  shells  and  the  known  properties 
of  glass.  The  proportional  value  of  the  required  correc- 
tion, in  my  case  about  4/1000  of  the  weight  of  the  hydrogen, 
will  be  for  spherical  globes  proportional  to  «//,  where  a  is 
the  radius  of  the  globe,  and  t  the  thickness  of  the  shell,  or 
to  V/W,  if  V  be  the  contents,  and  W  the  weight  of  the 
glass.  This  ratio  is  nearly  the  same  for  Prof.  Cooke's 
globe  and  for  mine  ;  but  the  much  greater  departure  of 
his  globe  from  the  spherical  form  may  increase  the  amount 
of  the  correction  which  ought  to  be  introduced. 

In  the  estimates  now  to  be  given,  which  must  be  re- 
garded as  provisional,  the  apparent  weight  of  the  hydrogen 
is  taken  at  0-15804,  so  that  the  real  weight  is  0-15860. 
The  weight  of  the  same  volume  of  oxygen  under  the  same 
conditions  is  2-5 1 86  -}-  0-0006  =  2-5 192.  The  ratio  of  these 
numbers  is  I5'884. 

The  ratio  of  densities  found  by  Regnault  was  15-964, 
but  the  greater  part  of  the  difference  may  well  be  ac- 
counted for  by  the  omission  of  the  correction  just  now 
considered. 

In  order  to  interpret  our  result  as  a  ratio  of  atomic 
weights,  we  need  to  know  accurately  the  ratio  of  atomic 
volumes.  The  number  given  as  most  probable  by  Mr. 
Scott,  in  May  1887,'^  was  1-994,  but  he  informs  me  that 
more  recent  experiments  under  improved  conditions  give 
1-9965.  Combining  this  with  the  ratio  of  densities,  we 
obtain  as  the  ratio  of  atomic  weights  — 


2  X  15884 
1-9965 


15-912. 


It  is  not  improbable  that  experiments  conducted  on  the 
same  lines,  but  with  still  greater  precautions,  may  raise 
the  final  number  by  one  or  even  two  thousandths  of  its 
value. 

The  ratio  obtained  by  Prof.  Cooke  is  15-953  ;  but  the 
difference  between  this  number  and  that  above  obtained 
may  be  more  than  accounted  for,  if  I  am  right  in  my 
suggestion  that  his  gas  weighings  require  correction  for 
the  diminished  buoyancy  of  the  globe  when  the  internal 
pressure  is  removed. 


The  hydrogen  obtained  hitherto  with  similar  apparatus 
and  purifying  tubes  from  hydrochloric  acid  is  not  quite 


'  An  examination   of  the   weights   revealed 
account  at  present. 
'^  Loc  cit. 


no  error  worth   taking  into 


March  i,  1888] 


NATURE 


421 


NOTES. 


The  Woolwich  Examinations  question,  to  the  importance  of 
vhich  we  again  direct  attention  in  our  first  article  to-day, 
is  not  to  be  allowed  to  lapse.  Three  or  four  Members  of 
Parliament  who  are  interested  in  science  mean  to  press  the 
Government  for  some  rational  change  in  the  rules. 

In  accordance  with  the  rule  which  empowers  the  election  of 
nine  persons  annually  "of  distinguished  eminence  in  science, 
literature,  or  the  arts,  or  for  public  services,"  Dr.  Lauder 
Brunton,  F.R.  S.,  has  been  elected  a  member  of  the  Athenoeum 
Club. 

The  extraordinary  interest  and  value  of  the  botanical  collec- 
tions made  by  Signor  Odoardo  Beccari  during  a  residence  of 
several  years  in  the  Malay  Archipelago,  and  especially  in  Borneo, 
are  well  known  to  naturalists.  For  some  time  past  Signor  Beccari 
has  been  occupied  at  Florence  with  the  publication  of  his  results 
in  the  work  with  which  botanists,  whether  systematists  or  morpho- 
logists,  are  familiar  under  the  name  of  Malesia.  Owing  to  the 
threatened  withdrawal  of  the  modest  support  which  the  Italian  Go- 
vernment have  extended  to  this  publication  (his  collections  having 
been  acquired  by  the  State),  there  is  some  reason  to  fear  that  it 
may  come  to  an  abrupt  termination.  Under  these  circumstances 
the  Bentham  Trustees  have  placed  at  Signor  Beccari's  disposal 
the  sum  of  looo  francs,  which  they  were  informed  would  secure 
the  continuance  of  the  work  for  one  year.  In  accepting  this 
support  Signor  Beccari  has  informed  the  Trustees  that  he  hesi- 
tates the  less  to  do  so  as  it  affords  the  strongest  possible  proof  of 
the  estimation  in  which  his  labours  are  held  in  the  botanical 
world  generally. 

Prof.  Isaac  Bayley  Balfour,  of  the  University  of  Oxford, 
has  been  elected  Professor  of  Botany  at  the  University  of  Edin- 
burgh in  the  room  of  the  late  Prof.  Dickson.  Prof.  Bayley 
Balfour  is  the  son  of  the  late  Prof.  Balfour,  Prof.  Dickson's 
predecessor  in  the  Chair. 

M.  T.  RiBOT  has  been  appointed  to  the  new  Chair  of  Ex- 
perimental and  Comparative  Psychology,  founded  by  the  Paris 
Municipal  Council  at  the  College  de  France. 

Dr.  F.  L.  Patton  succeeds  Dr.  McCosh  as  the  President  of 
Princeton  College.  Science  says  : — "  Dr.  Patton  is  still  a  young 
man,  being  but  forty-five  years  of  age,  and  has  yet  to  put  forth 
to  their  fullest  extent  his  marvellous  intellectual  powers.  We 
seriously  question  whether  any  College  has  a  President  of  so  high 
an  intellectual  stamp  as  Dr.  Patton." 

Mr.  Griesbach,  the  well-known  geologist  to  the  Afghan 
Boundary  Commission,  and  Deputy-Superintendent  of  the  Geo- 
logical Survey  of  India,  has  been  permitted  to  take  employment 
under  the  Ameer  of  Afghanistan  for  the  purpose  of  developing 
the  mineral  resources  of  the  country. 

Mr.  H.  O.  Forbes  has  just  arrived  in  England  from  New 
Guinea.  Mr.  Forbes  succeeded  in  reaching  the  foot  of  the 
Owen  Stanley  range,  after  the  very  greatest  difficulties  owing 
to  the  broken  nature  of  the  country.  When  he  returned  to  his 
camp  to  make  the  necessary  arrangements  for  ascending  the 
range,  he  found  it  had  been  attacked  and  his  people  dispersed 
by  the  natives.  He  had  the  greatest  difficulty  in  reaching  the 
coast,  and  narrowly  escaped  with  his  life. 

M.  Edouard  Dupont,  Director  of  the  Brussels  Natural 
History  Museum,  has  just  returned  to  Belgium,  after  an  absence 
of  eight  months  for  the  purpose  of  visiting  the  Congo.  M, 
Dupont  has  made  a  very  careful  study  of  the  region  between  the 
coast  and  the  mouth  of  the  Kassai,  with  a  special  view  to  its 
geology  and  natural  history.  The  detailed  results  he  will  shortly 
communicate  to  the  Brussels  Societies. 


The  Rev.  W.  H.  Dallinger,  F.R.S.,  will  on  Thursday  next 
(March  8)  begin  a  course  of  three  lectures  at  the  Royal 
Institution,  on  microscopical  work  with  recent  lenses  on  the 
least  and  simplest  forms  of  life. 

The  Times  understcnds  that  King's  and  University  Colleges 
have  been  informed  that  the  Privy  Council  will  hear  them  at 
some  date  after  April  i6  next  in  support  of  their  joint  petition 
for  incorporation  as  the  nucleus  of  a  Teaching  University  for 
London.  The  Privy  Council  have  further  desired  that,  as  the 
petition  of  the  two  Colleges  appears  to  be  substantially  at  one 
with  that  of  the  Teaching  University  Association,  the  Colleges 
should  present  a  joint  case  with  that  Association  not  later  than 
March  31. 

A  deputation  from  the  School  Boards  of  England  and 
Wales  had  an  interview  last  week  with  Lord  Cranbrook  and 
Sir  W.  Hart  Dyke,  to  press  upon  their  attention  some  considera- 
tions with  regard  to  technical  instruction.  In  the  course  of  his 
reply  to  the  various  statements  made,  Lord  Cranbrook  said  that 
the  Technical  Instruction  Bill  would  be  introduced  as  soon  as 
possible.  The  Government,  he  assured  the  deputation,  fully 
intended,  if  possible,  to  pass  the  measure,  and  he  ventured  to 
ask  those  who  were  interested  in  it,  if  they  did  not  get  all  that 
they  required,  to  be  content  with  a  beginning,  and  not  be  too 
anxious  to  press  extreme  conclusions  which  might  raise 
opposition  that  did  not  at  present  exist. 

M.  Pasteur,  having  entered  the  lists  as  a  competitor  for  the 
reward  of  ;,f  25,000  offered  by  the  Government  of  New  South 
Wales  for  exterminating  the  superabundant  rabbits,  has  sent  three 
delegates  with  a  supply  of  ^^  microbes  dti  cholera  des  ponies^* 
with  which  he  hopes  to  win  the  prize.  Whatever  may  be 
thought  of  this  particular  remedy,  there  can  be  no  doubt  as  to 
the  serious  nature  of  the  plague  of  rabbits  in  Australia.  During 
last  August  the  rabbit  inspectors  travelled  20,202  iniles  and 
destroyed  2,069,128  rabbit  scalps,  and  from  January  I  to  August  i 
they  destroyed  10,538,778  rabbit  scalps.  The  New  South 
Wales  Parliament  lately  provided  funds  for  the  making  of  a 
rabbit-proof  fence  from  Bourke  to  the  Queensland  border. 

The  earthquake  which  caused  so  much  alarm  at  Grenada  on 
the  loth  ult.  was  felt  in  many  parts  of  the  West  Indies.  There 
were  oscillations  at  Barbados,  St.  Lucia,  St.  Vincent,  Grenada, 
Demerara,  and  Trinidad,  and  it  is  said  that  in  many  places  much 
damage  was  done  to  house  property.  The  earthquake  was  also 
felt  on  the  other  side  of  the  Gulf  of  Paria.  In  Guiria  three  houses 
were  destroyed  and  the  earth  opened  in  chasms  and  closed  again. 
At  Yrapa  the  shock  was  so  severe  that  a  terrified  old  woman 
threw  herself  into  the  sea  and  was  drowned. 

About  midnight  on  January  15  a  shock  ofearthquake  was  felt 
by  a  party  of  five  persons  on  the  road  four  kilometres  west  of 
Trysil  Church  in  Central  Norway.  The  shock  was  accompanied 
by  a  dull  rumbling  noise  like  that  of  a  heavy  cart  passing  across 
a  bridge. 

On  the  night  of  January  5  showers  of  ashes  fell  in  certain 
parts  of  Elverum  in  Central  Norway,  in  some  places  making  the 
snow  quite  gray.  It  is  surmised  that  the  fall  may  have  been 
connected  with  some  volcanic  eruption  in  Iceland,  as  has  formerly 
been  the  case  in  this  locality. 

According  to  the  Panama  Star  and  Herald  a  huge  wave 
lately  struck  the  beach  at  Baracjoa,  Cuba.  After  sweeping  in 
fully  400  feet,  it  flowed  back  to  the  ocean.  Nearly  300  huts  and 
houses  are  said  to  have  been  destroyed,  but  no  lives  were  lost, 
for  the  people  saw  the  wave  coming  and  fled  to  the  hills.  The 
beach  was  swept  clear  of  every  habitation  that  stood  upon  it. 
The  wave  was  not  a  tidal  wave,  but  the  result  of  a  three  days' 
north  wind. 


422 


NA  TURE 


[March  i,  1888 


M.  L.  Teisserenc  de  Bort  discusses,  in  the  Annales  of  t^e 
French  Central  Meteorological  Office  for  1885,  part  iv.  (Paris, 
1887),  the  importance  of  the  high  barooietric  pressures  of  Asia 
for  weather  forecasts  over  Europe.  The  paper  deals  with  various 
types  of  isobars  existing  simultaneously  over  Asia  and  Europe, 
illustrated  by  charts.  The  result  arrived  at  is  that  European 
offices  would  derive  great  advantage  from  daily  telegrams  from 
Asia,  especially  from  the  stations  already  in  existence  in  Siberia 
which  report  to  St.  Petersburg  by  wire.  Hitherto  the  idea  has 
generally  prevailed  that  the  movements  of  the  atmosphere  from 
the  westward  were  alone  useful  for  the  prediction  of  weather 
changes  over  Europe. 

The  Austrian  Meteorological  Office  has  just  published  its 
yahrbuch  for  1886.  The  service  was  established  in  1847,  and 
the  first  volume  contained  observations  for  1848-49.  The  new 
series  of  volumes,  of  which  the  present  is  the  twenty-third,  began 
with  the  year  1864.  The  stations  now  number  380,  including 
three  abroad,  and  are  closer  together  than  in  any  other  of  the 
larger  systems ;  there  are  no  less  than  nine  stations  in  Vienna 
alone.  Daily  observations  are  published  for  eighteen  stations  ; 
for  all  the  others  monthly  and  yearly  resumes  are  given.  The 
Hungarian  observations  are  published  in  a  separate  volume. 

The  Pioneer  of  Allahabad  mentions  a  circumstance  connected 
with  two  recent  cyclonic  storms  which  is  worthy  of  the  attention 
of  meteorologists.  These  storms  struck  the  Scinde  desert  between 
January  24  and  30,  and  passed  in  a  straight  line  across  the 
continent  to  Cuttack  at  the  rate  of  250  to  300  miles  daily.  The 
second  continued  unbroken  across  the  Bay  of  Bengal  to  Burmah. 
If  the  line  they  followed  were  prolonged  straight  westward  it 
would  reach  Vienna,  which  is  about  3600  miles  from  Scinde. 
There  seems  (says  the  Pioneer)  to  have  been  an  unusually  violent 
atmosiDheric  disturbance  in  Vienna  in  the  early  part  of  January, 
so  the  time  and  the  rate  of  travelling  would  agree  with  the 
assumjition  that  the  storms  were  identical  with  that  disturbance. 

Two  remarkable  new  fluorides  of  potassium  have  been  dis- 
covered by  M.  Moissan,  the  isolater  of  fluorine.  Hydrofluoric 
acid  is  well-known  to  be  readily  capable  of  combining  with 
neutral  fluorides  to  form  fluorhydrates  similar  to  that  of 
potassium,  KF  .  HF  ;  indeed  it  was  by  the  use  of  this  latter  com- 
pound that  fluorine  was  eventually  so  successfully  obtained  in  the 
free  state.  Moreover,  the  formition  of  such  compounds  has  been 
completely  accounted  for  by  the  vapour-  density  determinations  of 
Kletzinsky  and  Mallet,  who  have  shown  that  the  composition  of 
the  molecule  of  hydrofluoric  acid  just  above  its  boiling-point  is 
H2F2.  But  M.  Moissan  now  shows  that  this  double  fluoride  of 
jjotassium  is  by  no  means  the  only  one,  that  two  others,  KF  .  2HF 
and  KF  .  3HF  maybe  readily  obtained  in  well-formed  crystals. 
When  dry  powdered  KF  .  HF  is  placed  in  anhydrous  hydrofluoric 
acid,  it  disappears  almost  instantaneously,  the  liquid  becoming 
sensibly  warm  ;  in  fact,  M.  Moissan  in  a  few  moojents  dissolved 
five  to  six  grammes  in  ten  grammes  of  the  acid.  On  cooling  this 
mixture  to  -  23°  C.  white  crystals  separated  out ;  these  were 
rapidly  dried  between  filter  paper,  transferred  to  a  platinum  tube 
closed  by  a  paraffined  cork,  weighed  and  analyzed.  The  results 
of  the  analyses  indicated  the  composition  KF  .  3HF.  The  com- 
pound was  then  synthetically  prepared  by  mixing  potassium 
fluoride  and  the  acid  in  these  proportions,  evading  any  sudden 
rise  of  temperature  ;  the  liquid  was  subsequently  warmed  to  85° 
in  a  platinum  capsule,  but  not  a  trace  of  hydrofluoric  acid  vapour 
escaped,  although  that  substance  boils  at  19°.  Hence  it  was 
■evident  that  the  HF  was  locked  up  in  chemical  combination,  and 
this  was  soon  observed  to  be  the  case,  for  on  removing  the  source 
of  heat,  crystals  began  to  form  even  while  the  thermometer  indi- 
cated 68° ;  on  resuming  the  ordinary  temperature  of  the  room, 
the  whole  became  a  mass  of  interlaced  crystals,  which  analysis 


proved  to  be  those  of  KF  .  3HF.  These  crystals  are  extremely 
deliquescent,  being  decomposed  by  water  into  the  free  acid  and 
potassium  fluoride,  emitting  the  acid  fumes  in  a  humid  atmo- 
sphere, and  dissolving  in  water  with  production  of  the  most 
intense  cold.  If  they  are  suddenly  heated  with  crystalline  siliccn, 
the  mass  becomes  incandescent,  and  a  violent  disengagement  of 
silicon  tetrafluoride  gas  occurs.  The  stability  of  this  fluorhydrate 
was  strikingly  shown  by  placing  a  few  crystals  in  vacuo,  when 
even  after  two  hours  the  manometer  only  showed  a  difference  of 
O'Oi  m.  In  a  somewhat  similar  manner  the  compound  KF  .  2HF 
was  isolated  and  found  to  be  a  liquid  at  105°,  but  crystallizing  in 
the  cold.  It  is  to  the  formation  of  these  fluorhydrates  that 
M.  Moissan  attributes  the  preservation  of  his  fluorine-isolating 
apparatus,  and  the  regular  evolution  of  gaseous  fluorine  during  ; 
the  electrolysis. 


During  the  last  two  or  three  years  an  extensive  search  for 
natural  gas  has  been  made  in  the  United  States.  In  a  paper  on 
the  subject,  just  issued  by  the  U.S.  Geological  Survey,  Mr.  J. 
D.  Weeks  says  the  results  of  this  exploration  indicate:  — (i)  That  | 
along  the  Atlantic  coast,  east  of  the  Appalachian  Chain,  includ-  ( 
ing  in  this  term  the  Green  Mountains,  no  gas  is  found,  or,  if  J 
found  at  all,  in  such  small  quantities  as  to  indicate  that  it  is  of' 
comparatively  recent  origin.  It  is  a^so  found  in  such  horizons,! 
and  under  such  conditions,  as  to  give  but  little  evidence  that  it  | 
is  in  such  storage  reservoirs  as  to  promise  any  considerable  sup- 
ply, (2)  That  the  chief  sources  of  the  supply  of  natural  gas  in  I 
the  United  States  are  to  be  found  in  the  Mississippi  Valley,  and,  - 
so  far  as  present  explorations  show,  in  that  portion  of  it  east  of? 
the  Mississippi  River.  The  chief  localities  that  had  assumed  * 
any  prominence  as  gas-centres  at  the  close  of  1886  were  in 
South-Western  New  York,  Western  Pennsylvania,  North-  % 
Western  Ohio,  and  Central  Eastern  Indiana.  To  these  may 
be  added  a  locality  in  Michigan  and  one  in  Eastern  Kansas. 

In  the  report  of  the  U.S.  Commission  of  Education  for  the 
year  1885-86,  just  issued,  it  is  stated  that  seldom  in  the  history 
of  the  United  States  have  superior  institutions  of  learning 
occupied  so  large  a  share  of  public  attention  or  given  signs  of 
such  vigorous  and  fruitful  life  as  at  the  present  time.  Among 
these  institutions  are  classed  schools  of  science,  pure  and  applied, 
which,  according  to  the  writer  of  the  report,  "have  greatly  in- 
creased the  provision  for  superior  instruction,  extended  its 
province,  and  borne  an  important  part  in  the  adjustment  of  its 
processes  to  the  demands  arising  from  the  extraordinary  increase 
of  scientific  knowledge  and  its  applications  to  the  leading 
industries  of  modern  times," 

We  have  received  the  annual  address  to  the  Asiatic  Society, 
Calcutta,  delivered  by  the  President,  Mr.  E,  T.  Atkinson. 
Speaking  of  the  Sui'vey  of  India,  Mr.  Atkinson  says  that  most  of 
the  operations  connected  with  it  during  the  past  year  have  been 
devoted  to  remunerative  as  distinguished  from  purely  scientific 
investigation.  In  many  districts  the  survey  has  been  cadastral 
with  a  record  of  rights.  The  Baluchistan  parties  have  done  a 
considerable  amount  of  large-scale  work  around  Quetta  and 
towards  the  Khwajah  Amran  range,  and  are  now  engaged  on  the 
half-inch  survey  of  that  province.  The  Himalayan  party  has 
been  working  under  Colonel  Tanner  towards  Kulu,  and  the 
Andaman  party  has  completed  the  survey  of  the  coasts  of  the 
Nicobars. 

We  have  received  the  "Geological  Record  f  jr  1879,"  containing 
an  account  of  works  on  geology,  mineralogy,  and  palaeontology, 
published  during  the  year,  with  supplements  for  1874-78.  The 
volume  is  edited  by  Mr.  Whitaker  and  Mr.  W.  H.  Dalton,  and 
published  by  Messrs.  Taylor  and  Francis.  In  the  preface  Mr. 
Whitaker  explains  that  as  the  position  of  editorofthe  "  Geological 
Record  "  has  proved  to  be  one  that  can  be  held  only  with  great 


March  i,  1888] 


NA  TURE 


423 


difficulty  by  a  busy  man  who  does  not  live  in  London,  it  has 
been  taken  over  by  Mr.  Topley.  The  "  Record  "  is  to  be  brought 
up  to  date  by  giving  the  titles  only  of  papers,  &c.,  for  the  years 
1880  to  1887.  The  portion  for  i88o  to  1884  is  finished,  and  in 
great  part  printed  ;  and  so  large  is  the  amount  of  geological 
literature  that  in  this  contracted  form  (without  abstracts)  two 
volumes  will  be  needed  for  the  five  years. 

Recent  Shanghai  papers  contain  the  report  of  the  "  Chinese 
Scientific  Book  Depot,"  an  institution  which  was  established 
three  years  ago  for  the  purpose  of  facilitating  the  spread  of  all 
useful  literature  in  the  native  language  throughout  China,  and 
especially  of  books,  maps,  and  other  publications  of  a  scientific 
or  technical  character.  It  does  not  publish  works,  but  has  merely 
organized  a  system  by  which  the  translations  and  compilations 
on  scientific  subjects  issued  by  the  various  Departments  of  the 
Chinese  central  and  local  Governments,  by  missionary  and  other 
philanthropic  Societies,  are  more  widely  distributed  amongst  the 
Chinese  people.  The  demand  for  such  boo!<s  is  fast  increasing, 
and  the  establishment  of  the  central  depot,  with  branches  at  the 
more  important  cities,  suggested  itself  three  years  since.  Self- 
support  has  been  the  motto  of  the  institution,  and,  in  order  to 
overcome  Chinese  prejudices,  everything  smacking  of  foreign 
influence  has  been  eliminated  as  far  as  possible.  During  the 
second  year  a  branch  was  opened  at  Tientsin,  and  subsequently 
Hangchow,  Swatow,  Pekin,  Hankow,  Foochow,  and  Amoy 
were  similarly  provided.  During  the  three  years  about  ;^25oo 
worth  of  books,  maps,  &c.,  have  been  sold,  some  of  them 
finding  their  way  to  the  most  distant  parts  of  China,  Corea,  and 
Japan.  Taking  the  average  price  per  volume  at  4/.  to  5;/.,  this 
would  give  a  circulation  of  about  150,000  volumes  of  useful 
literature,  chiefly  of  a  scientific  and  educational  character.  The 
shops  have  also  served  to  some  extent  as  reading-rooms,  where 
inquirers  after  Western  knowledge  have  been  able  to  sit  down 
and  examine  any  works  in  which  they  felt  interested.  The 
number  of  scientific  and  other  treatises  already  translated  or 
compiled  and  published  in  Chinese  under  foreign  management 
amounts  at  present  to  over  200.  To  these  have  been  added 
about  250  of  the  most  useful  native  works,  including  scientific 
treatises  by  the  early  Jesuit  fathers. 

Sir  Edward  Birkbeck,  President  of  the  National  Sea 
Fisheries  Protection  Association,  is  now  promoting  in  Parlia- 
ment a  Bill,  the  object  of  which  is  to  secure  reasonably  cheap 
and  rapid  transport  for  common  kinds  of  sea  fish,  in  quantities 
of  I  cwt,  and  upwards,  from  the  coast  to  the  various  inland 
centres  of  population,  and  thus,  by  securing  a  plentiful  distribu- 
tion, to  render  an  ine  timable  benefit  alike  to  the  poor  of  our  inland 
towns  and  villages  and  the  fishermen  of  our  coast.  The  Bill 
does  not  attempt  to  interfere  with  the  rates  now  charged  by  rail- 
way companies  for  prime  fish,  nor  with  quantities  of  less  than 
I  cwt.  of  common  fish.  Sir  Edward  Birkbeck  should  have  no 
great  difficulty  in  securing  sufficient  support  for  so  moderate  and 
good  a  measure. 

Dr.  F.  Nansen,  of  the  Bergen  Mu?eum,  Norway,  who  thinks 
of  journeying  across  Greenland  next  summer  from  east  to  west, 
intends  to  land  on  the  east  coast  at  Cape  Dan  (66°  N.),  and 
proceed  in  a  north-westerly  direction  to  Disco  Bay.  He 
will  be  accompanied  by  three  men — a  Norwegian  soldier  well 
known  for  his  prowess  on  Ski,  or  snow-runners,  and  two  Lapps, 
probably  the  same  who  accompanied  Nordenskiold.  In  order 
to  qualify  himself  for  the  contemplated  task,  Dr.  Nansen  is 
preparing  to  travel  on  Ski  from  Bergen  to  Christiania,  right 
across  the  mountains  of  Central  Norway,  a  feat  never  before 
accomplished  by  anyone. 

The  additions  to  the  Zoological  Society's  Gardens  during  the 
past  week  include  an  African  Civet  Cat  {Viverra  civetta)  from 


South  Africa,  presented  by  Capt.  Webster,  R.M.S.  Hawarden 
Castle ;  three  Barred  Dores  {Geopelia  striata)  from  Batavia, 
Java,  presented  by  Mrs.  G.  A.  Thomson  ;  a  Cape  Crowned 
Crane  {Balearica  chrysopelargus)  frono  South  Africa ;  a  Gold 
Pheasant  {l/iaumaUa  picta)  horn  China,  deposited  ;  a  Common 
Wolf  (Cams  tupttsQ)  European,  received  in  exchange;  two 
Red  Kangaroos  {Macropus  rufiis),  two  Suricates  {Suricata. 
tetraiiactyla)  born  in  the  Gardens. 


OUR  ASTRONOMICAL  COLUMN. 

Solar  Activity  in  1887. — The  decline  in  the  three  orders 
of  solar  phenomena,  spots,  faculae,  and  prominences  which  had 
been  so  marked  during  1886,  and  particularly  during  the  latter 
part  of  that  year,  continued  in  1887,  and  although  there  was  no 
spotless  period  so  long  continued  as  that  of  November  1886  (see 
Nature,  vol.  xxxv.  p.  445),  the  mean  spotted  area  for  the  year 
just  passed  has  been  much  below  that  for  the  year  precedin;|  it,, 
and  faculse  and  prominences  have  shown  a  similar  falling  off. 
During  the  first  four  months  of  1887,  sunspots  were  both  few 
and  small,  and  there  were  several  intervals  of  a  week  or  longer 
in  which  no  spots  were  seen  at  all ;  January  9-18,  February 
7-16,  March  3-9,  April  4-1 1,  being  such  intervals.  There  was  also 
very  little  on  the  sun  from  March  10-15,  and  from  March  27  to^ 
April  18.  But  after  this  a  revival  set  in  and  a  fine  group  of  spots, 
was  seen  on  the  sun.  May  14-23,  appearing  again  in  the  three  fol- 
lowing rotations,  June  5-18,  July  3-14,  and  July  30-August  9. 
The  days  of  greatest  spotted  area  during  the  year  were  July  6,  7, 
and  8,  but  after  this  the  spots  began  to  decrease  again,  and  were 
few  and  small  in  September,  October,  and  November.  August  23 
to  September  12  was  a  very  quiet  period,  spots  only  being  seen 
on  about  four  days  ;  and  October  6-17,  October  28  to  November 
4,  and  November  21  to  December  i,  were  spotless  intervals. 
The  last  month  of  the  year,  however,  showed  a  second  rally,  a 
fine  group  of  spots  being  observed  during  its  first  fortnight,  and 
another  appearing  as  the  first  passed  off  at  the  west  limb. 
On  the  whole  the  mean  daily  spotted  area  for  1887  was  about 
two-fifths  of  that  which  it  was  for  1886.  Comparing  the  results 
for  1885,  1886,  and  1887,  with  the  years  preceding  the  last 
minimum,  1885  shows  a  somewhat  greater  mean  daily  spotted 
area  than  1874,  1886  than  1875,  and  1887  than  1876.  If,  there- 
fore, the  decline  continues  to  proceed  as  during  the  last  cycle,, 
the  next  minimum  will  fall  early  in  1890. 

The  following  figures,  taken  from  Prof.  Tacchini's  tables,  as 
given  in  the  Comptes  rendus,  may  be  compared  with  those  given 
for  1885  and   1886  (Nature,   vol.  xxxiii.  p.   398,   and  xxxv. 

p.  445)  :— 

Sunspots.  Faculae. 


Mean 

Relative 

Relative 

Daily 

Relative 

Frequence. 

Size. 

Number  of 

Size. 

Groups. 

January 

2-87      .. 

9-35 

..         I-17 

11-52 

February 

3-35       •• 

.         7-83 

.          1-32        ... 

10-09 

March    . . . 

I'OO 

3"35 

0-42 

i6-oo 

April     ... 

I-I2 

776      . 

..       0-68      ... 

6-80 

May 

4-18 

22-04 

rii 

9-29 

June 

415         •• 

.       2974 

..       1-37      - 

20-37 

July       ... 

5'o7      •■ 

25-25       . 

1-68      ... 

14-11 

August  ... 

4-60 

23-53       • 

..       1-32      ... 

14-29 

September 

2-47         .. 

1575       • 

0-56 

923 

October 

1-27         .. 

20-21 

0-70 

10-53 

November 

170 

6-41 

..      0-71       ... 

17-30 

December 

6-68       .. 

40-10 

I-2I 

16-84 

In  general  accord  with  the  above  figures  are  Wolf's  "  relative 
numbers."  These  are  given  below  for  1886  and  1887,  together 
with  the  monthly  means  of  the  variations  in  magnetic  declination 
as  observed  at  Milan.  The  agreement  in  the  general  form  of 
the  curves  for  spot  numbers  and  magnetic  variation  has  not  been 
so  close  in  1887  as  in  some  previous  years,  nor  is  the  calculated 
mean  value  for  the  magnetic  variation  so  near  the  observed  as  m 
1885  and  1886;  the  values  calculated  by  M.  Wolf's  formula 
being  6'-79  for  1886,  and  6'-2i  for  1887,  but  the.  observed  being 
6' -72  and  6'-6l. 


424 


NATURE 


{March  i,  1888 


Wolf's  Relative 
Numbers  (Zurich). 


Variation  in  Map^etic 
Declination  (Milan). 


January     .. 

February  .. 

March 

April 

May 

]une 

July 

August 

September.. 

October     . . 

November.. 

December  .. 


28-4 
23-6 
61 -8 

45 '9 
29-0 

257 
329 

i9'o 

17-1 

9*5 

O'O 

151 


13-1 

157 

27 

7-5 

17-2 

i6-3 
26*2 

2I'I 

6-9 

5-4 

4-5 

20-5 


4-07 
4-91 
8-6i 
9-89 
9 '06 
8-37 
9-58 
8-17 
7-61 

6-33 
2-48 
I -61 


371 
3*69 
6-99 

9  "33 
9 '3° 
955 
10*25 
9-07 
6-o8 
6-03 

3  "07 
2- 23 


Mean     257     ...     I3'i      ..     672     ...     6'6i 

The  fluctuations  in  the  numbers  and  dimensions  of  the  pro- 
minences have  not  been  so  great  as  for  the  spots,  but  the 
prominences  likewise  showed  a  maximum  in  July  and  a  decline 
afterwards.  The  highest  prominence  observed  by  Prof.  Tac- 
chini  during  the  year  was  on  July  2,  2^'  in  height.  Both  faculae 
and  prominences  failed  to  show  a  depression  similar  to  that  so 
conspicuous  in  November  in  the  numbers  of  the  spots,  or  the 
revival  these  displayed  in  December,  the  faculse  thus  according 
in  their  behaviour  rather  with  the  prominences  than  with  the 
spots.  The  following  figures,  given  by  the  Rev.  S.  J.  Perry 
in  the  Observatory  for  February  1888,  show  the  general  decline 
in  prominence  activity  during  1887,  as  compared  with  1886  : — 


Mean  Height  of       Mean  Height  of 
Chromosphere.  Prominences. 


Mean  Extent  of 
Prominence  Arc. 


1886      8-05  ...  2478  ...  13-26 

1887     8-13        ...        23-86        ...  9-29 

A  New^  Comet. — A  comet  was  discovered  by  Sawerthal  on 
February  i8.  It  was  observed  at  Cape  Town,  February  18, 
I4h.  32-5m.,  in  R.A.  I9h.  iim.  32-5s.,  and  N.P.D.  146°  3'  44". 
Daily  motion,  R.A.  +  7m.  ;  N.P.D.  -  1°  15'.  Its  physical 
appearance  was  as  follows  :  — It  was  about  the  seventh  magnitude, 
had  a  well-defined  nucleus,  and  a  tail  a  degree  in  length.  It 
was  visible  to  the  naked  eye. 

ASTRONOMICAL  PHENOMENA  FOR  THE 
WEEK  1888  MARCH  4-10. 

/"pOR  the  reckoning  of  time  the  civil  day,  commencing  at 
*  ■•^  Greenwich  mean  midnight,  counting  the  hours  on  to  24, 
is  here  employed.) 

At  Greenwich  on  March  4 
Sun  rises,  6h.  40m. ;  souths,  I2h.  iim.  45-03.  ;  sets,  I7h.  4401.  : 

right    asc.     on    meridian,    2311.    2-5m.  ;    decl.    6"    9'    S. 

Sidereal  Time  at  Sunset,  4h.  35m. 


Moon    (Last    Quarter    on    March    5, 

3h.)    rises,    oh.    26m.  ; 

souths,    5h.  14m.  ;  sets,  9h.  54m.  : 

right  asc.  on  meridian, 

l6h.  3-8m. ;  decl.  15°  53'  S. 

Right  asc.  and  declination 

Pianet.         Rises.           Souths.            Sets. 

on  meridian. 

h.     m.            h.    m.            h.    m. 

h.      m.                0       / 

Mercury..     6  14  ...    12     I   ...   17  48 

..    22   51-6    ...      3   21  S. 

Venus 5  35  ...   10     5  ...   14  35 

..  20  55-6  ...  17  37  S. 

Mars 21  49*...     3     7  ...     8  25 

••  13  56-3  ■•■     9    2S. 

Jupiter....     I   14  ...     5  27  ...     9  40 

..  16  16-5  ...  20  22  S. 

Saturn....   13  20  ...21   18  ...     5  16* 

8  lo-i  ...  20  40  N. 

Uranus...  20  39*...     2  13  ...     7  47 

..  13     1-8  ...     5  51  S. 

Neptune..     9  ii   ...   16  51   ..      0  31* 

..     3  42'4  ...   17  59  N. 

•  Indicates  that  the  rising  is  that  of  the  preceding  evening  and  the  setting 
that  of  the  following  morning. 

Occultations  of  Stars  by  the  Moon  (visible  at  Greenwich). 

Corresponding 


March. 

4 
6 

March. 
4 

4 
9 


Star. 


Mag.        Disap. 


49  Librae  ... 
B.A.C.  6098 


Si 
6 


h.  m. 
O  O 
2   28 


Reap, 
h.    m. 

o  30 
3  25 


angles  from  ver- 
tex to  right  for 
inverted  image. 

•••  334  274 
...     72  200 


h. 
II 


14 
22 


Jupiter  in  conjunction  with  and  3"  47'  south 

of  the  Moon. 
Mars  stationary. 
Venus  in  conjunction  with  and  0°  17'  north 

of  the  Moon. 


Saturn,  March  4. — Outer  major  axis  of  outer  ring  = 
outer  minor  axis  of  outer  ring  =  16" 'o ;  southern  surface 


44 '-8  ; 
visible. 


Star. 

T  Arietis 

Algol    

R  Persei 

\  Tauri 

C  Geminorum 

R  Canis  Majoris. 
S  Cancri  ...  . 
5  Librae 

U  Coronse   ...     . 
U  Ophiuchi... 
X  Sagittarii ... 

5  Lyrse 

U  Aquilse    ... 

7j  Aquilse 

Y  Cygni       ...     . 

WCygni  ...  . 
5  Cephei      ...     . 


Variable  Stars. 

R.A.  Decl. 

h.      m.  ,      , 

2  42-1  ...  17     3  N. 

3  0-9  ...  40  31  N. 


Mar.    8, 


3  22-9 
3  54-5 


35  17  N. 
12  ID  N. 


6  57-5  ...  20  44  N. 


14-5  ... 
37-5  •• 
55-0.. 
13-6  .. 
10-9  ... 

4^5  • 
46  o  .. 

233  •• 
46-8  .. 
476  .. 


16  12  S. 

19  26  N. 
8    4S. 

32  3  N. 
I  20  N. 

27  47  S. 

33  14  N. 
7  16  S. 
o  43  N. 

34  14  N. 


...   21  31-8  ...  44  53  N.  ...     ,, 
...  22  25-0  ...  57  51  N.  ...     ,, 

M  signifies  maximum ;  m  minimum. 


4,     O 

6,  20 
5. 

7,  o 
10,  23 

4,  22 
10,    2 

9,  21 

6,  20 

7,  I 
10,    4 

5.  I 
4.  3 
7,  22 

10,  5 
9,  5 
4-  19 
7,  19 
5. 

10,  22 


M 

I  m 

50  in 

M 

20  m 

12  m 

o  M 

o  m 

25  m 

59  '« 

6  m 

7  m 
2S  ni 

o  M 
o  M 
o  ni 
o  m 
II  m 
5  m 
in 
o  m 


Meteor- Showers. 
R.A.  Decl. 


From  Coma  Berenices. 
Near  i\  Librae 
,,     7  Herculis  ... 


190 
234 
244 


26  N. 
17  S. 
16  N. 


March  8. 

Swift.     March  7. 

Very  swift.  Mar.  7. 


THE  RE  LA  TIONS  BETWEEN  GEO  LOG  Y  AND 
THE  BIOLOGICAL  SCIENCES.^ 

IL 

T  N  the  remarks  which  I  have  hitherto  made,  I  have  confined 
-*■  myself  to  the  purely  biological  aspects  of  palaeontology.  As 
astronomy  exhibits  to  us  the  orderly  working  of  physical  and 
chemical  laws  in  other  and  far  distant  orbs,  so  palaeontology 
presents  us  with  the  biological  phenomena  of  many  and  widely- 
separated  periods. 

But  besides  the  biological,  there  are  two  other  aspects  in  which 
fossils  may  be  viewed  ;  and  in  these  aspects  their  relations  are 
almost  entirely  with  zoological  science.  It  is  the  recognition  of 
this  fact  which  prevents  the  geologist  from  acquiescing  with  the 
claims  of  biologists  to  treat  palaeontology  as  nothing  more  than 
a  branch  of  their  own  science. 

The  assemblage  of  fossils  found  in  a  particular  deposit 
furnishes  us  with  the  most  valuable  evidence  concerning  the 
conditions — such  as  salinity  of  water,  depth,  temperature,  pres- 
sure, &c., — under  which  the  deposit  must  have  been  formed. 
And,  again,  in  the  changes  which  the  materials  of  fossils  can 
be  shown  to  have  undergone  we  have  very  accurate  data  for 
determining  the  succession  of  processes  to  which  the  materials 
of  the  deposit  must  have  been  subjected  since  their  original 
accumulation. 

It  is  true  that  this  evidence  of  fossils  concerning  the  conditions 
under  which  deposits  have  been  formed,  is  of  a  kind  which  has 
been  sadly  misread  in  the  past.  Until  the  study  of  deposits 
which  are  being  formed  at  the  present  day  was  taken  up  in  a 
systematic  manner,  it  was  almost  hopeless  to  avoid  numerous 
sources  of  error  ;  but  at  the  present  day  the  advantages  accruing 
to  geology  from  the  results  of  deep-sea  researches,  are  at  least  as 
great  as  those  which  by  the  same  means  have  been  conferred  upon 
biology. 

It  is  almost  needless  to  call  attention  to  the  fact  that  there  are 
vast  masses  of  rock,  including  most  of  the  calcareous  and  carbon- 
aceous, and  many  of  the  siliceous  and  ferruginous  types,  of  which 
the  materials  have  been  accumulated  entirely  by  the  agency  of 
living  organisms  ;  it  is  impossible  to  study  the  petrology  of  such 
deposits  without  an  acquaintance  with  the  nature  and  functions 

»  Address  tD  the  Geological  Socletj-  by  the  Pres'dent,  Prof.  John  W. 
Judl,  F.R.S.,  at  the  Anniversary  Meeting,  on  February  17.  Continued  from 
p.  404. 


March  i,  1888] 


NATURE 


425 


of  the  organisms  by  which  they  were  formed.  But,  even  in  the 
case  of  many  arenaceous  and  argillaceous  deposits,  living  organ- 
isms have  played  a  very  important  part  in  their  formation. 
Much  of  the  materials  of  such  rocks  can  be  shown  to  have  been 
used  in  building  the  coverings  of  organisms,  to  have  filled  up 
their  dead  shells,  or  to  have  been  passed  through  their  bodies, 
before  being  finally  buried  under  other  masses  Rocks  destitute 
oi  all  traces  of  the  solid  parts  of  animals  oil  .n  abound  with 
worm-tracks,  burrows,  or  casts. 

The  study  of  the  processes  by  which  similar  rock  masses  are 
being  formed  at  the  present  day  constitutes  the  only  safe  guide 
to  us  in  interpreting  the  structures  presented  by  ancient  rock- 
masses.  Geologists  look  forward  with  much  interest  to  the 
publication  of  those  volumes  of  the  CJiaUengcr  Reports,  in  which 
Mr.  Murray  and  M.  Renard  will  deal  with  these  important 
questions. 

We  may  especially  call  attention  to  two  classes  of  errors  that 
have  had  much  to  do  with  the  false  conclusions  which  have  been 
arrived  at  concerning  the  conditions  under  which  various  deposits 
have  been  formed  in  past  geological  times. 

In  the  first  place,  it  has  been  tacitly  assumed  that  all  marine 
organisms  which  come  from  regions  bordering  the  equator  must 
necessarily  have  lived  under  tropical  conditions.  It  would  be 
quite  as  reasonable  to  treat  the  mosses  and  dwarf  willows  which 
border  the  eternal  snows  of  Chimborazo  and  Kilima-Njaro  as 
tropical  plants.  Just  as  mountains  rising  in  equatorial  lands  to 
the  limit  of  perpetual  snow  exhibit  on  their  slopes  every  gradation 
of  climate  from  tropical  to  frigid,  so  the  depths  of  the  oceans,  as 
we  now  know,  exhibit  a  perfectly  similar  transition.  As  we  go 
downwards  not  only  heat,  but  light  also,  rapidly  diminishes,  and 
many  forms  which,  because  they  came  from  equatorial  regions, 
we  have  hitherto  regarded  as  tropical,  we  now  know  to  live  in 
icy-cold  water  as  well  as  in  almost  utter  darkness. 

The  large  size  and  abundant  development  of  Cephalopods, 
Crustaceans,  and  fish  we  now  know,  from  recent  deep-sea  re- 
searches, to  be  no  evidence  whatever  of  the  presence  either  of 
warmth  or  of  light  ;  and  Sir  Joseph  Hooker  has  abundantly 
shown  the  fallacy  of  similar  reasoning  when  applied  to  plant-life. 
I  feel  sure  that,  when  the  full  consequences  of  these  important 
considerations  come  to  be  appreciated,  the  apparent  anomalies  of 
many  of  the  supposed  climatal  conditions  of  past  geological 
times  will  altogether  disappear.  For  my  own  part,  I  have  never 
felt  any  difficulty  in  accepting,  as  fully  equal  to  the  explanation 
of  the  facts  of  the  case,  the  Lyellian  doctrine  of  climate  being 
determined  by  great  changes  in  the  relative  positions  of  the 
land  and  water  of  the  globe. 

The  other  cause  of  misconception  with  respect  to  the  conditions 
which  must  have  prevailed  during  the  deposition  of  geological 
deposits  consists  in  the  acceptance  of  an  utterly  false  pro- 
position, which,  though  seldom  formulated,  is  often  tacitly  acted 
U[)on  ;  namely,  "  If  two  organisms  exhibit  similarity  of  structure, 
their  environment  i^iust  have  been  the  same." 

There  never  has  been  wanting  abundant  evidence  of  the  fallacy 
of  this  doctrine.  The  general  structure  of  the  piscivorous  bear 
of  the  Arctic  regions,  and  of  the  frugivorous  bear  of  the  Malay 
peninsula,  the  ostejlogy  of  the  deer  of  Lapland  and  of  India 
respectively,  exhibit  no  such  differences  as  would  lead  us  to  infer 
th?ir  diversity  of  habits  and  surroundings.  It  has  long  been 
known  that  elephants,  rhinoceroses,  and  hippopotami,  with  lions, 
tigers,  and  hycenas,  flourished  under  Arctic  conditions.  The 
deep-sea  researches  have  so  added  to  our  knowledge  concerning 
the  conditions  under  which  different  forms  of  life  exist — 
especially  those  belonging  to  marine  faunas — as  to  demand  a 
complete  reconsideration  of  the  conclusions  usually  accepted  by 
geologists.  For  there  is  a  general  consensus  of  opinion  among 
the  naturalists  who  have  studied  the  different  gr.ups  of  the  deep- 
sea  faunas,  that,  contrary  to  what  might  have  been  anticipated 
from  the  very  remarkable  conditions  under  which  they  live,  the 
deep-sea  form-;  belong,  for  the  most  part,  to  the  same  families, 
and  often  indeed  to  the  same  genera,  as  shallow-water  forms. 

The  bearing  of  this  important  conclusion  upon  the  great 
problem  of  the  distribution  of  marine  forms  of  life  is  obvious. 
Botanists  have  naturally  availed  themselves  of  the  proved  occur- 
rences of  colder  climates  in  many  areas  to  explain  difficult  facts 
of  plant-distribution,  such  as  the  occurrence  of  well-known  Arctic 
species  on  the  tops  of  mountains  in  what  are  now  temperate,  or 
even  tropical,  districts.  But  zoologists,  now  that  they  know  it 
to  be  possible  for  littoral  forms  to  stray  into  abysmal  portions  of 
the  ocean,  and  then  subsequently,  without  profound  modifica- 
tion, to  re-emerge  in  other  littoral  areas,  may  find  a  clue  to  some 


very  remarkable  facts  concerning  the  distribution  !  of  marine 
forms  of  life,  without  having  to  resort  to  explanations  which 
seem  necessaiy  in  the  case  of  the  terrestrial  forms  of  life  which 
appear  to  be  more  dependent  than  the  marine  types  on  the 
circumstances  of  their  environment. 

The  whole  problem  of  the  distribution  of  marine  forms  of  life 
requires  indeed  to  be  worked  out  afresh  on  the  basis  of  these  new 
discoveries  ;  and  when  this  is  done,  the  first  to  profit  by  the  new 
generalizations  will  be  geologists,  who  have  long  been  eon- 
fronted  by  seemingly  insuperable  difficulties  in  connection  with 
this  problem. 

As  for  the  very  prevalent  notions  that  Ammonites  and  Belem- 
nites,  Trigonise  and  Brachiopods,  with  Ichthyosaurs,  Pliosaurs, 
and  Plesiosaurs,  could  only  have  lived  in  warm,  if  not  actually 
tropical,  climates,  I  know  of  no  grounds  whatever  for  any  such 
belief.  The  nearest  living  allies  of  the  invertebrates  referred  to 
flourish  at  considerable  depths  in  icy-cold  water  ;  and,  seeing  that 
large  marine  mammals  now  live  amid  snow  and  ice,  I  cannot 
understand  why  the  great  marine  reptiles  might  not  have  done  the 
same.  Just  as  little  reason  is  there  for  inferring  that  Sigillarids, 
Lepidodendrids,  and  Calamites  could  only  have  lived  in 
tropical  jungles,  as  there  is  for  the  once  popular  notion  that  they 
flourished  in  an  atmosphere  supplied  with  a  very  exceptional 
proportion  of  carbonic  acid  ! 

The  sooner  geologists  recognize  the  fact  that  all  our  ideas  con- 
cerning the  distribution  of  the  forms  of  marine  life  have  been 
completely  revolutionized  by  the  discovery  that  there  are  cold 
and  dark  abysses,  which  are  tenanted  by  numerous  organisms 
having  many  affinities  with  those  which  live  in  shallow  water, 
warmed  by  a  tropical  sun  and  flooded  with  light,  the  more  likely 
will  they  be  to  avoid  the  errors  into  which  we  have  fallen  in  the 
past.  Not  until  the  exact  distribution  of  life- forms  at  different 
depths  in  the  ocean  has  been  much  more  perfectly  worked  out 
than  it  has  been  at  present,  will  it  be  safe  to  reason  with  any 
confidence  concerning  the  distribution  of  extinct  types  ;  and,  even 
then,  we  shall  ever  have  to  be  on  our  guard  against  the  prevalent 
fallacy  which  assumes  that  analogies  in  structure  are  indicative  of 
similarities  in  the  conditions  of  life. 

And  here  it  may  be  remarked  that  the  imperfect  methods 
employed  on  board  the  Challenger  and  most  other  surveying 
ships  leave  almost  everything  yet  to  be  done  in  the  way  of 
determining  the  limits  of  depth,  temperature,  pressure,  and  other 
conditions  under  which  the  different  forms  of  marine  life  can 
flourish.  It  is  much  to  have  obtained  so  great  an  insight  into 
the  characters  of  some  of  the  creatures  inhabiting  the  deepest 
parts  of  the  ocean,  and  of  the  peculiar  conditions  which  must 
exist  in  some  of  those  places  where  marine  life  is  abundant.  But 
the  work  which  has  yet  to  be  done  requires  the  employment  of 
dredges  and  nets  which  can  be  opened  when  they  have  reached 
a  certain  depth  in  the  ocean,  and  which  can  be  closed  again 
before  being  drawn  to  the  surface.  Only  by  the  employment  of 
such  apparatus  can  we  hope  to  avoid  those  sources  of  error  which 
viuate  all  our  present  generalizations  concerning  the  bathy- 
metrical  distribution  of  the  existing  forms  of  marine  life. 

When,  in  addition  to  these  biological  studies,  we  have  equally 
careful  determinations  of  the  physical  characters  of  deposits 
formed  at  varying  depths  and  distances  from  the  shore,  and  under 
diverse  influences  of  tides  and  currents,  we  may  hope,  by  com- 
bining the  physical  and  biological  eviilence,  to  arrive  at  some- 
thing like  certain  conclusions  concerning  the  exact  conditions 
under  which  various  geological  formations  have  been  accumu- 
lated ;  for  at  present  our  speculations  upon  the  subject  are  often 
little  better  than  haphazard  guesses. 

Thi  conditions  which  must  have  prevailed  during  the  depo- 
sition of  a  particular  bed  having  been  determined,  the  present 
mineral  condition  of  the  organic  remains  becomes  a  subject  of 
very  interesting  study  ;  for  here  we  may  find  a  clue  which  will 
enable  us  to  unravel  the  series  of  physical  and  chemical  changes 
which  must  have  gone  on  in  the  mass,  since  the  first  accumula- 
tion of  its  materials.  In  cases  of  difficulty  of  this  kind,  the 
condition  of  alteration  of  a  shell  or  bone,  of  which  the  original 
composition  is  known,  becomes  an  especially  valuable  piece  of 
evidence. 

I  am  convinced  that  the  future  progress  of  geological  thought 
is  closely  bound  up  with  the  increase  of  our  knowledge  concern- 
ing the  conditions  under  which  the  various  forms  of  marine  life 
flourish,  and  under  which  their  remains  become  embedded  in 
sedimentary  deposits  ;  though  what  has  been  already  accom- 
plished in  this  direction,  it  must  be  admitted,  is  but  small,  and 
much  of  it  will  have  to  be  done  over  again. 


426 


NATURE 


[March  i,  1888 


We  hear  much — far  too  much,  as  I  think — at  the  present  day 
of  an  "irrational  unifomiitarianism."  Is  not  the  real  source  of 
danger  in  an  exactly  opposite  direction?  Does  not  the  irration- 
ality characterize  him  who,  without  attempting  to  obtain  a  more 
complete  knowledge  of  the  processes  going  on  during  the  original 
deposition  and  subsequent  changes  of  rock-masses,  is  ready,  as 
each  new  difficulty  presents  itself,  to  fall  back  upon  soaae  old 
discredited  Dens  ex  machina  in  the  form  of  deluges  of  water, 
floods  of  fire,  boiling  oceans,  caustic  rains,  or  acid-laden 
atmospheres  ! 

Considering  how  little  we  as  yet  know  of  many  of  the  con- 
ditions under  which  deposits  are  being  formed  at  the  present 
day,  and  remembering  how  large  a  part  of  the  little  we  do  know 
has  been  acquired  only  within  the  last  few  years,  we  might  pause 
before  declaring  that  the  path  upon  which  geology  entered  in 
earnest  only  some  fifty  years  ago  is  a  wrong  one,  and  that  the 
sooner  we  begin  to  retrace  our  steps  the  better. 

Can  we  even  now  be  in  danger  of  forgetting  that  "  Slough  of 
Despond,"  wherein  the  geologist,  laden  with  a  grievous  burden 
of  traditional  assumptions  and  irrational  theories,  so  hopelessly 
floundered,  till  one  Help  pointed  out  a  way  of  escape,  and  sent 
him  on  his  way  rejoicing,  with  the  "  Principles  of  Geology  "  in 
his  hand  ? 

The  second  aspect  in  which  paJKontological  science  presents 
itself  to  the  geologist,  is  as  affording  a  key  to  the  chronology  of 
the  rock-masses  of  the  globe.  We  still  regard  fossils  as  the 
"medals  of  creation,"  and  certain  types  of  life  we  take  to  be 
as  truly  characteristic  of  definite  periods  as  the  coins  which  bear  the 
image  and  superscription  of  a  Roman  emperor  or  of  a  Saxon  king. 

But  in  the  application  of  the  principle  that  "  strata  are  to  be 
identified  by  their  organic  remains,"  we  have  now  to  admit  as 
many  limitations,  and  to  exercise  as  much  caution,  as  when 
judging  of  the  conditions  under  wliich  rock-masses  must  have 
been  deposited,  from  the  characters  of  the  fossils  which  they 
contain. 

With  the  restricted  area  of  the  south-west  of  England,  where 
William  Smith  achieved  his  epoch-making  discovery,  the  doc- 
trine which  he  announced  seemed  to  be  absolutely  true  ;  each 
formation  exhibited  a  paculiar  and  perfectly  characteristic  assem- 
blage of  organic  remains,  by  means  of  which  it  could  at  once  be 
recognized.  The  still  more  detailed  studies  of  strata  of  the 
same  age,  by  Hunton  and  Williamson  in  Yorkshire,  by  Marcou 
in  the  Jura,  and  by  Quenstedt  in  Swabia,  seemed  to  show  that  the 
principle  had  a  wider  application  than  even  its  author  himself 
could  have  imagined,  and  that  zones  a  few  feet  or  even  inches 
in  thickness  might  be  followed  over  considerable  districts,-  every- 
where marked  by  some  particular  type  of  Ammonite  or  other 
charactei'istic  fossil. 

But  the  more  thorough  and  systematic  study  of  corresponding 
formations  over  wide  areas,  which  was  inaugurated  by  Oppel, 
and  has  been  carried  on  by  many  palteontologists  since,  has 
abundantly  demonstrated  that,  striking  as  is  the  parallelism  of 
the  zones  in  such  a  formation  as  the  Lias,  when  studied  in 
England,  France,  and  Germany,  yet  the  species  and  varieties 
found  on  the  same  horizon  at  distant  points  are  in  many  cases 
not  identical,  but  merely  representative  ;  and,  further,  that  as  we 
pass  away  from  any  typical  area,  the  sharp  distinction  between 
the  several  zones  ^eems  gradually  to  vanish. 

The  same  facts  come  out  very  strikingly  when  we  study  any 
other  great  geological  period.  In  the  oldest  fossiliferous  strata, 
those  of  the  Cambrian,  nothing  can  be  more  striking  than  the 
similarity  of  the  faunas  in  North  America,  Britain,  Scandinavia, 
and  Bohenaia ;  and  yet  the  species  which  occur  at  the  several 
different  horizons  in  these  countries  are  certainly,  for  the  most 
part,  not  identical,  but  only  i-epresentative.  No  fact,  it  seems 
to  me,  could  more  clearly  indicate  that,  even  at  that  early 
period,  there  were  life-provinces  with  a  distribution  of  or- 
ganisms in  space  quite  analogous  to  that  which  exists  at  the 
present  day. 

To  pass  to  slightly  younger  rocks.  What  can  be  more  striking 
than  the  evidence  of  the  limits  of  two  life-provinces,  afforded  by 
the  Calciferous  strata  of  North  America  and  the  similar  rocks  of 
Scotland  and  Northern  Europe,  which  contain  the  remarkable 
Maclureas  and  a  peculiar  assemblage  of  Cephalopods  and  other 
fossils ;  for  these  are  seen  at  Girvan  to  coma  into  close 
contiguity  with  the  more  southern  type  of  Silurian,  containing  a 
very  different  fauna,  so  well  seen  in  the  Lake  District  and  North 
Wales. 

Another  striking  example  of  the  same  kind  is  afforded  by  the 


Cretaceous,  of  which  the  Southern  type,  marked  by  the  abund- 
ance of  Hippurites,  Orbitolites,  and  other  remarkable  forms, 
comes  into  close  relations,  as  has  been  so  well  shown  by  Hebert, 
with  the  type  which  yields  the  ordinary  Cretaceous  fauna  of 
Central  Europe.  In  these  and  siinilar  cases  which  might  be 
mentioned  we  trace  the  existence  of  two  approximating  marine 
provinces,  like  those  which  at  the  present  day  are  separated  by 
the  Isthmus  of  Panama. 

Profs.  Neumayr  and  Mojsisovics  have  indeed  shown  that  there 
are  good  causes  for  believing  that  the  distinction  between  the 
marine  zoological  provinces  in  Triassic  and  Jurassic  times  was  at 
least  as  clearly  marked  as  between  the  similar  provinces  of  the 
present  day  ;  and  the  former  naturalist  has  in  addition  pointed 
out  that  within  the  geographical  provinces  we  have  also  very 
recognizable  climatic  zones. 

In  the  year  1862,  Prof.  Huxley,  speaking  from  this  chair, 
uttered  a  much-needed  warning  against  the  growing  practice 
among  palaeontologists  of  treating  geological  equivalence  as 
meaning  the  same  actual  contemporaneity ;  and  against  the 
assumption,  without  positive  proof,  that  ancient  faunas  and 
floras  had  an  indefinite  and  even  world-wide  distribution. 
Palseontological  discoveries  during  the  last  quarter  of  a  century 
in  Western  North  America,  in  India,  in  the  Cape  Colony, 
Australia,  and  New  Zealand,  have  abundantly  justified  these 
cautions,  and  have  shown  how  much  such  a  term  as  "homo- 
taxis"  is  needed,  in  order  to  guard  against  errors  resulting  from 
the  abuse  of  the  phrase  "  geological  contemporaneity." 

But  when  Prof.  Huxley  went  on  to  suggest  that  "a, Devonian 
fauna  and  flora  in  the  British  Isles  may  have  been  contem- 
poraneous with  Silurian  life  in  North  America  and  with  a 
Carboniferous  fauna  and  flora  in  Africa,"  I  think  that  geo- 
logists, with  the  evidence  they  have  now  before  them,  must  take 
exception  to  so  sweeping  a  generalization.  Finding,  as  we  do, 
on  both  sides  of  the  Atlantic  the  same  succession  of  Cambrian, 
Ordovician,  Silurian,  Devonian,  and  Carboniferous  strata,  con- 
taining strikingly  representative,  if  not  identical  faunas,  it  is 
impossible  to  doubt  their  general  parallelism  ;  however  ready 
we  may  be  to  admit  that  the  migration  or  development  of  new 
forms  of  life  in  the  two  areas  need  not  have  occurred  synchron- 
ously, and  that  thus  a  certain  amount  of  overlapping  of  the 
periods  represented  at  distant  points  by  the  same  system  may 
exist. 

On  the  other  hand,  I  believe  that  the  study  of  fossils  from 
remote  parts  of  the  earth's  surface  has  abundantly  substantiated 
Prof.  Huxley's  alternative  suggestion  that  "geographical  pro- 
vinces and  zones  may  have  been  as  distinctly  marked  in  the 
Palaeozoic  epoch  as  at  present."  The  ever-accumulating  mass 
of  palaiontological  evidence  seems  to  me  to  be  all  pointing  in 
this  direction  ;  and  I  confidently  anticipate  that  the  paloeonto- 
logical  anomalies  which  in  the  past  have  caused  so  much  doubt 
and  difficulty,  will,  by  the  establishment  of  this  principle, 
receive  a  full  and  satisfactory  explanation. 

As  long  ago  as  1846,  Darwin,  in  his  "  Observations  on  South 
America,"  showed  that  certain  assemblages  of  fossils  presented 
a  blending  of  characters,  which  in  Europe  are  only  found  apart 
in  faunas  which  are  of  Jurassic  and  Cretaceous  age  respectively. 
Since  that  date,  the  study  of  the  fossil  faunas  and  floras  of  South 
Africa,  India,  Australia,  New  Zealand,  and  the  Western  Terri- 
tories of  North  America  has  furnished  an  abundance  of  facts  of 
the  same  kind,  showing  that  no  classification  of  geological 
periods  can  possibly  be  of  world-wide  application  :  that  we  must 
be  contented  to  study  the  past  history  of  each  great  area  of  the 
earth's  surface  independently,  and  to  wait  patiently  for  the  evi- 
dence which  shall  enable  us  to  establish  a  parallelism  between 
the  several  records.  Attempts  to  establish  a  universal  system 
of  nomenclature  or  classification  of  sedimentary  rocks  are  indeed 
greatly  to  be  deprecated,  for  if  the  zoological  and  botanical  dis- 
tribution of  past  geological  times  were  at  all  comparable  to 
that  of  the  present  day,  any  such  universal  system  must  be 
impossible. 

The  suggestion  made  to  this  Society  by  Prof.  Huxley  at  a 
somesvhat  later  date  is  equally  valuable  and  important.  Refer- 
ring to  the  fauna  of  the  Trias,  he  said : — "  It  does  not  appear 
to  me  that  there  is  any  necessary  relation  between  the  fauna  of 
a  given  land  and  that  of  the  seas  of  its  shores.  At  present  our 
knowledge  of  the  terrestrial  faunse  of  past  epochs  is  so  slight 
that  no  practical  difficulty  arises  from  using,  as  we  do,  sea- 
reckoning  for  land-ti»ne.  But  I  think  it  highly  probable  that, 
sooner  or  later,  the  inhabitants  of  the  land  will  be  found  to  have 
a  history  of  their  own." 


March  i,  1888] 


NATURE 


427 


The  growth  of  our  knowledge  concerning  the  terrestrial  floras 
and  faunas  of  ancient  geological  periods,  since  these  words  were 
written  in  1869,  has  constantly  forced  upon  the  minds  of  many 
geologists  the  necessity  of  a  duplicate  classification  of  geolc^ical 
periods,  based  on  the  study  of  marine  and  terrestrial  organisms 
respectively. 

Upon  this  important  question  the  judicious  remarks  of  my 
colleague,  Dr.  Blanford,  must  still  be  fresh  in  the  minds  of  all 
geologists  and  bioloj;ists.  lie  showed  that  not  only  are  terres- 
trial provinces  independent  of  marine  ones,  but  that  at  the 
present,  as  well  as  in  the  past,  the  former  are  more  circumscribed 
and  have  an  amount  of  distinctness  which  does  not  exist  in  the 
case  of  the  latter. 

Nor  is  it  difficult,  in  the  present  state  of  our  biological  know- 
ledge, to  give  a  reason  for  the  existence  of  this  state  of  things. 
Between  completely  separated  land-areas,  migration  can  only 
take  place  by  such  accidents  as  the  transport  of  seeds  or  eggs,  or 
as  the  consequence  of  the  great  but  slow  changes  in  the  relations 
of  sea  and  land.  Forms  adapted  only  for  living  in  cold  climates 
are  isolated  by  tracts  of  low-lying  tropical  land,  and,  conversely, 
tropical  forms  are  divided  off  from  one  another,  by  snow-covered 
mountain-chains,  almost  as  distinctly  as  by  actual  oceans.  The 
fact  that  well-known  Arctic  plants  are  found  at  the  top  of 
mountains  in  tropical  or  temperate  lands,  has  seemed  to  many 
botanists  as  quite  inexplicable  without  calling  in  the  agency  of 
a  general  refrigeration,  like  that  which  marked  the  Glacial 
period. 

But  with  marine  forms  of  life  the  case  is  totally  different. 
The  oceans  are  not  only  much  larger  than  the  continents,  but 
they  are  all  more  or  less  completely  connected  with  one  another. 

Forms  which  live  at  the  surface  of  the  ocean  may  wander 
freely  in  all  directions,  and  know  but  few  limitations  except 
those  imposed  by  temperature,  absence  of  food,  &c.  ;  forms 
living  at  moderate  depths  may  migrate  along  shore-lines  or 
submarine  ridges  from  one  area  to  another ;  and  even  when 
abysmal  tracts  of  ocean  intervene  between  two  litto'-al  faunas, 
recent  researches  seem  to  show  that  the  littoral  forms  of  life 
may  wander  into  such  tracts,  and  eventually,  perhaps,  cross 
them,  without  undergoing  extreme  or  profound  modification. 
In  this  way,  I  think,  we  may  account  for  the  important  fact  so 
prominently  brought  into  view  by  Dr.  Blanford,  that  terrestrial 
life-provinces  are  and  always  must  have  been  more  restricted 
in  area,  and  more  sharply  cut  oflf  from  one  another,  than  marine 
provinces. 

With  the  clear  recognition  of  this  principle  there  falls  to  the 
ground  one  of  the  most  frequently  urged  objections  to  the  uni- 
formitarian  doctrines — that,  namely,  which  is  baspd  on  the  sup- 
posed differences  in  geographical  distribution  in  ancient  times  as 
compared  with  the  present.  I  have  always  doubted  whether 
there  is  any  evidence  to  show  that  the  marine  life-provinces  of 
Silurian  or  Carboniferous  times  were  of  greater  extent  than  those 
of  the  present  day. 

I  believe  that  the  doctrine  that  strata  can  be  identified  by  the 
organic  remains  which  they  contain  is  as  sound  as  when  it  was 
first  enunciated  by  William  Smith  ;  but  the  problems  of  strati- 
graphical  palaeontology,  as  they  now  present  themselves  to  us, 
are  infinitely  more  complicated  than  they  could  possibly  have 
seemed  to  him.  In  every  fixuna  and  flora  which  we  are  called 
upon  to  study,  we  have  to  resolve  a  function  of  three  variables, 
these  beinT  environment,  space,  and  time.  Only  after  the  most 
careful  investigation,  in  the  first  place,  of  the  complicated  effects 
produced  by  the  varied  conditions  which  we  group  together 
under  the  term  environment — temperature,  food,  absence  of 
enemies,  and  the  innumerable  influences  which,  as  we  now 
know,  determine  the  existence  and  affect  the  multiplication  of 
living  beings  ;  and  by  the  thorough  study,  in  the  second  place, 
of  the  laws  of  geographical  distribution  of  plants  and  animals' 
can  we  hope  to  eliminate  the  effects  due  to  environment  and 
position,  and  arrire  at  the  conclusion  of  what  must  be  ascribed 
to  time. 

The  task  will  be  long,  the  work  to  be  done  arduous,  and  the 
efforts  to  be  made  prodigious  and  sustained  ;  but  the  result  is 
one  which  is  not  hopeless  and  unattainable,  or,  indeed,  even 
doubtful.  But  let  us  by  all  means  remember  that  the  real  work 
is  really  only  just  commenced,  and  that  we  are  very  far  indeed 
from  our  goal. 

One  of  our  greatest  sources  of  danger  to  the  progress  of 
geological  knowledge  at  the  present  day  is  the  impatience  which 
is  so  frequently  shown  at  the  rate  of  that  progress,  an  impatience 
which  leads  to  attempts  to  cut  the  tangled  skeins  of  research  by  I 


hasty  and  ill-considered  speculation.  Geologists,  no  less  than 
biologists,  need  to  recollect  and  keep  ever  before  their  minds  the 
important  fact  that  the  geological  record,  although  it  is  one  of 
enormous  value,  is  exceedingly  imperfect,  and  that  this  imper- 
fection is  quite  as  conspicuous  in  respect  to  physical  as  it  is  to 
palaiontological  data.  How  sadly  is  this  important  truth  lost 
sight  of  by  those  who,  on  the  strength  of  a  few  isolated  facts 
and  fragmentary  observations,  are  prepared  to  construct  maps  of 
large  portions  of  the  earth's  surface  at  far  distant  periods  of  its 
history.  Such  maps  are  to  the  geologist  what  "genealogical 
trees  "  are  to  the  biologist — "  will-o'-the  wisps  "  leading  us  aside 
from  the  safe  paths  of  scientific  induction. 

It  is,  I  suspect,  from  the  obvious  failure  of  attempts  of  this 
kind — attempts  which  had  better  never  have  been  made — that 
such  frequent  suga;estions  of  revolt  against  the  principles  of 
uniformitarianism  take  their  origin.  For  myself,  instead  of  dis- 
appointment, I  feel  a  constant  surprise  that  these  doctrines  have 
enabled  us  to  explain  so  much,  when  our  knowledge  of  the 
causes  still  at  work  around  us  is  still  so  imperfect  ;  and  I  am 
continually  impressed  by  the  fact  that  each  new  discovery  con- 
cerning the  present  order  of  Nature  removes  old  difficulties  in 
the  explanation  of  the  past.  In  saying  that  I  adhere  to  the 
doctrines  of  uniformitarianism,  I,  of  course,  mean  the  uniformi- 
tarianism which  Lyell  himself  taught,  and  not  the  absurd 
travesty  of  that  doctrine  sometimes  ascribed  to  him. 

The  well-grounded  conviction  which  results  from  observing 
the  triumph  of  a  great  principle,  when  applied  in  an  overwhelm- 
ing number  of  cases,  and  which  refuses  to  abandon  that 
principle  at  the  first  appearance  of  difficulty,  is  surely  not  out  of 
place  in  a  student  of  Nature.  It  was  this  scientific  "faith" 
which  led  Scrope  to  believe,  in  spite  of  difficulties  arising  from 
the  imperfect  knowledge  in  his  day  of  physics,  chemistry,  and 
mineralogy,  that  massive  and  schistose  crystalline  rocks  have 
been  formed  from  ordinary  lavas  and  sediments,  when  subjected 
to  enormous  pressures  and  complicated  earth-movements  ;  which 
induced  Lyell  to  seek  for  and  find  the  key  to  physical  changes 
during  past  times  in  the  operations  going  on  everywhere  around 
us  ;  and  which  finally  conducted  Darwin,  by  the  application  of 
the  same  principle,  in  the  case  of  living  beings,  to  the  doctrine 
of  organic  evolution. 

But,  alas  !  this  "  faith  "  seems  often  sadly  wanting  among  us 
to-day.  At  a  time  when  the  mineralogical  constitution  of  rocks 
and  of  the  changes  which  they  undergo  is  becoming  daily  more 
clearly  revealed,  when  innumerable  researches  are  throwing  fresh 
light  on  the  great  physical  processes  taking  place  everywhere  in 
the  world  around  us,  and  when  each  department  of  biological 
science  is  contributing  new  "facts  and  arguments  for  Darwin," 
such  scientific  pusillanimity  on  the  part  of  geologists  seems,  to 
say  the  least  of  it,  singularly  inopportune. 

Doubtless  there  are  difficulties  still  unresolved  ;  bnt  does  not 
every  advance  in  our  knowledge  see  the  removal  of  some  of 
them  ?  True  the  task  of  interpreting  the  fragmentary  record  of 
the  rocks  is  one  the  end  of  which  seems  very  far  off";  but  is  not 
every  step  we  take  clearly  an  approximation  towards  that  end  ? 

If  any  arguments  were  needed  in  favour  of  the  continued  and 
close  co-operation  of  geologists  and  biologists,  it  would  be  found 
in  the  circumstance  that  the  most  important  step  in  the  progress 
of  scientific  thought  which  has  been  accomplished  in  modern 
times  has  been  the  direct  result  of  a  combination  of  geological 
and  biological  researches. 

That  remarkable  biography,  for  which  we  are  so  greatly  in- 
debted to  Mr.  Francis  Darwin,  is  not  simply  the  record  of  a 
life,  simple,  blameless,  and  noble  beyond  that  of  ordinary  men, 
the  story  of  the  workings  of  an  intellect,  truth-loving,  patient, 
and  powerful,  above  that  of  all  his  contemporaries ;  it  is  the 
history  of  a  most  wonderful  revolution  in  human  thought — one 
which  will  perhaps  be  regarded  in  future  times  as  the  most 
striking  event  of  the  nineteenth  century. 

The  grand  secret  of  Darwin's  success  in  grappling  with  the 
gre.it  problem  of  "the  origin  of  species  "  is  fmmd  in  the  fact 
that  he  was  at  the  snme  time  a  geologist  and  a  biologist.  The 
concentration  of  the  later  years  of  his  life  upon  zoological  and 
botanical  researches  has  led  many  to  forget  the  position  occupied 
by  Darvvin  among  geo'ogists.  Not  only  are  his  geological 
writings  of  the  highest  value  for  the  wealth  of  accurate  observa- 
tions which  they  contain,  and  the  important  generalizations 
which  they  put  forward  ;  but  in  his  more  purely  biological  works 
the  value  of  his  geological  training  and  experience  are  constantly 
exemplified. 


428 


NATURE 


\_Marcli  1,  1888 


It  was,  indeed,  a  fortunate  circumstance  that  Darwin,  after 
being  repelled  by  the  narrow  and  soulless  system  of  "  geognosy  " 
taught  by  Jameson  at  Edinburgh,  came  at  Cambridge  under  the 
spell  of  Henslow,  a  man  of  most  catholic  taste,  extensive  ac- 
quirements, and  widest  sympathy  with  all  branches  of  natural 
science.  By  intercourse  with  Henslow,  Darwin's  flagging  in- 
terest in  science  was  rekindled  and  kept  alive.  It  is  a  proud 
boast  for  a  University  to  have  nourished  the  intellectual  develop- 
ment of  Darwin  ;  and  as  that  University  has  in  the  past 
remained  faithful  to  the  memory  of  Newton,  making  his 
mathematical  teachings  the  characteristic  and  leading  feature 
of  its  studies,  so,  we  may  hope,  it  will  in  the  future  aim  at  that 
complete  union  of  geological  and  biological  investigation  of 
which  Darwin's  labours  constitute  so  grand  an  example. 

In  the  dedication  of  his  "Journal  of  Researches,"  Darwin 
acknowledged  "with  grateful  pleasure"  that  "the  chief  part  of 
whatever  scientific  merit  this  journal  and  the  other  works  of  the 
author  may  possess,  has  been  derived  from  studying  the  well- 
known  and  admirable  '  Principles  of  Geology ' ; "  and  well  do  I 
recollect  how,  in  almost  every  conversation  I  had  with  him,  he 
would  enlarge  with  warmth  of  feeling  upon  his  indebtedness  to 
Lyell,  not  only  for  his  lucid  teaching,  but  for  his  constant  and 
helpful  sympathy.  How  did  he  use  to  speak  in  terms  of 
reverence  of  his  "master,"  and  extol  the  magnanimity  of  one 
who,  though  twelve  years  his  senior,  had  abandoned  slowly  and 
cautiously,  as  was  the  habit  of  his  mind,  yet  in  the  end  com- 
pletely and  ungrudgingly,  his  own  conclusions  and  prepossessions, 
and  had  accepted  the  doctrines  of  a  pupil. 

Of  Darwin's  three  geological  books,  the  record  of  the  ob- 
servations made  by  him  during  the  voyage  of  the  Beagle,  it  is 
impossible  to  speak  in  terms  of  praise  that  will  seem,  to  those 
acquainted  with  the  merits  of  those  admirable  writings,  as  too 
high  ;  and  some  portions  of  those  works,  especially  the  chapters 
dealing  with  the  great  problem  of  foliation,  are,  I  am  convinced, 
very  far  indeed  from  having  i-eceived  from  geologists  the  amount 
of  attention  which  they  deserve. 

After  Darwin's  return  to  England,  in  1836,  his  attention  was 
for  some  years  almost  exclusively  devoted  to  geological  re- 
searches ;  and  it  was  to  this  Society  and  to  its  officers  that  he 
constantly  came  for  help,  advice,  and  sympathy.  He  writes  at 
this  time,  "  If  I  was  not  more  inclined  for  geology  than  the 
other  branches  of  natural  history,  I  am  sure  Mr.  Lyell's  and 
Lonsdale's  kindness  ought  to  fix  me." 

Before  reaching  England,  Darwin  had  written  to  Henslow 
from  St.  Helena,  on  July  9,  1836,  asking  that  he  might  be 
proposed  a  Fellow  of  this  Society,  and  on  November  30  of 
that  year  he  was  elected.  In  the  following  February  he  became 
a  member  of  our  Council,  and  at  the  next  anniversary,  in  1838, 
undertook  the  duties  of  Secretary.  This  office,  after  he  had  held 
it  for  five  years,  he  was  compelled  to  resign  through  ill  health  : 
but  even  after  he  had  been  driven  from  London  through  the 
same  cause,  it  was  the  evening  meetings  of  this  Society  which 
from  time  to  time  tempted  him  from  the  seclusion  of  Down,  till 
at  last  painful  experience  proved  to  him  that  he  must  forgo 
even  this  too-exciting  pleasure.  Even  after  being  compelled  to 
lay  aside  his  hammer,  when  he  had  taken  up  scalpel  and  micro- 
scope to  study  the  Cirripedia,  he  did  not  forget  the  fossil  forms 
of  the  same  group. 

Whether  it  was  the  distribution  of  organic  forms  in  space,  or 
the  order  of  their  appearance  in  time,  which  had  had  most  to  do 
in  turning  Darwin's  thoughts  into  those  currents  which  finally 
led  him  to  evolution,  it  would  be  idle  to  speculate  ;  but  it  may 
safely  be  asserted  that  the  geological  aspects  of  natural  history 
had  at  least  as  much  to  do  with  the  conception  of  the  origin  of 
species  as  had  the  biological. 

How  warm  was  Darwin's  interest,  all  through  his  life,  in  the 
progress  of  every  branch  of  geological  research  may  be  gathered 
from  his  letters  to  Lyell  and  other  geological  friends.  In  what 
he  had  a  presentiment  would  be,  and  which  actually  proved,  his 
latest  work,  "The  Formation  of  Vegetable  Mould  through  the 
Action  of  Worms,"  he  returned  in  his  old  age  to  a  geological 
problem  which  had  occupied  him  during  the  years  of  his  most 
intimate  connection  with  our  Society. 

No  memories  can  possibly  have  such  fascination  for  myself  as 
those  of  the  conversations  which,  during  the  last  seven  years  of 
his  life,  I  was  privileged  to  hold  with  Mr.  Darwin  upon  the 
current  topics  of  geological  interest.  It  was  his  habit  when  he 
came  to  town,  twice  a  year,  to  ask  me  to  meet  him,  in  order  to 
talk  over  geological  questions,  and  thus  I  had  opportunities  for 
close  intercourse  and  discussion.     No  researches  in  our  science 


were  too  minute,  none  too  remote  from  the  ordinary  subjects  of 
his  study,  to  engage  his  attention  and  command  his  sympathies. 
How  keenly  did  he  recall  the  pleasures  of  his  labours  in  this 
Society,  and  the  happiness  of  the  friendships  which  he  had 
formed  here  !  How  generously  and  with  what  warmth  of 
appreciation  did  he  ever  speak  of  the  labours  of  those  who  had 
succeeded  him  in  endeavouring  to  carry  out  the  objects  of  this 
Society !  Of  the  gentleness,  the  sympathy,  the  contagious 
enthusiasrn  of  the  man,  I  dare  not  trust  myself  to  speak  ! 

At  a  time  when  there  is  perhaps  some  danger  that  the 
excessive  specialization  which  seems  to  have  become  a  necessity 
in  both  the  geological  and  the  biological  sciences,  may  lead  to 
narrowness  of  view,  restriction  of  aims,  and  petty  jealousies 
among  the  workers  in  circumscribed  departments  of  those 
sciences,  it  may  be  well  to  remember  how  Darwin,  while 
engaged  in  the  most  minute  and  detailed  investigations  upon 
barnacles,  earthworms,  or  pigeons,  upon  orchids,  primroses,  or 
climbing  plants,  could  ever  keep  his  mind  open  to  the  influence 
of  each  new  discovery  in  every  branch  of  geological  and  bio- 
logical science. 

The  great  principles  which  lie  at  the  foundation  of  modem 
geology  and  of  modern  biology  are  the  same  ;  and  Darwin  did 
but  furnish  a  new  testament  to  the  old  covenant  already  accepted 
by  geologists.  Now,  more  than  ever  in  the  history  of  natural 
science,  is  there  reason  for  the  wjirmest  sympathy,  the  most 
thorough  understanding,  and  the  completest  union  in  effort 
between  the  cultivators  of  the  geological  and  the  biological 
sciences.  It  is  not  by  petulant  unfaithfulness  to  the  tried 
methods  of  those  two  sciences,  and  a  readiness  to  abandon  the 
principles  which  have  led  us  to  such  real  and  important  con- 
quests, for  the  older  methods  that  have  been  so  often 
discredited  and  found  wanting,  that  we  can  hope  to  advance 
those  sciences. 

Lyell  once  wrote  to  Darwin  as  follows  :  "  I  really  find,  when 
bringing  up  my  preliminary  essays  in  'Principles'  to  the 
science  of  the  present  day,  so  far  as  I  know  it,  that  the  great 
outline,  and  even  most  of  the  details,  stand  so  uninjured,  and 
in  many  cases  they  are  so  much  strengthened  by  new  dis- 
coveries, especially  by  yours,  that  we  may  begin  to  hope  that 
the  great  principles  there  insisted  on  will  stand  the  test  of  new 
discoveries." 

And  to  this  Darwin  replied  with  characteristic  enthusiasm  : — 

"Begin  to  hope?     Why  the  possibility  of  a  doubt  has  never 

crossed  my  mind  for  many  a  day.     This  may  be  very  unphilo- 

sophical,  but  my  geological  salvation  is  staked  upon  it  !  .  .  .    It 

makes  me  quite  indignant  that  you  should  talk  of  hoping.'" 

I^ifty  years  have  elapsed  since  these  words  were  written.  How 
infinitely  more  complicated  seem  to  us  the  problems  involved  in 
the  explanation  of  the  past  by  the  study  of  the  process  going  on 
around  us  at  present,  than  they  possibly  could  have  done  to  the 
great  pioneers  of  the  Uniformitarian  doctrines  !  But  the  reasons 
lor  Lyell's  hope  and  Darwin's  confidence  are  still  valid,  nay,  are 
stronger  than  ever.  For  does  not  every  new  discovery  remove 
some  difficulty  or  supply  fresh  illustrations  of  these  views?  May 
every  geologist  to-day  be  endowed  with  a  due  share  of  Lyell's 
caution  ;  but,  for  my  own  part,  I  see  no  reason  why  he  should 
not  also  possess  a  full  portion  of  Darwin's  faith. 


ON   THE  NUMBER  OF  DUST  PARTICLES  IN 
THE  A  TMOSPHERE> 

AT  the  beginning  of  the  paper,  reference  is  made  to  the 
■^*-  great  advance  recently  achieved  by  physiologists, 
regarding  our  knowledge  of  the  solid  matter  floating  in  the 
atmosphere,  as  they  have  already  provided  us  with  a  consider- 
able amount  of  information  regarding  the  number  of  live  germs 
in  the  air  under  different  conditions  ;  while  we  have  but  little 
information  regarding  the  dead  organic  and  inorganic  particles. 
The  following  investigation  was  undertaken  in  the  hope  of 
bringing  the  physical  side  of  fhe  subject  abreast  of  the  physio- 
logical ;  and  in  this  paper  is  given  an  account  of  a  method  devised 
by  the  author  for  counting  the  dust  particles  in  the  air,  and  also 
some  results  obtained  by  means  of  it. 

One  difficulty  presented  in  this  investigation  is  the  extreme 
minuteness   of  the  particles  to  be  counted  ;   most  of  them  are 

'  Communlc-ited  by  permission  of  the  Coincil  of  the  Royal  Society  of 
Edinburgh,  having  been  read  to  the  Abstract  Society  on  February  6,  by  John 
Aitken,  F.R.S.E. 


March  i,  1888] 


NATURE 


429 


not  only  invisible,  but  are  beyond  the  highest  powers  of  the 
microscope.  It  was  therefore  necessary  to  adopt  soaie  method 
of  making  them  visible.  The  simplest  plan  of  doing  this  is  to 
put  the  air — the  particles  in  which  we  wish  to  count — inside  a 
glass  receiver,  and  saturate  it  with  water  vapour  ;  then  to  super- 
saturate the  air  by  slightly  expanding  it  by  means  of  an  air-pump. 
When  this  is  done,  a  fog  is  produced  in  the  receiver,  and  we 
know  that  each  fog  particle  has  a  dust  particle  as  a  nucleus  ;  if 
then  we  counted  these  fog  particles  we  would  get  the  number  of 
the  dust  particles.  By  this  process,  however,  we  would  not  by 
any  means  have  counted  all  the  dust  particles  present,  as  the 
fog  particles  so  formed  do  not  represent  nearly  all  the  dust 
particles.  If,  after  time  has  been  given  for  these  fog  particles  to 
settle,  another  supersaturation  be  made,  the  receiver  will  become 
packed  with  another  set  of  fog  particles,  which  would  require  to 
i>e  counted  ;  and  this  process  would  require  to  be  repeated  a  great 
number  of  times  before  the  last  particles  would  become  visible 
and  be  counted.  It  is  then  shown  that  if  there  is  only  a  little 
dust  in  the  air,  so  that  the  particles  are  wide  apart,  then  only  one 
supersaturation  is  required  to  make  all  of  them  visible.  Further, 
when  there  are  few  dust  particles  present  the  fog  particles  are 
large,  and  are  easily  seen  falling  like  fine  rain  inside  the  receiver  ; 
and  it  appeared  that  if  these  rain  drops  could  be  counted  then  the 
solution  of  the  problem  promised  to  be  easy. 

The  following  gives  a  general  idea  of  the  method  adopted  of 
working  out  this  suggestion.  A  small  glass  receiver  w-as  con- 
nected on  the  one  side  with  an  air-pump  and  on  the  other  with  a 
cotton-wool  filter.  Inside  the  receiver  was  fixed  a  small  stage, 
about  I  cm.  square,  on  which  the  drops  were  to  fall  and  to  be 
counted.  This  stage  was  fixed  at  a  distance  of  i  cm.  from  the 
top  of  the  receiver,  it  was  ruled  into  little  squares  of  i  mm.,  and 
was  examined  through  the  top  of  the  receiver  by  means  of  a 
magnifying  glass.  To  illuminate  this  stage  a  gas  flame  was  used, 
the  light  being  concentrated  on  it  by  means  of  a  globular  lens 
full  of  water.  The  air  in  the  receiver  was  pumped  out,  and 
filtered  air  admitted.  This  air  was  perfectly  dust-free,  and 
gave  no  condensation  when  expansion  was  made.  Into  this  pure 
air  was  admitted  a  small  and  measured  quantity  of  the  air  the 
]iarticles  in  which  we  wished  to  count.  After  allowing  a  short 
time  for  the  air  to  get  saturated,  one  stroke  of  the  pump  was 
made,  which  supersaturated  the  air,  and  brought  down  a  shower 
of  fine  rain  ;  while  making  the  stroke  with  the  pump,  the  stage 
was  carefully  observed  through  the  magnifying  glass,  and  the 
number  of  drops  that  fell  on  a  square  millimetre  counted.  This 
was  repeated  a  number  of  times,  and  the  average  number  of 
drops  per  square  millimetre  was  obtained,  and  used  for  calcu- 
lating the  number  of  particles  in  the  air.  For  every  drop  that 
fell  on  the  square  millimetre,  loofell  per  square  centimetre  ;  and 
as  there  is  only  i  cm.  of  air  above  the  stage  that  number  will 
represent  the  number  per  cubic  centimetre  in  the  air  of  the 
receiver.  Then,  knowing  the  proportion  in  which  the  air  tested 
was  mixed  with  pure  air,  and  knowing  also  the  amount  to  which 
the  air  was  expanded  by  the  pump,  we  have  all  the  figures 
necessary  for  making  the  calculation  of  the  number  of  particles 
in  the  airimder  examination. 

In  constructing  the  apparatus  the  first  thing  to  which  attention 
was  given  was  to  design  the  arrangement  of  stage  or  j^lalform 
on  which  the  drops  could  be  most  easily  seen  and  counted.  The 
first  stage  tried  was  a  small  piece  of  glass  mirror,  ruled  on  the 
back  into  little  squares.  This  seemed  at  first  to  give  excellent 
results,  the  drops  being  easily  seen  on  its  surface  ;  but  on  attempt- 
ing to  count  them  its  unsuitableness  was  at  once  evident — the 
confusion  produced  by  the  reflected  images  of  the  drops  caused 
it  to  be  abandoned  at  once.  Then  a  mirror  of  very  thick  glass 
was  tried,  the  glass  being  so  thick  that  the  reflected  images  were 
out  of  focus,  but  it  did  not  give  satisfactory  results.  Very  thin 
mirrors  made  of  microscope  glass  were  then  tried,  but  had  to  be 
rejected,  because,  though  they  brought  the  drops  and  their  reflec- 
tions together,  they  were  unsuitable,  being  too  rough  and  covered 
with  fine  specks  on  their  surface  ;  only  the  most  highly  finished 
glass  can  be  used  for  this  purpose.  The  arrangement  was  then 
altered,  and  a  transparent  stage  lit  from  beneath  was  tried.  This 
stage  was  made  of  a  small  piece  of  carefully  selected  glass,  and 
had  the  fine  lines  etched  on  its  surfaces.  It  was,  however,  aban- 
doned, as  it  did  not  give  such  promise  as  the  mirror  arrangement. 
All  difficulties  in  the  use  ofmirrors  were  at  last  got  rid  of  by  making 
them  of  silver,  and  now  silver  mirrors  are  the  only  kind  used. 
They  are  very  highly  polished,  care  being  taken  to  keep  the 
rubbing  marks  in  straight  lines  and  in  one  direction  ;  they  are 
ruled  with  fine  lines  at  right  angles  to  each  other  and  at    i  mm. 


apart.  When  a  silver  mirror  is  mounted  in  its  place,  properly 
adjusted  and  lighted,  it  appears,  when  seen  through  the  lens, 
like  a  black  surface  on  which  the  lines  are  quite  distinct,  and  on 
which  the  small  drops  shine  out  brilliantly  and  are  easily 
counted. 

Some  difficulty  is  experienced  in  keeping  the  stage  at  the 
proper  temperature.  If  it  is  too  hot,  the  drops  on  falling  on  it 
do  not  adhere,  but  present  a  beautiful  illustration  of  the  spher- 
oidal condition,  as  they  roll  over  its  surface  towards  the  lower 
side  ot  the  stage,  and  drop  into  the  ruled  lines,  in  which  they 
continue  rolling  till  quite  evaporated.  On  the  other  hand,  if  the 
stage  is  too  cold  it  gets  dewed,  and  counting  becomes  impossible. 
Directions  are  given  in  the  paper  for  mounting  and  keeping  the 
counting  stage  in  the  best  working  condition. 

In  working  the  apparatus  two  methods  have  been  employed 
of  mixing  the  air  to  be  tested  with  dust-free  air.  In  one,  the 
dusty  air  is  introduced  into  a  flask  which  communicates  with  the 
test  receiver  by  means  of  a  pipe  provided  with  a  stopcock.  The 
small  quantity  of  air  that  is  to  be  mixed  with  the  pure  air  in  the 
receiver  is  displaced  from  this  flask  and  driven  into  the  receiver 
by  means  of  a  carefully  measured  quantity  of  water  which  is  run 
into  the  flask.  In  this  way  the  air  to  be  tested  can  be  measured 
with  a  fair  degree  of  accuracy,  and  as  the  capacity  of  the  receiver 
is  easily  obtained,  the  experimental  errors  need  not  be  great. 

In  the  other  method  of  working,  the  test  receiver  is  connected 
with  a  small  gasometer,  and  the  air  to  be  tested  is  mixed  with 
pure  air  in  the  gasometer.  The  gasometer  used  has  a  capacity  of 
20  litres,  is  carefully  graduated  and  delicately  hung,  so  that  the 
air  can  be  measured  in  it  with  a  considerable  degree  of  accuracy. 
In  working  this  arrangement,  i  litre  of  the  air  to  be  tested  is 
generally  first  mixed  with  19  litres  of  filtered  air.  After  mixing, 
nine-tenths  of  the  mixture  is  let  out,  and  the  gasometer  again 
filled  up  with  pure  air,  and  the  mixture  tested  in  the  receiver. 
If  the  drops  are  still  too  close,  more  air  is  let  out,  and  filtered  air 
added  till  the  desired  condition  is  attained.  There  must  not  be  too 
many  particles  present,  or  all  of  them  will  not  fall  when  ex- 
pansion is  made.  Till  experience  is  gained,  a  check  on  the 
quantity  is  easily  obtained  by  admitting  filtered  air,  in  place  of 
the  air  from  the  gasometer,  and  seeing  if  any  drops  appear  on 
expansion  ;  if  none,  then  the  correct  number  has  not  been 
exceeded. 

After  a  satisfactory  counting  stage  had  been  devised,  and  the 
apparatus  got  into  working  order,  testing  began,  when  at  once 
difficulties  presented  themselves.  The  numbers  counted  in  the 
successive  tests  of  the  same  air  agreed  fairly  well  for  a  number  of 
times,  then  all  at  once  the  process  seemed  to  break  down,  and 
from  time  to  time  a  great  increase  in  the  number  was  counted, 
far  exceeding  the  errors  of  experiment  ;  then  all  Mould  go  right 
for  a  time,  but  only  to  be  followed  by  failure  before  long.  The 
first  thing  suspected  for  these  and  for  other  failures  was  always 
the  joints  of  the  pipes  and  the  stopcocks,  and  time  after  time  have 
the  joints  been  remade  with  india-rubber  solution  and  stopcocks 
cleaned  and  greased,  but  to  find  that  they  are  almost  never  at 
fault. 

It  was  then  suspected  that  the  failure  might  be  due  to  the 
filtered  air,  with  which  we  mixed  the  dusty  air,  not  being  perfectly 
freed  from  its  dust.  The  filtering  power  of  cotton-wool  was 
therefore  studied,  when  it  was  found  that  i  inch  of  cotton-wool 
will  filter  perfectly  if  the  air  is  passed  very  slowly  through  it,  but 
that  even  12  inches  of  cotton-wool  will  not  check  all  the  particles 
if  the  air  is  made  to  rush  violently  through  it.  Filters  must 
therefore  be  tested  under  exactly  the  conditions  in  which  they  are 
to  be  used. 

It  was,  however,  found  that  though  the  air  was  only  allowed 
to  pass  very  slowly  through  even  12  inches  of  cotton-wool, 
condensation  frequently  took  place  if  the  expansion  and 
therefore  the  supersaturation  was  great.  It  was  thought  that  in 
this  case  the  failure  might  be  due  to  an  imperfect  action  of  the 
filter — that,  while  it  checked  most  of  the  dust,  yet  it  allowed 
the  extremely  small  particles  to  pass,  and  that  these  extremely 
small  particles  became  active  centres  of  condensation  when  ex- 
posed to  the  high  degree  of  supersaturation  used  in  the  tests.  Ic 
therefore  here  became  necessary  to  test  whether  the  size  of  the 
particles  has  practically  any  effect  on  the  degree  of  supersatur- 
ation necessary  to  cause  the  vapour  to  condense  on  them.  From 
the  investigations  of  Clerk  Maxwell  we  have  theoretical  reasons 
for  expecting  that  the  size  of  the  particles  will  have  an  influence 
of  this  kind,  but  at  present  we  cannot  say  that  it  is  sufficiently 
great  to  have  a  perceptible  effect  in  an  experiment  such  as  that 
described. 


430 


NATURE 


[March  i,  1888 


To  test  this  point  the  following  experiment  was  therefore  made. 
A  little  dusty  air  was  mixed  with  filtered  air,  and  put  into  the 
test  receiver,  and  saturated  with  water  vapour.  An  expansion 
of  only  2  c.c.  was  made;  this  caused  the  formation  of  a  fog. 
After  these  fog  particles  had  settled,  the  air  was  returned  to  the 
receiver  ;  and  after  a  short  time  another  2  c.c.  expansion  was 
made,  when  other  fog  particles  appeared.  After  this  had  been 
done  a  number  of  times,  the  density  of  the  fog  got  less  and  less, 
and  at  last  entirely  ceased.  After  this  an  expansion  of  5  c.c,  was 
made  ;  this  produced  a  rainy  condensation  in  the  receiver,  which 
appeai'ed  a  number  of  times  on  successive  expansions  being  made, 
getting  less  and  less  dense,  and  at  last  it  also  ceased  entu-ely. 
After  all  condensation  had  stopped  with  the  5  c.c.  expansion,  the 
expansion  was  increased  to  10  c.c,  when  another  shower  made  its 
appearance,  and  after  one  or  two  expansions  all  condensation 
again  ceased.  After  this  condition  was  attained,  an  expansion  of 
150  c.c.  was  made  with  the  pump,  when  scarcely  one  drop  made 
its  appearance. 

It  is  concluded  that  in  the  above  experiment  we  have  distinct 
evidence  that  the  size  of  the  particle  does  aftect  the  degree  of 
super?aturation  required  to  produce  condensation  on  it.  Because, 
though  an  expansion  of  2  c.c.  produced  a  supersaturation  sufficient 
•o  cause  more  than  one-half  of  the  particles  to  become  visible, 
yet  it  required  a  higher  degree  of  supersaturation  to  cause  con- 
densation to  take  place  on  others.  It  is  also  concluded  from 
the  experiment  that  the  failure  of  the  air  to  keep  clear,  in  the 
tests  where  high  supersaturation  was  used,  was  not  due  to  the 
presence  of  extremely  small  particles,  as  an  expansion  of  10  c.c. 
is  practically  great  enough  to  produce  a  supersaturation  sufficient 
to  cause  condensation  on  the  smallest  particles. 

The  failures  in  the  tests  not  being  due  to  the  presence  of 
extremely  small  particles,  it  is  concluded  that  they  are  true  cases 
of  condensation  without  nuclei,  similar  to  those  referred  to  in  a 
previous  communication.  It  was  thought  that,  if  they  were  true 
cases  cf  spontaneous  condensation,  they  might  be  checked 
if  the  expansion  was  made  slowly  and  free  from  shocks.  And 
on  the  other  hand  any  shock  would  tend  to  produce  condensation 
in  dust-free  air  if  highly  supersaturated.  On  trying  this,  it  was 
found  that  no  condensation  took  place  if  the  stroke  of  the  pump 
was  made  slowly  and  steadily,  and  that  if  done  quickly,  and  the 
piston  made  to  strike  the  cover  of  the  cylinder  violently,  then 
copious  showers  were  always  produced  in  the  dust-free  air.  Here, 
then,  was  the  key  to  one  of  the  difficulties,  and  accounted  for  the 
occasional  increase  in  the  number  of  the  particles  counted  ;  many 
of  the  drops  having  no  dust-nucleus.  Failure  from  this  cause  is 
now  entirely  prevented  by  causing  the  air  on  its  passage  from  the 
receiver  to  the  pump  to  pass  through  a  small  opening,  or  better 
through  a  small  cotton-wool  filter  ;  this  checks  all  violent  rush  of 
air,  and  shocks,  and  keeps  the  filtered  air  perfectly  free  from 
condensation  even  when  highly  supersaturated. 

Again,  the  failure  of  perfectly  filtered  air  to  keep  free  from 
condensation  was  frequently  observed  after  the  inside  of  the 
test  receiver  had  been  newly  wetted.  It  looked  as  if  the  newly 
wefted  sides  had  saturated  the  air  more  thoroughly,  and  that 
the  condensation  was  due  to  the  higher  degree  of  supersaturation 
which  took  place  when  expansion  was  made.  This  cla^s  of 
failures  was,  however,  traced  to  the  manner  of  wetting  the  inside 
of  the  receiver.  If  it  was  done  roughly,  and  the  water  splashed, 
then  many  nuclei  were  manufactured  in  the  receiver  ;  if  it  was 
done  quietly,  none,  and  no  condensation  followed.  Another 
cause  of  failure  was  traced  to  a  drop  of  water  getting  into  the 
pipe  by  which  the  air  entered,  and  the  inrush  of  air  tearing  the 
water  into  fine  spray,  which  became  active  centres  of  conden- 
sation. 

As  yet  no  great  number  of  tests  of  air  have  been  made  under 
different  conditions,  natural  or  artificial ;  but  in  the  following 
table  will  be  found  sonie  of  the  results  obtained  by  this  method 
of  counting. 

Dust  Particles  in  the  AttHosphere. 

Source  of  the  Air.    _                   Numbsr  per  c.c.  Number  per  c. in. 

Outside  Air — Raining     ...             32,000     ...  521,000 

),           „  — Fair          ...          i  ;o,ooo     ...  2,119,000 

Room       1,860,000     ...  30,318,000 

,,      near  ceiling          ...        5,420,000     ...  88,346,000 

Btmsea  Flame                  ...      30,000,000     ...  489,000,000 

In  the  first  column  of  the  table  'is  entered  the  source  of  the 
air  ;  in  the  second,  the  number  of  particles  per  cubic  centimetre  ; 
and,  for  the  benefit  of  those  who  think  in  English  measures,  the 
number  per  cubic  inch  is  entered  in  the  third  column.     The  first 


number  in  the  table,  for  ordiny.ry  outside  air,  was  obtained  on 
January  25,  after  a  wet  night.  The  number  given  for  fair  weather 
is  an  average  got  when  the  weather  was  in  that  condition.  As 
yet  far  too  few  measurements  have  been  made  to  enable  us  to 
trace  any  connection  between  the  number  of  particles  and  the 
weather,  but  it  is  hoped  that  something  practical  may  result  from 
observations  of  this  kind.  The  first  number  given  for  the  air  in 
a  room  is  the  number  counted  in  the  air  of  a  room  where  gas 
was  burning,  and  taken  at  a  height  of  4  feet  from  the  floor  ;  the 
other  number  was  counted  in  air  drawn  from  near  the  ceiling  ;  and 
the  last  number  was  got  in  the  air  collected  over  a  bunsen  flame. 
The  value  of  numbers  given  in  the  table  has  not  been  carefully 
considered,  and  they  are  not  given  as  absolutely  correct  ;  great 
accuracy,  indeed,  does  not  seem  possible,  when  we  consider  the 
conditions  ;  and,  further,  the  number  is  constantly  varying. 
For  this  reason  it  has  not  been  thought  necessary  to  make  any 
corrections  for  temperature  and  pressure.  Though  we  can  get 
with  a  fair  degree  of  accuracy  the  number  of  particles  in  the  air 
in  the  test  receiver,  yet  in  all  probability  the  calculated  numbers 
given  in  the  table  are  rather  under  than  over  estimates,  as  it  is 
difficult  to  manipulate  air  without  losing  much  of  its  dust.  For 
instance,  in  one  hour  about  one-half  of  the  particles  settle  out  of 
the  air  in  the  gasometer.  Though  the  numbers  do  seem  very 
large, yet  so  far  as  can  be  judged  at  present  they  are  fairly  correct, 
and  at  least  represent  the  kind  of  numbers  we  have  to  deal  with. 
It  does  seem  strange  that  there  may  be  as  many  dust  particles  in 
I  cubic  inch  of  the  air  of  a  room  at  night  when  the  gas  is  burning'; 
as  there  are  inhabitants  in  Great  Britain,  and  that  in  3  cubic  inches 
of  the  gases  from  a  bunsen  flame  there  are  as  many  particles  as 
there  are  inhabitants  in  the  world. 

John  Aitken. 


UNIVERSITY  AND  EDUCATIONAL 
IN  TELL  IGENCE. 

Cambridge. — The  Frank  Smart  Studentship  of  Botany, 
founded  at  Gonville  and  Caius  College  by  Mr.  F.  G.  Smart, 
M.A.,  M.  B.,  and  Mrs.  Smart,  by  the  transfer  of  £2i,OQ  Great 
Eastern  Railway  4  per  cent.  Debentures,  is  to  be  awarded  for 
the  first  time  at  the  beginning  of  Easter  Term.  Candidates  are 
to  send  in  their  names  to  the  Master  of  the  College,  Dr.  Ferrers, 
on  or  before  March  20.  The  electors  are  the  governing  body  of 
the  College,  acting  after  consultation  with  the  Professor  and  the 
Reader  of  Botany  for  the  time  being  in  the  University.  The 
Studentship  is  to  be  open  to  all  members  of  the  University  who 
have  taken  honours  in  the  first  part  of  the  Natural  Sciences 
Tripos,  and  of  not  more  than  five  years'  standing ;  but  the 
elected  Student  must  become  a  member  of  Gonville  and  Caius. 
No  competitive,  examination  is  to  be  held  for  awarding  the 
iStudentship.  The  Student  is  to  apply  himself  to  original  in- 
vestigation in  botany,  and  must  be  able  to  show  that  he  is  doing 
so  at  any  lime,  on  penalty  of  forfeiting  the  Studentship.  The 
Studentship  is  to  last  two  years,  but  may  under  special  circum- 
stances be  prolonged  for  one  year  more.  The  regulations  of  the 
Studentship  ai"e  only  to  be  clianged,  after  the  death  of  Mr.  an(: 
Mrs.  Smart,  by  consent  of  the  Council  of  the  Linnean  Society 
of  London.  A  prize  of  £,(i  in  books  is  to  be  given  out  of  the 
interest  of  the  fund  to  the  undergraduate  student  of  Caius 
College  who  shall  distinguish  himself  most  in  botany  at  fhe 
annual  College  examination. 

The  collection  of  British  birds'  eggs  made  by  the  late  Mr.  J. 
P.  Wilmot,  of  Trinity  College,  containing  a  specimen  of  the 
great  auk's  egg,  and  other  specimen  s  figured  in  Hewitson's 
"  British  Oology,"  has  been  presented  to  the  University  by 
Lady  Caroline  and  Mr.  C.  H.  Russell,  in  memory  of  Mr.  George 
Lake  Russell,  Lady  Caroline's  late  husband. 

Plans  are  submitted  for  the  proposed  new  plant-houses  at  the 
Botanic  Garden,  to  cost  ^2760,  and  of  a  laboratory  in  the 
garden,  to  cost  ^'i.i^o. 


SOCIETIES  AND  ACADEMIES. 
London. 

Royal  Society,  February  9. — "  The  Small  Free  Vibration- 
and  Deformation  of  a  Thin  Elastic  Shell."  By  A.  E,  H.  Love, 
B.  A. ,  Fellow  of  St.  John's  College,  Cambridge. 

In  this  paper  the  method  employed  by  Kirchhoff  and  Clebsch 
lor  the  treatment  of  a  thin  plane  plate  is  applied  to  the  case  of  a 


March  i,  1888] 


NATURE 


431 


thin  shell,  or  plate  of  finite  curvature.  It  is  proved  (i)  that  only 
fir  an  inextensible  spherical  surface  is  the  potential  enerq;yfunc- 
tion  the  same  function  of  the  changes  of  principal  curvature  as 
for  a  plane  plate  ;  (2)  that  in  general  the  shell  cannot  vibrate  in 
STich  a  manner  that  no  line  on  the  middle-surface  is  altered  in 
length,  because  this  condition  makes  it  impossible  to  satisfy  the 
boundary  conditions  which  hold  at  a  free  edge  ;  (3)  that  surfaces  of 
uniform  curvature  with  no  bounding  edges  are  the  only  ones 
which  admit  of  purely  normal  vibrations  ;  and  (4)  that  vibrations 
in  which  the  displacement  is  purely  tangential  are  possible  on  all 
shells  whose  middle-surfaces  are  surfaces  of  revolution  bounded 
by  small  circles.  The  possible  modes  of  vibration  of  the  spherical 
and  cylindrical  shell  receive  special  discussion.  The  equilibrium 
of  the  shell  is  also  considered. 

Linnean  Society,  February  2. — Mr.  Carrulhers,  F.R.  S., 
President,  in  the  chair. — The  President  called  attention  to  the 
loss  which  the  Society  had  sustained  by  the  deaths  of  Prof.  Asa 
Gray,  Prof.  Anton  De  Bary,  and  Mr.  Irwine  Boswell  (formerly 
Syme)  which  had  occurred  since  the  date  of  the  last  meeting,  and 
gave  a  brief  review  of  the  life  and  labours  of  each. — Mr.  C.  T. 
Druery  exhibited  a  collection  of  abnormal  British  ferns,  and  made 
some  remarks  on  the  extraordinary  number  of  named  varieties 
which  had  been  recognized,  and  which  now  required  to  be  carefully 
examined  and  compared,  with  a  view  to  some  systematic  arrange- 
ment of  them.  A  discussion  followed,  in  which  the  President, 
Mr.  J.  G.  Baker,  F.R. S.,  Dr.  Murie,  and  others  took  part.— - 
Dr.  Amadeo  exliibited  and  made  some  observations  on  a  new 
species  of  Taberncvmontana. — A  long  and  interesting  pap:;rwas 
then  read  by  Mr.  Henry  T.  Blanford,  F.R.S  ,  on  the  ferns  of 
Simla,  based  upon  a  collection  which  he  had  himself  made  there, 
"  not  much  below  4500  feet,  nor  above  10,500  feet."  His  remarks 
were  illustrated  by  a  map,  and  by  an  exhibition  of  a  number  of 
the  more  noticeable  ferns  collected,  many  of  which  were  extremely 
beautiful.  Criticisms  were  offered  by  Mr.  C.  B.  Clark,  F.  R.S., 
Mr.  Gamble  (Conservator  of  Forests  Northern  Circle  Madras) 
and  Dr.  William  Schlich  (Inspector-General  of  Forests  to  the 
Government  of  India). — A  paper  was  then  read  by  Mr.  H.  J. 
Veitch,  on  the  fertilization  of  Cattleya  labiata,  var.  Mjssice,  in 
which  the  author  detailed  an  elaborate  series  of  observations  under- 
taken with  the  object  of  detecting,  if  possible,  the  act  of  fertiliza- 
tion of  the  ovules,  to  determine  the  time  that  elapses  between 
pollination  and  that  event,  and  to  trace  the  development  of  the 
ovules  into  perfect  seeds.  After  explaining  the  structure  of  the 
sexual  apparatus  of  Cattleya  labiata  with  the  aid  of  drawings 
showing  the  separate  parts,  the  processes  following  pollination 
were  dealt  with,  first  from  the  development  of  the  rudiment  into 
the  perfect  ovule,  and  then  the  ripening  of  the  ovules  into  seeds, 
these  processes  being  also  illustrated  by  drawings  made  at 
particular  stages.  A  discussion  followed,  in  which  Mr.  J.  G. 
Baker,  Mr.  H.  N.  Ridley,  and  others  took  part,  and  to  their 
inquiries  for  further  particulars  Mr.  Veitch  replied.  —  The  next 
paper,  by  Mr.  Joseph  S.  Baly,  contained  descriptions  of  new 
species  of  Galerucina,  and  being  of  a  technical  character  was 
taken  as  read. 

Entomological  Society,  February  i. — Dr.  D.  Sharp,  Presi- 
dent, in  tlie  chair. — The  President  nominated  Sir  John  Lubbock, 
Bart.,  M.P.,  F.R.S.,  Mr.  Osbert  Salvin,  F'.R.S.,  and  the  Right 
Hon.  Lord  Walsingham,  F.R.S.,  Vice-Presidents  for  the  session 
1888  to  1889. —Mr.  F.  Pascoe  exhibited  a  species  of  the  Hemi- 
pterous  genus  Ghilianella,  which  he  found  at  Para  with  the  young 
larva.  He  said  it  was  the  only  occasion  he  ever  saw  the  species 
with  the  larva,  which  was  new  to  Mr.  Bates. — Dr.  Sharp  exhibited 
some  insects  collected  by  Mr.  A.  Carson  on  Kavalla,  an  island 
in  Lake  Tanganyika.  The  Coleoptera  were  nearly  all  well- 
known  species,  exemplifying  the  fact  that  many  of  the  commoner 
insects  of  tropical  Africa  have  wide  distribution  there,  some  of 
these  species  being  common  to  both  Natal  and  Senegal.  The  most 
remarkable  of  the  insects  was  a  large  Lepidopterous  caterpillar. — 
Mr.Champion  exhibited  specimens  of  Cajwt'wia^^/mVft,  (EdicJtirus 
nnicolor,  Paussusfavieri,  Colydium  elongattim,  Endophlceus  spin- 
ulosus,  Hetceinus  eirachnoides,  Pseudotrec/ius  mutilatus,  Singilis 
Incolor,  PhyllomorpJia  laciniata,  recently  collected  by  Mr.  J.  J. 
Walker,  R.N.,  at  Gibraltar,  Tetuan,  and  Tangier. — Mr.  R.  South 
exhibited  a  remarkable  variety  of  Polyomniatus  phlaeas,  caught 
by  him  in  North  Devon  in  1881. — Mr.  R.  W.  Lloyd  exhibited 
a  living  specimen  of  a  species  of  Ocnera  from  Ispahan. — Mons. 
A.  Wailly  exhibited,  and  read  notes  on,  a  number  of  cocoons  of 
Antkercea  assamensis,  A.  roylei,  Actias  selene,  and  Attacus  ricini, 
lately  received  from  Assam  ;  also  a  number  of  nests  of  cocoons 


of  Bomhyx  rhadama — the  silk  of  which  is  used  by  the  Ilovas 
in  the  manufacture  of  their  stuffs  called  "  Lam bas  "—from 
Madagascar.— Captain  H.  J.  Elwes  read  a  paper  on  the 
butterflies  of  Sikkim,  the  result  of  many  years'  collecting. 
He  said  he  had  been  enabled  to  complete  his  observations  during 
the  enforced  delay  at  Darjeeling  of  Mr.  Macaulay's  Mission  to 
Thibet,  of  which  he  was  a  member.  He  stated  the  number  of 
species  occurring  in  this  district  to  be  about  530,  which  is  greater 
than  the  number  hitherto  found  in  any  other  locality  in  the  Old 
World.  Of  these  the  greater  part  only  occur  in  the  hot  valleys  at 
an  elevation  of  1000  to  3000  feet,  and  these  are  for  the  most  part 
of  a  purely  Malayan  character,  whilst  those  found  in  the  middle 
zone  are  in  many  cases  peculiar  to  the  Himalayas  ;  and  the  few 
species  from  the  alpine  parts  of  the  country  at  12,000  to  16,000 
feet  are  of  a  European  or  North  Asiatic  type.  An  important 
feature  in  this  paper  was  the  numerous  observations  taken  on 
the  habits,  variation,  seasons  of  appearance,  and  range  of  altitude 
of  the  various  species,  for  which  the  author  said  he  was  largely 
indebted  to  Herr  Otto  Moller,  of  Darjeeling.  The  paper  con- 
cluded with  an  analysis  of  the  species  and  genera  compared  with 
those  found  in  the  North- West  Himalayas  and  in  the  Malay 
Peninsula.  Mr.  J.  H.  Leech,  Dr.  Sharp,  Captain  Elwes,  and 
others  took  part  in  the  discussion  which  ensued. 

Zoological  Society,  February  7.— Prof.  W.  H.  Flower, 
F.R.S.,  President,  in  the  chair. —The  Secretary  read  a  report 
on  the  additions  that  had  been  made  to  the  Society's  menagerie 
during  the  month  of  January. — Mr.  E.  G.  Loder  exhibited  and 
made  remarks  on  a  very  large  African  Elephant's  tusk,  which 
weighed  180  pounds,  and  was,  as  he  believed,  the  largest  tusk 
hitherto  authentically  recorded. — Mr.  A.  Thomson  exhibited  a 
living  specimen  of  the  larval  foi-m  of  Stick-Insect  {Emptisa 
paupcrata)  from  the  Insect  House. — Mr.  G.  A.  Boulenger,  read 
the  third  of  his  series  of  contributions  to  the  herpetology  of 
the  Solomon  Islands.  The  collection  now  described  have  been 
obtained  by  Mr.  C.  M.  Woodford  during  a  visit  to  the  islands 
of  Guadalcanar  and  New  Georgia.  The  author  observed  that 
though  the  collection  contained  over  200  specimens,  only  four 
species  were  thereby  added  to  the  heqietological  list  of  the 
Solomons,  showing  that  our  knowledge  of  that  fauna  was  ap- 
proaching completion. — A  communication  was  read  from  Mr. 
Arthur  G.  Butler,  containing  descriptions  of  some  new  Lepido- 
ptera  from  Kilima-njaro.  Some  of  the  specimens  described 
had  been  collected  by  the  late  Bishop  Hannington,  and  others 
by  Mr.  F.  J.  Jackson. — Mr.  Frank  E.  Beddard  read  a  paper 
upon  certain  points  in  the  visceral  anatomy  of  the  Lacertilia, 
The  paper  dealt  principally  with  Monitor,  in  which  the  presence 
of  a  peritoneal  fold  covering  the  abdominal  viscera  and  separat- 
ing them  from  the  lungs  was  referred  to  ;  this  membrane  was 
compared  with  a  corresponding  structure  in  the  Crocodilia. — 
Mr.  D.  D.  Daly  gave  an  account  of  the  Birds'-nests  Caves  of 
Northern  Borneo,  of  which  no  less  than  fifteen  were  now  known 
to  exist  in  different  parts  of  the  North  Bornean  Company's 
territories.  Most  of  these  were  situated  in  limestone  districts 
in  the  interior,  but  two  of  them  were  in  snadstone  formatit/ns 
near  the  sea-coast. — A  communication  was  read  from  Mr.  R. 
Bowdler  Sharpe,  containing  the  description  of  a  new  species  of 
Tyrant-bird  of  the  genus  Elainea,  from  the  Island  of  Fernando 
Noronha.  This  was  proposed  to  be  'called  E.  ridleyana,  after 
Mr.  H.  N.  Ridley,  who  had  obtained  the  specimens  during  his 
recent  exploration  of  that  island. — Mr.  Osbert  Salvin,  F.R. S. , 
read  a  note  on  Ornithoptera  victories,  from  Guadalcanar  Island 
of  the  Solomon  Group,  and  pointed  out  the  characters  which 
separated  this  species  from  a  closely  allied  form  of  the  Island 
of  Maleite,  proposed  to  be  called  O.  regtnce. 

Geological  Society,  Februarys.— Prof.  J.  W.  Judd,  F.R.S., 
President,  in  the  chair. — The  following  communications  were 
read  : — On  some  remains  of  Sqiiatina  cranei,  sp.  nov.,  and  the 
mandible  of  Belonostomus  cinctiis,  from  the  Chalk  of  Sussex, 
preserved  in  the  collection  of  Mr.  Henry  Willett,  of  the  Brighton 
Museum,  by  Mr.  A.  Smith  Woodward. — On  the  history  and 
characters  of  the  genus  Septastrcea,  D'Orbigny  (1849),  and  the 
identity  of  its  type  species  with  that  of  Glyphastrcca,  Duncan 
(1887),  by  Dr.  George  Jennings  Hinde. — On  the  examination 
of  insoluble  residues  obtained  from  the  Carboniferous  Limestone 
at  Clifton,  by  Mr.  E.  Wethered. 

Royal  Microscopical  Society,  February  8. — Annual 
Meeting. — The  Rev.  Dr.  Dallinger,  F.  R.S.,  President,  in  the 
chair. — The  Report  of  the  Council  was  read,  showing  a  further 
increase  in  the  number  of  Fellows,  and  in  the  revenue  of  the 


432 


NATURE 


{March  i,  1888 


Society. — Mr.  Crisp  referred  to  the  great  loss  the  Society  had 
sustained  by  the  death  of  Dr.  Millar,  who  had  always  taken  a 
lively  interest  in  the  affairs  of  the  Society,  and  for  nearly  thirty 
years  had  been  a  member  of  Council. — Dr.  Dallinger  delivered 
his  annual  address. 

Paris. 

Academy  of  Sciences,  February  20. — M.  Janssen  in  the 
chair. — Third  note  on  the  doctrine  of  probabilities  as  applied  to 
target  practice,  by  M.  J.  Bertrand.  The  object  of  this  paper, 
which  has  been  prepared  at  the  request  of  several  artillery 
officers  specially  interested  in  the  subject,  is  to  present  in  a  form 
capable  of  immediate  application  the  results  already  arrived  at 
asset  forth  in  tlie  previous  communications. — On  the  species  of 
Proneomenia  on  the  coast  of  Provence,  by  MM.  A.  F.  Marion 
and  A.  Kowalevsky.  In  a  previous  note  the  authors  described 
a  new  genus  of  Solenogaster  from  the  Gulf  of  Marseilles  differing 
from  the  Proneomenia  by  its  thorny  integument.  Here  he 
describes  four  distinct  species  of  the  genus  Proneomenia  which 
occur  on  the  coast  of  Provence,  and  which  present  features  by 
which  they  may  be  readily  distinguished  from  P.  shiiteri 
described  by  Hubrecht.  These  species,  none  of  which  exceed 
15mm.  in  length,  are  respectively  named/",  vagans,  P.  caulini, 
P.  desiderata,  and  P.  aglaophenitE.  Incidental  reference  is 
made  to  a  fifth  species  {P.  gorgonophila)  discovered  on  the  coast 
of  Algeria. — Observations  of  the  new  planet  Charlois,  272,  made 
at  the  Observatory  of  Algiers  with  the  0'5o  m.  telescope,  by 
MM.  Rambaud  and  Sy.  The  observations  for  right  ascension, 
declination,  apparent  position,  &c.,  extend  over  the  period 
February  lo-ii. — Observations  of  the  same  planet  are  also 
recorded  for  February  8-13  made  at  the  Observatory  of  Mar- 
seilles with  the  Eichens  equatorial,  by  M.  Borrelly. — Permanent 
deformations  and  thermodynamics  (continued),  by  M.  Marcel 
Brillouin.  The  chief  subjects  here  discussed  are  the  principle 
of  equivalence,  specific  and  latent  heats,  and  the  differential 
relations  between  the  specific  heats. — On  the  electrostatic 
attraction  of  electrodes  in  water  and  attenuated  solutions,  by 
M.  Gouy.  The  theory  of  the  propagation  of  electricity  in 
the  permanent  state  suggests  the  presence  of  free  electricity 
during  the  passage  of  the  current,  not  only  on  the  outer 
surface  of  the  conductors,  but  also  on  the  surface  separat- 
ing two  conductors  of  different  specific  resistance,  the 
electric  force  necessarily  having  different  values  on  either  side 
of  this  surface.  The  author  here  endeavonrs  to  ascertain 
whether  this  hypothetic  layer  of  free  electricity  on  the  contact 
surface  might  be  capable  of  exercising  any  electrostatic  action-. 
For  this  purpose  he  studies  the  case  of  two  metallic  conductors 
placed  in  a  moderately  conducting  liquid  and  maintained  by  a 
pile  with  different  potentials,  in  order  to  determine  how  far  they 
may  be  acted  upon  by  appreciable  forces.  His  experiments  seem 
to  show  that  these  forces  really  exist,  and  are  in  fact  much  mo::e 
considerable  than  could  have  been  foreseen. — On  the  coefficients 
of  proportionality  in  radiating  heat,  by  M.  L.  Godard.  The 
experiments  here  described  seem  to  show  that  the  coefficients  of 
proportionality  given  by  the  study  of  the  diffusion  of  heat,  and 
confirmed  by  the  spectro-photometric  an'alysis  of  coloured  sub- 
stances, are  the  same  as  the  numbers  obtained  by  M.  L.  Mouton 
in  his  researches  on  the  distribution  of  heat  in  the  normal 
spectrum  of  the  sun. — Preparation  and  properties  of  a  bi-hydro- 
fluate  and  of  a  tri-hydrofluate  of  fluoride  of  potassium,  by  M.  H. 
Moissan.  While  hydrochloric  acid  yields  with  difficulty  the 
hydrochlorates  of  chlorides,  hydrofluoric  acid  combines  readily 
with  the  neutral  fluorides  to  produce  hydrofluates  of  the  general 
formula  KFl,  HFl.  But  these  compounds,  including  i  equi- 
valent of  hydrofluoric  acid,  are  not  the  only  ones  that  may  be 
obtained,  at  least  with  the  alkaline  metals.  The  author  has 
succeeded  in  preparing  two  new  combinations  containing  2  and 
3  equivalents  of  acid  for  i  of  fluoride  of  potassium.  These 
ombinations,  abounding  in  hydrofluoric  acid,  and  capable  of 
being  kept  in  the  fluid  state  at  temperatures  ranging  from 
65°  to  105°  C,  may  perhaps  under  certain  conditions  en- 
able the  hydrofluoric  acid  to  react  readily  on  a  certain 
number  of  organic  or  mineral  compounds. — On  a  new 
reagent  of  the  products  of  saponification  of  cotton-oil,  by 
M.  Ernest  Milliau.  The  chemical  reagent  here  described, 
which  is  not  observed  in  the  fatty  acids  of  olive-oil,  is  so  sen- 
sitive that  by  its  means  the  presence  may  easily  be  detected  of 
1  per  cent,  of  cotton-oil  in  olive-oil.  All  risk  of  error  is  re- 
moved, as  the  operation  is  effected,  not  on  the  oil  itself,  but  on 
the  fatty  acids  free  from  all  impurity.  Science  has  thus  supplied 
the  long  sought-for  means  of  infallibly  detecting  any  adultera- 


tion of  olive-oil  by  cotton-oil  in  the  proportion  of  from  5  to 
20  per  cent.,  as  is  usually  practised  in  the  trade. — On  the  essence 
of  lavender,  by  MM.  R.  Voiry  and  G.  Bouchardat.  The  results 
of  the  analysis  of  this  essence  differ  in  some  respects  from  those 
hitherto  published.  The  authors  have  determined  the  presence 
of  an  oxygenated  compound  identical  with  eucalyptol,  and  the 
almost  complete  absence  of  carburets  of  hydrogen. — The  sardine 
fisheries  on  the  west  coast  of  France  in  1S87,  by  M.  Georges 
Pouchet.  Last  year  was  characterized  by  an  extreme  abundance 
of  sardine  on  the  French  fishing-grounds,  at  the  very  time  when 
the  most  opposite  reasons  were  being  advanced  to  account  for  a 
supposed  gradual  disappearance  of  the  species  from  the  French 
waters.  On  this  point  nothing  positive  can  be  asserted  in  the 
absence  of  any  accurate  knowledge  of  the  migrations  and  spawn- 
ing-grounds of  the  sardine. — On  the  Quaternary  station  of  La 
Quiiia,  Charente,  by  M.  Emile  Riviere.  This  station  of  pre- 
historic man,  which  lies  near  the  banks  of  the  Voultron  in  the 
Canton  of  La  Valette,  has  recently  been  carefully  explored  by 
the  author,  who  agrees  with  M.  Chauvet  in  assigning  it  to  the 
Mousterian  (reindeer)  epoch.  The  animal  remains  include  the 
cave-bear,  jackal,  wild  cat,  horse,  Bos  pninigeiiius,  Ceivtis 
elephas,  and  especially  the  reindeer,  in  great  abundance.  No 
human  bones  were  found,  but  there  is  an  abundance  of  chipped 
flints,  some  very  fine,  and  evidently  worked  on  the  spot. 

BOOKS,  PAMPHLETS,  and  SERIALS  RECEIVED. 

Navigation  and  Nautical  Astronomy  :  W.  R.  Martin  (Longmans). — Tfie 
Method  of  Creation  :  H.  W.  Crosskey  (Sunday  Sch.  Assn.). — Elementary 
Physiography :  J.  Thornton  (Longmans). — Life  in  Corea  :  W.  R.  Carles 
(Macmillan), — Discursive  Essays  on  the  Phenomena  of  the  Heavens  and 
Physical  History  of  the  Earth,  Part  i  (London  Literary  Society) — Techno- 
logical Dictionary,  3  vols..  English.  German,  and  French:  Rohrig  and 
Schiller  (Triibner).  —  Emin  Pasha  in  Central  Africa  (Philip). — Das  Antlitz 
der  Erde,  vol.  ii.  :  E.  Suess  (Tempsky,  Wien).— Jahrbuch  der  k.  k.  Geolo- 
gischen  Reichsanstalt,  Jahrg.  1887,  x.xxvii.  Band,  2  Heft;  Abhandlungen 
der  k  k.  Geologischen  Reichsanstalt,  Jahrg.  ibSy,  xi.  Band,  2  Abthg. 
(Wien). — Industrial  Instruction:  R.  Seidel  (Heath,  Boston).— The  Manual 
Training  School:  C.  M.  Woodward  (Heath,  Boston). — A  Pocket-book  of 
Electrical  Rules  and  Tables,  5th  Edition  :  Munro  and  Jamieson  (Griffin). 
— ii.  Jahresbericht  (1886)  der  Ornithologischen  Beobachtungstationen  im 
Konigreich  Sachsen  :  Dr.  A.  B.  Meyer  and  Dr.  F.  Helm  (Dresden). 

CONTENTS.  PAGE 

Phys'cal  Science  and  the  Woolwich  Examinations  .  409 
Tea  Cultivation  in  India.      By  J.  R.  Royle     ....    409 

Living  Lights      411 

Our  Book  Shelf  :— 

Battershall  :   "  Food  Adulteration  and  its  Detection  "    411 

Pinkerton  :  "  Dynamics  and  Hydrostatics  " 412 

Hughes:    "  Geography  for  Schools  " 412 

Hunter:    "  Key  to  Todhunter's  Differential  Calcidus  "    412 
Bottone :    "Electrical   Instrument  Making  for  Ama- 
teurs"   412 

Letters  to  the  Editor  : — 

Language  —  Reason. — Prof.  F.  Max  Miiller    .    .    .    412 
"Coral  Formations."— John  Murray  ;  Prof.  G.  C. 

Bourne 414 

Natural  Science  and  the  Woolwich  Examinations. — 

Henry  Palin  Gurney 415 

International  Tables.— Robert  H.  Scott,  F.R.S.    .    415 
Weight  and  Mass.— Prof.  T.  C.   Mendenhall ;  Dr. 

Oliver  J.  Lodge,  F.R.S 416 

The  Composition  of  Water. —Dr.  Sydney  Young     .    416 
On    the    Divisors    of    the    Sum    of  a   Geometrical 
Series  whose  First  Term  is   Unity  and    Common 
Ratio  any  Positive  or  Negative  Integer.    By  Prof, 

J.  J.  Sylvester,  F.R.S.      417 

Lord  Rayleigh  on  the  Relative  Densities  of  Hydro- 
gen and  Oxygen 418 

Notes      421 

Our  Astronomical  Column : — 

Solar  Activity  in  1887 423 

A  New  Comet • 424 

Astronomical     Phenomena     for     the     Week     1888 

March  4-10 424 

The  Relations  between  Geology  and  the  Biological 

Sciences.     II.     By  Prof.  John  W.  Judd,  F.R.S.    .    424 
On  the  Number  of   Dust  Particles    in    the    Atmo- 
sphere.    By  John  Aitken 428 

University  and  Educational  Intelligence  > 430 

Societies  and  Academies 430 

Books,  Pamphlets,  and  Serials  Received    .....    432 


NA TURE 


433 


THURSDAY,   MARCH    8,  li 


PHYSICAL    SCIENCE  AND    THE   WOOLWICH 
EXAMINA  TIONS. 

TIJE  are  interested  to  learn  that  the  views  we  have 
*  *  expressed  on  this  subject  are  probably  shared  by 
representatives  of  military  opinion  ;  for  we  are  informed 
that  the  treatment  of  scientific  candidates  for  Line  cadet- 
ships,  under  the  similar  regulations  for  admission  to 
Sandhurst  that  were  introduced  in  1884,  met  with  a  very 
unfavourable  reception  from  at  least  one  of  the  service 
journals.  At  the  time  of  their  introduction,  the  Army 
and  Navy  Gazette  pointed  out,  as  we  have  done,  the 
serious  objections  that  exist  to  giving  modern  languages  so 
great  an  ascendency  as  is  allotted  to  them  in  the  present 
Sandhurst  competitions.  All  that  was  said  on  this  sub- 
ject in  1884  applies  with  much  greater  force  to  the 
proposed  mode  of  selecting  officers  for  the  scientific 
branches  of  the  Army.  We  do  not  underrate  the 
value  of  modern  languages  to  soldiers,  or  to  any 
other  class,  but  an  education  in  which  mathematics 
and  modern  languages  occupy  so  dominant  a  posi- 
tion as  they  are  likely  to  possess  in  the  education  of 
many  of  the  successful  Woolwich  cadets  of  the  future  ^  is 
scarcely  more  defensible  than  would  be  the  adoption  now 
of  the  purely  classical  training  of  former  years.  We 
trust,  therefore,  that  no  pains  will  be  spared  by  those 
who  are  interested  in  this  question  to  further  the  efforts 
that  are  being  made  to  bring  about  the  adoption  of  a 
more  liberal  scheme,  which  shall  encourage  early 
specializing  on  the  part  of  the  candidates  to  a  less 
degree,  and  be  more  just  to  the  particular  class  whose 
claims  we  have  urged. 

These  regulations  seem  calculated  to  perpetuate  the 
system  of  education  of  which  it  has  been  repeatedly 
complained  that  "it  has  too  much  to  do  with  books  and 
too  little  to  do  with  things  "  ;  and,  apart  from  their  unfair- 
ness, they  will  tie  the  hands  of  those  head  masters  who 
are  willing,  or  even  anxious,  to  adapt  the  work  of  their 
schools  to  the  needs  of  the  times,  by  forcing  upon  them 
a  narrow  curriculum  of  which  they  do  not  approve.  This 
is  not  only  unfortunate  but  unnecessary,  for  there  is  no 
real  obstacle  in  the  way  of  formulating  a  scheme  of 
examination  that  shall  both  give  fair  play  to  all  the  can- 
didates, and  leave  the  hands  of  the  teachers  compara- 
tively unshackled. 

Much  as  the  claims  of  science  are  still  underrated  by 
the  unthinking  among  us,  it  was  hardly  to  be  expected 
that  the  representatives  of  a  scientific  profession  would 
sanction  regulations  which  will  tend  to  prevent  the  admis- 
sion to  that  profession  of  youths  of  scientific  power,  and 
which  are  also  calculated  to  discourage  any  element  of 
science  teaching  in  the  previous  education  of  those  who 
may  wish  to  join  it.  Complaints  of  the  absence  of  such 
training  are  familiar  enough,  and  regulations  intended  to 
encourage  such  preliminary  work  are  not  uncommon.  This 
adds  not  a  little  to  our  surprise  at  the  proposals  of  the  War 
Office  Committee.     We  regret  to  perceive  in  them  a  fresh  ; 

'  Since  mathematical  and  modern  languages  will  count  for  12. coo  marks 
out  of  a  maximum  of  16.500,  and  as  about  5000  will  be  suffic  ent  for  success 
in  future,  it  is  not  unlike'y  that  many  candidates  may  deem  it  safest  or 
easiest  to  almost  confine  their  studies  to  these  two  branches. 


Vol.  XXXVII. — No.  958. 


illustration  of  the  tendency  of  Examining  Boards  to 
sacrifice  the  interests  of  the  examined  to  a  desire  for 
simplicity  in  their  schemes  of  examination,  a  tendency 
that  constitutes  a  source  of  serious  danger  to  proper 
freedom  of  education  in  these  days,  when  admission  to 
all  the  higher  avocations  is  so  jealously  guarded  by 
competitive  or  qualifying  examinations. 

In  the  discussion  of  this  subject  that  has  occurred  in 
our  columns  a  statement  has  been  made,  and  repeated, 
by  one  of  our  correspondents,  that  requires  notice.  We 
allude  to  the  contention  that  chemistry,  physics,  and 
geology  are  not  good  educational  subjects  for  boys  under 
sixteen  years  of  age.  This  is  a  statement  with  which  very 
few  who  have  given  these  sciences  a  fair  trial  will  agree  ; 
moreover,  it  is  not  pertinent  to  the  question  under 
discussion.  Successful  candidates  for  the  Woolwich 
cadetships  are,  we  believe,  on  an  average,  not  much 
less  than  seventeen  and  a  half  years  of  age,  and  in 
future  the  average  of  age  is  more  likely  to  rise  than 
to  fall  in  consequence  of  the  increased  severity  of 
the  examination  in  obligatory  mathematics.  No  liberal- 
minded  man  will  deny  that  the  above-named  sciences  are 
exceedingly  good  educational  subjects,  between  the  ages 
of  fifteen  and  seventeen  and  a  half  years,  in  the  case  of 
those  who  have  ability  and  liking  for  them,  by  whom 
alone  they  will  as  a  rule  be  studied  among  the  candidates 
for  Woolwich.  Of  course  there  are  some  for  whom  such 
studies  are  unfitted,  but  we  very  much  doubt  whether 
the  military  authorities  will  greatly  regret  the  rejection 
of  such  as  these.  Their  powers  are  likely  to  be  more 
profitably  employed  in  other  directions. 

If  we  may  judge  from  the  memorandum  lately  issued 
with  the  Army  Estimates  by  Mr.  Stanhope,  we  may  con- 
clude that  the  present  time  affords  a  good  opportunity  for 
urging  upon  his  notice  the  thoroughly  unpractical  cha- 
racter of  the  proposed  changes.  The  frankness  with 
which  Mr.  Stanhope  admits  other  deficiencies  in  the 
system  of  our  military  administration  encourages  the 
expectation  that  in  this  matter  also  he  will  act  with  an 
equal  degree  of  practical  sense,  and  that  it  will  not  be 
long  before  we  shall  hear  that  the  efforts  of  those  who 
have  taken  up  this  matter  are  bearing  fruit. 


PROFESSOR  FLEEMING  JENKIN. 
Papers,  Literary,  Scientific,  &'c.,  by  the  late  Fleeming 
Jenkin,  F.R.S.,  LL.D.  Edited  by  Sidney  Colvin,  M.A., 
and  J.  A.  Ewing,  F.R.S.  With  a  Memoir  by  Robert 
Louis  Stevenson.  2  vols.  (London  ;  Longmans,  Green, 
and  Co.,  1887.) 

THIS  is  a  work  of  great  interest  to  many  classes  of 
scientific  men,  as  well  as  to  the  public  at  large.  Its 
contents  are  of  an  extremely  varied  character.  Readers 
of  Nature,  as  such,  are  not  deeply  concerned  with  dis- 
cussions of  Female  Dress  in  ancient  Greece,  with  Rhythm 
in  English  verse,  or  with  the  characteristics  of  Mrs. 
Siddons  as  an  actress.  Nor  will  they,  as  a  body,  care 
much  for  the  merits  and  demerits  of  Trade  L'^nions,  the 
relations  of  Supply  and  Demand,  or  other  branches  of  the 
would-be  science  called  Political  Economy.  The  literary 
and  economic  Journals,  on  the  other  hand,  will  probably 
regard  these  as  among  the  more  valuable  contents  of  these 
volumes. 

U 


434 


NATURE 


{March  8,  1888 


But  the  Biographical  Sketch  of  Prof.  Jenkin  is  of  high 
interest  to  all  : — first,  because  it  traces  the  successive  ad- 
vances made  by  the  indomitable  perseverance  of  a  brave 
man  in  his  protracted  struggles  against  difficulties  of  no 
common  order  : — secondly,  because  it  is  the  work  of  one 
of  the  most  remarkable  writers  of  our  time,  who  has  thus 
given  fresh  proof  of  the  versatility  of  his  genius.  The 
result,  however,  cannot  we  think  be  looked  on  as  wholly 
satisfactory  by  those  who  really  knew  Prof.  Jenkin.  The 
power  displayed  in  the  narrative  is  unquestionable,  the 
various  characters  stand  forward  in  clear-cut  outline,  and 
we  seem  to  see  them  act  out  their  lives  before  us  as  we 
read.  But  the  weird  imagination  of  the  writer  has  proved 
too  much  for  him,  and  some  of  his  "  situations "  are 
altogether  overcharged. 

The  late  Prof.  Jenkin  was  essentially  a  frank,  straight- 
forward, hard-working,  clear-headed,  practical  scientific 
man  : — and  it  is  in  this  capacity  that  he  will  be  held  in 
honourable  remembrance  by  the  scientific  world.  What 
was  the  character  of  his  grandmother,  or  what  forms  of 
relaxation  he  himself  sought  from  study  or  business,  are 
matters  of  infinitely  less  importance.  Scientific  men  would 
have  been  glad  to  learn  many  things  not  mentioned 
here  : — e.g.  the  secret  of  his  singularly  methodical  manage- 
ment of  complicated  correspondence  : — for  it  is  in  such 
matters  that  they  are,  as  a  rule,  most  sorely  tried  as  well 
as  most  miserably  inefficient.  But  his  Biographer  is  a 
true  Artist,  for  whom  business,  method,  and  even  science 
itself  have  no  attractions  ;  except  in  so  far  as  they  may 
serve  occasionally  to  heighten  the  lights  or  to  darken  the 
shadows  of  an  ideal  picture.  And  it  must  be  acknow- 
ledged that  Mr.  Stevenson  has,  in  a  very  remarkable 
degree,  succeeded  in  the  work  as  he  understood  it ;  viz. 
jn  tracing  the  behaviour  of  that  wholly  unscientific  (and 
therefore  imaginary)  structureless  germ  which  renders 
"  the  biography  of  the  man  ....  only  an  episode  in  the 
"  epic  of  the  family." 

We  are  introduced  at  starting  to  a  powerful  but  re- 
pulsive sketch  of  a  family  of  country  bumpkins,  sots  and 
sorners  :— culminating  in  a  weak  but  handsome  and  well- 
meaning  midshipman  of  "a  simplicity  that  came  near  to 
"  vacancy."  He  married,  in  the  West  Indies,  the  daughter 
of  a  somewhat  lively  lady  who  "would  tie  her  house  slaves 
"to  the  bed  and  lash  them  with  her  own  hand."  Of  the 
daughter  we  are  told  that,  on  occasion,  she  exhibited 
"  characteristic  barbarity."  The  domestic  fate  of  the 
poor  midshipman  can  of  course  be  foreseen.  "  His  wife, 
"  impatient  of  his  incapacity  and  surrounded  by  brilliant 
"  friends,  used  him  with  a  certain  contempt.  She  was  the 
"  managing  partner  ;  the  life  was  hers,  not  his  ;  after  his 
"  retirement  they  lived  much  abroad,  where  the  poor 
"  Captain,  who  could  never  learn  any  language  but  his 
"  own,  sat  in  the  corner  mumchance  ;  and  even  his  son, 
"  carried  away  by  his  bright  mother,  did  not  recognize 
"for  long  the  treasures  of  simple  chivalry  that  lay  buried 
"in  the  heart  of  his  father." 

Such,  we  are  told,  were  the  parents  of  Professor 
Jenkin.  Now  we  would  ask  in  all  earnestness  cui  bono  ? 
What  class  of  readers  is  likely  to  be  the  better  of  such 
information  as  this  ?  Surely  such  things,  if  such  there 
Avere,  ought  to  have  been  passed  over  in  silence,  or  at 
least  reserved  to  adorn,  incognito,  a  new  sensational 
narrative  of  the  Jekyll  and  Hyde,  or  Dynamiter,  type  ! 


This  powerful  but  cold-blooded  description  of  monsters, 
and  their  atrocities,  is  succeeded  by  another  quite  as 
realistic  whose  motif  is  the  struggle  for  existence  on  the 
part  of  the  impecunious  parents.  Here,  however,  we 
find  some  relief  in  the  frank  boyish  letters  from  young 
Jenkin,  describing  to  an  old  school-fellow  what  he  saw  in 
Paris  in  the  memorable  days  of  1848,  For  a  few  pages 
the  merciless  scalpel  is  allowed  to  remain  inactive  : — only 
to  be  applied  again  with  fresh  vigour,  but  now  to  Prof. 
Jenkin  himself.  All  who  knew  him  were  aware  that  in 
the  course  of  his  singularly  errant  career  he  had  lived 
much  and  happily  with  rough  working  men,  and  that  he 
had  made  no  great  efforts  to  acquire  that  artificial  veneer 
of  "  manners "  (as  it  is  called)  which  often  serves  the 
vilest  of  our  race  as  a  passport  into  "  Society."  But 
surely  a  single  sentence  on  the  subject  would  have  suf- 
ficed any  reasonable  biographer  !  Why  this  Pre- 
Raphaelite  minuteness  and  copiousness  of  detail,  except 
to  add  to  the  miserable  heap  of  "  Things  one  would 
rather  not  have  said"?  We  gladly  leave  this  aspect  of 
the  book  with  the  remark  that  it  affords  fresh  proof  that 
literary  men,  even  of  the  highest  rank,  are  not  necessarily 
qualified  to  be  writers  of  biography,  specially  of  scientific 
biography. 

But  there  are  statements  of  a  darker  stamp,  such  as  in 
fact  tend  to  impeach  the  sterling  honesty  which  was  one 
of  the  prominent  features  of  Jenkin's  character.  The 
Biographer's  story  of  his  Class  Certificate  in  Engineer- 
ing will,  we  are  certain,  find  no  credence  vv  ith  any  one 
who  knew  Prof.  Jenkin.  Under  the  conditions  stated, 
nothing  worthy  the  name  of  certificate  could  have  been 
given  by  him.  The  story  is  susceptible,  however,  of  an 
easy  explanation.  The  Biographer  has  already  told  a 
similar  tale  of  himself  regarding  his  relations  to  another 
of  the  Edinburgh  Professors.  We  have  therefore  only 
a  recurrence  of  one  of  those  half  sportive,  half  serious, 
fits  of  introspection  which  form  part  of  his  literary  art. 
Still,  we  do  not  like  to  meet  with  such  things  in  such  a 
connexion. 

An  exceedingly  interesting  and  graphic  chapter  gives,  in 
Jenkin's  own  words,  a  sketch  of  the  busy  times  he  had 
in  laying  and  lifting  submarine  cables  in  the  Mediterra- 
nean and  in  the  Atlantic.  His  capacity  for  hard  work, 
and  his  readiness  of  resource,  appear  at  once  from  this 
singularly  modest  narrative.  Appended  to  the  Biography 
we  have  a  brief  but  comprehensive  summary  of  Jenkin's 
electrical  work,  drawn  up  by  Sir  William  Thomson. 
From  this  we  cannot  make  extracts.  It  must  be  read  as 
a  whole.  Col.  Fergusson  has  added  an  excellent  sketch  of 
Jenkin's  services  to  general  sanitation.  Had  Jenkin  done 
nothing  but  this,  his  name  would  still  be  well  worthy  of 
remembrance  as  that  of  a  signal  benefactor  of  humanity. 

The  othsr  contents  of  these  volumes,  so  far  as  they 
can  be  discussed  here,  consist  of  reprints  of  some  of 
Jenkin's  published  papers.  Particularly  interesting  and 
valuable  are  two  from  the  North  British  Review  :—\h& 
first  on  Lucretius,  a?id  the  Atomic  Theory,  the  second  on 
Darwin,  and  the  Origin  of  Species.  Both  have  important 
bearings  on  questions  at  present  prominently  before  the 
public,  so  that  it  is  specially  convenient  to  have  them  in 
this  easily  accessible  form.  From  the  second  we  quote 
but  a  single  sentence,  of  itself  quite  sufficient  to  confirn^ 
the  above  statements : — 


March  8.  1888] 


NATURE 


435 


"Any  one  of  the  main  pleas  of  our  argument,  if 
"  established,  is  fatal  to  Darwin's  theory." 

This  is  not,  as  some  might  hastily  suppose,  the  sqlfr 
la,wdation  of  a  flippant  '*  paper-scientist " ;  it  is  the  de- 
liberate statement  of  a  clear-headed  man  who  took 
nothing  for  granted,  and  who  never  wrote  on  anything 
till  he  felt  convinced  that  he  understood  it. 

We  next  come  to  a  thoroughly  practical  Essay  on 
Scientific  and  Technical  Education,  a  subject  on  which 
Jenkin  was  peculiarly  qualified  to  speak.  The  following 
extract  may  be  taken  as  a  specimen.  Jenkin  has  been 
alluding  to  the  willing  and  valuable  assistance  which  a 
Teacher  often  receives  from  his  higher  practical  students 
in  conducting  some  new  research ;  and  proceeds  to 
say :— ^ 

"The  rank  and  file— the  ordinary  well-meaning  student 
"who  will  never  become  a  leading  light  in  science  — is 
"  worthy  of  our  attention.     If  he  is  well  educated  he  may 
"  become  a  successful  manufacturer,  contractor,  engineer, 
"  or  farmer,  and  sensibly  increase  the  power  an. i  wealth 
"  of  our  country.     It  seems  to  me  that  this  student  is  not 
"  so  well  provided  for   in  our  scientific  teaching  as  is 
"  desirable.     And  the  main  question  I   propose  for  dis- 
"  cussion  is,  how  we  are  to  improve  the  education  of  this 
"  second-best  young  man.     My  own  answer  put  briefly, 
"  is   that  we   can   teach   him   systematically  the   art  of 
"  measurement.      We   cannot  give  him   the  hunger  for 
"  knowledge,   the   acute   logical    discrimination,  nor  the 
"  imaginative  faculty  required  for  research  ;  but  we  can 
"teach  him  how  to  ascertain  and  record  facts  accurately; 
"  we  can  bring  home  to  him  the  truth  that  no  scientific 
"  knowledge  is  definite  except  that  based  on  the  numeri- 
"  cal  comparison  which  we  call  measurement  ;    we  can 
"  teach  him  the  best  modes  of  making  that  compai-ison 
"  in  respect  of  a  vast  number  of  magnitudes,  and  in  teach- 
"  ing  this  we  shall  teach  him  to  use  his  hands  and  eyes. 
"  This  practical  teaching  gives  clear  conceptions  to  the 
"  minds   of  many  who  receive  a  verbal  definition  as  a 
"  mere  string  of  dead  words.     I  should  be  glad  if  it  were 
"generally  proclaimed  that  the  elementary  training  in  all 
"  our  science  laboratories  should  be  a  training  in  the  art 
"of  measurement.     I  wish  that  the  classes  were  called 
"  measurement  classes.     Then  a  student  of  ordinary  in- 
*.'  telligence  would  know  that  by  entering  a  given  class  he 
"would   learn    how  t-o  measure  those    magnitudes  with 
^'  which  he  will  have  to  deal  in  after  life.     The  attempt  to 
''  measure  them  will  lead  him  to  consider  their  nature, 
"  and  he  will  approach  scientific  study  in  the  classroom 
"  with  a  faith  in  the  reality  of  science  which  no  verbal 
"exhortation  will  ever  give  him.     You  may  define  the 
"  absolute  unit  of  electrical  resistance  as  accurately  as 
*'  you  will,  and  your  definition  shall  affect  the  average 
"  brain   to  no   perceptible  extent ;  but  a  young  man  of 
"very  ordinary  education  and  intelligence  can  learn  to 
"  measure  resistances  in  ohms,  and  having  learnt  this,  an 
"  ohm  becomes  a  reality  to  him.      Not  only  does   the 
^'  knowledge  he  has  acquired  make  him  a  more  valuable 
"assistant   to  the   engineer  and  contractor,  but  having 
"  acquired  a  working  faith  in  the  existence  of  ohms,  he 
^'is  prepared  to  take    some  trouble  to   understand   the 
^'scientific  definition." 

Prof.  Ewing  reprints  in  full,  in  the  last  division  of  the 
work,  three  characteristic  papers  selected  from  Prof. 
Jenkin's  writings  on  Applied  Science : — and  he  gives  in 
brief  but  clear  abstract,  and  with  full  references,  the  con- 
tents of  all.  This  part  of  the  work  seems  to  be  very  well 
done,  and  it  forms  a.  sort  of  commentary  on,  as  well  as 
■complement  of,  the  short  article  of  Sir  W,.  Thomson's 


to  which  we  have  already  alluded.  These  handsome 
volumes  will  be  specially  welcomed  by.  practical  scientific 
men,  but  as  we  said  at  starting,  there  is  much  in  them  of 
interest  and  value  to  all.  P.  G.  T. 


Oil,  ON  TROUBLED   WATERS. 
Le  Filage  de  VHuile.      Par   le  Vice-Amiral    G.   Cloud. 
(Paris  :   Gauthier-Villars,  1887.) 

THAT  the  great  effect  produced  by  oil  in  smoothing 
troubled  waters  should  have  been  so  well  known  in 
times  past  as  to  have  passed  into  a  proverb,  and  yet  that 
no  general  practical  use  of  this  effect  should  have  been 
made  until  the  last  few  years,  is  a  remarkable  instance  of 
the  tardiness  of  mankind  to  apply  the  benefits  that  natural 
phenomena  provide.  To  the  Hydrographic  Office  of  the 
United  States  is  mainly  due  the  credit  of  bringing  into 
prominence,  and  forcing  on  the  notice  of  seamen,  in 
various  publications,  the  great  importance  of  this  property 
of  oil  under  circumstances  when  life  and  property  are 
endangered  by  breaking  seas,  and  the  extreme  facility  and 
trifling  expense  of  its  employment.  Thanks  to  the  efforts 
of  the  Americans,  the  facts  are  now  well  known  to  all 
English-speaking  mariners,  and  many  are  the  instances 
of  the  successful  use  of  oil  ;  but,  nevertheless,  the 
prejudices  of  many  are  still  against  it. 

The  Admiralty,  in  1886,  issued  a  memorandum  on  the 
subject  to  the  fleet,  largely  founded  on  the  American 
publications.  Admiral  Cloud  has  done  a  like  service  for 
his  countrymen,  and  has  written  the  best  and  most  com- 
plete essay  on  the  subject,  in  the  little  brochia-c  before  us. 
Drawing  on  the  mass  of  experiences  collected  by  the 
American  Office,  and  giving  them  due  credit  for  their 
action,  he  reports  additional  striking  cases  which  have 
occurred  during  the  last  year  or  two,  and  suggests  many 
practical  means  of  employing  oil  under  circumstances 
other  than  those  yet  tried,  or  where  it  has  to  some  extent 
failed. 

The  facts  are  briefly  these.  In  the  heaviest  gales  at 
sea,  when  breaking  seas  are  a  source  of  danger  to  small 
or  heavily  laden  vessels,  or  an  inconvenience  and  dis- 
comfort to  larger  or  more  seaworthy  ones,  a  very  small 
quantity  of  oil,  skilfully  applied  to  suit  the  circumstances, 
spreads  upon  the  surface  of  the  water  with  marvellous 
rapidity,  and  forms  a  perfect  breakwater,  the  raging  waves 
being  instantaneously  transformed  into  a  harmless  swell, 
which  quietly  lifts  the  shjp  without  any  of  the  violent 
shocks  and  blows  caused  by  the  impact  of  an  almost  wall- 
like  mass  of  water  about  to  break.  vSpray  alone  comes 
on  board  in  place  of  the  sheets  of  water  and  green  seas 
which  often  do  so  much  damage.  Admiral  Cloud  calcu- 
lates, from  a  number  of  instances  where  the  quantity  of 
oil  used  and  the  speed  of  the  vessel  are  given,  that  the 
film  of  oil  which  causes  this  marvellous  and  beneficent 
effect  can  be  Hltle  more  than  1/100,000  of  a  millimetre  in 
thickness  ! 

Experience  already  goes  to  show  that  a  small  quantity 
of  oil  is  more  efficacious  than  a  free  appHcation  of  it,  the 
film  apparently  spreading  more  quickly.  Less  than  half 
a  gallon  an  hour  seems  to  secure  the  largest  ship.  fr«m 
being  boarded  by  the  wayes. 

The  ordinary  method  of  its  application  is  to  hang  small 
canvas  bags,  containing  about  a  couple  of  gallons  of  oil,  so 


436 


NATURE 


IMarck  8,  1888 


as  to  dangle  or  float  on  the  water,  the  bags  being  pierced 
with  small  holes  by  a  sail  needle,  through  which  the  oil 
slowly  exudes.  These  bags  are  placed  in  different  positions, 
according  to  whether  the  ship  is  flying  before  the  tempest, 
or  lying-to  comparatively  motionless.  This  simple  appli- 
ance is  therefore  within  the  means  of  every  ship,  and 
there  can  be  little  doubt  that  already  many  vessels  owe 
their  immunity  from  damage,  and  in  some  cases  even  their 
safety,  to  its  employment. 

Among  remarkable  instances  of  saving  life,  is  one,  cited 
by  Admiral  Cloue,  of  the  boats  of  a  ship  burnt  in  1885, 
800  miles  from  the  Seychelles  Islands,  in  which  the  crew 
were  making  their  way  to  land.  A  cyclone  was  encoun- 
tered, which  raised  a  terrific  sea,  but  the  boats,  provided 
with  oil  by  the  prescience  of  the  captain,  weathered  it  out 
in  perfect  safety  for  sixty  hours,  riding  to  a  floating 
anchor  of  their  masts  and  oars,  to  which  was  attached 
a  bag  of  oil. 

Our  author  points  out  that  from  the  time  of  Pliny  oil 
has  been  thus  used,  but  only  by  small  communities,  or 
by  individuals,  whose  efforts  to  bring  it  into  general 
use  have  always  failed.  Benjamin  Franklin  presented  a 
paper  on  the  subject  to  the  Royal  Society  of  London, 
which  is  printed  in  the  Philosophical  Transactions,  1774, 
but  it  remained  without  fruit. 

Experiments  were  carried  out  in  this  country  in  1883 
by  Mr.  Shields,  at  Peterhead  and  Folkestone,  with  a  view 
of  diminishing  the  heavy  sea  at  the  entrance  of  these 
harbours.  These  experiments  were  successful,  but  at  the 
expense  of  a  great  quantity  of  oil ;  the  fact  being  that  the 
conditions  of  breaking  seas  in  shallow  water  are  totally 
different  from  those  in  the  open  ocean. 

Admiral  Cloue  remarks  on  the  great  utility  of  oil  when 
wrecks  have  to  be  boarded  ;  and  suggests  that  the  builders 
of  rock  lighthouses,  when  their  work  is  delayed  by  the 
difficulty  of  landing  material,  might  find  it  to  be  of  much 
service. 

The  general  application  of  oil  is  in  fact  yet  in  its  in- 
fancy, and  everyone  must  welcome  any  such  good  collection 
of  facts,  and  of  suggestions  tending  to  extend  its  sphere 
of  usefulness,  as  that  given  in  "  Le  Filage  de  I'Huile." 

W.  J.  L.  Wharton. 


OUR  BOOK  SHELF. 

Comparative  Morphology  and  Biology  of  the  Fttngi, 
Mycetozoa,  and  Bacteria.  By  A.  De  Bary.  Translated 
by  Henry  E.  F.  Garnsey,  M.A.  Revised  by  Isaac 
Bayley  Balfour,  M.A.,  M.D.,  F.R.S.  (Oxford:  Clarendon 
Press,  1887.) 

Anyone  acquainted  with  the  numerous  researches  of 
De  Bary,  published  in  German,  will  readily  indorse 
Prof.  Balfour's  remark  in  the  preface  to  this  English 
translation,  viz.  "  it  brings  within  reach  of  all  English- 
speaking  students  the  most  thorough  and  comprehensive 
treatise  upon  these  groups  which  has  appeared  in  any 
language,"  and  after  perusing  this  volume  we  should  add 
that  "  a  finer  volume,  and  a  more  handsomely  and  ex- 
haustively illustrated  one,"  is  not  known  in  the  literature 
of  this  subject. 

The  book  seems  to  us  more  like  a  well  and  comprehen- 
sively arranged  collection  of  classical  monographs  on  Fungi 
and  allied  organisms,  written  by  a  master  mind,  translated 
by  a  scholar,  and  revised  and  edited  by  a  practical  worker 
and  teacher  of  these  subjects. 


It  is  difficult  to  pick  out  any  one  chapter  in  which  this 
is  not  conspicuous.  The  array  of  facts,  and  of  phenomena 
as  to  form,  growth,  and  development  of  Fungi,  and  minute 
details  bearing  important  relations  to  one  another  and  to 
the  whole,  are  told  with  singular  lucidity  and  in  com- 
prehensive sequence ;  and  numerous  suggestions  that  at 
once  engage  and  invite  the  reader's  and  student's  in- 
quisitive mind  are  everywhere,  almost  on  every  page,  to 
be  met  with.  As  the  title  of  the  book  indicates,  the  sub- 
jects of  Fungi,  Mycetozoa,  and  Bacteria  are  each  separately 
treated  in  the  first,  second,  and  third  parts  of  the  volume 
respectively. 

As  was  to  be  expected  from  De  Bary's  researches,  the 
first  part  forms  the  bulk  of  the  volume.  As  far  as  our 
present  knowledge  of  the  ever-enlarging  subject  of  the 
thallus,  spores,  and  development  of  Fungi  goes,  hardly 
anything  could  be  added  to  make  the  book  complete  both 
for  students  and  workers  ;  but  we  venture  to  think  that  in 
Chapter  V.,  besides  the  important  bibliography  added  to 
the  description  of  the  different  groups  of  Fungi,  an 
appendix  setting  forth  briefly  the  various  species  hitherto 
recognized,  not  only  in  name  but  also  in  distinguishing 
characters,  would  be  a  valuable  addition. 

This  is  still  more  the  case  in  the  third  part — Bacteria. 
We  doubt  whether  this  will  advance  the  knowledge  of  the 
student  beyond  a  general  insight  into  the  nature  and 
mode  of  life  of  Bacteria,  though  he  will  find  here  a  most 
valuable  and  suggestive  account  of  the  different  modes  of 
spore-formation. 

The  illustrations  are  very  numerous  and  well  rendered. 
The  bibliography  in  the  first  part  (Fungi)  is  carefully  and 
judiciously  arranged. 

As  to  the  translation  little  need  be  said.  It  is  excellent, 
and  the  book  reads  more  like  an  original  than  a  translation, 
if  it  were  not  that  one  is  repeatedly  reminded  of  the 
contrary  by  the  presence,  after  an  exact  rendering  in  Eng- 
Hsh,  of  the  original  German.  There  seems  to  be  really  no 
necessity  to  put(p.  i)  after  filamentous  Fungi  {Fadenpilze)  ; 
(p,  2)  after  compound  Fungus  body  {Zusammetigesctzter 
Pilzkorper)  ;  (p.  4)  after  sprouting  Fungi  {Sprosspiize)  ; 
(P-  73)  endogenous  spore-formation  {Endogene  Sporen- 
bildujig) ;  (p.  84)  solution  or  gelatinous  sv/t\\mg{Au/ldsung., 
gallertige  Verqiiellting). 

Why  should  (on  p.  no)  to  "tube  germination"  be 
added  {Schlauchkeimioig)  ;  to  "  sprout  germination " 
{Sprosskeimung)  ;  to  "  germ  tube  "  {Keimschlauch)  ? 

It  is  different  with  "abjunction"  and  "abscission" 
explained  on  p.  61  in  a  footnote,  for  here  confusion  might 
arise  as  tothe  exact  meaningof  the  GQrma.n^^  Abgliederung''' 
and  "Abschniirung." 

The  "  Explanation  of  Terms  "  at  the  end  of  the  volume 
is  in  this  respect  most  welcome.  E.  Klein. 

Emin   Pasha  ift   Central  Africa.      A   Collection  of  his 
Letters    and    Journals.      Edited    and    Annotated    by 
G.    Schweinfurth,    F.  Ratzel,    R.  W.    Felkin,  and   G. 
Hartlaub.  Translated  by  Mrs.  R.  W.  Felkin.   (London  : 
George  Philip  and  Son,  1888.) 
The  personal  interest  connected  with  this  volume  is  even 
greater  than  its  scientific  interest.     Emin  Pasha  already 
ranks  as  one  of  the  heroes  of  the  modern  world,  and  the 
record  of  the  bare  facts  of  his  career  has  all  the  fascina- 
tion  of  a  good    romance.      Appointed    in    1878    to    be 
Governor  of  the  Equatorial  Province,  he  ruled  his  terri- 
tories with  astonishing  vigour  and  discretion,  so  that  in 
1882  he  was  able  to  report  that  slave-dealers  had  been 
wholly  banished  from  his  borders,  and  that  the  people  sub- 
ject to  him  were  prosperous  and  contented.     The  troubles 
in  the  Soudan  created  for  Emin  many  most  formidable 
difficulties,  but  his  courage  never  failed  him,  and  we  may 
hope  that  long  before  this  time  he  has  been  stimulated  to 
fresh  hope  and  activity  by  aid  received  from  Mr.  Stanley. 
The  letters  translated  in   this   volume   begin    with    one 
[  dated  Dufild,  July  16,  1877,  and  include  several  received 


March  8,  1888] 


NATURE 


437 


by  friends  in  the  course  of  last  year.  They  bring  out 
indirectly  all  the  qualities  of  Emin's  character,  and  no 
one  can  read  them  without  being  filled  with  admiration 
for  his  sustained  enthusiasm,  his  inexhaustible  energy, 
and  his  unaffected  simplicity  and  modesty.  He  has 
been  too  much  occupied  with  official  duty  to  devote  as 
much  time  as  he  would  have  liked  to  scientific  investiga- 
tion ;  but  he  is  an  ardent  student  of  zoology,  botany,  and 
ethnography,  and  he  says  enough  to  show  that  we  may 
expect  from  him  hereafter  very  important  contributions 
to  our  knowledge  of  all  these  subjects.  So  far  as  the 
present  volume  is  concerned,  the  most  valuable  of  the 
letters,  from  a  scientific  point  of  view,  are  those  relating 
to  the  various  tribes  whose  habits  and  customs  he  depicts. 
His  descriptions  are  remarkably  vivid,  and  are  evidently 
the  result  of  much  careful  observation.  His  description 
of  the  Wanyoro,  for  instance,  is  a  model  of  what  such  a 
piece  of  work  ought  to  be.  The  writer  omits  no  character- 
istic that  is  like'y  to  be  suggestive  to  anthropologists, 
while  he  has  taken  care  not  to  spoil  the  general  effect  of 
his  sketch  by  the  intrusion  of  unnecessary  details.  Dr. 
Felkin's  introduction  is  written  with  perfect  tact  and 
judgment,  and  Mrs.  Felkin  has  done  her  work  as  a  trans- 
lator admirably.  An  excellent  map  has  been  prepared 
by  Mr.  Ravenstein,  who  has  also  done  good  service  by 
marking  the  latitude  and  longitude  of  every  place  men- 
tioned in  the  index  and  glossary. 

Colour.     By  A.    H.    Church,    M.A.      (London :    Cassell 
and  Co.,  1887.) 

In  a  work  which  has  been  limited  to  somewhat  less  than 
200  pages,  there  has  of  necessity  been  a  good  deal  omitted 
which  would  have  been  found  in  a  larger  work.  In  the 
part  devoted  to  the  production  of  the  spectrum,  the  details 
are  almost  absent  in  some  particulars  and  perhaps  are 
rather  too  full  in  others.  The  subject  of  polarized  light 
is  also  dismissed  too  briefly.  There  are  one  or  two  state- 
ments to  which  exception  can  be  taken.  The  first  is 
where  the  author  states  (p.  44)  that  "  calorescence  may 
be  regarded  as  a  variety  of  fluorescence."  The  intro- 
duction of  the  term  calorescence  at  all  is  a  mistake  ;  but 
it  is  a  greater  mistake  to  mix  it  up  with  what  is  a  really 
distinctive  phenomenon. 

Another  is  at  p.  78,  where  the  author  says,  when 
speaking  of  a  person  who  is  "  red "  colour-blind,  that 
**  the  nerve  fibrils  which  in  the  normal  retina  receive 
the  sensation  of  red  are  not,  indeed,  wanting,  but  transmit 
to  the  brain  the  same  sensation  as  that  transmitted  by 
the  second  set  of  fibrils,  the  green."  This  doctrine  is 
rather  against  facts  :  the  fibrils  are  either  wanting  or 
else  are  paralyzed,  as  the  total  amount  of  light  perceived 
by  the  red  colour-blind  person  in  white  light  is  less  than 
that  perceived  by  the  normal-eyed  person.  The  sensa- 
tions of  the  green  and  blue  primary  colours  are  on  the 
average  equal  in  both,  but  the  normal-eyed  person  has  in 
addition  the  red  sensation.  If  the  fibrils  which  in  the 
normal-eyed  person  respond  to  the  red  respond  to  the 
green  in  the  red  colour-blind  person,  this  would  not  be 
the  case. 

With  these  and  one  or  two  minor  exceptions  the  work 
is  to  be  recommended  for  accuracy  ;  and  the  author  may 
claim  to  have  accomplished  what  he  states  in  his  preface 
he  has  endeavoured  to  do,  viz.  "  to  present  and  to  explain 
in  a  concise  yet  popular  form  many  of  the  chief  facts 
connected  with  the  origin,  the  phenomena,  and  the 
employment  of  colour." 

Astronomy  for  Amateurs.     By  J.  A.  Westwood  Oliver. 
(London  ;  Longmans,  Green,  and  Co.,  1888.) 

This  volume,  to  quote  the  preface,  "  is  intended  to  afford 
the  amateur  astronomer,  possessed  of  limited  instrumental 
means,  but  yet  anxious  to  devote  his  labours  to  the  further- 
ance of  astronomical  science,  such  hints  and  suggestions 
as  will   help  him  to  direct  his  efforts  into  the  channels 


which  experience  has  indicated  as  best  fitted  to  his  quali- 
fications and  equipment."  Its  pages  are  accordingly 
entirely  devoted  to  practical  astronomy,  theories  of  every 
description  being  disregarded.  The  different  branches  of 
the  subject  are  dealt  with  by  well-known  specialists,  Mr. 
Oliver's  share  in  the  work  being  chiefly  editorial.  The 
fundamental  chapter  on  the  telescope  and  observatory, 
which  is  full  of  practical  information,  is  appropriately 
contributed  by  Sir  Howard  Grubb.  Mr.  Maunder  con- 
tributes an  instructive  chapter  on  the  sun  ;  Mr.  Gore  deals 
with  variable  stars,  of  which  an  admirable  list  is  given  ; 
and  Mr,  Denning  gives  directions  to  those  who  are 
anxious  to  distinguish  themselves  as  comet-discoverers. 
The  chapter  on  the  moon  is  very  detailed,  and,  with  the 
index  map,  will  be  of  great  service  to  observers  of  our 
satellite.  Special  stress  is  in  all  cases  laid  upon  the  im- 
portance of  adapting  the  ends  to  the  means.  The  book  is 
thoroughly  practical  throughout,  and  Mr.  Oliver  deserves 
the  thanks  of  all  who  are  interested  in  the  progress  of 
astronomy,  for  bringing  together  such  an  excellent  series 
of  papers.  Celestial  spectroscopy  and  photography  are 
reserved  for  a  forthcoming  volume,  which  we  sincerely 
hope  will  not  be  behind  the  one  already  issued. 


LETTERS   TO   THE  EDITOR. 

\The  Editor  does  not  hold  himself  responsible  for  opinions 
expressed  by  his  correspondents.  Neither  can  he  under- 
take 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  communi- 
cations.'] 

The  Micromillimetre. 

Prof.  Rijcker's  note  in  Nature,  of  February  23  (p.  388) 
induces  me  to  ventilate  a  suggestion  in  nomenclature  which, 
among  other  advantages,  might  reconcile  the  practice  of  botanists 
and  biologists  with  the  C.G.  S.  system  by  leading  to  the  disuse 
of  the  prefixes  mega-  and  micro-  in  favour  of  self-significant 
prefixes. 

It  is  not  improbable  that,  in  spite  of  Prof.  Riicker's  protest, 
the  arbitrary  definition  of  the  prefixes  mega-  and  micro-,  laid 
down  in  the  C.G.S.  system  may  come,  or  continue,  to  be  dis- 
regarded in  different  departments  of  science,  until  the  ambiguity 
thence  arising  necessitates  their  disuse,  as  the  disuse  of  the  words 
billion,  trillion,  &c.,  is  necessitated  by  their  different  senses  in 
English  and  French.  Be  this  as  it  may,  it  is  certainly  desirable 
that  those  who  are  not  in  the  daily  habit  of  speaking  of 
megohms,  megadynes,  microm'tres,  Sic,  should  be  saved  the 
necessity  of  recalling,  or  hesitation  in  realizing,  the  precise 
meaning  of  the  prefixes. 

Instead  of  denoting  decimal  multiples  by  Greek,  and  decimal 
parts  by  Latin,  prefixes  to  the  name  of  the  unit,  let  the  multiples 
be  denoted  by  the  addition  of  a  termina  ion  -n  (say),  with  a 
suitable  vowel,  and  the  parts  by  that  of  a  termination  -t  (say), 
and  let  the  order  of  multiples  and  parts  alike  be  denoted  by 
numeral  prefixes  indicating  ths  pozuer  often  by  which  the  unit  is 
multiplied  or  divided,  or,  what  is  the  same  thing,  the  distance 
of  the  digit  denoting  it  from  the  units  digit. 

Thus,  starting  from  the  metre,  instead  of  the  scale — 

f  decametre,  hectometre,  kilometre,  &c  , 
me  '"^  1^  (jecimetre,  centimetre,  millimetre,  &c., 

we  might  adopt  the  following  : — 

(  metron  (or  monometron),   dimetron,    trimetron,   tetra- 
metron,  &c., 
metret   (or    monometret),    dimetret,    trimetret,    tetra- 
[      metret,  &c. 

Then  the  micrometre  (the  botanists'  micromillimetre),  would 
become  the  hexametret  ;  the  megohm,  the  hexohmen  ;  the  mega- 
dyne,  the  hexadynen,  &c. 

As  an  aid  to  the  memory,  such  a  system  would  be  valuable, 
reinforcing  the  visua'  memory,  which  has  (I  think)  in  many 
cases  to  be  relied  on,  by  a  corresponding  oral  reading.  Thus, 
the  unit  of  attraction  of  gravitation  in  the  C.G.S.  system  is 
about  6|  X  10"*  dynes  that  is,   in  the  proposed  language,  6i 


metre 


438 


NATURE 


{March  8,  1888 


octodynets.  So,  too,  Joule's  equivalent  J,  which  is  about 
"4-2  X  10^  ergs  per  gramme-degree  Centigrade"  (Everett's 
"Units  and  Physical  Constants"),  would  be  more  easily  re- 
membered as  4'2  heptergons.  Again,  the  velocity  of  light  would 
be  (approximately)  expressed  as  3  octometrons  per  second,  or 
3  decavelons,  if  the  word  vel'vi&re  adopted  for  the  unit  speed  in 
the  C.G.S.  system— namely,  that  of  i  centimetre  (or  dimetret)  per' 
second.  I  have  chosen  these  instances,  as  cases  where  the  pre- 
fixes mega-  and  micro-  would  be  of  little  use  as  aids  to  expression 
or  memory. 

The  system  1  am  advocating  coincides  exactly  with  the 
method,  which  I  believe  most  intelligent  teachers  of  arithmetic 
are  adopting,  of  reckoning  the  place  of  any  digit  of  a  number 
by  its  distance,  not  from  the  decimal  point,  but  from  the  unit's 
digit.  This  distance  it  has  been  proposed  to  call  the  order  of 
the  digit,  so  that  the  order  of  the  unit's  digit  is  O  ;  those  of  the 
tens,  hundreds,  &c.,  i,  2,  &c.;  and  those  of  tenths,  hundredths, 
&c.,  -I,  -  2,  &c.  Then,  if  the  ^n/^r  of  a  number  be  regarded 
as  that  of  its  highest  digit,  its  order  is  the  characteristic  of  its 
logarithm.  I  forbear  to  dilate  on  the  advantages  of  this  reform 
in  arithmetical  language,  but  it  is  obvious  that  the  proposed 
system  naturally  arises  out  of  it.  If  the  British  Association  6r 
the  Physical  Society  should,  after  discussion,  accept  the  prin- 
ciple of  the  proposed  nomenclature,  and  give  it  the  stamp  of 
their  authority,  I  believe  they  would  add  to  the  benefits  they 
have  already  conferred  on  science  by  the  introduction  of  the 
C.G.S.  system,  of  units.  My  proposal  would  not  extend  to 
attempting  to  replace  the  words  in  ordinary  use — kilometre, 
millimetre,  kilogramme,  &c.— unless  they,  in  the  course  of  time, 
died  out,  replaced  by  the  synonyms  here  proposed  on  the 
principle  of  the  "  survival  of  the  fittest." 

Harrow,  February  27.  RoBT.  P>.  Hayward. 


In  Nature  of  P'ebruary  23  (p.  388)  there  appears  an  in- 
teresting letter  from  Prof.  A.  W.  Riicker  with  reference  to  the 
equivalent  value  of  the  "  micromillimetre."  It  is  therein  men- 
tioned that  the  micromillimetre  is  commonly  employed  by 
biologists  as  equivalent  to  one-thousandth  of  a  millimetre  ;  but 
that  the  proper  name  for  the  thousandth  of  a  millimetre  (^u)  is 
"micrometre,"  and  not  "micromillimetre." 

Permit  me,  however,  to  suggest  that  even  the  denomination 
"micrometre,"  may  be  hardly  acceptable  to  scientific  workers. 
The  denomination  for  the  measure  of  the  one- thousandth  of  a 
millimetre  {fx),  or  o'oooooi  metre,  is  "  micron,"  and  not  "  micro- 
metre." 

For  the  "micron"  we  have  the  authority  of  the  "  Comile 
International  des  Poids  et  Mesures."  One  shudders  at  the 
thought  of  tlie  confusion  likely  to  arise  when  computers  are 
required  to  deal  with  both  micrometre-units  and  micrometer- 
divisions. 

Tlie  Comite  International  have  a'so  recommended  the  use  of 
the  following  metric  denominations  for  minute  measurements  : — ■ 


Denomination. 

Micron 

Microgramme 

Millilitre 

Microlitre 


Symb;- 

7 

ml 

A 


Equivalent. 

o'OOi  millimetre. 
o"ooi  milligrame. 
o  001  litre. 
O'OOOOOI  litre. 


For  the  millionth  of  a  millimetre  we  have  at  present  the 
(C.G.'S.)  denomination  "micromillimetre"  (jU^),  as  pointed  out 
by  Prof  Riicker.  II.  J.  Chaney. 

7  Old  Palace  Yard,  Westminster,  February  27. 


Allow  me  to  add  a  few  remarks  to  Prof.  A.  W.  Riicker's 
letter,  published  in  your  issue  of  February  23  (p.  388). 

Mr.  O.  J.  Broch,  Correspondent  of  our  Institute  in  its  Section 
6f  Mechanics,  and  Director  of  the  International  Board  of  Weights 
and  Measures,  having  kindly  undertaken  to  ascertain  by  actual 
measurement  my  pendulum's  coefficient  of  expansion  by  heat, 
began  by  asking  how  old  it  was.  On  my  expressing  surprise  at 
such  a  question,  he  told  me  that,  having  carefully  measured  the 
length  of  a  brass  rod  recently  made  and  i  metre  long,  he  found 
that  it  became  shorter  by  8  micions  in  the  first  year,  and  3  more 
in  the  second  one.  Micron  is  currently  used  here  to  express 
I /icoo  of  a  millimetre.  French  botanists  call  it  /u,  and  seldom 
use  its  first  decimal  because  they  cannot  see  such  a  small  space. 

The  only  objection  against  micron  is  that,  unlike  other  sub- 
divisions of  the  metre,  it  does  not  define  its  length  by  its  name. 


But  the  word  metre  has  itself  the  same  fault.  It  is  the  ten- 
millionth  part  of  a  quarter  meridian,  and  is,  according  to 
Clarke's  computations,  too  short  by  o'2  millimetre,  or,  more 
exactly,  1877  microns.  Improvements  in  geodesy  will  probably 
alter  in  either  sense  that  fraction  which  is  too  small  to  disturb 
terrestrial  requirements. 

The  quarter  meridian  being  the  true  basis  of  our  metrical 
system,  it  ought  to  have  a  name  of  its  own,  and  might  be  called 
megist,  as  being  the  greatest  space  accurately  measured.  It 
should  be  the  metre  used  in  astronomy.  Thus  the  velocity  of  light 
would  be  30  megists,  the  motion  of  the  star  Aldebaran  in  the 
line  of  sight  would  be  18  megists  per  hour,  and  the  sun's  distance 
15,000  megists  ±  50.  To  give  the  latter  in  kilometres  Or  miles 
is  tantamount  to  describing  the  height  of  St.  Paul's  in  London 
as  being  1,100,000,000  microns.  It  is  useless  to  express  a 
distance  in  units  so  small  that  one  of  them  may  be  added  or  sub- 
tracted without  altering  our  useful  notion  of  the  whole  sum. 
Moreover,  those  who  can  grasp  at  once  a  practical  idea  of  such 
huge  numbers  are  few  and  far  between. 

February  29.  Antoine  d'Abbadie. 

Coral  Formations. 

Mr.  G.  C.  Bourne's  observations,  as  far  as  described  in  last 
week's  Nature  (p.  414),  appear  to  corroborate  fully  the  view 
that  corals  grow  more  rapidly  and  luxuriantly  on  those  parts  of 
a  reef  or  bank  where  there  is  an  abundant  supply  of  food,  and 
only  in  scattered  patches  where  the  food  supply  is  limited  or 
where  there  is  a  quantity  of  sand  or  other  inorganic  materials  in 
the  currents.  He  states  his  belief  that  "the  favourable  condi- 
tions are  due  to  the  action  of  currents  on  coral  growth."  If  it 
be  not  the  food  in  these  great  oceanic  currents,  then  Mr.  Bourne 
should  tell  us  what  it  is  in  "the  action  of  currents  "  bathing  the 
outer  slopes  of  a  reef  that  renders  them  favourable  to  growth  j 
does  he  hold  to  the  old  view  of  more  oxygen  in  the  water  ? 

It  is  to  be  hoped  that  Mr.  Bourne  has  observed  some  of  the 
corals  feeding  on  the  outer  slope  or  in  the  lagoon,  and  can  tell 
us  of  what  their  food  consists.  It  will  be  interesting  to  know  if 
he  has  worked  his  tow-nets  in  the  outer  currents,  in  the  "  strong 
currents,"  and  in  the  still  water,  and  has  made  a  comparison  of 
the  results.  If  he  has  done  so,  his  paper  will  doubtless  be  one 
of  great  interest  and  value. 

There  would  appear  to  be  a  slip  of  the  pen  in  the  passage 
where  Mr,  Bourne  i^efers  to  a  current  impinging  directly  on  a 
slope.  John  Murray. 

An  Incorrect  Footnote  and  its  Consequences. 

Thanks  to  the  wide  circulation  of  Nature,  my  original  note 
with  the  above  heading  has  attracted  attention  in  quite  a  number 
of  the  proper  quarters.  Several  letters  have  reached  me  on  the 
subjdct,  and  more  than  one  of  the  writers,  after  reporting  that 
the  Dcnicnstratio  eliminationis  Craincriaiiic  had  been  found 
properly  catalogued  under  De  Prasse,  proceed  in  consequence  to 
express  their  surprise  at  Baltzer's  mistake.  Mr.  Copeland's 
letter  in  yesterday's  Nature  (p.  343)  adds  another  instance  of  this 
correctness  of  cataloguing.  The  additional  fact,  which  he  men- 
tions, that  there  are  two  copies  of  the  original  edition  of  the 
Dcmonstratio  in  the  Dun  Echt  library  is  very  interesting,  and 
is  a  fresh  proof  of  the  existence  there  of  valuable  rarities. 

When,  however,  Mr.  Copeland  diverges  into  the  fruitless  path 
of  "  the  might  have  been  "he  is  much  less  pleasantly  instructive. 
Having  read  my  letter  on  the  search  for  a  work  by  MoUweide,. 
and  on  the  discovery  that  the  work  meant  was  not  by  Mollweide  at 
all  but  by  De  Prasse,  Mr.  Copeland  turns  to  his  catalogue  under 
Mollweide,  finds  a  cross-reference  to  De  Prasse,  looks  up  De 
Prasse,  picks  out  the  desired  plum,  and  is  pleased  accordingly. 
In  all  this  there  is  nothing  singularly  lucky  or  otherwise  :  it  is 
exactly  what  ought  to  have  happened.  Mr.  Copeland  ap- 
parently thinks  that  the  cross-reference  in  the  Dun  Echt 
catalogue  was  the  missing  link  ;  but  if  he  had  had  occasion  to 
look  up  other  catalogues  besides  his  own  he  would  have  found 
the  same  cross-reference  or  a  more  complete  one,  and  might  then 
have  given  my  helpers  in  the  search  a  little  more  credit.  The 
fact  is  that  the  booklet  of  mathematical  tables  which  was  the 
cause  of  the  cross-reference  (and  whose  title  Mr.  Copeland  care- 
fully transcribes)  is  a  comparatively  common  book,  having  gone 
in  its  time  through  several  editions.  Its  name  is  thus  of  not 
infrequent  occurrence  in  catalogues,  being  placed  under  De  Prasse 
with  a  reference  to  Mollweide,  or  vice  versa  ;  and,  so  catalogued^ 


March  8,  i838] 


NATURE 


439 


it  was  repsatedly  met  with  by  us.  There  were,  however,  two 
points  of  difference  between  Mr.  Cop^land's  position  and  ours. 
We  unfortunately  knew  from  the  first  what  the  cross-reference 
was  for,  and  Mr.  Copeland  did  not :  we  did  not  know  that 
MoUweide  was  not  the  author,  and  Mr.  Copeland,  having  read 
Nature,  did. 

The  hint  is  further  let  slip  that  something  in  Poggendorf 
"  might  have  given  a  clue  to  the  authorship."  All  I  can  answer 
is  that  at  least  two  librarians  looked  up  Mollweide  in  Poggen- 
dorf, and  were  not  erratic  enough  to  think  of  the  clue.  Indeed, 
the  main  part  of  my  original  letter  has  been  vvritte:!  in  vain  if  I 
have  failed  to  make  clear  that  at  first  we  did  not  seek  for  "a  clue 
to  the  authorship,"  Baltzer  having  so  cruelly  misled  everybody 
by  asserting  in  the  usual  matter-of-fact  way  that  the  author  was 
Mollweide.  And  what  I  wanted  to  insist  upon  was  the  following 
simple  canon — Never,  so  long  as  books  are  catalogued  as  at  pre- 
sent ^  insert  ivithout  comment  an  author'' s  name  in  a  title  where 
no  author  s  name  exists.  Thomas  Muir. 

Pothwell,  Glasgow,  February  ii. 


Cause  of  September  Typhoons  in  Hong  Kong. 

An  investigation  of  the  average  distribution  of  atmospheric 
pressure  in  South-Eastern  China  and  neighbouring  regions  has 
proved  the  existence  of  a  trough  of  relatively  low  pressure  in 
the  channel  between  Formosa  and  Luzon,  and  in  the  northern 
part  of  the  China  Sea  during  September.  This  appears  to  be 
the  reason  why  typhoons  so*  frequently  enter  the  China  Sea 
during  that  month  of  the  year,  and  cause  north-east  veering  to 
south-east  gales  to  be  felt  in  Hong  Kong.  Like  storms  that  visit 
the  British  Isles,  they  move  along  between  two  areas  with  higher 
pressures,  and  are  sometimes  developed  under  the  influence 
of  those  areas.  This  remark  would  be  of  considerable  value  in 
forecasting  typhoons  in  Hong  Kong  if  the  district  round  the 
China  Sea  were  better  furnished  with  telegraphic  reporting 
stations  than  it  is  at  the  present  time.  W.  DOBERCK. 

Hong  Kong  Observatory,  January  ii. 


The  Composition  of  Water  by  Volume. 

In  my  paper  "On  the  Composition  of  Water  by  Volume" 
(Proc.  R.S.  1887,  398)  the  ratio  i  "994  volumes  of  hydrogen  to  i 
volume  of  oxygen  was  given  as  the  most  probable  value,  as  I 
assumed  that  both  gases  were  of  an  equal  degree  of  purity.  The 
ratio  I  "9957  :  I  was  given  from  the  best  six  experiments  if  the 
impurity  be  supposed  to  be  altogether  in  the  oxygen.  At  the 
last  meeting  of  the  British  Association  (B.A.  Trans.,  1887,  668) 
I  pointed  out  that  this  was  the  most  probable  ratio,  as  I  had 
found  the  impurity  to  be  chiefly  oxides  of  carbon  arising  from  the 
combustion  of  traces  of  the  vaseline  used  in  lubricating  the 
stop-cocks  finding  their  way  into  the  eudiometer.  Dr.  Sydney 
Young's  interesting  and  ingenious  letter  (p.  390)  is  a  most 
valuable  corroboration  of  the  hypothesis  that  the  impurity  is 
almost  entirely  due  to  the  oxygen.  A  new  and  larger  apparatus, 
enabling  me  to  use  twice  the  volume  of  gas,  and  to  measure 
with  much  greater  accuracy  the  residue,  as  well  as  make  a 
complete  analysis  of  it,  still  gives  a  ratio  of  less  than  2  :  i,  as  the 
four  last  experiments  made  with  it  show.. 

Measured  volume?.  Residue.  Combining  volumes.       Ratio. 

H  O  H      CO2  CO  N  H  O 

I.     6909-4    345i"2  ...  389.    72    79  07  ...  6570-5     3440-1  ...  1-9972:1 

II.     6882-2     3(i4'2  ...  74-9    2-6    5-3  3-6  ...  6807-3    34090  ...  1-9968  :  I 

HI.     7657-2    37987  ...  63-3      —      —  0-8  ...  7593  9     3798 '7  -  1-9980:1 

IV.     7561-4     3777-9  ...  19-9      —      —  0-7  ...  754i'5     37779  •••  1-9962  :  i 

In  Experiments  I.  and  II.  vaseline  was  used  as  the  lubricant, 
and  in  III.  and  IV.  .syrupy  phosphoric  acid,  by  using  which  all 
traces  of  the  oxides  of  carbon  are  eliminated,  and  the  gases 
shown  to  be  of  a  high  degree  of  purity.  If  we  allow  that  half  the 
amount  of  oxygen  which  was  used  to  burn  the  carbon  would  be 
required  ia  addition  to  burn  the  hydrogen  combined  with  it  in 
the  vaseline,  then  the  ratio  becomes  2  :  i. 

To  use  phosphoric  acid  as  a  lubricant  with  security,  I  find  it 
is  necessary  to  use  safety-taps,  and  am  having  them  in  place  of 
the  ordinary  ones  now  on  my  apparatus,  and  hope  very  shortly 
to  settle  beyond  all  doubt  the  true  ratio  in  which  hydrogen  and 
oxygen  combine  to  form  water. 

The  ratios  of  the  CO  and  COg  in  Experiments  I.  and  II, 
recall  Bunsen's  experiments.  Alexander  Scott. 

Durham,  February  27. 


Water  Supplies  a^nd  Reservoirs. 

Having  observed  in  Nature  (p.  375)  an  article  on  the 
drought  of  past  years,  and  the  probability  of  one  this  year  also, 
from  deficient  rainfall,  I  take  the  occasion  of  suggesting  that 
the  old  reservoirs  might  still  be  made  more  available  for  an  ad- 
ditional storage  of  water  to  counteract  its  effects.  As  there  is 
always  abundance  of  rainfall,  40  inches,  in  Lancashire,  and  on 
its  surrounding  hills,  from  the  cities  of  which  district  come  com- 
plaints of  want  of  water  supplies,  no  fear  need  be  entertained  of 
lack  of  water  if  the  rain  could  be  all  impounded  without  loss. 

It  has  appeared  to  me  surprising  that  our  hill  reservoirs  have 
not  been  excavated  deeper  into  the  valleys  and  ravines  they  at« 
made  out  of,  after  the  manner  of  the  water  tanks  in  India. 

In  this  country  a  reservoir  seems  to  be  simply  formed  by  mak- 
ing a  rampart  across  a  ravine,  and  letting  the  upper  part  fill 
itself,  as  it  stands  naturally,  with  rain  in  course  of  time. 

The  ravine  still  lies  encumbered  with  sodden  grass,  stumps 
of  trees,  rotting  herbage,  old  walls,  and  fences,  with  organic 
remains,  and  submerged  under  the  impounded  lake,  so  that  an 
emptied  reservoir  looks  like  a  long  mud  ditch,  through  which  a 
flood  or  a  sea  tide  had  lately  passed. 

Now  if  the  sides  were  cut  down  perpendicularly,  and  the 
bottoms  levelled  horizontally,  such  valley  reservoirs  would  be 
able  to  contain  twice  as  much  water  as  they  now  do,  on  the 
principle  that  the  area  of  a  rectangle  is  twice  as  great  as  that  of 
a  triangle  between  the  same  parallels. 

The  whole  area  of  the  reservoir  might  possibly  be  excavated 
cleanly  out,  so  as  to  have  its  sides  and  bottom  as  good  as  any 
wet  dock  in  a  seaport,  and  our  water  supplies  would  then  be 
considered  quite  sufficient,  and  of  better  quality,  for  the  great 
towns.  If  this  were  done,  say,  for  Liverpool  and  Manchestef, 
there  might  be  found  less  need  for  constructing  new  and  distant 
waterworks,  as  the  present  reservoirs  when  thus  enlarged  would 
hold  nearly  double  the  amount  they  now  do. 

Besides  the  lessened  rainfall,  all  reservoirs  must  suffer  serious 
loss  by  evaporation,  especially  in  dry  seasons,  and  this  is  not 
occasioned  so  much  by  the  sun's  heat  as  by  the  action  of  drying 
winds,  which  may  carry  off  as  much  as  0-20  inch  per  diem,  or 
6  inches  in  a  month,  or  more  than  an  average  monthly  rainfall. 
To  counteract  this  tendency,  belts  of  trees  planted  i-ound  the 
margins  of  reservoirs  are  found  very  useful  in  sheltering  the 
surface  of  the  waters  from  the  winds,  and  they  act  beneficially 
besides  in  attracting  rain  itself  to  the  pools.  Further,  on  the 
same  idea  it  might  be  found  advisable  to  cover  over  entirely 
the  head  tanks  for  city  supply,  with  sheds  or  roofs,  so  as  to 
keep  off  the  sun's  rays  from  the  water  ;  or  else  to  erect  a  high 
screen  on  the  windward  side  to  keep  the  prevailing  winds  off  the 
surface,  and  counteract  unnecessary  evaporation. 

Edinburgh.  W.   G.  Black. 


A  Photographic  Objective. 

My  attention  was  called  some  time  since  to  a  letter  from  Prof. 
Pickering  in  your  issue  of  October  13,  1887  (vol.  xxxvi.  p.  562), 
describing  a  form  of  objective  adaptable  either  to  photographic  or 
visual  work,  by  reversion  of  crown  Iciis  and  alteration  of  its 
distance  from  the  flint. 

The  form  described  is  exactly  similar  to  that  which  had  been 
suggested  to  me  by  the  President  of  the  Royal  Society,  and 
which  I  reported  on  at  the  June  meeting,  1887,  of  the  Royal 
Astronomical  Society,  as  having  been  actually  constructed  and 
found  to  give~  good  results  (see  Observatory,  No.  125,  pp.  253 
and  254). 

I  should  perhaps  have  mentioned  this  matter  before,  btit 
thought  that  Prof.  Pickering  would  certainly  have  seen  th'e 
published  account  of  my  previous  communication.  I  have, 
however,  lately  seen  a  newspaper  report  that  a  patent  has 
actually  been  granted  for  this  form  of  objective. 

It  therefore  appears  necessary  to  point  out  that  this  form  had 
been  previously  suggested  by  Prof.  Stokes,  and  put  in  actual 
practice  here.  ,    •    .     , 

I  may  mention  that  long  previous  to  Prof.  Pickering's  com- 
munication, I  had  arranged  with  the  Astronomer-Royal  to 
construct  the  new  28-inch  objective  for  Greenwich  Observatory 
on  this  principle  on  certain  conditions,  and  also  that  this  particular- 
form  of  photographic  objective  has  a  distinct  place' in  the  last 
edition  of  my  catalogue.  Howard  Grubs'. 

Rathmines,  Dublin,  Febfuity  2^. 


440 


NATURE 


{March  8,  1888 


A  Green  Sun. 

I  WAS  looking,  a  few  days  ago,  at  three  o'clock  in  the  after- 
noon, towards  the  sun,  which  was  shining  in  a  clear  sky. 
Exhaust-steam  from  an  engine  employed  in  the  new  Thames 
Tunnel  works,  and  situated  just  below  my  window,  was  passing 
intermittently  over  his  face.  Many  puffs  had  already  crossed  it, 
some  partially,  others  completely  obscuring  the  luminous  disk, 
when  presently,  three  puffs,  following  each  other  quickly,  succes- 
sively covered  the  sun,  which  then  shone  brightly  through  the 
steam  with  a  vivid  light-green  colour.  The  effect  was  strikingly 
noticeable,  and  the  green  colour  intense.  I  watched  for  twenty 
minutes,  but  in  vain,  for  another  "green  sun,"  and  at  3.30 
clouds  came  up. 

I  have  since  tried  to  reproduce  the  same  effect  by  observing 
the  arc  lights  in  Cannon  Street  Station  through  steam  rushing 
upwards  from  the  safety-valve  of  a  locomotive.  Seen  through 
the  thickest  part  of  such  a  column  of  vapour,  the  electric  light 
exhibits  a  deep  red  colour,  and  I  think  there  is  a  green  trans- 
mission near  the  edge  of  the  column  ;  but  the  latter  was  unsteady, 
while  the  point  is  evidently  critical,  and  it  is  impossible  to  say 
positively  that  it  was  so.  I).  Pidgeon. 

Holm  wood,  Putney  Hill,  February  11. 


RABIES  AMONG  DEER. 

THAT  all  domesticated  or  semi-domesticated  mammals 
succumb  to  inoculation  with  the  virus  of  rabies 
has  long  been  asserted,  and  examples  of  its  occurrence 
have  been  duly  recorded.  The  possibility,  however,  of  the 
disease  affecting  half-wild  animals  seems  to  have  been 
lost  sight  of,  and  it  was  therefore  with  much  surprise  on 
the  part  of  the  public  that  the  announcement  was  received 
last  year  of  the  deer  in  Richmond  Park  being  attacked 
by  the  malady. 

Apart  from  the  general  interest  attaching  to  the  welfare 
of  the  public  using  the  parks  in  which  these  animals  are 
kept,  and  beyond  the  special  interest  felt  by  the  veterinary 
profession  in  the  clearing  up  of  the  diagnosis  of  this 
strange  and  novel  condition,  the  outbreak  was  of  import- 
ance as  affording  a  fresh  opportunity  of  investigating  the 
character  of  the  malady  under,  as  it  were,  new  circum- 
stances, and  hence  we  find  in  the  reports  of  this  epizooty 
recently  furnished  to  the  Privy  Council  by  Mr.  Cope  and 
Prof.  Horsley,  many  points  which  fill  up  certain  blanks  in 
our  scientific  information  on  the  subject. 

The  prevention  of  rabies  in  all  animals  we  have  shown 
before  to  be  the  simplest  task  imaginable  for  the  health 
authorities  of  this  country  to  undertake,  and  nothing 
illustrates  this  more  clearly  than  the  history  of  the  recent 
epidemic,  which  attracted  so  much  notice  on  account  of 
its  excessive  mortality,  and  which  terminated  by  causing 
the  local  mischief  which  forms  the  ground  of  this  article. 

It  will  be  remembered  that  in  1884  rabies  began  to  in- 
crease in  the  London  and  home  counties  districts.  No 
notice  being  taken  of  its  spread,  it  soon  produced  a  severe 
effect,  when  in  1885  the  numerous  deaths  (twenty-seven) 
among  human  beings  caused  a  popular  panic,  and  led  the 
authorities  to  institute  measures  for  its  repression.  The 
authorities  in  the  London  district  having  provided  for  the 
merciful  extirpation  of  stray  dogs,  the  familiar  vehicle  of 
the  disease,  secured  the  non-transmission  of  the  virus  by 
enforcing  the  use  of  muzzles.  The  result  of  their  work 
during  1886  has  been  seen  during  1887,  in  the  practically 
total  immunity  of  the  population  of  this  great  city  from 
this  the  most  justly  dreaded  of  all  diseases.  Let  us  not  for- 
get to  add  in  passing  that  as  was  pointed  out  at  the  time  of 
the  expiration  of  the  local  regulations  by  those  acquainted 
with  the  malady,  that  the  measures  being  but  local  could 
only  produce  a  temporary  relief  from  the  evil,  since  the 
metropoHs  was  continually  being  infected  from  districts 
beyond  the  reach  of  the  regulations,  and  that  though  it 
could  be  kept  free  for  a  time,  yet  reintroduction  of  the 
virus  would  certainly  occur,  and  the  work  would  have  to 
be  done  all  over  a^in.     This  is  actually  now  happening, 


though  not  yet  officially  declared.  The  disease  has  re- 
appeared (as  it  has  usually  done)  in  the  southern  suburbs, 
and  is  gradually  making  its  way  into  the  metropolis. 

But  to  return.  The  epidemic  of  1885  terminated  in  the 
London  district  with  the  infection  of  the  roe  deer  in  Rich- 
mond Park,  resulting  in  the  extermination  of  several 
hundreds  of  these  valuable  and  pretty  animals.  From 
Mr.  Cope's  interesting  report  it  appears  that  the  first  to  be 
seized  was  a  doe  which  had  a  suckling  fawn,  and  as  we 
learn  from  the  very  valuable  evidence  of  Mr.  Sawyer,  the 
head-keeper  of  the  Park,  it  seems  that  under  these  cir- 
cumstances a  doe  will  attack  a  dog  attempting  to  worry 
the  herd,  as  a  rabid  dog  passing  through  the  Park  would 
do.  Fortunately  in  the  Richmond  case  no  instance 
occurred  of  the  transmission  of  the  disease  from  the  deer 
to  man  through  the  dog  as  in  an  outbreak  recorded  in 
1856  at  Stainborough.  Had  this  happened,  the  deaths  of 
the  deer  would  not  have  been  attributed  to  various  causes, 
poisoning,  &c. ,  as  they  now  were  until  the  remarkable  aggres- 
siveness of  the  affected  animals  led  to  a  thorough  investi- 
gation by  the  veterinary  advisers  of  the  Government.  Rabid 
deer  were  sent  for  observation  to  the  Veterinary  College, 
and  the  symptoms  noted.  The  exact  determination  yet 
remained  to  be  made,  and,  thanks  to  the  recent  researches 
of  M.  Pasteur,  this  was  now  possible.  Portions  of  the  central 
nervous  system  from  these  anin;als  were  sent  to  the  Brown 
Institution,  and  there  inoculated  by  Prof.  Horsley  into 
rabbits  by  the  subdural  method.  These  animals  died 
after  exhibiting  the  characteristic  symptoms  of  rabies, 
and  after  death  the  usual  post-mortem  appearances  were 
duly  discovered.  More  infected  deer  were  sent  also  to 
the  Brown  Institution,  and  the  extraordinary  changes 
effected  by  the  disease  more  closely  studied.  This 
kind  of  deer,  naturally  gentle  and  timid,  was  trans- 
formed into  a  fierce  and  savage  animal,  rivalling 
the  rabid  horse  almost  in  its  attempts  to  do  mischief. 
The  early  symptoms,  as  in  all  animals,  appear  to  have 
been  indicative  of  mental  hallucination,  for  the  animals 
would  stop  feeding,  hold  up  their  heads,  sniff  the  air, 
and  then,  without  the  slightest  reason,  burst  into  a  gallop. 
When  placed  in  confinement  the  least  noise  attracted 
their  attention,  and  later — i.e.  on  the  second  and  third 
day— caused  them  to  charge  in  the  direction  of  the  sound. 
The  mental  perversion  which  leads  a  rabid  dog  one 
moment  to  lick  with  almost  frantic  energy  a  healthy  dog 
placed  with  it,  and  then  the  next  moment  to  violently  bite 
it,  finds  its  parallel  in  the  deer  similarly  affected,  for  these 
animals  in  a  like  manner  licked  their  companions,  and 
then  ferociously  attacked  them,  seizing  them  with  their 
jaws  (usually  about  the  shoulders)  and  tearing  off  hair  and 
pieces  of  skin.  The  points  thus  inoculated  with  the  virus 
after  cicatrization  became,  as  is  almost  invariably  the 
case,  the  seat  of  intense  irritation  when  the  disease 
actively  showed  itself;  hence  one  of  the  most  prominent 
signs  presented  by  the  animals  was  that  of  their  rubbing 
themselves  with  such  force  as  to  make  these  parts  raw.  In 
connection  with  the  differences  which  are  now  known  to 
be  characteristic  of  the  same  disease  in  different  classes 
of  animals,  it  is  interesting  to  note  that  in  all  large  animals, 
whatever  be  the  previous  temperament,  the  course  of  the 
malady  is  closely  identical  ;  thus  in  the  horse,  the  ox,  the 
sheep,  the  pig,  the  deer,  &c.,  the  illness  is  rapid,  there  is 
great  aggressiveness,  and  yet  early  paralysis.  It  is  of 
common  knowledge  that  in  the  dog  these  two  latter 
features  are  sometimes  widely  separated.  The  paralysis 
may  set  in  so  soon  as  to  obliterate  aggressiveness,  and 
thus  a  distinct  form  (dumb)  of  rabies  be  produced, 
though  of  course  the  aggressive  form  of  the  disease  always 
ends  in  paralysis  if  not  suddenly  arrested  by  syncope.  In 
the  deer  the  combination  of  the  two  symptoms  seems  to 
have  been  very  equal.  For  even  when  the  animal  had 
fallen  down  from  paresis  (of  the  hind -limbs  more 
especially)  it  would  nevertheless  spring  up  and  attempt 
to  seize  and  worry  with  its  teeth  every  person  or  object 


March  8,  1888] 


NATURE 


441 


coming  within  its  reach.  The  complete  metamorphosis 
of  the  usual  temper  of  the  animal  is  of  course  only  to  be 
explained  by  profound  mental  disturbance,  exactly  as  seen 
in  the  human  being.  We  have  alluded  to  the  mode  of 
transmission  of  the  disease— viz.  through  the  saliva.  This 
mode  was  put  to  direct  experiment  by  an  infected  animal 
being  placed  with  a  healthy  one  which  had  been  isolated 
for  some  time,  and  the  incubation  period  was  determined 
in  this  instance  to  be  nineteen  days,  the  comparative 
shortness  of  the  period  being  no  doubt  due  to  the  very 
numerous  points  of  inoculation.  An  interesting  and  con- 
firmatory circumstance  of  the  reality  of  this  method  of 
transmission  was  afforded  by  the  fact  that  so  long  as  the 
bucks  retained  their  horns  they  were  able  to  literally  stave 
off  infection,  but  as  soon  as  these  natural  means  of 
defence  fell  off  at  the  usual  periods,  both  sexes  suffered 
alike. 

The  mode  of  death  seems  in  all  cases  to  have  been  ulti- 
mately cardiac  failure,  which  supervened  frequently  before 
the  customary  coma,  the  final  stage  of  paralysis,  was  deve- 
loped. Relatively,  syncope  occurred  much  more  frequently 
than  it  does  in  the  human  subject,  and  a  fortiori  than  it 
does  in  the  dog,  a  circumstance  explicable  by  the  neces- 
sarily extremely  fatiguing  nature  of  the  fits  of  excitement 
to  which  deer  are  evidently  specially  liable  in  the  early 
development  of  the  disease.  According  to  Prof.  Horsley's 
pathological  report,  both  macroscopic  and  microscopic 
appearances  of  the  affected  tissues  revealed  the  usual 
lesions  which  are  symptomatic  of  rabies.  This  last  fact 
is  a  healthy  sign  of  scientific  progress,  for  any  layman 
who  has  sought  to  obtain  from  books  or  verbal  statements 
made  by  those  justly  recognized  as  baing  qualified  to 
speak  with  authority  on  this  subject  must  have  been  dis- 
appointed with  the  uncertainty  of  knowledge  which  has 
prevailed  respecting  the  morbid  anatomy  of  rabies  up  to 
the  present  time.  The  obscurity  which  existed  on  this 
point  was  aggravated  no  doubt  by  the  absurd  popular 
superstitions  connected  with  the  disease,  and  by  the  failure 
to  recognize  that  it  was  simply  a  very  severe  kind  of  one 
of  the  acute  specific  maladies.  From  the  latter  cause 
especially  has  confusion  arisen,  since  it  will  be  found  that 
previous  records  of  the  post-mortem  appearances  fal- 
laciously comprehend  the  examination  of  animals  dying 
at  all  possible  stages  of  the  malady.  But  now  we  know 
these  points  accurately  ;  and  as  in  this  particular  case  the 
subject  has  been  so  thoroughly  worked  up,  there  will  be 
scarcely  any  excuse  for  the  disease  escaping  immediate 
recognition  and  adequate  treatment. 

Here  we  cannot  help  pointing  out  what  a  very  grave 
injury  is  inflicted  on  the  public  by  the  vexatious  operation 
of  the  so-called  Vivisection  Act,  which  prevents  the 
veterinary  inspector  from  at  once  resorting  to  M.  Pasteur's 
admirably  simple  and  conclusive  method  of  testing  the 
real  condition  of  any  animal  killed  under  the  suspicion  of 
rabies.  Under  the  present  regime  valuable  time  is  lost, 
and  risk  incurred  of  the  inoculative  material  becoming 
useless  from  decomposition,  &c.,  by  reason  of  his  being 
compelled  to  forward  it  to  some  such  institution  as  the 
Brown  for  examination.  The  very  valuable  observation 
recently  pubhshed  by  M.  Pasteur's  assistant  Dr.  Roux, 
that  the  immersion  of  the  tissue  in  a  mixture  of  glycerine 
and  water  prevents  septic  change,  but  does  not  mitigate 
the  influence  of  the  virus,  to  a  slight  extent  obviates  part 
of  the  difficulties  and  inconvenience  just  noted,  but  the 
anomaly  still  remains  that,  while  the  immense  value  of 
the  experimental  test  has  received  the  full  recogni- 
tion of  the  recent  Committee  of  the  House  of  Lords, 
the  law  does  not  permit  it  to  be  used  except  in  one,  or  at 
the  outside  two  places  in  Great  Britain,  which  have  with 
the  usual  difficulties  and  obstruction  succeeded  in  obtain- 
ing the  necessary  permission.  No  one  perhaps  supposes 
that  the  benefits  which  science  offers  to  the  public  will 
ever  be  received  with  anything  like  adequate  acknowledg- 
ment of  the  difficulties,  and  it  may  be  dangers,  which 


have  attended  this  or  that  particular  discovery.  But  we 
think  that  it  cannot  be  recognized  by  the  mass  of  the 
people  who  actually  or  theoretically  direct  the  Legislature 
by  their  votes,  that,  while  they  eagerly  reap  the  benefits 
of  the  harvest  of  science,  at  the  same  time  they  permit 
that  harvest  to  be  choked  by  the  tares  of  legislative 
obstruction,  and  thus  very  greatly  diminish  the  profits 
which  would  otherwise  be  theirs. 

Just  as  we  are  much  behind  other  nations  in  the 
foundation  of  technical  instruction,  so  we  are  being  fast 
outstripped  in  the  provision  for  means  for  the  scientific 
investigation  of  matters  which,  like  the  one  we  are  now 
considering,  greatly  concern  the  public  welfare.  We 
believe  it  to  be  a  fact  that  at  the  present  moment  neither 
of  the  two  great  Government  Departments  which  are 
concerned  in  the  scientific  arrest  of  national  disease,  viz. 
the  Privy  Council  and  the  Local  Government  Board,  have 
any  laboratory  whatever  at  their  disposal,  and  conse- 
quently are  obliged  to  seek  the  necessary  accommodation 
in  private  institutions  ;  or,  to  put  it  in  plain  language,  the 
Government  is  not  ashamed  to  get  its  public  work  done 
by  the  favour  of  private  means.  The  Berlin  Laboratory 
and  the  Pasteur  Institute  should  serve  as  the  kind  of 
example  which  a  statesman  whose  desire  for  the  improve- 
ment of  the  country  and  the  people  is  not  a  question  of 
votes  but  of  genuine  interest  might  study  with  advantage. 

Those  gentlemen,  unfortunately  few  in  number,  who 
represent  science  at  the  present  moment  in  Parliament, 
would  have  a  large  field  of  good  work  open  to  them  if  they 
attempted  to  reform  this  state  of  affairs  by  adjusting  the 
advantages  and  assistance  offered  by  science  to  the  real 
needs  of  the  nation.  At  present  the  actual  opinion  of  the 
scientific  world  on  any  subject  of  special  interest  is 
usually  only  extracted  with  difficulty  by  evidence  before 
a  Select  Committee.  It  would  be  very  easy  for  the 
scientific  members  of  the  House  to  concentrate  their 
force  by  previous  meeting  and  organization,  and  so  to 
give  weight  to  that  side  in  a  debate  which  was  truly 
working  for  the  best  solution  of  any  national  problem 
involving  health  and  disease.  In  former  years,  the 
opinion  of  unscientific  persons  has  been  sought  on  the 
subject  of  rabies  as  being  of  equal  weight  with  the  assured 
observations  of  scientific  experts.  This  lamentable  state 
of  things  has  led  to  the  present  condition  of  our  legislation 
against  this  disease,  under  which  the  malady  is  but 
temporarily,  if  readily,  stamped  out  in  one  district  alone  ; 
this  same  district  becoming  infected  again  from  neigh- 
bouring parts  of  the  country  as  soon  as  the  regulations 
are  withdrawn.  There  is  no  doubt  from  the  minutes  of 
the  Lords  Committee  on  Rabies,  that  the  Report  of  that 
Committee  was  drafted  in  this  unfortunate  manner  owing 
to  the  influence  of  Lords  Mount-Temple  and  Onslow, 
who,  in  their  speeches  and  writings,  have  afforded 
numerous  evidences  of  their  complete  want  of  scientific 
knowledge  of  the  nature  of  the  disease,  and  who,  con- 
sequently, have  failed  to  grasp  the  most  obvious  way  in 
which  it  can  be  extirpated — namely,  the  universal  applica- 
tion of  preventive  legislation.  Mistakes  of  this  kind,  it 
seems  to  us,  would  be  utterly  prevented  by  combined 
action  of  the  scientific  members  of  either  House,  and  if, 
as  is  sometimes  our  unfortunate  duty,  we  have  to  chronicle 
ill-advised  measures  of  suppositiously  scientific  officialism, 
let  us  hope  they  will  not  have  passed  out  into  law  without 
a  strenuous  protest  from  the  united  voice  of  "  our  repre- 
sentatives." 


THE  COMING  OF  AGE  OF  THE  ''JOURNAL  OF 
ANATOMY  AND  PHYSIOLOGY." 


D 


URING  the  past  summer  there  was  established  (as 
our  readers  have  been  informed),  under  the  title  of 
the  "  Anatomical  Society  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland," 
a  new  brotherhood  of  anatomists  ;  and  the  adoption  by 


4'42; 


NATURE 


{March  8,  1888 


it  of  the  above-named  journal  as  a  medium  for  publica- 
tion, taken  in  conjunction  with  the  fact  that  the  same 
has  entered  on  its  twenty-second  year,  affords  a  fitting  op- 
portunity for  briefly  reviewing  its  progress  and  prospects. 

Of  the  work  of  the  Society  to  which  we  have  alluded  it 
would  be  premature  to  judge.  It  has  been  founded  in 
the  cause  of  "  those  interested  in  the  science  of  anatomy," 
and  on  glancing  through  its  roll  of  members  we  see  that 
,  the  comparative  and  human  anatomist  are,  at  last,  at 
work  in  a  common  cause.  All  modern  experience  shows 
it  to  be  a  truism  that  the  study  of  human  anatomy,  if  it  is 
to  bear  good  fruit,  must  be  based  upon  the  comparative 
method.  It  is  well  known  that  essays  have  long  since 
been  made,  by  certain  leaders  at  home,  and  by  Coues 
more  especially  in  America,  towards  the  realization  of 
this  dream  :  we  will  not  pause  to  comment  upon  the 
somewhat  tardy  manner  in  which  these  have  been  re- 
ceived by  human  anatomists  at  large.  The  new  Ana- 
tomical Society,  as  its  constitution  shows,  is  alive  to  the 
truth  we  have  asserted,  and,  this  being  so,  we  shall  follow 
with  extreme  interest  the  progress  of  the  new  brotherhood, 
which,  if  properly  ordered,  cannot  fail  to  exercise  a  most 
beneficial  influence  upon  the  healing  art. 

The  journal  which  the  founders  of  the  new  Society 
have  selected  as  their  mouth-piece  has  had,  thus  far, 
a  successful  run.  To  its  pages  most  of  our  leading 
anatomists  and  physiologists  have  contributed,  and  within 
its  covers  lie  papers  which  have  revolutionized  the 
particular  departments  of  knowledge  with  which  they 
deal.  Fifteen  months  ago  it  entered,  under  a  change 
of  publishers,  upon  a  "  new  series " ;  and  more  re- 
cently it  has,  under  its  extended  auspices,  as  might 
be  expected,  shown  signs  of  increase  in  bulk.  Its 
editors  have  been  ever  indefatigable,  and  most  willing  to 
oblige  all  who  have  applied  to  them  ;  but  the  limit  of  their 
generosity  has  most  certainly  been  reached,  and,  unless 
we  are  sadly  mistaken,  they  will  before  long  find  it 
necessary  to  reconsider  their  scheme.  In  anticipation  of 
this,  and  in  the  interests  of  workers  in  general,  we  would 
advise  a  more  judicious  selection  and  revision  of  matter 
tendered  for  publication  than  is  at  present  adopted.  In 
the  current  number  we  find  thirteen  papers  presented  in 
all — some  of  great  merit,  others  of  a  more  questionable 
character.  In  one  of  them  we  read  at  the  outset  the  re- 
markable statement  that  "  the  minute  anatomy  of  the 
skin  of  the  horse  has  never  before  been  described,"  and  at 
the  conclusion  the  erroneous  assertion  that  "  having  got 
perfectly  free  from  the  old  hair  the  (hair-)  papilla  now 
commences  secreting  again."  On  reading  this  and  certain 
other  papers  which  have  been  published  of  late,  we  cannot 
close  the  volumes  without  being  struck  with  the  general 
looseness  and  absence  of  all  regard  for  authority  which 
pervade  them.  This  should  not  be.  To  papers  such  as 
these  the  worker  turns  for  originality,  or,  failing  that,  for 
at  least  a  resutne  of  work  done  up  to  the  time  of  writing  : 
their  multiplication,  in  the  unsatisfactory  form  to  which 
we  now  reluctantly  call  attention,  is  regrettable,  and,  in 
the  interests  of  a  literature  already  overburdened,  greatly 
to  be  deplored. 

By  way  of  further  insuring  the  restriction  of  the 
publication  within  reasonable  limits,  we  would  urge  the 
exclusion  from  the  body  of  each  issue  of  pure  compilations 
and  papers  wholly  controversial — such,  for  example,  as  one 
a  short  time  ago  devoted  to  a  consideration  of  the  rela- 
tions of  the  Mammalia  to  the  lower  Vertebrata,  and  others 
which  could  be  named.  Productions  such  as  these,  con- 
taining nothing  original,  and  occasionally  but  a  portion  of 
that  which  is  known  on  the  subjects  under  review,  should 
be  dealt  with  as  supplementary  matter.  We  hear  a  great 
deal  nowadays,  on  all  hands,  about  the  scant  recognition 
of  work  done  by  our  countrymen.  The  retention  of 
papers  such  as  those  to  which  we  have  alluded,  in  an 
authoritative  journal  like  the  one  before  us,  cannot  fail  to 
call  forth  the  unwelcome  "<?«/M//  nichts  neues"  ;  and  if 


it  be  persisted  in,  is  it  not  likely  that  we  may  yet  have  to 
thank  ourselves,  in  a  measure,  for  the  supposed  want  of 
respect  ? 

Far  be  it  from  us  to  discourage  the  efforts  of  individual 
workers.  In  calling  attention  to  these  defects  we  merely 
desire  to  guard  against  reproach.  If  the  journal  whose 
interests  we  are  seeking  is  to  continue  its  useful  work 
done  in  the  past,  and  to  do  justice  to  the  best  interests  of 
its  new  supporters  in  the  future,  some  such  deliberate 
modifications  as  those  to  which  we  have  pointed  are  called 
for.  Far-reaching  interests  will  not  excuse  inauthorita- 
tiveness,  and,  if  the  new  leaven  is  to  work  its  best,  the 
rising  generation  of  anatomists  will  not  tolerate 
inefficiency. 


NOTES. 

Baron  von  Schwerin,  the  Swedish  explorer,  has  presented 
his  whole  collection  of  ethnographical  objects,  gathered  during 
the  last  two  years' journeys  in  Afiica,  to  the  National  Ethno- 
graphical Museum  at  Stockholm,  The  collection  is  the  largest 
and  most  valuable  ever  presented  to  this  institution  by  any  private 
person. 

Admiral  Sir  Astley  Cooper  Key  died  suddenly  last 
Saturday.  He  was  in  his  sixty-seventh  year.  He  had  seen 
much  active  service,  and  had  held  some  high  appointments, 
including  that  of  Principal  Naval  Lord  of  the  Admiralty,  and 
Director  of  the  Royal  Naval  College,  which  owed  much  to  his 
endeavours  to  apply  science  to  the  wants  of  the  Navy. 

The  Swedish  Government  has  decided  to  expend  ;^3ooo  on  a 
new  botanical  museum  at  the  Lund  University. 

The  eighth  German  Geographentag  will  be  held  at  Berlin 
on  April  4,  5,  and  6. 

From  July  25  to  31  there  will  be  held  in  Paris,  in  the  rooms 
of  the  Medical  School,  a  meeting  of  the  Society  for  the  study  of 
Human  and  Animal  Tuberculosis,  under  the  presidency  of  Profs. 
Chauveau  and  Villemin,  Interesting  communications  and  papers 
are  expected. 

The  Chair  of  Psychology  to  which  M,  Ribot  has  been  ap- 
pointed has  long  existed  in  the  College  de  France,  and  was  not, 
as  has  been  stated,  established  by  the  Paris  Municipal  Council, 
This  Chair  must  not  be  confounded  with  that  of  Pkilosophie 
Biologique,  which  the  Council  is  creating  for  Prof,  Giard. 

A  SHORT  course  of  lectures  on  "The  Protection  of  Buildings 
from  Lightning,"  by  Prof.  Oliver  J.  Lodge,  F.R.S,,  to  be 
delivered  under  the  title  of  the  "  Dr,  Mann  Lectures,"  as  a 
memorial  of  the  late  Dr,  Mann,  will  be  begun  on  Saturday 
afternoon  next,  March  10,  at  the  Society  of  Arts,  The  cour;e 
will  consist  of  two  lectures,  the  first  of  which  will  take  the  form 
of  a  slight  historical  sketch,  and  will  call  attention  to  the  out- 
standing questions,  difficulties,  and  points  of  controversy  in 
connection  with  lightning-conductors.  At  the  second  lecture 
experimental  answers  will  be  given  to  some  of  the  questions 
raised,  and  an  endeavour  will  be  made  to  supply  a  more  com- 
plete account  of  the  liability  of  conductors  to  side-flash  than 
has  yet  been  attempted.     The  chair  will  be  taken  at  3  o'clock. 

Last  Saturday,  Sir  James  Paget  delivered  an  interesting 
address  to  the  students  attending  University  Extension  Lectures 
in  London.  His  subject  was  "  Scientific  Study,"  and  he  showed 
in  a  remarkably  clear  and  striking  way  how  the  study  of  science 
develops  the  power  of  observation,  fosters  accuracy  of  thought, 
gives  men  a  vivid  conception  of  the  difficulty  of  attaining  to  a 
real  knowledge  of  the  truth,  and  makes  them  familiar  with  the 
methods  by  which  they  may  pass  from  that  which  is  proved  to 


March  8,  1888] 


NATURE 


443 


the'thiiiking  of  what  is  probable.  He  also  offered  illustrations 
df  the  power  of  science  to  minister  to  the  needs  of  ordinary 
life,  and  to  satisfy  man's  "  insatiable  appetite  for  the  knowledge 
of  wonders."  Such  addresses  as  this,  delivered  by  acknow- 
ledged masters  in  their  own  departments  of  study,  do  excellent 
service  to  science  by  bringing  prominently  before  the  public  the 
solid  advantages  which  are  to  be  gained  by  scientific  training. 
They  are  also  made  the  occasion  of  some  good  writing  in  the 
daily  newspapers.  The  Daily  Ncivs,  for  example,  had  an  ex- 
cellent article  on  Sir  James  Paget's  address,  enforcing  the  prin- 
ciple that  "the  study  of  science  goes  further  than  other  studies 
fo  teach  us  the  simple  love  of  truth  for  truth's  sake." 

'V^v.  Japan  Weekly  Mail  %\.vA.t%  in  connection  with  the  recent 
publication  of  the  "  Life  and  Letters  of  Charles  Darwin  "  that 
the  Beagle,  in  which  Darwin  made  his  memorable  voyage,  is  now 
used  as  a  Japanese  training-ship.  It  is  stationed  at  Yokosuka, 
a  naval  station  in  the  Bay  of  Yedo,  not  far  from  Yokohama. 

The  Directors  of  the  Crystal  Palace  have  arranged  that  the 
Photographic  Exhibition  shall  remain  open  until  March  17,  a 
fortnight  later  than  was  at  first  intended.  The  public  interest 
in  this  Exhibition  is  said  to  have  exceeded  the  most  sanguine 
expectations. 

The  Council  has  reported  to  the  Senate  of  the  University  of 
Cambridge  against  the  admission  of  women  to  degrees. 

At  the  University  of  Zurich  there  are  at  present  forty-five 
female  students,  twenty-nine  of  whom  study  medicine,  fourteen 
philosophy,  and  two  political  economy.  In  1887  there  were 
108  female  medical  students  in  Paris. 

A  NEW  and  most  valuable  method  of  determininT;  the  mole- 
cular weights  of  non -volatile  as  well  as  volatile  substances  has 
just  been  brought  into  prominence  by  Prof.  Victor  Meyer 
{Berichtc,  18S8,  No.  3).  The  method  itself  was  discovered  by 
M.  Raoult,  and  finally  perfected  by  him  in  r886,  but  up  to  the 
present  has  been  but  little  utilized  by  chemists.  It  will  be  re- 
membered that  Prof.  Meyer  has  recently  discovered  two  isomeric 
series  of  derivatives  of  benzil.  differing  only  in  the  position  of 
the  various  groups  in  space.  If  each  couple  of  isomers  possess 
the  same  molecular  weight,  a  certain  modification  of  the  new 
Van't  Hoff-Wislicenus  theory  as  to  the  position  of  atoms  in  space  is 
rendered  necessary  ;  but  if  the  two  are  polymers,  one  having  a 
molecular  weight  n  times  that  of  the  other,  then  the  theory  in 
its  present  form  will  still  hold.  Hence  it  was  imperative  to 
determine  without  dpubt  the  molecular  weight  of  some  two  typical 
isomers.  But  the  compounds  in  question  are  not  volatile,  so 
that  vapour  density  determinations  were  out  of  the  question.  In 
this  difficulty  Prof.  Meyer  has  tested  the  discovery  of  M.  Raoult 
upon  a  number  of  compounds  of  known  molecular  weights,  and 
found  it  perfectly  reliable  and  easy  of  application.  The  method 
depends  upon  the  lowering  of  the  solidifying  point  of  a  solvent, 
such  as  water,  benzene,  or  glacial  acetic  acid,  by  the  introduc- 
tion of  a  given  weight  of  the  substance  whose  molecular  weight 
is  to  be  determined.  The  amount  by  which  the  solidifying  point 
is  lowered  is  connected  with  the  molecular  weight  M  by  the 

p 
following  extremely  simple  formula  :  M  =  T  x  —    ;    where  C 

represents  the  amount  by  which  the  point  of  congelation  is 
lowered,  P  the  weight  of  anhydrous  substance  dissolved  in 
100  grammes  of  the  solvent,  and  T  a  constant,  for  the  same 
solvent  readily  determined  from  volatile  substances  whose  mole- 
cular weights  are  well  known.  On  applying  this  law  to  the  case  of 
two  isomeric  benzil  derivatives  the  molecular  weights  were  found, 
as  expected,  to  be  identical,  and  not  multiples  ;  hence  Prof. 
Meyer  is  perfectly  justified  in  introducing  the  necessary  modi- 
fication in  the  "position  in  space"  theory.  Now  that  this 
generalization  of  Raoult  is  placed  upjn  a  secure  basis,  it  takes  its 


well-merited  rank  along  with  thatof  Dulong  and  Petit  as  a  most 
valuable  means  of  checking  molecular  weights,  especially  in 
determining  which  of  two  or  more  possible  values  expresses 
the  truth. 

A  Report  on  Indian  fibres  and  fibrous  substances  exhibited 
at  the  Colonial  Exhibition,  1886,  has  been  published  by 
authority  of  the  Secretary  of  State  for  India.  It  contains  the 
results  of  a  laboratory  investigation  conducted  by  C.  F,  Cross, 

E.  J.  Bevan,  and  C.  M.  King,  in  association  with  E.  Joynson  ; 
and  Dr.  George  Watt  contributes  notes  of  methods  of  treatment 
and  uses  prevalent  in  India.  In  issuing  the  volume,  the  authors 
say  that  perhaps  the  utmost  they  can  hope  to  do  is  to  indicate 
the  scope  of  a  more  adequate  treatment  of  the  subject.  Th^y 
are  convinced  that  when  the  vegetable  fibres  come  to  be  recog- 
nized as  constituting  a  special  field  for  research,  and  worthy  the 
attention  of  those  who  have  command  of  the  necessary  resources, 
there  will  be  a  considerable  gain  to  science  in  the  results  of  the 
systematic  and  sustained  investigations  which  will  follow. 

Messrs.  Longmans  and  Co.  are  preparing  for  publication 
"The  Testing  of  Materials  of  Construction,"  embracing  the 
description  of  testing  machinery  and  apparatus  auxiliary  to 
mechanical  testing,  and  an  account  of  the  most  important 
researches  on  the  strength  of  materials,  by  William  Cawthome 
Unwin,  F.R.S.;  "  A  Text-book  of  Elementary  Biology,"  by 
R.  J.  Harvey  Gibson,  Lecturer  on  Botany  in  University  College, 
Liverpool;  "Dissolution  and  Evolution  and  the  Science  of 
Medicine,"  by  C.  Pitfield  Mitchell ;  and  "  The  Fundamental 
Principles  of  Chemistry  practically  taught,  by  a  New  Method," 
by  Robert  Galloway,  Honorary  Member  of  the  Chemical 
Society  of  the  Lehigh  University,  U.S. 

Messrs.  Swan  Sonnenschein,  Lowrey,  and  Co.  are 
issuing,  in  parts,  what  promises  to  be  a  most  useful  publication — 
"  The  Cyclopaedia  of  Education." 

A  FIFTH  edition  of  Munro  and  Jamieson's  "Pocket-book  of 
Electrical  Rules  and  Tables  "  has  been  issued.  The  first  part  of 
this  excellent  little  volume  deals  with  the  fundamental  principles 
and  measurements  of  the  science ;  the  second  part  with  their 
applications,  including  telegraphy,  telephony,  electric  lighting, 
and  the  transmission  of  power  by  means  of  electricity.  In  the 
new  edition  many  important  additions  have  been  made. 

We  have  received  Part  I.  of  "The  Characeas  of  America," 
by  Dr.  T.  F.  Allen.  The  author  has  postponed  the  publication 
of  the  work  from  time  to  time  in  order  to  accumulate  material 
for  a  more  complete  account  of  the  species  growing  in  America. 
The  demand  in  America  for  information  concerning  these  plants 
is,  however,  so  pressing  that  Dr.  Allen  has  thought  it  best  to 
issue  the  first  part,  which  contains  introduction,  morphology,  and 
classification.  The  second  part  will  appear  in  a  year  or  two, 
and  will  give  descriptions  of  the  species  now  known  to  inhabit 
American  waters.     The  work  is  illustrated. 

The  new  number  of  the  Proceedings  of  the  American  Philo- 
sophical Society  (July  to  December,  1887),  contains,  among 
other  important  papers,  a  valuable  "  Contribution  to  the  History 
of  the  Vertebrata  of  the  Trias  of  North  America,"  by  E.  D. 
Cope.  There  are  also  interesting  papers  on  the  question,  "Were 
the  Toltecs  an  Historic  Nationality  ?  ",  and  on  the  ethnology  of 
Briti-h  Columbia,  the  former  by  D.  G.  Brinton,  the  latter  by 

F.  Boas. 

MM.  Beauregard  and  Galippe,  of  Paris,  have  issued  a 
second  edition  of  their  practical  guide  to  micrographical  work. 
It  has  been  much  enlarged. 

M.  Reinwald,  of  Paris,  has  just  brought  out  the  first  volume 
of  MM.  C.  Vogt  and  Yung's  "Anatomic  compare  pratique." 


444 


NATURE 


\_March  8,  1888 


The  Report  on  the  Administration  of  the  Meteorological 
Department  of  the  Government  of  India  for  the  financial  year 
1886-87  gives  interesting  details  of  the  work  carried  on  in  the 
various  provinces,  and  of  the  inspection  of  the  stations.  The 
observatories  now  number  135  ;  three  have  been  established  in 
the  new  territory  of  Upper  Burmah,  where  scarcely  anything  is 
yet  known  about  the  meteorology.  Rainfall  is  registered  at  486 
stations,  and  bright  sunshine  at  six  observatories.  Ground  tem- 
perature is  recorded  at  five  selected  stations,  and  some  of  the 
results  are  of  great  interest,  showing  that  the  average  tempera- 
ture of  the  ground  in  India  is  about  5°  above  that  of  the  air  ;  and 
also  that  there  is  a  small  oscillation  of  many  years'  duration, 
amounting  to  about  4°,  affecting  the  air  temperature  and  the 
intensity  of  solar  radiation.  Considerable  attention  is  paid  to 
the  laws  of  drought,  and  the  hope  is  expressed  that  by  degrees 
they  may  be  established  on  a  sound  physical  basis.  The  in- 
fluence of  forests  on  rainfall  has  been  fully  discussed,  and  the 
evidence  afforded  is  favourable  to  the  assumption  that  forests 
increase  the  rainfall.  The  work  of  marine  meteorology  also  is 
actively  prosecuted  ;  the  weather  charts  of  the  Bay  of  Bengal 
have  been  lately  mentioned  (Nature,  December  8,  1887,  p.  137). 
A  work  on  the  storms  of  that  district  is  in  course  of  preparation, 
and  it  is  proposed  to  draw  up  a  hand-book  on  the  subj  ect,  for 
the  use  of  seamen. 

Under  the  title  of  "Deutsche  ueberseeische  meteorologische 
Beobachtungen,"  the  Hamburg  Meteorological  Office  has  com- 
menced a  new  publication  containing  observations  made  under 
its  auspices  abroad.  The  first  part  contains  observations  made 
at  six  stations  in  Labrador  from  September  1883  to  December 
1884.  These  stations  were  equipped  in  August  1882  as  supple- 
mentary to  the  International  Polar  Expeditions,  and,  as  the 
missionary  observers  were  willing  to  continue  the  observations, 
and  the  stations  are  important  owing  to  the  passage  of  many 
barometric  depressions  over  Labrador,  it  has  been  decided  to 
retain  them.  The  other  stations  for  which  observations  are 
published  are  Hatzfeldhafen  (New  Guinea)  and  Walfish  Bay 
(West  Coast  of  Africa).  Future  parts  are  to  be  published  as  soon 
as  another  year's  observations  are  received  from  Labrador,  and 
will  include  observations  received  from  other  stations  in  the 
meantime. 

The  Pilot  Chart  for  the  North  Atlantic  Ocean  for  the  month 
of  February  draws  attention  to  the  great  danger  to  Transatlantic 
navigation  from  icebergs  and  field  ice,  from  the  present  time  and 
until  the  end  of  August.  The  ice  is  liable  to  be  encountered  off 
the  Grand  Banks  as  far  south  as  42°  N.,  and  between  the  42nd 
and  52nd  meridians.  It  is  pointed  out  that  too  much  reliance 
should  not  be  placed  on  the  use  of  the  thermometer,  and  that 
warning  may  often  be  obtained  by  means  of  the  echo  thrown 
back  from  the  surface  of  an  iceberg  when  a  whistle  is  sounded, 
or  any  sharp  noise  is  made. 

The  Chief  Signal  Officer  of  the  United  States  has  issued  a 
new  edition  of  "Instructions  to  Observers  of  the  Signal 
Service"  (Washington,  1887,  142  pp.  large  8 vo).  The  "  In- 
structions "  are  most  complete,  and  contain  information  which 
will  be  very  useful  to  observers  in  all  countries,  and  many  points 
that  will  be  novel  to  English  readers.  On  the  establishment  of 
a  station,  a  local  committee  of  management  is  formed,  the  chair- 
man of  which  corresponds  directly  with  the  Signal  Office,  and  a 
detailed  report  on  the  working  of  the  station  is  furnished  each 
year.  All  barometrical  observations  are  to  be  reduced  for 
gravity  at  lat.  45°,  and  complete  directions  are  given  for  remov- 
ing air  from  both  barometers  and  thermometers.  Instead  of  the 
usual  drawings  of  the  instruments,  detailed  plans  of  all  their 
separate  parts  are  given  ;  by  this  means  observers  obtain  an 
accurate  knowledge  of  their  construction.  The  observation  of 
clouds  is  referred  to  seven  types  only.     Full  directions  are  given 


for  drawing  weather  maps  from  telegraphic  reports,  and,  finally, 
a  good  list  of  works  recommended  for  study,  and  the  necessary 
tables  for  reduction,  complete  the  volume. 

A  remarkable  achievement  in  transportation  of  live  fish  a 
great  distance  is  described  by  M.  Jousset  de  Bellesme  in  a  recent 
number  of  the  Revue  Scientifique.  The  aquatic  fauna  of  Chili 
being  very  poor,  a  selection  of  fish,  comprising  100  Californian 
salmon,  40  carp,  20  tench,  20  gudgeon,  with  a  number  of  eels, 
barbs,  minnows,  lotes,  &c.,  were  despatched  from  Paris  in 
September  last  to  stock  the  waters.  The  voyage,  of  about  a 
month,  was,  of  course,  a  very  trying  one  in  this  relation, 
especially  as  regards  variation  of  temperature.  In  treatment  of 
the  fish  care  was  taken  to  lessen  the  activity  of  their  functions  by 
refrigeration  and  starvation  (a  carp  will  live  fifty  days  without 
food),  and  a  continuous  air  circulation  was  kept  up  in  the  water 
(which  was  not  renewed).  There  was  some  loss  among  the 
salmon,  but  thirty-nine  were  successfully  installed  at  Santiago  ; 
and  the  other  groups  were  mostly  intact.  Only  the  gudgeons, 
lotes,  and  barbs,  suffered  serious  loss.  The  experiment  seems 
to  prove  the  possibility  of  carrying  alive  the  most  delicate  fish 
from  any  point  of  the  globe  to  any  other  point.  It  -was  also 
ascertained  that  a  tempSfature  of  23"^  C.  is  not  hurtful  to  the 
health  of  alevins  of  Salmo  quinat,  as  might  have  been  feared. 
The  expense  of  the  transport  was  considerable,  but  was  willingly 
borne  by  the  Chilian  Government,  in  view  of  future  advantage 
to  the  country. 

The  Zoologist  for  March  reprints  an  extraordinary  pamphlet, 
entitled,  "  An  Account  of  Wolves  nurturing  Children  in  their 
Dens."  This  pamphlet  was  printed  at  Plymouth  in  1853,  and 
has  long  been  out  of  print.  On  the  wrapper  of  a  copy  in  the 
Zoological  Library  of  the  Natural  History  Museum  at  South 
Kensington  there  is  the  following  memorandum  in  the  hand- 
writing of  the  late  Colonel  Hamilton  Smith  : — "This  account, 
I  am  informed  by  friends,  is  written  by  Colonel  Sleeman,  of  the 
Indian  army,  the  well-known  officer  who  had  charge  of  the 
Thugg  inquiries,  and  who  resided  long  in  the  forests  of  India." 
The  writer  records  a  number  of  cases  of  children  who  are  said  to 
have  been  nurtured  by  wolves  in  India.  In  one  in'-tance  a  large 
female  wolf  was  seen  to  leave  her  den  followed  by  three  whelps 
and  a  little  boy.  This  happened  near  Chandour,  ten  miles  from 
Sultanpoor,  in  the  year  1847.  The  boy  went  on  all  fours,  and 
ran  as  fast  as  the  whelps  could.  He  was  caught  with  difficulty, 
and  had  to  be  tied,  as  he  was  very  restive,  and  struggled  hard  to 
rush  into  holes  and  dens.  When  a  grown-up  person  came  near 
him  he  became  alarmed,  and  tried  to  steal  away.  But  when  a 
child  came  near  him  he  rushed  at  it  with  a  fierce  snarl,  like  that 
of  a  dog,  and  tried  to  bite  it.  When  cooked  meat  was  put  near 
him  he  rejected  it  with  disgust ;  but  when  raw  meat  was  offered 
he  seized  it  with  avidity,  put  it  on  the  ground  under  his  hand?;, 
like  a  dog,  and  ate  it  with  evident  pleasure.  He  would  not  let 
anyone  come  near  him  while  he  was  eating,  but  he  made  no  ob- 
jection to  a  dog  coming  and  sharing  his  food  with  him.  The 
trooper  who  captured  the  boy  left  him  in  charge  bf  the  Rajah 
of  Hasunpoor,  who  sent  him  to  Captain  Nichollets,  commanding 
the  first  regiment  of  the  Oude  Local  Infantry  at  Sultanpoor  ;  and 
some  interesting  notes  as  to  the  boy's  habits  are  given  on  this 
officer's  authority.  He  died  in  August  1850  ;  and  after  his  death 
it  was  remembered  that  he  had  never  been  known  to  laugh  or 
smile.  He  used  signs  when  he  wanted  anything,  and  very  few 
of  them  except  when  hungry,  and  he  then  pointed  to  his  mouth. 
When  his  food  was  placed  at  some  distance  from  him, he  would  run 
to  it  on  all  fours,  like  any  four-footed  animal,  but  at  other  times  he 
would  walk  uprightly  occasionally.  He  shunned  human  beings, 
and  seemed  to  care  for  nothing  but  eating.  If  the  pamphlet  can 
be  proved  to  be  perfectly  trustworthy,  it  certainly  deserves  to  be 
carefully  studied  by  anthropologists. 


March  8,  1888] 


NATURE 


445 


The  last  issue'  (Heft  37)  of  the  German  Asiatic  Society  of 
Japan  contains  a  lengthy  paper,  with  numerous  tables  of  ana- 
lyses, on  the  food  of  the  Japanese,  the  authors  being  Dr. 
Kellner  and  M.  Mori.  They  refer  at  the  outset  to  the  extra, 
ordinary  differences  of  opinion  amongst  various  writers  as  to  the 
exact  nature  of  the  staple  diet  of  the  Japanese  people.  One 
writer  says  it  is  almost  wholly  boiled  rice  flavoured  with  small 
quantities  of  fish  or  pickled  vegetables  ;  another  says  that,  as 
far  as  means  allow,  it  is  a  mixed,  and  not  a  purely  vegetable 
diet,  and  therefore  physiologically  ample  ;  a  third  that  it  is 
almost  wholly  vegetarian  ;  a  fourth,  that  as  much  animal  food 
is  consumed  in  Japan  as  in  Germany,  Austria,  France,  and  the 
Danubian  Principalities  ;  and  so  on.  All  the  writers  here  quoted 
are  modern  men  of  science  who  have  resided  in  Japan,  and  have 
therefore  had  ample  opportunities  for  forming  an  accurate 
opinion.  As  to  beef,  however  (there  is  no  mutton  in  Japan), 
there  can  be  no  question  that  its  consumption  is  very  small.  In 
1882  only  36,288  beasts  were  slaughtered,  or  about  I  kilogramme 
of  meat  per  head  of  the  population,  and  it  must  be  borne  in 
mind  that  a  large  consumption  takes  place  at  the  open  ports 
amongst  Europeans,  and  in  the  proximity  of  vessels.  The  con- 
clusions to  which  the  present  writers — one  of  them,  it  will  be 
noticed,  being  a  native  investigator — come  is  that  the  food  of 
the  Japanese  people  varies  so  considerably  that,  from  a  physio- 
logical point  of  view,  no  single  proposition  can  be  laid  down 
respecting  it.  There  are  two  main  groups  to  be  distinguished  : 
in  one,  the  people  from  poverty  are  compelled  to  be  veget- 
arians, and  use  a  diet  which  leaves  much  to  be  desired  in  its 
effect  in  strengthening  the  body  ;  those  in  the  second  group  are 
able  to  obtain  animal  food  from  the  sea  with  some  ease,  and 
therefore  use  a  mixed  diet,  which  in  kind  and  quantity  appears 
ample.  Between  these  two  extremes  we  find  all  kinds  of 
diet.  The  authors  have  not  only  made  analyses  of  the  various 
food-stuffs  of  Japan,  but  have  investigated  in  various  public 
institutions,  from  prisons  to  schools  for  army  officers,  the  effect 
of  various  classes  of  food  on  the  labour  and  weight  of  different 
persons. 

On  February  10,  at  12.40  a.m.,  a  brilliant  meteor  was  seen 
at  Venersborg,  in  Sweden.  It  went  in  a  direction  from  south  to 
north,  and  was  surrounded  by  an  intense  blue  light.  It  was  seen 
to  fall  to  the  earth  some  considerable  distance  off,  but  no  sound 
could  be  heard. 

Dr.  Robert  Fries,  a  Swedish  botanist,  has  completed  a 
memoir  on  the  fungus-flora  of  the  south-west  coast  of  Sweden 
on  which  he  has  been  engaged  for  a  number  of  years.  It 
embraces  865  varieties. 

Prof.  Sven  Lov6n,  the  "Nestor  of  Swedish  science," 
recently  completed  his  seventy- ninth  year,  when  he  received 
numerous  congratulations  from  friends  at  home  and  abroad.  He 
is  at  present  engaged  in  publishing  a  catalogue  by  Linnaeus  of  the 
Lovisa  Ulrika  Museum  in  Sweden,  which  will  be  accompanied 
by  numerous  illustrations  and  explanatory  notes  from  a  modern 
scientific  point  of  view  by  Prof.  Loven. 

The  report  of  the  Norwegian  Association  for  the  Preservation 
of  Archfeological  Remains  for  last  year  shows  that  thirty-one 
barrows  were  opened  in  1887  by  the  Association  at  Tvetene,  in 
the  parish  of  Brunlanres,  all  of  which  were  found  to  date  from  the 
early  Iron  Age.  Some  146  objects  of  various  kinds  were  found. 
These  objects  were  added  to  the  Museum  of  the  Christiania 
University. 

The  well-known  Norwegian  naturalists,  M.  Michelet  and 
Dr.  Bahrt,  have  introduced  a  Bill  into  the  Storthing,  pro- 
hibiting the  killing  of  any  birds  (except  birds  of  prey,  ravens, 
rooks,  and  magpies)  in  the  whole  of  Norway  during  the  period 
April  I  to  August  15,  also  the  taking  of  eggs  or  young  birds. 
The  chief  object  of  this  Bill  is  to  put  a  stop  to  the  present 
wanton  destruction  of  birds  by  foreign  "sportsmen." 


Mp.  F.  S.  Wells,  of  Southgate,  has  sent  us  four  photographs 
of  the  lunar  eclipse  of  January  21  last.  Considering  the  small 
size  of  the  photographs,  they  are  very  interesting,  and  Mr.  Wells 
tells  us  that  they  were  taken  without  costly  apparatus.  In  the 
original  negatives  the  images  were  merely  seven- sixteenths  of  an 
inch.     Mr.  Wells  enlarged  them  five  diameters. 

Mr.  R.  Copeland  writes  to  us: — "I  have  just  learnt  from 
Leipzig  that  Prof  Krehl  is  the  University  Librarian  at  that 
place,  and  not  Virchl  as  printed  in  Dr.  Muir's  letter  on  p.  246, 
and  repeated  by  me  on  p.  344  of  Nature."  Mr.  Copeland  also 
mentions  that  the  "  Demonstratio  eliminationis  Cramerianoe  " 
was  duly  entered  under  De  Prasse  by  Mr.  K.  Tucker,  Hon. 
Sec.  Mathematical  Society,  when  drawing  up  the  catalogue  of 
the  "Mathematical  and  Scientific  Library  of  the  late  Charles 
Babbage  "  in  1872.  This  library  forms  the  nucleus  of  Lord 
Crawford's  collection  of  scientific  books. 

The  additions  to  the  Zoological  Society's  Gardens  during  the 
past  week  include  a  Rhesus  Monkey  {Macaats  rhesus  ? )  from 
India,  presented  by  Captain  R.  F.  Hibbert  ;  a  Common  Raccoon 
{Procyon  lotor)  from  North  America,  presented  by  Mr.  C.  J. 
Urquhart ;  a  Civet  ( Viverricula  )  from  China,  pre- 
sented by  Mr.  Percy  Montgomery ;  two  Laughing  Kingfishers 
{Dacelo gigantea)  from  Australia,  presented  by  Mrs.  Mars  Buck- 
ley ;  twelve  Black-headed  Gulls  {Larus  ridibundus),  a  Common 
Gull  {Larus  canus),  British,  presented  by  Mr.  J.  G.  Barker  ;  five 
Prince  of  Wales's  Pheasants  {Phasianus  principalis  <J  <J  Q  9  Q  ) 
from  Afghan  Turkistan,  presented  by  Major  Peacock,  R.E.  ;  a 
Cape  Eagle-Owl  {Bubo  capensis),  five  Angulated  Tortoises 
(Chersina  angulata),  three  Areolated  Tortoises  {Homopus 
areolahis),  a  Natal  Sternothere  {Sternothmrus  castaneus),  a 
Smooth  Snake  {Homolosoma  lutrix),  an  Infernal  Snake  {Boodon 
infernalis),  a  Rufescent  Snake  {Leptodira  rufescens),  a  Spotted 
Slowworn  {Acontias  meleagris),  five  Round-throated  Frogs 
(Rana  fuscigula),  a  Narrow-headed  Toad  {Btifo  angusticeps) 
from  South'  Africa,  presented  by  the  Rev.  G.  H.  R.  Fisk, 
C.M.Z.S.  ;  a  Natal  Sternothere  {SternotJuerus  castaneus)  from 
South  Africa,  presented  by  Colonel  J.  H.  Bowker,  F.  Z.  S.  ;  two 
Cirl  Buntings  {Emberiza  cirlus),  British,  purchased ;  a  Hog 
Deer  {Cetvus  porcimis),  an  Eland  {Oreas  canna),  a  Yellow- 
footed  Rock  Kangaroo  {Petrpgale  xanthopus)  born  in  the 
Gardens. 


OUR  ASTRONOMICAL  COLUMN. 

Tempel's  Comet,  1867  II. — M.  Raoul  Gautier  has  published 
in  the  Memoirs  of  the  Society  de  Physique  et  d'Histoire 
Naturellede  Geneve,  vol.  xxix.  No.  12,  a  discussion  of  the  orbit 
of  the  comet  discovered  by  Herr  W.  Tempel,  at  Marseilles,  on 
April  3,  1867,  with  especial  reference  to  its  appearances  in  1873 
and  1879.  There  are  several  points  of  especial  interest  about 
this  comet :  not  only  was  it  an  addition  to  the  number  of  known 
comets  of  short  period,  but  it  possesses  the  peculiarity  of  an 
elliptic  orbit  of  but  slight  inclination,  and  of  less  eccentricity 
than  that  of  any  other  member  of  the  same  class.  Its  spectrum,  too, 
would  seem  to  be  unusual,  for  the  imperfect  view  of  it  obtained 
by  Dr.  Huggins,  May  4  and  8,  1867,  led  him  to  conclude  that 
the  bright  bands,  which  it  gave  together  with  a  continuous  spec- 
trum, were  not  those  of  carbon.  Its  orbit,  ai.d  e-pecially  its 
period,  is  also  subject  to  great  perturbations  from  the  action 
of  Jupiter,  and  its  perihelion  distance  was  considerably 
increased  between  1873  and  1867  without  its  aphelion  distance 
being  much  altered.  It  had  also  been  identified  by  M.  Winnecke 
with  the  comet  observed  by  Goldschmidt  at  Paris,  May  16, 
185s,  in  a  search  for  De  Vico's  comet,  but  von  Asten's  inquiries 
have  shown  that  the  identification  was  an  erroneous  one. 

M.  Gautier— though  the  perturbations  due  to  Jupiter  during  the 
period  1873-79,  with  which  he  was  principally  engaged,  have 
been  but  small,  the  two  bodies  being  always  "distant  from  each 
other— has  calculated  the  perturbations  after  the  method  of 
variation  of  the  elements,  since  this  method  was  most  suitable 


446 


NATURE 


\March  8,  1888 


for  the  periods  1867-73  and  1879-85,  and  he  wished  to  connect 
his  calculation  with  those  for  the  two  other  periods,  which  it  is 
his  intention  to  compute,  and  which  he  hopes  to  carry  forward 
so  as  to  furnish  positions  for  the  comet  for  its  next  return  in  1892. 
The  following  are  the  final  results  obtained  by  M.  Gautier  for 
the  two  appearances  : — 

Second  appearance,  Third  appearance,        Mean  errors  com- 

1873.  1879.  mon  to  both 

Mean  eijuinox  T873t>.  Mean  equinox  i87g'o.  systems. 

Mo  1873  April  15-0  -  \  M  1879  April-24-o  =  >)  _^         " 

-4°  5'  24"-i77  J  -2°  10'  2"-454  \  ^  ^^ 

IX  =   592";9765465  =   593"'i200i65         ±  o'oooi40 

^  =  27°  33' 22"  79  =  27°  33'  6" -69        ±  524 


w'   =   240      2    5271 

Si'  =  21  29     o"3o 

i'  =  27    o  58"62 

V  =  238    2  52-98 

&>  -  78  43  48-42 

'  =  9  45  58'59 


==  240  15  31-77 

=  21  29  34-33 

=  27    o  39-50 

=  238  15  30-65 

r=  78  45  55-66 

=  9  46    2  64 


±  I  3175 

±  6-14 

±  2*00 

±  I  31-75 

±  13-18 

±  2-6i 


T  i=  '1-873  May  9-83096  =:  1879  Mdy  7'r5493  ±      of'-0495 

loga=         0-5179794         =         0-5179093 

log  g  —  0-2482605     =     0-2482463 

e  =         0-4626205  =         0-4625512 

The  time  of  perihelion  passage  is  given  in  Berlin  mean  time. 

The  comet  was  not  seen  in  1885,  and  there  seems  distinct 
evidence,  from  tlie  greater  difficulty  of  observation  in  1873  and 
more  especially  in  1879,  that  it  has  diminished  in  brightness  at 
each  succeeding  return. 

Comet  1888  a  (Savverthai.).^ — The  following  elements  have 
been  computed  for  this  comet  by  Wr.  \V.  II.  Finlay,  Royal 
Observatory,  Cape  of  Good  Hope  : — 

T  =  1888  March  17-18  G.M.T. 


TT  -    ffl  =  4    29 

SI  =  244    6 

'  =    43  57 

log  |7  =  9 '8354 

Error  of  middle  observation 
AA.  cos  /8  =   -  -5" 


Mean  equinox  l888-o. 


A;8  ==:    -  2" 


h. 

m. 

5   • 

.  20 

33-9 

13   ■ 

..  21 

3-4 

21   . 

..  21 

308 

29   . 

..   21 

57-5 

6 

..   22 

23-5 

Log  r. 

Log  A. 

Bright 
ness. 

..  9-865  .. 

•  9'956 

••   1-5 

..  9-840  . 

•  9-975 

..  1-6 

..  9-838  . 

.  o-oo8 

..  1-4 

..  9 '859  • 

.  0-047 

..10 

...  9-898  . 

.  0-688 

..  0-7 

X  =  [9-8927]  r  sin  (330  30  +  v) 

y  —  [0-0000]  r  sin  (240     T  +  v) 

z  =  [9"7954]  ^-  sin  (329  30  +  v). 

The  following  ephemeris  for  Greenwich  midnight  has  been 

computed  by  Dr.  L.  Becker,  the  perihelion  passage  having  been 

increased  by  one  day,  as  suggested  by  Prof.  Krueger  : 


March    5    ...  20  33-9  ...  33    9  S. 
20  29  S. 
8  31  S. 
I  58  N. 
April    6    ...  22  23-5  ...  1043N. 
The  brightness  on  February  18  has  been  taken  as  unity. 

The  ToTAi.  Eclipse  of  the  Moon,  January  28. — The 
following  list  has  been  received  from  the  Pnlkowa  Observatory 
of  the  number  of  occultations  observed  at  those  observatories 
from  which  reports  had  been  received  up  to  February  17,  in 
addition  to  those  given  in  Nature  for  February  2  (p.  333)  : 

Pulkowa 

Tashkent 

Turin        

Belgrade  ... 
Bothkamp 

Geneva    

Neuchitel 

Kis  Kartal 

Paris 

St.  Petersburg 

At  Helsingfors  and  Algiers  they  had  also  been  successful. 

The  weather  was  cloudy  at  the  following  stations  :  Besaii9on, 
Breslau,  Charkow,  Dorpat,  Dresden,  Gjtha,  Gottingen,  Ham- 
^"'-g)  Jena,  Kalocsa,  Kasan,  Kremzmunster,  Leipzig,  Munich, 
Nikolajen,  Pola,  Prague,  Kiga,  and  Upsala.  Seventy-five 
observatories  had  not  reported  at  the  above-mentioned  date. 


50 

Padua      

4 

21 

San  Fernando 

...     10 

32 

Strasburg         

...     10 

3 

Bordeaux         

...     21 

30 

Kiel 

...     36 

23 

CoUegio  Romano    .. 

••      5 

6 

Wilhelmshaven 

2 

2 

Marseilles        

...     39 

12 

Liverpool 

...     II 

2 

Bilk 

...       8 

Variations  of  Lunar  Heat  during  the  Eclipse  of 
THE  Moon. — Dr.  Boedicker  succeeded  in  making  a  series  of 
interesting  experiments  under  favourable  circumstances  of  the 
variations  in  the  amount  of  heat  radiated  to  us  from  the  moon 
during  the  progress  of  the  total  eclipse  of  January  28.  The 
observations  were  made  with  a  Thompson's  galvanometer  used  in 
connection  with  Lord  Rosse's  3-foot  reflector  at  Parsonstown, 
and  commenced  at  7h.  19m.,  or  ih.  lom.  before  the  first  contact 
with  the  earth's  penumbra,  and  continued  until  I5h.  45m.,  or 
ih.  34m.  after  the  last  contact.  638  readings  were  made  in  all. 
The  principal  deductions  drawn  from  the  observations  were  :— 

(i)  The  heat  radiated  by  the  moon  commenced  to  decrease 
long  before  the  first  contact  with  the  penumbra. 

(2)  Twenty-two  minutes  before  the  commencement  of  totality 
the  heat  was  reduced  to  less  than  5  per  cent,  of  that  which  it 
had  been  twenty  minutes  before  the  first  contact  with  the 
penumbra, 

(3)  In  spite  of  this  rapid  cooling  at  the  approach  of  totality, 
the  heat  after  the  last  contact  with  the  penumbra  did  not 
remount  immediately  to  the  point  where  it  had  been  before  the 
first  contact. 


ASTRONOMICAL    PHENOMENA    FOR    THE 

WEEK  1888  MARCH  11-17. 
/tj'GR  the  reckoning  of  time  the  civil  day,  commencing  at 
V  -^      Greenwich  mean  midnight,  counting  the  hours  on  to  24, 
is  here  employed. ) 

At  Greetiwich  on  March  11 
Sun  rises,  6h.  24m.  ;  souths,  I2h.  lom.  1-3S.  ;  sets,  I7h.  57m,  : 
right  asc.  on  meridian,  23h.  28-4m.  ;  decl.  3°  25'  S. 
Sidereal  Time  at  Sunset,  5h.  i6m. 
Moon  (New  on  March  12,  i6h.)  rises,  6h.  i6m.  ;  souths, 
iih.  23m.;  sets,  i6h.  39m.:  right  asc.  on  meridian, 
22h.  41 -3m.  ;  decl.  10°  59'  S. 

Right  asc.  and  dectination 
Planet.  Rises.  Souths.  Sets.  on  meridian. 

h,   m.  h.    in.  h.    m.  h.       m.  „        , 

Mercury..  5  43  ...  n  13  •.  16  43  ...  22  30-9  ..  6  42  S. 
Venus  ...  5  29  ...  10  12  ...  14  55  ...  21  30-1  ...  15  24  S. 
Mars  ...  21  20*...  2  38  ...  7  56  ...  13  55-2  ...  8  56  S. 
Jupiter  ...  o  48  ...  5  i  ...  9  14  ...  16  17-9  ...  20  24  S, 
Saturn  ...  12  51  ...  20  49  ...  4  47*...  8  8-9  ...  20  44  N. 
Uranus...  20  10*...  i  44  ...  7  18  ...  13  0-9  ...  5  45  S. 
Neptune..  8  44  ...  16  24  ...  o  4*...  3  42-9  ...  18  i  N. 
*  Indicates  that  the  rising  is  that  of  the  preceding  evening  and  the  setting 
that  of  the  following  morning. 

March.  h.  o  01  i. 

II     ...       6     ...     Mercury  in  conjunction  with  and  5    8  north 

of  the  Moon. 
16     ...       4     ...     Mercury  stationary. 

Variable  Stars. 

Star.  RA.  Decl. 

h.      m.               .       ,                                       h.  m. 

R  Celi 2  20-3  ...    o  41  S.    ...  Mar.  13,  M 

\Tauri 3  54-5  ...  12   10  N.  ...     ,,  14,  22  5  m 

^Geminorum       ...     6  57-5  ...  20  44  N.  ...     ,,  15,     2  oM 

R  Canis  Majoris...     7  14-5...  16  12  S.    ...     ,,  n,    041   m 

,,  17,  20  17  w 

U  Monocerotis    ...     725-5...    9  33  S.    ...     ,,  16,  M 

SLibrse        1455-0...    8     4  S.    ...     ,,  14,    o  40  w 

U  Coronse    15  13-6  ...  32     3  N.  ...     ,,  17,     i  50  w 

S  LibrEE       15   15-0  ...  19  59  S.    ...     ,,  13,  ^^ 

R  Herculis 16     1-2  ...  18  40  N.  ...     ,,  14,  M 

RUrsee  Minoris...   16  31-5  ...  72  30  N.  ...     ,,  12,  M 

U  Ophiuchi 17   10-9...     i  20  N.  ...     ,,  16,    3  ow 

X  Sagittarii 17  4^-5    ••  27  47  S.    ...     „  n,     3  o  .1/ 

U  Sagittarii 18  25-3  ...  19  12  S.    ...     ,,  14,     3  o  ^" 

,,  17,    2  o  M 

,8  Lyrse 18  460  ...  33  14  N.  ...     ,,  n,    4  <^  ^"-i 

R  Sagittas    20     9-0  ...  16  23  N.  ...     „  14,  m 

T  Vulpecul^       ...  20  46-7  ...  27  50N.  ...     „  i3>    2  oM 

,,  14,    4  o  m 

5  Cephei       22  25-0  ...  57  51  N.  ...     ,,  17,22  oM 

AT  signifies  maximum  ;  m  minimum  ;  vi^  secondary  minimum. 
Meteor-Showers. 
R.A.                Decl. 

March  4-12. 
Bright ;  slow. 
Bright ;  slow. 


Near  Capella 

...     50     . 

.     48  N. 

,,     1  Virginis    ... 

...   175     . 

.     10  N. 

,,     K  Cephei     ... 

...  300     . 

.     80  N. 

March  8,  1888] 


NATURE 


447 


GEOGRAPHICAL  NOTES. 

Mount  Roraima,  in  British  Guiana,  was  ascended  for  the 
third  time  on  October  14  last,  by  Mr.  F.  Dressel,  an  English 
orchid  collector.  The  first  ascent,  it  will  be  remembered,  was 
by  Mr.  Im  Thurn,  in  December  1884.  The  second  was  in 
November  1886,  by  Mr.  Cremer,  also  an  orchid  collector.  Mr. 
Im  Thurn's  ascent  took  place  in  the  beginning  of  the  wet  season, 
when  everything  was  saturated  with  moisture.  Mr.  Dressel 
ascended  after  continuous  dry  weather,  and  found  the  upper 
surface  comparatively  dry,  the  elevated  portions  most  markedly 
so  ;  while  large  areas  of  the  sward-like  levels  were  perfectly 
desiccated.  The  water  in  the  various  channels  was  very  shallow, 
and  the  deep  basins  or  depressions  contained  but  very  small 
quantities,  though  in  no  case  was  any  found  to  be  quite  dry. 
Frequently  the  surface  of  the  water  in  these  shallow  basins  was 
more  or  less  covered  with  a  green,  apparently  a  Confervoid, 
layer.  In  the  pools  at  the  bottom  of  these  wide  basins,  Mr. 
Dressel  found  a  considerable  quantity  of  quartz,  in  the  form 
both  of  separate  crystals,  and  of  aggregated  masses,  of  various 
and  often  of  large  sizes.  The  presence  of  such  quartz  in  such 
positions  and  under  such  conditions,  Timehri  points  out,  is  an 
extremely  interesting  fact,  though  our  want  of  knowledge  of  the 
petrographic  character  of  the  formation  of  the  top  of  Roraima, 
beyond  the  fact  of  its  being  sandstone,  renders  it  barren,  and 
one  hardly  justifying  speculation.  It  will  be  remembered  that 
on  the  first  ascent  no  animal  life  was  noticed  during  the  short 
time  spent  on  the  top  ;  and  this  necessarily  denoted  the  likeli- 
hood of  the  absence  or  great  rarity  of  birds  and  insects.  During 
the  two  or  three  hours  spent  on  the  top  by  Mr.  Dressel,  no 
birds  were  seen  ;  but  a  few  specimens  of  butterflies,  all  of 
one  kind,  of  a  dark  brown  and  nearly  black  colour,  were 
observed,  and  two  of  them  were  caught,  though  one  alone  was 
sufficiently  preserved  to  show  much  of  its  structure.  In  the 
shallow  basins  a  few  forms  of  a  small  black  toad  with  a  yellow 
spot  on  the  throat  was  also  seen,  and  one  was  caught,  but  was 
accidentally  left  on  the  fop.  A  third  animal  form  was  found  in 
the  moist  earth  attached  to  some  plants  which  had  been  pulled 
up  ;  from  Mr,  Dressel's  description  it  is  conjectured  by  Timehri 
to  be  a  Millipede,  allied  iojulus.  It  is  probable  enough  that  a 
stay  of  a  day  or  two  on  the  top  would  well  repay  the  naturalist ; 
and  Mr.  Dressel  thinks  it  would  not  be  difficult  to  arrange  for 
such  a  stay.  The  fantastic  shape  into  which  the  sandstone  has 
been  fashioned,  and  the  weirdness  of  the  scenes  which  have  been 
so  graphically  described  by  Mr.  Im  Thurn,  affected  Mr.  Dressel 
in  a  similar  manner.  He  mentions  that  the  surface  of  the  rocks 
present  very  closely  the  appearance  of  granite,  owing  to 
weathering  ;  and  at  first  he  thought  some  mistake  had  been 
made  in  describing  the  formation  as  sandstone,  until  he  moved 
away  a  small  rock  from  its  setting,  when  its  real  nature  was 
revealed. 

Timehri  for  December  last  contains  a  very  interesting  account 
by  Mr.  E.  A.  Wallace  of  a  visit  he  paid  to  the  Guahivos,  an 
isolated  tribe  of  Indians,  living  near  the  head  of  the  River  Meta, 
a  tributary  of  the  Orinoco,  in  the  Republic  of  Columbia. 

At  the  last  meeting  of  the  Royal  Geographical  Society 
Mr.  Robert  Gordon  read  a  paper  on  the  Kuby  Mines  near 
Mogok,  Burma.  ITiese  ruby  mines  lie  about  100  miles  N.N.E. 
of  Mandalay.  The  ruby-bearing  region,  so  far  as  known,  lies 
within  an  area  ten  miles  long  by  five  wide,  and  consists  of  groups 
of  small  valleys  nestling  beneath  the  Toung-Meh  range,  and  to 
the  south  of  it.  The  Enjouk  valley  to  the  north  is  said  to  yield 
rubies  and  sapphires,  but  they  have  not  been  regularly  worked. 
The  valleys  arrange  themselves  into  three  groups  of  nearly  equal 
area  by  the  distribution  of  the  watercourses.  To  the  east  a  few 
streams  unite  to  form  the  Yay-Nee,  or  red  water,  so  called  from 
the  washings  of  red  earth  from  the  mines.  The  most  remarkable 
thing,  Mr.  Gordon  stated,  in  the  Mogok  and  neighbouring 
districts,  is  the  distinctness  and  diversity  of  races  among  the 
peoples  in  the  different  communities,  who  evidently  have  kept 
themselves  from  intermarriage  with  their  neighbours  for  centuries, 
and  a  brief  notice  of  the  tribes  whose  types  are  found  here  may 
nnt  be  out  of  place.  In  Kathey,  as  the  name  implies,  the 
villagers  are  Katheys,  whose  ancestors  were  brought  as  prisoners 
from  Munnipore  very  long  ago,  as  they  have  lost  both  the 
Hindoo  religion  and  their  own  language.  In  Mandalay,  Prome, 
and  Henzadah,  where  bodies  of  the  same  people  have  been  long 
transplanted,  they  keep  their  race  and  religion  pure  still.  The 
ethnologist  would  find  matter  of  intense  interest  in  the  inter- 
actions of  some  of  these  races  upon  each  other,  and  perhaps  the 


history  of  these  transplanted  Katheys  would  yield  the  most 
curious  results.  When  surveying  for  the  railway  in  the  district 
south  of  Mandalay,  Mr.  Gordon  found  them  extensively  dis- 
tributed throughout  the  country,  alsvays  living  separately  in  their 
own  villages,  and  retaining  many  of  their  peculiar  characteristics, 
even  when  they  had  become  thoroughly  Burmanized  in  their 
speech,  religion,  and  general  habits.  They  are  colonies  of  pure 
Aryan  race,  retaining  the  features  .and  colour  and  physique  of 
their  Indian  ancestors,  although  surrounded  for  centuries  by 
Turanians  of  great  assimilating  power,  whose  cordial  hospitality 
and  tolerance  tend  to  modify  and  absorb  most  of  the  races  coming 
into  close  contact  with  them.  None  of  the  yellow  races  of 
Burma,  or  Siam,  or  China,  milk  their  cattle,  and  it  is  difficult 
when  travelling  in  those  regions  to  get  a  supply  of  this  very 
useful  article.  Near  Mandalay,  and  to  the  south  of  it,  however, 
the  Katheys  have  accustomed  many  of  the  Burmese  to  the  use  of 
milk,  and  it  is  perhaps  the  only  part  of  Burma  where  it  could  be 
got  in  the  country  places.  In  Bama  and  other  villages  the  people 
are  Paloungs,  who  keep  up  intercourse  with  the  tea-growing 
Paloungs  on  the  hills  to  the  east,  and  preserve  their  language, 
although,  like  the  Katheys,  they  have  become  Buddhists.  Less 
is  known  of  the  Paloungs  than  of  most  of  the  great  tribes 
bordering  on  Burma.  They  differ  in  speech,  and  claim  to  differ 
in  origin,  from  all  their  neighbours.  They  occupy  a  wedge- 
shaped  territory  of  mountains  and  plateau  between  the  Ruby 
Mines  of  Burma,  the  Shans,  and  China  ;  their  principal  State 
being  called  Toung-baing,  which  has  nominally  been  subject  to 
Burma,  but  which,  from  its  inaccessibility,  has  been  practically 
independent.  The  region  is  known  to  the  Burmese  as  the 
La-pet  Toung,  or  Tea  Mountains,  as  it  is  the  part  from  which 
great  supplies  of  tea  in  a  dry  or  in  a  pickled  state  are  brought. 
The  Paloungs  who  cultivate  it  appear  to  be  a  quiet,  unaggressive 
people  ;  and  they  do  not  themselves  bring  their  produce  to  the ' 
Burmese  markets,  but  sell  it  to  trading  caravans  of  Shans  and 
Panthays.  In  Kyatpyen  the  people  claim  to  be  of  pure  Burmese 
stock.  They  dress,  however,  in  Shan  costume  of  blue  or  white 
trousers  and  jackets,  which  is  very  unusual  for  the  Burmese, 
whose  ordinary  costume  resembles  the  Scotch  kilt.  In  Mogok 
the  permanent  residents  are  Shans,  but  Burmanized.  Separate 
communities  of  pure  Chinese  and  of  Mohammedan  Chinese  are 
found  as  permanent  or  as  temporary  residents.  Beyond  these 
principal  peoples,  we  find  in  this  small  locality,  attracted  by  its 
wealth  and  its  markets,  bodies  of  Mainthas  and  of  Leesaws  as 
temporary  visitors.  Although  the  Kach yens  are  near  neighbours 
to  the  north,  the  powerful  Shan  State  of  Momeit  prevents  their 
irruption  to  the  Ruby  Mines.  The  Mainthas  are  either  Chinese 
Shans  of  a  different  type  from  the  main  body,  or  are  hill 
Chinese  from  the  North-eastern  Chinese  Shan  States.  The 
Leesaws  are  hill-men  of  weaker  physique,  who  occupy  the 
mountain  regions  of  Western  Yunnan,  and  are  found  in  isolated 
communities  in  the  higher  parts  of  the  Northern  Shan  States. 
They  are  supposed  to  be  of  the  same  tribal  origin  as  the 
Burmese ;  but  to  have  been  driven  and  kept  in  the  more 
inhospitable  hill  tracts  to  the  north. 

According  to  Allen's  Indian  Mail,  Colonel  Sartorius,  of  the 
1st  Beloochee  Regiment,  has  made  an  interes'.ing  report  on  his 
recent  journey  through  the  Southern  Shan  and  Red  Karen 
country.  At  Saga  iron  ore  is  found  in  abundance.  Tin  _  is 
plentiful  in  Lower  Kerennie,  and  coal  at  the  Lowelon  Mountain. 
Besides  these,  silver,  sulphur,  and  saltpetre  were  also  found. 
He  describes  Rosambhe  Lake  as  being  quite  as  beautiful  as  the 
lakes  of  Cashmere,  and  the  Fa'ls  of  Kazor,  which  are  130  feet 
in  height,  are  perhaps  the  finest  in  the  East. 


OUR  ELECTRICAL  COLUMN. 

Lords  Crawford  and  Wantage,  Sir  Coutts  Lindsay,  and 
others,  have  boldly  thrown  down  the  gauntlet  to  the  gas  people. 
They  have  taken  ground  at  Deptford  for  a  central  station,  and 
are  going  to  supply  electricity  to  London.  They  start  with 
200,000  lamps,  and  charge  at  the  same  rate  as  gas  at  4?.  2ii.  per 
1000  cubic  feet. 

The  Meteorological  Society  are  promised  a  fine  display  of 
atmospheric  electrical  apparatus  for  exhibition  at  their  meeting 
on  March  20.     Lightning  protectors  of  all  kinds  will  be  shown. 

The  introduction  of  the  terms  "magnetic  resistance,"  and 
"magneto-motive  force,"  as  the  analogues  of  electric  resistance 
and  electromotive  force,   with  their  ratios,  magnetic   flux  and 


448 


NATURE 


{March  8,  1888 


electric  current,  is  exercising  the  minds  of  electricians  just  now. 
Mr.  Bosanquet  has  put  it  very  clearly  that  when  there  is  any  op- 
position to  a  physical  change  of  such  a  nature  that  it  is  the  greater 
the  greater  the  measure  of  the  cause,  and  the  less  the  measure  of 
the  effect,  it  is  clearly  a  resistance  ;  and  in  this  sense  the  quotient 
of  magneto-motive  force  (ampere-turns  among  practical  men)  by 
magnetic  flux  per  unit  area  (magnetic  induction)  is  clearly  re- 
sistance. It  must,  however,  not  be  forgotten,  that  magnetic 
permeability  is  the  analogue  of  electrostatic  capacity,  and  if  we 
regard  iron  as  the  analogue  of  a  dielectric  or  an  insulator,  the 
use  of  the  term  is  wrong. 

The  following  relative  figures  of  the  cost  of  the  production  of 
1000  watt-hours,  the  unit  of  electrical  energy  introduced  by  the 
Board  of  Trade,  are  given  by  Peukert  in  \.\\.z  Centralblatl  fur 
Electrotechnic. 

s.    d. 
Thermo-electric  battery  (gas)       ...         ...     33   4 

Bunsen  battery        ...  ..         ...         ...       32 

Daniell      ,,  ...         ...         ...         ...       2   2.\ 

Dynamo  (gas)         ...         ..  ...  ...       06^ 

,,        (steam)     ...         ...       o   2\ 

Mengarini  is  continuing  the  work  originated  by  Blaserna, 
by  which  the  maturing  of  wine  is  considerably  expedited  by  the 
passage  of  powerful  currents  through  it, 

Heim  (Hanover)  has  recently  made  some  interesting  measure- 
ments of  the  intensity  of  light  emitted  by  various  artificial  sources 
of  light  in  daily  use  : — 

Lamps.                                Candle-power.  Consumption  per 

•^  Candle  per  Hour. 

Ordinary  petroleum     15         ...  3-65  grammes 

Argand  (gas)         21-9     ...  lO'g    litres 

Welsbach  (gas)     .,         14-4     ...  6'6       ,, 

Wenham  (gas)      28*4     ...  877     ,, 

Flat  burner  (gas)         i6'9     ...  I4"8       ,, 

Pieper  arc,  6  mm 377         ...  "405  watts 

Pilsen  arc,  lomm 1 120        ...  "291      ,, 

Siemens  arc,  14 mm 3830        ...  '236      ,, 

Siemens  glow       16        ...  3*25        ,, 

Von  Lamg  has  measured  the  counter-electromotive  force  of 

an  arc  lamp,  using  5  mm.  carbons,  and  finds  it  37  volts,  or  for 
Edlund's  formula — 

E  ^  a  -f-  blZ, 

where  a  and  b  are  constants,  /  the  length  of  the  arc,  and  C  the 
current — 

«  =35 '07.  t>  ~  1*32,  /  =  2-5  mm.,  C  =  5  amperes. 
He  has  found  these  constants  for  various  other  materials.     Cross 
and  Shepherd  (Boston)  had  found  this  back  electromotive  force 
to  be  39  volts.     What    is  this  so-called  counter-electromotive 
force  ?     Surely  it  is  an  abuse  of  terms. 

Mr.  Shelford  Bidvvell  (Royal  Society,  March  i)  is  con- 
tinuing his  admirable  researches  on  the  changes  produced  by 
magnetism  in  the  lineal  dimensions  of  the  different  magnetic 
metals.  He  finds  that  iron,  which  first  expands  with  the  mag- 
netizing force,  soon  reaches  a  maximum  point,  whence  it  retracts 
until  it  attains  its  original  length  ;  but,  on  sti'l  further  increasing 
the  magnetizing  force,  it  contracts  until  it  apparently  reaches  a 
minimum  point,  beyond  which  his  means  have  not  enabled  him 
to  proceed.  Bismuth  appears  to  continually  expand  ;  nickel  to 
continually  contract ;  whilst  cobalt  contracts,  reaches  a  mini- 
mum point,  and  then  expands,  approaching  its  original  length. 
Manganese  steel  was  unaffected.  His  apparatus  was  so  perfect 
and  sensitive  that  he  could  read  a  variation  of  one  hundred- 
thousandth  of  a  millimetre. 

Profs.  Ayrton  and  Perry  have  satisfactorily  disposed  of 
the  question  as  to  whether  there  is  any  difference  in  the  light 
emitted  by  a  glow-lamp  when  incandesced  by  alternate  or  direct 
currents.  They  find  no  difference.  The  same  power  {3 '39 
watts)  applied  gives  the  same  light  (one  candle)  in  each  case. 

THE  PRESIDENTS   ANNUAL    ADDRESS    TO 
THE  ROYAL  MICROSCOPICAL  SOCIETY} 

TD  ETROSPECT  may  involve  regret,  but  can  scarcely  involve 
anxiety.     To  one  who  fully  appreciates  the  actual,  and 
above  all  the  potential,  importance  of  this  Society  in  its  bear- 
ing upon  the  general  progress  of  scientific  research  in  every  field 

'  Delivered  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  Dallinger,  F.R.S..  at  the  annual  meeting  of 
the  Royal  Microscopical  Society,  February  8,  1888. 


of  physical  inquiry,  the  responsibilities  of  President  will  not  be 
lightly,  whilst  they  may  certainly  be  proudly,  undertaken. 

I  think  it  may  be  now  fairly  taken  for  granted  that,  as  this 
Society  has,  from  the  outset,  promoted  and  pointed  to  the  higher 
scientific  perfection  of  the  microscope,  so  now,  more  than  ever, 
it  is  its  special  function  to  place  this  in  the  forefront  as  its  raison 
d'itre.  The  microscope  has  been  long  enough  in  the  hands  of 
amateur  and  expert  alike  to  establish  itself  as  an  instrument 
having  an  application  to  every  actual  and  conceivable  depart- 
inent  of  human  research  :  and  whilst  in  the  earlier  days  of  this 
Society  it  was  possible  for  a  zealous  Fellow  to  have  seen,  and 
been  more  or  less  familiar  with,  all  the  applications  to  which  it 
then  had  been  put,  it  is  different  to-day.  Specialists  in  the 
most  diverse  areas  of  research  are  assiduously  applying  the  in- 
strument to  their  various  subjects,  and  with  results  that,  if  we 
would  estimate  aright,  we  must  survey  with  instructed  vision  the 
whole  ground  which  advancing  science  covers. 

From  this  it  is  manifest  that  this  Society  cannot  hope  to  enfold, 
or  at  least  to  organically  bind  to  itself,  men  whose  objects  of 
research  are  so  diverse. 

But  these  are  all  none  the  less  linked  by  one  inseverable  bond  ; 
it  is  the  microscope  :  and  whilst,  amidst  the  inconceivable 
diversity  of  its  applications,  it  remains  manifest  that  this  Society 
has  for  its  primary  object  the  constant  progre-s  of  the  instrument — 
whether  in  its  mechanical  construction  or  its  optical  appliances  ; 
whether  the  improvements  shall  bear  upon  the  use  of  high  powers 
or  low  powers  ;  whether  it  shall  be  improvement  that  shall  apply 
to  its  commercial  employment,  its  easier  professional  application, 
or  its  most  exalted  ."scientific  use  ;  so  long  as  this  shall  be  the 
undoubted  aim  of  the  Royal  Microscopical  Society,  its  existence 
may  well  be  the  pride  of  Englishmen,  and  will  c  ;mmend  itself 
more  and  more  to  men  of  all  countries. 

This,  and  this  only,  can  lift  such  a  Society  out  of  what 
T  believe  has  ceased  to  be  its  danger,  that  of  forgetting  that 
in  proportion  as  the  optical  principles  of  the  microscope  are 
understood,  and  the  theory  of  microscopical  vision  is  made  plain, 
the  value  of  the  instrument  over  every  region  to  which  it  can  be 
applied,  and  in  all  the  varied  hands  that  use  it,  is  increased 
without  definable  limit.  It  is  therefore  by  such  means  that  the 
true  interests  of  science  are  promoted. 

It  is  one  of  the  most  admirable  features  of  this  Society  that  it 
has  become  cosmopolitan  in  its  character  in  relation  to  the  in- 
strument, and  all  the  ever-improving  methods  of  research  em- 
ployed with  it.  From  meeting  to  meeting  it  is  not  one  country, 
or  one  continent  even,  that  is  represented  on  our  tables.  Nay, 
more,  not  only  are  we  made  familiar  with  improvements  brought 
from  every  civilized  part  of  the  world,  referring  alike  to  the  micro- 
scope itself  and  every  instrument  devised  by  specialists  for  its 
employment  in  every  department  of  research  ;  but  also,  by  the 
admirable  persistence  of  Mr.  Crisp  and  Mr.  Jno.  Mayall,  Jun., 
we  are  familiarized  with  every  discovery  of  the  old  forms  of  the 
instrument  wherever  found  or  originally  employed. 

The  value  all  of  this  cannot  be  over-estimated,  for  it  will,  even 
where  prejudices  as  to  our  judgment  may  exist,  gradually  make  it 
more  and  more  clear  that  this  Society  exists  to  promote  and 
acknowledge  improvements  in  everyconstituent  of  the  micro- 
scope, come  from  whatever  source  they  may  ;  and,  in  connection 
with  this,  to  promote  by  demonstrations,  exhibitions,  and  mono- 
graphs the  finest  applications  of  the  fin-st  instruments  for  their 
respective  purposes. 

To  give  all  this  its  highest  value,  of  course,  the  theoretical  side 
of  our  instrument  must  occupy  the  attention  of  the  most  accom- 
plished experts.  We  may  not  despair  that  our  somewhat  too 
practical  past  in  this  respect  may  right  itself  in  our  own  country  ; 
but  meantime  the  splendid  work  of  German  students  and  experts 
is  placed  by  the  wise  editors  of  our  Journal  within  the  reach 
of  all. 

I  know  of  no  higher  hope  for  this  important  Society  than  that 
it  may  continue  in  ever-increasing  strength  to  promote,  criticise, 
and  welcome  from  every  quarter  of  the  world  whatever  will 
improve  the  microscope  in  itself  and  in  any  of  its  applications, 
from  the  most  simple  to  the  most  complex  and  important  in 
which  its  employment  is  possible. 

There  are  two  points  of  some  practical  interest  to  which  I 
desire  for  a  few  moments  to  call  your  attention.  The  former 
has  reference  to  the  group  of  organisms  to  which  I  have  for  so 
many  years  directed  your  attention,  viz.  the  "  Monads,"  which 
throughout  I  have  called  "putrefactive  organisms." 

There  can  be  no  longer  any  doubt  that  the  destructive  process 
of  putrefaction  is  essentially  a  process  of  fermentation. 


March  8,  1888] 


NATURE 


449 


The  fermentative  saprophyte  is  as  absolutely  essential  to  the 
setting  up  of  destructive  rotting  or  putrescence  in  a  putrescibie 
fluid  as  the  torula  is  to  the  setting  up  of  alcoholic  fermentation 
in  a  saccharine  fluid.  Make  the  presence  of  torula;  impossible, 
and  you  exclude  with  certainty  fermentive  action. 

In  precisely  the  same  way,  provide  a  proteinaceous  solution, 
capable  of  the  highest  putrescence,  but  absolutely  sterilized,  and 
placed  in  an  optically  pure,  or  absolutely  calcined  air  ;  and  while 
these  conditions  are  maintained,  no  matter  what  length  of  time 
may  be  suficred  to  elapse,  the  putrescibie  fluid  will  remain  abso- 
lutely without  trace  of  decay. 

But  suffer  the  slightest  infection  of  the  protected  and  pure  air 
to  take  place,  or,  from  some  putrescent  source,  inoculate  your 
sterilized  fluid  with  the  minutest  atom,  and  shortly  turbidity, 
offen-ive  scent,  and  destructive  putrescence  ensue. 

As  in  the  alcoholic,  lactic,  or  butyric  ferments,  the  process  set 
up  is  shown  to  be  dependent  upon  and  concurrent  with  the  vege- 
tative processes  of  the  demonstrated  organisms  characterizing 
these  ferments  ;  so  it  can  be  shown  with  equal  clearness  and 
certainty  that  the  entire  process  of  what  is  knowii  as  putrescence 
is  equally  and  as  absolutely  dependent  on  the  vital  processes  of  a 
given  and  discoverable  series  of  organisms. 

Now  it  is  quite  customary  to  treat  the  fermentive  agency  in 
putrefaction  as  if  it  were  wholly  Bacterial,  and,  indeed,  the  putre- 
factive group  of  Bacteria  are  now  known  as  Saprophytes,  or 
saprophytic  Bacteria,  as  distinct  from  morphologically  similar, 
but  physiologically  dissimilar,  forms  kniwn  as  parasitic  or  patho- 
genic Bacteria. 

It  is  indeed  usually  and  justly  admitted  that  B.  termo  is  the 
exciting  cause  of  fermentive  putrefacti  in.  Cohn  has  in  fact  con- 
tended that  it  is  the  distinctive  ferment  of  all  putrefactions,  and 
that  it  is  to  decomposing  proteinaceous  solutions  what  Torula 
cerevisice  is  to  the  fermenting  fluids  containing  sugar. 

In  a  sense,  this  is  no  doubt  strictly  true  :  it  is  impossible  to  find 
a  decomposing  proteinaceous  solution,  at  any  stage,  without  find- 
ing this  form  in  vast  abundance. 

But  it  is  well  to  remember  that  in  Nature  putrefactive  ferments 
must  go  on  to  an  extent  rarely  imitated  or  followed  in  the  labora- 
tory. As  a  rule 'the  pabulum  in  which  the  saprophytic  organ- 
isms are  provided  and  "cultured,"  is  infusions,  or  extracts  of 
meat  carefully  filtered,  and,  if  vegetable  matter  is  used,  extracts 
of  fruit,  treated  with  equal  care,  and  if  needful  neutralized,  are 
used  in  a  similar  way.  To  these  may  be  added  all  the  forms  of 
gelatine,  employed  in  films,  masses,  and  so  forth. 

But  in  following  the  process  of  destructive  fermentation  as  it 
takes  place  in  large  masses  of  tissue,  animal  or  vegetable,  but 
far  preferably  the  former,  as  they  lie  in  water  at  a  constant  tem- 
perature of  from  60°  to  65°  F.,  it  will  be  seen  that  the  fermen- 
tive process  is  the  work,  not  of  one  organism,  nor,  judging  by 
the  standard  of  our  present  knowledge,  of  one  specified  class  of 
vegetative  forms,  but  by  organisms,  which,  though  related  to  each 
other,  are  in  many  respects  greatly  dissimilar,  not  only  morpho- 
logically, but  also  embryologicaliy,  and  even  physiologically. 

Moreover,  although  this  is  a  matter  that  will  want  most 
thorough  and  efficient  inquiry  and  research  to  understand  pro- 
perly its  conditions,  yet  it  is  sufficiently  manifest  that  these 
organisms  succeed  each  other  in  a  curious  and  even  remark- 
able manner.  Each  does  a  part  in  the  work  of  fermentive 
destruction  ;  each  aids  in  splitting  up  into  lower  and  lower  com- 
pounds ;  the  elements  of  which  the  masses  of  degrading  tissue  are 
composed  ;  while  apparently,  each  set  in  turn,  does  by  vital 
action,  coupled  with  excretion,  (i)  take  up  the  substances  neces- 
sary for  its  own  growth  and  multiplication  ;  (2)  carry  on  the 
fermentive  process  ;  and  (3)  so  change  the  immediate  pabulum 
as  to  give  rise  to  conditions  suitable  for  its  immediate  successor. 
Now  the  point  of  special  interest  is  that  there  is  an  apparent 
adaptation  in  the  form,  functions,  mode  of  multiplication,  and 
order  of  succession  in  these  fermentive  organisms,  deserving  of 
study  and  fraught  with  instruction. 

Let  it  be  remembered  that  the  aim  of  Nature  in  this  fermentive 
action  is  not  the  partial  splitting  of  certain  organic  compounds, 
and  their  reconstruction  in  simpler  conditions,  but  the  ultimate 
setting  free,  by  saprophytic  action,  of  the  elements  locked  up  in 
great  masses  of  organic  tissue  :  the  sending  back  into  Nature  of 
the  only  material  of  which  future  organic  structures  are  to  be 
composed. 

I  have  said  that  there  can  be  no  question  whatever  that 
Bacterium  tcriiio  is  the  pioneer  of  Saprophytes.  Exclude  B.  termo 
(and  therefore  with  it  all  its  congeners)  and  you  can  obtain  no 
putrefaction.    But  wherever,  in  ordinary  circumstances,  a  decom. 


posable  organic  mass,  say  the  body  of  a  fish,  or  a  considerable 
mass  of  the  flesh  of  a  terrestrial  animal,  is  exposed  in  water  at  a 
temperature  of  60°  to  65"  !•".,  B.  termo  rapidly  appears,  and 
increases  with  a  simply  astounding  rapidity.  It  clothes  the 
tissues  like  a  skin,  and  diffuses  itself  throughout  the  fluid. 

The  exact  chemical  changes  it  thus  efTects  are  not  at  present 
clearly  known  ;  but  the  fermentive  action  is  manifestly  concurrent 
with  its  multiplication.  It  finds  its  pabulum  in  the  mass  it 
ferments  by  its  vegetative  processes.  But  it  also  produces  a 
visible  change  in  the  enveloping  fluid,  and  noxious  gases  con- 
tinmously  are  thrown  off. 

In  the  course  of  a  week  or  more,  dependent  on  the  period  of 
the  year,  there  is,  n^t  inevitably,  but  as  a  rule,  a  rapid  accession 
of  spiral  forms,  such  as  Spirillum  volulatis,  S.  undula,  and 
similar  forms,  often  accompanied  by  Bacterium  lineola:  and 
the  whole  interspersed  still  with  inconceivable  multitudes  of 
B.  termo. 

These  invest  the  rotting  tissues  like  an  elastic  garment,  but 
are  always  in  a  state  of  movement.  These,  again,  manifestly 
further  the  destructive  ferment,  and  bring  about  a  softness  and 
flaccidity  in  the  decomposing  tissues,  while  they  without  doubt, 
at  the  satne  titne,  have,  by  their  vital  activity  and  possible 
secretions,  affected  the  condition  of  the  changing  organic  mass. 
There  can  be,  so  far  as  my  observations  go,  no  certainty  as  to 
when,  after  this,  another  form  of  organism  will  present  itself; 
nor,  when  it  does,  which  of  a  limited  series  it  will  be.  But,  in  a 
majority  of  observed  cases,  a  loosening  of  the  living  investment 
of  Bacterial  forms  takes  place,  and  simultatieously  with  this,  the 
access  of  one  or  two  forms  of  my  putrefactive  monads.  They 
were  amongst  the  first  we  worked  at ;  and  have  been,  by  means 
of  recent  lenses,  amongst  the  last  revised.  Mr.  S.  Kent  named 
them  Cercomonas  typica,  and  JlPonas  dallingcri  respectively. 
They  are  both  simple  oval  forms,  but  the  former  has  a  flagellum 
at  both  ends  of  the  longer  axis  of  the  body,  while  the  latter  has. 
a  single  flagellum  in  front. 

The  principal  difference  is  in  their  mode  of  multiplication  by 
fission.  The  former  is  in  every  way  like  a  Bacterium  in  its 
mode  of  self-division.  It  divides,  acquiring  for  each  half  a 
flagellum  in  division,  and  then,  in  its  highest  vigour,  in  about 
four  minu'.es,  each  half  divides  again. 

The  second  form  does  not  divide  into  two,  but  into  many,  and 
thus,  although  the  whole  process  is  slower,  develops  with 
greater  rapidity.  But  both  ultimately  multiply — that  is,  com- 
mence new  generations — by  the  equivalent  of  a  sexual  process. 

These  would  average  about  four  times  the  size  of  Bacteriti7ii 
termo  :  and  when  once  they  gain  a  place  on,  and  about,  the 
putrefying  tissues,  their  relatively  powerful  and  incessant  action, 
their  enormous  multitude,  and  the  manner  in  which  they  glide 
over,  under,  and  beside  each  other,  as  they  invest  the  ferment- 
ing mass,  is  worthy  of  close  study.  It  has  been  the  life-history 
of  these  organisms,  and  not  their  relations  as  ferment--,  that 
has  specially  occupied  my  fullest  attention  ;  but  it  would  be  in 
a  high  degree  interesting  if  we  could  discover,  or  determine, 
what  beside  the  vegetative  or  organic  processes  of  nutrition 
are  being  effected  by  one,  or  both,  of  these  organisms  on  the  fast- 
yielding  mass.  Still  more  would  it  be  of  interest  to  discover 
what,  if  any,  changes  were  wrought  in  the  pabulum,  or  fluid 
generally  ;  for  after  some  extended  observations  I  have  found 
that  it  is  only  after  one  or  other,  or  both,  of  these  organisms, 
have  performed  their  part  in  the  destructive  ferment,  that 
subsequent  and  extremely  interesting  changes  arise. 

It  is  true  that  in  some  three  or  four  instances  of  this  sapro- 
phytic destruction  of  organic  tissues,  I  have  observed  that,  after  the 
strong  Bacterial  investment,  there  has  arisen,  not  the  two  forms 
just  named,  nor  either  of  them  ;  but  one  or  other  of  the 
striking  forms  now  called  Tetramitus  rostratus,  and  Polytoma, 
uvella  ;  but  this  has  been  in  relatively  few  instances.  The  rule 
is  that  Cercomonas  typica,  or  its  congener,  precedes  other  forms, 
that  not  only  succeed  them  in  promoting,  and  carrying  to  a  still 
further  point  the  putrescence  of  the  fermenting  substance,  but 
appear  to  be  aided  in  the  accomplishment  of  this  by  mechanical 
means. 

By  this  time  the  mass  of  tissue  has  ceased  to  cohere.  The 
mass  has  largely  disintegrated,  and  there  appears  amongst  the 
countless  Bacterial  and  monad  forms,  some  one,  and  sometimes 
even  three  forms,  that  whilst  they  at  first  swim  and  gyrate,  and 
glide  about  the  decomposing  matter,  which  is  now,  much  less 
closely  invested  by  Cercomonas  typica,  or  those  organisms  that 
nT'y  have  acted  in  its  place,  they  also  resort  to  an  entirely  new 
mode  of  movement. 


450 


NATURE 


\March  8,  1888 


One  of  these  forms  is  Heteroinita  rostrata,  which  it  will  be 
remembered,  in  addition  to  a  front  flagellum,  has  also  a  long 
fibre,  or  flagellum-like  appendage  that  gracefully  trails  as  it 
swims.  At  certain  periods  of  its  life  they  anchor  themselves  in 
countless  billions  all  over  the  fermenting  tissues,  and  as  I  have 
described  in  the  life-history  of  this  form,  they  coil  their  anchored 
fibre,  as  does  a  Vorticellan,  bringing  the  body  to  the  level  of  the 
point  of  anchorage,  then  shoot  out  the  body  with  lightning-like 
rapidity,  arid  bring  it  down  like  a  hammer  on  some  point  of  the 
decomposition.  It  rests  here  for  a  second  or  two,  and  repeats 
the  process  ;  and  this  is  taking  place,  by  what  seems  almost  like 
rhythmic  movement  all  over  the  rotting  tissue.  The  results  are 
scarcely  visible  in  the  mass ;  but  if  a  group  of  these  organisms 
be  watched,  attached  to  a  small  particle  of  the  fermenting  tissue, 
it  will  be  seen  to  gradually  diminish,  and  at  length  to  disappear. 

Now,  there  are  at  leist  two  other  similar  forms,  one  of  which, 
Heteroniita  unci>iata,  is  similar  in  action,  and  the  other  of 
which,  Dallingeria  diysdali,  is  much  more  ]5owerful,  being 
possessed  of  a  double  anchor,  and  springing  down  upon  the 
decadent  mass  with,  relatively,  far  greater  power. 

Now,  it  is  under  the  action  of  these  last  forms,  that  in  a 
period,  varying  from  one  month  to  two  or  three,  the  entire 
substance  of  the  organic  tissues  disappears,  and  the  decomposition 
has  been  designated  by  me  "exhausted"  ;  nothing  being  left  in 
the  vessel  but  slightly  noxious,  and  pale  gray  water,  charged 
with  carbonic  acid ;  and  a  fine,  buff-cjloured  impalpable 
sediment  at   the  bottom. 

My  purpose  is  not,  by  this  brief  notice,  to  give  an  exhaustive, 
OP  even  a  sufficient  account,  of  the  progress  of  fermentive  action, 
by  means  of  saprophytic  organisms,  on  great  masses  of  tissue  : 
my  observations  have  been  incidental,  but  they  lead  me  to  the 
conclusion  that  the  fermentive  process  is  not  only  not  carried 
through  by  what  are  called  saprophytic  Bacteria,  but  that  a 
series  of  fermen'.ive  organisms  arise,  which  succeed  each  other, 
the  earJier  ones  preparing  the  pabulum  or  altering  the  surround- 
ing medium,  so  as  to  render  it  highly  favourable  to  a  succeeding 
form.  On  the  other  hand,  the  succeeding  form  ha?  a  special 
adaptation  for  cari-ying  on  the  fermentive  destruction  more 
■efficiently  from  the  period  at  which  it  arises,  and  thus  ultimately 
of  setting  free  the  chemical  elements  locked  up  in  dead  organic 
compounds. 

That  these  later  organisms  are  saprophytic,  although  not 
Bacterial,  there  can  be  no  doubt.  A  set  of  experiments  re- 
corded by  me  in  the  Proceedings  of  this  Society  some  years 
since  would  go  far  to  establish  this  {Monthly  Microscopical 
Journal,  1876,  p.  288).  But  it  may  be  readily  shown,  by 
extremely  simple  experiments,  that  these  forms  will  set  up 
fermentive  decom  )osition  rapidly,  if  introduced  in  either  a 
desiccated  or  living  condition,  or  in  the  spore  state,  into  suitable 
but  sterilized  pabulum. 

Thus  while  we  have  specific  ferments  which  bring  about' 
definite  and  specific  results  ;  and  while  even  infusions  of  nroteid 
substances  may  be  exhaustively  fermented  by  saprophytic  Bec- 
teria  ;  the  most  important  of  all  ferments,  that  by  which  Natura's 
■dead  organic  masses  are  removed,  is  one  which  there  is  evidence 
to  show  is  brought  about  by  the  successive  vital  activities  of  a 
series  of  adapted  organisms,  which  are  for  ever  at  work  in 
•every  region  of  the  earth. 

There  is  one  other  matter  of  some  interest  and  moment,  on 
which  I  would  say  a  few  words.  To  thoroughly  instructed 
biologists,  such  words  will  be  quite  needless  ;  but,  in  a  Society 
of  this  kind,  the  possibilities  that  lie  in  the  use  of  the  instrument 
are  associated  with  the  contingency  of  large  error,  epecially  in 
the  biology  of  the  minuter  forms  of  life,  unless  a  well-grounded 
biological  knowledge  form  the  basis  of  all  specific  inference,  to 
say  nothing  of  deduction. 

I  am  the  more  encouraged  to  speak  of  the  difficulty  to  which 
I  refer,  because  I  have  reason  to  know  that  it  presents  itself 
again  and  again  in  the  provincial  Societies  of  the  country,  and  is 
often  adhered  to  with  a  tenacity  worthy  of  a  better  cause.  I 
refer  to  the  danger  that  always  exists,  that  young  or  occasional 
observers  are  exposed  to,  amidst  the  complexities  of  minute 
animal  and  vegetable  life,  of  concluding  that  they  have  come 
upon  absolute  evidences  of  the  transformation  of  one  minute 
form  into  another ;  that  in  fact  they  have  demonstrated  cases 
of  heterogenesis. 

This  difficulty  is  not  diminished  by  the  fact  that  on  the  shelves 
of  most  Microscopical  Societies  there  is  to  be  found  some  sort  of 
literature  written  in  support  of  this  strange  doctrine. 

You  will  pardon  me  for  allusion  again  to  the  field  of  inquiry  in 


which  I  hxve  spent  so  many  happy  hours.  It  is,  as  you  know, 
a  region  of  life  in  which  we  touch,  as  it  were,  the  very  margin 
of  living  things.  If  Nature  were  capricious  anywhere,  we  might 
expect  to  find  her  so  here.  If  her  methods  were  in  a  slovenly 
or  only  half  determined  condition,  we  might  expect  to  find  it 
here.  But  it  is  not  so.  Know  accurately  what  you  are  doing, 
use  the  precautions  absolutely  essential,  and  through  years  of 
the  closest  observation,  it  will  be  seen  that  the  vegetative  and 
vital  processes  generally,  of  the  very  simplest  and  lowliest  life- 
forms,  are  as  much  directed  and  controlled  by  immutable  laws, 
as  the  most  complex  and  elevated. 

The  life-cycles,  accurately  known,  of  monads,  repeat  them- 
selves as  accurately  as  those  of  Rotifers  or  Planarians. 

And  of  course,  on  the  very  surface  of  the  matter  the  question 
presents  itself  to  the  biologist  why  it  should  not  be  so.  The 
irrefragable  philosophy  of  modern  biology  is  that  the  most  com- 
plex forms  of  living  creatures  have  derived  their  splendid 
complexity  and  adaptations  from  the  slow  and  majestically 
progressive  variation  and  survival  from  the  simpler  and  the 
simplest  forms.  If,  then,  the  simplest  forms  of  the  present  and 
the  past  were  not  governed  by  accurate  and  unchanging  laws  of 
life,  how  did  the  rigid  certainties  that  manifestly  and  admittedly 
govern  the  more  complex  and  the  most  complex  come  into  play  ? 

If  our  modern  philosophy  of  biology  be,  as  we  know  it  is, 
true,  then  it  must  be  very  strong  evidence  indeed  that  would  lead 
us  to  conclude  that  the  laws  seen  to  be  universal  break  down  and 
cease  accurately  to  operate,  where  the  objects  become  microscopic, 
and  our  knowledge  of  them  is  by  no  means  full,  exhaustive,  and 
clear. 

Moreover,  looked  at  in  the  abstract,  it  is  a  little  difficult  to 
conceive  why  there  should  be  more  uncertainty  about  the  life- 
processes  of  a  group  of  lowly  living  things,  than  there  should  be 
about  the  behaviour,  in  reaction,  of  a  given  group  of  molecules. 

The  triumph  of  modern  knowledge  is  the  certainty  which 
nothing  can  shake,  that  Nature's  laws  are  immutable.  The 
stability  of  her  processes,  the  precision  of  her  action,  and  the 
universality  of  her  laws,  is  the  basis  of  all  science  ;  to  which 
biologyformsnoexception.  Once  establish,  by  clear  and  unmistak- 
able demonstration,  the  life-history  of  an  orgartism,  and  truly 
some  change  must  have  come  over  Nature  as  a  whole,  if  that 
life-history  be  not  the  same  to-morrow  as  to-day  ;  and  the  same 
to  one  observer,  in  the  same  conditions,  as  to  another. 

No  amount  of  paradox  would  induce  us  to  believe  that  the 
combining  proportions  of  hydrogen  and  oxygen  had  altered,  in  a 
specified  experimenter's  hands,  in  synthetically  producing  water. 

We  believe  that  the  melting-point  of  platinum  and  the 
freezing-point  of  mercury  are  the  same  as  they  were  a  hundred 
years  ago,  and  as  they  will  be  a  hundred  years  hence. 

Now,  carefully  remember  that  so  far  as  we  can  see  at  all,  it 
must  be  so  with  life.  Life  inheres  in  protoplasm  ;  but  just  as 
you  cannot  get  abstract  matter — that  is,  matter  with  no  properties 
or  m  ,des  of  motion — so  you  cannot  get  abstract  protoplasm. 
Every  piece  of  living  protoplasm  we  see  has  a  history  :  it  is  the 
inheritor  of  countless  millions  of  years.  Its  properties  have 
been  determined  by  its  history.  It  is  the  protoplasm  of  some 
definite  form  of  life  which  has  inherited  its  specific  history.  It 
can  be  no  more  false  to  that  inheritance  than  an  atom  of  oxygen 
can  be  false  to  its  properties. 

All  this,  of  course,  within  the  lines  of  the  great  secular 
processes  of  the  Darwinian  laws  ;  which,  by  the  way,  could  not 
operate  at  all  if  caprice  formed  any  part  of  the  activities  of 
Nature. 

But  let  me  give  a  practical  instance  of  how,  what  appears  like 
fact,  may  over-ride  philosophy,  if  an  incident,  or  even  a  group 
of  incidents,  per  se  are  to  control  our  judgment. 

Eighteen  years  ago  I  was  paying  much  attention  to  Vorticellse. 
I  was  observing  with  some  pertinacity  Vorticella  coiivallaria  ;  for 
one  of  the  calices  in  a  group  under  observation,  was  in  a  strange 
and  semi-encysted  state,  while  the  remainder  were  in  full  normal 
activity. 

I  watched  with  great  interest  and  care,  and  have  in  my  folio 
still  the  drawings  made  at  the  time.  The  stalk  carrying  this 
individual  calyx  fell  upon  the  branch  of  vegetable  matter  to 
which  the  Vorticellan  was  attached,  and  the  calyx  became 
perfectly  globular  ;  and  at  length  there  emerged  from  it  a  small 
form  with  which,  in  this  condition,  I  was  quite  unfamiliar  :  it  was 
small,  tortoise-like  in  form,  and  crept  over  the  branch  on  setae 
or  hair-like  pedicels  ;  but,  carefully  followed,  I  found  it  soon 
swam,  and  at  length  got  the  long  neck-like  appendage  of  ^//-!//i?- 
leptus  anser  ! 


March  8,  1888] 


NATURE 


451 


Here  then  was  the  cup  or  calyx  of  a  definite  Vorticellan  form, 
changing  into  (?)  an  absolutely  different  Infusorian,  viz.  Amphi- 

leptiis  anser  I 

Now  I  simply  reported  ihsfact  to  the  Liverpool  Microscopical 
Society,  with  no  attempt  at  inference  ;  but  two  years  after  I  was 
able  to  explain  the  mystery,  for,  finding  in  the  same  pond  both 
V.  convallaria  and  A.  anser,  I  carefully  watched  their  move- 
ments, and  saw  the  A inphiiepius  seize  and  struggle  with  a  calyx 
of  convallaria,  and  absolutely  become  encysted  upon  it,  with  the 
results  that  I  had  reported  two  years  before. 

And  there  can  be  no  doubt  but  this  is  the  key  to  the  cases 
that  come  to  us  again  and  again  of  minute  forms  suddenly 
changing  into  forms  wholly  unlike.  It  is  happily  amongst  the 
virtues  of  the  man  of  science  to  "rejoice  in  the  truth,"  even 
though  it  be  found  at  his  expense  ;  and  true  workers,  earnest 
seekers  for  Nature's  methods,  in  the  obscurest  fields  of  her 
action,  will  not  murmur  that  this  source  of  danger  to  younger 
mici-oscopists  has  been  pointed  out,  or  recalled  to  them. 

And  now  I  bid  you  as  your  President  farewell.  It  has  been 
all  pleasure  to  me  to  serve  you.  It  has  enlarged  my  friendships 
and  my  interests  ;  and  although  my  work  has  linked  me  with 
the  Society  for  many  years,  I  have  derived  much  profit  from  this 
more  organic  union  with  it  ;  and  it  is  a  source  of  encourage- 
ment to  me,  and  will,  I  am  sure,  be  to  you,  that,  after  having 
done  with  simple  pleasure  what  I  could,  I  am  to  be  succeeded  in 
this  place  of  honour  by  so  distinguished  a  student  of  the  pheno- 
mena of  minute  life  as  Dr.  Hudson.  I  can  but  wish  him  as 
happy  a  tenure  of  office  as  mine  has  been. 


SCIENTIFIC  SERIALS. 

American  Jonrnal  of  Ulathmiatics,  vol.  x.  No.  2  (Baltimore, 
January  1888). — In  the  opening  paper  (pp.  99-130),  entitled 
"Soluble  Quintic  Equations  with  Commensurable  Coefiicients-," 
G.  P.  Young  develops  at  some  length  the  application  of  his 
general  method,  described  in  vol,  vi.,  to  the  solution  of  twenty 
quintic  equations,  such  as  x'  -  loj^  -  20.r^-  1505^:  -  7412  =  o. 
— Mr.  D.  Barcroft  discusses  (pp.  131-40)  forms  of  non- 
singular  quintic  curves.  The  subject  is  profusely  i'lustrated  by 
drawings  of  47  curves  on  twelve  large  pages  (interpolated  between 
pp.  140  and  141). — F.  Morley  (pp.  141-48)  writes  on  critic 
centres  in  cubics.  — The  expression  of  syzygies  among  perpetuants 
by  [means  of  partitions,  by  Captain  P.  A.  MacMahon,  R.A. 
(pp.  149-68),  is  a  very  interesting  addition  to  the  author's 
previous  papers  on  the  subject. — The  number  concludes  with 
three  short  papers :  "  Demonstration  directe  de  la  formule 
Jacobienne  de  la  transformation  cubique,"  by  the  Abbe  Faa  de 
Bruno  ;  note  on  geometric  inferences  from  algebraic  sym- 
metry, by  F.  Morley;  and  "Surfaces  telles  que  I'origine  se 
projette  sur  chaque  normale  au  milieu  des  centres  de  courbure 
principaux  "  (pp.  175-S6),  by  P.  Appell. 

Rivista  Scicniijico-Industriale,  January  31. — On  chemical 
valency,  by  Prof.  Fr.  Mangini.  The  probable  cause  of  valency, 
that  is,  the  varying  proportions  with  which  the  atoms  of  the 
simple  bodies  combine  with  hydrogen,  or  its  equivalent  chlorine, 
to  form  molecules,  is  here  attributed  to  the  varying  degrees  of 
motion  assumed  to  be  pre-existent  and  inherent  in  the  atoms 
themselves.  A  numerical  coincidence  is  pointed  out  between 
the  acoustic,  luminous,  and  chemical  phenomena,  seven  being 
the  number  of  the  chief  musical  notes,  of  the  chief  colours  in 
the  spectrum,  and,  as  is  now  generally  admitted,  of  the  chemical 
valencies.  It  is  further  to  be  noted  that  the  temperature  re- 
quired to  produce  the  spectral  lines  varies  with  the  valencies  of 
the  different  elements.  Thus,  a  much  higher  temperature  is 
required  for  the  polyvalent  than  for  the  monovalent  alkalines, 
and  in  all  these  phenomena  a  connection  is  seen  to  exist  between 
the  heat  required  to  show  the  spectral  lines  and  the  quanti- 
valence  of  the  atoms.  Another  nexus  is  found  between  the  allo- 
tropic  state  and  the  number  of  vibrations  needed  to  produce  the 
spectroscopic  phenomena.  This  highly  suggestive  paper  will  be 
continued  in  a  future  number  of  the  Rivista. 

Bulletins  de  la  Socicte  iC AntJiropjlogie  de  Paris,  \oxnz  x. 
fasc.  3  (Paris,  1887).— C>n  the  various  methods  of  measuring  the 
thorax,  by  Dr.  E.  Maurel.  The  writer,  in  enumerating  the 
various  insti-uments  in  use  for  this  purpose,  gives  the  preference 
to  those  designed  by  MM.  Woillez,  Niely,  and  Fonrmentin,  by 
which  a  graphic  representation  of  the  dimensions  of  the  chest 
is  obtained  ;  although  he  claims  to  have  improved  upon  their 


design    in  an   instrument   to   which   he  has  given   the   natne 
stethograph.  —  On  a  Breton  amulet,  calkd  "  Kistin  Spagn,"  by 
M.   Bonnemere.     Under  this  name  the  people  of  Locmariaque 
treasure  a  seed,  probably  a  cashew  nut,  or,  according  to  soBoe, 
the  seed  of  the  mahogacy-tree,  which    is    brought    home   by 
Breton  sailors.     The  nut  is  carefully  scraped  and  boiled  in  new 
milk,  when    it  is  supposed  to  be  a  sovereign  remedy  against 
intestinal  disorders.     By  some  of  the  peasant  vomen,  however, 
the  nut  is  pierced  and  worn  on  a  chain,  with  their  keys,  sci*SOrs, 
&c.,  as  an  amulet.     Singularly  enough,  it  is  found  that  even  in 
Paris  these   nuts  are    believed  to  be  specifics   against  various 
diseases,  more  especially  the  gout,  three  or  four  when  carried 
in  the  trousers  pocket  being  regarded  as  capable  of  warding  off 
this  malady.— On  calves  born  with  so-called  bull- dog  heads,  by 
M.    Dareste.      Animals  of  this  description  were  at  one  time 
characterized  in  South  America  as  constitutii^  a  distinct  race, 
but  the  gradual  diminution  in  their  numbers  since  the  cattle  of 
the  pampas    have  acquired  a  marketable  value   leads   to   the 
inference  that  th$y  are  being  killed  when  first  dropped,  in  order 
to  eliminate  deformed  animals  from  the  herds,  and  this  opinion 
of  the  deformity  of  the  so-called   "  natos-calves  "  is  confirmed 
by  the  presence  of  other  abnormahties  in  all  the  animals  of  this 
description  which  have  been    examined   in    Europe.— On   the 
colour  of  the  hair  and   eyes   in   Limagne,  near  the  Monts-de- 
Dcme,  by    Dr.    Pommerol.     These  observations   refer  to  2CO- 
individuals,  and  appear  to  indicate  that,  taken  generally,  one- 
fourth  of  the  population  have  light  hair,  and  three-fourths  dark 
hair,  while  light  and  dark  eyes  are  equally   frequent. — On  the 
worship  of  Taranis  in  popular  traditions  of  Auvergne,  by  Dr.. 
Pommerol.     The  writer  believes  that  under  this  name  we  have 
the   Gallic  representative  of  the  supreme  god  of  the  heavens, 
and  wielder  of  thunder  and  storms  ;   and  that  the  custom  still 
prevalent  in  France  of  building  an  uncut  stone  into  the  gab!e 
or  roof-top  of  a  house,    or  hammering  into  the  newly  finished 
walls  an  irregularly  formed  metal,  wooden,  or  stone  cross,  or 
mallet,  to  keep  bad  luck  from  the  building,  is  a  survival  of  the 
ancient  usage  of  averting  evil  by  the  help  of  emblems  connected 
with  the  worship  of  the  supreme  gods,  as  Baal's  stone,  Jupiter's 
thunderbolt,   or    Thor's   hammer, — Circumcision    in  its    social 
and  religious  significance,  by  M.  Lafargue.     The  fact  that  this 
rite  was  practised  among  the  Egyptians  long  before  its  adoption 
by  the   Hebrews  has  led  to  the  inference  that  its  practice  was 
due  to  hygienic  considerations  only.     But  the  author  believes 
that   we   have   here   merely  one   of    the   numerous    forms    of 
mutilations  submitted   to    by  prim^eval    men    with  a    view  of 
propitiating  their  deities,  and  of  which  we  have  such  varied  and 
striking  evidence  among  different  peoples,  as  the  Assyrians  ar.d 
Aztecs,  as  well  as  among  the  black  races  ;  while  survivals  of 
similar  faith  in  the  efficacy  of  voluntarily  inflicted  suffering  and 
mutilation  are  to  be  traced  in  the  mythology  of  the  Greeks  and 
Romans.^ — On  the  influence  of  their  surrounding  medium  on  the 
peoples  of  Central  Asia,  by  M.  de  Ujfalvy.      Referring  to  the 
services  recently  rendered  to  science  by  Kichthofen  in  unravelling 
the    tissue    of   misconceptions   in   regard   to   the   geognosy   of 
Central  Asia,  due  to  the  theories  of  Humboldt,   Klaproth,  ai  d 
others,  the  writer  considers  the  influence   which  the  soil  and 
their  surroundings   have   had   on    the   inhabitants  of  the  four 
distinct  zones  into  which  the   first-named  of  these  savants  has 
subdivided  the    Asiatic    continent.      Thus,   while   the   central 
zone,    by    the    general  levelling   of    the    surface   through   the 
chemical  disintegration  of  the  rocks,  and  the  absence  of  streams- 
to  enrich  the  soil,  compels  men  to  follow  a  nomadic,  or  pastoral,, 
rather  than  a  settled  life,  the  peripheral  zone  abounds  in  rich 
and   fertile   lands,   yielding   abundant"  opportunities    for    the 
exercise  of  human  industry,    and  a  corresponding  advance  in 
mental    and    social    development.       The    intermediate    zones 
correspond  ethnographically  with  the  transitional  character  of 
their  geognostic  features.     Next  to  the  extraordinary  influence 
of  the  varied  configurations  of  Asia  on  the  destinies  of  its  in- 
habitants, M.  de  Ujfalvy  points  out  the  importance  of  loess  form- 
ations as  factors  in  determining  the  spread  and  establishment  of 
civilization.     This  part  of  the  subject  is  treated  at  great  length, 
and  deser\'es  the  careful  attention  of  the  palreologist  no  tess 
than  the  student  of  ethnography,   seeing  that  the  loess  consti- 
tutes an    important    agent   in  the  preservation    of   the  animal 
and  industrial    remains  of  prehistoric  ages. — On  the   nervous 
system,   considered  from  a  physico-chemical  point  of  view,  by 
Dr.  Fauvelle.     Here  the  nervous  s}  stem  of  man  is  regarded'as  a 
physical  apparatus,  presenting  certain  analogies  with  an  electric 
pile.— Anthropology^  and    philology,    with    reference    to    the 


452 


NATURE 


[March  8,  1888 


Philippines,  by  M.  O.  Beauregard.  This  is  a  lengthy  treatise 
on  the  products,  language,  sociology,  and  history  of  the  islands, 
based  chiefly  on  Spanish  authorities, — Report,  by  M.  Topinard, 
of  the  excavation  of  the  Neolithic  grotto  of  Feigneux  (Oise),  in 
which  was  found  a  skull  that  had  been  trepanned  both  before 
and  after  death.  These  finds  were  specially  rich,  including  four 
skulls  which  bore  traces  of  having  been  compressed  ;  and,  con- 
sidered generally,  this  deposit  may  be  regarded  as  a  pendant  to 
that  of  Orrouy.— (i)  On  a  burial  ground  of  the  Stone  Age  at 
Crecy-en-Brie  ;  (2)  on  cut  flints  in  the  alluvial  sand  below  Paris  ; 
and  (3)  on  a  prehistoric  work-place  at  Fontenay-aux- Roses,  byiM. 
Thieullen.  The  writer  draws  attention  to  the  frequency  with 
which  the  larger  debris  of  cut  flints  are  found  near  water,  and 
always  in  localities  favourable  to  the  existence  of  prehistoric 
man,  while  from  the  character  of  the  great  ossuaries,  in  which, 
as  at  Crecy-en-Brie,  the  remains  of  men  and  women  of  all  ages, 
and  children,  are  found,  he  believes  we  may  assume  that  the  men 
of  the  period  lived  in  family  rather  than  in  tribal  association. — 
A  study  of  the  brain  of  Bertillon,  by  MM.  Chudzinski  and 
Manouvrier.  A  resume  of  the  results  of  this  carefully  con- 
ducted cerebral  analysis,  which  are  here  given  in  detail,  shows 
generally,  inter  alia,  a  large  development  of  the  anterior  portion 
of  the  brain  in  all  directions  ;  a  relatively  inferior  development  in 
point  of  size  in  the  temporal  lobes,  and  in  the  cerebellum  ;  and 
great  ramification  in  the  fossae. 

The  Izvestia  of  the  Ru*ssian  Geographical  Society  (xxiii. 
part  5)  contains,  besides  Dr.  Bunge's  preliminary  report 
about  his  expedition  to  the  New  Siberia  Islands,  a  lecture 
on  the  problems  of  scientific  geography  by  Dr.  Petri,  who  was 
appointed  in  October  last  Professor  of  Geography  and  Anthropo- 
logy at  the  St.  Petersburg  University ;  a  paper  by  M.  Rovinsky 
on  the  beliefs  of  the  Montenegrins  ;  M.  Nikolsky's  sketch  of 
fishing  on  Lake  Aral,  a  valuable  contribution  to  the  know- 
ledge of  the  fishes  inhabiting  Lake  Aral,  and  especially  the 
lower  Amu-daria,  their  habits,  and  the  modes  of  fishing  ;  and 
notes  by  General  Stebnitsky  on  recent  pendulum  observations, 
on  M.  Boguslavsky's  work  on  the  Volga,  and  on  W.  J.  Havenga's 
map  of  Sumatra. 


SOCIETIES  AND  ACADEMIES. 
London. 

Royal  Society,  February  2.— "On  Tidal  Currents  in  the 
Open  Ocean."     By  J.  Y.  Buchanan,  F.R.S. 

This  paper  gives  details  of  some  current  observations  which  I 
made  in  the  open  ocean  north  of  the  Canary  Islands  in  October 
1883  in  the  cour-e  of  the  surveying  expedition  preliminary 
to  the  laying  of  a  telegraph  cable  between  these  islands 
and  the  mainland  of  Spain.  This  expedition  consisted  of  two 
steamers,  the  Dacia  and  the  International,  belonging  to  the 
India-rubber,  Gutta-percha,  and  Telegraph  Works  Company 
(Limited),  of  Silvertown.  The  chief  scientific  results  gained 
during  it  were  the  confirmation  of  the  view — which  was  sug- 
gested by  the  density  and  temperature  of  the  bottom  water 
observed  in  this  part  of  the  Atlantic  during  the  cruise  of  the 
Challenger — that  the  overflow  of  warm  concentrated  sea-water 
from  the  Mediterranean  at  the  bottom  of  the  Straits  of  Gibraltar 
was  the  cause  of  the  abnormally  high  density  and  temperature  of 
the  bottom  water  in  this  part  of  the  ocean,  and  the  preparation 
of  a  complete  survey  of  the  bed  of  the  ocean  in  this  district. 
During  the  progress  of  the  work  several  very  remarkable 
"oceanic  shoals"  were  discovered  and  surveyed,  notably  the 
"Coral  Patch"  in  lat.  34°  57'  N.,  long.  11°  57'  W.,  with  a 
depth  of  400  to  500  fathoms,  and  the  "Dacia  Bank,"  in  lat. 
31°  9'  N.,  long.  13°  34'  W.,  with  a  minimum  depth  of  49 
fathoms.  In  sounding  over  both  of  these  banks  conclusive 
evidence  was  obtained  of  the  existence  of  actual  vertical  preci- 
pices in  some  positions  on  their  flanks  ;  and  from  the  very  great 
average  steepness  all  round,  it  is  rendered  in  every  way  probable 
that,  if  they  were  laid  dry,  they  would  form  mountain  peaks  as 
precipitous  and  inaccessible  as  any  to  be  found  on  land.  The 
dredging  on  the  Coral  Patch  showed  it  to  consist  of  deep-sea 
corals,  principally  Lophohelia prolifera,  growing  with  the  utmost 
luxuriance  and  attached  to  dead  stems  of  the  same  species, 
already  getting  coated  with  peroxide  of  manganese. 

For  the  purposes  of  the  survey  of  the  "  Dacia  Bank  "  a  buoy 
was  anchored  on  its  eige,  and  on  the  afternoon  of  October  21  I 


spent  some  hours  in  a  boat  made  fast  to  it,  and  observed  the 
current  in  strength  and  direction.  The  following  is  a  summary 
of  the  results  : — 


Hour  p.m 2.15        ...        2.40 

Direction  (true)       ...    N.  ii"E.    ...    N.  41°  ^ 
Rate  (knots  per  hour)        0*47         ...   ^^  o'3o 


46 


3.30         ...         4.6 
...   N.  56°  E.   ...  N.  101°  : 
026         ...         o'30 


It  will  be  seen  from  these  observations  that  in  two  hours  the 
current  had  shifted  its  direction  through  90°,  and  had  passed 
through  a  minimum  velocity  of  o''26  per  hour  without  there 
having  been  any  period  of  "  slack  water."  The  observations 
are  too  few  in  number  to  make  it  worth  while  submitting  them 
to  analysis  ;  but  a  little  study  of  them  will  show  that  they 
indicate  a  current  which  is  the  resultant  of  a  continuous  current 
and  a  periodic  one.  A  constant  current  running  south-east 
by  east,  combined  with  a  tidal  current  running  north-north- 
west and  south-south-east,  the  maximum  velocity  of  which,  in 
either  direction,  is  twice  that  of  the  permanent  current,  would 
give  a  resultant  agreeing  fairly  with  that  observed. 

No  measurements  were  made  of  the  under  current,  but,  by 
sinking  a  tow-net  made  fast  to  a  sounding-line,  it  was  seen  to  be 
running  at  a  depth  of  75  fathoms  in  the  same  direction  as  the 
surface  current  and  apparently  with  much  the  same  velocity.  In 
the  channels  between  the  Canary  Islands,  where  even  on  the 
shallowest  ridges  there  is  over  1000  fathoms  of  water,  the  tidal 
current  reaches  to  the  very  bottom,  and  its  scouring  action  is 
shown  by  the  nature  of  the  bottom.  To  seaward,  in  1800  or 
2000  fathoms,  the  bottom  is  a  fine  Globigerina  ooze,  which  gets 
coarser  and  sandier  as  the  water  shoals  in  the  channels,  till  on 
the  summit  ridge  there  is  generally  no  loose  deposit  at  all,  and 
the  bottom  is  rock  or  coral  coated  with  black  oxide  of  man- 
ganese. Round  the  western  end  of  Tenerifife  the  tide  runs 
violently,  causing  rips  and  overfalls.  Much  rocky  ground  is 
met  with  in  the  North  Atlantic  in  depths  of  1300  and  1400 
fathoms,  especially  on  the  ridge  which  appears  to  extend  through 
the  whole  length  of  that  ocean.  It  is  not  unlikely  that  the 
summit  edge  of  this  ridge  may  be  swept  clean  through  the 
greater  part  of  its  length,  and  it  must  be  remembered  that  the 
removal  of  sediment  from  one  part  of  the  ocean  bottom  means 
its  deposit  in  greater  abundance  in  others,  especially  in  hollows 
in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  ridge.  Hence  a  sounding  in 
"ooze"  or  "mud"  in  one  position  furnishes  no  argument 
against  the  trustworthiness  of  another  sounding  in  the  vicinity 
and  in  equally  deep  water  on  "  rock  "  or  "  hard  ground." 

It  is  evident,  then,  that  the  power  of  shoals  to  transform  the 
tidal  wave  into  tidal  currents  furnishes  a  natural  agency  which 
tends  to  limit  the  indefinite  shoaling  of  the  water  by  the  con- 
tinual deposition  of  loose  sediment.  On  the  other  hand,  these 
currents,  in  sweeping  clean  the  rocky  eminences  at  the  bottom 
of  the  ocean,  prepare  a  lodging-place  for  deep-sea  corals,  and 
assist  in  bringing  fool  to  them  when  settled,  thus  enabling  them 
to  build  up  their  pillar-like  banks,  of  which  a  very  fine  example 
is  furnished  by  the  "Coral  Patch"  above  referred  to.  There 
can  be  little  doubt  that  it  is  reducing  more  or  less  rapidly  the 
depth  of  the  water  above  it.  The  "Dacia  Bank"  and  the 
"  Seine  Bank  "  are  examples  where  limiting  conditions, 
probably  of  temperature,  appear  to  have  been  reached.  The 
water  may  be  too  warm  for  the  deep-sea  species  ;  and  not  warm 
enough  for  the  tropical,  par  excellence,  reef-building  species. 

A  remarkable  cluster  of  banks  resembling  those  above 
described  occurs  off  the  Brazilian  coast,  between  the  Agulhas 
reef  and  the  islands  of  Trinidad  and  Martin  Vaz  Some  of 
them  are  named,  as  the  Jaseur,  the  Montague,  and  the  Victoria 
banks  ;  with  from  25  to  30  fathoms,  and  completely  surrounded 
by  deep  water.  Further  north  is  the  dangerous  Rocas,  lying 
close  to  the  route  of  steamers  from  North  America  and  Europe 
to  South  American  ports.  Further  south,  again,  are  two  sug- 
gestive soundings,  one  of  19  fathoms,  in  lat.  32°40'S.,  long. 
47°  o'  W.,  marked  "Nelson,  1859,"  and  the  other  of  72  fathoms, 
in  lat.  37°  50'  S.,  long.  49°  50'  W.,  marked  "  Sutlej,  1863,"  in 
the  chart.  Seamen  are  not  usually  mistaken  as  to  whether  they 
have  or  have  not  found  bottom  in  depths  such  as  19  or  72 
fathoms,  and  there  is  little  doubt  that  careful  search  would 
reveal  the  existence  of  shoals  in  these  localities.  But  the  search 
must  be  diligent  and  methodical,  always  following  the  lead  of 
the  soundings  as  they  shoal.  The  careful  and  detailed  study  of 
these  oceanic  shoals  or  embryo  islands  is  of  great  importance  for 
oceanographical  science,  and  it  would  not  be  easy  to  find  more 
interesting  work  for  the  marine  surveyor. 


March  8,  1888J 


NATURE 


453 


March  i. — "  On  llie  Changes  produced  by  Magnetization  in 
the  Dimensions  of  Rings  and  Rods  of  Iron  and  of  some  other 
Metals."     By  Shelford  Bidweli,  F.R.S. 

Linnean  Society,  February  i6. — W,  Carrulhers,  F.R.S., 
President,  in  the  chair. — Mr.  Spencer  Moore  exhibited,  and 
made  some  remarks  upon,  specimens  ilhistrative  of  the  Palmella 
state  DrapaniaUia  glomerata. — Mr.  D.  Morris  (Royal  Gardens, 
Kew)  exhibited  a  specimen  of  wood  of  Hieronyma  alchornioides 
received  from  Trinidad,  showing  in  its  fissures  mineral  deposits, 
which  on  chemical  analysis  proved  to  be  calcic  carbonate.  For 
comparison,  Mr.  Morris  also  exhibited  and  made  some  observa- 
tions upon  some  deposits  of  calcic  phosphate  in  teak.  Some  of 
these  (described  by  Sir  Fred.  Abel,  Quart.  Journ.  Chem.  Soc.  xv. 
91),  are  6  feet  in  length,  6  inches  in  breadth,  and  from  g  inch  to 
%  inch  in  thickness.  Deposits  in  bamboo  known  as  tahasheer 
(silicate)  were  shown,  as  also  pearls  (carbonate  of  lime)  from  cocoa- 
nuts,  received  from  Dr.  Sydney  T.  Hickson  (see  Nature,  vol. 
xxxvi.  p.  157).  All  these  specimens  were  from  the  Museum  of 
Economic  Botany  of  Kew. — Dr.  Burn  Murdock  exhibited  and 
offered  remarks  upon  the  intra-marginal  (so-called)  veins  in  the 
section  Arcolata  of  the  genus  Erjihroxylon,  of  which  E.  coca  is 
the  most  familiar  species.  These  lines  are  due  to  a  thickening 
of  the  parenchymatous  tissue  which  takes  place  in  the  bud  stage, 
and  are  in  no  way  connected  with  the  venation  of  the  leaf. — Mr. 
G.  F.  Sherwood  exhibited  a  collection  of  photographs  taken  in 
Samoa,  illustrating  the  scenery  and  people,  together  with  a 
number  of  necklets  formed  with  .'-trings  of  various  bright-coloured 
seeds.— The  first  paper  of  the  evening  was  read  by  Mr.  H.  N. 
Ridley,  on  self-fertilization  and  cleistogamy  in  orchids.  Three 
common  methods  of  self-fertilization  were  explained  :  (l)  by  the 
breaking  up  of  the  pollen  mass,  and  falling  of  the  dust  either 
directly  upon  the  stigma,  or  into  the  lips  whence  it  comes  into 
contact  with  the  stigma  ;  (2)  by  the  falling  of  the  pollen  masses 
as  a  whole  from  the  clinandrum  into  the  stigma  ;  and  (3)  by  the 
falling  forward  of  the  pollinia  from  the  clinandrum,  or  the  anther 
cap,  the  caudicle  and  gland  remaining  attached  to  the  column. 
An  interesting  discussion  followed,  in  which  Prof.  Marshall 
Ward,  the  Rev,  G.  Henslow,  and  Mr.  A.  VV,  Bennett  took 
part. — A  paper  was  then  read  by  Dr.  John  Rae,  F. R.S., 
entitled  "  Notes  on  some  of  the  Birds  and  Mammals  of  Hudson's 
Bay  Territory."  Dr.  Rae,  whose  long  residence  in  Northern 
and  Arctic  America  enabled  him  to  speak  authoritatively  from 
personal  observation,  gave  au  interesting  account  of  the  migra- 
tion of  the  Canada  goose,  snow  goose,  aud  blue-winged  goose, 
and  of  the  habits  of  the  American  hare  and  lemming.  He  par- 
ticularly referred  to  the  belief  entertained  by  some  of  the  Indian 
tribes  he  had  met  with,  and  to  which  he  himself  gave  credence, 
that  certain  species  of  small  birds  are  assisted  on  their  migrations 
by  being  carried  on  the  backs  of  the  Canada  geese.  Mr.  J.  E. 
Harting,  in  criticising  this  paper,  gave  an  exposition  of  the  views 
held  by  leading  ornithologi'Sts  on  the  subject  of  the  American 
Canada  and  snow  geese,  their  relationship  and  nomenclature, 
and  pointed  out  that  the  story  of  small  birds  being  carried  by 
larger  ones  is  not  confined  to  North  America,  but  is  current  in 
South-Eastern  Europe,  Palestine,  and  Arabia,  where  trust- 
worthy evidence  has  been  obtained  that  wagtails  and  other  small 
birds  travel  on  the  backs  of  cranes.  He  added  that  one  in- 
stance was  known  to  him  of  such  an  occurrence  in  England,  a 
short-eared  owl  having  been  seen  to  arrive  on  the  north  coast  of 
Yorkshire  carrying  on  its  back  a  golden-crested  wren,  which  was 
secured  by  the  observer. 

Chemical  Society,  February  16. — Mr.  W.  Crookes,  F.R.S. , 
in  the  chair. — The  following  papers  were  read  : — Chemical  in- 
vestigation of  Wackenroder's  solution,  and  explanation  of  the 
formation  of  its  constituents,  by  Prof.  Debus,  F.R.S.  Wacken- 
roder's solution  is  obtained  by  passing  hydrogen  sulphide  into 
an  aqueous  solution  of  sulphur  dioxide  until  the  latter  is  decom- 
posed. It  has  been  considered  to  contain  sulphur  in  suspension 
and  pentathionic  acid  in  solution,  although  neither  the  acid  nor 
its  salts  have  been  prepared  pure,  and,  in  consequence.  Spring 
has  denied  the  existence  of  the  acid,  regarding  it  as  a  solution 
of  sulphur  in  tetrathionic  acid.  The  author  finds  that  Wacken- 
roder's solution  contains:  (i)  sulphur  in  suspension  in  very 
minute  drops,  (2)  a  new  allotropic  modification  of  sulphur, 
(5),  in  simple  solution,  and  in  the  colloidal  condition,  (3)  traces 
of  trithionic  acid,  (4)  tetrathionic  acid,  (5)  pentathionic  acid, 
and  (6)  a  polythionic  acid  containing  more  sulphur  than  the 
penta-  acid,  probably  hexathionic  acid.  Pure  potassium  and 
copper  pentathionates  were  prepared,  and  the  reactions  of  the 


polythionates  studied,  among  the  most  interesting  of  which  are 
the  spontaneous  changes  in  aqueous  solution  shjwn  by  the 
equations — 

(a)  K,S«0«  =  K^S.Ob  +  S;  (^)2K,S40„  =  \<i,?>;0,  +  K.,S50„ ; 

{c)  2K2S3OS  =  K,S40«  -f  K,S04  -f  SO,  ;  {<i)  sKjSjOe  = 

K2S5O6  +  2K^S04  -f-  2SO. ; 

the  reactions  (a)  and  [l>)  occurring  in  either  direction  with  equal 
facility.  The  final  products  of  the  action  of  hydrogen  sulphide 
on  tetra- and  pentathionic  acids  are  water  and  sulphur.  The 
polythionic  acids  can  also  be  obtained  by  the  action  of  sulphur 
dioxide  on  potassium  thiosulphate  or  on  the  chlorides  of  sulphur. 
The  concluding  portion  of  the  paper  was  devoted  to  a  discussion 
of  the  formulae  of  the  polythionates. — Potilizin's  law  of  the 
mutual  displacement  of  chlorine  and  bromine,  by  Prof.  Thorpe, 
F.R.S.,  and  Mr.  J.  W,  Rodger,  On  heating  bromine  with  an 
equivalent  quantity  of  an  anhydrous  metallic  chloride  in  a  sealed 
glass  tube,  free  from  air,  to  the  temperature  of  the  melting-point 
of  zinc,  Potilizin  found  that  the  amount  of  chlorine  displaced 
by  bromine  was  greater  the  higher  the  atomic  weight  of  the 
metal  in  the  chloride ;  and  further,  that,  if  A  be  the  atomic 
weight  of  the  metal,  /  the  percentage  of  chlorine  displaced  from 
its  chloride  when    treated  as   above,    and  E  its  valency,    the 

formula   -— ;,  =  a  constant  held  good  in  the  case  of  fourteen 
ph," 

chlorides.  To  test  the  validity  of  this  law,  the  authors  heated 
the  chlorides  of  sodium,  potassium,  silver,  strontium,  barium 
and  lead  with  bromine  at  35o°-450°,  and  found  that,  with  the 
exception  of  silver  chloride,  in  which  the  deviation  was  not  so 
marked,  the  amount  of  chlorine  displaced  was  considerably  less 
than  that  required  by  Potilizin's  law,  and  in  all  cases  stood  in 
no  definite  relation  either  to  the  duration  of  heating  or  to  the 
atomic  weight  of  the  metal  of  the  chloride  used,  although 
most  chlorine  was  displaced  from  the  chloride  of  highest  mole- 
cular weight  when  several  were  heated  simultaneously.  These 
experiments  therefore  disprove  the  validity  of  Potilizin's  law. 
— A  gasometric  method  of  determining  nitrous  acid,  by  Dr,  P. 
F.  Frankland.  Based  on  the  interaction  of  urea  and  nitrous 
acid. — The  action  of  some  specific  micro-organisms  on  nitric 
acid,  by  the  same.  The  auth  )r  has  investigated  the  behaviour, 
when  grown  in  nutritive  solutions  containing  nitrates,  of  a  num- 
ber of  micro-organisms  obtained  from  air  and  water,  and  culti- 
vated in  a  state  of  purity.  Of  thirty-two  different  forms  so 
examined,  sixteen  or  seventeen,  and  particularly  Bacillus  ramo- 
sus  and  B.  pestifer,  were  found  to  reduce  the  nitrate  to  nitrite 
more  or  less  completely,  whilst  the  remainder  were  quite  desti- 
tute of  this  power.  The  behaviour  of  the  organisms  was  not 
altered  in  this  respect  by  excluding  air  from  the  solutions  in 
which  they  were  cultivated. — The  action  of  phosphorus  penta- 
chloride  on  salicylaldehyde,  by  Mr.  C.  M.  Stuart, — Some  inter- 
actions of  nitrogen  chlorophosphuret,  by  Mr.  W.  Couldridge. — 
Action  of  alcohols  on  ethereal  salts  in  presence  of  small  quan- 
tities of  sodic  alkylate,  by  Prof  Purdie  and  Mr.  W.  Marshall. 
— Note  on  the  densities  of  cerium  sulphate  solutions,  by  Dr,  B. 
Brauner,  The  values  of  the  densities  of  solutions  of  the  an- 
hydrous and  of  the  hydrated  salt  are  identical  for  solutions  of 
equal  concentration. 

Erratum. — P.  406,  second  column,  line  9  (from  top),  for 
V  —  («-  -  i)  («-  -f  2)  readv  =  («''  -  i)/(«^  +  2). 

Physical  Society,  February  25, — Prof.  Reinold,  F.R.S., 
President,  in  the  chair. — The  following  papers  were  read  : — Note 
on  the  efficiency  of  incandescent  lamps  with  direct  and  alternating 
currents,  by  Prof.  W.  R.  Ayrton,  F.R.S.,  and  Prof.  J.  Perry, 
F.R.S.  This  relates  to  the' question  whether  the  "efficiency" 
(candles  per  watt)  is  greater  or  less  for  alternating  than  for 
direct  currents.  Experiments  made  by  Messrs.  Shepherd  and 
Wheatley,  two  of  the  students  at  the  Central  Institution  (to 
whom  the  authors  express  their  thanks  for  the  valuable  assistance 
rendered)  show  that  no  appreciable  difference  can  be  detected 
when  the  lamp  is  at  the  same  candle-power.  In  performing  the 
experiments,  three-way  switches  in  connection  with  Gramme  and 
Ferranti  machines  were  arranged  so  that  the  current  through  the 
lamp  could  be  quickly  changed  from  direct  to  alternating,  or 
vice  versa,  adjustable  resistances  having  been  previously  placed 
in  the  two  circuits  to  give  equal  readings  on  a  Cardew  voltmeter 
placed  as  a  shunt  to  the  lamp.  The  currents  were  measured  by 
a  reflecting  dynamometer  wound  with  fine  wire  in  order  to  make 
the  error,  due  to  unequal  current  density  over  the  section, 
negligible.     The   problem    has    also    been    investigated    from 


454 


NA  TURE 


{March  8,  1888 


theoretical  considerations,  but  the  results  as  yet  deduced  would 
not  lead  the  authors  to  anticipate  the  equal  efficiency  found 
experimentally.     An  interesting  discussion  followed,  in  which 
Mr.    Swinburne,   Prof.  S.    P.   Thompson,    Mr.    Boys,   and  the 
authors  took  part.  — Observations  of  the   height,    length,    and 
•velocity  of  ocean   waves,    by   the    Hon.    Ralph    Abercomby. 
Several  sets  of  observations  were  made  by  the  author  in  the 
South    Pacific   in    1885.     The   heights    were    measured    by   a 
sensitive  ameroid,  and  the  length  and  velocity  by  a  chronograph, 
assuming  the  length  and  speed  of  the  vessel  to  be  known.     The 
largest  waves  observed  in  a  heavy  sea  gave  a  height  of  46  feet, 
length  765  feet,  velocity  47  miles  per  hour,  and  time  period  of 
l6"5  sees.     Great  discrepancies  exist   between   the   results    of 
different  observers,  which  the  author  believes  to  be  chiefly  due 
to  the  comparative  rarity  of  well-defined  simple  waves.     Reply- 
ing to  a  question  from  Mr.  Baily,  the  author  said  the  effect  on 
the  barometer  of  the  difference  of  wind  pressure  -on  the  two 
sides  of  a  wave  was  negligible. — On  the  temperature  at  which 
■nickel  begins  suddenly  to  lose  its  magnetic  properties,  by  Mr. 
Herbert  Tomlinson.     Different  authorities  give  different  values, 
ranging  from  about  300"  to  400°  C.     In  investigating  the  subject 
the  author  found   that   the   said   temperature   depends   on   the 
magnetizing  force  used;  e.g.  with  magnetizing  forces  of  5,  99, 
and  182  units,  the  temperatures  at  which  the  permeability  attained 
its  maxima  were  287°  C,  248°  C,  and  242°  C,  and  those  corre- 
sponding to  permeability  =  o  were  333°,  392°,  and 4 1 2° respectively. 
From  the  above  results  it  will  be  seen  that  for  small  magnetizing 
forces  the  change  of  permeability  from  maximum  to  o  is  much 
more  sudden  than  for  the  greater  forces.     As  in  iron,  the  per- 
meability decreases  as  the   magnetizing   force    increases.     An 
experiment  was  shown  in  which  a  nickel  plated  brass  wire  was 
heated  to  dull  redness  whilst  suspended  between  the  poles  of  an 
electro-magnet,  and  allowed  to  cool.     When  the  critical  tem- 
perature was  attained,  the  wire  was  suddenly  attracted  to  one  or 
other   of  the   poles.     In   reply   to    Mr.    Shelford  Bidwell,  the 
author  stated  that  the  changes  in  permeability  due  to  ordinary 
atmospheric  changes  of  temperature    were  considerable,  when 
small     magnetizing     forces      were      used. —  Experiments     on 
electrolysis,  by  Mr.  VV.  W.  Haldane  Gee,  Mr.  H.  Holden,  and 
Mr.  C.  H.  Lees.     Whilst  studying  some  electrolytic  polarization 
phenomena  with  palladium  electrodes  in  dilute  sulphuric  acid 
(pure),  a  dense  liquid  was  seen  after  reversing  the  current  to  flow 
downwards  in  streaks  from  the  anode.     The  paper  is  devoted  to 
the  investigation  of  the  character  of  the  liquid  streaks,  and  the 
authors  conclude  that  the  streaks  are  of  concentrated  sulphuric 
acid,  formed  by  the  union  of  the  hydrogen  (occluded  by  the 
electrode  whilst  serving  as  cathode)  with  the  SO4  liberated  at 
the   same   electrode   when   the   current    is    reversed.     Similar 
streaks  were  found  with  phosphoric  acid,    &c.     In  their  next 
paper  the  authors  hope  to  describe  some  experiments  in  which 
these  and  similar  effects  become  of  great  importance  in,  changing 
the  resistances  of  electrolytes. 

Zoological  Society,  February  21. — Prof.  W.  H.  Flower, 
F.R.S.,  President,  in  the  chair. --Mr.  A.  Thomson  exhibited  a 
series  of  insects  reared  in  the  insect-house  in  the  Society's 
Gardens  during  the  past  year,  and  read  a  report  on  the  subject. 
— Prof.  G,  B.  Howes  read  a  njte  on  the  azygos  veins  of  the 
Anurous  Amphibia.  The  author  described  an  individual  spe- 
cimen of  Rana  temporaria,  in  which  the  azygos  vein  (prerenal 
portion  of  the  posterior  cardinal)  had  been  retained  on  one  side, 
its  relations  differing  in  important  details  from  that  observed  by 
Hochstetter  in  Bombinator.  By  way  of  supplementing  that 
author's  work,  he  had  examined  examples  of  a  few  genera  not 
dealt  with  by  Hochstetter.  He  recorded  the  presence  of  these 
veins  in  the  only  specimen  of  Discoglossus  dissected,  and  in  one 
of  five  individuals  ol  Alytes  ohstetricans—{s^Q.\.%  which  lent  addi- 
tional support  to  the  views  of  Cope  and  Baulenger  of  the  lowly 
affinities  of  the  Discoglossidoe.  He  had  failed  to  detect  these 
vessels  in  the  Aglossa  :  while  he  regarded  their  total  absence  in 
Pelobates  and  Pelodytes  as  fresh  evidence  of  the  Pelobatoid  rather 
than  the  Discoglossid  affinities  of  the  last-named  genus, -r^Mr. 
A.  Smith- Woodward  read  the  second  part  of  his  pxlteontological 
contributions  to  Selachian  morphology, — Mr.  Oldfield.  Thomas 
gave  an  account  of  the  mammals  obtained  by  Mr.  G.  F.  Gaumer 
on  Cozumel  and  Ruatan  Islands,  Gulf  of  Honduras. -^A  second 
paper  by  Mr.  Thomas  contained  the  description  of  a  new  and 
interesting  annectent  genus  of  Muridse,  based  on  a  specimen 
which  had  been  in  the  Paris  Museum  for  some  years.  This  was 
supplemented  with  remarks  on  the  relation    of  the  Old   and 


New  World  members  of  the  family. — Dr.  G.  H.  Fowler  ex- 
hibited and  made  some  remarks  on  a  new  Pennatiila  from  the 
Bahamas,  the  most  interesting  feature  of  which  was  the  presence 
of  immature  antozooids  at  the  dorsal  end  of  the  leaves,  devoid 
of  tentacles,  but  possessing  a  well-marked  syphonoglyphe  on  the 
stomatidseum  which  disappears  with  the  increasing  age  of  the 
polyp.  The  species  was  proposed  to  be  named  Pennatula 
•bellissima. 

Royal   Meteorological   Society,    February  15. — Dr.  W. 
Marcet,  F.R.  S.,  President,  in  the  chair. — The  following  papers 
were  read: — Electrical  and  meteorological  observations  onthePeak 
of  Teneriffe,  by  the  Hon.  Ralph  Abercromby.     The  author  made  ■ 
a  trip  to  the  Island  of  Teneriffe  in  October  1887,  for  the  purpose 
of  making  some  electrical  and  meteorological  observations,  and. 
now  gives  some  of  the  results  which  he  obtained,  which  may  be  '' 
summarized  as  follows  : — The  electrical  condition  of  the  Peak  of  I 
Teneriffe  was  found  to  be  the  same  as  in  every  other  part  of  the. 
world.     The  potential  was  moderately  positive,  from  100  to  150 ' 
volts,  at  5  feet  5  inches  from  the  ground,  even  at  considerable.; 
altitudes  ;  but  the  tension  rose  to  549  volts  on  the  summit  of  the.J 
Peak,  12,200  feet,  and  to  247  volts  on  the  top  of  the  rock  of;^ 
Gayga,  7100  feet.    A  large  number  of  halos  were  seen  associated 
with  local  showers  and  cloud  masses.     The  necessary  ice-dust 
appeared  to  be   formed  by  rising  currents.     The  shadow  of  the 
Peak  was  seen  projected  against  the  sky  at  sunset.     The  idea  of 
a  south-west  current  flowing  directly  over  the  north-east  Trade 
was  found  to  be  erroneous.     There  was  always  a  regular  vertical 
succession  of  air  currents  in  intermediate  directions  at  different 
levels  from  the  surface   upwards,   so  that   the  air  was  always 
circulating  on  a  complicated  screw  system. — Rainfall  of  South 
Africa,    1842- 1 886,   by  Mr.   W.    B.    Tripp.     The  author  gives 
the  rainfall  statistics  from  all  those  stations  situated  in  South 
Africa  which  possess  records  of  ten  complete  years  and  upwards. 
He  remarks  upon  the  chronological  succession  of  wet  and  dry 
years,  and  the  consecutive  years  above  and  below  the  mean  ;  and 
also  describes  the  seasonal  distribution  of  monthly  maxima,  and 
the  extent  over  which  monthly  rains  prevail.     He  concludes  by 
comparing  the  curves  of  rainfall  with  those  of  sunspot  energy. — 
Some  methods,  of  cloud  measurements,   by  Mr.   Nils  Ekholm 
As  exact  cloud  measurements  afford  almost  the  only  easily  avail- 
able means  of  determining  motions  in  the  upper  regions  of  the 
atmosphere,  the  author  describes  some  methods  which  seem  to 
him  likely  to  give  the  best  results.     He  also  details  the  plans 
adopted  at  the  Swedish  Polar  Station,  Cap  Thorsden,  in  Spitz- 
bergen,    and    at  the    Upsala  Observatory,   for  determining  the 
direction  and  angular  velocity  of  the  clouds,   and  for   making 
direct  measurements  of  the  height  and  absolute  motions  of  the 
clouds. 

Edinburgh;. 

Royal  Society,  January  30. — The  Rev.  Prof.  Flint,  D.D., 
Vice-President,  in  the  chair.— Prof.  Nicholson  read  a  paper  on 
the  causes  of  movements  in  general  prices. — Prof.  J.  B.  Hay- 
craft  and  Dr.  E.  W.  Carlier  gave  a  demonstration  of  a  method 
by  which  human  blood  may  be  withdrawn  from  the  body  and  its 
fluidity  preserved.  Castor-oil  is  the  medium  in  which  the  blood 
is  suspended.  The  finger  from  which  the  blood  is  obtained  is 
greased  and  plunged  in  the  oil  before  the  puncture  is  made, 
every  precaution  being  taken  to  prevent  contact  of  the  blood 
with  the  air  or  with  solid  matter.  In  this  way  the  blood  may  be 
preserved  in  a  fluid  state  for  a  considerable  time.  As  the  drops 
of  blood  settle  slowly  in  the  oil,  the  corpuscles  are  seen  to  fall  to 
the  lower  part  of  the  drops,  while  the  clear  plasma  remains  above. 
Prof  Haycraft  and  Dr.  Carlier  believe  that  the  human  blood 
plasma  has  never  before  been  demonstrated  in  an  unaltered  con- 
dition except  in  microscopic  quantity.  Coagulation  eventually 
occurs,  because  the  blood  necessarily  comes  in  contact  with  the 
sides  of  the  wound  made  in  the  finger. — Mr.  D.  B.  Dolt  read  a 
paper,  written  by  him.self  in  conjunction  with  Dr.  Ralph  Stock- 
man, describing  experiments  which  show  that  the  ordinarily 
accepted  formula  of  morphine  is  the  correct  one, — Mr.  Robert 
Kidston  read  the  first  part  of  a  paper  on  the  fossil  flora  of  the 
Staffordshire  coal-fields,  and  also  read  a  note  on  Neuropteris 
plicata,  Sternb.,  and  Neuropteris redinervis,  Kidston.— Mr.  John 
Aitken  communicated  a  note  on  a  monochr  imiic  rainbow  seen 
at  sunset. — Prof.  Haycraft  read  a  note  on  a  "scratching  centre" 
found  in  the  spinal  chord  of  some  vertelirates.  —Prof.  Tait  com- 
municated an  answer  to  Prof.  Boltzman's  strictures,  which 
appeared  in  the  Sitznngsberichte  of  the  Vienna  Academy,  on 
his  investigations  on  the  kinetic  theory  of  gases.  IJnis  has  been 
sent  to  the  Philosophical  Magazine. 


March  8,  1888] 


NA  rURE 


455 


Paris. 

Academy  of  Sciences,  February  27. — M.  Janssen  in  the 
chair. — On  the  doctrine  of  the  probability  of  error;  the  law  of 
Gauss,  by  M.  J.  Bertrand.  It  is  shown  that  the  law  of  Gauss, 
based  on  the  postulate,  "The mean  of  the  results  of  any  number 
of  measurements  is  the  most  probable  value  deducible  from  those 
measurements,"  is  incapable  of  rigorous  demonstration. — Artifi- 
cial produclion  of  rhombohedric  crystals  of  rubies,  by  MM.  E. 
Fremy  and  A.  Verneuil.  Specimens  were  shown  of  these 
crystals  produced  by  the  method  described  at  the  meeting  of 
March  14,  1887.  These  are  very  difife.ent  from  the  rubies 
obtained  by  the  authors  in  1877,  which  were  produced  in  a 
vitrous  vein  from  which  they  were  detached  with  great  difficulty. 
The  present  gems  are  on  the  contrary  produced  in  a  porous 
and  friable  vein,  where  they  occur  in  clusters  of  crystals  in  a 
state  of  great  purity,  and  from  which  they  may  be  easily  re- 
moved. To  effect  this  it  suffices  to  throw  the  product  of 
calcination  into  a  flask  of  water  and  shake  it  violently.  Then 
the  vetn  being  light  remains  in  suspension  in  the  water,  while 
the  heavier  rubies  are  at  once  precipitated  to  the  bottom.  The 
gems  are  always  rhombohedric,  and  in  every  respect  comparable 
to  the  natural  stones.  They  have  the  same  colour  and  hardness, 
easily  scratch  topaz,  become  black  when  heated,  regaining  their 
beautiful  pink  tint  when  cooled,  have  a  diamond-like  brilliance, 
and  perfectly  regular  crystalline  form.  The  paper  was  followed 
by  some  remarks  by  M.  Des  Cloiseaux,  to  whom  the  specimens 
had  been  submitted  for  a  thorough  crystallographic  examination. 
— On  some  general  conditions  under  which  nitrogen  is  fixed  by 
vegetable  soil,  by  M.  Berthelot.  The  author  had  already 
established  by  a  long  series  of  experiments  that  certain  argil- 
laceous earths  and  certain  sands  have  the  property  of  fixing 
atmospheric  nitrogen  and  enriching  themselves  by  a  slow  and 
progressive  process  with  organic  nitrous  substances  obtained 
directly  or  indirectly  from  living  organisms.  Since  then  he  has 
prosecuted  the  study  of  this  interesting  phenomenon,  and  here 
resumes  the  results  of  his  further  researches.  Some  experiments 
are  also  described  on  the  transformation  of  the  nitrates  in  the 
soil  into  nitrous  combinations  of  organic  character.  His  ob- 
servations tend  to  the  general  conclusion  that  the  earth  should 
not  be  regarded  as  an  inert  mineral  body,  stable  and  invariable 
in  its  composition  until  disturbed  by  the  process  of  vegetation, 
but  as  a  body  filled  with  living  beings,  and  whose  chemical 
composition  and  abundance  of  nitrogen  vary  and  oscillate  with 
the  conditions  determining  the  vitality  of  those  beings. — On  a 
method  of  quantitative  analysis  of  chloroform,  and  on  the 
solubility  of  this  body  in  water,  by  MM.  G.  Chancel  and  F. 
Parmentier.  Priority  of  discovery  is  claimed  by  the  authors  for 
this  process,  which,  in  a  recent  communication  to  the  Academy, 
M.  L.  de  Saint-Martin  describes  as  new.  — The  Neolithic  epoch 
at  Champigny,  by  M.  Emile  Riviere.  The  results  are  described 
of  the  researches  that  have  been  carried  on  since  1867,  by  MM. 
Le  Roy  des  Closages,  Carbonnier,  and  the  author,  at  the 
Neolithic  station  near  the  village  of  Champigny  in  the  Depart- 
ment of  the  Seine.  Here  have  been  found  numerous  flint 
implements,  scrapers,  arrow-heads,  polished  hatchets,  knives, 
besides  four  grind- stones  and  much  coarse  pottery  curiously 
ornamented,  all  in  association  with  the  bones  of  the  horse,  pig, 
deer,  roebuck,  and  ox.  The  material  of  some  of  the  implements 
points  at  long  migrations,  or  else  a  widespread  intercourse  with 
more  or  less  remote  tribes,  the  rocks  used  in  their  fabrication 
occurring  in  the  region  stretching  from  Belgium  to  Chiavenna  in 
the  Italian  Alps.  —  Elements  and  ephemeris  of  the  planet  272,  by 
M.  Charlois.  These  elements  are  the  result  of  three  observations 
made  at  the  Observatory  of  Nice  on  Febmary  4,  II,  and  18, — 
Permanent  deformation  and  thermodynamics  (continued),  by  M. 
Marcel  Brillouin.  The  chief  feature  of  the  present  study  is  the 
determination  of  the  consequences  of  the  axiom  of  Clausius. — 
Experimental  researches  on  the  variations  produced  by  a  shock 
in  the  magnetic  condition  of  a  steel  bar,  by  M.  G.  Berson.  It 
is  shown  generally  that  the  shoc'xs  or  impacts  given  to  steel  bars 
have  the  effect  of  facilitating  the  disposition  of  the  molecules  in 
a  given  direction  under  the  action  of  the  stimulating  forces,  by 
diminishing  for  a  very  brief  interval  the  molecular  friction  known 
as  coercing  force.  —  On  the  laws  of  chemical  equilibrium,  by  M. 
H.  Le  Chatelier.  This  is  a  reply  to  a  recent  communication 
from  M.  Duhem  claiming  priority  in  connection  with  a  law  of 
thermo-chemistry  lately  enounced  by  the  author. — Action  of 
aniline  on  epichlorhydrine,  by  M.  Ad.  Fauconnier.  Continuing 
the  researches  of  M.  Hermann,  the  author  has  succeeded  in  ob- 
taining one  of  that  chemist's  anticipated  bases,   which   results 


constant   relation    — -    under 


from  the  combination  of  two  molecules  of  aniline  with  one  of 
epichlorhydrine.  The  mode  of  preparation  and  properties  of 
this  body  are  described.— On  the  respiration  of  com  yeast  at 
various  temperatures,  by  MM.  Grehant  and  Quinquaud.  Con- 
tinuing the  classical  studies  of  MM.  Pxisteurand  Schiitzenberger, 
the  authors  have  carried  out  a  series  of  experiments  to- 
measure  the  volume  of  oxygen  f.bsorbed  and  of  carbonic  acid 
produced  by  yeast  living  at  first  in  distilled  water  in  the  absence 
of  sugar  and  in  contact  with  a  determined  volume  of  air.     They 

CO 
hnd   that  the  relation   - — -^   is  variable  with   the  temperatnrcr 

so  that  the  isolated  yeast-cells  would  appear  to  behave  differently 
from  the  fungi  and  tissues  lacking   chlorophyll,  which  give   a 

all    temperatures   for   the  same 

individuals  of  the  same  species. 

Astronomical  Society,  February  i, —  M.  Flammarion, 
President,  in  the  chair. — M.  Flammarion  expressed  his  admira- 
tion of  what  he  had  seen  at  the  Nice  Observatory  on  a  recent 
visit.  In  the  great  equatorial  (30  inches  aperture),  the  Orion 
nebula  is  splendid,  stars  of  the  sixteenth  magnitude  seem  bright, 
and  double  stars  from  o""l  to  o"  3  apart  are  discovered. — M,  Flam- 
marion observed  the  lunar  eclipse  on  January  28  at  Nice.  The 
moon  remained  easily  visible  during  totality,  and  of  a  bright 
copper  hue.  The  Nice  Observatory  is  375  metres  above  the 
level  of  the  Mediterranean  Sea.  In  the  finder  of  the  great 
equatorial  the  shadow  was  fringed  with  a  transparent  border 
about  2'  in  breadth.  MM.  Henry  Brothers  and  M.  Trouvelot 
remarked  the  contrast  this  eclipse  presented  with  that  of  October 
1884,  in  which  the  moon  nearly  disappeared.  M.  Detaille  said 
that  he  had  been  struck  by  the  very  fine  colour  of  the  moon  ;  the 
earth's  shadow,  though  ill-defined  on  the  edge,  was  quite  circu- 
lar.— MM,  Henry  showed  a  photograph  of  the  Pleiades  takea 
with  their  34-centimetre  object-glass,  and  an  exposure  of  four 
hours.  The  negative  included  stars  down  to  the  seventeenth  mag- 
nitude. Much  new  nebulous  matter  is  discovered  in  this  photo- 
graph. One  of  the  bright  stars  is  enveloped  in  a  dense  nebula 
hitherto  unseen.  Several  singular  long  thin  streaks  of  nebulous 
matter  extend  in  some  cases  from  star  to  star  to  a  considerable 
length. — M.  Berteaux,  geographical  editor,  presented  the  Society 
with  a  new  map  of  the  moon  by  M.  C.  Gaudibert,  the  well- 
known  selenographer.  This  map  has  been  made  from  M. 
Gaudibert's  observations  and  revisals  ;  it  has  been  drawn  by  M. 
Tenet,  and  reproduced  by  heliography.  The  diameter  of  the 
disk  is  64  centimetres. 

Berlin. 

Physical  Society,  February  3. — Prof,  von  Helmholtz, 
President,  in  the  chair. — Prof.  Paul  du  Bois  Reymond  spoke 
on  the  difficulty  of  forming  any  conception  of  force  acting  across 
an  intervening  space.  From  among  the  various  instances  of  such- 
forces  the  speaker  selected  gravity  for  a  thorough  discussion.  He 
explained  the  six  properties  characteristic  of  this  force,  pointing 
out  that  only  two  of  them — viz.  the  proportionality  to  the  mass, 
and  the  law  of  inverse  squares  of  the  distances — can  be  proved 
experimentally,  while  someof  its  other  properties,  as,  for  instance, 
the  independence  of  gravity  from  the  condition  of  motion  of  the 
mass,  are  much  doubted  by  many  observers.  Prof,  du  Bois 
Reymond  then  discussed  the  ever-recurring  endeavours  in  past 
times  to  arrive  at  some  mechanical  construction  for  gravity,  en- 
deavours which  were  in  all  cases  unsatisfactory,  since  they  were 
always  dependent  either  on  the  fundamental  properties  of  matter, 
which  are  themselves  incomprehensible,  or  upon  physical  phe- 
nomena whose  basis  was  still  undetermined.  Just  as  in  the  case 
of  many  problems  the  experiments  for  whose  solution  have  been 
repeated  until  their  inaccuracy  was  clearly  proved,  so  also  in 
the  case  of  gravity  has  a  mechanical  conception  been  repeatedly 
sought  for  :  hence  it  becomes  necessary  to  show  that  gravity  \s 
beyond  our  comprehension,  and  the  speaker  proceeded  to  do 
this  by  showing  that  Lesage's  theory  of  the  impact  action  of  the 
atoms  of  ether,  which  has  been  so  long  and  persistently  believed, 
while  it  explains  the  law  of  inverse  squares  does  not  explain  the 
proportionality  to  the  mass,  and  in  certain  special  cases  leads  to  per- 
fectly impossible  results.  Gravity  is  therefore  incompiehensible, 
and  Newton's  view  that  it  is  something  inherently  present  in  all 
matter  is  correct,  since  it  is  by  means  of  this  force  alone  that 
matter  is  made  evident  to  us  ;  indeed,  as  far  as  the  matter  itself 
is  concerned,  it  may  be  entirely  left  out  of  account. — Prof. 
Ilelmholtz  then  explained  how  he  is  in  the  habit  of  treating  the 
subject  of  gravity  in  his  lectures.     He  represents  it  as  being  that 


456 


NA  TURE 


{March  8,  1888 


law  of  Nature,  established  by  experience,  that  every  body  when 
in  the  neighbourhoodof  another  body  is  subject  to  an  acceleration 
which  is  proportional  to  its  mass,  and  diminishes  in  the  ratio  of 
the  inverse  square  of  the  distance  between  them.  Such  a  law  of 
Nature  as  this,  established  as  it  is  on  the  basis  of  experience,  is 
on  the  whole  not  unsatisfactory. — The  same  speaker  then  briefly 
communicated  the  results  of  two  researches  which  he  had  brought 
before  the  Academy  of  Sciences  on  the  previous  day.  Of  these 
one  is  due  to  Prof  Kundt,  and  has  reference  to  the  refractive 
power  of  metals.  He  has  succeeded  in  constructing  transparent 
prisms  of  metals,  and  thus  determining  their  refractive  index.  The 
other,  due  to  Prof.  Hertz,  has  for  its  subject  the  rate  of  propaga- 
tion of  electro-dynamic  action.  By  an  extremely  ingenious 
method,  which  the  speaker  explained,  and  which  has  been  used 
by  Prof.  Hertz,  in  many  of  his  previous  researches,  for  the 
measurement  of  electrical  vibrations,  he  has  succeeded  in  proving 
that  electricity  is  propagated  along  a  metallic  wire  at  the  rate  of 
200,000  kilometres  per  second,  and  that  electro-dynamic  action 
passes  through  dielectrics  with  the  velocity  of  light.  These  ex- 
periments thus  provide  the  experimental  confirmation  of  the 
Faraday-Maxwell  theory  of  electro-dynamic  action. 

Meteorological  Society,  February  7. — Dr.  Vettin,  President, 
in  the  chair. — Lieut.  Gross  gave  an  account  of  a  balloon  voyage 
which  he  made  on  January  21,  and  described,  while  presenting 
the  curves  he  had  obtained,  his  meteorological  observations  made 
during  this  voyage  with  wet  and  dry  bulb  thermometers.  One 
point  of  great  interest  which  he  described  was  that  the  balloon 
remained  constantly  at  the  upper  surface  of  the  layer  of  clouds 
which  it  was  traversing,  so  that  while  the  body  of  the  balloon  was 
above  the  clouds  the  car  was  completely  immersed  in  the  latter, 
notwithstanding  that  ballast  was  frequently  thrown  out. — Dr. 
Hellmann  produced  the  curves  of  temperature  for  Northern  Italy 
for  the  month  of  January,  which  showed  that  the  cold  in  this  region 
had  been  much  more  intense  than  in  Berlin  :  the  minimum  tem- 
perature at  Alessandria  was-  i6*5°C.  —  Prof.  Schwalbe spoke  on 
the  subject  of  earthquakes  in  their  relationship  to  meteorological 
and  cosmic  phenomena.  He  proved,  on  the  basis  of  a  study  of 
the  literature  of  this  subject  extending  over  many  years,  that  all 
sorts  of  meteorological  phenomena,  such  as  temperature,  atmo- 
spheric pressure,  wind,  moisture,  rain,  dryness,  atmospheric  elec- 
tricity, clouds,  and  even  optical  phenomena,  have  been  referred 
to  earthquakes,  either  as  accompaniments  or  the  outc^jme  or  the 
cause  of  the  same.  If  the  statistics  of  earthquakes  are  alone 
considered,  or  more  especially  if  microseismic  observations  are 
taken  into  account,  the  above  relationship  admits  of  being  readily 
established  ;  but  it  breaks  down  completely  if  it  is  worked  out 
in  a  really  scientific  way  throughout  the  whole  of  any  one  or  a 
series  of  years.  The  same  remark  holds  good  with  respect  of  those 
cosmic  relationships  which  have  been  supposed  to  exist  by  various 
writers,  such  as  that  the  attraction  of  the  moon  and  the  sun  is  a 
cause  of  earthquakes  ;  this  view  has  recently  been  held  by  Falb, 
and  although  it  is  in  complete  antagonism  to  the  results  of  careful 
scientific  investigation  it  has  nevertheless  been  largely  accepted 
by  laymen.  Just  as  the  whole  of  Falb's  views  admit  readily  of 
being  disproved,  so  also  do  his  prognostications  of  earthquakes. 
According  to  Falb,  each  lunar  quarter-day  may  be  considered  to  be 
essentially  connected  with  the  occurrence  of  an  earthquake  which 
may  take  place  either  five  days  sooner  or  three  days  later  than  this 
time  ;  but,  notwithstanding  the  concession  of  these  wide  limits  as 
to  time,  it  has  not  been  found  that  these  periods  are  always 
accompanied  by  an  earthquake. 

Stockholm. 

Royal  Academy  of  Sciences,  February  8. — Baron  A.  E. 
Nordenskiold  gave  an  account  of  a  work  he  is  now  editing, 
entitled  "Atlas,  containing  maps  (copies)  printed  during  the 
fifteenth  and  sixteenth  centuries." — On  the  Aralo-Caspian  Sea 
and  the  glaciation  of  the  North  of  Europe,  by  Dr.  H.  Sjogren. — 
On  the  compression  of  the  crust  of  the  earth  under  the  atmo- 
spheric pressure,  by  the  same. — On  the  method  used  in  compu- 
tations concerning  a  certain  Life  Assurance  Company,  by  Prof. 
Mittag-Leffler. — On  the  probability  of  divergence  occurring  in 
employing  the  hitherto  usual  methods  to  represent  planetary 
pertubations  analytically,  by  Prof.  Gylden. — On  the  Bacteria  of 
the  swine-plague,  by  Dr.  E.  Selander. — On  the  structure  of 
Champia  and  Lomentaria,  by  Prof.  Agardh. — On  a  series,  by  Dr. 
Lindman. — Contributions  to  the  knowledge  of  the  reactions  of 
the  plato-oxalate,  by  Dr.  Soderbaum.  —  On  the  action  of  chloron 
on  o-  and  ;3-naphthol,  by  Prof.  Cleve. — On  two  )3-amido-naphtha- 


lin-sulphon  acids,  by  G.  Forsling.— On  the  action  of  the 
metaphosphoric  acid  on  di-  and  tri-oxides,  by  K.  J.  Johansson. 
— Contributions  to  the  knowledge  of  carbo-hydrates  ;  No.  2, 
on  graminine,  by  Drs.  Ekstrand  and  Johansson. — Contribu- 
tions to  the  theory  of  the  undulatory  movement  in  a  gaseous 
medium  (continuation),  by  Prof.  Backlund. — On  the  rhombic 
porphyry  from  the  valley  of  Brumun  in  Norway,  by  H.  Back- 
strom. — The  form  of  the  crystals,  and  the  optical  constants  of 
hydro-carbostyrile,  by  the  same. 


BOOKS,  PAMPHLETS,  and  SERIALS  RECEIVED. 

Hand-bo  k  of  Perspective  :  H.  A.  James  (Chapman  and  Hall).-  Ele- 
mentary Hydrostatics:  S.  B.  Mukerjee  (Thacker). — Chambers's  Encyclo- 
pedia, New  Edition,  vol.  i.  (Chambers).— The  Flora  of  West  Yorkshire  :  F. 

A.  Lees  (Reeve). — The  Fisheries  and  Fishery  Industries  of  the  United  States  ; 
Section  2,  Geographical  Review :  G.  B.  Goode  (Washington). — The  Re- 
ligious Sentiments  of  the  Human  Mind  :  D.  G.  Thompson  (Longmans). — 
Incwadi  Vami  :  J.  W.  IMatthews  (Low). — History  of  Portugal ;  E.  McMurdo 
(Low). — Geometry  in  Space:  edited  by  R.  C.  J.  Nixon  (Clarendon  Press). 
—The  World  to  Come  :  J.  W.  Reynolds  (K.  Paul).— Flora  of  the  Hawaiian 
Islands  :  W.  Hildebrand  (Williams  and  Norgate), — Facts  about  Ireland  :  A. 

B.  MacDowall  (Stanford). — Everybody's  Pocket  Cyclopaedia  (Saxon). — On 
Cold  as  a  Cause  of  Disease  :  W.  H.  Ran.som  (Williams  and  Norgate). — 
Bulletin  de  I'Academie  Royale  des  Sciences  de  Belgique,  No.  12  (Bruxelles). 
Geological  Magazine,  March  (Triibner).— Catalog  der  Conchylien-Samra- 
luna;,  Sechste  Lieferung  (Paetel,  Berlin). — Memoirs  of  the  Boston  Society 
of  Natural  History,  vol.  iv.  Nos.  i  to  4  (Boston). — La  Premiere  Comete 
periodique  de  Tempel,  1867,  ii.  (Geneve). 


CONTENTS.  PAGE 

Physical  Science  and  the  Woolwich  Examinations  .    433 

Professor  Fleeming  Jenkin 433 

Oil   on    Troubled    Waters.      By    Capt.    W.    J.     L. 
Wharton,     R.N.,     F.R.S.,     Hydrographer     to     the 

Admiralty 435 

Our  Book  Shelf  :— 

De  Bary  :   "  Comparative  Morphology  and  Biology  of 
the    Fungi,     Mycetozoa,    and    Bacteria." — Dr.    E. 

Klein,  F.R.S 436 

"  Emin  Pasha  in  Central  Africa  " 436 

Church  :  Colour " 437 

Oliver:  "  Astronomy  for  Amateurs  " 437 

Letters  to  the  Editor ; — 

The  Micromillimetre.— Robt.  B.  Hayward,  F.R.S; 

H.J.  Chaney;  Antoine  d'Abbadie 437 

Coral  Formations. — ^John  Murray 438 

An    Incorrect    Footnote    and     its     Consequences. — 

Dr.  Thomas  Muir 438 

Cause  of  September  Typhoons  in  Hong  Kong. — Dr. 

W.  Doberck 439 

The  Composition  of  Water  by  Volume. — Alexander 

Scott 439 

Water  Supplies  and  Reservoirs. — W.  G.  Black     .    .    439 
A  Photographic    Objective. — Sir    Howard  Grubb, 

F.R.S 439 

A  Green  Sun. — D.  Pidgeon 440 

Rabies  among  Deer 440 

The  Coming  of  Age   of  the  Journal  of  Anatomy  and 

Physiology 441 

Notes     442 

Our  Astronomical  Column  : — 

Tempel's  Comet,  1867  II 445 

Comet  1888  a  (Sawerthal) 446 

The  Total  Eclipse  of  the  Moon,  January  28 446 

Variations  of  Lunar  Heat  during  the  Eclipse  of  the 

Moon 446 

Astronomical     Phenomena     for     the     Week     1888 

March  11-17 •   446 

Geographical  Notes 447 

Our  Electrical  Column 447 

The  President's  Annual  Address  to  the  Royal  Micro- 
scopical Society.     Rev.  Dr.  Dallinger,  F.R.S.    .    .    448 

Scientific  Serials 451 

Societies  and  Academies 452 

Books,  Pamphlets,  and  Serials  Received         ....    456 


NA  TURE 


457 


THURSDAY,   MARCH    15,    i! 


LIFE   CONTINGENCIES. 

Institute  of  Actuaries'  Text-book  of  the  Principles  of 
Interest,  Life  Annuities  and  Assurances,  and  their 
Practical  Applicatiott.  Part  II.  Life  Contingencies 
(including  Life  Annuities  and  Assurances).  By 
George  King.     (London  :  C.  and  E.  Layton,  1887). 

SOME  years  ago  the  Council  of  the  Institute  of 
Actuaries  came  to  the  conclusion  that  the  students 
of  actuarial  science  were  subjected  to  great  inconvenience 
and  loss  of  time  in  consequence  of  the  number  of  different 
books  and  scientific  papers  to  be  consulted  in  acquiring 
a  knowledge  of  the  subject.  Persons  actively  engaged  in 
the  work,  and  wishing  to  refresh  their  memory  as  to  the 
best  methods  of  solving  some  special  question,  frequently 
felt  the  same  sort  of  inconvenience.  The  Council,  with 
that  consideration  for  the  students  which  has  always 
been  characteristic  of  them,  resolved  to  provide  what 
was  wanted.  They  accordingly  authorized  the  compila- 
tion and  publication — the  cost  to  be  borne  by  the 
Institute — of  a  "  Text-book  of  the  Principles  of  Interest, 
Life  Annuities  and  Assurances,  and  their  Practical  Appli- 
cation." The  first  volume,  entitled  Part  I.,  and  treating 
of  the  principles  of  interest  (including  annuities-certain), 
has  been  before  the  public  since  1882.  The  second  part, 
which  is  concerned  with  "  Life  Contingencies,"  has  now 
been  issued.  The  editing  or  authorship  of  this  portion  of 
the  text-book  was  intrusted  to  Mr.  George  King,  the 
Actuary  of  the  Atlas  Insurance  Company,  and  formerly 
of  the  AUiance,  whose  practical  acquaintance  with  assur- 
ance calculations^  well-known  devotion  to  his  work,  and 
experience  as  a  lecturer  at  the  Institute,  qualified  him,  in 
a  high  degree,  for  undertaking  the  task. 

In  the  opening  chapters  of  the  present  volume,  the 
author  deals  with  the  ordinary  mortality  table,  its  con- 
struction from  different  kinds  of  data,  and  its  varied 
application  by  the  actuary  and  the  statist,  including  the 
determination  of  the  probable  numbers  dying  or  sur- 
viving in  a  community,  or  in  an  annuity  or  other  society. 
Such  a  table,  showing  out  of  a  certain  number  of  persons 
born  how  many  attain  to  each  year  of  age,  may  obviously 
be  formed  from  records  of  the  duration  of  life  in  a  great 
number  of  individual  cases  ;  always  provided  the  cases 
constitute  a  fair  selection.  Here,  however,  arises  great 
practical  difficulty,  and  mortality  tables  are,  in  conse- 
quence, usually  constructed  from  observations  yielding 
the  probability  of  living  one  year  at  each  year  of  age. 
This  is  so  important  a  fact,  at  least  to  students  com- 
mencing the  study,  that  we  should  have  been  glad  if  the 
"elementary  illustrations"  given  by  the  author  had  in- 
cluded a  numerical  illustration  in  brief  detsil  reproducing 
the  process  underlying  one  or  other  of  the  standard 
tables.  The  author  has  proceeded  wisely,  we  think,  in 
first  collecting  the  elementary  formuUe  of  the  doctrine  of 
chances,  and  then  showing  how  these  may  be  applied  to 
the  numbers  of  the  mortality  table  in  order  to  solve  the 
many  and  important  questions  arising  in  connection  with 
single  or  joint  lives.  He  points  out  two  fallacies  which  it 
Vol  XXXVII. — No.  959. 


is  desirable  the  public  should  recognize  as  such.     This 
is  one  : — 

"  It  will  be  found  .  .  .  that  the  higher  the  age  from 
which  we  count,  the  greater  will  be  the  average  age  at 
death.  Thus,  at  age  10,  the  average  age  at  death  is 
60-257  years;  at  age  20,  it  is  62"ioi  ;  at  age  30,  it  is 
64726  ;  and  at  age  60,  it  is  73"8o8.  ...  It  is  frequently 
stated  by  shallow  reasoners  that  some  professions,  such  as 
that  of  the  lawyer,  must  be  conducive  to  longevity  .  .  . 
because  the  average  age  at  death  of  the  members  of  that 
profession  is  much  higher  than  that  of  the  general  popu- 
lation. But  the  general  population  starts  from  age  o  ; 
and  starting  from  age  o  the  average  age  at  death,  if  the 
mortality  were  to  follow  the  table,  would  be  only  47785 
years,  whereas  ...  a  lawyer  does  not  enter  the  profes- 
sion until  he  reaches  manhood  ;  and  usually  it  is  not  until 
many  years  later  that  he  attains  sufficient  eminence  for 
his  death  to  be  commented  upon.  Therefore,  even  if  the 
rate  of  mortality  among  lawyers  be  not  more  favourable 
than  among  the  general  population,  the  average  age  at 
death  of  those  whose  deaths  attract  notice  must  be 
greater." 

Much  attention  is  given  in  this  portion  of  the  book  to 
attempts  which  have  been  made  to  embody  the  law 
of  mortality  in  a  mathematical  formula  which  should 
readily  lend  itself  to  the  purposes  of  calculation.  Two 
such  attempts  are  introduced  to  our  notice  :  the  hypo- 
thesis of  De  Moivre,  and  the  hypothesis  of  Gompertz. 
De  Moivre,  in  his  treatise  on  "  Annuities  on  Lives,"  pub- 
lished in  1725,  made  the  assumption,  now  well  known, 
that,  out  of  eighty-six  births,  one  person  dies  every  year 
until  they  are  all  extinct.  Gompertz,  in  a  paper  contri- 
buted to  the  Royal  Society  in  1825,  just  a  century  later, 
observed  :  "  It  is  possible  that  death  may  be  the  con- 
sequence of  two  generally  co-existing  causes  :  the  one, 
chance,  without  previous  disposition  to  death  or  deterior- 
ation ;  the  other,  a  deterioration,  or  increased  inability  to 
withstand  destruction."  It  would  appear,  however,  that  he 
did  not  pursue  this  twofold  notion  to  its  conclusion,  but 
contented  himself  with  investigating  the  effect  of  supposing 
"  the  average  exhaustion  of  a  man's  power  to  avoid  death 
to  be  such  that  at  the  end  of  equal  infinitely  small  inter- 
vals of  time  he  lost  equal  portions  of  his  remaining  power 
to  oppose  destruction  which  he  had  at  the  commencement 
of  these  intervals."  The  words  now  quoted,  taken  alone, 
perhaps  do  not  give  a  very  precise  idea  of  what  was  in- 
tended, but  they  really  cover  the  assumption  that  the 
force  of  mortality  increases  in  geometrical  progression, 
and  may  be  represented,  as  Mr.  King  says,  by  ^c^,  where 
B  and  c  are  constants,  and  x  the  age.  From  this,  the 
equivalent  of  the  differential  coefficient  of  the  log  of  the 
number  living,  we  find  the  number  living  at  age  x  may 
be  expressed  in  the  form  k{gY^.  By  judiciously  choosing 
values  for  the  constants  k,  g,  and  c,  the  results  approxi- 
mate more  or  less  closely  to  fact  for  a  greater  or  smaller 
extent  of  life,  but  it  was  left  to  Mr.  Makeham,  the  present 
Actuary  to  the  Church  of  England  Assurance  Company, 
to  perfect  the  formula,  and  render  it  an  exponent  of  the 
effect  of  the  two  co-existing  causes  of  death  originally 
contemplated  by  Gompertz.  The  final  shape  of  the 
formula  then  became  ks^{gY^ ,\\''\\qx€\t).  a  fourth  constant, 
s,  is  introduced.  In  this  shape,  although  there  still  re- 
mains a  difficulty  with  the  youngest  ages  of  life,  the 
formula  has  been  used  for  adjusting  crude  observations 

X 


458 


NATURE 


lAIarc/i  15,  1888 


and  simplifying  calculations  involving  contingencies  de- 
pending on  several  lives.  The  hypothesis  of  Gompertz, 
as  formulated  by  Makeham,  is,  no  doubt,  useful  for 
graduating  certain  tables,  and  for  dealing  with  some  of 
the  more  complex  problems  of  hfe  contingencies,  but  we 
doubt  whether  a  disproportionate  consideration  is  not 
given  to  it  and  to  its  application.  In  so  far  as  it  presents 
itself  to  us  as  the  most  successful  effort  yet  made  to 
fasten  down  the  law  of  mortality,  it  has,  no  doubt,  a 
charm  and  a  fascination  for  everyone,  and  especially  the 
mathematician ;  but,  keeping  in  view  the  limited  use 
made  of  it  for  the  ordinary  purposes  of  assurance  work,  and 
that  even  for  graduating  it  is  only  one  of  several  methods 
in  vogue,  we  are  inclined  to  think  a  less  elaborate  treat- 
ment would  have  been  more  commensurate  with  the 
proper  scope  of  a  text-book  and  book  for  general 
reference. 

The  next,  and  of  course  the  main,  portion  of  the  volume 
is  concerned  with  the  great  class  of  questions  involving 
the  consideration  of  interest  when  combined  with  life 
contingencies  ;  that  is  to  say,  with  annuities  and  assur- 
ances, whether  on  single  or  joint  lives,  and  whether  abso- 
lute or  contingent ;  with  advowsons,  next  presentations, 
fines  for  the  renewal  of  leases  on  lives  ;  also  with  life 
interests  and  reversions,  and  the  values  of  life  policies. 
Explanations  and  demonstrations  are  given  at  length, 
and  some  of  them  are  exceptionally  good.  We  may  note 
that,  in  the  chapter  on  annuities  and  assurances,  the 
author  says :  "  It  has  been  common,  in  treatises  on  life 
annuities,  to  deal  with  annuities  and  assurances  separ- 
ately, but  the  two  classes  of  benefits  are  so  intimately 
connected  that  they  ought  always  to  be  taken  together." 
We  are  not  quite  sure  that  we  have  caught  exactly  the 
nature  of  the  objection  entertained  by  the  author  to  the 
common  method  of  dealing  with  the  two  kinds  of  benefit. 
We  take  it  the  intimate  connection  alluded  to  implies  that 
both  things  are  built  up  of  the  elementary  forms  of  which 
V'lx  +  n  is  the  type,  and  proceed  on  parallel  hnes,  and 
not  that  the  results  for  the  one  should  be  obtained  by 
giving  an  algebraic  twist  to  the  results  deduced  by  a  direct 
process  for  the  other.  We  do  not  infer  from  his  words, 
or  gather  from  his  book,  that  he  would  not  exhibit  the 
present  value  of  an  assurance  by  direct  reference  to  the 
present  value  of  ^l  to  be  received  by  each  of  the  persons 
alive  at  age  .i-+«,  rather  than  obtain  it  by  an  indirect 
process  of  reasoning,  such,  for  instance,  as  this  : — "  If 
here  be  an  annuity  on  (.r)  payable  at  the  end  of  each  year 
on  which  he  enters,  and  another  annuity  payable  at  the 
end  of  each  year  which  he  completes,  it  is  evident  that 
the  difference  between  the  two  is  the  value  of  ;i^i  payable 
at  the  end  of  that  year  on  which  (.v)  enters,  but  which  he 
does  not  complete  ;  that  is,  the  value  of  ^i  payable  at 
the  end  of  the  year  of  the  death  of  {x),  or,  in  other  words, 
the  value  of  an  assurance  on  (.f).  Now  v{\  -\- a.xj  is  evi- 
dently the  value  of  the  first-named  annuity,  and,  deduct- 
ng  from  this  the  value  of  the  ordinary  annuity,  a^,  we 
have  the  value  of  the  assurance,  t'(i  +  a^)  —  ax"  The 
building  up  of  a  formula  by  premising  its  verbal  inter- 
pretation is  often  an  admirable  example  of  ingenuity,  but 
this  process  can  never  be  allowed  to  displace  the  estab- 
lished course  of  mathematical  reasoning. 

In  this,  the  staple  portion  of  his  work,  Mr.  King  manifests 
bis  extensive  acquaintance  with  the  subject,  or,  rather, 


subjects.  With  a  great  quantity  of  matter  at  his  com- 
mand, he  has  used  the  pruning-knife  very  sparingly, 
possibly  too  sparingly.  All  the  usual  formulae  are  given 
for  precise  calculation,  and  a  number  of  approximative 
processes  are  developed  where  an  exact  calculation  would 
be  too  cumbrous  for  actual  use.  It  is  worth  suggesting 
for  consideration  whether  a  collection  of  questions  to  be 
worked  out  by  students  might  not  with  advantage  be  in- 
serted in  a  future  edition  of  the  book.  There  are  many 
precedents  for  such  a  course  in  connection  with  text- 
books, and  a  goodly  supply  of  questions  is  already  at  hand 
in  the  examination-papers  set  at  the  Institute  in  past 
years. 

There  is  a  third  portion  of  the  work,  occupying  some 
seventy  pages,  in  which  finite  differences,  interpolation, 
and  summation  are  treated  with  more  fullness  than 
branches  of  pure  mathematics  would  seem  to  be  entitled 
to  in  a  volume  professedly  assigned  to  life  contingencies. 
Indeed,  the  author  admits  in  his  preface  that  these 
subjects  were  not  within  the  scope  of  the  text-book  as 
originally  planned.  No  doubt  we  have  placed  before  us 
propositions  which  are  specially  applicable  to  actuarial 
needs,  arranged  and  demonstrated  with  Mr.  King's  usual 
ability  ;  but  it  seems  to  us  they  would  have  been  more 
conveniently  published  in  some  other  connection  than  the 
present.  A  knowledge  of  .these  things  in  a  duly  regulated 
course  of  study  would  naturally  precede  the  consideration 
of  their  application. 

The  text  of  the  work  is  supplemented  by  a  collection  of 
interesting  tables,  commencing  with  a  table  of  mortality 
based  on  a  combination  of  data  for  young  and  mature 
lives,  and  intended  to  show  the  mortality  of  healthy  male 
life  from  birth  to  extreme  old  age.  We  must  not  fail  to 
mention  that  the  collection  embraces  complete  tables  for 
finding  the  value  of  joint-life  annuities  up  to  four  lives 
inclusive. 

Looking  at  the  work  as  a  whole,  we  find  the  various 
subjects  are  cleverly  handled,  the  propositions  appear  one 
after  the  oLher  in  well-ordered  succession,  the  demon- 
strations are  well  chosen,  and  the  wording  is  clear  and 
effective.  Altogether  Mr.  King  has  done  his  work  dili- 
gently and  with  good  judgment,  and  has  placed  all  future 
students  of  the  Institute  under  a  debt  of  obligation  to 
himself  and  to  the  Council. 

ROSENBUSCH'S    '' PETROGRAPHY^' 
II. 
Mikroskopische    Physiographie    der  massigen    Gesteine. 
Von  H.  Rosenbusch.     II.  Abtheilung.    Zweite  ganzlich 
umgearbeitete  Auflage.     (Stuttgart,  1887.) 

IN  a  notice  (Nature,  vol.  xxxv.  p.  482)  of  the  first  part 
of  the  present  work,  we  showed  that  the  author,  adopt- 
ing a  natural  system  of  classification  which  gives  the  first 
place  to  field-evidence,  divides  the  eruptive  rocks  into  three 
great  groups,  viz.  (i)  the  Plutonic  rocks  ;  (2)  the  Dyke 
rocks  {Ganggesteine)  ;  and  (3)  the  Volcanic  or  Effusive 
rocks.  Unable  to  free  himself  entirely  from  the  idea  that 
geological  age  ought  to  be  an  essential  factor  in  rock- 
classification,  he  subdivides  the  third  group  into  2kpal(eo- 
volcanic  and  a  neo-volcanic  series.  It  is  the  treatment  of 
the  neo-volcanic  series  which  constitutes  the  bulk  of  this, 
the  second  and  final  part  of  the  book. 


March  15,  1888] 


NATURE 


459 


The  neo-volcanic  rocks,  which  are  stated  to  be  essen- 
tially confined  to  Tertiary  or  post-Tertiary  times,  occur, 
for  the  most  part,  as  lava-streams  and  sheets,  and  are 
often  accompanied  by  tuffs.  They  are  classified  by  Prof. 
Rosenbusch  as  follows  : — 

{a)  Family  of  the  Liparites  and  Pantellerites  (equi- 
valents, on  the  one  hand,  of  the  palit'o-volcanic  quartz- 
porphyries,  on  the  other,  of  the  granitic  plutonic  rocks). 

{b)  Family  of  the  Trachytes  and  basic  Pantellerites 
(equivalents  of  the  palaeo-volcanic  quartzless  porphyries, 
and  of  the  plutonic  syenites). 

{c)  Family  of  the  Phonolites  and  Leucitophyres 
(equivalents  of  the  plutonic  elaeolite-syenites). 

{d  and  e)  Family  of  the  Dacites  and  Andesites 
(equivalents  of  the  porphyrites  and  diorites). 

\f)  Family  of  the  Basalts  (equivalents  of  the  melaphyres 
and  certain  augite  porphyrites  in  the  palaeo-volcanic 
series  ;  and  of  the  gabbros  and  diabases  among  the 
plutonic  rocks). 

{g)  Family  of  the  Tephrites  (equivalents  of  the 
th2ralites,  i.e.  plagioclase-nepheline  rocks  of  the  plutonic 
series). 

From  this  synopsis  the  merits  of  the  new  classification 
may  be  appreciated.  No  classification  that  taxonomic 
ingenuity  may  devise  will  wholly  satisfy  the  desires  of  the 
sanguine  petrologist.  Rocks,  however  much  they  may  be 
characterized  by  a  certain  amount  of  geological  uni- 
formity persistent  over  large  areas  (which  have  aptly 
been  termed  " petrographical  provinces"),  are  still,  it 
must  be  remembered,  mere  mineral  aggregates  ;  and  the 
amount  of  possible  variation,  dependent  on  differences  in 
chemical  constitution,  and  varying  conditions  of  con- 
solidation, is  enormous.  Rock-types,  which  may  be 
clearly  defined  and  sharply  separated  on  paper,  will,  in 
the  field,  often  be  found  passing  over  into  one  another  by 
gradations  so  imperceptible  that  the  petrographer  must 
regard  as  hopeless  any  attempt  to  draw  a  hard  and  fast 
line  between  them. 

A  weak  point  in  Prof.  Rosenbusch's  classification  seems 
to  ;us  his  fundamental  separation  of  the  "dyke-rocks" 
[Ganggesteine)  from  the  plutonic  and  volcanic  series 
[Tiefcn-  unci Ergussgesteine.)  Both  plutonic  bosses  and 
volcanic  sheets  must  necessarily  be  accompanied  by 
dykes  or  pipes  through  which  the  eruption  took  place, 
and  into  the  rocks  composing  which  they  pass  by  imper- 
ceptible gradations.  The  author,  indeed,  calls  attention 
himself  to  this  fact  (on  pp.  6  and  522),  and  proposes  to 
include  under  the  head  of  "  Ganggesteine "  only  those 
rocks  which  occur  solely  in  the  form  of  dykes  and  are  un- 
accompanied by  tuffs.  Still,  rocks  so  nearly  allied  as 
these  must  necessarily  be  to  the  dykes  and  volcanic  pipes 
and  necks  in  immediate  connection  with  the  centre  of 
eruption,  should  not,  we  think,  be  so  widely  separated 
from  them.  On  the  other  hand,  we  find  placed  in  this 
group  rocks,  such  as  granite-porphyry,  which  are  known  to 
occur  in  boises,  as,  for  instance,  at  Shap  and  at  Dartmoor. 

As  to  the  question  of  age,  it  is  so  far  satisfactory  that 
the  author  has  gone  a  step  in  what  is  surely  the  right 
direction,  in  eliminating  this  factor  from  the  consideration 
ofthe  plutonic  rocks.  With  regard  to  the  advisability  of 
retaining  the  separation  into  an  older  and  a  younger 
series  of  the  volcanic  rocks.  Prof.  Rosenbusch  refrains 
frotn  expressing  an  opinion   (p.  xi.  of  preface.)     In  con- 


nection with  this  question,  we  must  draw  attention  to  one 
point.  The  structure  characteristic  of  the  dolerites 
(diabases  of  the  Germans)  in  which  allotriomorphic 
masses  of  augite  are  penetrated  by  idiomorphic  crystals 
and  microlites  of  felspar,  and  which  is  known  as  ophitic 
structure,  occurs  nowhere  in  more  typical  development 
than  in  the  dolerites  of  the  Western  Isles  of  Scotland 
(described  and  figured  by  Judd)  and  of  Iceland  (Brdon),  a 
statement  that  anybody  who  has  seen  rock-sections  from 
these  localities  will  support.  Yet  these  rocks,  apparently 
because  they  are  of  Tertiary  age,  are  placed  by  Prof. 
Rosenbusch  (pp.  725  and  733)  with  the  basalts,  and  are 
described  as  possessing  ^^ intersertal  structure"  a  struc- 
ture characterized,  according  to  the  definition  given  on 
p.  504,  by  the  presence  of  a  hypocrystalline  interstitial 
substance  (mesostasis)  wedged  in  between  the  felspars. 
That  some  of  the  rocks  in  question  contain  small  wedge- 
shaped  portions  and  films  of  glassy  interstitial  substance 
nobody  will  deny ;  but  that  many  of  them  are  perfectly 
holocrystaUine  and  truly  ophitic  is  equally  beyond 
question. 

Besides  "  intersertal  structure "  we  notice  two  other 
structural  terms  used  now  for  the  first  time,  viz.  " pilo- 
taxitic  "  and  "  hyalopilitic."  The  former  is  applied  to  a 
holocrystaUine  structure,  especially  characteristic  of  certain 
porphyrites  and  basalts,  in  which  the  ground  mass  consists 
essentially  of  slender  laths  and  microlites  of  felspar  in 
felted  aggregation,  and  often  exhibits  fluxion-phenomena. 
The  addition  of  films  of  glass  produces  ^^ hyalopilitic" 
structure. 

New  rock-names  are  Tholeiite  (p.  504)  and  Alnoite 
(p.  805).  The  former  is  given  to  a  variety  of  augite-porphy- 
rite  with  typical  "intersertal  structure."  Certain  North  of 
England  dykes  (the  Hett  dyke,  Tynemouth  dyke,  and 
Hebburn  dyke)  described  by  Teall,  are  referred  to  this 
group.  Several  of  the  English,  Scotch,  and  Irish  traps, 
described  by  Allport  and  Hull,  are,  according  to  the 
author,  olivine-tholeiites  (p.  515).  The  word  '■^Alnoite"  is 
applied  by  Prof  Rosenbusch  to  a  subdivision  of  the 
melilite-rocks,  hitherto  classed  with  the  melilite-basalts, 
but  differing  from  the  latter  by  their  occurrence  in  the 
form  of  dykes  and  their  near  relation  to  the  eleeolite- 
syenites. 

Interesting  to  English  readers  are  the  remarks  contained 
on  pp.  417,  418.  In  referring  to  the  Cambrian  quartz- 
felsites  and  felsites  of  Wales,  which  have  been  described 
by  Messrs.  Bonney,  Cole,  and  Rutley,  Prof  Rosenbusch 
compliments  these  authors  on  not  having  overlooked  the 
influence  of  dynamic  metamorphism  in  developing  their 
present  character.  He  then  goes  on  to  say  that  he  has 
been  led,  partly  by  Prof.  Bonney's  descriptions,  partly  by 
the  examination  of  sections,  to  the  belief  that  two  distinct 
classes  of  rocks  are  here  associated,  viz.  metamorphosed 
eruptive  rocks  (schistose  porphyries),  and  metamorphosed 
slates  and  tuffs  (porphyroides).  A  comparative  study  of 
these  rocks  in  connection  with  the  "  Lenne-porphyren '' 
and  the  porphyroides  of  the  Thuringer  Wald  would,  the 
author  thinks,  be  productive  of  interesting  results.  Many 
of  these  rocks  (e.g.  from  between  Llanberis  and  Cwm-y- 
Glo,  north-west  of  Cwm-y-Glo,  Llyn  Padarn,  near 
Llanberis  ;  also  the  nodular  felsites  from  Conway  Falls, 
and  the  rock  from  Digoed)  ought,  judging  from  the 
frequent  occurrence  of  striated  and  microperthitic  felspars* 


460 


NA  rURE 


[March  15,  1888 


rather  to  be  referred  to  the  quartz-keratophyres  than  to 
the  quartz-porphyries  (p.  418). 

We  are  glad  to  see  that  oHvine  is  no  longer  regarded 
by  the  author  as  an  essential  constituent  of  basalt.  This 
rock-name  is  thus  made  to  gain  considerably  in  signifi- 
cance, since  it  now  embraces  all  (neo-)volcanic  rocks  of 
basic  composition  which  essentially  contain  plagioclase 
and  augite,  whether  they  occur  as  lava-sheet  or  dyke. 
The  acid  plagioclase-augite  rocks,  on  the  other  hand, 
whether  with  or  without  olivine,  are  referred  to  the 
andesites. 

In  connection  with  the  basalts,  it  may  be  of  interest  to 
point  out  how  considerable  an  alteration  in  the  minor 
subdivisions  of  a  rock-group  has  been  produced  by 
modern  microscopic  research.  The  old  familiar  grouping 
of  the  basalts,  according  to  their  granular  texture,  as 
dolerite,  anamesite,  and  basalt,  has  been  superseded. 
The  modern  petrographer  distinguishes,  with  Prof.  Rosen- 
busch,  between  the  following  structural  varieties,  which 
may  coexist  with  any  granular  dimension:  (i)"hypidio- 
morphic  granular,?  (2)  "  intersertal,"  (3)  "holocrystalline- 
porphyritic,"  (4)  "  hypocrystalline-porphyritic,"  and  (5) 
"  vitrophyric." 

Welcome  additions  to  the  book  are  an  appendix  to  the 
invaluable  literature-index  of  Vol.  I.,  bringing  it  up  to  the 
present  date  ;  and  a  useful  index  of  localities,  compiled 
by  Dr.  H.  B.  Patton.  The  book  is  well  got  up,  well 
printed,  dnd  remarkably  free  from  typographical  errors. 

F.  H,  Hatch. 


A  TREATISE  ON  CHEMISTRY. 
A  Treatise  on  Che/nistry.  By  Sir  H.  E.  Roscoe,  F.R.S. 
and  C.  Schorlemmer,  F.R.S.  Vol.  III.  The  Chemistry 
of  the  Hydrocarbons  and  their  Derivatives ;  or,  Organic 
Chemistry.  Part  IV.  (London :  Macmillan  and  Co., 
1888.) 

THE  present  instalment  of  this  well-known  work  deals 
with  those  benzenoid  compounds  containing  respect- 
ively seven  and  eight  atoms  of  carbon. 

The  excellent  features  referred  to  in  our  notices  of  the 
previous  parts  are  preserved  in  this  new  section.  The  his- 
torical portions  are  especially  valuable.  Most  text-books 
of  organic  chemistry  restrict  themselves  to  giving  an 
account  of  the  existing  state  of  the  science ;  but  in  the 
present  work  the  description  of  every  important  com- 
pound, or  group  of  compounds,  is  prefaced  by  an  historical 
review  of  the  various  investigations  which  have  led  up, 
step  by  step,  to  the  views  now  held.  To  students  of 
organic  chemistry,  who,  in  ninety-nine  cases  out  of  a 
hundred,  never  see  the  older  memoirs  (and,  if  they  did, 
would  probably  only  be  bewildered  by  the  obsolete 
nomenclature  and  formulae),  these  historical  introductions 
are  a  great  boon.  As  instances  of  this  interesting  mode 
of  treatment,  we  may  cite  the  historical  introductions  to 
the  subjects  of  toluene,  of  the  nitrotoluenes,  and  of  creosote 
— with  the  account,  in  the  latter  case,  of  the  confusion 
between  creosote  and  phenol,  and  of  the  way  in  which 
this  confusion  was  eventually  cleared  up.  In  this  con- 
nection we  may  call  the  attention  of  our  spelling  re- 
formers among  English  chemists  to  the  passage  (p.  33) 
quoted  from  Reichenbach's  original  memoir  in  which 
he  first  coins  the  word  "creosote."     The  etymological 


knowledge  of  the  average  English  chemist  (when 
it  exists  at  all)  is  little — and  dangerous,  He  has 
learned  that  there  is  such  a  word  as  n^eas,  and 
rashly  opining  that  he  is  at  liberty  to  derive  an  English 
word  from  a  Greek  nominative,  he  changes  Reichen- 
bach's spelling  to  "  crcf^sote  " — a  corrupt  form  which,  as 
"  creasotum,"  has  passed  into  the  Pharmacopoeia,  em- 
balmed in  the  choicest  apothecaries'  Latin.  One  regrets 
that  the  zeal  of  the  reformer  was  not  tempered  by  the 
knowledge  that  Reichenbach  derives  the  word  from  the 
contracted  genitive,  xp/wy.i 

The  descriptive  portion  of  the  work  is  full  and  accurate. 
The  only  case  that  we  have  noticed  in  which  the  informa- 
tion is  not  up  to  date  is  in  the  account  of  the  benzalde- 
hydines  (pp.  141  and  142),  which  are  represented  as 
ordinary  condensation-compounds  of  ortho-diamines 
with  benzaldehyde  ;  whereas  Hinsberg  showed,  about  a 
year  and  a  half  ago,  that  they  are  in  reality  benzylated 
anhydro-bases.  The  name  "  Nevile  "  is  also  throughout 
erroneously  given  as  "  Neville." 


OUR  BOOK  SHELF. 

A  Text-book  of  Organic  Materia  Medica.  By  Robert 
Bentley,  M.R.C.S.,  F.L.S.  Cr.  8vo.  pp.  415.  (London  : 
Longmans,  Green,  and  Co.,  1887.) 

It  is  a  difficult  matter  to  produce  a  text-book  of  materia 
medica  which  shall  answer  the  requirements  of  the 
student  in  these  days.  No  subject  is  less  clearly  defined 
either  by  teachers  or  by  the  authorities  at  Examining 
Boards.  Prof.  Bentley  indicates  this  difficulty  in  his 
introduction,  where  he  first  defines  "materia  medica" 
and  the  allied  words  "pharmacology"  and  ''therapeutics," 
and  then  confesses  that  our  first  English  authority  in  this 
department  of  science.  Dr.  Lauder  Brunton,  has  used 
some  of  the  terms  in  a  different  sense.  There  is  one 
advantage,  however,  in  this  difference  of  view — namely,  a 
variety  in  the  treatment  of  the  subject  ;  and  we  have  to 
thank  Prof.  Bentley  for  having  produced  a  work  which 
departs  in  many  directions  from  the  somewhat  stereotyped 
arrangement  of  English  works  on  materia  medica. 

As  might  have  been  expected  from  the  accomplished 
Professor  of  Botany  in  King's  College,  the  work  is  mainly 
devoted  to  a  careful  description  of  the  characters  of 
medicinal  plants  and  their  products.  The  arrangement 
of  the  plants  is  founded,  so  far  as  the  Phanerogamia  are 
concerned,  upon  that  adopted  by  Bentham  and  Hooker 
in  their  "  Genera  Plantarum."  The  descriptions  are  given 
very  fully,  so  as  to  enable  the  student  to  recognize  the 
drugs  with  facility  and  certainty,  and  thus  at  the  same 
time  readily  to  detect  any  adulteration.  The  author  is 
right  when  he  expresses  his  belief  that  in  the  latter  respect 
the  book  will  be  especially  valuable  to  the  pharmacist. 
To  the  medical  student  and  to  the  medical  practitioner 
adulteration  is  no  longer  a  subject  of  direct  interest.  The 
day  has  gone  by  when  crude  drugs  came  into  the  dis- 
pensary of  the  doctor,  who  now  buys  all  the  preparations 
ready  made  ;  and  the  Examining  Bodies,  aware  of  this, 
have  relieved  medical  students  of  the  laborious  subject  of 
drug  adulteration,  and  now  require  of  them  the  recognition 
of  but  a  few  of  the  most  important  specimens.  No  doubt 
the  book  will  find  its  largest  circle  of  readers  amongst 
young  men  preparing  for  the  examinations  of  the  Pharma- 
ceutical Society. 

In  our  opinion  it  would  have  been  better  to  give 
the  strength  as  well  as  the  dose  of  the  more  important 
preparations,  such  as  those  of  opium. 

The  sections  on  the  chemical  composition  of  drugs  have 

'  "Of  course  the  reformer  may  write  "creatoiote"  if  hi  choojes;  bul 
''creasote"  is  inadmissible. 


March  15,  1888] 


NA  TURE 


461 


been  carefully  brought  up  to  the  level  of  recent  researches. 
The  methods  of  the  separation  of  active  principles,  such 
as  morphine  and  atropine,  from  the  crude  substances, 
and  their  reactions,  are  not  given. 

Prof.  Bentley  does  not  undertake  to  give  more  than  the 
most  general  indication  of  the  action  of  the  remedies  he 
has  so  fully  described.  All  that  is  said  of  rhubarb,  for 
instance,  under  the  heading  of  medicinal  action,  is  that 
"it  possesses  tonic  and  slightly  astringent  properties,  and 
in  large  doses  it  acts  as  a  purgative."  This  is  a  very  good 
system  for  pharmaceutical  students,  and  according  to 
some  authorities  for  medical  students  also  at  the  com- 
mencement of  their  career.  But  it  manifestly  encourages 
learning  by  rote.  What  impression  of  definiteness  or 
value  does  the  word  "  tonic,"  for  example,  represent  in 
the  mind  of  the  juvenile  reader.?     Of  course  none. 

Again,  whilst  we  acknowledge  that  Prof.  Bentley  has 
on  the  whole  confined  himself  to  an  account  of  the  actions 
of  the  various  drugs  on  the  healthy  organism,  we  must 
object  to  the  heading"  Medicinal  Properties,"  which  is  put 
before  the  paragraphs  descriptive  of  these.  A  drug  has 
an  action  quite  apart  from  the  circumstance  that  it  may 
be  employed  as  a  "  medicine,"  i.e.  in  relation  to  the  treat- 
ment of  disease. 

The  book  contains  a  number  of  beautiful  illustrations 
of  plants  and  drugs.  It  is  remarkably  free  from  typo- 
graphical errors,  and  the  style  of  its  production  reflects 
credit  on  the  publishers. 

Catalogue  of  the  Fossil  Mamtnalia  in  the  British  Museum 
{Natural  History).  Part  V.,  containing  the  Group 
Tillodontia,  the  Orders  Sirenia,  Cetacea,  Edentata, 
Marsupialia,  Monotremata  ;  and  a  Supplement.  By 
•Richard  Lydekker,  B.A.,  &c.  (London  :  Printed  by 
order  of  the  Trustees,  1887.) 

With  this  part  Mr.  Lydekker  completes  his  laborious 
and  very  meritorious  work  of  cataloguing  the  large  col- 
lections of  Mammalian  fossil  remains  in  the  British 
Museum. 

The  named  species  are  719  in  number,  and  are  arranged 
under  301  generic  and  100  family  headings,  106  out  of 
this  total  being  regarded  as  not  to  be  distinguished  from 
existing  forms. 

Rich  as  is  the  collection  in  the  British  Museum,  it  is 
very  far  from  including  all  the  known  existing  fossil  forms 
of  Mammalia  ;  but,  failing  any  treatise  on  such,  this  work 
will  be  of  the  greatest  assistance  to  all  workers  in  this 
field.  Though  at  the  commencement  of  his  Catalogue 
Mr.  Lydekker  did  not  give  descriptions  of  all  the  forms 
detailed,  yet,  as  it  proceeded,  he  somewhat  altered  his 
method,  giving  some  of  the  more  important  distinctive 
characters,  and  so  the  value  of  the  work  to  the  student 
has  been  increased. 

A  volume  of  this  nature  is  not  capable  of  being  de- 
scribed in  any  detail,  and  it  will  suffice  to  add  that  it  will 
be  quite  a  necessary  book  of  reference  in  the  library  of  a 
biologist. 

Lehrbuch  der  Histologie.  Von  Dr.  Philipp  Stohr,  a.  o. 
Professor  der  Anatomie  zu  Wurzburg.  (Jena  :  Gustav 
Fischer,  1887.) 

This  is  an  excellent  little  treatise  on  the  same  lines  as 
Ranvier's  larger  "Traits  Technique  d'Histologie "  and 
Prof.  Schafer's  smaller  "  Essentials  of  Histology."  The 
various  tissues  are  systematically  described  with  clear  and 
well  selected  wood-cut  illustrations  ;  and  after  each  section 
of  the  systematic  description  a  full  and  careful  account  is 
given  of  the  best  methodsof  preparation,  which  will  enable 
the  student  to  verify  the  descriptive  account.  The  micro- 
scopic structure  of  the  chief  organs  is  treated  in  the  same 
way.  The  directions  as  to  technique  are  not  merely 
those  suitable  for  an  elementary  student,  but  such  as  will 
be  useful  to  one  who  is  advancing  in  the  direction  of 


original  research.  The  figures  are,  with  the  exception  of 
a  few  diagrams,  actual  representations  of  what  the  student 
should  be  able  to  obtain  by  the  particular  mode  of  pre- 
paration recommended.  An  introductory  chapter  treats 
of  the  arrangement  of  the  laboratory,  and  the  apparatus 
and  reagents  necessary.  E.  R.  L. 

A     Treatise    on     Photography.       By    Captain     Abney, 
RE.,  F.R.S.     (London:  Longmans,  Green,  and  Co., 

1888.) 

The  appearance  of  a  fifth  edition  of  this  well-known  book 
is  sufficient  proof  of  its  popularity,  and  no  trouble  seems  to 
have  been  spared  by  the  author  to  make  this  issue  a 
success.  The  volume  has  been  thoroughly  revised,  and 
much  new  matter  added.  The  author  gives  the  results  of 
his  researches,  communicated  to  the  Royal  Society,  on 
the  "  Effect  of  the  Spectrum  on  the  Haloid  Salts  of 
Silver  ; "  concluding  with  a  chapter  on  celestial  photo- 
graphy, and  photography  with  the  microscope. 


LETTERS   TO    THE  EDITOR. 

\The  Editor  does  not  hold  himself  responsible  for  opinions 
expressed  by  his  correspondents.  Neither  can  he  under- 
take to  return,  or  to  correspond  with  the  writers  of 
rejected  manuscripts  intended  for  this  or  any  other  part 
<^  Nature.  No  notice  is  taken  of  anonymous  communi- 
cations.^ . 

Coral  Formations. 

I  HAVE  read  Captain  Wharton's  paper  on  "Coral  Forma- 
tions "  (p.  393),  and  the  letters  of  Mr.  John  Murray  and  Mr.  G. 
C.  Bourne  in  your  issue  of  March   i. 

There  is,  doubtless,  room  for  difference  of  opinion  as  to  this 
important  and  many-sided  question,  but  I  think  the  balance  of 
evidence  is  in  favour  of  Mr.  Murray's  view  as  to  the  formation 
of  lagoons. 

In  this  connection  the  fact  that  carbonate  of  lime  is  soluble  in 
water  had  been  practically  overlooked,  and  its  increased  solu- 
bility in  sea-water  seems  to  have  been  unnoticed  before  Mr. 
Murray  formulated  his  views  as  to  their  formation.  The  active 
life  in  coral  reefs  is  practically  outwards  (assuming  a  shape 
similar  to  fairy  rings  on  grass),  leaving  the  central  portion 
more  or  less  dead,  or  with  wide  spaces  of  coral  sand  and  only 
scattered  patches  of  living  animals.  The  organic  matter  in 
this  dead  coral,  by  its  oxidation,  produces  carbonic  acid, 
which  dissolving  in  the  sea-water  exalts  its  solvent  action 
on  the  carbonate  of  lime,  now  more  or  less  in  an  amorphous 
condition. 

Reducing  such  a  question  to  figures  has  a  great  advantage, 
and  is  often  the  only  way  of  arriving  at  a  safe  conclusion. 
With  assistance  derived  from  the  Scottish  Marine  Station,  I 
have  lately  been  conducting  some  experiments  on  the  solubility 
of  carbonate  of  lime  in  sea-water,  the  results  of  which  may 
interest  the  readers  of  Nature  at  the  present  time. 

The  experiments  were  conducted  with  sea-water  of  specific 
gravity  i  0265  (obtained  from  the  German  Ocean  20  miles 
from  land),  and  at  temperatures  of  from  70°  F.  to  80°  F., 
which  reefs  require.  The  corals  used  were  several  species  of 
Porites. 

Dead  or  rotten  coral  exposed  to  sea-water  under  these  circum- 
stances is  soluble  to  the  extent  of  5  to  20  ounces  per  ton. 

Take  now  a  reef  with  a  lagoon  already  formed,  half  a 
mile  in  diameter.  This  will  give  an  area  of  about  600,000 
square  yards,  and  supposing  the  water  to  be  3  feet  deep 
and  only  one-sixth  part  of  this  to  be  in  actual  contact  with 
the  dead  coral,  we  have  100,000  tons  exerting  its  solvent  action. 
This  would  give,  were  the  sixth  part  of  the  lagoon  water  to  be 
expelled  and  replaced  with  fresh  sea-water  at  each  tide,  and 
taking  the  solvent  action  at  only  10  ounces  to  each  ton,  an 
amount  of  carbonate  of  lime  removed  equal  to  about  3000 
tons  each  year. 

I  do  not  insist  that  such  an  amount  of  carbonate  of  lime  must 
year  by  year  be  removed  from  the  lagoon,  but  I  think  these 
experiments  show  that  the  carbonate  of  lime  so  removed  may 
easily    exceed   any   additions   to  the   lagoon    by   secretions   of 


462 


NATURE 


\_March  15,  1888 


animals  living  in  it,  or  by  coral  sand  carried  into  it  by  wind  and 
waves  from  the  outer  edge  in  the  same  space  of  time,  and  there- 
fore I  think  the  balance  of  evidence  is  in  favour  of  Mr.  Murray's 
explanation  of  lagoon  formation. 

Could  the  experiment  be  made,  it  would  be  a  matter  of 
extreme  interest  to  know  if,  and  in  what  proportion,  carbonate, 
of  lime  really  exists  in  lagoon  waters,  as  also  the  proportion- 
in  the  waters  outside  the  reef,  where  new  coral  formation  is 
actively  at  work. 

It  is  quite  reasonable  to  suppose  that  the  dead  coral  so 
dissolved  in  the  formation  of  lagoons  is  carried  out  as  material 
for  fresh  coral  growths.  Robert  Irvine. 

Royston,  Edinburgh,  March  6. 


In  reference  to  the  interesting  discussion  on  coral  formations 
which  has  recently  appeared  in  Nature,  a  few  words  from  the 
chemist's  point  of  view  may  not  be  out  of  place. 

For  some  time  past  I  have  been  endeavouring  to  satisfy  myself 
regarding  the  solubility  of  calcium  carbonate  in  sea-water,  and 
with  this  end  in  view  I  immersed  weighed  pieces  of  dead  coral 
(dried  at  212°  F.  till  constant)  in  sea-water.  These  were  pro- 
tected by  suspending  them  under  glass  bells  floated  in  about 
18  inches  of  water,  and  allowed  to  remain  at  rest  for  a  known 
length  of  time.     The  following  are  the  results  obtained  : — 

First  Experiment.  —  Oculina  varicosa,  from  St.  Thomas,  West 
Indies,  weight  i6*3i64  grammes,  with  a  surface  of,  roughly, 
8  square  inches,  lost  by  solution  in  twenty  days,  0*0748  gramme. 
Second  Experiment, — Madrepora  scabrosa,  from  Levuka,  Fiji, 
weight  21  "8540  grammes,  surface  of  16  square  inches,  lost  OT497 
gramme  in  thirty  days. 

Third  Experiment. — Montipora  foliosa,  ■  Amboyna,  weight 
1 5 '3334  grammes,  surface  of  15  square  inches,  lost  0*1223 
gramme  in  forty-six  days. 

Every  care  was  taken  that  the  corals  should  not  be  subjected 
to  the  action  of  other  than  convection  currents.  The  tempera- 
ture ranged  between  30°  and  40°  F.  Specific  gravity  of  the 
water  found  less  than  i  •026. 

Mr.  W.  G.  Reid,  in  a  paper  communicated  to  the  Royal 
Society  of  Edinburgh,  showed  that  the  solubility  of  carbonate 
of  calcium  increased  with  pressure  ;  and  when  determining  the 
percentage  of  CaCOs  in  certain  soundings  I  found  that  the 
greater  the  depth  the  less  carbonate  derived  from  surface  shells 
was  present,  while  it  is  a  well-known  fact  that  in  the  red  clay 
or  other  deep-sea  deposits,  CaCOj  almost  completely,  if  not 
entirely  disappears,  as  has  frequently  been  pointed  out  by  Mr. 
Murray. 

From  the  above  considerations  there  can  be  little  doubt  that 
there  is  considerable  action  going  on  in  the  waters  of  the  ocean. 
Take,  for  instance,  a  circular  lagoon  four  miles  in  diameter  ; 
this  would  give  a  superficial  area  of  12J  square  miles.  Taking 
the  results  obtained  in  Experiment  I,  and  applying  them  to  this 
imaginary  case,  ihen  in  twenty  days,  in  absolutely  still  water, 
there  would  be  dissolved  464  tons  of  CaCOg,  equal  to  8472  tons 
in  a  year.  If  the  specific  gravity  of  carbonate  of  calcium  be 
taken  at  2*65,  this  amount  would  give  a  thickness  of  half  an 
inch  covering  the  whole  area  of  the  lagoon.  In  other  words, 
at  the  same  rate  it  would  require  about  a  century  to  deepen  the 
lagoon  one  fathom. 

These  results  must  be,  however,  very  much  under-stated,  as 
the  temperature  in  the  coral  regions  is  about  twice  what  I  could 
obtain  ;  the  sea-water  is  denser  ;  there  is  the  action  of  carbonic 
acid  ga=:,  COo,  which  is  constantly  being  generated  by  decom- 
posing organic  matters,  especially  in  these  warm  area=,  and  all 
which  would  increase  materially  the  solubility.  Moreover,  there 
are  the  tides  and  currents  continually  replacing,  or  rather 
mixing  with,  the  denser  waters. 

The  coral  animals  in  the  lagoon  aiv,  however,  constantly 
laying  down  new  material  in  the  shape  of  CaCO^,  assimilated 
either  directly  from  the  sea  or  through  the  medium  of  other 
organisms  upon  which  they  feed,  or  both  combined.  Now  it 
depends  upon  the  excess  of  the  one  process  over  the  other 
whether  there  be  an  increase  or  decrease  in  the  depth  of  the 
lagoon. 

Growth  is  restricted  mainly  in  reefs  to  the  outer  periphery, 
leaving  large  spaces  of  coral  sand  in  the  interior  to  be  freely 
acted  upon.  In  this  way  the  coral  formation  increases  outwards, 
while  there  is  a  deepening  of  the  interior,  albeit  this  deepening 
is  very  small.  James  G.  Ross. 

14  Argyle  Place,  Edinburgh,  March  10. 


Captain  Wharton  in  his  interesting  paper  satisfactorily 
explains  a  condition  of  reef-growth  previously  little  known  and 
but  imperfectly  understood.  I  was  pleased  to  learn  that  Mr. 
Bourne's  long-expected  account  of  Diego  Garcia  will  soon  be 
published.  His  remarks  concerning  the  directing  influence  of 
currents  agree  closely  with  those  of  Semper  ("Animal  Life," 
vol.  xxxi.  Internal.  Sci.  Ser.  p.  228).  Of  the  importance  of 
this  agency  there  can,  I  think,  be  no  doubt ;  but  solution  is  also 
an  important  agency  within  the  lagoon,  and  one  more  capable 
of  actual  demonstration  than  the  directing  force  of  the  currents. 
But  amongst  the  supporters  of  the  anti-subsidence  theory  of 
Murray  there  is  a  difi'erencc  of  opinion  as  to  the  relative  im- 
portance to  be  attached  to  solution  ;  and  we  cannot  accept  the 
name  of  "theory  of  solution"  for  the  new  view  if  it  is  in- 
tended to  exclude  the  other  agencies  that  previously  cause  the 
death  of  the  coral,  such  as  the  repressive  influence  of  sand,  the 
diminished  food-supply,  the  tidal  scour,  &c.  W^ith  this  exclusive 
meaning,  the  name  "theory  of  solution"  would  contradict 
itself,  and  we  should  be  regarding  the  problem  in  much  the  same 
light  as  if  we  were  solely  to  contemplate  the  mystery  of  our  own 
existence  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  undertaker. 

The  development  of  the  new  theory  should  be  borne  in  mind. 
Chamisso,  seventy  years  ago,  advanced  the  view  that  an  atoll 
owes  its  form  to  the  growth  of  the  corals  at  the  margin  and  to 
the  repressive  influence  of  the  reef-debris  in  the  interior ;  but 
this  view  gave  no  satisfactory  explanation  of  the  foundation  of 
such  a  coral  reef,  and  Darwin  was  driven  to  his  theory  of  sub- 
sidence. The  great  defect  in  the  view  of  Chamisso  wcs,  how- 
ever, removed  by  Murray,  who  supplied  the  foundation  of  an 
atoll  without  employing  subsidence  ;  and  investigations  in  the 
Florida  Sea  and  in  the  Western  Pacific  have  confirmed  his 
conclusions.  The  forms  of  reefs  he  attributed  to  well-known 
physical  causes  ;  but  Semper  and  Agassiz  have  dwelt  upon  the 
importance  of  other  agencies,  ard  in  our  present  state  of  know- 
ledge it  will  be  wisest  to  combine  in  one  view  the  several 
ageucies  enumerated  by  these  three  naturalists  as  producing  the 
difterent  forms  of  c.ral  reefs.  On  the  outer  side  of  a  reef  we 
have  the  directing  influence  of  the  currents,  the  increased  food- 
supply,  the  action  of  the  breakers.  Sec.  In  the  interior  of  a  reef 
we  have  the  repressive  influence  of  sand  and  sediment,  the 
boring  of  the  numerous  organisms  that  find  a  home  on  each  coral 
block,  the  solvent  agency  of  the  carbonic  acid  in  the  sea-water, 
and  the  tidal  scour.  These  are  all  real  agencies,  and  we  only 
differ  as  to  the  relative  importance  we  attach  to  each.  Future 
investigations  will  probably  add  others  to  the  list,  besides  ascer- 
taining the  mode  and  degree  of  action  of  each  cause. 

March  10.  II.  B.  GUPPY. 


Reason  and  Language. 

The  kindness  of  Prof.  Max  Miiller's  reply  I  recognize  with 
pleasure  but  without  surprise,  since  those  who  know  him  know 
him  to  be  as  remarkable  for  his  courtesy  as  his  great  learning. 

In  answer  to  his  first  question,  I  must  say  that  I  made  a  point 
of  attending  his  Royal  Institution  lecture  on  the  day  his 
"Science  and  Thought"  was  published,  and  was  greatly  dis- 
appointed that  illness  hindered  my  attending  the  others.  But  I 
immediately  obtained  his  book,  and  applied  myself  to  understand 
what  seemed  to  me  its  essence,  though  I  have  not  read  it  from 
cover  to  cover.  Should  I  have  to  review  it,  of  course  I  shall 
conscientiously  peruse  the  whole  of  it. 

Before  replying  further,  it  may  be  well  to  restate  my  position 
as  follows, 

Man  is  an  intellectual  being  able  to  apprehend  certain  things 
directly  and  others  indirectly.  Normally,  his  conceptions  clothe 
themselves  in  vocal  sounds,  and  get  so  intimately  connected 
therewith,  that  the  "  word  "  becomes  practically  a  single  thing 
composed  of  a  mental  and  an  oral  element.  But  these  elements 
are  not  id-ntical,  and  the  verbiim  men  tale  is  anterior  and 
superior  to  the  verbum  oris  which  it  should  govern  and  direct. 
Abnormally,  conceptions  do  not  clothe  themselves  in  oral  ex- 
pressions at  all,  but  only  in  manual  or  other  bodily  signs,  and 
this  shows  that  concepts  may  be  expressed  (however  imperfectly), 
in  the  language  of  gesture  without  speech.  One  consequence 
of  these  relations  is  that  neither  the  utterance  of  sounds  (articu- 
late or  inarticulate)  nor  bodily  movements  could  have  generated 
the  intellect  and  reason  of  man,  and  Noire's  hypothesis  falls  to 
the  ground.  On  the  other  hand,  beings  essentially  intellectual, 
but  as  yet  without  language,   would  immediately  clothe  their 


March  15,  1888] 


NATURE 


463 


nascent  concepts  in  some  forms  of  bodily  expression  by  means 
of  which  they  would  quickly  understand  one  another. 

As  to  the  expressions  "  rea-.on  "  and  "reckoning,"  I  would 
observe  that  a  study  of  an  organism's  embryonic  develop- 
ment is  a  most  valuable  clue  to  its  nature,  and  no  doubt  a 
similar  utility  attends  historical  investigations  in  Prof.  Max 
Midler's  science.  Nevertheless,  we  cannot  understand  the 
nature  of  an  animal  or  plant  by  a  mere  knowledge  of  an  early 
stage  of  its  existence  ;  an  acquaintance  with  the  outcome  of  its 
development  is  even  more  important.  Similarly,  I  venture  to 
presume,  the  ultimate  meaning  of  a  word  is  at  least  as  much 
its  true  meaning  as  is  some  archaic  signification  which  may 
have  grown  obsolete.  The  word  "spirit,"  if  it  once  meant  only 
the  breath,  means  more  now — as  we  see  from  the  Professor's  first 
letter.  Similarly,  if  "reason,"  in  its  Latin  form,  once  only  meant 
"reckoning,"  that  is  no  "reason"  why  it  shauld only  mean  reckon- 
ing now.  Here  it  would  seem  as  if  we  had  an  instance  of  the  z'^;7'«w 
vientale  having  acted  upon  and  modified  the  verbnm  oris.  I  cannot 
but  regard  the  representation  that  affirmative  and  negative  proposi- 
tions are  mere  cases  of  addition  and  subtraction  as  an  incorrect 
and  misleading  representation,  save  when  they  refer  to  mathe- 
matical conceptions.  I  am  compelled  also  to  object  to  another 
of  the  Professor's  assertions.  He  says : — "There  is  a  wide 
difference  between  our  apprehending  our  own  activity  and 
apprehending  that  A  is  A.  Apprehending  our  own  activity  is 
inevitable,  apprehending  that  A  is  A  is  voluntary."  It  is  true 
there  is  a  great  difference  between  these  apprehensions,  though 
they  both  agree  in  being  instances  of  apprehensions  which  are 
not  inferences,  and  as  such  I  adduced  them  (Nature,  February 
16,  p.  364).  Nevertheless  in  my  judgment  the  difference 
between  them  is  not  the  difference  which  the  Professor  states. 
Both  are  alike  voluntary,  regarded  as  deliberate  reflex  cognitions, 
and  both  are  alike  inevitable,  regarded  as  indeliberate,  direct 
perceptions.  The  labourer  inevitably  perceives  that  his  spade  is 
what  it  is,  though  the  nature  of  that  perception  remains  un- 
noticed, just  as  he  inevitably  perceives  his  own  continuous  being 
when  he  in  no  way  adverts  to  that  fact. 

I  must  further  protest  against  the  assertion  that  the  idea  "  there- 
fore" is  "  present  in  the  simplest  acts  of  cognition" — that  every 
perception  of  an  object  is  an  inference.  This  I  regard  as  one  of  the 
fundamental  errors  which  underlie  all  the  madness  of  idealism. 
Akin  thereto  is  the  notion  that  a  philosopher  who  desires  to  speak 
with  the  very  strictest  accuracy  ought,  instead  of  using  "  the  big  I," 
tosay,  "a  succession  of  stales  of  consciousness."  Tome  it  is 
certain  that  even  one  state  of  consciousness  (to  say  nothino'  of 
"  a  series  ")  is  no  more  immediately  intued  by  us  than  is  the 
substantial  ego  ;  each  being  cognized  only  by  a  reflex  act.  What 
I  intue  is  my  "self  action,"  in  which  intuition  both  the  "ego  " 
and  the  "states"  are  implicitly  contained,  and  so  can  be  ex- 
plicitly recognized  by  reflection.  I  was  myself  long  in  bondage 
to  these  two  errors,  from  which  it  cost  me  severe  mental  labour 
to  escape  by  working  my  way  through  philosophicd  subjectivism. 
These  questions  I  cannot  here  go  any  further  into,  and  I  only 
mention  them  in  consequence  of  Prof  Max  Miiller's  remarks.  I 
will,  however,  in  turn,  refer  him  to  my  "  Nature  and  Thought," 
as  well  as  to  a  larger  work  which  I  trust  may  before  long  be 
published,  and  which,  I  venture  to  hope,  he  will  do  me  the 
honour  to  look  at. 

My  object  in  calling  attention  to  the  fact  that  one  word  may 
have  several  meanings,  and  several  words  one  meaning,  was  to 
show  that  there  could  not  be  "identity"  between  thought  and 
language.  This  point  the  Professor  seems  practically  to  concede, 
since  he  now  only  calls  them  "inseparable,  and  in  one  sense 
identical."  I  do  not  understand  degrees  of  identity.  No  mere 
closeness  of  resemblance  or  connection  can  make  two  things 
absolutely  identical.  I  did  not,  however,  content  myself  with 
denying  this  "identity"  on  account  of  polyongeny  and  homo- 
nymy  ;  I  also  referred  to  common  experience  (which  shows  us 
that  men  do  not  invent  concepts  for  preformed  words,  but  the 
reverse),  and  I  appealed  to  certain  facts  of  consciousness.  To  my 
assertions  about  corisciousness  the  Professor  replies:  "The 
object  of  all  scientific  inquiiy  is  the  general  and  not  the  indi- 
vidual." But  this  is  a  quite  inadequate  reply,  since  our  know- 
ledge of  general  laws  is  based  on  our  knowledge  of  individual 
facts,  and  if  only  one  man  could  fly,  that  single  fact  would  be 
enough  to  refute  the  assertion  that  flight  is  impjssible  to  man. 

With  respect  to  evolution,  I  never  said  that  Prof.  Max 
Midler  misunderstood  "natural  selection,"  but  only  that  he 
misrepresented  it — of  course  unintentionally.  It  is  of  the  essence 
of  natural  selection  not  to  affirm  teleology  as  formerly  understood, 
although,  of  course,  it  can  say  nothing  (for  the  whole  of  physical 


science  can  say  nothing)  about  a  primordial  teleology  at  the 
foundation  of  the  entire  cosmos,  I,  in  coaimon  with  the  Pro- 
fessor, look  forward  to  "  the  ultimate  triumph  of  reason  and 
right,"  but  my  confidence  is  not  due  to  any  "faith"  I  have  in 
"  Nature  "  or  anything  else.  I  profoundly  distrust  "  faith"  as 
an  ultimate  basis  for  any  judgment;  I  regard  my  conviction  as 
a  dictum  of  pure  reason — the  certain  and  evident  teaching  of  that 
science  which  underlies  and  gives  validity  to  every  other.  I 
therefore  agree  with  Prof.  Max  Midler  in  regarding  it  as  a  lesson 
which  "true  philo.sophy  teaches  us." 

St.  George  Mivart. 

Oil  on  Troubled  Waters. 

It  may  interest  some  of  the  readers  of  Captain  Wharton's 
paper  on  this  subject  to  have  their  attention  called  to  a  curious 
narrative  in  Bede,  illustrative  of  the  power  of  oil  over  troubled 
waters.  When  a  certain  presbyter,  Utta,  was  sent  from  the 
North  of  England  by  Oswiu  to  fetch  his  bride  from  Kent,  he 
applied  to  Aidan,  the  greatest  teacher  of  his  day.  for  his  blessing. 
Aidan  gave  him  not  merely  his  blessing,  but  some  consecrated 
oil,  and  told  him  that  on  his  way  back  from  Kent  by  sea  he  would 
encounter  a  storm,  and  thereupon  he  was  to  pour  the  oil  on  the 
sea,  which  would  immediately  become  calm.  It  happened  as 
St.  Aidan  had  foretold.  Utta  and  his  fair  charge  were  duly 
overtaken  by  a  fearful  tempest  ;  the  waves  were  breaking  over 
the  ship,  when  Utta  bethought  himself  of  Aidan  and  his  oil. 
"Assumpta  ampulla,  misit  de  oleo  in  pontum,  et  statim,  ut 
praedictum  erat,  suo  quievit  a  fervore  "  ("  Historia  Ecclesiastica," 
lib.  iii.  cap  15).  Aidan  had  been  brought  up  at  the  monastery 
of  lona.  Did  the  boatmen  of  the  W^estern  Islands  in  the  seventh 
century  know  of  this  use  of  oil?  and  did  Aidan  bring  the 
knowledge  from  thence  that  saved  from  shipwreck  Utta  and 
the  bride  Eanfleda  ?  Edw.   Fry. 


Were  the  Elephant  and   Mastodon  contemporary 
in  Europe  ? 

One  of  the  most  effective  services  which  Nature  does  for 
the  cause  of  science  is  to  enable  students  who  live  far  apart  to 
exchange  ideas  in  its  correspondence  columns.  May  I  be 
allowed  to  ask  a  question  of  some  interest,  perhaps,  to  others 
besides  myself?  It  is  a  singular  fact  that  we  probably  know  less 
of  the  sub-aerial  conditions  prevailing  in  so-called  Pliocene  times 
than  we  do  of  those  of  m  )st  geological  horizons.  The  marine 
Mollusca  of  this  age  have  been  preserved  in  large  numbers  and  in 
many  places,  but  the  remains  of  the  land  fauna  are  singularly 
sporadic  and  broken. 

I  know  of  no  fragment  of  a  land  surface  of  this  age  which 
exists  in  Britain.  In  the  Crags  we  have  a  very  puzzling  medley 
of  mimmalian  bones  and  marine  shells  mixed  heterogeneously, 
and  pointing  unmistakably  to  the  beds  having  been  rearranged, 
and,  as  the  P'rench  say,  rcinanie. 

Unfortunately  the  Pliocene  period  has  been  largely  defined  on 
the  evidence  of  these  very  unsatisfactory  beds — uasatisfactory 
not  merely  because  it  is  certain  that  the  remains  of  land  and 
marine  animals  are  confusedly  mixed  up  in  them,  but  also- 
because  it  is  exceedingly  probable  that  the  debris  of  two  geo- 
logical stages  have  been  mixed  together  also. 

It  seems  clear  to  me  that,  if  the  Pliocene  age  is  to  be  clearly 
defined,  we  must  not  rely  upon  the  evidence  of  the  English 
Crags  for  defining  it,  but  go  elsewhere — namely,  to  France,  Italy, 
&c. 

It  is  very  well  known  that  nowhere  in  France  has  the 
mastodon,  which  is  generally  accepted  as  a  very  typical  Pliocene 
mammal,  been  found  in  the  same  beds  with  the  elephant.  In 
the  English  Crags,  no  doubt  the  older  type  of  elephant  (the 
E.  mcridionalis)  and  possibly  also  molars  of  the  later  forms 
{E.  antiqmis  and  E.  primigenins)  have  occurred  with  mastodon 
remains  and  the  remains  of  other  so-called  Pliocene  beasts  ;  but 
the  mixed  character  of  these  deposits  puts  them  out  of  court, 
and  we  are  bound  to  follow  the  evidence  of  the  French  beds, 
which  occur  in  situ  and  unmixed,  if  we  are  to  be  assured  of  our 
position. 

My  purpo  e  in  writing  is  to  ask  whether  the  Italian  evidence 
is  the  same  as  the  French.  Unfortunately  the  Italian  beds  do 
not  seem  to  me  to  have  been  studied  with  the  minute  care  which 
they  deserve.  No  doubt  enormous  numbers  of  mastodon  re- 
mains and  also  of  remains  of  E.  ineridionalis  occur  close  together 
in  Italian  deposits,  but  so  far  as  I  know  the  question  has  not 
been  critically  tested  as  to  whether  they  occur  in  the  same  beds 


464 


NATURE 


{March  15,  1888 


or  not.  Prof.  Capellini,  of  whom  I  asked  the  question  at  the 
meeting  of  the  British  Association  at  Manchester,  could  not 
answer  me.  Frimd  facie  we  should  certainly  expect  the  Italian 
evidence  to  support  the  French,  but  this  is  by  no  means  the 
conclusion  to  be  drawn  from  text-books,  in  which  it  is  generally 
taken  for  granted  that  in  Italy  the  elephant  and  mastodon  have 
been  found  at  the  same  horizon. 

The  question  is  one  of  very  great  interest  and  importance, 
and  an  answer  to  it  would  be  especially  valuable  to  me.  Perhaps 
some  of  your  readers  may  have  the  means  of  answering  it. 

Henry  H.  Howorth. 

21  Earl's  Court  Square,  February  28. 

True  Average  of  Observations  ? 

I  HAVE  long  been  dissatisfied  with  the  method  of  taking  the 
arithmetic  mean  as  the  most  probable  value  of  a  comparatively 
few  direct  observations  of  a  quantity.  This  is  certainly  the 
legitimate  result  of  the  theory  of  probability,  or  "method  of 
least  squares,"  when  one  knows  nothing  to  guide  one  in  giving 
more  weight  to  one  than  to  another  observation. 

But  without  knowing  anything  of  the  conditions  under  which 
the  observations  were  made,  or,  otherwise,  no  choice  among  them 
being  possible  by  considering  these  conditions,  still,  when  one 
comes  to  compare  the  results  among  themselves,  this  comparison 
seems  to  me  to  afford  means  of  judging  between  them.  Thus, 
if  all  the  results  are  plotted  on  sectional  paper,  they  are  found  to 
be  grouped  closely  together  at  one  place  and  to  be  scattered 
wide  apart  at  others.  Now  the  most  probable  result  (whatever 
be  the  right  method  of  finding  it)  lies  certainly  somewhere  about 
the  place  of  close  grouping  ;  and  it  seems  fair  to  consider  those 
results  that  come  near  this  place  as  the  liette?-  ones,  and  to  allow 
to  them  more  weight  than  to  the  others  in  calculating  the  mean. 

If  the  observations  were  extremely  numerous,  there  can  be  no 
objection  to  taking  the  arithmetic  mean  as  the  true  probable 
value.  But  one  has  usually  to  content  one's  self  with  a  few  only, 
and  in  order  to  get  a  better  approximation  in  this  case  I  have 
constructed  the  following  formula.  I  would  be  glad  if  some  of 
your  correspondents  will  express  their  opinions  as  to  its  legiti- 
macy. In  a  case  of  this  kind  one  ought  not  to  trust  entirely  to 
one's  own  judgment ;  one  should  submit  one's  own  judgment  to 
be  checked  by  that  of  several  others. 

The  method  I  propose  is  as  follows. 

First  fix  upper  and  lower  limits  outside  which  the  true  value 
cannot  possibly  lie,  and  reject  absolutely  all  measurements 
outside  these  limits.  The  result  will  not  be  appreciably  affected 
by  taking  these  limits  a  little  higher  or  lower,  and  it  is  better  to 
err  in  taking  them  too  wide  apart  than  vice  versa.  One  usually 
has,  or  ought  to  have,  a  general  notion  of  the  quantity  sought 
for,  sufficient  to  determine  these  limits  ;  but  if  this  be  not  so, 
they  may  be  determined  by  adding  to  and  substracting  from  the 
arithmetic  mean  what  is  thought  to  be  the  maximum  possible 
error. 

Let  x^,  X2,  x^,  &c.,  be  the  excesses  of  the  various  measurements 
above  the  lower  of  the  above  possible  limits.  Let  x^  be  the 
excess  above  the  same  limit  of  the  as  yet  unknown  most  probable 
value  as  determined  by  the  formula  below. 

_  ^  \2  1 

a)td  take  as 


Attach  to  each  x  the  weight  \  i  - 

Xf)  the  mean  of  the  x's  with  these  weights  attached. 

Note  that  equal  weights  are  given  to  measurements  equally 
above  and  below  x^.  Also  to  an  x  coinciding  with  the  lower 
possible  limit,  a  weight  zero  is  given.  Zero  weight  is  also 
given  to  an  x  as  much  above  Xq  as  the  lower  possible  limit  is 
below  it. 

The  rule  results  in  the  following  formula  : — 

Weight  ion  X  —  1  - 


X  X  weight  =  ^^^  ^    ^  . 

Xq 

Therefore,  the  mean  equals — 

^    ^  2XoS.y-  -  S-r* 

This  is  a  quadratic  for  x^,  the  solution  of  which  is  — 

°       4  2;f   I  \  9   {-ZxY) 

Of  course  the  labour  of  finding  this  mean  is  greater  than  that 
of  finding  the  arithmetic  mean  ;  it  involves  summing  the  first. 


second,  and  third  powers.  But  the  method  is  only  intended  to 
be  used  when  the  number  of  values  to  be  dealt  with  is  not 
large,  and  with  the  help  of  a  table  of  squares,  cubes,  and  square 
roots,  the  work  is  not  really  very  laborious. 

It  is  easy  to  prove  that  this  result  is  identical  with  the  arith- 
metic mean  in  the  following  three  cases  :  (i)  all  the  ;r's  equal  ; 

(2)  the  x's  all  equidistant,  i.e.  forming  an  arithmetic  progression ; 

(3)  the  x's  infinitely  numerous. 

The  practical  meaning  of  the  rule  may  perhaps  be  made 
clearer  by  the  annexed  table,  giving  the  weights  attachable  to 
various  values  of  x  where  x,,  is  taken  equal  to  unity. 


H 

•9     -8     7     -6     '5     -4     -3     -2     -I     0 
I    or 

II   1-2  1-3  1-4  1-5  1-6  17  1-8  19     2 

■-(Sr"/ 

I     -99  -96  -91    84  75  -64  -51   -36  -19    0 

The  following  is  a  numerical  example 


2x  =  5-42 


2x"  —  6794 


5-178 
•705 
•074 

17715 
I -6016 

2X3  =  9-330 


/,       8  2x2x^  ,  , 

,  /  I -. — — -  =  -162  and  Xft  =  I '0925. 


The  arithmetic  mean  or   —  =  i 
5 
Mason  College,  February  4. 


Robert  H.  Smith. 


Crepuscular  Rays  in  China. 

Immediately  after  sunset  enormous  rays  of  light  are  fre- 
quently seen  spreading  from  the  part  of  the  horizon  where  the 
sun  has  disappeared,  and  also — though  somewhat  fainter — from 
the  opposite  part  of  the  horizon.  Sometimes  the  rays  stiet  ch 
right  across  the  sky,  and  when  strongly  developed  they  appear 
first  in  the  east,  and  then  in  the  west,  and  resemble  auroral  rays, 
glowing  in  a  yellow  or  red  colour,  while  the  sky  between  the 
rays  is  deep  blue  or  greenish.  They  appear  to  be  caused  by 
invisible  cirro-stratus  clouds  high  up  in  the  air.  This  pheno- 
menon is  never  seen  in  England,  or  at  any  rate  it  is  by  no  means 
so  conspicuous  as  here.  Ancient  Greek  mariners  may  have  had 
their  imagination  impressed  by  a  similar  phenomenon,  po5o- 
Sct/cTuAos  T]<ijs  being  so  frequently  mentioned  in  Homer. 

Crepuscular  rays  at  sunrise  or  sunset  are  seen  at  all  seasons  in 
Southern  China,  but  they  are  most  frequent  at  the  height  of  the 
typhoon  season,  and  most  intense  just  before  typhoons,  which 
latter  are  indicated  beforehand  by  crepuscular  rays  as  well  as  by 
halos. 

The  following  table  exhibits  the  number  of  evenings  when 
sti'ong  crepuscular  rays  were  registered  in  each  month  of  the  past 
three  years,  and  also  the  mean  monthly  frequency  of  the  strongly 
developed  phenomenon  : — 

May.       June.       July.       Aug.       Sept.      Oct.       Nov.      Dec. 

1885  —  —  32  43  —  — 

1886  —  III  37         —  I 

1887  I  —        —         2  3        —         -         — 
Mean 


0-3 


0-3        13 


17 


3-3      33       00       o- 

W.    DOBERCK. 

Hong  Kong  Observatory,  December  31,  1887. 


"An   Unusual  Rainbow." 

I  READ  with  interest  a  letter  with  the  above  heading  in 
Nature  (vol.  xxxvi.  p.  581)  from  Mr.  S.  A.  Hill  of  Allahabad, 
India,  of  date  September  18,  18S7.  He  describes  a  brilliant  rain- 
bow which  he  saw  after  the  sun  had  set,  and  states  that  such  a  phe- 
nomenon "  must  be  of  rare  occurrence,"  and  that  he  had  "  never 
before  seen  anything  similar,  nor  read  anywhere  a  description  of 
a  rainbow  after  sunset."     I  had  not  read  his  letter  when,  on  the 


March  15,  1888] 


NATURE 


465 


evening  of  the  1st  inst.  I  observed  a  similar  rainbow.  I  saw  it 
first  at  7h.  25m.  p.m.,  the  registered  time  of  sunset  here  for  that 
day.  It  lasted  for  nearly  fifteen  minutes.  The  western  horizon 
was  cloudy,  and  the  sunset  a  fine  one.  The  bow  Was  exceed- 
ingly brilliant,  and  as  far  as  I  could  judge,  a  perfect  semicircle, 
the  ends  of  the  arc  being  about  4°  above  the  horizon.  There 
was  a  secondary  bow  equally  perfect,  and  of  remarkable  bright- 
ness ;  the  brilliant  glow  below  the  primary,  and  the  marked 
dulness  between  it  and  the  secondary,  added  to  the  beauty  of  the 
sight.  After  reading  Mr.  Hill's  letter,  I  published  my  observa- 
tions in  a  letter  to  the  Argus,  that  others  might  confirm  or 
correct  them.  I  have  received  six  replies,  all  in  accord  with  my 
observations.  One  of  my  correspondents  informed  me  that  he 
had,  some  years  ago,  seen  a  lunar  rainbow  formed  just  before 
the  moon  had  risen.  H.  M.  Andrew. 

The  University,  Melbourne,  January  26. 


The  Nest  of  the  Flamingo, 

In  an  interesting  article  by  Mr.  Bowdler  Sharpe,  entitled 
"  Ornithology  at  South  Kensington,"  published  in  the  December 
number  of  the  English  Illustrated  Magazine,  there  is  a  descrip- 
tion and  figure  of  the  flamingo's  nest,  and  an  opinion  is  ex- 
pressed that  the  previously-held  ideas  about  the  nest  being  tall, 
and  the  female  sitting  upon  it  in  a  straddling  manner,  might 
now  be  considered  as  exploded. 

I  have  seen  numbers  of  these  tall  nests  in  the  shallow  pans  of 
water — or  "vleys,"  as  they  are  locally  called — in  Bushmanland, 
Cape  Colony,  particularly  at  Klaver  Vley.  These  quaint  nests 
were  built  in  the  waterwhereitwasafew  inches  deep,  and  at  a  con- 
siderable distance  from  the  shore.  They  were  conical  in  form, 
about  18  inches  high,  and  6  inches  in  diameter  at  the  top,  with 
a  shallow  basin-like  cavity  for  the  eggs  ;  built,  so  far  as  I  can 
recollect,  of  slimy  mud.  To  perform  the  office  of  incubation, 
the  bird  must  have  straddled  over  the  nest.  The  species  no 
doubt  differs  from  the  one  described  in  the  article.  There  should 
be  no  difficulty  in  securing  specimens  of  these  nests.  Possibly 
the  object  aimed  at  in  building  the  nests  in  the  water  is  to  secure 
them  against  soaae  enemy,  and  the  height  of  the  nest,  besides 
conveniencing  the  long-legged  owner,  provides  for  the  rising  of 
the  water-level.  E.  J.  Dunn, 

Pakington  Street,  Kew,  near  Melbourne. 


Dynamical  Units  and  Nomenclature. 

In  his  review  of  Prof  MacGregor's  "  Kinematics  and  Dy- 
namics," on  page  361,  Prof.  Greenhill  tilts  a  lance  against  those 
whom  he  terms  mathematical  precisionists.  I  do  not  know  this 
book,  and  I  hold  no  brief  in  its  defence  ;  but  as  I  owe  to  these 
precisionists  whatever  clear  ideas  I  have  on  mechanics,  I  feel 
bound  to  enter  into  the  lists  on  their  behalf,  little  as  they  need 
my  aid. 

Both  the  precisionists  and  practical  men  start  with  the  same 
two  dynamical  quantities,  which  they  respectively  call  mass  and 
foixe,  weiglit  and.  force  ;  of  these  they  select  arbitrary  units,  and 
respectively  name  them  pound  and  pound-weight,  weight-of-a- 
pound  and  force-of-a-poutni  (or  pound-weight  and  pound-force). 

To  the  single  wonl  pound  the  practical  man  does  not,  so  far  as 
I  know,  attach  any  single  definite  idea,  and  he  cannot,  therefore, 
use  this  word  singly  without  introducing  possible  confusion  ;  for 
it  characterizes  matter  and  force  equally,  and  yet  is  neither.  On 
this  view  Prof.  Greenhill's  own  expression  "the  attraction  of  the 
earth  on  a  pound,"  should  for  accuracy  and  consistency  be  "the 
attraction  of  the  earth  on  the  weight  of  a  pound  {or  on  a  pound- 
weight)." 

To  the  precisionist  a  pound  is  a  certain  mass,  just  as  a  foot  is 
a  certain  length,  so  that  the  practical  man's  "weight  of  a  pound  " 
is  simply  the  "pound"  of  the  precisionist,  who  would  no  more 
dream  of  'distinguishing'  it  as  "  the  mass  of  a  pound"  than  of 
distinguishing  a  f(iot  as  "  the  length  of  a  foot." 

The  attraction  of  the  earth  on  a  certain  amount  of  matter  is 
called  "the  force  of  10  pounds"  by  practical  men,  and  "the 
weight  of  10  pounds  "  by  precisionists  :  these  are  purely  defini- 
tions, so  that  the  phrases  are  absolutely  equivalent.  If,  then,  in 
the  specification  of  a  force  produced  otherwise  than  by  the 
attraction  of  the  earth  a  precisionist  is  required  to  speak  of  it  as 
"a force  equal  to  the  weight  of  10  pounds,"  the  practical  man 
must  follow  suit  with  "a  force  equal  to  the  force  of  lo  pcunds." 
These  expressions  stand,  or  rather  fall,  together,  and  the  con- 


sistent precisionist  would   specify    the    force  as    "10  pounds- 
weight  "  merely. 

If,  however,  a  body,  such  as  a  brickbat  or  the  iron  block  sup- 
plied with  a  balance  and  called  a  "pound  weight,"  is  to  be 
introduced  into  the  specification,  a  precisionist  would  very 
properly  say  "  a  force  equal  to  the  weight  of  10  brickbats  or  of 
10  pound-weights  "  ;  and  the  complete  idea  hereby  conveyed 
cannot  be  expressed  by  the  practical  man  otherwise  than  by 
"  the  attraction  of  the  earth  on  10  brickbats  or  on  10  pound- 
weights." 

In  no  way,  then,  is  "  a  force  equal  to  the  weight  of  a  mass  of 
10  pound- weights,"  the  precisionist  equivalent  of  the  practical 
"  force  of  10  pounds,"  nor  is  it  even  consonant  with  precisionist 
nomenclature. 

Since,  therefore,  the  precisionist  uses  mass,  force,  pound, 
pound-weight,  as  the  exact  equivalents  of  the  practical  man's 
weight,  force,  weight-of-a-pound,  force  of- a- pound,  the  advant- 
age does  not  seem  to  lie  on  the  side  of  the  latter,  more 
especially  when  he  is  untrue  to  himself  in  loosely  using  the  word 
"weight  "  as  often  in  the  sense  of  "  force"  as  according  to  his 
definition. 

But  so  far  both  practical  men  and  precisionists  labour  under 
the  immense  disadvantage  of  dealing  with  a  variable  force-unit 
which  can  be  made  precise  only  by  a  specification  of  place  ;  and 
it  is  greatly  to  the  credit  of  the  latter  that  they  have  introduced 
a  simple  invariable  force-unit  by  which  all  forces,  whether  due 
to  gravitation  or  other  physical  action,  may  be  expressed  abso- 
lutely in  a  form  which  allows  of  direct  comparison  between 
them.  With  this  unit  ma  is  the  correct  measure  of  a  force,  and 
when  Prof.  Greenhill  speaks  of  "the  mathematician  straining 
after  the  equation  F  =  ma,  when  using  the  gravitation  unit  of 
force,"  I  utterly  fail  to  understand  what  is  meant,  considering 
that  this  expression  of  a  force  necessarily  implies  an  absolute 
force-unit ;  and  I  further  feel  strongly  tempted  to  deny  that 
either  for  this  unintelligible  operation  or  for  any  other  the  pre- 
cisionist ever  uses  g  pounds  as  a  mass-unit,  though,  if  he  ever 
does  use  a  variable  mass-unit  in  measuring  the  invariable  mass 
of  a  body,  he  is  surely  countenanced  by  the  practical  man  who 
does  not  hesitate  to  use  a  variable  force-unit  in  measuring  the 
invariable  force  exerted  by  a  given  spring  compressed  to  a  given 
extent.  I  might  further  add  that  the  precisionist  never  measures 
the  weight  of  a  body  in  "pounds,"  even  if  he  denotes  it  by  w, 
and  that,  if  he  does  sometimes  denote  this  variable  force  by  the 
same  number  irrespective  of  place,  it  is  only  when  using  the 
practical  man's  variable  force  unit. 

With  regard  to  confusion  arising  from  the  use  of  the  equation 
w  =  mg  any  more  than  from  the  use  of  the  equation  w  =  m, 
this  would  be  to  me  inconceivable,  did  I  not  notice  that  Prof. 
Greenhill  uses  the  phrase  "  if  the  equation  7v  =  tngis  supposed 
to  be  used  with  absolute  units."  Does  there  indeed  exist  a 
single  man  who  thinks  that  this  equation  can  be  used  with  other 
than  absolute  units  ?  If  such  there  be,  to  him  certainly  will 
confusion  be  not  only  possible,  but  probable  too,  and  deservedly 
so  ;  but  to  others  there  can  surely  be  no  more  confusion  in  ex- 
pressing a  (precisionist)  weight  as  m  or  ?ng  indifferently  than  in 
expressing  an  angle  as  0  or  180  fl/ir,  it  being  of  course  premised 
that  the  proper  unit — [precisionist)  pound  weight  or  poundal, 
radian  or  degree — is  named. 

Further,  how  it  can  be  a  solecism  to  measure  pressure  in 
poundals  per  square  foot  any  more  than  in  pounds-weight  per 
square  inch — which  latter  is  the  precisionist  equivalent  of  what 
an  engineer  would  loosely  and  most  inaccurately  call  "pounds  " — 
I  am  at  a  loss  to  understand,  since  pressure  is  the  measure  of  the 
distribution  of  force  over  area,  and  a  poundal  is  as  much  a  force 
as  "  the  force  of  a  pound,"  and  very  much  more  definite.  And 
how  the  expression  of  the  (precisionist)  weight  of  a  body  in 
poundals  rather  than  in  pounds-weight  is  a  solecism  also  demands 
explanation. 

Lastly,  I  must  seriously  protest  against  the  suggestion  that  a 
precisionist  should  ever  ask  for,  or  want  to  buy,  '"  half  a  poundal 
of  tea  "  :  what  he  wants  is  the  tea  itself,  the  substance  of  it  and 
not  the  earth's  action  upon  it,  and  very  rightly  and  properly  he 
asks  for  "half  a  pound,"  which  the  consistent  practical  man 
would  have  to  term  "the  weight  of  half  a  pound." 

In  the  above  I  am  not  concerned  to  defend  the  practice  of 
those  mathematicians  who  select  fantastic  units  of  mass  or  force 
as  a  foundation  for  some  puzzling  questions  of  no  utility  what- 
ever :  I  have  merely  attempted  to  define  the  position  of  the 
physicist  or  precisionist,  and  to  rebut  seriatim  the  charges 
brought  against  him  in  Prof.  Greenhill's  criticism. 

February  27.  RuBKUT  E.  BAVKE5. 


466 


NATURE 


IMarch  15,  1888 


Too  many  Decimal  Places. 

A  COMMUNICATION  in  NATURE  of  January  26  (p.  294)  ends 
with  the  sweeping  suggestion  "that,  as  a  rule,  only  experiment- 
alists are  capable  of  judging  the  limits  of  accuracy  of  experiment, 
and  that  they  may  be  trusted  to  save  themselves  trouble  where 
trouble  may  be  saved  without  sacrificing  accuracy." 

On  the  contrary,  is  it  not  true  that  experimenters,  as  a  class, 
have  shown  a  marked  tendency  to  give  unnecessary  trouble,  both 
to  themselves  and  to  those  who  utilize  their  reults,  by  using  too 
many  significant  figures  in  their  numerical  work  ?  The  strictures 
of  mathematicians  have  done  much  to  check  this  tendency. 
But  can  it  yet  be  claimed  that  their  habits  need  no  critical 
inspection  in  this  respect  ?  Not  being  prepared  to  bring  forward 
statistics,  I  can  only  make  this  remark  in  the  form  of  a  query, 
which  applies  to  the  general  statement  quoted,  rather  than  to 
the  merits  of  the  special  discussion  which  gave  rise  to  it.  In 
vol.  Ixi.  (1871)  of  the  Journal  of  the  Franklin  Institute,  Prof. 
Pickering  has  shown  by  graphical  methods  how  greatly  Regnault's 
coefficients  may  be  simplified.  J.  Rayner  Edmands. 

Harvard  College  Observatory. 

"The  Teaching  of  Elementary  Chemistry." 

In  Nature  of  February  23  (p.  389),  an  anonymous  corre- 
spondent, signing  himself  "  Z.,"  draws  attention  to  what  he 
calls  "  a  few  highly  misleading  passages  in  the  two  books 
reviewed  under  the  above  heading  in  Nature  of  January  19." 

In  the  name  of  the  authors  of  these  books,  I  challenge  "  Z." 
to  make  good  his  statement  that  the  passage  which  he  quotes 
from  p.  65  of  the  "Elementary  Chemistry,"  concerning  the 
reaction  between  sodium  and  water,  is  "highly  misleading." 
We  assert  that  the  sentence  is  not  misleading.  The  second 
statement  quoted  by  "Z."  is  not  quite  correct:  chlorine  mon- 
oxide is  prepared  by  passing  dry  chlorine  over  yellow  mercuric 
oxide,  which  has  been  previously  dried  at  300°-400°,  at  the 
ordinary  temperature,  not  over  heated  mercuric  oxide,  as  stated 
on  p.  116  of  the  "  Elementary  Chemistry."  We  thank  "  Z."  for 
the  correction.  But,  inasmuch  as  the  result  of  passing  chlorine 
over  yellow  mercuric  oxide  dried  at  about  100°  is  to  evolve 
oxygen  without  forming  chlorine  monoxide,  the  correction  does 
not  affect  the  argument,  and  it  may  still  be  justly  said  that  in 
making  chlorine  monoxide  "we  carry  out  a  reaction  in  which 
oxygen  is  produced  in  presence  of  chlorine."  The  supposed 
contradiction  found  by  "Z."  between  the  directions  given  in 
the  "  Practical  Chemistry "  to  the  student  who  is  burning  a 
weighed  quantity  of  magnesium — not  to  remove  the  lid  of  the 
crucible  lest  some  of  the  magnesia  should  be  "  volatilized  and 
lost" — and  the  statement  in  the  "Elementary  Chemistry,"  that 
"no  compound  of  magnesium  has  been  gasified,"  rests  upon  a 
verbal  quibble.  Volatilized  and  gasified  have  not  precisely  the 
same  connotation.  I  confidently  assert  that  no  student  is  in  danger 
of  being  misled  by  either  of  the  statements  which  "Z."  has  quoted. 

"  Z."  states  that  the  results  of  an  experiment  on  the  reaction 
between  potash  and  iodine,  described  on  p.  63  of  the  "  Practical 
Chemistry,"  contradict  the  sentence  on  p.  62  of  the  same  book 
concerning  the  similarities  between  the  chemical  properties  of 
chlorine,  bromine,  and  iodine.  I  reply  that  "Z."  has  here 
shown  himself  to  be  unacquainted  with  the  methods  of  chemical 
classification  ;  and  also  that  he  has  taken  the  word  similar  to 
mean  the  same  as  identical. 

If  "Z."  will  bring  forward  proofs  that  the  statements  he  has 
quoted  are  "highly  misleading,"  and  will  sign  his  name  to  tlie 
letter  in  which  he  states  these  proofs,  I  am  ready  to  argue  each 
point  with  him  in  detail.  But,  if  "  Z  "  continues  to  charge  the 
authors  of  the  books  he  has  deigned  to  notice  with  making  mis- 
leading statements,  while  he  himself  remains  anonymous,  1  shall 
decline  to  take  any  notice  of  his  communications. 

Cambridge,  February  29.  M.  M.  Pattison  Muir. 

The  Gale  of  March  11. 

I  BEG  to  inclose  the  readings  of  my  standard  Robinson's  cup- 
anemometer  during  the  gale  of  March  11  :  — 
II-12  a.m.,  64  miles. 
12-  I  p.m.,  67     ,, 

1-  2     „       71     „ 

2-  3     „       73     „ 

3-  4     ,,      63     ,, 

General  direction,  S.W.  ;  altitude,  600  feet  above  mean  sea- 
level.  C.  E.  Peek. 
Rousdon  Observatory,  Lyme  Regis,  March  13. 


THE  DISPERSION  OF  SEEDS  AND  PLANTS. 

TN  a  recent  number  of  Nature  (vol.  xxxv.  p.  151)  I 
■*•  mentioned  instances  which  had  come  under  my 
observation,  in  which  birds  had  taken  an  active  part  in 
the  dispersion  of  seeds  and  plants.  Since  then  1  have 
come  across  further  notes  bearing  upon  the  subject 
which  -is  one  of  considerable  interest  and  importance,  as 
it  throws  a  direct  light  upon  some  at  least  of  the  agencies 
whereby  plant  life  has  been  distributed  over  the  surface 
of  the  globe.  Although  birds,  from  their  greater  adapt- 
ability to  rapid  and  extensive  locomotion,  are  more  con- 
cerned than  any  other  animals  in  the  dispersion  of  plants, 
they  are  by  no  means  alone  in  this  work. 

It  may  seem  strange,  at  first  sight,  to  assert  that  cattle 
have  been  the  means  of  distributing  the  seeds  of  certain 
plants  from  one  country  to  another,  but  a  statement  is 
made  by  Grisebach  ^  respecting  Pithecolobiiint  Sanian 
(N.O.  Leguminosa:;),  a  large  tree  native  of  Tropical 
America,  now  naturalized  in  Jamaica,  that  the  "seeds 
were  formerly  brought  over  from  the  continent  [of 
America]  by  cattle."  This  statement  has  been  carefully 
examined,  and  it  is  fully  borne  out  by  facts.  Formerly, 
Jamaica,  like  Trinidad  at  present,  w-as  dependent  for 
cattle  on  Venezuela.  The  food  of  the  animals  during 
their  voyage  consisted  amongst  other  things  of  the  pulpy 
legumes  of  Pithecolobium  Sainan.  The  seeds  being  very 
hard  were  uninjured  by  the  process  of  mastication  and 
digestion,  and  they  were  dejected  by  the  animals  in  the 
pastures,  where  they  germinated  and  grew  up  into  large 
trees.  In  this  instance  the  seeds  were  carried  across  the 
sea  a  distance  of  about  a  thousand  miles,  and  there  is  no 
doubt  that  the  cattle  were  directly  concerned  in  their 
introduction.  Indeed,  without  them  the  seeds,  even  if 
accidentally  introduced  amongst  the  fodder,  would  not 
have  been  placed  under  such  circumstances  as  would 
have  enabled  them  to  give  ri-e  to  plants.  In  the  first 
place,  by  being  passed  through  the  animals  the  seeds 
were  softened  and  the  period  of  germination  hastened. 
In  the  second  place,  being  embedded  in  the  droppings  of 
the  animals  the  seeds  had  a  suitable  medium  to  protect 
and  promote  germination  ;  and  this  medium  enabled  the 
young  plants  to  withstand  the  season  of  drought  which 
is  incidental  to  almost  every  tropical  country.  In  this 
instance  we  have  cattle  not  only  the  means  of  introducing 
the  seeds  of  a  valuable  tree,  but  also  involuntarily  in- 
strumental in  establishing  the  tree  in  a  new  country,  and 
providing  shelter,  shade,  and  food  for  their  progeny. 
Those  acquainted  with  the  guango  or  rain-tree,  as  this 
Pithccolobittni  is  locally  called,  will  fully  realize  its  value 
as  a  shade  and  food-tree  for  cattle,  and  they  will  also 
appreciate  the  singular  concourse  of  circumstances  by 
means  of  which  such  a  tree  was  introduced  to  a  new 
country  by  the  very  animals  which  required  it  most. 

It  is  possible  there  may  be  some  who  will  doubt  the  pos- 
sibility of  seeds  retaining  the  power  of  germination  after 
undergoing  the  processes  of  mastication  and  digestion, 
and  especially  in  the  special  case  of  ruminating  animals. 
There  is,  however,  very  clear  evidence  on  the  subject. 
It  is  a  common  occurrence  in  India  to  utilize  the  services 
of  goats  to  hasten  the  germination  of  the  seeds  of  the 
common  Acacia  arabica,  known  as  the  babul.  This  tree 
belongs  to  the  same  natural  order  as  the  Pithecolobium, 
and  grows  in  the  poorest  and  driest  soils  of  India. 
The  babul  seeds  will  not  germinate  readily  in  the  hot 
weather,  and  it  is  the  regular  habit,  in  order  to  save  a 
season,  for  a  person  desirous  of  a  crop  of  seedlings  to 
make  a  bargain  with  a  herdsman  or  a  neighbour  who 
possesses  a  flock  of  goats  to  quarter  them  for  some  days 
in  a  small  inclosure  in  which  they  are  fed  on  babu 
leaves  and  pods.  The  droppings  of  the  animals  contain  a 
certain  number  of  seeds  which  are  uninjured,  and  these 
now  readily  germinate,  and  give  rise  to  plants  the  same 

1  "Flora,  British  West  Inli.T  Islands,"  p.  225. 


March  15,  1888] 


NATURE 


467 


season.  I  am  informed  by  Dr.  Watt  that  in  India 
"several  other  plants  are  treated  in  the  same  way."  The 
seeds  of  the  several  species  of  cultivated  Guava  are  hard 
and  do  not  easily  germinate.  These,  however,  are  said 
to  germinate  more  freely  and  readily  when  they  are 
picked  up  in  night  soil. 

While  on  this  subject  I  would  mention  that  when 
at  St.  Helena  in  1883  I  expressed  some  surprise  that 
no  attempt  was  made  to  utilize  "  urban "  manure  in 
the  neighbourhood  of  Jamestown,  when  the  land  was 
so  impoverished  and  yielded  such  poor  crops.  I  was 
met  by  the  fact  that  if  such  manure  was  largely  used 
the  land  would  become  overrun  with  plants  of  the 
prickly  pear,  Opuntia  Ficiis-indica,  the  fruit  of  which 
is  largely  consumed  by  the  inhabitants.  There  is  little 
doubt  that  the  seeds  of  this  plant,  like  those  of  the 
Guava,  and  I  suspect  also  species  of  Passi/Iora,  which 
are  swallowed  whole,  are  capable  of  germination  after 
they  have  passed  through  the  human  body.  Another 
instance  occurs  to  me  where  the  use  of  manure  has  been 
the  means  of  distributing  an  undesirable  plant  on  culti- 
vated lands.  In  many  tropical  countries  a  grass  known 
as  Para,  Mauritius,  or  Scotch  grass,  and  sometimes  as 
water  grass  {PufiLiiin  Inirbittode),  has  been  introduced 
from  Brazil,  and  highly  esteemed  for  its  rapid  growth  and 
nourishing  properties.  It  grows  well  in  moist  situations, 
on  the  banks  of  streams,  and  even  in  soils  so  swampy  as 
to  be  suitable  for  nothing  else.  In  such  situations  it 
spreads  rapidly  and  yields  abundant  food  for  cattle  and 
horses.  Nothing,  however,  could  be  worse  than  this 
grass  for  cultivated  areas,  where  the  land  is  required  to 
be  kept  free  from  weeds,  and  where  crops  of  sugar-cane, 
coffee,  tea,  and  cacao  are  raised.  It  has  been  found  that 
where  animals  are  fed  on  this  grass  the  joints  even  after 
passing  through  the  animals  have  been  known  to  grow. 
Hence  the  manure,  if  freshly  used,  has  been  the  means  of 
establishing  the  plant  over  wide  areas. 

In  a  recent  work  Mr.  Ball  has  drawn  attention  to 
numerous  introduced  plants  which  are  met  with  in  South 
America.  He  naturally  mentions  the  cardoon,  the  wild 
state  of  the  common  artichoke,  which  is  now  more  com- 
mon in  temperate  South  America  than  it  is  anywhere  in  its 
native  home  in  the  Mediterranean  region.  Darwin'  doubts 
whether  any  case  exists  on  record  of  an  invasion  on  so 
grand  a  scale.  Several  hundred  square  miles  are  covered 
with  this  introduced  plant,  which  has  over-run  all  mem- 
bers of  the  aboriginal  flora.  The  introduction  of  the 
cardoon  appears  to  have  been  effected  directly  by  man 
for  the  purpose  of  contributing  to  the  food  supply  of 
cattle  ;  but  as  regards  another  widely-spread  plant  the 
mode  of  its  introduction  is  not  clearly  known. 

Mr.  Ball  states:— "As  to  many  of  these  [introduced 
South  American  plants]  it  appears  to  me  probable  that 
their  diftusion  is  due  more  to  the  aid  of  animals  than  the 
direct  intervention  of  man.  This  is  specially  true  of  the 
little  immigrant  which  has  gone  farthest  in  colonizing 
this  part  of  the  earth — the  common  stork's-bill  {Erodiiun 
cicutariuni),  which  has  made  itself  equally  at  home  in  the 
upper  zone  of  the  Peruvian  Andes,  in  the  low  country  of 
Central  Chili,  and  in  the  plains  of  North  Patagonia.  Its 
extension  seems  to  keep  pace  with  the  spread  of  domestic 
animals,  and  as  far  as  I  have  been  able  to  ascertain  it  is 
nowhere  common  except  in  districts  now  or  formerly 
pastured  by  horned  cattle.  It  is  singular  that  the  same 
plant  should  have  failed  to  e.s.tend  itself  in  North  America, 
being  apparently  confined  to  a  few  localities.  It  is  now 
common  in  the  Northern  Island  of  Nev/  Zealand,  but  has 
not  extended  to  South  Africa,  where  two  other  European 
species  of  the  same  genus  are  established."  ^ 

Erodiiim  as  a  genus  is  separated  from  the  true  Ger- 

'  "  Naturalist's  Voyage  roi  nd  the  World,"  by  Charles  Darwin,  new  ed. 
1870,  p.  119. 

^  "Notes  of  a  Naturalist  in  So;ith  America,"  by  John  Ball,  F.R.S.,  Lon- 
don, i837,  pp    164,  165. 


aniums  amongst  other  reasons  on  account  of  the  tails 
of  the  carpels  being  bearded  and  spirally  twisted  on  the 
inside.  It  is  possible  that  these  characteristics  have 
enabled  the  seeds  to  attach  themselves  to  the  legs  and 
bodies  of  cattle  and  so  effected  their  distribution  over 
wide  areas  in  such  situations  as  are  favourable  to  their 
growth. 

In  the  Island  of  Jamaica  we  have  a  remarkable  in- 
stance of  the  naturalization  and  wide  distribution  of  an 
introduced  plant  in  the  case  of  the  Indian  mango.  In 
an  official  Report,  published  in  1885,  I  stated  that  to 
th.e  mango,  possibly  more  than  any  tree  in  the  island,  is 
due  the  reforesting  of  the  denuded  areas  in  the  lower 
hills  ;  and  as  in  consequence  of  the  changes  taking  place 
in  the  climate  members  of  the  indigenous  flora  are  unable 
to  maintain  their  ground,  it  is  fortunate  the  island  pos- 
sesses in  a  vigorous  and  hardy  exotic  like  the  mango  the 
means  of  counteracting  the  baneful  effects  of  deforesta- 
tion. It  specially  affects  land  thrown  out  of  cultivation, 
and  the  sides  of  roads  and  streams  where  its  seeds  are 
cast  aside  by  man  and  animals.  It  practically  re-clothes 
the  hills  and  lower  slopes  with  forest,  and  it  enables  the 
land  to  recuperate  its  powers  under  its  abundant  shade- 
giving  foliage.^  It  is  strange  that  in  Ceylon,  which  is  so 
much  nearer  the  home  of  the  species,  the  mango  does 
not  spread  by  self-sown  seedlings.  This  corroborates 
Mr.  Ball's  statement  with  regard  to  Erodiwii  cimtariuui. 
The  latter  is  widely  spread  in  South  America,  but  only 
sparingly  found  in  other  countries  under  apparently 
exactly  corresponding  conditions.  We  cannot  say  why 
such  anomalies  exist.  They  do  exist,  however,  and 
offer  problems  which  can  only  be  solved  by  a  closer  study 
of  the  conditions  of  plant  life,  and  the  interdependence 
of  plants  and  animals  acting  and  reacting  one  upon  the 
other. 

The  orange-tree  was  introduced  to  Jamaica  more  than 
a  hundred  years  ago.  It  is  now  found  practically  wild 
over  the  settled  parts  of  the  island,  and  the  fruit  is  ex- 
ported to  the  value  of  nearly  ^50,000  per  annum.  Up 
to  quite  recently  very  few  trees  were  planted.  Nearly  the 
whole  were  sown  by  the  agency  of  frugivorous  birds,  who 
carried  the  seeds  from  place  to  place  and  dropped  them 
in  native  gardens,  coffee  plantations,  sugar  estates,  and 
grass  lands.  In  such  localities  the  orange-trees  grew  and 
flourished,  and  now  a  demand  has  arisen  for  the  fruit  in 
the  United  States  an  important  industry  has  been  estab- 
lished, the  active  agents  in  which  have  been  birds.  The 
agency  of  birds  in  the  distribution  of  the  seeds  of  plants 
is  too  large  a  subject  to  be  discussed  at  length  here.  A 
valuable  contribution  of  facts  in  this  direction  has  lately 
been  made  by  Dr.  Guppy  in  his  important  work  on  the 
Solomon  Islands.  As  the  most  recent  addition  to  our 
knowledge  of  what  takes  place  in  oceanic  islands  at  the 
present  time  it  deserves  careful  attention.  It  will  suffice 
only  to  quote  one  or  two  sentences  : — "  Whilst  through  the 
agency  of  the  winds  and  currents  the  waves  have  stocked 
the  islet  with  its  marginal  vegetation,  the  fruit-pigeons  have 
been  unconsciously  stocking  its  interior  with  huge  trees, 
that  have  sprung  from  the  fruits  and  seeds  they  have  trans- 
ported in  their  crops  from  the  neighbouring  coasts  and 
islets.  The  soft  and  often  fleshy  fruits  on  which  the  fruit- 
pigeons  subsist  belong  to  numerous  species  of  trees. 
Some  of  them  are  as  large  even  as  a  hen's  &gg^  as  in  the 
case  of  those  of  the  species  of  Canariwn  ('  Ka-i '),  which 
have  a  pulpy  exterior  that  is  alone  digested  and  retained 
by  the  pigeon.  Amongst  other  fruits  and  seeds  on  which 
these  pigeons  subsist,  and  which  they  must  transport  from 
one  locality  to  another,  are  those  of  a  species  of  Elceo- 
carpiis  ('toa'),  a  species  of  laurel  {Lttsed),di  nutmeg, 
{Myristica),  an  Achras,  one  or  more  species  of  Areca 
(palm),  and  probably  a  species  (of  another  palm)  Kentia." 

D.  Morris. 

'  Annu.-xl  Report,  Public  Gardens  and   Plant-riins,  Jamaica,  for  the  Year 

1884,  I'.  45. 


468 


NATURE 


\_March  15,  1888 


ON  THE  APPEARANCES  PRESENTED  BY 
THE  SATELLITES  OF  JUPITER  DURING 
TRANSIT. 

A  PAPER  was  read  by  Mr.  Edmund  J.  Spitta,  at  the 
November  meeting  of  the  Royal  Astronomical 
Society,  of  especial  interest  to  those  who  have  devoted 
their  attention  to  Jovian  phenomena.  As  the  paper  itself 
is  a  long  one,  being  the  result  of  over  four  years'  work,  we 
must  refer  our  readers  for  details  to  the  paper  itself;  but, 
speaking  briefly,  the  author  observes  that  since  the 
discovery  of  the  satellites  by  Galileo  in  1610,  astronomers 
have  been  puzzled  by  their  discordant  appearances  during 
transit,  but  more  especially  by  the  fact  that  these  pheno- 
mena do  not  apply  equally  to  all  the  satellites,  or  even 
in  some  instances  to  the  same  satellite  in  two  successive 
revolutions.  It  appears  that  notably  the  fourth— the 
farthest  from  its  primary — as  it  approaches  the  disk  of 
Jupiter,  becomes  rapidly  and  increasingly  fainter  until  it 
arrives  at  contact.  When  once  on  the  limb  it  shines  with 
a  moderate  brilliancy  for  about  ten  or  fifteen  minutes,  then 
becomes  suddenly  lost  to  view  for  another  period  of  about 
the  same  duration,  and  lastly  reappears,  but  as  a  dark 
spot  which  grows  darker  and  darker  until  it  equals  the 
blackness  of  its  own  shadow  on  the  planet.  The  appear- 
ance presented  by  the  second  satellite,  however,  is  entirely 
different,  for  it  seems  never  to  have  been  seen  otherwise 
than  pure  white  during  transit  ;  whereas  the  first  and 
third  differ  yet  again  from  the  preceding  two.  The  former 
is  sometimes  a  steel-gray,  and  at  others  a  little  darker, 
whereas  the  latter  has  been  seen  perfectly  white,  and  yet 
so  black  as  to  be  mistaken  for  the  fourth  ;  both  appear- 
ances having  been  witnessed  by  Maraldi  as  far  back  as 
1707,  and  that  too  in  successive  revolutions. 

The  author  seems  to  have  spent  some  years  in  examining 
these  phenomena  on  all  possible  occasions,  and  under 
different  conditions,  such  as  before,  during,  and  after 
opposition  ;  and  to  have  collected  all  published  and  un- 
published observations ;  and  also  to  have  devised  an 
occulting  eye-piece — movable  shutters  in  the  focus  of  a 
Ramsden  eye-piece — for  the  express  purpose  of  shutting 
off  the  light  of  Jupiter  ;  but,  to  use  his  own  words, 
"without  adding  to  the  pre-existing  knowledge  of  the 
subject." 

The  fact  of  having  witnessed,  when  on  the  banks  of  the 
Rhine  in  1886,  the  transit  of  a  brilliantly  illuminated  ship's 
lantern  as  a  dark  spot  on  the  disk  of  the  rising  full  moon, 
suggested  the  carrying  out  of  a  series  of  experiments  to 
ascertain  the  proportions  of  light  which  two  bodies  must 
possess,  so  that  the  smaller  should  appear  gray  or  black 
when  superimposed  on  the  larger  ;  and  it  was  hoped  that 
if  the  facts  and  figures  thus  experimentally  obtained 
corresponded  with  the  albedos  of  the  satellites  themselves 
as  compared  with  Jupiter,  it  would  not  be  unreasonable 
to  suspect  that  the  abnormal  appearances  presented  by 
the  satellites  depended  on  functional  idiosyncrasies  of  the 
eye  itself,  rather  than  upon  physical  peculiarities  of  the 
Jovian  system. 

Space  will  not  allow  a  description  of  the  experiments, 
which  were  somewhat  numerous,  the  photometer  employed 
being  an  adaptation  of  that  arranged  by  Prof.  Pritchard, 
of  Oxford;  but,  speaking  in  short,  small  disks  of  different 
tintings  of  Indian  ink,  representing  the  satellites,  were 
superimposed  on  larger  ones  of  various  sizes  of  pure  white 
cardboard,  and  it  was  found  that,  with  certain  restrictions, 
the  difference  of  albedo  (a  term  expressing  "  the  relative 
capacity  for  reflection  of  diffused  light  from  equal  areas  ") 
between  the  smaller  and  the  larger  caused  the  gray  and 
black  appearances,  and  that  they  were  not  due  to  any 
difference  in  the  quantity  of  light  reflected  from  either. 
For  a  moon  to  appear  gray  or  black,  a  difference  of  albedo 
was  required  of  042  in  the  first  case,  and  of  o'87  in  the 
second,  whilst  moons  of  a  superior  albedo  remained  white 
during  transit. 

Further,  the  effect  of  one  moon  approaching  another. 


was  gone  into,  and  the  fading  of  the  smaller  was 
likewise  found  to  be  in  direct  proportion  to  the  rela- 
tion its  albedo  bore  to  that  of  the  greater,  and  was  in 
no  way  connected  with  the  amount  of  light  reflected  by 
either.  The  effects  in  the  appearance  of  the  same  Httle 
moons  when  in  transit  over  different  portions  of  a  sphere 
were  also  studied,  and,  strange  as  it  may  seem,  t/ie  whole 
flf  the  phenomena  of  the  dark  transit  were  thus  accidejitally 
reproduced^  and  this  caused  much  surprise,  seeing  it  was 
brought  about  by  such  simple  means.  The  concluding 
experiments  consisted  in  photometrically  ascertaining,  for 
the  first  time,  the  reflective  ability  of  different  portions  of 
an  unpolished  sphere  ;  and  the  results  obtained  are  set 
forth  in  the  following  abridged  table  ;  column  .1  giving 
the  exact  angle  of  the  observation,  and  column  2  the 
resulting  albedo. 


30 
40 
50 
60 

65 
70 

75 
80 

83 
86  30' 


735 
•500 

•367 
•323 
•261 
•172 

•133 
•080 
•049 
•027 


A  large  number  of  facts  and  figures  having  been  ascer- 
tained, attention  was  then  directed  to  obtaining  the  relative 
albedos  of  the  real  satellites  themselves  as  compared  with 
Jupiter.  The  reduction  of  the  observations  was  attended 
with  several  difficulties,  each  of  which  had  to  be  dealt  with  ; 
but  one  of  them  especially  deserves  a  passing  mention, 
and  it  is  this,  viz.  that  the  eye  does  not  seem  to  be  im- 
pressed in  the  photometer  with  the  light  coming  from  an 
object  of  sensible  area,  such  as  Jupiter,  to  the  same 
extent  as  it  is  from  a  point  of  light  such  as  is  shown  by 
the  satellites.  A  suggestion  from  Capt.  Abney,  however, 
relieved  the  difficulty,  and,  this  systematic  error  removed, 
the  results  came  out  in  an  extremely  satisfactory  manner, 
for  it  was  then  found  that  the  albedos  of  the  satellites  corre- 
sponded very  approximately  with  the  requirements  of  the 
experiments,  as  the  following  abridged  table  shows  ;  in 
column  I  is  shown  the  number  of  the  satellite,  in  column 
2  its  difference  in  magnitude  with  that  of  Jupiter,  and  in 
column  3  the  resulting  albedo. 


I. 

8-12 

•656 

II. 

8-40 

•715 

Ill, 

7'88 

•405 

IV. 

..         8-73 

•266 

Thus  is  it  shown  to  be  more  than  probable  that  the 
reason  the  fourth  satellite  is  uniformly  black  during 
transit,  when  it  has  passed  its  period  of  disappear- 
ance, is  owing  to  its  albedo  being  so  low  as  to  grant 
the  difference  between  it  and  the  background  necessary 
for  a  body  to  appear  black  when  superimposed  on  another 
as  ascertained  by  the  experiments.  Its  preliminary 
whiteness  and  disappearance  are  also  shown  to  be  a 
question  of  relative  albedo,  for  they  are  due  to  the  fact  that 
a  sphere  at  its  limb  and  edges  loses  so  much  in  reflective 
ability,  that  up  to  that  moment,  the  satellite  possesses 
sufficient  albedo  (as  compared  with  the  background  in 
that  situation)  to  maintain  its  whiteness.  So  too  with  the 
second  satellite  :  its  albedo  proves  to  be  so  high  that  it  is 
capable  of  preserving  its  brilliancy  throughout  the  entire 
transit.  The  third  and  first  satellites  evidently  possess 
sides  of  differing  albedo,  one  high  enough  to  maintain  a 
brighter  aspect  than  the  other,  or  even,  as  in  the  case  of 
the  third,  to  make  it  appear  white  when  one  side  is 
presented  to  the  earth,  and  dark  when  the  other.  In 
conclusion,  to  quote  from  the  original  paper,  "it  is  not  un- 
reasonable to  conclude  that  these  anomalous  phenomena 
are  due  to  functional  idiosyncrasies  in  the  eye  itself,  rather 
than  to  physical  peculiarities  of  the  Jovian  system." 


Ma7%k  15,  1888J 


NATURE 


46t) 


THE  MONSOONS} 


■pVERY  School  Board  pupil  who  reads  a  shilling 
•^-^  primer  of  physical  geography  knows  that  the  mon- 
soons are  periodical  winds  which  blow  over  the  Indian 
Ocean  at  different  seasons  of  the  year ;  but  very  few, 
even  among  regular  meteorologists,  are  fully  aware  of  the 
interesting  but  complex  nature  of  the  details  of  these 
phases  of  atmospheric  circulation. 

The  two  publications  which  are  the  subject  of  this 
notice  contain  a  vast  amount  of  information  and  research 
connected  with  these  winds.  The  charts  of  the  Bay  of 
Bengal  consist  of  a  series  of  maps  of  mean  pressure, 
resultant  wind,  and  ocean  currents  for  every  month  of  the 
year  ;  with  a  page  of  descriptive  letterpress  for  each. 
They  were  compiled  by  Mr.  W.  L.  Dallas,  and  are 
published  in  the  inconvenient  size  of  23  by  18  inches. 

The  memoir  on  the  winds  of  the  Arabian  Sea  is  a  long 
and  exhaustive  report  by  the  same  author,  with  a  critical 
and  theoretical  discussion  of  the  results  obtained  all  over 
the  North  Indian  Ocean.  This  is  published  in  a  large 
quarto  form,  and  contains  small-scale  charts  of  mean 
pressure,  and  of  both  wind  force  and  direction,  for  every 
month  of  the  year ;  while  similar  maps  of  temperature 
and  vapour-tension  are  given  for  the  months  of  April, 
May,  and  June  only. 

Space  will  permit  us  to  notice  only  the  extreme  con- 
ditions which  characterize  the  months  of  January  and 
July,  or  the  most  pronounced  periods  of  the  north-east 
and  south-west  monsoons  respectively.  It  will  be  well  to 
take  the  north-east  monsoon  first,  as  it  is  much  the  simpler 
of  the  two.  One  of  the  most  important  results  of  Indian 
research  has  been  to  modify  the  crude  idea  that  the  north- 
east monsoon  blows  directly  all  the  way  from  the  great 
Siberian  winter  anticyclone  down  to  the  equator.  Now 
it  has  been  shown  that  there  is  in  the  month  of  January 
a  small  anticyclone  over  the  Punjab,  and  an  area  of  high 
pressure  over  the  Persian  Gulf. 

This  fact  is  of  far  more  than  local  importance.  The 
typical  distribution  of  pressure  over  the  globe  consists  of 
an  equatorial  belt  of  low  pressure,  with  a  belt  of  anti- 
cyclones on  either  side,  about  the  line  of  the  two  tropics. 
Heretofore  we  have  been  constrained  to  look  on  the 
Siberian  anticyclone— centered  near  the  Arctic  Circle — 
as  the  representative  of  the  tropical  belt  of  high  pressure, 
but  now  there  is  the  strongest  presumption  that  these 
smaller  anticyclones  are  the  true,  but  diminutive,  equi- 
valents of  the  tropical  belt. 

There  is  a  curious  irregularity  in  the  sweep  of  the 
isobars  and  winds  over  India  towards  the  equator.  The 
charts  indicate  a  local  depression  all  along  the  west  coast 
of  India,  and  a  slight  general  protrusion  of  pressure  over 
the  Bay  of  Bengal.  This  latter  is  important,  as  we  shall 
have  to  refer  to  the  converse  condition  in  the  opposite 
monsoon. 

The  conditions  of  the  south-west  monsoon  are  a  good 
deal  more  complicated,  for  in  July  we  have  to  explain  the 
following  relations  of  pressure  and  wind.  A  belt  of  high 
pressure  runs  along  the  twentieth  degree  of  south  lati- 
tude almost  from  Australia  to  long.  70"^  E.  ;  but  then  the 
isobars  mount  up  to  the  equator  along  the  coast  of  Africa. 
An  irregular  area  of  low  pressure  lies  over  Scinde,  but 
the  banc  slopes  all  round  are  by  no  means  symmetrical. 
The  most  noticeable  irregularity  is  an  area  of  relatively 
low  pressure  over  the  south-west  of  the  Bay  of  Bengal, 
so  that  the  mean  isobar  of  29-80  which  runs  towards  the 
north-east  from  Africa  to  near  Bombay,  bends  then  to 
the  south-east  until  it  arrives  near  Trincomalee,  in 
Ceylon,   when   it   turns   again   to   the   north-east.      The 

'  "Weather  Charts  of  the  Bay  of  Bengal  and  adjacent  Sea  norlh  of  the 
Equator.  Issued  by  the  Meteorological  Department  of  the  Government  of 
India,     (Calcutta,  1887.) 

"  On  the  Winds  of  the  Arabian  Sea  and  Northern  Indian  Ocean"  By 
W.  L.  Dallas,  late  of  the  Meteorological  Office,  London.  Published  by 
the  Meteorological  Department  of  the  Government  of  India.  (Calcutta 
1887.)  • 


wmd  conforms  partially  to  this  distribution  of  pressure. 
South  of  the  Lme  the  south-east  trade  blows  with  great 
uniformity,  crosses  the  equator  with  a  regular  sweep 
into  the  Arabian  Sea,  turning  first  to  the  south-west, 
and  eventually  to  the  west,  between  Karachi  and  Bom- 
bay. But  in  the  Bay  of  Bengal  the  situation  is  rather 
different.  The  depression,  before  noted,  is  associated 
with  a  west-north-west  wind  over  Southern  India,  but  a 
light  westerly  current  and  rainy  weather  prevails  all  over 
the  south  of  the  Bay,  from  the  latitude  of  Ceylon,  down 
to  the  equator,  while  a  strong  south-west  monsoon  blows 
all  up  the  Bay  itself.  Hence  a  ship  going  up  to  Calcutta 
will  find  the  south-east  trade  replaced  by  light  irregular 
winds  between  south  and  west,  with  much  rain,  from  the 
equator  to  about  10°  N.,  before  she  encounters  the  fresh 
south-west  monsoon  in  the  upper  part  of  the  Bay. 

Mr,  Dallas  gives  many  interesting  details  in  this 
memoir,  such  as  a  discussion  of  the  so-called  "soft 
place"  in  the  monsoon  between  Bombay  and  Aden. 
This  is  a  region  described  in  the  East  Indian  sailing 
directories  as  lying  along,  or  about,  the  ninth  parallel  in 
the  Arabian  Sea  ;  but  the  present  series  of  observations 
afford  very  little  evidence  of  the  existence  of  this  tract  of 
quiet  conditions. 

The  author  seems  to  find  some  difficulty  in  explaining 
the  cold  air  found  along  the  African  coast  during  the 
height  of  the  monsoon,  but  this  is  almost  certainly  due 
to  the  cold  water  which  wells  up  from  below,  as  the  hot 
surface  water  is  driven  to  the  north-east.  The  weather 
shore  of  a  tropical  coast  in  a  steady  atmospheric  current 
is  always  cold  for  the  same  reason. 

Mr.  H.  F.  Blanford  has  worked  out  the  precipitation  of 
the  south-west  monsoon  in  his  great  memoirs  on  "  Indian 
Rainfall,"  and  has  brought  out  most  clearly  a  great 
meteorological  principle.  He  finds  that  even  with  the 
saturated  atmosphere  of  the  Indian  Ocean— air  that  con- 
tains nearly  twelve  grains  of  water  in  a  cubic  foot,  as 
compared  to  about  six  grains  in  our  own  climate— no 
great  precipitation  takes  place  without  dynamical  cooling. 
That  is  to  say,  unless  the  air  is  forced  upwards  by  local 
obstacles,  &c.,  and  so  cooled  by  expansion,  no  great 
rainfall  can  occur. 

But  the  great  question,  about  which  there  is  still  some 
doubt,  is  the  precise  relation  of  the  south-west  monsoon 
to  the  south-east  trade.  Dove  started  the  theory  that  the 
south-east  trade  turns  to  south-west  after  crossing  the 
equator,  owing  to  the  influence  of  the  earth's  rotation  ; 
and  there  can  be  little  doubt  that  in  the  Arabian  Sea  the 
trade  wind  does  sweep  directly  across  the  Line  and  grow 
into  the  monsoon. 

But  in  the  Bay  of  Bengal,  Mr.  Blanford  finds  that  the 
south-west  monsoon  is  not  linked  up  habitually  with  the 
south-east  trade,  though  it  is  so  occasionally  ;  and  he 
considers  that  the  monsoon  is  drawn  from  a  reservoir 
of  air  over  the  equatorial  zone  fed  by  the  south-east  trades, 
but  that  it  is  not  the  south-east  trade  simply  diverted 
from  its  ordinary  course. 

This  opinion  is  based  on  the  following  facts,  brought 
out  by  the  charts  under  review,  for — 

(i)  The  south-east  trades  are  strong,  but  the  winds  are 
light  and  variable  from  the  equator  to  io°  N.,  above 
which  fresh  winds  are  again  developed.  There  is,  then, 
some  hitch  in  the  sweep  of  the  south-east  current  across 
the  equator. 

(2)  The  winds  just  north  of  the  line  are  nearly  from  the 
west,  while  they  flow  from  south-west  at  the  top  of  the 
Bay.  Theoretically  the  wind  should  get  more  and  more 
westerly  the  further  north  we  go. 

(3)  The  south-east  trade  is  tolerably  dry  ;  the  equa- 
torial belt  of  westerly  winds  is  very  wet  and  squally  ; 
while  the  precipitation  of  the  south-west  monsoon  is  not 
very  great  out  at  sea. 

Though  these  facts  undoubtedly  indicate  some  irre- 
gularity in  the  flow  of  the  south-east  trade  across  the 


470 


NA  TURE 


[March  15,  1888 


Line,  still  we  are  constrained  to  think  that  the  south- 
west monsoon  is  still  part  of  the  same  system.  If  the 
monsoon  was  independent  of  the  trade,  there  must  be  a 
belt  of  high  pressure  between  the  two  ;  and  of  this  there 
is  absolutely  no  trace. 

We  must  therefore  look  to  some  explanation  other 
than  the  conception  of  an  independent  circulatory  system 
over  the  Bay  of  Bengal  ;  but  materials  are  at  present 
•wanting  to  form  a  definite  conclusion  on  the  point  at 
issue.  There  are  two  ways  by  which  the  question  could 
be  settled, 

A  few  sets  of  observations  of  cloud-motion  on  ships 
coming  up  the  Bay  from  southward,  would  almost  in- 
fallibly give  decisive  results.  If  the  upper  clouds  over 
the  west  winds,  just  north  of  the  Line,  come  from  the  south 
or  south-east,  the  surface  wind  has  been  drawn  across  the 
equator ;  but  if,  on  the  contrary,  the  clouds  drive  more 
and  more  from  the  north  of  west  the  higher  they  are, 
then  the  circulation  over  the  Bay  of  Bengal  is  not  fed 
directly  by  currents  which  have  crossed  the  line. 

A  set  of  daily  weather  charts  for  the  whole  Indian 
Ocean  would  also  clear  away  many  doubts,  When 
differences  of  pressure  are  small,  and  winds  are  variable, 
charts  of  mean  monthly  isobars,  and  of  resultant  winds, 
are  very  delusive  ;  for  the  average  relation  of  pressure, 
wind,  and  weather,  may  be  quite  different  from  that  on 
any  actual  day. 

The  materials  at  present  available  point  unmistakably 
to  some  connection  between  the  anomalous  wind  and 
weather  in  the  southern  portion  of  the  Bay,  and  the  local 
ai'ea  of  low  pressure  over  Southern  India.  It  is  very 
conceivable  that  the  whole  width  of  the  south-east  trade 
does  not  cross  the  equator  with  an  unbroken  front  ;  but 
that  for  some  reason  or  other  a  great  local  eddy  may  be 
developed  in  the  Bay  of  Bengal.  No  river  ever  flows 
regularly,  but  is  broken  up  into  ripples  and  backwaters  ; 
and  though  there  are  many  differences  between  the  flow 
of  water  and  of  air,  still  there  are  certain  properties 
common  to  the  motion  of  every  fluid. 

Very  itw  English  meteorologists  care  much  for 
theoretical  discussions  of  air  motion  ;  but  the  Indian 
workers  use  mathematics  freely  in  their  investigations. 
Mr.  Dallas  calculates  the  flow  of  a  current  of  air  from 
10°  S.  latitude  to  io°  N.,  according  to  the  formula  given 
by  Mohn  and  Gulberg.  He  takes  a  gradient  directed 
N.  30°  E.,  across  the  Arabian  Sea,  and  notes  the  differ- 
ence both  of  force  and  direction  between  the  observed 
and  calculated  winds.  No  doubt  there  is  a  certain 
accordance  between  the  results  so  obtained  ;  but  still 
there  are  errors,  which,  taken  with  other  things,  suggest 
that  the  theory  is  still  imperfect. 

According  to  the  formula — a  modification  of  Ferrel's 
theory— when  air  flows  northwards  down  a  gradient,  the 
angle  between  the  wind  and  the  gradient  should  decrease 
as  we  approach  the  equator,  disappear  altogether  on  the 
line,  and  then  gradually  increase  as  we  proceed  further 
north.  But  in  practice  the  trade  keeps  steadily  in  the 
south-east  from  about  20°  S.  almost  to  the  equator,  then 
turns  rather  suddenly  to  south-west,  and  the  monsoon 
advances  steadily  in  that  direction  from  about  5°  to  20'^ 
N.  In  the  opposite  monsoon,  the  north-east  winds  run 
steadily  from  about  20°  N.  down  to  the  line,  and  then 
turn  rapidly  to  north-west. 

It  is  well  known  in  our  own  latitudes  that,  though  the 
wind  rotates  in  contrary  directions  round  cyclones  and 
anticyclones,  the  sweep  of  the  wind  is  usually  less  than 
the  curvature  of  the  isobars  would  suggest.  For  instance, 
if  an  anticyclone  lies  to  the  north  of  Great  Britain,  all  the 
winds  will  often  be  from  about  north-east  instead  of 
sweeping  gradually  from  north-east  through  east  to  south- 
east. This  and  many  other  similar  observations  point 
to  a  north-east  and  south-west  set  of  the  winds  all  over 
the  northern  hemisphere,  which  has  not  yet  been  accounted 
for  by  any  theory. 


In  conclusion,  we  may  remark  how  thoroughly  the 
author  has  discussed  the  subjects  of  his  memoirs  ;  though 
some  will  doubtless  differ  considerably  from  him  in  the 
theoretical  portion  of  his  work.  India  presents  a  field 
foi  research  unique  from  that  in  any  other  part  of  the 
world  ;  and  those  who  are  acquainted  with  the  magnifi- 
cent equipment,  order,  routine,  and  system  of  inspection 
inaugurated  by  Mr.  Blanford,  will  feel  confident  that 
every  year  will  add  to  our  knowledge  of  a  region  that 
presents  the  most  fascinating  problems  to  the  student  of 
atmospheric  dynamics.  Ralph  Abercromby. 


NO.  2  MUSEUM,  KEW. 

THE  Museum  of  Monocotyledonous  Products  in  the 
Royal  Gardens,  Kew,  better  known,  perhaps,  as 
No.  2  Museum,  which  was  recently  closed  for  rearrange- 
ment, has  been  again  opened  to  the  public.  The  entire 
collection  has  been  classified  according  to  the  plan  of  the 
"  Genera  Plantarum,"  so  that  the  whole  of  the  collections 
contained  in  Museums  Nos.  i  and  2  are  now  arranged 
according  to  the  system  adopted  by  Bentham  and  Hooker. 
A  new  room  which  was  added  to  the  Museum  a  few 
years  since  has  now  been  utilized  ;  this  has  given  space 
that  was  much  needed  for  the  proper  display  of  the 
products  of  such  important  natural  orders  as  Scitamine(s, 
Bronieliacece,  AuiaryllidecE,  Liliaceo',  Palinece,  A  rot  dee, 
Cyperacece,  and  Gramiiiacea.  In  the  first  named  order, 
a  large  number  of  valuable  economic  plants  are  included, 
such  as  ginger,  turmeric,  cardamoms,  arrowroot,  bananas, 
and  others  ;  while  m  Li/iacecs  we  find  sarsaparilla,  aspara- 
gus, onions,  squills,  medicinal  aloes,  and  New  Zealand 
hemp.  All  these  have  had  much  more  space  given  to  them 
than  hitherto,  and  the  fine  collection  of  native  New  Zealand 
garments  made  of  the  indigenous  hemp  {Phormium  tenax), 
which  are  rapidly  becoming  scarce,  are  now  opened  out 
and  fully  shown.  A  very  large  increase  of  space  has  been 
given  to  the  PalmecB,  and  as  it  is  one  of  the  most  im- 
portant orders  to  mankind  generally,  especially  in 
tropical  countries,  it  was  but  fitting  that  this  unique 
collection  of  palm  products  should  be  fully  displayed. 
In  such  a  series  as  that  at  Kew  it  is  difficult  to  particu- 
larize any  one  e.xhibit  as  more  important  than  another, 
but  we  may  draw  attention  to  the  fine  set  of  specimens 
illustrating  the  coco  de  mer,  or  double  cocoa-nut  of  the 
Seychelles  {Lodoicea  sechellarum).  This  comprises  a 
fine  series  of  fruits,  including  a  model  of  the  fruit  in  which 
the  nut  is  inclosed,  made  and  presented  by  the  late 
General  Gordon,  of  the  so-called  double  or  usual  form,  as 
well  as  quadruple,  sextuple,  and  others,  besides  seeds 
showing  the  mode  of  germination,  very  fine  male  spadices, 
and  caA'ed  shells.  The  series  of  products  of  Palmyra 
palm  {Bo7-assus  flabelliformis)  is  also  a  very  complete 
one,  comprising  sections  of  the  trunk,  both  longitudinal 
and  transverse,  toddy  collecting  apparatus  and  various 
manufactures  from  the  leaves. 

In  the  Graminece,  which  was  very  much  crowded 
throughout,  a  large  increase  of  space  has  enabled  the 
interesting  collections  of  maize,  sorghums,  sugar-cane 
products,  rice,  and  the  numerous  grains  of  India,  to  be 
easily  examined,  while  in  the  Cyperacece  the  Indian  mats 
from  the  culms  of  Cyperiis  Pangorei  and  C.  tegetum  and 
other  products  of  the  order  have  been  opened  out,  and 
now  form  a  striking  series. 

APPARA  TUS  FOR  EXPERIMENTS  AT  A  HIGH 
TEMPERATURE,  IN  GAS  UNDER  HIGH 
PRESSURES 

A  DIFFICULTY  often  experienced  in  laboratories  is 
how  to  raise  a  body  to  a  high  temperature  while 
surrounded  by  a  gaseous  atmosphere  under  considerable 
pressure. 

'  Translated  frcm  La  Xatnre,  February  ii,  i883. 


March  15,  1888] 


NATURE 


471 


The  apparatus  which  I  constructed  several  years  ago 
makes  it  possible  to  bring  bodies  to  a  temperature 
approaching  that  of  the  fusion  of  platinum,  whilst  main- 


taining them   in   a  gaseous   atmosphere,   of  which   the 
nature  and  pressure  may  be  varied  at  will. 

This  apparatus  (Fig.  2)  is  composed  of  a  mass  of  steel 


Fig. 


-Apparatus  of  M.  Cailletet.     a,  mass  of  steel  wuh  cylindrical  bore,  with  its  stopcock  b  (see  the  details  in  Fig.  2)  ;  G,  mirror  permitting  the  reaction 

to  be  seen  ;  M,  manometer ;  l,  amperemeter. 


A,  in  which  there  has  been  hollowed  out  a  cylindrical 
space  of  about  a  quarter  of  a  litre  capacity.  This  species 
of  test-tube  may  be  closed  by  means  of  a  metallic  stop- 


FiG.  2. — Explanatory  figure  :— (1)  Arrangement  for  obtaining  the  electrical 
arc.  The  insulated  charcoal  is  shaped  in  the  form  of  a  crucible,  (z) 
Arrangement  with  v^fire  of  platinum  rolled  spirally. 

cock,  B,  furnished  with  screw.  Two  copper  wires  are 
fixed  to  this  movable  portion  ;  the  one,  c,  is  insulated, 
whilst  the  other,  D,  is  in  contact  with  the  metal.     At  the 


ends  of  these  two  wires  there  is  fixed,  according  to  the 
requirements  of  the  experiment,  either  a  sheet  of  platinum 
moulded  into  the  form  of  a  crucible,  or  a  wire  of  platinum 
rolled  spirally,  a  kind  of  receptacle  for  the  body  experi- 
mented on,  and  which  is  brought  to  the  desired  tempera- 
ture by  the  passage  of  an  electric  current.  Two  or  three 
accumulators  are  sufficient  for  these  experiments.  A 
fragment  of  gold,  placed  in  the  spiral,  melts  in  a  few- 
seconds.  When  it  is  desired  to  maintain  the  temperature 
long,  the  exhausted  accumulators  are  replaced  by  others 
in  readiness,  simply  by  use  of  a  commutator.  The  high 
temperature  developed  by  the  electric  arc  may  also  be- 
turned  to  account ;  in  that  case  two  charcoal  rods  are 
arranged,  of  which  one,  movable,  is  fixed  to  the  extremity 
of  a  screw,  D,  capable  of  being  adjusted  from  the  outside 
in  order  to  place  it  in  communication  with  the  other 
charcoal  rod,  E,  insulated  and  shaped  in  the  form  of  a 
crucible. 

The  block  of  steel  is  pierced  by  an  orifice,  F,  connected 
by  a  metallic  capillary  tube  with  the  reservoir  which  con- 
tains the  compressed  gas.  A  window  furnished  with  a 
thick  glass,  G,  allows  the  phases  of  the  experiment  to  be 
followed  by  looking  in  an  inclined  mirror,  so  as  to  be 
secure  from  all  danger  in  case  of  the  glass  breaking. 
Lastly,  the  gases  contained  in  the  apparatus  may  be  col- 
lected, by  means  of  a  stopcock  at  the  screw  H,  in  cases 
where  it  is  desirable  to  analyze  them. 

The  gas  used  for  the  experiments  is  compressed 
previously  in  a  holder  by  means  of  the  mercurial  pump,  a 
description  of  which  I  have  already  published  ;  it  is  also 
easy  to  employ  the  carbonic  and  sulphuric  acid  furnished 
by  commerce. 

A  metallic  manometer  fixed  to  the  apparatus  renders  \t 
possible  to  ascertain  that  the  pressure  of  the  gases  exer- 
cises an  energetic  cooling  influence  upon  the  bodies  which 
are  heated  by  the  electric  current. 

Thus,  the  current  which  causes  the  fusion  of  the  wire 
or  sheet  of  platinum  produces  only  a  sombre  red  temper- 
ature when  the  pressure  is  sufficiently  great.  I  have  beea 
able  to  lessen  this  cause  of  cooling,  by  placing  the  body 
on  which  I  was  experimenting  in  a  small  test-tube,  whiel* 
resists  the  motion  of  the  gases,  and  which  is  not  repre- 


472 


NA  TURE 


[March  15,  1888 


sented  in  the  figure.  I  have  repeated,  with  this  apparatus? 
the  classical  experiment  of  Hall  on  carbonate  of  lime- 
A  fragment  of  chalk,  heated  in  a  spiral  of  platinum) 
diminishes  sensibly  in  volume,  while  it  is  being  changed 
into  a  hard  body  of  a  brownish-yellow  colour,  which  dis- 
solves slowly  in  acids,  at  the  same  time  liberating  car- 
bonic acid.  Also,  our  fellow-worker,  M.  Debray,  has  long 
since  shown  that  Iceland  spar  can  be  carried  to  a  high- 
temperature  in  carbonic  acid  without  being  changed,  and 
without  losing  its  transparency.  I  have  also  found  that 
a  crystal  of  spar  transformed  to  chalk  on  the  surface  by 
the  action  of  heat  under  ordinary  pressure  recovers  the 
iost  carbonic  acid,  but  not  its  primitive  transparency  ;  I 
have  not  been  able  to  effect  fusion  of  the  spar  in  the 
course  of  my  experiments. 

To  sum  up,  the  apparatus  which  I  have  the  honour  to 
make  known,  and  which  I  have  used  for  several  years 
past,  in  experiments  upon  the  electric  light  under  pressure, 
researches  which  I  have  carried  on  with  M.  Violle  in  his 
laboratory  at  the  Normal  School,  will  be  able  to  render, 
I  hope,  numerous  services  to  chemists  as  well  as  to 
mineralogists.  L.  Cailletet. 


NOTES. 

At  the  Bath  meeting  of  the  British  Association,  which 
will  begin  on  September  5,  Prof.  Schuster  will  preside  in 
Section  A  (Mathematics  and  Physics)  ;  Prof.  Tilden  in  Section  B 
(•Chemistry) ;  Prof.  Boyd  Dawkins  in  Section  C  (Geology)  ;  Mr. 
Thiselton  Dyer  in  Section  D  (Biology) ;  Colonel  Sir  C.  W. 
Wilson  in  Section  E  (Geography)  ;  Lord  Bramwell  in  Section  F 
(Economic  Science  and  Statistics) ;  Mr.  W.  H.  Preece  in 
Section  G  (Mechanical  Science) ;  and  General  Pitt-Rivers  in 
Section  H  (Anthropology). 

The  Croonian  Lecture  of  the  Royal  Society  will,  at  the 
request  of  the  Council,  be  delivered  this  year  by  Prof.  W. 
Kiihne,  of  Heidelberg.  As  is  well  known,  Prof.  Kiihne  has  for 
many  years  devoted  attention  to  the  endings  of  nerves  in  muscle, 
and  in  the  Croonian  Lecture  he  proposes  to  dwell  on  the  light 
thrown  on  the  nature  of  muscular  contraction  and  nervous  action 
by  the  study  of  these  nerve-endings.  Since  the  rooms  of  the 
Royal  Society  are  not  well  adapted  for  showing  illustrations  to 
large  audiences,  the  lecture,  which  will  be  largely  illustrated, 
will  be  delivered,  by  the  permission  of  the  Managers  of  the 
Royal  Institution,  in  the  lecture  theatre  of  the  Royal  Institution, 
The  date  fixed  is  Monday,  May  28,  at  9  p.m. 

In  reply  to  a  question  put  by  Lord  Herschell  in  the  House  of 
Lords  on  Monday,  Lord  Cranbrook  stated  that  he  had  come  to 
the  determination  to  recommend  the  issue  of  a  small  Royal 
Commission  to  inquire  as  to  the  necessity  for  a  Teaching  Uni- 
versity for  London,  and  he  hoped  that  at  no  great  distance  of 
time  it  would  be  able  to  report  upon  the  subject. 

In  accordance  with  the  rule  which  empowers  the  election  of 
nine  persons  annually  "  of  distinguished  eminence  in  science, 
literature,  or  the  arts,  or  for  public  services,"  Prof.  A.  W. 
Rucker,  F.  R.S.,  has  been  elected  a  inember  of  the  Athenaeum 
Club. 

The  Royal  Meteorological  Society's  ninth  annual  Exhibition 
of  Instruments  will  be  held  at  the  Institution  of  Civil  Engineers, 
25  Great  George  Street,  Westminster,  in  conjunction  with  the 
Society's  meeting  on  Wednesday,  the  21st  inst.,  and  will  be 
very  interesting  and  instructive.  The  Exhibition  is  devoted  to 
apparatus  connected  with  atmospheric  electricity.  A  most  valu- 
able collection  of  some  fifty  photographs  of  flashes  of  lightning 
from  all  parts  of  the  world  will  be  shown,  as  well  as  some 
curious  effects  of  damage  by  lightning,  including  the  clothes  of 
a  man  torn  off  his  body  by  lightning,  &c.     The  Exhibition  will 


remain  open  till  Friday,  the  23rd  inst.  Persons  not  Fellows, 
wishing  to  visit  the  Exhibition,  can  obtain  tickets  on  application 
to  Mr.  W,  Marriott,  Royal  Meteorological  Society,  30  Great 
George  Street,  S.W. 

A  PLANT  of  the  common  coffee  {Coffea  arabicd)  is  now  loaded 
with  ripe  fruit  in  the  palm-house  at  Kew.  Seldom,  even  on 
tropical  plantations,  is  a  tree  to  be  seen  with  such  a  crop.  Such 
an  object-lesson  should  not  be  missed  by  those  who  take  an 
interest  in  economic  bolany. 

The  March  Bulletin  of  Miscellaneous  Information,  issued  from 
the  Royal  Gardens,  Kew,  contains  papers  on  Forsteronia  rubber, 
patchouli.  West  African  indigo-plants,  vanilla,  streblus  paper, 
urera  fibre,  and  tea.  In  the  last  of  these  papers  valuable  infor- 
mation is  given  as  to  the  growth  of  tea  in  Jamaica,  Madagascar, 
and  Natal. 

An  excellent  biographical  sketch  of  the  late  Asa  Gray,  by 
James  D.  Dana,  appears  in  the  American  Journal  of  Science  for 
March.     The  article  is  also  issued  separately. 

A  heavy  gale  was  experienced  last  Sunday  in  nearly  all  parts 
of  the  British  Islands,  the  storm  continuing  in  many  places 
throughout  the  entire  day.  The  greatest  violence  of  the  gale 
was  felt  over  the  southern  districts  of  England  and  in  the 
English  Channel,  where  the  direction  of  the  wind  was  from  the 
south-west  and  west.  In  Ireland,  Scotland,  and  the  North  of 
England,  the  direction  of  the  wind  was  easterly,  the  central  area 
of  the  disturbance  passing  completely  over  the  middle  of  Eng- 
land from  west  to  east.  At  8  o'clock  on  Sunday  morning  the 
centre  of  the  storm  was  close  to  Pembroke,  where  the  barometer 
was  reading  28*57  inches,  and  at  6  o'clock  in  the  evening 
it  was  over  Lincolnshire,  the  barometer  reading  28*8  inches. 
The  storm  afterwards  crossed  tbe  North  Sea,  and  at  8  o'clock  on 
Monday  morning  the  centre  had  reached  Holland,  and  was  still 
travelling  in  an  easterly  direction.  At  Greenwich  the  anemo- 
meter registered  a  pressure  of  31  pounds  on  the  square  foot  at 
5  p.m.  on  Sunday,  which  is  equal  to  an  hourly  velocity  of  about 
80  miles.  The  feature  of  especial  scientific  interest  with  respect 
to  this  storm  is  the  sudden  manner  in  which  it  appeared  on  our 
coasts  :  it  practically  arrived  without  any  warning,  and  appears 
to  have  been  formed  almost  within  the  area  of  the  British 
Islands.  It  would  seem  to  be  a  secondary  or  subsidiary  dis- 
turbance to  the  storm  area  which  was  situated  over  Scotland  on 
Saturday,  and  was  apparently  formed  in  the  south-western 
segment  of  the  parent  cyclone,  which  is  the  favourite  position 
for  storm  development.  The  passage  of  such  a  storm  across  our 
islands  illustrates  very  clearly  the  immense  difficulty  which 
underlies  any  system  of  forecasting. 

In  vol.  iii.,  part  2,  of  the  Indian  Meteorological  Memoirs, 
recently  published,  Mr.  Blanford  has  continued  his  discussion  of 
the  rainfall  of  India.  Part  i,  which  dealt  more  particularly 
with  the  average  conditions  of  rainfall,  was  fully  noticed  in 
Nature  (vol.  xxxvii.  p.  164).  The  part  now  in  question  re- 
lates to  the  variations  and  vicissitudes  of  rainfall  in  past  years, 
and  their  connection  with  other  elements.  With  the  view  of 
ascertaining  whether  any  general  laws  can  be  detected,  an 
endeavour  is  made  to  determine  what  peculiarities  are  associated 
with  the  different  distribution  of  rainfall,  e.g.  the  variations  of 
prevailing  wind  currents,  distribution  of  atmospheric  pressure, 
and  the  frequency  and  courses  of  cyclonic  storms.  The  periodi- 
cal recurrence  of  droughts  and  faoiines  sirice  1769  is  recorded, 
and,  from  general  conclusions  drawn,  it  appears  that  serious 
droughts  occur  in  Southern  India  at  intervals  of  nine  to  twelve 
years,  and  that  they  generally  happen  about  a  year  before  the 
sunspot  minimum.  In  Northern  India,  droughts  sometimes 
occur   in  years  of  maximum  sun^pots. 


March  15,  1888] 


NA  TURE 


473 


At  the  meeting  of  the  French  Meteorological  Society,  on 
February  7,  it  was  announced  that  M.  Janssen  had  offered  five 
prizes,  consisting  of  silver  medals,  for  the  best  works  relative 
to  the  application  of  photography  to  meteorology,  and  M. 
Teisserenc  de  Bort  offered  a  similar  prize  for  the  best  measure- 
ments of  the  height  of  clouds.  M.  Moureaux  (Secretary) 
presented  a  paper  on  the  periodicity  of  disturbances  of  declina- 
tion and  hoiizontal  force  at  Parc-Saint-Maur  Observatory  for 
the  years  1883-87,  showing,  by  means  of  curves,  that  the 
monthly  values  of  both  those  elements  exhibited  two  maxima  at 
the  equinoxes,  and  two  minima  at  the  solstices  ;  and  that,  while 
the  monthly  variation  of  the  number  of  disturbances  appeared 
to  follow  a  general  law,  the  diurnal  variation  seems  to  be  subject 
to  complex  laws.  M.  H.  Lasne  presented  a  note  on  the  gyra- 
tory movements  of  the  atmosphere,  in  connection  with  the 
experiments  of  MM.  Weyher  and  CoUadon  on  the  motions  of 
fluids.  M.  Maillot  exhibited  a  kite,  arranged  to  maintain  a 
constant  height  for  some  time,  and  designed  for  the  purpose  of 
facilitating  the  registrationcf  variations  of  temperature  at  certain 
altitudes. 

A  TETRA.SULPHIDE  of  benzene  has  been  prepared  in  the  pure 
state  by  Dr.  Otto,  of  Brunswick  {Jotirn.  fiir.  prakt.  Cheniie,  1888, 
Nos.  3  and  4).  When  a  current  of  sulphuretted  hydrogen  gas  is 
led  through  a  warm  dilute  solution  of  benzene-sulphinic  acid, 
CgHgSOa,  in  alcohol,  the  sulphinic  acid  is  reduced  to  phenyl- 
disulphide,  (CBHg).2S2,  a  substance  already  well  known.  The 
behaviour,  however,  is  entirely  different  when  a  very  strong 
solution  is  employed :  the  liquid  becomes  rapidly  yellow,  and 
eventually  monoclinic  crystals  of  sulphur  and  a  yellow  oil 
separate.  This  yellow  oil  was  found  to  consist  of  phenyl-tetra- 
sulphide,  (CeH5)jS4,  the  analyses  indicating  an  exceptionally 
pure  product,  after  careful  separation  from  the  free  sulphur  by 
dissolving  in  ether  and  subsequent  evaporation.  This  tetrasul- 
phide  at  the  ordinary  temperature  is  a  very  viscid,  heavy,  highly 
refracting  oil,  possessing  an  unpleasant  odour  reminding  one  of 
mercaptan.  It  is  a  comparatively  stable  compound,  remaining 
unattacked  on  treatment  with  sodium  sulphite,  even  when 
warmed  for  a  long  time  ;  but  on  warming  with  colourless 
ammonium  sulphide  it  is  reduced  to  disulphide,  polysulphide 
of  ammonium  being  formed.  According  to  Klason,  phenyl- 
tetrasulphide  is  also  the  product  of  the  action  of  dichloride  of 
sulphur,  S2CI.2,  upon  thio-phenol,  CgHg .  SH,  the  mercaptan  of 
the  benzene  series,  and  Otto  shows  that  this  is  really  the  case, 
the  reaction  going  best  when  the  two  substances  are  gradually 
mixed  in  carbon  bisulphide  solution.  No  extraneous  heat  is 
necessary,  the  operation  being  itself  attended  by  a  considerable 
evolution  of  heat.  On  distilling  off  the  bisulphide  of  carbon,  the 
resulting  oil  is  found  to  be  identical  with  the  phenyl-tetrasulphide 
prepared  in  the  above  manner.         , 

The  thirty-ninth  Bulletin  of  the  U.S.  Geological  Survey  con- 
sists of  a  paper  embodying  the  results  of  the  investigations  of 
Mr.  Warren  Upham  upon  the  upper  beaches  and  deltas  of  the 
extinct  Lake  Agassiz,  which,  in  Glacial  times,  occupied  the 
basin  of  the  Red  River  of  the  North.  Mr.  T.  C.  Chamberlain, 
geologist  in  charge  of  the  Glacial  Division,  in  transmitting  Mr. 
Upham's  paper  to  the  Director  of  the  U.S.  Geological  Survey, 
for  publication,  wrote  : — "This  is  but  an  initial  contribution, 
embracing  only  so  much  of  the  data  gathered  as  from  their 
degree  of  completeness  and  interest  warrant  present  publication 
as  a  record  of  results.  The  investigation  is  still  in  progress,  and 
the  general  discussion  of  data  and  the  eduction  of  conclusions 
are  reserved  until  its  completion.  Meanwhile  the  great  mass 
of  carefully-determined  facts  here  recorded  will,  besides  their 
inherent  independent  value,  be  of  important  and  immediate 
service  to  the 'students  of  other  extinct  and  shrunken  Glacial 
lakes. " 


The  U.S.  Department  of  Agriculture  has  issued  an  interest- 
ing descriptive  catalogue  of  manufactures  from  American  woods, 
as  shown  in  the  exhibit  of  the  Department  at  the  Industrial  and 
Cotton  Exposition  at  New  Orleans.  The  compiler  is  Mr.  C. 
R.  Dodge.  He  has  brought  together  many  interesting  facts 
about  the  uses  of  woods  in  architecture  and  building,  in  trans- 
portation, in  implements  of  industry,  in  articles  relating  to  trade, 
in  articles  for  man's  physical  comfort  or  luxury,  and  in  articles 
for  education,  culture,  or  recreation.  There  is  also  a  paragraph 
on  "miscellaneous  uses,"  under  which  are  such  headings  as 
"Gun-stocks,"  "Artificial  Limbs,"  "Crutches,"  and  "Um- 
brella-sticks and  Canes." 

Messrs.  Gurney  and  Jackson  will  issue  in  April  the  first 
part  of  •'  An  Illustrated  Manual  of  British  Birds,"  by  Mr. 
Howard  Saunders.  The  work  will  be  completed  in  about 
twenty  monthly  parts. 

We  have  received  the  eighteenth  Annual  Report  of  the 
Wellington  College  Nat  ural  Science  Society.  It  contains  a 
record  of  much  good  work  done  during  the  past  year.  The 
Report  includes  abstracts  of  lectures  delivered  before  the  Society, 
observations  made  of  the  plants,  insects,  and  birds  contained  in 
the  Royal  Meteorological  Society's  lists,  and  a  meteorological 
report  for  every  day  of  1887. 

In  the  twelfth  Annual  Report  of  the  President  of  the  Johns 
Hopkins  University,  Baltimore,  Dr.  Oilman  says  that  during  the 
last  year  the  number  of  teachers  in  connection  with  the  institu- 
tion was  slightly  enlarged,  and  the  number  of  students  con- 
siderably increased.  A  new  department  of  instruction — pathology 
— was  initiated  ;  a  physical  laboratory,  the  largest  and  costliest 
building  yet  erected  for  the  University,  was  completed  and 
occupied ;  a  building  was  set  apart  for  the  petrographical 
laboratory  ;  and  an  astronomical  observatory,  for  the  instruction 
of  students,  was  equipped.  The  cost  of  the  physical  laboratory, 
including  the  land,  furniture,  gas-fitting,  steam-heating,  and 
astronomical  dome  (but  not  including  large  amounts  paid 
previously  for  instruments  and  apparatus,  and  not  including  the 
dynamos,  nor  the  telescope),  stands,  in  the  books  of  the  trea- 
surer, 1 74, 765 '86  dollars.  This  building  will  be  used  by 
classes  studying  mathematics,  astronomy,  and  physics. 

The  Calendar,  for  the  year  1888,  of  the  Royal  University  of 
Ireland  has  just  been  issued.  The  Drapers'  Company  have 
offered  an  exhibition  of  the  average  annual  value  of  ^^35  for 
three  years,  to  be  awarded,  on  the  result  of  the  matriculation 
examination  of  this  University,  to  the  girl  who,  complying 
with  certain  conditions  stated  in  the  Calendar,  shall  be  awarded 
either  first  or  second  class  honours  in  at  least  two  subjects, 
and  who  shall  obtain  the  highest  aggregate  of  marks  at  the 
examination  to  be  held  on  July  4  next. 

We  have  received  the  Calendar,  for  1887-88,  of  the  Imperial 
University  of  Japan.  An  address  by  President  Watanabe,  on 
the  occasion  of  the  graduation  ceremony,  July  9,  1887,  is 
printed  as  an  appendix.  If  we  may  judge  from  the  tone  of  this 
address,  the  University  is  in  a  prosperous  condition,  and  doing 
justice,  in  its  courses  of  instruction,  to  science  no  less  than  to 
literature  and  law. 

On  February  12,  Mr.  Jeremiah  Curtin  read,  before  the  An- 
thropological Society  of  Washington,  a  paper  of  some  interest 
on  the  folk-lore  of  Ireland.  Last  year  Mr,  Curtin  went  to 
Ireland  for  the  express  purpose  of  finding  out  how  far  the  old 
"myths  and  tales"  were  still  alive  in  the  minds  of  the  people. 
He  visited  some  secluded  parts  of  the  western  coast,  and  "took 
down  personally  a  large  body  of  myths  and  stories,  some  very 
long,  others  not  so  long."  "This  collection  of  materials,"  he 
says,  "is  sufficient  to  fill  a  couple  of  i2mo  volumes,  and  will 


474 


NATURE 


{_March  15,  1888 


give  some  idea  of  what  yet  remains  in  the  Cehic  mind  of  Ire- 
land. It  is,  however,  but  a  small  part  of  the  mental  treasure 
still  in  possession  of  the  people." 

In  the  Proceedings  of  the  American  Philosophical  Society 
(July-December  1887)  there  is  a  most  interesting  paper 
by  Dr.  D.  G.  Brinton  on  ancient  footprints  in  Nicaragua. 
The  discovery  of  human  footprints  in  volcanic  rocks  near 
the  shore  of  Lake  Managua,  Nicaragua,  under  circumstances 
which  seemed  to  assign  to  them  a  remote  antiquity,  was 
announced  several  years  ago.  Dr.  Brinton  refers  especially  to 
a  specimen  on  tufa  sent  to  him  from  Nicaragua,  by  Dr.  Flint, 
an  accurate  representation  of  which  accompanies  the  paper.  It 
is  the  impression  of  a  left  foot.  The  total  length  of  the  impres 
sion  is  9g  inches,  the  breadth  at  the  heel  3  inches,  at  the  toes 
\\  inches.  The  apparent  length  of  the  foot  itself  was  8  inches. 
The  instep  was  high,  and  the  great  toe  large,  prominent,  and 
exceeding  in  length  the  second  toe.  The  greatest  depth  of  the 
impression  is  at  the  ball  of  the  foot,  the  weight  being  evidently 
thrown  forward,  as  in  vigorous  walking.  At  this  part  the  maxi- 
mal depression  below  the  plane  of  the  superficies  is  2  inches. 
Dr.  Brinton  has  no  doubt  as  to  the  genuineness  of  the  foot- 
prints ;  but  their  antiquity,  he  thinks,  is  uncertain.  His  own 
opinion  is  that  there  is  not  sufficient  evidence  to  remove  them 
beyond  the  present  post-Pliocene  or  Quaternary  period. 

Prof.  David  P.  Todd,  astronomer  in  charge  of  the  recent 
American  Eclipse  Expedition  to  Japan,  has  issued  a  Preliminary 
Report  (unofficial)  on  the  total  solar  eclipse  of  1887.  Asso- 
ciated with  this  document  is  a  Preliminary  Report  by  Dr.  W.  J. 
Holland,  naturalist  of  the  Expedition. 

We  have  received  an  illustrated  catalogue  of  the  astronomical 
instruments  and  observatories  of  Sir  Howard  Grubb,  Dublin. 
During  the  last  few  years  Sir  Howard  Grabb  has  executed 
important  astronomical  work  for  many  Governments,  Universi- 
ties, scientific  Societies  and  Academies,  and  the  catalog-ue  affords 
striking  proof  of  the  care  he  tak^s  to  bring  his  various  methods 
and  processes  to  perfection. 

Me.  Stanford  has  issued  an  interesting  volume,  by  Mr.  A. 
B.  Macdowall,  entitled  "Facts  about  Ireland."  It  is  an 
attempt  to  show,  by  means  of  curves,  the  recent  history  of 
various  elements  in  the  social  life  of  the  Irish  people.  Sections 
are  devoted  to  population,  agriculture,  education,  emigration, 
evictions  and  drunkenness,  crime,  consumption  of  spirits,  bank 
deposits,  &c.,  and  occupations.  The  mode  of  repre-entation, 
which  has  been  made  familiar  to  most  people  by  weather  charts, 
has  enabled  Mr.  Macdowall  to  bring  together  in  brief  compass 
a  great  mass  of  information  about  some  very  complicated  and 
difficult  subjects. 

Last  month  Mr.  J.  Clayton  read  before  the  Bradford 
Naturalists'  Society  a  paper  on  Piinis  syh'estris.  This  fact  is 
worth  mentioning,  because  by  using  the  autocopyist  apparatus 
the  author  was  able  to  give  each  member  a  sheet  of  drawings, 
and  another  of  explanations.  We  have  received  specimens  of 
these  sheets,  and  it  seems  to  us  that  the  plan  might  often  be 
adopted  with  advantage  by  readers  of  papers,  and  by  lecturers, 
on  scientific  subjects. 

Inquiries  have  been  made  by  several  correspondents  as  to 
the  photographic  apparatus  used  by  M.  Marey  in  obtaining  the 
results  as  to  the  flight  of  birds  set  forth  in  the  article  in  La 
Nature  of  which  we  lately  printed  a  translation  (p.  369).  No 
complete  account  of  the  apparatus  has  yet  appeared,  but  a 
summary  of  the  facts  relating  to  it  was  given  in  the  Comptes 
rendtis  for  July  3,  1882.  A  note  on  the  subject  was  printed  in 
the  same  publication  on  August  7,  1882.  M.  Marey  proposes 
to  give  a  full  description  in  a  work  on  the  flight  of  birds  and 
insects,  which  wiil  be  issued  in  the  course  of  the  present  year. 


The  object  is  to  obtain  an  indication,  at  every  instant,  of  the 
swiftness  of  the  moving  body  which  is  to  be  photographed,  in  its 
passage  from  point  to  point.  To  secure  this  indication  it  is 
necessary  to  produce,  at  known  intervals,  equal  to  one  another, 
and  as  short  as  possible,  interruptions  in  the  arrival  of  light 
into  the  interior  of  the  photographic  apparatus.  These  inter- 
ruptions M.  Marey  obtains  by  causing  to  turn,  before  the 
objective,  by  means  of  machinery,  a  wheel  which  makes 
ten  revolutions  in  a  second.  This  wheel  has  ten  spokes, 
each  one  of  which,  in  its  passage,  interrupts  the  light. 
The  "eclipses"  thus  caused  occur,  therefore,  a  hundred 
times  per  second  ;  so  that  in  the  photograph  the  space  between 
two  consecutive  points  represents  the  space  crossed  by  the 
photographed  body  in  i/ioo  of  a  second.  In  order  to  indi- 
cate the  relative  positions  of  the  different  parts  of  the  body  at 
the  same  instant,  M.  Marey  makes  one  of  the  spokes  of  the 
wheel  twice  as  large  as  the  others.  The  result,  of  course,  is 
that  there  is  a  longer  "  eclipse  "  at  the  moment  when  this  spoke 
passes.  This  ari-angement  enables  the  observer  to  determine 
without  hesitation  the  relative  positions  of  the  different  points 
of  the  body  at  every  tenth  of  a  second  ;  and  it  has  also  the 
advantage  of  facilitating  the  calculation  of  the  times  in  which 
the  movements  are  made. 

At  Stevens's  rooms,  on  Monday,  an  egg  of  the  extinct  great 
auk  {Alca  inipcnnis)  was  sold  to  Mr.  J.  Gardner  for  ^220.  It 
belonged  to  the  collection  of  Mrs.  Wise,  whose  husband  bought 
it  of  a  dealer  in  Oxford  Street  in  1851  for  ;^i8.  It  was  origin- 
ally brought  to  England  from  Paris,  and  is  now  said  to  have 
been  bought  for  America. 

The  Exhibition  of  Japanese  eng''avings  at  the  Burlington 
Fine  Arts  Club,  and  that  of  Japanese  pictures  in  the  White 
Gallery  in  the  British  Museum,  contain  much  that  is  of  a 
specially  scientific  interest ;  as,  indeed,  could  scarcely  fail  to  be 
the  case  with  such  exhaustive  and  well-arranged  collections  of 
the  pictorial  art  of  a  people  who,  beyond  all  others,  went  to 
Nature  herself  as  the  fount  of  their  inspiration.  Thus  the  col- 
lection of  guide-books  and  topographical  liand-boolis  in  cases 
K,  L,  and  M,  at  the  Burlington  Club,  give  a  remarkable  picture 
of  the  physical  features  of  Japan,  and  one  that,  taken  in 
conjunction  with  such  a  work  as  Dr.  Rein's,  should  be  of  much 
assistance  to  geographers.  Probably  no  literature  in  the  world 
1  is  so  plentifully  supplied  with  guide-books  ns  that  of  Japan  ; 
every  province,  town,  and  district,  has  one  or  more  of  its  own. 
In  many  cases  they  are  works  of  am.bitious  scope  and  v.ide 
utility.  They  indicate  "all  the  spots  famous  for  landscape 
beauties,  collect  learned  records  of  the  historical  and  legendary 
lore  of  the  localities  described,  enumerate  the  various  objects 
of  curiosity  and  archaeological  importance  preserved  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood, contribute  scientific  notes  upon  the  flora  and  fauna 
of  the  district,  and  open  a  fund  of  practical  information  as  to 
industries,  commerce,  and  a  hundred  other  matters  of  interest 
both  to  resident  and  visitor."  Botany  is  remarkably  welt 
illustrated  in  the  books  shown  in  case  O  ;  while  the  silhouettes 
in  case  H,  traced  with  great  accuracy  from  nature,  represent 
almost  every  type  of  the  lower  middle  class  Japanese,  and  should 
be  of  some  ethnographical  value,  especially  as  there  is  a  con- 
siderable number  of  them.  The  many  hundreds  of  birds  and 
oiher  animals  represented  in  the  British  Museum  collection 
(it  will  of  course  be  understood  that  we  are  now  referring  to  the 
whole  of  the  Anderson  Collection,  consisting  of  about  4500  ex- 
amples, not  merely  to  the  273  on  exhibition)  would  form  a  supple- 
ment to  the  works  of  Siebold  and  later  writers.  For  the  student  of 
religions  the  Buddhistic  pictures  supply  many  details  not  to  be 
found  in  any  written  records,  and  the  many  volumes  of  popular 
picture  books  show  a  thousand  elements  of  Oriental  folk-lore, 
customs,  and  handicrafts  that  are  now  on  the  verge  of  extinction. 


March  15,  1888] 


NATURE 


475 


The  additions  to  the  Zoological  Society's  Gardens  during  the 
past  week  include  a  Macaque  Monkey  {Macactis  cynoniolgus  9  ) 
from  India,  presented  by  Mrs.  A.  Ballard  ;  a  White-fronted 
Capuchin  (Celnts  albifroiis  <J  )  from  South  America,  presented 
by  Mrs.  E.  A.  Lediard  ;  a  Binturong  {Arctictis  binturong)  from 
Malacca,  presented  by  Mr.  J.  P.  Rodger,  of  Selangor,  Malay 
Peninsula;  a  Common  Quail  (C^'/wm/j;  commuuis),  captured  at 
sea,  presented  by  Captain  Christian  ;  a  Brazilian  Tortoise 
( Test  lido  tabiilata)  from  Brazil,  deposited  ;  four  Cape  Colys 
(Coitus  capensis)  from  South  Africa,  received  in  exchange. 


OUR  ASTRONOMICAL  COLUMN. 

Annals  of  Harvard  College  Observatory. — We  have 
received  Part  2  of  vol.  xiii.  of  the  Annals  of  Harvard  College 
Obsetvator)',  containing  zone  observations  with  the  transit 
wedge  photometer  attached  to  the  15-inch  equatorial.  These 
observations  were  undertaken  in  order  to  extend  our  knowledge 
of  the  relative  brightness  of  the  fainter  stars,  and  to  determine 
the  scales  of  magnitude  employed  in  the  estimates  of  certain 
observers,  as  compared  with  magnitudes  as  obtained  by  means 
of  the  meridian  photometer.  These  zone  observations  were  not, 
however,  made  with  the  meridian  photometer,  but  with  an 
adaptation  of  Prof,  Pritchard's  wedge  photometer,  which  had 
been  devised  by  Prof.  Pickering.  Instead  of  slipping  the  wedge 
along  by  hand,  the  telescope  and  wedge  are  fixed,  and  the  star  is 
carried  from  the  thin  part  of  the  wedge  towards  the  thick  by  the 
diurnal  motion.  An  occulting  bar  is  fixed  near  the  thin  edge, 
and  the  interval  between  the  time  of  the  occultation  of  a  star  by 
the  bar,  and  its  extinction  by  the  wedge,  is  proportional  to  the 
magnitude  of  the  star  on  the  assumption  of  a  imiform  scale  of 
absorption  throughout  the  wedge.  In  this  way  the  relative  magni- 
tudes, right  ascensions,  and  (by  estimating  the  point  on  the  bar 
where  they  are  occulted)  the  declinations  of  a  number  of  stars 
were  determined  with  great  rapidity,  and  the  repults  made  com- 
parable with  magnitudes  observed  with  the  meridian  photometer 
by  the  observation  of  a  sufficient  number  of  standard  stars.  The 
observations  were  made  in  three  zones  each  10'  in  breadth,  and 
lying  immediately  to  the  south  of  N.  Dec).  1°,  50^,  and  55°,  the 
first  zone  being  part  of  those  observed  more  than  twenty  years 
ago  by  Prof.  Bond,  and  the  other  two  being  situated  on  the 
north  and  south  margins  of  the  zone  recently  revised  with  the 
Harvard  College  meridian  circle.  A  comparison  of  the  D.  M.  mag- 
nitudes between  the  7th  and  9th  with  magnitudes  as  determined 
in  the  preceding  manner  show  that  the  former  closely  con-espond 
to  the  magniUules  derived  from  the  mean  of  the  three  zones,  the 
zone  at  i'  N.  giving  a  value  of  about  two-tenths  of  a  magnitude 
less  than  the  other  two.  But  for  fainter  stars  the  three  zones 
are  in  close  accordance  with  each  other,  whilst  the  D.M.  values 
give  in  comparison  too  small  a  magnitude,  the  difference  in- 
creasing rapidly  until  9-5  magnitude  in  the  Durchmustening\% 
found  to  correspond  to  10-5  with  the  wedge  photometer.  Prof. 
Bond's  scale,  on  the  other  hand,  corresponds  fairly  to  that  of 
the  photometer  from  70  magnitude  up  to  ii'o,  but  beyond  gives 
magnitudes  which  are  too  large,  so  that  his  I3'5  magnitude 
corresponds  to  about  I2"5  of  the  wedge. 

Prof.  Pickering  is  still  continuing  the  investigation,  and  pro- 
poses to  give  hereafter  a  far  more  complete  comparison  for 
D.M.  stars  brighter  than  9 'O  magnitude  with  magnitudes  as  given 
by  the  meridian  photometer. 

Washington  Astronomical  Observations,  1883.— The 
volume  of  the  Observations  of  the  Naval  Observatory,  Wash- 
ington, for  1883,  has  been  pul)lished,  and  contains  the  usual 
routine  observations,  the  bulk  of  the  volume  being  devoted  to 
the  work  with  the  transit-circle,  beside  three  Appendi.xes,  of 
which  two,  by  Prof.  Hall,  on  the  orbits  of  the  inner  satellites 
of  Saturn,  and  on  the  observation  of  certain  stars  for  stellar 
parallax,  have  already  been  noticed.  The  third  Appendix  is 
on  the  Observatory  temperature-room  and  the  competitive  trials 
of  chronometers  in  1884  and  1886.  A  number  of  double  stars, 
the  satellites  of  Saturn,  Uranus,  and  Neptune,  and  the  ring  of 
Saturn,  had  been  observed  with  the  26-inch  equatorial  ;  but  no 
remarkable  changes  were  noticed  in  the  ring.  The  prime  ver- 
tical was  brought  into  use  on  November  14,  1882,  and  580 
ob.servations  of  stars  with  small  meridian  zenith  distances,  at  the 
times  of  the  maxima  of  aberration;  were  secured.  The  meridian 
transit  instrument  of  5^  inches  aperture,  by  Estel,  was  also  used 


regularly,  and  1408  observations  secured  with  it.  The  26-inch 
equatorial  was  used  for  the  observation  of  minor  planets,  comets, 
and  occultations.  The  Report  of  the  Superintendent  includes 
a  notice  of  the  Transit  of  Venus  Expeditions  of  1882,  and  of 
the  reduction  of  the  zone  observations  made  in  Chili  in  the 
years  1850-51-52,  under  Capt.  Gilliss,  A  copy  of  the  letter  of 
the  Superintendent,  asking  for  a  grant  of  $586,138  for  the  pur- 
pose of  erecting  the  new  Observatory,  is  also  given,  together 
with  the  recommendation  of  the  architect  that  the  entire  amount 
be  appropriated  in  one  sum. 


ASTRONOMICAL  PHENOMENA  FOR  THE 
WEEK  1888  MARCH  18-24. 

/'TIJ'OR  the  reckoning  of  time  the  civil  day,  commencing  at 
^  Greenwich  mean  midnight,  counting  the  hours  on  to  24, 

is  here  employed.) 

At  Greenwich  on  March  18 

Sun  rises,  6h.    7m,  ;    souths,    I2h.  8m.  2*os.  ;   sets,    l8h.   9m.  : 

right    asc.     on   meridian,   23h.    54 'om.  ;    decl.    0°  39'  S. 

Sidereal  Time  at  Sunset,  5h.  56m. 
Moon    (at  First    Quarter    March   20,   2ih.)    rises,    8h.    52m.  ; 

souths,  i6h.  26m.  ;  sets,  oh.  lom.*  :  right  asc.  on  meridian, 

4h.  i3-om. ;  deck  16°  30'  N. 


Right  asc.  and  declination 

Planet. 

Rises. 

Souths. 

Sets. 

on  meridian. 

h.     m. 

b.    m. 

h.    m. 

h.      m.                0      , 

Mercury. 

5  23  .. 

.    10  42   . 

.    16      I    . 

.    22  27-5    ...      8   51  S. 

Venus 

5  21  .. 

.    10   18   . 

•  15  IS  • 

.    22     3-8    ...    12   50  S. 

Mars 

20  47*.. 

.27. 

.     7  27  , 

.  13  51-8  ...     8  38  S, 

Jupiter 

0  22  .. 

•     4  34  • 

.     8  46  . 

.  16  i8-6  ...  20  25  S. 

Saturn . . . . 

12  22  .. 

.  20  21   . 

.     4  20*. 

.     8    8-1  ...  20  47  N, 

Uranus  ... 

19  41*.. 

.     I   16  .. 

.     651  . 

•   12  599  ...     5  38  S. 

Neptune.. 

8  17  .. 

IS  57  •■ 

23  37  . 

.     3  43'4  -   18     3N. 

•  Indicates  that  the  rising  is  that  of  the  preceding  evening  and  the  setting 
that  of  the  following  morning. 

Occultations  of  Stars  by  the  Moon  (visible  at  Greenwich). 


Corresponding 

angles  from  ver- 

March.         Star. 

Mag. 

Disap. 

Reap. 

tex  to  right  for 
inverted  image. 

h.    m. 

h.    m. 

0        0 

18  ...  B.A.C.  135 

I    ...  6i  . 

.    18  42    ... 

19  49 

...    162   287 

18  ...  75  Tauri  .. 

...  6     . 

.  22     2  near  approach     48    — 

20  ...  x^  Orion  is 

...  6     . 

.   17  II   ... 

18   32 

...      70   297 

20  ...  68  Orionis 

...  6     . 

.   22  21   ... 

23   25 

...    136   302 

23   ...  B.A.C.  2683    ...  6     . 

.     0  23  ... 

I    13 

...    154   264 

March.            h. 

20      ...        4      ... 

Sun  in  equator. 

22      ...        8      ... 

Jupiter  stationary. 

23      ...        4      ... 

Saturn  in 

conjunction 

with  and  1°  21'  north 

of  the  Moon. 

Variable  Stars. 

Star. 

R.A. 

h.      m. 

Decl. 

h.    m. 

Algol     

3    0-9  • 

..  40'  31  N. 

...  Mar 

24,      I   44  m 

\  Tauri 

3  545  • 

..   12    10  N. 

,, 

18,  20  57  m 

R  Canis  Majoris... 

7  I4'5  • 

.  16    12  S. 

,, 

l8,  23  32  m 

T  Ilydrcx     

8  50-2  . 

.    8  43  S. 

,, 

18,              M 

W  Virginis 

13  20-3  . 

.    2  48  S. 

,, 

18,     I     0  m 

5  Librae        

14  55 'o  . 

..    8    4S. 

,, 

21,    0  14  m 

T  Librae       

IS    4'4  • 

..  19  36  S. 

...     ,, 

1 8,             M 

U  Coronce   

15  I3"6  . 

..32     3N. 

,, 

23,  23  32  m 

S  Scorpii     ...     ... 

16  no. 

..  22  37  S. 

,, 

23,              M 

S  Ophiuchi 

i6  278  . 

..  16  55  S. 

,, 

20,             M 

S  Herculis   

16  46-8  . 

..  15     8N. 

,, 

18,              m 

U  Ophiuchi 

17  10-9  . 

.     I  20  N. 

,, 

21,    3  46  m 
21,  23  52  m 

X  Sagittarii 

17  40-5 

•  27  47  S. 

,, 

18,    3     oM 

Z  Sagittarii 

18  14-8  . 

.  18  55  S. 

,, 

19,     I     0  M 

S  Lyrse 

18  460  . 

•  Zi  14  N. 

>> 

24,    2    0  m^ 

S  Vulpeculte 

19  43"8  . 

.27     I  N. 

,, 

22,              m 

xCygni       

19  46-3  • 

.  32  38  N. 

,, 

19,             M 

S  Sagittas    

19  50-9  • 

.  16  20  N. 

»> 

19,    2    0  m 

T  Vulpeculae 

20  467  . 

.  27  50  S. 

•  •     ,. 

23,     I     0  m 

A/ signifies  maximum  ;  m  minimum  ;  vt^  secondary 

minimum. 

476 


NATURE 


\_March  15,  1888 


ATeteor- Showers. 
R.A.  Decl. 

Near  55  Aurigre 98     ...     46  N.     ...     March  14-25. 

,,     e  Ursa;  Maj oris  ...   143     ...     49  N.     ...     March  20. 
,,     ;9  UrscC  Majoris  . . .   162     ...     58  N.     ...     Rather  slow. 


THE  PUBLIC  GARDENS   OF  BRITISH  INDIA, 
ESPECIALLY  THE  BOTANIC  GARDENS} 

'T'HE  appearance  of  the  hundredth  Annual  Report  of  the 
■^  Royal  Botanic  Garden,  Calcutta,  is  an  event  of  no  little 
interest  in  the  botanical  world,  not  alone  for  what  it  contains, 
but  also  for  the  evidence  it  affords  of  the  vitality  and  vigour  of 
the  institution,  the  primary  object  of  which  was  to  disseminate 
useful  information  respecting  the  vegetable  products  of  the  pos- 
sessions of  the  "Company,"  and  to  introduce  exotic  plants  of 
economic  value. 

Dr.  George  King,  F.  R.S.,  the  present  able  Superintendent, 
gives  a  concise  history  of  the  foundation  and  progress  of  the 
Garden  down  to  the  present  time  ;  and  the  appendices  show  that 
the  establishment  was  never  conducted  with  greater  activity.  We 
might  make  some  interesting  extracts  from  the  present  Report ; 
but  our  object  now  is  to  give  a  foreigner's  view  of  the  principal 
horticultural  establishments  in  India. 

Mr.  Warburg  roughly  classes  the  gardens  under  three  heads, 
according  to  their  degree  of  scientific  and  practical  utility,  as 
distinguished  from  purely  pleasure-gardens,  though  no  hard  and 
fast  line  can  be  drawn,  because  some  of  the  gardens  are  maintained 
partly  for  pleasure  and  partly  for  profit.  There  are  only  three 
real  botanic  gardens  in  India — we  let  Mr.  Warburg  speak  for 
himself — namely,  Calcutta,  Madras,^  and  Saharunpore,  unless  we 
count  the  garden  at  Ganesh  Khind,  near  Poona,  which  is  often 
erroneously  called  a  botanic  garden.  Besides  these,  there  is  the 
botanic  garden  at  Peradeniya  in  Ceylon,  which,  however,  comes 
under  the  Colonial  Office.  Of  the  officially  so-called  botanical 
gardens,  two  were  originally  founded  as  such  by  far-seeing 
officials  :  Calcutta  by  General  Kyd  in  1786,  and  the  Ceylon 
Garden  by  Sir  Joseph  Banks  in  1810  ;  the  latter  having  been 
established  at  Peradeniya  ever  since  1S21.  The  origin  of  the 
Sarahunpore  garden  in  the  North- West  Provinces  I  did  not 
ascertain  [it  was  originally  a  pleasure  garden  of  the  native 
princes,  and  when  Lord  Moira  conquered  the  Mahrattas  he 
caused  it  to  be  transformed  into  a  botanic  garden  ;  and  the  first 
Superintendent  was  Dr.  Govan  (1816-23),  who  was  succeeded  by 
the  better-known  Dr.  Royle,  Dr.  Falconer,  and  Dr.  Jameson]  ; 
and  the  gardens  of  Ootacamund  and  Singapore  have  passed 
through  various  stages  before  attaining  their  present  condition. 
Of  agricultural  experimental  gardens  I  am  acquainted  with  those 
of  Kandesh  (Bombay  Presidency),  Saidapet  (near  Madras),  Nag- 
pore  (Central  Provinces),  and  Hyderabad  (in  the  Deccan). 

There  is  also  a  horticultural  garden  in  Lucknow,  an  agri-hor- 
ticultural garden  in  Lahore  (Punjab),  and  the  beautiful  garden 
at  Madras  belonging  to  an  Agri-horticultural  Society.  Similar 
Societies  exist  in  Calcutta,  Rangoon,  and  probably  in  other 
places  ;  the  first  publishing  a  special  Journal. ^ 

In  almost  every  town  where  there  is  a  considerable  European 
population  or  garrison  there  are  ornamental  gardens  or  parks, 
called  into  existence  by  the  demand,  and  almost  necessity,  for 
some  such  place  for  social  recreation — riding,  driving,  and  walk- 
ing— in  a  tropical  country,  where  many  of  the  pleasures  and 
amusements  of  our  Europeans  towns  cannot  be  enjoyed.  Then 
there  are  numerous  extensive  and  costly  gardens  belonging  to 
the  native  princes  and  nobles.^ 

Respecting  the  gardens  having  a  practical  aim,  we  may  be 
very  concise,  as  their  objects  are  much  the  same,  subject  only  to 
the  climatal  differences  of  the  various  provinces,  and  consequently 
the  kinds  of  plants  that  may  be  profitably  cultivated  within  their 

'  Chiefly  from  an  article  by  O.  Warburg  in  vol.  xliv.  of  the  Botanische 
Zeitung. 

^  Mr.  Warburg  refers  here  doubtless  to  the  Madras  Presidency,  as  the 
botanic  garden  is  at  Ootacamund  in  the  Nilghirries,  and  not  at  Madras.  It 
should  be  understood  that  we  are  only  extracting  passages  from  a  rather  long 
article. 

3  And  we  may  add  that  there  is  an  experimental  garden  in  the  mountains 
at  Mussoorie  m  connection  with  Saharunpore  ;  another  at  Uarjeeling,  partly 
pleasure  and  partly  practical ;  and  an  important  experimental  garden  at 
Mongpo  (Sikkim),  u»der  Mr.  J.  Gammie  :  the  two  last  offshoots  of  Calcutta. 

*_  We  must  pass  on  to  what  Mr.  Warburg  has  to  .say  concerning  the  con- 
ditions and  functions  of  the  botanical  gardens  and  their  adjuncts. 


several  radiuses  of  activity.  The  manner  in  which  these  prac- 
tical .ends  are  attained  consists  on  the  one  hand  of  experiments 
and  trials  in  the  acclimatization  of  useful  and  ornamental 
exotic  plants ;  and  on  the  other  hand  of  raising  new  and 
improved  varieties  of  native  plants  ;  and  when  successful  results 
follow,  propagation  on  a  large  scale  is  practised  for  free  distribu- 
tion or  sale.  Thus,  for  instance,  during  the  year  1884-85  the 
Calcutta  Garden  sent  out  23,500  living  plants  to  various  places 
in  India,  and  forty- two  Wardian  cases  of  plants  to  foreign  coun- 
tries. Further,  some  3000  packets  of  seeds  were  distributed  ; 
yet  the  proceeds  amounted  to  only  1075  rupees,  because  one  of 
the  principal  functions  of  the  Calcutta  Garden  is  to  provide  the 
public  gardens  and  pleasure-grounds  with  plants. 

In  the  same  year  the  Saharunpore  Garden  distributed  as  many 
as  42,000  plants  and  21,300  packets  of  seeds  ;  whereof  31,400 
plants  and  14,000  packets  to  private  persons  ;  the  amount  received 
being  8500  rupees.  But  ornamental  plants,  both  as  livin;^  plants 
and  seeds,  occupy  the  first  position,  while  fruit-trees,  timber- 
trees,  and  seeds  of  vegetables  take  a  secondary  place. 

The  Singapore  Garden  sent  out  the  large  number  of  163,000 
living  plants  in  1884.  These  figures,  however,  are  merely  ex- 
tracted as  examples  of  what  is  done  by  the  different  establish- 
ments, and  afford  no  idea  of  their  relative  importance,  inasmuch 
as  the  number  of  plants  distributed  by  each  one  is  subject  to  the 
greatest  fluctuations  ;  in  illustration  of  which  it  may  be  mentioned 
that  the  Saharunpore  Garden  distributed  146,000  plants  in 
1882-83,  against  42,000  in  1883-84  ;  the  difference  being  almost 
made  up  by  100,000  plants  of  agave.  Similarly  in  1884  the  Hor- 
ticultural Gardens  in  Madras  sold  100,000  plants  of  the  "  Mauri- 
tius hemp,"  Fourcroya gigantea. 

As  already  observed,  the  nature  of  the  work  of  the  different 
gardens  varies  according  to  the  requirements  of  each  district.  In 
many  parts,  especially  in  Ceylon,  the  Nilghirries,  British 
Sikkim,  the  interests  of  European  planters  have  to  be  considered 
first  ;  in  the  rice-growing  districts  of  the  Ganges,  Malabar,  and 
Ceylon,  the  things  cultivated  in  the  gardens  and  plantations 
engage  special  attention.  In  Bengal,  jute,  indigo,  and  to  some 
extent  opiiun,  and  in  Central  and  Northern  India  improvements 
in  the  cultivation  of  cereals,  are  of  primary  consideration  ;  while 
in  the  Bombay  Presidency  and  some  parts  of  Ceylon  cotton  is 
added  thereto  ;  often  associated  with  the  latter  the  sugar-yielding 
palm,  Borassits  jlabcUiformis.  For  the  dry  regions  of  the 
Punjab  it  is  a  question  of  finding  suitable  woody  plants  for 
afforestation,  as  well  as  for  the  saline  soil  of  the  North-West 
Provinces,  in  order  to  provide  fuel  for  the  agricultural  districts, 
and  thereby  gain  the  dung  of  cattle  for  purposes  of  manuring. 
And  among  other  things  of  vast  importance  is  the  conservation 
and  renewal  of  the  rapidly  disappearing  caoutchouc  forests  of 
Malacca. 

The  Singapore  Garden  has  only  been  a  scientific  establishment 
since  1882,  when  it  was  placed  under  the  direction  of  Mr. 
Cantley  ;  but  much  has  been  done  in  these  few  years  without 
destroying  the  natural  beauties  of  the  old  garden.  A  small 
herbarium  has  been  formed,  and  the  most  necessary  buildings 
erected.  The  new  plantations  are,  as  far  as  possible,  system- 
atically grouped.  A  special  charm  of  this  Garden  is  a  remnant 
of  the  original  forest,  traversed  only  by  a  few  paths,  where  one 
can  enjoy,  in  a  small  way,  the  delights  of  tropical  vegetation 
without  the  fatigue  attending  excursions  in  pathless  forests.  The 
fern  garden  and  the  palmetum  promise  to  be  very  rich  and 
attractive  ;  but  a  larger  income  is  necessary  to  carry  out  the 
functions  of  a  botanic  garden  fully  and  expeditiously.  It  is 
perhaps  superfluous  to  add  that  the  Director  has  to  superintend 
the  gardens  and  promenades  of  the  town  ;  but  in  order  to  un- 
derstand the  whole  of  the  circumstances,  it  is  important  to  bear  in 
mind  that  he  has  also  been  placed  at  the  head  of  the  newly  created 
Forest  Department  for  the  whole  of  the  Straits  Settlements — an 
arrangement  which  of  course  causes  him  no  inconsiderable 
amount  of  additional  labour. 

Seeds  and  plants  are  continuously  being  distributed  from  Kew, 
where  all  new  things  are  reported  and  presented,  and  where 
competent  authorities  are  consulted  on  the  merits  of  the  samples 
sent  in.  At  this  centre  advice  is  sought,  and  there  is  a  constant 
interchange  of  ideas  and  experiences  between  it  and  the  Indian 
establishments,  the  advantages  of  which  are  so  evident  that  it  is 
unnecessary  to  enumerate  them. 

With  the  exception  of  rice,  tropical  cultivation  generally  is 
so  uncertain  and  subject  to  fluctuation,  owing  to  the  conditions 
of  labour,  communication,  and  credit,  that  improvements  are  very 
slow  ;  and   the  experimental  work   is  not  so  systematically  con- 


March  15,  1888] 


NATURE 


477 


ducted  as  with  us.  There  are  too  few  officers,  and  everybody  has 
too  much  to  do  ;  nevertheless  many  of  the  reports  exhibit  an 
amount  of  zeal  and  industry  deserving  of  all  the  more  recognition 
on  account  of  the  difficulties  under  which  much  of  the  work  is 
done. 

From  this  point  Mr.  Warburg  explains  and  describes  in  some 
detail  what  has  been  eftected  by  the  combined  action  of  Kevv 
and  the  Indian  botanic  gardens  in  the  introduction,  resulting  in 
the  extensive  cultivation,  of  economic  plants  of  the  first  import- 
ance, such  as  the  cinchona,  tea,  and  coffee,  the  cultivation  and 
manufacture  of  which  have  developed  into  industries  of  incalcul- 
able value.  He  further  alludes  to  the  cultivation  of  rubber- 
trees,  ipecacuanha,  fibre-yielding  plants,  &c,,  which  is,  in 
many  instances,  still  in  a  more  or  less  experimental  stage.  He 
also  enters  into  particulars  and  comparisons  of  the  climate  of 
different  districts  in  its  relations  to  cultivation,  and  altogether  his 
Report  is  an  interesting  and  instructive  one,  containing  much 
information  new  to  the  English  public.  He  specially  mentions 
the  great  interest  taken  in  the  Madras  gardens  by  Sir  Mountstuart 
Grant-Duff,  and  the  material  assistance  he  extended  to  Prof. 
Lawson.  And  he  concludes  with  a  brief  review  of  the  literature 
directly  or  indirectly  connected  with  the  botanic  gardens  of  India, 
culminating  in  Sir  Joseph  Hooker's  gigantic  undertaking,  "  The 
Flora  of  British  India."  With  regard  to  the  intimate  connection 
between  Kew  and  the  Colonial  and  Indian  gardens,  Mr. 
Warburg  thinks  it  is  at  present  most  beneficial,  though  he  looks 
forward  to  the  time  when  they  shall  have  developed  so  far  as  to 
be  less  dependent  on  a  central  institution. 


SCIENTIFIC  SERIALS. 

Revue  d'Anthivpologie,  troisieme  serie,  tome  iii.  fasc.  I  (Paris, 
1888). — On  the  colour  of  the  eyes  and  hair  among  the  non-nomadic 
Tunisian  tribes,  by  Dr.  R.  CoUignon,  based  on  the  observations  of 
Capt.  Rebillet  and  Lieut.  Fannezo.  These  observations,  which  were 
conducted  in  accordance  with  the  methods  employed  in  France 
for  similar  investigations,  refer  to  more  than  2000  individuals 
belonging  to  the  "sedentary"  or  settled  populations  of  the 
towns  and  rural  district^.  The  men  observed  being  all  regular 
soldiers,  the  tables  do  not  refer  to  any  nomads  of  Arab  race, 
since  all  the  dwellers  in  tents  are  exempt  from  conscription  in 
Tunis.  Expressed  in  general  terms,  among  these  2030  indi- 
viduals, dark  eyes  occurred  in  1543  cases,  or  7 '6  per  cent.,  and 
light  eyes  in  69  cases,  or  3-5  per  cent.  ;  while  dark  hair  occurred 
in  1887  cases,  or  92  per  cent.,  and  light  hair  only  in  7  cases, 
or  0-4  per  cent.  On  considering  the  data  obtained  from  a 
comparison  of  the  tables  referring  to  different  districts,  it  is  found 
that  the  blond  type  occurs  only  sporadically,  and  almost  ex- 
clusively in  the  littoral  settlements,  on  which  account  Dr. 
Collignon  thinks  it  may  be  assumed  that  its  presence  in  the 
Tunisian  population  is  due  to  the  incidental  amalgamation  of 
foreign  elements  through  invasion  or  immigration  by  more 
northern  races.— On  the  colour  of  the  eyes  and  lyiirin  Denmark, 
by  Herr  Soren  Hansen  (communicated  to  the  Society  by  Dr. 
Topinard).  From  this  paper  we  learn  that  observations  made 
on  2000  males  of  the  a2:e  of  twenty,  belonging  to  the  southern 
and  eastern  districts  of  Jutland,  yielded  the  following  results  : 
light,  i.e.  blue,  eyes,  1527  ;  dark  eyes,  65  ;  leaving  408  of  medium 
colour.  In  regard  to  the  colour  of  the  hair  it  was  found 
necessary  to  establish  four  groups,  which  gave  the  following 
figures:  dark  brown,  306;  medium,  1267;  light  (blond),  333"; 
and  red,  94.  From  this  it  would  appear  that  the  majority  of 
the  population  have  blue  eyes,  and  medium  brown,  or  chestnut, 
hair.  A  further  analysis  of  Herr  Hansen's  tables  shows  that 
while  the  perfect  brown  type— /.^.  where  both  hair  and  eyes  are 
dark — occurs  only  in  27  per  cent.  ;  blond  hair  and  light  eyes 
are  met  with  in  i6-2  per  cent.  Finally  the  curious  circumstance 
has  been  deduced  that  while  light  eyes  are  twenty-four  times 
more  frequent  than  dark  ones,  light  hair  is  only  seven  times 
more  frequent  than  dark  hair  ;  hence  Dr.  Topinard  is  led  to 
ask  whether  the  explanation  of  [this  peculiarity  may  not  have  to 
be  sought  in  some  general  law  by  which  in  a  mixed  race, 
descended  from  blond  and  dark  races,  the  eyes  may  be  more 
generally  transmitted  from  theformer,  and  the  hair  from  thelatter. 
-—On  recruiting  in  the  cantons  of  St.-Omer,  by  Dr.  H.  Favier. 
The  enormous  difference  in  the  cantons  north  and  SDuth  of  St.- 
Omer  in  the  number  of  persons  available  for  military  service  has 
been  attracting  much  notice  among  French  officers  of  late  years. 
According  to  M.  Costa,  who  wrote  on  the  subject  in  1866,  these 


differences  are  due  to  hygienic  causes  ;  the  district  north  of  St.- 
Omer,  where  the  rejections  are  only  227  in  1000,  being  well 
adapted  to  agricultural  and  other  rural  pursuits,  while  in  the 
southern  canton,  where  the  rejections  amount  to  342  in 
looo  the  lands  are  almost  all  marshy,  exposing  the  inhabitants 
to  fevers  and  other  malarian  influences  by  which  the  race  is 
deteriorated.  Dr.  Favier  does  not  believe  that  these  causes 
affect  the  question  in  any  way,  but,  even  if  they  did  so  when  M. 
Costa  wrote,  statistics  prove  that  of  late  years,  more  especially 
since  the  stricter  law  of  conscription  of  1872  has  been  put  into 
force,  the  south  canton  has  shown  a  gradual  diminution  in  the 
numbers  of  rejections  ;  and  while  he  denies  the  action  of  malarian 
causes  or  the  influence  of  differences  of  ethnic  origin  between 
the  people  of  the  two  cantons,  he  believes  that  to  industrial 
centres,  such  as  d'Arques  in  the  southern  canton,  may  very 
possibly  be  ascribed  certain  conditions  antagonistic  to  the  success 
of  recruiting.— On  the  '' castellets"  oi  Mont  Sainte-Baume  in 
Provence,  by  Dr.  Beranger-Feraud.  The  presence  of  numerous 
little  heaps  of  stones  on  the  higher  peaks  of  Mont  Sainte- 
Baume  has  repeatedly  arrested  the  attention  of  strangers,  and 
the  fact  of  their  having  been  deposited  by  the  hand  of  man  is 
now  confirmed  by  Dr.  B.  Feraud,  who  last  year  made  the 
ascent  of  the  mountain  for  the  purpose  of  investigating  their 
character  and  purpose.  These  so-called  " caslellets"  (little 
castles)  are  either  composed  of  several  stones  forming  a  rude 
sort  of  pyramid,  or  of  one  large  stone  inserted  in  a  fissure  of  the 
rocky  soil.  Although  widely  distributed,  they  are  most  frequent 
in  the  vicinity  of  the  oratory  of  Saint-Pilon,  where  they  are 
found  at  an  elevation  of  nearly  1000  feet,  close  to  the  edge  of  the 
vertical  wall  of  rock  forming  the  northern  boundary  of  the  range. 
On  inquiry  he  learnt  that  these  structures  were  also  locally 
designated  mouloiins  de  joye  (heaps  of  joy),  and  that  they  were 
not  alone  intended  to  testify  to  the  successful  ascent  of  the 
pilgrims  to  the  summit  of  St.  Pilon,  but  were  frequently  designed 
to  propitiate  St.  Magdalen,  to  whom  prayers  are  made  on  the 
spot  for  approval  of  the  special  maiden  whom  the  worshipper 
may  desire  to  marry.  In  the  latter  case  the  mound  is  visited 
by  the  builder  at  the  end  of  a  year,  and  if  he  finds  the  stones 
undisturbed  he  considers  that  the  saint  approves  of  his  choice  ; 
if,  however,  the  heap  is  broken  up,  this  is  generally  regarded  as  a 
decisive  barrier  against  the  intended  marriage.  In  this  super- 
stition. Dr.  B.  Feraud  sees  a  survival  of  the  ancient  usage  of 
erecting  stone  monuments  as  altars,  pillars,  menhirs,  &c.,  to 
commemorate  some  important  personal  event. — On  inequality 
amongst  men,  by  M.  de  Lapouge.  In  this  address  the  view 
is  boldly  advocated  that  a  man  is  what  his  birth  made  him,  and 
that  education  can  do  no  more  for  him  than  develop  the  pre- 
existing germs  derived  from  his  progenitors  in  accordance  with 
the  laws  of  heredity.  This  reasoning  is  extended  to  classes, 
nations,  and  races,  who  are  assumed  to  be  unequal,  and  incapable 
of  attaining  to  an  equal  degree  of  perfection.  The  writer  divides 
men  into  four  classes,  in  the  first  of  which  he  places  those 
possessed  of  creative  and  initiative  faculties  above  their 
fellows,  while  it  is  to  the  relative  numerical  preponderance  of 
this  class  over  the  others  that  he  refers  the  undoubted  superiority 
of  one  race  over  another.  He  thus  sees  in  the  dolichocepalic 
blonds  the  most  favoured  of  all  the  races  of  humanity,  since, 
from  the  dawn  of  history,  all  heroes  and  leaders  among  men 
have  belonged  to  this  type.  In  modern  times  the  Anglo-Saxon 
race  has  owed  its  superiority  to  the  preponderance  of  this 
dolichocephalic  element.  He  believes  that  France  is  suffering 
from  the  diminution  of  this  type  in  its  population,  together 
with  the  rising  predominance  of  the  brachycephalic  type  to 
which  the  lower  classes  of  the  community  belong,  while  he 
anticipates  as  inevitable  a  great  deterioration  of  the  general 
national  character  through  the  amalgamation  of  the  two.  Simi- 
larly he  sees  in  the  present  movement  for  raising  the  negro 
races  a  deep  source  of  danger  in  the  future  to  the  more  highly 
gifted  Aryan  races,  who  may  in  time  find  themselves  beaten 
down  by  the  brute  force  of  teeming  masses  of  inferior  brachy- 
cephalic peoples.  Such  are  some  of  the  leading  points  in  M. 
de  Lapouge's  treatise,  which,  notwithstanding  its  redundancy 
of  diction,  and  the  dogmatism  with  which  certain  views  are 
maintained,  is  a  highly  interesting,  suggestive,  and  learned 
contribution  to  ethical  inquiry. 

Bulletin  de  V Acadhnie  Royale  de  Belgique,  December  1887. — 
On  some  new  derivatives  of  normal  heptylic  alcohol  compared 
with  their  homologues,  by  C.  Winssinger.  After  describing  the 
mode  of  formation  and  special  properties  of  normal  heptylic 
alcohol,   of  the  chlorides  of  heptyl,  heptylic  mercaptan,  oxy- 


478 


NA  TURE 


\_AIarck  15, 


sulphide,  sulphone,  and  some  other  new  bodies,  the  author 
develops  some  general  considerations  on  the  homologous  series 
to  which  belong  the  heptylic  sulphureted  derived  substances. 
These  considerations  throw  fresh  light  on  the  evolution  of  the 
physical  and  chemical  properties  of  compound  bodies  through 
the  various  species  of  a  common  genus.  Tlius  it  is  shown  that 
the  chemical  character  of  the  heptylic  combinations  must  be 
considered  as  the  development  of  properties  whose  source  or 
origin  is  already  found  in  the  lower  terms  of  the  series  of  which 
heptyl  is  a  member. — A  contribution  to  the  study  of  the  de- 
velopment of  the  epiphysis  and  of  the  third  eye  in  reptiles,  by 
M.  Francotte.  This  third  eye,  of  the  invertebrate  type,  already 
described  by  Graaf  and  Spencer,  is  here  exhaustively  studied  in  a 
large  number  of  reptilian  embryos  from  the  province  of  Namur, 
in  all  of  which  it  is  very  distinctly  traced  from  the  epiphysis  at 
the  roof  of  the  thalamencephalon  to  the  complete  development 
of  the  pineal  organ.  In  one  species  of  lizard  this  eye  passes 
through  a  series  of  successive  phases  each  realized  in  a  permanent 
way  in  one  or  other  of  the  adult  reptiles.  But  in  all  of  them 
the  optic  nerve  has  disappeared,  which  connected  the  organ  with 
the  nerve-centres  for  a  short  time  in  the  embryonic  state. — This 
number  of  the  Bulletin  contains  an  exhaustive  memoir  on  the 
fresh-water  fishes  of  Belgium,  by  Baron  Edm.  de  Selys  Long- 
champs. 


SOCIETIES  AND  ACADEMIES. 
London. 

Royal  Society,  February  16. — "A  new  Method  of  deter- 
termining  the  Number  of  Micro-organisms  in  Air."  By  Prof. 
Carnelley,  D.Sc,  and  Thos.  Wilson,  University  College,  Dundee. 
Communicated  by  Sir  Henry  Roscoe,  F.  R.S. 

This  is  a  modification  of  Hesse's  well-known  process.  It 
consists  essentially  in  the  substitution  of  a  flat-bottomed  conical 
flask  for  a  Hesse's  tube.  Its  chief  advantages  are  :  (i)  much 
smaller  -cost  of  flask  and  fittings  as  compared  with  Hesse's 
tubes ;  (2)  very  much  fewer  breakages  during  sterilization  ; 
(3)  great  economy  in  jelly  ;  (4)  freedom  from  leakage  during 
sterilization  ;  (5)  results  not  vitiated  by  aerial  currents. 

"  Notes  on  the  Number  of  Micro-organisms  in  IMoorland  Air." 
By  the  same  Authors. 

A  number  of  determinations  made  last  August  "on  the 
heather"  in  the  n^rth  of  Forfarshire  show  that  the  pure  air 
from  the  hills  and  moors  far  removed  from  towns  was  free  from 
Bacteria,  but  contained  on  the  averao;e  3 '5  moulds  per  10  litres 
of  air.     In  winter  the  number  would  be  still  less. 

Linnean  Society,  March  i. — Mr.  Carruthers,  F.  R.S., 
President,  in  the  chair. — An  interesting  collection  of  ferns  from 
the  Yosemite  Valley  was  exhibited  by  Mr.  W,  Ransom,  who 
also  showed  some  admirable  photographs  of  rare  plants,  many  of 
them  of  the  natural  size. — Mr.  J.  E.  Harting  exhibited  a  coloured 
drawing,  life-size,  of  a  South  American  game  bird  (the  Rufous 
Tinamu)  which  has  been  successfully  introduced  into  this 
country  at  Brightlingsea,  Essex,  by  Mr.  J.  Bateman,  and  made 
some  remarks  on  its  affinities,  pecuharities  of  structure,  and 
habits.  In  a  discussion  which  followed  Prof.  Mivart,  Mr.  Christy, 
and  Mr.  W.  H.  Hudson  took  part,  the  last-named  giving  some 
account  of  the  bird  from  personal  observation  of  its  habits  in  the 
Argentine  Republic. — The  first  paper  of  the  evening  was  then 
read  by  Mr.  E.  G.  Baker  on  a  new  genus  of  Cytinace^e  from 
Madagascar.  This  curious  plant,  to  which  the  author  has  given 
the  name  of  Botryocytinus,  grows  parasitically  on  the  trunks  of 
a  tree  of  the  natural  order  Hamamelidece.  Its  nearest  ally  is 
Cytimis,  of  which  the  best  known  species  grows  on  the  roots  of 
the  Cistnses  of  the  Mediterranean  basin.  The  Madagascar  plant 
is  without  any  stem,  and  the  sessile  flowers  grow  in  clusters, 
surrounded  by  an  involucre.  Each  cluster  is  unisexual,  and  the 
ovary  is  unicellular,  with  about  a  dozen  parietal  placentae  and 
innumerable  minute  ovules.  It  was  discovered  during  a  recent 
exploration  of  the  Sakalava  country,  by  the  Rev.  R.  Baron,  of 
the  London  Missionary  Society. — The  next  paper,  by  Mr.  J.  F. 
Cheeseman  (communicated  by  Sir  Joseph  Hooker,  F.  R.  S.),  was 
entitled  "Notes  on  the  Fauna  and  Flora  of  the  Kermadec 
Islands,"  and  as  regards  the  flora  might  be  considered  as  supple- 
mentary to  a  paper  on  the  flora  of  these  islands,  published  by 
Sir  Joseph  Hooker  more  than  twenty  years  ago  (Journ.  Linn.  Soc, 
1856).     These   islands,  situated  about  450  miles  north-east  of 


New  Zealand,  between  that  country  and  Fiji,  were  shown  to  be 
of  volcanic  origin,  with  a  fauna  and  flora  resembling  to  a  great 
extent  those  of  New  Zealand.  A  few  land  birds  were  noted  as 
common  to  New  Zealand  ;  and  to  the  list  of  plants  drawn  up  by 
Sir  Joseph  Hooker,  from  collections  made  by  Macgillivray, 
several  new  species  were  added  by  Mr  Cheeseman,  chiefly  ferns. 
A.  discussion  followed,  and  in  illustration  of  Mr.  Cheeseman's 
remarks,  Mr.  J.  G.  Baker  exhibited  specimens  of  a  new  endemic 
Duvalia  closely  allied  to  the  well-known  D.  canariensis  of  the 
Canary  Islands  and  Madeira. 

Geological  Society,  February  17.— Annual  Genera]  Meet- 
ing.— Prof.  J.  W.  Judd,  F.  R.S.,  President,  in  the  chair. — The 
Secretaries  read  the  Reports  of  the  Council  and  of  the  Library 
and  Museum  Committee  for  the  year  18S7.  The  President  pre- 
sented the  Wollaston  Gold  Medal  to  Mr.  Henry  Benedict 
Medlicott,  F.R.S.  He  also  handed  to  Dr.  Archibald  Geikie 
the  balance  of  the  proceeds  of  the  Wollaston  Donation  Fund  for 
transmission  to  Mr.  John  Home,  and  the  Murchison  Medal  for 
transmission  to  Prof.  J.  S.  Newberry.  The  balance  of  the  pro- 
ceeds of  the  Murchison  Geological  Fund  was  handed  to  Dr. 
Henry  Woodward  for  transmission  to  Mr.  Edward  Wilson  ;  and 
the  President  presented  the  Lyell  Medal  to  Prof.  H.  Alleyne 
Nicholson,  one  moiety  of  the  balance  of  the  proceeds  of  the 
Lyell  Geological  Fund  to  Mr.  Arthur  Humphreys  Foord,  and 
the  second  moiety  of  the  balance  of  the  proceeds  of  the  Lyell 
Geological  Fund  to  Mr.  Thomas  Roberts.  '  The  President  then 
read  his  Anniversary  Address,  which  we  have  already  printed. — 
The  ballot  for  the  Council  and  Oflicers  was  taken,  and  the 
following  were  duly  elected  for  the  ensuing  year  : — President : 
W.  T.  Blanford,  F.R.S.  Vice-Presidents  :  John  Evans,  F.R.S.  ; 
Prof.  T.  McKenny  Hughes  ;  Prof.  ].  Prestwich,  F.R.S.  ;  Henry 
Woodward,  F.R.S.  Secretaries  :  "W.  H.  Hadleston,  F.R.S.  ; 
].  E.  Marr.  Foreign  Secretary :  Sir  Warington  W.  Smyth, 
F.R.S.  Treasurer:  Prof.  T.  Wiltshire.  Council:  W.  T. 
Blanford,  F.R.S.;  John  Evans,  F.R.S.;  L.  Fletcher;  A. 
Geikie,  F.R.S.  ;  Henry  Hicks,  F.R.S.  ;  Rev.  Edwin  Hill  ;  W. 
H.  Hudleston,  F.R.S.;  J.  W.  Hulke,  F.R.S.;  Prof.  T. 
McKenny  Hughes  ;  Prof.  T.  Rupert  Jones,  F.R.S.;  Prof.  J. 
W.  Judd,  F.R.S.  ;  R.  Lydekker  ;  Lieut.-Col.  C.  A.  McMahon  ; 
J.  E.  Marr  ;  E.  T.  Newton  ;  Prof.  J.  Prestwich,  F.  R.  S.  ;  Prof. 
H.  G.  Seeley,  F.R.S.  ;  Sir  Warington  W.  Symth,  F.R.S.  ;  W. 
Topley ;  Rev.  G.  F.  Whidborne  ;  Prof.  T.  Wiltshire  ;  Rev.  H. 
H.  Winwojd  ;  Henry  Woodward,  F.  K.S. 

February  29.— W.  T.  Blanford,  F.R.S.,  President,  in  the 
chair. — The  following  communications  were  read  : — An  estimate 
of  post-Glacial  time,  by  T.  Mellard  Reade.  The  _author 
showed  that  there  exists  on  the  co.asts  of  Lancashire  and 
Cheshire  an  important  series  of  past- Glacial  deposits  which  he 
has  studied  for  many  years.  The  whole  country  to  which  his 
'notes  refer  was  formerly  covered  with  a  mantle  of  low-level 
marine  boulder-clay  and  sands,  and  the  valleys  of  the  Dee, 
Mersey,  and  Ribble  were  at  one  time  filled  with  these  Glacial 
deposits.  These  Glacial  beds  have  been  much  denuded,  especially 
in  the  valleys,  where  the  rivers  have  cleared  them  out,  in  some 
cases,  to  the  bed  rock.  Most  of  this  denudation  occurred  dur- 
ing a  period  of  elevation  succeeding  the  deposition  of  the  low- 
level  boulder-clay.  On  this  eroded  surface  and  in  the  eroded 
channels  lie  a  series'of  post-Glacial  beds  of  a  most  interesting  and 
extensive  nature.  They  consist  of  estuarine  silt  and  So-ohictdaria 
clay  covered  by  extensive  peat-deposits,  containing  the  stools  of 
trees  rooted  into  them.  Upon  these  lie,  in  some  places,  recent 
tidal  silts,  and  on  the  coast  margin  blown  sand  and  sand  dunes. 
The  series  of  events  represented  by  the  denudation  of  the  low- 
level  boulder-clay  and  the  laying  down  of  these  deposits  is  as 
follows  : — (i)  Elevation  succeeding  the  Glacial  period,  during 
which  time  the  boulder-clay  was  deeply  denuded  in  the  valleys. 
(2)  Subsidence  to  about  the  25  feet  contour,  when  the  estuarine 
silts  and  clays  were  laid  down.  (3)  Re-elevation,  representing 
most  probably  a  continental  connection  with  the  British  Isles, 
during  which  time  the  climate  was  milder  than  at  present,  and 
big  trees  flourished  where  now  they  will  not  grow.  (4)  Sub- 
sidence to  the  present  level,  the  submersion  of  the  peat  and 
forest-beds,  the  laying  down  of  tidal  silt  upon  them,  and  the 
accumulation  of  blown  sand  along  the  sea-margin  extending  to  a 
considerable  distance  in  an  inland  direction.  It  was  estimated, 
from  a  variety  of  considerations,  that  these  events,  all  posterior 
to  the  Glacial  period,  represent  a  lapse  of  time  of  not  less  than 
57,500  years,  allotted  as  follows  :  40,000  years  for  the  elevation 
succeeding  the  Glacial  period,  measured  by  the  denudation  of  the 


March  15,  1888] 


NA  rURE 


479 


boulder- clay  in  the  val'eys  ;  15,000  ycar.s  In  lhu  .iv,cumulation  of 
the  estuarine  silts,  clays,  peat,  and  fore>t  beds  ;  and  2500  years 
for  the  blown  sand.  In  the  discussion  which  followed  the  read- 
ing of  this  paper  Prof.  Prestvvich,  Mr.  De  Ranee,  Dr.  Evans,  and 
others  took  part. — Note  on  the  movement  of  scree-material,  by 
Charles  Davison.  Communicated  by  Prof.  T.  G.  Bonney, 
F.  R.S. — On  some  additional  occurrences  of  tachylyte,  by 
Grenville  A.  J.  Cole.— Appendix  to  Mr.  A.  T.  Metcalfe's  paper 
"  On  Further  Discoveries  of  V'ertebrate  Remains  in  the  Triassic 
Strata  of  the  South  Coast  of  Devonshire,  between  Budleigh  Sal- 
terton  and  Sidmouth,"  by  II.  J.  Carter,  F. R.S.  Communicated 
by  A.  T.  Metcalfe. 

Mathennatical  Society,  March  8.— Sir  J.  Cockle,  F.R.S., 
President,  in  the  chair. — The  following  papers  were  read  :  — 
.Supplementaary  remarks  on  tlie  theory  of  distributions,  by  Capt. 
P.  A.  MacMahon,  R.A. — Complex  multiplication  moduli,  by 
Mr.  A.  G.  Greenhill. — Geometrical  proof  of  Feuerbach's  nine- 
point  circle  theorem,  by  Prof.  Genese.— Isostereans,  by  Mr.  R. 
Tucker. 

Anthropological  Institute,  February  2S. — Francis  Galton, 
F.R.  S.,  President,  in  the  chair. — The  election  of  Mr.  Henry 
C.  Collyer  was  announced. — Dr.  Edward  B.  Tylor  read  a  com- 
munication from  Mr.  Basil  Hall  Chamberlain,  on  the  Japanese 
"go-hei,"  or  paper  offerings  to  the  Shinto  gods.  In  olden 
times  the  offerings  were  made  of  cloth,  but  later  on,  when 
Chinese  civilization  had  brought  a  variety  of  manufactures  in  its 
train,  hempen  cloth  ceased  to  be  regarded  as  a  treasure  worthy 
of  divine  acceptance,  and  paper  began  to  be  used  instead.  The 
"  go-heis  "  used  by  different  sects  differ  slightly  from  one  an- 
other, chiefly  in  the  number  of  the  folds  :  the  Yoshida  sect 
sanctions  the  use  of  four  folds,  while  the  Shirakavva  sect  has 
eight.  There  is  said  to  be  no  symbolism  attaching  to  the  shape, 
number  of  folds  in  the  paper,  or  the  length  of  the  stick  ;  each 
sect  has  clung  to  its  traditional  practice  in.these  matters.  Spe- 
cimens of  "  go-heis  "  were  exhibited  in  illustration  of  the  paper. 
— Mr.  Henry  Balfour  exhibited  a  series  of  decorated  arrows 
from  the  Solomon  Islands,  in  illustration  of  his  theory  of  the 
manner  in  which  the  decoration  of  the  shafts  was  gradually 
developed. — Dr.  Tylor  gave  a  brief  account  of  a  paper  by  Mr. 
A.  W.  Howitt,  "  Further  Notes  on  the  Australian  Class  Sys- 
tems," and  in  the  course  of  the  discussion  the  President  showed 
a  very  simple  method  of  understanding  the  complicated-looking 
system  of  Australian  marriages,  by  supposing  a  cross-division 
of  the  tribes. 

Edinburgh. 

Royal  Society,  Februaiy  6. — Sir  W.  Thomson,  President, 
in  the  chair. — Prof.  Crum  Brown  showed  and  described  an 
apparatus  for  exhibiting  the  action  of  the  semicircular  canals. 
The  apparatus  is  also  gapable  of  application  as  an  instrument  for 
the  measurement  of  the  irregularity  of  angular  motion. — Mr. 
John  Murray  read  a  paper  on  the  temperature  and  currents  in 
the  lochs  of  the  west  of  Scotland,  as  affected  by  winds.  He 
showed  that  when  the  wind  is  blowing  off  shore  the  warm  surface 
water  is  blown  outwards  and  cold  water  takes  its  place  from 
beneath.  When  the  wind  blows  on  shore  the  warm  surface 
water  is  driven  inwards.  This  point  is  of  great  importance,  as  it 
has  an  evident  bearing  on  the  growth  of  coral-forming  animals. 
— Mr.  Murray  also  communicated  a  paper  by  Mr.  W.  G.  Reid 
on  the  solution  of  carbonate  of  lime  in  sea  water  under  pressure. 
The  results  of  Mr.  Reid's  experiments  show  that  the  solubility 
is  increased  by  pressure. — Mr.  Murray  then  discussed  the  dis- 
tribution of  carbonate  of  lime  on  the  floor  and  in  the  waters  of 
the  ocean. — Mr.  John  Aitken  read  a  paper  (see  Nature, 
March  i,  p.  428)  on  the  number  of  dust  particles  in  the  atmo- 
sphere, giving  a  full  account  of  the  apparatus  used  and  the 
method  of  experimenting. 

Paris. 

Academy  of  Sciences,  March  5. — M.  Janssen  in  the 
chair. — Remarks  on  the  first  volume  of  Fourier's  works  pre- 
sented to  the  Academy,  by  M.  G.  Darboux.  This  volume  of 
the  complete  edition  of  Fourier's  works,  now  being  ii^sued  with 
the  aid  of  the  Minister  of  Public  Instruction,  contains  the  full 
text  of  the  "Theorie  analytique  de  la  Chaleur,"'  carefully  revised 
by  MM.  Darboux  and  Paul  Morin. — On  the  transformation  of 
the  nitrates  present  in  the  soil  into  nitrous  organic  compounds, 
by  M.  Berthelot.  The  experiments  here  described  have  been 
carried  out  for  the  purpose  of  showing  that  the  nitrates  contained 


in  the  ground  do  not  occur  in  an  integral  state  even  indepen- 
dently of  the  formation  of  the  higher  plants.    Oa   the  contrary, 
they  may  be  changed  into  nitrous  principles  of  organic   nature 
under  the  influence  of  cliemical  agents  i>roperly  so-called,  or  of 
certain  microbes  present  in  the  soil.      It  is  suggested  that  these 
microbes  assimilate  the  combined  nitrogen  when  presented  to 
them  in  a  convenient  form,  preferring  it   to  the  free  nitrogen  of 
the  atmosphere,   thus  reversing  the  action  of  the  microbes  of 
nitrification.     The  general  inference  is  that  the  assimilation  of 
the  nitrogen  of  the  nitrates  by  plants  is  accompanied,   if  not 
preceded,  by  their   transformation   into   nitrous    organic,  com- 
pounds in   the  earth  under   the  influence  of  chemical  reactions 
and  special  microbes.     Tliese  microbes  are  perhaps  the  same  as 
those  which   fix  free  atmospheric  nitrogen    in  soil  destitute  of 
nitrates.  In  this  way  might  be  formed  true  azoic  compounds  derived 
at  oncefrom  the  oxygenated  and  hydrogenated  compounds  of  nitro- 
gen.— On  perfect  numbers,  by  Prof  Sylvester.    A  slight  omission 
pointed  out  by  M.  Mansion  in  the  author's  recent  paper  on  this 
subject  is  shown  in  no  way  to  affect  the  validity  of  the  demon- 
stration.—  On    Saccharomyccs    elUpsouicus    and    its     industrial 
applications  to  the  manufacture  of  a  barley  wine,  by  M.  Georges 
Jacquemin.       A  process  is  described  by  which  a  tartarized  wort 
of  barley  is  made  to  yield  a  true  wine  of  pleasant  taste,  and  more 
nutritive  than  grape  wine,  containing  as  it  does  more  respiratory 
aliments,  besides  an  albuminoid  substance,  and  a  larger  propor- 
tion of  phosphates  calculated  to  restore  the  nervous  system  and 
the  bony  tissues.     It  also  differs  from  white  grape  wine  by  being 
copiously  precipitated  by  tannin,  while  a  portion  of  the  malt 
may  be  replaced  by  crushed  grain  (wheat  or  barley)  that  has 
not    sprouted.       This  wheat   or    barley   wine  is   stated   to    be 
equal  in  quality  and  cheaper  than  that  of  pure  malt,  and  the 
vinous  wort  in  question  is  an  alcoholic  fermentation  of  a  totally 
distinct  character  from  the  ordinary  yeast  of  beer. — Immediate 
solution  of  equations  by  means  of  electricity,  by  M.  Felix  Lucas. 
A  method  is  described  by  which  an  algebraic  equation  of  any 
degree  with  real  numerical  coefficients   may  be  directly  solved 
without  calculations  by  means  of  electricity.     The  process  here 
explained  is  much  more  rapid  than  the  two  methods  indicated  in 
previous  communications.     However  high  the  equation,  a  single 
operation   suffices  to  obtain  all   the  roots,    real  or  imaginary. 
"  The  power  of  electricity  as  a  calculator  is  not  to  be  limited." 
— On  the  electric  conductibility  of  concentrated  nitric  acid,  by 
M.  E.  Bouty.     In  previous  papers  it  was  shown  that   a  very 
slight   addition   of    alkaline   nitrates  to  the   acid    increases   its 
conductibility  to  a  considerable  extent.     Here  it  is  made  evident 
that  the  addition  of  water  also  causes  an  increase  of  conducti- 
bility nearly  proportionate  to  the  quantity  of  added  water.    This 
approximate  proportion  is  maintained  even  much  further  than 
with  the  nitrates,  nearly  to  N05,4HO.     A  table  is  given  show- 
ing the  degrees  of  conductibility  measured  at  o"  C,  and  referred 
to  that  of  the  normal  solution  of  nitric  acid  at  one  equivalent 
per  litre,  the  specific  resistance  being  4*59  ohms. — On  cinchoni- 
line,    by   MM.    E.    Jungfleisch   and    E.    Leger.      In  previous 
communications    the    conditions   were  explained    under  which 
cinchoniline   is  formed    and   separated    in    the    state   of  a  di- 
iodhydrate.     Here  the  authors  deal  with  this  base  and  its  chief 
derivatives.      That    this    substance,    which    has    the    formula 
C.)gH.,.,N„0.i,  is  isomerous  with  cinchonine,  is  made  evident  not 
only  by  the  analysis  of  the  base  itself,  but  also  of  that  of  a  large 
number  of  combinations.     In  ether  it  forms  magnificent  rhom- 
boidal  prisms,  colourless,  anhydrous,  and  often  attaining  a  weight 
of  several  grammes.     It  dissolves  readily  in  ordinary  alcohol, 
but  with  difficulty  in  water,  its  aqueous  solution  giving  a  deep 
blue  tint  to  turnsol  (Dutch  orchil),  and  a  red  to  the  phthaleine  of 
phenol.     Its  basic  and  neutral  salts  present  some  remarkable 
crystallographic  properties.— Products  of  the  oxidation  of  the 
hydronitrocamphenes,  by  M.  C.  Tanret.     From  the  oxidation  of 
these  substances  the  author  has  obtained  several  new  compounds, 
which  are  here  described.     The  new  substance,  answering  to  the 
formula  CgflHe^NjOig,  he  proposes  to  call  nitrocamphene  {azo- 
camphinc),  distinguishing  its  two  modifications  as  cyanonitro- 
camphene  and  leukonitrocamphene.     They  are  isomerous,  their 
analysis    yielding    the    same    constituents.— On    terpinol,    an 
artificial    reproduction    of    eucalyptol   (terpane),    by    MM.    G. 
Bouchardat   and   R.    Voiry.     These   researches   show  that  the 
terpinol  of  List  is  formed  of  a  crystallized  inactive  terpilenol  or 
terpol,   CaoH^aOa,   boiling  at  218"  C.  ;   of  terpane,^  CooHigO.,, 
boiling  at   175%  and  capable  of  crystallizing  at  -  i"  ;    lastly  of 
inactive  terpilene,  CgoPIje-     Terpane,  which  term  is  here  sub- 
stituted for  the  older  cineol,  eucalyptol,  cajeputol,  spicol,  &c., 
differs  also  from  the  active  and  inactive  terpilenols  by  refusing  to 


48o 


NATURE 


{March  15,  1888 


combine  either  with  the  acids  or  the  anhydrides  to  yield  ethers. 
— Deleterious  influence  of  alcohol  on  offspring,  by  MM.  A. 
Mairet  and  Combemale.  The  results  are  described  of  some  ex- 
periments on  dogs,  showing  that  their  progeny  were  injuriously 
affected  for  two  successive  generations  by  the  influence  of  alcohol 
administered  under  various  conditions  to  the  parents. 

Berlin. 
Physiological     Society,     February     lo.  —  Prof,    du     Bois 
Reymond,  President,  in  the  chair. — Dr.  Baginski  spoke  on  the 
origin  and  course  of  the  auditory  nerve.     As  the  result  of  experi- 
ments on  young  cats,  in  which  the  peripheral  end  of  this  nerve 
had  been  destroyed,  and  which  were  then  killed  at   the  end  of 
six  weeks,  he  was  able  to  follow  the  course  of  the  degeneration  by 
means  of  a  series  of  sections  through  the  root  of  the  nerve  to 
the  posterior  corpus  quadrigeminum.     In  this  way  his  earlier 
experiments  on  rabbits  were  fully  confirmed.     The  degeneration 
spread  to  the  olivary  body  of  the  same  side,  and  was  continued 
through  the  trapezium  of  the  pons.     After  removal  of  the  facial 
nerve  the  olivary  body  was  similarly  found  to  be  affected.    These 
observations  are  closely  connected  with  those  of  von  Monakow 
who  found  that  destruction  of  the  auditory  centre,  described  by 
Munk,  led  to  a  degeneration  which  could  be  traced  right  into  the 
hinder  corpora  quadrigemina.     At  present  no  observations  are  in 
existence  as  to  the  course  of  the  anterior  root  of  the  auditory 
nerve. — Dr.    Rawitz  gave  an  account  of  the  results  of  his  re- 
searches ontheeyes  of  mussels,  and  explained  the  same  byreference 
to  preparations  which  he  exhibited.     Three  distinct  types  may 
be  observed  among  the  eyes,  sometimes  to  the  number  of  one 
hundred,  which  occur  on  the  edge  of  the  mantle  of  Pecten.   Each 
eye  consists  of  an  epithelial  layer,  a  lens,  and  a  retina  composed 
of  rods,  whose  ganglionic  layer  is  on  the  side  turned  towards  the 
light,  while  the  rods  are  turned  away  from  the  light  and  abut 
on  the  tapetum  and  layer  of  pigment  cells.     The  speaker  had 
been   able  to  trace  the  endings  of  the  nerves  through  the  cells 
connected  with  the  rods  into  the  rod  itself.     The  mussels  are 
only  able  to  see  with  the  central  portions  of  each  eye. — Dr. 
Virchow  presented   and  explained  a  plaster  cast  of  the  gluteal 
region.     He  had  had  this  cast  made  in  order  to  throw  light  upon 
a  deep  furrow  which  extends  from  the  gluteus  maximus  to  the 
tensor  muscle,  and  is  not  due  to  the  edge  of  either  of  these  muscles. 
This  furrow  may  be  observed  in  the  sitting  posture,  and  is  due  to 
the  stretching  by  the  point  of  the  trochanter  of  a  portion  of  the 
fascia  which  envelop  the  gluteus  medius  :  by  this  means  the 
gluteus  medius  is  divided  into  two  projecting  portions.     When 
this  muscle  contracts,  the  furrow  disappears. 

February  24. — Prof,  du  Bois-Reymond,  President,  in  the  chair. 
— Prof.   Liebreich  spoke  on  the  testing  of  the    action  of  local 
anesthetics  on  animals.    There  are  a  number  of  substances  which, 
when  injected  subcutaneously,  give  rise  to  a  localized  anaesthesia 
in  the  immediate  neighbourhood  of  the  place  where  they  are  in- 
jected. Antipyrin,  sal-ammoniac,  salts  of  tannin,  resorcin,  chloride 
of  iron,  and  other  substances  have  this  action,  although  there  is 
neither  chemical  nor  physiological  similarity  between  them.   They 
possess,  however,  this  property  in  common,  that  they  all  have 
a  corrosive  action  on  the  tissues,  when  this  expression  is  under- 
stood to  imply  any  kind  of  alteration  of  molecular  structure. 
The    alkaloids,    in    the    cases    where    they    possess    a    local 
anaesthetic    action,  act    in    the   same    way,    as,    for    instance, 
erythrophoein.     Cocaine    alone   is    an    exception    to  the  rule, 
inasmuch  as  it   is    a    local    anaesthetic,  but    does  not   corrode 
the  tissues.     When  applied  subcutaneously  to  man,  the  above 
substances   either    produce   no   localized    anaesthesia,     or    one 
which  is  very  imperfect.     When  testing  the  action  of  anaesthetics 
on  the  eye,  it  is  essential  to  take  into  account  the  difference  in 
sensitiveness  of  the  conjunctiva  and  cornea,  as  already  pointed 
out  by  Claude  Bernard. — Dr.  Virchow  exhibited  a  plaster  cast 
of  the  hip-region  taken  from  a  female  corpse  in  a  hanging  posi- 
tion.    It   brought  to  light   a  whole  series  of  most  surprising 
relationships  which  can  never  be  observed,  in  preparations  made 
from  a  corpse  in  the  recumbent  position,  as  at  all  corresponding 
to  those  existing  in  the  erect  posture.     One  of  the  most  striking 
facts  is  the  considerable  stretching  of  the  sciatic  nerve,  which 
must   be  still  greater  when    the  leg  is  advanced,  as  in  walking. 
— Dr.  Virchow  further  spoke  on  the  striae  medullares  acustica; 
in   man,  in    connection   with   the   statement  made  before   the 
Society  a  fortnight  before  by  Dr.  Baginski.     His  experiments 
have  shown,  in  correspondence  with  the  results  of  many  other 
observers,  that  the  striae  can  be  traced  through  the  raphe  to 
the  other  side  of  the  medulla.     It  must  still  remain  an  open 


question  whether  the  fibres  which  lead  to  the  anterior  root  of 
the  auditory  nerve  have  a  different  course  in  cats  and  rabbits 
(examined  by  Baginski)  than  they  have  in  man  (examined  by 
the  speaker),  or  whether  in  the  above-named  animals  we  have 
to  deal  with  a  frequently-recurring  division  and  rearrangement 
of  the  fibres  of  any  one  tract. 

Physical  Society,  February  17.— Prof.  Helmholtz,  Presi- 
dent, m  the  chair.— Prof.  Lampe  made  a  report  on  McGregor's 
book,  "  An  Elementary  Treatise  on  Kinematics  and  Dynamics." 
—Prof.  Bornstein  exhibited  an  electricity-meter  which  enables 
the  intensity  of  the  current  to  be  read  off  direct.— Dr.  Gerst- 
mann  gave  an  account  of  a  preliminary  communication  by 
Aubel  on  the  influence  of  temperature  and  magnetization  on 
the  electrical  resistance  of  bismuth. — Dr.  Kotter  spoke  on  a 
problem  in  the  theory  of  projectiles— namely,  that  a  bullet  shot 
out  of  a  rifle  tends  to  deviate  in  a  direction  away  from  the 
side  on  which  the  bayonet  is  attached  to  the  muzzle. 


BOOKS,  PAMPHLETS,  and  SERIALS  RECEIVED. 

Johnston's  Botany  Plates  (Johnston).— The  Testing  of  Materials  of  Con- 
struction :  W.  C.  Unwin  (Longmans).— Leitfaden  der  Zoologie :  Dr.  B 
Graber  (Tempsky).— Science  Sketches  :  D.  S.  Jordan  (McClurg).— Home 
Experiments  in  Science  :  T.  O.  Sloane  (Low).— Memoirs  of  the  Manchester 
Literary  and  Philosophical  Society,  3rd  series,  vol.  x.  ;  Proceedings  of  the 
Manchester  Literary  and  Philosophical  Society,  vols.  xxv.  and  xxvi. 
(Manchester). 


CONTENTS.  PAGE 

Life  Contingencies 4C7 

Rosenbusch's  "  Petrography."   II.    By  F.  H.  Hatch  '.    458 

A  Treatise  on  Chemistry 460 

Our  Book  Shelf  :— 

Bentley  :  "  A  Text-book  of  Organic  Materia  Medica  "    460 
Lydekker:   "Catalogue  of  the  Fossil   Mammalia  in 

the  British  Museum  (Natural  Plistory)  " 461 

Stohr  :   "  Lehrbuch  der  Histologic" 461 

Abney  :   "  A  Treatise  on  Photography  " 461 

Letters  to  the  Editor  : — 

Coral     Formations. — Robert     Irvine ;    James     G. 

Ross  ;  Dr.  H,  B.  Guppy 461 

Reason  and   Language. — Dr.   St.    George    Mivart, 

F.K.S 462 

Oil  on  Troubled  Waters. — Right  Hon.  Lord  Justice 

Edw.  Fry,  F.R.S 463 

Were  the  Elephant  and    Mastodon  contemporary  in 

Europe? — Henry  H.   Howorth,  M.P 463 

True  Average  of  Observations  ? — Prof.    Robert  H. 

Smith 464 

Crepuscular  Rays  in  China. — Dr.  W.  Doberck     .    .    464 
"  An  Unusual  Rainbow."— H.    M.   Andrew      .    .    .    464 

The  Nest  of  the  Flamingo. — E.J.  Dunn 465 

Dynamical   Units    and    Nomenclature. — Robert    E. 

Baynes 465 

Too  many  Decimal  Places. — ^J.  Rayner  Edmands  .    466 
"The  Teaching  of  Elementary  Chemistry." — M.  M. 

Pattison  Muir 466 

The  Gale  of  March  II.— C.  E.  Peek 466 

The    Dispersion    of    Seeds    and    Plants.      By    D. 

Morris 466 

On  the  Appearances  presented  by  the  Satellites  of 

Jupiter  during  Transit 468 

The  Monsoons.     By  Hon.  Ralph  Abercromby  .    .    .    469 

No.  2  Museum,  Kew 470 

Apparatus  for  Experiments  at  a  High  Temperature, 
in  Gas    under    High   Pressure.     {Illustrated.)      By 

L.  Cailletet 470 

Notes      .    .        .       472 

Our  Astronomical  Column  : — 

Annals  of  Harvard  College  Observatory 475 

Washington  Astronomical  Observations,  1883     .    .    .    475 
Astronomical     Phenomena     for     the     Week     1888 

March  18-24 475 

The  Public    Gardens   of   British    India,    especially 

the  Botanic  Gardens 476 

Scientific  Serials 477 

Societies  and  Academies 478 

Books,  Pamphlets,  and  Serials  Received 480 


NA  TURE 


481 


THURSDAY,   MARCH    22,    \\ 


THE  REVENUE  METHOD    OF  ESTIMATING 
AND  CHARGING  THE  DUTY  ON  SPIRITS. 

THIS  subject  has  attracted  some  notice  since  Sir 
Henry  Roscoe  put  a  question  to  the  Chancellor  of 
the  Exchequer  the  other  night  in  the  House  of  Commons, 
as  to  whether  his  attention  had  been  called  to  the  fact 
that,  owing  to  the  present  faulty  system  of  charging  the 
duty  on  spirits,  a  loss  to  the  Revenue  of  from  ^60,000  to 
^80,000  per  annum  did  not  occur,  without  any  corre- 
sponding benefit  to  the  trader,  and  whether  he  would 
appoint  a  Departmental  Committee  to  inquire  into  an 
improved  system  of  estimating  the  percentage  of  spirit,  as 
proposed  by  Dr.  Derham.  To  this  the  Chancellor  replied 
that  the  above  estimated  loss  was  based  on  an  erroneous 
assumption,  and  that  the  introduction  of  the  suggested 
system  would  be  attended  with  difficulties  comparable 
with  those  which  would  accrue  to  the  substitution  of  the 
decimal  for  the  present  system  of  coinage.  The  grounds 
of  these  objections  could  not  of  course  be  given  in  answer 
to  a  question,  and  therefore  the  public  are  not  yet  in  a 
position  to  judge  how  far  the  Revenue  Departments  can 
make  them  good.  The  statements  of  Dr.  Derham  are, 
however,  perfectly  plain,  and  demand  plain  answers. 

They  are  (i)  That  the  essential  defect  of  the  present 
system  is  well  known  and  acknowledged  by  the  Inland 
Revenue  Department. 

(2)  That  this  defect  depends  on  the  erroneous  assump- 
tion made  by  Sikes  in  constructing  his  tables  that  any 
given  quantity  of  spirit  does  not  alter  in  bulk  or  in 
strength  with  variations  of  temperature  from  the  normal 
of  51^  F. 

(3)  That  the  only  argument  which  can  be  advanced  in 
defence  of  the  present  system  is  that  deficiencies  at 
temperatures  below  51°  F.  are  compensated  by  over- 
estimates above  51°  F.,  so  that  on  the  whole  the  Revenue 
neither  gains  nor  loses. 

(4)  That  on  the  contrary  it  is  a  fact  that  at  least  five- 
sixths  of  the  spirits  paying  duty  are  taken  out  of  bond 
durmg  the  nine  cooler  months  of  the  year  when  the 
temperatures  in  warehouses  range  from  51°  F.  downwards 
so  that  in  the  case  of  these  spirits  a  constant  loss  accrues 
to  the  Revenue,  and  also  to  the  trader  from  under-estima_ 
tion  of  his  stock,  which  he  must  dispose  of  at  that  estimate. 
Whilst  in  the  summer  months,  owing  to  the  construction 
of  warehouses,  evaporation  of  spirits,  &c.,  the  temperature 
of  the  spirits  does  not  often  exceed  51°  F.,  so  that  there  is 
but  a  slight  compensating  gain  to  the  Revenue  from  that 
source. 

(5)  That  the  objections  to  the  present  plan  can  be 
entirely  removed  by  adopting  the  suggested  system,  which, 
without  altering  the  standard  of  measure— the  proof 
gallon — without  introducing  any  change  in  the  notation 
of  over-  and  under-proof,  or  any  alteration  calculated  to 
confuse  the  trader,  substitutes  tables  founded  on  a 
correct  principle  instead  of  an  erroneous  one,  a  scientific 
and  exact  for  an  unscientific  and  inexact  instrument,  which 
not  only  will  facilitate  the  work  of  the  Government 
officials,  but  will  give  correct  results  at  all  temperatures. 

In  consequence  of  the  "  nou  possumus  "  reply  of  the 
Vol  XXXVII.— No.  960. 


Chancellor,  Sir   H.   Roscoe  gave  notice  that  he   should 
move  for  a  return  of  the  number  of  proof  gallons  taken 
out  of  duty  free  warehouses  for  consuviption  last  year, 
specifying  the  number  of  proof  gallons  at  each  degree  of 
temperature  when  the  account  was  taken  for  payment  of 
duty  ;  all   spirits  taken  out  for  methylation,  exportation, 
ships'  stores,  and  removal  to  other  warehouses,  which  do 
not  pay  duty,  and  which  may  have  recently  been   dis- 
tilled, being  excluded.     Such  a  return  would  either  con- 
firm  or  disprove    Dr.   Derham's   contention,    and  there 
seems  no  reason  why  such  a  return  should  not  readily  be 
obtainable.      It  appears  to  us  that  the  comparison  of  the 
introduction  of  the  decimal  coinage  made  use  of  by  Mr. 
Goschen  was  an  unfortunate  one.     The  introduction  of  the 
decimal  coinage  would  obviously  occasion  a  great  amount 
of  confusion  and  perplexity,  for  a  time  at  least,  and  would 
in   the  end  only  substitute  one  coirect  and  convenient 
system  for  another  equally  correct  though  less  convenient. 
The  adoption  of  the  improved  system  of  charging  duty  on 
spirits  would   occasion,   on    the   contrary,  no    material 
change,  none  likely  to  cause  confusion  or  perplexity,  but 
would  replace  an  incorrect  and  inconvenient  system  by 
one  at  once  correct  and  more  convenient.   The  Chancellor 
moreover  hinted  that  the  vested  interests  of  the  trade  in 
the  property  of  the  present  instruments  must   be  safe- 
guarded.      If    the     new    and    correct    tables     became 
legalized  and    were   adopted,   Sikes's  hydrometer    could 
equally  well  continue  to  be  used,  or  any  instrument  can 
be    employed  which  furnishes   specific   gravities.      Mr. 
Goschen  also  stated  that  Dr.  Derham's  instrument  is  too 
delicate  for  ordinary  use.      This  appears  to  us  to  be  the 
weakest  part  of  his  argument.      The  ball  in  the  new  in- 
strument, the  most  vulnerable  part  of  the  hydrometer, 
happens  to  be  of  the  same  size  and  strength  as  that  in  the 
ordinary  Revenue  instrument.     It  is  true  that  a  somewhat 
different  method  of  attaching  the  poises  is  adopted,  but 
this  is  a  mere  detail,  and  more  a  question  of  taste  and 
opinion  than  of  principle,  and  it  is  certain  that  the  form 
can,    if    desirable,    be    made    so     as    to    be    indistin- 
guishable from  Sikes's  instrument,  for  the  characteristic 
feature  of  the  new  system  is  to  be  found  in  the  bulks  and 
specific  gravities  of  the  poises,  and  not  in  the  shape  or 
size  of  the  stem  or  bulb. 

The  Revenue  authorities  can  scarcely,  we  imagine,  fail 
to  admit  that  certain  defects  in  Sikes's  system  exist,  for 
these  can  be  demonstrated  by  reference  to  Sikes's  own 
tables.  Hence  we  incline  to  the  belief  that  the  erroneous 
assumption  to  which  the  Chancellor  referred  consists  in 
taking  for  granted  that  there  is  a  general  correspondence 
between  the  temperatures  of  warehouses  and  that  of  the 
mean  shade  temperature  of  the  country,  for  this  is  the 
assumption  made  by  Dr.  Derham.  The  returns  which 
have  been  asked  for  will  decide  this  point.  But  mean- 
while it  may  be  of  interest  to  see  how  the  large  figures  of 
from  ^60,000  to  ^80,000  per  annum  have  been  obtained. 
The  Customs  and  Excise  deal  annually  with  some  forty 
million  gallons  of  proof  spirit  or  their  equivalent,  which 
for  the  most  part  lie  for  a  longer  or  a  shorter  time  in 
warehouse.  If  we  assume  that  the  average  strength  of 
the  spirit  when  removed  from  warehouse  for  consumption 
is  25  overproof,  then  thirty-two  million  gallons  by  measure 
are  equivalent  to  the  forty  million  gallons  upon  which 
the  duty  is  charged,  so  that,  if  the  rate  of  removal  be 

Y 


482 


NATURE 


\_Afarch  22, 


constant,  2.700,000  gallons  by  measure  at  25  overproof 
are  removed  each  month  from  bond.  Now,  taking 
the  mean  shade  temperatures  for  the  months  from 
November  1886  to  April  1887,  it  appears  that^  owing  to 
the  contraction  in  these  2,700,000  gallons  per  month, 
no  less  a  quantity  than  97,268  gallons  of  25  over- 
proof  or  of  121,586  gallons  of  proof  spirit  for  the  six 
months  would  accrue  in  the  estimation  as  now  carried  on, 
and  the  duty  on  this  amounts  to  ^61,000,  now  lost  to  the 
Revenue. 

It  is  true  that  probably  these  shade  temperatures  do 
not  exactly  represent  the  temperatures  of  the  warehouse, 
which  will  be  more  equable,  but  then  the  contents  of  a 
warehouse  if  they  lose  their  heat  slowly  also  regain  it 
slowly,  and  the  low  temperature  contracted  during  a  long 
and  severe  winter  is  perpetuated  for  a  long  period 
throughout  the  year ;  so  that  in  all  probabihty  the 
average  temperature  of  the  bonded  spirit  is  below  51°  not 
only  during  six  but  during  nine  months  of  the  year,  and 
assuming  that  the  mean  temperature  did  not  exceed 
47°  during  these  extra  three  months,  the  additional  loss  to 
the  Revenue  would  amount  to  ^10,000. 

The  foregoing  statements  have  been  published  for  some 
time,  and  have  not  been  confuted  except  in  the  usual 
official  Parliamentary  style.  This,  we  urge,  is  insufficient. 
What  the  public  wants  to  know,  and  has  a  right  to  learn, 
is,  what,  if  the  Revenue  authorities  dispute  these  assertions, 
are  their  grounds  for  so  doing.-*  Should  this  information 
not  be  forthcoming,  the  opinion  will  gain  ground  that 
another  Government  Department  is  trying  hard  "  how  not 
to  do  it." 


PRESTwicH's  ''geology:' 

Geology  :  Chemical,  Physical,  and  Stratigraphical.  By 
Joseph  Prestwich,  M.A.,  F.R.S.,  F.G.S.,  Correspondent 
of  the  Institute  of  France,  Professor  of  Geology  in  the 
University  of  Oxford.  In  Two  Volumes.  Vol.  II. 
Stratigraphical  and  Physical.  (Oxford  :  Clarendon 
Press,  1888.) 

IT  is  just  two  years  ago  that  we  were  called  upon  to 
notice  the  first  volume  of  this  important  treatise  ;  and 
the  author  of  it  has  now  signalized  the  completion  of  his 
labours  at  Oxford  by  giving  to  the  world  the  second  and 
concluding  volume  of  the  work.  Its  publication  has  long 
been  eagerly  looked  forward  to,  and  now  that  the  book  is 
before  us,  we  may  safely  assert  that  it  more  than  justifies  the 
high  expectations  which  have  been  formed  concerning  it  ; 
and  we  confidently  predict  that  it  will  add  to  the  already 
high  reputation  of  the  veteran  geologist  to  whom  we  are 
indebted  for  it. 

In  reading  the  first  chapter  of  the  book,  everyone  must 
be  struck  by  the  fact  that  a  distinct  advance  has  been  made 
in  the  mode  of  treatment  of  the  great  problems  of  strati- 
graphical geology.  Speaking  of  the  "  order  of  succession  " 
and  "the  breaks  in  continuity"  in  the  series  of  stratified 
rocks,  Prof.  Prestwich  writes  : — 

"The  great  time-divisions  are  of  almost  universal 
application  ;  but  the  smaller  'breaks  in  continuity,'  which 
are  of  frequent  occurrence  in  all  areas,  are  subject  to 
constant  differences  of  extent  and  value  ;  consequently,  in 
filling  up  the  details  of  the  several  geographical  areas,  each 
one  is  found  to  have  its  own  local  stamp,  and  possesses  its 


own  special  terms,  some  knowledge  of  which  is  as  essen- 
tial to  the  geologist  as  is  the  language  of  a  country  to  the 
traveller,  if  he  would  pass  through  it  with  profit." 

The  author  then  proceeds  to  show  how  impossible  is 
any  universal  scheme  of  geological  classification,  and  to 
discuss  the  question,  first  raised  by  Edward  Forbes  and 
Prof.  Huxley,  as  to  how  far  geological  equivalence  is  to 
be  regarded  as  being  identical  with  actual  synchronism. 

He  insists  that,  in  distant  areas,  strata  cannot  be  corre- 
lated by  identical  species,  but  only  by  the  presence  of  the 
same  characteristic  genera,  and  he  fully  admits  the  effects 
of  migration  of  forms  of  life  from  one  region  to  another 
in  causing  strata  of  different  ages  to  present  very  similar 
faunas  or  floras.  Such  considerations  as  these,  the  author 
argues,  must  always  prevent  us  from  regarding  the  series 
of  formations  as  being  strictly  contemporaneous  in  distant 
areas,  or  the  breaks  between  them  as  being  universal 
ones. 

Prof.  Prestwich  points  out  some  of  the  difficulties  con- 
fronting geologists,  in  the  following  suggestive  passage  :— 

"  In  Western  North  America  the  great  break  so  con- 
spicuous between  the  Cretaceous  and  Tertiary  series  does 
not  exist,  and  there  arc  passage  beds  having  characters  of 
the  two  periods  in  common.  In  a  similar  way  the  Car- 
boniferous strata  in  America  pass  gradually  into  the 
Permian,  without  the  unconformity  which  exists  here.  In 
India  the  Gondwana  system  forms  a  consecutive  series 
from  the  base  of  the  Permian  to  the  top  of  the  Jurassic 
strata.  In  New  Zealand,  again,  no  marked  line  can  be 
drawn  between  the  Cretaceous  and  Tertiary  series,  the 
Upper  Cretaceous  and  Lower  Eocene  forming  unbroken 
and  continuous  series." 

He  then  proceeds  to  give  not  one  table  of  classification 
for  the  sedimentary  rocks,  but  six  different  ones,  adapted 
respectively  to  Europe,  India,  North  America,  Australia, 
New  Zealand,  and  South  Africa.  And  having  thus  at  the 
veiy  outset  shown  what  are  the  obstacles  in  the  way  ot 
the  exact  correlation  of  distant  deposits,  and  established  a 
philosophical  basis  of  classification  for  strata,  he  takes  up 
the  consideration  in  succession  of  the  several  great  geo- 
logical systems  ;  he  selects  the  method  of  beginning  with 
the  oldest,  and  passing  upwards  in  the  scale,  candidly 
admitting,  however,  that  the  opposite  plan  is  not  without 
its  merits  and  advantages. 

The  account  given  in  successive  chapters  of  the  several 
formations,  their  typical  development  in  this  country,  the 
groups  of  fossils  by  which  they  are  distinguished,  and  their 
chief  foreign  representatives,  is  eminently  clear  and  readable- 
This  merit  is  the  more  conspicuous  from  the  circumstance 
that  the  mass  of  detailed  information  to  be  selected  from 
and  arranged  in  writing  a  work  on  stratigraphical  geology 
is  so  enormous  and  bewildering,  that  such  works  are  very  apt 
to  suffer  in  their  style,  and  to  become  heavy  and  encyclo- 
paedic in  character.  But  Prof  Prestwich  has  admirably 
avoided  this  danger. 

The  author  does  not  waste  any  time  in  discussing  barren 
questions  of  nomenclature.  In  the  case  of  the  three 
systems  of  the  older  Palaeozoic,  he  follows  the  common 
custom  of  calling  the  oldest  "  Cambrian,"  the  second 
"Lower  Silurian,"  and  the  third  "Upper  Silurian";  though 
pointing  out  in  a  footnote  the  significance  of  the  term 
"  Ordovician." 

Very  striking  features  in  the  book  are  the  chapters  in 
which  are  summed  up  the  characteristics  of  the  faunas- 


March  22,  1888] 


NATURE 


483 


and  floras  of  the  Palaeozoic,  the  Mesozoic,  and  the  Kaino- 
zoic  divisions  respectively.  In  these  reviews  of  the  great 
geological  epochs,  the  distinctive  features  of  their  life- 
history  are  ably  summarized ;  and  the  subject  is  made 
clearer  by  the  insertion  of  sixteen  lithographic  plates, 
the  fossils  represented  upon  these  being  very  judiciously 
selected  and  admirably  drawn. 

Most  readers  will  look  with  much  interest  to  the  later 
chapters,  in  which  the  author  deals  with  the  Tertiary  and 
post-Tertiary  deposits,  the  study  of  which  has  been  so 
greatly  advanced  by  the  author's  own  researches.  Prof. 
Prestwich  has  in  several  very  important  points  modi- 
fied some  of  the  conclusions  of  his  classic  papers  upon 
these  questions.  He  now  accepts,  with  most  modern 
geologists,  the  term  "  Oligocene  "  as  usefully  embracing 
the  strata  known  as  the  "  Fluvio-marine  strata"  of  the 
Hampshire  Basin,  and  separates  them  from  the  Eocene 
proper.  He  also  points  out  for  the  first  time  the  close 
connection  of  the  so  called  "  Lower  Bagshot  Sands  "  with 
the  London  Clay,  placing  them  in  the  Lower  Eocene  ;  while 
the  Middle  and  Upper  Bagshof  s  of  the  London  Basin,  and 
the  Bracklesham  and  Barton  series  of  the  Hampshire 
Basin,  constitute  his  Upper  Eocene.  This  view  has  recently 
been  explained  and  defended  in  a  paper  which  the  author 
has  read  before  the  Geological  Society,  and  is  one  which 
we  think  will  meet  with  very  general  acceptance.  In 
his  account  of  the  post-Pliocene  (or,  as  he  prefers  to  call 
them,  the  Quaternary  or  Pleistocene)  deposits,  it  will  also 
be  seen  that  Prof.  Prestwich  has  so  far  departed  from  his 
earlier  published  views  as  to  admit  the  probability  of  some 
of  the  deposits  which  contain  relics  of  human  handiwork 
belonging  to  a  period  when  glacial  conditions  prevailed  in 
this  country. 

The  work  concludes  with  three  chapters  of  a  theoretical 
character.  In  the  first  of  these  Prof.  Prestwich  argues 
against  the  acceptance  of  any  views,  like  those  of  Dr. 
Croll,  which  would  define  the  exact  date  of  the  Glacial 
period  by  reference  to  astronomical  events.  Accepting 
the  probability  that  man  may  have  lived  at  the  period 
of  the  greatest  glaciation,  the  author  boldly  proceeds  to 
challenge  the  comrrion  opinion  that  this  period  of  glaciation 
must  have  been  separated  by  an  enormous  interval  of  time 
from  the  present  day.  He  even  suggests  that  the  Glacial 
period  may  not  have  had  a  duration  of  more  than  from 
15,000  to  25,000  years,  and  the  post-Glacial  period  he 
thinks  may  be  restricted  to  10,000  or  15,000  years  ! 

The  facts  which  seem  to  have  had  the  greatest  weight 
in  leading  Prof.  Prestwich  to  these,  at  first  sight,  startling 
conclusions,  are  those  connected  with  the  movements  of 
the  great  ice-sheets  in  Greenland.  The  recent  observations 
of  Rink  and  Helland  seem  to  show  that  the  data  afforded 
by  the  diminutive  Alpine  glaciers  are  utterly  inapplicable 
to  the  vast  masses  of  ice  which  must  have  flowed  over 
extensive  areas  during  the  Glacial  period.  While  the 
Alpine  glaciers  progress  at  an  average  rate  of  a  foot  per 
day,  the  great  Greenland  ice-sheet  advances  35  feet  per  day, 
and  the  efi'ects  produced  in  a  given  time  by  such  rapidly 
moving  masses  must  be  proportionately  great.  There  will 
doubtless  be  much  difference  of  opinion  among  geologists 
upon  the  important  suggestions  made  by  Prof.  Prestwich  ; 
but  in  any  future  discussions  of  the  subject  it  must  be 
admitted  by  everyone  that  the  data  upon  which  all  our 
reasoning  has  to  be  based  has  been  profoundly  modifi.ed 


by  the    remarkable   observations   made  by  the   Danish 
Scientific  Commission  upon  the  inland  ice  of  Greenland. 

In  his  penultimate  chapter,  the  author  points  out  the 
grounds  for  the  view — of  which  he  has  long  been  one  of  the 
ablest  advocates — that  the  earth's  solid  crust  is  a  com- 
paratively thin  one  ;  and  he  indicates  the  lines  of  argu- 
ment by  which  the  objections  of  mathematicians  and 
physicists  to  such  views  can  best  be  met.  While  demurring 
to  the  doctrine  of  the  permanence  of  continental  and 
oceanic  areas,  he  justly  points  to  the  great  effects  which 
must  result  from  the  flow  of  ice-cold  water  over  the  bottom 
of  the  great  oceanic  depressions. 

The  last  chapter,  on  "  The  Primitive  State  of  the  Earth," 
is  an  attempt  to  link  the  geological  history  on  to  that  ar- 
rived at  by  the  studies  of  the  astronomer.  Due  importance 
is  justly  attached  to  the  evidence  aff"orded  by  meteorites, 
and  an  excellent  summary  is  given  of  Daubrde's  admirable 
researches.  But  here,  as  the  author  freely  admits,  he  is 
on  less  secure  ground  than  in  the  earlier  chapters  of  his 
book,  and  the  utmost  he  aims  at  doing  is  to  supply  a 
working  hypothesis. 

Both  Prof.  Prestwich  and  the  Delegates  of  the  Oxford 
University  Press  are  to  be  congratulated  upon  the  manner 
in  which  the  work .  has  been  got  up.  The  printing  is 
admirably  clear,  and  the  woodcuts,  most  of  which  are 
original,  are  of  exceptional  excellence.  The  plates,  which 
have  been  very  skilfully  drawn  on  stone  by  Miss  Gertrude 
Woodward,  exhibit  the  characters  of  the  fossils  illustrated 
in  a  manner  superior  to  what  we  have  ever  seen  attempted 
in  any  geological  text-book.  The  coloured  geological  map 
of  Europe,  which  has  been  prepared  under  the  supervision 
of  Mr.  W.  Topley,  is  brought  up  to  date,  and  is  very 
clear  and  serviceable. 

To  the  splendid  work  now  so  auspiciously  completed 
at  the  termination  of  the  author's  professorial  career 
at  Oxford,  we  heartily  wish  all  the  success  it  so  well 
deserves.  J.  W.  J. 


VACCINATION. 

Cow-Pox  and    Vaccinal    Syphilis.        By    C.    Creighton. 

(London  :  Cassell,  1887.) 
Vaccination    Vindicated.     By  J.    C.   McVail.     (London  : 

Cassell,  1887.) 

TWO  new  books  have  lately  appeared  on  vaccination  ; 
one  on  the  natural  history  of"  Cow-Pox  and  Vaccinal 
Syphilis,"  by  Dr.  Charles  Creighton  ;  the  other,  "  Vaccina- 
tion Vindicated,"  by  Dr.  J.  C.  McVail. 

The  first  mentioned,  that  by  Dr.  Creighton,  is  a  very 
misleading  work.  The  first  four  chapters  are  almost 
entirely  devoted  to  a  wholesale  abuse  of  Jenner,  and  the 
fact  that  Jenner  has  called  the  cow-pox  the  "  variolc-e 
vaccinioe,"  is  especially  singled  out  for  more  than  usual 
criticism  ;  but  the  very  virulence  of  the  abuse  will  lead 
to  its  condemnation,  and  the  memory  of  the  man  who 
deserves  so  well  of  his  country  will  not  therefore  be 
unjustly  thought  of  by  his  countrymen. 

The  whole  burden  of  the  rest  of  the  book  may  be 
summed  up  in  a  passage  that  occurs  on  p.  155:  "The 
real  affinity  of  cow-pox  is  not  to  the  small-pox  but  to 
the  great-pox."  Let  it  be  remembered  that  these  two 
diseases  are  placed  together  by  the  science  of  medicine 


484 


NATURE 


{March  22,  1888 


under  the  common  order  of  zymotic  diseases :  is  it 
wonderful  that  in  some  things  they  agree  ?  The  thistle 
and  the  sunflower  both  belong  to  the  same  natural  order 
in  botany,  but  are  they  identical  ?  Dr.  Creighton  entirely 
suppresses  every  point  in  which  the  dissimilarity  of  the 
two  diseases  appears  ;  but  he  insists  upon  nearly  all  those 
in  which  the  similarity  shows  itself.  In  fact,  his  whole 
work  is  a  piece  of  special  pleading  which  anybody  but  a 
lawyerr  ought  to  be  ashamed  of. 

It  is  easy  enough  to  find  some  sort  of  resemblance 
between  two  inoculable  diseases,  and  arguments  of  the 
kind  found  in  Dr.  Creighton's  book  might  be  multiplied 
greatly.  We  present  him  with  another  which  we  should 
have  thought  too  good  for  him  to  have  missed,  but 
we  will  not  promise  him  it  will  satisfy  his  readers 
more  than  those  which  he  has  himself  adduced. 

When  the  virus  of  the  great-pox  is  taken  early  in  the 
disease  it  will  communicate  its  own  specific  characters, 
and  will  for  a  certain  time  render  the  individual  to  whom 
it  is  communicated  immune  from  further  contamination 
by  the  disease  ;  but  if  the  virus  is  taken  in  its  later  stages 
it  will  produce  in  the  individual  who  is  inoculated  a 
sore  which  has  often  a  tendency  to  ulcerate,  to  phagedena, 
&c.,  and  this  sore  does  not  convey  the  constitutional 
symptoms  of  syphilis,  nor  does  it  render  the  individual 
immune  from  further  manifestations  of  its  own  peculiari- 
ties. This  similarity  of  the  two  poxes  might,  in  Dr. 
Creighton's  fashion,  be  shown  in  the  behaviour  of  vaccinia, 
for  if  vaccine  lymph  is  taken  early  it  produces  a  consti- 
tutional disease  of  short  duration  which  protects  the  indi- 
vidual from  further  vaccination  for  a  time  at  least,  and 
also  from  small-pox  ;  but  if  the  vaccine  is  taken  late  it 
produces  a  sore  that  has  a  tendency  to  ulcerate,  to  phage- 
dena, &c.,  and  which  does  not  convey  immunity  to  the 
individual  against  further  vaccination  or  against  small- 
pox. While  referring  to  this  point  we  may  observe  that 
all  the  bad  results  collected  by  Dr.  Creighton  following 
vaccination  were  from  lymph  taken  at  a  too  late  stage,  and 
the  evils  produced  must  be  attributable  to  the  ignorance 
of  the  vaccinator  rather  than  the  innate  virulence  of  the 
lymph,  or  more  fancifully  still  to  any  reversion  to  type. 

Some  of  the  points  of  dissimilarity  he  does  not  mention 
are  these : — 

Firstly,  vaccination  protects  from  small-pox  when  its 
virus  is  taken  at  the  proper  time,  but  it  does  not  protect 
us  against  the  great-pox. 

Secondly,  the  microscopical  appearances  of  a  true 
chancre  of  early  date  are  quite  distinct  from  those  of 
a  vaccine  vesicle. 

Thirdly,  the  incubatory  periods  of  the  two  diseases  are 
utterly  different. 

It  is  easy  to  find  points  of  similarity  if  we  only  look  at 
the  points  of  likeness.  Thus  with  no  great  difficulty  we 
might  compare  a  man  and  a  monkey,  and  it  would  not 
be  difficult  to  argue  that  at  a  remote  period  of  time  they 
may  have  had  a  common  ancestor  ;  but  now  no  one  in 
his  senses,  except  perhaps  Dr.  Creighton  himself,  would 
say  that  they  are  identical  species. 

Dr.  McVail's  book  is  altogether  different.  It  is  one  of 
the  most  thoughtful  works  of  the  kind  we  have  seen.  We 
would  commend  it  to  everyone  who  is  anxious  to  learn 
the  truth  about  vaccination,  especially  to  Members  of 
Parliament  and  others  who  have  a  voice  in  the  govern- 


ment of  this  great  country,  also  to  all  medical  men  who 
neither  have  the  time  or  inclination  to  dig  deep  into  anti- 
vaccination  literature.  They  will  find  complete  answers 
to  all  the  assumed  evils  of  vaccination,  as  well  as  the 
evidences  of  the  value  of  vaccination  as  a  prophylactic 
against  small-pox.  There  is  also  set  forth  what  a  fearful 
disease  small- pox  used  to  be,  and  how  it  has  been  robbed 
of  its  sting  by  vaccination. 

Dr.  Wallace's  writing  on  this  subject,  whom  we  are 
ashamed  as  scientific  men  to  find  in  the  anti-vaccination 
ranks,  are  especially  shown  up  and  gibbeted.  We  may 
quote  two  passages  in  support  of  this  assertion  ;  they 
occur  on  pp.  70  and  87.  Speaking  of  the  possible  errors 
in  registration.  Dr.  Wallace  instances  three  cases  ;  of  one 
of  these  Dr.  McVail  writes  : — 

''  It  is  pitiful  to  think  of  Dr.  Wallace  as  being  driven  to 
appeal  for  one  of  his  three  instances  of  incorrect  registra- 
tion to  such  ravings  as  those  of  Mr.  Pickering.  But  the 
abuse  of  vaccination  is  so  largely  buttressed  by  the  rela- 
tion of  '  cases,'  that  the  examination  of  these  samples 
specially  selected  by  so  able  an  author  seems  not  without 
use  as  illustrating  the  character  of  the  whole  class." 

And  on  p.  Z"]  Dr.  McVail  says  after  careful  reading  : 
"  I  have  been  further  forced  to  the  conclusion  that,  in  this 
matter,  when  Dr.  Wallace  says  'the  point  in  question 
has  been  entirely  overlooked,'  the  statement  is  a  misstate- 
ment, and  that  when  he  says  'it  is  nevertheless  a  fact,' 
then  it  is  not  a  fact"  The  book  is  throughout  so  carefully 
and  faithfully  written,  and  deals  so  well  with  the  tactics 
of  the  anti-vaccinators,  that  it  ought  to  have  a  wide 
circulation  among  those  interested  in  the  question. 
Many  are  interested  in  seeing  conjuring  tricks,  and  in 
witnessing  optical  delusions.  So  long  as  the  tricks  are  not 
understood,  there  is  an  inclination  in  the  minds  of  some 
to  regard  these  tricks  as  more  difficult  of  performance 
than  they  really  are,  and  some  may  even  attribute  them 
to  supernatural  agency.  The  same  kind  of  tricks  are 
played  by  such  men  as  Dr.  Wallace  on  our  literary 
pursuits.  Dr.  McVail's  book  may  be  taken  as  exposing 
the  tricks,  and  showing  the  mechanism  by  which  they 
are  done.  Robt.  Cory. 


OUR  BOOK  SHELF. 

Animal  Biology.   An  Elementary  Textbook.  By  C.  Lloyd 

Morgan.       With  Illustrations.     (London  :  Rivingtons, 

1887.) 
This  volume  has  been  written  to  meet  the  requirements 
of  those  reading  for  the  London  Intermediate  and  Pre- 
liminary Scientific  Examinations,  as  well  as  for  the 
Oxford  and  Cambridge  Local.  In  it  special  attention 
has  been  paid  to  embryology,  and  there  can  be  little 
doubt  that  the  information  in  this  volume  would  enable 
the  attentive  student,  with  some  preliminary  assistance, 
to  make  very  considerable  progress  in  the  study  of  both 
anatomy  and  physiology. 

The  author  treats  of  the  anatomy  and  physiology  of 
the  vertebrates  as  exemplified  by  the  frog,  the  pigeon  or 
fowl,  and  the  rabbit,  with  occasional  references  to  other 
types  ;  and  of  the  invertebrate  types,  the  crayfish,  cock- 
roach, earthworm,  snail,  fresh-water  mussel,  liver-fluke, 
tapeworm,  hydra,  vorticella,  and  amoeba,  are  selected. 

The  illustrations  have  been  engraved  after  original 
outline  sketches  of  the  author's,  chiefly  from  dissections 
or  preparations  made  in  the  biological  laboratory  of 
University  College,  Bristol.     They  are  all  the  better  for 


March  22,  1888] 


NA  TURE 


485 


not  being  too  pictorial ;  for  a  student,  especially  when 
left  to  his  own  resources,  is  often  apt  to  be  misled  by 
over  elaborated  drawings. 

In  addition  to  the  anatomical  and  physiological  details 
given  of  each  of  the  type  forms  selected,  there  is  appended 
to  each  an  excellent  general  summary  of  the  life-history 
of  the  form  ;  so  that  within  the  compass  of  a  little  over 
350  pages  we  have  a  really  valuable  text-book  of  animal 
biology,  which  we  would  wish  to  place  in  the  hands  of  all 
students.  In  Ireland,  unfortunately,  the  Commissioners 
of  Intermediate  Education  have  omitted  the  subject  of 
biology  from  the  schedule  for  boys,  and  limited  that  for 
girls  to  the  vegetable  kingdom. 

Practical  Guide  to  Photographic  and  Photo-Mechanical 
Printing  Processes.  By  W.  K.  Burton.  (London : 
Marion  and  Co.,  1887.) 

It  is  refreshing  to  find  that  the  text  of  the  second  photo- 
graphic work  issued  by  these  publishers  is  not  made 
subservient  to  the  advertisement  of  photographic  special- 
ties. The  work  before  us  is  written  by  a  gentleman  well 
known  for  his  practical  rather  than  his  theoretical  ac- 
quaintance with  photography.  We  thus  have  an  account 
of  the  practical  working  of  various  processes,  with  a  small 
modicum  of  theory.  The  chapters  on  silver  printing  and 
carbon  printing  are  very  clear  and  complete,  and  if  followed 
out  will  lead  the  amateur  to  successful  results.  When  we 
come  to  the  photo-mechanical  processes,  however,  there 
is  at  first  sight  presumable  evidence  of  a  lack  of  intimate 
knowledge  of  the  subject.  It  may  be,  however,  that  there 
is  a  greater  difficulty  in  describing  these  operations  than 
in  the  ordinary  printing  processes  to  which  we  have 
alluded.  We  doubt  very  much  if  the  descriptions  given 
would  enable  a  tyro  to  progress  at  a  rapid  rate.  For  the 
enthusiastic  photographer  who  has  time  to  experiment 
the  directions  would  suffice  to  enable  him  to  commence 
in  the  right  way,  and  though  at  first  he  would  inevitably 
blunder,  yet  he  would  after  a  sufficient  number  of  disasters 
produce  results  which  he  might  take  a  certain  amount  of 
pride  in  showing  to  his  immediate  friends,  who  would  be 
likely  to  appraise  them  higher  than  at  their  market  price. 
In  another  edition  we  should  recommend  that  the 
author  should  either  expand  the  descriptions  of  his  photo- 
mechanical processes,  or  omit  them  altogether.  The 
work  itself  is  nicely  got  up,  the  print  is  good,  and  the 
illustrations  well  executed. 

A  Treatise  on  the  Diseases  of  the  Dog.  By  John  Henry 
Steel,  M.R.C.V.S.  (London  :  Longmans,  Green,  and 
Co.,  1888.) 

Though  the  author  of  this  manual  does  not  claim  to 
offer  an  original  book  on  canine  pathology,  and  though 
he  assumes  the  modest  role  of  compilator  of  canine 
literature — English  and  foreign — we  venture  to  say  that 
he  is  fully  entitled  to  the  claim  of  having  produced  an 
extremely  useful  work  ;  useful  in  the  first  place  to  the 
veterinary  profession,  but  not  less  useful  to  all  those  who, 
like  sportsmen,  dog-breeders,  and  dog-keepers,  wish  to 
possess  a  ready  and  authoritative  book  for  study  and 
reference. 

All  disorders  to  which  the  dog  is  subject  are  considered 
minutely,  and  in  addition  there  are  a  great  many  useful 
data  as  to  the  anatomy  and  physiology  of  the  canine 
organism  well  blended  together. 

The  treatment  of  canine  ailments,  and  the  various 
methods  of  medical  and  surgical  practice,  form  an  in- 
tegral part,  and  while  the  author's  extensive  practice 
enables  him  to  speak  with  authority,  he  does  not  omit  to 
mention  the  practice  of  others  which  he  considers  most 
commendable. 

The  numerous  illustrations,  copied  from  standard  books, 
though  not  of  the  first  order  as  regards  execution  and  re- 
production, nevertheless  considerably  enhance  the  text  ; 
this  is  particularly  the  case  with  those  which  illustrate 


the  general  appearance  of  the  animal  under  the  various 
severe  internal  disorders,  as  also  those  on  medical  and 
surgical  practice. 

But  it  must  be  regretted  that  in  the  illustrations  on 
microscopic  objects,  of  which  there  are  a  good  many  in 
this  book,  no  statement  is  made  in  connection  with  the 
figures  as  to  the  amount  of  amplification  under  which  the 
objects  are  supposed  to  be  viewed.  This  is  perplexing  in 
itself,  but  becomes  more  so  when  we  remember  that  there 
are  other  illustrations  of  anatomical  parts  which  are  re- 
presented smaller  than  natural  size.  But  these  minor 
details,  which  are  easily  corrected,  cannot  detract  from 
the  general  usefulness  of  the  work.  E.  Klein. 

Management  of  Accumulators.      By  Sir  D.  Salomons. 
Third  Edition.     (London  :  Whittaker,  1888.) 

The  author  has  considerably  enlarged  this  edition  of 
his  work,  and  made  it  in  some  respects  more  complete. 

The  first  part  deals  with  accumulators,  and  principally 
with  those  of  E.P.S.,  or  Elwell-Parker  type.  The  con- 
struction and  principle  of  working  of  the  cells  is  de- 
scribed, and  hints  are  given  as  to  the  best  method  of 
setting  them  up  and  charging  them.  The  ordinary 
causes  of  failure  and  the  methods  of  guarding  against 
them  are  discussed. 

In  the  second  part  the  arrangements  of  an  installation 
for  house-lighting  are  fully  described,  and  hints,  founded  on 
the  author's  experience  in  lighting  his  own  country-house 
for  some  years  past,  are  given  as  to  the  management  of 
engines,  boilers,  dynamos,  lamps,  switches,  &c.,  as  well  as 
descriptions  of  the  methods  which  he  has  adopted  for  so 
regulating  the  whole  system  by  automatic  appliances,  that, 
as  he  says,  "  it  is  only  needful  to  start  and  stop  the  engine, 
so  that  a  man  having  no  knowledge  of  electricity  may  be 
employed."  He  gives  estimates  for  the  capital  ex- 
penditure and  working  expenses  of  installations  of  from 
25  to  120  sixteen-candle  power  lamps.  From  these  we 
learn  that  one  of  the  latter  size  can  be  erected  for  £f>  per 
lamp  without  accumulators,  which  latter  add  ^3  per 
lamp  to  the  cost,  and  the  automatic  regulating  appliances 
bring  up  the  cost  to  £10  per  lamp.  For  fifty  lamps  the 
cost  per  lamp  is  about  50  per  cent,  greater,  and  for  twenty- 
five  lamps  about  twice  as  great.  The  annual  cost,  in- 
cluding interest  and  sinking  fund,  without  accumulators, 
ranges  from  £2  ids.  per  lamp  for  120  lamps  to  £\  4J.  per 
lamp  for  twenty-five  lamps,  these  figures  being  mcreased 
to  ^3  9^-.  and  £f)  respectively  when  accumulators  and 
automatic  regulators  are  used. 

As  was  the  case  in  the  previous  edition,  there  is  much 
useful  information  in  this  book,  but  it  is  very  badly 
written,  so  badly  that  the  descriptions  and  explana- 
tions are  often  unintelligible.  As  an  example  we  may 
quote  from  the  chapter  on  the  "  Action  of  Cells  with 
Dynamo"  (p.  in).  In  discussing  the  relation  between 
E.  M.F.  and  current  in  machines  of  different  types,  he 
says,  "  Let  us  confine  ourselves  to  the  shunt  dynamo,  this 
has  a  falling  curve,  i.e.  the  E.M.F.  falls  as  the  current  in 
the  circuit  is  increased,  due  to  two  reasons,  one  is  the 
armature  absorbs  7nore  power  as  the  current  is  increased" 
(the  italics  are  ours)  ;  "  and  secondly  the  lowering  of  the 
outside  resistance,  to  obtain  an  increased  current,  is  in 
shunt  with  a  fixed  high  resistance,  viz.  the  shunt  winding 
on  the  field-magnets,  so  that  when  the  outside  resistance 
is  lowered  to  zero  by  short-circuiting  the  terminals, 
practically  no  E.M.F.  exists,  and  no  current  passes." 

Elementary    Physiography.        By    J.    Thornton,    M.A. 
(London:  Longmans,  Green,  and  Co.,  1888.) 

This  is  an  admirable  introduction  to  the  study  of  Nature 
by  one  whose  experience  in  teaching  must  of  necessity 
have  indicated  to  him  the  requirements  of  beginners. 
The  subjects  are  arranged  according  to  the  syllabus  of 
the  elementary  stage  of  physiography,  which  will  greatly 
extend  the  sphere  of  usefulness  of  the  book.     The  treat- 


486 


NATURE 


[March  22,  1888 


ment  is  very  detailed  for  an  elementary  book,  but  there 
is  nothing  beyond  the  capacity  of  those  for  whom  it  is 
intended.  The  author  is  of  opinion — and  we  quite  agree 
with  him — that  meagre  accounts  lead  to  inaccurate  ideas, 
inasmuch  as  they  are  not  of  sufficiently  general  applica- 
tion. As  far  as  desirable,  and  in  accordance  with  the 
syllabus,  simple  experiments  have  been  introduced.  The 
main  results  of  the  Challenger  Expedition  are  also 
explained,  and  illustrated  by  diagrams. 

The  astronomical  portion  leaves  nothing  to  be  desired. 

In  addition  to  150  excellent  diagrams,  there  are  ten 
maps,  illustrating  the  distribution  of  temperature  and 
pressure,  volcanoes  and  earthquakes,  &c.  The  diagram 
of  the  geological  formations  shows  the  general  physical 
appearance  of  the  strata,  along  with  the  characteristic 
fossils  of  each. 

The  book  is  beautifully  printed,  and  is  sure  to  win  the 
favour  of  all  who  use  it^  whether  as  students  or  teachers. 


LETTERS   TO    THE  EDITOR. 

[The  Editor  does  not  hold  himself  responsible  for  opinions 
expressed  by  his  correspondents.  Neither  can  he  under- 
take to  return,  or  to  correspond  with  the  -writers  of, 
rejected  manuscripts  intended  for  this  or  atiy  other  part 
of  Nature.  No  notice  is  taken  of  anonymous  communi- 
cations.'] 

Dr.  Whewell  on   the  Origin  of  Species. 

In  his  essay  on  the  "  Reception  of  the  '  Origin  of  Species,'  " 
Prof.  Huxley  writes  : — 

"It  is  interesting  to  observe  that  the  possibility  of  a  fifth 
alternative,  in  addition  to  the  (our  he  has  stated,  has  not  dawned 
upon  Dr.  Whewell's  mind "  ("  Life  and  Letters  of  Charles 
Darwin,"  vol.  ii,  p.  195). 

And  again,  in  the  article  "Science,"  sujoplied  to  "The 
Reign  of  Queen  Victoria,"  he  says  ; — 

"  Whewell  had  not  the  slightest  suspicion  of  Darwin's  main 
theorem,  even  as  a  logical  possibility  "  (p.  365). 

Now,  although  it  is  true  that  no  indication  of  such  a  "  logical 
possibility"  is  to  be  met  with  in  the  "  History  of  the  Inductive 
Science?,"  there  are  several  passages  in  the  Bridgewater  Treatise 
which  show  a  glimmering  idea  of  such  a  possibility.  Of  these 
the  following  are,  perhaps,  worth  quoting.  Speaking  of  the 
adaptation  of  the  period  of  flowering  to  the  length  of  a  year, 
he  says  : — 

"  Now,  such  an  adjustment  must  surely  be  accepted  as  a  proof 
of  design,  exercised  in  the  formation  of  the  world.  Why 
should  the  solar  year  be  so  long  and  no  longer  ?  or,  this  being 
such  a  length,  why  should  the  vegetable  cycle  be  exactly  of  the 
same  length  ?  Can  this  be  chance  ?  .  .  .  And,  if  not  by  chance, 
how  otherwise  could  such  a  coincidence  occur  than  by  an  inten- 
tional adjustment  of  these  two  things  to  one  another  ;  by  a 
selection  of  such  an  organization  in  plants  as  would  fit  them  to 
the  earth  on  ^^  hich  they  were  to  grow  ;  by  an  adaptation  of 
construction  to  conditions ;  of  the  scale  of  construction  to  the 
scale  of  conditions?  It  cannot  be  accepted  as  an  explanation 
of  this  fact  in  the  economy  of  plants,  that  it  is  necessary  to 
their  existence  ;  that  no  plants  could  possibly  have  subsisted, 
and  come  down  to  us,  except  those  which  were  thus  suited  to 
their  place  on  the  earth.  This  is  true  ;  but  it  does  not  at  all 
remove  the  necessity  of  recurring  to  design  as  the  origin  of  the 
construction  by  which  the  existence  and  continuance  of  plants 
is  made  possible.  A  watch  could  not  go  unless  there  were  th  e 
most  exact  adjustment  in  the  forms  and  positions  of  its  wheels  ; 
yet  no  one  would  accept  it  as  an  explanation  of  the  origin  of 
such  forms  and  positions,  that  the  watch  would  not  go  if  these 
were  other  than  they  were.  If  the  objector  were  to  suppose 
that  plants  were  originally  fitted  to  year-  of  various  lengths,  and 
that  such  only  have  survived  to  the  present  time  as  had  a  cycle 
of  a  length  equal  to  our  present  year,  or  one  which  could  be 
accommodated  to  it,  we  should  reply  that  the  assumption  is 
too  gratuitous  and  extravagant  to  require  much  consideration." 
Again,  with  regard  to  "  the  diurnal  period,"  he  adds  : — 
"  Any  supposition  that  the  astronomical  cycle  has  occasioned 
the  physiological  one,  that  the  structure  of  plants  has  been 
brought  to  be  what  it  is  by  the  action  of  external  causes,  or  that 


such  plants  as  could  not  accommodate  themselves  to  the  existing 
day  have  perished,  would  be  not  only  an  arbitrary  and  baseless 
assumption,  but,  moreover,  useless  for  the  purposes  of  ex- 
planation which  it  professes,  as  we  have  noticed  of  a  similar 
supposition  with  respect  to  the  annual  cycle." 

Of  course,  these  passages  in  no  way  make  against  Mr.  Hux- 
ley's allusions  to  Dr.  Whewell's  writings  in  proof  that,  until 
the  publicatioii  of  the  "Origin  of  Species,"  the  "main 
theorem  "of  this  work  had  not  dawned  on  any  other  mind,  save 
tha!.  of  Mr.  Wallace.  But  these  passages  show,  even  more  empha- 
tically than  total  silence  with  regard  to  the  principle  of  survival 
could  have  done,  the  real  distance  which  at  that  time  separated 
the  minds  of  thinking  men  from  all  that  was  wrapped  up  in 
this  principle.  For  they  show  that  Dr.  Whewell,  even  after  he 
had  obtained  a  glimpse  of  the  principle  "  as  a  logical  possi- 
bility," only  saw  in  it  an  "  arbitrary  and  baseless  assumption." 
Moreover,  the  passages  show  a  remarkable  juxtaposition  of  the 
very  terms  in  which  the  theory  of  natural  selection  was  after- 
wards formulated.  Indeed,  if  we  strike  out  the  one  word 
"intentional"  (which  conveys  the  preconceived  idea  of  the 
writer,  and  thus  prevented  him  from  doing  justice  to  any 
naturalistic  view),  all  the  following  parts  of  the  above  quota- 
tions might  be  supposed  to  have  been  written  by  any  Darwinian. 
"If  not  by  chance,  how  otherwise  could  such  a  coincidence 
occur,  than  by  an  adjustment  of  these  two  things  to  one  an- 
other; by  a  selection  of  such  an  organization  in  plants  as  would 
fit  them  to  the  earth  on  which  they  were  to  grow  ;  by  an  adapt- 
ation of  construction  to  conditions  ;  of  the  scale  of  construction 
to  the  scale  of  conditions  ?  "  Yet  he  imme.liately  goes  on  to 
say :  "If  the  objector  were  to  suppose  that  plants  were  origin- 
ally//'/^'^/to  years  of  various  lengths,  and  that  such  only  have 
sni-vived  to  the  present  time  ...  as  could  be  accommodated  to 
it  {i.e.  the  actual  cycle),  we  should  reply  that  the  assumption 
is  too  gratuitous  and  extravagant  to  require  much  considera- 
tion." Was  there  ever  a  more  curious  exhibition  of  failure  to 
perceive  the  importance  of  a  "logical  possibility"  ?  and  this  at 
the  very  time  when  another  mind  was  bestowing  twenty  years 
of  labour  on  its  "consideration."  George  J.  Romanes. 


The  Fog  Bow. 

The  complete  theory  of  the  rainbow,  as  developed  by  Sir 
George  Airy  (Camb.  Phil.  Trans.,  vi.  p.  379,  1836),  besides 
explaining  the  supernumerary  bows,  shows  that  the  main  bow 
has  a  radius  somewhat  smaller  than  that  calculated  on  the 
ordinary  geometrical  theory.  The  smaller  the  drops  the  greater 
is  the  discrepancy.  With  the  tiny  drops  composing  a  fog,  the 
discrepancy  is  so  marked  that  the  bow  receives  a  new  name — 
the  fog-bow,  or  "  arc-en-ciel  blanc."  Mr.  Mohn's  (Nature, 
February  23,  p.  391)  nearly  simultaneous  measurements  of  the 
fog- bow  and  Ulloa's  rings  afo.d  a  capital  opportunity  of  putting 
the  theory  to  the  test,  for  from  the  latter  phenomenon  we  can 
readily  calculate  the  average  size  of  the  particles. 

Not  having  Airy's  paper  within  reach,  I  have  had  to  be  con- 
tent with  the  incomplete  account  given  by  Verdet  ("Le9ons 
d'Optique  Physique,"  tom.  i.  p.  414).  "  Assuming  ^=  i '333,  I 
find  for  the  angular  discrepancy — 


)3  =  0-467  7>l(h 


where  K  is  the  wave-length,  a  the  radms  of  the  drop,  and  m  is 
determined  by  the  condition  that  the  integral — 

/    cos  — (7f^  —  mT.v)d%v 
Jo         2 

should  be  a  maximum.     This  integral  was  calculated  by  Airy 
for  a  series  of  values  of  m,  but  Verdet  does  not  quote  the  results. 
Some  rough  approximations  lead  me  to  the  conclusion  that  m 
lies  between  I'o  and  i'3,  and  very  much  nearer  the  latter. 
For  the  radius  of  the  first  Ulloa's  ring  we  have 

a  =  0'82\/a. 

Mr.  Mohn  measured  this  radius  as  1°  31'.  Using  this  value, 
and  taking  m  as  i  -25,  I  find  j8  is  the  circular  measure  of  3°  24'. 
The  geometrical  theory  gives  the  radius  of  the  rainbow  42°  2'. 
So  in  this  particular  case  the  fog  bow  should  have  had  the 
radius  38°  38'.      Mr.    Mohn  gives    two    measurements,   taken 


March  22,  1888] 


NATURE 


487 


shortly  before  that  of  the  Ulloa's  ring,  38"  48'  ±  48',  and  38°  28' 
±  22'  Thus  the  agreement  between  theory  and  observation  is 
singularly  perfect.  James  C.  McConnel. 

St.  Moritz,  Switzerland. 

"The  Teaching  of  Elementary  Chemistry." 

Ih  reply  to  Prof.  M.  M.  P.  Muir's  letter,  I  wish  to  say 
that,  jndging  from  his  answer,  Prof.  Muir  does  not  seem  to 
consider  it  necessary  in  books  of  which  he  is  senior  author  to 
secure  that  accuracy  of  which,  from  his  criticisms  of  the  writings 
of  others,  one  would  expect  to  find  him  the  champion. 

The  first  extract  from  the  books  mentioned  sounds  curiously 
to  chemists.  I  consider  the  statement  misleading  inasmuch  as 
it  appears  to  convey  an  idea  as  to  the  constitution  of  caustic 
soda  which  is  not  that  generally  entertained  by  chemists  ;  that 
this  is  not  the  intention  of  the  authors,  however,  is  manifest 
from  p.  247  of  the  "  Elementary  Chemistry,"  where  the  usual 
view  is  stated. 

It  is  utterly  untrue  and  misleading  to  state  that,  "  inasmuch  as 
the  i^esult  of  passing  chlorine  over  yellow  mercuric  oxide  dried 
at  about  100°  is  to  evolve  oxygen  without  forming  chlorine  mon- 
oxide, ....  it  may  still  be  justly  said  that  in  making  chlorine 
monoxide  '  we  carry  out  a  reaction  in  which  oxygen  is  produced 
in  presence  of  chlorine.'" 

The  facts  are  briefly  these  : — 

{a)  When  chlorine  gas  is  passed  at  ordinary  temperature  over 
yellow  mercuric  oxide,  which  has  been  previously  heated  to 
300°-40o'',  chlorine  monoxide  is  obtained. 

{l>)  When  a  large  quantity  of  chlorine  gas  at  ordinary  tem- 
perature comes  rapidly  into  contnct  with  yellow  mercuric  oxide 
which  has  been  previously  dried  at  ordinary  temperature,  a 
violent  reaction,  accompanied  with  evolution  of  light  and  heat, 
ensues,  and  nearly  pure  oxygen  is  the  only  gaseous  product.  If 
both  the  chlorine  and  the  mercuric  oxide  be  kept  cool  by  means 
of  a  freezing  mixture,  chlorine  monoxide  is  the  only  gaseous 
product  obtained.  With  intermediate  conditions  of  tempera- 
ture, &c.,  mixtures  in  varying  proportions  of  oxygen  and  chlorine 
monoxide  are  obtained.  (Pelouze,  Annalen  der  Cliem.  und 
Pharm.   Bd.  xlvi.  196.) 

The  formation  of  oxygen  in  the  second  case  must  therefore  be 
due  to  the  decomposition  of  already  formed  chlorine  monoxide, 
or  to  the  occurrence  of  a  reaction  the  conditions  of  which  render 
the  existence  of  part  of  the  chlorine  monoxide  impossible.  I 
think  the  majority  of  chemists  will  agree  with  me  that  the  ap- 
pearance of  oxygen  under  conditions  which  insure  the  non- 
existence of  (or  as  itself  a  product  of  the  decomposition  of)  chlorine 
monoxide,  can  scarcely  be  admitted  as  in  any  measure  explaining 
ihc  formation  of  the  latter. 

I  do  not  consider  it  a  "verbal  quibble  "  to  object  to  the  use  of 
the  term  "  volatilized  "  as  applied  to  the  mechanical  removal  of 
particles  of  a  solid  substance. 

As  to  the  chemical  properties  of  chlorine,  bromine,  and  iodine, 
I  should  indeed  be  open  to  the  gravest  charges  of  non-acquaint- 
ance with  chemical  classification,  had  I  suggested  anything  so 
idiotic  as  that,  say,  potassium  hypobromite  and  putassium 
hypoiodite  (if  ihe  latter  exists)  could  be  identical. 

I  called  the  passages  I  quoted  misleading,  because  some  of  them 
at  least  were  inaccurate.  What  amount  of  inaccuracy  is  re- 
quired to  make  a  statement  misleading  may  be  a  matter  for 
difference  of  opinion.     Apparently  it  is  so. 

Prof  Muir  states  that  he  will  decline  to  take  any  notice  of  my 
anonymous  communications.  This,  at  least,  is  safe  ground  ;  but 
I  can  wait  for  the  second  editions  of  the  two  books,  and  see  if  the 
inaccuracies  are  eliminated.  In  the  second  edition  of  "  Elemen- 
tary Chemistry  "  I  hope  Messrs.  Muir  and  Slater  will  also 
describe  the  methods  (omitted  on  p.  19)  for  removing  air  from 
oxygen.  Whilst  these  methods  remain  unpublished,  I  prefer  to 
remain  Z. 


"  Kinematics  and  Dynamics." 

May  I  ask  a  short  space  in  your  columns  to  refer  to  a  few 
points  in  Prof  Greenhill's  review  of  my  book  on  "  Kinematics 
and  Dynamics,"  published  in  your  issue  of  February  16  (p.  361). 
I  shall  be  as  brief  as  possible. 

(i)  "  In  questions  involving  the  size  of  the  earth  (pp.  74  and 
80),  it  is  the  circumference  and  not  the  diameter  which  should  be 
given  in  metres,  the  circumference  being  40,000,000  metres," 
the  reason  being,  I  suppose,  that  in  illustrative  problems  round 


numbers  should  be  employed  as  data,  with  the  object  of  facilitat- 
ing arithmetical  calculation.  There  are  doubtless  advantages  in 
this  course,  and  in  many  problems  I  have  adopted  it.  But  should 
it  be  made  an  invariable  rule  ?  Problems  based  on  exact  data, 
such  as  the  ones  referred  to,  on  pp.  74  and  80,  have  for 
many  students  a  greater  interest  than  those  based  on  approxi- 
mations. 

(2)  "  The  expression  'knots  an  hour' (p.  60)  is  irritating  to 
a  sailor."  But  the  expression  "knots"  simply  would  be  either 
misleading  or  puzzling  to  a  student  unacquainted  with  nautical 
abbreviations. 

(3)  "  The  formula  i^v"'  =  i^v^^  +  as  is  to  be  preferred  to  that 
on  p.  34,  e^"'  =  v^  +  2as  ;  in  all  cases  the  factor  \  should  go  with 
the  v^-  in  the  equation  of  energy."  The  formula  quoted  is  not  an 
equation  of  energy,  but  a  kinematical  equation.  Equations  of 
energy  (see  pp.  253,  256,  328)  hive  in  all  cases  the  form  approved 
by  Prof  Greenhill. 

(4)  "  In  dealing  with  rotation,  the  author  would  do  well  to 
study  Maxwell's  geometrical  representation  of  the  direction  by 
means  of  the  screw,  right-handed  or  left-handed."  I  have  done 
so  ;  but  I  find  that  students  more  readily  grasp  a  specification  of 
the  direction  of  a  rotation  when  it  is  made  by  reference  to  the 
face  of  a  clock  ;  probably  because  few  of  them  are  so  familiar 
with  right-handed  and  left-handed  Fcrews  as  they  are  with  clock- 
faces. 

(5)  "  In  a  linear  strain  the  increment  of  distance  of  two  points 
in  the  line  of  the  strain  is  properly  their  elongation  ;  while  the 
ratio  of  the  elongation  to  the  original  distance  is  called  the 
extension,  not  the  elongation,  as  on  p.  167."  And  yet  Thomson 
and  Tait  ("  Elements  of  Natural  Philosiphy,"  §  139),  Clifford 
("Elements  of  Dynamic,"  p.  158),  Minchin  ("  Uniplanar 
Kinematics  of  Solids  and  Fluids,"  §  78),  and  Ibbetson  ("  Mathe- 
matical Theory  of  Elasticity, "  §  53),  all  define  elongation  exactly 
as  I  have  done. 

(6)  "  The  author,  disregarding  the  vernacular  use  of  the  word 
'  weight,'  defines  the  weight  of  a  body  as  the  force  with  which  it 
is  attracted  by  the  earth  "  [I  don't  (see  §  290)  ;  but  let  that 
pass],  "but  is  at  variance  with  his  own  definition  in  the  state- 
ment of  the  majority  of  the  subsequent  examples,  relapsing  into 
the  language  of  ordinary  life."  No  references  are  given  to  these 
instances  of  backsliding.  I  have  looked  pretty  carefully  through 
the  subsequent  examples,  and  can  find  no  case  in  which  I  have 
used  ihe  term  referred  to  in  any  other  sense  than  that  given  it  by 
definition.  I  should  be  glad  to  have  such  slips  pointed  out  to 
me,  if  there  are  any. 

(7)  "A  collection  of  500  different  ways  of  spelling  the  name 
of  the  tow  n  of  Birmingham  has  been  made,  and  a  similar  collec- 
tion could  be  made  from  the  present  treatise  of  different  ways  of 
expressing  the  simple  ideas  of  the  pound  weight  and  the  pound 
force."  It  is  true  that  these  ideas  are  expressed  by  English 
writers  in  various  ways.  And  it  seems  to  me  desirable  that  a 
student  should  be  made  acquainted  with  them.  Surely  in  hold- 
ing that  I  should  choose  one  phrase  and  stick  to  it,  your  reviewer 
is  blaming  me  f<r  not  being  one  of  the  "mathematical  pre- 
cisionists"  at  whom  he  sneers. 

(8)  "This  terminology  culminates  in  the  solecisms  that  on 
p.  477  we  must  suppose  pressure  to  be  measured  in  poundals  on 
the  square  foot  in  hydrostatical  problems  ;  and  that  if  the  equation 
w  =  mg  is  supposed  to  be  used  with  absolute  units,  the  weight  of 
a  body  is  measured  in  poundals  ;  as  if  a  mathematician  asked  in 
a  shop  for  '  half  a  poundal  of  tea,  or  tobacco.'  "  It  is  not  quite 
correct  to  say  that,  in  the  hydrostatical  equations  referred  to, 
pressure  must  be  supposed  to  be  measured  in  poundals  per  square 
foot.  In  fact  it  may  be  supposed  to  be  measured  in  terms  of  the 
unit  of  pressure  of  any  derived  system,  as,  e.g.,  the  dyne  per 
square  centimetre,  or  even  the  pound-weight  per  square  foot, 
provided  only  the  density  be  measured  in  terms  of  the  cor- 
responding unit.  I  am  aware  that  this  mode  of  expressing 
hydrostatical  equations  is  unusual,  but  it  seems  to  me  to  have 
great  advantages,  and  it  was  adopted  both  for  this  reason  and  for 
the  sake  of  making  the  section  on  hydrostatics  uniform  with  the 
rest  of  the  book.  With  regard  to  the  units  in  which  weight 
should  be  measured,  the  practice  of  the  tobacconist  or  the  tea 
merchant  is  surely  not  our  best  guide. 

(9)  "Thus  a  mathematical  precisionist,  to  express  the  simple 
idea  of  a  force  of  10  pounds,  to  be  consistent  should  call  it  '  a 
force  equal  to  the  weight  of  the  mass  of  10  pound  weights,'  the 
absurdity  of  which  is  evident."  The  phrase  inclosed  in  quota- 
tion marks  is  not  quoted  from  my  book.     In  my  terminology  the 

I  most  precise  of  mathematicians  would  express  the  idea  referred  to 


488 


NATURE 


[March  22,  1888 


by  the  phrase  "a  force  equal  to  the  weight  of  lo  pounds,"  which 
is  neither  clumsy  nor  absurd. 

(10)  "Except  for  the  parts  criticized  above,  on  the  units  of 
weight,  mass,  and  force,  the  present  treatise  shows  that  the 
author  has  read  with  profit  and  discrimination  the  most  recent 
treatises  on  dynamics."  I  have  been  under  the  impression  that 
in  my  treatment  of  these  units  I  had,  in  the  main,  followed  the 
most  recent  treatises  on  dynamics.  May  I  ask  in  which  of  them 
units  are  treated  in  what  Prof.  Greenhill  considers  the  proper 
way? 

I  would  like  to  say  also  that  the  elementary  proofs  of  the 
chief  properties  of  the  common  catenary,  which  are  given  by 'me, 
are,  with  slight  modifications,  those  given  in  Prof.  Goodeve's 
"  Principles  of  Mechanics."  My  indebtedness  to  his  book  is 
acknowledged  generally  in  the  preface. 

I  fear  my  desire  to  be  brief  may  have  made  me  appear  curt. 
Let  meex^press,  therefore,  my  appreciation  of  the  trouble  Prof. 
Greenhill  has  taken  to  form  a  just  estimate  of  the  merits  of  my 
book,  and  of  the  kindly  way  in  which  he  has  spoken  of  it. 

J.  G.  MacGregor. 

Dalhousie  College,  Halifax,  N.S.,  March  i. 


;_Coral  Formations. 

I  AM  glad  to  see  the  theory  that  the  internal  lagoons  of  coral 
atolls  are  excavated  by  the  chemical  action  of  sea- water  and  the 
removal  of  carbonate  of  lime  in  solution  is  now  being  brought  to 
the  test  of  figures. 

Mr.  J.  G.  Ross  (Nature,  March  15,  p.  462)  calculates 
from  his  experiments  that  in  this  way  a  sheet  of  carbonate  of 
calcium  half  an  inch  thick  can  be  removed  annually  from  the 
surface  of  a  lagoon,  but  strangely  adds,  "  In  other  words  at  the 
same  rate  it  would  require  about  a  century  to  deepen  the  lagoon 
one  fathom."  According  to  this  method  of  calculating,  144  years 
is  "about  a  century," 

These  figures  no  doubt  suit  the  theory  of  the  formation  of 
coral  lagoons  very  well,  but  they  appear  to  me  quite  destructive 
of  the  other  and  co-relative  view  that  the  platforms  upon  which 
atolls  have  been  formed  have  been  built  up  by  the  accretion  of 
the  dead  shells  of  pelagic  organisms  showered  down  from  the 
surface  of  the  ocean  together  with  the  shells  of  those  organisms 
which  have  lived  on  the  bottom.  I  believe  that  at  no  place  on 
the  surface  of  the  globe  are  such  dead  shells  being  supplied  at  a 
rate  that  would  even  balance  this  supposed  rate  of  chemical 
destruction. 

Yet  if  these  figures  be  correct  we  shall  have  to  reckon  upon 
the  removal  from  such  platforms  of  more  than  half  an  inch 
annually  in  consequence  of  the  quicker  action  which  it  is  said 
takes  place  through  greater  pressure  at  greater  depths. 

If,  therefore,  we  accept  the  dissolution  theory  of  the  origin  of 
coral  lagoons,  it  seems  impossible  to  believe  in  the  building  up 
of  platforms  of  calcium  carbonate  on  volcanic  or  oth;r  peaks 
from  varying  and  unknown  depths  to  the  levels  necessary  for  the 
growth  of  reef  corals.  If,  on  the  other  hand,  we  believe  that 
platforms  are  so  built  up,  it  appears  equally  destructive  of  the 
dissolution  theory  of  the  lagoons. 

Dr.  Darwin  indicated  this  difficulty  in  his  letter  to  me, 
published  in  Nature,  November  17,  1887,  p.  54,  but  the 
figures  we  are  now  supplied  with  enable  us  to  realize  it  ^much 
more  vividly.  T.  Mellard  Reade. 

Park  Corner,  Blimdellsands,  March  16. 


The  Movements  of  Scree-Material. 

I  PERUSED  with  interest  the  abstract  of  a  paper  on  the  above, 
read  by  Mr.  Davison  at  the  meeting  of  the  Geological  Society 
on  the  29th  ult. 

The  phenomenon  seems  somewhat  akin  to  the  movements  in 
the  "Stone  Rivers  "  of  the  Falkland  Islands,  though  another 
reason  has  been  suggested  by  Sir  Wy ville  Thomson  as  the  cause 
of  their  progress. 

Might  it  not  be  possible  for  motion  to  be  produced  in  loose 
materials,  and  in  the  molecules  of  certain  coherent  sub.stances 
situated  at  a  high  angle  of  slope,  bycontinual  though  imperceptible 
vibrations  in  the  earth's  crust  ? 

Apart  from  the  changes  wrought  by  alternating  temperature, 
might  not  the  "downward  creep"  in  the  lead  on  the  roof  of 
Bristol  Cathedral — a»  observed  by  Cr.non   Moseley — be  due  to 


a  "  settling  down  "  of  the  molecules  by  the  constant  vibrations 
of  sounds  transmitted  through  the  structure,  and  having  their 
origin  within  and  without?  Cecil Carus-Wilson. 

iiournemouth,  March  15. 


Were  the  Elephant  and   Mastodon  contemporary 
in  Europe  ? 

Mr.  Howorth  asks  this  question  in  Nature  for  March  15  (p. 
463).  Perhaps  this  extract  from  a  translation  of  a  note  from  Prof. 
d'Ancona,  of  Florence,  will  satisfy  Mr.  Howorth  :  "The  soil  of 
the  upper  Val  d'Arno  is  ascribed  to  formations  of  the  Pliocene 
period."  In  it  have  been  found  ^'Mastodon  avcrnensis,  Elephas 
mcridionalis."  Twenty-four  other  animal  remains'are  identified, 
all  differing  from  the  remains  of  the  bone-caves.  In  both  places 
respectively  these  relics  belong  to  contemporary  animals. 

9  Sinclair  Road,  W.,  March  15,  H.  P.  Malet. 


EXPERIMENTS  IN  MOUNTAIN  BUILDING} 

THE  primary  object  of  these  experiments  was  to 
explain  on  what  mechanical  principles  the  remark- 
able rock-structures  recently  discovered  by  the  Geo- 
logical Survey  in  the  North-West  Highlands  might  have 
been  produced.  In  experimenting  on  the  behaviour  of 
strata  when  subjected  to  horizontal  pressure,  it  has  been 
usual  to  regard  large  rock-masses  as  practically  plastic 
bodies,  and  to  imitate  in  the  laboratory  the  great  flexures 
and  plications  of  Nature  by  coinpressing  layers  of  clay, 
cloth,  and  other  plastic  or  iiexible  substances.  It  was,  how- 
ever, evident,  as  soon  as  the  true  structure  of  the  North- 
West  Highland  area  was  unravelled,  that  the  rocks  had, 
to  a  very  large  extent,  behaved  like  rigid  bodies  under 
the  enormous  lateral  pressure  to  which  they  had  once 
been  subjected.  Instead  of  following  the  usual  method 
of  using  plastic  materials,  the  author  therefore  set  to 
work  to  devise  strata  sufficiently  rigid  to  snap  rather  than 
bend  and  become  folded  on  the  application  of  lateral 
pressure.  It  is  to  this  peculiarity  in  the  character  of  the 
materials,  rather  than  to  any  great  novelty  in  the  methods, 
that  the  interesting  results  obtained  are  mainly  due. 

The  experiments  were  of  three  distinct  kinds.  The 
first  series  was  designed  to  explain  the  behaviour  of  strata 
when  thrust  horizontally  over  an  immovable  surface,  and 
thus  to  throw  light  on  the  phenomena  of  "  thrust  planes," 
such  as  are  now  known  to  occur  abundantly  in  the  North- 
West  Highlands  between  Loch  Eriboll  and  Skye  (see 
Naturk,  vol.  xxxi.  p.  33).  To  simulate  natural  strata, 
layers  of  damp  sand,  foundry  loam,  or  in  a  few  cases 
clay,  with  laminae  of  dry  stucco  powder  between,  were 
employed.  In  a  few  minutes  the  anhydrous  powder 
absorbed  enough  moisture  from  the  damp  beds  to  enable 
it  to  "  set "  into  tolerably  rigid  sheets.  The  rock  which 
had  thus  solidified  i7t  situ,  was  next  compressed  hori- 
zontally, by  pushing  in,  by  hand,  or  with  the  help  of  a 
screw,  the  movable  end  of  the  long  box  in  which  the 
strata  were  formed.  One  side  of  the  box  could  be  re- 
moved at  pleasure,  and  at  the  end  of  each  experiment  it 
was  lifted  off,  and  the  section  inside  revealed,  so  that  it 
could  be  photographed  or  copied  if  desired. 

Fig.  I,  which  is  drawn  to  a  scale  of  j^.t  of  the  original, 
shows  the  character  of  the  section  produced  after  the 
end  had  been  pressed  in  20  inches.  The  central  light- 
coloured  band,  bounded  by  stiff  stucco  lamina:;,  has  under- 
gone no  folding,  but  has  become  heaped  up  by  means  of 
a  series  of  slightly  inclined  reversed  faults,  along  which 
the  constant  pressure  from  the  right  found  relief.  For  this 
structure  the  author  has  proposed  the  name  "wedge 
structure,"  as  the  advancing  mass  is  really  raised  by  being 
forced  over  a  series  of  wedges  of  undisturbed  rock. 

After    pushing   the   piled-up  mass  a  certain   distance 

'  Abstract  of  a  Paper  by  Henry  M.  Cadell,  B.Sc,  F.R.S.E.,  H.M. 
Geological  Survey  of  Scotland,  read  before  the  Royal  Society  of  Edinburgh, 
February  20,  1888. 


March  22,  1888] 


NATURE 


489 


forward,  the  whole  heap  always  showed  a  tendency  to  rise 
and  ride  forward  e7i  masse  over  the  less  disturbed  beds  in 
front.  Fig.  2  shows  a  typical  section  produced  at  this 
more  advanced  stage  of  the  movement.  This  new  plane 
of  shear  may  be  called  a  "major  thrust,"  as  distin- 
guished from  the  "minor  thrusts"  shown  in  Fig.  ', 
and  in  the  upper  part  of  this  figure.  The  structure  of 
these  artificial  rock-masses  bears  a  remarkable  resem- 
blance to  that  of  the  great  thrust  areas  of  Sutherland 


^ 


Fig.  I. 

and  Ross.  Everywhere  along  that  great  region  of  earth 
movement  major  thrust  planes  are  found  truncating 
sets  of  minor  thrusts,  just  as  has  taken  place  in  this 
experiment.  The  extraordinary  heaping  up  and  local 
thickening  of  Silurian  strata,  and  the  superposition  across 
their  upturned  edges  of  'iuge  slices  of  Archaean  gneiss 
and  Cambrian  sandstone,  are  phenomena  which,  before 
the  thrust-plane  theory  had  been  originated,  were  quite 
inexplicable.^ 


Fig.  2. 

The  second  series  of  experiments  was  intended  to 
ascertain  how  such  great  thrusts  might  have  originated, 
and  to  trace  their  connection  with  folds  and  great  terres- 
trial movements  of  upheaval  and  mountain  building. 

Stratified  beds,  similar  to  those  employed  before,  were 
formed  on  a  band  of  stout  wax-cloth,  about  2\  feet  long, 
and  7  inches  broad,  secured  at  the  ends  to  vertical  blocks 
of  wood.  "When  pressure  was  applied  to  the  ends,  the 
wax-cloth  was  thrown  into  folds,  but  the  folds  did  not 


■     Fig.  3. 

in  all  cases  reach  the  surface,  but  found  relief  in  thrusts, 
as  shown  in  Fig.  3. 

In  this  experiment  an  anticline  was  first  formed  at  the 
end  of  the  wax-cloth  nearest  the  pressure.  A  thrust 
appeared  at  the  surface,  and,  on  examining  the  section, 
this  was  found  to  bend  down  and  bury  itself  in  the  left 
monocHnal  member  of  the  fold.     A  second  anticline  was 

I  The  effect  of  major  and  minor  thrusts  is  well  seen  in  the  section  of  the 
Durness  and  Eriboll  district  above  the  map  in  the  second  edition  of  Dr.  A. 
Geikie's  "  Scenery  of  Scotland." 


ne.xt  started  in  advance  of  the  first,  and,  on  continuing 
the  push,  a  second  thrust,  similarly  situated  with  regard 
to  the  underlying  fold,  was  produced.  By  this  means  it 
may  be  possible  to  explain  how  thrusts  are  connected 
with  movements  of  deep-seated  parts  of  the  earth's  crust, 
and  also  how,  as  in  the  Highlands,  they  occur  over  broad 
areas  all  inclined  in  the  same  general  direction.  If  this 
section  affords  the  true  explanation  of  their  origin,  it  is 
clear  that  thrusting  is  only  a  surface  phenomenon,  and  that 
the  complex  structures  of  the  North-West  Highlands  are 
structures  which  can  only  originate  at  the  outer  edge  of 
a  great  mountain-system  of  elevation. 

Fig.  4  represents  a  section  produced  with  the  same 
apparatus,  but  here  the  pressure  was  applied  from  both 
sides.      An  anticline  was  started  at   the  centre  of  the 


wax-cloth,  and  as  the  pressure  was  continued  the  strata 
were  squeezed  into  a  form  closely  resembling  that  known 
as  "  fan  structure."  Two  small  arches  were  next  formed, 
one  on  each  side  of  the  original  fold,  and  the  pressure 
was  continued.  A  second  fan  made  its  appearance  out- 
side the  first,  and  at  each  side  there  was  a  tendency  for 
thrusts  to  be  produced,  as  shown  in  Fig.  5.  Throughout 
the  experiment  the  lowest  stratum  of  damp  sand  next 
the  wa.x-cloth  was  compressed  and  distorted,  till,  at  the 
last  stage  of  the  movement,  it  became  very  much  "  staved 
together  "  above  the  synchnal  folds  of  the  wax-cloth  on 
either  side,  and  was  completely  "nipped  out"  at  the 
crown  of  the  central  fold.  During  the  movement  in  the 
mass  it  was,  in  fact,  made  to  flow  like  a  viscous  body, 
along  a  series  of  approximately  vertical  planes,  which  in 


Fig.  5.  ; 

Nature  would  be  described  as  planes  of  foliation.  This 
experiment,  then,  may  help  to  explain  not  only  the  origin 
of  the  fan  structure  of  the  Alps,  &c.,  but  also  the  com- 
mon occurrence  in  the  centre  of  the  fan  of  a  core  of 
crystalline  rock  with  vertical  foliation. 

The  experiments  of  the  third  series  were  modifications 
of  those  of  Prof  A.  Favre,of  Geneva  (see  NATURE,vol.xix. 
p.  103),  who  covered  a  band  of  stretched  caoutchouc  with 
beds  of  adhesive  clay,  and  on  allowing  the  elastic  sole 
to  contract,  observed  the  wrinkling  up  of  the  surface  of 
the  clay  into  a  series  of  miniature  Alpine  ridges.  The 
author  modified  Favre's  experiments  by  separating  the 
upper  and  lower  portions  of  the  clay  with  sheets  of 
paper,  so  that  the  former  could  be  stripped  off  at  the  end 
of  the  experiment  without  disturbing  the  lower  part  of 


490 


NATURE 


[Mai^ck  2  2,  1888 


the  section.  After  removing  the  superficial  folded  layer, 
the  paper  covering  the  lower  bed  was  found  to  be  covered 
with  minute  corrugations  like  those  often  seen  on  beds 
of  mica-schist.     On   stripping  off  the  paper,  and  again 


stretching  the  elastic  substratum,  the  clay  adhering  to  it 
did  not  become  smoothed  down  to  its  original  form,  but 
split  along  a  multitude  of  vertical  rents,  transverse  to  the 
direction  of  pressure,  each  of  which  corresponded  to  one 


Section  at  head  of  Loch  Eriholl. 


of  the  little  ripples  on  the  paper  before  it  was  removed. 
The  sides  of  the  cracks  were  observed  to  be  covered  with 
minute  vertical  striations  like  the  slickensides  of  a  fault- 
fissure. 


This  experiment,  the  author  suggests,  may  explain  the 
vertical  cleavage  and  fohation  found  in  the  deep-seated 
parts  of  many  old  mountain-systems. 


SWISS  FOREST  LA  WS. 

'T'HE  Report  of  Mr.  Conway  Thornton  to  the  Foreign 
-*•  Office,  on  the  Swiss  Forest  Laws,  is  a  careful  and 
interesting  piece  of  work.  He  divides  his  subject  into 
two  parts :  in  the  first  he  treats  of  the  history  of  forestry 
prior  to  1875,  the  year  in  which  the  Act  now  in  force,  the 
Forestry  Act  of  1875,  was  proposed;  and  in  the  second 
part  he  deals  with  that  Act,  its  provisions  and  its  effects, 
and  the  measures  taken  under  the  "  R^glement  d'Execu- 
tion,"  which  followed  the  Act,  for  the  advancement  of 
technical  education  amongst  foresters  in  Switzerland.  It 
is  evident  that  from  a  very  early  date  the  various  cantons 
endeavoured  to  preserve  the  forests.  Thus,  in  13 14  the 
authorities  of  Zurich  forbade  "  the  felling,  floating,  or 
selling"  of  timber  from  the  Sihlvvald  ;  in  1339,  Schwyz 
forbade  charcoal-burning  near  the  chief  towns  of  the 
canton,  and  a  similar  decree  was  promulgated  in  Fri- 
bourg  in  1438.  Industries  using  wood  were  in  various 
cantons  restricted  in  their  operations  ;  the  laying  out  of 
new  vineyards  was  prohibited  under  heavy  penalties  for 
centuries  ;  and  finally,  during  last  century,  the  use  of 
uncloven  vine-props  was  forbidden.  The  exportation  of 
timber  took  place  only  under  great  difficulties,  and  even 
the  removal  of  timber  from  one  place  to  another  in 
Switzerland  was,  until  1848,  very  much  restricted.  In 
1376,  Zurich  forbade  clearings  to  be  laid  down  in  pasture, 
and  Fribourg  would  not  allow  sheep-pastures  to  be  estab- 
lished in  clearings.  Goats  were  not  permitted  to  be  let 
loose  in  the  woods  ;  and  rosin-scrapers  were  excluded 
from  many  of  the  forests.  None  of  these  numerous 
decrees  appear  to  have  had  much  effect,  the  very  number 
of  them  testifying  to  their  powerlessness  to  check  the 
evil.  In  many  cases  the  general  prohibition  against 
wood-cutting  gave  way  to  a  partial  permission,  as,  for 
example,  in  Zurich,  where  the  number  felled  was  not  per- 
mitted to  exceed  a  stated  total.  This  instance  of  Zurich 
gives  us  the  first  scientific  treatment  of  the  question,  when 
the  felling  of  the  Sihlwald  and  other  woods  in  the  four- 
teenth century  was  regulated  both  as  to  the  amount  and 
the  system  of  cutting. 

In  1702,  prior  to  which  date  attention  was  paid  solely 
to  the  maintenance  and  protection  of  the  timber,  the 
Government  appointed  a  Commission  to  inquire  how  the 
forests  might  be  best  preserved,  enlarged,  and  improved ; 
and  subsequently   issued  a  decree  carrying  the  recom- 


mendations of  the  Commission  into  effect.  In  1725, 
Berne  followed  the  example  of  Zurich,  and  published 
forestry  orders,  which,  like  those  of  the  latter,  contained 
directions  for  the  cultivation  of  timber  and  for  permanent 
improvements.  Similarly,  in  other  cantons,  improved 
systems  were  introduced;  thus,  in  Fiibourg,  the  com- 
pulsory planting  of  marshy  meadow-land  was  decreed  ; 
in  Lucerne  a  season  was  set  apart  for  felling,  the  growth 
of  oaks  was  recommended,  and  the  formation  of  clearings 
was  forbidden.  In  1755  an  excellent  forestry  code  was 
drawn  up  by  Joseph  Wilhelm,  Prince-Bishop  of  Bale. 
About  1760,  two  scientific  Societies — the  Physical  So- 
ciety of  Zurich  and  the  Economical  Society  of  Berne — 
made  great  efforts  to  introduce  improved  knowledge  of 
woodcraft  into  Switzerland,  and  with  this  object  they  made 
strong  representations  to  their  respective  Governments, 
and  the  Forestry  Decrees  of  1773  and  1786  were  the  results 
of  their  interference.  The  substance  of  these  decrees 
may  be  stated  to  be  the  surveying  of  forests,  the  appoint- 
ment of  officials  who  would  supervise  planting,  experi- 
ment on  exotics,  and  help  in  teaching  a  more  scientific 
system  of  wood-cutting.  By  means  of  these  measures 
some  real  progress  was  made,  which,  however,  was  stopped 
by  the  general  confusion  during  the  beginning  of  this 
century  ;  but,  immediately  peace  was  restored,  the  Hel- 
vetic Government  turned  their  attention  again  to  the 
forests,  which  by  this  time  had  suffered  severely.  Soleure 
was  the  first  to  start  a  system  under  which  technical  in- 
struction, chiefly  in  forestry  and  geometrical  surveying, 
was  given  to  two  citizens  from  each  woodland  district, 
the  better  qualified  being  chosen  foresters.  From  this 
time  until  1830,  forest  laws  were  drawn  up  univers- 
ally, prescribing  the  modes  in  which  timber  was  to  be 
felled.  Zug,  in  1821,  tried  to  give  an  increased  value 
to  her  forests  by  endeavouring  to  extend  scientific  teach- 
ing among  the  people.  In  consequence  of  the  disastrous 
floods  in  Switzerland  in  1830,  from  this  time  we  find  that 
forest  laws  were  more  generally  enacted  and  more  rigidly 
enforced  than  they  had  ever  been  before.  The  number 
of  officials  was  increased,  and  great  attention  was  paid 
to  their  training.  In  fact,  the  spread  of  the  science  of 
forestry  in  Switzerland  dates  from  this  period.  At  first 
the  people  thwarted  the  officials  in  every  way,  but,  be- 
coming gradually  enlightened  as  to  the  utility  of  the 
Government  measures,  they  ceased  from  actual  oppo- 
sition.    Even  the  most  backward  of  the  cantons  began 


March  22,  1888] 


NATURE 


49  r 


to  realize  that  their  true  interests  lay  in  the  preservation 
of  the  forests,  both  as  a  commercial  speculation,  having 
regard  to  the  advancing  price  of  timber,  and  as  a  sup- 
port for  precipitous  ground,  and  on  account  of  its 
domestic  and  national  uses.  With  regard  to  the  latter, 
it  is  worthy  of  note  that  the  respective  cantons,  from  the 
earliest  times,  supervised  the  numerous  public  woods  ; 
and  that  the  frontier  forests  were  always  better  looked 
after  than  any  others,  on  account  of  their  importance  as 
a  defence  in  time  of  war,  and  at  the  commencement  of 
the  eighteenth  century  woods  were  protected,  as  being 
safeguards  against  avalanches  and  landslips. 

Hitherto  the  students  trained  in  forestry  had  been 
sent  to  the  schools  in  Germany,  but  in  1855  the  Con- 
federation took  the  matter  up  and  established  a  Forestry 
School,  in  which  henceforth  Swiss  students  were  educated 
in  the  art  of  wood-cutting  and  the  kindred  sciences.  In 
1858  a  long  and  searching  inquiry  was  made  into  the 
supposed  connection  of  the  forests  and  the  course  of  the 
mountain  torrents,  and,  as  a  consequence,  the  State  aided 
the  School  of  Forestry  in  their  efforts  to  plant  anew  the 
ground  where  springs  abounded,  and  officials  were  ap- 
pointed for  this  purpose.  With  regard  to  these  officials, 
mention  of  whom  occurs  in  all  the  forest  laws  of  Switzer- 
land, we  first  hear  of  them  in  13 14,  when,  as  in  subse- 
quent centuries,  they  were  supposed  to  be  aided  by  the 
inhabitants,  every  one  of  whom  in  a  woodland  district  was 
sworn  to  disclose  any  breach  of  the  decrees  which  came 
to  his  knowledge.  For  centuries  these  officials  were  mere 
guardians,  commonly  called  Bannwiirte ;  but  the  punish- 
ment of  offenders  rested  with  councils  of  magistrates, 
(S:c.  The  ordinary  forest-keeper  was  generally  nothing 
more  than  an  intelligent  wood-cutter;  but  when  it  was  seen 
that  some  technical  teaching  was  necessary,  the  skilled 
man,  and,  later  still,  the  man  with  a  knowledge  of  natural 
science  and  mathe  natics,  was  always  preferred.  In 
1868  the  disastrous  floods  gave  a  fresh  impetus  to  the 
spirit  of  inquiry  into  the  action  of  the  forests  on  the  rainfall 
and  the  course  of  the  torrents;  and  we  find  in  the  revised 
Federal  Constitution  of  1874  an  article  inserted,  giving 
the  Federation  control  over  the  forests  and  waterways,  and 
authority  to  interfere  in  any  way  they  might  think  fit. 
Under  this  article  two  officials  were  appointed— the 
Federal  Inspector  of  Forests,  and  also  a  Sub-Inspector. 
The  Forestry  Societies  unanimously  adopted  a  pro- 
gramme which,  being  presented  to  the  Federal  Council, 
was  embodied  in  the  Forest  Law  proposed  by  the 
Council  in  1875.  This  proposed  enactment  led  to  much 
discussion  in  the  Assembly,  but  was  finally  passed  by 
both  Houses  on  March  24,  1876.  The  district  to  be  sub- 
ject to  the  law  included  not  only  the  high  mountain 
ranges,  but  also  the  hills  bordering  on  the  plains,  as 
sharing  in  the  protection  afforded  against  floods  and 
avalanches  by  the  works  which  were  intended  to  be 
undertaken  in  the  former.  The  district  was  bounded  by 
a  line  starting  from  the  east  of  Lake  Leman  along  the 
south  of  the  plain  between  the  Alps  and  Mount  Jura, 
thence  to  the  north  of  Lake  Constance— that  is,  a  tract  of 
country  in  all  about  60  per  cent,  of  the  whole  of  Switzer- 
land, or  6,750,000  acres,  about  15-8  per  cent,  of  which  was 
forest  land.  It  was  decided  that  the  rights  of  private 
owners  should  not  be  infringed  except  in  case  of 
necessity — that  is  to  say,  where  the  woods  of  private 
owners  were  "  protecting "  woods  ;  in  other  words, 
where,  on  account  of  their  position,  they  might  have 
an  influence  on  the  climate,  avalanches,  landslips,  &c. 
Each  canton  was  required  to  maintain  an  efficient  staff 
of  officials;  and  to  each  individual  who  had  received 
technical  training  an  area  of  about  17,500  acres  was 
assigned  if  in  the  plains,  and  25,000  acres  on  the  moun- 
tains. All  the  woods  under  official  supervision,  including, 
of  course,  private  woods  which  came  under  the  class 
"  protecting  "  woods,  were  to  be  demarcated,  all  clearings 
were  to  be  immediately  planted  afresh,  and  where  neces- 


sary new  forests  were  to  be  created,  the  Federal  treasury^ 
bearing  from  30  to  70  per  cent,  of  the  cost,  or,  in  the  case 
of  replanting  protecting  woods,  from  20  to  50  per  cent.^ 
according  to  the  difficulty  and  the  importance  of  the 
works,  which  were  always  required  to  receive  the  approval 
of  the  Inspector-General  before  the  Federal  subvention 
was  granted.  All  servitudes  or  easements  in  "protecting" 
woods  were  to  be  redeemed  within  ten  years,  and  no  new 
ones  were  permitted  to  be  created.  Anything  which  might 
endanger  the  utility  of  the  forests  was  strictly  forbidden  ; 
cattle  were  not  allowed  to  graze,  nor  could  leaves  be  col- 
lected except  in  fixed  spots.  To  this  enactment  was  added 
a  "  Reglement  d'Exdcution,"  which  provides,  among  other 
things,  for  the  course  of  education  to  be  given  to  each 
student  of  forestry  by  the  canton  to  entitle  it  to  the 
Federal  subsidy.  The  time  of  the  course  is  not  to  be  less 
than  two  months,  which  may  be  divided  into  two  half- 
courses  of  a  month  each,  but  the  whole  course  must  be 
taken  within  a  year.  Instruction  must  be  given  in  the 
following  subjects  :■ — (i)  Poorest-surveying  and  measure- 
ment in  detail ;  calculations  of  the  dimensions  and  value 
of  single  trees,  and  of  outlying  tracts  of  wood  ;  road- 
making  ;  safeguards  against  avalanches,  &c.  (2)  Study 
of  the  different  kinds  of  timber  and  of  noxious  plants. 
(3)  Elementary  knowledge  of  soils,  and  of  their  component 
parts.  (4)  Fundamental  notions  of  the  laws  of  climate 
and  meteorology.  (5)  Cultivation  and  care  of  forests. 
(6)  Book-keeping  and  other  general  branches  of  instruction 
valuable  for  under-foresters.  A  preliminary  and  a  final 
examination  are  prescribed,  and  no  license  is  granted 
except  on  good  answering  in  the  latter.  The  Federal 
Government  pay  the  teachers,  who  are  appointed  by  the 
canton  subject  to  the  approval  of  the  Federal  Govern- 
ment. 

At  the  outset  there  were  great  difficulties  in  carrying 
out  this  law.  Some  of  the  cantons  had  not  their  codes  of 
regulations  drawn  up  till  1881,  and,  with  the  exception  of 
the  cantons  of  Zurich,  Fribourg.  and  Vaud,  the  survey 
was  not  quickly  completed.  In  1886,  however,  the  Army 
Staff  finished  the  triangular  survey  intrusted  to  them.  In 
1886  the  redemption  of  servitudes  prescribed  by  the  Act 
was  not  ended,  and  up  to  that  time  ^9150  had  been  thus 
expended.  There  is  not  in  the  cantons  an  uniform 
organization  for  carrying  out  the  Forest  Law,  and  Dr. 
Fankhauser,  one  of  the  highest  officials  of  the  Forest 
Department,  does  not  think  that  such  an  organization  is 
possible,  having  regard  to  the  differences  in  position  and 
ideas  of  the  various  cantons.  At  the  present  time  each 
_canton  possesses  in  a  measure  its  own  scheme  of  forestry 
organization.  There  are,  however,  two  main  systems  in 
existence  in  the  Federal  district,  the  first  of  which  pre- 
vails in  the  central,  eastern,  and  southern  parts  of 
Switzerland.  Each  canton  is  divided  into  districts  of 
from  17,500  to  35,ooo  acres  each,  and  over  each  district 
the  canton  places  an  officer  who  has  received  scien- 
tific training  ;  under  him  are  the  keepers  and  deputy- 
foresters,  chosen  by  the  owners  from  among  the 
students  of  the  local  forestry  school,  and  paid  by  them. 
Each  deputy  has  about  3000  acres  to  take  care  of,  and 
has  but  to  carry  out  the  orders  of  his  superior  as  to 
felling,  clearing,  and  replanting.  In  the  next,  however,  a 
different  system  obtains.  Here  the  country  is  far  less 
mountainous,  and  the  inhabitants  industrial  rather  than 
agricultural  in  their  pursuits.  In  these  cantons  the  dis- 
trict forester  has  from  7500  to  17,500  acres  under  him, 
and  in  this  district  he  marks  out  all  the  fellings  to  be 
performed,  and  in  fact  does  everything  but  the  manual 
labour,  which  he  leaves  to  his  inferiors.  This  district 
includes,  among  other  cantons,  Zurich,  Berne,  Lucerne, 
and  Neufchatel,  where  timber  being  very  high  in  price, 
and  the  opportunities  of  sale  being  numerous,  the 
country  is  fi'equently  reafforested  by  private  individuals, 
while  in  the  other  cantons  the  State  is  forced  to  do  nearly 
everything.     The  cantons  not  within  the  control  of  the 


492 


NATURE 


\_March  22,  1888 


Federal  law  differ  from  those  here  spoken  of  in  their 
organization.  In  Bale  Campagne  with  its  37,000  acres  of 
forest,  75  per  cent,  of  this  being  public,  has  no  officials 
whatever.  Laws  have  been  passed,  but  the  people  set 
them  at  naught  ;  and  similarly  in  Thurgovie  there  is  the 
greatest  opposition  to  any  interference  with  what  the 
people  consider  to  be  their  ancient  rights  ;  and  here  also 
there  are  no  officials,  except  one  who  has  the  care  of  300 
acres  of  State  forest. 

The  salaries  of  the  forest  officials  vary  very  much  in 
the  different  cantons,  but  even  in  the  best-paid  districts 
the  remuneration  is  very  modest.  Under-foresters  receive 
sometimes  a  fixed  salary,  sometimes  only  daily  wages 
when  employed.  If  the  former,  the  sum  varies  from  £2\ 
to  ^48  ;  occasionally  it  reaches  ^60.  If  the  rate  of  pay 
is  per  day,  which  is  unusual,  it  is  generally  fixed  at  4J". 
District  foresters  usually  receive  from  ^88  to  ^112 
a  year.  In  Uri,  however,  ^120  is  given,  and  in  Glarus 
and  a  it.'N  other  places  as  high  as  ^160  per  annum. 
Cantonal  forest  inspectors  receive  from  ^120  to  ^180  a 
year,  besides  allowances,  which  are  always  given  to  the 
higher  officials  when  travelling  on  duty,  ranging  from  5^. 
to  Zs.,  with  the  cost  of  the  journey. 


NOTES. 
.We  regret   to   announce   the  death    of    Signor  Giacomo    di 
Brazza,  brother  of  the  Governor  of  the  French  Congo   Settle- 
ments, also  an  African  traveller  well  known  by  his  investigation 
of  the  Ogowe  River.     He  died  at  Rome,  aged  thirty. 

Herr  Andor  Semsey  has  presented  the  sum  of  8000  florins 
(;^8oo)  to  the  Natural  Science  Society  of  Budapest,  for  the 
printing  of  a  work  by  Herr  Otto  Hermann  on  Hungarian 
birds. 

The  International  Congress  of  Americanists,  which  met  in 
1886  at  Turin,  proposes  holding  its  seventh  session  at  Berlin 
early  in  the  month  of  October.  The  Organizing  Committee 
already  includes  such  well-known  names  as  Virchow,  Reiss, 
and  others. 

Mr.  a.  W.  Pickard-Cambridge  has  taken  first  place  in 
Classics  among  the  senior  students  at  the  last  Cambridge  Local 
Examination,  and  has  been  offered,  in  consequence,  an  Ex- 
hibition at  St.  John's  College,  Cambridge.  He  has  won  this 
honour  at  an  almost  unprecedentedly  early  age,  being  only 
fourteen  years  old.  He  has  been  a  pupil  of  Weymouth  College 
for  the  past  four  years,  and  is  the  son  of  the  Rev.  O,  Pickard- 
Cambridge,  F.R.  S.,  the  well-known  naturalist, 

A  REPORT  of  the  Cambridge  Local  Examinations  and  Lec- 
tures Syndicate  laying  down  a  scheme  for  the  examinations  for 
commercial  certificates  has  been  confirmed  by  grace  of  iha 
Senate.  The  examination  is  to  be  wholly  separate  from  the 
local  examinations,  there  being  no  papers  of  questions  com- 
mon  to  the  two,  and  no  common  classification  of  successful 
students.  The  standard  set  by  the  Syndicate  is  that  suitable 
for  well-prepared  students  of  seventeen.  Amongst  the  com- 
pulsory subjects  are  arithmetic,  and  physical  and  commercial 
geography,  whilst  the  optional  subjects  include  algebra  and  one 
of  the  following  five  subjects  in  elementary  science  :  (i)  inor- 
ganic chemistry,  theoretical  and  practical ;  (2)  organic  chemistry, 
theoretical  and  practical ;  (3)  mechanics,  including  hydrostatics 
and  pneumatics  ;  (4)  sound,  light,  and  heat  ;  (5)  electricity  and 
magnetism. 

According  to  the  Oldham  Evening  Express  of  March  16, 
what  is  described  as  a  full-grown  summer  butterfly  took  refuge 
from  a  blinding  snowstorm  in  a  dwelling-house  at  Lusley 
Brook,  near  that  town.  The  wings  are  said  to  be  beautifully 
variegated ;  and  on  obtaining  shelter  in  a  warm  room  the 
butterfly  thoroughly  revived. 


At  the  last  meeting  of  the  Calcutta  Microscopical  Society  a 
paper  was  read  by  Mr.  Simmons  on  the  mango  weevil,  a  pest 
which  is  spreading  rapidly  in  India.  He  has  devoted  much 
attention  to  the  weevil,  and  in  this  paper  he  gives  much  useful 
information  as  to  its  geographical  distribution,  the  extent  of  the 
damage  done  by  it,  with  the  observations  of  English  and 
American  entomologists  on  its  ravages  among  fruit.  This 
lecture  is  believed  to  be  the  first  attempt  made  in  India  to 
systematically  study  the  habits  of  the  weevil. 

The  Fund  which  has  been  established  by  Mrs.  Elizabeth 
Thompson,  of  Stamford,  Connecticut,  "for  the  advancement 
and  prosecution  of  scientific  research  in  its  broadest  sense,"  now 
amounts  to  825,000.  As  accumulated  income  is  again  avail- 
able, the  Trustees  desire  to  receive  applications  for  appropria- 
tions in  aid  of  scientific  work.  This  endowment  is  not  for  the 
benefit  of  any  one  department  of  science,  but  it  is  the  intention 
of  the  Trustees  to  give  the  preference  to  those  investigations 
which  cannot  othenvise  be  provided  for,  which  have  for  their 
object  the  advancement  of  human  knowledge  or  the  benefit  of 
mankind  in  general,  rather  than  to  researches  directed  to  the 
solution  of  questions  of  merely  local  importance.  Applications 
for  assistance  from  this  Fund,  in  order  to  receive  consideration, 
must  be  accompanied  by  full  information,  especially  in  regard 
to  the  following  points:— (i)  Precise  amount  required.  Ap- 
plicants are  reminded  that  one  dollar  is  approximately  equivalent 
to  four  English  shillings,  four  German  marks,  five  French  francs, 
or  five  Italian  lire.  (2)  Exact  nature  of  the  investigation  pro- 
posed. (3)  Conditions  und'.r  which  the  research  is  to  be  prose- 
cuted. (4)  Manner  in  which  the  appropriation  asked  for  is  to 
be  expended.  All  applications  should  be  forwarded  to  the 
Secretary  of  the  Board  of  Trustees,  Dr.  C.  S.  Minot,  Harvard 
Medical  School,  Boston,  Mass  ,  U.S.A.  It  is  intended  to  make 
new  grants  at  the  end  of  1888.  The  Trustees  are  disinclined, 
for  the  present,  to  make  any  grant  exceeding  $500. 

The  following  is  a  list  of  the  grants  already  made  from 
the  "Elizabeth  Thompson  Science  Fund": — (i)  S200  to 
the  New  England  Meteorological  Society,  for  the  investiga- 
tion of  cyclonic  movements  in  New  England.  (2)  S150  to 
Mr.  Samuel  Rideal,  of  University  College,  London,  England, 
for  investigations  on  the  absorption  of  heat  by  odorous  gases. 
(3)  S75  to  Mr.  H.  M.  Howe,  of  Boston,  Mass.,  for  the  investiga- 
tion of  fusible  slags  of  copper  and  lead  smelting.  (4)  S500  to 
Prof.  J.  Rosenthal,  of  Erlangen,  Germany,  for  investigations  on 
animal  heat  in  health  and  disease.  (5)  I50  to  Mr.  Joseph 
Jastrow,  of  the  Johns  Hopkins  University,  Baltimore,  Md., 
for  investigations  on  the  laws  of  psycho-physics.  (6)  S200  to 
the  Natural  History  Society  of  Montreal,  for  the  investigation  of 
underground  temperatures.  (7)  S210  to  Messrs.  T.  Elster  and 
H.  Geitel,  of  Wolfenbiittel,  Germany,  for  researches  on  the 
electrization  of  gases  by  glowing  bodies.  (8)  §500  to  Prof. 
E.  D.  Cope,  of  Philadelphia,  Penn.,  to  assist  in  the  preparation 
of  his  monograph  on  American  fossil  vertebrates.  (9)  S250  to 
Mr.  W.  H.  Perkin,  Jun.,  for  experiments  on  the  synthesis  of 
uric  acid.  (10)  Si 25  to  Mr.  Edw.  E.  Prince,  of  St.  Andrews, 
Scotland,  for  researches  on  the  development  and  morphology  of 
the  limbs  of  Teleosts.  (11)  S250  to  Mr.  Herbert  Tomlinson,  of 
University  College,  London,  England,  for  researches  on  the  effects 
of  stress  and  strain  on  the  physical  properties  of  matter.  (12)  $200 
to  Prof.  Luigi  Palmieri,  of  Naples,  Italy,  for  the  construction  of 
an  apparatus  to  be  used  in  researches  on  atmospheric  electricity. 
(13)  $200  to  Mr.  Wm.  H.  Edwards,  of  Coalburg,  W.  Va.,  to 
assist  the  publication  of  his  work  on  the  butterflies  of  North 
America. 

The  latest  reports  received  by  the  Hydrographic  Office  of 
the  United  States  about  the  logs  of  the  great  raft  abandoned 
south    of    Nantucket    about    three    months    ago,    prove   that, 


March  22,  1888] 


NATURE 


493 


though  they  are  now  widely  separated,  their  general  drift  has 
been  in  an  east-south-east  direction,  the  logs  being  found  a 
little  to  the  southward  of  this  line.  That  they  were  not  carried 
more  to  the  northward  and  eastward  by  the  Gulf  Stream,  as 
would  be  expected,  was  probably  due  to  the  strong  north-west 
winds  which  prevailed  during  the  latter  part  of  December  and 
the  first  part  of  January.  Fortunately,  no  vessel  has  been  dis- 
abled by  collision  with  them,  although  the  German  ba  k  Bremen, 
which  was  in  company  with  the  logs  for  five  days,  in  latitude 
39°  north,  longitude  62"  west,  had  her  sheathing  torn  and  rudder 
injured. 

We  have  recei  ved  from  Mr.  R.  T.  Rohde,  of  the  New  Oriental 
Bank,  a  well-known  authority  on  questions  connected  with  cur- 
rency and  banking,  a  pamphlet  entitled  "A  Practicable  Decimal 
System  for  Great  Britain  and  her  Colonies."  In  criticizing  the 
Report  on  Decimal  Coinage  of  the  Parliamentary  Committee 
of  1853,  he  proposes,  amongst  other  things,  to  preserve  the 
sovereign  as  the  standard  unit  of  the  country,  but  to  call  it 
five  dollars  British  sterling,  each  dollar  being  divisible  into  lOO 
cents,  a  cent  thus  being  nearly  one  halfpenny  in  value ;  the 
sovereign  and  half-sovereign  to  remain,  as  before,  the  only 
gold  coins  in  the  country,  the  latter  to  be  legal  tender  for  an 
amount  not  exceeding  £<,,  and  the  former  for  any  amount.  In 
the  silver  and  copper  coinage  he  would  not  make  any  alteration. 
He  also  advises  the  allowing  of  the  use  of  the  cental  of  100 
avoirdupois  pounds,  divisible  into  any  decimal  subdivision  of 
such  pound  avoirdupois  ;  the  using  of  the  foot  as  the  standard 
measure,  such  foot  being  divisible  into  100  equal  parts,  ten  of 
which  make  one  decimal  inch.  As  a  measure  of  capacity,  he 
would  suggest  a  vessel  equal  to  one-tenth  of  an  Imperial  gallon, 
such  ves  el  to  contain  one  pound  avoirdupois  of  distilled  water 
at  a  temperature  of  60°  F. 

An  interesting  experiment  in  the  planting  of  waste  saline  tracts 
:n  India  has  been  carried  out  by  Mr.  Maries,  superintendent  of 
the  gardens  of  the  Maharajah  of  Durbhunga.  The  results  have 
been  communicated  to  the  Agricultural  Department,  Bengal, 
and  are  contained  in  the  last  report  of  the  Director.  Mr.  Maries 
says  that  six  years  ago,  when  he  went  to  Durbhunga,  he  did  not 
know  what  to  do  with  patches  of  saline  soil,  on  some  of  which 
not  even  weeds  would  grow.  He  dug  the  soil  to  the  depth  of 
two  feet,  and  planted  it  thickly  at  the  commencement  of  the 
rainy  season  with  trees  which  had  been  grown  in  pots  till  they 
were  about  three  feet  high.  In  three  years  the  ground  was  filled 
with  roots,  and -to  all  appearances  the  salt  had  gone.  When  the 
trees  were  thinned  out  last  year,  leaving  only  the  best,  the 
ground  was  found  to  be  in  good  condition.  Similar  experiments 
have  been  carried  out  in  other  places,  and  now  Mr.  Maries  hau 
splendid  plantains  growing  on  soil  which  a  few  years  ago  would 
not  even  grow  a  weed.  He  employed  various  kinds  of  trees  in 
his  reclaiming  operations,  but  he  says  that  the  best  were  the 
Inga  Saman,  or  rain  trees,  and  the  Albizzia  Proccra.  The 
former  is  valuable  as  producing  an  enormous  quantity  of  surface- 
feeding  roots,  and  these  decaying  yearly  leave  a  rich  vegetable 
deposit  en  the  soil.  The  trees  soon  completely  change  the 
character  of  the  soil.  The  timber  is  excellent  for  fuel,  and  the 
trees  bear  lopping  well.  It  is  such  an  enormous  water  absorber 
that  it  would  most  probably  be  very  useful  in  swampy  places  as  a 
fever  preventive,  like  the  willow  which  is  planted  in  China 
around  the  villages  in  the  rice  districts. 

M.  LftOTARD,  Secretary  to  the  Scientific  Society  of  Marseilles, 
describes,  in  a  recent  issue  oi  La  Na'tire,  the  appearance  of  certain 
peaks  of  the  Pyrenees  as  seen  from  Marseilles  and  its  neighbour- 
hood. Every  year,  about  February  18  and  October  31,  Mount 
Carrigou,  situated  in  the  Eastern  Pyrenees,  and  2765  metres  above 
the  level  of  the  sea,  may  be  distinguished  from  Notre-Dame  de 
la  Garde  in  Marseilles,  prfijected  on  the  disk  of  the  sun   as  the 


latter  is  about  to  set.  From  the  top  of  Marseille- Veyre,  8  kilo- 
metres south  of  the  town,  the  same  observations  may  be  made 
about  P'ebruary  13  and  October  28.  A  straiglit  line  drawn  from 
Notre-Dame  de  la  Garde  to  the  summit  of  Carrigou  is  253  kilo- 
metres. Both  Carrigou  and  the  peak  of  Treize- Vents  have  been 
seen  frequently  since  1808,  and  this  year  M.  Leotard  and  some 
of  his  colleagues  made  observations  on  the  subject,  and  secured 
illustrations. 

Referring  to  a  journey  of  exploration  in  Australia  which 
M.  Ernest  Favenc  proposes  to  take,  the  Colonies  and  IiuHa 
says  that  no  group  of  colonies  in  the  world  have  taken  more 
interest  in  exploration  than  those  in  Australia.  In  Melbourne 
especially,  scientific  Societies  have  given  attention  to  this  subject. 
It  appears  that  the  design  in  respect  to  a  trip  which  M.  Ernest 
Favenc  proposed  to  take  has  now  assumed  a  definite  shape,  and 
that  he  will  pursue  his  object  if  only  the  Victoria  and  New 
South  Wales  branches  of  the  Royal  Geographical  Society 
of  Australasia  will  subscribe  the  necessary  funds  to  send 
a  surveyor  with  him.  His  intention  is  to  start  for  Western 
Australia,  there  to  inspect  a  large  area  of  unstocked  country, 
and  subsequently  to  undertake  a  trip  into  the  unexplored  region 
between  the  tracks  of  Forrest  and  Warburton.  If  he  finds  the 
season  favourable,  then  he  proposes  to  make  south,  cutting  the 
tracks  of  the  other  explorers  at  right  angles.  It  should  be 
mentioned  that  the  explorer  makes  it  a  condition  that  the 
surveyor  shall  also  be  a  fair  mineralogist  and  know  something 
of  botany.  Horses,  saddlery,  and  rations  will  be  found  by  the 
leader,  but  the  passage,  instruments,  and  salary  of  the  surveyor 
selected  are  to  be  provided  by  the  Societies  named.  When  the 
matter  came  before  the  Victorian  branch,  at  a  meeting  of  the 
Council,  a  sub-committee  was  appointed  to  deal  with  the  applica- 
tions for  the  post  of  surveyor,  which,  it  is  believed,  will  be 
numerous. 

The  storm  which  was  experienced  on  the  Atlantic  coast  of 
the  United  States  on  the  nth  and  12th  inst.  was  apparently 
due  to  a  disturbance  which  was  situated  over  Georgia  on  the 
loth,  and  which  subsequently  moved  rapidly  up  the  American 
coast.  The  storm  apparently  commenced  with  a  warm  southerly 
wind  and  heavy  rain,  which  changed  very  suddenly  to  a  north- 
westerly gale  and  violent  snowstorm.  The  character  of  the 
storm  was  that  common  to  the  blizzard  of  the  United  States, 
and  the  intense  cold  of  the  north-westerly  wind  was  evidently 
due  to  the  rear  of  the  disturbance  stretching  for  a  long  distance 
over  the  cold  continent  of  America.  The  loss  occasioned  by 
the  storm,  both  to  life  and  property,  is  immense. 

The  Italian  Meteorological  Office  has  issued  a  report  on  the 
climate  of  Massowah,  based  upon  the  observations  made  with 
standard  instruments  by  the  officers  of  the  Italian  expedition, 
between  May  1885  and  September  1887.  The  discussion  is 
divided  into  two  periods  (1)  May  1885  to  May  1886;  and  (2) 
June  1886  to  September  1887.  The  results  show  that  the  mean 
monthly  temperature  is  above  86°  in  the  months  May  to  October. 
The  maximum  occurs  in  August  :  108°  in  1886,  and  ioi°*8  in 
1887.  The  minimum  occurs  in  February ;  in  two  ten-day 
periods  the  thermometer  fell  to  66°,  but  there  is  little  difference 
between  January  and  February.  Rainfall  is  very  scarce  and 
erratic,  the  fall  of  a  few  days  may  exceed  that  of  the  rest  of  the 
year.  In  the  first  twelve  months  4-1  inches  fell  on  thirty-four 
days  ;  in  the  second,  4-3  inches  on  twenty-six  days.  The  pre- 
valent winds  are  northerly  and  southerly.  The  latter  pre- 
dominated from  June  1885  until  the  end  of  the  year ;  from 
January  1886  until  September  1887,  northerly  winds  prevailed. 
The  above  temperatures,  while  showing  that  Massowah  is  very 
hot,  are  lower  than  those  sometimes  quoted,  apparently  owing 
to  more  careful  exposure  in  the  present  investigation. 


494 


NATURE 


[March  22,  1888 


The  New  York  Academy  of  Sciences  (says  Science)  was 
organized  in  1817  as  the  Lyceum  of  Natural  History.  It  is 
fourth  in  point  of  age  among  American  scientific  Societies.  The 
name  and  constitution  were  changed  in  1876.  The  Annals, 
begun  in  1824,  have  been  distributed  in  all  lands,  and  have 
given  world-wide  reputation  to  the  Society.  The  Transactions, 
begun  in  1881,  give  a  record  of  the  meetings,  papers,  and  dis- 
cussions, are  published  in  monthly  or  bi-monthly  numbers,  and 
make  an  octavo  volume  each  year.  The  libraiy  now  numbers 
over  eight  thousand  titles,  and  is  especially  rich  in  sets  of  the 
publications  of  foreign  Societies.  It  is  now  on  deposit  in  the 
Library  Building  of  Columbia  College,  and  is  accessible  to  the 
public  from  8  a.m.  to  10  p.m.  every  day  of  the  year  except 
Sundays.  The  cabinet  was  destroyed  by  fire  in  1866.  Previous 
to  that  date  it  was  the  principal  collection  in  the  city,  and  did 
a  noble  work.  The  Academy  has  long  looked  forward  to  the 
time  when  it  could  secure  a  building  of  its  own,  such  as  the 
corresponding  Societies  in  Boston  and  Philadelphia  have  long 
enjoyed.  It  is  not  to  the  credit  of  New  York  that  its  oldest 
scientific  organization,  after  nearly  three-quarters  of  a  century 
of  steady  and  persevering  activity,  should  be  still  unprovided 
with  a  building,  while  many  other  cities  can  show  noble  monu- 
ments of  scientific  interest  and  public  spirit.  Why  should  not 
the  recent  meeting  of  the  American  Association  in  this  city  be 
permanently  commemorated  by  the  erection  of  a  fire-proof 
building  for  the  accommodation  of  the  Academy,  or  perhaps 
of  several  other  Societies  under  the  same  roof — a  building  which 
should  be  at  once  a  benefit  and  an  honour  to  the  metropolis  of 
America?  The  interest  of  the  community  has  been  aroused 
and  quickened  in  the  direction  of  science  by  the  meeting  of  the 
Association,  and  the  Academy  of  Sciences  would  now  invite  the 
citizens  of  New  York  to  take  a  greater  interest  in  its  work. 

Pure  trichloride  of  nitrogen  has  at  last  been  prepared  and 
successfully  analyzed  by  Dr.  Gattermann,  of  Gottingen.  The 
first  result  of  these  researches  upon  this  terribly  explosive  sub- 
stance brought  to  light  the  fact  that  the  chloride  of  nitroTjen  pre- 
pared as  usual  by  the  action  of  chlorine  gas  upon  ammonium 
chloride  is  by  no  means  a  homogeneous  substance,  that  it  really 
consists  of  a  varying  mixture  of  several  chlorides.  Moreover,  it 
was  found  that  the  longer  the  time  during  which  the  chlorine 
was  allowed  to  act,  the  more  nearly  the  composition  of  the  pro- 
duct approached  NCI3  ;  but  pure  NCI3  can  never  be  obtained 
in  this  way,  owing  to  the  excess  of  ammonium  chloride  always 
present.  Dr.  Gattermann,  however,  prepared  a  quantity  of  this 
crude  product,  as  richly  chlorinated  as  possible,  washed  it  well 
with  water  until  all  the  sal-ammoniac  was  removed,  drained  it 
as  free  as  might  be  from  the  water,  and  then  led  over  it  a  rapid 
stream  of  chlorine.  The  resulting  oil  was  again  washed,  care- 
fully dried,  happily  without  accident,  and  finally  analyzed.  The 
percentage  of  chlorine  found  was  almost  identical  (89"  17)  with  that 
required  for  NCI3  (Sg'io).  The  success  of  these  dangerous  opera- 
tions is  all  owing,  it  appears,  to  the  fact  that  they  were  performed 
upon  dull  wintry  days,  when  the  sun's  actinism  was  very  low  ;  in. 
deed.  Dr.  Gattermann  was  almost  led  to  believe  that  the  disasters 
which  have  imparted  to  the  history  of  this  compound  so  tragical 
a  character  must  have  been  owing  to  some  fault  of  the  experi- 
menters. But  at  last — it  was  about  the  thirtieth  preparation  — 
the  oil  quietly  reposing  in  the  chlorinating  apparatus  suddenly 
exploded  with  its  usual  detonation.  At  the  same  moment  Dr. 
Gattermann  noticed  that  the  sun  had  broken  through  the  clouds, 
and  was  shining  upon  his  apparatus.  Here  then  was  the  cause 
of  these  apparently  spontaneous  explosions  :  chloride  of  nitrogen 
is  vijlently  dissociated  by  the  wave-motion  of  light.  Following 
this  up,  it  was  found  that  the  burning  of  a  piece  of  magnesium 
ribbon  in  proximity  to  the  oil  was  quite  as  effeclive  in  producing 
an  explosion.  Finally,  Dr.  Gattermann  has  determined  the 
temperature  of  dis*)ciation  of  the  compound.      About  half  a 


gramme  was  hea'ed  in  a  thin-walled  tube  placed  in  a  beaker  of 
liquid  vaseline,  the  thermometer  being  read  off  by  means  of  a 
telescope  placed  at  a  safe  distance.  As  high  as  90°  C.  the  oil 
remained  unchanged,  but  at  95°  it  exploded  with  such  violence 
that  the  whole  appanitus  was  destroyed.  One  feels  much  regret 
on  reading  Dr.  Gattermanu's  concluding  observations,  in  which 
he  states  that  his  eyes  and  nerves  have  been  so  much  affected 
that  he  is  obliged  temporarily  to  give  up  all  further  work  upon 
this  interesting  substance. 

Messrs.  Crosby  Lockwood  and  Son  are  about  to  publish 
the  following  books  : — "  Waterworks  :  being  Notes  on  the 
Storage  of  Water  in  Reservoirs,  &c.,"  by  Charles  Slagg  ; 
"Practical  Surveying:  a  Text- book  for  Students  preparing  for 
Examinations  or  the  Colonies,"  by  George  W.  Usill ;  "Granites 
and  our  Granite  Industries,"  with  numerous  illustrations,  by  G. 
F.  Harris;  a  treatise  on  "Asbestos,  and  the  Asbestos  Mines 
of  Canada,"  by  Robert  H.  Jones  ;  "  The  Mechanic's  Workshop 
Handy-book,"  by  P.  N.  Hasluck  ;  and  the  fourth  edition  of  "  A 
Treatise  on  Metalliferous  Minerals  and  Mining,"  by  D.  C.  Davies. 

In  a  recently-published  Report  on  the  Fisheries  of  New  South 
Wales,  Mr.  Griffin,  the  American  Consul  at  Sydney,  refers  to 
the  great  wealth  of  the  colony  in  this  respect,  which  is  totally 
neglected.  Up  to  the  present,  no  attempt  has  been  made  to 
develop  an  export  trade  in  fish.  In  fact,  there  are  only  eleven  hands 
employed  in  the  whole  colony  in  fish-curing,  with  a  capital  of  no 
more  than  £^y>,  and  the  output  does  not  annually  exceed  ;^200 
in  value.  Yet  the  amount  of  tinned  fish  imported  by  the  colony 
last  year  exceeded  2000  tons,  of  which  about  one-half  was  from 
the  United  States,  and  almost  all  the  remainder  from  Great 
Britain.  With  regard  to  the  species  of  fish  suitable  for  pre- 
serving which  are  to  be  found  in  the  waters  of  the  colony,  the 
mullet  {Mugil  grandis)  is  there  in  abundance,  and  when  well 
cured  is  superior  to  anything  of  the  kind  in  the  world.  Generally, 
it  may  be  said  that  the  fish  fauna  of  Australia  differs  very  little 
from  similar  species  in  Europe  and  America.  The  most  remark- 
able fish  in  Australia  is  the  Phyllopteryx,  described  as  "  the  ghost 
of  a  sea-horse  with  its  winding  sheet  all  in  ribbons  about  it  ;  and 
even  as  a  ghost  it  seems  to  be  in  the  last  stage  of  emaciation, 
literally  all  skin  and  grief." 

The  resistance  of  pollen  to  various  external  influences  is  the 
subject  of  a  recent  inaugural  dissertation  by  Herr  Rittinghaus  in 
Bonn  {Natw/.,  i,  1888).  As  to  temperature,  he  found  most 
pollen  able  to  bear  90°  C.  half  an  hour,  without  losing  the 
power  of  germination.  A  temperature-maximum  was  reached 
at  I04°'5  for  ten  minutes.  In  conditions  favouring  germination, 
pollen  does  not  bear  such  high  temperatures  as  in  the  air-dry 
state.  A  moderately  raised  temperature  (32°)  accelerates  growth 
of  the  pollen  tubes.  Low  temperatures  {eg.  under  9°)  prevent 
germination,  though  a  cooling  to  20°  for  forty  minutes  can  be 
borne  without  injury.  As  to  liquid  chemical  reagents,  the 
plasma  of  pollen  proved  very  sensitive  to  antiseptics  (more  so, 
as  a  rule,  than  micro-organisms),  but  the  resisting  power  is  pretty 
different  in  different  sorts  of  pollen.  Chloroform  vapour  acting 
for  twenty  minutes  was  fatal,  bromine  vapour  in  five  minutes, 
ammoniacal  vapour  in  ten  to  twenty  minutes.  Rotation,  several 
hours,  of  a  spherical  vessel  holding  pollen  with  nutritive  solu- 
tion, did  not  prevent  free  germination.  The  retention  of  the 
power  varies  widely  in  different  plants.  Thus,  Cyclamen  lost  it 
soonest,  in  seventeen  days  ;  while  Clivia,  a  narcissus,  still  had 
it  on  the  sixty-sixth  day  {Paonia  fifty-eight.  Camellia  fifty-one^ 
Azalea  forty-two).     The  average  is  thirty  to  forty  days. 

A  recent  number  of  the  Indian  Agriculturist  contains  a 
notice  of  a  little  book  written  in  Bengalee,  by  a  Hindoo  gentle- 
man, Nidhiram  Mookerjee,  and  published  at  the  Bangabasi 
Press,  Calcutta.  The  work  is  on  pisciculture,  and  gives  us  the 
results    of  the  labours  of  an  ardent  student  of  fish  and  their 


March  22,  i8i8] 


NA  TURE 


495 


habits.  He  established  a  fish- farm  on  his  own  estate,  and 
watched  over  it  for  many  years.  He  divides  his  subject  into  five 
parts.  In  the  first  place,  he  discusses  the  fish  supply  of  Bengal, 
and  in  doing  so  shows  that  the  supply  is  frequently  not  equal  to 
the  demand — a  fact  due  chiefly  to  the  absence  of  skilled  fisher- 
men. And  so  it  happens  that  at  various  seasons  breeding  and 
unmatured  fish  are  brought  to  market  to  meet  the  demand.  The 
second  chapter  treats  of  the  best  food  for  fish  ;  the  third  of 
hatching  and  breeding,  and  the  proper  precautions  to  be  taken 
at  those  times.  The  fourth  part  deals  with  the  question  from  a 
commercial  and  speculative  point  of  view.  A  little  capital,  the 
author  says,  if  wisely  invested  in  pisciculture  and  in  fisheries 
produces  a  greater  return  than  in  any  other  industry  ;  for  while, 
as  Prof.  Huxley  says,  an  acre  of  land  will  produce  in  the  year  a 
ton  of  grain  or  two  or  three  hundredweight  of  meat,  the  same 
extent  of  water  in  a  good  fishing-ground  will  yield  a  greater 
weight  of  fish  in  a  week.  The  author  begs  of  his  countrymen 
to  pay  attention  to  this  much  neglected  subject  ;  he  puts  his 
practical  experience  before  them,  and  thinks,  that  in  a  country 
like  Bengal,  where  fish  forms  a  large  portion  of  the  dietary  of 
the  people,  it  is  a  pity  that  more  is  not  known  of  this  subject. 
One  of  the  most  valuable  portions  of  this  little  work  is  the  fifth, 
in  which  he  gives  a  scientific  description  and  classification  of 
almost  all  the  known  fish  in  the  waters  of  Bengal,  with  their 
Bengalee  equivalents. 

The  additions  to  the  Zoological  Society's  Gardens  during  the 
past  week  include  two  Stock-Doves  (Cohimba  anas),  British, 
presented  by  Lieut. -Colonel  W.  G.  Dawkins ;  a  02i'^2\  {Bihos 
frontalis),  born  in  the  Gardens. 

OUR  ASTRONOMICAL  COLUMN. 
Distribution  of  the  Sunspots  of  1886  and  1887. — 
Prof.  Spoerer  points  out  in  a  short  note  in  the  Astronotnischc 
Nachrichten,  No.  2828,  that  the  predominance  of  the  southern 
hemisphere  over  the  northern  as  to  the  numbers  and  areas  of 
sunspots  which  they  have  displayed  has  continued  throughout 
the  two  years  just  past.  It  would  seem,  indeed,  as  if  the  maxi- 
mum for  the  southern  hemisphere  had  fallen  later  than  for  the 
northern,  for  after  the  last  return  of  the  great  group  of  November 
12-25,  1882,  the  latter  hemisphere  became  comparatively 
quiescent  for  a  considerable  time,  and  from  that  date  the  pre- 
dominance of  the  southern  hemisphere  has  been  almost  uninter- 
rupted, the  displays  it  exhibited  during  the  latter  part  of  1883 
and  the  earlier  months  of  1884  being  so  considerable  and  so 
numerous  as  to  make  the  date  of  maximum  the  same  for  the  sun 
as  a  whole  as  for  the  southern  zone.  So  in  the  decline  since  the 
maximum,  not  only  has  the  mean  spotted  area  of  the  northern 
hemisphere  been  scarcely  more  than  half  that  of  the  southern, 
but  the  running  down  in  latitude  has  been  more  marked  in  the 
former  than  the  latter.  Thus  in  1884,  the  northern  zones  above 
lat.  25°  were  already  free  from  spots,  whilst  in  the  south  the 
zone  25°  to  30°  was  still  occupied.  In  1886  spots  had  ceased  to 
be  seen  in  the  zones  north  of  N.  lat.  20°,  but  were  still  seen  in 
the  corresponding  southern  belt  ;  whilst  in  1887  they  had  almost 
vanished  from  the  zone  N.  lat.  15°  to  20°,  though  still  fairly 
numerous  at  a  like  distance  from  the  equator  on  the  other  side. 
The  actual  distribution  of  the  spots  is  shown  by  Prof.  Spoerer  in 
the  following  table  : — 

Year.  Totals. 

-{-2o°   -1-15°   -fio°    4-5°  0°    -50  -10°  -15°  -20°  -25°   N.       S. 

1886  M    17    I    30    I    40    I    14  II    so     I  45    I    68    I    47    j    5    11     loi    I   215 

1887  11     2    I    22    I    15    I    14  II    19    I  56    J    27    I    14    I         II       S3   I    116 

The  Total  Eclipse  of  the  Moon,  January  28.— By  the 
kindness  of  Dr.  E.  Lindemann  we  are  enabled  to  give  the 
following  further  list  of  occultations  observed  during  the  total 
eclipse  of  the  moon  on  January  28  : — Amherst,  U.S.,  7  ;  Clinton, 
U.S.,  3  ;  Copenhagen,  25  ;  Harvard  College,  U.S.,  23  ;  Madrid, 
20;  Montreal,  6;  Moscow,  15;  Nice,  24 ;  Princeton,  U.S.,  8; 
Toulouse,  13  ;  Utrecht,  15  ;  Washington,  li  ;  West  Point,  U.S., 
2.  Th2  weather  was  also  favourable  at  the  Birkdale  Observa- 
tory, SouthpDrt,  and  at  Berlin  and  Dun  Echt ;  but  at  the  last 
two  Observatories,  and  also  at  Lord  Rosse's,  the  occultations 
were  not  observed.  The  sky  was  cloudy  at  Hereny,  O'Gyalla, 
Quebec,  Rio  Janeiro,  Stockholm,  and  Vienna. 


Spectroscopic  Determination  of  the  Rotation 
Period  of  the  Sun. -Mr.  Henry  Crew,  Assistant  in  Physics 
at  the  Johns  Hopkins  University,  has  recently  published  {Ameri- 
can Journal  of  Scienre,  February  1888)  a  series  of  observations 
made  with  a  fine  Rowland  grating  of  14,436  lines  to  the  inch, 
of  the  relative  displacement  of  certain  lines  in  the  solar  spec- 
trum, as  given  by  the  opposite  limbs,  with  a  view  to  determine 
the  rotation  period  of  the  sun.  The  result  which  he  obtained 
from  455  settings  in  the  course  of  observations  ranging  over  four 
months  and  a  half,  gives,  for  the  mean  equatorial  velocity, 
if  -  v"  =  2 '437  ±  024  miles  per  second,  corresponding  to  a 
true  period  of  25  88  days.  But  an  unexpected  and  remarkable 
circumstance  was  brought  out  by  the  investigadon,  in  that  the 
observations  seemed  to  show  a  gradual  increase  of  daily  angular 
motion  with  higher  heliographical  latitude,  whilst,  as  is  well 
known,  Carrington  found  a  decrease  of  such  motion  for  the  spots. 
Mr.  Crew  gives  for  the  equation  of  this  change — 

V  =  1-158  cos  x°  (I  +  0-00335  X), 
whence  we  have  for  the  daily  angular  motion  of  any  point  in 
the  reversing  layer — 

Q  =  794'  (i  +  0-00335  X°). 
whilst  Carrington  obtained  for  the  sunspots — 
0  =  S65'  (i  -  o'lgi  sin  ix°)- 
The  greate-t  irregularities  in  the  value  of  v'  -  v"  occurred  be- 
tween the  latitudes  15°  and  25°,  i.e.  in  the  chief  spot  zone. 

It  should  be  added  that  different  lines  gave  different  values  of 
v'  -  v",  with  nearly  as  large  a  range  as  the  different  latitudes 
did,  but  there  appeared  to  be  no  connection  between  the  order 
of  the  velocities  and  the  order  in  which  the  elements  causing 
the  lines  observed  are  generally  supposed  to  be  distributed  in 
the  solar  atmosphere.  The  double  line,  1474  K,  of  which  one 
component  is  due  to  iron,  and  the  other  is  the  lineof  the  corona, 
gave  no  evidence  of  variation  in  width  on  one  limb,  as  compared 
with  the  other,  so  if  the  two  lines  be  produced  by  absorption 
from  different  laye'S,  those  layers  cannot  be  drifting  with 
respect  to  each  other  at  a  higher  rate  than  one-third  of  a  mile 
per  second. 

The  spectrum  of  the  fourth  order  was  used  throughout. 
Attempts  were  made  to  measure  the  relative  displacement  of 
the  Dg  line,  as  given  by  opposite  limbs,  but  with  this  dispersion 
the  definition  was  not  sufficiently  good  to  permit  satisfactory 
measures  of  the  line  to  be  made. 

New  Minor  Planet. — A  new  minor  planet.  No.  273,  was 
discovered  on  March  8,  by  Herr  Palisa  at  Vienna.  This  is 
Herr  Palisa's  sixty-first  discovery. 

ASTRONOMICAL    PHENOMENA    FOR    THE 

WEEK  1888  MARCH  25-31. 
/■pOR  the  reckoning  of  time  the  civil  day,  commencing  at 
V  •^      Greenwich  mean  midnight,  counting  the  hours  on  to  24, 
is  here  employed. ) 

At  Grecnuiich  on  March  25 
Sun  rises,  5h.  51m.  ;  souths,  I2h.  5m.  54-3s.  ;  sets,    i8h.  20m.  :  . 
right    asc.    on    meridian,    oh.     I9'4m.  ;     decl.    2°    6'    N. 
Sidereal  Time  at  Sunset,  6ti.  34m. 
Moon    (Full,     March     27,     22h.)    rises,    I5h.    I2m.  ;    souths, 
22h.    28m.;    sets,    5h.    29m.*:    right    a-c.    on    meridian, 
loh.  43'4m.  ;  decl.  10°  51'  N. 

Right  asc.  and  declination 
Planet.  Rises.  Souths.  Sets.  on  meridian. 

h.  m.  h.    m.  h.    m.  h.       m.  .       / 

Mercury..  5  10  ...  10  27  ..  15  44  ...  22  40-8  ...  9  9  S. 
Venus  ...  5  10  ...  10  23  ..  15  36  ...  22  36-7  ...  9  59  S. 
Mars  ...  20  12*...  I  34  ...  6  56  ...  13  460  ...  8  10  S. 
Jupiter  ...  23  54*...  4  6  ...  8  18  ...  16  i8-6  ...  20  25  S. 
Saturn  ...  Ii  54  •••  19  53  •••  3  52*...  8  76  ...  20  48  N. 
Uranus...  19  12*...  o  47  ...  6  22  ...  12  58-8  ...  5  32  S. 
Neptune..  7  49  ...  15  3°  •■•  23  11  ...  3  44-1  ...  18  6  N. 
»  Indicates  that  the  rising  is  that  of  the  preceding  evening  and  the  setting 
.that  of  the  following  morning. 

Occultations  of  Stars  by  the  Moon  (visible  at  Greenwich), 

Corresponding 

angles  from  ver- 

March.       Star.  Mag.  Disap.  Reap.         tex  to  right  for 

inverted  image, 
h.    m.  h.    m.  o         o 

28  ...  80  Virginis       ...  6     ...   19  49  •••  20  43     ...     10  230 
31   ...  i\  Librcc    6     ...     I   20  ...     2  30     ...     6l  234 


496 


NATURE 


{March  22,  1888 


>Iarch. 
28      . 

h. 
2 

29      .. 

2 

31       • 

I 

31       • 
31      •• 

2 
•       19 

Star. 

U  Cephei 

S  Piscium     ... 

Algol     

R  Canis  Majoris. 

S  Cancri      ...     . 
5  Librae 

U  Coronas    ...     . 
U  Ophiuchi... 

W  Sagittarii 

R  Scuti 

R  Delphini  ... 
T  Vulpeculae 

5  Cephei 


Mercury  in  conjunction  with  and  o°  2'  north 

of  Mars. 
Mars  in  conjunction  with  and  2°  35'  south 

of  the  Moon. 
Mercury    at    greatest    elongation  from    the 

Sun  28°  west. 
Saturn  stationary. 
Jupiter  in  conjunction  with  and  3°  32'  south 

of  the  Moon. 


Mar. 


Variable  Stars. 

R.A. 

Decl. 

h.      m. 

^ 

0   52-4  . 

.81   16  N. 

I    117  . 

.    8  20  N. 

3    0-9. 

.  40  31  N. 

7  14-5  - 

.  16  12  S. 

8  37-5  • 

19  26  N. 

14  55  "o  • 

.    8    4S. 

15  13-6  . 

.32     3  N. 

17  10-9  . 

.     I  20  N. 

17  57-9 

18  41-5 
20  9-5 

20  467 


29  35  S. 
5  SoS. 

8  4S  N., 
27  50  N, 


...  22  25-0  ...  57  51  N.  ...     ,, 
M  signifies  maximum  ;  ni  minimum. 

Meteor- Showers. 
R.A.  Decl. 


h.    m. 

28, 

5    3  »^ 

31. 

M 

26, 

22  33  m 

29, 

19  21  m 

25. 

19     8  /» 

26, 

22  24  m 

25. 

20  14  m 

27. 

23  48  m 

30. 

21   15  in 

26, 

4  32  m 

27, 

0  40  m 

28, 

3     oM 

2";, 

m 

28, 

M 

30, 

20    0  M 

31. 

22     0  7n 

27, 

I     0  m 

Near  y3  Draconis  ... 
,,     ^Draconis   .. 


263 
260 


49  N. 
63  N. 


March  28. 
slow. 


Rather 


GEOGRAPHICAL  NOTES. 

In  a  previous  number  we  referred  to  the  return  of  M.  Edouard 
Dupont,  Director  of  the  Brusse's  Natural  History  Museum,  from 
his  visit  to  the  Congo  for  the  purpose  of  scientific  exploration. 
Some  of  the  results  of  his  visit  he  described  the  other  day  to  the 
Belgian  Society  of  Engineers.  M.  Dupont  pointed  out  that  the 
African  interior  is  drained  mainly  by  four  great  rivers — the  Nile, 
the  Niger,  the  Zambezi,  and  the  Congo — each  of  which  has  to 
break  through  the  low  range  that  bounds  the  interior  somewhat 
saucer-shaped  tab^e  land.  The  Congo,  before  making  its  great 
final  effort,  is  to  some  extent  dammed  back  into  the  reservoir 
known  as  Stanley  Pool.  M.  Dupont's  journey  extended  from  the 
mouth  of  the  river  to  the  embouchure  of  the  Kassai.  The  sub- 
soil of  the  Lower  Congo  he  found  to  be  a  soft  and  impure  lime- 
stone covered  with  sand  and  clay.  The  mountainous  region 
begins  before  arriving  at  Boma,  and  may  be  divided  into  three 
sections,  according  to  the  composition  and  aspect  of  the  rocks. 
There  is  in  the  first  place  granite,  gneiss,  mica-schist,  quartzite, 
and  amphibolic  rocks,  in  strongly  inclined  beds,  and  extending 
from  Fetish  Rock,  below  Boma,  to  the  neighbourhood  of 
Isanghila.  The  river  from  Vivi  rushes  in  a  series  of  cataracts 
through  a  gorge  55  miles  long.  Then  follow  schists  and  sand- 
stones ;  and  a  little  beyond  Isanghila,  at  the  great  bend  of  the 
Congo,  appear  masses  of  limestone,  very  similar  to  those  of  the 
Meuse,  and  which  alternate  with  the  schists  for  about  35  miles. 
Then  folio  vv  schists  and  red  sandstones  to  beyond  Manyanga.  At 
Isanghila  the  banks  rise  into  walls,  some  700  feet  high,  of  rough- 
grained,  almost  horizontal  sandstone.  This  ends  at  Stanley  Pool, 
where  begins  the  Upper  Congo.  There  is  an  immediate  change 
in  the  strata.  Some  coherent  sandstones  show  themselves  at  the 
base  of  the  new  deposits,  and  are  topped  by  a  great  mass  of  soft 
sandstone,  of  the  whiteness  of  chalk.  M.  Dupont  traced  these 
new  rocks  to  the  mouth  of  the  Kassai,  where  there  was  nothing 
to  indicate  that  they  soon  came  to  an  end.  He  believes,  on  the 
contrary,  that  they  constitute  the  subsoil  of  the  greater  part  of 
the  Upper  Congo.  M.  Dupont  is  convinced,  from  his  observa- 
tions on  the  Congo,  that  the  waters  in  the  interior  of  Central 
Africa  were  at  one  time  accum.ulated  in  a  great  lake,  of  which 
Stanley  Pool  is  the  last  remnant.   Gradually  rising  to  the  height 


of  the  mountains  that  bordered  the  plateau,  they  at  last  overtopped 
them,  and,  rushing  down  towards  the  Atlantic,  gradually  scooped 
out  the  channel  now  occupied  by  the  Lower  Congo.  Stanley 
Pool,  he  considers,  is  the  final  stage  of  this  supposed  great 
internal  lake. 

A  Brussels  telegram  announces  that  Lieut.  Van  Gele  has 
at  last  succeeded  in  tracing  the  connection  between  the  Mobangi 
and  the  Welle,  proving  that  the  latter  flows  into  the  Congo,  and 
is  not  the  upper  course  of  the  Shari,  thus  solving  one  of  the 
few  remaining  hydrographical  problems  in  Africa. 

In  Erganzungsheft  No.  89  of  Petermami s  Mitteihmgen, 
Prof.  R.  Credner  concludes  his  veiy  valuible  monograph  on 
"  Keliktenseen," — lakes  which  have  remained  behind  after  the 
departure  of  the  sea  from  a  particular  area,  as  contrasted  with 
continental  lakes,  which  have  from  their  origin  been  altogether 
independent  of  the  sea.  In  the  present  instalment  Prof.  Credner 
deals  in  detail  with  the  geological  evidence,  and  with  the  various 
classes  of  "  Reliktenseen  "  and  the  mode  of  their  formation.  He 
divides  such  lakes  into  three  great  classes  :  (i)  such  as  have  been 
formed  through  the  damming  up  and  isolation  of  parts  of  the 
sea  through  the  elevation  of  the  land  above  sea-level,  as  in  the 
case  of  Lake  Pontchartrain  and  the  Kurische  Haff ;  (2)  such  as 
are  due  to  the  isolation  of  basin-formed  depths  of  the  ocean-bed 
as  a  result  of  "negative  changes  in  level  " — emersion  lakes,  as 
Loch  Lomond  and  Lakes  Wetter  and  Wenner  ;  (3)  those  caused 
by  the  retirement  or  shrinking  of  mediterranean  seas,  as  the 
Caspian  and  Lake  Aral. 

At  the  last  meeting  of  the  Royal  Geographical  Society,  Mr. 
Douglas  W.  Freshfield  read  a  paper  giving  the  results  of  his 
visit  to  the  Caucasus  last  summer  in  company  with  M.  de 
Dechy,  Mr.  Freshfield  dealt  at  great  length  with  the  orography, 
the  glaciation,  geology,  and  ethnology  of  the  Caucasus,  and  it 
is  impossible  to  give  an  adequate  idea  of  his  important  paper  in 
a  note.  We  can  only  refer  to  one  or  two  important  corrections 
which  he  made  in  the  prevalent  statements  about  the  Caucasus. 
Some  existing  misconceptions  are  due  to  the  fact  that  the 
Russian  staff  map  embraces  only  the  lower  features,  the  liigher 
ranges  being  unmapped.  Mr.  Freshfield  dealt  mainly  with  the 
part  of  the  chain  between  Elbruz  and  Kazbek — the  Central 
Caucasus.  The  geological  structure  of  the  chain  has  been  re- 
presented with  general  accuracy  by  M.  Ernest  Favre,  a  son  of 
the  well-known  Genevese  geologist,  who  visited  it  in  1868. 
The  backbone,  composed  of  two  or  more  ridges  closely  parallel, 
with  many  short  spurs,  is  in  great  part  gneiss  or  granite  mixed 
up  with  crystalline  slates.  By  what  seems  a  strange  freak  of 
Nature,  it  is,  east  of  Adai  Choch,  rent  over  and  over  again  to 
its  base  by  gorges,  the  watershed  being  transferred  to  a  parallel 
chain  of  clay  slates  ("Palaeozoic  schists"),  which  has  followed  it 
from  the  Black  Sea.  There  are  clay-slate  formations  north  as 
well  as  south  of  the  granite  backbone  ;  but  on  the  north  they 
take  the  form  of  rolling  downs — of  any  peaks  they  ever  had 
they  have  long  been  denuded.  What  the  mountain  climber 
looking  out  from  any  northern  outlier  of  the  granite  chain  sees 
is  a  limestone  crest,  turning  its  precipitous  face  towards  the 
snows,  sinking  gradually  to  the  low  fo^t-hills  which  fringe  the 
steppe.  It  is  pierced  by  deep  romantic  defiles  through  which 
the  glacier  torrents  make  their  escape.  South  of  the  Caucasus, 
parallel  to,  but  much  further  from  the  main  chain,  runs  a  line  of 
limestone  heights,  the  most  conspicuous  summits  of  which  are 
the  Quamli,  close  to  the  Rion,  and  the  Nakerale  range,  the 
limit  of  theRadsha.  At  the  foot  of  the  latter  lie  the  coal-mines  of 
Khebouli,  recently  connected  with  Kutais  by  a  railway.  Over  the 
summit  plateau  spreads  one  of  the  noblest  beech  forests  in  the 
world,  varied  by  an  undergrowth  of  azaleas,  laurels,  and  box,  such 
as  we  try  vainly  to  imitate  in  our  English  parks.  Parallel  chains 
and  longitudinal  valleys  characterize  this  portion  of  the  chain. 
In  the  most  reputable  treatises  it  is  stated  that  there  are  not 
50  square  miles  of  glaciers  in  the  Caucasus  altogether.  Mr. 
Freshfield  shows  that  such  a  statement  is  ludicrously  absurd. 
The  glaciers  of  the  main  chain  are  many,  and  some  of  them  are 
enormous.  Among  those  .that  have  the  largest  basins  Mr. 
Freshfield  mentions,  between  the  Djiper  Pass  and  the  Mamisson 
on  the  south  side,  the  Betsho,  the  Ushba,  the  Gvalda,  the 
Thuber,  the  Zanner,  Tetnuld,  and  Adish,  the  Sopchetura  at  the 
western  and  at  the  eastern  source  of  the  Rion.  On  the  north 
side  there  is  a  great  glacier  in  every  glen  ;  the  Karagam  and  the 
Bezingi  are  the  largest  ;  next  come  the  Dychsu,  the  Zea,  the 
Adyrsu,  and  Adylsu,  and  a  host  of  others  lying  not  only  on  the 
main  chain,  but  on  its  spurs,  which  are  glaciated  to  an  extent  of 


March  22,  1888] 


NATURE 


497 


which  the  Ordnance  map  gives  no  hint.  On  the  "Palaeozoic 
schist"  range,  south  of  Suanetia,  there  are  glaciers  not  very 
inferior  to  those  of  the  Grand  Paradis  group,  near  Aosta.  Dis- 
miss for  ever,  Mr.  Freshfield  says,  that  preposterous  fiction 
about  the  120  square  kilometres  of  ice  in  the  Caucasus.  It  is 
too  soon  to  say  how  many  square  kilometres  there  really  are. 
One  estimate.  Von  Thielmann's,  would  make  the  extent  covered 
by  ice  close  upon  2000  square  kilometres,  or  equal  to  that  in 
Switzerland — political  Switzerland,  not  the  Alps.  Mr.  Fresh- 
field  dwelt  on  many  other  points  in  connection  with  this  inter- 
esting range,  his  notes  on  the  inhabitants  of  the  Caucasus 
being  specially  valuable,  correcting  as  they  do  many  prevalent 
errors. 


OUR  ELECTRICAL  COLUMN. 

Considerable  attention  has  been  drawn  to  the  peculiarities 
of  manganese  steel  by  a  paper  read  before  the  Institution  of 
Civil  Engineers,  by  Mr.  Hadfield.  Not  only  is  such  steel 
entirely  non-magnetic,  but  its  electric  resistance  is  extremely 
high.  Prof.  Fleming  {Electrician,  March  9)  gives  the  following 
figures  : — 


German  silver     . 
Platinoid 
Manganese  steel 


20 '9 
32-8 


•044 
•021 
•122 


The  first  column  gives  the  resistance  in  microhms  per  cubic 
centimetre  at  0°  C,  and  the  second  column  the  average  per- 
centage variation  of  resistance  per  1°  C.  between  o"  and 
100°  C.  These  figures  agree  very  well  with  those  given  by 
Prof.  Barrett  at  the  British  Association  meeting  at  Manchester. 

Heim  has  been  investigating  the  electro- positive  character  of 
magnesium,  with  the  view  of  replacing  zinc  in  primary  batteries. 
He  finds  that  in  a  Daniell  cell  its  E.M.F.  is  2  volts,  in  a  Grove 
cell  it  gives  2"9  volts,  and  in  a  Leclanche  cell  2'2  volts.  In  a 
bichromate  cell  it  gives  as  much  as  3  volts. 

Magnesium  can  now  be  produced  for  about  8j.  per  lb.,  but 
local  action  is  considerable,  and  its  coastancy  uncertain.  Hence, 
except  for  exceptional  circumstances,  its  practical  use  is  still 
questionable. 

Prof.  Oliver  Lodge  has  been  giving  some  admirable  lec- 
tures on  lightning-protectors  at  the  Society  of  Arts,  an  1  has 
pronounced  the  use  of  copper  for  such  purposes  as  doomed.  He 
argued  that  the  supposed  area  of  protection  was  mythical,  and 
that  the  true  way  to  protect  a  building  was  Maxwell's  cage.  He 
advocated  iron,  and  showed  copper  to  possess  "inertia"  to 
such  an  extent  as  to  render  its  use  dangerous.  He  also  found 
that  under  certain  circumstances,  such  as  sudden  violent  dis- 
charges, untempered  by  time,  points  were  of  no  use,  but  he  sug- 
gested the  use  of  barbed  wire  along  the  ridges  and  eaves  of 

roofs. 

> 

That  careful    and  accurate   worker.   Prof.    Roberts-Austen 

submitted  a  paper  to  the  Royal   Society  on  the   15th   inst.,   in 

which   he  narrated  his  recen't    inquiries    into    the    mechanical 

properties  of  certain  alloys  that  will  have  an  important  bearing 

on  the  metallic  conductors  employed  in   electrical   enterprises. 

He   has   found   that  the   tenacity  of  pure    gold  is  very  much 

diminished  by  the  smallest  admixture  of  impurities,  and  that  this 

follows  the  order  of  the  atomic  volumes  of  the  elements.     Those 

elements  the  atomic  volumes  of  which    are  higher  than  gold 

greatly  diminish  its  tenacity.     Doubtless  the  same  principle  is 

applicable  to  copper  and  other  metals.     The  abnormal  price  of 

copper  has  raised  a  great  demand  for  some  better  conductor 

than  iron,  or  some  improvement  of  iron  in  this  respect. 


DERHAMS  HYDROMETER. 

''PHE  Revenue  system  of  esticnating  the  duty  on  spirits 
■^  consists  of  hydrometer,  and  tables  of  strengths  for  each 
degree  of  temperature  from  30"  to  80°  F.  When  constructing 
the  present  Revenue  tables  of  strengths,  Sikes  ignored  the 
expansion  and  contraction  of  spirits  due  to  variations  of  tem- 
perature from  the  standard  temperature  of  51°  Y.,  and  assumed 
that  the  strength  of  any  given  sample  of  spirits  remained  the 
same  at  all  degrees  of  temperature.  From  this  false  assump- 
tion it  follows  in  practice,  for  example,  that   100  gallons  40  { 


overproof  at  51°  are  estimated  at  98*9  gallons  at  30",  and  ioi'6 
gallons  at  80°,  of  the  same  strength  as  at  51° ;  reducing  these 
quantities  to  the  standard  of  proof  strength,  we  have — 

At  30°     ...       98*9  X  1*40=  1 38 '5  gallons  of  proof, 
51°     ...     1000  X  140  =  I40'0      ,,  ,, 

80°      ...       IOI6  X  140  =  I42'2        ,,  ,, 

showing  a  discrepancy  of  over  3^  gallons,  although  the  same 
actual  quantity  of  spirit  is  present  in  each  case. 

In  its  original  construction,  Sikes's  hydrometer  was  not  in- 
tended to  furnish  specific  gravities,  but  simply  so  many  indica- 
tions, respectively  corresponding  to  the  strengths  in  his  tables. 
But  it  has  since  been  found  necessary  to  supply  a  table  of 
specific  gravities  corresponding  to  the  indications  of  the  instru- 
ment. It  is  well  known  that  scientific  precision  cannot  be 
attained  in  experiments  with  the  hydrometer,  consequently  the 
specific  gravities  in  this  table  are  far  from  accurate  :  for  example, 
the  specific  gravity  at  the  proof  point,  to  the  accurate  definition, 
of  which  the  Inland  Revenue  attaches  so  much  importance,  is 
given  as  '9233,  instead  of  '9236.  The  whole  specific  gravity 
table  is  in  fact  incorrect,  the  error  sometimes  amounting  to  two 
subdivisions  of  the  stem.  The  errors,  however,  arising  from 
this  source  are  trifling  compared  with  those  inherent  in  the 
tables  of  strengths.  For  the  purpose  of  constructing  correct 
tables  of  strengths,  the  best  data  and  those  susceptible  of  the 
most  accurate  determination  are  the  specific  gravities  of  the 
spirits  and  the  percentage  by  weight  of  alcohol  they  contain. 
The  specific  gravity  of  proof  spirit,  as  defined  by  the  Spirit  Act 
is  "9236  ;  therefore  the  weight  of  one  gallon  is  9 '236  pounds. 
Proof  spirit  contains  49*3  per  cent,  by  weight  of  alcohol,  of 
specific  gravity  79385  at  60°;  therefore  one -gallon  of  proof 
spirit  contains — 


9-236  X  49-3 


4'553  pounds  of  alcohol. 


To  determine  the  true  ratio  of  any  spirit  to  proof  spirit  nothing 
more  is  required  than  to  ascertain  the  weight  of  alcohol  in  one 
gallon  of  the  spirit,  and  to  divide  that  weight  by  the  pounds  of 
alcohol  in  a  gallon  of  proof  spirit  ;  for  example,  spirit  having  a 
specific  gravity  of  '825  at  60°  weighs  8*25  pounds  per  gallon  ;  its 
percentage  by  weight  of  alcohol  is  89 '13;  therefore  one  gallon 
contains — 

8-25  X  89-13  ^  ^.^^^  pounds  of  alcohol, 
100 
equivalent  to 

7_353  —  1-615  gallons  of  proof  spirit. 
4-553 
Or  100  gallons  are  equivalent  to  161 -5  gallons  of  proof  spirit, 
and  the  spirit  is  said  to  be  61-5  overproof.  Il  is  obvious  that 
although  the  bulk  and  specific  gravity  of  a  spirit  vary  with  the 
temperature,  the  percentage  by  weight  of  alcohol  it  contains 
does  not  vary  from  that  cause.  The  specific  gravity  of  the  spirit 
in  the  preceding  example  is  -839  at  30°  ;  the  weight  of  one 
gallon  therefore  is  8-39  pounds;  its  percentage  by  weight  of 
alcohol  is  89-13  as  before  ;  therefore  one  gallon  contains — 


8-39  X  89-13  ^  ^.^^g  pounds  of  alcohol, 


equivalent  to 


100 

LlZr  =  I  -642  gallons  of  proof  spirit. 
4-553 


The  strength  of  the  spirit,  therefore,  at  30°  is  64-2  overproof. 
It  should  be  here  pointed  out  that  the  diminished  bulk  of  the 
spirit  at  30",  as  compa  ed  with  its  bulk  at  60°,  is  exactly  com- 
pensated, in  estimating  the  equivalent  value  in  proof  gallons,  by 
the  increased  strength  at  the  former  temperature  ;  for  100  gal- 
lons of  spirit  61-5  overproof  at  60°  contract  to  98  33  gallons 
at  30° ;  and,  reducing  to  proof  strength — 

100  X   1-615  =  161-5  gallons  of  proof  spirit, 
98-33  X   1-642  =  161-5     do.  do. 

whence  it  is  evident  that,  by  the  employment  of  correct  tables 
of  strengths,  the  estimate  of  the  equivalent  value  of  a  given 
quantity  of  spirit  in  gallons  of  proof  spirit  would  be  identical  at 
all  degrees  of  temperature.  The  spirit  tables  published  by  Dr. 
Derham,  to  which  Sir  Henry  Ro.'-coe  lately  called  the  attention 
of  the  Chancellor  of  the  Exchequer,  are  calculated  on  this- 
principle. 


498 


NA  TURE 


{March  22,  1888 


Dr.  Derham  also  supplies  what  has  long  been  wanted,  a  scien- 
tific hydrometer  having  a  succession  of  poises  to  continue  the 
series  the  indications  of  which  are  also  specific  gravities.  It  is 
well  known  that,  in  order  to  effect  this,  the  increment  to  the 
total  bulk  of  the  instrument  with  each  successive  poise  should 
be  the  bulk  of  the  graduated  stem.  Bates's  saccharomater  is  a 
more  or  less  successful  mechanical  adaptation  of  this  require- 
ment. But  it  had  escaped  previous  inventors  that,  in  order  to 
perfectly  satisfy  the  conditions  of  the  problem,  the  specific 
gravities  of  the  successive  poises  should  bear  an  exactly  defined 
relation  to  the  specific  gravities  to  be  indicated  by  the  in- 
strument. The  principle  upon  which  the  calculation  of  the 
hydrometer  is  based  is  that — 

weight  -r 

^—   =  specific  gravity. 

bulk 

Let  W  =  weight  of  hydrometer ;  B  =  bulk  of  hydrometer  ; 
G  =  initial  specific  gravity  of  the  instrument  ;  g  =  specific 
gravity  of  any  poise  ;  a  =  the  number  of  degrees  of  gravity 
indicated  in  the  length  of  the  stem  ;  and  unity  =  bulk  of 
graduated  stem  ;  then,  since  the  bulks  of  the  poises  must  be 
multiples  of  the  bulk  of  the  graduated  stem,  according  to  their 
position  in  the  series, 

n  =  bulk  of  «th  poise. 
ng  =  weight  of     „ 

By  the  definition  of  specific  gravity, 


=  G  H-a, 


whence 

W  =  BG,  and     ^^  - 
B  -  I 

and  Ba  =  G  -f  a. 

Ag-'^ifij  generally,  with  «th  poise  attached, 
BG  +  ng       ^  ^ 
B  -f  « 

whence  ^  =  2G  -f  («  -f  1)^-. 

And  if  the  hydrometer  were  intended  to  indicate  gravities 
frorn  780  to  i-ooo,  the  value  of  the  stem  being  -020,  and  the 
initial  specific  gravity  accordingly  of  each  range  '800,  '820,  '840, 
&c.,  the  successive  specific  gravities  of  the  poises  would  be  i-6o' 
I '62,  1-64,  &c.  ' 


THE  CCELOM  AND   THE  VASCULAR  SYSTEM 
OF  MOLLUSC  A  AND  ARTHROPODAy       ' 

'T'HE  object  of  the  author  was  to  establish  the  fact  that  the 
system  of  blood-containing  spaces  pervading  the  body  in 
Mollusca  and  in  Arthropoda  was  not,  as  sometimes  (and  indeed 
•usually)  supposed,  equivalent  to  the  coelom  or  perivisceral  space 
of  such  animals  as  the  Chretopoda  and  the  Vertebrata,  but  was 
in  reality  a  distended  and  irregularly  swollen  vascular  system — 
the  equivalent  of  the  blood-vascular  system  of  Chretopoda  and 
Vertebrata.  Flence  he  proposed  to  call  the  body-spaces  of 
Mollusca  and  Arthropoda  "haemocoel,"  in  contradistinction  to 
"coelom."  It  had  been  held  by  previous  investigators  that  in 
Mollusca  and  Arthropoda  the  coelom  and  the  vascular  system 
were  united  into  one  set  of  spaces — whether  by  a  process  of 
gradual  fusion,  or  owing  to  the  fact  that  the  two  systems  had 
never  been  differentiated  from  a  common  original  space  repre- 
senting them  both  in  the  ancestors  of  these  two  great  phyla, 
the  author  stated  that  he  had  been  led  to  the  view  which 
he  now  formulated  by  his  discovery  of  distinct  spaces  in  both 
Mollusca  and  Arthropoda,  which  appear  to  be  the  true  ccelom, 
and  are  separate  from  the  swollen  vascular  system. 

In  Mollusca  the  pericardial  space  is  the  chief  representative  of 
coelom.  It  is  usually  taught  that  the  pericardium  of  Mollusks 
contains  blood,  and  is  in  free  communication  with  veins;  but 
the  author  had  succeeded  in  showing  by  observations  on 
the    red-blooded    Solen    legumen    (already    published,    Zoolog. 

'  Abstract  of  a  Paper  read  in  Section  D,  at  the  Manchester  meeting  of  the 
Bntish  Association,  by  Prof.  Ray  Lankester,  F.R.S. 


Anzciger,  No.  170,  1884),  and  by  more  recent  careful  investiga" 
tion  of  Anodonfa  cygnca,  Pa:clla  vtilgata,  and  Helix  aspena, 
that  the  pericardium  has  no  communication  with  the  vascular 
system,  and  does  not  contain  blood.  The  perigonadial  spaces 
(so-called  generative  glands)  and  the  pericardial  space  (which 
has  arborescent  tubular  outgrowths  in  some  Lamellibranchs 
forming  Keber's  organ)  are,  then,  the  coelom  of  the  Mollusca.  It 
is  quite  distinct  from  the  ha:mocnel.  In  Cephalopods,  and  in  the 
archaic  Gastropod  Neomenia,  the  pericardial  and  perigonadial 
crjelomic  i-emnants  are  continuous,  and  form  one  cavity.  There 
is  strong  reason  to  believe  that  in  ancestral  Mollusks  the  haemocoel 
was  more  completely  tubular  and  truly  vasiform  than  it  is  in 
living  Mollusks.  In  the  later  Mollusks  the  walls  of  the  vessels 
have  swollen  out  in  many  regions  (especially  the  veins),  and  have 
obliterated  the  coelom,  which  has  shrunk  to  the  small  dimensions 
of  pericardium  and  perigonadium.  There  are,  however,  many 
Mollusks  with  complete  capillaries,  arteries,  and  veins,  in  certain 
regions  of  the  body.  These  had  been  recently  studied  by  the 
author  by  means  of  injections,  and  by  silver  impregnation,  and 
drawings  illustrative  of  them  were  exhibited  to  the  Section. 

With  regard  to  the  Arthropoda,  Prof.  Lankester  formulated 
the  same  view,  viz.  that  the  ancestral  blood-vessels  have  swollen 
and  enlarged,  especially  the  veins,  so  as  to  form  large  irregular 
spaces,  which  have  blocked  up  and  so  obliterated  the  previously 
existing  coelom.  Nevei'theless  the  coelom  still  persists  in  some 
parts  of  the  Arthropod  body  quite  separate  from  the  swollen 
blood-vascular  system.  It  persists  as  the  tubular  generative 
glands  (peri'gonadii;m),  and  also  as  a  system  of  small  spaces 
(lymph-system)  in  the  connective-tissue  of  Astacus  and  of  Limulus, 
and  as  the  internal  terminal  vesicle  of  the  green  glands  and  other 
nephridia  present  in  various  Arthropoda.  Prof.  Lankester  stated 
that  he  had  been  led  to  this  view  with  regard  to  the  vascular 
system  and  ccelom  of  the  Arthropoda  by  the  results  of  his  histo- 
logical investigations  on  the  vascular  system  and  connective-tissues 
of  Astacus  and  Limulus,  and  by  the  results  obtained  in  his 
laboratory  by  Mr.  GuUand  in  studying  the  development  of  the 
nephridial  "coxal  gland"  of  Limulus  (already  published,  with 
note  by  Prof.  Lankester,  in  the  Quart.  Joiini.  Micr.  Sci.,  1885, 
vol.  x>:v.  p.  515).  He  had  also  been  led  to  this  view  by  the 
attempt  to  explain  theoretically  the  origin  of  the  peculiar  structure 
of  the  Arthropod's  heart  and  blood-holding  pericardium. 

The  Arthropod's  heart  and  pericardium  are  absolutely  peculiar 
to  the  group,  and  characteristic  of  all  its  members — even  of 
Peripatus.  The  author  had  asked  himself  how  the  existence 
of  a  tubular  heart  with  paired  valvular  apertures  in  each  segment 
of  the  body — lying  within  a  blood -holding  sac — could  be  ex- 
plained. He  conceived  that  it  might  best  be  explained  by  that 
tendency  of  the  veins  to  dilate  and  to  form  irregular  large  blood- 
sinuses,  which  on  other  grounds  we  have  reason  to  consider  as  a 
structural  tendency  of  Arthropods.  Each  pair  of  valvular  aper- 
tures in  the  Arthropod's  heart  represents  a  pair  of  distinct 
tubular  veins  which  in  the  ancestors  of  the  Arthropoda  brought 
blood  to  the  heart  from  the  gill<.  These  veins  have  dilated,  and 
their  adjacent  walls  have  been  absorbed,  so  that  we  now  have, 
instead  of  a  series  of  veins,  a  great  continuous  blood-sinus  on 
each  side  of  the  heart  or  dorsal  vessel. 

Capillaries  of  the  finest  dimensions  were  shown  by  Prof. 
Lankester  to  exist  in  certain  parts  of  Astacus  and  of  Limulus. 
In  studying  these  he  had  come  across  the  remnants  of  coelom. 
Between  the  capillaries  and  unconnected  with  them — in  the 
connective-tissue  of  both  Astacus  and  Limulus — is  a  system 
of  spaces  containing  a  coagulable  fluid.  (These  spaces  were  de- 
scribed and  figured  in  Limulus  in  1884  by  Prof.  Lankester  in  the 
Quart.  Journ.  Micr.  Sci.)  It  is  into  this  system  of  spaces  that 
the  tubular  nephridium  which  becomes  the  coxal  gland  of 
Limulus  opens.  Hence  these  spaces  are  remnants  of  the  ccelom, 
elsewhere  blocked  up  and  obliterated  by  the  swollen  veins  which 
form  the  hseniocoel.  The  tubular  generative  glands  of  Arthro- 
pods are  to  be  explained  as  perigonadial  coelom  communicating 
with  the  exterior  through  modified  nephridia.  Beddard's  dis- 
covery of  such  a  condition  of  the  ovary  and  oviduct  in  the  earth- 
worm Eudrilus  is  confirmatory  of  this  explanation. 

The  views  which  had  been  thus  arrived  at  by  Prof.  Lankester 
and  very  briefly  indicated  in  the  note  in  the  Quart.  Journ.  Micr, 
Sci.,  1885,  p.  515,  have  received  a  startling  and  demonstrative 
confirmation  in  Sedgwick's  brilliant  results  as  to  the  development 
of  coelom  and  haemocoel  in  Peripatus,  published  in  the  Quart. 
Journ.  Micr.  Set.,  February  1888,  and  announced  early  in  1887 
to  the  Cambridge  Philosophical  Society. 


March  22,  1888] 


NATURE 


499 


THE  TEETH  OF  THE  MYXINOID  FISHES. 

T  N  the  course  of  my  work  upon  the  morphology  of  the  Verte- 
brata,  it  has  occurred  to  me  to  ascertain  how  far  the  generally 
accepted  account  of  the  structure  of  the  teeth  in  Cyclostomata 
exhausts  the  facts  at  our  disposal.  The  inquiry  is  one  of  extreme 
interest  in  relation  to  the  disputed  affinities  of  this  group  with 
the  other  fishes.  It  is  well  known  that  Balfour  regarded  the 
Myxinoids  as  the  survivors  of  a  very  primitive  group  which  had 
never  possessed  true  jaws.  Dohrn,  on  the  other  hand,  while 
holding  that  these  fishes  retain  very  many  primitive  characters, 
has  always  asserted  their  degenerate  nature  as  a  canon  of  his 
doctrine  of  the  ancestry  of  Vertebrates.  He  has  endeavoured  to 
produce  evidence  of  this  in  several  of  his  "  Studien,"  but  so  far 
as  I  am  aware,  the  secondary  character  of  the  sucking  mouth  of 
the  group  has  never  yet  been  fully  proved. 

In  Balfour's  "Comparative  Embryology"  (vol.  ii,  p.  264),  we 
read,  "  I  am  acquainted  with  no  evidence,  embryological  or 
otherwise,  that  they  (the  Myxinoid  fishes)  are  degraded  gnatho- 
stomatous  forms." 

As  the  nature  of  the  mouth  in  this  group  was  one  of  Balfour's 
arguments  against  Dohrn's  gill-cleft  origin  of  the  mouth  of  all 
Vertebrates,  1  and  as  my  own  views  of  the  nature  of  the  hypo- 
physis cerebri  are  also  affected  by  Balfour's  reasoning,  I  may 
perhaps  be  allowed  to  state  why  I  attach  great  importance  to 
the  structure  of  the  teeth  in  the  Myxinoids.  With  the  exception 
of  these  animals  and  Amphioxus,  all  Vertebrates  are  known  to 
possess  true  teeth  anl  true  jaws  ;  but  it  appears  to  me  that  if 
it  can  be  shown  that  the  Myxinoids  present  traces  of  true  teeth, 
it  must  be  assumed  that  they  once  had  true  biting  jaws.  For 
true  teeth  are  necessary  appendages  of  biting  jaws,  while  they 
are  never  found  except  when  true  jaws  are  present.  It  is 
important  to  note  that  Huxley  long  ago  insisted  upon  the 
presence,  in  the  lamprey,  of  a  true  mandibular  jaw- apparatus, 
homologous  with  that  of  the  gnathostomata. 

All  previous  investigators  of  the  group,  from  Johannes  Miiller 
to  Parker,  have  described  only  the  horny  nature  of  the  teeth, 
and  that  simply  because  no  one  has  till  now  made  microscopical 
sections  of  them.  It  must  here  suffice  to  point  out  that  the 
current  view  is  correct  only  so  far  as  the  Petromyzontidae  are 
concerned.  They  alone  possess  only  horny  teeth.  In  Petro- 
myzon  marinus,  these  are  curiously  complicated,  in  th.nt  they  are 
represented  by  three  horny  cusps  or  thimble-like  bodies  lying 
one  upon  the  other,  and  each  arising  in  a  special  groove  at  the 
base  of  the  tooth.  (Prof.  Howes  writes  me  that  he  has  long 
known  of  this  fact.) 

Myxine  and  Bdellostoma,  which  retain  many  more  primitive 
characters  than  the  Petromyzontidae,  possess  true  teeth  in  the 
sense  of  those  of  other  Vertebrates.  These  are  hidden  by  the 
aforenamed  horny  cones,  which  are  formed  above  them,  and,  in 
fact,  each  horny  tooth  in  these  two  genera  has  a  true  odonto- 
blastic pulp  underlying  it.  The  following  is  a  brief  description 
of  the  appearance  of  such  a  tooth  in  longitudinal  section,  as 
exemplified  in  Bdellostoma.  Outside  all  is  the  bright  yellow 
homy  layer,  formed  from  a  "horn  groove"  at  the  base  of  the 
tooth.  Within  this  is  a  stratified  epithelium,  which  extends 
inwards  as  far  as  the  true  tooth  ;  I  am  unable,  however,  to  find 
any  modified  layer  of  epidermic  cells  which  might  represent  the 
so-called  enamel  organ  of  other  developing  teeth.  The  true 
tooth  is  mainly  composed  of  a  very  hard  conical  cellular  mass, 
which  is  probably  calcified  (I  have  not  yet  tested  it  chemic- 
ally). It  pos  esses  a  true  pulp-cavity  with  blood-vessels,  &c., 
while  it  is  made  up  of  cellular  elements,  which  are  arranged  in  a 
somewhat  radiate  fashion.  The  cells  are  hard,  possessed  each 
of  a  large  nucleus  longitudinally  striated,  especially  at  the  apex 
of  the  tooth  and  near  the  surface. 

The  apex  of  the  cone  is  surmounted  by  a  small  cap  of  bright 
transparent  structureless  matter,  which  is  either  dentine  or 
enamel ;  from  its  appearance,  and  from  the  fact  that  the  pulp  is 
very  hard  and  obviously  calcified,  I  am  inclined  to  regard  it  as 
an  enamel  structure.  While  as  yet  it  is  not  possible  to  follow 
the  development  of  this  cap,  it  appears  to  me  to  be  a  secretion 

'  Amphi  jxus  is  here  left  entirely  out  of  acount.  Personally,  I  do  not 
intend  to  commit  myself  in  seeking  to  compare  any  organs  of  Amphioxus 
with  those  of  the  higher  Vertebrates.  I  would  rather  leave  Amphioxus 
alone,  but  1  may  at  least  remark  the  possibility  that  the  mouth  in  Amphi- 
oxus may  turn  out  to  be  the  hom  )logue  of  the  hypophysis — gut  pass.ige  in 
Myxine  and  Bdellostoma.  The  fact  that  no  hypophysis  has  yet  been  dis- 
covered in  this  animal  is  only  in  accordance  with  o.her  negative  comparisons 
between  it  and  other  fishes. 


of  the  pulp-cells  ;  and,  should  it  turn  out  to  be  enamel,  we  shalF 
have  striking  confirmation  of  the  enderonic  origin  of  that  layer, 
advanced  by  Huxley  more  than  thirty  years  ago.  I,  for  one, 
do  not  believe  his  view  to  be  .so  improbable  as  is  generally 
supposed. 

The  teeth  of  Myxine  present  essentially  the  same  structure  as 
those  of  Bdellostoma  ;  they  are,  however,  smaller,  weaker,  and 
more  degenerate,  for  the  cap  of  enamel  (or  dentine)  is,  in  them, 
reduced  almost  to  nothing — indeed,  it  can  only  be  found  after  very 
careful  search,  and  I  think  that  from  some  of  the  teeth  it  is  entirely 
absent. 

With  this  discovery,  true  teeth  come  to  be  characteristic  of  all 
the  lowest  Vertebrates  except  the  outcast  Amphioxus,  and  thus 
the  gulf  separating  the  latter  from  the  former  becomes  widened. 
Some  zoologists  explain  the  absence  of  spinal  ganglia  in  Am- 
phioxus by  assuming  that  they  are  still  within  the  spinal  cord  : 
might  one  hint  that  they  can  now  also  suppose  that  the  teeth  of 
Amphioxus  are  still  within  the  gums? 

In  view  of  the  facts  here  stated  it  becomes  an  interesting 
question  for  the  palaeontologist  as  to  how  far  the  "  Conodonts  " 
really  are  the  remains  of  Myxinoid  teeth.  Zittel's  view  that 
they  are  really  Annelidan  teeth  seems  to  me  the  more  probable 
one  {Handbuch  der  Falaontologie,  Bd.  iii.  p.  38). 

J.  Beard. 

Anatomisches  Institut,  Freiburg  i/B, 


MODELS  ILLUSTRATING  THE  MODIFICA- 
TION OF  THE  ARTERIAL  ARCHES  IN 
VERTEBRATES. 

T_r  AVING  recently,  with  the  help  of  my  assistant,  made  some 
simple  and  inexpensive  models  illustrating  the  modifica- 
tions of  the  arterial  arches  in  Vertebrates,  which  I  find  very 
useful  for  purposes  of  demonstration,  I  send  a  short  description 
of  them  to  Nature.  Students,  as  a  rule,  find  it  difficult  to 
understand  figures  of  these  structures,  and  a  model,  in  three 
dimensions,  gives  a  much  more  accurate  idea  of  their  general 
relations  than  any  drawing  can  do. 

My  models  are  founded  mainly  on  the  figures  given  by  Boas, 
in  his  paper  "  Ueber  die  Arterienbogen  der  Wirbelthiere " 
{Morphol.  Jahrbuch,  Band  xiii.  Heft  i). 

The  various  vessels  are  represented  by  stout  brass  wires  (about 
g-inch  in  diameter),  bent  to  the  proper  form  and  soldered  to- 
gether ;  and  each  model  is  made,  in  the  first  place,  to  represent 
six  arches.  In  the  case  of  the  fish,  the  ventral  aorta  and  lower 
half  of  each  arch  (representing  the  afferent  branchial  trunk)  is 
painted  blue,  to  indicate  that  the  blood  contained  therein  is 
venous ;  the  upper  half  of  each  arch  (representing  the  efferent 
trunk),  together  with  the  epibranchials  and  dorsal  aorta,  are 
coloured  red,  to  show  that  they  contain  arterial  blood.  The 
heart  is  modelled  out  of  modellers'  clay,  and  fixed  on  to  the 
ventral  aorta  before  being  dried  ;  it  shows  the  typical  parts  of 
the  fish-heart,  and  is  painted  blue. 

At  present  I  have  only  made  two  other  models,  representing  these 
structures  in  air-breathing  Vertebrates,  the  types  taken  being  the 
frog  and  the  mammal.  In  these,  similar  colouring  is  used,  but 
those  parts  which  disappear  in  the  adult  are  painted  white.  Tiie 
various  parts  of  the  heart  are  also  coloured  red  or  blue,  according 
to  the  nature  of  the  blood  contained  in  them. 

Thus,  in  the  frog  the  left  auricle  is  red,  the  right  auricle  and 
sinus  venosus  blue,  and  the  ventricle  purple,  to  show  the  mixed 
character  of  the  blood.  The  first,  second,  and  fifth  arches,  the 
portion  of  the  epibranchial  between  the  third  and  fourth  arches, 
and  the  ductus  13otalli  of  the  sixth  arch,  are  white  ;  the  third  arch 
(carotid  and  lingual  artery),  red ;  the  fourth  (aortic)  arch  and 
dorsal  aorta,  purple  ;  and  the  lower  part  of  the  sixth  (pulmonary), 
blue.  In  the  mammal,  the  left  side  of  the  heart,  the  left  aortic 
arch,  dorsal  aorta,  and  carotids,  are  red  ;  the  right  side  of  the 
heart,  and  the  pulmonary  artery,  blue  ;  and  the  remaining  parts, 
which  disappear  in  the  adult,  white. 

The  paint  I  have  used  is  Aspinall's  oxidized  enamel. 

As  this  method  of  illustrating  blood-vessels  is  also  particularly 
useful  for  lecture-pui poses,  I  intend,  later  on,  to  model  whole- 
vascular  systems  in  the  same  way, 

W.  N.  Parker. 

University  College,  Cardiff. 


500 


NATURE 


{March  2  2,  1888 


I 


UNIVERSITY  AND  EDUCATIONAL 
INTELLIGENCE. 

Cambridge. — A  small  revolution  has  been  effected  in  the 
teaching  of  geometry  by  the  adoption  of  a  regulation  allowing 
any  proofs  of  the  propositions  in  Euclid  to  be  given  in  the 
"  Little-Go  "  or  previous  examination.  No  proof,  however,^  of 
any  proposition  occurring  in  Euclid  will  be  admitted  in  which 
use  is  made  of  any  proposition  which  in  Euclid's  order  occurs 
subsequently. 

The  estimates  for  the  new  plant-house  {£,11^6)  and  research 
laboratory  (;i^25o)  at  the  Botanical  Gardens  are  accepted, 
Messrs.  Boyd,  of  Paisley,  being  engaged  for  the  former,  Mr. 
Sindall  for  the  latter.  Sir  Joseph  Hooker,  Mr.  Thiselton  Dyer, 
and  several  skilled  horticulturists  have  inspected  the  plans,  and 
they  meet  with  general  approval.  The  proposed  fern-house, 
stove,  and  orchid-house,  have  a  combined  area  of  2660  square 
feet,  as  compared  with  2290  square  feet,  the  area  of  the  cor- 
responding present  houses. 

The  apparent  boycotting  of  the  Cambridge  mechanical 
workshops  by  the  Museums  and  Lecture- Rooms  Syndicate,  and 
other  Cambridge  authorities  has  led  to  a  considerable  diminution 
of  work,  and  consequently  to  a  serious  reduction  of  profit  in  the 
workshops,  which  have  also  suffered  to  some  extent  by  the  un- 
fortunate rejection  of  the  Engineering  Tripos  scheme.  In  a 
recent  discuision  Prof.  Cayley  expressed  the  opinion  that  it  ought 
to  be  as  much  a  matter  of  course  to  send  University  mechanical 
work  to  the  Univer.^ity  workshops  as  to  send  University  printing 
work  to  thi  Pitt  Press.  He  considered  the  work  done  by  the 
■workshops  compared  very  favourably  with  similar  work  done 
by  contractors.  Mr.  Lyon,  superintendent  of  the  workshops, 
claimed  that,  while  much  of  the  work  done  outside  for  the 
museums  had  to  be  frequently  repaired,  none  of  the  mechanical 
workshops'  work  had  required  this.  They  had  done  the  work 
for  the  Morphological  Laboratory  for  ;,{^iooo  less  than  was 
estimated.  A  good  deal  of  testimony  was  given  to  the  excellence 
of  their  work,  against  which  it  was  stated  that  the  Syndicate 
thought  they  could  get  their  work  done  cheaper  and  better  by  a 
professional  builder. 

A  scheme  has  been  prepared  for  the  future  fitting  up  of  the 
old  Botanic  Gardens  site  with  University  buildings  in  extension 
of  the  museums  and  lecture-rooms.  The  most  salient  points  are 
that  the  site  between  the  new  Chemical  Laboratory  and  the 
Museum  of  Human  Anatomy  is  declared  sufficient  for  the  new 
Museum  of  Geology,  and  that  the  next  buildings  to  be  taken  in 
-hand  should  be  those  for  Human  Anatomy  and  Physiology.  It 
is  also  proposed  to  accommodate  the  Department  of  Pathology 
-in  the  old  Chemical  Laboratory. 

Mr.  Wilberforce  will  deliver  a  course  of  lectures  on  Dynamo- 
•Electric  Machines  at  the  Cavendish  Laboratory  during  the 
Easter  term. 

Among  the  Fellows  elected  at  King's  College  last  week  were 
Mr.  A.  P.  Laurie,  who  obtained  a  first  class  in  the  Natural 
Sciences  Tripos,  Part  II.,  June  1884,  and  Mr.  H.  W.  Richmond, 
Third  Wrangler  1885,  and  placed  in  Division  I.  in  the  third 
part  of  the  same  Tripos,  1886. 

Mr.  R.  Pendlebury,  Fellow  of  St.  John's,  has  been  appointed 
a  University  Lecturer  in  Mathematics  for  five  years. 

Open  Scholarship  examinations  in  which  natural  science 
Scholarships  may  be  awarded  will  be  held  at  Downing  College 
on  May  29,  and  at  Peterhouse  in  October.  The  Clothworkers' 
Exhibition  in  physical  science  will  be  competed  for  in  connection 
•with  the  Oxford  and  Cambridge  schools  examination  in  July. 


SCIENTIFIC  SERIALS. 

In  the  Journal  of  Botany  for  February,  Mr.  G.  S.  Boulger 
•calls  attention  to  the  exceedingly  loose  way  in  which  the  term 
"endosperm"  is  applied  by  botanical  writers  to  structures  in 
Angiosperms,  in  Gymnosperms,  and  in  Vascular  Cryptogams 
which  have  no  real  homology  with  one  another. — A  very  inter- 
esting new  fern  from  New  Guinea  {Polypodium  Annabdhe)  is 
described  and  figured  by  Mr.  H.  O.  Forbes,  belonging  to  the 
small  group  in  which  the  fertile  portion  of  the  frond  is  only  an 
■extension  of  the  lower  barren  portion. — In  this,  and  in  the  number 
for  March,  Mr.  J.  G.  Baker  continues  his  synopsis  of  7}7/a;«/«V(Z, 
and  the  editor  commences  an  exceedingly  useful  alphabetical 
biographical  index  of  British  and  Irish  botanists  no  longer 
living. 


American  Journal  of  Science,  March. — Asa  Gray,  by  J.  D. 
Dana.  The  attention  of  the  readers  of  Nature  has  already 
been  directed  to  this  memoir,  written  by  the  friend  and  associate 
probably  most  competent  to  appreciate  the  life-work  of  the 
eminent  American  botanist. — Calibration  of  an  electrometer,  by 
D.  W.  Shea.  In  the  various  forms  of  the  quadrant  electro- 
meter, and  in  the  different  methods  of  setting  up  the  same 
instrument,  the  curves  of  calibration  obtained  are  well  known 
to  correspond  in  a  very  irregular  manner  with  the  curves  given 
by  Maxwell's  mathematical  theoiy.  In  this  paper  are  given 
some  observations  with  an  electrometer  of  the  Mascart  form, 
which  show  variations  apparently  due  to  change  in  the  sensi- 
bility with  variation  in  the  temperature.  The  accompanying 
tables  exhibit  the  changes  in  the  form  of  the  curves  for  various 
charges  of  the  needle  through  the  range  of  temperature  attain- 
able, at  the  time,  in  the  room  where  the  electrometer  was  set 
up. — On  the  so-called  Northford  (Maine)  meteorite,  by  F.  C. 
Robinson.  One  of  the  numerous  specimens  of  this  "meteorite  " 
contained  in  various  cabinets  in  Maine,  and  perhaps  elsewhere, 
has  recently  been  analyzed  by  Mr.  Charles  Fish  in  Mr.  Robin- 
son's laboratory.  That  it  is  not  of  meteoric  origin  seems  settled 
by  this  analysis,  which  corresponds  closely  with  some  recorded 
analyses  of  copper-slag. — History  of  the  changes  in  the  Mount 
Loa  craters  ;  Part  i,  Kilauea  (continued  and  concluded),  by 
James  D.  Dana.  The  subjects  discussed  in  this  paper  are  :  the 
size  of  the  Kilauea  conduit ;  the  ordinary  work  performed  by 
this  crater ;  the  kinds  and  sources  of  the  vapours  concerned  ; 
the  effect  of  the  expansive  force  of  vapours  in  their  escape  from 
the  liquid  lavas  (projectile  action),  and  within  the  lavas  (vesicu- 
lation  and  its  mechanical  effect) ;  lastly,  work  of  vapours  gene- 
rated outside  of  the  conduit — fractures,  displacements,  and  other 
results. — The  Taconic  system  of  Emmons,  and  the  use  of  the 
name  Taconic  in  geological  nomenclature,  by  Charles  D.  Wal- 
cott.  In  this  first  paper  on  the  North  American  Taconic^system, 
the  author  deals  (i)  with  the  Taconic  area  in  general  and  the 
geological  work  within  it ;  (2)  with  the  geology  of  the  Taconic 
area  as  known  at  the  present  time.  The  Taconic  area,  as  here 
studied,  is  stated  to  comprise  the  Taconic  range  running  north 
and  south  nearly  along  the  border-line  between  the  States  of 
New  York,  Vermont,  Massachusetts,  and  Connecticut,  with  the 
country  immediately  adjacent  to  the  range  on  the  east  and  west. 
The  strata  included  within  the  whole  area  are  grouped  under 
six  terranes,  identified  as  Middle  Cambrian  (i  and  5),  Upper 
Cambrian  (2),  Calciferous,  Chazy,  and  Trenton  limestones  (3), 
and  Hudson  shales,  sandstones,  &c.  (4  and  6). — On  the  crystal- 
line form  of  polianite,  by  E.  S.  Dana  and  S.  L.  Penfield.  The 
true  crystalline  form  of  the  anhydrous  manganese  dioxide, 
MnOj,  from  Platten,  Bohemia,  to  which  Breithaupt  has  given 
the  name  of  polianite,  has  been  the  subject  of  much  discussion. 
Kochlin's  recent  contribution  to  its  elucidation  has  induced  the 
authors  to  continue  their  own  studies,  which  establish  beyond  all 
doubt  the  independent  position  of  polianite  as  a  tetragonal 
crystal  isomorphous  \\  ith  cassiterite  and  the  allied  species  of  the 
RO2  group. 

Nearly  the  whole  of  the  number  of  the  Nuovo  Giornale 
Botanico  Italiano  for  January  is  occupied  by  a  monograph  by 
Sig.  A.  N.  Berlese  of  the  genus  of  Fungi  Pleospora,  of  which 
104  undoubted  species  are  described,  several  of  them  new  to 
science,  besides  a  considerable  number  of  doubtful  species.  The 
eight  plates,  in  which  the  essential  characters  of  nearly  all  the 
species  are  illustrated,  as  well  as  monographs  of  the  allied 
genera  Clathj-os/ora  and  Pyrenophora,  are  postponed  to  the  next 
number. — Prof.  A.  Beccari  also  describes  three  new  species  of 
palm  from  New  Guinea. 

Rendiconli  del  Reale  Istituto  Loinbardo,  February  9. — On 
colour-hearing,  by  Tito  Vignoli.  A  somewhat  detailed  account 
is  given  of  this  obscure  psychological  phenomenon,  cases  being 
described  in  which  not  only  sound  produced  the  sensation  of 
colour  and  colour  of  sound,  but  also  cases  in  which  sensations  of 
smell  and  taste  were  stimulated  by  sound  and  colour.  Rejecting 
the  explanations  hitherto  advanced,  the  author  refers  the  pheno- 
menon to  the  primaeval  condition  of  the  brain  itself  before  the 
various  senses  became  differentiated  and  localized  in  this  organ. 
These  senses  must  be  regarded  as  so  many  forms  of  the  primitive 
and  essential  condition  of  the  nerve-tissue  in  which  they  became 
gradually  specialized.  But  although  the  protoplasmic  substance 
of  the  brain  was  thus  made  the  seat  of  distinct  sensations  by 
virtue  of  incident  forces  and  slow  selection,   still  it  has  never 


March  22,  1888] 


NATURE 


501 


censed  to  possess  the  aptitude  as  a  whole  for  receiving  all  kinds 
of  impressions  from  without,  and  in  fact  it  is  this  general  apti- 
tude that  has  rendered  possible  the  evolution  of  the  special 
senses  in  special  centres.  Thus  the  common  origin  of  all  the 
senses  would  seem  to  offer  the  readiest  explanation  of  their 
occasional  confusion  even  in  the  human  brain  itself,  the  highest 
development  of  all.  Colour-hearing  might  in  this  way  be 
regarded  somewhat  as  a  case  of  reversion  or  atavism. 


SOCIETIES  AND  ACADEMIES. 
London. 

Royal  Society,  February  23. — "  On  Remnants  or  Vestiges 
of  Amphibian  and  Reptilian  Structures  found  in  the  Skulls  of 
Birds."     By  W.  K.  Parker,  F.R.S. 

(i)  Jacobson's  Organ. — This  remarkable  structure,  which  must 
be  looked  upon  as  an  accessory  olfactory  organ,  is  present  in 
certain  of  the  higher  Vertebrata,  or  Amniota.  It  consists  of  a 
paired  cavity,  which  early  becomes  separated  off  from  the  proper 
nasal  chamber,  and  which  opens  into  the  mouth  by  the  anterior 
incisive  foramen.  It  is  innervated  by  branches  from  the  olfactory 
and  trigeminal. 

Jacobson's  organs  are  largest  in  Snakes,  Lizards,  and  Mono- 
tremes,  and  next  in  order  come  the  Marsupials,  Edentates, 
Insectivores,  and  the  Mammalia  genei'ally.  Their  presence  in 
Man  is  doubtful,  and  what  has  been  described  as  a  rudiment  of 
them  ha-;  probably  quite  another  explanation.^  They  are  not 
known  to  exist  in  Chelonians,  Crocodiles,  and  Birds. 

In  the  Snake  and  Lizard,  these  structures  lie  each  in  a  little 
dish,  formed  by  the  vomer  of  that  side,  covered  in  by  another 
vomerine  bone — the  septomaxillary.  They  are  also  protected  at 
the  opening  of  the  capsule  by  a  pedate  tract  of  cartilage,  derived 
from  the  alinasal  fold,  which,  in  the  Snake,  frequently  becomes 
detached  from  its  root.  In  low  Mammalia  there  are  several 
vomers,  and  in  most  of  the  lower  Mammals  a  pair  of  small 
anterior  vomers  lie  on  the  inside  of  Jacobson's  organ,  but  the 
capsule  itself  is  formed  by  a  peculiar  fold  of  cartilage — the  re- 
current cartilage, — which  closes  in  upon  itself,  and  unites  its 
edges  round  the  organ.  As  a  rule,  these  "recurrent  cartilages  " 
retain  their  union  with  the  alinasal  folds,  as  in  the  Lizard ;  in 
the  Rabbit  (Howes)  they  are  distinct,  as  in  the  Serpent. 

Now  in  Birds  these  cartilages  not  unfrequently  appear,  but  no 
Jacobson's  organ  has  been  found  with  them.  The  Birds  whose 
vomerine  region  comes  nearest  to  that  of  a  low  Mammal  are  the 
Turnicidffi,  or  Hemipods,  and  t'le  great  group  of  the  Passerine 
birds  (Coracomorpha;,  or  .i^githognathee  of  Huxley).  It  is  not 
uncommon  for  the  "ox-faced  "  vomer  of  these  birds  to  be  formed 
of  two  pairs  of  bony  centres,  and  these  become  not  only  fused 
together,  but  actually  grafted  upon  the  floor  of  the  cartilaginous 
nasal  capsule,  in  the  same'  manner  as  is  common  in  the  lower 
kinds  of  Mammalia. 

Remnants  of  the  cartilaginous  capsule  of  Jacobson's  organ> 
are  found  not  only  in  the  Hemipods  and  in  the  lower  Neotropical 
Passerines  {Ho/nonis,  Syiiallaxis,  Aticercfes),  but  also  in  some  of 
the  highest  of  the  singing-birds — namely,  the  Wren  {Anorthitra 
tn\i;;/odj'/cs) — and  also  in  some  of  the  Woodpeckers  (Picida;),  out- 
side the  Passerine  Order. 

In  a  paper  on  the  "Skull  in  the  Ostrich  Tribe"  (Phil,  Trans., 
1886,  pi.  10,  Fig.  14,  a.i.L),  the  present  author  figured  and  de- 
scribed, but  did  not  then  fully  understand,  a  peculiar  cartilage 
perched  right  and  left  upon  the  large  vomer  of  the  K/ica,  He, 
however,  has  for  a  long  time  been  satisfied  that  this  is  one  of  the 
vomerine  or  Jacobson's  cartilages,  and  this  view  is  strongly 
corroborated  by  the  recent  description  of  the  palate  of  Aptcryx, 
given  by  T.  Jeffery  Parker  (Proc.  Roy.  Soc,  February  23,  1888), 
Now  if  the  figure  of  the  transversely-vertical  section  through 
these  cartilages  and  the  crura  of  the  vomer  in  the  Aptcryx,  be 
comparted  with  various  figures  in  the  present  author's  "  Memoirs 
on  the  Mammalian  Skull"  (Parts  L,  II.,  and  HI.,  "Phil. 
Tran<.''),  it  will  be  seen  that  it  so  nearly  corresponds  with 
sections  of  the  skull  of  the  Pig,  the  Edentates,  and  the  In- 
'  scctivores,  especially  those  taken  just  behind  Jacobson's  organ. 

See  Gegenljaur,  "  Ueber'das  Rudiment  einer  septalen  Nasendruse  be!m 
Mciischen,'  Morplwl.  Jahrbuch,  Bd.  xi.,  1885.  At  the  time  when  the  pre- 
sent p.iper  was  read,  the  author  was  net  aware  of  Gegenbaur's  conclusions 
with  regard  to  the  supposed  rudiment  of  Jacobson's  organ  in  Man. 


that  without  explanation  it  would  be  impossible  to  tell  which 
figure  belonged  to  the  Bird,  and  which  to  the  Mammal. 

(2)  Parasphenoid. — This  bone  forms  a  large  superficial  basi- 
cranial  beam  in  Ganoidei,  Teleostei,  Dipnoi,  and  Amphibia. 
It  corresponds  to  the  subcutaneous  part  of  a  dermal  scute  formed 
inside  the  skin  of  the  mouth,  developed  for  support  to  badly 
ossified  endocranium. 

The  parasphenoid  of  the  Frog  is  dagger-shaped,  and  reaches 
from  near  the  foramen  magnum  behind,  to  the  nasal  capsule  in 
front,  the  "guard"  of  the  dagger  supporting  the  auditory 
capsules.  Now  in  Serpents  only  the  blade  is  present  ;  in  Lizards 
only  a  very  fine  thread  of  bone  representing  the  blade  ;  in  some, 
e.g.  Trachydosatiriis  riigostis  (Cyclodonlidas),  even  this  is 
wanting.  It  is  not  present  in  those  very  amphibian  forms,  the 
Chelonians  ;  and  only  a  small  remnant  of  the  "guard  "  right  and 
left  can  be  found  in  Crocodiles,  consisting  of  two  "  basitemporal  " 
plates,  soon  covered  over  by  the  huge  pterygoid. 

In  all  Birds  basitemporals  are  large,  as  large  as  in  Frogs  and 
Toads  ;_  this  is  equally  true  of  the  Dinornis  and  of  the  smallest 
Humming-bird,  There  is  a  tendency  for  them  to  break  up  into 
lesser  bony  parts  ;  thus  for  a  day  or  two  in  the  chick  there  are 
two  "  basitemporal "  and  one  "rostral"  centre;  but  in  several 
species  of  the  Ranidae,  e.g.  the  Bull-frog,  the  point  of  the 
dagger-shaped  bone  is  separately  ossified,  and  remains  distinct. 

In  the  Paradoxical  Frog  {Psettdis  paradoxa)  there  is  no 
"handle"  to  the  dagger;  the  same  form  of  parasphenoid  is 
common  among  the  water-birds,  e.g.  Aha,  Uria.  This  is  an 
ossification  which  is  the  earliest  to  appear  in  skulls  that  take  on 
any  kind  of  ossification  ;  it  is  also  the  first  bone  to  appear  in  an 
embryo  bird,  as  in  the  larval  Frog. 

(3)  Prenasal  Kostnim.  —  Scarcely  any  Urodeles,  and  only  a  few  of 
the  Anura,  show  any  special  elongation  of  the  "intertrabecula  "  or 
prenasal  rostral  cartilage  ;  this  must  have  been  very  long  in  the 
Ichthyosauria,  as  in  the  Selachii,  and  as  in  the  embryos  of  all 
Birds. 

(4)  Palatopterygoid  arch  or  arcade. — In  the  Frog,  after  meta- 
morphosis, during  which  the  hinge  of  the  jaw  becomes  shifted 
far  backwards,  three  regions  may  be  distinguished  in  the  fore- 
part of  this  arch  ;  thus  the  suspensorial  part  or  pedicle  is  the 
ethmo-palatine,  the  anterior  free  spike  the  pre-palatine,  and 
the  hinder  part  which  runs  into  the  pterygoid  is  the  post- 
palatine. 

The  anterior  part  of  the  pterygo-palatine  arcade  is  distinct  from 
the  pterygoid  in  Urodeles,  and  the  pterygoid  in  them  is  an  out- 
growth of  the  quadrate  which  grows  forwards  towards  the 
palatine,  but  does  not  coalesce  with  it,  except  in  Ranodon 
sibiricus.^  The  "post-palatine"  tract  of  cartilage  is  developed 
as  a  distinct  nucleus  in  the  Axolotl  (Sircdon).'^ 

The  only  Reptiles  in  which  the  author  has  discovered  any 
distinct  trace  of  the  endoskeletal  palatine  is  in  the  Green  Turtle, 
in  which  it  is  very  small  (see  Challenger  Reports,  vol,  i.  part  5, 
plate  12,  Figs.  9,  9a,  9/'  :  e.p.a.). 

This  endoskeletal  cartilaginous  palatine,  with  Its  peduncle  and 
fore  and  hind  ray  or  crus,  appears  in  several  kinds  of  birds,  in 
addition  to  their  normal  parosteal  palatine — a  mere  membrane 
bone,  as  in  Reptiles  and  Mammals,  This  vestige  or  remnant 
remains  in  the  adult  ;  it  is  of  no  apparent  u  e,  and  occurs  in  the 
Families  in  the  oddest  way ;  sometimes,  however,  it  is  present  in 
all  the  members  of  some  particular  Family-group,  as  for  instance  in 
the  Musophagida;  or  plantain-eaters  {Miisophaga,  Schizorhis,  and 
Corythaix).^  It  is  also  found  in  the  Oil  Bird  {Stcatornis  cari- 
pensis)  and  in  the  Green  Tody  ( Todiis  viridis),  and  it  is  also  well 
developed  in  Scythrops  (see  Linn.  Soc.  Trans.,  ser.  2  (Zool.), 
vol.  i.  plate  23,  Figs.  3  and  4,  o.n.). 

In  that  nearly  extinct  Neotropical  type,  Stcatornis,  this  curious 
partly  ossified  remnant  has  the  three  crura,  all  well  marked,  and 
their  morphological  meaning  is  evident ;  albeit  the  whole  piece  is 
so  small  and  feeble  that  it  can  serve  no  purpose  in  the  solid 
palate  of  that  remarkable  bird. 

To  show  how  unexpectedly  this  remnant  exists,  a  list  of  the 
Birds  in  which  it  has  been  found  in  a  segmented  state  as  a 
distinct  bony  element  of  the  face  is  added  below  ;  it  often  shows 
itself  as  a  mere  process  of  the  ecto-ethmoid,  but  these  cases  are 
not  included  in  the  list, 

'  See  Wiedershelm,  "  Kopfskelet  der  Urodelen,"  Leipzig,  1877,  Plate  5, 
Figs.  69,  70. 

»  See  W.  K.  Parker,  "On  the  Skull  of  the  Urodeles'  (Phil.  Tr.ins.,  1877, 
Plate  24,  Figs.  1-3). 

3  See  Reinhardt,  "  Om  en  hidtil  ukjendt  Knogle  i  Hovedskallen  hos 
Turakoerne  (i'/?«o//;<7f/Vff,  Sundev),"  Copenhagen,  1871,  Plate  7. 


502 


NATURE 


\_March  22,  1888 


Motacilla  yan-elli  \  MotacilHd*. 

Biidytes  rayi  ) 

Todiis  viridis.     Todidae. 

Steatornis  caripensis.     Steatornidae. 

Schizorhis    ) 

Mzi.sophaga  \  Musophagidjc. 

Corythaix    ) 

DiclwlopJms.     Dicholophidffi. 

Frocellaria         \ 

^,    ,      .,  >ProcelIarid£e. 

Thalassidroma    C 

Diomedea,  &=€.  ) 

Larus,  var.  spec.     Laridae,  .. 

Tachypetes.     Tachypetidae.  ( 

Another  more  partial  remnant  is  seen  in  the  Coracomorphae 
•or  Passerine  birds  generally,  which  together  make  up  nearly 
half  the  number  of  known  birds. 

A  distinct  nucleus  representing  the  post-palatine  region  of 
the  Frog's  skull  reappears  in  the  Crow  and  the  Sparrow,  and 
in  all  the  Passerines,  as  far  as  they  have  been  worked  out.  It 
lies  outside  the  hinder  part]bf  the  normal  parosteal  palatine  bone, 
becomes  a  solid  ear-shaped  tract  of  hyaline  cartilage,  acquires 
its  own  osseous  (endosteal)  centre,  and  this,  when  ossified, 
coalesces  with  the  normal  palatine  bone. 

These  facts,  and  many  others  that  could  be  mentioned,  make  it 
■evident  that,  in  seeking  for  a  clue  to  the  uprise  of  the  Feathered 
Fowl,  we  may  leave  out  of  immediate  consideration  all  the  exist- 
ing types  of  Reptilia  :  ancient  Amphibians,  or  Reptiles  just  rising 
out  of  Amphibian  lowliness,  are  the  forms  that  alone  will  help  us 
in  this  search.  We  do  get  some  light  upon  the  Reptilian  relation- 
ship of  Birds,  but.it  is  at  best  a  scattered  light  ;  the  head  of  a  Bird 
is  like  that  of  the  Ichthyosmirus  in  its  great  facial  elongation, 
the  neck-  and  limb-regions  of  a  Bird  are  those  of  a  Plesiosaunis, 
whilst  the  hips  and  legs  are  like  those  of  the  Ornithoscelida. 

But  these  are  not  all,  or  nearly  all,  the  vestigial  structures  that 
may  be  seen  in  the  Bird's  skull,  to  say  nothing  of  the  skeleton 
generally ;  ^  they  are  sufficient,  however,  to  justify  the  assumption 
that  Birds  arose,  by  secular  transformation,  either  from  the 
lowest  and  most  ancient  of  the  true  Reptiles,  or  equally  with 
Reptiles  from  archaic  Amphibia,  low  in  structure,  but  full  of 
potential  excellence,  and  ready,  pro  j-e  nata,  to  become  Reptile, 
Bird,  or  even  Mammal,  as  the  case  might  be. 

Physical  Society,  March  lo. — Prof.  Reinold,  President,  in 
the  chair. — Mr.  G.  L.  Addenbrooke  exhibited  and  described  a 
compact  form  of  reflecting  galvanometer,  lamp,  and  scale,  which 
he  has  designed  as  a  portable  commercial  instrument,  and  also  a 
modified  Post  Office  Wheatstone's  bridge. — Mr.  E.  C.  Rimington 
read  a  paper  on  the  measurement  of  the  power  supplied  to  the 
primary  coil  of  a  transformer.  The  first  part  of  the  paper  con- 
tains a  proof  of  a  formula  given  by  Prof.  Ayrton  at  a  recent 
meeting  of  the  Society  of  Telegraph-Engineers  for  measuring 
the  power  given  to  a  transformer  by  using  a  Siemens's  watt- 
meter, and  the  disadvantages  of  the  method  are  enumerated.  A 
method  is  then  described  in  which  a  high-resistance  dynamometer 
is  used.  One  coil  of  the  dynamometer  is  placed  as  a  shunt  to 
the  primary  coil,  and  the  other  as  a  shunt  to  a  known  induction - 
less  resistance,  R,  placed  in  series  with  the  primary.  The  time 
constants  of  the  dynamometer  coils  are  made  equal  by  adding  an 
inductionless  resistance  to  the  one  having  the  greatest  time 
constant.  Thus  arranged  the  difference  of  phase  between  the 
•currents  in  the  dynanometer  coils  is  the  same  as  that  between 
the  P.D.  and  current  in  the  primary  of  the  transformer.  The 
mean  jDower,  /„,!,  is  shown  to  be 


A 


K 


=  I  5  (I  +  tan2,^i). 


•where   -   is  the  constant  of  the  dynamometer  for  watts,  S  the 

reading  of  the  torsion  head,  and  </>!  the  lag  angle  of  the  currents 
in  the  coils  of  the  dynamometer  which  can  be  determined  from 
their  time  constant  and  periodic  time.  The  best  method  of 
ari-anging  the  dynamometer  in  order  that  R  may  be  as  small 
as  possible  is  discussed.  Prof.  Ayrton  pointed  out  that  the 
formula  first  referred  to  by  the  author  was  given  to  show  %vhy  a 
luatt-meter  should  not  be  used,  and  that  the  method  suggested  by 

'  As  regards  the  skeleton  of  the  manus  and  pes,  the  indications  of  at  least 
five  carpals  (t'wo  of  these  in  some  types  undergoing  further  subdivision), 
three  small  additional  rudiments  of  digital  rays  in  the  manus,  five  tarsals, 
and  a  rudiment  of  the  fifth  metatarsal,  are  all  important  facts  bear  ng  upon 
this  subject. 


Mr.  Rimington  was  a  modification  of  the  well-known  electro- 
meter method,  but  with  an  additional  serious  objection,  that  the 
periodic  lime  must  be  known.  He  also  described  a  direct- 
reading  method  of  using  an  electrometer,  on  ordinary  transformer 
circuits,  suggested  to  him  by  Mr.  Sayers.  Mr.  Blakesley  thought 
tlie  above  formula,  given  by  Mr.  Rimington,  would  only  be 
true  where  there  is  no  iron  in  the  circuit.  He  described  a 
method  of  determining  the  power  by  observations  on  two  low- 
resistance  dynamometers,  one  of  which  is  placed  in  the  primary  cir- 
cuit. Of  the  other  dynamometer,  one  coil  is  placed  in  the  primary 
and  the  other  in  the  secondary  circuit.     The  power  is  given   by 


/;„  =  Ka^i\  4-  ;-2 


Ca, 


where  i\,  r.^,  vi,  n  are  the  resistances  and  nui^ibers  of 
convolutions  of  the  primary  and  secondary  coils,  A  and 
C  the  constants  of  the  dynamometers,  and  Oj,  a..^  their  read- 
ing. A  geometrical  construction  from  which  the  formula 
is  deduced  was  given.  Mr.  Sumpner  said  all  the  formulaj 
at  present  obtained  were  founded  on  the  assumptions  that 
the  induction  coefficients  of  a  transformer  under  working  condi- 
tions are  constant,  but,  in  a  paper  to  be  brought  before  the 
Society  shortly,  he  hoped  to  show  these  assumptions  to  be 
erroneous.  In  replying,  Mr.  Rimington  said,  if  the  periodic 
time  was  not  known  beforehand,  it  could  easily  be  determined 
from  the  note  given  out  by  a  telephone  placed  near  the  trans- 
former.— On  the  magnetic  circuit  in  dynamo  machines,  by  Prof. 
W.  E.  Ayrton  and  Prof.  J.  Perry.  An  abstract  was  read  by 
Prof.  Perry.  The  authors  have  worked  out  a  number  of 
formulae  for  dynamo  machines,  involving  the  thickness,  t,  of  the 
armature  winding,  and  o  the  highest  permanent  current  density 
per  square  centimetre  of  cross  section  of  that  winding.  One  of 
them  is 

lo** 

where  W  =  highest  permanent  output  in  watts,  v  =  circumfer- 
ential velocity,  and  N  =  total  induction  through  the  armature. 
As  the  winding  is  thin,  to'  =  q"',  a  constant.  For  the  best 
modern  machines,  which  do  not  get  too  hot,  q  has  a  value  of 
about  288.  It  is  shown  that  the  best  permanent  output  is  a 
maximum  when  the  magnetic  resistance  of  the  space  occupied 
by  the  armature  winding  is  equal  to  all  the  other  magnetic 
resistance  in  the  circuit,  and  the  best  machines  are  found  to 
satisfy  this  condition.  From  this  important  result  the  character- 
istic of  such  a  dynamo  can  be  drawn  with  considerable  accuracy. 
For  small  inductions  the  air  resistance  only  need  be  considered, 
and  a  line  drawn  on  squared  paper  connecting  N  and  S'A', 
satisfying 

j^  _  47rS'A/  _^  l{d  -f  t 

10  *  «2 

gives  the  first  part  of  the  characteristic,  where  S'A'  = 
ampere-turns,  rt' =;  clearance,  and  a^,  =  the  area  of  the  pole 
pieces  exposed  to  the  armature  (increased  by  a  fringe  of  0"8 
\d  +  t)  all  round).  From  the  maximum  value  of  N  (viz.  a^^^ 
where  a-^  =  area  of  diametral  section  of  iron  in  armature,  and 
01  =  maximum  induction  (17,000  to  18,000),  find  the  value  of 
S'A'  from  the  formula 


N 


4irS'A' 


4i 


and  plot  the  values  of  N  and  S'A'  as  the  co-ordinates  of  a  point. 
A  curve  drawn  through  this  point  to  touch  the  line  first  drawn, 
at  a  point  corresponding  with  N  =  ^aj/Sj  will  not  differ  materi- 
ally from  the  characteristic  of  the  constructed  machine. — A  note 
on  the  employment  of  an  electro-dynamometer  for  determining 
the  difference  of  phase  of  two  harmonic  currents  of  electricity, 
by  Mr.  T.  H.  Blakesley,  was  taken  as  read.  This  is  a  claim  of 
priority  for  a  method  published  by  the  author  in  the  Electrician 
of  October  2,  1885,  which  has  recently  been  described  and 
claimed  as  the  invention  of  Prof.  Ferraris,  in  a  paper  communi- 
cated to  the  Royal  Academy  of  Science  of  Turin.  In  a  book 
on  "Alternating  Currents,"  published  at  the  end  of  1885,  Mr. 
Blakesley  shows  how  the  method  can  be  used  for  determining 
induction  coefficients  and  capacities. 

Chemical  Society,  March  r. — Mr.  :W.  Crookes,  F.R.S., 
in  the  chair. — The  following  papers  were  read  : — The  origin  of 
colour  and  the  constitution  of  colouring  matters,  by  Prof.  H.  E. 
Armstrong,  F.R.  S.  The  majority  of  compounds,  especially 
those  of  carbon,  are  colourless  ;  and  in  the  case  of  elements 


March  22,  1888] 


NATURE 


503 


whose  compounds  are  invariably  coloured,  the  greatest  diversity 
of  colouring  is  often  noticealjle  among  the  several  compounds 
of  one  and  the  same  element — as  in  those  of  chromium  or  man- 
ganese, for  example  :  it  is  therefore  clear  that  colour  is  in  a  high 
(legree  conditioned  by  special  fornix  of  intramolecular  structure, 
and  consequently  that  any  attempt  to  determine  the  "origin  of 
colour"  must  be  based  on  a  knowledge  of  the  structure  of  coloured 
matters.  For  this  reason  it  has  become  possible  only  within 
recent  years  to  discuss  the  relation  between  colour  and  con- 
stitution, and,  so  far,  the  discussion  has  been  limited  to  two 
papers  by  Graebe  and  Liebermann  (>9tv'.  detit.  cliem.  Gesellsch., 
1868,  106)  and  by  Witt  (ibid.,  1876,  522)  respectively.  To 
illustrate  the  idea  on  which  the  argument  in  the  paper  is  based, 
the  author  compares  the  unsaturated  hydrocarbons  with  the 
paraffins.  In  the  paraffins,  which  are  singularly  inert  com- 
pounds, and  all  but  colourless  even  in  the  infra-red  and  ultra- 
violet regions  of  the  spectrum,  the  carbon  atoms  are  united  only 
by  single  affinities,  and  the  remaining  affinities  are  engaged  by 
monad  atoms  ;  the  unsaturated  hydrocarbons,  however,  are  not 
only  more  reactive  than  the  paraffins,  but  the  beginnings  of 
colour  are  manifest  in  them  in  regions  above  and  below  the 
visible  spectrum,  whilst  they  are  conventionally  represented  by 
formula'  in  which  the  carbon  atoms  appear  as  united  by  two  or 
three  affinities  of  each,  typified  by  straight  lines  or  dots.  Within 
recent  years,  however,  the  idea  has  found  favour  that  "affinity 
has  direction,"  and  the  author  would  apply  this  hypothesis 
to  polyad  atoms  gener^illy  ;  and  in  formulating  compounds  in 
which  such  atoms  are  united  by  more  than  single  affiiiites,  would 
represent  the  polyad  atoms  as  united  by  curved  lines  in  order  to 
suggest  that  the  affinities  are  under  strain  in  consequence  of  their 
being  free  to  act  only  in  certain  directions.  In  the  paper,  the 
author  cites  a  number  of  cases  among  inorganic  compounds 
which  he  thinks  affiDrd  evidence  that  the  production  of  colour  is 
dependent  on  special  modes  of  atomic  arrangement,  and  parti- 
culai-ly  on  such  modes  of  arrangement  as  involve  the  existence 
of  a  condition  of  strain  in  the  resulting  system,  due  probably  to 
peculiarities  in  the  affinity  relationships  of  the  c  mstituent 
elements  of  the  system  which  prevent  complete  mutual  neutraliza- 
tion of  the  affinities.  The  occurrence  of  colour  therefore  is  more 
frequently  than  not  concomitant  with  a  high  degree  of  reactivity, 
the  coloured  compound  being  usually  one  of  "high  potential" 
or  slight  stability.  Among  carbon  compounds  there  is  no  in- 
stance of  a  hydrocarbon  being  coloured,  giving  the  term  its  con- 
ventional meaning  ;  and  omitting  nilro-compounds,  there  are 
very  few  exceptions  to  the  rule  that  derivatives  of  hydrocarbons 
containing  only  monad  radicles  are  colourless  ;  the  exceptions, 
moreover,  are  of  a  very  noteworthy  chxracter,  being  either 
central  derivatives  of  anthracene,  i.e.  compounds  formed  liy 
displacement  of  the  hydrogen  atoms  of  the  central  nucleus 
of  anthracene — which  although  not  coloured  is  significantly 
fluorescent ;  or  the  monad  radicle  contains  at  its  origin  a  radicle 
such  as  CO.  Attention  is  then  drawn  to  the  quinones  and  their 
derivatives,  I\ittig's  ketone  formula  being  throughout  adopted 
for  these  compounds.  The  constitution  of  the  better-known 
dye-stuffs  is  then  discussed,  and  the  author  is  led  to  conclusions 
which  in  some  cases  are  different  from  those  hitherto  accepted  ;  for 
example,  the  azo-dyes  are  formulated  O^CfiHj^N.NHR'  and 
IIN^CgHj^N.NlIR';  androsaniline  with  its  congeners,  certain 
of  the  phlhaleins,  and  methylene-blue  are  also  formulated  on  the 
quinone  type.  In  the  discussion  on  the  paper,  in  which  Profs. 
Debus,  Riicker,  and  Dewar,  Dr.  Morley  and  others  took  part. 
Prof.  G.  C.  Foster  said  that  it  appeared  to  him  that  the  real 
cjuestion  raised  by  Dr.  Armstrong  was  whether  a  definite  re- 
lation could  be  traced  between  chemical  composition  or  chemical 
structure  and  the  existence  and  position  of  absorption-bands  in 
the  .spectrum  of  the  transmitted  radiation.  The  presence  or 
absence  of  coloration,  as  it  could  be  judged  of  directly  by  the  eye, 
gave  no  conclusive  answer  to  the  question,  for  a  substance  might 
be  as  colourless  as  water,  and  stdl  exert  strong  absorption  in 
the  ultra-red,  or  it  might  have  strongly-marked  absorption  in 
the  ultra-violet.  But,  more  than  this,  a  body  might  exert 
selective  absorption  within  the  visible  spectrum,  but  if  it 
happened  to  absorb  two  complementary  colours  it  would  be 
judged  of  by  the  eye  as  though  it  were  destitute  of  selective  ab- 
sorption altogether.  The  subject,  therefore,  seemed  to  him  to 
involve  a  systematic  study  of  absorption-spectra. — Researches  on 
chromorganic  salts.  Part  II.,  by  Mr.  E.  A.  Werner. — Note  on 
benzyldithiourethane,  by  Dr.  A.  E.  Dixon. 

Zoological    Society,    March    6. — Prof.    Flower,    F.R.S., 
President,  in  the  chair. — The   Secretary  read  a  report  on  the 


additions  that  had  been  made  to  the  .Society's  Menagerie  during 
the  month  of  Februaiy  1888,  and  called  special  attention  to 
some  examples  of  a  Finch  from  New  Caledonia  {Erythrura 
psittacea),  and  to  five  specimens  of  a  Pheasant  {Phasianus 
principalis)  from  Afghan  Turkistan.  The  pheasants  had  been 
brought  home  and  presented  by  Major  Peacock,  R.E.,  of  the 
Afghan  Frontier  Commission,  at  the  request  of  Sir  Peter  Lums- 
den,  G.C.B.,  C.S.I.— The  Secretary  exhibited  (on  behalf  of 
Lieut. -Colonel  II.  M.  Drummond  Hay)  a  specimen  of  the 
De-ert  Wheatear  (Saxicola  deserti),  lately  killed  in  Scotland. — 
A  paper  by  Prof.  G.  B.  Howes  and  Mr.  W.  Ridewood,  on  the 
carpus  and  tarsus  of  the  Anura,  was  read.  The  authors  re- 
corded observations  made  upon  thirty-seven  genera  and  sixty 
species,  in  all  stages  of  development,  representatives  of  all  but 
three  or  four  less  important  families.  The  authors  were  at 
variance  with  previous  writers  in  points  which  had  necessitated 
a  reconsideration  of  the  morphological  value  of  the  leadin|^ 
elements  of  both  carpus  and  tarsus.  They  had  failed  to  dis- 
cover, at  any  stage,  a  trace  of  a  third  proximal  element  in  either 
fore  or  hind  foot,  while  they  showed  that  Born  was  in  error  in 
regarding  the  navicitlarc  as  the  prehallux  tarsal.  In  the  hind 
foot  they  recorded  the  discovery  of  a  fourth  tarsal,  and  in  the 
fore  fojt  that  of  a  fifth  carpal,  which  latter  in  Xcnophrys  was 
bony.  Consequent  upon  this  they  regarded  the  element  hitherto 
held  to  be  the  fifth  carpal  as  a  postaxial  centiale ;  whence  it 
followed  that  the  Anura  are,  as  a  group,  unique  in  the  posses- 
sion throughout  of  a  double  ccntrale  carpi.  The  authors  dis- 
cussed the  various  changes  undergone  by  the  pollux  and  pre- 
hallux, and  the  several  views  concerning  the  morphological  value 
of  the  latter.  A  second  part  was  added,  in  which  the  peculiari- 
ties of  the  several  families  of  the  Anura  were  given  in  order, 
and  the  bearings  of  the  structures  in  question  upon  classification 
briefly  discussed.  The  Discoglossidee  were  shown  to  combine 
most  completely  the  least  modified  conditions  of  both  fore  and 
hind  feet. — Mr.  R.  Bowdler  Sharpe  read  descriptions  of  new 
species  of  birds,  of  which  specimens  had  lately  been  received 
from  the  Island  of  Guadalcanar,  Solomon  Group,  collected  by 
Mr.  C.  M.  Woodford.  These  were  named  Astnr  Jiolomclas, 
Astur  woodfordi,  Asliir  shebce.  Baza  giiadalcanarcnsis,  Ninox 
granti,  Graticahts  liololins,  Edoliisoma  erythi'opygiiim,  and 
Poinarea  erythrosticta. — Mr.  W.  R.  Ogilvie  Grant  contributed 
a  complete  list  of  the  birds  obtained  by  Mr.  Woodford  on  the 
Islands  of  Guadalcanar  and  Rubiana.  These  were  altogether 
sixty-six  in  number,  the  new  ones  being  Nasitcrna  aoht,  Alyzo- 
Icma  sharpii,  Phlcga-nas  solonionensis,  Ardciralla  ivoodfordi,  and 
Nycticorax  mandihularis . 

Entomological  Society,  March  7. — Dr.  D.  Sharp,  Pre 
sident,  in  the  chair. — Mr.  J.  H.  Leech  exhibited,  and  made- 
remarks  on,  a  number  of  butterflies  forming  part  of  the  col- 
lection made  for  him  last  summer  by  Mr.  Pratt,  at  Kiukiang, 
Central  China.  The  specimens  exhibited  included  Papilio 
Macilcntiis,  hitherto  only  recorded  from  Japan,  varieties  of  /', 
Sarpedon,  and  a  supposed  new  species  of  Papilio  ;  a  series  of 
Sericinns  telamon  ;  Charaxes  narcittts,  and  var.  man  iar inns  ; 
PalcEoiympha  opalina ;  new  species  of  Lethe,  Apatura,  and 
Neptis  ;  and  a  series  of  Argynnis  paphia,  with  the  var.  valaina 
of  the  female.  Mr.  Leech  stated  that  all  the  females  of  A. 
paphia  taken  at  Kiukiang  belonged  to  the  var.  valczina,  the 
typical  form  of  the  female  being  unknown  there.  Mr.  Poulton 
expressed  his  interest  in  Mr.  Leech's  statement  that  valczina  was^ 
the  only  form  of  the  female  of  Argynnis  paphia  known  at 
Kiukiang,  and  said  he  considered  this  fact  would  probably  throw 
a  new  light  on  the  question  of  the  dimorphism  of  the  species. 
Mr.  Jenner-W^eir  said  he  had  in  the  course  of  some  years  ob- 
tained a  series  of  forms  intermediate  between  the  typical  female 
and  the  variety  valczina.  Mr.  H.  Goss,  Dr.  Sharp,  and  Mr. 
McLachlan,  F. R  S.,  continued  the  discussion. — Mr.  Champion 
exhibited,  for  Mr.  J.  J.  Walker,  R.N.,  about  950  species  of 
Coleoptera,  recently  collected  by  the  latter  near  Gibraltar.  Mr. 
McLachlan  called  attention  to  the  large  number  of  water-beetles 
included  in  Mr.  Walker's  collection. — Mr.  Verrall  exhibited, 
living  specimens  of  Aspidomorpha  sancta-cnicis,  from  the  caves- 
ofElephanta. — Mr.  Slater  exhibited  specimens  of  a  species  of 
weevil  which  had  been  doing  much  damage  to  maize  sent  to  the 
Colonial  Exhibition. — Mr.  W.  White  read  a  paper  entitled  "  Ex- 
periments upon  the  colour-relation  between  the  pupae  of  Picris 
rapcc,  and  their  immediate  surroundings,"  which  comprised  a  de- 
tailed accoimt  of  aseriesof  observations  carried  on  at  the  author's 
instigation  by  Mr.. G.  C.  Griffiths.  The  various  experiments  were 
intended  to  act  as  a  test  of  the  conclusions  arrived  at  by  Mr. 


504 


NA  rURE 


[March  22,  1888 


Poulton  in  his  paper  on  the  subject  in  the  Transactions  of  the 
Royal  Society ;  and  to  effect  this  object  different  and  additional 
influences  had  been  brought  to  bear  on  these  pupjB,  so  that  an 
analogy  might  be  drawn  between  the  two  sets  of  results.  Mr. 
Poulton,  Lord  Walsingham,  F.R.S.,  Mr.  Jacoby,  Dr.  Sharp, 
and  Mr.  White  took  part  in  the  discussion  which  ensued. 

Paris. 

Academy  of  Scie^ices,  March  12. — M.  Janssen  in  the 
chair. — Remarks  accompanying  the  presentation  of  the  second 
edition  of  his  "  Traite  de  Physique  Mathematique,"  by  M.  H. 
Resal.  To  this  edition  have  been  added  sections  on  mathe- 
matical optics  and  thermodynamics,  enlarging  the  work  from 
one  to  two  volumes. — On  the  combination  of  measures  of  the 
same  magnitude,  by  M.  J.  Bertrand.  An  attempt  is  here  made 
to  estimate  the  consequences  of  rejecting  measures  assumed  to 
be  less  accurate  as  departing  furthest  from  the  mean  in  the 
doctrine  of  probabilities. — New  theory  of  M.  Loewy's  equatorial 
<:oude  and  equatorials  in  general,  by  MM.  M.  Lcewy  and  P. 
Puiseux.  An  improved  method  is  described  for  more  accurately 
determining  the  constants  both  of  bent  and  straight  equatorials, 
with  the  most  rapid  processes  for  mounting  and  rectifying  these 
instruments. — On  phosphorus  and  phosphoric  acid  in  vegetation, 
by  MM.  Berthelot  and  G.  Andre.  As  a  general  result  of  their 
experiments,  made  especially  on  Amarantluis  caudatus,  the 
authors  find  that,  after  the  normal  flowering,  the  employment  of 
phosphorous,  and  even  to  some  extent  of  nitrous,  manures  seems 
almost,  if  not  altogether,  useless,  whereas  potassic  manures  may 
still  be  advantageously  continued  as  long  as  vegetation  lasts. — 
Classification  of  the  Gasteropods,  based  on  the  various  disposi- 
tions of  the  nervous  system,  by  M.  H.  de  Lacaze-Duthiers. 
This  is  a  purely  synthetic  treatise,  summing  up  the  long  and 
numerous  analytical  studies  on  the  nervous  system  of  various 
mollusks,  such  as  Gadinia,  Aplysia,  Tethys,  and  many  others 
described  in  the  Comptes  rendus  and  elsewhere.  The  object  is 
to  ascertain  what  data  may  be  supplied  by  these  different  types 
of  nervous  systems  for  a  physiological  classification  of  the 
secondary  groups  of  Gasteropods.  Two  sub-classes  with 
five  orders  are  proposed  for  the  whole  class. — On  a  general 
theorem  of  convergence,  by  M.  J.  L.  Jensen.  The  studies 
undertaken  by  the  author  with  a  view  to  a  generalization 
of  the  theory  of  convergence  of  a  series  with  positive  terms  have 
led  to  an  unexpected  simplification  of  the  present  theory.  It  is 
shown  that  the  criteria  of  Cauchy,  of  Duhamel  and  Raabe,  of 
Bertrand,  and  others,  may  henceforth  be  treated  summarily  as 
simple  corollaries  of  one  general  theorem. — On  the  measurement 
of  magnetic  fields  by  diamagnetic  bodies,  by  M.  P.  Joubin.  The 
author's  renewed  attempts  to  utilize  the  magnetization  of  dia- 
magnetic bodies  for  measuring  the  intensity  of  a  magnetic  field 
seem  to  demonstrate  the  existence  of  several  states  of  magnetic 
equilibrium  in  diamagnetic  bodies.  This  unexpected  result  is  in 
accordance  with  theory  according  to  Duhem's  calculations,  as 
well  as  with  the  general  considerations  recently  set  forth  by  M. 
Brillouin. — On  the  magnetization  of  diamagnetic  bodies,  by  M. 
P.  Duhem.  The  grounds  are  explained  which  render  highly 
probable  the  existence  of  several  states  of  magnetic  equilibrium 
for  diamagnetic  bodies  placed  in  a  given  position  and  subjected 
to  the  action  of  given  magnets. — A  new  eolipyle,  by  M.  Paquelin. 
The  apparatus  here  described  has  the  advantage  of  working  in 
any  position  without  the  risk  of  explosion,  aud  consumes  not 
more  than  90  grammes  of  fuel  in  the  hour. — Determination  in 
wave-lengths  of  the  two  red  rays  of  potassium,  by  M.  H. 
Deslandres.  This  determination,  made  at  the  request  of  M. 
Lecoq  de  Boisbaudran,  yields  for  the  stronger  ray  766*30,  for 
the  weaker  769  63,  giving  a  mean  767-965,  compared  with 
588 '89  of  the  D2  sodium  ray,  which  served  for  the  calcu- 
lation of  the  constant.— On  the  decreasing  solubility  of  the 
sulphates,  by  M.  A.  Etard.  The  sulphates  of  iron,  cadmium, 
magnesium,  lithium,  rubidium,  and  potassium,  as  well  as  an- 
hydrous selenious  acid,  all  present  the  same  phenomenon  of 
decreasing  solubility.  But  that  of  iron,  like  the  previously 
described  sulphate  of  copper,  changes  direction  twice,  first  in- 
creasing and  remaining  constant,  then  decreasing  ;  the  complete 
series  of  transformations  being  accomplished  between  -  2°  and 
-F  156°  C. — Action  of  roasting  on  several  oxides  and  salts  of 
manganese,  by  M.  Alex.  Gorgeu.  The  anhydrous  protoxides 
heated  briskly  leave  a  red  oxide  ;  slowly  roasted,  so  as  to  avoid 
incandescence,  and  then  kept  at  a  dull  red  until  the  weight  of 
the  residuum  ceases  to  change,  they  yield  a  sesquioxide  ;  lastly, 
when  heated  from  200°  to  430°  C,  the  oxidation  of  the  MnO 


obtained  at  a  high  temperature  is  very  slow,  and  appears  not  to 
go  beyond  the  manganite  Mn024MnO,  even  after  forty  or  fifty 
hours.  Several  other  details  are  given  of  these  interesting  ex- 
periments.— On  the  collection  of  star-fish  brought  to  Europe  by 
the  French  Scientific  Mission  to  Cape  Horn,  by  M.  Edmond 
Perrier.  This  collection  comprises  no  less  than  553  specimens, 
referred  to  38  distinct  species,  of  which  23  are  new.  This  gives 
to  the  southern  waters  of  the  American  continent  a  total  of  57 
species  of  these  organisms. — M.  J.  Kunstler  describes  a  new 
Foraminifer  from  the  Arcachon  basin. 


BOOKS,  PAMPHLETS,  and  SERIALS  RECEIVED. 

The  Geological  Evidences  of  Evolution  :  A.  Heilprin  (Philadelphia). — Age 
of  Creation:  W.  J.  Cassidy  (Brigg'!,  Toronto). — The  Geological  History  of 
Plants  :  Sir  J.  W.  Dawson  (K.  Paul). — A  Treatise  on  Mine  Surveying  :  B.  H. 
Brough  (Griffin). — Old  and  New  Astronomy,  Part  i :  R.  A.  Proctor(Longmans). 
— Rainfall  in  the  East  Indian  Archipelago,  1886  :  Dr.  Van  der  Stok(Batavia). — 
Observations  made  at  the  Magnetical  and  Meteorological  Observatory  at 
Batavia,  vol.  ix.  1886  :  Dr.  Van  der  Stok  (Batavia). — Report  on  the  Crops  ot 
the  Year  1887  (Washington). — London  Geological  Field  Class  Reports,  18S7 
(Philip). — Morphologisches  Jahrbuch,  Eine  Zeitschrift  fur  Anatomie  und 
Entwickelungsgeschichte,  xiii.  Band,  3  Heft  (Leipzig). — Journal  of  the 
Chemical  Society,  March  (Gurney  and  Jackson) — Journal  of  the  Society 
of  Telegraph-Engineers  and  Electricians,  vol.  xvii.  No.  70  (Spon). — Notes 
from  the  Leyden  Museum,  October  1887  (Leyden). — Archives  Italiennes  de 
Biologic,  Tome  ix.  Fasc.  2  (Turin). — Encyklopsedia  der  Naturwissenschaften, 
Erste  Abthg.  54  Lief.,  Zoologie,  &c.  ;  Zweite  Abthg.  46  and  47  Lief.,  Chemie 
(Breslau). — Bulletin  de  I'Academie  Royale  des  Sciences  de  Belgique,  1888, 
No.  I  (Bruxelles). 


CONTENTS.  PAGE 

The  Revenue  Method  of  Estimating  and  Charging 

the  Duty  on  Spirits 481 

Prestwich's   "Geology"      482 

Vaccination.     By  Dr.  Robt.  Cory 483 

Our  Book  Shelf:— 

Morgan  :   "  Animal  Biology  " 484 

Burton  :  "  Practical  Guide  to  Photographic  and  Photo- 
Mechanical  Printing  Proces-es  " 485 

Steel  :   "A  Treatise  on  the  Diseases  of  the  Dog." — 

Dr.  E.  Klein,  F.R.S 485 

Salomons:   "  Management  of  Accumulators  "  •     .    .    .  485 

Thornton  :   "  Elementary  Physiography  " 485 

Letters  to  the  Editor  : — 

Dr.  Whewell  on  the  Origin  of  Species. — Prof.  George 

J.  Romanes,  F.R.S 486 

The  Fog  Bow.— James  C.  McConnel 486 

"The  Teaching  of  Elementary  Chemistry." — Z.    .    .  487 
"  Kinematics   and   Dynamics." — Prof.  J.   G.   Mac- 

Gregor 487 

Coral  Formations. — T.  Mellard  Reade 488 

The    Movements    of  Scree-Material. — Cecil  Carus- 

Wilson 488 

Were  the  Elephant  and    Mastodon  contemporary  in 

Europe?— H.  P.  Malet 488 

Experiments  in  Mountain  Building.  {Illustrated.)  By 

Henry  M.  Cadell 488 

Swiss  Forest  Laws      490 

Notes 492 

Our  Astronomical  Columr  ; — 

Distribution  of  the  Sunspots  of  1886  and  1887  .    .    .    .  495 

The  Total  Eclipse  of  the  Moon,  January  28      ....  495 
Spectroscopic  Determination  of  the  Rotation  Period  of 

the  Sun 495 

New  Minor  Planet -    .    .  • 495 

Astronomical     Phenomena     for     the     Week     1888 

March  25-31      495 

Geographical  Notes 496 

Our  Electrical  Column 497 

Derham's  Hydrometer 497 

The  Ccelom  and  the  Vascular  System  of  Mollusca 
and  Arthropoda.      By  Prof.    E.    Ray  Lankester, 

F.R.S .    .  498 

The  Teeth  of  the  Myxinoid  Fishes.     ByDr.  J.  Beard  499 
Models  Illustrating  the  Modification  of  the  Arterial 

Arches  in  Vertebrates.     By  Prof.  W.  N.  Parker    .  499 

University  and  Educational  Intelligence 500 

Scientific  Serials 500 

Societies  and  Academies 5°' 

Books,  Pamphlets,  and  Serials  Received 504 


NA TURE 


505 


THURSDAY,   MARCH   29,   1888. 


ELEMENTAR  V  INS TR  UCTION  IN  PRA CTICAL 
BIOLOGY. 

A  Course  of  Elementary  Instruction  in  Practical  Biology. 
By  T.  H.  Huxley,  LL.D.,  F.R.S.,  assisted  by  H.  N. 
Martin,  M.A.,  M.D.,  D.Sc,  F.R.S.  Revised  Edition. 
Extended  and  Edited  by  G.  B.  Howes,  Assistant  Pro- 
fessor of  Zoology,  Normal  School  of  Science  and  Royal 
School  of  Mines;  and  D.  H.  Scott,  M.A.,  Ph.D., 
Assistant  Professor  of  Botany,  Normal  School  of 
Science  and  Royal  School  of  Mines.  With  a  Preface 
by  Prof  Huxley,  F.R.S.  (London  :  Macmillan  and 
Co.,  1888.) 

TH  E  appearance  of  the  first  edition  of  "  A  Course  of 
Elementary  Instruction  in  Practical  Biology"  in 
1875  marked  an  epoch  in  biological  education.  The  great 
effects  which  the  doctrine  of  evolution  had  been  gradually 
producing  in  the  general  system  of  biological  education 
were  then  set  forth,  and  widely  extended,  by  means  of  a 
clearly  written  volume  containing  an  account  of  thirteen 
types  of  the  organic  kingdom.  On  the  appearance  of  a 
greatly  extended  edition  of  the  work,  it  may  not  be  out 
of  place  to  say  a  few  words  upon  the  "  type-system  "  of 
biological  education  for  which  the  book  in  its  earlier  form 
has  done  so  much.  The  immense  educational  success  of 
the  work  may  perhaps  be  best  judged  by  the  fact  that, 
since  its  publication,  an  ever-increasing  demand  has  ren- 
dered necessary  the  production  of  quite  a  number  of  new 
books  following  the  "  type-system,"  and  constructed  on 
an  identical  plan,  but  dealing  with  other  forms  of  life. 

The  important  changes  in  teaching  which  have  followed 
these  publications  are  seen  in  the  far  smaller  amount  of 
systematic  and  classificatory  work  which  is  now  imposed 
upon  beginners,  and  its  replacement  by  the  acquisition  of 
a  thorough  knowledge  of  well-selected  types.  Remem- 
bering that  classifications  are  no  more  than  a  condensed 
abstract  of  the  opinion  of  the  day  upon  the  relative 
affinities  of  organic  forms,  it  is  clear  that  no  one  of  the 
suggested  schemes  of  arrangement  can  be  regarded  as 
final,  except  as  perhaps  expressing  in  the  best  way  the 
results  of  a  limited  state  of  knowledge.  We  know  that 
opinion  on  the  subject  of  affinity  has  greatly  changed  in 
the  past,  and  as  long  as  new  facts  are  revealed  by  bio- 
logical research,  so  long  will  opinion  continue  to  change 
in  the  future.  From  its  necessarily  shifting  character, 
and  from  the  fact  that  the  teacher  cannot  fairly  insist 
upon  the  accuracy  of  its  conclusions,  classificatory  bio- 
logy is  eminently  unsuited  to  the  needs  of  a  beginner. 
And  there  is  also  another  reason,  in  that  classification,  if 
properly  taught,  is  far  too  advanced  a  subject  to  be  made 
an  element  in  early  education.  If  classification  is  the 
concise  expression  of  biological  opinion,  it  should  never- 
theless represent  an  opinion  arrived  at  after  the  consider- 
ation of  all  the  facts  and  arguments  which  bear  upon  the 
question.  The  true  and  only  vindication  for  any  sug- 
gested modification  of  existing  schemes  of  affinity  must 
lie  in  the  decided  proofs  of  a  better  accordance  with 
existing  facts.  Whoever  suggests  a  modification  is  under 
a  great  responsibility,  for,  if  the  alteration  is  not  an  im- 
provement, it  will  certainly  be  pernicious  in  adding  to  our 
Vol  XXXVII. —No.  961. 


present  state  of  confusion.  It  is  to  be  hoped  that  the 
whole  subject  will  be  treated  in  a  more  serious  spirit  in 
the  future  than  has  been  accorded  to  it  in  the  past. 

If,  then,  classification  must  be  dethroned  from  the  high 
educational  position  it  has  held  for  so  long,  and  which  it 
still  maintains  to  a  considerable  extent  in  botanical 
teaching,  what  is  to  be  put  in  its  place  ?  Under  the  type- 
system  a  beginner  is  set  to  acquire  a  thorough  knowledge 
of  certain  central  forms  of  life,  each  of  which  is  an 
example  of,  and  a  key  to,  the  understanding  of  an  im- 
portant organic  group.  At  first  the  types  only  represent 
the  very  largest  groups,  such  as  the  sub-kingdoms,  so 
that  the  amount  of  implied  classification  is  extremely 
small.  As  the  student  progresses,  the  number  of  types 
increases,  and  the  less  important  organic  groups  are 
represented,  so  that  at  the  end  of  his  course  the  advanced 
student  finds  himself  a  master  of  the  solid  framework  of 
classification,  and  then  the  filling  in  of  the  details  can  be 
carried  on  in  an  intelligent  and  satisfactory  manner.  It 
is  at  this  advanced  stage  of  education  that  advantage 
can  be  gained  by  means  of  the  celebrated  "  Hunterian 
system."  The  comparative  study  of  long  series  of  homo- 
logous structures,  considered  out  of  relation  to  the 
organisms  in  which  they  occur,  can  only  confuse  the 
beginner  who  is  not  well  acquainted  with  the  organisms 
themselves.  But  just  as  the  type  system  prepares  the 
way  for,  and  in  fact  culminates  in,  all  that  is  educationally 
important  in  classification,  so,  when  a  large  number  of 
types  has  been  thoroughly  learnt,  and  the  varied  relations 
of  organ  to  organ,  and  of  isolated  structure  to  the  whole 
organism,  have  been  grasped  in  very  many  instances,  then, 
and  not  till  then,  can  great  advantage  be  gained  by  the 
Hunterian  method.  And  the  extensive  use  of  this  system 
will  be  wisely  postponed  to  a  very  late  period  ;  in  fact, 
until  the  student  is  beginning  to  make  use  of  the  training 
which  he  has  received  in  the  wide  fields  of  biological 
research.  The  Hunterian  system  must  always  form  the 
backbone  of  a  large  part  of  biological  research,  although 
it  would  be  most  unwise  to  make  it  a  fundamental  part  of 
biological  education.  It  must,  however,  be  conceded 
that  there  are  certain  systems  of  structures  (such  as  the 
osteological  and  dental  systems)  which  especially  lend 
themselves  to  this  mode  of  teaching,  but  on  account  of 
this  very  facility  such  subjects  are  liable  to  assume  too 
great  a  relative  importance  in  biological  training. 

One  incidental,  but  by  no  means  necessary  or  even 
natural,  result  of  the  prevalence  of  the  type-system  is  to 
be  greatly  deplored.  This  result,  which  is  especially 
found  among  students  of  botany,  follows  from  the  habit 
of  rejecting  the  good  as  well  as  the  bad  points  in  a  dis- 
used system.  Just  as  the  introduction  of  section-cutting 
has  led  to  a  too  great  neglect  of  dissection  and  the  exa- 
mination of  solid  structures,  so  the  prevalence  of  the 
type-system  seems  to  threaten  the  existence  of  the  field 
naturalist  and  botanist.  Those  who  follow  the  old,  and, 
upon  the  whole,  the  very  foolish  system  of  botanical 
education  which  a  few  years  ago  was  the  only  system 
taught,  have  at  least  one  great  advantage  :  they  have  a 
keen  and  intelligent  interest  in  any  country  walk,  while 
if  they  possess  a  little  originality  and  perseverance,  they 
ran  contribute  something  towards  the  solution  of  some  of 
the  most  difficult  biological  problems.  But  it  is  not  at 
all   uncommon   for  the  successful  student  of  the  newer 

z 


5o6 


NA  TURE 


{March  29,  1888 


system  to  speak  of  field  botany  with  utter  contempt,  as  a 
subject  unworthy  of  notice.  This  is  a  very  unfortunate 
thing,  for  there  are  many  most  interesting  questions 
which  can  only  be  settled  by  field-observation  ;  and  field- 
observation  is  in  itself  a  most  important,  and  at  the  same 
time  a  most  enjoyable,  side  of  biological  training.  The 
same  contrast  also  holds,  although  to  a  less  extent,  on 
the  zoological  side.  It  is  much  to  be  hoped  that  we  may 
be  able  to  correct  this  great  error  which  has  unfortunately 
attended  a  healthy,  and,  upon  the  whole,  highly  beneficial 
educational  reaction.  It  is  to  be  observed  that  the  excel- 
lent general  descriptions  of  the  types  which  form  so  im- 
portant a  feature  of  the  work  are  in  every  way  calculated 
to  avert  this  error. 

The  most  striking  thing  in  the  revised  form  of  "Prac- 
tical Biology  "  is  the  reversal  of  the  old  arrangement,  so 
that  the  student  is  now  led  to  begin  with  a  Vertebrate  type, 
and  from  this  to  work  his  way  down  to  the  lowest  forms 
of  life,  and  from  these,  again,  upwards  to  a  type  of  the 
flowering-plants.  There  is  little  doubt  that  such  a  change 
will  be  met  by  conflicting  criticisms.  I  believe,  however, 
that  the  majority  of  those  who  have  had  the  widest  expe- 
rience of  biological  teaching,  and  especially  those  who 
have  instructed  students  in  the  first  use  of  the  microscope, 
will  heartily  agree  with  Prof.  Huxley's  defence  of  the 
alteration,  in  the  preface  to  the  revised  edition.  The 
process  by  which  a  student  first  learns  to  see  with  the 
microscope  is  almost  like  the  education  of  a  new  sense- 
organ  suddenly  conferred  upon  a  mature  organism.  We 
know  that  under  such  circumstances  it  would  be  a  very 
long  time  before  the  impressions  conveyed  by  the  new 
organ  could  be  harmonized  with  the  well-known  expe- 
riences resulting  from  the  stimulation  of  other  organs. 
Accustomed  to  judge  of  the  shapes  of  objects  by  their 
appearance  in  three  dimensions,  the  student  is  suddenly 
provided  with  a  field  of  vision  in  which  shapes  have  to  be 
nearly  always  inferred  from  the  appearance  of  solid  three- 
dimensional  objects  when  seen  under  conditions  which 
prevent  them  from  being  examined  in  more  than  two 
dimensions  at  any  one  time.  For  it  is  a  long  time  before 
the  student  can  accustom  himself,  by  focussing  at  suc- 
cessive depths,  and  by  making  the  most  of  the  limited 
third  dimension  of  depth  which  the  high  powers  of  the 
microscope  provide,  to  judge  accurately  of  the  forms  of 
objects.  And  the  novel  conditions  under  which  a  student 
sees  with  the  microscope  effectually  prevent  him  from 
making  the  best  of  the  impressions  he  receives.  Thus,  if 
the  section  of  a  solid  object  presented  the  appearance  of 
a  circle  i  inch  in  diameter,  and  if  two  other  sections  at 
right  angles  to  each  other  and  to  the  first  section  pre- 
sented the  appearance  of  a  rectangular  figure  3  feet  by  i 
inch,  nearly  everyone  would  readily  infer  that  the  shape  was 
that  of  a  cylinder  3  feet  long  by  i  inch  in  diameter.  But 
precisely  similar  data,  when  presented  in  the  field  of  the 
microscope,  do  not  readily  lead  the  student  to  any  defi- 
nite conclusions  as  to  the  forms  of  objects,  and  in  reality 
a  long  course  of  discipline  is  necessary  in  order  to  make 
him  form  any  clear  conception  of  the  actual  shape  of  the 
object  at  which  he  is  looking.  I  therefore  think  that  it  is 
expedient  to  begin  the  course  of  biological  teaching  with 
organisms  which  only  require  the  use  of  a  microscope 
for  the  investigation  of  part  of  their  structure,  and  thus 
to  gradually  work  downwards  to  the  minutest  organisms, 


in  which  the  whole  investigation  depends  upon  high 
microscopic  powers.  Thus  the  gradual  training  in  the 
use  of  the  microscope  will  proceed  parallel  with  its 
gradually  increasing  necessity. 

The  addition  of  the  earthworm,  the  snail,  and  of  Spiro- 
gyra  is  a  great  improvement  upon  the  former  edition  of 
the  work.  If  a  choice  were  necessary,  the  snail  is  in 
many  respects  a  more  suitable  type  than  the  Anodon.  In 
spite  of  the  greater  structural  simplicity  of  the  latter  form, 
the  anatomical  details  are  more  difficult  to  demonstrate  by 
dissection  and  more  difficult  to  see  when  dissected  than 
those  of  the  snail.  This  objection  to  the  Anodon  of 
course  only  applies  to  its  selection  in  preference  to  the 
snail  in  the  earlier  edition ;  it  is  in  every  way  desirable 
that  the  Lamellibranchs,  as  well  as  the  Gastropods, 
should  be  represented  by  a  well-known  type.  These 
newly  added  types  and  the  additions  to  the  descriptions 
of  those  in  the  previous  edition,  and  to  the  practical  direc- 
tions, so  increase  the  size  of  the  volume  that  it  contains 
almost  exactly  twice  the  number  of  pages  present  in  the 
earlier  form  of  the  work.  The  practical  directions  given 
in  the  appendix  appear  to  be  excellent,  and  to  contain  in 
a  very  small  compass  an  immense  amount  of  information 
upon  the  most  recent  and  approved  methods.  There  are 
a  few  sHps  and  indefinite  statements  which  should  be 
modified  in  succeeding  editions,  which  will  doubtless  be 
called  for  at  no  distant  date. 

Thus,  on  p.  383  we  are  told  that  one  or  two  per  cent,  of 
the  sugar  is  unaccounted  for  in  fermentation  ;  but  for  the 
rest  it  is  only  loosely  stated  that  the  greater  part  is 
resolved  into  carbonic  anhydride  and  alcohol  and  a  small 
part  into  glycerine  and  succinic  acid.  On  pp.  384  and 
386  it  would  be  well  to  represent  the  numerical  propor- 
tions of  the  formulas  by  the  same  method.  On  p.  462  it 
is  wrongly  stated  that  the  cotyledons  become  green  in  the 
type  selected.  They  are  in  reality  hypogeal.  On  p.  467 
no  phosphorus  is  mentioned  in  the  culture  solution  in 
which  it  is  stated  that  the  bean-plant  will  grow.  It 
should  read :  "  potassium  phosphate,  iron  sulphate,"  in- 
stead of  "  potassium  and  iron  sulphate."  In  the  note  on 
p.  475,  "discolour"  is  used  for  "decolorize."  On  p.  483 
the  student  is  advised  to  procure  2  ounces  of  microscopic 
slides  and  half  a  gross  of  cover-slips  ! 

Such  slight  errors  can  easily  be  put  right,  and  they 
would  in  most  cases  be  detected  by  the  student  in  reading 
the  book  for  the  first  time.  They  cannot  be  considered  as 
seriously  detracting  from  so  excellent  a  book,  and  one 
which,  in  the  extreme  clearness  of  its  style,  is  so 
admirably  adapted  to  the  needs  of  the  beginner. 

E.  B.  P. 


A   TEXT-BOOK  OF  EMBRYOLOGY. 

Lehrbuch    der    Entwickelungs-geschichte   des    Menschen 

und  der   Wirbelthiere.      Von  Dr.    Oscar  Hertwig,  0.0. 

Professor  der  Anatomic  und  vergleichenden  Anatomie 

der  Universitat,  Jena.      (Jena  :  Gustav  Fischer,  1886.) 

THE  brothers  Hertwig  are  highly  esteemed  as  original 
investigators  in  the  field  of  embryology  wherever 
that  science  is  cultivated.  The  completion  of  a  systematic 
work  by  one  of  them  on  the  conventional  lines  of  human 
,  embryology  is  therefore  a  matter  of  some  moment.     An 


March  29,  1888] 


NATURE 


507 


embryologist  who  bends  himself  to  the  requirements  of 
the  stereotyped  curricuhim  of  human  anatomy  as 
demanded  alike  by  German  and  English  directors  of 
medical  education,  necessarily  abandons  more  or  less  the 
consistent  scientific  treatment  of  a  branch  of  human 
knowledge.  There  is  a  conventional  embryology  of  the 
medical  school  just  as  there  is  a  conventional  anatomy, 
histology,  and  physiology,  and  as  there  would  be  a 
"  medical "  chemistry,  physics,  and  biology,  and  a 
"  medical  "  alphabet,  if  some  professional  men  in  London 
were  to  have  their  own  way.  Prof  Hertwig  has  suffered 
somewhat  by  submission  to  these  demands.  The  second 
half  of  his  work  consists  chiefly  of  a  description  of  the 
development  of  the  various  organs,  and  would  more 
appropriately  find  its  place  in  that  dullest,  but  most  neces- 
sary, of  treatises — a  text-book  of  human  anatomy.  The 
first  part,  however,  is  not  open  to  this  objection,  and  even 
in  dealing  in  the  usual  way  with  the  development  of  the 
organs  of  the  human  body  in  the  second  half  of  his  work, 
Prof.  Hertwig  has  managed  to  bring  in  a  good  deal  of 
that  scientific  interest  which  is  briefly  indicated  by 
Goethe's  word  "  morphology."  Nevertheless  the  detach- 
ment of  the  consideration  of  the  mode  of  origin  of  the 
organs  of  the  human  body  from  that  of  their  adult  struc- 
ture and  of  the  structure  and  development  of  the  same 
organs  in  other  animals  is,  in  our  opinion,  an  antiquated 
and  mistaken  usage,  which  we  are  sorry  to  find  so  able 
an  author  as  Prof.  Hertwig  constrained  to  follow. 

In  his  first  part  Prof.  Hertwig  adopts  a  more  general  and 
truly  scientific  treatment,  and  does  not  distinctly  aim  at  sup- 
plementing the  work  of  the  topographical  anthropotomist. 
His  first  chapter  is  a  description  of  the  se.xual  products, 
and  his  consideration  is  by  no  means  limited  to  the  ovum 
and  spermatozoon  of  the  human  species.  A  comprehen- 
sive, though  brief,  account  of  the  subject  with  reference  to 
various  recent  writers  is  given,  and  the  classification  of 
animal  eggs  proposed  by  Balfour  is  adopted,  viz.  alecithal 
telolecithal,  and  centrolecithal. 

The  maturation  of  the  egg  and  its  fertilization  are 
treated  in  the  second  chapter,  with  special  reference  to 
the  Echinoderma  and  other  Invertebrata,  where  it  has  been 
possible  to  study  this  subject  with  advantage.  A  third 
chapter  treats  of  the  process  of  egg-cleavage — the  forma- 
tion by  division  of  the  first  embryonic  cells  ;  a  fourth,  of 
the  general  principles  of  development — the  latter  decidedly 
brief  and  undeveloped  to  a  degree  which  is  disappointing. 
Then  we  come  to  a  chapter  on  the  development  of  the 
two  primary  germ-layers — or  on  the  gastrtea  theory,  as 
Prof.  Hertwig  puts  it— in  which  the  apparent  differences  of 
development  of  these  two  layers  in  various  Vertebrata  are 
considered  and  reconciled,  numerous  illustrations  being 
introduced  into  the  text,  of  which  a  larger  number  are 
taken  (with  ample  acknowledgment  both  in  the  text  and 
in  the  special  titles  of  the  cuts)  from  the  "  Comparative 
Embryology  "  of  the  late  Prof  Balfour  than  from  any 
other  source. 

The  development  of  the  two  (parietal  and  splanchnic) 
middle  germ-layers  (coelom  theory)  is  the  next  subject  of 
consideration,  and  is  elucidated  by  a  consideration  and 
figures  of  the  process  in  Sagitta,  Amphioxus,  Triton, 
the  Mole,  &c.  The  seventh  chapter,  on  the  history  of  the 
germ-layer  theory,  is  an  able  and  fair  statement  of  the 
history  of  embryological  doctrine  such  as  every  student 


should  be  familiar  with,  and  it  brings  us  to  the  special 
Hertwigian  doctrine  of  pseudocoel  and  mesenchyme. 
The  latter  is  further  placed  before  the  reader  in  the 
chapter  on  the  development  of  connective  substance  and 
blood.  In  dealing  with  the  special  subject  of  this  book 
Prof  Hertwig  has  no  occasion  to  enter  upon  the  question 
of  the  pseudocoel— a  theoretical  conception  which,  in  our 
opinion,  is  unnecessary,  and  not  supported  by  even  plausible 
evidence.  The  use  of  the  term  "  mesenchyme  "  for  those 
cell-elements  of  the  mesoblast  layer  which  lie  below  the 
layers  immediately  bounding  the  ccelom,  and  which  give 
rise  to  connective-tissue  and  to  blood,  is,  in  our  opinion, 
inadvisable.  The  distinctness  which  is  implied  in  the  use 
of  this  term  is  not,  it  seems  to  us,  in  accordance  with  the 
facts  of  embryology,  and  we  think  that  embryological 
appearances  may  be  more  correctly  stated  without  intro- 
ducing the  conception  of  a  distinct  "  mesenchyme,"  and 
without  postulating  a  "  pseudocoel "  in  certain  Inver- 
tebrata, and  by  adhering  to  what  we  may  call  the 
"  uniform itarian  "  system,  which  seeks  to  explain  "  pseu 
docoel"  and  "mesenchyme"  as  a  special  modification  of 
the  normal  "coelom"  and  "mesoblast"  respectively — 
these  modifications  arising  independently  under  given 
mechanical  conditions  in  various  developmental  histories. 
At  the  same  time,  it  must  be  admitted  that  the  attempt 
to  assign  a  special  importance  and  genetic  persistence  to 
"  mesenchyme  "  on  the  part  of  the  brothers  Hertwig  has 
led  them  to  bring  many  important  embryological  facts 
into  clear  view.  The  speculations  of  His  as  to  parablast 
and  archiblast  are  finally  rejected,  and  a  comparatively 
harmless,  though,  it  would  seem,  superfluous,  theory 
replaces  it. 

In  the  chapter  on  the  primitive  segmentation  of  the 
body,  we  come  to  closer  quarters  with  the  ultimate  aim  of 
the  treatise,  viz.  the  human  embryo;  and  this  is  followed 
by  chapters  on  the  "  Formation  of  the  External  Form," 
and  on  the  "  Egg-membranes  of  Birds  and  Reptiles,"  and 
on  the  "  Egg-membranes  of  Mammals."  These  are  well 
illustrated  by  some  of  the  best  amongst  already  familiar 
woodcuts  (from  Balfour,  Kolliker,  and  Turner),  and  by  a 
coloured  plate.  At  length,  in  the  last  chapter  of  the  first 
portion  of  his  work.  Prof.  Hertwig  brings  us  to  the  human 
interest  which  has  been  the  motive  of  all  the  previous 
exposition.  Here  are  discussed  the  "  Human  Egg-mem- 
branes." The  medical  student  is  at  last  rewarded  for  his 
patience  in  wading  through  the  chapters  of  a  scientific 
treatise,  and  has  the  embryo  of  Allen  Thomson,  of  Coste, 
and  of  Krause  made  clear  to  him.  An  excellent  account 
of  the  structure  of  the  human  placenta,  accompanied  by 
many  woodcuts  and  by  a  coloured  plate,  is  given. 

Then  follows  the  second  "  Abtheilung,"  with  its 
necessarily  uninteresting  and  disjointed  account  of  the 
development  of  organs.  Whilst  recognizing  the  value, 
and,  in  many  features,  the  originality,  of  this  part  of  the 
work,  we  must  insist  that  even  so  accomplished  a  writer 
as  Prof.  Oscar  Hertwig  could  only  do  justice  to  this  sub- 
ject by  treating  it  as  part  of  a  comprehensive  work  on 
the  morphology  of  Vertebrata,  and  this  the  space  at  his 
command  has  not  allowed  him  to  attempt.  The  student 
will,  however,  find  clear  expositions  and  the  latest  in- 
formation on  the  development  of  the  organs  of  Verte- 
brata, with  a  special  reference  to  the  higher  Mammalia 
or  man.     As  an  example  of  the  thoroughness  with  which 


5o8 


NATURE 


{March  29,  1888 


Prof.  Hertvvig  has  availed  himself  of  the  latest  inquiries, 
we  may  call  attention  to  two  figures  of  the  pineal  eye  of 
Chameleon  and  Hatteria,  copied  from  Prof.  Baldwin 
Spencer's  memoir  in  the  Quart,  yourn.  Micr.  Set.  of 
last  year.  Full  justice  is  done  by  Prof.  Hertwig  to 
Mr.  Spencer's  researches  and  their  significance.  We  can 
cordially  recommend  this  text-book  of  embryology  as 
presenting  a  decided  advance  in  scope  upon  the  current 
German  treatises  on  human  embryology,  one  of  its  merits 
being  that  it  embodies,  among  other  good  things,  the 
teachings  and  many  of  the  drawings  of  our  "  unvergess- 
licher  "  Balfour.  E.  R.  L. 


A   TREATISE  ON  ALGEBRA. 
A  Treatise  on  Algebra.     By  C.  Smith.     (London  :  Mac- 
millan,  1888.) 

THIS,  the  latest  text-book  on  elementary  algebra,  is 
intended  for  the  higher  classes  of  schools  and  for 
the  junior  students  in  the  Universities,  The  title  of  the 
book  "  A  Treatise  on  Algebra,"  together  with  the  fact  that 
in  the  preface  the  book  is  affirmed  to  be  complete  in 
itself,  is  likely  to  convey  the  impression  that  the  work  is 
more  extensive  and  ambitious  in  its  scope  and  design  than 
is  really  the  case.  In  regard  to  the  matter  treated  of,  it 
covers  much  the  same  ground  as  Todhunter's  "  Algebra," 
which  it  greatly  resembles  ;  it  differs  from  it  chiefly  in  a 
different  arrangement  of  the  parts  of  the  subject,  and  in 
the  introduction  of  elementary  notions  of  "  elimination  " 
and  "determinants." 

As  regards  rearrangement  of  the  subject-matter,  there 
is  one  very  gratifying  novelty  :  before  making  any  use  of 
infinite  series,  the  author  introduces  a  chapter  in  which  he 
discusses  some  of  the  tests  of  the  convergency  of  such 
series.  There  is  no  doubt  of  the  soundness  of  this  course, 
and  for  this  single  reason  many  teachers  would  be  inclined 
to  prefer  this  book  to  others  of  the  same  nature. 

The  principal  feature  of  modern  elementary  algebraical 
text-books  seems  to  be  that  they  are  written  without  any 
reference  to  the  light  shed  upon  the  relative  importance  of 
different  parts  of  the  subject  by  the  progress  of  algebraical 
research.  A  comprehensive  survey  of  the  existing  know- 
ledge of  the  science  should  induce  an  author  to  lead 
the  schoolmaster,  and  not  to  follow  him.  It  is  not  too 
much  to  expect  that  a  book  like  the  one  under  notice 
should  bear  some  traces  of  what  is  taking  place  in 
the  development  of  the  science  to  which  it  seeks  to 
introduce  a  student.  It  is  perfectly  true  that  certain 
fundamental  notions  must  necessarily  be  presented  in 
much  the  same  detail  relatively  in  every  book,  independ- 
ently of  the  date  of  production;  but  beyond  this  an  author 
may  easily  be  too  conservative  in  his  ideas  to  be  able  to 
compile  a  work  which  shall  be  of  the  greatest  advantage 
to  a  student  who  intends  subsequently  to  continue  his 
reading  at  a  University  or  elsewhere.  Even  from  the 
narrow  point  of  view  of  an  examination  it  would  be  advis- 
able to  give  some  small  indications  of  the  directions  in 
which  explorations  have  been  recently  taking  place,  for  it 
is  well  known  that  problem  papers  at  the  Universities 
and  elsewhere  frequently  contain  matter  taken  from 
researches  quite  recently  published.  The  absence  of 
modern  ideas  in  a  book  gives  a  teacher  but  little  oppor- 
tunity of  pointing  out  to  promising  pupils  the  roads  to  the 


frontiers  of  the  science.  This  is  the  more  to  be  deplored 
just  now,  when  a  premium  is  placed  at  Cambridge  upon 
originality  of  thought  in  connection  with  examinations  for 
Fellowships. 

As  an  instance  of  what  is  meant,  it  may  be  observed 
that  the  subject  of  "  reversion  of  series  "  is  omitted  alto- 
gether, although  it  has  of  recent  years  come  into  great 
prominence.  As  a  fact,  for  the  last  three  years  one  of  the 
chief  points  of  interest  in  pure  mathematics  has  been 
Sylvester's  theory  of  reciprocants,  which  are  simply 
reversion  invariants  ;  that  is  to  say,  those  functions  of  the 
coefficients  of  a  convergent  series  which  remain  unaltered 
after  the  process  of  reversion  has  been  carried  out.  One 
has  a  right  to  expect,  for  this  reason,  that  a  "  Treatise  on 
Algebra  "  published  at  the  present  time  should  make  some 
allusion  to  the  existence  of  such  a  process  ;  in  the  older 
text-books,  such  as  Young's  "  Course  of  Mathematics," 
and  the  "Algebra"  published  in  Chambers'  series,  the 
subject  received  a  special  heading,  whilst  in  more  recent 
works  it  appears  merely  as  an  example.  The  present 
time  is  not  happily  chosen  for  its  complete  banishment. 

"  Scales  of  notation "  give  place  here  to  ''  systems  of 
numeration " ;  this  is  in  accordance  with  the  German 
"  Zahlensysteme,"  and  seems  to  be  a  more  suitable 
nomenclature. 

The  definitions  throughout  the  book  are  very  carefully 
given.  One  or  two  are  open  to  criticism,  as  in  the  case  of 
"cyclical  order";  this  is  defined  in  reference  to  a 
"cyclical  change  of  letters."  In  modern  mathematics 
this  process  is  termed  a  "cyclical  substitution  of  the 
letters,"  and  is  one  of  the  fundamental  ideas  of  the  ex- 
tensive "  theory  of  substitutions."  There  seems  to  be  no 
good  ground  for  shirking  the  word  "  substitution,"  which 
fulfils  requirements  of  simplicity  and  suggestiveness,  and 
is  the  word  with  which  the  student  will  afterwards  become 
familiar.  It  seems  a  pity  that  in  the  chapter  on  per- 
mutations the  opportunity  is-  not  taken  to  introduce  a 
few  of  the  leading  ideas  of  this  theory. 

In  defining  "symmetrical  expressions"  the  author 
states  that  an  expression,  which  remains  unaltered  by  the 
"cyclical  change"  is  also  considered  symmetrical;  the 
modern  definition  of  a  symmetrical  function  is  that  it  is 
such  that  it  remains  unaltered  when  any  substitution  is 
impressed  upon  the  letters.  The  expression  {b~c)  (c-a) 
(a-ff),  instanced  by  the  author  as  being  also  called  sym- 
metrical, is  in  reality  a  two-valued  (sometimes  called  an 
alternating)  function,  falls  under  a  different  (the  alternat- 
ing) "  group  of  substitutions,"  and  is  not  properly  called 
symmetrical. 

In  the  chapter  on  theory  of  numbers — a  particularly 
clear  one — the  idea  of  congruences  is  happily  introduced 
with  Gauss's  notation.  One  would  have  liked  to  see  also 
some  of  the  notions  of  Sylvester's  "constructive  theory 
of  the  partition  of  numbers,"  as  the  ideas  are  very  simple 
and  useful,  and  moreover  algebraically  expressible  most 
elegantly.  The  partition  of  numbers  is  rapidly  becoming 
a  most  important  part  of  the  "theory  of  numbers,"  a 
'  fact  which  must  soon  be  recognized  by  authors  of  books 

of  the  same  scope  as  this  one. 
I       Other  portions  of  the  book  which  are  well  presented 
are  "factors"   (including  many  of  the  first  notions  of  the 
'"theory     of    equations"),     "imaginary     and    complex 
'  quantities,"  and  "  binomial  theorem."^ 


March  29,  1888] 


NATURE 


509 


One  would  like  to  see  "  piles  of  shot "  relegated  to  the 
examples,  as  in  these  days  of  rifled  guns  and  elongated 
projectiles  it  seems  an  anachronism.  The  book  is  logical 
well  printed,  and  illustrated  by  the  best  set  of  examples 
that  can  be  found  in  any  book  of  the  same  kind. 

P.  A.  MacMahon. 


OUR  BOOK  SHELF. 

My    Telescope.      By  a  Quekett  Club    Man.      (London  : 
Roper  and  Drowley,  1888.) 

This  volume  is  described  by  its  author  a§  a  simple 
introduction  to  the  glories  of  the  heavens.  It  is  not 
designed  as  a  guide  to  the  use  of  a  telescope,  but 
simply  to  give  such  an  account  of  its  teachings  as  may 
interest  non-astronomical  readers.  The  main  features  of 
the  various  celestial  bodies  are  described,  but,  for  some 
reason  or  other,  comets  are  not  considered  at  all.  Most 
of  the  descriptions  are  very  meagre  ;  thus,  nebulas  and 
star-clusters  are  disposed  of  in  a  page,  and  that  not 
closely  printed  ;  even  the  sun — "  the  ruler  of  our  system  " 
— is  described  in  a  little  over  three  pages.  The  scantiness 
of  the  information  given  is  the  greatest  fault  of  the  book. 

In  the  little  that  the  book  does  contain,  many  mistakes 
occur.  Thus,  the  moon  is  stated  to  present  a  marbled  or 
mottled  appearance  because  her  surface  is  unequally 
refractive  (p.  62),  and  the  velocity  of  light  is  twice  put 
down  as  184,000  miles  per  second  (pp.  46  and  72.) 

The  illustrations  are  moderate,  and  the  book  has  a 
generally  neat  appearance.  The  place  it  is  to  occupy 
in  astronomical  literature,  however,  is  not  very  clear,  as 
there  are  already  many  cheaper  books  in  existence  which 
contain  the  same  information,  and  much  in  addition. 

Hand-book  of  Perspective.     By  Henry  A.  James,  B.A. 
Cantab.     (London  :  Chapman  and  Hall,  1888.) 

This  small  book  contains  the  principles  of  perspective 
explained  in  a  plain  and  concise  way.  The  author  seems 
to  have  taken  great  trouble  to  make  his  meaning  as  clear 
as  possible,  and  has  spared  no  pains  in  getting  together 
a  good  collection  of  examples,  which  are  all  worked  out 
and  accompanied  in  each  case  by  a  diagram. 

The  examples  themselves  would  form  a  useful  and 
practical  course  on  the  subject,  since  they  are  arranged 
in  a  progressive  order,  starting  with  the  projection  of  a 
single  point,  and  taking  up  in  turn  lines,  surfaces,  and 
solids. 

Beginners  will  find  this  volume  very  serviceable  to 
them,  pictures  as  well  as  diagrams  being  given  to  illus- 
trate the  various  positions  of  planes,  lines,  &c. 


LETTERS   TO    THE  EDITOR. 

[Tie  Editor  does  not  hold  himself  responsible  for  opinions 
expressed  by  his  correspondents.  Neither  can  he  under- 
take 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  communi- 
cations.'\ 

Coral  Formations. 

In  the  last  paragraph  of  my  letter  which  appeared  in  your 
issue  of  the  15th  inst.  (p.  462),  I  remarked: — "It  is  quite 
reasonable  to  suppose  that  the  dead  coral  so  dissolved  in  the 
formation  of  lagoons  is  carried  out  as  material  for  fresh  coral 
growths." 

Mr.  T.  Mellard  Reade,  in  a  letter  on  the  same  subject,  dated 
22nd  inst.  (p.  488),  in  criticizing  the  results  published  by  Mr. 
Ross's  letter  of  the  15th  (p.  462),  remarks: — "  I  believe  that  at  no 


place  on  the  surface  of  the  globe  are  such  dead  shells  being  sup- 
plied at  a  rate  that  would  even  balance  this  supposed  rate  of 
chemical  destruction." 

Can  Mr.  Reade  give  any  observations  or  figures  in  support  of 
his  view  of  the  rate  of  accumulation  of  oceanic  calcareous 
deposits  ? 

Laying  aside  all  question  as  to  arithmetical  error,  and  without 
committing  myself  to  the  accuracy  of  Mr.  Ross's  figures  (or  even 
insisting  on  my  own),  as  to  the  amount  of  dead  carbonate  of 
lime  dissolved  in  any  given  time  by  sea-water  in  lagoon  forma- 
mation,  but  taking  it  as  a  fact  that  it  is  soluble  in  a  marked 
degree  (as  is  proved  by  the  experiments  made  by  Mr.  Ross  and 
myself),  and  that  coral  reefs  can  only  exist  in  regions  under  the 
influence  of  the  great  warm  tropical  ocean  currents,  then  we 
may  expect  the  waters  of  coral-bearing  regions  to  contain  a 
greater  proportion  of  lime  than  is  found  elsewhere,  thus  forming 
the  calcareous  food  for  continuous  extension  of  the  coral  forma- 
tions. 

Of  course,  a  distinction  must  be  drawn  between  the  so-called 
dead  and  living  coral,  in  thus  far  that  the  latter  is  protected  from 
the  solvent  action  of  the  sea- water  by  its  vitality,  while  the 
former,  as  referred  to  in  my  last  letter,  is  peculiarly  susceptible  to 
this  influence.  Robert  Irvine. 

Royston,  Edinburgh,  March  26. 


Professor  Rosenbusch's  Work  on  Petrology. 

Readers  of  Nature  interested  in  the  study  of  petrology  will 
be  grateful  to  Dr.  Hatch  for  his  lucid  review  of  Rosenbusch's 
great  work,  and  those  who  are  not  able  to  profit  directly  by  the 
German  original  will  be  glad  of  the  rhumt  given  of  the  latest 
classification  of  the  massive  rocks  according  to  the  views  of  the 
greatest  living  authority  on  the  subject. 

A  translation  of  Rosenbusch's  book  into  English  is  much  to  be 
desired.  Rich  as  we  are  in  fragmentary  literature  on  the 
subject,  a  leading  text-book  is  still  wanting.  Dr.  Hatch  would 
deserve  well  of  his  fellow  petrologists  if  he  would  give  them  a 
translation  of  the  work  he  reviews  so  well.  There  might  be 
room  for  some  cutting  down  in  dimensions,  especially  in  the 
treatment  of  the  ' '  neo- volcanic  "  rocks.  Rosenbusch  himself  is 
conscious  that  this  part  of  the  work  is,  perhaps,  a  little  over- 
loaded with  detail,  as  he  says  that  with  a  new  structure  "the 
scaffolding  is  not  removed  before  the  house  is  finished,"  and 
possibly  a  competent  translator  might  consider  that  a  little  less 
scaffolding  would  still  be  sufficient. 

There  will  no  doubt  be  more  or  less  difference  of  opinion 
among  authorities  as  to  the  correctness  of  the  views  which  have 
governed  Rosenbusch  in  his  system  of  rock-classification,  es- 
pecially on  one  or  two  points.  But  none  will  deny  that  this 
classification,  with  the  immense  research  and  study  accompanying 
and  supporting  it,  fully  given  to  the  student  in  this  latest  work, 
are  a  splendid  achievement. 

Dr.  Hatch  does  well,  especially  in  the  interest  of  younger 
workers  in  petrology,  to  insist  on  the  purely  arbitrary  nature  of 
any  system  of  classification,  so  far  as  the  separate  "rock-types  " 
are  concerned  ;  such  types  passing  more  or  less  gradually  into 
others,  on  either  side  of  them,  in  all  cases.  Rosenbusch  him- 
self points  this  out,  but  a  further  emphasis  of  the  warning  was 
well  in  place. 

In  working  with  a  large  text-book  like  the  one  in  question, 
with  its  minute  treatment  of  small  details,  the  student  is  apt 
to  neglect  this  consideration  of  the  passage  of  one  rock  into 
another,  or  at  any  rate  to  devote  too  little  attention  to  it. 
Nothing,  however,  could  be  a  greater  safeguard  to  him  in  this 
respect  than  to  make  for  himself  a  tabular  arrangement  of  Rosen- 
busch's system,  so  that  the  eye  can  follow  in  a  moment  the 
relationships  of  the  different  rock-types  to  each  other.  I  think 
it  is  a  pity  that  such  a  map,  as  it  were,  does  not  accompany  the 
book.  The  attentive  study  of  it  would  not  only  much  assist  the 
worker  in  his  detailed  use  of  the  book,  but  would  also  greatly 
aid  the  beginner  to  "keep  his  head  level "  and  steer  clear  of  the 
sad  pitfall  of  going  in  too  much  for  "pigeon-holes." 

Perhaps  an  outline  table  of  this  sort,  which  I  inclose,  may  be 
of  a  little  use  to  some  of  your  readers,  if  only  to  give  a  compact 
view  of  Rosenbusch's  classification  and  of  how  he  connects  the 
main  rock-types  in  series  through  the  four  divisions  of  plutonic 
rocks,  dyke-rocks,  palaeo-volcanic  rocks,  and  neo-volcanic 
rock. 

An  amplified  table  on  the   same  model,    with   the   various 


5IO 


NATURE 


{March  29,  1888 


leading  sub-types  under  each  main  type,  is  what  I  have  tried  to 
indicate.  Such  a  table  makes  clear  at  once  not  only  the 
passage  of,  say,  syenites  into  trachytes,  diorites  into  andesites, 
but  also  that  of  trachytes  into  andesites,  andesites  into  basalts, 
&c.,  &c. 


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A  student  who  has  attempted,  with  plenty  of  good  sections  to 
work  on,  to  draw  a  definite  line  between  trachytes  and  ande- 
sites, or  augite-andesites  and  basalts,  will  probably  not  easily 
again  fall  into  the  error  of  believing  in  hard-and-fast  types  ! 

Dr.  Hatch  has  at  once  indicated  two  main  points  which  will 
strike  petrologists  as  open  to  criticism  in  Rosenbusch's  system  : 
the  "dyke  rocks,"  and  the  subdivision  of  the  effusive  rocks  into 
"palaeo-volcanic"  and  "  neo- volcanic."  With  regard  to  the 
former  it  deserves  to  be  pointed  out  that  it  has  not  been  found 
possible  to  classify  any  reprefentafives  of  the  diabases  and 
gabbros  under  the  head  of  dyke  rocks  at  all  ;  and  one  feels  that 
very  considerable  force  has  been  used,  in  some  other  cases,  in 
order  to  get  the  rocks  under  this  division  into  their  proper 
"pigeon-holes." 

Something  of  the  same  sort  of  strain  and  artificiality  is  felt  in 
some  cases  with  regard  to  the  two  divisions  of  the  effusive  rocks, 
and  here  again  it  is,  perhaps,  the  equivalents  of  the  diabases 
and  gabbros  which  most  strongly  exemplify  this  feeling— viz. 
the  augite-porphyrites  and  melaphyres,  and  the  basalts. 

Many  passages,  in  several  parts  of  the  book,  show  how  fully 
conscious  Rosenbusch  is  of  the  weak  places  there  are  in  his 
system,  as  there  must  always  be  weak  places  in  every  system  in 
a  young  and  rapidly  growing  science  like  microscopic  petroiosy. 
One  does  not  know  which  most  to  admire — the  wonderfully  wFde 
research  and  knowledge,  and  the  skill  and  painstaking  care  and 
labour,  with  which  the  system  of  classification  has  been  evolved 
out  of  the  great  amount  of  material  to  hand,  or  the  great  modesty 
with  which  it  is  presented  to  us. 

It  will  be  a  thousand  pities  if  a  translation  of  the  book  does 
not  before  very  long  find  its  way  into  the  hands  of  all  English- 
speaking  petrologists.  A.  B. 

Manchester,  March  19. 


"  The  Mechanics  of  Machinery." 

Any  errors— or  what  seem  such— in  a  work  of  so  high 
character  and  repute  as  Prof.  Kennedy's  "  Mechanics  of 
Machinery "  may  be  conveniently  noticed  in  Nature  ;  and 
therefore  no  further  reason  need  be  offered  for  the  following 
remarks. 

(i)  "If,  then,  a  body  is  moving  with  a  linear  velocity  of 
V   feet   per  second   about  a  centre    (permanent  or   virtual)    at 

radius  r  feet,  it  is  undergoing  a  radial  acceleration  of  —  foot- 

r 
seconds  per  second,  and  the  centrifugal  force  corresponding  to 

this  acceleration  will  be  —  pounds  per  unit   of  mass  .   .  .   ." 

r 
(p.  228). 

Surely  there  is  some  confusion  here  between  the  virtual  or 
instantaneous  radius,  and  the  radius  of  curvature ;  for  it  is  of 
course  the  latter  which  indicates  the  radial  acceleration. 

It  has  always  seemed  to  me  that  the  common  expression  that 
a  body  is  turning  "about,"  or,  as  Prof.  Kennedy  sometimes  puts 
it,  "round,"  its  virtual  centre  is  very  apt  to  mislead.  All  that 
we  are  entitled  to  say  is  that  at  any  given  instant  one  point  is  at 
rest ;  and  that  all  other  points  are  moving  in  directions  at  right 
angles  to  the  lines  joining  them  with  that  point,  and  with 
velocities  proportional  to  those  lines.  This  being  true  also  in 
the  simple  case  of  motion  in  a  circle  we  are  apt  to  use  the  same 
language  to  express  it,  with  the  inevitable  suggestion  of  the 
curvature  being  in  correspondence.  It  need  not  be  said  that  the 
curvature  may  be  zero  (as  when  a  circle  rolls  inside  one  of  twice 
its  diameter)  ;  or  that  it  may  be  aivay  from  the  centre  (as  when 
the  former  circle  is  more  than  twice  the  diameter  of  the  second). 
The  beginner  would  find  it  hard  to  realize  the  latter  case  when 
he  has  been  taught  to  speak  of  the  body  "turning  round"  its 
virtual  centre.  I  do  not  know  that  any  better  description  can 
be  adopted,  but  it  ought  to  be  introduced  with  emphatic  cautions 
that  it  is  merely  a  convenient  device  of  description.  In  any  case 
it  seems  to  me  that  the  old  term  "instantaneous  centre"  is  more 
likely  to  keep  the  truth  before  us  than  the  "virtual  centre" 
preferred  by  Prof.  Kennedy. 

(2)  In  a  series  of  interesting  discussions  about  train  resistance, 
the  following  passage  occurs  :  "The  brake  resistance  is  1200 
pounds,  but  it  has  to  be  overcome  through  a  distance  it  times  as 
great  as  that  moved  through  by  the  train  as  a  whole  ....;" 
this  brake  resistance  having  been  described  above  as  "the 
frictional  resistance  at  the  periphery  of  each  wheel." 

I  cannot  follow  this.  Surely  if  the  circumference  of  the 
wheel  be  x  feet,  by  the  time  the  train  "as  a  whole  "  has  run 
over  a  rail-length  of  x  feet,  the  brake  has  slid  over  a  wheel- 
circumference  of  X  feet  also.^ 

This  need  hardly  have  been  noticed,  but  that  the  examples 
seem  always  very  carefully  chosen,  not  as  fancy  problems,  but  as 
being  in  accordance  with  practical  experience.  Either,  there- 
fore, the  common  impressions  as  to  the  time  and  distance  re- 
quisite for  stopping  must  be  wide  of  the  mark,  or  the  value 
assumed,  in  this  and  a  number  of  other  examples,  for  the  brake 
resistance,  must  be  about  three  times  too  small. 

(3)  "  If,  for  instance,  the  brakes  had  not  acted  promptly,  and 
had  been  put  very  hard  on  at  the  end,  the  velocity  and  accelera- 
tion curves  might  have  been  as  dotted,  when  the  maximum 
acceleration  occurs  almost  at  the  end,  a  state  of  affairs  very 
uncomfortable  for  the  passengers  "  (p.  205).^ 

Is  this  so  certain  ?  I  mean,  is  there  any  reason  to  suppose 
that  a  sudden  change  oi  acceleration,  not  of  velocity — for  of  this 
there  is  no  question  with  any  conceivable  brake  system — would 
be  felt  as  disagreeable  ? 

The  question  must,  one  would  think,  have  often  presented 
itself  to  speculative  and  scientific  engineers  ;  but  as  I  do  not  re- 
member to  have  seen  it  discussed  one  would  like  to  get  their 
opinion  on  the  point.  The  way  it  strikes  me  is  this.  We  cannot 
practically  suppose  the  acceleration /?</(?«  instantaneously,  for  the 
brake  needs  time  to  work  ;  but  we  can  get  as  near  as  Nature 
allows  to  the  instantaneous  when  it  is  taken  off.  That  is,  if  the 
brakes  are  left  on  to  the  end,  the  velocity  continues  to  diminish 

'  In  the  Errata  we  are  told  to  omit  this  passage  ;  but  as  the  premises  and 
the  conclusion,  between  which  it  formed  the  necessarj'  connection,  are  left 
unaltered,  the  need  for  it  is  as  great  as  before.  How  else,  but  by  such  an 
inference,  can  the  conclusion  be  reached  ? 

^  The  curve  of  velocity  here  is  a  parabola,  or  nearly  so,  representing  (on  a 
distance  scale)  a  nearly  constant  "acceleration,"  with  a  constantly  decreasing 
velocity. 


March  29,  1888] 


NATURE 


511 


down  to  zero,  and  at  the  instant  the  train  comes  to  rest  the 
constant  (negative)  acceleration  abruptly  ceases. 

How  would  this  show  itself  in  our  feelings  ?  If  I  were  sitting 
with  my  back  to  the  engine,  leaning  against  the  wall  of  the 
carriage,  I  should  feel  a  slight  mutual  pressure  between  my  back 
and  the  wall.  This  would  remain  constant  to  the  end,  and  then 
abruptly  cease.  It  would  be  but  slight  (for  any  possible  brake 
acceleration  must  be  but  a  small  percentage  of  that  of  gravity) 
in  comparison  with  that  which  we  feel  when  we  lie  down.  Would 
its  abrupt  termination — there  being  by  supposition  no  sudden 
change  of  velocity — be  really  unpleasant  ? 

To  take  a  fanciful  example.  If,  as  I  sit  in  my  chair,  gravity 
were  suddenly  annihilated  (for  me) :  I  should  note  the  cessation 
of  pressure,  and,  in  so  far  as  my  body  is  elastic,  there  would  be 
some  change  of  conformation.  The  pressure  in  the  blood-vessels 
would  also  be  changed,  &c.  But,  dealing  with  even  such  a  large 
acceleration  as  this,  would  the  instantaneous  change  be  at  all 
comparable  with  that  of  a  sudden  trifling  change  ol  velocity? 

Anyone  who  has  been  in  a  lift  at  the  moment  the  cord 
broke  might  be  able  to  tell  us  what  all  this  feels  like  :  but  he 
must  be  careful  to  distinguish  between  the  sensations  due  to 
the  first  moment  of  his  passage  from  those  due  to  the  last. 

Caius  College,  Cambridge.  J.  Venn. 


The  Definition  of  Force  and  Newton's  Third  Law. 

Perhaps  your  correspondents  now  engaged  in  discussing  the 
value  of  dynamic  terms  could  extend  the  range  of  their  con- 
troversy a  little,  and  deal  with  a  subject  of  great  importance 
which  no  text-books  touch. 

It  seems  to  me  that  the  definition  of  force  as  that  which  causes 
or  alters  motion  is  not  reconcilable  with  Newton's  law  which 
asserts  that  every  force  is  always  opposed  by  an  equal  and 
opposite  force. 

How  can  a  force  opposed  by  an  equal  and  opposite  force  per- 
form work,  or  affect  the  motion  of  anything  ?  We  have  here 
either  a  fallacy  or  an  indefiniteness,  and  the  matter  is  worth 
clearing  up  because  it  incessantly  worries  students  who  think. 

March  23.  Nemo. 


Green  Colouring-matter  of  Decaying  Wood. 

Anyone  who  lives  in  a  fairly  wooded  part  of  the  country 
must  be  familiar  with  the  fact  that  at  certain  stages  of  decay 
fallen  branches  of  trees  are  often  to  be  observed  among  the  dry 
forest-litter  coloured  more  or  less  through  their  tissue  with 
various  shades  of  green.  After  an  examination  of  thin  sections 
with  the  microscope,  I  am  unable  to  trace  this  to  any  sapro- 
phytic organism.  Chemical  analysis,  on  the  other  hand,  reveals 
the  presence  of  iron  as  the  base  of  tlie  green  colouring-matter 
(using  fairly  strong  nitric  acid  as  a  solvent),  which  —so  far  as  the 
evidence  at  present  goes — seems  to  be  some  organic  salt  of  iron, 
the  organic  acid  being  probably  furnished  by  the  slow  decomposi- 
tion of  the  woody  tissue.  In  the  hope  that  some  further  light  may 
be  thrown  on  the  origin  of  the  green-colouring  matter  of  many 
Tertiary  green  earths,  I  would  ask  the  favour  of  being  allowed  to 
solicit  references  to  any  foreign  literature  of  the  subject  with 
which  any  of  the  numerous  readers  of  Nature  may  be  acquainted. 

A.  Irving. 

Wellington  College,  Berks,  March  17. 


THE  HITTITES,  WITH  SPECIAL  REFERENCE 
TO   VERY  RECENT  DISCOVERIES.^ 


r\Y  late  much  has  been  said  concerning  the  Hittites, 
^^  and,  as  might  be  expected  in  relation  to  such  a 
subject,  there  have  been  fanciful  hypotheses  and  wild 
vagaries,  repugnant  alike  to  the  scientific  method  and  the 
scientific  spirit.  But  most  persons,  one  would  suppose, 
who  have  given  serious  attention  to  the  subject,  must  have 
become  convinced  that  there  is  a  great  vacancy  in  that 
map  of  the  past  which  ancient  history  presents.  Mighty 
kings,  dynasties  enduring,  it  may  be,  through  thousands 

»  Based  on  Lectures  delivered  by  Mr.  Tho.nas  Tyler  at  the  British  Museum 
in  January  1888. 


of  years,  great  peoples  who  had  made  no  slight  advance 
in  civilization,  have  passed  away  without  leaving  any 
chronicle  equal  even  to  those  which  were  extant  concern- 
ing Egypt  and  Assyria  before  the  decipherment  of  the 
hieroglyphics  and  the  cuneiform  characters.  The  recent 
change  in  public  opinion  concerning  the  Hittites  is  not 
due  merely  to  the  discovery  of  monuments  and  inscrip- 
tions in  various  parts  of  Asia  Minor  :  a  large  proportion 
of  these  had  been  known  to  exist  for  a  considerable  time, 
some  for  a  very  long  time.  It  must  be  referred  rather  to 
the  recognition  of  an  identity  or  similarity  of  character  in 
these  monuments  and  inscriptions.  And  thus  has  arisen 
the  idea  of  an  empire  stretching  from  the  Euphrates  to  the 
.(^Igean  Sea.  It  is,  however,  doubtful  whether — if  we  use 
the  word  "  empire  "  in  such  a  sense  as  we  employ  it  when 
we  speak,  for  example,  of  the  Empire  of  Russia  or  the 
Empire  of  China — there  is  any  ground  for  believing  that  a 
Hittite  Empire  ever  existed.  Most  likely  there  were  in 
Asia  Minor  many  States,  or  even  single  cities,  which  were 
usually  to  a  great  extent  independent,  and  the  peoples  of 
which  were  not,  perhaps,  altogether  homogeneous  in  race, 
but  which,  under  pressure  of  the  necessities  of  war, 
formed  a  federation.  This  view  accords  with  the  passages 
in  the  First  and  Second  Books  of  Kings  which  speak  of 
the  "kings  of  the  Hittites"  (2  Kings,  vii.  6)  and  of  "all 
the  kings  of  the  Hittites  "  for  whom  Solomon's  merchants 
brought  up  out  of  Egypt  chariots  and  horses  (i  Kings,  x. 
28,  29).  The  testimony  of  these  passages  in  relation  to 
the  greatness  of  the  Hittite  peoples  has  been  till  recently 
but  little  regarded. 

That  the  Hittites  thus  spoken  of  in  the  Old  Testament 
are  to  be  identified  with  the  Khita  of  the  Egyptian  monu- 
ments, and  with  the  peoples  of  the  land  of  Khatti  in  the 
Assyrian  records,  is  coming  out  more  and  more  clearly  ; 
and  as  an  especial  hnk  joining  together  the  peoples  thus 
designated  by  the  Egyptians  and  Assyrians  may  be 
mentioned  the  city  of  Carchemish.  Holding  the  Upper 
Euphrates,  the  Hittites  stood  between  the  Egyptians  and 
the  powerful  and  warlike  peoples  of  Mesopotamia.  On  a 
superficial  view  this  may  seem  not  to  be  the  direct  route 
from  Egypt  to  Mesopotamia  ;  but  to  lead  an  army  by  the 
apparently  more  direct  way  across  the  Syrian  desert 
would  have  been  difficult  or  wholly  impracticable.  More- 
over, it  would  not  have  been  easy  for  an  army  to  make 
the  passage  of  the  Euphrates  towards  the  mouth  of  the 
river.  But  by  the  upper  course  of  the  Euphrates,  at  or 
near  the  site  of  Jerablus,  the  river  could  be  crossed  with 
comparative  ease.  On  the  site  of  Jerablus  (from  which 
the  British  Museum  obtained  a  few  years  ago  most  of  the 
Hittite  monuments  now  in  the  collection)  stood  in  all 
probability  the  renowned  city  of  Carchemish.  This 
identification,  attributed  to  Mr.  Skene,  was  accettfed  by 
the  late  Mr.  George  Smith,  who  visited  the  place  shortly 
before  his  death.  It  was  this  city  of  Carchemish  (not  to 
go  back  further  in  Assyrian  or  Babylonian  history)  of 
which  Tiglath-Pileser,  about  1100  years  before  Christ, 
says,  "  The  city  of  Kargamis,  belonging  to  the  country  of 
the  Khatti,  I  smote  in  one  day.  Their  fighting-men  I 
slew,  their  movables,  their  wealth,  and  their  valuables  I 
carried  off."  He  records  further  that  he  pursued  the 
portion  of  the  Hittite  army  which  fled  ;  that  he  crossed 
the  Euphrates  in  boats  covered  with  bitumenized  skins ; 
and  that  he  returned  triumphantly  to  his  city  of  Ashur. 
The  conflict  between  the  Hittites  and  Assyrians  was, 
however,  destined  still  to  continue  for  400  years,  during 
which,  time,  though  repeatedly  sustaining  defeat,  the 
Hittite^  made  again  and  again  a  determined  resistance. 
It  was  the  fortune  of  Sargon  to  end  the  conflict  by  the 
capture,  in  717  B.C.,  of  Carchemish  and  its  king,  Pisiris. 

Previous  Egyptian  monarchs  had  engaged  in  conflict 
with  the  Hittites  with  more  or  less  conspicuous  success  ; 
but  it  was  the  renowned  son  of  Seti,  the  great  Rameses 
II.,  about  1330  B.C.,  whose  war  with  the  Khita,  and  the 
great  battle  fought  with  them  at  Kadesh,  appear  to  have 


512 


NA  TURE 


{March  29,  1888 


been  regarded  as  the  most  honourable  and  glorious- 
This,  at  any  rate,  would  seem  likely,  from  the  care  mani- 
fested in  transmitting  to  posterity  a  record  of  these 
achievements.  The  Egyptian  laureate,  Pentaur,  no  doubt 
with  a  measure  of  poetical  licence  suited  to  his  office, 
described  how  the  Hittite  commander,  Khita-sar,  sum- 
moned to  the  war  all  the  peoples  from  the  uttermost  ends 
of  the  seas,  countless  in  number,  covering  mountains  and 
valleys  like  grasshoppers  ;  and  among  this  multitude  were 
the  people  of  Carchemish.  In  order  that  the  "  sinews  of 
war"  might  not  be  deficient,  Khita-sar  "had  not  left 
silver  nor  gold  with  his  people  ;  he  had  taken  away  all 
their  goods  and  possessions  to  give  to  the  people  who 
accompanied  him."  The  details  of  the  conflict  show  a 
high  degree  of  military  organization  on  the  part  of  the 
Hittites  ;  and  this  is  in  accordance  with  the  position  that 
they  had  long  attained  a  considerable  measure  of  civiliza- 
tion. According  to  the  Egyptian  records,  however,  they 
were  defeated,  and  a  great  part  of  their  army  slain,  some 
perishing  in  the  waters  of  the  Orontes,  on  the  banks  of 
which  river  the  battle  was  fought.  It  seems  sufficiently 
clear,  however,  that  the  Hittites,  and  "the  miserable  king 
of  the  hostile  Khita,"  as  Pentaur  calls  him,  had  proved 
themselves  no  contemptible  foes,  and  that,  defeated 
though  they  may  have  been,  their  power  was  very  far 
from  being  entirely  broken.  This  may  be  gathered  from 
the  treaty  of  offensive  and  defensive  alliance  which  was 
subsequently  ratified  between  Rameses  and  the  Khita. 
There  was  to  be  continual  peace  and  brotherhood ;  no 
hostility  was  ever  to  arise.  Rameses,  moreover,  eventually 
married  the  daughter  of  the  Hittite  chief,  and  made  her 
his  queen. 

The  great  sculpture  and  painting  on  the  walls  of  the 
temple  at  Abu-Simbel,  far  up  the  Nile,  which  represents 
the  war  of  Rameses  with  the  Khita,  and  the  battle  of 
Kadesh,  gives  in  a  point  of  detail  an  interesting  piece  of 
evidence  tending  towards  the  conclusion  that  the  Khita 
are  to  be  identified  with  those  who  sculptured  the  monu- 
ments now  known  as  Hittite.  There  are  depicted  on  two 
at  least  of  the  monuments  in  the  British  Museum,  which 
were  obtained  from  excavations  at  Jerablus  or  Carchemish, 
heads  of  kings  or  other  persons  in  authority  bearing  the 
appendage  known  as  the  "  pig-tail."     We  are  accustomed 


Fig.  A. — i.  "Pig-tail"  from  Jerablus  monument  in  the  British  Museum. 
2.  Type  of  head  at  Eyuk.  3.  Head  of  Khita  warrior  at  Abu-Simbel  (after 
Rosellini). 

to  associate  the  "  pig-tail "  especially  with  the  Chinese, 
though  they  derived  this  mode  of  head-dress  from  the 
Manchu  Tartars  at  a  comparatively  recent  period.  And, 
primd  facie,  one  is  not  unnaturally  inclined  to  regard  the 
pig-tail  on  the  Jerablus  monuments  as  having  a  connec- 
tion more  or  less  identical — that  is  to  say,  a  connection 
with  the  Manchu  Tartars  or  with  some  cognate  people. 
The  sculptors  of  the  Jerablus  monuments  seem  to  have 
done  their  best  to  show  that  the  pig-tail  is  a  veritable 
lock  of  hair,  and  not  a  mere  appendage  of  the  tall  conical 
cap.  On  what  has  been  called  the  doorway  inscription  in 
the  British  Museum,  to  show  that  hair  is  intended,  the 
"  pig-tail "  is  ribbed  or  marked  across  ;  and  there  is  a 
similar  transverse  marking  of  the  hair  of  kings  and  other 
persons  on  the  Assyrian  monuments.  Turning  to  the 
great  painting  at  Abu-Simbel,  already  alluded  to,  we  find 
that  a  certain  proportion  of  the  Khita  warriors  are  re- 
presented as  wearing  the  pig-tail,  though  this  is  not  the 
case  even  with  all  the  kings  and  princes.  A  prince,  for 
example,  who  has  fallen  into  the  water  of  the  Orontes,  is 


destitute  of  this  ornament.  And  even  the  great  Khita- 
sar,  the  commander  of  the  Khita,  though  he  had  the 
conical  cap,  does  not  seem  to  have  worn  the  pig-tail. 

The  indications  ai-e  clear  that  the  pig-tailed  heads  on 
the  Jerablus  monuments  represent,  in  accordance  with 
what  has  been  already  said,  kings  or  persons  of  superior 
dignity.  Other  heads  with  ordinary  long  hair  may  be  taken 
to  be  those  of  persons  of  inferior  rank — subjects  or  servants. 
And,  in  the  Abu-Simbel  painting,  the  pig-tailed  riders 
in  the  chariots  are  evidently  the  superiors  of  the  persons 
beside  them  wearing  long  hair.  Generally  the  soldiers 
with  long  hair  act  as  shield-bearers  or  charioteers,  while 
it  is  the  chief  warrior  who  wears  the  pig-tail. 

On  two,  also,  of  the  bas-reliefs  at  Eyuk,  a  place  in 
Asia  Minor  not  far  fiom  the  River  Halys,  the  wearing  of 
the  pig-tail  is  clearly  represented,  though  the  superiority 
or  predominance  of  the  wearers  is  not  equally  apparent. 
On  one  bas-relief  there  are  six  figures,  apparently  in 
marching  order,  all  of  which  probably  bore  originally  the 
pig-tail,  though  the  monument  is  now  much  decayed.  It 
is  not,  however,  very  difficult  to  make  out  a  remarkable 
MongoHan  type  of  countenance.  This  is  especially  to  be 
seen  in  the  figure  of  a  man  ascending  steps  or  a  ladder, 
as  represented  by  Perrot  and  Guillaume  ("Exploration 
Archeologique  de  la  Galatie,"  plate  62). 

Having  regard,  however,  to  the  monuments  from 
Jerablus  in  the  Museum,  and  to  the  Egyptian  painting  at 
Abu-Simbel,  the  inference  seems  pretty  clear  that  the 
wearers  of  the  pig-tail  had  gained  the  predominance  in 
some  of  the  Hittite  cities,  and  that  they  were  of  a  stock 
different  from  that  of  the  general  population  in  those 
particular  cities.  With  the  evidence  which  we  at  present 
have,  it  would  be  hazardous  to  say  that  this  was  the  case 
in  all  the  Hittite  cities.  Indeed  some  facts  already 
alluded  to  render  such  a  general  conclusion  extremely 
improbable. 

The  general  Hittite  population  was  most  likely  in  great 
part,  or  principally,  Semitic.^  It  is  in  accordance  with 
this  view  that  their  great  deity  was  Set  or  Sutech — a 
name  repeated  ten  times,  in  connection  with  different 
cities,  in  the  catalogue  of  the  gods  of  the  land  of  Khita, 
in  the  treaty  with  Rameses — and  the  treaty  makes  men- 
tion also  of  Astartha,  or  Ashtoreth,  as  "  of  the  land  of 
Khita " ;  and  here,  again,  we  have  unquestionably  a 
Semitic  deity.  Moreover,  of  the  worship  of  Ashtoreth 
there  is  other  important  evidence  on  the  Hittite  monu- 
ments. There  are,  besides,  names  of  Hittite  cities  which 
are  unmistakably  Semitic ;  as  Carchemish,  which  can 
scarcely  be  explained  otherwise  than  as  meaning  "  the 
fortress  of  Chemosh."  Then  there  is  Pitru,  or  Pethor,  as 
well  as  Hamath  and  Kadesh.  Looking  at  these  names 
alone,  there  would  be  a  strong  a  priori  probability  that 
the  speech  of  the  inhabitants  of  these  cities  was  Semitic. 
No  doubt  there  are  many  names  of  Hittite  persons  and 
places,  mentioned  in  the  Egyptian  and  Assyrian  records, 
with  respect  to  which  we  must  adopt  the  opinion  of 
Brugsch  that  they  are  at  least  not  purely  Semitic-  The 
designation  of  the  leader  of  the  Khita  or  Hittites,  Khita- 
sar,  has,  it  is  true,  the  word  sar,  which  is  Semitic  for 
"prince,"  but  the  Semitic  order  is  reversed.  In  a  purely 
Semitic  formation  we  should  not  expect  to  find  "  Khita- 
prince,"  or  "  of-the-Khita  prince  "  ;  the  order  would  pro- 
bably be  the  same  as  ours,  "  Prince  of  the  Khita."  The 
presence  of  those  wearers  of  the  pig-tail  suggests  an  ex- 
planation of  the  order  of  the  words  in  Khita-sar,  and  of 

'  M.  Perrot  observes; — "Or  les  Cappadociens,  cju'Herodote  appelle 
Leuco-Syriens  ou  Syriens  blancs,  etaient  de  race  semitique  ;  c'est  un  fait 
atteste  tout  a  la  fois  par  les  historiens  et  par  le  temoignage  des  medailles, 
qui  nous  montrent  encore  un  idiome  semitique  parle  au-dela  de  I'Halys,  de 
Tarse  a  Sinope,  dans  la  cours  raeme  du  quatrieme  siecle  avant  notre  ere  " 
(Perrot  et  Guillaume,  o/>.  cit  ,  vol.  i.  p.  335).  Mr.  Pinches,  of  the  British 
Museum,  tells  me  that  several  Cappadocian  tablets  in  the  cuneiform  character 
have  been  discovered.  Six  of  these  are  in  the  Museum,  and  one  at  least  is 
in  part  Semitic.  The  others,  together  with  one  in  the  Bibliotheque  Nationale, 
at  Paris,  have,  with  one  exception,  hitherto  resisted  the  attempts  at  decipher- 
ment which  have  been  made. 

■^  "  History  of  Egypt,"  English  translation,  vol.  ii.  p.  5. 


March  29,  1888] 


NATURE 


513 


various  other  forms,  as  the  Hittite  names  Pais  and  Pisiris, 
and  of  names  ending  with  the  termination  -beg^  as  Sathekh- 
beg,  or  Suki-beki.  The  wearing  of  the  pig-tail  agrees  with 
the  reversal  of  the  order  in  Khita-sar,  since,  in  accord- 
ance with  the  MongoHan  idiom,  the  order  would  be 
reversed  ;  and,  having  regard  to  such  names  as  Genghis, 
Usbeg,  &c.,  there  is  no  difficulty  in  accounting  for  the 
ending  in  Pisiris  and  Sathekh-beg. 

We  may  come,  then,  rationally  to  the  conclusion  that 
men  of  a  race  cognate  with  the  Mongols  gained  the 
supremacy  in  some  of  the  Hittite  cities  ;  that  this  ascend- 
ancy had  its  influence  on  some  proper  names,  and  perhaps 
on  other  words,  but  did  not  change  the  language  of  the 
entire  population.  If  this  had  been  previously  Semitic, 
it  remained  such.  The  wearers  of  the  pig-tail  did  not 
require  their  subjects  to  arrange  their  hair  in  the  same 
fashion  ;  and,  similarly,  they  did  not  attempt  to  change 
their  language.  If  they  had  made  the  attempt,  it  would 
in  all  probability  have  been  abortive. 

Allusion  has  been  made  to  the  rock-sculptures  found  at 
various  places  through  the  length  and  breadth  of  Asia 
Minor.  Among  these,  pre-eminence  must  certainly  be 
assigned  to  the  very  remarkable  bas-reliefs  at  Boghaz- 


Keui,  in  Cappadocia,  a  place  not  far  distant  from  Eyuk, 
already  mentioned,  and  also  near  the  Halys.  Here, 
where  there  was,  no  doubt,  originally  a  chasm  or  rift  in 
the  rocks,  closed  at  one  end,  the  surface  of  the  rocks 
seems  to  have  been  prepared,  and  a  sort  of  gallery 
formed.  On  the  two  sides  of  this  gallery  some  sixty  or 
seventy  figures  have  been  executed,  forming  what  may 
be  regarded  as  two  processions,  which  meet  on  a  grand 
tableau,  engraved  on  the  rock  at  the  closed  end,  in  the 
persons  of  a  male  and  female  figure  of  much  greater 
height  than  the  rest.  Each  of  these  figures  seems  to  be 
presenting  to  the  other  a  sort  of  flower  or  plant,  an 
arrangement  similar  to  what  is  to  be  seen  on  a  seal  very 
lately  discovered  at  Tarsus.  The  male  figure,  in  the 
Boghaz-Keui  bas-relief,  stands  on  the  bended  heads  of 
two  persons  clad  in  long  robes,  who  in  all  probability  are 
priests.  Each  of  these  figures  wears,  like  that  above,  a 
pointed  cap,  and  the  curious  triangular  ornamentation  of 
the  skirts  of  their  dresses  is  very  noticeable.  The 
principal  male  figure  has  in  his  hand  a  sceptre  terminating 
in  a  ball,  and  beside  him  is  an  animal,  said  to  be  a  bull, 
also  wearing  a  pointed  cap.  If  the  animal  is  really  a 
bull,  it  was  probably  introduced  partly  to  show  by  con- 


FiG.  B. — Central  bas-relief  at  Boghaz-Keui. 


trast  the  relatively  gigantic  size  of  the  male  figure 
standing  beside  it.  Behind  the  principal  figure  is  a  long 
procession  of  some  forty  other  figures,  nearly  all  of  which 
are  evidently  male,  and  among  them  are  two  winged 
deities,  one  of  these  being  apparently  the  same  god  that 
is,  or  was  recently,  to  be  seen  on  a  bas-relief  at  Jerablus. 
Twelve  figures  in  the  extreme  rear  are  in  the  act  of 
running.  They  have  conical  caps,  but  differ  from  the 
sceptre-bearing  kings,  if  we  may  so  call  them,  at  the 
front,  in  the  grand  tableau.  These  hindmost  figures  we 
may  take  to  be  common  soldiers.  It  is,  however,  a  pro- 
cession of  female  figures  to  the  right  of  a  spectator  in  the 
rock-gallery  to  which  the  principal  interest  belongs. 
Each  of  these,  from  the  more  gigantic  female  figure  in 
the  grand  tableau  to  the  twentieth  in  the  rear,  has  on 
her  head  a  tall  cap  or  crown.  This  is  the  so-called 
*'  mural  crown."  In  its  origin  this  mural  crown  probably 
represented  the  wall  of  a  city  ;  and  the  figure  bearing  it 
was  most  likely  originally  the  personification  of  a  city. 
If,  however,  this  was  its  origin,  it  must  have  become  in 
time  diverted  from  its  original  use  ;  and,  having  regard 
to  the  male  procession,  it  cannot  be  regarded  as  likely 
that  each  of  the  female  figures  represents  a  distinct 
city.     Each  of  these  figures  has  what  has  been  called  a 


bato7t  or  stick.  But  it  is  very  noticeable  that  this  so-called 
baton  is  in  most,  probably  in  all,  cases  distinctly  curved  ; 
a  fact  which — so  it  seems  to  me — probably  denotes  that 
it  is  an  unstrung  bow.  If  this  is  the  case,  we  shall  then 
have  a  procession  of  female  warriors.  Their  attire  in 
other  respects  would  be  consistent  with  the  idea  of  their 
being  priestesses,  and,  if  so,  the  combination  of  warrior 
and  priestess  would  precisely  accord  with  one  well-known 
view  of  the  Amazons.  It  is  remarkable,  too,  that  the 
place  where  these  sculptures  are  found  is  not  very  far 
from  the  locality  by  the  River  Thermodon  and  the  Black 
Sea,  which  the  Greeks  assigned  as  the  head-quarters  of 
the  Amazons.  What,  then,  is  the  general  view  to  be  taken 
of  this  remarkable  bas-relief.''  Some  have  thought  that 
the  whole  idea  is  religious,  and  that  at  least  the  two 
figures  meeting  in  front  of  the  two  processions  are  deities. 
But  how  is  it,  then,  that  these  figures  are  without  wings, 
seeing  that  there  are  winged  deities  in  the  male  procession  ? 
Their  mere  greatness  of  size  would  not  show  that  they 
are  other  than  persons  of  kingly  and  queenly  rank.  I 
should  not  think,  however,  that  the  artists  who  executed 
this  sculpture  were  commemorating  any  contemporary 
event.  Probably  they  were  concerned  with  some  notable 
event  in  the  past,  when  a  king  and  queen  met  to  ratify  an 


514 


NATURE 


{March  ig,  1888 


alliance,  or  for  some  other  purpose.  If  the  Amazons  are, 
as  is  commonly  thought,  merely  legendary  persons,  having 
no  real  existence,  this  sculpture  at  Boghaz-Keui  may  yet 
be  looked  upon  with  probability  as  tending  to  show  that, 
in  what  may  be  called  their  own  country,  the  story  of  these 
female  warriors  was  believed.  On  the  whole,  it  seems 
likely,  in  view  of  the  evidence  of  this  bas-relief,  that  the 
story  rests  on  a  substantial  basis  of  truth.  There  is  also, 
I  may  add,  in  the  Hamath  inscriptions,  what  looks  very 
much  indeed  like  the  indication  of  female  warriors  armed 
with  club  and  sword.^ 

Before  passing  from  this  Boghaz-Keui  sculpture  (othei 
interesting  bas-reliefs  which  are  there  I  cannot  now 
discuss),  I  must  refer  to  the  fact  that  in  several  instances 
curious  symbols  are  held  in  the  hands  of  several  of  the 
personages  in  the  processions,  or  are  placed  near  them. 
The  floral  or  vegetable  symbols  held  in  the  hands  of  the 
principal  personages  are  surmounted  by  a  remarkable 
oval  figure.  This  oval  object  Prof.  Sayce  regards  as  a 
symbol  of  deity  ;  and  the  vegetable  or  other  figure 
beneath  he  takes  for  the  name  of  a  god.  That  the  name 
of  a  god  could  be  indicated  by  characters  such  as  these 
seems  to  me  a  thing  not  easily  credible  ;  and  the  inscrip- 
tions give  very  strong  reasons  for  regarding  the  oval 
object  as  a  symbol  denoting,  not  deity,  but  a  city.^  The 
more  probable  view  seems  to  be  that  these  figures  sur- 
mounted by  the  oval  object  are  the  distinctive  standards 


Fig,  C— I.  Standard,  with  symbol  of  "  city  "  at  Boghaz-Keui.    2.  Mandrake 
after  Visconti  ("  Iconographie  Grecque")  from  manuscript  of  Dioscorides. 

of  cities.  Unfortunately  in  the  places  where  these  stand- 
ards occur  the  sculptures  have  suffered  much  from  the 
effects  of  weather  and  of  time ;  and  the  question  has 
been  complicated  by  the  differences  in  the  representations 
given  by  M,  Texier  and  by  MM.  Perrot  and  Guillaume. 
The  representations  of  the  latter,  based  to  a  great 
extent  on  photographs,  are  no  doubt  by  far  the  more 
accurate.  M.  Perrot  seems  to  have  thought  that  all 
these  symbols  are  related  to  the  mandragora  or  man- 
drake, a  view  which  I  venture  to  think  very  improbable. 
The  oval  symbol,  with  its  curious  marking,  is  certainly 
not  the  fruit  of  the  mandrake,  which  is  round  and  pendent, 
not  oval  and  erect.  But  there  is  one  place  in  the  grand 
tableau  where,  I  should  say,  the  mandrake  is  clearly 
intended.^  One  of  these  is  the  symbol  borne  by  the  male 
figure  immediately  behind  what  I  may  call  the  queen. 
This  figure  bears  in  his  hand,  as  a  standard,  the  man- 
drake root  with  the  ends  turned  up  into  feet.  The 
ancients  not  only  attributed  aphrodisiacal  and  fecundating 
properties  to  the  mandrake-root,  but  they  also  considered 
that  it  resembled  the  body  of  a  man.  Pythagoras  is  said 
to  have  spoken  of  the  mandrake  as  "of  human  shape." 
And  the  difficulty  about  the  feet  was  easily  got  over  by  a 

»  Under  an  indication  of  sex  scarcely  to  be  mistaken,  is  an  arm  with  a 
hand  grasping  a  club  and  a  sword  or  dagger. 

^_  This  was,  I  believe,  the  view  of  Prof  Sayce,  before  he  recognized  the 
Hittite  character  of  the  Boghaz-Keui  sculptures. 

3  There  is  evidence  also  equally  clear  on  the  other  bas-reliefs  at  Boghaz- 
Keui  which  I  do  not  here  discuss. 


little  manipulation.^  There  may  possibly  be  some  con- 
nection between  this  single  male  figure  with  the  mandrake 
standard  behind  the  queen,  and  what  was  said  by  the 
Greeks  as  to  the  relations  of  the  Amazons  with  the  males 
of  a  certain  city  separated  from  them  by  a  mountain.  I 
should  add  that  the  male  figure  immediately  behind  the 
king  has  the  pole  of  the  standard  and  the  oval  above, 
but  the  intervening  figure  is  gone.  It  is  probably  still  the 
standard-pole  with  the  last  figure  to  the  reader's  left  in  the 
central  tableau.  And  possibly,  too,  at  Karabel,  the  Hittite 
characters  are  to  be  understood  as  depicted  on  a  standard. 

( To  be  cotitittued.) 


TIMBER,  Ai\'D  SOME  OF  ITS  DISEASES.^ 

VI. 

T  F  we  turn  our  attention  for  a  moment  to  the  illustra- 
•^  tions  in  the  first  article,  it  will  be  remembered  that 
our  typical  log  of  timber  was  clothed  in  a  sort  of  jacket 
termed  the  cortex,  the  outer  parts  of  which  constitute 
what  is  generally  known  as  the  bark.  This  cortical 
covering  is  separated  from  the  wood  proper  by  the  cam- 
bium, and  I  pointed  out  (p.  184)  that  the  cells  produced 
by  divisions  on  the  outside  of  the  cambium  cylinder  are 
employed  to  add  to  the  cortex. 

Now  this  cortical  jacket  is  a  very  complicated  structure, 
since  it  not  only  consists  of  numerous  elements,  differing 
in  different  trees,  but  it  also  undergoes  some  very  curious 
changes  as  the  plant  grows  up  into  a  tree.  It  is  beyond 
the  purpose  of  these  articles  to  enter  in  detail  into  these 
anatomical  matters,  however;  and  I  must  refer  the  reader 
to  special  text-books  for  them,  simply  contenting  myself 
here  with  general  truths  which  will  serve  to  render  clearer 
certain  statements  which  are  to  follow. 

It  is  possible  to  make  two  generalizations,  which  apply 
not  only  to  the  illustration  (Fig.  20)  here  selected,  but  also 
to  most  of  our  timber-trees.  In  the  first  place,  the  cortical 
jacket,  taken  as  a  whole,  consists  not  of  rigid  lignified 
elements  such  as  the  tracheids  and  fibres  of  the  wood, 
but  of  thin-walled,  soft,  elastic  elements  of  various  kinds, 
which  are  easily  compressed  or  displaced,  and  for  the 
most  part  easily  killed  or  injured — I  say  for  the  most  part 
easily  injured,  because,  as  we  shall  see  immediately,  a 
reservation  must  be  made  in  favour  of  the  outermost 
tissue,  or  cork  and  bark  proper,  which  is  by  no  means  so 
easily  destroyed,  and  acts  as  a  protection  to  the  rest. 

The  second  generalization  is,  that  since  the  cambium 
adds  new  elements  to  the  cortex  on  the  inside  of  the  latter, 
and  since  the  cambium  cylinder  as  a  whole  is  travelling 
radially  outwards — i.e.  further  from  the  pith — each  year, 
as  follows  from  its  mode  of  adding  the  new  annual  rings 
of  wood  on  to  the  exterior  of  the  older  ones,  it  is  clear 
that  the  cortical  jacket  as  a  whole  must  suffer  distension 
from  within,  and  tend  to  become  too  small  for  the  en- 
larging cylinder  of  rigid  wood  and  growing  cambium 
combined.  Indeed,  it  is  not  difficult  to  see  that,  unless 
certain  provisions  are  made  for  keeping  up  the  continuity 
of  the  cortical  tissues,  they  must  give  way  under  the 
pressure  from  within.  As  we  shall  see,  such  a  catastrophe 
is  in  part  prevented  by  a  very  peculiar  and  efficient 
process. 

Before  we  can  understand  this,  however,  we  must  take 
a  glance  at  the  structural  characters  of  the  whole  of  this 
jacket  (Fig.  20).  While  the  branch  or  stem  is  still  young, 
it  may  be  conveniently  considered  as  consisting  of  three 
chief  parts. 

(i)  On  the  outside  is  a  thin  layer  of  flat,  tabular  cork- 
cells  (Fig,  20,  Co),  which  increase  in  number  by  the  activity 

I  In  the  drawing  in  a  manu£C"ipt  of  Diosco'ides,  of  the  fifth  century,  in  the 
library  of  Vienna,  and  in  Visconti's  engraving,  the  mandrake  root  is  grasped 
by  a  female  figure.  An  artist,  who  is  painting  the  mandrake,  is  actually 
accentuating  the  feet. 

^  Continued  from  p.  279. 


March  29,  1888] 


NATURE 


515 


of  certain  layers  of  cells  along  a  plane  parallel  to  the 
surface  of  the  stem  or  branch.  These  cells  {C.Ca)  behave 
very  much  like  the  proper  cambium,  only  the  cells  divided 
off  from  them  do  not  undergo  the  profound  changes  suffered 
by  those  which  are  to  become  elements  of  the  wood  and 
inner  cortex.  The  cells  formed  on  the  outside  of  the  line 
C.Ca  in  fact  simply  become  cork-cells  ;  while  those 
formed  on  the  inside  of  the  line  C:Ca  become  living  cells 
\CI)  very  like  those  I  am  now  going  to  describe. 

(2)  Inside  this  cork-forming  layer  is  a  mass  of  soft, 
thin-walled, "  juicy"  cells, /tz,  which  are  all  living,  and  most 
of  which  contain  granules  of  chlorophyll,  and  thus  give 
the  green  cobur  to  the  young  cortex — a  colour  which 
becomes  toned  down  to  various  shades  of  olive,  gray, 
brown,  &c.,  as  the  layers  of  cork  increase  with  the  age  of 
the  part.     It  is  because  the  corky  layers  are  becoming 


thicker  that  the  twig  passes  from  green  to  gray  or  brown 
as  it  grows  older.  Now  these  green  living  cells  of  the 
cortex  are  very  important  for  our  purpose,  because,  since 
they  contain  much  food-material  and  soft  juicy  contents 
of  just  the  kind  to  nourish  a  parasitic  fungus,  we  shall 
find  that,  whenever  they  are  exposed  by  injury,  &c.,  they 
constitute  an  important  place  of  weakness — nay,  more, 
various  fungi  are  adapted  in  most  peculiar  ways  to  get  at 
them.  Since  these  cells  are  for  the  most  part  living,  and 
capable  of  dividing,  also,  we  have  to  consider  the  part 
they  play  in  increasing  the  extent  of  the  cortex. 

(3)  The  third  of  the  partly  natural,  partly  arbitrary 
portions  into  which  we  are  dividing  the  cortical  jacket 
is  found  between  the  green,  succulent  cells  \pa)  of  the 
cortex  proper  (which  we  have  just  been  considering),  and 
the  proper   cambium,   Ca^  and  it  may   be   regarded  as 


Fig.  20.  —A  piece  of  the  cambium  and  cortical  jacket  of  a  young  oak,  at  the  end  of  the  first  year.  It  may  be  regarded  as  consisting  of  three  parts,  in  addition 
to  the  cambium  (Co).  Beginning  from  the  outside,  we  have  :  (i)  cork-cells  (X),  formed  from  the  cork-cambium  (C.Cd) :  the  cells  developed  on  the  inside 
of  the  latter  (C/)  are  termed  coUenchyma,  and  go  to  add  to  the  cortex.  (2)  The  cortex  proper,  consisting  of  parenchyma<ells  (J>a),  some  of  which 
contain  crystals.  (3)  The  inner  or  secondary  cortex  (termed  phloem  or  bast),  developed  chiefly  by  the  activity  of  the  cambium  (Ca)  :  this  phloem 
consists  of  hard  bast  fibres  (Jib),  sieve-tubes  (5),  and  cells  (c),  and  is  added  to  internally  by  the  cambium  (Co)  each  year.  It  is  also  traversed  by 
medullary-rays  (Mr),  which  are  continuations  of  those  in  the  wood.  The  dotted  line  (0)  in  the  cortical  parenchyma  indicates  where  the  new  cork- 
cambium  will  be  developed  :  when  this  is  formed,  all  the  tissues  (e.g.  pa,  CI),  lying  on  the  outside  of  the  new  cork  will  die,  and  constitute  (together 
with  the  cork)  the  true  bark. 


entirely  formed  directly  from  the  cambium-cells.  These 
latter,  developed  in  smaller  numbers  on  the  outside, 
towards  the  cortex,  than  on  the  inside,  towards  the  wood, 
undergo  somewhat  similar  changes  in  shape  to  those 
which  go  to  add  to  the  wood,  but  they  show  the  important 
differences  that  their  walls  remain  unlignified,  and  for  the 
most  part  very  thin  and  yielding,  and  retain  their  living 
contents.  For  the  rest,  we  may  neglect  details  and  refer 
to  the  illustration  for  further  particulars.  The  tissue  in 
question  is  marked  by  S,  c,  lib  in  the  figure,  and  is  called 
phloem  or  bast. 

A  word  or  two  as  to  the  functions  of  the  cortex,  though 
the  subject  properly  demands  much  longer  discussion. 
It  may  be  looked  upon  as  especially  the  part  through 
which  the  valuable  substances  formed  in  the  leaves  are 
passing  in  various  directions  to  be  used  where  they  are 


wanted.  When  we  reflect  that  these  substances  are  the 
foods  from  which  everything  in  the  tree — new  cambium, 
new  roots,  buds,  flowers,  and  fruit,  &c. — are  to  be 
constructed,  it  becomes  clear  that  if  any  enemy  settles  in 
the  cortex  and  robs  it  of  these  substances,  it  reduces  not 
only  the  general  powers  of  the  tree,  but  also— and  this  is 
the  point  which  especially  interests  us  now — its  timber- 
producing  capacity.  In  the  same  way,  anything  which 
cuts  or  injures  the  continuity  of  the  cortical  layers  results 
in  diverting  the  nutritive  substances  into  other  channels. 
A  very  large  class  of  phenomena  can  be  explained  if 
these  points  are  understood,  which  would  be  mysterious, 
or  at  least  obscure,  otherwise. 

Having  now  sketched  the  condition  of  this  cortical 
jacket  when  the  branch  or  stem  is  still  young,  it  will  be 
easy  to  see  broadly  what  occurs  as  it  thickens  with  age. 


5i6 


NATURE 


IMarck  29,  1888 


In  the  first  place,  it  is  clear  that  the  continuous  sheet 
of  cork  {Co)  must  first  be  extended,  and  finally  ruptured, 
by  the  pressure  exerted  from  within  :  it  is  true,  this  layer 
is  very  elastic  and  extensible,  and  impervious  to  water  or 
nearly  so — in  fact  it  is  a  thin  layer  or  skin,  with  properties 
like  those  of  a  bottle  cork — but  even  it  must  give  way  as 
the  cylinder  goes  on  expanding,  and  it  cracks  and  peels 
off.  This  would  expose  the  delicate  tissues  below,  if  it  were 
not  for  the  fact  that  another  layer  of  cork  has  by  this  time 
begun  to  form  below  the  one  which  is  ruptured  :  a  cork- 
forming  layer  arises  along  the  Hne  ^,  and  busily  produces 
another  sheet  of  this  protective  tissue  in  a  plane  more  or 
less  exactly  parallel  with  the  one  which  is  becoming 
cracked.  This  new  cork-forming  tissue  behaves  as 
before  :  the  outer  cells  become  cork,  the  inner  ones  add 
to  the  green  succulent  parenchyma-cells  {pa).  As  years  go 
on,  and  this  layer  in  its  turn  splits  and  peels,  others  are 
formed  further  inwards,  and  if  it  is  remembered  that  a 
layer  of  cork  is  particularly  impervious  to  water  and  air, 
it  is  easy  to  understand  that  each  successive  sheet  of  cork 
cuts  off  all  the  tissues  on  its  exterior  from  participation  in 
the  life  processes  of  the  plant :  consequently  we  have  a 
gradually  increasing  (^ar/&  proper,  formed  of  the  accumulated 
cork-layers  and  other  dead  tissues. 

A  great  number  of  interesting  points,  important  in  their 
proper  connections,  must  be  passed  over  here.  Some  of 
these  refer  to  the  anatomy  of  the  various  "  barks  " — the 
word  "  bark  "  being  commonly  used  ih  commerce  to  mean 
the  whole  of  the  cortical  jacket— the  places  of  origin  of 
the  cork-layer,  and  the  way  in  which  the  true  bark  peels 
off:  those  further  interested  here  may  compare  the  plane, 
the  birch,  the  Scotch  pine,  and  the  elm,  for  instance,  with 
the  oak.  Other  facts  have  reference  to  the  chemical  and 
other  substances  found  in  the  cells  of  the  cortex,  and 
which  make  "  barks "  of  value  commercially.  I  need 
only  quote  the  alkaloids  in  Cinchona,  the  fibres  in  the 
Malvaceae,  the  tannin  in  the  oaks,  the  colouring-matter 
in  Garcinia  (gamboge),  the  ^tta-percha  from  Isonandra, 
the  ethereal  oil  of  cinnamon,  as  a  few  examples  in  this 
connection,  since  our  immediate  subject  does  not  admit 
of  a  detailed  treatment  of  these  extremely  interesting 
matters. 

The  above  brief  account  may  suffice  to  give  a  general 
idea  of  what  the  cortical  jacket  covering  our  timber  is, 
and  how  it  comes  about  that  in  the  normal  case  the 
thickening  of  the  cylinder  is  rendered  possible  without 
exposing  the  cambium  and  other  delicate  tissues  :  it  may 
also  serve  to  show  why  bark  is  so  various  in  composition 
and  other  characters.  But  it  is  also  clear  that  this  jacket 
of  coherent  bark,  bound  together  by  the  elastic  sheets  of 
cork,  must  exert  considerable  pressure  as  it  reacts  on  the 
softer,  living,  succulent  parts  of  the  cortex,  trapped  as 
they  are  between  the  rigid  wood  cylinder  and  the  bark  ; 
and  it  is  easy  to  convince  ourselves  that  such  is  the  case. 
By  simply  cutting  a  longitudinal  slit  through  the  cortex, 
down  to  near  the  cambium,  but  taking  care  not  to  injure 
the  latter,  the  following  results  may  be  obtained.  First, 
the  bark  gapes,  the  raw  edges  of  the  wound  separating 
and  exposing  the  tissues  below  ;  next,  in  course  of  time 
the  raw  edges  are  seen  to  be  healed  over  with  cork— pro- 
duced by  the  conversion  of  the  outer  cells  into  cork-cells. 
As  time  passes,  provided  no  external  interference  occurs, 
the  now  rounded  and  somewhat  swollen  cork-covered 
edges  of  the  wound  will  be  found  closing  up  again  ;  and 
sooner  or  later,  depending  chiefly  on  the  extent  of  the 
wound  and  the  vigour  of  the  tree,  the  growing  lips  of  the 
wound  will  come  together  and  unite  completely. 

But  examination  will  show  that  although  such  a  slit- 
wound  is  so  easily  healed  over,  it  has  had  an  effect  on  the 
wood.  Supposing  it  has  required  three  years  to  heal  over, 
it  will  be  found  that  the  new  annual  rings  of  wood  are  a 
little  thicker  just  belov/the  slit ;  this  is  simply  because  the 
slit  had  released  the  pressure  on  the  cambium.  The  con- 
verse has  also  been  proved  to  be  true— /.^.  by  increasing 


the  pressure  on  the  cambium  by  means  of  iron  bands,  the 
annual  rings  below  the  bands  are  thinner  and  denser  than 
elsewhere. 

But  we  have  also  seen  that  the  cambium  is  not  the  only 
living  tissue  below  the  bark  :  the  cortical  parenchyma 
{pa),  and  the  cells  {c)  of  the  inner  cortex  (technically  the 
phloem)  are  all  living  and  capable  of  growth  and  division, 
as  was  described  above.  The  release  from  pressure  affects 
them  also  ;  in  fact,  the  "  callus,"  or  cushion  of  tissue 
which  starts  from  the  lips  of  the  wound  and  closes  it 
over,  simply  consists  of  the  rapidly  growing  and  dividing 
cells  of  this  cortex,  i.e.  the  release  from  pressure  enables 
them  to  more  than  catch  up  the  enlarging  layer  of  cortex 
around  the  wound. 

An  elegant  and  simple  instance  of  this  accelerated 
growth  of  the  cortex  and  cambium  when  released  from 
the  pressure  of  other  tissues  is  exhibited  in  the  healing 
over  of  the  cut  ends  of  a  branch,  a  subject  to  be  dealt 
with  later  on  ;  and  the  whole  practice  of  propagation  by 
slips  or  cuttings,  the  renewal  of  the  "  bark  "  of  Cinchonas, 
and  other  economic  processes,  depend  on  these  matters. 

In  anticipation  of  some  points  to  be  explained  only  if 
these  phenomena  are  understood,  I  may  simply  remark 
here  that,  obviously,  if  some  parasite  attacks  the  growing 
lips  of  the  "  callus"  as  it  is  trying  to  cover  up  the  wound, 
or  if  the  cambium  is  injured  below,  the  pathological  dis- 
turbances thus  introduced  will  modify  the  result :  the 
importance  of  this  will  appear  when  we  come  to  examine 
certain  disturbances  which  depend  upon  the  attacks  of 
Fungi  which  settle  on  these  wounds  before  they  are 
properly  healed  over.  In  concluding  this  brief  sketch  of 
a  large  subject,  it  may  be  noted  that,  generally  speaking, 
what  has  been  stated  of  branches,  &c.,  is  also  true  of 
roots  ;  and  it  is  easy  to  see  how  the  nibbling  or  gnawing 
of  small  animals,  the  pecking  of  birds,  abrasions,  and 
numerous  other  things,  are  so  many  causes  of  such 
wounds  in  the  forest.  H.  Marshall  Ward, 

{To  be  continued.) 


NOTES. 

On  Friday,  the  23rd  inst.,  Sir  Henry  Roscoe  drew  attention 
in  the  House  of  Commons  to  the  Woolwich  regulations,  the 
mischievous  nature  of  which  we  have  repeatedly  exposed.  Sir 
Henry  Roscoe  was  cordially  supported  by  Sir  Lyon  Playfair  ; 
and  Mr.  Stanhope,  we  are  glad  to  say,  dealt  with  the  subject  in 
a  fair  and  conciliatory  spirit.  He  promised  to  discuss  the  matter 
with  men  of  science,  and  the  result,  we  may  hope,  will  be  that 
new  regulations  will  soon  be  drawn  up,  securing  that  scientific 
candidates  shall  not  be  placed  at  a  disadvantage  as  compared 
with  students  of  language  and  literature. 

In  replying  to  Sir  Henry  Roscoe,  Mr.  Stanhope  made  a 
statement  to  the  effect  that  the  regulations  now  in  force  for 
Sandhurst,  which  were  issued  in  1884,  were  recommended  by 
upwards  of  fifty  head  masters.  We  have  before  us  the  Report 
of  the  Head  Masters'  Conference  for  1883,  in  which  the  recom- 
mendations of  their  Committee  are  printed,  and  these  recommend- 
ations differ  in  certain  important  respects  from  the  regulations 
actually  adopted  by  the  War  Office.  The  head  masters  appear, 
from  their  suggestions,  to  have  desired  to  retain  a  more  import- 
ant place  for  Latin  and  Greek  than  those  subjects  occupy  in  the 
War  Office  regulations  ;  and  they  also  attached  a  higher  value 
to  higher  mathematics.  On  the  other  hand,  they  placed  modern 
languages  and  experimental  science  on  a  lower  but  relatively 
less  unequal  footing  than  the  War  Office  has  done.  Although, 
therefore,  in  consequence  of  the  position  of  classics,  the  actual  value 
of  science  was,  on  the  whole,  perhaps  not  better  under  the  head 
masters'  suggestions  than  under  the  regulations  issued  by  the  War 
Office,  it  is  hardly  correct  to  speak  of  the  head  masters  as  having 
recommended  a  scheme  of  which  the  predominating  fault  is,  as 


March  29,  1888] 


NATURE 


517 


we  think,  the  undue  difference  in  the  marks  allotted  to  modem 
languages  as  compared  with  the  experimental  sciences.  More- 
over, even  if  Mr.  Stanhope  were  right,  it  would  not  follow  that 
the  head  masters  contemplated  the  application  of  their  sugges- 
tions in  all  respects  to  the  scientific  branches  of  the  Army,  since 
the  needs  of  those  branches  are  so  obviously  different  in  certain 
matters.  We  quite  recognize  the  necessity  pointed  out  by  the 
Secretary  of  State  for  War,  that  the  system  of  the  Royal  Mili- 
tary Academy  (Woolwich)  and  that  of  the  Royal  Military  Col- 
lege (Sandhurst)  should  be  as  much  as  possible  assimilated  to 
each  other.  But  for  that  very  reason  the  needs  of  the  Woolwich 
cadets  in  the  case  of  science  should  have  been  more  carefully 
considered  in  the  framing  of  the  Sandhurst  regulations.  No 
one  will  contend  that  scientific  capacity  is  a  bad  thing  for  a  Sand- 
hurst cadet,  and  since  it  is  admittedly  of  direct  and  very  great 
importance  to  secure  scientific  capacity  on  the  part  of  Woolwich 
cadets,  it  appears  reasonable  that,  in  the  case  of  science  subjects, 
the  needs  of  the  Woolwich  system  should  be  chiefly  regarded, 
if  in  this  respect  the  two  systems  must  be  made  similar. 

Ten  Fellows  of  the  Royal  Society  have  died  in  less  than  four 
months — a  large  number  when  we  take  into  account  that  the 
annual  death-rate  is  barely  fifteen.  Six  out  of  the  ten  gave  an 
average  age  of  seventy-nine. 

The  annual  general  meeting  of  the  Chemical  Society  was  held 
yesterday.  Mr.  Crookes,  F.R.S.,  the  President,  read  a  report  on 
the  state  of  the  Society,  and  an  address  on  elements  and  meta- 
elements.  The  medal  founde:!,  for  triennial  award,  by  Dr. 
Longstaff,  was  conferred  on  Dr.  W.  H.  Perkin,  F.R.S.  The 
President,  in  presenting  the  medal,  expressed  the  pleasure  he 
felt  in  thus  testifying,  in  the  name  of  the  Society,  to  the  value 
of  Dr.  Perkin's  interesting  and  important  researches  on  the 
magnetic  rotary  polarization  of  compounds  in  relation  to  their 
chemical  constitution.  Mr.  Crookes  also  took  the  opportunity 
of  congratulating  Dr.  Longstaff  on  the  fact  that  although  on  the 
eve  of  his  eighty-ninth  birthday  he  is  still  hale  and  hearty. 

The  half-yearly  general  meeting  of  the  Scottish  Meteoro- 
logical Society  was  held  yesterday  in  the  hall  of  the  Royal 
Scottish  Society  of  Arts,  Edinburgh.  In  their  Report  the  Coun- 
cil state  that,  in  addition  to  the  routine  work  of  the  Office,  the 
Secretary's  time  has  been  occupied  with  the  preparation  of  the 
Report  on  the  Ben  Nevis  observations  from  the  opening  of  the 
Observatory  in  November  1883  to  the  end  of  December  1887, 
and  in  seeing  these  observations  through  the  press.  The  work, 
which  is  to  appear  as  an  extra  volume  of  the  Transactions  of 
the  Royal  Society  of  Edinburgh,  is  in  a  state  of  forwardness,  the 
whole  of  the  observations  proper  of  the  Observatory  being  now 
through  the  press.  The  Council  also  note  that  the  physical  and 
biological  researches  have  been  conducted  on  the  Medusa  during 
the  winter  months  with  characteristic  vigour,  and  with  a  success  so 
great  as  to  point  to  the  solution  of  the  questions  raised  by  the 
herring  and  salmon  fisheries,  while  at  the  same  time  an  entirely 
new  light  has  been  cast  on  the  circulation  of  the  water  in  our 
fresh  and  salt  water  lochs,  and  generally  on  the  problem  of 
oceanic  circulation. 

An  influential  Committee  has  been  formed  at  Edinburgh  for 
the  purpose  of  collecting  subscriptions  for  a  memorial  of  the  late 
Prof.  Kelland.  An  appeal  has  been  issued  to  his  former 
students  and  others,  and  it  ought  to  meet  with  a  prompt  and 
generous  response.  Prof.  Kelland,  as  the  Committee  remind  those 
whom  they  have  addressed,  was  not  only  an  excellent  and  most 
successful  teacher  of  mathematics,  loved  and  honoured  by  the 
students  of  forty  sessions  at  the  University  of  Edinburgh,  but  one 
of  the  most  effective  recent  promoters  of  the  cause  of  education 
in  Scotland.  The  precise  nature  of  the  memorial  will  to  some 
extent  depend   upon   the  amount   subscribed  ;   but  it   will   be 


essentially  a  foundation  bearing  the  name  of  Kelland,  such  as  a 
Scholarship,  or  even  a  special  Lectureship,  in  connection  with  the 
Chair  of  Mathematics  at  the  University  of  Edinburgh. 

The  Irish  Exhibition,  which  is  to  be  held  at  Olympia, 
Kensington,  from  June  4  next  to  October  27,  ought  to  be  one  of 
very  great  interest.  The  intention  is  that  the  English  public 
shall  have  an  opportunity  of  obtaining  a  clear  view  of  the  pre- 
dominant industries  of  Ireland.  It  is  also  proposed  to  exhibit 
some  of  her  historical  'and  antiquarian  treasures.  The  profits 
are  to  be  given  in  aid  of  Irish  technical  and  commercial 
schools. 

The  eighth  German  Geographentag,  which  was  to  have 
been  held  at  Berlin  in  April,  has  been  postponed.  The  Com- 
mittee, in  announcing  this  decision,  explain  that  the  festivities 
which  might,  as  usual,  be  connected  with  the  meeting  would  not 
be  in  accordance  with  the  feeling  excited  in  the  capital  by  the 
death  of  the  Emperor  William. 

The  Standardoi  Wednesday,  March  21,  printed  some  extracts 
from  the  letters  of  Cowper,  the  poet,  which  may  serve  to  show 
that  the  climate  of  England  has  not  deteriorated,  bad  as  it  has 
lately  been.  In  a  letter  dated  March  19,  1788,  Cowper  writes 
to  his  friend  Bagot : — "  The  spring  is  come,  but  not  that  spring 
which  our  poets  have  celebrated.  So  I  judge,  at  least,  by  the 
extreme  severity  of  the  season — sunless  skies  and  freezing  blasts, 
surpassing  all  that  we  experienced  in  the  depth  of  winter.  How 
do  you  dispose  of  yourself  in  this  howling  month  of  March  ?  As 
for  me,  I  walk  daily,  be  the  weather  what  it  may,  take  bark, 
and  write  verses.  By  the  aid  of  such  means  as  these  I  combat 
the  north-east  wind  with  some  measure  of  success,  and  look  for- 
ward— with  the  hope  of  enjoying  it — to  the  warmth  of  summer." 
On'May  6  he  says  to  Lady  Hesketh  : — "  I  am  just  recovered  from 
a  violent  cold,  attended  by  a  cough.  I  escaped  these  tortures 
all  the  winter  ;  but  whose  constitution  or  what  skin  can  possibly 
be  proof  against  our  vernal  breezes  in  England  ?  Mine  never 
were  nor  will  be."  Yet  only  three  weeks  afterwards  (May  27) 
he  exclaims  to  the  same  correspondent  : — "  How  does  this  hot 
weather  suit  thee,  my  dear,  in  London  ?  As  for  me,  with  all  my 
colonnades  and  bowers,  I  am  quite  oppressed  by  it."  It  would 
be  interesting  if  some  one  could  provide  particulars  as  to  the 
weather  of  any  of  the  former  '88  years. 

'Y^'S.  American  Meteorological  Journal  iox  February  devotes 
an  article  to  the  works  of  Prof.  William  Ferrel,  now  seventy-one 
years  of  age.  His  first  meteorological  papers  were  published  in 
the  form  of  essays  in  1856,  and  were  reprinted  and  extended, 
under  the  title  of  "  Motions  of  Fluids  and  Solids  on  the  Earth's 
Surface,"  as  one  of  the  professional  papers  of  the  Signal 
Service.  In  this  paper  the  explanation  of  the  trade  winds  is 
altogether  different  from  that  usually  given.  His  latest  contri- 
bution— '*  Recent  Advances  in  Meteorology  "  (see  Nature,  vol. 
xxxvi.  p.  255)— is  the  best  summary  of  the  principles  and  results 
of  meteorology  in  existence.  Ferrel's  views  received  consider- 
able attention  in  France  soon  after  publication,  but  in  this 
country  and  in  America  they  have  only  attracted  notice  more 
recently.  His  mathematical  papers  on  the  motions  of  the  ocean 
are  not  less  important  than  those  on  the  motions  of  the  atmosphere. 
The  article  is  accompanied  by  a  good  portrait  of  Prof.  Ferrel. 

We  have  received  from  Dr.  Van  der  Stok  the  rainfall 
observations  made  in  the  East  Indian  Archipelago  during  the 
year  1886.  Observations  are  now  taken  at  102  stations,  several 
additions  having  been  recently  made,  including  an  important 
station  on  the  Key  Islands,  in  longitude  132°  45' E.  ;  the  district 
now  represented  extends  over  37°  of  longitude.  The  data  pub- 
lished include  the  monthly  and  yearly  values  for  the  year  1886,  and 
the  means  for  a  number  of  years,  the  number  of  days  of  rainfall,  and 
the  greatest  falls  in  twenty-four  hours.     The  value  of  the  work 


5i8 


NATURE 


[March  29,  1888 


would  be  much  enhanced  by  the  addition  of  charts  showing  the 
distribution  in  space  and  time,  and  by  some  discussion  of  the 
results.  It  has  been  shown  by  M.  Woeikof  that  the  rainfall  of 
stations  close  together  differs  materially.  For  instance,  at 
Batavia  the  proportion  of  rainfall  in  the  wettest  and  driest 
months  is  8  to  I,  while  at  Buitenzorg,  only  25  miles  distant,  the 
proportion  is  only  2  to  i.  The  work  contains  a  short  account 
of  the  position  of  every  station. 

The  Central  Physical  Observatory  of  St.  Petersburg  has 
published  a  memoir  on  the  rainfall  of  the  Russian  Empire 
(506  pp.  4to)  with  an  atlas.  The  data  used  in  the  calcula- 
tions are  brought  down  to  the  year  1882,  and  include  observa- 
tions taken  at  450  places,  embracing  altogether  31 12  year?. 
The  tables  contain  individual  monthly  and  yearly  values,  and 
the  means  for  the  whole  period,  rainfall  frequency,  and  maximum 
falls  in  twenty-four  hours.  The  influences  of  the  form  of  gauge 
and  exposure  on  the  amounts  of  rainfall,  and  of  the  method  of 
reckoning  days  of  rain,  are  fully  discussed.  The  amount  taken 
as  representing  a  rainy  day  is  '004  inch,  while  in  England  it  is 
'Oi  inch.  It  is  shown  that  the  difference  in  the  methods  of 
counting  rainy  days  materially  interferes  with  the  calculations 
based  upon  rainfall  frequency. 

A  SERIES  of  highly  interesting  experiments  upon  the  vapour- 
density  of  ferric  chloride  have  lately  been  completed  by  Drs. 
Griinewald  and  Victor  Meyer.  The  chlorides  of  aluminium 
and  indium  have  already  been  shown  by  Nilson  and  Pettersson, 
and  by  V.  and  C.  Meyer  respectively,  to  possess  the  molecular 
formulae  AICI3  and  InCls ;  it  therefore  became  most  important 
to  determine,  if  possible,  whether  the  molecule  of  the  cor- 
responding chloride  of  iron  possessed,  as  has  been  so  generally 
supposed,  the  constitution  FcoCIg,  or  FeCIs-  The  pure  ferric 
chloride  for  use  in  the  experiments  was  obtained  by  gently 
heating  fine  iron  wire  in  a  stream  of  dry  chlorine  gas  and  re- 
subliming  the  product,  thus  obtaining  the  salt  in  beautiful 
hexagonal  plates,  exhibiting  a  fine  green  colour  by  reflected, 
and  a  purple  tint  by  transmitted  light.  The  first  determination 
was  carried  out  in  a  bath  of  vapour  of  boiling  sulphur  (448°  C). 
At  this  temperature,  the  lowest  at  which  vapour-density  estima- 
tions are  possible,  the  volatilization  is  very  slow,  but  occm-s 
without  the  slightest  decomposition.  And  yet  the  vapour- 
density  obtained  was  considerably  lower  than  that  required  by 
the  formula  Fe^Clg,  showing  that  at  no  temperature  does  ferric 
chloride  possess  the  molecular  formula  Fe.2Cl(3,  but  must  of 
necessity  consist  of  molecules  corresponding  to  the  simpler 
formula  FeCig.  On  repeating  the  determinations  at  higher 
temperatures  in  baths  of  phosphorus  pentasulphide  (518°)  and 
stannous  chloride  (6o5°),  and  in  a  platinum  apparatus  heated  in 
a  Perrot  furnace  to  temperatures  of  750°,  1050°,  and  1300°,  the 
numbers  obtained  gradually  approached  the  vapour-density  of 
FeCls,  the  only  unfortunate  circumstance  being  that  decomposi- 
tion into  ferrous  chloride  and  chlorine  occurred  as  the  tempera- 
ture was  increased.  However,  on  repeating  the  observations  in 
an  atmosphere  of  chlorine,  results  almost  identical  with  the 
former  ones  were  obtained  ;  hence  there  can  be  no  doubt  that 
the  true  formula  of  ferric  chloride  is  not  FeoClg,  but  FeClj.  It 
follows  from  this  as  a  matter  of  course  that  the  former  view  as 
to  the  tetrad  nature  of  iron  must  be  laid  aside.  It  will  be  of 
great  interest,  in  view  of  this  somewhat  unexpected  result,  to 
learn  the  results  of  the  determinations  of  the  vapour-density  of 
the  lower  chloride  of  iron,  which,  we  understand  from  Prof. 
Meyer,  are  being  undertaken  by  Profs.  Nilson  and  Pettersson. 

A  THIRD  edition  of  "Practical  Amateur  Photography,"  by 
Mr.  C.  C.  Vevers,  has  just  been  issued.  This  little  manual  is 
intended  to  serve  as  a  text  book  for  the  beginner  and  a  handy 
work  of  reference  for  the  advanced  photographer,  and  care  has 
been  taken  to  make  it  eminently  practical. 


An  interesting  book  on  "Tank  Angling  in  India,"  by  Mr. 
H.  SulHvan  Thomas,  has  been  published  at  Madras  and  in 
London  (Hamilton,  Adams,  and  Co.).  Anglers  in  India  will 
find  in  the  little  work — in  which  there  are  some  fairly  good 
illustrations — an  immense  amount  of  information  about  paste- 
baiting,  live-bait  picketing,  live-bait  with  a  float,  worm  and 
prawn  fishing,  localities  suitable  for  tank- fishing,  stocking 
ponds,  the  mainspring  of  fish-life,  and  names,  description,  and 
habitat  of  fish. 

In  No.  124  of  the  Proceedings  of  the  Royal  Society  of 
Edinburgh  (session  1886-87)  many  valuable  papers  are  printed. 
Among  the  contents  we  may  note  :  the  sense  of  smell,  being 
Part  III.  of  Prof.  Haycraft's  treatise  on  "  The  Objective  Cause  of 
Sensation  "  ;  on  transition  resistance  at  the  surface  of  platinum 
electrodes,  and  the  action  of  condensed  ga-^eous  films,  by 
Mr.  W.  Peddie ;  researches  on  the  problematical  organs  of  the 
Invertebrata,  by  Dr.  A.  B.  Griffiths ;  the  salinity  and 
temperature  of  the  Moray  Firth,  and  the  Firths  of  Inverness, 
Cromarty,  and  Dornoch,  by  Dr.  H.  R.  Mill  ;  on  the  minute 
oscillations  of  a  uniform  flexible  chain  hung  by  one  end,  and  on 
the  functions  arising  in  the  course  of  the  inquiry,  by  Dr.  E.  Sang  } 
notes  on  the  biological  tests  employed  in  determining  the 
purity  of  water,  by  Dr.  A.  W.  .Hare  ;  glories,  halos,  and 
coronce  seen  from  Ben  Nevis  Observatory,  extracts  from  log- 
book, by  Mr.  R.  T.  Omond ;  on  glories,  by  Prof.  Tait ; 
rectilineal  motion  of  viscous  fluid  between  two  parallel  planes, 
by  Sir  W.  Thomson ;  and  the  thermal  windrose  at  the  Ben 
Nevis  Observatory,  by  Mr.  A.  Rankine. 

At  a  recent  meeting  of  the  Wellington  (New  Zealand)  Philo- 
sophical Society  a  paper  was  read  by  Mr.  E.  Tregear  on  "  The 
Origin  of  Fire  "  according  to  Polynesian  folk-lore.  Mr.  Tregear 
read  from  Sir  George  Grey's  work  the  Maori  legend  of  the  pro- 
curing of  fire  from  the  old  fire-goddess  Mahuika  by  the  hero 
Maui  who  had  the  power  of  becoming  a  bird  at  will,  and  com- 
pared this  with  the  Samoa  version  in  which  the  fire-deity  is  a 
male  person,  from  whom  Maui  procures  fire,  having  vanquished 
him  in  a  personal  encounter.  In  the  legend  of  another  of  the 
islands  the  place  of  Mahuika  as  fire-deity  is  taken  by  the  great 
Polynesian  god  Tangaroa.  From  the  fact  that  in  these  legends 
the  path  by  which  fire  was  reached  was  always  downwards  into 
the  centre  of  the  earth,  Mr.  Tregear  suggests  that  it  was 
probable  that  the  ancestors  of  the  Polynesians  had  experience  of 
natural  fire  drawn  from  volcanic  sources,  but  to  Maui  is  due  the 
discovery  in  Polynesia  of  fire  by  friction.  With  regard  to  Maui 
himself  there  is  great  difficulty  in  the  parent-names.  The 
assumption  by  him  at  will  of  the  form  of  the  dove  or  of  the  hawk 
is  consistent  with  the  belief  in  the  ancient  world  of  the  various 
shapes  assumed  by  deities  when  desirous  of  accomplishing  their 
purposes.  The  "seed  of  fire,"  an  expression  used  in  tra- 
ditions for  the  inflammable  nature  of  certain  kinds  of  timber, 
was  a  common  idiom  in  ancient  Continental  nations.  Fire- 
worship  continued  to  have  its  devotees  in  Europe  until  com- 
paratively recent  times;  and  the  sacred  fire  was  always  "new 
fire "  which  had  not  previously  been  used  for  any  purpose, 
being  kindled  by  friction.  A  legend  is  preserved  in  Eastern 
Polynesia  of  the  descent  of  the  Maori  people  from  a  race  whose 
name  is  the  same  as  that  of  the  fire-kindling  instrument  used  in 
India,"  and  it  is  remarkable  that  the  deity  who  forges  the 
thunderbolts  in  India  is  probably  identical  in  name  with  the 
thunder-god  of  the  Maoris. 

Dr.  George  M.  Dawson  has  contributed  to  the  Transactions 
of  the  Royal  Society  of  Canada  (vol.  v.  section  2,  1887)  a 
valuable  series  of  notes  and  observations  on  the  Kwakiool 
people  of  Vancouver  Island.  Referring  to  the  question  as  to 
the  best  means  of  doing  good  service  to  the  Kwakiool,  Dr. 
Dawson  says  it  is  primarily  essential  to  establish  among  them 


March  29,  1888] 


NA  TURE 


519 


industries  which  will  remove  the  temptation  now  felt  to  drift  to 
the  larger  settlements  and  towns.  The  Kwakiool,  with  other 
Indians  of  the  coast,  already  cultivate  in  a  desultory  manner 
small  crops  of  potatoes,  on  such  minute  patches  of  open  ground 
(generally  the  sites  of  old  villages)  as  are  to  be  found  along  the 
shore.  Their  bent,  however,  is  not  that  of  an  agricultural 
people,  and  the  densely-wooded  character  of  their  country  calls 
for  labour,  herculean  in  proportion  to  the  unsystematic  efforts  of 
these  people,  before  it  can  be  cleared  and  reclaimed  for  agri- 
culture on  any  large  scale.  They  are  excellent  boatmen  and 
fishermen  in  their  own  way,  and  Dr.  Dawson  has  no  doubt  that 
under  favourable  conditions  they  would  readily  learn  to  build 
boats,  make  nets,  and  cure  fish  in  such  a  manner  that  the  pro- 
duct would  be  marketable.  To  effect  these  objects  the  most 
essential  step,  in  Dr.  Dawson's  opinion,  is  the  establishment  of 
industrial  schools,  where  the  younger  people  may  be  separated 
from  their  old  associations  and  instructed  in  various  callings 
appropriate  to  their  condition  and  surroundings. 

We  have  received  the  Report  of  the  Rugby  School  Natural 
History  Society  for  the  year  1887.  This  is  the  twenty-first  issue. 
The  editors  point  out  that  owing  to  various  causes  a  perhaps 
unusually  large  number  of  the  meetings  were  taken  up  with 
lectures.  Among  the  contents  are  two  exceptionally  interesting 
papers  :  one  on  "  Specialization,"  by  Mr.  E.  Solly,  and  one  on 
"Natural  History  in  Southern  Germany,"  by  Mr.  E.  E.  Austen. 

Mr.  E.  Stanford  has  issued  a  pamphlet,  by  Mr.  F.  A. 
Velschow,  of  Copenhagen,  on  "The  Natural  Law  of  Relation 
between  Rainfall  and  Vegetable  Life,  and  its  Application  to 
Australia."  The  object  of  the  paper  is  to  show  why,  in  the 
author's  opinion,  the  regularity  of  the  downpour  of  rain  "de- 
pends directly  on  one  particularquality  appertaining  to  vegetable 
life."  He  also  undertakes  to  prove  that  "  vapour  rarefies  the 
atmosphere  instead  of  increasing  its  specific  gravity,  as  is  now 
supposed." 

The  last  Calendar  of  the  Imperial  University  of  Japan,  to 
which  we  have  already  briefly  referred,  shows  in  a  very  striking 
manner  how  the  Japanese  are  beginning  to  rely  upon  themselves 
for  instruction  in  matters  relating  to  higher  education.  The 
following  figures  will  show  to  what  extent  the  Japanese  now 
avail  themselves  of  European  assistance  in  their  University  : — 
(i)  Law  Department  :  19  professors,  assistants,  and  lecturers,  of 
whom  5  are  foreigners ;  (2)  Department  of  Medicine  :  53  pro- 
fessors and  assistants,  of  whom  2  are  foreigners  ;  (3)  Engineering 
Department  :  33  professors,  assistants,  and  lecturers,  of  whom 
4  are  foreigners  ;  (4)  Literature  Department  :  19  professors  and 
lecturers,  of  whom  6  are  foreigners  ;  (5)  Department  of  Science  : 
25  professors  and  assistants,  of  whom  2  are  foreigners.  The 
academical  and  other  qualifications  of  the  Japanese  professors 
and  lecturers  appear  in  most  cases  to  be  all  that  could  be 
expected  from  men  holding  their  positions.  The  distribution  of 
the  foreign  professors  and  lecturers  in  the  University  is,  we 
believe,  as  follows  :  eight  British,  eight  Germans,  two  French- 
men, and  one  American.  Not  many  years  ago  a  large  ma- 
jority of  the  employes  of  the  University  of  Tokio,  as  it  was 
then  called,  were  Americans ;  and  of  the  present  number  of 
foreigners  the  majority  appear  to  be  employed  in  teaching 
foreign  systems  of  law  and  foreign  languages.  We  notice  the 
appointment  for  the  first  time  of  a  Professor  of  Sanitary  Engin- 
eering, wherein  the  Japanese  University  is  in  advance  of  nine- 
tenths  of  the  educational  institutions  of  the  West.  It  is  also 
curious  to  notice  that  the  Professor  of  Japanese  Philology  and 
Literature  is  an  Englishman. 

Ellis's  "  Irish  Education  Directory  and  Scholastic  Guide" 
for  1888  has  just  been  issued.  The  publication  of  the  volume 
has  been  delayed  in  consequence  of  the  many  important  changes 
made   in  the    regulations  of  the    medical  licensing  bodies   in 


Ireland.  During  the  past  year  the  work  has  been  carefully  re- 
vised, and  it  contains  full  information  as  to  the  Irish  Universities 
and  professional  schools,  and  the  institutions  of  Ireland  for 
promoting  intermediate  and  primary  education.  There  are  also 
complete  alphabetical  lists  of  Irish  colleges  and  schools,  and 
copious  alphabetical  and  classified  indices. 

The  examination  papers  set  in  1887  in  connection  with  the 
Royal  University  of  Ireland  have  been  published  in  a  separate 
volume  as  a  supplement  to  the  University  Calendar  for  the  year 
1888. 

According  to  Allen! s  Indian  Mail,  the  principle  of  payment 
by  results  in  the  primary  schools,  has  not  been  altogether 
successful  in  India.  Last  year  it  proved  a  failure  in  Kachar, 
and  this  year  it  is  having  its  final  trial  in  Assam.  The  teachers 
in  charge  of  certain  selected  schools  were  offered  their  choice  of 
fixed  salaries  or  payment  by  results,  and  if  they  did  not  work 
the  latter  system  successfully  they  were  to  revert  to  the  former. 
The  rules  for  payment  by  results  have  recently  been  revised, 
larger  rewards  being  offered,  and  the  scheme  has  been  opened 
to  all  primary  schools. 

On  Monday  a  deputation  representing  Islington,  Hackney, 
and  Stoke  Newington,  waited  upon  Mr.  Anstie,  Charity  Com- 
missioner, to  confer  with  him  about  a  proposed  scheme  of 
Technical  Institutes  for  the  North  of  London.  Mr.  Anstie  was 
reminded  that  the  Commissioners  had  suggested  to  a  previous 
deputation  that  St.  Pancras,  Islington,  Hackney,  and  Stoke 
Newington  should  combine  in  order  to  formulate  an  educational 
scheme  which  would  benefit  the  North  of  London.  Since  that 
time  three  of  the  parishes — Hackney,  Islington,  and  Stoke 
Newington — had  met,  but  St.  Pancras  had  declined  to  join 
them,  and  they  now  desired  to  know  what  assistance  they  could 
get  out  of  the  City  Parochial  Funds  for  their  scheme.  The 
deputation  said  it  would  be  difficult  to  raise  money,  but,  sup- 
posing that  they  raised  ;^6o,ooo  in  Islington  and  Hackney,  could 
the  Charity  Commissioner-;  promise  them  one-half  of  that 
amount  ?  Mr.  Anstie  replied  that  the  Charity  Commissioners' 
proposal  to  South  London  was  to  contribute  pound  for  pound,  to 
be  applied  rather  to  permanent  endowments  than  to  pay  any 
preliminary  expenses.  The  Commissioners  were  very  anxious 
in  any  scheme  that  was  proposed  that  provision  should  be  made 
for  children  between  the  ages  of  13  and  16  to  continue  their 
instruction,  and  they  particularly  wished  to  benefit  the  poorer 
classes.  In  fact,  they  were  bound  to  do  so  under  the  provisions 
of  the  Act.  If  St.  Pancras  stood  outside,  then  the  Commis- 
sioners would  have  to  treat  with  the  three  parishes  alone.  He 
urged  them  very  strongly  to  use  every  effort  to  get  as  much 
money  as  possible.  The  Commissioners  would  look  most 
favourably  upon  a  scheme  which  contained  in  it  the  promise  of 
the  largest  contributions. 

During  the  approaching  summer  a  new  branch  of  the 
London  Geological  Field  Class  will  make  a  detailed  study  of  the 
Chalk  formation  under  the  direction  of  Prof.  H.  G.  Seeley, 
F.R.S.  The  other  branch  under  the  same  direction  will  follow 
the  course  of  former  years  by  investigating  the  principal  geo- 
logical features  in  the  neighbourhood  of  London.  Full  particulars 
can  be  had  by  intending  students  on  application  to  Messrs.  G. 
Philip  and  Son,  32  Fleet  Street,  and  from  many  booksellers  ir» 
the  suburbs. 

The  additions  to  the  Zoological  Society's  Gardens  during  the 
past  week  include  a  Shining  Parrakeet  {Pyrrhidopsis  splendens) 
from  the 'Fiji  Islands;  two  Banded  Grass  Finches  {Poephila 
cinda) ;  two  Bicheno's  Finches  {Estrelda  bichenovii)  from 
Queensland  ;  two  Mandarin  Ducks  {^x  galericulata)  frona 
China,  purchased  ;  a  white-fronted  Lemur  {Lemur  albifrons 
born  in  the  Gardens. 


520 


NATURE 


[March  29,  1888 


OUR  ASTRONOMICAL  COLUMN. 
The  Pulkowa  Catalogue  of  3542  Stars  for  1855. — Dr. 
Backlund  has  given  in  the  "  Melanges  Mathematiques  et  Astrono- 
miques  "  of  the  St.  Petersburg  Academy,  tome  vi.,  pp.  563-99, 
a  comparison  of  the  star  places  of  the  Pulkowa  Catalogue  of 
3542  stars  for  1855,  with  those  of  the  other  Pulkowa  star 
catalogues,  including  the  unpublished  one  for  1875  by  Herr 
Romberg,  as  well  as  with  the,  catalogues  of  Becker,  Boss,  and 
Resphigi.  This  catalogue,  which  forms  part  of  vol.  viii.  of  the 
Pulkowa  observations,  contains  the  mean  places  of  3542  stars 
observed  with  the  meridian-circle  of  that  Observatory  during  the 
years  1840-69.  It  includes  all  the  Bradley  stars  north  of  S. 
Decl.  15°,  with  the  exception  of  the  Pulkowa  fundamental  stars, 
which  have  not  been  included  because  the  catalogue-places 
depend  on  their  positions  as  determined  with  the  transit-instru- 
ment and  vertical  circle.  And  as  the  definitive  positions  of  the 
present  catalogue  depend  on  the  two  catalogues  of  fundamental 
stars  for  1845  and  1865,  it  appears  that  the  system  of  the 
catalogue  for  the  epoch  1855  will  be  practically  identical  with 
that  of  the  mean  of  the  two  catalogues  above  mentioned.  Dr. 
Backlund's  comparisons  give  a  very  favourable  view  of  the 
accuracy  with  which  the  relative  positions  of  the  stars  have  been 
determined,  the  probable  error  of  an  R.A.  in  the  1855  catalogue 
being  ±  o'"034  for  a  star  south  of  N.  Decl.  30°,  and  of  a  declina- 
tion ±  o"-30  ;  but  they  also  show  that  the  problem  of  the 
determination  of  absolute  positions  is  in  a  far  less  satisfactory 
state.  A  further  comparison  of  the  Pulkowa  1855  catalogue  has 
been  made  by  Herr  Seyboth  {Astr.  Nacli.  2808),  the  catalogue 
with  which  it  has  been  compared  being  that  of  the  Cape 
Observatory  for  1880.  The  agreement  appears  to  be  as  close  as 
could  be  expected  considering  the  unfavourable  position  at  either 
Observatory  of  several  of  the  stars  used  ;  the  Pulkowa  star  places 
south  of  the  equator  show,  however,  some  discordance  from 
those  obtained  at  the  Cape  as  also  from  those  of  Boss's  standard 
catalogue.  From  a  comparison  of  the  fundamental  stars  only, 
Herr  Seyboth  finds  for  the  probable  error  of  the  Cape  places 
±  o'02is.  in  R.A,,  and  ±  o'38s.  in  Decl. 

The  Constant  of  Precession  and  the  Proper  Motion 
OF  THE  Solar  System. — The  completion  of  Auwers'  re-reduc- 
tion of  Bradley's  observations,  and  of  the  definitive  catalogue 
based  thereupon,  taken  together  with  the  catalogue  of  3542  stars 
and  the  two  fundamental  catalogues  referred  to  in  the  preceding 
note,  has  furnished  M.  L.  Struve  with  the  means  for  a  very  im- 
portant investigation,  which  he  has  recently  published  in  vol. 
XXXV.  of  the  Memoires  of  the  Imperial  Academy  of  St.  Peters- 
burg. The  epoch  for  Bradley's  catalogue  being  1755,  ^^^^  t^^ 
mean  date  of  the  three  catalogues  just  mentioned,  1855,  M.  Struve 
had  at  his  disposal  the  places  of  all  Bradley's  stars  north  of  S. 
Decl.  15°  for  two  epochs  a  century  apart.  The  differences  of 
these  places  would  be  due  to  a  combination  of  three  causes  :  the 
actual  proper  motions  of  the  stars,  the  movement  of  the  solar 
system,  and  the  error  in  the  constant  of  precession  employed  ;  and 
they  therefore  furnish  the  means  of  determining  both  the  true 
value  of  the  precession  constant  and  the  direction  and  rapidity 
of  the  motion  of  translation  of  the  solar  system.  In  his  discus- 
sion of  his  materials,  M.  Struve  has  followed  the  method  adoped 
by  Sir  G.  Airy  in  his  treatment  of  the  same  problem  (Memoirs 
R.A.S.,  vol.  xxviii.),  and  determined  all  his  unknowns  at  the 
same  time.  As  after  excluding  all  those  stars  which  rest  upon 
but  one  observation  of  Bradley,  together  with  a  few  others  omitted 
for  special  reasons— seven  for  their  large  proper  motion, — there 
still  remained  2509  stars,  with  2181  proper  motions  in  R.A.,  and 
2345  in  Decl.,  without  some  method  of  grouping,  the  equations 
of  condition  would  have  been  too  numerous  for  manipulation. 
M.  Struve  has  therefore  marked  off  seven  zones,  each  15°  in 
breadth,  and  divided  these  by  lines  of  right  ascension  into  120 
spherical  trapezia  of  nearly  equal  areas.  Each  group  has  been 
weighted  according  to  the  number  of  the  stars  it  contains,  and 
also  according  to  their  magnitudes,  so  as  to  reduce  the  influence 
of  the  brighter  stars.  The  solution  of  the  equations  of  con- 
dition by  the  method  of  least  squares  shows  very  nearly  the  same 
correction  to  the  adopted  constant  of  precession, — that  of  Prof. 
O.  Struve,  of  1841,  viz.  50" -3 798, —from  the  proper  motions  in 
right  ascension  as  from  those  in  declination,  the  resulting  value 
for  the  constant  being  5o"'35i4,  not  so  small  a  value  as  Nyren's, 
50" -3269,  but  smaller  than  those  of  Bessel,  Dreyer,  and  Bolte. 
The  equating  of  X,  Y,  and  Z  to  zero  in  the  normal  equations 
gives  a  result  substantially  the  same,  and  proves  that  the  constant 
can  be  considered  as  independent  of  the  motion  of  the  solar 
system. 


For  the  speed  of  translation  of  the  solar  system,  M.  Struve 
finds  q  —  +  4" -3642  ;  for  the  co-ordinates  of  the  apex  of  the 
motion,  A  =  273°  21',  and  D  =  -f  27°  19'.  Comparing  the 
various  determinations  which  have  been  made  by  other 
astronomers,  he  is  disposed  to  adopt  as  a  mean  position 
of  the  apex — A  —  266° 7,  D  =  -f  3i°-o.  For  q,  the  displace- 
ment of  the  sun  in  100  years  as  seen  from  an  average  star 
of  the  sixth  magnitude,  a  number  of  investigators,  O.  Struve, 
Dunkin,  Gylden,  and  Madler,  have  found  values  not  greatly 
differing  from  5";  but  others,  Ubaghs,  Airy,  Rancken,  and 
Bischof,  obtain  very  different  results,  varying  from  q  =  l"'45  by 
Ubaghs,  io  q  —  49"'S  by  Bischof.  Taking  o"-oii  as  the  mean 
parallax  of  a  star  of  the  sixth  magnitude,  q  —  5"  would  represent 
an  annual  motion  of  about  five  radii  of  the  earth's  orbit,  or  a 
velocity  of  a  little  over  15  miles  per  second.  It  is  clear,  how- 
ever, that  we  are  yet  far  from  being  in  a  position  to  regard  these 
estimates  of  velocity  as  more  than  provisional. 

The  chief  difficulty  in  these  investigations  lies  in  our  ignorance 
of  the  actual  distances  of  the  stars  from  us,  and  even  of  their 
relative  distances.  M.  Struve  has  assumed  the  following  mean 
values  of  p — the  distance  of  the  star  from  the  sun — for  each  order 
of  magnitude,  the  sixth  magnitude  being  taken  as  unity  : — 
m.  m. 

1  ...      0-13  5      ...      070 

2  ...     0*23  6     ...     i-oo 

3  -     0-36  7     ...     1-49 

4  •.     0-51  8     ...     2-25 

and  adopting  8"  for  the  secular  proper  motion  of  a  sixth  magni- 
tude star,  the  scale  represents  to  some  extent  the  proper  motions 
actually  observed.  M.  Struve  has  also  discussed  the  question  of 
the  rotation  of  the  entire  sidereal  system  in  the  plane  of  the 
Milky  Way,  but  his  results  do  not  afford  any  support  to  the 
hypothesis,  and  it  has  been  neglected  in  the  general  investigation. 
At  the  end  of  the  memoir  M.  Struve  has  given  the  means  for 
the  calculation  of  the  general  and  planetary  precessions,  together 
with  their  secular  variations.  An  appendix  furnishes  a  list  of 
those  Bradley  stars  for  which  the  Pulkowa  catalogues  gave 
proper  motions  sensibly  different  from  those  deduced  by 
Auwers  from  the  Greenwich  and  Berlin  observations. 


Comet  1888a  (Sawerthal).  —  Dr.  B.  Mattheissen  gives 
{Astr.  Nach.  No.  2830)  the  following  ephemeris  from  Finlay's 
elements  for  this  object : — 

For  Berlin  midnight. 
1888.  R.A.  Decl.  Log  r.  Log  ^.     Bright- 

h.    m.    s.         o       /  ness. 

April      3      22  13  45      7  35-9  N.     9-8821       00728     0*83 
5  20  12      9  407 

7  26  36  n  39-3  9  "9035      00934    0-68 

9  32  55  13  317 

II  39    8  15  18-4  9*9267      0-1134    0-56 

13  45  17  16  59-5 

15  51  21  18  35-7  99507      01328    4-46 

17      22  57  19  20    6-9 

19      23    3  u  21  335  N.     99749      01513    0-38 
The  brightness  on  February  18  has  been  taken  as  unity. 


ASTRONOMICAL  PHENOMENA.  FOR  THE 

WEEK  1888  APRIL    1-7. 

/"pOR  the  reckoning  of  time  the  civil  day,  commencing  at 

^  Greenwich  mean  midnight,  counting  the  hours  on  to  24, 

is  here  employed.) 

At  Greenwich  on  April  i 
Sun  rises,  5h.  36m. ;  souths,  I2h.  3m.  45 'Ss.  ;  sets,  i8h.  32m.  : 
right  asc.  on  meridian,  oh.  44  ■9m.  ;  decl.  4°  49'  N. 
Sidereal  Time  at  Sunset,  7h.  14m. 
Moon  (at  Last  Quarter  April  3,  I3h.)  rises,  23h.  28m.*  j 
souths,  4h.  2m.  ;  sets,  8h.  30m.  :  right  asc.  on  meridian, 
i6h.  41 'Sm, ;  decl.  17°  59'  S. 

Right  asc.  and  declination 
Planet.         Rises.  Souths.  Sets.  on  meridian. 

h.  m.     h.  m.     h.  m.     h.   m.       o   / 
Mercury..  5  o  ...  10  24  ...  15  48  ...  23  5-3  ...  7  48  S. 

Venus 5  o  ...  10  28  ...  15  56  ...  23  9*1  ...  6  54  S. 

Mars 19  34*...  o  59  ...  6  24  ...  13  38-1  ...  7  32  S. 

Jupiter...,  23  25*...  3  38  ...  7  51  ...  16  i8-i  ...  20  23  S. 
Saturn....  11  26  ...  19  25  ...  3  24*...  8  7-6  ...  20  49  N. 
Uranus...  18  42*...  o  18  ...  5  54  ...  12  57-7  ...  5  25  S. 
Neptune.,  7  22  ...  15  3  ..  22  44  ...  3  44-9  ...  18  8  N. 

*  Indicates  that  the  rising  is  that  of  the  preceding  evening  and  the  setting 
that  of  the  following  morning. 


March  29,  1888] 


NA  TURE 


521 


)ri!. 

k. 

I 

0 

2 

21 

4     • 

•       13 

Mercury  at  greatest  distance  fiom  the  Sun. 
Venus  at  greatest  distance  from  the  Sun. 
Uranus  in  opposition  to  the  Sun. 
Saturn,  April    l. — Outer  major  axis  of  outer  ring  =  42" '8  ; 
outer  minor  axis  of  outer  ring  =  1 5" "5  :  southern  surface  visible. 


Variable  Stars. 

Star. 

R.A. 

»      h.      m. 

Decl. 

h. 

m. 

U  Cephei     ... 

..      0  52-4  . 

.  8i  16  N. 

...  Apr. 

2, 

4  43  '« 

,, 

7, 

4 

22  ni 

R  Lyncis     ... 

..     6  521  .. 

•  55  29  N. 

,, 

2, 

M 

R  Canis  Minoris. 

••     7    2-5  .. 

.  10  12  N. 

,, 

5, 

m 

R  Canis  Majoris. 

..     7  14-5  •• 

.  16  12  S. 

,, 

3. 

21 

15  m 

S  Canis  Minoris  . 

..     7  26-6  .. 

.    8  33  N. 

>» 

5. 

in 

R  Virginis   ...     . 

..  12  32-8  . 

.    7  36  N. 

...     ,, 

7, 

M 

5  Librae        ...      . 

..  14  55-0  .. 

.    8    4S. 

>> 

3. 

23 

22  m 

U  Ophiuchi...     . 

..  17  10-9  .. 

.     I  20  N. 

>> 

I, 

6, 

I 
2 

35  m 
II  in 

X  Sagittarii...     . 

-  17  40-5   • 

.  27  47  S. 

I, 

4 

oM 

THerculis,..     . 

.   18    4-9  .. 

.31     0  N. 

...     ,, 

I, 

m 

/3  Lyrae 

..  18  460  .. 

■  33  14  N. 

...     ,, 

6, 

0 

0    »/2 

R  Lyr*        ...     . 

..  18  51-9.. 

.  43  48  N. 

,, 

2, 

m 

Tj  Aquilae      ...     . 

..   19  468  .. 

.    0  43  N. 

M 

2, 

3 

0  M 

T  Capricorni 

.  21  15-8  .. 

.  15  38  s. 

>> 

4, 

M 

5  Cephei      ...     . 

..  22  25-0  .. 

•  57  51  N. 

,, 

3. 

I 

0  AI 

R  Lacertse   ...     . 

.  22  38-3  •• 

•  41  47  N. 

...          ,, 

7, 

M 

iy  signifies  maximum  ;  tn  minimum  ;  m^  secondary 

minimum 

Aleteor-  Showers. 

R.A. 

Decl. 

Near  v  Virginis 

175 

...        7N. 

...  Brie 

ht; 

slow. 

,,     €  Delphini 

305 

...       12  N. 

...   Brig 

ht; 

•slo 

w. 

THE  ROYAL  METEOROLOGICAL  SOCIETY S 
EXHIBITION. 

■pOR  several  years  past  the  Royal  Meteorological  Society  has 
"  organized  an  Exhibition  of  Meteorological  Instruments  in 
connection  with  its  ordinary  meeting  in  March.  The  first  Ex- 
hibition, which  was  held  in  1880,  wa.s  of  a  general  character; 
the  subsequent  ones,  however,  have  been  devoted  to  the  follow- 
ing special  subjects,  viz.  hygrometers,  anemometers,  travellers' 
instruments,  thermometers,  sunshine  recorders  and  radiation  in- 
struments, barometers,  and  marine  meteorological  instruments. 

The  subject  selected  for  this  year's  Exhibition  was  atmospheric 
electricity,  including  new  meteorological  instruments.  The 
Exhibition  was  held  in  the  rooms  of  the  Institution  of  Civil  En- 
gineers, 25  Great  George  Street,  Westminster,  from  March  20 
to  23,  and  was  of  a  most  interesting  character.  The  catalogue 
embraced  155  exhibits,  which  were  arranged  under  the  following 
heads  : — Electrometers,  lightning  conductors,  lightning  pro- 
tectors for  telegraph  purposes,  objects  damaged  by  lightning,  &c.  ; 
alleged  thunderbolts,  new  instruments,  photographs  of  flashes 
of  lightning,  and  photographs,  drawings,  &c. 

The  Astronomer-Royal  exhibited  all  the  apparatus  for  atmo- 
spheric electricity  which  was  formerly  in  use  at  the  Royal 
Observatory,  Greenwich.  These  instruments  were  mounted  so 
as  to  show  the  manner  in  which  they  were  actually  arranged  fur 
observation. 

The  Kew  Committee  also  exhibited  a  number  of  electro- 
meters which  were  employed  by  Sir  Francis  Ronalds  at  the  Kew 
Observatory  from  1843  to  1851.  These  are  fully  described  in 
the  Report  of  the  British  Association  for  1844.  Several  forms 
of  Thomson's  portable  electrometer  were  also  shown.  The 
electricity  in  this  instrument  is  collected  by  means  of  a  burning 
fuse  at  the  extremity  of  a  vertical  wire.  Prof.  F.  Exner,  of 
Vienna,  sent  his  portable  apparatus  for  the  determination  of  the 
normal  potential  in  the  open  air  and  while  travelling. 

Numerous  patterns  of  lightning  conductors  were  exhibited  by 
Messrs.  J.  W.  Gray  and  Son,  Messrs.  R.  Anderson  and  Co., 
Messrs.  John  Davis  and  Son,  and  also  by  the  Lightning  Rod  Con- 
ference. Models  of  churches,  houses,  chimney-shafts,  &c. 
showed  the  systems  adopted  for  securing  protection  from 
damage  by  lightning.  Messrs.  Siemens,  Brothers,  and  Co.,  also 
exhibited  their  apparatus  for  testing  the  efficiency  of  lightning 
conductors. 

The  Postal   Telegraph    Department    showed    a   number   of 


lightning    protectors  which  are   used  for  protecting  telegraph 
instruments. 

The  Exhibition  contained  many  objects  damaged  by  lightning, 
including  lightning  conductors,  telegraph  instruments  and  line 
wire,  and  portions  of  trees  struck  by  lightning.  The  most  in- 
teresting exhibit,  however,  was  that  showing  the  clothes  of  a 
man  torn  off  his  body  by  lightning  on  June  8,  1878,  while  stand- 
ing under  a  tree.  These  comprise  a  flannel  jac'Ket,  flannel  under- 
vest,  trouser.'^,  stockings,  garters,  boots,  and  watch  ;  also  a  portion 
of  the  bark  from  the  tree. 

A  valuable  collection  of  meteorites  was  also  shown,  the 
specimens  being  from  various  parts  of  the  world,  and  one  show- 
ing the  Widmanstatten  figures.  A  number  of  alleged  "thunder- 
bolts "  were  also  exhibited.  These  were  of  an  amusing  character  ; 
the  specimens  being  in  reality  nothing  more  than  a  large  nodule 
of  sandstone,  a  cannon-ball,  a  piece  of  coal,  clinkers,  &c.  Mr. 
Symons,  at  the  meeting  of  the  Society,  showed  that  these  were 
really  of  a  terrestrial,  and  not  a  celestial,  nature. 

One  of  the  special  features  of  the  Exhibition  was  the  very  in- 
teresting collection  of  more  than  fifty  photographs  of  flashes  of 
lightning  which  have  been  collected  from  all  parts  of  the  world. 
These  show  that  lightning  does  not  take  the  zigzag  path  as  de- 
picted by  artists  and  painters.  The  lightning  really  takes  a  very 
sinuous  and  sometimes  erratic  path.  Some  of  the  photographs 
had  been  enlarged  specially  for  the  Exhibition,  and  showed  up 
10  great  advantage.  In  some  cases  the  photographs  showed  the 
lightning  to  be  not  merely  a  line  of  light,  but  to  have  a  per- 
ceptible breadth,  somewhat  resembling  a  piece  of  tape  waved  in 
the  air.  A  large  number  of  the  photographs  were  taken  in 
London  during  the  great  thunderstorm  of  August  17,  1887.  One 
of  the  photographs  taken  by  Mr.  E.  S.  Shepherd  shows  the 
remarkable  phenomenon  of  a  dark  flash. 

Mr.  Symons  exhibited  three  diagrams  of  lightning  made  by 
Mr.  James  Nasmyth,  F. R. S.,  in  1856,  showing  (i)  Nature's 
lightning  ;  (2)  painter's  lightning  ;  and  (3)  forked  lightning.  On 
com.paring  these  drawings  with  the  photographs  of  lightning,  it 
is  at  once  apparent  what  a  keen  eye  Mr.  Nasmyth  must  have 
had,  for  the  agreement  is  exceedingly  close. 

Several  new  meteorological  instruments  were  exhibited.  Mr.  W. 
H.  Dines  showed  a  maximum  wind  pressure  anemometer.  This 
has  a  circular  plate,  which  is  always  kept  face  to  the  wind,  at 
the  back  of  which  is  a  vessel  containing  shot.  The  pressure  of 
the  wind  forces  back  the  plate,  and  allows  shot  to  fall  from  the 
higher  to  the  lower  part  of  the  vessel.  As  soon  as  the  weight  of 
the  shot  in  the  lower  vessel  is  equal  to  the  whole  pressure  on  the 
plate,  the  plate  resumes  its  normal  position,  and  the  opening 
through  which  the  shot  falls  is  closed.  The  weight  of  the  shot 
in  the  lower  vessel  gives  the  maximum  pressure  since  the  instru- 
ment was  last  read.  Mr.  G.  H.  Larkins  showed  some  rain- 
band  spectroscopes  with  Tripe's  arrangement.  The  improve- 
ments in  this  instrument  over  the  ordinary  form  of  direct-vision 
spectroscope  are  :  (1)  that  it  gives  uniform  light  and  dispersion, 
and  also  better  definition  of  the  lines  ;  (2)  that  as  the  slit  is  of 
uniform  width,  observations  made  with  this  form  of  instrument 
are  comparable  with  each  other  ;  and  (3)  that  the  focussing  tube 
can  be  fixed  by  a  revolving  clamp  and  kept  ready  for  use. 

Dr.  Marcet  exhibited  Prof.  Colladon's  instrument  for  illus- 
trating the  formation  of  waterspouts.  This  consists  of  a  large 
glass  vessel,  at  the  bottom  of  which  has  been  scattered  some 
dust  somewhat  heavier  than  the  water.  The  motion  given  to  a 
handle  turns  a  wheel  which  imparts  to  the  water  a  circular 
motion.  The  dust  is  then  drawn  up  from  the  bottom  in  a 
column,  and  looks  exactly  like  a  waterspout  or  a  sand  pillar. 

Mr.  J.  B.  Jordan  showed  one  of  his  new  pattern  photographic 
sunshine  recorders  (in  which  he  now  obtains  a  straight  record 
instead  of  a  curved  one),  and  also  that  devised  by  Dr.  J.  Maurer, 
of  the  Swiss  Central  Observatory,  Zurich. 

Mr.  G.  M.  Whipple  exhibited  his  repeating  cloud  camera, 
which  has  been  designed  for  obtaining  a  series  of  four  photo- 
graphs of  the  same  cloud  at  short  intervals  of  time,  in  order  to 
show  rapid  changes  of  form. 

Numerous  photographs  of  damage  by  lightning  were  shown, 
as  well  as  several  records  of  atmospheric  electricity  taken  at  the 
Greenwich  and  Kew  Observatories  during  thunderstorms  and 
snowstorms.  Messrs.  Norman  May  and  Co.,  exhibited  two 
beautiful  photographs  taken  from  the  top  of  the  Worcestershire 
Beacon  (1390  feet  above  sea-level),  about  700  feet  above  the 
general  level  of  the  fog  which  covered  the  whole  of  the  surround- 
ing country,  on  January  12  last.  Above  the  fog  there  was  bright 
sunshine. 


522 


NATURE 


\March  29,  1888 


Mr.  R.  Abercromby  and  Mons.  C.  Moussette  each  exhibited 
some  very  fine  photographs  of  clouds  ;  and  Mr.  J.  S.  Dyason 
showed  a  number  of  sketches  of  skies  in  colour, 

William  Marriott. 


THE  BOTANICAL  DEPARTMENT,  NORTHERN 
INDIA. 

T  TP  to  the  year  1874-75,  the  Botanical  Gardens  at  Saharanpur 
^  and  the  Botanical  Officer  in  charge  of  them  were  Imperial, 
i.e.  were  under  the  control  of  the  Supreme  Government.  In 
1875,  under  the  scheme  of  decentralization  by  which  the  inde- 
pendent powers  of  local  Governments  were  considerably  increased, 
the  charge  of  the  Saharanpur  (Botanical)  Institute  became  pro- 
vincial, and  passed  under  the  authority  of  the  Lieutenant-Governor 
of  the  North-Western  Provinces  and  Oudh. 

In  1887  the  subject  of  reorganizing  the  Botanical  Survey  in 
India  was  taken  up  in  connection  with  the  memorandum,  dated 
February  10,  1885,  by  Mr.  Thiselton  Dyer,  Director  of  the 
Royal  Gardens,  Kew,  and  after  consultation  with  the  Govern- 
ment of  the  North-Westem  Provinces  and  Oudh  and  the 
Superintendents  of  the  Botanical  Gardens,  Howrah  and 
Saharanpur,  the  Government  of  India  determined  that  the 
most  important  step  which  it  was  desirable  to  take  in  order  to 
bring  the  hitherto  unexplored  regions  of  India  under  botanical 
survey  was  to  expand  the  circle,  for  the  botanical  investigation 
of  which  the  Saharanpur  Officer  was  responsible,  so  as  to  bring 
the  greater  part  of  Upper  India  within  the  sphere  of  his  duties. 
In  order  to  effect  this  object  it  became  necessary  to  restore  the 
Saharanpur  Botanist  to  his  former  position  as  an  Imperial  officer. 
A  further  reason  for  this  change  was  found  in  the  necessity  for 
maintaining,  at  the  disposal  of  the  Government  of  India,  the 
services  of  a  Botanical  Officer  with  a  specially  trained  staff  for 
the  purpose  of  accompanying  expeditions  in  the  neighbourhood 
of  or  beyond  our  north-western  frontier.  These  duties  have 
now  been  attached  to  Mr.  Duthie,  the  officer  who  holds  the 
Saharanpur  appointment. 

The  transfer  took  effect  from  April  I,  18S7.  But  the  Gardens, 
with  the  assistant,  Mr.  Gollan,  who  was  brought  out  in  1879, 
were  not  placed  under  Imperial  control,  but  still  remained  pro- 
vincial. The  Imperial  Botanist  is  therefore  now  divorced  from 
the  Curatorship  of  the  Gardens,  which  has  passed,  under  the 
general  control  of  the  Director  of  the  Provincial  Department  of 
Agriculture,  into  the  hands  of  the  former  assistant.  The 
Botanical  Officer  retains  his  occupation  of  the  house  and 
Botanical  Museum  (with  the  Herbarium),  but  has  no  longer  any 
connection  with  the  practical  management  of  the  surrounding 
gardens. 

The  Botanical  Officer  retains  under  his  control  the  whole  of 
the  native  staff  connected  with  the  Museum  and  its  Herbarium, 
as  well  as  the  native  artist  (now  drawing  Rs.  loo  a  month),  who  j 
was  trained  at  the   Bombay  School  of   Art   specially  for   the 
Saharanpur  Institution. 


THE  NE  W  SIBERIAN  ISLANDS^ 

'T'HE  Expedition  of  MM.  Bunge  and  Toll,  who  have  explored 
•*■  the  lower  Yana  and  the  islands  of  New  Siberia  during  the 
last  two  years,  was  sent  out  by  the  Russian  Academy  of 
Sciences.  Hedenstrom's  description  of  the  masses  of  petrified 
wood  which  is  found  on  these  islands,  and  the  information 
gathered  from  the  hunters  as  to  the  richness  of  the  archipelago 
in  remains  of  Quaternary  mammals,  were  the  chief  induce- 
ments for  sending  out  the  Expedition.'^  The  Expedition  consisted 
of  Dr.  Bunge,  who  had  just  terminated  his  two  years'  stay  at  the 
Sagastyr  Polar  station  at  the  mouth  of  the  Lena ;  Baron  Toll  ; 
two  Cossacks,  four  Yakuts,  and  two  Tunguses.  After  having 
explored  the  region  at  the  mouth  of  the  Yana  during  the  summer 
of  1885,^  and  spent  the  winter  at  the  Kazatchie  settlement, 
twenty  miles  to  the  south  of  Ust-Yansk,  the  Expedition  started 
in  the  spring  for  the  New  Siberian  Islands,  and  for  better 
exploring  them  divided  into  two  parties.  Dr.  Bunge  undertook 
the  exploration  of  the  southern  islands  of  the  archipelago,  and 

'  See  the  Preliminary  Report  by  A.  Bunge  in  the  Izvestia  of  the 
Russian  Geographical  Society,  vol.  xxiii.  1885,  5th  fascicule. 

^  See  Dr.  Schrenck's  "  Zur  Vorgeschichte  der  von  der  Akademie  ausge- 
riisteten  Expedition,"  in  Beitrdge  ztir  Kenniiss  des  Kussischeti  Reictis,  3te 
Folge,  1886. 

3  The  account  of  the  explorations  in  the  Yana  region  has  appeared  in  the 
Beitrdge  zur  Kenntniss  des  Russischen  Reichs,  1886. 


especially  of  the  small  Lyakhoff  Island,  while  Baron  Toll 
explored  the  northern  islands  (Kotelnyi,  Thaddeus,  and  New 
Siberia),  usually  called  the  Anjou  Islands. 

Owing  to  some  misunderstanding  Dr.  Bunge  did  not  find  his 
reindeer  on  the  small  Lyakhoff  Island,  which  was  his  chief 
station  ;  and,  until  June  14,  he  was  compelled  to  limit  his  ex- 
plorations to  a  few  excursions  only.  He  saw  large  flocks  of 
ducks  coming  from  the  north — that  is,  from  what  is  an  open 
sea  on  our  maps,  while  several  'species  of  Lams  and  Totanus 
came  from  the  south.  As  a  rule,  few  birds  cross  to  Little 
Lyakhoff  Island  in  their  migrations  ;  only  geese  come  by  the 
end  of  June,  and  as  they  moult  on  the  shores  of  the  small  lakes 
and  ponds  of  the  island,  they  are  killed  in  great  numbers  by  the 
hunters. 

The  winter  lasts  on  the  Little  Lyakhoff  Island  until  the  first 
part  of  June,  and  returns  again  in  October.  On  October  16 
the  frost  was  already  -37°  C.,  but  even  during  the  summer 
10°  C.  over  zero  is  considered  a  very  hot  temperature ; 
and  in  July  there  were  thirteen  days  with  snow,  fifteen  with  fog, 
four  with  rain,  and  one  snowstorm. 

And  yet  organic  life  develops  with  astonishing  rapidity.  The 
first  flowers  were  seen  on  June  li,  and  Dr.  Bunge's  collection 
of  phanerogams  numbers  seventy  species  ;  but  all  plants  are 
dwarfs,  hardly  reaching  a  few  inches,  while  the  soil,  even  in  the 
best  situated  places,  thaws  only  to  the  depth  of  16  inches.  The 
water  of  the  small  ponds  is  so  much  warmed  by  the  rays  of  the 
sun,  that  temperatures  of  from  10°  to  16°  C.  were  observed, 
and  therefore  worms  and  Crustacea  rapidly  develop  in  the 
ponds.  The  insects  are  few  ;  even  the  mosquitoes  do  not  plague 
men  and  cattle  as  they  do  on  the  continent ;  still,  two  butter- 
flies were  caught.  As  to  mammals,  herds  of  reindeer  come 
every  year  from  the  continent  to  the  islands,  but  in  smaller  num- 
bers than  formerly  ;  they  are  followed  by  wolves.  The  snow 
fox  is  very  common,  but  the  common  fox  and  hare  are  exceed- 
ingly rare  visitors  to  the  islands.  The  Polar  bear  has  become 
of  late  very  rare,  and  hunters  attribute  this  to  the  fact  that  the 
ice  has  remained  unbroken  for  several  yeas  past.  They  affirm 
that  the  ice  around  the  coasts  has  not  moved  since  the  year 
when  Nordenskiold  sailed  through  in  the  Vega,  and  Dr.  Bunge 
doubts  whether  it  will  soon  be  possible  to  repeat  the  same 
journey. 

The  chief  interest  of  the  island  is  in  its  masses  of  fossil  bones 
buried  in  the  frozen  soil.  Bones  of  the  mammoth,  rhinoceros, 
Bos  inoschiferus,  two  other  species  of  Bos,  several  species  of 
Cervtis,  very  many  bones  of  Equus,  and  several  others,  were 
found,  and  brought  in  by  Dr.  Bunge.  The  rocks  of  which  the 
island  is  built  are  granite  and  sedimentary  rocks  without  fossils. 

Baron  Toll's  expedition  was  much  richer  in  results.  It 
appears  from  his  surveys  that  the  Kotelnyi  Island  extends 
much  farther  east  than  is  shown  on  our  maps,  and  that  it 
is  connected  with  Thaddeus  Island  by  a  sandy  beach.  It 
would  be  most  interesting  to  know  how  far  this  circumstance 
is  due  to  the  upheaval  of  the  islands,  which  is  sure  to  go  on  like 
the  upheaval  of  all  the  northern  coast  of  Siberia,  But  the 
most  important  discovery  is,  that  the  masses  of  fossil  wood 
which  were  found  on  Thaddeus  Island  proved  to  be  Tertiary, 
and  not  Quaternary,  as  has  hitherto  been  supposed.  They  belong 
to  layers  of  Tertiary  coal,  and  fossil  Sequoia  were  found  amidst 
them.  We  have  thus  a  new  proof  that  the  great  Tertiary  con- 
tinent which  possessed  a  warm  climate,  well  known  from  Oswald 
Heer's  description,  included  not  only  Greenland,  Spitzbergen, 
and  Novaya  Zemlya,  but  also  the  New  Siberian  Arcliipelago,  more 
than  90°  of  longitude  to  the  east  of  Novaya  Zemlya.  Geology 
must  explain  the  existence  of  this  warm  climate  beyond  the 
75th  degree  of  latitude,  at  a  period  so  closely  preceding  that  of 
the  glaciation  of  the  northern  hemisphere. 

Finally,  Baron  Toll,  after  having  made  rich  zoological, 
botanical,  and  palseontological  collections — Silurian,  Devonian, 
and  Triassic  deposits  being  found  on  the  Kotelnyi  Island, — 
reached  the  northern  extremity  of  the  island  under  the  76th 
degree  of  la'itude,  and  thence  he  saw  the  land  which  was 
seen  eighty  years  ago  by  Sannikoff,  and  has  since  periodically 
appeared  on,  and  disappeared  from,  our  maps.  It  exists,  and  it 
is  situated  nearly  a  hundred  miles  (150  versts)  due  north,  off  the 
northern  extremity  of  the  Kotelnyi  Island. 

If  we  take  into  account  the  facts  that  there  are  serious  reasons 
for  admitting  the  existence  of  a  land  to  the  north  of  Novaya 
Zemlya,!  and  that  the  existence  of  Sannikoff's  Land  is  now  agam 

I  See  the  "  Report  of  the  Commission  for  an  Arctic  Expedition  "  in  the 
Izvestia,  of  the  Russian  Geographical  Society,  1871. 


March  29,  1888] 


NATURE 


523 


confirmed,  we  must  recognize  that  the  discovery  of  Franz 
Joseph's  Land  was  but  a  first  step  towards  the  discovery  of  the 
Arctic  archipelagoes  which  undoubtedly  exist  under  and  within 
the  80th  degree  of  latitude.  P-  A,  K. 


EARTHQUAKES  IN  THE  LEVANT^ 

THE  Island  of  Zante,  in  the  Ionian  Group,  to  the  north-west 
of  the  Gulf  of  Arcadia,  is  a  centre  from  which  no 
fewer  than  seven  submarine  cables  radiate,  and  Mr.  Forster 
has  taken  advantage  of  his  position  as  manager  of  the  station 
to  make  some  interesting  observations  of  the  connection 
between  interruptions  of  the  cables  and  the  occurrence  of  earth- 
quakes, which  are  more  frequent,  he  says,  in  the  Levant  than  in 
any  other  part  of  the  world,  except  Japan.  The  notes  of  what 
he  has  himself  observed  are  valuable  and  suggestive,  but  un- 
fortunately he  has  made  them  a  peg  on  which  to  hang  a  theory 
that  the  "  true  and  only  reason  for  seismic  disturbances  "is  that 
landslips  and  subsidences  occur  in  ocean  beds.  Soundings  of 
the  bed  of  the  Mediterranean,  made  chiefly  in  the  interest  of 
cable-laying,  have  brought  to  light  extraordinarily  rapid  variations 
of  depth.  In  one  case,  Mr.  Forster  tells  us,  the  repairing  ship 
of  his  company  found  a  difference  of  1500  feet  between  the  bow 
and  stern  soundings.  "  We  know  of  mushroom-shaped  moun- 
tain ranges,  abrupt  and  precipitous  table-lands,  immense  mar- 
ginal shdves  and  overhanging  cliffs.  .  .  .  We  know  by 
'soundings  that  many  of  these  tottering  masses  are  hanging 
over  precipices  from  3000  to  5000  feet  in  height,  and  that 
the  erosion  of  the  water  at  the  base  of  the  inverted  cone-shaped 
rocks  eventually  causes  them  to  slide  over."  Mr,  Forster 
admits  that  a  secondary  cause  of  earthquakes  maybe  ^'explo- 
sions owing  to  the  filtration  of  water  through  the  crevices  and 
chasms  that  a  denudation  of  so  large  an  extent  must  necessarily 
cause."  He  has  done  good  service  in  drawing  attention  to  a 
cause  of  earthquakes  which  seismologists  may  have  been  dis- 
posed to  under-rate,  but  he  overstates  his  case  outrageously  in 
making  this  explanation  cover  every  example.  "I  am  pre- 
pared, of  course,"  he  says,  "  to  encounter  a  torrent  of  objections 
to  the  acceptation  of  my  theory  as  the  sole  cause  of  seismic 
disturbances"  {sic),  and  this  is  well. 

By  way  of  supporting  the  theory  he  has  written  a  long, 
rambling,  inconsequent  pamphlet,  the  manner  and  matter  of 
which  we  may  illustrate  by  quoting  a  paragraph  that  is  neither 
better  nor  worse  than  its  neighbours  : — 

"If,  therefore,  we  are  to  believe  that  the  process  of  cooling 
our  planet,  which  began  so  many  thousands  of  centuries  ago, 
is  gradually  and  surely  condensing  the  nucleus  of  liquid  or 
solid  fire  in  its  centre,  it  is  reasonable  to  assume  that  the  bed 
of  the  Mediterranean,  by  virtue  of  its  more  recent  formation, 
should  be  more  subject  to  thi  effects  of  the  contraction  of  the 
upper  crust  than  other  parts  which  have  gone  through  these 
periods  already  ;  because  it  is  evident  that  the  contraction  which 
originally  commenced  began  equally  so  over  the  whole  surface 
of  the  earth's  sub-crust,  and  was,  through  some  unknown  reason, 
abruptly  suspended  in  certain  parts  which  only  subsided  and 
very  suddenly  when  the  cooling  action  was  once  more  renewed,  " 

Or  this,  which  the  author  himself  puts  in  italics  : — 

"...  The  severity  of  the  concussion  is  ahvciys  precisely  pro- 
portionate to  the  bulk  of  the  falling  miss,  the  depth  of  its  fall, 
and  the  nature  of  the  matter  constituting  it,  and  on  to  -which  it 
falls.  ..." 

We  commend  the  following  to  the  attention  of  electricians, 
as  coming  from  one  of  their  own  number  : — 

"  By  '  freeing '  a  cable,  it  is  understood  that  the  end  opposite 
to  the  testing-station  is  detached  from  the  apparatus  and  left 
free  in  the  air  ;  and,  provided  the  cable  be  electrically  perfect, 
no  deflection  of  the  magnetic  needle  will  appear  at  the  testing- 
office  when  the  cable  is  joined  up  through  a  delicate  galvano- 
meter to  '  earth.'  If,  however,  the  cable  thus  insulated  is  lying 
near  to  or  in  the  direct  radius  of  a  volcano,  or  near  to  any  hot 
springs,  the  increased  temperature  would  cause  a  thermopile  to 
be  set  up,  and  by  induction  through  the  insulating  material  its 
presence  would  be  plainly  manifest." 

I  "Seistmlogy:  a  Paper  on  Earthquakes  in  General;  together  with  a 
New  TheDry  of  their  Origin,  developed  by  the  Introduction  of  Submarine 
Telegraphy."  By  W.  G.  Forster,  Manager  and  Electrician  to  the  Eastern 
Telegraph  Co:lloa^y,  Zante.  Deiicated,  by  Special  Authority,  to  His 
Majesty  George*  I.,  King  of  the  Hellenes.  Pp.  63.  (London:  Waterlow 
and  Sins,  1887.) 


The  fact  that  in  certain  earthquakes  the  author  made  this  test 
and  found  no  current,  is  used  as  an  argument  to  show  the 
"  absolutely  local  nature  "  of  what  in  another  place  he  calls  the 
^'centri"  of  the  shocks. 

What  is  of  real  value  are  his  positive  observations  of  certain 
cases  where  the  rupture  of  a  cable  or  the  production  of  a  bad 
fault  in  it  took  place  at  the  moment  an  earthquake  occurred,  and 
of  cases  where,  when  the  cable  came  to  be  repaired,  the  contour 
of  the  ocean  bed  was  found  to  have  undergone  a  distinct  change, 
the  cable  being,  in  more  than  one  instance,  actually  buried 
below  the  new  surface.  The  great  earthquake  which  destroyed 
Filialra  in  August  1886,  shook  the  telegraph  office  at  Zante 
so  sharply  that  the  clerk  rushed  out.  On  returning  to  his  Morse 
instrument,  he  found,  by  the  paper  band  which  was  still  run- 
ning, that  a  message  coming  from  Candia  had  been  interrupted  at 
the  time  of  the  shock,  and  tests  taken  immediately  after  showed 
a  dead  break  23  miles  from  Zante.  Other  cables,  following  a 
more  northerly  course,  were  not  disturbed.  In  another  instance 
a  cable  was  broken  at  once  in  two  places,  2  miles  apart,  ap- 
parently by  a  subsidence  of  the  ground  between.  Once,  when 
the  Zante-Trepito  cable  was  broken  by  an  earthquake  7 
miles  from  Zante,  the  repairing  ship  discovered  "  that  the  break 
had  occurred  in  a  depth  of  about  2000  feet  of  water,  where 
about  1400  feet  originally  existed,  and  it  was  impossible  to  haul 
in  the  broken  end,  firmly  jammed  down  by  the  mass  which  had 
fallen  over  and  upon  it." 

If  Mr.  Forster  had  contented  himself  with  telling  the  story  of 
facts  like  these,  which  have  come  within  his  own  observation, 
the  seismologist  would  have  felt  nothing  but  gratitude.  But 
these  grains  of  wheat  are  only  reached  after  wading  through  an 
intolerable  deal  of  wordy  chaff.  The  gist  of  the  pamphlet  is  to 
be  found  in  the  last  fifteen  or  twenty  pages,  and  we  advise  the 
reader  who  wishes  to  save  his  patience  to  go  to  them  at  once. 
We  conclude  by  quoting  an  interesting  passage  where  Mr.  Forster 
describes  two  natural  phenomena  of  Cephalonia,  about  which 
one  would  like  to  know  more  : — 

"Not  far  from  Lizuri,  which  is  on  the  western  side  of  the 
Bay  of  Argostoli,  is  a  moving  rock  which,  unchanged  by  the 
roughest  or  the  calmest  sea,  rocks  to  and  fro  with  the  regularity 
of  a  pendulum.  It  is  separated  from  a  fixed  mass  of  rock 
against  which  it  opens  and  shuts  in  its  perpetual  motion  ;  at  one 
time  it  will  jam  a  knife  placed  in  the  crevice,  from  which,  in  a  few 
seconds,  extraction  is  impossible,  whilst  the  next  moment  you 
can  easily  insert  your  bent  hand  when  its  maximum  aperture  has 
bsen  reached.  This  phenomenon  has  been  carefully  examined 
by  many  scientific  men  ;  divers  have  been  sent  below  to  ascer- 
tain if  it  be  the  result  of  a  detached  rock  from  a  neighbouring 
cliff  having  fallen  on  to  another,  and  thus  becoming  very 
finely  balanced,  as  all  logan  stones  usually  are.  However,  it 
was  not  only  shown  to  be  a  perfectly  solid  rock,  but  it  does  not 
require  the  motion  of  the  water  to  sway  it,  as  so  often  we  find  it 
erroneously  stated,  the  motive  power  for  swaying  it  being  fur- 
nished from  an  absolutely  inexplicable  cause.  Nearly  opposite 
to  this  rocking  stone  the  other  remarkable  phenomenon  is  to  be 
found,  consisting  of  a  body  of  water,  equal  in  bulk  to  about  half 
a  million  gallons  per  day,  running  in  from  the  sea  at  four 
points  on  the  coast  somewhat  rapidly  for  a  certain  distance  until 
it  gradually  becomes  sucked  into  the  earth  and  disappears.  By 
conducting  the  water  into  an  artificial  canal  for  a  few  yards,  and 
by  collecting  the  four  points  of  supply  into  one,  enough  motive 
power  is  obtained  to  drive  two  mills.  The  stream,  after  being 
thus  utilized,  is  allowed  to  follow  its  own  course,  and  is  lost 
among  the  rocks.   .  .  .  [It]  has  no  visible  outlet." 


THE  MINERAL  CONCRETION  OF  THE  TEAK 
TREE} 

AT  the  last  meeting  of  the  Nilgiri  Natural  History  Society 
Mr.  Lawson  showed  a  specimen  of  a  whitish  mineral  sub- 
stance found  in  a  teak  tree  growing  in  the  Government  Plantation 
at  Nilambur.  This  peculiar  secretion  is  not  altogether  unknown 
to  officers  in  the  Forest  Department,  and  its  composition  has  on 
more  than  one  occasion  been  investigated  by  chemists. 

In  1870  the  fact  of  calcareous  masses  occurring  in  timber  was 
brought  to  the  notice  of  the  Asiatic  Society  of  Bengal  by  Mr.  R. 
V.  Stoney,  who  stated  {vide  P.A.S.B.,  May  1S70,  p.  135)  that 
many  trees  in  Orissa  had  pieces  of  limestone  or  calcareous  tufa 

^  A  Paper  read  by  David  Hooper  at  a  meeting  of  the  Nilgiri  Natural 
H'st:)ry  Society,  Ootacamuiid,  November  7,  1887. 


524 


NA  TURE 


{March  29,  1888 


in  their  fissures,  but  principally  Asan  {Terminalia  tomentosa,  W. 
and  A.),  Swarm  {Zizyphus  rugosa.  Lam.),  Sissu  (Dalbergia  sissu, 
Roxb.),  and  Abnus  {Diospyros  melanoxylon,  Roxb.). 

In  1880,  Mr.  V.  Ball,  in  making  a  geological  survey  in  the 
Central  Provinces,  met  writh  this  concretion,  and  thus  alludes  to 
it  in  his  "Jungle  Life  in  India"  : — "  Some  white  marks  on  the 
cut  stumps  of  an  Asan  tree  caught  my  eye,  and  these  on  exam- 
ination proved  to  be  sections  or  laminae  of  calcareous  matter 
which  alternated  with  the  ordinary  rings  of  woody  growth. 
The  rocks  about  were  gneisses  and  schists,  and  I  could  discover 
nothing  in  the  soil  to  account  for  the  peculiarity.  In  some  cases 
irregularly  shaped  pieces  seven  inches  long  by  two  inches  thick 
were  met  in  the  trunks  at  a  height  of  about  six  feet  from  the 
ground.  By  the  natives  the  lime  is  burnt  and  used  for  chewing 
with  pan.  On  examination  it  was  found  there  was  no  structure 
in  these  masses  which  would  justify  a  conclusion  that  they  had 
been  formed  by  insects.  Some  included  portions  of  decayed 
wood  seemed  to  be  cemented  together  by  the  lime." 

Major-General  Morgan,  late  Deputy  Conservator  of  Forests, 
Madras,  speaks  of  it  in  the  following  terms  in  his  "  Forestry  of 
Southern  India"  : — "It  is  a  curious  fact  that  in  the  Wynaad, 
though  there  is  no  free  lime  in  the  soil,  yet  Teak  ( Tectona  grandis) 
and  Blackwood  {Dalbergia  latifolia),  if  wounded  near  the  ground, 
contrive  to  absorb  large  quantities  of  lime.  It  may  be  seen, 
incrusting  the  tree  on  the  surface  as  far  as  four  feet  in  height, 
from  three  inches  to  a  foot  in  width,  and  two  or  three  inches  in 
thickness.  The  lime  is  so  hard  that  it  destroys  circular  saws,  and 
the  Carumburs  use  it  for  chewing  with  betel." 

Abel,  in  1854,  thus  described  it :  "The  wood  of  teak,  which 
grows  in  the  South  of  India  and  other  tropical  countries,  fre- 
quently exhibits  cracks  and  cavities  of  considerable  extent  lined 
with  a  white  crystalline  deposit  consisting  chiefly  of  hydrocalcic 
orthophosphate,  CaHP04,H20,  with  about  11 '4  per  cent, 
ammonio-magnesium  phosphate"  (Chem.  Soc.  Q.J.  xv.  91.) 

This  white  deposit  in  the  wood  of  teak  has  also  been  examined 
by  Thoms,  who  found  it  to  consist  of  monocalcic  orthophosphate, 
CaHFOj  ("Landw.  Versuchs.  St."  xxii.  68,  xxiii.  413).  More 
recently  still  Prof.  Judd  has  found  in  teak  a  specimen  of  crystal- 
line apatite,  a  well-known  mineral  containing  a  large  proportion 
of  calcium  phosphate. 

"  The  formation  of  this  deposit  indicates  that  the  wood  itself 
must  contain  a  considerable  quantity  of  phosphoric  acid,  and  the 
analysis  shows  this  is  really  the  case,  as  the  ash  of  teak  wood  is 
composed  as  follows  : — 

CaO     MgO    FeO     KjO    NaaO    SiOj      SO3     P2O5     CO2        CI 
3i'35       9'74      o'8o       1*47       0*04       24'98       2'22       29*69      o'oi       001 

The  percentages  of  carbon  and  hydrogen  are  higher  than  in  mos*^ 
woods,  and  this  together  with  the  richness  in  calcium  phosphate 
and  silica  may  perhaps  account  for  the  great  hardness  of  teak  " 
(Watts'  "Diet.  Chemistry,"  3rd  Supp.  p.  1894). 

The  sample  from  Nilambiir  was  in  the  form  of  a  rounded 
flattened  cake  about  ten  inches  in  diameter  and  two  or  three 
inches  in  thickness  ;  dirty  white  in  colour,  with  a  rough  gritty 
surface.  A  sample  was  made  for  analysis  by  breaking  off 
portions  from  different  parts  of  the  cake  and  reducing  the 
whole  to  a  fine  powder.  The  powder  examined  under  the 
microscope  was  mainly  in  an  amorphous  condition  similar  to 
prepared  chalk,  with  a  dark-coloured  gummy  matter,  and  a  small 
quantity  of  crystalline  quartz  sand.  The  following  is  the  com- 
position : — 

Calcium  carbonate         ...         ...  ...         ...       70*05 

Tricalcic  orthophosphate 
Quartz  sand 
Organic  matter  ... 
Moisture 


The  analysis  shows  that  the  principal  compound  is  calcium 
carbonate,  and  the  concretion  approaches  nearer  the  chalk  or 
limestone  formation  than  that  of  the  apatite  or  phosphatic 
found  by  other  investigators.  An  examination  of  deposits  from 
other  trees  might  show  greater  differences  than  these,  but  it  seems 
enough  has  been  done  to  prove  that  the  calcium  element  forms 
the  base. 

The  sand,  probably  blown  up  as  dust  and  made  to  adhere  by 
the  organic  matter,  is  a  mechanical  ingredient.  The  deposit 
contained  no  salts  of  sodium  or  calcium  soluble  in  water,  nor  any 
ammoniacal  compounds  ;    this  would  stand  to   reason,'  as    the 


heavy  rain  to  which  this  district  is  subjected  would  scarcely  leave 
anything  soluble  on  the  trees. 

A  sample  of  the  soil  from  the  Teak  Plantations,  the  same  as 
that  in  which  the  ipecacuanha  is  being  cultivated,  has  also  been 
examined.  It  is  a  light  reddish  brown  sandy  loam  with  quartz. 
In  a  dry  state  it  contains  79  per  cent,  of  silica  and  silicates,  about 
5  per  cent,  of  organic  matter,  the  same  of  iron  oxide  and  alumina, 
and  o"2i7  per  cent,  lime  as  oxide. 

The  scanty  amount  of  lime  present  in  the  soil,  and  the  large 
amount  found  in  the  tree,  show  what  an  enormous  quantity  must 
have  been  taken  up  by  the  sap.  I  have  shown  elsewhere  that  a 
full-sized  cinchona  tree  contains  about  ten  ounces  of  lime  (as 
slaked  lime),  not  concentrated  by  abnormal  development  in  one 
place,  but  distributed  in  all  its  parts.  A  teak  tree  from  its  size 
and  ash  contents  would  have  a  much  larger  supply  than  a  cinchona, 
and  yet,  it  seems,  is  able  to  excrete  it  in  some  abundance.  In 
what  manner  this  takes  place  is  not  easy  to  determine.  The 
calcium  enters  the  plant  in  a  soluble  form  as  sulphate.  The 
calcium  unites  with  oxalic  and  other  acids  and  is  precipitated, 
while  the  sulphuric  acid  parts  with  its  sulphur  to  form  organic 
compounds.  A  wound  in  the  tree  is  liable  to  render  these  pro- 
cesses abnormal  by  causing  the  vegetable  acids  to  ferment  by 
exposure  to  the  air  and  to  yield  carbonic  acid  as  one  of  the  pro- 
ducts, and  this  meeting  with  the  calcium  in  the  ascending  sap 
exuding  from  the  wound  might  convert  it  into  an  insoluble 
calcium  carbonate  which  would  harden  in  the  cavity  of  the  tree 
and  form  the  deposit. 


THE  NEW  YORK  AGRICULTURAL  STATION} 

'T^HE  special  report  of  the  Director,  Dr.  E.  Lewis  Sturtevant, 
-•-  extends  over  the  first  fifty-seven  of  a  volume  of  480  pages, 
and  within  their  limits  are  to  be  found  the  general  conclusions 
arrived  at  during  the  past  year.  The  remainder  of  the  brochure 
consists  of  the  detailed  reports  of  the  horticulturist,  the  botanist, 
and  the  chemist.  After  an  analysis  of  the  rainfall  and  tempera- 
ture of  1887,  which  appear  in  general  climatic  conditions  to 
have  borne  a  great  resemblance  to  what  we  ourselves  experienced, 
the  Director  calls  special  attention  to  the  importance  of  soil 
moisture,  and  surface  cultivation  as  a  means  of  conserving  it.  He 
shows  the  vast  importance  of  checking  evaporation  from  the 
surface  by  preserving  a  finely  pulverized  condition  of  the 
top  soil.  This  he  calls  a  "soil  mulch,"  and  states  that  "  it 
protects  the  capillary  outlets  from  surface  exposure." 

"The  extent  of  the  conservation  of  water  through  the  preven- 
tion of  evaporation  by  cultivation,  as  measured  by  the  lysimeters 
in  1885  from  May  to  September  inclusive,  with  a  rainfall  of  I4'42 
inches,  as  between  bare  soil  and  cultivated  soil,  was  about  I  '4  inch, 
and  as  between  cultivated  land  and  sod-land  about  2-5  inches. 
The  rational  direction,  therefore,  to  the  farmer  for  carrying 
out  intercultural  tillages  must  be  to  use  an  implement  as  a  means 
to  an  end,  i.e.  the  maintaining  of  a  mulch  of  loose  soil  upon  the 
field.  .  .  .  The  intercultural  tillage  should  be  applied  whenever 
the  upper  soil  has  regained,  through  the  effect  of  rains,  its  con- 
nection with  the  lower  soil,  and  the  capillary  tubes  become 
extended  to  the  surface.  Following  the  same  line  of  argument, 
the  evil  effects  of  weeds  are  attributed  to  their  appropriation  and 
transpiration  of  moisture  from  the  soil  rather  than  to  their 
robbing  the  plant  of  food  constituents.  This  conclusion  will  be 
brought  home  to  anyone  who  notices  the  dry  condition  of  the 
soil  in  near  proximity  to  tree  roots. " 

The  remarks  upon  feeding  cattle  with  a  view  to  milk  and  to 
beef  production  are  interesting,  but  the  system  of  experimenting 
upon  single  animals  is  not  to  be  commended.  The  conclusion 
forced  upon  the  Director,  that  "individuality  is  sufficient  to 
mask  the  influence'  of  food,"  is  patent  to  anyone,  and  should 
demonstrate  the  absolute  need  of  carrying  out  any  feeding 
experiments  upon  a  large  number  of  cattle  simultaneously. 
Average  results  may  then  be  expected  upon  which  practice  may 
be  based. 

The  Director  pours  a  flood  of  cold  water  upon  the  system  of 
plot  experiments  in  the  field.  Under  the  head  of  "Conclusions" 
he  says :—"  These  field  trials  indicate  the  utter  unreliability  of  field 
experiments,  and  should  convince  the  public  of  the  lack  of  certainty 
which  attends  all  general  conclusions  gained  by  this  process.  I 
trust  the  time  may  arrive  when  this  plat  work,  instead  of  being 
forced  upon  experiment  stations,  will  be  condemned."   Certainly 

'  Sixth  Annual  Report  of  the  Board  of  Control  of  the  New  York  Agri- 
cultural Experiment  Station  (Geneva,  Ontario  Co.)  for  the  year  1887. 


March  29,  1888] 


NATURE 


525 


after  obtaining  no  increase  by  the  application  of  1400  pounds  of 
a  fertilizer,  over  what  had  been  obtained  from  a  dressing  of  400 
pounds  per  acre,  there  might  appear  some  cause  for  complaint. 
We  cannot,  however,  indorse  Dr.  Sturtevant's  opinions.  Plot 
experiments  may  be  made  fairly  representative  of  larger  areas, 
and  upon  them  various  treatments  of  soil  and  crop  may  be  com- 
pared. No  doubt  great  care  should  be  taken  in  carrying  out 
such  experiments  ;  hut  surely  a  series  of  plots  of  \,  -^^,  or  ^V  ^cre 
each  might  be  and  are  made  to  teach  most  useful  lessons.  Dr. 
Sturtevant  might  well  pause  to  consider  that  if  such  experi- 
ments are  of  no  value  the  value  of  other  experiments  might  be 
doubted,  and  the  public,  to  whom  he  appeals,  might  think  fit  to 
rescind  a  grant  amounting  to  .1^4000  a  year  for  the  purpose  of 
carrying  out  his  researches.  The  volume  abounds  in  tables  of 
analyses  of  fodder  and  grain  crops.  A  large  portion  (200  pages) 
of  the  middle  is  occupied  by  a  descriptive  catalogue  of  varieties 
of  beet,  carrot,  radish,  turnip,  onion,  celery,  spinach,  squash, 
tomato,  &c.,  mostly  very  wearisome,  and  savouring  more  of  the 
catalogue  of  the  seedsman  than  of  the  results  of  scientific  work. 
Downton.  John  Wrightson. 


SCIENTIFIC  SERIALS. 

Bulletin  de  r  Academic  Roy  ale  de  Belgiquc,  January. — 
Researches  on  the  influence  of  magnetism  and  temperature  on 
the  electric  resistance  of  bismuth  and  its  alloys  with  lead  and  tin, 
by  Ed.  van  Aubel.  These  protracted  experiments  have  been 
undertaken  in  order  to  determine  the  variations  of  electric 
resistance  due,  not  only  to  magnetism  and  heat,  but  also  to 
molecular  structure,  with  a  view  to  discovering  the  causes  of  the 
disturbances  and  completing  our  knowled'^e  of  the  phenomena 
first  observed  by  Hall.  In  the  present  paper,  a  first  contribution 
to  the  study  of  the  subject,  the  author  deals  mainly  with  the 
diminution  of  the  electric  resistance  of  bismuth  and  its  alloys 
under  increased  temperature.  He  shows  that  the  anomaly 
cannot  be  due  to  the  presence  in  the  metal  of  foreign  elements 
such  as  arsenic,  tin,  lead,  or  iron.  The  state  of  greater  or  less 
tension  of  the  bismuth  itself  also  seems  to  have  no  influence. 
But  the  study  of  some  bismuth  wire  obtained  by  the  soldering  of 
the  filings  of  this  metal  under  a  pressure  of  several  thousand 
atmospheres  constantly  exhibits  a  considerable  increase  of  resist- 
ance when  the  temperature  is  raised. — Experimental  researches 
on  the  vision  of  the  Arthropods,  third  part,  by  Felix  Plateau. 
This  part  deals  with  the  vision  of  caterpillars,  and  with  the  role 
of  the  frontal  ocelli  in  the  perfect  insects.  The  very  numerous 
experiments  here  described  and  carried  out  under  the  most  varied 
conditions,  tend  to  the  general  conclusion  that  in  insects  possess- 
ing both  compound  and  simple  eyes  (ocelli),  the  former  are  of 
some  service,  while  the  latter  are  quite  useless,  and  should  conse- 
quently be  grouped  in  the  category  of  rudimentary  or  atrophied 
organs.  In  the  case  of  caterpillars  the  vision  is  defective,  not 
extending  distinctly  beyond  one  centimetre,  and  is  supplemented 
by  the  antennae  and  the  fine  hairs  covering  the  body.  Perfect 
insects  when  completely  blinded  almost  invariably  fly  in  a  straight 
line  vertically,  which,  against  the  opinion  of  Forel,  is  attributed 
to  the  more  intense  light  of  the  higher  regions,  to  which  the 
whole  surface  of  the  body  is  susceptible.  The  primitive  "derm- 
atoptic  sensation "  is  revived,  and  acts  in  a  feeble  way  as  a 
substitute  for  the  later  developed  ocular  vision  of  which  the 
animal  has  been  deprived. — On  the  molecular  -work  of  the 
organic  liquids,  by  P.  De  Heen.  It  is  shown  that  the  author's 
formula  of  1882,  that  for  the  organic  fluids  belonging  to  one  and 
the  same  homologous  series  the  molecular  work  is  fairly  constant, 
has  been  mainly  confirmed  by  subsequent  research. — This  number 
of  the  Bulletin  also  contains  a  valuable  paper  by  Louis  Henry 
on  the  volatility  of  the  carbon  compounds,  the  result  of  several 
years'  research. 

Rivista  Scientifico-Industriale,  February  29. — On  the  perono- 
spora  of  the  grape-vine,  by  Prof.  G.  Cuboni.  The  two  phases 
of  this  disease  are  fully  described  for  the  first  time,  and  the 
disease  itself  is  carefully  distinguished  from  black-rot  and  other 
analogous  forms  of  blight  with  which  it  is  often  confounded.  A 
mixture  of  sulphur  with  3  or  4  per  cent,  of  the  sulphate  of 
copper  is  proposed  as  the  best  remedy  if  applied  at  an  early  stage. 
— Prof.  E.  Canestrini  concludes  his  experiments  on  some  effects 
produced  by  induction  sparks.  In  one  instance  the  leaves  of 
some  perennial  plants  were  found  to  be  covered  with  dark  spots 
similar  to  those  frequently  observed  on  plants  struck  by  lightning. 
But  the  results  of  these  researches,  like  others  of  a  similar  kind, 


have  obviously  no  more  than  a  relative  value,  depending  as  they 
do  on  the  intensity  of  the  induced  currents. 

Journal  of  the  Russian  Chemical  and  Physical  Society,  vol.'xix. 
No.  8. — Isomery  in  the  series  CnH.2„_2»  ^7  A..  Favorsky. — On  the 
laws  presiding  at  reactions  of  direct  addition,  by  J.  Kabloukoff. 
— Short  notes  by  MM.  E.  Sokoloff",  Joukovsky,  and  Gorboff. — 
Experimental  researches  into  the  oscillations  of  electrical  force 
in  electrolytes,  by  A.  Sokoloflf;  it  is  the  third  of  a  series  of 
elaborate  papers  on  the  subject,  especially  with  regard  to  the 
capacities  of  voltameters. — On  the  measuring  of  specific  heat  by 
the  method  of  mixtures  at  a  constant  temperature,  by  N. 
Hesehus. — End  of  a  full  bibliography  of  all  books  and  articles 
printed  in  Russia  on  chemistry  and  chemical  technology  during 
the  year  1886. 

Journal  of  the  Russian  Chemical  and  Physical  Society,  vol.  xix. 
No.  9. — On  the  speed  of  formation  of  acetic  ethers  of  monatomic 
alcohols,  by  N.  Menshutkin,  being  a  first  paper  of  a  new  series 
of  researches  where  the  compound  influence  of  the  surrounding 
medium  in  which  the  reaction  is  going  on  has  to  be  studied. — 
Notes  by  MM.  Matweieff  and  Spiridonoff. — On  the  empirical 
formula  of  cholic  acid,  by  P.  Latchinoff",  being  an  answer  to  the 
criticisms  against  the  new  formula  (C25H42O5)  proposed  by  the 
author. — On  the  gelatinous  state  of  albuminoid  bodies,  by  W. 
Mikhailoff",  being  the  first  of  a  series  of  papers  intended  to 
summarize  elaborate  researches  on  the  subject,  in  accordance 
with  the  principles  laid  down  by  Lieberkiihn  and  his  followers. 
— On  the  number  of  parameters  which  determine  the  displace- 
ment of  a  kinematic  chain,  by  P.  Somoff".  Taking  up  the  view 
of  Reuleaux,  who  recorded  each  mechanism  as  a  kinematic  chain, 
the  author  shows  the  necessity  of  considering  the  degree  of 
freedom  left  to  each  part  of  the  chain  in  its  displacements  in 
various  mechanisms. — On  the  dependence  of  the  colour  of  bodies 
on  the  angle  of  incidence  of  the  rays  of  light,  by  W.  Rosenberg. 


SOCIETIES  AND  ACADEMIES. 
London. 

Royal  Society,  March  1$. — "  Report  of  the  Observations  of 
the  Total  Solar  Eclipse  of  August  29,  1886,  made  at  Grenville, 
in  the  Island  of  Grenada."  By  H.  H.  Turner,  M.A.,  B.Sc, 
Fellow  of  Trinity  College,  Cambridge.  Communicated  by  the 
Astronomer-Royal. 

The  first  part  of  the  paper  gives  details  of  the  general  arrange- 
ments made  for  observation — the  selection  of  a  site,  the  erection 
of  the  instruments,  and  a  hut  to  cover  them  ;  and  refers  to  the 
unfavourable  conditions  under  which  the  observations  were  made. 
The  second  part  gives  the  results  of  the  observations.  These 
were  of  two  kinds. 

(i)  Before  and  after  totality  the  order  of  appearance  and 
disappearance  of  a  numbar  of  bright  ^lines  in  the  spectrum  of 
the  chromosphere  and  inner  corona  was  watched.  The  lines 
selected  were  those  observed  by  Mr.  Lockyer  in  the  Egyptian 
eclipse  of  1882,  and  the  observations  were  undertaken  with  a 
view  to  the  confirmation  of  his  results. 

The  lines  are  denoted  for  convenience  by  small  letters  as 
follows  : — 


4870-4 

4871*2 

,  4890  o 

4890*4 


e  49I7"9 

/ 49I9"5 

g  4923'! 


A. 

h  4932-5 

i  4933'4 

k  4956-5 

/  4970'o 


With  this  nomenclature,  a  table  given  by  Mr.  Lockyer  in  a 
short  account  of  his  results  (Roy.  Soc.  Proc. ,  vol.  xxxiv.,  1883, 
pp.  291,  &c.)  shows  that  lines  g  and  /are  seen  by  Tacchini  in 
prominences,  while  a,  b,  c,  d,  e,  f,  and  k  are  seen  in  spots. 

Mr.  Lockyer  saw  g  and  i  7  minutes  before  totality, 
and  in  addition  k  and  /  3         ,,  „ 

and  all  the  lines  2         ,,  ,, 

In  my  own  observations  I  saw^  3  minutes  before  fatality, 
and  in  addition  i  40  seconds         ,, 

while  the  moment  of  appearance  of  all  the  lines  was  indistinguish- 
able from  the  commencement  of  totality. 

After  totality  clouds  obscured  the  sun  for  a  short  time  ;  but 
on  their  clearing  the  visibility  of  g  and  k  was  noted  ;  i  could  not 
be  seen. 

The  three  lines  ^,  i,  and  k  were  extremely  short,  and  did  not 


52-6 


NATURE 


{March  29,  1888 


appear  to  extend  beyond  the  chromosphere  before  and  after 
totality. 

The  unfavourable  conditions  under  which  the  observations 
were  made  as  compared  with  Mr.  Lockyer's — with  a  low  sun 
and  through  passing  clouds,  and  an  atmosphere  charged  with 
moisture  which  doubtless  diminished  the  light  in  this  region  of 
the  spectrum  considerably — perhaps  account  in  some  measure  for 
the  striking  difference  in  vividness  of  the  phenomena.  The 
solar  activity  was  also  much  nearer  minimum  in  l886  than  in 
1882.  As  far  as  they  go,  however,  the  observations  are  con- 
firmatory of  Mr.  Lockyer's,  except  in  the  visibility  of  the  line  k 
after  totality.  This  line  was  not  noted  before  totality,  and  it  is 
possible  that  the  observation  may  be  spurious,  although  the 
evidence  for  it  is  as  good  as  that  for  all  the  observations,  which 
were  found  to  be  generally  of  a  difficult  character.  The  instru- 
ment used  was  a  6-inch  refractor  by  Simms,  with  a  grating 
spectroscope  ;  the  grating  being  \\  inch  square,  ruled  with 
17,000  lines  to  the  inch.  The  second  order  of  spectrum  was 
used. 

(2)  During  totality  I  was  directed  to  look  for  currents  in  the 
corona.  I  can  only  report  a  negative  result.  The  structure  of 
the  corona  appeared  in  a  4-inch  refractor,  with  a  power  of  80, 
to  be  radial  to  the  limb  throughout,  and  no  striking  differences 
in  special  localities  were  noticed. 

Appended  to  the  paper  are  two  drawings  which  do  not  attempt 
to  give  more  than  the  distances  to  which  the  coronal  rays  ex- 
tended in  various  directions.  One  was  made  by  Mr.  St.  George 
with  an  opera-glass,  and  the  other  by  Lieut.  Smith  with  the 
naked  eye  ;  but  in  the  latter  case  the  observer's  eyes  had  been 
specially  covered  fifteen  minutes  before  totality,  and  the 
brighter  portions  of  the  corona  were  screened  from  him  by  a  disk 
of  angular  diameter  three  times  that  of  the  moon.  He  con- 
sequently traced  the  rays  much  further  than  Mr.  St.  George, 
though,  allowing  for  this  difference  in  conditions,  the  drawings 
are  fairly  accordant. 

"  On  the  Ultra-Violet  Spectra  of  the  Elements.  Part  IIL 
Cobalt  and  Nickel."     By  Profs.  Liveing  and  Dewar. 

The  authors  compare  the  results  obtained  by  the  Rutherfurd 
grating  which  they  used  in  measuring  the  wave-lengths  of  the 
iron  lines  with  those  obtained  with  the  larger  Rowland's  grating 
used  for  measuring  the  wave-lengths  recorded  in  this  paper,  and 
find  them  closely  concordant.  They  next  compare  the  measures 
of  wave-lengths  of  the  cadmium  lines  obtained  by  them  by  means 
of  a  jilane  Rowland's  grating  and  a  goniometer  with  an  l8-inch 
graduated  circle  with  those  obtained  by  Bell  with  a  large  concave 
grating  of  20  feet  focal  length.  The  result  of  the  comparison 
is  that  the  plane  grating  gives  measures  which  agree  very  closely 
with  those  given  by  the  concave  grating,  while  the  former  gives 
more  light  and  is  better  for  complicated  spectra,  such  as  those 
described  in  this  paper,  because  the  overlapping  spectra  of  differ- 
ent orders  are  not  all  in  focus  together  as  they  are  when  a  concave 
grating  is  used. 

The  authors  give  a  list  of  580  ultra-violet  lines  of  cobalt  and 
480  lines  of  nickel.  They  find  a  certain  general  resemblance  of 
the  two  spectra,  but  no  such  exact  correspondence  as  the  close 
chemical  relationship  of  the  two  metals  would  render  probable. 
They  point  out  that  the  coincidences  of  lines  of  the  two  metals 
are  hardly,  if  at  all,  more  in  number  than  would  have  been  the 
case  if  the  distribution  of  the  lines  had  been  fortuitous.  They 
give  a  map  of  each  spectrum  to  the  same  scale  as  Angstrom's 
normal  solar  spectrum. 

Linnean  Society,  March  15.— W.  Carruthers,  F.R.S., 
President,  in  the  chair.— On  a  ballot  being  taken,  the  following 
were  elected  Fellows  of  the  Society  :  Messrs.  J.  W.  Taylor, 
W.  Gardiner,  and  David  Sharp.  The  following  were  admitted 
Fellows  of  the  Society  :  Messrs.  A.  G.  Renshaw  and  A.  E. 
Shipley.— Mr.  J.  Harting  exhibited  the  frontal  portion  of  the 
.skull  of  a  red-deer  stag,  which,  although  an  adult  animal, 
had  never  possessed  horns,  and  made  some  remarks  on 
the  occasional  occurrence  of  this  abnormality.  The  stag  in 
question  was  one  which  had  been  shot  some  years  ago  by  the  late 
Emperor  of  Germany  in  the  Royal  forest  of  Gohrde,  in  Hanover. 
A  discussion  followed  in  which  the  President,  Mr.  Seebohm,  and 
Dr.  Hamilton  took  part. — The  first  paper  of  the  evening  was 
then  read  by  Mr.  George  Massee,  entitled  "  A  Monograph  of  the 
Thelophorea:,"  and  drawings  of  several  of  these  Fungi  were  ex- 
hibited. The  paper  was  criticized  by  Mr.  A.  W.  Bennett  and 
Prof.  Marshall  Ward.— In  the  absence  of  the  author,  a  paper  by 
Mr.  E,  A,  Batters,  describing  three  new  marine  Alga,  was  then 


read  by  the  Botanical  Secretary,  Mr.  B.  Daydon  Jackson,  who 
exhibited  the  drawings  made  to  illustrate  the  paper.  After  some 
critical  remarks  from  the  President,  Mr.  Harting  pointed  out 
the  indirect  influence  of  the  Gulf  Stream  in  causing  a  deposition 
of  northern  sea-weeds  upon  the  north-east  portion  of  the 
English  coast,  where  some  of  the  species  described  had  been 
found. 

Zoological  Society,  March  20. — Mr.  Henry  Seeliohm  in  the 
chair. — Mr.  G.  A.  Boulenger  read  a  note  on  the  classification 
of  the  Ranidae,  in  which,  after  speaking  of  the  difficulty  hitherto 
experienced  in  dividing  this  large  group  satisfactorily,  he  called 
attention  to  Peters's  discovery  that  in  certain  forms  a  small  ad- 
ditional phalanx  is  present  between  the  ultimate  and  what  is 
normally  the  penultimate  phalanx.  The  author  therefore  pro- 
posed to  separate  the  family  Ranidas  into  two  groups,  according 
to  the  presence  or  absenceof  this  peculiar  digital  structure. — Mr. 
G.  B.  Sowerby  gave  the  description  of  sixteen  new  species  of 
shells,  amongst  which  were  two  species  of  the  genus  Lima  from 
Hong  Kong  and  Japan  ;  a  remarkable  species  of  the  rare  genus 
Malletia  from  the  Bay  of  Bengal  ;  a  very  distinct  species  of 
Cyprcea  from  Japan  ;  and  one  of  the  largest  species  yet  known 
of  the  genus  Cohunbella. — Mr.  F.  E.  Beddard  read  some  notes  on 
a  freshwater  Annelid,  of  which  he  had  obtained  specimens  from 
a  tank  in  the  Society's  Gaxdens.  Mr.  Beddard  referred  these 
specimens  to  a  new  species  of  the  genus  ALolosoma,  which  he 
proposed  to  called^,  headleyi. — Prof.  Newton,  F. R. S.,  com- 
municated (on  behalf  of  Mr.  Scott  Barchard  Wilson)  the  de- 
scription of  Chloridops,  anew  generic  form  of  Fringillidse,  based 
on  a  specimen  obtained  on  the  west  coast  of  the  Island  of  Hawaii, 
Sandwich  Group,  which  he  proposed  to  name  Chloridops  koua. 
Unfortunately  the  single  example  yet  obtained  was  of  the 
female  sex. 

Geological  Society,  March  14. —W.  T.  Blanford,  F.R.S., 
President,  in  the  chair. — The  following  communications  were 
read  : — On  the  gneissic  rocks  off  the  Lizard,  by  Howard  Fox, 
with  notes  on  specimens  by  J.  J.  H.  Teall.  The  rocks  may  be 
classed  under  three  heads  :  (i)  the  coarse  gneisses  or  Men  Hyr 
type,  (2)  the  light-banded  granulitic  gneisses  or  Wiltshire  type, 
and  (3)  the  transition  micaceous  rocks  of  "Labham  Reefs,"  type 
intermediate  between  (2)  and  the  mainland  schists.  The  first 
are  seen  in  Mulvin,  Taylor's  Rock,  Man-of-war  Rocks,  the  Stags, 
Men  Par,  Clidgas,  Men  Hyr,  and  Vasiler  ;  the  second  in  Sans- 
pareil,  the  Quadrant  and  adjoining  reefs,  Labham  Rocks,  &c.  ; 
and  the  third  in  the  Labham  Reefs.  The  inclination  of  the 
divisional  planes  appeared  conformable  with  that  of  the  rocks  of 
the  mainland.  The  gneisses  and  granulites  of  several  of  the 
islands  are  traversed  by  numerous  dykes  of  prophyritic  basic 
rock,  seen  in  Taylor's  Rock,  Man-of-war  Rocks,  Sanspareil, 
Quadrant  Rock  and  Shoals,  and  Clidgas.  These  dykes  have 
been  disturbed  by  movements  subsequent  to  their  intrusion.  They 
sometimes  strike  across  the  foliation-planes  of  the  gneiss,  and 
send  veins  into  the  latter  rock  ;  at  other  times  the  strike  is  parallel 
to  that  of  the  foliation-planes  ;  the  two  modes  of  occurrence  are 
occasionally  observable  in  different  portions  of  the  course  of  the 
same  dyke,  e.g.  in  one  traversing  that  part  of  the  Man-of-war 
group  known  as  the  Spire.  This  dyke  is  also  noticeable  from 
the  fact  that  it  appears  to  be  traversed  by  veins  of  gneiss.  The 
dykes  vary  in  width  from  18  inches  to  several  feet.  In  his  notes 
on  the  specirtiens,  Mr.  Teall  arranges  the  rocks  in  four  groups. 
Prof.  Bonney  spoke  in  high  terms  of  the  value  of  the  work  done, 
as  it  was  in  a  region  accessible  with  difficulty,  which  time  did 
not  permit  him  to  explore  when  working  at  the  rocks  of  the 
mainland. — The  Monian  system,  by  the  Rev.  J.  F.  Blake.  The 
reading  of  this  paper  was  followed  by  a  discussion  in  which  the 
President,  Dr.  Hicks,  Prof.  Hull,  and  Prof.  Bonney  took  part. 

Royal  Meteorological  Society,  March  21. — Dr.  W. 
Marcet,  F.R.S.,  President,  in  the  chair.— The  President 
delivered  an  address  on  atmospheric  electricity.  He  first 
alluded  to  Franklin's  experiments  in  America  in  1752,  who  suc- 
ceeded in  obtaining  the  electricity  of  a  storm-cloud  by  conducting 
it  along  the  string  of  a  kite  sent  into  the  cloud.  De  Romas,  in 
Europe,  repeated  the  experiment,  and,  having  placed  a  wire 
within  the  twine  his  kite  was  attached  to,  obtained  sparks  of  9 
or  ID  feet  in  length.  The  characters  of  the  two  kinds  of  elec- 
tricities were  next  described — the  vitreous  or  positive,  which  was 
produced  by  rubbing  glass,  and  the  resinous  or  negative,  obtained 
by  rubbing  sealing-wax  or  another  resinous  substance ;  and  it 
was  shown,  by  bringing  suspended  balls  of  pith  within  the  in- 


March  29,  1888] 


NATURE 


527 


fluence  of  these  electricities,  that  electricities. of  different  kinds 
attract  each  other,  and  those  of  the  same  kind  repel  each  other. 
De  Saussure's  and  Volta's  electroscopes  were  next  described, 
pith-balls  being  used  in  the  former  and  blades  of  straw  in  the 
latter  for  testing  the  pressure  of  electricity.  With  the  object  of 
measuring  the  force  of  electricity,  Sir  W.  Thomson's  electro- 
meter was  mentioned,  in  which  the  electricity  is  collected  from 
the  air  by  means  of  an  insulated  cistern  letting  out  water  drop 
by  drop,  each  drop  becoming  covered  with  electricity  from  the 
atmosphere,  which  runs  into  the  cistern  where  it  is  stored  up, 
and  made  to  act  upon  that  portion  of  the  instrument  which 
records  its  degree  or  amount.  The  atmosphere  is  always  more 
or  less  electrical,  or,  in  other  words,  possessed  of  electrical  ten- 
sion, and  this  is  nearly  always  positive ;  while  the  earth 
exhibits  electrical  characters  of  a  negative  kind.  The  effects  of 
atmospheric  electricity  were  classed  by  Dr.  Marcet  under  three 
heads  :  (i)  lightning  in  thunderstorms;  (2)  the  formation  of 
hail ;  (3)  the  formation  of  the  aurora  borealis  and  australis. 
He  explained  how  clouds  acquired  their  electrical  activity  by 
remarking  that  clouds  forming  in  a  blue  sky,  by  a  local  conden- 
sation of  moisture,  became  charged  with  positive  electricity  from 
the  atmosphere  ;  while  heavy  dark  clouds  rising  from  below 
nearer  to  the  earth  were  filled  with  terrestrial  negative  electricity, 
and  the  two  systems  of  clouds  attracting  each  other  would  dis- 
charge their  electricity,  giving  rise  to  flashes  of  lightning.  In 
some  cases  a  storm-cloud  charged  with  positive  electricity  would 
approach  the  earth,  attracting  the  terrestrial  negative  electricity, 
and  when  within  a  certain  distance  shoot  out  lightning  which 
would  apparently  strike  the  earth  ;  but  it  would  just  as  well 
have  struck  the  c'oud,  only  there  was  nothing  in  the  cloud  to 
sustain  any  damage,  while  on  the  earth  there  were  many  objects 
lightning  would  destroy,  to]  say  nothing  of  its  effects  upon 
animal  life.  Thunder  is  the  noise  produced  by  the  air  rushing 
in  to  fill  up  the  vacuum  made  by  the  heat  of  the  lightning  flash. 
There  may  be  sheet  lightning,  zig-zag  or  forked  lightning,  or 
globular  lightning.  The  latter  is  particularly  interesting  from 
its  assuming  a  spherical  form.  Illustrations  were  given  of 
objects  struck  by  lightning,  the  most  remarkable  being,  perhaps, 
the  clothes  of  a  working  man  which  were  torn  into  shreds,  while  the 
man  himself  was  not  seriously  injured.  Dr.  Marcet  next  proceeded 
t;oshow  a  flash  of  lightning,  which  he  produced  by  throwing  on 
a  white  screen  the  ima^e  of  an  electric  spark  2  or  3  inches  in 
length,  enlarged  by  means  of  the  lens  of  an  optical  lantern  ; 
forked  lightning,  6  or  8  feet  in  length,  with  its  irregular  zig-zag 
I  course,  was  most  clearly  demonstraterl.  After  alluding  to  the 
I  protecting  power  of  lightning  conductors  and  their  construction, 
Dr.  Marcet  explained  the  formation  of  hail  and  waterspouts, 
and  exhibited  an  instrument  by  Prof  Colladon,  of  Geneva,  for 
showing  the  formation  of  waterspouts.  He  concluded  his  ad- 
dress witha  few  remarks  on  the  aurora  borealis  and  australis, 
the  formation  of  which  was  illustrated  by  de  la  Rive's  experi- 
ment, which  consisted  of  successive  discharges  of  electric  sparks 
through  a  partial  vacuum  while  under  the  influence  of  a  power- 
ful magnet ;  electric  sheets  of  light  were  seen  assuming  the  form 
of  bands  and  possessed  of  a  certain  rotating  motion. — Mr.  G.  J. 
Symons,  F.R.  S.,  read  a  short  commuication  on  the  non-existence 
of  thunderbolts,  and  briefly  described  the  history  of  several  so- 
called  thunderbolts,  the  specimens  obtained  being  of  an  amusing 
character,  thus  clearly  showing  that  they  were  of  a  terrestrial 
and  not  a  celestial  character. 

Edinburgh. 

Royal  Society,  February  20. — Sir  W.  Thomson,  President, 
in  the  chair. — A  preliminary  note  on  the  duration  of  impact,  by 
Prof.  Tait,  was  communicated.  The  results  already  obtained 
were  got  by  means  of  a  roughly  made  apparatus  designed  for 
the  purpose  of  testing  the  method  used.  When  a  wooden  bloc'c 
of  10  lbs.  mass  fell  through  a  height  of  18^  inches  on  a  rounded 
lump  of  gutta-percha,  the  time  of  impact  was  found  to  be  o"ooi 
sec,  and  the  coefficient  of  restitution  was  o"26. — A  paper  on  a 
bathymetrical  survey  of  the  chief  Perthshire  lochs  was  read  by 
Mr.  J.  S.  Grant  Wilson  of  H.M.  Geological  Survey.  Lochs 
Rannoch,  Tummel,  Earn,  and  Tay,  were  specially  dealt  with. 
In  the  discussion  which  followed,  Sir  W.  Thomson  remarked 
that  he  did  not  consider  that  the  ice  had  much  to  do  with  the 
formation  of  rock  basins.  Where  it  found  a  rock  basin  already 
in  existence  it  might  increase  its  dimensions, — Mr.  H.  M. 
Cadell,  H.M,  Geological  Survey  for  Scotland,  read  a  paper,  of 
which  an  abstract  appeared  in  our  last  issue  (p.  488),  on  experi- 


mental researches  in  mountain  building. — Mr.  Peach  communi- 
cated a  paper  by  Dr.  Ernst  Stecher  on  contact  phenomena  of 
some  Scottish  olivine  diabases. 

March  5. — Mr.  J.  Murray,  Vice-President,  in  the  chair. — Mr. 
W.  E.  Hoyle  communicated  a  paper  by  Mr.  D.  McAlpine  on 
observations  on  the  movements  of  the  entire  detached  animal, 
and  of  detached  ciliated  parts  of  bivalve  mollusks,  viz.  gills, 
mantle-lobes,labial  palps,  and  foot. — TheChairman  communicated 
a  report  on  the  fishes  which  he  had  obtained  in  deep  water  on 
the  north-west  coast  of  Scotland.  The  report  was  drawn  up  by 
Dr.  A.  Giinther,  F.  R.S.,  Keeper  of  the  Zoological  Department, 
British  Museum. — Prof.  Haycraft  read  a  paper  by  Dr.  Carlier 
and  himself  on  the  morphological  changes  which  take  place  in 
blood  during  coagulation. — A  paper  by  Prof.  Tait  on  the  mean 
free  path,  and  the  number  of  collisions  per  particle  per  second 
in  a  group  of  equal  spheres,  was  communicated.  In  this  paper 
Prof,  Tait  cited  De  Morgan's  definition  of  the  term  "mean," 
and  pointed  out  the  difference  between  the  mean  free  path, 
properly  so  called,  and  the  quantity  to  which  that  name  is  usually 
applied. — A  preliminary  note  by  the  same  author  on  the  com- 
pressibility of  glass  at  different  temperatures  was  also  read.  The 
glass  experimented  upon  was  ordinary  lead  glass.  At  8°  C.  the 
compressibility  per  atmosphere  is  0^0000027,  and  increases  by 
o'ooooooo2  per  degree  Centigrade  of  rise  of  temperature, 

March  19. — Sir  W.  Thomson,  President,  in  the  chair. — 
Mr.  George  Seton  read  a  paper  on  illegitimacy  in  the  parish 
of  Marnoch. — Dr.  G.  Sims  Woodhead  communicated  some 
notes  on  the  use  of  the  mercuric  salts  as  antiseptic  surgical 
lotions.  — In  a  paper  on  the  effect  of  diff'erential  mass-motion  on 
the  permeability  of  gas.  Prof  Tait  gave  the  calculations  which  he 
promised  in  his  reply  to  Prof  Boltzman  published  in  the  Philo- 
sophical Magazine. — The  President  read  the  second  part  of  a 
paper  by  Mr.  J.  J.  Coleman,  on  a  new  diffusimeter,  and  other 
apparatus  for  liquid  diffusion,  and  discussed  the  determination  of 
diffusivity  in  absolute  m3asure  from  Mr.  Coleman's  experiments. 
— Sir  W.  Thomson  also  read  an  extract  from  a  letter  of  the 
late  William  Froude  to  himself,  dealing  with  the  soaring  of 
birds.  Mr.  Froude  showed  that  in  all  cases  soaring  is  de- 
pendent on  the  existence  of  upward  air  currents.  In  the  case  of 
a  complete  calm  at  sea,  the  upward  current  is  produced  by  dis- 
placement as  a  wave  passes  underneath. — Mr.  W.  Peddie  read  a 
preliminary  note  on  new  determinations  of  the  electric  resistance 
of  liquids  by  a  method  based  upon  Joule's  law,  and  which 
therefore  avoids  any  error  which  might  be  caused  by  transition- 
resistance  or  polarization. — Mr.  C.  A.  Stevenson  gave  a  notice 
of  the  recent  earthquake  in  Scotland,  with  observations  on  those 
since  1882. 

Paris. 

Academy  of  Sciences,  March  19. — M.  Janssen  in  the 
chair. — On  certain  points  connected  with  the  theory  of  ac- 
cidental errors,  by  M.  Faye.  It  is  argued  that  the  arithmetical 
mean  does  not  necessarily  and  in  all  cases  give  the  most  prob- 
able result.  The  law  of  error  can  be  regarded  only  as  a  simple 
approximation  to  the  truth,  although  so  far  valuable  that  it  may 
be  freely  applied  to  all  sorts  of  observations  and  measurements, 
provided  they  be  exempt  from  systematic  error.  The  danger 
lies  in  excluding  all  extremes  which  might  have  the  effect  of 
enabling  the  observer  to  draw  any  conclusion  he  pleases,  or 
which  squares  best  with  some  preconceived  view.  The  same 
subject  is  discussed  in  a  paper  by  M.  J.  Bertrand  on  the  prob- 
able value  of  the  smallest  errors  in  a  series  of  observations. — 
On  a  point  in  the  theory  of  the  moon,  by  M.  F.  Tisserand.  The 
object  of  these  remarks  is  to  determine  in  Delaunay's  theory  of 
the  moon  the  full  scope  and  application  of  the  theorem  of  the 
invariability  of  the  great  axis  of  the  lunar  orbit.  The  demon- 
stration here  induced  from  Delaunay's  method  is  extremely 
simple,  and  leads  to  some  further  interesting  inductions, — New 
theory  of  the  equatorial  coude,  by  MM,  Loewy  and  P,  Puiseux. 
The  paper  deals  with  the  corrective  terms  depending  on  the 
inner  glass  and  the  axis  of  declination.  In  a  future  paper  will 
be  given  the  terms  depending  on  the  outer  glass,  together  with 
the  complete  formulas  of  reduction. — On  the  absorption  of  saline 
substances  by  plants,  by  MM.  Berthelot  and  G.  Andre,  The 
experiments  here  described  are  mainly  confined  to  the  sulphate 
of  potassa,  and  will  in  future  be  extended  to  other  substances 
with  a  view  to  elucidate  the  obscure  processes  by  which  plants 
derive  their  mineral  elements  from  the  soil.     The  solution  of  the 


528 


NATURE 


{Mai^ch  29,  1888 


soil  whence  the  roots  derive  the  sulphate  is  shown  to  remain 
always  richer  than  the  solution  penetrating  into  the  vessels 
of  the  roots.  Thus  is  confirmed  the  general  law  of  this 
class  of  phenomena,  and  some  important  inductions  are  drawn 
from  it  in  connection  with  the  formation  of  the  nitrates  in  certain 
plants. — On  the  relations  of  atmospheric  nitrogen  with  vegetable 
humus,  by  M.  Th.  Schloesing.  Having  previously  studied  the  re- 
lations of  vegetable  earth  with  ammonia,  carbonic  acid,  and  oxygen, 
the  author  here  extends  his  researches  to  its  relations  with  atmo- 
spheric nitrogen.  — On  the  actinometric  observations  made  at  Mont- 
pellier  during  the  year  1 887,  by  M.  A.  Crova.  From  these  observa- 
tions it  appears  that  the  calorific  intensity,  measured  at  noon, 
steadily  increased  from  the  beginning  of  winter  nearly  to  the  end 
of  spring,  attaining  its  monthly  maximum  (i'35  calorie)  in  May, 
and  its  absolute  maximum  (i'54  cal. )  on  the  24th  of  that  month. 
Then  it  declined  rapidly,  its  mean  value  during  the  summer 
being  inferior  to  the  means  of  other  seasons.  It  rose,  fell,  and 
again  rose  in  autumn,  during  which  period  it  acquired  a  new 
maximum  of  i  '26.  These  observations  confirm  the  general  laws 
induced  from  the  records  of  previous  years,  showing  that, 
although  the  epochs  of  maxima  and  minima  may  often  be  ex- 
ceptionally displaced,  the  maxima  of  radiation  occur  normally  in 
spring,  the  minima  in  summer.  Tables  follow  giving  the  mean 
annual  intensities  and  other  meteorological  data  for  the  five  years 
1883-87. — On  the  unification  of  the  calendar,  by  M.  Tondini. 
Reference  is  made  to  the  recent  steps  taken  by  Italy  for  the  pur- 
pose of  promoting  the  universal  adoption  of  the  Gregorian 
calendar,  which,  thanks  to  the  action  of  England,  has  already 
replaced  the  Chinese  system  in  Japan  under  almost  insurmount- 
able difficulties. — Remarks  accompanying  the  presentation  of  a 
model  of  the  Fumat  safety-lamp,  adapted  for  use  in  mines  subject 
to  fire-damp,  by  M.  Daubree.  This  lamp,  which  has  been 
for  some  time  in  use  in  the  Grand  Combe  mines,  has  suc- 
cessfully withstood  the  severe  tests  to  which  it  has  been 
subjected  by  MM.  Mallard  and  Le  Chatelier,  and  seems 
to  answer  all  the  purposes  of  such  an  appliance  quite 
as  well  as  any  other  hitherto  devised. — The  meridian  of 
Laghwat,  by  M.  L.  Bassot.  The  geodetic  junction  of  Spain 
with  Algeria,  completed  in  1879,  has  now  been  extended  to 
Laghwat,  180  miles  south  of  Algiers,  and  on  the  verge  of  the 
Sahara.  This  carries  the  great  meridian  for  the  west  of  Europe 
across  28°  of  latitude,  from  the  northernmost  point  of  Great  Britain 
through  France  and  Spain  to  about  33°  N.  latitude,  on  the 
confines  of  the  desert.  To  the  triangulation  have  been  attached 
the  astronomic  stations  Gelt-es-Stel  and  Laghwat  itself,  the 
latitude  and  longitude  and  an  azimuth  for  each  of  these  places 
having  been  accurately  determined.  —  On  the  passage  of  the 
electric  current  through  sulphur,  by  M.  E.  Duter.  Sulphur,  a 
very  bad  conductor  at  the  normal  temperature,  is  here  shown  to 
acquire  a  considerable  degree  of  conductibility  when  raised  to  the 
boiling-point. — On  the  radiograph,  by  M.  Louis  Olivier.  The 
instrument  described  under  this  name  has  been  invented  by  the 
author  as  a  self-acting  recording  photometer.  At  each  revolution 
of  the  drum  it  closes  an  electric  circuit,  and  thus  automatically 
shuts  off  the  luminous  action  at  any  desired  moment.  While 
serving  in  a  general  way  as  a  registering  apparatus  for  light,  it 
is  capable  of  venous  applications  in  photography,  meteorology, 
and  physics. — On  the  hydrate  of  sulphurated  hydrogen,  by  MM. 
de  Forcrand  and  Villard.  Having  already  made  known  the 
composition  of  this  substance,  HS-I-12HO,  and  measured  its 
tension  of  dissociation  between  -fo'5  and  29°  C,  the  authors  here 
resume  its  study  for  the  purpose  of  more  accurately  determining 
this  tension  at  or  about  the  temperature  of  0°.  This  is  found  to 
be  about  equal  to  atmospheric  pressure. — Experimental  re- 
searches on  chronic  intoxication  by  alcohol,  by  MM.  A.  Mairet 
and  Combemale.  Having  previously  described  the  influence  of 
chronic  alcoholic  intoxication  on  the  nervous  and  muscular 
systems,  the  authors  here  study  its  effects  on  the  heart,  the 
respiratory  and  digestive  organs,  and  the  bodily  temperature. 

Berlin. 

Physical  Society,  March  2. — Prof,  du  Bois  Reymond,  Pre- 
sident, in  the  chair. — Dr.  Gumlich  spoke  on  Newton's  rings  as 
seen  by  transmitted  light.  The  speaker  had  calculated  and  ex- 
perimentally verified  the  formulae  for  the  rings  as  seen  by 
transmitted  light,  in  the  same  way  as  many  years  ago  Prof. 
Wangerin  had  treated  the  rings  when  seen  by  reflected  light, 
and  subsequently  verified  the  results  of  his  calculations  experi- 
mentally in  conjunction  with  Prof.  Sohncke.  The  outcome  of 
Dr.     Gumlich's    calculation   was   the   same   as    that   of    Prof. 


Wangerin  for  the  rings  seen  by  reflected  light.  When  the 
light  is  incident  at  right  angles,  the  rings  are  circles  lying  in  one 
plane  :  when  the  angle  of  incidence  is  less  than  a  right  angle, 
the  rings  lie  on  a  surface  of  extremely  complicated  shape,  which 
is  characterized  by  a  primary  ordinate,  and  an  oblique  ordinate 
at  right  angles  to  the  former,  which  do  not  coincide  at  the  point 
of  intersection.  By  means  of  an  apparatus  which  the  speaker 
showed  and  carefully  described,  he  had  experimentally  tested 
the  accuracy  of  his  calculations,  and  found  them  fully  confirmed. 
When  the  light  is  incident  obliquely,  the  rings  are  no  longer 
circles  as  they  are  when  it  falls  on  to  and  passes  through  the 
medium  at  right  angles,  but  are  now  ellipses  whose  axes  bear 
a  ratio  to  each  other  which  is  dependent  on  the  angle  of  in- 
cidence of  the  light.  It  was  not  found  possible  to  obtain  any 
definite  results  as  regards  the  width  of  the  rings,  since  this  is  very 
largely  affected  by  temperature. — Dr.  Sprung  reported  on  a  work 
which  had  been  sent  in  by  Dr.  Miiller-Erzbach  [treating  of  the 
determination  of  mean  temperature  by  means  of  the  weight  of 
water  which  is  vaporized.  A  bulb  blown  on  the  end  of  a  glass 
tube  is  half  filled  with  water  and  introduced  into  a  wide- 
necked  flask  whose  bottom  is  covered  with  sulphuric  acid. 
Assuming  the  truth  of  Dalton's  law  of  tensions.  Dr.  Miiller  has 
arrived  at  a  formula  by  means  of  which  the  mean  temperature 
of  a  space  can  be  determined  from  the  mass  of  water  which  is 
vaporized  in  a  given  time. — At  the  end  of  the  meeting  Prof. 
Lampe  discussed  a  reply  which  had  been  recently  made  to  a 
criticism  of  his  on  a  piece  of  work  done  last  year  by  Dr.  Haussler, 
and  showed  how  devoid  of  foundation  the  reply  was. 


BOOKS,  PAMPHLETS,  and  SERIALS  RECEIVED 

Geography  of  the  British  Isles  :  A.  Geikie  (Macmillan). — Pubblicazione  del 
Real  Osservatorio  di  Palermo,  vol.  iii.  (Palermo). — Glen  Desseray  :  Principal 
Shairp  (Macmillan). — Die  Wechselbeziehungen  zwischen  Pflanzen  und 
Ameisen  im  Tropischen  Amerika  :  A.  F.  W.  Schimper  (Fischer). — Encyclo- 
paedia Britannica,  vol.  xxiii.  (Black). — Disease,  its  Prevention  and  Cure  : 
C.  G.  Godfrey  (Grevel). — Untersuchungen  iiber  Heterogenese,  iii.,  Dr. 
A.  P.  Fokker  (Groaingen). — Journal  of  Morphology,  vol.  i.  No.  2  (Ginn, 
Boston). 


CONTENTS.  PAGE 

Elementary  Instruction  in  Practical  Biology    .    .    .  505 

A  Text-book  of  Embryology 506 

A  Treatise  on  Algebra.     By  Capt.  P.  A.  Macmahon, 

R.A 508 

Our  Book  Shelf  :— 

"My  Telescope" 509 

James:  "  Hand-book  of  Perspective" 509 

Letters  to  the  Editor  : — 

Coral  Formations. — Robert  Irvine 509 

Professor  Rosenbusch's  Work  on  Petrology. — A.  B.  .  509 

"  The  Mechanics  of  Machinery." — ^J.  Venn    ....  510 
The  Definition  of  Force  and  Newton's  Third  Law. — 

Nemo ,    .    .  511 

Green  Colouring-matter  of  Decaying  Wood. — Rev.  A. 

Irving 511 

The  Hittites,  with  Special  Reference  to  very  Recent 

Discoveries.    I.     {Illustrated.)    By  Thomas  Tyler   .  511 
Timber,  and  some  of  its  Diseases.  VI.  {Illustrated.) 

By  Prof.  H.   Marshall  Ward 514 

Notes 516 

Our  Astronomical  Column: — . 

The  Pulkowa  Catalogue  of  3542  Stars  for  1855    _.    .    .  520 
The  Constant  of  Precession  and  the  Proper  Motion  of 

the  Solar  System 520 

Comet  1888a  (Sawerthal) ■ 520 

Astronomical     Phenomena     for     the     Week     1888 

April  1-7 520 

The  Royal  Meteorological  Society's  Exhibition.  By 

William  Marriott 521 

The  Botanical  Department,  Northern  India  ....  522 

The  Mew  Siberian  Islands 522 

Earthquakes  in  the  Levant 5^3 

The    Mineral   Concretion   of    the    Teak   Tree.      By 

David  Hooper     . 523 

The  New  York  Agricultural  Station.    By  Prof.  John 

Wrightson 524 

Scientific  Serials     .        525 

Societies  and  Academies 5^5 

Books,  Pamphlets,  and  Serials  Received 528 


NA  TURE 


529 


THURSDAY,  APRIL   5,   il 


% 


THE  FORESTRY  SCHOOL  AT  COOPERS  HILL. 

THE  Forestry  School  at  Cooper's  Hill  is  intended  in 
the  first  place  for  the  education  of  a  certain  number 
annually  of  young  officers  for  the  Indian  Forest  Depart- 
ment. The  arrangements  are,  nevertheless,  of  such  a  kind 
that  private  students  are  admitted  to  the  forestry  course, 
in  as  far  as  space  is  available,  and  on  condition  that  they 
conform  to  the  rules. 

It  is  in  many  ways  advantageous  that  the  Forestry 
School  is  attached  to  the  Royal  Indian  Engineering 
College  at  Cooper's  Hill.  '  Although  the  course  for 
forest  students  is  necessarily  different  from  that  designed 
for  engineering  students,  there  are  several  subjects  to  be 
studied  in  common,  and  consequently  the  present  arrange- 
ments admit  of  the  forest  students  obtaining  their  training 
in  surveying,  descriptive  engineering,  and  mathematics, 
for  instance,  in  the  excellent  courses  provided  by  the  well- 
known  Professors  in  the  Engineering  College. 

The  Forestry  School  itself  consists  of  a  block  of 
buildings  attached  to  the  Royal  Indian  Engineering 
College,  on  the  brow  of  Cooper's  Hill,  near  Staines,  and 
looking  north  over  Runnymede  and  the  Valley  of  the 
Thames.  It  is  within  a  convenient  distance  from  London, 
the%aveller  arriving  at  Egham  (the  nearest  station  on  the 
London  and  South- Western  Railway)  in  from  forty-five  to 
sixty  minutes  from  Waterloo.  Windsor  Great  Park  is  within 
a  mile  of  the  beautiful  and  spacious  grounds  in  which 
the  College  stands,  and  the  fine  trees  of  all  kinds  to  be 
met  with  in  the  neighbourhol4(J  give  to  the  situation  much 
that  is  desirable  for  a  centre  ^r  the  teaching  of  forest 
botany,  and  several  parts  can  be  made  use  of  to  a  certain 
extent  for  illustrating  subjects  in  forestry  proper. 

The  building  of  the  Forest  School  itself  consists  of 
large  and  small  class-rooms,  a  museum,  and  the  well- 
designed  and  appointed  botanical  laboratory.  In  this 
block  the  students  pursue  their  main  studies — botany, 
forestry,  and  entomology.  Their  other  studies — engineer- 
ing, surveying,  mathematics,  geometrical  and  freehand 
drawing,  physics,  geology,  and  one  9r  two  other  subjects 
to  be  referred  to  presently — are  pursued  under  the  direction 
of  the  various  Professors  in  the  class-rooms  and  labora- 
tories of  the  Royal  Indian  Engineering  College,  to  which 
the  Forestry  School  is  attached. 

The  forest  museum  is  a  convenient,  well-lighted  room, 
rapidly  filling  with  useful  collections  of  specimens  illus- 
trating the  chief  departments  of  forestry.  Among  the 
most  valuable  and  conspicuous  objects  in  this  splendid 
collection  may  be  mentioned  the  series  of  European  and 
Indian  timbers,  which  are  so  disposed  that  the  student 
has  ready  access  to  them,  while  the  Professors  are  able  to 
refer  to  them  in  lecturing,  and  thus  to  make  the  teaching, 
in  the  best  sense  of  the  word,  practical.  Then  there  is  a 
remarkably  complete  and  interesting  collection  of  imple- 
ments used  in  forestry,  and  there  are  models  of  timber- 
slides,  apparatus  for  catching  timber,  and  other  forest 
works,  also  so  disposed  that  every  student  can  handle  and 
examine  them  and  learn  their  uses  with  facility.  Another 
valuable  feature  in  this  museum  is  the  series  of  economic 
products  of  Indian  plants.  This  is  of  course  not  complete. 
Vol  XXXVII  —No.  962. 


but  the  greatest  credit  is  due  to  all  concerned  for  bringing 
together  for  such  useful  purposes  so  many  instructive 
specimens  of  fibres,  seeds,  barks,  fruits,  food-materials, 
&c.,  from  the  chief  representative  Indian  plants  ;  and 
when  it  is  remembered  that  the  Forestry  School  is  so 
youi)g,  in  this  country  (it  was  started  in  September  1885), 
it  is  the  more  praiseworthy  that  the  authorities  have  made 
such  good  use  of  their  opportunities  and  time.  The 
collections  must  no  doubt  receive  numerous  additions  as 
time  passes,  for  it  is  well  known  that  a  museum  takes 
many  years  to  bring  within  measurable  distance  of  com- 
plefOhess,  but  the  Cooper's  Hill  museum  is  already  fairly 
filled,  the  nucleus  of  the  collections  having  been  derived 
from  the  late  Indo-Colonial  Exhibition,  and  from  the 
Royal  Gardens,  Kew.  It  would  require  too  much  space 
to  enumerate  the  remaining  interesting  features  of  these 
instructive  series  of  forest  objects  :  specimens  of  timber 
showing  the  changes  due  to  abnorm'al  growths,  the  healing 
of  wdunds,  the  various  injuries  produced  by  unsuitable 
environment  or  by  the  attacks  of  insects  and  other  living 
organisms,  and  last,  but  by  no  means  least,  a  unique 
collection  showing  the  ravages  of  those  fungi  which 
injure  timber-trees,  collected  by  Prof.  Robert  Hartig,  of 
Munich,  and  presented  to  the  School,  and  a  collection  of 
the  more  injurious  forest  insects,  presented  by  Herr 
OberforStrath  Judeich,  of  Tharand.  There  is  also  a 
small  ij^barium,  of  a  particularly  interesting  character, 
containing  an  excellent  series  of  Conifers  and  other 
trees. 

The  botanical  laboratory  has  just  been  completed,  and 
is,  without  doubt,  one  of  the  best  designed  small  labora- 
tories, for  its  purpose,  that  we  have  seen.  It  consists  of 
an  oblong  room  running  east  and  west,  and  lighted  from 
the  north  and  east  by  windows  arranged  conveniently  for 
work  with  the  microscope.  There  are  also  tables  and 
apparatus  for  experimental  demonstrations  in  vegetable 
physiology  ;  provision  will  exist  for  cultivating  seedlings 
and  plants  at  constant  temperatures,  for  measuring  growth, 
and  for  exhibiting  the  influence  of  light,  gravitation,  &c., 
on  the  growth  of  plants ;  and  arrangements  for  showing 
the  quantities  of  water  given  off  from  transpiring  leaves,, 
for  developing  plants  in  water-cultures,  &c.  The  students 
are  supplied  with  microscopes,  reagents,  and  accessories^ 
and  are  taught  to  familiarize  themselves  thoroughly 
with  all  modern  appliances  bearing  practically  on  their 
studies. 

The  above-mentioned  block  of  buildings  also  includes 
one  small  and  one  larger  lecture-room,  which  are  pro- 
vided with  necessary  teaching  appliances.  The  series 
of  botanical  diagrams  especially  are  remarkably  good, 
and  in  fact  many  of  them  are  unique,  being  the  private 
property  of  the  Professor  of  Botany,  and  drawn  and 
coloured  by  himself.  Another  feature  which  must  not  be 
overlooked  is  the  projected  botanic  garden.  This  will 
consist  of  a  series  of  seed-beds,  &c.,  illustrating  the 
raising  of  forest  trees,  and  of  beds  of  plants  chosen  from 
the  most  important  natural  families,  in  order  that  the 
students  may  familiarize  themselves  on  the  spot  with  their 
chief  characteristics.  This  botanic  garden  is  now  in 
process  of  being  laid  out,  and  it  will  be  ready  for  the  use 
of  students  in  a  short  time. 

The  courses  of  studies  fallowed  by  the  forest  students 
are  admirably  adapted  to  the  wants  of   practical  men 

A  A 


b. 


530 


NA  TURE 


[April  ^,  1888 


whose  lives  will  be  largely  spent  in  the  creating,  planting, 
preserving,  and  using  of  forest  and  other  trees.  Obviously, 
such  a  course  must  comprise  several  branches  of  teaching, 
the  one  thing  common  to  all  being  that  they  bear  upon 
the  practical  needs  of  the  future  forester.  That  the  same 
training  applies  to  a  planter  or  estate-manager  needs  no 
remark,  and  portions  of  the  course  would  be  suited  for 
others  engaged  in  work  in  woodlands,  and  in  the 
colonies,  &c.  The  full  course,  as  at  present  set  forth  in 
the  syllabus  of  studies,  is  as  follows. 

The  student  begins  work  in  September,  and  at- 
tends lectures  regularly  during  two  academical  years. 
In  engineering,  he  is  taught  the  principles  of  road- 
making,  and  the  building  of  forest  bridges  and  other 
structures  ;  he  is  also  instructed  in  the  practice  and  theory 
of  surveying  under  the  care  of  the  Professor  of  Surveying. 
In  his  first  year  he  studies  for  two  terms  under  the 
Instructor  in  Geometrical  Drawing,  and  in  his  second 
year  receives  lessons  in  the  keeping  of  accounts.  To 
these  subjects  may  be  added  freehand  drawing,  and  a 
modern  language.  In  addition  to  these  more  technical 
subjects,  the  student  attends  certain  short  courses  in 
mathematics  and  in  applied  mathematics,  under  the 
Professors  of  these  sciences;  he  also  studies  physics — 
in  lectures,  as  well  as  in  the  laboratory — entomology,  and 
geology.  A  short  course  on  organic  chemistry  is  now 
being  commenced.  1 

The  rest  of  his  work  consists  in  the  special  training  as  a 
forester,  and  it  may  safely  be  stated  that  there  is  no  other 
centre  in  the  Empire  where  so  thorough  and  excellently 
designed  a  curriculum  for  a  forester  or  planter  can  be 
obtained.  The  two  subjects  of  forestry  and  botany  are 
under  the  care  of  separate  Professoi's.  Dr.  Schlich 
lectures  on  forestry,  dividing  his  subject  as  follows  ; — In 
the  first  year  he  deals  with  the  various  soils,  climates,  and 
the  regulating  effects  of  forests  on  these  ;  sylviculture, 
artificial  and  natural  woods ;  the  tending,  thinning, 
pruning,  &c. ;  the  protection  of  forests  against  man  and 
other  animals,  and  especiallwinsects,  and  against  injurious 
plants,  climatic  influences,  iXc.  During  the  second  year 
the  student  is  instructed  in  the  utilization  of  forests  ;  the 
technical  qualities  of  woods  ;  the  felling,  shaping,  trans- 
portation, &c.,  of  timber  ;  the  utilization  of  minor  forest 
produce ;  the  preservation  of  wood ;  sawmills ;  charcoal,  &c. 
He  then  passes  to  the  study  of  working  plans,  and 
especially  the  arrangement  of  cuttings  ;  surveying  and 
mapping  forests  ;  measurement  and  determination  of  ages 
of  trees  and  forests  ;  and  the  methods  of  regulating  the 
yield  of  forests.  The  final  course  of  lectures  is  on  forest 
law.  In  addition  to  the  lectures,  the  students  also  make 
occasional  excursions,  under  the  direction  of  Dr.  Schlich  ; 
the  neighbourhood  of  Windsor  Forest  facilitating  this 
important  object,  and  enabling  the  Professor  of  Forestry 
to  make  his  teaching  thoroughly  practical. 

In  botany,  under  the  management  of  Prof.  Marshall 
Ward,  the  students  are  instructed  by  means  of  lectures,'and 
practical  work  in  the  laboratory  and  in  the  fields  and  woods 
of  the  neighbourhood.  The  course  in  botany  is  designed  to 
train  foresters,  not  technical  botanists  :  its  aim  is  through- 
out practical,  and  directed  to  teaching  the  students  exact 
and  thorough  knowledge  of  the  life-phenomena  of  the  trees 
and  plants  which  it  will  be  their  duty  to  rear,  and  take  care 
of,  and  utilize  in  the  future.     Commencing-  with  a  short 


course  of  thoroughly  practical  instruction  in  the  elemen- 
tary biology  of  plants  selected  as  illustrative  types  of  the 
vegetable  kingdom,  the  young  student  is  taught  the  use 
of  the  microscope  and  how  to  apply  it  practically  in 
examining  the  tissues  of  plants.  He  is  then  instructel  in 
the  organography  and  anatomy  of  plants,  learning  (not 
only  in  lectures,  but  also  in  the  laboratory  and  in  the 
field)  what  the  organs  of  plants  are,  and  what  they  do ;  so 
that  roots,  stems,  leaves,  buds,  bulbs,  tubers,  tendrils, 
thorns,  &c.,  become  to  him  not  mere  abstractions,  but 
objects  on  which  his  attention  will  be  continually  fixed  as 
active  parts  of  plants.  The  study  of  cells  and  their  con- 
tents, of  epidermis  and  stomata,  of  vascular  bundles  and 
other  tissues — of  wood,  bark,  cambium,  and  so  forth — is 
carried  on  thoroughly,  not  only  that  the  forester  may  know 
the  principles  by  which  to  classify  and  recognize  timbers 
and  forest  products,  and  learn  their  uses,  but  also  that  he 
may  understand  what  these  various  parts  of  the  plants  do 
in  nature  :  how  heart-wood  is  formed,  how  the  timber 
grows  and  may  be  improved,  how  wounds  may  be  healed 
over,  how  the  roots  take  up  substances  from  the  soil,  and 
how  the  plant  makes  use  of  them,  and  so  forth.  The 
student  concludes  his  first  year's  study  in  botany  (in  the 
early  summer)  by  familiarizing  himself  with  the  names 
and  systematic  position  of  the  plants  in  the  neighbouring 
fields  and  woods,  especial  attention  being  paid  to  the 
important  trees  and  shrubs,  and  their  relations  to  the 
forest  flora  of  India. 

During  his  second  year,  the  student  is  instructed  in  the 
physiology  of  plants- how  they  feed,  respire,  and 
chemically  change  substances  in  their  interior ;  how  they 
grow,  and  are  affected  by  light,  gravitation,  temperature^ 
moisture,  &c.  ;  how  they  are  reproduced,  hybridized,  and 
so  on  ;  the  effects  of  various  agents  in  the  production  of 
wood,  in  influencing  the  fertility,  and  so  forth.  The  course 
is  completed  by  the  study  of  the  diseases  of  plants,  and 
especially  of  timbers,  and  how  their  eftects  may  be 
minimized  or  healed. 

As  special  features  of  the  greatest  importance,  it  should 
be  mentioned  that  the  senior  students  pay  periodic  visits 
to  the  magnificent  gardens,  museums,  and  plant-houses  at 
Kew,  under  the  direction  of  Prof  Marshall  Ward,  in  order 
that  their  knowledge  of  the  important  economic  plants  and 
their  products  shall  be  real.  They  see  the  plants  growing, 
learn  to  familiarize  themselves  with  their  peculiarities  and 
habits  and  uses,  and  are  thus  not  strangers  to  them  when 
they  land  in  India.  Secondly,  the'  young  foresters  are 
taken  abroad,  and  taught  what  life  in  the  forest  really  is. 
At  the  completion  of  their  'first  year's  studies,  they  ac- 
company the  Professor  of  Forestry  to  Scotland,  or  to  the 
New  Forest,  or  to  the  Forest  of  Dean,  as  maybe  decided 
for  the  year ;  and  at  the  end  of  their  second  year  they  are 
taken  to  the  Continent  for  three  or  four  months'  practical 
work  in  Germany  and  France,  to  examine  the  systems 
pursued  in  the  large  and  more  systematically  managed 
forests  of  those  countries,  and  thus  to  study  the  art  of 
forestry  in  practice  under  conditions  more  resembling 
those  met  with  in  the  huge  and  valuable  forests  of 
India. 

During  the  summer  of  1887,  for  instance,  the  young 
officers  who  are  now  in  India  were  taken  to  Bavaria, 
under  the  direction  of  Dr.  Schlich,  accompanied  by  Prof. 
Marshall    Ward    and    Mr.    Gamble.      They   visited   the 


Aprils,  1888] 


NATURE 


531 


magnificent  museum  and  laboratories  of  the  J'orestry 
School  at  Munich,  the  Forest  of  Freising,  the  willow 
nurseries  and  plantations  at  Oberberghausen,  the  spruce 
forests  at  Hohenaschau,  and  the  timber  depot  at  Traun- 
stein.  They  then  proceeded  to  the  Austrian  forests  of 
the  Salzkammergut  ;  and  later  to  the  Forest  School  and 
school  forests  at  Nancy,  the  cork  oaks  and  pine  forests 
in  the  Esterel,  and  the  Pinus  maritima  forests  on  the 
west  coast  of  France,  used  for  the  preparation  of  turpentine 
as  well  as  for  timber. 

With  this  practical  tour,  the  training  of  the  young 
forester  in  Europe  stops,  and  he  departs  for  India  to 
assume  the  new  duties  and  large  responsibilities  of  his 
life  as  a  forest  officer  under  the  Imperial  Government. 


THE    BALTIC    AMBER     COAST    IN 
PREHISTORIC  TIMES. 

Die  prdhistorischen  Denkmdhr  der  Proviiiz  West- 
preussen  unci  der  angrenzenden  Gebiete.  Von  Dr.  A. 
Lissauer.     (Leipzig:  Engelmann,  1887.) 

''T^HE  prehistoric  antiquities  of  that  part  of  the  Baltic 
J-  coast  that  lies  about  the  mouth  of  the  Vistula  have 
something  more  than  a  local  interest.  The  old  Prussian 
shore — the  land  of  the  yEstii  of  Tacitus  and  Cassiodorus, 
of  the  Estas  of  King  Alfred — had  already  in  very  early 
times  a  European  importance  in  its  connection  with  the 
widely  ramifying  amber  commerce  of  antiquity,  of  which 
this  was  in  historic  times  the  richest  field  of  production. 
The  present  work  by  Dr.  Lissauer,  the  President  and 
founder  of  the  Anthropological  Section  of  the  Natural 
History  Society  of  Danzig,  is  peculiarly  welcome  as 
giving  in  a  thoroughly  scientific  form  a  summary  of  the 
results  of  the  archaeological  discoveries  made  in  recent 
years  relating  to  the  prehistoric  period  in  the  province  of 
West  Prussia  and  its  border  districts.  The  author  has 
divided  the  work  into  several  sections,  corresponding  to  the 
Neolithic,  Hallstatt,  and  the  successive  Iron  Age  periods 
and  has  accompanied  each  with  an  excellent  synoptic  list 
of  the  various  individual  finds. 

Of  the  earlier  Palaeolithic  Age  there  are,  of  course,  no 
remains  in  this  Baltic  tract,  which  was  still  covered  with 
an  ice- sheet  at  a  time  when  primaeval  man  had  already 
begun  to  tenant  the  caves  of  Cracow.  As  the  ice 
retreated  there  was  formed  the  great  glacier  stream  at 
present  represented  by  the  Vistula,  but  which  then  pro- 
longed its  course  to  the  west,  and,  joining  with  the  Elbe, 
poured  its  waters  into  the  German  Ocean.  The  physical 
event  which  in  this  region  dominates  all  the  succeeding 
history  is  the  breaking  through  of  the  Vistula  at  Fordon, 
near  Bromberg,  and  the  formation  of  the  new  channel  by 
which  it  poured  itself  henceforth  into  the  Gulf  of  Danzig  ; 
and  this,  geologically  speaking,  was  a  comparatively 
recent  consummation.  The  author  has  reproduced  an 
elaborate  calculation  of  Jentzsch,  based  on  the  formation 
of  the  delta  and  the  average  amount  of  sediment  conveyed 
by  the  waters  of  the  Vistula,  according  to  which  the 
breaking  through  of  that  river  to  the  north  must  have 
taken  place  approximately  about  3000  B.C.  That  the 
Neolithic  immigration  into  the  Old  Prussian  land  from 
the  south  must  have  taken  place  at  an  early  period  is  seen 
from  the  local  distribution  of  these  remains,  which  tends 


to  show  that  the  ice  and  snow  still  lingered  on  the  higher 
parts  of  the  country.  On  the  other  hand,  from  the-  fact 
that  Neolithic  settlements  are  peculiarly  abundant  in  the 
old  bed  of  the  Vistula  itself.  Dr.  Lissauer  concludes  that 
this  immigration  did  not  take  place  till  well  after  the 
date  when  the  river  had  taken  its  new  course.  Here,  too, 
as  elsewhere,  we  find  the  same  entire  revolution  in  the 
character  of  the  Neolithic  fauna  as  contrasted  with  the 
Palteolithic  group  of  the  Polish  caves  for  example.  Not 
a  single  representative  remains.  No  reindeer  bones  even 
have  been  discovered  on  the  Neolithic  sites  of  the  lands  of 
the  Lower  Vistula,  though  the  remains  both  of  aurochs 
and  of  bison  have  been  found. 

Among  the  most  interesting  and  characteristic  objects 
that  appear  in  association  with  the  Neolithic  deposits  of 
the  Lower  Vistula   are   certain   rude  representations   of 
human  and  animal  figures  cut  out  of  amber.     These  re- 
markable productions,  perforated  as  if  for  suspension,  and 
engraved  with  fine  lines,  are  more  frequent  to  the  east 
than  to  the  west  of  the  Vistula  mouth  ;  but  one  of  the  most 
striking,  a  figure  of  a  boar,  ranked  by  Virchow  amongst 
the  best  relics  of  the  plastic  art  that  have  reached  us  from 
the  Stone  Age,  was  found  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Danzig. 
These  amber  men  and  animals  have  been  the  object  of  a 
special  study  by  Dr.  Tischler,  of  Konigsberg,  whose  re- 
searches into  the  prehistoric  remains  of  East  Prussia  are 
the  complement  to  those  of  Dr.  Lissauer  in  the  Western 
Province.     In  his  admirable  papers  on  the  Stone  Age  in 
East  Prussia,  Dr.  Tischler  has  shown  that  these  figures 
are  characteristic  of  an  extensive  East  Baltic  region  ;  they 
have  been  found  in  the  same  shapes  and  with  the  same 
perforations,  but  cut  out  of  bone  and  stalagmite  instead  of 
amber,,  in  the  Polish  cave  of  Pod-kochanka ;  and,  what  is 
still  more  remarkable,  bone  figures  of  analogous  char^tcter 
have  been  discovered  amidst  the  remains  of  a  Neolithic 
station,  described  by  the   Russian  explorer  Inostranzeff, 
on  the  shores  of  the  Lake  of  Ladoga.     From  these  and 
other  parallels.  Dr.  Tischler  has  been  able  to  establish  the 
existence  of  adistinct  East  Baltic  Stone  Province  extending 
from  the  Oder  to  the  Lake  of  Ladoga,  and  in  all  prob- 
ability to  the  Onega  shores,  and  including  not  only  the 
provin<jes  of  East  and  West  Prussia  but  the  greater  part 
of  Poland.     The  relation  of  these  northern  "  idols  "  to  the 
clay  figures  of  men  and  animals  found  in  the  Swiss  lake- 
dwellinigs,  in  the  pile  settlements  of  Laibach,  and  some 
of  the  prehistoric  sites  of  Hungary   and   Transylvania, 
where  one  has  been  found  of  alabaster  ;  and  the  relation 
again  of  these  latter  to  the  "  Pallas"  of  Dr.  Schliemann's 
Trojan  excavations,  or  the  rude  "  Carian  "  and  Cypriote 
figures,  suggest  wide  and  far-reaching  inquiries  on  which 
it  is  impossible  here  to  embark. 

Of  the  Bronze  Age,  pure  and  simple,  there  are  very 
scanty  remains  in  these  East  Baltic  coast-lands  ;  though 
there  are  sufficient  examples,  both  of  Hungarian  and  West 
Baltic  forms,  to  show  that  before  the  close  of  the  period 
in  Central  and  North- Western  Europe  its  arts  were 
already  taking  root  in  this  region.  Dr.  Lissauer's  remarks 
on  what  he  terms  the  "  so-called  Bronze  Age,"  but  which, 
in  the  greater  part  of  our  Continent  at  least,  represents  a 
very  well  defined  stage  of  culture,  reflect  an  attitude  of  mind 
not  yet  wholly  extinct  amongst  German  scholars.  How 
far  the  Hallstatt  culture  can  in  this  district  be  regarded 
as  the  immediate  successor  of  that  of  Neolithic  times  is  a 


532 


NATURE 


{Aprils,  1888 


question,  however,  of  comparatively  secondary  import- 
ance. The  main  fact  with  which  we  have  to  deal  is  that 
it  is  only  in  the  transitional  age  that  takes  its  name  from 
the  great  Salzkammergut  Cemetery,  and  when  iron  was 
already  coming  into  use,  that  we  have  the  evidence  of 
intimate  and  extended  relations  between  the  Amber  Coast 
of  the  Baltic  and  the  lands  to  the  south  and  south-east. 
The  importance  of  this  fact  in  its  bearing  on  the  early 
course  of  the  amber  trade  does  not  seem  to  me  to  be 
clearly  brought  out  by  Dr.  Lissauer.  Montelius,  however, 
has  conclusively  shown  that  throughout  the  earlier  and 
purer  Bronze  Age  in  Central  and  North-Western  Europe 
the  source  of  the  amber  supply  was  not  the  East  Baltic, 
but  the  coast  of  Jutland  and  the  mouths  of  the  Elbe  and 
Weser,  where,  as  Miillenhofif  has  demonstrated  on  purely 
literary  grounds,  lay  the  Amber  Islands  of  Pytheas.  The 
main  course  of  this  early  commerce,  as  indicated  by  the 
connection  of  the  Bronze  Age  forms  discovered,  was  up 
the  course  of  the  Elbe  ;  and  the  first  appearance  of  an 
intrusive  southern  culture  at  the  Vistula"  mouth  in  Hall- 
statt  times  shows  that  it  was  not  till  this  comparatively 
recent  period  that  the  Baltic  amber  route  was  opened  up. 
But,  when  once  this,  then  probably  as  now,  far  more 
prolific  field  was  known,  southern  commerce  showed 
more  and  more  a  tendency  to  follow  this  route,  to  the 
final  desertion  of  the  older  line  to  the  north-west.  Among 
the  most  characteristic  evidences  of  the  trade  relations 
thus  estabhshed  between  the  Old  Prussian  Amber  Coast 
and  the  Mediterranean  may  be  cited  the  discovery 
of  a  "cordoned"  bronze  bucket  of  the  class  common 
to  Northern  and  Southern  Italy,  and  of  which  large 
finds  have  come  to  light  in  Southern  Hungary, — a  class 
of  objects  which  there  seems  no  longer  any  warrant  for 
qualifying,  as  Dr.  Lissauer  does,  as  "  Etruscan,"  but  which, 
as  Helbig  has  shown,  may  very  well  represent  an  old 
Chalcidian  fabric.  A  whole  succession  of  finds  of  Greek 
coins  further  mark  in  somewhat  later  times  the  continued 
intercourse  with  the  south.  Dr.  Lissauer  apparently 
accepts  the  much-disputed  Schubin  find  of  Archaic  coins 
of  Athens  and  Erchomenos,  and  though  the  inclusion  in 
this  sixth  century  hoard  of  two  later  pieces  of  Athens 
and  Miletus,  and  a  modern  Siamese  coin,  render  the  cir- 
cumstances of  the  find  open  to  grave  suspicion,  the 
later  series  of  discoveries  of  coins  of  Thasos,  Macedon, 
&c.,  extending  from  Hungary  to  Gothland,  throws  a  retro- 
spective light  on  the  probable  direction  followed  by  one 
branch  of  this  Baltic  commerce.  It  appears  equally  clear, 
however,  both  from  archaeological  and  historic  sources, 
that  another  line  crossed  the  Julian  Alps  to  the  head  of 
the  Adriatic,  finding  in  all  probability  its  southern  con- 
tinuation by  the  East  Adriatic  coasting  route.  This,  it 
will  be  remembered,  was  the  route  followed  by  those  who, 
in  Herodotus's  account,  conveyed  the  mysterious  gifts  of 
the  Hyperboreans  to  the  Delian  shrine  of  the  Sun-god — a 
mission  which  seems  to  have  an  inseparable  connection 
with  the  "  Sun-stone"  Islands  of  Eridanos's  mouth  and  the 
Phaethontid  maidens. 

Among  the  most  interesting  and  characteristic  features 
of  the  Hallstatt  period  in  West  Prussia  are  the  "face- 
urns,"  or  cinerary  vases  with  human  features  rudely 
modelled  on  their  neck ;  and  Dr.  Lissauer  is  probably  on 
the  right  track  when  he  compares  them  with  the  early 
vases  of  the  same  kind  discovered  by  Fraulein  von  Torma 


in  the  Valley  of  the  Maros  in  Transylvania.  That  they 
have  any  relation  with  the  "face-urns  "  of  Etruria  seems 
out  of  the  question,  especially  since  the  appearance  of 
the  monograph  of  Prof.  Milani,  tracing  the  evolution  of 
the  developed  Tuscan  type  from  an  earlier  class  of 
cinerary  vases  with  funeral  masks  attached  to  them. 
But  the  parallels  from  the  Maros  Valley  may  be  more 
plausibly  regarded  as  supplying  an  intermediate  link  in 
space  and  time  between  the  face-urns  of  the  Baltic  coast 
and  those  of  prehistoric  Troy.  In  other  respects  the 
ceramic  forms  that  occur  in  West  Prussia  and  its  border- 
lands during  this  period,  such  as  the  "  twin  "  and  painted 
vases,  show  strong  southern  and  south-eastern  affinities  ; 
while  the  occurrence  amongst  the  ornaments  of  Cypraa 
moneta  and  Cyprcea  annulus  from  the  Red  Sea  and 
Indian  Ocean  point  to  still  more  extensive  eastern 
relations.  Cowry  ornaments,  it  may  be  worth  observ- 
ing, are  of  frequent  occurrence  in  the  prehistoric 
cemeteries  of  the  Caucasian  region,  and  there  is  here 
perhaps  an  indication  of  old  Pontic  communications  by 
the  Dniester  or  Dnieper  Valleys — lines  of  intercourse 
which  Dr.  Lissauer  does  not  seem  to  have  kept  sufficiently 
in  view. 

•  The  Hallstatt  culture  on  the  Old  Prussian  shore  is  in 
its  turn  cut  short  by  that  to  which  we  in  England  give  the 
name  of  "  Late  Celtic,"  but  which  on  the  Continent  passes 
by  the  name  of  La  T^ne  from  the  Swiss  station  of  that 
name.  The  Roman  taste  for  amber  ornaments  sub- 
sequently gave  a  great  impulse  to  the  commercial  inter- 
course between  south  and  north  via  the  Pannonian 
frontier  station  of  Carnuntum,  and  we  have  abundant 
evidence  of  the  progress  of  Roman  provincial  arts  on  the 
Lower  Vistula.  The  finds  of  Roman  coins  become  more 
and  more  frequent,  and  culminate  in  the  reign  of  Severus, 
after  which  time  they  as  suddenly  fall  ofi".  There  can  be 
little  doubt,  as  Dr.  Lissauer  has  suggested,  that  this  sudden 
break  in  the  commercial  relations  wiih  the  south  is  due  to 
the  great  migration  of  the  Gothic  tribes,  who  had  before 
this  time  established  themselves  in  this  part  of  the  Baltic 
coast,  to  their  new  seats  on  the  shores  of  the  Black  Sea 
and  Trajan's  Dacia.  Into  the  depopulated  lands  west  of 
the  Vistula  the  new  tide  of  Slavonic  settlement  now 
poured,  while  the  older  branch  of  the  Litu-Slavic  race, 
the  ^stii  or  "  Old  Prussians,"  still  held  their  own  on  the 
Amber  Coast  to  the  east  of  the  river-mouth,  as  we  know 
from  the  offerings  made  by  them  to  King  Theodoric. 
The  last  section  of  Dr.  Lissauer's  work  is  directed  to  this 
Wendish  period  of  East  Baltic  history,  to  the  "  Burgwall  " 
and  the  "  Bergwall,"  the  pile-dwellings,  the  characteristic 
pottery  and  ornaments  of  the  primitive  Slavonic  race, 
and  to  the  monuments  of  their  rising  commerce-  with 
Byzantium  and  the  Arabian  East.  To  a  somewhat  later 
date,  perhaps,  may  be  assigned  the  curious  stone  figures 
included  by  Dr.  Lissauer  in  an  appendix  to  his  Neohthic 
section,  and  as  to  the  date  and  origin  of  which  he  refrains 
from  conjecture.  There  can,  however,  as  the  author  him- 
self admits,  be  no  reasonable  doubt  that  they  belong  to 
the  same  category  of  monuments  as  the  well-known 
Kamieftne  baby  or  "  stone  wives  "  of  the  Russian  steppes. 
They  extend,  in  fact,  in  an  unbroken  zone  through  Poland 
and  Lithuania  to  the  steppes  of  the  Dnieper  and  the 
Sea  of  Azoff,  and  find  their  analogies  in  Central 
Asia    and   in    the    rude    stone   figures   on   the  Siberian 


Aprils,  1888] 


NATURE 


533 


kurgans.  As  to  the  ethnic  character  of  the  people 
who  spread  them  over  this  vast  Scythian  region,  we 
have  the  direct  testimony  of  the  traveller  Rubruquis, 
who,  when  visiting  the  Polovtzi  or  Kumans — the  scourge 
of  mediaeval  Russia — actually  witnessed  their  erection 
oyer  the  grave-mounds  or  kurgans  of  that  race.  Their 
Turko-Tataric  origin  is  indeed  entirely  borne  out  by  their 
physiognomy,  which,  as  I  have  myself  had  occasion  for 
observing  in  various  parts  of  Southern  Russia,  is  of  an 
unmistakably  Mongolian  cast,  and  their  dress  and 
accoutrements  thoroughly  bear  out  this  identification,  the 
head-gear  in  some  instances  being  identical  with  that 
still  worn  by  some  Tekke-Turkomans.  Individual  diver- 
gences of  type  in  some  of  the  western  examples  may  of 
course  show  that  these  Mongolian  images  were  imitated 
by  Wendish  or  Old  Prussian,  Polish,  or  Lithuanian 
hands.  Two  things,  however,  may  be  regarded  as 
certain  :  that  the  stone  figures  of  the  steppes  are  of 
Turko-Tataric  origin,  and  that  the  date  of  their  Baltic 
reproductions  is  considerably  later  than  Neolithic  times. 

Arthur  J.  Evans. 


VOLTAIC  ELECTRICITY. 
Voltaic  Electricity.     By  T.  P.  Treglohan,  Head  Master, 
St.  James's  Science  and  Art  Schools,  Keyham,  Devon- 
port.     (London  :  Longmans,  Green,  and  Co.,  1888.) 
ONE  occasionally  hears  of  the  evil  effects  of  cram  and 
bad  teaching  which  the  system  of  examination  and 
payment  by  results  so  extensively  made  use  of  by  the 
Science  and  Art   Department  is  supposed  to  encourage. 
If  such  books  as  the  above  are  in  general  use  by  teachers 
or  candidates,  it  cannot  be  denied  that  the  evil  is  very 
serious. 

There  is  little  of  reasoning  or  explanation  anywhere  ; 
but,  instead,  there  are  strings  of  statements  which  would 
if  they  were  accurate,  consist  of  ready-made  answers  for 
such  questions  as  may  be  set  for  the  first  stage  or  element- 
ary course  of  voltaic  electricity.  At  the  end  of  the  book 
will  be  found  the  elementary  questions  in  voltaic  electri- 
city for  the  last  twenty  years,  with  numbers  attached 
showing  the  pages  where  the  answers  may  be  found. 

The  book  professes  to  be  largely  experimental,  and 
the  student  is  urged  to  make  the  apparatus  and  to  try 
the  experiments  described.  A  few  extracts  will  show  how 
utterly  misleading  it  is  in  this  respect. 

If  the  tongue  is  placed  between  a  penny  and  a  half- 
crown,  **  a  feeble  spark  is  seen  as  contact  is  made  between 
the  two  metals." 


electroscopes  are  recommended  to  be  used.  In  the  figure 
the  plates  are  shown  separated  and  connected  each  to  the 
zinc  or  copper  and  to  one  electroscope,  of  which  the  leaves 
are  widely  divergent.  The  student  is  not  told  that  the 
connections  must  not  be  so  made,  nor  is  any  practicable 
method  of  making  the  experiment  described. 

"  In  brine  the  positive  and  negative  elements  have  the 
same  relative  order  as  in  dilute  acids  ;  but  in  ammonia 
the  relation  is  reversed,  and  those  that  were  negative  in 
the  fo|mer  case  will  be  positive  in  the  latter." 

"  Itas  found  that  the  wire  attached  to  the  Cu,  C,  or  Ft 
has  free  statical  electricity  apparent  at  its  terminal, 
which  repels  the  glass  rod  rubbed  with  silk,  and  that 
attached  to  the  Zn  free  statical  electricity,  which  repels 
the  sealing-wax  rubbed  with  flannel." 

Th^  extraordinary  statement  appears  five  times  in  a 
few  piges. 

Three  or  four  Grove's  cells  are  "  necessary  "  to  electro- 
lyze  acidulated  water  ;  the  hydrogen  gas  collected  in  one 
of  the  tubes  of  a  voltameter  explodes  "  with  a  tolerably 
loud  report."  When  a  solution  of  common  salt  is  electro- 
lyzed,  "  the  sodium  of  the  salt  and  the  hydrogen  of  the 
water  "  (appear)  "  where  the  current  leaves  the  cell." 

"  Another  simple  experiment  is  to  send  the  current 
through  a  solution  of  iodide  of  potassium.  A  brown  sub- 
stance—iodine— is  seen  at  the  anode,  and  the  metal 
potassium  at  the  cathode." 

It  is  doubtful  what  some  passages  mean,  as  for,  instance, 
the  paragraph : 

"  If  any  number  of  plates  be  used  together,  the  E  M.F.  of 
such  a  cell  would  be  the  result  of  the  difference  of  potential 
of  the  two  plates  which  are  furthest  apart  in  the  electro- 
motive series."  ^      - 

Frequently,  the  language  is  more  than  careless ;  thus, 
after  speaking  of  sulphuric  acid  and  sulphate  of  copper, 
the  author  says  other  binary  compounds  ;  and,  after 
describing  the  action  of  a  solenoid,  he  says  coils  and 
helices  also  exhibit  magnetic  properties. 

Those  expressions  of  doubtful  meaning — intensity  and 
rquantity — are  freely  used,  as  is  the  word  potential,  which 
fortunately  has  not  its  meaning  explained.  The  names 
of  some  of  the  units  are  met  with  for  the  first  time  in  the 
sentence  :  "  Current  strength  is  calculated  in  amperes, 
electromotive  force  in  volts,  and  resistant'^j  in  ohms." 
Not  a  word  of  explanation  is  given. 


"  The  missing  Zn  "  (owing  to  the  action  of  a  voltaic 
cell)  "is  found  in  the  cell,  either  in  the  liquid  or  at  the 
bottom,  as  a  grayish-coloured  deposit." 

"  This  "  (the  bichromate)  "  was  a  strong  cell,  and  was 
tolerably  constant  ;  but,  after  a  short  time,  was  weakened 
in  consequence  of  crystals  of  chrome  alum  forming  in  the 
liquid.  To  prevent  this  crystallization,  the  liquid  must 
be  frequently  disturbed,  either  by  lifting  the  plates  out  of 
it,  or  by  some  other  means." 

After  speaking  of  the  Daniell,  Bunsen,  and  Grove,  the 
author  describes  the  Leclanchd  as  "  another  very  constant 
cell." 

To  show  that  zinc  and  carbon  have  a  greater  E.M.F. 
than   zinc  and   copper  in   a  cell,   a  condenser  and  two 


l^ATURAL  HISTORY  OF  VICTORIA. 
Prodrof^us  of  the  Zoology  of  Victoria.     Decades  1-15. 
By  Prof  F.  McCoy.     (Melbourne,  1878-87.) 

JUST  ten  years  ago.  Prof  Frederick  McCoy  decided, 
uftder  instructions  from  the  Victorian  Government 
of  the  day,  to  commence  the  publication  of  a  series  of 
short  descriptions,  accompanied  by  coloured  figures,  of 
the  indigenous  members  of  the  different  classes  of  the 
animal  kingdom.  These  were  to  be  published  in 
parts  containing  ten  plates  in  each,  which  have  ap- 
peared with  commendable  regularity  to  the  present  time. 
As  the  fauna  of  Victoria  was  not  as  well  known  as  its 
flora,  it  was  a  necessary  preliminary,  in  order  to  effectu- 
ally carry  out  such  a  scheme,  to  have  a  large  number  of 
drawings  made,  as  opportunity  arose,  from  the  living  or 


534 


NATURE 


{April  ^,  1888 


quite  recent  examples  of  many  species  of  reptiles,  fish, 
and  the  lower  animals,  the  true  characters  of  which,  in 
many  cases,  were  but  imperfectly  known,  from  their 
having  been  described  from  often  badly-preserved 
specimens. 

The  value  of  such  a  work  will  be  readily  granted,  and- 
the  energy  of  the  Victorian  Government  will  be  duly  ap- 
preciated by  those  of  us  in  the  mother  country  who 
know  the  difficulty  there  would  be  in  our  obtaining 
Government  sanction  for  the  publication  of  like  descrip- 
tions of  the  animal  inhabitants  of  these  islands. 

Of  all  the  forms  described  and  figured  in  these  decades, 
the  originals  are  preserved  in  the  National  Museum  at 
Victoria.  The  first  volume  was  completed  with  the  tenth 
decade  in  1885,  and  it  forms  a  large  octavo  volume  of 
100  plates  and  over  200  pages,  with  a  classified  index. 
Since  then,  Decades  11  to  15  have  been  published, 
bringing  the  date  to  last  year. 

On  this  important  work,  which  we  fear  is  not  so  well 
known  in  this  country  as  it  ought  to  be,  we  venture  to 
make  the  following  remarks.  Of  the  century  of  plates 
forming  Vol.  I.,  fifty-four  are  illustrative  of  vertebrate 
forms,  and  forty-six  of  invertebrate  ones.  Of  these  latter 
no  less  than  twenty-eight  are  exclusively  of  Polyzoa, 
which  seems  to  us  a  somewhat  unfair  treatment  of  the 
other  groups.  We  cannot  object  to  it  on  the  score  of  the 
advancement  of  science,  but  we  think  we  justly  may,  so  far 
as  the  usefulness  and  interest  of  these  decades  are  for  the 
public.  Another  criticism,  and  we  have  done  :  the  refer- 
ences to  where  the  species  have  been  described  are  for 
the  most  part  useless.  For  example,  to  the  species  figured 
on  the  1 00th  plate,  Cotiioddaris  tubaria  (Lam.),  where  we 
find  "  Cidarites  tubaria  (Lamk.),  Anim.  sans  Vert.,"  there 
is  not  another  word  added,  and  this  reference  is  not  only 
defective  but  erroneous.  This  is  a  subject  that  ought  to 
be  attended  to  :  we  do  not  demand  a  full  and  detailed 
synonymy,  but  would,  in  such  a  publication,  be  content 
with  just  such  information  as  would  enable  a  student  to 
see  where  the  generic  and  the  specific  names  adopted  by 
the  author  were  to  be  found  first  described  ;  and  to  give 
this,  few  would  be  better  qualified  than  Prof.  McCoy. 

With  scarcely  an  exception,  the  plates  have  been 
exceedingly  well  executed  ;  those  on  insects  by  A. 
•  Bartholomew  demand  a  special  word  of  praise,  and  the 
same  artist  has  also  done  full  justice  to  the  fishes  and 
the  Mollusca,  the  plates  representing  the  "  tuberculated 
argonaut"  being  nearly  perfect  Another  artist  whose 
work  we  may  allude  to  is  Dr.  Wild,  well  known  in  connec- 
tion with  the  Challenger  Expedition  ;  among  the  drawings 
executed  by  him,  that  of  the  Australian  fur  seal,  a  group 
with  the  adult  male,  female,  and  a  cub,  is  worthy  of 
praise. 

The  descriptive  details  vary,  as  might  be  expected,  in 
interest ;  sometimes  we  have  most  interesting  and  full 
accounts  of  the  life-history  of  the  species,  as  notably  in 
the  cases  of  the  fur  seals  just  referred  to,  of  the  case 
moths  (Metura),  the  bell  frog,  the  great  cicada,  and  others 
too  numerous  to  mention  ;  and  were  our  space  unlimited 
we  would  gladly  show  how  all-sided  is  the  information  to 
be  gained  from  these  decades.  The  following  will  serve 
as  an  example.  A  common  moth,  first  described  from 
New  South  W^ales  by  Lewin  VisPhalcenotdes  glycine,  from 
the  larvae  feeding  on  the  leaves  of  a  leguminous  plant 


{Glycine  bimaculatd),  is  equally  common  in  the  colony  o 
Victoria,  but  there  the  larvae  fed  on  Gnaphaliuiii  liiteo- 
album,  a  common  weed.  Since  the  planting  of  vineyards 
this  moth  has  increased  in  enormous  numbers,  and  the 
larvae  have  completely  abandoned  their  original  food,  and 
now  devour  only  the  leaves  of  the  grape  vine,  on  which 
the  moth  multiplies  beyond  measure.  It  is  a  puzzle  how 
the  female  moth  was  guided  to  deposit  her  eggs  on  a 
plant  of  so  different  a  character  from  that  which  she  had 
been  accustomed  to,  and  which  must  have  been  to  her 
unknown.  The  injury  done  to  the  vineyards  of  Victoria 
by  this  insect  is  enormous,  and  would  seem,  in  spite  of 
many  remedies,  to  be  increasing.  Insectivorous  birds 
will  not  eat  the  marauding  larvae ;  and  children,  who 
might  keep  down  the  plague  by  hand  picking,  must,  by 
law,  attend  their  schools. 

We  hope  to  again  notice  these  decades  on  the  com- 
pletion of  the  second  volume.  In  the  meanwhile  we  have 
said  enough  to  call  our  readers'  attention  to  the  value  and 
interest  of  the  information  which  they  contain  ;  and  we 
congratulate  Prof.  McCoy  and  the  Victorian  Government 
on  their  publication.  E.  P.  W. 


OUR  BOOK  SHELF. 

Teclmological  Dictionary.  In  3  vols.  English-German- 
French,  French-German-English,  German- French - 
English.  Third  Edition.  (London  :  Triibner  and  Co., 
1888.) 

The  inventions  and  discoveries  of  the  present  cen- 
tury have  introduced  a  very  considerable  number  of 
new  words  into  the  various  languages  of  the  world,  but 
more  especially  into  the  European  languages.  As  these 
words  do  not  occur  in  ordinary  dictionaries,  special  dic- 
tionaries embodying  them  are  necessary  to  a  great  number 
of  persons.  Thus,  to  facilitate  communication  in  com- 
mercial transactions  between  one  country  and  another, 
and  to  enable  students  of  science  and  technology  to  pro- 
fitably consult  works  written  in  languages  other  than 
their  own,  they  are  indispensable.  As  regards  the  three 
principal  languages  of  Europe,  this  want  is  supplied  by 
the  work  before  us,  the  third  edition  of  which  has  recently 
been  completed  by  the  publication  of  French-German- 
English,  and  German-French-English  volumes.  The  third 
edition  of  the  English- German-French  volume  was  pub- 
lished in  1878.  The  first  edition  dates  as  far  back  as 
1852,  and  since  then  the  work  has  been  thoroughly  revised 
and  new  matter  added. 

The  work  embraces  the  terms  employed  in  the  arts  and 
sciences,  engineering,  architecture  of  every  description, 
navigation,  astronomy,  meteorology,  mining,  artillery,  &c. 
In  addition  to  the  terms  relating  to  the  various  appliances, 
processes,  and  substances,  there  are  also  those  applied  to 
the  different  orders  of  people  concerned  with  them,  from 
the  "  doft'er  "  of  the  spinning  mill  to  an  "  Admiral  of  the 
Fleet."  Teachers  of  scientific  and  technological  subjects 
will  also  find  the  equivalents  of  the  great  majority  of  the 
terms  they  find  it  necessary  to  employ,  the  names  of 
chemicals  and  minerals  included.  The  work  is  wonder- 
fully comprehensive,  and  the  arrangement  is  all  that  could 
be  desired. 

The  best  authorities  have  been  consulted,  and  tedious 
processes  adopted,  with  the  view  of  obtaining  indisputable 
accuracy,  and  this  has  practically  been  accomplished.  No 
effort  has  been  spared  to  make  the  work  deserving  of  the 
important  place  in  literature  which  it  should  naturally 
occupy,  and  no  recommendation  of  ours  is  necessary.  It 
certainly  ought  to  be  available  for  reference  in  all  libraries 
of  any  importance.  A.  F. 


April  ^,  1888] 


NATURE 


535 


Transactions  of  the  Sanitary  Institute  of  Gi-eat  Britain. 
York  Congress,  1886. 

The  valuable  work  done  by  the  Sanitary  Institute  cannot 
be  altogether  gauged  by  the  annual  volumes  of  Trans- 
actions, one  of  which  now  lies  before  us.  It  must  be 
remembered  that,  besides  the  reading  of  papers  and  hold- 
ing of  discussions  on  subjects  of  sanitary  interest,  the 
Sanitary  Institute  endeavoui-s,  by  means  of  its  Congresses 
and  annual  Exhibitions,  to  arouse  the  interest  of  the 
inhabitants  no  less  than  of  Town  Councils  and  municipal 
authorities  in  the  health  and  well-being  of  the  towns 
visited.  That  such  visitations  have  a  beneficial  influence, 
by  awakening  public  interest  in  measures  of  sanitary 
reform,  both  local  and  general,  can  hardly  be  doubted  ; 
and,  as  pointed  out  by  Sir  Spencer  Wells  in  his  Pre- 
sidential Address,  if  further  legislation  on  sanitary  matters 
is  not  to  be  ridiculous,  it  must  be  accompanied  by  increased 
knowledge  on  the  part  both  of  the  persons  charged  with 
administering  the  Sanitary  Acts  as  well  as  of  the  public 
themselves. 

The  modern  science  of  hygiene  is  hybrid,  embracing  as 
it  does  special  brandies  of  most  of  the  leading  sciences — 
medicine,  engineering,  architecture,  geology,  chemistry, 
meteorology,  &c.  The  subjects  treated  of  by  means  of 
papers  in  such  a  Congress  must  be  very  varied,  and  such 
we  find  to  be  the  case  ;  but  as  far  as  possible  the  papers 
are  relegated  to  one  of  three  sections,  where  their  merits 
will  be  best  understood  and  most  adequately  discussed. 
The  standard  of  the  papers  submitted  to  the  York  Con- 
gress is  fully  up  to  the  average,  many  of  them  treating  of 
subjects  of  wide  interest,  or  having  important  bearings  on 
the  prevention  of  disease  and  maintenance  of  the  public 
health. 

Science  SketcJies.      By  David  Starr  Jordan.      (Chicago : 
A.  C.  McClurg  and  Co.,  1888.) 

In  this  neat  and  handy  little  volume  we  have  a  very 
interesting  and  intellectual  collection  of  sketches  and 
addresses  more  or  less  scientific.  Some  of  the  articles, 
which,  as  the  author  tells  us,  have  been  published  before, 
have  been  freely  retouched  or  re-written  ;  but  the  papers 
on  "The  Dispersion  of  Fresh-water  Fishes,"  "  The  Evolu- 
tion of  the  College  Curriculum,"  and  the  address  on 
"  Darwin  "  appear  for  the  first  time.  The  subjects  treated 
are  of  various  kinds,  so  that  anyone  who  takes  up  the 
book  will  be  sure  to  find  in  it  something  that  will  interest 
him.  The  appendix  contains  a  list  of  the  scientific  papers 
of  the  author,  and  ,we  hope  it  will  not  be  long  before  we 
are  favoured  with  another  such  book  as  the  above. 


LETTERS   TO    THE  EDITOR. 

\The  Editor  does  not  hold  himself  responsible  for  opinions 
expressed  by  his  correspondents.  Neither  can  he  under- 
take to  return,  or  to  correspond  with  the  writers  of, 
rejected  manuscripts  intended  for  this  or  any  other  part 
(t/"  Nature.  No  notice  is  taken  of  anonymous  communi- 
cations.'\ 

"Coral  Formations." 

Since writingtheletterpublishedin  NATURE,March22(p.488) 
I  have  checked  Mr.  Ross's  figures.  The  result  is  somewhat 
surprising.  Instead  of  8400  tons  of  carbonate  of  lime  removed 
from  12!^  square  miles  of  lagoon  representing  a  sheet  half  an 
inch  thick,  it  really  only  amounts  to  a  film  of  that  area  ^J-tj-  of 
an  inch  thick. 

At  this  rate  per  annum  it  would  in  round  figures  take  eighteen 
thousand  years  to  dissolve  out  a  lagoon  a  fathom  deep,  or  a 
million  years  for  the  creation  of  a  lagoon  60  fathoms  deep. 
When  we  consider  that  this  could  only  happen  on  the  impossible 
assumption  of  the  atoll  remaining  stationary  for  a  million  years, 
while  no  accumulation  of  coral  sediment  or  organic  calcareous 
growth  took  place  in  the  lagoon,  it  is  at  once  seen,  on  the  showing 
of  its  own  supporters,  how  impotent  is  the  solution  theory  to 
account  for  the  formation  of  lagoons  in  atolls. 


To  represent  the  figures  in  a  familiar  way,  I  may  point  out 
that  the  film  removed  annually  would  be  a  little  less  in  thickness 
than  one  of  the  pages  of  "  Prestwich's  Geology."  A  volume 
of  36,000  pages  (18,000  leaves),  minus  covers  and  well  pressed, 
would  be  a  fathom  thick.  No  one  acquainted  with  my  geo- 
logical work  will  accuse  me  of  being  parsimonious  of  geological 
time,  but  this  is  really  beyond  my  mark  altogether. 

Mr.  Irvine  asks  (Nature,  March  29,  p.  509)  :  "  Can  Mr. 
Reade  give  any  observations  or  figures  in  support  of  his  view  of 
the  rate  of  accumulation  of  oceanic  calcareous  deposits  ?  " 

If  Mr.  Irvine  will  refer  to  Mr.  Murray's  paper  (Nature, 
vol.  xxii.  p.  352),  he  will  see  that  the  pelagic  life  in  a  square 
mile  of  ocean  water  100  fathoms  deep  is  estimated  by  him  to 
represent  sixteen  tons  of  carbonate  of  lime. 

I  am  not  aware  of  the  length  of  life  of  such  organisms,  but  if 
they  lived  on  an  average  only  one  day,  and  the  whole  of  their 
tests  were  rained  down  on  to  a  submarine  peak  at  the  rate  of 
sixteen  tons  per  diem,  and  none  were  dissolved  by  sea-wafer,  it 
would  take  twenty-nine  years  to  accumulate  I  inch  in  thickness 
of  solid  carbonate  of  lime  in  this  pelagic  cemetery.  In  this  way, 
if  anything  so  improbable  were  to  happen,  a  submarine  peak 
half  a  mile  below  the  range  of  coral  growth  might  be  levelled 
up  into  a  suitable  platform  in  900,000  years.  I  could  add  much 
more,  but  respect  for  your  valuable  space  bids  me  conclude. 

T.  Mellard  Reade. 

Park  Corner,  Blundellsands,  April  3. 


"The  Dispersion  of  Seeds  and  Plants." 

In  support  of  the  views  expressed  in  Mr.  D.  Morris's  interesting 
article  on  the  above  subject  (Nature,  March  15,  p.  466),  I 
beg  to  be  allowed  to  state  the  following  facts.  In  the  Island 
of  Porto  Rico,  \ht  Panic  urn  barbinode,  called  there  "  malojilla," 
has  been  cultivated  for  many  years  in  the  low  humid  lands,  and 
it  is  a  current  opinion  among  farmers  that  it  is  reproduced  by 
means  of  the  animals  feeding  on  it.  Some  fruit-bearing  trees 
and  shrubs,  which  are  a  favourite  food  for  the  wild  Columba 
leucocephala  and  Columba  corensis — among  them  the  Solanum 
stramonifolium,  the  Bucida  Buceras,  the  wild  coffee,  Coffea 
occidentalis,  the  palm-tree,  Oredoxa  regia  —  appear  in  some 
mountains  and  regions  where  they  were  formerly  unknown,  and 
there  is  no  doubt  that  they  have  sprung  from  fruits  and  seeds 
transported  by  these  pigeons.  The  Anona  muricata  (soursop), 
the  Anona  reticulata  (custard  apple),  the  Carica  papaya  (papaw 
tree),  whose  hard  seeds  are  sometimes  uninjured  by  the  processes 
of  mastication  and  digestion,  are  also  believed  to  be  planted 
accidentally  by  birds,  and  sometimes  by  hogs,  hors:s,  and  other 
Mammalia.  They  grow  all  about  in  pastures  where  these 
animals  are  fed.  The  statement  made  about  the  orange-tree 
in  Jamaica  also  holds  good  for  Porto  Rico.  Very  few  orange- 
trees  were  planted  in  the  interior  of  the  country,  and  the  tree  is 
now  wild  in  all  that  zone  by  the  agency  of  birds  in  great  part. 
There  is  no  doubt,  as  Mr.  Morris  says,  that  birds  and  cattle  have 
been  the  means  of  distributing  plants  all  over  the  island. 

Antonio  J.  Amadeo. 


'•Balbin's  Quaternions." 

Nature  of  December  15,  i887(p.  145),  which  has  lately  reached 
me,  contains  a  notice  of  a  treatise  on  Quaternions,  by  Prof. 
Valentin  Balbin,  in  which  the  reviewer  alludes  to  the  "slight 
alterations "  introduced  into  the  notation  of  quaternions  by 
Messrs.  Houel  and  Laisant,  and  apparently  visits  them  all  with 
equal  condemnation. 

To  me  it  appears  that  a  distinction  should  be  made  between 
the  two  points  in  which  the  French  notation  differs  from  the 
English.  The  use  of  letters  in  different  type  to  denote  different 
kinds  of  quantities,  the  same  type  being  always  reserved  for  the 
same  kind,  seems  to  render  the  processes  sometimes  clearer  and 
the  results  more  immediately  and  easily  available  for  students. 
In  spite,  therefore,  of  the  ugliness  of  the  black-letter  symbols, 
it  would  not  perhaps  be  altogether  a  loss  if  English  mathe- 
maticians would  adopt  this  part  of  the  French  scheme. 

The  other  change  introduced  by  M.  Houel,  that  of  the  order 
of  the  factors,  writing  (j  c/  where  Hamilton  writes  /  </,  seems, 
on  the  contrary,  to  be  an  entirely  retrograde  step.  That,  as  a 
rule,  the  symbol  for  the  operator  should  be  written  before  that 
of  the  operand,  is  a  necessity  in  all  modern  symbolic  processes. 
The  alteration  can  only  lead  to  confusion.  In  my  "  Text-book 
of  Algebra"  I  have  suggested   that  while   the  symbol   a  x  b 


536 


NATURE 


[April  ^,  1888 


should  be  read,  a  multiplie'd  by  /;,  the  symbol  a.b  or  ab  should 
mean  a  multiplied  into  b,  so  that  ax.  b  and  b.a  or  ab  are  identical. 
Perhaps  a  compromise  might  be  effected  on  this  basis  in  the 
notation  of  quaternion  multiplication. 

The  "unnained  French  mathematician  "  who  is  quoted  in  the 
notice  in  question  as  asserting  that  quaternions  have  no  sense  in 
them,  is  stated  by  M.  Laisant  to  have  been  M.  Prouhet,  and 
to  have  expressed  this  opinion  in  the  Nouvelles  Antiales  dc 
Mathematique  (1863,  p.  333),  in  reviewing  the  first  work 
published  in  French  on  quaternions,  the  author  of  which  was 
M.  Allegret.  W.  Steadman  Alois. 

Auckland,  New  Zealand,  February  20. 


Mr.    Crookes     and     the     Transformation    of    Heat- 
Radiations    into    Matter. 

Prof.  Clifford,  in  the  Fortnightly  Review,  June  1875, 
wrote  as  follows  : — "But  if  the  ether  did  absorb  light,  what 
would  this  mean?  Vibratory  motion  of  solids,  which  is  really 
a  molecular  disturbance,  is  absorbed  by  being  transformed  into 
other  kinds  of  molecular  motion,  and  so  may  finally  be  trans- 
formed to  the  ether.  There  is  no  reason  why  the  vibratory 
motion  of  the  ether  should  not  be  transformed  into  other  kinds 
of  ethereal  motion  ;  in  fact,  there  is  no  reason  why  it  should  not 
go  to  the  making  of  atoms  "  ("  Lectures  and  Essays,"  by  W.  K. 
Clifford,  vol.  i.  p.  246). 

Mr.  Crookes,  in  his  Presidential  Address  to  the  Chemical 
Society,  March  28,  brought  forward  a  somewhat  similar  hypo- 
thesis, for  he  says : — "  If  we  may  hazard  any  conjecture  as  to 
the  source  of  energy  embodied  in  a  chemical  atom,  we  may,  I 
think,  premise  that  the  heat-radiations,  propagated  outwards 
through  the  ether  from  the  ponderable  matter  of  the  universe, 
by  some  process  of  Nature  not  yet  known  to  us,  are  transformed 
at  the  confines  of  the  universe  into  the  primary — the  essential — 
motions  of  chemical  atoms,  which,  the  instant  they  are  formed, 
gravitate  inwards,  and  thus  restore  to  the  universe  the  energy 
which  otherwise  would  be  lost  to  it  through  radiant  heat." 

The  hypotheses  will  be  seen  to  be  exactly  alike,  except  for  the 
speculation  introduced  by  Mr.  Crookes  of  the  transformation 
taking  place  "at  the  confines  of  the  universe."  What  do  we 
know  of  the  confines  of  the  universe  ?  Nothing.  Are  we  now 
to  begin  building  up  hypotheses  on  such  foundations — foundations 
concerning  which  we  know  nothing,  and  are  not  likely  to  know 
anything/(?r  some  time  i  Hugh  Gordon. 

Royal  Institution,  March  31. 


Green  Colouring-matter  of  Decaying  Wood. 

Mr.  Irving  writes  (p.  511)  :  "  After  an  examination  of  thin 
sections  "  of  the  decaying  wood  "with  the  microscope,  I  am 
unable  to  trace  this  to  any  saprophytic  organism." 

I  have  at  the  present  time  a  coccus,  I  suppose,  growing  on  the 
surface  of  nutrient  gelatin,  which  is  stained  a  beautiful  green, 
highly  fluorescent,  by  the  colouring-matter  absorbed  by  it  from 
the  micro-organisms.  The  cultivation  is  in  a  test-tube  of  nutrient 
gelatin  inoculated  by  scratching  the  surface  of  the  gelatin  with  a 
needle  which  had  been  rubbed  on  a  colony,  isolated  by  plate- 
cultivation,  and  obtained  from  a  bad  water. 

The  growth,  a  greenish- white,  is  entirely  on  the  surface — so 
entirely  that  the  scratches  made  in  inoculating  the  gelatin  are 
still  visible,  three  weeks  after  the  inoculation,  and  the  gelatin  is 
perfectly  transparent. 

Under  these  circumstances  it  is  quite  certain  if  I  made  sections 
of  the  green  gelatin  no  micro-organisms  would  be  found  in 
them. 

It  may  be  that  the  decaying  wood  is  stained  in  the  same  way 
by  colouring-matter  absorbed  by  the  sap  or  the  moisture  of  the 
wood  by  micro-organisms  growing  on  its  surface. 

It  is  a  fact,  I  believe,  that  the  colouring-matter  formed  by 
chromo-genic  micro-organisms  does  not  reside  in  their  structures 
but  in  the  interspaces  between  them,  so  it  would  naturally  be 
absorbed  by  any  solvent  they  were  in  contact  with,  while  the 
organisms  themselves  might  remain  entirely  on  the  surface,as  they 
do  in  the  case  of  my  gelatin. 

This  may  explain  why  Mr.  Irving  has  failed  to  find  micro- 
organisms in  the  sections  he  made.  Further,  if  the  colour  of  his 
green  woud  is  caused  by  the  same  micro-organism  which  stains 
my  gelatin  green,  it  is  a  very  small  one,  so  small  that,  with 
a  i/15-iuch  oil-immersion  object-glass,  and  a  No.  12  compensat- 


ing eye-piece  of  Zeiss,  I  find  it  very  difficult  to  decide  what  shape 
it  is,  but  I  think  it  is  not  spherical. 

I  think  Mr.  Irving  will  find  references  to  the  literature  of 
chromo-genic  micro-organisms  in  Crookshank's  "  Manual  of 
Bacteriology."  Henry  Robinson. 

The  University  Chemical  Laboratory,  Cambridge. 


Comet  a  1888  (Sawerthal). 

I  SAW  comet  Sawerthal  to-day  at  3.40  a.m.,  with  power  20 
on  a  4j-inch  refractor.  It  was  about  50'  immediately  below 
0  Pegasi,  and  had  a  bright  broad  tail,  which  I  could  only  dis- 
tinguish to  a  length  of  65',  on  account  of  the  twilight,  moon- 
light, and  the  comet's  low  altitude.  I  thought  the  tail  was 
slightly  curved,  concave  to  south  ;  it  pointed  on  the  average  to  a 
little  above  v  Pegasi,  or  at  a  position-angle  of  about  260°.  The 
total  light  of  the  head  was  considerably  fainter  than  Q  Pegasi, 
and  considerably  brighter  than  v,  so  that  it  would  be  from  4  to 
45  mag.  ;  but  owing  to  the  unfavourable  conditions  I  could  not 
see  it  with  the  naked  eye.  T.  W,  Backhouse. 

Sunderland,  April  3. 


THE  HITTITES,  WITH  SPECIAL  REFERENCE 
TO   VERY  RECENT  DISCOVERIES^ 

IL 

THE  monuments  at  Boghaz-Keui  and  Eyuk  are  on  the 
east  of  the  River  Halys  ;  and  it  seems  doubtful 
whether  there  is  evidence  that  the  country  inhabited  by 
the  Hittites  extended  much,  if  at  all,  beyond  a  line  drawn 
from  Sinope  on  the  Euxine  to  the  most  westerly  bend  of 
the  Halys,  and  continued  through  the  peninsula  to  the 
Mediterranean.  No  doubt  sculptures  with  Hittite  cha- 
racteristics have  been  found  further  to  the  west,  as  at 
Giaour-kalessi,  in  Phrygia,  and  at  Karabel,  near  to 
Smyrna  and  to  the  coast  of  the  ^gean  ;  but  as  yet  it  does 
not  appear  certain  that  these  sculptures  denote  permanent 
occupation,  or  that  they  are  more  than  monuments  of 
successful  military  expeditions.  The  Euphrates  may  be 
taken  as  marking  vaguely  the  eastern  boundary  of  the 
Hittite  land.  To  the  south,  in  Syria,  the  Hittite  country 
certainly  extended  as  far  as  Kadesh,  a  site  on  or  near  the 
present  Lake  of  Horns. 

It  is  with  the  inscriptions  and  the  engraved  seals  found 
in,  or  connected  with,  the  district  I  have  indicated  that 
Hittite  researches  are  mainly  concerned.  The  few 
characters  on  the  monument  at  Karabel  are  too  far 
obliterated  to  be,  for  the  present,  of  much  importance. 
In  1812,  Burckhardt  visited  Hamah,  the  ancient  Hamath, 
in  Syria.  He  saw  in  the  corner  of  a  house  in  the  bazaar 
"  a  stone  with  a  number  of  small  figures  and  signs,  which 
appear  to  be  a  kind  of  hieroglyphical  writing,  though  it 
does  not  resemble  that  of  Egypt "  ("  Travels  in  Syria," 
Lond.,  1822,  p.  147).  But,  as  Dr.  Wright  remarks,  "so 
little  interest  was  taken  in  his  discovery,  even  by  pro- 
fessional explorers,  that  Porter,  in  Murray's  '  Hand-book,' 
so  late  as  1868,  declares  'there  are  no  antiquities  in 
Hamah'"  ("Empire  of  the  Hittites,"  2nded.,p.  i).  There 
were,  however,  other  inscriptions  at  Hamah  besides  that 
noticed  by  Burckhardt,  and  the  stone  bearing  one  of 
these  was  supposed  to  possess  mysterious  properties, 
efficacious  for  the  cure  of  spinal  disease,  so  that  "  de- 
formed persons  were  willing  to  pay  for  the  privilege  of 
lying  upon  it,  in  the  hope  of  a  speedy  cure  "  (Burton  and 
Drake,  "Unexplored  Syria").  After  sixty  years,  or 
nearly  so,  from  the  time  of  Burckhardt's  discovery, 
attention  was  called  to  the  Hamath  inscriptions,  first  by 
Mr.  J.  A.  Johnson,  United  States  Consul  at  Beyrout,  and 
subsequently  (1872)  by  Capt.  R.  F.  Burton  and  the  late 
C..F.  Tyrwhitt  Drake,  in  the  work  just  quoted.  In  1872, 
however,  Dr.  Wright  was  successful  in  obtaining  casts  of 
the  Hamath  inscriptions,  while  the  originals  were  trans- 

I  Based  on  Lectures  delivered  by  Mr.  Thomas  Tyler  atthe  British  Museum 
in  January  188S.     Continued  from  p.  514. 


Aprils,  1888] 


NATURE 


537 


mitted  in  safe  custody  to  Constantinople.  The  arrival  of 
Dr.  Wright's  casts  in  this  country  was  naturally  followed 
by  attempts  at  the  decipherment  of  the  hieroglyphics, 
though  some  of  those  who  made  these  attempts  had 
previously  concerned  themselves  with  the  imperfect 
representations  given  by  Burton  and  Drake  in  the  work 
already  mentioned.  About  the  same  time  (1872)  atten- 
tion was  called  to  the  inscription  then  existing  at  Aleppo, 
but  since  unfortunately  destroyed.  Not  very  long  after- 
wards an  interesting  bas-relief  at  Ibreez,  in  Lycaonia, 
accompanied  by  an  inscription,  was  brought  anew  under 
notice  by  the  Rev.  E.  J.  Davis ;  and  in  1876  Prof.  Sayce 
observed  with  reference  to  this  inscription,  "The 
Hamathite  hieroglyphics  appear  to  have  been  an  inven- 
tion of  an  early  population  of  Northern  Syrians.  Their 
occurrence  in  Lycaonia  is  probably  due  to  Syrian  con- 
quest." Still  later,  and  in  view  of  the  sculptures  of 
Boghaz-Keui  and  Karabel,  together  with  other  monu- 
ments, Prof.  Sayce  took  a  much  wider  view,  extending 
Hittite  presence  and  influence  through  Asia  Minor.  Not 
long  after  taking  this  more  extended  view  of  the  Hittites, 
the  same  scholar  made  a  discovery  of  no  small  import- 
ance with  regard  to  the  decipherment  of  the  inscriptions  : 
I  allude  to  the  discovery  that  certain  characters  on  the 
seal  of  Tarkutimme  were  Hittite  hieroglyphics  {Academy, 
August  21,  1880).  The  true  nature  of  these  hieroglyphics 
had  not  been  previously  seen,  though,  together  with  the 
cuneiform  inscription  round  the  circumference,  they  had 
been  discussed  by  the  late  Dr.  Mordtmann. 

The  history  of  this  now  celebrated  seal  is  certainly 
remarkable.  About  the  year  i860,  a  convex  silver  plate 
bearing  the  inscriptions  just  alluded  to  was  presented  for 
sale  at  the  British  Museum.  Doubt  was  entertained  con- 
cerning the  genuineness  of  this  silver  plate  as  an  antiquity, 
and  the  purchase  was  declined,  though  an  electrotype 
copy  was  made  and  preserved.  On  account  of  the  pro- 
longed interval  which  has  ehpsed,  the  precise  ground  of 
doubt  is  not  now  altogether  clear.  It  seems  not  unlikely, 
however,  that  the  decision  as  to  the  spuriousness  of  the 
plate  was  arrived  at  after  several  considerations  had  been 
duly  weighed.  The  silver  of  the  plate  may  have  seemed 
too  well  preserved  for  an  object  of  so  great  antiquity, 
unless,  indeed,  it  had  been  in  some  special  manner 
sealed  up  and  protected  in  a  vase  or  other  receptacle. 
Then  the  character  of  the  engraving  was  probably  re- 
garded as  inconsistent  with  the  idea  of  its  having  been 
cut  originally  in  silver,  and  especially  in  a  comparatively 
thin  silver  plate,  the  engraving  being  rather  that  of  stone, 
on  which  material,  indeed,  a  seal  was  much  more  likely 
to  be  engraved.  And  another  important  fact,  as  agree- 
ing with  this  view,  is  a  flaw  which  appears  on  the  right 
hand  of  the  central  figure,  and  which  suggests  the  frac- 
ture or  chipping  of  stone  rather  than  the  abrasion  of 
metal.  On  these  grounds,  probably,  the  conclusion  was 
arrived  at  that  the  plate  was  not  a  genuine  antiquity.^ 
Most  likely  it  was  a  cast  or  electrotype  from  an  ancient 
stone  seal,  this  seal  having  been  retained  by  the  dis- 
coverer— whoever  he  may  have  been — with  the  view  of 
obtaining  eventually  a  larger  profit  by  its  sale.  Proceed- 
ings of  this  kind  are  not  unknown  at  the  Museum. 
But  where  the  original  seal  then  was,  or  now  is,  has  never 
been  known  ;  and  the  silver  plate  offered  at  the  Museum 
has  likewise  disappeared  from  view.  But  this  disappear- 
ance is  of  little  importance  to  science,  if  the  genuineness 
of  the  inscriptions  can  be  fully  proved. 

In  favour  of  this  genuineness  it  must  be  urged  as  im- 
probable that  any  from  among  the  few  Assyriologists  who 
were  to  be  found  in  Europe  nearly  thirty  years  ago  would 
have  co-operated  in  forging  the  seal.  Moreover,  there 
are   two   difficulties   in  the  way  of  believing  in  such  a 

'  The  decision  arrived  at  was  probably  in  accordance  with  the  view  of 
Mr.  Ready,  who  then  was,  as  he  still  is,  at  the  Museum.  What  has  been 
said  as  to  the  style  of  engraving  and  the  fracture  was.  most  likely,  suggested 
by  him  at  the  time,  though  he  cannot  now  recollect  the  details  of  the 
matter. 


forgery.  First,  the  cuneiform  legend  has  pecuHarities 
which  distinguish  it  from  any  other  known  type  of  cunei- 
form writing,  as  was  observed  by  Dr.  Mordtmann.  Then 
there  is  an  interspace  over  the  head  of  the  standing 
figure,  which  might  seem,  at  first  sight,  to  be  interposed 
between  the  beginning  and  end  of  the  cuneiform  legend. 
It  occurs,  however,  in  the  middle  of  a  wbrd.  For  this 
interspace  a  possible  reason  may  be  derived  from  the 
recently-discovered  Yuzgat  seal  ;  but  its  occurrence  does 
not  suggest  the  idea  of  forgery  by  a  scholar  conversant 
with  the  cuneiform  characters.  Supposing,  however,  that 
these  difficulties  are  put  aside,  there  remains  the  much 
stronger  argument  furnished  by  the  characters  in  the 
central  space,  which  are  certainly  Hittite.  Now,  and  for 
some  time  past,  great  interest  has  been  displayed  in  rela- 
tion to  Hittite  inscriptions  ;  but  in  and  about  the  year  1 860 
the  case  was  far  otherwise.  There  was  then  no  temptation 
to  forge  these  Hittite  inscriptions  on  the  seal,  even  if  it  had 
been  possible  to  do  so.  But  it  may  be  doubted  whether 
at  the  time  in  question  it  would  have  been  possible  to 
find  and  bring  together  the  various  Hittite  characters. 
Besides,  it  is  not  difficult  to  discern  a  concinnity  and 
agreement  between  the  cuneiform  and  Hittite  adverse  to 
the  idea  of  forgery,  and  consistent  only  with  the  opinion 
that  the  seal  is,  with  its  inscriptions,  a  veritable  bilingual. 


Fig.  D. — Bilingual  seal  of  Tarkutimme  (enlarged). 

About  the  time  already  mentioned  (i860),  Dr.  Mordt- 
mann examined  at  Constantinople  a  convex  silver  plate, 
then  in  the  possession  of  M.  Jovanoff,  probably  the  iden- 
tical plate  which  was  offered  at  the  British  Museum. 
Concerning  this  plate,  Dr.  Mordtmann  wrote,  with  date 
'•  Constantinople,  December  6,  1861,"  a  contribution  to 
Grote's  "  Miinzstudien,"  entitled  "  Sceau  de  Tarkoum- 
dimmi,  roi  de  Tarsous "  ;  the  designation  "  Tarkoum- 
dimmi,  roi  de  Tarsous,"  being  Dr.  Mordtmann's  reading 
at  that  time  of  the  cuneiform  inscription  on  the  seal.  He 
noticed  also,  very  appropriately,  the  resemblance  of 
the  name  on  the  seal  to  the  names  Tarcondimotus, 
TapKoidifj-oTos,  as  found  in  Tacitus,  Strabo,  and  Die 
Cassius,  names  employed  to  denote  a  father  and  son, 
Cilician  kings  who  reigned  in  the  time  of  Augustus. 
Dr.  Mordtmann  mentioned,  also,  that  Plutarch  gives, 
instead  of  the  longer  form,  the  shorter  name  'VapKoubrjfxos, 
a  name  approaching  still  closer  to  that  on  the  seal,  ex- 
pressing, however,  at  the  same  time  the  opinion  that  the 
king  to  whom  the  seal  belonged  was  of  much  earlier 
date.^     As    to  the  name  of  the   place    mentioned.  Dr. 

'  Prof.  S.iyce  has  called  the  seal  "  1  he  Boss  of  Tarkondemos."  But  I  do 
not  .see  how  in  any  way  the  seal  can  be  suitably  designated  a  "  boss."  And, 
even  if  it  be  conceded  as  certain  that  "Tarcondemos  "  represents  the  name 
given  on  the  seal,  still  it  i-  a  Gra;cized  form  which  cannot  be  used  with  pro- 
priety to  denote  a  king  who,  according  to  Prof  Sayce 's  view,  probably  lived 
some  700  years  B.C.  ■ 


538 


NATURE 


[April  s,  1888 


Mordtmann  seems  to  have  been  first  inclined  to  give 
Zotisotis,  but,  as  no  other  authority  for  such  a  name 
could  be  found,  he  changed  this  conjecturally  for  Tarsus. 
The  Hittite  characters  Dr.  Mordtmann  regarded  as, 
on  the  whole,  emblems  of  the  country,  with  its  produc- 
tions, over  which  the  king  ruled,  and  not  as  forming 
inscriptions,  or  an  inscription.  He  made,  however,  some 
important  observations  with  regard  to  the  relation  of 
these  characters,  as  well  as  the  figure  and  equipment  of 
the  king,  with  what  was  to  be  seen  on  other  monuments. 
The  boots  with  turned-up  toes  were  found  also  at  Boghaz- 
Keui,  Eyuk,  and  Eregli,  in  Cappadocia  ("  Les  Monuments 

d'Uyuk,  de  Bogaz-keuy,  et  d'Eregli,  en  Cappodoce"),  as 
well  as  on  the  monument  at  Karabel,  near  Smyrna.  The 
dagger  was  to  be  seen  at  Boghaz-Keui,  and  the  spear  at 
Karabel.  The  figure  at  Karabel,  also,  was  without  a 
beard,  like  that  on  the  seal.  At  KaraJoel,  too,  were  the 
same  characters  found  between  the  head  and  the  spear.^ 
The  accoutrements  of  the  king  were  hke  those  of  the 
Cilician  soldiers  in  the  army  of  Xerxes,  as  described  by 
Herodotus  (lib.  vii.  ch.  91). 

About  ten  or  eleven  years  later,  Dr.  Mordtmann  returned 
to  the  seal,  and  discussed  it  in  the  Journal  of  the  German 
Oriental  Society  {Zeitschr.  d.  deutsch.  morgenldnd. 
Gesellsch.,  vol.  xxvi.  p.  625).  He  then  gave,  as  the 
name  of  the  king,  "  Tarkudimme,"  and,  though  regarding 
the  name  of  the  place,  "  Tarsun,"  as  tolerably  well  ascer- 
tained ("ziemlich  gesichert"),  yet  he  would  not  make, 
he  says,  any  strong  opposition  if  it  should  be  preferred 
to  substitute  zu  for  the  tar,  forming  the  first  syllable  of 
this  name.  With  regard  to  the  Hittite  characters,  this 
article  does  not  mark  any  very  conspicuous  advance, 
except  that  the  animals'  heads,  which  Dr.  Mordtmann 
had  previously  regarded  as  the  heads  of  horses,  he 
now  more  accurately  described  as  the  heads  of  goats 
"Ziegenkopfe"). 

Though  Dr.  Mordtmann  anticipated  Prof  Sayce,  not 
only  in  perceiving  a  relation  between  monuments  (now 
recognized  as  Hittite)  in  different  places  in  Asia  Minor, 
but  even  in  recognizing  that  certain  characters  on  the 
seal  were  the  same,  or  of  the  same  kind,  with  those 
found  on  the  Karabel  monument,  yet  he  did  not  perceive 
that  these  characters  formed  a  Hamathite  or  Hittite  in- 
scription. It  would  have  been  scarcely  possible  for  him 
to  do  this  at  the  time  ;  and  this  fact  furnishes,  in  accord- 
ance with  what  has  been  said,  one  of  the  strongest 
arguments  for  the  genuineness  of  the  inscriptions  on  tl;ie 
seal.  It  was  reserved  for  Prof.  Sayce  to  detect  that  the 
seal  presented  a  true  bilingual,  Assyrian  and  Hittite 
{Academy,  August  21,  1880). 

Although,  as  already  stated,  the  Assyrian  characters 
have  peculiarities  wliich  distinguish  them  from  any  type 
of  cuneiform  writing  otherwise  known,  nevertheless, 
with  the  exception  of  one  important  character,  there 
is  a  tolerable  agreement  as  to  the  way  in  which  the 
Assyrian  inscription  is  to  be  transcribed  and  read.  If 
we  begin  with  the  first  character  after  the  vacant  space 
over  the  king's  head,  this  inscription,  it  seems  to  me, 
may  be  read  thus  : — 

-i?ie-e  I  Tar-ku-u-tim-jne  sar  mat  Zii- 

But  if  we  begin,  as  we  certainly  ought  to  do,  with  the 
vertical  wedge  standing  before  the  king's  name,  and 
denoting  that  the  name  of  a  man  follows — represented 
here  by  a  vertical  black  line — we  have  : 

I  Tar-kti-u-tiui-me       sar    m  it     Zti-7ne-e. 
"  Tarkutimme  king  of  the  country  of  Zume." 

The  precise  pronunciation  of  the  second  dental  in  the 
royal  name  it  is  impossible  to  determine  with  certainty. 

'  "Les  memes  caracteres  verticaux  entre  la  tete  et  la  lance  que  nous  voyons 
figures  sur  le  sceau  pres  de  la  main  qui  tisnt  la  lance  et  de  I'autre  cote  pres 
du  grand  ob^lisque."  If  anything  more  was  intended  ihaxi  characters  of  the 
same  kind,  there  seems  to  be  a  mistake. 


Some  might  prefer  to  read  "Tarkudimme."  But  this  is 
not  of  very  much  consequence.  The  difficulty  to  which 
I  have  adverted  relates  to  the  first  character  in  the  name 
of  the  country — the  character  immediately  before  the 
vacant  space  o^'er  the  king's  head.  Prof  Sayce  reads 
this  as  er,  and  gives  as  the  name  of  the  country  Er-me-e, 
"  Erme."  To  me  the  probability  has  seemed  that  the 
character  should  be  read  su  or  zu,  the  alternative  reading 
which  had  been  suggested  by  Dr.  Mordtmann.^  Cer- 
tainly, with  the  reading  su  or  zu,  a  symmetrical  rendering 
of  the  Hittite  inscription  can  be  given,  but  with  er  this 
seems  scarcely  possible. 

On  comparing  the  spaces  on  the  one  and  the  other 
side  of  the  figure  of  the  king — for  certainly  this  figure 
must  be  intended  as  a  portrait  of  King  Tarkutimme — it 
will  be  seen  that  the  characters  are  repeated,  though  ap- 
parently with  some  variations  in  size  and  in  the  order  of 
sequence.  But  these  variations  may  be  accounted  for,  if 
the  exigencies  of  the  space  at  the  engraver's  disposal  are 
considered.  On  the  left  side  of  the  king  there  is  the 
greater  space,  and  a  division  is  effected  by  the  king's 
arm  and  staff  or  spear.  Consequently,  in  decipherment, 
the  order  observed  on  this  side  would  seem  to  furnish  the 
more  satisfactory  guidance.  We  may  reasonably  begin 
at  the  top,  with  the  two  characters  above  the  king's  arm ; 
and  these,  it  can  scarcely  be  doubtful,  represent  the  royal 
name  Tarkutimme,  inclosed  and  shut  off  as  they  are  from 
the  rest.  How  the  name  is  to  be  divided  between  the 
two  characters  may  seem  not  quite  clear.  Does  the 
upper  one  denote  Tarku  and  the  lower  tiiniiie,  or  should 
we  divide  Tar-kutimme  ?  There  are  grounds  on  which 
the  latter  view  seems  the  more  probable.  The  Hittite 
hieroglyphics  may  possibly  have  been  used  by  non- 
Semitic  peoples,  but  at  present  the  balance  of  evidence 
seems  to  be  in  favour  of  a  Semitism  more  or  less  pure. 
On  the  Semitic  hypothesis,  and  with  the  unequal  division 
last  given,  both  elements  of  the  name  admit  of  tolerably 
easy  explanation.  The  first  character  seems  certainly  to 
be  the  head  of  a  goat.  There  is  little  difficulty,  in 
accordance  with  well-known  vocal  changes,  including  the 
substitution  in  Aramaic  of  /  for  s,  in  understanding  how 
tar  may  represent  the  Hebrew  sear,  sdir ;-  and  the 
second  character  likewise  may  be  reasonably  explained.* 
Beneath  the  arm  is  a  tall  cone  which  must  certainly 
represent  "  king."  This  may  be  argued  from  the  cha- 
racter being  placed  close  to  the  king  on  both  sides,  as 
well  as  from  its  position  on  his  left  side  immediately 
under  the  characters  representing  the  royal  name.     It 

'  This  conclusion  was  arrived  at  when,  in  i8So,  my  attention  was  first 
directed  to  the  seal ;  and  I  then  consulted  three  well-known  Assyriol  agists. 
One  of  these  was  Dr.  Strassmaier,  who  still  adheres  to  the  opinion  then  ex- 
pressed. The  very  large  number  of  texts  which  he  has  examined  in  the 
interval,  while  preparing  his  laborious  and  comprehensive  contributions  to 
Delitzsch  and  Haupt's  Assyriological  Libraiy,  gives  his  opinion  ihe  greater 
weight.  He  bases  h's  opinion  on  the  convergence  of  the  two  smaller  wedges 
towards  the  larger  horizontal  wedge  :  strict  parallelism  would  have  been 
required  to  give  the  value  er.  Dr.  Haupt,  now  Professor  of  Semitic 
Languages  at  the  Johns  Hopkins  University,  gave,  if  I  recollect  rightly, 
the  value  sii  rather  than  zii.  Mr.  S.  A.  Smith,  who  is  editing  and  translating 
the  Assurbanipal  texts,  also  gives  his  opinion  in  favour  oi  su. 

-  We  ought  also  to  remember  in  this  connection  that  Tarsus  was  the  chief 
city  of  Cilicia.  According  to  the  oldest  authority  which  we  have  for  the 
name  (the  black  obelisk  of  Shalmaneser),  the  city  was  called  Tar-si.  That 
this  city  should  be  called  after  the  goat  can  scarcely  seem  unlikely,  if  we  re- 
collect how  famous  Cilicia  was  for  its  goats  with  thick  and  long  hair,  out  of 
which  Cilician  cloth  was  made-  a  cloth  of  which,  according  to  sjme,  St. 
Paul  was  a  weaver. 

3  In  his  contribution  to  the  "  Miinzstudien,"  Dr.  Mordtmann  spoke  of  this 
character  a.i  "  un  objet  difficile  a  reconnaitre,  mais  qui  ressemble  2iW  puden- 
dum mtdiebre."  And  afterwards,  in  the  Z.D.M.G.,  he  used  similar  lan- 
guage :  "'ein  schwer  zu  bestimmendes  Symbol,  vermuthlich  ein  pudendum 
muliebre."  Supposing  this  to  be  the  object  intended,  there  is  no  difficulty 
in  understanding  its  bearing  in  a  Semitic  d.alect  the  name  kutimvie.  First, 
there  is  the  Assyrian  katamUy  with  the  Arabic  kaiaina,  "to  conceal,"  con- 
nected with  which  the  word  would  have  a  sense  nearly  equivalent  to  puden- 
dum. But,  having  regard  to  what  has  been  said  on  tar,  it  may  seem  that 
we  ought  to  look  t3  the  Aramaean;  and  here  we  have  ket/tam,  "  signavit." 
with  a  derivative,  '' /tz/Mt'/wa,"  nearly  identical  in  form  with  kutimme.  In 
Gal.  vi.  17  (Pesh.),  kuthcma  is  used  in  the  plural  of  the  (myixaTa, 
which  the  apostle  says  he  bore  in  his  body.  The  transition  from  this  sense 
is  not  difficult.  Dr.  Mordtmann's  is  the  only  probable  explanation  of  the 
symbol.  Special  and  local  causes  may  account  for  its  forming  part  even  af 
a  king's  name. 


April  a,,  1888] 


NATURE 


539 


may  here  be  observed  that  there  was  at  Aleppo  a  Hittite 
inscription  which  unfortunately  has  been  destroyed,  and 
which,  though  it  had  evidently  suffered  from  the  weather 
and  time,  was  in  several  respects  of  great  interest.  From 
drawings  which  were  made  from  it,  especially  by  the 
late  George  Smith,  we  are  able,  however,  to  form  a  good 
estimate  of  its  evidence  with  regard  to  the  king-symbol. 
It  presented  a  figure — no  doubt  of  the  person  celebrated 
in  the  inscription — with  a  symbol  similarly  formed  and 
similarly  marked  to  that  in  the  Tarkutimme  seal. 

The  question  here  presents  itself  :  In  what  order  are 
the  characters  outside  the  staff  or  spear  to  be  taken  ? 
Now  in  the  Hittite  inscriptions  the  boiistrophcdon  manner 
of  writing  is  observed.  A  line  having  been  written  from 
left  to  right,  in  the  next  the  direction  is  reversed,  and  the 
writing  goes  back  from  right  to  left.  This  fact  could  not 
have  been  known  to  a  forger  in  i860,  yet  it  is  in  accord- 
ance with  this  principle  that  our  inscription  is  engraved. 
Having  therefore  read  from  top  to  bottom,  we  must  go 
back,  and  read  from  the  bottom  towards  the  top. 
Accordingly  we  shall  have  to  take  next  after  the  tall  cone 
denoting  "king"  the  smaller  double  cone.  Prof.  Sayce 
(apparently  under  the  influence  of  Dr.  Mordtmann's  idea 
that  the  "  deux  petits  obelisques  reunis  "  owe  their  origin 
to  the  remarkable  conformation  of  a  certain  district  of 
Asia  Minor)  regards  the  double  cone  as  denoting 
"  country."  But  Dr.  Mordtraann  grouped  these  and  the 
taller  cone  together,  regarding  all  as  of  similar  import. 
And,  so  far  as  their  being  of  similar  import  is  concerned, 
the  conclusion  seems  to  me  inevitable.     If,  however,  the 


Fig.  E. — "  Ki.ng  "-bymbol  on  Aleppo  inscription. 

taller  cone  denotes  "  king,"  the  smaller  cones,  being  of 
similar  import,  must  denote  "  men,"  The  tallness  of  the 
single  cone  is  in  accordance  with  the  well-known  ancient 
practice  of  denoting  the  greatness  of  a  king  by  the 
greatly  increased  size  of  the  figure  representing  him.  It 
is  true  that,  in  accordance  with  Assyrian  custom,  the 
cuneiform  legend  gives  "country."  But  whether  a 
monarch  is  called  king  of  a  country  or  of  the  people 
inhabiting  that  country  depends  on  local  usage.  "  Queen 
of  Great  Britain  "  and  "  King  of  the  French"  are  familiar 
contiguous  examples  in  recent  times.  We  may  regard, 
then,  the  double  cone  as  denoting  "people,"  plurality 
being  expressed  by  doubling  the  cone,  and  intensified 
probably  by  the  numerous  transverse  marks. ' 

The  symbol  next  above  the  double  cone  is,  I  believe, 
unique,  no  other  example  being  found,  so  far  as  I  am 
aware,  on  any  of  the  inscriptions.  To  me  it  seems  clear 
that  this  symbol  is  an  ideograph  of  the  country  Zume. 
There  are,  it  will  be  seen,  on  the  lower  side  of  the  lower 
limb  three  projections,  which  may  be  reasonably  regarded 
as  representing  mountains.  The  number  three  probably 
denotes  a  good  many  mountains.  We  may  take  it  that 
Zume  lay  along  the  banks  of  a  river  or  estuary  with 
mountains  on  one  side.  A  remarkable  analogy  is  pre- 
sented by  one  of  the  monuments  in  the  British  Museum 
from  Jerablus.  We  have  here  again  the  oval  ideograph 
of   "city,"  2  already  mentioned  in  connection   with    the 

'  I  have  no  hesitation  in  referring  these  cones  to  a  phallic  origin.  This  in 
early  times  would  be  regarded  as  a  very  natural  way  of  representing 
"man";  and,  like  other  designations  of  men,  cones  might  easily  come  to 
denote  both  sexes,  and  a  people  generally. 

^  The  ideogr.iph  is  slightly  broken  on  the  monument. 


Boghaz-Keui  bas-reliefs.  Here  again,  as  on  the  Tarku- 
timme seal,  we  have  the  three  mountains,  occurring  in  this 
case  on  both  sides.  The  intention  is,  to  indicate  a  city 
located  in,  or  at  the  head  of,  a  valley  lying  between  moun- 
tains.^  The  name  of  the  city  is  in  all  probability  denoted 
by  the  other  characters,  to  the  reader's  left,  the  doubled 
curve  (the  doubling  denoting  plurality)  and  what  is 
probably  intended  for  a  treev  beneath.^  Thi  s  twofold 
indication  of  the  name,  for  the  sake  of  clearness,  is  entirely 
in  accordance  with  the  usage  of  both  the  Assyrian  and 
Egyptian  monuments.  And  similar  evidence  might  be 
adduced  from  more  remote  sources. 

Thus  a  twofold  indication  of  the  name  Zume  in  the 
Hittite  inscription  on  the  seal  must  be  regarded  as  alto- 
gether probable ;  and  it  seems  to  me  beyond  reasonable 
doubt  that  the  last  characters,  the  four  nearly  vertical 
strokes,  with  one  horizontal,  express  the  name  Zume 
phonetically.  Dr.  Mordtmann  observed,  with  reference 
to  these  strokes,  that  it  would  be  difficult  to  give  them  a 
phonetic  value  without  regarding  them  as  numerals,  but 
that  so  to  regard  them  would  be  fruitless  in  result.  In 
this  last  remark  he  was,  I  think,  in  error.  They  are,  in 
my  judgment,  numerals,  though  here  used,  not  with  refer- 
ence to  their  numerical  value,  but  merely  as  phonetic  signs  ; 
and  to  show  that  they  are  to  be  so  taken,  the  engraver  has 
placed  them  at  an  angle,  or,  so  to  speak,  tilted  them  up. 
The  last  character,  the  two  vertical  strokes  with  one 
horizontal,  gives  precisely  the  Assyrian  symbol  for  100,  but 
written  after  the  archaic  manner,  before  the  wedge-writing 
was  introduced.  Me,  the  Assyrian  for  "  a  hundred,"  is, 
moreover,  precisely  the  value  that  we  require  here.  Zu 
or  su  will  then  be  the  name  for  2,  the  first  character. 


Fig.  F. — Symbols  from  Jerablus  monument  in  the  British  Museum. 

There  is  no  great  difficulty  in  connecting  this  with  the 
Assyrian  sanu  2,  or  sjinnu  i,  supposing  that  the  n  was 
slurred  over  in  pronunciation  and  eventually  dropped.  And 
it  must  be  remembered  that,  if  those  who  made  this  seal 
spoke  a  Semitic  dialect,  there  is  no  reason  to  suppose  that 
this  dialect  was  absolutely  identical  with  any  of  the 
Semitic  dialects  otherwise  known  to  us.^ 

It  will  be  thus,  I  think,  seen  that  there  is  a  reasonable 
correspondence  between  this  Hittite  inscription  and  the 
cuneiform  inscription  round  the  circumference  of  the  seal. 
It  should  be  observed,  too,  that  both  with  regard  to  the 
king  and  the  country  the  phonetic  designation  is  supple- 
mentary— in  the  first  case  to  the  portrait  of  the  king,  and 
in  the  second  to  the  ideograph  of  the  country.  The 
inscription  is  mainly  ideographic.  It  is  important  that 
this  fact  should  be  kept  in  view  in  the  decipherment  of 
other  inscriptions. 

With  regard  to  the  characters  behind  the  king,  or  on 
his  right  side,  it  should  be  observed  not  only  that  the 
engraver  had  on  this  side  a  smaller  space  at  his  disposal, 
but  also  that  he  probably  thought  it  necessary  or  desirable 
to  place  close  to  the  figure  the  tall  cone  denoting  "  king." 

'  Dr.  E.  B.  Tylor  observes,  "  Map-making  is  a  branch  of  picture- 
writing  with  which  the  savage  is  quite  familiar,  and  he  is  often  more  skilful 
in  it  than  the  majority  of  civilized  men  "  ("  Early  History  of  Mankind,"  p. 
89).  But  of  course  the  authors  of  these  monuments  were  by  no  means 
savages. 

^  Having  regard  to  the  position  rf  Jerablus,  where  the  monument  was 
found,  and  to  some  other  facts  in  relation  thereto,  I  read  the  name  con- 
jecturally  Bamoth-elnh — that  is,  "  Bamoth  of  the  Terebinth." 

3  The  two  strokes  similarly  til;ed  up,  and  repeated  occur  on  the  monument 
iti  the  British  Museum  mentioned  just  above  (see  Fig.  F).  W.th  the  same 
value  as  on  the  seal  we  should  have  Su  sri,  or  Zu-:u.  a  reading  by  no  means 
improbable  ;  but  I  cannot  in  thisplacedijcufs  the  matter  further.  Cf.  Zuzim, 
Gen.  x.v.  5,  and  Zamzimmim,  Deut.  ii.  20. 


540 


NATURE 


[April  Sy  1888 


That  the  two  signs  for  the  royal  name  are  not  engraved 
immediately  above  the  cone  may  have  resulted  from  the 
space  above  the  king's  right  arm  being  too  contracted. 
There  is  another  change  in  the  characters  on  the  king's 
right  side  which  is  noteworthy.  It  will  be  seen  that  both 
the  ideograph  of  the  country  and  the  numerals  giving  the 
name  are  inverted.  On  the  left  side  of  the  king  the 
characters  were  to  be  read  from  left  to  right  of  the  reader, 
but  on  the  right  side  they  are  to  be  read  from  right  to  left. 
This  change  is  in  accordance  with  the  boustrophedon 
manner  of  writing  previously  mentioned,  but  it  is  a 
change  which  seems  totally  incompatible  with  the  idea  of 
forgery. 

(  To  be  continued^ 


ELEMENTS  AND  META-ELEMENTS. 

THE  President  of  the  Chemical  Society,  in  his  address 
at  the  anniversary  meeting,  has  further  developed 
views  which  he  had  already  propounded  in  his  address  to 
Section  B  of  the  British  Association  at  Birmingham,  and 
in  a  subsequent  Friday  evening  lecture  at  the  Royal 
Institution.  He  would  have  us  believe  that  the  atoms  of 
an  element  are  not  all  precisely  of  one  absolute  pattern  ; 
that  atomic  weights,  in  fact,  are  not  constants,  as  gener- 
ally supposed  ;  but  that  we  must  regard  each  element  as 
a  species  of  which  many  varieties  exist  almost  infinitely 
more  like  unto  each  other  than  to  the  atoms  of  any  other 
approximating  species  of  element ;  and  that  what  we  term 
the  atomic  weight  is  but  a  mean  value  around  which  the 
actual  weights  of  the  individual  atoms  of  the  species 
range  within  certain  limits.  Could  we  separate  atom 
from  atom,  we  should  find  them  varying  in  weight  within 
very  narrow  limits  on  each  side  of  the  mean. 

Mr.  Crookes  supports  his  arguments  by  a  wealth  of 
illustration  culled  chiefly  from  his  own  unique  experience  ; 
and,  whatever  the  ultimate  intrinsic  value  to  science  of 
his  hypothesis,  there  cannot  be  a  question  that  the  study 
of  the  transcendent  problem  of  the  nature  of  the  elements 
will  have  gained  greatly  in  fascination  by  its  promulga- 
tion ;  that  lines  on  which  such  study  may  be  carried  on 
will  have  been  indicated  ;  and  that  he  will  have  light- 
ened the  inexpressibly  wearisome  labours  of  fractiona- 
tion by  casting  around  them  the  poetic  play  of  fancy. 
The  subject  is  of  such  importance  that  it  appears  desir- 
able to  consider  the  position  which  chemists  may  fairly' 
take  up,  and  from  which  it  is  permissible  to  criticize  the 
arguments  that  have  led  to  the  suggestion  of  the 
existence  of  meta-elements. 

Apart  from  the  higher  interest  which  Mr.  Crookes  has 
now  infused  into  them,  his  researches  on  the  rare  earths 
will  ever  excite  admiration  in  all  who  study  them,  as 
models  of  scientific  investigation ;  and  they  will  afford 
undying  testimony  to  his  determination  and  patience  in 
search  of  truth,  as  well  as  to  the  incomparable  fertility 
of  resource  in  experimenting  of  which  he  is  possessed. 
Among  the  individual  observations  are  many  of  a  most 
suggestive  and  striking  character  which,  sooner  or  later, 
must  claim  attention  ;  but  it  cannot  be  denied  that  the 
data  are  as  yet  insufficient  for  their  exact  interpretation. 
This  is  true  also  of  Kriiss  and  Nilson's  remarkable  obser- 
vations ;  indeed,  it  may  be  questioned  whether  their 
results  all  admit  of  the  absolute  interpretation  which  they 
are  inclined  to  put  upon  them.  In  the  paper  in  which 
the  omnipresence  of  samarium  is  demonstrated,  in  giving 
an  account  of  the  many  anomalies  which  he  encountered 
in  his  search  for  x — the  substance  characterized  by  an 
orange-coloured  band  in  the  phosphorescent  spectrum, 
and  which  subsequently  turned  out  to  be  samarium — 
Mr.  Crookes  tells  us  how  he  came  to  the  conclusion 
that  samaria  {x),  which  of  itself  gave  little  or  no 
phosphorescent    spectrum   in    the    radiant-matter   tube, 


became  immediately  endowed  with  this  property  by  ad- 
mixture with  certain  other  substances — lime,  for  example 
— which  substances  likewise  of  themselves  had  no 
power  of  phosphorescing  with  a  discontinuous  spectrum. 
Many  substances  were  found  effective  ;  and  there  was 
a  general  resemblance  between  the  spectra,  but  nearly  all 
of  them  differed  from  one  another  in  detail.  Mixtures 
of  samaria  and  yttria  gave  spectra  differing  to  a  very 
marked  extent  according  to  the  proportions  in  which  the 
two  substances  were  present.  All  who  take  note  of  these 
observations  must  agree  that  they  are  of  a  most  remarkable 
and  significant  character  :  they  certainly  leave  no  room  for 
doubt  as  to  the  necessity  of  exercising  the  utmost  caution 
in  inferring  the  absence  or  presence  of  particular  sub- 
stances from  spectral  appearances  and  changes.  Judging 
from  Mr.  Crookes's  obsei-vations,  and  from  our  general 
knowledge  of  the  rare  earths,  it  would  almost  appear  that 
they  have  the  power  to  form  double  oxides  akin  to  double 
salts,  and  the  effect  on  the  spectrum  produced  by  asso- 
ciating one  oxide  with  another  may  be  compared  with  the 
somewhat  similar  effect  of  a  solvent  on  the  spectrum  of  a 
coloured  substance.  The  part  that  such  double  oxides 
perhaps  play  appears  as  yet  to  have  been  left  out  of  con- 
sideration. It  is  desirable  also  to  take  into  account  the  possi- 
ble presence  of  double  salts,  and  of  their  influence  on  the 
spectrum,  before  deciding  as  to  the  bearing  of  Kriiss  and 
Nilson's  observations. 

Reference  is  made  by  the  President  of  the  Chemical 
Society  in  his  address  to  Carl  Auer's  investigation  of 
didymium.  Now  the  differences  between  Auer's  neo-  and 
praseodymium — the  reputed  constituents  of  didymium — 
are  very  marked  ;  but  as  yet  unfortunately  we  have  no 
information  respecting  their  atomic  weights.  This  is  true 
also  of  the  various  reputed  constituents  of  the  rare  earths 
studied  by  Mr.  Crookes  and  Kriiss  and  Nilson.  Until 
such  information  be  forthcoming,  the  suggestion  that 
what  is  commonly  regarded  as  the  atomic  weight  of  an 
element  is  but  an  average  value,  therefore,  can  only  serve 
to  direct  attention  anew  to  the  extreme  importance  of  the 
most  exact  and  exhaustive  study  of  atomic  weights. 

What  is  called  yttria,  according  to  Mr.  Crookes  (Proc. 
R.S.,  xl.  506)  is  a  highly  complex  substance  capable  of 
being  separated  into  several  simpler  substances,  each  of 
which  gives  a  phosphorescent  spectrum  of  great  sim- 
plicity, consisting  for  the  most  part  of  only  one  line. 
Now,  supposing  that  the  several  constituent  meta- 
elements  of  ordinary  yttria  be  found  when  isolated  to 
differ  almost  imperceptibly  from  each  other  both  in 
chemical  properties  and  in  weight,  yet  the  spectral  differ- 
ences will  admittedly  be  very  marked — as  marked  per- 
haps as  are  the  differences  between  elements  which 
exhibit  very  diverse  chemical  properties  and  atomic 
weights ;  and  it  will  be  illogical  to  deny  to  these  meta- 
elements  the  right  to  rank  as  elements  proper — as  distinct 
species,  not  mere  varieties. 

Why,  then,  does  Mr.  Crookes  think  it  inadmissible  in 
the  elementary  examination  to  open  the  doors  so  wide 
that  the  number  of  admissions  will  be  limited  only  by  the 
number  of  applicants?  It  is  because  bethinks  that  the 
periodic  system  of  classifying  the  elements  offers  an 
insuperable  barrier  to  this  course.  Undoubtedly,  if 
this  were  granted,  there  would  be  little  choice  left 
us  ;  but  can  it  be  granted  ?  We  think  not.  The 
scheme  at  present  accepted  is  after  all  but  a  very  im- 
perfect and  provisional  classification.  The  successional 
order  of  the  elements  in  the  horizontal  series  is  indeed 
determined  in  all  cases  in  which  the  atomic  weight  is 
known  with  a  sufficient  approximation  to  truth  ;  and  in 
certain  cases  where  the  properties  are  clearly  marked  it  is 
possible  to  assign  the  true  position  in  the  order  of  succes- 
sion to  an  element  even  when  the  atomic  weight  is  very 
inexactly  ascertained  ;  tellurium  is  an  example,  having 
been  placed  before  iodine  long  ere  its  atomic  weight  was 
ascertained   to   be   lower  and   not   higher  than   that  of 


April  s,  1888] 


NATURE 


541 


iodine.  But  in  arranging  the  elements  in  vertical  series 
we  have  often  great  difficulty  in  determining  which  are 
true  homologues  :  we  have  no  difficulty  in  grouping 
the  alkali  metals,  the  halogens,  or  sulphur,  selenium 
and  tellurium,  but  how  are  we  to  place  copper, 
silver  and  gold,  for  example  ?  Are  we  justified  in 
regarding  them  as  true  homologues,  and  in  inserting  them 
as  intermediate  terms  in  the  group  of  the  alkali  metals  ? 
Ought  we  not  rather  to  look  upon  them  as  but  rseudo- 
homologues,  and  ought  we  not  to  place  them  apart  from 
the  alkali  metals,  and  apart  even  from  each  other  in 
vertical  succession  ?  This  would  lead  us,  instead  of 
classifying  the  elements  in  linear  vertical  series,  to 
arrange  them  in  pyramidal  groups,  of  which  the 
elements  of  lowest  weight  form  the  summits.  In  fact, 
there  is  no  justification  whatever  for  the  conclusion 
that  the  elements  belong  to  only  eight  families  ;  the 
most  illiberal  treatment  leads  us  to  recognize  at  least 
twelve,  and  there  is  no  reason  to  accept  this  as  the  limit. 
We  can  thus  foresee  the  possible  existence  of  a  far 
larger  number  of  elements  than  is  at  present  known, 
differing  probably  from  each  other  to  a  marked  ex- 
tent both  in  atomic  weight  and  properties.  But 
even  then  the  limit  is  not  reached.  Those  who  have 
classified  the  elements  according  to  the  periodic  sys- 
tem, after  all — consciously  or  unconsciously — have  but 
followed  the  practice  adopted  in  classifying  carbon  com- 
pounds ;  and  if  we  consider  the  results  arrived  at  by  the 
study  of  hydrocarbons,  and  apply  the  conclusions  to  the 
elements,  there  appears  to  be  no  difficulty  in  finding  place 
for  a  far  larger  number  of  meta-elements  than  even  Kriiss 
and  Nilson  would  require  to  accommodate  their  host  of  new 
claimants  for  elemental  rank.  If  we  arrange  homologous 
hydrocarbons  side  by  side  in  the  order  of  molecular 
weight,  a  scheme  corresponding  to  that  devised  for  the 
elements  will  result ;  but,  if  molecular  weight  only  be 
considered,  the  existence  of  isomeric  hydrocarbons 
escapes  notice :  if,  however,  isomers  are  included,  each 
simple  vertical  group  at  once  assumes  a  pyramidal  form. 
In  like  manner,  if  the  possible  existence  of  isomeric  ele- 
ments be  granted,  the  periodic  scheme  would  admit  with- 
out difficulty  of  the  existence  of  a  still  larger  number  of 
elements  even  than  was  above  indicated. 

Nickel  and  cobalt  have  often  been  supposed  to  be 
isomeric  elements.  According  to  the  most  recent  deter- 
minations of  their  atomic  weights,  however,  cobalt  has  a 
higher  weight  (5874)  than  nickel  (58'56)  ;  but  this  result 
is  discredited  by  the  fact  that  cobalt  is  usually  placed 
before  nickel  in  the  periodic  scheme,  and  should  therefore 
have  the  lower  weight,  unless  the  two  elements  are 
isomeric. 

Whether  among  the  meta-elements  of  the  rare  earths 
there  are  not  numerous  cases  of  isomerism,  remains  for 
the  future  to  determine.  Unless,  however,  some  new 
mode  of  discriminating  other  than  that  involved  in  deter- 
mining the  atomic  weight  be  introduced,  the  problem  is 
one  which  appears  beyond  our  present  powers,  as  experi- 
mental error  cannot  be  entirely  eliminated.  But  it  is 
perhaps  of  all  the  problems  in  chemistry  the  most 
important  to  solve,  on  account  of  its  bearing  on  the  higher 
problem  whether  the  elements  are  simple  or  compound 
substances.  So  many  converging  lines  of  evidence  now 
render  it  probable  that  the  elements  are  compounds  that 
the  discovery  of  isomeric  elements  would  probably  suffice 
to  carry  conviction  to  the  minds  of  all  who  are  open  to 
argument  on  this  question.  H.  E.  A. 

THE  DURATION  OF  LIFE} 

TOHANNES  MOLLER,  the  celebrated  German 
J  zoologist,  said  :  "  All  organic  beings  are  transitory  ; 
life  passes  from  individual  to  individual  with  the  appear- 

'  "  Ueber  die  Dauer  des  Lebens."  Von  Dr.  August  Weismann.  (Jena, 
1882.) 


ance  of  immortality,  but  the  individuals  themselves 
perish."  This  proposition  is.  perhaps  not  so  true  as  it 
seems  to  be.  Nevertheless,  it  is  certainly  true  that  life 
has  its  natural  limits,  at  least  in  all  those  animals  and 
plants  that  ordinarily  come  under  the  notice  of  the  layman. 
But  the  duration  of  life  is  very  different  in  different 
animals,  and  it  would  be  interesting  to  know  the  reason 
of  this.  Differences  in  length  of  life  have  been  thought  to 
depend  on  differences  in  structure  and  composition. 
Obviously  the  size  of  an  animal  will  fix  a  certain  minimum 
of  time  required  for  growth  :  owing  to  the  relation  between 
increase  of  bulk  and  increase  of  absorbent  surface,  pointed 
out  by  Leuckhart  and  Spencer,  a  larger  animal  will 
require  a  longer  time  to  secure  the  surplus  of  nutriment 
required  for  reproduction.  The  degree  of  structural  com- 
plication will  also  fix  a  minimum  time  :  the  activity  of 
the  vital  processes,  the  rate  of  metabolism, — because  it 
influences  the  time  at  which  reproductive  power,  the 
goal  of  individual  life,  is  reached — will  influence  the 
total  duration  of  life.  IBut  these  inner  conditions  do  not 
fix  the  duration  of  life.  Birds,  whose  vital  processes  are 
so  rapid,  may  far  surpass  in  age  the  sluggish  Amphibia. 
Among!  ants,  the  males,  females,  and  workers  are  prac- 
tically identical  in  size,  complication  of  structure,  or  rate 
of  metabolism  ;  yet  the  females  and  workers  live  several 
years,  the  males  only  a  few  weeks. 

We  must  seek  in  the  environment  for  the  forces  finally 
determining  the  duration  of  life.  We  find  the  length  of 
life  to  be  in  each  case  an  adaptation  arranged  by  natural 
selection  in  the  interests  of  the  species.  So  soon  as  an 
individual  has  produced  young  enough  to  fill  up  the  gaps 
caused  by  death,  it  ceases  to  be  of  use  for  the  species. 
Where  fostering  of  the  brood  obtains — be  it  uterine  or 
post-uterine — we  expect  and  find  a  longer  duration. 

The  apparently  accidental  causes  of  death  remove  far 
more  individuals  than  natural  death.  The  longer  an 
individual  lives  the  more  chances  of  accident  does  it 
undergo  ;  and  so  selection,  acting  in  the  interests  of  the 
species,  rather  than  prolonging  the  life,  hurries  on  the  time 
of  reproduction.  At  first,  it  seems  impossible  that  the 
great  age  reached  by  many  birds  (Raptores  may  survive 
their  century)  is  the  shortest  possible.  But  the  enemies 
of  the  eggs  and  of  the  young  of  birds  are  very  numerous. 
The  death-rate  is  enormously  greater  than  in  the  case 
of  mammalian  embryos  developing  within  the  parent. 
Adaptation  to  rapid  flight  precludes  great  fertility.  Bad 
fliers  like  the  Phasianidce  lay  many  more  eggs  in  a  season 
and  live  through  far  fewer  seasons. 

The  adaptation  is  very  clear  in  the  case  of  the  larval 
life  of  insects.  The  larva;  of  bees  and  of  many  ichneumons 
placed  in  the  midst  of  an  abundant  food  supply  become 
pupae  in  a  few  days.  The  larval  stage  of  predacious  larvae 
which  have  to  waste  time  and  energy  in  securing  their 
prey,  and  of  vegetable-feeding  larvae,  on  account  of  the 
less  nutritious  nature  of  their  food,  lasts  very  much  longer. 
The  usually  short  life  of  the  imago  bears  no  relation  to 
the  length  or  shortness  of  the  larval  life,  but  is  directly 
adapted  to  its  own  purposes.  In  the  simplest  case,  where 
copulation  takes  place  as  soon  as  the  wings  are  dried,  and 
where  the  eggs  are  deposited  rapidly  and  carelessly,  the 
whole  adult  life  lasts  but  a  few  hours.  Where  the  mate 
has  to  be  sought,  or  the  eggs  deposited  in  special  conditions, 
or  where  active  habits  preclude  simultaneous  maturation 
of  eggs,  the  duration  of  life  is  prolonged  in  correspondence 
with  the  special  requirements.  Adult  insects  are  perhaps 
the  most  hunted  of  animals,  and  in  them  is  found  the 
extreme  case  of  adaptive  shortening. 

The  inner  changes  on  which  natural  death  depends  are 
not  very  clear.  They  can  hardly  depend  on  cell  destruc- 
tion ;  for  it  is  upon  that  that  the  processes  of  life  are  based. 
More  probably  they  depend  on  a  failure  to  produce  new 
generations  of  cells  to  replace  the  cells  broken  down  in 
the  vital  processes. 

The  occurrence  of  death  at  all  is  a  provision  to  secure 


542 


NATURE 


[April  ^,  1888 


the  greatest  possible  number  of  contemporary  individuals 
of  full  strength.  Contact  with  the  world  wastes  away 
individuals  with  here  an  accident  to-day,  there  an  accident 
to-morrow.  The  possession  of  immortality  by  the  indi- 
vidual, while  a  doubtful  boon  to  it,  would  be  a  harmful 
luxury  to  the  speies.  Death  makes  room  for  new,  com- 
plete individuals.  Death  is,  however,  by  no  means  a  uni- 
versal attribute  of  organisms.  In  unicellular  organisms 
the  single  cell  is  at  once  somatic  and  reproductive,  and, 
while  liable  to  accidental  destruction,  is  potentially  im- 
mortal. The  Protozoon  divides  without  a  remainder  ; 
and  the  life  of  each  Protozoon  alive  to-day  has  descended 
in  direct  continuity  from  the  life  of  the  primordial 
Protozoon. 

In  the  Metazoa  a  division  of  labour  has  separated 
reproductive  cells  from  somatic,  and  their  complexity,  by 
admitting  of  mutilations  short  of  destruction,  has  rendered 
them  mortal.  The  reproductive  cells  had  to  remain 
capable  of  an  indefinite  number  of  generations  lest 
extinction  of  the  race  occurred  ;  but  when  the  somatic 
cells  became  specialized,  there  at  once  arose  the  possibility 
and  the  necessity  of  a  limit  to  the  number  of  generations. 

It  is  clear  that  the  size  of  an  individual  is  an  inherited 
property.  Conditions  of  nutrition  can  only  negatively 
determine  growth.  No  superfluity  of  nutrition  could 
build  up  the  framework  of  a  dwarf  into  a  giant.  Natural 
selection  acting  on  variations  has  fixed  the  average  size 
of  individuals.  It  has  in  fact  fixed  the  space  limits  of 
cell  reproduction,  and  could  have  equally  well  fixed  the 
limits  in  time — the  duration  of  life — of  individuals.  There 
is  a  continuity  of  life  from  organism  to  organism  through 
the  divisions  of  the  immortal  germ-cells.  The  somatic 
cells  arising  from  the  germ-cell  in  each  generation  possess 
a  limited  reproductive  capacity,  and  the  limits  are  fixed 
by  natural  selection  for  each  species  so  as  to  maintain  the 
greatest  possible  number  of  contemporary  individuals  of 
full  vigour.  P.  Chalmers  Mitchell. 


NOTES. 

The  French  Association   for   the  Advancement  of  Science, 
has  had  a  successful  meeting  at  Oran,  in  Algeria.     M.  Laussedat, 
the  President,  chose  as  the  subject  of  his  address  the  civilizing 
influence  of  the  sciences.     This  was  the  second  meeting  of  the 
Association  in  Algeria,  the  first  having  been  held  in  1881. 

The  nineteenth  annual  Conference  of  the  National  Union  oi' 
Elementary  Teachers  was  opened  at  Cheltenham  on  Monday. 
The  President,  Mr.  Pope,  in  his  inaugural  address,  spoke  bitterly 
of  the  existing  system  of  elementary  education,  which  he  de- 
nounced as  a  "failure."  On  Tuesday,  the  same  tone  was 
adopted  by  the  Rev.  E.  M.  M'Carthy,  of  King  Edward's 
School,  Birmingham,  who  read  a  paper  to  show  that  the  system 
violates  two  of  ihe  fundamental  principles  of  true  education. 
Those  principles  are  :  (i)  that  the  course  of  studies  laid  down 
for  each  stage  should  be  in  harmony  with,  and  adapted  to,  the 
natural  development  of  the  individual  child's  mind  and  body  ; 
and  (2)  that  all  educational  processes  should  develop  faculties  so 
as  to  produce  habits  of  ready  and  accurate  tlxinking,  besides 
furnishing  the  mind  with  knowledge  for  use  and  imparting 
mechanical  skill  in  the  use  of  it. 

Prof.  Kiepert,  of  Berlin,  will  start  immediately  on  a  journey 
of  research  in  Western  Asia  Minor.  He  will  be  accompanied 
by  Dr.  E.  Fabricius,  the  archKologist.  The  journey  will  last 
three  months. 

On  Easter  Monday,  12,374  persons  visited  the  Natural  His- 
tory Museum,  South  Kensington.  The  number  of  visitors  on 
the  corresponding  day  last  year  was  6570. 

The  Report  of  the  Meteorological  Council  for  the  year 
ending  March  31,  1887,  which  has  recently  been  issued,  shows  j_ 


that  at  that  date  observations  were  being  taken  for  the  Office  on 
143  ships,  exclusive  of  the  vessels  of  the  Royal  Navy,  all  of 
which  are  supplied  by  the  Council  with  instruments,  although  the 
keeping  of  a  special  meteorological  log  is  optional.  The  work 
in  hand  by  the  marine  branch  is  :  (i)  the  completion  of  the 
synchronous  charts  of  the  North  Atlantic  ;  (2)  a  discussion  of 
the  meteorology  of  the  Red  Sea  ;  (3)  current  charts  for  the 
Atlantic,  Pacific,  and  Indian  Oceans ;  (4)  charts  of  the  Aden 
cyclone  of  June  1885.  In  order  to  discover  the  cause  of  this 
storm  and  of  its  unusual  course  across  the  Arabian  Sea,  syn- 
chronous charts  of  the  North  Indian  Ocean  for  the  month  of 
June  are  being  prepared.  In  the  weather  branch,  forecasts 
are  drawn  three  times  a  day.  A  comparison  of  the  results 
of  the  8  p.m.  forecasts  gives  81  as  the  total  percentage  of 
success.  Hay  harvest  forecasts  were  issued  to  some  selected 
stations,  as  in  previous  years.  Storm-warning  telegrams  are 
issued  to  141  stations  ;  the  trans-Atlantic  messages  appear  to 
have  been  of  no  practical  value  for  the  purpose  of  these  warn- 
ings— rather  the  contrary,  as  they  have  occasionally  caused  the 
premature  issue  of  warnings  to  our  coasts  when  no  storms  fol- 
lowed. The  principal  changes  in  the  climatological  branch  have 
been  the  erection  of  self-recording  anemometers  at  Fleetwood 
and  North  Shields,  and  of  an  electric  anemometer  at  Valentia 
Island,  but  unforeseen  difficulties  have  hitherto  prevented  this 
from  being  brought  into  operation.  The  Report  contains  a 
table  showing  the  distribution  of  gales  round  the  coasts  of  the 
British  Islands  during  each  month  for  the  fifteen  years  1871-85. 

M.  L.  Cruls,  the  Director  of  the  Imperial  Observatory  at 
Rio  de  Janeiro,  has  made  an  appeal  to  all  meteorological 
observers  for  assistance  in  the  compilation  of  a  "  Universal 
Climatological  Dictionary,"  which  is  intended  to  comprise,  in  a 
methodical  form,  the  principal  meteorological  elements  from  as 
many  stations  as  possible  over  the  whole  globe.  The  data  asked 
for  are  the  mean  monthly  and  yearly  temperatures,  together  with 
the  monthly  maxima  and  minima,  and  the  dates  of  the  yearly 
absolute  extremes  ;  the  relative  humidity,  amount  of  cloud,  rain- 
fall, number  of  days  of  rain,  thunderstorms,  and  frost,  and  the 
prevalent  wind,  in  each  month  ;  the  mean  annual  height  of  the 
barometer,  and  its  mean  annual  oscillation.  The  work  proposed 
by  M.  Cruls  would  be  very  useful,  as,  although  information 
already  exists  for  a  great  number  of  stations,  it  is  dispersed  in 
many  different  publications,  and  is  expressed  in  different 
measures,  so  that  comparisons  are  difficult.  Details  relating  to 
the  meteorological  elements  of  his  own  country  especi  ally  are 
much  wanted. 

In  the  Annales  du  Bureau  central  nu'teorologique  of  Paris  for 
1885,  vol.  i.,  M.  Renou  has  discused  the  rainfall  of  Paris  for 
the  last  200  years.  The  observations  were  begun  in  1688  by 
Lahire.  At  that  time  the  Observatory  was  outside  Paris,  some 
distance  to  the  south,  but  it  is  now  in  the  midst  of  a  district  sur- 
rounded by  high  buildings.  It  is  a  curious  fact  that  soon  after 
Leverrier  assumed  the  directorship  he  planted  some  trees  near 
the  rain-gauge,  which  in  time  affected  its  readings  ;  these  trees 
were  afterwards  cut  down  by  Admiral  Mouchez.  The  rainfall 
seems  to  have  undergone  some  changes  in  this  long  period.  At 
the  time  of  Lahire  there  was  a  marked  maximum  in  July ;  now 
there  are  two  less  marked  maxima  in  June  and  September.  The 
number  of  rainy  days  amounts  on  an  average  to  169.  Snow 
occui's  very  irregularly,  but  it  is  never  entirely  absent  in  any  winter. 
The  heaviest  rainfall  in  a  short  period  was  on  the  9th  of  September, 
1865,  which  yielded  over  2  inches  on  the  terrace  of  the  Observatory 
n  2\  hours  ;  the  gauge  on  the  ground  overflowed. 

While  studying  the  laws  of  dissolution  of  salts,  M.  Umoff  came 
to  the  following  correlation,  which  seems  not  to  have  been  yet 
remarked,  and  which  he  communicated  in  a  paper  in  the 
Memoirs  of  the  Odessa  Society  of  Naturalists  (vol.  xii.  i).     For 


April  s,  1888] 


NATURE 


543 


potatsium  chloride,  bromide,  and  iodide,  as  also  for  natrium 
iodide,  the  weights  of  salt  necessary  to  saturate  a  given  amount 
of  water  at  100"  C.  are  proportionate  to  the  cubes  of  densities 
of  the  respective  anhydride  salts  ;  while  for  sodium  chloride  the 
same  law  is  true  with  regard  to  the  saturation  weights  of  water 
at  0°.  The  saturation-weights  of  potassium  chloride  and 
natrium  iodide  at  100°  being  the  double  of  what  they  are  at 
zero,  they  belong  simultaneously  to  both  groups. 

M.  LiNDELOF  has  contributed  to  the  Proceedings  of  the 
Scientific  Society  of  Finland  (tome  xvi.),  a  paper  on  the  tra- 
jectory of  a  body  moving  over  the  earth's  surface  under  the 
influence  of  terrestrial  rotation.  The  author  considers  that  the 
explanation  of  the  movements  of  atmospheric  currents,  for 
instance,  as  generally  given,  is  far  fi'om  sufficient,  and  leads  to 
inexact  ideas.  The  paper  is  divided  into  four  parts  :  the  first 
three  deal  with  the  equations  of  the  different  movements  of  a 
body,  and  with  the  forms  taken  by  the  trajectory  ;  in  the  fourth 
part  the  theory  is  applied  to  the  calculation  of  the  passage  of  the 
Umospheric  wave  observed  after  the  Krakata~o  eruption  in 
August  1883. 

Prof.  W.  Brogger  lately  submitted  to  the  Swedish  Geological 
Society  an  account  of  the  work  done  by  the  Committee  appointed 
for  the  purpose  of  obtaining  reports  on  earthquakes  occurring  in 
Sweden.  It  was  decided  that  trustworthy  reporters  should  be 
appointed  in  all  parts  of  the  country,  and  that  a  number  of 
inexpensive  seismographs  should  be  purchased.  At  the  same 
meeting  Baron  Nordenskiold  exhibited  a  new  silicate  of  lead 
from  the  Harstigs  Mine,  inVarmland.  Among  recent  papers  of 
special  interest  published  by  the  Society  is  one  on  the'  meteors 
observed  in  Sweden  in  1887,  by  Dr.  Svedmark. 

At  a  recent  meeting  of  the  Seismological  .Society  of  Japan, 
reported  in  the  Japan  Weekly  Mail  of  February  4,  Prof.  Milne 
read  a  paper  on  earthquake  sounds.  These  frequently  precede 
the  shock,  are  often  heard  during  its  progress,  and  sometimes 
have  been  heard  after  the  earthquake  proper  has  ceased.  Their 
character  is  very  varied,  from  a  low,  barely  audible  rumbling,  to 
a  loud  rattling,  like  a  cart  on  a  stony  street,  or  a  volley  of  mus- 
ketry. They  are  heard  better  in  some  districts  than  in  others  ; 
better  probably  where  the  earth's  structure  is  hard  and  solid  than 
where  it  is  loose  and  soft.  After  discussing  some  of  the  ex- 
planations that  have  been  given.  Prof.  Milne  suggested  that  there 
is  a  close  connection  between  these  sounds  and  the  smaller 
vibrations  which  invai  iably  precede  the  shock  proper.  He  had 
counted  as  many  as  seven  per  second  of  these  sinuosities,  and 
we  are  warranted  in  assuming  the  existence  of  still  smaller  and 
quicker  vibrations  preceding  even  these.  With  more  delicate 
seismographs  we  might  be  able  to  catch  the  very  early  infinitesi- 
mal movements  that  herald  the  approach  of  an  earthquake. 
With  thirty  or  forty  vibrations  per  second  we  should  have  an 
audible  note  of  very  low  pitch.  It  was  suggested  in  the  sub- 
sequent discussion  that  as  seismographs  show  a  tail-end  of  sinu- 
osities very  similar  to  the  initial  ones,  we  should  expect  to  hear 
sounds  succeeding  as  often  as  preceding  an  earthquake. 

The  Repo;t  of  Mr.  Cautley,  the  Acting- Consul  at  Trieste, 
on  the  forests  of  Austria,  just  issued  by  the  Foreign  Office,  says 
that  perhaps  Austria  has  a  larger  proportion  of  forest  in  com- 
parison with  its  area  than  has  any  other  country.  The  woods 
cover  about  3,500,000  acres,  of  which  80  per  cent,  is  timber 
forest,  and  the  remainder  of  young  growth.  The  Government 
and  the  large  land-owners  own  69  per  cent,  of  the  total  forest  area, 
the  parish  authorities  20  per  cent.,  the  clergy  5^  per  cent.,  and 
peasants  about  ij  per  cent.  The  forests  are,  in  fact,  the  principal 
source  of  wealth  to  Austria,  and,  calculating  the  cubic  contents 
of  all  the  timber,  and  reckoning  each  cubic  foot  at  nine-tenths  of  a 
penny,  the  wealth  of  the  whole  country  in  this  respect  may  be 


set  down  at  close  on  ^^40, 000, 000  sterling.  The  yearly  increase 
in  the  value  of  the  forests  is  said  to  be  over  half  a  million 
sterling. 

In  the  Zoologist  iox  April,  Mr.  Postlethwaite,  of  Halltbwaites, 
Cumberland,  states  that,  last  autumn,  while  netting  for  salmon 
in  the  Duddon  Estuary,  fishermen  brought  to  the  surface  some 
massive  horns  of  the  red  deer.  One  pair,  with  the  skull 
attached,  must  have  had  at  least  fifteen  points  ;  the  length  of  one 
horn  is  40  inches  ;  the  distance  apart  at  the  top  of  the  horns, 
42  inches  ;  the  circumference  of  the  burr,  1 1  inches.  In  another 
case,  a  skull  was  recovered  with  only  a  portion  of  one  antler 
attached  ;  and  of  a  greater  size  than  in  the  previous  example. 
The  horn  is  broken  just  above  the  third  tine,  the  length  from  the 
base  being  14  inches  ;  the  length  of  one  tine,  13^  inches  ;  and 
the  circumference  of  the  burr,  loj  inches.  A  scapula  was 
dredged  up  and  brought  to  shore  at  the  same  time.  The  weight 
of  each  of  these  specimens  was  great,  the  first-named  being 
as  much  as  a  man  could  comfortably  carry.  Similar  horns 
were  found  some  years  ago,  and  in  the  neighbouring  estuary  of 
the  Ksk  at  various  times  many  such  antlers  have  been  dis- 
covered, most  of  which  are  preserved  at  Muncaster  Castle.  Mr. 
Postlethwaite  adds  that  the  channel  of  the  Duddon  is  shifting  and 
running  close  into  the  sides  of  an  old  peat  moss,  from  which  it 
seems  not  unlikely  that  the  horns  have  been  washed.  In  an 
editorial  note  appended  to  this  interesting  communication  it  is 
suggested  that  the  animals  which  possessed  these  fine  horns  may 
have  been  wanderers  from  the  great  forest  of  Bowland,  in 
Lancashire,  where  red-deer  lingered  until  the  early  part  of  the 
present  century  ;  and  that  they  may  have  roamed  over  Martin- 
dale  Fell,  in  Westmoreland,  ' '  where  a  few  of  their  descendants 
are  still  preserved,  a  pleasing  link  of  association  with  the  past." 

The  whale  fishery  in  the  Greenland  seas  and  Davis  Straits 
was  very  unprofitable  in  1887.  In  an  article  on  the  subject  in 
the  current  number  of  the  Zoologist,  Mr.  Southwell  says  that 
whales  are  by  no  means  exterminated.  Capt.  Gray  saw 
fourteen  of  them  in  Greenland,  and  Capt.  Adams  is  reported  to 
have  seen  seventeen  in  Davis  Straits  ;  but,  from  long  persecution,, 
they  are  now  "simply  unapproachable." 

The  French  Consul  at  Bilbao  states  in  a  recent  report  that 
the  pilchard  or  sardine  fishery  on  the  Atlantic  shores  of  the 
northern  portion  of  Spain  proved  in  1887  a  most  disastrous 
failure.  During  the  three  months  of  June,  July,  and  August, 
which  are  generally  the  most  abundant  in  the  year,  nothing  was 
caught  but  sardines  far  too  large  for  the  boxes  commonly  used  in 
the  trade.  The  amount  taken  in  1886  was  1650  tons,  and 
during  the  corresponding  months  in  1887,  it  was  only  790  tons. 
This  large  falling  off  is  supposed  to  be  due  to  the  fact  that  the 
fish  do  not  find  the  food  they  require  on  this  coast,  formerly  one 
of  their  favourite  habitats.  Perhaps  in  a  large  measure  it  is 
owing  to  their  having  been  driven  away  by  the  reckless  system 
of  fishing  which  has  been  adopted  in  the  past. 

The  Report  of  the  Mason  Science  College,  Birmingham,  for  the 
yearendingFebruary23, 1888,  has  just  been  issued.  TheChairnan 
of  the  Academic  Board  testifies  that,  although  the  year  was  not 
marked  by  any  new  or  striking  developments  in  the  educational 
policy  of  the  College,  or  by  any  special  additions  to  the  existing 
curriculum  of  the  subjects  taught,  the  general  progress  of  the 
College  upon  the  lines  laid  down  in  previous  years  was  eminently 
satisfactory.  Not  only  was  the  total  number  of  day  students 
larger  than  in  any  previous  year,  but  the  increase  affected,  in 
varying  proportions,  nearly  all  the  different  departments.  The 
year  was  also  characterized  by  a  marked  increase  in  the  number 
of  systematic  students.  By  "systematic"  students  are  meant 
those  who  enter  the  College  with  the  object  of  preparing  for  the 
various  University  or  medical  examinations,  for  technical  dip- 


544 


NATURE 


'{April  s,  1888 


lomas,  or  for  the  Associateship  of  the  College,  or  who  are 
studying  some  definite  subject  with  the  view  of  teaching,  or 
original  research,  or  with  regard  to  its  practical  application  to 
manufacturing  industries. 

We  have  received  the  Proceedings  of  the  Royal  Physical 
Society,  Edinburgh,  for  the  session  1886-87.  Among  the 
contents  is  an  interesting  Presidential  Address,  by  Mr.  John  A. 
Harvie-Brown,  on  the  faunal  importance  of  the  Isle  of  May, 
purely  from  an  ornithological  point  of  view. 

We  have  received  the  first  part  of  what  promises  to  be  an 
admirable  work — "An  Illustrated  Manual  of  British  Birds,"  by 
Mr.  Howard  Saunders.  The  book  will  be  completed  in  about 
twenty  monthly  parts.  It  is  being  issued  by  Messrs.  Gurney  and 
Jackson. 

A  TWELFTH  edition  of  the  late  Dr.  David  Page's  "Intro- 
ductory Text-book  of  Geology"  (Blackwood)  has  been  issued. 
It  has  been  edited  by  Prof.  Charles  Lapworth,  who,  in  order  to 
bring  all  the  departments  up  to  date,  has  found  it  necessary  to 
recast  or  re-write  almost  the  whole  of  the  work,  with  the 
exception  of  the  introductory  and  concluding  chapters. 

Mr.  Haly,  Director  of  the  Colombo  Museum,  has  published 
a  first  Report  on  the  Collection  of  Birds  in  that  institution. 
It  fills  about  eighty  pages  demy  octavo. 

The  new  number  (the  third)  of  the  American  periodical — the 
Technology  Quarterly — opens  with  a  valuable  account,  by 
Mr.  W.  O.  Crosby,  of  the  methods  of  instruction  in  mineralogy 
and  structural  geology  in  the  Massachusetts  Institute  of  Tech- 
nology. Mr.  S.  W.  Hunt  continues  his  discussion  of  the 
precision  of  measurements;  and  Mr.  F.  W.  Clark  contributes 
notes  on  the  assaying  of  lead,  silver,  and  gold. 

The  Johns  Hopkins  University,  Baltimore,  has  received  from 
the  Maryland  Academy  of  Sciences  a  considerable  portion  of 
its  scientific  collection.  Among  the  specimens  is  the  skeleton  of 
a  young  fin-back  whale  captured  in  the  lower  part  of  Chesapeake 
Bay.  Stumps  of  cycads,  which  were  presented  to  the  Academy 
by  Mr.  P.  T.  Tyson,  are  also  greatly  valued.  They  were  taken 
from  the  Upper  Jurassic  clays  of  Maryland. 

According  to  a  communication  by  M.  A.  Pavloif  to  the 
Moscow  Society  of  Naturalists,  the  meteorite  which  fell  in 
August  last  at  Okhansk,  in  Perm,  is  one  of  the  largest  yet 
known.  Its  weight,  before  it  was  broken,  was  about  1 100  lbs. 
It  belongs  to  the  group  of  stony  meteorites.  As  it  contains 
particles  of  unoxidized  nickel  iron,  it  must  be  classified  with  the 
sporado-siderites.  Its  spherical  mineral  aggregates  bring  it 
under  the  heading  of  chondrites. 

The  following  extract  from  a  private  letter  by  a  British 
officer,  dated  Sittang,  Upper  Chindwin,  February  4,  1888,  may 
be  of  interest  to  anthropologists  : — "  We  have  arrived  here  after 
eight  days  of  hill-marching  with  very  many  ups  and  downs — the 
highest  point  just  over  5000  feet.  We  are  now  completely  out 
of  Burma — the  hills  were  sparsely  inhabited  by  uncivilized  Chins 
and  Nagas — and  are  now  in  a  small  State,  a  plateau  in  the 
mountains  at  a  level  of  nearly  3000  feet.  The  ruler  and  his 
people  are  Hindus  by  conversion  or  adoption  some  hundred 
years  or  less  ago — the  only  example  I  know  of  Hindu  prose- 
lytes. The  Burmans  are  tattooed  from  waist  to  knee  with  a  fine 
pattern  in  blue,  looking  as  if  dressed  in  short  dark  tights.  They 
wear  the  hair  long,  rolled  on  the  top  of  the  head,  and  covered 
with  a  bright-coloured  silk  kerchief,  put  on  somewhat  as  one 
sees  in  pictures  of  Negro  women  of  the  Southern  States  in 
America.  The  Shans,  who  were  our  neighbours  in  the  hills 
near  the  Ruby_Mines,  wear  very  baggy  trousers,  like  the  Chinese, 
of  coarse  blue  cotton  stuff,  have  uncut  hair,  and  for  a  head- 
covering  a  hat,  either  of  straw  or  a  coarser  kind  of  wicker,   of 


colossal  circumference.  This  hat  is  as  big"  as  an  ordinary  silk 
umbrella,  but  flat  except  in  the  middle,  which  is  conical  for  the 
reception  of  the  top-knot,  and  as  this  might  sometimes  prove  an 
insecure  hold  they  often  wear  a  fastening  under  the  jaw.  They 
tattoo  more  extensively  than  the  Burmans,  and  sometimes  stow 
away  jewels  under  the  skin.  I  have  seen  lumps  which 
may  have  been  so  caused,  from  their  appearance,  but  I 
never  had  the  chance  of  proving  their  secretion  by  enuclea- 
tion. The  Nagas,  whom  we  have  used  in  the  last  few  days 
as  carriers,  do  not  tattoo,  and  wear  a  skimpy  kilt.  The 
hair  is  uncut  and  coiled  on  the  front  of  the  head,  the  lump 
or  coil  of  hair  secured  by  a  band  round  the  base  ;  the  band  often 
made  of  strings  of  blue  beads  or  a  tape  of  leather,  on  which  two 
or  three  rows  of  small  white  shells  are  sewn.  A  silver  or  other 
metal  skewer,  about  ten  inches  long,  is  often  stuck  through  the 
hair,  like  the  arrows  worn  by  some  belles  of  the  West — whether 
only  for  adornment,  or  used  as  a  fork  or  harpoon,  I  know  not. 
All  these  savages  have  the  ears  pierced.  The  Naga  carries  his 
snuff  in  a  bit  of  bamboo  thicker  than  an  ordinary  lead-pencil  ; 
and  the  Burman,  who  smokes  eternally,  sticks  his  cigar  in  his 
ear-lobe — and  his  cigar  is  about  the  size  of  that  Mr.  Verdant 
Green  was  induced  to  smoke,  of  such  calibre  that  it  would  not 
pass  through  a  Colt's  revolver  barrel.  The  Nagas  here  are  not 
tall,  but  their  calves  and  thighs  would  attract  attention  even  at 
a  Highland  gathering  at  Athol  or  Braemar.  Their  loads  they 
carry  with  a  neatly  made  neck-and-shoulder  yoke.  From  the 
yoke  in  front  is  a  brow-band,  while  behind  a  rope-loop  jiasses 
under  the  load." 

The  Students'  Engineering  Society  of  the  University  Col- 
lege, Bristol,  concluded  the  winter  session,  on  March  26, 
with  a  public  disputation  on  the  gas-engine  v.  the  steam-engine, 
and  on  March  27  gave  a  eonversazione.  The  electrical  and 
engineering  exhibits  attracted  much  attention,  and  a  highly 
appreciated  concert  was  rendered  by  the  students  and  their 
friends. 

The  additions  to  the  Zoological  Society's  Gardens  during  the 
past  week  include  a  Gannet  (^Sula  bassana),  a  Greater  Black- 
backed  Gull  {Larus  7?iarinus),  British,  presented  by  Mrs. 
Rickards  ;  a  Hawfinch  [Coccothraustes  vulgaris),  British,  pre- 
sented by  Mr.  Chas.  Faulkner  ;  a  Common  Swan  {Cygnus  olor), 

British,    a   Penguin  (Eudyptes  pac/iyrhynchus,  from  New 

Zealand,  deposited. 

OUR  ASTRONOMICAL  COLUMN. 

The  Period  of  Algol. — Mr.  S.  C.  Chandler  publishes,  in 
Nos.  165,  166,  and  16"]  oi  Gouhfs  Astronomical  Journal,  a  careful 
and  thorough  discussion  of  the  period  of  this  interesting  variable. 
Starting  with  the  observations  of  Goodricke  in  1782,  he  had  at 
his  disposal  the  times  of  nearly  700  minima  as  observed  by 
about  fifty  astronomers,  spread  over  a  little  more  than  a  century. 
His  first  task  was  to  reduce  these  observations  to  a  common 
system — an  operation  the  more  necessary,  since,  in  the  present 
low  state  of  our  knowledge,  differences  in  the  processes  of  re- 
duction are  more  important  in  their  effect,  if  they  do  not  com- 
pletely overshadow  personal  differences  in  observation.  Mr. 
Chandler  decided,  therefore,  to  abandon  the  use  of  the  minimum 
phase  as  a  reference-point,  and  re-reduced  the  entire  mass  of 
observations  on  a  method  the  essential  principle  of  which  con- 
sisted in  taking,  as  the  reference-point,  the  mean  between  the 
times  cf  equal  brightness  on  the  descending  and  a-cending 
branches  of  the  light  curve.  This  involved  the  abandonment  of 
199  minima,  for  which  sufficient  details  could  not  be  procured, 
but  left  496  to  be  employed  in  the  investigation.  Unfortunately 
these  are  not  by  any  means  evenly  distributed  as  to  time,  and  in 
the  earlier  part  of  the  present  century  satisfactory  observations 
are  very  scarce. 

That  the  period  of  Algol  was  itself  subject  to  change  was 
suspected  by  Wurm  and  proved  by  Argelander,  but  the  formuLx 
deduced  by  the  latter  have  not  represented  later  observations. 
Mr.  Chandler  has  succeeded,  however,  in  reducing  its  apparently 
highly  complicated  anomalies   to  a  comparatively  simple  law. 


April  s,  1888] 


NATURE 


545 


This  law  comprises  two  inequalities,  with  the  periods  respec- 
tively of  I4i'3  years  and  377,  and  coefficients  of  173*3  ^"d  l8"o 
minutes  of  time.  A  third  period  of  17  years,  with  a  coefBcient 
of  3'5  minutes,  was  suspected,  but  the  coefficient  is  so  small  as  to 
bring  it  almost  within  the  limit  of  errors  of  observation.  The 
resulting  elements  are  as  follow:  1888  January  3,  7h.  21m. 
29"23s.  ..(G.M.T. )  +  2d.  2oh.  48m.  55'425s.  E'  -f  I73"3m. 
sin.  (-uV  E'  +  202°  30')  +  i8"om.  sin  (^jt  E'  +  203°  15')  +  3'5m. 
sin  (J-  E'  +  90°  20') ;  where  E'  =  E  (Schonfeld)  -  11210.  The 
interpretation  of  the  theory  is  as  follows  : — The  period  at  the 
time  of  Goodricke's  discovery  of  the  character  of  the  variation 
was  2d.  20h.  48m.  58 "OS.,  lengthening  to  59'8s.  in  1798, 
diminishing  again  in  the  next  ten  years  to  57  ■2s.,  and  then 
again  lengthening  irregularly  to  59'2s.  in  1830.  A  rapid 
diminution  shortly  followed,  and  the  rate  was  reduced  to  54 'Os. 
in  1843.  After  a  halt  a  further  but  less  rapid  diminution  set  in, 
and  in  1858  the  period  was  5285.  The  following  six  years  saw 
an  increase  of  l  "63.,  followed  by  another  shortening,  until  in  1877 
the  period  had  fallen  to  51  "is.,  from  which  time  it  has  remained 
■  nearly  constant ;  but  should  the  theory  be  correct,  a  period  of 
increase  must  shortly  set  in,  which,  with  halts  and  retrogressions, 
will  attain  a  maximum  somewhat  late  in  the  coming  century. 

The  paper  concludes  with  a  table  of  heliocentric  times  of 
minima  up  to  August  1898. 

M.  Oudemans,  Director  of  the  Utrecht  Observatory,  is  like- 
wise preparing  a  work  on  this  variable,  and  requests  observers 
to  transmit  to  him  copies  of  their  notes  on  all  observed  minima 
since  1883. 

Observations  of  Variable  Stars. — Mr.  Edwin  Sawyer 
has  given,  in  Nos.  164  and  165  of  GonhC s y ournal,\\\%  observa- 
tions of  several  variable  stars  made  during  the  year  1886.  The 
following  table  will  show  how  some  of  these  compare  with  the 
ephemerides  given  week  by  week  in  Nature. 


Star. 
V  Cancri 
R  Ursae  Majoris 
R  Virginis 
S  Coronse 
R  Scuti      


Phase. 

M  . 

M  . 

M  . 

M  . 
m 

M  . 


Observed. 
1886  March  29 
1886  April  29 
1886  April  8 
1886  May  10 
1886  July  21 
1886  Sept.  12 
1886  Dec.        2 


Calculated. 
April  12 
May  12 
April  10 
April  10 
June  27 
Aug.  I 
Nov.   17 


Mira  Ceti  was  observed  at  maximum  1886  January  9  ;  g  (30) 
Herculis  at  minimum  June  14,  and  at  maximum  September  20  ; 
and  W  Cygni  at  three  ei^ochs,  viz.  m  July  8,  M  September  10, 
and  111  November  5. 

Gore's  new  variable  near  Xi  Orionis,  to  which  Mr.  Sawyer 
gives  the  lettering  U  Orionis,  but  which  other  astronomers  have 
generally  designated  T,  attained  a  maximum  about  1887  De- 
cember 14.  The  maximum  was  only  a  feeble  one,  -7*5  mag. 
The  light  remained  almost  stationary  from  1887  November  29 
to  1888  January  2,  a  period  of  thirty-four  days.  The  period  of 
the  star  must  be  almost  exactly  a  year. 

The  variable  Lai.  40083,  discovered  by  Mr.  S.  C.  Chandler 
(see  Nature,  vol.  xxxv.  p.  282),  and  to  which  he  has  given  the 
name  X  Cygni,  has  shown  from  further  observation  that  its 
light-curve  is  not  constant  in  different  periods,  the  minimum 
brightness  being  especially  variable,  but  since  the  bright  and 
faint  minima  do  not  alternate  regularly  the  star  does  not  belong 
to  the  /3  Lyrae  class.  Mr.  Chandler's  revised  elements  for  the 
star  are  as  follow:  i886  October  13,  i4h.  20m.  G.M.T.  -f 
I5d.  I4h.  24m.  E.  Approximate  duration  of  increase  5*6  days, 
of  decrease  10  o  days.  The  maximum  brilliancy  is  generally 
about  6 •4m.  J  the  minimum  ranges  from  7 •2m.  to  77m. 


ASTRONOMICAL    PHENOMENA    FOR    THE 
WEEK  1888  APRIL  8-14. 

/"pQR  the  reckoning  of  time  the  civil  day,  commencing  at 
^  Greenwich  mean  midnight,  counting  the  hours  on  to  24, 

is  here  employed. ) 

At  Greenwich  on  April  8 
Sun  rises,  5h.  20m.  ;  souths,  I2h.  im.  43 •3s.';  sets,   i8h.  43m.  : 

right   asc.    on    meridian,    ih.    104U1.  ;   decl.    7°    29'    N. 

Sidereal  Time  at  Sunset,  7h.  53m. 
Moon    (New    on    April    11,    9h.)   rises,    4h.   46m.;    souths, 

loh.    6m.;    sets,     I5h.    35m.:    right    a^c.     on    meridian, 

23h.  i4-6m.  ;  decl.  8°  21'  S. 


Planet. 

Mercury.. 
Venus  ... 
Mars  ... 
Jupiter  ... 
"^aturn  ... 
Uranus... 
Neptune.. 


Rises, 
h.   m. 

4  52 
4  47 

22  57^ 

10  59 

18    9 

6  56 


Souths. 

h.  m. 
10  29 
10   32 

O   22 

3  10 

18   58 
23   46 

14  37 


Sets. 
h.    m. 
16     6  .., 
16  17  ... 

5  51  ••• 
7  23    . 

2  57*-- 

5  23*... 

22  18  ... 


Right  asc.  and  declination 
on  meridian, 
h.       m.  .        . 


*  Indicates  that  the  rising  is  that  of  the  precedii; 
that  of  the  following  morning. 


23  37 'o 
23  40  "9 
13  286 
16  169 

8  78 
12  56*4 

3  457 


5  8S. 
3  40  S. 

6  48  S. 
20  19  S. 
20  48  N. 

5  17  S. 
18  11  N, 


evening  and  the  setting 


April. 

8 


II 
14 


h. 
23 


Mercury  in  conjunction  with  and  l"  16'  north 

of  the  Moon. 
Venus  in  conjunction  with  and  2'  24'  north 

of  the  Moon. 
Mars  in  opposition  to  the  Sun. 
Mercury  in  conjunction  with  and  1°  10'  south 

of  Venus. 


Variable  Stars. 


Star. 

U  Cephei     

Algol" 

R  Canis  Majoris... 
U  Monocerotis   ... 

S  Cancri      

S  Librae        

U  Ophiuchi 

W  Sj^ittarii 
Z  Sagittarii... 
U  Sagittarii ... 


R.A. 


Decl. 


O  52*4  ...  81    16  N. 
3     0-9  ...  40  31  N. 


Apr. 


7  I4'5 

7  25-5 

8  37-5 
14  55  o 
17  io*9 


16  12  S. 

9  33  S. 
19  26  N. 
8  4S. 
I  20  N. 


17  57"9  •••  29  35  S. 

18  14-8  ...  18  55  S. 
18  25*3  ...  19  12  S. 


17  Aquilae      19  46-8  ...    o  43  N.  ...     ,. 

T  Vulpeculae       ...  20  467  ...  27  50  N.  ...     ,, 
R  Vulpeculas       ...  20  59*4  ...  23  23  N.  ...     ,, 

5  Cephei      22  25*0  ...  57  51  N , 

M  signifies  maximum  ;  ni  minimum. 

Meteor-  Showers. 
R.A.  Decl. 


h. 

m. 

12, 

4 

2  m 

13. 

3 

26  in 

II. 

20 

7  m 

12, 

vt, 

13. 

19 

30  m 

10, 

22 

56  m 

II, 

2 

57  m 

II, 

23 

5  '« 

9, 

4 

0  ni 

II, 

I 

0  M 

10, 

■\ 

0  in 

13, 

2 

oM 

14, 

2 

0  in 

13, 

4 

oM 

13, 

M 

12, 

3 

0  m 

Near  o  Ursa;  Majoris 
,,     42  Herculis... 


163 

248 


60  N. 
50  N, 


April  10  and  II. 


GEOGRAPHICAL  NOTES. 

A  SHORT  excursion  into  the  almost  unknown  interior  of  San 
Domingo  was  made  last  summer  by  Baron  H.  Eggers,in  the  course 
of  which  he  explored  the  mountainous  district,  and  made  a  com- 
plete study  of  the  vegetation  of  this  elevated  region;  he  further  dis- 
covered a  route  along  which  the  exploration  of  this  little-known 
mountain  region  may  be  carried  out  with  facility.  The  following 
details  are  taken  from  the  traveller's  own  account  of  his  journey, 
published  in  Petermann  s  Mitteilungen  (Part  2,  1888).  He  left 
Puerto  Plata,  on  the  north  coast,  on  May  2  last,  and  about  the 
middle  of  the  same  month  found  himself  at  Jarabacoa  on  the  Rio 
Yagin,  having  passed  through  Santiago  on  his  way.  While  at 
Jarabacoa  he  ascended  Monte  Barrero  (4100  feet)  in  the  vicinity 
of  the  town.  The  steep  slopes  of  this  peak  are  covered  with 
lofty  pine  woods.  In  the  small  ravines  and  between  rocks  the 
traveller  observed  many  interesting  plants,  e.g.  the  dark  red 
Fuchsia  triphylla,  a  bright  red  Siphocainpylos,  a  large  Penta- 
rhaphia,  and  a  beautiful  Cyathea  ;  he  also  found  a  large  number 
of  hitherto  unnoticed  plants,  including  an  ilex,  several  Compositae, 
Labiatae,  &c.  The  animal  life  in  these  pine  forests  appears  to  be 
very  poor  :  there  are  scarcely  any  insects,  and  a  species  of  crow 
is  the  only  bird  seen.  At  the  end  of  May  the  traveller  with  a 
small  party  of  blacks  set  out  in  a  due  southerly  direction  for  the 
Valle  de  Constanza.  The  valley  is  well  watered,  and  its  height 
above  the  sea  is  3840  feet.  Its  inhaiiitants,  numbering  100,  are 
engaged  in  cattle-rearing,  and  the  cultivation  of  beans,  maize, 
cassava,  tobacco,  6:c.  The  climate  is  cool,  and  from  November 
to  March  dry  ;  during  the  rest  of  the  year  it  rains.  The  ther- 
mometer at  6  o'clock  in  the  morning  of  May  28  stood  at  59"  F. 
The  higher  part  of  the  surrounding  mountains,  which  almost 
everywhere  contain  gold,  though  in  small  quantities,  are  quite 
unexplored.     From  the  Valle  de  Coustanza  the  traveller  made  a 


546 


NATURE 


{April  ^,  1888 


further  excursion  to  the  south-east  to  a  savanna  region,  situated 
in  a  depression  among  the  mountains,  and  called  by  the  natives 
"  Valle  Nuevo."  The  path  led  over  forest  clad  mountains  with 
intervening  gorges,  and  formed  a  continual  ascent  till  the  Valle 
Nuevo  was  reached,  which  is  7450  feet  above  the  sea.  One  of 
the  forest  tracts  which  the  traveller  traversed  was  especially 
dense  and  almost  impassable  ;  beautiful  mosses,  ferns,  orchids, 
lycopods,  and  other  epiphytes  were  growing  on  the  trees.  The 
Valle  Nuevo  is  surrounded  by  low  hills,  which  form  the  culmi- 
nating points  of  the  range  ;  the  highest  of  these,  viz.  Pico  del 
Valle  Nuevo  (8630  feet  above  the  sea-level)  was  ascended  by  the 
traveller. 

Dr.  Rink  contributes  to  the  current  number  of  Pttennann's 
Mitteilungen  an  accjunt  of  the  results  of  the  recent  journeys 
made  by  Lieuts.  Ryder  and  Block  along  the  coast  of  Green- 
land to  the  north  of  Upernivik  in  1887.  By  accurate  measure- 
ments made  in  the  ice- fiords  of  Angpadlar  Fok,  &c.,  both  in 
April  and  August,  some  interesting  and  important  results  have 
been  secured  as  regards  the  physical  geography  of  this  region. 
Some  of  the  ice-fiords  are  very  prolific  in  ice-bergs,  notably 
that  of  Giesecke,  where  the  edge  of  the  permanent  ice  has 
retreated  considerably  within  recent  years.  The  results  show 
not  only  the  extraordinary  rapidity,  but  the  great  variableness  in 
the  movements  of  the  ice,  apart  apparently  from  the  temperature 
of  the  time  of  year.  The  average  temperature  of  the  air  during 
the  measurements  from  April  20  to  24,  was  from  -  9°  F.  to  -  15°. 
On  January  28  the  water  temperature,  at  a  point  where  the  ice- 
fiord  was  512  fathoms  in  depth,  was  as  follows  :  at  the  surface 
27°7  F.,  at  50  fathoms  28°'9,  at  200  fathoms  32°,  and  at  287 
fathoms  32°*2.  The  question  of  the  limit  and  movements  of  the 
inland  ice  of  Greenland,  to  which  the  attention  of  recent  Danish 
explorations  has  been  directe-i,  and  towards  the  solution  of  which 
the  results  obtained  by  Lieuts.  Ryder  and  Block  have  materially 
contributed,  is  discussed  by  Herr  Rink  in  his  paper,  which  also 
gives  some  interesting  notes  on  the  botany,  geology,  and 
ethnography  of  the  country. 

In  the  April  number  of  the  Proceedings  of  the  Royal 
Geographical  Society  there  is  an  excellent  new  map  of  Siam, 
based  on  the  surveys  of  Mr.  James  McCarthy.  There  also 
will  be  found  the  second  and  third  of  General  Strachey's 
Cambridge  geographical  lectures. 

At  the  last  meeting  of  the  Royal  Geographical  Society  a 
paper  of  unusual  interest  and  originality,  on  the  Solomon  Islands, 
was  read  by  Mr.  C.  M.  Woodford,  who  spent  several  months  in 
the  group  in  1886-87.  M"".  Woodford's  attention  was  mainly 
directed  to  Treasury  Island,  his  head-quarters  for  some  months 
being  at  Alu,  on  that  island.  He  made  many  journeys  into  the 
interior,  and  was  so  successful  that  he  obtained  nearly  17,000 
specimens  in  natural  history,  which,  so  far  as  they  have  been 
examined,  have  been  found  to  coaiprise  three  ne.v  genera,  a.nd 
eight  new  species  of  mammals,  fifteen  new  species  of  birds,  six 
new  species  of  reptiles,  and  over  a  hundred  new  species  of 
Lepidoptera.  Mr.  Woodford  visited,  besides  Treasury  Island,  the 
islands  of  Fauro,  New  Georgia,  Guadalcanar,  and  others,  explor- 
ing their  interiors  as  far  as  possible,  and  in  the  case  of  Guadal- 
canar attempting  to  ascend  Mount  Lamna.  (8000  feet),  without, 
however,  succeeding.  He  followed  the  Bokokembo  River  as  far 
as  possible,  finding  the  vegetation  most  luxuriant,  and  composed 
of  large  Ficus  and  other  forest  trees,  with  occasional  clumps  of 
sago  and  areca  palms,  but  few  coco-nuts.  The  coast  natives  are 
greatly  afraid  to  venture  into  the  interior,  partly  through  feir  of 
the  bush-folk  who  live  in  the  mDuntains,  and  partly  through 
superstition.  Mr.  Woodford's  observations  on  the  natives  are 
of  great  value  ;  he  had  unusual  opportunities  of  observing  their 
modes  of  life.  They  are  mostly  inveterate  head-hunters  and 
cannibals.  Natives  of  different  parts  of  the  group  dift'er  con- 
siderably from  one  another,  but  they  belong  to  the  Melanesian 
or  Papuan  type.  Mr.  Woodford  believes,  however,  that  on  the 
island  of  Ysabel  there  is  a  strong  infusion  of  Polynesian  blood 
from  Ongtong  Java,  or  Lord  Howe's  Group,  as  canoes  are 
known  to  have  been  driven  in  bad  weather  from  that  group, 
and  to  have  arrived  on  the  coast  of  Ysabel.  The  natives  of 
Bouka  and  Bougainville,  and  of  the  islands  of  Bougainville 
Straits  and  of  Choiseul,  are  intensely  black  in  colour,  but  as  one 
journeys  eastward  the  colour  changes  to  a  dark  brown.  They 
have  woolly  hair,  but  occasionally  natives  are  met  with  wavy, 
and  in  some  cases  straight  hair.  Mr.  Woodford  attributes  this 
fact  to  an  infusion  of  Polynesian  blood,  and  has  noticed  it  in 
natives  from  Ysabel,  also  at  Fauro. 


The  Royal  Geographical  Society  of  Sweden  has  awarded  the 
Vega  Gold  Medal — instituted  in  honour  of  Nordenskiold's  voyage 
— to  Dr.  Wilhelm  Junker,  the  celebrated  African  traveller.  The 
medal,  which  has  not  been  awarded  since  1884,  has  hitherto  had 
only  four  recipients,  viz.  Nordenskiold,  Palander,  Prejevalsky, 
and  Stanley. 


THE  A  TOLL  OF  DIEGO  GARCIA  AND  THE 
CORAL  FORMATIONS  OF  THE  INDIAN 
OCEAN.^ 

T^IEGO  GARCIA  is  a  typical  atoll  ;  a  narrow  strip  of  land 
varying  in  width  from  a  mile  to  30  yards,  nearly  completely 
encircles  a  lagoon  of  irregular  shape.  The  lagoon  is  open  to  the 
ocean  towards  the  north-west,  its  mouth  being  divided  by  three 
small  islets  into  four  channels,  of  which  three  are  sufficiently  deep 
to  allow  ships  to  enter  the  lagoon.  The  whole  of  the  land  compos- 
ing the  atoll  is  very  low  ;  the  highest  point  in  the  island  is  not 
more  than  30  feet  above  the  level  of  high  tide,  and  this  height, 
which  is  quite  exceptional,  is  due  to  the  accumulation  of  great 
heaps  of  sand  through  the  action  of  the  south-east  trade  winds 
which  blow  with  considerable  strength  for  more  than  one-half  of 
the  year.  Diego  Garcia  is  the  southernmost  atoll  of  the  Chagos 
Group  ;  it  lies  in  S.  lat.  7°  26',  E.  long.  72°  23',  and  forms  the 
last  of  the  'great  chain  of  coral  formations  reaching  from  the 
Laccadive  Islands,  through  the  Maldives  to  the  Chagos  Group. 
To  is  south-west  lie  the  subTicrged  atoll-shaped  reefs  known  as 
Pitt's  Bank  and  Centurion's  Bank,  to  its  north  lies  the  huge  sub- 
merged atoll  known  as  the  Great  Chagos  Bank.  It  is  an  inter- 
esting fact  that  throughout  the  Laccadive,  Maldive,  and  Chagos 
Groups  there  is  no  instance  of  a  fringing  or  of  a  barrier  reef ; 
nothing  but  coral  structure  rises  above  the  waves  ;  all  the  islands 
are  atolls  ;  none  of  these  are  upraised,  but  there  are  several  sub- 
merged banks.  The  existence  of  this  long  line  of  atolls  seemed 
to  be  one  of  the  strongest  arguments  in  favour  of  Darwin's  theory 
of  the  formation  of  coral  reefs. 

In  Diego  Garcia  the  nature  of  the  soil  varies  considerably  from 
place  to  place.  In  some  localities  it  consists  of  nothing  else  than 
bare  coral  rock  upon  the  surface  of  which  coral  boulders  are 
scattered  about  ;  in  other  places  it  is  composed  wholly  of  calcare- 
ous sand,  and  one  may  dig  down  for  6  or  8  feet  without  finding 
coral  rock.  It  is  obvious  after  a  short  examination  ,that  some 
parts  of  the  land  are  older  than  others,  and  that  the  great  strip  of 
land  was  formerly  a  series  of  disconnected  islets  which  have  since 
been  joined  together  by  the  accumulation  of  sand  and  coral 
debris  between  them.  In  the  older  parts  of  the  island,  which 
have  apparently  been  covered  with  vegetation  for  a  considerable 
period,  a  thick  peaty  mould  has  been  formed  by  the  decay  of 
fallen  leaves  and  stems  of  trees  and  shrubs. 

Throughout  the  island  the  outer  or  seaward  shore  is  higher 
than  the  inner  or  lagoonward  shore,  owing  to  the  pile  of  coral 
boulders  thrown  up  in  the  form  of  a  low  rampart  along  the 
former  by  the  action  of  the  waves.  In  most  places  a  flat  reef 
extends  fully  60  yards  seaward  of  the  rampart ;  and  this  reef  is 
just  uncovered  at  low  spring  tides.  As  a  rule  the  inner  shore 
slopes  gently  down  into  the  lagoon  fc«-  some  distance,  and  then 
pitches  down  rather  suddenly  to  a  depth  of  lo  or  12  fathoms, 
but  in  some  places  there  is  a  depth  of  6  or  8  fathoms  close  up  to 
the  inner  shores.  Marshy  pools  of  fresh  or  brackish  water  are 
found  in  the  centre  of  the  strip  of  land  on  the  south-east  and 
west  sides  of  the  island  ;  into  these  the  sea  enters  in  many  cases 
daring  the  highest  spring  tides,  and  at  the  south-east  and  south 
ends  of  the  island  it  has  established  permanent  breaches  into  some 
of  these  pools,  through  which  the  tide  runs  in  and  out  regularly 
from  the  lagoon.  Thus  there  are  formed  sheets  of  water  like 
secondary  lagoons  within  the  strip  of  land  ;  these  are  known  on 
the  island  by  the  name  of  barachois,  and  they  are  of  some  im- 
portance when  one  comes  to  consider  the  amount  of  change 
which  is  continually  going  on  in  the  island. 

Externally  the  shores  slope  away  very  rapidly  to  considerable 
depths,  the  sounding-line  giving  depths  of  250  fathoms  and 
upwards  at  a  distance  of  a  few  hundred  yards  from  the  edge  of 
the  reef,  excepting^  at  Horsburgh  Point  at  the  south-east  side, 
where  a  depth  of  45  fathoms  is  found  at  a  distance  of  i  mile  from 
the  shore.  After  a  stay  of  two  or  three  months  on  the  island 
one  cannot  fail  to  be  impressed  with  the   immense  amount  of 

'  By  G.  C.  Bourne,  B  A.,  F.L  S.,  Fellow  of  New  College  and  Assistant 
to  the  Linacre  Professor  in  the  Un  varsity  of  Oxford.  Communicated  to  the 
Royal  Society  by  Prof.  E.  Ray  Lankester,  F.R.S. 


April  s.  1888] 


NATURE 


547 


change  which  is  continually  in  progress.  Large  masses  of  sand 
are  in  the  space  of  a  month  deposited  in  one  spot  to  be  swept 
away  during  the  next  month  and  deposited  in  another.  Every- 
where there  is  evidence  that  the  sea  has  encroached  upon  the 
land,  or  that  the  land  has  in  its  turn  gained  upon  the  sea.  In  one 
place  numerous  dead  and  fallen  cocoa-nut  palms  show  where 
old-established  land  has  been  carried  away  ;  in  an  adjoining  spot 
tracts  of  sand,  either  bare  or  covered  with  a  scanty  growth  of 
young  shrubs,  show  where  the  combined  action  of  wind  and 
waves  has  added  a  new  piece  to  the  island.  Within  the  lagoon 
the  currents  are  constantly  changing  in  force  and  direction,  and 
their  every  change  affects  the  growth  of  coral  in  their  track.  In 
estimating  the  structure  of  the  atoll  these  changes  should  be  kept 
in  mind,  although  their  complexity  makes  it  far  more  difficult  to 
arrive  at  a  correct  conclusion. 

In  the  course  of  my  investigations  I  learnt  to  distinguish  the 
following  kinds  of  coral  rock  formed  by  the  action  of  the  waves 
or  wind,  or  both  combined. 

Firstly,  reef  rock,  a  tolerably  homogeneous  mass  of  compacted 
coral  debris,  the  component  parts  of  which  are  so  thoroughly 
infiltrated  with  carbonate  of  lime  held  in  solution  in  the  sea-water 
that  the  masses  of  fragments  of  coral  composing  the  rock  are 
rarely  distinguished  from  one  another.  This  form  of  rock 
exhibits  a  fine  horizontal  stratification  ;  it  is  invariably  formed 
under  the  sea  or  between  tide  marks. 

Secondly,  boulder  rock,  formed  just  above  high-tide  mark  by 
means  of  the  masses  of  coral  which  are  transported  across  the 
reefs  by  the  waves  and  are  piled  up  to  form  the  low  rampart 
already  alluded  to.  The  interstices  of  the  boulders  are  soon 
filled  up  with  coral  dfbris  and  sand,  and  are  cemented  together 
by  the  spray.  Such  rock  is  only  formed  on  the  seaward  shores, 
and  invariably  shows  a  stratification  dipping  downwards  towards 
the  sea. 

Third!)',  shingle  rock,  which  may  be  of  two  kinds.  The  first 
kind  is  horizontally  stratified,  and  is  scarcely  distinguishable  from 
reef  rock,  except  in  its  finer  texture  ;  it  is  formed  below  water  or 
between  tide  marks  by  the  agglomeration  of  small  pieces  of 
broken  coral,  among  which  are  included  numerous  shells  of 
mollusks,  remains  of  Crustacea,  Echinoderms,  &c.,  and  in  the 
more  sheltered  parts  of  the  lagoon  it  may  include  considerable 
masses  of  dead  Madrepores  embedded  in  their  natural  position 
in  the  rock.  This  rock  is  of  a  looser  texture  than  the  reef  rock. 
The  second  kind  of  shingle  rock  is  formed  above  high-water 
mark  by  the  action  of  the  waves.  It  is  entirely  composed  of  small 
fragments,  and  exhibits  a  fine  stratification  dipping  seawards  at 
an  angle. 

Lastly,  there  is  the  sand  rock,  formed  above  water  by  the  action 
of  the  wind.  Wherever  masses  of  fine  sand  are  piled  up  within 
reach  of  the  spray  they  are  gradually  compacted,  and  form  a 
friable  rock,  the  stratification  of  which  dips  seaward. 

In  many  parts  of  the  island  I  observed  that  the  land  was 
composed  of  stratified  reef  or  shingle  rock,  the  strata  of  which 
were  perfectly  horizontal,  and  did  not  dip  down  towards  either 
shore.  Having  observed  the  manner  in  which  the  different 
kinds  of  coral  rock  were  formed,  I  was  at  a  loss  to  understand 
how  such  horizontally  stratified  masses  could  have  been  formed 
in  their  present  position  above  high-water  mark,  and  could  only 
believe  that  they  were  originally  formed  as  reef  or  shingle  rock 
below  high-water  mark,  and  had  been  subsequently  raised  to 
their  present  position.  I  was  thus  led  to  believe  that  a  slight 
elevation  hnd  taken  place,  and  this  belief  was  strengthened  by 
a  study  of  the  formation  of  East  Islet.  This  islet  is  about  800 
yards  long,  and  nearly  100  yards  broad  ;  its  westermost  extremity 
is  composed  of  masses  of  sand  piled  up  on  the  underlying  reef 
rock,  and  in  this  place  there  is  a  clump  of  high  trees  {Hentandia 
peltata).  The  eastern  and  by  far  the  larger  part  of  the  islet  is  of 
different  formation.  The  even  surface  of  the  soil  is  covered  with  a 
low  scrub,  but  bears  no  trees  nor  cocoa-nut  palms.  It  forms  a  low 
plateau,  the  surface  of  which  does  not  slope  down  towards  the 
lagoon,  but  is  perfectly  horizontal,  and  stands  4  feet  above  the 
very  highest  spring  tides.  The  shore  on  the  lagoonward  side 
shows  an  abrupt  fall  of  6  feet  to  the  reef,  which  in  this  place 
extends  for  a  distance  of  50  yards  towards  the  lagoon,  and  is  only 
left  uncovered  at  the  lowest  spring  tides.  At  the  eastern  extremity 
of  the  island  there  is  no  reef,  but  from  i^  to  2  fathoms  of  water 
are  found  within  a  few  yards  of  the  shore.  This  point  is  exposed 
to  the  ocean,  and  a  strong  and  constant  current  sets  against  it, 
so  that  it  is  undergoing  a  considerable  amount  of  erosion.  On 
the  north  or  seaward  side  the  reef  again  extends  outwards  from  the 
shore,  the  latter  differing  from  the  inner  shore  in  the  presence  of  a 


talus  of  large  boulders  which  have  been  thrown  up  against  it  by  the 
waves.  Wells  have  been  sunk  in  numerous  parts  of  the  island, 
though,  for  some  reason  which  I  cannot  explain,  water  is  only 
found  in  one  of  them.  Numerous  pits,  some  of  which  are  9 
feet  deep,  have  also  been  dug  for  the  purpose  of  planting  cocoa- 
nuts.  These  pits  and  wells  expose  the  interesting  structure  of 
the  superficial  part  of  the  island.  Beneath  a  thin  surface  layer 
of  sand  and  mould  lies  a  horizontal  layer  of  stratified  shingle 
rock,  in  which  large  embedded  coral  masses  may  occasionally  be 
distinguished ;  this  layer  is  about  z\  feel  thick.  Beneath  is  a 
layer  of  loose  coral  sand  about  18  inches  thick,  and  beneath  that  is 
another  layer  of  coral  rock  of  the  same  character  as  the  first, 
and  about  3  feet  thick.  Beneath  this  is  another  layer  of  friable 
sand  lying  on  the  solid  reef  rock  into  which  the  excavations  did 
not  penetrate.  These  layers  lie  perfectly  horizontally,  and  do 
not  dip  in  any  direction.  They  crop  out  above  the  reef  on  the 
steep  eastern  and  southern  shores,  and  as  the  loose  sand  is 
wa'-hed  out  by  the  waves  the  overhanging  layer  of  rock  breaks 
off  and  falls  down  in  large  masses.  The  cen'.ral  parts  of  this 
area  are  absolutely  beyond  the  reach  of  any  waves  at  the  present 
time,  and  as  the  strata  of  rock  and  sand  run  evenly  through  it 
there  is  no  evidence  of  its  having  been  formed  by  successive 
additions  of  material  through  the  action  of  the  waves.  Nor  can 
it  possibly  have  been  .formed  under  the  surface  of  the  water 
unless  it  has  since  been  raised  to  its  present  position,  for,  as  I 
have  said,  its  upper  surface  is  4  feet  above  the  level  of  high 
spring  tides.  On  one  occasion  when  the  tide  rose  to  an  ab- 
normal height  and  invaded  several  parts  of  the  main  island,  I 
saw  that  the  water  reached  to  within  3  feet  of  the  top  of  the  shore, 
but  even  then  the  whole  of  the  upper  stratum  of  coral  rock  was 
well  above  the  waves.  It  is  scarcely  credible  that  an  even 
layer  of  shingle  rock  could  have  been  formed  above  the  highest 
high-water  mark. 

My  belief  in  elevation  is  farther  strengthened  by  the 
following  facts,  communicated  to  me  by  M.  Spurs,  a  resident 
for  twenty-five  years  at  Diego,  an  ardent  naturalist,  and  much 
interested  in  coral  formations. 

A  small  shore  crab  of  the  genus  Ocyptts  is  always  to  be 
found  on  the  sandy  flats  between  high  and  low  water  marks. 
These  crabs,  as  is  well  known,  form  numerous  gallei^ies  in  the  fine 
muddy  sand,  which  they  line  with  seaweed,  &c. ,  to  prevent 
their  falling  in.  These  galleries  open  to  the  surface  by  short 
passages  placed  perpendicularly,  the  mouths  of  which  open 
only  a  few  inches  above  the  level  of  low  tide.  This  crab  is 
only  found  on  the  shore  between  tide  marks  ;  on  the  dry  land 
its  place  is  taken  by  Gearcimis,  another  genus  of  crab,  which 
forms  different  burrows.  In  the  west  part  of  East  Islet  there  is 
an  aggregate  of  friable,  scarcely  compacted  sand,  which  has 
somewhat  the  appearance  of  half- dried  clay.  It  lies  5  feet 
above  high-water  mark,  and  was  found  by  M.  Spurs,  during 
some  excavations  which  he  had  to  make  for  the  purpose  of 
constructing  a  slip  for  boats,  to  be  riddled  with  the  sea- 
weed-lined galleries  of  Ocypiis,  evidently  long  since  disused 
and  empty. 

Having  made  this  observation  on  East  Island,  M.  Spurs  made 
a  search  in  similar  formations  on  the  main  island,  and  found, 
he  tells  me,  precisely  the  same  facts  in  several  instances, 
aggregates  of  sand  lying  at  some  distance  above  high-water 
mark,  riddled  with  the  abandoned  burrows  of  Ocypiis.  Now, 
since  the  burrows  of  Ocypiis  are  quite  characteristic,  and  could 
not  have  been  mistaken  by  so  £;ood  an  observer  as  M.  Spurs  for 
those  of  another  species,  and  since  they  are  in  the  present  day 
only  found  between  tide  marks,  these  observations  afford  a 
further  presumption  in  favour  of  a  slight  elevation  having' 
recently  taken  place.  In  any  case  they  preclude  the  idea  of  any 
subsidence  being  in  progress,  as  Mr.  Darwin  fancied  to  be  the 
case  in  the  Keeling  atoll.  M,  Spurs  further  informs  me  that, 
during  the  time  that  he  was  superintendent  of  the  oil  company's 
estate,  he  caused  more  than  30,000  pits  to  be  dug  on  the  main 
island  for  the  purpose  of  planting  cocoa-nut  palms,  and  that  he 
frequently  observed  in  different  localities  the  same  alternate 
layers  of  sand  and  rock  that  I  have  described  as  existing  on  East 
Island.  These  alternations  of  sand  and  rock  would  suggest 
alternations  of  very  slight  subsidence  with  very  slight  elevation, 
rather  than  a  single  movement  of  upheaval,  yet  on  the  sup- 
position that  all  the  layers  were  formed  beneath  the  water,  as 
their  horizontal  stratification  leads  me  to  believe,  I  can  venture 
on  the  following  explanation.  The  mass  of  rock  which  forms 
the  base  upon  which  the  islets  and  other  dry  land  rests  is  solid 
reef  rock,  and  the  whole  floor  of  the  lagoon  is  similarly  formed. 


548 


NATURE 


\ April  s,  1888 


The  latter  is  covered  at  depths  of  3  or  4  fathoms  and  upwards  by  a 
layer  of  fine  sand,  which  may  attain  a  thickness  of  2  or  3  feet. 
In  protected  parts  of  the  lagoon  and  in  spots  where  the  change- 
able currents  have  ceased  to  deposit  any  quantity  of  sand,  corals 
will  grow  in  considerable  quantities,  chiefly  those  wide-spreading 
ing  species  of  Madrepora  which  cannot  find  a  lodging  on  the 
exterior  of  the  reef,  where  they  would  be  dashed  to  pieces  by  the 
waves.  By  the  continual  growth  of  new  colonies  on  the  top  of 
the  old  ones  which  have  died,  a  layer  of  solid  rock  of  consider- 
able thickness  may  be  formed.  Whilst  diving  for  corals  at  the 
lower  part  of  the  lagoon,  I  often  noticed  such  layers  of  half- 
formed  rock  on  which  living  coral  was  growing  or  not,  according 
as  the  constantly  changing  currents  were  at  that  time  throwing 
up  sand  in  the  locality  or  not.  Thus  on  the  west  side  of  the 
lagoon,  off  Point  Marianne,  there  are  large  tracts  of  recently 
formed  coral  rock,  on  which  no  living  corals  are  to  be  seen, 
whilst  on  the  east  side  of  the  lagoon,  exactly  opposite  to  Point 
Marianne,  a  similar  basis  of  rock  is  luxuriantly  covered  with 
growing  coral. 

Now,  as  the  currents  are  constantly  changing,  and  as  the 
changes  may,  as  I  saw,  affect  an  area  some  miles  in  extent,  one 
may  suppose  that  an  area  was  first  covered  with  corals  growing 
on  the  sand,  which  everywhere  covers  the  reef  rock,  when  the 
latter  lies  more  than  a  fathom  below  the  surface.  A  change  in 
the  currents  brought  abundant  sand  to  the  spot,  killed  the  corals, 
and  deposited  an  even  layer  of  sand  of  some  little  thickness  over 
the  rock  formed  by  the  skeletons  of  the  dead  corals.  A  further 
change  in  the  currents  would  again  render  the  spot  suitable  for 
coral  growth,  and  a  new  layer  of  rock  would  be  formed  over  the 
last  layer  of  sand.  I  have  seen  quite  analogous  formations  in 
progress  in  a  fathom  of  water  a  little  way  above  Point  Marianne. 
Raise  the  formation  to  the  surface,  and  you  get  that  stratification 
which  occurs  in  so  many  parts  of  the  island,  a  stratification 
which  cannot  be  explained  on  any  theory  of  subsidence,  and  is 
scarcely  less  difficult  to  explain  on  the  supposition  of  rest.  At 
first  I  had  some  hesitation  in  extending  to  an  island  on  the 
borders  of  the  lagoon,  as  is  East  Island,  a  view  of  the  formation 
of  layers  of  sand  and  rock  derived  from  an  inspection  of  the 
interior  of  the  lagoon,  but  afterwards  I  saw  that  similar  layers 
were  being  formed  just  within  the  large  reef  known  as  Spur's 
Reef,  west  of  Middle  Island,  so  that  no  objection  can  be  raised 
on  that  score.  The  whole  character  of  the  Chagos  Group  is  very 
much  opposed  to  the  theory  that  atolls  and  barrier  reefs  are 
formed  during  subsidence.  There  are  several  atolls  rising  above 
the  waves,  that  of  Peros  Banhos  being  55  miles  in  circuit,  and 
composed  of  numerous  small  islets  placed  upon  a  ring-shaped 
reef  through  which  there  are  several  large  and  deep  channels. 
Egmont  or  Six  Islands  is  an  instance  of  an  atoll  in  which  the 
encircling  reef  is  perfect  and  unbroken  by  any  channels,  the 
land  consisting  of  six  islets  placed  for  the  most  part  on  the 
southern  and  western  sides  of  the  reef.  There  are  several  sub- 
merged banks,  nearly  all  of  wliich  have  an  atoll  form.  Of  these 
the  best  known  is  the  Great  Chagos  Bank,  a  huge  submerged 
atoll  95  miles  long  and  65  miles  broad,  having  a  depth  of  4  to  10 
fathoms  over  a  narrow  rim  around  its  periphery,  and  a  central 
lagoon  of  a  depth  varying  up  to  45  fathoms.  South-west  of  the 
Great  Chagos  Bank,  distant  less  than  15  miles,  lies  the  atoll  of 
Six  Islands,  and  on  the  other  side  of  these,  scarcely  12  miles 
distant,  lies  another  submerged  atoll,  known  as  Pitt's  Bank. 
South-west  of  Pitt's  Bank  are  two  smaller  banks,  Ganges  and 
Centurion's  Banks.  Darwin  considered  that  the  Great  Chagos 
Bank  afforded  particularly  good  evidence  of  the  truth  of  the 
subsidence  theory.  He  regarded  it  as  an  atoll  carried  down  by 
a  too  rapid  subsidence  below  the  depth  at  which  reef-building 
corals  flourish.  The  same  would  be  the  case  for  Pitt's  Bank  and 
the  two  others  just  mentioned.  A  more  intimate  knowledge  of  the 
Great  Chagos  Bank,  and  of  the  relations  of  it  and  other  submerged 
banks  of  existing  land,  shows  this  view  to  be  untenable.  In  the 
first  place,  the  rim  of  the  Great  Chagos  Bank  is  on  an  average 
not  more  than  6  fathoms  below  the  surface,  and  therefore  situated 
in  a  depth  eminently  favourable  for  coral  growth,  and  there  are 
actually  six  islets  on  the  northern  and  western  edges  rising  above 
the  water,  and  some  of  them  inhabited.  Secondly,  any  such 
rapid  subsidence  could  not  have  affected  areas  only  30  miles 
apart  without  involving  the  Six  Islands  atoll  lying  directly 
between  them.  A  similar  argument  might  be  extended  to  the 
more  northern  islands  of  the  Chagos  Group,  and  even  to  Diego 
Garcia  itself,  although  it  lies  somewhat  apart  from  the  rest  of  the 
group.  Again,  if  atolls  and  barrier  reefs  are  formed  around 
subsiding  peaks,  it  is  at  least  curious  that  throughout  the  Lacca- 


dive,  Maldive,  and  Chagos  Groups  there  are  no  instances  of  high 
islands  surrounded  by  barrier  reefs,  marking  the  last  remnants 
of  pre-existing  land.  In  the  more  western  parts  of  the  Indian 
Ocean,  between  Madagascar  and  the  Seychelles,  there  are 
numerous  atoll  islands,  and  in  long.  60°  E.  there  lie  the  sub- 
merged Saya  de  Malha  Bank  and  the  reef  known  as  Cargados 
Carajos.  Between  the?e  two  lies  the  extensive  Nazareth  Bank, 
having  over  it  depths  of  from  14  to  45  fathoms.  The  Saya  de 
Malha  Bank  appears  to  have  the  characters  of  a  submerged 
atoll,  having  a  central  depression  of  65  fathoms,  surrounded  by 
a  rim  which  has  only  8  to  16  fathoms  on  its  eastern  side,  but 
22  fathoms  on  the  western.  Some  of  the  groups  north  of  Mada- 
gascar! afford  very  good  evidence  of  upheaval.  Aldabra  Island, 
situated  in  lat.  9°  22'  S.,  long.  46°  14'  E.,  is  a  perfect  instance  of 
an  upraised  atoll.  Captain  Wharton  describes  the  external 
shores  as  consisting  of  low  coral  cliffs,  about  20  feet  high,  the 
surface  of  the  land  being  composed  of  jagged  coral  rock.  The 
lagoon  is  entered  by  a  passage  varying  from  1 1  to  5  fathoms  in 
depth,  but  its  internal  portions  are  either  very  shallow  or  partly 
dry  at  low  water.  Not  far  distant  is  the  Cosmo  Ledo  Group,  a 
perfect  atoll,  with  a  lagoon  some  4  fathoms  deep,  or  less.  There 
are  ten  islets  of  various  sizes  on  the  reef,  and  all  of  them  appear 
to  have  been  elevated  some  10  feet.  There  are  some  hills  40  and 
50  feet  high  on  the  two  largest  islands,  but  these  appear,  accord- 
ing to  Captain  Wharton,  to  be  formed  of  blown  sand.  The 
Farquhar  Group  and  Assumption  Island,  situated  within  the 
same  area,  have  been  raised,  according  to  the  same  authority, 
some  10  feet.  Providence  Island,  in  lat.  9°  14'  S.,  long. 
51°  2'  E.,  appears  to  be  a  low  island  situated  upon  the  edge  of 
the  atoll-shaped  Providence  Reef.  At  a  distance  of  19  miles  from 
Providence  Island  is  the  island  of  St.  Pierre,  which  has  no 
fringing  reef.  It  is  particularly  interesting,  for  although  it  is  in 
close  proximity  to  the  low  Providence  atoll,  it  has  been  raised 
about  40  feet  above  high  water,  and  in  the  absence  of  a  fringing 
reef  the  sea  breaks  with  great  violence  against  a  low  cliffy  coast, 
hollowing  out  a  number  of  caverns  which,  from  the  description 
given  in  the  sailing  directions  for  Mauritus  and  its  islands, 
appear  to  open  inshore  by  "  blow-holes."  ^ 

Near  and  among  these  raised  coral  formations  are  several  sub- 
merged banks,  the  most  important  of  which  is  the  McLeod  Bank, 
situated  in  lat,  9°  57' S.,  long.  50°2o' E.,  between  Providence 
Island  and  the  Cosmo  Ledo  Group.  The  details  show  that  there 
is  a  group  of  coral  formations,  situated  in  lat.  10°  S. ,  north  of 
Madagascar,in  which  are  foundraised  atolls — atollswhose  dry  land 
just  rises  above  the  waves  and  submerged  banks.  There  can  be 
no  clearer  proof  that  atolls  are  formed  in  areas  of  elevation,  and, 
if  the  facts  which  I  have  already  stated  concerning  Diego  Garcia 
are  of  any  weight,  it  would  seem  that  most  of  the  coral  forma- 
tions of  the  Indian  Ocean  mark  areas  of  elevation  rather  than  of 
rest,  certainly  they  are  not  evidence  of  subsidence. 

Those  who  have  felt  that  the  evidence  brought  against  Darwin's 
subsidence  theory  is  too  strong  to  be  resisted,  must  often  have 
felt  that  no  satisfactory  explanation  of  the  lagoons  of  atolls  or 
the  lagoon  channels  of  barrier  reefs  has  been  given  in  its  place. 
Semper  was  the  first  to  suggest  that  the  lagoon  was  formed  by  a 
solution  of  the  interior  parts  of  the  reef,  and  more  recently  this 
view  has  been  urged  with  great  force  by  Murray,  who  points  out, 
in  addition,  that  corals  on  the  periphery  of  a  reef  must,  from 
their  position,  get  the  advantage  over  those  more  interiorly 
situated,  being  more  directly  in  the  track  of  food-bearing  cur- 
rents. Neither  of  these  explanations  has  completely  satisfied 
me.  That  sea-water  exercises  a  solvent  action  upon  carbonate  of 
lime  does  not  admit  of  doubt,  and  that  the  scour  of  tides,  com- 
bined with  this  solvent  action  of  the  water,  does  affect  the 
extent  and  depth  of  a  lagoon  is  obvious.  But  I  challenge  the 
statement  that  the  destructive  agencies  within  an  atoll  or  a  sub- 
merged bank  are  in  excess  of  the  construction.  It  would  be 
nearer  the  mark  to  say  that  they  nearly  balance  one  another.  In 
the  first  place,  the  carbonate  of  lime  held  in  solution  by  sea- 
water  is  deposited  as  crystalline  limestone  in  the  interstices  of 
dead  corals  or  coral  debHs.  Anyone  who  is  acquainted  with  the 
structure  of  coralline  rock  knows  how  such  a  porous  mass  as  a 
Mseandrina  head  becomes  perfectly  solid  by  the  deposition  of 
lime  within  its  mass.  This  deposition  can  only  be  effected  by 
the  infiltration  of  sea-water.  In  reckoning  the  solvent  action  of 
sea-water,  therefore,  account  must  be  taken  of  the  fact  that  a 
not  inconsiderable  proportion  of  the  carbonate  of  lime  held  in 
solution  is  redeposited  in  the  form  of  crystalline  limestone.     Of 

'  For  the  information  on  the  islands  mrth  of  Madgascar  I  am  indebted  to 
the  courtesy  of  Captain  W.  J.   L.  Wharton,  R.N.,  F.R  S. 


April  s.  1888] 


NA  TURE 


549 


this,  it  seems,  Mr.  Murray  has  not  taken  sufficient  account,  and 
has,  therefore,  overstated  the  destructive  agency  of  the  sea. 
Secondly,  the  growth  of  corals,  and  the  consequent  formation 
of  coral  rock  within  the  lagoon,  is  generally  overlooked. 

Whilst  diving  for  corals  at  Diego  Garcia,  I  had  abundant 
opportunities  of  studying  the  formation  of  coral  rock  within  the 
lagoon,  in  depths  under  2  fathoms.  The  layers  of  tolerably 
compact  rock  thus  formed  are  of  no  mean  extent  or  thickness  ; 
they  soon  become  covered  with  sand,  and  are  thus  protected 
from  the  solvent  action  of  the  water.  I  have  found  it  impos- 
sible to  reconcile  Mr.  Murray's  views  with  what  I  saw  of  coral 
growth  within  a  lagoon.  Not  only  do  the  more  delicate  branch- 
ing species  of  the  Madreporaria  flourish  in  considerable  numbers, 
but  ti-ue  reef-building  species— Porites,  Maeandrina,  Pocillopora, 
and  various  stout  species  of  Madrepora — are  found  there.  It  is 
a  mistake  to  suppose  that  certain  species  of  corals  are  restricted 
to  the  external  shores,  others  to  the  lagoon.  My  collections 
proved  that  many  of  the  species  growing  in  the  lagoon  at  dis- 
tances of  5  miles  and  upwards  from  its  outlet  are  identical  with 
those  growing  on  the  outer  reef.  In  addition  to  them  are 
numerous  species,  such  as  Seriatopora  stricta,  Mussa  corymbosa, 
Favia  lobata,  Fungia  dentata,  and  many  others  that  are  not 
found  on  the  outside.  The  reason  is  that  the  last-named  are 
either  free  forms,  such  as  Fungia,  or  are  attached  by  such  slen- 
der and  fragile  stems  to  their  supports  that  they  could  not  pos- 
sibly obtain  a  foothold  and  maintain  themselves  among  the 
powerful  currents  and  waves  of  the  open  ocean. 

These  various  species,  numbers  of  which  grow  close  together, 
form  knolls  and  patches  within  the  lagoon,  and  it  cannot  be 
doubted  that  their  tendency  is  to  fill  it  up. 

These  considerations  have  led  me  to  discredit  the  solution 
theory  as  an  explanation  of  lagoons  and  lagoon  channels,  and 
other  objections  have  been  lately  urged  with  great  force  by 
Captain  Wharton.  The  conclusion  which  I  reached,  after  care- 
fully considering  the  conditions  of  submerged  lakes  of  atoll 
form,  is  that  the  ring-shape  of  the  outer  reef  is  to  be  explained 
by  the  peculiarly  favourable  conditions  for  coral  growth  found 
on  the  external  slopes.  Although  corals  may,  and  do,  flourish 
in  lagoons,  they  are  only  found  in  knolls  and  patches,  and  are 
always  liable  to  be  smothered,  when,  by  a  change  in  the  tidal 
currents,  sand  is  thrown  down  upon  the  place  where  they  are 
growing.  On  the  external  slopes,  however,  corals  grow  in  ex- 
traordinary abundance,  and  chiefly  those  massive  forms  whose 
skeletons  take  so  conspicuous  a  share  in  the  formation  of  coral 
rock.  If  once  it  is  admitted  that  the  periphery  of  the  reef  offers 
peculiarly  favourable  conditions  to  the  growth  of  reef-forming 
corals,  it  follows  that,  as  the  reef  rises  to  the  surface,  its  external 
parts  will  outstrip  the  more  internal,  and  will  reach  the  surface 
first,  forming  a  rim  around  a  central  depression  or  lagoon.  This 
elevated  ring  will  be  as  marked  a  feature  in  submerged  as  in 
complete  atolls. 

Corals  are  always  thickest  along  the  slopes  around  a  coral  reef, 
and  the  reef  tends  to  increase  at  its  periphery,  growing  upwards 
there,  whilst  it  tends  at  the  same  time  to  spread  outwards. 
These  principles  hold  good  in  the  case  of  a  submerged  bank  as 
well  as  in  the  case  of  a  reef  that  is  awash,  and  a  submerged  bank 
must  tend  in  the  course  of  time  to  reach  the  surface  in  its  circum- 
ferential portions,  and  form  an  atoll-shaped  reef,  on  the  rim  of 
which  detritus  may  be  heaped  from  place  to  place,  forming 
shingle  cays  or  islets  which  may  temporarily  form  dry  land. 
In  atolls  where  storms  are  of  frequent  occurrence,  regular  storm- 
beaches  may  be  formed,  till  the  fragments  piled  high  upon  one 
another  may  form  low  islets  standing  some  6  or  10  feet  above 
high-water  mark,  upon  which  vegetation  may  subsequently  find 
a  footing.  Atolls  are  often  formed  in  this  way,  without  any 
elevation  taking  place,  and  such  has  undoubtedly  been  the  case 
in  the  Florida  reefs,  where  atolls  (the  Tortugas)  and  barrier  reefs 
and  islands  have  been  formed  in  an  area  of  complete  rest.  No 
one  who  has  read  the  admirable  work  of  Alex.  Agassiz  on  the 
Florida  reefs  can  fail  to  agree  with  the  author's  conclusion  that 
the  islets  there  have  been  formed  by  the  action  of  the  wind  and 
waves  alone,  without  any  assistance  from  the  upheaval  of  the  bed 
of  the  sea.  But  I  am  not  satisfied  that  this  has  been  the  case  in 
the  Chagos  Group.  Storms  are  of  very  infrequent  occurrence 
there,  and  the  horizontal  masses  of  reef  rock  standing  above  high- 
water  mark  cannot  be  attributed  to  the  normal  action  of  the 
prevailing  winds  and  currents. 

In  the  Florida  reefs  the  nature  of  the  soil  betrays  its  origin — 
its  strata  slope  towards  the  sea  on  every  side,  and  the  lamination 
of  the  rocks  attests  the  long-continued  action  of  waves  and  spray. 
But  the  alternate  horizontal  layers  of  sand  and  rock  occurring  so 


abundantly  at  Diego  Garcia  are  quite  different ;  they  do  not  dip 
seawards,  their  composition  differs  from  the  rocks  of  the  Florida 
reefs,  and  their  edges,  instead  of  showing  signs  of  accumulation 
of  fresh  material,  are  often  bluff,  and  show  that  the  sea  is 
gradually  eating  them  away.  It  is  difficult  to  explain  these 
appearances  except  on  the  hypothesis  of  slight  elevation.  It 
might  be  objected  that  if  any  upheaval  had  taken  place,  the 
banks  lying  at  various  depths  below  the  surface  would  have  been 
raised  to  different  heights,  and  that  it  would  be  in  the  highest 
degree  unlikely  that  so  many  would  be  raised  some  4  or  5  feet 
above  high-watermark  and  no  more,  throughout  so  large  areas  as 
the  Laccadive,  Maldive,  and  Chagos  Islands,  and  the  various  low 
groups  in  the  Pacific.  The  force  of  the  objection  must  be 
admitted,  but  it  may  be  observed  that  atolls  raised  from  10  to  40 
feet  above  the  waves  are  not  so  uncommon  as  has  been  hitherto 
supposed,  and  that  the  numerous  submerged  banks  lying  at 
very  various  depths  show  that  all  the  reefs  have  not  been  raised 
to  one  height  in  a  single  area  of  elevation.  The  uniform  level 
of  many  atolls  and  barrier  reefs  admits  of  a  further  explanation. 
A  reef  raised  some  few  feet  above  the  sea-level  is  at  once 
attacked  by  the  waves,  and  as  the  rim  is  very  narrow,  it  must 
soon  be  worn  away  till  the  whole  of  the  land  is  eaten  away, 
and  its  surface  is  brought  awash  once  more.  Thus  every 
slight  movement  of  elevation  would  soon  be  compensated  by 
the  denuding  action  of  the  waves.  The  island  of  St.  Pierre, 
already  described,  is  a  good  instance  of  this  process  of  erosion. 
It  cannot  be  doubted  that  this  island,  which  has  recently  been 
raised  40  feet,  is  undergoing  rapid  waste,  and  must  soon  be 
reduced  to  the  level  of  the  sea.  At  Diego  Garcia  I  was 
astonished  at  the  rapid  destruction  of  dry  land  which  is  in  pro- 
gress, on  the  outside  as  well  as  the  inside  of  the  lagoon.  The 
destruction  is  not  so  great  on  the  outside  as  on  the  inside  as  a 
rule,  for  in  the  former  case  the  rampart  of  coral  boulders  thrown 
up  by  the  waves  compensates  in  many  places  for  their  erosive 
action.  But  in  the  bay  above  Horsburgh  Point,  exposed  to  the 
full  strength  of  the  south-east  trades,  the  destruction  is  very 
great.  M.  Spurs,  an  old  resident  of  the  island,  writes  to  me  on 
this  subject  :  "Cette  destruction  est  tres  rapide  ;  Diego  perd  en 
moyenne  un  pied  de  terrain  par  an,  tant  interieurement  qu'ex- 
terieurement,  excepte  aux  pointes  nord-est  et  nord-ouest,  oil  une 
partie  des  sables,  entraines  du  fond  de  la  bale  par  les  vents  de 
sud-est,  conservent  a  ces  deux  pointes  leur  largeur  premiere." 

M.  Spurs  has  over-estimated  the  rate  of  destruction,  but  there 
can  be  no  doubt  that  it  is  very  considerable.  It  is  most  conspi- 
cuous along  the  shores  bordering  the  lagoon.  The  stumps  of 
cocoa-nut  palms,  the  newly-made  breaches  into  the  land,  forming 
shallow  inland  lagoons,  the  vertical  faces  of  old  banks  of  half- 
consolidated  sand,  all  attest  it.  J^ist  above  Point  Marianne  is  a 
road  running  along  the  lagoonward  shore,  which  when  I  left  the 
island  had  been  narrowed  by  the  action  of  the  sea  to  a  mere 
path,  and  was  in  some  places  almost  impassable,  as  the  sea  had 
made  clean  breaches  across  it,  and  found  its  way  into  some 
shallow  fresh-water  lagoons  lying  on  the  other  side  of  the  road. 
I  was  assured  that  this  road  had  been  over  12  feet  wide  some 
years  previously,  and  that  it  was  formerly  separated  from  the 
lagoon  by  a  narrow  strip  of  land  of  an  equal  width.  Perhaps 
the  best  evidence  of  the  destruction  of  land  is  afforded  by  the 
"barachois"  at  the  southern  extremity  of  the  island.  These 
barachois  are  inland  lagoons  connected  with  the  main  lagoon  by 
a  narrow  outlet  some  2  fathoms  deep  or  more.  They  are  filled 
and  emptied  every  tide,  and  their  floor  is  intersected  by  numerous 
small  channels  running  in  every  direction.  No  corals  grow 
within  the  barachois,  and  a  slight  study  convinces  the  observer 
that  the  daily  scour  of  the  tides  is  denuding  their  shores  and 
floors  very  considerably. 

Barachois  are  formed  in  the  following  way  : — During  unusually 
high  tides,  when  the  waters  of  the  lagoon  are  dammed  back  by 
a  north-westerly  wind  of  unusual  violence,  the  water  rises  to 
great  heights  and  invades  the  land  in  several  places.  In  some 
instances  it  actually  makes  a  breach  in  the  lagoonward  shore, 
and  fills  up  the  shallow  depressions  which  are  often  found  in  the 
middle  of  the  strip  of  land.  A  pool  of  salt  water  is  thus  formed, 
which  kills  the  cocoa  palms  and  other  vegetation  growing  in  its 
bed,  and,  as  this  process  is  repeated  again  and  again,  in  the  course 
of  a  few  years  a  channel  is  cut  out  between  the  pool  and  the 
lagoon,  which  finally  becomes  so  deep  that  spring  tides,  and 
finally  even  neap  tides,  run. in  and  out  of  the  pool  regularly.  As 
soon  as  these  conditions  are  established,  the  channel  is  scoured 
out  and  deepened,  and  the  daily  tides  scour  out  the  bed  of  the 
pool,  forming  a  complete  barachois. 

It  is  not  easy  for  one  who  has  not  seen  it  to  understand  how 


550 


NATURE 


[April  s,  1888 


much  of  the  loose  soil  of  a  coral  islet  can  be  moved  by  a  single 
tidal  encroachment.  It  happened  that  I  was  riding  past  the 
very  thin  strip  of  land  between  Minni  Minny  and  Barton  Point 
the  day  after  an  abnormally  high  tide.  The  strip  of  land  here 
is  not  more  than  30  yards  across,  and  the  sea  had  washed  right 
over  it  on  the  previous  day,  clearing  away  an  amount  of  soil 
which  was  almost  incredible.  My  companion,  M.  Casimir 
Leconte,  told  me  that  the  sea  had  not  been  known  to  wash  o.ver 
this  place  before.  It  was  apparent  that,  after  a  few  more  of  such 
high  tides  as  I  had  witnessed,  a  permanent  breach  would  be 
made  at  this  spot,  and  another  lagoon  outlet  would  be  formed, 
which  would  be  continually  deepened  as  the  tide  set  through  it. 
At  the  south-eastern  side  of  the  island  I  noticed  that  the  land 
was  being  rapidly  destroyed  on  the  outer  shores  just  opposite  to 
a  half-formed  barachois,  whose  margins  are  situated  not  60 
yards  from  the  outer  shore.  If  the  same  process  of  external 
destruction  continues,  whilst  the  barachois  is  deepened  and 
scooped  out  from  within,  it  will  not  be  many  years  before  the 
ocean  makes  a  new  channel  into  the  lagoon  at  this  point.  Thus 
the  continuous  strip  of  land  which  now  nearly  encircles  the 
lagoon  of  Diego  Garcia  is  tending  to  be  split  up  again  into  a 
series  of  islets.  At  the  points  where  the  breaches  are  made  the 
tides  and  ocean  currents  will  rush  with  great  force  into  the  lagoon, 
and  will  scour  out  deep  channels  similar  to  that  now  existing 
between  Middle  and  East  Islets. 

These  facts  taken  together  show  how  the  normal  action  of 
tides,  winds,  and  waves  is  constantly  tending  to  lower  to  the  sea- 
level  any  dry  land  that  may  have  been  formed  by  elevation  or 
otherwise.  It  does  not  seem  to  me  to  be  surprising  that  the 
majority  of  atolls  and  barrier  reefs  are,  under  such  circumstances, 
only  just  able  to  maintain  their  surfaces  above  the  sea-level. 

No  explanation  of  atoll  formation  would  be  complete  if  it  did 
not  include  an  explanation  of  the  Maldive  atolls.  This  has  been 
felt  by  Darwin,  who  has  explained  the  formation  according  to 
his  theory.  Without  attempting  to  enter  into  a  lengthy  discus- 
sion, I  will  give  my  own  explanation  of  the  atoll.  Tilla-dou- 
Matte  atoll  is,  as  is  well  known,  a  huge  atoll  composed 
of  atolls.  The  islets  forming  the  rim  of  the  main  atoll  are 
themselves  atolls  with  their  own  lagoons  ;  the  main  lagoon 
contains  a  few  secondary  atolls  corresponding  to  the  coral 
patches  in  an  ordinary  atoll.  It  M'ill  be  generally  admitted 
that  coral  reefs  are  constantly  increasing  to  seaward  because 
of  the  excessive  growth  of  coral  on  their  external  slopes. ^ 
As  the  inward  shores  of  an  atoll  are  constantly  being 
removed,  and  an  atoll  if  completely  formed  tends  to  be  broken 
up  again  into  small  islets  when  it  has  reached  a  certain  size,  and 
as  the  channels  between  the  islets  must  be  continually  deepened 
by  the  scour  of  the  tides  until  deep  passages  are  formed,  an  atoll 
like  Diego  Garcia  may  be  expected  to  reach  in  time  a  condition 
like  that  of  Peros  Banhos.  It  is  probable  that  a  large  bank  like 
the  Great  Chagos  Bank,  when  it  reaches  the  surface,  can  liever 
give  rise  to  a  continuous  strip  of  land,  but  must  consist  of  a  chain 
of  islets  separated  by  channels  of  some  depth  and  by  tracts  of 
submerged  reefs.  The  islets  and  tracts  of  reef  in  either  case 
would  be  bounded  by  deeper  channels,  and  these  channels,  swept 
by  strong  currents,  would  become  wider  and  deeper,  for  corals 
could  not  thrive  in  them.  After  a  time  the  islets  would  become 
so  far  isolated,  and  the  entries  into  the  lagoon  would  become  so 
large  and  numerous,  that  oceanic  conditions  would  prevail  in  the 
lagoon,  and  then  there  would  be  around  each  separate  islet  or 
piece  of  reef  all  the  necessary  conditions  for  the  formation  of  a 
new  atoll.  The  currents  would  impinge  upon  one  side  of  the 
islet  or  reef,  sweep  round  it,  and  give  a  backwash  at  the  further 
side  ;  the  corals  would  flourish  in  the  circumferential  parts  of  the 
reef  surrounding  the  islet,  and  new  atolls  with  shallow  lagoons 
would  be  formed. 

In  Tilla-dou-Matte  the  lagoons  of  the  secondary  atolls  are 
tolerably  deep.  In  this  case  they  must  have  been  formed  before 
any  land  reached  the  surface.  Applying  the  same  reasoning  as 
in  the  former  case,  it  can  readily  be  understood  how  in  the  case 
of  the  Great  Chagos  Bank,  which  has  wide  and  deep  breaches 
in  many  places,  the  isolated  reefs  as  they  grow  to  the  surface 
must  tend  to  assume  an  atoll  form.  An  examination  of  the  chart 
shows  that  this  is  the  case.    The  Great  Chagos  Bank  in  the  course 

'  This  statement  may  at  first  sight  seem  at  variance  with  what  I  have  just 
said  about  the  rapid  destruction  of  land  on  the  outer  and  inner  shores  of  an 
atoll ;  but  in  the  latter  case  it  is  land  above  ivater  that  is  destroyed.  Coin- 
cidently  with  this  process  the  reef  rock  below  water  is  constantly  tending 
to  raise  itself  and  to  spread  in  all  directions,  owing  to  the  perpetual  growth 
of  corals  and  the  accumulation  of  their  skeletons. 


of  time  will  rise  to  the  surface  as  an  atoll  composed  of  secondary 
atolls  or  atollons,  similar  to,  but  on  a  smaller  scale  than,  the 
Tilla-dou-Matte  atoll.  The  explanation  of  atollons  in  the  centre 
of  a  large  lagoon  in  which  oceanic  conditions  have  been 
established,  is  quite  obvious. 


THE  ROYAL  HORTICULTURAL  SOCIETY. 

C\^  Tuesday,  March  27,  the  Scientific  Committee  of  the  Royal 
^-^  Plorticultural  Society  met  in  the  Committee-room  of  the 
Drill  Hall.  Among  the  numerous  subjects  brought  forward 
were  the  followin;;  : — 

Dispersal  of  the  Seed  in  Pinus  insignis. — Dr.  ^Masters, 
alluding  to  the  great  differences  that  exist  in  the  species  of  Pinus, 
as  to  the  time  at  which  the  constituent  scales  of  the  cone 
separate  in  order  to  liberate  the  seed,  showed  a  series  of  cones 
of  Pinus  insignis,  the  oldest  of  which  bore  the  date  1S64. 
In  this  all  the  scales  were  widely  separate.  The  most  recent 
cones  dated  from  1877,  and  in  them  the  scales  were  not  at 
all  separated.  Between  these  two  extremes,  cones  were  shown 
exhibiting  almost  every  intermediate  stage  of  separation.  It 
is  to  be  remarked  that  the  separation  begins  generally  just 
above  the  centre  of  the  pendulous  cone  on  the  side  furthest 
away  from  the  branch,  at  the  place  where  the  excentricity  of  the 
cone,  due  to  the  free  exposure  to  light  and  air,  and  the  absence 
of  obstacles  afforded  by  the  branch  was  greatest,  and  that  it 
follows  a  spiral  course  towards  the  base  of  the  cone.  The  scales 
separate  in  successive  spiral  coils,  till,  at  length,  all  except  a  few 
at  the  base  and  apex  respectively,  and  which  are  probably  sterile, 
are  separated  one  from  the  other. 

Semi-double  and  other  Orchids. — Dr.  Masters  explained 
the  construction  of  numerous  malformed  orchids  which  were 
interesting  as  throwing  light  on  the  morphology  of  the  order. 
Some  extraordinary  malformations  of  Fuchsias  were  shown, 
and  a  drawing  was  exhibited  of  a  magnificent  new  Anthurium, 
which  had  appeared  accidentally  with  an  importation  of  Cattleya 
Gaskelliana,  in  the  garden  of  the  Right  Hon.  J.  Chamberlain. 
The  heart-shaped  leaves  are  of  gigantic  size,  and  the  large  boat- 
shaped  spathe  is  of  the  richest  crimson  colour. 

Eucalyptus  urnigtra. — Dr.  Masters  showed  specimens  of  this 
Tasmanian  species  in  flower  and  fruit.  They  had  been  received 
from  Whittinghame  Gardens,  Prestonkirk,  near  Edinburgh,  not 
far  from  the  sea,  and  where  the  tree  is  perfectly  hardy. 

Daffodil  with  Crested  Corona. — Rev.  E.  C.  Gabbett  sent 
through  Dr.  Masters  two  flowers  of  a  curious  Daffodil  from  plants 
growing  on  his  lawn  in  Co.  Limerick.  The  "frill,"  or  outgrowth, 
is  produced  from  the  outer  surface  of  the  corona,  which  has 
thus  a  very  peculiar  appearance. 

Douglasia  Icevigata. — Mr.  G.  F.  Wilson  alluded  to  this  plant 
as  having  been  shown  for  the  first  time.  It  is  a  low-growing 
Primulaceous  plant,  with  tufted  leaves  and  lilac  flowers,  like  those 
of  an  Androsace,  but  larger,  and  with  the  tube  of  the  corolla 
longer  than  the  calyx,  and  with  only  two  seeds  to  the  capsule. 
The  species  are  the  natives  of  North- Western  America,  the  first 
known  species  having  been  collected  by  Douglas  not  far  from  the 
sources  of  the  Columbia  River,  and  named  in  his  honour  by 
Dr.  Lindley. 

Araucaria  imbricafa  Timber. — Mr.  Ford,  gr.,  Leonardslee, 
exhibited  slabs  of  wood  cut  from  a  tree  of  this  species,  and 
which  at  6  feet  from  the  ground  girthed  26  inches,  the  tree  being 
35  feet  in  height.  The  wood  was  yellow,  soft,  evenly  grained, 
and,  judging  by  the  distance  between  the  rings,  quickly  grown. 

Numerous  other  plants  and  objects  of  interest  were  exhibited 
and  commented  on. 


SOCIETIES  AND  ACADEMIES. 
London. 

Royal  Society,  March  15. — "A  Class  of  Functional 
Invariants."     By  Mr.  A.  R.  Forsyth,  F.R.S. 

The  memoir  is  occupied  with  the  investigation  of  a  class  of 
functional  invariants,  constituted  by  combinations  of  the  partial 
differential  coefficients  of  a  dependent  variable,  z,  with  regard 
to  two  independent  variables,  x  and  y.  The  definition  of  the 
invariant  is  given  by  the  property  that,  when  the  independent 
variables  are  transformed  to  X  aad  Y,  and  the  same  combina- 


April  ^,  1888] 


NA  TURE 


551 


tion  as  before  is  formed  with  regard  to  iher^e  new  variables,  the 
equation 


* 


U(X,V)/ 


is  satisfied. 

The  transformations  for  which  any  detailed  results  are  given 
are  of  the  general  homographic  type.  The  characteristic 
properties  of  such  invariants  are  : — 

(i.)  Every  invariant  is  explicitly  free  from  the  variables,  but 
necessarily  contains  both  the  differential  coefficients  /  and  q  of 
the  first  order. 

(ii. )  It  is  homogeneous  in  the  differential  coefficients,  and  is 
of  uniform  and  the  same  grade  in  differentiations  with  regard 
to  each  of  the  independent  variables. 

(iii.)  It  is  symmetric  or  skew  symmetric  with  regard  to  these 
differentiations. 

(iv. )  It  satisfies  four  differential  form-equations  and  two 
index-equations,  all  linear  and  partial  of  the  first  order. 

An  invariant  is  said  to  be  proper  to  the  rank  «,  when  the 
highest  differential  coefficient  of  2  which  occurs  in  it  is  of  order 
n.  By  means  of  the  solutions  of  the  form-equations,  the  follow- 
ing propositions  relating  to  irreducible  invariants  in  a  single 
dependent  variable,  z,  are  established  : — 

Invariants  can  be  ranged  in  sets,  each  set  being  proper  to  a 
particular  rank. 

There  is  no  invariant  proper  to  the  rank  i;  there  is  one 
proper  to  the  rank  2 ;  there  are  three  invariants  proper  to  the 
rank  3. 

For  every  value  of  n  greater  than  3  there  are  «  +  i  invariants 
proper  to  the  rank  «,  which  can  be  chosen  so  as  to  be  linear  in 
the  partial  differential  coefficients  of  order  n. 

Every  invariant  can  be  expressed  in  terms  of  this  aggregate  of 
irreducible  invariants  ;  and  the  expression  involves  invariants 
proper  to  rank  no  higher  than  the  order  of  the  highest 
differential  coefficient  which  occurs  in  that  invariant. 

Some  of  the  properties  of  the  irreducible  invariants  involving 
differential  coefficients  of  two  dependent  variables  are  obtained, 
and,  in  particular,  it  is  shown  that  there  is  a  single  irreducible 
simultaneous  invariant  proper  to  the  rank  i,  and  that  there  are 
four  such  invariants  proper  to  the  rank  2. 

The  theory  of  eduction  is  next  considered,  with  some 
examples.  Finally,  it  is  shown  that  the  theory  of  binary  forms 
can  be  partly  connected  with  functional  invariants. 

March  22. — "Second  Preliminary  Note  on  the  Development 
of  Apteryx."  By  T.  Jeffery  Parker,  B.Sc,  C.M.Z.S.,  Pro- 
fessor of  Biology  in  the  University  of  Otago.  Communicated 
by  W.  K.  Parker,  F.R.S. 

Chemical  Society,  March  15. — Mr.  W.  Crookes,  F.R.S. , 
in  the  chair.  —The  following  papers  were  read  : — The  nature  of 
solutions  as  elucidated  by  the  heat  evolved  on  their  dilution  ; 
Part  I,  calcium  chloride,  by  Mr.  S.  U.  Pickering.  To  deter- 
mine the  nature  of  the  action  which  takes  place  on  diluting 
aqueous  solutions,  the  author  has  examined  calcium  chloride, 
and,  in  a  series  of  elaborate  experiments,  has  obtained  results 
which  form  a  curve  of  great  regularity.  This  regularity,  how- 
ever, is  only  apparent,  since  on  differentiation  a  number  of 
independent  curves  are  obtained,  each  of  which  on  further 
differentiation  gives  a  straight  line.  The  points  at  which  these 
lines  meet,  when  produced,  indicate  percentages  of  water  cor- 
responding to  distinct  hydrates  of  the  salt,  and  moreover  coin- 
cide in  every  case,  within  the  limits  of  experimental  error,  with 
the  points  obtained  by  treating  in  a  similar  manner  the  curve 
expressing  the  densities  of  the  various  solutions.  The  author 
contends  that  these  results,  taken  in  conjunction  with  the  fact  that 
the  variation  in  the  electrical  conductivity  and  the  density  of 
sulphuric  acid  on  diluting  with  water  also  point  to  the  existence 
of  certain  hydrates  in  solution,  make  it  no  longer  reasonable  to 
doubt  that  solutions  do  in  reality  consist  of  such  hydrates,  and  is 
of  opinion  that  any  theory  of  the  nature  of  solutions  which 
ignores  their  existence  must  be  rejected  absolutely  and  for  ever. 
A  new  form  of  mixing  calorimeter,  devised  for  these  experi- 
ments, was  exhibited. — The  action  of  thiocyanates  on  aldehyde- 
ammonias,  by  Dr.  A.  E.  Dixon. — Carboxy-derivatives  of  quinone, 
by  Dr.  J.  U.  Nef.  Ethylic  paradiketohexamethylenecarboxylate, 
obtained  by  the  reduction  of  ethylic  quinonetetracarboxylate 
with  zinc  dust,  exists  apparently  in  three  distinct  modifications, 
only  two  of  which,  however,  have  been  studied — the  one  modi- 
fication IS  green  and  crystallizes  in  needles,  the  other  is  yellow 


and  crystallizes  in  plates  ;  after  fusion,  the  former  appears  dark 
yellow  and  the  latter  bright  yellow.  If  either  modification  be 
separately  dissolved  in  carbon  bisulphide,  a  solution  is  ob- 
tained from  which  the  two  substances  crystallize  out  together  ; 
the  solution  also  has  the  same  colour  and  the  same  absorption 
spectrum  whichever  modification  be  dissolved.  The  author 
calls  attention  in  the  paper  to  a  number  of  similar  cases  of 
dimorphism. — The  action  of  acetone  on  ammonium  salts  of 
fatty  acids  in  the  presence  of  dehydrating  agents,  by  Dr.  S. 
Ruhemann  and  Mr.  D.  J.  Carnegie. — A  method  of  estimating 
nitrites  either  alone  or  in  pre  sence  of  nitrates  and  chlorides,  by 
Mr.  T.  C.  Day. 

Paris. 

Academy  of  Sciences,  March  26. — M.  Janssen  in  the 
chair. — New  theory  of  the  equatorial  coud^  2ind  of  equatorials  in 
general  (continued),  by  MM.  Loewy  and  P.  Puiseux.  Here  are 
given  the  general  formulas  promised  in  the  previous  communica- 
tion, together  with  the  terms  depending  on  the  position  of  the 
outer  glass. — On  the  relations  of  atmospheric  nitrogen  with 
vegetable  humus,  by  M.  Th.  Schloesing.  A  detailed  account  is 
given  of  the  experiments  carried  out  according  to  the  already 
described  method  for  the  purpose  of  ascertaining  whether  gaseous 
nitrogen  is  fixed  by  vegetable  soil.  The  disappearance  of  the 
oxygen  shows  in  six  different  cases  that  the  combustion  of  the 
organic  substances  takes  place  in  various  degrees  depending  on  the 
quantity  and  nature  of  such  substances.  During  this  combustion 
nitric  acid  is  formed  with  disappearance  of  the  ammonia.  The 
volume  of  gaeeous  nitrogen  contained  in  the  soil  does  not  per- 
ceptibly vary. — On  the  absorption  of  saline  substances  by  plants 
(continued),  by  MM.  Berthelot  and  G.  Andre.  The  experiments 
here  described  deal  with  the  acetate  of  potassa,  an  organic  salt 
analogous  to  those  present  or  produced  in  the  plants  ;  also  with 
the  nitrate  of  potassa,  the  formation  or  accumulation  of  which  is 
characteristic  of  certain  species,  especially  of  the  Amaranthus 
group.  This  accumulation  is  shown  to  depend  rather  on  the 
period  of  vegetation  than  on  the  proportion  of  the  salt  in  the 
ground. — New  nebulse  of  a  remarkable  character  discovered  in 
the  Pleiades,  by  means  of  photography,  by  MM.  Henry,  and 
described  by  M.  Mouchez.  Besides  a  new  nebula  round. 
Maia  in  the  Pleiades,  the  more  recent  researches  of  MM. 
Henry  have  revealed  a  great  mass  of  cosmic  matter 
covering  a  large  part  of  this  constellation.  But  the  most 
remarkable  discovery,  and  one  of  an  absolutely  unique  charac- 
ter, is  a  rectilinear  thread  of  nebular  matter  projected  from 
the  central  mass  nearly  in  the  direction  from  east  to  west 
for  a  distance  of  35'  to  40'  of  arc,  but  with  a  thickness  of  no 
more  than  3"  to  4".  This  thread  crosses  on  its  path  seven  star.", 
which  it  seems  to  string  together  like  the  beads  on  a  rosary, 
and  slightly  changes  its  direction  at  the  point  where  it  meets  the 
largest  of  these  stars.  A  second  streak,  somewhat  similar,  but 
shorter,  is  perceptible  in  the  middle  of  the  nebular  mass. — Pre- 
liminary work  for  the  execution  of  the  photographic  chart  of  the 
firmament,  by  M.  Mouchez.  Reference  is  made  to  the  publica- 
tion of  a  Bulletin  specially  devoted  to  this  object.  Two  more 
Observatories,  those  of  Potsdam  and  Oxford,  are  announced  as 
intending  to  take  part  in  this  great  work,  making  thirteen  sta- 
tions altogether.  These,  it  is  stated,  are  already  sufficient  to 
secure  the  completion  of  the  undertaking  in  the  course  of  four 
or  five  years. — Treatment  of  auriferous  sands  by  amalgamation, 
in  ancient  times,  by  M.  Berthelot.  The  second  part,  just  pub- 
lished, of  the  already  noticed  "Collection  des  Alchimistes 
grecs,"  contains  the  works  of  Zosimus,  a  writer  of  the  third 
century  of  the  new  era,  dealing  with  the  extraction  of  gold  by 
means  of  its  natural  ores  treated  with  mercury.  This  process 
appears  to  have  been  substituted  for  a  still  more  ancient  method, 
in  which  the  ore  was  fused  with  lead,  salt,  a  little  tin,  and  barley 
bran,  and  submitted  to  a  genuine  process  of  refining. — Obser- 
vations of  the  Comet  1888a,  made  at  the  Paris  Observatory  with 
the  equatorial  of  the  West  Tower,  by  M.  G.  Bigourdan.  The 
observation  here  recorded  was  taken  on  March  25,  when  the 
comet,  discovered  at  the  Cape,  on  February  18,  by  M.  Sawer- 
thal,  was  approaching  the  northern  hemisphere.— On^  a  new 
mercury-bath  for  the  obsers'ation  of  the  nadir,  by  M.  Perigaud. 
This  valuable  appliance  at  last  gives  the  long-sought  solution  of 
the  problem,  how  to  employ  the  mercury-bath  for  deterniining 
the  vertical,  and  for  taking  observations  by  reflection  in  all 
states  of  the  weather,  and  on  ground  subject  to  the  constant 
vibrations  produced  by  carriage  traffic,  as  in  large  towns. 


552 


NATURE 


[April  s.  1888 


Berlin. 

Meteorological  Society,  March  6. — Dr.  Vettin,  President, 
in  the  chair. — Dr.  Zenker  gave  an  account  of  his  work,  which 
has  been  awarded  a  prize  by  the  Paris  Academy,  on  the  distri- 
bution of  heat  over  the  surface  of  the  earth.     When  considering 
the  total  heat  which  reaches  the  earth's  surface,  it  is  of  course 
dependent  upon  the  distance  of  the  sun,  and  is  greater  at  perihelion 
than  at  aphelion  in  the  ratio  of  the  inverse  square  of  the  sun's 
distance.     The  varying  ellipticity  in  outline  of  the  earth  in  its 
various  positions  has  no  influence  on  the  heat  received  owing  to 
the  extremely  slight  difference  thus  produced.    If  any  one  point  of 
the  earth's  surface  is  alone  considered,  then  the  heat  received  is 
determined  by  the  sine  of  the  sun's  altitude  or  the  cosine  of  its 
zenith   distance,   for  which  the  speaker  gave  an  equation   ex- 
pressed in  terms  of  amplitude  and  declination.     From  the  above 
relationships  it  follows,  leaving  the  air  out  of  account,  as  has 
usually  been  the  case,  that  the  heat  received  by  the  Pole  on  a 
summer  day  is  greater  than  that  whijh  falls  on  a  point  at  the 
equator.     Thus  taking  as  unit  the  heat  received  during  twenty- 
four  hours  by  a  place  at  which  the  sun  is  in  the  zenith,  the  North 
Pole  receives  an  amount  of  heat  represented  by  0*397,  and  a  point 
on  the  equator  an  amount  represented  by  0*292.     But  the  air 
absorbs  a  large  part  of  the  sun's  heat.     The  speaker  considered 
it  unreliable  to  estimate  the  height  of  the  atmosphere  from  the 
amount  of  heat-absorption,  as  is  frequently  done,  inasmuch  as 
the  chief  absorption  takes  place  in  the  deeper  layers  of  the  air. 
For  the  determination  of  the  coefficient  of  absorption  Dr.  Zenker 
accepts  the  values  obtained  by  Langley  from  his  bolometric  ex- 
periments, with  a  reservation,  however,  as  regards  the  absorption 
which  takes  place  in  its  highest  layers,  which  he  did  not  admit. 
One  factor  of  great  importance  is  the  diffusion  of  heat,  already 
described  by  Clausius,  from  the  small  particles  of  water,  dust,  and 
air  in  the  atmosphere,  which  are  calculated  under  other  definite 
assumptions.     Another  factor  which  must  not  be  lost  sight  of  is 
the  reflection  of  heat  at  the  earth's  surface  ;  this  is  calculated  for 
the  three  cases  of  a  surface  of  water,  land,  and  snow.     Special 
tables  are  given  of  the  heat  reflected  from  these  three  kinds  of 
earth-surface  for  separate  places  per  day  and  per  year.     The  ap- 
plication of  this  theoretical  part  of  the  research  to  the  climatology 
of  the  earth's  surface,  the  speaker  intends  to  lay  before  the  Society 
at  some  future  time. — Dr.  Less  drew  attention  to  the  meteorologi- 
cal conditions  of  the  past  few  days.     A  minimum  temperature 
on  March  i  was  succeeded  by  a  thaw  on  the  evening  of  the  2nd, 
which  was   followed  by  a  second  very  low  temperature  which 
again  gave  way  to  a  thaw  on  the  6th.     The  rise  and  fall  of  the 
barometer  corresponded   to   the  above :   the  very  considerable 
double   variation    in    atmospheric   pressure   was   caused   by   a 
minimum  passing  through  South -West  Sweden  across  the  East 
Sea  to   Russia,   which  was   succeeded   by  a   partial   minimum 
following  the  same  course.     Exactly  similar  meteorological  con- 
ditions were  in  existence  from  February  4,  and  were  caused  by  a 
minimum   with   its  succeeding  partial  minimum  following  the 
same  course  as  above.     Such  an  exact  similarity  of  path  and 
action  of  two  minima  is  of  very  rare  occurrence,  and  deserves  to 
be    carefully    studied  :   on    both    occasions,    in    February   and 
March,  very  wintry  weather  was  observed. — Dr.  Hellman  drew 
attention  to  the  unusually  heavy  snow-fall  of  the  past  winter.    As 
yet  the  maximum  number  of  days  on  which  snow  falls  in  Berlin 
has  been  fifty,  but  this  year  up  to  the  present  time  it  has  already 
fallen  on  fifty-eight  days  ;  in  the  same  way,  until  this  year  never 
more  than  eight  consecutive  days  of  snow-fall  have  been  observed, 
but  this  winter  there  has  been  one  period  of  sixteen  consecutive 
days  on  which  snow  has  fallen. 

Stockholm. 
Royal  Academy  of  Sciences,  March  14. — Studies  on  the 
Characeae  and  Violse  of  the  Isles  of  Gotland  and  Oeland,  by 
Dr.  Wahlstedt. — Studies  on  the  geographical  distribution  of  the 
plants  in  the  province  of  Wermland,  by  Dr.  Ringius. — On  the 
currents  of  disjunction,  by  Dr.Mebius. — On  the  institution  of  pen- 
dulum observations  in  Sweden,  by  Prof.  Rosen. — A  review  of  the 
Orthoptera  of  Scandinavia,  with  descriptions,  by  Dr.  Ilaij. — 
Analyses  of  gadolinite  and  hornilite,  by  Dr.  W.  Pettersson. — On 
the  production  of  nitro-cymol  and  its  products  of  oxidation,  by 
Prof.  Widman  and  Dr.  Soderbaum. — On  the  occurrences  of 
Limnadia  leiUiculaHs  on  the  Isle  of  Nordkoster  in  the  province 
of  Bohus,  by  Hr. Hanson. — A  thunderstorm  combined  with  water- 
spouts near  Upsala,  by  Hr.  Th.  Wigertz.— On  fossil  wood  from 
Egypt  and  Eastern  Asia,  by  Prof.  Schenk,  of  Leipzig. — Volcanoes 


in  the  interior  of  the  north-eastern  parts  of  Iceland,  by  Hr. 
Thoroddsen, of  Reykjavik. — On  the  determination  of  the  constants 
in  the  diurnal  rotation,  by  Dr.  Bohlin. 

Amsterdam. 

Royal  Academy  of  Sciences,  February  25. — M.  Martin 
exhibited  a  geological  chart  of  the  course  of  the  River  Surinam, 
appending  the  communication  that,  during  his  stay  in  the  West 
Indies,  he  succeeded  in  discovering  the  geological  formation  in 
which  the  gold  occurring  in  those  parts,  and  long  since  known 
as  wash-gold,  was  originally  deposited.  This  formation  is  the 
crystalline  schist,  a  stratum  in  which,  in  Brazil  also,  most  of 
the  gold  is  met  with.  The  speaker  urged  that  Brazil  and 
Surinam  offer  striking  points  of  resemblance  both  in  the  order 
and  nature  of  their  stratifications. — M.  de  Vries  made  a  com- 
munication on  his  determination  of  the  molecular  weight  of 
raffinose.  His  results,  based  upon  physiological  methods,  tended 
to  support  the  formula  of  Loiseau  and  Scheibler, 

C18H3A6  +  5H2O. 
— M.  Hubrecht  described  the  early  stages  in  the  development 
of  the  blastodermic  vesicle  of  the  hedgehog.  He  claimed  that 
the  stages  observed  and  described  by  him  go  a  long  way  towards 
explaining  the  questionable  points  in  the  early  stages  of  the 
human  blastodermic  vesicles  that  have  yet  been  noticed. 


BOOKS,  PAMPHLETS,  and  SERIALS  RECEIVED. 

Fundamental  Principles  of  Chemistry  :  R.  Galloway  (Longmans). — Re- 
miniscences of  Foreign  Travel :  R.  Crawford  (Longmans). — An  Examination, 
of  the  Theory  of  Evolution  :  G.  Gresswell  (Williams  and  Norgate). — John- 
ston's Botany  Plates,  IL  (Johnston).  — Key  to  the  Volapiik  Grammar  :  A. 
KirchhofF  (Sonnenschein). — Specimens  of  Papers  set  at  the  Army  Prelimin- 
ary Examinations,  1882-87  (Macmlllan).— Companion  to  the  Weekly  Problem 
Papers:  Rev.  J.  J.  Milne  (Macmillan). — An  Indictment  of  Darwin:  O. 
Dawson  (Freethought  Publishing  Company). — An  Increase  in  the  Produce 
of  the  Soil  through  the  Rational  Use  of  Nitrogenous  Manure  :  P.  Wagner  ; 
translated  by  G.  G.  Henderson  (Whittaker). — Smoke  in  Relation  to  Fogs 
in  London  :  Hon.  Rol!o  Russell. 


CONTENTS.  PAGE 

The  Forestry  School  at  Cooper's  Hill 529 

The  Baltic  Amber  Coast  in  Prehistoric  Times.     By 

Arthur  J.  Evans 531 

Voltaic  Electricity 533 

Natural  History  of  Victoria 535 

Our  Book  Shelf  :— 

"Technological  Dictionary" 534 

"Transactions  of   the    Sanitary    Institute    of    Great 

I^"tain"  -   .    .  • 535 

Jordan:   "  Science  Sketches  " 535 

Letters  to  the  Editor  : — 

"  Coral  Formations." — T.  Mellard  Reade     ....  535 
"The  Dispersion  of  Seeds  and  Plants." — Dr.  Antonio 

J.  Amadeo .535 

"  Balbin's     Quaternions." — Prof.     W.     Steadman 

Aldis 535 

Mr.  Crookes  and  the  Transformation  of  Heat  Radia- 
tions into  Matter. — Hugh  Gordon 536 

Green  Colouring-matter  of  Decaying  Wood. — Henry 

Robinson 536 

Comet  a  1888  (Sawerthal).— T.  W.  Backhouse    .    .  536 
The  Hittites,  with  Special  Reference  to  very  Recent 

Discoveries.   II.    {Illustrated.)    By  Thomas  Tyler   .  536 

Elements  and  Meta-Elements 540 

The  Duration  of  Life.     By  P.  Chalmers  Mitchell  .    .  541 

Notes 542 

Our  Astronomical  Column : — 

The  Period  of  Algol 544 

Observations  of  Variable  Stars 545 

Astronomical     Phenomena     for     the     Week     1888 

April  8-14 545 

Geographical  Notes 545 

The  Atoll  of  Diego  Garcia  and  the  Coral  Forma- 
tions   of   the    Indian    Ocean.      By    Prof.    G.     C. 

Bourne • 546 

The  Royal  Horticultural  Society 550 

Societies  and  Academies 550 

Books,  Pamphlets,  and  Serials  Received 552 


NA  TURE 


553 


THURSDAY,  APRIL   12,   1! 


SO  UTH  KENSING TON  SCIENCE  TEA  CHING. 

WE  are  glad  to  notice  that  the  attention  of  the 
House  of  Commons  has  at  last  been  called  to  the 
deplorable  condition  of  the  accommodation  allotted  to  the 
teaching  of  science  at  South  Kensington.  Our  readers 
are  aware  that  this  subject  is  by  no  means  a  new  one,  as 
attention  has  frequently  been  called,  not  only  in  our 
columns,  but  in  those  of  the  leading  daily  political 
journals,  to  what  Sir  Henry  Roscoe,  not  too  strongly, 
termed  "the  disgraceful  state  of  things."  We  believe, 
however,  that  Friday  evening  was  the  first  occasion  upon 
which  the  subject  has  been  brought  before  the  House  of 
Commons. 

When  the  House  went  into  Committee  on  the  Civil 
Service  Estimates,  the  vote  being  for  ;(^990o  to  com- 
plete the  Science  and  Art  Department  buildings.  Sir 
Henry  Roscoe  pointed  out,  in  the  first  place,  that 
the  accommodation  for  the  teaching  of  physics  in 
this  our  only  Government  College  for  the  training 
of  science  teachers,  would  in  Germany  be  thought  a 
disgrace  in  a  third-rate  town.  The  site  of  the  make- 
shift laboratory,  which,  owing  to  the  increase  in 
the  number  of  the  students  in  this  department,  was 
arranged  in  a  temporary  building  belonging  to  the  French 
annexe,  is  now  required  for  the  Imperial  Institute ;  and 
no  substitute  has  yet  been  found,  nor  any  suggestion 
offered,  beyond  that  made  by  Mr.  Plunket,  that  two  of 
the  official  residences  should  be  devoted  to  this  purpose 
— a  scheme  which,  we  are  not  surprised  to  learn,  did  not 
meet  with  the  approbation  of  those  who  know  what  is 
wanted,  viz.  the  authorities  of  the  Department.  Mr. 
Mundella,  as  a  former  Vice-President,  strongly  indorsed  the 
statement  respecting  the  absolute  necessity  of  steps  being 
taken  to  place  the  Royal  Normal  School  inadecentposition, 
as  far  at  least  as  its  physical  department  is  concerned.  He 
pointed  out  the  undesirability,  to  say  the  least,  of  remov- 
ing the  residences  of  the  officials  of  the  Museum  from  the 
ground,  not  so  much  on  account  of  the  immediate  aid 
which  the  resident  departmental  heads  would  give  in  case 
of  fire  (though  this  we  consider  is  important),  as  because 
their  presence  would  insure  the  removal  and  proper  care 
of  the  most  valuable  of  the  exhibits  should  such  an 
accident  happen.  But,  apart  from  these  considerations,  the 
idea  of  the  Treasury  suggesting  that  the  only  Government 
Science  School  in  England  should  resort  to  such  means  for 
accommodating  perhaps  the  most  important  of  the  ex- 
perimental sciences  is  one  which  could  only  occur  to 
the  English  official  mind.  After  all,  as  Sir  George 
Campbell  said,  "  we  are  not  a  nation  of  paupers,"  and 
we  may  well  demand  decent  accommodation  for  our 
National  Science  School. 

The  debate  was  not  confined  to  this  relatively  small  though 
not  unimportant  point.  Sir  H.  Roscoe  proceeded  to  ex- 
plain that  this  opened  the  door  to  a  much  wider  question, 
viz.  that  of  the  permanent  housing  and  protection  of  the 
collection  of  scientific  instruments  and  apparatus,  of  which 
he  remarked  that  few  persons  were  aware  that  we  are 
possessed  of  one  of  the  finest  collections  in  Europe,  con- 
VoL  XXXVII. — No.  963. 


taining  not  only  a  large  number  of  the  most  delicate 
instruments  used  in  physical  research,  but  also  apparatus 
of  unique  historic  value.     Such  a  collection  as  ours,  if  it 
existed  in  France  or  in  Germany,  would  be  appropriately 
housed  in  buildings  worthy  of  its  interest  and  importance  ; 
witness  the  industrial  and  scientific  museums  of  Berlin 
and  Vienna,  or  the  still  more  palatial  accommodation 
existing   for   similar    collections   in    Paris.     But  in  our 
metropolis  these  collections  are  housed  in  a  temporary 
shed  used  by  the  various  International  Exhibitions,  for 
which    miserable  accommodation  the    Government  are 
actually   paying    a    yearly    rent    of    ;^20oo.     Reference 
was  made  during  the   debate    to  the  existence  of  the 
inter-departmental  Report  on  this  subject  moved  for  by 
Sir  Henry  Roscoe  in  June  1886.     From  this  important 
document   it  is   clear  that  the   proposal  to  consolidate 
certain   Government  scientific    institutions,   to    build    a 
series  of  galleries  on  the  land  west  of  Exhibition  Road, 
for  the  purpose  of  accommodating  not  only  the  science 
collections,  but  also  the  National  Portrait  Galleryand  some 
other  collections,  met  with  the  approval  of  all  the  members 
of  the    Committee,   consisting   of  such   men    as    Lord 
Lingen  and  Sir  F.  Bramwell,  with  the  exception  of  Mr. 
Milford,  at   that    time   the  Permanent  Secretary  of  the 
Office  of  Works,  whose  opinion  was  apparently  adverse  to 
the  possession  of  any  national  science  collections  at  all 
As  might  be  expected,  no  steps  have,  since  the  publica- 
tion of  this  Report,  been  taken,  beyond  the  removal  of 
the  National  Portrait  Gallery  to  Bethnal  Green.     Surely 
it  is  time  that  a  state  of    things  which  would   not  be 
permitted  to  exist  in  any  decently-sized  town  on  the  Con- 
tinent should  be  amended.    The  buildings  of  the  Imperial 
Institute  are  now  raising  their  head  on  the  site  of  the 
late  International  Exhibitions,  and  a  road  is  being  driven 
through   from  Queen's   Gate  on  the  west  to  Exhibition 
Road   on   the   east.     Plots   of  land,  one   directly  south 
of  the  Imperial  Institute  buildings,  and  one  north  of  the 
Natural  History  Museum,  are  now  available,  and  can  be 
purchased  from  the  Commissioners  of  the  1851  Exhibition- 
by  the  Government  for  a  comparatively  small  sum.  If  this 
is  not  soon  done,  the  Commissioners  intend  to  sell  their 
land  to  private  individuals,  to  build  a  rowof  dwelling-houses 
fronting  the  road  and  looking  on  to  the  Imperial  Institute. 
Will  such  a  course  of  things  be  permitted  ?    Is  it  possible 
that  the  Government,  after  the  report  from  the  ablest  men 
of  science  and  statesmen  of  the  time,  should  allow  this 
opportunity  to  pass  ?    We  must  not ;  and  we  have  good 
hopes  that  the  promise  of  the  First  Lord  of  the  Treasury, 
that  this    question    will    receive    the    attention   of   the 
Government,  will   not   turn   out   to   be   an   empty  form^ 
and  that   a   statement   will    be   made  by  the    Govern- 
ment on  this  matter  without  unreasonable  delay. 

The  debate  was  enlivened  by  a  passage  of  arms 
between  Lord  Randolph  Churchill  and  Mr.  Mundella. 
The  former,  in  his  character  of  an  economic  reformer, 
repudiating  what  he  called  the  excessive  expenditure  on 
buildings,  told  the  House  that  it  had  not  the  remotest 
idea  of  the  hundreds  of  thousands  of  pounds  spent  by  the 
country  in  the  payment  of  Professors'  salaries,  and  othe  r 
forms  of  encouraging  science  and  art.  It  is  a  pity, 
for  the  sake  of  the  "  Professors,"  that  the  return  for 
which  Lord  Randolph  asked  is  confined  to  expenditure 
on  bricks  and  mortar,  otherwise  he  might  have  learnt  how 

B  B 


554 


NATURE 


[April  12, 


far  his  statement  of  the  existence  of  these  luxurious  pro- 
fessorships is  borne  out  by  fact.  Still,  we  do  not  wish  to 
quarrel  with  Lord  Randolph's  economic  mood.  We  are 
not  concerned  to  defend  every  expenditure  on  buildings 
or  art  collections  in  South  Kensington  or  elsewhere  ;.and 
it  is  quite  possible  that,  if  these  matters  are  looked  into, 
an  extravagance  in  this  direction  may  be  proved.  In 
that  case,  in  Lord  Randolph's  words,  "  the  hon.  member 
for  South  Manchester  may  have  more  to  spend  than  he  has 
at  present,"  or,  to  express  this  in  non- Parliamentary 
phraseology,  a  larger  proportion  of  the  present  grant  may 
be  devoted  to  the  pressing  and  important  requirements  of 
science. 


EXPERIMENTAL  RESEARCHES   ON 
HYDRAULIC  CEMENTS. 
Recherches     Experimentales    sur    la     Constitution     des 
Moriiers   Ilydrauliques.      Par   M.    H.    Le    Chatelier, 
Ingdnieur   des   Mines.      (Paris ;    Vve.    Chas.  Dunod, 
1887.) 

THE  large  employment  of  concrete  for  the  construc- 
tion of  harbour-works,  for  building  houses,  paving 
streets,  and  other  purposes,  has  created  a  considerable 
demand  of  late  years  for  hydraulic  cements.  Cement 
manufacture  is  one  of  the  comparatively  new  industries 
which  have  taken  root  in  Ireland.  This  treatise  of  M. 
Le  Chatelier  is  so  valuable  an  addition  to  our  knowledge 
of  the  chemistry  of  a  great  and  important  manufacture, 
that  a  short  abstract  of  its  contents  will  be  welcome  to 
many  of  the  readers  of  Nature,  especially  as  the  work 
is  of  unusual  scientific  interest. 

The  chemical  reactions  which  result  in  the  baking  and 
hardening  of  plaster  of  Paris,  mortars,  and  hydraulic 
cements  are  treated  under  the  following  heads  :  (i)  plaster 
of  Paris  ;  (2)  barium  silicates  ;  (3)  hydraulic  mortars  and 
cements. 

The  first  scientific  investigation  of  the  baking  and 
setting  of  plaster  of  Paris  was  made  by  Lavoisier,  and 
the  process  is  thus  explained  by  him.  There  are  tv.io 
stages  at  which  the  water  is  remov^ed  from  gypsum  ;  three- 
fourths  of  the  water  of  hydration  are  much  more  easily 
expelled  by  heat  than  the  last  fourth.  When  gypsum  is 
dehydrated  by  heat  it  absorbs  water  again  with  avidity, 
and  suddenly  becomes  a  confused  and  hardened  mass  of 
crystals. 

Berthier's  observation  that  plaster  of  Paris  ordinarily 
contains  from  4  to  8  per  cent,  of  water  has  been  con- 
firmed by  Landrin.  The  baking  and  dehydrating  of 
gypsum  was  investigated  by  M.  Le  Chatelier  by  observing 
the  periods  measured  by  a  chronograph,  during  which 
a  thermometer  marked  successive  increments  of  5°  of 
temperature  when  plunged  into  powdered  gypsum  heated 
progressively  and  regularly  in  a  test-tube  standing 
in  a  bath  of  paraffin.  The  longest  periods  corre- 
spond with  the  greatest  heat  absorption  and  dehydrating 
effect.  From  130°  to  140°  C.  the  period  was  20  minutes 
40  seconds,  between  165°  and  180°  C.  it  was  5  minutes. 
Dehydration  is  partial  at  155°,  but  complete  at  194°  C. 
There  are  two  distinct  phases  of  dehydration  of  the  com- 
pound CaS04  •  2H2O  :  the  first  corresponds  to  the  forma- 
tion of  (CaS04)2-  3H2O,  the  second  with  (CaSOJj  *  HgO  ; 
this  is  plaster  of  Paris.     The  hydration  which  causes  the 


quick  setting  of  plaster  can  be  represented  by  the  equa- 
tion :  (CaSOja '  HgO  +  3H2O  =  2(CaS04  •  2H2O). 

Cause  of  the  Hardening. — It  has  been  shown  that  a 
solution  of  hydrated  calcium  sulphate  dissolves  dehydrated 
plaster,  and  this  after  a  short  interval  separates  out  as 
crystals  of  gypsum.  This  action  explains  the  setting  of 
plaster ;  water  hydrates  the  compound  partially,  and 
dissolves  the  hydrate  to  saturation ;  this  dissolves  anhydrous 
sulphate  to  supersaturation,  and  deposits  it  as  a  hydrate, 
after  which  more  of  the  anhydrous  salt  becomes  dissolved. 
These  two  opposite  actions  take  place  simultaneously  at 
contiguous  points.  The  more  rapid  the  hydration,  the 
greater  is  the  degree  of  supersaturation,  and  the  quicker 
the  setting  of  the  plaster.  Many  anhydrous  salts  harden 
when  in  contact  with  water,  as  for  instance  sodium  sul- 
phate, but  in  every  case  there  is  a  previous  formation  of 
a  supersaturated  solution. 

It  is  established  that  crystallization  which  accompanies 
the  setting  of  plaster  of  various  kinds  results  from  the 
difference  in  solubility  of  the  compounds  which  set,  and 
those  which  are  formed  during  the  setting  :  the  first  occur 
in  a  state  of  unstable  equilibrium  in  presence  of  water, 
and  can  have  only  a  transitory  existence. 

The  crystals  which  form  during  setting  are  frequently, 
if  not  always,  extremely  delicate  prisms  united  by  one  of 
their  ends  round  central  nuclei  so  as  to  form  little 
spherical  groups. 

The  mechanics  of  setting  and  hardening  can  be 
referred  to  crystallization.  Starting  with  the  idea  that 
the  hardening  of  mortars  is  not  an  isolated  phenomenon 
without  analogy,  and  that  it  is  certainly  similar  to,  if  not 
identical  with,  one  or  other  of  the  known  methods,  M. 
Le  Chatelier  describes  these  as  follows  : — Hardening  by 
cotnpression,  of  powders  ;  by  desiccation,  as  with  clay  or 
gelatine  ;  by  fusion  and  solidijication,  metals  ;  by  crystal- 
lization, soluble  salts. 

These  can  be  referred  to  two  simpler  and  more  general 
phenomena ; — 

Mutual  adherence  of  solid  particles,  produced  at  a 
minute  distance  from  each  other. 

Mobility  of  the  particles,  which  admits  of  their 
coming  together.  The  momentary  solution  of  a  salt 
which  sets  affords  the  necessary  mobility  of  the  particles. 
The  setting  of  mortar  evidently  enters  into  the  category 
of  phenomena  of  hardening  by  solution  and  crystalliza- 
tion. When  the  solid  particles  have  once  come  together 
the  specific  hardness  will  depend  upon  the  internal 
cohesion  of  the  crystals  and  their  mutual  adhesio?t. 

The  cohesion  of  substances  varies  within  very  wide 
limits,  of  which  the  extreme  terms  amongst  substances 
which  enter  into  the  composition  of  cements  are  :  plaster, 
which  is  soft  enough  to  be  scratched  by  the  nail,  and 
quartz,  hard  enough  to  scratch  steel.  All  we  know 
about  cohesion  is  that  it  is  a  primordial  property  of 
matter. 

Adhesion,  unlike  cohesion,  is  a  very  complex  and 
consequently  a  very  variable  phenomenon.  Its  variations 
can  almost  exclusively  serve  to  explain  the  considerable 
differences  in  resistance  which  are  often  a  distinguishing 
property  in  analogous  cements.  It  varies  with  the 
chemical  nature  of  the  bodies  in  contact.  The  adhesion 
of  a  crystal  of  calcium  sulphate  to  a  glass  plate  is  nil;  on 
the  contrary,  it  is  so  great  with  barium  silicate  that  the 


April  12,  1888] 


NATURE 


555 


crystals  break  rather  than  become  detached.  It  also 
varies  with  physical  conditions,  as,  for  instance,  the 
more  or  less  polished  condition  of  surfaces  in  contact. 
The  total  adhesion  is  evidently  proportional  to  the 
extent  of  surfaces  in  contact :  it  will  be  so  much  the 
greater  as  (i)  the  volume  of  empty  spaces  due  to  excess 
of  water  employed  in  mixing  is  less  ;  (2)  as  each  crystal 
for  a  given  weight  of  matter  presents  a  great  extent  of 
surface  (the  form  of  elongated  prisms  recognized  in  the 
crystallization  of  plaster  and  of  all  similar  products  is 
eminently  favourable  to  the  development  of  adhesion) ; 
(3)  as  the  crystals  are  grouped  so  as  to  increase  the 
volume  of  empty  spaces  and  so  as  to  diminish  their  number 
and  isolate  them  one  from  the  other.  A  structure  like 
that  of  pumice  is  particularly  favourable  to  strength.  The 
nature  of  the  solvent,  temperature,  and  nuclei  of  crystal- 
lization, all  serve  to  modify  considerably  the  growth  of 
crystals,  and  consequently  to  influence  in  a  like  degree 
the  strength  of  the  mortar.  A  study  of  barium  silicate 
has  led  to  the  conclusion  that  its  hydration  may  take 
place  in  a  manner  denoted  by  the  following  equations  :  — 

BaSiOg  +  6H2O  =  BaSiOs  •  6H2O 
Ba2Si04  +  1 5H.,0  =  Ba2Si04  •  6H2O  +  BaO  •  gH^O 
SiOs  +  BaO  •  9H2O  =  BaSiOa  •  6H2O  +  3H2O. 

The  setting  of  siliceous  baryta  cements  is  due  to  the 
production  of  the  same  hydrated  silicate,  BaSiOg "  6H2O,  in 
whatever  manner  it  may  be  formed. 

Mortars  and  Hydraulic  Cements. — Calcareous  mortars 
are  divided  into  two  classes  :  air-dried  mortars  ;  hydraulic 
mortars  and  cements. 

Air-dried  mortar  is  made  from  quick-lime  slaked  with 
water  and  mixed  with  sand.  As  Vicat  has  shown,  the 
first  stage  of  its  setting  is  caused  by  the  desiccation  of 
extremely  fine  particles  of  lime,  and  is  identical  with  the 
hardening  of  clay.  The  sand  acts  as  jn  the  making 
of  bricks — it  prevents  too  much  shrinkage  by  forming 
an  incompressible  base  or  body.  A  further  degree  of 
hardening  is  caused  by  the  conversion  of  the  lime  into 
carbonate. 

The  burning  of  limestone,  unlike  the  dehydration  of 
gypsum,  is  the  result  of  the  phenomenon  of  dissociation, 
as  was  proved  by  Debray.  Various  kinds  of  lime  all 
become  burnt  at  850°  C. 

Hydraulic  Cements. — These  are  obtained  by  baking 
natural  or  artificial  mixtures  of  lime  and  clay,  containing 
from  21  to  27  per  cent,  of  clay. 

They  are  divided  into  slow-setting  and  quick-setting 
cements.  The  former  are  baked  at  a  much  higher 
temperature  than  the  latter.  The  setting  of  the  former 
proceeds  for  some  hours,  and  much  facilitates  their  use. 

There  appear  to  be  three  different  anhydrous  cal- 
cium silicates,  of  which  one  only,  the  tricalcic  silicate, 
SiOg  •  3CaO,  is  attacked  by  water,  and  is  capable  of 
setting ;  there  are  three  calcium  aluminates,  which  all 
set  very  quickly  after  mixing  with  water  ;  there  are 
ferrites  of  lime,  which  slake  and  swell  out  like  quick-lime, 
and  numerous  other  compound  silicates  which  are  more 
or  less  unalterable  by  water. 

The  only  hydrated  salts  which  can  exist  in  presence  of 
an  excess  of  lime,  and  which  are  formed  from  the  above, 

are: — 

Silicate,  SiO^  •  CaO  •  5H2O. 
Aluminate,  h\0^  '  4CaO  *  I2H,0. 
Ferrite,  FejOg  '  4CaO  •  Aq. 


A  microchemical  study  of  anhydrous  cements  has 
shown  that  there  are  colourless  crystals  of  a  pseudo- 
cubic  or  hexagonal  appearance.  The  intervals  between 
these  crystals  are  filled  with  coloured  matter  without 
crystalline  character,  which  has  been  in  a  state  of  fusion. 
The  crystals  are  formed  by  chemical  precipitation  in  the 
midst  of  the  brown  fusible  matter  which  afterwards  solidi- 
fied on  cooling.  The  composition  of  the  crystals  is  that 
of  a  calcium  silicate,  and  of  the  amorphous  portion  of 
silicates  of  alumina,  iron,  and  lime  ;  the  first  compound 
alone  is  alterable  by  the  action  of  water,  and  is  that  which 
plays  so  important  a  part  in  the  setting  and  hardening  of 
cements. 

Analyses  of  four  different  varieties  of  cement  support  the 
view  that  this  substance  is  essentially  a  tricalcic  silicate. 

There  is  no  free  lime  in  Portland  cements  of  good 
quality,  though  there  may  be  aluminates  and  ferrites. 

Drawings  taken  from  microscopic  thin  sections  serve 
to  illustrate  the  appearance  of  hydraulic  cement  when 
anhydrous  and  when  undergoing  hydration. 

Lastly,  the  author  deals  with  the  causes  of  the  destruc- 
tion of  hydraulic  mortars  in  the  air,  in  fresh  and  in  salt 
water.  W.  N.  Hartley. 

ELEMENTARY  MICROSCOPICAL 
EX  AMI  N A  TION. 
Elementary  Microscopical  Examination,  By  T.  Charters 
White,  M.R.C.S.,  late  President  of  the  Quekett  Micro- 
scopical Club.  104pp.  (London:  Roper  and  Drowley.) 
THE  author  of  this  work  tells  us  that  he  has 
aimed  at  leading  "  the  possessor  of  his  first  micro- 
scope into  the  smooth  path  of  progress,  by  pointing  out 
the  simplest  and  most  elementary  methods  of  observa- 
tion, and,  after  so  far  clearing  the  way,  leading  him 
gradually  to  the  higher  branches  of  microscopical  manipu- 
lation." It  must  be  admitted  that  he  has  succeeded  in 
doing  this.  His  modest  little  volume  is  both  sound  and 
original,  and  confirms  the  conviction  that  popular  treatises, 
to  be  of  good  effect,  must  be  produced  by  those  who  have 
themselves  endured  the  drudgery  of  routine  work  and  who 
have  acquired  their  experience  first  hand.  One  sees 
throughout  this  work  traces  of  a  generation  which  is  past, 
but  as  the  book  is  not  written  for  the  schoolmen  of 
to-day,  criticism  is,  from  their  stand-point,  disarmed. 

The  little  volume  is,  notwithstanding,  one  of  consider- 
able merit.  There  may  be  cited,  as  bearing  testimony  to 
the  care  with  which  the  author  has  selected  his  recipes, 
the  incorporation  of  the  glycerine-alcohol  method  of  pre- 
paring delicate  tissues,  originally  introduced  by  Stras- 
burger.  As  evidence  of  originality,  we  may  cite  the 
following :  "  It  (glycerine)  needs  discrimination  in  its 
use,  as  it  cannot  be  employed  for  calcareous  tissues  as 
bone  or  shell,  as  they  would  become  decalcified  after 
being  exposed  to  its  influence  for  some  time."  Hints 
such  as  these,  which  are  the  very  salvation  of  the  dilettante, 
can  only  be  the  outcome  of  prolonged  practical  experi- 
ence, and  they  testify  most  powerfully  to  the  intrinsic 
merit  of  the  work  in  which  they  appear.  In  dealing  with 
photo-micrography  the  author  describes  an  apparatus 
designed  by  himself.  He  is  evidently  an  expert  in  this 
field,  and  in  his  device  he  has  aimed  at  producing  a 
machine  which  may  be  constructed  by  the  worker  at  a 
minimum  cost.     A  very  worthy  motive  this,  but  experi- 


556 


NATURE 


[April  12,  1888 


ence  can  alone  show  how  far  he  has  succeeded.  We 
should  doubt  the  efficacy  of  his  instrument  ourselves,  and 
we  certainly  cannot  indorse  his  belief  that,  "  however 
scrupulous  the  draughtsman  may  be,  however  unbiassed 
he  intends  to  be,  errors  may  creep  in,  and  therefore 
photo-micrography  ....  comes  in  to  insure  complete 
veracity  with  a  saving  of  labour." 

Woodcuts  are  given  of  some  few  of  the  accessories 
enumerated.  Chief  among  them  is  a  very  monotonous 
array  of  scalpels  and  probes,  which  form  the  frontispiece. 
Strange  to  say,  the  author  makes  not  the  least  mention 
of  most  of  those  in  his  text,  despite  a  reference  in  the 
index.  It  is  clear,  however,  from  the  context,  that  they 
are  to  be  regarded  as  aids  to  the  study  of  insect  anatomy  : 
we  have  here  a  superfluity,  for  choice  among  the  knives 
represented  would  be  so  embarrassing  that,  by  the  time  the 
operator  made  up  his  mind,  the  subject  itself'  would  be 
far  advanced  towards  decomposition.  The  introduction 
of  curved  scissors  is  no  less  to  be  deprecated.  Apparatus 
and  accessories  have  a  fascination  for  most  people,  but 
the  best  work  has  always  been  done  with  the  simplest 
tools.  It  must  never  be  forgotten  that  it  is  the  head 
at  the  one  end,  and  not  the  mechanical  aid  at  the  other, 
which  does  the  real  work. 

We  would  take  exception  ;to  the  introduction  of 
the  words  "mountant,"  "semi-hard,"  and  one  or  two 
others  which  might  be  named.  The  statement  that  the 
mites  are  "  almost  the  smallest  class  of  created  beings  " 
falls  very  unhappily  from  a  pure  microscopist,  while  the 
definition  given  of  the  Foraminifera  needs  modification. 

We  are  pleased  to  note  that  the  author  has  been  mind- 
ful of  the  charms  of  the  tow-net — perhaps  the  most  im- 
portant instrument  in  the  future  of  marine  zoology.  If 
Mr.  White's  work  be  divested  of  its  bugs'  heads,  and 
other  similar  objects  which  are  the  mainstay  of  those  for 
whom  he  writes,  there  remains  a  solid  substratum  which 
far  excels  in  merit  that  of  many  more  pretentious  works 
on  the  subject. 


OUR  BOOK  SHELF. 

A  Manual  of  the  Geology  of  India.  Part  IV.  Mineralogy. 
By  F.  R.  Mallet.  Published  by  order  of  the  Indian 
Government.     (London:  Triibner  and  Co.,  1887.) 

While  the  third  volume  of  this  work  possessed  a  certain 
interest  for  the  statesman  and  the  capitalist,  including  as 
it  did  descriptions  of  the  minerals  of  economic  value,  the 
present  one  will  only  claim  the  attention  of  scientific 
readers.  It  may  be  a  matter  of  surprise  that  nearly  all 
that  is  certainly  known  about  the  minerals  of  India  should 
be  capable  of  compression  into  less  than  two  hundred 
pages.  But,  as  the  author  points  out,  excavations  for 
mining  or  other  purposes  have  not,  as  a  rule,  been  super- 
intended by  men  possessing  the  knowledge  requisite  to 
enable  them  to  record  facts  of  scientific  importance ; 
further,  there  is  no  demand  for  non-economic  minerals, 
and  consequently  no  mercenary  incentive  to  collect 
specimens. 

In  looking  over  the  book  we  are  at  once  struck  with 
the  meagre  character  of  much  of  the  information  given. 
Numbers  of  questions  occur  which  we  should  like  to  see 
settled,  but  which  are  unanswerable  in  the  present 
state  of  our  knowledge,  or  rather  ignorance,  of  Indian 
mineralogy.  But  our  author  is  certainly  not  to  blame  for 
this.  He  has  made  the  most  of  the  scanty  materials  at 
his  command,  and  the  result  is  a  valuable  contribution  to 
mineralogical  science,  which  will  serve   as  a  basis  for 


a  future  work  on  the  subject  worthy  of  our  Indian 
Empire.  The  classification  adopted  is  that  of  Dang., 
as  given  in  his  "  System  of  Mineralogy." 

In  the  collection  of  materials  for  the  book  which  we 
hope  will  grow  out  of  this,  English  residents  and  educated 
natives  might  do  science  much  service.  The  study  of 
mineralogy  was  extensively  pursued  in  England  until 
displaced  by  the  more  attractive  subject  of  stratigraphy, 
but  as  India  presents  such  a  vast  field  there  is  no 
reason  why  the  subject  should  not  become  popular 
again.  Workers  in  this  department  will  find  Mr.  Mallet's 
book  of  the  greatest  service. 

Through  the  Yang-tse  Gorges.     By  A.  J.  Little,  F.R.G.S. 

(London:  Sampson  Low,  1888.) 
Mr.  Little  recently  undertook  a  two  months'  journey 
from  Shanghai,  the  metropolis  of  the  Chinese  coast,  to 
Chung- King,  the  commercial  metropolis  of  Western  China. 
The  present  volume  consists  of  the  journal  kept  during  his 
travels,  and  an  admirable  journal  it  is,  full  of  the  results 
of  careful  and  minute  observation,  and  written  in  a  fresh, 
lively,  and  entertaining  style.  Few  travellers,  with  the 
exception  of  "  the  ubiquitous  missionary,"  have  ascended 
to  the  highest  navigable  point  of  the  Yang-tse,  the  only 
road  of  intercommunication  between  the  eastern  and 
western  districts  of  the  Chinese  Empire.  Most  readers, 
therefore,  will  find  in  this  book  much  that  is  new  to  them 
about  the  Chinese  people  and  their  country.  There 
are  many  vivid  descriptions  of  the  varied  scenery 
through  which  Mr.  Little  passed,  and  his  notes  on 
industries,  social  customs,  and  popular  religious  ideas  are 
invariably  interesting  and  suggestive.  Upon  the  whole, 
he  has  no  very  exalted  opinion  of  the  intellectual  and 
moral  qualities  of  the  Chinese,  and  he  is  not  disposed  to 
believe  that  the  empire,  under  the  influence  of  Western 
ideas,  is  about  to  enter  upon  a  new  and  momentous  stage 
of  political  and  social  development.  Everywhere  he 
found  the  bureaucracy  intensely  conservative,  and  bitterly 
prejudiced  against  foreigners.  They  are  willing  enough 
to  adopt  superior  mechanical  appliances,  so  far  as  imple- 
ments of  war  are  concerned  ;  but  in  all  other  matters  they 
prefer  to  move  along  the  old  lines,  which,  having  been 
good  enough  for  their  forefathers,  must,  they  think,  be 
good  enough  for  themselves. 

Home  Experime7its  in  Science.  By  T.O'Conor  Sloane, 
Ph.D.  (London  :  Sampson  Low,  Marston,  Searle,  and 
Rivington,  1888.) 
The  author  of  this  work  has  produced  a  very  readable 
and  useful  book  for  those  who  wish  to  employ  their 
leisure  hours  in  gaining  knowledge  and  information  about 
the  elementary  parts  of  the  various  branches  of  science. 
The  volume  consists  of  a  collection  of  experiments  that 
can  be  easily  performed  with  home-made  apparatus ; 
good  detailed  instruction  as  to  the  necessary  mechanical 
operations  is  given,  together  with  ninety-seven  woodcuts 
of  the  experiments  and  the  apparatus  employed.  The 
branches  of  science  included  in  these  experiments  are 
mechanics,  general  and  molecular  physics ;  the  chapter 
on  soap-bubbles  contains  some  very  interesting  experi- 
ments about  them  ;  and  the  concluding  chapter  consists  of 
hints  to  those  who  are  about  to  begin  scientific  lecturing. 

LETTERS   TO    THE  EDITOR. 

{The  Editor  does  not  hold  himself  responsible  for  opinions 
expressed  by  his  correspondents.  Neither  can  he  under- 
tctke  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  communi- 
cations.^ 

Prof.  Rosenbusch's  Work  on  Petrology. 
Of  the  great  value  of  Prof.  Rosenbusch's  work  on  petrology, 
so  excellently  reviewed  by  Dr.  Hatch,   to  which  your  corre- 


April  12,  1888J 


NATURE 


557 


spondent  ''A.  B."  draws  attention,  there  can  be  no  doubt,  so 
far  as  it  is  regarded  as  a  storehouse  of  information  ;  but  whether 
the  system  of  classification  proposed  therein  will  not  tend  to 
retard  rather  than  to  further  progress  is  a  question  on  which  I 
am  at  present  more  than  doubtful.  The  two  points  to  which 
Dr.  Hatch  and  your  correspondent  draw  attention  as  inherent 
weaknesses — viz.  the  "dyke  rocks,"  and  the  subdivision  of  the 
"effusive  rocks"  into  palseo-volcanic  and  neo-volcanic — appear 
to  me  such  serious  defects,  that  to  praise  a  system  which  largely 
rests  on  them  is  like  complimenting  a  viaduct  by  saying  that  it 
is  an  excellent  viaduct  but  two  of  its  piers  unfortunately  have  a 
bad  foundation. 

But  dismissing  this  as  a  question  too  large  for  discussion  in 
your  columns,  I  will  confine  my  remarks  to  some  defects  in 
detail,  rather  serious  as  they  appear  to  me,  which  are  exhibited 
by  the  classification  as  tabulated  by  your  correspondent. 

(i)  A  mere  "linear"  classification  fails,  I  believe,  to  repre- 
sent satisfactorily  the  relation  of  the  igneous  rocks,  because  it 
separates  too  widely  rocks  very  closely  related — such,  for 
instance,  as  the  Dacites  and  Rhyolites  (Liparites),  and  their 
coriresponding  holocrystalline  representatives.  Hence  I  believe 
that  the  branching  system  such  as  I  indicated  in  my  Presidential 
Address  to  the  Geological  Society  in  1885  is  more  logical  and 
more  in  accordance  with  the  facts  of  Nature. 

(2)  In  regard  to  the  above  example,  I  fail  to  understand  why 
Dacites  should  be  included  with  Andesites  and  Liparites  sepa- 
rated from  Trachytes,  or,  if  we  speak  of  their  holocrystalline 
representatives,  why  we  should  separate  Granite  from  Syenite, 
while  we  include  Tonalite  with  Diorite.  It  is  true  that  Granites 
are  common  and  Tonalites  are  rare,  and  possibly  the  latter 
always  contain  some  hornblende  ;  but  until  it  is  shown  that  a 
quartz-plagioclase-biotite  rock  does  not  exist,  or  that  the  sub- 
stitution of  hornblende  for  biotite  is  of  primary  importance, 
there  does  not  seem  any  valid  reason  for  suppressing  the  group. 

(3)  As  the  term  Diabase  has  long  had  a  recognized  meaning, 
I  fail  to  see  any  good  reason  for  substituting  it  for  Dolerite,  to 
vyhich,  as  generally  understood,  it  stands  in  much  the  same  rela- 
tion as  do  many  Serpentines  to  Peridotites.  Neither  can  I 
admit  the  propriety  of  separating  Gabbro  from  it. 

(4)  The  wide  separation  of  the  Leucite  and  Nepheline  rocks 
from  the  Basalts  seems  also  to  me  to  be  of  doubtful  advantage. 

(5)  If  the  term  Peridotite  be  used  in  the  sense  in  which  it  has 
generally  been  employed  {e.g.  by  Dr.  Wadsworth  in  his  excel- 
lent "  Lithological  Studies") — namely,  to  denote  a  rock  in 
which  silicates  of  magnesia  and  iron  abound,  with  some  also 
containing  lime  but  with  little  alumina — it  is  surely  not  possible 
to  regard  Limburgite  as  its  "effusive"  equivalent.  That  rock 
seems  to  me  to  be  more  properly  associated  with  the  Picrites, 
not  as  defined  by  Dr.  Wadsworth  [i.e.  olivine-augite  rocks),  ' 
but  as  equivalent  to  the  Palitopicrites  of  some  authors — viz. 
pyroxenic  rocks,  containing  a  fair  amount  of  olivine,  and 
some  feldspar,  which  last,  however,  has  a  very  variable  propor- 
tion. The  true  position  of  these  rocks  appears  to  me  to  be  as  a 
connecting-link  between  the  Peridotites  and  the  Dolerites. 

There  are  other  points  in  the  work  to  which  I  should  like  to 
call  attention,  but  I  am  writing  away  from  books,  and  should 
have  refrained  for  a  season  had  not  "  A.  B.'s"  letter  seemed  to 
me  to  call  for  a  word  of  friendly  protest.  No  one  can  be  more 
deeply  sensible  than  I  am  of  the  value  in  many  respects  of 
Prof.  Rosenbusch's  work,  but  until  his  classification  rests  on  a 
firmer  foundation  it  will  not,  I  fear,  be  really  helpful  to 
students  in  leading  them  to  clearer  ideas  on  a  complicated  and 
difificult  subject.  T.  G.  Bonney. 


The  Delicacy  of  the  Sense  of  Taste. 

At  the  Philadelphia  meeting  of  the  American  Association, 
in  1884,  we  presented  a  paper  upon  the  general  subject  of  the 
"Sensitiveness  of  the  Special  Senses."  We  have  since  con- 
tinued our  investigations,'  and  have  the  honour  to  present  at  this 
time  the  results  of  some  experiments  upon  the  sense  of  taste. 

The  object  of  the  experiments  herein  described  was  to  find 
out  what  substances,  or  classes  of  substances,  are  most  readily 
detected  by  the  sense  of  taste,  and  the  relative  delicacy  of  this 

'  See  the  following  papers:— "On  the  Relative  Bitterness  of  different 
Bitter  Substances "  (Proceedings  of  the  Kansas  Academy  of  Sciences, 
1885)  ;  ;  "  On  the  Relative  Sweetness  of  different  Sugars  "  (Reports  of  the 
Kansas  Board  of  Agriculture,  1885);  '"On  the  Sensitiveness  of  the  Eye  for 
Colours  of  a  Low  Degree  of  Saturation  "  (American  Journal  of  Science, 
in.  vol.  XXX.  p.  27);  "'The  Sense  of  Smell"  (Nature,  vol.  xxxv.  p.  74). 


sense  towards  these  substances.  For  the  production  of  familiar 
typical  effects  upon  the  organs  of  sense  the  following  substances 
were  selected  : — 


I.  (bitter) 
II.  (sweet) 

III.  (acid) 

IV.  (alkaline) 
V.  (saline) 


Quinine. 
Cane  sugar.    - 
Sulphuric  acid. 
Sodium  bicarbonate. 
Common  salt. 


The  attempt  was  made  to  include  other  substances  in  this  list, 
but  it  was  difficult  to  find  any,  not  embraced  in  the  five  classes 
above  mentioned,  which  would  not  betray  their  presence  either 
by  colour  or  odour.  Indeed  it  is  surprising,  to  one  who  has  not 
given  the  subject  attention,  to  what  an  extent  we  are  accustomed 
to  depend  upon  the  aid  of  the  sense  of  smell  in  the  classification 
of  tastes.  The  fact  has  been  noticed  by  several  authors  that,  if  the 
nostrils  are  closed,  the  range  of  our  taste  becomes  very  much 
limited. 

Our  method  of  testing  the  deligacy  of  the  sense  of  taste  was 
to  make  solutions,  of  known  strength,  of  the  different  substances  ; 
then,  by  successive  dilutions,  to  make  from  these  several  series 
of  weaker  solutions  ;  each  one  being  of  one-half  the  strength  of 
that  preceding  it.  All  the  bottles  containing  these  substances, 
and  several  bottles  of  water,  being  placed  side  by  side  without 
regard  to  order,  the  person  to  be  tested  was  requested  to  taste  of 
each  solution  and  place  it  in  its  proper  class.  In  each  series  the 
lowest  solution  was  so  very  dilute  that  it  was  deemed  impossible 
to  distinguish  it  from  water.  Unknown  solutions  were  to 
be  classed  with  water.  As  the  tasters  were  found  to  be 
liable  to  mistake  occasionally  even  the  stronger  solutions,  an 
opportunity  was  given,  at  the  close  of  the  test,  to  correct  such 
accidental  errors.  In  carrying  out  these  tests  we  found  that  the 
most  trustworthy  results  were  to  be  obtained  by  instructing  each 
operator  to  pick  out  the  stronger  solutions,  temporarily  classifying 
with  water  all  which  were  not  immediately  recognized  ;  and  then 
to  go  over  the  latter  solutions  a  second  time,  properly  classifying 
such  as  could  further  be  detected. 

These  tests  were  made  by  128  persons,  between  the  ages  of 
twelve  and  fifty— eighty-two  men  and  forty-six  women.  The 
average  results  are  given  in  the  following  table  : — 

Table   of  Averages. 

I.  Quinine. 

Male  observers  detected  i  part  in  390,000  parts  of  water. 
Female         ,,         „         i       „       456,000      „         ,, 

II.  Cane  sugar. 

Male  observers  detected  i  part  in  199  parts  of  water. 
Female         „         „         i       ,,       204      „ 

III.  Sulphuric  acid. 

Male  observers  detected  i  part  in  2080  parts  of  water. 
Female         „         „         i       „       3280      ,, 

IV.  Bicarbonate' of  soda. 

Male  observers  detected  i  part  in  98  parts  of  water. 
Female         ,,         „         i       ,,126      „ 

V.  Common  salt. 

Male  observers  detected  i  part  in  2240  parts  of  water. 
Female         ,,         ,,         i       ,,       1980      ,,         ,, 

This  table  indicates  only  the  average  delicacy  of  taste  for  each 
substance  included  in  our  experiments.  The  tests  brought  to 
light  ma iy  astonishing  individual  peculiarities.  For  instance, 
there  were  persons  who  could  detect  with  certainty  I  part  of 
quinine  in  5,120,000,  while  others  failed  to  notice  i  part  in 
160,000.  How  far  this  difference  is  due  to  education  it  is  not 
possible  to  say.  Among  the  tasters  were  quite  a  large  number 
who  had  been  accustomed  for  several  years  to  the  handling  and 
recognition  of  drugs  and  chemicals.  Their  record  was  consider- 
ably above  the  general  average,  but  they  were,  on  the  other 
hand,  surpassed  by  a  few  individuals  who  had  had  no  previous 
training. 

The  results  of  our  experiments  may  be  briefly  summed  up  as 
follows : — 

1.  The  sense  of  taste  is  much  more  delicate  for  bitter  sub- 
stances than  for  the  others  included  in  our  list.  (The  relative 
delicacy  for  quinine  and  sugar  is  very  nearly  2000  :  i . ) 

2.  Taken  in  the  order  of  their  effect  upon  the  organs  of  taste, 


558 


NATURE 


{April 


12,    I 


thei classes  of  substances  used  stand  as  follows:  (i)  bitters; 
(2)  acids  ;  (3)  saline  substances  ;  (4)  sweets  ;  (5)  alkalies. 

3.  The  sense  of  taste  is  as  a  rule  more  delicate  in  women 
than  in  men  (in  the  case  of  all  substances  tried  excepting  salt). 
The  number  of  persons  experimented  upon  was  hardly  sufficient, 
considering  the  very  striking  individual  peculiarities  met  with  in 
the  course  of  our  investigation,  to  permit  us  to  lay  great- stress 
upon  the  relative  averages  obtained  for  the  two  sexes.  We  are 
not  inclined,  however,  to  regard  the  higher  degree  of  sensitive- 
ness shown  in  the  averages  for  female  observers  as  accidental, 
and  our  confidence  in  the  approximate  value  of  the  results  is 
strengthened  by  the  fact  that  in  the  two  portions  into  which  our 
data  naturally  divided  themselves,  about  half  the  tests  having 
been  made  at  a  different  time  and  under  different  circumstances 
from  the  remainder,  the  averages  for  each  set  agreed  very  well, 
not  only  as  to  the  relative  sensitiveness  to  the  various  substances 
employed,  but  also  to  the  relatively  higher  degree  of  delicacy 
exhibited  by  women. 

4.  The  ability  to  detect  a  dilute  bitter  is  very  generally  accom- 
panied by  inability  to  detect  a  dilute  sweet,  and  vice  versd. 

5.  The  long-continued  habitual  use  of  a  substance  does  not 
seem  to  influence  in  any  marked  way  the  delicacy  of  the  sense  of 
taste  for  that  substance.  Our  tests  with  quinine  afforded  an  ex- 
cellent opportunity  for  the  investigation  of  this  point,  as  some  of 
the  persons  experimented  upon  had  made  long  continued  use  of 
that  drug  as  a  medicine.  The  results  obtained  were  entirely  of 
a  negative  character.  We  could  discover  neither  increase  nor 
decrease  in  the  ability  to  taste  the  drug  on  the  part  of  those 
habituated  to  its  use. 

.  Several  other  questions  have  been  raised  but  not  answered  by 
our  experiments.  How  many,  for  instance,  of  these  substances, 
each  being  diluted  in  proportion  to  its  effect  upon  the  organs  of 
taste,  can  be  detected  if  mixed  together  ?  If  so  mixed,  in  what 
order  will  they  be  recognized,  and  will  it  always  be  in  the  same 
order  by  different  persons?  Again,  what  is  the  influence  of 
the  temperatui-e  of  the  solution  upon  our  ability  to  taste  its 
ingredients  ? 

We  deplore  the  fact  that  the  above  tests  have  not  been  extended 
to  a  much  larger  number  of  persons,  but  a  careful  study  of  the 
results  of  the  limited  number  of  experiments  made  leads  us  to 
believe  that  they  do  not  differ  widely  from  the  probable  averages 
of  a  much  more  extended  series.  E.  H.  S.  Bailey. 

University  of  Kansas,  July  1887.  E.  L.  Nichols. 


The  Salt  Industry  in  the  United  St&tes. 

Having  occasion  not  long  since  to  look  up  the  statistics  of 
the  salt  industry,  I  naturally  turned  to  the  latest  edition  of  the 
"Encyclopaedia  Brittanica"  (vol.  xxi.),  where  the  following 
statement  met  my  eye  ; — "  The  deposits  of  salt  in  the  United 
States  are  unimportant.  The  country  possesses  no  really  con- 
siderable salt  industry,  but  is  supplied  so  far  as  interior 
consumption  is  concerned  to  a  small  extent  by  brine  springs." 

As  this  did  not  at  all  correspond  with  the  knowledge  I  had 
gained  by  a  somewhat  casual  glance  over  the  field,  I  took  pains 
to  look  up  the  subject  more  thoroughly,  and  find  the  above 
statement  so  radically  wrong  that  I  venture  to  call  your  attention 
to  it  ;  though  this  I  should  scarcely  have  troubled  myself  to  do  had 
it  appeared  in  any  publication  of  less  acknowledged  authority. 
To  be  sure,  we  have  no  means  of  knowing  just  how  great  an 
industry  must  be  to  be  classed  as  "really  considerable,"  but  by 
comparing  the  annual  product  of  the  United  States  with  that 
of  other  countries  we  may  claim,  at  least,  an  attempt  at  an 
approximation. 

But  first  as  to  the  character  of  the  beds  in  the  United  States.  It 
is  true  there  are  as  yet  known  no  beds  comparable  in  depth  and 
extent  with  those  of  Barcelona  or  Galicia,  but  nevertheless  they 
are  amply  sufficient  to  supply  all  demands  for  ages.  As  long 
ago  as  1869,  Dr.  Sterry  Hunt  published,  in  the  Reports  of  the 
Geological  Survey  of  Canada,  results  of  borings  at  Goderich, 
Canada,  in  which,  in  a  total  depth  of  1382  feet,  six  successive 
beds  of  salt  were  passed  through,  varying  in  thickness  from  6  to 
34  feet,  and  aggregating  a  total  thickness  of  126  feet.  What 
area  is  covered  by  these  deposits  is  yet  to  be  ascertained  ;  but 
they  are  known  to  extend  over  Central  and  Western  New  York, 
Northern  Pennsylvania,  North- Western  Ohio,  and  Southern 
Ontario.  At  Warsaw,  in  New  York  State,  one  of  the  beds  has  a 
thickness  of  80  feet.  The  extent  of  the  deposit  at  Petite  Ainse, 
Louisiana,  has  also  yet  to  be  determined,  but  a  vertical  shaft 
165  f«et  in  depth  lies  all  the  way  in  solid  salt,  and  does  not 


penetrate  it.  The  above,  although  but  two  out  of  many,  I 
mention  since  they  have  been  known  for  years,  and  it  would 
seem  Mr.  Lyte  could  have  informed  himself  regarding  them  had 
he  so  attempted.  Concerning  the  many  extensive  beds  in  the 
region  of  the  Great  Basin,  ignorance  is  more  excusable.  Statis- 
tics showing  the  annual  output  of  both  rock  and  sea  salt  will 
best  show  the  extent  of  the  industry.  I  give  below  statistics  for 
1883,  1884,  and  1885,  taken  from  "  Mineral  Resources  of  the 
United  States,"  p.  474.     One  barrel  equals  280  lbs. 


Michigan      

New  York    

Ohio  

West  Virginia     ... 

Louisiana     

California    

Utah  

Nevada         

All  other  States  and 
Territories 

Totals     ... 


Barrels. 
2,894,672 
1,619,486 
350,000 
320,000 
265,215 
214,286 

107,143 
21,429 

400,000 

6,192,231 


Barrels. 
3,161,806 

1,788,434 
320,000 
310,000 
223,964 

178,571 
114,285 

17,857 
400,000 

6,514,937 


Barrels. 
3,297,403 
3,304,787 
306,847 
223,184 
229,271 
221,428 
107,140 

28,593 

250,000 

7,038,653 


Complete  statistics  for  all  countries  are  not  available,  and  I 
have  to  rely  to  a  considerable  extent  on  Encyclopaedias,  whose 
accuracy  I  now  have  reason  to  question.     They  are  as  follow: — 


England  ( 
France 

t88i)     ... 

1,854,000  tons. 
300,000    „ 

Spain 
Portugal 
Italy 
Austria 

300,000     ,, 
250,000    ,, 
165,000     „ 
400,000     ,, 

United  States     .. 

1881. 
834,548 

1882. 
tons.     ...     897,732  tons 

In  regard  to  the  above  figures,  I  confess  to  feeling  sceptical 
save  with  reference  to  those  of  the  United  States  and  England. 
Nevertheless,  granting  that  they  do  not  give  the  full  amounts  by 
one-half,  even  then  the  United  States  stands  second  in  the  list 
of  salt-producing  countries. 

What,  then,  constitutes  a  really  considerable  industry  ? 

George  P.  Merrill. 
U.  S.  National  Museum,  Washington,  D.C., 
December  3,  1887. 


Force,  and  Newton's  Third  Law. 

The  point  mentioned  by  "  Nemo  "  in  your  issue  of  March  29 
(p.  511)  is  undoubtedly  one  that  troubles  most  students  at  some 
stage  or  other;  but  there  is  no  room  for  discussion  about  it ;  the 
matter  lies  in  a  nutshell :  a  body  does  not  exei't  force  upon  itself. 
Think,  for  instance,  of  a  horse  and  cart.  The  horse  pulls  the 
cart,  and  the  cart  pulls  back  the  horse  equally  ;  how,  then,  can 
the  cart  move?  The  only  puzzle  lies  in  the  false  implication 
that  the  cart's  pull-back  is  exerted  upon  the  cai-t.  Directly  it  is 
perceived  that  there  is  only  one  force  acting  on  the  cart,  viz. 
the  pull  of  the  horse,  no  difficulty  is  felt  as  to  why  it  moves. 
The  "action"  of  A  is  not  exerted  upon  A,  but  upon  B,  The 
"reaction"  of  B  is  not  exerted  upon  B,  but  upon  A.  The 
time  rate  of  change  of  momentum  of  each  and  every  body  is 
equal  to  the  total  force  acting  upon  it.         Oliver  J.  Lodge. 

Grasmere,  March  31. 

The   New  Photographic   Objective. 

The  letter  of  Sir  Howard  Grubb  in  your  issue  of  March  8 
(p.  439)  appears  to  make  some  further  explanation  desirable  on 
my  part.  The  invention  of  the  new  form  of  photographic  ob- 
jective seems  to  have  been  made  about  the  same  time  in  America 
and  in  England.  An  experimental  lens  of  this  kind  was  con- 
structed by  the  Messrs.  Clark,  after  consultation  with  me,  in 
May  1887.  The  13-inch  lens  which  they  subsequently  made 
upon  the  same  plan  was  completed  on  July  8  of  that  year.  My 
absence  during  the  summer  in  Colorado,  with  the  intention  of 
selecting  a  place  for  the  new  instrument  upon  some  ^mountain  of 
considerable  height,  caused  me  to  overlook  the  account  of  the 
English  invention  in  the  Observato>y.  Since  my  return,  the 
telescope  has  been  mounted  in  Cambridge,  on  the  grounds  of 


April  12,  1888] 


NATURE 


559 


this  institution,  where  it  is  found  to  give  highly  satisfactory 
results.  Photographs  of  rj  Orionis  which  have  been  made  with 
it  exhibit  the  elongation  of  the  star,  although  the  distance 
between  its  components  is  only  about  l".  The  newspaper 
report  to  which  Sir  Howard  Grubb  refers,  that  a  patent  was 
granted  for  the  invention,  is  without  foundation.  The  Messrs. 
Clark  have  never  patented  any  of  the  improvements  made  by 
them  in  optics,  and  have  had  no  intention  of  deviating  from 
their  usual  practice  in  this  instance. 

Edward  C.  Pickering. 
Harvard  College  Observatory,  Cambridge,  U.S.,  March  26. 


Life  of  Fleeming  Jenkin. 

I  HAVE  read  with  singular  pain  a  paragraph  in  your  notice 
(signed  with  the  initials  of  one  whom  I  admire  and  respect)  of 
my  Life  of  Fleeming  Jenkin.  To  accuse  a  man  of  falsehood  in 
private  life  is  a  strong  step.  But  I  must  explain  to  your  reviewer, 
I  might  lie  to  him  all  day  long  and  not  be  so  disgraced  as  if  I 
put  one  single  falsehood  in  a  book.  For  the  making  of  books 
is  my  trade  by  which  I  live  ;  I  supply  them  on  honour,  and  the 
public  gives  me  bread  for  them  in  confidence.  Your  reviewer 
will  perhaps  more  readily  understand  what  he  has  done  (I  am 
sure  in  ignorance)  if  I  supply  him  with  a  parallel.  To  say  that 
a  man  of  science  was  a  liar  would  be  highly  disagreeable  ;  but 
if  I  were  to  say  he  had  falsified  an  experiment,  and  to  say  so 
publicly  in  print,  I  should  be  curious  to  see  the  expression  of  his 
face. 

I  dwell  upon  this  because  it  is  plain  your  reviewer  scarcely 
understands  what  literature  is,  and  I  fear  others  may  be  equally 
at  sea.  On  the  merely  personal  matter,  that  I  am  supposed  to 
tell  a  deliberate  falsehood  on  my  own  authority  and  about  my 
dead  friend,  I  will  make  but  one  remark.  Hasty  reading  is  the 
fit  precursor  of  hasty  writing  ;  in  no  word  have  I  indicated  that 
the  certificate  in  question  was  "worthy  the  name";  and  the 
terms  of  the  document  are  at  the  reviewer's  service  to-morrow, 
if  he  be  curious.  Robert  Louis  Stevenson. 

March  28. 


THE  HITTITES,  WITH  SPECIAL  REFERENCE 
TO   VERY  RECENT  DISCOVERIES. 

in. 

'T^HE  conclusion  has  been  already  expressed  that  the 
-■■  Hittite  inscription  of  the  Tarkutimme  seal  is,  in 
the  main,  ideographic,  and  that  the  phonetic  element  is 
supplementary  ;  that,  in  fact,  regarding  the  figure  of  the 
king  as  part  of  the  inscription,  the  sense  is  fully  given 
without  taking  into  account  the  phonetic  element.  Some 
scholars  and  investigators  have,  however,  taken  a  different 
view.  This  fact,  together  with  the  alleged  resemblance 
of  some  of  the  Hittite  hieroglyphs  to  characters  of  the 
Cypriote  syllabary,  has  had  much  influence  on  certain 
recent  attempts  at  deciphering  the  Hittite  inscriptions. 
With  regard  to  the  alleged  analogy  of  the  Hittite  and 
Cypriote  characters,  it  may  be  allowed  that  the  derivation 
of  the  latter  from  the  former  is  in  itself  by  no  means  im- 
possible. As  yet,  however,  the  evidence  of  such  deriva- 
tion which  has  been  presented  is  certainly  inadequate  : 
to  a  great  extent  it  is  little  better  than  visionary.  More- 
over, if,  from  closeness  of  resemblance  or  otherwise,  satis- 
factory proof  of  the  derivation  had  been  given,  it  would 
by  no  means  necessarily  follow  that,  when  all  or  any  of 
the  Hittite  inscriptions  which  we  possess  were  sculptured, 
the  Hittite  writing  had  become  already  so  far  developed 
that  the  hieroglyphs  generally,  or  in  great  proportion, 
had  acquired  distinct  syllabic  values.  As  to  how  far 
resemblances  between  the  Hittite  and  Cypriote  characters 
give  evidence  of  essential  connection  or  derivation,  the 
reader  may  perhaps  satisfy  himself  by  inspecting  the  list 
given  by  Dr.  Isaac  Taylor  ("The  Alphabet,"  1883)  and 
reproduced  by  Prof  Sayce  in  Wright's  "  Empire  of  the 
Hittites,"  1886,  chap.  xi.     More  extended  lists  have  been 


'  Based  on  Lectures  delivered  by  Mr.  Tho.-nas  Tyler  at  the  British  Museum 
in  January  1888.     Conti.nued  from  p.  540. 


given  by  Captain  Conder  (who  follows  to  a  considerable 
extent  in  the  track  of  Prof  Sayce)  in  the  plates  of  his 
"  Altaic  Hieroglyphs."     But,  as  it  seems  to  me,  in  neither 
case  have  the  Hittite  characters  been  always  given  with 
such   essential   accuracy  as  is  desirable.      This  remark 
applies  more  especially  to   some    of   Captain    Conder's 
figures,    notwithstanding     his    observation    in    "Altaic 
Hieroglyphs,"  p.  35  :  "A  careless  reading  and  confusion 
of  distinct  emblems  must  lead  us  wrong  ;  and  for  this 
reason  exact  copies  are  indispensable."     But,  even  if  this 
objection  be  waived,  the  evidence  must  still  be  regarded 
as  inadequate.     As  to  "the  subject  of  the  inscriptions," 
Captain   Conder  remarks    that  it  "is  exactly  what  we 
should  have  expected.    They  occur  on  statues  of  the  gods, 
and  they  are  invocations  only"  {op.  at.  p.  149).     Now 
that  the  inscriptions  "  occur  on  statues  of  the  gods  "  is 
certainly  not  true  with  regard  to  most  t)f  those  which  are 
known  to  us,  and  as  we  have  them.    The  "  doorway  inscrip- 
tion" in  the  Biitish  Museum  and  the  inscriptions  from 
Hamath  are  connected  with  no  statue  whatever.  In  other 
cases,  where  there  is  a  statue,  or  large  figure  in  relief,  it 
is  by  no  means  to  be  assumed  that  the  figure  is  always 
that   of  a  deity.       But,  as  a  specimen  of  what  Captain 
Conder  finds  in  the  Hittite  inscriptions,  I  may  give  his 
"  free  rendering  "  of  the  first  two  lines  of  that  very  ancient 
inscription  in  the  British  Museum  of  which  I  have  just 
spoken  as  the  "doorway  inscription."      I  give  Captain 
Conder's  "free    rendering"  rather   than  his  "verbatim 
translation,"   as   likely    to    convey    a   less  unfavourable 
impression  : — 

"  I.  Prayers  of  the  Monument  of  Set.  Powerful  words 
for  the  living  fire,  the  Most  High  .  .  .the  divine.  .  .  . 

"  2.  .  .  .  to  .  .  .  (pour  ?)  Tammuz,  Aa,  living  fire.  Most 
High  descending  (propitious  ?)  Thee  strong  Set  .  .  ." 
("Altaic  Hieroglyphs,"  p.  194). 

With  respect  to  utterances  of  this  kind  it  is  not  neces- 
sary to  say  much  more  than  that  they  certainly  have  not 
the  claim  to  consideration  which  would  result  from  a  con- 
nected and  congrous  rendering.  Such  a  rendering  might 
have  been  adduced  as  giving  some  answer  to  the  position 
that  evidence  is  wanting  as  to  the  Hittite  hieroglyphs 
representing,  in  the  main,  syllables  either  in  the  Accadian 
or  Altaic  language,  or  in  any  other  language  whatever. 
Then,  as  to  the  inscriptions  being  concerned  mainly  or 
exclusively  with  theological  prayers  and  invocations,  the 
analogy  of  the  Assyrian  inscriptions — which  the  Tarku- 
timme seal  with  its  cuneiform  legend  itself  suggests — 
would  rather  lead  us  to  expect  that  the  subject-matter  of 
the  inscriptions  is  usually  success  in  war,  with  allusions  to 
the  gods,  and  prayers  and  thanksgivings,  chiefly  in 
relation  to  such  success.  And  this  more  realistic  view  is 
in  accordance  with  the  heads  of  oxen  and  of  asses,  with 
the  clubs  and  the  swords,  and  other  symbols  of  equally 
materialistic  character  which  appear  on  the  inscriptions. 
Moreover,  somewhat  more  than  a  year  ago,  the  IBritish 
Museum  fortunately  obtained  an  engraved  stone  of  un- 
questionable antiquity,  giving  evidence  in  accordance 
with  that  of  the  seal  of  Tarkutimme,  and  tending  to  show 
that  the  Hittite  inscriptions  are  in  the  main  ideographic 
or  pictorial. 

The  allusion  just  made  has  reference  to  a  circular 
haematite  seal  from  Yuzgat,  in  Asia  Minor,  which  was 
added  to  the  antiquarian  treasures  of  the  Museum  in 
October  1886.  Yuzgat  is  not  very  far  from  both  Boghaz- 
Keui  and  Eyuk  ;  therefore  the  discovery  in  this  locality  of 
an  important  Hittite  antiquity  can  scarcely  excite  surprise. 
For  the  present,  the  seal  is  named,  most  conveniently, 
from  the  place  where  it  was  found,  "  the  Yuzgat  seal." 
This  seal  resembles  the  seal  of  Tarkutimme  in  being  cir- 
cular ;  and  the  two  seals  agree  also  with  reference  to  there 
being  an  inner  circle  which  divides  the  figures  or  characters 
round  the  circumference  from  those  in  the  central  space. 
The  seals  differ,  however,  in  size,  the  Yuzgat  seal  being 
much  the  smaller.     The  latter  seal,  moreover,  isnotbilin- 


56o 


NATURE 


[April  12,  1888 


gual,  and  it  has  not  a  convexity  of  surface,  like  the  seal  of 
Tarkutimme.  The  Yuzgat  seal,  in  fact,  is  flat,  with  the 
exception  of  the  central  space,  which  is  concave,  and 
which  consequently  causes  a  central  convexity  in  the 
impression.  On  careful  observation  it  may  be  perceived 
that  the  figures  on  the  circumference  divide  themselves 
into  three  groups.  In  the  centre  of  the  first  group  is  the 
winged  solar  disk  supported  on  a  cone.  It  seems  not 
unlikely  that  this  cone  is  essentially  identical  with  the 
"  king  "-symbol  already  discussed  in  connection  with  the 
Tarkutimme  seal.  Here  it  may  point  to  the  prominence 
and  pre-eminence  of  the  sun-god  as  ruler  of  the  world, 
all  things  animate  and  inanimate  being  subjected  to  his 
sway.  The  solar  king  in  the  centre,  with  the  two  figures, 
one  half-kneeling  and  one  standing,  on  each  side,  constitute 
the  first  group.  These  two  figures  on  each  side  present 
features  of  very  great  interest.  Nearest  to  the  solar 
emblem  are  two  horned  ox-headed  figures,  apparently 
masculine,  with  the  palms  of  the  hands  uplifted,  in  the  act 
of  adoration.  The  ox's  head  is  not  here  presented  in 
profile,  as  is  usually  the  case  on  the  Hittite  monuments, 
but  the  horns  and  ears  and  the  tapering  muzzle  are 
depicted  with  sufficient  clearness.  These  figures  may  be 
taken  as  representing  the   moon-god,  and   recalling  in 


Fig.  G. — The  Yuzgat  seal  in  the  British  Museum  (enlarged). 

their  masculinity  the  Babylonian  moon-god  Sin.  This 
seeming  masculinity  should  be  remembered  if  a  compari- 
son is  made  with  other  ox-  or  cow-headed  figures  of 
deities,  as,  for  example,  those  found  by  Dr.  Schliemann, 
and  about  which  there  was  not  very  long  ago  some  dis- 
cussion. More  distant  from  the  solar  emblem  are  two 
draped  figures  which  we  may  regard  as  types  of  the 
female  deity  Ashtoreth,  viewed  as  a  moon-goddess.  There 
is  tolerably  clear  evidence  that  one  of  these  draped  figures  is 
horned,  and  probably  also  ox-headed.  In  the  case  of  the 
other,  on  account  of  a  flaw  in  the  seal,  this  is  not  equally 
manifest.  Though  the  attitude  is  different,  these  female 
lunar  deities  appear  also  to  be  worshipping  the  sun-god. 
The  lunar  deities,  like  other  figures  on  the  seal,  appear  all 
to  have  turned-up  toes,  indicating  probably  the  so-called 
"Hittite  boots." ^  With  these  figures  of  lunar  deities 
may  be  compared  a  symbol  of  Ashtoreth  as  a  moon- 
goddess   on   the   longest    Hamath  inscription,   giving  a 

'  It  is  worthy  of  note  here  that  about  a  third  of  the  circumference  is  occu- 
pied by  these  sacred  figures.  From  this  fact  may  be  derived  a  probable 
explanation  of  the  vacant  space  over  the  king's  head  in  the  seal  of  Tarku- 
timme {supra,  p.  537).  The  engraver,  we  may  suppose,  when  he  commenced 
engraving  the  king's  name,  intended  to  devote  a  third  of  the  circumference 
to  sacred  objects,  or  at  least  to  leave  it  vacant  as  usually  so  devoted.  He, 
however,  miscalculated  the  space  at  his  disposal.  Resolved,  however,  to 
leave  some  vacant  space  at  the  top,  and  especially  over  the  king's  head,  he 
was  comi>elled  to  leave  a  space  in  the  middle  of  a  word.  Prof  Sayce  has 
given  a  different  explanation  {Zeitschr.  fur  Assyriologie,  November  1886.) 


crescent  moon  with  the  head  of  an  ox  above  and  within 
it,  while  beneath  is  an  equilateral  triangle  or  else  a  cone.^ 
If  we  strike  a  diameter  across  the  seal  from  the  solar 
disk,  it  will  come,  towards  its  extremity,  to  what  is 
apparently  a  king  seated  on  his  throne  and  wearing  a  cap 
with  a  horn  in  front.  Between  the  king  and  the  group  of 
sacred  figures  already  described,  there  is  on  each  side  a 
distinct  group,  making  up  altogether  the  three  groups 
which  I  have  mentioned.  Of  the  two  groups  not  yet 
described  the  more  interesting,  on  account  of  its  resem- 
blance to  what  may  be  seen  on  the  inscriptions,  is  the 
group  behind  the  king.  There  appears  strong  reason 
to  believe  that  in  this  group  we  have  a  genuine 
example  of  picture-writing,  in  which  the  successful  chase 
of  a  stag  is  represented.  There  is  first  (most  remote 
from  the  king)  a  tree,  indicating  the  forest,  where  the 
hunt  occurred.  Then  come  two  javelins,  used  no 
doubt  by  the  hunters  of  the  stag,  and  next  after 
these  there  is  a  sort  of  trident,  employed,  I  should 
suppose,  to  give  the  coup  de  grace,  and  of  this  trident 
I  shall  have  an  additional  word  to  say  directly.  Next  to 
the  trident  we  find  a  bundle,  or  basket  with  a  handle,  which 
naturally  suggests  the  idea  of  carrying.  Then  there  is  a 
stag's  head  with  large  antlers,  and  beneath  it  two  arms 
with  hands  pointing  towards  the  king.  As  the  king  is 
sitting  with  his  face  towards  the  gi'oup  of  figures  in  front 
of  him,  the  engraver,  in  order  to  denote  the  king's  accept- 
ance of  the  stag's  head  (which  may  represent  the  whole 


Fig.  H.— Symbol  of  Ashtoreth,  on  Hamath  inscription. 

Stag),  has  given  on  the  other  side,  and  above  the  king's 
arm  outstretched  to  receive  it,  the  stag's  head  a  second 
time,  of  smaller  size  and  consequently  somewhat  less 
artistically  rendered.  In  the  third  group,  beginning  with 
the  figure  most  distant  from  the  king,  we  have  what  is 
very  likely  a  tributary  king,  bringing  a  gift  or  tribute. 
Before  him  is  what  I  take  to  be  a  woman  veiled  after  the 
Oriental  fashion,  and  with  probably  a  baby  suspended 
from  her  arm.  With  this  appendage  she  may  possibly 
have  been  regarded  as  likely  to  prove  more  acceptable 
to  the  king.  Between  the  woman  and  the  king  is  what  I 
have  regarded  as  a  conventional  symbol  of  a  castle, 
indicating  that  the  presents  were  received  by  the  king  in 
his  castle.  The  symbol  is  difficult  to  determine  ;  but  I 
cannot  find  any  more  probable  explanation.  What  it  is 
particularly  important  to  observe  is,  that  the  other  two 
groups  on  the  circumference  of  the  seal  being  pictorial  or 
ideographic,  it  is  scarcely  possible  to  escape  the  conclu- 
sion that  the  third  group — that  which  I  have  regarded  as 
representing  the  successful  chase  of  a  stag — is  of  the  like 
character. 

Of  the  objects  in  the  central  space  I  am  unable  to 
speak  with  any  confidence.  They  may  be  so  placed  as 
objects  of  interest  merely,  or,  taken  phonetically,  they 
may  denote  a  name.  There  is  a  crescent,  beneath  it  a 
nearly  semicircular  knife  with  a  handle  (if  it  is  not 
possibly  a  ladle  seen  in  profile),  a  mace  or  club,  a  sort  of 
grating,  and  a  trident  smaller   than   that  in  the   outer 

'^  Mr.  Rylands's  drawing  of  the  inscription  gives  the  former,  and  this  may 
possibly  be  right,  though  the  cast  of  the  inscription  in  the  British  Museum 
does  not  make  this  altogether  clear.  The  original  is  unfortunately  at 
Constantinople. 


April  12,  1888] 


NATURE 


561 


circle.  Besides  these  objects,  there  is  an  equilateral 
triangle,  like  eleven  others  among  the  syrhbols  in  the  outer 
circle.  I  was  inclined  to  think  that  these  triangles  might 
perhaps  in  some  way  modify  the  meaning  of  the  other 
symbols,  till  I  noticed  that  not  only  does  their  size  differ, 
but  also  that  the  vertex  of  the  triangle,  usually  directed 
upwards,  may  be  directed  downwards  to  suit  better  the 
shape  of  the  surrounding  area.  This  is  clearly  seen  in 
the  space  between  the  larger  stag's  head  and  the  king. 
We  cannot,  however,  come  to  the  conclusion  that  these 
triangles  are  employed  merely  for  artistic  effect,  and  to 
fill  up  vacant  spaces,  even  if  these  objects  were  not  wholly 
disregarded.  The  recently-discovered  Tarsus  seal  gives 
important  evidence  in  favour  of  the  sacredness  of  the 
equilateral  triangle.  We  must  conclude  that  the  triangle 
is  employed  on  the  Yuzgat  seal  as  a  sacred  symbol,  and 
that  as  such  its  vertex  is  usually  directed  upward,  but 
that  this  position  is  sometimes  varied  in  accordance  with 
the  exigencies  of  space. 

With  regard  to  the  group  on  the  seal,  concerned  with 
the  chase  of  a  stag,  I  have  spoken  of  its  resemblance  to 
what  may  be  seen  on  the  Hittite  inscriptions.  This  is 
especially  noteworthy  with  regard  to  the  group  repre- 
sented in  Fig.  1,  from  the  so-called  doorway  inscription 
in  the  British  Museum.  Progress  in  decipherment  is  not 
as  yet  sufficiently  advanced  to  enable  us  to  determine  the 
precise  significance  of  all  the  symbols,  but  of  the  general 
meaning  there  seems  no  room  to  doubt.  Beginning  from 
the  end  of  the  figure  to  the  reader's  right,  the  meaning 


Fig.  I. — Group  of  symbols  from  Jerajjlus  monument  in  the  British  Museum. 

intended  to  be  conveyed  appears  to  be  that  booty  in  the 
shape  of  many  oxen,  asses,  and  other  treasure,  which  had 
been  obtained  by  the  powerful  assistance  of  the  gods,  was 
presented  to  the  king.  The  parallelogram  with  a  square 
on  each  side  I  regard  as  indicating  "  many."  That  this 
was  the  sign  of  plurality  was  the  opinion  of  my  distin- 
guished friend,  the  late  Dr.  Birch.  The  head  of  the  ox 
and  of  the  ass  do  not  seem  to  require  remark  ;  but  above 
the  latter  is  a  massive  and  powerful  right  hand,  with 
fingers  clenched,  and  with  part  of  the  fore-arm.  This 
would  be  a  very  appropriate  symbol  of  strength  or  power.^ 
Close  above  the  right  hand,  and  at  the  top,  are  a  straight 
stroke,  or  parallelogram,  with  a  crescent  beside  it.  These 
symbols  combine  to  form  the  usual  symbol  of  deity  on  the 
Jerablus  monuments.  I  can  only  assert  this  now  ;  but 
the  evidence  is  abundant,  and  I  hope  to  prove  it  fully  in 
the  sequel.  Next  after  the  closed  fist  with  the  symbol  of 
deity  comes  part  of  an  arm  with  the  hand  open  and 
pointing  towards  the  king.  The  analogy  between  this  hand 
and  those  beneath  the  stag's  head  on  the  Yuzgat  seal  is 
almost  too  obvious  to  require  remark.  Of  the  value  of 
the  two  crescents,  which  are,  so  to  speak,  back  to  back — 
a  symbol  not  uncommon  on  other  inscriptions — I  cannot 
speak  with  any  confidence.^  At  the  bottom  is  a  foot, 
which  would  very  appropriately  denote  the  act  of  going 
to  the  king.     Next  to  the  open  hand  at  top  is  a  symbol 

'  Cf.  "  The  saving  strength  of  his  right  hand  "  ^Psalm  xx.  6),  and  "  his 
right  hand,  and  his  holy  arm,  hath  gotten  him  the  victory  "  (Psalm  xcviii.  i). 
But  the  figurative  use  of  the  right  hand  as  a  symbol  of  strength  presents  no 
difficulty. 

'^  It  seems  not  unlikely,  however,  having  regard  to  the  symbols  which  the 
two  crescents  accompany  here  and  elsewhere,  that  they  distinguish  a  parti- 
cular kind  or  class  of  persons. 


the  origin  of  which  Mr.  Rylands,  to  the  best  of  my  recol- 
lection, formerly  referred  to  a  bag  grasped  and  pressed 
together  a  little  below  its  mouth,  by  a  hand.  If  this  view 
is  correct,  this  symbol  has  become,  like  many  others, 
somewhat  conventionalized.  The  bag  is  depicted  so  as 
to  enable  us  to  see  within  it  at  the  bottom.  Here  are 
three  objects,  probably  pieces  of  gold  or  silver  used  as 
uncoined  money  ;  and  the  number  three  may,  as  else- 
where, denote  a  great  many.  Beneath  the  bag  is  what 
has  been  regarded  as  a  yoke  ;  and,  having  regard  to  the 
bundle  or  basket  on  the  Yuzgat  seal,  this  may  very  well 
denote  the  carrying  to  the  king.  Last  comes  the  head  of 
the  king  himself,  with  conical  cap  and  "  pig-tail,"  and 
above  him  is  a  symbol  which  is  perhaps  best  regarded 
as  derived  from  the  idea  of  a  canopy  above  the  king.  As 
on  the  Yuzgat  seal,  the  king's  face  is  turned  away,  but 
this  is  because  the  inscription  is  intended  to  be  read  with 
the  faces — that  is,  in  the  direction  towards  which  the  faces 
point — and  not,  as  some  have  asserted,  against  the  faces. 
The  former  arrangement  is  the  more  natural,  and 
would  have  a  priori  the  greater  probability,  but  the 
latter  is  commonly,  though,  as  Dr.  Birch  once  said  with 
reference  to  this  point,  not  invariably,  observed  on  the 
Egyptian  monuments.  In  support  of  the  latter  view  it  is 
alleged  that  there  is  usually,  at  one  end  of  the  first  line 
of  the  inscriptions,  part  of  a  figure  with  the  face  turned 
away  from  the  other  characters  in  the  line,  but  with  the 
fingers  pointing  towards  the  face  or  mouth,  as  though 
indicating  "  I  have  something  to  say."     This  figure,  it  is 


Fig.  K. — Figure  from  Jerablus  monument  in  the  British  Museum. 

urged,  must  mark  the  beginning  of  the  inscription,  and,  as 
the  face  is  turned  away,  the  characters  must  be  read 
against  the  faces.  But,  in  the  first  place,  the  figure 
referred  to  occurs  elsewhere,  and  not  solely  and  invariably 
at  one  end  (to  the  reader's  right)  of  the  first  line.  The 
significance  of  the  figure  is,  in  all  probability,  as  stated,  but, 
as  the  figure  is  evidently  that  of  a  servant  or  minister,  and 
not  that  of  the  king  or  other  great  personage  with  whose 
doings  the  inscription  may  be  supposed  to  be  concerned, 
we  should  expect  in  the  first  place,  and  before  the  particular 
message,  or  the  subject-matter  of  the  inscription,  is 
entered  upon,  a  statement  of  the  name  and  titles  of  the 
person  from  whom  the  message  proceeds.  At  the  com- 
mencement of  the  Assyrian  inscriptions  there  is  often  a 
very  copious  statement  of  this  kind.  And  in  fact  on  three 
of  the  Hamath  inscriptions  there  is  what  appears  to  be  a 
name  immediately  before  the  figure  with  the  hand  towards 
the  mouth.  The  group  of  symbols  discussed  just  above 
gives  pretty  strong  evidence  as  to  the  direction  in  which 
the  inscription  in  which  they  occur  is  to  be  read  ;  and  I 
hope  to  give  sojne  further  evidence  on  this  point  in  the 
sequel. 

A  word  must  be  here  added  with  respect  to  the  trident 
on  the  Yuzgat  seal.  The  trident  is  more  usually  as- 
sociated with  the  sea  and  the  sea-god  than  with  warfare 
on  land,  or  the  chase.  It  was  employed,  indeed,  in  the 
Roman  arena  ;  but,  as  the  gladiator  using  it  was  furnished 
also  with  a  net,  there  may  seem  to  be  still  some  reminis- 
cence of  the  sea.  With  regard  to  the  trident  being 
employed  in  the  chase,  I  may  adduce  the  evidence  of 
a  curious  seal-impression  which  I  obtained  some  time  ago 
from  Mr.  Ready,  of  the  British  Museum.     The   objects 


562 


NA  TURE 


\Apr2L' 


12,    I 


depicted  are  apparently  the  head  of  an  animal,  probably 
some  kind  of  goat  or  ibex,  parts  of  the  animal's  carcass, 
and  a  trident  essentially  similar  to  those  on  the  Yuz- 
gat   seal.      Mr.   Ready   is    unable    to   tell  me   in   what 


Fig.  L — Seal  with  figures  (enlarged). 

collection  this  curious  seal,  which  is  very  small,  is  to  be 
found.  So  far  as  I  am  aware,  it  is  not  in  the  British 
Museum. 


PRACTICAL  EDUCATION. 

PLAINLY  speaking,  it  must  be  admitted  that  to  an 
impartial  observer  the  great  problem  of  anthropo- 
logy is  this:  Is  the  mind,  or  soul,  a  mysterious  and 
supernatural,  yet  at  the  same  time  a  definite  limited 
quantity.,  with  certain  set  "  spiritual  "  functions,  or  is  it, 
being  of  material  growth,  capable  of  infinite  develop- 
ment ?  The  former  is  the  metaphysical  view  of  the  sub- 
ject, the  latter  that  of  the  evolutionary  physiologist. 
Without  deciding  which  is  -the  true  school,  it  may  be 
remarked  that  the  metaphysicians  have  long  ceased  to 
teach  anything  new,  while  physiology  gives  us,  almost 
daily,  facts  of  an  astonishing  nature.  Here  and  there  in 
the  works  of  Darwin,  Carpenter,  Haeckel,  Huxley,  Bain, 
Maudsley,  Spencer,  and  David  Kay,  we  find  what  would 
have  been  "  conclusions  most  forbidden,"  even  to  a 
Rosicrucian  or  Cabalist,  in  days  of  yore.  And  these  are 
that  man  may  develop  his  memory  and  other  faculties  in 
the  simplest  and  most  practical  manner,  as  a  bee  builds 
its  combs,  grain  by  grain,  until  he  shall  far  surpass  what 
he  has  ever  been.  These  discoveries  as  to  man  are  in 
exact  step  with  the  stupendous  revelations  of  the 
spectrum  analysis,  and  the  scientific  reduction  of  the 
elements. 

I  recently  published  a  work,  the  result  of  many  years' 
labour,  entitled  "  Practical  Education,"  in  which  I  en- 
deavoured to  give  the  results  of  experiments  with  nearly 
two  thousand  pupils,  combined  with  the  suggestions  in 
the  works  of  the  writers  above  alluded  to.^  Having  long 
been  occupied  with  investigating  the  problem  of  technical 
education,  I  offered  to  the  School  Board  of  Philadelphia, 
in  1880,  to  devote  myself  entirely  to  the  experiment  of 
ascertaining  exactly  what  children  could  do.  That  boys 
and  girls  from  eight  to  fourteen  years  of  age  could  not 
set  type,  make  shoes,  execute  heavy  carpenters'  work,  &c., 
had  already  been  ascertained  in  Pennsylvania  at  a  cost 
of  about  ^200,000.  I  had,  however,  learned  in  Egypt, 
South  Germany,  and  other  places,  that  the  very  young 
can  execute  the  decorative  work  which  is  known  as  that 
of  the  minor  arts,  and  that  so  well  that  it  had  Ja  market 
value. 

Walter  Smith,  now  of  Bradford,  had  published  a  system 
by  which  design  was  taught  at  the  same  time  with  draw- 
ing. I  had,  two  years  before  I  met  with  Smith's  system, 
which  is  now  much  employed  in  America,  set  forth  the 
same  idea  in  a  work  entitled  "  The  Minor  Arts."  It  soon 
became  apparent  that,  by  beginning  with  design,  the 
youngest  child  developed — with  invention — interest,  atten- 
tion, and  intelligence.  The  results  went  far  beyond  my 
anticipation.  It  was  found  by  the  most  careful  inquiry 
that  the  pupils  who  attended  the  art  classes  had  the 
highest  "averages"  in  other  studies,  such  as  arithmetic, 

'f'  "Practical    Education"   (London:    Whittaker    and    Co.,    Paternoster 
Square). 


geography,  and  composition.  This  fact  is  the  more 
striking  from  this — that  the  School  Board,  having  made  in- 
quiries unknown  to  me,  found  that  among  110,000  pupils 
the  200  who  attended  the  Industrial  Art  School  were 
among  the  first  in  everything. 

An  immediate  inference  from  this  fact  is  that  visual 
perception  or  eye-memory  (as  set  forth  by  Francis  Galton) 
and  attention  or  interest  (as  explained  by  Dr.  Maudsley) 
are  also  factors  which  enter  into  the  training  of  the 
constructive  faculty.  These,  as  is  clearly  explained  and 
very  fully  illustrated  by  David  Kay  in  his  admirable 
work  on  "  Memory,"  lead  us  to  the  conclusion  that 
memory,  by  a  simple  process  of  accretion  and  repeti- 
tion, may  be  developed  to  an  incredible  extent  even  in 
children.  Practically,  this  was  nothing  new.  Before  the 
invention  of  printing,  men  by  millions,  among  Druids  and 
Brahmins  and  Northmen,  Red  Indians  and  medicCval 
scholars,  Chinese  and  Japanese,  had  shown  that  an 
individual  could  remember  perfectly  what  is  now  repre- 
sented by  a  library.  Max  Miiller  has  proved  this.  I 
myself  have  known  a  graduate  of  Pekin  who  fully 
illustrated  it. 

Memory  is  not  "mind"  or  intelligence.  Yet  the 
works  of  Homer,  the  "  Mahabharata,"  and  the  great 
scientific  grammar  of  Panini,  were  taken  down  and 
preserved  for  centuries  by  memory  alone.  The  great 
history  of  Japan,  by  Hirata  Atsune,  was  composed  with- 
out the  author's  taking  a  note,  and  written  from  recollec- 
tion, without  reference  to  an  original  work.  What  man 
has  done  man  may  do.  The  deduction  from  all  this  is  as 
follows  : — 

Firstly,  that  memory  may  be  trained  in  mere  children, 
by  an  easy  process  of  committing  by  heart  and  constant 
reviewing,  to  such  an  extent  that,  guided  by  attention  or 
determination,  anything  once  read  or  seen  may  be  accu- 
rately recalled.  A  great  collection  of  illustrations  of  this 
may  be  found  in  Kay's  "  Memory,"  and  in  my  own  work 
on  "  Practical  Education." 

Secondly,  that  to  counterbalance  mere  memory  the 
mind  must  be  trained  by  exercises  in  quickness  of  per- 
ception. These,  in  the  beginning,  may  be  merely 
mechanical.  There  are  steps  from  inducing  an  infant  to 
notice  an  orange  on  the  floor  up  to  simple  games,  from 
games  to  mental  arithmetic  or  mental  geography  and 
grammar,  to  problems  requiring  the  highest  intelligence. 
The  process  is  like  that  in  developing  memory — little  by 
little  with  constant  reviewing.  And,  as  is  the  case  with 
memory,  all  this  has  been  established  by  innumerable 
practical  examples.  But  with  the  one,  as  with  the  other^ 
there  should  be  no  endeavour  to  cultivate  thought  or 
intellect  or  imagination  until  both  are  fairly  mastered. 

Thirdly,  memory  and  quickness  of  perception  blend 
and  are  developed  in  the  awakening  of  the  constructive 
faculty  or  in  design,  and  its  application  to  modelling, 
embroidery,  wood-carving,  and  similar  easy  arts.  And  to 
those  who  object  that  all  this  does  not  awaken  the  higher 
faculty  of  intelligence  or  thought,  it  may  be  replied  that 
experience  or  experiment  have  demonstrated  the  con- 
trary. It  is  true  beyond  denial  that  a  boy  or  girl  who 
remembers  readily  and  perceives  quickly,  and  who  has. 
been  trained  to  invention  by  designing,  does  think.  Call 
them,  if  we  will,  only  the  tools  of  the  great  trade  of 
thought,  and  a  training  to  their  use,  is  there  no  difference 
between  two  children  of  equal  capacity,  brought  into  a 
shop,  when  one  knows  what  everything  around  is  meant 
for,  and  how  to  handle  it,  when  the  other  is  yet  to  be 
taught  ?  But  the  fact  is  beyond  all  dispute  that  children, 
even  if  trained  to  design  alone,  begin  to  think  in  every 
way.  The  experience  of  the  Philadelphia  school,  and 
more  or  less  that  of  every  well-conducted  Kindergarten,, 
prove  it.  The  trouble  is,  according  to  the  requirements 
of  a  late  review,  that  people  ask  for  genius  at  once  from 
an  infant.  "Teaching  children  to  remember  is  not 
training  them  to  think."     But  it  is  the  foundation-stone. 


April  12,  1888] 


NATURE 


563 


It  is  the  giving  them  the  faculty  to  collect  material  to 
employ  thought.  Quickness  of  perception  is  the  next 
stage  of  the  building.  It  awakens  a  sense  of  the  relations 
which  things  remembered  bear  to  one  another.  But  the 
most  illiterate  man  would  not  deny  that  a  boy  with  a 
good  memory,  who  is  "  sharp  to  notice  everything,"  is  not 
far  off  from  being  clever.  Does  not  this,  indeed,  consti- 
tute about  all  the  cleverness  which  practical  life  requires.'' 
But  it  is  most  unfair  that  any  man,  who  has  not  examined 
the  evidence,  or  read  the  facts  which  have  been  accumu- 
lated to  show  that  extraordinary  quickness  of  perception 
of  every  kind  can  be  induced  by  proper  training,  should 
at  once  declare  it  to  be  impossible.  It  is  a  question  not 
for  metaphysical  a  priori  assumption,  but  for  scientific 
research,  experiment,  and  test. 

To  render  what  I  have  said  clearer,  I  would  add  that, 
if  we  begin  by  memorizing  mere  words,  and  nothing  else, 
without  any  special  effort  to  attach  meaning  to  them,  or 
only  just  so  much  as  will  aid  in  the  work,  the  pupil  will, 
in  a  short  time,  acquire  a  mechanical  faculty  for  remem- 
bering. As  soon  as  this  becomes  habitual,  easy  lessons 
which,  so  to  speak,  explain  themselves,  are  introduced, 
and  so,  step  by  step,  with  great  care  the  learner  is  led  to 
acquire  that  which  involves  intelligence.  Now,  the  whole 
system  lies  in  this  :  that  what  a  boy  or  girl  perfectly  re- 
members is  easier  to  understand  than  when  it  is  only  half 
grasped.  As  it  is,  we  begin  in  teaching  a  language  by 
requiring  a  child  to  learn  all  at  once  to  remember  words, 
to  pronounce  them,  and  to  master  their  grammatical 
structure  and  relations.  I  never  knew  of  but  one  instance 
in  my  life  in  which  anybody  over  twenty-five  years  of  age 
ever  learned  to  speak  P'rench  like  a  native.  This  was  a 
lady,  who,  before  learning  the  meaning  of  a  word,  passed 
several  months  in  mastering  the  pronunciation.  Schlie- 
mann,  the  excavator  of  Hissarlik,  who  for  many  years 
learned  a  language  every  six  months,  advocates  this  sys- 
tem. By  learning  one  thing  at  a  time,  at  first,  we  are  far 
better  able  to  acquire  several  things  at  once  in  a  more 
advanced  stage.  In  acquiring  quickness  of  perception, 
as  in  memorizing,  the  processes  are  identical — they  begin 
by  the  simplest  mechanical  methods,  and  advance  to  the 
most  refined. 

The  same  development  in  a  commensurate  manner  is  ob- 
served in  teaching  industrial  art.  To  give  a  child,  or  even  a 
dull  adult,  some  idea  of  design,  I  would  allow  him  or  her 
to  group  cardboard  leaves  into  a  pattern,  and  trace  round 
them  with  a  pencil  till  the  fingers  became  familiar  with 
the  implement.  There  are  not  many  cases  in  which  this 
is  advisable,  but,  having  tried  it  many  times,  I  can  assure 
those  who  have  not  that  it  does  not  in  the  least  degree 
prevent  beginners  from  acquiring  the  boldest  freehand 
practice.  The  more  pains  we  take  with  the  rudiments  of 
every  kind  of  culture,  the  easier  is  the  acquisition  of 
advanced  branches. 

The  age  is  now  being  called  on  to  face  a  great  prob- 
lem. It  is  that  of  over- pressure.  From  every  side  we 
hear  in  every  newspaper  of  a  thousand  things  which 
everybody  is  assumed  to  know.  A  certain  great  thinker 
— or  writer — was  said  to  have  tested  in  vain  "  the  Ameri- 
can mind,"  by  asking  everyone  he  met  in  the  United 
States,  "  Have  you  read  Obermann?"  It  was  not  true, 
but  it  was  truthful  because  it  might  have  been,  and 
because  it  truly  represents  the  current  pedantry  of  re- 
quiring, as  a  proof  of  culture,  a  knowledge  of  every 
German,  Swiss,  or  French  introversial-  transcendental-  or 
sentimental-ist.  It  is  as  true  of  society  as  of  the  school. 
*'  Shall  the  meeting-house  be  moved  away  from  the 
growing  dung-hill,  or  the  dung-hill  from  the  meeting- 
house?" Such  was  the  great  problem  which  was  dis- 
cussed by  a  Yankee  town  council.  Shall  we  go  on 
increasing  the  branches  of  popular  education,  or  reduce 
them  ?  Why  not  try  the  experiment  of  ascertaining 
whether  the  pupil  will  not  learn  more  by  first  acquiring 
the  art  of  learning  .''    That  is  the  problem  which  we  are 


all  bound  to  discuss  sooner  or  later.  It  cannot  be  evaded. 
It  is  forcing  itself  upon  us  from  every  side.  A  perusal 
of  all  the  London  reviews  or  magazines  for  a  month  is 
enough  to  make  any  polyhistor — if  such  a  man  exists — 
feel  like  an  ignoramus.  It  is  becoming  a  clear  case  of 
non  possumus,  as  the  Chicago  Professor  declared  when 
he  recognized  the  impossibility  of  shooting  two  'possums 
with  only  one  ball.  Either  the  capacities  must  be  in- 
creased, or  the  contents  diminished.  And  that  the 
powers  of  memory,  perceptiveness,  and  construction  can, 
by  a  very  easy  system  of  rudimentary  culture,  be  deve- 
loped to  what  would  seem  to  be  miraculous,  is  in  accord- 
ance with  the  teachings  of  the  most  advanced  men  of 
science,  and  is  established  by  innumerable  facts.  All  that 
is  needed  now  is  to  combine  into  a  single  system  the 
truths  which  have  hitherto  been  scattered,  and  to  make 
that  a  subject  of  general  education  which  has  been 
illustrated  only  by  separate  examples. 

It  was  seriously  objected,  when  I  for  the  first  time 
undertook  to  make  industrial  art  a  regular  branch  of 
instruction  in  public  schools,  that  the  number  of  children 
who  had  any  capacity  or  gi/l  for  such  a  study,  or  enough 
to  make  it  advantageous,  was  so  limited  that  it  would 
not  be  worth  while  to  try  the  experiment.  The  result  of 
several  years'  teaching  was  that  while  among  nearly  two 
thousand  pupils  only  one  or  two  were  found  who  had  this 
"  gift,"  there  was  not  one  single  child  who  was  not  abund- 
antly capable  of  learning  decorative  design,  and  master- 
ing the  minor  arts.  Precisely  the  same  thing  is  being  said 
as  regards  teaching  memory  and  perception.  "  It  will  suc- 
ceed with  geniuses,  but  not  with  all."  Now,  it  is  an  extra- 
ordinary thing,  and  one  to  be  specially  noted,  that  the 
antecedent  proofs  and  probabilities  that  every  child  can 
become  a  clever  artistic  artisan  were  very  few  and  far 
between  compared  to  those  which  illustrate  the  truth  that 
the  other  faculties  in  question  may  be  as  generally  ac- 
quired. Secondly,  it  was  urged  against  the  one,  as  it  is 
now  being  urged  against  the  other,  "  Where  will  you  find 
teachers  ? "  They  were  speedily  found  in  the  art  school, 
for  we  soon  developed  them  from  among  our  pupils,  while 
I  had  in  addition  a  class  of  grown-up  ladies  who  were 
specially  educated  as  instructors.  But  the  great  objection, 
and  the  one  which  to  this  day  perplexes  the  majority  of 
people,  is,  "  What  profit  is  there  in  teaching  pattern  draw- 
ing, modelling  shoes  or  leaves,  carving  patterns  or 
hammering  brass  ?  Will  it  pay  ?  Can  a  boy  make  a 
living  by  it  ?"  This  is  precisely  the  problem  proposed  by 
Sam  Welter's  school-boy,  who  had  indeed  learned  the 
alphabet,  but  doubted  whether  it  was  worth  while  going 
through  so  much  to  learn  so  little.  "  Is  it  not  better  to 
teach  boys  a  trade .?  "  is  heard  on  every  side  in  answer  to 
the  assertion  that  boys  and  girls  of  tender  age  should 
be  prepared  to  begin  to  study  one.  In  exactly  the 
same  spirit  a  reviewer  declares  that  "  we  shall  do 
well  to  ask  ourselves  whether  it  is  not  more  important 
to  teach  our  children  to  think  than  to  remember,  and 
whether  a  great  deal  of  the  matter  with  which  children  are 
expected  to  load  their  memories  is  not  lumber."  This  is 
quite  equivalent  to  declaring  that  it  is  much  more  sen- 
sible to  teach  boys  algebra  than  have  them  waste  time  in 
learning  the  numerals  or  simple  arithmetic.  If  the  writer 
in  question  had  ever  read  even  a  little  in  physiology,  he 
might  have  learned  that  it  is  estimated  that  there  are  from 
600,000,000  to  1,200,000,000  of  nerve-cells  in  the  brain  for 
the  generation  of  nerve  force,  and  the  moulding  and  storing 
up  of  our  ideas,  each  having  a  separate  existence,  while 
Prof  Baingives  the  number  of  fibres  which  transmit  impres- 
sions at  about  5,000,000,000.  Now,  if  any  of  the  objectors 
to  "  overloading  "  the  memory  do  so  because  they  find 
they  are  themselves  already  perilously  near  to  possessing 
one  thousand  two  hundred  million  ideas,  and  really  can- 
not hold  any  more,  nothing  remains  to  be  said.  Truly,  it 
has  been  carefully  calculated  that  for  the  most  retentive 
and  richly  endowed  minds  there  are  only  about  200,000 


564 


NATURE 


{April  12,  1888 


acquisitions  of  the  assumed  types,  but  the  amount  of 
genius  which  a  reviewer  must  possess  must  far  transcend 
this  if  he  can  prove  that  people  should  learn  to  think 
before  they  can  remember  anything. 

Ten  years  ago  the  training  of  children  to  work  while 
studying  was  deemed  chimerical.  "  It  had  been  tried," 
we  were  told,  "  and  it  had  failed."  But  it  had  not  been 
tried  properly  or  sensibly.  Ten  years  hence  memory  and 
quickness  of  perception  will  also  be  taught  to  classes  of 
pupils  as  a  preparation  for  thought.  What  man  has  been 
we  all  know,  but  what  man  may  be  no  one  can  tell.  This 
only  is  certain,  that  Science  now  holds  in  her  hand,  at  last, 
the  key  to  Nature,  and  that  ere  a  decade  shall  pass 
there  will  be  such  revolutions  as  no  supernaturalist  ever 
dreamed  of  Charles  G.  Leland. 


TELEGRAPHS  IN  CHINA. 

''pHE  progress  of  China  is  by  no  means  so  rapid  as 
-*■  some  interested  persons  would  have  us  believe,  but 
beyond  doubt  the  empire  is  at  last  moving  in  a  direction 
favourable  to  the  adoption  of  Western  arts  and  sciences. 
The  simple  fact  that  telegraphs  are  being  provided 
there  is  in  itself  evidence  of  the  wonderful  change  which 
has  taken  place  in  the  past  few  years  in  the  attitude  of  the 
ruling  body,  and  which  not  even  the  most  sanguine  among 
us  could  reasonably  have  anticipated,  to  go  no  farther 
back  than  the  period  of  the  Chefoo  Convention  in 
1877. 

When,  however,  we  find  it  announced  that  a  complete 
network,  as  it  were,  of  telegraphic  connections  is  in  course 
of  formation  there,  it  may  be  worth  our  while  to  ascertain 
whether  the  foundation  of  this  statement  is  sound  and 
trustworthy ;  and  in  making  an  examination  we  shall  find  it 
convenient  to  refer  to  the  substantial  progress  made  and 
the  elaborate  system  which  exists,  not  merely  upon  paper, 
but  in  absolute  perfection,  no  farther  away  from  China  than 
thirty-six  hours'  journey  by  steamer. 

Japan  may  indeed  lay  claim  to  the  possession  of  a  net- 
work of  telegraphs  ;  and  to  obtain  an  idea  of  the  work  to 
be  done  in  China  before  a  similar  claim  can  be  established 
there,  we  need  onlyreflect  that  taking  mileage  and  popula- 
tion into  consideration  the  whole  of  the  Japanese  Empire 
could  conveniently  be  deposited  within  the  boundaries  of 
even  one  of  the  eighteen  provinces  of  the  Flowery  Land. 
To  arrive  at  a  basis  of  calculation,  therefore,  we  should 
have  to  multiply  the  total  length  of  the  existing  Japanese 
telegraph  lines  at  least  ten  times  before  any  comparison 
could  be  instituted.  If  we  were  to  contrast  the  East  and 
West,  which,  however,  would  be  scarcely  fair,  we  should 
find  that  a  telegraphic  system  as  the  term  is  understood 
in  Europe  means  something  yet  immeasurably  more 
extensive  and  intricate. 

Casting  aside,  then,  the  extravagant  impressions  which 
are  often  conveyed  by  the  brief  telegraphic  intelligence 
which  reaches  us  periodically  from  the  Far  East,  it  is 
matter  for  congratulation  that  the  outlying  provinces  of 
China  are  gradually  being  brought  into  communication 
with  the  capital  by  the  aid  of  electricity.  Yunnan,  on  the 
extreme  south-western  border,  has  recently  been  connected, 
and  other  equally  remote  provinces  will  doubtless  be 
reached  without  loss  of  time.  With  millions  of  labourers 
ready  to  work,  the  guiding  and  controlling  forces,  if 
present  in  sufficient  numbers,  might  carry  on  opera- 
tions simultaneously,  if  necessary,  in  all  the  eighteen 
provinces.  And  undoubtedly  there  will  be  a  decided 
advantage  in  throwing  up  the  lines  in  almost  any  fashion 
so  long  as  they  can  be  made  to  convey  a  message,  if  even, 
as  is  most  probable,  the  entire  system  has  to  be  recon- 
structed at  no  distant  date.  The  main  object  is  to  so 
familiarize  the  natives  of  the  interior  with  the  aspect  of 


these  intrusive  posts  and  wires,  that  they  will  combine  to 
protect  rather  than  destroy  them.  And  here  we  are 
reminded  of  one  point  in  which  the  Chinaman  differs 
essentially  from  his  near  neighbour  the  Japanese.  When 
first  telegraphs  were  introduced  in  Japan,  in  i87i,the  most 
violent  opposition  was  encountered  in  the  more  remote 
regions  at  the  hands  of  the  agriculturists,  who  were  by  no 
means  disposed  to  acquiesce  in  all  the  regenerative  pro- 
jects of  the  Government  of"  Benevolence  and  Light."  In 
China  the  opposition  emanated  from  the  Government 
itself,  inasmuch  as  considerable  diplomatic  pressure  had 
to  be  brought  to  bear  ere  the  introduction  of  a  telegraph 
of  any  kind  could  be  sanctioned,  and  it  is  tolerably  safe  to 
assume  that  in  the  peaceful  interior  of  that  vast  empire 
nothing  like  strenuous  objection  will  be  raised  to  the 
formation  of  the  line  if  only  it  be  the  aim  of  the  engineers 
to  wound  the  susceptibilities  of  the  farmers  as  little  as 
possible  in  selecting  sites  for  the  poles.  In  Japan  the 
Government  was  very  willing,  but  the  people  in  many 
instances  were  not :  in  China  it  has  been  difficult  to  con- 
vince the  Government,  whilst  the  people  are  eminently 
docile. 

The  attitude  of  ready  submission  to  law  and  order  which 
characterizes  the  Chinese  farming  class  affords  reasonable 
ground  for  the  belief  that,  unless  there  be  a  false  step  on 
the  part  of  local  officials,  the  telegraphs  of  China  will 
enjoy  an  immunity  from  half  the  evils  which  have  attended 
the  introduction  of  the  system  into  other  lands.  But 
something  will  certainly  depend  upon  the  policy  pur- 
sued by  the  mandarins  :  it  must  be  one  of  conciliation. 
Cultivated  land  is  so  exceedingly  precious  to  the  Chinese 
farmer  that  he  can  ill  afford  to  have  his  property  disturbed 
and  partly  occupied,  even  if  it  be  to  the  extent  of  a  square 
foot  or  two  only,  in  order  that  posts  may  be  planted  to 
carry  the  wires.  The  system  of  farming  adopted  tends  to 
the  cultivation  of  a  few  acres  merely  by  any  one  individual, 
but  by  diligence  and  attention  a  small  plot  is  made  to 
yield  practically  two  and  even  three  crops  where  one  only 
would  be  raised  in  an  equal  space  with  us.  This  is  the 
reason  why  the  good  will  of  the  local  residents,  officials  or 
farmers,  will  have  to  be  secured. 

When  these  initial  difficulties  have  been  overcome, 
a  glorious  field  will  await  the  development  of  the 
telegraphic  system.  Instead  of  following  in  the  track 
of  the  railway,  or  journeying  side  by  side  therewith, 
the  telegraph  will  be  the  forerunner  and  instigator  of 
improved  means  of  locomotion  throughout  this  immense, 
almost  unknown,  region.  Even  if  its  effects  were  limited 
to  the  comparatively  handy  centres  of  the  tea  and  silk  trade 
there  would,  in  a  twelvemonth,  be  ample  justification  for 
its  establishment. 

It  is  one  thing,  however,  to  have  erected  a  line  of 
telegraph  and  another  thing  to  provide  adequately  for  its 
maintenance  in  efficient  working  order,  without  which  it 
would  be  better  not  to  construct  it  at  all.  When  communi- 
cations are  interrupted  for  days  together,  as  must  inevitably 
occur  in  the  absence  of  a  thoroughly  complete  maintenance 
organization,  the  public  confidence  must  be  shaken  any- 
where, and  certainly  this  will  apply  in  full  force  to  China. 
It  is  to  this  most  important  consideration  that  early 
attention  should  be  directed,  for  the  trouble  begins  the 
moment  the  lines  are  thrown  open  to  the  public.  When  once 
the  merchant  has  experienced  the  sensation  of  being  able 
to  complete  a  bargain  on  the  instant,  he  is  apt  to  resent 
fiercely  any  curtailment  of  his  privileges.  It  may  not  be 
out  of  place,  therefore,  to  allude  to  the  experience  of  the 
pioneers  of  telegraphy  in  Japan  as  evidence  of  the  para- 
mount necessity  for  establishing  this  branch  of  the  service 
on  the  soundest  basis  possible.  To  begin  with,  testing 
stations  ought  never  to  be  farther  apart  than  a  day's 
march  on  ordinary  roads,  and  trained  men  are  needed  at 
these  stations  to  be  held  in  readiness  to  set  out,  on  a  word 
from  head-quarters,  with  the  necessary  tools.     Herein  is 


April  12,  1888] 


NA  TURE 


565 


contained  the  one  essential  principle  of  systematic  mainten- 
ance. Moreover,  it  is  not  enough  that  breakages  of  wire  be 
promptly  repaired,  but  the  efficient  performance  of  a  line- 
man's duty  demands  that  he  should  at  stated  periods 
patrol  his  district  and  remove  the  possible  causes  of  in- 
terruption in  the  shape  of  branches  of  trees  and  other 
obstacles  to  perfect  communication  before  they  have  time 
to  bring  about  disaster.  His  must  be  the  duty  of  making 
minute  examination  of  the  supports,  lest  rapid  decay  at 
the  ground  line  render  even  a  single  post  too  weak  to 
withstand  a  sudden  shock,  and  the  chain  of  communica- 
tion be  abruptly  severed.  He  must  paint  and  otherwise 
preserve  these  posts,  and  secure  them  by  the  attachment 
of  ample  stays  against  normal  or  exceptional  strains.  In 
a  word,  a  man  will  find  abundant  work  to  fill  up  his  allotted 
time  in  a  district  no  more  extensive  than  a  day's  walking 
will  suffice  for  him  to  cover. 

Now  all  this  is  not  mere  theorizing,  but  the  relation  of 
what  has  been  done  and  is  being  daily  carried  into  effect 
in  Japan,  and  it  is  for  these  reasons  that  we  assert  that  the 
Government  of  that  country  may  claim  to  possess  a 
telegraphic  system  worthy  the  name.  At  the  present 
time  the  telegraphic  organization  extends  to  every  town  of 
any  importance  within  the  Mikado's  dominions.  In  the 
majority  of  cases  these  stations  are  distinguished  as  being 
the  head-quarters  of  the  local  government  or  prefecture, 
and  all  are  thus  brought  into  instantaneous  communication 
with  the  departmental  offices  at  the  capital.  The  four 
islands  are  connected  by  submarine  cables,  and  the  Great 
Northern  Telegraph  Company's  lines  form  a  medium  of 
communication  between  Nagasaki  and  the  Western  world. 
The  Japanese  engineer  their  own  service,  educate  their 
operators  and  travelling  linemen,  manufacture  their  own 
apparatus,  even  of  the  most  complex  character,  their  own 
batteries,  and  the  galvanized  iron  fittings  for  their  poles. 
The  insulators  in  use  are  of  Japanese  porcelain,  the  finest 
in  quality  ever  produced,  capable  of  withstanding  the 
most  severe  tests  that  it  is  possible  to  subject  them  to. 
Iron  poles  are  not  used,  because  the  pine  and  cedar 
flourish  everywhere,  and  are  obtainable  on  short  notice  ; 
moreover,  it  is  often  cheaper  to  replace  them,  if  decay 
sets  in,  than  to  invest  in  iron,  which  is  costly  at  the 
outset,  and  heavy  to  transport  inland.  The  rates  for 
telegrams  are  sufficiently  low  to  bring  the  convenience 
within  the  reach  of  all  classes.  Messages  are  transmitted 
in  either  Japanese  or  foreign  languages  with  equal  facility. 
Finally,  the  finances  of  the  department  are  administered 
in  such  a  way  as  to  show  a  substantial  balance  at  the  end 
of  the  fiscal  year. 

When  may  we  look  for  this  in  China? 

With  the  advantages  the  pioneers  of  the  service  there 
possess  we  trust  we  shall  not  now  have  to  wait  long.  But 
it  will  inevitably  be  discovered,  if  the  maintenance  of  the 
lines  be  not  provided  for  efficiently  from  the  outset,  that  a 
mighty  engine  of  Western  civilization  is  being  hampered 
and  thwarted  in  its  progress,  and  that  among  the  mercantile 
classes,  who  ought  to  be  its  principal  supporters,  there  will 
spring  up  a  feeling  of  distrust  which  years  of  success 
will  not  entirely  counterbalance.  There  is  no  reason  why 
China  should  not  manufacture  for  herself  almost  every- 
thing she  requires  in  the  way  of  apparatus  and  material, 
as  Japan  is  now  doing  ;  for  men  of  more  deft  and  skilful 
touch,  combined  with  high  intelligence,  than  the  Chinese 
do  not  exist.  But  all  their  perfection  of  workmanship  will 
avail  the  State  little  if  it  be  not  supported  by  strict 
perseverance  in  those  duties  which  appertain  to  efficient 
maintenance.  Long  lines  hastily  set  up  across  country, 
with  stations  few  and  far  between,  and  without  competent 
workmen  to  look  after  them,  under  substantial  control, 
will  soon  cease  to  convey  an  electrical  current.  As 
suggested  before,  it  is  one  thing  to  build  a  line,  but  quite 
another  matter  to  preserve  it  in  working  order,  and  it  is 
to  be  hoped  the  example  of  the  Japanese  will  not  be  lost 
upon  their  near  neighbours,  J.  M. 


FLORA  OF  THE  BAHAMAS. 

AT  the  Manchester  meeting  of  the  British  Association 
a  Committee  was  appointed,  with  a  grant  of  £^\ooi 
for  the  purpose  of  exploring  the  flora  of  the  Bahamas- 
The  vegetation  of  this  group  has  long  been  known  to 
present  some  very  peculiar  features,  but  it  is  poorly  re- 
presented in  European  herbaria.  The  Committee  were 
fortunate  in  securing  the  assistance  of  Baron  Eggers  (some- 
time Commandant  at  the  Danish  colony  of  St.  Thomas), 
who  had  lately  returned  from  an  important  botanical 
exploration  in  St.  Domingo. 

Baron  Eggers  started  at  the  end  of  last  year,  and  the 
following  letter  gives  an  interesting  account  of  the  progress 
which  he  had  made  up  to  the  time  of  writing. 

W.  T.  Thiselton  Dyer. 

Royal  Gardens,  Kew,  February  25. 

"  Fortune  Island,  Bahamas,  February  6,  1888. 

"  I  finally  succeeded  in  reaching  here,  and  as  this  part 
of  the  Bahama  Archipelago  most  likely  is  less  known  still 
than  the  islands  nearer  Nassau,  I  propose  to  explore  this 
group  (Fortune,  Crooked,  and  Acklins  Islands),  which 
are  not  far  from  the  centre  of  the  whole,  and  which, 
especially  the  two  latter,  are  of  a  good  size  and  fairly 
wooded.  From  the  day  of  my  arrival  I  have  been  ex- 
ploring this  island,  which  is  of  a  longitudinal  form,  9 
miles  long  by  i  to  2  miles  broad,  highest  elevation  1 10 
feet,  entirely  covered  with  a  low  forest  or  scrub  about  10 
to  16  feet  high.  The  largest  trees  do  not  exceed  25  feet, 
and  that  height  is  rare. 

"  Partly  on  account  of  the  season  of  the  year,  partly 
from  the  protracted  dry  weather,  some  of  the  shrubs 
and  trees  have  neither  flower  nor  fruit,  whilst  at  the 
same  time  the  herbaceous  vegetation  is  almost  absent. 
Yet  I  have  succeeded  in  finding  a  good  number  of 
most  interesting  plants  in  flower  or  seed,  and  have 
made,  besides,  collections  of  woods  and  seeds.  Cycads 
I  have  seen  none  of  here  in  this  island.  Guaiacum 
sanctum  seems  to  be  common  here.  Some  very  curious 
composite  shrubs  I  have  met  with.  On  the  shore 
Ambrosia  crithmifolta  seems  very  common,  as  also 
Passijiora  pectinata. 

"  Of  palms  are  found  Sabal  umbraculifera,  and  an- 
other, probably  Sabal  Palmetto,  called  palmetto  here  by 
the  inhabitants,  which  is  common  and  used  for  making 
hats.  A  shrubby  Phyllanthus  is  very  common,  as  also 
a  very  small-leaved  Erythroxylon.  Croton  Ujalmarsonti 
is  frequent.  Several  species  of  Cassia  are  found,  as  also 
some  acacias.  One  Psychotria,  a  P/ioradendron,  grow- 
ing on  Byrsonima  lucida,  Swietenia  Mahagoni,  two 
species  of  Coccoloba,  a  large-leaved  Euphorbia,  a  Cordia, 
and  a  number  of  other  shrubs  and  small  trees.  Of 
Epiphytes  I  have  seen  two  Tillandsias  and  an  Epiden- 
drum,  which  latter  grows  among  rocks.  No  mosses,  but 
some  lichens. 

"  Among  common  trees  is  to  be  noted  chiefly  Hippo- 
mane  Mancinella,  as  also  Conocarpus  erect  a  in  two  forms, 
the  glabrous  and  the  silvery-haired  ones,  both  growing 
indiscriminately  together  in  small  woods 

"Almost  the  whole  surface  of  the  island  is  covered 
with  a  layer  of  limestone,  coarse,  mixed  with  sand,  about 
6  inches  thick,  which  appears  to  have  formed  a  smooth 
cover  over  the  whole  whilst  under  water.  It  is  now  gener- 
ally broken  to  pieces,  but  the  pieces  are  still  close  together, 
and  only  separated  by  fissures,  in  which  trees  and  shrubs 
grow,  sending  their  roots  down  into  the  sandy,  and  some- 
times marly,  soil  beneath.  In  many  places  there  are 
hollows,  in  which  a  light  red  soil  has  been  accumulated, 
and  where  a  few  attempts  at  cultivation  are  made. 

"  As  a  rule,  the  only  cultivation  here  is  on  the  sandbank 
that  forms  the  western  shore,  and  on  which  also  the  little 
town  is  situated.  Here  is  raised  some  Guinea  corn 
{Sorghum)  and  sweet  potatoes,  as  well  as  cocoa-nut  trees, 
which  seem  to  thrive  remarkably  well.     This  whole  north- 


566 


NATURE 


{^April 


12,    I 


western  shore,  for  at  least  6  or  7  miles,  might  be  one 
vast  forest  of  cocoa-nut  trees.  The  small  plantations 
of  fifty  or  sixty  near  the  dwellings  present  a  very  healthy 
appearance,  and  are  in  full  bearing. 

"  Otherwise  the  population  of  the  place,  amounting  to 
about  500  I  should  suppose,  support  themselves  by  trading, 
sailing,  collecting  sponges,  and  going  abroad  as  labourers 
for  steamers  in  the  West  Indian  trade.  Some  salt  is 
made  from  an  extensive  salt-pond  that  stretches  for  4 
to  5  miles  just  inside  the  north-western  shore.  Another 
smaller  pond  is  found  on  the  south-eastern  shore. 

"The  town  is  a  decent  little  village,  with  a  good 
church,  school,  post-office,  jail,  and  very  creditable 
dwellings.  The  people  are  very  well  behaved  and  decent 
on  the  whole.  Among  cultivated  plants  around  dwellings 
I  can  mention  Poinciana  regia,  Casuarina  equisetifolia, 
Terininalia  Catappa. 

"  It  is  very  gratifying  to  see  the  spirit  of  neatness  and 
order  that  pervades  everything  in  the  English  islands, 
and  which  forms  such  a  contrast  to  the  squalor  and  utter 
wretchedness  that  marks  much  richer  islands,  like  Hayti, 
Porto  Rico,  and  Cuba.  As  the  coloured  population  is  of 
the  same  race  in  all  these  places,  it  can  only  be  ascribed 
to  the  example  set  by  the  governing  race  in  this  case. 

"As  you  may  imagine,  the  vegetation  of  this,  as  of 
most  of  these  islands,  possesses  a  strong  uniformity  and 
sameness,  as  thereare  no  elevations  of  any  extent  to  pro- 
duce variety,  and  partakes  in  fact  of  the  character  of  the 
vegetation  of  the  sea-shore.  I  therefore  can  hardly 
expect  to  add  much  to  my  collections  in  this  place  now, 
and  therefore  intend  to  pass  to  Crooked  or  Acklins 
Island  as  soon  as  an  opportunity  offers. 

"  In  a  certain  sense,  of  course,  locomotion  is  easy 
enough  from  one  island  to  another,  yet  you  must  always 
wait  for  an  opportunity  if  you  do  not  want  to  hire  a  vessel 
or  a  boat  for  your  own  use. 

"  After  I  have  finished  this  group  I  propose  to  go  to 
Nassau,  and  from  there  to  pass  over  to  Andros,  which, 
from  what  I  have  been  able  to  gather,  is  somewhat 
different  from  the  other  islands,  especially  an  account  of 
its  being  full  of  swamps  and  fresh-water  lakes,  which  ought 
to  give  the  vegetation  a  somewhat  difterent  character. 
Andros,  too,  is  heavily  wooded,  both  with  pine  forests  as 
also  with  other  trees,  of  which  many  are  cut  and  exported 
for  timber. 

"  As  the  season  advances  I  also  expect  to  find  a  greater 
proportion  of  plants  in  blossom  than  at  present,  so  as  to 
make  my  collections  from  these  islands  as  complete  as 
possible.  Still  a  number  of  trees  will  most  likely  be 
represented  by  their  leaves  only  or  at  best  in  fruit,  which 
of  course  cannot  be  avoided,  unless  the  exploration  were 
continued  through  the  year,  and  this,  as  you  may  imagine, 
cannot  be  done  for  the  amount  at  my  disposal,  of  which 
necessarily  a  part  has  already  been  consumed  by  the 
voyage  hither. 

"  From  what  I  have  collected  already,  I  think,  however, 
I  am  able  to  say  that  I  shall  get  together  a  considerable 
herbarium,  which  I  hope  will  contain  no  few  novelties,  and 
give  a  fair  representation  of  the  flora  of  this  archipelago. 
1  need  hardly  add  that  I  make  copious  general  notes 
on  the  vegetation,  as  well  as  on  the  natural  history  and 
physical  conditions  of  the  islands  in  general. 

"  Yours  very  faithfully, 

"  Eggers." 


NOTES. 
We  understand  that,  in  accordance  with  the  arrangement 
made  on  March  24,  an  important  deputation,  consisting  of  Sir 
Henry  Roscoe,  Sir  Lyon  Playfair,  Sir  John  Lubbock,  and  Mr. 
Howorth,  met  Mr.  Stanhope  and  Lord  Harris  on  Monday  last, 
to  discuss  the  regulations  for  the  selection  of  Woolwich  cadets, 


so  far  as  they  relate  to  natural  science.  We  believe  that  the 
proposals  submitted  by  the  deputation  will  receive  favourable 
consideration. 

The  late  Mr.  Thos  B.  Curling,  F.R.S.,  has  bequeathed  ;^200 
free  of  legacy  duty  to  the  Scientific  Relief  Fund  of  the  Royal 
Society. 

A  FRESH  case  of  specimens  from  the  borings  in  the  Delta  of 
the  Nile  has  just  been  received  at  the  Royal  Society. 

Prof.  Hofmann,  the  chemist,  celebrated  his  seventieth 
birthday  on  Monday.  The  Emperor  Frederick  sent  him  a  patent 
of  nobility,  and  among  many  other  birthday  gifts  were  portraits 
of  Queen  Victoria  and  the  German  Empress.  From  the  Prince 
Regent  of  Bavaria  Prof.  Hofmann  received  a  high  decoration. 

Dr.  Emil  Holub,  the  African  traveller,  intends  to  open  a 
South  African  Exhibition  in  the  old  Exhibition  building  known 
as  the  Rotunde,  in  Vienna,  in  May  1889.  The  industries,  ex- 
ports, and  dwellings  of  the  natives  will  be  exhibited,  as  well  as 
the  collections  made  by  Dr.  Holub. 

A  YEARLY  pension  of  800  roubles  has  been  granted  by  the 
Russian  Government  to  M.  Potanin  in  recognition  of  his  work 
.as  an  explorer  in  China  and  Mongolia. 

The  question  as  to  the  best  means  of  promoting  technical 
education  is  being  earnestly  discussed  in  Russia.  A  Congress, 
summoned  by  the  Permanent  Committee  for  Technical  Educa- 
lion,is  about  to  meet  at  St.  Petersburg  for  the  consideration  of  the 
subject.  The  sum  of  ;^5oo  has  been  granted  by  the  Government 
for  the  expenses  of  the  Congress. 

A  Russian  zoological  station  has  been  established  at  Villa- 
franca,  a  few  miles  from  Nice.  The  Bay  of  Villafranca  is  well 
known  for  the  work  that  has  been  done  there  by  some  of  the 
most  prominent  Continental  biologists,  and  it  certainly  offers 
great  advantages  for  the  study  of  marine  fauna.  An  old  Italian 
prison,  which  was  formerly  sold  to  the  Russian  Govei^nment,  and 
used  as  a  kind  of  naval  station  for  repairs  of  ships  of  the  Russian 
Navy,  has  now  been  transformed  into  a  zoological  station,  sup- 
ported by  the  Russian  Naval  Ministry.  It  has  two  spacious  and 
well-lighted  halls  for  microscopical  work,  five  smaller  rooms, 
and  accommodation  for  men  of  science  who  may  wish  to  carry 
on  biological  investigations.  It  is  under  the  direction  of  Dr. 
Korotneff. 

W^E  regret  to  learn  that  Captain  Temple  has  been  compelled 
to  discontinue  the  issue  of  his  most  interesting  and  valuable 
periodical,  Indian  Notes  and  Queries.  His  duties  at  Mandalay, 
where  he  is  playing  an  important  part  in  the  work  of  reorganiza- 
tion in  Upper  Burmah,  so  occupies  his  time  that  he  is  quite 
unable  to  put  together  periodically  the  notes  sent  to  him  by  many 
contributors.  His  other  periodical,  the  Indian  Antiquary,  is 
to  be  maintained,  and  contributions  to  the  now  defunct  serial 
will  be  diverted  to  it. 

A  DEPUTATION  from  the  "Australian  Natives'  Association" 
waited  recently  on  the  Minister  of  Education  of  Victoria  to  urge 
that  an  Australian  series  of  school-books  should  be  published, 
so  that  fuller  information  on  purely  Australian  subjects  should 
be  made  available  to  the  children  in  State  schools.  It  was 
argued  that  there  was  virtually  no  special  information  about 
Australian  geography  in  the  books  used.  The  Minister  was 
asked  to  bear  in  mind  that  650,000  of  the  total  population  of 
Victoria  were  native  born,  and  that  the  vast  majority  were 
growing  up  in  ignorance  of  the  geography  of  their  native  land. 
Australian  literature,  like  Australian  geography,  was  neglected 
by  the  Education  Department.  The  deputation  laid  particular 
stress  on  the  argument  that  the  Government  would  stimulate 
the  Federal  sentiment  by  giving  Australian  subjects  prominence 
in  the  State  schools. 


April  12,  1888] 


NATURE 


567 


The  death   is    announced   at  Yokohama,   on  February  17, 
of    Mr.    Henry   Pryer,  an    old  resident  there,   who   had    de- 
voted  much    attention  to    the  study   of  Japanese  entomology 
and  ornithology.     The  wri.ter  of  an  obituary  notice  in  tht/ajian 
Weekly  Mail  states  that,  except  for  a  short  time,  when  engaged 
in  arranging  natural  history  collections  in  the  Tokio  Museum, 
Mr.    Pryer  was  occupied  in  business  pursuits,  his  spare  time 
being  given  to   the  study  of  Japanese  fauna;  "and  it   is  no 
exaggeration  to  state  that  he  "had  become  the  authority  facile 
princeps  on  all   questions  connected  with  the  birds,  butterflie';,, 
and  moths,  whilst  at  the  same  time  he  had  acquired  a  most 
extensive  knowledge  and  store  of  facts  in  connection  with  all 
the  other  branches  of  the  zoology  of  Japan."     Mr.  Pryer  was 
the  author  of  papers  in  various  English  scientific  journals,  and 
the  Transactions  of  the  Asiatic  Society  of  Japan.     In  November 
1886  he  published  Part  I.  of  a  description  of  the  butterflies  of 
Japan,  under  the  title  "  Rhopalocera  Nihonica,"  and  Part  II.  is 
said  to  be  in  the  printers'  hands,  and  almost  ready  for  publica- 
tion.    It  is  to  be  hoped  that  the  third  and  concluding  part  may 
be  found  in  such  a  state  of  preparation  as  will  insure  the  com- 
pletion of  the  work.     Mr.  Pryer,  who  was  the  brother  of  Mr. 
Pryer  of  the  North  Borneo  Company's  service,  like  himself  an 
enthusiastic  student  of  Nature,  was  only  thirty-nine  years  of  age 
at  the  time  of  his  death. 

Russian  zoology  has  sustained  a  heavy  los?  by  the  death 
of  Prof.    M.    N.    Bogdanoff.     He  died  at    St.   Petersburg   on 
March  16.     His  first  work,  published  in  1867,  was  on  the  life 
and  the  geographical  distribution  of  the  Tetrao  urogallus.    Four 
years  later  he  published  a  most  elaborate  and  suggestive  work, 
"  The  Mamma's  and  Birds   of  the  Black-earth  Region  of  the 
Volga,"  in  which  he  treated  in  detail  the  present  geographical 
distribution  of  animals  in  connection  with  the  climate  and  soil 
of  Russia  during  the  Post-Pliocene  period.     In   1873  he  took 
part  in  the  expedition  to  Khiva,  and  returned  with  a  rich  geo- 
logical collection,  now  at  the  St.  Petersburg  University.     The 
results    of    this  journey   were    embodied    in   a    capital    work 
on  the  Khiva  Oasis  and  the  Sands  of  Kyzyl-kum.     His  next 
work  was  on  the  fauna  of  the  Aral-Caspian    basin,   which  he 
described  in  the  Menioires  of  the  Society  of  Naturalists  at  the 
St.  Petersburg  University.     In  1875  he  began  the  exploration 
of  the  Caucasus,  and  published  the  results  of  his  labours  in  a 
work,    "  The  Birds  of  the  Caucasus,"  which  has  become  the 
foundation-stone   of  the   ornithology  of  the   region.     In   1880 
he  visited  a  part  of  the  coast  of  the  Arctic  Ocean,    and  the 
results  of  his  journey  were  published  in   the   Menioires  of  the 
Society   at   St.   Petersburg  University,     In  i88i  he  published 
another  excellent  work,  "The  Russian  Magpies."     Finally,  in 
1885,  he  began  the  publication  of  his  life-work,  "The  Ornitho- 
logy of  Russia,"  of  which  only  the  first  part  has  been  issued. 
Prof.  M.  N.  Bogdanofif's  popular  zoological  sketches,  published 
in  a  Russian  review,  were  widely  read.     All   the  above-men- 
tioned   works,  as  also    many  smaller   monographs,   have   been 
published  in  Russian. 

The  Russian  Geographical  Society  has  lost  one  of  its  most 
active  ethnographers,  V.  N.  Mainoff,  whose  works  on  the 
Erzya-Mordvinians— their  anthropological  features  and  customs 
—are  well  known.  His  knowledge  of  the  Finnish  language 
gave  a  special  value  to  his  works  on  the  remnants  of  paganism 
among  the  Mordvinianc,  and  to  his  descriptive  work  on  Karelia 
and  the  Onega  region.  He  had  already  published  a  Finnish 
grammar  in  Russian,  and  was  engaged  in  the  compilation  of  a 
Finnish  and  Russian  dictionary.  The  latter  task  was  intrusted 
to  him  by  the  Senate  of  Finland.  He  had  brought  the  dictionary 
up  to  the  letter  K. 


Another  masterly  contribution  to  the  fundamental  principles 
of  chemistry,  leading  us  still  further  into  the  intensely  interesting 


region  of  the  hitherto  unknown,  will  be  found  in  the  current 
number  of  the  Berichte,  from  Profs.  Victor  Meyer  and  Riecke. 
We  have  from  time  to  time  in  these  columns  noticed  the  progress 
of  the  development  of  the  now    famous  "  position-in-space " 
theory  first  formulated  by  Van  t'  HofF,  and  it  will  perhaps  be 
remembered  that  a  short  account  was  recently  given  of  the  re- 
markable results   obtained  by  Prof.   Meyer  from  the  study  of 
certain  complex  organic  compounds.     The  main  result  consisted 
in  the  discovery  of  two  new   properties  possessed  by  carbon 
atoms  :  first,  that  the  four  valencies  may  be  deviated  from  their 
positions  at  the  corners  of  a  regular  tetrahedron  ;  and  second, 
that  two  carbon  adorns  united  by  single  bonds  may  be  attached 
to  each  other  in  two  ways— one  in  which  they  are  free  to  rotate, 
and  another  in  which  rotation  is  prevented.     Recognizing  that 
the  chemist  must  not  tread  this  unbroken  ground  alone,  but  that 
he  must  go  hand  in  hand  with  his  co-worker  the  phyi-icist.  Profs. 
Meyer  and  Riecke  have  brought  together  evidence  afforded  by 
both  physics  and  chemistry,  and  have  thereupon  formulated  a 
theory   which   appears    likely   to    be    the    germ    of   a   grand 
generalization.     They  suppose  the  carbon  atom  to  be  a  sphere 
surrounded  by  an  ether  shell,  that  the  atom  itself  is  the  carrier 
of  the  specific  affinity,  while  the  surface  of  the  ethereal  envelope 
is  the  seat  of  the  valencies.     Each  valency  is  conditioned  by  the 
existence  of  two  oppositely  electrified  poles,  situate  at  the  ends 
of  an  imaginary  straight   line,   short    in    comparison  with  the 
diameter  of  the  envelope.     Such  a  system  of  two  poles  is  termed 
a  di-pole.     The  four  valencies  of  the  carbon  atom  would  thus 
consist  of  four  such  di-poles.     The  middle  point   of  the  line 
joining  each  pair  of  poles  is  further  supposed  to  remain  always 
in  the  surface  of  the  envelope,  but  freely  movable  in  that  sur- 
face, and  the  di-pole  itself  would  be  able  to  rotate  freely  round 
this  central  point.     It  is  then  supposed  that  the  carbon  atom 
possesses  a  greater  attraction  for  the  positive  than  for  the  nega- 
tive ends  of  the  di-poles,  so  that,  owing  to  the  possibility  of  free 
rotation,  the  positive  ends  would  turn  towards  the  centre  of  the 
atom.     At  the  same  time  the  valencies  of  the  same  atom  would 
repel  each  other,  and  take  up  their  positions  at  the  four  comers 
of  the  regular  tetrahedron,  from  which,  however,  they  could  be, 
as  experiment  shows  they  occasionally  are,  deflected.     Thus  the 
molecules  of  marsh  gas,  CH4,  or  any  carbon  compound  of  the 
type  Cx4,  would  naturally  be  symmetrical,  but  when  the  four 
valencies   are   attached   to   groups    of   different   weights    their 
positions  would  probably  be  altered.     A  strikingly  natural  ex- 
planation  is  then  given  of  the  nature  of  single,  double,  and 
triple  linking  of  carbon  atoms,  showing  how  the  first  can  occur 
in  the  two  ways  previously  indicated.     It  is  a  matter  for  sincere 
congratulation  to  those  who  have  been  labouring  so  long  in 
building  up  the  now  immense  fabric  of  organic  chemistry,  that 
it  is  by  reason  of  the  large  accumulation  of  data  concerning  the 
carbon  compounds  that  these  important  principles  have  been 
arrived  at ;  and  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  before  long  the  data  may 
be  sufficient  to  permit  of  like  investigations  of  the  atoms  of  other 
elements. 

So  many  interesting  reports  relative  to  waterspouts,  sighted 
during  January  and  Febniaiy  in  the  western  portion  of  the 
North  Atlantic,  have  been  received  by  the  Hydrographer  of  the 
United  States  Navy,  that  he  has  plotted  them  in  a  supplement 
to  the  Pilot  Chart  of  the  North  Atlantic  Ocean  for  March, 
together  with  the  tracks  of  storms  coincident  with  some  of  them. 
The  positions  of  the  spouts  are  given  for  fourteen  days  between 
January  12  and  February  29.  To  specify  a  few  cases  :— On 
January  12  four  spouts  were  seen  in  lat.  36°  41'  N.,  and  long. 
72°  27'  W.,  and  on  the  19th  several  were  seen  a  little  farther  to 
the  eastward.  And  again,  on  January  22,  several  large  spouts 
were  seen  in  lat.  31°  47'  N.,  long.  74°  33'  W.  The  most  inter- 
esting of  all  are  those  seen  on  January  26-28,  for  the  reason 
that  they  were  clearly  associated  with  a  low  baroneter  area 


568 


NATURE 


[April  12,  1888 


which  moved  across  the  great  lakes  on  the  25th.  One  of  these, 
seen  on  January  28,  in  lat,  39°  30'  N.,  long.  57°  20'  W.,  is  esti- 
mated to  have  been  a  mile  in  diameter.  On  February  1 1  the 
ship  Reindeer  was  completely  dismasted  by  a  spout  in  lat. 
32°  4'  N.,  long.  76°  6'  W.  The  weather  was  clear  at  the  time, 
and  the  whole  affair  was  over  in  a  few  minutes.  Generally 
speaking,  the  rotation  was,  as  in  the  case  of  tornadoes,  in  the 
opposite  direction  to  that  of  the  hands  of  a  watch,  but,  in  some 
cases,  in  the  same  direction.  It  is  suggested  that  if  instan- 
taneous photographs  were  taken  of  some  of  these  remarkable 
phenomena  they  would  be  of  great  value  to  the  science  of 
meteorology. 

At  the  meeting  of  the  French  Meteorological  Society,  on 
March  6,  M.  Renou  stated  that  the  observations  at  Pare  St. 
Maur  showed  that  the  month  of  February  last  was  colder  than 
it  had  been  since  1855.  The  temperature  of  5°  F.,  observed 
on  February  2,  was  the  lowest  on  record  in  that  month.  On 
March  i  the  minimum,  16°  "2,  was  the  lowest  recorded  in  March 
since  1847.  The  Society  is  encouraging  the  registration  of 
regular  observations  at  the  seminary  at  Port-au-Prince  (Hayti). 
The  thermometers,  which  are  now  better  exposed,  show  that  the 
temperatures  are  lower  than  formerly  reported.  Very  few 
observations  from  this  district  have  been  published,  so  that  a 
regular  bulletin  such  as  is  hinted  at  by  M.  Renou  would  be  very 
welcome.  M.  Hauvel  read  a  communication  on  the  "  Tides  of 
the  Photosphere,"  due  to  planetary  action.  In  classifying  the 
planets  according  to  their  influence  on  the  photosphere,  he 
places  Mercury  first  and  Jupiter  second,  and  he  argues  that  at 
certain  positions  Mercury  causes  storms  in  the  photosphere,  giving 
rise  to  abnormal  variations  of  temperature  in  our  atmosphere, 
according  to  the  relative  position  of  the  earth. 

The  German  Meteorological  Office  has  published  the  results 
of  its  meteorological  observations  for  the  year  1886  (Berlin,  1888, 
Ivi.  +  223  pp.).  The  stations  of  the  second  and  third  orders  now 
number  256,  several  new  ones  having  been  recently  established. 
A  regular  system  of  thunderstorm  observations  has  been  com- 
menced, and  much  attention  is  paid  to  rainfall ;  it  is  proposed 
eventually  to  increase  these  stations  to  2000.  In  addition  to  the 
usual  data,  the  maximum  falls  in  twenty-four  hours  are  given  for 
all  stations.  The  system  includes  several  mountain  stations,  the 
highest  being  the  Schneekoppe  (nearly  5250  feet).  The  difficulties 
experienced  in  mountain  meteorology  may  be  judged  of  from  the 
fact  that  in  the  winter  the  anemometer  on  the  Schneekoppe  has 
to  be  abandoned,  owing  to  the  accumulation  of  snow,  and  in  the 
summer  the  earth  thermometer  has  to  be  removed,  owing  to 
repeated  interference  by  tourists.  The  history  and  outfit  of  the 
stations  are  given  in  many  instances,  and  will  be  continued  in 
subsequent  reports. 

The  Bureau  of  Ethnology,  Smithsonian  Institution,  lately 
issued  a  full  and  useful  bibliography  of  the  Eskimo  language, 
by  Mr,  J.  Constantine  Pilling.  Now  it  has  published  an 
equally  good  bibliography  of  the  Siouan  languages,  by  the  same 
scholar.  The  material  for  both  of  these  catalogues  has  been 
gathered  during  personal  visits  to  the  more  prominent  public 
and  private  libraries  of  the  United  States,  Canada,  and  France, 
and  by  correspondence  with  missionaries,  Indian  agents, 
publishers,  and  printers  of  Indian  books,  and  owners  of 
Americana. 

An  interesting  paper  on  the  use  of  gold  and  other  metals 
among  the  ancient  inhabitants  of  Chiriqui,  Isthmus  of  Darien, 
by  Mr.  William  H.  Holmes,  has  just  been  issued  by  the  Bureau 
of  Ethnology,  Smithsonian  Institution.  The  objects  described 
by  Mr.  Holmes  were  obtained  from  ancient  graves,  of  which  no 
record  or  trustworthy  tradition  is  preserved.  They  are  all 
ornaments,  no  coin,  weapon,  tool,  or  utensil  having  come  to 
Mr.  Holmes's  notice.     The  great  majority  of  the  objects  were 


formed  by  casting  in  moulds.  The  work  exhibits  close  analogies 
with  that  of  the  mainland  of  South  America,  but  these  analogies 
are  found  in  material,  treatment,  and  scope  of  employment  rather 
than  in  the  subject-matter  of  the  conceptions.  The  sum  of  the 
art  achievements  of  these  peoples  seems  to  Mr.  Holmes  to 
indicate  a  lower  degree  of  culture  than  that  attained  by  the 
Mexicans  and  the  Peruvians,  the  ceramic  art  alone  "  challenging 
the  world  in  respect  to  refinement  of  form  and  simplicity  and 
delicacy  of  treatment." 

The  Report,  for  the  year  1886-87,  of  the  Colonial  Museum 
and  Laboratory  of  New  Zealand  has  been  issued.  It  is  the 
twenty-second  annual  report  of  these  institutions.  The  attend- 
ance of  visitors  at  the  Museum  was  very  large,  being  consider- 
ably above  the  average  of  former  years,  especially  on  Sunday 
afternoons,  when  the  very  limited  passage-room  often  caused 
inconvenient  crowding.  The  total  number  of  additions  to  the 
collections  during  the  year  was  10,708.  Among  these  additions 
were  eleven  photographs  of  the  wonderful  stone  carvings  and 
inscriptions  found  on  Easter  Island.  In  the  Colonial  Labora- 
tory 345  analyses  were  performed  during  the  year.  These  are 
classified  as  follows  :  coals  and  oils,  22  ;  rocks  and  minerals, 
117  ;  metals  and  ores,  43  ;  examinations  for  gold  and  silver,  81  ; 
waters,  36  ;  miscellaneous,  46.  In  the  report  all  the  results  of 
these  analyses  which  have  a  general  or  special  interest  are 
rendered  in  full. 

A  SERIES  of  papers,  entitled  "  Studies  in  Biology  for  New 
Zealand  Students,"  is  being  issued  by  the  Colonial  Museum  and 
Geological  Survey  Department  of  New  Zealand.  We  have 
received  the  third  paper  of  the  series.  It  is  by  Mr.  Alexander 
Purdie,  Science  Master  at  the  Wellington  Training  College, 
who  has  chosen  as  his  subject  the  anatomy  of  the  common 
mussels  {Mytilus  latus,  edulis,  and  magellanicus).  Mr.  Purdie 
points  out  that,  as  a  subject  for  study,  the  mussel  has  the  ad- 
vantages of  being  readily  procurable  at  most  points  of  the  New 
Zealand  coast,  and  also  of  not  being  so  small  as  to  embarrass  the 
tyro  in  the  art  of  dissection. 

We  have  received  the  Report  of  the  Marlborough  College 
Natural  History  Society  for  the  year  ending  Christmas  1887. 
During  the  year  the  numbers  of  the  Society  largely  increased  ; 
its  meetings  were  well  supported  ;  and  the  work  of  the  Sections 
was  in  most  cases  considerable.  Among  the  contents  of  the 
volume  are  interesting  papers  on  Aristotle  on  birds,  by  Mr.  W. 
Warde  Fowler  ;  the  migration  of  birds,  by  Mr.  A.  H.  Mac- 
pherson ;  and  spiders  and  their  allies,  by  the  Rev.  O.  Pickard- 
Cambridge,  F.  R.S. 

The  second  number  of  the  Internationales  Archiv  fiir 
Ethnographie  contains  the  first  instalment  of  a  paper,  in  Ger- 
man, by  J.  BUttikofer,  on  the  natives  of  Liberia.  This  contri- 
bution is  accompanied  by  two  finely  coloured  plates  representing 
implements  and  weapons.  Dr.  B.  Langkavel  has  an  interesting 
article  on  the  uses  to  which  horses  are  put  by  races  at  an  early 
stage  of  development. 

A  LITTLE  controversy  is  going  on  in  the  Internationales 
Archiv  about  the  northern  limit  of  the  regions  within  which  the 
boomerang  is  used  in  Australia.  Prof.  Gerland,  of  Strasburg, 
in  his  map  of  the  races  of  Oceania,  has  drawn  the  line  about 
15°  30'  S.  lat.  In  the  first  number  of  the  Archiv,  Prof.  Ratzel 
expressed  his  belief  that  the  line  ought  not  to  be  drawn  so  far 
north,  and  that  it  really  extends  only  to  about  18°  30'.  In  the 
second  number,  Prof.  Gerland  maintains  his  position,  pointing 
out  that  Leichardt  found  the  boomerang  near  the  Macarthur 
River,  while  Edward  Palmer,  one  of  the  highest  authorities  on 
all  subjects  relating  to  the  North  Australians,  found  it  to  the 
north  of  Mitchell  River.  The  tribes  of  these  northern  districts 
have  independent  names  for  the  weapon,  which  they  use  more 
frequently  in  the  chase  than  in  war. 


April  12,  1888] 


NATURE 


569 


A  BOOK  entitled  •'Moeurs  et  Monuments  des  Peuples  pre- 
historiques,"  by  M.  de  Nadaillac,  is  about  to  be  published  in 
Paris.     The  text  will  be  fully  illustrated. 

The  Selbortte  Magazine  will  in  future  be  published  by  Mr. 
Elliot  Stock. 

The  new  number  of  Mind  opens  with  an  article  on  the  con- 
ditions of  a  true  philosophy,  by  Mr.  S.  H.  Hodgson.  There  are 
also  articles  on  the  nature  and  functions  of  a  complete  symbolic 
language,  by  Mr.  S.  Bryant ;  on  Dr.  Martineau  and  the  theory 
of  vocation,  by  the  Rev.  H.  Rashdale  ;  and  on  the  unity  of 
consciousness,  by  Mr.  A.  F.  Shand. 

We  have  received  a  little  pamphlet  by  Dr.  G.  Y.  Cadogan- 
Masterman,  Medical  Officer  of  Health,  Stourport,  entitled 
"  Dermepenthesis  :  Animal  Skin-Grafting,"  in  which  the  author 
gives  several  interesting  cases  of  successful  grafting  of  the  skin 
of  rabbits  on  wounds  on  the  human  body. 

An  International  Exhibition  of  farmyard  poultry,  rabbits, 
game  raised  for  reserved  shooting,  machinery  and  engines  for 
bird-culture,  hunting-dogs,  and  sporting  apparatus  allowed  by 
law,  will  be  held  in  Rome,  at  the  Botanical  Garden,  from 
April  25  to  May  10.  The  Exhibition  is  being  organized  by  a 
Committee  of  the  Agricultural  Society  of  Rome. 

According  to  the  Natiirforscher,  Herr  von  dem  Borne- 
Berneuchen  has  succeeded  in  breeding,  in  his  piscicultural  esta- 
blishment, specimens  of  the  fish  known  in  America  as  the  black 
boss. 

The  additions  to  the  Zoological  Society's  Gardens  during  the 
past  week  include  two  Striped  Hyaenas  {Hymna  striata)  from 
Algeria,  presented  by  Capt.  E.  B.  Pusey,  R.N.  ;  an  Ortolan 
Bunting  {Emberiza  horttdana),  British,  presented  by  Mr.  W.  H. 
St.  Quintin  ;  a  Moorish  Gecko  ( Tarentola  maiiritanica)  from 
Cannes,  South  France,  presented  by  Mr.  J.  C.  Warbury  ;  two 
Poiret's  Newts  {^Molge  poireti)  from  Algeria,  presented  by  Mr. 
G.  A.  Boulenger  ;  a  Greater  Sulphur-crested  Cockatoo  {Cacatua 
galerita)  from  Australia,  deposited  ;  a  Central  American  Agouti 
{Dasyprocta  isthtnica)  from  Central  America,  purchased. 


OUR  ASTRONOMICAL  COLUMN. 

The  Paris  Catalogue. — The  first  two  volumes  of  the  great 
work  undertaken  by  Leverrier  a  third  of  a  century  ago,— the 
re-observation  of  thestarsof  Lalande's  catalogue,— have  recently 
been  published.  The  first  volume  contains  the  first  instalment  of 
the  catalogue,  viz.  stars  from  oh,  to  6h.  of  R.A.  observed  during 
the  years  1837  to  i88r,  whilst  the  second  gives  the  separate 
observations.  That  this  great  undertaking  has  advanced  so  far 
towards  completion  is  chiefly  owing  to  the  energy  which  has 
characterized  the  Paris  Observatory  under  the  directorship  of 
Admiral  Mouchez,  and  to  the  strength  it  has  derived  from  the 
School  of  Practical  Astronomy  which  was  for  several  years  con- 
nected with  it.  When  Admiral  Mouchez  succeeded  to  the 
direction  in  1878,  barely  one-third  of  the  necessary  observations 
had  been  secured,  and  the  annual  number  of  observations 
obtained  was  only  about  6000  or  7000,  a  total  which,  however 
considerable  in  itself,  was  very  inadequate  in  view  of  the  300,000 
required  to  complete  the  original  programme  of  a  minimum  of 
three  observations  in  each  element  for  the  47. 39^  stars  of 
Lalande's  catalogue.  The  gift  by  M.  Bischoffsheim  of  the  fine 
Eichens  meridian-circle,  and  the  assistance  furnished  by  the 
pupils  of  the  astronomical  school  have,  however,  raised  the 
yearly  average  to  25,000  or  28,000  observations,  and  rendered  it 
possible  to  commence  the  publication  of  results.  As  the  observa- 
tions include  not  only  those  made  since  Leverrier  became  Director, 
but  also  some  20,000  or  30,000  made  between  1837  and  1854, 
under  Arago's  superintendence,  but  left  unreduced  by  him,  they 
have  been  divided  into  three  periods,  viz.  1837-53,  1854-67,  and 
1868-81,  and  severally  reduced  to  the  mean  epochs  1845,  i860, 
or  1875.     Observations  subsequent  to  i88r,  about  one-fourth  of 


the  entire  number,  will  be  published  separately,  and  a  separate 
supplementary  catalogue  will  also  be  formed  of  those  stars  which 
it  has  been  found  necessary  to  re-observe  owing  to  the  dispropor- 
tion between  the  number  of  observations  secured  in  the  two 
elements,  due  to  the  R.  A.'s  in  so  many  cases  having  been  ob- 
served with  the  transit  instrument,  whilst  the  declinations  were 
taken  with  the  mural  circle,  the  transit  circles  having  been 
erected  only  in  1863  and  1877  respectively.  The  present 
section  of  the  catalogue  contains  7245  stars,  and  represents 
about  80,000  observations  in  both  elements.  It  gives  for 
each  of  the  three  periods  the  number  of  observations,  the  mean 
date,  the  R.A.  and  N. P.D.  reduced  to  the  mean  epoch,  and  a 
comparison  with  Lalande.  The  precessions  for  1875  are  also 
added.  The  introduction,  by  M.  Gaillot,  who  has  superintended 
the  reduction,  contains  a  discussion  of  the  probable  errors  of  the 
observations,  and  is  followed  by  a  comparison  of  the  present 
catalogue  with  Auwers'  Bradley,  and  an  important  investigation 
by  M.  Bossert  of  the  proper  motions  of  a  large  number  of  stars, 
followed  by  a  table  of  errors  in  Lalande's  catalogue,  which  the 
present  and  other  catalogues  have  brought  to  light. 


ASTRONOMICAL  PHENOMENA  FOR  THE 
WEEK  1888  APRIL   15-21. 

/T^  OR  the  reckoning  of  time  the  civil  day,  commencing  at 
\-^  Greenwich  mean  midnight,  counting  the  hours  on  to  24, 
is  here  employed.) 

At  Greenwich  on  April  1 5 
Sunrises,  5h.  5m.  ;  souths,  iih.  59m.  53"6s.  ;  sets,  l8h^  55m.  : 
right  asc.  on  meridian,  ih.  36'2m.  ;  decl.  lo°  l'  N. 
Sidereal  Time  at  Sunset,  8h.  32m. 
Moon  (at  First  Quarter  April  19,  I2h.)  rises,  7h.  23m.  ; 
souths,  I5h.  9m.  ;  sets,  23h.  4m.  :  right  asc.  on  meridian, 
4h.  46-om. ;  decl.  18°  18'  N. 

Right  asc.  and  declination 
Planet.         Rises.  Souths.  Sets.  on  meridian. 

h.  m.     h.  m.     h.  m.     h.   m.      o   / 
Mercury..  4  41  •••  1°  3^  •.•  16  35  ...  o  13-8  ...  i  21  S. 

Venus 4  34  ...  10  36  ...  16  38  ...  o  12-6  ...  o  20  S. 

Mars 18     6  ...  23  39  ...     5   12*...   13  16-9  ...     5  55  S. 

Jupiter....  22  26*...  2  40  ...  6  54  ...  16  15-1  ...  20  14  S. 
Saturn....  10  33  ...  18  31  ...  2  zc,* ...  8  8-5  ...  20  46  N. 
Uranus...  17  40  ■•■  23  17  ...  4  54*--  12  55-3  ...  5  10  S. 
Neptune..  6  28  ...  14  10  ...  21  52  ...  3  466  ...  18  15  N. 
*  Indicates  that  the  rising  is  that  of  the  preceding  evening  and  the  setting 
that  of  the  following  morning. 

Occultations  of  Stars  by  the  Moon  (visible  at  Greenwich). 

Corresponding 
ifro 


April. 

16   ... 
19   ... 

April. 
19 


Star. 

X^  Orionis 
B  Cancri   .. 

h. 
...      13      ... 


Mag.        Disap. 

h.    m. 

,  6     ...  21  27 

6     ...  19  34 


Reap. 

h.  m. 
..  22  26 
..    20  45 


angles  from  ver- 
tex to  right  for 
inverted  image. 

o  o 
...  139  300 
...      70  308 


Saturn  in  conjunction  with  and  1°  5'  north 
of  the  Moon. 

Variable  Stars. 

Star.  R-A.  Decl. 

h.      m.  ,      ,  n.    m. 

U  Cephei     o  52-4  ...  81   16  N.  ...  Apr.  17,    3  41  m 

Algol" 3    0*9  ."  40  31  N.  ...     „     18,  21     4  »* 

R  Canis  Majoris...     7  H'S  —  16  12  S 20,  22  14  m 

SLibrse        14  SS'O  -    8     4  S.    ...     „     17,  22  30  »» 

U  Coronse   15  13-6  ...  32     3  N.  ...     „     17,    3  3^  »» 

U  Ophiuchi 1710-9...     i  20  N.  ...     ,,     16,    3  44  »» 

and  at  intervals  of      20    8 

X  Sagittarii 17  40-S    ••  2?  47  S.    ...  Apr.  15,    4     oM 

Z  Sagittarii 18  I4'8  ...  18  55  S.    ...     „     15,    o    o  /w 

0  Lyrse 18  46-0  ...  33  ^4  N 18,  22    o  m^ 

RLyrse        18  51-9  ...  43  4^  N.  ...     ,,      17, 

S  Vulpeculse        ...   19  43'8  ...  27     I  N 20, 

R  Sagittse    20     90  ...  16  23  N.  ...     „      18, 

T  Cephei     21     81  ...  68     2N ,     16,  M 

5  Cephei      22  25-0  ...  57  Si  N ,     19,    3    oM 

R  Aquarii   23  38-0  ...  15  54  S.     .      ,,     17.  ^ 

iW  signifies  maximum  ;  m  minimum  ;  m^  secondary  minimum. 


M 
M 


570 


NA  TURE 


{April 


12,    I 


Near  j8  Serpentis 
From  Hercules... 
From  Vulpecula 


R.A. 

232 

255 
268 
272 
300 


Meteor- Showers. 
Decl. 


17  N. 
37  N. 
33  N. 
20  N. 
24  N. 


Very  swift. 
April  12-25 
Lyrids,  April  i8-20 
April  18-24 
April  19-20.     Swift 


Very 
swift. 


GEOGRAPHICAL  NOTES. 

The  Russian  Geographical  Society  elaborated  at  its  last  meet- 
ing the  following  programme  of  work  for  the  next  summer. 
M.  Kuznetsoff  will  continue  his  geo-botanical  work  on  the 
northern  slope  of  Caucasus,  and  M.  Rossikoff  will  continue  his 
survey  of  the  Caucasian  glaciers  on  the  little-known  southern 
slope  of  West  Caucasus.  M.  Listoff  will  also  resume. his  explora- 
tion of  the  caves  containing  layers  of  ice  in  Crimea.  Pendulum 
measurements  will  be  done  by  Prof.  Sokoloff  in  Poland  and 
West  Russia  ;  and  an  Expedition'of  three  persons  will  be  sent 
out  for  the  exploration  of  the  Kola  peninsula. 

The  following  details  of  the  Brazilian  Expedition,  headed  by 
Dr.  von  Steinen,  have  been  received  from  Dr.  Ehrenreich,  one 
of  the  members  of  the  Expedition.  Their  object  was  to  investi- 
gate the  Kuluene  River,  a  tributary  of  the  Xingu.  Dr.  Ehrenreich 
gives  the  following  as  the  chief  results  of  the  Expedition  :  (i) 
the  discovery  of  great  Caribbean  races  in  the  centre  of  South 
America,  named  respectively  the  Bakairi  and  the  Nahugua'; 
(2)  the  discovery  of  the  Kanayura  and  Anite  tribes,  who  still 
speak  the  ancient  Tupi  language,  and  use  remarkable  weapons, 
amongst  which  is  the  very  peculiar  arrow  fling.  Surveys  of  the 
Kuluene  were  made  and  many  ethnographical  specimens  have 
been  collected,  forming  a  complete  picture  of  the  original  culture 
of  these  Indians,  who,  even  to-day,  do  not  know  the  use  of  metal, 
but  are  still  in  the  period  of  implements  made  of  flint,  bone,  and 
fish  teeth. 


OUR  ELECTRICAL  COLUMN. 

J.  T.  'BoTTOMLEY  showed  that  the  temperature  of  a  wire 
conveying  electric  currents  varied  with  the  air-pressures  sur- 
rounding it,  and  that  a  wire  which  remained  dull  'at  ordinary 
atmospheric  pressure  incandesced  when  a  moderate  vacuum  was 
obtained.  M.  Cailletet  has  been  working  in  the  opposite  direc- 
tion. He  has  shown  that  a  current  which  would  fuse  a  wire 
under  ordinary  pressure  will  scarcely  raise  it  to  redness  when  the 
pressure  is  sufficiently  great.  These  experiments  show  how 
essential  free  convection  as  well  as  radiation  is  to  the  incand- 
escence of  filaments  in  glow-lamps,  as  well  as  to  the  heating  of 
conductors. 

Lecher  {Rep.  der  Physik,  xxiii.  p.  795)  has  experimented  on 
the  much-vexed  question  of  the  counter-electromotive  force  of 
arc  lamps,  and  he  finds  that  its  existence  is  not  proved,  that  the 
observed  difference  of  potential  which  is  expressed  by  the  formula 
a  +  bl  varies  with  temperature,  and  that  it  is  probably  due  to 
discontinuity  in  the  current. 

Considerable  attention  has  lately  been  devoted  to  the 
potential  difference  between  the  various  constituents  of  a  voltaic 
cell  by  direct  measurement,  an  operation  facilitated  by  Helm- 
holtz's  capital  observation  that  this  difference  between  an  elec- 
trode of  mercury  flowing  in  drops  through  a  capillary  tube  and 
an  electrolyte  is  nothing.  The  mercury  thus  acquires  the 
potential  of  the  electrolyte,  and  can  be  measured.  Moser 
(Beibldtter,  xi.  p.  788)  has  thus  measured  the  Daniell  and 
Clark  cells,  and  Miesler  has  been  fallowing  it  up.  Thus  in 
the  Daniell  cell — 

Zn  I  ZnS04  =  -I-  I '06  volt 
ZnS04  I  CUSO4  =  +    -22    ,, 
CUSO4  I  Cu         =   -     -22    ,, 

Total  PD     ...     I  06    „ 
In  the  Grove  cell — 

Zn  I  H2SO4  =  -I-  i-o6  volt 
H2SO4  I  HNO3  =  +     -36    „ 
HNO,     Pt         =  +     -20   ,, 


He  makes  the  PD — 

C   I     HNO3  =  +  "38  volt 
C   I   H2Cr04=  -F  -62    „ 
H2SO4  I  H2Cr04  =  -f    -5    „ 

PbOj  I   H2SO4   =  +  i-Z    „  J 

H2SO4  I   Pb  =  -1-     -9  „ 

all  the  measurements,  except  that  of  the  Grove  cell,  according 
fairly  well  with  known  and  accepted  measurements. 

Hertz,  Wiedemann,  a.nd  Ebert  have  been  experimenting 
on  the  influence  of  rays  of  high  refrangibility  on  electrical  dis- 
charges, and  M.  Hallwachs  has  been  verifying  their  results.  He 
finds  that  a  well-insulated  disk  of  zinc  charged  with  electricity 
rapidly  loses  its  charge  when  the  rays  of  an  arc  lamp  fall  upon 
it.     It  is  more  rapid  with  negative  than  with  positive  charges. 


TEND  UL  UM  SEISMOME  TERS. 
PENDULUM  SEISMOMETERS  are  among  the  oldest  forms 
of  instruments  employed  to  record  earthquake  motion  upon 
a  stationary  plate.  In  1841  crude  forms  of  such  seismometers 
were  used  to  record  shocks  at  Comrie  in  Scotland.  The  ob- 
jections to  the  older  forms  of  these  instruments  are  that  they  are 
not  provided  with  any  arrangement  to  magnify  the  motion  of  the 
earth,  the  writing  indices  are  not  sufficiently  frictionless,  and  the 
value  of  the  records  are  destroyed  because  the  pendulums  almost 
invariably  swing  (see  "Experiments  in  Observational  Seismo- 
logy," by  J.  Milne,  Trans.  Seis.  Soc,  vol.  iii.  p.  12).  The 
first  pendulum  seismometer  with  which  I  am  acquainted  which 
has  a  multiplying  index  is  the  one  described,  constructed,  and 
successfully  employed  by  Dr.  G.  Wagener  (see  Trans.  Seis. 
Soc,  vol.  i.  p.  55).  From  Dr.  Wagener's  account  of  this  in- 
strument it  was  the  inventor's  intention  to  counteract  any 
tendency  of  the  pendulum  bob  to  swing  by  the  inertia  of  the 
multiplying  index,  and  from  his  experience  with  the  instrument, 
owing  to  frictional  resistance  or  otherwise,  it  seems  that  even 
if  the  pendulum  was  set  in  motion  it  quickly  came  to  rest. 

The  multiplying  arrangement,  or  "indicating  pendulum,"  in 
Wagener's  instrument  was  a  lever,  which  we  will  call  a  b  c,  2$ 
inches  in  length  (Fig.  i)  ;  the  upper  end  of  this  at  a  geared 


Total  PD 


1*62 


in  the  base  of  the  main  pendulum  bob  w  by  a  ball-and-socket 
joint.  One  inch  below,  at  b,  a  second  ball-and-socket  joint  con- 
nected the  lever  with  the  earth.  Now  i(  a  remained  at  rest,  and 
b,  being  connected  with  the  earth,  moved  backwards  and  for- 
wards, a  multiplied  representation  of  this  movement  was  pro- 
duced at  c,  24  inches  lower  down.  The  question  which  arises  is 
whether  w  tends  to  remain  at  rest,  and  what  effect  the  jointed 
system  a  b  e  exerts  upon  it. 

Imagine  that  an  impulse  is  received  towards  the  right,  so  that 
the  point  of  suspension  of  w  at  0,  and  the  point  b,  move  to  the 
right.  The  tendency  of  w  is  therefore  to  move  to  the  right.  If 
the  centre  of  oscillation  o{  a  b  c  relatively  to  3  as  a  centre  of  per- 
cussion is  below  b,  then  a  will  move  to  the  right  and  assist  w  in 
its  swing  ;  if,  however,  the  centre  of  oscillation  is  above  b  then 
w  will  be  retarded  in  its  motion.  In  Dr.  Wagener's  instruments 
the  centre  of  oscillation  was  below  b,  and  hence  the  index  re- 
tarded w  by  its  inertia  and  friction  only.  Still,  the  instrument  was 
the  first  one  where  there  was  an  attempt  to  use  an  "  indicating 


April  12,  1888] 


NATURE 


571 


pendulum,"  first  as  a  multiplying  index,  and  secondly  as  a  means 
to  check  the  motion  of  a  large  pendulum.  In  pendulum  seismo- 
graphs, which  I  have  largely  used  in  Japan  (see  Trans.  Seis.  Soc, 
vol.  iv.  p.  91),  a  b  was  loaded  with  a  brass  ball,  and  thus  the  centre 
of  oscillation  raised  above  b.  The  moment  that  a  b  exerted  on 
w  was  not,  however,  sufficient  to  prevent  w  from  swinging,  and 
its  movements  were  retarded  and  rendered  "dead  beat"  by 
frictional  resistance  directly  applied  to  the  surface  of  w,  which 
was  a  disk  of  lead  suspended  horizontally.  During  the  last  two 
years  I  have  had  several  seismographs  constructed  in  which  a  b 
was  long ;  and,  as  near  to  a  as  possible,  a  weight  sufficiently 
large  to  render  w  feebly  stable  was  placed.  This  important 
suggestion  of  loading  ab  originated  with  Mr.  T.  Gray.  Later, 
Mr.  Gray  drew  attention  to  the  necessity  of  rendering  an  ordinary 
pendulum,  for  small  displacements,  absolutely  astatic,  and  he 
suggested  various  means  by  which  this  might  be  accomplished 
(Trans.  Seis.  Soc,  vol.  iii.  p.  145). 

In  the  same  publication,  vol.  v.  p.  89,  Prof.  Ewing,  attack- 
ing the  same  problem,  described  a  duplex  pendulum,  a  modified 
form  of  which  he  described  in  vol.  vi.  p.  19.  In  vol.  viii.  p.  ^i, 
Prof.  Sekiya  described  an  improved  form  of  Prof.  Ewing's  in- 
strument (see  also  Nature,  vol.  xxxiv.  p.  343^  In  the  duplex 
pendulum  seismograph  an  ordinary  pendulum  is  rendered  astatic 
for  small  displacements  by  placing  an  inverted  pendulum  beneath 
it,  and  so  uniting  the  bobs  of  the  two  pendulums  that  any  hori- 
zontal motion  is  common  to  both,  and  the  jointed  system  so 
proportioned  that  neutral  or  feebly  stable  equilibrium  is  obtained. 
Although  these  instruments  are.forseismometrical  work, theoretic- 
ally good,  in  practice  such  of  them  as  I  have  had,  which  are 
the  best  to  be  obtained  in  this  country,  present  many  serious  ob- 
jections. Among  these  objections  I  may  mention  the  following  : 
(i)  the  difficulty  of  adjustment ;  (2)  the  difficulty  of  inserting 
and  removing  smoked  glass  plates  ;  (3)  the  fact  that  the  pointer 
being  cranked  at  its  upper  end  it  does  not  give  so  satisfactory  a 
record  in  directions  at  right  angles  to  the  plane  of  the  crank  as  is 
desired ;  (4)  their  incapability  of  recording  an  earthquake  of 
greater  amplitude  than  5  mm. 

By  introducing  arrangements  for  adjustment,  alteration  in 
the  form  of  the  recording  index,  &c.,  these  instruments  might 
be  improved.  Possibly  in  the  instrument  recommended  by 
Prof.  Ewing  for  use  in  Observatories  (see  Nature,  vol.  xxxiv. 
p.  343),  although  it  appears  to  be  practically  similar  to  those 
I  have  in  Tokio,  the  objections  may  not  be  so  serious. 

The  instrument  of  this  class  which  I  have  in  all  respects  found 
the  most  satisfactory  is,  in  its  essential  features,  shown  in  Fig.  2, 


stiftened  in  the  centre  by  a  small  transverse  table  which  carries 
the  bar  B.  w  is  so  suspended  that  it  can  be  readily  shifted 
laterally  or  vertically.  Below  there  is  a  small  shaft  which  carries 
the  smoked  plate.  By  means  of  a  wedge  this  can  be  raised  or 
lowered,  and  the  plate  brought  to  any  degree  of  contact  with  the 
sliding  pointer.  This  portion  of  the  apparatus  is  so  simple  that 
a  record-receiving  surface  is  instantly  adjusted  or  removed  by 
the  movement  of  a  handle  connected  with  the  wedge.  The  in- 
strument is  an  outcome  of  instruments  which  have  preceded  it, 
and  it  may  be  regarded  as  a  modification  of  an  old  type  where 
a  b  c  has  been  prolonged  upwards  and  the  balance  load  placed 
above  a  instead  of  being  between  a  and  b.  Its  chief  recom- 
mendations are;  (i)  its  smallness  ;  (2)  the  simplicity  and  few- 
ness of  its  parts  ;  (3)  the  ease  with  which  it  may  be  used  ;  (4)  its 
large  range  of  motion  ;  (5)  the  accuracy  of  its  diagrams.  The 
test  for  accuracy  has  been  made  by  placing  the  instrument  upon 
a  specially  designed  shaking  table,  the  absolute  movements  of 
which  are  recorded  by  a  multiplying  lever. 

Comparing  the  diagrams  given  by  the  machine  with  those 
given  by  the  table,  it  is  found  that  for  all  small  displacements, 
whether  in  right  lines  or  complicated  curves,  the  diagrams, 
20  or  30  mm.  in  length,  are  practically  identical.  For  diagrams 
50  mm.  in  their  greatest  dimensions,  composed  of  a  complication 
of  curves  if  anything  greater  in  complexity  than  those  yielded  by 
ordinary  earthquakes,  some  differences  occur,  the  extent  of  which 
may  be  judged  of  by  the  accompanying  diagram.  Fig.  3.     Figs.  4 


Fig.  3. 

and  5  are  examples  of  the  diagrams  obtained  for  small  displace- 
ments. These  diagrams  are  fair  specimens,  but  have  not  been 
selected  as  particularly  good  examples.  The  multiplication  of 
the  table  diagram,  marked  T,  is  6  -3,  while  that  of  the  seismograph, 
marked  S,  is  slightly  over  6. 

Diagrams  of  the  old  type  of  seismograph  with  the  weight 
on  a  b  have  also  compared  favourably  with  the  table  motion.  I 
regret,  however,  to  say  that  the  diagrams  given  by  one  of  Prof. 


Fig.  2. 

in  which  w  represents  a  lead  ring  about  7  inches  in  diameter,  with 
a  small  tube,  a,  fixed  in  a  plate  at  its  centre.  \v  is  supported  by 
three  strings  Or  wires,  s.  The  indicating  pointer  \^iv  ab  c,  pro- 
longed downwards,  at  the  lower  end  there  being  a  needle  as  a 
writing-point  sliding  in  a  small  tube,  w  a  /» is  a  light  steel  rod  with 
a  ball  forming  a  universal  joint  on  the  tube  at  a,  and  a  point,  I, 
pivoting  in  the  fixed  steel  bar  B.  The  stability  of  the  system  is 
readily  altered  by  raising  or  lowering  the  small  weight  w.     For 

small  displacements  neutrality  is  obtained  when  ———.  where 

p  —  ab,\^  the  length  of  the  main  pendulum,  and  /  the  length  of 
the  inverted  pendulum. 
The  whole  is  carried  on  a  tripod  about  2  feet  3  inches  high, 


S. 


Fig.  4. 


Fig.  5- 


Ewing's  duplex  pendulums,  with  the  exception  of  their  amplitude, 
in  no  way  resembled  the  table  motion.  This  instrument  was  ad- 
justed to  have  extremely  feeble  stability.  With  a  second  of 
Prof.  Ewing's  instruments,  which  was  adjusted  by  Prof.  Sekiya  s 
assistant,  who  understood  the  machine,  the  distortion  was  not 
so  great,  but  the  diagrams  were  complicated  by  the  swinging  of 
the  pendulum  after  the  shaking  had  ceased.  The  pendulum  m 
this  instance  had  a  period  of  about  two  seconds,  which  was 
much  too  short.  John  Milne. 


572 


NATURE 


[April  12,  1888 


A 


THE  CULTIVATION  OF  OYSTERS. 

REPORT  from  the  British  Consul  at  Baltimore  on  the 
oyster- fisheries  of  Maryland,  which  has  just  been  laid  before 
Parliament,  contains  much  interesting  information  respecting  the 
cultivation  of  oysters.  The  method  of  farming  most  successful 
in  America  consists  in  depositing  clean  oyster-shells  upon  the 
bottom,  just  before  the  spawning-season,  to  which  the  young 
attach  themselves,  and  then  placing  among  the  shells  a  few 
mature  oysters  to  furnish  eggs  and  young.  As  soon  as  the 
young  oysters  caught  in  this  manner  are  large  enough  to  handle, 
they  are  distributed  over  the  bottom.  Another  system  is  by 
artificial  propagation,  properly  so  called — that  is,  by  producing 
the  seed-oyster  itself,  or  procuring  it  by  methods  less  simple  than 
the  shell-sowing  process.  This  method  is  due  to  a  discovery  by  Dr. 
W.  K.  Brooks  that  the  Ostrea  virginiana,  or  American  oyster,  is 
not,  like  the  Ostrea  edulis,  or  oyster  of  Northern  Europe,  herm- 
aphrodite, but  is  exclusively  male  or  exclusively  female.  The  eggs 
of  the  European  oyster  are  fertilized  within  the  valves  of  the 
parent,  while  in  the  case  of  the  American  oyster,  fertilization 
takes  place  in  the  broad  and  open  waters.  By  experiment  Dr. 
Brooks  discovered  how  artificial  fertilization  could  be  procured, 
and  the  next  great  step  of  finding  a  simple  and  practical  method 
of  rearing  the  young  oysters  which  have  been  hatched  artificially 
was  the  work  of  M.  Bouchon  Brandsle,  the  French  naturalist, 
who  experimented  with  Portuguese  oysters,  which,  like  the 
American  variety,  are  of  distinct  sexes.  He  succeeded  in  rearing 
many  seed-oysters  fit  for  planting.  Another  highly  important 
industry  which  is  springing  up  in  the  United  Spates,  and  which 
also  owes  its  existence  to  a  careful  study  of  the  habits  of  the 
bivalve,  is  that  of  "muzzling"  oysters,  by  which  they  can  be 
sent  long  distances  in  their  shells  with  perfect  safety.  Until 
recently,  the  general  practice  was  to  pack  the  raw  oysters  in  ice, 
but  a  sudden  rise  of  temperature  is  liable  to  render  a  whole 
week's  supply  useless.  Oysters  feed  twice  a  day  ;  and  always  at 
the  still  moment  preceding  the  turn  of  the  tide,  and  at  no  other 
time,  except  when  feeding,  do  they  open  their  shells.  When 
taken  out  of  their  natural  element,  they  attempt  to  feed  at 
regular  intervals,  and  so  soon  as  the  shells  open,  the  liquor  they 
contain  is  all  lost,  the  air  takes  its  place,  and  the  oyster  is 
covered  with  a  thick  coating  of  slime,  which  is  the  first  stage  of 
decomposition.  As  long  as  the  shells  are  closed,  the  oyster  is 
fit  to  eat ;  it  feeds  on  the  liquor  in  the  shell,  and  will  thus  keep 
in  good  condition  for  a  considerable  time.  To  secure  the  keep- 
ing of  the  shells  closed,  a  method  has  been  invented  of  tying 
them  with  stout  wire,  which  can  be  done  with  great  rapidity, 
and  now  arrangements  are  being  made  for  despatching  American 
oysters  in  their  natural  condition  all  over  the  civilized  world. 


SCIENTIFIC  SERIALS. 

The  Quarterly  Journal  of  Microscopical  Science,  February, 
1888,  contains  : — On  the  Photospheria  oi  Nyclifikanes  norvegica, 
G.  O.  Sars,  by  Rupert  Vallentin  and  J.  T.  Cunningham 
(Plate  23).  The  authors  give  an  account  of  their  examination 
of  the  luminous  organs  of  this  little  crustacean  ;  it  is  a  distinctly 
northern  form,  being  absent  from  the  Mediterranean  and  the 
warmer  parts  of  the  Atlantic.  It  is  abundant  on  the  west  coast 
of  Norway  ;  the  adults  seem  to  live  on'  the  bottom  and  never 
swim  far  from  the  ground,  while  the  young,  up  to  half  or 
three-quarters  the  size  of  the  adult,  occur  abundantly  at  the  very 
surface,  and  at  all  intermediate  depths.  Mr.  Murray  found 
swarms  in  the  Faroe  Channel,  and  it  seems  common  in  the 
the  Clyde  sea-area ;  the  authors  took  it  in  abundance  off 
Brodick  Bay.  The  histological  details  of  the  luminous  organs 
are  given  in  detail,  and  agree  for  the  most  part  with  those  of 
G.  C.  Sars. — On  the  eai-ly  stages  of  the  development  of  a  South 
American  species  of  Peripatus,  by  W.  L.  Sclater  (Plate  24). 
These  details  are  worked  out  from  a  species  found  by  Mr. 
Sclater  in  Demerara,  and  called  by  him  P.  imthurni  ;  the  early 
stages  present  great  differences  when  compared  with  those  de- 
scribed by  M.  Sedgwick  in  P.  capensis. — On  the  anatomy  of 
Allurus  telraedrus- (Eisen),  by  Frank  E.  Beddard  (Plate  25). 
The  specimen  described  came  from  Teneriff'e  ;  there  are  several 
structural  differences  between  this  genus  and  AUolobophora. — • 
On  the  development  of  the  Cape  species  of  Peripatus  ;  Part  iv, 
the  changes  from  the  G  stage  to  birth,  by  Adam  Sedgwick, 
F-R.S.  (Plates  26-29). — On  the  occurrence  of  numerous  Neph- 
ridia  in  the  same  segment  of  certain  earthworms,  and  on  the 


relationship  between  the  excretory  system  in  the  Annelida  and  in 
the  Platyhelminths,  by  Frank  E.  Beddard  (Plates  30  and  31). — 
On  the  anatomy  of  the  Madreporia,  iv.,  by  Dr.  G.  Herbert 
Fowler  (Plates  32  and  33).  The  author  gives  the  result  of  his  in- 
vestigations of  the  species  of  seven  more  genera  of  the  Madre- 
pores, which,  among  other  important  results,  seem  to  establish  a 
relationship  between  the  external  body- wall  and  the  corallum, 
which  depending  on  the  presence  or  absence  of  coenenchyma 
may  yield  a  distinctive  morphological  character.  In  all  those 
genera  in  which  a  coenenchyma  is  found,  whether  they  belong  to 
the  Perforata  or  Imperforata,  the  body-wall  rests  on  the  little 
spikes  or  echinulations  which  stud  the  surface  of  the  corallum. 
A  new  species  of  Seriatopora  is  described  as  S.  tenuicornis  ;  it 
was  found  by  Dr.  S.  J.  Hickson  at  the  Celebes  ;  it  comes  near 
S.  caliendru?n. 

Transactions  and  Proceedings  of  the  New  Zealand  Institute 
for  1886,  vol.  xix.  (Wellington,  May  1887). — The  principal 
contents  of  this  volume,  edited  as  usual  by  Sir  James  Hector, 
are  as  follow  : — Zoology  :  E.  Meyrick,  monograph  of  New  Zea- 
land Noctuina,  describes  sixty-three  species. — W.  M.  Maskell, 
on  the  "honeydew"  of  Coccidse,  and  the  Fungus  accompanying 
these  insects  ;  Further  notes  on  New  Zealand  Coccidre  ;  On 
the  freshwater  Infusoria  of  the  Wellington  district.  In  the 
second  paper  a  new  genus  and  two  new  species  are  described  ; 
in  the  last  many  new  species  are  described,  and  several  well- 
known  British  forms  are  recorded ;  all  these  papers  are  illus- 
trated.— G.  V.  Hudson,  on  New  Zealand  glow-worms. — T.  W. 
Kirk,  notes,  double  earth-worm  ;  New  species  of  Ixodes  ;  Zootoca 
vivipara,  in  New  Zealand  ;  New  species  of  Alpheus. — A.  Purdie, 
Pasiphila  Uchenodes  sp.  nov,,  and  descriptions  of  larvae  of  three 
species  of  the  genus. — A.  T.  Urquhart,  on  new  species  of 
Araneidea  ;  On  the  work  of  earth-worms. — W.  W.  Smith,  notes 
on  New  Zealand  earth-worms,  gives  some  very  interesting  de- 
tails.— W.  Colenso,  deformed  bill  of  a  Huia  ;  New  species  of 
Hemideina  ;  Gestation  of  a  species  of  Naultinus. — T.  Jeffery 
Parker,  on  Palinurus  lalandii  and  P.  edwardsii,  decides  that 
there  are  constant  though  slight  differences  between  the  two 
species ;  P.  edivardsii,  Hutton,  being  the  New  Zealand  form, 
the  other  being  the  Cape  of  Good  Hope  form. — C,  W.  Robson, 
new  giant  cuttle-fish  {Architeuthis  kirkii). — J.  A.  Newell, 
anatomy  of  Patinella  radians. — T.  F.  Cheeseman,  Mollusca  of 
the  vicinity  of  Auckland. — J.  Adams,  land  Mollusca  of  the 
Thames  gold-fields. — A.  Reischek,  Hauturu  Island  and  its 
birds  ;  Ornithological  notes. — S.  Weetman,  Moa  remains  on  the 
Great  Barrier  Island. — R.  Haeusler,  Foraminifera  from  Hauraki 
Gulf. — P.  Goyen,  descriptions  of  new  spiders. — Botany  :  J. 
Buchanan,  new  native  plants  ;  Hemitelia  sniithii,  a  branching 
specimen. — T.  F.  Cheeseman,  on  the  New  Zealand  species  of 
Coprosma. — W.  Colenso,  on  tree  ferns  ;  On  some  new  Phseno- 
gamic  plants  ;  On  some  new  Cryptogamic  plants  ;  Fungi  recently 
discovered  in  New  Zealand. — Catherine  Alexander,  on  the  glands 
in  the  stem  and  leaf  of  Myoporum  Icetum. — T.  W.  Rowe,  on 
the  development  of  the  flower  of  Coriaria  ruscifolia. — J.  Baber, 
medicinal  properties  of  some  New  Zealand  plants. — D.  Petrie, 
descriptions  of  new  native  plants.  —  Geology  :  J.  Park,  ascent  of 
Ruapehu,  the  exact  height  was  not  apparently  determined, 
"about  9000  feet  high." — There  is  a  series  of  important  papers 
on  the  eruption  of  Tarawera  Mountain  and  Rotomahana,  by  J. 
A.  Pond  and  S.  Percy  Smith,  Major  Mair,  L.  Cussen,  Arch- 
deacon Williams,  E.  P.  Dumerque,  and  H.  Hill.— Prof.  F.  W. 
Hutton,  on  the  geology  of  the  Trelissick  or  Broken  River  Basin, 
Selwyn  County ;  On  the  so-called  gabbro  of  Dun  Mountain  ; 
On  the  geology  of  the  country  between  Oamaru  and  Moeraki  ; 
On  the  geology  of  the  Valley  of  the  Waihao  in  South  Canter- 
bury.— A.  McKay,  the  Waihao  greensands  and  their  relation 
to  the  Ototara  limestone. — Sir  J.  von  Haast,  notes  on  the  age 
and  subdivisions  of  the  sedimentary  rocks  in  the  Canterbury 
Mountains,  based  upon  the  palseontological  researches  of  Baron 
von  Ettingshausen. — W.  S.  Hamilton,  notes  on  the  geology  of 
the  Bluff"  District. — ^J.  Goodall,  on  the  formation  of  Timaru 
Downs. 

Reale  Istituto  Lomlmrdo,  March  8. — This  number  is  mainly 
occupied  with  E.  G.  Celoria's  determination  of  some  new  orbits 
of  the  double  stars  02  298  in  the  constellation  of  Bootes  and  )8 
Delphini,  The  results  of  thirty-nine  distinct  observations  are 
tabulated,  and  compared  with  previous  more  or  less  approximate 
determinations  of  these  orbits  by  Burnham,  Dawes,  Dembowski, 
Duner,  Engelmann,  Asaph  Hall,  Perrotin,  Schiaparelli, 
Seabroke,  Struve,  and  Wilson. 


April  12.  1888] 


NA  TURE 


573 


Rivista  Scientijico-Industriale,  March  31, — Influence  of  mag- 
netism on  the  electric  resistance  of  solid  conductors,  by  Dr.  Fae.  In 
this  paper  the  author  explains  the  conclusions  already  announced 
for  cobalt  and  antimony,  and  describes  his  further  researches 
on  other  bodies  in  connection  with  the  influence  of  magnetism 
on  their  electric  resistance.  He  concludes  generally  that  the 
resistance  of  the  principal  solid  conductors  undergoes  modifica- 
tions in  the  magnetic  field,  such  modifications  being  perceptible 
enough  in  the  highly  magnetic  or  diamagnetic  metals,  but 
most  conspicuous  in  bismuth.  In  all  other  metals  it  is 
very  slight,  and  at  times  quite  inappreciable.  Under  like 
conditions  the  resistance  in  the  direction  of  the  lines  of 
force  increases  both  for  the  magnetic  and  diamagnetic  metals, 
while  in  the  direction  normal  to  the  lines  of  force  it  diminishes 
in  the  first  and  increases  in  the  second,  although  under  special 
conditions  iron  and  steel  behave  exceptionally.  These  variations 
of  resistance  make  it  probable  that  Hall's  phenomenon  depends 
in  effect  on  a  transitory  change  produced  by  the  magnetism  in 
the  structure  of  the  metals,  and  causing  a  rotatory  variation  in 
the  electric  resistance. — Dr.  Luigi  Fritsch  describes  an 
industrial  product  of  the  nitrate  of  ethyl. 


SOCIETIES  AND  ACADEMIES. 
London. 

Royal  Society,  February  2. — "  On  the  Voltaic  Circles  pro- 
ducible by  the  mutual  Neutralization  of  Acid  and  Alkaline 
Fluids,  and  on  various  related  Forms  of  Electromotors."  By 
C.  R.  Alder  Wright,  D.Sc,  F.R.S.,  Lecturer  on  Chemistry  and 
Physics,  and  C.  Thompson,  F.I.C.,  F.C.S.,  Demonstrator  of 
Chemistry  in  St.  Mary's  Hospital  Medical  School. 

About  the  beginning  of  the  present  century  it  was  noticed  that 
when  platinum  plates  are  immersed  respectively  in  an  acid  and 
an  alkaline  fluid  {e.g.  diluted  sulphuric  acid  and  caustic  potash  solu- 
tion), and  connected  with  a  galvanometer,  a  much  stronger  current 
flows  at  first  than  after  passing'awhile  :  which  circumstance  may 
be  explained  by  supposing  that  in  virtue  of  the  chemical  action 
taking  place  between  the  two  fluids  a  current  is  generated,  the 
flowing  of  which  necessarily  causes  electrolysis  of  the  liquids,  so 
that  the  plates  become  "polarized"  by  the  evolution  thereon  of 
hydrogen  and  oxygen  respectively,  whereby  an  inverse  E.M.F.  is 
set  up,  gas  battery  fashion.  It  was  shown  subsequently  by 
Becquerel  that  when  nitric  acid  is  thus  used  in  conjunction  with 
caustic  potash  a  much  more  powerful  continuous  current  can  be 
generated,  the  passage  of  which  is  accompanied  by  a  con- 
tinuous evolution  of  oxygen  from  the  plate  immersed  in  the 
alkali,  whilst  the  nitric  acid  is  simultaneously  reduced,  forming 
lower  oxides  of  nitrogen:  whence  the  term  "  pile  ^  oxygene " 
applied  to  the  combination.  In  this  arrangement  the  hydrogen 
supposed  to  be  formed  electrolytically  can  never  actually  make 
its  appearance  in  the  free  state,  being  oxidized  whilst  nascent  by 
the  nitric  acid  ;  so  that  as  the  gas  battery  inverse  E.M.F.  is  not  de- 
veloped, the  continuous  current  passing  is  not  so  much  weakened  ; 
the  oxygen  set  free  by  electrolysis  consequently  passes  off" 
continuously  at  the  other  plate. 

It  occurred  to  the  authors  that,  if  this  reasoning  be  correct, 
firstly,  other  oxidizing  acid  liquids  besides  nitric  acid  should  be 
able  to  act  in  the  same  way,  causing  continuous  oxygen  evolution 
at  the  plate  immersed  in  the  alkali.  Secondly,  by  parity  of 
reasoning,  if  ordinary  dilute  sulphuric  acid  be  used  on  the  one 
side  opposed  to  an  alkaline  fluid  also  containing  some  readily  oxi- 
dizable  substance  dissolved  therein,  continuous  hydrogen  evolution 
should,  under  favourable  circumstances,  be  produced  at  the  plate 
in  the  acid,  the  oxygen  evolved  at  the  other  plate  being  acted 
upon  while  nascent  by  the  oxidizable  substance  present,  so  as  to 
be  suppressed  just  as  the  hydrogen  is  in  Becquerel's  «'pile  k 
oxygene."  Thirdly,  whether  oxygen  or  hydrogen  be  contmuously 
evolved,  the  quantity  liberated  should  be  proportionate  to  the 
current  passing  ;  so  that,  if  a  silver  voltameter  be  included  in  the 
circuit,  for  every  milligramme-equivalent  (108  mgrms.)  of  silver 
deposited  i  mgrm. -equivalent  of  gas  should  be  liberated ;  i.e. 
8  mgrms.  of  hydrogen  occupying  at  o"  and  760  mm.  5-6  c.c.  ;  or 
I  mgrm.  of  hydrogen  occupying  ii'2  c.c. 

A  number  of  cells  were  arranged,  consisting  of  two  porcelam 
basins  or  beakers,  one  containing  the  acid  and  the  other  the 
alkaline  fluid  united  by  a  siphon  tube,  or  by  a  thick  wick,  con- 
taining or  wetted  with  a  strong  solution  of  the  salt  formed  by  the 
union  of  the  acid  and  alkali  {e.g.  sulphate  of  soda  when  sul. 
phuric  acid  and  caustic  soda  were  used,  and  so  on).     A  plate  Of 


platinum  foil  was  placed  in  each  fluid  attached  to  a  platinum 
wire,  and  arranged  under  an  inverted  graduated  tube  filled  with 
the  liquid  pertaining  to  that  side  of  the  cell,  so  that  any  evolved 
gas  could  be  collected  and  measured,  loss  of  gas  from  evolution 
at  the  surface  of  the  wire  outside  the  tube  being  avoided  by 
coating  the  wire  with  gutta  percha  or  paraffin  wax.  A  small 
silver  voltameter  with  a  gold  plate  as  negative  electrode  was 
always  included  in  the  circuit,  so  as  to  permit  of  the  deposited 
silver  being  determined.  Numerous  experiments  thus  made  are 
described,  the  results  of  which  were  always  in  sensible  ac- 
cordance with  the  above  previsions,  a  considerable  variety  of 
acid  oxidizing  fluids  and  alkaline  oxidizable  solutions  being 
employed. 

These  results  render  it  probable  that,  if,  instead  of  a  platinum 
plate  and  an  oxidizable  substance  in  solution,  there  be  used 
simple  caustic  soda  or  ammonia,  and  an  oxidizable  metal,  the 
oxide  of  which  is  soluble  in  the  alkaline  fluid,  continuous  cur- 
rents might  be  set  up  (in  certain  cases  at  least),  even  though  the 
metal  used  have  of  itself  no  visible  action  on  the  alkaline  fluid, 
apart  from  its  absorbing  oxygen  dissolved  therein  or  in  contact 
therewith ;  for  instance,  metallic  tin  or  lead  in  contact  with 
caustic  soda,  or  copper  immersed  in  ammonia  solution.  On  try- 
ing such  experiments,  continuous  evolution  of  hydrogen  from  the 
surface  of  the  platinum  plate  immersed  in  the  acid  was  found  in 
many  instances  to  be  readily  brought  about,  the  amount  evolved 
being  (as  might  a  priori  be  anticipated)  proportionate  to  the  cur- 
rent passing,  i.e.  to  the  quantity  of  silver  deposited  in  a  silver 
voltameter  included  in  the  circuit.  By  employing  an  alkaline 
solution  of  potassium  cyanide,  it  was  found  easy  to  produce  the 
same  result  when  certain  metals  of  the  non-oxidizable  class  (gold, 
silver,  palladium,  and  mercury,  but  not  platinum)  were  used 
instead  of  really  oxidizable  ones. 

In  most  cases  the  quantity  of  metal  taken  into  solution  in  the 
alkaline  fluid  was  practically  identical  with  that  equivalent  to  the 
current  passing,  calculated  on  the  assumption  that  the  nascent 
oxygen  due  to  the  electrolysis  combined  with  the  metal  to  form 
the  lowest  oxide  thereof,  in  the  various  cases  respectively.  In  some 
few  instances  a  slight  excess  of  metal  was  dissolved,  obviously  due 
either  to  local  action  or  the  effect  of  small  quantities  of  dissolved 
air.  Two  well-marked  exceptions  to  thegeneralrule,however,  were 
noticed  :  one  was  tin,  which  when  dissolved  in  caustic  soda  in- 
variably went  into  solution  to  an  appreciably  less  extent  than  cor- 
responded with  SnO  ;  instead  of  fifty-nine  parts  of  tin  being 
dissolved  for  every  108  of  silver  deposited  in  the  volameter,  only 
quantities  amounting  to  93  to  97  per  cent,  of  that  amount  were 
dissolved,  indicating  that  some  little  quantity  of  SnOo  was  formed 
as  well  as  SnO,  although  the  latter  largely  predominated.  The 
other  exception  was  mercury,  which  in  contact  with  potassium 
cyanide  dissolved  to  only  half  the  extent  due  to  formation  of 
HggO,  mercuric  potassio-cyanide  being  produced.  Copper, 
whether  in  contact  with  ammonia  or  with  potassium  cyanide, 
on  the  other  hand,  always  dissolved  in  proportions  corresponding 
with  CugO,  a  little  excess  instead  of  deficiency  being  usually 
noticeable  through  the  secondary  action  of  dissolved  air. 

In  all  these  experiments,  the  results  obtained  are  precisely 
those  due  to  electrolysis  of  the  salt  formed  by  the  neutralization 
of  the  acid  and  alkali  in  accordance  with  the  scheme  (for 
sulphuric  acid  and  soda) — 

/  H2SO4  I  Na2S04  I  Na,S04  |  aNaOH 

i  H2  I  S04Na2  I  S04Na2  |  S04Na2  |  H.O  +  O  ; 

where  either  the  hydrogen  or  the  oxygen  is  suppressed,  whilst 
nascent,  by  combination  with  the  fluid  in  contact  with  which 
it  is  evolved,  or  with  the  metal  in  the  case  of  oxygen  in  the  cells 
last  described.  .      „        ■  c  .u- 

Accordingly  it  might  be  expected  that  in  all  actions  ot  this 
kind  a  quantity  of  acid  on  the  one  hand,  and  of  alkali  on  the 
other,  proportionate  to  the  current  passing,  will  disappear  as 
such  on  account  of  the  mutual  neutralization  thus  indirectly 
brought  about.  The  authors  have  made  a  number  of  titration 
experiments  with  a  view  to  obtaining  numerical  evidence  on  this 
point,  with  the  general  result  of  finding  that  such  neutralization 
always  takes  place.  It  may  be  noticed  that  if  cells  be  con- 
structed with  platinum  electrodes  immersed  respectively  in  an 
alkaline  fluid  containing  an  oxidizable  substance  dissolved  there- 
in, and  an  acid  fluid  containing  an  oxidizing  agent  {e.g.  caustic 
soda  solution  of  pyrogallol,  and  sulphuric  acid  solution  of  chromic 
anhydride),  continuous  currents  of  very  considerable  power  may 
be  obtained  when  the  internal  resistance  is  diminished  sufficiently 
by  using  cells  of  considerable  magnitude  ;  e.g.   when  made  of 


574 


NATURE 


[April  \2,  1888 


the  stoneware  and  inner  porous  vessels  usually  employed 
for  Grove's  cells,  the  porous  vessel  being  cemented  into  the 
outer  stoneware  vessel  (by  paraffin  wax  or  other  unattacked 
material)  in  such  a  fashion  as  to  divide  it  into  three  compart- 
ments separated  one  from  the  other  by  porous  dividing  walls  ;  the 
acid  and  alkaline  fluids  being  placed  in  the  two  outermost  com- 
partments, and  the  innermost  one  being  filled  with  a  solution  of 
ajneutral  salt,  e.g.  sodium  sulphate. 

March  I. — "On  Electdcal  Excitation  of  the  Occipital  Lobe 
and  adjacent  Parts  of  the  Monkey's  Brain."  By  E.  A. 
Schafer,  F.  R.  S. ,  Jodrell  Professor  of  Physiology  in  University 
College,  London. 

The  following  are  the  results  of  my  own  observations: — 
Electrical  excitation  of  the  posterior  limb  of  the  angular  gyrus, 
of  the  upper  end  of  the  middle  temporal  gyrus  ^  (which  is  con- 
tinuous with  it),  of  the  whole  cortex  of  the  occipital  lobe,  inclusive 
of  its  mesial  and  under  aspects  and  of  the  quadrate  lobule, 
causes  conjugate  deviation  of  the  eyes  to  the  opposite  side.  The 
movement  is  not,  however,  in  all  cases  a  simple  lateral  deviation, 
but  the  lateral  movement  may  be  combined  with  an  upward  or 
downward  inclination  according  to  the  part  stimulated.     Thus — 

(i)  Excitation  of  a  superior  zone  which  comprises  on  the  exter- 
nal surface  the  posterior  limb  of  the  angular  gyrus,  the  upper 
(posterior)  end  of  the  middle  temporal  gyrus,  and  the  part  of  the 
occipital  lobe  immediately  behind  the  external  parieto-occipital 
fissure  and  on  the  mesial  surface  the  quadrate  lobule  immediately 
in  front  of  the  upper  end  of  the  internal  parieto-occipital  fissure 
and  the  occipital  lobe  for  a  short  distance  behind  the  upper  end 
of  that  fissure,  produces,  besides  the  lateral  deviation,  a  down- 
ward inclination  of  the  visual  axes  which  is  sometimes— especially 
when  the  stimulation  is  applied  at  or  near  the  mesial  surface — 
so  marked  as  greatly  to  obscure  the  lateral  deviation. 

(2)  Excitation  of  an  inferior  zone  comprising  the  whole  of  the 
inferior  surface  of  the  lobe,  the  lower  part  of  the  mesial  surface, 
and  the  posterior  or  lowermost  part  of  the  convex  or  external 
surface,  produces,  besides  the  lateral  deviation,  an  upward 
inclination  of  the  visual  axes,  which,  like  the  downward  move- 
ment resulting  from  stimulation  of  the  superior  zone,  may  be  so 
marked  as  partly  to  obscure  the  lateral  deviation. 

(3)  Excitation  of  an  intermediate  zone  which  comprises  the 
greater  part  of  the  external  surface  (where  it  gradually  broadens 
out  laterally)  and  extends  over  the  margin  of  the  great  longitu- 
dinal fissure  to  include  a  narrow  portion  of  the  mesial  surface, 
produces  neither  upward  nor  downward  inclination  of  the  visual 
axes,  but  a  simple  lateral  movement. 

If,  as  is  highly  probable,  the  movements  of  the  eyes,  which 
occur  on  excitation  of  the  occipital  lobe  and  adjacent  parts,  are 
the  result  of  the  production  of  subjective  visual  sensations,  these 
effects  of  excitation  of  the  several  parts  of  that  lobe  and  the 
adjoining  portions  of  the  brain  would  appear  to  indicate — 
*  I.  Aconnectionof  the  whole  visual  area  of  each  hemisphere  with 
the  corresponding  lateral  half  of  each  retina.  (This  has  already 
been  ascertained  to  be  the  case  from  the  result  of  removing  the 
whole  of  the  area  on  one  side,  bilateral  homonymous  hemianopsia 
being  thereby  produced. ) 

(2)  A  connection  of  the  superior  zone  with  the  superior  part  of 
the  corresponding  lateral  half  of  each  retina. 

(3)  A  connection  of  the  inferior  zone  with  the  inferior  part  of 
the  corresponding  lateral  half  of  each  retina. 

(4)  A  connection  of  the  intermediate  zone  with  the  middle 
part  of  the  corresponding  lateral  half  of  each  retina. 

"  A  Comparison  of  the  Latency  Periods  of  the  Ocular  Muscles 
on  Excitation  of  the  Frontal  and  Occipito-Temporal  Regions  of 
the  Brain."  By  E.  A.  Schafer,  F.R.S.,  Jodrell  Professor  of 
Physiology  in  University  College,  London. 

Conjugate  deviation  of  the  eyes  to  the  opposite  side  is  pro- 
duced by  excitation  of  entirely  different  regions  of  the  cerebral 
cortex. 

Of  these  parts,  excitation  of  which  produces  this  result  (con- 
jugate deviation  of  the  eyes  to  the  opposite  side),  one,  viz.  the 
frontal  area,  is  distinguished  from  the  rest  by  the  fact  that  its 
removal  produces  paralysis  of  that  movement.  This  fact  has 
been  seized  upon  by  Ferrier  as  indicating  an  important  functional 
difference,  the  movements  in  the  one  case  being  probably  caused 

Excitation  of  the  upper  end  of  the  superior  temporal  gyrus  gives  a 
similar  result.  Since  this  is  commonly  accompanied  by  a  movement  of  the 
opposite  ear,  it  is  usually  considered  that  subjective  auditory  sensations  have 
been  called  up  by  the  excitation. 


by  the  direct  action  of  this  part  of  the  cortex  upon  the  centre  of 
origin  of  the  nerves  to  the  ocular  muscles  ;  but  in  all  other  cases 
by  indirect  action,  the  movement  when,  e.g.,  the  visual  or 
auditory  region  is  stimulated  being  the  result  of  visual  or 
auditory  impressions  (subjective  sensations)  being  provoked  in 
the  brain  by  the  excitation,  and  these  impressions  producing 
indirectly  the  action  in  question.  Others  have  supported  the 
view  that  in  all  cases  the  movement  is  the  result  of  the  setting 
up  of  subjective  sensations,  but  that  in  the  case  of  the  frontal 
area  these  are  tactile  or  are  connected  with  the  muscular  sense. 

It  seemed  to  me  that  light  would  be  thrown  upon  the  question 
if  the  period  of  latent  stimulation  of  the  ocular  muscles  were 
accurately  determined  under  exactly  the  same  conditions  for  the 
frontal  and  posterior  (temporal  and  occipital)  areas  respectively. 
The  result  of  this  determination,  which  I  have  made  in  a  number 
of  monkeys,  is  to  show  that  the  latent  period  is  longer  by  some 
hundredths  of  a  second  in  the  case  of  stimulation  of  the  occipital 
lobe,  or  of  the  superior  temporal  gyrus  than  when  the  frontal 
area  is  stimulated ;  thus  indicating  that  in  the  former  case  the 
nervous  impulses  must  be  transmitted  through  at  least  one  more 
nerve  centre  than  in  the  latter. 

Geological  Society,  March  28.— Dr.  W.  T.  Blanford, 
F.  R.  S.,  President,  in  the  chair. — The  following  communications 
were  read  : — On  some  eroded  agate  pebbles  from  the  Soudan, 
by  Prof  V.  Ball,  F.  R.  S.  The  majority  of  the  pebbles  in  a 
collection  made  by  Surgeon-Major  Greene  in  the  Soudan,  and 
presented  by  him  to  the  Science  and  Art  Museum  in  Dublin,  are 
of  vei-y  similar  character  to  the  agate  and  jasper  pebbles  derived 
from  the  basalts  of  India.  It  may  be  concluded  inferentially 
that  they  came  originally  from  a  region  in  which  basaltic  rocks 
occur  to  a  considerable  extent.  A  certain  number  of  them  are 
eroded  in  a  manner  unlike  anything  noticed  in  India,  though  it 
is  probable  that  similar  eroded  pebbles  will  eventually  be  found 
there.  Throughout  India,  wherever  there  is  a  deficient  subsoil- 
drainage  or  excessive  evaporation  and  limited  rainfall,  salts  are 
apparent  either  in  supersaturated  subsoil-solutions  or  as  crystal- 
lizations in  the  soil.  They  are  most  abundant  in  basaltic  regions, 
and  in  a  lake  occupying  a  hollow  in  the  basalt  in  Berar  carbonate 
of  soda  is  deposited  in  abundance  from  the  water,  which  becomes 
supersaturated  during  the  summer.  The  author  commented  on 
the  efficacy  of  such  a  liquid  as  a  solvent  of  silica,  and  noticed 
the  selective  action  of  the  agent  which  had  affected  the  Soudan 
pebbles  and  had  corroded  some  layers  more  than  others  ;  he 
suggested  that,  while  this  might  be  to  some  extent  due  to  differ- 
ences in  composition,  it  was  more  probably  owing  to  differences 
of  nodular  constitution.  He  considered  it  unnecessary  to  refer 
to  the  action  of  humic  acid,  because,  while  the  salt  to  which 
the  solvent  action  is  attributed  would  be  capable  of  doing  such 
work,  and  would  be  probably  abundant  in  the  region  referred 
to,  we  could  not  expect  any  great  amount  of  humic  acid  in  the 
same  area.  This  paper  gave  rise  to  a  discussion,  in  the  course 
of  which  remarks  were  made  by  the  President,  Mr.  Whitaker, 
Mr.  Irving,  Mr.  De  Ranee,  and  Sir  Warington  Smith. — On  the 
probable  mode  of  transport  of  the  fragments  of  granite  and 
other  rocks  which  arefound  embedded  in  the  Carboniferous  Lime- 
stone of  the  neighbourhood  of  Dublin,  by  Prof.  V.  Ball,  F.R.S. 
— The  Upper  Eocene,  comprising  the  Barton  and  Upper  Bag- 
shot  formations,  by  J.  Starkie  Gardner  and  Henry  Keeping, 
with  an  appendix  by  H.  W,  Monckton. 

Royal  Microscopical  Society,  March  14. — Dr.  R.  Braith- 
waite,  Vice-President,  in  the  chair. — The  Rev.  A.  H.  Cooke 
exhibited  a  number  of  photomicrographs  of  the  odontophores  of 
Mollusca,  as  an  attempt  to  illustrate  this  group  of  objects  by 
photography  ;  he  also  referred  to  the  valuable  results  obtained  in 
the  definition  of  species  by  the  application  of  the  method. — Mr. 
E.  M.  Nelson  exhibited  and  described  a  new  form  of  mechanical 
stage,  in  which  two  points  were  moved  by  milled  heads  in  rect- 
angular directions,  carrying  the  slide  with  them,  the  slide  being 
pressed  against  them,  when  they  were  withdrawn,  by  the  hand. — 
Mr.  C.  L.  Curties  exhibited  a  new  combination  condenser,  which, 
in  addition  to  the  condenser,  also  contained  an  iris  diaphragm, 
a  spot  lens,  and  a  polarizing  prism. — Mr.  [Crisp  exhibited  a 
Collins's  aquarium  microscope  which  could  be  fixed  by  suction  to 
the  glass  side  of  the  tank  ;  also  Klonne  and  Miiller's  aquarium 
microscope  for  examining  objects  in  a  small  aquarium  or  trough 
specially  constructed  for  the  purpose,  and  fitted  with  movable 
diaphragm  slides ;  also  a  new  form  of  Thury's  5-tube  micro- 
scope for  class  purposes,  having  a  reflecting  prism  made  to 
rotate,  so  as  to  exhibit  the  object  upon  the  stage  alternately  to 


April  12,  1888] 


NATURE 


575 


each  of  five  observers. — Mr.  G.  Massee  read  a  paper  on  the 
type  of  a  new  order  of  Fungi,  Matule.-e.— Mr.  J.  Rattray  gave 
a  rhume  oi  his  paper,  "A  Monograph  of  the  genus  Aulaco- 
ciiscus,"  the  subject  being  ilhistrated  by  diagrams,  and  by  a 
.  tabulated  list  of  groups  of  allied  species.— The  Chairman  an- 
nounced that  the  date  of  the  next  conversazione  had  been  fixed 
for  April  25. 

Entomological  Society,  April  4.— Dr.  D.  Sharp,  President, 
ill  the  chair. — Mr.  H.  Goss  exhibited  a  large  number  of  insects 
lately  received  from  Baron  Ferdinand  von  Mueller,   F.R.S.,  of 
Melbourne,  which  had  been-  collected  by  Mr.   Sayer  on  Mount 
Obree,  and  the  adjoining  ranges  in  New  Guinea,  during  Mr. 
Cuthbertson's  recent  expedition  there  under  the  direction  of  the 
Royal  Geographical  Society  of  Australia.     The  collection  com- 
prised Coleoptera,  Lepidoptera,  Hemiptera,  Diptera,  Hymeno- 
ptera,    and  Orthoptera.     The    Lepidoptera    included    twenty 
species    of   butterflies    belonging     to    the    genera    Calliflcca, 
Chanapa,      Hamadryas,      Melanitis,      Mycalesis,      Hypocysta, 
Tenaris,      Hypolimnas,      Cyrestis,     Neptis,      Acrcra,      Danis, 
Pithicops,   Appias,   Ornithoptera,    and    E  my  ens. — Mr.    Osbert 
Salvin,  F.R.  S.,  exhibited,  and  made  remarks  on,   about  sixty 
specimens— no  two  of  which  were  alike— of  a  species  of  butterfly 
belonging  to  the  genus  Hypolimnas,   all  of  which  had   been 
caught  by  Mr.    Woodford  near  Suva,    Fiji,   on  one  patch    of 
Zinnias.— Mr.  H.  T.  Stainton,  F.R.S.,  exhibited,  on  behalf  of 
Mr.    G.   C.    Bignell,   cases  of  7 hyridopteryx    ephememformis, 
collected  near  Charleston,  U.S.A.     Mr.  Stainton  said  he  hoped 
Mr.  Bignell  would  not  introduce  this  pest  into  England.— Mr. 
W.  F.  Kirby  exhibited,  and  read  notes  on,  about  twenty  species 
of  South  African  dragon-flies  lately  received  from  Mr.  Roland 
Trimen,  F.  R.  S.,  of  Cape  Town.     The  collection  included  some 
new  species. — Mr.  Goss  read  a  letter  from  Mr.  Bignell,  correct- 
ing a  statement  made  by  Mr.  Poulton  at  the  March  meeting  of 
the  Society,  to  the  effect  that  the  variety  Valezina  of  the  female 
of  Argynnis  paphia  did  not  occur  in  Devonshire.      Mr.  Bignell 
said  that   the  variety    Valezina  was  included  in  Mr.  Reading's 
"Catalogue  of  Devonshire  Lepidoptera"  ;  and  he  had  himself 
taken  specimens  of  this  variety  in  Bickleigh  Vale,  Devon. — Mr. 
Waterhouse  read  a  paper  entitled  "  Additional  Observations  on 
the  Tea-bugs  {Helopeltis)  of  Java,^'  and  exhibited  a  number  of 
specimens  of  these  insects.     He  said  that  the  species  infesting 
the  Cinchona  in  Java  was  supposed  to  have  been  introduced 
from  Ceylon  in  tea,  but  that  he  had  discovered  that  the  species 
on  the  tea  and  on  Cinchona  in  Java  were  distinct,  and  that  both 
species  were  distinct  from  Helopeltis  antonii  of  Ceylon. — Herr 
Jacoby  read  a  paper  entitled  "New,  or  little-known,  species  of 
Phytophagous  Coleoptera  from  Africa   and    Madagascar." — A 
letter  was  read  from  Mr.  E.  C.  Cotes,  of  the  Indian  Museum, 
Calcutta,  asking  for  the  assistance  of  British   entomologists  in 
working  out  certain  groups  of  Coleoptera,  Neuroptera,   Ortho- 
ptera, Diptera,  and  Hymenoptera  in  the  Indian    Museum.     A 
discussion  ensued,  in  which  Mr.  McLachlan,  F.R.S,,  Dr.  Sharp, 
Mr.  Waterhouse,  Herr  Jacoby,  and  Mr.  Distant  took  part. 

Paris. 

Academy  of  Sciences,  April  3. — M,  Janssen,  President,  in 
the  chair. — A  new  theory  of  the  equatorial  coude^cad^  of  equa- 
torials  in  general  (continued),  by  MM.  Loewy  and  P.  Puiseux. 
In  the  present  paper  the  authors  deal  with  the  new  processes  for 
determining  the  position  of  the  polar  axis,  concluding  with  some 
remarks  on  the  bend  of  the  arm.  Six  distinct  methods  are  given 
for  determining  the  constant  n,  and  five  for  A. — Results  of  com- 
parisons of  the  standard  Peruvian  unit  of  measure  and  the  inter- 
national metre  made  by  M.  Benoit,  presented  by  M.  Wolf. 
From  these  comparisons,  which  have  been  made  at  the  Inter- 
national Bureau  of  Weights  and  Measures,  it  appears  that  the 
Peruvian  standard  is  substantially  in  the  same  condition  as  when 
it  was  constructed  by  Langlois  in  1735.  But  it  is  also  made 
evident  that  the  Peruvian  arc,  measured  with  this  standard,  has 
been  hitherto  incorrectly  compared  with  the  other  terrestrial 
arcs.  In  fact  it  is  somewhat  shorter  than  was  supposed,  and  in 
a  future  paper  the  author  will  point  out  the  consequences  to  be 
drawn  from  this  error  as  affecting  the  form  of  the  globe. — On 
the  relations  of  atmospheric  nitrogen  with  vegetable  soil,  by  M. 
Th.  Schloesing.  The  author  here  deals  with  an  objection  that 
might  be  raised  against  the  results  of  his  previous  experiments. 
The  objection  is  based  on  the  considewition  that  vegetable 
humus,  like  all  dead  organic  matter,  is  a  prey  to  two  different 
kinds  of  microbes,  one  working  in  the  absence,  the  other  in  the 
presence,  of  oxygen.     But  the  conclusions  previously  arrived  at 


do  not  appear  to  be  materially  affected  by  this  circumstance. — 
On  the  blizzard  of  March  11  and  12  in  the  United  States,  by  M. 
H.  Faye.      Comparing  the  public  reports  with  the  remarks  of 
Dr.  G.   Hinrichs,  Director  of  the  Iowa  Weather   Service,  the 
author  concludes  that  a  blizzard  is  a  local  snowstorm  accom- 
panied by  an  extremely  sudden  fall  of  temperature,  and  con- 
trolled by  a  general  cyclonic  movement  passing  over  regions 
subject   to  great   extremes  of   climate.      The   phenomenon   is 
analogous  to  such  atmospheric  disturbances  as  the  Russian  bora 
or  buran,  the  khamsin  or  sandstorms  of  the   Sahara,  the  fdkn 
of  the  Alps,  all  of  which  are  modified  by  the  different  local  con- 
ditions.—Remarks  accompanying  the  presentation  of  a  work  on 
the  Elasmotherium,  by  M.  Albert  Gaudry.   From  the  specimens 
obtained  from  Russia  a  more  correct  idea  can  now  be  formed  of 
this  huge  pachyderm  than  was  hitherto  possible.    It  flourished  in 
the  Quaternary  epoch,  and,  notwithstanding  several    aberrant 
features,  appears  on  the  whole   to  have  somewhat   closely   re- 
senibled  the  rhinoceros.       Surviving  till  the  close  of  the  Glacial 
period,  it  became  gradually  modified,   like  the  elephants  and 
ruminants,  to  the  altered  climatic  conditions,  under  which  a  sub- 
tropical vegetation  was  replaced  by  herbaceous  plants. — On  a 
disposition,    by  means  of   which  powerful   objectives   may  be 
employed  in  meridian  observations,  by  M.  G.  Bigourdan.        By 
the  arrangement  here  described  the  great  meridian  instruments, 
such  as  those  of  Greenwich  and  Paris,   which   at  present  can 
scarcely  observe  stars  beyond  the  twelfth  magnitude,  may  be 
placed  on   a  level  with  the  equatorials. — Observations  of  the 
Sawerthal  Comet  made  at  the  Observatory  of  Nice   with  the 
o'38  m.   Gaulier  equatorial,   by  M.  Charlois.      These  observa- 
tions,   covering  the    period    from    March    14   to    March    21, 
give   the   right   ascension,  polar   distance,   and   other  data  for 
the    comet    and    three     comparison-stars. —  On    the    velocity 
of   sound,    by   MM.    J.    Violle    and   Th.  Vautier.     From  the 
experiments  here  described  it  is'placed  beyond  doubt  that  th'e 
velocity  of  the  sound-wave  diminishes  with  its  intensity  ;  also  that 
the  pitch  of  the  sound  has  no  influence  whatever  on  the  velocity 
of  its  propagation.     The  slight  differences  observed  appear  to  be 
due  solely  to  the  different  intensities  of  the  sound-wave  in  the 
respective  cases. — Photographic  experiments  on  the  penetration 
of  light  in  the  waters  of  the  Lake  of  Geneva,  by  M.  F.  A.  Forel. 
Comparing  his  present  researches  with  those  of  previous  years, 
the  author  finds  that  for  the  chloride  of  silver  the  limits  of  absolute 
darkness  range  from  45  metres  in  July  to  r  lo  in  March  ;  that  the 
variations  in  these  limits  run  parallel  with  those  of  the  limits  of 
visibility  ;  and  that  the  water  of  the  lake  is  much  more  limpid  in 
winter  than  in  summer,  the  difference  being  mainly  due  to  the 
greater  abundance  of  organic  matter  held  in  suspension  during  the 
latter  season. — On  the  latent  heats  of  vaporization  for  some  ex- 
tremely volatile  substances,  by  M.James  Chappuis.     The  author 
points  out  that  his  own  previously  announced  conclusions  have 
been  substantially  confirmed  by  those  recently  announced  by  MM. 
Cailletet  and  Mathias. — On  the  laws  of  chem  cal  equilibrium,  by 
M.  H.  Le  Chatelier.     In  connection  with  the  discussion  on  the 
theory  of  the  thermodynamic  potentials,  the  author  here  shows 
how,  starting  with  the  hypothesis  of  MM.  Gibbs  and  Duhero, 
and  employing  the  same  methods,  the  general  formula  indicated 
by  M.  Van  t'  Hoff  may  be  established  in  an  extremely  simple 
way. — On  the  active  crystallized  matter  of  the  poisoned  arrows 
used  by  the  Somali  people,  by  M.  Arnaud.     This  is  an  extract 
from  the  Wabaio  plant,  a  species  of  Carissa,  the  poisonous  ex- 
tract from  which  (wabain)  is  shown  by  analysis  to  be  a  compound 
of  carbon,  hydrogen,  barium,   and  oxygen,   with    the  formula 
^30^48012. — On  the  adulteration  of  olive  oils,  by  M.  R.  Brulle. 
A  mixture  of  ordinary  nitric  acid  and  the  albumen  of  jerked  beef 
is  shown  to  be  an  excellent  chemical  reagent  for  rapidly  detect- 
ing the  presence  of  one  or  more  vegetable  oils  in  the  olive-oil  of 
commerce. — On  a  simple  and  practical  method  of  detecting  and 
analyzing  the  impurities  contained  in  the  alcohols  of  commerce, 
by  M.  L.  Godefroy.     The  reaction  here  described  is  extremely 
sensitive   and  accurate,  detecting  a  millionth  part,  or  I  c.c.  of 
impurities  in  icoo  litres  of  alcohol. — M.  Engine  Dupuy  describes 
some  interesting  experiments  on  dogs,  cats,  and  rabbits,  in  con- 
nection with  the  motor  functions  of  the  brain.     The  results  seem 
to  be  at  variance  with  the  theory  usually  advanced  to  explain 
the  mode  of  production  of  movements  or  paralysis  originating  in 
the  brain. 

Astronomical  Society,  March  7. — M.  Flammarion,  Presi- 
dent, in  the  chair. — M.  Valderrama  sent  a  drawing  of  a  sunspot 
with  white  spots  in  its  interior  on  January  15.  M.  Schmoll 
showed  a  drawing  of  the  same  on  January  14.     According  to  M. 


576 


NATURE 


[April  12,  1888 


Trouvelot,  this  appearance  may  be  explained  by  a  bridge  cross- 
ing the  spot,  and  sufficiently  thin  in  some  parts  to  escape 
detection. — MM.  Giovannozzi,  at  Florence,  and  Bruquiere,  at 
Marseilles,  sent  some  observations  on  the  zodiacal  light,  which 
has  been  very  bright ;  M.  Gourdet,  observations  on  66  Ceti  ; 
and  M.  Guiot  on  Mira  Ceti  and  v  Leporis. — M.  Dumenil,  at 
Yebleron,  observed  a  meteor  on  February  19  whose  trace  re- 
mained visible  for  five  or  six  minutes. — Observation  of  a  fine 
meteor  at  Paris  on  February  24  by  M.  Mabire  at  7  p.m. — M.  de 
la  Fresnaye  submitted  a  plan  of  binocular  telescope  with  total 
reflecting  prisms  to  bring  the  two  oculars  within  convenient 
distance  for  the  two  eyes. — M.  Armelin,  writing  upon  the 
calendar  reform,  said  that  it  was  perhaps  entering  on  a  practical 
phase. — The  meeting  thanked  Mr.  Holmes  fjr  his  letter 
published  in  the  ^English  Mechanic.  His  observation  of  the 
comes  to  Polaris  with  a  ij-inch  is  thought  remarkable. — M. 
Flammarion  read  a  paper  on  a  probable  connection  between 
the  movements  of  our  sun  and  those  of  o  Centauri. — General 
Parmentier,  reading  a  paper  on  the  asteroids,  remarked  that  the 
new  planets  discovered  do  not  fill  up  the  gaps  to  which  he 
formerly  called  attention. — Various  communications:  on  the 
lunar  eclipse  of  January  28,  by  M.  Moussette  ;  a  drawing  of 
Plato,  by  M,  Schmoll ;  observations  on  the  aurora  borealis, 
by  M.  Trouvelot ;  on  a  natural  classification  of  double  and 
multiple  stars,  by  M.  Flammarion  ;  Vogel's  chart  of  stellar 
spectra,  presented  by  M.  Secretan. 

Berlin. 

Physical  Society,  March  16. — Prof,  von  Helmholtz,  Pre' 
sident,  in  the  chair. — Doctor  Koepsel  demonstrated  two  energy 
meters  constructed  on  different  principles  by  Messrs.  Siemens 
and  Halske,  and  explained  the  arrangements  of  the  same. — Prof. 
Lampe  spoke  on  a  deficiency  in  elementary  text -books  of 
mechanics — namely,  that  they  do  not  employ  the  elliptic 
functions  so  fully  treated  of  by  Gauss  and  Schellbach.  The 
speaker  then  showed  by  a  series  of  examples  how  easy  it  is  to 
solve  a  number  of  mechanical  problems  by  the  use  of  these 
functions. — Prof.  Helmholtz  next  showed  how  the  nature  of 
elliptic  functions  can  be  made  clear  to  persons  unacquainted 
with  them  by  means  of  the  movement  of  a  pendulum. — He  then 
briefly  communicated  the  results  of  an  investigation  by  Prof. 
Topler,  of  Dresden,  which  he  had  yesterday  laid  before  the 
Academy  of  Sciences:  it  contains  a  new  method  for  the  measure- 
ment of  the  magnetism  and  diamagnetism  of  gases.  An  index 
drop  of  petroleum  is  placed  in  a  glass  tube  bent  at  a  very  obtuse 
angle  ;  on  one  side  of  the  index  is  the  gas  which  is  to  be  investi- 
gated and  on  the  other  side  is  atmospheric  air.  When  placed 
between  the  poles  of  a  powerful  electro-magnet,  the  index  is 
moved  according  as  the  gas  is  more  or  less  strongly  attracted  than 
the  air :  the  amount  of  displacement  is  measured  by  a  microscope. 
The  delicacy  of  the  method  is  extremely  great.  It  was  in  this 
way  observed  that  oxygen  is  most  magnetic,  then  come  air  and 
nitric  oxide  ;  nitrogen,  hydrogen,  carbonic  oxide,  carbonic  acid 
gas,  and  nitrous  oxide,  on  the  other  hand,  are  diamagnetic. 
The  method  employed  in  the  above  research  can  also  be  applied 
to  the  solution  of  various  other  problems,  as,  for  instance,  the 
determination  of  the  pressure  of  small  columns  of  gases. 

Physiological  Society,  March  23. — Prof.  Munk,  President, 
in  the  chair. —  Dr.  Benda  spoke  on  the  structure  of  ganglion- 
cells,  demonstrating  at  the  same  time,  by  means  of  specimens, 
his  method  of  hardening  the  brain  and  spinal  cord,  which  con- 
sists in  treating  them  with  nitric  acid  and  potassium  chromate. 
His  further  communication  dealt  with  certain  differences,  now 
largely  reconciled,  in  the  results  obtained  by  the  speaker  and  by 
Prof.  Flesch,  of  Bern,  who  was  present  at  the  meeting.  The 
two  observers  now  agree  that  certain  ganglion-cells  readily  take 
up  colouring-matter,  while  others  do  not,  and  to  these  Prof. 
Flesch  attributes  a  difference  in  physiological  function.  Both 
observers  further  admit  the  existence  of  dark  granulations  in  the 
protoplasm  of  the  cells,  but  opinions  differ  as  to  the  significance 
of  the  same. — Dr.  Claude  du  Bois  Reymond  stated  that  he  had 
long  ago  planned  an  investigation  of  the  pupil  when  in  darkness, 
and  that  this  intention  had  only  become  realizable  since  the  intro- 
duction of  instantaneous  photography  by  means  of  the  momentary 
illumination  produced  by  magnesium.  Miethe,the  discoverer  of  the 
method  of  momentary  illumination  with  magnesium,  has  in  this 
way  taken  a  photograph  of  his  own  pupil  after  it  had  been  exposed 
to  complete  darkness  for  forty  minutes.  As  shown  by  the  two 
photographs  which  were  exhibited  the  result  was  most  surprising  : 
the  diameter  of  the  pupil  was  9  to  10  mm.,  while  the  iris  was  at 


the  same  time  reduced  to  a  width  of  ij  to  2  mm. — Prof.  Gad 
gave  an  account  of  experiments  which  had  been  made  by 
Sawyer,  at  his  suggestion,  with  a  view  to  determining  whether  the 
separation  of  irritability  and  conducting  power,  which  is  so  often 
observed  by  neuropathologists,  has  any  real  physiological  ex- 
istence. When  a  part  of  the  sciatic  nerve,  in  accordance  with 
Griinhagen's  method,  was  exposed  for  some  time  to  the  action  of 
a  current  of  carbonic  acid  gas,  it  was  found  to  be  capable  of  con- 
veying impulses  generated  by  stimuli  applied  to  parts  of  the 
nerve  more  centrally  situated,  but  was  itself  insensitive  to 
electrical  stimulation  applied  directly  to  it,  as  Griinhagen  had 
already  found.  When  that  part  of  the  nerve  inclosed  in  the 
chamber  was  exposed  to  the  action  of  diluted  vapour  of  alcohol, 
the  result  was  exactly  the  opposite,  the  conducting  power  being 
lost  but  the  irritability  retained. — Prof.  Gad  demonstrated  on 
prepared  skulls  and  on  living  animals,  the  curious  and  scarcely 
known  movements  of  chewing  which  may  be  observed  in  rats. 
The  incisors  of  the  lower  jaw  are  capable  of  lateral  movement 
in  two  halves  united  together  by  ligaments,  and  the  larger  part 
of  the  work  done  in  gnawing  is  carried  on  by  means  of  the 
scissor-like  movement  of  the  two  incisors.  The  above  has 
recently  been  very  fully  brought  to  notice  by  Kiinstler. 


BOOKS,  PAMPHLETS,  and  SERIALS  RECEIVED. 

Reports  of  Geological  Explorations  during  1885-86-87  (New  Zealand). — 
Syst^me  Silurian  du  Centre  deS  la?  Boheme,  vol.  vii.  Part  i,  Cystidees;:  J. 
Barrande  (Prague). — Watt's  Dictionary  of  Chemistry,  vol.  i.  :  Morley  and 
Muir  (Longmans).— A  Treatise  on  Electricity  and  Magnetism,  vol.  ii.  : 
Mascart  and  Joubert,  translated  (De  La  Rue). — Elementary  Chemistry; 
W.  S.  Fumeaux  (Longmans). — Natural  Laws  and  Gospel  Teachings  :  Rev. 
H.  W.  Morris  (R.T.S.).— Early  Prose  and  Poetical  Works  of  Taylor, 
the  Water  Poet  (Hamilton). —  Noctes  Ambrosianse  :  Prof.  J.  Wilson 
(Hamilton). — First  Lessons  in  Geometry,  2nd  edition  :  B.  H.  Rau  (Madras). 
— Abhandlungen  der  k.  b.  Gesellschaft  der  Wissenschaften  Math.  Naturw. 
Classe,  vii.  Folge,  i  J3and(Prag). — Perforated  Stones  from  California  :  H.  W. 
Henshaw  (Washington). — Work  in  Mound  Exploration  of  the  Bureau  of 
Ethnology  :  C.  Thomas  (Wa.shington). — Education  in  Bavaria :  Sir  P. 
Magnus  (New  York). 


CONTENTS.  PAGE 

South  Kensington  Science  Teaching 553 

Experimental  Researches  on    Hydraulic  Cements. 

By  Prof.  W.  N.  Hartley,  F.R.S 554 

Elementary  Microscopical  Examination 555 

Our  Book  Shelf  :— 

Mallet:  "  A  Manual  of  the  Geology  of  India  "   .    .    .    556 

Little  :  "  Through  the  Yang-tse  Gorges  " 556 

Sloane  :  "  Home  Experiments  in  Science " 556 

Letters  to  the  Editor  .- — 

Prof.  Rosenbusch's  Work  on  Petrology. — Prof.  T.  G. 

Bonney,  F.R.S 556 

The   Delicacy   of  the    Sense    of  Taste.— E.    H.  S. 

Bailey  and  E.  L.  Nichols 557 

The  Salt  Industry  in  the  United  States. — George  P. 

Merrill  • 558 

Force,    and   Newton's  Third    Law. — Dr.   Oliver  J. 

Lodge,  F.R.S 558 

The  New  Photographic  Objective. — Prof.  Edward 

C.  Pickering 558 

Life  of  Fleeming  Jenkin. — Robert  Louis  Steven- 
son   559 

The  Hittites,  with  Special  Reference  to  very  Recent 

Discoveries.  III.  {Illustrated.)  By  Thomas  Tyler  .    559 
Practical  Education.     By  Charles  G.  Leland      .    .    .    562 

Telegraphs  in  China 564 

Flora  of  the  Bahamas.     By  W.  T.  Thiselton  Dyer, 

C.M.G.,  F.R.S.;  Baron  Eggers 565 

Notes 566 

Our  Astronomical  Column  : — 

The  Paris  Catalogue 569 

Astronomical     Phenomena     for     the     Week     1888 

April  15-21 569 

Geographical  Notes 570 

Our  Electrical  Column 570 

Pendulum    Seismometers.      {Illustrated.)      By   Prof. 

John  Milne 570 

The  Cultivation  of  Oysters 572 

Scientific  Serials 572 

Societies  and  Academies  ' 573 

Books,  Pamphlets,  and  Serials  Received 576 


NA  TURE 


577 


THURSDAY,  APRIL   19,   1888. 


SCIENTIFIC  PROGRESS  IN  ELEMENTARY 
SCHOOLS. 

AVERY  remarkable  Report  has  been  received  by  the 
London  School  Board  from  a  Special  Committee 
appointed  by  it  a  year  ago  "to  consider  the  present 
subjects  and  modes  of  instruction  in  the  Board  schools, 
and  to  report  whether  such  changes  can  be  made  as  shall 
secure  that  children  leaving  school  shall  be  more  fitted 
than  they  novi^  are  to  pe.form  the  duties  and  work  of  life 
before  them."  ^ 

The  Committee,  of  which  Mr.  William  Bousfield  was 
chairman,  was  a  strong  one,  representing  well  the  various 
sections  of  the  London  Board.  It  has  produced  a  Report 
of  twenty-one  folio  pages,  including  no  less  than  thirty- 
one  recommendations,  and  followed  by  voluminous 
minutes  of  evidence  given  by  scientific  men  and  others, 
who  have  paid  attention  to  elementary  instruction, 
teachers  of  special  subjects,  inspectors,  empioy'es  of  the 
Board,  working-men  representatives,  and  others. 

This  important  document  is  the  outcome  of  several 
movements.  The  London  Board  has,  throughout  its 
existence,  endeavoured  to  promote  the  teaching  of  science 
by  means  of  systematic  object-lessons ;  and  has  made 
several  attempts  to  give  a  more  practical  turn  to  the 
instruction.  In  December  1884,  a  previous  Special  Com- 
mittee reported  on  technical  education,  affirming  the 
principle  that  it  was  not  the  duty  of  the  Board  to  attempt 
to  teach  any  particular  trades,  but  that  it  was  its  duty  so 
to  direct  the  education  of  its  scholars  that  they  could  easily 
take  up  any  special  work  afterwards,  and  suggesting  various 
ways  by  which  this  might  be  promoted.  Since  then  the 
conviction  has  rapidly  grown  in  the  public  mind  that  the 
teaching  is  too  bookish  ;  the  supremacy  of  the  three  R's 
has  been  rudely  assailed ;  and  many  people  have  asserted 
that  other  things,  such  as  Lord  Reay's  three  DR's  (drill, 
drawing,  and  'droitness),  are  equally  important. 

The  Report — starting  with  this  definition  of  education  : 
''  the  harmonious  development  of  all  the  faculties,  bodily 
and  mental,  with  which  the  child  is  endowed  by  Nature," 
— points  out  the  deficiencies  of  the  present  curriculum.  It 
has  an  earnest  paragraph  on  moral  education,  and  makes 
various  remarks  upon  the  present  teaching  of  history^ 
geography,  social  economy,  and  art.  But  its  main 
criticism  is  "  that  the  physical  or  bodily  side  of  educa- 
tion, including  the  development  of  muscular  strength,  of 
the  accuracy  and  sense  of  colour  and  proportion  of  the 
eye,  and  of  the  pliancy  and  dexterity  of  the  hand,  is 
almost  entirely  neglected  ;  and  that  the  mental  or 
brain  work,  which  occupies  the  great  bulk  of  the  time 
in  schools  of  all  kinds,  is  composed  far  too  much 
of  appeals  to  the  memory  only,  resulting,  at  the  best^ 
in  the  retention  in  the  child's  mind  of  a  mass  of  undigested 
facts,  and  far  too  little  of  the  cultivation  of  intelligence." 
The  Kindergarten  principle  is  strongly  approved  of,  and 
the  first  recommendation  is:  "That  the  methods  of 
Kindergarten  teaching  in  infant  schools  be  developed  for 

'  "  School  Board  for  London.  Report  of  the  Special  Committee  on  the 
Subjects  and  Modes  of  Instruction  in  the  Board's  Schools,  with  Appendices." 
(Hazell,  Watson,  and  Viney,  52  Long  Acre.) 

Vol  xxxvil — No.  964. 


senior  scholars  throughout  the  standards  in  schools, 
so  as  to  supply  a  graduated  course  of  manual  training  in 
connection  with  science  teaching  and  object-lessons." 

These,  then,  are  the  two  main  directions  of  progress  that 
are  indicated— the  knowledge  of  Nature,  and  the  power  of 
work  ;  the  development  of  the  perceptive  faculties,  and 
the  education  of  the  senses— and  these  two  are  to  go 
hand  in  hand. 

Object-lessons  are  common  in  elementary  schools,  but 
much   is  said,  both    in   the   Report   itself,    and    in   the 
evidence  of  Sir  John  Lubbock  and  other  witnesses,  in  re- 
gard to  their  improvement,  and  the  importance  of  good 
collections  of  objects.     Yet  it  appears  from  the  appendix 
that  only  about  forty  minutes  per  week  on  an  average  are 
actually  given  to  these  lessons  in  boys'  and  girls'  schools, 
and  we  know  from  the  Annual  Reports  of  the  British  As- 
sociation on  the  teaching  of  science  in  such  schools  that  the 
present  regulations  of  the  Government  Code  are  actually 
diminishing  the  amount  of  the  teaching  of  geography  and 
elementary   science.      The    Special    Committee,    there- 
fore,   very    properly    recommend    that    application    be 
made    to    the    Education    Department    to    grant   more 
freedom   of   choice   in   the   selection   of  class-subjects  ; 
and  that   the  provision  for  object-lessons,  and   lessons 
on   natural  phenomena,   should   be  taken   into  account 
in    boys'    and    girls'    schools    in    assessing    the    merit 
grant,  as  is  the  case  at  present  with  infant  schools.     The 
Scotch  Code  has  within  the  last  few  weeks  allowed  that 
either  elementary  science  or  English  may  be  taken  as  the 
first  class-subject,  which  is  a  hopeful  sign  of  progress.  The 
favourite  scientific  subjects  taught  at  present  in  the  Lon- 
don schools  are  animal  physiology  and  algebra  ;  but  the 
Special  Committee  favour  the  teaching  of  mechanics  and 
the  fundamental  notions  of  physical  science  by  means  of 
special  teachers  on  the  peripatetic  plan  ;  and   they  re- 
commend "  that   the  teaching  of  all  subjects  be  accom- 
panied, where  possible,  by  experiments  and  ocular  de- 
monstration, and  that  the  necessary  apparatus  be  supplied' 
to  the  schools." 

As  to  manual  instruction,  it  exists  in  infant  schools 
wherever  Kindergarten  exercises  are  practised,  but  in 
boys'  schools  there  is  often  no  practice  of  the  kind  except 
in  writing.  In  London,  and  perhaps  in  most  large  towns, 
drav/ing  is 'generally  taught,  and  it  is  universally  allowed 
that  this  is  at  the  very  foundation  of  technical  instruction. 
The  Committee  recommend  "  that  all  manual  instruction 
should  be  given  in  connection  with  the  scientific  principles 
underlying  the  work,  and  with  suitable  drawing  and 
geometry."  Drawing  to  scale  is  invaluable  for  teaching 
accuracy  in  work.  But  drawing  does  not  give  the  best 
idea  of  form,  and  there  is  a  conventional  element  about 
it  which  puzzles  little  children.  Hence  modelling  in 
clay  is  also  recommended.  The  Board  started  a  class 
for  the  use  of  tools  in  carpentry  at  Beethoven  Street 
School,  Kensal,  but  the  outlay  was  disallowed  by 
the  Public  Auditor.  Six  such  classes,  however,  are 
being  carried  on  at  the  expense  of  the  City  Guilds 
technical  Institute.  There  is  little  doubt  that  the 
present  disability  will  be  shortly  removed,  and  that 
eventually  a  work-room  or  laboratory  will  become  an 
essential  part  of  every  large  Board  school.  How  best  to 
give  manual  instruction  is  still  a  matter  of  discussion  and 
.  experiment.  Good  observations  about  it  will  be  found  in 
''  C  C 


578 


NATURE 


\_April  19, 


the  evidence  of  Mr.  Henry  Cunynghame,  Mr.  Davis,  of 
Birmingham,  and  Profs.  Unwin  and  Perry.  Mr.  Ricks, 
one  of  the  Board  inspectors,  has  drawn  out  an  elaborate 
scheme  for  the  development  of  the  Kindergarten  system 
throughout  all  the  standards  of  a  school  in  the  directions 
spoken  of. 

Girls  are  more  fortunate  than  boys  in  the  matter 
of  manual  instruction.  They  are  taught  needlework 
universally,  and  very  often  cookery.  The  latter  may  be 
considerably  extended.  Domestic  economy  also  in  its 
various  branches  should  be  taught,  through  practical  work, 
and  with  reference  to  scientific  principles — as  in  washing, 
laying  fires,  and  ventilating  rooms. 

But  how  is  time  to  be  obtained  for  the  introduction  of 
this  perceptive  and  practical  instruction  ?  On  that  point 
the  Committee  are  very  distinct,  and  there  is  a  singular 
unanimity  among  the  witnesses  that  the  attention  now 
paid  to  spelling  and  grammar  is  excessive,  if  not  educa- 
tionally worthless.  There  is  a  curious  table,  too,  in  the 
appendix,  which  gives  the  results  of  inquiry  as  to  the 
subjects  of  instruction  most  or  least  preferred  in  the 
various  schools.  Grammar  is  so  unpopular  with  both 
boys  and  girls  that  it  almost  always  attains  that  bad  pre- 
eminence. Spelling  or  dictation  comes  second.  In  fact 
there  is  no  doubt  that  the  children  dislike  what  they  feel 
does  not  add  either  to  their  pleasure,  or  their  real  know- 
ledge. It  is  proposed  "that  the  time  now  given  to 
spelling,  parsing,  and  grammar  generally,  be  reduced." 

There  are  two  points  on  which  we  should  have  liked 
to  see  some  recommendations  of  a  more  vigorous  cha- 
racter. The  one  refers  to  the  teaching  of  arithmetic, 
which  as  laid  down  by  the  Code  is  thoroughly  unscientific. 
The  other  point  is  this  :  there  are  recommendations  in 
regard  to  evening  classes,  the  more  extended  use  of  the 
pupil-teachers'  schools,  and  the  grouping  together  of  the 
upper  standards  of  several  schools  in  poor  neighbour- 
hoods ;  but  this  might  have  been  carried  much  further, 
and  have  included  the  establishment  of  such  valuable 
institutions  as  the  central  schools  which  are  doing  such 
good  work  in  many  of  the  provincial  towns,  especially  in 
the  North  of  England. 

Nevertheless,  these  recommendations,  if  they  are  all 
allowed  to  take  effect,  will  mark  an  era  in  education. 
The  Special  Committee  are  happily  able  to  add  :  "  It  is 
significant  that  these  changes  are  demanded  alike  by 
educational  theorists,  teachers,  men  of  science,  leaders  of 
industry,  and  statesmen,  and  it  rests  with  the  Board  to 
carry  them  into  actual  fact."  The  Bill  of  Sir  Henry 
Roscoe,  and  that  on  technical  education  which  is  pro- 
mised by  the  Government,  must  also  have  an  important 
bearing  on  the  scientific  development  of  elementary 
instruction.  We  await  the  results  of  the  discussions 
that  must  ensue  with  the  deepest  interest. 

THE  NERVOUS  SYSTEM  AND  THE  MIND. 

The  Nervous  System  and  the  Mind :  a   Treatise  on  the 

Dynamics    of   the    Human    Organism.      By    Charles 

Mercier,  M.B.     (London:   Macmillan  and  Co.,  1888.) 

'"T"*HE  time  may  come  when  the  psychological  historian 

•■*-       will  be  required  to  trace  the  genealogy  and  career 

of  such  terms  as  "  molecular  movement,"   "  discharge," 

"explosion,"    "unstable  matter,"    as    applied  to   mental 


operations,  as  well  as  the  familiar  expression  "environ- 
ment." Whoever  else  may  have  contributed  to  their  use, 
they  will  be  traced  back  in  the  main  to  Herbert  Spencer. 
When  once  the  brain  was  recognized  as  the  organ  of 
mind  in  a  special  sense,  chiefly  through  phrenological 
observations  in  which  Mr.  Spencer  was  himself  at  one 
time  engaged  (he  was,  if  we  mistake  not,  a  member  of 
the  London  Phrenological  Society),  the  physical  basis  of 
mind  was  naturally  described  in  terms  applied  to  material 
bodies  and  employed  in  physics.  The  combination  of 
atoms  forming  molecules  being  regarded  as  the  funda- 
mental element  of  the  substance  of  the  nervous  system, 
molecular  movements  were  correlated  with  mental  opera- 
tions. Every  corpuscle  in  the  gray  matter  of  the  convo- 
lutions of  the  brain  was  regarded  as  "  a  reservoir  of 
molecular  motion."  It  followed  that  the  destructive  mole- 
cular changes  of  which  the  granular  protoplasm  in  the 
corpuscles  is  the  seat  were  accompanied  by  a  disengage- 
ment or  discharge  of  motion.  For  the  purpose  of  decom- 
position or  waste,  the  amount  of  which  is  the  measure 
of  the  force  evolved,  the  remarkable  supply  of  blood 
received  by  the  cerebral  convolutions  was  seen  to  be 
necessary  ;  as  also  for  the  recomposition  or  repair  which 
succeeds  waste.  Spencer  drew  some  of  his  analogies 
from  chemical  explosions,  taking  for  instance  the  ex- 
plosion of  the  percussion  cap  and  powder  in  a  pistol  to 
symbolize  the  setting  up  of  decomposition  in  an  adjacent 
ganglion-cell  by  (in  the  case  of  the  retina)  a  disturbed 
retinal  element.  He  showed  that  a  partially-decomposed 
ganglion-cell  propagates  a  shock  through  the  afferent 
nerve  to  a  large  deposit  of  "  unstable  matter  "  in  the 
optic  centre,  "  where  an  immense  amount  of  molecular 
motion  is  thereupon  disengaged."  The  transmission  of 
waves  of  molecular  motion  through  nerve-fibres  is  com- 
pared by  Spencer  to  "  a  row  of  bricks  on  end,  so  placed 
that  each  in  falling  knocks  over  its  neighbour.  .  .  .  Each 
brick,  besides  the  motion  it  receives,  will  pass  on  to  the 
next  the  motion  it  has  itself  gained  in  falling." 

These  and  similar  propositions  have  for  long  become 
household  words.  The  terms  referred  to  have  become  a 
part  of  psychological,  and  to  a  large  extent  medical, 
language.  One  well-known  outcome  of  Spencerian  teach- 
ing has  been  its  elaborate  application  to  the  study  of 
epilepsy,  by  Dr.  Hughlings  Jackson,  who  has  been  always 
anxious  to  acknowledge  the  source  from  which  he  drew 
his  inspiration.  Dr.  Mercier's  book  is  another  stream 
from  the  same  source.  He  makes  an  acknowledgment 
of  similar  indebtedness  in  his  preface.  We  do  not  think 
he  is  justified  in  his  complaint  that  "the  classical  works 
on  Mind  ignore  altogether  its  association  with  the  body, 
and  study  it  from  a  stand-point  so  purely  introspective 
as  to  offer  no  obvious  advantage  to  the  alienist,  to  whom 
the  concomitant  disorders  of  body  are  so  conspicuous  and 
so  important."  Holding  this  opinion  it  became  "abso- 
lutely necessary"  for  Dr.  Mercier  to  prepare  the  present 
volume.  The  writings  of  Bain,  Laycock,  and  Maudsley, 
no  less  than  Spencer,  are  nothing  if  they  do  not  insist 
upon  the  association  of  mind  and  body.  The  very  last 
charge  that  can  be  fairly  brought  against  these  classical 
works  is  that  they  altogether  ignore  their  correlation. 
The  best  evidence  of  the  direction  and  complexion  of  the 
teaching  of  authors  of  modern  works  on  psychology  is 
contained   in    Dr.   Mercier's  statement    that    "everyone 


April  19,  i88«] 


NATURE 


579 


nowadays  admits  that  the  evolution  of  mind  and  the  evo- 
lution of  the  nervous  system  proceeded  pari  passu,  and 
indeed  are  but  two  aspects  of  the  same  process."  It  is 
hardly  consistent  with  a  further  statement  that  this  way 
of  regarding  them  is  not  only  neglected  but  "  derided  and 
scouted."  Dr.  Mercier  asks  for  our  sympathy  for  having 
been  for  the  last  ten  years  as  "the  voice  of  one  cry- 
ing in  the  wilderness."  Other  voices,  however,  have 
for  long  been  heard  there,  if  indeed  that  can  be  called  a 
wilderness  which  is  peopled  by  the  number  who  admit 
the  above-mentioned  proposition  in  regard  to  the  evolu- 
tion of  the  mind  and  the  nervous  system. 

This  work  expounds  Spencerian  doctrines  with  much 
fulness  of  diction,  and  in  a  style  which  is  forcible,  not  to 
say  somewhat  dogmatic.  We  find  Spencer's  illustration 
of  molecular  movements  from  bricks  on  end  reproduced, 
and  we  may  quote  the  following  passage  as  a  fair  example 
of  the  author's  style  : — 

"  Imagine  a  brick  set  up  on  end.  To  do  this  requires  the 
expenditure  of  force.  Now,  if  the  ground  is  shaken  the 
brick  falls,  and  liberates  in  falling  a  force  equal  to  that 
expended  in  raising  it.  Again,  imagine  a  brick  set  on 
end  with  another  brick  placed  across  the  top  of  it.  The 
upper  brick  can  now  be  knocked  off  the  lower,  and  the 
force  which  raised  it  be  liberated,  while  the  lower  brick  is 
left  standing,  with  the  force  that  raised  it  still  in  store.  It 
is  evident  that  a  brick  balanced  on  the  top  of  another 
one  will  be  displaced  by  a  gentler  shake  than  is  required 
to  knock  down  the  single  brick.  .  .  .  Now  suppose  more 
and  more  bricks  are  added  until  we  have  quite  a  compli- 
cated structure  composed  of  loose  bricks.  It  is  easy  to 
see  how  readily  a  top  brick  could  be  knocked  off.  .  .  , 
Now  if  we  imagine  these  bricks  to  be  connected  to  the 
pile  by  elastic  bases,  so  that  when  they  have  been 
knocked  down  they  will  slowly  rise  again,  with  perhaps  a 
httle  help,  to  their  erect  position,  we  shall  have  a  diagram 
which  will  represent  very  roughly  what  we  suppose  to  be 
the  mechanism  of  the  nervous  discharge  "  (p.  23). 

Dr.  Mercier's  copious  vocabulary  clothes  an  idea  in 
many  folds  of  attire.  It  is,  we  think,  sometimes  over- 
loaded and  too  diffuse.  Endowed  with  a  large  organ  of 
comparison,  he  illustrates  his  _theme  with  a  redundant 
variety  of  illustrations  or  makes  one  illustration  do  duty 
in  many  forms.  Great  facility  of  expression  enables  him 
to  enforce  his  views,  though  it  may  be  at  the  risk  of  pro- 
ducing weariness  by  excessive  iteration.  He  revels  in 
the  description  of  molecules — their  form,  their  relative 
position,  their  polarity,  their  life,  their  behaviour,  and 
their  destiny.  M.  Renan  has  been  said  to  know  more 
about  St.  Paul  than  the  apostle  knew  himself.  Similarly 
Dr.  Mercier  would,  we  are  quite  sure,  be  found  to  know 
more  about  the  molecules  of  the  brain  than,  were  they 
gifted  with  consciousness,  they  would  know  themselves. 
He  might  write  a  charming  story  entitled  "The  Bio- 
graphy of  a  Cerebral  Molecule,"  The  author  divides  his 
subject  into  three  sections :  Nervous  Process,  Conduct, 
and  Mind,  the  first  underlying  the  other  two.  In  treating 
of  "  nervous  discharge  "  he  argues  that  the  building  up  of 
a  molecule  implies  force  ;  this  remains  latent,  stored  up 
in  the  gray  matter.  It  is  liberated  at  intervals— that  is, 
during  functional  activity.  The  rearrangement  of  atoms 
in  the  molecule  may  be  called  "  decompounding,"  while 
the  process  of  destruction  is  more  properly  termed 
"  decomposition."  Thus,  then,  the  former,  together  with 
the  liberation   of  force   accompanying  it,   is   the   "dis- 


charge." It  tends  to  spread.  How  is  the  Hberated  force 
replaced.^  Dr.  Mercier  cannot  tell.  All  that  can  be 
said  is  that  it  is  a  part  of  the  general  system  of  bodily 
nutrition.  Passing  on  to  "nervous  resistance,"  it  is 
assumed  that  there  is  a  balance  of  tension  and  resistance 
in  the  gray  matter  of  the  brain.  The  subject  is  worked 
out  ingeniously,  and  as  fully  as  it  admits  of.  Necessarily 
much  is  altogether  inferential.  The  hypothetical  nature 
of  the  doctrines  taught  by  the  Spencerian  school  no 
doubt  deters  not  a  few  from  adopting  them.  Such 
persons  say  that  they  are  not  scientifically  proved,  and 
they  challenge  those  who  insist  on  their  importance  to 
show  that  they  can  practically  help  the  physician  in  his 
treatment  of  mental  affections.  A  homely  simile  illus- 
trates the  doctrine  of  continuous  resistance.  A  charged 
soda-water  bottle  resembles  the  tension  of  a  charged 
nerve-cell.  Withdraw  the  cork,  and  the  resistance  of  the 
narrow  neck  causes  an  intermittent  escape.  The  contents 
"  come  blobbing  out  in  a  succession  of  intermittent 
bursts,"  and  so,  according  to  the  author,  the  narrow  necks 
of  nerve-cells — the  fibres  which  proceed  from  them  - 
cause  analogous  results. 

One  chapter  is  devoted  to  the  co-ordination  and  inhibi- 
tion of  muscular  action.  Nervous  discharges  are  re- 
garded in  terms  of  the  latter.  The  discharge  of 
an  area  of  gray  matter  occasions  normal  movements. 
The  simultaneous  beginning,  duration,  and  ending  of 
muscular  action  depend  upon  the  simultaneous  issue 
of  a  current  of  force  to  each  muscle  under  its  influ- 
ence (p.  67).  The  nerves  of  muscles  connnect  them  with 
the  cells  of  the  gray  matter  of  the  brain,  and  muscular 
force  depends  upon  the  amount  of  nerve-discharge.  Co- 
ordinated movements  are  secured  by  the  group  of  nerve- 
elements  called  a  nerve-centre.  The  initiatory  impulse 
may  come  directly  from  the  outside  world — the  environ- 
ment. In  some  instances,  however,  this  action  is  indirect 
and  distant,  as,  when  reflection  ends  in  acts  set  going 
by  "currents  starting  from  the  highest  centres."  To 
terminate  the  action  set  up,  another  stimulus  is  necessary, 
unless  exhaustion  itself  terminates  it.  Here  comes  in  the 
element  of  control  or  inhibition  to  which  all  nerve-centres 
are  presumed  to  be  subject,  and  by  which  they  are  re- 
tained in  a  condition  of  mobile  equilibrium  as  surely  as 
the  planets  in  their  orbits  by  the  opposition  of  attraction 
to  their  own  inertia.  It  is  forcibly  argued  that  this  influ- 
ence is  derived  from  centres  having  other  functions,  and 
not  from  one  exclusively  set  apart  for  this  purpose.  In- 
hibition is,  in  short,  a  higher  degree  or  power  of  the 
resistance  which  causes  the  intermittent  escape  of  nervous 
force.  A  wide  question  is  here  raised,  and  there  is  not  as 
yet  a  consensus  of  opinion  among  physiologists  in  regard 
to  it.  "  Movements"  are  dealt  with  in  much  detail.  The 
section  on  the  co-ordination  of  movements  is  an  ela- 
borate study  of  the  subject.  In  the  discussion  of  the 
nervous  mechanism  of  co-ordination  and  inhibition,  occa- 
sion is  taken  to  give  a  minute  description  of  Jacksonian 
epilepsy.  In  inhibition  the  centres  which  supply  the  im- 
pulse to  start  and  accelerate,  supply  also  the  impulse  which 
arrests  and  retards.  In  walking,  for  instance,  the  centres 
which  actuate  and  regulate  it  are  so  arranged  that  they 
control  those  below,  they  themselves  being  under  the 
control  of  still  higher  centres.  If  the  action  of  the  h^ad- 
centre  is  suspended,  the  local  and  vegetative  functions 


58o 


NATURE 


{April  19,  1888 


are  still  performed.  There  is  no  paralysis.  The  early- 
stage  of  drunkenness  is  a  good  example.  There  is  the 
uncontrolled  action  of  the  centres  usually  subordinate  to 
the  highest  controlling,  but  now  non-functioning,  centre. 
There  is  in  such  an  instance,  "the  withdrawal  of  the 
stimulus  of  frequent  positive  impulses."  In  later  stages 
there  is  something  more  than  temporary  suspension  or 
inhibition  ;  there  is  destruction  of  the  highest  centres  and 
actual  paralysis.  Under  "  Conduct "  Dr.  Mercier  con- 
siders the  human  organism  and  the  environment  along 
with  the  adjustment  of  the  former  to  the  latter.  He  care- 
fully follows  the  lines  of  Spencer,  and  points  out  that  the 
study  of  mind  belongs  neither  to  the  first  nor  to  the 
second,  but  only  to  their  adjustment. 

Our  space  does  not  admit  of  our  following  the  author  in 
his  study  of  the  "Constitution  of  Mind,"  in  which  he 
endeavours,  with,  we  think,  imperfect  success,  to  prove 
that  the  feelings  cannot  be  disordered  without  dis- 
orderofthe  intelligence.  Were"  this  theoretically  true, 
so  far  from  having  a  "practical  bearing  of  great 
moment,"  it  would  be  an  instance  of  an  abstract  theo- 
retical proposition  being,  strictly  speaking,  true,  while 
for  all  practical  purposes  experienced  alienists  tell  us  they 
find  it  necessary  to  admit  a  moral  insanity  with  an 
average  amount  of  intelligence.  Alienists  will  no  doubt 
discuss  this  and  other  conclusions  stated  in  the  third 
part  of  this  work,  and  we  leave  the  task  in  their  hands. 
The  most  original  portion  of  the  work  is  that  in  which 
Dr.  Mercier  classifies  cognitions  and  feelings,  dissenting 
as  he  does  from  the  classification  of  Spencer  in  several 
important  particulars,  upon  which  we  cannot  enter. 

There  will,  of  course,  be  the  same  criticism  on  the 
position  taken  by  the  author  as  is  frequently  offered  to 
that  of  his  master.  True,  there  is  no  denial  of  mind  ;  on 
the  contrary,  emphasis  is  laid  upon  the  absolute  distinc- 
tion between  mind  and  matter  ;  but  the  complaint  will  be 
made  that  all  the  functions  of  life  are  explained  by  the 
brain's  molecular  and  molar  action  in  adjustment  to 
environment,  without  taking  into  account  the  influence  of 
what  is  admitted  to  be  "  mind  " — in  other  words,  thought 
and  feeling.  The  circle,  it  will  be  objected,  is  completed 
without  allowing  for  the  action  of  at  least  one  important 
factor.  Dr.  Mercier,  for  instance,  writes  to  this  effect : — 
"  He  who  gets  himself  vaccinated  is  procuring  a  change 
in  his  constitution  adapted  to  the  existence  in  the  outside 
world  of  the  contagium  of  small-pox.  He  is  procuring  the 
adjustment  of  his  organism  to  a  set  of  conditions  in  his 
environment."  What,  asks  the  objector,  is  the  position 
of  the  "  he  "  ?  In  what  relation  does  this  personal  pro- 
noun stand  to  the  organism  ?  How  is  it  possible  to  ignore 
it  in  the  explanation  of  mental  manifestations,  or  what  is 
called  the  adjustment  of  organism  to  environment  ? 

Dr.  Mercier  advances  no  further  than  his  predecessors 
in  enabling  us  to  answer  these  questions.  It  does  not 
help  us  to  insist  upon  the  "fathomless  abyss"  that 
separates  mind  from  matter.  We  get  no  further  under 
his  guidance  than  the  "  rearrangement  of  molecules  in 
the  gray  matter  of  the  superior  regions  of  the  nervous 
system."  We  are  told  that  no  process  of  change  in  the 
latter  can  cause  a  change  of  consciousness.  To  Dr. 
Mercier's  mind  this  is  "  unthinkable  "  ;  therefore  it  is  not 
to  be  thought  of.  Equally  unthinkable  is  the  proposition 
that  a  change  in  consciousness. can  cause  a  change  in 


molecular  arrangement.  The  two  changes  are,  it  is  said, 
invariably  simultaneous.  No  doubt,  as  the  author  says, 
the  student  who  grasps  these  notions  has  half  his  diffi- 
culties surmounted.  To  overcome  difficulties,  however, 
by  evading  them  and  confessing  our  ignorance  is  some- 
what dispiriting,  and  some  would  think  pusillanimous. 
Dr.  Mercier,  while  granting  the  existence  of  mind  on  the 
one  hand,  and  movements  on  the  other,  will  neither  allow 
of  such  expressions  as  "  psycho-motor  "  nor  give  us  an 
equivalent ;  for  the  terms  he  himself  employs  exclude  the 
mental  factor  altogether,  although  he  is  forward  to  admit 
its  existence.  There  is  a  break  in  the  circuit,  and  yet  the 
latter  is  presented  to  us  as  if  it  were  complete.  On  the 
remaining  links  of  the  chain,  the  work  before  us  is  a 
painstaking  and  connected,  and  therefore  valuable,  dis- 
sertation. If  this  missing  link  can  only  be  postulated,  and 
cannot  be  brought  within  the  range  of  practical  psycho- 
logy, it  must  be  acknowledged  that  the  science  is  defective 
in  a  most  essential  particular.  If  the  relation  between 
mind  and  matter  is  unthinkable,  it  is  not  alleged  that 
mind  is  so,  and  therefore  there  does  not  seem  to  be  any 
scientific  objection  to  the  employment  of  terms  which 
recognize  some  causal  relation  between  mind  and 
matter.  Still  less  do  we  find  in  the  employment  of 
such  terms  the  "  blasphemy  "  which  so  painfully  grates 
upon  the  psychologically  tender  conscience  and  rigid 
orthodoxy  of  our  author  Seeing,  moreover,  that  there 
is  an  appreciable  lapse  of  time  between  an  idea  or  willing, 
motion,  the  whole  of  which  need  not  be  occupied  in  the 
transmission  through  nerve-fibres,  there  seems  at  least  as 
much  justification  for  using  the  term  "ideo-motor"  as 
many  terms  which  describe  or  imply  a  theory  which,  like 
Dr.  Mercier's  own  hypothesis,  is  confessedly  inferential. 
And  further,  the  expression  may  be,  like  a  host  of  others, 
defective  in  comprehensiveness  and  precision,  and  yet  be 
the  most  easily  understood. 

In  conclusion,  we  would  say  that  Dr.  Mercier's  work  may 
be  read  with  profit  by  the  class  for  which  it  is  intended, 
so  long  as  it  is  understood  that  it  treats  of  only  one  aspect 
of  the  relations  betu  een  mind  and  body,  and  so  long  as 
it  does  not  obscure  the  recognition  of  those  great  truths  of 
cerebral  physiology  and  mental  pathology,  which  are  not 
in  dispute,  and  the  teaching  of  which  will  continue  to 
enlighten  the  student  of  psychology,  when  the  theories  of 
the  philosophers  are  exploded  or  forgotten. 


POPULAR  METEOROLOGY. 
L  Atmosphere — M^tdorologie    Populaire.       By     Camille 
Flammarion.       (Paris:    Librairie    Hatchette   et    Cie., 
1888.) 

THIS  is  a  re-issue  of  a  popular  work  that  first  appeared 
in  the  year  1872,  and  which  has  been  enlarged  and 
brought  up  to  date. 

Of  all  the  subjects  which  are  interesting  not  only  to 
men  of  science  but  to  people  in  general,  there  are  few 
more  important  than  that  of  the  atmosphere,  since, 
without  its  aerial  envelope,  our  planet  would  pursue  its 
path  round  the  sun  in  silence  and  without  life,  as  is  the 
case  with  our  moon,  which  bears  evidence  on  its  surface 
of  nothing  but  death  and  desolation.  The  c.-istence  of 
an  atmosphere  makes  all  the  difference  in  the  world  to  a 


April  19.  1888] 


NATURE 


58  r 


cooled  star;  for,  with  one,  its  life  is  stirred  up  by  millions 
of  beings  of  various  kinds  which  are  always  changing,  by 
trees  and  shrubs  and  different  kinds  of  plants  which  adorn 
its  surface  and  supply  man  and  beast  with  the  food  and 
nourishment  necessary  to  sustain  life. 

Again,  when  we  consider  that,  of  the  myriads  of  meteo- 
rites which  people  space,  twenty  millions,  with  weights 
varying  from  tons  to  the  minutest  possible  specks,  are 
met  with  by  the  earth  every  twenty-four  hours,  a  new 
function  of  the  atmosphere  is  revealed,  for  owing  to  its 
buffer-like  action  they  fall  harmless,  and  indeed  almost 
unperceived,  on  the  surface  of  our  planet. 

Since  a  knowledge  of  the  atmosphere  and  its  laws  must 
be  of  more  service — though  not  of  greater  interest — to 
those  whose  lot  it  is  to  sail  the  ocean  than  to  those  who 
sit  at  home  at  ease,  no  country  should  foster  meteorology 
with  more  gladness  than  England,  so  many  of  whose 
subjects  are  under  the  influence  of  the  "  vital  fluid," 
which  the  author  gives  as  a  definition  of  the  atmosphere. 

The  volume  is  divided  into  six  books,  each  of  which 
contains  about  eight  chapters.  In  the  first  book  is 
described  the  atmospheric  envelope,  the  method  of  deter- 
mining its  height  and  chemical  composition,  finishing  with 
a  chapter  on  sound  and  the  history  of  the  invention  and 
development  of  the  balloon  which  was  tried  at  Paris  in 
1884,  with  some  most  interesting  descriptions  of  ascents 
which  from  time  to  time  have  been  made,  including  a 
table  of  the  highest  inhabited  places,  highest  mountains, 
and  the  distribution  of  the  various  species  of  birds  as 
regards  the  height  to  which  they  fly. 

Light  and  the  optical  phenomena  of  the  air  are  next 
dealt  with.  Reflection  and  refraction  are  first  discussed, 
followed  by  the  beauties  of  sunrise  and  sunset,  the 
grandeur  and  magnificence  of  which  it  is  almost  im- 
possible to  describe.  We  find  that  not  enough  mention  is 
made  of  the  absorptive  power  of  the  atmosphere  which 
produces  at  those  times  all  the  most  beautiful  colours.  A 
very  interesting  phenomenon  is  here  referred  to— a  total 
eclipse  of  the  moon  with  the  sun  still  above  the  horizon, 
which  is  brought  about  solely  by  the  refraction  of  the 
atmosphere. 

Then  follow  illustrations  and  descriptions  of  all  the 
various  kinds  of  rainbows,  halos,  and  mirages  which  have 
been  seen  both  on  land  and  at  sea. 

The  third  book,  which  is  by  far  the  largest  and  most 
important  of  all,  is  on  temperature.  When  we  come  to 
consider  the  enormous  amount  of  solar  heat  that  is  poured 
on  to  the  earth's  surface,  we  may  have  some  idea  of  the 
work  which  our  atmosphere  is  continually  doing  for  us. 
The  atmosphere,  as  the  author  says,  is  in  truth  a  huge 
machine,  on  whose  action  everything  on  our  planet  which 
has  life  is  dependent.  There  are  in  this  machine  neither 
wheelwork,  pistons,  nor  cogs,  nevertheless  it  does  the  work 
of  several  millions  of  horses,  and  this  work  has  for  its 
end  and  effect  the  preservation  of  life. 

Next  we  come  to  the  waters  of  the  earth,  which  play 
one  of  the  greatest  parts  in  the  working  of  the  atmo- 
sphere. All  day  long,  and  every  day,  water  is  being 
carried  away  from  the  earth's  surface  in  the  form  of 
vapour,  and  it  is  chiefly  in  this  way  that  the  action  of  the 
sun's  rays  on  the  face  of  our  planet  is  reduced.  The 
amount  of  water  evaporated  each  year,  as  the  author  states, 
amounts  to  721  billions  of  cubic  metres.     The  enormous 


quantity  of  heat  which  has  produced  this  effect  could  melt 
per  year  eleven  thousand  millions  of  cubic  metres  of  iron, 
a  mass  whose  volume  would  exceed  several  times  that 
of  the  Alps.  Following  this  are  some  very  interesting 
chapters  on  the  seasons,  containing  a  great  many  tables 
of  the  highest  and  lowest  barometric  and  thermometric 
readings  which  have  been  taken  at  various  places,  con- 
cluding with  an  account  of  the  distribution  of  the 
temperature  on  the  surface  of  the  globe. 

The  wind  and  general  circulation  of  the  atmosphere 
are  the  subjects  of  the  next  book,  including  a  chapter  on 
ocean  currents,  showing  how  the  wind  is  influenced  by 
them.  The  course  of  the  Gulf  Stream,  which  plays  such  an 
active  part  with  the  climate  of  various  places,  and  is  the 
most  important  of  all  currents,  is  here  described,  with  a 
map  showing  its  course  and  that  of  various  other  cur- 
rents. The  atmosphere,  as  we  know,  is  threaded  with 
winds,  as  the  sea  is  with  currents,  some  of  which  are  more 
or  less  constant,  others  variable.  But  there  are  still  other 
kinds  of  winds,  especially  those  that  characterize  certain 
countries  and  certain  parts  of  the  ocean,  which  are  more 
violent  and  destructive  than  the  ordinary  kind,  such  as 
cyclones,  the  simoom,  &c. 

In  the  next  book  the  various  forms  and  kinds  of  clouds 
are  described,  and  illustrated  by  splendid  coloured  plates, 
which  give  very  good  ideas  of  their  form,  with  the 
results  obtained  by  M.  N.  Ekholm,  of  Hagstrom,  of  the 
heights  of  the  various  forms  of  clouds.  This  will  be 
read  with  great  interest  in  connection  with  Mr.  Ralph 
Abercromby's  latest  observations. 

Electricity  and  the  various  forms  and  ways  in  which  it 
appears  in  our  air  are  discussed  in  the  sixth  and  last 
book ;  the  aurora,  the  most  curious  and  most  beautiful 
of  all  forms  which  are  assumed  by  it,  being  fully  treated. 
These  wonderful  displays,  which  are  seen  to  perfection  in 
the  Polar  regions,  and  which  during  the  long  winter  there 
tend  to  change  its  monotony  by  shooting  forth  brilliant 
rays  of  light,  and  illuminating  a  region  which  would  other- 
wise be  in  darkness,  are  here  described  in  a  graphic 
manner,  woodcuts  and  coloured  plates  illustrating  the 
various  forms  they  assume. 

The  concluding  chapter  is  on  the  prediction  of  weather 
— a  subject  which  at  the  present  day  is  carried  on  to  such  a 
great  extent,  and  which  to  a  country  such  as  ours  is  in- 
valuable in  giving  us  warning  of  storms  that  would 
otherwise  come  upon  us  and  do  much  destruction. 

The  volume  is  thoroughly  well  written.  It  is  profusely 
illustrated  throughout,  and  there  are  fifteen  plates 
printed  in  chromotypography  and  two  hand-coloured 
plates.  No  pains  seem  to  have  been  spared  to  make  it 
an  intellectual  and  enjoyable  book  ;  the  object  having  been 
to  produce  a  work  giving  a  broad  outline  of  the  various 
causes  of  every-day  occurrences  in  the  atmosphere. 

W.  L. 

OUR  BOOK  SHELF. 
Life  itt  Corea.  By  W.  R.  Carles,  F.R.G.S.  With  Illus- 
trations and  Map.  (London  :  Macmillan  and  Co., 
1888.) 
This  is  a  valuable  and  interesting  account  of  a  country 
about  which  little  definite  knowledge  has  hitherto  been 
accessible.  There  are  some  aspects  of  his  subject  with 
which  Mr.  Carles  does  not  profess  to  deal.  Apart  from 
such  incidents  as  happened  before  his  own  eyes,  he  has 


582 


NATURE 


[April  19,  I 


nothing  to  tell  us  about  the  system  of  government,  or  the 
relations  between  the  king  and  his  nobles,  the  people  and 
the  serfs,  in  Corea.  On  the  other  hand,  he  gives  a  full  and 
sometimes  a  very  vivid  account  of  everything  he  himself 
had  opportunities  of  directly  and  carefully  studying,  and 
his  book  is  worthy  of  serious  attention,  mainly  because 
it  consists  of  the  results  of  his  own  personal  observation. 
Mr.  Carles  went  to  Corea  for  the  first  time  in  1883,  when 
he  not  only  visited  the  capital,  Soul,  but  undertook,  with 
some  friends,  an  interesting  journey  inland.  The  object  of 
this  excursion  was  the  inspection  of  a  silver  working, 
which  proved  to  be  very  unworthy  of  its  reputation. 
The  scenery,  Mr.  Carles  says,  never  failed  to  charm, 
and  the  people  were  invariably  civil.  At  Soul  he  had 
some  difficulty  in  obtaining  anything  really  character- 
istic of  native  taste  and  skill.  In  the  curio  shops  the 
only  distinctly  native  article  seemed  to  be  a  kind  of  iron 
casket  inlaid  with  silver,  the  pattern  of  which  was  some- 
times very  delicate.  In  the  spring  of  1884,  Mr.  Carles 
took  up  his  quarters  at  Chemulpo  as  H.M.  Vice-Consul 
in  Corea  ;  and  one  of  the  best  chapters  in  the  book  is  that 
in  which  he  sums  up  his  impressions  of  Chemulpo  and 
the  neighbourhood,  bringing  together  various  facts  of 
scientific  interest,  and  indicating  problems  as  to  tidal  and 
other  phenomena  about  which  he  is  still  uncertain.  In 
this  chapter  Mr.  Carles  offers  a  suggestion  which  is  cer- 
tainly worthy  of  the  attention  of  men  of  science.  He 
says : — 

"  With  so  niuch  of  interest  on  all  sides,  I  could  not  help 
regretting  that  no  information  was  ever  asked  for  by  the 
outside  world  on  points  which  the  opening  of  Corea 
would  be  likely  to  clear  up.  It  seemed  impossible  that 
one  could  not  be  of  use  to  some  science  in  collecting  facts 
which  had  hitherto  been  unattainable  ;  but  apparently 
consular  officers  are  not  consulted  except  on  commercial 
c^uestions.  If  scientific  men  would  follow  the  example 
set  by  Chambers  of  Commerce,  and  ask  for  information 
which  they  expect  to  be  within  the  reach  of  out-of-the- 
way  posts,  they  would  generally  confer  a  boon  on  the 
officer  by  giving  him  a  new  special  interest,  and  they 
might  sometimes  learn  what  they  sought  for." 

Early  in  September  1884,  Mr.  Carles  received  instruc- 
tions to  undertake  a  journey  along  the  high  road  from 
Soul  to  China,  as  far  as  the  frontier  town  of  Wi-ju  ;  then 
from  Wi-ju  eastwards  across  the  mountains  to  Kong-ge  ; 
thence  south  to  Gensan,  on  the  east  coast ;  and  from 
Gensan  to  Soul.  In  the  course  of  this  journey  he  watched 
closely  for  any  indication  of  conditions  favourable  to 
industry  and  trade,  but  his  observation  did  not  lead 
him  to  take  a  sanguine  view  of  the  immediate  future  of 
the  Coreans.  Displaying  little  enterprise,  they  are  ex- 
tremely poor,  and  the  prevailing  opinion  among  them 
seems  to  be  that  the  Government  alone  is  capable  of 
doing  anything  for  the  improvement  of  their  circum- 
stances. At  Song-do,  the  old  capital,  admirable  pottery 
used  to  be  made,  but  when  the  seat  of  the  government 
was  transferred  to  Soul,  the  trade  fell  off,  "  and  the  work- 
men, refusing  to  follow  the  Court,  gradually  abandoned 
their  industry,  the  knowledge  of  which  has  now  been 
forgotten."  Speaking  of  the  religion  of  the  Coreans,  Mr. 
Carles  says  that,  although  Buddhism  has  been  under  a 
ban  during  the  supremacy  of  the  present  dynasty,  there 
is  hardly  a  mountain  valley  off  the  main  roads  in  which 
there  is  not  a  Buddhist  temple  ;  and  often  he  came 
across  figures  of  Buddha  carved  in  relief  on  rocks. 
Fetichism  still  survives,  and  is  manifested,  among  other 
ways,  in  the  presentation  of  offerings  to  particularly  fine 
trees.  Mr.  Carles  gives  an  account  of  a  conspiracy  which 
caused  serious  trouble  at  Soul  in  1884;  and  in  a  con- 
cluding chapter  there  are  some  careful  notes  on  the 
Corean  language.  The  interest  of  the  book  is  greatly 
increased  by  the  illustrations,  which  are  mostly  reproduc- 
tions of  some  paintings  in  sepia  by  a  Corean  artist  at 
Gensan. 


Navigation  and  Nautical  Astronomy.  Compiled  by 
Staff-Commander  W.  R.  Martin,  R.N.  (London: 
Longmans,  Green,  and  Co.,  1888.) 

This  book,  which  has  been  accepted  by  the  Lords 
Commissioners  of  the  Admiralty  as  a  text- book  for  the 
Royal  Navy,  is  one  that  has  been  wanted  for  some  time, 
as  it  contains  the  whole  theory  and  practice  of  nautical 
astronomy  in  one  part.  The  method  of  arranging  the 
various  problems  is  very  good.  The  theory  of  a  prob- 
lem is  always  proved  first,  then  the  problem  is  worked 
in  a  theoretical  manner,  and  lastly  in  the  manner 
used  by  navigators,  so  that  one  gets  everything  to  do 
with  any  one  problem  in  two  or  three  pages,  whereas 
most  books  on  this  subject  are  divided  into  two  parts, 
a  theoretical  and  a  practical.  The  method  adopted 
by  Staff-Commander  Martin  ought  to  prove  a  great 
advantage  to  all  persons  using  his  book,  more  es- 
pecially beginners.  The  work  is  divided  into  two 
parts,  the  first  being  devoted  to  the  various  methods  of 
fixing  ships'  positions  by  the  land,  and  of  navigating  a 
ship  by  what  is  known  as  "dead  reckoning."  In  this 
part  also  the  various  methods  of  chart  construction  are 
very  fully  explained,  and  it  ought  to  be  mentioned,  for  the 
information  of  naval  officers,  that  the  examples  relating 
to  charts  are  as  much  as  possible  arranged  to  be  used 
with  the  "  Officers'  Atlas,"  which  is  supplied  to  each 
man-of-war.  The  examples  ought  therefore  to  be  of  great 
service  to  junior  officers.  The  second  part  treats  of  the 
theory  and  practice  of  nautical  astronomy  ;  the  method 
of  arrangement  we  have  already  described.  The  volume 
is  accompanied  by  the  requisite  charts  and  diagrams. 

H.  C.  L. 

A.  Johnston's  Botanical  Plates.  (Edinburgh  :  A.  John- 
ston, 1888.) 

These  are  coloured  plates,  35  x  25  inches  in  size, 
intended  for  use  in  elementary  schools.  In  the  first 
instalment  of  nine  plates,  members  of  the  following 
natural  orders  are  shown  :  Ranunculaceas,  Papaverace^E, 
Linaceae,  Acerineae,  Solanacece  (two  examples),  Scrophu-. 
lariaceae,  Corylacese,  and  Liliacece.  The  plants  already 
illustrated  appear  to  have  been  chosen  at  random,  but 
when  the  series  is  completed  a  fair  representation  of  the 
more  important  orders  will  no  doubt  be  provided.  The 
plates  are  well  executed  and  boldly  coloured,  so  that  the 
chief  external  characters  of  the  plants  shown  will  be 
sufficiently  obvious  to  the  class.  Some  details  of  the 
structure  of  the  flower  have  also  been  given,  but  these 
figures  are  rather  meagre.  Still,  this  is  not  a  serious 
objection,  as  the  chief  aim  of  botanical  teaching  in  ele- 
mentary schools  must  always  be  to  teach  children  to 
know  plants  by  sight.  For  this  purpose  these  plates, 
judging  from  the  few  already  published,  seem  admirably 
adapted.  D.  H.  S. 

LETTERS   TO    THE  EDITOR. 

{The  Editor  does  not  hold  himself  responsible  for  opinions 
expressed  by  his  correspondents.  Neither  can  he  under- 
take to  return,  or  to  correspond  with  the  writers  of, 
rejected  manuscj-ipts  intoidcd  for  this  or  any  other  part 
^Nature.  No  notice  is  taken  of  anonymous  communi- 
cations. ] 

Injuries  caused  by  Lightning  in  Africa. 

In  a  copy  of  Nature  published  on  December  11,  1884  (vol. 
xxxi.  p.  127),  I  noticed  a  statement  by  Herr  von  Danckelman 
that  in  all  the  publications  relating  to  Africa,  accounts  of  injuries 
caused  by  lightning  are  so  rare  that  he  scarcely  found  any  litera- 
ture concerning  the  use  of  lightning  conductors  or  the  frequency 
I  of  accidents  caused  by  lightning  in   the   tropics.     After  an   un- 
1  broken   residence  of  twelve  years  in   the   Egyptian   Equatorial 
]  Province,    I    can  give   to    your  meteorological    readers  a   little 
j  information  on  the  subject  in  question,  and  I  venture  to  submit 


April  19,  1888] 


NATURE 


583 


the  following  list  of  injuries  which  occurred  during  the  years 
1878-86.  It  must,  however,  be  understood  that  this  is  not  to 
be  regarded  as  a  complete  list  of  the  accidents  which  occurred, 
for  during  the  years  1878-80  I  was  nearly  always  travelling 
about,  and  was  therefore  unable  to  collect  information  of  a 
satisfactory  character. 


Year. 

Name  of 
station. 

Lat. 
north. 

Description  of  accident. 

1884   .. 

Bor 

..    6    12    . 

.   Man  killed  ;  house  burnt. 

1880   .. 

Lado 

..51- 

.  Tree  felled. 

1882    .. 

>> 

,, 

.   Man  killed. 

1886    .. 

,, 

.  Two  empty  houses  burnt. 

1883    .. 

.      Redjaf     . 

•  4  44  • 

.  Two  men  badly  burnt. 

1886    .. 

I) 

.   Woman  killed. 

1883    .. 

.      Wandi      . 

..  4  46  . 

.   Flagstaff  felled  ;  man  bruised 

1882    .. 

,, 

,  J 

.   House  burnt. 

1880   .. 

.   Kabajendi   . 

••  4  37  • 

.   Storehouse  burnt. 

1883   .. 

Muggi 

..48. 

.  Two  girls  killed. 

1885    .. 

,, 

)> 

.   House  burnt  ;  girl  paralyzed. 

1881    .. 

Lahore 

•  3  55  • 

.  Two  boys  killed. 

1879    .. 

.    Chor  Aju  . 

..  3  48  . 

.  Tree  felled. 

1881    . 

Dufile      . 

•  3  34  • 

.   House,  with  sheep,  burnt. 

1883    . 

)> 

,, 

.  Tree  felled. 

1883    . 

Wadelai     . 

•  •  2  37  . 

.    House  burnt. 

1883    .. 

») 

.    House,  with  calves,  burnt. 

1878    .. 

.    Magungo    . 

..  2  14  . 

..   Woman  killed. 

1880    . 

.     Mahagi 

..22. 

.   Flagstaff  felled. 

1878    . 

Kiroto 

..  2 

..  Tree  felled. 

Captain  Casati  reports — 


1886 


Neolopo  (Monbuttu).. 
Djuaia  (Unyoro) 


Man  badly  burnt. 

Woman  killed. 

One  man  killed  ;  one  burnt — 

died  in  two  days. 
Tree    felled     near     observer's 

house. 


These  cases  were  all  observed  in  our  stations,  with  the  excep- 
tion of  two — one  occurring  in  Wandi,  in  December  1882,  and 
one  in  Redjaf,  in  November  1886.  They  all  took  place  in  the 
rainy,  that  is  to  say,  in  the  cooler  season.  From  the  list  you 
will  see  that  two  or  three  times  every  year  we  suffer  some 
damage  from  lightning- strokes.  It  therefore  does  not  appear 
that  these  accidents  are  so  rare ,  as  Herr  von  Danckelman 
supposes,  at  least  in  this  part  of  Africa,  and  if  travellers 
do  not  report  such  accidents,  it  is  probably  because  of  their 
short  stay  in  definite  places.  I  noticed,  in  Schvveinfurth's  "  Im 
Herzen  von  Africa,"  i.  pp.  345-46,  that  six  women  were  killed 
by  a  single  flash  of  lightning.  I  may  be  also  permitted  to 
remark  that  in  Unyoro  and  Uganda,  countries  which  have  a 
greater  elevation  than  our  own,  the  frequency  of  destructive  light- 
ning-strokes is  much  greater.  Uganda  is  the  only  country 
boasting  of  a  lightning-conductor.  Mr.  A.  M.  Mackay  has 
erected  one  there,  to  protect  King  Mwanga's  palace.  Monbuttu, 
too,  although  having  a  lower  elevation  than  Uganda  and  Unyoro, 
is  celebrated  for  the  frequency  of  accidents  caused  by  lightning. 

In  more  northern  latitudes — namely,  at  Fashoda,  Khartum, 
and  Berber — destructive  lightning-strokes  are  nearly  unheard  of, 
whilst  in  Sennar  they  are  not  altogether  infrequent. 

It  is  curious  to  notice  that  the  Sudan  Arabs  have  firmly  con- 
ceived the  idea  that  with  every  flash  of  lightning  a  piece  of 
meteoric  iron  is  thrown  to  the  earth.  They  believe  that  who- 
ever is  able  to  secure  such  a  piece  of  iron  has  gained  a  great 
treasure,  because  they  think  that  swords  and  knives  made 
out  of  it  can  never  be  surpa  sed  in  quality,  and  that  their 
possession  gives  immunity  from  danger  in  battle,  and  affords 
protection  against  lightning-strokes.  Sheik  Nasr,  who  is  the 
Chief  of  the  Takkala  Mountains,  is  said  to  have  resisted  all 
Egyptian  attacks,  and  pieserved  his  and  his  people's  independ- 
ence, on  account  of  his  possession  of  such  a  sword.  Another 
superstition  is,  that  fire  kindled  by  a  flash  of  lightning  cannot 
be  extinguished  until  a  small  quantity  of  milk  has  been  ponred 


over  it.  There  seems  to  be  some  connection  between  these 
beliefs,  inasmuch  as  water  is  believed  to  spoil  meteoric  iron  : 
when  working  it,  the  blacksmith  uses  milk  instead  of  water. 

Emin  Pasha. 

An  "  Instructive  "  Bibliography  of  the  Foraminifera. 

U.NUER  the  title  of  "The  (!)  Bioliography  of  the  Foramini- 
fera," a  remarkable  production  was  published  by  Mr.  Anthony 
Woodward  in  the  Fourteenth  Annual  Report  of  the  Geographical 
a)id  Natural  History  Survey  of  Minnesota  (St.  Paul,  1886),  and 
the  work  has  lately  been  followed  by  a  supplement — one  of  a 
series — in  ihe  Journal  of  the  New  York  Microscopical  Society  for 
January  1888.  Had  the  compiler  not  issued  this  supplement, 
previous  criticisms  might  have  sufficed,  but,  as  he  has  again 
produced  an  extraordinary  and  untrustworthy  list,  it  is  incumljent 
on  us  to  bring  the  work  and  its  demerits  before  the  notice  of  those 
whi  may  be  tempted  to  expect  good  results  from  using  it. 

"The"'  Bibliography,  as  it  first  appeared,  occupied  some 
120  pages  of  the  Minnesota  Report,  and  it  was  hailed  with  some 
satisfaction.  When  put  to  the  test,  however,  it  was  found  to  be 
absolutely  untrustworthy — dates,  pages,  volumes,  and  other  im- 
portant details  being  incorrect.  It  therefore  became  necessary  for 
the  worker  to  see  and  examine  every  unknown  or  new  entry,  and 
to  correct  when  necessary.  The  result  fully  justified  this  labour, 
for  the  whole  thing  was  soon  found  to  be  comparatively  useless 
in  its  uncorrected  condition.  To  begin  with,  it  was  evident  from 
the  number  and  nature  of  the  typographical  errors  that  the 
proofs  had  not  been  corrected.  Apart  from  this,  however,  there 
are  more  serious  defects,  for  which  excuse  must  be  difficult.  The 
compiler  uses  freely  Mr.  Brady's  excellent  bibliography  appended 
to  the  Challenger  Report  on  the  Foraminifera,  but  he  does  more 
^he  reproduces  in  his  lists  precisely  the  same  printers'  errors  that 
appeared  in  Brady  I  It  is  therefore  evident  that  the  American 
compiler  neither  saw  the  books  he  entered  in  his  lists,  nor 
troubled  to  verify  the  entries.     Here  are  a  few  examples  :— 

P.  251. — Terquem's  papers  on  the  Foraminifera  of  the  Oolitic 
series.  "  Pt.  i,  in  ihe  Bulletin  de  la  Scc.  d'Histoire  Nat.  du 
Dep.  de  la  Moselle,  1868  ;  the  remainder  published  by  the  author." 
Some  of  these  "remainder"  were  published  in  the  Mem.  Ac. 
Itnfi.  Metz,  and  it  is  so  stated  on  the  separate  copies. 

P.  271. — Neugeboren,  J.  L.  Bericht  zu  den  in  den  Jahrg. 
LII.  und  LIH.,  &c.  This  is  nonsense,  it  was  a  printer's  error 
for  I.,  II.,  and  HI.  In  the  same  entry  Brady  gives  a  wrong 
volume ;  Woodward  does  the  same  ! 

P.  224.— Reade,  J.  B.  Mr.  Brady  gives  a  wrong  date  ;  Mr. 
Woodward  copies  him,  and  does  the  same. 

The  names  of  authors  form  another  stumbling-block.  Some  of 
these  are  positively  offensive. 

P.  196.  — Karrer,  F.,  L.  F.  Pourtales,  &c.  Two  papers,  both 
on  the  same  page  in  Brady.  The  paper  quoted  should  read. 
Pourtales,  L.  F. 

P.  218.— King,  Wm.  This  is  true,  but  if  the  paper  had  been 
consulted,  the  compiler  would  have  found  that  the  Foraminifera 
were  described  by  Jones,  T.  R.,  in  King,  Wm.,  &c. 

P.  225. — Seguenza.  This  paper  was  written  by  Brady  on 
Seguenza's  genus  ! 

P.  226. — Stewardson,  G.  This  author  is  probably  Dr.  George 
Stewardson  Brady,  F.  R.  S.  ! 

P.  227. —Thompson,  W.  Sir  C.  Wyville  Thomson  is  con- 
fused with  a  somewhat  obscure  author  of  fifty  years  ago. 

P.  266. — Jozsef-tol,  S.  Can  one  believe  that  this  is  the 
compiler's  serious  attempt  at  Dr.  Jozsef  Szabo,  of  Budapest ! 

In  all  these  cases,  and  numerous  others  besides,  it  would  have 
been  to  the  compiler's  credit  if  he  had  placed  "  [not  seen]  "  at  the 
end  of  his  entry,  for  it  is  surely  far  worse  to  acknowledge 
acquaintance  with  papers,  and  to  quote  them  thus  carelessly, 
than  to  have  never  seen  them  at  all. 

The  next  offence  is  the  frequent  duplication  of  entries.  The 
following  examples  will  suffice  : — 

Pp.  228,  229.— Wallich  on  the  Radiolaria  as  an  order  of  the 
Protozoa.  A  reference  to  the  Pop.  Sci.  A'ev.  would  have  shown 
this. 

P.  244.— Leymerie,  Mem.  sur  le  terrain  a  Nummulites,  &c. 
Again  a  reference  would  have  shown  these  entries  to  be  the 
same. 

P.  268.— Koch,  Ueber  einigen,  &c.  The  same  remark  applies 
to  this  as  to  the  last,  and  indeed  to  all  similar  carelessnesses. 

The  quotation  of  notices  of  papers  from  various  scientific 
journals,  unaccompanied  by  references  to  the  original  places  of 


584 


NATURE 


lApril  19,  1 888 


publication  is  a  frequent  and  a  grossly  careless  error,  for  in  every 
case  the  information  is  forthcoming.     Examples  are  : — 

P.  225. — Siddall,  Nature,  vol.  xv. — instead  of  Annual 
Report  Chester  Soc.  Nat.  Sci. 

P.  230. — Williamson,  Nature,  vol.  xvii. — instead  of  Proc. 
Manchester  Lit.  Phil.  Soc. 

P.  250. — Suess,  Quart.  Journ,  Geol.  Soc,  xxvi. — instead  of 
Verh.  k.  k.  geol.  Reichs. 

Moreover,  the  hopeless  nature  of  his  published  errata  may 
indicate  that  the  author  was  somewhat  ashamed  of  his  work,  and 
it  is  difficult  to  understand  why  the  book  was  not  stopped  and 
reprinted,  before  it  was  allowed  to  pass  into  circulation. 

Enough  has  now  been  said  of  the  original  work — that  is,  the 
first  attempted  list ;  we  will  now  pass  on  to  the  supplement  I. 
In  this,  at  least,  we  might  have  hoped  that  the  compiler  would 
have  profited  by  experience,  and  used  more  care.  There  is 
certainly  a  difference  in  the  proportion  of  typographical  errors, 
but  such  details  as  volumes  are  still  rather  wild  {.Bull.  Soc.  Geol. 
France,  for  1886,  is  quoted  here  and  there  as  vol.  x.,  xiv., 
&c.).  We  gather  from  the  perusal  of  his  supplement  many 
things  we  could  not  understand  in  the  original  work.  We  reco,;j- 
nize  that  the  compiler  is  neither  a  born  bibliographer,  nor 
acquainted  with  scientific  literature.  We  observe  with  satis- 
faction that  the  words  "  [not  seen]  "  occur  more  frequently  than 
in  the  earlier  work,  but  can  it  be  possible  that  the  author  has 
seen  a  copy  of  Silvestri's  paper  noted  on  p.  62  ?  It  is  exceed- 
ingly rare,  it  does  not  exist  in  English  libraries,  and  the  writer 
of' this  has  only  seen  two  copies,  both  of  which  were  sent  to 
him  from  Italy.  It  would  have  been  interesting  to  learn  the 
pagination  of  so  scarce  a  paper  :  the  title  as  it  at  present  stands 
is  strongly  suggestive  of  a  bookseller's  catalogue.  And  surely  it 
was  worth  the  compiler's  while  to  quote  Ehrenberg  properly 
(p.  65)  while  the  book  was  presumably  lying  open  before  him  ? 
The  book  also  is  known  as  "  Mottatsbericht"  not  "  Verhand- 
lungen,"  that  is  a  secondary  title.  A  very  careless  error  is  seen 
on  p.  57,  where  Orbilolina  conoidea,  Alb.,  and  0.  discoides.  Alb., 
are  quoted.  The  original  gives  Albin  Gras  as  the  authority,  whose 
paper  on  the  subject,  moreover,  is  well  known.  There  should 
not  have  been  confusion  here.  On  pp.  64,  65,  71,  72,  and  74, 
the  same  careless  duplication  of  entries  occurs  as  seen  in  the 
first  attempted  bibliography.  But  worse  than  all,  perhaps,  is  the 
rendering  of  different  versions  of  the  title  of  one  publication. 
A  good  instance  of  this  is  seen  on  pp.  66,  67,  where  six  variants 
of  Verh.  k.  k.  geol.  Reichs.  are  used,  some  ( Ver.  K.  K.  Geol. ) 
being  quite  unintelligible  to  the  uninitiated.  On  p.  72  we  see 
two  versions  oi  Ann.  Soc.  Beige  Microsc,  and  only  those  familiar 
with  the  book  would  recognize  readily  "  Vierteljahrsschrift  d. 
Ztir.  Natur.  Gesellsch."  (p.  74\  with  its  chief  word  abbreviated. 
The  compiler  should  remember  that  there  is  no  necessity  to 
quote,  but,  if  he  quotes,  he  should  quote  correctly. 

It  is  needless  to  waste  space  on  such  clumsinesses  as  Prof. 
Wm.  King,  S.C.D.  (?D.Sc.)  (p.  1),  ox  Jahrbtich.  Geol.  Reicht. 
It  is  also  advisable  to  have  some  method  even  in  printing.  The 
compiler  of  this  list  uses  roman  and  italics  indiscriminately  for 
titles  of  works  (p.  71,  Steinmann — where  more  prominence  is 
thus  given  to  the  review  than  to  the  original  work),  while  on 
p.  6^1,  in  the  entry  Alth,  the  word  Rozprawy  begins  the  title  of 
the  book,  and  has  nothing  whatever  to  do  with  the  title  of  Dr. 
Alth's  paper. 

Many  of  these  errors  and  defects  might  have  been  avoided  had 
the  compiler  been  accustomed  to  public  libraries,  or  even  en- 
deavoured to  find  out  the  common  books  of  reference,  always  at 
hand  in  these  places.  No  bibliographer  should  ever  think  of 
working  in  scientific  literature  without  hisCarus  and  Englemann, 
his  Scudder,  and  his  Bolton,  and  for  an  American  to  omit  to  do 
so  is  sinful.  No  greater  mistake  was  ever  made  by  a  writer  than 
that  made  by  the  compiler,  when  he  wrote  in  his  preface  that  he 
had  enjoyed  facilities  not  enjoyed  by  many  scientific  students, 
those  facilities  afforded  by  the  great  public  libraries  of  New 
York.  We  know  what  the  resources  of  those  libraries  are,  and 
the  production  which  calls  for  this  letter  does  not  shake  our 
faith  in  them.  "  Instructive"  this  bibliography  certainly  is,  but 
not  in  the  sense  intended  by  its  compiler. 

Chas.  Davies  Sherborn. 


Density  and  Specific  Gravity. 
May  I  ventilate  a  point  in  mechanical  definition  which  has 
perplexed  students  within  my  experience — the  use  of  the  words 
density  and  specific  gravity? 


We  are  usually  told  that  the  quantity  of  matter  in  a  body — as 
it  is  now  called,  the  mass  of  the  body — is  proportional  to  the 
volume  and  density  conjointly.  This  is  Newton's  definition  of 
density  (see  also  Thomson  and  Tait's  "Natural  Philosophy," 
§  208).  Thus,  if  M  be  the  mass,  V  the  volume,  and  p  the 
density  of  a  body,  we  have — 


M  =pV 


(I) 


if  the  unit  of  mass  be  taken  as  the  unit  of  volume  of  a  substance 
of  standard  density. 

Again,  we  are  told -that  specific  gravity  is  the  ratio  of  the  weight 
of  the  given  body  to  the  weight  of  an  equal  volume  of  some 
standard  substance  (Besant's  "Hydrostatics  and  Hydrodynamics," 
§  13).  Since  weights  are  simply  proportional  to  masses,  it  follows 
that  the  numerical  values  of  specific  gravities  and  densities  are 
exactly  the  same.  It  would  seem  better,  under  these  cir- 
cumstances, to  use  one  word  only  to  express  the  one  physical 
property.  Accordingly,  we  find  that  specific  gravity  is  dis- 
appearing from  many  of  our  best  books  (I  think  from  Thomson 
and  Tait's  "  Natural  Philosophy,"  for  example),  though  it  still 
holds  its  place  to  puzzle  students  in  examinations,  and  therefore 
teachers  are  compelled  to  make  the  best  of  it  they  can. 

But  this  is  not  the  whole  evil.  The  definition  of  specific 
gravity  is  usually  followed  by  the  equation — 

W  =  .fV (2) 

where  W  is  the  weight,  s  the  specific  gravity,  and  V  the  volume 
of  the  body.  This  equation  is,  no  doubt,  usually  accompanied 
by  the  caution  that  the  unit  of  weight  chosen  is  not  the  unit  of 
force  proper  to  other  dynamical  equations,  and  for  this  reason 
the  equation 

^  =  9^g (3) 

is  far  to  be  preferred. 

If  equation  (2)  is  of  practical  value,  would  it  not  be  as  well 
to  define  specific  gravity  in  accordance  with  it,  and  say  that 
specific  gravity  is  the  weight  of  unit  volume  of  the  substance  ? 
Thus,  the  specific  gravity  of  water  would  be  expressed  by 
62"5  lbs.  avoirdupois  in  Briti>h  units,  or  by  i  gramme  inC.G. S. 
units.  I  believe  this  would  have  the  advantage  of  conveying  a 
perfectly  definite  idea  to  minds  which  dislike  such  abstractions 
as  mass  and  density.  L.  Gumming. 

Rugby,  March  31. 


"  Coral  Formations." 

Mr.  Mellard  Reade  last  week  (April  5,  p.  535)  pointed 
out  an  error  in  my  calculations  which  I  had  myself  discovered 
when  too  late,  and  had  intended  to  correct  in  sending  you  a 
further  note  on  some  experiments  which  are  now  in  progress. 

Mr.  Reade  seems  to  make  use  of  my  arithmetical  blunder,  and 
apparently  attempts  to  discredit  my  experiments,  and  the  new 
views  as  to  coral-reef  formations  ;  but  I  leave  the  matter  to  those 
who  have  a  practical  knowledge  of  the  subject. 

The  corals  experimented  upon  were  of  the  class  known  as  hard 
corals,  and  consequently  the  amount  dissolved  must  be  much 
smaller,  I  imagine,  than  that  dissolved  from  the  softer  varieties, 
such  as  Porites.  The  first  experiment  (p.  462)  gives  the  highest 
result,  but  I  have  no  reason  to  doubt  that  the  rate  of  solution 
deduced  therefrom  is  far  below  that  actually  taking  place  in  the 
tropical  areas  of  the  Pacific  and  Indian  Oceans. 

I  do  not  consider  that  Mr.  Reade  has  given  an  answer  to  Mr. 
Irvine's  pertinent  question,  though  he  would  have  it  appear  that 
an  answer  is  patent  to  everyone,  and  he  must  not  take  up  your 
space  with  such  a  trivial  matter. 

Mr.  Murray,  speaking  of  his  tow-net  experiments  in  his  Royal 
Institution  lectures,  says  : — "  I  give  this  calculation  more  to 
indicate  a  method  than  to  give  even  the  roughest  approximation 
to  a  rate  of  accumulation  of  deposits.  The  experiments  were 
too  few  to  warrant  any  definite  deductions  "  ;  and  he  is  evidently 
satisfied  that  we  have  no  knowledge,  other  than  relative,  as  to 
the  rate  of  accumulation  of  calcareous  deposits. 

It  is  at  once  evident  to  all  who  have  used  the  tow-net,  that 
Mr.  Murray's  experiments  afford  a  very  slender  basis  for  calcu- 
lations. Probably  not  more  than  one-fourth  of  the  water  in  the 
track  of  the  tow-nets  actually  pass-ed  through  the  nets,  and  not 
more  than  one-half  of  the  organisms  that  entered  them  were 
retained ;  the  Coccospheres,  Rhabdospheres,  and  small  Fora- 
minifera,  for  instance,  passing   through  and  escaping  with  the 


April  19,  1888] 


NATURE 


585 


water.  Then,  Mr.  Reade  supposes  all  the  organisms  in  the 
bulk  of  water  taken  to  die  and  fall  to  the  bottom  each  day. 
Mr.  Murray,  in  his  calculations,  supposes  only  one-sixteenth 
part  to  die  each  day.  From  the  same  data  the  former  makes 
out  a  rate  of  accumulation  of  deposit  of  I  inch  in  29  years, 
the  latter  a  rate  of  i  inch  in  470  years.  Dana  estimates 
the  growth  of  a  reef  at  not  greater  than  oiie-sixteenth  of  an  inch 
in  one  year,  i.e.  i  inch  in  16  years.  Yet  it  will  be  admitted 
that  a  reef  must  grow  much  more  rapidly  than  a  deep-sea 
deposit.  What  then  would  justify  us  in  accepting  these  figures 
as  in  any  way  representing  what  is  now  taking  place  in  Nature? 
The  fact  is  we  much  want  definite  information  on  the  rate  of 
growth  of  these  calcareous  deposits,  and  if  Mr.  Reade  has  the 
information  his  language  would  warrant,  he  should  make  it 
known  for  the  benefit  of  science. 

We  know  that  these  deposits  do  accumulate  to  hundreds  of 
feet  in  thickness  in  some  places,  notwithstanding  solution  ;  and 
it  seems  to  me  that,  as  we  can  imitate  in  the  laboratory  the 
conditions  of  solution  while  we  cannot  those  of  secretion  by 
organisms,  then  by  experiments  in  this  direction  we  may  at 
least  arrive  at  a  knowledge  of  the  minimum  rate  of  accumulation 
of  oceanic  calcureous  deposits.  James  G.  Ross. 

14  Argyll  Place,  Edinburgh,  April  14. 


Beinicle  Geese  on  Coniston  Lake. 

This  afternoon  while  walking  by  this  lake  I  saw  four  large 
birds  flying  overhead.  These  birds,  after  making  several  circuits 
in  the  air,  pitched  on  the  lake.  I  had  with  me  an  excellent  pair 
of  field-glasses,  and  as  I  succeeded  in  approaching  within  20 
yards  of  them,  I  was  enabled  to  examine  them  with  sufficient 
accuracy  to  convince  me  that  they  were  Bernicle  geese  {Anser 
leucopsis,  Yarrell).  What  struck  me  as  most  worthy  of  remark 
was  their  extreme  tameness,  as  they  allowed  me,  first  on  land, 
and  then  in  a  boat,  to  approach  within  20  yards  of  them.  They 
were  in  excellent  plumage,  and  seemed  in  good  condition.  After 
remaining  about  three  hours  swimming  about  on  the  lake,  they 
rose,  and  after  circling  round  once  or  twice,  flew  off  in  a  northerly 
direction. 

May  I  ask  if  this  is  a  rare  bird  to  see  in  the  Lake  District 
at  this  time  of  year?  I  have  inquired  in  the  neighbourhood, 
and  do  not  think  they  could  have  come  from  any  private  water. 
Several  people  who  have  been  here  for  many  years  assure  me 
they  have  never  seen  this  bird  on  the  lake  before,  and  this  has 
certainly  been  my  own  experience.  Is  it  possible  their  extreme 
tameness  was  due  to  fatigue?  William  R.  Melly. 

Tent  Lodge,  Coniston  Lake,  Lancashire,  April  8. 


The  Muzzling  of  Oysters. 

This  practice,  described  in  the  current  number  of  Nature 
(p.  572)  as  owing  "its  existence  to  a  careful  study  of  the  habits 
of  the  bivalve,"  is  by  no  means  new,  though  probably  original  on 
the  part  of  the  American  naturalists.  Our  London  fishmongers 
have  muzzled  oysters  on  a  large  scale  from  a  time  that  is  im- 
memorial among  them.  Barrelled  oysters  are  all  very  care- 
fully muzzled,  but  without  wires,  as  anybody  may  learn  by 
watching  an  expert  in  the  process  of  barrelling.  It  will  be  seen 
that  he  lays  the  oysters  one  by  one  carefully  in  tiers  up  to  the 
top  of  the  barrel,  and  then  lays  another  tier  xxswi^above  the  level 
of  the  lop.  Having  done  this,  he  places  the  lid  of  the  barrel  on 
this  exuberant  tier,  and  thumps  and  rattles  the  barrel  on  a  stone 
pavement  or  other  solid  ground  until,  by  close  packing  of  the 
whole,  it  descends  to  the  level  of  the  barrel  top.  The  mass  of 
oysters  being  thus  compressed  so  as  to  render  the  slightest  gaping 
of  any  one  quite  impossible,  he  firmly  nails  down  the  head  of  the 
barrel. 

Experience  has  proved  that  oysters  thus  effectively  muzzled 
may  take  long  slow  journeys  (as  they  did  in  the  old  coaching 
days)  and  be  kept  fresh  and  without  loss  of  flavour  for  two  or 
three  weeks,  provided  the  barrels  are  unopened.  If,  however, 
they  are  loosely  barrelled,  a  few  days  are  too  many.  In  some 
old  country  houses  the  barrels,  unopened,  were  placed  in  salt 
water,  and  thus  kept  until  required,  but  whether  this  was 
advantageous  I  cannot  say. 

W.  Mattieu  Williams. 

The  Grange,  Neasden,  April  13. 


SUGGESTIONS  ON  THE  CLASSIFICATION  OF 
THE  VARIOUS  SPECIES  OF  HEAVENLY 
BODIES} 

I. 

I.— PROBABLE  ORIGIN  OF  SOME  OF  THE  GROUPS. 

I.  Nebulae. 

IN  a  paper  communicated  to  the  Royal  Society  on 
November  15,  1887,  I  showed  that  the  nebulae  are 
composed  of  sparse  meteorites,  the  collisions  of  which  bring 
about  a  rise  of  temperature  sufficient  to  render  luminous 
one  of  their  chief  constituents — magnesium.  This  con- 
clusion was  arrived  at  from  the  facts  that  the  chief  nebula 
lines  are  coincident  in  position  with  the  fluting  and  lines 
visible  in  the  bunsen  burner  when  magnesium  is  intro- 
duced, and  that  the  fluting  is  far  brighter  at  that  tempera- 
ture than  almost  any  other  spectral  line  or  fluting  of  any 
element  whatever. 

I  suggested  that  the  association  or  non- association  of 
hydrogen  lines  with  the  lines  due  to  the  olivine  constituents 
of  the  meteorites  might  be  an  indication  of  the  greater  or 
less  sparseness  of  the  swarm,  the  greatest  sparseness 
being  the  condition  defining  fewest  collisions,  and  there- 
fore one  least  likely  to  show  hydrogen.  This  suggestion 
was  made  because  observations  of  comets  and  laboratory 
work  have  abundantly  shown  that  great  liability  to  colli- 
sion in  the  one  case,  and  increase  of  temperature  in  the 
other,  are  accompanied  by  the  appearance  of  the  carbon 
spectrum  instead  of  the  hydrogen  spectrum. 

The  now  demonstrated  meteoric  origin  of  these  celestial 
bodies  renders  it  needful  to  discuss  the  question  in  some- 
what greater  detail,  with  a  view  to  classification  ;  and  to 
do  this  thoroughly  it  is  requisite  that  we  should  study  the 
rich  store  of  facts  which  chiefly  Sir  William  Herschel's 
labours  have  placed  before  us  regarding  the  various  forms 
of  nebulae,  with  the  view  of  ascertaining  what  light,  if 
any,  the  new  view  throws  on  their  development. 

To  do  this  the  treatment  must  be  vastly  different  from 
that — the  only  one  we  can  pursue — utilized  in  the  case  of 
the  stars,  the  images  of  all,  or  nearly  all,  of  which  appear 
to  us  as  points  of  light  more  or  less  minute,  while,  in  the 
case  of  the  nebulas,  forms  of  the  most  definite  and,  in 
many  cases,  of  the  most  fantastic  kind,  have  been  long 
recognized  as  among  their  chief  characteristics. 

It  will  at  once  he  evident  that  since  the  luminosity  of 
the  meteorites  depends  upon  collisions,  the  light  from 
them,  and  from  the  glow  of  the  gases  produced  from  them, 
can  only  come  from  those  parts  of  a  meteor-swarm  in 
which  collisions  are  going  on.  Visibility  is  not  the  only 
criterion  of  the  existence  of  matter  in  space  ;  dark  bodies 
may  exist  in  all  parts  of  space,  but  visibility  in  any  part 
of  the  heavens  means,  not  only  matter,  but  collisions,  or 
the  radiation  of  a  mass  of  vapour  produced  at  some  time 
or  other  by  collisions.  The  appearances  which  these 
bodies  present  to  us  may  bear  little  relation  to  their 
actual  form,  but  may  represent  merely  surfaces,  or  loci  of 
disturbances. 

It  seemed  proper,  then,  that  I  should  seek  to  determine 
whether  the  view  1  have  put  forward  explains  the  pheno- 
mena as  satisfactorily  as  they  have  been  explained  on  the 
old  ones,  and  whether,  indeed,  it  can  go  further  and  make 
some  points  clear  which  before  were  dark. 

To  do  this  it  is  not  necessary  in  the  present  paper  to 
dwell  at  any  great  length  either  on  those  appearances  . 
which  were  termed  nebitlosities  by  Sir  William  Herschel 
or  on  irregular  nebulas  generally ;  but  it  must  be  remarked 
that  the  very  great  extension  of  the  former — which  there 
is  little  .reason  to  doubt  will  be  vastly  increased  by 
increase  of  optical  power  and  improvement  in  observing 
conditions  and  stations — may  be  held  to  strengthen  the 
view  that  space  is  really  a  meteoritic  plenum,  while  the 
forms  indicate  motions  and  crossings  and  interpenetra- 

■  The  Bakerian  Lecture,  delivered  at  the  Rojal  Society  on  April  12,  by 
J.  Norman  Lockyer,  F.R.S. 


586 


NATURh 


[kpril  1%  1 88a 


tions  of  streams  or  sheets,  the  brighter  portions  being  due 
to  a  greater,  number  of  collisions  per  unit  volume. 

When  we  come  to  the  more  regular  forrns  we  find  that 
they  may  be  generalized  into  three  groups,  according  as 
the  formative  action  seems  working  towards  a  centre, 
round  a  centre  in  a  plane,  or  nearly  so,  or  in  one  direc- 
tion only ;  as  a  result  we  have  globular,  spheroidal,  and 
cometic  nebulcC.     I  propose  to  deal  with  each  in  turn. 

Globular  NebiilcE. 
The  remarkable  appearance  presented  by  the  so-called 
planetary  nebulae  requires  that  I  should  refer  to  them 
in  some  detail.  Sir  William  Herschel  does  not  describe 
them  at  any  great  length,  but  in  his  paper  on  "  Nebulous 
Stars"  he  alludes  to  the  planetary  nebulosity  which  in 
ijiany  cases  is  accompanied  by  a  star  in  the  centre,  and 
finally  comes  to  the  conclusion  that  "  the  nebulosity  about 
the  star  is  not  of  a  starry  nature ''  (Phil.  Trans.,  vol.  Ixxxi. 

P-  73,  I79I)- 

Sir  John  Herschel,  in  his  valuable  memoir  published  in 
Phil,  Trans.,  1833,  describes  them  as  "hollow  shells" 
(p.  500).  It  was  so  difficult  to  explain  anything  like  their 
appearance  by  ordinary  ideas  of  stellar  condensation  that 


Arago,  as  quoted  by  Nichol  ("Architecture  of  the 
Heavens,"  p.  86),  abandoning  altogether  the  idea  that 
they  represented  clusters  of  stars  or  partook  in  any  wise 
of  a  stellar  constitution,  imagined  them  as  hollow  spheri- 
cal envelopes,  in  substance  cloudy  and  opaque,  or  rather 
semi-transparent;  a  brilliant  body  invisible  in  the  centre 
illuminating  this  spherical  film,  so  that  it  was  made  visible; 
by  virtue  of  light  coming  through  it  and  scattered  by  re- 
flection from  its  atoms  or  molecules.  The  mystery  was 
explained  to  a  certain  extent  by  Lord  Rosse,  who  (Phil. 
Trans.,  1850,  vol.  cxl.  p.  507)  states  that  nearly  all  the 
planetary  nebute  which  he  had  observed  with  his  colossal 
instruments  up  to  that  time  had  been  found  to  be  per- 
forated. In  only  one  case  was  a  perforation  not  detected, 
but  in  this  ans£e  were  observed,  introducing  into  the 
subject  for  the  first  time  the  idea  of  nebulous  bodies 
resembling  to  a  certain  extent  the  planet  Saturn.  But 
Lord  Rosse,  although  he  thus  disposed  of  the  idea  of 
Arago,  still  considered  that  the  annular  nebulas  were  really 
hollow  shells,  the  perforation  indicating  an  apparently 
transparent  centre. 

Huggins  and   Miller  subsequently  suggested  that  the 
phenomena  represented  by  the  planetary  nebulae  might 


Fig.  I.— Suggested  origin  of  the  appearance  presented  by  a  planetary  nebula.  The  luminosity  is  due  to  the  collisions  occurring  along  the  sphere  cf 
intersection  of  the  elliptic  orbits  of  the  meteorites.  The  left-hand  diagram  is  a  cross-section  of  the  meteoric  system,  and  the  right-hand  one  shows 
the  appearance  of  the  collision  shell  as  seen  from  a  poin:  outside. 


be  explained  without  reference  to  the  supposition  of  a 
shell  (or  of  a  flat  disk)  if  we  consider  them  to  be  masses 
of  glowing  gas,  the  whole  mass  of  the  gas  being  incand- 
escent, so  that  only  a  luminous  surface  would  be  visible 
(Phil.  Trans.,  vol.  cliv.  p.  442,  1864). 

It  will  be  seen  that  all  these  hypotheses  are  mutually 
destructive  ;  but  it  is  right  that  I  should  state,  in  referring 
to  the  last  one,  that  the  demonstration  that  these  bodies 
are  not  masses  of  glowing  gas  merely  has  been  rendered 
possible  by  observations  of  spectra  which  were  not 
available  to  Messrs.  Huggins  and  Miller  when  their  im- 
portant discovery  of  the  bright-line  spectrum  of  nebulae 
was  given  to  the  world. 

It  remains,  then,  to  see  whether  the  meteoritic  hypo- 
thesis can  explain  these  appearances  when  it  is  acknow- 
ledged that  all  the  prior  ones  have  broken  down. 
Let  us  for  the  sake  of  the  greatest  simplicity  consider  a 
swarm  of  meteorites  at  rest,  and  then  assume  that  others 
from  without  approach  it  from  all  directions,  their 
previous  paths  being  deflected.  There  will  be  at  some 
distance  from  the  centre  of  the  swarm  a  region  in  which 
collisions  will  be  most  valid.  Meteorites  arrested  here 
•will  begin  to  move  in  almost  circular  orbits  round  the 
common  centre  of  gravity.  


The  major  axes  of  these  orbits  may  be  assumed  to  be 
not  very  diverse,  and  we  may  further  assume  that,  to 
begin  with,  one  set  will  preponderate  over  the  rest.  Their 
elliptic  paths  may  throw  the  periastron  passage  to  a  con- 
siderable distance  from  the  common  centre  of  gravity ; 
and  if  we  assume  that  the  meteorites  with  this  common 
mean  distance  are  moving  in  all  planes,  and  that  some 
are  direct  and  some  retrograde,  there  will  be  a  shell  in 
which  more  collisions  will  take  place  than  elsewhere. 
Now,  this  collision  surface  will  be  practically  the  only 
thing  visible,  and  will  present  to  us  the  exact  and 
hitherto  unexplained  appearatice  of  a  planetary  fiebula — 
a  body  of  the  same  intensity  of  luminosity  at  its  edge 
and  centre — thus  putting  on  an  almost  phosphorescent 
appearance. 

Such  a  collision  surface,  as  I  use  the  term,  is  presented 
to  us  during  a  meteoric  display  by  the  upper  part  of  our 
atmosphere. 

I  append  a  diagram,  Fig.  i,  which  shows  how,  if 
we  thus  assume  movement  round  a  common  centre  of 
gravity  in  a  mass  of  meteorites,  one  of  the  conditions  of 
movement  being  that  the  periastron  distance  shall  be 
somewhat  considerable,  the  mechanism  which  produces 
the  appearance  of  a  planetary  nebula  is  at  once  made 


April  19,  1888] 


NATURE 


$S7 


apparent.  The  diagram  shows  the  appearance  on  the  sup- 
position that  the  conditions  of  all  the  orbits  with  reference 
to  the  major  axis  shall  be  nearly  identical,  but  the  appear- 
ances would  not  be  very  greatly  altered  if  we  take  the  more 
probable  case  in  which  there  will  be  plus  and  minus  values. 

Globular  'Nebulce  showing    Condensations  until  finally 
a  Nebulous  Star  is  reached. 
If  we  grant  the  initial   condition  of  t'le  formation  of 
a'coUision-shell,  we  can  not  only  explain  the  appearances 


put  on  by  plnnetary  nebulae,  but  a  continuation  of  the 
same  line  of  thouglit  readily  explains  those  various  other 
classes  to  which  Herschel  has  referred,  in  which  con- 
densations are  brought  about,  either  by  a  gradual  con- 
densation towards  the  centre,  or  by  what  may  be  termed 
successive  jumps,  showing  that  they  are  among  the  earliest 
stages  of  nebular  development. 

To  explain  these  forms  we  have  only  to  consider  what 
will  happen  to  the  meteorites  which  undergo  collision  in 
the  first  shell.     They  will  necessarily  start  in  new  orbits, 


Fig.  2.— Suggestion  as  to  the  ongm  of  a  globular  nebula  w  itb  a  bnghcer  central  portion.     A.s  in  the  former  case,  the  luminosity  of  the  fainter  portion  is  dne 
to  the  c  jUis'ons  which  occur  along  the  sphere  of  intersection  represented  by  the  la-ger  circle.   Aftir  collision  the  meteorites  will  travel  m  new  orbits, 
\i    and  there  will  be  an  additional  sphere  of  intei^sec   on,  rep  evented  by  ihe  smaller  circle.    Tne  left-han  1  diagram  is  a  cross-section,  and  the  right-hand 
one  represents  the  appearance  of  the  two  collision  shells  as  seen  from  a  point  outside. 


Fig.  3. — Suggestion  as  to  the  origin  of  a  nebulous  star.  The  orbits  of  the  inner  .set  of  meteorites  are  very  elliptic,  so  that  the  shell  of  intersection  appears 
almost  as  a  point.  As  in  the  previous  ca-sei,  the  left-hand  diagram  represents  the  miteoric  systems  in  section,  and  the  right-hand  one  the  appearance 
from  a  point  outside. 


and  it  is  suggested  that  an  interior  collision-shell  will  in 
this  way  be  formed, 

In  consequence  of  the  collisions  the  orbits  will  have  a 
tendency  to  get  more  and  more  elliptic,  while  the  peri- 
centric distance  will  at  the  same  time  be  reduced  ;  the 
swarm  will,  in  cor, sequence  of  this  action,  gradually 
brighten  towards  the  centre  through  collisions  being 
possible  nearer  the  centre,  and  ultimately  we  shall  have 
nebulae  with  a  distinct  nucleus^  the  nucleus  then  repre- 


senting the  locus  of  most  collisions.  This  brightness 
may  be  sudden  in  places,  or  quite  gradual,  according  to 
the  collision  conditions  in  each  swarm.  The  final  stage 
will  be  a  nebulous  star. 

Effects  of  Subsequent  Rotation. — Spheroidal  Nebulce. 

In  such  meteor-swarms  as  those  we  have  considered, 
it  must  be  that  rotation  is  sooner  or  late.-  s^t  up.  Other- 
wise it  would  be  impossible  to  account  for  the  spheroidal 


588 


NATURE 


{April  19,  1888 


nebulae  at  all.  I  am  aware  that  in  Newton's  opinion  the 
cause  of  this  rotation  was  not  mechanical,  but  the 
moment  we  assume  a  meteoric  origin  of  these  globular 
clusters  it  is  straining  the  facts  to  assume  that  the  in- 
take will  be  exactly  the  same  at  all  points,  and  the 
moment  the  bombardment  is  more  or  less  localized, 
rotation  must  follow  sooner  or  later.  Sir  William 
Herschel,  in  his  paper  of  181 1  (p.  319),  says:  "If 
we  consider  this  matter  in  a  general  light,  it  appears 
that  every  figure  which  is  not  already  globular  must 
have  eccentric  nebulous  matter,  which,  in  its  en- 
deavour to  come  to  the  centre,  will  either  dislodge 
some  nebulosity  which  is  already  deposited,  or  slide 
upon  it  sideways,  and  in  both  cases  produce  a  circular 
motion ;  so  that,  in  fact,  we  can  hardly  suppose  a  possible 
production  of  a  globular  form  without  a  subsequent 
revolution  of  nebulous  matter,  which  in  the  end  may 
settle  in  a  regular  rotation  about  some  fixed  axis." 

Given,  then,  a  globular  swarm  with  a  rotation  around 
an  axis,  we  have  to  discuss  the  phenomena  produced  by 
collisions  under  a  new  set  of  circumstances. 

Here  at  once  we  have  to  account  for  the  fact  that  the 
nearly  spherical  forms  are  very  short-lived,  for  they  are 
very  rare  ;  we  seem  to  jump,  as  it  were,  from  globes  to 
very  extended  spheroids. 

If  it  be  conceded  that  from  the  above  considerations 
we  are  justified  in  supposing  that  the  elliptic  and  other 
spheroidal  nebulae  really  represent  a  higher  stage  of  evo- 
lution than  those  presented  to  us  in  the  globular  form,  it 
is  clear  that  on  the  meteoritic  hypothesis  the  greater  part 
of  the  phenomena  will  represent  to  us  what  happens  to 
such  a  system  under  the  condition  of  a  continuous 
bombardment  of  meteorites  from  without. 

So  soon  as  we  have  a  minor  axis,  there  will  at  firet  be 
more  collisions  parallel  to  it ;  the  result  of  this  will  be  that 
the  equatorial  plane  will  be  intensified,  and  then,  later  on, 
if  we  conceive  the  system  as  a  very  extended  spheroid, 
it  is  obvious  that  meteorites  approaching  it  in  direc- 
tions parallel  to  its  minor  axis  will  now  have  fewer 
chances  of  collisions  than  those  which  approach  it,  from 
whatever  azimuth,  in  what  we  may  term  the  equatorial 
plane.  These  evidently,  at  all  events  if  they  enter  the 
system  in  any  quantity,  will  do  for  the  equatorial  plane 
exactly  what  their  fellows  were  supposed  to  do  for  the 
section  in  Fig.  i,  and  we  shall  have  on  the  general 
background  of  the  symmetrically  rotating  nebula,  which 
may  almost  be  invisible  in  consequence  of  its  constituent 
meteorites  all  travelling  the  same  way  and  with  nearly 
equal  velocities,  curves  indicating  the  regions  along  which 
the  entrance  of  the  new  swarm  is  interfering  with  the 
movements  of  the  old  one  ;  if  they  enter  in  excess  from 
any  direction,  we  shall  have  broken  rings  or  spirals. 

This  was  suggested  in  my  last  paper.  Various  rings 
will  indicate  the  regions  where  most  collisions  are  possible, 
and  the  absence  of  luminosity  in  the  centre  by  no  means 
demonstrates  the  absence  of  meteorites  there. 

Researches  by  Lord  Rosse  and  others  have  given  us 
forms  of  nebulae  which  may  be  termed  sigmoid  and 
Saturnine,  and  these  suggest  that  they  and  the  elliptical 
nebulas  themselves  are  really  produced  by  the  rotation 
of  what  was  at  first  a  globular  rotating  swarm  of  meteor- 
ites, and  that  in  these  later  revelations  we  pick  up  those 
forms  which  are  produced  by  the  continued  flattening  of 
the  sphere  into  a  spheroid  under  the  meteoric  con- 
ditions stated.  It  is  worthy  of  remark  that  all  the 
forms  taken  on  by  the  so-called  elliptic  nebulae  described 
by  the  two  Herschels,  and  by  the  spiral,  sigmoid,  and 
Saturnine  forms  which  have  been  added  to  them  by  the 
labours  of  Lord  Rosse  and  others,  are  recalled  in  the 
most .  striking  manner  by  the  ball  of  oil  in  Plateau's 
experiment,  when  rotations  of  different  velocities  are 
imparted  to  it.  It  is  my  intention  to  repeat  Plateau's 
experiments,  and  to  take  instantaneous  photographs  of 
the  various  phenomena  presented,  and  to  place  them  side 


by  side  with  the  drawings  of  nebulae,  of  which  they  are 
almost  the  exact  counterparts. 

The  Saturnine  form  may,  indeed,  in  some  cases  re- 
present either  the  first  or  last  stages  in  this  period  of  the 
evolutionary  process.  I  say  may  represent,  in  conse- 
quence of  the  extreme  difficulty  in  making  the  observa- 
tions, so  that  in  the  early  stages  a  spherical  nebula, 
beginning  to  change  into  a  spheroid,  may  have  its  real 
spheroidal  figure  cloaked  by  various  conditions  of 
illumination. 

The  true  Saturnine  form  must,  as  in  the  case  of  Saturn 
itself,  represent  one  of  the  latest  forms  in  the  meteor- 
swarm,  because,  if  it  be  not  continually  fed  from  without, 
collisions  must  sooner  or  later  bring  all  the  members  of 
the  swarm  to  the  centre  of  figure. 

Coinetic  Nebula. 

I  do  not  know  that  any  explanation  has,  so  far,  been 
suggested  as  to  the  origin  of  these  curious  forms,  which 
were  first  figured  by  Sir  William  Herschel,  and  of  which 
a  number  have  recently  been  observed  in  the  southern 
hemisphere  ("  Melbourne  Observations").  It  is  clear 
that  in  them  the  conditions  are  widely  different  from 
those  hitherto  considered  in  this  paper.  I  think  that  the 
meteoritic  hypothesis  satisfactorily  explains  them,  on  the 
supposition  that  we  have  either  a  very  condensed  swarm 
moving  at  a  very  high  velocity  through  a  sheet  of  meteor- 
ites at  rest,  or  the  swarm  at  rest  surrounded  by  a  sheet 
all  moving  in  the  same  direction.  It  is  a  question  of 
relative  velocity. 

If  we  consider  the  former  case,  it  is  clear  that  the 
collision  region  will  be  in  the  rear  of  the  swarm,  that  the 
collision  will  be  due  to  the  convergence  of  the  members 
of  the  sheet  due  to  the  gravity  of  the  swarm,  and  that 
the  collision  region  will  spread  out  hke  a  fan  behind  the 
swarm. 

The  angle  of  the  fan,  and  the  distance  to  which  the 
collisions  are  valid,  will  depend  upon  the  velocity  of  the 
condensed  swarm. 

Nebulous  Origin  of  some  Bodies  which  appear  as  Stars. 

From  this  point  of  view  it  is  also  possible  that  many 
stars,  instead  of  being  true  condensed  swarms  due  to  the 
nebulous  development  to  which  we  have  referred,  are 
simply  appearances  produced  by  the  intersection  of 
streams  of  meteorites.  They  are,  then,  simply  produced 
by  an  intensification  of  the  conditions  which  gave  rise  to 
the  brighter  appearances  recorded  by  Herschel  here  and 
there  in  his  diffused  nebulosities.  The  nebulous  append- 
ages sometimes  seen  in  connection  with  stars  strengthen 
this  view. 

II.  Stars  with  Bright  Lines  or  Flutings, 

I  pointed  out  in  my  last  paper  that  those  stars  in  the 
spectra  of  which  bright  lines  had  been  observed  were  in 
all  probability  the  first  result  of  nebulous  condensation, 
both  their  continuous  spectrum  and  that  of  the  surround- 
ing vapour  being  produced  by  a  slightly  higher  tempera- 
ture than  that  observed  in  nebula  in  which  similar 
though  not  identical  phenomena  are  observed. 

I  have  recently  continued  my  inquiries  on  this  point ; 
and  I  may  say  that  all  I  have  recently  learned  has 
confirmed  the  conclusions  I  drew  in  my  last  paper, 
while  many  of  the  difficulties  have  disappeared.  Be- 
fore I  refer  to  these  inquiries,  however,  it  is  necessary  to 
clear  the  ground  by  referring  to  the  old  view  regarding 
the  origin  of  bright  lines  in  stellar  spectra,  and  to  the 
question  of  hydrogen. 

Reference  to   the   Old    View   by  which   it  was  supposed 
some  of  the  Bright-line  Phenomena  might  be  accounted 
for. 
In  the  views  which,  some  years  ago,  were  advanced  by 

myself  and  others,  to  account  for  the  bright  lines  seen 


April  19,  1888] 


NATURE 


589 


in  some  of  the  "stars"  to  which  reference  has  been 
made,  the  analogy  on  which  they  were  based  was 
founded  on  solar  phenomena  ;  the  "  stars "  in  question 
being  supposed  to  be  represented  in  structure  by  our 
central  luminary.  The  main  constituent  of  the  solar 
atmosphere  outside  the  photosphere  is  hydrogen,  and  it 
was  precisely  this  substance  which  was  chiefly  revealed  by 
these  stellar  observations  and  in  the  Novas,  in  which  cases 
it  was  sometimes  predominant.  A  tremendous  develop- 
ment of  an  atmosphere  like  that  of  the  sun  seemed  to 
supply  the  explanation  of  the  phenomena. 

Acting  on  this  view  in  1878,1  I  attempted  to  catch  these 
chromospheric  lines  in  a  Lyrae,  abandoning  the  use  of  a 
cylindrical  lens  in  front  of  the  slit  with  this  object  in 
view. 

Further,  it  was  quite  clear  that  if  such  gigantic  supra- 
photospheric  atmospheres  existed,  their  bright  lines 
might  much  modify  their  real  absorption-spectra  ;  even 
"worlds  without  hydrogen"  might  be  thus  explained 
without  supposing  a  histts  7iatiira,  and  so  I  explained 
them. 

That  this  view  is  untenable,  as  I  now  believe,  and  that 
it  is  unnecessary,  will,  I  think,  be  seen  from  what  follows. 
A  long  series  of  newly  described  phenomena,  which 
are  absolutely  incomprehensible  while  it  is  applied  to 
them,  find,  1  think,  a  simple  and  sufficient  explanation. 
I  must  hold  that  the  view  is  untenable,  because  how  a 
body  constituted  in  any  way  like  the  sun  could  change 
its  magnitude  from  the  thirteenth  to  the  sixth  every 
year  or  so,  or  change  its  hydrogen  lines  from  bright  to 
dark  once  a  week,  passes  comprehension  ;  and  the  more 
closely  a  "  star "  resembles  the  sun  the  less  likely  are 
such  changes  to  happen.  Even  the  minor  evolutionary 
changes  are  inexplicable  on  this  hypothesis,  chiefly  be- 
cause in  a  completely  condensed  mass  the  temperature 
must  be  very  high  and  constant,  while  I  have  shown  that 
the  spectrocopic  phenomena  are  those  of  a  specially  low 
temperature  ;  and  I  may  now  add  that  many  of  the  ob- 
jects are  extremely  variable  in  the  quantity  and  quality 
of  the  light  they  emit. 

Another  cause  of  the  appearance  of  the  hydrogen  lines 
has  been  suggested  by  Mr.  Johnstone  Stoney  (Proc.  Roy. 
Soc,  vol.  xvii.  p.  54).  He  considers  it  due  to  the  clash- 
ing together  of  the  atmospheres  of  two  stars,  the  outer 
constituent  of  the  atmosphere — hydrogen — alone  being 
raised  by  the  friction  to  brilliant  incandescence. 

Another  objection  we  can  urge  against  the  old  view 
is  that  all  bodies  in  the  universe  cannot  be  finished 
suns  in  the  ordinary  sense,  and  that  it  leaves  out  of  ac- 
count all  possible  processes  of  manufacture,  not  only  of 
single  stars,  but  of  double  and  multiple  systems,  at  all 
stages  between  nebula  and  sun  ;  while  the  new  one,  by 
simply  changing  the  unit  from  the  star  to  each  individual 
constituent,  it  is  hardly  too  much  to  say,  explains  every- 
thing, though  it  is  perfectly  true  that  in  some  of  the 
steps  a  considerable  acquaintance  with  spectroscopic 
phenomena  is  necessary  to  realize  the  beauty  and  the 
stringency  of  the  solutions. 

'  ".  .  .  The  sun  which  we  see,  the  sun  vhich  sends  us  the  majority 
of  the  light  we  receive,  is  but  a  small  kernel  in  a  gigantic  nut,  so  that 
the  diameter  of  the  real  sun  may  be,  say,  two  million  miles.  Suppose 
then  that  s  me  stars  have  very  large  coronal  atmospheres  ;  if  the  area  of 
the  coronal  atmosphere  is  small  compared  with  the  area  of  the  section  of  the 
true  disk  of  the  .sun,  ofcour.se  we  shall  get  an  ordinary  spectrum  of  the  star  ; 
that  is  to  say,  we  shall  pet  the  indications  of  absorption  which  make  us  class 
the  stars  apart  ;  we  shall  get  a  continuous  spectrum  barred  by  dark  lines. 
ISiit  suppose  that  'he  area  of  the  coronal  atmosphere  is  something  very  con- 
siderable indeed,  let  us  .assume  that  it  has  an  area,  say  fifty  times  greater 
than  the  section  of  the  kernel  of  the  star  itself;  now,  although  each  unit  of 
surface  of  that  coronal  atmosphere  may  be  much  less  luminous  than  an  equal 
unit  of  surface  of  the  true  star  at  the  centre,  yet,  if  the  area  be  very  large, 
the  spectroscopic  writing  of  that  large  area  will  become  visible  side  by  side 
with  the  dark  lines  due  to  the  brilliant  reg'on  in  the  centre  where  we  can 
study  absorption  ;  other  lines  (bright  ones)  proceeding  from  the  exterior 
portion  of  that  star  will  be  visible  in  the  spectrum  of  the  apparent  point  we 
call  a  star.  Now  it  is  difficult  to  say  whether  such  a  body  as  that  is  a  star  or 
a  nebula.  We  may  look  upon  it  as  a  nebula  in  a  certain  staga  of  conden- 
sation ;  we  may  look  upon  it  as  a  star  at  a  certain  stage  of  growth." — Proc, 
R.S.  1878,  No.  185,  p.  49. 


The  Question  of  Hydrogen  in  the  Case  of  Bright-Line 
Stars. 

It  may  be  convenient  also  that  I  should  summarize  the 
various  conditions  under  which  the  lines  of  hydrogen  are 
observed  in  the  meteorite  swarms  we  are  now  considering. 

In  the  "nebul?e"  we  begin  with  the  widest  interspaces. 
Future  investigation  may  show  that,  as  I  have  suggested, 
those  in  which  the  hydrogen  lines  are  absent  are  the  most 
widely  spaced  of  all.  Be  this  as  it  may,  it  is  a  matter  of 
common  knowledge  that  with  the  brighter  nebulae,  such 
as  that  of  Orion,  to  take  an  instance,  we  have  hydrogen 
associated  with  the  low-temperature  radiation  of  olivine. 
That  the  hydrogen  is  electrically  excited  to  produce  this 
glow  is  proved  by  the  fact  that  the  temperature  of  the 
meteorites  themselves  must  be  very  low  ;  otherwise  the 
magnesium  would  not  show  itself  without  the  manganese 
and  iron  constituents,  and  the  continuous  spectrum  would 
be  much  brighter  and  longer  than  it  is. 

In  the  former  paper  I  showed  that  in  my  laboratory 
experiments,  when  the  pressure  was  slightly  increased  in 
a  tube  containing  gases  obtained  from  meteorites,  the 
carbon  bands  began  to  be  visible.  We  should  expect  this 
to  happen  therefore  in  a  meteor  swarm  at  some  point  at 
which  the  mean  interstitial  space  was  smaller  than  that  ac- 
companied by  the  appearance  of  the  hydrogen  lines  ;  and  it 
would  be  natural  that  both  should  be  seen  together  at  an 
early  stage  and  both  feeble,  by  which  I  mean  not  strongly 
developed,  as  hydrogen  is  not  strongly  developed  even 
in  the  nebula  of  Orion,  none  of  the  ultra-violet  lines  being 
visible  in  a  photograph,  while  the  magnesium  line  is. 

The  association  of  the  lov/-temperature  lines  of  hydro- 
gen with  the  flutings  of  carbon  is  therefore  to  be  expected, 
and  I  shall  subsequently  show  that  we  have  such  an  asso- 
ciation in  the  so-called  bright-line  stars ;  and  even  at  a 
further  stage  of  development,  in  stars  like  a  Orionis,  the 
hydrogen  is  still  associated  with  the  carbon. 

The  Cometic  Nature  of  Stars  with  Bright  Lines  in  their 
Spectra. 

Seeing  that  the  hypothesis  I  am  working  on  demands 
that  the  luminosity  in  stars  and  the  bright  lines  in  their 
spectra  are  produced  by  the  collisions  of  meteorites,  the 
spectra  of  those  bodies  must  in  part  resemble  those  of 
comets,  in  which  bodies  by  common  consent  the  luminosity 
is  now  acknowledged  to  be  produced  by  collisions  of 
meteorites. 

We  must,  however,  first  consider  the  vast  difference  in 
the  way  in  which  the  phenomena  of  distant  and  near 
meteoric  groups  are  necessarily  presented  to  us  ;  and, 
further,  we  must  bear  in  mind  that  in  the  case  of  comets, 
however  it  may  arise,  there  is  an  action  which  drives  the 
vapours  produced  by  impacts  outward  from  the  swarm  in 
a  direction  opposite  to  that  of  the  sun. 

It  must  be  a  very  small  comet  which,  when  examined 
spectroscopically  in  the  usual  manner,  does  not  in  con- 
sequence of  the  size  of  the  image  on  the  slit  enable  us  to 
differentiate  between  the  spectra  of  the  nucleus  and 
envelopes.  The  spectrum  of  the  latter  is  usually  so 
obvious,  and  the  importance  of  observing  it  so  great, 
that  the  details  of  the  continuous  spectrum  of  the  nucleus, 
however  bright  it  may  be,  are  almost  overlooked. 

A  moment's  consideration,  however,  will  show  that  if 
the  same  comet  were  so  far  away  that  its  whole  image 
would  be  reduced  to  a  point  on  the  slit-plate  of  the  instru- 
ment, the  differentiation  of  the  spectra  would  be  lost ;  we 
should  have  an  integrated  spectrum  in  which  the  brightest 
edges  of  the  carbon  bands,  or  some  of  them,  would  or 
would  not  be  seen  superposed  on  a  continuous  spectrum. 

The  conditions  of  observations  of  comets  and  stars 
being  so  different,  any  comparison  is  really  very  difficult ; 
but  the  best  way  of  proceeding  is  to  begin  with  the 
spectrum  of  comets  in  which,  in  most  cases,  for  the  reason 
given,  the  phenomena  are  much  more  easily  and  accurately 
recorded. 


590 


NATURE 


[April  19,  1888 


But  even  in  the  nucleus  of  a  comet  as  in  a  star  it  is 
niucli  more  easy  to  be  certain  of  the  existence  of  bright 
lines  than  to  record  their  exact  positions/  and  as  a  matter 
oif  JFact  bright  lines  have  been  recorded,  notably  in  Comet 
Wells  and  in  the  great  comet  of  1882. 

The  main  conclusion  to  which  my  researches  have  led 
me  is  that  the  stars  now  under  consideration  are  almost 
identical  in  constitution  with  comets  between  that  con- 
dition in  which,  as  in  those  of  1866  and  1867,  they  give 
VIS  the  absolute  spectrum  of  a  nebula  and  that  put  on  by 
the  great  comet  of  1882. 

I  am  aware  that  this  conclusion  is  a  startling  one,  but  a 
little  consideration  will  show  its  high  probability,  and  a 
summary  of  all  the  facts  proves  it,  I  think,  beyond  all 
question. 

While  we  have  bright  lines  in  comets,  it  can  be 
shown  that  some  of  them  are  the  remnants  of  flutings. 
Thus  in  Comet  III.  of  1881,  as  the  carbon  lines  died 
away  the  chief  manganese  fluting  at  558  became  con- 
spicuously visible  ;  it  had  really  been  recorded  before 
then.  The  individual  observations  are  being  mapped  in 
order  that  the  exact  facts  may  be  shown.  It  may 
probably  be  asked  how  it  happened  that  the  fluting  of 
magnesium  at  500  was  not  also  visible.  Its  absence, 
however,  can  be  accounted  for  :  it  was  masked  by  the 
brightest  carbon  fluting  at  517,  whereas  the  carbon 
fluting  which  under  other  circumstances  might  mask  the 
manganese  fluting  at  558  is  always  among  the  last  to 
appear  very  bright  and  the  first  to  disappear. 

In  the  great  comet  of  i832,  which  was  most  carefully 
mapped  by  Copeland,  very  many  lines  were  seen,  and 
indeed  many  were  recorded,  and  it  looks  as  if  a  complete 
study  of  this  map  will  put  us  in  possession  of  many  of 
the  lines  recorded  by  Sherman  in  the  spectrum  of  y 
Cassiopeiae.  We  have  then  three  marked  species  of  non- 
revolving  swarms  going  on  all  fours  with  three  marked 
species  of  revolving  ones,  and  in  this  we  have  an  ad- 
ditional argument  for  the  fact  that  the  absence  in  the 
former  of  certain  flutings  which  we  should  expect  to 
find  may  have  their  absence  attributed  to  masking  by 
the  carbon  flutings. 

We  have  next,  then,  to  show  that  there  are  carbon 
bands  in  the  bright-line  stars. 

There  is  evidence  of  this.  Among  the  bright  lines 
recorded  is  the  brightest  carbon  fluting  at  517.  This  is 
associated  with  those  lines  of  magnesium  and  manganese 
aad  iron  visible  at  a  low  temperature  which  have  been 
seen  in  comets. 

But  we  have  still  more  evidence  of  the  existence  of 
carbon.  In  a  whole  group  of  bright-line  stars  there  is  a 
bright  band  recorded  at  about  470,  while,  less  refrangible 
than  it,  there  appears  a  broad  absorption  band.  I  regard  it 
as  extremely  probable  that  we  have  here  the  bright  carbon 
band  467-474,  and  that  the  appearance  of  an  absorption 
band  is  due  to  the  fact  that  the  continuous  spectrum  of 
the  meteorites  extends  only  a  short  distance  into  the  blue. 

If  we  consider  such  a  body  as  Wells's  comet,  or  the 
great  comet  of  1882,  as  so  great  a  distance  from  us  that 
only  an  integrated  spectrum  would  reach  us,  in  these 
cases  the  spectrum  would  appear  to  extend  very  far,  and 
more  or  lesscontinuously,  into  the  blue  ;  but  this  appear- 
ance would  be  brought  about,  not  by  the  continuous 
spectra  of  the  meteorites  themselves,  but  by  the  addition  of 
the  hydrocarbon  fluting  at  431  to  the  other  hot  and  cold 
carbon  bands  in  that  part  of  the  spectrum. 

There  are  other  grounds  which  may  be  brought  forward 
to  demonstrate  that  the  difference  between  comets  and 
the  stars  now  under  discussion  is  more  instrumental  than 
physical. 

Supposing  that  the  cometic  nature  of  these  bodies  be 

^  "  Observations  of  Comet  III.,  1881,  June  25.— The  spectrum  of  the 
nucleus  is  continuous  ;  that  of  the  coma  shows  the  usual  bands.  With  a 
larrpw  ijit  there  are  indications  of  many  lines  just  beyond  the  verge  of  dis- 
tinct'visibility." — Copeland,  Copernicus,  vol.  ii.  p.  226. 


conceded,  the  laboratory  work  will  show  us  which  flutings 
aijd  lines  will  be  added  to  the  nebula  spectrum  upon  each 
rise  of  temperature  ;  and  the  discussion,  so  far  as  it  has 
gone,  seems  to  show  that  such  lines  and  flutings  have 
actually  been  observed. 

The  difficulties  of  the  stellar  observations  must  always 
be  borne  in  mind.  It  will  also  be  abundantly  clear  that 
a  bright  fluting  added  to  a  continuous  spectrum  may 
produce  the  idea  of  a  bright  line  at  the  sharpest  edge 
to  one  observer,  while  to  another  the  same  edge  will 
appear  to  be  preceded  by  an  absorption  band. 

III.  Stars  with  Bright  Flutings  accompanied  by 
Dark  Flutings. 

I  also  showed  in  the  paper  to  which  reference  has 
been  made  that  the  so-called  "stars"  of  Class  \\\,a 
of  Vogel's  classification  are  not  masses  of  vapour  like  our 
sun,  but  really  swarms  of  meteorites  ;  the  spectrum  being 
a  compound  one,  due  to  the  radiation  of  vapour  in  the 
interspaces  and  the  absorption  of  the  light  of  the  red- 
or  white-hot  meteorites  by  vapours  volatilized  out  of  them 
by  the  heat  produced  by  collisions.  The  radiation  is  that 
of  carbon  vapour,  and  some  of  the  absorption,  I  stated, 
was  produced  by  the  chief  flutings  of  manganese. 

These  conclusions  were  arrived  at  by  comparing  the 
wave-lengths  of  the  details  of  spectra  recorded  in  my 
former  paper  with  those  of  the  bands  given  by  Duner  in 
his  admirable  observations  on  these  bodies.^ 

The  discovery  of  the  cometic  nature  of  the  bright-line 
stars  greatly  strengthens  the  view  I  then  put  forward,  not 
only  with  regard  to  the  presence  of  the  bright  flutings  of 
carbon,  but  with  regard  to  the  actual  chemical  substances 
driven  into  vapour.  From  the  planetary  nebulae  there  is 
an  undoubted  orderly  sequence  of  phenomena  through 
the  bright-line  stars  to  those  now  under  consideration, 
if  successive  stages  of  condensation  are  conceded. 

I  shall  return  to  these  bodies  at  a  later  part  of  this 
memoir. 

IV.  Stars  in  which  Absorption  Phenomena 
predominate. 

I  do  not  suppose  that  there  will  be  any  difficulty  in 
recognizing,  that  if  the  nebula;,  stars  with  bright  lines, 
and  stars  of  the  present  Class  \\\.a  are  constituted  as  I 
state  them,  all  the  bodies  more  closely  resembling  the  sun 
in  structure,  as  well  as  those  more  cooled  down,  must 
find  places  on  a  temperature  curve  pretty  much  as  I  have 
placed  them  ;  the  origin  of  these  groups  being,  first  still 
further  condensation,  then  the  condition  of  maximum 
temperature,  and  then  the  formation  of  a  photosphere 
and  crust. 

We  shall  be  in  a  better  position  to  discuss  these  later 
stages  when  the  classifications  hitherto  adopted  have  been 
considered. 

{To  be  continued.) 


THE  HfTTITES,  WITH  SPECIAL  REFERENCE 
TO  VER  V  RECENT  DISCO  VERIESr 

IV. 

THOSE  who  have  attempted  to  decipher  the  Hittite 
inscriptions  have  not  always  regarded  a  fact  which 
may  be  discerned  with  tolerable  facility.  The  inscrip- 
tions from  Hamath,  and  those  from  Jerablus  or  Car- 
chemish,  though  no  doubt  deriving  their  origin  from  a 
common  source,  yet  present,  as  we  know  them,  two  dis- 
tinct types.  Symbols  usual  and  frequently  repeated  on 
the  Jerablus  monuments  are  wholly  absent  from  those  of 

'■  "Les  Etoiles  a  spectres  de  la  troisieme  classe,"^A'(?«^/.  Svenska  Vitens- 
kaps-Akadetniens  Handlingar,  Bandei  21,  No.  2,  1885. 

^  Based  on  Lectures  delivered  by  Mr.  Thomas  Tyler  at  the  British  Museum 
in  January  188  3.     Continued  from  p.  562. 


^/riiyg,  1^^ 


NATURli 


5^1 


Hamath.  Other  symbols,  not  difficult  to  identify  as 
essentially  the  same,  yet  assume  a  form  more  or  less 
changed.  The  difference  is  altogether  so  considerable 
that  in  ancient  times  the  ability  to  read  and  fully  under- 
stand the  one  type  may  quite  possibly  not  have  involved 
a  facility  of  perfectly  comprehending  the  other.  The 
difference  might  be  spoken  of  as  one  of  dialect,  if  that  word 
could  be,  in  this  case,  appropriately  employed.  Then,  so 
far  as  the  more  considerable  monuments  in  the  Museum 
from  Jerabliis  or  Carchemish  are  concerned,  there  is  clearly 
between  them  a  difference  in  age,  and  the  difference  may 
possibly  be  very  great.  As  evidence  in  support  of  this  asser- 
tion, I  mayadduce  a  symbol  which  was  intended  apparently 
to  denote  an  agricultural  implement.  When  this  symbol 
was  given  as  in  Fig.  M  (i),  though  probably  drawn  out  of 
perspective  and  perhaps  already  somewhat  conven- 
tionalized, yet  its  relation  to  the  actual  object  would 
seem  to  have  been  not  very  distant.  But  when  the 
symbol  has  become  changed  in  the  manner  that  appears 


m 


Fig.   M. — Symbols  of  agricultural  implements  :    i   and  2,  from   Jerablus 
monuments;  3,  from  incised  bowl. 

in  (2),  there  is  no  difficulty  in  recognizing  that  a  con- 
siderable interval  must  have  elapsed.  In  (3),  on  an 
incised  bowl,  at  present  deposited  in  the  British  Museum, 
the  same  symbol  has  assumed  something  of  a  hieratic 
form.  Though  the  bowl  was  found  at  the  site  of  Babylon, 
the  inscription  cut  into  it  obviously  belongs  to  the  Car- 
chemish type.  Possibly  the  bowl  had  been  brought  from 
Carchemish  as  a  trophy. 

It  is  conceivable  that  (i)  might  denote  a  kind  of 
harrow,  but  more  probably  the  vertical  portion  repre- 
sents the  end  of  a  threshing-sledge,  with  teeth  of  stone 
or  iron  projecting  therefrom.  It  appears  to  me  very 
doubtful  whether  this  symbol  (which  is  not  found  on  the 
inscriptions  from  Hamath)  is  ever  used  with  any  direct 
reference  to  agricultural  operations.  It  is  rather  to  be 
understood  figuratively  of  severity  in  warfare  and  of  the 
devastation  of  an  enemy's  country.  This  is  in  accord- 
ance with  the  usage  of  the  Biblical  books,  which,  on 
account  of  local  contiguity,  have,  in  relation  to  the 
Hittite  inscriptions,  peculiar  importance.  Thus  we  find, 
in  Amos  i.  3,  "  For  three  transgressions  of  Damascus, 
and  for  four,  I  will  not  turn  away  [the  punishment] 
thereof;  because  they  have  threshed  Gilead  with  thresh- 
ing-instruments of  iron";  and  there  are  other  similar 
passages.  Moreover,  such  metaphorical  or  figurative 
employment  of  material  symbols  is  in  accordance 
with  what  we  know  of  the  use  of  picture-writing  by 
the  American  Indims.  I  ought,  perhaps,  to  add  that 
on  the  Carchemish  inscriptions  the  threshing-sledge  is 
usually  accompanied  by  what  is  probably  the  representa- 
tion of  the  more  essential  parts  of  a  plough  somewhat 
conventionalized.     Between  the  pole  (or  handle)  and  the 


Fig.  N. — Probable  symbol  of  plough. 

share  or  tooth,  wedges  would  seem  to  have  been  inserted 
to  keep  the  tooth  firm  in  its  place.  By  an  easy  metonymy 
a  plough  would  denote  land  tilled  and  cultivated.  Fig.  N 
gives  this  symbol  as  accompanying  Fig.  M  (2). 

The    difficulty    of  explaining    the   characters    of   the 


ttittrte  inscriptions  may  result  in  part  from  the  objects 
originally  depicted  being  such  as  are  no  longer  known  to 
us.  But  probably  a  much  more  serious  cause  of  difficulty 
is  to  be  found  in  conventionalization  and  the  changes 
made  to  facilitate  rapid  execution.  And  we  must  take  into 
account,  in  addition,  the  necessity  which  would  arise  in 
some  cases  for  the  lateral  compression  of  the  representa- 
tion, if  I  may  so  speak,  in  order  that  the  symbol  miglft 
be  conveniently  given  in  the  same  line  and  in  asso- 
ciation with  other  symbols.  This  last  remark  applies 
particularly  to  a  symbol  which,  there  is  strong  reason  to 
believe,  represents  the  shadoof,  or  instrument  for  raising 
water,  still  used  in  the  East.  It  would  have  been  incon- 
venient to  represent  at  full  length  the  lever  at  top,  with  a 
weight  at  one  end,  and  a  bucket,  suspended  by  a  cord  or 


^ 


Fig.  O. — Shadoof  %ym\>o\,  from  Jerablfls  inscriptions. 

chain,  from  the  other.  Consequently  we  have  the  instru- 
ment represented  with  modification,  and  with  the  lever 
shortened.  Here  again  in  all  probability  the  symbol  is 
used  for  the  most  part  figuratively,  and  not  in  general 
with  reference  to  the  raising  of  water  or  the  irrigation  of 
land.  People  familiar  with  the  swinging  up  and  down 
of  the  lever,  and  of  bringing  up  the  bucket  of  water, 
might  use  the  symbol  of  "  raising  "  in  a  wider  sense,  or 
generally  of  active  and  efficient  operation.  It  is  probably 
with  this  latter  meaning  that  it  is  employed  in  three  out 
of  the  five  Hamath  inscriptions,  and  in  a  combination  of 
symbols  which  is  exceedingly  interesting  and  instructive. 
Two  of  the  three  are  represented  in  Fig.  P.  As  to  the 
general  subject,  the  presence  of  the  hand  grasping  war- 
like weapons  can  scarcely  leave  a  doubt  ;  and  in  accord- 
ance with  this  indication  is  the  spear-head,  however 
ornamented,  at  the  other  end  of  the  figure.  The  two 
triangular-topped  symbols  between,  probably  denote 
actual   conflict.      The   idea  represented   conventionally 


Fig.  p. — Groups  of  symbols  ending  two  Hamath  inscriptions. 

may  be  that  of  a  mass  of  warriors  who  have  closed 
together  in  deadly  combat,  or  a  mass  of  spears  seer* 
together.  Under  the  first  of  these  triangular-topped 
figures  is  a  symbol  which  has  been  supposed  to  repre- 
sent an  insect.  The  two  symbols  together  may  be  taken 
as  meaning  "  war  commencing."  In  the  second  place,  wc 
have  a  combination  with  the  shadoof,  and  we  may  interpiffet. 


592 


NATURE 


{April  If),  1888 


"war  in  active  operation."  In  the  third  combination 
the  change  in  both  the  symbols  is  to  be  noted.  That  at 
the  top  may  refer  to  a  custom  of  enwreathing  or  adorning 
the  arms  of  warriors  to  denote  success  in  war,  and  to 
celebrate  victory  ;  and  the  change  in  the  shadoof  cor- 
responds therewith.  In  (i)  the  vertical  bar  is  doubled,  and 
two  short  horizontal  bars  are  added  beneath  ;  in  (2)  we 
may  take  it  that  the  same  end  is  attained  by  lengthening 
the  vertical  bar,  while,  as  before,  the  two  short  horizontal 
bars  are  added,  and  the  ornamentation  of  the  spear  is 
lengthened.  This  third  combination  manifestly  marks 
the  climax  ;  but  it  can  only  indicate  this,  if,  in  accordance 
with  what  I  have  already  said,  the  inscriptions  are  to  be 
read  "  with  the  faces."  And  very  important  additional 
evidence  is  also  furnished  by  these  groups  as  to  the 
ideographic  character  of  the  inscriptions. 

That  a  comparatively  primitive  people,  employing  the 
shadoof,  the  plough,  and  the  threshing-sledge,  should 
use  figures  of  these  instruments  to  represent  ideas  more 
or  less  abstract  can  scarcely  excite  surprise.  Probably, 
too,  a  paucity  of  symbols  might  lead  to  those  employed 
being  used  to  denote  a  plurality  of  somewhat  diverse 
significations. 

A  symbol,  with  regard  to  the  meaning  of  which  the 
evidence  is  especially  clear,  is  the  symbol  of  deity  or 
divinity  on  the  Jerablus  monuments.  This  symbol  con- 
sists of  a  straight  stroke  and  a  crescent,  denoting  in  all 
probability  Asherah,  "  the    straight,"   and  the    goddess 


Fig.  Q. — The  symbol  of  deity,  with  various  figures  on  Jerablus  monuments. 

Ashtoreth.  Such  a  combination  would  accord  with  the 
close  relation  between  Asherah  and  Ashtoreth  in  the  Old 
Testament.^  But,  whether  this  explanation  is  admitted 
or  not,  that  the  symbol  denotes  deity  or  sacredness  can 
scarcely  admit  of  question.  In  the  first  place  the  symbol 
occurs  invariably  at  the  top  of  the  line  on  the  J  erablus 
monuments.  This  fact  is  itself  significant.  Then,  three 
times  on  the  "  doorway  inscription  "  what  are  evidently 
hands,  though  somewhat  conventionalized,  are  held  up 
towards  the  symbol  in  worship,  as  with  the  palm  upward 
(i),  according  to  the  widely-spread  custom,  and  also,  as  it 
would  seem,  in  giving  thanks  (Fig.  T).  The  symbol  is  to 
be  seen  also  above  a  sacred  tree  (3),  and  above  a  rudely- 
shaped  idol  (2),  from  a  fragment  found  at  Jerablus.  This 
idol  may  have  been  a  lusus  fiaturce,  presenting  a  distant 
resemblance  to  the  human  face,  and  but  slightly  modified 
by  art.  And  on  the  rounded  pillar  from  Jerablus,  which 
bears  the  most  modern,  comparatively,  of  the  three  con- 
siderable inscriptions  obtained  from  this  site,  we  find  the 
same  symbol  over  very  curious  figures  which,  as  it  seems 
to  me,  were  intended  to  represent  spiritual  beings  or  dis- 
embodied souls  (4).  They  are  insubstantial  tlbuKa,  mere 
masks  as  it  would  appear,  and  with  tail-like  prolonga- 

^  Asherah  was  probably  a  phallic  symbol.  This  accords  with  the  view 
of  Movers  ("  Die  Phonizier,"  vol.  i.  p.  560  sgg.),  and  with  that  of  the 
Rabbins  (cf.  I.  Kings  xv.  13,  and  the  commentaries  thereon). 


tions  instead  of  bodies.  They  are  horned,  however,  and 
the  horn  was  a  sign  of  dignity  and  power.  On  the  whole, 
the  evidence  of  the  value  of  the  straight  stroke  and 
crescent  is,  in  my  judgment,  entirely  conclusive.  I  ought 
to  add  that  this  symbol  is  not  found  on  the  inscriptions 
from  Hamath ;  and  thus  in  all  probability  is  indicated  a 
difference  of  religious  cult.^ 

An  interesting  question  presents  itself  as  to  whether 
the  names  of  Hamath  and  Carchemish  can  be  detected 
on  the  inscriptions.  In  reply  it  may  be  stated  that  the 
name  or  symbol  of  the  ancient  city  on  the  site  of  Jerabliis 
may  be  pointed  out  with  a  good  deal  of  confidence. 


Fig.  R  — Name  of  ancient  city  on  Jerablus  monument. 

The  oval  symbol,  which  appears  at  the  top  in  Fig.  R,  in 
its  origin  was  intended,  no  doubt,  as  a  plan  of  a  city.  A 
similar  oval  form,  both  of  the  military  camp  and  of  the 
city  (Layard's  "  Monuments  of  Nineveh,"  pi.  yj),  is  to  be 
seen  depicted  on  the  Assyrian  monuments.  And,  with 
regard  to  the  Hittite  symbol,  it  is  also  worthy  of  note  that 
not  only  on  the  Egyptian  monuments  is  there  an  analo- 
gous circular  symbol  of  "  city  "  or ''  place,"  but  that  a  similar 
symbol,  with  the  like  meaning,  was  found  in  Mexico,  both 
of  circular  form,  and,  as  it  would  seem,  also  oval.  For 
the  latter  see  Brasseur  de  Bourgbourg,  "Etudes  sur  le 
Syst&me  graphique  et  la  Langue  des  Mayas,"  Paris,  1869, 
vol.  i.  p.  1 50.  From  the  Assyrian  monuments  it  appears 
that  fortresses  were  not  uncommonly  of  angular  and 
quadrilateral  form.  I  therefore  take  the  lozenge-shaped 
figure  to  denote  the  idea  of  "  fortress."  Like  the  "  city  " 
symbol  it  has  what  we  may  regard  as  a  road  or  street 
crossing  it ;  and  it  has  markings  indicating,  in  all  prob- 
ability, gates,  at  the  other  corners.  Then,  as  to  the  eagle, 
a  question  of  great  interest,  if  of  some  difficulty,  presents 
itself.  The  ancient  city  on  the  site  of  Jerablus  we  have 
identified  with  Carchemish.  As  already  stated,  the  name 
Carchemish  has  been  looked  upon  as  denoting  "the 
fortress  of  Chemosh."  The  question  then  occurs.  If  the 
lozenge-shaped  figure  denotes  "  fortress,"  does  the  eagle 
denote  Chemosh  .''  Whatever  may  be  the  etymology  of 
"  Chemosh,"  it  is  sufficiently  probable  that  Chemosh  was, 
like  Baal  and  Moloch,  a  solar  deity.  This,  indeed,  has 
been  previously  suggested.  And  the  sun  might  very  well 
be  represented  by  the  eagle,  the  bird  of  the  sun.  More- 
over such  a  view  is  not  purely  hypothetical.  As  is  well 
known,  in  ancient  Egypt,  Horus,  the  god  of  the  rising 
sun,  was  represented  by  the  hawk.  Then  there  is  reason 
to  think  that,  in  connection  with  the  solar  cult,  the  eagle 
was  worshipped  or  regarded  as  a  sacred  bird  at  places 
in  or  near  the  Hittite  country,  and  not  very  far  distant 
from  Carchemish. 

Looking,  then,  upon  the  eagle  and  upon  the  second 
part  of  the  name  "  Car-chemish"  as  both  representing 
Chemosh,  there  remains  no  difficulty  about  the  first  part 
of  the  name,  as  we  find,  in  Assyrian,  cam,  a  fortress — 
a  word  found  also,  with  comparatively  slight  modification, 
in  Hebrew  {ktr). 

'  There  is  another  sign,  |L,  which,  though  less  frequent,  yet  appears  as  if 
a  variant  of  the  sign  of  deity  usual  in  inscriptions  of  the  Jerablus  type.  This 
sign  somewhat  puzzled  me  till,  on  the  coinage  of  Mallus,  in  Cilii.ia,  I  found 
the  right  angle  together  with  the  straight  stroke,  or  asherah,  the  equilateral 
triangle,  and  the  cone.  All  these  were,  no  doubt,  connected  with  the  goddess 
Astarte,  to  whose  service  Mallus  seems  to  have  been  especially  devoted.  It 
is,  in  all  probability,  this  deity  who  appears  in  winged  form  on  the  obverse  of 
the  coin,  which  Mr.  Barclay  V.  Head,  the  eminent  numismatist,  assigns  to  a 
date  e.^rlier  than  400  B.C.  I  ought  to  add  that  the  sign  with  the  right  angle, 
which  probably  denotes  a  different  aspect  or  function  of  the  goddess,  occurs 
apparently  in  the  Hamath  inscriptions 


April  19.  1888] 


NATURE 


593 


With  regard  to  Hamath,  though  the  evidence  is 
weaker,  yet  probably  the  city  is  indicated  by  a  symbol 
consisting  of  the  vase  or  receptacle  ^Fig.  S,  i),  with  the 
oval  character  "  city  "  above  and  the  feminine  sign  below. 
The  word  "  Hamath "  comes  very  near  to  one  used  in 
Hebrew  for  a  bottle  or  bulging  receptacle. 


Fig.  S. — Symbols  on   "doorway  inscription  "  from  Jerablus  :    i,  vase  or 
receptacle  ;  2,  hand  seizing  vegetation. 

The  receptacle  in  the  figure,  having  three  vertical 
marks,  and  one  or  two  horizontal  marks,  is  a  common 
symbol  on  the  Jerablus  monuments.  Probably,  as  in  the 
bag  previously  spoken  of  (and  see  Fig.  T),  the  three 
vertical  marks  denote  objects  within  the  receptacle ; 
we  may  suppose,  pieces  of  metal  used  as  uncoined 
money.  It  seems  most  likely,  however,  that  the  difference 
in  external  shape  of  the  receptacles  indicates  a  difference 
in  the  nature  and  value  of  the  contents.  The  symbol  of 
seizing  vegetation  is  another  example  of  the  use  of  ideograph 
or  picture-writing  in  these  inscriptions.  That  the  thing 
seized  is  a  plant  or  herb  is  sufficiently  obvious.  And  from 
the  accompanying  symbols  there  is  reason  to  think  that 
one  of  the  food-producing  cereals,  when  ripe,  is  intended. 

Treated  in  accordance  with  the  principles  which  have 
guided  us,  and  the  conclusions  previously  expressed,  the 
group  of  symbols  concluding  the  "  doorway  inscription  " 
in  the  British  Museum  will  be  found  to  yield  probable  and 
consistent  results.  Beginning  from  the  reader's  left,  we 
have  a  symbol  which,  probably  deriving  its  origin  from  the 
chase,  bears  some  resemblance  to  the  leg  of  an  animal 
repeated,  but  inverted.  The  inverted  position  would 
appropriately  represent  the   total   defeat   of  an  enemy, 


Fig.  T.— End  of  "doorway  inscription"  from  Jerablus,  in  the  British 
Museum. 

while  the  repetition  or  doubling  may  be  regarded  as  im- 
plying plurahty,  and  perhaps  flight.  Then  follow  symbols 
denoting  probably  repeated  thanksgivings  to  the  gods 
(notice  the  doubling  of  the  sign  of  deity).  Next  comes 
the  bag  of  treasure  with  the  hand  beneath  pointing 
towards  the  king.  Under  the  king's  head  is  a  hand  in  the 
attitude  of  acceptance.  Here  is  essentially  what  we  find 
on  the  Yuzgat  seal,  but  the  object  being  accepted  is  not 
identical  with  the  bag  behind  the  king.  Perhaps  it 
denotes  the  tribute  the  payment  of  which  was  imposed 
on  the  conquered  people.^  Then  follows  the  shadoof 
symbol,  which  here  may  well  imply  the  vigorous  prosecu- 
tion of  agriculture  on  the  restoration  of  peace.  At  the 
end  is  the  plant  with  four  strokes  above  it,  which  may  be 
regarded  as  signifying  that  the  earth  brought  forth 
abundantly,  or  fourfold.''  But  whether  the  interpretation 
I  have  thus  given  is  accepted  or  not,  the  ideographic 
character  of  the  group  is  altogether  unmistakable. 

Allusion  was  previously  made  to  the  name  "  Zu-zu," 
or  "  Su-su  "  (see  p.  539,  note)  as  possibly  occurring  on  the 
shortest  (excepting  mere  fragments)  of  the  inscriptions 

'  Having  regard  to  the  shape  of  the  symbol,  one  may  be  reminded  per- 
haps of  the  wool  which  was  included  in  the  tribute  paid  by  Mesha  of  Moab 
to  the  king  of  Israel  (II.  Kings  iii.  4). 

*  Cf.  Amos  i.  3  seq. ,  and  the  Biblical  use  of ''  f jur  "  and  "fourfold." 


from  Jerablus  in  the  Museum.  In  the  first  line  of  the 
inscription  is  the  most  important  of  the  places  where  the 
name  would  be  thus  read  in  accordance  with  the  con- 
clusions arrived  at  with  regard  to  the  Tarkutimme 
inscription.  In  the  group  there  are  two  smaller  cones 
and  one  larger,  all  crossed  by  horizontal  lines.  The  two 
smaller  cones  will  represent,  as  on  the  Tarkutimme 
inscription,  a  people  or  nation.  This  coincidence  with 
the  Tarkutimme  inscription  may  give  credibility  to  the 
supposition  of  still  further  agreement.  The  animal's 
head  resting  on  the  double  cone  will  denote  the  name  of 
the  people.  The  taller  cone  would  probably  denote  a 
king  or  possibly  kings,  crossed  as  it  is  by  horizontal 
lines.  A  curve  passes  from  the  top  down  near  the  side 
of  the  taller  cone,  and  above  are  the  two  strokes  repeated 
and  placed  at  an  angle,  which  would  be  read  "  Zu-zu  "  or 


Fig.  U. — Group  of  symbols  from  Jer.iblus  monument  in  the  British  Museum. 

"  Su-su."  Connected  with  the  curve  is  an  appendage 
passing  to  the  head  of  an  animal.  Across  this  appendage 
(and  the  curve  also  after  the  two  have  become  united) 
pass  horizontal  lines,  probably  lines  of  plurality.  The 
animal's  head,  with  the  appendage,  may  give  the  name  of 
a  royal  dynasty  or  possibly  of  a  subordinate  people.^  But 
the  chief  interest  attaches  to  the  larger  animal's  head.  In 
accordance  with  what  was  before  said,  we  may  regard  it 
as  tolerably  certain  that  the  name  of  the  people  is  re- 
peated. If  "  Zu-zu"  is  the  correct  reading  of  the  strokes 
above  the  tall  cone,  the  name  of  the  animal  whose  head 
rests  upon  the  double  cone  ought  to  be  essentially  the 
same.  To  solve  the  problem,  if  we  are  to  be  consistent, 
we  must  have  recourse  to  the  Semitic  dialects,  and 
preferably  to  Hebrew.  Here  we  find  a  rare  word,  zis 
(from  a  root  zuz  or  zi'z),  used  of  an  animal  browsing 
sometimes  on  the  vine  (Psalm  Ixxx.  13,  A.V.).  It  would 
be  difficult  to  determine  what  particular  species  of  animal 
is  intended  either  in  the  Psalm  or  on  the  inscription ; 
but  it  would  seem  not  unsuitable  to  suppose  that  young 
wild  cattle  are  intended  in  both.  It  will  be  in  accord- 
ance with  what  has  been  said  to  identify  "Zu-zu"  with 
the  Zuzim  described  in  Genesis  xiv.  5,  as  dwelling  in  the 
country  east  of  the  Jordan.  And  indeed,  from  an  ancient 
city  on  the  site  of  Jerablus,  a  hostile  raid  on  Bashan, 
Gilead,  and  the  adjacent  country  was  likely  enough  to  be 
undertaken.  Assyriological  research  has  tended  to  show 
that  Chedorlaomer  and  some  other  names  in  Genesis 
xiv.  are  genuine.  It  would  not  be  very  wonderful  if  the 
Hittite  monuments  should  show  that  this  is  the  case  also 
with  the  name  Zuzim.-' 

The  results  in  decipherment  thus  set  forth  are,  it  may 
be  said,  but  scanty  and  imperfect,  and,  in  some  cases, 
as  based  on  slight  evidence,  may  be  liable  to  fall  away 
when  a  wider  induction  is  attainable.  But  "  all  science," 
it  has' been  said,  "is  provisional";  and  in  relation  to 
such  a  subject  as  that  with  which  these  articles  are 
concerned,  it  may  be  sufficient  if  we  should  succeed  in 
setting  forth  just  principles,  and  in  making  even  a  slight 
extension  of  the  boundaries  of  knowledge. 
( To  be  continued^ 

'  It  has  been  suggested  that  the  smaller  animal's  head  is  that  of  a  gazelle. 
If  so,  in  the  plural,  the  name  would  be  in  Hebrew  "  Tsebaim  "  or  "  Zeboum," 
a  name  found  in  Genesis  xiv.  2,  but  possibly  this  would  only  be  a  cunous 
coincidence.  _  ,       ,  r     u-  u   t  u 

3  The  city  indicated  on  this  monument,  for  the  name  ot  which  1  have 
suggested  "  Bamoth-elah"  (ante,  p.  539),  may  possibly  be  identical,  judging 
from  the  ideograph,  with  Bamoth-in-the-valley  of  Numbers  xxi.  20. 


594 


NATURE 


[April  19, 


ASA  GRAY. 

THE  following,  as  yet  unpublished,  words,  almost  the 
last  spoken  publicly  by  Asa  Gray,  have  a  pathetic 
interest  for  all  those  who  knew  and  loved  him.  They 
were  uttered  in  the  Free  Trade  Hall,  at  Manchester,  at 
the  opening  meeting  of  the  British  Association  in  August 
last,  in  seconding  the  vote  of  thanks  to  Sir  Henry  Roscoe 
for  his  address  : — 

"  For  the  very  great  honour  of  being  called  upon  to 
second  the  motion  for  a  vote  of  thanks  to  your  illustrious 
President,  I  am  mainly  indebted  to  that  deference  which 
is  naturally  accorded  to  advancing  years,  a  deference 
Avhich  sometimes— as  in  the  present  case — takes  one 
unawares. 

'  In  looking  back  over  the  list  of  Corresponding  Members 
of  the  British  Association,  I  find  myself,  much  to  my 
surprise,  nearly,  if  not  quite,  the  oldest  survivor. 

"  I  recognize,  therefore,  a  certain  fitness,  on  this  score, 
in  the  call  upon  me  to  be  the  spokesman  of  those,  your 
brethren  from  other  lands,  who  have  been  invited  to  this 
auspicious  gathering,  and  to  the  privilege  of  listening  to 
the  very  thoughtful,  well-timed,  and  most  instructive 
address  of  your  President. 

"  As  guests,  we  desire,  Mr.  Mayor,  heartily  to  thank  the 
city  of  Manchester  and  the  officers  of  the  Association 
for  inviting  us  ;  we  wish  to  thank  you,  Sir  Henry,  for  the 
gratification  your  address  has  afforded  us. 

"  Convened  at  Manchester,  and  coming  myself  by  way 
of  Liverpool,  I  would  say  personally  that  there  are  two 
names  which  memory  calls  up  from  the  distant  past  with 
unusual  distinctness  ;  both  names  familiar  to  this  audience 
and  well  known  over  the  world,  but  which  now  rise  to  my 
mind  in  a  very  significant  way.  For  I  am  old  enough  to 
have  taken  my  earliest  lessons  in  chemistry  just  at  the 
time  when  the  atomic  theory  of  Dalton  was  propounded, 
and  was  taught  in  the  text-books  as  the  latest  new  thing 
in  science. 

"Some  years  earlier,  Washington  Irving  in  his  "Sketch- 
book "  had  hallowed  to  our  youthful  minds  the  name  of 
Roscoe,  making  it  the  type  of  all  that  was  liberal,  wise,  and 
gracious.  And  when  I  came  to  know  something  of 
botany  I  found  that  this  exemplar,  as  well  as  patron,  of 
good  learning  had,  by  his  illustrations  of  Monandrian 
plants,  taken  rank  among  the  Patres  Conscripti  of  the 
botany  of  that  day. 

"  The  name  so  highly  honoured  then  we  now  honour  in 
the  grandson.  And  I  am  confident  that  I  express  the 
sentiments  of  your  foreign  guests,  whom  I  represent, 
when  I  simply  copy  the  words  of  your  President  in  1842, 
now  reproduced  in  the  opening  paragraph  of  the  address 
of  the  President  of  1887,  transferring,  as  we  fitly  may, 
the  application  from  the  earlier  to  the  later  Manchester 
chemist  :  '  Manchester  is  still  the  residence  of  one  whose 
name  is  uttered  with  respect  wherever  science  is  culti- 
vated, who  is  here  to-night  to  enjoy  the  honours  due  to  a 
long  career  of  persevering  devotion  to  knowledge.' 

"  I  cannot  continue  the  quotation  without  material 
change.  '  That  increase  of  years  to  him  has  been  but 
increase  of  wisdom '  may  indeed  be  said  of  Roscoe  no 
less  than  of  Dalton  ;  but  we  are  happy  to  know  that  we 
are  now  contemplating  not  the  diminished  strength  of  the 
close,  but  the  manly  vigour  of  the  mid-course,  of  a  dis- 
tinguished career.  Long  and  prosperously  may  it  grow 
from  strength  to  strength. 

"  In  general,  praise  of  the  address  which  we  have  had 
the  pleasure  of  hearing  would  not  be  particularly  becoming 
from  one  whose  chemistry  nearly  ended  as  well  as  began 
with  the  simple  atomic  theory  of  Dalton.  But  there  is 
one  topic  which  I  may  properly  speak  of,  standing  as  I 
do  as  a  representative  of  those  favoured  individuals  whom 
your  programme— for  lack  of  a  better  distinguishing  word 
—calls  foreigners.  I  refer  to  the  urgently  expressed 
*  hope  that  this  meeting  may  be  the  commencement  of  an 


international  scientific  organization.'  For  this  we  thank 
you,  Mr.  President,  most  heartily.  This  is,  indeed,  a  con- 
summation devoutly  to  be  wished,  and  confidently  to  be 
hoped  for,  by  all  of  us,  especially  by  those  for  whom  I  am 
speaking.  Not  only  we  Americans,  who  are  of  British 
descent,  and  who  never  forget  that  blood  is  thicker  than 
water,  but  as  well  our  Continental  associates  on  this  plat- 
form, of  the  various  strains  of  blood  which  interfused  have 
produced  this  English  race  and  fitted  it  for  its  noble 
issues— we,  each  and  all,  I  repeat,  accept  this  name  of 
foreigners  only  in  the  conventional  sense  which  the  im- 
perfection of  language  imposes.  In  the  forum  of  science 
we  ignore  it  altogether.  One  purpose  unifies  and 
animates  every  scientific  mind  with  'one  divine  intent,' 
and  that  by  no  means  the  '  far-off  intent '  of  which  the 
poet  sings,  but  one  very  near  and  pervading.  So  we  took 
to  heart  the  closing  words  of  your  President's  most 
pertinent  and  timely  address.  Indeed,  we  had  taken  them 
to  heart  in  anticipation.  And  we  have  come  to  this 
meeting  one  hundred  strong  or  more  (in  place  of  the 
ordinary  score)  fully  bent  upon  making  this  Manchester 
meeting  international. 

"  Far  back  in  my  youthful  days  there  was  a  strong- 
willed  President  of  the  United  States,  of  mihtary 
antecedents,  who  once  drew  up  and  promulgated  an 
official  order  which  somewhat  astounded  his  Cabinet 
officers.  '  Why,  Mr.  President  ! '  they  said,  '  you  can't 
do  that.'  '  Can't  do  it ! '  replied  General  Jackson,  *  don't 
you  see  that  I  have  done  it  ? '  And  so  we  internationals 
have  come  and  done  it.  I  am  the  unworthy  spokesman 
of  such  a  numerous,  and  such  a  distinguished  array  of 
scientific  foreigners  as  have  never  been  assembled  before. 

"  Next  year,  if  you  will,  you  shall  have  as  many  more. 
When  you,  too,  are  ready  to  cross  the  Channel  or  the 
North  Sea,  we  shall  compose  only  a  larger  scientific 
brotherhood.  And  when  you  cross  again  the  Atlantic,  the 
brotherhood  of  science  will  be  the  more  increased,  and 
its  usefulness  in  proportion. 

"  In  behalf  of  your  foreign  guests,  I  heartily  second  the 
motion." 


NOTES. 
Fifteen  years  have  passed  since  the  Marshall  Hall  Fund 
was  instituted  with  the  twofold  purpose  of  commemorating  the 
late  Dr.  Marshall  Hall,  and  for  the  encouragement  of  research 
in  that  branch  of  natural  science  which  he  did  so  much  to  de- 
velop. The  Trust  provides  "that  a  prize  shall  be  given  every 
fifth  year  for  the  best  original  work  done  and  recorded  in  the 
English  language  during  the  previous  quinquennium,  in  physio- 
logical or  pathological  researches  relating  to  the  nervous  system, 
and  that  the  prize  shall  consist  of  the  simple  interest  derived 
during  the  preceding  five  years  from  the  amount  of  the  capital 
fund."  The  first  award  was  made  to  Dr.  Hughlings  Jackson, 
the  second  to  Dr.  Ferrier,  and  this  year  the  Council  of  the 
Royal  Medical  and  Chirurgical  Society,  in  whose  hands  the 
Fund  was  placed,  have  awarded  the  prize  to  Dr.  Walter  Hol- 
brook  Gaskell,  F.  R.  S, ,  Lecturer  in  Advanced  Physiology  in 
the  University  of  Camln-id^e.  The  Council  have  invited  Dr. 
Gaskell  to  give  some  account  of  his  work  before  the  Society, 
and  a  special  meeting  will  be  convened  for  this  purpose. 

Mr.  Matthew  Arnold,  the  tidings  of  whose  death  excited 
universal  regret,  did  admirable  service  to  the  cause  of  education 
in  England.  No  writer  of  his  time  pressed  more  earnestly  on 
the  attention  of  the  public  the  need  of  thorough  educational 
reform,  and  in  his  full  and  lucid  Report  on  the  Universities  and 
secondary  schools  of  the  Continent  he  showed  how  far,  in  almost 
all  matters  relating  to  this  essential  element  of  the  national 
life,  we  had  allowed  ourselves  to  be  outstripped  by  some  of  mir 
neighbours  and  rivals.     Although,   of  course,   convinced   that 


April  19,  ia88] 


NATURE 


595 


classical  studies  must  be  maintained  in  our  schools  and 
Universities,  and  personally  interested  chiefly  in  this  aspect  of  the 
subject,  Mr.  Ainiold  frankly  recognized  the  great  place  that  must 
necessarily  belong  to  science  in  any  true  system  of  education. 

We  print  elsewhere  a  letter  from  Emin  Pasha.  Other  letters 
from  him  have  lately  appeared  in  the  Times  and  the  Scotsman. 
His  province  is  evidently  once  more  in  working  order,  and  Emin 
is  at  peace  with  his  neighbours.  The  letters  took  eight  months 
to  reach  this  country,  so  we  need  not  be  alarmed  by  the  fact  that  no 
word  has  come  of  Mr.  Stanley's  arrival.  Emin  tells  us  that  the 
country  through  «  hich  Mr.  Stanley  had  to  pass  is  of  the  most 
difticult  character,  full  of  swamps,  and  with  rivers  rendered  im- 
passable by  vegetation  ;  so  that  the  expedition  could  not  reach 
the  Albert  Nyanza  before  November. 

So  many  new  garden  plants  are  annually  described  in  various 
English  and  foreign  periodicals  that  some  are  apt  to  escape  the 
notice  of  botanists  and  horticulturists.  From  i860  to  1886  a 
list  was  regularly  published  in  the  Gardener's  Year-Book  and 
Almanac  ;  and  during  the  months  of  January  to  May  1887 
inclusive  \.\iQ  Journal  of  Horticulture  gave  the  names  of  plants  up 
to  October  1886.  No  later  list  has  appeared.  Now  it  has  been 
decided  that  a  list  shall  henceforth  be  given  as  one  of  the  regular 
issues  of  the  Kew  Bulletin  of  Miscellaneous  Information,  and 
the  first  of  the  promised  series  is  presented  in  the  April  number. 
It  includes  the  new  garden  plants  and  alterations  of  names 
recorded  between  October  i,  1886,  and  December  31,  1887.  To 
these  have  been  added  the  names  of  authors,  which  did  not 
appear  in  frmer  lists.  The  list  will  be  of  great  service  to 
horticulturists. 

On  April  8  a  beautiful  display  of  the  aurora  borealis  was 
observed  at  Throndtjem.  The  weather  was  fine,  and  there  was 
no  wind. 

On  March  12,  at  about  2  a.m,,  a  fjaint  shock  of  earthquake, 
accompanied  by  subterranean  rumbling,  was  felt  at  Drammen, 
in  Norway.     It  went  from  east  to  west. 

A  SEVERE  earthquake  occurred  at  Lintthal  (Canton  Glanis) 
on  April  2,  at  9.10  a.m.  At  Elm  the  oscillations  were  so  strong 
that  the  walls  of  the  houses  were  cracked. 

On  the  evening  of  Wednesday,  the  nth  inst.,  shocks  of  earth- 
quake were  felt  in  various  parts  of  North  Wales.  At  the  large 
Baptist  Chapel,  Llangollen,  while  service  was  proceeding,  a 
shock  was  distinctly  felt,  and  the  walls  and  ground  were  seen  to 
shake.  Shocks  were  also  experienced  at  many  of  the  residences 
in  the  valley,  where  the  crockery  and  windows  quivered  in  their 
places.  A  farmer  residing  at  the  Craig  said  his  farmstead  shook 
so  much  that  he  expected  it  to  fall.  The  shocks  were  also 
noticed  at  Corwen,  Bala,  and  Dolgelly, 

Some  months  ago  a  Conference  was  held  in  Manchester  with 
the  object  of  promoting  the  interests  of  the  silk  industries  of  the 
United  Kingdom.  Various  papers  were  read,  and  it  was 
ultimately  resolved  that  an  Association,  to  be  called  the  Silk 
Association  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland,  should  be  formed. 
The  objects  of  the  Association  are  to  promote  and  maintain  the 
silk  industry  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland  in  all  its  branches  ; 
to  encourage  the  production  of  raw  silk  in  India  and  our 
colonies  ;  to  collect  and  disseminate  amongst  its  members  use- 
ful information  and  statistics  connected  with  or  affecting  manu- 
facture and  commerce  in  silk  ;  and  to  promote  technical, 
commercial,  and  linguistic  education,  and  any  necessary  Parlia- 
mentary legislation  ;  and  generally  to  assist  in  the  expansion  and 
development  of  the  trade.  The  Association  was  "  inaugurated  " 
at  Manchester  on  March  22,  and  will  hold  a  general  meeting  in 
I^ondon  in  June. 


It  is  announced  from  Lyons  that  M.  de  Chardonnet  has 
succeeded  in  getting  by  chemical  processes  a  matter  having  all  the 
appearance  of  silk.  He  adds  to  an  etherized  solution  of  nitrated 
cellulose  (the  base  of  gun  cotton)  a  solution  of  perchloride  of 
iron,  and  to  this  mixture  a  little  of  a  solution  of  tannic  acid  in 
alcohol.  The  whole  is  poured,  after  filtration,  into  a  vertical 
reservoir  having  a  horizontal  sharp  nozzle  (with  fine  passage)  at 
its  base,  debouching  in  a  vessel  of  water  acidulated  with  nitric 
acid.  The  issuin,' fluid  vein  at  once  becomes  consistent,  and 
can  be  drawn  off  by  a  uniform  movement.  It  is  dried  by 
pas  age  through  a  dry  air  space,  and  then  wound.  It  is  of  gray 
or  black  aspect;  but  by  means  of  colouring  matter  put  in  the 
etherized  solution  the  colour  may  be  varied  «</ //V5.  It  is  further 
described  as  supple,  transparent,  cylindrical  or  flattened  ;  of  silky 
appearance  and  touch  ;  the  rupturing  weight  is  25  kilogrammes 
per  square  millimetre.  The  fibre  burns  without  the  flame  being 
propagated  ;  it  is  unattackable  by  acids  and  alkalies  of  mean  con- 
centration, by  cold  or  hot  water,  alcohol,  or  ether  ;  but  it  is 
dissolved  in  etherized  alcohol  and  acetic  ether. 

An  attempt  was  made  last  year  to  cultivate  the  cotton-tree  in 
European  Russia,  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Taganrog,  on  the 
Don.  We  learn  that  the  attempt  proved  successful,  the  tem- 
perature of  the  Lower  Don  being  not  inferior  to  that  of  the 
valleys  south  of  the  forty-first  degree  of  latitude,  where  the 
Cotton-tree  is  cultivated  in  Turkey. 

The  Board  of  Trade  Journal  for  April  contains  a  paper  in 
which  there  are  some  interesting  facts  about  sponge-fisheries.  It 
seems  that  an  industry  in  artificial  sponges  is  in  process  of 
creation.  M.  Oscar  Schmidt,  Professor  at  the  University  of 
Gratz,  in  Styi-ia,  has  invented  a  method  by  which  pieces  of  living 
sponge  are  broken  off  and  planted  in  a  favourable  spot.  From 
very  small  cuttings  of  this  kind,  Prof.  Schmidt  has  obtained 
large  sponges  in  the  course  of  three  years,  and  at  a  very  small 
expense.  One  of  his  experiments  gave  the  result  that  the  culti- 
vation of  4000  sponges  had  not  cost  more  than  225  francs, 
including  the  interest  for  three  years  on  the  capital  expended. 
The  Austro-Hungarian  Government  has  been  so  much  struck 
with  the  importance  of  these  experiments,  that  it  has  officially 
authorized  the  protection  of  this  new  industry  on  the  coast  of 
Dalmatia. 

According  to  Allen's  Indian  Mail,  arrangements  are  now 
being  made  by  the  Meteorological  Department  of  India  for  the 
prompt  publication  of  a  regular  series  of  cyclone  reports,  so  as 
to  admit  of  their  issue  from  two  to  three  months  after  the  date 
of  the  storm  to  which  they  refer.  Hitherto,  accounts  of  cyclones 
have  not  been  published  for  a  year  or  two  after  their  occurrence. 

The  American  Meteorological  yournal  for  March  contains  the 
first  of  a  series  of  articles  by  Mr.  A.  L.  Rotch  on  the  organiza- 
tion of  the  Meteorological  Services  of  Europe,  ba~ed  upon  a 
similar  series  by  Dr.  Hellmann,  about  ten  years  ago,  with  the 
addition  of  subsequent  changes.  The  first  country  dealt  with  is 
Germany.  Of  the  other  articles  maybe  specially  mentioned  one 
by  Mr.  W.  M,  Davis,  on  a  proposed  classification  of  the  winds, 
according  to  their  physical  causes  and  conditions.  The  cha- 
racteristics employed  are  :  (i)  the  source  of  energy  that  excites 
motion  (earth,  sun,  &c.)  ;  (2)  the  contrasted  temperatures 
(equator,  poles,  &c.);  (3)  the  period  of  occurrence;  (4)  the 
kind  of  wind  (cyclonic,  sea-breezes,  &c. ).  By  this  means, 
although  no  claim  to  novelty  is  made,  except  as  to  the  arrange- 
ment of  the  data,  the  author  proposes  to  bring  together  what  is 
known  into  a  convenient  shape,  and  so  to  separate  the  unsorted 
material  for  further  critical  examination.  Prof.  H.  A.  azen 
continues  the  controversy  between  Dr.  Hann  and  himself  as  to 
the  behaviour  of  pressure  and  tempei-ature  in  high  and  low 
barometric  areas,   at   elevated  stations  ;   his  theory  being  that 


596 


NATURE 


[April  19,  1888 


the  low  temperature  in  a  cyclone  at  a  mountain  station  is  due  to 
the  lagging  behind  of  the  minimum  pressure,  and  similarly  with 
respect  to  the  high  temperature  in  an  anticyclone. 

An  interesting  paper  is  contributed  to  the  April  number  of 
the  Journal  of  the  Chemical  Society  by  Mr.  Ward  Couldridge 
on  chlorophosphide  of  nitrogen.  This  peculiar  compound  was 
shown  some  years  ago  by  Dr.  Gladstone  to  be  represented  by 
the  empirical  formula  PNClj,  but  vapour-density  determinations 
revealed  the  curious  fact  that  in  the  gaseous  state  its  molecule 
really  possesses  the  constitution  PjNgClg.  Mr.  Couldridge  pre- 
pares it  by  a  method  somewhat  different  from  that  employed  by 
Dr.  Gladstone,  and  one  which  gives  a  better  yield,  Penta- 
chloride  of  phosphorus  is  heated  with  chloride  of  ammonium  in 
a  flask  connected  with  an  upright  condenser,  so  that  the  penta- 
chloride  volatilized  returns  to  the  seat  of  action  until  it  becomes 
completely  decomposed,  and  the  chlorophosphide,  which  would 
otherwise  be  carried  away  by  the  escaping  hydrochloric  acid, 
crystallizes  in  the  condenser.  The  whole  of  the  chlorophosphide 
is  subsequently  purified  by  distillation  in  steam.  The  reaction 
is  found  to  be  as  follows  :  3PCI5  -f  3NH3  =  PaNgClfi  +  9HCI. 
Chlorophosphide  of  nitrogen  thus  prepared  dissolves  readily  in 
ether,  chloroform,  or  carbon  bisulphide,  and  separates  on  eva- 
poration in  fine  rhombic  crystals,  which  have  a  most  remarkable 
aversion  to  water,  refusing  under  any  circumstances  to  be  wetted 
by  it.  When  fused  and  heated  above  its  boiling-point,  it  emits 
a  singular  odour.  It  has  the  proud  distinction  of  being  unattacked 
by  all  the  strong  acids,  hot  fuming  nitric  alone  being  capable  of 
making  any  impression  upon  it.  Mr.  Couldridge  finds  that 
when  dry  ammonia  gas  is  led  through  a  hot  tube  containing  the 
melted  chlorophosphide,  a  somewhat  violent  reaction  occurs 
resulting  in  the  formation  of  another  remarkable  compound 
known  as  phospham,  PgHjNg  or  P3N3(NH)3.  Not  only  does 
ammonia  behave  in  this  way,  but  all  substituted  ammonias,  sucli 
as  the  amines,  form  similar  compounds  ;  aniline,  for  instance, 
gives  a  white  solid,  readily  crystallizable  from  glacial  acetic  acid, 
of  the  composition  P3N3(NH  .  C6Hg)6.  Phospham  itself  is  both 
insoluble  in  water  and  infusible  at  a  red  heat,  but  fumes  in  con- 
tact with  air,  owing  to  slow  decomposition  and  oxidation.  One 
cannot  help  remarking  how  singular  it  is  that  the  introduction  of 
phosphorus,  itself  a  notable  combustible,  into  the  terribly  ex- 
plosive compound  of  chlorine  and  nitrogen,  should  result  in  the 
formation  of  a  substance  so  extremely  inert  as  the  chlorophos- 
phide ;  yet  such  are  the  vagaries  met  with  by  the  chemist. 

A  SECOND  edition  of  Prof.  C.  M.  Tidy's  "Hand-book  of 
Modern  Chemistry,  Inorganic  and  Organic,"  for  the  ustf  of 
students,  has  been  issued  by  Messrs.  Smith  and  Elder.  As 
regards  general  arrangement,  the  author  has  adhered  to  the  plan 
he  first  adopted.  He  especially  notes  that  in  writing  of  chemical 
compounds  he  has  at  times  not  hesitated  to  use  common  lan- 
guage. "If,"  he  says,  "I  have  used  the  word  'potash,'  and 
the  body  I  mean  to  imply  thereby  is  understood,  I  am  satisfied. 
I  confess  that  the  growing  necessity  for  having  a  translation  at 
one's  side  in  attempting  to  understand  the  modern  scientific 
paper,  is  in  my  opinion  a  circumstance  to  be  deplored.  Danger, 
moreover,  is  always  to  be  apprehended  when  a  language  has  to 
be  invented  to  support  a  theory  or  a  formula.  A  party  shibboleth 
has,  no  doubt,  a  charm  for  its  special  clique.  It  serves  as  a  bond 
of  union  for  the  initiated,  whilst  it  prevents  the  interference 
of  outsiders.  But,  all  the  same,  it  is  distracting  to  the  inde- 
pendent worker,  and  can  but  prove  a  hindrance  to  the  general 
cultivation  of  science." 

Messrs.  G.  Bell  and  Sons  will  shortly  publish  "The 
Building  of  the  British  Islands,"  a  study  in  geographical  evolu- 
tion, by  Mr.  A.  J.  Jukes-Browne.  The  author  tries  to  restore 
the  geography  of  the  British  region  at  successive  epochs  of  geo- 
logical time,  and  to  describe  the  gradual  formation  or  evolution 
of  the  British  Isles.     The  book  will  be  illustrated  by  maps. 


Messrs.  Roper  and  Drowley  will  publish  immediately 
"  Geology  for  All,"  by  Mr.  J.  Logan  Lobley,  Professor  of 
Physiography  at  the  City  of  London  College,  and  author  of 
several  volumes  on  geological  subjects. 

The  valedictory  address  delivered  by  Mr.  J.  W.  Taylor  as 
President  of  the  Conchological  Society  has  been  reprinted  from 
the  Jou7-nal  of  Conchology,  and  issued  separately.  Mr.  Taylor 
brings  together  some  interesting  observations  bearing  on  the 
variation  of  British  land  and  fresh-water  Mollusca. 

Mr.  Thomas  Wilson,  of  the  Smithsonian  Institution,  calls 
attention  in  \ht  Arne7-ican  Nahiralist  to  ihe  fact  that  the  import- 
ance of  the  subject  of  criminal  anthropology  has  not  hitherto 
been  so  thoroughly  appreciated  in  the  United  States  as  in  Europe. 
A  step  in  the  right  direction,  however,  has  been  taken  by  the 
New  York  Academy  of  Anthropology,  which  lately  held  a 
meeting  for  the  consideration  of  questions  connected  with 
criminal  anthropology.  These  questions  were  classed  under  two 
heads,  criminal  biology  and  criminal  sociology.  In  the  circular 
summoning  the  meeting  it  was  contended  that  the  true  way  of 
studying  crime  is  to  begin  with  the  study  of  the  criminal  him- 
self. "It  is  impossible,"  said  the  writer,  "to  evolve  the 
criminal  out  of  one's  inner  consciousness.  Knowledge  of  his 
peculiarities  is  essential  to  any  rational  treatment  of  bim,  and 
this  knowledge  can  only  be  gained  by  systematic,  intelligent  ob- 
servation of  his  physical  and  mental  habits,  supplemented  by  an 
exhaustive  analytical  comparison  of  the  facts  observed,  with  a 
view  to  their  right  classification  and  interpretation." 

The  Mitchell  Library,  Glasgow,  has  now  been  ten  years  in 
existence,  and  the  Committee,  in  the  Annual  Report  just  issued, 
express  the  belief  that  no  consulting  or  reference  library  has  ever 
made  so  much  progress  in  so  short  a  time.  Speaking  of  the 
character  of  the  reading,  they  say  that  it  continues  satisfactory, 
and  bears  evidence  of  a  desire  on  the  part  of  readers  to  seek 
solid  information  from  the  abundant  resources  at  their  disposal. 
Unfortunately,  the  Committee  have  to  report  that  during  1887 
twenty-one  books  were  stolen. 

The  Royal  Microscopical  Society  will  hold  a  conversazione 
on  Wednesday  evening,  the  25th  inst. 

An  Aeronautical  Exhibition  was  opened  at  the  Rotunde  in  the 
Prater  at  Vienna  on  April  i. 

The  additions  to  the  Zoological  Socie.y's  Gardens  during  the 
past  week  include  an  Arabian  Baboon  ( Cynocephalus  hamadryad 
9 )  from  Massowah,  presented  by  Mr.  D.  Wilson-Barker, 
R.N.R.,  F.Z.S.  ;  two  'Whke-necked  Crows  (Corvus  sca/>u/a/us), 
two  Spotted  Eagle-Owls  {Budo  capensis)  from  South  Africa, 
presented  by  Captain  Henry  F.  Hoste,  s.s.  Trojan  ;  a  Muscovy 
Duck  [Cairitia  moschata)  from  South  Africa,  presented  by  Mr. 
W.  Shuter  ;  four  Half-collared  Doves  {Turtur  semitorqiiatus) 
from  Africa,  presented  by  Mrs.  Wisely  ;  a  Slowworm  {Anguis 
fragiUs),  British,  presented  by  Mr.  F.  W.  Pilkington  ;  two 
Indian  Swine  {Sus  (ristatns  i,  6  )  from  India,  a  Greater  Vasa 
Parrot  {Coracopsis  vasa)  from  Madagascar,  a  Blue-eyed  Cockatoo 
[Cacahia  ophthalmica)  from  South  Australia,  aGofifin's  Cockatoo 
{Cacaiiia  goffini)  from  Queensland,  an  Asp  Viper  {Vipera  a^pis) 
from  Italy,  deposited  ;  four  European  Pond  Tortoises  {Emys 
eiiroptza),  European,  purchased ;  two  Collared  Fruit  Bat 
Cynonycieris collaris),  born  in  the  Gardens. 


OUR  ASTRONOMICAL  COLUMN. 

Harvard  College  Observatory. — The  most  interesting 
item  in  the  forty-second  Annual  Report  of  the  Director  of  the 
Harvard  College  Observatory  is  the  account  of  the  threefod 
accession  to  its  resources  which  it  has  received  during  the  past 


April  19,  1888] 


NATURE 


597 


year.  This  consisted  of  the  funds  provided  by  Mrs.  Henry 
Draper  for  carrying  on  the  photographic  study  of  stellar  spectra 
as  a  memorial  to  her  late  husband  ;  the  fund  left  by  the  late 
Uriah  A.  Boyden  for  the  establishment  of  a  mountain  Observa- 
tory ;  and  the  large  bequest  of  the  late  Robert  Treat  Paine. 
Prof.  Pickering  points  out,  however,  that  the  Observatory  still 
stands  in  need  of  further  endowment,  as  its  new  resources  are 
necessarily  largely  absorbed  in  those  new  lines  of  research  for 
which  they  were  specially  designed,  and  considerable  improve- 
ments are  required  in  the  principal  building  ;  and  he  adds  that  it 
is  probable  that  there  has  never  been  a  time  in  the  history  of  the 
institution  when  so  large  a  return  could  be  obtained  from  a  given 
expenditure  as  at  present.  The  most  striking  results  obtained 
during  the  year  have  been  those  secured  by  the  use  of  the  Henry 
Draper  Memorial  Fund  in  the  photographic  study  of  stellar 
spectra,  and  which  have  been  already  referred  to  in  these 
columns.  Under  the  Boyden  Fund  several  instruments  have 
been  devised  and  constructed  for  the  automatic  registration  of 
the  meteorological  conditions  and  general  fitness  for  observing 
of  sites  for  Observatories,  and  these  have  been  carefully  tested  at 
various  elevated  stations.  The  usual  observations  have  also  been 
kept  up,  including  the  observation  with  the  meridian  photo- 
meter of  the  magnitudes  of  stars  in  zones  at  intervals  of  5° 
in  the  region  covered  by  the  Southern  D.  M.  This  work  was 
about  half  finished,  and  would,  it  was  expected,  be  entirely 
completed  within  the  present  year.  The  east  equatorial  had 
been  used  in  the  observation  of  eclipses  of  Jupiter's  satellites 
and  of  comparison- stars  for  variables.  A  wedge  photometer, 
arranged  in  a  somewhat  modified  manner,  is  employed  with  this 
telescope,  and  is  to  be  used  in  the  investigation  of  the  phases  of 
asteroids  and  in  the  observation  of  zones  of  D.M,  stars.  The 
meridian  circle  is  to  be  engaged  in  the  observation  of  one  of  the 
zones  required  in  the  proposed  revision  of  the  Southern  D.M. 

Comet  1888  a  (Sawerthai,). — Dr.  L.  Becker  has  computed 
the  following  elements  and  ephemeris  from  observations  made 
on  Febrnarv  18  nt.the  Cape,  March  13  at  Palermo,  and  March  27 
at  Sauj..>iug.  From  the  outstanding  deviation  of  the  middle 
place  it  may  be  inferred  that  unless  there  be  some  considerable 
error  in  the  observations  the  true  orbit  will  prove  to  be 
elliptical, 

T  =  1888  March  16-96412  G.M.T. 


'^-  9>=    359  49  45"i 
ft  =    245  30  40*2 
J  =      42  17  47-4 
log^  =  9-844562 

Error  of  middle  place  (6>  -  C). 

Aa  cos  5  =   -  2-6is. 


Mean  Eq.  1 88o-o. 


A5  =  -f  7"-i. 


Ephemeris  for  Greenwich,  Midnight. 


i833 

April  20 
22 


R.A. 


Decl. 


May 


22  57  31  ...  20  22*7  N. 

23  2  48  ...  21  44-3 

23    7  58  ...  23    2-3 

23  13  3  ...  24  16-9 
28  ...  23  18  2  ...  25  28-3 
30  ...   23  22  55     ..   26  36-7 

2  ...  23  2741  ...  27  42-2  N. 


24  . 
26  . 


Log  A. 

Log  r. 

0-1517  . 

.   9-9912 

O-1681  . 

.  0-0143 

Bright- 
ness. 

...  03 
...  0-3 


0*1835  •••  o'0369  ...  02 
0-1980  ...  0-0588  ...  0-2: 


The  brightness  at  discovery  is  taken  as  unity. 


ASTRONOMICAL    PHENOMENA    FOR    THE 
WEEK  1888  APRIL  22-28. 

/T7OR  the  reckoning  of  time  the  civil  day,  commencing  at 
^  ■*•  Greenwich  mean  midnight,  counting  the  hours  on  to  24, 
is  here  employed. ) 

At  Greenwich  on  April  22 

Sun  rises,  4h.  50m.  ;  souths,  iih.  58m.  21 -is.  ;  sets,   I9h.  6m. 

right   asc.    on    meridian,    2h.    2 -2m.  ;   decl.    12°    26'    N. 

Sidereal  Time  at  Sunset,  gh.  iim. 
Moon    (Full    on    April    26,    6h.)   rises,    i4h.    3m.;    souths, 

2ih.    7m.;    sets,     3h.    56m.*:    right    asc.     on    meridiar, 

iih.  i2-3m.  ;  decl.  8°  39'  N.  : 


Planet. 


-Mercury. 
Venus  .. 
Mars 
Jupiter  .. 
Saturn  .., 
Uranus.. 
Neptune. 


Rises, 
h.  m. 

4  31 
4  21 
17  24 
21  56* 
10  7 
17  II 
6     I 


Souths, 
h.  m. 
10  52 
ID  40 

23      I 
2    10 

18    5 
22  49 

13  43 


Right  asc.  and  declination 
on  meridian, 
h.       m.  , 


Sets, 
h.   m. 

17   13   • 

16  59 

4  38». 

6  24  . 

2     3*. 

4  27». 
21  25  . 

*  Indicates  that  the  rising  is  that  of  the  preceding  evening  and  the  setting 
that  of  the  following  morning. 

Occultations  of  Stars  by  the  Moon  (visible  at  Greenwich). 

Corresponding 


o  55-3 
o  44-1 

13    70 

16  12-7 
8    95 

12  54'3 
3  47-6 


3  21  N. 

3     2N. 

5  12  S. 
20  8S. 
20  44  N. 

5  4S. 
18  18  N. 


April. 

22    .. 

25    •• 
28    .. 

April. 
24 

28 


Star. 


Mag. 


Disap. 


Reap. 


h.    m.  h. 

8     9    ••   19  32     ... 

4  19  near  approach 

5  46  ...     6  44     ... 


angles  from  ver- 
tex to  right  for 
inverted  image. 


90  173 
17  — 
96   316 


B.A.C.  3837  ...  6 
65  Virginis  ...  6 
X  Ophiuchi      ...  6 

h. 
...     22     ...     Mars  in  conjunction  with  and  3°  16'  south 
of  the  Moon. 
I     ...     Jupiter  in  conjunction  with  and  3°  26' south 
of  the  Moon. 


Variable  Stars. 


Star. 

U  Cephei  .. 

U  Virginis  .., 
V  Bootis 
5  Librae 

U  Coronae  .;, 

5  Coronse  ... 
U  Ophiuchi... 

6  Lyrse , 

U  Capricorni 
T  Vulpeculae 
5  Cephei 
S  Aquarii    ... 


R.A. 

h.      m. 

o  52-4  .. 
12  454  ... 
14   25-3  ... 

14  550  ... 

15  I3'6  ... 
15  16-8  ... 

17  10-9  ... 

18  460  ... 
20  41-9  ... 
20  46-7  .. 
22  25-0  ... 
22  51-1  ... 


Decl. 

81    16  N.  .. 

6  10  N.  .. 

39  22  N.  .. 

8    4S.  .. 

32  3  N.  .. 
31  46  N.  .. 

I  20  N.  .. 

33  14  N.  .. 
15  12  S.  .. 

27  50  N.  .. 

57  51  N.  .. 

20  56  S.  .. 


Apr, 


h. 
22,    3 
23. 
27, 

24,  22 
24,     I 

25. 

22,  o 
27,     I 

22,  3 
26, 

23.  2 
22,  21 
23. 


21   m 

ni 

M 

4  m 

14  m 

M 

38  m 

24  m 

oM 

M 

o  m 

O  tn 

M 


M  signifies  maximum  ;  tit  minimum. 


GEOGRAPHICAL  NOTES. 

The  death  is  announced  of  Nicholas  von  Miklucho-Maclay, 
at  the  age  of  forty-two  years.  M.  Maclay's  name  must  be 
familiar  to  our  readers  in  connection  with  New  Guinea  explora- 
tions. He  was  the  son  of  a  Russian  nobleman,  and  studied 
medicine  and  natural  science  at  St.  Petersburg  and  at  several 
Dutch  Universities.  In  1866  he  accompanied  Prof.  Haeckel  to 
Madeira ;  in  1867  he  visited  the  Canary  Islands,  and,  in  1869, 
Morocco.  He  then  made  preparations  for  an  extended  explora- 
tion among  the  Pacific  Islands,  and  especially  in  New  Guinea. 
He  went  by  South  America,  Tahiti,  and  Samoa  to  New  Guinea, 
and  remained  for  over  a  year,  1871-72,  on  its  north-west  coast, 
afterwards  exploring  the  south-west  coast  to  the  south  of  Geel- 
vink  Bay.  In  1874-75  ^^  visited  Further  India,  and  especially 
Malacca,  where  he  explored  several  districts  in  the  interior, 
and  obtained  important  results.  After  visiting  the  Pelew,  Ad- 
miralty, and  other  island  groups,  Maclay  again  went  to  New 
Guinea  (1876-78),  devoting  himself  to  the  north  coast,  where 
he  was  now  well  known,  and  was  on  friendly  terms  with  several 
Papuan  tribes.  Maclay  then  went  to  Singapore  and  Sydney  to 
restore  his  shattered  health,  but  was  in  New  Guinea  again  in 
1879,  afterwards  visiting  several  Pacific  islands  and  going  on  to 
Sydney  once  more.  He  returned  to  Russia  in  1882,  bringing 
with  him  rich  collections  in  ethnography  and  in  natural  history. 
M.  Maclay  afterwards  resided  for  some  time  in  Sydney,  where 
he  founded  a  biological  station.  He  recently  returned  to  Russia, 
and  at  the  time  of  his  death,  we  understand,  was  preparing  for 
publication  a  complete  account  of  his  many  years'  work.  At 
present  the  records  of  his  travels,  with  their  rich  anthropological 
results,  are  to  be  found  mainly  in  the  Proceedings  of  the  Batavia 
Society  and  the  Russian  Geographical  Society. 

We  also  learn  of  the  death  of  Herr  Anton  Stecker,  who  has 
done  some  good  exploring  work  in  Africa.  In  1878  he  accom- 
panied Rohlfs  to  Kufra,  and  in  i88o  he  went  out  at  the  expense 


598 


NATURE 


{April  19,  1888 


of  the  German  African  Society  to  Tripoli,  and  thence  by  Egypt 
and  Abyssinia  to  Galla  Land.  Herr  Stecker's  observations 
referred  largely  to  natural  history,  of  which  he  was  a  student. 

Lieut.  Wissmann,  the  African  traveller,  who  was  obliged  to 
spend  the  winter  at  Madeira  on  account  of  ill-health,  there  had 
an  opportunity  of  writing  the  report  of  his  second  journey  to 
Africa.  The  book  has  just  been  published  by  Brockhaus.  At 
present  Lieut.  Wissmann  is  engaged  on  an  account  of  his  first 
expedition  to  the  south  of  the  Congo  Basin,  in  company  with 
Dj 


Drs.  Friederich  Kurtz  and  Wii.helm  Bodenbender, 
both  Professors  at  the  Cordoba  University  (Argentine  Republic), 
have  started  on  a  scientific  expedition  to  the  East  Andes. 


FORESTRY  IN  THE  CAPE  COLONY. 

'T'HE  Report  of  Consul  Siler,  the  United  States  representative 
-•-  at  Cape  Colony,  which  has  been  just  issued,  contains  a  full 
account  of  the  present  state  of  forestry  in  that  country.  He  says 
that  of  the  214,000  square  miles  which  are  comprised  in  Cape 
Colony,  there  are  something  over  350  square  miles  covered  with 
large  forest  trees.  These  forests  lie  almost  all  together  near  the 
sea,  running  nearly  parallel  to  the  coast,  in  the  temperate  regions 
of  the  southern  mountain  chains.  Till  recent  years  the  system  of 
felling  pursued  was  a  most  wasteful  and  unsystematic  one.  Far 
from  confining  the  operations  of  the  woodcutters  to  certain 
limited  sections  or  areas,  the  authorities  permitted  them  to  roam 
about  at  pleasure,  and  to  pick  and  choose  from  among  the 
forests  what  trees  they  should  cut  dow-n.  This  license  had  its 
natural  effect :  only  the  choicest  trees  were  cut,  and  even  of 
these  only  selected  portions  were  taken  away,  the  rejected  parts 
being  left  to  cumber  the  ground.  It  has  been  estimated  by  those 
skilled  in  woodcraft  that  by  this  pernicious  system  30  cubic  feet 
of  wood  were  wasted  to  each  one  utilized  ;  and  thus  it  is  that 
many  forests  have  totally  disappeared,  and  even  those  that  were 
not  so  easily  accessible  have  been  sadly  impoverished.  Till  1880 
no  steps  were  taken  to  preserve  this  natural  wealth  that  was 
being  so  shamefully  abused.  In  that  year,  however,  the  question 
was  strongly  urged  on  the  attention  of  the  Colonial  Parliament. 
One  of  the  chief  defects  of  the  system  was  pointed  out — namely, 
the  total  absence  of  skilled  caretakers,  those  then  in  charge 
having  received  no  technical  education  whatever ;  and  to  meet 
this  in  some  measure  Parliament  at  once  voted  a  sum  of  money 
to  pay  a  trained  superintendent.  The  choice  fell  on  Count  de 
Vasselot,  who  had  had  wide  experience  in  French  forestry  at 
Nancy,  and  he  at  once  proceeded  to  lay  the  foundations  of  the 
present  forest  department  at  the  Cape.  One  of  his  fir^t  steps 
was  to  divide  the  forests  into  districts,  which  he  again  sub- 
divided into  sections,  and  to  direct  that  felling  should  proceed 
in  sections,  the  re-growth  of  the  first  section  being  given  time  to 
develop  into  mature  trees  before  the  axe  was  again  used  in  that 
section.  By  this  system  the  entire  shutting  up  of  any  forest  for 
a  time  is  done  away  with.  At  present  the  period  for  the 
"  revolution  "  of  fellings  is  fixed  at  forty  years.  The  tariffs  now 
vary  for  standing  timber  from  2  cents  to  6  cents  per  cubic  foot 
of  sound  wood  ;  with  the  exception  of  stinkwood  {Oreodaphne 
bullata),  which,  being  very  hard  and  very  valuable,  was  almost 
threatened  with  extermination,  for  which  the  price  is  24  cents 
per  cubic  foot.  Poles  from  6  inches  to  10  inches  in  diameter  are 
sold  at  the  rate  of  2  cents  per  running  foot ;  spars  from  4  inches 
to  6  inches  in  diameter  at  12  cents  per  100  running  feet. 

The  Consul  illustrates  the  general  system  of  managing  and 
preserving  the  forests  now  followed  in  the  colony  by  "a  minute 
description  of  that  used  in  Knysua,  the  most  extensive  and  most 
valuable  of  all  the  Cape  forests.  The  total  area  of  the  Knysua 
may  be  roughly  stated  to  be  100,000  acres,  and  of  this  magnifi- 
cent forest  almost  three-fourths  have  been  impoverished  and  in 
fact  exhausted  by  the  indiscriminate  and  reckless  system  of 
felling  pursued  in  the  past.  At  present  the  staff  to  conserve  and 
replant  this  forest  consists  of  one  conservator,  three  superior 
grade  officers,  and  six  rangers  or  guards.  Each  higher  grade 
officer  has  the  superintendence  of  a  tract  of  woodland  varying  in 
extent  from  10,000  to  30,000  acres,  in  which  he  surveys  the  large 
timber,  fixes  the  limits  of  the  blocks  or  series,  and  plans  out  the 
boundaries  of  the  various  sections.  No  works  are  sanctioned 
without  the  consent  of  the  Superintendent  of  Woods  and  Forests, 
and,  if  he  has  given  his  approval,  the  sections  are  surveyed  and 
the  trees  fit  for  felling  are  marked  with  an  official  stamp.     The 


duties  of  the  rangers  are  to  ride  about  their  districts  and  en- 
deavour to  discover  any  breaches  of  the  forest  regulations,  and  in 
cases  of  successful  prosecution  they  are  rewarded  according  to 
the  zeal  and  ability  displayed  by  them.  Besides  the  officers 
above-named,  there  are  thirteen  foresters  distributed  over  the 
different  woods,  whose  duty  it  is  to  plant,  and,  if  necessary, 
transplant  trees,  and  to  take  care  of  young  trees.  These  men  are 
paid  at  the  rate  of  S20  a  month,  are  provided  with  free  quarters 
and  ten  acres  of  garden  land,  and  are  paid  a  bonus  of  S2. 50  per 
1000  for  planting  nursery  plants,  S2.50  per  1000  for  i-foot  trees 
in  the  forest,  or  for  nursery  work  and  transplanting  S5  per  1000 
trees.  This  bonus  cannot  in  the  case  of  any  individual  forester 
exceed  $300  in  the  year,  without  special  permission.  Each  forester 
is  expected  to  raise  at  least  40,000  young  trees  annually.  So  far 
as  can  at  present  be  judged,  seeing  that  the  system  has  had  but  a 
few  years'  trial,  it  has  undoubtedly  proved  a  success.  To  show 
the  amount  of  work  that  some  of  the^e  foresters  get  through,  it 
may  be  mentioned  that  in  King  William's  Town  forests  in  the 
year  1885  six  foresters  planted  in  the  course  of  the  year 
138,080  plants  in  the  nursery,  and  transplanted  from  the  nursery 
into  the  forests  63,885  young  trees.  With  the  object  of  encour- 
aging these  valuable  efforts  to  preserve  the  forests  and  to  increase 
the  area  under  timber,  the  Colonial  Government  has  laid  out 
several  large  tracts  of  land  into  plantations  and  nurseries,  and 
although  these  are  but  of  very  recent  formation  they  have  already 
proved  their  utility  in  the  reafforesting  of  the  country.  At  the 
Government  nurseries  there  are  at  the  present  moment  over  one 
million  plants  flourishing.  In  the  working  of  these  nurseries  and 
plantations,  convict  labour  has  been  utilized  as  largely  as  possible, 
and  by  this  means  the  cost  of  the  convict  prisons  has  largely 
diminished.  One  other  work  in  this  connection  of  the  Colonial 
Government  is  worthy  of  remark.  At  the  plantation  of  Tokai, 
on  the  Table  Mountain  range,  150  species  of  extra-tropical  trees 
have  been  introduced,  and  from  them  plants  have  been  raised,  with 
which  it  is  proposed  to  reafforest  the  whole  Table  Mountain 
slopes,  and  already,  in  the  short  space  of  two  seasons,  1000  acres 
have  been  replanted.  From  all  the  Government  nurseries  plants 
can  be  purchased  at  a  nominal  rate,  and  this,  together  with  a 
recent  Act  whereby  public  bodies  receive  Government  aid  to  the 
extent  of  one-half  their  expenditure  on  replanting,  has  given  a 
strong  stimulus  to,  and  has  aroused  general  interest  in,  the  science 
of  arboriculture  among  the  colonists.  Following  the  example  of 
many  American  States,  their  first  "arbor  day,"  in  i886,  was 
proclaimed  a  public  holiday  ;  and  so  great  was  its  success  that  it 
is  very  likely  to  become  a  permanent  institution.  The  Consul 
concludes  his  Report  by  saying  that  it  is  confidently  hoped  that 
with  such  machinery  at  work  and  with  a  growing  interest  in  the 
advantages  of  tree-cultivation,  in  the  future.  Cape  Colony  will 
be  independent  of  foreign  markets  for  her  timber  supply ;  and 
that  it  is  probable  that  the  presence  of  forests,  by  increasing  the 
rainfall,  will  bring  tracts  which  are  at  present  barren  into 
cultivation. 


SOCIETIES  AND  ACADEMIES. 
London. 

Royal  Society,  March  22. — "  On  the  Skull,  Brain,  and 
Auditory  Organ  of  a  new  Species  of  Pterosaurian  (Scapho- 
gnathtis  Piu-doni)  from  the  Upper  Lias,  near  Whitby,  York- 
shire." By  E.  T.  Newton,  F.G.S.,  F.Z.S.,  Geological  Survey. 
Communicated  by  Dr.  Archibald  Geikie,  F.  R.  S. 

The  fossil  Pterodactyl  skull,  which  is  the  subject  of  this 
communication,  was  obtained  from  the  Upper  Lias  of  Lofthouse, 
near  Whitby,  by  the  Rev.  D.  W.  Purdon,  of  Wolverhampton. 
It  is  the  first  Pterodactyl  found  in  the  Yorkshire  Lias,  and  is  a 
new  form, allied  to  the  Continental  Jurassic  species  Scaphognathus 
{Pterodactylus)  crassirostris  of  Goldfuss.  The  structure  of  the 
skull,  including  the  back,  base,  and  palatal  regions,  is  better 
shown  than  in  any  previously  discovered  specimen  ;  and  in  ad- 
dition to  this  the  brain  and  parts  of  the  auditory  organs  have 
been  exposed. 

In  its  present  condition  the  skull  is  about  five  and  a  half  inches 
long  ;  but  apparently  about  two  inches  of  the  front  are  wanting. 
The  elongated  snout  gives  the  skull  a  very  bird-like  appearance  ; 
but  its  most  striking  features  are  the  five  apertures,  surrounded 
by  bone,  seen  on  each  side.  The  orbit  is  the  largest  of  these 
apertures  ;  in  front  of  this,  and  next  in  size,  is  the  ant-orbital 
fossa  ;  still  further  forward  is  the  somewhat  smaller  external 


April  19,  1888] 


NATURE 


599 


nostril.     Behind  the  orbit  is  the  temporal  space,  divided  by  a 
bony  bar  into  the  supra-  and  infra-temporal  fossae. 

On  the  upper  surface  of  the  skull  are  to  be  seen  the  nasals  and 
prefrontals,  ou  each  side  of  the  premaxillary  process.  The  frontals 
form  the  upper  boundaries  to  the  orbits,  and  are  confluent  pos- 
teriorly with  the  parietals.  Strong  buttresses  extend  outward 
from  the  postfrontal  and  parietal  regions  to  form  the  supra- 
temporal  bar.  There  is  on  each  side  a  large  lachrymal  bone 
forming  the  greater  part  of  the  upper  and  hinder  boundary  of  the 
ant-orbital  fossa.  The  jugal  and  quadrate -jugal  are  of  a  some- 
what unusual  form  ;  the  former  bounding  the  lower  half  of  the 
orbit,  and  the  latter  inclosing  in  an  open  V  the  greater  part  of 
the  infra-temporal  fossa.  The  quadrate  is  a  wide  but  thin  plate 
seen  chiefly  at  the  back  of  the  skull.  The  base  of  the  cranium 
is  remarkable  for  its  depth  and  extreme  antero-posterior  flatten- 
ing ;  and  viewed  from  behind  a  pair  of  long  rods  are  seen  ex- 
tending from  its  lower  margin,  one  on  each  side,  to  the  inner 
angles  of  the  quadrates.  These  bones  are  regarded  as  the 
homologues  of  the  basi-pterygoid  processes  of  the  sphenoid,  such 
as  are  seen  in  some  lizards  and  birds,  as  for  example  in  the 
Chameleon  and  Emu. 

From  the  point  of  junction  of  the  quadrate  and  basi-pterygoid 
process  a  bone  runs  along  the  palate,  and  dividing  anteriorly 
forms  the  hinder  boundary  of  the  internal  nostril,  its  outer 
portion  joining  the  maxilla  and  its  inner  being  continuous 
with  a  median  bone  occupying  the  position  of  a  vomer.  This 
bony  bar,  it  is  thought,  represents  the  palatine  and  pterygoid 
bones. 

The  back  of  the  skull  is  essentially  Lacertilian.  A  large  par- 
occipital  bone  extends  outwards  from  the  sides  of  the  foramen 
magnum,  and  its  distal  end,  expanding,  embraces  the  upper  part 
of  the  quadrate.  The  relation  which  the  base  of  the  parocci- 
pital  bears  to  the  semicircular  canals  shows  that  it  must  be  chiefly 
formed  by  the  opisthotic  element,  as  Pi-of,  W.  K.  Parker  has 
shown  to  be  the  case  in  lizards,  and  not  by  the  exoccipital  as  it 
is  in  birds. 

By  removing  the  frontal  and  parietal  bones  of  the  left  side,  a 
cast  of  the  brain  cavity  has  been  exposed,  which  there  can  be  no 
doubt  represents  the  form  of  the  brain,  just  as  closely  as  does 
that  of  a  bird's  cranial  cavity.  In  proportion  to  the  size  of  the 
entire  skull,  the  brain  of  this  Pterodactyl  is  very  small,  being 
not  more  than  one-eighth  of  its  length.  Each  cerebral  lobe  is 
oval  in  shape,  and  about  as  thick  as  it  is  wide.  The  olfactory 
lobe  is  small.  Behind  the  cerebrum  is  a  pair  of  large  optic 
lobes,  occupying  a  prominent  position  on  the  sides  of  the  brain, 
and  extending  upwards  well  to  the  upper  surface,  but  not  meet- 
ing above  in  the  middle  line.  The  region  of  the  cerebellum 
has  been  broken  away,  and  its  exact  form  therefore  is  some- 
what uncertain  ;  but,  judging  from  portions  which  remain,  it  is 
tolerably  clear  that  it  extended  between  the  optic  lobes,  and  may 
have  reached  as  far  forwards  as  the  cerebrum.  Attached  to  the 
side  of  the  medulla  oblongata  is  a  large  flocculus,  such  as  occurs 
in  this  position  in  birds. 

It  was  the  finding  of  the  flocculus  which  led  to  the  discovery 
of  some  parts  of  the  auditory  apparatus.  On  clearing  away  the 
stone  in  this  region,  a  small  tube  filled  with  matrix  was  found 
arching  over  the  pedicle  of  the  flocculus  and  dipping  down  be- 
tween it  and  the  optic  lobe.  This  tube  occupies  the  position  of 
the  anterior  vertical  semicircular  canal  in  the  goose.  By  tracing 
the  canal  backwards  and  downwards  it  was  found  to  join 
another  similar  tube  forming  an  arch  behind  the  flocculus — that 
is,  in  just  the  position  of  a  posterior  vertical  semicircular  canal. 
By  careful  excavation  below  the  flocculus,  a  portion  of  a  third 
tube  was  found,  arching  outwards  in  a  horizontal  plane,  and  this 
is  believed  to  be  the  external  semicircular  canal. 

The  similarity  between  the  base  of  the  fossil  skull  and  that  of 
the  Chameleon  led  to  the  inference  that  the  fenestra  ovalis  would 
be  found  to  be  similarly  placed  in  both,  and  by  clearing  away 
the  niatrix  from  the  orbit  and  temporal  fossa  this  inference  was 
proved  to  be  correct.  The  form  and  relations  of  the  quadrate 
bone  make  it  highly  probable  that  this  Pterosaurian  had  no  ear- 
drum. 

A    comparison    of   this    fossil    with   the    skulls   of    known 

Pterosauria  leaves  no  doubt  that  it  is  more  nearly  related  to 

the  Scaphognathtis  {Pterodactylus)  crassirostris  than  to  any  other 

I  species,  but  as  it  differs  from  that  form,  and  is  evidently  new,  it 

is  to  be  named  specifically  Scaphognathus  Purdoni. 

The  Pterosaurian  skull,  as  exemplified  by  this  Lias  fossil, 
resembles  more  the  Lacertilian  than  any  other  type  of  Reptile 
skull ;  and  seeing  that  the  skulls  of  birds  and  lizards  are  in  many 


points  very  similar,  one  is  not  surprised  to  find  in  this  fossil 
characters  which  are  also  found  in  both  these  groups.  In  con- 
sidering, therefjre,  the  relation  which  the  Pterosaurian  skull 
bears  to  those  of  birds  and  lizards,  the  characters  should  be 
especially  noticed  which  serve  to  distinguish  between  the  two 
groups,  thus  : — 

1.  In  birds  the  brain-case  is  larger  in  proportion  to  the  size 
of  the  skull  than  it  is  in  lizards. 

2.  The  quadrate,  pterygoid,  and  palatine  bones  are  movable 
on  the  skull  in  birds,  but  more  or  less  fixed  in  lizards.. 

3.  In  birds  the  hinder  end  of  the  palatine  and  front  end  of 
the  pterygoid  are  brought  into  close  relation  with  the  rostrum  of 
the  sphenoid.     This  is  not  the  case  with  lizards. 

4.  The  orbit  is  rarely  completed  by  bone  in  birds,  and  never 
by  the  jugal  ;  in  lizards  the  orbit  is  surrounded  by  bone,  and 
the  jugal  forms  part  of  it. 

5.  In  birds  there  is  no  prefrontal  bone,  while  it  is  always 
present  in  lizards, 

6.  No  bird  has  a  supra-temporal  bar  of  bone,  but  it  is  always 
developed  in  lizards. 

7.  In  lizards  the  paroccipital  process  is  large  and  formed  by 
the  opisthotic  ;  in  birds  the  paroccipital  is  small  and  formed  by 
the  exoccipital. 

8.  In  birds  the  bones  of  the  cranium  are  early  anchylosed  ;  in 
lizards  they  nearly  always  remain  separate. 

9.  Birds  have  the  premaxillcc  large  and  united  into  one  bone  ; 
in  lizards  they  are  usually  small. 

10.  The  ant-orbital  fossa  which  is  present  in  birds  is  only 
occasionally  present  in  lizard?. 

11.  In  birds  there  is  always  a  lower  temporal  bar  of  bone  ex- 
tending from  the  maxilla  to  the  quadrate.  This  bar  is  incomplete 
in  all  lizards  except  Sphenodon,  although  well  developed  in  other 
reptiles. 

The  skull  of  Scaphognathus  Purdoni  agrees  with  lizards  in 
the  first  seven  of  the  above  characters  ;  and  with  birds  in  those 
numbered  8,  9,  10.  Number  11  need  not  be  considered,  as  it 
can  scarcely  be  regarded  as  distinctive.  The  greater  importance 
of  the  first  seven  characters  makes  it  clear  that  in  the  structure 
of  the  skull  5.  Purdoni  most  nearly  resembles  the  Lacertilia. 

The  brain  of  Scaphognathus  Purdoni  agrees  with  that  of 
reptiles  in  its  relatively  small  size  ;  while  the  separation  of  the 
optic  lobes  by  the  cerebellum  and  the  meeting  of  the  latter  with 
the  cerebrum,  as  well  as  the  possession  of  a  distinct  flocculus-, 
are  important  points  in  which  it  resembles  the  brain  of  the  bird. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  form  of  the  optic  lobes  is  unlike  that  of 
any  living  bird. 

The  brain  of  the  American  fossil-bird,  Hesperornis,  shows  a 
striking  resemblance  to  that  of  Scaphognathus  Purdoni,  for  not 
only  is  it  proportionally  smaller  than  in  recent  birds,  but  the 
relation  of  the  cerebellum  and  cerebrum  to  the  optic  lobes  is  very 
similar. 

The  facts  above  stated  seem  to  show  that  the  Pterosauria  are 
related  to  the  birds  in  the  form  of  the  brain,  and  to  the  lizards 
in  the  structure  of  the  skull.  This,  however,  does  not  constitute 
the  Pterosaurian  a  transitional  form  between  birds  and  reptile-:, 
in  the  sense  of  the  Pterosauria  having  been  derived  from  reptiles, 
or  of  the  birds  having  been  derived  from  Pterosauria  ;  but  lather 
points  to  Aves,  Pterosauria,  and  Replilia  having  been  derived 
from  some  common  ancestral  type.  These  relationships  may  be 
thus  indicated,  taking  only  a  few  of  the  characters  of  each  : — 


Lizard. 


Pterosaurian. 


Bird. 


Cerebellum  small,  op-  Cerebellum  large  and  Cerebellum  large   and 

tic  lobes  meeting,  paroc-  between  optic  lobes,  par-  between  optic  lobes,  par- 

cipital  formed  chiefly  by  occipital  formed  chiefly  occipital  formed  chiefly 

the  opisthotic.  by  the  opisthotic.  by  exoccipital. 


Ancestral  Type. 

Cerebellum  small,  optic 
lobes  meeting,  paroccipi- 
tal small,  and  formed  by 
both  exoccipital  and  opis- 
thotic. 

Mathematical  Society,  April   12. — Sir  J.   Cockle,  F.R.  S. 
President,  in  the  chair. — The  following  communications  were 


6oo 


NA  TURE 


{April  19,  1888 


made :— Continuation  of  a  former  paper  on  simplicissima,  by 
W.  J.  C.  Sharp — Synthetical  solutions  in  the  conduction  of 
heat,  by  E.  W.  Hobson. — Symmetric  functions,  partii.,  by  R. 
Lachlan.— On  a  law  of  attraction  which  might  include  both 
gravitation  and  cohesion,  by  G.  S.  Carr. — Messrs.  Buchheim, 
Larmor,  and  Greenhill  spoke  upon  the  various  papers. 

Paris. 
Academy  of  Sciences,  April  9. — M.  Janssen,  President,  in 
the  chair. — Observations  of  the  minor  planets  made  with  the 
great  meridian  instrument  of  the  Paris  Observatory  during  the 
third  and  fourth  quarters  of  the  year  1887,  by  M.  Mouchez. 
The  right  ascension,  polar  distance,  and  cirrection  of  ephemer- 
ides  are  tabulated  for  thirteen  of  the  minor  planets. — On  Gom- 
pertz  and  Makeham"s  laws  of  mortality,  by  M.  J.  Bertrand. 
Some  arguments  are  advanced  to  show  that,  although  he  does 
not  mention  them,  Thomas  Simpson  must  have  been  acquainted 
with  one  or  both  of  these  laws. — Observations  on  the  fixation 
of  nitrogen  by  certain  vegetable  soils,  by  M.  Berthelot.  Some 
remarks  are  made  in  connection  with  the  author's  previous  com- 
munications and  M.  Schloesing's  recent  notes  on  this  subject.  It 
is  pointed  out  that  M.  Schloesing  has  not  taken  sufficient  account 
of  the  experimental  conditions  which  M.  Berthelot  has  shown 
to  be  necessary  in  dealing  with  the  question  of  nitrification. — 
On  a  new  gas-thermometer,  by  M.  L.  Caillctet.  This  instru- 
ment, which  has  been  for  some  time  employed  by  the  author, 
especially  in  connection  with  his  researches,  jointly  made  with 
M.  Bouty,  on  the  measurement  of  electric  resistances  at  low 
temperatures,  is  described  as  of  an  extremely  sensitive  character, 
indicating  differences  of  height  of  2  "36  millimetres  for  i°  of 
temperature.  Being  intended  for  measuring  extremely  low 
temperatures,  it  is  charged  with  hydrogen  as  the  expanding 
body. — Report  on  M.  Delauney's  astronomical  communications, 
by  the  Commissioners,  MM.  Daubree,  Tisserand,  and  Faye. 
These  communications,  which  were  addressed  to  the  Academy 
during  M.  Delauney's  residence  in  Cochin-China,  are  now  re- 
sumed in  one  volume,  and  are  of  an  extremely  varied  character. 
They  deal  with  the  distances  of  the  planets  from  the  sun  ;  the 
distances  of  the  satellites  from  their  respective  planets  ;  the 
distances  of  certain  stellar  groups  from  the  central  orbs  of  their 
systems  ;  the  distance  of  aerolites  from  the  sun,  their  action  on 
the  sob.r  spots,  on  our  volcanoes,  on  the  meteorological  pheno- 
mena of  our  atmosphere,  and  on  terrestrial  magnetism  ;  forma- 
tion of  the  stellar  systems,  and  especially  that  of  Sirius,  of 
which  the  sun  itself,  with  Procyon,  a  Centauri,  Vega,  Arcturus, 
and  others,  would  appear  to  be  members.  These,  and  other 
even  bolder  speculations,  seem  based  on  the  three  laws  of  dis- 
tances here  formulated  by  the  author. —Observations  of  Sawer- 
thal's  Comet  1888  a  made  at  the  Paris  Observatory  (equatorial 
of  the  West  Tower),  by  M.  G.  Bigourdan,  and  at  the  Bordeaux 
Observatory  (o"38m.  equatorial),  by  MM.  G.  Rayet  and  Courty. 
The  Paris  observations  cover  the  period  from  March  25  to  April  6 ; 
those  of  Bordeaux  from  April  4-6. — Observations  of  Palisa's 
new  planet,  discovered  April  3,  1888,  made  at  the  Observatory 
of  Algiers  with  the  050 m.  telescope,  by  MM.  Trepied  and 
Sy.  These  observations,  made  on  April  4,  give  an  estimated 
magnitude  of  I2'5  for  this  planet. — On  M.  Bertrand's  geo- 
metrical curves,  by  M.  G.  Demartres.  These  curves  are  here 
considered  as  geodetic  lines  of  ringed  surfaces;  and  the  follow- 
ing problem  is  proposed  and  discussed  :  To  find  the  surfaces 
whose  circular  generator  is  inclined  at  the  same  angle,  i,  on  the 
same  family  of  geodetic  lines,  this  angle,  however,  being  capable 
of  varying  from  one  generator  to  the  next. — Action  of  the  tetra- 
chloride of  carbon  on  oxygenated  mineral  compounds  free  of 
hydrogen,  by  M.  H.  Quantin.  It  was  long  ago  shown  by 
Geuther  that  potassa  and  baryta  raised  to  a  red  heat  in  the 
vapour  of  the  tetrachloride  of  carbon  are  transformed  to  chlorides 
and  carbonates.  More  recently  the  experiments  of  Demarjay 
and  Quantin,  since  confirmed  by  Lothar  Meyer,  have  shown  that 
oxides  which  cannot  be  attacked  by  chlorine  alone  are  under  the 
same  conditions  also  transformed  to  chlorides.  In  the  present 
paper  the  author  deals  more  fully  with  these  phenomena,  and 
generalizes  the  results  already  obtained. — On  the  sesquichloride 
of  rhodium,  by  M.  E.  Leidie.  After  examining  the  processes 
hitherto  employed  in  the  preparation  of  the  anhydrous  sesqui- 
chloride, the  author  describes  a  new  method  in  which  the 
chlorine  acts  on  the  alloy  of  rhodium  and  tin,  RhSng,  described 
by  Debray.  He  then  gives  the  processes  of  preparation  of  some 
double  chlorides  formed  by  the  hydrated  sesquichloride, — On 
the   passive  property  of    nickel,  by    M.     Ernest    Saint-Edme. 


Having  already  described  the  results  of  his  researches  on  the 
passivity  of  steel  and  iron,  the  author  here  deals  with  some  of 
the  conclusions  he  has  obtained  from  the  analogous  study  of 
nickel. — Action  of  the  cyanide  of  zinc  on  some  chlorides,  by  M. 
Raoul  Varet.  The  results  are  described  of  experiments  with 
the  chlorides  of  mercury  and  copper,  as  well  as  with  the  alkaline 
chlorides.  The  general  conclusion  is  arrived  at  that  the  cyanide 
of  zinc  does  not  enter  into  molecular  combination  with  the 
chloride^. — Syntheses  by  means  of  cyanacetic  ether  (continued), 
by  M.  Alb.  Haller.  In  the  present  paper  the  author  deals  with 
the  higher  homologues  of  acetylcyanacetic  ether. — Heat  of 
formation  of  aniline,  by  M.  P.  Petit.  The  heat  of  formation  of 
aniline  is  here  determined,  both  by  the  wet  and  dry  processes, 
with  fairly  uniform  results. 


BOOKS,  PAMPHLETS,  and  SERIALS  RECEIVED. 

A  Key  to  the  Mysteries  of  Water,  Electricity,  and  Heat  :  W. 
Boggett  (Triibnsr). — Die  Catastrophe  von  Zug,  5  Juli,  1887  (Hofer  and 
Burger,  Ziir'ch). — Zrani  Opiozeni  a  Ryhovani  Vajica :  Fr.  Vejdovsk^f 
(Prag). — Zeitschrift  fiir  Wissenschaftliche  Zoo'ogie,  46  Band,  2  Heft 
(Leipzig). — Proceedings  of  the  Academy  of  Natural  Sciences  of  Phila- 
delphia, Part  3,  1887  (Philadelphia). — Journal  of  Physiology,  vol.  ix. 
No.  I  ((Cambridge)  — Bulletin  de  la  Societe  Imperiale  des  Naturalistes  de 
Moscou,  18H8,  No.  I  (Moscou). — Proceedings  of  the  Geologists'  Associa- 
tion, No.  87  (Stanford). — Botanische  Jahrbiicher  fur  Systematik,  Pflanzen- 
geschichte,  und  Pflanzengeographie,  Neunter  Band,  4  Heft  (Williams  and 
Norgate). — Annalen  des  k.  k.  Naturhistorischen  Hofmuseums,  1887  (Wien). 
— Journal  of  Comparative  Pathology  and  Therapeutics,  Part  i  (Johnston). — 
Journal  of  the  Society  of  Telegraph-Engineers  and  Electricians,  No.  71 
(Spon). — Journal  of  the  Asiatic  Society  of  Bengal,  vol.  xvi.  Part  2,  Nos.  2 
and  3  (Calcutta). — Journal  of  Anatomy  and  Physiology,  April  (Williams  and 
Norgate). — Sitzungsberichte  der  k.  b.  Geseilschaft  der  Wissenschaften. 
Math.  Naturw.  Classe.  1886  (Prag.) — Bericht  iiber  die  Math,  und  Naturw. 
Pubn.  ii.  Heft  (Prag). — Geschichte  der  k.  b.  Geseilschaft  der  Wissenschaften, 
Zweites  Heft  (Prag). — K  Higher  Arithmetic  and  Elementary  Mensuration  : 
P.  Goyen  (Macmillan) — Next  of  Km  Marriage  1  in  Old  Iran:  D.  P. 
Sunjana  (Trubner). — Mechanics  and  Experimental  Science :  Chemisti;y, 
C  Aveling  (Chapman  and  Hall). — The  Minerals  of  New  South  Wales, 
&c.  :  A.  Liversidge  (Trubner). — Dissolution  and  Evolution  and  the 
Science  of  Medicine  :  C.  P.  Mitchell  (Longmans). — Notes  from  the  Leyden 
Museum,  vol.  9,  Nos.  1  and  2  (Leyden). — Journal  of  the  Royal  Statistical 
Society,  March  (Stanford). — Journal  of  the  Chemical  Society,  April  (Gumey 
and  Jackson). — Bulletin  d^  I'Academie  Royale  des  Sciences  de  Belgique,  < 
No.  2  (Bruxelles). — Journal  of  the  Royal  Microscopical  Society,  April 
(Williams  and  Norgate. — The  Auk,  April  (New  York). — Mittheilungen  der 
Naturforschenden  Geseilschaft  in  Bern,  1887  (Bern). — Verhandlungen  der 
Schweizerischen  Naturforschenden  Geseilschaft  in  Frauenfeld,  1886-87 
(Frauenfeld). — Quarterly  Journal  of  the  Royal  Meteorological  Society, 
January  (Stanford). 


CONTENTS.  PAGE 

Scientific  Progress  in  Elementary  Schools     ....  577 

The  Nervous  System  and  the  Mind 578 

Popular  Meteorology 580 

Our  Book  Shelf:— 

Carles  :   "  Life  in  Corea  " 581 

Martin:   "  Navigation  and  Nautical  Astronomy "    .    .  582 

"  A.  Johnston's  Botanical  Plates"      582 

Letters  to  the  Editor  : — 

Injuries  caused  by  Lightning  in  Africa. — Dr.  Emin 

Pasha 582 

An   "Instructive"  Bibliography  of  the  Foraminifera. 

— Chas.  Davies  Sherborn 583 

Density  and  Specific  Gravity. — L.  Gumming    .    .    .  584 

"Coral  Formations." — ^James  G.  Ross 584 

Bernicle   Geese    on   Coniston    Lake. — William    R. 

Melly 585 

The  Muzzling  of  Oysters. — W.  Mattieu  Williams  ,  585 
Suggestions   on   the  Classification  of  the  Various 
Species  of  Heavenly  Bodies.    I.     {Illustrated.)     By 

J.  Norman  Lockyer,  F.R.S 585 

The  Hittites,  with  Special  Reference  to  very  Recent 

Discoveries.    IV.  {Illustrated.)  By  Thomas  Tyler   .  590 

Asa  Gray 594 

Notes      594 

Our  Astronomical  Column  : — 

Harvard  College  Observatory 596 

Comet  18S8  a  (Sawerthal) 597 

Astronomical     Phenomena    for     the     Week     1888 

April  22-28 597 

Geographical  Notes 597 

Forestry  in  the  Cape  Colony 598 

Societies  and  Academies 598 

Books,  Pamphlets,  and  Serials  Received 600 


NA  TURE 


60 1 


THURSDAY,   APRIL   26,    1888. 


MR.  A.  C.  SMITH'S  ''BIRDS  OF  WILTSHIRE." 

The  Birds   of   Wiltshire,  coinprisitig  all  the  Periodical 

and  Occasional  Visitants,  as  well  as  those  which  are 

indigenous  to  the  County.     By  the  Rev.  Alfred  Charles 

Smith,  M.A.     (London  :  Porter,  1887.) 

BY  all  ornithologists  Wiltshire  will  be  admitted  to 
be  a  county  the  birds  of  which  are  worthy  of  a 
volume  ;  and  all  ornithologists,  who  know,  even  by  name 
and  reputation  only,  Mr.  Alfred  Charles  Smith,  will  admit 
that  he  of  all  men  is  the  proper  author  of  that  volume. 
Nominally  but  the  Honorary  Secretary  of  the  Wiltshire 
Archaeological  and  Natural  History  Society,  the  Rector 
of  Yatesbury  has  for  many  years  past  been  its  most  active 
officer,  and  the  editor  of  its  organ — the  Wiltshire  Maga- 
zine— to  say  nothing  of  the  various  "  by-blows  "  of  which 
he  has  at  times  been  delivered  in  the  shape  of  "  Tours  " 
in  Portugal,  Egypt,  and  Palestine,  or  of  the  very  laborious 
and  important  work  on  the  "  British  and  Roman  Anti- 
quities of  the  North  Wiltshire  Downs  " — that  work  which 
so  narrowly  escaped  total  destruction — nearly  all  the 
copies  of  the  original  edition  having  perished  by  a  disas- 
trous fire  while  in  the  binders'  hands.  Mr.  Smith,  too,  is 
a  Wiltonian  of  the  Wiltonians  ;  not  only  one  of  the  best- 
known  and  most  highly-esteemed  men  in  his  own  county, 
but  one  of  those  who,  in  these  days  of  universal  brother- 
hood and  cosmopolitan  sympathies,  are  year  by  year 
becoming  rarer.  Hence  he  speaks  from  the  heart  when 
he  expresses  himself  as  in  his  opening  paragraphs  : — 

"  The  county  of  Wilts  has  been  sometimes  thought- 
lessly said  to  be  poor  in  Ornithology  ;  indeed,  I  have  heard 
it  denounced  by  superficial  observers  as  exceptionally 
wanting  in  the  various  members  of  the  feathered  race  ; 
pre-eminent,  doubtless,  in  the  remains  of  antiquity — so 
these  gentlemen  are  good  enough  to  allow — but  in  birds 
a  barren  field  indeed.  Against  any  such  verdict  I  enter 
a  decided  protest,  and  I  even  maintain,  on  the  contrary, 
that,  taking  into  consideration  that  Wiltshire  is  an  inland 
district,  and  therefore  cannot  be  expected  to  abound  in 
birds  whose  habitat  is  the  sea  and  the  sea-shore,  our  county 
will  scarcely  yield  to  any  other,  similarly  situated,  in  the 
number  and  variety  of  the  species  of  birds  to  be  found 
there  ;  and  I  now  proceed  to  prove  this  by  statistics. 

"  Let  us  first,  however,  examine  the  physical  aspect  of 
Wiltshire,  and  we  shall  see  that  it  is  not  composed  of 
bleak  open  downs  alone,  as  its  detractors  superciliously 
affirm,  but  that  it  can  show  a  great  diversity  of  scenery, 
and  much  of  it  of  surpassing  beauty.  We  have,  it  is  true, 
our  broad,  open,  expanding  downs — and  what  native  of 
Wiltshire  does  not  glory  in  them  and  admire  them  ? — but 
we  have  at  the  same  time  our  richly-timbered  vales  :  if 
we  have  hill,  we  have  also  dale  ;  if  we  have  open  plains, 
we  have  also  large  woods  and  thick  forests.  Where  shall 
we  find  more  clear  and  limpid  streams,  where  more  green 
and  laughing  meadows,  than  in  the  valley  of  the  Avon 
(the  northern  and  southern  Avon),  the  vale  of  Kennet,  or 
of  Pewsey,  or  of  Wily,  or  of  Wardour  ?  Where,  again,  in 
all  England  can  we  meet  with  a  forest  to  compare  with 
that  of  Savernake  ?  And  in  woods  and  parks  and  well- 
timbered  estates,  both  in  the  north  and  south  of  the 
county,  we  are  exceptionally  rich"  (pp.  i,  2). 

All  who  have  traversed  Wiltshire  will  readily  allow  the 
truth  of  these  words,  skilfully  put  together  as  they  are  by 
our  author,  in  regard  to  the  pleasing  variety  which  its 
Vol  xxxvit — No.  965. 


landscape  in  several  parts  exhibits,  yet  it  must  be  con- 
fessed that  the  variety  is  limited  in  extent— the  same 
features  recurring  over  and  over  again,  so  that  one  range 
of  downs  or  one  valley  repeats  another.  Both  down  and 
valley  are  alike  enjoyable  to  the  utmost,  but  the  contrast 
between  them  is  mild  when  compared  with  that  afforded 
by  hill  and  dale  in  many  another  county  ;  and,  above  all> 
whatever  may  be  the  reason  of  it.  Nature  in  Wiltshire 
wears  an  aspect  of  sameness,  which,  after  a  few  days, 
becomes  almost  distressing  to  the  stranger,  because  it  is 
disappointing,  though  the  native  may  very  likely  rejoice 
in  the  absence  of  everything  that  suggests  a  wild  country ; 
and  a  wild  country,  it  should  be  needless  to  observe,  gives 
the  hope,  if  not  its  realization,  of  a  plentiful  crop  of  birds. 
Though  we  fully  admit  the  strong  temptation  to  which 
a  faunistic  writer  is  exposed  of  magnifying  the  area  of  his 
field  of  work,  it  has  been  our  duty  before  now  in  these 
columns  to  condemn  the  inconsiderate  yielding  to  that 
temptation  ;  and,  with  the  utmost  regard  for  our  present 
author,  we  are  compelled  to  say  that  he  has  fallen — 
perhaps  not  so  deeply  as  others — into  this  besetting  sin. 
We  must  repeat  what  we  have  so  often  urged  before.  The 
real  interest  (not  only  scientific,  but  even  sentimental)  of 
a  fauna  lies  in  its  proper  inhabitants — those  that  are 
entitled  to  all  the  rights  and  privileges  of  citizenship — and 
not  in  those  adventitious  ahens, 

*  Blown  from  over  every  main  " 

—strangers  which  are  the  sport  of  fate,  and  to  whom  the 
offer  of  letters  of  naturalization  is  not  only  a  mockery — 
for  if  chance  allows  they  are  invariably  killed — but  an 
insult  to  the  rightful  denizens  of  the  district.  However, 
even  on  the  unprincipled  principle — which,  by  the  way,  is 
only  admitted  in  ornithology  among  all  the  many  branches 
of  natural  history — that  a  species  once  showing  itself  in 
a  district  should  be  scored  to  that  district's  credit,  some 
proof  of  the  alleged  appearance  is  needed  before  it  be 
accepted  as  a  fact.  Experience  proves  that  there  are  few 
compilers  of  faunas,  especially  ornithological  faunas, 
who  are  not  ready,  we  will  not  say  to  strain  a  point,  but  to 
receive  favourable  evidence  on  easy  terms  ;  and  indeed  a 
rigid  examination  of  all  claims  to  admission,  with  a  stem 
rejection  of  those  that  cannot  be  substantiated,  is  a  virtue 
which  has  hardly  been  cultivated  until  within  these  later 
days,  and  not  often  even  recently. 

We  have  just  said  that  in  this  respect  Mr.  Smith  is  not 
a  grievous  sinner ;  and,  after  examining  his  list  pretty 
carefully,  we  find  but  sixteen  species  that  we  think  ought, 
almost  without  any  doubt,  to  be  excluded  on  one  ground 
or  another — whether  the  ground  be  insufficient  testimony, 
manifest  importation,  or  from  their  proper  habitat  being 
so  far  distant  as  to  render  it  nearly  certain  that  their 
recognition  within  the  boundaries  of  the  county  was  only 
the  accident  of  an  accident.  But  how  much  stronger 
would  Mr.  Smith's  list  be  if  these  sixteen  species  were 
omitted  1  and  how  much  stronger  still  if  the  (say)  forty 
irregular  visitants  were  also  subtracted  ?  Then,  and  only 
then,  would  the  ordinary  reader  know  the  wealth  of  Wilt- 
shire ornithology  ;  and,  for  an  inland  county,  presenting 
(as  we  have  stated)  a  not  very  diversified  area,  and 
mainly  composed  of  one  geological  formation,  a  very  re- 
spectable comparison  could  be  made,  we  are  confident, 
with  any  other  county,  however  favourably  situated.     We 

D  D 


6o2 


NA  TURE 


\_April  26,  1888 


are  not  going  to  make  the  calculation — indeed,  for  com- 
parison's sake,  the  statistics  of  many  other  counties  are 
as  yet  wanting ;  but  we  think  it  would  appear  that  not 
many  English  shires  would  show  a  more  creditable  roll 
of  real  inhabitants,  whether  breeding  within  its  borders, 
or  so  regularly  visiting  it  at  fixed  seasons  as  to  deserve 
recognition  as  denizens.  Of  the  former,  we  think  Wilt- 
shire could  fairly  claim  100,  and  of  the  latter  50,  making 
the  respectable  number  of  150,  to  which  might  be  added 
29  for  irregular  visitants  to  be  legitimately  included,  after 
deducting  the  aforesaid  (16  -f  40  =)  56  from  Mr.  Smith's 
total  of  235.  Our  author  may  think  very  hardly  of  us 
for  thus  diminishing  the  ornithic  wealth  of  his  county, 
but  we  assure  him  that  he  would  have  little  cause  to  com- 
plain of  the  result  were  the  same  rule  applied  to  the 
so-called  "avifaunas"  of  other  inland  shires. 

This,  however,  is  a  theme  we  will  not  pursue. 
Rather  let  us  speak  of  the  manifest  merits  of  Mr.  Smith's 
volume.  One  of  them  stands  out  pre-eminently  in  that 
he  has  accorded  so  much  space  to  two  species  very  in 
teresting  to  all  who  care  for  English  birds — the  Raven 
and  the  Heron.  Of  the  former,  which  in  days  not  so  long 
past  had  numerous  homes  in  Wilts,  an  account  is  given 
which  in  years  to  come  will,  we  are  sure,  be  regarded  as 
of  the  highest  interest,  for  it  is  compiled  from  information 
obtained  by  no  fewer  than  no  correspondents  in  various 
parts  of  the  county,  and  is  in  itself  a  proof  of  well-directed 
energy.     The  result  is,  of  course,  a  mournful  one. 

"  It  will  be  seen  that  the  history  of  the  Ravens  of  Wilt- 
shire is,  alas  !  rather  a  history  of  that  which  is  past  and 
gone  than  of  that  which  is  flourishing  to-day  ;  so  perse- 
cuted, shot  down,  trapped,  and  despoiled  of  their  young 
have  these  noble  birds  been  at  the  hands  of  ruthless 
gamekeepers  and  others,  who  have  gone  upon  the  false 
issue  that  they  are  very  destructive  to  game,  whereas, 
with  the  exception  of  an  occasional  raid  on  a  leveret  or  a 
rabbit,  they  do  little  harm  in  the  preserves,  for  the  Raven 
cannot  bear  an  inclosed  district — he  must  have  plenty  of 
room  to  disport  himself ;  and  as  to  being  '  cabin'd,  cribb'd, 
confin'd'  within  narrow  woods,  he  eschews  them  alto- 
gether, and  only  during  the  breeding-season  will  he  con- 
sent to  occupy  some  big  tree  in  the  park,  generally  the 
highest  and  most  inaccessible  he  can  find,  and  there  he 
and  his  mate  return,  year  after  year,  to  occupy  their 
accustomed  nursery  ''  (p.  222). 

It  would  seem,  from  Mr.  Smith's  information,  that  out 
of  the  twenty-two  localities  he  names,  sixteen  have  wholly 
ceased  to  be  tenanted  by  this  species,  four  are  doubtful, 
and  in  tivo  only  has  the  bird  certainly  still  a  home.  But 
how  many  English  counties  could  claim  such  a  distinction 
as  that  ?  Some  of  the  larger  landowners,  as  the  Duke 
of  Beaufort,  Lords  Bath  and  Pembroke  (to  their  credit  be 
it  said),  have  been  disposed  to  protect  this  very  interesting 
and  (as  the  writer  from  his  own  experience  can  assert) 
comparatively  harmless  species ;  but  gamekeepers'  pre- 
judices are  almost  beyond  control,  and  probably  nothing 
short  of  a  reward  given  on  the  hatching-off  of  a  ravenry, 
combined  with  dismissal  on  the  murder  of  a  breeding- 
bird,  would  insure  protection.  A  scientific  man  naturally 
shuns  sentiment  as  such,  but  curious  it  is  that  the  owners 
of  historic  estates  do  not  perceive  the  value  of  all  their 
historic  cjssociations ;  andan  ancient  Raven-tree,  still  occu- 
pied by  the  descendants  of  many  a  generation,  would  be 
no  mean  adjunct  to  the  glories  of  Badminton  or  Bowood, 
Longleat  or  Wilton  !      Where  the  proprietor  does  not 


exert  himself,  the  doom  of  the  species  is  as  certain  as 
that  of  the  Bustard  has  proved  to  be. 

The  Bustard,  in  popular  opinion,  is  always  more  asso- 
ciated with  the  Wiltshire  Downs  or  Salisbury  Plain  than 
with  any  other  part  of  England.  But  needless  to  observe 
that  herein,  as  usual,  popular  opinion  is  wrong,  and  anyone 
who  seeks  will  find  that  in  reality  the  association  termi- 
nated much  longer  ago  than  in  four  or  five  other  counties. 
Mr.  Smith  natui-ally  devotes  a  good  deal  of  space — much 
of  it  being,  we  regret  to  say,  wholly  beside  the  purpose — 
to  this  grand  bird ;  and  indeed  its  gilt  figure  decorates 
the  cover  of  his  volume.  We  must,  however,  express 
ourselves  somewhat  disappointed  at  the  result,  though  it 
is  one  not  unexpected.  The  statements  of  the  editor  of 
Pennant  in  1812,  and  of  Montagu  in  1813,  are  confirmed, 
and  in  a  small  degree  supplemented  ;  but,  says  our 
author  : — 

"  After  this  I  have  no  record  on  which  I  can  rely  of 
any  native  Wiltshire  Bustard  ;  but  I  have  had  many  state- 
ments, to  which  I  listened  attentively,  from  thirty  to  forty 
years  ago,  from  old  shepherds,  farmers,  and  labourers, 
several  of  whom  could  well  recollect  seeing  these  birds 
on  the  downs  in  their  early  days,  but  from  whom  I  could 
obtain  no  reliable  information  as  to  date  ;  for  the  Wilt- 
shire countryman,  good  honest  soul,  is  not  observant  of 
detail,  and  as  to  dates  he  ignores  them  altogether — '  a 
long  whiles  ago '  conveniently  covering  half  a  century. 
However,  by  putting  together  the  information  gained 
from  many  sources,  and  by  comparing  the  several 
statistics  which  I  thought  reliable,  I  arrived  at  the 
opinion  (perhaps  somewhat  indistinct  and  hesitating)  that 
our  Wiltshire  Bustard  lingered  on  till  about  the  year 
1820"  (pp.  355,356.) 

This  date  may  be  approximately  correct ;  but  it  is  un- 
deniable that  for  several  years  later  the  Bustard  inhabited 
the  Wolds  of  Yorkshire  and  Lincolnshire,  and  was  not 
extirpated  in  Suffolk  in  1832,  nor  in  Norfolk  until  1838  ; 
since  which  time  all  the  examples  that  have  occurred  in 
England  (Wiltshire  included)  may  rightly  be  regarded  as 
foreign  visitors. 

Mr.  Smith's  account  of  the  Heron,  before  mentioned,  is 
as  satisfactory  as  that  which  he  gives  of  the  Raven  ;  but 
here  it  must  suffice  to  say  that  Wiltshire  boasts  of  seven 
heronries,  besides  twenty-two  offshoots.  Some  of  the 
former,  however,  are  but  recently  established,  and  fresh 
colonies  are  always  forming  ;  for  in  this  county,  as  else- 
where in  England,  is  observable  the  tendency  of  these 
birds  to  break  up  and  colonize — a  fact  almost  undoubt- 
edly due,  as  has  been  pointed  out  by  more  than  one 
writer,  to  the  increased  difficulty  of  finding  in  one  spot 
food  for  their  young,  induced  by  the  more  complete 
drainage  of  the  country. 

We  have  left  ourselves  no  space  for  other  matters  on 
which  we  should  like  to  dwell,  as  the  honest  enthusiasm 
of  our  author  makes  us  a  little  blind  to  his  faults — whether 
of  omission  or  commission — the  latter  certainly  pre- 
dominating ;  for  in  his  desire  to  give  information  to  his 
readers  he  says  a  great  deal  more  than  is  necessary  in  a 
faunistic  work,  especially  as  to  classification,  nomen- 
clature, structure,  and  so  forth — all  matters  that  are  best 
left  to  experts,  and  their  treatment  (which  is  far  from 
perfect)  only  swells  the  volume  to  an  uncomfortable 
size.  We  also  freely  excuse  his  many  old-fashioned  ways, 
which  will,  however,  be  no  blemish,  if  they  be  not  a 
positive  blessing,  in  the  eyes  of  most  of  his  readers.    The 


April  26,  1888] 


NATURE 


60 


most  severe  critic  must  admit  that  the  style,  without  being 
in  the  least  laboured,  is  far  superior  to  that  of  the  ordinary 
writer  on  natural  history,  and  the  book  is  consequently 
in  the  highest  degree  readable.  Many  a  Wiltshire  man, 
woman,  and  child  will  have  reason  to  be  grateful  to  Mr. 
Alfred  Charles  Smith. 


A  HAND-BOOK  FOR  TRA  VELLERS. 
Fiihrerfur  Forschutigsreisende.  Anleitungen  zu  Beobacht- 

ungen  iiber  Gegenstdtide  der  physischen  Geographie  wid 

Geologic.     Von    Ferdinand    Freiherr   von    Richthofen. 

(Berlin:  Oppenheim,  1886.) 
TT  is  now  thirteen  years  since  Dr.  Neumayer  issued  his 
J-  "Anleitung  zu  wissenschaftlichen  Beobachtungen 
auf  Reisen,"  a  joint  production  of  himself  and  repre- 
sentatives of  various  departments  of  science,  the  geo- 
logical section  having  been  contributed  by  the  present 
author.  The  volume  now  under  consideration  is  virtually 
an  enlarged  and  completely  revised  edition  of  that 
section,  which  it  seemed  desirable  to  publish  separately. 
A  re-issue  of  the  complete  work  is,  however,  in  con- 
templation. The  qualifications  which  Von  Richthofen 
possesses  for  the  task  he  has  undertaken  are  of  no  com- 
mon order.  Himself  a  traveller  of  wide  experience, 
whose  work  on  China  deservedly  ranks  as  one  of  the 
classics  of  geographical  literature,  he  brings  to  bear  upon 
his  subject  a  wealth  of  practical  knowledge  combined 
with  scientific  attainment,  in  which  few  are  his  equals. 

In  the  preface  it  is  explained  that  the  primary  object  of 
the  work  is  to  enable  those  travellers  whose  previous 
scientific  training  is  not  extensive,  such  as  missionaries, 
merchants,  and  others,  who  may  be  thrown  in  regions 
but  little  explored,  to  make  observations  which  shall  be 
of  permanent  value.  Under  these  circumstances,  no 
attempt  is  made  to  furnish  the  reader  with  references  to 
the  literature  of  the  subject  which  would  almost  certainly 
be  inaccessible  to  him,  although  notice  is  taken  here  and 
there  of  modern  treatises  on  particular  questions.  The 
body  of  the  work  opens  by  an  introduction,  the  scope  of 
which  may  best  be  indicated  in  a  general  way  by  stating 
that  it  contains  such  headings  as  "  Outfit,"  "  Modes  of 
Travelling," and  "Miscellaneous  Practical  Hints."  These 
last  are  especially  valuable,  and  might  with  advantage  be 
carefully  studied  by  anyone  who  is  starting  on  a  first 
expedition,  on  account  of  their  eminently  suggestive  and 
practical  character.  The  emphasis  laid  upon  the  neces- 
sity of  noting  all  observations  on  the  spot,  and  even  upon 
such  minutiae  as  having  the  pencil  suspended  round  the 
neck  so  as  to  be  always  ready,  indicates  an  experience  of 
the  temptations  to  procrastination  which  beset  travellers 
in  common  with  humanity  at  large.  Among  other  divi- 
sions of  this  section  may  be  mentioned  "  Measuring  and 
Drawing,"  in  which  sufficient  directions  are  given  for 
mapping  unexplored  countries  in  a  preliminary  fashion, 
and  also  "  Climatic  and  Biological  Observations,"  the 
latter  of  which  are  treated  with  extreme  brevity,  as  not 
falling  within  the  author's  special  province. 

The  next  portion  of  the  book  is  entitled  "Observations 
upon  Externally  Modifying  Processes,"  and  includes 
chapters  upon  rocks  and  soils,  on  springs  and  flowing 
water.  It  contains  a  dissertation  of  some  length  on  the 
important  subject  of  glaciers,  in  which  the  phenomena 
accompanying  their    present    existence,  as   well   as   the 


traces  of  their  past  actfon,  are  carefully  described.  In 
another  chapter  an  abstract  is  given  of  the  present  state 
of  our  knowledge  regarding  coral  reefs  and  islands.  In 
addition  to  the  time-honoured  theory  of  Darwin,  the 
most  recent  researches  of  Semper,  Rein,  Murray,  and 
Studer  are  summarized  ;  one  misses,  however,  the  name 
of  Agassiz  in  this  connection,  and  it  is  noticeable  that, 
although  Dana's  soundings  off  Tahiti  are  quoted  in  some 
detail,  no  mention  is  made  of  the  series  executed  by  the 
Challenger,  although  their  results  agree  well  with  the 
author's  diagrammatic  section  of  a  reef  No  one  theory 
is  embraced  to  the  exclusion  of  all  others,  but  stress  is 
laid  upon  the  need  for  further  investigation,  and  upon  the 
fact  that  "  each  reef  has  its  own  special  history  of  origin 
and  development."  Upraised  coral  reefs  are  indicated 
as  being  likely  to  throw  light  on  the  question— a  sug- 
gestion which  has  been  independently  canied  out  by 
Dr.  Guppy  in  the  Solomon  Islands  with  such  brilliant 
results.  A  few  pages  give  what  is  known  regarding  the 
changes  of  level  of  the  ocean,  and  the  terms  "  positive  " 
and  "negative  displacement"  are  adopted  instead  of 
"■  sinking  "  and  "  upheaval ''  of  the  land  respectively. 

The  third  section  is  devoted  to  "  Observations  on  the 
Crust  of  the  Earth,  on  Rocks,  and  on  Mountain  Struc- 
ture." It  contains  an  outline  of  the  principal  facts 
of  petrology  and  of  stratigraphical  geology. 

The  author  treats  his  subject  in  considerable  detail  ; 
his  volume  occupies  more  than  700  pages— that  is,  a  some- 
what larger  bulk  than  the  whole  of  Neumayer's  original 
work.  Indeed,  if  a  fault  is  to  be  found  in  the  book,  we 
should  be  disposed  to  say  that,  considering  the  fact  that 
only  one  aspect  of  Nature  is  discussed,  the  amount  ot 
detail  is  rather  excessive.  If  botany,  zoology,  anthropo- 
logy, and  all  the  other  matters  which  have  an  equal 
claim  upon  the  traveller's  attention,  were  elaborated  in 
the  same  fashion,  the  result  would  be  an  encyclopaedia  of 
no  small  dimensions.  The  work  is,  however,  thoroughly 
practical  in  character.  There  are  no  lengthened  discus- 
sions upon  abstract  questions,  but  divergent  theories 
regarding  unsettled  points  are  summarized  in  such  a  way 
as  to  indicate  how  both  the  traveller  who  has  time  at  his 
disposal,  and  also  he  who  is  compelled  to  hasten  through 
the  country,  can  each  make  the  best  use  of  their  respective 
opportunities.  W.  E.  H. 


OUR  BOOK  SHELF. 

Geometry  in  Space.     Edited  by  R.   C.  J.   Nixon,  M.A. 
"  Clarendon  Press  Series."    (London:  Henry  Frowde, 

1888.) 

This  book  is  a  sequel  to  "  Euclid  Revised  "  by  the  same 
author.  It  consists  of  one  hundred  pages,  divided  into 
three  chapters  and  an  appendix.  The  first  chapter  is 
devoted  to  the  discussion  of  planes  and  solid  angles,  cover- 
ing much  the  same  ground  as  Euclid's  eleventh  book  ;  it 
contains,  besides,  some  very  useful  notes  on  elementary 
perspective  and  the  drawing  of  solid  figures.  This  is  an 
excellent  feature  of  the  book,  and  the  author  might  with 
advantage  have  given  more  than  a  couple  of  pages  to  it, 
for  there  is  no  doubt  that,  to  most  students,  the  representa- 
tion of  solid  figures,  other  than  the  simplest,  is  a  real  and 
often  a  permanent  stumbling-block  to  the  development  of 
the  science  in  their  own  minds.  The  second  chapter 
is  concerned  with  polyhedra.  It  begins  with  Euler's 
theorem  establishing  a  linear  relation  between  the 
numbers  of   edges,   corners,   and    faces,   and    Listing's 


6o4 


NATURE 


lApril  26,  1888 


extension  of  it.  In  giving  the  latter  the  author  speaks  of 
"  facets,"  "  sheets,"  and  "  interfaces,"  without  having 
previously  defined  them,  thus  leaving  a  student  in  some 
little  difficulty  as  to  their  precise  meaning.  Considering 
the  great  analytical  interest  of  the  algebraical  researches 
of  Klein  and  Cayley  in  the  polyhedral  functions  and  the 
finite  groups  of  linear  substitutions,  which  represent 
geometrically  the  production  of  congruence  of  figure  by 
the  rotations  of  the  corresponding  polyhedra,  we  think  it 
would  add  greatly  to  the  interest  of  the  book  to  show  the 
elementary  geometrical  relations  which  interpret  the 
algebraical  operations.  The  mensuration  and  usual 
properties  of  the  simple  solids  are  worked  out,  the 
method  of  limits  being  freely  employed.  The  third 
chapter  is  of  "  Solids  of  Revolution,"  and  includes 
Pappus's  theorems  of  mensuration,  the  extension  of 
the  modern  geometry  of  lines  and  circles  to  planes  and 
spheres,  and  an  elementary  account  of  surface  spherics. 

The  appendix,  which  treats  of  the  "  Geometrical  Theory 
of  Perspective  in  Space,"  is  from  a  paper  in  the  Quarterly 
Journal  of  Mathematics  for  1886,  by  Mr.  Alexander 
Larmor,  of  Clare  College,  Cambridge  ;  it  contains  ten 
important  theorems  in  the  subject. 

Throughout  the  book  great  brevity  of  expression  is 
employed  with  taste  and  discretion.  It  bears  traces  of 
careful  compilation,  and  is  certainly  well  and  suitably 
printed  and  illustrated.  Interesting  theorems  and 
problems  are  given  as  exercises  at  the  end  of  each 
chapter. 

The  work  may  be  safely  recommended  to  students  and 
teachers  as  a  clear  and  precise  introduction  to  the  study 
of  solid  geometry. 

Chambers^ s    Encyclopadia  :    a   Dictionary  of  Universal 

Knowledge.    (London  :  William  and  Robert  Chambers, 

1888.) 
The  process  of  revising  and  altering  a  work  of  this  kind 
is  no  easy  task.  As  the  publishers  tell  us,  "  much  has 
happened  during  the  twenty  years  it  has  been  before  the 
public  which  necessitates  a  different  treatment  of  many 
articles."  This  new  edition  has  been  thoroughly  revised, 
new  articles  having  been  written,  and  the  old  ones  gone 
over  by  eminent  authorities,  as  may  be  seen  from 
the  following  list :  Alchemy  and  Atomic  Theory,  by 
Prof.  Crum-Brown  ;  Ant,  by  Sir  John  Lubbock  ;  Alps, 
by  Prof.  James  Geikie  ;  Arctic,  Antarctic,  and  Atlantic 
Oceans,  by  Mr.  John  Murray ;  and  Atom,  by  Prof.  Tait. 
While  such  well-known  names  as  these  will  command 
universal  respect  and  confidence,  it  is  to  be  regretted  that 
some  of  the  subjects,  such  as  that  of  Astronomy — to  take 
an  instance — should  leave  much  to  be  desired  in  this 
particular. 

The  work  is  carried  out  on  exactly  the  same  lines  as 
the  original  edition,  the  subjects  being  treated,  not  in 
great  detail,  but  so  as  to  afford  information  interesting 
to  any  more  or  less  educated  person. 

American  and  colonial  subjects  are  dealt  with  in  this 
edition  more  than  in  former  ones,  the  more  important 
articles  on  American  subjects  being  written  by  American 
authors  especially  for  this  re  issue. 

The  number  of  maps,  both  geographical  and  physical, 
has  been  increased,  and  the  illustrations  are  more 
numerous,  and  supersede  those  of  former  editions. 
The  printing  throughout  is  excellent. 

Messrs.  Chambers  are  to  be  congratulated  upon  the 
issue  of  a  work  which,  from  its  merits,  deserves  to  find  a 
place  in  every  home. 

Leitfixden  der  Zoologie  fiir  die  oberen  Classen  der  Mittel- 
schulen.  Von  Dr.  Vitus  Graber.  Mit  502  Abbildungen 
im  Texte(darunter  62  farbige)  und  einem  Farbendruck- 
bilde.     (Wien:    F.  Tempsky,  1887.) 

Even  in  these  days  of  cheap  books,  it  is  surprising 
to   find   an    octavo  volume   of  nearly   250   pages,   with 


over  500  illustrations,  published  for  the  price  of  less 
than  three  shillings  of  our  money.  When  we  add  that  the 
information,  though  of  necessity  very  much  condensed,  is 
not  only  good  and  exact,  but  in  most  cases  quite  up  to 
date,  we  have  said  all  that  is  needed  to  call  our  readers* 
attention  to  this  little  volume. 

The  coloured  illustrations  in  the  text  are  wonderfully 
effective  ;  one  gives  a  representation  of  one  of  Schulze's 
sections  through  a  Sponge,  printed  in  two  colours,  in 
which  the  horny  framework  is  represented  yellow,  the 
pore-canal  system  blue. 

It  is  interesting  to  note  that  at  a  time  when  in  this 
country  the  study  of  biology  is  not  encouraged  in  our 
schools,  when  it  is  omitted  from  the  programme  of  our 
intermediate  education  examinations,  it  should  be  so 
taught  in  the  intermediate  schools  in  Austria  as  to  call 
for  the  production  of  such  an  excellent  and  cheap 
introduction  to  its  study. 

LETTERS   TO    THE  EDITOR. 

\The  Editor  does  not  hold  himselj  responsible  for  opinions 
expressed  by  his  correspondents.  Neither  can  he  under- 
take to  return,  or  to  correspond  with  the  writers  of, 
rejected  manuscripts  intended  for  this  or  any  other  part 
^Nature.  No  notice  is  taken  of  anonymous  communi- 
cations.'] 

"Coral  Formations." 

I  SHOULD  be  trespassing  too  much  on  the  kindness  of  the 
Editor  of  Nature  if  I  were  to  refer  to  all  the  numerous  novel 
and  interesting  points  in  Mr.  Bourne's  description  of  Diego 
Garcia.  The  retrospective  character  of  the  account  is  some- 
thing new  in  ihe  instance  of  an  atoll  ;  and  it  is  not  often  that  a 
naturalist  is  able  to  add  to  his  own  observations  the  twenty-five 
years'  experience  of  an  observer  like  M.  Spurs. 

I  am,  however,  at  a  loss  to  understand  why  Mr.  Bourne  is 
unable  to  assent  to  the  theory  of  subsidence.  Prof.  Dana,  who 
long  since  referred  to  the  evidence  of  upheaval  in  the  atoll 
regions  of  the  Pacific,  nevertheless  did  not  regard  such  evidence 
as  negativing  the  theory  he  supported,  nor,  in  fact,  did  Mr. 
Darwin  himself.  The  testimony  most  required  to  overturn  the 
theory  of  subsidence  is  the  testimony  which  the  supporters  of 
that  view  will  accept.  I  do  not  find  such  evidence  in  Mr. 
Bourne's  paper. 

I  am  also  in  doubt  as  to  the  position  of  the  writer  of  the 
paper  in  regard  to  Mr.  Murray's  views.  In  disagreeing  with  the 
importance  which  Mr.  Murray  attaches  to  the  agency  of  solution, 
he  makes  no  attack  on  the  main  position  of  the  new  explanation, 
viz.  the  building  up  of  the  foundations  of  atolls  by  organic 
deposits.     Does  "Mr.  Bourne  accept  this  view  ? 

II,   B.  Guppv. 


I  HAVE  been  much  interested  by  the  discussion  on  coral 
formations  which  recently  appeared  in  Nature,  and  I  venture 
to  send  you  an  extract  from  a  journal  kept  during  my  stay  in 
Massowah. 

"  Massotvah,  February  1888.— The  whole  of  the  harbour  is 
fringed  with  coral  reefs  formed  by  species  of  Madreporaria 
{perforata),  extending  in  places  a  considerable  distance  from 
the  high-water  mark  (TurUe  Island,  for  example) ;  in  other  parts 
the  edge  of  the  reef  is  quite  close  to  land,  and  in  each  case  there 
is  less  water  immediately  over  the  edge  of  the  reef  than  there  is 
a  little  way  in  shore.  Tlie  outer  edges  of  the  reefs  go  down 
almost  perpendicularly  to  a  depth  of  4  or  5  fathoms,  while 
towards  the  shore  the  water  deepens,  at  first  rather  quickly  to 
3  or  4  feet,  then  gradually  becomes  shallow  to  the  beach.  The 
bottom,  inside  the  edges  of  the  reefs,  is  composed  of  fine  grayish 
mud — composed  chiefly  of  a  mixture  of  disintegrated  coral  an4 
fine  drift  alluvial  sand  which  is  blown  over  from  the  mainland- 
while  the  bottom  of  the  harbour  is  nearly  black  mud.  Here  and 
there,  just  inside  the  edges  of  the  reefs,  arc  found  pieces  of  living 
coral  broken  off  from  the  outer  edges.  Every  evidence  here 
shows  that  the  land  is  rising. 

"Large  masses  of  coral  much  altered  by  the  rain  are  to  be 
found  on  the  plains  of  Massowah,  which  extend  three  or  four  miles 
in  south-west,  west,  and  north-west  directions.  They  show 
unmistakaVile    signs    of    the   undermining   action   of    the    sen, 


April  2b,  1888] 


NATURE 


605 


which  can  still  be  seen  going  on  around  the  coast  and  harbour. 
At  Mokullo,  at  a  depth  of  20  feet,  I  observed  masses  of  coral 
(Aperosa)  almost  perfect  in  shape,  covered  up  with  alluvium.  It 
is  probable  that  the  whole  coast  from  the  mountains  has  been 
reclaimed  by  the  action  of  coral  builders,  and  that  eventually 
the  group  of  islands  outside  will  be  joined  to  the  mainland." 

I  noticed  a  similar  formation  of  the  coral  reefs  in  Suakim 
Harbour  ;  while  at  Key  West,  Florida,  there  was  no  lessening 
of  the  depth  of  the  water  on  the  edge  of  the  reefs. 

David  Wilson-Barker. 


The  following  table,  showing  some  of  the  results  of  work 
done  in  connection  with  the  solubility  of  carbonate  of  lime  in 
sea-water  will  be  of  interest.  The  difference  in  solubility  be- 
tween heavy  dense  corals  and  the  lighter  porous  varieties  is  very 
marked. 

Table  I. — Shmuing  Solubility  oj   Carbonate  of  Lime,  under 
different  forms,  in  Sea-water,  in  grammes  per  litre. 


•So. 

IB  «5 

u'S 

2 
2 

i 

0  ui 

Material  used. 

^ 

0. 

«f 

1-  0 

u  0 

S 

H 

11 

°c. 

Hours 

Grm, 

Dead  coral,  Pontes 

27 

12 

o'395 

3 

Coral  sand        

27 

12 

0032 

5 

Harbour  mud,  Bermuda       

27 

12 

0*04 1 

2 

Isophyllia  dipsacea  (Dana).  Bermuda      

27 

12 

o'o4i 

6 

Milkpora  ramosa  (Pallas),  Bermuda      

27 

12 

0*036 

7 

Madrepora  aspera  (Dani),  Mactan  Island,  Zebu 

27 

12 

0073 

7 

Montipora  folioso  (Pallas),  Amboyna      

27 

12 

0-043 

7 

GomastrcBa  multilobata{Q\i3.\ch),  Amboyna    ... 

10 

12 

0-073 

3 

Porites  clavaria  (Lamk.),  Bermuda        

10 

12 

0-093 

2 

of  it  to  acyclic  quadrilaterals  given  in  Todhunter's  "Euclid,' 
p.  318,  and  at  the  same  time  generalize  the  problem  thus — 

Tofnda  point  Ewilhin  a  triangle  such  that  I .  AE  +  m .  BE 
+  n  .  CE  may  be  a  minimum  ;  I,  m,  n  being  such  that  any  two 
are  together  greater  than  the  third. 


10 

27 

12 

168 

0-331 
0384 

10 

10 

-1-66 

12 

0'123 

0-649 

0610 

10 

12 

0  089 

Table  II. 

Weathered  oyster-shells        

Mussels  allowed  to  rot  in  sea-wafer  seven  days 

Crystallized  carbonate  of  lime         

a  Amorphous  carbonate  of  lime  (freshly  prepared) 
b  Ditto  ditto  ditto 

Melobesia,  Kilbrennan  Sound,  Scotland 

a  and  b.  The  carbonate  of  lime  was  added  as  long  as  it  dissolved. 

The  figures  in  Table  II.  will  give  Mr.  T.  Mellard  Reade 
facts  (so  far  as  laboratory  experiments  may)  upon  which  to  found 
reasonable  views.  Mr.  George  Young,  who  has  made  all  the 
determinations  under  my  direction,  is  one  of  the  chemical  staff 
attached  to  the  Marine  Station  here. 

Robert  Irvine. 

Royston,  Granton,  near  Edinburgh,  April  16. 


Note  on  a  Problem  in  Maxima  and  Minima. 
I  suppose  most  lovers  of  elementary  geometry  who  read  the 
communication    on    the   above  subject    from    Mr.    Chartres  in 
Nature  of  February  2  (p.  320)  admired  the  simple  investigation 
he  gave  of  the  problem. 

I  should  like,  however,  to  point  out — 

(i)  That  it  might  be  made  still  more  elementary  by  proving 
EB  -f  EC  =  ED  without  the  aid  of  Book  VI. 

Let  E  be  any  point  on  the  arc  of  the  circumcircle  of  an  equi- 
lateral triangle  BDC  on  which  the  angle  D  stands,  and  on  ED 
as  diameter  describe  a  circle  cutting  EB,  EC  in  B',  C. 
Then  /  B'C'D  =  ^  BED  -^r   /  BCD. 
Similarly  z  C'B'D  =  /  CBD  ; 
.-.  z  B'DC  =  z  BDC  ; 
.•.  B'C'D  is  equilateral. 

Hence  B'E,  EC  are  sides  of  a  regular  hexagon  inscribed  in  the 
circle  B'C'D. 

.-.  B'E  +  EC  =  ED. 
Again,  BD,  DB'  =  CD,  DC, 
and  /  BDB'  =  ^  CDC  ; 

.-.  BB'  =  CC  ; 
.-.  BE  -}-  EC  =  B'E  -t-  EC 
=  ED. 

(2)  If  we  assume  Ptolemy's  theorem  (conventionally  quoted 
as  Euclid,  VI.  D)  we  may  as  well  assume  the  known  extension 


On  BC  describe  a  triangle  BCD  such  that  BC  :  CD  :  DB  :: 
I  \m:n  ;  the  point  required  will  be  the  intersection  E  of  AD 
with  the  circumcircle  of  BCD  if  E  is  within  the  triangle  ABC. 

For  BE  .  CD  -1-  CE  .  BD  =  ED  .  BC, 
.-.  /w  ,  BE-t-  «.  CE  =  /.  ED; 
.-.  /  .  AE  -^  ;«  .  BE  -f  «  .  CE  =  /  .  AD. 

But  if  G  is  any  other  point  on  the  arc  BEC, 

»/  .  BG  +  «  .  CG  =  /  .  GD  ; 

.-.  /  .  AG  -^  w  .  BG  -f  «  .  CG  =  /  .  AG  -f  /  .  GD  ; 

.-.  /.  AG-H  w  .  BG-f  «  .  CG>/.  AD. 
And  if  P  be  any  point  within  the  triangle  ABC,  but  not  on  the 
circumference — 

BP  .  CD-f  CP  .  BD>PD  .  BC  (Todhunter's  "Euclid," 
.-.  w  .  BP4-«  .  CP  >/.  PD;  [p.  318); 

.-.  /.  AP-f;«  .  BP-t-w  .  CP  >/.  AP  -1-  /.  PD; 
.-.  /.  AP-l-;«  .  BP  +  «  .  CP  >/.  AD. 

If  /,  w,  n  are  proportional  to  a,  b,  c,  E  is  the  orlhocentre  of 
ABC. 

If  /,  ;;/,  n  are  proportional  to  c,  a,  b,  or  b,  c,  a,  E  is  one  of  the 
Brocard  points  of  ABC,  and  the  construction  for  E  is  equivalent 
to  that  of  Mr.  R.  F.  Davis  for  the  Brocard  points  ("  Reprint  of 
Mathematics  from  the  Educational  Tivies,"  vol.  xlvii.  App.  II.). 

It  will,  of  course,  be  seen  that  the  triangle  formed  by  drawing 
perpendiculars  to  AE,  BE,  CE  through  A,  B,  C,  is  the  maxi- 
mum triangle  with  its  sides  proportional  to  /,  m,  n  and  passing 
through  A,  B,  C.  Prof.  Genese  has  kindly  supplied  me  with 
an  elementary  investigation  of  the  problem,  depending  on  the 
construction  of  that  triangle. 

It  may  also  be  seen  that  the  question  has  an  intimate  con- 
nection with  one  proposed  by  Mr.  Morgan  Jenkins  in  the 
Educational  Times  for  August  i,  1884  :  — 

If  on  the  three  sides  of  a  triangle,  ABC,  there  be  described 
any  three  triangles,  BDC,  CEA,  AFB,  either  all  externally  or 
all  internally  having  their  angles  in  the  same  order  of  rota- 
tion,  and  the  angles  which  are  contiguous  to  the  same  corner  of 
ABC  equal  to  each  other,  prove  that  AD,  BE,  and  CF  nieet  in 
a  point  O,  which  is  also  the  common  point  of  intersection  of 
the  circumcircles  of  BDC,  CEA,  AFB  ("  Reprint,"  vol.  xliii. 
pp.  88-91).  Edward  M.  Langley. 

Bedford,  April  14. 

Self-  Induction. 

I  FIND  I  am  being  quoted  as  having  said  that  an  iron  con- 
ductor has  less  self-induction  than  a  copper  one.  You  will 
perhaps  spare  me  a  line  to  disclaim  any  such  statement.  It  is 
one  which  seems  to  me  on  the  face  of  it  absurd. 

Oliver  J.  Lodge. 


6o6 


NATURE 


\April  26,  1888 


SUGGESTIONS  ON  THE  CLASSIFICA  TION  OF 
THE  VARIOUS  SPECIES  OF  HEAVENLY 
BODIES} 

II. 

II.— CLASSIFICATION. 

I.  Former  Classifications  of  Stars. 

T  N  the  various  classifications  of  the  celestial  bodies 
■*■  which  have  been  attempted  from  time  to  time,  nebulae 
and  comets  have  been  regarded  as  things  apart  from  the 
stars  ;  but  from  what  I  have  stated  in  the  first  part  of 
this  paper,  relating  to  the  origin  of  the  various  groups  of 
heavenly  bodies,  it  is  clear  that  it  is  not  only  unnecessary 
but  unphilosophical  to  make  such  a  separation ;  and 
indeed,  if  any  such  separation  were  needed,  such  a  result 
would  seem  to  indicate  that  the  line  of  evolution  is  by  no 
means  so  simple  and  clear  as  it  really  seems  to  be.  But 
although  it  is  no  longer  necessary  to  draw  this  distinction, 
it  is  important  that  I  should  state  the  various  spectro- 
scopic classifications  which  have  been  attempted  in  the 
case  of  the  stars.  With  this  information  before  us,  we 
shall  be  better  able  to  see  the  definite  lines  on  which  any 
new  classification  must  be  based  to  include  all  celestial 
forms. 

Fraunhofer,  RMtherfurd,  and  Secchi. 

When  we  inquire  into  the  various  labours  upon  which 
our  present  knowledge  of  the  spectra  of  the  various  orders 
of  "  stars  "  are  based,  the  first  we  come  across  are  those  of 
Fraunhofer,  who  may  be  said  to  have  founded  this  branch 
of  scientific  inquiry  in  the  year  1814. 

Fraunhofer  not  only  instituted  the  method  of  work 
which  now  is  found  to  be  the  most  effective,  but  his  ob- 
servations at  that  time  were  so  excellent  that  he  had  no 
difficulty  in  finding  coincidences  between  lines  in  the  sun 
and  in  Venus. 

Fraunhofer's  reference  to  his  observations  runs  as 
follows : — 

"  I  have  also  made  several  observations  on  some  of  the 
brightest  fixed  stars.  As  their  light  was  much  fainter 
than  that  of  Venus,  the  brightness  of  their  spectrum  was 
consequently  still  less.  I  have  nevertheless  seen,  without 
any  illusion,  in  the  spectrum  of  the  light  of  Sirius,  three 
large  lines,  which  apparently  have  no  resemblance  with 
those  of  the  sun's  light.  One  of  them  is  in  the  green, 
and  two  in  the  blue  space.  Lines  are  also  seen  in  the 
spectrum  of  other  fixed  stars  of  the  first  magnitude  ;  but 
these  stars  appear  to  be  different  from  one  another  in 
relation  to  these  lines.  As  the  object-glass  of  the  tele- 
scope of  the  theodolite  has  only  thirteen  lines  of  aperture, 
these  experiments  may  be  repeated,  with  greater  precision, 
by  means  of  an  object-glass  of  greater  dimensions."  "- 

He  did  not  attempt  to  classify  his  observations  on 
stellar  spectra,  but,  as  pointed  out  by  Prof.  Dun^r  ("  Les 
Etoiles  k  Spectres  de  la  Troisieme  Classe,"  p.  3),  those 
that  he  most  particularly  mentions  are  really  remarkably 
diverse  in  their  characteristics. 

In  these  researches  Fraunhofer  was  followed  by  Ruther- 
furd,  who,  in  the  year  1863,  was  the  first  to  indicate  that 
the  various  stellar  spectra  which  he  had  then  observed  were 
susceptible  of  being  arranged  into  different  groups.  His 
paper  was  published  in  Sillimafi's  Journal  (vol.  xxxv. 
p.  71),  and,  after  giving  an  account  of  the  observations 
actually  made,  continues  as  follows  :  — 

"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,  ^  Geminorum,  a  Ononis,  Aldebaran, 
y  Leonis,  Arcturus,  and  ^3  Pegasi.  These  are  all  reddish 
or  golden  stars.      The  second  group,  of  which  Sirius  is 

The  Bakerian  Lecture,  delivered  at  the  Royal  Society  on  April  12,  by 
J-^Norman  Lockyer,  F.R.S.     Continued  from  p.  590. 

.'^  "On  the  Refractive  and  Dispersive  Power  of  Different  Species  of  Glass, 
with  an  Account  of  the  Lines  Which  cross  the  Spectrum,"  Fraunhofer,  trans, 
lated  in  Edin.  PhilosoJ>hic  Journal,  vol.  x.,  October  to  April,  1823-24,  p.  39 


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  substance,  or  are 
incandescent  without  flame." 

Soon  afterwards  Secchi  carried  on  the  inquiry,  and 
began  in  1865  by  dividing  the  objects  he  had  then 
observed  into  two  types.  These  two  types  were  sub- 
sequently expanded  in  1867  into  three  ("  Cataloge  delle 
Stelle  di  cui  si  e  determinate  lo  Spettro  Luminoso," 
Secchi,  Parigi,  1867)  :  first,  white  stars,  like  a  Lyrae ; 
secondly,  yellow  stars,  like  Arcturus  ;  and,  thirdly,  deeply 
coloured  stars,  like  a  Herculis  and  u  Orionis.  The  order 
of  these  types  was  not  always  as  stated,  but  I  have  not 
been  able  to  find  the  exact  ^date  at  which  the  order  was 
changed  (Duner,  "  Sur  les  Etoiles,"  p.  128).  Secchi  sub- 
sequently added  a  fourth  type,  in  which  the  flutings 
were  less  numerous.  There  is  little  doubt  that  Secchi 
was  led  to  these  types  not  so  much  by  any  considerations 
relating  to  the  chemical  constitution  of  the  atmospheres 
of  these  bodies  as  in  relation  to  their  colours.  His  first 
classifications,  in  fact,  simply  separated  the  white  stars 
from  the  coloured  ones  (see  on  this  point  "  Le  Scopirte 
Spettroscopiche,"  P.  A.  Secchi,  Roma,  1865). 

The  fourth  type  included,  therefore,  stars  of  a  deeper  red 
colour  than  those  of  the  third,  and  Secchi  pointed  out  that 
this  was  accompanied  by  a  remarkable  change  in  the 
spectrum  ;  in  fact,  of  Secchi's  four  types  thus  established, 
the  first  and  second  had  line  spectra  and  the  third  and 
fourth  had  fluted  ones.  At  that  time  the  important  dis- 
tinction to  be  drawn  between  line-  and  fluted-spectra  was 
not  so  well  recognized  as  it  is  at  present  ;  and  further  the 
relation  of  spectra  to  temperature  was  not  so  fully  con- 
sidered. Secchi,  as  a  result  of  laboratory  work,  however, 
at  once  showed  an  undoubted  connection  between  the  ab- 
sorption flutings  in  the  stars  of  the  fourth  type  and  those 
seen  in  the  spectrum  of  carbon  under  certain  conditions  ; 
and  although  this  conclusion  has  been  denied,  it  has  since 
been  abundantly  confirmed  by  Vogel  and  others  (see 
Vogel,  Publicationen,  Potsdam,  No.  14,  1884,  p,  31). 

Relation  to  Temperature. 

At  the  time  that  Secchi  was  thus  classifying  the  stars, 
the  question  was  taken  up  also  by  Zollner,  who  in  1865 
first  threw  out  the  suggestion  that  the  spectra  might  pro- 
bably enable  us  to  determine  somewhat  as  to  the  relative 
ages  of  these  bodies  ;  and  he  suggested  that  the  yellow  and 
red  light  of  certain  stars  were  indications  of  a  reduction 
of  temperature  (Zollner,  "  Photometrische  Untersuch- 
ungen,"  p.  243). 

In  1868  this  subject  occupied  the  attention  of  Angstrom 
with  special  reference  to  the  contrasted  spectra  of  lines 
and  flutings.  On  this  he  wrote  as  follows,  showing  that 
temperature  considerations  might  help  us  in  the  matter  of 
variable  stars  ("  Recherches  sur  le  Spectre  solaire," 
Upsala,  1868):— 

"  D'apresles  observations  faites  par  MM.  Secchi  et  Hug- 
gins,  les  raies  d'absorption  dans  les  spectres  stellaires  sont 
de  deux  especes  :  chez  I'une,  le  spectre  est  raye  de  lignes 
tres-fines,  comme  le  spectre  solaire  ;  chez  I'autre,  les 
raies  constituent  des  groupes  entiers  a  espaces  dgaux  ou 
des  bandes  nuancdes.  Ces  derniers  groupes  appartiennent 
vraisemblablement  aux  corps  composes,  etje  mentionnerai, 
en  particulier,  que  ceux  trouves  dans  le  spectre  de  a 
Orionis  ressemblent  fort  aux  bandes  lumineuses  que 
donne  la  spectre  de  I'oxyde  de  manganese.  Suppose  que 
ma  theorie  soit  juste,  I'apparition  de  ces  bandes  doit  done 
indiquer  que  la  temperature  de  I'etoile  est  devenue  assez 
basse  pour  que  de  telles  combinaisons  chimiques  puissent 
se  former  et  se  conserver. 

"  Entre  ces  deux  limites  de  temperature  chez  les  etoiles, 
limites  que  Ton  peut  caractdriser  par  la  presence  de  I'une 
ou  de  I'autre  espece  des  raies  d'absorption,  on  peut 
s'imaginer  aussi  un  dtat  intermediaire,  dans  lequel  les  gaz 


Apru  26,  1888] 


NATURE 


607 


composes  peuvent  se  former  ou  se  dissocier,  suivant  les 
variations  de  temperature  auxquelles  ils  sont  assujett^s 
par  Taction  chimique  meme.  Dans  cette  classe  doivent 
probablement  ctre  comprises  les  etoiles  dont  I'intensitd 
de  lumiere  varie  plus  ou  moins  rapidement,  et  avec  une 
pdriodicitd  plus  ou  moins  constante." 

In  the  year  1873,  I  referred  to  this  subject  in  my  Baker- 
ian  Lecture  {Phil.  Trans,  vol.  clxiv.  pt.  2,  1873,  p.  492),  in 
which  I  attempted  to  bring  to  bear  some  results  obtained 
in  solar  inquiries  upon  the  question  of  stellar  temperatures. 

I  quote  the  following  paragraphs  : — 

I.  The  absorption  of  some  elementary  and  compound 
gases  is  limited  to  the  most  refrangible  part  of  the  spec- 
trum when  the  gases  are  rare,  and  creeps  gradually  into 
the  visible  violet  part,  and  finally  to  the  red  end  of  the 
spectrum,  as  the  pressure  is  increased. 

II.  Both  the  general  and  selective  absorption  of  the 
photospheric  light  are  greater  (and  therefore  the  tempera- 
ture of  the  photosphere  of  the  sun  is  higher)  than  has 
been  supposed. 

III.  The  lines  of  compounds  of  a  metal  and  iodine, 
bromine,  &c.,  are  observed  generally  in  the  red  end  of  the 
spectrum,  and  this  holds  good  for  absorption  in  the  case 
of  aqueous  vapour. 

Such  spectra,  like  those  of  the  metalloids,  are  separated 
spectroscopically  from  those  of  the  metallic  elements  by 
their  columnar  or  banded  structure. 

IV.  There  are,  in  all  probability,  no  compounds 
ordinarily  present  in  the  sun's  reversing  (layer. 

V.  When  a  metallic  compound  vapour,  such  as  is  re- 
ferred to  in  III.,  is  dissociated  by  the  spark,  the  band 
spectrum  dies  out,  and  the  elemental  lines  come  in, 
according  to  the  degree  of  temperature  employed. 

Again,  although  our  knowledge  of  the  spectra  of  stars 
is  lamentably  incomplete,  I  gather  the  following  facts 
from  the  work  already  accomplished  with  marvellous  skill 
and  industry  by  Secchi,  of  Rome. 

VI.  The  sun,  so  far  as  the  spectrum  goes,  may  be  re- 
gar-ded  as  a  representative  of  class,  (/3)  intermediate  be- 
tween stars  (a)  with  much  simpler  spectra  of  the  same 
kind  and  stars  (y)  with  much  more  complex  spectra  of  a 
different  kind. 

VII.  Sirius,  as  a  type  of  a,  is  (i)  the  brightest  (and 
therefore  hottest  ?)  star  in  our  northern  sky  ;  (2)  the  blue 
end  of  its  spectrum  is  open, — it  is  only  certainly  known  to 
contain  hydrogen,  the  other  metallic  lines  being  exceed- 
ingly thin,  thus  indicating  a  small  proportion  of  metallic 
vapours  ;  while  (3)  the  hydrogen  lines  in  this  star  are 
enormously  distended,  showing  that  the  chromosphere  is 
largely  composed  of  that  element. 

There  are  other  bright  stars  of  this  class. 

VIII.  As  types  of  y  the  red  stars  may  be  quoted,  the 
spectra  of  which  are  composed  of  channelled  spaces  and 
bands,  and  in  which  naturally  the  blue  end  is  closed. 
Hence  the  reversing  layers  of  these  stars  probably  contain 
metalloids,  or  compounds,  or  both,  in  great  quantity  ; 
and  in  their  spectra  not  only  is  hydrogen  absent,  but  the 
metallic  lines  are  reduced  in  thickness  and  intensity, 
which  in  the  light  of  V.,  ante,  may  indicate  that  the 
metallic  vapours  are  being  associated.  It  is  fair  to  assume 
that  these  stars  are  of  a  lower  temperature  than  our  sun. 

In  the  same  year,  in  a  letter  to  M.  Dumas,  published  in 
the  Comptes  rendus^  I  again  pointed  out  that,  if  we  con- 

^  "  II  semble  que  plus  une  ^toile  est  chaude,  plus  son  spectre  est  simple,  et 
que  les  elements  metalliques  se  font  voir  dans  I'ordre  de  lines  poids  anato- 
miques.     Ainsi  nous  avons  :— 

"  (i)  Des  Etoiles  tres  brillantes,  ou  nous  ne  voyons  que  I'hydrogine  en 
quantitd  dtiorvie,  ct  le  magnesium. 

"  (2)  Des  etoiles  plus  froides,  comme  notre  soleil,  oil  nous  trou\03s: — 
H  +  Mg  +  Na. 
H  +  Mg  +  Na  +  Ca .  Fe,  &c.  ; 
dans  ces  Etoiles,  pas  de  metalloides. 

"(3)  Des  Etoiles  plus  froides  encore,  dans  lesquelles  tous  les  elements 
metalliques  sont  associes,  oil  leurs  lignes  ne  sont  plus  visibles,  et  oil  nous 
n' avons  que  les  spectres  des  mtftalloides  et  des  composes. 

"  (4)  Plus  une  etoile  est  agee,  plus  I'hydrogcne  libre  di^arait  ;  sur  laterre, 
nous  ne  trouvons  plus  I'hydrogcne  en  liberty." 


sider  merely  the  scale  of  temperature,  a  celestial  body  with 
flutings  in  it  would  be  cooler  than  one  which  bad  lines  in 
its  spectrum  ;  and  I  also  pointed  out  that,  taking  the  con- 
siderable development  of  the  blue  end  of  the  spectrum  in 
white  stars  as  contrasted  with  its  feeble  exhibition  in 
stars  like  our  sun,  we  had  strong  presumptive  evidence 
to  the  effect  that  the  stars  like  a  Lyrae,  with  few  lines  in 
their  spectra,  were  hotter  than  those  resembling  our  sun, 
in  which  the  number  of  lines  was  very  much  more  con- 
siderable, and  I  added  an  inference  from  this :  "plus  une 
Etoile  est  chaude,  plus  son  spectre  est  simple."  This  re- 
lated merely,  as  1  have  said  before,  to  the  consideration 
of  one  line  of  temperature. 

Vogel's  Classification. 

In  the  year  following  my  paper,  the  most  considerable 
classification  which  has  been  put  forward  of  late  years 
was  published  by  Dr.  Vogel  {Astr.  Nach.,  No.  2000),  who, 
basing  his  work  on  the  previous  types  of  Secchi,  and 
taking  into  account  the  inference  1  drew  in  my  letter 
to  Dumas,  modified  Secchi's  types  to  a  certain  extent, 
but  always  along  one  line  of  temperature,  the  leading  idea 
being,  as  I  gather  from  many  remarks  made  in  Dun^r's 
admirable  memoir,  to  be  referred  to  presently,  that  the 
classification  is  based  upon  descending  temperatures, 
and  that  all  the  stars  included  in  it  are  supposed  at  one 
time  or  other  to  have  had  a  spectrum  similar  to  that  of 
a  Lyrae.i 

This  classification  is  as  follows  : — 

Class  I.  Spectra  in  which  the  metallic  lines  are  ex- 
tremely faint  or  entirely  invisible. — The  most  refrangible 
parts,  blue  and  violet,  are  very  vivid.  The  stars  are 
white. 

{a)  Spectra  in  which  the  lines  of  hydrogen  are  very 
strong. 

(h)  Spectra  in  which  the  lines  of  hydrogen  are  wanting. 

{c)  Spectra  in  which  the  lines  of  hydrogen  and  D3  are 
bright. 

Class  II.  Spectra  in  which  the  metallic  lines  are 
mimerous  and  very  visible. — The  blue  and  violet  are 
relatively  weaker;  in  the  red  part  there  are  sometimes 
faint  bands.  The  colour  of  the  stars  is  clear  bluish 
white  to  deep  reddish  yellow. 

(rt)  Spectra  with  numerous  metallic  lines,  especially  in 
the  yellow  and  green.  The  lines  of  hydrogen  are  gener- 
ally strong,  but  never  as  strong  as  in  the  stars  of  Class  I. 
In  some  stars  they  are  invisible,  and  then  faint  bands  are 
generally  seen  in  the  red  formed  by  very  close  lines. 

{b)  Spectra  in  which  besides  dark  lines  and  isolated 
bands  there  are  several  bright  lines. 

Class  III.  Spectra  in  which  besides  the  metallic 
lines  there  are  numerous  dark  bands  in  all  parts  of  the 
spectrwn,  and  the  blue  and  violet  are  remarkably  faint. — 
The  stars  are  orange  or  red. 

(a)  The  dark  bands  are  fainter  towards  the  red. 

{b)  The  bands  are  very  wide,  and  the  principal  are 
fainter  towards  the  violet. 

It  is  pointed  out  that  if  this  classification  be  true,  there 
must  be  hnks  between  all  the  classes  given.  Now  it  is 
perfectly  obvious  that  if  this  classification  includes  in  its 
view  all  the  stars,  and  if  there  is  a  line  of  ascending  as 
well  as  descending  temperatures — that  is  to  say,  if  some 
of  the  stars  are  increasing  their  temperatures,  while  others 
are  diminishing  them — the  classification  must  give  way. 

It  is  not  difficult  to  see.  in  the  light  of  my  communica- 
tion to  the  Society  of  November  17,  that  it  has  given  way 
altogether,  and  principally  on  this  wi.se. 

The  idea  which  underlies  the  classification  is  that  a 
star  of  Class  I.  on  cooling  becomes  a  star  of  Class  II., 
and  that  a  star  of  Class  II.  has  as  it  were  a  choice  before 

'  "  Car  selon  la  thforie  il  faiidra  que  tot  ou  tard  toutes  les  efoJles  de  \x 
premiere  classe  deviennent  de  la  seconde,  et  celles-ci  de  la  troisicr.  e" 
(Duner). 


6o8 


NATURE 


[April  26,  1888 


it  of  passing  to  Class  III. a  or  Class  lll.b.  Thus  under 
certain  conditions  its  spectrum  will  take  on  the  appearance 
of  Secchi's  third  type,  Class  IW.a  (Vogel) ;  on  certain  other 
conditions  it  will  take  on  the  appearance  of  Secchi's  fourth 
type,  Class  III.i^  (Vogel).  There  is  now,  however,  no 
manner  of  doubt  whatever  that  Secchi's  Class  III. a  re- 
presents stars  in  which  the  temperature  is  increasing, 
and  with  conditions  not  unlike  those  of  the  nebulae — 
that  is  to  say,  the  meteorites  are  yet  discrete,  and  that 
they  are  on  their  way  to  form  bodies  of  Class  II.  and 
Class  I.  by  the  ultimate  vaporization  of  all  their  meteoric 
constituents.  There  is  equally  no  manner  of  doubt  that 
the  stars  included  in  Class  \l\.b  have  had  their  day  ;  that 
iheir  temperature  has  been  running  down,  until  owing  to 
reduction  of  temperature  they  are  on  the  verge  of  invisi- 
bility brought  about  by  the  enormous  absorption  of  carbon 
in  their  atmospheres. 

Pechiile  was  the  first  to  object  to  Vogel's  classification, 
mainly  on  the  ground  that  Secchi's  types  3  and  4  had 
been  improperly  brought  together  ;  and  my  work  has 
shown  how  very  just  his  objection  was,^  and  how  clear- 
sighted was  his  view  as  to  the  true  position  of  stars  of 
Class  1 11.^. 

II.  Proposed  New  Grouping  of  all  Celestial 
Bodies  according  to  Temperature. 

Having,  then,  gone  over  the  various  classifications  of 
stars  according  to  their  spectra,  I  now  proceed  to  consider 
the  question  of  the  classification  of  celestial  bodies  from 
a  more  advanced  point  of  view.  I  pointed  out  in  the 
year  1886  that  the  time  had  arrived  when  stars  with 
increasing  temperatures  would  require  to  be  fundamentally 
distinguished  from  those  with  decreasing  temperatures, 
but  I  did  not  then  know  that  this  was  so  easy  to 
accomplish  as  it  now  appears  to  be  (Naiure,  vol.  xxxiv. 
p.  228)  ;  and  as  I  have  already  stated,  when  we  consider 
the  question  of  classification  at  all,  it  is  neither  necessary 
nor  desirable  that  we  should  limit  ourselves  to  the  stars  ; 
we  must  include  the  nebulae  and  comets  as  well,  and 
the  question  of  variability  does  not  really  concern  us, 
because  it  is  as  a  rule  in  its  extremest  form  the  passage 
of  a  body  giving  one  spectrum  to  a  body  giving  another 
even  if  of  a  different  type,  owing  to  sudden  changes  of 
temperature. 

I  "  M.  Vogel  a  propose  une  classification  suivant  les  diverses  phases  de 
refroidissement  indiquees  par  les  spectres,  dans  laquelle  il  fait  des  types  III. 
et  IV.  de  Secchi  deux  subdivisions  d'une  meme  classe,  Wl.a  et  III  (J.  Mais 
je  trouve  certaines  difficultes  negatives  centre  cette  classification  relativement 
au  role  qu'y  joue  la  III.i^.  En  eflfet,  il  est  admis  que  le  IV.  type  de 
Secchi  se  distingue  nettemtnt  du  III.  type,  non  seulement  par  la  position  et 
la  quantite  des  zones  obscures,  niais  aussi  par  le  fait  tres-remarquable,  que  les 
principales  de  ces  zones  sont  bien  definies  et  brusquement  interrompues  du 
cote  du  violette  dans  le  III.  type  du  cote  du  rouge  dans  le  IV.  Or,  si  le  IV. 
type  doit  representer  une  des  phases  de  refroidissement,  par  lesquelles 
passent  les  etoiles,  on  pent  faire  deux  hypotheses.  La  premiere  est  que  le 
spectre  du  IV.  type  soit  coordonne  au  spectre  du  III.  type,  de  maniere  qu'il 
ait  des  etoiles,  qui  passent  de  la  phase  representee  par  le  II.  type,  a  la 
phase  representee  par  le  III.  type,  et  d'autres,  qui  passent  dTectement  du 

II.  type  au  IV.  Mais  cette  hypothese  est  inadmissible.  Car  en  connait  de 
spectres  entremediaires  entre  le  I.  et  le  II.  type,  et  entre  le  II.  et  III.  ;  mais 
on  ne  connait  pas,  a  ce  que  je  sache,  de  spectres  du  II.  type  tendant  au  IV. 
Reste  done  I'hypothese,  que  la  phase  de  refroidissement,  representee  par  le 
spectre  du  IV.  type,  soit  posterieure  a  la  phase  representee  par  Ic  III.  type,  de 
maniere  que  les  spectres  des  etoiles  passent  du  III.  au  IV.  type.  Sice  passage 
se  fait  peu  a  peu,  il  devrait  avoir  des  spectres  entremediaires  entre  le  III.  et 
le  IV.  type  ;  maisquoique  Secchi  par  exemple  le  17  Jan.,  1868,  ait  determine 
le  spectre  de  I'etoile   273  Schjell.,   comme  semblant  entremediaire  entre  le 

III.  et  le  IV.  type,  il  I'a  plus  tard  reconnu  du  IV.  type,  et  I'existence  de 
spectres  du  III. -IV.  type  n'est  nullement  prouvee.  On  pourrait  objecter 
que  les  etoiles  du  IV.  type  sont  peu  nombreuses  et  en  general  si  petites  que 
leurs  spectres  sont  difficiles  a  voir,  et  que  par  consequent  il  pourrait  y  avoir 
parmi  ces  spectres  quelques-uns,  qui  se  rapprochassent  du  III.  type.  Mais 
je  reponds  a  cette  remarque,  que  lesspectres  du  III. -IV.  type,  indiquant  une 
phase  moins  refroidie,  devraient  au  contraire  en  general  appartenir  a  des 
Etoiles  plus  grandes  que  celles  ayant  des  spectres  du  IV.  type.  Si  on  veut 
supposer  que  le  passage  du  III.  au  IV.  typese  fasse  subitement,  ou  par  une 
catastrophe,  pendant  laquelle  apparaissent  des  lignes  brillantes,  cette  sup- 
position meme  constituerait  une  diffeience  physique  bien  plus  distincte  entre 
le  III.  et  le  IV.  type,  qu'entre  le  II.  et  le  III.  ;  et  le  IV.  type  representerait 
une  phase  bien  distincte,  laderniere  peut-etre  avant  I'extinction  totale.  Le 
r6Ie  physique  du  IV.  type  est  done  encore  si  mysterieux,  que  j'ai  cru  pouvoir 
encore  me  conformer  a  I'exemple  de  d'Arrest,  en  suivant  la  classification 
formelle  de  Secchi." — C.  F.  Pechiile,"  Expedition  Danoise  pour  I'Observation 
du  Passage  de  Venus,  1882,"  p.  25  (Copenhagen,  J.  H.  Schultz,  1883). 


In  the  first  classification  on  these  lines,  which  is 
certain  to  be  modified  as  our  knowledge  gets  more 
exact,  it  is  desirable  to  keep  the  groups  as  small  in 
number  as  possible ;  the  groups  being  subsequently 
broken  up  into  sub-groups,  or,  as  I  prefer  to  call  them, 
species,  as  the  various  minute  changes  in  spectra  brought 
about  by  variations  of  temperature  are  better  made  out. 

In  my  paper  of  November  17  (Nature,  vol.  xxxvii. 
p.  84),  I  gave  a  diagram  of  the  "  temperature  curve,"  on 
which  is  shown  the  distribution  of  nebulae  and  of  stars  as 
divided  into  classes  by  Vogel,  on  the  two  arms  of  the 
curve. 

On  one  arm  of  this  we  have  those  stages  in  the  various 
heavenly  bodies  in  which  in  each  case  the  temperature  is 
increasing,  while  on  the  other  arm  we  have  that  other 
condition  in  which  we  get  first  vaporous  combination, 
and  then  ultimately  the  formation  of  a  crust  due  to  the 
gradual  cooling  of  the  mass  in  dark  bodies  like,  say,  the 
companion  to  Sirius.  At  the  top  we  of  course  laave  that 
con'  tion  in  which  the  highest  temperature  must  be 
assumed  to  exist. 

To  begin,  then,  a  more  general  classification  with  the 
lowest  temperatures,  it  is  known  that  the  nebulae  and 
comets  are  distinguished  from  most  stars  by  the  fact  that 
we  get  evidence  of  radiation.  Absorption  has  been  sus- 
pected in  the  spectra  of  some  nebulae,^  and  has  been 
observed  beyond  all  doubt  in  some  comets.^  But  there  are 
some  stars  in  which  we  also  get  radiation,  accompanied 
by  certain  absorption  phenomena  ;  but  there  is  no 
difficulty  in  showing  that  these  bodies  are  more  special 
on  account  of  their  bright  lines  than  on  account  of  their 
absorption  bands.  We  may  therefore  form  the  first  group 
of  bodies  which  are  distinguished  by  the  presence  of 
bright  hnes  or  flutings  in  the  spectrum. 

The  presence  or  absence  of  carbon  will  divide  this 
group  into  two  main  divisions,  which,  however,  we  may 
neglect  in  the  following  very  brief  sketch  which  I  give  in 
advance  of  a  more  detailed  treatment. 

The  first  species  in  this  group  would  contain  the  nebulae, 
in  which  only  the  spectrum  of  the  meteoric  constituents 
is  observed.  In  the  second  species  we  find  the  spectrum 
of  hydrogen  added. 

Another  early  species  would  contain  those  bodies  in 
which  the  nebula  spectrum  gets  almost  masked  by  a  con- 
tinuous one,  such  as  Comets  1866  and  1867,  and  the  great 
nebula  in  Andromeda. 

In  the  second  division  will  be  more  condensed 
swarms  still,  in  which,  one  by  one,  new  lines  are  added 
to  the  spectra,  and  carbon  makes  its  appearance  ;  while 
probably  the  last  species  in  this  group  would  be  bodies 
represented  by  7  Cassiopeiae. 

The  great  distinction  between  the  first  group  and  the 
second  would  be  that  evidences  of  absorption  now  become 
prominent,  and  side  by  side  with  the  bright  flutings  of 
carbon  and  occasionally  the  lines  of  hydrogen  we  have 
well-developed  fluting  absorption. 

The  second  group,  therefore,  is  distinguished  from  the 
first  by  mixed  flutings — that  is  to  say,  the  presence  of 
bright  and  dark  flutings  as  well  as  lines  in  the  spectrum. 

I  give  a  detailed  examination  into  the  species  of  this 
group  in  the  next  part  of  this  memoir. 

'  "Nebula  [No.  117,  sih.  32  M.  R.A.  oh.  35m.  5-33.  ;  N.P.D.  49°  54 
I2"'7.  Very,  very  bright ;  large,  round  ;  pretty  suddenly  much  brighter  in 
the  middle]. — This  small  but  bright  companion  of  the  great  nebula  in 
Andromeda  presents  a  spectrum  exactly  similar  to  that  of  31  M  [the  great 
nebula  in  Andromeda].  The  spectrum  appears  to  end  abruptly  in  the 
orange ;  and  throughout  its  length  is  not  uniform,  but  is  evidently  crossed 
either  by  lines  of  absorption  or  by  bright  lines"  (Huggins,  Pkii.  Trans,  vol. 
cliv.  p.  441). 

^  "A  dark  band  was  noticed  at  wave-length  s^j'g"  (Copeland,  Comet 
III.,  1881,  Copernicus,  vol.  ii.  p.  226). 

"  May  20. — With  none  of  these  dispersions  could  any  bright  bands, 
properly  so  called,  be  distinguished  ;  but  two  faint  broad  dark  bands,  or 
what  gave  that  impression,  crossed  the  spectrum.  ...  A  third  dark  band 
was  suspected  near  D  on  the  blue  side  of  that  line  "  (M.iuiider,  Comet  a  1882 
(Wells),  "Greenwich  Spectroscopic  Observations,  1882,"  p   34). 

The  dark  bands  were  observed  again,  and  their  wave-lengths  measured 
on  May  31 "  {ibid.  p.  35). 


April  26,  1888] 


NATURE 


609 


The  passage  from  the  second  group  to  the  third  brings 
us  to  those  bodies  which  are  increasing  their  tempera- 
ture, in  which  radiation  and  fluting  absorption  have  given 
place  to  line  absorption. 

At  present  the  observations  already  accumulated  have 
not  been  discussed  in  such  a  way  as  to  enable  us  to  state 
very  definitely  the  exact  retreat  of  the  absorption,  by 
which  I  mean  the  exact  order  in  which  the  absorption 
lines  fade  out  from  the  first  members  to  the  last  in  the 
group.  We  know  generally  that  the  earlier  species  will 
contain  the  line  absorption  of  those  substances  of  which 
we  get  a  paramount  fluting  absorption  in  the  prior  group. 
We  also  know  generally  that  the  absorption  of  hydrogen 
will  increase  while  the  other  diminishes. 

The  next  group,  the  fourth,  brings  us  to  the  stage  of 
highest  temperature,  to  stars  like  a  Lyrae ;  and  the 
division  between  this  group  and  the  prior  one  must  be 
more  or  less  arbitrary,  and  cannot  at  present  be  defined. 
One  thing,  however,  is  quite  clear,  that  no  celestial  body 
without  all  the  ultra-violet  lines  of  hydrogen  discovered 
by  Dr.  Huggins  can  claim  to  belong  to  it. 

We  have  now  arrived  at  the  culminating  point  of 
temperature,  and  now  pass  to  the  descending  arm  of  the 
curve  of  temperature.  The  fifth  group,  therefore,  will 
contain  those  bodies  in  which  the  hydrogen  lines  begin 
to  decrease  in  intensity,  and  other  absorptions  to  take 
place  in  consequence  of  reduction  of  temperature. 

One  of  the  most  interesting  problems  of  the  future  will 
be  to  watch  what  happens  in  bodies  along  the  descending 
scale,  as  compared  with  what  happens  to  the  bodies  in 
Group  III.  on  the  ascending  one.  But  it  seems  fair  to 
assume  that  physical  and  chemical  combinations  will  now 
have  an  opportunity  of  taking  place,  thereby  changing 
the  constituents  of  the  atmosphere ;  that  with  every  de- 
crease of  temperature  an  increase  in  the  absorption  lines 
may  be  expected,  but  it  will  be  unlikely  that  the  last 
species  in  this  group  will  resemble  the  first  one  in 
Group  III. 

The  next  group,  the  sixth,  is  Secchi's  type  IV. 
and  Vogel's  Class  \l\.b,  its  distinct  characteristics 
being  the  absorption  flutings  of  carbon.  The  species 
of  which  it  will  ultimately  be  composed  are  already 
apparently  shadowed  forth  in  the  map  which  accom- 
panies Dundr's  volume,  and  they  will  evidently  be 
subsequently  differentiated  by  the  gradual  addition  of 
other  absorptions  to  that  of  carbon,  while  at  the  same 
time  the  absorption  of  carbon  gets  less  and  less  distinct. 

To  sum  up,  then,  the  classification  I  propose  consists 
of  the  following  groups  : — 

Group  I. — Radiation  lines  and  flutings  predominant.  Absorp- 
tion beginning  in  the  last  species. 

Group    II. — Mixed  radiation  and  absorption  predominant. 

Group  III. — Line  absorption  predominant,  with  increasing 
temperature.  The  various  species  will  be 
marked  by  increasing  simplicity  of  spectrum. 

Group  IV. — Simplest  line  absorption  predominant. 

Group  V. — Line  absorption  predominant,  with  decreasing 
temperature.  The  various  species  will  be 
marked  by  decreasing  complexity  of  spec- 
trum. 

Group  VI. — Carbon  absorption  predominant. 

Group  VII. — Extinction  of  luminosity. 

It  will  be  seen  from  the  above  grouping  that  there  are 
several  fundamental  departures  from  previous  classifica- 
tions, especially  that  of  Vogel. 

The  presence  of  the  bright  flutings  of  carbon  associated 
with  dark  metallic  flutings  in  the  second  group,  and  the 
presence  of  only  absorbing  carbon  in  the  sixth,  appears  to 
me  a  matter  of  fundamental  importance,  and  to  entirely 
invalidate  the  view  that  both  groups  (the  equivalents  of 
Ill.a  and  \\\.b  of  Vogel)  are  produced  from  the  same 
mass  of  matter  on  cooling. 

This  point  has  already  been  dwelt  upon  by  Pechiile. 


Another  point  of  considerable  variation  is  the  separa- 
tion of  stars  with  small  absorption  into  such  widely 
different  groups  as  the  first  and  fourth,  whereas  Vogel 
classifies  them  together  on  the  ground  of  the  small 
absorption  in  the  visible  part  of  the  spectrum.  But  that 
this  classification  is  unsound  is  demonstrated  by  the  fact 
that  in  these  stars,  such  as  y  Cassiopeiae  and  ^  Lyrae, 
we  have  intense  variability.  We  have  bright  hydrogen 
lines  instead  of  inordinately  thick  dark  ones  ;  and  on 
other  grounds,  which  I  shall  take  a  subsequent  oppor- 
tunity of  enlarging  upon,  it  is  clear  that  the  physical  con- 
ditions of  these  bodies  must  be  as  different  as  they  pretty 
well  can  be. 

It  will  be  seen  also  that,  with  our  present  know- 
ledge, it  is  very  difficult  to  separate  those  stars  the 
grouping  of  which  is  determined  by  line  absorption  into 
the  Groups  III.  and  V.,  for  the  reason  that  so  far,  seeing 
that  only  one  line  of  temperature,  and  that  a  descending 
one,  has  been  considered,  no  efforts  have  been  made  to 
establish  the  necessary  criteria.  I  made  this  point  in  the 
paper  to  which  I  have  already  referred  in  connection 
with  the  provisional  curve,  and  for  purposes  of  complete- 
ness I  introduce  here  the  chief  part  of  what  I  wrote  on 
that  occasion. 

(71?  be  continued) 


THE  HITTITES,  WITH  SPECIAL  REFERENCE 
TO   VERY  RECENT  DISCOVERIES} 


C  OME  months  ago  the  Rev.  Greville  J.  Chester  brought 
•^  to  this  country  a  quadrangular  haematite  seal  found 
near  Tarsus.  Though  this  seal  shows,  in  certain  particu- 
lars, some  analogy  with  the  Yuzgat  seal,  yet  it  gives  little 
or  no  additional  aid  in  the  decipherment  of  the  inscrip- 
tions. It  presents,  nevertheless,  features  of  very  great 
interest.  Prof  Sayce  scarcely  goes  beyond  the  merits  of 
the  seal  when  he  says  that  it  possesses  a  "  unique  and 
splendid  character  ;  nothing  like  it  has  ever  before  been 
brought  to  the  notice  of  European  scholars."  ^  The  seal 
is  engraved  not  only  on  the  base  (i),  but  also  on  the  four 
sides,  while  opposite  the  base  the  stone  was  so  cut  as  to 
serve  the  purpose  of  a  handle.  On  four  out  of  the  five 
engraved  faces  are  to  be  seen  two  figures — one  seated  and 
one  standing.  These  may  be  supposed  to  represent  men 
or  deities,  or  possibly,  in  some  cases,  ideal  personages. 
At  first  sight  it  may  seem  difficult  to  discern  any  general 
aini  or  connected  purpose  in  the  curious  figures  depicted. 
On  more  attentive  examination,  however,  there  is  seen  to 
be  exhibited  a  pervading  principle  of  tri-utiity^  especially 
as  exemphfied  in  the  triangle  and  the  trident.  Moreover, 
while  on  three  faces  of  the  seal  (i,  2,  5)  there  are  figures 
with  the  "  pig-tail "  (an  appendage  which  suggests  a  con- 
nection with  the  Hittites),  it  appears  tolerably  evident 
that  the  engraver  of  the  seal  intended  to  represent  the 
personages  with  this  appendage  as  destitute  of  the  valu- 
able knowledge  and  power  connected  with  the  mysterious 
three-in-oneness  of  the  triangle  and  the  trident.  This  is 
entirely  in  accordance  with  the  position  that  the  wearers 
of  the  pig-tail  were  still  regarded  as  aliens  and  intruders 
when  the  seal  was  engraved. 

On  the  base  (i),  a  figure  standing  or  advancing  holds 
in  the  left  hand  a  trident-like  object,  which  is  probably  to 
be  understood  as  a  plant;  though,  like  the  curious  symbols 
on  the  Boghaz-Keui  bas-relief  \supra,  pp.  513,  514),  it 
must  be  somewhat  idealized.     Certainly,  it  would  seem 

»  Based  on  Lectures  delivered  by  Mr.  ThomasTyleratthe  British  Musetm 
in  January  1888.     Continued  from  p.  593. 

^  Archtrological  Journal,  Dectmber  1887.  Prof.  Sayce's  paper  is  accom- 
panied by  an  autotype  representation  of  the  seal.  I  Uiay  here  mention,  also, 
that  impressions  of  this  seal,  as  also  of  the  Yuzg&t  seal  and  the  seal  of 
Tarkutimme,  may  be  obtained  at  a  sm.iU  cost  from  Mr.  A.  Ready,  of  the 
British  Museum. 


6io 


NATURE 


[April  26,  1888 


difficult  or  impossible  to  identify  it  with  any  known 
vegetable  production.  And  it  would  be  equally  difficult 
to  determine  what  is  the  plant  held  in  the  hand  of  the 
sitting  figure  wearing  the  pig-tail/  though  there  seems  to 
be  a  flower  with  a  long  depending  and  somewhat  fibrous 
root.  The  two  objects  apparently  are  presented  in  com- 
parison or  competition,  while  that  in  the  hand  of  the 
standing  figure  has  the  superiority. 

On  the  second  face  a  very  curious  scene  is  depicted. 
Above  a  kind  of  altar  in  the  centre  is  a  trident-like  object, 
evidently  identical  with  that  already  described.  The 
trident-like  object  is  between  two  symbols  of  remarkable 
form,  capped  with  equilateral  triangles.  On  these  remark- 
able symbols,  which  probably  represent  life  in  general,  or 
particularly  human  life,  something  more  must  be  said 
directly.  A  figure,  probably  that  of  a  deity,  with  the  head 
of  a  hawk  or  eagle,'-'  is  pouring  out  a  libation  at  the  foot 


Fig.  V. — The  Tarsus  seal  (enlarged). 

of  the  altar,  and  thus,  we  may  presume,  is  confessing  the 
superiority  of  the  sacred  objects  above.  On  the  other 
side  of  the  altar  is,  it  may  be  supposed,  another  deity, 
having  above  his  head  the  winged  solar  disk,  and  in  his 
left  hand  a  double  three-forked  thunderbolt,  introduced 
here,  it  may  be  supposed,  as  another  emblem  of  tri-unity. 
On  the  third  face  there  is  no  personage  wearing  the 

»  Prof.  Sayce  has  rightly  recognized  the  presence  of  the  "pig-tail,"  but 
when  he  says  that  this  appendage  "characterizes  Hittite  female  figures" 
{op.  cit.  p.  348),  I  fail  to  see  any  adequate  grounds  for  the  assertion.  This, 
I  should  say,  is  not  the  nnde  of  wearing  the  hair  seen  on  the  Boghaz-Keui 
bas-relief;  and  I  am  not  acquainted  with  other  evidence  which  would  in  any 
way  justify  the  statement. 

;  The  form  of  this  deity  suggests  a  possible  relation  with  the  eagle-headed 
deity  on  the  Assyrian  monuments,  concerning  which  Assyriologists  have  been 
hitherto  unable  to  give  any  adequate  explanation.  Perhaps  some  fresh  light 
may  be  eventually  derived  from  the  "pig-tail"  here  appended. 


pig-tail.  Both  the  seated  and  the  standing  figures  appear 
to  be  occupied  with  the  mystery  of  the  triangle.  The 
engraver  of  the  seal,  moreover,  as  though  determined  that 
we  should  not  mistake  his  meaning,  actually  represents 
the  seated  figure  as  forming  a  triangle  with  one  hand.  On 
face  (4)  the  triangle  formed  by  the  hand  is  particularly 
clear  in  the  impression  of  the  seal  ;  but  there  can  scarcely 
be  a  doubt  that  the  intention  is  the  same  also  on  this  face 
(3)  as  well  as  on  (2)  and  (5).  How  the  triangle  is  sup- 
posed to  be  formed  by  the  hand  I  am  unable  to  say.  By  com- 
paring the  two  hands  of  the  seated  figure  in  (3)  it  becomes 
evident  that  the  goat  standing  on  the  left  hand  is  here 
introduced  as  forming  a  triangle  by  his  position.  But 
still  more  remarkable  and  interesting  is  the  personage 
standing,  if  considered  together  with  the  associated 
objects.  This  personage  is  supporting,  apparently  by  a 
cord,  a  figure  similar  to  those  spoken  of  in  connection 
with  the  second  face  as  probably  representing  life  in 
general,  or  more  particularly  the  principle  of  human  life. 
From  the  circular  head  of  the  figure  are  projecting  what 
look  like  ears,  but  the  triangular  cap  with  which  the  head 
is  covered  on  the  second  face  is  now  seen  above.  The  per- 
sonage supporting  the  figure  has  in  his  left  hand  one  rod 
held  vertically,  and  in  the  right  two  vertical  and  parallel 
rods,  thus  suggesting  the  triangular  number,  three,  a 
number  regarded  in  antiquity  as  especially  sacred. 

The  fourth  face  presents  a  single  seated  figure,  making, 
as  said  just  above,  a  triangle  with  the  right  hand.  The 
left  hand  holds  captive  a  hare  as  well  as  a  bird  with  wings 
extended.  The  intention  would  seem  to  be  to  set  forth 
the  subjugation  of  the  lower  animals  through  the  influence 
of  such  supposed  occult  and  mysterious  powers  as  those 
of  the  triangle.  In  front  is  an  altar  or  table  with  objects 
upon  it,  which,  it  should  be  observed,  are  three  in  number. 
Above  is  a  symbol  generally  identical  with  those  spoken 
of  in  connection  with  faces  (2)  and  (3),  but  here  it  is 
imperfect. 

On  the  last  face  (5)  we  have  apparently  a  competition 
between  a  pig-tailed  figure  standing  or  advancing  and 
another  figure  seated.  The  pig-tailed  figure  holds  two 
parallel  rods  or  spears  ;  and  it  would  certainly  appear 
that  he  is  to  be  regarded  as  unequal  in  power  to  the 
seated  figure,  who  is  making  a  triangle  with  the  left  hand, 
while  in  the  right  hand  is  that  symbol  of  tri-unity,  the 
trident,  now  of  more  usual  form,  and  differing  consider- 
ably from  the  trident-like  objects  of  (i)  and  (2).  On  the 
middle  point  of  the  trident  is  a  bird  with  wings  expanded. 
In  this  last  respect  the  intention  would  seem  to  be  some- 
what similar  to  that  expressed  by  the  hare  and  bird  held 
captive  on  face  (4). 

The  Tarsus  seal  is  probably  less  ancient  than  the  Yuzgat 
seal ;  but  there  are  nevertheless  important  points  of  resem- 
blance, which  may  be  reasonably  taken  as  indicating  a 
relationship  more  or  less  close.  On  both  seals  are  to  be 
seen  the  triangle  and  the  trident,  though  on  the  Tarsus 
seal  the  form  of  the  latter  has  become  greatly  changed. 
Both  seals,  also,  have  the  winged  solar  disk.  The  wearing 
a  horn  in  front  of  the  head  is  another  mark  of  resem- 
blance ;  and  the  figures  on  both  seals  have  the  turned-up 
toes  of  the  so-called  "  Hittite  boots."  The  eagle-headed 
figure  making  the  libation  has  a  good  deal  of  similarity 
to  what,  as  depicted  on  the  Yuzgat  seal,  I  regard  as  a 
woman  closely  veiled,  with  some  object,  probably  a  baby, 
suspended  from  her  arm  {supra,  p.  560).  Notwithstanding 
any  superficial  resemblance,  however,  the  objects  de- 
lineated are  certainly  very  different.  The  explanation 
probably  is,  that  the  respective  engravers  had  in  view  a 
common  typical  form,  which  was  in  each  case  modified 
as  the  particular  purpose  required.  A  similar  remark 
may  be  made  with  respect  to  the  table  or  altar  on  (4),  and 
the  object  before  the  king  on  the  Yuzgat  seal. 

Whether  the  Tarsus  seal  will  be  found  of  importance 
with  regard  to  the  history  of  geometry,  it  would  be  diffi- 
cult to  say.    This  may  to  some  extent  depend  on  the  date 


April  26,  1888] 


NATURE 


611 


to  which  the  seal  is  to  be  referred.  But,  whatever  may 
be  the  case  with  respect  to  the  general  history  of 
geometry,  certainly  there  are  indications  of  something  very 
like  Pythagoreanism,  such  as  we  should  by  no  means  have 
expected  to  find  on  a  Hittite  or  Asiatic  monument.  Still, 
however  unexpected  these  indications  may  be,  the  scien- 
tific spirit  requires  that  we  should  be  loyal  to  facts.  Among 
such  indications  may  perhaps  be  placed  the  mysterious 
powers  or  properties  apparently  associated  with  vegetable 
forms  on  the  Tarsus  seal,  as  also  on  the  Boghaz-Keui 
sculpture.  But  still  greater  importance  and  interest 
attach  to  the  evidence  of  the  seal  as  to  the  attribution  of 
occult  significance  to  number  and  to  geometrical  form. 
By  the  vertical  rods  of  face  (3)  we  are  reminded  of  the 
Pythagorean  doctrine  concerning  duality  and  unity,  the 
even  and  the  odd.  (Plutarch,  De  Is.  48.)  Moreover,  we 
can  scarcely  mistake  the  sinister  character  of  duality  when 
we  observe  that  the  two  parallel  rods  are  carried  on  face  (5) 
by  the  pig-tailed  figure.  Very  probably  the  indications 
on  the  seal  point  to  one  of  the  sources  whence  were  derived 
the  doctrines  attributed  to  Pythagoras.  And  such  a  view 
accords  very  well  with  the  ancient  tradition  concerning 
the  travels  of  Pythagoras,  and  the  composite  nature  of 
Pythagoreanism. 

But  some  additional  consideration  requires  to  be  given 
to  the  figure  on  the  Tarsus  seal  (faces  2,  3,  4),  which  I 
have  spoken  of  as  a  symbol  of  life.  In  investigating 
the  significance  of  this  figure  the  most  convenient  method 
may  be  to  compare  it  with  the  symbol  most  nearly  re- 
sembling it  which  can  be  found  elsewhere.  This  is  to  be 
seen  on  the  coinage  of  Cyprus  (Fig.  W,  2).    Here  we  have 


Fig.  W. — I,   Symbol  on  Tarsus  seal ;   2,  symbol  on  Cypriote  coinage 
3,  crux  ansata  ;  4,  symbol  en  Indo-Scythian  coin. 

the  rounded  head  (though  without  the  projections  on  the 
symbol  of  the  Tarsus  seal),  the  horizontal  stroke  or  body, 
and  the  divergent  legs.  True,  on  the  seal  there  are  slight 
projections  at  the  ends  of  the  horizontal  piece,  and  at  the 
ends  of  the  divergent  legs  there  are  the  "  Hittite  boots"  ; 
but  in  this  last  particular  the  symbol  on  the  seal  resembles 
the  mandrake  at  Boghaz-Keui  {supra,  p.  514),  the  ends 
of  the  root  being  similarly  turned  up  and  meta- 
morphosed.^ As  to  the  meaning  of  the  symbol  on  the 
Cypriote  coinage,  we  can  make  a  reasonable  inference 
from  the  fact  that  it  seems  to  be  introduced  as  an  alterna- 
tive symbol  in  place  of  the  crux  ansata,  or  symbol  of  life, 
which,  indeed,  is  quite  common  on  Cypriote  coins.^  The 
crux  ansata  was  possibly  derived  from  Egypt,  but  still  it 
may  very  well  be  regarded  as  giving  an  indication  of  the 
meaning  of  the  other  symbol.  If,  however,  the  divergent 
legs  of  (2)  are  supposed  to  collapse,  we  have  at  once  a  crux 
ansata  (3).  The  evidence  so  far  would  go  towards  the 
conclusion  that  the  symbol  on  the  Tarsus  seal  is  a  symbol 
of  life.  But  by  tracing  the  Cypriote  symbol  to  its  probable 
origin  the  evidence  may  be  greatly  strengthened. 

The  coins  on  which  the  Cypriote  symbol  just  alluded  to 
occurs  are  Phoenician.  Now  there  occurs  on  Phoenician, 
and  especially  on  Carthaginian,  monuments  a  symbol  by 
which  scholars  have  been  much  puzzled.  It  consists  of  a 
triangle,  normally,  as  it  would  seem,  equilateral,  though 
varying   at   times  a  good  deal  from  this  form.     At  the 

*  The  triangular  cap  of  the  symbol  on  face  (2)  shows  a  connection  between 
the  syn>boI  and  the  equilateral  triangle.  But  what  may  be  exactly  the  differ- 
rence  in  the  significance  of  the  symbol  when  capped  with  the  triangle  and 
when  destitute  of  this  covering  it  is  scarcely  possible  to  say,  unless  the 
added  triangle  is  supposed  to  give  power  and  vitality. 

2  See  De  Vogue,  "  Melanges  d'Archi?ologie  Orientale,"  plate  xi., 
Figs.  13,  16,  17, 18. 


vertex  of  the  triangle  is  a  horizontal  stroke  or  bar, 
with  projections  at  the  ends,  which  may  be  taken 
for  arms,  or  hands  held  up  ;  and  these  also 
are  found  to  present  variations.  Above  is  a  head 
of  circular  form.  This  frequently  occurring  symbol,* 
which  may  be  seen  to  the  reader's  left  in  Fig.  X,  some 
scholars  have  taken  for  a  representation  of  a  man  or 
woman  praying  and  holding  up  his  or  her  hands.  But  M. 
Renan  justly  observes  that  the  position  in  which  the 
symbol  is  found  on  the  monuments  is  not  compatible  with 
such  an  opinion  ;  and  in  the  figure  it  evidently  appears  as 


Fig.  X. — Upper  portion  of  stele  of  Lilybaeum. 

an  object  of  worship.  Regarded  as  denoting  life,  or  as  a 
sort  of  generalization  of  deity  as  the  giver  of  life,  its 
position  on  the  stele  becomes  intelligible.  It  corresponds 
in  form  with  the  Cypriote  symbol,  except  that  the  latter 
has  lost  the  base  of  the  triangle  and  the  projections  at  the 
end  of  the  horizontal  piece,  but  indications  of  these  being 
retained  are  clearly  to  be  seen  on  the  Tarsus  symbol.  M. 
Renan  could  make  nothing  of  the  triple  object  above  the 
altar  in  Fig.  X.-*  But  when  we  look  at  the  trident-like 
object  of  worship  above  the  altar  on  face  (2)  of  the  Tarsus 
seal,  the  problem  receives  a  good  deal  of  light  ;  and  we 
recognize  in  the  mysterious  tripartite  object  of  the  stele  a 
modification  of  the  trident,  expressing,  like  the  triangle, 
the  idea  of  tri-unity. 


FlQ,  y.— I,   Portion   of  broken  tablet  in  the  British    Museum  ;  2,  archaic 
cuneiform  character,  din,  "  life." 

With  respect  to  the  loss  of  the  base  of  the  triangle  in 
the  Cypriote  symbol,  and  the  import  of  this  and  other 
symbols  before  mentioned,  we  have  evidence  on  a  unique 
tablet  in  the  British  Museum.  Though  it  is  unfortunately 
broken,  its  testimony  is  still  very  important.     The  tablet 

'  M.  Renan  cbservei  of  this  symbol:  " Praecipua  inter  fiRuras  reli^iosai 
est  imago  qui  nihil  apud  Phoenicas  et  Poenos  frequenlius"  ("Corp.  mscr. 
sem.,"  vol.  i.  p.  281).  

'  He  observes  :  "  Supra  figura  cemittir  tnpartita,  tribus  cippis  impanbus 
constans,  cum  basi  duplici,  qua:  quid  sibi  velit  non  apparet  "  (op.  cit.  vol.  i.  p. 
179).     Fig.  X.  is  a  little  reduced  from  the  figure  in  the  "  Corpus.' 


6l2 


NATURE 


lApril  26,  1888 


gave  the  ancient  hieroglyphic  or  hieratic  forms  of  some 
cuneiform  characters,  with  their  values.  Among  these  is  a 
triangle  the  sides  of  which  are  represented  by  doubled 
lines  carefully  finished  off,  while  the  base,  which  is  to  a 
certain  extent  dissevered,  is  represented  only  by  a  single 
line  or  wedge.  We  thus  see  a  tendency  already  to  that 
dropping  of  the  base  exemplified  in  the  Cypriote  symbol. 
But  is  the  meaning  the  same  ?  The  cuneiform  character 
giving  the  value  is  unfortunately  gone,  except  a  small 
portion  of  a  single  wedge,  which  alone  would  yield  but 
slender  grounds  for  determining  the  import  of  the  triangle. 
We  are  able,  however,  to  take,  together  with  the  small 
portion  of  the  wedge,  the  archaic  cuneiform  character 
denoting  "life,"  and  still  retaining  the  semblance  of  an 
equilateral  triangle.  The  value  of  "life"  was  that 
assigned  to  the  triangle  as  it  appears  on  the  broken 
tablet,  by  M.  Menant  ;  and  Mr.  Pinches,  of  the  British 
Museum,  is  also  of  opinion  that  the  fragment  of  the 
wedge  remaining  is  entirely  in  accordance  with  this  view. 

Whence  the  idea  originated  that  the  primordial  source 
of  life  was  of  triangular  form,  it  is  of  course  impossible  to 
say.  This  was,  however,  an  idea  which  prevailed  very 
widely  indeed  in  the  East.  A  distinguished  scholar  and 
archaeologist  has  directed  my  attention  to  symbols  found 
on  Indo-Scythian  coins  as  being  analogous  to  the  Hittite 
and  Cypriote  symbols  (see  Fig.  V,  4).  It  is  not  difficult 
to  discern  the  two  sides  of  the  triangle  and  the  horizontal 
stroke  or  bar.  Instead,  however,  of  the  circular  or 
rounded  head,  there  are  four  vertical  strokes,  which 
there  can  be  little  difficulty  in  recognizing  as  a  symbol  of 
fire,  a  symbol  which,  in  the  case  of  Zoroastrians  and  fire- 
worshippers,  would  be  entirely  suitable. 

In  connecting  the  Hittite  symbol  of  the  Tarsus  seal 
with  the  Babylonian  hieroglyphic  triangle,  we  have  gone 
back  to  an  antiquity  very  remote  indeed.  But  if  we  are  to 
regard  the  symbols  already  discussed  as  connected  also 
with  the  well-known  Egyptian  symbol  of  life,  the  ankh,  and 
with  other  Egyptian  symbolic  forms,  our  demand  on  time 
must  probably  be  much  greater.  That  the  Egyptian 
talismans  (Fig.  Z,  2,  3,  4)  might  have  been  evolved  from 

123 


Fig.  Z  —I,  Ankh,  Egyptian  symbol  of  life,  from  coffin  of  Men-ka-ra,  in  the 
British  Museum  ;  2,  3,  4,  Egyptian  talismans  in  the  British  Museum. 

a  form  identical  with,  or  resembling,  the  headed  triangle 
of  the  Phoenician  monuments,  it  requires  no  great  stretch 
of  imaginative  power  to  discern. ^  But  with  regard  to  the 
ankh  (i),  so  often  seen  in  the  hands  of  deities,  though  the 

'  The  distinguished  Egyptologis',  Mr.  Le  Page  Renouf,  now  Keeper  of 
Oriental  Antiquities  at  the  British  Museum,  tells  me  that,  while  (2)  and  (3) 
may  not  be  earlier  than  the  eighteenth  dynasty,  (4I  is  of  very  great  antiquity, 
occurring  in  the  name  of  Hor-em-sa-f,  one  of  the  Pyramid  kings. 


points  of  resemblance  are  tolerably  obvious,^  yet  it  may 
seem  difficult  to  understand  how  the  triangle  could  have 
assumed  the  form  of  the  vertical  bar.  True,  the  bar  is 
pointed  at  the  apex ;  and  elsewhere  on  the  Egyptian 
monuments  an  acute-angled  triangle  in  the  correspond- 
ing position  is  sufficiently  common.  But  it  is  remarkable 
that  this  latter  form  is  not  seen  on  a  monument  so  very 
ancient  as  the  coffin  of  the  king  Men-ka-ra.  Still,  on  the 
whole,  it  can  scarcely  be  regarded  as  other  than  probable 
that  the  ankh,  like  the  other  Egyptian  forms  depicted, 
must  be  referred  ultimately  to  the  headed  triangle.  But, 
if  this  view  is  just,  and  the  triangle  had  collapsed,  as 
shown  in  the  figure,  when  the  coffin  of  Men-ka-ra  was 
constructed,  the  period  of  man's  existence  on  the  earth 
in  a  condition  of  somewhat  advanced  civilization  must 
be  of  exceedingly  protracted   duration. 

As  to  the  age  of  the  greater  Hittite  monuments,  it  is 
impossible  to  speak.  To  argue  that  the  Hittite  hiero- 
glyphs could  not  have  remained  long  in  use  by  the  side 
of  either  the  cuneiform  syllabary  or  the  Phoenician 
alphabet  would  be  somewhat  perilous.  A  better  argu- 
ment for  their  great  antiquity  is  furnished  by  the  total 
absence,  so  far  as  can  be  seen,  of  any  indication  ot 
horses  or  chariots.  Yet,  in  the  wars  with  the  Egyptians 
some  fifteen  or  sixteen  centuries  before  Christ,  the  Hit- 
tites  appear  well  equipped  with  this  kind  of  forces,  in  a 
state  of  organization  from  which  lengthened  usage  may 
be  reasonably  inferred. 

What  has  been  said  may  suffice  to  show  the  extremely 
great  interest  of  the  questions  suggested  by  the  Hittite 
monuments.  Unfortunately  the  material  for  investiga- 
tion is  at  present  but  scanty,  though  there  are  probably 
hundreds,  perhaps  thousands,  of  monuments  awaiting 
the  spade  of  the  excavator.  The  very  important  results 
obtained  by  the  British  Museum  from  the  excavations  at 
Jerablus  have  not  prevented  these  excavations  from  being 
for  a  considerable  time  wholly  suspended.  That  this 
should  be  the  case  is  certainly  matter  for  regret ;  for  I 
hope  that  I  have  at  least  succeeded  in  showing  that  the 
idea  that  the  solution  of  the  Hittite  problem  is  hopeless 
is  one  which  cannot  be  reasonably  entertained. 


CLASS  EXPERIMENTS. 

1''HE  following  is  a  brief  account  of  some  experiments 
shown  to  the  students  of  the  Natural  Philosophy 
Class  in  the  University  of  Glasgow  during  the  present 
Session.  It  is  communicated  to  Nature  with  the  per- 
mission of  Sir  W.  Thomson. 

I.  (i)  Suspend  a  heavy  ball  by  a  long  wire,  as  shown 
in  Fig.  I.  To  the  middle  of  the  ball  attach  a  worsted 
thread,  A  D.  Pull  the  thread  in  the  direction  of  the 
arrow-head,  with  a  pull  that  will  not  break  it,  and  let 
the  pull  be  finished  before  the  ball  is  sensibly  displaced. 
Observe  the  greatest  subsequent  displacement  of  the  ball. 

(2)  Bring  the  ball  to  rest.  Pull  it  now  with  a  pull  suf- 
ficient to  break  the  thread.  Note  that  the  displacement 
is  smaller  than  in  case  (i). 

(3)  Bring  the  ball  to  rest  once  more.  Give  a  very 
sudden  pull  to  the  thread  :  it  breaks,  and  the  displace- 
ment of  the  ball  is  hardly  perceptible. 

In  each  of  the  three  cases  the  momentum  is  equal  to 

I  Ydt  for  the  whole   duration   of  the   pull.      The   pull 

in  case  (i)  is  smaller  than  the  pull  in  cases  (2)  and  (3), 
but  the  duration  of  the  pull  is  greater  in  a  greater  ratio  ; 
hence  the  momentum  communicated,  being  the  time  in- 
tegral of  the  pull,  is  the  greatest  for  case  (i).  Although 
the  pull  in  case  (2)  is  equal  to  the  pull  in  case  (3),  still  its 

'  The  connection  with,  or  analogy  batween,  the  Tarsus  and  Cypriote 
symbols  and  th»  ankk  was  suggested  by  Mr.  Pinches,  and  subsequently, 
with  respect  to  the  Tarsus  symbol,  on  different  ground.s,  by  Prof.  Sayce. 


April  2^,  1888] 


NATURE 


duration   is  so  exceedingly  small  in  case  (3)  that  the 
momentum  communicated  is  very  small. 

II.  Support  a  cylinder  with  a  fly-wheel,  as  shown  in 
Fig.  2.     E  E  are  two  pieces  of  wood,  both  screwed  at  the 


\«<^s: 


-<- 


D 


Fig. 


top  to  another  piece  of  wood,  L,  of  convenient  thickness. 
Each  has  a  slot  cut  along  its  centre,  in  which  fits  a  ball,  F, 
to  which  is  attached  a  stiff  wire,  a  string,  and  a  weight, 
as  shown  in  the  figure.  H  is  an  india-rubber  band,  which 
presses  ee  together  with  a  pressure  at  least  sufficient  to 


A 


B 


m 


W 


ioiiliMiiH 


M 


Fig.  2. 


cause  the  ball  f  not  to  slip  when  the  weight  M  is  hung 
on  to  its  string.  Another  string  is  wound  round  the 
end  A  of  the  cylinder,  and  a  weight  attached  to  it  so 
as  to  balance  the    weight   of  the   two  pieces   of  wood, 


613 


E  E.  The  fly-wheel  has  a  friction-brake  upon  it,  and 
if  the  retarding  force  of  the  brake  be  constant,  the 
angular  displacement  of  the  fly-wheel  is  proportional  to 
the  square  of  the  momentum  communicated. 

(i)  Lift  the  weight  M  a  distance  of  about  half  an  inch, 
and  let  it  fall.  The  cylinder  goes  round  through  a  certain 
angle,  and  the  ball  f  is  not  pulled  out  of  its  slot. 

(2)  Lift  the  weight  M  through  2  or  3  inches,  and  let  it 
fall.  The  ball  F  is  pulled  out  of  its  slot ;  the  cylinder 
goes  round,  but  through  a  smaller  angle  than  in  case  (i). 

(3)  Let  the  weight  M  fall  through  a  height  of  4  or  5  feet. 
The  ball  f  is  pulled  out  of  its  slot,  and  the  angular 
displacement  of  the  cylinder  is  barely  perceptible. 

The  same  explanations  are  applicable  to  the  results  of 
II.  as  were  made  concerning  the  results  of  I.,  provided 
couple  be  substituted  for  force,  and  moment  of  inertia  for 
mass. 

III.  The  following,  though  somewhat  inconvenient  as 
a  class  experiment,  illustrates  the  same  subject.     Fix  up 


Fig   3. 

a  plain  deal  or  other  board  in  the  manner  of  Robins' 
ballistic  pendulum.  From  a  rifle  with  a  small  charge  of 
powder,  fire  a  bullet  into  the  board,  at  right  angles  to 
its  plane,  and  as  near  as  possible  to  its  centre  of  inertia. 
The  bullet  lodges  in  the  board,  which  is  deflected  through 
a  large  angle.  Increase  the  charge  of  powder,  so  that 
the  bullet  pierces  the  board.  The  deflection  of  the  board 
is  now  smaller.  Put  the  maximum  charge  of  powder  in 
the  rifle,  and  the  deflection  of  the  board  on  firing  the 
bullet  into  it  is  exceedingly  small. 

IV.  Suspend  a  light  ivory  or  other  ball  by  a  long  india- 
rubber  thread  several  feet  long,  as  shown  in  Fig.  3.  Pull 
the  ball  into  the  position  A  b',  and  let  it  go.  Looking  at  it 
as  seen  in  the  figure,  it  first  begins  to  describe  a  curve 
against  the  hands  of  a  watch.  After  two  or  three  periods 
it  begins  to  go  round  in  a  direction  with  the  hands  of  a 
watch. 


6i4 


NATURE 


{April  26,  1888 


Bring  the  ball  to  the  position  B'  again,  and  project  it 
at  right  angles,  or  at  any  angle,  to  the  plane  B  A  B  The 
ball  now  illustrates  three-dimensional  motion.  The  period 
is  slow,  and  the  experiments  are  very  interesting  and 
instructive.  Magnus  Maclean. 


NOTES. 

The  bi-centenary  of  the  publication  of  Newton's  "  Principia" 
was  celebrated  on  Thursday  last  at  Trinity  College,  Cambridge. 
A  long  and  admirable  address  was  read  by  Dr.  Glaisher  to  a 
distinguished  audience  which  had  been  invited  to  Cambridge  by 
the  Master  and  Fellows  of  the  College.  At  a  numerously 
attended  dinner  in  Hall  in  the  evening,  speeches  were  made  by  the 
Master,  the  President  of  the  Royal  Society,  the  Astronomers- 
Royal  for  England  and  Ireland,  and  other  distinguished  guests. 

Amongst  the  missions  just  approved  by  the  Special  Com- 
mission of  the  French  Ministry  of  Public  Instruction  are  the 
following:  M.  Nickles,  mining  engineer,  to  carry  out  in  the 
provinces  of  Valencia  and  Alicante,  in  Spain,  geological  investi- 
gations ;  Dr.  Morisse,  to  undertake  various  medical  and  natural 
history  studies  in  the  basins  of  the  Upper  Orinoco  and  Amazon  ; 
the  Abbe  Hyvernat,  to  proceed  to  Armenia  to  copy  the  cuneiform 
Inscriptions  on  the  shores  of  Lake  Van,  to  investigate  the  art  of 
Assyria,  and  to  study  on  the  spot  the  Neo-Syriac  dialects  spoken 
in  the  basin  of  Lake  Urumiyah  ;  M.  Gay,  to  undertake  a  mission 
to  Nicaragua,  Columbia,  and  Venezuela,  to  study  the  natural 
history,  and  make  collections  for  the  State  Museums ;  M. 
Thoulet,  Professor  of  Mineralogy  in  the  Faculty  of  Sciences  at 
Nancy,  to  study  the  organization  of  the  Observatory  of 
Christiania,  and  of  the  Scottish  Marine  Biological  Station  at 
Edinburgh. 

The  Bill  to  provide  for  technical  education  in  England  and 
Wales,  prepared  and  brought  in  by  Sir  H.  Roscoe,  Sir  U.  Kay- 
Shuttleworth,  Sir  B.  Samuelson,  Mr.  G.  Dixon,  and  Mr,  A. 
Acland,  has  been  printed.  It  provides  (i)  that  any  School  Board 
may  make  provision  for  giving  technical  education  in  any  school 
under  their  management,  and  either  by  day  or  evening  classes, 
or  both,  as  may  seem  fit,  having  regard  to  the  daily  occupations 
of  the  persons  to  be  benefited  thereby  ;  (2)  that  if  no  such  provi- 
sion is  made,  or  if  it  is  insufficient,  and  if  the  local  authority  by 
special  resolution  determine  that  provision  or  further  provision 
ought  to  be  made,  they  may  themselves  make  such  provision. 
The  Bill  also  provides  for  the  rendering  of  aid  by  School 
Boards  or  local  authorities  to  voluntary  schools  in  which  technical 
instruction  may  be  given  ;  and  two  sections  define  the  con- 
ditions under  which  Parliamentary  grants  shall  be  made  for 
the  encouragement  of  such  instruction  both  in  voluntary  schools 
and  in  Board  schools.  It  is  proposed  that  any  School  Board  or 
local  authority,  should  they  think  fit,  may  institute  an  entrance 
examination  in  reading,  writing,  and  arithmetic,  for  persons 
desirous  of  attending  technical  schools  or  classes  under  their 
management,  or  to  which  they  contribute. 

The  Colonies  and  India,  commenting  on  the  movement  in 
favour  of  technical  education  in  the  colony  of  Victoria,  says  it 
will  not  be  the  fault  of  the  Victorian  Government  if  technical 
education  is  neglected,  as  there  is  a  feeling  in  the  Cabinet  that 
if  the  country  is  to  progress  the  rising  generation  should  have 
the  advantage  of  technical  teaching.  The  Minister  of  Public 
Instruction  has  issued  a  minute  on  the  policy  of  founding  a 
Victorian  Technical  University,  which  is  a  digest  of  some  of  the 
evidence  given  before  our  own  Royal  Commission  on  Technical 
Instruction.  Mr.  Pearson  estimates  the  initial  expenditure 
involved  in  the  foundation  of  a  separate  technical  University  at 
from  ;,^5oo,coo  to  a  million,  besides  a  yearly  endowment  of  at 
least  ;C30)000.     The  latter  sum  appears  out  of  proportion  to  the 


average  endow  ments  of  such  institutions  in  Europe  and  America. 
It  is  not  doubted  that  the  money  required  will  be  freely  voted. 

The  following  resolution  was  passed  at  a  meeting  of  the 
American  Philosophical  Society  on  January  6,  and  has  just  been 
received  by  some  of  the  scientific  Societies  of  Great  Britain  in  a 
circular  dated  March  12: — "  AVWwa',  That  the  President  of 
the  American  Philosophical  Society  be  requested  to  address  a 
letter  to  all  learned  bodies  with  which  this  Society  is  in  official 
relations,  and  to  such  other  Societies  and  individuals  as  he  may 
deem  proper,  asking  their  co-operation  in  perfecting  a  language 
for  learned  and  commercial  purposes,  based  on  the  Aryan 
vocabulary  and  grammar  in  their  simplest  forms  ;  and  to  that  end 
proposing  an  International  Congress,  the  first  meeting  of  which 
shall  be  held  in  London  or  in  Paris." 

The  general  meeting  of  the  Institution  of  Mechanical 
Engineers  will  be  held  on  Thursday  evening,  May  3,  and 
Friday  afternoon,  May  4.  The  chair  will  be  taken  by  the 
President,  Mr.  Carbutt,  at  7.30  p.m.  on  Thursday  evening,  and 
at  2.30  p.m.  on  Friday  afternoon.  The  following  papers  will  be 
read  and  discussed  as  far  as  time  permits  : — Third  Report  of  the 
Research  Committee  on  Friction  :  experiments  on  the  friction  of  a 
collar  bearing  ;  description  of  the  emery  testing  machine,  by  Mr. 
Henry  R.  Towne,  of  Stamford,  Connecticut  ;  and  supplement- 
ary paper  on  the  use  of  petroleum  refuse  as  fuel  in  locomotive 
engines,  by  Mr.  Thomas  Urquhart,  Locomotive  Superintendent, 
Grazi  and  Tsaritsin  Railway,  South-east  Russia. 

Surgeon-MajorF.  S.  B.  Francois deChaumont,  F.R.S., 
Professor  of  Military  Hygiene  at  the  Army  Medical  School, 
Nelley,  died  at  his  residence  at  Woolston,  near  Southampton, 
on  the  i8th  inst.     He  was  fifty-five  years  of  age. 

At  the  meeting  of  the  Society  of  Arts  on  the  i8th  inst.,  Sir 
Howard  Grubb  read  a  paper  on  telescopes  for  stellar  photography. 
His  object  was  to  discuss  and  describe  a  few  of  the  more  im- 
portant mechanical  details  of  the  instruments  which  are  to  be 
used  for  the  international  photographic  survey  of  the  heavens. 
The  paper  is  printed  in  the  current  number  of  the  Journal  of  the 
Society  of  Arts. 

On  March  31,  about  10  p.m  ,  a  splendid  meteor  was  seen  at 
Asker,  in  Nerice,  in  Sweden,  It  appeared  in  the  southern  sky, 
increasing  in  brilliancy  in  its  descent.  Finally  it  seemed  to 
burst  into  three  parts,  each  of  which  left  a  trail  in  the  sky 
observable  a  few  seconds.     The  colour  was  intense  bluish-white. 

Severe  shocks  of  earthquake  were  felt  at  Oldenburg  on 
April  12.  Several  houses  fell  in  at  Eisenstadt.  Shocks  were  also 
noticed  at  Pottendorf,  in  Lower  Austria. 

A  Hydrographical  Bureau  has  been  opened  in  Wiirtem- 
berg,   under  the  direction  of  Herr  von  Marten. 

We  are  glad  to  hear  that  a  regular  meteorological  organization 
is  to  be  established  in  Spain.  The  Director,  appointed  by 
"competitive  examination,"  is  Seiior  Augusto  Arcimis,  formerly 
of  the  Institution  Libre  de  Ensenanza,  Madrid.  M.  Arcimis 
has  long  been  known  as  a  meteorologist. 

MM.  MoHN  AND  Hildebrandsson  have  published  an  im- 
portant discussion  on  the  "Thunderstorms  of  Scandinavia" 
(Upsal,  1888,  55  pp.  and  12  plates).  The  first  network  of 
thunderstorm  stations  was  established  in  France  by  Leverrier  in 
1865,  and  his  plan  has  been  adopted  in  most  other  countries, 
almost  without  change.  Norway  followed  next,  in  1867,  and 
Sweden  in  1871.  The  storms  are  divided  into  two  classes  :  (l) 
heat  thunderstorms,  which  occur  generally  in  summer,  and 
mostly  originate  in  the  central  and  eastern  parts  of  the  Scandi- 
navian peninsula      2)  cyclonic  thunderstorms,  which  generally 


April  2b,  1888] 


NATURE 


615 


occur  in  winter,  on  the  western  coasts,  and  accompany  a  baro- 
metric depression  coming  from  the  Atlantic.  An  attempt  is 
made  at  fixing  the  heights  of  thunderstorm  clouds,  but  these 
vary  very  much  with  different  times  and  localities  ;  it  seems 
proved,  however,  that  the  movements  of  the  cirrus  clouds  are  in 
no  way  affected  by  the  storms.  The  summer  storms  occur  most 
frequently  in  the  afternoon,  and  most  rarely  between  2  and  4  a.m. 
But  on  the  coast  of  Norway  the  maximum  frequency  occurs 
about  8  p.m.,  and  the  winter  storms  occur  more  frequently  in 
the  night.  These  facts  have  also  been  pointed  out  l)y  Dr. 
Buchan  with  regard  to  the  storms  of  the  north-west  of  Scot- 
land. In  the  annual  period  the  storms  occur  most  frequently  in 
July  and  August,  but  there  is  also  a  secondary  maximum  in 
January.  The  work  contains  much  that  would  repay  careful 
study. 

The  monthly  meteorological  notes  and  rainfall  statistics  for 
South  Australia,  published  by  Mr.  C.  Todd,  the  Government 
Astronomer,  contain  very  useful  climatological  data  and  notices 
of  miscellaneous  phenomena.  Mr.  Todd  has  taken  advantage 
of  his  position  as  Postmaster-General  to  establish  meteorological 
or  rainfall  stations  at  a  great  number  of  telegraph  offices  ;  the 
number  of  reports  published  for  February  1887  is  298,  together 
with  the  means  for  all  stations  having  at  least  seven  years'  record. 
The  observations  in  their  present  form  seem  to  date  from  1883, 
when  235  records  were  published,  but  the  work  commenced  as 
as  far  back  as  1857,  since  which  time  it  has  been  steadily  pur- 
sued. For  Adelaide  itself,  the  records  of  Sir  G.  S.  Kingston 
extend  back  as  far  as  1839,  and  these  observations  have  been 
used  by  Mr.  Todd  in  his  excellent  article  on  the  climate  of  the 
colony  in  the  "  Hand-book  of  South  Australia."  It  is  stated  in 
this  work  that  local  features  are  apparently  insufficient  to  explain 
the  large  differences  in  the  yearly  averages  of  the  rainfall  ;  Mr. 
Todd's  continued  exertions  must  tend  to  elucidate  this  subject. 

A  NEViT  series  of  isomorphous  double  chlorides  of  the  metals 
of  the  iron  and  alkali  groups  have  been  prepared  by  Dr. 
Neumann  {Liebig's  Annalen).  The  general  formula  of  the 
system  is  4RCI  .  MgClg  +  2H2O,  where  R  may  represent  any 
member  of  the  group  of  alkali  metals,  and  M  either  iron, 
chromium,  or  aluminium.  Magnesium  and  beryllium  are  also 
included  in  the  series,  2MgCl2  or  2BeCl2  replacing  4RCI.  They 
all  crystallize  in  forms  belonging  most  probably  to  the  regular 
system,  generally  in  octahedrons  or  rhombic  dodecahedrons. 
The  iron  salts  especially  are  remarkably  beautiful,  4KCI .  FcjClg 
■\-  2H2O  forming  octahedrons  and  dodecahedrons  of  reddish-brown 
tint,  while  crystals  of  the  corresponding  ammonium  compound 
possess  a  magnificent  garnet-red  colour ;  the  rubidium  and 
magnesium  salts  are  yellow,  and  the  chloride  of  beryllium  and 
iron  separates  in  fine  orange  crystals.  These  iron  salts,  the  first 
two  of  which  have  been  known  some  time,  are  prepared  compara- 
tively readily  by  dissolving  ferric  chloride  in  concentrated 
hydrochloric  acid,  adding  the  necessary  quantity  of  the  alkaline 
chloride,  and  crystallizing.  But  Dr.  Neumann,  in  attempting  to 
complete  the  series,  found  considerable  difficulty  in  preparing  the 
corresponding  chromium  and  aluminium  salts.  He  eventually 
succeeded  completely,  in  the  case  of  chromium,  by  dissolving  the 
chromium  chloride  in  warm  96  per  cent,  alcohol,  adding  a  pro- 
portionately small  quantity  of  the  other  chloride  and  passing  a 
rapid  stream  of  hydrochloric  acid  gas,  the  whole  being  gently 
boiled  for  some  time,  using  a  reflux  condenser.  It  was  found  that 
the  4  per  cent,  of  water,  together  wit^i  that  liberated  during  the 
formation  of  ethyl  chloride,  was  just  sufficient  to  supply  the  water 
of  crystallization,  hence  on  cooling  the  double  salt  crystallized  out 
in  microscopic  crystals  resembling  in  shape  those  of  their  ferric 
brethren.  These  chromium  salts  are  of  various  shades  of  violet, 
are  deliquescent  like  all  other  members  of  the  series,  and  are  like- 
wise decomposed  by  water.     The  only  aluminic  member  of  the 


series  yet  prepared  by  Dr.  Neumanrj  is  the  potassium  compound 
4KCI  .  AljClg  +  2H2O,  which,  however,  is  one  of  the  finest  of 
the  whole  class  ;  it,  crystallizes  in  splendid  octahedrons,  resem- 
bling large  diamonds  and  refracting  light  with  similar  brilliancy. 
Crystals  will  ever  remain  among  the  choicest  fruits  of  the 
chemist's  labour,  and  form  an  inexhaustible  source  of  pleasure  to 
lovers  of  the  beautiful.  The  new  isomorphous  group  is  of  great 
theoretical  interest,  and  will  take  its  rank  with  the  well-known 
alums  and  the  double  sulphates  of  the  ferrous-ammonium  type. 
A  MOST  interesting  account  of  the  work  in  mound-exploration 
carried  on  by  the  United  States  Bureau  of  Ethnology,  has  been 
issued  by  the  Smithsonian  Institution.  The  writer  is  Mr.  Cyrus 
Thomas.  It  seems  that  over  two  thousand  mounds  have  been 
explored,  including  almost  every  known  type  as  to  form,  from  the 
low,  diminutive,  circular  burial  tumulus  of  the  north,  to  the  huge, 
truncated,  earthen  pyramid  of  the  south,  the  embankment,  the 
effigy,  the  stone  cairn,  house  site,  &c.  Every  hitherto  known 
variety  as  to  construction,  as  well  as  a  number  decidedly 
different  in  details,  has  been  examined.  .Some  of  the  latter  are 
very  interesting  and  furnish  important  data.  Particular  atten- 
tion has  been  paid  to  this  branch  of  the  work,  because  the  mode 
of  construction  and  the  methods  of  burial  in  the  ordinary  conical 
tumuli  furnish  valuable  data  in  regard  to  the  customs  of  the 
builders,  and  aid  in  determining  the  archaeological  districts. 
Many  ancient  graves  and  cemeteries  and  several  caches  and  cave 
deposits  have  also  been  explored.  The  number  of  specimens 
obtained  by  the  division  since  its  organization  is  not  less  than 
thirty-eight  thousand.  The  specimens  procured  by  the  field 
assistants  in  person  constitute  by  far  the  most  valuable  portion 
of  the  collection,  since  the  particulars  regarding  their  discovery 
and  surroundings  are  known.  Not  a  single  stone  or  tablet  with 
anything  like  letters  or  hieroglyphics  inscribed  on  it,  by  which 
linguists  might  be  able  to  judge  of  the  language  of  the  mound- 
builders,  has  been  discovered. 

A  SECOND  Laura  Bridgman  is  at  present  attracting  the  atten- 
tion of  American  psychologists.  Her  name  is  Helen  Keller. 
Although  blind  and  deaf,  she  makes  rapid  progress  in  her 
studies.  Science  (April  6)  gives  her  portrait  and  that  of  her 
teacher,  Miss  Annie  Sullivan,  a  graduate  of  the  Perkins  Insti- 
tute at  Boston,  and  also  reproduces  in  facsimile  a  letter  written 
by  Helen  Keller  to  A.  Graham  Bell,  of  Washington.  It  was 
only  in  March  1887  that  Miss  Sullivan  was  engaged  to  give 
the  first  instruction  to  her  pupil,  who  was  then  six  years  old.  In 
a  month  the  little  girl  learned  to  spell  ab  jut  400  words,  and  in 
less  than  three  months  could  write  a  letter,  unaided  by  anyone. 
In  six  weeks  she  mastered  the  Braille  (French)  system,  which 
is  a  cipher  for  the  blind,  enabling  them  to  read  what  they  have 
written.  She  has  also  mastered  addition,  multiplication,  and 
subtraction,  and  received  lessons  in  geography.  She  is  trained 
solely  through  the  sense  of  touch. 

The  new  number  of  the  "Year-Book  of  the  Scientific  and 
Learned  Societies  of  Great  Britain  and  Ireland "  (Griffin  and 
Co.)  has  just  been  published.  This  is  the  fifth  annual  issue.  It 
comprises  lists  of  papers  read  during  1887  before  Societies  en- 
gaged in  all  departments  of  research,  with  the  names  of  their 
authors.  There  is  also  an  appendix,  presenting  a  list  of  the 
leading  scientific  Societies  throughout  the  vvorid.  The  work  is 
a  useful  one,  but  it  ought  to  have  been  more  thoroughly  revised. 
On  the  very  first  page,  in  the  list  of  the  members  of  the  Council 
of  the  Royal  Society,  two  names  are  wrongly  given  :  Sir  A. 
(instead  of  W.)  Bowman,  and  R.  (instead  of  W.)  T.  Thiselton 
Dyer. 

A  PAPER  entitled  "Additional  Records  of  Scottish  Plants 
for  the  Year  1887,"  by  Mr.  Arthur  Bennett,  has  been  sent  to  us. 
It  consists  of  a  list  of  the  new  county  botanical  records  which 
came  under  Mr.  Bennett's  notice  during  1887,  and  forms  a  con- 


6i6 


NA  TURE 


[April  26,  1888 


tinuation  of  the  lists  which  appeared  in  the  Scottish  N'aturalist 
for  1886  and  1887.  Mr.  Bennett  says  that  the  results  during  the 
year  1887  were  probably  richer  than  in  any  former  year,  not  only 
in  the  large  number  of  comital  records,  but  in  the  new  species 
added  to  the  Scottish  flora. 

We  have  received  several  numbers  of  the  Annates  cie  la 
Faculty  des  Sciences  de  Toulouse  (Paris :  Gauthiers-Villars). 
This  new  publication  (which  is  well  printed  on  good  paper,  with 
wide  margins)  consists  chiefly  of  memoirs  relating  to  physics, 
chemistry,  and  mathematics  pure  and  applied.  It  contains  also 
articles  on  questions  of  general  scientific  interest.  To  papers  of 
the  latter  class  the  authors  append  lists  of  books  on  the  questions 
discussed. 

According  to  a  paper  in  the  Board  of  Trade  Journal  for 
April,  the  production  of  attar  of  roses  constitutes  one  of  the 
most  important  branches  of  native  industry  in  Bulgaria.  The 
valley  of  Kezanlyk,  known  as  the  Vale  of  Roses,  is  the  centre 
of  this  production,  which  extends  as  far  as  Carlovo,  and  the 
villages  which  lie  sheltered  from  the  north  wind  by  the  vast 
chain  of  the  Great  Balkans.  In  1885,  and  no  later  statistics 
have  been  published,  the  manufacture  of  attar  of  roses  in  the 
district  indicated  amounted  to  a  value  of  1,100,000  francs. 
The  prosperous  condition  of  the  valley  of  Kezanlyk  has  led 
other  districts  of  Bulgaria  to  develop  the  same  industry,  and  par- 
ticularly the  inhabitants  of  Strema,  and  of  Toundja,  at  the  foot  of 
Mount  Rhodope.  It  is  not  yet  certain  that  the  attar  from  these  new 
countries  will  equal  in  quality  the  famous  product  of  Kezanlyk. 
The  Government,  however,  is  anxious  to  encourage  this  move- 
ment, and  the  Department  of  the  Interior  has  lately  authorized 
the  purchase  of  a  certain  quantity  of  attar  prepared  at  Strema 
and  at  Toundja.  Specimens  of  each  are  to  be  sent  for  examina- 
tion at  the  laboratory  of  the  University  of  Moscow,  and  the 
result  is  to  be  published. 

From  an  official  report  just  published  it  appears  that  in  1886 
there  were  killed  in  Norway  1 14  bears,  37  wolves,  5618  foxes^ 
950  eagles,  5100  hawks,  and  108  other  animals  of  prey.  The 
number  of  bears  was  slightly  below  that  of  1885,  but  above  the 
numbers  of  previous  years,  whilst  the  number  of  wolves  was  twice 
that  of  1885.  The  number  of  foxes,  on  the  other  hand,  was  only 
half  that  of  the  previous  year,  whilst  those  of  eagles  and  hawks 
were  about  the  same. 

In  last  week's  Nature  (p.  581),  near  the  middle  of  the 
second  column,  for  "  Ekholm  of  Hagstrom,"  read  "  Ekholm  and 
Hagstrom." 

The  additions  to  the  Zoological  Society's  Gardens  during  the 
past  week  include  a  Common  Marmoset  [Hapale  jacchus)  from 
South-East  Brazil,  presented  by  Mrs.  Leighton  ;  a  Striped 
Hyaena  {HycBna  striata)  from  Morocco,  presented  by  Mr.  Herbert 

E.  White  ;  an  Indian  Wo\{{Canis pallipes    i  ),  two Foxes 

{Canis  ),    a Hawk  Eagle  {Spizaetus )  from  India, 

presented  by  Colonel  Alex.  A.  A.  Kinloch,  C.M.Z.S.  ;  two 
Rock-hopper  Penguins  {Eudyptes  chrysocome)  from  Auckland, 
New  Zealand,  presented  by  Captain  Sutcliff",  R.M.S.S. 
Aorangi;  a  Gannet  {Sula  ba^sana),  British,  presented  by 
Miss  Serrell  ;  three  Common  Swans  {Cygnus  olor),  British, 
purchased  ;  a  Chinchilla  {Chinchilla  lanigera),  a  Barbary  Wild 
Sheep  {Ovis  tragelaphus),  born  in  the  Gardens. 


OUR  ASTRONOMICAL  COLUMN. 

Photography  in  the  Determination  of  the  Motions 
OF  Stars  in  the  Line  of  Sight. — Of  the  many  developments 
of  spectroscopy,  one  of  the  most  interesting  is  that  first  made  a 
1  tactical  branch  of  observation  by  the  skill  and  patience  of  Dr. 


Huggins,  viz.  the  determination  of  the  motions  of  stars  in  the 
direction  of  the  visual  ray  by  measures  of  the  displacement  of 
the  more  prominent  lines  in  their  spectra.  The  research  has, 
however,  always  been  beset  with  many  practical  difficulties,  one 
of  the  most  serious  being  the  manner  in  which  the  stellar  lines 
seem  to  elude  the  sight  when  the  air  is  disturbed.  This  hindrance 
has  been  especially  felt  at  Greenwich,  where  this  kind  of  work 
has  been  adopted  as  part  of  the  ordinary  routine,  and  where,  in 
consequence,  it  has  not  been  possible,  as  would  be  the  case  in 
a  private  observatory,  to  confine  observation  to  nights  of  fault 
less  definition.  Many  of  the  observations  have,  therefore,  been 
exceedingly  rough,  or  even  discordant.  Prof.  H.  C.  Vogel, 
who  had  made  some  successful  measures  of  the  displacements 
of  lines  in  three  or  four  of  our  brightest  stars  soon  after  Hug- 
gins's  first  observations,  has  recently  turned  his  attention  to 
photography  as  a  means  of  overcoming  this  difficulty,  and  his  first 
results,  given  in  a  paper  read  before  the  Royal  Prussian  Aca- 
demy on  March  15,  are  very  promising.  Prof.  Vogel  finds  that 
the  atmospheric  tremors,  so  wearisome  to  the  eye,  exercise  no 
influence  upon  the  photograph,  which  possesses  the  additional 
advantage  of  being  free  from  all  bias  or  predisposition.  Dr. 
Scheiner,  who  has  been  carrying  out  these  experiments,  has 
examined  seven  spectra,  viz.  those  of  Sirius,  Procyon,  Castor, 
Arcturus,  Aldebaran,  Pollux,  and  Rigel.  Of  these,  Sirius 
showed  a  slight  displacement  to  the  red,  Procyon  a  decided 
displacement,  and  Rigel  very  large  in  the  same  direction,  whilst 
Arcturus  showed  a  considerable  displacement  towards  the  violet. 
The  observations  were  made  on  the  third  line  ot  hydrogen,  H7, 
a  train  of  two  prisms  of  high  dispersion  being  used. 

The  Total  LuxNAr  Eclipse  of  January  28. — Dr.  E. 
Lindemann  sends  the  following  list  of  the  number  of  occulta- 
tions  observed  at  different  Observatories  during  this  eclipse,  in 
addition  to  the  lists  given  already  :  Albany  (U.  S. ),  7  ;  Chris- 
tiania,  28  ;  Milan,  23  ;  Bonn,  7  ;  Durban  (Natal),  17;  Oxford 
(Radcliffe),  9  ;  Bruxelles,  14  ;  Liege,  5  ;  Palermo,  8  ;  Cape  of 
Good  Hope,  21  ;  Madras,  lo.  The  weather  was  cloudy  at 
Warsaw. 

New  Minor  Planets. — Herr  Palisa  discovered  a  new  minor 
planet.  No,  274,  on  April  3,  and  another,  No.  275,  on  April  13. 
The  latter  is  his  sixty-third  discovery.  No.  269  has  received  the 
name  of  Justitia. 


ASTRONOMICAL  PHENOMENA  FOR  THE 
WEEK  1888  APRIL  29— MAY  5. 

/"pOR  the  reckoning  of  time  the  civil  day,  commencing  at 
^  Greenwich  mean  midnight,  counting  the  hours  on  to  24, 

is  here  employed.) 

At  Greenwich  on  April  29 

Sunrises,  4h.  36m. ;  souths,  iih.  57m.  iO"3s.  ;  sets,  igh.  i8m.  : 
right  asc.  on  meridian,  2h.  287m.  ;  decl.  14°  41'  N. 
Sidereal  Time  at  Sunset,  9h.  51m. 
Moon  (at  Last  Quarter  May  3,  oh.)  rises,  22h.  21m.*; 
souths,  2h.  46m.  ;  sets,  7h.  6m.  :  right  asc.  on  meridian, 
I7h.  157m. ;  decl.  19°  30'  S. 

Right  asc.  and  declination 
Planet.         Rises.  Souths.  Sets.  on  meridian. 

h.     m.  h.    m.  h.    m.  h.      m.  o       < 

Mercury..     4  23  ...   Ii   11   ...   17  59  ...     i  42-0  ...     8  45  N. 

Venus 4    8  ...   10  44  ...   17  20  ...     i   I5'8  ...     6  22  N. 

Mars 16  45   ...   22  25   ...     4     5*...    12  58-3  ...     4  38  S. 

Jupiter....  21  25*...  I  40  ...  5  55  ...  16  9-9  ...  20  I  S. 
Saturn....  9  40  ...  17  38  ...  i  36*...  8  lO'S  ...  20  40  N. 
Uranus...  16  42  ...  22  20  ...  3  58*...  12  53'2  ...  4  58  S. 
Neptune..  5  35  ...  13  17  ..  20  59  ...  3  486  ...  18  21  N. 
*  Indicates  that  the  rising  is  that  of  the  preceding  evening  and  the  setting 
that  of  the  following  morning. 

Occultations  of  Stars  by  the  Moon  (visible  at  Greenwich). 

Corresponding 

angles  from  ver- 

May.  Star.  Mag.        DIsap.  Reap.        tex  to  right  for 

inverted  image, 
h.    m.  h.    m.  00 

I   ...  50  Sagittarii    ...  6     ...     3  19  ...     3  ZZ     -  359  339 
3  ...  31  Capricorni  ...  6|  ...     2  50  ...     3  43     ...   112  214 
May.  h. 

5       ...     18     ...     Mars  in  conjunction  with  and  0°  35'  north 
of  Uranus. 


April  26,  1888] 


NATURE 


617 


Variable  Stars. 

Star. 

R.A. 

Decl. 

h.     m. 

, 

h. 

m. 

U  Cephei     

0  52-4  .. 

.  8i  16  N. 

...  May    2, 

2 

40  m 

f^Geminorum 

6  575  ■• 

.  20  44  N. 

..  Apr.  29, 

20 

0  m 

U  Monocerotis   ... 

7  25-5  ■• 

•    9  33  S. 

..  May    I, 

M 

T  Geminorum     .. 

7  426  .. 

.24     I  N. 

..  Apr.  29, 

M 

R  Crateris   

10  55-1  .. 

•  17  43  S. 

••     M     30, 

tn 

T  Ursse  Majoris  .. 

12  313  .. 

.60    6  N. 

...  May    2, 

M 

U  Bootis      

14  49*2  .. 

.  18     9  N. 

...  Apr.  29, 

M 

S  Librae        

14  550.. 

.    8     4S. 

...  May    I, 

21 

38  m 

U  Coronse   

15  13*6  .. 

.32    3  N. 

...  Apr.  30, 

22 

56  m 

U  Ophiuchi 

17  10-9  .. 

.     I  20  N. 

..  May    2, 

2 

10  m 

W  Sagittarii 

17  579  •• 

29  35  S. 

..     „       5. 

3 

oM 

R  Scuti 

18  41-5  •• 

.    5  50  S. 

..  Apr.  29, 

M 

i3  Lyrse 

18  46-0  .. 

•  33  14  N. 

..  May    5, 

I 

oM 

S  Sagittae    

19  50-9  •• 

16  20  N. 

..  Apr.  30, 

0 

0  nt 

May    3, 

0 

oM 

T  Delphini 

20  40*2  .. 

.16    oN. 

..     M       "i, 

M 

T  Vulpeculse 

20  467  . 

.  27  50  N, 

..  Apr.  30, 

22 

0  M 

May    I, 

23 

0  m 

8  Cephei      

22  25*0  .. 

.  57  51  N. 

..Apr.  29, 

21 

oM 

M 

signifies  maximum  ;  m  minimum. 

Meteor-  Showers, 

R.A. 

Decl. 

Near  C  Ursse  Majoris  ...  206 

...  5°7  N.  .. 

.  Slow,  bright. 

,,     /3  Librae 

.      ...    228 

...    5S.    .. 

.  Rather  slow. 

,,     5  Serpentis  .. 

•      •••   233 

..   10  N.   .. 

.  Swift. 

,,     i;  Herculis  .. 

.      ...    239 

..  46  N.   .. 

Swift,  faint. 

,,     t,  Ophiuchi   . 

•      -   255 

..  21  S.    .. 

Rather  slow, 

Ion.?. 

-„     t\  Aquarii    .. 

•••  337 

..     2  S.    .. 

Swift,  long,  streaks. 

GEOGRAPHICAL  NOTES. 

The  Founder's  Medal  of  the  Royal  Geographical  Society  has 
beenawarded  to  Mr.  Clements  R.  Markham,  C.B.,F.R.S.j  on  his 
retirement,  after  twenty- five  years'  service,  from  the  Honorary 
Secretaryship  of  the  Society,  during  which  he  has  done  so 
much  for  the  promotion  of  geography.  The  announcement  of 
Mr.  Markham's  retirement  will  be  received  with  regret  by  all 
who  know  the  value  of  the  work  he  has  done,  both  in  connection 
with  the  Society  and  otherwise.  But  as  he  is  still  in  his  vigour 
we  may  look  for  many  more  years'  good  work  from  him.  The 
Royal  Medal  has  been  awarded  to  Lieut.  Wissmann,  who  has 
twice  crossed  Africa,  and  done  a  great  amount  of  excellent 
exploring  work  in  the  region  south  of  the  Congo.  The  Murchtson 
Grant  has  been  awarded  to  Mr.  James  McCarthy,  Super- 
intendent of  Surveys  in  Siam  ;  the  Gill  Premium  to  Mr.  Charles 
M.  Doughty,  for  his  explorations  in  Arabia ;  and  the  Cuthbert 
Peek  Grant  to  Major  Festing  for  his  services  as  cartographer  on 
the  Gambia  River.  As  honorary  corresponding  members,  have 
been  selected  Dr.  G.  Radde,  of  Tiflis,  Dr.  H.  Rink,  of 
Copenhagen,  and  Dr.  Rein,  Professor  of  Geography  at  Bonn 
University. 

Two  papers  were  read  at  Monday's  meeting  of  the  Royal 
Geographical  Society,  one  by  the  Rev.  T.  S.  Lea,  on  the  Island 
of  Fernando  Noronha,  and  the  other  by  Colonel  Sir  Marshall 
Clarke,  on  Basuto  Land.  Mr.  Lea  accompanied  Mr.  H.  N. 
Ridley  on  his  mission  to  Fernando  Noronha  last  year.  The 
islands  are  290  miles  north-east  of  Pernambuco.  The  total  length 
of  the  whole  group  from  north-east  to  south-west  is  about  6\ 
geographical  miles,  and  the  maximum  width  of  Fernando  itself 
l|  mile.  The  noith-east  cape  of  that  island  is  very  rugged  and 
precipitous,  though  of  no  great  height.  Boobie  Island  and  Egg 
Island  are  also  raised  masses  of  reef  rock,  which  again  appears 
on  the  top  of  the  basalt  of  Platform  Island.  Mount  St. 
Michael  is  a  phonolite  peak  on  which  the  weed  invasion  has 
hardly  found  a  footing,  and  the  native  plants  still  flourish.  This 
phonolite  is  a  gray,  close-grained  columnar  rock,  and  it  seems  to  be 
the  key  to  the  very  interesting  geology  of  the  island.  Platform 
Island  and  Egg  Island  have  a  connection  at  low  water  with  the 
main  island,  a  small  mass  of  reef  rock.  Morro  do  Chapeo,  or 
the  Hat  Rock,  seems  to  represent  the  residue  of  a  larger  block. 
The  north  cape  of  the  main  island  is  stony,  and  there  is  no  great 
wealth  of  vegetation,  though  even  here  many  of  the  endemics 
may  be  found.  There  is  a  patch  of  blown  sand  at  San  Antonio 
over  which  the  Iponicea  pes-capra:  trails,  and  beyond  that  the 
ground  rises  towards  the  basaltic  height  on  which  the  town  is 


built.  The  basalt  is  naore  inclined  to  be  nodular  than  columnar. 
Descending  from  the  town  hills,  the  peak  stands  out  clear  against 
the  northern  sky.  It  is  a  huge  mass  of  columnar  phonolite,  with  a 
talus  of  debris  around  it,  in  shape  not  unlike  a  church  with  a  tower. 
About  the  centre  of  the  plain  rises  a  round  mass  of  phonolite. 
On  the  south  coast,  like  bastions,  stand  two  other  phonolite 
masses,  with  a  ridge  of  basalt  between  them,  steep  on  its  seaward 
side,  but  sloping  gradually  landwards.  The  islands  of  the  south 
coast,  with  the  exception  of  the  minute  I.  Jones,  are  also 
phonolite.  Tobacco  Point  is  basaltic,  and  Morro  Branco,  in 
Leao  Bay,  altered  phonolite.  There  are  raised  beaches  of  reef 
rock  on  Tobacco  Point  and  to  the  east  of  Look-out  Hill.  Mr. 
Lea  hazards  the  following  observations  with  regard  to  the  structure 
and  possible  history  of  the  main  island.  Though  undoubtedly 
volcanic  in  origin,  the  date  at  which  it  was  in  any  way  active 
must  be  exceedingly  remote.  No  hot  springs,  or  any  trace  of 
them,  occur  ;  no  earthquakes  or  tidal  waves  are  felt.  No  site  of 
a  crater  can  be  pointed  to  with  certainty,  and  indeed  any  attempt 
to  reconstruct  its  pristine  shape  from  the  attenuated  remains  that 
are  left  us  must  be  undertaken  with  extreme  diffidence.  As  the 
island  is  surrounded  by  deep  sea,  and  as  nothing  volcanic  occurs, 
as  fr.r  as  he  is  aware,  on  the  coast  of  Brazil  in  its  neighbourhood, 
he  is  inclined  to  think  that  it  marks  the  site  of  an  isolated  vent. 
The  number  of  species  of  plants,  &c.,  peculiar  to  the  island 
seems  also  to  point  to  this,  or  at  any  rate  to  the  extreme  remote- 
ness of  any  connection  with  other  land.  But  there  is  at  least  one 
thing  which  may  throw  some  light  on  this  matter.  All  round 
the  island,  though  interrupted  in  places,  especially  on  the  northern 
coast,  there  is  a  sort  of  reef  formation  laid  bare  at  low  water, 
and  closely  resembling  the  Recife  of  Pernambuco.  At  certain 
points  a  very  similar  rock  is  found  at  considerable  heights  above 
the  sea.  On  Rat  Island  this  reef  attains  no  great  elevation.  It 
rests  upon  a  beach  of  rounded  boulders  near  the  landing,  which 
may  be  seen  underlying  it.  Boobie  Island  and  Egg  Island  also 
have  it,  and  there  are  traces  of  it  at  the  summit  of  Platform 
Island.  On  basalt  in  Cotton-tree  Bay,  close  by  Look-out  Hill, 
it  occurs  at  a  yet  greater  height,  and  again  on  Tobacco  Point  and 
I.  Jones  it  also  occurs  above  high- water  mark.  Raised  beaches, 
therefore,  seem  only  to  exist  on  basalt,  and  in  close  connection 
with  a  phonolite  peak.  Mr.  Lea  suggests  that  the  phonolite 
regions  mark  the  sites  of  the  ancient  vetits  of  the  volcano,  the 
phonolite  itself  being  the  plug  which  remained  fixed  during  sub- 
sequent eruptions  of  lava.  The  scoria  is  all  but  gone,  only 
remaining  where  the  basalt  covers  it,  but  the  harder  phonolite 
still  remains  in  its  place,  and  the  raised  beaches  show  that 
beneath  it  lay  the  forces  which  manifested  themselves  in  the  last 
expiring  efforts  of  the  volcano.  The  flora  and  fauna  of  the 
group  have  already  been  very  fully  described  by  Mr.  Ridley. 

Sir  Marshall  Clarke's  paper  described  an  official  tour 
he  made  in  Basuto  Land,  last  October,  to  visit  the  Baltokoa 
tribe  settled  among  the  mountains.  He  traversed  400  miles  of 
country,  a  large  proportion  of  which  had  never  been  visited  by 
Europeans.  The  highest  point  attained  was  10,750  feet  ;  but 
from  thence,  both  north  and  south,  distant  heights  appeared  at 
great  elevations. 


ANTAGONISM.'' 

SOME  months  ago,  shortly  after  I  had  resigned  my  office  of 
Judge  of  the  High  Court,  I  was  expressing  to  a  friend  my 
fear  of  the  effect  of  having  no  compulsory  occupation,  when  he 
said,  by  way  of  consolation,  "Never  mind,  'for  Satan  finds 
some  mischief  still  for  idle  hands  to  do.'  "  You  may  possibly 
in  the  course  of  this  evening  think  he  was  right.  I  have 
chosen  a  title  for  my  lecture  which  may  not  fully  convey 
to  your  minds  the  scope  of  the  views  which  I  am  going 
to  submit  to  you.  I  propose  to  adduce  some  arguments  to 
show  that  "antagonism,"  a  word  generally  used  to  signify 
something  disagreeable,  pervades  all  things;  that  it  is  not 
the  baneful  thing  which  many  consider  it  ;  that  it  produces 
at  least  quite  as  much  good  as  evil  ;  but  that,  whatever  be  its 
effect,  my  theory— call  it,  if  you  will,  speculation— is  that  it  is  a 
necessity  of  existence,  and  of  the  organism  of  the  universe  so  far 
as  we  understand  it ;  that  motion  and  life  cannot  go  on  without 
it  ;  that  it  is  not  a  mere  casual  adjunct  of  Nature,  but  that 
without  it  there  would  be  no  Nature,  at  all  events  as  we  conceive 

'  Lecture  delivered  at  the  Royal  Institution,  en  April  ao,   by  the  Right 
Hon.  Sir  William  R.  Grove,  F.K.S. 


6i8 


NATURE 


{April  26,  1888 


it ;  that  it  is  inevitably  a?sociated  with  unorganized  matter,  with 
organized  matter,  and  with  sentient  beings. 

I  am  not  aware  that  this  view,  in  the  breadth  in  which  I  sug- 
gest it,  has  been  advanced  before.  Probably  no  idea  is  new  in 
all  respects  in  the  present  period  of  the  world's  history.  It  has 
been  said  by  a  desponding  pessimist  that  "There  is  nothing  new, 
and  nothing  true,  and  nothing  signifies,"  but  I  do  not  entirely 
agree  with  him  ;  I  believe  that  in  what  I  am  about  to  submit 
there  is  something  new  and  true  in  the  point  of  view  froJi  which 
I  regard  the  matter  ;  whether  it  signifies  or  not  is  for  you  to 
judge. 

The  universality  of  antagonism  has  not  received  the  attention 
it  seems  to  me  to  deserve  from  the  fact  of  the  element  of  force, 
or  rather  of  the  conquering  force,  being  mainly  attended  to,  and 
too  little  note  taken  of  the  element  of  resistance  unless  the  latter 
vanquishes  the  force,  and  then  it  becomes,  popularly  speaking, 
the  force,  and  the  f  )rmer  force  the  resistance. 

There  are  propositions  applying  more  or  less  to  what  I  am 
going  to  say  of  some  antiquity. 

Heraclitus,  quoted  by  Prof.  Huxley,  said:  "War is  the  father 
and  king  of  all  things. "  Hobbes  said  war  is  the  natural  state 
of  man,  but  his  expressions  have  about  them  some  little  am- 
biguity. In  Chapter  I.  of  the  "  Ue  Corpore  Politico"  he  says 
"  Irresistible  might  in  a  state  of  nature  is  right,"  and  "  The 
estate  of  man  in  this  natural  liberty  is  war. "  Subsequently  he 
says  :  "A  man  gives  up  his  natural  right,  for  when  divers  men 
having  right  not  only  to  all  things  else,  but  to  one  another's 
persons,  if  they  use  the  same  there  arizeth  thereby  invasion  on 
the  one  part  and  resistance  on  the  other,  which  is  war  and  therefore 
contrary  to  the  law  of  Nature,  the  sun  whereof  consisteth  in 
making  peace.'"  I  can  only  explain  this  apparent  inconsistency 
by  supposing  he  meant  "law  of  Nature "  to  be  something 
different  from  "the  natural  estate  of  man,"  and  that  the 
making  peace  was  the  first  effort  at  contract,  or  the  beginning 
of  law;  but  then  why  call  it  the  "  law  of  Natw-e,'^  where  he 
says  might  is  right?  There  is  however  some  obscurity  in 
the  passage. 

The  Persian  divinities,  Ormuzdand  Ahriman,  were  the  supposed 
rulers  or  representatives  of  good  and  evil,  always  at  war,  and  caus- 
ing the  continuous  struggles  between  human  beings  animated  re- 
spectively by  these  two  principles.  Undoubtedly  good  and  evil 
are  antagonistic,  l)ut  antagonism,  as  I  view  it,  is  as  necessary  to 
good  as  to  evil,  as  necessary  to  Ormuzd  as  to  Ahriman. 
Zoroaster's  religion  of  a  Divine  being,  one  and  indivisible,  but 
with  two  sides,  is,  to  my  mind,  a  more  philosophical  concep- 
tion. The  views  of  Lamarck  on  the  modification  of  organic 
beings  by  effort,  and  the  establishment  of  the  doctrine  of  Darwin 
as  to  the  effects  produced  by  the  struggle  for  existence  and 
domination,  come  much  nearer  to  my  subject.  Darwin  has 
shown  how  these  struggles  have  modified  the  forms  and  habits 
of  organized  beings,  and  tended  to  increased  differentiation, 
and  Prof.  Huxley  and  Herbert  Spencer  have  powerfully  pro- 
moted and  expanded  these  doctrines.  To  the  latter  we  owe  the 
happy  phrase,  "survival  of  the  fittest,"  and  Prof.  Huxley  has 
recently,  in  a  paper  in  the  Nineteenth  Century,  anticipated  some 
points  I  should  have  adverted  to  as  to  the  social  struggles  for  ex- 
istence. To  be  anticipated,  and  by  a  very  short  period,  is  always 
'trying,  but  it  is  more  trying  when  what  you  intended  to  say  has 
been  said  by  your  predecessor  in  more  terse  and  appropriate 
language  than  you  have  at  your  command. 

I  propose  to  deal  with  "antagonism"  inductively,  ?'.(?.  with 
facts  derived  from  observation  alone,  and  not  to  meddle  with 
spiritual  matters  or  with  consequences. 

Let  us  begin  with  what  we  know  of  the  visible  universe,  viz. 
suns,  planets,  comets,  meteorites,  and  their  effects.  These  are 
all  pulling  at  each  other,  and  resisting  that  pull  by  the  action 
of  other  forces. 

Any  change  in  this  pulling  force  produces  a  change,  or,  as  it 
is  called,  perturbation,  in  the  motion  of  the  body  pulled.  The 
planet  Neptune,  as  you  know,  was  discovered  by  the  effect  of 
its  pulling  force  on  another  planet,  the  latter  being  deflected 
from  its  normal  course.  When  this  pulling  force  is  not  counter- 
balanced by  other  forces,  or  when  the  objects  pulled  have  not 
sufficient  resisting  power,  they  fall  into  each  other.  Thus,  this 
earth  is  daily  causing  a  bombardment  of  itself  by  drawing 
smaller  bodies — meteorites — to  it ;  20,000,000  of  which,  visible 
to  the  naked  eye,  fall  on  an  average  into  our  atmosphere  in  each 
twenty-four  hours,  and  of  those  visible  through  the  telescope, 
400,000,000  are  computed  to  fall  within  the  same  period.  Mr. 
3Lockyer  has  recently  given  reasons  for  supposing  the  luminosity 


of  nebulae,  or  of  many  of  them,  is  due  to  collisions  or  friction 
among  the  meteorites  which  go  to  form  them  ;  but  his  paper  on 
the  subject  is  not  yet  published.  You  must  get  from  Mr.  Lockyer 
the  details  of  his  views.  I  hope  he  may,  at  one  of  these  evening 
meetings,  give  you  a  resume  of  them  from  the  place  I  now 
occupy. 

What  is  commonly  called  centrifugal  force  docs  not  come 
from  nothing  ;  it  depends  upon  the  law  that  a  body  falling 
by  the  influence  of  attraction,  not  upon,  but  near  to,  the  attract- 
ing body,  whirls  round  the  latter,  describing  one  of  the  curves 
known  as  conic  sections.  Hence,  a  meteorite  may  become  a 
planet  or  satellite  (one  was  supposed  to  have  become  so  to  this 
earth,  but  I  believe  the  observations  have  not  been  verified) ;  or 
it  may  go  off  in  a  parabola  as  comets  do  ;  or,  again,  this  centri- 
fugal force  may  be  generated  by  the  gradual  accretion  of  nebu- 
lous matter  into  solid  masses  falling  near  to,  or  being  thrown  off 
from,  the  central  nucleus,  the  two  forces,  centrifugal  and  centri- 
petal, being  antagonistic  to  each  other,  and  the  relative  move- 
ments being  continuous,  but  probably  not  perpetual.  Our  solar 
system  is  also  kept  in  its  place  by  the  antagonism  of  the  sur- 
rounding bodies  of  the  Kosmos  pulling  at  us.  Suppose  half  of 
the  stars  we  see,  i.e.  all  on  one  side  of  a  meridian  line,  were 
removed,  what  would  become  of  our  solar  system?  It  would 
drift  away  to  the  side  where  attraction  still  existed,  and  there 
would  be  a  wreck  of  matter  and  a  crash  of  worlds.  It  is  very 
little  known  that  Shakespeare  was  acquainted  with  this  pulling 
force.     He  says,  by  the  mouth  of  Cressida — 

"  But  the  strong  base  and  building  of  my  love 
Is  as  the  very  centre  of  the  earth 
Drawing  all  things  to  it  " — 

a  very  accurate  description  of  the  law  of  gravitation,  so  far  as 
this  earth  is  concerned,  and  written  nearly  a  century  before 
Newton's  time. 

But  in  all  probability  the  collisions  of  meteorites  with  the  earth 
and  other  suns  and  planets  are  not  the  only  collisions  in  space. 
I  know  of  no  better  theory  to  account  for  the  phenomena  of 
temporary  stars,  such  as  that  which  appeared  in  1866,  than  that 
they  result  from  the  collision  of  non-luminous  stars,  or  stars 
previously  invisible  to  us.  That  star  burst  suddenly  into  light, 
and  then  the  luminosity  gradually  faded,  the  star  became  more 
and  more  dim,  and  ultimately  disappeared.  The  spectrum  of  it 
showed  that  the  light  was  comjDound,  and  had  probably  emanated 
from  two  different  sources.  It  was  probably  of  a  very  high 
temperature.  If  this  theory  of  temporary  stars  be  admitted,  we 
get  a  nebula  of  vapour  or  star  dust  again,  and  so  may  get  fresh 
instances  of  the  nebular  hypothesis. 

Let  us  now  take  the  earth  itself.  It  varies  in  temperature,  and 
consequently  the  particles  at  or  near  its  surface  are  in  continuous 
movement,  rubbing  against  each  other,  being  oxidized  or  de- 
oxidized, either  immediately  or  through  the  medium  of  vegetation. 
This  also  is  continuously  tearing  up  its  surface  and  changing  its 
character.  Evaporation  and  condensation,  producing  rain,  hail, 
and  storms,  notably  change  it.  Force  and  resistance  are  con- 
stantly at  play.  The  sea  erodes  rocks  and  rubs  them  into  sand. 
The  sea  quits  them  and  leaves  traces  of  its  former  presence  by 
the  fossil  marine  shells  found  now  at  high  altitudes.  Rocks 
crumble  down  and  break  other  rocks  or  are  broken  by  them  ; 
avalanches  are  not  uncommon.  The  interior  of  the  earth 
seems  to  be  in  a  perpetual  state  of  commotion,  though  only 
recurrent  to  our  observation.  Earthquakes  in  various  places 
from  time  to  time,  and,  doubtless,  many  beneath  the  sea  of  which 
we  are  not  cognizant,  nor  of  other  gradual  upheavals  and 
depressions.  Throughout  it  nothing  that  we  know  of  is  at  rest, 
and  nothing  can  move  without  changing  the  position  of  some- 
thing else,  and  this  is  antagonism.  Metals  rust  at  its  surface, 
and  probably  they  or  their  oxides,  chlorides,  &c.,  are  in  a. 
continuous  state  of  change  in  the  interior.  Nothing  that  we 
know  of  is  stationary.  The  earth  as  a  whole  seems  so  at  first 
sight,  but  its  surface  is  moving  at  the  rate  of  some  seventeen  miles 
a  minute  at  the  equator  ;  and  standing  at  either  of  the  Poles — an 
experiment  which  no  one  has  yet  had  an  opportunity  of  trying — 
a  man  would  be  turned  round  his  own  axis  once  in  every  twenty- 
four  hours,  while  the  earth's  motion  round  the  sun  carries  us 
through  space  more  than  a  million  and  a  half  of  miles  a  day. 

The  above  changes  produce  motion  in  other  things.  The 
earth  pulls  the  sun  and  planets,  and  in  different  degrees  at 
different  portions  of  its  orbit. 

Before  I  pass  from  inorganic  to  organized  matter  I  had  better 
deal  with  what  may  perhaps  strike  you  as  the  most  difficult  part  of 
my  subject,  viz.  light.    Where,  you  may  say,  is  there  antagonism 


April  26,  1888] 


NATURE 


619 


in  the  case  of  light  ?  Light  exercises  its  force  upon  such  minute 
portions  of  jnatter  that  until  the  period  of  the  discovery  of 
photography  its  physical  and  chemical  effects  were  almost 
unknown.  Such  effects  as  bleaching,  uniting  some  gases,  and 
affecting  the  colouring  matter  of  vegetables,  were  partly  known 
but  little  attended  to  ;  but  photography  created  a  new  era  :  I 
shall  advert  to  this  presently.  The  theories  of  light,  however, 
involved  matter  and  motion.  The  corpuscular  theory,  as  you 
well  know,  supposed  that  excessively  small  particles  were 
emitted  from  luminous  bodies,  and  travelled  with  enormous 
velocity.  The  undulatory  theory,  which  supplanted  it,  supposed 
that  luminous  bodies  caused  undulations  or  vibrations  in  a  highly 
tenuous  matter  called  ether,  which  is  supposed  to  exist  through- 
out the  interplanetary  spaces  and  throughout  the  universe  so  far 
as  we  know  it.  Some  suppose  this  ether  to  be  of  a  specific 
character  differing  from  that  of  ordinary  gases,  others  that  it  is 
in  the  nature  of  a  highly  attenuated  gas  ;  but,  whatever  it  be,  it 
cannot  be  affected  by  undulations  or  vibrations  without  being 
moved,  and  when  matter  is  moved  by  any  force  it  must  offer 
resistance  to  that  force,  and  hence  we  get  antagonism  between 
force  and  resistance.  Light  also  takes  time  in  overcoming  this 
resistance,  i.e.  in  pushing  aside  the  ether.  It  travels  no  doubt 
at  a  good  pace — about  190,000  miles  in  a  second  ;  but  even  at  this 
rate,  and  without  being  particular  as  to  a  few  millions  of  miles, 
it  takes  three  years  and  a  quarter  to  reach  us  from  the  star 
which,  so  far  as  we  know,  is  the  nearest  to  us,  viz.  a  Cen- 
tauri.  The  ether,  or  whatever  it  may  be  called,  tenuous  as  it 
is,  is  not  unimportant,  though  it  be  not  heavy.  Without  it  we 
should  have  no  light  and  possibly  no  heat,  and  the  consequences 
of  its  absence  would  be  rather  formidable.  I  believe  you  have 
heard  Dr.  Tyndall  on  this  subject.  Supposing  the  visible 
universe  to  be  as  it  is  now  supposed  to  be,  i.e.  in  no  part  a  mere 
vacuum,  there  can  be  no  force  without  resistance  in  any  part 
of  it. 

But  photography  carries  us  further,  it  shows  us  that  light  acts 
on  matter  chemically,  that  it  is  capable  of  decomposing  or  forcing 
asunder  the  constituents  of  chemical  compounds,  and  is  there- 
fore a  force  met  by  resistance.  In  the  year  1856  I  made  some 
experiments  published  in  the  Philosophical  Magazine  for  January 
1857,  which  seemed  to  me  to  carry  still  further  what  I  may  call  the 
molecular  fight  between  light  and  chemical  affinity,  and  among 
them  the  following.  Letters  cut  out  of  paper  are  placed 
between  two  polished  squares  of  glass  with  tin-foil  on  the  out- 
sides.  It  is  then  electrized  like  a  Leyden  jar,  for  a  few  seconds, 
the  glasses  separated,  the  letters  blown  off,  and  the  inside  of  one 
of  the  glasses  covered  with  jDhotographic  collodion.  This  is  then 
exposed  to  diffuse  daylight,  and  on  being  immersed  in  the  nitrate 
of  silver  bath  the  part  which  had  been  covered  with  the  paper 
comes  out  dark,  the  remainder  of  the  plate  being  unaffected. 
(This  result  was  shown  by  the  electric  light  lantern.)  In  this 
case  we  see  that  another  imponderable  force,  electricity,  invisibly 
affects  the  surface  of  glass  in  such  a  way  that  it  conveys  to 
another  substance  of  definite  thickness,  viz.  the  prepared 
collodion,  a  change  in  the  chemical  relations  of  the  substance 
(iodide  of  silver)  pervading  it,  enabling  it  to  resist  that  de- 
composition by  light  which  but  for  some  unseen  modification  of 
the  surface  of  the  glass  plate  it  would  have  undergone,  and  no 
doubt  the  force  of  light  being  unable  to  effect  its  object  was 
reflected  or  dispersed,  and  instead  of  changing  its  mode  of 
motion  in  effecting  chemical  decomposition,  it  goes  off  on 
other  business.  The  visible  effect  is  in  the  collodion  film  alone. 
I  have  stripped  that  ofit',  and  the  imprint  remains  on  it,  the  surface 
of  the  glass  being,  so  far  as  I  could  ascertain,  unaffected.  Thus 
in  the  film  over  the  protected  part,  light  conquers  chemical 
affinity  ;  in  that  over  the  non-protected  part,  chemical  affinity 
resists  and  conquers  light,  which  has  to  make  an  ignominious 
retreat.  It  is  a  curious  chapter  in  the  history  of  the  struggles 
of  molecular  forces,  and  probably  similar  contests  between  light 
and  chemical  or  physical  attractions  go  on  in  many  natural 
phenomena,  some  forms  of  blight  and  some  healthy  vegetable 
changes  being  probably  dependent  on  the  varying  effects  of  light, 
and  conditions,  electrical  or  otherwise,  of  the  atmosphere. 

Let  us  now  pass  on  to  organic  life.  A  blade  of  grass,  as 
Ikirke,  I  believe,  said  as  a  figure  of  speech,  is  fighting  with  its 
neighbours.  It  is  robbing  them,  and  they  are  trying  to  rob  it- 
no  agreement  or  contract,  simply  force  opposed  to  force.  This 
struggle  is  good  for  the  grass  ;  if  it  got  too  much  nutriment  it 
would  become  diseased.  The  struggle  keeps  it  in  health.  The 
rising  of  sap  in  trees,  the  assimilation  of  carbon,  the  process  of 
growth,  the  strengthening  themselves  to  resist  prevalent  winds, 


and  many  other  instances  might  be  given,  which  afford  examples 
of  the  internal  and  external  struggles  in  vegetable  life. 

I  will  now  proceed  to  consider  animal  life,  and  in  this  case  I  will 
begin  with  the  internal  life  of  animals,  which  is  a  continual 
struggle.  That  great  pump  the  heart  is  continuously  beating — 
that  is,  conquering  resistance.  It  is  forcing  the  blood  through 
the  arteries,  they  assisting  in  squeezing  it  onwards.  If  they  give 
way  the  animal  dies  ;  if  they  become  rigid  and  resist  too  much, 
the  animal  dies.  There  must  be  a  regulated  antagonism,  a 
rhythmical  pulsation,  the  very  term  involving  force  and  resist- 
ance. That  the  act  of  breathing  is  antagonistic  scarcely  needs 
argument.  The  muscular  action  by  which  the  ribs  are  made  to 
open  out  and  close  alternately,  in  order  to  inhale  and  exhale  air, 
and  other  physiological  changes  which  I  cannot  here  go  into, 
necessitate  a  continuous  fight  for  life.  So  with  digestion,  assimi- 
lation, and  other  functions,  mechanical  and  chemical  forces  and 
resistances  come  into  play. 

Since  this  lecture  was  written,  I  have  heard  of  a  discovery 
made,  I  am  informed,  by  Prof.  Metschnikoff,  and  which  has 
brought  to  light  a  singular  instance  of  internal  antagonism. 
He  is  said  to  have  proved  that  the  white  corpuscles  of  the 
blood  are  permanent  enemies  of  Bacteria,  and  by  inoculation  wiU 
absorb  poisonous  germs  ;  a  recurrent  war,  as  it  appears,  going 
on  between  them.  If  the  corpuscle  is  the  conqueror,  the  Bacteria 
are  swallowed  up,  and  the  patient  lives.  If  the  corpuscles  are 
vanquished,  the  patient  dies,  and  the  Bacteria  live,  at  all  events  for 
a  time.  If  the  theory  is  founded,  it  affords  a  strong  additional 
argument  to  the  doctrine  of  internal  antagonism.  Possibly  if 
there  were  no  Bacteria,  and  the  corpuscles  had  nothing  to  do,  it 
would  be  worse  for  them  and  the  animal  whom  they  serve. 

Let  us  now  consider  the  external  life  of  animals.  I  will  take  as 
an  instance,  for  a  reason  which  you  will  soon  see,  the  life  of  a 
wild  rabbit.  It  is  throughout  its  life,  except  when  asleep  (of 
which  more  presently),  using  exertion,  cropping  grass,  at  war  with 
vegetables,  &c.  If  it  gets  a  luxurious  pasture  it  dies  of  repletion. 
If  it  gets  too  little  it  dies  of  inanition.  To  keep  itself  healthy 
it  must  exert  itself  for  its  food  ;  this,  and  perhaps  the  avoiding  its 
enemies,  gives  it  exercise  and  care,  brings  all  its  organs  into  use, 
and  thus  it  acquires  its  most  perfect  form  of  life.  I  have  wit- 
nessed this  effect  myself,  and  that  is  the  reason  why  I  choose 
the  rabbit  as  an  example.  An  estate  in  Somersetshire,  which  I 
once  took  temporarily,  was  on  the  slope  of  the  Mendip  Hills. 
The  rabbits  on  one  part  of  it,  viz.  that  on  the  hill-side, 
were  in  perfect  condition,  not  too  fat  nor  too  thin,  sleek,  active, 
and  vigorous,  and  yielding  to  their  antagonists,  myself  and  family, 
excellent  food.  Those  in  the  valley,  where  the  pasturage  was  rich 
and  luxuriant,  were  all  diseased,  most  of  them  unfit  for  human 
food  and  many  lying  dead  on  the  fields.  They  had  not  to 
struggle  for  life,  their  short  life  was  miserable  and  their  death 
early,  they  wanted  the  sweet  uses  of  adversity — that  is,  of 
antagonism. 

The  same  story  may  be  told  of  other  animals.  Carnivora, 
beasts  or  birds  of  prey,  live  on  weaker  animals  ;  weaker  animals 
herd  together  to  resist,  or,  by  better  chance  of  warning,  to  escape, 
beasts  of  prey  ;  while  they,  the  Herbivora,  in  their  turn  are 
destroying  vegetable  organisms. 

I  now  come  to  the  most  delicate  part  of  my  subject,  viz.  man 
(I  include  women  of  course  !).  Is  man  exempt  from  this  continual 
struggle? 

It  is  needless  to  say  that  war  is  antagonism.  Is  not  peace  sa 
also,  though  in  a  different  form  ?  It  is  a  common-place  remark 
to  say  that  the  idle  man  is  worn  out  by  etiitui,  i.e.  by  internal 
antagonism,  Kingsley's  "  Do-as-you-like  "  race— who  were  fed 
by  a  substance  dropping  from  trees,  who  did  no  work,  and  who 
gradually  degenerated  until  they  became  inferior  to  apes,  and 
ultimately  died  out  from  having  nothing  to  do,  nothing  to 
struggle  with— is  a  caricature  illustrative  of  the  matter.  That  the 
worry  of  competition  is  nearly  equivalent  to  the  hardships  and 
perils  of  military  life  seems  proved  to  me  by  the  rea,diness  with 
which  military  life  is  voluntarily  undertaken,  ill  as  it  is  paid.  If 
it  were  well  paid,  half  our  men  would  be  in  the  military  or 
naval  service,  and  I  am  not  sure  that  we  should  not  have  regiments 
of  Amazons  !  The  increased  risk  of  life  or  limbs  and  the  arduous 
nature  of  the  work  do  not  prevent  men  belonging  to  all  classes 
from  entering  these  services,  little  remunerative  as  they  are. 
Others  take  the  risks  of  travelling  in  the  deserts  of  Africa  or 
wintering  in  the  Polar  regions,  of  being  eaten  by  lions  or  frozen  to 
death,  of  falling  from  a  Swiss  mountain  or  foundering  in  a  yacht, 
in  preference  to  a  life  of  tranquillity  ;  and  sportsmen  elect  the- 
danger  of  endeavouring  to  kill  an  animal  that  can  and  may  kilt 


620 


NATURE 


[Aprzl  26,  1888 


them,  to  shooting  tame  pheasants  at  a  battue  or  partridges  in  a 
turnip- field. 

Then,  in  what  is  euphemistically  called  a  life  of  peace,  buyer 
and  seller,  master  and  servant,  landlord  and  tenant,  debtor  and 
creditor,  are  all  in  a  state  of  simmering  antagonism  ;  and  the 
inventions  and  so-called  improvements  of  applied  science  and 
art  do  not  lessen  it.  Exercise  is  antagonism  ;  at  each  step  force 
is  used  to  lift  up  our  bodies  and  push  back  the  earth  ;  as  the 
eminent  Joseph  Montgolfier  said,  that  when  he  saw  a  company 
dancing,  he  mentally  inverted  his  view  and  imagined  the  earth 
dancing  on  the  dancers'  feet,  which  it  most  unquestionably  did. 
Indeed,  bis  great  invention  of  balloons  was  guessed  at  by  his 
witnessing  a  mild  form  of  antagonism  between  heat  and  gravita- 
tion. He,  being  a  dutiful  husband,  was  airing  his  wife's  dresses, 
who  was  going  to  a  ball.  He  observed  the  hot  air  from  the  fire 
inflated  the  light  materials,  which  rose  up  in  a  sort  of  spheroidal 
form  (you  may  some  of  you  have  noticed  this  form  in  dress !). 
This  gave  him  the  idea  of  the  fire-balloon,  which,  being  a  large 
paper-maker  at  Annonay,  he  forthwith  experimented  on,  and 
hence  we  got  aerial  navigation.  This  anecdote  was  told  me  by 
his  nephew  M.  Seguin,  also  an  eminent  man.  Even  what  we 
call  a  natural  death  is  a  greater  strug-^le  than  that  which  other 
animals  go  through,  and  is,  in  fact,  the  most  artificial  of  all 
deaths.  The  lower  animals,  practically  speaking,  do  experience 
a  natural  death,  i.e.  a  violent  or  unforeseen  death.  As  soon  as 
their  powers  decline  to  such  an  extent  that  they  cannot  take 
part  in  the  struggle  for  existence,  they  die  or  are  killed,  generally 
quickly,  and  their  sufferings  are  not  protracted  by  the  artificial 
tortures  arising  from  the  endeavours  to  prolong  life. 

Let  us  now  pass  from  individuals  to  communities.  Is  there 
less  antagonism  now  than  of  yore  ?  Do  the  nations  of  Europe 
now  form  a  happy  family  ?  Are  the  armaments  of  Continental 
nations,  or  is  the  navy  of  this  country,  less  than  in  former  years  ? 
The  very  expression  "  the  Great  Powers"  involves  antagonism. 

As  with  wars  and  revolutions,  so,  as  I  have  said,  with  regard 
to  individuals,  during  our  so-called  peace,  the  fight  is  continuous 
among  communities.  If  the  water  does  not  boil,  it  simmers. 
Not  merely  are  there  the  struggles  of  poor  against  rich  going  on, 
but  the  battles  for  position  and  pre-eminence  are  constant.  The 
subjugated  party  or  sect  seeks  first  for  toleration,  then  for 
equalization,  and  then  for  domination. 

We  call  contentment  a  virtue,  but  we  inculcate  discontent.  A 
father  reproaches  his  son  for  not  exerting  himself  to  improve  his 
position,  and  at  school  and  college  and  in  subsequent  periods  of 
life  efforts  at  advancement  in  the  social  scale  are  recommended. 
Individual  antagonisms,  class  antagonisms,  political,  trading, 
and  religious  antagonisms  take  the  place  of  war.  Can  war 
exhibit  a  more  vigorous  and  persistent  antagonism  than  competi- 
tion does  ?  Take  the  college  student  with  ruined  health  ;  take 
the  bankrupt  tradesman  with  ruined  family  ;  take  the  aspirants 
to  fashion  turning  night  into  day,  and  preferring,  gas  or  electric 
light  to  that  of  the  sun  :  there  is,  to  be  sure,  some  excuse  for  this, 
as  we  so  rarely  see  the  latter.  But  our  very  amusements  are  of  a 
combative  character  :  chess,  whist,  billiards,  racing,  cricket,  foot- 
ball, &c.  And  in  all  these  we,  in  common  parlance,  speak  of 
beating  our  opponent. 

Even  dancing  is  probably  a  relic  and  reminiscence  of  war, 
and  some  of  its  forms  are  of  a  military  character.  I  can  call  to 
mind  only  one  game  which  is  not  combative,  and  that  is  the 
game  you  are  in  some  sort  now  playing,  viz.  "  patience,"  and 
with,  I  fear,  some  degree  of  internal  antagonism  ! 

Take,  again,  the  ordinary  incidents  of  a  day's  life  in  London. 
i5,ooD  to  20,000  cabs,  ojanibuses,  vans,  private  carriages,  &c. , 
all  struggling,  the  horses  pushing  the  earth  back  and  themselves 
forwards,  the  pedestrians  doing  the  same,  but  the  horses  com- 
pulsorily — they  have  not  as  yet  got  votes.  The  occupants  of  the 
cabs,  vans,  &c.,  are  supposed  to  act  from  free  will,  but  in  the 
majority  of  cases  they  are  as  much  driven  as  the  horses. 
Insolvents  trying  to  renew  bills,  rich  men  trying  to  save 
what  they  have  got  by  saving  half  an  hour  of  time.  Imagine, 
if  you  can,  the  friction  of  all  this,  and  add  the  bargaining 
in  shops,  the  mental  efforts  in  counting-houses,  banks,  &c.,  and 
road  repair,  now  a  permanent  and  continuous  institution. 
Take  our  railways  :  similar  efforts  and  resistances.  Drivers, 
signal-men,  porters,  &c.,  and  the  force  emanating  from  the  sun 
millions  of  years  ago,  and  locked  up  in  the  coal-fields,  as 
Stephenson  suggested,  now  employed  to  overcome  the  inertia  of 
trains  and  to  make  them  push  the  earth  in  this  or  that  direction, 
and  themselves  along  its  surface.  Take  the  daily  struggles  in 
commerce,  law,  professions,  and  legislation,  and  sometimes  even 


in  science  and  literature.  Politics  I  cannot  enter  upon  here, 
but  must  leave  you  to  judge  whether  there  is  not  sogtie  degree  of 
antagonism  in  this  pursuit.  In  all  this  there  is  plenty  of  useful 
antagonism,  plenty  of  useless — much  to  please  Ormuzd  and 
much  to  delight  Ahriman  ;  but  of  the  two  extremes,  over-work 
or  stagnation,  the  latter  would,  I  think,  do  Ahriman's  work 
more  efficiently  than  the  former.  We  cry  peace  when  there  is 
no  peace.  Would  the  world,  however,  be  better  if  it  were 
otherwise  ?  Is  the  Nirvana  a  pleasing  prospect  ?  Sleep,  though 
not  without  its  troubles  and  internal  antagonism,  is  our  nearest 
approach  to  it,  but  we  should  hardly  wish  to  be  always  asleep. 

Shakespeare  not  only  knew  something  about  gravitation,  but 
he  also  knew  something  about  antagonism.  He  says,  by  the 
mouth  of  Agamemnon — 

"  Sith  every  action  that  hath  gone  before 
Whereof  we  have  record,  trial  did  draw 
Bias  and  thwart,  not  answering  the  aim, 
And  that  unbodied  figure  of  the  thought 
Thatgav't  surmised  shape." 

In  no  case  is  the  friction  of  life  shown  more  than  in  the  per- 
formance of  "duty,"  i.e.  an  act  of  self-resistance,  a  word  very 
commonly  used ;  but  the  realization  of  it  is  by  no  means  so 
frequent.  Indeed,  faith  in  its  performance  .'o  yields  to  scepticism 
that  it  is  said  that  when  a  man  talks  of  doing  his  duty,  he  is 
meditating  some  knavish  trick. 

The  words  good  and  evil  are  correlative  :  they  are  like  height 
and  depth,  parent  and  offspring.  You  cannot,  as  far  as  I  can 
see,  conceive  the  existence  of  the  one  without  involving  the  con- 
ception of  the  other.  In  their  common  acceptation  they  repre- 
sent the  antagonism  between  what  is  agreeable  or  beneficial  and 
what  is  painful  or  injurious. 

An  old  anecdote  will  give  us  the  notion  of  good  and 
evil  in  a  slenderly  educated  mind.  A  missionary  having  con- 
sidered that  he  had  successfully  inculcated  good  principles  in 
the  mind  of  a  previously  untutored  savage,  produced  him  for 
exhibition  before  a  select  audience,  and  began  his  catechism  by 
asking  him  the  nature  of  good  and  evil.  "Evil,"  the  pupil 
answered,  "is  when  other  man  takes  my  wife."  "Right," 
said  the  missionary,  "  now  give  me  an  example  of  good."  The 
answer  was  :  "  Good  is  when  me  takes  other  man's  wife." 
The  answer  was  not  exactly  what  was  expected,  but  was  not  far 
in  disaccord  with  modern  views  among  ourselves  and  other  so- 
called  civilized  races.  I  don't  mean  as  to  running  away  with 
other  men's  wives  !  But  we  still  view  good  and  evil  very  much 
as  affecting  our  own  interests.  At  the  commencement  of  a  war 
each  of  the  opposing  parties  view  victory — i.e.  the  destruction 
of  their  enemies — as  good,  and  being  vanquished  as  evil. 
Congregations  pray  for  this.  Statesmen  invoke  the  God  of 
battles.  Those  among  you  who  are  old  enough  will  call  to  mind 
the  Crimean  War.  Each  combatant  nation  gives  thanks  for  the 
destruction  of  the  enemy,  each  side  possibly  believing  that  they 
respectively  are  in  the  right,  but  in  reality  not  troubling  them- 
selves much  about  that  minor  question.  We  (unconsciously 
perhaps)  "  compound  for  sins  we  are  inclined  to  by  damning  those 
we  have  no  mind  to."  So  in  the  daily  life  of  what  is  called 
peace.  The  stage-coach  proprietor  rejoiced  when  he  had  driven 
his  rival  off  the  road,  railway  directors  and  shareholders  now  do 
the  same,  so  do  publicans,  shopkeepers,  and  other  rivals.  We 
are  still  permeated  by  the  old  notion  of  good  and  evil.  But 
"  antagonism,"  as  I  view  it,  not  only  comprehends  the  relation  of 
good  and  evil,  but,  a^  I  have  said,  produces  both,  and  is  as 
necessary  to  good  as  to  evil.  Without  it  there  would  be  neither 
good  nor  evil.  Judging  of  the  lives  of  our  progenitors  from 
what  we  see  of  the  present  races  of  men  of  less  cerebral  develop- 
ment, we  may  characterize  them  as  having  been  more  impulsive 
than  ourselves,  and  as  having  their  joys  and  sorrows  more 
quickly  alternated.  After  the  hunt  for  food,  accompanied  by 
privation  and  suffering,  comes  the  feast  to  gorging.  Their  main 
evil  was  starvation,  their  good  repletion.  Even  now  the 
Esquimaux  watches  a  seal-hole  in  the  bitter  cold  for  hours  and 
days,  and  his  compensation  is  the  spearing  and  eating  the  seal. 
The  good  is  resultant  upon  and  in  the  long  run  I  suppose 
equivalent  to  the  evil.  These  men  look  not  back  into  the 
past,  and  forward  into  the  future  as  we  do.  We,  by  extending 
our  thought  over  a  wider  area,  are  led  to  more  continuing 
sacrifices,  and  aim  at  more  lasting  enjoyment  in  the  result. 
The  child  suffers  at  school  in  order  that  his  future  life  may  be 
more  prosperous.  The  man  spends  the  best  part  of  his  life  in 
arduous  toil,  physical  or  mental,  in  order  that  he  may  not  want  in 
his  later  years,  or  that  his  family  may  reap  the  benefit  of  his 


April  26,  1888] 


NA  TURE 


621 


labour.  Further-seeing  men  spend  their  whole  lives  on  work 
little  remunerative  that  succeeding  generations  may  be 
benefited.  The  prudent  man  transmits  health  and  wealth  to 
his  descendants,  the  improvident  man  poverty  or  gout.  One 
main  element  of  what  we  call  civilization  is  the  capability  of 
looking  further  back  into  the  past,  and  further  forward  into  the 
future  ;  but,  though  measured  on  a  different  scale,  the  average 
antagonism  and  approximate  equivalence  appear  to  me  to  be 
the  same. 

Can  we  suppose  a  state  of  things  either  in  the  inorganic  or  the 
organic  world  which,  consistently  with  our  experience  or  any 
deduction  drawn  from  it,  would  be  without  antagonism  ?  In  the 
inorganic  world  it  would  be  the  absence  of  all  movement,  or,  wliat 
practically  amounts  to  the  same  thing,  movement  of  everything 
in  the  same  direction,  and  the  same  relative  velocity  ;  for,  as 
movement  is  only  known  to  us  by  relation,  movement  where 
nothing  is  stationary  or  moving  in  a  different  direction  or  with  a 
different  velocity  would  be  unrecognizable. 

So  in  the  organic  but  non-sentient  w  orld,  if  there  were  no 
no  struggle,  no  absorption  of  food,  no  growth,  nothing  to  over- 
come, there  would  be  nothing  to  call  life.  If,  again,  in  the 
sentient  world  there  were  no  appetites,  no  hopes — for  both  these 
involve  discontent— no  fear,  no  good  or  bad,  what  would  life  be  ? 
If  fully  carried  out,  is  not  a  life  without  antagonism  no  life  at  all, 
a  barren  metaphysical  conception  of  existence,  or  rather  alleged 
conception,  for  we  cannot  present  to  the  mind  the  form  of  such 
conception  ? 

In  the  most  ordinary  actions,  such  as  are  necessary  to  sustain 
existence,  we  find,  as  1  have  already  pointed  out,  a  struggle  more 
or  less  intense,  but  we  also  find  a  reciprocal  interdependence  of 
effort  and  result.  The  graminivorous  animal  is  during  his  waking 
hours  always  at  work,  always  making  a  small  but  continuous 
effort,  selecting  his  pastures,  cropping  vegetables,  avoiding 
enemies,  &c.  The  Carnivora  suffer  more  in  their  normal  existence; 
their  hunger  is  greater,  and  their  physical  exertion  when  they  are 
driven  by  hunger  to  make  efforts  to  obtain  food  is  more  violent 
than  with  the  Herbivora,  if  they  capture  their  prey  by  speed  or 
battle,  or  their  mental  efforts  are  greater  if  they  capture  it  by 
craft.  But  then  their  gratification  is  also  more  intense,  and  thus 
there  is  a  sort  of  rough  equation  between  their  pain  and  their 
pleasure,  the  more  sustained  the  labour  the  more  permanent  is 
the  gratification. 

As,  with  food  or  exercise,  deficiency  is  as  injurious  in  one  as  is 
excess  in  another  direction,  so,  as  affecting  the  mind  of  communi- 
ties, as  I  have  stated  it'to  be  with  individuals,  the  effect  of  a  life 
of  ease  and  too  much  repose  is  as  much  to  be  avoided  as  a  life 
of  unremitting  toil.  The  Pitcairn  islanders,  who  managed  in 
some  way  to  adapt  their  wants  to  their  supply  and  to  avoid  undue 
increase  of  population,  are  said  never  to  have  reached  old  age. 
In  consequence  of  the  uneventful,  unexcited  lives  they  led,  they 
died  of  inaction,  not  from  deficiency  of  food  or  shelter,  but  of 
excitement.  They  should  have  migrated  to  England  !  They 
died  as  hares  do  when  their  ears  are  stuffed  with  cotton,  i.e.  from 
want  of  anxiety.  We  have  hope  in  our  suffering,  and  in  the  mid 
gush  of  our  pleasures  something  bitter  surges  up. 

"  We  look  before  and  after,   and  pine  for  what  is  not. 
Our  f  incerest  laughter  with  some  pain  is  fraught, 
Our  sweetest  songs  are  those  which  tell  of  saddest  thought." 

The  question  may  possibly  occur  to  you,  Have  we  more  or  less 
antagonism  now  than  in  former  times?  We  certainly  have  more 
complexity,  more  differentiation,  in  our  mental  characteristics, 
and  probably  in  our  physical,  so  far  as  the  structure  of  the  brain 
is  concerned  ;  but  is  there  less  antagonism  ?  With  greater  com- 
plexity come  increased  wants,  more  continuous  cares.  Higher 
cerebral  development  is  accompanied  with  greater  nervous 
irritability,  with  greater  social  intricacies — we  have  more  frequent 
petty  annoyances,  and  they  affect  us  more.  With  all  our  so- 
called  social  improvements,  is  there  not  the  same  struggle  between 
crime  and  its  repression  ?  If  we  have  no  longer  highway 
robberies,  how  many  more  cases  of  fraud  exist,  most  of  it  not 
touched  by  our  criminal  laws  ?  As  to  litigation  I  am  perhaps  not 
an  impartial  judge,  but  it  seems  to  me  that  if  law  were  as  cheap 
as  is  desired,  every  next-door  neighbour  would  be  in 
litigation.  It  would  seem  as  if  social  order  had  never 
more  than  the  turn  of  the  scale  which  is  necessary  to 
social  existence  in  its  favour  when  contrasted  with  the  dis- 
organizing forces.  Without  that  there  would  be  perpetual 
insurrections  and  anarchy.  But  though  antagonism  takes  a 
different  form  it  is  still  there.  Are  wars  more  regulated  by 
justice  than  of  yore  ?     I  venture  to  doubt  it,  though  probably 


many  may  disagree  with  me.  National  self-interest  or  self-ag- 
grandisement is,  I  think,  the  predominant  factor,  and  is  frequently 
admittedly  so.  I  also  doubt  if  the  old  maxim  "  If  you  wish  for 
peace,  prepare  for  war,"  is  of  much  value.  Large  armaments 
and  improvements  in  the  means  of  destruction  (whose  inventors 
are  more  thought  of  than  the  discoverers  of  natural  truths)  are 
as  frequently  the  cause  of  war  as  of  its  prevention.  Are  wars 
less  sanguinary  with  100-ton  guns  than  with  bows  and  arrows  ? 
I  cannot  enter  into  statistics  on  this  subject,  but  a  sensible  writer 
who  has,  viz.  Mr.  Finlaison,  came  to  the  conclusion  that  wars 
ceased  now  as  anciently,  not  in  the  ratio  of  the  improvements  in 
killing  implements,  but  from  exhaustion  of  men  or  means.  Wars 
undoubtedly  occur  at  more  distant  intervals,  or  the  human  race 
would  become  extinct.  Probably  the  largely  increased  competi- 
tion supplies  their  place  :  we  fight  commercially  more  and 
militarily  less.  It  is  a  sad  reflection  that  man  is  almost  the  only 
animal  that  fights,  not  for  food  or  means  of  life  or  of  perpetuating 
its  race,  but  from  motives  of  the  merest  vanity,  ambition,  or 
pasFion.  War  is,  however,  not  wholly  evil.  It  develops 
noble  qualities — courage,  endurance,  self-sacrifice,  friendship, 
&c. — and  tends  to  get  rid  of  the  silly  incumbrances  of  fashion 
and  ostentation.  But  do  the  much  be-praised  inventions  of  peace 
bring  less  antagonism?  Consider  the  enormous  labour  and 
waste  of  time  due  to  competition  in  the  advertizing  system  alone. 
Paper-making,  type  founding,  printing,  pasting,  posting  or 
otherwise  circulating,  sandwich-men,  &c.,  all  at  work  for 
purposes  which  I  venture  to  think  are  in  great  part  u'^ele.'s ;  and 
those  who  might  add  to  the  productiveness  of  the  earth,  or  to 
the  enriching  our  knowledge,  are  helping  to  extend  the  limits  of 
the  black  country,  and  wasting  their  time  in  interested  self- 
laudation.  And  the  consumer  pays  the  costs.  "  Buy  my  clothing, 
which  will  never  wear  out."  "  Become  a  shareholder  in  our 
Com.pany,  which  will  pay  cent,  per  cent. "•>"  Take  my  pills,  which 
will  cure  all  diseases,"  &c.  These  eulogies  come  from  those 
highly  impartial  persons  the  advertisers,  all  promising  golden 
rewards,  but,  as  with  the  alchemists,  on  condition  that  gold  be 
paid  in  advance  for  their  wares ;  and  the  silly  portion  of  the  public, 
no  small  body,  take  them  at  their  word.  Though  you  may  not 
fully  agree  in  this  my  anathema  of  the  advertising  system,  and 
though  there  may  be  some  small  modicum  of  good  in  it,  I  think 
you  will  agree  that  it  affords  a  notable  illustration  of  antagonism. 
If  I  were  a  younger  man,  I  think  I  should  go  to  Kamchatka  to 
aVoid  the  penny  post  ;  possibly  I  should  not  be  satisfied  when  I 
got  there.  Civilization  begins  by  supplying  wants,  and  ends  by 
creating  them,  and  each  supply  for  the  newly-created  want  begets 
other  wants,  and  so  on  ^'  Mies  quoties," 

As  far  as  we  can  judge  by  its  present  progress,  mankind  seems 
tending  to  an  automatic  state.  The  requirements  of  each  day  are 
becoming  so  numerous  as  to  occupy  the  greater  portion  of  that 
day ;  and  when  telegrams,  telephones,  electro-motion,  and 
numerous  other  innovations  which  will  probably  follow  these, 
reach  their  full  development,  no  time  will  be  left  for  thought, 
repose,  or  any  spontaneous  individual  action.  In  this  mechani- 
cal state  of  existence,  in  times  of  peace,  extremes  of  joy  and  sorrow, 
of  good  and  evil,  will  become  more  rare,  and  the  necessary  uni- 
formity of  life  will  reduce  passion  and  feeling  to  a  continuous 
petty  friction.  The  converse  of  the  existence  contemplated  by  the 
Stoics  will  be  attained,  and,  instead  of  a  life  of  calm  contempla- 
tion, our  successors  will  have  a  life  of  objectless  activity.  The  end 
will  be  swallowed  up  in  the  means.  It  will  be  all  pursuit  and  no 
attainment.  Is  there  2i  Juste  milieu,  a  point  at  which  the  super- 
fluous commoda  vitce  will  cease  ?  None  probably  would  agree  at 
where  that  point  should  be  fixed,  and  the  future  alone  can  show 
whether  the  human  race  will  emancipate  itself  from  being,  like 
Frankenstein,  the  slave  of  the  monster  it  has  created.  In  the 
cases  I  have  given  as  illustrations — and  many  more  might  be 
adduced — the  evil  resulting  from  apparently  beneficial  changes 
is  not  a  mere  accident  :  it  is  as  necessary  a  consequence  as  re- 
action is  a  consequence  of  action.  In  the  struggle  for  existence 
or  supremacy,  inevitable  in  all  social  growths,  the  invention, 
enactment,  &c.,  intended  to  remedy  an  assumed  evil  will  be 
taken  advantage  of  by  those  for  whom  it  is  not  intended  ;  the 
real  grievance  will  be  exaggerated  by  those  having  an  interest  in 
trading  on  it,  and  the  remedy  itself  will  have  collateral  results 
not  contemplated  by  those  who  introduce  the  change.  I  could 
give  many  instances  of  this  by  my  own  experience  as  an  advo- 
cate and  judge,  but  this  would  lead  me  away  from  my  subject. 
Evils,  indeed,  result  from  the  very  change  of  habit  induced  by 
the  alleged  improvement.  The  carriage  which  saves  fatigue 
induces  listnessness,  and  tends  to  prevent  healthy  exercise.  The 
knife  and  fork  save  the  labour  of  mastication,  but  by  their  use 


622 


NA  TURE 


\April  26,  I 


there  is  not  the  same  stimulus  to  the  salivary  glands,  not  the 
full  healthy  amount  of  secretion,  whereby  digestion  suffers  ; 
there  is  not  the  same  exercise  of  the  teeth  whereby  they  are 
strengthened  and  uniformly  worn,  as  we  see  in  ancient  skulls. 
It  seems  not  improbable  that  their  premature  decay  in  civilized 
nations  is  due  to  the  want  of  their  normal  exercise  by  the  sub- 
stitution of  the  knife  and  fork  and  stew-pan.  According  to  the 
evolution  theory,  our  organs  have  grown  into  what  they  are,  or 
ought  to  be,  by  long  use,  and  the  remission  of  this  tends  to 
irregular  development,  or  atrophy.  Every  artificial  appliance 
renders  nugatory  some  pre-existing  mode  of  action,  either  volun- 
tary or  involuntaiy  ;  and  as  the  parts  of  the  whole  organism 
have  become  correlated,  each  part  being  modified  by  the  func- 
tions and  actions  of  the  others,  every  part  suffers  more  or  less 
when  the  mode  of  action  of  any  one  part  is  changed.  So  with 
the  social  structure,  the  same  correlation  of  its  constituent  parts 
is  a  necessary  consequence  of  its  growth,  and  the  change  of  one 
part  affects  the  well-being  of  other  parts.  All  change,  to  be 
healthy,  must  be  extremely  slow,  the  defect  struggling  with  the 
remedy  through  countless  but  infinitesimally  minute  gradations. 

Lastly,  so  the  forms  of  government  give  us  any  firm  ground  to 
rest  upon  as  to  there  being  less  undue  antagonism  in  one  than 
in  another  form.  Whether  it  is  better  to  run  a  risk  of,  say,  one 
chance  in  a  thousand  or  more  of  being  decapitated  unjustly  by  a 
despot,  or  to  have  what  one  may  eat  or  drink,  or  whom  one  may 
marry,  decided  by  a  majority  of  parish  voters,  is  a  question  on 
which  opinions  may  differ,  but  there  is  abundant  antagonism  in 
■either  case. 

Communism,  the  dream  of  enthusiasts,  ofTers  little  prospect  of 
«ase.  It  involves  an  unstable  equilibrium,  i.e.  it  consists  of  a 
chain  of  connection  where  a  defect  in  one  link  can  destroy  the 
working  of  the  whole  system,  and  why  the  executive  in  that 
system  should  be  m^re  perfect  than  in  others  I  never  have  been 
able  to  see.  Antagonism,  on  the  other  hand,  tends  to  stability. 
Each  man  working  for  his  own  interests  helps  to  supply  the  wants 
of  others,  thus  ministering  to  public  convenience  and  order,  and 
if  one  or  more  fail  the  general  weal  is  not  imperilled. 

You  may  ask.  Why  this  universal  antagonism  ?  My  answer  is, 
I  don't  know  ;  Science  deals  only  with  the  How?  not  with  the 
Why  ?  Why  does  matter  gravitate  to  other  matter,  with  a  force 
inversely  as  the  square  of  the  distance?  Why  does  oxygen 
unite  with  hydrogen  ?  All  I  can  say  is  that  antagonism  is,  to  my 
mind,  universal,  and  will,  I  believe,  some  day  be  considered  as 
much  a  law,  as  the  law  of  gravitation.  If  matter  is,  as  we  believe, 
everywhere,  even  in  the  interplanetary  spaces,  and  if  it  attracts 
and  moves  other  matter,  which  it  apparently  must  do,  there  must 
be  friction  or  antagonism  of  some  kind.  So  with  organized 
beings.  Nature  only  recognizes  the  right,  or  rather  the  power,  of 
the  strongest.  If  twenty  men  be  wrecked  on  a  secluded  island 
which  will  only  support  ten,  which  ten  have  a  right  to  the  pro- 
duce of  the  island  ?  Nature  gives  no  voice,  and  the  strongest 
take  it.  You  may  further  ask  me,  Cid  bono  1  what  is  the  use  of 
this  disquisition  ?  I  should  answer.  If  the  views  be  true,  it  is 
always  useful  to  know  the  truth.  The  greatest  discoveries  have 
appeared  useless  at  the  time.  Kepler's  discovery  of  the  relations 
of  the  planetary  movements  appeared  of  no  use  at  the  time  ;  no 
one  would  now  pronounce  it  useless.  I  can,  however,  see  much 
probable  utility  in  the  doctrine  I  have  advocated.  The  con- 
viction of  the  necessity  of  antagonism,  and  that  without  it  there 
would  be  no  light,  heat,  electricity,  or  life,  may  teach  us 
{assuming  free  will)  to  measure  effort  by  the  probable  result  and 
to  estimate  the  degree  of  probability.  It  may  teach  us  not  to 
waste  our  powers  on  fruitless  objects,  but  to  utilize  and  regulate 
this  necessity  of  existence  ;  for,  if  my  views  are  correct,  too  much 
or  too  little  is  bad,  and  a  due  proportion  is  good  (like  many 
other  useful  things,  it  is  best  in  moderation),  to  accept  it  rather  as 
a  boon  than  a  bane,  and  to  know  that  we  cannot  do  good  without 
effort — that  is,  without  some  suffering. 

I  have  spoken  of  antagonism  as  pervading  the  universe. 
Is  there,  you  may  ask,  any  limit  in  point  of  time  or  space  to 
force?  If  there  be  so,  there  must  be  a  limit  to  antagonism.  It  is 
said  that  heat  tends  to  dissipate  itself,  and  all  things  necessarily 
to  acquire  a  uniform  temperature.  This  would  in  time  tend 
practically,  though  not  absolutely,  to  the  annihilation  of  force  and 
to  universal  death  ;  but  if  there  be  evidence  of  this  in  our  solar 
system  and  what  we  know  of  some  parts  of  the  universe,  which 
probably  is  but  little,  is  there  no  conceivable  means  of  reaction 
or  regeneration  of  active  heat  ?  There  is  some  evidence  of  a 
probable  zero  of  temperature  for  gases  as  [we  know  them,  i.e. 
a  temperature  so  low  that  at  it  matter  could  not  exist  in  a 
gaseous   form  ;  but   passing  over  gases   and   liquids,   if  matter 


becomes  solid  by  loss  of  heat,  such  solid  matter  would  coalesce, 
masses  would  be  formed,  these  would  gravitate  to  each  other,  and 
come  into  collision.  It  would  be  the  nebular  hypothesis  over 
again.  Condensation  and  collisions  would  again  generate  heat ; 
and  so  on  ad  infinituni. 

Collisions  in  the  visible  universe  are  probably  more  frequent 
than  is  usually  supposed.  New  nebulre  appear  where  there 
were  none  before,  as  recently  in  the  constellation  of  Andromeda. 
Mr.  Lockyer,  as  I  have  said,  considers  that  they  are  constant 
in  the  nebulae  ;  and  if  there  be  such  a  number  of  meteorites 
as  are  stated  to  fall  daily  into  the  atmosphere  of  this  insig- 
nificant planet,  what  numbers  must  there  be  in  the  universe?  There 
must  be  a  sort  of  fog  of  meteorites,  and  this  may  account,  coupled 
with  possibly  some  dissipation  of  light  or  change  of  it  into  other 
forces,  for  the  smaller  degree  of  light  than  would  be  expected  if 
the  universe  of  stellar  bodies  were  infinite.  For  if  so,  and  the 
stars  are  assumed  to  be  of  an  equal  average  brightness,  then  if  no 
lo-s  or  obstruction,  as  light  decreases  as  the  square  of  the  distance 
and  stars  increase  in  the  same  ratio,  the  night  would  be  as  brightly 
illuminated  as  the  day.  We  are  told  that  there  are  stars  of 
different  ages — nascent,  adolescent,  mature,  decaying,  and  dying  ; 
and  when  some  of  them,  like  nations  at  war,  are  broken  up  by 
collision  into  fragments  or  resolved  into  vapour,  the  particles  fight 
as  individuals  do,  and  like  them  end  by  coalescing  and  forming 
new  suns  and  planets.  As  the  comparatively  few  people  who  die  in 
London  to-night  do  not  affect  us  here,  so  in  the  visible  universe 
one  sun  or  planet  in  a  billion  or  more  may  die  every  century  and 
not  be  missed,  while  another  is  being  slowly  born  out  of  a  nebula. 
Thus  worlds  may  be  regenerated  by  antagonism  without  having 
for  the  time  more  effect  upon  the  Kosmos  than  the  people  now 
dying  in  London  have  upon  us.  I  do  not  venture  to  say  that 
these  collisions  ai-e  in  themselves  sufficient  to  renew  solar  life  ; 
time  may  give  us  more  information.  There  may  be  other 
modes  of  regeneration  or  renewed  activity  of  the  dissipated 
force,  and  some  of  a  molecular  character.  The  conversion  of 
heat  into  atomic  force  has  been  suggested  by  Mr.  Crookes. 
I  give  no  opinion  on  that,  but  I  humbly  venture  to  doubt  the 
mortality  of  the  universe. 

Again,  is  the  universe  limited?  and  if  so,  by  what?  Not,  I 
presume,  by  a  stone  wall  !  or  if  so,  where  does  the  wall  end  ? 
Is  space  limited,  and  how?  If  space  be  unlimited  and  the 
universe  of  suns,  planets,  &c.,  limited,  then  the  visible  universe 
becomes  a  luminous  speck  in  an  infinity  of  dark  vacuous  space, 
and  the  gases,  or  at  all  events  the  so-called  ether,  unless  limited 
in  elasticity,  would  expand  into  this  vacuum — a  limited  quantity 
of  ether  into  an  infinite  vacuum  !  If  the  universe  of  matter  be 
unlimited  in  space,  then  the  cooling  down  may  be  unlimited  in 
time.  But  these  are  perhaps  fruitless  speculations.  We  cannot 
comprehend  infinity,  neither  can  we  conceive  a  limitation  to  it. 
I  must  once  more  quote  Shakespeare,  and  say  in  his  words, 
"It  is  past  the  infinite  of  thought."  But  whatever  be  the  case 
with  some  stars  and  planets,  I  cmnot  bring  myself  to  believe 
in  a  dead  universe  surrounded  by  a  dark  ocean  of  frozen  ether. 

Most  of  you  have  read  "  Wonderland,  "  and  may  recollect  that 
after  the  Duchess  has  uttered  some  ponderous  and  enigmatical 
apophthegms,  Alice  says,  "  Oh  !  "  "Ah,"  says  the  Duchess,  "  I 
could  say  a  good  deal  more  if  I  chose."  So  could  I  ;  but 
my  relentless  antagonist  opposite  (the  clock)  warns  me,  and  I 
will  only  add  one  more  word,  which  you  will  be  glad  to  hear, 
and  that  word  is — Finis. 


UNIVERSITY  AND  EDUCATIONAL 
INTELLIGENCE. 

Cambridgf. — The  list  of  Physical  Science  lectures  this  term 
includes  Prof  Liveingon  Spectroscopic  Chemistry,  Mr.  Robinson 
on  Agricultural  Chemistry,  Mr.  Ruhemann  on  Gas  Analysis 
and  on  Aromatic  Compounds,  Mr.  Shaw  on  Electrolysis,  Mr. 
Wilberforce  on  Dynamo-electric  Machines,  Mr.  Lyon  on 
Machine  Construction. 

Prof  Stokes  lectures  on  Hydrodynamics,  Dr.  Besant  on 
Differential  Equations  and  Solid  Geometry,  Dr.  Glaisher  on 
Theory  of  Errors,  Mr.  Stearn  on  Attractions  and  Theory  of 
Potential. 

In  Biology,  Mr.  Langley  is  lecturing  on  the  Central  Nervous 
System,-  Prof.  Macalister  on  the  Rudimental  Structures  of  the 
Human  Body,  Mr.  Gadow  on  the  Morphology  of  Mammalia 
recent  and  extinct,  Mr.  F.  Darwin  on  the  Physiology  of  Plants 
(advanced  demonstrations). 

In   Geology,   Prof.   Hughes   lectures   on  the  geology  of  the 


April  26,  1888] 


NATURE 


623 


neighbourhood  of  Cambridge,  Mr.  Marr  on  Advanced  Physical 
Geology,  Mr.  Roberts  on  the  Crinoidea, 

The  above  are  only  a  selection  out  of  a  long  list. 

Mr.  J.  G.  Adams,  of  Christ's  College,  has  been  appointed 
Demonstrator  of  Pathology  on  Mr.  RoUeston's  resignation. 

SCIENTIFIC  SERIALS. 

American  Journal  of  Science,  April. — The  absolute  wave- 
length of  light,  by  Louis  Bell.  The  final  results  are  here  given 
of  the  research  partially  reported  in  the  yoitrnal  (or  March  1886. 
Owing  to  the  wide  discrepancies  in  the  value  of  this  constant 
as  determined  by  various  observ'ers  and  methods,  the  author 
gives  a  brief  historical  summary  of  the  subject,  with  a  critical 
discussion  of  the  standards  of  length,  methods,  and  apparatus 
employed  in  the  present  investigation.  The  details  of  the  ex- 
perimental work,  together  with  some  remarks  on  the  final  results, 
and  some  questions  of  theoretical  and  practical  interest  con- 
nected with  the  work  of  recent  experimenters  in  this  field,  are 
reserved  for  a  future  number. — History  of  the  changes  in  the 
Mount  Loa  craters  ;  Part  i,  Kilauea  (continued),  by  James  D 
Dana.  Here  are  discussed  questions  connected  with  the  ascen- 
sive  action  in  the  conduit  lavas,  the  effects  of  heat,  the  hydro- 
static and  other  gravitational  pressure. — The  electromotive  force 
of  magnetization,  by  Edward  L.  Nichols  and  William  S.  Franklin. 
At  the  Ann  Arbor  meeting  of  the  American  Association  for  the 
Advancement  of  Science  the  authors  described  some  singular 
modifications  in  the  relation  of  iron  to  acids  which  occur  when 
the  reaction  takes  place  within  the  magnetic  field.  In  the 
present  paper,  which  was  read  at  the  New  York  meeting  of  the 
Association  in  1887,  they  deal  with  the  behaviour  of  iron  when 
that  metal  acts  as  one  electrode  in  a  voltaic  circuit,  and  is  at  the 
same  time  subjected  to  magnetization. — Notes  on  certain  rare 
copper  minerals  from  Utah,  by  W.  F.  Hillebrand.  A  series  of 
rare  copper  ores,  including  olivenite,  erinite,  tyrolite  (?),  chalco- 
phyllite,  clinoclasite,  mixite  (?),  and  bronchantite,  are  here  sub- 
jected to  careful  chemical  and  physical  examination. — The 
Taconic  system  of  Emmons,  and  the  use  of  the  name  Taconic 
in  geological  nomenclature  (continued),  by  Chas.  D.  Walcott. 
The  main  subject  of  this  paper  is  the  geology  of  the  Taconic 
area  as  known  to  Dr.  Emmous,  with  a  comparison  of  its  area  as 
now  known.  As  a  result  of  this  comparative  study,  the  author 
finds  that  the  Lower  Taconic  is  essentially  a  repetition  of  the 
Lower  Silurian  (Ordovician)  of  the  Champlain  Valley,  while  the 
Upper  Taconic  appears  to  be  conformably  subjacent  to  the 
Stockbridge  Limestone  of  the  Lower  Taconic,  and  to  include 
the  Potsdam  horizon  at  or  near  its  upper  portion. — Three 
formations  of  the  Middle  Atlantic  Slope  (continued),  by  W.  J. 
McGee.  This  paper  is  occupied  with  the  Appomattox  forma- 
tion, its  character,  and  distribution. — W.  Le  Conte  Stevens 
describes  a  new  lecture  apparatus  of  an  extremely  simple 
character  for  the  demonstration  of  reflection  and  refraction 
])henomena. 

SOCIETIES  AND  ACADEMIES. 
London. 

Royal  Society,  March  8. — "Further  Observations  on  the 
Electromotive  Properties  of  the  Electrical  Organ  of  Torpedo 
luarmorata,"  By  Francis  Gotch,  Hon.  M.A.  Oxon.,  B.A., 
IJ.Sc.  London,  M.R.C.S.  Communicated  by  Prof.  J.  Burdon 
Sanderson,  F.  R.S. 

In  the  present  treatise  the  author  details  the  results  of  further 
observations  as  to  the  electromotive  properties  of  the  electrical 
organ  of  Torpedo,  the  experiments  being  carried  out  in  October, 
1887,  at  th3  laboratory  of  the  Societe  Scientifique  d'Arcachon. 

I,  The  first  part  of  the  work  deals  entirely  with  the  phenomena 
'"  "irreciprocal  conduction''  in  the  organ  of  Torpedo,  as 
cribed  by  du  Bois-Reymond. 

From  du  Bois  Reymond's  experiments  it  would  appear  that 
the  organ  possesses  the  remarkable  property  of  conducting  an 
intense  current  of  short  duration,  led  lengthwise  through  its 
columns,  better  when  the  current  is  directed  from  its  ventral  to 
its  dorsal  surface  than  when  directed  the  reverse  way.  The 
former  direction  coincides  with  that  of  the  current  of  the  shock 
of  the  organ,  and  is  therefore  termed  by  him  "  homodromous," 
the  latter,  being  opposite  in  direction,  is  termed  "heterodromous. " 
The  evidence  rests  upon  the  value  of  the  galvanometric  deflections 
obtained  when  both  currents  are  allowed  to  traverse  a  strip  of 
organ  and  a  galvanometric  circuit.    The  deflections  are  markedly 


unequal,  particularly  when  induced  currents  are  used,  the  homo- 
dromous effect  being  always  much  greater  than  the  heterodromous. 
The  homodromous  current  must  therefore  either  encounter  less 
resistance  than  the  heterodromous,  or  its  electromotive  force 
must  be  suddenly  strengthened,  and  that  of  the  heterodromous 
current  weakened,  by  the  sudden  establishment  in  the  tissue  of  a 
new  source  of  electromotive  energy.  The  first  is  the  view  taken 
by  Prof  du  Bois-Reymond. 

(i)  The  present  rheotome  experiments  reveal  (a)  the  new 
fact  that  the  passage  of  such  intense  currents  of  short  duration 
is  always  followed  by  an  excitatory  response  (shock)  in  the  tissue  ;. 
{b)  that  if  the  intense  current  due  to  this  response  is  allowed  to 
affect  the  galvanometer  as  well  as  the  induced  or  other  exciting 
current,  then  by  obvious  algebraic  summation  the  homodromous 
deflection  must  be  much  larger  than  the  heterodromous  ;  (c)  and 
that  when  by  means  of  a  fast-moving  rheotome  the  induction 
shock  only  is  allowed  to  affect  the  instrument,  no  irreciprocity  is 
found. 

The  author  therefore  assumes  that  the  phenomena  of  irreci- 
procal conduction  are  in  reality  excitatory  phenomena,  the  nature 
of  which,  from  the  methods  of  investigation  used,  have  not  been 
recognized. 

(2)  The  tiine  relations  of  this  response  of  the  isolated  strip 
of  the  organ  to  direct  stimulation  by  the  traversing  induction 
shock  are  now  for  the  first  time  investigated,  by  means  of  the 
rheotome,  and  the  influence  of  temperature  and  other  conditions 
upon  these  is  shown  by  experimental  evidence. 

II.  The  second  part  deals  with  entirely  novel  phenomena — 
namely,  the  excitation  of  the  organ  by  the  current  of  its  own 
excitatory  state.  It  is  shown  that  in  vigorous  summer  fish  every 
response  of  the  whole  or  part  of  the  organ  to  a  single  excitation 
of  its  nerves  is  followed  by  a  second  response,  due  to  the  passage 
through  its  own  substance  of  the  intense  current  of  the  first 
response.  In  other  words,  the  shock  of  the  organ  excites  its  own 
nerve  fibres  and  nerve  endings,  producing  a  feebler  second  shock, 
which  in  a  similar  manner  evolves  a  feebler  third  shock  ;  this  a 
fourth,  and  so  on. 

The  response  of  the  isolated  organ  to  nerve  excitation  is  thus 
multiple  ;  a  primary,  secondary,  tertiary  response  following  the 
application  to  the  nerve  of  a  single  stimulus.  Since  all  these 
responses  produce  currents  similarly  directed  through  the  columns 
of  the  organ,  each  column  during  its  activity  must  reinforce  by 
its  echoes  the  force  of  the  primary  explosion,  both  in  its  own. 
substance  and  also  in  that  of  its  neighbours. 

Linnean  Society,  April  5. — Mr.  W.  Carruthers,  F.R.S. ,. 
President,  in  the  chair.  — Amongst  the  exhibitions  of  the  evening 
Mr.  D.  Morris  (Kew)  showed  a  curious  native  bracelet  from 
Martinique.  Although  formed  apparently  of  seeds,  or  beads  of 
wood,  or  bone,  its  real  composition  had  puzzled  both  botanists 
and  zoologists,  and  until  microscopically  examined  could  not  be 
determined. — Mr.  J.  G.  Baker,  F.R.S.,  exhibited  a  series  of 
specimens  of  Adiantum  Fergnsoni  and  Capillis  Veneris,  and 
offered  some  remarks  upon  their  specific  and  varietal  characters. 
— Mr.  J.  E.  Harting  exhibited  a  specimen  of  a  rare  British 
animal,  the  pine-marten,  which  had  been  trapped  in  Cumberland  ; 
and  made  some  observations  on  the  present  distribution  of  the 
species  in  the  British  Islands. — Mr.  Clement  Reid  exhibited  a 
series  of  fruits  and  seeds  obtained  by  Mr.  J.  Bennie  from  inter- 
glacial  deposits  near  Edinburgh,  affording  evidence  of  a  colder 
climate  formerly  than  that  now  prevailing  in  the  Lowlands  of 
Scotland. — Mr.  F.  Crisp  exhibited  some  fragmentary  remains  of 
a  wild  goose  shot  in  Somersetshire,  which  had  been  reported  as 
the  lesser  whitefronted  goose  (Anser  erythropns,  Linn.),  but 
which  was  apparently  an  immature  specimen  of  Anser  albifrons, 
Scopoli. — In  the  absence  of  the  author,  a  paper  by  Mr.  A.  W. 
Waters,  on  some  ovicells  of  the  Cyclostpmatous  Bryozoa,  was  read 
by  the  Zoological  Secretary,  Mr.  W.  Percy  Sladen  ;  and  after  an 
interesting  discussion,  the  meeting  adjourned. 

Chemical  Society,  March  28. — Annual  General  Meeting. — 
Mr.  W,  Crookes,  F. R.S.,  in  the  chair.— The  President  de- 
livered an  address  on  which  we  have  already  commented. 
— The  following  Officers  and  Council  were  elected  for 
the  ensuing  session  : — President  :  Mr.  W.  Crookes,  F.R.S. 
Vice-Presidents  who  have  filled  the  office  of  President :  Sir 
F  A.  Abel,  F.R.S.  ;  Dr.  Warren  de  la  Rue,  F.R.S.  ; 
Dr.  E.  Frankland,  F.R.S.;  Dr.  J.  II.  Gilbert,  F.R.S.; 
Dr.  J.  H.  Gladstone,  F.R.S.  ;  Dr.  A.  W.  Hofmann,  F.R.S.  ;. 
Dr.  H.  Miiller,  F.R.S.  ;  Prof.  Odling,  F.R.S.  ;  Dr.  W.  H. 
Perkin,  F.R.S.  ;  Sir  Lyon  Playfair,  I. R.S-  ;  Sir  H.  E.  Roscoe» 


624 


NATURE 


\_Aprtl  26,  1888 


F.R.S.,  and  Dr.  A.  W.  Williamson,  F.R.S.  Vice-Presidents: 
Prof.  G.  Carey  Foster,  F.  R.  S.  ;  Mr.  David  Howard  ;  Prof.  J. 
W.  Mallet,  F.R.S.  ;  Prof.  H.  McLeod,  F.R.S.  ;  Mr.  Ludwig 
Mond  ;  and  Prof.  Schorlemmer,  F.R.S.  Secretaries:  Prof  H. 
E.  Armstrong,  F.R.S.,  and  Prof.  J.  M.  Thomson.  Foreign 
Secretary:  Dr.  F.  R.  Japp,  F.R.S.  Treasurer:  Dr.  W.  J. 
Russell,  F.R.S.  Ordinary  Members  of  Council  :  Prof.  T. 
Carnelly,  Mr.  A.  H.  Church,  Prof.  Clowes,  Prof.  Dunstan,  Dr. 
P.  F.  Frankland,  Mr.  R.  J.  Friswell,  Mr.  C.  W.  Heaton,  Mr. 
E,  Kinch,  Dr.  H.  F.  Morley,  Dr.  R.  T.  Plimpton,  Prof.  Purdie, 
and  Prof  Ramsay. 

April  5.— Mr.  W.  Crookes,  F.R.S.,  in  the  chair.— The 
following  papers  were  read  : — Researches  on  the  constitution  of 
azo-  and  diazo-derivatives  ;  part  iii.,  compounds  of  the  naphtha- 
lene /8-series,  by  Prof  R.  Meldola,  F.R.S.,  and  Mr.  F.  J.  East. 
— The  action  of  finely  divided  metals  on  solutions  of  ferric  salts, 
and  a  rapid  method  for  the  titration  of  the  latter,  by  Mr.  D.  J. 
Carnegie. 

Anthropological  Institute,  April  10.  —Francis  Galtonj 
F.R.S.,  President,  in  the  chair. — Captain  Strachan  exhibited  a 
young  Papuan  boy  brought  by  him  from  the  north-west  coast 
of  New  Guinea. — Mr  J.  Allen  Brown  read  a  paper  on  some 
small  highly  specialized  forms  of  stone  implements,  found  in 
Asia,  Noith  Africa,  and  Europe. — A  paper  by  MM.  Henri  and 
Louis  Siret,  on  the  eaily  age  of  metal  in  the  south-east  of  Spain, 
was  read. 

Paris. 
Academy  of  Sciences,  April  16. — M.  Janssen,  President,  in 
the  chair. — On  the  spectra  of  oxygen,  by  M.  J.  Janssen.  Atten- 
tion is  called  to  Olszewski's  recent  experiments  with  liquefied 
oxygen,  which  fully  confirm  the  results  of  the  author's  researches 
on  the  phenomena  of  elective  absorption  in  oxygen  gas.  The  bands 
already  determined  by  him  have  been  observed  by  Olszewski 
with  a  thickness  of  7  millimetres  of  liquid  oxygen,  while  a  thick- 
ness of  from  4  to  5  millimetres  would  be  required  to  detect  the  pre- 
sence of  the  strongest  band,  which  occurs  in  the  neighbourhood 
of  D.  This  is  a  remarkable  confirmation  of  the  law  of  the 
product  of  the  thickness  by  the  square  of  the  density  regulating 
one  of  the  two  systems  of  bands  described  by  M.  Janssen. — On 
the  relations  of  atmospheric  nitrogen  to  vegetable  soil,  by  M. 
Th.  Schloesing.  This  is  a  reply  to  the  objections  recently  urged 
by  M.  Berthelot  against  the  character  of  the  author's  researches, 
and  the  general  conclusions  based  on  them.  He  denies  the  validity 
of  M.  Berthelot's  criticisms,  and  insists  that  he  does  not  deny 
the  fixation  of  atmospheric  nitrogen  in  vegetable  soils.  He  main- 
tains, however,  that  the  phenomenon  is  neither  determined  by 
his  own  experiments  nor  demonstrated  with  sufficient  accuracy 
by  M.  Berthelot's  analyses. — On  a  source  of  algebraic  equations 
whose  roots  are  all  real,  by  M.  G.  Fouret.  An  algebraic  pro- 
cess is  explained,  by  means  of  which  equations,  all  of  whose 
roots  are  real,  may  be  combined  in  such  a  way  as  to  obtain 
from  them  fresh  equations  possessing  the  same  property.  The 
following  theorem  is  proposed  and  discussed  :  If  the  equation 

¥{x)'^affX!'-  +  a^  x>i-i  +  a.^  a"»-2  -f  .  .  .  -\-  an-i  x  +  an  =  o 

has  all  its  roots  real,  then  the  equation 

<t>{-r)  =.  ag/{x)  +  a^f'{x)  +  a^f"{x)  +  .  ..  +  a«-i/(«-i)(x) 
+  a,tf{A{x)  —  o, 

in  which  y"(.r)  represents  an  entire  polynome  of  equal  or  higher 
degree  to  n,  has  at  least  as  many  real  roots  as  the  equation 
/(x)  =  o;  and  if  it  has  more,  the  excess  is  an  even  number. — 
On  Foucault's  gyroscope,  by  M.  E.  Guyou.  An  elementary 
solution  is  given  of  the  problem  connected  with  the  rotation  of 
a  solid  body  suggested  by  the  movement  of  this  apparatus. — 
Oma  new  method  of  measuring  the  heat  of  evaporation  of  lique- 
fied'gases,  by  M.  E.  Mathias.  The  calorimetric  methods  usually 
employed  are  either  those  of  varial>k  temperature  or  ofthejixed 
temperature  of  melting  ice.  But  for  the  purpose  of  his  re- 
searches the  author  has  had  to  employ  one  of  constant  tempera- 
ture, the  nature  and  advantages  of  which  are  here  described.  It 
is  specially  applicable  in  the  case  of  gases  which,  like  ethylene, 
carbonic  acid,  and  the  protoxide  of  nitrogen,  have  their  critical 
point  at  the  ordinary  temperature.  —  On  a  class  of  electric  currents 
set  up  by  the  ultra-violet  rays,  by  M.  A.  Stoletow.  Hertz, 
Wiedemann,  and  others  having  shown  the  influence  of  the  ultra-, 
violet/ays  on  electric  discharges  at  high  tension,  the  author  here 
inquires  whether  a  similar  effect  may  not  be  obtained  with  elec- 
tricity of  feeble  potential. — On  a  regulator  of  electric  light,  by 
M.  Charles  Pollak.     In  the  apparatus  here  described  the  move- 


ment required  to  be  communicated  to  the  carbons  in  order  to 
supply  and  maintain  the  electric  arc  is  obtained  by  the  thermic 
expansion  of  the  conducting  wires.  This  appliance,  which  regu- 
lates the  electric  arc  for  a  period  of  three  hours  consecutively,  has 
the  advantage  of  extreme  simplicity,  dispensing  with  all  intricate 
mechanism,  as  well  as  with  electro-magnets.—  On  a  sodico-potassic 
carbonate,  by  MM.  L.  Hugounenq  and  J.  Morel.  The  authors 
have  obtained  this  substance  by  exposing  to  the  open  air  at  a 
temperature  of  12°  to  15°  C.  a  solution  of  carbonate  of  soda  con- 
taining carbonate  of  potassa  in  the  presence  of  a  great  excess  of 
iodide  of  potassium  mixed  with  phosphate  and  chloride  of 
sodium.     It  approaches  the  formula — 

C03K2,6H20  -f  (COgNaj.eHjO). 

These  researches  show  generally  that  the  carbonates  of  soda 
and  of  potassa  may  crystallize  together,  yielding  isomorphous 
mixtures,  which  can  scarcely  be  represented  by  definite  formulas. 
— New  experiments  on  inoculation  against  rabies,  by  M.  G. 
Galtier.  These  experiments,  made  on  sheep  and  goats,  show 
that  herbivorous  animals  may  be  successfully  preserved  from  the 
bite  of  mad  dogs  by  the  usual  processes  of  inoculation,  whether 
applied  before  or  immediately  after  the  attack. — A  communica- 
tion was  received  from  the  Minister  of  Public  Instruction 
announcing  the  results  of  the  measures  recently  taken  to  deter- 
mine the  exact  superficial  area  of  France  calculated  by  the  plani- 
metric  method.  This  estimate  gives  536,408  square  kilometres, 
which  is  8012  more  than  that  indicated  by  the  Bureau  of 
Longitudes,  and  2929  more  than  that  of  the  Russian  General 
Strelbitsky. 


BOOKS,  PAMPHLETS,  and  SERIALS  RECEIVED. 

Outlines  of  Qualitative  Analysis  :  G.  W.  Slatter  (Murby). — Text-book  of 
Biology  :  J.  R.  A.  Davis  (Griffin).— British  Birds  :  Key  List :  Colonel  L. 
H.  Irby  (Porter). — In  Pursuit  of  a  Shadow  :  A  Lady  Astronomer  (Triibner). 
— A  Treatise  on  Alcohol,  2nd  edition  :  Dr.  T.  Stevenson  (Gurney  and  Jack- 
son).— Allgemeine  Geologie  :  Dr.  Karl  von  Fritsch  (Engelhorn,  Stuttgart). 
— Arithmetic  for  Beginners:  Rev.  J.  B.  Lock  (Macmillan). — Nature 
Readers,  Sea-Side  and  Way-Side,  No.  i  :  J.  W.  Wright  (Heath,  Boston). — 
Mr.  Tebbutt's  Observatory,  Windsor,  New  South  Wales :  J.  Tebbutt 
(Sydney). — Bulletin  du  Mus^e  Royal  d'Histoire  Naturelle  de  Belgique, 
Tome  V.  No.  i. 


CONTENTS.  PAGE 

Mr.  A.  C.  Smith's  "  Birds  of  Wiltshire" 601 

A  Hand  book  for  Travellers 603 

Our  Book  Shelf:— 

Nixon:   "  Geometry  in  Space  " 603 

"  Chambers's  Encyclopsedia " ,    .    .    .    604 

Graber  :     "  Leitfaden   der    Zoologie    fiir    die  oberen 

Classen  der  Mittelschulen" 604 

Letters  to  the  Editor  : — 

"Coral    Formations." — Dr.   H.   B.   Guppy ;  Capt. 

David  Wilson-Barker,  R.N.  ;  Robert  Irvine   .    604 
Note  on  a  Problem  in   Maxima  and  Minima.     ( With 

Diagram.) — Edward  M.  Langley 605 

Self-induction.— Dr.  Oliver  J.  Lodge,  F.R  S.    ...    605 
Suggestions   on   the  Classification  of  the  Various 
Species  of  Heavenly  Bodies,     II.    By  J.   Norman 

Lockyer,  F.R.S 606 

The  Hittites,  with  Special  Reference  to  very  Recent 

Discoveries.  V.  {Illustrated.)  By  Thomas  Tyler     .    6o>, 
Class  Experiments.     {With  Diagrams.)     By  Magnus 

Maclean 612 

Notes 614 

Our  Astronomical  Column  : — 

Photography  in  the  Determination  of  the  Motions  of 

Stars  in  the  Line  of  Sight 616 

The  Total  Lunar  Eclipse  of  January  28 616 

New  Minor  Planets 616 

Astronomical     Phenomena     for     the     Week     1888 

April  29— May  5 616 

Geographical  Notes      ...    617 

Antagonism.     By  Sir  William  R.  Grove,  F.R.S,  .    .    617 

University  and  Educational  Intelligence 622 

Scientific  Serials 623 

Societies  and  Academies 623 

Books,  Pamphlets,  and  Serials  Received 624 


BINDING  SECT.  MAR  23  1972 


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